Supplementing my Jorge argument
Earlier today, I linked to my piece from June 2010 about being a Hall of Fame player. Now, I’m going to do some more rough calculations using my positional averages. This will be a rough calculation again for time’s sake. I’ll also look at wRC+ and the other players a little more closely.
The position I’m going to compare Posada to is the position of Hall of Fame catcher. I’m going to take the rough average for the players–adding up their numbers and dividing, rather than compiling them to make a “true” average.
So our Hall of Famers had an average BA of .285, an average OBP of .363, and an average SLG of .444. Jorge Posada’s career line was .273/.374/.474. That puts Posada at 95/103/106 when his batting line is compared to the average Hall of Fame catcher. So, he’s basically a slightly above average hitter when compared to Hall of Fame catchers. That definitely bodes well for his case, but what I’ve done ignores the fact that these guys all come from different offensive eras. So, let’s look at how they stacked to the competition (non-position adjusted) by taking a look at wRC+. Ranking them from greatest to least, we end up with this list:
Mickey Cochrane: 133
Roger Bresnahan: 129
Bill Dickey: 127
Buck Ewing: 125
Johnny Bench: 125
Gabby Hartnett: 125
Yogi Berra: 124
Roy Campanella: 123
Jorge Posada: 123
Ernie Lombardi: 123
Carlton Fisk: 118
Gary Carter: 114
Rick Ferrell: 100
Ray Schalk: 89
If we average things out again, the average wRC+ of a Hall of Fame catcher is 119. Posada’s is 123. Using the “positional adjustment,” Jorge grades out as a 103. The median of the wRC+ marks is 123, which matches what Jorge has done for his career. Like the batting line, wRC+ seems to tell us that Jorge is right there when it comes to Hall of Fame catchers. From a purely numbers stand point, Jorge Posada is most definitely a Hall of Fame hitter.
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It is always hard to think of Jorge as a Hall of Fame player just because he was overshadowed by other players that were either bigger names or better numbers. Players such as Jeter, A-Rod, Mussina, etc. were seemingly front line players while Jorge played a “secondary” yet important role both in and off the field. I really enjoyed this analysis comparing Jorge to other catchers and using wRC+ to compare players of different eras. While other catchers played better defense or had better single offensive years, Jorge deserves to be in the HOF not only for playing consistently well for over a decade, but being part of 6 AL pennants and 4 WS champsionships.
While the offensive numbers certainly put him in the running for the HoF, how much does his defense hurt him? Based on my modest knowledge and recollection of Bench, Fisk, and Carter, I believe they were all better than Posada defensively. That may be his downfall. He’s been a great Yankee. Not quite sure if he’s HoF material however.
He is an average-ish hitter by HoF catcher standards, but it is still a defensive position, and his defense has long been considered poor. I don’t know the defensive rep of all those HoF catchers, but I would imagine Posada would rank very low, and that likely pulls him into the lower echelon of HoF catchers, which usually means you are in the “did they really deserve to get in” category.
For more context, I’d like to see him stacked against the best catchers who aren’t in the HoF (exempting Piazza and IRod, who most certainly will be).
I wonder if voters will try and keep Piazza out, simply the belief of steroid use, much in the way they did Bagwell. Piazza has never had any real link to steroids, but the only link Jeff ever had was being friends with Ken Caminetti. There is always the chance they use a similar, “we think he did” bias against Mike.
[...] Imbrogno of Yankee Analysts argues that Jorge Posada belongs in the Hall of [...]
Jorge Posada does not belong in the Hall of Fame. He was a good hitter for his position and probably one of the worst receivers I have ever seen behind the plate. Trust me, I saw him behind the plate for nearly half the home games from 1998 through 2003. It was one of the most maddening things I ever had the displeaure of watching. He can’t frame a pitch to save his life, always set up late, and had terrible footwork. He was never very efficient throwing runners out, even with pitchers that were quick to the plate like Mussina. Not to mention, has there ever been a catcher that allowed more passed balls in the history of baseball? His defensive legacy will be for basically allowing more passed balls than any catcher I can ever remember and for having guys like Mussina and others request to not have him behind the plate when they pitched!
What a great point. How often did our pitchers seem to prefer to pitch to someone else? Other than a knuckleball guy, I’ve never seen a catcher bypassed by members of his staff like Posada has been. Rich makes some seriously good points that I wish Matt would respond to. If you want to argue that Posada is as good of a hitter as the HoF catchers, well, you might not be ridiculous. However, as a CATCHER, he’s nowhere even close to Hall candidacy.
I could fart the ball to second base with more speed and accuracy than Posada can throw it. Just think how many runs we suffered because someone hit a single and promptly stole second against Posada.
[...] thing, that’s fine with me. However, as much as I love Jorge, as much as I think he should be a Hall of Famer, he has no place with the Yankees after [...]
@Matthew Jacobs: “You might not be ridiculous”? This seems like a bit of an understatement considering the author used a little trick called mathematics to demonstrate that Posada’s offense compares favorably with the best catchers of all time. Furthermore, I’m a little disappointed that Jorge’s 932nd career walk went largely unnoticed by the baseball blogosphere last night. It’s my understanding that he surpassed Hall of Famer Rick Ferrell as the all-time leader among catchers (minimum 75% of games played at that position). Yet another offensive milestone that places Posada among the greatest catchers in baseball history.
As for pitchers refusing to have Posada catch for them, I don’t give that argument a lot of credence. Is anyone suggesting that A.J. Burnett could throw any worse with Posada behind the plate? The fact is, Jorge has always been a fantastic pitch-caller. I think David Wells’ perfect game speaks to that.