The 100 Greatest in 100 Days: #64 Roy Halladay

Painting the corner at #64 is Roy “Doc” Halladay. Halladay was the premier pitcher in baseball from 2002-2011, racking up three 20-win seasons and two 19-win seasons on his way to two AL Cy Young awards, two second-place finishes, and seven top-5 finishes. Halladay led the league in WAR for pitchers four times and finished in the top-4 eight times. Combining durability with precision, Halladay led the league in innings four times which is 7th all-time and strikeout-to-walk ratio five times which is 6th all-time. He also led the league in complete games seven times which is the second-most in history and shutouts four times which is the 6th most in history. Halladay is one of only four pitchers in the live-ball era with at least a .659 winning % and 2,000 career strikeouts.

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Hi (hopefully) awesome reader! I welcome your comments. However, please be aware that I make all of my arguments using facts, statistics, and logic. Unfortunately, the average comment on a top-100 list goes something like this:

"UR StooPid. (Insert player) is trash. I've watched (pick a sport) for (pick a number of years) and (pick a player) is better than everyone. UR DUMB. HAHA6969."

–Some Jabroni

As cognitively stimulating as this species of comment is, it ends up being a missed opportunity to share a nuanced perspective. I reply to all comments that show even the most basic levels of thought and humility. The people who make the comments like the example above are under the assumption that the three seconds of thought that popped into their brains after reading the list is more than the 1000s of hours that I put into creating and maintaining the lists. I would be happy to defend any placement, or make an adjustment if one is warranted. If you are a jabroni, like the one above, then your comment will die in the lonely void of the unpublished comments section.

For everyone else, I look forward to your comments!

P.S. The theme of this site and the top-100 lists is that athletes from previous generations have historically been grossly overrated by sports publications in a way that is statistically improbable. Click on the "About" dropdown menu to see just how badly the average top-100 list disproportionately favors athletes from older generations when leagues were smaller, race quotas existed, and globalization wasn't a thing. Also, please consider reading "The History" section of the sport you are commenting on.

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