Brian McCann is an All-Star catcher who currently plays for the Atlanta Braves. A native of the college town of Athens Georgia, McCann made his debut with his home state Atlanta Braves in 2005. In his first season, McCann saw only partial playing time as the personal catcher of veteran hurler John Smoltz.
Despite limited playing time, McCann put up solid numbers, and in the National League Division Series against the Houston Astros that year, the young catcher made team history by becoming the first Brave to ever homer in his first playoff at-bat against Roger Clemens.
In 2006, his official full season in the Majors, McCann lead all catchers with a .333 batting average with 24 homeruns and 94 RBI's. His RBI total was only matched by Jorga Posada and Victor Martinez. http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070322&content_id=1854251&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp
That same year McCann made his first All-Star game as a Brave and he was the first Atlanta Brave in franchise history to make four straight All-Star Games in the first four seasons of his career. http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=435263
McCann and former Brave now New York Mets outfielder Jeff Francoeur, are the best of friends and grew up wanting to play for the Braves. Both are from Atlanta and the surrounding areas.
Back in 2007, McCann along with Chipper Jones, was one of the few Braves to sign a long term contract. McCann signed for six years and $27.8 million with an option in 2013. At the time, Braves general manager (now club President)John Schuerholz knew how valuable he was to the club in this 2007 interview. http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070322&content_id=1854251&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp
"We did something we don't normally do, because we don't ordinarily have players like this come along," he said. http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070322&content_id=1854251&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp
McCann has become one of the most productive Braves catchers since the days of Javy Lopez. His strong bat and defensive plays, has made him one of the most popular players on the team.
McCann's Biggest Accomplishment
The fact that Brian McCann started his career in 2006 as an All-Star was impressive enough but the fact that he is the ONLY Brave in the history of the franchise to do it four times in a row in the beginning of his a career is off the charts. If you think about it for a moment and all the great Braves of the past Aaron, Murphy, Jones, Smoltz, Maddux, Glavine; McCann accomplished a something none of them have done before.
It's hard enough to even make an All-Star game, but to do it in your first few years in the Majors is incredible. McCann's numbers in his first few years is the reason why he is an All-Star. McCann is almost batting .300 so far in his career with 400 RBI's, not bad for a catcher. While most major league catchers are barely batting .250, McCann is breaking that sterotype that catchers can't hit and are only good for defensive purposes.
