Having two Cy Young winners and a World Series MVP on one pitching staff is an easy route to success. Last year, the Philadelphia Phillies’ dominant trio of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels compensated for an aging, declining offense, and the team’s starters posted a remarkable 2.86 ERA. As a testament to the pitchers’ success, Halladay, Lee, and Hamels finished 2nd, 3rd, and 5th, respectively, in Cy Young Award voting.
After his Opening Day start, Halladay appears poised to duplicate last year’s accomplishments. In a tight 1-0 victory over Pittsburgh, Halladay surrendered hits to the first two Pirates before settling in. After escaping the early jam unscathed, he shut down the Pirate bats and did not give up a hit in the next seven innings.
Pitching behind Halladay last season were Lee, Hamels, and Roy Oswalt. Southpaws Lee and Hamels, still with the team, would be aces for most other staffs across baseball. Although the Phillies lost Oswalt to free agency, he was not as large as a factor last year as was originally expected, starting only 23 games due to injuries. Vance Worley now steps into the #4 spot, hoping to build on his impressive 11-3, 3.01 ERA rookie campaign.
Perennial contender Atlanta will also rely on pitching to compete in the NL East. Tommy Hanson had a 2.44 ERA and .190 batting average against at last year’s All-Star break but faltered afterwards and only made one start after July due to injury. As the Braves’ ace this season, he heads a young staff whose oldest member, Jair Jurrjens, just turned 26 years old. With veteran Tim Hudson’s back complication and top prospect Arodys Vizcaino’s season-ending Tommy John surgery, the rotation’s depth is already being tested.
Young, relatively untested starters Brandon Beachy, Mike Minor, and Randall Delgado slot in behind proven starters Hanson and Jurrjens. The trio are all products of the Braves’ deep minor league system, and all have experienced success in their brief time at the Major League level. Beachy baffled hitters last year on the way to a 10.74 K/9 rate, which led all pitchers (minimum 80 innings pitched); Minor gives the Braves a lefty arm they desperately need; and Delgado flashed his upside last year with a 2.83 ERA in seven starts.
Big spenders of the offseason, the newly-christened Miami Marlins reeled in pitchers Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell. Expect Buehrle to bolster a pitching staff that was oftentimes ineffective last season; Buehrle has thrown over 200 innings for eleven straight years as a consistent starter. Moreover, pitchers moving from the American League to the DH-less Senior Circuit have a successful track record.
In addition to Buehrle, the Marlins will rely on ace Josh Johnson to be healthy for a full season. In nine starts before suffering a season-ending arm injury, Johnson posted a minuscule 1.64 ERA, this stretch following his league-leading 2010 season (2.30 ERA). If Johnson can remain healthy – a very big if considering his injury-riddled history, in which he has pitched over 200 innings just once in his career – his presence along with Buehrle’s would provide the team with a strong 1-2 tandem.
Ricky Nolasco, Anibal Sanchez, and Carlos Zambrano make up the rest of the rotation. The mercurial Zambrano is another addition this year. He has been maddeningly inconsistent throughout his career, but if he maintains his composure and pitches with control, he could have an unexpected impact on the Marlins’ rotation. At the very least, he should provide entertaining sound bites when paired with new manager Ozzie Guillen, who is also infamous for his rants (see his recent comments about Fidel Castro as an example).
The full return of Stephen Strasburg from the Tommy John surgery that caused him to miss nearly all of 2011 stands out as the most important pitching development for the Washington Nationals. In brief major league duty last September, Strasburg struck out 24 batters in 24 innings while ceding only four runs. Now with a full offseason of work and conditioning behind him, Strasburg should be ready to repeat his dazzling rookie season (2.91 ERA, 12.2 strikeouts per nine innings). In what should be the first of many Opening Day starts for the young star, he dominated the Cubs offense, allowing only one run in seven innings.
However, the offseason acquisitions of Gio Gonzalez and Edwin Jackson should not be overlooked. The Nationals obtained Gonzalez for four prospects in a trade with the cash-strapped Oakland Athletics, Gonzalez being one of three Oakland pitchers shipped away this winter. He struck out nearly 200 batters last year but must work on improving his walk rate, an unseemly 4.1 per nine innings. Jackson, signed as a free agent, fits the new Nationals mold as a pitcher with high-strikeout potential. The team’s starters struck out only 5.67 batters per nine innings last year, a rate that was second-worst in the majors. Adding Strasburg, Gonzalez, and Jackson to go along with Jordan Zimmermann should improve this statistic.
During the offseason, the New York Mets made little effort to upgrade their rotation. Instead, just like that of several division rivals, the Mets’ ace is a starter returning from injury. Unlike Hanson, Johnson, and Strasburg, though, Johan Santana is a former Cy Young winner. After missing all of 2011 while recovering from shoulder surgery, Santana impressed in his Opening Day return, hurling five shutout innings in the team’s 1-0 victory and showing glimpses of his Cy Young-winning talent.
Along with their projected last-place finish, the Mets have the weakest rotation on paper. Behind Santana are R.A. Dickey, a solid starter but not an ace, and Jonathan Niese, Mike Pelfrey, and Dillon Gee, all of whom have yet to harness their skills at the Major League level.
Yet, starting pitchers are not the only additions to NL East staffs this season. The division saw an influx not only of starters – the aforementioned Buehrle, Zambrano, Gonzalez, and Jackson – but of high-profile closers as well. New Phillie Jonathan Papelbon signed the largest contract ever for a reliever ($50 million over four years), and he immediately assumed his new role on Opening Day by closing out Halladay’s strong outing. The Marlins, meanwhile, poached Bell from San Diego, hoping that he will provide the bullpen with the stability it had been lacking when manned by former closer Juan Carlos Oviedo (formerly known as Leo Nuñez).
Deals were also struck for Brad Lidge (Nationals) and Frank Francisco (Mets); four teams in the division will have a new look at the back end of the bullpen. The fifth, Atlanta, is already set with the trio of Eric O’Flaherty, Johnny Venters, and Craig Kimbrel.
Adding to the success of these pitching staffs will be the offensive struggles of the division’s top teams. Philadelphia’s aging lineup currently misses its top two bats in Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, and even their play last year could not stave off the offense’s decline. Atlanta’s difficulty in scoring runs last year was a large factor in the team’s September collapse, and the team did not make any significant offensive upgrades in the offseason. Miami, despite all the new hype surrounding the team, now plays in a pitcher-friendly ballpark, and the middle of the order is still unproven and was able to muster only one run total in its first two games.
Defense and pitching were the story of Opening Day games, and runs were hard-earned and infrequent. This pitching dominance will be a common sight in the NL East this year as starters and relievers alike shut down their rivals’ bats.