FWIW, as one of the few non-Jay-loyalists in these here parts, my vote went to ... Halladay. Dude's Tom Seaver in his prime.

Taking the question quite literally, specifically the RIGHT NOW, my vote goes to Doc who has been the best starter to date.......

John Maine of the Mets has to be considered. He's 4-0 so far and although he's walked more batters than Halladay and Beckett, he's got an 1.35 ERA. He's only given up 5 runs in his first 5 starts.

A case could also be made for the inclusion of Matt Cain

Doc had his best stuff last night, and is a great pitcher.  Still, Santana is easily the best pitcher in the majors right now, and his peak ranks him right up there among the greats of the game.

I don't think Santana is easily the best pitcher.  He might be the best, but there is some debate as far as I'm concerned.

I'm now pretty sure that if I say it's someone other than Halladay, Doc will sense the heresy somehow and immediately do everything humanly possible to demonstrate just how horribly wrong I am. (He's done it before, I swear.)

So... Johan Santana is the best pitcher in baseball.

Hmm, I answered this thinking "Who is pitching the best right now?" and Doc is definitelythe best in baseball right now.

However, the best pitcher in baseball is Santana until someone dethrones him,

How good would our pitching look right now with Lilly and Meche on our staff?  A case can be made that they are both in the discussion for best pitching performances so far.

Lilly leads the NL in WHIP and K:BB, 5th in H/9, 3rd in BB/9, 4th in K/9, and has an ERA+ of 188.
Meche is 2nd in the AL in ERA, 2nd in Innings, and 2nd in ERA+.

Perhaps the free agent market is efficient and there is no alpha.

Seeing as how Lilly did not wish to play in Toronto, then begone and good riddance.  T.O. is getting his groove and rising to the #3 Challenge and with the savings, Victor is about to kick it into his ST Yankee stopping Stuff, just in time.

As far as Halladay versus Santana goes, I think it might be useful to distinguish discussions of most dominant and best pitcher. I think Santana might have the obvious edge with regard to dominance, because Santana strikes out (as least in the last few years) so many more batters. On the other hand, when Halladay is giving up no runs, pitching 7-9 (or 10) innings every start, and winning games left and right, I think it is certainly possible that he is the best pitcher in MLB right now.

Seeing as how Lilly did not wish to play in Toronto, then begone and good riddance.

I thought it was that he didn't want to play with Zaun, not that he didn't want to be in Toronto.  Couldn't find a link to the actual story, but here's a link to the battersbox chat that talked about it (look for Gerry's comment).

It's hard for people from the outside to judge these things, but I think the Barajas move (he obviously is an ass and someone I wouldn't want here) was an attempt to satisfy Lilly and I know that, before the renegging thing, I'd have preferred Lilly and Barajas to Zaun and one of Ohka, Thomson, or Zambrano (as did JP I guess).

Eeyore not re-signing here was certainly annoying.  From what I understand,  based on his comments through his agent,  Lilly thought Gibbons didn't give him enough of a chance to "compete" (ie pulled him too quickly when he reverted to "tease" mode and wouldn't let him pitch 145 pitches through 7).  Pinella called him up and convinced him (ie stroked his ego) that he would let him "compete".

Eeyore, with his teasing and his stubborness(pitching rubber incident, flipping out because he was being pulled after coughing up a 7 run lead), seemed like a guy who didn't like being told what to do.  Zaun seems like a guy who tells it like he sees it.  I can totally imagine him telling Lilly to stop f-ing around and make a pitch.  I think the number of times Bengie caught Lilly starts and Lilly's excitment about his signing in 2006 indicated as much.

That's just the way I've accessed the situation.  Would've loved to have re-signed him though.  Silly Eeyore.

As for Meche, I don't know what the hell happened there.

As for Meche, I don't know what the hell happened there.

Different priorities, I suppose. Heck, I'd take the extra money to play for a team to be one of their lone stars, to showcase my talents for those 2012 Champion Blue Jays and get a second enormous cheque and probably not live up to it.

Sounds like a plan.