Week Eight: Roy Halladay and Ken Howell

The week was going rather well for the Phillies.  After taking the first three games against the defending World Series champions, they had Roy Halladay set to face the Cardinals in the series finale on Sunday.

In the past couple of seasons, sending Halladay out to complete a sweep was about as sure a thing as there was in baseball.

But instead of ending the week with a happy feeling, Phillies fans were left with a feeling of despair.  The Phillies lost the game thanks in part to a first inning grand slam surrendered by Halladay.  But the truly bad part was that Halladay left the game in the second inning due to shoulder soreness.

 

Featured Phillie of the Week: Roy Halladay

There were rumors during Spring Training that there might have been something wrong with Halladay.  He was struggling a bit in the exhibition games, and his velocity was decreased slightly from last season.

Halladay and the Phillies both maintained that he was fine, and when he pitched eight shutout innings on Opening Day, all of the concerns seemed unfounded.  He continued to pitch well throughout April.  He suffered some losses, but those were due more to lack of support rather than any great failing on Halladay's part.

But since the beginning of May, Halladay has not looked quite the same.  In his start on May 2nd against the Braves, he blew a six-run lead, an event that most Phillies fans would have thought was impossible.

Over his next several starts, something seemed a bit off.  Halladay certainly wasn't pitching poorly, and given a little bit more run support, he probably would have won most of the games.  But this also wasn't the dominating Roy Halladay that Phillies fans had come to expect.

Phillies fans don't expect Roy Halladay to need a lot of run support.  If the team can only score two runs behind him, then he only gives up one.  That's how it has worked for most of his Phillies tenure.

When he faced the Nationals and gave up five runs in six innings, the level of concern rose.  The velocity on Halladay's pitches was still down from previous seasons.  Could Halladay be suffering from an undisclosed injury?

When he had to leave Sunday's game after two innings, Halladay confirmed that there were indeed physical issues behind his (relatively) poor performance.  Apparently he has been suffering from a sore shoulder.  It isn't clear how long that his shoulder has been bothering him, or how much it has affected him.

What is clear is that if Halladay is going to miss much time, or if the injury will prevent him from pitching like the Roy Halladay of the past two seasons, then the Phillies may be in trouble.

 

Ghost of Phillies Past: Ken Howell

In the 1989 season, the Phillies took a chance on quite a few reclamation projects, such as their Opening Day starter Floyd Youmans.  While Youmans might have been a failure, they had much better luck with another starting pitcher.

Ken Howell had been a decent prospect for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the mid-80s.  He had talent, but his mental approach wasn't where it needed to be.  When faced with adversity, he reacted by just trying to throw the ball past hitters. 

When an arm injury forced him back to the minors, Howell used the time to actually learn how to pitch.  His improved mental approach paid dividends for the 1989 Phillies.

Howell became the leader of the Phillies pitching staff, winning 12 games with a 3.44 ERA.  His success continued into the early part of the 1990 season, when his progress was halted by injury issues.

Unfortunately, the injuries never went away.  It felt like every season, the Phillies would be counting on Howell to come back and lead the staff, only to have him hit a snag in his rehab.  As a result, Howell was never able to return to the majors.

I doubt Howell's presence would have made those early 90's Phillies teams into contenders.  But not having the guy they counted on as their ace certainly didn't help.

 

Pennant Year Song of the Week

The Phillies are designed to win with elite starting pitching.  Unfortunately, without Roy Halladay, the rotation is missing its most important piece.

Therefore, this week's song is Biggest Part of Me by Ambrosia.

Random Phillies Tweet of the Week

 

From Base'Ball (@BASEBAAL_GOD):

I am preparing to judge your Roy Halladay and am accepting burnt offerings. The aroma pleases me.

Final Analysis

Ken Howell was a good pitcher.  But with or without him, those Phillies teams likely weren't going anywhere.

On the other hand, Roy Halladay is on the short list of the best pitchers in baseball.  If he has to miss a significant amount of time, the 2012 Phillies might be in real trouble.



Preseason: Roy Halladay and Floyd Youmans

Time to panic!

Everybody is injured!  Ryan Howard is hurt!  Chase Utley is hurt!  Even Michael Martinez is hurt!

By the time the season starts, the Phillies will have nobody left to play second base.  They might have to coax third base coach Juan Samuel out of retirement.

The absence of their big name stars is going to cause them to struggle on offense.  In fact, they might not score a run all season!

