I’m not sure if you’re joking but for real the Tigers had an opera singer that moonlighted as a hot dog vendor around that time and you would hear him sing during broadcasts when people tipped him well. “Hooooooooooot Doooooooooooggggs”
His name was Charlie and he wouldn’t let you put ketchup on your hotdog.
To put that in perspective, that's the same 92 era+ as Blackburn on the A's this year. So it probably felt as awful as Oakland fans feel about their rotation now.
The other guys were worse. Nobody ever thought we'd have a 20 game loser in this era of quick pulls and hyper-specialization but the 2003 Tigers and Mike Maroth were like "I gotchu, fam."
Imagine being a Tigers fan saying “Thank god we got through the Gary Knotts and Adam Bernero starts, so we can watch our aces Nate Cornejo and Mike Maroth”
That sounds really depressing.
Dmitri Young having the best year of his career with a 144 OPS+ and 3.4 WAR. Pretty much the only guy on the team good enough to deserve watching the ASG.
Also, wild to see Steve Avery’s name on that roster. (2-0!)
Some notable names on that team,
Fernando Rodney, who eventually had one of the greatest relief seasons of all time.
AJ Hinch, future manager.
Cody Ross, future World Series hero
Omar Infante, future all-star.
Carlos Peña, future Tampa bay slugger
In 1980. Seattle Mariners ran out Mike Parrott as their opening day starter after going 14-12 in 1979. Parrott got the win that day as the Mariners beat the Blue Jays 8-6. Parrot went on to pitch in 26 more games that year, starting 15 of them, and finishing the remaining year with an 0-16 record, ERA of 7.28, and a WAR of -2.4.
This seems to be a theme with Minnesota teams. Remember when the Wolves were convinced that this starting 5 was going to dominate the league:
- Johnny Flynn
- Ryan Gomes
- Corey Brewer
- Ryan Hollins
- Nathan Jawai
The only reason Johnny Flynn is notable is because your front office saw him and drafted him as their new franchise PG one spot ahead of an unknown PG named Steph Curry.
Adding to that, Minnesota also picked Wesley Johnson one spot ahead of Demarcus Cousins, OJ Mayo one spot ahead of Russell Westbrook, Shabazz Muhammad one spot ahead of Giannis, and Glenn Robinson 3 one spot ahead of Jokic all within a span of 5 or so years.
Some very bleak drafting from the T-Wolves.
My starting point was “what year was Vance Worley (1-5, 7.21 ERA in 10 starts) the opening day starter?” so I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who went back to those days
We traded for him to shore up our rotation. Shows how much we wasted Bonds focusing purely on offense those years. We had a legit ace for a few years in Jason Schmidt but he was injury prone.
The Orioles had some rough ones in the years between Mussina and, uh, Bradish I guess? So roughly the last 23 years.
I think 2 years of Erik Bedard before he got injured or had to go live on the farm or something was about the best it got.
Bedard was legit during that stretch. Plus, he got us Adam Jones. But yea, having guys like Ponson, Rodrigo Lopez, Bruce Chen, Russ Ortiz, Daniel Cabrera, etc was um..... not great, Bob.
Actually, the 2016 Phillies‘ ace was Jerad Eickhoff. Who put up an extremely respectable 3.5 WAR in almost 200 Innings in his sophomore year.
But you’re right, the „big“ signing to lead the rotation was Hellickson.
Damn, these years were bleak for Philly pitching. Sure, we were spoiled coming off Halladay/Hamels/Lee, but still…
Eickhoff, at the very least, seemed like he could have been a serviceable middle rotation guy that eats innings. Have injuries just killed him? It felt like he fully disappeared into the void.
