As previously discussed, every Hall of Fame Catcher except Gary Carter, Ray Schalk, and Roger Bresnahan had a lower postseason average than their regular season average.
The average Hall of Fame Catcher’s postseason batting average is .263. Thurman Munson never batted below .278 in any of the 6 postseason series in which he played and batted at least .320 in 4 of his 6 postseason series.
As a simple summary for both offensive and defensive Catching productivity in the postseason, if you combine both RBIs per postseason game and defensive Caught Stealing per postseason game by Catchers into one statistic, Thurman Munson delivered 1.53 “Quality Points” per postseason game in which he played over his career (22 RBIs + 24 CS in 30 games). This is FAR higher than ANY career figure posted by either current OR prospective Hall of Fame Catchers in the postseason.
The closest Hall of Fame Catchers in this metric are Gary Carter and Ray Schalk at 1.0 / game each, with Bill Dickey (0.92) and Ivan Rodriguez (0.85) next on the list for overall comprehensive productivity per postseason game. Other interesting benchmarks within the Hall of Fame Catcher group are Piazza (0.75), Bench (0.73), Campanella (0.72), and Berra (0.71).
Quite simply, Thurman Munson produced in the postseason on both sides of the ball at a level that has not been duplicated by any Hall of Fame Catcher.
Thurman Munson’s Career POSTSEASON Productivity Compared with Hall of Fame Catchers
Appendix Two includes a broader look at Postseason Quality Points productivity by other noteworthy Catchers.