Roy Halladay

TAMPA, Fla. - One of Rich Dubee's favorite sayings is, "He's fine. " The Phillies pitching coach will summon it in any situation - good or bad - when pressed about a particular arm. Dubee has repeated it over and over since Roy Halladay's discouraging Tuesday start. When Halladay displayed similar signs of distress last spring, Dubee said it then, too: "He's fine. " But Dubee knew it was not the truth. Halladay missed seven weeks during the season with back and shoulder issues.

OF THE THREE players who reported to Clearwater as the Phillies' biggest question marks, mysteries or X-factors, only one is departing camp with the same uncertainty: Roy Halladay. The Phillies have a pretty good idea what they have in Ryan Howard and Chase Utley after their healthy Grapefruit League campaigns. In the final weekend of exhibition games in Florida, the middle-of-the-lineup duo hit back-to-back homers on consecutive days. They've played regularly, too. But Halladay?

THE LAST time the Phillies went to a World Series, they had a pitcher on the staff who was 0-8 with a 7.21 ERA. The year was 2009 and the pitcher was Brad Lidge. A year removed from a perfect season that netted him team MVP honors and the Phillies a World Series championship, Lidge was a liability in the bullpen. But Charlie Manuel and management stuck with the veteran closer. Four years later, Manuel brought up Lidge's name when asked how long he could let Roy Halladay work through his ongoing struggles.

ATLANTA - The toughest thing about watching it is that you know how much Roy Halladay cares. That part did not change on Wednesday night in the Phillies' 9-2 loss to the Braves. The sub-zero scowl never vanished: not after Justin Upton blasted a 1-2 sinking fastball for a home run in the first inning, not after Halladay bounced a curveball in the dirt for the fifth time, not after a gargantuan rookie named Evan Gattis sent a cutter over the leftfield wall in his second major league at-bat.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - For 2 full years, the two surest forces in Philadelphia were the gravitational constant and Roy Halladay. Nothing that happened on Sunday afternoon is an indication that has changed. Halladay showed up to the ballpark feeling ill, insisted on making his start, then realized shortly after his first pitch that the whole thing was going to be an exercise in counterproductivity. So he left the game after a scoreless first inning, 25 pitches to his credit, 13 of them strikes.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. - Ryan Howard had the ball in his glove Saturday night. His teammates formed a mob around Roy Halladay to celebrate his perfect game, a 1-0 masterpiece over the Florida Marlins. Howard couldn't catch Halladay's attention. He needed to hand the ball off. He tapped Halladay on the chest three times without response. Halladay, so robotic whenever he's on the field, was entrenched in jubilation - imagine that - and Howard couldn't get his attention. "I just made sure I held on to it and didn't lose it," Howard said.

DENVER - When Charlie Manuel came with the hook, there was no protesting this time from Roy Halladay. He had finished 61/3 innings, his shortest outing as a Phillie, and needed 121 pitches to do it. For the first 120 pitches of Wednesday's 4-3 loss to the Rockies, Halladay had found a way to survive his homecoming to Colorado without his best stuff. But he was gassed. "There are different games," Halladay said. "Today was a grind. Pitching out of jams, I had to work. " When he left the game, unable to complete seven innings for the first time in 2010, it was tied, 3-3. In the 10th, Rockies catcher Miguel Olivo ended it with a solo home run off a hanging curveball from Chad Durbin.

The cameras first surrounded Erik Kratz, who said he was "disappointed" when he arrived Monday at Citizens Bank Park and did not see his name in the lineup. Then the pack shuffled to the other side of the Phillies clubhouse to question Humberto Quintero. All the while, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels stared as the two catchers were interviewed. Halladay, immersed in preparation for his start, raised his head from his notes and sneered. The players may have viewed it as a media concoction, but the melodrama Monday was set in motion by Halladay's words five days earlier.

Brad Lidge announced his retirement during spring training and is pursuing a master's degree in archaeology from the University of Leicester in England. "It's a distance [online] program," Lidge said by phone from his home in Boulder, Colo. During the latter stages of his career with the Phillies, Lidge earned a degree in digging for answers when the life leaves your right arm, the same difficult course that two-time Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay is trying to navigate now. "I think the greatest challenge, which is also the most frustrating part, is the length of time it takes to figure out what to do and how to get hitters out when you're not using Plan A anymore," Lidge said Saturday by phone from Boulder.

A teammate of Roy Halladay for three seasons, Placido Polanco says he is pulling for the Phillies righthander. After a 14-2 defeat against the Miami Marlins at Citizens Bank Park, Halladay told reporters Sunday that he has been suffering from right-shoulder discomfort. He said he would be examined after the team travels to San Francisco on Monday. Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said it is likely that Halladay will be placed on the disabled list. After seeing Halladay struggle and then hearing of his injury, Polanco could only offer best wishes for his former teammate.