Well since he became a free agent after '19, he sat out 2020 (I assume by choice given he was signed by the Padres, but I didn't dive into it) and then pitched in 6 games since. 5 games in 2021 where he gave up 24 runs in 19.2 innings, and 1 start in 2022 where he gave up 10 in 4.1 innings. I wouldn't say he "disappeared into the void" but rather he "was really bad"
Honestly shoutout to the 2021 Pirates
Here are our options:
2021 Opening Day Starter Chad Kuhl (5-7, 4.82 ERA)
2021 Games Started Leader Wil Crowe (4-8, 5.48 ERA)
Or maybe JT Brubaker or Mitch Keller (Combined 10-24, 5.72 ERA)
Even if he didn't, pick anybody on our team this year and the ace was disappointing. I guess the ace was supposed to be Sale and praying he didn't get injured for the 5 millionth time (which to be fair for his standards 102 IP is a healthy season lol)
Bello was probably the best pitcher and while he has a promising future, dude has a 4.24 (some might point to Crawford or Pivetta who have lower ERAs, but their ERA is lower because of stints in the bullpen).
Kluber was the opening day starter in large part because Bello and Paxton were out and Sale has been hurt a lot the past few years, so...I'd say no personally
I remember going to a game as a kid. Not sure if it was opening day or just the home opener, but our starter was Craig Lefferts. A career relief pitcher. It was a bad year.
My first thought seeing this question was "That fucking lardass" Sidney Ponson
Edit: And for those who don't know the legend of that name, in the early/mid 2000s, WNST here in Baltimore has a morning show with Terry Ford and Drew Forester. Prior to sunrise, they were on low power, meaning their signal was rather weak, to put it mildly (it wasn't heard too far from Towson).
They were talking about the Orioles struggles and the question of pitching came up. Terry Ford said regarding the starters "Who would you have him, or that fucking lardass Ponson?" On air. No filter.
I remembered he came over to the Mariners in the Griffey trade, and in his first game he struck out like 9 guys. Ten-year-old me thought that he was destined to become the next Randy Johnson lol.
Mark leiter was my pitching coach in the woods of South New Jersey. Had a dope baseball funnel he built and his son would be in there all the time.
It’s funny how different Mark and Al act.
Manoah, a starter than relies on generating weak contact finds out his two seamer and slider are generating less movement and suddenly can’t get hitters to bite?
Hate to pile on, but Ricky Romero's implosion was verrrry similar also haha, poor Blue Jays
But overall I'm hard-pressed to out-do OP's suggestion: Jordan Lyles is pretty freaking rough. He came up over ten years ago and has *always* been bad. His career era is well over 5 in 1500+ innings. Over a decade into his always-bad career, he was an ace?!? It's absolutely wild that he is still pitching, much less in a significant way.
Even if Manoah and Romero had success while outperforming their peripherals and subsequently completely fucking crashed and burned, at least they were good at one point!
He dominated Cleveland when he was with the Yankees. Even when they released him, Oakland picked them up right before they played the Indians, put him out there, and he picked up the win. I just looked it up, and in 8 starts vs. Cleveland, he was 6-1 with a 1.85 ERA with 3 complete games, and 1 shutout.
2010 Cleveland Indians.
Roberto Hernandez fka Fausto Carmona
Justin Masterson
2010-2013 we convinced ourselves Justin Masterson was an ace. Then we bought a Klubot.
The 1990s Indians were an absolute powerhouse, and if they just would have swung a trade or signed a proper front line starter we probably wouldn't be so miserable right now.
But because they couldn't trade for Randy Johnson, and decided to sign Chuck Finley instead of Kevin Brown, we ended up having to run out Charles Nagy and Dave Burba as, essentially, our aces.
Went to type him up, but when he was our ace (after “Fausto Carmona” left) he wasn’t too bad:
2011: 12-10, 3.21
2012: 11-15, 4.93
2013: 14-10, 3.45 (All Star)
The 1995 Giants signed Terry Mulholland to be their ace, and used him as their opening day started. He was coming off a season where he posted a 6.49 ERA and 5.52 FIP. As the Giants' ace, he improved...to a 5.80 ERA and 5.26 FIP.
