Okay, before all you Roy Halladay fans start to lynch me, let me start by saying I am a great admirer of his.  I think he is one of the top 5 pitchers in all of baseball.  I have nothing against his talent, per se.  What bothers me, is that he had to go and bring that to the Phillies, who as you know play my favorite team the Braves what seems like a gagillion times a season.  I would have been fine if he had kept that stuff north of the border or moved to an AL team.  But no, he had to come to my division…..freakin Roy Halladay.

Halladay has a great fastball.  No doubt.  It’s 100 mph regularly, but several pitchers have this kind of fastball now.  It’s not that unheard of anymore.  Batters see 100 mph pitches on a fairly regular basis now.  What Halladay brings that is so devastating is that nasty arsenal of nasty breaking pitches.  The sinking fastball, curveball, cutter, and a changeup.  He is a quick worker on the mound and can bring any of his 5 pitches to bear on a batter with great rapidity.  It gives the batter no time to adjust.  It’s just bam, bam, bam…and you either see a groundball out or a strikeout.

The Braves last night were victims of both.  There were plenty of groundball outs and a lot of strikeouts as well.  Only Chipper Jones could get around on Halladay contributing a homer and a double.  Everyone else though, forget it.  That freakin Roy Halladay just kept sitting them down.  And I just kept wishing that he had been traded to the Mariners or someone similar.  Anything to keep him out of the Braves division.

The Braves have two more series with the Phillies this season.  Both are late in the season and the Phillies may have back their current DL residents by then.  Add them to freakin Roy Halladay and you have a recipe for winning at the end of the season.  Why couldn’t he have been a Mariner?

Deborah Horton Writing