FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S
#79 KEN SMITH
ATLANTA BRAVES 1981-1983
Ken Smith may have seemed like a good first base prospect for the Braves during the early 80's, but it didn't quite pan out all that well. He hit for a nice .293 average in 1982, but slumped to .167 in 1983 and his career ended after that season. He did hit his only major league home run that season on April 18, 1983 off Mike Couchee of the Padres. It was also the only homer that Couchee gave up during his brief career.
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| Rarely have I seen anyone less thrilled to have their picture taken than Ken Smith in this one. |
I went back to the 1976 June amateur draft and saw that the following players were taken after Ken Smith in the first round: Ken Landreaux, Steve Trout, Leon Durham, Pat Tabler, Mike Sciocia, and Bruce Hurst. A couple of players taken in the second round were Alan Trammell and Mike Scott. Any of those could have helped the Braves in the late 70s!
ReplyDeleteIt seemed like Ken might develop into a good player at the time. Not meant to be, I guess.
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