Who are the greatest Atlanta Braves of all time?
By James Kunkle
With plenty of options available, we pick are the greatest ten Atlanta Braves of all time.
The Atlanta Braves have a storied franchise history and we are fortunate enough to have one of the greatest selection of past players of all time to choose from to form this list.
To drive that point home, let’s go ahead and list some players that fell just short of making this list. Keep in mind that most of these players would easily be in the top ten on most other franchise lists.
- Fred McGriff
- Javy Lopez
- Freddie Freeman
- Bob Horner
- And even the great Dale Murphy was not included on this top 10 list.
Now for this lists, we went ahead and included all players from franchise history and did not just limit it to the Atlanta Braves. We went ahead and included players that played in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta… and in one case: all three cities.
Let’s go ahead and get to the rankings.
10. Kid Nichols
The very first player on our list is a player who died before many of us were born. Kid Nichols numbers and stats are nothing short of impressive. 362 wins and an ERA under 3 for his career.
His WAR for his career ended up at 116.1. Over a full season of wins for a playoff team.
The argument could be made that Nichols pitching in the late 19th century helped him as pitch counts weren’t even a recognition in the olden days, however you can not deny that Nichols averaging over 350 innings pitched a season is anything less than impressive no matter the time period.
The fact that a pitcher like Kid Nichols is only number ten on this list shows you how good the Braves franchise has produced great players.
9. Andruw Jones
Just like Dale Murphy, Andruw Jones has been recently connected to Cooperstown, and just like Murphy, I expect Andruw will probably never make it. However, unlike Dale Murphy, I would vote for Andruw Jones if I had a vote.
The reason for that is simple. Not only was he the best outfielder in terms of defense during his time in the game, he is in my mind one of the best ever.
It certainly helps that he was also an extremely talented hitter who amassed 368 home runs in his Atlanta Braves tenure. Of the ten players on this list, Andruw is actually the only one who’s number is not retired by the Atlanta Braves. I have a sneaking suspicion that will change soon.