Roy Halladay Arm Issues: Is Something Wrong with the Phillies Ace?
May 9, 2012 by Alec Snyder
Filed under Fan News
Roy Halladay is a cyborg. That’s according to San Francisco Giants closer (and a man guilty of letting go of his 15 minutes of fame) Brian Wilson. Of anything that Wilson’s said, it’s one of his most accurate statements. Doc is like the Energizer bunny—he just keeps on going.
However, his start to the 2012 season has been a bit worrisome for some fans. During spring training, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported that Halladay’s velocity had significantly decreased compared to prior years. Not only did Halladay hear about it, he fired back, calling it “poor reporting at the extreme end of poor reporting.” Go figure.
A week ago, though, ESPN’s Buster Olney tweeted about Halladay’s average fastball velocity from 2009 to the present, noting how it’s declined year after year. In addition, he also mentioned Halladay’s swing-and-miss percentage, which has also rapidly gone downhill over the same span. Here’s the tweet if you’d like to see it:
Roy Halladay avg. fastball velocity, from 2009-12: 91.7, 92.1, 91.6, 89.9. Missed swing pct. from 2009-2012: 15.7, 10.8, 11.4, 4.8.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) May 2, 2012
Does this call for concern? Possibly. And that’s exactly what we’ll try to determine.
After examining all the potential factors, we’ll make a decision: is there really something wrong with Roy Halladay’s arm?
Read on.