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BTW....you do raise a good point about 2002...although I would argue that despite having the same defensive cast as 2001, the defense did in fact play somewhat worse. Boone was a big step worse in 2002 than 2001...both offensively and defensively. Olerud began to slide with the glove in 2002. Dan Wilson went from average to terrible with the glove in 2002, Cameron didn't have as good a season with the glove either...all of the defensive metrics agree his 2001 and 2003 were his good years. Still - it's true that we don't know why the Mariner outfield didn't play as well that year statistically and some of the difference might have been harder contact that we weren't seeing.
That still doesn't cancel out, in my mind, the hard-to-overlook journeyman nature of the 2001 Mariner rotation.
Abbott kicked around the minors for 10 years...for a reason. Halama was a PTBNL...for a reason. Aaron Sele was getting worse (and was let go by the Ms in 2002)...for a reason. In fact, if you recall, as we entered the 2001 season, there were two big worries about the club...
1) How were they going to replace A-Rod's production?
and
2) Was their rotation going to be deep enough and get deep enough into games to hand the ball to the good bullpen?
Those 2001 Mariners were Moyer, Garcia and pray for runs. The fact that the defense gelled and the bullpen held a lot of 5-3 and 6-4 leads to produce a good team ERA should not trick you into believing that the club was special on the mound. Did Paul Abbott, John Halama, Aaron Sele or even Freddy Garcia EVER demonstrate any special ability to alter BABIP at any point in their careers? No they did not. Only Moyer showed that ability.
Hits prevented over team (career total):
Moyer: 189
Garcia: 13
Sele: -48
Halama: -35 (in way fewer innings)
Abbott: -56 (in even fewer few innings)
Pineiro: -26 (although +11 in only 70-ish innings in 2001)
The complaint against Sele was ALWAYS that he was homer-prone, a little too hittable and made team defenses worse...especially in Arlington. The complaint against Halama was that he had very flat stuff...his command had to be perfect for him to be effective. Abbott was a lot like Ryan Franklin...4-5 pitches, none of them better than average. Moyer, even in 2001, had no margin for error - he had to be spotting his change-up perfectly or he would get splattered.
Let's not make this rotation out to be some kind of special force of devastation here, Doc. They weren't even particularly good. Just 5.5 arms you could throw out there into the teeth of one of the greatest team defenses of the last 50 years and count on to put the ball in play and work quickly and hand it to the pen in a lot of close games.