Halladay eyes big return
03/03/2006DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Roy Halladay sat at his locker in Toronto's clubhouse and began to strap a small plastic shin guard on his left leg.
"It's just precautionary," he said, while making sure it was secured tightly halfway between his foot and his knee.
Maybe it is just a precaution. But it also serves as a daily reminder of the season that could have been for Toronto's ace pitcher. Halladay was putting together one of the best seasons of his career last year, when he had his quest for a second Cy Young Award halted abruptly by a line drive that broke his left leg.
The good news then was that the injury had nothing to do with Halladay's talented arm. The good news now is that his leg has healed properly and he'll be back as Toronto's Opening Day starter. Any success the Jays have this year might depend on having him injury-free until the last day, too.
"The biggest thing is his health. We want to make sure he's healthy," Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi said. "Obviously, he's a big key to our success. It's always good to see him out there.
"The one thing about 'Doc' is he's always going to be the hardest working guy out there," he added. "He's going to do everything he can to make himself ready. So from our standpoint, we don't worry about him, you just worry about if something happens like what happened last year. You can't control that."
On July 8, Texas' Kevin Mench lined a pitch off Halladay's leg that sent the pitcher to the ground, wincing in pain. Halladay said that he realized the leg was broken when he tried to get up. Something just didn't feel right.
"It wasn't so much when I got hit, but when I went to stand up is when I felt it," Halladay said. "Even walking off the field I knew it was a different kind of pain then just getting hit on the leg."
At the time, Halladay was 12-4 with a 2.41 ERA. He had thrown five complete games, two shutouts and had 108 strikeouts versus 18 walks. Halladay appeared to be a lock to start for the American League in the All-Star game.
Compare that first half to his pre-All-Star break totals in 2003, when he won the Cy Young. Midway through that season, he was 13-2 with a 3.41 ERA. He had one complete game and 115 strikeouts to 21 walks.
Needless to say, Halladay was not happy about being sidelined -- especially when his team was contending at the time. When he got hurt, Toronto had as many wins (44) as the Yankees, who went on to claim the division crown.
"With something like that it's just frustrating because you did everything [right] and there was nothing that you could do about it," Halladay said. "It was tough. I tried as hard as I could to get back out, but it was frustrating because I really felt we had a good half and we even stayed in it for a long time after that.
"I was really hoping I could get back and we'd have a chance to do something," he added. "It's always tough, especially when your teammates play like they did last year."
It was the second year in a row that Halladay had his season cut short. The year before, the right-hander had two stints on the disabled list with shoulder issues. Since winning the Cy Young, he as made 40 starts across two years. From 2002-03, Halladay made 70 starts.
"The tough thing about an arm injury or something is you're always wondering if you could've prevented it by doing something in the offseason," Halladay said. "I feel good knowing [last season's injury wasn't] an arm thing. I don't have any questions that I can jump back in. As far as my arm being there and the stuff being there, I don't have any questions about that."
Halladay has jumped into bullpen sessions and workouts without any lingering problems so far. In his first appearance in Toronto's intrasquad game on Monday, he needed just seven pitches to retire the only three batters he faced.
Toronto's top starter is known for his rigorous workout routine. He is usually one of the first players to arrive and one of the last to leave and he spends countless hours training. The only difference this offseason was that Halladay had to limit how much he ran.
"I feel good, I just wasn't able to do a lot of [running] early," Halladay said. "Even now, I can run, but not for an extended time. That's more precautionary on the trainer's part. I can run as long as I wanted to, but they just don't want something to show up."
The precautions are there because the organization knows how valuable Halladay is to Toronto. For the most part, the Blue Jays will go where Halladay leads them.
"To me, he stands for the Toronto Blue Jays," Ricciardi said. "When you look at him, I think guys who come in here, they recognize Doc. He has to stand for something and he stands for what we're trying to do."
What they're trying to do is win. And Halladay is a big part of that.
Source: http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/
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