A Plaque For Posada?

Peter Abraham is discussing Jorge Posada's Hall of Fame chances on his excellent blog today. On my recent vacation a friend and I played a little game where we went through each major league team and said "If their career ended today, would _______ be elected to Cooperstown?" I could bore you with the entire list but I'll cut to the quick and tell you that Posada wasn't on it. Two Yankee fans predisposed to players who wear our favorite pinstripes didn't think Jorge cut the mustard but Abraham is leaning in the positive direction. What's his view?

Look at it this way. The only catchers in the history of baseball with as many home runs, doubles and RBI in one season are Mike Piazza (1998), Pudge Rodriguez (1998), Pudge Fisk (1978) and Johnny Bench (1974 and ‘75). Only Piazza and Rodriguez hit .300 in those seasons.

This could be the season Posada played himself into the Hall of Fame. He’s a .278 career hitter with 217 homers, 855 RBI, three rings and five All-Star game selections.

The only catchers who can match those statistics are Piazza, Rodriguez, Ted Simmons, Javy Lopez, Yogi Berra, Gabby Hartnett and Roy Campanella.

Simmons never won the World Series. Lopez did once.

By the time these current Yankees are retired, they’ll have to build a new room at the Hall of Fame. Rodriguez, Jeter, Rivera, Clemens and Torre are in for sure. Posada is probable and Mike Mussina will get a lot of consideration.

I see a couple of big problems with this. Posada is having a great season but a great season does not a Hall of Fame selection make and the other four catchers that Abraham cites had careers that were far better than Posada's. He was a direct contemporary of two of them, Piazza and Pudge, and there's never been a reasonable argument that could put Posada ahead of either one on a list of the best catchers of this generation. When you look at the list of catchers who can match Jorgie's career statistics you get those two contemporaries as well as Berra and Hartnett who are two of the greatest players ever at the position. Campanella has essentially the same numbers as Posada but did it in a far shorter career and the other two guys aren't Hall of Famers and never will be.

Abraham gives Posada credit for three rings but while he was the lead catcher in '98 and '99 he didn't play more than 112 games in either season. Javy Lopez, who has offensive stats equal to Posada, was the starting catcher for eight postseason entrants and one World Series champ. Posada's got a better postseason resume but not one that outweighs the fact that he wasn't any better than Lopez, a guy who isn't going to get any HOF support. You can cherrypick all sorts of statistical standards to make it seem that such-and-such player is worthy of this or that and I feel Abraham is guilty of that in Posada's case.

There aren't many catchers in Cooperstown, 14 of them not counting Negro Leaguers or players who were elected for non-playing reasons, and, as mentioned, Piazza and Pudge are dead solid locks. If Posada were voted in it would mean that more than 15% of the players at the position were from the same era and that's a lot to swallow given the high standards that Cooperstown should have. Posada is certainly better than some of the catchers in the Hall but the fact of the matter is that his career has a lot more in common with Lopez than he does with Gary Carter, Bench or Berra.

Earlier in his piece Abraham writes that Posada is "intelligent, bluntly honest and has so much of a history with the Yankees that his comments always have meaning." That would endear a player to me if I covered a team day in and day out and it's obvious that it's done that for Abraham. Jorge is worthy of a plaque in Monument Park but anything beyond that is a stretch unless he has four or five more years of great production.