Sunday, May 3, 2009

Scott Richmond

I am really intrigued by this starting pitcher on the Toronto Blue Jays. While I know hes nothing besides average, I think it's great to see a guy come up from the minors and succeed, kind of like in the same way Aaron Small did when he was on the Yankees. In order for the Jays to be successful this year, they are going to need some of their young guys to step up. They have been dealt with such a handful of injuries to their pitching staff that this is going to be a necessity until they can come back healthy.

A closer look on Richmond. He is a 28 year old guy from North Vancouver, BC. He is the first Canadian pitcher to appear for Toronto since Paul Quantrill made his debut in 2001.

His repertoire of pitches consists of a fastball, two-seam fastball, slider, change-up and curve. I have seen some clips of his curveball and it is as sick as a 12-6 curve can get. What I have read online is that it is his strongest pitch that he uses to get out lefties.

This is what they had to say in 2008 when he was called up:

"TOR: RHP Scott Richmond (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Richmond was summoned from Triple-A Syracuse on Monday, when the Jays placed Tallet on the DL. The 28-year-old Richmond will be making his Major League debut on Wednesday. The Jays have indicated that the right-hander will be a part of the rotation for at least the time being. Richmond replaces Parrish, who was moved to the bullpen. In Double-A New Hampshire, Richmond was 5-8 with a 4.95 ERA. After being promoted to Syracuse, he went 0-2 with a 2.53 ERA, holding opponents to a .210 (25-for-119) average. He walked six and struck out 31 across 35 innings."

He was called up last year and I think I can recall him pitching a game against the Yankees. Of his 5 appearances in 2008, he had a record of 1-3 with an ERA of 4.00. This is a small sample size and would be hard to make any positive or negative assumptions about the type of pitcher he truly is. It is also noted that he pitched a CG shutout in '08, but when I looked further into that it was against the Orioles and was a game that was shortened in the 6th inning due to rain.

He made the team in 2009 out of spring training. He is 4-0 with an era of 2.70. His wins have come against Texas, Minnesota, Baltimore, and Kansas City- so you can take what you want from those stats. I have read from sites such as THIS in which they state Richmond is somewhat overrated and is tired easily.

While he obviously isn't an ace and isn't going to be at the top of the rotation, I say give the guy a chance.

9 comments:

Your Biggest Fan! said...

Great post! I learned a lot about Richmond and you gave an informative scouting report.

Most baseball fans knew you could count on Roy Halladay, but after that it seemed like too many question marks in that rotation.

It's early, but so far Richmond has been a great story. Toronto has yet to play Boston, Tampa, or the Yankees this season, but 18-9 is impressive no matter who it's against.

Pooks137 said...

Sorry for nitpicking, but that report appears to be from when Richmond made his major league debut for the Jays last summer.

Richmond actually made the Jays out of spring training this year as their 5th starter, beating out rookie Brad Mills. Scott has pitched at all in the minors this spring.

Al Leiter's Bullpen Catcher said...

thanks for noticing, I clearly didn't read that blurb very well. Thanks for the comment

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

I'm slowly but surely falling in love with Scott Richmond. He's swept me off my feet with his 2.67 ERA and .212 opponents batting average.

Swoon.

Bruno Von Rottweiler said...

Good stuff on Richmond. When Romero comes back, the Toronto rotation will be Doc, Romero, Richmond,Janssen, and/or Cecil, Tallet, Litsch. Not too shabby for a team that spent almost nothing this season. Mike Francesa keeps on harping on how the Jays haven't played an AL East team...until now (Baltimore). A lot of the spinners in NYC haven't taken a good look at Toronto because of the ascent of Tampa. Their bullpen is pretty good(even without Ryan) and Cito has improved their offense immeasureably. Yes, It's Doc and the mysteries pitchingwise BUT Richmond and Romero look pretty good so far so the Jays might stick around.

Christina, you must like the Jays because of Al Leiter, am I right? You have good taste in pitchers BTW! Doc is respected by Yankeedom because he is such a great pitcher. It really pisses me off when the guys on NYC talk radio start crap about trading Hallday to the Mets AND the Jays dealing people! And the Majority are Mets fans that are talking smack and quite frankly, the Jays might end up being the better time by the trading deadline! There are reasons why the Mets won't get Halladay: A The Mets have nothing Toronto wants because the Jays have young pitching ,young outfielders among other things B Doc wants to stay in Toronto C JP Ricciardi AND the ownership wants him there too.

One last thing, Christina I will try to post a link so that you can watch Richmond.....for free! Be on alert,OK?

MK Piatkowski said...

Glad you swung by the Tao so that I could be introduced to your blog. Always nice to meet another Halladay admirer, even if you are a Yankee fan. I've had to give Jeter grudging respect because he respects Doc, and Yankee fans tell to be more respectful then that nation we won't talk about.

Richmond has been a wonderful surprise, especially because he got screwed out of starting for Canada at the WBC. Consistency in our rotation has been rare so far this year, so I'm glad he's stepped up.

Looking forward to our matchup next week. Remember, you guys have to do some series damage to Boston, ok?

Al Leiter's Bullpen Catcher said...

Bruno Thanks for the comments :) I am amazed how well Toronto has done, given all the injuries they have had to their pitching staff. Its great to see certain players have really stepped up.

It kills me sometimes when I hear fans say they will trade Toronto like 5 crappy players in exchange for Halladay. Not sure why they think quantity makes up for quality. 5 bad guys will not get you a amazing pitcher and some fans are delusional.

I can't wait to see the link. I am dying to see him in action!

MK Halladay is such a classy pitcher and hes amazing to watch pitch. I found it great when I heard all the good things Burnett had to say about Roy and how he learned to be a professional by being around him while he was on Toronto.

As for the Red Sox, hopefully they can get a game in. The weather looks iffy for tonight. Yankees are playing the Jays next week; I cant wait!

Sean said...

You're a very pretty girl.

My name is Sean Serritella and I was wondering if you wanted to exchange links.

Name of my blog: YankeesDaily

My url https://www.yankeesdaily.com

Al Leiter's Bullpen Catcher said...

thanks Sean :) Added!