Post by sansterre - Milwaukee Brewers on Mar 30, 2019 20:43:06 GMT -5
Honorable Mentions - Catchers:
Okay, so you’ll notice that these sections are in chronological order. We’re starting with the Honorable Mention Catchers from the longest ago and working forward. A quick point, is everyone familiar with OPS+? Okay, but you know OPS, right, On-Base plus Slugging? OPS+ is OPS adjusted for era and park. So, for example, in 1908 Honus Wagner put up an On-Base of 415 and Slugged 542. Good numbers right? Well in 1908 they were amazing! The National League had split stats of 239/299/306. Compared with that Wagner’s season was incredible. In 1947 Ted Williams hit 499/634, which is incredible, but given that the average OBP and SLG in 1947 was 333/364, it’s not quite as good as it looks. Both of these seasons have OPS+ of 205. The system is weighted so that 100 is completely league average. You don’t have a prayer of making the Hall with an OPS+ of 100 or lower unless you’re the best fielder in the league at a middle-infield position. A career OPS+ of 120 means a solid hitter, an OPS+ of 130 is really good, a career OPS+ of 140 is for great hitters (the highest catchers ever hit 142), an OPS+ in the 150s is for fantastic hitters like Manny Ramirez or Sotan Kono. Above 160 is truly amazing (only twelve hitters have ever done it) and only one has ever broken 200 for their career. Everyone clear? Great!
First up, Bill Dickey! He played from 1928 to 1946, losing two years to World War 2, winning eleven All-Stars and seven rings. His glove was worth 20 runs above average and he hit for an OPS+ of 127 over 7065 plate appearances, scoring a JONS of 28.7. Any guesses what team he played for? Okay, yeah, the Yankees. I guess the seven rings gives it away. Anyhow, he started in 1929 during the Ruth and Gehrig years and kept playing until the team was in the heyday of DiMaggio. With this level of success, why only in the Honorable Mentions? Frankly, because his level of performance is lower than most of the other catchers in this building. He played less than 120 games in half his seasons and only broke 6 WAR once. He was really good, of course, but had he played on the Senators, God forbid, he would have been that one really good catcher from the 1930s that nobody really remembers. But he played on the Yankees, won a ton of rings and everybody knew his name. From all accounts a class act, among other things helping to develop Thurmon Munson into a Hall of Famer.
Next up, Roy Campanella! He played from 1948 to 1957, his career shortened by not being allowed into the majors until he was 26, on account of the quantity of melanin in his skin. He won a whopping 3 MVP’s, 8 All-Stars and 1 ring playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. His glove was worth 17 runs above average and his OPS+ was 123 over 4,815 plate appearances, scoring a JONS of 24.9. Ranking Campanella is an impossible task. He’s the only Honorable Mention at this position with an MVP; in fact, no catcher has ever won more MVPs than he has. A lot of it is playing time; he only 4,815 PA is the lowest of any catcher in this building; the average catcher has almost four thousand more. And his career was shortened on both sides; racism at the beginning and a car accident at the end.
And yet. His MVP seasons had WARs of 6.7, 7.0 and 5.2. These are really good numbers, obviously. But in those years he was 5th, 4th and 10th in WAR for the National League and each time there was a teammate ahead of him. So it’s possible that those MVPs were just the teensiest bit suspect. Anecdotal evidence suggests that he was a fantastic fielder, but without numbers to back that up, we’re hesitant to make any big changes. Likewise, his career being abbreviated on either side is less significant than you might guess. His best seasons didn’t start until age 29 and his last two years were below-average. You can make the case for Campanella to be higher, but it relies on a lot of hypotheticals, which we try not to do.
I’m sorry if I sound defensive about the historical guys. A lot of very well-meaning people can get very angry about people being ‘demoted’ in our pyramid. All we can do is our best.
