[Terry D]

John Rabb was yet another obscure Braves catcher of the 1980s, but a little more noteworthy than guys like Mizerock, Owen, and Sinatro and probably a better player too if he had been given the chance. Rabb was stuck in three bad organizations, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Seattle, which didn't help his cause any. He could play OF and 1B but was not much of a catcher, his throwing being particularly poor. After only Steve Sax he was the era's most famous victim of Steve Sax disease; at one point during the 1983 season he had terribly difficulty just getting the ball back to the pitcher. He told the press "I feel as if my arm's possessed." Rabb was best with the bat, not the glove; in that respect he was like a precursor of Francisco Cabrera or a lower case Earl Williams. Rabb consistently slugged over .400 in the minors, but he got only 200 or so ABs in the majors and for a slugger like him that just wasn't enough to ever get his bat into the groove. He might have had a good career if he'd been a DH in the AL or if he'd found an NL manager who was just willing to stick him at 1B and show some patience, but that did not happen. He got only a couple of games with Atlanta in '85 while the team was collapsing and a couple more later with the '88 Mariners while they were collapsing. Here he finally is as a Brave, so maybe someday we will see him as a Marginal too.