[Terry D]

Larry McWilliams was a left handed pitcher who came up in '78 and had several up-and-down seasons with the Braves. In mid season 1982 he was pitching garbage relief for Atlanta when he was traded to the Pirates for the inimitable Pascual Perez. As Bill James pointed out, this was a trade which helped both teams because both pitchers' careers took off after it. McWilliams found his groove with Pittsburgh, where coach Johnny Sain gave him a weird, herky-jerky motion. It looked funny but it worked, and for two and a half years McWilliams was one of the best left handed starters in the National League. Then in 1985 McWilliams was hit by shoulder problems. His strikeouts fell and his K/W deteriorated and after two poor seasons the Bucs cut him loose. Thereafter McWilliams had to scramble to stay in the majors. He was an aging pitcher dealing with the typical mid-career loss-of-the-fastball crisis, but he hung on through 1990 as a left-handed spot reliever and occasional spot starter with several teams. McWilliams' first stop on this tour was back in Atlanta in '87, where he went 0-1, 5.75 in nine games. This 1987 photo comes from the Fritsch postcard collection on ebay. It is the only image I have seen so far of McWilliams in the new/old uniform which Atlanta (re) adopted that year.