Atlanta Braves: 10 best players never to win a Braves World Series
To be sure: there haven’t been many world titles in the long history of the Braves franchise. But there are a lot of players that missed out despite their own greatness.
1914. 1957. 1995. Those are the three years in which the Braves have won it all… with the Atlanta Braves edition of this franchise taking the crown once.
There’s been a lot of baseball in those intervening years, and a lot of great Braves players that never got that ring. Or that trophy. Or even the toy version you see pictured above.
These are the 10 best… but first, an honorable mention:
Honorable Mention: Brian McCann
I have to get this one in quick, since it could change as early as tonight.
Brian would have ranked 12th on this list, coming in at less than 2 fWAR below Billy Nash and just over 3 behind our #10, but with his career still in progress… and the World Title on the line tonight in LA… we’ve got to mention The Heap.
But he’s certainly the best-performing pure catcher on this chart, and that’s true for all Braves throughout the history of the franchise, just besting Del Crandall – who did earn a world Series title with Milwaukee.
Now to those without…
10. Hugh Duffy*
Throughout this anthology, we’ll see a few asterisks. Though the Braves have only won 3 World Series titles, there were some really really good Boston Beaneaters teams during the last 20 years of the 1800’s. So in the interest of technicality, those players are included since they pre-date the World Series era.
Outfielder Duffy kicked around the majors with various teams until he stuck with the Beaneaters… in that 1892 season.
He stayed with the club through 1900, then had 4 more seasons afterward – finishing with the Phillies in 1906.
The 5’7″ Duffy was a career .324 hitter, and still managed 106 career homers – even in the ‘Dead Ball’ era.
His best season with Boston was 1894 – a year in which he hit .440 (not a typo) with a 1.196 OPS… mashing 18 homers and 145 RBI. Oh, and he stole 48 bases, too.
Duffy is also a Hall of Famer – voted in by the Old Timers committee in 1945.
9. Tommy Holmes
No asterisk here, as Holmes played with the Boston Braves during and after World War II from 1942 through 1951, adding a season with Brooklyn in 1952.
Holmes saw the World Series twice: both in 1948 – Cleveland’s last title – and in 1952 with the Dodgers. Both times, Holmes club made a run, but lost in 6 and 7 games, respectively.
Holmes was a left-handed outfielder who lived until age 91 – he would have been 100 this year.
He hit .302 lifetime and enjoyed his best year in 1945, hitting .352 with a .997 OPS and finishing second in that season’s MVP voting. He lead the league in home runs with 28 and hits with 224.
So who won the MVP that year? Phil Cavarretta with the Cubs…a travesty in the balloting since Holmes bested him in stats almost across the board.
8. Joe Torre**
As you know, Torre has enjoyed a very long career in baseball, but many forget that he started with the Milwaukee Braves in 1960. He moved to Atlanta when the team did in 1966 and continued on the club through the 1968 season, then joining the Cardinals for 6 years and then the Mets for 3 more.
Catcher/1st baseman Torre hit .294 with the Braves, amassing 34.9 fWAR in 9 years. He was a 5-time All-Star there, and eventually won an MVP award with St. Louis in 1971… as a third baseman.
He just missed out on the Rookie of the Year award in 1961 (2nd), earned a Gold Glove in 1965, and was a 9-time All-Star overall.
The MVP year was his best offensively, though he was nearly as good in Atlanta during the 1966 inaugural season. But he only received scant consideration for the award that year.
The double asterisk? While he won World Titles as a manager, Torre couldn’t get there as a player, being part of mediocre Braves’ teams in the 1960’s.
7. Wally Berger
Wally Berger was a center fielder for the Braves during the 1930’s, playing for Boston from 1930 through part of 1937.
He hit .300 lifetime, including 242 homers in a relatively short career while playing for some pretty bleak Braves’ teams. In fact, the Braves never finished above 4th during his entire tenure.
Berger was an All-Star in 4 consecutive years starting in 1933, and received consistent – though lagging – MVP support.
He did led the league in homers (34) in 1935… the same number as his previous season… with 130 RBI (also a league high). He was also around for Babe Ruth‘s last hurrah in 1935 – a 28 game stint with the Braves.
6. Herman Long*
Another asterisk player – for Herman Long, who played with the Beaneaters from 1890 through 1902… just prior to the World Series era.