Up next, Gene Tenace! Tenace played from 1969 to 1983, with his best years in Oakland and then San Diego. He won four rings but only made one All-Star game. With a slightly below average glove he hit for an OPS+ of 136 over 5527 plate appearances with a JONS of 25.9. An OPS+ of 136! (I hear you thinking to yourself). That makes him the fifth best hitting catcher in history; how did he only make one All-Star game? Great question! Gene Tenace’s career batting average was only 241. I’ll wait for the shock to wear off before continuing. Yeah, Steamboat Tenace couldn’t make contact well. But you know what he did do well? Walk and hit home runs. Mostly walk. He’s pretty much Earl Weaver’s dream catcher. A great example of Tenace's gifts and weakness was in the 1972 World Series against the Reds. In seven games he slugged 913 with four home runs, but also allowed the Reds to steal 12 bases over the series. The weak-armed catchers giveth and they taketh away. More on that when we get to Mike Piazza. Anyhow . . .
Tenace led his league in walks twice and finished in the top five *seven* times. He also finished in the top 10 in home runs four times. Yet his career suffered from having a skillset that wouldn’t be appreciated for another thirty years. Many managers in that era thought that catchers were a glove and an arm, not a bat. Tenace spent two years as a backup to catchers that were vastly worse hitters than he was. When he was made a starter he had eight straight seasons at 3.9 WAR or above, with OPS+s of 130 or above every season. Then he got hit by injuries and was out. Tenace’s brief career really hurts him; 5527 PA is the second-lowest behind Campanella. But when he played he was one of the best catchers in the league. It’s just that nobody realized it at the time.
From the same era, Ted Simmons! Simmons played from 1968 to 1988, playing until 30 with the Cardinals before playing for the Brewers, then Braves in his 30s. He won a Silver Slugger and made eight All-Star games with a JONS score of 30.8 (the highest so far!). He was not a particularly strong fielder, slightly below average for most of his career before being moved to first with the Braves. He hit for an OPS+ of 118 over 9685 plate appearances. But gee! (You may be asking yourself). He hit for a notably lower OPS+ than Tenace, but made seven more All-Star games. What did he do that Tenace didn’t? He hit for average! They sure loved average back in those days. Simmons finished in the top 10 (for the NL) in batting average six times over his career with another eight seasons in the top 10 of doubles. He never broke 6 WAR in a year, but he was consistently good over a long career. He fell off the Cooperstown ballot his first year, but he is remembered here as an excellent player.
Over here we have the first player to cross into the PBL, Brian McCann! Playing from 2005 to 2018, he made six All-Star games and put up a 120 OPS+ over 7218 plate appearances, finishing with a JONS of 25.4. McCann played for a mess of teams, never playing for anyone over five years. That said, he started and ended in Atlanta so that’s the uniform we show him in here. McCann is remarkable for his unremarkability. He was an average fielder, a career 278/348/479 hitter, never breaking 6 WAR, never hitting more than 30 home runs in a season, just playing quality ball year in and year out. His ability to make strong contact deserted him in his early thirties and he stopped playing at 34.
From a few years later, this is Carlos Santana. Now, he didn’t practice Santeria, and he wasn’t a good fielder (-19.5 runs), but in his peak he sure could hit. He played from 2010 to 2024, an Indian through and through, making four All-Star games. He had an OPS+ of 119 over 8201 plate appearances, for a JONS of 34.9. His unusually high score (the second highest of the Honorable Mention Catchers) is a product his incredible peak.
Carlos Santana took a lot of pitches, he was in the top 10 in the PBL in walks three times, batting average twice and on-base percentage three times. A career 280/370/445 hitter he was capable of power, but his patience was his greatest asset. And when he had it together he was pretty good. In 2013 he hit 339/432/577 with 30 home runs, for a PBL-leading 8.9 WAR. Sadly, he failed to win an MVP for his efforts, falling to Prince Fielder on the 89-win Red Sox. He was hosed, and I don't care who hears me say it! But this was par for the course; even with that performance Cleveland didn’t break 500. In fact, in his 15-year career he never once made the playoffs; the Indians never won more than 86 during that stretch. His career was riiiiight on the cusp of Bronze. That 2013 MVP probably would have put him there. As it was, the city of Cleveland remembers him for staying loyal even through those dark days.
Skip a few years and here we are at Ivan Jaramillo! PBL catchers retired in two waves for some reason. Jae Yun Kim stopped playing in 2032, Jaramillo and Anthony Garcia stopped in 2033 and Martin Lemus stopped in 2034. But that’s nothing compared to the *five* catchers in this building that stopped playing after 2047. Enough about them, more about Jaramillo! He played from 2018 to 2033, starting off with the woeful Brewers but going on some deep playoff runs later, losing a World Series with Washington and winning one with Boston. He was in seven All-Star games, with a career OPS+ of 121 over 7500 plate appearances. His JONS score of 31.7 is solid, in spite of a slightly below average glove.
