As recently as March 2014, Los Angeles Angels right-hander Garrett Richards was considered a league-average starting pitcher/middle reliever with decent velocity and a good slider. Now just 14 months later, he's considered one of the top pitchers in the American League. What were the keys to his 2014 breakout performance, and will it continue?
Richards has always had good stuff -- in his first three years in the league (2011-13), Richards got whiffs on 9.5 percent of the pitches he threw, which would be top 40 this year among qualified pitchers -- but he really didn't post good strikeout totals until 2014. He posted a mediocre (or worse) 6.3 K/9 rate in 2013, which at that point was the highest mark of his career. But he jumped that rate to 8.8 K's per 9 last season, ranking 19th in the majors among qualified pitchers in that metric, and he has a respectable 8.2 K/9 rate this season.
So I took a closer look at Richards' repertoire and metrics in an attempt to find out what's behind the breakout, then asked the pitcher himself for his thoughts.