Atlanta Braves: Best hitting seasons of the decade
The Atlanta Braves flipped the script this past decade and were more offense-oriented than in the past few decades.
Just as we did with the pitching side of things, we now are going to look at the best individual hitting seasons for the Atlanta Braves over the past decade.
You’re going to see many of the familiar names you would associate with big-time Atlanta Braves offense in this piece.
You might even see the same name twice among the following five individual season performances. Let’s get to it.
#5 Chipper Jones in 2011
Did you really expect to go through an Atlanta Braves offense based list and not see Chipper Jones appear at all? Two-thousand-and-eleven was admittedly not the best year of Chipper Jones’ career, but it was still among his more impressive considering he was nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career.
Despite only hitting 18 home runs on the season and only driving in 70, he still found a way to bat .275 at the plate. And the most impressive part of it all to me is he only had 80 strikeouts among 512 at-bats.
He also found a way to rattle off 33 doubles despite his knees visibly starting to bother him on a regular basis due to his age and all the miles put on them.
We all know that Chipper decided to hang up his cleats after 1 more run with the Braves, but as these numbers will all indicate, he was not the guy he was in the years prior
But he was still very much a threat at the plate, and he was a constant figure in the 3 hole for the Atlanta Braves in the lineup.
#4 Freddie Freeman in 2013
I’m sure you knew we were going to have to follow Chipper Jones with Freddie Freeman. Naturally, Freddie Freeman had one of his best seasons as soon as Chipper Jones retired and the proverbial torch was handed over to Freddie Freeman.
You have to look past the 23 home runs he had and be more impressed with his 109 RBI, and most importantly, his .319 batting average.
Reaffirming what we already knew, Freddie’s OPS in 2013 was .897.
Bottom line is, 2013 was one of the better seasons from the always productive Freddie Freeman who has become the face of the franchise since Chipper Jones retired.
#3 Ronald Acuna in 2019
No doubt that when we do this kind of article in 10 years time, I think we will all expect to see the name Ronald Acuna at least two times. If his recently completed 2019 was any example, we are in for a decade of dominance.
First things first, he was a workhorse who played virtually every game until he got a little banged up at the tail end of the season. That injury also prevented Acuna from possibly reaching the 40-40 club.
I’m sure it will not be his last opportunity to chase that, however.
Forty-one home runs and 101 RBI. Making that more impressive is the fact that he hit lead-off basically from the middle of May on. He garnered some MVP consideration, and rightfully so after a year in which his WAR was 5.5.
Again, the freshly turned 22-year-old phenom should be on this list multiple times as long as everything works out for both him and the Atlanta Braves over the course of his contract.
Luckily for the Braves and their fans, he is with us for a long time.
#2 Justin Upton in 2014
Justin Upton was not on the Atlanta Braves for very long, two years in fact, but he made his presence known in the short time he was around.
The better of the two years for Upton on the Braves was no doubt 2014. At the end of the year, he collected not only a Silver slugger but was able to get some MVP votes as well.
With numbers like the following, it’s easy to see why as well.
- 29 Home runs
- 102 Runs batted in
- 34 doubles
Strangely, to me the most interesting stat of them all though is the fact he was only intentionally walked once throughout the entire season.
Unlike his brother, Justin Upton was a force on the Braves team and was a power threat that looked nice in the middle of the lineup.
Unfortunately, he was a part of the rebuild and he was the centerpiece in one of those trades. Looking back though, not all was lost since that is the trade that landed us Max Fried.
Upton has bounced around since his time in Atlanta including stints with the Padres, Tigers, and currently he is on the Angels where injuries have hampered his ability over the last few seasons.
Again, while his time with the Braves was limited to just two seasons, he did a lot in that short amount of time.
#1 Freddie Freeman in 2016
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Come on, who did you really expect it to be? Of course it was going to be Freddie Freeman.
We’ve come to expect greatness out of Freddie and I have mentioned it here before, sometimes I think we take Freeman for granted.
Perhaps, no better example would be how good we forget he was in 2016.
Let’s get the basic stats out of the way before we dive much deeper and get to the more astounding stats, at least in my estimation.
Thirty-four home runs combined with 91 RBI. Remember also, this was a club that was not really good, so he had less opportunities to drive in other players. He had an OPS of .968, which is phenomenal.
He also finished the season with a batting average north of .300. Now let’s get to the stats that were even more impressive.
During the season, Freddie had a 30-game hitting streak, and even more impressive was during the season he had a 46-game on-base streak. Simple math will tell you that’s over a quarter of the season!
Next. A top 10 rotation. dark
There you have it, the best hitting performances throughout the decade for the Atlanta Braves. If you think there is anyone or anything we missed, let us know in the comment section below.