In an interview with Daniel Popper of the NY Daily News, John Smoltz says the Mets rotation is “way better” than the Braves starters during the 90’s.
“They’re way better,” Smoltz told Popper. “They’ve got more talent than we could ever have.”
Smoltz was a member of the Braves excellent rotation during the 90’s, which included Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine.
However, Smoltz thinks that it would be difficult for the Mets pitchers to achieve the same kind of success.
“The opportunities that exist today won’t allow a lot of staffs to find out what kind of staff they can be. That’s the shame of the game. The injuries have taken over. The inability to learn how to pitch [AND]fast-tracking a lot of kids,” Smoltz said. “There’s no doubt that the dynamic arms are way better than we’ve ever seen. And the issue is how long can we keep them healthy and how long can they stick together financially? What we did in the era that we did, we take a lot of pride in it. We worked really hard and we didn’t miss a lot of starts.”
It’s great to see Smoltz speak so highly of the Mets young arms, but I think it’s too soon to make such lofty comparisons. That Braves staff is one of the most dominant rotations in recent history. I don’t think the Mets starters are at that level just yet.
