Scott Cunningham
The Braves announce their spring rotation, and we try to figure out who will start on opening day.
The Atlanta Braves official Twitter feed announced the Spring Training rotation of Fredi Gonzalez this afternoon:
Fredi just announced the Spring Training pitching rotation: Hudson, Maholm, Teheran, Medlen and Minor.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) February 19, 2013
This includes Tim Hudson receiving the start for the first Spring Training game this Friday.
Counting forward every five days from that first Spring game to opening day at Turner Field on April 1st, the fourth spot in the above rotation would be up, making Kris Medlen the opening day starter. That would then setup the rotation as Medlen, Mike Minor, Tim Hudson, Paul Maholm, and Julio Teheran.
Another scenario is that the rotation is pushed backed three times during the spring, with three off-days, allowing Hudson to make the opening day start. With an off-day after opening day, Maholm would get the second start of the year, pushing Teheran to the back of the line, and setting up the rotation to be Hudson, Maholm, Medlen, Minor, Teheran.
That scenario makes the most sense, especially when you factor in that veteran players are usually given the opening day start, and quite often stacked first in the rotation. This rotation of Hudson, Maholm, Medlen, Minor, and Teheran, also breaks up the lefties in the rotation (but keeps all the M's together).
Fredi doesn't usually announce his opening day starter until later in the Spring.
Hudson has made two opening day starts for the Braves, first in 2006, and the last time in 2008.


There are 18 Comments. Load Now.
Shortcuts to mastering the comment thread. Use wisely.
C - Next Comment
X - Mark as Read
R - Reply
Z - Mark Read & Next
Shift + C - Previous
Shift + A - Mark All Read
Comment Settings
Live comment alert: Hide it!
Comments for this post are closed.