One of ten Pitchers to have struckout 3,000 batters and rack up 300 Wins (when will we ever see that again!), Greg Maddux accomplished a lot of that with the Atlanta Braves.

When Maddux arrived to Atlanta in 1993 via free agency he was the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner and it was certainly hoped that he could replicate that performance or come close to it, however he certainly exceeded all expectations that the Braves could have hoped for.  Maddux would anchor the best starting rotation in the 90’s along with Tom Glavine and John Smoltz and in his first three seasons in Atlanta he would repeat his Cy Young win making him a four time recipient of the most prestigious award that a Pitcher can earn.  In that three year span, Maddux would lead the National League in ERA, Wins, WHIP, ERA+ and FIP each year, while finishing first in bWAR for Pitchers twice with a second place finish in the other year.  That is easily one of the best runs of dominance for any player regardless of position!  This stretch was punctuated by taking Atlanta to a World Series win in 1995.

Maddux may never have won the Cy Young again but he would finish in the top five in voting four times in the next eight years he played in the ATL.  The Pitcher would record 194 Wins and 1,825 Strikeouts as a Brave while going to six All Star Games and winning 10 Gold Gloves.  While Maddux is not the highest ranked Pitcher on this list he is certainly the one most of us remember!

Atlanta would retire his number 31 in 2009, and he would be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014 on the first ballot.  The Braves also selected Maddux for their Hall of Fame in the same year of his Cooperstown honor.

Kid Nichols played the entire 1890’s for the Boston Beaneaters, and there was a time when he was arguably the best Pitcher of the National League.  Nichols’s rookie season in 1890 would see him win 27 Games lead the NL in bWAR for Pitchers and he followed that up with four consecutive 30 Win seasons, which would have another league-leading bWAR campaign.

As good as he was in his first five seasons from 1896 to 1898, he would again win 30 Games, all of which topped the league.  In those last two seasons, he would again finish first in bWAR, and he was also the leader in WHIP.  In five of those seasons as a Beaneater, the team would win the National League pennant, a feat that likely would never have happened without Nichols.  Had there been a Pitcher of the Year Award in the 1890’s, Nichols could have easily won a few!

Nichols would leave Boston after the 1901 Season to become a Player/Manager in the Western League before returning to the National League in 1904 to play for the St. Louis Cardinals and finish out his career with Philadelphia.

Overall, as a member of what is now the Braves organization, Kid Nicholls would have a remarkable record of 329- 183 and 361 Wins overall.  At the time of his retirement, he was third all-time in Wins and is currently seventh, a position he will probably hold for many more years.

Nichols would be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame when the Old Timers Committee chose him in 1949.

Not only are we comfortable saying that Warren Spahn was the greatest Pitcher in Braves history, but he is also in the top ten all-time and the greatest left-hander ever.

Calling anyone the greatest Braves Pitcher of all time is no small statement considering the legends who took the mound.  A Cy Young winner in 1957 (the inaugural winner), Spahn had a later start: he debuted for the Boston Braves in 1942 but missed the next three years due to military service.  The southpaw would emerge as an All-Star for the Boston Braves, winning 21 Games and the ERA and WHIP titles while also eating the most Innings.  This would become a pattern for the next decade and a half.

21 must have been his favorite number as he would win exactly that amount of Games seven times with two other 20 Win seasons.  Leading the NL in Wins eight times, 356 of his 363 Wins were with the Braves, and whether it was in Boston or Milwaukee (where they moved to in 1953), it could always be counted on that Spahn would win a lot, strikeout his share of batters, and keep his ERA down.  This is also a 17-time All-Star, a three-time ERA leader, and a four-time Strikeout leader.  He won the 1957 Cy Young Award when it was awarded to the best in both leagues, and he was also runner-up for it the next three years.  Let’s not forget that he was the ace of the staff that won the 1957 World Series.

Sabremetrically speaking, Warren Spahn never finished first among Pitchers but he was second four times, third twice, fourth once, and was fifth four times.  From 1949 to 1959, he never finished outside the top five!  We haven’t even mentioned that he hit 35 Home Runs over his career.

Spahn would enter the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, his first year on the ballot, and he will not be dislodged from this spot at #2 for decades to come.  His number 21 was inducted by the Braves in 1965, and in 1999, he was one of four former players enshrined in the Braves Hall of Fame.

We need to bring this up as much as we can…

Regardless of the era Hank Aaron is one of the greatest baseball players that ever existed. 

Period.