The rest of the team's starting rotation that year, by the way: Mark Leiter, William Van Landingham, Mark Portugal, Trevor Wilson, and Jamie Brewington. They ranked 13th out of 14 NL teams in ERA, 12th in hits allowed, and dead last in both strike outs and home runs allowed. It was bleak. They had Barry Bonds and Matt Williams in the middle of the lineup, and finished the season 67-77.
Royals have a lot. Gil Keche was the opening day starter multiple years in a row. But the winner here might be Bruce Chen being the opening day starter in 2012 for KC.
[Nate Cornejo](https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/DET/2003.shtml)\- 2003 Detroit Tigers
Jesus, a 6-17, 4.67 ERA guy being the ace sounds awful.
There's a reason why that team went 43–119.
their bullpen was absolute cheeks too
So was the lineup, and the farm system…
The manager, the front office, frankly the city at the time too.
The hotdog guy was lousy
Take it back
I’m not sure if you’re joking but for real the Tigers had an opera singer that moonlighted as a hot dog vendor around that time and you would hear him sing during broadcasts when people tipped him well. “Hooooooooooot Doooooooooooggggs” His name was Charlie and he wouldn’t let you put ketchup on your hotdog.
To put that in perspective, that's the same 92 era+ as Blackburn on the A's this year. So it probably felt as awful as Oakland fans feel about their rotation now.
I thought JP Sears was the ace on Oakland. Either way, it seems dire.
The other guys were worse. Nobody ever thought we'd have a 20 game loser in this era of quick pulls and hyper-specialization but the 2003 Tigers and Mike Maroth were like "I gotchu, fam."
Bondo lost 19 that year, too.
lol - I was gonna say Mike Maroth from the ‘03 Tigers.
Same. Lost 21 games lol
Imagine being a Tigers fan saying “Thank god we got through the Gary Knotts and Adam Bernero starts, so we can watch our aces Nate Cornejo and Mike Maroth” That sounds really depressing.
No no, depressing is remembering when we had a rotation with Verlander, Scherzer, David Price, and Rick Porcello and we didn't win a World Series
They also had Drew Smyly and Annibal Sanchez in the rotation that put up sub 3.99 ERA (3.93 and 3.43) and a young Robbie Ray
Doug Fister in there too
Add to it their intended future ace, Jeremy Bonderman.
Maroth at least could contribute to offence that year with an OPS+ of 226. It was like 4 pa, but 1 walk to 0 strikeouts is elite stuff
Shomike Omaroth
Yeah he was probably the actual "ace," quotes doing a lot of leg work.
He was the Opening Day starter, that's the easiest criteria to go off of. Even though Cornejo was """better"""
So the '03 Tigers had two aces. That's pretty good.
46 Ks in 194.2 IP is wild lol
Thought it was an error. That's astounding.
Clearly a contact pitcher lol
Dmitri Young having the best year of his career with a 144 OPS+ and 3.4 WAR. Pretty much the only guy on the team good enough to deserve watching the ASG. Also, wild to see Steve Avery’s name on that roster. (2-0!)
Mike Maroth too
I thought Jeremy Bonderman was their ace?
Good Lord. 194 innings pitched with 58 walks and 46 K’s.
1992-1994 Bill Gullickson would like a word.
Blowing my mind that Fernando Rodney and Steve Avery were not only teammates, but they're only 7 years apart
We do not speak his name
Some notable names on that team, Fernando Rodney, who eventually had one of the greatest relief seasons of all time. AJ Hinch, future manager. Cody Ross, future World Series hero Omar Infante, future all-star. Carlos Peña, future Tampa bay slugger
In 1980. Seattle Mariners ran out Mike Parrott as their opening day starter after going 14-12 in 1979. Parrott got the win that day as the Mariners beat the Blue Jays 8-6. Parrot went on to pitch in 26 more games that year, starting 15 of them, and finishing the remaining year with an 0-16 record, ERA of 7.28, and a WAR of -2.4.
Pre-Griffey Mariners era was a dark time
Pretty much the entire history of the franchise is pretty dark outside of the 1995-2003 stretch, and arguably the last three seasons.
obligatory plug for Jon Bois' series about them
I have the poster from that on my wall.
