Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Don Sutton Fun Facts, Hamilton

Los Angeles Dodgers retired jersey numbers of Don Drysdale (53), Don Sutton (20) and Tommy Lasorda (2) at the top deck at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Braves Hall of Famer or Braves Killer?

Since the Atlanta Braves have decided that they should enshrine a Hall of Fame player into their own Hall of Fame who never actually played for the club, I thought I might be interesting to dig up some Don Sutton facts today.

• Sutton’s major league debut came less than 2 weeks after his 21st birthday – April 14, 1966.  He lost to Houston 4-2, going 7 innings and giving up just 2 earned runs.  He went 12-12 that year.
• His nickname is listed as “Black & Decker”
• Sutton’s first winning season wasn’t until 1970:  15-13.  He didn’t have another sub-.500 year until 1979 (also 1983, 1988).
• In 23 seasons, his record was 324-256, winning 20+ games once (21 in 1976).
• The hitter seeing Sutton the most was Pete Rose:  194 plate appearances and a .338 batting average, including 4 homers and a .903 OPS, well above his career OPS of .784.
• Another Reds star, Joe Morgan was second on the plate appearance list for Sutton:  but he only hit .226.  Johnny Bench got him for a .288/.900 OPS line, though.  I don’t think he really liked the Reds overall.

But against the Braves…

• 70 appearances, 36-18 overall with 16 no decisions.
• This included 11 complete game shutouts and 12 other complete games.  On average, he pitched into the 8th inning.
• In those 70 appearances, he threw 506.2 innings and gave up 151 earned runs… a 2.68 ERA (besting his 3.26 career number)
• vs. Atlanta overall:  115 walks (10 intentionally), 326 strikeouts, 48 homers allowed while facing 2,030 batters.
• Curiously, though considered to be a strikeout pitcher (7th most overall), he managed double-digit K’s vs. the Braves exactly once, getting 10 that day.
• Hank Aaron got Sutton for 3 homers, but just a .241 average and .674 OPS in 95 meetings.  Contrast that with his career numbers at .305/.928.
• Sutton K’d the Hammer 15 times. Projected over a whole season, that would be roughly 103 strikeouts… and Aaron never struck over 100 times in any of his 23 seasons.
• Most Braves’ players had a tough time against Sutton:  Felix Millan (.263), Mike Lum (.256), Rowland Office (.174) among them.
• One exception:  Ralph Garr owned him.  Over 66 plate appearances, Garr hit .426, including 2 triples and a homer.  He OPS’d 1.030 vs. Sutton while getting just .755 for his career.  This was one guy who probably helped escort the Dodgers to the stadium when they were in town.  The rest of the team were just as likely to erect Detour signs.

Everybody remembers April 8, 1974:  the day that Al Downing gave up home run #715 to Hank Aaron.  Turns out that Don Sutton pitched on April 9th – the next day.  He won 9-2, giving up a home run… to Davey Johnson.