Rays v. Braves

[mookie]

Maddux. Glavine. Smoltz.

 

Hellickson. Price. Moore.

 

I have a good friend who is a Rays fan. He loves these guys. Not that he or I believe it will happen, but is this the most comparable front three since those nineties Braves? Do you see any way they can do what they did?

 

Personally, I believe the talent level is there, but I don't ever see a threesome as amazingly dominant as MGS ever happening again.

[Little Slide Rooter]

It's hard to compare 3 hall of fame pitchers with 3 guys that young, 2 of whose careers have barely begun. It marks far from the first time a team had what appeared to be 3 young aces on their hands that would lead them into the future. Prior, Zambrano, and Wood, for one say hi, as do Mulder, Zito, and Hudson. The beauty of the Braves trio wasnt just that they were so dominant but that they stayed together for so many years which was fast becoming a rarity in baseball even then. Time will tell what ultimately becomes of those 3 Rays pitchers. Even if all 3 reach their full potential, who knows how many, if any are still with the Rays.

[moochpuppy]

Maddux, Glavine & Smoltz will never be duplicated as far as staying with one team and being that good for that length of time.

[SouthSideRyan]

Let's get the suicide out of the way and say Prior-Wood-Zambrano now

[KingCubsFan]

None of those guys will be as good as Maddux in his prime. He had 2 of the 5 best five seasons in terms of ERA+ during that run.

[OleMissCub]

Prior-Wood-Zambrano

 

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh153/OleMissCub17/bestcry.gif

[Backtobanks]

It's hard to compare 3 hall of fame pitchers with 3 guys that young, 2 of whose careers have barely begun. It marks far from the first time a team had what appeared to be 3 young aces on their hands that would lead them into the future. Prior, Zambrano, and Wood, for one say hi, as do Mulder, Zito, and Hudson. The beauty of the Braves trio wasnt just that they were so dominant but that they stayed together for so many years which was fast becoming a rarity in baseball even then. Time will tell what ultimately becomes of those 3 Rays pitchers. Even if all 3 reach their full potential, who knows how many, if any are still with the Rays.

 

Not too likely with free agency and the fact that the Rays are pretty much a small market.

[Little Slide Rooter]

It's hard to compare 3 hall of fame pitchers with 3 guys that young, 2 of whose careers have barely begun. It marks far from the first time a team had what appeared to be 3 young aces on their hands that would lead them into the future. Prior, Zambrano, and Wood, for one say hi, as do Mulder, Zito, and Hudson. The beauty of the Braves trio wasnt just that they were so dominant but that they stayed together for so many years which was fast becoming a rarity in baseball even then. Time will tell what ultimately becomes of those 3 Rays pitchers. Even if all 3 reach their full potential, who knows how many, if any are still with the Rays.

 

Not too likely with free agency and the fact that the Rays are pretty much a small market.

 

The Braves were never a huge market either. Back then, players didn't switch teams quite as often, but the trend was certainly on the rise.

[PriortoTheoIhadWood]

Price will be a Cub within the next 3-4 years. AKA I like to say inane things.

[UMFan83]

It's hard to compare 3 hall of fame pitchers with 3 guys that young, 2 of whose careers have barely begun. It marks far from the first time a team had what appeared to be 3 young aces on their hands that would lead them into the future. Prior, Zambrano, and Wood, for one say hi, as do Mulder, Zito, and Hudson. The beauty of the Braves trio wasnt just that they were so dominant but that they stayed together for so many years which was fast becoming a rarity in baseball even then. Time will tell what ultimately becomes of those 3 Rays pitchers. Even if all 3 reach their full potential, who knows how many, if any are still with the Rays.

 

Not too likely with free agency and the fact that the Rays are pretty much a small market.

 

The Braves were never a huge market either. Back then, players didn't switch teams quite as often, but the trend was certainly on the rise.

 

The Braves outbid the Cubs for Greg Maddux to secure their rotation for the next decade, so I'm pretty sure the situation was a bit different than Tampa.

