Dale Murphy paints mid-80’s Atlanta Braves as collusion victims

Murphy’s Law

Let’s go back to that 1986-87 off-season and check in with Dale Murphy’s twitter timeline where he was explaining the circumstances that ultimately led him away from Atlanta in 1990.

Among the high-end free agents that season were 2 future Hall of Famers in Andre Dawson and Tim Raines.

We’ll pick up Murphy’s explanation in mid-conversation as he discusses the circumstances in 1990 when he opted to leave Atlanta:

Now comes the sidebar… the part that obviously still sticks in his craw today:

"The thing that really bugs me though was ‘collusion’. 85,86,87 collusion between clubs stifled FAs and really messed up clubs from improving through free agency. Which we, Braves, needed desperately. Wasn’t Ted or Bobby-was commish Ueberoth’s [sic] idea and clubs followed. Very frustrating . Collusion, is not good for the game. And it’s illegal. Players sued and won… resulting in millions of $ allocated back to players. The rumor was Andre Dawson and (I repeat AND) Tim Raines wanted to sign w the Braves..we might have had a pretty good lineup. Dawson and Raines were living in Florida, and the closest team to Florida was us. Would have been amazing. Add those two? In Fulton Co? Yikes! Free agency works. Clubs improve where needed and quickly. Is collusion happening now? I don’t think so."

So he believes that both Tim Raines and Hawk Dawson wanted to be members of the Atlanta Braves for the 1987 season and beyond and that MLB owner collusion prevented that from happening.

Oh my.

For fun, then, let’s see what was happening in 1987:

• MURPHY:  Age 31.  All Star, 11th in MVP voting.  .295 BA / .997 OPS /7.7 bWAR
• DAWSON: Age 32.  All Star, Gold Glove. WON MVP.  .287 BA / .896 OPS / 4.0 bWAR
• RAINES.  Age 27.  All Star, 50 steals. 7th in MVP.  .330BA / .955 OPS / 6.7 bWAR

Now all of this the follows is clearly speculation.  For instance, just because both players may have wanted to be Braves didn’t necessarily mean that both would have been – sans collusion.

After all, all three were corner outfielders and only 1 corners was possibly available (since Murphy occupied one himself).  In addition, the Braves already had Ken Griffey (Senior) in Left Field… and though he wasn’t a full time player anymore, he was still an 800+ OPS guy.

After Dawson’s MVP year – which yes, was notably less productive than either Raines or Murph that season – he continued to put up some decent numbers through his age 37 season (1992).

Raines would have been the better choice of the pair since he was in the midst of his prime years – which continued until roughly 1993 with WAR numbers between 3 and 6.7 after 1986.  His running game was also something that would have wreaked havoc along with other assets the 1987 Braves had.

The rest of the 1987 Braves team included…

• Gerald Perry (1B).  42 steals.
• Glenn Hubbard (2B).  Strong glove.
• Ozzie Virgil (C).  .801 OPS
• Dion James (CF).  .869 OPS
• Murphy (RF).  .997 OPS

The pitching staff consisted primarily of Zane Smith, Rick Mahler, David Palmer, and Doyle Alexander.  All of them has ERAs in the 4’s… though 2 near the top and 2 near the bottom of that range.

Murphy is right that the combination of Dawson and Raines would have been pretty spectacular, but more would have been needed to turn that team into a true winner.

Nothing about the pitching staff was particularly special.  Gene Garber (at age 39), Paul Assenmacher, Jeff Dedmon, and Jim Acker were the best bullpen arms in that ’87 season, and that group still averaged roughly a 4.30-ish ERA.

Tom Glavine was also on that team, but it was his first season as a 21-year-old.  Also of note:  Bobby Cox was acting as the team’s General Manager while Chuck Tanner was the field boss.