If you haven't heard yet, Erik Bedard was named the Pirates Opening Day Starter today. That's good news for me, because I promised a group of guys at California University of Pennsylvania $5 each if he wasn't starting April 5th. Thanks Pirates for saving me some money.There's no doubt that Bedard was the only choice here. He's the best pitcher on the staff right now, he has the most experience, and it's always nice to give a new guy an Opening Day look. I know that might not help the recruiting cause, but it certainly can't hurt, right? This will make two years in a row that the Pirates Opening Day starter will be making his debut with the team (Kevin Correia last year).
The Pirates also said that Jeff Karstens will pitch game two, James McDonald will pitch game three, and Correia will start game four on the west coast. The question now becomes when Charlie Morton will make the start. Considering his name wasn't mentioned in the announcement, and Neil Huntington has already expressed the fact that they want to take things extremely slowly with Morton, I'm guessing he skips the first start the rotation cycles back to Bedard on game five. The Pirates have two off days in their first five days of the season, so I'd say it's a good bet that the team will do just that. Knowing that, here's what the first few series look like:
4/5 vs. Phillies - Bedard
4/7 vs. Phillies - Karstens
4/8 vs. Phillies - McDonald
4/10 at Dodgers - Correia
4/11 at Dodgers - Bedard
4/12 at Dodgers - Karstens
4/13 at Giants - McDonald
4/14 at Giants - Correia
4/15 at Giants - Morton
4/17 at Diamondbacks - Bedard
4/18 at Diamondbacks - Karstens
4/19 at Diamondbacks - McDonald
4/20 vs. Cardinals - Correia
4/21 vs. Cardinals - Morton
4/22 vs. Cardinals - Bedard
After that the question is when A.J. Burnett will be ready to make his 2012 debut. I'm expecting that to happen in the last week of April or the first week of May. When he is ready, he will take Correia's spot in the rotation and things will go from there.
All-in-all this is one of the strongest rotations that the Pirates have had in quite some time. They have a legitimate six guy in Correia to compensate for possible injuries, and they have two guys at the top in Bedard and Burnett with real experience and real stuff. After that they have two guys with big upside in McDonald and Morton and a guy in Karstens that will take the ball every five days and will keep you in most games (and he's also capable of throwing complete game, 83 pitch shutouts, assuming we're playing the Astros).
If the lineup can hit the ball around a bit, this rotation could be strong enough to take the Pirates to the .500 mark and possibly even contend for a playoff spot. The extra 13% that the added Wild Card Spot gave to the Pirates postseason chances certainly helps you optimists out there.