I remember in Spring Training when Jayson Stark tweeted out something very disconcerting about the Philadelphia Phillies‘ Roy Halladay. I don’t remember the tweet verbatim, but he basically said that scouts were saying that Halladay could no longer finish hitters. Coming off a season where he battled injuries and had a sharp decline in his velocity, I came to the conclusion that Halladay was done even before the season started. However, after talking to a few of my most trusted baseball minds, I thought I was using my jump to conclusions mat prematurly. But after his start today against the putrid Miami Marlins, I’m ready to officially stick the fork in Roy Halladay’s career — he’s done.
Before today’s game, Halladay already had a very high 6.75 ERA, 5.72 FIP, 2.25 HR/9 and 3.66 BB/9. Out of all those numbers, his BB/9 is the one statistic that is the biggest red flag, since Halladay’s career BB/9 is under 2.00 for his career.
To put it simply: Halladay just doesn’t have it anymore.
Whenever a pitcher’s velocity starts declining rapidly, one can basically count the days before that pitcher blows up, so it’s no surprise that Halladay is struggling considering his fastball is under 90 MPH for the first time in his career. If the Phillies weren’t playing the Marlins today, I wouldn’t start digging his grave — but look at this:
#Marlins came in last in the NL in runs, HR, AVG, OBP & slugging. They then scored 9 runs off Roy Halladay. That’s one for @cantpredictball
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) May 5, 2013
The defense rests.