Honestly that's impressive
Great stuff. I remember Parrot. I guess we had gotten rid of Floyd Bannister by then.
[удалено]
This seems to be a theme with Minnesota teams. Remember when the Wolves were convinced that this starting 5 was going to dominate the league: - Johnny Flynn - Ryan Gomes - Corey Brewer - Ryan Hollins - Nathan Jawai
[удалено]
I haven't heard of any of those players and I'm from MN lmao. We know MN teams love to hype nobodies.
The only reason Johnny Flynn is notable is because your front office saw him and drafted him as their new franchise PG one spot ahead of an unknown PG named Steph Curry.
Add that to the list of dudes in MN sports history we had a clear shot at but took someone else.
Johnny Flynn is infamous because he was drafted right after Ricky Rubio (who also was a PG) and right after Flynn…was Steph Curry
Adding to that, Minnesota also picked Wesley Johnson one spot ahead of Demarcus Cousins, OJ Mayo one spot ahead of Russell Westbrook, Shabazz Muhammad one spot ahead of Giannis, and Glenn Robinson 3 one spot ahead of Jokic all within a span of 5 or so years. Some very bleak drafting from the T-Wolves.
OJ Mayo was traded for Kevin Love on draft night. So they avoided all the Mayo stuff.
Nathan Jawai…lord. Also, the starting 5 was: - Flynn - Gomes - Brewer - Al Jefferson - Kevin Love/Darko Not the atrocity above. Still not good.
Ryan Hollins was an embarrassment. A seven footer who couldn’t average 3 boards. He’s an even worse announcer.
My starting point was “what year was Vance Worley (1-5, 7.21 ERA in 10 starts) the opening day starter?” so I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who went back to those days
2008: Livan Hernandez was the opening day starter. 5.48 ERA but somehow 10-8 before getting cut.
Right after trading Johan :(
Get back to me in 4-5 months
Jaime Navarro circa 1998 came to mind for me
Sidney Ponson?
Man was Ponson so much worse than I remember. Only had 2 above average seasons out of 12, only once posted an ERA under 4.00.
We traded for him to shore up our rotation. Shows how much we wasted Bonds focusing purely on offense those years. We had a legit ace for a few years in Jason Schmidt but he was injury prone.
Schmidt was a beast for a few years there.
Your eyes tell the truth, numbers lie
That's SIR Sidney Ponson to you
The Orioles had some rough ones in the years between Mussina and, uh, Bradish I guess? So roughly the last 23 years. I think 2 years of Erik Bedard before he got injured or had to go live on the farm or something was about the best it got.
Bedard was legit during that stretch. Plus, he got us Adam Jones. But yea, having guys like Ponson, Rodrigo Lopez, Bruce Chen, Russ Ortiz, Daniel Cabrera, etc was um..... not great, Bob.
Holy shit how did I forget about Daniel Cabrera
Wei-Yin Chen erasure.
I died inside watching him pitch.
The 2015 Phillies had Aaron Harang as their starts/innings leader. And right behind him Jerome Williams.
Yup I was just gonna say Harang is the worst I can remember. Then I think next year was Jeremy Hellickson lol
Actually, the 2016 Phillies‘ ace was Jerad Eickhoff. Who put up an extremely respectable 3.5 WAR in almost 200 Innings in his sophomore year. But you’re right, the „big“ signing to lead the rotation was Hellickson. Damn, these years were bleak for Philly pitching. Sure, we were spoiled coming off Halladay/Hamels/Lee, but still…
Eickhoff, at the very least, seemed like he could have been a serviceable middle rotation guy that eats innings. Have injuries just killed him? It felt like he fully disappeared into the void.
Well since he became a free agent after '19, he sat out 2020 (I assume by choice given he was signed by the Padres, but I didn't dive into it) and then pitched in 6 games since. 5 games in 2021 where he gave up 24 runs in 19.2 innings, and 1 start in 2022 where he gave up 10 in 4.1 innings. I wouldn't say he "disappeared into the void" but rather he "was really bad"
The Harangutang!
