His story is interesting, of course. Late round draft pick (62nd round), made as a favor to Tommy Lasorda, who was Piazza family friend.
If you look at his stats, you'll see an example of this career arc that I keep talking about. He starts off gangbusters, winning ROY, and taking the league by storm. He was a bit old as a rookie, but just at the edge (historically, HOF type players make an impact in the majors by the time they're 24 - anything older and it becomes tough to accumulate the counting stats you need). These numbers are cut and pasted from baseball-reference.com, which is awesome. The column on the right is OPS+, which is a factor of a player's OPS, compared to the league average. So, in 1993, Piazza's OPS+ of 152 essentially means that his OPS was 52% above the league average. An OPS+ of 100 would mean that you were at the league average, and an OPS+ of 94 would mean that you were 94% of the league average.
Yr Ag G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+You'll note a few things. Piazza kept improving until he was 28, culminating in 2 excellent seasons in 1997 and 1998, where he was 2nd in the MVP voting both years. Then, starting at age 29, you have a few plateau years, until the age of 32. Then starting in 2002, at the age of 33, you see the decline start and be accelerated by injuries in 2003. You have to give Piazza credit. He was able to keep from falling off the cliff, so long as he stayed healthy. Even in 2004-06, he still managed to average over 20 HR a season. Last year, the cliff finally came at the age of 38, but really, by the time he hit 34, he was no longer, "Mike Piazza, HOF-level player," but rather "Mike Piazza, Still better with the bat than more catchers."
93 24 149 547 81 174 24 2 35 112 3 4 46 86 .318 .370 .561 152
94 25 107 405 64 129 18 0 24 92 1 3 33 65 .319 .370 .541 140
95 26 112 434 82 150 17 0 32 93 1 0 39 80 .346 .400 .606 172
96 27 148 547 87 184 16 0 36 105 0 3 81 93 .336 .422 .563 166
97 28 152 556 104 201 32 1 40 124 5 1 69 77 .362 .431 .638 185
98 29 151 561 88 184 38 1 32 111 1 0 58 80 .328 .390 .570 152
99 30 141 534 100 162 25 0 40 124 2 2 51 70 .303 .361 .575 134
00 31 136 482 90 156 26 0 38 113 4 2 58 69 .324 .398 .614 155
01 32 141 503 81 151 29 0 36 94 0 2 67 87 .300 .384 .573 147
02 33 135 478 69 134 23 2 33 98 0 3 57 82 .280 .359 .544 137
03 34 68 234 37 67 13 0 11 34 0 0 35 40 .286 .377 .483 126
04 35 129 455 47 121 21 0 20 54 0 0 68 78 .266 .362 .444 108
05 36 113 398 41 100 23 0 19 62 0 0 41 67 .251 .326 .452 104
06 37 126 399 39 113 19 1 22 68 0 0 34 66 .283 .342 .501 122
07 38 83 309 33 85 17 1 8 44 0 0 18 61 .275 .313 .414 96
Also, you see the power stay relatively strong, though the bat speed was deteriorating. However, it's interesting that the OBP stayed high, as the number of walks stayed high. But, even that fell off starting in 2005. The stats here are really indicative of this whole career arc concept that I keep talking about.
So who's next? Maybe Brian McCann. He's not nearly the pure hitter that Piazza was. Maybe Victor Martinez (who is darned good). Probably no one, for a while.
In any case, one more familiar face from my childhood is off to greener pastures.
-Chairman (aka O.N. Thugs)
6 comments:
Personally, I hope it's Geovany Soto for the sake of my fantasy baseball team this year and the Cubs' success in the future. However, picking from guys who have been in the league for a few years, if Joe Mauer can stay healthy and get 500AB's for a few seasons in a row, I think he could hit over .300, have an OBP around .390, and an OBP of .475. I agree with you about McCann, I think he's one of the best catchers in the league right now, but don't think he has it in him to be Mike Piazza caliber excellent year after year. Victor Martinez seems to have the most pop of all of them, but he may not be a catcher for his entire career, and he's started off REALLY slow this year.
Aside from Geovany Soto as having an outside chance, Russell Martin has an outside shot, but he'll have to hit for some more power if he wants to be in the team photo.
You're right, of course. I was more getting at the power aspect. Joe Mauer is a stud player, as is Russell Martin. But they're cut from a different cloth.
Soto may end up being the sort of power hitter (can't really tell - need more AB's to see).
But I'm still rooting for my guy Ryan Doumit (who I have still never seen play and have no idea what he looks like) :-)
So who's next?
First I was hoping J.R. Towles. Now I'm hoping it's Dioner Navarro. (Look him up on Yahoo. He's a real MLB player. I promise.)
BTW, speaking of catchers, Roland could you please start a catcher? You're making the league look bad by being in first by 20 points without starting a catcher.
I'm just keeping the spot open for Doumit when he comes back. I've also decided to not go with a SS until Furcal comes back.
Good thing we don't worry about defense.
C-Lauff. I was thinking a bit more about your comment about Russell Martin and Joe Mauer. I can't believe that I didn't think about this right when you mentioned it, but if anything, they're much more like I-Rod, the other catcher who was dominant from the early 90's forward. Both are very athletic, strong defensive catchers, who also carry good bats.
On the other hand, they're already looking for other positions for Victor Martinez and Brian McCann to play so that they can focus on hitting (though the Braves did move the other stud C prospect in their system last year). This is definitely the parallel to Piazza that I was thinking about.
...they're already looking for other positions for Victor Martinez and Brian McCann to play so that they can focus on hitting...
I think they're also trying to find other positions for them to extend their careers. Playing catcher is brutal on the knees and hamstrings.
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