You’re probably familiar with the old baseball saying “good pitching stops good hitting.” The reason you’ve heard it is because it’s true — the best pitchers can shut down any offense when they’re on. Just look at Roy Halladay who no-hit the NL’s best offense in Game 1 of the NLDS.
With that performance in mind, I decided to rank the starting pitchers for all eight playoff teams. I only ranked the top three starters for each team except in the cases where teams have a scheduled fourth starter. The three criteria I used were domination, this season, and experience. Here’s my explanation for each quality:
Domination – The ability of a pitcher to take over a game and be un-hittable. Guys who throw lots of shutouts, work deep into games, and strike opposing batters out were rewarded. The frequency of domination is weighted heavily (the reason why Roy Halladay is a 10 while Matt Garza is an 8 though each threw no-hitters this year).
This Season – How the pitcher is doing this year. This is important because some guys might not be proven but may be having good years, while some proven pitchers are having bad years.
Experience – Speaks for itself. Both playoff experience and regular season experience are factored in. Andy Pettitte is a 10 for obvious reasons. Roy Halladay still gets a 7 because he’s been around for so long, pitched in the AL East most of his career, and still has made some pressure starts.
