MLB: Finding the best catcher in the divisional era

Does the data agree that Johnny Bench was the best MLB catcher of the past half century?

It is an article of faith within the baseball community that Johnny Bench was the best MLB catcher of at least the last half century…maybe forever.

In the second installment of its ‘Top 10 Right Now’ exercise in selecting the 10 best players at each position from the divisional era – that is since 1969 — show host Brian Kenny and guest expert Bob Costas ratified that viewpoint Tuesday night. Both put Bench solidly at the top of their top 10s, with differing views of who might rank behind him.

But does the data support that consensus judgment? A deep dive into the career records of 30 of the best catchers since 1969 may call Bench’s status into question.

For the record, here are the respective top 10 catchers of the divisional era as judged by Kenny and Costas:

                Kenny                   Costas

1              J Bench                 J Bench

2              M Piazza              I Rodriguez

3              G Carter               M Piazza

4              C Fisk                     J Mauer

5              T Munson            G Carter

6              I Rodriguez         C Fisk

7              B Posey               Y Molina

8              T Simmons          B Posey

9              Y Molina               T Simmons

10           J Mauer                 T Munson

The interesting aspect of the Kenny and Costas lists is that they settled on the identical 10 players, albeit in a different order. Without revealing the eventual results, it can be said that three of the players on the Kenny and Costas lists will not wind up in this analysis’s top 10.

To actually assess who deserves to be on this list, in what order, and how good a job either Kenny or Costas did, we need some criteria. Probably due to time constraints, neither Kenny nor Costas specified their criteria, although in the case of Kenny and probably Costas as well you can assume they had some.

We’re going to apply five criteria designed to reflect the broad spectrum of demands placed on catchers. We’ve assessed 30 well-known MLB catchers who starred since 1969 according to the five criteria and given them an ordinal score equal to their rank in each of the criteria.

Alphabetically, the 30 nominees are: Sandy Alomar Jr., Brad Ausmus, Johnny Bench, Bob Boone, Gary Carter, Darren Daulton, Carlton Fisk, Charles Johnson, Jason Kendall, Terry Kennedy, Javy Lopez, Russell Martin, Joe Mauer, Brian McCann, Yadier Molina, Thurman Munson, Lance Parrish, Tony Pena, Salvador Perez, Mike Piazza, Darrell Porter, Jorge Posada, Buster Posey, Ivan Rodriguez, Manny Sanguillen, Benito Santiago, Mike Scioscia, Ted Simmons, Terry Steinbach, and Jim Sundberg.

When all five categories are assessed, the player with the average ordinal score closest to a perfect rating of 1.0 is the winner.

The criteria are: 1. five-year peak performance with OPS+ as the yardstick; 2. Career OPS+; 3. All Star game appearances and Gold Glove awards; 4. Caught Stealing Percentage; Career Defensive Wins Above Average.