On Monday morning, Buster Olney listed his top ten rotations in baseball and he has the Pittsburgh Pirates rated seventh overall(subscription required). The top six ahead of the Pirates are the Mets, who he ranks well ahead of everyone else. They are followed by the Indians, Cardinals, Cubs, Giants and Dodgers. Obviously the list in very NL-heavy, even including the Nationals and Diamondbacks in the top ten.
Olney points out that Gerrit Cole continues to improve, while Francisco Liriano has had three straight strong seasons in Pittsburgh and Jon Niese could benefit from the Pirates’ use of defensive shifts. While Jeff Locke and Ryan Vogelsong currently round out the rotation, Olney notes that there is room for improvement with this rotation when Tyler Glasnow and Jameson Taillon are ready to join the top three starters. I’d point out that they could also improve over Vogelsong before the season starts.
On one hand this ranking is a good thing. It shows that the Pirates aren’t as bad as everyone has made them out to be this winter, while also showing that they should get better as the year goes along. On the other hand, eight of the top nine rotations are in the NL, so there should be a lot of good teams fighting it out this summer for five playoff spots. The Pirates should also do very well when he ranks the bullpens, and their outfield will obviously rank at or near the top.
