Sample Player Profile Page

HALLADAY, ROY


Nickname:	DOC	Position:	P
Home:	Florida	Team:	PHILLIES
Height:	6' 6"	Bats:	R
Weight:	230	Throws:	R
DOB:	5/14/1977	Agent:	Alan & Randy Hendricks
Birth City:	Denver, Colorado	Draft:	Blue Jays #1 - 1995 - Out of West H.S. (Denver)
Uniform #:	34		Blue Jays #1 - 1995 - Out of West H.S. (Denver)

YR	LEA	TEAM	SAL(K)	G	IP	H	SO	BB	GS	CG	SHO	SV	W	L	OBA	ERA
1995	GCL	Blue Jays		10	50	35	48	16	8	0	0	0	3	5		3.40
1996	FSL	DUNEDIN		27	165	158	109	46	27	2		0	15	7		2.73
1997	SL	KNOXVILLE		7	37	46	30	11	7	0	0	0	2	3		5.40
1997	IL	SYRACUSE		22	126	132	64	53				0	7	10		4.58
1998	IL	SYRACUSE		21	116	107	71	53	21	1		0	9	5		3.79
1998	AL	BLUE JAYS	$170.00	2	14	9	13	2	2	1		0	1	0		1.93
1999	AL	BLUE JAYS	$200.00	36	149	156	82	79	18	1	1	1	8	7		3.92
2000	AL	BLUE JAYS	$550.00	19	68	107	44	42	13	0	0	0	4	7		10.64
2000	IL	SYRACUSE		11	74	85	38	21	11	3		0	2	3		5.50
2001	FSL	DUNEDIN		13	23	28	15	3	0	0	0	2	0	1		3.97
2001	SL	TENNESSEE		5	34	25	29	6	5	3	0	0	2	1		2.12
2001	IL	SYRACUSE		2	14	12	13	0	2	0	0	0	1	0		3.21
2001	AL	BLUE JAYS		17	105	97	96	25	16	1	1	0	5	3		3.16
2002	AL	BLUE JAYS	$2,583.00	34	239	223	168	62	34	2	1	0	19	7		2.93
2003	AL	BLUE JAYS	$3,825.00	36	266	253	294	32	36	9	2	0	22	7		3.25
2004	AL	BLUE JAYS	$6,000.00	21	133	140	95	39	21	1	1	0	8	8		4.20
2005	AL	BLUE JAYS	$10,500.00	19	143	118	108	18	19	5	2	0	12	4		2.41
2006	AL	BLUE JAYS	$12,750.00	32	220	208	132	34	32	4	0	0	16	5	0.251	3.19
2007	AL	BLUE JAYS	$12,750.00	31	225.1	232	139	48	31	7	1	0	16	7	0.268	3.71
2008	AL	BLUE JAYS	$10,000.00	34	246	220	206	39	33	9	2	0	20	11	0.237	2.78
2009	AL	BLUE JAYS	$14,250.00	32	239	234	208	35	32	9	4	0	17	10	0.256	2.79
2010	NL	PHILLIES	$15,750.00	28	214	197	190	26	28	8	3	0	16	10	0.245	2.27

PERSONAL:
Roy's baseball experience started in the backyard with his Dad, playing catch. He was hitting of a tee when he was around three years old. "It started off as nothing more than a way for us to spend time together," Halladay said. "He was a pilot so he was gone a lot. He'd come home and we'd either talk about airplanes, or play catch, or hit." Halladay inherited his work ethic from his father, Roy, Jr., a commercial airline pilot from the Denver bedroom community of Arvada, who when his young son was idle would invite him to build a model boat or toss a baseball or fly a remote-control airplane. "Something productive," says Halladay, whom the Blue Jays chose with the 17th pick in the 1995 draft. "I never had a lot of time when I was just 'kicking rocks,' as my Dad called it. That comes into play now. I always feel I have to do something to make myself better."	When Halladay turned 5, a mattress was mounted along the basement wall. Roy hit it and threw baseballs into it hundreds of times every day�without being told. Then, just before Roy went into the 5th grade, the family moved to a new home that had a basement that was about 55 to 60 feet long. That was long enough for Dad to build a batting cage by hanging chain links from the beams. A pitching machine was bought and a hanging tire set up. Almost every night from fifth grade through high school, Halladay would follow a few rounds of batting practice with a couple of hundred throws through the tire.

