Guthrie on Top After a Season of Change

Opening Day Starter Was Glad to Have Roster Spot Last Year

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., March 22 -- Jeremy Guthrie watched Opening Day last season from his seat in the left field bullpen, just happy to have a job as a long reliever for the Baltimore Orioles. However unglamorous, it was Guthrie's first regular spot on a big league roster, and one of the first encouraging signs in a career that had been peppered with disappointment.

One year later, Guthrie will have a much better vantage point for Opening Day.

Manager Dave Trembley ended days of speculation on Saturday when he tabbed Guthrie as the starter when the Orioles begin the season March 31 against the Tampa Bay Rays, an acknowledgement of the quantum leap that the 28-year-old has made since in just one year.

"I'm sure we'll have a great crowd," Guthrie said. "It will be a lot of fun with the festivities that they do on Opening Day in Baltimore, a giant crowd. Maybe we can start the season 1-0. It will be a nice way to get going."

Guthrie was the Orioles' most uplifting surprise last season, landing in Baltimore only after the Cleveland Indians -- facing a logjam of pitchers in its minor league system -- put him on waivers after giving him few chances to stick in the major leagues. He emerged from spring training last season as a reliever. But when injury knocked Jaret Wright out of the rotation, Guthrie stepped in.

From there, Guthrie turned in one of the best seasons of any first-year pitcher in all of baseball. He finished with a 7-5 record, though Guthrie ranked second among American League rookies in ERA (3.70), strikeouts (123) and innings pitched (175 1/3).

"To be able to look back one year and see where you were and look where you are now, it makes you grateful," said Guthrie, a former first-round pick by the Indians. "Hopefully, it makes you realize the importance of hard work and believing in yourself and really putting in the effort to get to this point."

While Trembley made the formal announcement on Saturday, he said he broke the news to Guthrie during a one-on-one meeting in his office a few days ago.

"I thought about the entire situation for a long time and I just think at this particular point in time it's well deserved," Trembley said.

Guthrie quipped Saturday that the biggest reason for getting the Opening Day start was the absence of Erik Bedard. Perhaps there's a little truth to the statement. The trade of the Orioles' ace for five players -- including closer George Sherrill and starting center fielder Adam Jones -- left Baltimore without an heir apparent.

Yet, self-deprecation aside, Guthrie made himself a candidate by establishing himself last season as perhaps the most consistent starter on the staff not named Bedard. Guthrie's 17 quality starts ranked only behind Bedard's team-leading 21. During one dominant stretch in May and June, Guthrie strung together 10 straight quality starts.

"I think you know what you're going to get from him. He's going to compete and I think he's going to give you a chance to win when he pitches," Trembley said. "And I think the team knows that when they play behind him."

Nevertheless, Guthrie considered himself as having only an outside chance of taking the ball Opening Day.

"Because of my amount of experience, to have an Opening Day assignment is not something that I necessarily anticipated by any means even when we traded Erik," Guthrie said. "I thought it was still a long shot that was the way chips would fall."

But it seems Guthrie again has beaten the odds. He will be the least experienced Orioles Opening Day starter since Rodrigo L¿pez in 2003, with only a 15-win rookie season on his r¿sum¿.

"It's a great honor, like I said, to have the confidence from [Trembley] and I felt the same from my teammates, that they feel like if I'm out there, we have a chance to win," Guthrie said. "That's the most important thing, to know that they're putting me out there knowing we have a chance to win the game."