Clint Hurdle announced that Kevin Correia will start Opening Day, followed by Paul Maholm, Ross Ohlendorf, Charlie Morton and James McDonald.
Correia was a bit of a surprise to start over Maholm, but it does put PM in position to start the home opener on April 7th against the Rockies. The only alteration may be a Jeff Karstens/Brian Burres spot start in J-Mac's spot if he's not ready to roll by the first week of April.
I would call that a serviceable rotation, if---IF---everyone stayed healthy and pitched to their career average norms. Basically we'd have four guys who would win 12-14 games with an ERA between 4.00 and 4.50. Given how far beyond horrendous this team's "pitching" has been since the current regime took over, I'd gladly take that kind of performance in a heartbeat. Again, even just "reliable average-ness" would be an incredible upgrade.
ReplyDeleteI am, of course, leaving our Charlie Morton, who to my mind is a lost cause until proven otherwise. I have no problem with the team giving him a last look, given that his competition, Scott Olsen, got hurt early in camp. I just hope there's a short leash on Morton and that he is quickly disposed of if he begins to look anything at all like he did last year.