Halladay deal has hefty price

Next time you go to Dodger Stadium, listen up for these two words: "presented by." You won't have to wait long.

As in: Matt Kemp bobblehead dolls, presented by Bank of America. As in: Bleacher Beach, presented by Bud Light.

We've got one too: Roy Halladay, presented by Manny Ramirez and Jason Schmidt.

Bear with us. What we're trying to find out is whether the Dodgers can afford Halladay.

General Manager Ned Colletti did a terrific job getting Ramirez, Casey Blake and Angel Berroa for free last summer. That's not about to happen with Halladay.

The Angels would love Halladay too, and they're not alone.

"We have no financial constraints," Angels owner Arte Moreno told us the other day.

Frank McCourt, the Dodgers' owner, would not discuss whether his team could afford Halladay. He directed us to speak with Dennis Mannion, the team president.

The Angels' attendance is up from last season, by less than 1% before the weekend. The Dodgers' attendance is down 2.3%, and Mannion said overall revenues also are down "within that range."

He wouldn't say whether the Dodgers could take on the $20.5 million owed to Halladay for the rest of this season and next season.

"Every general manager would probably want to know that," Mannion said.

Mannion, speaking generally, said the Dodgers' management team -- including himself, Colletti, McCourt, Chief Officer Jamie McCourt and chief financial officer Peter Wilhelm -- would work in "collaborative" fashion to determine whether the team could pick up a big salary.

"We have the ability to create the flexibility to do the things we need to do," Mannion said. "If something makes sense, we're in a position to find a way to make it work."

Halladay makes sense. If Colletti, with the input of assistants Kim Ng, Logan White and De Jon Watson and the Dodgers' scouts, says a trade makes baseball sense, there shouldn't be anything left to say except yes.

The Dodgers began the weekend with a 10-game lead in the race for a National League playoff berth. In the wild-card era, 22 teams were at least eight games up on a playoff spot as of Aug. 1, according to the research of Mark Rogoff of the Dodgers' public relations staff.

Only one of those 22 teams -- the 1995 Angels -- has failed to qualify for the playoffs.

The Dodgers say they won't trade Clayton Kershaw or Chad Billingsley. We say they ought to swallow hard and consider trading Billingsley to the Toronto Blue Jays if needed to get the Halladay deal done.