EXCLUSIVE: Tom Glavine discusses postseason rotation options for the Atlanta Braves & Spencer Strider's dominance

Atlanta Braves legend and MLB Hall of Famer Tom Glavine sat down with Braves Today host Ben Taylor for a wide-ranging conversation about the 2023 Atlanta Braves, calling games in the same booth as John Smoltz, Chipper Jones, and Jeff Francoeur, and proper expectations for the 2023 postseason.

WATCH: Part 1 of our podcast interview with Tom Glavine

Special thanks to our friends over at Pepsi Zero Sugar and Sam's Club for connecting us with Tom - make sure you make time to visit Tom Glavine at Sam's Club in McDonough, GA on Thursday, August 31st from 4:30 to 6:00 PM for hot dogs, Pepsi, and good times!

Postseason rotation

When discussing the rotation for the postseason, Glavine was pretty declarative about the starting options for the first few rounds: Max Fried, Spencer Strider, and Charlie Morton as your starting three, with Bryce Elder in the 4th spot if needed.

But where the rest of us have been busy talking about who would fill that #4 spot in an ideal world, Glavine had a different train of thought about the postseason rotation -the order:

"And then, it's not as simple as well, Max is our number one, Spencer's number two.

I think sometimes you have to look at match-ups, and if Spencer, for instance matches up better than say Charlie, then you'd want Spencer to get two starts in a series and try and take advantage of that. There were a lot of times in my day that you might have guys and similar to this situation with the Braves top three anyway, that, any one of those guys can go out there and be your number one, for whatever reason, you got one guy that pitches better on the road or one guy that pitches better at home or sometimes, you might take a young guy like Bryce or Spencer and say, 'Hey, you know what? Let's have these guys pitch at home in a friendlier environment.' Not so crazy to try and do some of those things, but I think the good thing for this team and this rotation is all four of those guys are good. They've all had great years. Obviously, I think Max and Spencer would be 1 and 1A, but not a huge separation between the four of them. So I think you'd feel comfortable with with any one of them going out there, particularly with that offense."

Who could pull a "Glavine"?

Amongst his many career accolades, Glavine is infamous for game six of the 1995 World Series, where he famously asked the team to "get me one" and he'd hold the lead.

Glavine said he thought there was someone on the roster who could have a dominant postseason performance like that one day: Spencer Strider.

"He certainly has the potential. Look, and having experienced it myself, Spencer is that guy. When you look at Spencer and Max you're looking at guys that are power pitchers. Typically in the postseason, the contact guys have a little bit harder time than the power guys. I think, yeah, you watch Spencer pitch and I think anytime he goes out there it's the potential for there to be a no hitter and, so there's excitement surrounding that. I think he's the kind of guy that, yeah, he can go out there and make one run stand up. And I think Max is too. I think both those guys are quite capable of going out there and having those types of games."

Don't miss your chance to meet Tom Glavine at Sam's Club in McDonough, GA on Thursday, August 31st from 4:30 to 6:00 PM for hot dogs, Pepsi, and good times!

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