Greatest All-Time Catcher (1 Viewer)

[Hov34]

Going to try to get your opinion on who the "greatest" player at each position was in the history of MLB. Not going to tell you how you should interpret greatest or if you want to put more emphasis on peak vs. career. Starting with catcher and move through the rest of the positions. Not sure how to do pitchers, but I'll worry about that later.

Rank your top 4 players by voting in the appropriate point choice. 1st choice = 7 points, 2nd choice = 5 points, 3rd choice = 3 points, 4th choice = 1 point.

I can only include 15 choices so I'm going to for sure leave someone out that your would have voted for. I'm also leaving off players who played the majority of their career before 1900, Negro League greats and players that haven't played at least 10 years. If you have players that I don't include in the choices feel free to write them in and let me know how many points you would award them.

Also I'm putting the player at the position that they played the most at or are best known for. If you feel the player didn't play enough at that position to warrant a vote, don't vote for him.

I'll tally votes after a week or so.

If you want to do some research here:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/

 

[Hov34]

Top 10 as of 2/24/2012 - 49 Voters

1. Johnny Bench - 299

2. Yogi Berra - 156

3. Mike Piazza - 56

4. Roy Campanella - 53

5. Ivan Rodriguez - 49

6. Carlton Fisk - 38

7. Mickey Cochrane - 24

8. Gary Carter - 16

9. Bill Dickey - 12

10. Ted Simmons - 4

 

[Eephus]

For what it's worth, Bill James' top four were Yogi-Bench-Campanella-Cochrane

 

[jfranco77]

You can disregard my vote for Posada at #1. There's no way to leave a spot blank.

1 - Josh Gibson

2 - Yogi

3 - Bench

4 - Piazza

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Went with bench-yogi-cochrane-fisk.

 

[Hov34]

For what it's worth, Bill James' top four were Yogi-Bench-Campanella-Cochrane

How old are those rankings? And I wonder where he would put Piazza?

 

[oso diablo]

bench

ivan

yogi

piazza

 

[Eephus]

For what it's worth, Bill James' top four were Yogi-Bench-Campanella-Cochrane

How old are those rankings? And I wonder where he would put Piazza?

They were from the Historical Baseball Abstract circa 2000. He had Piazza ranked at #5. Much of the Catcher section is available as a Google Books preview starting on page 370.

 

[rodg12]

Went with...

Bench-Yogi-Dickey-Campanella

 

[Encyclopedia Brown]

Yogi at #1 for me.

The only thing I know about Bill Dickey is from "Pride Of The Yankees" when he punched out one of his teammates for making a smartass remark about Gehrig.

 

[Eephus]

Yogi at #1 for me.The only thing I know about Bill Dickey is from "Pride Of The Yankees" when he punched out one of his teammates for making a smartass remark about Gehrig.

40 years from now, Johnny Bench will be remembered for punching out the San Diego Chicken on The Baseball Bunch

 

[Encyclopedia Brown]

40 years from now, Johnny Bench will be remembered for punching out the San Diego Chicken on The Baseball Bunch

When I think of Tommy Lasorda I don't see Dodger blue. I see him wearing a turban.

 

[Brady Marino]

Went Bench-Berra-Piazza-Carter

 

[oso diablo]

we may be giving short-shrift to Gary Carter, who ranks anywhere from 2nd to 4th (depending on source) in Wins-Above-Replacement among catchers all-time. Bench is first, and the two Pudges fall in that same 2-4 range.

Also, in terms of WAR/game, Mickey Cochrane leads all-time among players with 1000+ games as catcher. The Top 4 by that metric are:

1. Cochrane

2. Bench

3. Piazza

4. Munson

 

[Giantseasonticketholder]

Bench - Piazza - Campanella - Berra

I hated putting Piazza that high, but his bat was SO much better than everyone...that has to count for something, right?

FWIW, 5. Carter

ETA Ted Simmons is one of, if not the most underrated player in baseball. He wasn't great, but he was really good!

 

[Leroy Hoard]

40 years from now, Johnny Bench will be remembered for punching out the San Diego Chicken on The Baseball Bunch

When I think of Tommy Lasorda I don't see Dodger blue. I see him wearing a turban.

I always remember my first baseball card

 

[Hov34]

we may be giving short-shrift to Gary Carter, who ranks anywhere from 2nd to 4th (depending on source) in Wins-Above-Replacement among catchers all-time. Bench is first, and the two Pudges fall in that same 2-4 range.Also, in terms of WAR/game, Mickey Cochrane leads all-time among players with 1000+ games as catcher. The Top 4 by that metric are:1. Cochrane2. Bench3. Piazza4. Munson

I knew Cochrane usually gets shorted in the Catcher discussions, but I didn't know about Munson. The problem with both those is they didn't really have a "long" decline period (not Munson's fault of course)

 

[Hov34]

For what it's worth, Bill James' top four were Yogi-Bench-Campanella-Cochrane

How old are those rankings? And I wonder where he would put Piazza?

They were from the Historical Baseball Abstract circa 2000. He had Piazza ranked at #5. Much of the Catcher section is available as a Google Books preview starting on page 370.

I actually have that copy (had to dig it out). About Piazza he wrote: "Too early to rate him with any confidence, but probably the best hitting catcher ever to play the game." Hope Mauer has something to say about that...His top 10 (as of 2001)are as follows:

Berra

Bench

Campy

Cochrane

Piazza

Fisk

Dickey

Carter

Hartnett

Simmons

IRod was 13th, but he wrote that he would "probably be top-ten by the time he is through".