[seattlecub]

the braves were not then a small market. they were top 3-5 payrolls starting in 1994 (started 93 7th, and ended the season 4th). for 94-2000, they were mostly w/in 10% of top payroll, and always w/in 20% (contrast with rays, who even in their highest payroll year were doubled by several teeams, and have been consistently triple payrolled by NYY and BOS— in their own division). In contrast, from 94-2000, only twice were the braves not the highest opening payroll in the entire NL, and never lower than second. This helped them manage to keep the great pitchers they had AND manage to surround them with productive to good to excellent players on the rest of the roster, part of the reason why they could run off that impressive record of playoff appearances.

[CarolinaCubFan]

the braves were not then a small market. they were top 3-5 payrolls starting in 1994 (started 93 7th, and ended the season 4th). for 94-2000, they were mostly w/in 10% of top payroll, and always w/in 20% (contrast with rays, who even in their highest payroll year were doubled by several teeams, and have been consistently triple payrolled by NYY and BOS— in their own division). In contrast, from 94-2000, only twice were the braves not the highest opening payroll in the entire NL, and never lower than second. This helped them manage to keep the great pitchers they had AND manage to surround them with productive to good to excellent players on the rest of the roster, part of the reason why they could run off that impressive record of playoff appearances.

 

 

The Braves were on a national stage daily on TBS.

[Guest]

It's hard to compare 3 hall of fame pitchers with 3 guys that young, 2 of whose careers have barely begun. It marks far from the first time a team had what appeared to be 3 young aces on their hands that would lead them into the future. Prior, Zambrano, and Wood, for one say hi, as do Mulder, Zito, and Hudson. The beauty of the Braves trio wasnt just that they were so dominant but that they stayed together for so many years which was fast becoming a rarity in baseball even then. Time will tell what ultimately becomes of those 3 Rays pitchers. Even if all 3 reach their full potential, who knows how many, if any are still with the Rays.

 

Not too likely with free agency and the fact that the Rays are pretty much a small market.

 

The Braves were never a huge market either. Back then, players didn't switch teams quite as often, but the trend was certainly on the rise.

 

The Braves outbid the Cubs for Greg Maddux to secure their rotation for the next decade, so I'm pretty sure the situation was a bit different than Tampa.

If the legend is true Himes (aka the [expletive]) made a last minute or last day call and offered Maddux more than the Braves and he turned Himes down, b/c he was pissed at the way Himes did business. Also, IIRC, the Yankees also outbid the Braves too.

[seanimal]

i thought the story was that mad dog got the offer from the braves and took it back to the cubs but by then himes had signed a chump or two and couldn't/wouldn't match it.

[imb]

Hellickson was pretty average last year and Moore (will be a stud but) only threw like 11 innings. Let's slow our roll.

[Rob]

If things go very, very right for the Rays that group could compare favorably to Hudson/Mulder/Zito.

 

They have like a 1/10000 chance to be Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz... but that's still better than most.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Hellickson was pretty average last year and Moore (will be a stud but) only threw like 11 innings. Let's slow our roll.

 

Kind of like the Packer fans who were ready to crown Aaron Rodgers as the greatest quarterback ever after the last Super Bowl.

[Gmoney23]

I thought the story was Hines lowballed Maddux, Maddux looked elsewhere and still decided he would take the lesser offer with the Cubs and then the Cubs PULLED that one off the table.

 

Makes me want to sob uncontrollably.

[treebird]

I thought the story was Hines lowballed Maddux, Maddux looked elsewhere and still decided he would take the lesser offer with the Cubs and then the Cubs PULLED that one off the table.

 

Makes me want to sob uncontrollably.

 

that's the story i've heard, and from a guy who claimed to have heard it from greg himself.

[Clem Fandango]

Felt like bumping this because I was reminded of this on Facebook today that no one has really talked about how good the future D-Backs rotation is going to be. It may not be as dominant as others, but 1-5 it might be one of the most solid in a year or two if things pan out properly for the upcoming youngsters... Ian Kennedy, Trevor Cahill, Daniel Hudson, Trevor Bauer, and Tyler Skaggs is a pretty impressive list. Doesn't even include Archie Bradley.

 

D-Backs are gonna have ridiculous pitching when it's fully developed and ready

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Has anyone checked on Isringhausen, Pulsipher and Wilson lately? I haven't, but I remember they were supposed to be pretty good.