Atlanta Braves Opening Day countdown: 34, Millwood

The Atlanta Braves developed a number of excellent young arms during their run in the 1990s and 2000s, but few had more success than the North Carolina native.

The Atlanta Braves developed a number of excellent young arms during their excellent run of success in the 1990s and 2000s, often serving in the back of the rotation to begin, but few worked their way up the rotation the way Kevin Millwood did.

Millwood was an 11th round pick in 1993 out of high school in North Carolina. He loved basketball and would miss the beginning of baseball season each year, meaning he was plenty raw at the end of high school, not expecting to be drafted due to that.

Because he was so raw, Millwood really did not stand out in his minor league career until his final season, and even then only in the second half of that season once he was promoted to AAA, when he went on a 9-start tear (1.93 ERA, 0.89 WHIP over 60 2/3 IP) with Richmond before being promoted to Atlanta, where he put together 51 1/3 innings of 4.03 ERA to finish the year.

His first full season, Millwood won 17 games with a 4.08 ERA over 174 1/3 innings, but it was his second full season that would remain the best season of his career. In 1999, Millwood went 18-7 with a 2.68 ERA over 228 innings, leading the majors with a 1.00 WHIP, striking out what would be a career-high 205 hitters. He received his only All-Star nod and finished 3rd in Cy Young voting that season

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While Millwood wasn’t as successful the next two seasons, he was consistent in the middle of the Braves rotation in 2000 and 2001 before having another excellent season in 2002, going 18-8 with a 3.24 ERA over 217 innings.

That offseason, the Atlanta Braves were faced with the impending arbitration number of Millwood along with Greg Maddux accepting the team’s offer of free agent arbitration, which put the team too near its budget.

The finances led to a trade that sent Millwood to division rival Philadelphia for catcher Johnny Estrada. Millwood would go on to be part of two no-hitters in his career, one with the Phillies and then a combined no-hitter with the Mariners that he left due to injury.

Over his 6 seasons with the Atlanta Braves, Kevin Millwood won 75 games with a 3.73 ERA over 1,004 1/3 innings with a 1.22 WHIP.