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Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Julio Teheran equals Cooperstown immortals

Por Jack Leyva

Julio Teheran keeps solidifying his position in the MLB, although last season was not his best one. The Colombian has been named by the Atlanta Braves as the Opening Day starting pitcher for the incoming season of 2018, in which the team will start playing against the Philadelphia Phillies. The right-handed pitcher, of 27 years old, was signed by the Braves in 2007.

He will add yet another Opening Day start to his previous four (in a row) and will join legends like Jim Whitney, John Clarkson, Kid Nichols, Warren Spahn, Greg Maddux, Phil Niekro and Rick Mahler, the other pitchers that opened at least five Opening Day games with the franchise, based in Milwaukee and Boston before moving to Atlanta for the 1966 season. As a curiosity, we may add that neither Maddux nor Niekro, both members of the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, ever achieved the honor of starting in Opening Days games for five times consecutively, which makes his nomination all the more important.

Of all the above mentioned, only Clarkson y Nichols, both in the Nineteenth Century, and Spahn in the 50’s and the 60’s o were starting pitchers on Opening Days for five times in a row, being Spahn the one that did it for six consecutive times (1957-1962). Greg Maddux had seven Opening Day starts for the team. It is still hard to believe that a pitcher of such quality did not have a longer chain but we must take into account that he was part of the team at the same time as Tom Glavine and John Smoltz (each made four Opening Day starts for the Braves), pitchers that, along with Greg, were the Opening Day starters during the whole decade of the nineties.

For Teheran, it is a great pride to have his name written down in such a distinguished list, mostly when professional baseball in the USA has a tremendous quality and the strong offensive does not really allow the proliferation of so many good pitchers. However, the Colombian has shown what he is capable of and has become one of the main characters of the Atlanta Braves, a team that has undergone a deep process of reconstruction that can prove good this very same year or maybe in next season’s campaign. Teheran will get to his Opening Day start against the Phillies after a remarkable preseason in which he went 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA in 14 innings. The Colombian pitcher is looking forward to keep that line of work and achieve his second win in an Opening Day, after winning against the Miami Marlins three years ago.