Whistling this song while reading about this starter.
A-B-C… My guess is that the Diamondbacks are next. He’s got me stumped on what he’s going to do about “E”, though.
Out of his 14 years of experience, he has made 2 Opening Day starts, both of them in a Cardinals uniform (2008, 2012).
In 2008, although he received a no-decision, he left the game after throwing 5 shutout innings against the Rockies, exiting the game with only 3 hits allowed.
2012 was an even better start. Not only did he go deeper into the game (he was subbed out in the 8th inning), but he also kept the Marlins hitless for 6 straight innings.
Here are some key numbers in Lohse’s impressive stat line for Opening Day starts:
1-0, 0.73 ERA, 0.649 WHIP
Needless to say, these numbers are much better than Gallardo’s. Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said that his experience did play a factor in selecting him for the big day.
It seems like it might be a good move for Milwaukee, as Gallardo has not had the best Spring Training with the Rangers in 2015. In 2 starts, he’s lost both games, and has compiled a horrible stat line: 13 1/3 IP, 10.13 ERA, and a 2.025 WHIP.
The following are the results of the Yovani Gallardo’s Opening Day starts for the Brewers:
-2009 (4-2 victory over the Giants): W, 6 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 6 K’s
-2010 (5-3 loss against the Rockies): L, 7 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 5 K’s
-2011 (7-6 loss against the Reds): no-decision, 6 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 4 K’s
-2012 (11-5 loss against the Cardinals): L, 3 2/3 IP, 6 ER, 7 H, 5 BB’s, 4 HR’s, 3 K’s
-2013 (5-4 win over the Rockies): no-decision, 5 IP, 3 ER, 10 H, 3 K’s
-2014 (2-0 win over the Braves): W, 6 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 4 K’s
All in all, his Opening Day record is somewhat decent. Although he has a 2-2 record and a cumulative 4.19 ERA and 1.631 WHIP in his Opening Day starts, 4 out of 6 of those games were quality starts.
Runners be like…
He co-led the pickoff category by the end of the 2014 season, as he and Kansas City Royals' Danny Duffy were tied with 5 apiece. In 2013, he blew any pickoff pitching competition out of the water, taking away 8 runners off the basepaths; the next highest number out of anyone in the Majors was 4!
RIP to the following 13 runners who Julio Teheran picked off in the 2013 and 2014 seasons:
-Jordan Pacheco (April 23, 2013)
-Denard Span (April 29, 2013)
-Daniel Murphy (May 26)
-Starling Marte (June 5, 2013)
-Logan Forsythe (June 10, 2013)
-Carlos Gomez (June 21, 2013)
-Logan Morrison (July 9, 2013)
-Eric Young (July 22, 2013)
-Marcell Ozuna (April 21, 2014)
-Eric Young again… (July 2, 2014)
-Carl Crawford (August 11, 2014)
-Yasiel Puig (August 11, 2014)
-Josh Reddick (August 16, 2014)
-Christian Yelich (September 7, 2014)
Keep in mind that Teheran is a right-handed pitcher. Most pitchers who get praise for their pickoff moves (like Andy Pettitte or the pitcher with the most pickoffs in MLB history in Steven Carlton are lefties, and that’s normally because they’re more likely to pick runners off since they don’t have to turn their whole body away to accurately throw to first.
Side Note: The only other righty who has consistently had as much success in recent years is James Shields, who can pick off runners at any base. He’s got some competition in the National League now, since the former 2014 Royal is now on the Padres.
