Day 123 – CDN Controversy

It is always exciting to see a MLB debut even if it is not some highly hyped prospect. Of course Scott Richmond being a CDN does add a little something to it.

As far as the Jays calling up Richmond preventing him from playing for Canada in the Olympics it really doesn’t bother me. There seems to be more uproar over this then when Colorado said no to Jeff Francis in 2004 and Francis didn’t even get to pitch in the majors. At the time Francis had spent most of the year in AA and Colorado said they wanted him to pitch more in AAA Colorado Springs (just moved up in July) in order to get used to pitching at altitude. Francis didn’t get the call to the majors until late Aug. after the Olympics were over. At least Richmond is missing the Olympics b/c he is pitching in the majors.

I think it is unfair to treat the Jays differently just b/c they are Canada’s only team. The fact is for a guy like Scott Richmond there is no guarantee he will get another shot to pitch in the big leagues. He is not a 1st round draft pick who it is just a question of when not if, there is an opening in the Jays rotation now and that may not exist when he would be coming back from the Olympics.

I’m sure many of the people complaining had no idea who Scott Richmond was, or that he was even Cdn before the Jays made this call-up. I first learned of Richmond when he pitched for Canada in the World Cup of Baseball last Nov. that took place in Taiwan. Thanks to Stadeo.TV I was able to watch the games live on the internet. I can’t say Richmond really looked anything special. What I do remember of him was he had a lot of natural movement on his pitches but struggled w/the command of them.