Correia Named Pirates Opening Day Starter, Maholm Should Get Home Opener

The Pirates

are attempting to rebound in impressive fashion from leading the Major Leagues in losses last season.  Everyone agrees that starting pitching will be the key.

Bucs Insider tweeted that Clint Hurdle announced Kevin Correia will start Opening Day in Chicago, followed by Paul Maholm, Ross Ohlendorf, Charlie Morton and James McDonald.   Correia wasn’t spectacular this Spring Training, but he was a big pickup this offseason and worked some spicy incentives in his deal.

The contract details that stood out for us were that the Pirates cannot offer Correia arbitration if he is a Type A free agents after the 2012 season. But it also was reported, by Jen Langosch originally we believe, that Correia did not have performance driven incentives for 2011.

The Bucs signed Correia to a 2011 guaranteed salary of $3 million. Correia also got $2 million as a signing bonus.

It’s not clear if Correia has incentives on starts and innings for 2011 as none were listed in her article, leaving us to presume he doesn’t. We thought for certain the Pirates would incentivize the hell out of the guy in 2011. His incentives for 2012 are $100,00 for 170 innings, 180 innings, 190 innings, 200 innings, 210 innings; $125,000 for 26 games started, 28 games started, 30 games started, 32 games started.

Correia does have awards incentives for both 2011 and 2012. He will receive $100K for The Cy Young and $75K for runner-up or $50K for third. But the most awesome incentive Correia negotiated was getting $50K for being World Series MVP, $25K for a Gold Glove, and $25K for making the All-Star team.

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James McDonald being in the five spot gives him every opportunity to heal his wounds, he is expected to pitch in a minor league game tomorrow.

How the rotation shakes out we can forsee, Paul Maholm getting the ball for the Pittsburgh Pirates home opener on April 7 against the Rockies.  Ross the Boss will pitch on Friday night’s Buck Night and everyone can enjoy Charlie Morton’s return to Pittsburgh on the Saturday April 9 game against Colorado.

We are planning to be at all three of these games should everything fall in line perfectly with our work schedule.

Now back to Correia.  He hasn’t looked great, but he has mentioned a reason, some might say an excuse, after each Spring outing.  During the time we saw him Kevin Correia, he said he was fine, just overthrowing. Admittedly, it’s pretty easy to see it too…

And then lost him….

Louisville likes when this happens….

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