Jaramillo was a solid all-around hitter, finishing in the top 10 in batting average four times, which isn’t bad as a catcher. He hit 282 for his career and broke 300 six different times. He didn’t hit for a lot of power or walk more than normal, but combined with his excellent contact skills he could put together some good seasons. Even at age 35 he had a season where he hit 309/398/518, good enough for 7.1 WAR that year. Two seasons later he was out of the league. From ages 25 to 36 he was had one long solid peak. He broke into the majors late, his first year (when he was 24) behind the 35 year old Yadier Molina (but outplaying him handily). Molina, sensing the end was near, retired, Jaramillo became Milwaukee’s starting catcher, and a great career was launched.
Retiring the same year, but a very different kind of player, Anthony Garcia! Garcia played foreeeeever, one of only five catchers to break ten thousand plate appearances. He started playing in 2013 at 21, he stopped playing in 2033, at 41. He started every year of those but his first. Now that, my friends, is a career. Garcia was a journeyman, starting with the Cardinals but playing for four teams (Cards, Pirates, Giants and Nats) for three-to-five years each. He was an outstanding glove, finishing with the second-highest ZR of any PBL catcher. Over his 10711 PA he only had an OPS+ of 105 (JONS of 28.6), getting little love with only two All-Stars. The 105 OPS+ is the lowest mark of any catcher in this building, but that’s a bit misleading. His bat was well in decline by age 33; his long career really dragged his numbers down.
Garcia must have had great vision; ‘cause he saw a looot of pitches. He averaged 3.98 pitches per PA for his career. He finished in the top 6 in walks six times (finishing #1 in 2016) but finished eight times in the top ten of times struck out, peaking, so to speak, with 196 in 2030. By age 33 his ability to make strong contact had abandoned him and he batted 197. From age 33 to 41 he never hit above 230 and was below 200 six times, but kept being signed by teams. Garcia’s career stands as a testament to the idea that if you have a good glove, can hit 20 home runs and walk a ton, you can keep your career going even if you can’t hit the broad side of a barn.
Interesting anecdote. Garcia's second team was the Pirates and he had two straight 4+ WAR years with them. But in 2020 he was having a down year, only batting 230 and striking out 107 times in 86 games. Shane, perhaps thinking that Garcia was on the outs, flipped him to the Giants. Garcia hit 316/431/476 the rest of the way and then 306/419/444 in a playoff run that ended in the NLCS. To whom? The Pirates. Bastards. Garcia hit 302/424/521 for the Giants in 2021, putting up 7.7 WAR, his best year. I suppose 2020 and 2021 were the best and worst times for Anthony Garcia.
The first of the auspicious catcher class of 2047, Bruce Peak! Peak had a relatively short career, with only 7417 plate appearances with an OPS+ of 122; he won two Silver Sluggers, three All-Stars, a single ring and a JONS of 26. Peak played from 2032 to 2047, drafted in the first round by the Nationals. The Nats were just on the verge of the playoffs and in 2029 traded Peak (who was only 21 at the time) with a 1st Rounder for Fatso Miller from the White Sox. From ages 26 to 32 Peak put up 29 WAR for the White Sox, peaking, so to speak, in 2037 with 7.4 WAR. By 2040 the team was really struggling and Peak was traded to the Angels for an assembly of prospects. He bounced around the league for a bit, and finally got his ring when he was traded for by the Dodgers, and he played an important role from the bench in their 2045 championship.
As a player Peak was like a six month old trying to pick up women. He couldn't walk. And he struck out a lot. Normally seeing pitches leads to walks, but Peak never walked 60 times or more in a season, but he struck out frequently, leading the league in Ks twice. The saving grace? When he made contact it went well; he had a career BABIP of 343 (which is very high) and a ton of power, hitting 40+ homers twice (49 in 2040). Top ten finishes in power include home runs five times, RBI's four times and extra base hits five times (leading the league twice). His considerable power often led to him being played at DH or first, most notably by the Angels, who already had a young catcher you may have heard of named Ricardo Ramirez when they acquired Peak. He wasn't a bad fielder; it's just that his bat was so good that it persuaded teams to sign him to play other positions. It unquestionably hurt his placement here (playing at DH/1B makes his bat less valuable), but I'm sure it didn't hurt his pocketbook. Or his knees.
