Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
As RBJ pointed out, the Yankees have used 14 starting pitchers this year. Should they make the playoffs, they would be one of a handful of teams to reach the postseason or claim a title outright who had that many starters in season. The most was 15 for the 1989 Giants (though that pales to the all-time high of 24 by the 1915 A's). Unfortunately for the Yanks, they might be a better bet to reach 15 starters than the playoffs this year.
The Giants that year actually had what appears to be a decent rotationfour men with ERAs under 3.50 and at least 10 winsbut tried out plenty of men in the last two rotation spots. Here are all their starters that year:
Pitcher | GS | W | L | IP | ERA |
Rick Reuschel | 32 | 17 | 8 | 208.3 | 2.94 |
Don Robinson | 32 | 12 | 11 | 197.0 | 3.43 |
Scott Garrelts | 29 | 14 | 5 | 193.3 | 2.28 |
Mike LaCoss | 18 | 10 | 10 | 150.3 | 3.17 |
Kelly Downs | 15 | 4 | 8 | 82.7 | 4.79 |
Atlee Hammaker | 9 | 6 | 6 | 76.7 | 3.76 |
Mike Krukow | 8 | 4 | 3 | 43.0 | 3.98 |
Bob Knepper | 6 | 3 | 2 | 52.0 | 3.46 |
Trevor Wilson | 4 | 2 | 3 | 39.3 | 4.35 |
Dave Dravecky | 2 | 2 | 0 | 13.0 | 3.46 |
Dennis Cook | 2 | 1 | 0 | 15.0 | 1.80 |
Russ Swan | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6.7 | 10.80 |
Jeff Brantley | 1 | 7 | 1 | 97.3 | 4.07 |
Joe Price | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14.0 | 5.79 |
Terry Mulholland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11.0 | 4.09 |
Here are the playoff/title teams with the most starting pitchers:
Team | Yr | # Starters |
San Francisco Giants | 1989 | 15 |
Houston Astros | 2001 | 14 |
St. Louis Cardinals | 2002 | 14 |
St. Louis Cardinals | 1930 | 14 |
Brooklyn Dodgers | 1952 | 14 |
New York Yankees | 1951 | 14 |
New York Yankees | 1947 | 14 |
New York Yankees | 1952 | 14 |
Chicago White Sox | 2000 | 14 |
New York Giants | 1922 | 14 |
Cleveland Indians | 1997 | 14 |
Brooklyn Dodgers | 1947 | 13 |
Pittsburgh Pirates | 1990 | 13 |
Boston Red Sox | 1995 | 13 |
San Francisco Giants | 2003 | 13 |
Boston Red Sox | 1999 | 13 |
Chicago Cubs | 1945 | 13 |
Brooklyn Dodgers | 1941 | 13 |
Philadelphia Athletics | 1913 | 13 |
Chicago White Sox | 1919 | 13 |
Philadelphia Athletics | 1902 | 13 |
New York Giants | 1923 | 13 |
New York Giants | 1924 | 13 |
Cincinnati Reds | 1995 | 13 |
New York Yankees | 1953 | 13 |
Of course, at the opposite end of the spectrum there are a number of nineteenth century teams and the 1966 Dodgers, who used just 5 starters, three of which are in the Hall of Fame (Koufax, Drysdale, Sutton, Claude Osteen, and Joe Moeller):
Team | Yr | # Starters |
Boston Red Stockings | 1872 | 1 |
Providence Grays | 1879 | 2 |
Chicago White Stockings | 1882 | 2 |
Chicago White Stockings | 1876 | 2 |
Boston Red Caps | 1877 | 2 |
Boston Red Caps | 1878 | 2 |
Philadelphia Athletics | 1871 | 2 |
Boston Red Stockings | 1873 | 2 |
Boston Red Stockings | 1874 | 2 |
St. Louis Browns | 1885 | 3 |
Chicago White Stockings | 1881 | 3 |
Boston Red Stockings | 1875 | 3 |
Boston Beaneaters | 1883 | 3 |
Cincinnati Red Stockings | 1882 | 3 |
New York Metropolitans | 1884 | 3 |
Chicago White Stockings | 1886 | 3 |
Chicago White Stockings | 1880 | 4 |
Brooklyn Bridegrooms | 1889 | 5 |
Boston Pilgrims | 1904 | 5 |
Los Angeles Dodgers | 1966 | 5 |
Philadelphia Athletics | 1883 | 5 |
Boston Reds | 1890 | 5 |
Boston Beaneaters | 1897 | 5 |
(no wonder why I keep coming back to this site)
Very interesting that the 2001 Astros, 2002 Cards, 2000 White Sox and 1997 Indians also used 14 starters. Does give hope for us Yankee fans, but I'm more inclined to agree with you that starter #15 is more likely.
I think the '66 Dodgers is the most remarkable, they're really the only "modern" team in amongst the real old schoolers.
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