Well nobody's saying it yet, but after Marcum's 3IP yesterday everybody seems to be sure he's the opening day starter. 2 weeks ago this was a team in the dire straits of having not even a opening day starter, so it shouldn't take any time at all for people to start proclaiming him the ace.
I don't know what's going on in the broader media with this, but it is one of many things that I wish people would get their head straight about. I think Shaun Marcum would just like to prove to himself that he can stay healthy for a whole season while pitching 200+ innings, and really I don't think he should try to get there until next season. I think a nice 25 start year would be great! Maybe he'll have only 1 trip to the DL for something small! Awesome!
I think this is the kind of thing where poorly managed public expectations can really become a problem. If this "Marcum for ace" stuff starts to get out of hand, and he has a good April and May say, X-1 with a ERA in the 2's, things could get silly. By September he could be trying to gasp and wheeze himself to the end of the year in some vain attempt to win 16 games because that's what an ace would do. If things go generally crappy with the rest of the team there really could be pressure for this. Will that damage him in the future? I don't now, he has pitched close to 200 innings in a season before, but is it worth the risk?
I think it would be a lot better if the team was saying he's just another guy and it doesn't matter who starts the 1st game (because really it doesn't), maybe even that he's going to only get 25 starts and that's it.
Makes a good argument for my 6 starter approach I think.
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