In a similar vein, Wally Magee! Magee was drafted in the 7th round by Toronto but grew into one of the best hitters at his position. While his glove was quite bad (2nd worst in this building from the PBL) his OPS+ was 130 over 7762 plate appearances, enough to win him a Silver Slugger, eight All-Stars and one surprising Gold Glove, finishing with a JONS score of 26. In his last year of arbitration Toronto traded him to Colorado for pitching prospect Dan Catron. Magee had four good years in Colorado, before being signed as a restricted free agent by Baltimore where he put up five strong seasons.
Magee's calling card was his power. He finished in the top ten in doubles five times (leading the league once), top ten in home runs four times, top ten in extra base hits seven times, top ten in slugging six times . . . He's one of only five catchers that have ever hit for more than four hundred homers and more than four hundred doubles, and all five are in this building and the other four are Silver or better. This is a long way of saying that Wally Magee had historic power for a catcher.
So why is he only an honorable mention? The rest of his game didn't live up to his power. His contact was solid (career 271 hitter) but his patience was weak and his glove was very limited. He also had a pronounced weakness against lefties that forced him into platoons by age 33. His splits against righties were 283/347/552; against lefties they were 229/262/367. His inability to hit lefties explains his high OPS+ but low PA; much of his career he only hit against righties and sat against lefties. The other problem is that the JONS formula rewards hitters who dominated the league. Magee never dominated but was consistently excellent, never breaking 6 WAR even though he broke 4 WAR six times. His eight All-Stars is surprising given his lack of dominance, unless you remember how much voters love power. And Magee had power to spare.
Speaking of the exact opposite type player, fellow member of the 2047 retiring catcher class, Manny Cabrera! Manny Cabrera was drafted in the 21st round by the Pittsburgh Pirates out of High School, but after four years of hard work he'd developed into the #66 prospect in the PBL; the next year he was ranked #4. Cabrera signed a team-friendly extension at age 25 (5 years, 4 mill a year) and was with the Pirates until age 29, when he was traded with a slew of other players to Arizona for Stanton Jiminez, Haden Mosely and a first. Arizona signed him to a 5-year $22 million per year extension, then traded him to Boston in a massive trade that saw ten players change hands. When his contract ended he bounced around the league, playing for six more teams, but never for more than two years at a time. He played from age 22 to age 41, making $146 million over his career, showing a great glove (one of the best in PBL history) and putting up an OPS+ of 115 over 9653 plate appearances. He finished with a JONS of 37.1, the highest of the Honorable Mentions and higher than several Bronze level catchers. Would you like to guess how many All-Stars he made?
One. You see, Manny Cabrera had no truly unusual skill. Except for getting hit by pitches I guess, in which he finished top ten seven times. His bat was solid (269 career batting average) but not remarkable. He had little power, never hitting more than 20 home runs or more than 30 doubles in a season. His strengths were his glove and his above-average patience, which gave him a career obp of 364. I know, stop yawning, this isn't exciting. Well listen to this, he broke 4 WAR ten freaking times, and five WAR four times. He had an entire decade (noncontinuous) where he put up 4+ WAR. How common is that? It's really rare. None of these other Honorable Mentions did that. Magee had six 4+ WAR years, Jaramillo had eight. Cabrera never broke 6 WAR, but he was reliably really good for a really long time.
So why isn't he in the Bronze level? Honestly . . . It's the one All-Star appearance. At the intersection of his metronomic reliability and his completely unsexy skill set (and the fact that a lot of good catchers were playing during his career), PBL voters only thought he was one of the best catchers in his league once. And that counts for something. If this was the Hall of Reliable Stat Accumulation he'd be Silver or above. But this is the Hall of Fame. Manny Cabrera was damned good, but he was never famous, never considered great by his peers at the time. And that counts. Much as it pains me to say. But if you were going back in time and could take the career of any catcher in history for your franchise . . . you could do a lot worse than Manny Cabrera.
And that's it for the catchers. Up next, Honorable Mention First Basemen! Come on, don't give me that look, you can't be tired yet! This is a full day journey and we're only just getting started!
