The Cincinnati Enquirer’s John Fay reports Cincinnati Reds SP Bronson Arroyo would rather see SP Aaron Harang get the nod for the season opener because it would cause too much of a distraction. “Opening Day is a lot of hoopla,” he said. “I don’t like a lot of hoopla. I like to focus on the task at hand. Obviously, if they give it to me, that’s what you do … I’ll do whatever they want, but if I have my rathers, I’d let Aaron take it.”
Our Instinct: Hitters batted just .239 against Harang in 2009, while his offense scored 2 or few runs 12 times. He hasn’t pitched really well for 2 seasons now, but some of his struggles has been bad luck. He’s due for a modest rebound. Arroyo on the other hand, went 15-13 with 3.84 era, has gone 30-24 over the past 2 season compared to Harang’s 12-30 mark. Arroyo clearly deserves to start opening day. Clearly Harang wants to and Arroyo doesn’t want to start opening day. We will see how Dusty Baker handles this one.
David Reiffer
Feb 22. 2010
Strange how Arroyo doesn’t seem to want the ball. I would be afraid that some would question his backbone. Where would Arroyo want to be for the big games?