Surely, this team has no chance of winning its sixth straight division title, and a World Series championship is an impossible dream.

Right?

Wrong.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to illustrate just how good this current era of Phillies baseball is.  There have been many Phillies seasons for which dreams of the playoffs were merely that - dreams.  Those teams didn't provide the fan base with any real hope.  Sure, maybe the more delusional among us might have thought that they were contenders.  But in reality, merely finishing with a winning record would have been a major accomplishment for those teams.

That is not the case in 2012.  Even with the injuries and the improvements by the rest of the National League East, the Phillies are still the favorites to win the division, and they're still a strong contender to win the World Series.

It's no secret that the reason for this optimism is the starting rotation.  Having three ace pitchers (as well as two other dependable starters) means that in most of their games, the Phillies will have the superior starting pitcher. 

This is a tremendous advantage for a team to have, and it results in a lot of victories over the course of a season.  In 2011, it resulted in 102 victories and a division title.

Despite losing Roy Oswalt, the 2012 Phillies should still have a superb starting rotation.  Consider that on some teams, pitchers like Joe Blanton and Kyle Kendrick would be slotted near the top of the rotation.  On this team, they're the fifth and sixth best options.

The rotation is headlined by three pitchers who are among the best in baseball.  For most teams, Cole Hamels or Cliff Lee would be the top pitcher and an easy choice to start on Opening Day. 

But neither Hamels nor Lee will likely be pitching on Opening Day for the 2012 Phillies.  The man who will get that honor is my first featured Phillie of the 2012 season.


Featured Phillie of the Week: Roy Halladay

Among the Phillies pitchers, Roy Halladay is largely considered the ace of aces.  If he isn't the best pitcher in baseball, he is certainly on a short list of candidates.
 
Already a well established star before joining the Phillies, in his two seasons in Philadelphia he has only enhanced his reputation.  He won the 2010 National League Cy Young Award, and then finished second in the voting last year. 

Not only is he often dominant, but he is also amazingly consistent.  Poor starts are a rarity, and he gives the Phillies an excellent chance of victory every time he takes the mound.

While he was the losing pitcher in the Phillies NLDS series finale against the Cardinals, the loss was hardly his fault.  If the Phillies' offense had shown any life whatsoever, Halladay's eight inning, one run outing would have gone down in legend.

Thanks to some uneven Spring Training results, there were some rumors that he was injured.  But Halladay has adamantly shot down those rumors, saying he is just getting himself ready for the season.

Considering the man's body of work, there is no reason to doubt him.  There is every reason to expect another dominating season in which he is once again one of the best pitchers in the game.

Ghost of Phillies Past: Floyd Youmans

While the 2012 Phillies have their choice of three ace pitchers to make the Opening Day start, the team wasn't always that fortunate.

The 1989 Phillies didn't have multiple Cy Young Award winners on hand.  So they were forced to go with a much less accomplished pitcher. 

Only a few years earlier, Floyd Youmans had been a rising star for the Montreal Expos.  He won 13 games in 1986, and looked to have a bright future.  Unfortunately, his career was derailed by drug use that nearly drove him out of baseball.

Youmans was forced to go into rehab, and appeared to get his life and career back on track.  He was only 25 years of age when the Phillies acquired him before the 1989 season, and the team was optimistic that he could still fulfill the promise he showed in his early career.

After an impressive Spring Training, and lacking any better candidates, manager Nick Leyva opted to give Youmans the start on Opening Day.  But his five inning, four run performance in a loss was rather representative of how his season - and Phillies career - would go.

He went 1-5 in the early part of the season before suffering a shoulder injury that would end his season.  He underwent arthroscopic surgery, but was never able to regain his prior pitching form, and never returned to the major leagues.

Awesomely Obscure Song of the Week

As a special bonus, each week, I'll feature a song that, despite its awesomeness, has largely escaped the notice of mainstream America.

The first selection is from the rap group Delinquent Habits.  Based out of Los Angeles, the group's songs feature Spanglish lyrics and Latino themes.

Their first single off their self-titled debut album is Tres Delinquentes:

Final Analysis

It is a great comfort to know that the Phillies have Roy Halladay as their ace.  His presence means that the Phillies have a great chance at winning every five days.

It wasn't always that way.  In some years, the best the Phillies could come up with was a reclamation project like Youmans.  Not surprisingly, the 1989 Phillies were a dreadful last place team.

We can hope that the 2012 Phillies do a little better than that.