World Series 2021: Here’s where the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros played college baseball

The Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros are playing in the 2021 World Series. The teams' 40-man rosters combine to feature 26 former NCAA baseball players.

Braves manager and former University of New Orleans catcher Brian Snitker will be coaching against his son in this year's World Series. Troy Snitker played and coached collegiately at the University of North Georgia (DII). Troy is currently the Astros' co-hitting coach.

We are very happy for Troy Snitker (NG Baseball Alumni Player/Coach 2009-2011/2015-2016) as he is currently the Hitting Coach for the ! Troy wanted to make sure our leader () was in Houston for Games 1&2 of the 2021 World Series vs !

— UNG Baseball (@UNGBaseball)

The 2021 World Series begins Tuesday, Oct. 26 and will run through Wednesday, Nov. 3 if necessary.  

Below is a complete breakdown of where each former college baseball player for the Braves and Astros went to school. 

Note: This includes all players listed on each team's official MLB.com 40-man roster, who are eligible for the 28-man active roster that will be determined before each round of the playoffs.

*Players not on the 28-man World Series roster will be noted with an asterisk.

Atlanta Braves

Shortstop Dansby Swanson finished as one of the final four finalists for the 2015 Golden Spikes Award. The year prior he led Vanderbilt to its first national championship and was named Most Outstanding Player at the 2014 CWS. 

Reliever A.J. Minter played two years at Texas A&M. There he finished with a career 1.19 ERA, 53 strikeouts and 20 walks over 45.1 innings pitched. In both 2014 and 2015, he helped the Aggies take postseason runs into the regional and super regional rounds.

Outfielder Adam Duvall was a trade deadline acquisition to help bolster the Atlanta outfield after Ronald Acuña Jr. went down with a torn ACL in July. Duvall played for Louisville in 2009 after transferring from Chipola Junior College. As a Cardinal, he had a .328 average with 11 home runs, 51 RBIs and 83 runs while playing second base. 

Another Brave — former Arkansas pitcher, Drew Smyly, was the ace for the Razorbacks his sophomore season. That year he finished with a 9-1 record, 2.80 ERA and 114 strikeouts over 103 innings in 2010. 

Houston Astros

2015 Golden Spikes Award finalist and former LSU shortstop Alex Bregman had quite a career in Baton Rouge. In 196 starts, he had a .337 batting average, 21 home runs, 148 RBI, 153 runs and 66 stolen bases. 

Astros catcher Jason Castro played college baseball at Stanford. While with the Cardinal, he finished a three-year career batting .309, with 106 RBI and 108 runs. Castro was great behind the plate, with just 10 errors in 1,187 chances while also throwing out 35.4% of attempted base-stealers. 

One of many Mississippi State Bulldogs on this list, Kendall Graveman was a solid pitcher during his two years in Starkville. There he recorded 128 strikeouts and held opposing batters to just six home runs and a .257 average over 203.1 innings. 

Another reliever, Ryne Stanek was a starting pitcher during his time at Arkansas. In his 2013 season, he finished with an impressive 1.39 ERA and a 10-2 record. That year, opposing batters hit .207 against Stanek. 

Below are the lists of former college baseball players from the other teams in the 2021 MLB Playoffs.

Colleges with the most players in the 2021 MLB playoffs

Conferences with the most players in the 2021 MLB playoffs

American League playoff teams
Tampa Bay Rays

Michael Wacha was a stellar pitcher during his time at Texas A&M. He had a career ERA of 2.40 with nine wins and at least 105 innings in each of his three seasons in College Station. 

Second baseman Brandon Lowe came out of Maryland where he led the team and finished second in the ACC in batting average at .348 in 2014. That season, he was also named to three different Freshman All-American teams.  

Chicago White Sox

Former Rebel pitcher Lance Lynn was leading rotations back in college as well. In 2007, he set the Ole Miss record for strikeouts in a single season with 146. He finished his career with the most in program history (332), which has since been surpassed by Drew Pomeranz (344).

Battery-mate Yasmini Grandal was further south in his collegiate days with the Miami (FL). While a Cane, Grandal homered in one of every 13.9 at bats for a total of 23 home runs in 97 games. He was also a stellar defender with a .978 fielding percentage. 

Boston Red Sox

Trade-deadline addition and former Hoosier Kyle Schwarber made an impact in the Wild Card game against the Yankees on Oct. 5 with a solo home run to make it 3-0 in the third inning. During his time in Indiana, he racked up first-team All-American honors twice and All-Big Ten honors all three years in Bloomington. 

Pitcher Chris Sale got his start at Florida Gulf Coast, where he would only get better as his career moved on. He finished his final season as an Eagle with a 2.01 ERA and a perfect 11-0 record in 15 starts. He also struck out 293 batters in his three seasons and only walked 51 in 228.2 innings. 

New York Yankees

Gerrit Cole proved why he was the No. 1 overall draft pick in the 2011 MLB Draft during his time at UCLA. As a Bruin, he ranks second in career strikeouts (376), third in starts (49) and fifth in innings (322.1). He also sits at third on UCLA's single-season strikeout list with 153. 

Aaron Judge started racking up the accolades at Fresno State. There he was First-Team All-WAC twice, a Freshman All-American and a TD Ameritrade College Home Run Derby champion in 2012. During his junior season, he led the team in home runs (12), doubles (15) and RBIs (36) in 56 games. 

National League playoff teams

San Francisco Giants

Former Florida State catcher Buster Posey has returned to his All-Star form after opting out of the 2020 season during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2008 Golden Spikes Award winner had a nation-leading slash line (.463/.566/.879), while also leading in hits (119), RBIs (93) and total bases (226) in his final year at FSU. 

2008 was also former UCLA Bruin shortstop Brandon Crawford’s last season in college. That season he would start all 60 games at shortstop while recording 20 multi-hit and 13 multi-RBI games.

Milwaukee Brewers

Outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. is the only member of the 2010 and 2011 South Carolina national championship teams in this year’s playoffs. He was voted Most Outstanding player and put on the All-Tournament team for the 2010 CWS.

Starting pitcher Corbin Burnes leads the Brewers in strikeouts with 234 this season. This is something he is familiar with, he also led St. Mary’s in K’s (91) in his sophomore year with the Gaels.

Los Angeles Dodgers

One part of the Dodgers’ trade deadline deal with the Washington Nationals was pitcher Max Scherzer. While pitching for Missouri, he dominated the Big 12. He was Big 12 Pitcher of the Year in 2005 with a 1.86 ERA and 131 strikeouts. He also was a part of the first Tigers team to win an NCAA Regional at Pepperdine in 2006.  

The other part of the Nationals-Dodgers trade was shortstop Trea Turner. He played with NC State from 2012-2014 where he led his team in batting average (.368), OBP (.455), runs (66), hits (84), triples (4), total bases (126), walks (38) and stolen bases (30) in 2013. 

St. Louis Cardinals

Former Florida Gator Harrison Bader was a force to be reckon with in college baseball. In 170 games at UF, he became the 11th player in school history to record 20+ home runs (20), 100+ RBIs (112) and 30+ steals (36). 

Paul Goldschmidt wrote his name into the Texas State record books while he was there from 2007-09. As a Bobcat, Goldschmidt became the all-time leader in home runs (36) and RBIs (179). He also won the 2009 Southland Conference Player of the Year Award.