"Brett Myers' reward for a year of some of the most consistent, and consistently good, pitching the Astros have seen this decade is a date with Roy Halladay. Given that the consolation prizes were Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt, and given that Myers is somewhat of a competitor to say the least, this was the easy answer in the Astros' eyes. It was their only answer, as the rest of the rotation has a health risk, a possible lefty-righty jumble and a fill-in-the-blank among its questions. But manager Brad Mills named Myers his opening-day starter Friday, entrusting the big righthander with the baseball for the April 1 road matchup with the Phillies and their defending National League Cy Young award winner. Myers will pitch in the city he called home for the entirety of his career until he joined the Astros in 2010. It has been the tentative plan all along for Myers to be the one to break the departed Oswalt's streak of eight consecutive Astros opening-day starts. Once he made it through Wednesday's start healthy, Mills was ready to confirm his decision. "He needs to get his work in, getting the command of his pitches and the ups and downs of innings," Mills said. "He's healthy and he's fine, so we're thrilled to death."" Read more: http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2011/03/18/brett-myers-named-astros-opening-day-starter/
