Atlanta Braves history: the franchise’s top five third basemen
As the Atlanta Braves prepare for 2020 with a roster full of young stars, we look back at the best third basemen in franchise history.
When I decided to a series covering the history of the Atlanta Braves, I knew context would affect the final list, but felt I’d easily identify the number one player at each position. It wasn’t easy; that’s what I get for thinking.
I knew I had to set a limit on the fewest games played. As you’ll see, as I go through the positions, I couldn’t use the same limit for each position.
The franchise’s long history meant I had to attempt to level the playing field across seven generations of players. I settled on plus stats as the way to do that. Plus stats like OPS+ tell us how well a player stacks up against the rest of the league when he played, with 100 as league average.
Using a Fangraphs custom player search by position, a created a table of the following plus stats.
- wOBA – if you care about determining how well a player contributes to run-scoring, wOBA is a more accurate representation of that contribution than OPS
- wRC+ – If you want a rate statistic for hitters that weights each offensive action and controls for league and park effects, wRC+ is for you.
- AVG+
- OBP+
- SLG+
- Rbaser – The number of runs better or worse than the average player for all baserunning events; SB, CS, PB, WP, Defensive indifference
I looked at every player’s plus stats, sample-size in terms of games played, impact on the franchise, and contribution to the team’s success.
Unlike second sackers, the franchise now known as the Atlanta Braves features a long list of stellar performers at the hot corner. Once I sorted them into something workable, I found filling the top four positions relatively easy. However, the fifth spot nearly drove me crazy.
Two players from different eras, playing different styles of ball and using different tools to produce runs at the highest level. I spent just over two hours trying to sort them out, before realizing the best decision was … no decision.
Number Five A – Call me Red
Red Smith led the National League league in doubles, total bases, extra-base hits, RBI, slugging percentage and OPS in 1913.
As I wrote last year, a fight with his manager led the Brooklyn Robins to trade him or sell his contract – no one knows for sure – to the Braves. In the previously linked post, I explained why this deal turned the tide.
In his first game for Boston, Smith went 1 – 3 with an RBI. Over the remainder of the season, he batted.314/.441/.449/.890 including 17 doubles, a triple, and three home runs while driving in 37. In today’s terms that line gave him 145 wRC+, a .409 wOBA and 2.6 WAR
He put the team on his back for the next two months, providing the offense to carry them to the World Series. Sadly, Smith didn’t get to play in the series.
Related Story. What about second?. light
In a doubleheader against his former team on the last day of the season, Smith slid into second, his spikes stuck in the dirt, and his season ended.
Smith’s right shin struck Cutshaw’s left leg (his) spikes dug into the dirt (throwing the) weight of his body on the ankle . . . His body was thrown several feet past the bag . . . . . . suffered an anterior dislocation of the ankle . . , a fracture of the fibula three . . .a fracture of the tibia, and ruptures of the ligaments of the ankle joint.
After retirement, Smith lived in Marietta, Georgia, and remained a Braves fan. His daughter told SABR’s Charles F. Faber he father was “overjoyed” with the Atlanta Braves arrival in 1966. He died nine days after that season ended.
Smith hit only 17 homers for the Braves, but his production stats and plus-stats made him and the joint holder of the fifth spot with one of the best power hitters of his era.
Number Five B – Howdy Doody
As noted in his SABR Bio, when Darrell Evans graduate from high school, he found a lot of Major League teams willing to pay him to sign, but he went to junior college instead. After being selected five times in the draft – there were two drafts a year at that time – Evans signed with the Kansas City Athletics.
A shoulder injury resulted in the Athletics giving up on Evans in December 1968, and the Atlanta Braves claimed him in the Rule five draft. He appeared in 12 games the following season and another dozen in 1970, before being called up for good in 1971.
Like Smith, Evans’ defense needed a lot of work. Fortunately for him, future Hall of Fame third baseman Eddie Mathews took him under his wing.
At 26-years old in 1973, Evans had a break-out year, batting .281/.403/.556/.959, with an OPS+ of .959. Evans also crushed 41 homers, stuck out 104 times, and led the league in walks with 124. Those numbers made him an All-Star and earned him an eighteenth place finish in NL MVP voting
Evans, Hank Aaron (40 homers) and Davey Johnson (43 homers) and Dusty Baker (21 homers) gave the Braves a potent lineup, but they finished fifth of six in the NL West.
Between 1973 and 1975, Evans batted .255/.382/.4562/.844, posted a 130 OPS+ and belted 88 home runs
His SABR bio quotes Bill James as calling Evans “the most underrated player in baseball history, absolutely number one on the list,” due to his power, his ability to draw walks, and his outstanding on-base percentage.
