Roy Halladay will have surgery on right shoulder, hopes to pitch again this season

When it was announced that injured Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay would hold a press conference Wednesday, some people feared for the worst. Heck, one Phillies blog, made a Halladay doomsday Bingo card.

Halladay was lit up for nine runs in 2 1/3 innings on Sunday — against the Miami Marlins! — propelling his ERA to 8.65 and sending him to the disabled list. He consulted with Dr. Lewis Yocum in Los Angeles before reporting back to the baseball world. And the news, well, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Halladay, who turns 36 next week, will undergo surgery on his right shoulder to clean up bone spurs and repair a partially torn rotator cuff. He could be back in three months, or it could take longer. The timetable, Halladay says, is more of a wait-and-see thing. The Phillies, meanwhile, have called up Tyler Cloyd to take Hallday's spot in the rotation.

From the Philadelphia Daily News:

"In certain cases it's been three months, but we really don't have a timetable," Halladay said. "I think the timetable is going to come once they go in and confirm hey, what we saw on the x rays is exactly what we saw when we went in there. They were definitely optimistic that I would be back this year. But of course we're going to be as smart as we can and do the best we can throughout the whole process. But I really think the timetable is going to be based on when they go in, does it look how they think it does.

"The doctor seemed pretty optimistic that if what they saw is correct hat I could come back and be a lot more effective and have a chance to pitch this year and they said they thought they could turn back the clock two or three years for me," Halladay said. "I thought that was very good news. Obviously I don't want to miss time but I think as far as scenarios go, I feel like it's a lot better than some of the things I anticipated."

If this story sounds familiar, it kind of is. Halladay was shut down for six weeks last May with a shoulder injury. Before going on the disabled list, he pitched only two innings in a start against the St. Louis Cardinals and gave up four runs. He didn't need surgery in 2012. Just rest. The Phillies said his injury didn't affect his rotator cuff.

Now here we are, a year later and everything that Halladay escaped last season has come back around. Sounds like a good time for another encouraging text message from his son.

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