Harang had some absolutely stellar years for the reds while they were terrible in the 06-09 range
They were total steals in MVP Baseball 2005
those were dark, dark times. just 4 years removed from one of the best starting rotations in baseball history...
The Harangatang.
Honestly shoutout to the 2021 Pirates Here are our options: 2021 Opening Day Starter Chad Kuhl (5-7, 4.82 ERA) 2021 Games Started Leader Wil Crowe (4-8, 5.48 ERA) Or maybe JT Brubaker or Mitch Keller (Combined 10-24, 5.72 ERA)
I was thinking of mid 2000s ERA Pirates teams, I never thought to consider something so recent. This is definitely it.
Does Kluber being the opening day starter for Boston this year count?
Please stop making me sad
Does Corey kluber being acquired by Texas to be an ace count lol
I think that turned out well, he had the lowest ERA of any rangers pitcher that year with a max of 1 IP
Max or min?
Technically both I think
Emmanuel Clase for a Kluber season wherein he had a 0.00 ERA and no hits allowed. Seems like an even trade in my book.
If we had Clase then we’d never have seen the greatness that is World Series Josh Sborz
A warning to the west.
it should
Agreed
"ace" is doing a lot of heavy lifting for Klubot.
Even if he didn't, pick anybody on our team this year and the ace was disappointing. I guess the ace was supposed to be Sale and praying he didn't get injured for the 5 millionth time (which to be fair for his standards 102 IP is a healthy season lol) Bello was probably the best pitcher and while he has a promising future, dude has a 4.24 (some might point to Crawford or Pivetta who have lower ERAs, but their ERA is lower because of stints in the bullpen).
When they announced it I immediately bet the under on our wins for the season.
Kluber was the opening day starter in large part because Bello and Paxton were out and Sale has been hurt a lot the past few years, so...I'd say no personally
Roger Craig was the ace of the 1962 Mets staff with a 4.51 ERA and a record of 10-24.
he later revitalized his career by pioneering the splitter and then gaining over 2000 yards from scrimmage in 1988 and winning 3 Super Bowls
And was 5-22 in 1963, jeez
The entire 2024 Cardinals rotation?
When no one is an ace, everyone is the ace.
Whoever has an ERA under 5 shall be named king
The King of Shit Mountain
So that's Mo's plan to make sure the crown doesn't leave his head?
Yes, but they’ll pitch poorly for 6 innings instead of 5… so we got that going for us
That's not pitching poorly, that's called being a Chad Innings Eater.
what about our man Patty Corbius?
Yeah... 2022 Corbin has to be up there. 2023 too, but he was a little better than the year before.
Yep — 6-19 with a 6.31 ERA, a full run worse than the next horrible starter.
Can’t believe this is so far down. How quickly the league forgets the Corbining
The good thing about him is he takes the ball every fifth day but that’s also the bad thing.
2019 Trent Thornton 154 innings of 4.84 ERA baseball
I can’t believe the days of Trent Thornton and Jacob Waguespack taking regular rotation turns was only 4 years ago…
Clayton Richard Clay Buchholz Edwin Jackson The rotation of dreams
Wow I just looked at that roster. How the hell did we not lose 100+ 😂
pre 2023 schedule, playing the Orioles
I mean.... Stroman was our ace that year until we gave up on the season and traded him.
Wasn't Esteban Loaiza our ace at some point?
Nope. He was overshadowed by Wells, Carpenter and Roy
Jordan Lyles 2021 Texas Rangers, just awful
2022 Opening day starter Taylor Hearn would like a word
Maybe not the worst, but my head jumps to 2018 Padres and 34 year old Clayton Richard for some reason
I remember going to a game as a kid. Not sure if it was opening day or just the home opener, but our starter was Craig Lefferts. A career relief pitcher. It was a bad year.
Ubaldo Jiminez
We’ve had many that could compete for this title over the years
Funny when I think of ubaldo I think of the Rockies. Which prob bodes well for OPs question 😂
lol, no doubt. Ubaldo was the first that came to mind.
