Seriously, I'd take Maddux to start for my team in ANY sutation, over any pitcher in baseball history, much less ATL '90s history!

Out of all the guys I have watched pitch I'd take the being in my late 20's I think I would choose Randy Johnson(at his peak) to pitch any crucial game 7, Maddux would probably be second on my list, Glavine and Smoltz probably wouldn't be in the top 10.

I apologize for not previewing my post, you don't expect such a glaring error when posting a two liner.

I still think of Johnson as a notoriously shaky postseason pitcher. 

I voted for Smoltz.  Maddux is the better pitcher, both over the course of his career and at his peak - obviously nobody needs to argue about that.  And I see where Mick is coming from - Maddux might be the best pitcher of all time, and certainly is the best of this generation (to my mind).  But the question says 'at their respective peaks.'  That means we are talking about a sizzling John Smoltz, vintage 1996, when he won the Cy Young award by winning 24 games, pitching over 250 innings and striking out everything in sight (276 poor souls) to only 55 (!) walks.  He then did this in the post season:

 Year   Round Tm  Opp WLser  G   GS   ERA   W  L SV CG   IP   H   ER  BB  SO
*1996   NLDS  ATL LAD     W   1   1   1.00  1  0  0  0   9     4   1   2   7 
	NLCS  ATL STL     W   2   2   1.20  2  0  0  0  15    12   2   3  12 
        WS    ATL NYY     L   2   2   0.64  1  1  0  0  14     6   1   8  14 

Maddux in some circles, it seems, has an undeserved reputation for lack of 'clutchiness,' mostly because he was the face of the Braves vaunted pitching staff, a staff that never quite delivered the series of championships expected of it.  Looking at the stats, Maddux has always been a solid postseason performer, even if his numbers sometimes slipped a little bit in October.  Looking at the same year I cited above (1996), Maddux is about as impressive as Smoltz:

 1996   NLDS  ATL LAD     W   1   1   0.00  1  0  0  0   7     3   0   0   7 
        NLCS  ATL STL     W   2   2   2.51  1  1  0  0  14.1  15   4   2  10 
        WS    ATL NYY     L   2   2   1.72  1  1  0  0  15.2  14   3   1   5 

While this isn't the period known as Maddux's 'peak,' it is probably his postseason 'peak,' which stays with the spirit of the question.


So why did I vote for Smoltz?  It's because I buy into the argument that, in the playoffs, you want power rather than finesse, if possible.  I don't want to worry that the umpire isn't going to give my guy a certain borderline pitch that he needs throughout the game.  And when all the world is watching, the chances that Maddux (and Glavine) are going to have extra large plates is probably reduced.  But a swing-and-a-miss will always be a swing-and-a-miss, so going with Smoltz maybe reduces the element of chance.  Do the stats bear this out?  I think so - looking now at career postseason stats so that we can work with a more meaningful sample size (though this gets away from the 'at their peak' side of the argument):

Smoltz in the postseason:  40gms, 27 starts, 15-4 record, 207 IP, 194 Ks, 67 BB.  Meaning, a 2.9:1 K:BB ratio, slightly less than his 3.04:1 career ratio.
Maddux in the postseason: 32 gms, 30 starts, 11-14 record, 194 IP, 122 Ks, 50 BB.  Meaning, a 2.4:1 K:BB ratio, well off his 3.38:1 career ratio.

So Smoltz is able to keep mowing them down in the postseason, while Maddux walks more batters, while striking out less as he loses on the close pitches.  Maddux's walks are 2.3/9 IP in the postseason, up from 1.8 per 9 in the regular year.  His postseason K rate is 5.7 per 9 in October, down from 6.1 per 9 in the regular season.  Come October, Maddux seems to lose an edge.  Gimme Smoltz.  Even with each of them 'at their peak' (and in this case the year would be 1996) I think there is a better chance that Smoltz never slips up.


*Source: Baseball-Reference, obviously.

Well, at his peak Maddux was the best.

It's interesting how well all three of them have pitched in the World Series, and with what little reward:

          G  GS   ERA   W  L SV  CG   IP    H  ER  BB  SO
Maddux    5   5   2.09  2  3  0   1  38.2  28   9   7  18 
Smoltz    8   8   2.47  2  2  0   0  51    44  14  21  52 
Glavine   8   8   2.47  4  3  0   3  58.1  33  16  20  38

You definitely don't want Glavine going in an All-Star Game, however.

In Game 7, I would want a healthy Smoltz, for Owen's reasons.  Over a season, obviously, it would be Maddux.

If I'm looking outside the Atlanta guys, it's Pedro. No one had a better peak than Pedro.

Fully rested and healthy, it's all about Maddux for me. I can see the argument for Smoltz, but does anyone who voted for Glavine want to step up and justify that one? there are probably good reasons to be argued, they just don't come to mind.

Well, if I have eight Ozzie Smiths behind him, I'd take Maddux.  And if I had eight Lonnie Smiths behind him, I'd take Smoltz.

Schilling is probably my #1 pitcher I take in the post season overall.  Pretty unreal how he has done in the post season during his entire career, not just at his peak.

Christy Mathewson's post-season line, from four different World Series, remains the gold standard - 11 starts, 101.2 IP, and a Rivera-esque 0.97 ERA. As a starter.

You're probably wondering how he went 5-5. Actually, if he doesn't throw four shutouts (one of them for 10 innings), he probably ends up 3-7.