When I spoke with Jamie Ritchie last week at "The Joe," I was immediately struck by his intelligence. But more than that, he is extremely well-spoken, and has obviously given the art of hitting and catching in the game of baseball a great deal of thought. And he expresses those thoughts quite well.
Ritchie was drafted this year as a Junior out of Belmont University in the 13th round and has hit the ground running for the ValleyCats. Despite a thumb injury that kept him out of the line-up for a couple of days (and kept him from catching while I was in attendance), he has still managed to put up a very impressive batting line in his first 28 games, hitting .403/.525/.519 with nine doubles. Even more impressive (to me) is that he has walked 17 times while striking out only 12 times.
I spoke with Tri-City Manager Ed Romero about Ritchie, and he had this to say,"Jamie Ritchie has been very good. He’s a great kid. Very intelligent. He’s done a great job catching, receiving, blocking, throwing and at the plate also. He’s been very good for the team. He does a great job receiving. He calls a great game. These pitchers, they love to pitch to him." The one improvement that Romero would like to see Ritchie make is to clean up his mechanics in throwing to the bases. He emphasized that Ritchie has a good arm, but it is just his mechanics that need tweaking in order to make him more effective in throwing out runners.
My first question for Ritchie was regarding his college experience. "I’m actually from Atlanta. I got recruited by Belmont University between my junior year and senior year of high school. I had a couple schools looking at me but the scholarship for Belmont was really good, so I couldn’t turn it down. I really enjoyed Nashville. It was fun times, cool city. The baseball team was awesome. It was a great group of guys in the three years I was there. I think my catching has always been pretty consistent. I think in college, it was pretty much the same. My hitting, though … freshman year, I didn’t hit very well at all. I was pretty bad. But then my sophomore year I improved and last year, I really got a lot of help hitting, and I [hit around] .302 in my junior year. I really enjoyed college, but I’m happy to be here now."
Ritchie told me about his draft experience as well, "It was kind of funny because I had four or five teams that were interested and the Astros were at the bottom of the list as far as who had talked to me the most. I’d only gotten a questionnaire from the Astros. I’d never talked to the scout before until a few days before the draft. The Cubs had been the main ones interested. I’d actually had a couple meetings with an area scout there and I’d talked to Cincinnati and the Mets. And the Astros, I’d just gotten a medical questionnaire from them. I was in Wisconsin the day of the draft. I was playing with the North Woods League. I thought I was going to get drafted the second day. I got a call that they were going to draft me in the 10th round and it ended up that it didn’t work out, but the next day, it was like 20 minutes after the draft started, they told me that they were going to draft me in the next couple rounds. When it finally happened, it was a huge relief. I knew that Houston’s minor league system was really good so I was happy to be part of a really good minor league system. It’s an organization where I think you can move up quickly so I’m excited about that. Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity."
In response to my question about the adjustments he’d had to make as a professional ballplayer, Ritchie told me, "I guess I’d have to say the playing every single day. It does wear on your body. The pitching’s gotten tougher. I noticed that as far as guys spotting up with their higher velocity and being able to command their off-speed pitches in any count, for the most part. In college, you can pretty much sit on a 2-0 fastball if you want a fastball, but [here] in the back of your mind, you’re [thinking] he could throw a change up here or a curveball. I guess the pitching’s been a pretty big adjustment. As far as catching goes, I think it’s almost become a bit easier because these pitchers here, you don’t have to worry about blocking a lot of balls. For the most part, they’re in the zone where you want them to throw it. It’s not been that hard of an adjustment, but it’s been somewhat of an adjustment."
What has he accomplished so far this season? "I think hitting has been the biggest thing. I knew the pitching was going to be a lot tougher. I wanted to get off to a hot start which I did, fortunately. I guess I feel more relaxed going to the plate knowing that in previous games I’ve done well. It gives you a lot of confidence. I think that’s the main thing I wanted to establish."
What does he feel he needs to work on improving? "I would say just some stuff behind the plate. I could polish up some of my catching stuff right now. I guess working with pitchers and making sure that we’re on the same page."
Since I hadn’t seen him play yet when I interviewed him, I asked him to characterize himself at the plate and behind it. "I try to, when I’m behind the plate, just try and be a bulldog back there. It’s only a three-hour game so I make sure I’m giving it 110%. When I’m at the plate hitting, I kind of like to picture me and the pitcher in a battle, and I’ve got to win every single time no matter if it’s just having a long 12-pitch at-bat or just smoking the ball somewhere. That’s my goal every time, just to make it as hard as I can on the pitcher."