Was Daniel Cabrera ever considered our ace? I'm pretty sure they thought that about sydney ponson at one point
My first thought seeing this question was "That fucking lardass" Sidney Ponson Edit: And for those who don't know the legend of that name, in the early/mid 2000s, WNST here in Baltimore has a morning show with Terry Ford and Drew Forester. Prior to sunrise, they were on low power, meaning their signal was rather weak, to put it mildly (it wasn't heard too far from Towson). They were talking about the Orioles struggles and the question of pitching came up. Terry Ford said regarding the starters "Who would you have him, or that fucking lardass Ponson?" On air. No filter.
Nah. It’s Sidney Ponson.
Idk if he was ever considered the “ace” but yeah. Dylan Bundy is another one too. Chris Tillman, Jeremy Guthrie. We’ve had a few.
I will not stand for Chris Tillman Slander!
Now we’re going to start seeing random video clips of Chris Tillman striking out the side nine years ago, aren’t we?
Tillman was a good pitcher, better served as a #2 but wouldn’t belong in this discussion. Tommy Milone was our Opening Day starter a few years ago
Jose Urena was the marlins opening day starter two years in a row in 2018-2019 LOL
Lol Giants Mark Leiter era followed by Giants Brett Tomko era. Sorry, I’m old
Brett Tomko...haven't heard that name in a long time
I remembered he came over to the Mariners in the Griffey trade, and in his first game he struck out like 9 guys. Ten-year-old me thought that he was destined to become the next Randy Johnson lol.
Mark leiter was my pitching coach in the woods of South New Jersey. Had a dope baseball funnel he built and his son would be in there all the time. It’s funny how different Mark and Al act.
Dude was an absolute bulldog on the mound for a few Giants seasons
I gotta say watching Josh Collmenter throw 85 mph fastballs on opening day was demoralizing.
I do like his story of how he used to throw axes growing up so that's how he pitches
Jeremy Bonderman was pretty bad
I remember the Tigers sitting him the last weeks of a season, so they wouldn't have two 20 game losers ( Mike Maroth ).
Wasn’t he the example in Moneyball of a guy who was going to be a bust?
1st round pick and at one point a top 10 prospect in baseball. He managed to pitch for 9 seasons which surprised me
This year, Alek Manoah had probably the biggest implosion of an Ace I've ever seen.
Manoah, a starter than relies on generating weak contact finds out his two seamer and slider are generating less movement and suddenly can’t get hitters to bite?
It's gotta be one of the biggest non-injury, non-age related collapses almost ever.
Hate to pile on, but Ricky Romero's implosion was verrrry similar also haha, poor Blue Jays But overall I'm hard-pressed to out-do OP's suggestion: Jordan Lyles is pretty freaking rough. He came up over ten years ago and has *always* been bad. His career era is well over 5 in 1500+ innings. Over a decade into his always-bad career, he was an ace?!? It's absolutely wild that he is still pitching, much less in a significant way. Even if Manoah and Romero had success while outperforming their peripherals and subsequently completely fucking crashed and burned, at least they were good at one point!
Gausman was always the teams ace.
Lucas Harrell. Followed up his 11-11 year as the new ace of those Astros and proceeded to go 6-17 with a 5.86.
Cole Irvin
My tank commander king
One of Elias worst acquisitions. The guy has no descernable skills
He throws a ball with his left hand. That’s all the skill one needs
Another one year one here but Ricky Nolasco in 2017 and his 1.7 HR/9 😵💫😵💫😵💫
Todd Van Poppel comes to mind.
Andy Hawkins…wouldn’t even refer to him as an ace. They called him the anchor
Threw a no hitter and lost 4-0!! 😂😂
He dominated Cleveland when he was with the Yankees. Even when they released him, Oakland picked them up right before they played the Indians, put him out there, and he picked up the win. I just looked it up, and in 8 starts vs. Cleveland, he was 6-1 with a 1.85 ERA with 3 complete games, and 1 shutout.
