I want to take a closer look into the franchises best rotation (1986) and compare it to this year’s pitching rotation.
First of all, lets look at the rotation in 1986. The star studded line-up consisted of Ojeda, Gooden, Aguilera, Fernandez, and Darling. Between the five of them, the rotation went 76-30 with a combined winning percentage of .710. What can make the difference between which rotation is better will be if the 2015 rotation can make the post-season.
Below are a list of achievements the 1986 rotation accomplished:
Ojeda- 2.57 ERA, 7 complete games, 2 shutouts, 148 strikeouts, finished 4th for the CY Young
Gooden- 2.84 ERA, 12 complete games, 2 shutouts, 200 strikeouts, All Star, tied for 7th for CY Young
Aguilera- 3.88 ERA, 2 complete games, 104 strikeouts
Fernandez- 3.52 ERA, 2 complete games, 1 shutout, 200 strikeouts, All Star, tied for 7th in CY Young
Darling- 2.81 ERA, 4 complete games, 2 shutouts, 184 strikeouts, finished 5th for CY Young
What really catches my eye in these stats is that four out of the five pitchers finished in the top seven in the CY Young voting. This rotation took them all the way to the 1986 World Series and won their second Championship.
Now a look at the current rotation. With the starters of Harvey, Wheeler, deGrom, Colon, Niese and Gee, it is still a pretty solid rotation. In my opinion, this rotation has a better top three but the 1986 team has a better overall rotation. If this rotation wants to surpass the 1986 rotation, they are going have to bring another World Series back to Queens.
I project this rotation to be the fourth best only behind behind the Nationals, Dodgers and Cardinals.
