Baseball Hypothetical:

[Chasstev365]

If they had the strike zone box and challage call of today back in the 1990s, would the Atlanta Braves top 3, Glavine, Smoltz, and Maddux have not been so great?

Don't get me wrong; they were great pitchers, but it seems to me they got questionable strike calls that other pitchers did not.

Discuss.

[rampartd]

1. the ump who called phil niekro the night before

might just be happy glavine's change up got close and appeared to obey the laws of physics.

the braves had a great rotation in those years

[CanonRay]

2. Everything was a strike when they pitched

[Morbius]

3. Maddux was a pitcher who didn't rely on strikeouts.

He was a master of pitching to the bat, rather than avoiding the bat. He would try to get hitters to connect with the ball poorly, getting ground balls or pop-ups. He would try to induce hitters to swing at balls early in the at-bat, thereby reducing the number of pitches for the game overall. Today, when a pitcher records a complete game with 100 pitches or less, it's called a "Maddux." No kidding.

So I can't argue about Glavine or Smoltz, but Maddux would have still been great. His greatness did not depend on the umpire's calls.