Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: the strange career of Gerald Perry

It happened during an era that was more about Dale Murphy, but there was another budding Atlanta Braves star who kept taking odd turns along his way.

In the 1978 draft, the Atlanta Braves did rather well.  Six of their picks made the majors, and 3 of them had careers that spanned 9+ seasons in the majors.

The marquee name was first overall pick Bob Horner, but 3rd rounder Steve Bedrosian is definitely a name instantly recognizable among long-time Braves watchers.

But it was in the 11th round that Atlanta picked up a high school kid from Savannah (and then Hilton Head) that could play first base along with some outfield… Gerald Perry.

Perry’s minor league career spanned late 1978 through 1982 (for the most part), pretty much going ‘station-to-station’… one year per level.  He wasn’t the kind of physical specimen that you’d of as a 1st baseman – being listed at 5’11” and 180 lbs. – but he held to both that spot and left field for most of his career.

His hitting was good – not great – but solid enough to get to an overall .295 level with the promise of some power – 82 homers in 792 games.

It was also enough to have BaseballAmerica place him 5th in their lists of Braves’ prospects for both 1983 and 1984.

All of that got Perry a promotion to the big leagues in August 1983 – going 1 for 4 against the Giants during a pennant race.

The Braves fell short of the Dodgers that year (by 3 games), but manager Joe Torre saw enough that he liked in Perry (he hit .359 down the stretch over 45 plate appearances with a higher walk rate than strikeouts) to give him a much more regular job in 1984.

In that ’84 season, Perry got 419 plate appearances and hit .265 for the year.  He stole 15 bases (though was caught a dozen other times), hit 7 homers, and knocked in 47 runs.  With a .372 OBP, that all added up to a .743 OPS as a rookie… not half bad for an 11th round pick.