If you’re wondering how these two, very different, players tied, I understand. On the surface, it’s easy to go for the modern era power hitter. However, it’s always best to look below the surface.
Why a tie?
Evans played parts of nine years for the Braves, but injuries meant he only four were full seasons, and he totaled just 206 more games than Smith managed in six.
In terms of production, Evans’ home runs gave him an edge in slugging percentage, but the plus stats show they weren’t far apart in value to the team.
| Name | AVG+ | OBP+ | SLG+ | OPS+ | wOBA | wRC+ | WAR |
| Darrell Evans | 95 | 113 | 113 | 122 | .362 | 119 | 23.7 |
| Red Smith | 107 | 112 | 105 | 119 | .354 | 122 | 18.7 |
Evans earns more WAR because WAR likes bombs, but looking at wRC+ and wOBA in context adds meaning for me.
Smith took his team to the World Series. It’s not Evans fault the Braves didn’t get there, but I felt Smith’s impact significant enough to warrant extra consideration and call it a tie.
Number four – Too big to put in a corner
The Atlanta Braves selected Bob Horner out of Arizona State one-one, On June 5, 1978. He made his Major League debut 11 days later on June 16, and went 1-3 with a homer off future Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven with Dale Murphy on in front of him.
He went on to hit 23 homers, 17 doubles, a triple, bat .266/.313/.539/.852, post a 124 OPS+ and win NL Rookie of the Year. That’s not a bad start.
Horner played nine seasons for the Atlanta Braves years and hit less than 23 homers only twice.
On July 6, 1986, Horner became the third player in Franchise history (Bobby Lowe, Joe Adcock) to hit four homers in a game. The Braves lost the game to Montreal 11-8, making Horner the second player in baseball to hit four in a loss.
Horner’s game centered on offense, and today he’d probably end up in the AL and a DH. He played enough first base to turn up on my initial list for that position and had better defensive numbers there, but finished his time with Atlanta with a career –6.6 dWAR.
His other claim: going down as one of only 21 players to begin Major League play with no minor league service time.
Number three – Another Bob
The Boston Braves had talks with Pittsburgh about acquiring both Ralph Kiner and Bob Elliott. Kiner looked like the target, and Elliot a red herring, to everyone, but as I wrote last year Boston Post Columnist Al Hirshburg said the Braves were intent on acquiring the Pirates third baseman,
They succeeded in September 1946, and Elliott proved they’d made a good choice, finishing the 1947 season batting .317/.410/.517.927, with a 147 OPS+ and won the NL MVP award, the first franchise player to do so since Johnny Evers in 1914.
Elliot continued to rake in 1948 batting .283/.423/.474/.897, good for a 143 OPS+, .419 wOBA, 151 wRC+, and 6.6 fWAR. He also hit the home run that started a rally to win the NL Pennant for the first time since the Miracle Braves three decades earlier.
The Braves won 93 games that season, the sixth time in franchise’s 77 year history the team passed the 90-win mark.
Elliott tried to repeat his title-clinching heroics in the World Series, belting two homers off “Rapid Robert” – Bob Feller – to win game five, and silence a shocked Cleveland crowd.
Elliot hit .333/.391/.619/.1.010 and drove in five runs.in the fall classic, but the Braves couldn’t close the deal.
He remained with the Braves through the 1951 season and finished with a .295/.398/.485/.833 line, 139 OPS+. 26.4 rWAR and 25.9 fWAR in his five-year stay. The Braves traded him to the Giants in 1952.
Number two – Larry
In 1990 Todd Van Poppel told the Atlanta Braves not to draft him, so they drafted Larry Wayne – Chipper Jones. Van Poppel didn’t last that long, but Chipper Jones remained the Atlanta Braves third baseman – with a detour to left field – for 19 years.
Chipper finished second to Hideo Nomo in Rookie of the 1995 Year voting and #18 in NL MVP voting. In 1996 he earned the first of eight All-Star game nods and finished fourth in the MVP race. He would finish in the top ten five times, including winning the award in 1999
He’s a career .303/.401/.529/.930, 141 OPS+, batter with 468 homers, third on the all-time switch-hitting list behind his boyhood idol Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray and 549 doubles rank fourth on that list.
No teams wanted to see Chipper come to the plate in a position to win the game, particularly the Mets.
Jones owned the Mets, finishing his career batting .309/.406/.543/.949 with 49 homers against them. He liked hitting in Shea Stadium so much he named his son Shea; Jones batted a career .313/.407/.557/.964 with 19 homers there.