Okay, so you’ll notice that these sections are in chronological order. We’re starting with the Honorable Mention Catchers from the longest ago and working forward. A quick point, is everyone familiar with OPS+? Okay, but you know OPS, right, On-Base plus Slugging? OPS+ is OPS adjusted for era and park. So, for example, in 1908 Honus Wagner put up an On-Base of 415 and Slugged 542. Good numbers right? Well in 1908 they were amazing! The National League had split stats of 239/299/306. Compared with that Wagner’s season was incredible. In 1947 Ted Williams hit 499/634, which is incredible, but given that the average OBP and SLG in 1947 was 333/364, it’s not quite as good as it looks. Both of these seasons have OPS+ of 205. The system is weighted so that 100 is completely league average. You don’t have a prayer of making the Hall with an OPS+ of 100 or lower unless you’re the best fielder in the league at a middle-infield position. A career OPS+ of 120 means a solid hitter, an OPS+ of 130 is really good, a career OPS+ of 140 is for great hitters (the highest catchers ever hit 142), an OPS+ in the 150s is for fantastic hitters like Manny Ramirez or Sotan Kono. Above 160 is truly amazing (only twelve hitters have ever done it) and only one has ever broken 200 for their career. Everyone clear? Great!
First up, Bill Dickey! He played from 1928 to 1946, losing two years to World War 2, winning eleven All-Stars and seven rings. His glove was worth 20 runs above average and he hit for an OPS+ of 127 over 7065 plate appearances, scoring a JONS of 28.7. Any guesses what team he played for? Okay, yeah, the Yankees. I guess the seven rings gives it away. Anyhow, he started in 1929 during the Ruth and Gehrig years and kept playing until the team was in the heyday of DiMaggio. With this level of success, why only in the Honorable Mentions? Frankly, because his level of performance is lower than most of the other catchers in this building. He played less than 120 games in half his seasons and only broke 6 WAR once. He was really good, of course, but had he played on the Senators, God forbid, he would have been that one really good catcher from the 1930s that nobody really remembers. But he played on the Yankees, won a ton of rings and everybody knew his name. From all accounts a class act, among other things helping to develop Thurmon Munson into a Hall of Famer.
Next up, Roy Campanella! He played from 1948 to 1957, his career shortened by not being allowed into the majors until he was 26, on account of the quantity of melanin in his skin. He won a whopping 3 MVP’s, 8 All-Stars and 1 ring playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. His glove was worth 17 runs above average and his OPS+ was 123 over 4,815 plate appearances, scoring a JONS of 24.9. Ranking Campanella is an impossible task. He’s the only Honorable Mention at this position with an MVP; in fact, no catcher has ever won more MVPs than he has. A lot of it is playing time; he only 4,815 PA is the lowest of any catcher in this building; the average catcher has almost four thousand more. And his career was shortened on both sides; racism at the beginning and a car accident at the end.
And yet. His MVP seasons had WARs of 6.7, 7.0 and 5.2. These are really good numbers, obviously. But in those years he was 5th, 4th and 10th in WAR for the National League and each time there was a teammate ahead of him. So it’s possible that those MVPs were just the teensiest bit suspect. Anecdotal evidence suggests that he was a fantastic fielder, but without numbers to back that up, we’re hesitant to make any big changes. Likewise, his career being abbreviated on either side is less significant than you might guess. His best seasons didn’t start until age 29 and his last two years were below-average. You can make the case for Campanella to be higher, but it relies on a lot of hypotheticals, which we try not to do.
I’m sorry if I sound defensive about the historical guys. A lot of very well-meaning people can get very angry about people being ‘demoted’ in our pyramid. All we can do is our best.
Up next, Gene Tenace! Tenace played from 1969 to 1983, with his best years in Oakland and then San Diego. He won four rings but only made one All-Star game. With a slightly below average glove he hit for an OPS+ of 136 over 5527 plate appearances with a JONS of 25.9. An OPS+ of 136! (I hear you thinking to yourself). That makes him the fifth best hitting catcher in history; how did he only make one All-Star game? Great question! Gene Tenace’s career batting average was only 241. I’ll wait for the shock to wear off before continuing. Yeah, Steamboat Tenace couldn’t make contact well. But you know what he did do well? Walk and hit home runs. Mostly walk. He’s pretty much Earl Weaver’s dream catcher. A great example of Tenace's gifts and weakness was in the 1972 World Series against the Reds. In seven games he slugged 913 with four home runs, but also allowed the Reds to steal 12 bases over the series. The weak-armed catchers giveth and they taketh away. More on that when we get to Mike Piazza. Anyhow . . .
