Atlanta Braves: can 3rd baseman Austin Riley make some history?

What the Atlanta Braves are getting from Austin Riley this season can’t be understated…. especially given this franchise’s history.

The history of the Atlanta Braves franchise goes back a-ways… and that, of course, is because it is the oldest continuously-operating professional baseball organization on the planet.

2022 marks the 152nd season for this team since getting started in 1871.

That’s why we oughta take notice whenever somebody does something exceedingly rare.  So let’s break it down.

Double Trouble

In those 152 seasons, just twenty-nine times have Braves/Beaneaters/Doves/etc. players recorded 40 or more doubles in a single campaign.

The franchise record is held by Hugh Duffy with 51.  That came back in 1894 with the Boston Beaneaters.

The Atlanta-only record is held by Marcus Giles, who banged out 49 doubles  in 2003.  He also got 45 in 2005.

Ozzie Albies has accomplished this mark three times (43, 40, 40).  Freddie Freeman also pulled off the 3-peat feat (44, 43, and 43).

You might be surprised to learn that Hank Aaron only surpassed the 40 line twice:  46 and 40 (though he did have another season at 39).

This season, Matt Olson has already gotten to 41 doubles… he might not challenge Giles’ record, but could get close.

There’s one more name with 3 instances of 40+ doubles:  Chipper Jones, who had 41 in both 1997 and 1999, along with 42 in 2007.  Remember that for what’s coming up.

Homer Havens

Now let’s check the home runs.  Only 21 Braves have ever hit 40 or more during a season.  This time, there’s no surprise:  Hank Aaron did that seven times.

Aaron shared the Braves franchise record with Eddie Mathews at 47 homers (Mathews reached 40+ three times) until Andruw Jones muscled up 51 in 2005.

As with the doubles, Aaron hit 39 homers — twice — and Mathews added 39 of his own, just missing this list for those additional feats.

This club is more exclusive:  only Andruw Jones, Aaron, and Mathews have driven 40+ balls out of the park in multiple years (A. Jones also had 41 in 2006).

Chipper Jones’ lone entry in the 40+ homer group came during a special year:  his 1999 MVP season.

That year also saw him make some Braves history.

The 40/40 Club

Despite all of these sluggers over a century-and-a-half, only Chipper has managed to reach both milestones in a single season.  In his case, it was 41 doubles and 45 homers.

During that year, he also hit .319, got on base over 44% of the time(!), and slugged .633… giving him an OPS of 1.074.

He got the MVP award, yet couldn’t make the All-Star team.  Go figure.

But now my question is this:  can Austin Riley match this feat?

As of today, Riley sits at 36 doubles and 35 homers with 24 games left on the schedule.

Some of the pitching he’ll face could be formidable (after this West Coast swing, the Braves still have 7 games vs. Philly, 3 vs. the Mets, and 3 vs. the always-challenging Marlins).

There will be 6 games against Washington, which could help, but Riley will need to stay hot for the rest of this month regardless.

Over the past 30 days, he’s knocked out just 3 doubles and 5 homers.  He will have to pick up the pace to get the 4 doubles and 5 homers needed for a 40/40 season.

As for Others…

The MLB 40/40 club has 38 members, though a few have done this twice or more:  Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig (3 times — no wonder those early Yankees teams were so formidable), Chuck Klein, Hank Greenberg, Todd Helton, Albert Pujols (he’s the only other 3-time entrant) and David Ortiz.

Oddly, no one reached these numbers between 1941 and 1972.  Most recently, both Nolan Arenado (with Colorado) and Josh Donaldson (with Toronto) both reached these marks in 2015.

But it’s exceedingly rare for a Brave, as this is clearly a tough set of marks to achieve:  after all, it’s been done just once in 151 prior seasons.

Let’s see if Riley can get there.  Doing so would only tend to benefit this team down the stretch.