What is your team’s all time fantasy rotation (1 Viewer)

[NREC34]

This is my own thread and my rules You pick your team’s all time rotation. If they pitched The one game for your team but you get them in your rotation in their absolute prime. 

Example: Minnesota Twins could claim Steve Carlton and he will be as good as he was in his prime in 1972. 

Here is my Astros fantasy rotation and I will put it up against any other franchise. Top 3 pitchers are top 20 all time IMO  

1. Nolan Ryan 

2.  Roger Clemens 

3.  Randy Johnson

4.  JR Richard 

5.  Gerrit Cole

honorable mention 

Verlander, Dwight Gooden, Mike Scott, Larry Dierker, Don Wilson, Don Sutton Andy Petitte, Roy Oswalt, Robin Roberts

 

[MindCrime]

Tough to pick from some great choices, but I’ll give it a go.

New York Mets:

Tom Seaver

Nolan Ryan

Dwight Gooden

Jacob deGrom

Jerry Koosman

honorable mention- Pedro Martinez, Al Leiter, David Cone, and I’m sure I’m missing some obvious names.

 

[Michael Brown]

This is a cool one, I'll play:

1. Randy Johnson
2. Roger Clemens
3. Whitey Ford
4. Ron Guidry -- the '78 version might be the ace
5. Lefty Gomez

Honorable mentions are arguably better than many teams' starting 5: Catfish Hunter, Mike Mussina, Phil Niekro, Andy Pettitte, Mel Stottlemyre, CC Sabathia, Babe Ruth, David Cone, Red Ruffing, hopefully Gerrit Cole

And just to argue a bit, I would definitely put Verlander ahead of Cole for the Astros and would really try to find a spot for Mike Scott if it's the unhittable '86 version, and would take Pedro ahead of anyone for the Mets

 

[the moops]

RED SOX

Pedro

Clemens

Cy Young

Dutch Leonard

Lefty Grove

Probably could put in Luis Tiant, Schilling, Chris Sale, or Tom Seaver maybe?

 

[Bogart]

Rangers

With apologies to Bobby Witt, Cole Hamels, CJ Wilson, Colby Lewis, Matt Harrison, Aaron Sele and Kenny Rogers perfect game, this is the starting rotation I would pay good money to see:

1. Nolan Ryan (love him showing up on multiple teams)

2. Charlie Hough (not a true number two, but I want that knuckleball pitching after Ryan's heat)

3. Ferguson Jenkins (just a stud, and the team's party favor coordinator)

4. Yu Darvish (would pay extra for a Hough/Yu throwing session)

5. Kevin Brown (might be the best of the rotation, but the others are personal favorites)

 

[The Kansas Comet]

Dodgers

Had to pass on Fernando Valenzuela, one of my personal favorites, in making this rotation, but I couldn't resist using the 1 game rule to get Pedro and Maddux in here.  

Sandy Koufax - the greatest Dodger ever, in my opinion

Pedro Martinez - trading him away is the worst deal in team history

Clayton Kershaw - a stud in his prime

Don Drysdale - sidearm delivery and a willingness to pitch inside made it tough for righties to dig in on him

Greg Maddux - tremendous stuff paired with a great pitching mind

 

[Michael Brown]

Dodgers

Had to pass on Fernando Valenzuela, one of my personal favorites, in making this rotation, but I couldn't resist using the 1 game rule to get Pedro and Maddux in here.  

Sandy Koufax - the greatest Dodger ever, in my opinion

Pedro Martinez - trading him away is the worst deal in team history

Clayton Kershaw - a stud in his prime

Don Drysdale - sidearm delivery and a willingness to pitch inside made it tough for righties to dig in on him

Greg Maddux - tremendous stuff paired with a great pitching mind

Don't see how any other franchise can compete with this

 

[jfranco77]

Randy Johnson

Roger Clemens

Babe Ruth 

Dwight Gooden in his prime

I guess Whitey Ford can compete with Kevin Brown and Ron Guidry for the 5th spot.

Oh, that's the Yankees, btw. 

 

[The Man With No Name]

Rangers

With apologies to Bobby Witt, Cole Hamels, CJ Wilson, Colby Lewis, Matt Harrison, Aaron Sele and Kenny Rogers perfect game, this is the starting rotation I would pay good money to see:

1. Nolan Ryan (love him showing up on multiple teams)

2. Charlie Hough (not a true number two, but I want that knuckleball pitching after Ryan's heat)

3. Ferguson Jenkins (just a stud, and the team's party favor coordinator)

4. Yu Darvish (would pay extra for a Hough/Yu throwing session)

5. Kevin Brown (might be the best of the rotation, but the others are personal favorites)

No mention of Gaylord Perry?

 

 

[The Man With No Name]

Cleveland:

Cy Young
Bob Feller
Steve Carlton
Addie Joss
Corey Kluber

Luis Tiant
Satchel Paige
Dennis Eckersley
Bob Lemon
Stan Coveleski
Early Wynn
Mel Harder
Orel Hershiser
Sam McDowell
Gaylord Perry
Mike Garcia
C.C. Sabathis


 

 

[Bogart]

No mention of Gaylord Perry?

