Roy Halladay: Why Phillies' Ace Will Win 20-Plus Games Even with Poor Support

Roy "Doc" Halladay has been one of baseball's best models of consistency over the last five to 10 years. He's won two Cy Young Awards, pitched a perfect game and postseason no-hitter, and even as he approaches his 35th birthday, he has shown no signs of slowing down.

Rumors swirled throughout spring training that Doc's velocity was down and his control had eluded him. However, we've seen through Halladay's first two starts this season—a 1-0 road win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Opening Day and a 7-1 home win over Josh Johnson and the Miami Marlins last night—that he's looked just as good as ever. With 15 innings under his belt this season, Doc currently sports a 0.60 ERA, 0.53 WHIP, and has eight strikeouts, not to mention he's picked up the win in both of his starts to date.

Simply put, Doc is able to compensate even when he's given little to work with. Last night was the kind of night any pitcher dreams of, but when you take into account that the Phillies were only able to score one run on eight hits against the Bucs last week, and also that the team was on pace to score 370 runs for the entire season before last night's game, it's a little disconcerting, to say the least.

However, Halladay is no ordinary pitcher. As we've seen, he seems to improve with age and has a work ethic unlike almost anybody else in the sport. There's a reason that San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson referred to him as a "cyborg" at the All-Star Game last year—he's just durable and just that good.

There's little reason to believe that Doc will struggle this year. Even with poor run support, Halladay will manage, and unless he pitches his arm off, there's no reason why Halladay can't win 20 games—if not more—or even place in the top three of NL Cy Young Award voting. But how, you ask? Keep reading.

Experience in Same Situation

Pitching with little run support is nothing new to Roy Halladay. The best the Toronto Blue Jays (his former team) placed in the AL East during his tenure up north was second, yet they failed to make the playoffs. Their best record came in 2006 when they went 87-75, yet it didn't get them far enough.

But what's more supportive of this point is that the Blue Jays went 75-87 in 2009, and as a result Halladay received 11 losses, only the second time in his career he had double digits in the loss column, the other being in 2008, though the Jays won 86 games that year.

This means that either Halladay was the reason for many of these losses (he had ERAs of 2.78 and 2.79 in 2008 and 2009, respectively), or that he didn't get enough run support in those contests. Seeing his ERAs in those seasons, I'll put my bet on the latter. And considering that he won 20 games with a lower ERA in that 2008 season where he received less run support than his 2003 AL Cy Young campaign? That's downright impressive.

Yes, Halladay did win a Cy Young Award in Toronto, but can that be attributed to his team's support as much as his overpowering ability to get hitters out? Even though Toronto was third in baseball with 894 runs scored in 2003, his 3.25 ERA came from defense and pitching, not offense. Additionally, the dispersal of runs may have not necessarily been in favor of Halladay's starts. Taking a look at his 2003 game log, it was about 50-50 in terms of receiving run support or not, maybe 60-40 at most.

Doc was once a member of a team that wasn't close to contending. The motivation to pitch and the adrenaline from pitching in a game is lessened with less production and less support. Now that he's pitching in front of sellout crowds, the adrenaline is there. And while the Phillies have been a contending team, their ability to produce runs may be difficult this year.

But hey, he's Doc Halladay. He's got it all under control. And thanks to experience in such situations, he knows exactly how to handle the problem.

Track Record

We just went over the fact that Roy Halladay once played for a once-subpar team that wasn't always able to provide enough support for Doc to win his starts. But it's impossible to ignore the awards and accolades that he's accumulated over his illustrious career.

Halladay does have one blemish on his career numbers, and that's his 2000 season. Pitching 67.2 innings, Halladay posted an ERA of 10.64, what is the highest ERA in baseball history for a single pitcher who had thrown over 50.0 innings in a season and was almost broken by Baltimore's Brian Matusz, who served up a 10.69 ERA last year in 49.2 innings, just falling short of the mark.

Aside from that, Halladay's career is extremely impressive. He won the AL Cy Young Award in 2003, going 22-7 with a 3.25 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, and striking out 204 batters. What may be most impressive about that season, however, is that he pitched an astonishing 266.0 innings and had nine complete games, both of which led the majors that year.

You also can't forget his 2008 AL Cy Young Award second place finish behind Cliff Lee. And then in 2010, his first year in the National League, Halladay took home its Cy Young Award, becoming just the fifth-ever pitcher to do so. That season was marked with his perfect game on May 29 and his postseason no-hitter on October 6, his first career playoff start.

Keep in mind that Halladay's perfect game was just like any other day, but also recall that he won it by a score of 1-0. Considering that Halladay has achieved perfection on just one run of support behind him, there's no reason to think that he can't manage a win with support comparable to that, whether or not he's perfect again.

Pitching Arsenal

If there's anything that comes to mind when you see Roy Halladay in a game, it's that not only does he have one effective pitch, he's got two, three, even four pitches he can both locate with pinpoint accuracy and control as if they were his puppets.

