Atlanta Braves history: Top 5 franchise second basemen
By Fred Owens
As the Atlanta Braves prepare for 2020 with a roster full of young stars, we look back at the best players at each position in franchise history.
When I decided to do this series about the Atlanta Braves‘ best at each position, I knew context would affect the final list, but felt I’d quickly identify the number one player at each position. It wasn’t easy; that’s what I get for thinking.
I knew I had to set a limit on the fewest games played. As you’ll see, as I go through the positions, I couldn’t use the same criteria for each position.
The Franchise’s long history meant I had to attempt to level the playing field across seven generations of players. I settled on plus stats as the way to do that. Plus stats like OPS+.tells us how well a player stacks up against the rest of the league when he played, with 100 as league average.
Using a Fangraphs custom player search by position, a created a table of the following plus stats.
- wOBA – if you care about determining how well a player contributes to run-scoring, wOBA is a more accurate representation of that contribution than OPS
- wRC+ – If you want a rate statistic for hitters that weights each offensive action and controls for league and park effects, wRC+ is for you.
- AVG+
- OBP+
- SLG+
- Rbaser – The number of runs better or worse than the average player for all baserunning events; SB, CS, PB, WP, Defensive indifference
I looked at every player’s plus stats, sample-size in terms of games played, impact on the Franchise, and contribution to the team’s success.
Teams traditionally haven’t regarded second base as a power-position, they looked for defense that kept the team strong up the middle. In many cases, that meant smaller faster players, with soft-hands and an accurate arm.
The last thirty years saw that change with players like Jeff Kent becoming known as home run hitters. Former Atlanta Braves second baseman Davey Johnson holds the single-season franchise record for homers with 46 in 1973.
Dan Uggla’s 36 homers in 2011 rank second on that list, and though he played on 499 games there for the Atlanta Braves, he holds the career homer record as well with just 79. Neither Johnson nor Uggla made this list.