Atlanta Braves history: top five franchise shortstops
By Fred Owens
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.