Current Rookie League titles (2) 1964
2003 League Gulf Coast League | Current Atlanta Braves Ballpark Champion Stadium Division titles 2,003 | |
Previous leagues Florida Rookie League (1965)
Sarasota Rookie League (1964) Previous Milwaukee Braves (1964-1965) Nickname GCL Braves (1976-present)
FRL Braves (1965)
SRL Braves (1964) | ||
The Gulf Coast League Braves are the rookie-level minor league baseball affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The team plays at the Walt Disney World Resort at Champion Stadium at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex. The team is composed mainly of players who are in their first year of professional baseball either as draftees or non-drafted free agents from the United States, Canada, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and other countries.
The team traces its history to the earliest days of "complex-based" baseball. Initially based in Sarasota, Florida, it was a member of the short-lived Sarasota Rookie League (1964) and Florida Rookie League (1965), and was a charter club in the Gulf Coast League when it formed in 1966. The GCL Braves have operated from 1964 to 1967 and continuously since 1976.
In 2003, the Gulf Coast Braves won a best-of-three series to defeat the Gulf Coast Pirates and become the Gulf Coast League champions. They did not make the playoffs in 2006. In 2015, the Gulf Coast Braves finished second in the Northeast division with a 27–33 record. They were 9.5 games behind the division-winning GCL Tigers, and did not make the playoffs.