Tenace led his league in walks twice and finished in the top five *seven* times. He also finished in the top 10 in home runs four times. Yet his career suffered from having a skillset that wouldn’t be appreciated for another thirty years. Many managers in that era thought that catchers were a glove and an arm, not a bat. Tenace spent two years as a backup to catchers that were vastly worse hitters than he was. When he was made a starter he had eight straight seasons at 3.9 WAR or above, with OPS+s of 130 or above every season. Then he got hit by injuries and was out. Tenace’s brief career really hurts him; 5527 PA is the second-lowest behind Campanella. But when he played he was one of the best catchers in the league. It’s just that nobody realized it at the time.
From the same era, Ted Simmons! Simmons played from 1968 to 1988, playing until 30 with the Cardinals before playing for the Brewers, then Braves in his 30s. He won a Silver Slugger and made eight All-Star games with a JONS score of 30.8 (the highest so far!). He was not a particularly strong fielder, slightly below average for most of his career before being moved to first with the Braves. He hit for an OPS+ of 118 over 9685 plate appearances. But gee! (You may be asking yourself). He hit for a notably lower OPS+ than Tenace, but made seven more All-Star games. What did he do that Tenace didn’t? He hit for average! They sure loved average back in those days. Simmons finished in the top 10 (for the NL) in batting average six times over his career with another eight seasons in the top 10 of doubles. He never broke 6 WAR in a year, but he was consistently good over a long career. He fell off the Cooperstown ballot his first year, but he is remembered here as an excellent player.
Over here we have the first player to cross into the PBL, Brian McCann! Playing from 2005 to 2018, he made six All-Star games and put up a 120 OPS+ over 7218 plate appearances, finishing with a JONS of 25.4. McCann played for a mess of teams, never playing for anyone over five years. That said, he started and ended in Atlanta so that’s the uniform we show him in here. McCann is remarkable for his unremarkability. He was an average fielder, a career 278/348/479 hitter, never breaking 6 WAR, never hitting more than 30 home runs in a season, just playing quality ball year in and year out. His ability to make strong contact deserted him in his early thirties and he stopped playing at 34.
From a few years later, this is Carlos Santana. Now, he didn’t practice Santeria, and he wasn’t a good fielder (-19.5 runs), but in his peak he sure could hit. He played from 2010 to 2024, an Indian through and through, making four All-Star games. He had an OPS+ of 119 over 8201 plate appearances, for a JONS of 34.9. His unusually high score (the second highest of the Honorable Mention Catchers) is a product his incredible peak.
Carlos Santana took a lot of pitches, he was in the top 10 in the PBL in walks three times, batting average twice and on-base percentage three times. A career 280/370/445 hitter he was capable of power, but his patience was his greatest asset. And when he had it together he was pretty good. In 2013 he hit 339/432/577 with 30 home runs, for a PBL-leading 8.9 WAR. Sadly, he failed to win an MVP for his efforts, falling to Prince Fielder on the 89-win Red Sox. He was hosed, and I don't care who hears me say it! But this was par for the course; even with that performance Cleveland didn’t break 500. In fact, in his 15-year career he never once made the playoffs; the Indians never won more than 86 during that stretch. His career was riiiiight on the cusp of Bronze. That 2013 MVP probably would have put him there. As it was, the city of Cleveland remembers him for staying loyal even through those dark days.
Skip a few years and here we are at Ivan Jaramillo! PBL catchers retired in two waves for some reason. Jae Yun Kim stopped playing in 2032, Jaramillo and Anthony Garcia stopped in 2033 and Martin Lemus stopped in 2034. But that’s nothing compared to the *five* catchers in this building that stopped playing after 2047. Enough about them, more about Jaramillo! He played from 2018 to 2033, starting off with the woeful Brewers but going on some deep playoff runs later, losing a World Series with Washington and winning one with Boston. He was in seven All-Star games, with a career OPS+ of 121 over 7500 plate appearances. His JONS score of 31.7 is solid, in spite of a slightly below average glove.