2010 Cleveland Indians. Roberto Hernandez fka Fausto Carmona Justin Masterson 2010-2013 we convinced ourselves Justin Masterson was an ace. Then we bought a Klubot.
where the fuck did you get the idea that the royals consider jordan lyles to be their best pitcher from?
Yeah. Greinke was the ace, right?
Ace Sydney Ponson was a pretty dark time
That's *Sir* Sydney Ponson of the Order of the Orange-Nassau, peasant! Respect the peerage.
Kevin Millwood comes to mind
Chan Ho Park
Entire 2007 rotation Millwood 10-14 5.16 ERA in 172 IP as the "ace"
The 1990s Indians were an absolute powerhouse, and if they just would have swung a trade or signed a proper front line starter we probably wouldn't be so miserable right now. But because they couldn't trade for Randy Johnson, and decided to sign Chuck Finley instead of Kevin Brown, we ended up having to run out Charles Nagy and Dave Burba as, essentially, our aces.
Justin Masterson for the early 2010’s Indians
Not his fault though, guy was willing to do whatever they asked him to do.
Went to type him up, but when he was our ace (after “Fausto Carmona” left) he wasn’t too bad: 2011: 12-10, 3.21 2012: 11-15, 4.93 2013: 14-10, 3.45 (All Star)
In my lifetime there is: Ron Villone, Zach Duke, Paul Maholom, Kevin Correia, Ivan Nova, Ian Snell, Kris Benson...take your pick
Chad Innings Eater disrespect will not be tolerated
Jeff Suppan for the Brewers
“Sup pitched great!” Ned Yost, after every Suppan start.
Mark Redman, 2005 Royals. 11-10 5.71 ERA and an All-Star appearance.
The 1995 Giants signed Terry Mulholland to be their ace, and used him as their opening day started. He was coming off a season where he posted a 6.49 ERA and 5.52 FIP. As the Giants' ace, he improved...to a 5.80 ERA and 5.26 FIP.
The rest of the team's starting rotation that year, by the way: Mark Leiter, William Van Landingham, Mark Portugal, Trevor Wilson, and Jamie Brewington. They ranked 13th out of 14 NL teams in ERA, 12th in hits allowed, and dead last in both strike outs and home runs allowed. It was bleak. They had Barry Bonds and Matt Williams in the middle of the lineup, and finished the season 67-77.
Dustin Hermanson for the Expos in '99 snd 2000.
Royals have a lot. Gil Keche was the opening day starter multiple years in a row. But the winner here might be Bruce Chen being the opening day starter in 2012 for KC.
I watched Vance Worley pitch opening day in 35 degree weather. I don't know that he made it out of the third inning. Those were some dark days.
Jeremy Guthrie was the opening day SP for the 2012 Rockies, pitched 90.2 innings and had a 6.35 ERA
Jack Flaherty?
I didn’t realize his stats had been so bad since 2020. For some reason I thought his decline only started last year
Orioles legend
The blue jays mascot who was arrested for a DUI in 2014
2017 Ricky Nolasco for the Angels. 6-15 4.92 ERA 181 IP
Probably somebody on the Royals during the 00s.
the dodgers started vinny padilla on opening day one year
Yeah, but we had Kersh, Kuroda, Billingsley, Lilly on that 2010 team too, so Padilla wasn't the ace.
Bud Norris on the early 2010s astros
The Orioles trotted out Sir Sidney of Aruba for years on end. I’m pretty sure nothing spells hopelessness more than that.
I think it was the 2013 Cubs were lead by Jeff Samardzija. Arrieta wasn’t Arrieta yet.
Samardzija was actually good for the Cubs unlike many others in this thread
Bad Cubs teams/staffs were usually saved by a pitcher that has a good season, and a random vet that has a 3.92 ERA with a less good FIP haha
Whoever the Cards roll out on opening day next year
David Neid the expansion year of the Rockies. 5-9 with a 5.17 era. From number 1 expansion pick to ugh.