MLB baseball Pitching Corner:

Author: Michael Licata
Date: 03/31/2010

Complete pitching staffs have helped teams win championships. Pitching often makes quality lineups look average. Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito provide the San Francisco Giants with the best trio in the National League. Madison Bumgarner hasn't had the greatest spring training. He will probably get some seasoning in Triple A and might look for a June call up if the back end of the Giants rotation. The Giants added Mark DeRosa to hope he will help the offense and the Giants can make the playoffs. Expect the Giants offense to play better and Pablo Sandoval should continue to grow as a hitter and his numbers should improve from last year.

If Cole Hamels can return to his 2008 form, he and Roy Halladay will be the best combo leading the Phillies. The Phillies have one of the best lineups and it's an important reason for them making the World Series the previous two seasons. Another team that relies on pitching to win games is the St. Louis Cardinals. Yes, the Cardinals have arguably the best hitter in the game in Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday seems to hit better against NL pitching, but having Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter keeping teams to three or four runs a games means that Pujols and Holliday don't have to get three RBIs a game. Ryan Franklin coming out of the bullpen shortens the games to eight innings.

In the American League, the Boston Red Sox have John Lackey listed as their third starter behind Jon Lester and Josh Beckett. Lackey led the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to the AL Championship Series as the ace of the staff. He's listed third now in Boston. Lackey helps Boston bring along Daisuke Matuszaka as he recovers from fatigue and finds his old form. Clay Buchholz is listed as their fifth starter. Buchholz has a no hitter and he should grow as a starter this season.

The Seattle Mariners have Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee at the top of the rotation along with Ian Snell and Ryan Rowland-Smith as the fourth and third starter. This is a solid staff that can pitch to contact. This helps because the Mariners have a recent history of having the best defense in the majors. Former NL Cy Young winner Jake Peavy leads a Chicago White Sox staff that includes Mark Buehrle, Jon Danks and Gavin Floyd. This team should impress and contend with this rotation along with upgrades in the outfield and maybe Andruw Jones can continue his resurgence, expectations could be high on Chicago's south side.

Complete teams make the playoffs and get deep into October. It really helps having two top of the line starters and a deep pitching staff during the postseason. The New York Yankees were the exception this past fall when they won only using three starters during the postseason. Expect which ever teams to have success this season, a lot of it has to do with their starting pitching staffs. Most teams need a reliable workhorse at the number one spot. The second spot should go to a pitcher that eats a lot of innings and wins about 15-18 games per year. The third guy should be reliable and pitch well enough that your offense can bail him out during a day when one of his pitches isn't being thrown for strikes. The fourth and fifth starters are plug in guys that might win 10-15 games a year. Starting pitching usually helps teams become better and contend during most of the year.


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