Deacon White, voted into the Cooperstown Hall of Fame less than two weeks ago, was professional baseball’s first “greatest-ever hitting catcher”. From 1871 through 1879, which was White’s final season before shifting to other positions, the following (after the jump) were the top career Batting WAR numbers (or as it is referred to in various places in the baseball-reference Play Index, “WAR Runs Batting”, “runs_bat”, “Rbat” or “the number of runs better or worse than average the player was as a batter”) for players who had played at least half their games at the catcher position:
1. Deacon White 152
2. John Clapp 47
3. Emil Gross 11
4. Lew Brown 5
5. Doc Kennedy 4
Not much question there about who the best-hitting catcher had been during the first decade of pro baseball league competition. So it may be fitting that just thirteen days after the announcement of Deacon White’s election, we at HHS conclude a vote that puts Mike Piazza in as the first member of the “Circle of Greats”. Let’s apply the same test as we did above, except instead of 1871-1879, let’s do those career Batting WAR numbers (again, for all players who played at least half their career games at catcher) from 1871 all the way through to today:
1. Mike Piazza 419
2. Mickey Cochrane 270
3. Johnny Bench 269
T4. Bill Dickey and Gene Tenace 262
6. Gabby Hartnett 232
7. Yogi Berra 230
8. Ernie Lombardi 211
9. Jorge Posada 206
10. Joe Mauer 195
As was true with Deacon White in the 1870s, this list suggests there is little question who has been, by the numbers, the greatest hitting catcher in the history of the major leagues, by a wide margin. Welcome, Mike Piazza, to the Circle of Greats.
61 ballots were submitted in the 1968 round of COG voting. Here’s the final tally of who appeared on how many of the three-man ballots:
1. Mike Piazza 48 (78.7% of the ballots)
2. Jeff Bagwell 44 (72.1%)
3. Frank Thomas 41 (67.2%)
4. Mike Mussina 21 (34.4%)
5. Roberto Alomar 18 (29.5%)
6. Jeff Kent 6 (9.8%)
7. John Olerud 2 (3.3%)
T8. Sammy Sosa, Hideo Nomo and Matt Stairs 1 each (1.6%)
You can double-check my vote tally here: By the rules, Piazza as the top vote-getter is inducted into the Circle. Bagwell and Thomas, having appeared on at least 50% of the ballots cast, are eligible to be included on ballots through at least the 1964 round of voting. The rest of those who received at least one vote, by falling within the top 8 vote-getters (including ties), remain eligible for (at least) the 1967 round of voting. That 1967 round will begin with another post later today.
