Catching take a major physical toll, and Posey has already made his way back from one major injury in his career. Given what he's won in his career, the money he has earned, and the fact that the Giants have a #2 overall pick in Joey Bart waiting to take the reins...I'm not shocked. Particularly given the fact that the Giants may have told him "we don't plan to pick up the option", and Posey may not have any interest in playing anywhere else, so this lets him go out on his terms.
His numbers are pretty similar to Posada who didn't even make it off the 1st ballot and Mauer who I doubt is anywhere near getting in easily if he even gets in. Framing helps his case, but it's hard to compare to most other catchers since they didn't have framing metrics at the time.
Everything I had read locally was that picking up the option was a priority. As a guy that really enjoyed watching him play, this is a super sad day.
I'll respectfully disagree on this one. An excellent player during an era that seems to have churned out a lot of great players, especially during the last half of Posey's 12 year career. I just don't think the numbers are there. Walking away after 12 years of playing at the level he's played at really says a ton about his priorities and I'm happy for him, but I think that also hinders his chance at being inducted into the HOF.
It will be a really interesting case. He has some black ink by virtue of winning a batting title, whereas Posada had none. And he has an MVP and a Rookie of the Year that Posada lacked. His 7-year peak is HOF-worthy, but the overall counting stats are low, even for a catcher.
Ortiz is largely going to get in due to having one of the best postseason resumes of any hitter ever and tons of memorable postseason moments. Mauer has essentially no postseason resume and though Posey did win 3 rings he actually sucked in the postseason.
I don’t understand that list. There have to be more. Ted Williams and Ty Cobb definitely did, although maybe not qualifying for the batting title. I assume Joe Jackson hit around .350.
Yeah, it's a quality v. quantity problem. I also immediately thought of Mauer. Aside from the rings (which are admittedly important; right, Papi??), I think it's fair to conclude that, over their best 7-8 peak years, Mauer was a slightly better player than Posey. Regardless, they're at least very close, and there certainly is no consensus that Mauer should be in (although I think his 3 unique batting titles, MVP, and gold gloves should get him in).
Thank you for making all my arguments for me. Catcher is an under-represented position, especially for the last 30-40 years. I don't think Posey or Mauer should be penalized for playing a demanding position and retiring relatively early instead of hanging on and padding stats on to what were most definitely HOF-worthy peaks.
Should catchers be held to the same standard seems to be the question. How many backstops have reached this glass ceiling in the past 25 years?
I need you to show your work here.
After rereading it I assumed the list was not all inclusive and the players mentioned were just highlights of the list. Made me wonder why you would leave out Boggs and Gwynn but at least made more sense.
95 players prior to this season, independent of era, hit .300+ in a qualified for batting title season in their final year.
Remarkably similar to Pedroia.
His career numbers (games played, hits, homers) are not far off from Roy Campanella and Mickey Cochrane. There’s just no recent position players elected with less than 2000 hits, never mind 1500. Granted the game has changed to the point where the old benchmarks may be irrelevant.
It's so hard to compare because they aren't on an even playing field. Based on jaws, which uses Bwar he's 14th in jaws and 16th in WAR among catchers, which would probably put him about borderline unless we want to start putting a lot more catchers in the hall because they're underrepresented.
That's pretty great. I'm friends with the Chron sports editor and he a class act.
Christina Kahrl is the Sports Editor these days.
Posey accrued pretty much matched all of Posada's offensive value in 2/3 the number of games. When you consider his defense, it's not even close. Posey is an all-timer.
Posey, Ortiz, and Mauer should all be in. They're all-time great players and any sort of celebration of the best players ever is worse without them. But there are people with votes who are power-tripping jackasses so who knows.
Remember, sportswriters vote on the HoF, so the narrative still has some importance (though to a lesser degree than before better stats joined the conversation). To me, the narrative of the past 20 years cannot be written or spoken without David Ortiz as a key protagonist. And the story of MLB catchers in the past 20 years cannot be given justice without Mauer and Posey. They should be in (to me). By the way, let's not bring up the worst examples of HoF entries as an argument that someone should be in. We all know Harold Baines should not be in the HoF.
