In 2003 Clemens (211.2 IP), Mussina (214.2), Pettitte (208.1), Wells (213.0), ate innings at a scale that is rare today. Roughly 69% of total innings pitched were accumulated by the rotation.

In 2003, the core four looked like this on FanGraphs:

  1. Mike Mussina: 214.2 IP, 3.09 FIP
  2. Andy Pettitte: 208.1 IP, 3.74 FIP
  3. David Wells: 213.0 IP, 3.94 FIP
  4. Roger Clemens: 211.2 IP, 3.60 FIP

AL pennant winner. They reached the World Series and lost in six to Florida.

In the Yankee Years, Tom Verducci and Joe Torre call the 2003 rotation one of Torre's best. Has any rotation stacked up since then?
byu/No-Unit7917 inNYYankees

15 comments

  2. Any of the 90’s championship rotations, which would have included some of those guys would have been on par. 1998 top 4 was Pettitte, Wells, Cone and el Duque

  4. Why the fuck is the video? Oh right – I forgot this sub is dumb.

    Imo you’re right. This pitching staff was great. And if I remember correctly, this was the tragic year of the Rivera WS blown save.

  5. That was one of their best rotations but their bullpen was trash that year.

    We were relying on guys like Juan Acevedo and a 50 year old Jesse Orosco at one point

  6. Davis Wells is such an underrated and forgotten pitcher. He had a sick curve and could take the ball all night long. I have to go look up how many rings he has.

    E: I had no idea he got a ring with Toronto

  8. What an insane top four.

    07 had Wang, Mussina, Clemens, and Andy, but I cant remember how well any of them performed besides Wang. I’d guess maybe 07 was the best since then, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

  10. In hindsight you can have too much pitching when 2 of them are Jeff Weaver and Jose Contreras

  11. No rotation really comes close to that one. The 03 team was honestly better than the 00-01 teams, especially the 01 team. But it didn’t achieve as much because we lost to a red hot, but objectively mediocre Marlins team. Just a weird fluke. Florida won fair and square, I’m not pretending they aren’t the rightful champions. But it’s a rough loss because we really were much better. We just blew it. And no rotation has even come close since then.

  12. 2011 Phillies: Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Oswalt, Vance Worley. Lost in 5 games in the NLDS because Chris Carpenter was just slightly better than Doc in a 1-0 masterpiece of a duel.

    2014 Tigers: Scherzer, Price, Verlander (albeit he sucked that year), Porcello, Anibal Sanchez. Swept in the ALDS by the Orioles. What’s crazy is all these guys won rings elsewhere.

  14. 1998 staff was better. Cone, Wells, Pettitte, Hernandez, Irabu. 79 wins 35 losses. And won the WS.

  15. they havent had a playoff rotation thats 4 deep ever since. They have had some strong top twos, and even a strong 3 man combo on paper, but never that deep.

Leave a Reply