Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers - James Fraser Article "Fisk vs. Carter"

Pudge Fisk vs. Gary Carter

by James Fraser

(Member, Society for American Baseball Research {SABR})

Paper presented in BaseballStuff.Com, September 12, 1999.

To contact the author, send email to James Fraser

Part I. Pudge vs. Carter

Carlton Fisk and Gary Carter. I don't understand how there has been such a reversal in the opinions of the two catchers. Both were extremely good players , both of them might even have been great, but there really wasn't that much difference between them. One had a greater peak value (but not by much), the other had (barely)a greater career.
Yet now there seems to be a huge misperception interms of there levels of ability. In the last Hall of Fame election Carlton Fisk received 330 votes (just 43 votes short of election) , but Gary Carter got only 168 votes (165 votes short of election). I think that is crazy, a superficial examination of career records doesn't reveal Fisk to be significantly greater than Carter.
First an examination of Carlton Fisk. He began his career in the hitters haven known as Fenway park in 1969 with a cup of coffee. His first year as a regular was 1972, when he won the AL Rookie of the Year award.
YEAR G HR BA OBP SLG OPS XR XR25.5 XR25.5PandL 1972 131 22 0.293 0.370 0.538 908.7 87.3 6.9 6.4
The last column is Park and League adjusted XR/25.5outs. I do this to balance between Fisk playing in the AL and Carter in the NL. Of course I don't adjust for the DH until 1973.
Fisk followed up his ROY performance with a dissappointing year in 1973
YEAR G HR BA OBP SLG OPS XR XR25.5 XR25.5PandL 1973 135 26 0.246 0.309 0.441 749.7 71.8 4.8 4.5
Fisk lost almost 50 points of his batting average and reduced his walk rate to make a far less productive 1973. In 1974 and '75 Fisk was plagued with injuries. Playing only 52 and 79 games respectively, but had returned to his prior level of effectiveness, posting XR25.5PandL numbers of 7.02 and 6.80. He also hit his famous homerun in the 1975 World Series (you know the one with the waving hands, stay fair, stay fair!).
YEAR G HR BA OBP SLG OPS XR XR25.5 XR25.5PandL 1974 52 11 0.299 0.383 0.551 934.0 38.5 7.4 7.0 1975 79 10 0.331 0.395 0.529 923.1 51.0 7.3 6.8
It was these two injury plagued years that probably saved his career. The injuries to his back saved his knees for his later days. In 1976 Fisk had an off year, but rebounded in '77 and '78 with what would be two of his best years.
YEAR G HR BA OBP SLG OPS XR XR25.5 XR25.5PandL 1976 134 17 0.255 0.336 0.415 750.5 71.6 5.0 4.6 1977 152 26 0.315 0.402 0.521 922.1 109.3 7.5 6.7 1978 157 20 0.284 0.366 0.475 841.0 99.4 6.2 5.5
These would be Fisk's most consistent years, at a high level of performance. I will now present his career stats from 1979 to his retirement in 1993. Fisk left Boston for Chicago in 1981, where he remained for the rest of his career.
YEAR G HR BA OBP SLG OPS XR XR25.5 XR25.5PandL 1979 91 10 0.272 0.304 0.450 753.8 42.9 4.7 4.2 1980 131 18 0.289 0.353 0.467 819.4 77.8 5.7 5.4 1981 96 7 0.263 0.354 0.361 714.6 47.0 4.8 4.9 1982 135 14 0.267 0.336 0.403 739.8 69.0 5.0 5.0 1983 138 26 0.289 0.355 0.518 873.9 87.2 6.3 6.1 1984 102 21 0.231 0.289 0.468 757.3 51.6 4.8 4.5 1985 153 37 0.238 0.320 0.488 808.4 89.2 5.4 5.2 1986 125 14 0.221 0.263 0.337 599.7 40.9 2.9 2.8 1987 135 23 0.256 0.321 0.460 781.9 67.8 5.1 5.0 1988 76 19 0.277 0.377 0.542 918.6 52.1 7.3 7.3 1989 103 13 0.293 0.356 0.475 830.3 62.1 6.0 6.1 1990 137 18 0.285 0.378 0.451 829.4 79.1 6.2 6.3 1991 134 18 0.241 0.299 0.413 712.4 57.6 4.2 4.3 1992 62 3 0.229 0.313 0.309 621.6 20.7 3.6 3.7 1993 25 1 0.189 0.228 0.245 473.4 2.6 1.5 1.5
Fisk's career was up and down and up and down. He would have great power some years, but a horrible average, the next year he would put it together but only play 2/3 of the year. Carlton Fisk retired with very respectable statistics. But, hs never put together a string of three or more all-star calibre years(several of his "all star" years are not what I would consider all star calibre). His only run of two was in 77-78. He was inconsitent and injured playing 145 or more games only 3 times in his career. His all-star years and a comment(note may have been having an excellent half, but I am commenting on his full year performances):
YEAR Comment 1972 Deserved, won ROY, had an excellent year 1973 Riding the coattails of 72, not a very good year 1974 Bounced back, but would play in only 52 games 1976 Better than 73, but not at the level of 72 1977-78 Probably his best years 1980-82 Not great years, more in line with 76, not as good as 1983. 1985 Huge power, not much else 1991 Last year as a regular, lost half his walks
Fisk's allstar collections are strange. He was elected in his three very good seasons(72,77,78), but the rest of the selections just seem to be a result of a popular, established player being chosen for the hell of it.
His career stats.
G HR BA OBP SLG OPS XR Xr/25 2499 376 .269 .340 .457 796.5 1383 5.5
A great career, certainly in the class of Bench et al, but not to far removed from Gary Carter. Who, unlike Fisk was a dominating player (or at least almost dominating as a catcher can get).

