Perhaps the best pleasant surprise of the season was landing in St. Louis on a Sunday afternoon in July and feeling a cool breeze. In case you've never been, St. Louis can be one of the sneakiest hot cities around.

I mean, you expect Miami and Atlanta to be hot in the summer. But St. Louis can be just as bad. So where the heck has the humidity gone?

OK, we're not here to talk about the weather. But I haven't picked up my All-Star credentials yet, so I'm not in All-Star Game/Home Run derby mode either.

So what about that game today? Feliz, who has the most underrated, productive first half, hits a first inning slam and J.A. Happ continues his dominance in the rotation.

Speaking of J.A. Happ, is there any more room on his bandwagon? From what I've heard and read recently, he has apparently passed Cole Hamels in taking over the title "The Next Lefty" in the tradition of Steve Carlton.

Admit it, you love him.

I can understand it. The rotation has been shoddy and he has been a very pleasant surprise.

Happ is 4-0 with a 3.03 ERA in 10 starts since supplanting Chan Ho Park in the rotation. He's 6-0 with a 2.90 ERA overall.

I've always liked Happ, personally. Maybe it's because we both went to Northwestern.

But I'm also not sure it's realistic to expect him to finish the season at 17-0 with a sub-3.00 ERA.

I also don't know if I'd want to go into the playoffs with a rookie as my No.2 (Remember how that worked out in 2007?).

I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade. The Phils ended the first half about as well as anyone could have expected, especially with how June played out.

The point I'm trying to make is this: the Phils still need starting pitching, and namely, a top of the rotation starter to fill the void left behind by Brett Myers. That pitcher can't be Pedro Martinez or Jarrod Washburn... or J.A. Happ.

Happ is fine as your No.4... and maybe as your No.3, although I think that's a lot to put on a rookie is still in his first go-round against most of the NL teams.

As I wrote in today's Sunday baseball column, you shouldn't let Happ's recent success prevent you from including him in a trade to get Roy Halladay. Happ may very well turn out to have a Randy Wolf-like career... but you don't know that.

What you know is that Halladay is a former Cy Young winner, an All-Star, and, at 32, in his prime. As for Happ, sometimes you have to sell high on a stock.

Here's the rest of the logic: if the Phils lost Happ in a deal for Halladay, one could argue they’d be a better rotation with Halladay, Cole Hamels, Joe Blanton, Jamie Moyer and Andrew Carpenter than they are with their current starting staff.

The 24-year-old Carpenter is 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA in 10 starts since being sent back down to the IronPigs following a spot start for the Phillies in Washington May 16.

During that span, he’s collected 53 strikeouts while walking 15 in 662/3 innings.

The thought here is if the Phils needed to part with Happ to get Halladay, some combination of the youngsters they might not have to trade — Carpenter, Carlos Carrasco, Antonio Bastardo, etc. — could hold down the fifth spot. That gamble is worth having Hamels and Halladay at the top of the rotation.