All Braves Team 1965-2016 position players

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The Braves have had an interesting array of players represent them over the years. A couple of choices were slam dunks, but some positions didn't really have choices that jumped out at me. Here we go.

Catcher: Brian McCann Brian provided a solid bat and a decent defensive skills behind the plate in his 9 years with the Braves. He was good for about 20 home runs and 70 RBIs in a year. His OBS was .823 , and his WAR was 23.5. He hit 176 home runs in his stay with the Braves. McCann edged out longtime Braves backstop, Javy Lopez. Lopez had similar offensive numbers to McCann. Lopez didn't have a particularly good reputation for his defense, but his defensive WAR was actually close to McCann's. If I went back a few more years, I would have made Joe Torre the starter. Joe had some good years after 1965 for the Braves, but did even more damage for the St. Louis Cardinals at third base.

First base: Freddy Freeman This was basically a two man race between Freeman and Fred McGriff. I gave Freeman the nod, though I can see why some might favor McGriff. McGriff had more power, but defensive metrics aside, I think Freeman was better defensively. McGriff's WAR in his 5 years with the Braves was a surprisingly low 11.0. Freeman's, as I'm writing this , is 26.3 and the best is still ahead for Freeman. Come to think of it, I feel better about the choice of Freeman.

Second base: Marcus Giles The Braves have had a lot of bits and pieces to consider at this position. Glen “Mother” Hubbard was decent for a number of years. Davey Johnson hit 43 home runs for the Braves in 1973, and then remembered he was Davey Johnson. Felix Millan flashed a lot of leather for the Braves, while Dan Uggla hit for power but his defense was ugly. Marcus Giles takes this slot with a WAR of 16.7 in his 6 years with the Braves. He had an OPS of .809 and played okay defense. That's like taking the pot with a pair of 10s.

Shortstop: Rafael Furcal Furcal played good defense and added an element of speed to the Braves lineup, stealing 189 bases while in Atlanta. Rafael had a defensive WAR of 9.1 and an overall WAR of 21.7. Defensive genius, Andrelton Simmons, would have been the choice if he had stayed in Atlanta more than four years. Edgar Renteria gets a footnote here for putting together back to back 4.1 WAR seasons in 2006 and 07. Jeff Blauser killed the Cubs both when he played for the Braves and later when he played for the Cubs. His 11 years as a Brave gets him a mention here.

Third base: Chipper Jones An easy choice. Chipper played 19 years for the Braves and put up hall of fame numbers. Chipper smashed 468 home runs and put together a WAR of 89.0. From 1996-2003 Chipper drove in more than 100 runs. Five times he had an OPS of over 1.000. Bob Horner provided a decent bat for the Braves at third while being a defensive liability. His bat deserves mention.

Left Field: Ron Gant Gant emerges as the winner in a cluster of candidates. Most of those candidates had a decent offensive game while being terrible in the field. Rico Carty hit .366, had an OBP of .454 and OPS 1.037 in 1970. While he was an excellent hitter, he couldn't maintain that production. Jeff Burroughs hit 41 home runs for the Braves in 1977. In 1978 he led the NL with in OBP at .432. The problem? His defensive WAR for 1977 was -3.7. In 1978 Jeff cleaned it up to a -1.7. Ryan Klesko was a nice offensive player who had some pop from the left side of the plate and also had issues in the field. The winner of this position, Ron Gant, started off as a defensively challenged second baseman who was then moved to the outfield. Ron had three season of 30+ home runs as well as three seasons of 30+ steals. Plus, he became a decent outfielder.

Center field: Andruw Jones The Braves have had two outstanding center fielders in the last 50 years, Andruw Jones and Dale Murphy. Jones was one of the best defensive center fields the game has seen in the last 50 years. Add power and speed and you've got something. Jones peaked offensively in 2005 when he led the NL with 51 homers and 128 RBIs. Dale Murphy also had an excellent run with the Braves. Twice Dale led the NL in homers and RBIs. While he wasn't the defender Jones was, he was pretty good. He would be the representative on a lot of other teams.

Right field: Hank Aaron The amazing thing about Hank was how long he was able to play at such a high level. During the 1965 season Hank was 31 years old. From 1966-1973 his lowest home run total was 29. In 1966-67 he led the NL in homers. I won't use this format to discuss who the real home run king is, but Hank's career total of 733 with the Braves is the most any player has hit for one team. His WAR for 21 seasons with the Braves is an absurd 142.1. David Justice was a good ball player and gets some mention by virtue of that, but there's no way anybody is going to supplant Hammering Henry.

And there it is. Your choice may differ. Let me know,