Smoltz says Mets rotation 'way better' than Braves staff in '90s

By foxsports
Published

The New York Mets starting rotation is as young and talented as any in the game. But former Atlanta Braves star right-hander John Smoltz believes this collection of talent is better than the Braves' of the early-to-mid '90s.

"They're way better," Smoltz told the New York Daily News. "They've got more talent than we could ever have."

That's extremely high praise for the Mets staff that includes Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz. The '90s Braves staffs featured Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, each of whom won at least one Cy Young Award during his illustrious career.

But despite their talent, Smoltz worries that today's pitchers will never reach the lofty numbers of previous hurlers because of fear of injury.

"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.

"We've anointed people a little too quickly in this game. And they don't have the ability to wait and learn and have a fair shake at the game. ... Everybody wants quick results, expectations through the roof. And that's what these guys are fighting today. They're not giving them a chance to fail too often. And when they do, what happens?"

Those concerns have already affected the star of the Mets' staff. Harvey missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, and Matz currently is on the DL with a partial tear of his left lat muscle. The Mets went to a six-man rotation in order to lessen their young stars' workloads, but that would also make reaching career milestones like 300 career wins -- which Maddux and Glavine accomplished -- nearly impossible.