Fun with Starting Rotations

The other day, I was curious about consistency of pitching staffs. I started with the figure of 30 starts. I wanted to see which teams had the most 30 start pitchers on a consistent basis. Since 2005, a team had four 30 game starters on thirteen occasions. One team has done it every year from 2005-2008; the White Sox. They also did it in 2003.

Here are White Sox' four excellent rotations
2005: Buehrle 33, Garcia 33, Contreras 32, Garland 32
2006: Garcia 33, Buehrle 32, Garland 32, Vazquez 32, Contreras 30
2007: Garland 32, Vazquez 32, Buehrle 30, Contreras 30
2008: Buehrle 34, Danks 33, Floyd 33, Vazquez 33

And notice the 2006 staff had five 30+ start men. This has only happened six times in major league history.

2006 White Sox: Garcia, Buehrle, Garland, Vazquez, Contreras
2005 Cardinals: Chris Carpenter, Jason Marquis, Mark Mulder, Jeff Suppan, Matt Morris
2005 Indians: Jake Westbrook, Cliff Lee, Scott Elarton, CC Sabathia, Kevin Millwood
1993 Dodgers: Pedro Astacio, Kevin Gross, Orel Hershiser, Ramon Martinez, Tom Candiotti
1977 Dodgers: Tommy John, Rick Rhoden, Don Sutton, Doug Rau, Burt Hooton
and
2003 Mariners: Jamie Moyer, Joel Piniero, Gil Meche, Freddy Garcia, Ryan Franklin

What's special about the '03 M's? Moyer and Garcia both recorded 33 starts, and Meche, Piniero, and Franklin recorded 32. That adds up tp 162. Every start was accounted for by these five men. This is the only time in major league history that this has happened.

Also, three rotations in history had three guys with 40+ starts. And one may think that they happened in the early 1900's. Incorrect.
1965 Dodgers: Don Drysdale 42, Sandy Koufax 41, Claude Osteen 40
1969 Dodgers: Claude Osteen 41, Don Sutton 41, Bill Singer 40
1972 White Sox: Wilbur Wood 49, Stan Bahnsen 41, Tom Bradley 40

The 40 game starter was prevalent in the 1900's, then went into hibernation until sprinkling in the mid to late 60's and then thriving through the 70's. The last 40 game starter (probably ever) was Charlie Hough with 40 in 1987. Two years earlier Jerry Reuss of the Dodgers racked up 45.

The highest tandem of starts is Jack Chesbro (51) and Jack Powell (45) for the 1904 Highlanders (later Yankees)

What's the most different starting pitchers used in a season? That would be 19. By 3 teams.
1919 Athletics: Jing Johnson, Rollie Naylor, Scott Perry, Tom Rogers, Walt Kinney, Win Noyes, Socks Seybold, Jimmy Zinn, Bob Geary, Dan Boone, Mule Watson, Ray Roberts, Bob Hasty, Bill Grevell, Pat Martin, Lefty York, Charlie Eckert, Dave Keefe, and William Pierson. You've never heard of any of them, and the team went 36-104.

1935 Athletics: Johnny Marcum, George Blaeholder, White Wilshere, Roy Mahaffey, Bill Dietrich, Carl Doyle, Al Benton, George Tuberville, Sugar Cain, Joe Cascarella, Woody Upchurch, Herman Fink, Vallie Eaves, Al Veach, Bill Ferrazzi, Wedo Martini, George Caster, Dutch Lieber, and Earl Huckleberry. You couldn't come up with 19 better names if you tried. 58-91 record.

1944 Dodgers: Hal Gregg, Curt Davis, Rube Melton, Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish, Ben Chapman, Whit Wyatt, Les Webber, Ed Head, Art Herring, Fritz Ostermueller, Tommy Warren, Bob Chipman, Tom Sunkel, John Wells, Chink Zachary, Clyde King, Ralph Branca, Wes Flowers, and Frank Wurm. 63-91. But first place as far as names are concerned.

Next, I was looking at the 2008 White Sox rotation, and I noticed that 75 of the starts were made by lefties. Then I did every team in the majors and noticed that the most left handed rotation in baseball was the Pirates, with 94 starts made by lefties. The Reds had a single left handed start by Adam Pettyjohn (his first start since 2001; he had suffered from ulcerative colitis, missed the entire 2002 season, and battled back to the majors). I asked myself, is it possible that a team can go an entire season without a left handed start??

Yes. 27 times!
1901 Braves (140 games)
1903 Dodgers (139) and Giants (142)
1922 Yankees (154)
1923 Red Sox (154)
1930 Red Sox (154)
1932 Indians (152) and Cubs (154)
1933 Cubs (154)
1944 Braves (155)
1973 Braves (162)
1974 Braves (163)
1992 A's (162)
1993 Dodgers (162)
1994 Dodgers (114) and Cubs (113)
1995 Dodgers (144) and Cubs (144)
1996 Dodgers (162) and Cubs (162) and Mets (162)
1998 Jays (163)
2000 Rays (161) and Astros (162)
2001 Cubs (162) and Brewers (162)
2002 Orioles (162)
2006 D-Backs (162)

Three of these teams, the 1901 Braves, the 1903 Giants, and the 1944 Braves, didn't have a single inning pitched by a lefty.

Look at that run by the Dodgers! Sandwiched between a Bob Ojeda start 9/24/1992 and a Dennys Reyes start 7/13/97, the Dodgers had 681 consecutive games in which they started a right handed pitcher.

Second to that 681 game streak is the Cubs' 422 right handed starter streak inbetween a Greg Hibbard start 9/29/93 and Terry Mulholland's opening day start 4/1/97.

Of course, it's important to ask which staff, then, is the most left handed in history?

Indeed it is the 1983 Yankees. You can just hear Big Stein flipping out after a lackluster 79-83 1982, saying, "That's it! Give me lefties. I want lefties!!!"
The top five pitchers (as far as starts go) are all lefties.
Shane Rawley, 33
Ron Guidry, 31
Dave Righetti, 31
Bob Shirley, 17
Ray Fontenot, 15
That's 127 of 162 starts, or 78.4% of the team starts. They turned it around for a 91-71 record too... unfortunately, that was only good for third. The second most I was able to find was the 1979 White Sox, with 116 lefty starts.

That was a blast. More to come.