Joe Mauer should be a Hall of Famer

By almost every metric, Joe Mauer is an easy selection for the Hall of Fame, but there is a tranche of pundits and even Minnesota fans that believe his is a borderline case because he didn't hit enough home runs, or wasn't a part of a successful postseason team, or played a position other than catcher for 5 tears after his career altering brain injury.

The only reason that there should be a delay on Mauer's entry, not even if there was a question about his qualificiations, would be if this was already expected to be a big class, and there just weren't enough votes to go around. Aside from Mauer, Adrian Beltre and Todd Helton look like they will get in this year, but it isn't a bumper crop of super stars on the ballot.

Jay Jaffe is something of a Hall of Fame mathematician. He created the "JAWS" metric, which evaluates a player's WAR over their 7 year peak and over their career. Among catchers, Joe Mauer is 7th all time in the JAWS metric. For the concerns about an underwhelming peak or a short career, his JAWS is higher than the average hall of fame catcher, and is the only one in the top 11 that is not in the hall of fame.

Breaking it down by the components, Mauer is 5th in the all time peak measurement and 9th in career WAR, both higher than the average hall of famer.

Another very good catcher is going to be on the ballot in a few years, and is seen sa a slam dunk first ballot Hall of Famer. Yadier Molina, is undoubtedly a Hall of Fame catcher on his own merits. Some people use Molina's defensive prowess (Mauer has 3 gold gloves) or his rings (Why isn't Jorge Posada in?) or his durability (Where is Benito Santiago?). Like I said, Molina deserves entry on his own merits and I don't mean to denigrate him, but rather say that the reasons for Molina's entry shouldn't be the reasons you say Mauer shouldn't be in.

Joe Mauer was one of the best hitters in the games for about 5 years (3 batting titles!), and was one of the best catchers to ever play the game. The opinion seems to be that he isn't a shoo-in to be in the Hall of Fame, but really, he should be getting elected this winter.