The story of Jays prospect Ricky Romero spans four years and a handful of minor league stops.
All one had to read was the scouting report on Ricky Romero, then the ace left-hander at Cal-State Fullerton when the school was competing in the 2005 College World Series, after the Blue Jays selected him with the sixth overall pick in that year's draft:
"Fluid, easy delivery. Has two kinds of fastball: a slider-like cutter and a nasty sinker that drops late. Can change speeds on 12-6 curve. Features a sharp slider. Very intense on the mound, keeps hitters off-balance. Potential front-end starter."
Sounds pretty convincing to me.
Well, a lot of water has rushed under the bridge since those words were written. As a prospect in the Jays' minor-league system, the now 24-year-old struggled to live up to that advance billing. That's even truer of the 2005 draft, where such players/pitchers as Justin Upton, Alex Gordon, Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Braun, Troy Tulowitzki, Jay Bruce, Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz and Micah Owings are already playing in the majors.
For Romero, though, the story has taken a lot longer to play out. In his final NCAA season his numbers were undeniably impressive: 12-5, 2.95 ERA, 125.0 IP, 99 hits (only 30 for extra-bases), 32 walks, 132 strikeouts, 1.05 WHIP. But at various levels of the Jays' farm system, the numbers after four seasons are underwhelming to say the least: 12-14, 4.34 ERA, 415.0 IP, 434 hits, 175 walks, 324 strikeouts, 1.47 WHIP.
Something did start to click for Romero in the latter part of last season, though, when he went 3-1 with an ERA of 2.79 in his final eight starts with New Hampshire (AA) and earning a promotion to Syracuse (AAA). In seven starts with the Jays' top farm team, Romero was 3-3 with a 3.38 ERA, including a seven-inning complete game to finish out the season.
Those numbers led to him being included in the long list of starters being considered to line up behind Roy Halladay and Jesse Litsch in the Blue Jays suddenly thin rotation following the defection of A.J. Burnett to the Yankees and arm injuries and surgeries to Shaun Marcum (not available until 2010) and Dustin McGowan (return still undecided). Romero got lumped into a group that included a couple of other left-handed prospects that were suddenly breathing down his professional neck - Brett Cecil and Brad Mills - and Matt Clement and Mike Maroth, part of the Blue Jays annual unsuccessful 'Catch Lightning In A Bottle' program where injured pitchers from other organizations with health questions show up in Dunedin and try to salvage their careers. Also included in that group are Canadian Scott Richmond, whose training camp was wasted sitting on the bench watching Team Canada flame out in just two games at the World Baseball Classic, and Casey Janssen, returning to active status after missing the entire 2008 season following surgery to repair a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder. Not exactly a staff to unnerve the Rays, Red Sox and Yankees.
Romero's spring didn't start out too well. In fact, after his second appearance when he walked six batters in just 1 1/3 innings in a March 2nd start against the World Series champion Phillies, there was talk that perhaps Romero would be better served returning to the minor-league camp and start getting ready for his season at Las Vegas (AAA).
But the decision was made to give him another shot and since then he's been very good, allowing just five runs in 15 innings over three appearances, while striking out 16. The highlight came on Sunday against the Astros when Romero found himself in a bases-loaded, none-out jam trying to hold on to a one-run lead with Miguel Tejada, Geoff Blum and Ivan Rodriguez lining up to break the game open. After taking a deep breath, Romero struck out Tejada with a slider, Blum with a curve and then got Rodriguez to bounce out to second. That earned Romero some kind words from Rodriguez, who told Gaston he was impressed by the left-hander's stuff.
With that, Romero was called into Gaston's office and got the best news of all: that he would make the trip north next weekend for Monday night's season opener against the Tigers at Rogers Centre.
Quite a journey: from top shelf prospect to struggling minor leaguer to Major League money. Now the hard part: continuing to build on the promise that was hinted at in the summer of 2005 and finally realized during three at-bats of a spring game in Kissimmee, FL.
Finally, some good news from a spring where the negatives have outweighed the positives yet again.
