Why Roy Halladay Is Doomed, in One Stat

Here’s the good news, Phillie fans. ESPN’s Jayson Stark asked a NL executive if he’d sign Roy Halladay post-surgery.

“Of course. Why not?” he said. “If there’s one guy like that you’re going to bet on, wouldn’t you bet on Roy Halladay?”

Here’s the bad news. Stark also flagged some numbers by FanGraphs, documenting the fate of the 62 pitchers older than 35 who have ever gone on the disabled list for a shoulder injury. (Let alone have surgery.) Halladay turns 36 next week.

Players over the age of 35 that went on the DL for any sort of shoulder injury only averaged 59 innings over the course of the rest of their career.

It gets worse. 32 of the 62 pitchers never pitched again. Only 6 ever pitched more than 100 innings again, and one of them was Tim Wakefield, a knuckleballer. [ESPN]