2024 Baseball Hall of Fame Tracker

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Seven

I fully agree, that's why I said the raw numbers aren't everything, and pointed out that there's been a recent shift with how media views catchers. I don't think Mauer gets into the Hall of Fame if this was 30 years ago. But newer voters value his peak of hitting more than his longevity.

I enjoy reading Jay Jaffe's write-ups about the Hall of Fame candidates every year in which he relies on his JAWS scores as part of his decision for how he casts his ballot. However, he does state that it's not the only criteria he uses.

It will be interesting to see the voting for Yadier Molina when he is first eligible. His JAWS score of 35.5 puts him 22nd for catchers while his WAR of 42.3 puts him 19th. Both are below the average scores for catchers already in the Hall of Fame. The averages are 44.2 JAWS and 53.6 WAR.

However, many people seem to think that Molina will be a certain 1st ballot Hall of Famer when he's eligible. For comparison, as you previously indicated, Mauer is 7th in JAWS (and 9th in WAR) while Buster Posey is 14th in JAWS (40.7) and 16th in WAR (44.8) for catchers. Posey and Molina are both below the average Hall of Fame catcher for these values while Mauer is above the average.