Life In The Cell

Critiquing Clayton Richard

Clayton Richard made his first Major League start yesterday against the Texas Rangers. Prior to the game, I did my best to scout him based solely on his stats, but after his performance, I can make better judgements and opinions.

His final stat line for the game was 4 IP, 7 H, 4 ER (5 R), 1 BB, 7 K’s, and 1 HR allowed. His stat line looks ugly, but it really doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story. I would say, on the whole, I’m pleased with his performance and encouraged about the future. This isn’t the overwhelming success I was holding out hope for, but it isn’t anywhere near the type of performance that would lead you to think his rise this season is flukish.

Here’s a look at his pitch breakdowns by pitch and by inning. *Note* Gameday is has him down as throwing a change, though it could be a 2-seamer or a fastball with a lot taken off of it, because it was a bit fast for a straight change. Also, Gameday didn’t provide the pitches for Michael Young’s 2nd inning AB so I was unable to include those in the totals. The AB lasted 4 pitches, which means he threw 85 pitches in total during his outing.

Throughout the game, he relied heavily on his fastball, but he relied upon it almost exclusively in the first. I’m sure this was as design to allow Richard to get as comfortable as possible during the first inning. It was undoubtedly a good idea as he was clearly nervous and consequently jacked up during the inning. Against Ian Kinsler, the first batter of the game, he threw 6 fastballs, with an average speed of 92.7 MPH. That may not seem like anything to write home about, but coming into the game, the rap on him was that he topped out at 91-92 MPH. He actually reached 95 on the gun on a fastball that was very, very high. Later in the game, his velocity was lower, but it still would perk up, at times, to 93-94 MPH. So at least 1 of 3 things was at work here: fast gun, lots of nerves, or inaccurate scouting reports. I’m going to go with the middle one for now, but I may change my mind after his next start. It’s possible that he was undersold by 1-2 MPH, which is understandable.

The bump in velocity wasn’t the only sign that he was nervous. He was working at a very, very rapid pace, potentially even faster than Buehrle. I’m not trying to say that him being nervous is a bad thing, it’s quite understandable when realizing that in the first inning he faced the 3 players at the top of the AL VORP leaderboard. I just want to point out that he was visibly nervous, which is something to stick in your back pocket for now until we see more of him.

Now knowing who he faced in that first inning, I say he acquitted him self pretty nicely. He did give up a homer to Michael Young, but I’m going to credit that to good hitting rather than poor pitching. He ran him full and then threw a fastball on the inside corner of the plate that happened to just go a very long way. Admittedly, it was a touch higher than Toby called for, but it was still a good pitch. The pitch was at probably thigh height rather than knee height as Toby wanted.

In the second, Richard looked really good to start things off. He gave up a jam-job single to Blalock to lead-off the inning on a good up and in fastball. He then proceeded to strike out Salty and Chris Davis. He even showed off a nice slide step while trying to keep Blalock on first. In unfamiliarity with the league showed up when Blalock was on first. He tried very hard to keep him on first base; he came very close to balking in the process. The last time Blalock had stolen a base was last September, so he isn’t the biggest threat on the basepaths. Cabrera eventually met with Richard after Salty struck out, telling him not to worry about Blalock, which is why I’m sure he eventually stole second. I wish Hank didn’t steal that base, because even with that result, I still think the point is valid that Clayton should have been focusing more on the batter at hand than the (slow) runner on first. Richard was undone by a bad walk to the number 9 hitter, David Murphy. He had Murphy down 0-2 and then didn’t come anywhere near the strike zone the rest of the AB. Kinsler then doubled which should have scored 1 run, but scored 2 because Alexei dropped a relay throw. It looks like he needs to work on those, it’s not the first time he’s botched a relay.

Richard rolled through the 3rd, striking out Josh Hamilton for the second of three times, in the process. I was impressed with the way he mowed down Hamilton, especially the third time around in the 4th. After letting up 4 straight 2-out hits (resulting in 2 runs) he dominated Hamilton. He caught the corner of the plate with a curve, then got him to swing at a curve on the same plane but further outside, and finally got him to swing at a slider in the same region as the second curve. At that point, he had runners on second and thid, but stepped up (went away from his fastball) and struck out one of the best hitters in the league this year.

I’m dying to see Richard pitch again, because I’m curious as to what will prove to be trends and what will be flukes. Take the fact that he gave up 5 of his 7 hits (all but Young’s homer and Blalock’s bloop, which were both on, as I said, pretty good pitches) when there were 2 outs. It’s quite possible that he mentally let his foot off the pedal upon reaching 2 outs. It’s speculation and impossible to have any certainty unless, of course, he were to do the same thing next time out. It is a plausible situation, considering how visibly nervous he was out there. I’m also curious to see how he trends with his pitches. I’m sure he’ll throw a big percentage of fastballs (as all pitchers do), but will he follow the same pattern with his curve and slider? In this game, he threw the slider more often in the beginning of the outing and then threw the curve more frequently during the end of the outing.

Like I said earlier, overall, I’m pleased with Clayton’s performance. The 7 K’s are an indicator that he has the stuff to make MLB level hitters miss. That can’t be understated. It’s good for a pitcher to not have to rely entirely on his defense to make plays, especially when you get 4-error absolute shit fests like we got from the Sox during the game. Unfortunately, I can’t be completely a ray of sunshine about Richard’s start. I do have to throw in two caveats for y’all to temper your expectations. First, the Rangers strike out the 5th most in the majors, so keep that in mind when analyzing his 7 K’s. 7 K’s is still 7 K’s, but had it been against Seattle (who have 230ish fewer K’s) it would have been that much more impressive. Second, the Rangers are noticeably worse against lefties. Against righties their collective slash stats are .288/.358/.466 and against lefties those numbers fall to .256/.325/.425. This sounds weird, but I’m also going to throw out a caveat about that second caveat. Most, if not all (please feel free to check me on that), teams fare better against righties. Caveats aside, I was impressed, as was Ozzie

“Awesome,’’ Guillen said. “Great job. He’s going to pitch against Minnesota (on Tuesday). I like what I saw. He gave up a home run (to Michael Young in the first inning) and went right after people. We didn’t help him at all the way we should defensively. I like what I saw. He threw strikes and he’s not afraid.’

So here’s hoping that things go smoothly on Tuesday and the Sox have a nice dilemma on their hands of what to do with Jose once he comes off the DL.