Mickey Tettleton

[Cowtipper]

Catcher Mickey Tettleton played in the big leagues from 1984 to 1997, hitting .241 with 245 home runs, 732 RBI and an OPS+ of 121. He was an All-Star twice and he won the Silver Slugger three times. In 1992, he led the league in walks fielding percentage at catcher.

He eclipsed the 20 home run mark six times, the 25 home run mark five times and the 30 home run mark four times. Interestingly, he was one of only five primary catchers to eclipse the 200 home run mark between 1980 and 2000. The others were Gary Carter (227 HR), Carlton Fisk (232 HR), Mike Piazza (278 HR) and Lance Parrish (288 HR). He was also the only player to draw at least 90 walks a year from 1990 to 1996.

Statistically, Tettleton is most similar to Gene Tenace, Mike Stanley, Rico Petrocelli, Tony Batista, Jose Valentin, Howard Johnson, Jose Hernandez, Gorman Thomas, Jesse Barfield and Dean Palmer.

The Baseball Page ranks him as the 43rd best catcher of all-time, ahead of Terry Steinbach, Sherm Lollar and Jason Kendall, but behind Darren Daulton, Terry Kennedy and Walker Cooper.

What do you think about Mickey Tettleton? Should he be in the Hall of Fame? Did he have Hall of Fame potential?

[jjpm74]

A very good player, but he's no Gorman Thomas.

Had Tettleton enjoyed success longer as a catcher, he'd have a decent HOF case. As it stands, I'd rank him in the 50s all time at his position.

[Paul Wendt]

He was considered a very poor catcher, someone a major league team could barely afford to play there, and that was controversial. I don't recall my sources; probably they include the Sunday Boston Globe "Notes" column and a friend in Baltimore.

WAR seems to disagree. It assigns slightly below-replacement defensive ratings to Tettleton thru 1992 when he was primarily a catcher, but much worse ratings with Detroit 1993-1994 when he worked one-third behind the plate (109g) and otherwise at firstbase (83), corner outfield (73), or dh (26).

[leecemark]

--I remember him mostly from his time with Detriot and he was not a good defensive catcher at that time. He actually was regarded as a pretty good defender when he first came up or at least thats my vague recollection. If somebody had made him a full time catcher when he first made the bigs and left him there for his full career then he might look something like a HOFer. As it is he looks like a lesser version of Gene Tenace and Tenace is comfortably under the line for me.

[Freakshow]

Most WAR 55%+ of career G at C

Rk                 Player WAR/pos OPS+    PA From   To
1            Johnny Bench    71.3  126  8669 1967 1983 H
2          Ivan Rodriguez    67.7  107 10133 1991 2010
3            Carlton Fisk    67.3  117  9853 1969 1993 H
4             Gary Carter    66.3  115  9019 1974 1992 H
5              Yogi Berra    61.9  125  8364 1946 1965 H
6             Mike Piazza    59.1  142  7745 1992 2007
7             Bill Dickey    54.4  127  7060 1928 1946 H
8         Mickey Cochrane    51.2  128  6206 1925 1937 H
9             Ted Simmons    50.4  117  9685 1968 1988
10         Gabby Hartnett    50.3  126  7297 1922 1941 H
11            Gene Tenace    48.7  136  5525 1969 1983
12           Jorge Posada    46.0  124  6763 1995 2010
13           Wally Schang    43.8  117  6423 1913 1931
14         Thurman Munson    43.4  116  5903 1969 1979
15           Bill Freehan    43.3  112  6899 1961 1976
16        Roger Bresnahan    41.6  126  5374 1897 1915 H
17         Darrell Porter    40.6  113  6570 1971 1987
18         Ernie Lombardi    39.0  125  6349 1931 1947 H
19              Joe Mauer    38.7  136  3578 2004 2010
20          Jason Kendall    38.1   95  8701 1996 2010
21        Charlie Bennett    38.0  118  4310 1878 1893
22         Roy Campanella    36.2  123  4816 1948 1957 H
23          Lance Parrish    35.7  106  7797 1977 1995
24           Jim Sundberg    35.1   89  6898 1974 1989
25          Jack Clements    31.9  117  4721 1884 1900
26          Smoky Burgess    31.8  116  5013 1949 1967
27           Sherm Lollar    29.9  104  6218 1946 1963
28             Tom Haller    29.3  113  4519 1961 1972
29              Ed Bailey    28.7  110  4208 1953 1966
30          Walker Cooper    28.4  116  5078 1940 1957
31          Elston Howard    28.2  108  5843 1955 1968
32        Terry Steinbach    27.9  101  5896 1986 1999
33             Javy Lopez    27.9  112  5793 1992 2006
34       Mickey Tettleton    27.8  121  5745 1984 1997
35           Tim McCarver    26.8  102  6206 1959 1980
36           Del Crandall    26.7   95  5581 1949 1966
37         Deacon McGuire    26.4  101  6941 1884 1912
38              Bob Boone    26.1   82  8148 1972 1990
39        Victor Martinez    25.2  121  4224 2002 2010
40           Chief Zimmer    24.9   95  5078 1884 1903

