nuthinbut net1

Name your favorite Atlanta Braves player

John Smoltz.

John Smoltz throws a four-seam fastball ben clocked as high as 104 miles per hour,a strong effective slider and a 90 mph split-finger fastball. he also mixes in a curveball and change-up on occassion.

He is a Ace with the Atlanta Braves and is one of the best pitchers of the league,

Name your favorite Atlanta Braves player

John Smoltz here as well.

The ageless wonder just keeps on dealing on his way into the Hall of Fame!

Go Braves!

Name your favorite Atlanta Braves player

This is a hard one for me because thanks to TBS, I have followed the Braves since 1980.  There have been a lot of great Braves over the years, even when there record wasn't.  Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, and Glenn Hubbard were my  favorites when I first started watching them, but then you have to add more recently Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and even Andruw Jones.  Goin back to the 90's, there's even Steve Avery, Terry Pendleton, Sid Bream and who can forget Francisco Cabrera!!!!  lol.   So what I will do is give a position by position account over the 27 years that I have followed them and if I forget someone please remind me.......

C --  Javy Lopez

1B -- Fred Mcgriff (Bob Horner)

2B -- Mark Lemke

SS -- Jeff Blauser

3B -- Chipper Jones

LF -- Ron Gant

CF -- Andruw Jones (Otis Nixon)

RF -- Dale Murphy  (David Justice)

SP -- Smoltz, Glavine, Niekro, Maddox, and Avery

RP -- Wohlers, Reardon, and Rocker

So what you all think?

Name your favorite Atlanta Braves player

Steelerfan,
that pretty much covers it
what an ensemble!

Funny how you putLemke over Hubbard
I mean I liked Hubbard, glad he's a coach now with them

one more name to throw atcha
Biff Pocoroba
remember him?

Name your favorite Atlanta Braves player

Nice collection of players.  here's mine:

C- Greg Olsen: nothing like that first leap

1B - Brian Hunter: sure he's no Fred, but I loved him the same

2B - Gotta be the Lemmer

SS - Belliard: only because he had like 10 years between HRs

3B- Chipper :no real contest there

LF- While I could make the argument for Chipper here too, have to agree with Gant

CF- Andruw Jones: gold gloves, nuff said

RF - Dale Murphy: my favorite Brave growing up

SP- Smoltz: although I could argue for Glavine, Maddux, et al.  That roation was easily the best ever assembled in the history of baseball.  Jonh's abilty and the fact that he's spent his whole career here puts him on the top of my list.

RP - Smoltz:  I mean he set the NL record for saves in his second season as a closer but just for variety I'll give you Alejandro Peña as he combined for a part of that fabled 3 pitcher no hitter.  Anyone remeber the other 2 pitchers?

Wholers and Mercker

Name your favorite Atlanta Braves player

Chipper Jones

Name your favorite Atlanta Braves player

This is a great question.  I almost entered my comment in response to nuttinbut net's blog--is this your blog, too?  No matter.  The 2008 Atlanta Braves have lots of likeable members on this team.  I'm not wild about the way that their winning percentage stands right now, but, it's still May!  The Marlins can't keep up their present pace until September, the Phillies pitching woes, added to the number of strike-outs by their batters plus the runners LOB, and they are in trouble.  The Mets?  I liked them when Casey Stengel was managing them.  LOL

I'm fortunate to have seen Chipper Jones play when he was 20 years old.  He played 70 games, about half of a season, in 1992 in the high class A Carolina League for the Durham Bulls.  That Bulls ballpark is just a few miles down the road from where I live.  I have to say that anyone who has a feel for Baseball could tell that he was loaded with talent.  He hit .277 but was sent to the AA Greenville Braves of the Southern League for the other half of '92.  That shortstop batted a stunning .346 for Greenville!  So, it was a pleasure to watch Baseball's overall number one draft pick of 1990 play.  Now, 18 years after that and 16 years from Durham, he remains one of my favorite players of all time.

But, my heart and soul are with John Smoltz.  When a baseball player becomes your favorite and you're not absolutely sure of why--the cause is more than admiration!  I never lost my belief in Chipper when he went through some of his off field personal problems.  My belief was that he was growing up.  He was. 

But, Smoltz has been through as much pain as can possibly be expected for a player.  I well remember when he joined the Braves system after being traded in 1987 by the Tigers for Doyle Alexander!  What a steal.  Alexander was 37.  The rookie, John Smoltz was 20 and had never pitched above Class A.  Everyone knows the rest of that story.  I'll add this--Alexander had 2 & one-half, less than stellar, seasons with Detroit before he retired!

Look-up the word "gamer" in the dictionary and you're likely to see a picture there of John Andrew Smoltz!

Name your favorite Atlanta Braves player

But, I have to add one other favorite Braves player: Phil Niekro.  The nearly 20 years that Phillip Henry "Knucksie" Niekro spent with the Atlanta and Milwaukee Braves were a pleasure for many a fan.  In15 of his Braves years he started over 30 games and started over 40 games in three years.  When his knuckler was dancing...it was a like a butterfly!