Remembering former Atlanta Braves All-Star lefty Denny Lemaster

The summer of 1958 saw a record 17 players from California sign for a Major League team in a span of five weeks. Denny Lemaster’s high school exploits drew scouts from 15 teams to his doorstep the day after he graduated from Oxnard High School. Fortunately for the Braves, they had legendary scout Johnny Moore on hand to convince him to sign with the organization.

The Milwaukee Braves signed the 19-year-old lefty in June 1958. He made his Major League debut in 1962 and was quickly crowned the next Warren Spahn. Later, the press dubbed him heir apparent to Sandy Koufax. But injury and age changed that.

Minor League years

Lemaster joined a group including Phil Niekro, Tony Cloninger, Tommie Aaron, and Dennis Menke, that would make the 1958 signing class one of the team’s best. He joined the Braves Class C team in Eau Claire in July and became the best arm on the team, pitching to a 2.83 ERA over 51 IP. That record and his history as a strike thrower allowed him to join five pitchers from Class C and below at the Major League camp for Spring Training in 1959.

He pitched well enough to jump him directly to Class A Jacksonville, where he started the season strong but struggled late because he began walking batters. He ended the year leading the league in walks, but he’d also set a Southern League record by striking out 11 batters in a row.

Over the next two years, Lemaster reduced his walks and continued striking batters out, and the Braves sent him to AAA to start his 1962 season. After a rough start, a slight change in his mechanics brought back his control. On July 12, he faced the Reds in his Major League debut and threw a complete game, allowing three runs -two earned- on six hits and striking out seven in a 3-2 loss. His two earned runs came from solo homers by Frank Robinson and one of the league’s premier center fielders, Vada Pinson.

Lemaster was good - The Braves were not

In 1963, Bobby Bragan used him in relief until his 1.80 ERA gave him little choice, and he had to move him to the rotation. Lemaster settled into the Braves' rotation as their number-two starter behind Warren Spahn and pitched much better than his record indicated because the Braves' offense gave him little in the way of run support.

In five losses that September, the offense provided a total of three runs, and those came in two games. He finished the season with a 3.04 ERA in 237 IP and set a Braves record with 190 strikeouts (no, that is not a typo) while walking only 85. He also posted a .473 OPS and recorded 14 hits that included a double and two homers (twice as many as Tommie Aaron).

Lemaster had a down year in 1964 but threw two shutouts in September and finished with a 17-11 record. Before the 1965 season began, the Braves played a three-game series in Atlanta to tease their coming move to the city.

Moving to Atlanta

Lemaster won one of the games, making him the first Brave to win a game in Atlanta. Shoulder stiffness early in the regular season resulted in a 4-7 start and a 6.10 ERA. Cortisone shots eventually allowed the shoulder to relax, and he ended the year by throwing a complete game five-hit shutout against the 95-65 Dodgers.

The highlight of Lemaster’s 1966 campaign came on June 26, when he matched Sandy Koufax pitch-for-pitch over 8 1/3 innings. With the game tied in the top of the eighth, a one-out error by Dennis Menke put Maury Wills on first, and manager Bobby Bragan replaced Lemaster with closer Clay Carroll, who promptly blew the lead the save.

The game made Lemaster a hot commodity, but a pinched nerve in his arm ended his season in August. He returned in 1967 to post a 9-9 record in 31 starts, pitch to a 3.34 ERA over 215+ innings, and earn a trip to the All-Star game.

After the season, the Braves traded Lemaster and Menke to Houston for Chuck Harrison and Sonny Jackson. Harrison never played for Atlanta, but Jackson remained with the Braves through 1974.

The Astros weren’t good either

Lemaster was named Pitcher of the Year in 1968, pitching to a 2.81 ERA and 2.74 FIP - in 224 IP for the offensively challenged 72-90 Astros. Lemaster had trouble with the lower mound early in 1969 but corrected his mechanics to finish the year 17-21, but suffered some soul-destroying defeats, the worst of those came in Pittsburg on August 20.

Entering the bottom of the eighth, neither team had scored. Lemaster gave the Pirates nothing for seven innings. Then the Astros defense collapsed; two errors, a sac-fly, and a single later, the Pirates led 1-0. Lemaster struck out 13 batters, gave up four hits in eight innings, and lost.

Lemaster made his last start eight years after his debut, on July 20, 1970. The Astros needed relievers and decided that his rough start made him the guy to go to the pen. He was the old guy on the team at 32. He remained with Houston until October 1971, when the Expos purchased his contract.

He hoped to return to the bump as a starter with Montreal, but they had a strong young core of pitchers, and he remained in the pen. The Expos released him on July 1.

Lemaster retired to the Atlanta area and spent 32 years building homes in the Atlanta area before retiring again.

Epilogue

In 2011, Denver Clayton “Denny” Lemaster told Life in the Dew (note: the link takes you to the internet archive, not an active site) that he learned to put the pitch where he wanted it by throwing rocks.

I got so good at throwing rocks, I could knock a bird out of a tree whenever I wanted to.

The media called Lemaster the next Warren Spahn, then the next Sandy Koufax. Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, and Willie McCovey predicted he’d become a perennial 20-game winner. Unfortunately, when you play for really bad teams, it’s hard to reach those heights. In the end, the Expos – and the rest of baseball - decided that he was over the hill at 33.

Over his 11-year career, Lemaster posted a 90-105 record, recorded eight saves, and pitched to a 3.58 ERA, 3.45 FIP, and 1.288 WHIP, striking out 1305, walking 600 – 75 intentionally – over 1787.2 IP, good for 19.0 rWAR or 17.4 fWAR.

Those numbers don’t reflect the quality of his pitching.

Denny Lemaster passed away peacefully on July 24, 2024, at the age of 85. Our thoughts go out to the Lemaster family.

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