A calendar year after the Phillies signed Cliff Lee and kick-started a debate about whether or not they had the best rotation in baseball history, the Anaheim Angels of California acquired free-agent pitcher C.J. Wilson, adding him to an already excellent pitching staff. This was reported exactly nowhere, because the Angels went ahead and signed Albert Pujols a day later, making every baseball fan everywhere freak the hell out.
Lost in all the hoople surrounding the Pujols signing is the fact that the Angels now have a staggeringly good rotation. It is unlikely that the Angels rotation will be better than last year’s Phillies staff, or better than the Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz trio of Atlanta.
But could the Angels have the best rotation in the history of the American League?
* * *
There are ten rotations that are reasonable contenders for the title of “Best Rotation in A.L. History”, seven teams who you could reasonably make a case for. Counting them down in chronological order:
1909 Philadelphia Athletics – 21.7 WAR
|
Name
|
pWAR
|
W-L
|
ERA+
|
|
Eddie Plank
|
4.5
|
19-9
|
136
|
|
Chief Bender
|
4.5
|
18-8
|
145
|
|
Harry Krause
|
5.0
|
18-8
|
145
|
|
Cy Morgan
|
4.9
|
16-11
|
172
|
|
Jack Coombs
|
2.8
|
12-11
|
104
|
This is a pretty good rotation…Jack Coombs and Chief Bender would have even bigger years in 1910, but for top-to-bottom reliability, this was a fine rotation. Bender and Plank are in Cooperstown, and Jack Coombs won 158 games. On the other hand, this team finished second in the AL, and Morgan and Krause weren’t anyone’s idea of stars.
1912 Boston Red Sox – 24.1 WAR
|
Name
|
pWAR
|
W-L
|
ERA+
|
|
Smoky Joe Wood
|
9.6
|
34-5
|
179
|
|
Buck O'Brein
|
5.3
|
20-13
|
132
|
|
Ray Collins
|
5.1
|
13-8
|
117
|
|
Hugh Bedient
|
4.1
|
20-9
|
135
|
This was Joe Wood’s monster season, an effort that saw him finish fifth in the Chalmers Award vote (it went to Tris Speaker). The rest of the rotation was a bunch of guys having career years: Buck O’Brein collected twenty of his 29 career victories in 1912, while Hugh Benient’s twenty wins were a third of his career total. Ray Collins had a few good years. None of these men are in Cooperstown, and Joe Wood was the only legitimate ace on this rotation. This team has the highest cumulative WAR of any team listed, but it’s a stretch to call this a great rotation.
Well…that’s not right. It wasa great rotation…but it was great for just one season. None of the players had long careers of sustained excellence.
1929 Philadelphia Athletics – 18.5 WAR
|
Name
|
pWAR
|
W-L
|
ERA+
|
|
Lefty Grove
|
6.8
|
20-6
|
151
|
|
Rube Walberg
|
5.3
|
18-11
|
118
|
|
George Earnshaw
|
4.9
|
24-8
|
129
|
|
Jack Quinn
|
1.5
|
11-9
|
107
|
You all know about Grove. Rube Walberg was an effective pitcher in the major leagues, a winner of 155 games over fifteen seasons. Earnshaw had seasons of 24, 22, 21, and 19 victories starting in 1929, granting that those victories reflect the quality of his teammates more than his abilities on the hill.
Jack Quinn was forty-five years old in 1929: as you’d expect, he pitched four more seasons in the major leagues, retiring with 247 victories and a 3.29 ERA. He is almost certainly the oldest player to ever receive an MVP votes, showing up on ballots in 1931, when he was a staggering forty-seven years old.
Quinn led a life of staggering richness; just reading the shadows of it, one comes to the conclusion that it wouldn’t be the worst thing to have Jack Quinn’s life. He rode the rails through the American west as a young man, and spent the better part of his middle-age playing professional baseball for whatever team would have him. He didn’t have a long life, but his years had a diversity of experience that seems somehow lost in our modern world.
