Roy Halladay: Analyzing The Phillies’ NLCS Game 1 Starting Pitcher

Vitals

6’6, 230
Right-handed
250.2 innings
2.44 ERA
7.9 K/9
1.1 BB/9

2010 Playoffs

9 innings, 0 runs, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts

Repertoire

Roy Halladay doesn’t really have a primary pitch. He has two pitches he throws about 35-40% of the time - his fastball and his cut fastball. Both sit around 90-93mph, and his regular fastball has a ton of tail and sink, while his cut fastball has less of both. Complementing the two fastballs are a changeup and a curve. Halladay’s changeup hangs out around 83-85mph, and it moves like a slower version of his regular fastball. His curve, meanwhile, isn’t a loopy curve. It’s a sharp, high-70s curve, that almost looks more like a splitter than a classic curveball.

Facing Righties

Halladay doesn’t really have a dominant hand, but he’s slightly more effective against righties than lefties. He works down. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that he’s a groundball pitcher. Halladay will most often start out with an outside cutter or an inside fastball, with the occasional curve over the middle. If he falls behind, he usually comes back with heat. If he gets ahead, then the hitter’s in trouble. The more ahead Halladay gets, the lower he works in the zone, and in two-strike counts he loves to pound the bottom edge of the zone with offspeed stuff. There is no clear preference for inside, outside, or middle, as he’ll throw all around.

Facing Lefties

As is usually the case with righties who throw cut fastballs, Halladay throws a bunch of cutters to left-handed hitters. He’ll frequently throw it inside - it’s the pitch he comes in with the most - but he will spot it all around the zone. He does an excellent job of keeping his change down and away, and his curve often ends up in the same place, if a little higher. As with right-handed bats, the further ahead Halladay gets, the more offspeed pitches he throws, and the lower in the zone he works. He will not miss up. He just doesn’t. Hardly ever.