Home of the Braves

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.