Atlanta Braves franchise history: top 10 outfielders part 1

Number ten: A solid player

I’d wager most fans today have never heard of Sid Gordon; his SABR biography describes him as:

a man who came to play every day no matter whether the manager played him in the outfield or third base or where he inserted him in the lineup. An amiable and well-liked ballplayer. . .

I guess being a star in those days meant something different than it does today. In 1948 Gordon finished fifth in the NL with 30 homers, behind Johnny Mize, Ralph Kiner, Stan Musial, and Hank Sauer, and third in OPS (.927) and OPS+ (142) behind Musial and Mize.

In 1949 Bobby Thompson took fourth place in homers pushing Gordon to number five, while Enos Slaughter, and some kid named Jackie Robinson, meant Gordon landed in fourth-spot with a .909 OPS and a 142 OPS+.

Gordon joined the Boston Braves after the 1949 season in the trade that sent Al Dark and Eddie Stanky to the Giants.

• in 1951, Gordon finished third in MLB  with a 156 OPS+,
• fourth in MLB with 154 wRC+,
• fifth in MLB with 6.4 rWAR,
• tenth in MLB with 5.5 fWAR,
• #17 in MLB with a  409 wOBA, and
• finished #22 in NL MVP voting.

He enjoyed three more seasons as a top 20 batter with the Braves, finishing #22, #16, and #30 in  MVP voting.

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Gordon’s Baseball-Reference similarity score compares him to former Atlanta Braves outfielder Brian Jordan at the same age.

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Number nine:  A Beeg boy with a BIG bat

In the library under the heading what might have been, you’ll find the story of Rico Carty, His play as a catcher for the Dominican team in the 1959 Pan-Am Games, and the Braves signed him late in the year.

After destroying minor league pitching for three seasons, Carty arrived in Milwaukee with a bang in 1964 and immediately became a fan favorite. They called him Beeg Boy, and Carty’s Corner became a staple at home games. The Braves wanted his bat in the lineup, but had Joe Torre behind the plate, so the Carty played left field for the first time in his career, splitting time with Felipe Alou.

When Alou got hurt in June, Carty took over, and led the team to a 16-8 record over their next 24 games, going 34-83, hitting six home runs, driving in 24, and batting  .410/.480/.675/1.155.

In the last week of August, Carty ruined the visit of the Phillies and Giants to Milwaukee, batting .429/.474/.943/1.417 in a 15-35 stretch that included four homers, four doubles, a triple, eight RBI and two games where he went 5-5.

Carty ended the season batting .330/.388/.554/.942, with a 161 OPS+. He led the Braves in average, slugging, and Fangraphs says his .410 wOBA and 165 wRC+  were also the best on the team.  That season Hank Aaron batted .328/.393/.514/.907 with a .396 wOBA and 156 wRC+.

It’s no wonder Carty finished second in Rookie of the Year balloting behind Dick Allen. Only three players received votes, Carty and Jim Ray Hart both received one vote, and Allen had 18.

The Braves signed Carty to a $175K ($1.4M  today) contract in 1965, and his future looked bright, with Bobby Bragan’s plan to make him a first baseman. Moving him to first would keep his bat in the lineup and allow Alou to play left.

Carty played first like Troy Glaus for the Atlanta Braves; badly. His SABR bio described the transition like this.

Rico never mastered (first) and injured his back (trying). Carty’s back ailment kept him out of the lineup often . . . he never played more than a week at a time.

The Braves found later that Carty’s right leg was slightly shorter than his left, and a corrective shoe ended his pain and silenced those who suggested he was exaggerating how much it hurt.

More injuries

Carty always hit well, but some – most importantly, Aaron, in 1967– felt he didn’t hustle all the time. Rumors of a trade started after a disagreement with Aaron, but nothing ever materialized. Carty’s ’67 season suffered, and he missed 1968 entirely because he contracted Tuberculosis.

He came back in 1969 and again hit well, but a shoulder dislocation in the spring troubled him all season. He returned for the stretch run for the NL West title, batting .383/.400/.630/1.030  in the last 21 games of the season as the Braves went 17-4.  Carty finished #13 in NL MVP voting in 69 and replicated his offensive heroics against the Mets in the NLCS, batting  .300/.462/.500/.962 in 10 PA.

In 1970, the tall left fielder won the NL batting title and led the league in OBP in 1970 .366/.454/.584/1.037,  and finished tenth in NL MVP voting. A knee injury in winter ball described by a team doctor in his bio “as bad a knee injury as an athlete can have.” His fans in Carty’s corner received buttons saying SMILE — the Beeg Boy’s Back, but a blood clot cost prevented him from returning,

After a 1971 season when he played just 86 games due to elbow tendonitis and a recurring hamstring injury, the Braves traded him to Texas for Jim Panther. Panther appeared in relief 23 times in 1973 and never played affiliated ball again.

A grand finale

Carty’s career as a member of the Braves covered parts of eight seasons. His final line of .317/.388/.496/.884 with a 143 OPS+, 23.2 rWAR, 26.1 fWAR, is impressive and makes me wonder how things might have turned out had Bragan just played him in left field, and ask him not to play winter ball.

Carty still lives in the Dominican Republic. In 1988, he led the Dominican Republic’s Senior League team to a third-place finish in the first Men’s Senior Baseball League World Series, and typically, the 49-year old Carty won the home run contest.

League founder Steve Sigler said, “He’s still an amazing hitter [at age 49], and he was the only one using a wooden bat.”

Carty became a member of Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011,

That’s a wrap

The first two outfielders in the list couldn’t be more different in the way they played, yet they produced remarkably similar results,

Carty and Gordon aren’t names that come up often, but both played a significant part in the history of the Atlanta Braves franchise.

Stay tuned for part two, here at the Take.