Atlanta Braves franchise history: top 10 outfielders part 1

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.