Posada Hall Of Fame?

[Stormcrow2012]

There are many very good players who are not Hall of Famers, and George Posada falls into that category.

[WeatherNut]

Solid player with a long career (for a catcher). Not a Hall of Fame guy, though.

JMHO,

WN

[JohnnyBlazers]

MLB Network did an interesting comparison b/w Posada, Bench, Berra and Carter and normalized their statistics for the eras the played: Posada not too far off the all-time greats at that position based on WAR & OPS - he's borderline I think and may eventually get in because of the NY writers and the fact that he won 5 rings

[MickeyRuth73]

Yes, I was probably a little over zealous on the first ballot vote. I cannot remember a better switch hitting catcher who hit in the middle of some great lineups for a lot of years. One of the main reasons the Yankees won all those rings was they had a huge advantage offensively at the catcher position.

[macnole]

He compares favorably offensively because of his longevity and consistency in OPS at his position. He was unique in his time for that. Is that HOF credential?

Never a premier backstop defensively; rose to be average in his prime. Kind of the same arguments as one might hear for/against Blyleven, Raines, and others without stoking that one again.

I also agree he was a key part of those teams' success because of his dependability and productivity at that position.

Tough call--I agree not first ballot like Mo or Jeter, but borderline entrant after a few years just because of the way the voting is done. Look at Phil Rizzuto...

I'm a Yankee fan and would vote no--permanently--if I had a vote.

[tomwistar]

Ted Simmons deserves it way more than Posada. Had Simmons played in NYC, he'd be in right now.

But maybe the blowback on "tainted" catchers like Piazza and Rodriquez will enable someone like Posada to get in.

[RickRanger]

Another Yankee catcher, Elston Howard, was much better than Posada, and he's not in. Posada was a solid player, but not HOF.

[alvarndc]

[quote:8f424bfa14="Artie412"]Seriously?

Batted .300 once, a fluke year that was like 60 pts above his career average.

The only category he EVER lead in was Grounded into Double Plays . . . twice. Flawed fielder.

Jeter and Mo, yes. But only the most avid Yankee fan would mention Posada as a HOF.[/quote:8f424bfa14]

Avid Yankee fan checking in.

Now granted, Jorge is not a first ballot HOFer for sure, and is at best a marginal candidate.

But here are some positives:

1. 4 rings - basically played a full major league season in the post season, and played very well under that spotlight
2. Switch hitting catcher amongst the best at his position for quite a while - 5 Silver Sluggers if I recall correctly
3. Just a superlative human being, which really should count for something in today's society.

Couple of very interesting articles:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15853. Long but worth it

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/cliff_corcoran/01/11/jorge.posada/index.html. Baseball's Ringo Starr




He would definitely have my vote over Bonds, McGwire et al.

[PotKettleBlack]

I could see him getting in late, but I'm not sure if he hangs on the ballot long enough to do so.

FWIW: I like Jorge, but he doesn't go into my Hall. But my Hall is a tighter club than the BBWA club.

[supertyphoon]

[quote:dbfd978d68]But my Hall is a tighter club than the BBWA club.[/quote:dbfd978d68]

That's very tight indeed. Most BBWA members refuse to vote for more than 4 or 5 players, even though they're allowed up to 10. If everyone voted for the 10 "most deserving" instead of 2 or 3 that meet their individual criteria for selection, guys like Raines would have a better shot at reaching 75% instead of languishing around 40-50% every year.