Was that the problem with Scott Richmond?

As last season limped to its sad conclusion, feel-good Canadian storybook icon Scott Richmond became something less than an afterthought. A stint on the DL followed by two months of execrable performances led us to figure that the homeboy from the other side of the country may have run out of fairy dust, and that hitters had figured him out.

So poor was his performance in the last two months that it was enough to make us forget that he had managed to win the AL Rookie Pitcher of Month for April, after posting a 2.70 ERA in the early part of the season. By the time the final month of the season came around, Richmond's ERA soared to 9.46, while he was getting hammered all over the park, with a HR/9 of 2.78.

Now, with the news that Richmond is suffering from a should impingement and will miss some significant time, the pieces of this story seem to all fit together a little more snugly. And while the possibility exists that this injury is the harbinger of something worse, and that Richmond may have really torn some stuff up in his shoulder, we'd prefer to take the positive outlook and assume that once ScottyBoy has dealt with all of the ouchies, he'll be back in April/May form.

Or so we hope. Then again, was anyone putting any stock in Richmond at this point?

As those sage fellas over at the Drunk Jays Fans rightly point out, this is precisely why you invite a ridicuous number of marginal pitchers to join you in Spring Training. For those of you playing the home game, bump Dana Eveland up one slot on depth chart.

Richmond to the DL? Sure, why not

In the least surprising (but still entirely depressing) development of late, Scott Richmond has hit the DL with tendinitis in his throwing arm (read: impending Tommy John or labrum surgery - heyo!). Rookie Brad Mills, coming off a spectacular start in Vegas (8IP, 2H, 0ER, 1BB, 7K), will take his spot on the roster. Let's just forget about that 850 foot Werth-bomb from his last big league effort, shall we? Go get 'em, kid.

Since we're already here, can anyone think of a starter or two who the Jays have DL'd in the last few seasons? Oh wait - I can:

Halladay
Burnett (barf)
Marcum
McGowan
Litsch
Janssen
Romero
Richmond
.
.
.....and that's just from memory. Feel free to bitch-slap me with glaring omissions in the comments section (no - guys like Vic Zambrano don't count). At least the arm woes haven't affected the bullpen though, right? Wait, nevermind.

Do you think Summer of Tallet and Franchise Cecil feel the guillotine staring down on them? It's only a matter of time, right? WRONG - FUCK OFF!

(Cue Arnsberg haters in 3, 2, 1.....)

Up today
Cecil vs Jabba. Please? Come on Jays. I need it. I can't do an 0-for the weekend. I just can't.

Scott Rolen will make you choke on your cheesesteak

Is there anything that Scott Rolen can't do?

Last night, the Greatest Blue Jay of All Time drove in the winning run (in the first inning), hit a laserbeam out to right and rounded the bases before it knocked a whole clear through the sternum of some Philly douche, and helped turn the first 1-5-4 inning-ending double play we've ever seen.

After the game, he fed the poor, healed the sick, and removed several ill-advised lower back tattoos from several young ladies before sending them home to South Jersey to reconnect with their estranged fathers.

Nice work for an evening, Hoss.

Repeating our Tweets here, for those not Twitter-inclined
So outstanding was Rolen's game last evening that it led us to make the following exclamatory tweet over on our Twitter thingy. (And if you're not following us, then...well, whatever. That's cool...your prerogative.)

"Scott Rolen es muy macho. He could BBQ and eat Troy Glaus' wife's showjumping horse, and still have room for bourbon."

(Mmmm. Tasty looking animal. Do you suppose that Rolen would go with a sweet barbecue sauce, or maybe something a little more smokey? A dry rub perhaps?)

Alex Rios is owning his moniker
We will make excuses for the Blissfully Oblivious Gazelle until we are powder blue in the face, and forgive him each and every one of his trespasses on the basepaths. But seriously: Two baserunning gaffes in as many days? It's almost as if he doesn't give a fuck.

Maybe Alex could use a day on the bench to ponder his baserunning choices, and reflect on why it is that he is prone to such mental midgetry.

Scott Richmond - The Strikeout King of Canada
Here's something fun: Take a look at ESPN's list of the top strikeout performances for this season so far, and savour the sight of Scott Richmond's name in the list alongside Roy Halladay, Justin Verlander, Jon Lester and David Price. Wicked.

Facing the Phillies lineup is a pretty scary proposition, and we worried about Richmond getting thrown to the wolves last night. But to his credit, he tossed a monster game game in the place of Halladay last night.

We're told that last night's game was on ESPN, but since Richmond is a good Canadian boy, he wouldn't be phased by such things, because we don't even know what ESPN is. But you know that Scotty gets the cold sweats every time he meets Rod Black.

