Mike Piazza: Hall of Fame?

Should Mike Piazza Be In The Hall of Fame?

  • Yes

    Votes: 13 81.3%
  • No

    Votes: 3 18.8%

  • Total voters
    16

Giantmetfan07

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Daily vote I'm going to do until the inductees are revealed on Wednesday. 
 
Today, Mike Piazza:
 


The Dodgers had let 33-year-old Mike Scioscia depart as a free agent that winter, and gave Piazza the nod as their starting catcher on Opening Day of the 1993 season. He was an instant success, hitting .318/.370/.561 with 35 homers, impressive numbers given that Dodger Stadium still rated among the league’s top pitchers’ parks. Piazza’s 7.0 Wins Above Replacement not only ranked second among NL position players behind Bonds (9.9), it still rates as the third most valuable season by a rookie position player since 1977, behind only Mike Trout (10.9 in 2001) and Ichiro Suzuki (7.7).

Meanwhile, his slugging percentage ranked fourth and his batting average seventh. He was unanimously voted NL Rookie of the Year, the second of five consecutive Dodgers to win the award (Eric Karros won in 1992, while Raul Mondesi, Hideo Nomo and Todd Hollandsworth followed Piazza). The Dodgers went 81-81 that year, a vast improvement on their 63-99 season in ’92; Piazza’s two homers on the final day helped beat the 103-win Giants, leaving them a win short of the Braves in the NL West. Lasorda savored the victory, to say the least.

 
Piazza proved that his rookie season was no fluke by putting up similar or even better numbers over the next few years. He hit .346/.400/.606 with 32 homers in the strike-shortened 1995 season as the Dodgers reached the playoffs for the first time since 1988, finishing first in his league OPS+ (172), second in batting average, third in WAR (6.2), fourth in slugging percentage and sixth in on-base percentage. Pitchers began to accord him a new level of respect. He hit .336/.422/.563 the following year, as his intentional walks increased from 10 to 21, and he walked 81 times in all, 35 more than his previous career high. He finished second in the NL MVP voting behind Ken Caminiti, and Los Angeles again made the playoffs but was swept in the first round. Lasorda was no longer at the helm by that point, having been forced into retirement due to a heart attack in late June.
 
The 1997 season was Piazza’s best with the bat, a monster .362/.431/.638 campaign with 40 homers and 8.7 WAR, all career highs. His 185 OPS+ led the league again, while he was second in slugging, third in WAR (behind ballotmates Larry Walker and Craig Biggio) and the other slash categories. He finished second to Walker in the MVP voting.
 
 May 14 was traded to the defending world champion Marlins as part of a seven-player blockbuster that brought Gary Sheffield and Bobby Bonilla to L.A. Piazza wore the teal for just five games before he was flipped to the Mets for a three-player package centered around outfielder Preston Wilson.
 
Piazza turned out to be a strong fit with his new team, and he continued to hit, batting .348/.417/.607 for the remainder of the 1998 season. He signed a record-setting seven-year, $91 million contract in October 1998, and justified it by hitting .303/.361/.575 with 40 homers the following year as the Mets won 97 games and the NL wild card — their first playoff appearance since 1988 — advancing to the NLCS before being eliminated by the Braves.
 
With Piazza hitting .324/.398/.614 with 38 homers in 2000, New York would get even farther, winning its first NL pennant since 1986 and squaring off in the Subway Series against the Yankees. There Piazza would face Clemens, who had beaned him in an interleague game on July 8, causing a concussion that forced him to sit out the All-Star Game. Piazza had homered against Clemens in three straight games, and alleged that the beaning was intentional. In his first plate appearance of Game 2 of the World Series, he hit a foul ball and his bat splintered; adrenaline pumping, Clemens fielded the broken barrel and fired it across Piazza’s path as he ran to first base, nearly hitting him. It certainly looked like an act of aggression and words were exchanged, with Piazza walking toward the mound and the benches emptying. Piazza homered against reliever Jeff Nelson later that night, but the Mets lost the game and ultimately the series.
 
Piazza’s production at the plate and behind it began to tail off slightly as he crossed into his 30s. His WARs declined from 5.1 in 2000 (his age-31 season) to 4.4 in 2001 to 2.9 in 2002. He suffered his first major injury in 2003, a groin strain that cost him nearly three months; after averaging 143 games and 592 plate appearances for the previous seven years (while hitting a combined .320/.393/.583, by the way), he was limited to 68 games and 273 plate appearances that year, slumping to .2.86/.377/.483.
In the end, Piazza finished his career holding the all-time record for home runs by a catcher (396, with his other 31 as a DH, first baseman or pinch-hitter). Among players who spent the majority of their careers as catchers and accumulated at least 5,000 plate appearances, his .308 batting average ranks third behind Mickey Cochrane (.320) and Bill Dickey (.313). His .377 OBP is seventh and his .545 slugging percentage is first, a whopping 54 points ahead of the number two man in that category, Javy Lopez. Piazza’s 143 OPS+ is first as well, seven points ahead of Joe Mauer and Gene Tenace in far more playing time. Raise the bar to 7,000 PA and the next closest is Dickey at 127, with Johnny Bench, Ernie Lombard, Gabby Hartnett and Roger Bresnahan all at 126. Factoring in playing time and productivity, Piazza has a very strong claim as the best-hitting catcher of all time.
 
 

snipezo

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Yeah he's one the best offensive catchers in mlb history.
 

NV

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C'mon he's debatably the best hitting catcher of all time.
 
If he didn't play in the era he did this isn't even a question. 
 

Giantmetfan07

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well i totally agree, but I put it up as a poll because I didn't know if anyone was on that "oh, well he might have juiced" train. 
 

NV

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Absolute fucking joke he doesn't get in again.
 
Pitiful. 
 

H-MYK

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I don't see a reason why not. I've always liked him
 

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