 

He deserved a mention, I just went with guys that I actually saw pitch live in a Ranger uniform. One of my first games was seeing Jenkins in 1981. Never saw Perry pitch live.

 

[BikerPoet1100]

Probably others that could come up with a list for the Pirates, but P has never really been a strength.

Pirates

Burt Blyleven - HOF 2 year stop in the Burgh (1 of them mattered)

Dazzy Vance - HOF got his start in bigs with PIT

Luis Tiant - Probably should be in the hall, late career stop in PIT

Garrit Cole - Got his start

An argument can be made for all of these Pittsburgh Guys for the last spot

Babe Adams - Payed in '09 and '25 championships.

Bob Friend - Great pitcher on not quite great teams

Willy Cooper

 

[Chemical X]

Tough to pick from some great choices, but I’ll give it a go.

New York Mets:

Tom Seaver

Nolan Ryan

Dwight Gooden

Jacob deGrom

Jerry Koosman

honorable mention- Pedro Martinez, Al Leiter, David Cone, and I’m sure I’m missing some obvious names.

i don’t know here......ryan was a meh met.  if you give the mets ryan, you have to give them warren spahn.

 

[Ilov80s]

Tigers

Verlander

Scherzer

Newhouser (1 vote short of 3 consecutive AL MVPs)

Jack Morris

Denny McClain (if we get them for their prime, that was only 2 year for McClain but he won 2 Cy Youngs and an MVP in that time) 

 

[Chemical X]

Tigers

Verlander

Scherzer

Newhouser (1 vote short of 3 consecutive AL MVPs)

Jack Morris

Denny McClain (if we get them for their prime, that was only 2 year for McClain but he won 2 Cy Youngs and an MVP in that time) 

Was Lolich better?  He practically won them the 68 series.

 

[Ilov80s]

Was Lolich better?  He practically won them the 68 series.

Lolich was good for longer but if we are getting peak version it’s McClain. In 69, McClain won 31 games with a 1.96 ERA. One of the better seasons for any “modern” pitcher.

 

[rockaction]

RED SOX

Pedro

Clemens

Cy Young

Dutch Leonard

Lefty Grove

Probably could put in Luis Tiant, Schilling, Chris Sale, or Tom Seaver maybe?

I was coming in to try my hand with my limited baseball knowledge, but I think you've covered it.

Bruce Hurst might sneak into Honorable Mention consideration. 

 

[Mr. Pickles]

If they pitched The one game for your team but you get them in your rotation in their absolute prime. 

Example: Minnesota Twins could claim Steve Carlton and he will be as good as he was in his prime in 1972.

Seems like a strange rule. 

 

[Encyclopedia Brown]

Probably others that could come up with a list for the Pirates, but P has never really been a strength.

Pirates

Burt Blyleven - HOF 2 year stop in the Burgh (1 of them mattered)

Dazzy Vance - HOF got his start in bigs with PIT

Luis Tiant - Probably should be in the hall, late career stop in PIT

Garrit Cole - Got his start

An argument can be made for all of these Pittsburgh Guys for the last spot

Babe Adams - Payed in '09 and '25 championships.

Bob Friend - Great pitcher on not quite great teams

Willy Cooper

John Tudor.

Barry Bonds said he was one of the most difficult LH he ever faced. 

 

[NREC34]

Seems like a strange rule. 

If you would like you can give your teams all time best with players who played primarily for them. I’m not a thread dictator like some guys

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Lolich was good for longer but if we are getting peak version it’s McClain. In 69, McClain won 31 games with a 1.96 ERA. One of the better seasons for any “modern” pitcher.

I would have Mickey as the #6. Meaning if any of the others couldn't go or got hurt during the game he would be the man.

 

[Northern Voice]

By the letter of the rules off the top of my head, I said...

Jays

Roger Clemens

Phil Niekro

Roy Halladay

Dave Stieb

David Cone

I also considered Jack Morris, Pat Hentgen, Dave Stewart, Jimmy Key, Chris Carpenter, David Price, Mark Buehrle, Frank Viola... (and Niekro played 3 games with the Jays).

Then for fun and because I have nothing better to do #covid, I play indexed every pitcher who was an all star and played with Jays at some point and went through the bigger names

Some interesting WAR totals:

• Roger Clemens 139.2
  
• Phil Niekro 95.9
  
• Roy Halladay 64.2
  
• David Cone 62.3
  
• Mark Buerhle 59.1
  
• Dave Stieb 56.4
  
• David Wells 53.5
  
• Jimmy Key 48.9
  
• Frank Viola 47.0
  
• Jack Morris 43.5
  
• John Candeleria 41.9
  
• Al Leiter 40.0
  
• David Price 39.4
  
• Doyle Alexander 35.1
  
• Chris Carpenter 34.2
  
• Pat Hentgen 32.6
  
• Woody Williams 30.2
  
• A.J. Burnett 28.8
  
• Dave Stewart 26.5
  

 

[Dungeon Master]

Twins:

Walter Johnson

Johan Santana

Steve Carlton

is a good start. 

