{"id":5402,"date":"2012-12-05T11:01:58","date_gmt":"2012-12-05T16:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=5402"},"modified":"2013-08-29T13:47:36","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T17:47:36","slug":"nats-2013-rotation-best-in-the-majors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=5402","title":{"rendered":"Nats 2013 Rotation; Best in the Majors?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nats 2013 rotation: \u00a0<strong>Strasburg, Gonzalez, Zimmermann, Haren, Detwiler<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Question: Is this the best rotation in the majors? \u00a0\u00a0<strong>David Schoenfield<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/blog\/sweetspot\/post\/_\/id\/31261\/with-healthy-haren-nationals-could-win-100\">already thinks so<\/a>. \u00a0If not, which team&#8217;s would you put up against it?<\/p>\n<p>Last year, this same rotation (with Haren being replaced by <strong>Edwin Jackson<\/strong>) was considered a very good rotation, but not amongst the MLB&#8217;s elite. \u00a0That&#8217;s mostly because most baseball people thought Gonzalez would regress leaving the comfy confines of Oakland. \u00a0Instead, Gonzales put up a 21 win season, finished 3rd in the Cy Young voting and stunned most pundits with his lowered walk rates. \u00a0Meanwhile Zimmermann was getting some minor Cy Young consideration mid-way through the 2012 season before tiring in September; in any case the league-wide recognition for our quiet #3 hurler has been welcome. \u00a0Strasburg is who he is; inarguably near the top of anyone&#8217;s list of the best pitchers in the league.<\/p>\n<p>Now in 2013, with these established guys continuing to improve, with Strasburg unleashed, and with an established #2 Haren in the fold, is this the best rotation in the majors? \u00a0Here&#8217;s your competition for &#8220;Best rotation&#8221; teams (I&#8217;ve got these ranked in my rough order of strength):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">St. Louis: <span style=\"color: #000000;\">Carpenter,\u00a0Wainwright, Westbrook, and two from Garcia\/Lynn\/Kelly\/Rosenthal<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Cincinnati<\/span>: Cueto, Latos, Bailey, Arroyo and Leake<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Atlanta: <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Hudson, Medlen, Minor, Maholm, and one from Beachy\/Delgado\/Tehran<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Tampa Bay<\/span>: Price, Hellickson, Moore, Niemann and one from Cobb\/Archer<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">San Francisco<\/span>: Cain, Bumgarner, Lincecum, Vogelsong, Zito<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Philadelphia<\/span>: Halladay, Hamels, Lee, Kendrick, Worley<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Texas<\/span>: Darvish, Harrison, Holland, Lewis and probably Ogando barring a FA pickup<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Detroit<\/span>: Verlander, Fister, Scherzer, Porcello, Smyly<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Oakland<\/span>: Anderson, Griffen, Parker, Milone and one from Straily\/Blackley\/Ross\/Godfrey<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Los Angeles Dodgers<\/span>: Kershaw, Beckett, Capuano, Harang and a slew of injuries and question marks.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Toronto<span style=\"color: #000000;\">: Johnson, Buehrle, Morrow, Romero and one from Happ\/Laffey\/Drabeck\/Huchinson\/someone<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Am I missing anyone? \u00a0Here&#8217;s some thoughts on these rotations as they stand right now:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">St Louis<\/span>&#8216;s rotation was rich enough this year to drop 18-game winner <strong>Lance Lynn<\/strong> to the bullpen. \u00a0 With <strong>Chris Carpenter<\/strong> healthy in 2013, with <strong>Adam Wainwright<\/strong> recovered from Tommy John, and with the likes of hard-throwing <strong>Joe Kelly<\/strong> or <strong>Trevor Rosenthal<\/strong> as your #5 starter, this is a scary rotation.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Cincinnati&#8217;<\/span>s 5 starters took every 2012 start except ONE (the back half of an August double header). \u00a0In today&#8217;s baseball landscape, that&#8217;s nothing short of amazing. \u00a0<strong>Mike Leake<\/strong> may not be the strongest #5, but Cincy&#8217;s 1-2-3 put up great numbers pitching in a bandbox in Cincinnati.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Atlanta<\/span>&#8216;s found gold in <strong>Kris Medlen<\/strong> gives Atlanta enough depth to trade away starters (the <strong>Tommy Hanson<\/strong> for <strong>Jordan Walden<\/strong> deal). \u00a0They have 4 excellent starters and then can pick from 3 top-end prospects for the 5th starter until <strong>Brandon Beachy<\/strong> is back from surgery.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Tampa Bay<\/span> has well-known pitching depth, and even with the anticipated move of <strong>James Shields<\/strong> they have depth up and down the rotation. \u00a0Expect a bounce-back sophomore campaign from <strong>Matt Moore<\/strong> and more excellent innings from rising hurlers <strong>Alex Cobb<\/strong> and <strong>Chris Archer<\/strong>. \u00a0They may not be the best, but they&#8217;re certainly the most value for the dollar.