As a Blue Jays fan, I’m scared. If you’re a Roy Halladay owner, you should share my trepidation. Not because Roy Halladay has been lack-luster, he has won 9 games, but rather because he’s been too damn good. Last night Roy Halladay notched 14 strike-outs for a career best, while limiting the Angels to four runs and earning himself the complete-game victory. An extended home-half of the sixth really threw Halladay out of sync, and Roy allowed all four of his runs in the top-half of the seventh. Who know’s how great Halladay’s final line could have been if the Jays had went 1-2-3 in their half of the sixth…
Anyways, this is why I’m worried if I’m a Halladay owner:
- Cito Gaston trotted Roy Halladay out there for 133 pitches last night, almost unheard of now-a-days.
- Roy Halladay leads the league in pitches thrown by a country mile at 1304. Big Kevin Millwood sits second, a full 94 pitches behind Roy.
- Halladay also leads the league in Innings Pitched at 91, nine full innings more than #2 Zack Greinke. Halladay’s thrown 2 complete games, 3 eight-inning games and seven seven-inning games. Halladay’s yet to pitch 7 full innings in 12 GS.
- Halladay is throwing a lot of cutters, even more than last year, which aren’t the friendliest pitch for a pitchers elbow. This is what I’d like to look into a bit more…
Fangraphs.com is reporting that Halladay’s throwing a cutter a full-45% of the time, averaging 90-91mph. This is a huge increase in last year’s 33% and an astronomical increase over the 25% he threw the year before. Currently, Halladay’s throwing 30% fastballs and 24% curveballs, to go along with that 45% Cutter Rate.
While I can’t speculate on the grip that Halladay’s using, it appears as though Halladay’s throwing about 70% of what could be considered “injury-elevating” pitches.
Roy Halladay's Latest Start vs. Angels
The rather large cluster of both Green and Black in the middle are fastballs with some degree of cut on them. The left side green cluster are four seam fastballs with a few two-seamers, towards the bottom of the graph in greeny-blue. The point here is that Halladay is throwing about as many four-seam fastballs as he’s throwing curveballs, and using cutters almost 50% of the time.
Halladay has had some fluke injuries, but he’s also had shoulder surgery in 2004 and forearm problems in 2006 when he first started really using his cutter. Eitherway, as a Jays fan — I’m worried. As a fantasy owner, well, it’s up to you.
By the way, Rod Black and Pat Tabler are terrible, worse than terrible — awful. It’s fucking painful to listen to these idiots speak. Bring Back Michael Barrett and his clever little anecdotes — he pleasantly surprised me.
