The Atlanta Braves will always be remembered for their Big Three Hall of Fame pitchers from 1993-2002.
Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz were among the most consistently overwhelming pitchers of their time. And they were all on the same team.
Fast forward to 2024, and the Atlanta Braves will once again feature a cast of incredible pitchers in their starting rotation.
If they can stay healthy, the Braves will feature a starting rotation that includes Spencer Strider, Max Fried, Charlie Morton and Chris Sale.
Each of those four Braves starters have All Star Game appearances, and each has had spurts of overpowering the opposition.
Batterypower.com had some interesting thoughts on the Big Three.
About Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz:
Greg Maddux:
Greg Maddux, who turns 58 in April, pitched for parts of 23 years in the big leagues.
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Maddux pitched for the Chicago Cubs, the Atlanta Braves, the San Diego Padres, and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Maddux was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2014.
Maddux won four Cy Young Awards, with all of them coming consecutively with the Braves from 1992 through 1995. He appeared in eight All Star Games.
Amazingly, Maddux walked only 999 hitters in the 20,421 batters he faced in 5,008.1 innings he pitched.
BaseballHall.org reminds that on July 22, 1977, Maddux pitched a complete game for the Braves against the Cubs, using only 77 pitches. Maddux threw 63 of his 77 pitches for strikes.
Maddux helped the Braves win the 1995 World Series over the Cleveland Indians.
Tom Glavine:
On March 25, Tom Glavine will turn 58.
Glavine finished his career with a 305-203 record. He threw 4,413.1 innings in his 682 starts. Glavine never appeared in relief.
Glavine entered the Hall of Fame in 2014, at the same time as Maddux
Glavine pitched 22 years in the big leagues, with 17 of them coming with the Braves. The other five were with the New York Mets, from 2003-2007. He did, however, finish his career with the Braves.
Glavine appeared on 10 All Star teams. He won two Cy Young Awards, both with the Braves. They came in 1991, and 1998.
Glavine won four Silver Slugger Awards.
John Smoltz:
John Smoltz will turn 57 in May.
Smoltz was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015.
Smoltz was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 22nd round of the 1985 Major League Baseball Draft. He was traded to the Braves for pitcher Doyle Alexander in 1987.
Smoltz never pitched for the Tigers MLB club.
Smoltz pitched for the Braves for 20 seasons. He finished his career with a season pitching for the Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals in 2009.
Smoltz won a Cy Young Award with the Braves in 1996 with the Braves. He appeared on eight All Star teams.
Smoltz won a Silver Slugger Award in 1997.
In his career, John Smoltz threw 3,473 innings. He started 481 games.
At one point in his career, John Smoltz served as the Braves closer. He had 55 saves in 2002. In all, Smoltz saved 154 games in his career.
About Braves Starters Strider, Fried, Morton, and Sale:
Spencer Strider is still only 25-years old.
Strider has a record of 32-10 in parts of three seasons. Last year, he finished 20-5, and was an All Star.
Strider has thrown 320.2 innings, and has struck out an average of 13.6 hitters per nine innings.
Last year, Strider struck out 281 hitters in 32 starts, covering 186.2 innings pitched.
Strider will likely be the No. 1 starter for the Braves.
Max Fried turned 30 in January.
Fried has a record of 62-26 in parts of seven Braves seasons. He has thrown 710 innings.
Drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 1st round in 2012, Fried was traded to Atlanta in 2014.
Fried was an All Star in 2022.
A remarkable facet of Fried’s game is his low, 0.8 home runs yielded per nine innings in his 139 career game appearances.
Fried will likely be the Braves No. 2 starter.
Charlie Morton turned 40 in November.
Morton has a career record of 130-113 in 353 game appearances, with 352 of them starts.
In parts of 16 years, Morton has pitched for Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Houston, Tampa Bay, and now, back at Atlanta.
Like Fried, Morton is stingy regarding yielding home runs.
Chris Sale was the Chicago White Sox first round draft pick in 2010.
Sale, who turns 35 March 30, spent parts of seven seasons with the White Sox, and six with the Boston Red Sox, before being traded this offseason to Atlanta.
Sale, who has spent considerable time injured in his career, now appears to be healthy. He is pitching very well this spring, and is counted upon to help bolster the already great Braves rotation.
Sale has a 120-80 career record, in 1.780.2 innings pitched.
Always a strikeout pitcher, Sale will likely pitch out of the fourth slot in the Braves rotation.
Money Matters With Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz:
Baseball Reference lists Maddux as making $10 million in his final year with the San Diego Padres in 2008. That would be incredibly low in today’s MLB market.
In his career, Maddux made $153,845,000, or the most among the Big Three.
Glavine made $11 million with the Braves in 2003. However, in his final year, when he returned to the Braves and made 13 starts, he was paid $8 million.
Glavine made $128,639.293 in his career.
Smoltz was paid $14 million by the Braves in 2008, but he made only $5.5 million in his final year, when he pitched for the Red Sox and Cardinals.
Smoltz made $127,157,946 in his career.
The Athletic has written that the Big Three may never be matched.
While the new Braves rotation may not yet equal the Big Three Braves of the past, each is making strides towards stardom of his own.
