re: Are Smoltz, Glavine, and Maddux part of the best starting rotation ever?

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As an added bonus: Nate Silver uses the magic of statistics to definitively answer the question: What is the greatest four-man rotation of all time?

The answer isn’t all that surprising — but the margin of victory definitely is. The 1997 Braves rotation of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and, er, Denny Neagle (hey, he won 20 games that year and was surprisingly really good) has a collective Value Over Replacement Player (or VORP) of 649.4. The next highest-scoring foursome, the 1956 Indians (Early Wynn, Herb Score, Bob Lemon, Mike Garcia) has a score of 562.8. In fact, the rotations that ranked 2nd through 10th all have scores clustered loosely around 500, ranging from 494.7 (the 1970 Cubs) to the Indians.

Which is to say, the difference in VORP between the 10th best rotation and the 2nd best (68.1 points) is less than the difference between No. 2 and No. 1 (86.6 points). (Also interesting: The storied 1971 Orioles rotation of Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson and Dave McNally — 20-game winners all — doesn’t even make the Top 10.)

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