25 Years Countdown: Top 5 Starting Pitchers

To celebrate 25 years of Triple-A baseball in New Orleans, we are taking a look back at the best players at each position over the last quarter-century. We move to the mound this week with a glance at the top five starting pitchers.

Brian Givens

Brian Givens was in his 12th professional season by the time he joined New Orleans in 1995, having undergone six arm surgeries, including Tommy John. With the 1994 players strike carrying into spring training, Givens had signed with the Brewers to be a replacement player, then was assigned to Triple-A when the strike ended.
He responded with a 2.55 ERA across 16 games, including 11 starts, the second-lowest mark in the American Association among all pitchers with at least 75 innings. Givens was so impressive that Milwaukee called him up to make his major league debut on June 24, and he went on to make 19 starts. More injuries limited him to four big league appearances in 1996, but he won 10 games for the Zephyrs with a 3.02 ERA to finish second in the AA. His five complete games with New Orleans is tied with four others, including the next name on this list, for third on the career chart.

John Halama

The staff ace on back-to-back playoff teams, including the 1998 Triple-A champions, John Halama is one of two pitchers in club history to win at least a dozen games in multiple seasons. Halama followed a 13-3 campaign in 1997 with a 12-3 mark the next year, then won all three of his postseason starts - earning a victory in each round - while posting a 1.88 ERA. He punctuated the run with a complete game win in the opener of the World Series, retiring 19 of the first 21 Buffalo hitters he faced.
Halama places third among New Orleans career leaders in ERA (2.79) and fourth in wins (24) and was an American Association All-Star in '97 by pacing the league with 13 victories and a 2.58 ERA, the second-best single-season mark in club history. 10 days after the Zephyrs won the title in '98, Halama was shipped to the Mariners as the player to be named later in that summer's Randy Johnson trade, and spent parts of nine seasons in the majors.

Jeriome Robertson

Jeriome Robertson reached New Orleans late in the 2000 season and struggled to a 1-7 record with a 7.07 ERA in nine starts. After regrouping as a reliever at Double-A the following year, he re-emerged in the Zephyrs' rotation in 2002 and dominated the Pacific Coast League, winning 12 games with a league-leading 2.55 ERA to be named PCL Pitcher of the Year. He was particularly tough at the Shrine, where he went 9-3 with 1.97 ERA.
Robertson made his major league debut in September, then established himself as a member of the Astros' rotation in 2003 and earned a seventh-place finish in National League Rookie of the Year voting as one of 11 hurlers on the senior circuit to win at least 15 games. Sadly, he never made another start in the majors, and in May 2010, two years after his final professional appearance, was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Tom Koehler

No pitcher in New Orleans history has struck out more batters than Tom Koehler, who fanned 327 in 67 games, the bulk of which came in 2011-12. Koehler won 12 games in each of those two seasons, joining John Halama as the only pitcher to reach that plateau twice, finishing in the top four in the PCL both years. He lowered his ERA from 4.97 in his Triple-A debut to 4.17 in the encore, earning All-Star honors along with a big league call-up.
After four seasons in the Marlins' starting rotation and becoming only the third pitcher in franchise history to make at least 30 starts in three straight years (joining Dontrelle Willis and Scott Olsen), Koehler bounced between the bigs and Triple-A in 2017 and overpowered PCL opponents with a 1.67 ERA in seven outings before returning to the majors in August as a reliever with Toronto.

Brad Hand

Prior to becoming one of the National League's top relievers in 2017 with the San Diego Padres, Brad Hand was a mainstay in the New Orleans starting rotation for the better part of two seasons. In 36 starts with the club between 2012-14, Hand won 16 games with a 3.75 ERA and averaged nearly one strikeout per inning, totaling 244 punchouts in 252 innings. The left-hander finished eighth in the PCL in both victories (11) and ERA (4.00) in 2012 and was sixth in strikeouts (141).
Hand made four rehab starts with New Orleans in 2014, and fired seven shutout innings in his final start at the Shrine on June 24 against Sacramento to finish with a 1.56 ERA in 20 career outings at home, the best in stadium history. After moving on to San Diego and leading the NL with 82 appearances in 2016, Hand flourished as an All-Star last season notching 21 saves with a 2.16 ERA.