{"id":7661,"date":"2013-10-02T07:26:15","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T11:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com.\/?p=7661"},"modified":"2013-10-10T13:48:26","modified_gmt":"2013-10-10T17:48:26","slug":"ranking-the-2013-playoff-rotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=7661","title":{"rendered":"Ranking the 2013 Playoff Rotations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kershaw<\/a>

Kershaw leads the best rotation in the playoffs. Photo via wiki.<\/p><\/div>\n

Now that the playoff fields are set … who has the most formidable playoff rotation?<\/p>\n

Unlike previous rotation rankings posts, the playoffs focus mostly on the 1-2-3 guys. \u00a0Your 5th starter may not even be on the playoff roster and your 4th starter usually just throws one start in a series where you can line up your guys, and some teams skip the 4th starter altogether if they at least one veteran pitcher who can all go on 3 days rest (there’s enough off-days in the 2-3-2 format to allow most guys to go on regular rest). \u00a0So the focus here is on the strength of your top guys.<\/p>\n

Here’s how I’d rank the 10 playoff teams’ rotations, despite the fact that two of these teams will be wild card losers and never get a chance to use their rotations:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Los Angeles<\/span>: Kershaw, Greinke, Nolasco,\u00a0Ryu<\/strong> (Capuano<\/strong> left out). \u00a0As great a 1-2 combination Kershaw and Greinke are, Nolasco has for stretches outpiched them both since his trade, and Ryu is a #2 starter talent in the #4 slot. \u00a0They’re going to be a tough out in any short series where Kershaw gets two starts. \u00a0Easily the #1 playoff rotation.<\/li>\n
  2. Detroit<\/span>: Scherzer, Verlander, Sanchez, Fister<\/strong> (Porcello<\/strong> left out). \u00a0Hard to believe that a guy who most thought was the best or 2nd best pitcher in baseball (Verlander) may not even get the start in the first game of the playoffs. \u00a0But they’re still the 2nd best rotation.<\/li>\n
  3. St. Louis<\/span>: Wainwright, Miller, Wacha, Kelly<\/strong> (Westbrook<\/strong> and Garcia<\/strong> hurt, Lynn<\/strong> left out). \u00a0The knock on St Louis’ current rotation is their youth; two rookies and a 2nd year guy who was in the bullpen all last year. \u00a0Are there any innings-limit concerns here that could force a shutdown \u00a0It doesn’t seem so at this point? \u00a0It continues to amaze me how well St. Louis develops players. \u00a0Carpenter and Garcia out all year? \u00a0No worries we’ll just bring up two guys in Wacha and Miller who are barely old enough to drink but who can pitch to a 120 ERA+.<\/li>\n
  4. Tampa Bay<\/span>: Price, Moore, Archer, Cobb<\/strong> (Hellickson<\/strong> left out); A tough top 4, if a little young on the back-side. \u00a0Moore has quietly returned to this dominant form upon his call-up and gives Tampa a formidable 1-2 punch. \u00a0Price has already pushed them past game 163.<\/li>\n
  5. Pittsburgh<\/span>: Liriano, Burnett,\u00a0Cole, Morton<\/strong> (Rodriguez<\/strong> hurt, Locke<\/strong> left out). \u00a0The team previously said that\u00a0Cole would likely a reliever in the playoffs<\/a>, but I’ll believe that when I see it; he’s been fantastic down the stretch.\u00a0 It is difficult to put a rotation headlined by the burnout Burnett and the reclamation project Liriano this high, but their performances this year are inarguable.<\/li>\n
  6. Boston<\/span>: Lester, Buchholz, Peavy, Lackey<\/strong> (Dempster<\/strong>, Doubront<\/strong> left out). \u00a0Buchholz just returning mid September after a hot start; could push this rank up. \u00a0I don’t necessarily trust the #3 and #4 spots here in a short series, but Boston can (and probably will) bash their way to the World Series.<\/li>\n
  7. Cincinnati<\/span>: Bailey, Cueto, Arroyo, Cingrani<\/strong> (Leake<\/strong> left out, Latos\u00a0<\/strong>hurt). \u00a0Cingrani may be hurt, Cueto has returned to replace the sore-armed Latos. \u00a0Leake’s performance may push him over Arroyo if they get there, but the odds of them beating Pittsburgh were already slim after their poor finish and were vanquished last night. \u00a0Still, isn’t it nice when you have more quality starters than you need heading into a season,\u00a0Mike Rizzo<\/strong>?<\/li>\n
  8. Atlanta<\/span>: Minor, Medlen, Teheran, Wood<\/strong> (Hudson<\/strong> hurt, Maholm<\/strong> left out). \u00a0If Wood is shutdown, Maholm makes sense as the #4 starter but has struggled most of the 2nd half and finished poorly. \u00a0I may have this rotation ranked too low; they’re solid up and down, just not overpoweringly flashy.<\/li>\n
  9. Cleveland<\/span>: Jimenez, Kluber, Kazmir, Salazar<\/strong> (Masterson<\/strong> in the pen, McAllister<\/strong> left out). \u00a0How did these guys get a playoff spot? \u00a0Amazing. \u00a0They’re all solid, nobody especially flashy, and they won’t go away.<\/li>\n
