A tweeter asked me to find out how they compare to the rest of the National League's top three starters. I'm a giver, so I did it. I collected information for ERA, strikeouts, and walks. I totaled each team's big three together and got numbers, and then I ranked them. Here are the results:
The clear winner here in the Washington Nationals. Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann, and Stephen Strasburg have been beyond phenomenal. They are far and away the best one-two-three punch this year. Yeah, even better than Roy Halladay - Cliff Lee - Cole Hamels.
The Dodgers are a solid second there. Their top three are Clayton Kershaw, Chris Capuano, and Ted Lilly. They have only seen Lilly pitch 48.2 innings this year though as he started late, and he has started to regress a bit after a hot start. I would be hesitant to actually say they are the second best, in fact I would probably take the Pirates starting three over them. The Giants are solid with Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, and Ryan Vogelsong. They also have Tim Lincecum who just isn't pitching well for some reason, but at any minute could be come an ace.
If I had to re-rank this moving forward, the only team I would for sure take over the Pirates right now is the Nationals. You would also be inclined to take the Phillies, except Roy Halladay is about to miss 6-8 weeks, which takes them out of the running. I would probably take the Giants over the Pirates as well, and there would be a good amount of other teams that I would have to consider. The truth is that the Pirates have some question marks too. Erik Bedard still has the health questions, and A.J. Burnett's success is very surprising. Nobody expected him to be this dominant, so there is a big possibility that he could regress quite a bit down the line.
Regardless, the Pirates have a top five three man rotation, and it has propelled them to a .500 record after 50 games. When one of these three guys takes the hill, the Pirates are 17-10. Their continued success plus the addition of some actual offense could make this an interesting summer for the Pirates.