1981 Astros 3rd Best Pitching Rotation of All Time

Going into a season, I wasn't sure if that was even the best Astros rotation of all time. I think the ERA mark has a lot to do with the dome, not that the pitchers wasn't borderline great to have as a 1/2/3/4/5. Coming into a season, I was definitely excited about the prospects of Oswalt/Pettitte/Clemens/Miller/Redding. It was actually rather depressing how that rotation turned out due to injuries and ... Redding.

 

Yea, I remember that season both the Stros and Cubs loaded up their rotations.

Prior, Wood, Zambrano, Maddux vs Oswalt, Clemens, Pettite and Miller

Dam Cards ended beating both because of injuries and they had this no-name guy coming off injury having a career year, up to that point...Chris Carpenter

 

Dude. Sutton is a hall-of-famer that we wooed over from the Dodgers.

Ryan, Sutton, Niekro. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

 

Man I love those uniforms.. Bring em back!!

 

And NO JR Richard. That was one year after he had the stroke and his career ended. He was the best pitcher of the staff at the time, darn near ALL of baseball.

The year before in 1980, JR Richard had a 1.90 ERA!

 

We didn't have the rainbow shoulder uniforms until 87-88.

This guy is a moron.

 

They had those uniforms as their road jerseys no later than 1981 or 1982.

 

Yeah, HE'S the moron.

 

I was talking to Keith Moreland on his radio show last year and asked him about JR Richard.

He said he was the best pitcher he ever faced, and that it looked like he was just reaching out and handing the ball to the catcher he was so long and his slider was unhittable.

Too bad the team did not believe him about his dead arm, they could have found that clot and fixed it and he would have had a much better career.

DANG IT !

DD

 

I wish I could rep this post 10 times.

But hey: who's that at 2nd base behind Nolie in that pic? Is that Landestoy or Garcia?

 

Interesting. The '48 Indians surprised me. I might argue that the '55 or '54 team was better, but I would need to look at it more closely. Hard to argue against the '97 Braves.

 

If Richard had not been injured, you could have had a rotation of Richard, Niekro, Ryan, Sutton. That would have probably moved one of my favorite non-popular Astros, Vern Ruhle to the bullpen and kept Knepper as a 5th starter.

That would have been an awesome staff.

 

For those that didn't get a chance...

 

repped.