Aggregating data is what we do
Almost forgot: We're going to be doing the Inside the Blue Jays posts over at Bart Given's Inside the Majors blog, and the first of them was posted yesterday.

In future posts, we'll supplement some of the data points with our trademark wit an whimsy to contextualize them. And if there's anything of obvious relevance that we're overlooking like the Gazelle running the bases, let us know.

Thanks to Bart for the opportunity to contribute. All it is going to cost him is a nice dinner at Lift with Jody. (You can tag along if you want, Bart...if you don't mind sitting at the bar. Sorry...were we not clear about that?)

Required reading- The Blue Jay Hunter on Scott Richmond

A tip of the cap to Ian at the Blue Jay Hunter for his excellent Scott Richmond piece posted today in anticipation of the 29 year-old rookie's start tonight.

Ian interviews Richmond's dad, Dr. Bob Richmond, a chiropractor now based in New Brunswick. Papa Richmond recounts Scott's youthful sporting endeavours, and his long road to the big leagues.

It's great to see a very fine Blue Jays blog commit a random act of journalism such as this one. Kudos, Ian.

Resolve Well and Persevere: The Scott Richmond Story, at The Blue Jay Hunter

West Coast road trip blues

Not a great morning in the house (mom's basement) of the Ack today. Ignoring the feeling of my throat being on fire, the sensation of a spike being driven into my sinuses, and a mild draught beer hangover (boo fucking hoo, right?), there was snow falling as I dragged my carcass out of bed. On May 9th. Snow. Awesome.

Oh, and our beloved Jays handed a game to Billy Beane's Oakland A's last night, stranding 10 runners in the process and unable to overcome the A's five-run 2nd. Ironically, the bright spot for the Jays was the man who shit all over that 2nd inning, Scott Richmond. Call me crazy, but I thought he showed the poise of a ten year vet by bouncing back and shutting the door the rest of the way.

No matter, a Jays win this afternoon behind Brian Tallet's moustache and a beyond-the-recommended dosage of cold medication should snap me out of this funk, right? No? Fuck off then. Er, I mean, go Jays.

Last-minute minor league news and notes
Admitting the mailed-in nature of the post, some minor league takes for you:

Lansing - after a slow start to the season, 19-year old burner Kenny Wilson has found his singles stroke (not like that, perv) and is currently riding a 6-game hit streak, during which he's amassed 11 hits, 6 steals - and perhaps most importantly, only 3 K's. Keep your eye on this kid.

Dunedin - Ricky Romero got slapped around in his first rehab start, to the tune of 6 runs over 4 innings pitched, but he only walked one batter and rang up five K's. I'm not concerned. Get well soon, Ricardo.

New Hampshire - Brian Dopirak put up a PlayStation line with his 5 for 6, 2 HR, 8 RBI effort in last night's annihilation of Connecticut. At 25 years old, Dopirak needs to make a move soon, but his stats line thus far in AA is cartoonish. Also, breakout prospect Brad Emaus continues to rake.

'Vegas - let's just not discuss David Purcey's start last night. It's for the best. Um, get well soon, Ricky.

Dropping links like Adam Lind crushes hanging breaking balls

We'll confess to being a bit spent by the two-game mindfuck that was the series against the Clevelanders, so to give ourselves a little respite today, we'll punt you off to the many other fascinating Blue Jays tidbits around the internet.

(Speaking of which: Did you know that you can get free breakfast and "internets" from Super 8? We may have heard that somewhere.)

Scott Richmond got his face in a frame
The Blue Jay Hunter tips their cap to the American League's New Employee of the Month, Scott Richmond.

Doc turns his stare from stun to grin
Hum and Chuck offers up a funny video of Roy Halladay being interviewed by Gerry Dee, the caucasian half of the Score's goofball reporter tandem. It's a riot to see the look on Doc's face as he suffers Dee gladly. Funny stuff, even without the allegations of litigious racism.

The Blue Jays' attendance woes, Part 28
In the comments yesterday, we promised a post on the Jays' early season attendance numbers, though we're not sure that we could do much better than this gem from Neate at Out of Left Field.

If you can't get 'em to the park, at least have 'em watching on the tube
The Star's Chris Zelkovich reports that the Jays' TV audiences on Sportsnet are up about six percent over last season. (Which begs the question: Even with half of the 'Net's "regions" airing games other than the Jays'?)

What do you do with a problem like Snidey?
It's a couple of days old now, but Drew/LtB at Ghostrunner on First made a very reasonable suggestion that the time might have come to send Travis Snider to Las Vegas for some fine tuning. This, of course, was before Snider discovered the impact that high socks could have on his performance. Problem solved!

