When the word begins to spread that one of the top pitchers in baseball is available on the trade market, the general manager who has made no bones about his desire to acquire a pitcher becomes a popular guy.

On that note, Phils GM Ruben Amaro Jr. spoke for 20 minutes before Wednesday's game. Although he can not talk about specific players on another team (like that Roy Halladay fella), he talked about his team's desire and ability to acquire such a high-caliber pitcher.

You can read all about it in tomorrow's Daily Times, but here is a brief taste.

Here is what Amaro said when asked if there were players in his minor league system who he would absolutely not trade:

"There are... we feel that we’re building a pretty strong farm system and we feel Marti (Wolever) has done a really nice job in that regard and our player development people have done a really nice job especially this year, it’s gone very well; it puts us in a decent position (heading into the trade market)," Amaro said. "That said we have to be prudent to what our future is about. It's important to win now and we understand the importance of that; but there are players we’d like to keep for our future and I would say they are not as touchable as others."

The likely untouchables are headed by Double-A Reading budding star, Kyle Drabek.

You still would have to wonder if that would change if a guy like Drabek would be the only thing standing between the Phillies acquiring a legitimate, Cy Young Award-winning ace like Halladay.