Will Jorge Posada Find a Place in the Baseball Hall of Fame? 136
Jorge Posada is going to retire after 17 seasons with the New York Yankees.
It appears that another key component of the great New York Yankees teams from the last two decades is hanging up his pinstripes with word that Jorge Posada will be announcing his retirement.
After his struggles during the 2011 season it isn’t a complete surprise that Posada is calling it a career, but his retirement is another nail into the coffin of the great group of former Yankees farm hands that helped build the team into a juggernaut in the late 1990s with four titles in five years.
While the Yankees are historically known for building their success through signing free agents and trading for the best players from other teams, their championship teams from the 1990s included a core of home-grown players that proved to be vital to their success.
In addition to Posada, shortstop Derek Jeter, centerfielder Bernie Williams, starting pitcher Andy Pettitte and reliever Mariano Rivera all came up through the minor league system with the Yankees and each spent were key cornerstones of the Yankees’ success.
However, of those five, it seems that only Jeter and Rivera are sure-fire to receive a plaque in Cooperstown.
Williams (.297 career average, 287 home runs, 1,257 RBI) is on the ballot for the first time this year and while he is not expected to earn selection, it will be interesting to see how close he gets in his initial year.
Pettitte, who retired following the 2010 season, won 240 games during his 16-year career (13 seasons with the Yankees), but his 3.88 career ERA makes it unlikely that he will have smooth sailing into the HOF.
Like Pettitte and Williams, you can make great arguments that Posada belongs in the HOF and equally credible arguments against his selection.
His career statistics (.273 average, 275 home runs, 1,065 RBI) would not be even close to Hall of Fame consideration if Posada were not a catcher. Annually, Posada was among the top catchers in the game in offensive statistics as he topped 20 home runs and 80 RBIs eight times. Read the rest of this entry →
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