Josh Barfield misremembers the good old days of the SkyDome
Jesse's kid regales the Cleveland Plain Dealer with tales of goofing around the SkyDome when it first opened and playing in the new facility with the Mosebys and Upshaws. There's just one problem: Willie Upshaw never played as a Blue Jay at the SkyDome. In fact, he never played at the SkyDome at all. In 1988, he made way for Cecil Fielder and Fred McGriff by moving on to Cleveland before retiring at the end of the season. The SkyDome didn't open until June of the next season.

Moreover, Jesse Barfield was traded from the Blue Jays on April 30, 1989 for Captain FingerBlister, Al Leiter, a month before the SkyDome opened. So clearly, we can expect to see an announcement coming from the Cleveland front office that Josh has been placed on the DL because of injuries sustained when his big liar pants were on fire.

The minutiae of MLB rules...explained at last!
We're digging Bart Given's Inside the Majors blog lately, especially when he digs into the particulars of the waiver or DL systems. We're just hopeful that Given doesn't go all soft on us after he moves to the West Coast.

There's something that happens to people when they get to the other side of the Rockies...we can't explain it, but we've lost too many friends to a life of performance art, yoga and Canucks apologism not to worry for Bart. (But congrats to Jody on the new gig.)

Bump around

One night after a rather dreadful effort by both the pitching and the offense, everything looks to be back in order. A Jays win and a Red Sox loss (finally), and our boy are back on top. Where they belong.

Scott Richmond will make a believer out of you yet
With a standard caveat that it is early in the season, it is David Lynch weird to look at the Jays leaders in ERA and to see Scott Richmond placed ahead of Roy Halladay, more than a full run better (2.70 to 3.75). We're not about to lose our heads with Richmond and suppose that he'll post a sub-3.00 ERA for the full season, but he has looked efficient and capable thus far.

Richmond has gone at least six innings in his last three starts, giving up just four earned runs over that period. By all rights, he should be no better than the team's fifth starter, but if he has to pick up some of the slack while Jesse Litsch and Ricky Romero convalesce, at least he seems capable.

Aaron Hill is still awesome
We figured that last year would be Aaron Hill's big breakout season until a certain unnamed gritty gamer showed a little too much heart and determination and wacked him upside his head.

Thankfully, Hill is making up for lost time this year. He has reached base in all but one game this year, and has hits in 20 of the team's 22 games. He leads the Majors in hits with 36, and sits tied for sixth in the bigs for RsBI along with (interestingly enough) Ian Kinsler and Chase Utley.

Marco Scutaro is a leadoff hitter
Some people get too wrapped up in their notions of what a leadoff hitter is supposed to be. If you were to have asked before the season, there were plenty of people who would have preferred a scrappy slap hitter with speed...not unlike the useless starting shortstop and leadoff man with whom the Jays began their season last year.

But full marks go out to Scoots, who has fully embraced his table-setting role so far this season. He is currently in second place in the big leagues with 21 walks, one behind Jason Bay. (And one ahead of Adam Dunn, who dislikes baseball so much that he refuses to take his bat off his shoulder.) Scutaro's walk rate thus far is way out of line with anything he's done before, although we'd like to think that is an indication of his embracing the new role at the top of the lineup.

We're not about to lose our head here and call Scutaro the MVP of the team like some did last year, but he's been exactly the sort of offensive catalyst that you need at the top of your lineup and a key to the Jays' good fortunes thus far.

Silver linings
Travis Snider has been grounding out a lot over the past week or so, and his early season numbers are coming back to Earth. But if we have to find some solace in this recent spate of groundouts, it's probably the fact that we're impressed with how quickly Snider gets down the line for a big strapping lad. There have been a few plays where we actually for a quarter-second thought that Snider had a shot at beating a play out, and we're sure that he will before the season is out.

And dare we say it? Snider looks like he runs as well as the former Gold Glover to his left in the outfield.

That's the thing about rain-outs...

...they don't give you a whole lot of material to work with. Let's hope they get tonight's game in so Doc can kick the shit out of Pukelis (thanks, Joanna) and the rest of 'em.

Ricky Romero train
Well, not exactly a derailment, but not exactly the smoothest of rides either. My favorite disappointing 6th overall selection took the loss and gave us a line of 6 IP, 7H, 5 ER, 3BB, 3K in a loss to Pawtucket. Hey, at least he outdueled BFBC (Big Fat Bartolo Colon), who could only muster one inning of work.

Down goes Richmond
Well, looks like that's the end of the Scott Richmond experiment, as he was optioned back to Syracuse to make room for Wolfman Tallet. I'm already preparing myself for Griff's column.