Historically durable, stable pitching rotations lead Giants, Reds into playoffs

Heading into 2012, only seven teams in major-league history had five starters all make at least 30 starts in a season. The 2012 Reds and Giants have both joined that group.

By Matt Snyder

Oct 2, 2012 at 6:33 pm ET • 1 min read

Cain and Cueto lead durable pitching rotations. (US Presswire)

The Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants are both returning to the postseason after a one-year hiatus. They both have already clinched their respective divisions despite dealing with adversity to their lineup (the Reds because of an injury to Joey Votto, the Giants due to Melky Cabrera's PED suspension). The similarities do not, however, stop there.

Both teams head to the postseason with historically stable and durable starting pitching rotations.

Durable in that the pitchers in each rotation have remained healthy. Stable in that there's been no need to remove a pitcher from the rotation because of ineffectiveness -- though it's safe to say both barely made it (Giants with Tim Lincecum's woes and the Reds with Mike Leake in late September).

Heading into the 2012 season, only seven teams in baseball history were able to get at least 30 starts out of five separate starting pitchers -- the last time being the 2006 White Sox. Both the Reds and the Giants have been able to do so this season.

The list, courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com's play index:

• 2012 Reds (Johnny Cueto, Mat Latos, Homer Bailey, Bronson Arroyo, Leake)
• 2012 Giants (Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelsong, Barry Zito)
• 2006 White Sox (Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, Freddy Garcia, Jose Contreras, Javier Vazquez)
• 2005 Indians (CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Jake Westbrook, Kevin Millwood, Scott Elarton)
• 2005 Cardinals (Chris Carpenter, Mark Mulder, Jeff Suppan, Jason Marquis, Matt Morris)
• 2003 Mariners (Jamie Moyer, Ryan Franklin, Joel Pineiro, Freddy Garcia, Gil Meche)
• 1993 Dodgers (Orel Hershiser, Tom Candiotti, Ramon Martinez, Pedro Astacio, Kevin Gross)
• 1980 Athletics (Mike Norris, Rick Langford, Matt Keough, Steve McCatty, Brian Kingman)
• 1977 Dodgers (Tommy John, Burt Hooten, Don Sutton, Rick Rhoden, Doug Rau)

Obviously, all examples are pretty recent -- and the majority are within the past decade -- because much of baseball didn't fully go to a five-man rotation until relatively recently in baseball history. Still, it's remarkable what the Reds and Giants have gotten from their respective rotations and a big part of the reason both are comfortably in the playoffs.

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