Roy Halladay
The Toronto Blue Jays Days
Roy Halladay was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays straight out of his Colorado high school, going in the first round in the 1995 amateur draft.
He would make his debut with the Blue Jays in 1998, being a late September call up for the squad.
His first win would come during that call up against the Detroit Tigers.
In this particular game, Halladay had a no-hitter going into the 9th inning, and with two out, he surrendered a home run which would break up the feat.
He would go on to get the next out, finishing his first of many complete games.
During the next three seasons, Halladay would spend time as both a starter and a reliever, and would even see time in the minor leagues in order to revamp his delivery and approach on the mound after a rough 2000 season.
After the demotion to work on his pitching mechanics before the start of the 2001 season, he would return to the team midseason and begin to carve out his major league career.
During his 12 seasons in Toronto, Halladay would accomplish many feats including 6 All-Star selections, 1 Cy-Young Award (2003), and 1 MLB wins leader designation (2003).
With his time in Toronto, he would go on to start 287 games, leaving the franchise with a 148-76 record, 3.43 ERA, and 1495 strikeouts.
Most impressively, Halladay would go on to throw 49 complete games during those 12 seasons, with 15 of those games being shutouts.
Congrats to @ShiDavidi as he nails this piece on the triumph and tragedy of Doc Halladay's HOF induction. Great work on a happy, sad, tricky story: https://t.co/Ho83qd2uES
— Michael Grange (@michaelgrange) July 20, 2019
His most impressive season for the Blue Jays was in 2003, where he would lead the league in innings pitched (266.0), games started (36), wins (22), complete games (9), and shutouts (2).
He would go on to be both an All-Star and would win his first Cy Young award in 2003.
Doc was impressive during his time in Toronto, but also had some injuries along the way.
He was placed on the injured list twice in 2004 with shoulder issues, and in 2005 he would miss a large part of the season because he broke his leg after taking a line drive during a game against the Texas Rangers.
Doc had a scare during the 2008 season, as he took a line drive off the side of his head during a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He would miraculously not miss any games and would be fine for the season, escaping serious injury.
While he was not able to bring a World Series (or even a playoff appearance) to the great white North, Halladay was one of the main reasons fans continued to show up to the Rogers Centre year after year during 2000-2009 seasons.
At the end of the 2009 season, the Toronto Blue Jays would end up trading Roy Halladay to the Philadelphia Phillies, where he would continue to dominate and would end up accomplishing amazing personal feats as well as experience the postseason for the first time.