Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Is Jorge Posada a Hall of Famer?


All this Hall of Fame debate and discussion that has been going on and not one time have we mentioned one of the pillars of the Yankees dynasty in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Jorge Posada. Posada was a switch-hitting second baseman turned catcher for the New York Yankees that spent 17 seasons with the organization. Did he do enough in those 17 seasons to warrant getting into the Hall of Fame eventually? Let’s take a look.

Posada was a five time All-Star during his playing career while also finishing in the Top 10 in the AL MVP vote twice. Posada has a Silver Slugger Award sitting on his mantle while hitting over 20 home runs in seven separate seasons which is pretty impressive when you consider he was doing this as a catcher, a position not well known for their offensive prowess throughout the years.

When discussing Posada and his candidacy for the Hall it’s easy to simply look at his home run numbers or sabermetric stats like WAR across the board but I find that to be a bit unfair. I would prefer to compare him to players at his position with those stats instead as I make the case for or against him so using WAR I see that Posada had a higher WAR than Hall of Fame players Roy Campanella, Roger Breshnahan and Rick Ferrell. Posada is also 8th all-time in home runs for catchers with five of the seven players in front of him in that department already in the hall. Only Lance Parrish and Pudge Rodriguez, who enters the ballot for the first time this year, have more home runs than Jorge and are not currently in the Hall of Fame. 

Posada was a four-time World Series champion in six attempts in the Fall Classic not counting the 1996 season when he was just a September call up and had himself a second career while in the postseason as a whole. Posada has played in the second most games in the postseason and ranks fourth in hits and ninth in RBI all-time in the postseason.

Will Posada make the Hall? Eventually, I think so. Yes. Especially in a “dirty” era. Will it be in 2017 though? No, probably not. Unfortunately.


16 comments:

  1. I never really considered him to be a Hall of Famer until I read an article a couple weeks ago. When you start looking, he actually does compare favorably when it comes to the measuring stats. Of course you're going to get the haters saying he was a terrible defender. To them I say, "You're not the starting catcher on 3 World Series teams if you can't catch."

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    1. However let me play devils advocate. He was a good switch hitter which allowed for his defensive liabilities especially with his overall low percentage of throwing out runners in his career. I don't think he is a HOF

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    2. I didn't either. But after looking, I think he's borderline. Offensively, he definitely measures up. But seriously Hans, if he couldn't catch, he wouldn't have been a centerpiece on a dynasty type team.

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    3. OK Levin good point but again let me play devils advocate. The Binder caught ahead of him and couldn't hit his way out of a paper bag.

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    4. Well that plays into another theory of mine Hans! Girardi was a veteran that caught ahead of a very young Posada. Posada forced Girardi out of New York. When Girard took over as manager, he forced Posada out because he was bitter. Look at the stats. Posada hit well his last year, but was constantly punked by Girardi.

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    5. JEFF...Nonsense !..Pasada was gassed, and would not admit it.
      He went from hero, to complainer. Sad to see.

      Giradi played Posada more than he should have. He was done.
      Not Joe's fault at all.

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    6. BS patrick. I don't buy it. The guy played 3 or 4 times a week. Throw the batting average out the window. He had 14 home runs in about 330 at bats. Play him all season, and thats about 25 home runs. Nobody here can convince me that Girardi didn't have a hard on for him. Just like I can't convince Hans that Gardner is worth what he's paid!

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    7. Jeff, my friend, I am not trying to convince anyone.

      Sometimes the curtain falls rapidly, as in Posada's case.
      Runners laughed at Posada. Steal at will. Steal twice !
      He was done. No longer a catcher.

      He embarrassed himself, and the team, when he whined.
      To this day I can not look at that guy. It had to be all about
      him, until he needed to blame others.

      Girardi had nothing to do with Posada's sorry ending.

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    8. We'll agree to disagree. I agree that Posada was done catching. That's why Russell Martin was brought in. But Posada could still hit. All the other members of the Yankees were allowed to go out with some sort of grace. There was never tension between manager and player like there was between Girardi and Posada. At least I can't remember it ever being an issue.

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    9. Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson had major tension

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    10. Not only before my time, but a different situation. Reggie was a free agent, and from what I heard, pretty much didn't get a long with anyone. I was referring more to the long time Yankees during their latest run. Players like Jeter, Bernie, Pettite, Tino, Brosius, etc. I can't remember any of them having as many issues with their manager than Posada/Girardi. Just my opinion. I guess I could be wrong. It's happened at least once to me in the past.

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  2. Joe Torres years as manager was not only a joke (him, not the team), but a real effort to reduce A-Rod to an ass, and not a team player, etc, etc!
    Look what he did in the playoffs, batting him 8th and 9th then setting him! Let alone all the stories he gave the press that was proven to be outright lies and innuendos! I don't remember A-Rod complaining...anyone does that to me and I'd be in Jail.

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  3. That guy (Joe Torre), shows one the name of the HoF should have been called the "Hall of Shame". "He was in the right place at the right time"! His record as a manager is one of the really bad ones...if New York record is omitted.
    Torre was 1173/767 games as a Yankee in 12 years. In 17 years with other teams, he was 1153/1230.

    Sorry guys, I hate people that get a free ride in life, no matter who they are. Joe had NO Talent as a manager, hell, he slept many times during games and didn't even know how many times he had visited the mound when Joba had trouble with the nats. He should have asked for time to let the bugs go away but didn't...didn't that cost us big time?

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    1. Reed please sit down as I am sitting down as well. I am in total agreement with you on Joe Torre. He never won anything until he came to the Yanks. He was a terrible strategic manager and the players were just that good. I have to go lie down now because I can't believe I agree with you. Probably will never happen again

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    2. Damn Ken H...
      Don't do that again, I am an old man and could have trouble making it through the season.
      Have fun!

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)