Being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame is a great honor for baseball players and coaches. This year, three players were elected to the Hall. They are Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton and Joe Mauer.
These 3 players each had a fantastic career. Beltre had 3166 hits in his career and he’s a 5-time Gold Glove winner. Joe Mauer and Todd Helton each had collected 2000+ hits in their careers and they were former batting champions. There’s little doubt that they belong to the Hall of Fame.
However, while taking a look at Joe Mauer’s stats, there’s something interesting to think about.
Firstly, Joe Mauer collected 2123 hits in his career. As we check on the stats of active players, Joey Votto has more hits than Mauer does. Additionally, Freddie Freeman had 211 hits in 2023 and thus far, he has 2114 hits in his career. Elvis Andrus, Andrew McCutchen and Jose Altuve each have 2000+ hits by far in their careers. McCutchen and Altuve each had at least 100 hits in 2023. If they stay healthy in 2024, they shall surpass Mauer’s 2123 career hits.
In addition, Joe Mauer collected 923 RBI over 15 seasons. Among active players, there are 9 players who have at least 1000 RBI. Evan Longoria is still a free agent now, he has collected at least 1100 RBI so far in their career. Joey Votto just agreed to a deal with the Blue Jays and, by far, Votto has 1144 RBI in his career. At the same time, Freddie Freeman and Paul Goldschmidt are two dangerous hitters in the majors and MVP award winners. They each have at least 1100 RBI as well.
Finally, let’s take a look at some great players behind the plate. Besides Joe Mauer, there are other multiple-time All-Star catchers in his generation. Buster Posey played fewer games than Mauer did. However, he won the World Series 3 times with the Giants. Additionally, Posey owned a batting average over .300 and an OPS over .800 as Mauer did. Jorge Posada didn’t play as many games as Mauer did. Nonetheless, Posada crushed 275 home runs in his career, which are much more than Mauer’s 143 career home runs. Moreover, his OPS of .848 was higher than Mauer’s .827 OPS. Furthermore, Yadier Molina retired after the 2022 season. He played more than 2000 games in his career and collected 1000+ RBI. Molina’s hitting performance might not be as good as Mauer’s, nevertheless, he has 2168 hits in his career.
Mauer had a great career and made a huge impact in the Twins organization. It’s not a surprise to see him become a Hall of Famer. However, when we look at Mauer’s stats and other active players’ stats, some players might be strong candidates for being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in the future. For example, Freddie Freeman and Joey Votto each have 2000+ hits and 1000+ RBI. Moreover, according to the great baseball reference website, Votto has a 64.4 WAR and Freeman has a 55.7 WAR, both players’ WAR are higher than Mauer’s WAR of 55.2. Moreover, looking at the stats of star catchers, Posada dropped off the Hall of Fame ballot. In the future, we will see two great catchers Yadier Molina and Buster Posey on the Hall of Fame Ballot. They each have a WAR below 50. Nonetheless, they both helped their teams win the World Series title multiple times and it’s hard to ignore their contributions. It will be very interesting to see if Molina or Posey will be elected to the Baseball of Fame in the first ballot selection.
No comments:
Post a Comment