#65 Mike Piazza

Mike Piazza
C
1992-2007
12 Time All Star, Rookie of the Year
Baseball Hall of Fame
Mike Piazza is the best hitting catcher of all time, full stop. He hit 427 home runs (396 of them as a catcher, the record) and he is a lifetime .308 hitter. 

He is to date the only Dodger to hit the ball completely out of Dodger Stadium. His 1997 season is one of the more ridiculous on record as he hit .362 with 40 home runs and 124 RBIs. 

He posted 9 30 Home Run seasons (getting to 40 in 2 of them). He was a 62nd round pick of the Dodgers and turned into a Rookie of the Year winner for them. After his time in LA he had a very brief stop in Florida before becoming a Met. He had one of the more storied careers in Mets history leading them to the 2000 World Series and also cracking a home run in the first game back after the 9/11 attacks. He ended his career with a year each in San Diego and Oakland. 

His defensive was not highly regarded when he played, but new metrics have shed some new light on his D-  His pitch framing, in particular, ranks seventh-best among all catchers going back to the first data in 1988. Another report published in 2008 put him third among all catchers since 1948 in improving the performances of his pitchers.

Mike Piazza was elected to Cooperstown in 2016. 


Anthony Leonelli is a 37 year old College Baseball Coach and amateur baseball arguer. If you wanna know how this list came together check here criteria. He thinks that George Brett winning batting titles in 3 decades is pretty awesome. 

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