Yadier Molina Says He 'Obviously' Has Hall Of Fame Numbers, Wants To Be Remembered As The Best Catcher Ever

There are 20 catchers in the history of Major League Baseball that have a WAR (Wins Above Replacement) of 40 or higher. The top 10 names on this list, including Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza, and Yogi Berra, are all in the Hall of Fame. The latter 10 names includes only one Hall of Famer -- Roger Bresnahan, who played from 1897 to 1915.

KMOX

Hot Take: Five Best Catchers In Cardinals History

No one loves a good debate quite like baseball fans, and with that in mind, we asked each of our beat reporters to rank the top five players by position in the history of their franchise, based on their career while playing for that club. These rankings are for fun and debate purposes only … if you don’t agree with the order, participate in the Twitter poll to vote for your favorite at this position.

St. Louis Official Site

Bill Doark Deserves A Spot In The Cardinals' Pantheon

A century ago, Bill Doak designed a glove with a pocket that revolutionized the game. And he was a darn good pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals too.

Redbird Rants

Ted Simmons Is Best Switch-Hitting Catcher All-Time

If Ted Simmons is elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he would become only the second switch-hitting catcher to receive the honor and the first to have played in the major leagues.

RetroSimba

The Delahanty Dynasty: Joe Delahanty

Clinton Riddle continues his exploration of the Delahanty baseball dynasty with a look at brother Joe Delahanty.

Minor League Ball

The Hall Of wWAR: Catchers

I originally got into baseball research because of my lifelong affection towards catchers. After looking at Lance Parrish's stats, I figured he should be a Hall of Famer. I started digging deeper, and though I no longer believe Parrish should be elected (turns out I had the wrong Tiger all along), in many ways the Hall of wWAR "completes" what I set out to do that very day.

Beyond The Boxscore

Ted Simmons Vs. Hall Of Fame Median

Today, we'll hear another announcement that Ted Simmons was not inducted into the Hall of Fame. And it's too bad, because he deserves it.

Beyond The Boxscore

Rick Ferrell

Hall of Fame catcher Rick Ferrell (1905-1995) caught in the American League for eighteen years (1929-45,’47) during two of America’s most challenging periods: the Great Depression and World War II.

The Baseball Biography Project

Hall Of Excellentitude: Ted Simmons

When you bring up the subject of Ted Simmons’ Hall of Fame worthiness, the consensus among fans I get is a resounding “uh, I’m not sure. I guess he’s worthy.” It’s not like anyone is really incensed that he’s not in. He has some nifty baseball card numbers. Simba has more hits (2,472) and doubles (483) than any catcher in the Hall of Fame, and he’s second to Johnny Bench in RBI (1,389). He also was an 8-time All-Star, hit over .300 seven different times in his career, and slugged over .500 four times in a row.

Play A Hard Nine

Yadier Molina Approaching Cardinals Catcher Single-Season Steals Leader

As often happens in my writing, one event leads to investigating another and before I know it, I have wandered over a considerable portion of the baseball universe.

The Cardinal Nation Blog

Backstopping & Roaming Wide (Part One: 1890-1935)

Catchers come in many varieties. Some are tall, and some are short. Some are good hitters with marginal defensive ability, and some are good-field-no-hit. Some are remarkably durable, while others seem to get hurt all the time.

The Hardball Times

Will Clark An Option For Giants MGR?

If all the club wants is a consummate baseball lifer coaching the Giants, there are plenty on the payroll. Pick almost anyone from Bochy's respected staff. Better yet, pick J.T. Snow or Will Clark, who are "special assistants" — hopefully that's code for "managers-in-waiting."

Inside Bay Area

The Path To Cooperstown: The Catchers

For my fourth annual THT column on position players and the Hall of Fame, I’m taking an in-depth look at a group not represented on this year’s BBWAA ballot and with only one post-1920 representative on the Veterans’ Committee ballot (Joe Torre, who got just 29.7 percent of the vote, well short of the 75 percent of required): the catchers. This column, Part 1 of 2, will focus on the catchers with primes of eight years or more—the core of any Hall of Fame discussion—and Part 2 will deal with the rest.

The Hardball Times

BL, TR (Part 3: The Best Left-Handed Hitting Third Basemen In MLB History)

In Part 1, we introduced the concept of the rarity of right-handed throwers who bat left handed, identifying how rare it's been over the past half-century for players at the defensive positions that nearly universally demand right-handed throwers (catcher, third base, second base and shortstop) to be left-handed hitters. We're not talking about switch-hitters (though they're rare too), but straight, full-on left-handed hitters, batting lefty even against southpaws.

In Part 2 we examined the best of these rare birds at the position of catcher. This time we'll turn our attention to The Hot Corner.

The Hardball Times

Does Ted Simmons Belong In The Hall Of Fame

The San Diego Padres recently hired Ted Simmons as their bench coach for 2009. Over at Ducksnorts, I quipped that if they could turn the clock back 30 years, the Padres would have their catching problem solved as well. One of my readers took it a step further and wondered why Simmons never got more serious consideration for the Hall of Fame.

The Hardball Times