The best Atlanta Braves bullpens ever

4. Most “Wins” in Relief

I put this word “Wins” in quotes because I am in the camp that recognizes that no pitcher – while standing on a mound – has ever put a single offensive run up on the board.  The best they can do is prevent runs from the opposition and hope to still be present when his mate dent the scoreboard themselves.

That mini-rant aside, there is one Atlanta Braves bullpen that stands alone with a fairly remarkable number of wins credited to their account.

1982 BRAVES (37-24)

What’s also noteworthy for this team is that of the 54 seasons in Atlanta (counting 2019), their 24 losses rank 18th most.  In other words, the bullpen factored in the decision 61 times over 162 games: easily the most in Atlanta Braves history.

This was a playoff team:  89-73 under Joe Torre and winning the NL West before quickly falling to the Cardinals in the NLCS.

But they could pitch.

This bullpen kept the ball in the park (0.63 HR/9, 16th in the Atlanta era), combined for 3.9 fWAR (12th, despite a low-strikeout time for baseball), and persevered over a lot of innings (527… 6th-most among the Atlanta years).

Two pitchers led this group, each with roughly 120 innings in relief:  Steve Bedrosian and Gene Garber.  Both had ERAs in the immediate neighborhood of 2.31 as well.  ‘Bedrock’ struck out more hitters; Garber walked fewer.

Together they were credited with 41 saves (Garber had 30 of them) and 15 wins.

The rest of the wins were scattered between Rick Camp, Al Hrabosky (the ‘Mad Hungarian’), Preston Hanna, Larry McWilliams, Donnie Moore, Carlos Diaz, Pascual Perez (yes, he was on this colorful club, too), Joe Cowley, and Ken Dayley.

As a team, they had a 3.33 ERA, and helped starters Niekro, Rick Mahler, Bob Walk, Camp, and a couple of others navigate through a very interesting year of Braves baseball.