Goodbye Doc

Burnett had just been slapped around a little the inning before, and Texieria comes to the plate. Doc’s got him one and two, after almost cashing him with a sinker that just missed the outside corner. It’s exactly the situation you throw high cheese or something offspeed at the outside corner and see if you can get him chasing.

Doc? Runs a cutter inside that Texieria so stunned by that his hands don’t even move the bat towards a swing. It’s not a big deal, not even a big moment or a pressure situationl it’s just what Doc represented to me. That level of skill, ability and baseball intelligence to throw the pitch no one would suggest because he had the absolute certainty that he could make that strike.

Randomly, that turned into a very disturbing parody of House MD for me. My girlfriend did the image, which is all kinds of wrong: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/56AUjdsxJ44/SgsNVe7XBkI/AAAAAAAAAEo/xRuaUX0AxQ/s1600-h/pitchers.jpg

Apologies if there’s a ‘no links to other blogs’ for commenters. I’m not trying to spam anyone.

http://www.csnphilly.com/pages/video_player2

Looks like a glaring weakness right now….if any one of these three prospects is great it`ll be a good trade if two of them kick ass it`s a fantastic trade!

at least the waiting is over. We’ll do our best to take good care of him for you, and hope you will do the same to two guys I think will be very good players in Drabek and D’Arnaud.

Treat Wallace however you want. That won’t really bother me.

Best of luck to you guys next year.

Hes been my favorite athlete based purely on his attitude and professionalism. Ive never cared for any team in the NL and im now automatically a Phillies fan. I can see the argument that some people will never cheer for him in another uniform, but Roy showed so much respect to the team and fans in his time here, ill be a Halladay fan for life.

over the last few seasons weve had one of the top pens in the league… “coincidentally” weve had a starter who year in and year out is among the league leaders in IP and CG(led majors in both catagories last season)

Roy pitched 239 innings last year… the closest Jays to him were Romero(178) and Tallet(160). Richmond(138) is the only other guy whos even over 95 innings. Time will tell how much of an effect Roy had on our stellar bullpen the last few years.

The best thing about Doc, as already stated in different ways by everyone was the way he seemed – every fifth day – to channel the powers of deities and perform feats like nobody else! People, like myself, who watched basically every Jays game for the past decade truly appreciate him best. There is always this caution in Canada about calling ‘our guy’ the best… thus, others follow our lead and everyone keeps saying he is “one of the best pitchers in baseball.” He is the best… his ERA, WHIP, K:BB ratio, etc show it, but more importantly, to me, three key things show it and the Phillies fans will learn to appreciate it from him (even those who’ve falsely claimed he is “not much, if at all, better than Lee”):

1) The way that out of 35 or so starts a year, it seems there’s only – at most – one or two that Doc seems to struggle… and it’s not like he ever gets jacked hard but more like 7 grounders find a hole in a row as if fate is conspiring to prove that even the best can be beaten by the odds sooner or later.
2) The number of innings he pitches, stopping losing slides, resting the bullpen, and – most importantly – winning games
and 3) The way that he works harder than everyone else in the pursuit of the one thing that most drives him: a desire, above all else, to win. I have, in my years on this planet and as a ball fan, never seen someone work harder to win… always. When you see him pitch those 35 games a year, Phanatics, you’ll appreciate him too.

There is a widespread belief here in TO that Doc is only half-human, because no normal human can be as focused and effective as he seems to be so consistently.

As others said… I am a Doc fan for life and thank the fates that he’s in the NL (so we can but rarely face him) and that I won’t feel the guilt of cheering for Doc’s pending and well-deserved ring since we managed to avoid sending him to the Yanks or Red Sox! That is our consolation prize and the ring will hopefully be yours, Doc!

You’ll be missed!

There was one thing, I found both admirable and comical about Roy. As Blue and White Expat mentioned, he never liked to give up the ball, but it was more than that. It was almost as if Roy carries of sense of ownership about the game. The match belonged to him, and anybody else, both the opposition and the supporting offense were incidental to the challenge. That was true testament to his competitiveness. That guy is driven to win.

I certainly will miss Doc wearing Jays Uni…
But since I live in NJ, I still have chance to see him pitch live.
I will certainly drive down to PA to catch his game once in awhile.

It’s a shame that he wasn’t able to pitch in the postseason as a Jay.

Thank you for your service, Doc.

Consider that against the big boys of the AL East, the Red Sox and the Yankees, Halladay is 32-20, 3.59 in 516 2/3 innings. Lee is 6-8, 4.69 in 107 1/3.

But against the sad-sack Kansas City Royals, combined with the generally lighter-hitting lineups of the NL, Lee is 31-11, 3.65 in 359 2/3 innings. Halladay is 26-11, 2.90 in 322 1/3. Doc’s had stiffer career competition and excelled.

I used to remember them all.

I went to a triple a series between the skychiefs and the indians at the time to go see Roy the first time throught the minors and Dave Stieb on his one year comeback. Saw Halladay pitch from the third row behind home plate with all the scouts. He was hitting 94 with his fastball and his curve was very good, but at that time his cutter was very underwhelming. I thought watching him, this guy is supposed to be a stud, at that time he looked like a .500 pitcher in the majors. Luckily he goes back to the minors and changes his deliver and became an incredible pitcher for the Jays. I didn’t get to see Stieb pitch in that series. Ironically after watching that 3 game set the best prospect I saw at that time was the closer for the Indians one B.J. Ryan.
Glad to see that the team Halladay ended up on was the Phillies, they were my favorite national league team before the trade. Being from S. Illinois was thinking about making the trek to Toronto to see the Thursday Jays and Cards game and then staying for the Jays and Phillies on Friday. If Roy pitches on that Friday, I might have to root for the Phillies. 2010 Roy Halladay 25-5 and NL Cy Young.

P. S. Bring back the baby blue uniforms