When Halladay was about 10 years old, his dad took him to see Blue Jays scout Bus Campbell, who was speaking at a local function near Denver. Campbell told Halladay's father to bring the boy back when he was a few years older and he'd agree to begin working with him then. So that's what Halladay's father did, and a brilliant career was officially set in motion. Halladay credits his father for his worth ethic, but he is quick to praise Campbell for the mechanics he uses to baffle hitters to this day. Campbell coached Halladay through his years at Arvada West High School in Colorado and continued to work with the pitcher after he was selected with the 17th overall pick by Toronto in the 1995 Draft.	"Honestly, I think he was the biggest help for my career," said Halladay, who reached 100 career victories faster than any pitcher in Blue Jays history, in 2007. "A couple of times a week, he'd go over video with me. He'd meet me pretty much anywhere. We'd throw and he got me ready for every Spring Training when I started playing. "He put in so much time and not only with me. There were hundreds of kids all over Colorado that he was helping, and he never took a dime. He never would accept anything. He really believed he was put here to help kids. That's why he did it."

At age 13, Roy got his hands on a copy of Nolan Ryan's Pitcher's Bible, and he began following the weight training program outlined in the book. If there was one word to describe the boy it was persistent. "He was very similar to what he is now," his father says. "He didn't lose his temper much, and he just went about his business. He reminds me of a golden retriever. Just a pleasant demeanor, get down to business, and when you're through with that it's on to the next thing."	Says Roy III, "My dad played high school baseball. But the biggest thing I got from him was his approach to life. We were always going to do something productive, always go the extra mile. The extra things that were done, that's what separates people." (Tom Verducci-Sports Illustrated-4/05/10) In 1995, Roy's senior high school season at West High School, Arvada, Colorado, he went 10-1, 0.55 ERA, allowing just 24 hits in 63 innings, striking out 105. He then signed a letter of intent with the University of Arizona, but passed that up to sign with the Blue Jays for a club-record $895,000. Then, Roy used part of that bonus money to buy Bus Campbell, the Jays scout who signed him, a satellite television system. Campbell worked extensively with Halladay during his amateur days.

In March 2008, Bus Campbell died at age 87 after falling outside his home in Littleton, Colorado. DON'T CALL HIM HARRY His real name is Harry Leroy Halladay III. But he never responded to that name, or even to Harry Halladay -- even on the first day of school. His response to the teacher's roll call never wavered. There was none. First grade, eighth grade, senior year at Arvada West High School. The teacher never heard, "Here!" from Harry Leroy Halladay III.	"I remember getting calls just about every year from teachers wanting to make sure Roy was there," said Halladay's father, Roy, the first to unofficially dump his son's given name. Grandpa Halladay was Harry, but Junior went by "Roy." And then came "Little Roy," who grew to become the 6-foot-6 ace of the Toronto Blue Jays and one of the best pitchers in baseball. "I really didn't like the name 'Harry,"' Halladay's Dad said. "To me it was like the boy named Sue. The reason we decided to give Roy that name was people were kind of asking me, 'You're not going to break the link, are you?' I was like, "'Well ...' "

With his Dad flying an airplane all around the country, his mother Linda put in a lot of drive time. "My Mom was like my personal traveling secretary," Halladay said. "I was always on two teams where I'd leave practice from one team to go play in a game with another." When Halladay was growing up, he remembers playing with Greeley, Colorado's Shawn Chacon and Lamar's Scott Elarton, who made it to the Majors. He also remembers playing with other children who were better than him, like Kevin McDougal, Roy Turner, and Andre Champagne. McDougal, now with the Indianapolis Colts, turned out to be even better at football. Turner and Champagne never made it professionally. "I was never really the best kid," Halladay said. "There was always someone a little older, a little bigger and a little better than I was."	Halladay was third in the state (Colorado) high school cross-country meet his senior year. In 1996, Roy was third in the Florida State League in wins, fifth in ERA, and posted two five-game winning streaks. For several years, Halladay put in several hours of flying time during the offseason, working towards a pilot's license. He does most of his flying in a Cessna Sky Master with his father, who is a pilot. On the last day of the 1998 season, pitching in just his second Major League game, Ray almost pitched a no-hitter. But he lost it with two outs in the 9th when Detroit's Bobby Higginson homered at SkyDome.