Doc knows just how to handle his pitching repertoire, more than almost anyone else in the sport today (Mariano Rivera just may be the lone guy ahead of him). And while Halladay may have a bad outing every now and then, who doesn't? It is extremely rare to see Halladay allow multiple runs at a time, or even in a game itself. He's just that good.

Perhaps the most well-known pitch that Doc uses is his sinker. Referred to as a two-seam fastball by others, when thrown, it simply comes in on a right-handed hitter, making it impossible for them to hit the ball. on a left-handed batter, Halladay uses a cutter for the same purpose, often with the same results. Of course, for outside pitches, Halladay does the opposite here.

Doc uses his changeup when he's up in count over the hitter, and he's got a four-seamer and a curveball in there as well. Though his four-seam fastball doesn't have as much pop as it used to and isn't used nearly as often as it once was, Halladay will choose between the changeup or curveball for his out pitch in such situations. And his curveball, with its filthy dive down and away from right-handed batters, is seldom seen as a pitch leading to a base hit.

Halladay's arsenal of pitches has been what's given him success before. It's not necessarily his velocity, because that has gone down in recent years. It's his control, his power, his presence, and his consistently accurate grip and placement of each pitch that garner him the success he's been awarded. Without his secondary pitches, Halladay would win maybe five games at most, but having them, along with them all being exceptional, gives him that edge to win 20 games next year, regardless of the run support from his teammates. It's won him 20 games before, right? And it should do it again in 2012.

Improves with Age

In 2003, when Roy Halladay was 26 years old, he won the AL Cy Young Award for his efforts. Since it was said earlier in the presentation, do you remember what I said his ERA was that year? Don't worry, I'm not going to be rude about it. It was 3.25. At age 26. Not bad, but there's definitely better.

And as he grew older, he became better.

In 2005, just two years later, Halladay pitched to a 2.41 ERA with the Blue Jays. When you factor in that a good portion of those starts came against the AL East, baseball's toughest division, that's an even more incredible feat. As we covered, 2008 he had an ERA at 2.78. In 2009, he saw an ever-so-slight drop to 2.79.

Then came his trade to Philadelphia. Entering his age 33 season, Halladay pitched his perfect game, his NLDS no-hitter, and won the NL Cy Young Award for being the best pitcher in the National League in 2010. His ERA that season? 2.44. Nine complete games, four of them shutouts, both leading the majors. 

And finally (at least up to this point), there was 2011. Halladay may not have had the same amount of complete games or shutouts, but his ERA did drop to 2.35 and he placed second in the Cy Young voting only to Clayton Kershaw, who won the NL pitching Triple Crown last season. Even so, he was 34 last year.

Yes, I know, ERA isn't the best stat for this kind of thing, but it's telling nonetheless. But if you want more, consider this: aside from his 2003 AL Cy Young season, Halladay did not once top 200 strikeouts...until 2008, at age 31, when he fanned 206 hitters. Since then? It's increased every single year, getting as high as 220 last year. For a guy that was never considered a strikeout pitcher, almost half of his career Ks have come over the last four or five years.

Doc has defied logic in his aging process. As he grows yet another year older, it seems not that his arm tires, but that it grows another year stronger. And we should look to see more of that in 2012, regardless of the offense's outcome.

Intensity and Sheer Dominance

When he's on the mound, Roy Halladay is hands-down the most intense player not only in that game, but in all of baseball. Just looking into his eyes, you can see the fire that burns in him to win the game, and when you're batting against him, you can only hope not to fall under his spell.

Doc is arguably the most complete, most consistent pitcher in the majors today. In fact, he's been just that for at least the last four years, possibly further back than that. He's got that drive to win every time he's out there, and he won't settle for anything less. That's right—if he loses a game, he's back the next one, raring to go, and will get the job done.

His dominance on the mound is practically unparalleled by anyone else in baseball. With his ability to hit either the strike zone or his location outside of it to fool a hitter, it comes almost every time to him, and effortlessly at that. With his stats and ability improving with age and his read on hitters continuing to be spot-on, it would be ludicrous to suggest that Halladay is going to lose it anytime soon.

He's dealt with less run support in Toronto than in Philadelphia. And although the fan support is different in each location, Doc has still managed to emerge with more victories than losses in almost every season he's been a part of. While his Blue Jay teams in each of those years can't necessarily say the same, it just goes to show that Halladay has dealt with this kind of situation before and with excellence.

Taking into account the factors that Doc Halladay has, along with the fact that he's just flat-out scary on the mound, he's been the same ace starting pitcher he was almost 10 years ago, and with everything seeming to still climb uphill from here, expect even better results in the 2012 season, even with little run support.

Yes, last night the Phillies gave Halladay a good seven runs behind him. But he showed, both on May 29, 2010, and on April 5, 2012, that one run can be just enough to take care of business.