Roy Halladay Accuses Ken Rosenthal Of Throwing Some Shit Against The Wall

It's one thing when an intern indulges a little skepticism about Ken Rosenthal's rumor-mongering. Now, though, it's Phillies ace Roy Halladay. Yesterday, after Halladay was roughed up in his latest spring outing, Rosenthal cited the observations of two scouts who "expressed concern" about Halladay:

One scout said Halladay topped out at 89 mph Wednesday against the Minnesota Twins, threw from a lower arm angle and lacked bite on his changeup and sinker. Another said that Halladay does not resemble the same pitcher who comes out "like gangbusters" every spring.

Rosenthal then used what the scouts told him to speculate, saying "questions invariably arise" when an "older pitcher" like Halladay shows "signs of slippage." This morning, the 34-year-old Halladay fired back:

"Yeah, I heard about that," Halladay said, referring to a report that seemed to wonder if the pitcher, like teammates Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, might have a physical issue. "Poor reporting on the extreme end of poor reporting. It couldn't be further from the truth."

Halladay didn't specify what was wrong with Rosenthals's actual reporting. A scout apparently did claim that his velocity was down, that his arm angle had changed, and that he was getting less from his changeup and sinker. Halladay himself didn't deny that the scouts were seeing something underwhelming; he just said he's not approaching spring training games with "as much intensity" as he did in the past. Halladay's objection was to the insinuation that he was breaking down physically. On that point, he thought Rosenthal was throwing some shit against the wall.

Roy Halladay Not Worried About Poor Start This Spring [The 700 Level] Halladay velocity down; Amaro not concerned [Fox Sports]