The Braves' greatest weapon was their starting pitching.
Greg Maddux won his second straight Cy Young; teammate Tom Glavine won 20+ games
for the third consecutive year. And young Steve Avery had the best year
of his career. Avery, considered by many the best young pitcher in baseball, was
only 23 years old; he already had 50 career wins, plus several brilliant
playoff performances. But his career peaked this year; injuries have hampered
his career ever since. Though he is still pitching at this writing, he
never took that step forward into greatness.
The Giants also had a good staff as well, though
their pitchers were not as famous. Both Bill Swift and John Burkett won 20
games. Swift began his career with Seattle, but pitched poorly; the Mariners
converted him into a reliever, and he pitched brilliantly in their bullpen.
He was acquired by the Giants, who decided to try him in the starting rotation
again; the gamble paid off, as Swift continued to pitch brilliantly, winning
the ERA title in 1992. This year, he was better than anyone except Maddux. This
was his best season; he was 31 years old, and afterwards began having injury
problems.
This was a great year for closers in the NL.
Randy Myers of the Cubs saved 53 games, but was only the fourth best closer
in the league. John Wetteland was a young hard thrower whom the Dodgers gave
up on, and dealt to Montreal (a couple of years later, they also traded a young
Pedro Martinez to Montreal). The Expos made Wetteland their closer; he had
a good year in 1992, and a great one this year. Wetteland's 1993 performance
still ranks as the best of his career, and among the best seasons ever by
a closer. Wetteland has remained one of the best closers in the game since
this season, and was the 1996 World Series MVP with the Yankees.
Rod Beck and Bryan Harvey also had big seasons.
Beck was one of the biggest reasons for the Giants' improvement; he pitched
brilliantly as a setup man in 1992, and this year inherited the closer's
role. He was a classic fireman, combining a hard fastball with a hard splitter
and lots of facial hair. This was his best season; though he remained a solid
closer throughout the 1990's, Beck lost velocity on his fastball and was
never as dominant as he was this year.
In his prime, Bryan Harvey was about as good
as a closer can get. He pitched brilliantly with the Angels in 1991, then
had injury problems the following season. This year, pitching with the
expansion Florida Marlins, he was again outstanding. Harvey's performance
is certainly the best ever by a closer for a first-year expansion team; afterwards,
his career was also curtailed by injuries.
