Which team had the best pitching staff in history?

With all the recent talk of the Mets’ vaunted quartet of Matt Harvey-Jacob DeGrom-Noah Syndergaard-Steven Matz, it got me thinking; which Long Island team had the best starting staff in history?

I had to do some fact-checking and talk to some people who have been around longer than I have to get an educated answer to this question. After much deliberation, here is the top six.

2007 Islip:

Rob Rogers- Los Angeles Dodgers (32nd Round)

Chris Burke- San Diego Padres (18th Round)

Ed Macaluso- Iona 

This team has a top three you could match up with anyone. The first two guys went on to play pro ball–albeit as an outfielder for Burke after smashing 31 HRs in his college career–and Macaluso won the Paul Gibson Award a senior with a 7-1 record and 1.05 ERA. As a unit, this team went 25-5 and won the New York State Class A Championship before losing in the state title in 2008. Macaluso was only a freshman in ’07 but won a game in the states. Rogers went on to dominate at Div-III Keystone College in PA, shattering the program’s records for K’s and finishing fourth in ERA at 1.74 before getting drafted by LA. This staff was as nasty as it gets.

2008 Pat-Med:

Marcus Stroman-Duke

Chris Phelan-Farmingdale

Mike Smith-Marist

Here’s a staff that was anchored by the Yaz Award winner that year. They followed that up with a pitcher who went 18-1 in his high school career and closed out the three-game set with a Div-I bound lefty that threw in the mid 80s. That team roared through League-I and the playoffs before losing to the eventual champs, West Islip, in the Suffolk County championship. Stroman was his usual self–he allowed 18 walks and 37 hits over 64 innings while striking out 96 with a 1.85 ERA and 8-1 record. Phelan  went undefeated at 7-0. In fact, his only high school loss came in his sophomore year when his brother allowed the go-ahead run to score. His brother went on to pitch at New Haven and holds the Pat-Med program record with 9 wins in a single season. Mike Smith was the lone lefty in the rotation. He had a nasty fastball-curveball combo and finished off many series sweeps for them. Pat-Med also had a stellar staff in 2013 led by Matt Vogel and Dan Tierney but this team was a notch above.

2011 Adelphi:

Rob Nixon- Cleveland Indians (46th Round)

Mike Scudero- Windy City Thunderbolts (Frontier League)

Jonathan Gonzalez- Gateway Gizzlies (Frontier League)

Dillon McNamara- New York Yankees (27th Round)

Here’s a staff that compiled a 1.98 ERA (2nd in nation) over 458.0 IP and came within one inning of reaching the Div-II World Series. All four of their starters went onto play pro baseball. Currently, McNamara is the only one still playing but that does not diminish what this group accomplished. Nixon was named All-American for his season–1.43 ERA over 113.1 IP with a .203 AVG against. Scudero was All-Region. He went 8-1 with a 1.89 ERA over 95.0 IP. He struck out 87 with a .211 AVG against. Gonzalez was 7-0 with a 1.91 ERA over 84.2 IP. McNamara was limited to 8.2 IP that season due to an injury but he was utterly dominant in 2012 as a starter and ’13 as a reliever when he allowed 1 run in 32 IP for the Panthers. Division-II teams do not face this caliber of pitching. The most mind-blowing fact about this team is that their starting pitchers threw 21 complete games in a 40-game season. The Mets have one CG this season through 120 games.

2011: Chaminade:

Eric Truss-Middlebury

Zach Grossfeld-Richmond

Brendan Mulligan-Hofstra

Kevin Weissheier-Hofstra

Andrew Gallagher-Fairfield

This team went five deep in the pitching staff with studs. They were led by Truss, who defeated every team in the conference and compiled a record of 9-0 over 56.2 IP with a 0.94 ERA. Chaminade went on to win the CHSAA that season over St. John the Baptist in large part to their dominant pitching. In total, their team featured 8 Div-I players, something rarely seen from a New York program. Their big 6’4″ lefty, Weissheier, went 4-1 with a 0.92 ERA. Grossfeld went 7-1 while allowing only two runs (0.25 ERA) over 50 innings. Gallagher, the closer, recorded four saves while adding two victories. If this staff is No. 2 on the list, it will be hard for future teams to crack this list.

2013 Ward Melville:

Anthony Kay-UConn

Chris Cepeda-Dowling

Joe Flynn-Princeton

Greg Coman-Harvard

Kevin Wiltse-Hartford

This is the gold standard for rotations. It featured three Div-I starters and a fourth who won the Long Island championship with a 67-pitch complete game and was 15-2 in his career with every victory being a complete game–except for one that was 6.2 that Kay came in and closed. Speaking of Kay, he won the Paul Gibson Award the previous year for not allowing a run over 49 IP. In 2013, he did much of the same and threw a no-hitter against Matt Vogel in an extremely anticipated match up. He is now pitching for Team USA and his HS coach, Lou Petrucci, expects him to be a top-5 round pick.

Joe Flynn, who was a sophomore at the time, was “only” throwing 85-88 MPH. He won the Paul Gibson Award in 2015 and is now at Princeton.

Greg Coman was the other lefty. He probably would’ve been the ace on almost any other staff. He went 4-0 with a 0.70 ERA and had to split starts due to the sheer dominance of this group.

“There were four legit Division-I prospects,” said Petrucci. “It’s rare that you have that group of pitchers–but hopefully it’s not the last. Hopefully we have that every year,” he added.

Ward Melville has been home to some elite arms in recent years, to say the least. Just four years prior, Steven Matz was lighting up the radar guns and firing zeros for the Patriots.

2014 Dowling :

Tyler Badamo- New York Mets (24th round)

Tom Bammann

JJ Bessell- Watertown Bucks (Frontier League)

Kyle DeMeo- still active

Much like the ’11 Panthers of Adelphi, the Dowling staff was completely dominant and was one win away from reaching the Div-II World Series in Carey, NC. The staff was led by All-American Tyler Badamo, who put together an other-worldly season. Among his most notable achievements was his 60 inning scoreless streak, school-record 129 strikeouts and 0.83 ERA. Not to be outdone, Bammann went 9-2 with a 2.35 ERA over 88 IP and Bessell went 6-2 with a 2.08 ERA in 82.1 IP. The team finished with a stellar 2.40 ERA. It was not quite Adelphi’s 1.98 ERA but they also struck out a batter per inning and held the opponents to a .230 AVG and a 3.39 K/BB ratio. If they had won that final game in the regionals there is no doubt they would’ve finished the deal in the CWS.

Editor’s Note: This was meant to be a fun piece that sparks up some debate so if you disagree please comment or tweet at us to send your thoughts.