Phillies Ready to Ask Roy Halladay to Change for Them

Confidence is hard to grasp as one of your heroes burns in front of you.  But there we were yesterday, watching and listening as the Braves poured seven runs on Roy Halladay, and laughed while they did it; their despicable villainy not only winning the game, but exposing a whole new page of issues for the Phillies.

Our ace, unable to escape the second inning, will probably remain trapped there for decades, watching Freddie Freeman’s home run land as the monstrous first baseman earned the nighly bucket of slop the Braves feed him when he’s returned to his cage in the sub-basement.

Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

Here, outside of the nightmare, the Phillies are now looking past Doc’s present and considering how to manage his future.  Which is interesting because they have to do something like that in a way that does not alert Roy to the fact that they are trying to change his religiously agonizing workout routine because oh man.

So, it’s either watch Roy go out there and pitch through the explosion of his own bones or get him to change, something he’s had to do very little in 12years of being one of the/the best pitcher/s in the game/universe.

Shoulder spasms were to blame for yesterday’s disaster–in which he exited a game at the earliest point since being struck by a comeback drive in 2006–and some are calling for Doc to just take it easy for the rest of the year.  Doc says that his shoulder issues were “poor timing,” and knows that in the future, he will have to work around things like swelling and Rich Dubee’s over confidence.

"“I’m very confident. Why wouldn’t you be?”—Rich Dubee"

We are seeing further evidence of time’s effect on this team’s core.  Yes, this is different, because it’s Roy Halladay, and you hoped that any injury issues would be due to a heroic South American serpent-fight in the offseason and not showcased as the center of a 7-0 starting rout during Chipper Jones bullshit farewell tour.

But it seems as though Roy will be adhering to a regiment to accommodate his shoulder, which means way, way less street cage fighting.