Atlanta Braves history: Top 10 outfielders part 2
By Fred Owens
My list of the top ten outfielders in Atlanta Braves Franchise history brings together two players who played a hundred years apart.
Yesterday’s look at Atlanta Braves franchise outfielders reviewed players from near the same era. I begin this post with a Hall of Fame centerfielder, who joined the Atlanta Braves franchise at the end of the nineteenth century. He’s followed by a player lacking Hall of Fame credentials and depending on a completely different skillset.
The franchise’s long history meant I had to attempt to level the playing field across seven generations of players. I settled on plus stats as the way to do that. Plus stats like OPS+ tells us how well a player stacks up against the rest of the league during his era, with 100 as league average.
Using a Fangraphs custom player search by position, I created a table of the following plus stats.
- wOBA – if you care about determining how well a player contributes to run-scoring, wOBA is a more accurate representation of that contribution than OPS
- wRC+ – If you want a rate statistic for hitters that weights each offensive action and controls for league and park effects, wRC+ is for you.
- AVG+
- OBP+
- SLG+
In addition to plus stats, I considered sample-size in terms of games played, impact on the franchise, and contribution to the team’s success. I considered Hall of Fame membership and worthiness, and at times had to delve into minutia to make a choice.
Ranking players sounds simple. We believe we know what they accomplished, but I found the law of recency often clouds that evaluation. Some choices were obvious; others required hours of study before I made a decision
Throughout this post, I’ll reference biographies available for view on the SABR website, news articles mentioned in those biographies that may not be available online any longer, and books that may no longer be widely available. Bold type in a set of statistics indicates leading the league.