The Valencia fans got a chance to see the ‘New Look’ Valencia Stars, if you can call a team New Look with 8 new faces on its 27 player roster. The new team is boasting a payroll of an additional $32M over last year’s squad. Attendance at the three games was very good as you would expect in an opening day homestand of 49K+, 47K+ and 45K+ to hopefully offset some of that additional payroll.
The biggest change in those faces are in the starting rotation with Thomas Turner and Luis Gonzalez joining the upper half of the rotation with Juan Garcia. All three pitchers entered opening day with a current overall rating of 65 so expectations were high for this trio even though the reigning Pacific division champs known as the Sacramento Mad Popes were coming into town. The trio did not disappoint.
Juan Garcia started of the festivities by going 8.2 inning allowing 1 earned run on 6 hits and a walk while striking out 8. Thomas Turner followed up that outing with a gem of his own going 7.1 innings and allowing 1 run on 3 hits and a walk while striking out 5. Luis Gonzalez then did his part by turning in a 6.2 inning performance allowing 1 run on a hit and 2 walks while striking out 8.
All in all, the Valencia starters went 22.2 innings giving up 3 earned runs on 10 hits and 4 walks while striking out 21. That calculates into a 1.19 ERA and a WHIP of 0.62. Those are numbers worthy of a team that could make the playoffs and potentially do some damage.
But let's keep the high hopes in check for the moment. We are only 3 games into a 162 game season. There are still plenty of questions yet to be answered this season. Will the #4/#5 pitching slots be able to amass enough wins to keep Valencia in the playoff hunt? Will Luis Gonzalez’s move from the bullpen wear him down over the course of the season? Will the offense put up enough runs to support the pitching? The scores were 1-6, 3-2 and 11-2 so there is a possibility of the scoring draughts along the way.
Anyway, going 2-1 against the Mad Popes - it could have possibly been 3-0 if not for a 9th inning two-out error in the opener – lets the fans relish in their 2061 version of the Stars for one series.
