House That Hank Built
Fansided

2019 Atlanta Braves would be very different from 1973 as 40/40/40 club members

By Alan Carpenter

ATLANTA - APRIL 10: A bust of Hall of Famer Hank Aaron greets fans in a plaza outside Turner Field as the Atlanta Braves play against the Washington Nationals in a home opener April 10, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
ATLANTA - APRIL 10: A bust of Hall of Famer Hank Aaron greets fans in a plaza outside Turner Field as the Atlanta Braves play against the Washington Nationals in a home opener April 10, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images) /
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1989: Darrell Evans of the Atlanta Braves in action. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Dunn /Allsport
1989: Darrell Evans of the Atlanta Braves in action. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Dunn /Allsport /

The 1973 Braves

Back in 1973, the Atlanta Braves were hitting home runs at a pace that was completely over-the-top for that era.  In all of major league play, only 4 players clubbed 40 or more homers that year… yet 3 of them were from Atlanta.

This was the first time that 3 teammates managed 40×3 seasons.  As noted, it’s been done twice since, though both times were in Denver – by the pre-humidor Rockies of the the 1996-97 seasons.

The hitters involved?  Darrell Evans, Davey Johnson, and Hank Aaron.

Oddly enough, none of these 1973 Braves teammates won the home run title that season… Willie Stargell of the Pirates did that – reaching the 44 mark and besting Johnson by 1.

But let’s look a bit deeper at just how crazy-good this part of the Atlanta offense was that year:

  • Darrell Evans recorded a 9.7 fWAR, hitting “just” .281, but walking more than he struck out to give him a .403 on-base rate. His 104 RBI lead the team, and his plus-defense at third base contributed to that WAR – the highest of any Braves player in the history of the franchise.
  • Davey Johnson was the surprise:  hitting .270, he led the Braves in homers with 43 while knocking in 99. Aside from ’73, he never hit more than 18 in his career.  His WAR that season was a ‘mere’ 5.3.
  • Then there was Hank Aaron. He was starting to slow down a bit in this, his penultimate season in Atlanta (he was 39 years old, after all).  But that just makes what he did in ’73 all the more remarkable:
    • He hit his customary .301, though didn’t play enough to qualify for any ‘league leader’ titles.
    • While Evans had 733 plate appearances and Johnson 651, Aaron only played in 120 games and received 465 PA.
    • He still hit 40 homers, drove in 96, and posted a 5.2 WAR… with a .402 OBA.
    • Extrapolating those stats to 700 plate appearances might have gotten Aaron to sixty homers… that from someone who never hit more than 47 in any single season.
  • So that triumvirate combined for 20.2 fWAR and the entire rest of the team contributed just 9.6 (32% of the total) – overall that was still good enough for 4th-best in baseball.

Unfortunately for Atlanta, this was pretty much a 1-dimensional team aside from a couple of plus-defenders (Evans being one of those).

Their pitching was actually terrible for that time:  a 4.25 ERA – 3rd worst in baseball and half a run worse than the average team.  It was this aspect of their game that held back the Braves for years.

That season, the Big Red machine was starting to crank up, so the Braves ended up 4th in the 5-team NL-West that year… 22.5 games back of Cincy. It’s still a pretty shocking result given the bats involved and their scoring potential.

The Braves did hammer 206 homers as a team that year – a number that was not only best in the majors, but best by a margin of 45 above their next closest rival (the Giants – 161). Their power strokes fueled an offensive that scored 799 runs… that was also best in the majors (by 41).

It was the 1966 Braves that held the franchise record for home runs in a season with 207 in that era.  Despite all that firepower, Atlanta remained a team producing mediocre won-loss records (save for 1969, the 1st year of divisional play… they won the division but were quickly ousted by the Amazing Mets of 1969).

All that should serve to both establish just how remarkable that 1973 Braves offense was… and to set up the contrast to this year’s edition.

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