5th Starter.. Richmond or Mills?

Rich what?? Richmond!!

He wouldn't have been my choice, but I'd rather throw the 29 year old Canadian to the dogs and send 24 year old prospect Brad Mills down to Las Vegas to gamble the season away. Hopefully Richmond will be able to provide Toronto with several steady yet unspectacular starts every 5th day. He's never going to win many games by himself, but hopefully he can keep his team in it and give the Jays offence a chance to do some damage.

Now the question is...

Once Richmond (or Romero or god forbid even Purcey) gets rocked and sent back down to the Minors, who gets the 1st call for a spot start?

Matt Clement? If its early in the season, he might just be the guy as it appears that Cito doesn't want to throw Brett Cecil or Brad Mills right into the fire before they are truly ready.

Brett Cecil? He is probably the most talented of the Jays pitching prospects, but may also be the furthest from being ready. After being selected in '07 as a former closer, Cecil isn't yet stretched out enough to handle the grind of a full major leauge season. He set a career high of 118.2 IP in '08 while splitting time between all three levels, and should be limited to somewhere around 150 IP this year. Monitor his innings in the minors, but expect to see Cecil up with the big club at some point down the stretch, leaving him poised to battle for a spot in what should be a very interesting 2010 Jays rotation.

Brad Mills? Although Mills was the final cut from the Jays starting rotation race, I wouldn't expect him to get the first call for a spot start due to injury or a struggling rotation member. Expect Mills to emerge when Gaston and Co. feel he is ready to grab a permanent rotation spot. After throwing more than half of his innings last year in Low-A ball with the Lansing Lugnuts, Mills is due for healthy number of starts in the minors at whatever level he starts before he is deemed ready for the majors. I expect him to join Clement and Cecil in an interesting AAA-Las Vegas 51's rotation this season. His ETA? I'd say perhaps mid-July, but don't be surprised if he is shut down before the season's end after totalling just 147.1 IP last season.