Phillies Notes: Rich Dubee says he's seeing results from Phillies' Roy Halladay
ATLANTA - As Rich Dubee preached his optimism Thursday afternoon about Roy Halladay, the pitcher ran. Halladay donned a red beanie and black sweatpants. He paced the warning track at Turner Field in the 40-degree weather while a steady mist fell. Halladay was the only player on the field at 4 p.m.
"I'm starting to see some results," Dubee said. "You think I'm going to take the ball away from this guy?"
No one is saying the Phillies pitching coach should do that. Dubee reiterated his encouragement for Halladay despite a baffling, 95-pitch outing in which the erstwhile ace recorded 10 outs. Dubee cited Halladay's nine strikeouts.
"Do you see many other guys doing that in baseball?" Dubee said. "Yu Darvish against the Astros. Yu Darvish wasn't facing the Atlanta Braves."
Darvish, of course, was capable of completing more than 31/3 innings. On Wednesday, Halladay barely resembled his normal self and relied on his off-speed pitches.
"I don't know if it's an issue of trusting his stuff," Dubee said, "as much as trying to get to where he understands what his stuff is and how it's going to play and how he can work off that."
Data from Pitch F/X, a precise two-camera system installed in every Major League Baseball stadium that tracks the trajectory and speed of every pitch, indicated that Halladay's release point was lower than last season.
Last spring, when scouts first questioned Halladay's ability, they focused on his lower arm slot as evidence. It affects the angle Halladay achieves on his pitches, and could be to blame for the lack of ground balls.
But Dubee disputed the data based on video he watched. "It's not lower, it's higher," he said of Halladay's arm slot.
"That means he's good," Dubee said. "Last year, because of health issues, he had to get lower because that's the only way he could get the ball up there."
Dubee said Halladay achieved the desired late movement on his sinkers and cutters. So why did he stray from the pitches?
"He wasn't able to do it arm-slot wise," Dubee said.
Extra bases
After two losses, Charlie Manuel made one change to his lineup. Laynce Nix started in right field against the Braves, replacing John Mayberry Jr. . . . Jimmy Rollins passed Richie Ashburn for second place all-time in games played (1,795) as a Phillie. He needs 609 more to tie Mike Schmidt. . . . Halladay was the first Phillies pitcher to record his first eight outs of a game via strikeout since Curt Schilling on April 5, 1998. . . . The Phillies returned outfielder Ender Inciarte to the Arizona Diamondbacks for $25,000. Inciarte was the Phillies' Rule 5 selection in December.
