Over the course of Atlanta Braves franchise history, scores of players have been named as All-Stars. In the majority of cases, those All-Stars ended up being among the better players to ever wear a Braves uniform.
Players like Hank Aaron, Greg Maddux, Chipper Jones, Tom Glavine, Andruw Jones, Dale Murphy, and John Smoltz were fixtures in the ASG during their playing days.
However, not every Braves player that has made it to the All-Star Game has gone on to be a legend. In fact, there are more than a few former Braves players that fans may have forgotten were ever in the All-Star Game for Atlanta at all.
Here are some former Braves that fans have probably forgotten were All-Stars
The goal here is to highlight “forgotten” All-Stars and while Bryce Elder may make the list eventually, he is still with the organization and made it into the game too recently to make sense here. We also didn’t mine past the 1970’s and didn’t look much until the 1980’s as it was such a different era of All-Star selection. There is a lengthy list of Braves All-Stars to go through, so it is highly recommended that you peruse it yourselves if the early years intrigue you.
William Contreras – 2022
Okay, Contreras immediately breaks one rule that we set for ourselves as he was named an All-Star when he was with the Braves in 2022. However, it remains hilarious that he got in as a designated hitter despite playing the vast majority of his time at catcher. Contreras got traded to the Brewers and has become one of the best catchers in baseball. Heavy sigh.
Buzz Capra – 1974
You are forgiven if you are not familiar with Buzz Capra despite having such a great name. Capra’s career was only seven seasons long due to arm troubles and only one of them, his first with the Braves in1974, was noteworthy. Capra posted a 2.28 ERA across 217 innings of work that season which amounted to a 5.4 rWAR season. Three seasons later, he was out of Major League Baseball.
Rafael Ramirez – 1984
While Dale Murphy and Bruce Benedict were mainstays at the All-Star Game from the Braves in the early 1980’s, Rafael Ramirez managed to sneak in for the 1984 game. Ramirez had been pretty good in 1982 and 1983 and he was generally well-regarded as an infield defender, but you don’t generally see a guy with a .621 OPS make All-Star Games often these days and there is a good reason. Happy he got the opportunity, but this remains a wild decision.
Jair Jurrjens – 2011
Braves fans of a certain age remember how highly thought of Jair Jurrjens early in his career. Jurrjens came over in the Edgar Renteria trade and immediately posted back-to-back strong seasons. After a down year in 2010, he made the All-Star team in 2011 while posting a 2.60 ERA across 23 starts. Unfortunately, Jurrjens had knee and arm injuries that hampered him starting with that 2011 season and he was no longer in the majors after the 2014 season.
Shelby Miller – 2015
2015 was firmly in the middle of the Braves rebuild and watching Atlanta was largely not a fun time back then. However, Shelby Miller was a real bright spot and he was easily the Braves’ best player as Freddie Freeman had a down year that season. Miller was famously traded for Dansby Swanson plus more that offseason after making the All-Star Game and Atlanta’s rebuild accelerated from there.
Walt Weiss – 1998
Younger Braves fans probably only know Walt Weiss as the Braves’ bench coach, but he was a pretty good shortstop in his day. Weiss played the final three years of his career in Atlanta and the first of those seasons yielded the only All-Star appearance of his 14 year career. Weiss slashed .280/.386/.343 and was the All-Star starter over a future Braves’ shortstop in Renteria who would then get traded for Jurrjens who we mentioned earlier. Funny how things work out.
