Fun with the 2009 rotation: who will pitch opening day at the new Yankee Stadium?

Friend Enemy of the blog, Peter Abraham had an interesting tidbit in his wrap-up of Saturday's pitchers and catcher action. When responding to a question about the rotation, Girardi mentioned that he intends on keeping the lefties apart and splitting up Burnett and Joba because of their similarities as power-pitching righties. Mathematical genius that he is, Abraham deduced that the two options for the rotation are:

Sabathia
Burnett
Wang
Pettitte
Chamberlain

or

Sabathia
Wang
Burnett
Pettitte
Chamberlain

Obviously, the above options are not the ONLY two possibilities based on Girardi's statement, but they are the logical ones. Andy Pettitte likely won't be the number one starter on opening day, so we are leaving out that option. Now we can have some fun in trying to figure out who will be pitching when the Yankees open up their brand new billion dollar Stadium on April 16. The schedule for the beginning of the season is as follows:

April 6 - @BAL Sabathia
April 7 - OFF DAY
April 8 - @BAL Wang or Burnett
April 9 - @BAL Wang or Burnett
April 10 - @KC Pettitte
April 11 - @KC Chamberlain
April 12 - @KC Sabathia
April 13 - @TB Wang or Burnett
April 14 - @TB Wang or Burnett
April 15 - @TB Pettitte
April 16- Home Opener vs. CLE Chamberlain

Close your eyes, nostalgists (I'm talking to you, Nick) if Girardi sticks to his word about the mechanics of the 2009 Yankee pitching rotation, it should be Joba-Mania on April 16 to open the new Stadium and not the beloved Andy Pettitte. The one caveat would be if the Yankees inexplicably skip Joba the first time through the rotation due to the early off day. In that case, CC would pitch on Opening Day. Feel free to leave a comment below if you see any way that the Yankees can fanagle the rotation to allow Pettitte to pitch on opening day. I just don't see it.

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