Atlanta Braves history: top five franchise shortstops

Number four – A bat that owned a glove

The Atlanta Braves selected Jeff Blauser with the fourth pick in the first round of the 1984 June draft. Three years and one month later, he made his Major League debut against the Cardinals.

Blauser’s bat carried him to the Majors and kept him there despite some shaky, often groan-worthy, defense. As a result, the Braves often replaced him for defensive purposes late in the game.  His bat was special enough that no one minded his occasional errors.

From 1989 through 1997, Blauser batted .269/.358/.418/.776 with a 107 OPS+; only Cal Ripken and Barry Larkin hit more homers, and of shortstops with at least 900 games, only Larkin posted a better OPS

Blauser had multi home-run-games for the Braves and particularly liked hitting at Wrigley field where he launched 18 of his 122 career homers, eleven of those as a Brave.

• On August 26, 1989, Blauser homered off the Cubs’ Rick Sutcliffe in the top of the fourth and backed that up with another solo homer in the top of the eighth off Dean Wilkins
• On May 7, 1889, He homered off Cubs starter Mike Harkey, in the top of the fourth, then tied the game with a two-run shot of Mitch Williams in the ninth to tie the game.
• On July 12, 1992, Blauser hit two solo homers off the Cubs’ Frank Castillo and a three-run homer off Paul Assenmacher in the top of the tenth to with the game.
• On May 7, 1993, Hit hit a solo homer in the top of the first off Rockies’ starter, Butch Henry, then hit a two-run homer off Jeff Parrett in the fifth inning, breaking a 5-5 tie.

Blauser also hit an inside-the-park homer off the Cardinals Bob McClure on August 23, 1992.

Blauser’s 1993 season – his first as Atlanta Braves starting shortstop, proved the best of his career. He batted .305/.401/.436/.837 with a 125 OPS+, making him the first Braves shortstop since Al Dark in 1948 to finish with a .300 average or better. 

In the season, Blauser:

• Played 161 games,
• Led NL shortstops and ranked second in MLB to Cal Ripken with 15 homers,
• Led MLB in walks with 85.
• Ranked second among NL shortstops with183 hits behind Jay Bell,  and #12 in all of MLB,
• Scored 110 runs moving him into third place in franchise history; he ranks sixth all-time today.
• Batted .280/.379/.560/.934 in the NLCS and tagged Philadelphia’s Tommy Greene for homers in games two and game six.

Number three – Yatcha

As a youth, Johnny Logan –called Yatcha by a guy on his street – loved baseball. At 15-years old, he took a Greyhound bus 40 miles to play semipro ball against college players; Dewey Griggs coached Logan’s team.

Most don’t know Griggs, but in 1947, he became a  scout of the Boston Braves. Later he would sign Bob Trowbridge, Wes Covington, and a guy named Hank Aaron., but in his first-year, he signed Logan for $2500; in 1947, near the average annual income in America.

Logan attended Major League camp in 1948, to compete with Alvin Dark.  Dark won the job, but the Braves traded Dark to the Giants two years later.  In 1951, Logan got a callup, but he didn’t stick with Boston until mid-1952.

He rewarded the 1952 Braves, by batting .283/.334.368/.702 and finishing #36 in the NL MVP vote. He continued to finish top-30 in MVP voting for the next five seasons. He also earned All-Star nods in 1955,1957, 1958, and 1959.

In his first ten seasons, the only Future Hall of Fame shortstops Ernie Banks and Pee Wee Reese played at least 1000 games while posting a higher batting average

Logan scored the winning run in the 1957 pennant-clinching game, and hit the first homer of the series, off Bobby Shantz, in the third inning of game two at Yankee Stadium. Logan’s ten assists in the fourth game set a new World Series record, he also doubled home Felix Mantilla in the bottom of the tenth to tie the game, then trotted home when Mathews hit a walk-off homer to win it.

Logan’s best year at the plate came in 1955, when he played in all 154 games, batted .297/.360/.442/.802, with a 116 OPS+, and led the League with 37 doubles. Fangraphs says that’s worth .360 wOBA, 121 wRC+, and 5.6 fWAR, while Baseball-Reference gave him a slightly more generous 6.0 rWAR.

In ten-plus seasons as a Brave, Logan played in 1351 games, batting .270/.330/.384/.714, accumulated 14.3 dWAR, 33.0 rWAR, a .323 wOBA, 99 wRC+, and 31.3 fWAR.

Number two – Rabbit the first

Current Atlanta Braves’ second baseman Ozzie Albies and Rabbit Maranville have a lot in common. Both stood 5-8 inches tall, both started as undersized shortstops, and on the basepaths, both use speed, though Maranville did it more often, stealing 71 bases in his first three seasons. More importantly, both sparked their team to postseason play.

The Boston Braves acquired Rabbit in exchange for Brad Hogg and $1,000. Maranville. Later in his career, Braves manager George Stalling would rave about Rabbit’s play.

Maranville is the greatest player to enter baseball since Ty Cobb arrived. I’ve seen ’em all since 1891 in every league around the south, north, east, and west. He came into the league under a handicap–his build. He was too small to be a big leaguer in the opinion of critics. I told him he was just what I wanted: a small fellow for short. All he had to do was to run to his left or right, or come in, and size never handicapped speed in going after the ball.

Stallings’ memory did a small rewrite, at least according to the Maranville on page 15 of his book Run Rabbit Run.

