With John Smoltz winning his 200th career game last night by outdueling Tom Glavine, we're reminded of what may have been the top trio of starting pitchers in major-league history.
From 1993, when Greg Maddux joined the Atlanta staff, until 1999, the year before Smoltz took a season off because of injury (and later become a top-flight closer), the team's top three starters put together a seven-year run in which they combined for 340 wins, 166 losses, a 2.92 earned run average and five Cy Young Awards. No wonder the Braves were perennial division winners. The real surprise is that with such a stellar rotation, they couldn't advance further in the playoffs each year. History might not be kind to the '90s Braves because of their failure to climb all the way to the top all but one year, but who knows if we'll ever see such a steady nucleus of starters for such an extended period again.
For a look at how Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz fared each of those seasons, click here.
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2 comments:
As much as I completely hate the Braves (I'm a Mets fan... and I don't hate any other team, just them,) I respect great players and truth be told, even though it was the Mets that Smoltzy beat for #200, it wasn't so bad seeing it happen... kinda sorta like when the Avalanche beat the Devils in the Cup for Ray Bourque's first and only Cup win, at least it was nice for him and the defeat wasn't all bad.... but anyway, it would be cool if Smoltz, Glavine and Maddux all decided to go into the Hall at the same time no matter when each might retire. A) What's the rush? B) Why not?! How darn cool would that be? Well, any Mets fans watching on TV or in Cooperstown that day would surely feel a little disgusted at all the woes those 3 gave the Mets. But it's would be a neat way to celebrate three of the game's best pitchers (just so long as that year, this year, and forever and ever, Amen, the Braves come in a distant 10+ games out of First!)
I didn't like the Braves, either. They were fun to watch in 1991, when they suddenly came out of nowhere to play in one of the epic World Series. But they got annoying quickly.
I never particularly lked their pitchers, especially Smoltz. But now that they're all over 40 and still going (and two of them are pitching elsewhere), I've warmed up to them. And you have to respect what they accomplished, even if they won only that one Series.
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