Along with Greg Maddux and John Smoltz, Tom Glavine was part of a devastating Hall of Fame trio that dominated starting pitching in the 1990s. 

It wasn’t all wine and roses for Glavine when he started, as his first few seasons were a mixed bag, but in 1991, he would break out with a league-leading 20 Wins with a 2.55 ERA and a Cy Young Award win.  Glavine would prove this wasn’t a fluke as he led the NL in Wins the next two seasons, finished second and third in Cy Young voting, and, in 1995, anchored the Braves to a World Series win, where he won the World Series MVP.  The second half of the 90s proved to be just as good as he would have two more 20 Win seasons (both league-leading), and he would win his second Cy Young in 1998 while finishing second in 2000. 

As an Atlanta Brave, Glavine won 244 Games with 2,091 Strikeouts and had eight All-Star Game appearances.  He was also a very good hitter, as shown by his multiple Silver Slugger Awards. Glavine would leave Atlanta to sign with the Mets, but he would return to Atlanta for his final season in 2008.

Glavine would enter the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2014, four years after his number 47 was retired by the Braves.  Atlanta would also induct Glavine into their Hall of Fame in 2010.

The Atlanta Braves essentially stole John Smoltz when they traded what was left of Doyle Alexander to the Detroit Tigers for him, and doesn’t the latter wish he could have that one back?

Smoltz would go eight All-Star Games and is the only Pitcher in history to record 200 Wins and 150 Saves.  The righthander would establish himself as an elite Pitcher in the 1991 postseason, where he went 2-0 in the NLCS and had a 1.26 ERA in the World Series.  Smoltz would again have a strong playoff in 1992, going 3-0 and earning NLCS MVP. 

As part of a triumvirate of greatness with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, the Braves had the best rotation in baseball in the 1990s, although they only have one World Series win (1995) to show for it.  Like Maddux, Smoltz would win the Cy Young as a Brave (1996), and he would also lead the National League in Strikeouts twice.  Smoltz is one of the few pitchers to whiff 3,000 batters for one team (3,011), and he racked up 210 Wins playing for the Atlanta.

What really made Smoltz unique was his return from injury after sitting out the 2000 season, when he became a closer.  He would have three seasons of 55, 45, and 44 Saves respectively, and he would be named the Rolaids Reliever of the Year in his 55 Save season, a number that was good enough to lead the league.

This is quite a versatile resume, isn’t it?

John Smoltz was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015, his first year of eligibility.  Three years earlier, Atlanta retired his number 29 and inducted him into their Hall of Fame.

Phil Niekro played an incredible 24 seasons in the Major Leagues, 20 of which took place in a Braves uniform, and seemingly no matter how old he was (and how old he looked), he defied Father Time much longer than any Pitcher had the right to.

The secret to his success was the knuckleball, a pitch that is hard to master but does not take as much toll on your arm.  Niekro would debut in 1964 and found himself a permanent fixture on the Atlanta rotation in 1967, the season in which he won the ERA Title, and he would break out in 1969 with a 23 Win season and a second-place finish in Cy Young voting. 

The 1970s would prove to be very good for the knuckleballer as he would have three more seasons of top-ten Cy Young voting, two seasons where he was the National League leader in Wins, yet it also included a strange stretch, 1977-80 where he would finish first in Losses, but was also first in Innings Pitched in the first three of those years.  Basically, Niekro was really good but had limited support during this period, as, bluntly, the Braves were not very good!  Still, Niekro persevered, and he had another All-Star season in 1982.  The Braves thought Niekro was done after 1983, and they released him, but he went on to play four more seasons, including a final start for the Braves in 1987.

Overall, Niekro would win 268 games, go to four All-Star Games, and win five Gold Gloves for the Braves.

Phil Niekro was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997, and two years later, he was part of the first Braves Hall of Fame Class.  Atlanta also retired his number 35 in 1984.

The only player in franchise history to play for the organization when the team was in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta, Eddie Mathews is historically regarded as one of the best Third Baseman in the game’s history.

Mathews debuted in 1952 with the Boston Braves where he finished third in Rookie of the Year voting but in 1953 when the franchise moved to Milwaukee he would become an All-Star for the first of nine times.  This was only his second season of seventeen years in the Majors yet it was arguably his best as he had career highs in Home Runs (47, which was also enough to lead the NL) Runs Batted In (135), a sweet Slash Line of .302/.406/.627 and he was second in MVP voting.  This isn’t to say that Mathews declined after this because he certainly did not.  Paired up with Hank Aaron, Mathews was one half of the most powerful dup in the National League.  The Third Baseman would have three more 40 Home Run Seasons, was a four-time leader in Walks and again would have a second-place finish in MVP voting (1959) while finishing in the top ten two other times.  It also can’t be forgotten that he was a critical part in the Braves winning the World Series in 1957.  He was also more than decent on the defensive side of the ball as he was a two-time leader at his position in Total Zone Runs and was a top-five finisher on seven more occasions.

As a Brave (Boston, Milwaukee & Atlanta) he would accumulate 2,201 Hits, 493 Home Runs, 1,388 RBIs with a Slugging Percentage of .517.

Eddie Mathews was traded after fifteen seasons with the Braves and in his last year in the Majors he would win his second World Series ring in a minor role with the Detroit Tigers in 1968.