Yu Darvish Opening day starter, The Last 5 Starters

Apr 2, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher Yu Darvish (11) pitches against the Houston Astros in the sixth inning at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports

Today the Texas Rangers announced that Yu Darvish will be the opening day starter.  Which comes as no surprise.  Ron Washington said that during the Texas Rangers Fan Fest last month, and it should be expected since Darvish is the ace in the rotation.

Now we all know that baseball is talking sport and it also filled with tons of superstitions.  Both players and fans have their little nuances they do before and during a game to help their team win.  Looking back at the previous starting pitchers makes me wonder if Darvish should be the Opening day pitcher.  The easy answer is yes, but maybe he shouldn’t be.

Let’s take a look back over the past 5 years.

2009 – Kevin Millwood

Millwood is the last Texas Rangers pitcher to start opening day back-to-back.  In fact he was the starting pitcher from 2006-2009.   Millwood had a rough streak of losing the first 3 Opening day starts before finally getting a win in 2009.  The Rangers won that game 9-1 over the Cleveland Indians.  The Rangers won that game with some stellar pitching from Millwood and some hot bats from the Rangers.  Hank Blalock, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia both homered and Rangers had a 4 run 4th to help Millwood get the win.  Millwood said that he prepped during the offseason with his conditioning and commented on it after the game.

“It made a huge difference,” Millwood said. “I felt I could still keep on pitching. That’s a pretty good sign when you feel I can throw more than 110-115 pitches and still get something on the ball.” (MLB.com – T.R. Sullivan)

But Millwood wouldn’t record another win until April 28.  Millwood did go on to have a good season with a record of 13-10 and an 3.67 ERA over 31 starts/198.2 innings, but his time in Texas was done.  He moved on to Baltimore, where he had a disastrous year going 4-16 with an ERA of 5.10.

2011 C.J. Wilson

2010 didn’t end the way Rangers fans had hoped, but at least the Texas Rangers did make it to the World Series. In case you some how didn’t know, it was the first time in franchise history they had made it that far.

Wilson didn’t have his best stuff for Opening day and blamed it one issues with his hamstring.  Because of those issues, his fastball wasn’t quite as fast, and he had to mix up his pitches to remain effective.  But over the 5.2 innings, Wilson was rung up for 4 runs, 2 unearned, but again, the offense managed to carry the team to a win.

“I was throwing everything I had,” Wilson said. “It was still a great day for the team. That was the big thing — even last year on days I didn’t have my best stuff, the offense picked me up.” (MLB.com -TR Sullivan)

After the season, it was heavily speculated that he wouldn’t be rejoining the Rangers.  I felt that way too, mainly because he had mentioned numerous times that he grew up in California and would love to play out there.  When the offseason started, the bidding started, and the Rangers didn’t win, making him an Angel.  After that many fans turned on him, which they probably started to do way earlier than that for various reasons.  But Wilson did give the Rangers a solid year finishing with a record of 16-7 with an ERA of 2.94.  He was very strong during the regular season, but almost a complete disappointment in the postseason.  He had a postseason record of 1-5 with an ERA of 4.82.  Give him credit for getting the Rangers there, but he didn’t finish it.  Maybe that’s part of the reason some fans have a major dislike for him.

2012 – Colby Lewis

After being just inches and one out away twice from winning the World Series, the Rangers started 2012 with the hopes of redemption.  Colby Lewis was given that honor to be the Texas Rangers Opening day starter, and after the stellar postseason,he rightfully deserved it.  Lewis is probably the best Texas Rangers postseason pitcher with a record of 4-1 and an ERA of 2.34 over 8 games/50.0 innings.

Lewis kept the Opening day winning tradition alive by pitching 7 innings and only allowing 2 runs.  Which was very helpful because, unlike the previous years, the Rangers bats were not as hot and only managed to score 3 runs, but it was enough to win over the Chicago White Sox.  That game was also important because that was the first game that Robin Ventura would manage and for Rangers fans, that meant the removal of the famous clip involving him and Nolan Ryan.

As we know, 2012 wasn’t kind to Lewis, he suffered injuries with a torn flexor tendon in his right elbow that required surgery.

“It’s a disappointment,” he said. “Not only to me, but to my family, my teammates and the organization.” (Huffington Post)

2013 – Matt Harrison

On Easter day, the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros managed to take front and center stage on ESPN with the first game of the season.   The past couple of years playing the Astros in inter-league play, the Rangers had handle the Astros pretty well, and everyone expected them to do it again.  Harrison probably thought so too, but the Astros managed to break the Opening day win streak.  Harrison was rung up for 5 earn runs (6 total) over 5.2 innings.  The Rangers lost that game in disappointing fashion with a score of 2-8.

The day wasn’t a total lose for Harrison, he did manage to strike out 9 batters on Opening day, but that wasn’t good enough to help the Texas Rangers win on Opening day.  (Nolan Ryan also had 9 strikeouts on Opening day)

“It was the opener, not the last game of the season,” Harrison said. “You’re not going to win or lose the division on the first game of the season, but it would have been nice to win the game.” (MLB.com TR Sullivan)

Harrison had issues during Opening day probably due to his back injury, which only allowed him to get one more start.  Harrison hopes he’ll be able to return to form in 2014, and so far it look promising.

2014 – Yu Darvish

He was stellar in game 2 in 2013 against the Houston Astros, minus one Marwin Gonzales, he would have had a perfect game.  But no need to cry over split milk, Darvish flirted with it several times and I expect him to capture one sometime over his career.  Should Yu Darvish get the Opening day start, yes for sure!  Who else would you want out there?  Darvish had a record of 2.83.  He should have had a record closer to 20, but there were several close game and four 0-1 games they Rangers lost.  I’m pretty excited to see him on the mound on Opening day.  Hope you are too.