Halladay is nicknamed "Doc." Although his parents still live in the Arvada, Colorado area, Halladay and his wife, Brandy, moved to Florida, where the weather is more conducive to practicing baseball in the winter. It's the kind of explanation one would expect from a guy who grew up in Colorado throwing baseballs against a mattress and through hanging tires in his basement. "All that time in the basement, that's probably the biggest reason why I'm in the Majors today," he said. Roy and Brandy have two sons, Braden, who was born August 14, 2000; and their second son, Ryan David, who was born October 7, 2004, just four days after that season ended.	Roy is humble. He is rather uncomfortable with acclaim. When he first dated his future wife, the former Brandy Gates, he didn't tell her he was a No. 1 draft pick, or that he was getting ready for his third season of pro ball. "I told her I was a plumber," Halladay said. "I don't think she figured out what I did until I left for the season." Brandy believed believed in following her instincts the way ancient sailors once did the moon and stars. Such a belief had served her well four years earlier, in 1997, when one of her girlfriends practically dragged her to play racquetball at a Denver-area gym to cheer her up�she had just changed jobs, moved back in with her parents and was driving a disagreeable Tercel. There she saw a tall, handsome young man lifting weights. He was wearing a T-shirt that said, WILL FISH FOR FOOD. She gave him her phone number, sensing, correctly, that he was too shy to ask for it. "Mom," she told her mother as soon as she got home, "today I met the man I'm going to marry." Then, at one point, Roy was talking about how horrible his life in the game was, being demoted by the Blue Jays back to Class-A Dunedin. Brandy ended up at a Books-A-Million on U.S. 19. She started filling her arms with books. Books about depression. Books about self-esteem. Books about self-help. Anything that might pull Roy back from the brink.

And then she walked into the sports section. All the books stood obediently on the shelf, spines out, except for one that was lying down, cover up, as if it were waiting for her. When she saw its title she laughed out loud: The Mental ABC's of Pitching, by H.A. Dorfman. "That's amazing," she said to herself. "I can't believe there are enough people out there who would need a book like this." She bought that book and nine others. Two of them were blank. Having been raised Mormon (though they are now nonpracticing), Brandy and Roy were encouraged to put their feelings in journals. She gave the books to Roy and explained why there were two journals. One was to be a repository of his personal feelings, the other a professional journal. In those blank pages Roy Halladay could define and track his goals. The Mental ABC's of Pitching would be his instruction manual. (Tom Verducci-Sports Illustrated-4/05-10)	Halladay doesn't enjoy answering questions about himself. "You want to be personable and helpful, but at the same time, I enjoy playing so much," Halladay said. "That's why I do it. I've never been an outgoing type of person where I sought attention or anything." "He's very grounded," Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi said. "I'd like to meet his parents one day and tell them they did a great job raising him." Doc says that the time he spent in Knoxville in 2001, with Mel Queen, then a Blue Jays organizational pitching coach, was invaluable.

When Halladay broke into the majors, he threw straight over the top, a 6'6", 225-pound Iron Mike whose pitches were flat. Queen simply lowered his arm angle. Within two bullpen sessions Halladay's pitches were jitterbugging. This was about the same time that Halladay's wife, Brandy, presented him with The Mental Game of Baseball, written by sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman. Halladay devoured it. After moving up to Syracuse and finally being recalled to the majors on Canada Day, July 1, 2001, Halladay met Dorfman through first-year general manager J.P. Ricciardi, who, as a member of the A's organization, had become acquainted with the psychologist. Roy still thumbs through Dorfman's The Mental ABC's of Pitching a few times a week and reads it cover-to-tattered-cover eight or nine times a season, keeping his dog-eared copy close to his numbers grid.	In both 2004 and 2005 spring training, Halladay would take a few of the young pitchers under his wing and have what is called, "Doc's Breakfast Club," where a handful of the Jays top pitching prospects ran, ate breakfast and worked out with the staff ace prior to the daily team workouts. Doc likes to keep a book on opposing hitters, but was finding the process very time-consuming. He mentioned the problem to an uncle, who happens to be a computer programmer, and put in motion a back-and-forth exchange that has resulted in a program that should save Halladay hours a week over the course of a season.

