The ridiculously good starting pitching of the 2010 Toronto Blue Jays

As we've seen over 12 games thus far against the Blue Jays in which the Yankees have gone 5-7, this year's Toronto team has some astoundingly good starting pitching. Which got me wondering, just how good has it been? As I reiterated in my game recap, it's terrifying to think about the Jays' rotation if they still had Roy Halladay, and I'd have to think it would be close to if not the best rotation in baseball. Check it out:

Roy Halladay: 6.4 WAR
Ricky Romero: 3.7 WAR
Brandon Morrow: 3.4 WAR
Shaun Marcum: 2.6 WAR
Brett Cecil: 2.2 WAR

I can't imagine any other team in baseball has gotten anywhere close to the hypothetical 18.3 WAR that this five-man rotation might have accumulated. Of course, the Jays don't have Halladay, and so if you swap Halladay out for, say, Marc Rzepczynski (0.0 WAR), the rotation looks a touch less imposing, with 11.9, though that's still a very strong total, especially when you look at the rest of the AL East:

The Rays' opening day rotation has accumulated 8.6 WAR:

David Price: 3.5
Matt Garza: 1.9
James Shields: 1.7
Jeff Niemann: 1.2
Wade Davis: 0.3

The Yankees' opening day rotation has accumulated 8.4 WAR:

CC Sabathia: 3.7
A.J. Burnett: 0.9
Andy Pettitte: 1.8
Javier Vazquez: -0.1
Phil Hughes: 2.1

Boston's opening day rotation has accumulated 13.1 WAR:

Josh Beckett: 1.0
Jon Lester: 4.2
John Lackey: 2.9
Clay Buchholz: 3.0
Daisuke Matsuzaka: 2.0

And Baltimore's starters have accumulated 5.1 WAR.

Brian Matusz: 1.9
Jeremy Guthrie: 1.4
Koji Uehara: 1.0
Kevin Millwood: 0.6
Jake Arrieta: 0.2

In doing this quick-and-dirty analysis, I was not expecting Boston's staff to post such a strong number, and it's pretty crazy that there's a good chance that the AL East team with the highest WAR total from its primary five starters isn't going to make the playoffs. You know what they say about baseball, Suzyn.