Baseball is back! With Spring Training and The World Baseball Classic already upon us I decided to start things off with position by position lists of the top baseball players of my lifetime.

So let’s get into it with my first list:

20. Jacob deGrom

deGrom makes the list because he simply has the best stuff of any pitcher I’ve ever seen. Said stuff is so good that he basically only needs 2 pitches. In 2022 he threw 47% fastballs with an average velocity of 98.9 mph and 39% sliders with an average velocity of 92.6 mph. deGoat is out there throwing sliders faster than a Krystal’s cook after the club lets out on Saturday night. And he has the numbers and awards that correlate with such filthiness. Rookie of the Year in 2014. A 4 time All-Star. Back-to-back Cy Young Awards in 2018 and 2019 with a minuscule 1.70 ERA in 2018. He also has the distinction of causing the most rage quits in MLB The Show history because his 99 All-Star card in The Show 21 was utterly unfair. If you know you know.

19. Hideo Nomo

The man with perhaps the most imitated windup in history, Nomo was absolutely electric when he came over from the NPB in Japan to the Dodgers in 1995. That rookie season was one to be remembered as Nomo was named to the All-Star team as well as winning Rookie of the Year and finishing fourth in NL Cy Young voting. Sadly he was never able to duplicate the dominance of his initial MLB campaign but did show flashes of that same brilliance throwing 2 no hitters in his career. The first one coming in his second season against the Rockies at Coors Field. His second came in his first game with the Red Sox in April of 2001 against the Orioles at Camden Yards. Two pitching masterpieces against two prolific offenses in two extreme hitters parks. While Nomo wasn’t the first player from Japan to ever transition to the majors, he is the first one I remember and he unlocked a fascination for me with Japanese players and Japanese baseball culture that I still carry to this day. Well, him and Tom Selleck.

18. Tim Lincecum

Big Time Timmy Jim! A somewhat brief but undeniably brightly shining star Lincecum was absolutely insane and the best pitcher in baseball during a four year stretch from 2008 to 2011. During that time The Freak made the All-Star team each year, led the NL in strikeouts 3 consecutive years and won back-to-back NL Cy Youngs in 2008 and 2009. Although his numbers started to decline following that incredible run he finished his career as a member of three World Series Championship teams with the Giants in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Although he wasn’t much of a factor in those two final postseasons. Lincecum also threw two no-hitters later in his career. Both no-no’s came against the San Diego Padres, and he threw them in back-to-back seasons, with the first one coming in 2013 and the second in 2014. Timmy always made me think of one of my friends that I played high school baseball with, Lynn Godfrey. Both were guys smaller in stature that threw absolute gas.

17. Shohei Ohatani

If you just look at Ohtani solely as a pitcher he probably still makes the list. He has a down right dirty pitch arsenal and is truly one of the best hurlers in the game today. But I can’t overlook the fact that he also hits. Nukes. There’s never been a player in the sport like Shohei. Simultaneously one of the best hitters and pitchers in baseball, he is rapidly approaching being the best baseball player of all-time if he isn’t already. I got to see Ohtani play live in-person last summer against the Braves at Truist Park. And of course he hit a laser beam homer out to right. Cementing himself as the best baseball player….Of My Lifetime.

16. Dwight Gooden

That’s for even thinkin’ of havin’ them thoughts thought up. You better show some respect whenever the Doc’s brought up. Doc burst onto the baseball scene in 1984 as a 19 year old phenom with perhaps the best rookie season for a pitcher of all time. He led the league in strikeouts that season with 276 while winning Rookie of the Year and finishing second in Cy Young voting. He followed that up with an even better second year, attaining the pitching triple crown, leading the league in wins (24), ERA (1.53) and strikeouts (268). Gooden was a true superstar and is one of the first players who didn’t play for the Braves that I actually knew who he was. Doc is the classic case of what could have been as substance abuse drastically altered his career trajectory. Despite those numerous setbacks he still had a notable big league career winning two World Series rings, the first in 1986 with the Mets and the second in 2000 with the Yankees. Gooden also tossed an emotional and memorable no-hitter with the Yankees in 1996.

