"If you want to be successful, the first focus has to be on what you have to do," Halladay said yesterday, on the eve of his club-record seventh consecutive opening day start, at the Rogers Centre tonight.

"That's really the only way I look at it. It's not like I feel I have to have a good year in case I'm not back here. More than anything, it's that I've seen and spoken to other pitchers who've lost that focus of the job at hand and that's just something I want to avoid.

"Maybe some day I will become a coach and that [mentorship] will be my main concern but, uh, ... I'm willing to help as much as possible. The only reason I'm saying this is to maintain focus on what I have to do."

Halladay could be forgiven for calling a timeout on all this mentorship nonsense as a matter of self-preservation. Because there is a ton to do.

Ricky Romero is a rookie, David Purcey is, for all purposes, a rookie even if he isn't eligible for the award and Scott Richmond is a journeyman. Jesse Litsch, the nominal No. 2 starter even though he will pitch third this week to break up a lefty log-jam in manager Cito Gaston's rotation, has 48 career starts. Injuries to Shawn Marcum and Dustin McGowan and A.J. Burnett's free-agent departure leave the Blue Jays down 484 innings of starting pitching from last year.

"That's a word I'll probably try to avoid this year," Halladay said with a rueful smile, when he was asked about a 'mentor's role.'

"I feel we have to be teammates first," Halladay said. "Arnie [pitching coach Brad Arnsberg] is the mentor. Arnie's the guy, you know, will need to help teach these guys a lot of what they'll need to know to be successful. I'll he happy to help where I can ... I just don't think there should be any kind of separation there."

Do not take that to mean he is less-than-enamoured with being the last man standing in the rotation. In fact, Halladay said he understood teams "can't go forward all the time," that other teams were taking a "step back," because of economics. He also said that he was "more impressed than I expected to be" with pitching prospects such as Brad Mills, Romero and Brett Cecil.

Halladay has become part of the furniture under general manager J.P. Ricciardi's regime, to the point where for the past three seasons the general manager has felt moved to keep Halladay up to date on off-season plans. Halladay has two years left on his contract (he is paid $14.25-million this season and $15.75-million in base salary in 2010) and even in a depressed market his ability to rack up complete games makes him a more valuable commodity than younger pitchers. Why isn't there talk of extension now? Said Ricciardi, "We don't have any money."

Yet Ricciardi was clear yesterday that trading Halladay is "not an option." True, he added the phrase "right now," - just as Halladay slipped a "circumstances change," line in when he reiterated he is not interested in negotiating an extension during the season - but in both cases it was more to establish wiggle room than sneak in a sly caveat.

"That's not to put any pressure on them," said Halladay, a three-time all-star who is 131-66 (3.52 earned-run average) in his career. "I just feel for me, it [contract negotiations] is a distraction I don't need. It's something I'd prefer to wait until [the] off-season ... but again, circumstances can change, and there's no real guarantee what direction the team wants to go and what direction we may have to go."

***

ON DECK

TONIGHT v. Detroit at the Rogers Centre, 7:15 p.m. ET

PROBABLES RH Roy Halladay (2008: 20-11, 2.78)

v. RH Justin Verlander (11-17, 4.84)

TV Rogers Sportsnet.

NOTES Verlander is making his first career start at the Rogers Centre. ... Carlos Guillen will DH and bat fifth for manager Jim Leyland's Tigers. Josh Anderson will play LF and bat ninth and make his major-league debut after being acquired late in the spring out of the Atlanta Braves' organization. He has 280 steals in six minor-league seasons. ... 46,000 tickets had been sold as of yesterday morning. ... Tigers 2B Placido Polanco is 5-for-11 (.455) lifetime against Halladay while Guillen is 2-for-23 (.087). Vernon Wells has hits in both at-bats against Verlander while Marco Scutaro, who will lead off and start at shortstop for the Blue Jays, is 2-for-12.

TOMORROW Blue Jays v. Tigers, Rogers Centre,

7:07 p.m. ET.

PROBABLES LH David Purcey (3-6, 5.54) v. RH Edwin Jackson (14-11, 4.42.)

TV MLB Extra Innings.

Jeff Blair