 

[Doctor Detroit]

Bench, Berra, Fisk, Cochrane

Mauer is too busy making gatorade and Selsun Blue commericials to ever be in this conversation.

 

[Eephus]

Bench, Berra, Fisk, CochraneMauer is too busy making gatorade and Selsun Blue commericials to ever be in this conversation.

"...and this is Johnny Bench's bench."

 

[Hov34]

Bench, Berra, Fisk, CochraneMauer is too busy making gatorade and Selsun Blue commericials to ever be in this conversation.

If Mauer can stay healthy enough to catch 10 plus years (I don't think he will) then I think he could enter the top 5 discussion, but again, I don't think that will happen. I would think he would move to another position.

 

[Hov34]

Bench, Berra, Fisk, CochraneMauer is too busy making gatorade and Selsun Blue commericials to ever be in this conversation.

"...and this is Johnny Bench's bench."

Eephus, glad to see you vote. Why no love for Piazza?

 

[Eephus]

Bench, Berra, Fisk, CochraneMauer is too busy making gatorade and Selsun Blue commericials to ever be in this conversation.

"...and this is Johnny Bench's bench."

Eephus, glad to see you vote. Why no love for Piazza?

I value defense at the up-the-middle positions.I actually wanted Cochrane at #3 but the poll gave me Dickey instead.

 

[Hov34]

Bench, Berra, Fisk, CochraneMauer is too busy making gatorade and Selsun Blue commericials to ever be in this conversation.

"...and this is Johnny Bench's bench."

Eephus, glad to see you vote. Why no love for Piazza?

I value defense at the up-the-middle positions.I actually wanted Cochrane at #3 but the poll gave me Dickey instead.

You can delete your vote and try it again, if not I'll just note it in the count.Thanks for voting, I value your opinions.

 

[RnR]

Thanks for voting, I value your opinions.

As you should, considering he's the only one that has seen all these guys play in person.

 

[Chairshot]

I went Yogi, Bench, I-rod, Carter.

For the record, though, I personally feel Josh Gibson was probably the best catcher of all time. We will never know, but I feel like he probably had a legit shot at the 500 HR club if he had played in the bigs.

Piazza loses a lot of points for his defense, in my eyes. Very good hitter, but he was a really poor catcher. He got very lucky that he landed in the situation he did, that his father was who he was and that Lasorda asked him to move from 1B to C. He really ended up in the best situation possible. If he had stayed a 1B (or had been drafted by an AL club and moved to DH) we would be talking Fred McGriff/Mo Vaughn territory. That said, he did play the position and should get credit for it, so he's in the bottom of the top 10 for me.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Josh Gibson down?

 

[Eephus]

Josh Gibson down?

since 1947

 

[dparker713]

Josh Gibson down?

He never played in the MLB. Plus, any evaluation of him is more about legend than anything else.

 

[Chairshot]

Josh Gibson down?

He never played in the MLB. Plus, any evaluation of him is more about legend than anything else.

This isn't exactly fair to say. I understand that for purposes of the poll we aren't considering Negro League players but this post is pretty dismissive of a player that pretty much everyone considers one of the best to ever play.And, to the bolded, that isn't totally true, either. We do have official statistics on Gibson. Granted, they are limited, only equal to about 4 or 5 full MLB seasons, but it's more than a large enough sample size to give us a very good indication of the type of hitter he was. And that indication is that he is definitely in the discussion for the greatest hitting catcher of all time.

 

[pittstownkiller]

Does anyone here suspect Piazza of steroid use; I have heard passing reference to this, over the years, on NY sports radio and was wondering what the conventional wisdom is.

 

[dparker713]

Does anyone here suspect Piazza of steroid use; I have heard passing reference to this, over the years, on NY sports radio and was wondering what the conventional wisdom is.

Just as much evidence on Piazza as Bagwell. i.e. nothing.

 

[Chairshot]

Does anyone here suspect Piazza of steroid use; I have heard passing reference to this, over the years, on NY sports radio and was wondering what the conventional wisdom is.

Just as much evidence on Piazza as Bagwell. i.e. nothing.

I doubt Piazza juiced. He wasn't THAT good of a hitter. But at this point, who knows who juiced and who didn't.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

Yadier Molina

 

[boubucarow]

Yadier Molina

#1 on the Most Beloved Catcher of All-Time list

 

[Bull Dozier]

I actually have that copy (had to dig it out). About Piazza he wrote: "Too early to rate him with any confidence, but probably the best hitting catcher ever to play the game." Hope Mauer has something to say about that...

Mauer has a LOT of ground to catch up.In Piazza's 10 year prime ('93 to '02), he averaged:

.322 BA, 35 HRs, 107 RBIs, .579 SLG, .390 OBP, .969 OPS

Even throwing out Mauer's partial year last year, from '05 to '10, Mauer averaged:

.328 BA, 13 HRs, 76 RBIs, .478 slg, .411 OBP, .889 OPS

Mauer has Piazza in BA and OBP. He never had a single season has good as Piazza's average in HRs, or RBIs, and has only exceeded Pizza's ten year OPS average in one season.

I know there are more advanced metrics these days to compare batters, but to me, Mauer isn't even in Piazza's conversation yet.

 

[Zow]

Piazza

Carter

Bench

Pudge

I like the Mets