via assets.nydailynews.com

For a second let's pretend that financial constraints are not an issue... If the Angels are willing to spend the money to keep John Lackey and are also willing to part with some of their current players in order to land Roy Halladay should Lackey go elsewhere, why should the Angels not try and land both players? Their chances of putting together a lineup that will crush their way to a World Series like the Yankees have are slim to none given the current players available on the market. However, the current players available do give the Angels an opportunity to put together the best pitching rotation on the game.

The Angels have established that they can win their division with relative ease, now it's time to start building towards that next step which is making it to the World Series. A pitching rotation that is anchored by Halladay, Lackey, and Scott Kazmir would not need as much run support as this year's pitching staff did. As such, losing the likes of Chone Figgins and Vladimir Guerrero (though he is my favorite player of all time) would provide the Angels with the financial flexibility necessary to sign John Lackey and acquire Roy Halladay. In addition, by signing John Lackey the Angels could afford to trade Joe Saunders or Jered Weaver to the Blue Jays in order to acquire Halladay. Even if the Angels traded both those players to Toronto in order to get the deal done, a pitching rotation of Roy Halladay, John Lackey, Scott Kazmir, Ervin Santana, and Sean O'Sullivan could still be the best in baseball.

A one-two punch of Halladay and Lackey, in my opinion, would be better than that of the Yankees and quite possibly every other team in the American League. Their statistics from 2009 would suggest the same. Playing for a far inferior team in the Toronto Blue Jays, Roy Halladay had a lower ERA, a lower WHIP, more innings pitched, and more strikeouts than CC Sabathia did. In fact, CC Sabathia won only two more games than Roy Halladay despite pitching for a team that scored 117 more runs than the Blue Jays. John Lackey, though he did miss time on the DL for the second consecutive year, had a better ERA and a significantly better WHIP than A.J. Burnett. 

If the Angels want to give themselves a chance to win a championship, then they have to be willing to make a couple big moves much like the Yankees did last winter. Though the Angels will never match the Yankees payroll, given the salaries that are coming of the books this winter, going after the top two pitchers on the market should be within Arte Moreno's capabilities. If the Angels truly want to contend for a title they cannot settle for being as good as they were last year, they need to get better. While they certainly did "contend" since they made it to the ALCS, it's hard to imagine how the 2009 Angels could beat the Yankees even if they replayed the series ten times over. While this idea may, at first, seem overly ambitious, I do believe it is within the realm of possibilities.