Who’s Number One? Smoltz or Hudson?

Written by Colin on February 18, 2008 – 7:26 am

As the pitching rotation continues to shake out, Bobby Cox has to decide whether John Smoltz or Tim Hudson is going to be the rotation ace and start opening day.  Now, I wrote the last article on this and I thought that Smoltz was going to be the ace - simply because it’s tradition at this point.  However, Smoltz said over the weekend that he thought Hudson should take the #1 spot.  Hudson claims Smoltz just doesn’t want to pitch against the Nationals in the first game of the season.

Who should be the ace?  Not that it really matters who is #1 and who pitches #2, but let’s argue both sides.

John Smoltz should be the Ace of this rotation because…

  • It’s tradition.  John Smoltz is the face of the Braves organization and should be the #1 starter as long as he’s still dominating batters.

  • He’s more of a power pitcher than Hudson is - 197 strikeouts to Hudson’s 132 last year.

  • He has more quality starts per start - 81% of his starts last year were quality starts compared to Hudson’s 73.5%.

Tim Hudson should be the Ace of this rotation because:

  • He had more wins last year - 16 to Smoltz’s 14 - and would have had more with a little run support and a better bullpen.

  • He is more durable - pitched 224 innings last year in 34 starts, compared to Smoltzie’s 204 innings in 32 starts.

  • Huddy is going to be the Ace in years down the road, we need to get him used to it.

  • He’s younger - his first major league appearance was almost 11 years after Smoltz made his debut.

So you make your decision.  In all honesty, if Smoltz and Hudson were both first year Braves, Hudson would be the starter.  It’s the seniority and respect that all the players and fans have for Smoltz that leaves Smoltz in the #1 starter spot for now.  In the years to come, Hudson will get his chance (and beats out Pedro Martinez as “The best #2 starter in the East” category).  For me, Smoltz remains in his customary spot at least through this year.

He’s may be a little balder than he was last year, but he’s our Ace.


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