Ritchie has definitely demonstrated doubles power in his time with the 'Cats. "The mindset coming in here has changed. The hitting mentality. Coach Steinhorn always talks about seeing the ball up and making sure you’re swinging at strikes. You know, pitchers at this level work low in the zone and want to get you out. You’ve got to be disciplined enough to take those pitches and I think that’s what I’ve actually done a really good job of, the balls I’ve been hitting well, doubles, have been fastballs up in the zone that I’ve been able to get my bat out and get the barrel on. I think I’ve been fortunate to find the gaps and the foul lines as far as where the hits have been. Some of them have not been squared up but they’ve snuck inside the right field line so I’ve had a little bit of luck there."
I asked Ritchie about his patience at the plate and he responded, "I guess that’s something I’ve always been good at is to draw a lot of walks. I don’t think I swing at a lot of pitches out of the zone. Sometimes I take a lot of first pitches, maybe more than I should, which sometimes gets you ahead in the count. I think that’s always been one of my strong points is fighting off pitches that are borderline, making the pitcher work as hard as he possibly can so maybe he can’t find the zone and I can draw a walk."
Is there one player that he likes to just sit back and watch? "I like watching [Troy] Scribner pitch. [Scribner has since been promoted to Quad Cities.] I catch him a lot, but since I’ve been injured, I think he’s pitched a couple times and I haven’t been behind the plate. His stuff isn’t necessarily overpowering, but he knows how to pitch, change the hitter’s eye. He knows when to throw inside. He knows when to throw outside. He knows what a hitter’s sitting on. If they’re sitting on a fastball, he can execute his pitches in a lot of counts, especially his change up. And it’s really impressive to watch a guy who maybe doesn’t throw 97, but he has such a low ERA and he knows how to get guys out, and that’s really fun to watch."
Which pitcher on the team has been the most challenging to catch so far? According to Ritchie, "I’d say Bryan Radziewski. He likes to pitch backwards and I’m not used to catching a backwards game. I’m pretty traditional in the pitches I call. If it’s a 2-0 count, I’ll, for the most part, call a fastball, but he shakes off a lot, and I’ve had to get used to that. He also throws a slider. Sometimes it’s a 3-0 count and he’s shaking. I’ve put down a fastball, a change up, traditional pitches that you throw in those counts and he’s shaking me off and we’ll have to call time. I’m still trying to get on the same page as him so he’s probably been the most challenging."
I also asked him if he’d had the opportunity to catch lefty knuckleballer Blaine Sims during the short time that he was with the ValleyCats. "I caught Sims a couple times. I was honestly very nervous catching him because in the bullpen, he doesn’t throw his knuckleball nearly as hard as he does in the game. I remember I caught him at Lowell and the wind was blowing in his face. When the wind is blowing against him, the ball’s moving even more. I think I had one passed ball that game, but there would be sometimes I would be [thinking], ‘Oh my goodness, I have no idea where this pitch is going to be,’ and there’s a guy on base and that puts more pressure on you to catch the ball. I think one time there was a ball that I would have completely missed. It might have hit the umpire right in the face, but fortunately the guy swung and fouled it off. I was [thankful that] he fouled that off because I was not going to catch that. Definitely, his knuckleball when the wind is blowing in his face is tough to catch."
What would he do if he couldn’t play baseball? "I guess I’d be in college somewhere in Georgia right now. I wouldn’t have had a scholarship to Belmont so I probably would be at UGA or Kennesaw State, one of those schools, probably pursuing a Science degree or something like that. I think my other sport would have been football. I played football when I was younger. I was a pretty good receiver at the time until I just decided I wanted to play baseball so I’d probably be doing one of those two things. [What was his major?] It was biology. I was planning on maybe going to Physical Therapy school or Optometry school."
Which pitcher on the team would he least like to face? "I don’t think I’d fare well against [Joe] Musgrove. His slider’s pretty dirty. It’s on the same plane as his fastball and it’s hard to recognize as a hitter, and he throws pretty hard too. I probably wouldn’t want to face him. I don’t know how I’d fare against him. If I had to choose somebody, it would be him."
Ritchie was drafted this year as a Junior out of Belmont University in the 13th round and has hit the ground running for the ValleyCats. Despite a thumb injury that kept him out of the line-up for a couple of days (and kept him from catching while I was in attendance), he has still managed to put up a very impressive batting line in his first 28 games, hitting .403/.525/.519 with nine doubles. Even more impressive (to me) is that he has walked 17 times while striking out only 12 times.
I spoke with Tri-City Manager Ed Romero about Ritchie, and he had this to say,"Jamie Ritchie has been very good. He’s a great kid. Very intelligent. He’s done a great job catching, receiving, blocking, throwing and at the plate also. He’s been very good for the team. He does a great job receiving. He calls a great game. These pitchers, they love to pitch to him." The one improvement that Romero would like to see Ritchie make is to clean up his mechanics in throwing to the bases. He emphasized that Ritchie has a good arm, but it is just his mechanics that need tweaking in order to make him more effective in throwing out runners.
