Posnanski: Who are baseball’s No. 1 starters?
From SABR member Joe Posnanski at NBC Sports on July 31, 2015:
One of the great mysteries of baseball is this: Just how many No. 1 starters are there anyway? You might assume, with there being 30 teams, that there must be 30 No. 1 starters. But nobody in the game sees it that way. Whenever I’m in a town, I ask the GM, the manager, a player or someone in the local media to name the No. 1 starters in the game. I’ve now done this 25 or so times around baseball, and based on the responses it appears there are only 10 or so No. 1 starters in the game at any given time.
Give you an example: St. Louis’ Lance Lynn. Would you consider Lance Lynn to be a No. 1 starter? He has never received even a single Cy Young vote. He was selected for just one All-Star Game, and that was three years ago after he got off to a hot start. He is on a three-year, $22 million contract, meaning he’s getting paid less over three years than what eight different pitchers are getting paid just for this year.
Is Lance Lynn a No. 1 starter? Absolutely he is. It’s not even close — right now, I rank him as the 13th best starting in baseball. That’s not just a No. 1 starter, but it makes him one of the better No. 1 starters in the game.
Read the full article here: http://sportsworld.nbcsports.com/who-are-baseball-number-one-starters/
Originally published: July 31, 2015. Last Updated: July 31, 2015.