Top 10 Rotations

[LewGra]

Saw someone post ESPN's list on another site. They have:

1. Tigers
2. Dodgers
3. Nationals
4. Cardinals
5. Pirates
6. A's
7. Rangers
8. Braves
9. Reds
10. Rays

They just posted the list so I didn't see their reasoning for each team.

[RealitySetsIn]

I think a conservative estimate is for every Red starter to have an ERA under 2.90 this year. They really should be 1 or 2.

[LewGra]

I think a conservative estimate is for every Red starter to have an ERA under 2.90 this year. They really should be 1 or 2.

[Ladeda]

Saw someone post ESPN's list on another site. They have:

1. Tigers
2. Dodgers
3. Nationals
4. Cardinals
5. Pirates
6. A's
7. Rangers
8. Braves
9. Reds
10. Rays

They just posted the list so I didn't see their reasoning for each team.

I think Cincy is better than 9th. They pitch in a hitter friendly park. Of the top 10, only Texas and Cincy SP's pitch in a top 10 hitters park. But them in an average park and they would look significantly better.

Team Rank Park Factor
Tigers 15th 101
Dodgers 17th 97
Nationals 14th 102
Cardinals 21st 88
Pirates 26th 83
A's 24th 86
Rangers 3rd 125
Braves 16th 97
Reds 4th 121
Rays 25th 85


I don't know how to format-- it looks great when I type it-- then when I post it's ugly. Sorry for the ugly read-- but Texas home park is 3rd, Cincy's is 4th. The next highest park factor is the Nationals @ 14th. As you can see, 8 of the top 10 basically play @ neutral or pitchers parks-- not hitters ballparks like Texas and Cincy.

Park factor #'s from fangraphs.

[RealitySetsIn]

Completely.
Latos and Bailey are two of the top ten starters in baseball.
Cueto is around 15th or 20th because of injury concerns but has the talent to be top four.
Leake would be an ace on a lot of staffs.
Cingrani is the best young pitcher in MLB. I think he's better than Cole, Fernandez, Harvey, etc...

[LewGra]

Completely.
Latos and Bailey are two of the top ten starters in baseball.
Cueto is around 15th or 20th because of injury concerns but has the talent to be top four.
Leake would be an ace on a lot of staffs.
Cingrani is the best young pitcher in MLB. I think he's better than Cole, Fernandez, Harvey, etc...

Thanks. That should be enough to let people know they don't have to take you seriously.

[Lewdog]

I had said it in another thread, that I had seen multiple guys on ESPN say that the Reds have the best starting rotation in baseball, and if they lose Bailey and insert Chapman into the starting rotation, it will still be in the top 5.

[mth123]

Saw someone post ESPN's list on another site. They have:

1. Tigers
2. Dodgers
3. Nationals
4. Cardinals
5. Pirates
6. A's
7. Rangers
8. Braves
9. Reds
10. Rays

They just posted the list so I didn't see their reasoning for each team.

I think this is about right. Pretty much all the contenders in the NL have really strong rotations. The Reds have a really good group, but they aren't better than the competition (and are probably lagging behind teams like the Nats and Dodgers). I get the standard response that the rotation will carry us and if the rotation stinks it will surely sink us, but the rotation doesn't really give the Reds a competitive advantage in the NL. All the rotations are good and it will come down to offense to differentiate the teams. The Reds are seriously behind most of the contenders in that area.

[LewGra]

I had said it in another thread, that I had seen multiple guys on ESPN say that the Reds have the best starting rotation in baseball, and if they lose Bailey and insert Chapman into the starting rotation, it will still be in the top 5.

The same multiple guys on ESPN that told us the Nationals would play the Blue Jays in the World Series?

[jlcomo]

Completely.
Latos and Bailey are two of the top ten starters in baseball.
Cueto is around 15th or 20th because of injury concerns but has the talent to be top four.
Leake would be an ace on a lot of staffs.
Cingrani is the best young pitcher in MLB. I think he's better than Cole, Fernandez, Harvey, etc...

Talk about delusional.

[RealitySetsIn]

Thanks. That should be enough to let people know they don't have to take you seriously.

You should take me as seriously as you take the people that made predictions in last year's prediction thread that turned out nowhere near true.
I recall one saying the Cardinals wouldn't win 70 games, another saying that Votto and Bruce would hit 40 bombs, and one saying that 5 Reds pitchers would end up in the top 10 of Cy Young voting.

[ac084c]

I had said it in another thread, that I had seen multiple guys on ESPN say that the Reds have the best starting rotation in baseball, and if they lose Bailey and insert Chapman into the starting rotation, it will still be in the top 5.

Don't you think that if they were going to put Chapman in the starting rotation, they would have done, it - oh I don't know, two years ago.... last year even (when Cueto went down). He doesn't want to start, period.

[ac084c]

You should take me as seriously as you take the people that made predictions in last year's prediction thread that turned out nowhere near true.
I recall one saying the Cardinals wouldn't win 70 games, another saying that Votto and Bruce would hit 40 bombs, and one saying that 5 Reds pitchers would end up in the top 10 of Cy Young voting.

I don't think he's talking about your predictions. He's talking about your assertion that Homer Bailey or even Mat Latos are in the top 10 starters in all of baseball, that Leake would be an "ace on a lot of staffs", or that you think Cingrani is better than Cole, Fernandez or Harvey.

[RedsAndCatsFan]

I never really like these lists as anything more than a conversation piece to pass time in the offseason. The Reds are too low in the sense that their rotation will and has carry/carried the team in the past. I think the Cardinals are just about right because they have a lot of above average starters. I normally don't put too much weight in regression season to season like a lot of people on this forum seem to. I especially don't put weight in it when it comes to young players regressing on teams with strong organizations. The Cardinals have proven to be able to avoid it in the past and I have no reason to think they won't this year. Now that the Reds have gotten Dusty out of here, I think they can be a team with a strong enough coaching staff to avoid regression to. A completely healthy Reds starting 5 is simply better than the Cardinals starting 5. My worry is that the Cardinals have a 6,7,8 that aren't much different than their 4 or 5 and I'm not sure the Reds have that.

[Falls City Beer]

Dodgers/Nationals/Braves rotation: overrated. Cards and Reds rotations: underrated.

The mix is right though.