MLB Hall of Fame: Ballot not so sweet for Lou Whitaker
Catcher: Played from 1968 to 1988
- .285/.348/.437, 116 wRC+, 54.2 WAR
- All-time rank at position: 9th
- Positional rank from 1970-1987: 4th
A note on the statistics above: the triple-slash line is batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage. The metric wRC+ is a measure of a player’s offensive production and is adjusted for league and ballpark effects where 100 is average, and anything higher is above average. Simmons’ 116 wRC+ means he was 16 percent better than average after adjusting for league and ballpark effects.
WAR stands for Wins Above Replacement (Fangraphs version). It’s a measure of a player’s total value. It’s not foolproof, but it provides a good estimate of how valuable that player was over his career.
Ted Simmons was a hard-hitting catcher who spent most of his career with the and Milwaukee Brewers. He was an eight-time All-Star and earned MVP votes in seven different seasons, with a high finish of sixth in 1975. He had a 10-year stretch from 1971 to 1980 during which he averaged nearly 5 WAR per season.
The Modern Baseball stretches from 1970 to 1987 and Simmons is clearly on the same tier as Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk for this time period. Simmons had 54.8 WAR from 1970 to 1987. Fisk had 55.2. The catcher below Simmons is Gene Tenace, who had nine fewer wins above replacement than Simba. The top tier of catchers in the Modern Baseball should include Johnny Bench, Gary Carter, Carlton Fisk, and Ted Simmons.
On the all-time list, Simmons is ninth in Fangraphs WAR, just behind Bill Dickey and ahead of Gabby Hartnett and Mickey Cochrane, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame. Joe Torre is the only catcher who ranks higher than Simmons in WAR which is not in the Hall of Fame as a player (Torre is in as a manager). It should be noted that Simmons played 1771 games at catcher while Torre played just 903 at catcher and a combined 1300 games at other positions.
My Verdict: Ted Simmons should be in the Hall of Fame
Ballot Snub: None