| Pudge vs. Piazza
This generated quite a bit of debate in that other thread, so I figure it warrants its own thread.
Here are the offensive stats
Piazza: .309/.379/.551, .930 OPS, 419 HRs, 1291 RBIs, 327 2Bs, 1052 Ks
Rodriguez: .304/.342/.437, .779 OPS, 277 HRs, 1119 RBIs, 473 2Bs, 1125 Ks
Note: Pudge has about 800 more plate appearances, in almost 200 more games
Obviously, Piazza is the better hitter. Unfortunately, defensive metrics are unreliable, so it's hard to quantify the value of Pudge's defense.
Baseballprospectus.com's Fielding Runs Above Replacement stat has Pudge at 585 runs, and Piazza at 173, which means that they view Pudge as about 3 times as valuable defensively than Piazza.
They have a stat called WARP3, which estimates how many wins above a AAA call-up a player has contributed. It takes into account offense, defence, base-stealing, home ballpark (hitter's park or pitcher's park), and a few other factors. Pudge's WARP3 is 120.2, Piazza's is 97.5. Also, WARP3 is a cumulative stat, so Piazza could potentially narrow the gap if he plays longer than Pudge.
Of course, those stats need to be taken with a grain of salt. But, I'll say in conclusion that they are both awesome catchers, and maybe Pudge gets a slight edge because the defensive difference is much bigger than the offensive difference. But, Piazza was definitely awesome in his prime |