What made Atlanta Braves HOF Hank Aaron so great?

They named the hitting award after Atlanta Braves great Hank Aaron because he was that kind of hitter.

In the run-up to yesterday’s announcement that Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman won the NL’s Hank Aaron Award, the MLB Network crew took the opportunity to ask Aaron a couple of questions about his own career.

It’s great that they do so: the 86-year-old Aaron and others from his generation won’t be with us for too much longer, and they represent a unique era in the sport of baseball of athleticism and offensive production that only Mike Trout approximates today.

We lost Dick Allen this week — he was in that group.  Mickey Mantle and Frank Robinson were as well.  89-year-old Willie Mays is another.

Happily, Aaron is still willing and able to talk about baseball, and these glimpses into the past are a colorful illustration of multiple decades that many of us barely remember — if we’re even old enough to remember at all.

But during Tuesday’s exchange, Aaron said something that resonated:  it was about the one thing he was most proud of doing during his career.

Here’s the snippet from the broadcast:

The answer was multi-faceted, but here’s the key elements:

• His ability to keep strikeouts to a minimum (and indeed, he never struck out 100 times in any single season)
• His ability to get runners home from third base

It’s that second part that I want to focus on here.

Over his career, Aaron hit for a .305 lifetime batting average.  By the standards of the first half of the 20th century, that’s a fairly pedestrian value, but for qualified hitters since 1950, that’s 32nd all-time… and of course, few batters slugged like Aaron did while still maintaining that kind of hitting average.

But Aaron is the lifetime leader in RBI with 2,297.  Babe Ruth is next at 2,217 and Albert Pujols 3rd at 2,100.  Only 2 others are over 2,000.  So it’s clear that run-production was a key part of his game, but let’s dig into baseball-reference.com and look at those splits:

You don’t want to pitch Aaron when…

Aaron was right, of course:  he was at his best when there was a chance for his team to score, but it’s fascinating to see just how much he elevated his own game in those situations:

• RUNNER ON 3rd (alone):  183 RBI in 433 plate appearances.  Avg. .363/OPS 1.047.  78 BB, 34 SAC Flies.
• RUNNERS 2nd/3rd:  97 RBI in 230 PA.  .364/1.280 OPS.  107 BB(!), 12 SAC Flies.
• RUNNERS 1st/3rd:  232 RBI in 475 PA.  .321/.827 OPS.  36 BB, 44 SAC Flies.
• BASES LOADED:       231 RBI in 269 PA.  .316/.904 OPS.  12 BB, 28 SAC Flies.
  • 16 grand slams

Aaron was to be most feared with none out and at least 2 runners in scoring position:

• Runners 2nd/3rd:  .462/OPS 1.403 (47 PA)
• Bases loaded:         .450/OPS 1.309 (53 PA)

These are all times at which pitchers were themselves trying to concentrate and “bear down” the most — and yet Aaron still made them pay time after time.

Let’s compare Aaron’s numbers with those of Chipper Jones — someone we have much more recent experience seeing for many years:

• RUNNER ON 3rd (alone):  140 RBI in 338 plate appearances.  Avg. .333/OPS 1.064.  95 BB, 29 SAC Flies.
• RUNNERS 2nd/3rd:  109 RBI in 182 PA.  .364/1.098 OPS.  52 BB, 12 SAC Flies.
• RUNNERS 1st/3rd:  178 RBI in 388 PA.  .297/.792 OPS.  47 BB, 33 SAC Flies.
• BASES LOADED:       195 RBI in 235 PA.  .317/.871 OPS.  27 BB, 22 SAC Flies.
  • 6 grand slams
• All of these results are very comparable with Aaron

As with Aaron, Jones did an incredible amount of damage with none out and opportunities knocking… though with a slightly different arrangement of runners:

• Runner on 3rd alone:  .533/1.305 (21 PA)
• Runners on corners:   .431/1.002 (98 PA)
• Runners on 2nd/3rd: .400/1.006 (41 PA)

What’s the point here?  Aaron was definitely onto something when it comes to great players elevating their game in key situations.   The great players may, in fact, be “great” because they do this.

As far as that goes, there’s another hitter around who seems to elevate his game in these situations:  he’s a career .295 hitter, but with runners on 3rd with less than 2 outs, he hits .376 with an OPS of 1.090.

Of course, that would be the NL Hank Aaron Award winner himself:  Freddie Freeman of the Atlanta Braves.