 

[Don Quixote]

If you would like you can give your teams all time best with players who played primarily for them. I’m not a thread dictator like some guys

As I’m guessing this is shade at me, that wasn’t my rule at all. I had several players on multiple teams. I said Randy Johnson did not pitch long enough for the Astros for me, but I had him on my Mariners and Diamondbacks squads.

And I didn’t dictate anyone or anything. I just said what I was personally applying. It would have been boring if there was no disagreement (not saying that it wasn’t boring anyway).

 

[Eephus]

Was Lolich better?  He practically won them the 68 series.

Lolich was good for longer but if we are getting peak version it’s McClain. In 69, McClain won 31 games with a 1.96 ERA. One of the better seasons for any “modern” pitcher.

McLain was the better organist by far

 

[NREC34]

As I’m guessing this is shade at me, that wasn’t my rule at all. I had several players on multiple teams. I said Randy Johnson did not pitch long enough for the Astros for me, but I had him on my Mariners and Diamondbacks squads.

And I didn’t dictate anyone or anything. I just said what I was personally applying. It would have been boring if there was no disagreement (not saying that it wasn’t boring anyway).

Oh no, I’m not sure if it was you or not, it was a totally different thread. I could not use Lance Berkman as the all time Astros DH even though he did it a lot when they would play inter league games. But it was the guy who started the threads rules and it was a fun thread anyway. 

ETA: Ok I looked, it was you that started that thread and it’s a good thread. I have not been on here as much and haven’t been following it. Looks like you have almost every team done now. Great!

 

[Don Quixote]

Oh no, I’m not sure if it was you or not, it was a totally different thread. I could not use Lance Berkman as the all time Astros DH even though he did it a lot when they would play inter league games. But it was the guy who started the threads rules and it was a fun thread anyway. 

ETA: Ok I looked, it was you that started that thread and it’s a good thread. I have not been on here as much and haven’t been following it. Looks like you have almost every team done now. Great!

That was me.  I never said that YOU could not put Berkman in DH. I was just using that as a simplifying convention for me personally, and mentioned in the OP that it was arbitrary. I even mentioned for several teams that if I could put anyone at DH who I could not fit elsewhere on the lineup, it would be [X], but put down someone else based on my arbitrary position eligibility rule. Not intended to be serious business. I mentioned in the OP that some of my picks would be tenure for franchise, peak performance, or respect of ‘stache (maybe putting Glenn Hubbard on his all-time Braves team due to respect for the ‘stache caused my “dictator” reflection, and belongs in the Lies About Hitler thread).

Sorry if you interpreted as some kind of strict rules for everyone that I was applying — I was just trying to put some offseason content out for folks that I thought might be entertaining (not expecting the offseason to continue for this long). 

 

[BobbyLayne]

Tigers

Verlander

Scherzer

Newhouser (1 vote short of 3 consecutive AL MVPs)

Jack Morris

Denny McClain (if we get them for their prime, that was only 2 year for McClain but he won 2 Cy Youngs and an MVP in that time)

Gimme Mickey Lolich and Dizzy Trout.

Max was very good but went to a whole other level once he left. Not gonna be wearing an old English D if anyone ever makes a plaque of him.

I could forgive getting thrice suspended the year after winning back to back CYA. Drugs and alcohol, understandable. But you steal the pension fund, #### YOU, dead to me.

 

[Ilov80s]

Gimme Mickey Lolich and Dizzy Trout.

Max was very good but went to a whole other level once he left. Not gonna be wearing an old English D if anyone ever makes a plaque of him.

I could forgive getting thrice suspended the year after winning back to back CYA. Drugs and alcohol, understandable. But you steal the pension fund, #### YOU, dead to me.

Those are 2 very fair points. I was only looking at it from best rotation of my life depended on the outcome. But you are right McClain was a POS.

 

[NREC34]

By the letter of the rules off the top of my head, I said...

Jays

Roger Clemens

Phil Niekro

Roy Halladay

Dave Stieb

David Cone

I also considered Jack Morris, Pat Hentgen, Dave Stewart, Jimmy Key, Chris Carpenter, David Price, Mark Buehrle, Frank Viola... (and Niekro played 3 games with the Jays).

Then for fun and because I have nothing better to do #covid, I play indexed every pitcher who was an all star and played with Jays at some point and went through the bigger names

Some interesting WAR totals:

• Roger Clemens 139.2
  
• Phil Niekro 95.9
  
• Roy Halladay 64.2
  
• David Cone 62.3
  
• Mark Buerhle 59.1
  
• Dave Stieb 56.4
  
• David Wells 53.5
  
• Jimmy Key 48.9
  
• Frank Viola 47.0
  
• Jack Morris 43.5
  
• John Candeleria 41.9
  
• Al Leiter 40.0
  
• David Price 39.4
  
• Doyle Alexander 35.1
  
• Chris Carpenter 34.2
  
• Pat Hentgen 32.6
  
• Woody Williams 30.2
  
• A.J. Burnett 28.8
  
• Dave Stewart 26.5
  

I never knew mr Phil niekro pitched for the Jays....