by 2010 he was in Atlanta to stay where in 20 and 23s Innings he struck out 40 batters a rate of 17.4 K per n his ra Plus in that time frame in otherworldly 914 built in the back of a 0.44 erra no homers allowed and just nine hits against at the time you probably would have thought that's a fluke there's no way he could possibly do something close to that for an entire season but you'd have been wrong as he basically went out and did exactly that in 2011 His official rookie campaign to give you just one example exle of his dominance he surrendered one of his only earned runs on June 10th the next one you give up would be on September 9th in between where 37 and 23s Innings over 38 appearances in which he allowed just one extra base hit while striking out 67 batters by the end of the year he ranked first among all MLB relievers in war K hits per nine and whip he set a rookie record with 46 saves and was unanimously chosen as NL Rookie of the Year his stuff is truly electric out there Met's third baseman David Wright said you don't see too many guys throwing 90 eight and you definitely don't see tooo many guys that make it look as easy as he does with the life it's not like he's 7t tall out there either in fact even to this day when Kimbrell delivers the ball to home play his release point is only about 5 ft off the ground as the ball explodes from his 3/4 slot that means when he pitches up in the zone the pitch looks like it's coming out of his jersey and then just keeps on Rising the only blemish in the whole season was when Craig blew a save in game W 162 to the Phillies part of one of the greatest 129 minutes in baseball history when multiple penet races climaxed within minutes of each other Kimbrell got his revenge on the league however by absolutely destroying everything in his path over the next few seasons in 2011 up through 2014 Kimbrell put up arguably the greatest run by ever in the history of Major League Baseball such as in 2012 when Kimbrell struck out more than half of the Batters he faced 231 came up to hit against him and6 sat right back down no one had ever done that over a full season that same year he set the record for the lowest batting average against as well at just 126 yet that same season Kimbrell walked only 6.1% of batters with an RA of 1. 01 no other pitcher in baseball history had struck out so many walked so few with an raay that low while pitching more than 60 Innings he never gave up more than one hit or one run in an inning All Season all of that translated to an RA plus of 399 making him almost four times better than an average MLB pitcher I'm throwing 89 mph fast balls and he's throwing 87 88 mph curve balls teammate Chris Medlin said it's hard to even understand how he gives up any runs not many though obviously by now what Kimbrell was best known for aside from his dominance was his pre pitch stared on to the batter again to this day he stands on the mound leaning over his right arm angled like he's throwing a punch if you were to do that and throw 92 would' be a joke but when you strike out over half of the Batters you face in the best league in the world with an exploding 99 it's straight intimidating between 2012 and 2014 he converted 93 Point save per of his save opportunities while the league average hovered around 70% one save though he didn't get was in the 2012 wild card game against the Cardinals which the Braves lost 6 to3 Kimbrell pitched a perfect inning for his part but the game over all was marred by a disputed infield pop-up ruling that costed the Braves momentum Following season in 2013 the Braves made it the nlds against the Dodgers Kimbrell picking up a save in game two but when facing elimination in game four the Braves took a 3 to2 lead in the eighth inning instead of bringing in the game's best closer for a six out save Kimbrell watched from The Dugout as David Carpenter gave up a two-run home run to WAN ybe and the Braves went home again that season Kimbrell had actually Reger his career high in saves with 50 along with posting another E Plus North of 300 at 311 his a again a staggeringly low 1.21 however things were soon to change in Atlanta there was no postseason for the Braves in 2014 as the team stumbled to four games under 500 but they still had the game's best closer to dangle as trade bait following as Craig had again dominated the world that year and route to a 1.61 ra 223 ra plus and nearly 14 k per nine all of that along with his fourth straight season with over 40 saves