Sunday, July 23, 2023

Hall of Famer Fred McGriff's 1995 Braves Statis-Pro Team Features 3 top 100 Players

Unfortunately Scott Rolen played for the Phillies in between their great 1980 and 2008 teams and we did not pick his St. Louis Cardinals World Series teams among the four Cardinals champs we included in the Statis-Pro 60 All-Time great teams game. However, we do have today's other Hall of Fame inductee Fred McGriff with his 1995 Atlanta Braves. 

In the all-time great teams game we do not have individual cards, but sheets for each player, and McGriff's card homers on 28-32 with deep drives that can go out on 33-35. In 1995 the usually did, leaving the park on 11-58. In our game the Braves opened the season with playing in 1924 at the Washington Senators when deep drives only went out on an 11-18 as the dead ball era wrapped up.

The first game was not only the dead ball era, but the ultimate pitcher match-up with Greg Maddux (14th greatest player of all-time on our list) going up against Walter "The Big Train" Johnson (9th greatest player of all-time). As you might expect, it was a 2-1 game in 10 innings with the Braves winning. In the nightcap back in 1995 in Atlanta, the Braves won 7-2 for the sweep.

In our game the Braves have two more top 100 all-time players in #78 Chipper Jones and #93 John Smoltz. 

McGriff had the second best OPS on that 1995 championship team at .850 behind slugger Ryan Klesko's incredible 1.004. However, the Braves will love playing in eras with a DH, because Klesko has the worst fielding card in our league with an E-10 error prone card and the worst throwing arm rating of T-2. However, he may have been the best bat in the game for the title run. 

I was actually at an exhibition game in my youth between the AAA Richmond Braves playing the parent Atlanta Braves. Klesko was so trying to impress the big club that he fielded a single to left and fired toward home, but about 10 feet over the catcher's head and into the stands, turning around so the big club wouldn't see him yelling at himself.

Congrats to the Crime Dog Fred McGriff as the cleanup hitter for the team of the 1990s as the slugging lefty first baseman.








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