Growing up in the 50s and 60s as an Indians fan, I suppose I was too self-absorbed to realize that, in a land far to the northwest, another group of fans was suffering at the hands of the team's management. Now that I study it, the fate of the Milwaukee Braves was eerily similar to Cleveland's. The chief difference was that Cleveland's Tribe was disarticulated by one insane man, Frank "Trader" Lane. The Braves were ruined by a thoroughly stupid management staff that was completely clueless when it came to evaluating talent.
And they were unlucky.
And probably racist.
And, at some point, they got tired of tired old dirty, boring Milwaukee. But that's another story.
I like baseball stats. Always have. Even as a kid, I looked for new ways to interpret existing data. But what I love even more than stats are player personnel decisions. And that's what really killed the once-proud Milwaukee Braves.
This analysis is gonna take some time. Too much for one blog post, certainly.
So let's start with some basics.
1) After the development of the farm system, but before the era of free agency, baseball trades flourished. It was how many teams tried to build winners.
2) Today, free agent strategies have replaced most trades. These strategies are just as fascinating as trades used to be, but I don't want to talk about them on this blog.
3) In most cases, I believe, most teams in the trading era would have been better served by not trading players than by trading them. This is the non-trade trade. There are exceptions all over the place, but essentially, teams that traded a lot were run by people (Frank "Trader" Lane, for ex) who thought they were smarter than the next guy. Lane wasn't. The Yankees were smarter than the A's during this era. The Braves and Cubs were not smarter than anyone. (We won't go into the Cubs here, except to mention Brock for Broglio later on.)
4) You can't judge most trades by "Who they got for who." You have to follow the thread a little further--in most cases. But the Braves' trades were so bad that you really don't need to follow the thread, because it just gets worse as you follow it.
Basic premise of this treatise: The Milwaukee fans were robbed of their team by a management that made stupid trades beginning in 1959. The Braves could have continued to contend, and doubtless would have won at least one pennant, from 1961 through 1966, if they had done nothing at all besides use the considerable talent they had at the end of the 1959 season. The squandering of the in-house talent in that period caused the team to collapse, attendance to dwindle in the small Milwaukee market, and paved the way for the move to Atlanta.
At least Cleveland didn't lose its team during this era. Almost, but not quite. But Milwaukee fans lost not only what should have been an exciting contending team, they lost the whole franchise.
What I intend to do is demonstrate how the Braves team of 1948, just like the Cleveland team of 1948, was poised for greatness. But because the owners panicked a decade later, Milwaukee (and Cleveland) were destroyed from within.
Today, in Milwaukee Disaster Blog 1, we will start with some history.
1948: Spahn and Sain and pray for rain. Team wins the NL pennant, loses to Cleveland in WS, but nontheless is a fine squad. Scrappy guys like Eddie Stanky, Al Dark, Tommy Holmes and slugging Bob Elliott.
The team slumps, and by 1952, finishes 7th. But who's showing up in the lineup? Eddie Mathews, Johnny Logan, Lew Burdette. The future has arrived.
1953: Joe Adcock, Billy Bruton, Del Crandall and Bob Buhl arrive. WOW!
1954: The Home Run King appears: Hank Aaron. Gene Conley, all 6-foot-8 of him (also a pro basketball player) joins the pitching staff. This team is stoked. Moves up to 3rd place, then second in 55, second by one game in 56, and then, POW! Two consecutive pennants, including a world championship, in 57-58.
To understand the significance of this, you need to know that the NL was extremely competitive in those years. It was right before expansion, but right after the collapse of the Negro leagues. Hispanics were being signed left and right (but not by Milwaukee). There was a glut of talent on a small number of teams. And the Braves just snared two pennants in a row.
Consider who they had: Pitching: Spahn, Burdette, Joey Jay and Juan Pizarro, with Don frickin McMahon in the bullpen. Hitting: Mathews, Aaron, Bruton, Crandall (one of the top hitting catchers ever in his prime), and Wes Covington. A forgotten player today, but then, Cov was one of the most feared left-handed platoon hitters in the game. In 58, his slugging average was .622! And Joe Adcock, the George Scott of his day (think Hafner), was being PLATOONED with the singles hitter Frank Torre, even though Adcock had proven he could hit righties and lefties earlier in his career. With the outfield dominated by the fleet Bruton and the quick, lithe Aaron, the infield anchored by Johnny Logan and various good fielding second basemen, this was a solid team from top to bottom.
Then.... they finished second by TWO GAMES to the Dodgers in 59, and second again in 1960. SECOND!!!!!!!!!
Stay tuned and find out tomorrow just how stupid the Braves bosses would be....
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