"It can chart pitch location and show the whole at-bat," he said. "It does spray charts, it shows hot zones ... it's a real time-saver. "During the year, I would watch the video after the game and try and chart them and I ended up writing it down. Come the next start, I'm trying to watch the video and find my sheets and put it all together. "Now I can just go through whatever team I am playing (the program lists the 40-man rosters of all Major League clubs) and I just go to the player and it has all the stuff there. I can put up the DVD on the same screen, watch the video of the game on half of the screen and update from that day's game." (Mike Ganter-Toronto Sun-5/7/04)	Roy is not real big on the glitz and glamour of being an ace pitcher on a Major League staff. He has more of a blue collar mentality, preferring to let the satisfaction of a job done well. "I think that's the reason I like Toronto," said Halladay. "I think this is a place where we can go out and do our jobs and not have to handle so much media. I'm an under-the-radar type guy anyway, and I'm not really into the whole spotlight deal. Sometimes it's nice to be able to slip under," Halladay said. "Very nice." While Halladay isn't one to collect newspaper headlines and clippings lauding his on-field achievements, he does treasure one thing in the game: the respect of his peers. In April 2005, after a sterling performance against the Yankees, Derek Jeter said, "Everyone talks about the great pitchers in the game. They need to start talking about Halladay because he's as good as they come."

Around midway through the 2006 season, Toronto fans started a new tradition with Halladay on the mound. Instead of the traditional "K" signs that keep track of the number of strikeouts for the pitcher, Blue Jays fans started hanging up "G" signs from the second deck facade to signify how many ground outs Halladay had recorded. Halladay has earned his reputation as one of the hardest-working players in baseball, and it's his rigorous workout regimen that has helped the pitcher turn himself into one of the game's elite aces. His capacity for work is incredible. He has a freakish need to train and work out. He lifts weights, fielding a multisided rubber reaction ball, sliding laterally on a slide board, using the elliptical machine, running on the treadmill, pulling on rubber tubing and tackling other assorted exercises, capped off by stretching and then soaking in metal tubs, alternating between 110� water and 50� water to open and close his blood vessels, which helps his body recover more efficiently. Doc is the Peyton Manning of pitchers. "That's what I call him," says Yankees starter A.J. Burnett, a former Toronto teammate. "No one is more prepared." Halladay, following Brandy's encouragement, has cataloged every start, every hitter, every side session, every workout in notebooks and computer files.	May 29, 2010: Doc Halladay pitched the 20th perfect game in Major League history. He struck out 11 Florida Marlins, and was cheered by a crowd of 25,086 throughout much of the night. Another fan called later -- Vice President Joe Biden dialed up the Phillies' clubhouse to offer his congratulations when it was over. "Early in my bullpen I was hitting spots more than I have been. I felt like I just carried that out there," Halladay said. TRANSACTION REPORT June 1995: The Blue Jays chose Roy in the first round, out of West High School in Denver. February 2000: Roy signed a three-year, $3.7 million contract with the Jays.

January 22, 2004: Halladay signed a four-year, $42 million contract with the Blue Jays. It called for $6 million in 2004, $10.5 million in 2005, $12.7 million in 2006 and $12.8 million in 2007. March 16, 2006: Roy signed a a three-year (2008-2010), $40 million contract extension that takes him through the 2010 season with the Blue Jays. It called for $10 million in 2008, $14.25 million in 2009 and $15.75 million in 2010. December 16, 2009: The Phillies sent RHP Kyle Drabek, OF Michael Taylor, and C Travis d'Arnaud to the Blue Jays, acquiring Halladay. (The Blue Jays then sent Taylor to the A's, acquiring 3B Brett Wallace.)

