5 Greatest Atlanta Braves Pitchers of All Time

Niekro was a pretty good pitcher in the first four seasons he spent as a starter for the Braves in the late 1960s. He won the earned-run average title in 1967 with a 1.87 mark and finished second in Cy Young Award voting in 1969. But after giving up a Major-League high 40 home runs in 1970, he felt he needed a change. Enter the knuckleball. 

Niekro went from a standard repertoire before 1971 to almost exclusively knucklers the rest of his career, one that would ultimately see him pitch a total of 24 seasons to age 48. He earned Cy Young votes four more times and made five All-Star teams while winning five Gold Gloves.

From a sheer stuff standpoint, Niekro could be replaced by several players. From an importance and impression standpoint, he’s hard to leave off the list.

4. Tom Glavine (1987-2002, 2008)

The first of Atlanta’s trio of stud 1990s pitchers on this list is Glavine. The left-hander was the first great one of the bunch, winning the Cy Young in 1991 and helping the Braves to the World Series. He’d finish second and third the next two seasons and won 20 games or more in each of those three total. 

Glavine and the Braves finally won the World Series in 1995 after making it in two of the previous three seasons (it wasn’t played in 1994 because of the strike). He would win World Series Most Valuable Player honors that year, going 2-0 in two starts, pitching 14 innings with a 1.29 ERA and .0714 WHIP.

Glavine would win one more Cy Young and finish in the top three in voting twice more, too, before he left for the New York Mets in 2003.

3. John Smoltz (1988-2008)

Smoltz practically joined Glavine at the scene in Atlanta, debuting in 1988, one year after the aforementioned. He was a good pitcher for the Braves in the early '90s, making three All-Star Games and winning at least 12 games in every full season as a starter up to the World Series-winning 1995 team.

But Smoltz became elite starting in 1996, winning the Cy Young trophy while leading the National League in wins (24), innings (253 2/3), and strikeouts (276). He’d finish fourth later in 1998 before Tommy John surgery changed his trajectory. 

He returned as an ineffective starter in 2001 and instead became the Braves’ closer for the next three-and-a-half seasons, finishing third in Cy Young voting again. He’d then go back to the rotation in and proceeded to earn Cy Young votes two more times through his age-40 season.

Most impressively, Smoltz was Atlanta’s postseason ace. He went 15-4 with a 2.67 ERA and 1.144 WHIP with 199 strikeouts over 209 innings.

2. Warren Spahn (1942-1964)

World War II delayed Spahn’s stardom. Nothing else could have. Spahn’s 363 victories are the most by a left-hander in MLB history and the most by any pitcher who played completely in the live-ball era (post-1920).

He went to the All-Star game 17 times, won a Cy Young Award in 1957, and finished second three more times. And those all came when the award was given out to only one player instead of one player in each league.

Spahn retired in 1965 after 22 seasons, 20 of which came with the Braves in both Boston and Milwaukee, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1973.

1. Greg Maddux (1993-2003)

Maddux didn’t play with the Braves for even half of his career. But for 11 seasons in Atlanta, there was no better pitcher on the planet. Maddux joined the club from the Chicago Cubs in 1993 having already established himself as an All-Star caliber pitcher. He won the 1992 Cy Young Award with the Cubs but became a free agent the following season when Chicago let him walk. 

Bad choice considering Maddux won the next three Cy Youngs, too, becoming the first pitcher in history to win the award four years in a row. For good measure, Maddux went ahead and followed those wins with a fifth-place, second-place, fourth-place, and third-place finish before leaving Atlanta after the 2003 season. He led the league in ERA and WHIP four times and walk rate five.

His control was so elite that even today, when a pitcher retires the side on just nine pitches, it’s called “throwing a Maddux.”