Consider that the Jays’ opening-day starting staff ...
– Earns less than the team is paying Halladay ($6 million US) to pitch for the Philadelphia Phillies — Shaun Marcum ($850,000), Brian Tallet ($2 million), Ricky Romero ($408,300), Brandon Morrow ($409,800) and Dana Eveland ($419,500). So, much for sparing no expense.
— Will earn $4.088 million, 30th among major-league expenditures for rotations. The Tampa Bay Rays are 29th at $9.475 million. The top five spenders for starters are: 1. the New York Yankees $63,158 million, 2. Chicago Cubs $50.775, 3. Boston Red Sox $42.263, 4. New York Mets $38.088 and 5. Chicago White Sox $36.2 million.
— Averages less than 21/2 years of service time.
— Has 72 career wins, second lowest total of any Jays staff to start a season. It has two more career wins than the 1981 rotation of Jim Clancy, Dave Stieb, Luis Leal, Jackson Todd and Mark Bomback. Those Jays went 37-69 in the strike-marred season.
— Averages 37 career starts, which equals the ’81 group.
— Averages 284 career innings logged, 32nd on our list of 34 opening-day quintets. This group of starters has averaged five more innings than the 2002 group of Chris Carpenter, Halladay, Brandon Lyon, Scott Eyre and Brian Cooper and the ’81 staff (272 innings).
— Ranks eighth in team history of opening day groups, averaging 104 appearances.
At the 2008 winter meetings in Las Vegas, manager Cito Gaston said he had 21/2 experienced starters in Halladay, Jesse Litsch ... and David Purcey who had 12 starts on his resume.
How many now?
“Three,” said Gaston. “Marcum, Tallet and Romero. And when I told Romero he was going third, he was quick to tell me he was ready to pitch against the No. 1 of other teams.”
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