Atlanta Braves: The Right Franchise Four?

At the Mid-Summer Classic in Cincinnati, Ohio Tuesday evening, each team had the revealing of its franchise four. In theory, these are the best four players to play for the 30 MLB franchises. The Braves Franchise Four ended up being led by RF Hank Aaron, who also made the Living Legends four with the Giants’ Willie Mays, the Reds’ Johnny Bench, and the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax.

Joining Hammerin’ Hank for the Braves were the winningest LHP of all-time Warren Spahn, four-time Cy Young and 355 game winner RHP Greg Maddux, and arguably the greatest switch hitter of all-time 3B Chipper Jones. While there is nothing wrong with Franchise Four for the Braves organization, did the fans pick the right four? Essentially, who got snubbed.

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Hank Aaron is the greatest living player so he’s basically George Washington on the Braves’ Mt. Rushmore. You would lose all credibility if you tried to argue otherwise. Hank Aaron is the best player to ever play for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, without any hesitation whatsoever.

Though one might be skeptical of putting the late Warren Spahn on the Franchise Four since he never played in Atlanta, only with the Milwaukee Braves. But you cannot deny the winningest left-handed pitcher of all-time. While I would have preferred an Atlanta Brave, I can’t say Spahn shouldn’t stay on the Braves Mt. Rushmore. Whether he’s Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, or Teddy Roosevelt, that’s up in the air.

We all knew that the Braves would have a third baseman in their Franchise Four, but many might be surprised by it being Chipper Jones and not Eddie Mathews. But I’m not one of them. Chipper is my favorite Brave of all-time. Though Mathews had more homers than Chipper, Jones had more hits, RBI’s, and wasn’t overshadowed in the field by a teammate. Eddie played many years with Hank Aaron. Mathew is in Cooperstown, Chipper will be. You can’t go wrong with either but I favor Chipper Jones since he spent his entire career in Atlanta as the face of the Braves franchise during my developmental years.

But to me, though I adore Greg Maddux, I’m not sure that he deserves that fourth spot on the Braves Franchise Four than even three other Braves pitchers: Tom Glavine, Phil Niekro, and John Smoltz. Though Maddux is probably the best pitcher I’ve seen in my lifetime, I never felt that he was as exclusively an Atlanta Brave.

He never resided in Atlanta during the offseason when he was with the organization (1993-2002) nor did he even choose an Atlanta cap on his Cooperstown plaque. I understand his split loyalty to both the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs, but Glavine, Niekro, and Smoltz are all in as undisputed Atlanta Braves.

So if not Maddux, who should it have been instead? I would argue that John Smoltz should have made the cut as he who pitched 20 years for the Atlanta Braves (1988-2008) as both a Cy Young winner and a record-setting closer. When it was Postseason Baseball, there was not a pitcher on the Braves roster I wanted to see on the mound than John Smoltz. He recorded his 3,000 career strikeout in 2008 pitching for the Atlanta Braves. Though Glavine, Maddux and Niekro all won 300 career games, the signature moment did not happen as a part of the Atlanta Braves.

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