Atlanta Braves top ten outfielders number three: Dale Murphy

After a long delay, my countdown of the best players at each position in Atlanta Braves Franchise history is back with Dale Murphy.

For those joining the Atlanta Braves Franchise’s best player series late, I began by working my way around positions using custom searches on Fangraphs and building a spreadsheet that included weighted and 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 in terms of his contribution to the franchise, impact on the team at the time, and its overall success. If you missed some of the posts, I’ve provided links.

I started with the infield, listing my top five at each position.

• First base
• Second base
• Third base
• Shortstop

When I reached the outfield, I found that players moved around too much to decide who went where, and settled on a top ten list of all outfielders.  Here are links to the list so far.

• 10 – Sid Gordon
• 9 – Rico Carty
• 8 – Billy Hamilton
• 7 – Davis Justice
• 6 – Hugh Duffy
• 5 – Tommy Holmes
• 4 – Wally Berger

Coming in at number three on the list is an all-time Atlanta Braves favorite, Dale Murphy, Most fans know some of Murphy’s story, but it’s worth retelling.  I was in England for all of Murph’s career with Atlanta, so I’m going to rely for details on multiple posts on the SABR website. I’ll identify them as I go, but much of the data overlaps between posts. I encourage you to take the time to read all of them

Bobby brings Dale Murphy along

The following spring, the Atlanta Braves had a new boss, Bobby Cox. Cox liked what he saw from Murphy at the plate. As quoted in Wancho’s bio Cox told Furman Bisher of the Sporting News, ‘Give him 500 at-bats this season, and he’ll hit 25 minimum in the National League’. In order to get those homers in the books, Cox brought Murphy with the team but moved him to first base.

Murphy delivered 23 homers in 1978, but struck out 145 times and managed only a .679 OPS and 80 OPS plus. As a first baseman, Murphy was a good catcher; the team made 25 errors at first base, and Murphy made 20 of them in his 125 games there.  Nevertheless, the experiment continued through 1979.

Atlanta Braves

Murphy experience knee pain early in 1979 that eventually required arthroscopic surgery to repair damaged cartilage, causing him to miss about two months of the season. Despite playing only 104 games, Murphy delivered 20 homers and found his hit tool, finishing the season batting .276/.340/.469/.809.

In 1980 Cox moved Murphy to center field, an odd place for a catcher, but while Murphy wasn’t a speed demon, he was fast and made the move with ease. No longer worried about manning first base and free of the soreness in his knee, Murphy became a breakout star, batting .281/.349/.510/.858, hitting 33 homers and finishing 12^th in NL MVP voting, a season worth 6.6 rWAR – 5.7 fWAR.

The Torre era

When we talk about statistics, the strike season of 1981 is forgettable, so let’s forget it.

The Atlanta Braves began 1982 with Joe Torre as manager, and a team that believed they could win the division; and they did. Murphy played every game, batted .281/.378/.507/.885, hit 36 homers and drove in a league-leading 109 runs, on his way to his first Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, and NL MVP.  Even though the Cardinals swept the Braves in the NLCS, most believed the team was on its way up.

Murphy did his best to make that belief a reality in 1983. Once again, he played 162 games and led the league with 121 RBI. He hit 30 round-trippers, and led the league in slugging and OPS, finishing with a .302/.393/.540/.933, worth 7.1 rWAR – 7.0 fWAR.

The Atlanta Braves finished 88-74 but finished second in the West, three games in back of the Dodgers, but Murphy won his second Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, and NL MVP. The Braves sank back into mediocrity after the 1983 season, but that wasn’t Murphy’s fault.

The Atlanta Braves rebuild

Over the next six seasons, he batted .268/.358/.488/.846, averaged 32 homers,  29 doubles, and 93 RBI, and continued to be a force in the NL, finishing ninth, seventh, 21st and 11th in MVP voting, for a team that was in complete rebuild mode,

He led the NL with 36 homers in 1984 and again when he hit 37 in 1985; he also led the league in walks. In 1987 he hit a career-best 44 round-trippers, finishing second in the NL behind future Hall of Famer Andre Dawson’s 49.

In 1986, the Mets were riding high. They entered the game on April 30, with 11 consecutive wins and Dwight Gooden at the height of his dominance.  He was fresh off a 24-win season in 1985, when he threw 276-2/3 innings, struck out 268 batters, and pitched to a 1.53 ERA to win the NL ERA title and Cy Young Award.

He started 1986, where he left off in 1985 and entered the game with a 1.26 ERA over 43 innings. Opposing batters were hitting a puny .185/.215/.285/.500, and Gooden hadn’t allowed a run his last 16 innings.

Murphy wasn’t in the starting lineup because he injured his hand the night before making a catch. The cut to his right palm required nine stitches to close. The Atlanta Braves were down six nothing in the fifth inning when Murphy grabbed a bat to pinch-hit for starter Joe Johnson.

Murph could have sat out, the injury was painful, and he was 0-7 against Gooden for his career. Instead, he went to the plate and promptly hit the first pitch into the left-center field seats.

Injuries and the end

Murphy’s knee began to cause a lot of trouble again in the 1988 season and required surgery again in January of 1989, but he played 156 games anyway. Without a solid foundation, home runs happen, but hitting for average isn’t easy. Despite his sore knee, Murphy’s 24 homers were the most on the Braves, and he led the team in RBI with 77.

He returned in 1989, but his 33-year old knee didn’t recover as quickly as it had a decade earlier. He did lead the team in RBI and hit 20 homers for his twelfth consecutive season, finishing second on the team behind Lonnie Smith in homers and walks, but managed only a .667 OPS.  He was now the old man on a team filled with rising stars.

Halfway through the 1990 season, general manager Bobby Cox traded his former 25-homer a year rookie and a PTBNL to the Phillies for Jeff Parrett and two PTBNL.

The Hall of Fame is short by 1 Dale Murphy

At the risk of repeating myself, Dale Murphy deserves his plaque in Cooperstown. I’ve written extensively about this in the past, first in 2011, and again a year later. So I’ll let these points from Dan Schlossberg’s Marvelous Murphy: too Good To Ignore speak to it instead. When he retired:

(He had) 398 home runs—one fewer than first-ballot inductee Al Kaline and 16 more than 2009 inductee Jim Rice. Before Dale Murphy, only Ken Williams, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays had a season that included 30 home runs, 30 stolen bases, and a .300 batting average. Murphy had more total bases during the ’80s than any other player— including George Brett, Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Dave Winfield. first in extra-base hits and runs scored, and he placed second to Mike Schmidt in home runs and second to Eddie Murray in runs batted in. During his decade of dominance, Murphy not only finished second in both home runs (308) and RBI (929) but placed fifth in hits (1,553), made seven All-Star teams, and won five Gold Gloves. . .

I’ll throw this in as well, from 1980 through 1989 no outfielder with 1400 games on defense only Robin Yount amassed more rWAR than Murphy’s 47.1. Fangraphs says five players with 6000 PA in that span qualify as outfielders. On that list, Murphy ranks third behind Rickey Henderson and Yount, who are both in the Hall. Murphy has a higher wOBA and more fWAR and wRC+ than Andre Dawson.

That’s a Wrap

It’s good to be writing again, and Murphy’s selection for number three on the list is a nice way to get back in the swing of things.

I’ll try not to get called away again, and keep the line moving here while we wait to what kind of season – if any – we’ll have.