Roy Halladay is off to a rough start in 2013.

By Amy McGinnis

While at the Phillies – Mets game this past Monday night, I turned to my friend and said, “If someone had told me two years ago that Halladay would look like this in 2013 I would have called him a liar and punched him in the face.”  Phils fans everywhere are sort of scratching their heads and wondering, “What’s going on with Doc?”

Let’s look at the not-so-great (but painfully obvious) things first.  Halladay’s velocity has decreased, his command looks sloppy, he’s 0-2 for the season, his 2013 ERA is 14.73 thus far, and he has let up 12 runs in just 7.1 innings pitched. This might seem par for the course with an almost-36-year-old pitcher in his 16th season in the bigs.  He’s not getting any younger, after all.  While this all sounds (and looks) discouraging, it doesn’t need to mean that it’s the end for Doc.

Yes, Halladay’s velocity is down.  Years ago, Doc could throw upwards of 95 mph; in the past several seasons, his fastball has been in the 90-92 mph range.  Speed is only one part of the equation, though.  It’s easy to focus on it, because it’s quantitative and we baseball nerds love our data, but there are intangible factors that go into a pitcher’s performance.  When it comes to Roy Halladay, of course, it’s his discipline.  He has conditioned himself to be so focused that he will work out, run, and throw bullpen sessions in the snow if necessary.  He self-regulates himself so well that in the past few seasons, it’s hard to recall many times that Charlie Manuel visited him in the mound and didn’t have Roy send him back to the dugout alone.  Halladay has always trusted himself to know his own body, and that’s why I think that he will stay in Philadelphia’s rotation until he pulls himself out of it.

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Tags: Amy McGinnis, Braves, Charlie Manuel, Cole Hamels, Mets, Phillies, Roy Halladay