Tomorrow Smoltz Kicks Down the Door to Cooperstown

He has more post-season wins than any pitcher in baseball history. He is the only pitcher in MLB history with 200 wins and 150 saves. Tomorrow he'll add the final touch that makes him a guaranteed first ballot hall of famer, his 3,000th strikeout.

He'll become the 6th fastest pitcher to 3,000 Ks (in terms of innings pitched), behind only Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Nolan Ryan, Curt Schilling and Roger Clemens. In so doing he'll put himself in position to possibly enter the conversation for best pitcher of our time. His postseason success and consistently will let him pass Curt Schilling. Steroids will help him pass Roger Clemens. That leaves Glavine, Maddux, Unit and Pedro as his main competition for the title. With all four of those pitchers no longer pitching like they once did and Smoltz pitching as well or better than he ever has, the potential is at least there for Smoltz to pass them. He'd likely need 3 good seasons, a championship where he dominated in the postseason and a lot of wins and strikeouts, and even then he'd likely be behind Maddux. What holds him back (4 seasons of closing) also makes him the most intriguing candidate. Starting and closing are two entirely different roles and nother pitcher has shown like Smoltz to be dominant in both roles. Eckersley was a good starting pitcher, but he wasn't nearly as dominant as Smoltz has been. However, he likely lost 700 Ks and 60 wins in his four years of closing (though he likely would have missed more time due to injury if he had started those years). With those stats, he'd be looking at 4000 Ks and 300 wins.

Maddux will almost certainly be considered the greatest pitcher of our era (thanks to Clemens use of PEDs), but I think Smoltz should at least be in the conversation along with Pedro and Randy Johnson. While Pedro wins in ERA, Maddux has him in wins, Ks (surprisingly maddux has over 200 more Ks than Pedro) and gets credit for being the best fielder of his position of our time. Smoltz and Pedro are pretty close, and I think that if Smoltz continues to pitch well he'll edge Pedro. Randy Johnson is likely #2, as he edges Smoltz and Pedro in ERA, Wins and Ks (by a lot), being 70 wins behind Maddux is likely decisive, but its close. Smoltz could likely come close with a few more dominant years (assuming Randy doesn't do much from here out). However, I think Randy is closer to Maddux than Smoltz is to Randy.