As Rabbit tells it, a teammate told him after their afternoon workout in the spring of 2013, that Stalling’s nephew Art Bues would get the starting shortstop job.

(Maranville) said, ‘If I couldn’t play ball better than that guy I’d quit.’

It’s likely his teammate had set Rabbit up because Stalling was walking behind them and overheard his comment. That night he told Rabbit he’d have to shape up or get traded. In the end, Bues suffered an injury, Maranville got the job and kept it for the next eight years

He finished third in the 1913 NL MVP race and second to his double-play partner Johnny Evers in 1914.  I wrote extensively about Maranville’s play during the 1914 Miracle Braves worst to first run last year.

During the 1914 season, he led NL shortstops in games (156), Innings (1397, chances (1046), notched over 100 more put-outs than any other SS and made only 62 errors. . . .Mike Lynch called Maranville’s defense “otherworldly.” Today that’s  6.29 fielding runs a game (RF/G) and 4.2 dWAR

Not known for his bat, Maranville put together a monster World Series, hitting .308/.400/.308/.708, stealing two bases and driving three runs.

Over his initial eight-year stretch with the Braves (1913-1920), Maranville batted .252/.311/.340/.651, with a 91 OPS+. He totaled 998 hits, 316 walks, laid down 126 sac-bunts, and stole 156 bases.

The Braves traded Maranville to the Pirates for Billy Southworth in 1921, and he bounced around the League, until returning to the Braves in1929, after earning a comeback year tenth place finish in MVP; that renaissance continued with the Braves.

Now 37 years old, Maranville batted .284/.344/.366/.710, posted 2.5 rWAR, 2.1 dWAR, and finished #15 in the NL MVP race. He also finished #10 in 1931, #17 in 1932, and #12 in 1933.

A severe ankle injury in a spring training game cost Maranville the 1934 season. Though he tried to play the following season, his career effectively ended with the 1933 season.

Altogether, Maranville spent parts of 15 seasons with the Braves, appeared in 1795 games, stole 194 bases, and batted .252/.313/.329/.642.

In 1954, two weeks after his death, The BBWAA elected Rabbit Maranville to the Hall of Fame, with 209 of 252 members voting.

Number 1 – The First Flying Dutchman

In 2014, Graham Womack wrote about the voter ineptitude that kept Herman Long out of the Hall of Fame.

Long was the first player nicknamed “The Flying Dutchman” . . . (Honus) Wagner was given the nickname in tribute (to long). Long also gave Wagner one of his gloves in 1902, an over-sized glove with a large hole in the middle that became a Wagner trademark.

As recounted in The Glorious Beaneaters, the Beaneaters acquired Long after a dispute between Philadelphia and Boston over Herman Long and Billy Hamilton, was settled by drawing names out of a hat. The Beaneaters drew Long, who wore the Boston uniform for 13 years, anchoring the infield as the Beaneaters won five NL Championships.

Long was known for his glove, but his bat proved equally valuable. In his first game – Patriots Day in  Boston – he hit two homers to lead a Beaneater comeback over Brooklyn. Long went on to score in his first 12 games and post two ten-game hit streaks before being sidelined with a sore back and miss 25 games.  He still led the team and finished fourth in League with eight home runs.

In 1891, Long led the team with 163 hits, 80 walks, 60 stolen bases, a .282 batting average, a .377 OBP, and finished second in homers (9), slugging (.407), OPS (.785), and OPs+ (120), as they won the NL Pennant.

In 1894 Long batted .324/.375/.505/.881 and hit 12 home runs. He was one of five Beaneaters to finish top-ten in the League.

He would bat .315, .345, and .322 over the next three seasons, making him the only franchise shortstop to hit over .300 in four consecutive seasons. Long remains number one, three, and seven on the franchise batting average list for shortstops.

During his 13 years with Boston, Long batted .280/.337/.390/.727.  He hit 88 home runs, good for second in the League, and one ahead Duffy, 295 doubles fifth in that span, stole 434 bases ninth in the League and hit 91 triple good for #25.

In Long’s first ten years with Boston, the team never fell below .500, posting an 869 -508 record (.622 winning %). Long didn’t do it by himself, but it isn’t a huge leap to call him the catalyst of those victories.

Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith included Long on his all nineteenth-century team, and Grantland Rice considered Long for inclusion on his most team of the graceful players of all-time.

Womack’s post, linked earlier, also included this quote from a 1911 story in the Arizona Republican, two years after Long died of TB

In every one of the championship years . . . much of the credit  (belonged to) Herman Long. . . .  (as a player)  there was none beside him, and when he went to Boston . . . he carried with him his wonderful gifts of fielding, of hitting, of base-running and of generalship, and thus became a permanent sensation . . .

Today’s Atlanta Braves could use a guy like Long today

That’s a wrap.

The Atlanta Braves franchise had four clear top shortstop candidates with two players vying for number five. I eliminated Andrelton Simmons because he didn’t hit much when he wore the Tomahawk and fell one short of the 500 games I set as the cutoff.

I considered including him anyway, but when I looked at the totality of play, despite his great glove, he came up short… no pun intended.

I didn’t include Al Dark, who won Rookie of the Year and finished third in MVP voting in 1948, and #25 in MVP voting in 1949. He left after three seasons and had a long and successful Major League career.

With shortstop in the rearview mirror, I move on to the outfield for the next post.