• March 28, 2024

Roy Halladay No Longer Dominant

Phillies’ starter Roy Halladay has been having a subpar year. Ten starts into the 2012 season, the former Blue Jay is 4-5 with a 3.98 ERA. While those numbers aren’t necessarily bad, they’re clearly a significant step below the Cy-Young quality of pitching that the righthander has given the team in his first two seasons in Philadelphia.

Last Tuesday night’s start against the Washington Nationals was the latest troubling start for Halladay, who allowed five runs on nine hits in just innings. The ace had a terrible third inning where he gave up four runs on four hits (including a triple and a two-run homerun), and gave control of the game to Washington.

On Sunday, Halladay lasted just two innings before leaving the game with shoulder soreness. Before his early exit, he put the Phillies in an early hole by giving up a grand slam in the first inning.

Halladay has been getting hit by opposing offenses because he’s been hanging too many pitches over the plate, making life much easier on the batters he’s facing. These problems led to his loss last Tuesday, and have gotten him in trouble a number of other times this season, including a start against the Atlanta Braves when he spit up a six-run lead. During Spring Training, the former Cy-Young award winner shrugged off questions about his velocity, and the movement of his pitches, but clearly the physical skill he’s lost has become an issue.

Halladay began the season with an excellent performance, pitching eight scoreless innings on Opening Day against the Pittsburgh Pirates and won his first three starts, but has struggled ever since. While some of his final pitching lines still look more than respectable, several of his no-decision starts have come because he hasn’t been able to hold on to his lead late in games.

Every athlete declines at some point. Even though many fans and writers have described Halladay as a “machine”, the reality is he’s human just like everyone else. There isn’t anything special about his body, he’s going to breakdown like everyone else. The Doc has thrown a lot of innings, and a lot of pitches in his career, especially in the last two seasons with the Phillies. At age 35, it’s about time that his workload caught up with him and started to take a toll. He’s been a workout warrior his entire career, but such intense training can cause the body to wear down faster, and now Halladay has been battling shoulder problems throughout the season.

By no means has Halladay been a disaster this year, but his physical skills aren’t what they were, and the Phillies can no longer rely on him to throw seven or eight innings and allow only one or two runs in each start. He’ll still turn in plenty of quality outings, and on some good nights he’ll flash his old form, but these subpar starts are going to be a much more frequent occurrence this year, and the rest of his career.

Every fifth day used to be a Halladay. Now every fifth day is just another start from a pitcher who, while still very good, is no longer in class of his own.

Denny Basens

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paulman
paulman
May 29, 2012 7:26 am

Doc hasn’t been the same since he pulled himself out of that Cubs game in Chicago last August due to hydration if you asked me.. He’s lost velocity and more importantly, he’s lost that late movement on his pitches and his command and is now catching the fat part of the plate too often and especially ealry in games where Teams are being aggressive and swinging at early pitches before he gets his arm stretched out .. He can still win ballgames due to his mental toughness and guile, but not on his stuff any longer which has become average.. It is what it is, he’s thrown a lot of innings over the years and it appears now that it takes him 2-3 innings to get his arm loose and stretch out to make his pitches more effective and with more movement but the problem is by the time he settles in, he has giving up 3-4 Runs and with this Phillie Line-up with their lack of power, it’s makes it diificult to come back and Win.. His command is off and when he has to rely on his 89-91 MPH Fastball, he’s getting tagged..

jakedog
jakedog
May 29, 2012 7:53 am

HaLladay’s recent struggles are none of the above, it is a mechanical issue that is easy to correct, but if he doesn’t it could be shoulder surgery.

Doc is opening the front side too early. When that happens two things result: the hitters see the ball better, as there is no longer late, explosive rotation, and he loses velocity, as the arm, shoulder produce where the trunk, rotational forces have quit early, and secondly, “stuff”,velocity, late movement and command all suffer. Doc has always had this problem as his first inning struggles indicate, but in the past he worked out this mechanical flaw the more he pitched. The problem no appears chronic but under watchful eye of a trained pitching coach this issue can be corrected

Turk
Turk
May 29, 2012 9:17 am

Every pitcher stuggle sometimes not to many pitcher are dominant right now just wait to the end of the season to past judgement on Halladay.

wild_bk
wild_bk
May 29, 2012 9:53 am

Denny, you should do some research before you write crap like this. Yes, Roy is human and like everyone else will decline at some point. It isnt right now though. He is clearly hurt. Aside from what the team has announced, his splits in type of pitches thrown is off from where it has been in previous years i.e. throwing less fastballs. Clearly something is wrong with his arm.

DCar
DCar
May 29, 2012 10:09 am

jake, where did you copy & paste that BS from? LMFAO!!! He’s hurt. He hasn’t been the same, since before the playoffs last year. Gammons & Mortenson made good points. Only 8% of his pitches this year, have been fastballs, compared to his career norm of 22%- 26%. I hope he hasn’t hit that AARP wall with his velocity, or is injured like Lidge did, or we really are cooked. We really don’t have any trade chips now. Worley has bone chips, & if Halladay is hurt too, we CAN’T trade Lee, or Hamels. Not to f^#@ing mention Chooch has a hamstring problem, now. It’s getting worse & worse, & if anyone has any delusional thoughts of the playoffs now, better kiss those thoughts GOODBYE!!!

DCar
DCar
May 29, 2012 10:21 am

BTW, much blame needs to fall on Manuel. He tries to f^#@ing squeeze blood from a rock. YOU CAN’T BE BURNING OUT YOUR STARTERS, IN THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR, PITCHING THEM 8-9 INNINGS, IN THE COOLER CLIMATE. You need to stretch these guys out, & not burn them out by June.
He is an IDIOT!!!

lewdoggie20
lewdoggie20
May 29, 2012 4:56 pm

I would say injury and fatigue has caught up to him. I would still want this horse when the playoffs start….should we some how make it

Jon Hart
Jon Hart
May 29, 2012 5:03 pm

Roy Halladay placed on the DL