FanPost

25 For 25: Atlanta Braves 1995-2019

During the 2009-2010 offseason, I started working on a 25 for 25 roster for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1985-2009. (A 25 for 25 roster is a 25-man roster that uses one player from each season over 25 consecutive years; mine consisted of two players each at C/1B/2B/3B/SS, six outfielders, five starting pitchers, & four relief pitchers, with some variants.) I posted a lot of these online - one for each of the 30 MLB franchises for that timeframe (ATL 1985-2009), an update for StL for 1990-2014, two extended versions for the Cardinals from 1910-1934 & 1935-1959, and a 30 for 30 MLB All-Star version for 1981-2010. I also researched a bunch more that I never published. Most recently, I published a set for 1970-1994 for those franchises around for the majority of that time span - here is the one for the Braves. (For a full list, click here.)

It's been ten years since I first determined these and I figured that I would give it another go. This time I'm using WAR numbers from both Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference, plus Win Probability Added (WPA) from FG and Win-Loss% w/ Avg. Team (W%) from B-R. Same basic rules apply: each player can only appear once, for the primary position in the given year; exactly one player from each year, regardless of how good or bad the season was; players that were more suited for the previous era were left out of consideration; etc. Sometimes you can't grab both 1985 MVP McGee and Cy Young runner-up Tudor; sometimes you get stuck with some "Who?" because there isn't anyone good left.

Basic format of the stat line - Batters: G/PA, fWAR/bWAR, W%, AVG/OBP/SLG, 40+ 2B/10+ 3B/20+ HR/20+ SB, 90+R/90+ RBI/170+ H/90+BB, WPA, 10+ Total Zone Runs (Rtot)/DRS/UZR/Framing (FRM), Awards or Xth-place finish

Pitchers: GS or G/IP, fWAR/bWAR (I included batting numbers if they were positive), W% (starters only), WPA, W-L, Save Opportunities, Holds (both relievers only), ERA/FIP, 8+ K/9, 2 BB/9, 2.5+ K/BB, Awards or Xth-place finish

Look it over, make comments, offer suggestions, and challenge me on the picks.

Catcher

2008 – Brian McCann (145 G/573 PA, 8.6 fWAR/5.5 bWAR, .527 W%, .301/.373/.523, 42 2B/23 HR, +0.84 WPA, 34.5 FRM, All-Star, Silver Slugger)

2017 – Tyler Flowers (99 G/370 PA, 4.5 fWAR/2.0 bWAR, .509 W%, .281/.378/.445, +1.07 WPA, 11 DRS/20.5 FRM) [edit: changed from Kurt Suzuki]

First Base

1998 – Andres Galarraga (153 G/648 PA, 5.0 fWAR/5.0 bWAR, .521 W%, .305/.397/.595, 44 HR, 103 R/121 RBI, +3.71 WPA, All-Star, 6th-MVP)

2016 – Freddie Freeman (158 G/693 PA, 6.1 fWAR/6.5 bWAR, .529 W%, .302/.400/.569, 43 2B/34 HR, 102 R/91 RBI/178 H, +3.47 WPA, 6th-MVP)

Second Base

2003 – Marcus Giles (145 G/635 PA, 6.7 fWAR/7.9 bWAR, .542 W%, .316/.390/.526, 49 2B/21 HR, 101 R/174 H, +3.98 WPA, 22 Rtot/19 DRS, All-Star, 18th-MVP)

2010 – Martin Prado (140 G/651 PA, 3.8 fWAR/5.0 bWAR, .524 W%, .307/.350/.459, 40 2B, 100 R/184 H, +0.87 WPA, 10 DRS, All-Star, 9th-MVP)

Third Base

2007 – Chipper Jones (134 G/600 PA, 6.9 fWAR/7.6 bWAR, .545 W%, .337/.425/.604, 42 2B/29 HR, 108 R/102 RBI/173 H, +4.28 WPA, 6th-MVP)

2018 – Johan Camargo (134 G/524 PA, 3.3 fWAR/3.7 bWAR, .517 W%, .272/.349/.457, +2.08 WPA)

Shortstop

2005 – Rafael Furcal (154 G/689 PA, 4.5 fWAR/6.5 bWAR, .530 W%, .284/.348/.429, 11 3B/46 SB, 100 R/175 H, +0.82 WPA, 21 Rtot/24 DRS)

