Walter “Rabbit” Maranville was known for quite a few things: his sense of humor, his durability, and defensive skills, the latter two of which ranked him on this list of all-time Braves.

Maranville would become Boston’s full-time Shortstop in 1913, where he dazzled the Majors with his glove, and he was third in MVP voting.  In 1914, he finished second in MVP voting and led them to a World Series win.  While nobody was aware of Defensive bWAR (or any kind of WAR for that matter), Maranville was a two-time leader with Boston in that category and ranked in the top ten another seven times while he played in Massachusetts.  Defense was his expertise, and while his offensive numbers aren’t that great, this was a 23-year veteran who would accumulate 2,605 Hits over his career, 1,696 as a Brave.  Maranville was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates before 1921, but he returned in 1929 and was still effective.

Rabbit Maranville entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1954 on his 14^th year of eligibility.  The Braves would later induct Maranville into their franchise Hall of Fame in 2014.

We have another member of the 1957 World Series Championship team, Del Crandall, who would represent Milwaukee in eight All-Star Games.  Crandall lost a couple of years early due to serving his country during the Korean War, but upon his return stateside, he established himself as one of the best defensive Catchers in baseball and an elite pitch caller whom pitchers trusted implicitly.  Crandall won four of the first Gold Gloves issued to Catchers in the National League (the first was won by one person regardless of the league), and had that piece of hardware been issued before 1957, he would have probably won another four.  Crandall would lead all National League Catchers in Total Zone Runs six times and Fielding Percentage four times.

Crandall was not the best hitter, but, for his defense, not many catchers were when he played.  He would accumulate 1,176 Hits and 170 Home Runs as a Brave, and he would have seven seasons where he received MVP votes, his highest being a tenth-place finish in 1958.

In 2003, Crandall was the lone inductee to the Braves Hall of Fame.

Johnny Logan was an excellent defensive Shortstop who would three times lead all of his National League peers in Total Zone Runs and was a three-time leader in Fielding Percentage.  Logan was not the greatest hitter but he was an All-Star four times who scrapped out four straight 150 Hit seasons (1953 to 1957) who helped the Milwaukee Braves win the 1957 World Series.  The respect that writers had for his overall game was shown by Logan receiving MVP votes annually from 1952 to 1957, though he never finished in the top ten.

There was a famous saying around the Boston Braves that waxed poetic about the late 1940’s Boston Braves: