Neither Mike nor Jorge makes fans forget Sundberg, Ausmus, Johnny Estrada, or Brian Schneider, but Piazza was not as terrible a defensive catcher as some claim.
Mike Piazza was the greatest hitting catcher in baseball history. As Casey Stengel used to say, "You can look it up." He was not a good defensive catcher, but Piazza was not as defensively challenged as many have concluded. It is extremely difficult to assess a catcher's defensive ability because there are so many variables that cannot be controlled, but comparing a few of Piazza's statistics with league statistics is helpful.
Great Defensive Catchers and Fielding Percentage
Piazza's lifetime fielding percentage is .989 compared to the National League's .990. Here is a comparison of some of great defensive catchers' lifetime fielding percentage compared to their league's fielding percentage:
Player FP LFP DIFF
Jim Sundberg 0.993 0.985 8
Bill Dickey 0.988 0.982 6
Gary Carter 0.991 0.986 5
Jim Hegan 0.990 0.985 5
Mickey Cochrane 0.985 0.980 5
Jerry Grote 0.991 0.987 4
Roy Campanella 0.988 0.984 4
Johnny Bench 0.990 0.987 3
Brad Ausmus 0.994 0.991 3
Yogi Berra 0.989 0.987 2
Carlton Fisk 0.988 0.986 2
Jorge Posada 0.992 0.991 1
Ivan Rodriguez 0.991 0.991 0
Mike Piazza 0.989 0.990 -1
Thurman Munson 0.982 0.985 -3
Piazza Is Close to Pudge's Fielding Average
Fielding percentage is an extremely limited statistic, and with respect to defense, especially a catcher’s defense, it is even more limited, but yet Jim Sundberg, ranked among the greatest defensive catchers of all tme, has the greatest margin of difference between his lifetime fielding percentage and that of the league. Piazza, as expected, id at the bottom, but only one notch below Ivan Rodriguez, a result that illustrates there is much more to evaluating defense than fielding percentage.
Pitchers Play a Role
How often do teams run against a catcher and how successful is the catcher in throwing out potential base stealers? The pitching staff plays a vital role in this statistic. Baserunners are extremely cautious against Andy Pettitte but take advantage of pitchers who have trouble keeping them close.
Mike and Jorge Posada
The Yankees recently signed Jorge Posada to a four year, $52.4 million contract. Pizza is still without a team for the 2008 season. The following table compares Pizza and Jorge with respect to opposition stolen base success:
MIKE PIAZZA: SB v. CS
Year OPP SB OPP CS PCT.
1993 108 59 0.353
1994 86 26 0.232
1995 88 29 0.248
1996 155 34 0.180
1997 112 43 0.277
1998 115 41 0.263
1999 115 37 0.243
2000 110 32 0.225
2001 114 33 0.224
2002 125 27 0.178
1128 361 0.242
NATIONAL LEAGUE: SB v. CS
Year NL SB NL CS PCT.
1993 1714 788 0.315
1994 1141 529 0.317
1995 1602 671 0.295
1996 1785 709 0.284
1997 1817 841 0.316
1998 1609 751 0.318
1999 1959 830 0.298
2000 1627 736 0.311
2001 1456 735 0.335
2002 1514 703 0.317
16224 7293 0.310
National League catchers threw out potential base stealers 31 percent of the time during Mike’s career while Mike was successful only 24.2 percent of the time. That is not good, but let’s examine Jorge’s success rate.
JORGE POSADA: SB v. CS
1998 48 32 0.400
1999 75 29 0.279
2000 70 34 0.327
2001 94 37 0.282
2002 76 31 0.290
2003 72 28 0.280
2004 67 25 0.272
2005 90 39 0.302
2006 64 38 0.373
2007 102 32 0.239
758 325 0.300
AMERICAN LEAGUE SB v. CS
Year AL SB AL CS PCT.
1998 1675 754 0.310
1999 1462 689 0.320
2000 1297 587 0.312
2001 1647 673 0.290
2002 1236 579 0.319
2003 1279 547 0.300
2004 1253 573 0.314
2005 1216 509 0.295
2006 1252 500 0.285
2007 1354 496 0.268
13671 5907 0.302
Jorge threw out potential base stealers at the same rate as other American League catchers during his career. He threw out about 6 percent more than Piazza. Jorge’s .302 average can be compared to Mike’s .242 average, which reminds one of batting average, but the difference is that there are roughly 100 attempted steals against a catcher in a season while a batter has about 600 at bats, which makes .302 compared to .242 less significant.
Jorge Was More Effective Than Mike, But Not By Much
Jorge threw out potential base stealers at the same rate as other American League catchers during his career. He threw out about 6 percent more than Piazza. Jorge’s .302 average can be compared to Mike’s .242 average, which reminds one of batting average, but the difference is that there are roughly 100 attempted steals against a catcher in a season while a batter has about 600 at bats, which makes .302 compared to .242 less significant.
Finally is the comparison between Mike and Jorge with respect to passed balls and wild pitches:
MIKE PIAZZA PB & WP
Year PB WP
1993 14 32
1994 7 29
1995 12 37
1996 12 28
1997 10 28
1998 5 29
1999 7 31
2000 3 25
2001 7 39
2002 8 15
8.5 29.3
JORGE POSADA PB & WP
Year PB WP
1998 7 21
1999 17 36
2000 11 41
2001 18 41
2002 7 49
2003 13 30
2004 8 50
2005 8 32
2006 13 37
2007 13 52
11.5 38.9
Piazza Was More Effective
Piazza was charged with an average of 8.5 passed balls a season, while Jorge was charged with 11.5. Piazza’s pitching staff averaged 29.3 wild pitches a season while Jorge’s averaged 38.9.
Neither Piazza nor Posada made fans forget Jim Sundberg, Brad Ausmus, Johnny Estrada, or Brian Schneider, but Piazza was not as terrible a defensive catcher as some claim. He is certainly a Hall of Famer, and when one scrutinizes the offensive production of catchers in the last two or three decades, one gets to appreciate what Piazza contributes to a team.
References:
Catcher at mlb
