Rough outing from Halladay some cause for concern
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Rough outing from Halladay some cause for concern
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Forget about the results. Forget about the seven runs that Roy Halladay allowed, about the 11 baserunners, about the two home runs. The troubling thing about Halladay's rough outing against the Tigers today was the way he looked: bad. He struggled with his location throughout his 2 2/3 innings. His sinker was up in the zone. His slow stuff was wild. He walked four batters and hit another with a pitch. Virtually every ball that he allowed into play was hit hard, including a grand slam by Ramon Santiago that paved the way for Halladay's departure after 69 pitches. As Jeremy Horst trotted in from the bullpen, Halladay and pitching coach Rich Dubee had a long conversation on the mound. You can bet that Halladay did not want to leave.
Scouts had Halladay's velocity sitting in the 86-88 mile per hour range, which is right around the level it was at in his last Grapefruit League outing five days ago. The thing about Halladay is that he usually looks sharp in spring. His four walks today gave him six on the spring, tying a career high for Grapefruit League play. He has only allowed more than four walks in a Grapefruit League season once.
We are three weeks out from Halladay's probable 2013 debut. The Phillies are reaching a juncture when they have some justification for concern.
Uh oh.- A 36-years old pitcher and losing velo...not unusual. May be last year as a Phillie. — Romus
- "His four walks today tied a career high for Grapefruit League play. He has only allowed more than four walks in Grapefruit League play once."---contradiction, maybe...how can for be a career high whenhe allowed more than 4 walks ONCE
— philly13 - Jesus no.— Keep The Change
- When Brad Lidge could not hit 90 on the gun with the fastball anymore he was done.— Dull
- Brad Lidge was a 2 pitch pitcher. — klugs2
- Time to get Lohse's agent on the phone— Stephen45
- Agreed. This team needs a decent RH starter. — Copper34
- Halladay has enough movement and command to succeed at 88 MPH. but as a 3 or 4 starter. Roy will just have to tinker with approach. If it does not happen Amaro may look elsewhere. Lohse is still out there but with Boras as agent not likely to happen... Philly outfield with Revere Brown and either Ruf or Delmon can be huge surprise. Revere is outstanding defensively and figures to hit 285-315. He has no power but stays within his talent and can steal 50 bases. Brown just has to stay healthy and he will put up good numbers. Delmon is capable of 280 with 20 HRs. DY just has to keep head on straight and mouth shut.— Don w
- Halliday is shot, they need to face the facts and move on maybe see if they can sucker someone into a trade. This is far from a new trend.— TrollXterminator
- Hey!!You pays your money and you takes your chances.— Ernie Garman
- Uh-oh indeed. Lost velocity last spring foreshadowed a tough year and injury. This is not good, sports fans.— PhillySubsMac
- Uh-oh! Is Lohse still on the market? We need to sign him, regardless.— 5NOT4
- Going consistently from 92-94 to 86-88 in such a short period of time (18 months?) does not bode well. Not enough time for Doc to make fine adjustments to such a drop-off. He's not a pure power pitcher, but a "power/finesse" guy. The combination of speed and great movement was a joy to watch in '10-'11, but pitches started to hang up there last year. A bit like Carlton when the slider stopped biting. It happened fast for Lefty, too. When Halladay mentioned that he totally changed his conditioning routine during the off-season, a little warning buzzer went off for me. Oh, and what insight could Dubee possibly provide? We'll need to wait until the middle of June for that....— ijj
