Roy Halladay is working on new things? Really? - MLB

Another classic spring cliche is the pitcher who is “working on some things.” Usually that’s just a way of explaining away a bad early March outing — “I wasn’t really pitching, I was just working on some things!” — but in the case of Roy Halladay, it sounds like he may actually be working on things. Jim Salisbury:

“There are a couple of things I want to try,” he said. “For any pitcher, you’re always trying to improve on what you already do. For me that’s always the case.”

Halladay wasn’t ready to reveal the new things he is working on this spring.

“I’m going to keep them in my pocket until I decide whether or not they work,” he said with a smile.

Let’s see, he already has four pitches that he can throw wherever he wants at any time in the count, so that doesn’t leave much in the way of new things to work on, does it?

Wait! I got it! He’s going to learn how to paste pathetic palookas with a powerful, paralyzing, perfect, pachydermous, percussion pitch! Italian style!

CINCINNATI — The Los Angeles Dodgers placed pitcher Noah Syndergaard on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a blister on the index finger of his right throwing hand.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the timetable for Syndergaard’s return is unknown despite the 15-day designation.

“The physical, the mental, the emotional part, as he’s talked about, has taken a toll on him,” Roberts said. “So, the ability to get him away from this. He left today to go back to Los Angeles to kind of get back to normalcy.”

Syndergaard allowed six runs and seven hits in three innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, raising his ERA to 7.16.

Syndergaard (1-4) has surrendered at least five runs in three straight starts.

Syndergaard has been trying to return to the player he was before Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the better part of the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Roberts said Syndergaard will need at least “a few weeks” to both heal and get away from baseball and “reset.”

“I think searching and not being comfortable with where he was at in the moment is certainly evident in performance,” Roberts said. “So hopefully this time away will provide more clarity on who he is right now as a pitcher.

“Trying to perform when you’re searching at this level is extremely difficult. I applaud him from not running from it, but it’s still very difficult. Hopefully it can be a tale of two stories, two halves when he does come back.”