Jaramillo was a solid all-around hitter, finishing in the top 10 in batting average four times, which isn’t bad as a catcher. He hit 282 for his career and broke 300 six different times. He didn’t hit for a lot of power or walk more than normal, but combined with his excellent contact skills he could put together some good seasons. Even at age 35 he had a season where he hit 309/398/518, good enough for 7.1 WAR that year. Two seasons later he was out of the league. From ages 25 to 36 he was had one long solid peak. He broke into the majors late, his first year (when he was 24) behind the 35 year old Yadier Molina (but outplaying him handily). Molina, sensing the end was near, retired, Jaramillo became Milwaukee’s starting catcher, and a great career was launched.
Retiring the same year, but a very different kind of player, Anthony Garcia! Garcia played foreeeeever, one of only five catchers to break ten thousand plate appearances. He started playing in 2013 at 21, he stopped playing in 2033, at 41. He started every year of those but his first. Now that, my friends, is a career. Garcia was a journeyman, starting with the Cardinals but playing for four teams (Cards, Pirates, Giants and Nats) for three-to-five years each. He was an outstanding glove, finishing with the second-highest ZR of any PBL catcher. Over his 10711 PA he only had an OPS+ of 105 (JONS of 28.6), getting little love with only two All-Stars. The 105 OPS+ is the lowest mark of any catcher in this building, but that’s a bit misleading. His bat was well in decline by age 33; his long career really dragged his numbers down.
Garcia must have had great vision; ‘cause he saw a looot of pitches. He averaged 3.98 pitches per PA for his career. He finished in the top 6 in walks six times (finishing #1 in 2016) but finished eight times in the top ten of times struck out, peaking, so to speak, with 196 in 2030. By age 33 his ability to make strong contact had abandoned him and he batted 197. From age 33 to 41 he never hit above 230 and was below 200 six times, but kept being signed by teams. Garcia’s career stands as a testament to the idea that if you have a good glove, can hit 20 home runs and walk a ton, you can keep your career going even if you can’t hit the broad side of a barn.
Interesting anecdote. Garcia's second team was the Pirates and he had two straight 4+ WAR years with them. But in 2020 he was having a down year, only batting 230 and striking out 107 times in 86 games. Shane, perhaps thinking that Garcia was on the outs, flipped him to the Giants. Garcia hit 316/431/476 the rest of the way and then 306/419/444 in a playoff run that ended in the NLCS. To whom? The Pirates. Bastards. Garcia hit 302/424/521 for the Giants in 2021, putting up 7.7 WAR, his best year. I suppose 2020 and 2021 were the best and worst times for Anthony Garcia.
The first of the auspicious catcher class of 2047, Bruce Peak! Peak had a relatively short career, with only 7417 plate appearances with an OPS+ of 122; he won two Silver Sluggers, three All-Stars, a single ring and a JONS of 26. Peak played from 2032 to 2047, drafted in the first round by the Nationals. The Nats were just on the verge of the playoffs and in 2029 traded Peak (who was only 21 at the time) with a 1st Rounder for Fatso Miller from the White Sox. From ages 26 to 32 Peak put up 29 WAR for the White Sox, peaking, so to speak, in 2037 with 7.4 WAR. By 2040 the team was really struggling and Peak was traded to the Angels for an assembly of prospects. He bounced around the league for a bit, and finally got his ring when he was traded for by the Dodgers, and he played an important role from the bench in their 2045 championship.
As a player Peak was like a six month old trying to pick up women. He couldn't walk. And he struck out a lot. Normally seeing pitches leads to walks, but Peak never walked 60 times or more in a season, but he struck out frequently, leading the league in Ks twice. The saving grace? When he made contact it went well; he had a career BABIP of 343 (which is very high) and a ton of power, hitting 40+ homers twice (49 in 2040). Top ten finishes in power include home runs five times, RBI's four times and extra base hits five times (leading the league twice). His considerable power often led to him being played at DH or first, most notably by the Angels, who already had a young catcher you may have heard of named Ricardo Ramirez when they acquired Peak. He wasn't a bad fielder; it's just that his bat was so good that it persuaded teams to sign him to play other positions. It unquestionably hurt his placement here (playing at DH/1B makes his bat less valuable), but I'm sure it didn't hurt his pocketbook. Or his knees.
