The best player in the American League plays in relative anonymity, far from the maddening crowds in the northeast. He plays half of his games in an environment so toxically sterile that the game he plays seems a poor imitation of the real thing; lacking the grass and dusk light. He copes with a fan base more appreciative of an ex-teammates prone to making dramatic outfield catches, writers who view his contributions as second-best on the team, and an organization that is still waiting for him to hit for power. Despite all of this, Joe Mauer, the best player in the American League, endures.
Catchers: a Historical Retrospective
How many catchers have won MVP awards? How many are in the Hall of Fame? How long did they have to wait to enter the Hall of Fame?
The first catcher to win the MVP award was Bob O’Ferrall of the 1926 St. Louis Cardinals. He hit .293 for the World Series champs, with 7 homeruns and 69 RBI’s. It was a low-power league: Hack Wilson led the NL with 21 homeruns. Still, offense was important: the average team scored 4.54 runs per game, which is almost exactly the same number of runs NL teams scored in 2008 (4.53). They had a lot fewer homers in 1926, but more singles.
Mickey Cochrane was the second backstop to win the MVP, and the first great catcher to win the award. He won the award in 1934, and it certainly helped his case that in 1928 former winners weren’t eligible for the award. Thus his .293 average and 10 homeruns didn’t face Ruth’s .323 average and 54 homeruns. Cochrane won the award again in 1934, when he posted a .320 line with 2 homeruns. Lou Gehrig, who won the American League Triple Crown with a .363 batting average and 49 homeruns, came in a distant fifth.
Let’s consider that for a moment: Mickey Cochrane caught 129 games for the Tigers, hitting two homeruns. Lou Gehrig won the Triple Crown. Yet Cochrane won the award (he was, it should be said, the manager of that team, as well as the catcher). This started a trend of catchers as MVP’s: Cochrane was followed in short order by Gabby Harnett in 1935, and Ernie Lombardi in 1938.
Then the MVP forgot about catchers for a solid decade, until the 1950’s rolled around. These were the glory years for catchers: between 1951-1955 ten MVP awards went out. Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella each won three.
Elston Howard won an MVP in 1963. Johnny Bench won in 1970 and 1972. Munson won in 1976. Then the catchers when through a fallow period in the eyes of the voters. Between 1976 and 1999, no catcher won an MVP award. This despite the prime years of Gary Carter, Carlton Fisk, and Mike Piazza, not to mention players like Tony Pena. In 1999 Ivan Rodriguez won the award, in what was considered a surprising vote.
151 men have won MVP awards. Only ten of those players were catchers. In the last three decades only one catcher has won an MVP. The players who occupy the most important position on the diamond, the players who’s bodies suffer the most physical toil, who’s job is the most taxing, are almost forgotten about.
How many are in the Hall of Fame? Sixteen. Of those how many of them had the bulk of their careers in after World War II? Five. Berra, Campanella, Bench, Fisk, and Carter.
(People often cite third base as the most underrepresented position in the HOF, but there are seven post-WW2 third basemen in the HOF: Boggs, Brett, Mathews, Robinson, George Kell, Schmidt, and Paul Molitor.)
And catchers sure seem to have to wait a while. Gary Carter was the best catcher of his generation (okay, him or Fisk). Carter was clockwork: he’d get 25-30 homers, 80-100 RBI’s, a good average, good work behind the plate. It took him six years on the ballot to get in. Six.
Ernie Lombardi, the last catcher to win a batting title, retired in 1947. He was elected to the Hall in 1986.
Bottom line: catchers don’t get no respect.
Your #1 Draft Pick…
People see a big guy and think he should hit home runs. I see a guy catching and leading the league in hitting. - Ron Gardenhire, Twins Manager
Joe Mauer has never fulfilled his promise as a major league player.
