It recently came to my attention that in the offseason before the 2001 season the Atlanta Braves set their sights on two free agents. One was Mike Hampton, who they eventually traded for after he failed to be the pitcher that the Rockies thought they were signing. (Its safe to say that much of Hampton’s eight-year, $121 million contract was spent in vain.) The other major free agent that winter was a 25 year old shortstop named Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod eventually signed the craziest free agent deal in history (10 years, $252 million) but the thought that the Braves could have had AROD makes me really excited. The Braves were legitimate players in the Alex Rodriguez sweepstakes, finishing third behind the Rangers and Mariners. The reason the Braves were third? “We made what we thought was the best offer we could make to Rodriguez, but that turned out to be half of what he was offered,” Atlanta GM Schuerholz said at the time. “He didn’t sign with the Braves because another team offered twice as much money.” Atlanta Braves of 2000’s + Alex Rodriguez in his prime=Winning
Let’s remember who was on the 2001 Braves, just how good they were and then throw in A-Rod. Trust me, it gets exciting… Chipper Jones was on the 2001 Braves. He’s coming off of a 36 HR, 111 RBI, .407 OBP year. Andruw Jones is in the prime of his career and had just hit 36 HR, 104 RBI, and a .303 avg. Those two we surely remembered but, do we remember that Javy Lopez was there, or Brian Jordan? These were 20 home run guys at important positions. Rafael Furcal is coming off of his Rookie of the Year campaign when he stole 40 bases. These guys were really good. They won 95 games in 2000.
Let’s throw in Alex Rodriguez to play short where he just won a GG. So we’ve got a lineup that looks like this:
- Rafael Furcal (2B)
- Alex Rodriguez (SS)
- Chipper Jones (3B)
- Andruw Jones (CF)
- Brian Jordan (RF)
- Javy Lopez (C)
- B.J. Surhoff (LF)
- Rico Brogna (1B)
The thing that sets this team apart (Aside from the 6 players who can hit 20 homeruns and the three guys who finished in the top 11 in MVP voting) is the pitching and bench. I’m 
just going to list some names for you.
Bench (these are guys who played for the 2001 Braves): Wes Helms, Ken Caminiti, Marcus Giles, Keith Lockhart, Mark DeRosa, Wilson Betemit, Julio Franco.
Pitching: John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Bruce Chen, Odalis Perez, John Rocker, Kevin Millwood.
Look, this team was really good. They went to the NLCS and lost to a real good D’Backs team but, imagine if they had A-Rod! Imagine if the Braves organization had Alex Rodriguez for 10 years.
Assuming the same production (because why not), Alex would contribute 3 MVP awards and 424 home runs over the next 10 years. He would have helped to deliver a few World Series trophies and lead the Braves Dynasty through today. It’s fun to think of an infield that has Chipper, A-Rod, and Furcal, who would play second base. Its fun to think of the added wins that Alex would have brought to the team. If you add his WAR to the Braves win totals in the years that A-Rod would have been on the team (which is not fair and makes the Braves sound better than they would have been given potential financial restrictions or other factors, like addition of other free agents but is fun nonetheless) results in win totals from 2001 to 2010 of: 96, 109, 109, 102, 98, 83, 94, 77, 90, 95. You gotta get excited about those totals. Three straight years of 100+ wins? Yes, please.
You can’t tell me that Rodriguez signing with the Braves would not also have completely changed the complexion of the NL throughout the 2000’s. You have to figure that the Rangers would be much worse than they were for the years of the contract. You have to figure that A-Rod would not have been traded as he had helped to bring World Series titles to Atlanta. Also, the Yankees likely would still have Alfonso Soriano and his declining performance. Its hard to say if the Yankees would have been that good from 2004 onward but its hugely obvious what A-Rod could have meant for the Braves. Wins. More Wins.
If only Turner had still owned the team….
Stat of the Day: The Reds haven’t developed a homegrown 50-game winner (drafted then wins with the team) since Tom Browning debuted in 1984.
-Sean Morash
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