Ron Washington named his starting rotation for the beginning of the 2012 season on Thursday. It pretty much isn’t a big surprise, although there was one minor surprise to me. Here’s the five:
- Colby Lewis
- Derek Holland
- Matt Harrison
- Yu Darvish
- Neftali Feliz
The surprise for me is that we have Holland and Harrison back to back as lefties. It’s probably not a huge deal, but I figured pretty much this same order, except with Harrison & Darvish reversed. Colby Lewis is the defacto #1 – he’s not really a #1 – I’d say he’s a good #3. But we don’t have a true #1 anymore, since Cliff Lee signed with Philadelphia, so we go with what we have. If Darvish translates over here, then I can see him being #1 in 2014 perhaps, but not right now.
I think Holland and Feliz are well placed. I’m still not convinced that Feliz will last the whole season in the rotation. I know I was wrong about CJ Wilson when he tried it, and I’ve held reservations about Ogando last year too. But Feliz “feels” wrong. It has that vibe of “I hope he does OK” as opposed to him having gone out and grabbed hold of the position and EARNED it. From the way they’ve pitched, I’d say Scott Feldman or Ogando himself deserve the role via merit. But we’re not playing that game, they want to forcbily put Feliz there. If he tanks, though – I hope they don’t just keep him there. We’ll see.
I suspect Holland will continue on pitching well. He and Harrison appear to be getting it worked out, which is nice. I suspect the starting rotation in 2013 will be either Holland or Darvish #1. :)
Yu Darvish is a big unknown. I don’t think he’s going 21-3 type of dominance. I suspect he’ll get about 15-16 wins – do good, but not “holy crap he’s lights out” type of good.
Darvish’s major league start is at home on Monday the 9th against the Seattle Mariners. The “squee” level coming from Japan when he faces off against Ichiro will be some kind of loud noise. Probably will be able to hear it with the naked ear all the way from Dallas!