Long was a shortstop for Boston, and recorded 38.5 fWAR for the team, with 88 homers, 964 RBI, and a .280 average.
But his best contribution came on the field, with the highest Braves’ defensive rating by fangraphs for anyone not named Andruw Jones.
5. Fred Tenney*
Tenney was an 1890’s Beaneater, missing on the 1892 championship, though still was part of 1st place finishes and pennant winners from 1897-98.
Tenney was a 5’9″ 1st baseman – unheard of these days – but hit well for Boston in 15 total seasons. He averaged .294 and OPS’d .730 overall.
In his heyday, Tenney would score 100+ runs 3 years in a row (1897-99) and got on base at a .371 clip overall. He wasn’t a league-leader in most categories (plate appearances only), but performed consistently well for a number of seasons.
He played until 1911, finishing up with the Braves team then known as the Boston Rustlers.
4. Dale Murphy
Dale Murphy hit 371 homers, 44.3 fWAR, won 2 MVP trophies (1982-83), and played anywhere the Braves asked him – mostly at center field.
He hit .300 twice (unless you count 18 games in 1977) and thumped 20+ homers in 12 seasons – peaking at 44 in 1987.
His Braves teams bridged the gap between Hank Aaron and the great teams of the 1990’s… but his clubs were generally pretty bad.
There was a run from 1982-84 in which they managed a 1st and two second place finishes… with Joe Torre managing exactly those years, by the way… though the Cardinals made short work of them in the playoffs.
Still beloved by Braves fans, Murphy’s legacy continues by seemingly always making time for the people.
3. Andruw Jones
By all rights, Andruw Jones should have a ring from the 1996 Braves, but just as that series was wrested from the choke-hold that Atlanta had on the Yankees, the chances eluded Andruw ever since then.
Still arguably the best defending center fielder in the history of baseball, he also had serious hitting prowess. For all of the Braves in their long history, he recorded the 4th-highest fWAR while playing for 12 seasons behind the Tomahawk: 64.3.
His pair of homers in Yankee stadium during that Fall in which Bobby Cox wanted to make sure he was on that playoff roster still serves as Andruw’s defining offensive moment… along with a ton of highlight-reel catches in center field.
2. Phil Niekro
Hall of Famer Niekro – Knucksie – won 318 major league games with his knuckleball… 268 with the Braves.
His stat sheet is littered with league-leading stats in multiple categories: wins, losses (once during the same year!!), starts, complete games, innings, walks – and strikeouts, and more.
In 1967, his ERA was 1.87 for the year (207 innings… which was actually a paltry figure for him overall).
He won 20 games 3 times. He even went 17-4 during the Braves 1st place season of 1982. He threw a no-hitter. He was the oldest to shutout an opponent. He was the last man born in the 1930’s to still be playing.
But he never made it to a World Series… much less win one.
1. Kid Nichols*
The final asterisk player. Again, Nichols’ career pre-dates the ‘modern era’ of baseball… and also pre-dates the World Series itself, which began in 1903.
But the leader of these teams – which finished first in the National League in 1891-1893 and again in 1897-1898 was pitcher Kid Nichols.
The right-handed Nichols won 361 major league games, pitching to a 2.95 ERA. He won 30 games in a season 7 times during his career, which latest from 1890 through 1906… staying with Boston through 1901 (missing 1902-03).
More from Tomahawk Take
- What would a Max Fried extension look like?
- Braves News: Dansby to the Red Sox?, Braves top prospects, more
- Atlanta Braves 2023 Preseason Top 30 Prospects List: 26-30
- Atlanta Braves Rumors: Red Sox Interested in Dansby Swanson
- Can the Atlanta Braves still afford Dansby Swanson?
The Beaneaters are credited with a National League championship in 1892, smacking the Cleveland Spiders around (5-0-1) in six games. In that series, Nichols pitched 2 complete games, giving up 3 total runs with 2 wins.
He wasn’t bad at the plate, either: the switch-hitter went 2 for 7, scored a run and knocked in a pair.
Also of note in that series: Cleveland pitcher Cy Young went 0-2… with a 3.00 ERA in 27 innings.
Nichols was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1949 by an Old Timers committee, 4 years before his passing in 1953.
It’s unfortunate that the ‘best’ don’t always get the final celebration. You can argue that several of these did the best available in their own day, but the World Series is still something special.