When searching for the best catcher of this decade (2010-2019), we've got only four reasonable candidates: Joe Mauer, Brian McCann, Buster Posey and Matt Wieters.I couldn't agree more with that statement. It's not fair to name any prospects, so it makes sense to exclude them. They're just too unpredictable. Wieters has yet to fulfill his potential, but the others have pretty much adjusted to the majors. My personal call, and I'm obviously biased, is for Posey.
For reasons of age and health, Posey might be the better call. He's only 23 years old at this point, but has also succeeded at the major league level. We don't know for sure yet, but he seems to have pretty decent durability -- a necessity for an everyday catcher, let alone a superstar catcher. Mauer is fantastic in terms of OBP, but I don't trust his power: in spite of the fact that he hit 28 home runs in 2009, he managed only 9 in 2010, 9 in 2008, and 7 in 2007. He's also incurred a wrath of injuries lately, which seems to have impacted his hitting.
Posey's BB rate was disappointing in 2010, but based on the walk rates he posted throughout his minor-league career, I'm inclined to believe he's going to improve significantly in that aspect.
I don't think you really go wrong picking anybody of the four that Neyer mentioned. I'm going with Posey, though.
Here's Neyer's list:
Oh yeah, and, for what it's worth, Posey's significantly ahead in the poll on Neyer's post right now. He's received 41% of the votes; Mauer's in second with 23%.
