An Atlanta Braves roster from the “all-time-elsewhere” list

We’ve seen the best ever.  We’ve seen a lot of the worst.  Now here’s an Atlanta Braves list of players who were among the best ever… for other teams.

The MLB recently ran a simulated baseball tournament featuring each team with their best players in their prime.  So the Atlanta Braves had Hank Aaron, Chipper Jones, Eddie Mathews, and an incredible pitching array.

That tournament is over… and it’s probably a good thing, for this Hall-of-Fame loaded roster was somehow beaten in the first round (and nearly swept) by the Florida/Miami Marlins.

I guess Eric Gregg was umpiring in his prime, too, for (as an example) there’s no way the Marlins would have scored 10 runs in 2 games off Greg Maddux.

But that series has led to this… a “once was” dream team.  Writer Grant Brisbee of TheAthletic (yes, the story requires a subscription) decided to go full-on in research mode:  finding the best players that were ever on each team, and isolating the best of those who did the vast majority of their damage for another club.

For example:  in this exercise, the Atlanta Braves get to claim Babe Ruth since he was a Boston Brave during the first 2 months of the 1935 season.  Only 28 game appearances, but it counts.

• His career WAR?  162.1
• His WAR as a Brave?  0.1
• Net difference:  162. Boom – he’s not only on the list, but he’s #2 on that list.
  • Turns out that the Braves can also claim the #1 player… more on that later.

By the same logic, the Dodgers get to claim Greg Maddux, the Brewers get Hank Aaron, the Blue Jays can take Phil Niekro… etc.

The best “team” (i.e., the team with the highest career WAR from St. Elsewhere) was the Dodgers with 1047.9.

Their lineup included players like Fred McGriff, Jimmy Rollins, Frank Robinson, and Kenny Lofton.  Did you know any of these were ever members of the Dodgers?  Well, that’s the whole point of what Brisbee did.

BRAVES HITTING

• C – Ted Simmons. At least he’s a Hall of Famer now.
• 1B – George Sisler.  Has the distinction of the best WAR in a Braves uniform among all of these starters.
• 2B – Brandon Phillips.  It probably won’t surprise you to know that his best days came in Cincinnati.
• SS – Ozzie Guillen.  At least he was good somewhere.  But a 0.7 Braves WAR is above the water line, so that’s something.
• Graig Nettles. His name means “Yankees”, though he also played for the Twins, Indians, Padres, and Expos.  For 1 season (1987), though, he pinch-hit a lot for the Braves.
• Lloyd Waner. Career .321 average and actually hit .421 for Boston in all of 19 games back in 1941.
• “Ducky” Joe Medwick. Hall of Famer… and a Boston Braves for a few months in 1945.
• Babe Ruth. Heard of him.
• Enos “Country” Slaughter. Cardinal fans still sing of his mad dash in the 1946 World Series.  Braves fans have no idea he was ever in Milwaukee (1959 for 11 games).

Total “elsewhere WAR”?  989. That’s the second-most in the majors behind the Dodgers.

Nine members of the Hall of Fame are on the list.  The best 2 WAR values of all.  Both Babe Ruth and Cy Young are here.

That latter name is probably really annoying to Old Hoss Radbourn, who was a “real” Brave: pitching between 1886 and 1889 for Boston and recording 12.8 WAR in the process… even if he didn’t know what that meant.

So the Atlanta Braves clearly have their own legends.  The funny part is that they can claim to have had a lot more of them.  It’s kinda like certain unmentionable college football programs claiming extra national championships.