Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 4, 1993 TAG: 9304040125
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A PITCH FOR BRAVES PITCHERS' GREATNESS
MAJOR LEAGUE baseball followers already are comparing the Atlanta Braves' pitching staff to the best in history.\ The gavel, please.
Through the magic of modern telephone communications, a distinguished trio of experts has been called on. They never were together, either at the same time or the same place, but they have convened as a sort of panel, if you will.
The issue put before them involves the staff of starting pitchers to be deployed by the two-time World Series runner-up Atlanta Braves this baseball season.
Is this one of history's great starting quintets? If not, does it compare to some of the finest strong-arm committees of the past?
First, the authorities:
They are two Hall of Famers as well as an honored commentator and former player. All know good pitching. Among them are former pitchers Bob Feller and Catfish Hunter, 490 victories, 4,593 strikeouts and four no-hitters (including one perfect game) between them. Also included is Tim McCarver, esteemed CBS television analyst and a former player with 21 National League seasons that included 1,387 games catching the likes of Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton, not to mention at-bats against hurlers such as Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Juan Marichal.
The panel was asked to consider the Braves' staff of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Steve Avery and Pete Smith. The top four - Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz and Avery - have been in six All-Star Games and made 27 postseason starts. Each has pitched more than 225 innings in a season. Combined, they went 67-42 last year, with an earned run average of 2.73 and 27 complete games.
Maddux won the National League Cy Young Award with the Chicago Cubs last season, edging Glavine, the 1991 honoree. Glavine has won 20 games each of the past two years. Maddux won 20 last year. Smoltz struck out 215 to lead the league. Avery, taken as the third player in the 1988 draft straight out of high school, set an NL Championship Series record for most consecutive scoreless innings.
Glavine and Maddux are the eldest of the quartet at 27. All but Smith have been as hardy as crabgrass. For his part, Smith went 7-0 with a 2.05 ERA in 12 games after being called up last year.
Reasonable people are saying the potential is here for there to be three 20-game winners on the same team. That hasn't happened in the National League since 1923. Otherwise sane individuals are claiming the Braves could have four 20-game winners, a feat accomplished twice in the major leagues since 1920.
What about it, Mr. Feller?
\ FELLER: "You're a little ahead of time, aren't you? Let's wait until next October. There's really nothing to say."
\ MODERATOR: "But wouldn't you agree, sir, that the potential is there?"
\ FELLER: "Better not ask unless you come off as not too bright."
\ MODERATOR: "Do you agree, Mr. Hunter?"
\ HUNTER: "On paper, they have the best pitching in baseball. If Atlanta scores any runs at all, they ought to win."
\ MODERATOR: "Your view, Mr. McCarver? Should this five not be judged before they accomplish anything?"
\ MCCARVER: "I disagree. They have done something. They have the Cy Young winners for the past two years. This is not a staff of guys who are potentially good. They are good. They deserve every bit of the acclaim that they've gotten."
\ MODERATOR: "Compare Atlanta with some of the great rotations of the past. Staffs such as the 1971 Baltimore Orioles with 20-game winners Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar and Pat Dobson; or the 1951 Cleveland Indians with Early Wynn, Bob Lemon and Feller; or the 1973 Oakland Athletics with Vida Blue, Ken Holtzman and Hunter."
\ HUNTER: "First of all, we had better relief pitchers in Oakland with Rollie Fingers, Blue Moon Odom, Darold Knowles and Paul Lindblad. That makes a lot of difference. If you've got a game on the line and the manager is scared to bring those relievers in when he needs to, then he's going to leave the starter in longer than he should."
\ MODERATOR: "That is a point. Jim Palmer noted that when he said, `What might hurt the Braves is that they don't have a dominant relief pitcher. I still can't understand how Ted Turner got Jane Fonda to marry him but could not get a stopper.' The bullpen has been perceived as the Braves' jelly-belly."
\ MCCARVER: "That's a reach. They have untapped sources in the bullpen. [Mike] Stanton is a No. 1 reliever waiting to awaken. He's had some problems with his control, but when he solves them, he could be dominant. [Mark] Wohlers is a young man with great stuff. All he needs is some more innings. The only way he's going to get them is to throw him in there. Besides, the starters are strong enough that they're going to pitch deep into the game often enough so that the bullpen won't be that much of a factor."
\ FELLER: "Good arms are hard to find these days. . . . There used to be good throwing arms at every position. Not anymore. These things tend to run in cycles, and that's the way it is right now. The best thing for the Atlanta pitchers to do is to learn how to pace themselves. Most people don't know how to do that anymore. They have to learn to get the less dangerous hitters out with one or two pitches - make them hit the ball - and save your best stuff for when you really need it in the eighth and ninth innings."
\ MODERATOR: "We're getting away from the original question. How do the Braves stack up against the great rotations of the past?"
\ MCCARVER: "Don't forget to mention the 1968 St. Louis Cardinals, who I played for. That team had Bob Gibson, Nelson Briles and Steve Carlton and had 30 shutouts. Guys would pitch a victory and somebody would say, `Why didn't you have a shutout?' "
\ MODERATOR: "That brings up an interesting question. Can the internal competition on great pitching staffs, if any, be divisive? It's been said that there was grumbling among some of the Braves when others tried to make an issue of the fact that Maddux, the newcomer from the Cubs, was tapped by manager Bobby Cox as the Opening Day starter. There have also been stories of competition on the Braves' staff for innings pitched, of the time when Smoltz urged pitching coach Leo Mazzone to jerk Glavine with a 15-0 lead, just so Smoltz could stay ahead in the race."
\ MCCARVER: "The competition doesn't hurt anything. You can't divide a pitching staff. There's nothing to divide. Each member is an entity unto himself. Pitchers are eccentric to begin with, and I don't mean that in a negative way. Pitching is an individual thing. That's the way they think."
\ HUNTER: "The main thing is not to be fighting. You've got to work together. Holtzman and I always went over all the hitters before every game. Vida Blue started doing that with us, too, once his control got better. We'd tell each other whether the hitter liked the ball high or low, out over the plate or in. When you have those team meetings before games, speak up. Let him know where the hitter likes the ball. Help each other out. If you don't work together, you won't win anything."
\ MODERATOR: "The bottom line is, just how good are these guys?"
\ FELLER: "How many games did they win last year combined? Did they win the World Series? Did they win 111 games? When they start doing those things, then we talk about them. Right now, it's all theoretical, like a lot of that stuff that comes out of Washington, D.C., that doesn't work. On paper, it works well. But you have to wait for that umpire to say, `Play ball!' "