This has as much to do with perception as it does with ability. When we think about catchers, we tend to think about heavy-set guys who hit a few homeruns, and block the plate from runners. And Mauer is big: he’s 6-5, 230 pounds. But the knock on Mauer, the topic of most of the articles written about him, is his lack of power. The expectation was that he would develop into a power hitter, a guy who hits 20-30 homers a year. He hasn’t. He’s actually getting worse at hitting homeruns:
|
AB per HR
|
2004
|
17.8
|
2005
|
54.3
|
2006
|
40.1
|
2007
|
58.0
|
2008
|
57.0
|
This year, Mauer didn’t hit his first homerun in 2008 until June 2. That was his 51st game of the season.
But to look at Joe Mauer’s record and see only his failure to hit homeruns is sort of like visiting the Mona Lisa and only seeing her nose. Joe Mauer does everything else very well. He is the only American League catcher to ever lead the league in batting average (and he’s about to do it again). Among qualified catchers he’s third to only Jason Kendall and Dioner Navarro in throwing out base-stealers. He is fourth in fielding Win Shares and second in fielding percentage in the majors. He is an excellent baserunner, rating a +19 for this year alone (according to the baserunning analysis on this site), and has stolen 30 bases in 36 attempts, for a fine 83% success rate. He is second in the league in Win Shares, one behind Justin Morneau. Finally, he’s been absolutely amazing in crucial situations: in 2008 he’s posted a .383/.500/.550 line in 60 at-bats, and has carried the Twins on their run to the postseason.
So yeah, he hasn’t hit homeruns. So what? Let’s show some sophistication, people. Some taste.
Should Joe Mauer Be the 2008 MVP?
I think so, yes.
He leads the majors in Win Probability Added and is second in Win Shares. He plays a crucial defensive position on a surprise team, and has been an integral part of that team’s success.
Dustin Pedroia will probably win the AL MVP. I’m fine with that, but Pedroia is second on his team in Win Shares (behind Kevin Youkilis), and second among American League 2B’s behind Ian Kinsler. Mauer, playing a far more demanding defensive position, on a less talented team, and he’s been far and away the best catcher in baseball.
I don’t think Mauer will win an MVP, not until he reaches benchmarks like 20 homeruns or 100 RBI’s. And I think, someday, he’ll start reaching those benchmarks. But he’s the best player in the American League this year, as he was in 2006.
His Place in History
Joe Mauer is already one of the great young catchers in baseball history. A look at his Win Share numbers, alongside other catchers:
|
Cochrane
|
Berra
|
Bench
|
Carter
|
I-Rod
|
Mauer
|
Age 19
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
6
|
0
|
Age 20
|
0
|
0
|
23
|
2
|
13
|
0
|
Age 21
|
0
|
2
|
28
|
18
|
15
|
6
|
Age 22
|
16
|
11
|
34
|
6
|
15
|
22
|
Age 23
|
14
|
18
|
19
|
25
|
16
|
30
|
Age 24
|
23
|
21
|
37
|
22
|
23
|
21
|
Age 25
|
22
|
32
|
26
|
28
|
26
|
28
|
Total
|
75
|
84
|
167
|
101
|
108
|
107
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Absent from this list are Fisk and Piazza, mostly because they started later than these other guys (Fisk notched 33 Win Shares at Age 24, his first full season in the majors, while Piazza notched 31 during his Rookie-of-the-Year season). Absent, too, is Roy Campanella, who didn’t reach the majors until he was 26, and Josh Gibson, who didn’t reach the majors at all.
Against this company Mauer does well: only Bench had more seasons of sustained excellence than Mauer has at his age.
Of all the catchers, Mauer is most similar to Cochrane, and to Jason Kendall. All three men posted high batting averages and high on-base percentages, with little power. Mauer isn’t as fast as Kendall was, but he’s faster than Cochrane, and he strikes out less than Kendall.
Do I think Mauer has a chance to one of the all-time greats? I do. He has a chance to be a top-10 catcher, maybe a top-5. He’s already behind Bench, and Yogi’s going to give him some competition over the next few years. But Joe Mauer’s done a lot of remarkable things: he had two batting titles in five years, and a career on-base percentage of .400. He’s a remarkable player: the best player in the American League.