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">San Francisco<\/span> has won two World Series&#8217; in three years with the same core of hurlers, and there&#8217;s no reason to think they won&#8217;t continue to be amongst the elite in the league. \u00a0The question remains though; what are thet getting from <strong>Tim Lincecum<\/strong> in 2013? \u00a0And, can <strong>Barry Zito<\/strong> continue his career rebound? \u00a0If the answers are yes and yes, then this rotation is much closer to the top of the list.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">P<\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">hi<\/span>ladelphia<\/span>&#8216;s big 3 are all fantastic, but are showing signs of age. \u00a0<strong>Roy Halladay<\/strong> only had an 89 ERA+ last year; has age caught up to him? \u00a0The drop-off after the big 3 is significant too.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Texas <\/span>bought an ace last off-season in <strong>Yu Darvish<\/strong>, has a couple of good arms developed in house in <strong>Holland<\/strong> and <strong>Harrison<\/strong>, but has been depending on one-off FAs to fill the void. \u00a0 They need a full healthy year out of their two upper-end arms <strong>Alexi Ogando<\/strong> and\/or <strong>Neftali Feli<\/strong>z to make the leap. \u00a0Felix is out for most of 2013 though after getting Tommy John surgery in August. \u00a0If they buy a FA this off-season, this rotation works its way further up. \u00a0Especially if that FA is <strong>Zack Greinke<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Detroit<\/span>&#8216;s rotation in the post season was fantastic against New York, then god-awful against San Francisco. \u00a0Why? \u00a0What can they change in 2013? \u00a0They lose <strong>Anibel Sanchez<\/strong> to free agency, but their top three arms in Verlander, Fister and Scherzer are just as good as anyone elses 1-2-3 in terms of cumulative depth. \u00a0If they retain Sanchez, this rotation rises in the rankings as well.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Oakland<\/span>&#8216;s slew of young, cost contained and quality starters is the envy of the league. \u00a0The only thing that keeps this list from greater acclaim is Oakland&#8217;s relative lack of recent success. \u00a0Throw in a couple more playoff appearances and <strong>Billy Beane<\/strong> can get a sequel to <em>Moneyball<\/em> published.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Los Angeles<\/span> has an Ace in <strong>Clayton Kershaw<\/strong>, a possible near-ace career reclamation project in <strong>Josh Beckett<\/strong>, and then a bunch of question marks. \u00a0Two rotation stalwarts <strong>Ted Lilly<\/strong> and <strong>Chad Billingsley<\/strong> remain injury question marks for 2013, and the rest of their rotation right now are league average hurlers. \u00a0If they make a splash in the FA market (Greinke?) this rotation could rise in the ranks as well.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Toronto<\/span>: Its not every day you can trade for 4 starting players, including two rotation members. \u00a0But thanks to Miami&#8217;s salary dump, Toronto finds itself with a significantly improved rotation. \u00a0Is it close to league best? \u00a0No, probably not. \u00a0But if <strong>Josh Johnson<\/strong> returns to Ace form, coupled with <strong>Brandon Morrow<\/strong>&#8216;s fantastic 2012 performance and <strong>Mark Buehrle<\/strong>&#8216;s solid #3 stuff, they have something to build on.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Where would I put Washington&#8217;s rotation in this list? \u00a0At the top, or very close to it. \u00a0Each of our guys matches up well in a head-to-head competition going down the line, with Haren as a #4 starter that you&#8217;d likely take 100% of the time over anyone else&#8217;s #4 starter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nats 2013 rotation: \u00a0Strasburg, Gonzalez, Zimmermann, Haren, Detwiler. Question: Is this the best rotation in the majors? \u00a0\u00a0David Schoenfield already thinks so. \u00a0If not, which team&#8217;s would you put up against it? Last year, this same rotation (with Haren being replaced by Edwin Jackson) was considered a very good rotation, but not amongst the MLB&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[346,1262,1264,777,209,212,230,1140,1252,1263,224,426,983,509,286,253,385,49,1260,410,43,50,776,970,897,339,303,229,893,288,51,119,38,567,316,774,853,1261,300,254],"class_list":["post-5402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlbpitching","tag-adam-wainwright","tag-alex-cobb","tag-alexi-ogando","tag-anibal-sanchez","tag-barry-zito","tag-billy-beane","tag-brandon-beachy","tag-brandon-morrow","tag-chad-billingsley","tag-chris-archer","tag-chris-carpenter","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-dan-haren","tag-david-schoenfield","tag-derek-holland","tag-edwin-jackson","tag-gio-gonzalez","tag-james-shields","tag-joe-kelly","tag-jordan-walden","tag-jordan-zimmermann","tag-josh-beckett","tag-josh-johnson","tag-kris-medlen","tag-lance-lynn","tag-mark-buehrle","tag-matt-harrison","tag-matt-moore","tag-mike-leake","tag-neftali-feliz","tag-ross-detwiler","tag-roy-halladay","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-ted-lilly","tag-tim-lincecum","tag-tommy-hanson","tag-tommy-john","tag-trevor-rosenthal","tag-yu-darvish","tag-zack-greinke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5402"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5419,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5402\/revisions\/5419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}