Jamie Ritchie - July 2014
Photo by Jayne Hansen
My first question for Ritchie was regarding his college experience. "I’m actually from Atlanta. I got recruited by Belmont University between my junior year and senior year of high school. I had a couple schools looking at me but the scholarship for Belmont was really good, so I couldn’t turn it down. I really enjoyed Nashville. It was fun times, cool city. The baseball team was awesome. It was a great group of guys in the three years I was there. I think my catching has always been pretty consistent. I think in college, it was pretty much the same. My hitting, though … freshman year, I didn’t hit very well at all. I was pretty bad. But then my sophomore year I improved and last year, I really got a lot of help hitting, and I [hit around] .302 in my junior year. I really enjoyed college, but I’m happy to be here now."
Ritchie told me about his draft experience as well, "It was kind of funny because I had four or five teams that were interested and the Astros were at the bottom of the list as far as who had talked to me the most. I’d only gotten a questionnaire from the Astros. I’d never talked to the scout before until a few days before the draft. The Cubs had been the main ones interested. I’d actually had a couple meetings with an area scout there and I’d talked to Cincinnati and the Mets. And the Astros, I’d just gotten a medical questionnaire from them. I was in Wisconsin the day of the draft. I was playing with the North Woods League. I thought I was going to get drafted the second day. I got a call that they were going to draft me in the 10th round and it ended up that it didn’t work out, but the next day, it was like 20 minutes after the draft started, they told me that they were going to draft me in the next couple rounds. When it finally happened, it was a huge relief. I knew that Houston’s minor league system was really good so I was happy to be part of a really good minor league system. It’s an organization where I think you can move up quickly so I’m excited about that. Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity."
In response to my question about the adjustments he’d had to make as a professional ballplayer, Ritchie told me, "I guess I’d have to say the playing every single day. It does wear on your body. The pitching’s gotten tougher. I noticed that as far as guys spotting up with their higher velocity and being able to command their off-speed pitches in any count, for the most part. In college, you can pretty much sit on a 2-0 fastball if you want a fastball, but [here] in the back of your mind, you’re [thinking] he could throw a change up here or a curveball. I guess the pitching’s been a pretty big adjustment. As far as catching goes, I think it’s almost become a bit easier because these pitchers here, you don’t have to worry about blocking a lot of balls. For the most part, they’re in the zone where you want them to throw it. It’s not been that hard of an adjustment, but it’s been somewhat of an adjustment."
What has he accomplished so far this season? "I think hitting has been the biggest thing. I knew the pitching was going to be a lot tougher. I wanted to get off to a hot start which I did, fortunately. I guess I feel more relaxed going to the plate knowing that in previous games I’ve done well. It gives you a lot of confidence. I think that’s the main thing I wanted to establish."
What does he feel he needs to work on improving? "I would say just some stuff behind the plate. I could polish up some of my catching stuff right now. I guess working with pitchers and making sure that we’re on the same page."
Since I hadn’t seen him play yet when I interviewed him, I asked him to characterize himself at the plate and behind it. "I try to, when I’m behind the plate, just try and be a bulldog back there. It’s only a three-hour game so I make sure I’m giving it 110%. When I’m at the plate hitting, I kind of like to picture me and the pitcher in a battle, and I’ve got to win every single time no matter if it’s just having a long 12-pitch at-bat or just smoking the ball somewhere. That’s my goal every time, just to make it as hard as I can on the pitcher."
Ritchie has definitely demonstrated doubles power in his time with the 'Cats. "The mindset coming in here has changed. The hitting mentality. Coach Steinhorn always talks about seeing the ball up and making sure you’re swinging at strikes. You know, pitchers at this level work low in the zone and want to get you out. You’ve got to be disciplined enough to take those pitches and I think that’s what I’ve actually done a really good job of, the balls I’ve been hitting well, doubles, have been fastballs up in the zone that I’ve been able to get my bat out and get the barrel on. I think I’ve been fortunate to find the gaps and the foul lines as far as where the hits have been. Some of them have not been squared up but they’ve snuck inside the right field line so I’ve had a little bit of luck there."
I asked Ritchie about his patience at the plate and he responded, "I guess that’s something I’ve always been good at is to draw a lot of walks. I don’t think I swing at a lot of pitches out of the zone. Sometimes I take a lot of first pitches, maybe more than I should, which sometimes gets you ahead in the count. I think that’s always been one of my strong points is fighting off pitches that are borderline, making the pitcher work as hard as he possibly can so maybe he can’t find the zone and I can draw a walk."
