The All-Time LA Dodger Team: The #5 Starter

All-Time Lineup:  #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8
All-Time Starting Pitchers:  #1 | #2 | #3 | #4

Fernando Valenzuela beat out Don Sutton, in our closest poll yet, for the 4th starter position, giving our staff a nice balance with two lefties and two righties.

Interestingly, all of these pitchers had fairly long scoreless streaks.  We know about Big D and Orel, who own the top two scoreless inning streaks of all-time, but the two lefties had some streaks as well:

1) Valenzuela started the 1985 season by pitching 41.1 IP without giving up an earned run.  He did give up a run in that 42nd inning, so he sat at the end of April with a 0.21 ERA but only a 2-3 record.  I was tempted to go with the start of his career too.  Fernando mixed in a 34-inning scoreless streak in 1981, and after his first 7 starts his career ERA (including 17.2 earned-run-less IP in relief in 1980) was 0.22.

2) Koufax had a 33-inning scoreless streak in July 1963, including three straight shutouts.

Who will round out our starting staff?  To determine the #5 starter, the voting is the same as before, except that Koufax, Drysdale, Orel, and Fernando are no longer eligible.

Eric's Pick

I'm really tempted to go with Kevin Brown here, since he was great during his 3.5 healthy seasons here.  He has the highest ERA+ in Dodger history with a 147, and it's not even close.  And that's not just LA Dodger history, but rather overall Dodger history.  Reader Paul Scott put forth this compelling argument for Brown as the 5th starter:

This is the fifth spot in the rotation. This will be the guy that sees the least action. You don’t need or even want a workhorse here. You want a guy that will give you the best performance during the limited time he will be on the mound during the season. That guy is Kevin Brown.

It's a great argument for Brown, but I'm sticking with Don Sutton here.  I just don't think Brown was a Dodger long enough to warrant a spot on this time, despite his greatness.  Sutton put together a solid 15 seasons with the Dodgers, with a few great ones mixed in.  I'm rewarding his longevity here, but it's an admittedly close call.

Phil's Pick

Kevin Brown might be the correct pick but I'm going with the guy who threw a 1-0 shutout  at my first game in the cathedral called Dodger Stadium when Grabarkewitz hit one of my top 10 Dodger home runs.

Who's your pick?