That somebody is none other than Esmil Rogers. What, you've never heard of him?
That's Esmil. He's a tough guy.
So what do you do when your team has to face a guy that no one has ever heard of on Opening Day? You make a blog post that includes everything you can possibly find about the guy, let's go.
Rogers was born on August 14, 1985 in Santo Domingo, the same day that this article about an angry nun was published in the LA Times. Sadly, the Pirates did not play on August 14, 1985, but if they did, they probably would have lost. I say that because from August 5, 1985 to August 15, 1985 the Pirates lost 9 games in a row. Rogers' birth clearly threw some shockwaves through the '85 Pirates.
Rogers currently stands at 6'1'' and weights 150 pounds. Interestingly enough, that's how much I weigh, and I'm a 5'9'' dude that most major league baseball players could punt further than Brian Bixler can hit a baseball.
After 18 years of living the non-glamorous life, Rogers was signed by the Rockies as an international free agent. He made his big league debut on September 12, 2009 against the Padres and pitched 4 innings giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and striking out 3.
Before Rogers took the baseball world by storm with that major league debut, he pitched for 3 years in the minor leagues. Here's his numbers:
2006 (R): 3-6, 63.1 IP, 6.96 ERA, 5.68 K/9
2007 (A): 7-4, 117.2 IP, 3.75 ERA, 6.88 K/9
2008 (A+): 9-7, 143.2 IP, 3.95 ERA, 7.27 K/9
2009 (AA/AAA): 11-7, 155 IP, 4.41 ERA, 7.5 K/9
2010 (AAA): 3-3, 61.0 IP, 5.75 ERA, 7.8 K/9
Rogers made only one appearance in the major leagues in the 2009 season, and that was the aforementioned 4 innings he went against the Padres. Rogers got his first extensive action in the major leagues last year, here are those numbers:
28 G, 8 GS, 2-3, 6.13 ERA, 8.3 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, -1.4 WAR
Rogers actually made a start against the Pirates last year. On August 8, he defeated the Pirates with a 6-inning 3 earned run performance. Interestingly enough, Joe Beimel was the next pitcher in that game after Rogers was taken out.
Rogers has some pretty good stuff, which was probably one of the reasons the Rockies chose him to be in their rotation this year.
He throws his fastball 62.9% of the time and the average velocity on that pitch is 94.3 miles per hour. The fastball is swung on 45.4% of the time, whiffed on 6.4% of the time and put in play 18.5% of the time.
His next pitch is the curveball, which he throws 17.3% of the time. He throws it for a strike at a rate of 51.7%, gets whiffs on it 13.4% of the time, and has it put in play at a clip of 14.7%.
He'll throw some sliders along with a changeup, but the fastball and curveball are his best two offerings.
The way the Pirates have been swinging the bats early on this year, it won't be a surprise to see a lot of guys go down on strikes to Esmil. The good news is that Rogers has been hit pretty hard in his career, and has been no stranger to giving up some big innings. He has some control issues and that could definitely be a factor in his first action of the 2011 season. The Pirates will have to stay patient and try to get ahead of the count, then sit on some of these fastballs and hit them as hard as they can.
The Pirates are pretty fortunate that are seeing Rogers instead of Jimenez tomorrow in their home opener, and let's hope they can take advantage of it and get another victory.
Here's the results from the Pirates last 5 home openers:
2010: Beat the Dodgers 11-5, W: Zach Duke L: Vicente Padilla HR: Jones (2), Doumit
2009: Beat the Astros 7-0, W: Zach Duke L: Brian Moehler HR: Doumit, Ad. LaRoche
2008: Lost to the Cubs 10-8, W: Jon Lieber L: Evan Meek HR: none
2007: Lost to the Cardinals 3-0, W: Braden Looper L: Ian Snell HR: none
2006: Lost to the Dodgers 8-3, W: Odalis Perez L: Zach Duke HR: none
So now that you know everything about Esmil Rogers and how the Pirates have faired their last 5 Opening Days, it's time to go to bed so you can wake up and watch the game. First pitch is at 1:35, and I will be there. If you enjoyed the time you just waisted reading this post, follow me on twitter.