In a similar vein, Wally Magee! Magee was drafted in the 7th round by Toronto but grew into one of the best hitters at his position. While his glove was quite bad (2nd worst in this building from the PBL) his OPS+ was 130 over 7762 plate appearances, enough to win him a Silver Slugger, eight All-Stars and one surprising Gold Glove, finishing with a JONS score of 26. In his last year of arbitration Toronto traded him to Colorado for pitching prospect Dan Catron. Magee had four good years in Colorado, before being signed as a restricted free agent by Baltimore where he put up five strong seasons.
Magee's calling card was his power. He finished in the top ten in doubles five times (leading the league once), top ten in home runs four times, top ten in extra base hits seven times, top ten in slugging six times . . . He's one of only five catchers that have ever hit for more than four hundred homers and more than four hundred doubles, and all five are in this building and the other four are Silver or better. This is a long way of saying that Wally Magee had historic power for a catcher.
So why is he only an honorable mention? The rest of his game didn't live up to his power. His contact was solid (career 271 hitter) but his patience was weak and his glove was very limited. He also had a pronounced weakness against lefties that forced him into platoons by age 33. His splits against righties were 283/347/552; against lefties they were 229/262/367. His inability to hit lefties explains his high OPS+ but low PA; much of his career he only hit against righties and sat against lefties. The other problem is that the JONS formula rewards hitters who dominated the league. Magee never dominated but was consistently excellent, never breaking 6 WAR even though he broke 4 WAR six times. His eight All-Stars is surprising given his lack of dominance, unless you remember how much voters love power. And Magee had power to spare.
Speaking of the exact opposite type player, fellow member of the 2047 retiring catcher class, Manny Cabrera! Manny Cabrera was drafted in the 21st round by the Pittsburgh Pirates out of High School, but after four years of hard work he'd developed into the #66 prospect in the PBL; the next year he was ranked #4. Cabrera signed a team-friendly extension at age 25 (5 years, 4 mill a year) and was with the Pirates until age 29, when he was traded with a slew of other players to Arizona for Stanton Jiminez, Haden Mosely and a first. Arizona signed him to a 5-year $22 million per year extension, then traded him to Boston in a massive trade that saw ten players change hands. When his contract ended he bounced around the league, playing for six more teams, but never for more than two years at a time. He played from age 22 to age 41, making $146 million over his career, showing a great glove (one of the best in PBL history) and putting up an OPS+ of 115 over 9653 plate appearances. He finished with a JONS of 37.1, the highest of the Honorable Mentions and higher than several Bronze level catchers. Would you like to guess how many All-Stars he made?
One. You see, Manny Cabrera had no truly unusual skill. Except for getting hit by pitches I guess, in which he finished top ten seven times. His bat was solid (269 career batting average) but not remarkable. He had little power, never hitting more than 20 home runs or more than 30 doubles in a season. His strengths were his glove and his above-average patience, which gave him a career obp of 364. I know, stop yawning, this isn't exciting. Well listen to this, he broke 4 WAR ten freaking times, and five WAR four times. He had an entire decade (noncontinuous) where he put up 4+ WAR. How common is that? It's really rare. None of these other Honorable Mentions did that. Magee had six 4+ WAR years, Jaramillo had eight. Cabrera never broke 6 WAR, but he was reliably really good for a really long time.
So why isn't he in the Bronze level? Honestly . . . It's the one All-Star appearance. At the intersection of his metronomic reliability and his completely unsexy skill set (and the fact that a lot of good catchers were playing during his career), PBL voters only thought he was one of the best catchers in his league once. And that counts for something. If this was the Hall of Reliable Stat Accumulation he'd be Silver or above. But this is the Hall of Fame. Manny Cabrera was damned good, but he was never famous, never considered great by his peers at the time. And that counts. Much as it pains me to say. But if you were going back in time and could take the career of any catcher in history for your franchise . . . you could do a lot worse than Manny Cabrera.
And that's it for the catchers. Up next, Honorable Mention First Basemen! Come on, don't give me that look, you can't be tired yet! This is a full day journey and we're only just getting started!