# 1972 Atlanta Braves season

The 1972 Atlanta Braves season was the seventh season in Atlanta along with the 102nd season as a franchise overall.

## Offseason

* December 2, 1971: Hal King was traded by the Braves to the Texas Rangers for Paul Casanova.

## Regular season
### Notable transactions

* May 11, 1972: Steve Barber was released by the Braves.
* June 6, 1972: Preston Hanna was drafted by the Braves in the 1st round (11th pick) of the 1972 Major League Baseball Draft.
* June 15, 1972: Jim Nash and Gary Neibauer were traded by the Braves to the Philadelphia Phillies for Andre Thornton and Joe Hoerner.
* June 29, 1972: Orlando Cepeda was traded by the Braves to the Oakland Athletics for Denny McLain.

### Front-office and managerial turnover

The 1972 Braves' 70–84 season, following on the heels of a hopeful, 82–80 mark in 1971, resulted in the in-season firings of both general manager Paul Richards, on the job since January 1967, and field manager Luman Harris, who was in the midst of his fifth season as the team's skipper. Richards and Harris were a management team that had worked in tandem for 15 years with the Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros before coming to the Braves.
Atlanta was 18–22 on June 1 when Richards was demoted from GM to special assignment scout; his replacement was another longtime associate, Eddie Robinson, 51, the director of the club's farm system. Harris was fired August 6, with the Braves standing at 47–57 (.452), in fourth place in the NL West Division and 16 games behind the Cincinnati Reds. His successor was another internal hire, Eddie Mathews, 40, the team's first-base coach and perennial All-Star third baseman from its glory days in Milwaukee during the 1950s.

### Season standings

vteNL West :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| Cincinnati Reds | 95 | 59 | .617 | — | 42‍–‍34 | 53‍–‍25 |
| Houston Astros | 84 | 69 | .549 | 10½ | 41‍–‍36 | 43‍–‍33 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 85 | 70 | .548 | 10½ | 41‍–‍34 | 44‍–‍36 |
| Atlanta Braves | 70 | 84 | .455 | 25 | 36‍–‍41 | 34‍–‍43 |
| San Francisco Giants | 69 | 86 | .445 | 26½ | 34‍–‍43 | 35‍–‍43 |
| San Diego Padres | 58 | 95 | .379 | 36½ | 26‍–‍54 | 32‍–‍41 |

### Record vs. opponents

1972 National League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | ATL | CHC | CIN | HOU | LAD | MON | NYM | PHI | PIT | SD | SF | STL |
| Atlanta | — | 5–7–1 | 9–9 | 7–7 | 7–8 | 4–8 | 7–5 | 6–6 | 6–6 | 6–11 | 7–11 | 6–6 |
| Chicago | 7–5–1 | — | 8–4 | 3–9 | 8–4 | 10–5 | 10–8 | 10–7 | 3–12 | 9–3 | 7–5 | 10–8 |
| Cincinnati | 9–9 | 4–8 | — | 11–6 | 9–5 | 8–4 | 8–4 | 10–2 | 8–4 | 8–10 | 10–5 | 10–2 |
| Houston | 7–7 | 9–3 | 6–11 | — | 7–11 | 8–4 | 6–6 | 9–3 | 3–9 | 12–2 | 13–5 | 4–8 |
| Los Angeles | 8–7 | 4–8 | 5–9 | 11–7 | — | 6–6 | 7–5 | 7–5 | 7–5 | 13–5 | 9–9 | 8–4 |
| Montreal | 8–4 | 5–10 | 4–8 | 4–8 | 6–6 | — | 6–12 | 10–6 | 6–12 | 6–6 | 6–6 | 9–8 |
| New York | 5–7 | 8–10 | 4–8 | 6–6 | 5–7 | 12–6 | — | 13–5 | 8–6 | 7–5 | 8–4 | 7–9 |
| Philadelphia | 6-6 | 7–10 | 2–10 | 3–9 | 5–7 | 6–10 | 5–13 | — | 5–13 | 6–6 | 6–6 | 8–7 |
| Pittsburgh | 6–6 | 12–3 | 4–8 | 9–3 | 5–7 | 12–6 | 6–8 | 13–5 | — | 10–2 | 9–3 | 10–8 |
| San Diego | 11–6 | 3–9 | 10–8 | 2–12 | 5–13 | 6–6 | 5–7 | 6–6 | 2–10 | — | 4–10 | 4–8 |
| San Francisco | 11–7 | 5–7 | 5–10 | 5–13 | 9–9 | 6–6 | 4–8 | 6–6 | 3–9 | 10–4 | — | 5–7 |
| St. Louis | 6–6 | 8–10 | 2–10 | 8–4 | 4–8 | 8–9 | 9–7 | 7–8 | 8–10 | 8–4 | 7–5 | — |

