Hitting The Cutoff Man

There’s not usually much reason to talk about Roy Halladay and Jason Marquis in the same breath.

To put it in simple terms, one is an elite pitcher, while the other is an average hurler who has some value as a back-of-the-rotation innings-eater. But both pitchers now have changed teams this off-season, and it’s interesting to note that movement for one reason: These two guys are going in complete opposite directions.

Halladay has pitched 12 seasons in the big leagues, all with Toronto, and made the same amount of postseason appearances as I have. Such is life in the AL East. Marquis, on the other hand, has pitched 10 seasons for four different organizations (Braves, Cardinals, Cubs and Rockies) but never been on a team that didn’t make the playoffs.

Of course, Halladay is now headed to the back-to-back NL champion Phillies in a blockbuster trade, while Marquis inked a free-agent deal with the moribund Washington Nationals. If Marquis makes the playoffs again, it means either he was dealt to a contender at the trade deadline, or Stephen Strasburg cloned himself three times and brought his four selves up to The Show early to team with Marquis.

Halladay’s story is nothing particularly new. In all sports, great players who have been stuck on bad or mediocre teams have jumped to contenders later in their careers and finally gotten a sweet taste of the postseason. It’s Marquis’ story that is more interesting.

Despite pitching on a lot of good teams, including two that made it to the World Series, Marquis actually hasn’t pitched much in the playoffs. As a result of smaller postseason rotations and his common second-half slides (career 4.88 ERA in the second half, compared with 4.16 in the first half), Marquis has made a total of 11 playoff appearances and three starts. He didn’t pitch at all in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006 or 2007. Last season with Colorado, he made the All-Star team and then made just one relief appearance in the NLDS against the Phillies.

So while Halladay desperately wanted to make his mark in October, perhaps Marquis just wanted to avoid the stress of getting squeezed off another playoff roster.

Mission accomplished.