zitothebrave
Connoisseur of Minors
So some general guidelines for your picks.
1. Only what they did as Braves matters.
2. This is reflective of their entire body of work as a Brave
3. To qualify for a position, a player must have 5000 innings there, and preferably all of them with the Braves though if say a player on their career has 6000 innings there and 4500 are with the Braves, that's acceptable as well for me. I'm willing to consider maybe a little less for catcher as I know 5000 innings behind the plate can be a little tricky.
Lineup is how you fill out a lineup card, so feel free to include batting order as well. No need for BP, or other SP, that's a different day.
So. Here it goes
C - McCann - Debated a few times between him and Torre. From a statistical point, Torre was better, he hit better, and had a bit of an edge. But McCann gets the edge for me. I don't know what kind of game Torre called, but I know I want Mac calling the game for me.
1B - Tenney - 1B isn't really a rich position for the Braves. Freeman should coast into being the best for the BRaves if he finishes out his contract.
2B - Giles - AN impressively weak position. Rogers Hornsby played one season here and made our all-time top 10 in WAR. It's not a pretty list and I admit I don't know a thing about Bobby Lowe or Ross Barnes and given the insignificant statistical advantages, I'll go with Giles.
3B - Mathews - Really tough choice between Mathews and Chipper. I have to go to the stats and give Mathews the edge though. Mathews outhit Chipper and was a better fielder. Even if Chipper was the Braves for most of my life, it's really hard to deny the facts.
SS - Herman Long - Not much challenge from a statistical stand point.
LF - Rico Carty - SLim pickins in LF considering I'm gonna have to leave off a borderline HOF in CF. Carty wasn't the WAR leader, but he was a vastly superior player than Duffy who only had a 118 wRC+
CF - ANdruw - I know many will pick Murph. But to me this is a gimme. Over their careers, the offensive difference does go to Murph. He bested Druw while playing in a mini-deadball era. Offensively you won't find an area of the game where you can say Druw is better. But defensively it's night and day. Murph was at best an average defensive CF (stats say he's a good deal below average) Andruw is arguably the best defensive CF of all time.
RF - Hank - No brainer
Onto the lineup part. To me I used wRC+ as the initial barrier, then slashes to determine skills. I want to add I'm a fan of best hitters hitting early.
LF - Carty
RF - Aaron
3B - Mathews
C - McCann
CF - Druw
1B - Tenney
2B - GIles
SS - Long
I wanted to put Aaron at 1, And he's got wheels. But I decided to go Carty who was more patient. McCann got the nod before Druw because McCann is a slightly more complete hitter. Druw is more of a masher.
Last 3 aren't very good. I'd probably consider swapping Tenney and Giles but it's negligible.
I saved the pitcher for last. Because it's a legit toughie.
THere's 5 guys who I think you can argue into this spot. Maddux, SMoltz, Nichols, Spahn, and Niekro. Glavine is no slouch, but he's clearly behind each of those guys.
SO here comes the debate. Spahn, Nichols and Niekro to me are all really close. Neither dominated batters, because that wasn't really what they were called upon to do. Niekro falls just a bit short of the other 2 so I'm gonna bump him. Plus who wants to catch a knuckleballer? Nichols and Spahn are really close overall. Per inning Nichols was better than Spahn, but you have to give SPahn some durability credit,a nd there's the whole what would have happened without WWII.
Maddux and SMoltz were much more dominant on a per-inning basis. Maddux having about 2000 less IP for the BRaves than the 3 mentioned above and SMoltz at about 1500. When comparing them head to head it's just hard to give Smoltz the statistical edge, but Smoltz has that big game mystique.
I think I just have to go with Maddux. WHile Smoltz was the better playoff pitcher, Maddux's body of dominance was better.
Anyway feel free to do your own, or argue with me, I don't care.
1. Only what they did as Braves matters.
2. This is reflective of their entire body of work as a Brave
3. To qualify for a position, a player must have 5000 innings there, and preferably all of them with the Braves though if say a player on their career has 6000 innings there and 4500 are with the Braves, that's acceptable as well for me. I'm willing to consider maybe a little less for catcher as I know 5000 innings behind the plate can be a little tricky.
Lineup is how you fill out a lineup card, so feel free to include batting order as well. No need for BP, or other SP, that's a different day.
So. Here it goes
C - McCann - Debated a few times between him and Torre. From a statistical point, Torre was better, he hit better, and had a bit of an edge. But McCann gets the edge for me. I don't know what kind of game Torre called, but I know I want Mac calling the game for me.
1B - Tenney - 1B isn't really a rich position for the Braves. Freeman should coast into being the best for the BRaves if he finishes out his contract.
2B - Giles - AN impressively weak position. Rogers Hornsby played one season here and made our all-time top 10 in WAR. It's not a pretty list and I admit I don't know a thing about Bobby Lowe or Ross Barnes and given the insignificant statistical advantages, I'll go with Giles.
3B - Mathews - Really tough choice between Mathews and Chipper. I have to go to the stats and give Mathews the edge though. Mathews outhit Chipper and was a better fielder. Even if Chipper was the Braves for most of my life, it's really hard to deny the facts.
SS - Herman Long - Not much challenge from a statistical stand point.
LF - Rico Carty - SLim pickins in LF considering I'm gonna have to leave off a borderline HOF in CF. Carty wasn't the WAR leader, but he was a vastly superior player than Duffy who only had a 118 wRC+
CF - ANdruw - I know many will pick Murph. But to me this is a gimme. Over their careers, the offensive difference does go to Murph. He bested Druw while playing in a mini-deadball era. Offensively you won't find an area of the game where you can say Druw is better. But defensively it's night and day. Murph was at best an average defensive CF (stats say he's a good deal below average) Andruw is arguably the best defensive CF of all time.
RF - Hank - No brainer
Onto the lineup part. To me I used wRC+ as the initial barrier, then slashes to determine skills. I want to add I'm a fan of best hitters hitting early.
LF - Carty
RF - Aaron
3B - Mathews
C - McCann
CF - Druw
1B - Tenney
2B - GIles
SS - Long
I wanted to put Aaron at 1, And he's got wheels. But I decided to go Carty who was more patient. McCann got the nod before Druw because McCann is a slightly more complete hitter. Druw is more of a masher.
Last 3 aren't very good. I'd probably consider swapping Tenney and Giles but it's negligible.
I saved the pitcher for last. Because it's a legit toughie.
THere's 5 guys who I think you can argue into this spot. Maddux, SMoltz, Nichols, Spahn, and Niekro. Glavine is no slouch, but he's clearly behind each of those guys.
SO here comes the debate. Spahn, Nichols and Niekro to me are all really close. Neither dominated batters, because that wasn't really what they were called upon to do. Niekro falls just a bit short of the other 2 so I'm gonna bump him. Plus who wants to catch a knuckleballer? Nichols and Spahn are really close overall. Per inning Nichols was better than Spahn, but you have to give SPahn some durability credit,a nd there's the whole what would have happened without WWII.
Maddux and SMoltz were much more dominant on a per-inning basis. Maddux having about 2000 less IP for the BRaves than the 3 mentioned above and SMoltz at about 1500. When comparing them head to head it's just hard to give Smoltz the statistical edge, but Smoltz has that big game mystique.
I think I just have to go with Maddux. WHile Smoltz was the better playoff pitcher, Maddux's body of dominance was better.
Anyway feel free to do your own, or argue with me, I don't care.