15. Jim Abbott.

Admittedly Jim Abbott was just an average major league pitcher. But that in itself is amazing. You see Abbott was born without a right hand. This fact blew my mind as a 9 year old kid when I first learned about it. In fact, it still blows my mind today. Despite this disability Abbott won the Golden Spikes Award for the nation’s best baseball player while in college at Michigan. He also pitched for Team USA in the 1988 Olympics winning a Gold Medal. Abbott’s most notable big league feat was pitching a no-hitter as a Yankee against the Indians in 1993. I remember trying to emulate Abbott’s delivery and post pitch routine as a kid and being further amazed at what he was able to accomplish. That feeling of amazement still holds today when I think about Abbott and what he was able to do with one hand.

14. Curt Schilling

Curt Schilling’s Hall of Fame resume is highly debatable. His postseason performances however are not up for debate. With an 11-2 career postseason record and a 2.23 career postseason ERA, his playoff pedigree is practically unparalleled. The most memorable of these outings and a large part of Schilling being included in this list is “The Bloody Sock Game”. Before Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS Schilling had a surgical procedure to bind his ankle tendons in place in his right foot. Before he even stepped on the mound the incision had opened up and blood was visibly soaking his sock. Watching this on tv was extremely captivating. It was already Sox vs. Yanks with a trip to the World Series on the line. Add in the fact that the Red Sox were trying to come back from a 3-0 series deficit, which had never been done before, and I was glued to the set. Schilling went out and allowed only one run on four hits in seven innings and Boston got the victory. The Red Sox would go on to win Game 7 as well as the subsequent World Series ending both an 86 year title drought and “The Curse of the Bambino”.

13. Cliff Lee

Cliff Lee doesn’t have the overall career numbers to compare with most of the other pitchers on this list. He was a 4x All-Star and won the Cy Young award in 2008 with Cleveland. But the reason I liked Lee enough to include him in my top starting pitchers list is because of the way he pitched. He was a technician on the mound. Relying on precision, command and control Lee was always one of my favorite pitchers to watch. He threw strikes. He threw them often and he threw them where he wanted and I like that.

12. Max Scherzer

Scherzer is most likely already a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But at age 38 he’s still one of the best pitchers in baseball and hasn’t shown any signs of father time catching up with him. Mad Max has a plethora of career achievements waiting and ready to adorn his Cooperstown plaque. 8x All-Star, 3x Cy Young winner, 4x wins leader, 3x NL strikeout leader, World Series Champion, 2 no-hitters, the list goes on and on. Simply put Max is one of the best and most dominant pitchers of his generation. Along with all of these awards and achievements Scherzer also holds the record (along with Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood) of most strikeouts in a 9 inning game with 20. A quick story about Max’s second no-hitter. Scherzer’s second career no-hitter came on Saturday, June 20th against the Pittsburgh Pirates. I remember this because I had a banger of a Draftkings baseball lineup that day. My stack was going crazy and I had a nice score from my hitters in the lineup. But I faded Max. And any lineup that didn’t have Scherzer on that day was dead in the water. I watched helplessly as Max completed the no-no and dashed my money winning hopes in the process. A bittersweet memory for sure.

11. Steve Avery

Steve Avery’s inclusion on the list is purely from a personal nostalgia standpoint. He was a critical member of the 1991 worst to first Braves team and his NLCS MVP performance against the Pirates that year is the stuff of legends. Taking the mound in Games 2 and 6, Avery dominated Pittsburgh to the tune of 16 2/3 innings pitched and 0 earned runs. The Braves won both of those games by a score of 1-0. Braves fever and Avery mania was running wild as the Braves made their first World Series of my lifetime. At 11 years old I considered myself a long suffering fan at that point because up until that 91 season the Braves had been absolutely awful. Avery helped change the narrative of the franchise and Atlanta would go on to win a record 14 straight division titles. Although his career would decline rapidly after suffering an arm injury in 1993, Avery will always be one of my childhood heroes and I’m sure many Braves fans around my age feel the same way.

10. Madison Bumgarner

Madbum has that dog in him. Especially in the playoffs. As a member of three San Francisco Giant World Championship teams Bumgarner always stepped his game up on the big stage of the playoffs when the lights were their brightest. Particularly in the 2014 postseason where he basically put the Giants on his back and carried the team to their third title in 5 years. He pitched a 4 hit shutout against the Pirates in the Wild Card, which at the time was basically a play-in game. He pitched well in the next two rounds of that playoff year also but when the Giants reached the World Series Bumgarner reached new heights. He was the winning pitcher in Game 1 and in Game 5 he tossed another complete game shutout. Then on 2 days rest he entered Game 7 from the bullpen and proceeded to record 5 scoreless innings in relief and picked up the save. He earned World Series MVP honors allowing one run in 21 innings. Bumgarner holds the World Series record for lowest ERA with a microscopic 0.25. I was in Vegas during that 2014 fall classic and all anyone was talking about in and around the sportsbooks was Madison Bumgarner. I bought the Sports Illustrated with Madbum on the cover at the airport magazine stand before flying back home to Georgia. I probably read the article on him 3 or 4 times before we landed. It was certain that I’d just witnessed the greatest World Series pitching performance of my lifetime but also undoubtedly of all time.

