Between 2009 to 2011, Romero found himself, putting up consistent, steady improvements year after year. In 2011, Romero had his career season, racking up 15 wins on a bad Blue Jays team, with a sparkling 2.92 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 178 punchouts. At the end of 2011, with Romero still a young man and seemingly the ace of the franchise for years to come, Jays fans could ignore the fact that Tulowitzki had hit .302 that season with 30 jacks and 105 ribbies. After all, Romero appeared to be one of the top pitchers in all of baseball. It was even suggested by some that the Jays had made the correct decision in drafting Romero over Tulowitzki based on his steady year to year improvement, culminating in his 2011 dream season.
Flash forward a single year to 2012 - Romero was the Blue Jays undisputed ace for the first time, and expectations had never been higher. Despite a 5-1 record to start the season, Romero never really was sharp, and ended up having a disastrous season, ending up with a brutal 5.77 ERA, 1.67 WHIP and 14 losses. Romero was consistently awful all season long, and did not seem at all like the dominant pitcher of the previous few seasons. Romero's 2012 featured fewer strikeouts and many more walks than any other season, despite significantly fewer innings pitched. The thing that struck me was that after every loss, Romero just seemed so sad, depressed, and had the tendency to mope and feel sorry for himself. It seemed as if he had lost all confidence, and left fans very confused about what was wrong with the lefty.
In the offseason, Romero had arthroscopic surgery on his throwing elbow, and admitted that he had been pitching through pain throughout 2012. To me, this was a relief - something finally could explain why Romero's 2012 had been so poor. With all the other big acquisitions the Blue Jays had made, Romero was slated to be the team's 5th starter. I rushed to annoint the Jays as bar none the best pitching staff in the major leagues (I still stand by that). In spring training 2013 so far, however, Romero has put up his worst statistics yet. It is worth noting that he has only thrown 5.2 innings so far this pre-season over only three starts, hardly a sample size worthy of any real concern, but unfortunately the issues that hurt Romero last season have all been present this spring. He only has two strikeouts compared to five walks and has very poor peripheral statistics. He has looked very wild, and his release point has looked off, resulting in wild pitches. It is very early in spring training, and we all know that these stats don't really matter, but still it would have been nice for him to go out and dominate to put fans' minds at ease.
This poor spring start, coupled with last year's nightmarish season, have fans of "Ricky-Ro" saying "Ruh-Ro". But I say don't worry just yet. The guy just had off season surgery and is of course going to be rusty at the very start of spring training. As a fifth starter, Ricky Romero should be the best in the majors. The key is his confidence. His first game of the season is scheduled to be versus the Boston Red Sox on April 6th. Boston has traditionally feasted off of him, and it will be very important for Romero to get off to a good start to the regular season, to put last season to rest and silence his critics. Ricky Romero's worst enemy is himself - if he can put his self doubt and mopiness aside, he has the ability and talent to be one of the best pitchers in what is the best rotation in Major League Baseball.
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| Don't worry, Scooby. Ricky-Ro should be fine in 2013. |
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