John Smoltz Marquee Hall of Fame 2015

Detroit, his hometown, traded him to Atlanta before he had thrown a major-league pitch. He spent twenty-one seasons in the game, nearly all of them in Atlanta, most of those in a rotation with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. He went 24-8 in 1996 and won the Cy Young Award.

Reconstructive elbow surgery cost him the 2000 season. He came back in the bullpen instead of the rotation and saved 55 games in 2002, the most in the league, then went back to starting in 2005 and won 14, 16, and 14 games at thirty-eight, thirty-nine, and forty.

He was most valuable player of the 1992 National League Championship Series and pitched for the 1995 champions, and October is much of what he is remembered for. He retired with 213 wins, 154 saves, and 3,084 strikeouts. No one else has 200 wins and 150 saves. The writers elected him in 2015.