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.