Category: Player Analysis 2016 (1982)

Lookit, I’m not going to try to tell you that Rafael Ramírez was a good ballplayer. He wasn’t. But, much like that ’82 Braves team, while displaying some huge, obvious flaws, the Dominican shortstop could do a couple...

On April 23, 1982, the Yankees traded Bob Watson to the Braves for minor-league pitcher Scott Patterson.* By then, the Bravos had already made some NL noise with a 13-game winning streak to start the season. But acquiring Watson...

Back in college in 1982, I had a friend named Melvin, who through the course of human events* came to be known as “Raise Hell Mel.”€ My crowd was enough easily amused that we began to incorporate this concept to various...

Oh what could have been… The Braves drafted Brett Butler in the 23rd round of the 1979 draft out of Southeastern Oklahoma State University. Butler was only one of four Braves draftees from 1979 to make it to the big leagues...

Apart from Phil Niekro (17-4), Bob Walk was the only starting pitcher on the 1982 Atlanta Braves who managed a W/L record over .500 — and not by much. He was 11-9. Walk managed this despite posting a 4.87 ERA and a 1.448 WHIP....

I remembered that Glenn Hubbard had a reputation as good defensive 2nd baseman. What I did not know is that, according to Baseball Reference, he is the career leader among 2nd basemen in Range Factor per 9 innings. Complete data...

Gene Garber broke into the major leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1969. The Pirates had little use for him (he spent all of 1971 in the minors), and in 1973 they traded him to Kansas City for Jim Rooker. In 1974, the...

In our continuing series on the 1982 Atlanta Braves, we look at catcher Bruce Benedict, who spent his entire 12-year major league career in Atlanta. Benedict had a career batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage of...

Phil Niekro made his major league debut the year I was born; 18 years later, he pitched the Braves to their 2nd NL West Division title. The 43-year-old Niekro went 17-4 for the Braves that 1982 season, a team that ended up 16...

Six hundred forty-two MLB players were born in the Dominican Republic1. Of these, 91 are from the town of San Pedro de Macoris. Of those, 57 are position players2. On this list there are great players (Sammy Sosa, Tony...

Biff Pocoroba. Let it roll off your tongue. Biff….Pooooooke…….arobah! Say it with me. If you were writing a short story for Boys’ Life about a professional baseball team, Biff Pocoroba might have been a name...

Editor’s note: This is the point in the offseason where we start Mac’s annual tradition of providing player recaps as we count down to March. But I honestly don’t have the heart to ask anyone to write player...