Atlanta Braves: All-time WAR leaders

Disclaimer:
In this particular Braves ranking, and the future rankings involved in this series, the list will feature the top-10. Ten players is a large enough range to come to see the top-tier players that have come through the Braves organization without lingering into pools of players that had a modest tenure with the team. These players should be players that spent a majority of their career playing for the Braves.

The WAR totals for the players listed are their career-totals while playing in a Braves uniform – not career-totals from their entire major league career. And I’ve started from all the way back to 1871 (the franchise’s inaugural season) to present-day. All listed stats are from Fangraphs and Baseball Reference with “fWAR” specifically being Fangraphs’ calculation of the WAR stat:

Atlanta Braves WAR leader #10: Tom Glavine (P)

• 54.9 fWAR
• 518 games-pitched
• 1987-2002 & 2008

The third member of the “Big-Three” in Atlanta for numerous years, Tom Glavine is yet another Hall of Fame pitcher to take his turn every fifth day for the Atlanta Braves in the 1990s. The hockey fanatic and former NHL-draftee will always be remembered by Braves fans, and his 305 total wins are the fourth-most by a left-handed pitcher in MLB history.

The Accolades

The lefty from Massachusetts, Tom Glavine was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 1984 MLB Draft, as a second-round pick. Like Smoltz and Maddux, his induction into the Hall of Fame was a pretty indisputable result of his candidacy (525 of 571 ballots).

Tom Glavine also won two Cy Young awards to go with ten All-Star selections, a World Series MVP award (1995), and – a tribute to his well-versed hitting – four Silver Slugger awards.

Not to be outshined by the other two dominant pitchers in his rotation, Glavine often led the National League – and the Majors – in categories like wins and games started.

While his two Cy Young awards are impressive, most of all his display of excellent consistency should be remembered as Glavine finished in the top-3 for the Cy Young award four other times in his career while competing against the likes of Randy Johnson and teammates Greg Maddux and John Smoltz.

As a precise artist on the mound, Glavine would age very well, pitching through his age-42 season and even making the National League All-Star team at 40-years-old for the New York Mets in 2006.

The Player

Tom Glavine made his Major League debut at the age of 21 in August of 1987. His first season with the Braves didn’t show any signs of a future Hall of Famer, as Glavine finished that initial season with a 5.54 ERA and 5.90 BB/9 in nine starts. Even though Glavine was never known for running up the strikeout totals, his measly 3.58 K/9 in 1987 showed signs of a pitcher not yet ready for the big leagues.

The next three seasons (1988-1990) didn’t offer much hope either, as Glavine failed to average an ERA under four during that span. He also led the Majors in losses in 1988, with 17. Take a look at his numbers in that three-year span:

Tom Glavine (1988-1990)

• 31-37 win/loss record
• 4.19 ERA
• allowed an average of 17 HR/season
• 4.6 K/9

It’s interesting, in retrospect, seeing how Tom Glavine really struggled his first four seasons as a Major League pitcher. He’s a perfect example of not giving up on a guy too soon into his career.

Getting back to the good Tom Glavine, the left-hander started figuring things out in 1989, as a 23-year-old. That season featured 14 wins for Glavine and a 3.68 ERA. He would continue to get better over the next two seasons, before reaching “ace” status in 1991, winning his first Cy Young award, and making his first All-Star appearance, while also finishing just outside of the National League MVP top-ten, at 11th.

Starting with that 1991 season, where Tom Glavine led the majors in wins (20), this is what his dominant run looked like as a Brave:

Tom Glavine (1991-2002)

• 209-102 win/loss record
• 33 starts per season
• 3.15 ERA
• 3.76 FIP
• 44 complete-games
• 18 shut-outs
• 5.8 K/9
• 3.1 BB/9
• 0.6 HR/9

Tom Glavine never lit up the radar gun, but what Glavine was skillful at was poise and a calm demeanor. These attributes shown by Glavine can be found on his Hall of Fame page, which also include a quote by Chipper Jones that summed up just how important Glavine’s mental strength was for the team:

"Yeah, we followed his lead, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that his kind of poise, his mentality, his way of going about his business, well, that’s what won him over 300 games."

Tom Glavine’s performance on the field no doubt led the Braves for many years, but more importantly, his professional approach to the game assisted in the growth and development of the several former greats that played alongside him during his career.

Best Season:

1991 (5.4 fWAR)

• 34 starts
• 246.2 innings-pitched
• 20 wins
• 2.55 ERA
• 3.06 FIP
• 192 strikeouts

Tom Glavine’s best season, in terms of WAR, may not be as impressive as the others on this leaderboard, but the 1991 season was an impressive one for him. Of note, though, Glavine was not a true “strikeout pitcher”, and the strikeout stat is a key part of that WAR formula for pitchers… so you could argue that he started with a disadvantage.

As a 25-year-old, that season was the first season of a stint where Glavine would tally three-straight seasons of at least 20 wins. In 1991 and 1993 (20 wins and 22 wins respectively), Glavine would lead all Major League pitchers in wins, with a 1992 season in between where he would lead the National League in that stat with 20 wins.

Glavine would also lead the NL in complete games in 1991, with nine total. His 153 ERA+ (adjusted ERA with park factoring) would lead the National League as well.

The 1991 season would be Tom Glavine’s first of four Silver Slugger awards. Glavine would finish the ’91 season with a slash-line of .230/.288/.243 (.531 OPS), hitting a double that year and knocking in six runs in 95 plate appearances. Not bad for a 175-pound pitcher.

Tom Glavine and Steve Avery would lead the Braves to the World Series that season, only to lose to the Minnesota Twins in seven games. He would make four starts during that 1991 Postseason, unfortunately only notching one win.

His best series of the playoffs that season were his two starts in the World Series, where Glavine would finish 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA in 13.1 innings – a bright spot in the Braves heartbreaking defeat to the Twins.

In 1995’s World Series victory for Atlanta, though, Glavine was named the series MVP after a total shutdown of the vaunted Cleveland Indians offense, posting a 1.29 ERA overall in 14 innings, including a one-hit eight-inning shutout in the clinching Game 6, perhaps the defining moment in his excellent career.