John Andrew Smoltz (born May 15, 1967), nicknamed "Smoltzie"[1] and "Marmaduke",[2] is an American former baseball pitcher who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1988 to 2009, all but the last year with the Atlanta Braves. An eight-time All-Star, Smoltz was part of a celebrated trio of starting pitchers, along with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, who propelled Atlanta to perennial pennant contention in the 1990s, highlighted by a championship in the 1995 World Series. He won the National League (NL) Cy Young Award in 1996 after posting a record of 24–8, equaling the most victories by an NL pitcher since 1972. Though predominantly known as a starter, Smoltz was converted to a reliever in 2001 after his recovery from Tommy John surgery, and spent four years as the team's closer before returning to a starting role. In 2002, he set a National League record with 55 saves and became only the second pitcher in history (joining Dennis Eckersley) to record both a 20-win season and a 50-save season. He is the only pitcher in Major League history to record both 200 wins and 150 saves. He is also the only pitcher in Major League history to record both 200 wins, 150 saves, and 3,000 strikeouts.
Smoltz was one of the most successful pitchers in playoff history, posting a record of 15–4 with a 2.67 earned run average (ERA) in 41 career postseason games, (and in two of those four losses, he surrendered only unearned runs). He was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1992 NL Championship Series; Andy Pettitte later broke his record for career postseason wins. Smoltz led the NL in wins, winning percentage, strikeouts and innings pitched twice each, and his NL total of 3,084 strikeouts ranked fifth in league history when he retired. He also holds the Braves franchise record for career strikeouts (3,011), and the record for the most career games pitched for the Braves (708) since the club's move to Atlanta in 1966; from 2004 to 2014, he held the franchise record for career saves and has the single season record. Smoltz left the Braves after 2008 and split his final season with the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. Since retiring as a player, he has served as a color commentator and analyst for both Fox Sports and MLB Network. Since 2016, he has provided color commentary during baseball's biggest televised events, notably the All-Star Game and World Series. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2015.
^John Smoltz Statistics and History | Baseball-Reference.com
^"John Smoltz inspires Milton youth baseball team". northfulton.com. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
John Andrew Smoltz (born May 15, 1967), nicknamed "Smoltzie" and "Marmaduke", is an American former baseball pitcher who played 21 seasons in Major League...
rotations in the history of baseball including Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, JohnSmoltz, and Tom Glavine. The Braves are one of the two remaining National League...
recorded his 200th postseason strikeout in the fifth inning, surpassing JohnSmoltz for second-most all time. The Dodgers as a team tied the New York Giants...
and looked to reuse that recipe against the upstart Yankees. In 1996, JohnSmoltz returned to form, winning 24 games and a Cy Young Award, providing another...
made up of perennial Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, JohnSmoltz, and Steve Avery. As the NL champion, they opened this World Series at...
Kasper Don Orsillo Jeff Levering Alex Faust Aaron Goldsmith Connor Onion JohnSmoltz A. J. Pierzynski Adam Wainwright Eric Karros Tom Verducci Mark Sweeney...
Verlander recorded the 200th postseason strikeout of his career, surpassing JohnSmoltz (whose career spanned 1988–2009) and setting a new MLB record. Leading...
pitcher JohnSmoltz of the Atlanta Braves during Rivers's tenure with the Atlanta Hawks. In 2009, Rivers was credited with helping lure Smoltz into signing...
United States. The MLB International feed featured Matt Vasgersian and JohnSmoltz with play-by-play and analysis, respectively. Fox suffered an outage...
play-by-play announcer, along with Hall of Famer and former Braves pitcher JohnSmoltz as color analyst and Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci as field reporters...
Play-by-play announcer Joe Davis called the event with Baseball Hall of Famer JohnSmoltz as color analyst, and Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci as field reporters...
Jeff Merron also writes that the pitching staff of Maddux, Glavine, JohnSmoltz, Denny Neagle, and Kevin Millwood was the greatest of all time. The quintet...
major league record and surpassing the previous record of 199 set by JohnSmoltz. He finished the game with six strikeouts, seven hits and four earned...
September 30, 2023, Strider won his twentieth game of the season and broke JohnSmoltz's Atlanta Braves record for strikeouts in a season, finishing the year...
a battle of hard-throwing Cy Young Award winners, Roger Clemens and JohnSmoltz. In the third inning, the Yanks broke through when Tino Martinez singled...
Alexander-JohnSmoltz deal". Baseball Essential. Durr, Matt (30 July 2013). "More Than 25 Years Later, Detroit Tigers Still Regret Trading JohnSmoltz". Yahoo...
only the second Atlanta pitcher after JohnSmoltz to have three 30-save seasons. Kimbrel surpassed JohnSmoltz's Braves record of 27 consecutive saves...
and another future NL Cy Young Award winner and Hall of Fame inductee, JohnSmoltz. His season helped ensure a dramatic reversal in the Braves' competitive...
undergone the surgery, some more than once. Two players (Paul Molitor and JohnSmoltz) have undergone the surgery and been inducted into the National Baseball...
MLB Network Strike Zone (now play by play announcer for Miami Marlins) JohnSmoltz: (2010–2022) MLB Network Showcase and MLB Tonight (fired for refusing...
2018 World Series, JohnSmoltz was heavily criticized for appearing to hate the direction baseball was going in. Two years later, Smoltz throughout the National...
second. Roberto Alomar was at third base with John Olerud batting. On the first pitch of the at-bat, Smoltz threw a breaking ball that skipped past Damon...
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