  10. Oakland<\/span>:\u00a0Colon, Parker, Griffen, Gray<\/strong> (Milone<\/strong>, Straily<\/strong> left out, Anderson<\/strong> in long relief). \u00a0I didn’t want to rank them last, considering Oakland’s record over their last 162 game stretch. \u00a0But here they are; on an individual level one by one, they just do not stack up. \u00a0The age-less wonder Colon is easily the staff Ace. \u00a0The rest of these guys’ seasonal numbers are just not impressive.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These teams obviously didn’t make the playoffs, but were in the hunt until late, and since I had already typed up this content might as well say where I’d have ranked them, had they made the playoffs…<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Washington<\/span>: Strasburg, Gonzalez, Zimmermann, Haren<\/strong> (Ohlendorf, Roark<\/strong> left out, Jordan<\/strong> shut down) \u00a0Perhaps you’d replace Haren with Roark based on September performances; \u00a0I just can’t imagine trusting Haren in a 7 game series.. \u00a0I’d put them about #4, just ahead or just behind Tampa. \u00a0\u00a0Gonzalez and Zimmermann have shown themselves to be oddly vulnerable here and there coming down the stretch, and I just don’t put Strasburg in the same elite category as Kershaw right now. \u00a0Too bad months of indifference cost them the 4 games they needed to make up in the standings to reach the WC game.<\/li>\n
    • Kansas City<\/span>: Shields, Santana, Chen, Guthrie<\/strong> (Duffy, Davis, Mendoza<\/strong> left out): Duffy may be a better choice than Guthrie based on small sample sizes. \u00a0I’d have put them just behind Cincy at #8 in terms of rotation depth.<\/li>\n
    • Texas<\/span>: Darvish, Garza, Holland, Perez<\/strong> (Tepisch, Grimm<\/strong> left out, Harrison<\/strong> hurt): Great Ace in Darvish (even if he has occasaional blowups), but falls off badly after that. \u00a0The Garza acquisition has just not worked out, and the rest of the rotation is good but not overpowering. \u00a0I’d put them behind KC but just ahead of Baltimore.<\/li>\n
    • Baltimore<\/span>: Tillman, Chen, Gonzalez, Feldman<\/strong> (Norris, Garcia, Hammel<\/strong>\u00a0and others left out). \u00a0They’d probably be behind Atlanta at #9, only ahead of Oakland\/Cleveland.<\/li>\n
    • New York<\/span>: Sabathia, Kuroda, Nova, Pettitte<\/strong> (Hughes, Phelps<\/strong> left out): Kuroda has been the ace of the staff this year, but you’d always lead off with Sabathia (though, had they made the playoffs it would be unknown if Sabathia could even go with his late-season injury). \u00a0Either way, this would be behind any other playoff team’s rotation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Now that the playoff fields are set … who has the most formidable playoff rotation? Unlike previous rotation rankings posts, the playoffs focus mostly on the 1-2-3 guys. \u00a0Your 5th starter may not even be on the playoff roster and your 4th starter usually just throws one start in a series where you can line […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2036],"tags":[346,700,874,1262,1912,704,777,343,868,891,342,1676,47,2020,1263,2019,1039,319,426,1957,983,2029,2031,2025,1040,223,286,241,1024,2023,1910,321,1221,385,340,892,2018,412,324,1022,896,49,872,1036,2022,2030,239,1260,306,890,221,43,1913,2034,2026,44,970,897,2032,1889,586,131,303,229,1037,1953,1038,893,775,129,2033,840,956,266,778,1554,838,305,477,1333,2028,38,77,24,219,34,1739,2024,240,2021,1029,300,2027,254],"class_list":["post-7661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlbpitching","category-post-season","tag-adam-wainwright","tag-aj-burnett","tag-aj-griffen","tag-alex-cobb","tag-alex-wood","tag-andy-pettitte","tag-anibal-sanchez","tag-bartolo-colon","tag-brett-anderson","tag-bronson-arroyo","tag-bruce-chen","tag-bud-norris","tag-cc-sabathia","tag-charlie-morton","tag-chris-archer","tag-chris-capuano","tag-chris-tillman","tag-clay-buchholz","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-corey-kluber","tag-dan-haren","tag-dan-straily","tag-danny-duffy","tag-danny-salazar","tag-david-phelps","tag-david-price","tag-derek-holland","tag-doug-fister","tag-ervin-santana","tag-felix-doubront","tag-francisco-liriano","tag-freddie-garcia","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-gio-gonzalez","tag-hiroki-kuroda","tag-homer-bailey","tag-hyun-jin-ryu","tag-ivan-nova","tag-jaime-garcia","tag-jake-peavy","tag-jake-westbrook","tag-james-shields","tag-jarrod-parker","tag-jason-hammel","tag-jeff-locke","tag-jeremy-guthrie","tag-jeremy-hellickson","tag-joe-kelly","tag-john-lackey","tag-johnny-cueto","tag-jon-lester","tag-jordan-zimmermann","tag-julio-teheran","tag-justin-grimm","tag-justin-masterson","tag-justin-verlander","tag-kris-medlen","tag-lance-lynn","tag-luis-mendoza","tag-martin-perez","tag-mat-latos","tag-matt-garza","tag-matt-harrison","tag-matt-moore","tag-max-scherzer","tag-michael-wacha","tag-miguel-gonzalez","tag-mike-leake","tag-mike-minor","tag-mike-rizzo","tag-nick-tepisch","tag-paul-maholm","tag-phil-hughes","tag-rick-porcello","tag-ricky-nolasco","tag-ross-ohlendorf","tag-ryan-dempster","tag-scott-feldman","tag-scott-kazmir","tag-shelby-miller","tag-sonny-gray","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-tanner-roark","tag-taylor-jordan","tag-tim-hudson","tag-tommy-milone","tag-tony-cingrani","tag-ubaldo-jimenez","tag-wade-davis","tag-wandy-rodriguez","tag-wei-yin-chen","tag-yu-darvish","tag-zach-mcallister","tag-zack-greinke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661","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=7661"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7954,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661\/revisions\/7954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}