9. Nolan Ryan

The Ryan Express had already been chugging down the tracks for 14 major league seasons before I was even born. Remarkably he would go on to pitch another 13 seasons after my birth, making him a truly unique entry on the top starting pitchers of my lifetime list. Ryan was an 8x All-Star with 3 of those selections coming during my lifetime. He pitched a MLB record 7 no-hitters during his career with 3 of those also coming in my lifetime. The seventh and final of those was especially memorable because it happened on the same day that Rickey Henderson broke the all-time MLB stolen base record. These two feats were immortalized on an Upper Deck baseball card that was highly sought after at the time. I actually had one of these card though I can’t say what happened to it over the years. Nolan Ryan threw harder than anyone when I was a kid. He threw harder than anyone before I was born. He threw harder than anyone period. Evidenced by his MLB record 5,714 career strikeouts. A record that I personally think will never be broken. Pitchers don’t throw as many innings these days and Ryan was so good at making hitters whiff for so many years that I think this record will forever remain intact. I remember reading a quote from Reggie Jackson about Ryan that stuck with me. “Every hitter likes fastballs, just like everybody likes ice cream. But you don’t like it when someone’s stuffing it into you by the gallon. That’s what it feels like when Nolan Ryan’s thrown balls by you.” And that quote to me sums up Nolan Ryan perfectly.

8. Clayton Kershaw

I’ve had a personal bias against Clayton Kershaw for most of my lifetime for a couple of reasons. The first being that he has been owned by my best friend Herndon since the inception of our dynasty fantasy baseball league that was started in 2013. I’ve had to hear about Kershaw’s dominance relentlessly for a decade. The second reason for my bias is the Dodgers’ postseason success against the Braves during that time span. Kershaw was entering his prime in 2013. In the midst of seven consecutive All-Star selections and four consecutive NL ERA titles. Oh, he also sprinkled in three Cy Young awards. The first coming in 2011 and then winning the award back-to-back in 2013 and 2014. My friend Trae and I went to Game 1 of the 2013 NLDS at Turner Field as the Dodgers came to Atlanta to face the Braves. Kershaw got the start and continued his regular season dominance from that year against the Braves. Kershaw pitched 7 innings allowing only 3 hits and 1 earned run while racking up 12 strikeouts as the Dodgers won the game 6-1. The Braves lineup looked absolutely hopeless against Kershaw that night much like the entire National League has looked against him his entire career.

7. Justin Verlander

Much like his new teammate with the Mets Max Scherzer, Verlander seems to be getting better with age. Coming off a 2022 season that saw him bring home his third career Cy Young Award and his second in the last four years, he seems to be picking up steam at an age when most pitchers are either retired or a shell of their former selves. Verlander has a career littered with accomplishment and accolades. Rookie of the Year. 2011 AL MVP and pitching triple crown winner. 9 time All-Star. 2 time World Series Champion. Kate Upton.

6. Pedro Martinez

Who’s your daddy? Pedro contributed so many memorable quotes and moments during his illustrious big league career. That career consisted of 3 Cy Young Awards, 8 All-Star selections, 5 ERA titles and a pitching triple crown in 1999 with the Red Sox. Pedro also was a member of the 2004 World Championship Boston team and after his playing days were over he would be inducted into the Hall of Fame. That famous soundbite where he conceded that the Yankees were his daddies prompted me and my buddies to make a sign stating “Hey Pedro, The Braves are your Stepdaddies” back before attending a game at Turner Field in April of 2005. It was a day game on Sunday and the marquee pitching matchup was the newly acquired Mets pitcher Pedro facing off against John Smoltz of the Braves who just returned to the rotation that season following 3 seasons in the bullpen serving as Atlanta’s closer. And the billing did not disappoint. The 2 hurlers had a duel for the ages. Smoltz went 7 1/3 innings while striking out a Braves record 15 batters while giving up 2 runs on 8 hits but was outdone by Martinez who was brilliant pitching a complete game 2-hitter while allowing one earned run. Our sign ended up getting on the big screen at the game but perhaps even more memorable were the festivities that took place the morning of and en route to the game that day. Let’s just say beverages were consumed. By the time we got to Atlanta for the game the majority of our group were pretty wasted. I sobered up pretty quick after being so drunk I almost choked on a hotdog before the game. My buddy Herndon however did not have such a sobering experience. He was passed out in his seat before first pitch. He woke up briefly during the first at bat of the game. Long enough to ask what inning it was. Later in the game we would see him roaming the upper deck lost trying to get back to his seat two levels below. Needless to say a good time was had by all.

