Atlanta Braves: Do the Braves, Not the Phillies, Have Baseball's Best Rotation?

Atlanta Braves Win Consecutive Series From Philadelphia

I suppose if you were reading this column in 1991 or 1995 you wouldn't be surprised by that headline...although you certainly would be surprised to see how quickly the internet evolved.

But it's true, that even in the post-Maddux-Glavine-Smoltz era, Hotlanta is home to baseball's best starting rotation.

Looking at the raw numbers, only the Oakland A's have a lower team ERA (and Trevor Cahill is carrying much of the load there) while no team in baseball is surrendering a lower batting average than Atlanta's .222. 

But we're talking about the rotation here, not the staff from top to bottom, and the Braves have four starters who are each capable of shutting down any lineup in baseball.

After shaky outings against Florida and the Dodgers, Tim Hudson is picking up where he left off last year, when he was a Cy Young candidate: In his last 35 and two-thirds innings he's surrendered just nine earned runs.

Tommy Hanson has been even better, allowing just four earned runs in his last four starts to lower his ERA to just 2.61. And although Derek Lowe hasn't been very consistent this season, he has managed to limit the Phillies packed lineup to just two earned runs in 13 innings.

But it's what they've gotten out of Jair Jurrjens so far that pushes them past the Phillies, Yankees, Red Sox or any other team in the race for deepest rotation in baseball.

Jurrjens really struggled at times last year, but has bounced back strong in 2011. He's only made six starts, but he's won five of them, and never allowed more than two earned runs and never went fewer than six innings.

The Phillies—who Jurrjens has beaten twice in the last week—don't have "fourth starter" with those kind of numbers: Joe Blanton's ERA is over 5.50. As great as Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels are they aren't going to be pitching every fourth day, at least not until October.

Over in the American League, although the Yankees have gotten a lot from Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia, the top of their rotation (C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett) haven't exactly been world beaters. And as long as John Lackey continues to struggle in Boston, there's no argument for the Red Sox either.

I suppose the only true contender for the title "Best Rotation In Baseball" would be the A's, who do have four very talented young starters. But especially early in the season, I think the fact that they only have three divisional opponents should be taken into consideration. They've played five fewer games that have that extra bit of meaning.

It's still terribly early and this same Braves rotation wasn't able to keep their lead in the NL East last September...nor grab the lead this spring.

But as long as they stay healthy and keep pitching this way, they can pretty much count on six quality innings every time they take the field. In today's game, anything after that is playing with house money.