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 Underrated Players

I told Mc about an idea I had for a new post and he suggested I do it, so here goes.  I had been thinking about underrated players of all time and 2 players came to mind right away; a pitcher and an outfielder.  I'm going with the pitcher first, see if you can guess who it is.

He came into the big leagues in 1960 and was a major part of the pitching rich 1960's and, by the way, he won more games than anyone in that decade.  If you didn't already know the answer, I would bet your first couple of guesses were wrong.  Why do I think that?  Even though he was a 6 time 20 game winner (3 times 25 or more) he didn't receive 1 Cy Young or even 1 vote for the award!  Know who it is yet?  Here are some clues.  He started 457 games in his career and completed 244 of them, more than half.  He led the league 2 times with one time completing 30 of 38 starts.  And by the way, he won 26 of them that year and didn't receive 1 vote for the CY.

Know who it is?  His 4th season in the bigs, he won 25 games and led the league with 321 innings pitched.  He is remembered for going 16 innings against Warren Spahn that year and winning 1-0 on a Mays home run.

He would win 20 or more in each of the next 3 seasons, going 25-6 with a 2.23 ERA the last season.  Once again not getting a single vote for CY.  He would throw 10 shutouts another season, go 26-9 another, and win an ERA title with 2.10 mark. 

By now any baseball junkie would know it's Juan Marichal.  Marichal had the misfortune of pitching the same time as Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson.  In 1963, '65, '66 and '68, they won the Cy with no else getting a single vote.

During talks of all-time great pitchers, Marichal's name doesn't come up enough in my opinion.  A high leg in the air in his wind up (you've seen it on MLB channel many times) he was a class act and great pitcher.

He is also known for slugging Dodger catcher John Roseboro over the head in '65 and sports writers held this against him, as did my father.  I remember in '68 my dad reading the sports page and telling me "Denny Mclain won his 25th last night, he might win 30". I responded, "Marichal is on pace to win 30 also".  My dad put the paper down and said "they think he's going to win 30 every year and he never does".  My dad meant it as a put down, but I thought this guy must be pretty good if they think that.

Well, that's my pick of most underrated pitcher of all-time.  What do you think?

All-Time Giants Team

Flipping back to the NL, we examine the all-time greats of the Giants. We included NY as well since it's the same franchise. 8 position players, including any OF, 2 SP, and one closer. No DH since not an AL team. Tough to believe such a storied franchise has never had great catchers. That was by far the toughest position for us to fill. Here we go...

C-Tom Haller
1B-Bill Terry
2B-Jeff Kent
SS-Travis Jackson
3B-Matt Williams
OF-Willie Mays
OF-Mel Ott
OF-Willie McCovey
SP-Christy Mathewson
SP-Juan Marichal
CL-Robb Nen

Travis Jackson although not well known is a Hall of Fame Inductee in the 20s and 30s and the Giants leader in games played at SS. McCovey played enough outfield for us to qualify him there. The Giants have had some great pitchers and two that we considered are Carl Hubbell and Gaylord Perry. Hubbell won 2 MVP awards (before Cy Young was handed out) and pitched in an era of great hitting. Perry also won 2 Cy Young awards. A case could be made for either of them.

Here we also get back into the steroid debate with Barry Bonds. What's your take, should he be in the list? Who do you bump?