Scott Carson

Stats man Scott Carson is now in his 18th season as "third man in the booth" during Blue Jays telecasts.

Ricky Romero.

Ricky Romero is making impressive strides and appears poised to claim the title of staff ace.

Right before our eyes, we are witnessing a maturation process that doesn't happen very often.

In June of 2005, with the sixth overall pick in the First-Year Player draft, the Blue Jays selected left-handed pitcher Ricky Romero out of Cal State Fullerton who, at that time, were still competing in the College World Series. It was considered a draft thick with talent as the Diamondbacks selected outfielder Justin Upton first overall, the Nationals picked third baseman Ryan Zimmerman fourth, the Brewers took outfielder Ryan Braun, and the Rockies chose shortstop Troy Tulowitzki seventh.

For several seasons, much was made in the media and in the blogosphere about the Jays picking Romero instead of Tulowitzki, who jumped to the Majors just over a year later and was a key component in the Rockies unexpected run to the National League pennant in 2007. Romero, on the other hand, was taking a less meteoric rise towards "The Show". He saw all the minor league outposts on his way up the organizational ladder, debuting with Lansing in 2005. Along the way, young Ricky made three different stops in Dunedin, three more in New Hampshire and finally reached AAA late in 2008. With an unimpressive 16-22 record and an ERA of 4.33 after four minor league seasons, the rumblings were that the Jays had missed on that high draft pick back in '05.

Then a funny thing happened during spring training in 2009: everything started to click, thanks to some fine tuning by then pitching coach Brad Arnsberg.

Urban legend has it that J.P. Ricciardi wanted Romero to be left alone to get his feet wet in his first official big league training camp. He had struggled in his early exhibition game appearances and was ticketed to be returned to the minor league camp to get ready to begin season with Las Vegas (AAA). But Arnsberg would have none of it and took Romero to one of the outer diamonds to work on his delivery, tweaking his arm slot and where his front foot landed. With some fine tuning, Romero went from prospect to big leaguer. He was lights out the rest of camp, broke with the team to start the season and the rest, as they say, is history. He won 13 games as a rookie last season, one short of the Blue Jays franchise record for a freshman. Keeping in mind that 14 of 29 starts in his first season came in the ultra-competitive A.L. East, what unfolded last season was most impressive.

Now, five starts into his sophomore season, Romero continues to make impressive strides and appears poised to claim the title of staff ace, filling the massive void left by the trading of Roy Halladay to the Phillies in the off-season. His 2.25 ERA is tops among Jays' starters and his microscopic .168 opponents batting average is the best in the American League. He took a no-hitter into the 8th inning of his second start of the season and if not for terrible run support (7 runs total in his first 4 starts), he could easily be 5-0 this season.

Thursday night's start against the Athletics showed just how much Romero has matured. From the outset, the 25-year-old left-hander clearly didn't have his best stuff. He had trouble putting hitters away, throwing 65 pitches to get through three innings and trailed 3-0, with all runs coming with two outs. But over the next three innings, his curve and change-up finally showed up and he didn't give up a hit the rest of the way. Due to the elevated pitch count in the first three innings, Romero only lasted six. But the offence, led by John Buck's three home runs, kicked in and made a winner out of the young lefty. And he did what defines most aces: he stopped a team losing streak which had grown to five.

With the likes of Kyle Drabek and Chad Jenkins learning the ropes in the minors, and from what we've seen from the likes of Brett Cecil, Marc Rzepczynski and Robert Ray in their baptism under fire a year ago, the Blue Jays have the ingredients for a solid rotation. And when it does come together, Ricky Romero will be battle-tested and ready to lead that staff, and the franchise, back to respectability.