{ The All-Star game is about a month away. We'll post occasional articles about the contenders for participation in the mid-season classic. These are written "as of now," so the final selections may vary dramatically, but hopefully these will add to the ongoing flavor of the league. }
#AL Catchers: Bill James & Cum Posey Divisions
The
New York Gothams'
Buster Posey is the clear class of this group, hitting 377/451/623, scoring 35 runs, and already accumulating a 2.6 WAR on the season. That's easy. So is
Baltimore's
Curt Blefary, second in the league in HR with 13 while hitting 280/392/632 with 34 RBI.
Behind him, it gets a little tougher. The
House of David's
Elrod Hendricks deserves consideration at 263/323/483.
Kansas City's
Ted Simmons (296/330/444) and
Houston's
Jim O'Rourke (254/342/433) have been solid offensively, but neither have really played enough and O'Rourke spends a lot of his time at other positions.
Hendricks has a CERA of 4.06, which helps his case, but has only thrown out 6 of 42 base-stealers, which doesn't. But nothing else really stands out defensively:
Ottawa's
Emil Gross has thrown out 37.5% of opposing runners, but hasn't hit enough to merit consideration.
Both I and the AI make the fairly easy choices: Posey, Blefary, and Hendrick.
#NL Catchers: Effa Manley & Marvin Miller Divisions
The choices get harder in the NL.
Johnny Bench of
Indianapolis has seen a recent hot streak take him to 289/394/578 with 9 homeruns. And that might not be enough to start, as
Portland's
Joe Mauer is hitting 356/456/625. But the two of them have to be selected.
That leaves one slot with several worthy candidates. Even if you eliminate
Cleveland's
John Ellis (299/352/608) and
Philadelphia's
Sherm Lollar (263/374/513) for not having played quite enough, you have to pick between
Homestead's
Josh Gibson (321/410/473) and the
Black Yankees'
Thurman Munson (303/345/508). WAR favors Gibson by quite a bit, 1.6 to 1.1.
Turning to the defensive statistics, Mauer has thrown out 35.5% of would-be base stealers, but he's already in. Defensively, Munson has an edge, helped by Gibson's 9 errors, but it's not as big of an edge as you may think. Cleveland's
Louis Santop may be the best defensive catcher in the league, but his offense--which is quite respectable with a 314/354/488 slash line--is a notch behind these others, and splitting time with Ellis has kept him off the field a bit too much.
So, once again, we're in agreement with the AI: Mauer, Bench, and Gibson.