15 Responses to “2003:Inexperienced Opening Day Starters”

1. Mr. Dave Says:
   March 10th, 2011 at 9:26 am

   A good number of these pitchers were considered top prospects for their clubs. Detroit was undergoing a major youth movement at the time, and Maroth was supposed to be one of the pitchers they were going to build around. Lackey, Beckett, Oswalt, Sheets, Sabathia, and Beuhrle have gone on to have solid to great careers, and Halladay just barely missed the 100 start trhreshhold. Armas was one of the keys to the Pedro Martinez trade to Boston. I think it was just a matter of quite a number of prospects all hitting the majors at roughly the same time.

2. Chris Says:
   March 10th, 2011 at 10:21 am

   That must have been one bad rotation in Cincinnati in 2003.

3. BSK Says:
   March 10th, 2011 at 11:22 am

   We also might want to look at whether these guys were really intended to be the Opening Day starters. How many teams would have started someone else had they not been injured?

4. DavidRF Says:
   March 10th, 2011 at 11:24 am

   Who were the 2002 starters who didn't start in 2003?

5. Whiz Says:
   March 10th, 2011 at 12:14 pm

   Hmm, the 15 teams in 2003 with the most experienced starter won 9 of 15 games (although the top 5 were 1-4). That's within the noise, but I wonder if it holds up over the long haul.

6. John Autin Says:
   March 10th, 2011 at 3:14 pm

   I'll just note that Kris Benson, Mark Buehrle, Tony Armas and C.C. Sabathia all had logged at least 2 full seasons in a big-league rotation when they took the mound on Opening Day 2003.

7. John Autin Says:
   March 10th, 2011 at 3:54 pm

   Now, here's a bit of a mystery:

   In 1969, the Twins' pitching staff featured:
   -- Jim Kaat and Jim Perry, both in their prime (they would finish with almost 500 big-league Wins combined);
   -- Dean Chance, the 1964 Cy Young winner, who in '68 had pitched 292 innings with a 2.53 ERA and 234 Ks; and
   -- Dave Boswell, the young veteran who, though only 24 in '69, had already made 97 starts in the majors, with a 104 ERA+ and 8.0 K/9.

   Yet the Opening Day starter was the 21-year-old Tom Hall, making just his 9th MLB appearance, his 5th start, with less than 30 IP on his resume.

   There's no obvious sign that any of the veterans were seriously injured. Kaat, Perry and Boswell started games 2, 3 and 4; Chance started game 7 and pitched regularly before going on the D.L. in June.

   So how did Tom Hall end up with the plum assignment? It wasn't just Opening Day; it was the first game in the history of the opposing Kansas City Royals.

   My best guess (and it's pure speculation) is that Minnesota's rookie manager wanted to make a bold move to grab the veterans' attention and show them in stark terms that whatever they'd done before meant diddly to him.

   That rookie manager was Billy Martin, and he led the Twins to the first-ever AL West division title -- then got fired in the offseason. (Didn't take long for that pattern to take root, eh?)

8. John Autin Says:
   March 10th, 2011 at 3:57 pm

   P.S. Upon hearing that Billy Martin had gotten into a fistfight with a marshmallow salesman, the only thing that surprised me was the fact that there existed such a thing as a marshmallow salesman.

