Johnny Bench may well have been the greatest all-around catcher in baseball history. High Heat Stats voters showed no uncertainty in making him the 26th inductee into the Circle of Greats, by a wide margin. More on Johnny, and the voting, after the jump.
Most Career Wins Above Replacement (baseball-reference version) By A Catcher (defined as a player who played more games at catcher than any other one position):
1. Johnny Bench 75.1
2. Gary Carter 69.7
3. Carlton Fisk 68.4
4. Ivan Rodriguez 68.3
5. Yogi Berra 59.3
Most Career Regular Season Home Runs For the Reds Franchise:
1. Johnny Bench 389
2. Frank Robinson 324
3. Tony Perez 287
4. Adam Dunn 270
5. Ted Kluszewski 251
Most Career Post-Season Home Runs for the Reds Franchise:
1. Johnny Bench 10
2. Tony Perez 6
3. Pete Rose 5
T4. Morgan, Foster, Geronimo, Sabo and Ludwick 3 each
Most RBI in the Majors, 1970-1979:
1. Johnny Bench 1013
2. Tony Perez 954
3. Lee May 936
4. Reggie Jackson 922
5. Willie Stargell 906
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Johnny was even stronger in the post-season than the regular season:
in J Bench’s regular season career: .342 OBP, .476 SLG, .817 OPS
in Bench’s N.L.C.S. career: 94 PAs, .330 OBP, .530 SLG, .860 OPS
in his World Series career: 94 PAs, .340 OBP, .523 SLG, .864 OPS
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Baseball-reference’s data includes a catcher’s fielding stat called Stolen Base Opportunities (SBO), which counts the number of plate appearances during which a catcher was behind the plate with a man on first or second and the next base open. For each season of Johnny Bench’s career, I looked at the average stolen bases allowed in the NL per SBO (subtracting out Bench’s own SBs allowed and his SBOs). I then compared that average rate to Bench’s own SB per SBO rate for that season. Using that approach I could calculate for each season how many more stolen bases the Reds would have allowed at the average (non-Johnny Bench) SB per SBO rate instead of Bench’s actual rate, given the number of SBOs that Bench actually faced. I also went through the same process for caught stealing numbers. The results:
Bench’s actual career numbers
Stolen Bases Allowed: 610
Runners Caught Stealing: 469
Numbers if Bench had allowed SBs and caught runners at the then- prevailing NL average (non-Johnny Bench) rate per SBO, assuming same number of SBOs:
Stolen Bases Allowed: 989
Runners Caught Stealing: 512
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–This 1947 round of Circle of Greats voting saw very heavy support for the newcomers from the 1947 birth year. Bench led the way, but Carlton Fisk and Nolan Ryan also received a lot of support. These three guys likely would have received an even higher percentage of the votes but for a late swing in the balloting toward strategic voting for some of the holdovers.
–Despite the late strategic voting, two holdovers drop off the ballot, BBWAA-elected Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, and Rick Reuschel. Fisk and Ryan replace them, so the holdover list stays at 11 names long.
–Ryne Sandberg avoided falling off the ballot by a tiny margin. One fewer ballot with his name on it, or three more ballots without his name, and Sandberg too would have been sent off to redemption-round purgatory. By the way, baseball-reference has not yet recognized that Sandberg has replaced Charlie Manuel as Phillies manager. Recent box scores and the Phillies page at b-ref are (as of the time of this post) still listing Manuel as the manager.
–With Winfield and Reuschel out, and Ryan and Fisk joining the holdovers with enough support to earn protection from the bubble, only Sandberg, Eddie Murray and Kenny Lofton will be on the bubble next round.
As usual, you can check out the complete voting record for this past round at Google Docs. The link is here: COG 1947 Vote Tally
If you would like to review the history of the COG voting, a spreadsheet summary of the voting is here: COG Vote Summary , with a summary of the raw vote totals on Sheet 1 and a summary of the percentage totals on Sheet 2.
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The Circle of Greats membership thus far:
Bert Blyleven, P
Roger Clemens, P
Tom Glavine, P
Randy Johnson, P
Greg Maddux, P
Mike Mussina, P
Curt Schilling, P
Johnny Bench, C
Gary Carter, C
Mike Piazza, C
Jeff Bagwell, 1B
Wade Boggs, 3B
George Brett, 3B
Mike Schmidt, 3B
Barry Larkin, SS
Cal Ripken, Jr., SS
Ozzie Smith, SS
Alan Trammell, SS
Robin Yount, SS
Rickey Henderson, LF
Tim Raines, LF
Barry Bonds, LF
Tony Gwynn, RF
Larry Walker, RF
Paul Molitor, DH
Frank Thomas, DH