Lifestyle Mike Piazza Rescues a Hot Babe

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Hauler

Been fallin so long it's like gravitys gone
Feb 3, 2016
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I don’t disagree with him possibly just being okay. I just think he’s better than people generally give him credit for.
It looks like during his years with the dodgers the backup catcher started 20-30 games a year and they played in 40-50. Not sure how many of those appearances were pinch hits though.
The defensive argument comes in to play when people start using his name in the GOAT conversation, as the counter-argument against him being included with that group is usually "He fucking sucked behind the plate".

He certainly wasn't anything special back there. He allowed 1400 stolen bases in 15 years, throwing out only 23% of attempted steals.

The Mets tried him at 1st base in 2004 but he was even worse at that so they moved him back to catcher in 2005.

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Piazza was the easiest catcher to run against for most of his career.
NL season leaders for steals allowed by a catcher during Piazza's career:

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In 1997 he was 3rd worst and gave up 112 steals.
In 2003 he was hurt and only played in 64 games (still finished 6th worst - haha)
In 2004 he was a DH for Oakland
In 2005 he was 2nd worst. He threw out only 13 guys on 95 steal attempts.

If he played in the AL, he likely would have been a DH his entire career.
If he plays his entire career as a DH, is he still a slam dunk HOFer?
 
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Daglord

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Jan 26, 2015
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LOL. that was awesome, thanks!

there is a lot more to being a catcher than throwing out a baserunner & Piazza is underrated IMO.

he called a good game, framed pitches well, great at blocking the plate & the passed ball - just couldn't throw out anyone. ask any of the Mets pitching staff during his tenure. tough as nails.
 

Daglord

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Jan 26, 2015
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Mike Piazza Was More Than A Big Bat

Yeah, he wasn’t the greatest thrower. That unfortunately translated into people thinking that some of [his] other game wasn’t as good as it was. He called a good game. He received the ball fine. He blocked balls fine. But so often catchers are defined defensively on how well they throw and there’s much more that goes into just being a good defensive catcher than being able to throw.

In a 2006 study, Baseball-Reference founder Sean Forman found that Piazza was a whiz at preventing passed balls and wild pitches. And in an essay for the “Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2009” (which is now available online), Craig Wright — who pushed for playing time for a young Piazza during his time as a statistical analyst for the Dodgers — showed that with Piazza behind the plate pitchers allowed an OPS 25 points lower, and an unintentional walk rate 10 percent lower, than they did while throwing to different catchers in the same seasons. Subsequent work by Baseball Prospectus analyst Max Marchi in 2012 and Baseball Info Solutions founder John Dewan in 2013 also supported the idea that Piazza’s presence improved his pitchers’ results, as Piazza was pleased to point out in his book. The more sophisticated our statistical tools become, the better Piazza appears, and the more accurate Glavine’s statement seems.
 

Hauler

Been fallin so long it's like gravitys gone
Feb 3, 2016
45,415
57,814
LOL. that was awesome, thanks!

there is a lot more to being a catcher than throwing out a baserunner & Piazza is underrated IMO.

he called a good game, framed pitches well, great at blocking the plate & the passed ball - just couldn't throw out anyone. ask any of the Mets pitching staff during his tenure. tough as nails.
Yeah. I looked at his passed balls as well. Pretty solid numbers. He could catch. He just had a noodle arm.
But I'd argue that giving up that many steals is a pretty big deal. Each one of those is either putting a runner into scoring position (to 2nd) or improving their scoring position (to 3rd).

Over the course of his career, if 20% of those runners come home that's 280 runs. It's not insignificant.

During a broadcast back in the 90s after Tony Fernandez walked, I remember Marty Brennaman (Reds announcer) saying "Ball 4 to Fernandez, and with Piazza back there he should be standing on 2nd in short order." Sure enough, 3 or 4 pitches later, he stole 2nd.
 

Hauler

Been fallin so long it's like gravitys gone
Feb 3, 2016
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But so often catchers are defined defensively on how well they throw and there’s much more that goes into just being a good defensive catcher than being able to throw.
If throwing is so insignificant, why are there zero left handed catchers?
 

Hauler

Been fallin so long it's like gravitys gone
Feb 3, 2016
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Piazza behind the plate pitchers allowed an OPS 25 points lower, and an unintentional walk rate 10 percent lower, than they did while throwing to different catchers in the same seasons.
Again. Comparing him to his backups.
I would hope a HOFer is better than a 2nd string catcher.
 

Qat

QoQ
Nov 3, 2015
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That brings back memories.

I used to love calling up my friends from the neighborhood when I was 10 years old to see if they wanted to get together and play some athletics.

WTF?
Huh? This is about sport popularity, what does your childhood has to do with it?
Rugby guys are tough. I can watch that sport even if I don't always know what's going on.

Soccer players are fucking pussies. You can't watch a game for longer than 5 minutes without someone falling down acting like they just got shot. I'm embarrassed for them

The women soccer players are WAY tougher than the men.
 

Daglord

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Jan 26, 2015
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Again. Comparing him to his backups.
I would hope a HOFer is better than a 2nd string catcher.
that's a fair point.

I'd guess Piazza was paired with a stronger defensive catchers making it look even more impressive. I know I would I would when making my roster. IIRC, Hernandez was a defensive specialist & Scioscia was pretty good.