Atlanta Braves’ Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz was a part of one of the greatest pitching rotations in Major League Baseball history. A rotation that consisted of Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Kevin Millwood. Those Braves teams were a staple in the playoffs, winning the World Series in 1995 and then making it to the World Series in 1996 and 1999 but losing to the New York Yankees. But Smoltz believes that the New York Mets rotation of Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, and Steven Matz has more talent.
From ESPN.com: “They’re way better,” Smoltz told the New York Daily News. “They’ve got more talent than we could ever have.”
Wow, that is one bold statement Cotton, I mean, John. WAY better, huh? Do I necessarily believe that? That’s yet to be seen because they haven’t even been together for more than two starts. It is on the premature side to say that these young pitchers who haven’t even made it a full year together, and in Matz and Syndergaard’s case, who are still getting their feet wet, are better than guys like Maddux, Smoltz or Glavine. Greg Maddux was one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the game, Tom Glavine is a 300 game winner, and these were two of the best pure pitchers I’ve ever seen because they were painters. They mastered their craft, used the corners of the plate to their advantage, and were extremely durable. Then of course Smoltz, who had a great career in his own right, both as a starting pitcher and a closer with 213 wins and 154 saves. Add Denny Neagle to the mix, who won 20 games for the Braves in 1997 and 16 in 1998.
At the same time, is he wrong in what he said about the Mets’ young guns being more talented? Absolutely not. When it comes to purely dominant “blow you away” kind of stuff, I’ve never seen an entire rotation like this before. Never have I seen a rotation 1 through 5 with pitchers who have the potential to be as great as they can be. These young pitchers all know each other extremely well and they try to outdo each other every single day, which makes it even more fun to watch. People even tend to forget that right hander Zack Wheeler hasn’t pitched this year, as he’s been sidelined after receiving Tommy John surgery, but he will be back next season. The fact that Wheeler will probably go from being penciled in as a co-ace to Matt Harvey to being the number 5 pitcher in this rotation pretty much says it all about the talent this team has to it’s disposal.
It’s funny, usually you see articles about retired players saying, “Who do they think they are, us? They don’t come close.” But this was a classy statement by the soon to be inducted Hall of Famer in John Smoltz. Obviously it’s a tad early to jump the gun, but these boys are for real, and they are establishing themselves in this league. The Fab Four gave us a phenomenal decade of some of the greatest pitching that I’ve ever seen. They were a model of consistency, and I hope that the Mets’ staff can get healthy and bring some of that same success that the Braves had in the 1990’s.
