Glavine, Maddux & Smoltz

Eddie Plank, Rube Waddell and Chief Bender, too.

 

Plank, Waddell, Bender (PHA, 1903-07).
Feller, Wynn, Lemon (CLE, 1949-55).

That's it, as far as legitimately on the same staff like Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz were from 1993-99.

Technically, these guys were in the same rotation for a year or two:

Mathewson, McGinnity, Marquard (NYG, 1908).
Alexander, Rixey, Bender (PHN, 1916-17).
Marichal, Perry, Spahn (SFG, 1965).
Koufax, Drysdale, Sutton (LAD, 1966).

 

1891 New York Giants (or whatever they were called then) had Amos Rusie, Mickey Welch and Tim Keefe, though Welch was pretty much done at that point and Keefe was only there part of the season.

 

49 Indians also had Satchel Paige, though he only started five games ... and obviously wasn't elected to the Hall for anything he did with the Indians.

 

If you had to rank the staffs in order of dominance during their era, where would you rank them? Plus, which era made it more difficult for the pitchers?

 

I would consider that one a lot more legitimate than the McGinnity/Marquard, Welch/Keefe or Alexander/Bender coincidences. Paige at least pitched 31 games.

 

That kind of knowledge is frighteningly impressive.

 

I can't speak for Buck, but baseballreference.com is a phenomenal resource. Still, you have to know where to look, and Buck is better at that than most ...

 

1930s was the most difficult era for pitchers, although the current one is close. (19th century doesn't count.)

Gotta say the 1990s Braves were the most dominant, all things considered.

 

Didn't know the years off the top of my head, and the obscure ones (Giants, Phillies) I had to look up, too. Baseball-Reference.com gets a lot of the credit.

 

What, you mean batters being able to request a specific kind of pitch and pitchers throwing under-handed doesn't hold up against the likes of a Randy Johnson slider?

 

Not Glavine. Sorry. Will concede Maddux. And even with the bullpen time, it's a wash.
Of course, while they were dominant during the season, they don;'t exactly have a handful of series rings (yes, I know that hitting failed in many of those futile post-season events). How many big-Series games did Morris win...