Manger Ron Burnette returns for his 3rd season as the Braves skipper. There are high expectations for the 1993 Atlanta Braves, who won a mere 104 games that season. In the final year of the two division alignment the Braves, if you can believe it, narrowly won the NL West over San Fran by 1 game. Never again will we see a 100+ win team not make the playoffs, but it happened that way 19 years ago. That nip and tuck pennant race just might have taken all of the bit out of the Braves, who got bounced by the Phillies in 6 games in the NLCS. What a disappointment. After making the World Series the last 2 seasons there were high expectations for this team that added free agent Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux via free agency. Some free agents take the big money and come up small. Maddux was better than advertised going 20-10 with a 2.36 ERA. To lose 10 games Maddux must have gotten minimal run support from an offense that finished #1 in homers and #2 in batting average. A guy who did get the run support would be Tommy Glavine (22-6, 3.20), who's ERA was almost 1 run per game higher than Maddux's, but his win total was 2 more and his loss total 4 less. John Smoltz won 15 as the number 3 starter and Steve Avery won 18 as the #4 guy. Pete Smith and Kent Mercker split the number 5 spot. The bullpen was solid, but the closer was not. Mike Stanton did have 27 saves, but his 4.67 ERA tells the story of just how shaky he ws. Greg McMichael notched 19 saves himself by going 2 innings in the games where he appeared.
The offense was spectacular especially after they acquired the "Crime Dog" (Fred McGriff) at the trade deadline from San Diego. McGriff, in 68 games hit 19 homers and knocked in 55 RBI's to go along with his .310 average and smooth glove at first. Once he arrived the Braves were firing on all 8 cylinders with the Giants firmly in their sites. Ron Gant and David Justice were fleet footed corner outfielders who could go deep. Gant hit 36 homers and stole 26 bases. Justice hit 40 homers and had 120 RBI's. Otis Nixon covered centerfield like a blanket and stole 47 sacks. Shortstop Jeff Blauser hit .305 and had 15 long balls. Off the bench you have the best cover corner back in the game in the form of Deion Sanders, who will helicopter in for any playoff game this team plays. If they clinch early they can give playing time to a trio of rookie future stars who came up late for a cup of coffee. Ryan Klesko (.353), Javy Lopez (.375) and Chipper Jones (.667) saw limited action, but gave notice to the rest of the league that this Brave franchise was a dynasty in the making.
The offense was spectacular especially after they acquired the "Crime Dog" (Fred McGriff) at the trade deadline from San Diego. McGriff, in 68 games hit 19 homers and knocked in 55 RBI's to go along with his .310 average and smooth glove at first. Once he arrived the Braves were firing on all 8 cylinders with the Giants firmly in their sites. Ron Gant and David Justice were fleet footed corner outfielders who could go deep. Gant hit 36 homers and stole 26 bases. Justice hit 40 homers and had 120 RBI's. Otis Nixon covered centerfield like a blanket and stole 47 sacks. Shortstop Jeff Blauser hit .305 and had 15 long balls. Off the bench you have the best cover corner back in the game in the form of Deion Sanders, who will helicopter in for any playoff game this team plays. If they clinch early they can give playing time to a trio of rookie future stars who came up late for a cup of coffee. Ryan Klesko (.353), Javy Lopez (.375) and Chipper Jones (.667) saw limited action, but gave notice to the rest of the league that this Brave franchise was a dynasty in the making.
Due to the consistency of the Braves franchise and the fact that Topps created a Traded set in 1993, I only had to add 8 new cards to round off the set. This was also my first team set done in PhotoShop.
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