Ryan Dempster Opens the Season at Wrigley

Dale Sveum announced today that Ryan Dempster will be the opening day starter for the 2012 Chicago Cubs season.  Should be an awesome day at Wrigley Field on April 5th, as the Nationals and Cubs square off, Dempster vs Strasburg.

The decision ultimately came down to who did what this spring, “It came down to giving everybody the opportunity and they’re both throwing the ball really, really well,” Dale Sveum said. “In their last starts, they both threw the ball as well as they possibly could. It was more of a wait and see kind of thing. I can’t say there was one reason or anything like that. Ryan Dempster, obviously had a little hiccup last year but his hiccup was mainly the first four weeks of the season and other than that he pitched really well with not so good defense behind him. It came down to that as much as anything and the way he’s thrown the ball this spring was the final decision. Garza throwing the way he did yesterday against one of the better lineups in baseball, I had to sleep on it a little bit and think about it. The bottom line is, the decision came to Dempster.”

Matt Garza will start game two against the Nats, and Paul Maholm has been slotted into the number five-spot in the rotation.  That means the number three and four spots are still up for grabs, if I had to guess the Cubs rotation on opening day will look something like this.

Dempster
Garza
Samardzija
Volstad
Maholm

The final rotation decisions should be made here shortly, thanks for reading, go Cubs!

- George Cotugno