Is there one player that he likes to just sit back and watch? "I like watching [Troy] Scribner pitch. [Scribner has since been promoted to Quad Cities.] I catch him a lot, but since I’ve been injured, I think he’s pitched a couple times and I haven’t been behind the plate. His stuff isn’t necessarily overpowering, but he knows how to pitch, change the hitter’s eye. He knows when to throw inside. He knows when to throw outside. He knows what a hitter’s sitting on. If they’re sitting on a fastball, he can execute his pitches in a lot of counts, especially his change up. And it’s really impressive to watch a guy who maybe doesn’t throw 97, but he has such a low ERA and he knows how to get guys out, and that’s really fun to watch."
Which pitcher on the team has been the most challenging to catch so far? According to Ritchie, "I’d say Bryan Radziewski. He likes to pitch backwards and I’m not used to catching a backwards game. I’m pretty traditional in the pitches I call. If it’s a 2-0 count, I’ll, for the most part, call a fastball, but he shakes off a lot, and I’ve had to get used to that. He also throws a slider. Sometimes it’s a 3-0 count and he’s shaking. I’ve put down a fastball, a change up, traditional pitches that you throw in those counts and he’s shaking me off and we’ll have to call time. I’m still trying to get on the same page as him so he’s probably been the most challenging."
I also asked him if he’d had the opportunity to catch lefty knuckleballer Blaine Sims during the short time that he was with the ValleyCats. "I caught Sims a couple times. I was honestly very nervous catching him because in the bullpen, he doesn’t throw his knuckleball nearly as hard as he does in the game. I remember I caught him at Lowell and the wind was blowing in his face. When the wind is blowing against him, the ball’s moving even more. I think I had one passed ball that game, but there would be sometimes I would be [thinking], ‘Oh my goodness, I have no idea where this pitch is going to be,’ and there’s a guy on base and that puts more pressure on you to catch the ball. I think one time there was a ball that I would have completely missed. It might have hit the umpire right in the face, but fortunately the guy swung and fouled it off. I was [thankful that] he fouled that off because I was not going to catch that. Definitely, his knuckleball when the wind is blowing in his face is tough to catch."
What would he do if he couldn’t play baseball? "I guess I’d be in college somewhere in Georgia right now. I wouldn’t have had a scholarship to Belmont so I probably would be at UGA or Kennesaw State, one of those schools, probably pursuing a Science degree or something like that. I think my other sport would have been football. I played football when I was younger. I was a pretty good receiver at the time until I just decided I wanted to play baseball so I’d probably be doing one of those two things. [What was his major?] It was biology. I was planning on maybe going to Physical Therapy school or Optometry school."
Which pitcher on the team would he least like to face? "I don’t think I’d fare well against [Joe] Musgrove. His slider’s pretty dirty. It’s on the same plane as his fastball and it’s hard to recognize as a hitter, and he throws pretty hard too. I probably wouldn’t want to face him. I don’t know how I’d fare against him. If I had to choose somebody, it would be him."
I also asked Ritchie to tell me something about himself that
most people might not know. "I’m half Scottish. My Dad’s from Scotland. He
speaks with an accent. I’ve been over there. My grandmother lives over there
and my uncle lives there so we usually go over there once every three years for
Christmas. I think we might go back there again this Christmas."
Since I didn’t have the opportunity to see the trio of A.J.
Reed, Ryan Bottger and J.D. Davis because of their promotions to Quad Cities, I
asked Ritchie for his take on the three. He said, “A.J., obviously, he’s a big
power guy. He has a really good eye at the plate for a power guy. A lot of
times you’ll see those guys who hit a lot of home runs strike out a lot, but I
think his walk to strikeout ratio is pretty even. [It's currently 25 walks to 31 strikeouts.] That’s going to be a good key
for him moving up in the future.
"Same with Ryan. He’s kind of like me. I think he walked
more than he struck out and he hit for some power too. I think he hit three
home runs in three games while he was here at one point and he had a few
doubles at the same time. Switch hitter too. So I think those things combined
will help both those move up.
"And J.D obviously, as an outfielder in college moving to
third base, I think that’s been one of the biggest adjustments for him. He’s got
one of the best approaches on the team while he was here. He could hit for
power to any part of the field. He wasn’t just a pull hitter and at any given
time, he could put the ball over the fence so I think that’s a dangerous
combination right there."
>>>>>>><<<<<<<
Jamie Ritchie is obviously a very intelligent player,
thoughtful, self-aware and very talented both at the plate and behind it. I
think that could prove to be a dangerous combination as well.
Thank you for your time, Jamie. It was a pleasure getting to
know you just a little bit better. Best of luck as the season continues.
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