2013 – Andrelton Simmons (157 G/658 PA, 3.5 fWAR/7.0 bWAR, .533 W%, .248/.296/.396, -0.35 WPA, 29 Rtot/41 DRS/14.8 UZR, Gold Glove, 14th-MVP)

Outfield

1997 – Kenny Lofton (122 G/564 PA, 5.2 fWAR/5.0 bWAR, .530 W%, .333/.409/.428, 27 SB, 90 R, +2.20 WPA, 18 Rtot, All-Star, 26th-MVP)

2000 – Andruw Jones (161 G/729 PA, 7.7 fWAR/8.2 bWAR, .539 W%, .303/.366/.541, 36 HR/21 SB, 122 R/104 RBI/199 H, +3.76 WPA, 25 Rtot, All-Star, Gold Glove, 8th-MVP)

2002 – Gary Sheffield (135 G/579 PA, 4.8 fWAR/4.4 bWAR, +.520 W%, .307/.404/.512, 25 HR, +5.45 WPA, 17th-MVP)

2004 – J.D. Drew (145 G/645 PA, 8.6 fWAR/8.3 bWAR, .545 W%, .305/.436/.569, 31 HR, 118 R/93 RBI/118 BB, +5.29 WPA, 10 Rtot/15 DRS/16.3 UZR, 6th-MVP)

2014 – Jason Heyward (149 G/649 PA, 4.7 fWAR/5.8 bWAR, .527 W%, .271/.351/.384, 20 SB, +2.76 WPA, 27 Rtot/26 DRS/19.4 UZR, Gold Glove)

2019 – Ronald Acuna Jr (156 G/715 PA, 5.6 fWAR/5.5 bWAR, .524 W%, .280/.365/.518, 41 HR/37 SB, 127 R/101 RBI/175 H, +5.16 WPA, 18 Rtot, All-Star, Silver Slugger)

Starter

1996 – John Smoltz (35 GS/253.2 IP, 9.0 fWAR/7.8 bWAR incl. batting, .655 W%, +4.05 WPA, 24-8 W-L, 2.94 ER/2.64 FIP, 9.8 K/9, 5.02 K/BB, All-Star, Cy Young Award, 11th-MVP)

1999 – Kevin Millwood (33 GS/228 IP, 5.5 fWAR/6.2 bWAR, .632 W%, +3.86 WPA, 18-7 W-L, 2.68 ERA/3.53 FIP, 8.1 K/9, 3.47 K/BB, All-Star, 3rd-CYA, 26th-MVP)

2001 – John Burkett (34 GS/219.1 IP, 5.1 fWAR/4.8 bWAR, .591 W%, +2.05 WPA, 12-12 W-L, 3.04 ERA/3.39 FIP, 2.67 K/BB, All-Star)

2009 – Javier Vazquez (32 GS/219.1 IP, 6.2 fWAR/6.5 bWAR incl. batting, .639 W%, +2.89 WPA, 15-10 W-L, 2.87 ERA/2.77 FIP, 9.8 K/9, 1.8 BB/9, 5.41 K/BB, 4th-CYA)

2015 – Shelby Miller (33 GS/205.1 IP, 3.7 fWAR/3.9 bWAR, .569 W%, +0.17 WPA, 6-17 W-L, 3.02 ERA/3.45 FIP, All-Star)

Reliever

1995 – Mark Wohlers (65 G/64.2 IP, 2.6 fWAR/2.5 bWAR, +3.17 WPA, 7-3 W-L, 25/29 SvOpp, 2 Holds, 2.09 ERA/1.88 FIP, 12.5 K/9, 3.75 K/BB)

2006 – Bob Wickman (28 G/26 IP, 1.1 fWAR/1.0 bWAR, +0.78 WPA, 0-2 W-L, 18/19 SvOpp, 1.04 ERA/1.95 FIP, 8.7 K/9, 0.7 BB/9, 12.50 K/BB)

2011 – Craig Kimbrel (79 G/76 IP, 2.8 fWAR/2.4 bWAR, +1.90 WPA, 4-3 W-L, 46/54 SvOpp, 2.10 ERA/1.52 FIP, 14.8 K/9, 3.97 K/BB, All-Star, Rookie Of The Year, 9th-CYA, 23rd-MVP)

2012 – Kris Medlen (50 G/138 IP, 3.3 fWAR/4.5 bWAR incl. batting, .566 W%, +3.46 WPA, 10-1 W-L, 1/2 SvOpp, 7 Holds, 1.57 ERA/2.42 FIP, 1.5 BB/9, 5.22 K/BB, 20th-MVP)

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