Superstar lefty David Price was absolutely brilliant for the Detroit Tigers on Opening Day, tossing 8 2/3 scoreless innings in the team's 4-0 win over the seemingly-hapless Minnesota Twins.
As you would expect, his brilliant outing elicited hyperbole from around the baseball world, including ESPN's Christina Kahrl who writes that Price has to be "the guy" for the team's starting rotation in 2015:
Getting Price then subsequently made so much else possible: Accepting Max Scherzer’s defection via free agency, and trading Rick Porcello to add Yoenis Cespedes to the lineup. Even making close to $20 million, Price is an ace making less than market rate of late, and he’s the guy the Tigers need to win one for the thumb as far as AL Central titles. Price has thrown a quality start in 72 percent of his turns across the past five years. Even with a stronger lineup liable to keep them among the league’s stronger offenses, the Tigers need him to deliver that one more time before he ventures into free agency.
The alternatives are exercises in wishful thinking, easy enough to indulge on Opening Day. He has to be this guy for these Tigers, until or unless Justin Verlander can either adapt to a new mix or regain the velocity he’s lost over time, unless or until Anibal Sanchez shows that he can manage his first 30-start season for the Tigers. Given the Tigers’ lack of ready-now starting pitching talent, those are hopes, and Opening Day is what hope is all about. But Price is a certainty, and he showed why in this one game.
Read more of Kahrl's thoughts on Price's importance to the Tigers at this link.
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