PITCHING:
Halladay fires a 92-97 mph four-seam FASTBALL, but his KNUCKLE-CURVE is his out pitch. Roy was taught the knuckle-curve by Colorado's renowned pitching guru, Bus Campbell. That knuckle-curve compares favorably with the one thrown by former Dodger Burt Hooton. But Roy needs to throw his for strikes more consistently. The thing that makes Halladay perhaps the best pitcher alive, even more than the late movement of his devastating sinking fastball, is how narrow he can make his focus. The best indicator that Roy is pitching well is for him to be getting a plethora of ground balls.	Hallday's power arm is impressive. And that knuckle-curve just drops off the table. Also very impressive is that his arm position is the same for the heater or the knuckle-curve. He is at his best when he keeps his fastball down in the strike zone. His heater moves in on right handed hitters. He has learned to cut that fastball for extra movement. Halladay also has a great regular, normal CURVEBALL that has a short, tight break that can criplle a righthanded hitter. He also has a hard-biting SLIDER and a CUTTER to shut down lefthanded batters. And he has a CIRCLE CHANGEUP, a solid pitch. He changed the grip on his change in 2000. It is now more of a "fosh" change. Rather than use the cutter so much, Roy wants to use the sinking fastball on both sides of the plate and in situations when he used to depend heavily on the cutter.

At 6-foot-6, he is an intimidating figure on the mound. He has a good pitcher's body and durability, the latter a product of his cross-country experience in high school. In his senior year, he finished third in the state meet at Arvada West High School in Colorado. Halladay is getting more down movement on his fastball and getting more ground ball outs. He has the stuff to be dominating. He has learned to pitch inside effectively. "Doc" is calm and business-like on the mound like the more successful Big League pitchers are. Halladay works extremely fast. "Your second foot is getting into that [batter's] box, and he's already winding up," say Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons. "With a lot of movement and great control, it'll be one, two pitches and a grounder to second. He's the quickest 0 for 3 in the league." LONG ROAD TO THE TOP	In 1999, Roy came up as a highly touted pitcher without the strikeout totals to back it up. He put together a decent rookie season that looked a lot worse upon close inspection. In 2000, he completely fell to pieces. After going 2-4 with an 11.53 ERA in his first seven starts, Toronto moved Halladay out of the starting rotation and into the bullpen in June. In 2001, he went back to square one in the Florida State League, altered his arm angle, and put himself back together, with the help of minor league pitching coach Mel Queen. When he returned to the Jays' rotation in June 2001, he was a completely different pitcher�getting more strikeouts and groundouts than ever. Under the tutelage of Queen, Roy changed his entire delivery, from his windup to his arm angle to the grip on his four-seam fastball. It gave that 96 mph heater more movement. Halladay now comes from a three-quarters motion. Before, he came from over-the-top, with no movement on his straight-as-a-string fastball. Now Roy comes almost sidearm, giving his heater a sinking and cutting action.

In 2001, Halladay only gave up three home runs in his 16 starts with Toronto, holding hitters to a .241 average. In 2002, Roy was fifth in the American League with his 2.93 ERA. And he led the league in innings pitched and made his first All-Star Game. Roy didn't really comprehend the mental part of baseball until 2002. "I'd get negative things in my head. You kind of let your mind overtake what you want to do." He consulted Harvey Dorfman, the Marlins former team psychologist to help him get out of that "the sky is falling" outlook. "He gave me an idea of the mental game of baseball," Halladay said. "That was something I had no idea about whatsoever. I didn't know how to handle failure, obviously, and didn't know how to create confidence. Sometimes, when things are going bad, you have no idea what to do. You don't know why they're bad, and you have no idea how to fix it, and you're trying to change everything. Now I have a better idea of what I can control."	"I think for me, if I can throw strikes and have movement, I'm going to get a lot of guys swinging early. That's a big part of what I do," Roy said. Asked what changes he saw in Halladay in 2003, Jays teammate Carlos Delgado said, "Concentration is the biggest thing. I think he's got the ability to zero in on each task and nothing really distracts him. A bad call or an error or something never gets him out of his game. He goes back to the mound and you see him pitching with the same intensity when there's nobody on or guys in scoring position." 2003 A.L. CY YOUNG AWARD During his fabulous 2003 season, Roy won 15 straight decisions over a span of three months, tying a record set by Walter Johnson in 1912. That mark had been tied four times, but only once in the last 60 years. The man who did it that time was Roger Clemens, a six-time Cy Young award winner.

