Distracting from epic majesty of interleague play, the third part of my epic series, “Even expansion teams have better outfields than this crap”.

The statistics of the 1993 Rockies are, obviously, odd; we really didn’t know what to do with them at the time. (Going in, we knew it would be a good place to hit, but really had no idea the impact the altitude would have on the game.) Journeyman Dante Bichette suddenly looked like a major star. He wasn’t, but he was able to take advantage of the altitude in a way that made him a valuable player, and even the pre-Denver Bichette was a better player than any of the Braves’ current outfielders. They had a bad centerfielder, Alex Cole, and a mediocre-to-poor leftfielder, Jerald Clark, though fourth outfielder Daryl Boston would be the Braves’ best outfielder — as would, probably, Clark.

The 1993 Marlins had probably the weakest of these outfields. Mr. Marlin, Jeff Conine, played every game and was league-average. Chuck Carr in center had no power, though he had decent enough on-base skills and could fly. They had no real right fielder, and their most-used player there, Darrell Whitmore, was about as bad as Francoeur.

The 1998 Diamondbacks were unusual in that they were strong in center, with the 35-year-old Devon White giving decent offense and top-notch defense, and weak in the corners. David Dellucci would eventually turn into a good player, and he was better than anything that the Braves have now, but Karim Garcia was hopeless, as were all their reserve outfielders.

The 1998 Rays had a lot of poor outfielders, but better than the sub-replacement players the Braves trot out. Quinton McCracken in center was probably their best, but the outfield corners were manned by future Brave Dave Martinez (in a bad year) and ex-Brave Mike Kelly (in a normal one). Randy Winn, who’s become a fine player, was their fourth outfielder, but he really wasn’t ready yet.