When fans of the Atlanta Braves think about the history of the team, the sheer number of all-time greats is pretty staggering on both sides of the ball. Guys like Hank, Murph, Chipper, and Mathews all are among the best to ever play the game and that is just on the offensive side of the ball. Then there is the pitching. Wow, was there a ton of great pitching.
No one has to think all that hard about Braves pitching legends because they need only start with the rotation that the Braves ran out during the 1990's with Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine leading the way. However, a closer look at the actual numbers reveals some pretty fascinating stuff.
Here is the Atlanta Braves all-time starting rotation by WAR
To be clear, this is not a subjective list. This rotation is based purely on the top 5 starting pitchers by WAR in a Braves uniform. Players do not get credit for their work for other teams here. Also, pitchers had to start at least 60% of the games they played and Baseball-Reference's WAR calculation is the metric used mainly because their database is really easy to search for this sort of thing.
Before anyone writes any angry emails, you will not find Tom Glavine on this list as he came in sixth with 58.6 rWAR. This is not a commentary on Glavine as an all-time great and frankly, most fans' personal lists would have him on their list. However, 15.3 rWAR of his career was accumulated with the Mets and it doesn't count towards his total. If you want to be mad, blame the Braves' front office for those ill-fated contract negotiations before the 2003 season.
Anyways, enough of the rules and explanation. Here is the Braves' all-time starting rotation by WAR