Halladay was the 2003 American League Cy Young winner. That year, he also became the first pitcher since Mike Cuellar in 1974 to win 22 games without winning before April 30. His most impressive achievement, though, was a late-season start against the Detroit Tigers. Halladay took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and settled for a 10-inning shutout -- the first of his career. Doc's 3-hitter against the Tigers September 7, 2003 was quite impressive. He pitched all 10 innings of the Blue Jays' 1-0 victory, becoming the first pitcher in the Major Leagues since Jack Morris in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series to toss an extra-inning shutout. Halladay needed just 99 pitches (70 strikes). He became the first Toronto pitcher to work 10 innings since John Cerutti in 1989. BREAKDOWN VS. LEFTIES AND RIGHTIES	In 2003, the righty throwing Halladay allowed 17 home runs and a .262 batting average to lefthanded hitters, in 154 innings. He allowed only a .224 average to righthanded batters, with 9 home runs in 112 innings. In 2004, Halladay allowed a .285 average with 8 home runs in 71 innings pitched vs. lefthanded hitters, and a .258 mark with 5 home runs in 62 innings vs. righthanded batters. In 2005, Roy held lefthanded hitters to a .217 average with 4 home runs in 277 at-bats, and righthanded batters to a .235 mark with 7 homers in 247 at-bats. In 2007, Doc allowed lefthanded batters a .265 average with 8 home runs in 464 at-bats, while righthanded hitters had a .270 average with 7 homers in 403 at-bats. In 2008, lefthanded hitters had a .243 average with 11 home runs in 536 at-bats vs. Halladay. Righthanded batters hit .230 with 7 home runs in 391 at-bats. In 2009, Doc held lefty batters to a .240 average with 15 homers in 525 at-bats. Righthanded hitters hit .278 with just 7 home runs in 388 at-bats.

Halladay entered the 2010 season with a career record of 148-76 and a 3.43 ERA. He had allowed only 172 home runs and 1,997 hits in 2,046 innings. Roy Halladay pitched the 20th perfect game in Major League Baseball history on Sunday May 29, 2010. Roy threw 115 pitches with 72 strikes and 11 stike outs. In a post game interview, Roy praised Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz, saying "I can't say enough about the job that [catcher Carlos] Ruiz did tonight, really. I felt like he was calling a great game up until the fourth or fifth, and at that point, I just felt like I'd let him take over and go with him.He did a great job. Like I said, it was kind of a no-brainer for me. I'd just go out, see the glove and hit it." Roy becomes the second Phillie to throw a perfect game, preceded by Jim Bunning on Father's Day June 21st, 1964 against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium.

FIELDING:
Roy fields his position well. He does not hold runners on base very well. Halladay is a pretty decent hitter for a pitcher.

CAREER INJURY REPORT:
1998: Halladay was sidelined for a month with a strained right shoulder. September 1999: Roy strained his pectoral muscle. 2001: Roy spent time on the D.L. early in the season, returning to action May 23. May 28-June 12, 2004: Halladay was on the D.L. with soreness in his right shoulder. July 17�September 21, 2004: Roy was back on the D.L. with what was described as a "tired shoulder." Six weeks of rest was prescribed. July 8�November, 2005: Halladay was on the D.L. for the rest of the season after breaking a bone (the tibia) in his left leg when he was struck in the shin by a line drive off the bat of Rangers' OF Kevin Mench. Roy picked up the ball and threw out Mench at first base from a seated position, then rolled to his side grimacing in pain.	Teammates, manager John Gibbons, and trainer George Poulis rushed to Halladay, who was on the ground for about two minutes. Halladay got to his feet and walked slowly to the dugout. September 21, 2006: The Blue Jays shut Doc down for the last 10 days of the season because of a strained right forearm. A good deal of his problem was from throwing his cutter. So now, he doesn't throw it as often, especially in practice�saving his bullets for the real game. May 11�31, 2007: Halladay required an appendectomy, having being diagnosed with appendicitis. June 12-29, 2009: Roy strained his right groin and had to go on the D.L.