I realize this topic is like 80 years old but I've heard a lot of "A-Rod is The Cooler and his teams do awesome after he leaves them and are bad when he's there" blah blah blah. Yes, it has everything to do with the fact that A-Rod is a terrible person and nothing to do with pitching.
2000 Seattle Mariners (91-71, Wild Card champions)
SP Aaron Sele (34 GS): 211.2 IP, 4.51 ERA, 102 ERA+
SP Paul Abbott (27 GS): 179 IP, 4.22 ERA, 108 ERA+
SP John Halama (30 GS): 166.2 IP, 5.08 ERA, 90 ERA+
SP Jamie Moyer (26 GS): 154 IP, 5.49 ERA, 83 ERA+
SP Freddy Garcia (20 GS): 124.1 IP, 3.91 ERA, 117 ERA+
SP Gil Meche (15 GS): 85.2 IP, 3.78 ERA, 121 ERA+
In the ALCS, they used, in order: Garcia, Halama, Sele, and Abbott. Moyer and Meche weren't used at all.
2001 Seattle Mariners (116-46, American League West champions)
SP Freddy Garcia (34 GS): 238.2 IP, 3.05 ERA, 136 ERA+
SP Aaron Sele (33 GS): 215 IP, 3.60 ERA, 116 ERA+
SP Jamie Moyer (33 GS): 209.2 IP, 3.43 ERA, 121 ERA+
SP Paul Abbott (27 GS): 163 IP, 4.25 ERA, 98 ERA+
SP John Halama (17 GS): 110.1 IP, 4.73 ERA, 88 ERA+
SP Joel Piniero (11 GS): 75.1 IP, 2.03 ERA, 205 ERA+
In the ALCS, they used, in order: Sele, Garcia, Moyer, and Abbott. Halama was in the bullpen and Piniero didn't pitch at all.
The 2001 Mariners also had a much better season from their catcher Dan Wilson (62 OPS+ in 2000, 90 OPS+ in 2001), center fielder Mike Cameron (107 OPS+ in 2000, 123 OPS+ in 2001), and first baseman John Olerud (116 OPS+ in 2000, 136 OPS+ in 2001), and they replaced Mark McLemore (76 OPS+) with Bret Boone (153 OPS+) at second base. I'll give you that losing A-Rod probably hurt their offense a lot, but they made it up there, plus they got a new shiny superstar to play with prior to 2001. But sure, it was all A-Rod's fault.
2003 Texas Rangers (71-91, last in AL West)
SP John Thomson (35 GS): 217 IP, 4.85 ERA, 104 ERA+
SP Colby Lewis (26 GS): 127 IP, 7.30 ERA, 69 ERA+
SP Ismael Valez (22 GS): 115 IP, 6.10 ERA, 82 ERA+
SP Joaquin Benoit (17 GS): 105 IP, 5.49 ERA, 92 ERA+
SP Tony Mounce (11 GS): 50.2 IP, 7.11 ERA, 71 ERA+
SP R.A. Dickey (13 GS): 116.2 IP, 5.09 ERA, 99 ERA+
Their closer Ugueth Urbina also had a 4.19 ERA before he got traded to - ugh - the Florida Marlins.
2004 Texas Rangers (89-73, third in AL West)
SP Kenny Rogers (35 GS): 211.2 IP, 4.76 ERA, 106 ERA+
SP Ryan Drese (34 GS): 207.2 IP, 4.20 ERA, 120 ERA+
SP R.A. Dickey (15 GS): 104.1 IP, 5.61 ERA, 90 ERA+*
SP Joaquin Benoit (15 GS): 103 IP, 5.68 ERA, 89 ERA+
And a bunch of other guys.
Now, granted, A-Rod "hurt" the Rangers more than he "hurt" the Mariners or Yankees, because the Rangers couldn't afford to have his contract and then also spend money anywhere else. But the pitching from the 2003 Rangers was flat-out embarrassing whereas the pitching from the 2004 Rangers was just not very good.
I don't feel like talking about the dumb 2004 Yankees, but here are the 2003 Yankees in terms of pitching:
SP Mike Mussina (31 GS): 214.2 IP, 3.40 ERA, 129 ERA+
SP David Wells (30 GS): 213 IP, 4.14 ERA, 106 ERA+
SP Roger Clemens (33 GS): 211.2 IP, 3.91 ERA, 112 ERA+
SP Andy Pettitte (33 GS): 208.1 IP, 4.02 ERA, 109 ERA+
SP Jeff Weaver (24 GS): 159.1 IP, 5.99 ERA, 73 ERA+
Okay obviously Weaver wasn't very good but he was the fifth starter. The rest of this rotation is extremely impressive, especially that it was so productive and constant throughout the year. Jose Contreras started nine games and had a 2.34 ERA during those games. Only Jorge DePaula, Sterling Hitchcock, and Brandon Claussen started any other games for the Yankees, and it was each only one game. These guys got extremely unlucky in the World Series, but there was really no doubt they were the best team in baseball to me. And hey - replacing Robin Ventura/Aaron Boone/Enrique Wilson/whoever the heck else was playing 3B with Alex Rodriguez would have made them a whole heck of a lot better! In 2004 Wells, Clemens, Pettitte, and Weaver were all gone, as was Contreras at the trade deadline.
But yeah. IT'S ALL A-ROD'S FAULT!!!!!!
* was the pitching in 2004 as a whole so bad that an ERA over 5.50 was as "good" as a 90 ERA+??? o_O
