CLEARWATER, Fla. -- The Diamondbacks may not win the NL West, but they definitely lead the league in Opening-Day-starter candidates. They have four pitchers who started Opening Day for their teams last year: Brandon Webb, Randy Johnson (Yankees), Livan Hernandez (Nationals) and Doug Davis (Brewers). The last rotation that could make that claim, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, was another Big Unit operation -- the 1997 Mariners: Johnson, Jeff Fassero (Expos), Dennis Martinez (Indians) and the unforgettable Felipe Lira (Tigers).
• But the Dodgers' rotation has its own place in triviality. It's the only current group in baseball that features three pitchers who have started an All Star Game -- Jason Schmidt, Brad Penny and Derek Lowe. The three teams with two former All-Star starters: Mets (Tom Glavine, Pedro Martinez), Cardinals (Chris Carpenter, Mark Mulder) and Padres (Greg Maddux and David Wells -- who actually started the 1998 All-Star Game against each other).
• We wrote recently that we couldn't recall a defending World Series champ that had a prospective starting rotation with fewer wins the year before than the 2007 Cardinals (23). But loyal reader Paul Stockinger asked that inevitable question: What about those 1998 post-fire-sale Marlins? Yeah, good call. Their season-opening rotation -- Hernandez, Felix Heredia, Rafael Medina, Eric Ludwick and Brian Meadows -- combined for (gulp) 14 wins the year before. And Hernandez, naturally, had nine of the 14.
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Jayson Stark
