Scariest Batters Atlanta Braves' Pitchers Have Faced
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In the theme of the day, there are players that ‘have the number’ of certain pitchers. Even the best pitchers in Atlanta Braves’ history have their nemeses, and here they are.
Here is a run-through of some of the best pitchers seen in an Atlanta Braves uniform… and some of the most haunting times they will remember when standing out on a mound.
We wish to gratefully acknowledge Baseball-Reference.com and their easy access to this data.
Greg Maddux
Surprisingly, Mad Dog Greg Maddux actually had a host of batters hit .500 or better off of him (159 of them in fact, though 510 others also had lifetime “Oh-fers”). Most of these only saw him a couple of times.
The hitter with the most plate appearances against Maddux still having a 1.000 batting average against was the Cobra: Dave Parker. 6 official AB, 6 hits (2 doubles) and 2 walks… a perfect 1.000 OBP as well with a 2.333 OPS.
Franklin Stubbs, of all people, gets the award for most PA’s with a .500 average or better. 12 for 24 with 2 walks. Junior Spivey was close: 10 for 18 (.556) including 2 homers. So was Bip Roberts (16 for 34, .471).
The most annoying hitter for Maddux, though, is a theme we’ll see in all of this: Tony Gwynn. Another Hall of Famer, who in 107 plate appearances never was struck out and hit .415 overall.
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Tom Glavine
For the southpaw, Barry Bonds was definitely scary. 120 times they faced off against one another, with Bonds getting a .309 average with 19 walks, just 11 K, 5 homers and 16 RBI.
All that said, that’s really not all that terrible a result. But there were others…
Glavine didn’t appreciate seeing his former catcher Javy Lopez in the box: that happened just 11 times but Javy was 6 for 9 against his old battery mate.
Aramis Ramirez hit .500 against this Hall of Famer: 13 for 26 with 4 home runs.
Bizarrely, Junior Spivey shows up on this list, too: 5 for 10 with 3 jacks. Mind you, he only had 48 lifetime homers and hit .270 in just 5 major league seasons!
Tony Gwynn? .303 in 105 PAs with 2 homers. Glavine actually managed K him twice, though.
Barry Larkin, Jay Bell, Todd Zeile, and Mark Grace all hit Glavine hard: .320, .314, .326, and .333 respectively – with all of them seeing Tom for 100+ plate appearances.
The running joke in the broadcast booth about Mike Redmond and his prowess against Glavine is well founded: .438 in 51 PA (21 for 48) with 7 homers. That’s over half of his major league total of 13 .
After going to the American League in 2005, Redmond only ever hit 2 more homers… because Tom Glavine wasn’t there!
One more name of note: Dave Magadan. 44 trips against Glavine: .425 hitting. But at least he never went yard!
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John Smoltz
As a starter and closer at times, Smoltz got to see a lot of batters, too – the entire roster of most teams down to the end of the benches. Still, there were scary hitters for him despite his obvious successes.
David Cone – yes, the pitcher – actually is the single player with the most hits off of Smoltzie without an official out. Cone was 4 for 4 with 3 RBI and a sacrifice (which doesn’t count against him) in 5 plate appearances for a 1.000 batting average.
Jeff Bagwell hit .301 lifetime vs. Smoltz with 2 homers, but the Brave pitcher also K’d him 11 times in 103 attempts.
Mark Grace got him at a .343 clip with 6 homers in 82 tries. Likewise Mickey Morandini hit .344 with 8 RBI over 64 at bats.
At least Smoltz managed to hold Junior Spivey to a 1-for-4 .250 average.
But once again, Tony Gwynn is on the list as the foil for this flamethrower: .444 in 72 AB with 2 homers, 13 RBI, and just a single strikeout despite recording 3,083 others over a 21 year career.
Of course Gwynn would scare almost every pitcher.
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Tim Hudson
Tim Hudson faced exactly one batter more than 100 times – that’s a good trivia question. The answer is Philadelphia’s Jimmy Rollins… 101. But Huddy held him down to a .245 average. Ditto for slugger David Wright: 92 appearances vs. Hudson and a .241 average.
So there had to be somebody else, right? Of course.
Carlos Beltran and Ryan Howard are the two batters that Hudson would have liked to call in sick for.
Between this pair, Hudson faced them 167 times and they went yard 11 times.
Howard got him for 7 of those dingers and hit .343 in the process. Beltran hit .351 with an extra double (4 to 3 over Howard). Both players OPS’d over 1.000 vs. Huddy.
A few others – like Edgar Martinez, John Olerud, Shane Victorino, and Carlos Delgado hit him up at a .300+ clip while each getting 50-70 plate appearances, but it is likely that visions of Beltran and Howard will continue to haunt Hudson on long restless nights.
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Phil Niekro
When you have a career that lasts from age 25 to 48, you see a lot of batters. And you see a lot of batters quite often.
Back in his day, the Atlanta Braves were in the National League West. So were the Cincinnati Reds. So he saw a lot of long-time Reds and Dodgers players.
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Pete Rose and Niekro hooked up 266 times – with Rose getting 64 of his 4,256 hits off of the knucklballer… for a respectable .284 average.
Hall of Famer Tony Perez hit .313 in 174 tries. Of those seeing Niekro for 100 times or more (33 players did), he had the highest average-against… and one of the highest OPS at .912, with 9 homers included.
Johnny Bench homered 11 times in 200 plate appearances, though hitting only .259.
There are a couple of batters that might qualify as scarier to Niekro than these members of the Big Red Machine, though:
There were a couple of others as well: Bob Bailey (another Expo along with Staub): 5 homers and .319 with a 1.035 OPS (85 PA); Reggie Smith 1.099 with 6 HR (72 PA).
So yes, even knuckleballers have days ‘like that’.
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Don Sutton
Okay, yes: Sutton was never an Atlanta Braves’ pitcher. But he does hail from Braves’ Country before being drafted out of LA (Lower Alabama) to LA (Los Angeles) to launch his playing career.
He’s also a member of the Braves’ Hall of Fame, so let’s see just which batters kept him awake at night.
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Sutton was a contemporary of Niekro… and has a very similar profile of hitters faced as a result.
Once again, Pete Rose is tops on the “times faced” list, but Sutton didn’t fare as well as Knucksie did.
Rose, in 194 plate appearances, garnered 60 hits for a .339 average and .903 OPS with 4 homers and 2 triples included.
Johnny Bench was close behind: 42 hits in 146 official AB (.288) with 12 homers for a .900 OPS. That’s easily the most home runs allowed by Sutton to any single player.
Gary Matthews of the Giants hit .305 with a .918 OPS and 7 homers over a 115 PA resume.
Mike Pagliarulo had a short, but distinguished and productive career vs. Sutton, hitting 5 our of the park in just 18 official AB for a 1.591 OPS.
Jeff Burroughs was another that would scare – and annoy – Sutton: 52 trips to the plate and a .364 average against with 6 homers and a 1.302 OPS. Rance Mulliniks was also a thorn in his side: 36 tries, 15 hits and 2 homers for a 1.296 OPS.
Willie Mays and Hank Aaron? Mays abused him in 62 tries for a .373 BA, 3 HR, 10 RBI, and 1.111 OPS. Sutton did handle the Hammer well, though: .241 in 95 plate appearances with a .674 OPS… but 3 homers.
Finally: Braves third/first baseman Bob Horner victimized Sutton 5 times in 48 AB, hitting a robust .354 for a 1.082 OPS.
Here’s hoping this doesn’t conjure up too many bad memories for these stellar pitchers… but even they had a few bad days here and there.
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