Roy Halladay: Where Does the Philadelphia Phillies Ace Fit Into the Team’s Plans for the Future?

Published: 26^th Jan 12 1:52 pm

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Howard Smith - US PRESSWIRE

Trading for Roy Halladay before the 2010 season was a fantastic move for Philadelphia Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, Jr., regardless of the prospects the team had to give up. Halladay is as sure of a thing as there is in baseball, and he has rewarded the Phillies so far with two phenomenal seasons.

Since joining the Phillies, Halladay is 40-16 with a 2.40 ERA and an unbelievable 6.75 strikeout to walk ratio in 484.1 innings pitched. He’s made the All-Star team both seasons, won a Cy Young and finished runner-up another year, and earned MVP votes in both seasons. Halladay’s accolades don’t stop there, as he’s also thrown a perfect game in the regular season and a no-hitter in the postseason.

Halladay is as effective as he is because he’s a student of the game like few pitchers to ever play. He’s one of the most durable pitchers in recent years, having led the league in complete games for an incredible five straight seasons and seven in all. He’s led the league in innings pitched and shutouts four times and batters faced three times. Even at 34, Halladay has shown no signs of slowing down, and should be able to pitch for at least four or five more seasons at this level.

Halladay throws a four-seam fastball in the low nineties, a cutter that is probably his best pitch, a curveball in the mid-70s, and a split-fingered fastball that he just added to his pitch repertoire before last season. Remarkably, Halladay completely abandoned his changeup, having thrown it 11 percent of the time in 2010, but failing to throw it even once in ’11, according to Fan Graphs.

Halladay is a groundball pitcher who pitches to contact, but he also records a high percentage of strikeouts, having topped 200 in each of the previous four seasons. He has remarkable control and led the league in fewest walks per nine innings each of the last three years, and strikeout to walk ratio for four straight years.

He is the unquestioned ace of the Phillies staff, even on a team that includes Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels. Halladay is signed through 2013 at $20 million for this year and $20 million for the next. His contract also includes a vesting option for 2014 at $20 million that seems likely to vest given the rate at which Halladay is pitching. This means Phillies fans get to enjoy at least two and maybe three more years of Halladay’s pitching.