Saints pitcher Woods Richardson keeps on trying

Baseball traditionally has a natural pace unlike other sports—three strikes you’re out, nine innings and so forth. But in recent years the game has been tinkered with in order to appease and attract younger folk whose attention span at sporting events mostly can’t exceed two hours.

Minor League Baseball usually serves as a Petri dish for experimenting with new rules. A pitch clock, larger bases, and an automated ball-strike (ABS) system were put in place in 2022. Now two of these three are in the majors this season. 

The ABS is now being used in the minors, including Triple-A this season. Called “robot umps,” this reminds me of the space-age cartoon classic “The Jetsons” in which robots did human functions. 

Instead of human umpires calling balls and strikes behind the plate, a computer makes the calls during games. Each team starts the game with three challenges; only the batter, the catcher or the pitcher can make a challenge, which must be made immediately following the umpire’s call.

“The ABS is supposed to make the game more accurate,” said St. Paul Saints starting pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson. He was the first Saints pitcher this season to challenge a robo-called ball four, but he lost the challenge and walked the batter. 

“It’s a smaller strike zone,” noted the righthander of ABS. “I don’t know how to deal with it. I just take it one day at a time.”

The 22-year-old hurler, a 2018 second-round draft pick by the New York Mets and acquired by the Minnesota Twins a couple of seasons ago, is a nostalgic soul at heart when it comes to baseball. He admitted as much to us during a bullpen workout session.

“The umpires are such a crucial part of the game,” continued Woods Richardson, the team’s only African American pitcher. “I love the game for what it was and what it is, and how I grew up watching.”

 Now in his second season in St. Paul, Woods Richardson was briefly called up to the big league club in the last month of the 2022 season. He went back to Minnesota earlier this season for a couple of days in late April, but was sent back across the river to St. Paul.

“I’m trying to absorb as much as I can day-by-day,” said Woods Richardson. “I’m trying to be the best baseball player I can be every day. I’m trying to learn from the guys around me at this level and in the big leagues.

“I’m just trying to be a sponge and just be ready anytime.”

Woods Richardson was in a dueling no-hitter with Rochester Red Wings starter Cory Albert on April 28, in one of the better-pitched ball games this season. A few days earlier, the Saints starter set a season-high in most consecutive batters retired (12). 

In the Rochester game, he was perfect through four innings and faced the minimum through five. Albert retired the first 10 men he faced before a one-out walk in the fourth.

“I really didn’t know,” recalled Woods Richardson, who was pitching a no-hitter. “I was just so locked in the moment. I just know I was doing really well, executing my pitches and giving my team a chance to win.

“It was a pitchers’ duel,”he said. “How blessed and fortunate to be in one of those games. I actually had a lot of fun,” said Woods Richardson. “I tip my cap to him [Albert] because he put his team in a position to win.”

Woods Richardson is working on mastering all his pitches, though he quickly noted, “You’re never going to master everything.” But more importantly, he wants to help St. Paul win and ultimately make the majors and stay there.

“That’s all I’m really trying to do right now. Don’t get too rushed.”