Atlanta Braves Opening Day countdown: 58, Campy

Before the era of closers, the Atlanta Braves had elite relievers in their organization. Today, we remember one of the best.

The Atlanta Braves were one of the teams who changed the view of relief pitchers when they gave Bruce Sutter a huge contract before the 1985 season. Just a couple of years later, the Oakland Athletics would begin using multiple short-inning relievers in set roles and really define the bullpen.

Before that, relievers very frequently went multiple innings, frequently tossing 100+ innings in a season. The Atlanta Braves often had an elite guy for multiple years at the back of their bullpen who would be in that role, shutting down the end of the game, often for 2-3 innings.

One of the first “star” relievers the Braves had was Cecil Upshaw, but in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the first of the elite relievers in the eye of the league was Rick Camp.

Camp was a 7th round pick in the 1974 June draft from State University of West Georgia, and he was a Georgia boy, born and raised. After two seasons as a starter in the minor leagues, he moved to a split role in his third season before making the major leagues for a call up at the end in 1976.

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Camp took over as the closer in his first full season for the Atlanta Braves, saving 10 games over 54 appearances and 78 2/3 innings with a 4.00 ERA. He didn’t record a single save in 1978, but pitched in 74 1/3 innings, mostly in relief.

Arm issues led to no major league time in 1979, but Camp came back in 1980 with a vengeance. Over the next two seasons, he was incredible, with 125 games pitched, 184 1/3 innings tossed, 39 saves, a combined 1.86 ERA, and a combined 1.09 WHIP. Interestingly, he received MVP votes in 1981 but no Cy Young votes.

He would be moved into the rotation for a pitching-needy Braves team that was striving for a playoff berth in 1982, and he pitched at least 125 innings every season after that for the rest of his career.

Camp pitched 9 seasons in the major leagues, all with the Atlanta Braves, recording a 3.37 ERA and 57 saves, which is why he’s our choice for today.