I don’t mean to slight the current state of things - I am mostly optimistic about the movement of the world – but our lives are somehow less grand than lives lived a century ago. Less tragic too; I suppose that’s the balance, and it’s certainly a good one, all things considered. I have days, though, when I wish I could sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.
There is an excellent biography of Jack Quinn
here.
1946 Detroit Tigers – 24.8 WAR
|
Name
|
pWAR
|
W-L
|
ERA+
|
|
Hal Newhouser
|
9.0
|
26-9
|
190
|
|
Dizzy Trout
|
7.2
|
17-13
|
157
|
|
Virgil Trucks
|
3.9
|
14-9
|
114
|
|
Fred Hutchinson
|
3.8
|
14-11
|
119
|
|
Al Benton
|
0.9
|
11-7
|
101
|
Newhouser came just short of winning his third consecutive AL MVP award in 1946, finishing second to Ted Williams. Newhouser and Trout were even better in 1944, but the lowered quality of supporting staff (and opposition) takes the 1944 rotation out of discussion.
All five pitchers on the rotation reached All-Star games at some point during their careers, and all five received MVP votes from the writers. This is rare for a pitching staff, but there are others...
1954 Cleveland Indians – 17.5 WAR
|
Name
|
pWAR-
|
W-L
|
ERA+
|
|
Early Wynn
|
5.2
|
23-11
|
134
|
|
Mike Garcia
|
5.1
|
19-8
|
138
|
|
Bob Lemon
|
4.2
|
23-7
|
134
|
|
Bob Feller
|
1.7
|
13-3
|
119
|
|
Art Houtteman
|
1.3
|
15-7
|
109
|
One of the two most famous rotation in American League history, the other being the 1971 Orioles…this rotation has three men in Cooperstown (Feller, Lemon, Wynn), plus Mike Garcia, who won 142 games and two ERA titles. If the worst pitcher on the team goes 15-7 with an ERA ten percent better than the league, you’re doing something right.
Like the 1946 Tigers, all five of these starting pitchers made the All-Star team at some point in their careers, and all five pitchers received MVP votes.
1971 Baltimore Orioles – 13.0 WAR
|
Name
|
pWAR
|
W-L
|
ERA+
|
|
Mike Cuellar
|
2.7
|
20-9
|
109
|
|
Pat Dobson
|
3.1
|
20-8
|
116
|
|
Jim Palmer
|
4.1
|
20-9
|
126
|
|
Dave McNally
|
3.1
|
21-5
|
117
|
WAR does not show that the Orioles four 20-game winners were particularly great pitchers: despite their excellent W-L records, only Palmer posted an ERA+ better than 120. One Hall-of-Famer in the group, though Mike Cuellar had a better career after turning 30 than most pitchers in Cooperstown (167-115, 3.15 ERA after turning 30). Still, this is a super-famous rotation, and we’d be remiss to leave them out of the discussion.
1985 Kansas City Royals – 20.3
|
Name
|
pWAR
|
W-L
|
ERA+
|
|
Bret Saberhagen
|
6.7
|
20-6
|
145
|
|
Charlie Liebrandt
|
6.3
|
17-9
|
155
|
|
Danny Jackson
|
3.6
|
14-12
|
122
|
|
Mark Gubicza
|
2.1
|
14-10
|
102
|
|
Bud Black
|
1.6
|
10-15
|
96
|
An excellent (and largely forgotten about) rotation, none of these men ended up having careers on par with Palmer, Feller, or Grove, but they were a talented group.
One reason you could’ve been skeptical about the 1985 Royals staff was their lack of strikeouts. The AL average for strikeouts-per-nine-innings was 5.25 in 1985...only Saberhagen and Black were above the league average, and they weren’t that above it (6.0 and 5.3 k/9). Liebrandt, Jackson, and Black were below average.
