Jorge Posada: Outstanding Offense and Intelligence but Not Enough Defense

Jorge Posada was more than a great player. In the tradition of Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, Thurman Munson and Joe Girardi, Posada was an extremely intelligent, perceptive catcher.

The New York Yankees were at the Ballpark in Arlington on Apr. 17, 2000. They had just scored a run in their half of the 11th inning to break a 4-4 tie. Allen Watson replaced Mariano Rivera on the mound.

The Texas Rangers loaded the bases with no outs against the former New York Mets' left-hander. Joe Torre pulled Watson in favor of Todd Erdos (remember Todd?) to face the switch-hitting Luis Alicea.

Alicea hit a dribbler in front of the plate. It seemed that the ball had hit Alicea's foot, but home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg ruled it a fair ball.

Posada reacted immediately. He pounced on the ball and stepped on home plate to force Jason McDonald for the first out.

Alicea was still in the batter's box since he had fouled off the ball. Posada tagged him out for an unassisted double play by the catcher.

Forget that Alicea really did foul the pitch off his foot. Not only did Posada react instantly, he knew that if he had tagged Alicea before stepping on home plate, the force on McDonald would have been removed.

But that's not the end of the story.

Umpire Kellogg told Posada that McDonald had scored. Kellogg hadn't seen Posada touch home plate. It would be wrong to claim that Kellogg didn't know the force out rule. It wouldn't be wrong to say that he missed the play.

Posada didn't argue. He asked Kellogg to confer with his colleagues. Kellogg was told that Posada had touched the plate before tagging out Alicea.

The fact that Posada made an unassisted double play, which is a rare accomplishment for a catcher, doesn't mean that he was an above average defensive player. Posada is of above average intelligence and he has great baseball instincts as well as a deep understanding of the game.

He was adequate most of the time on defense, but the reason that Posada will probably not be voted into the Hall of Fame is that his hitting, excellent for a catcher, won't be enough to overcome the valid perception that if defense has kept Ted Simmons out of the Hall, it should keep Posada out as well.