Outfielders do a different job less often. I think they should be separate categories. I think Andrelton might be the best defensive player that played for the Braves, but he really wasn't there that long (3.5 seasons), and his best defensive season was with LAA, so it's hard to say he was the best in Braves history, if that makes sense (more extreme example, Babe Ruth was the best player that ever played for the Braves, but Hank Aaron was the best in Braves history). Most players in the conversation had significantly longer careers, and Andrelton fell off a cliff and started having injury issues relatively early. But his defensive peak is up there with anyone's.
Young Andrelton Simmons was absolutely unbelievably good. I do not care if you want to label me a homer. He is one of my top 10 favorite Braves. Was very sad when they traded him. He has some of the best defensive seasons in the history of the game. Most range I've ever seen at SS. Simmons was def rangier than Vizquel and Guillen and Tulowitzki. I didn't watch Ozzie until the 90s https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/WAR_def_season.shtml In his seasons at Atlanta he was making some bonkers plays at SS that fell into the "I haven't seen that before" category about once a month
https://www.billjamesonline.com/the_intrigue_of_andrelton_simmons/ https://www.billjamesonline.com/andrelton_simmons_wins_the_tournament_of_defensive_excellence/ https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/andrelton-simmons-and-his-historic-defensive-wizardry/
Also, should the number of Gold Gloves one stacked in their career be the determining metric of the “best Braves defensive player ever” debate, then Greg freaking Maddux is actually the defensive GOAT lol. Buddy had like a trillion Gold Golves. He was like Spider-Man with his glove when it came to dealing with comebackers. EDIT: just looked it up, Maddux has 18 Gold Gloves. Most by any one player in MLB history. I don’t care what position it is, one person amassing 18 Gold Gloves is freaking nuts
https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/u/images/MadDefCHC.gif I was going to downplay the Gold Glove selection process for pitchers especially, but if you do this, they should probably just give it to you and stop giving the award out.
I was just coming here to post about Maddux. Dude was unreal. He looked like a nerdy 135 pound accountant, but was a real triple threat. Best pitcher in my lifetime, best fielder at that position and not even close, and could hit.
Rafael Furcal guy here. As far as childhood athletes to imitate goes, Jeter jump throw was cool and all but my most vivid picture I was imitating on long throws (I played third not short but still) was planting that back foot hard and firing a rocket. I don’t watch all that much anymore but love remembering some baseball guys.
Furcal had a cannon. (I know that wasn't an anti-Simmons tweet but Simmons was clocked at 98. That's why he was so good at making plays in shallow left field. Sometimes he would even run past shallow left field to out past where the ball boy was sitting and gun guys out going for doubles.)
It was just what I identified most with as something I could do myself. Lateral quickness wasn’t my strongsuit so I played pretty deep at third because I did have the arm to make up for it. Obviously Furcal was athletic but plenty of guys could get to the ball and get it out faster but if you’ve got a cannon that can trump all.
I hope I’m remembering this right about him and not confusing him with someone else, but one thing he did that I learned something from was standing way up in the box at times. Particularly at the age where a lot of curveballs are those slow sweeping 12-6’s. Let me mash that sucker when it’s still chest level.
Rafael Furcal was very fun to watch play baseball. He would absolutely hum it across the infield. Every throw to first was always a heat seeking missile. My only complaint about his game was his approach at the plate. Always thought he had too much of a swing for the fences mentality for someone who simply wasn’t a natural power hitter. Dude would swing out of his shoes in too many situations where we simply needed him to find a way to get on base.
Surprised nobody has mentioned two of the better second basemen to ever don the Tomahawk: Marcus Giles and Brooks Conrad. Not sure Cooperstown has enough space left to properly enshrine the greatness of those two