Part II. It's the Story of a Man Named Gary

The Story of Gary Carter is a sadder one. From 1979 up until about 1986, Gary Carter was the best catcher in baseball. He was always among the best with the bat, the best with the glove and the most durable. I think his numbers speak for themselves.

YEAR G HR BA OBP SLG OPS XR XR25.5 XR25.5PandL 1974 9 1 0.407 0.414 0.593 1006.4 6.2 9.8 9.26 1975 144 17 0.270 0.360 0.416 775.9 79.1 5.5 5.26 1976 91 6 0.219 0.287 0.309 595.6 28.8 3.0 2.88 1977 154 31 0.284 0.356 0.525 881.3 95.8 6.4 6.64 1978 157 20 0.255 0.336 0.422 757.7 78.2 4.9 5.00 1979 141 22 0.283 0.338 0.485 822.7 81.4 5.7 5.76 1980 154 29 0.264 0.331 0.486 817.5 89.5 5.6 5.62 1981 100 16 0.251 0.313 0.444 756.4 51.7 4.6 4.58 1982 154 29 0.293 0.381 0.510 890.5 106.2 6.8 6.66 1983 145 17 0.270 0.336 0.444 779.7 80.8 5.2 5.26 1984 159 27 0.294 0.366 0.487 852.8 104.0 6.3 6.53 1985 149 32 0.281 0.365 0.488 853.2 99.8 6.4 6.49 1986 132 24 0.255 0.337 0.439 775.6 77.8 5.4 5.61 1987 139 20 0.235 0.290 0.392 682.2 62.0 3.9 4.16 1988 130 11 0.242 0.301 0.358 659.0 50.5 3.7 3.90 1989 50 2 0.183 0.241 0.275 515.5 9.8 2.0 2.11 1990 92 9 0.254 0.324 0.406 729.3 33.1 4.6 4.80 1991 101 6 0.246 0.323 0.375 697.6 31.0 4.2 4.27 1992 95 5 0.218 0.299 0.340 639.7 29.6 3.3 3.36
Unfortunately, because he was the best catcher in baseball, he was abused by the Expos and Mets. The years of playing over 140 games (every year from 77-86, 81 was the strike), destroyed his knees. by the late 80's he was a shell of his former self.
Unlike Fisk, Carter never got a rest. Fisk's injuries saved his knees and preserved the length of his career. I believe that their actual offensive values weren't all that different. If you look at the park and league adjusted XR/25.5, they show that they were both great offensive catchers. The difference was that while they were both creating about 5-6 runs per game, one was playing 150 games a year and the other was altrenating between 120 and 40 games.

The raw XR numbers shown in the graph show that while Fisk's run production was up and down from 40-110 XR/Year, Carter was consistantly producing 80-100 runs. This data is not normalized for park and league effects, even though both would give even more of an advantage to Carter.
While Fisk was only sporadically elected to the all star game, Carter was elected to every game from 1979 to 1988. And for the majority of those years he deserved it.
Both were great players, but if I were starting a team I would want Carter. If you were given the choice between 24 years of off again on again service and 18 years of brilliant performance mismanaged. I would choose the man named Gary Carter.

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