### Roster
## Player stats
### Batting
#### Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| C | Earl Williams | 151 | 565 | 146 | .258 | 28 | 87 |
| 1B | Hank Aaron | 129 | 449 | 119 | .265 | 34 | 77 |
| 2B | Félix Millán | 125 | 498 | 128 | .257 | 1 | 38 |
| SS | Marty Perez | 141 | 479 | 109 | .228 | 1 | 28 |
| 3B | Darrell Evans | 125 | 418 | 106 | .254 | 19 | 71 |
| LF | Rico Carty | 86 | 271 | 75 | .277 | 6 | 29 |
| CF | Dusty Baker | 127 | 446 | 143 | .321 | 17 | 76 |
| RF | Mike Lum | 123 | 369 | 84 | .228 | 9 | 38 |

#### Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| Ralph Garr | 134 | 554 | 180 | .325 | 12 | 53 |
| Oscar Brown | 76 | 164 | 37 | .226 | 3 | 16 |
| Paul Casanova | 49 | 136 | 28 | .206 | 2 | 10 |
| Sonny Jackson | 60 | 126 | 30 | .238 | 0 | 8 |
| Larvell Blanks | 33 | 85 | 28 | .329 | 1 | 7 |
| Jim Breazeale | 52 | 85 | 21 | .247 | 5 | 17 |
| Orlando Cepeda | 28 | 84 | 25 | .298 | 4 | 9 |
| Gil Garrido | 40 | 75 | 20 | .267 | 0 | 7 |
| Bob Didier | 13 | 40 | 12 | .300 | 0 | 5 |
| Rod Gilbreath | 18 | 38 | 9 | .237 | 0 | 1 |
| Rowland Office | 2 | 5 | 2 | .400 | 0 | 0 |

### Pitching
#### Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Phil Niekro | 38 | 282.1 | 16 | 12 | 3.06 | 164 |
| Ron Reed | 31 | 213.0 | 11 | 15 | 3.93 | 111 |
| Jimmy Freeman | 6 | 36.0 | 2 | 2 | 6.00 | 18 |

#### Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Ron Schueler | 37 | 144.2 | 5 | 8 | 3.67 | 96 |
| Tom Kelley | 27 | 116.1 | 5 | 7 | 4.56 | 59 |
| George Stone | 31 | 111.0 | 6 | 11 | 5.51 | 63 |
| Pat Jarvis | 37 | 98.2 | 11 | 7 | 4.10 | 56 |
| Jim Hardin | 26 | 79.2 | 5 | 2 | 4.41 | 25 |
| Mike McQueen | 23 | 78.1 | 0 | 5 | 4.60 | 40 |
| Denny McLain | 15 | 54.0 | 3 | 5 | 6.50 | 21 |
| Jim Nash | 11 | 31.1 | 1 | 1 | 5.46 | 10 |
| Larry Jaster | 5 | 12.1 | 1 | 1 | 5.11 | 6 |

#### Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
| Cecil Upshaw | 42 | 3 | 5 | 13 | 3.69 | 23 |
| Joe Hoerner | 25 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6.56 | 19 |
| Gary Neibauer | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.27 | 8 |
| Tom House | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2.89 | 7 |
| Steve Barber | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.74 | 6 |

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AAA | Richmond Braves | International League | Clyde King |
| AA | Savannah Braves | Southern League | Clint Courtney |
| A | Greenwood Braves | Western Carolinas League | Paul Snyder |
| Rookie | Wytheville Braves | Appalachian League | Eddie Haas |