Breakdown of Pitching Staff Contenders

There are just about 40 games to go in the 2011 season, and a playoff picture is starting to take shape. Currently, there are only three tightly contested divisions in baseball - the NL West, The AL East, and the AL Central. In all liklihood, 2nd place in the AL East is taking the Wild Card. All other division leaders hold at least 6 game lead at this point, although nothing is a given just ask my Mets. Given the state of the pennant races, we focus on pitching staffs in this breakdown, and we couldn't agree on everything. These are my picks, and I'll tell you the places my colleagues and I agreed upon. Starting with the American League.

5. Cleveland Indians

Standouts - Justin Masterson, Josh Tomlin
Inconsistent - Ubaldo Jimenez, Fausto Carmona, Carlos Carrasco

The Tribe are in the thick of a pennant race in the Central, and NOBODY would have picked that at the start of the season. They've benefited from solid play from hitters and better than average pitching. They also have benefited from a relatively weak division (they'd be 5th in AL East and 3rd in AL West). We were in agreement that the Indians staff is weakest among playoff contenders. They made a great trade to grab Jimenez. The fire-balling righty can look like the greatest pitcher of his generation on some days, and look terrible on others. The Indians staff is largley untested in a stretch run situation, let alone playoffs. Inexperience could be a detriment to their run.

All-Time Diamondbacks Team

Down to the final two All-Time teams. I'm rifling through these last few - taking a look at the Diamondbacks.

The D-backs have only been around since 1998 which makes them the youngest franchise in baseball (along with the Rays) and yet they have something that many franchises don't - a World Series ring (which they won in 2001).

There were a lot of pick 'ems. Guys like Tony Womack, Jay Bell, Damian Miller and Chris Young just missed the cut. But the biggest point of contention was starting pitcher. Do you take Curt Schilling and his two 20 win seasons and WS MVP or do you take Brandon Webb and his Cy Young? We went with Webb because his tenure is a little longer and although they had similar success, Webb has the only Cy Young.

C- Miguel Montero
1B- Conor Jackson
2B- Orlando Hudson
SS- Stephen Drew
3B- Matt Williams
OF- Luis Gonzalez
OF- Steve Finley
OF- Justin Upton
SP- Randy Johnson
SP- Brandon Webb
RP- Jose Valverde

HOF Debate - Curt Schilling

Time for another HOF Debate battle with Curt Schilling our subject. Apart from being somewhat controversial with opinions and statements, Schilling is best known for being a gutty, power pitcher that showed flashes of dominance. This is especially true when looking at his post season numbers.