Anderson Tabbed as Opening Day Starter

It is an honor to pitch on Opening Day and this year when the A’s yet again open up with the Mariners, the pitcher who will oppose Felix Hernandez will be none other than Brett Anderson. Anderson gets his first Opening Day nod and is the senior-most member of the A’s rotation – at least in terms of time spent with the A’s. Anderson (or whomever starts) will be the A’s eighth different Opening Day starter in the last eight years as the last eight were started by Brandon McCarthy, Trevor Cahill, Ben Sheets, Dallas Braden, Joe Blanton, Dan Haren and Barry Zito respectively. Interestingly given last year’s Opening Day roster it is possible the A’s could conceivably have just four returning starters from that lineup period as Brandon Allen, Cliff Pennington and Kurt Suzuki are no longer with the organization and Eric Sogard and Jemile Weeks both presently seem unlikely to win their positional battles.

I thought Anderson had already been named Opening Day starter but apparently that was just me reading too much of the analysts’ comments and not anything official from the team itself. However, the experts have been proven right and Anderson who last year in limited time sported a 2.57 ERA and 2.72 FIP in 35 innings across six starts. Those six starts were worth 1.0 WAR for him so if he can manage 30 starts and keep up that pace he could be in for a 5.0 WAR season. Last time he did make 30 starts (also his only time), he was good for 3.7 WAR way back in 2009. Let’s hope this can be a full season from Anderson.