Who Has Best Starting Rotation? (as conducted by ESPN)

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As an ode to ESPN's poll of the same question (and to see what the Cafe thinks), who has the best rotation?

Here's the link to their poll: http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnat ... ent_id=542

Houston Astros
Roy Oswalt
Andy Pettitte
Roger Clemens
Wade Miller
TBD (Robertson, Redding, Duckworth, Hernandez,...?)

New York Yankees
Mike Mussina
Kevin Brown
Javier Vazquez
Jose Contreras
Jon Lieber

Oakland A's
Tim Hudson
Mark Mulder
Barry Zito
Mark Redman
Rich Harden

Boston Red Sox
Pedro Martinez
Curt Schilling
Derek Lowe
Tim Wakefield
Byung-Hyun Kim

Chicago Cubs
Mark Prior
Kerry Wood
Carlos Zambrano
Matt Clement
TBD (Cruz,...?)

Florida Marlins
Josh Beckett
Dontrelle Willis
Brad Penny
Carl Pavano
TBD (*A.J. Burnett,...?)

*Still recovering from injury.

[Guest]

The Cubs have the best rotation for sure.

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Personally, I like the variation of styles that the Red Sox could throw out on five straight days.

[TheYanks04]

1 to 5 it is either the A's or the Yankees depending on the success or Leiber/Contreras and Harden/Redman. Boston with Wakefield and Kim ...come on. Cubbies 5th is weak. Same for the Astros.

[kentx12]

The A's have the best IMO but the Cubs have to be a close 2nd. How do they get Chicago so far down?????

[swingaway]

The A's have the best 1- 5 rotation hands down while for second best they are all 1 pitcher shy of having dominating roatation and the are they yanks, cubs, and astros you could make a case for either 3 of those teams for 2nd best but imo i just call them all tied for the 2nd best. opps i forgot to add red sox to the list lol.

[trevisc]

A's for sure

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Boston with Wakefield and Kim ...come on. Cubbies 5th is weak.

I think you underestimate Kim's ability (and maybe forever associate Kim with his 2001 W.S. meltdown). I think he's better suited for starting now, and I believe he'd make for a very good starter if he was given a full season.

And I guess I don't see Wakefield as being so easily dismissed. Career .253 BAA versus Lieber's .271? And who knows where Lieber's at now....I'll take the Sox because of their five starters.

And Harden is still unproven, and Redman is more of a product of his environment, IMO.

[ramble2]

Best 1-5 rotation:

A's
.
Yankees
Cubs
.
Boston
.
Houston
Florida


Part of my reasoning has to do with degree of question marks for each rotation. Depending on how things play out, these 6 could end up in any order by the end of the season. I really like that A's rotation though ...

And the M's rotation could end up in the mix too ...

[Jivedude]

I say

1) A's
2) Cubs
3) Red Sox
4) Astros
5) Yankees