CLEARWATER, Fla. -- This just in: For the second straight year, Brett Myers will be the Phillies' opening-day starter. Myers will face the Washington Nationals on March 31, and 15-game winner Cole Hamels will pitch the following night.Nobody was more surprised than Myers.
"Absolutely," Myers said. "Hamels had a great year last year. It's going to be hard for me to take over the No. 1 spot when he had that year last year. I'm going to have to work a little bit harder to try to earn that spot, I guess."
Manuel said he broke the news to Hamels. "He seemed like he was definitely OK with it," Manuel said. "He was our No. 1 starter last year, and he had a big year. But that's the way we want to set our rotation up."
More in tomorrow's 50-center.
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Update: As you may have heard, tonight's game was rained out. Bummer for the Florida State kids. Jamie Moyer starts tomorrow in the Grapefruit League opener against the Reds. Joe Savery, by the way, will start Monday against the Pirates.
3 comments:
I like this idea. If Jamie Moyer's being slotted for the #4/#5 spot (depending on if we skip a #5 starter at the start of the season), it breaks up the lefties in our rotation.
Also checking Cole Hamels' stats from last season, he had a 4.26 ERA in day games and a 3.11 ERA at night. Seeing that opening day is an afternoon game, why not go with Myers? Plus, maybe it's Charlie Manuel's way of reaching out to Myers fulling knowing he'd rather be the closer. I'm sure there's not a pitcher in the world who wouldn't want to be out there as your starter on opening day.
Jeff: You're on the right track. From talking to people here tonight, I think the decision was made for two reasons:
a) It removes any doubt that Myers will remain in the rotation, even though Brad Lidge just had knee surgery.
b) It rewards Myers for being a good soldier and moving back to the rotation after falling in love with closing last year.
Ultimately, I've always believed the opening-day starter thing is only a symbolic honor. When I covered the minors, a pitcher once told me that being the opening-day starter only means you get to pitch first. Most teams have deep enough rotations that both the No. 1 and No. 2 starters will face good pitchers every five days. So, I don't really think it's a tremendously big deal, as long as Hamels doesn't feel burned by it. Hamels wasn't around after tonight's game was called, but I'll definitely ask him about it tomorrow.
Good reward for a wife beater
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