9. Raphy Says:
   March 10th, 2011 at 4:55 pm

   @4

   Rk	Player	Date ▴	Tm	Opp	Rslt	App,Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	Pit	Str	GSc	IR	IS	BF	AB	2B	3B	IBB	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	PO	BK	WP	ERA	WPA	RE24	aLI
   1	Jarrod Washburn	2002-03-31	ANA	CLE	L 0-6	GS-5 ,L	5.0	8	5	5	1	6	1	90	56	36			23	22	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	9.00	-0.272	-2.281	.576
   2	Bartolo Colon	2002-03-31	CLE	ANA	W 6-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	5	0	0	2	5	0	98	66	80			33	31	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.248	4.893	.502
   3	Scott Erickson	2002-04-01	BAL	NYY	W 10-3	GS-6 ,W	6.0	3	1	0	5	2	0	100	53	61			24	18	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	0.00	0.138	2.101	.936
   4	Ron Villone	2002-04-01	PIT	NYM	L 2-6	GS-5 ,L	5.0	6	4	4	2	7	1	106	67	44			24	20	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	7.20	-0.207	-1.595	.799
   5	Robert Person	2002-04-01	PHI	ATL	L 2-7	GS-5 ,L	5.0	3	6	3	4	3	2	77	48	42			23	19	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	5.40	-0.248	-3.472	.632
   6	Mike Hampton	2002-04-01	COL	STL	L 2-10	GS-4 ,L	3.2	9	6	6	3	1	0	87	51	17			24	21	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	14.73	-0.346	-4.650	1.146
   7	Mark Mulder	2002-04-01	OAK	TEX	W 8-3	GS-8 ,W	8.0	6	3	3	0	8	1	95	67	66			29	29	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	3.38	0.199	1.260	.538
   8	Kevin Jarvis	2002-04-01	SDP	ARI	L 0-2	GS-7 ,L	7.0	5	2	2	0	4	1	89	58	63			25	25	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.57	0.124	1.853	.750
   9	Jon Lieber	2002-04-01	CHC	CIN	L 4-5	GS-5	5.0	8	3	3	0	1	1	79	52	40			23	22	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	5.40	-0.115	-0.421	.926
   10	Joey Hamilton	2002-04-01	CIN	CHC	W 5-4	GS-5	5.0	7	2	2	5	3	0	94	51	43			26	21	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	3.60	0.044	0.579	1.418
   11	Jeff Suppan	2002-04-01	KCR	MIN	L 6-8	GS-6	6.0	7	4	4	0	3	4	88	61	45			24	24	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	6.00	0.004	-0.413	.793
   12	Chris Carpenter	2002-04-01	TOR	BOS	W 12-11	GS-3	2.1	6	6	6	3	3	4	64	37	21			16	13	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	23.14	-0.309	-4.894	.702
   13	Chan Ho Park	2002-04-01	TEX	OAK	L 3-8	GS-6 ,L	5.0	9	6	6	0	5	2	90	59	30			23	22	3	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	10.80	-0.266	-2.967	.752
   14	Al Leiter	2002-04-01	NYM	PIT	W 6-2	GS-6 ,W	6.0	4	1	0	1	4	0	108	66	65			24	22	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.00	0.211	1.886	.973
   15	Wade Miller	2002-04-02	HOU	MIL	L 3-9	GS-4 ,L	4.0	7	7	7	2	3	2	78	45	21			23	19	2	0	1	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	15.75	-0.367	-4.897	.944
   16	Tanyon Sturtze	2002-04-02	TBD	DET	W 9-5	GS-6	5.2	9	5	5	2	3	0	100	69	32			27	25	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	7.94	-0.097	-0.290	1.374
   17	Ryan Dempster	2002-04-02	FLA	MON	L 6-7	GS-8	7.1	6	3	3	1	7	1	106	69	60			28	25	3	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	3.68	0.242	1.548	1.098
   18	Livan Hernandez	2002-04-02	SFG	LAD	W 9-2	GS-8 ,W	8.0	4	2	2	3	3	0	122	75	66			29	25	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	2	1	0	0	0	2.25	0.029	1.642	.525
   19	Kevin Brown	2002-04-02	LAD	SFG	L 2-9	GS-4 ,L	4.0	9	7	7	1	5	2	68	46	20			23	20	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	15.75	-0.469	-5.179	.858
   20	Jeff Weaver	2002-04-02	DET	TBD	L 5-9	GS-6	5.1	7	4	3	3	4	0	101	65	41			27	23	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	5.06	-0.113	-0.386	1.153
   21	Javier Vazquez	2002-04-02	MON	FLA	W 7-6	GS-6	5.2	5	2	2	1	4	1	90	63	54			23	21	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3.18	0.013	0.734	1.055

   Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
   Generated 3/10/2011.
10. Doug Says:
    March 10th, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    @7. You might have something there, John re: the '69 Twins. Maybe Martin was trying to shake things up on what he perhaps saw as a complacent, veteran team.

    In fact, it seems maybe they were a little shaken, as they started the season 0-4, before rebounding with a 16-3 run, and never really looking back after that. I wonder how many 0-4 teams have gone to the post-season.

    Tom Hall, by the way, pitched 5.2 innings on opening day and left the game with the lead, which the bullpen couldn't hold. For the year, he went 8-7 in 18 starts and 13 relief outings, with a 112 ERA+, and took over the #4 spot in the rotation from Chance. It was the beginning of the end for Chance, who slumped to 88 innings work after his 292 innings the year before, and never again topped 157 innings .

11. Doug Says:
    March 10th, 2011 at 7:39 pm

    2003 was quite an opening day. Look at all the HOF prospects. Maddux, Glavine, Johnson and Pedro - pretty much can't miss. CC and Halladay are on track. And Beckett, Oswalt, Buehrle, Hudson - real good even if they will likely fall a little short of the Hall. And (the elephant in the room), Mr. Clemens.

    But it sure wasn't their day. Maddux, Glavine, Johnson, Pedro, CC and Halladay were a collective 0-4, and their teams ALL lost.

12. Thomas Says:
    March 11th, 2011 at 12:02 am

    Anyway we could get a similar list of fielders? or maybe just the top portion of said list?

    This has definitely sparked my interest.

13. Doug Says:
    March 11th, 2011 at 1:15 am

    2003 - definitely not your father's (or grandfather's) opening day. One (count 'em) complete game. No starter faced more than 32 batters.

    For no particular reason other than John mentioned the '69 Twins opener in #7, I compared by checking that year and found 4 complete games (with as many as 37 batters faced) even though 4 of the 10 games that day went at least 11 innings. So, discounting the extras, there was a complete game pitched in 4 of the other 6 games (plus, Bob Gibson went 9 in one of the extra-inning games).

    One thing the same between 1969 and 2003 - lots of future HOFers on the mound. For '69, we had Seaver, Gibson, Gaylord Perry, Phil Neikro, and Fergie Jenkins.

14. Doug Says:
    March 11th, 2011 at 1:35 am

    You can add two more HOFers to the '69 opening day starters. The Twins opener was actually on day 2 of the season. On day 1, Marichal and Drysdale were starters.

    Mel Stottlemyre also started on day 1 and picked up a complete game win facing 43 batters (one shudders to think what his pitch count was). This was his first of a league-leading 24 complete games that year (including 5 of his first 6 starts).

15. John Autin Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 12:57 am

    Doug @11 -- Not to make too big a deal of this, but ... Josh Beckett is not currently within 10 miles of a HOF track. I think he's the most overrated pitcher in baseball: He has a career ERA+ of 112, with just 2 qualifying seasons above 120. Over the past 3 years, he's averaged 12 wins, a 4.39 ERA, 104 ERA+, and 171 IP -- while earning $11 million a year, with another $63 million due over the next 4 seasons.

    The WS-clinching shutout was a long time ago, and even his 20-win season is a fading memory. His reputation as a top pitcher far exceeds his actual achievements.