1990 Red Sox – 22.9
|
Name
|
pWAR
|
W-L
|
ERA+
|
|
Roger Clemens
|
9.5
|
21-6
|
213
|
|
Mike Boddicker
|
5.4
|
17-8
|
123
|
|
Tom Bolton
|
3.0
|
10-5
|
122
|
|
Greg Harris
|
2.8
|
13-9
|
103
|
|
Dana Kiecker
|
2.2
|
8-9
|
104
|
This is a weird entrant, and like the 1912 incarnation of the Beaneaters, the 1990 Red Sox staff is decidedly front-heavy. Mike Boddicker was a fine pitcher, but I am not convinced that this is a truly great rotation.
1997 New York Yankees – 19.6
|
Name
|
pWAR
|
W-L
|
ERA+
|
|
Andy Pettitte
|
7.6
|
18-7
|
156
|
|
David Cone
|
6.7
|
16-10
|
107
|
|
David Wells
|
4.1
|
12-6
|
159
|
|
Doc Gooden
|
1.2
|
6-7
|
80
|
|
Kenny Rogers
|
0.0
|
9-5
|
92
|
This, too, is a bit of a surprise…Pettitte, Cone, and Wells all rate as having excellent seasons in 1997. Andy Pettitte is the player with the best chance of reaching Cooperstown, but it’s entirely possible that he’s just the fourth-most talented pitcher on that staff.
2003 Oakland Athletics – 19.5
|
Name
|
pWAR
|
W-L
|
ERA+
|
|
Tim Hudson
|
6.7
|
16-7
|
165
|
|
Barry Zito
|
4.9
|
14-12
|
135
|
|
Mark Mulder
|
5.1
|
15-9
|
142
|
|
Ted Lily
|
2.0
|
12-10
|
102
|
|
Rich Harden
|
0.8
|
5-4
|
100
|
Another Athletics team…Tim Hudson is the only player on the rotation who is likely to make the Hall-of-Fame, but four of these five pitchers have had quality major league careers. Rich Harden might have the most raw talent of the bunch, but he is the only one without 100+ career victories. Like the 1997 Yankees, this is another top-heavy rotation, with the three top starts carrying the bulk of value.
That gives us ten teams, and it is entirely possible that I’ve missed an obvious rotation. Let’s see...the 1978 Red Sox had a cumulative WAR of 18.8 (Eck, Tiant, Lee, Torrez, and Jim Wright). The 1972 White Sox of Wilbur Wood tallied a cumulative WAR of 18.7….I’m sure there’s a good American League rotation that I’ve forgotten.
* * *
Imagining the Angels of 2012, we can look first at their 2011 results:
|
Team
|
Name
|
pWAR
|
W-L
|
ERA+
|
|
2010 Angels
|
Jered Weaver
|
6.6
|
18-8
|
158
|
|
2010 Rangers
|
C.J. Wilson
|
5.0
|
16-7
|
152
|
|
2010 Angels
|
Dan Haren
|
4.0
|
16-10
|
120
|
|
2010 Angels
|
Ervin Santana
|
3.1
|
11-12
|
112
|
This totals to a WAR of 18.1, which is an impressive tally. And while Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson had the best seasons of their careers in 2011, Dan Haren and Ervin Santana have both posted WAR’s of 5.0+ in their careers (Haren in 2007 and 2009, Santana in 2008). That gives the Angels four pitchers with 4-5 WAR ability…this is an extremely impressive rotation.
I originally had Tyler Chatwood as the fifth starter, forgetting that he was traded to the Rockies for Chris Iannetta. The current fifth starter for the Angels is up in the air; if I had to guess, I’d hazard that Garrett Richards will be given a chance to win that fifth spot, after a solid AA season in Arkansas (12-2, 3.15 ERA), and three starts in the majors last year. A first-round pick (42nd overall), Richards is an interesting candidate for Rookie-of-the-Year, if you follow that sort of thing.
The Angels have four starters capable of pushing 5 WAR apiece….if the fifth guy can manage to contribute a little bit, the Angels might top a WAR of 20.0 in 2011. I doubt that they will improve on last years’ Phillies, but the 2012 Angels might be the best rotation the Junior Circuit has ever seen.
Dave Fleming is a writer living in Wellington, New Zealand. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions here and at dfleming1986@yahoo.com.