30.5 F
Pittsburgh

Pirates Name Burnett Opening Day Starter

Published:

Clint Hurdle has announced today that A.J. Burnett will be his Opening Day starter when the Pirates take on the Chicago Cubs on Monday, April 1st at PNC Park. He has also announced that Wandy Rodriguez will get the start in game two on Wednesday night. After that, the rest of the rotation has yet to be decided.

In his first season with the team last year, Burnett went 16-10, 3.51 in 31 starts, with 180 strikeouts in 202.1 innings. The wins total was the highest by a Pirates pitcher since the 1991 season. It will be the first Opening Day start for Burnett, who be pitching in his 15th season.

Rodriguez came over to the Pirates in late-July and went 5-4, 3.72 in 12 starts and one relief appearance.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

Related Articles

Latest Articles