Truly one of the all-time greats. Great pitcher, fielder, and one of the smartest guys the game has ever seen. Doubt we'll see a guy like him for a long time. :thumb:
I only have 3 things to add: Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz. One of baseball's all-time great rotations. :crystal::geaux::crystal::geaux::crystal:
The greatest right handed pitcher of all time? Arguably. Definitely the best pitcher of all time that didn't possess a 90+ MPH fastball. He was a pain in my side to the Astros, much like Joe Montana was for me vs the Saints. But I loved watching him pitch. He was an architect out there. Unfortunately, he stayed 4-5 years too long. Just to pass Clemens. Sad.
Well given the fact that all 3 are going to surely make it to the hall of fame, throw in Steve Avery, who arguably had the highest ceiling out of those 4, and I would say without a doubt the greatest rotation ever. If only the Braves manager was worth anything.
I don't believe the Braves failures in the post-season was because of Bobby Cox. I believe 3 things happened, year after year. 1.) The Braves made late inning defensive errors that cost them an unearned run. 2.) Maddux and Glavine were never dominant, over powering pitchers. Most of the time, they went 6 or 7 innings and gave up 2 or 3 runs. It didn't matter if it were the regular season or the post-season. This is good enough to keep you in a ball game, but in the playoffs you need a little more dominance. 3.) Lack of clutch hitting. In every series they lost, there were numerous instanced where the Braves failed to score that guy on second base in the 7th or 8th inning. Series after series, year after year. I am NOT letting BCox off the hook. It's hard to fault a guy that went to the post-season 14 years in a row, with 5 of those ending in the World Series. Hey, at least they won it all...... once!!! :crystal::geaux::crystal::geaux::crystal:
Greg Maddux holds the record for the most games in which he left after the 7th or 8th with a shutout and under 100 pitches thrown and lost due to the bullpen blowing the save. Cox never could clutch the idea that a dominate bullpen is what wins championships, not simply starting pitching. They never sured that up. Add to the fact he trusted his bullpen far too much, and you end up with 1 lonely championship.
you make it sound like they wheel-chaired him to the mound. he had a 4.22 era this past year. 4.14 last year. At least he pitched full seasons and didn't sign for $25 million to be mediocre for 2-3 months.
Well of course I am comparing him to the greatness that was for some 16 years or so. So yeah, not a fair comparison. If he was in the AL, his ERA would have been near 5 just for perspective sake. So keep that in mind. The funny thing was, he was solid for so many starts and then have those 5 or 6 games were he just got bombed, thus the high ERA. I wish he would have gone to a great offensive team, instead of the Dodgers and Padres these last few years. He would have made it to 365, #1 in the Live Ball Era (since 1920).
