Breaking: Madison Bumgarner To Start Opening Day
August 23, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner (40) delivers a pitch against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
With the first game of the Cactus League to begin tomorrow, 12:05pm vs Oakland. We have our first bit of news, as far as the regular season goes. Giants Manager Bruce Bochy announced that LHP Madison Bumgarner will be the 2014 Opening Day Starter.
BREAKING: Bumgarner to start Opening Day. #sfgiants
— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) February 25, 2014
Last years Opening Day Starter, Matt Cain, will pitch the second game of the season and so far is expected to be followed by newcomer Tim Hudson, Tim Lincececum and Ryan Vogelsong.
Cain will open as No.2 starter. Rest could be tweaked but currently it's Hudson, Lincecum, Vogelsong.
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) February 25, 2014
When asked why the decision to go with Bumgarner on Opening Day
Bochy said he could have gone Cain or Bumgarner, wanted to reward Bumgarner. "He had a real nice year and hasn't done it before."
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) February 25, 2014
As mentioned above, here is the rest of the rotation and for those of you lucky enough to be attending the April 8th Home Opener
Tentative rotation: Bumgarner, Cain, Hudson, Lincecum, Vogelsong. If so, Hudson starts 4/8 home opener. #sfgiants
— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) February 25, 2014
Some may be surprised by this announcement, but this is the right decision and a very well deserved honor for the 24-year-old lefty. Last season Bumgarner pitched 201.1 innings with a 13-9 record. The 13 wins really don’t do justice to season that Bumgarner had. In 14 games in which the offense scored 0-2 runs, Bumgarner had 1-7 record with a 2.78 ERA. In 13 starts with 3-5 runs of support, he was 9-1 with a 2.37 ERA. In 4 games with 6+ runs, he was 3-1 with a 4.18 ERA. So as you see by those above numbers, he kept the team in most games and lack of run support cost him a much better season in the win column.
I am hoping to have a podcast coming up before the season begins, with team and idividual predictions. I am going on record right now saying that my pick for the 2014 CY Young Award is Madison Bumgarner.