How Atlanta Braves position players stack up in the NL East: left field
Face it… this is the positional ranking you were really looking forward to seeing. What I’m seeing is a budding rivalry that could last a while.
This is the latest in an on-going series in which we rank Atlanta Braves position players against their counterparts in the NL East to see how they stack up.
Today we arrive at left field to see if the Braves have anyone out there who can compete with the likes of the Soto’s and Conforto’s in this division.
Oh that’s right… I think they might.
You might the left field position might have been productive over the years that the Braves have been in Atlanta, and while that’s somewhat true, it’s also seen a lot of ‘meh’ over the years.
Traditionally, the corner outfield spots – with the corner infield positions – are the places in which teams like to have their big bats playing.
Yet in going back to 1966 – 53 seasons – the Braves have seen just 32 players qualify for a batting title while being attached to the left field spot.
The total production from these players has been 106 fWAR and you might not guess who is #1 on that list.
The rest of these names are familiar to long-time fans: Rico Carty, Ron Gant, Ryan Klesko, Martin Prado, Ralph Garr, Gary Mathews, Justin Upton, Chipper Jones, Dale Murphy… heck: Matt Diaz made the list with 5.0 total fWAR over multiple seasons.
The #1 single-season performance came from Lonnie Smith in 1989: 8.1 fWAR while hitting a slash line of .215/.415/.533/.948. This came with excellent outfield defense and 21 HR on the offensive side.
Other highlights:
- 3 Braves’ left-fielders had a 6+ fWAR
- 3 more between 5-6
- 6 between 4-5
- 4 between 3-4
- All the rest (13) fell below 3.0
Happily, perhaps, the worst performance was turned in (mailed in?) by Melky Cabrera in 2010 (-1.5). His stay in Atlanta was agreeably short.
But since Justin Upton was dealt after the 2014 season, their hasn’t been a lot to cheer in left field. That changed in 2018.
As has been customary, here are the NL East team results for this position from 2018. Also as customary, the results are based on the omnibus Wins Above Replacement stat as defined by Fangraphs.com.
- BRAVES (4.1 fWAR)
- METS (3.1)
- NATIONALS (2.8)
- PHILLIES (2.7)
- MARLINS (0.5)
Milwaukee led the league with 8.9, which featured the league’s MVP in Christian Yelich. The Cubs were right behind that at 8.3 as a team, with the Dodgers (4.5) and Braves a distant 3rd and 4th.
The Rockies (-0.3) and Giants (-1.4) brought up the rear of the NL field.
Before we launch into the left field rankings, here’s a set of links to the positions rankings we’ve already presented in the past couple of weeks:
Let’s check the rankings.