Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Buster Posey future HOF?






http://floridastate.247sports.com/Bolt/All-American-to-All-Star-to-All-Time-Great-46210014


"An All-Star for sure. An all-time great? Things have been shaping up that way with Buster Posey.
On the day of his fourth All-Star game start for the National League, the former MVP of that very league is well on his way to being an all-time great and to go a step further, a top ten player all time at his position.
What does that mean? Enshrinement.
If you don't believe me, maybe you'll listen to Jayson Stark of ESPN who called Posey the "Yogi Berra of his time", which was accompanied by ESPN's Buster Olney chiming in with "the Derek Jeter of this generation". (This comes courtesy of Olney's daily Baseball Tonight Podcast).
As the current Wins Above Replacement (WAR) leader as a catcher in 2016, Posey was the obvious choice to start the 87th All-Star Game in San Diego, even with Yadier Molina and Wilson Ramos having good years.
Lets go further with Posey and follow his WAR. He is currently ranked inside the top-30 of catchers since 1920 in terms of WAR with 32.3, according to Fangraphs.com.
There are currently just three active catchers that have a higher career WAR than Posey. Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins leads off the group with a 46.1 WAR, Brian McCann of the New York Yankees holds a 34.8 career WAR and Russell Martin, currently with the Toronto Blue Jays, has a 32.9 WAR.
Posey is certainly in striking distance of all three of these players, especially McCann who has underwhelmed since moving to the Big Apple. But what is even more impressive with the San Francisco Giants backstop is he is the only one of these three active players to play under 850 games and have under 5,400 plate appearances.
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The former Florida State standout is a mix of Berra and newly voted Hall of Famer, Mike Piazza. The walk rate for Posey and Berra are similar for their careers at just above 9.0%. Posey has a lower strikeout rate (12.1%) while having a higher batting average on balls in play (.323) than Piazza (14.4% & .314).
Piazza (.545) tops Posey (.483) only in slugging, while having similar averages among batting and on-base percentage.
Let's look at defense now. Starting with defensive WAR (dWAR), Posey is nearly five times the defensive player Piazza was during his 16-year career. Piazza accounted for six seasons behind the plate with a negative defensive WAR, while Posey has yet to do so in his eight seasons with San Francisco.
At 4.8 dWAR, Posey looks to certainly have a chance at passing Berra, who has a dWAR of 8.7.
Posey also only trails Jason Varitek and Philadelphia's Carlos Ruiz in most no-hitters caught by one. Both Varitek and Ruiz have four, Posey has three.
Looking at only All-Star appearances? Posey, in his fourth All-Star game, has one less appearance than hall of famer Roy Campanella.
As the last part of the history lesson, it should not go without saying that Posey is only one of three catchers ever to win Rookie of the Year and MVP honors to go along with a World Series ring. The other two? Johnny Bench and Thurmon Munson. Bench being a resident of Cooperstown, NY.
Where does this place Posey now, though? He is not only a star, he is a superstar. He is one of the faces of the MLB.
According to Baseball-Reference, Posey is 35th in career WAR with only Chicago's Jason Heyward, Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen and Angels' Mike Trout accumulating a better WAR in the same or less amount of time.
With less than 10-years in the big leagues, this puts Posey in the position of top-10 players of his era.
Posey can hit to all fields with some power and can gun down runners 35% of the time they steal on him.
While he isn't quite the defensive player Molina is, Posey has caught nearly 5,500 innings and has allowed just 19 passed balls.
The battle for top catcher in the National League, for the foreseeable future, will always be a constant quarry between the two, but for tonight, it's Posey's stage."



OK, that was an interesting read. Let's look at a few accomplishments.
1. THREE World Championship Rings 0- 2010, 2012, 2014.
2. A League MVP trophy - 2012.
3. A League MIP (Improved) trophy.
4. A Comeback Player of the year Trophy - Remember his busted ankle most though was career ending?! 2012.
5. Has called a Perfect Game and another No-No, along with several one and two hitter complete games.
6. FOUR All-Star appearances.
7. Led the MAJORS in hitting for average - 2012.
8. NL Rookie of the year - 2010.
9. THREE Siolver Slugger awards - 2012, 2014, 2015.
10 Fielding Bible Award 2015.
11. NL Hank Aaron Award
12. Golden Spikes Award - 2008.
I'd say if he even does half as well for the rest of his career, he'll be a first ballot MLB-HOF inductee. He'll have a long career, as his Mgr. Bruce Bochy - another excellent catcher, plays him at 1st sack some and rests him every 7-8 games to preserved his knees.
It's a joy for this baseball fan to follow his pro career. Good onya Bustah!

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