Make no mistake, Roy 'Doc' Halladay was the best starting pitcher ever drafted and developed by the Toronto Blue Jays. I make this statement because I got see his entire career unfold from the comfort of my great seat in the broadcast booth. I also make this statement knowing that, growing up, I watched Dave Stieb's entire career unfold as a fan, and not an employee.

That was my heart talking, not my head.

Halladay had neither the pure stuff of Stieb nor the electric arsenal of pitches. But he did have a bigger heart and played on teams that never came close to the talent that Stieb enjoyed. Halladay won his starts because he was Halladay, the biggest bulldog to ever toe the rubber in Toronto.

It is also a stark reality that fans of the team may never see a pitcher of Halladay's ilk blow through these parts again. No pitcher ever had his drive, concentration or his sheer determination to win. And win he did. When the dust settles on his trade to Philadelphia, brought on by eight years of bungling by the now-departed J.P. Ricciardi, Halladay's career numbers as a Blue Jay are the new standard for all who follow. In an era where starting pitchers are babied and subjected to pitch counts due to the obscenely large signing bonuses that they get when drafted, Halladay was a throwback to the days when men started what they finished.

All one has to look at is the pure stats.

His 44 complete games since 2003 were 18 more than any other pitcher in the majors. The 12 shutouts over that time span was also unmatched, and his 111 wins tied Johan Santana for No. 1. In seasons where he was healthy enough to make at least 30 starts, Halladay never won fewer than 16 games. His 22-win season in 2003 netted him his only Cy Young award, the third Blue Jays' pitcher bestowed with that honour (Pat Hentgen 1996 and Roger Clemens 1997 & '98). All told he made 287 career starts in the variety of Blue Jays uniforms, 186 were quality starts (6-plus innings pitched with three or less earned runs), or 64.8 percent. In a nutshell, Roy Halladay's body of work in Toronto, from 1998 at the tender age of 21 through his final days in 2009 as a 32-year-old ace, elevated to the title of best starting pitcher in all of baseball. Too many questionable moves by the front office over his years kept Halladay from getting close to achieving the one thing that drove him through early February morning workouts at training camp in Dunedin through the end of the season at Rogers Centre: his desire to pitch for a contender in the post-season. Now, at least, he'll finally get a shot at that in Philadelphia.

Halladay's Blue Jays career wasn't without its ups and downs, though. His first major league start, on September 27, 1998 was one of which legends are launched. Halladay no-hit the Detroit Tigers through 8.2 innings before pinch-hitter Bobby Higginson lifted an opposite field home run in to the Blue Jays bullpen. He was then shuttled between the bullpen and rotation in '99, but his career took a sudden downturn in 2000. He won only four times in 13 starts that season and his 10.64 ERA is the highest in major league history for any pitcher making that many starts in a season. The sudden reversal of fortune forced the Jays to send Halladay all the way back to A-ball in 2001; to re-invent himself under the tutelage of pitching guru Mel Queen. Halladay returned for good in the first week of July that season and the rest, as they say, is history.

The fact that Halladay only won a single Cy Young award is a shame, although injuries often came into play. In 2005, he won 12 of his first 19 starts that season, but it abruptly ended on July 8 when a line drive off the left shin fractured his tibia and landed him on the disabled list for the rest of the season. He also spent time on the shelf in 2007 with acute appendicitis. Then last season, after winning 10 of his first 13 starts, he tweaked his groin in a June start against the Marlins, missed two weeks and never regained his form the rest of the way in a season in which trade rumours swirled around him and through him off his game.

Halladay's 148 career wins and 15 shutouts are second only to Stieb in the Blue Jays record book and were made in 121 fewer starts. But what all Blue Jays fans will miss now that he's gone is the feeling that every five games, when it was Halladay's turn to take the ball, the team had a very good chance of winning. That can't be said for too many other Toronto starters over the years. Doc always saved his best against the best as his 32-20 combined career record against division behemoths Red Sox and Yankees illustrates.

Too bad it had to come to this as Roy Halladay should have been a Blue Jay for life. Now we'll have to watch from afar as he finally gets a chance to pitch for a winner and try and land the championship that was never attainable in Toronto.