>>>>4-0
>>>>
>>>>0.82 ERA
>>>>
>>>>33 innings pitched, 28 strikeouts, 3 walks, 3 earned runs surrendered.
>>>>
>>>>This guy is scary. Easily the best pitcher in baseball.
>>>
>>>Our debate continues. Not taking anything away from Hallaway. He is an awesome pitcher and in his late prime.
>>>
>>>I mention only in passing that Tim Lincecum is off to just as good a start and won two Cy Young awards at an age when Halladay was bouncing around the minors.
>>
>>Not really. Halladay has 2 complete games in 4 starts. More if you count his last few games with the Jays. How many does Lincecum have? Would that be approximately zero?
>>
>>I'm not down on Lincecum. Good is good. No two ways about it. but Halladay's record comes with the Jays in the toughest division in baseball and with little or no offensive help from his team.
>
>True. I quoted some stats from Sports Illustrated not long ago saying Halladay pitched most of his last 19 or so starts last year against the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays, pitched great, and had a losing record.
>
>The complete games are a non-issue IMO. Halladay is a horse, plus he has only a few years left in the tank. Lincecum weighs 170 pounds and there has always been concern about him breaking down with his odd motion. Any manager who sends him out there to pitch 9 innings a game should be shot. I watched Dusty Baker destroy two of the most talented pitchers in Cubs history with crazy pitch counts -- Kerry Wood and Mark Prior -- and am sensitive about this issue.

I knew that would get a rise out of you. ;)

The thing is though, that the more innings you can get out of your starters, the better off you are when you need your relievers. What that means is that subtlely, Halladay, as a "horse", makes the rest of the pitching staff better as well. And that is worth something.

To me, a pitcher's worth is just a little tarnished if you have to take him out when he's pitching well to replace him with someone who may or may not be on his game. I saw that with the Jays. Cito was a pitch counter and would take Halladay (or another starter) out even when he was pitching well, and the relievers would promptly throw away the game. A pitcher who can only pitch half or three-quarters of a game is really the average of two pitchers merged and one may not be as good as the other.