Jones entered the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2018, getting 410 votes and being ignored by 12 imbeciles.
His Hall of Fame page describes Jones like this.
. . . Jones seemed to improve with age – winning his first batting title at the age of 36 in 2008 when he hit .364 while also leading the NL in on-base percentage with a mark of .470. At the end of his 19 years in the big leagues – all with the Braves – Jones had totaled 2,726 hits, 468 home runs and more walks (1,512) than strikeouts (1,409). He was named to eight All-Star Games and finished in the Top 10 of the NL MVP voting five times.
Fans who grew up with the Atlanta Braves see Chipper as the face of the Atlanta Braves and their third baseman, but one third-baseman played with the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. He’s number one on my list.
Number one – The Brookfield Bomber
Edwin Lee “Eddie” Mathews joined the Boston Braves in 1949 at the age of 17. According to his SABR Bio, Eddie and his father did their research to make sure the team he signed with gave him the fastest route to the majors even if that team didn’t offer the most money.
Eddie and Boston Braves scout Johnny Moore waited until midnight on the night of his graduation in June 1949 and signed the contract a few minutes after midnight. Mathews got a $6,000 bonus.
The $6,00 check to Mathews looks like one of the biggest bargains ever struck. In Atlanta in 1951 with the AA Crackers, Mathews hit 32 homers and impressed Ty Cobb, quoted in Mathews Bio linked above.
“I’ve only known three or four perfect swings in my time,” said Cobb. “This lad has one of them.”
The plan worked. The Braves traded Bob Elliot and the 1952 season opened with the 20-year old Mathews manning third base; he held that position for the next 15 years.
The 1952 season saw him bat .242/.320/.447/.667 with a 113 OPS+, hit 25 homers, finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting, and #21 in MVP voting.
In 1953, the Braves moved to Milwaukee and cavernous County Stadium and Mathews hit 47 homers, batted .302/.406/.627/1.033, with a 171 OPS+, led the league in homers and intentional walks earned, received an All-star game nod, and finished second in the MVP race (despite outpacing Roy Campanella in nearly every offensive category).
In the years 1952 through 1963, Mathews batted .280/.387/.535/.922, with an OPS+ of 152. Among player with 6500 PA from 1952 through 1864:
- Led baseball with 422 home runs
- Ranked second in baseball with 1155 walks (Mickey Mantle 1248)
- Ranked third in baseball with:
- 52.8 WAA (Mantle 70.8, Willie Mays 68.6
- 86.1 fWAR (Mantle 100.3, Mays 98.4
- 148 wRC+ (Mays 162, Mantle 178)
Mathews won game four of the 1957 World Series with a homer in the bottom of the tenth. In game seven, he doubled in two runs in the third inning and saved the game with a sterling fielding play to end the game.
“Without (Mathews) in that Milwaukee lineup,” moaned losing manager Casey Stengel, “it would have been a different Series.”
On June 28, 1965, Mathew hit homer #28 of the year, and the #773rd he and Hank Aaron hit as the power tandem in the Braves lineup, taking them past the teammates record of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
The Braves let Mathews leave after his first season as one of the Atlanta Braves. His career as a member of the Braves ended with a .273/.379/.517/.896 line, a 145 OPS+, 493 homers, 338 doubles, and 70 triples.
The Hall of Fame welcomed Mathews in 1978 – no, I don’t know why it took so long either – with 301 writers voting for him, and 78 voters sitting firmly on their ears.
His Hall of Fame Page includes a scouting report on Mathews by Rogers Hornsby.
“Mathews is the most dangerous hitter in baseball today,” was the assessment of Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby way back in 1954. “And he’s going to get better because he wants to learn, because he’s always asking questions. He’s got power and he’s got rhythm, along with a fine level swing. Those big, powerful, awkward guys you see around who can bust a ball a mile are as good now as they’ll ever be. Mathews is different. He’s loose, limber and coordinated. He’ll be a star when most of the guys competing with him now aren’t ever remembered.”
It ends with this quote from Mathews.
“The one thing I’m proudest of is that every day I played,” Mathews said, “I gave the best I had.”
That’s a wrap
The list of honorable mentions at third base is long probably worth its own post, but that’s for a later date, so her’s the list with a post to come later.
The sheer number of high-quality third basemen who played so well for this franchise is eye-opening. When one leaves, there’s a gap when the Atlanta Braves look for the new <insert name here> to take his place.
The search is always long these days, but the franchise always seems to attract and keep one (*cough* Nolan Arenado), or grow one within the organization.
Next. Not the return of that king. dark
Next on the list: the shortstops.