Top 25 MLB Catchers?

The Bleacher Report came out with another one of those bogus lists just to generate reader comments, ranking Benito Santiago, Jason Veritek, and Mickey Tettleton as three of the top ten catchers in baseball history – ahead of Hall of Famers Carlton Fisk, Mickey Cochrane (320 career avg), Bill Dickey (313 career avg), and perhaps the greatest hitter in baseball history, Josh Gibson. Perhaps the Bleacher Report placed their 25 in no particular order, though they did place Johnny Bench at the top of the list.

Many of the BR 25 started off as catchers but spent almost as much time DHing or playing first base (Mauer, Torre, Tettleton, Parrish). By this reasoning Dale Murphy should make the list. While journeyman Benito Santiago was a superior defender, he, Varitek, and Tettleton have no business on this list. None rank in the top 475 hitters of all time. They’re only listed to spark debate, or perhaps they were favorites of the writer.   

Perhaps a better ranking is Baseball Reference’s Fan-o-later, which is the second number to the left of each player’s name. As usual players from the media-biased northeast dominate the list.

1 046 CIN Johnny Bench 267 avg 389 HR 14 ASG in 17 yr 10 GG ROY 2 MVP HOF (above)

2 000 NEG Biz Mackey 328 avg in Negro Leagues HOF

3 094 NYM Mike Piazza 308 avg 427 HR 1337 RBI 12 ASG in 16 yr ROY

4 543 SDP Benito Santiago 263 avg 217 HR 920 RBI 987 fielding 5 ASG in 20 yr ROY  

5 396 NYY Elston Howard 279 avg 167 HR 733 RBI 9 ASG in 14 yr MVP

6 238 DET Bill Freehan 262 avg 200 HR 993 fielding 5 GG 11 ASG in 15 yr

7 221 NYG Ernie Lombardi 262 avg 190 HR 990 RBI 8 ASG in 17 yr MVP HOF

8 705 BOS Jason Varitek 256 avg 193 HR 3 ASG in 15 yr

9 073 NYY Yogi Berra 285 avg 358 HR almost 1500 RBI 15 straight ASG 3 MVP HOF

10 485 BAL Mickey Tettleton 241 avg 210 HR 2 ASG in 14 yr, only caught 9 yr

11 107 TEX Pudge Rodriguez 296 avg 311 HR 464 slg 2844 hits 14 ASG MVP

12 265 NYY Thurman Munson 292 avg 113 HR 7 ASG in 11 yr ROY MVP

13 187 DET Lance Parrish 252 avg 299 HR 991 fielding 8 ASG in 19 yr

14 098 STL Ted Simmons 285 avg 248 HR 1389 RBI 2472 hits 8 ASG in 21 yr

15 233 NYG Buck Ewing 303 avg 18 yr, stole over 30 bases 7 times HOF

16 140 CHC Gabby Hartnett 297 avg 236 HR a “reliable option” 6 ASG in 20 yr MVP HOF

17 136 NYM Joe Torre 297 avg 252 HR 9 ASG in 18 yr MVP playing 3B only caught 11 yr HOF (below)

18 148 PHI Mickey Cochrane 320 avg 119 HR 985 fielding avg 100 RBI for 13 yr HOF

19 000 PIT Josh Gibson 359 avg 800+ HR HOF – the black Babe Ruth

20 210 MIN Joe Mauer 318 avg 109 HR 6 ASG in 12 yr 3 batting titles in 1st 6 yr. Hasn’t caught in 2 yr

21 055 NYM Gary Carter 262 avg 324 HR 11 in 19 yr HOF

22 074 NYY Bill Dickey 313 avg 202 HR 11 ASG in 17 yr HOF

23 061 BOS Carlton Fisk 269 avg 376 HR 11 ASG HOF

24 146 BRK Roy Campanella 276 avg 242 HR 8 ASG in 10 yr MVP HOF

25 220 NYY Jorge Posada 273 avg 275 HR 5 ASG

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/947833-25-greatest-catchers-in-baseball-history 

My Top Ten would include Bench, Berra, Gibson, Rodriguez, Cochrane, Fisk, Dickey, Piazza, Mackey, and Ewing.