Is Joe Mauer a HOF-er?

[HowAboutThat]

With all the talk about various catchers, I’m just wondering. He always seemed like a quality person and sure had a great career.

[TINSTAAPP]

12 minutes ago, Philip said:

With all the talk about various catchers, I’m just wondering. He always seemed like a quality person and sure had a great career.

Easily. He's a top 10 catcher of all-time and should be a first ballot HOFer.

[HowAboutThat]

8 minutes ago, TINSTAAPP said:

Easily. He's a top 10 catcher of all-time and should be a first ballot HOFer.

That’s what I was thinking but I wasn’t sure. Thanks!

[atomic]

1 MVP 3 Golden Gloves 5 Silver Sluggers.  I think in other sports he would be a shoe-in but with the way the writers vote in MLB who knows. 55 WAR is pretty good for a catcher. 

I would say he is comparable to Mike Piazza with lower power but higher OBP.  

Then you have Ted Simmons who only got 3.7 percent of the vote.  If you can figure out the criteria that MLB writers use for induction I would like to know.  The MLB writers don't seem like the brightest people and don't really seem to know baseball very well.

[TINSTAAPP]

47 minutes ago, atomic said:

Then you have Ted Simmons who only got 3.7 percent of the vote.  If you can figure out the criteria that MLB writers use for induction I would like to know.  The MLB writers don't seem like the brightest people and don't really seem to know baseball very well.

I would say the main issue with Simmons is that he played during a stacked era of catchers. The careers of Bench, Carter, and Fisk overlapped with his along with Munson and Tenace. It's easy to get lost in the shuffle during an era with so many other great catchers. That's not the case with Mauer who was the best catcher in baseball for a decade.