House That Hank Built
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The best Atlanta Braves bullpens ever

By Alan Carpenter

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - JULY 15: National League All-Star Craig Kimbrel #46 of the Atlanta Braves pitches against the American League All-Stars during the 85th MLB All-Star Game at Target Field on July 15, 2014 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - JULY 15: National League All-Star Craig Kimbrel #46 of the Atlanta Braves pitches against the American League All-Stars during the 85th MLB All-Star Game at Target Field on July 15, 2014 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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ATLANTA, GA – AUGUST 17: Craig Kimbrel #46 and Evan Gattis #24 of the Atlanta Braves celebrate after the game against the Oakland Athletics at Turner Field on August 17, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA – AUGUST 17: Craig Kimbrel #46 and Evan Gattis #24 of the Atlanta Braves celebrate after the game against the Oakland Athletics at Turner Field on August 17, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /

The pain is real as we’ve watched this 2019 edition of the Atlanta Braves try to find relievers who can throw strikes and retire batters reliably.  But it hasn’t always been so.

The rise of the bullpen era has happened over the past 50 years (+/-), which is roughly coincident with the move of our modern-day Atlanta Braves from Milwaukee in 1966.

At that time complete games were still common:  4 different clubs recorded 52 of them that season (roughly 1/3rd of all games they played) and even a so-so (85-77) Braves team notched 37 behind Tony Cloninger, Ken Johnson, and Denny Lemaster with others filling in the 4th (and final) rotation spot.

There was no designated ‘closer’ then as the term hadn’t come into common baseball vernacular at that time, but managers Bobby Bragen and Billy Hitchcock did rely mostly on Clay Carroll to finish games (28 of them).

Carroll picked up what would later be designated as 11 saves over 144 innings (he also started 3 games himself) en route to a 2.37 ERA.

One thing that surprised me was the notion that 21 different pitchers threw for the Braves that season, despite the number of complete games and the assumption that pitchers generally were not just ‘1 (inning) and done’.

For example, the 1996 LA Dodgers under Walter Alston used just 13 pitchers that year with 4 starters (including Don Sutton) going a minimum of 225.2 innings.

That season, Sandy Koufax went 27-9 with 27 complete games by himself and 323 innings.  Of course, it was also his last season after going 300+ for 3 of those last 4 years (1963-66).

Nonetheless, the entire 1966 Braves staff combined for an ERA well under 4 (3.68) with just 3 walks per 9 innings despite being part of the baseball era where batters avoid the strikeout like the plague.

There are many ways to measure the effectiveness of a bullpen, so let’s look at the Braves history in Atlanta to see which versions were the best at what they did… and maybe that will take our minds off what we’ve been seeing over the past couple of season.

If nothing else… this will be a reminder of just how spoiled we were at various times along the way.

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