Cubs Have Appointment with Doc

Roy Halladay won the Cy Young in 2003 and remains one of the top pitchers in baseball. The Denver native was drafted out of high school with the Blue Jay's first round pick in 1995. So far, that's been a good choice. In 2008, his WHIP of 1.00 is 2nd in the American League, just a shade behind teammate Shaun Marcum.

Halladay will try and clinch the series win for the Jays. He'll come after the Cubs line-up by hammering the strike zone with most of his pitches. He works a cutter, two- and four-seam fastballs, a curveball and a change.

The cutter gets a lot of use, and his curveball, four-seam and two-seam are his secondary pitches. He mixes the change in with lefties at the plate. The Cubs will have their hands full. Getting the ball out of the infield will be half the battle. Working from a low arm slot, Halladay gets grounders and strikes from just about everything.

cfx	#	L	R	mph	pfx_x	pfx_z	deg	rpm	B:CS	corner%	Sw%	Whiff%	SwOOZ%	TaISZ%	HR%	NKS
CH	152	133	19	84.7	-8.6	5.5	237	1,243	3.4	14.47	45.39	1.45	27.45	12.50	1.3	0.596
CU	731	345	386	78.9	6.6	-1.1	205	775	1.9	9.85	44.05	36.34	37.34	34.72	0.3	0.459
F2	536	265	271	92.8	-9.4	1.9	241	1,270	1.9	14.74	48.88	12.60	37.09	22.30	0.6	0.481
F4	729	385	344	93.8	-8.8	5.1	239	1,345	1.6	17.28	48.15	7.98	33.18	19.90	0.4	0.447
FC	1045	579	466	91.3	-1.6	5.3	196	749	1.7	17.42	55.69	13.57	43.01	21.30	0.5	0.403
	3193	1707	1486	89.0	-3.0	3.3	217	1,002	1.8	15.06	49.67	16.27	37.48	23.34	0.5	0.450

cfx	X+HR	GO	AO
CH	47	20	10
CU	121	38	43
F2	130	72	15
F4	178	86	34
FC	240	96	68
	716	312	170

He is a strike-throwing ground-ball machine. His B:CS ratio beats the league average of 2.1 with every pitch, except the change. The cutter gets chased out of the zone, and the curve is a good bet for a whiff or called strike.

Up "next", Jesse Litsch, Sunday's Blue Jay starter plus a staff wrap-up.