Going down to 45% adds:

8              Buck Ewing    51.8  129  5772 1880 1897 H

Going down to 40% adds:

7               Joe Torre    55.6  128  8801 1960 1977

Going down to 35% adds:

14             King Kelly    48.5  138  6455 1878 1893 H

[WhiteSoxFan22]

Mickey had some power years from 91-93 but they weren't even that awesome. nothing about him says Hall of Fame. I don't know where you come up with these suggestions. At least pick someone that didn't have just 1 or 2 good years then suck the rest of the time. and look at WAR to. Nobody with a WAR under 30 should be in the Hall unless it's someone like Koufax, but even he had a 55 WAR.

[leecemark]

Huh? Interesting example; "nobody with under 30 WAR should be in the Hall unless its really 55".

[Chadwick]

Hall of Fame Position Players with Under 30 Career WAR
29.5 Chick Hafey
29.2 Fred Lindstrom
26.9 Bill Mazeroski
24.3 George Kelly
24.3 Lloyd Waner
22.9 Rick Ferrell
22.6 Ray Schalk
20.5 Monte Irvin
19.0 Tommy McCarthy

[Freakshow]

Hall of Fame Position Players with Under 30 Career WAR
29.5 Chick Hafey
29.2 Fred Lindstrom
26.9 Bill Mazeroski
24.3 George Kelly
24.3 Lloyd Waner
22.9 Rick Ferrell
22.6 Ray Schalk
20.5 Monte Irvin
19.0 Tommy McCarthy

I posted this WAR list at BBTF a couple weeks ago. This combines Pitching and Pos WAR:

Lowest WAR for HOF players:

18.1 Tommy McCarthy
22.6 Ray Schalk
22.9 Rick Ferrell
24.2 Rube Marquard
24.3 Lloyd Waner
24.3 Rollie Fingers
24.3 Bruce Sutter
24.6 George Kelly
26.9 Bill Mazeroski
29.2 Fred Lindstrom
29.5 Chick Hafey
30.5 Jesse Haines
32.4 Jim Bottomley
32.5 Jack Chesbro
33.6 George Kell
35.4 Catfish Hunter
36.2 Ross Youngs
36.2 Roy Campanella
37.1 Pie Traynor
37.9 Addie Joss
37.9 Hoyt Wilhelm
38.0 Herb Pennock
38.2 Lefty Gomez
38.2 Rabbit Maranville

[jalbright]

I posted this WAR list at BBTF a couple weeks ago. This combines Pitching and Pos WAR:

Lowest WAR for HOF players:

18.1 Tommy McCarthy
22.6 Ray Schalk
22.9 Rick Ferrell
24.2 Rube Marquard
24.3 Lloyd Waner
24.3 Rollie Fingers
24.3 Bruce Sutter
24.6 George Kelly
26.9 Bill Mazeroski
29.2 Fred Lindstrom
29.5 Chick Hafey
30.5 Jesse Haines
32.4 Jim Bottomley
32.5 Jack Chesbro
33.6 George Kell
35.4 Catfish Hunter
36.2 Ross Youngs
36.2 Roy Campanella
37.1 Pie Traynor
37.9 Addie Joss
37.9 Hoyt Wilhelm
38.0 Herb Pennock
38.2 Lefty Gomez
38.2 Rabbit Maranville

On that list, the only two I'd say clearly belong are Wilhelm, whose explanation is relief pitching, and Campanella, whose explanation is he's missing several seasons to the color line. Sutter may be able to make hay on the reliever explanation, but that's a closer call. The rest fail to impress me in a favorable way, at least in HOF terms.

[J W]

Tettleton was Gene Tenace V.2, save for one important point: Tenace played through the neutral 70s, while Tettleton played into the Steroid Era. He's the standard "Hall of Very Good" player to me; a guy who took a while to get going (age 27/28), excelled at certain aspects of the game, had flaws, and flamed out early (age 34/35). I hope he isn't forgotten as time goes by, but Fruit Loops probably will be.

[Second Base Coach]

The Terry Puhl poll must be along shortly, no?

[Cowtipper]

The Terry Puhl poll must be along shortly, no?

That joke: you have run it into the ground.

[KCGHOST]

Tettleton might have been the most boring player to watch in the history of the game. Well, other than Mike Hargrove.

[PVNICK]

Sadly that's the norm rather than the exception these days.