Comments on: The Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame, Catchers

By: Lou

Lou — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:55:03 +0000

I guess it depends upon what you are looking for. I-Rod was obviously a superior defensive catcher, but he really wasn’t all that close to the hitter Piazza was. Their career slash lines

.308 / .377 / .545
.302 / .339 / .477

Counting stats too, their average per season (162 games)
89 R, 36 HR, 113 RBI
90 R, 21 HR, 88 RBI

Piazza is an easy elite, inner circle HOF’er. Rodriguez isn’t on that level. I have no idea how to quantify catcher defense, but we all know Piazza was at the low end of the spectrum, and I-Rod at the high end. Does that negate the OPS gap of .922 vs. .816. I can’t see that. And studies have shown he was good with pitchers, just bad at the running game.

As for Bench, now you’ve gone off the deep end a bit. Bench was certainly in same class on defense (though most experts do give Bench the edge).

We can’t use counting stats because they played in different era’s, but take a look at these numbers. Below is there OPS+ scores sorted by best to worst, looking at only full time seasons (120 or more games)

First number is I-Rod, 2nd is Bench

136..166
125..143
120..141
120..140
114..133
100..129
98….129
98….123
97….119
94….117
87….109
85….107

It’s just not a fair statement to say the two are close. Bench is easily much better, not too mention the fact he hit 100 more HR, and 150 more RBI over their careers.

Lou

By: Lu

Lu — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:42:03 +0000

I agree, Piazza had great batting stats but in REAL baseball he comes up short big time. IROD is clearly the BEST catcher ever and please don’t bring up J.Bench until you have compared his numbers with Pudge’s.

By: Lou

Lou — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:15:01 +0000

@ CC

Don’t hold back, tell us how you really feel!

In all seriousness, all that is irrelevant in fantasy baseball. Hate Piazza all you want in real baseball, but your fantasy team is improved considerably if he’s on your roster.

By: CC

CC — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:34:35 +0000

Mike Piazza was a selfish, incomplete over-paid player. He never stole a base, and rarely threw out a runner. He was a diva, a designated hitter who took a spot in the line up from complete team players. Bad call on Piazza. He’s no business in the hall.

Don’t even think about bringing up that ‘he hit a homer just after 9/11 and that makes him a hero’ garbage. The Atlanta Braves are Americans too, and they were rooting for NY that night.

By: Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:13:24 +0000

it’s jason kendall’s headshot.

By: Lou

Lou — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:13:49 +0000

@ Rudy

WTF is that!

By: Lou

Lou — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:12:57 +0000

@ Cory
It was! And keep in mind Bonds value in Fantasy leagues is only in the 5 stat categories, that monster OBP of his is meaningless (in standard leagues). He wasn’t even ranked #1, Sosa was:

SSosa – .328 AVG, 146 R, 64 HR, 160 RBI, 0 SB (577 AB)
Bonds – .328 AVG, 129 R, 73 HR, 137 RBI, 13 SB (476 AB)

Actually, Bonds walks hurts his fantasy value because it reduces is # of AB, thus reducing the impact of his batting average.

2001 was also the year Luis Gonzalez went .325 / 128 / 57 / 142

By: rudygamble

rudygamble — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:35:43 +0000

I can’t believe Posada is below Jason Kendall (http://www.moonbeam.net/JasonKendall/jason-pix.shtml) and Mickey Tettleton….

By: Cory

Cory — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:14:25 +0000

Hard to believe Bonds 2001 doesn’t make the list for OF. That must have been a sick year for outfielders.

By: Lou

Lou — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:13:07 +0000

@Grey – can’t tell you how many Nokes vs. Whitt emails I get.

You noticed the shaft? It was truly Piazza and I-Rod vs. the rest, but I-Rod’s score of 57.3 was too far away from 65 for me to induct. I cut Biggio a break, but he was at something like 64.5.