Smoltz, Glavine, Maddux .. best staff ever?

1954 Indians and 1972 A's were both very solid and should be in the discussion but as mentioned by others - some teams had a great core of starters for a season or two - the Braves trio was the greatest over an extended period of time.

Best ever.

 

Blew ninth-inning leads in Games Three and Six. The Game Six loss was particularly brutal (well, not for me, I was a Mets fan), since Scuffballer Scott was going in Game Seven and was completely in the Mets' heads. No way the Astros lose that one at home. No way.

 

Koufax, Drysdale (and Podres, Osteen, Sutton, Perranoski, Regan)'s three rings (four appearances) with fewer runs disagrees.
In 1965, they had no player with more than 12 HRs (Lefebvre and Johnson) and no one with more than 70 RBI (Fairly). Nobody hit higher than .286 (Wills) with a team BA of .245. That's sucky by any standard.

 

if the umps hadn't consistently given glavine and maddux a strike zone five inches off the plate, they would have been mediocre at best.
I grudglingly give them their due, however. Bobby Cox's inability to manage in a short series probably kept the braves from winning three or world series.
With those guys on the hill, why cox managed like he needed three three-run homers is a great mystery to me.

 

Entirely different era, of course, but the New York Giants had the three-man rotation of Mathewson, McGinnity and Dummy Taylor.

Two Hall of Famers, plus Taylor, who was 86-58 from 1903-1908.

EDIT: And Hooks Wiltse was their fourth starter. He was 100-62 from 1904 to 1909.

 

Just don't get names like "Hooks" and "Dummy" anymore.

 

A lot of great staffs on here, and I'll throw out one more of Ed Cicotte, Red Faber, Dickie Kerr and Lefty Williams. All won 20 games for the 1920 White Sox...somewhat easier to do than the 70 orioles, but still impressive considering all the bad blood on that team.

And just to be a fool...the 1886 New York Giants had Tim Keefe and Mickey Welch, both Hall of Famers, started 123 of 124 games...so basically they were the entire staff.

 

One season... fine. You can have them.

More than one? Nope.

 

Because the Dodgers wanted it more?

Out of all my favorite Dodgers staffs, '78 is one of them.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAD/1978.shtml

 

Yeah, but you could beat at least two of those guys if you waved a wad of cash in their face. That's gotta knock them down a peg.

 

How many starting rotations have had three Hall of Famers in their primes --- and for an extended period of time?
Has there ever been one before? Also, three guys who have won Cy Youngs on the same staff? I imagine that has happened too many times either.

 

Best starting three I've ever seen.