Top Five starting rotations in Pittsburgh Pirates history

Jul 8, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage (L) observes as pitcher Gerrit Cole (R) throws on the field prior to the Pirates hosting the San Diego Padres at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Pittsburgh Pirates historically have been known as an offensive ball club. When you think Pittsburgh Pirates, you think The Lumber Company, Honus Wagner and Bill Mazeroski‘s walk-off home run, but the Pirates have had some very impressive pitching staffs through out their history. I am going to look at the top five best pitching rotations in Pirates history.

My criteria is fairly straight forward, going to look at the Pirates Earned Run Average and the advance numbers of FIP, ERA+ and WAR accumulation. However, it won’t be completely black and white as I am not going to just do the top WAR totals in Pirates history as that would end up being completely dead ball era centric, so I am going to limit the amount of teams per era. I define an era by both decade and changing of the game itself. So there will be one dead ball era team, one post dead ball era team, one post integration era team, etc.

Without anymore delay, here are my top five pitching rotations in Pittsburgh Pirates history:

Next: Number Five