5. Randy Johnson

The Big Unit had a big career. He put together a list of achievements and accolades almost as tall as he is. Hall of Fame. 5 Cy Youngs. 10 All-Star appearances. 4 ERA titles. A pitching triple crown. 2 no-hitters including a perfect game against the Braves in 2004. A World Series Championship with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001. Johnson also accumulated 303 wins and 4,875 strikeouts. Add all this together with his imposing stature and whippy left-handed delivery and Randy Johnson was the most dominant starting pitcher…. Of My Lifetime.

4. Roger Clemens

The Rocket pitched for an impressive 24 Major Leauge seasons. His career began with the Red Sox in 1984. Around the time I was able to start remembering things, including baseball. And I remember Clemens being my favorite pitcher growing up. In 1986 he won both the AL Cy Young and MVP, propelling himself to superstar status and placing himself on the pedestal of being my favorite pitcher. He added another Cy Young the following year and would go on to collect five more of them after that. He also won 7 ERA titles, 2 pitching triple crowns, 2 World Series titles and was named to 11 All-Star games. Clemens was the best in the game in the late 80’s and continued that level of performance over the next two decades. His career was marred by steroid use leading to his exclusion from the Hall of Fame. But that’s a debate for another time. For now I’ll just remember everything he accomplished in his career and think of him jamming his arm into a barrel of rice in a Reebok commercial.

3. Tom Glavine

If you’ve made it this far into the list you could’ve probably guessed who the top three pitchers on my list were going to be. The Big 3 of those magical Braves teams and rotations of the 90’s and early 2000’s. Glavine of course was one of those three. A Hall of Famer, 10x All-Star, 2x Cy Young winner, 4x Silver Slugger, 300 game winner, Glavine was definitely one of the all-time greats. Although his greatest achievement in my eyes will always be World Series MVP of the 1995 fall classic. Glavine went 2-0 in the 1995 Series including 8 one-hit shutout innings in the series finale Game 6. I remember watching it at my Grandma’s house with my friend Julius and the elation we both experienced at the Braves finally breaking through and bringing home a title. Thank you, Tom and I miss you, Julius.

2. John Smoltz

Smoltzie checks in at number two on my list. More of a power pitcher than the other 2 members of the Braves Big 3, Smoltz was always one of my favorite pitchers to watch. Like the other 2 Smoltz is also a member of the Hall of Fame. He has a Cy Young on his mantle as well as a Rolaids Reliever of the Year Award. That fact, that in the prime of his career, Smoltz was able to and willing to take his talents to the bullpen is why he edged out Glavine for #2 on my list. Not only did he just go to the closer role, he excelled at it. He led the league with 55 saves in 2002 and tallied a ridiculous 154 in 3 seasons and some change in the bullpen. Add that to his 213 career wins as a starting pitcher and you have the #2 spot. Later in life I actually met Smoltz at a Georgia Tech basketball game in 2014. Well kind of. Me and my friend Willis were at the game and they showed Smoltz was in attendance on the jumbotron. After the game was over we saw him in the parking lot as we were walking to the car. Smoltz gave us a nod and we nodded back. A pretty cool moment.

1. Greg Maddux

Mad Dog. He was a pitcher’s pitcher. An artist on the mound. Creating command inspired masterpieces every time he toed the rubber. Maddux is of course in the Hall of Fame. He has 4 Cy Young Awards, 8 All-Star selections and a record 18 Gold Gloves. Maddux’s 4 Cy Youngs came in consecutive seasons from 1992 to 1995. His ERAs in those seasons are as follows: 2.18, 2.36, 1.56 and 1.63. Utter dominance from a guy with league average velocity but all-time great command and understanding of the position. Watching Greg Maddux pitch was simply special. It was witnessing greatness every 5th day and that is why is he is the number 1 pitcher on my list of Top Starting Pitchers….Of My Lifetime.