ARLINGTON, Tex. — Get ready.
They are green as the 12th hole at Augusta, not real young, average 27.2 years of age and the five starters form one of the least-experienced staffs in the 34-year history of the Blue Jays franchise.
The career average number of starts (37) by the Jays’ 2010 opening day rotation, is one more than Roy Halladay made in 2003 when he won the Cy Young Award.
Consider that the Jays’ opening-day starting staff ...
– Earns less than the team is paying Halladay ($6 million US) to pitch for the Philadelphia Phillies — Shaun Marcum ($850,000), Brian Tallet ($2 million), Ricky Romero ($408,300), Brandon Morrow ($409,800) and Dana Eveland ($419,500). So, much for sparing no expense.
— Will earn $4.088 million, 30th among major-league expenditures for rotations. The Tampa Bay Rays are 29th at $9.475 million. The top five spenders for starters are: 1. the New York Yankees $63,158 million, 2. Chicago Cubs $50.775, 3. Boston Red Sox $42.263, 4. New York Mets $38.088 and 5. Chicago White Sox $36.2 million.
— Averages less than 21/2 years of service time.
— Has 72 career wins, second lowest total of any Jays staff to start a season. It has two more career wins than the 1981 rotation of Jim Clancy, Dave Stieb, Luis Leal, Jackson Todd and Mark Bomback. Those Jays went 37-69 in the strike-marred season.
— Averages 37 career starts, which equals the ’81 group.
— Averages 284 career innings logged, 32nd on our list of 34 opening-day quintets. This group of starters has averaged five more innings than the 2002 group of Chris Carpenter, Halladay, Brandon Lyon, Scott Eyre and Brian Cooper and the ’81 staff (272 innings).
— Ranks eighth in team history of opening day groups, averaging 104 appearances.
At the 2008 winter meetings in Las Vegas, manager Cito Gaston said he had 21/2 experienced starters in Halladay, Jesse Litsch ... and David Purcey who had 12 starts on his resume.
How many now?
“Three,” said Gaston. “Marcum, Tallet and Romero. And when I told Romero he was going third, he was quick to tell me he was ready to pitch against the No. 1 of other teams.”
Gaston recalled how, in the spring of 2009, after his first two rough outings, Romero looked as if he’d be sent to triple-A Las Vegas.
While Marcum is coming off Tommy John surgery and making his first start since Sept. 16, 2008, Romero is the Jays’ best returning starter going 13-9 last season with a 4.30 earned run average in 29 starts.
“It’s a young staff,” Romero said. “Marcum is coming back from a year away and he looked good this spring. Tallet will battle and I’m a competitor. I don’t know what to expect.”
Gaston said he was impressed by Morrow this spring, especially on Saturday at Minute Maid Park in Houston, and he hopes that Litsch will return from Tommy John surgery by the all-star break.
One could point out that the Jays are taking a better route with young, under-control arms rather than bringing in Tomo Ohka, John Thompson and Victor Zambrano as stop-gaps the way they did in 2007.
Besides Litsch, also on the disabled list are Dustin McGowan, Marc Rzepczynski, Scott Richmond and Shawn Hill.
And at triple-A are Brett Cecil, Brad Mills, Robert Ray, Lance Broadway and Ray Gonzalez.
“Sometimes a hitter’s lack of knowledge about pitchers goes a long way,” outfielder Vernon Wells said.
At least they are not leaning on Jesse Jefferson, Phil Huffman, Brian Cooper, Robert Person and Jeff Ware.
bob.elliott@sunmedia.ca
