The Best Starting Pitching Staffs in the Last 100 Years: Part I

Pitching, pitching, pitching. You may have heard the saying, “You can never have enough pitching.” Of course, if you are going to have good pitching it begins with your starting pitching staff.

Which starting pitching staff was the best ever? A few that come to mind right away were the Atlanta Braves of the ‘90s. Beginning in 1991, the Braves made the post-season in 13 of the next 14 seasons. Despite their great starting pitching, the Braves won only one World Series.

Similarly, the ’71 Baltimore Orioles with four 20-game winners is another group that is often mentioned. They also did not win the World Series that year. Likewise,the 1954 Cleveland Indians starting pitching staff is legendary as well, but they did not win the World Series either.

I guess that’s proof that starting pitching will give your team a chance. Then again a team needs more than just starting pitching.

I considered and reviewed every team that made it to the World Series and some other notable ones that did not. After viewing all the statistics, teams after the Dead Ball Era were only considered. Comparatively, considering teams before and after 1920 is more an apples-to-oranges comparison than an apples-to-apples one.

All the statistics listed below were found in baseball-reference.com as well as the players listed as starting pitchers for their respective teams. If you disagree with someone that is listed as a starting pitcher, take that up with baseball-reference.com.

How do you compare and rate starting pitching staffs? Do you base it on how good a pitching staff was by the number of 20-game winners it had? If a team had one 20-game winner and the other starters won 13 games each but another team had four 19-game winners, do you still think the team with the one 20-game winner had the superior pitching staff?

Is a starting pitching staff like a chain and only as strong as its weakest link? Do you judge a starting pitching staff on its weakest link? If so, that doesn’t bode well for the ’73 Oakland Athletics. They had three 20-game winners: Jim Catfish Hunter (21), Ken Holtzman (21) and Vida Blue with 20. But their fourth starter was John Blue Moon Odom, and he went 5-12 that year with a 4.49 ERA. How could any World Series winner and particularly the 1973 A’s have a starter seven games under .500?

If that is a major factor in your decision on basing the best of starting pitching staffs, those eliminated would include:

YEAR	TEAM	PITCHER	RECORD
1934	St. Louis Cardinals	Bill Hallahan	8-12
1942	New York Yankees	Marv Breuer	8-9
1951	Cleveland Indians	Bob Chakales	3-4
1961	Cincinnati Reds	Ken Hunt	9-10
1961	New York Yankees	Bob Turley, Bud Daley	3-5, 8-9
1964	Chicago White Sox	Ray Herbert, Fred Talbot	6-7, 4-5
1968	St. Louis Cardinals	Larry Jaster	9-13
1969	New York Mets	Don Cardwell, Jim McAndrew	8-10, 6-7
1972	Oakland Athletics	Vida Blue	6-10
1973	Oakland Athletics	Blue Moon Odom	5-12
1974	Oakland Athletics	Glenn Abbott	5-7
1974	Los Angeles Dodgers	Al Downing	5-7
1977	New York Yankees	Ken Holtzman	2-3
1980	Houston Astros	Ken Forsch	12-13
1985	Los Angeles Dodgers	Rick Honeycutt	8-12
1985	Kansas City Royals	Bud Black	10-15
1988	New York Mets	Bob Ojeda	10-13
1989	Oakland Athletics	Curt Young	5-9
1992	Atlanta Braves	Mike Bielecki	2-4
1993	Atlanta Braves	Pete Smith	4-8
1999	Atlanta Braves	Odalis Perez	4-6
2002	Atlanta Braves	Jason Marquis	8-9
2002	New York Yankees	Ted Lilly	3-6
2003	New York Yankees	Jeff Weaver	7-9
2011	Philadelphia Phillies	Roy Oswalt	9-10
2014	Detroit Tigers	Drew Smyly	6-9

COMING SOON: Part II