Jorge Posada

I never liked Jorge Posada. He played great for the Yankees and I did not dislike him, he just was not a player I enjoyed watching. He converted to catcher in the minor leagues and never made terrific throws to second base. He also let the dugout call every pitch, instead of calling the game himself. His baserunning was horrendous and on several occasions had severe lapses in judgment or attention (or both). Those mental mistakes tainted my perception of him. However, he spoke plainly and was a welcome complement the stoic Derek Jeter. When his son ran out to join him at one All-Star lineup announcement nearly the whole viewing audience felt good. I respected his lack of batting gloves, but did not care for his filthy batting helmet. Altogether, Posada was a mainstay for the Yankees that had good and bad qualities. He played long enough to live on after retirement as a Yankee legend. The only question remaining is where he ranks among the greats of all-time.

MLB has not had many catchers elected to the Hall of Fame, only 13 according to the Baseball Almanac - the Hall itself also includes 3 Negro League players. Of this elite list of catchers the Yankees had two of the all-time best in Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey. The best Yankee catcher was not Posada but the question is does he belong on the list with the catchers best ever?

Posada's stats are not overwhelming compared to the greatest hitters of all-time, but for a catcher his numbers are actually very good. Catchers typically do not play a full season of games, rest often, and probably play tired and/or hurt more often than other players do, so catcher batting statistics tend to be deflated relative to their peers. I compared Posada against the group of hall of fame catchers (excluded Negro League catchers since stats not available) to see how Posada stacked up:

	AVG	OBP	SLG	HITS	HR	RBI	RUNS
Posada	.273	.374	.474	1664	275	1065	900
HOF avg	.285	.363	.445	1773	198	1013	901

I was surprised how favorably his numbers fall within this group. Surely critics will point out he played in an inflated era of home runs and offense, but for this comparison no statistical adjustments were made to offset performance by era, ballpark, or any other sophisticated technique. I ran a quick ranking of these stats to calibrate a very rough estimation of ranking (most HR = 14 points, fewest HR = 1 point, etc.) and that is also very favorable to Posada:
1 Yogi Berra
2 Bill Dickey
3 Carlton Fisk
4 Johnny Bench
5 Gabby Hartnett
6 Mickey Cochrane
7 Jorge Posada
8 Gary Carter
9 Ernie Lombardi
10 Buck Ewing
11 Roy Campanella
12 Rick Ferrell
13 Roger Bresnahan
14 Ray Schalk

After these comparisons I would not find his election to the Hall objectionable. I suspect if his name were Lance Parrish we would not even get this consideration, but as a 5 time World Series winner with the New York Yankees he gets support for election. Unfortunately for Posada, his candidacy will come in the wake of the election of Mike Piazza to the hall of fame and the inevitable comparisons will leave Posada woefully behind the best hitting catcher to ever play the game.

Here is the unfortunate comparison of Jorge Posada and Mike Piazza:

	AVG	OBP	SLG	HITS	HR	RBI	RUNS
Posada	.273	.374	.474	1,664	275	1,065	900
Piazza	.308	.377	.545	2,127	427	1,335	1,048