The Braves Franchise Deep Six

A few years ago I got the idea of making all-time franchise depth charts. I started with the Yankees and got six players deep at each position before I didn't feel like going further. It was fun, but for whatever reason (probably my usual lack of focus) I didn't do them for any other franchises.

I've decided to try again. If I have the drive to stick with it, I plan to create all-time teams for each franchise. There'll be the 1st Team, as well as the 2nd Team, all the way to the 6th. (Sometimes you're splitting hairs even before you get to the 6th.) I'll then post them here in chart form for easy reading. And since it's been a few years since I made my Yankees depth chart, I'm going to redo that one.

To determine rankings, I plan to take into account not just raw numbers, but longevity and peak value, meaning these lists will be subjective enough to encourage debate (should anyone but me and my few loyal readers ever see them). I also have a few other rules to note:

1. A player can only count at one position for a franchise. He can't be both the left fielder on the 1st Team and the right fielder on the 4th Team, he's got to be ranked at only one position. I want to see a variety of players, not the same guys over and over. Maybe you'd disagree, but hey, it's my project.

2. I'm only counting starting pitchers at the pitcher position.

3. A player must have played at least three seasons for the franchise at a position to qualify for the depth chart. Rogers Hornsby was with the Boston Braves in 1928, and as he was still in his prime, he put up perhaps the greatest season ever for a Braves second baseman. However, it was also his only season with the Braves franchise, so it wouldn't feel right to rank him on their depth chart.

On the subject of the Braves, they're the first team I've finished for this project, so I thought I'd share it here as my monthly post:

	P	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	LF	CF	RF
1st	Kid Nichols	Joe Torre	Fred Tenney	Bobby Lowe	Eddie Mathews	Johnny Logan	Rico Carty	Andruw Jones	Hank Aaron
2nd	Greg Maddux	Del Crandall	Joe Adcock	Glenn Hubbard	Chipper Jones	Rabbit Maranville	Sid Gordon	Wally Berger	Jason Heyward
3rd	Warren Spahn	Brian McCann	Earl Torgeson	Tony Cuccinello	Bob Elliott	Rafael Furcal	Lonnie Smith	Dale Murphy	David Justice
4th	Phil Niekro	Javy Lopez	John Morrill	Marcus Giles	Darrell Evans	Herman Long	Ralph Garr	Billy Hamilton	Tommy Holmes
5th	Tom Glavine	Hank Gowdy	Felipe Alou	Felix Millan	Jimmy Collins	Andrelton Simmons	Ryan Klesko	Hugh Duffy	Chick Stahl
6th	John Smoltz	Phil Masi	Freddie Freeman	Jack Burdock	Billy Nash	Jeff Blauser	Joe Connolly	Jim O'Rourke	Gene Moore

It's interesting to see that a franchise as historical as the Braves is fairly weak at first base, second base and left field. Especially second base. Glenn Hubbard sticks out like a sore thumb on that 2nd Team. Why couldn't they have kept Rajah around a bit longer? At pitcher, third base and center field though, they're especially strong.

Perhaps some of you think it's too early to have Freddie Freeman or Andrelton Simmons on these charts. All I can say is that first base is weak enough for Freeman to make it, and Simmons has been great enough in his young career that I feel confident about his place here. I could easily see both of them working their way up to higher teams in future editions of these depth charts.

I hope to have more to share with you next month.