THE STARTING ROTATIONS IN BASEBALL HISTORY

It is hard to determine who had the best starting rotation in baseball history, You need to have 5 good winning starters that dominate when they pitch for the most part. And winning isn’t everything; control, strikeouts and hits allowed all count. But the ultimate test is to get to a World Series, win or lose.

To rank the choices I selected, would be impossible because of the many variables that go into pitching and the team that surrounds each pitcher. Some great starters may not have had a lot of wins because their relief was weak, and so another variable comes into play.

But these are the staffs that I knew at one time or another, and the first two that come to mind, and maybe the best, both come from the same year and actually met in a World Series. The Series is remembered for four things: Dusty Rhodes, ‘The Catch’ by Willie Mays, the sweep by the underdog and the great pitching staffs.

1954 Cleveland Indians
Early Wynn (23-11, 2.73), Mike Garcia (19-8, 2.64), Bob Lemon (23-7, 2.72), Art Houtteman (15-7, 3.35), Bob Feller (13-3, 3.09)

When your team amasses 111 wins, 93 of them from your starters, you have a dominating teamBut image a staff of: Garcia, Lemon, and Wynn finishing 1-3-4 in the league ERA standings, and 1-3-4 in adjusted ERA+! Both Lemon first and Wynn third lead in complete games, and Garcia tied for the AL lead with five shutouts. Their combined ERA was 2.86, compared to a league average of 3.72.

The staff, with an average age of 32, was an older staff, but with three future Hall of Famers (Wynn, Lemon and Feller). This staff as great as it was, was no match for the New York Giants, in those four games, but the Indian hitting got only 9 runs in thise 4 games. Which takes me to the

1954 New York Giants
Johnny Antonelli (21-7, 2.30), Ruben Gomez (17-9, 2.88), Sal Maglie (14-6, 3.26), Don Liddle (9-4, 3.06), Jim Hearn (8-8, 4.15) sounds like a hitter should feebly wave the bat and sit down if that is the pitching he is facing! These five pitchers were tough gritty in your face types. The pitching staff of: Antonelli, Gomez and Sal (The Barber) Maglie finished 1-4-8 in ERA, and Liddle with Hearn combined to make a solid fourth starter. This staff hung tough throughout the Series, winning it all in 4 games, against the best and most winning team in baseball that year with 111 American League vistories.

1993 Atlanta Braves

Greg Maddux (20-10, 2.36), Tom Glavine (22-6, 3.20), Steve Avery (18-6, 2.94), John Smoltz (15-11, 3.62)

Greg Maddux won the Cy Young award in ’93 and Avery, Smoltz and Glavine were All-Stars. The Braves' pitching staff combined for a league-leading 3.14 ERA, .35 lower than the second-best NL team in 1993. The starters combined for 972 innings. Maddux led the league in ERA, Glavine tied the league leader in wins, and Smoltz was second and Maddux third in strikeouts. They started 35 to 36 games each, and Maddux led in complete games.

1986 New York Mets
Ron Darling (15-6, 2.81), Dwight Gooden (17-6, 2.84), Sid Fernandez (16-6, 3.52), Bob Ojeda (18-5, 2.57), Rick Aguilera (10-7, 3.88)

In my oinion, one of the most formidable staffs ever. Each starter pitched 200+ innings, while Gooden and Fernandez each struck out 200 batters. Ojeda, Darling and Gooden had the 2nd-, 3rd- and 5th-lowest ERAs in the NL. Fernandez, Gooden and Darling were among the top 7 in NL strikeouts. Ojeda, Darling and Gooden were all among the league leaders in adjusted ERA. And all four received votes for the Cy Young award. They then went on and sweated out the World Series in their victory over the Red Sox.

1971 Baltimore Orioles
Dave McNally (21-5, 2.68), Mike Cueller (20-9, 3.08), Pat Dobson (20-8, 2.90), Jim Palmer (20-9, 2.68), Incredibly I don’t pick them as the best because I’m oo chicken to say that. If there were a staff that I would select for my team, this would be it. The only rotation since the 1920 White Sox to have four 20-game winners with a combined 2.89 ERA, almost a full run less than the 1971 AL average of 3.87. Palmer, McNally and Dobson finished 3-7-8 in ERA, and all four cracked the top 10 in wins (with McNally taking the winning percentage crown).

I have to go with an honorable mention, but I don’t think they belong with the above, the 1966 Los Angeles Dodgers with Sandy Koufax (27-9, 1.73), Don Drysdale (13-16, 3.42), Claude Osteen (17-14, 2.85), Don Sutton (12-12, 2.99)

A rotation of Koufax and Drysdale alone should be great add on the other two in Osteen and Sutton and wow, but their record without Koufax is mediocre at best, but the cumulative ERA was a 2.68 and almost a full run under the NL average.

The Dodgers were swept by the Orioles in the World Series that year in ‘66, scoring only two runs total -- both in Game 1!