MLB: Ranking the Top 7 Starting Rotations in Baseball

1- San Francisco Giants- Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Ryan Vogelsong, Barry Zito, Tim Lincecum

Oct 24, 2012; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Tim Lincecum (55, front) warms up in front of bullpen coach Mark Gardner (26, back) in the bullpen during the sixth inning of game one of the 2012 World Series against the Detroit Tigers at AT

Who else is more worthy to wear the crown for the best rotation in the game than the defending champions?

A lot of people will point to Tim Lincecum as the reason why the Giants shouldn’t be considered the top staff, and while it’s true that Big Time Timmy Jim did have his worst season, he also struck out 190 batters and was his usual filthy self coming out of the bullpen in the playoffs.

The talent is still there, and in his contract year, Lincecum should be very motivated to produce.

The top three spots in the Giants rotation feature the best combined threesome in the game: Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, and Ryan Vogelsong might not be the best three pitchers in the league but they are all top 20 and nobody else can make that claim.

Call me a sucker, but I believe in Barry Zito. Like Lincecum, Zito enters the season with free agency looking him in the face if he doesn’t reach 200 innings. The Giants are going to do everything in their power to stop Zito from reaching that mark, unless he forces them to pitch him because of his performance.

Perhaps the most underrated part of the Giants starting staff is the team’s heath. Last season, every single starter made at least 30 starts and Zito was the low man with 184.1 innings pitched.

The Giants aren’t considered to be the favorites in the NL but if they keep getting the kind of performances out of their starting group that they have been getting, well the two rings in three years speak for themselves.