Mike Piazza

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Mike Piazza

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Mike Piazza

Mike Piazza was elected to the Hall of Fame in his fourth year of eligibility, 2016, with 83.0% of the vote.

Five highlights of Mike Piazza's career:

Mike Piazza was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers as a personal favor to then-manager Tommy Lasorda, in the 62nd round of the 1988 draft, the 1,390th player taken overall. Piazza was the last player drafted in the 1988 draft who played even a single game in the major leagues. Piazza is the latest draft pick ever to be elected to the Hall of Fame, a distinction which is likely to last for the foreseeable future, as the MLB draft was shortened to 50 rounds in 1998 and further shortened to 40 rounds in 2012.

Mike Piazza was voted National League Rookie of the Year in 1993. He was named to twelve All-Star teams in his career and received MVP votes nine times, finishing in the top 10 in MVP voting seven times, including back-to-back second-place finishes in 1996 and 1997.

Piazza was voted MVP of the 1996 All-Star game. He started the game at catcher for the National League (one of 10 All-Star starts in his career) and went 2-for-3 with a home run and 2 RBI and caught seven shutout innings as the National League won the game, 6-0.

Mike Piazza hit 427 home runs in his career, 396 while playing catcher. The latter number is a major-league record for home runs by a catcher.

Mike Piazza had an OPS greater than 1.000 three times in his career. He is the only catcher to do so more than once.

The first two tables below present Mike Piazza's career as measured by Player won-lost records, in and out of context.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWORL	pWOPA

Basic Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1992	LAN	23	21	1.2	1.8	-0.5	-0.6
1993	LAN	24	149	18.1	13.5	6.5	5.0
1994	LAN	25	107	12.5	9.7	4.2	3.1
1995	LAN	26	112	14.6	10.2	6.0	4.7
1996	LAN	27	148	19.5	12.9	8.5	6.9
1997	LAN	28	152	18.1	13.4	6.6	5.1
+– 1998		29	151	18.6	13.2	7.6	6.0
	FLO		5	0.4	0.5	-0.0	-0.1
	LAN		37	4.7	3.2	2.0	1.6
	NYN		109	13.5	9.5	5.6	4.4
1999	NYN	30	141	17.9	14.0	6.1	4.5
2000	NYN	31	136	17.9	11.8	8.0	6.5
2001	NYN	32	141	16.7	13.3	5.6	4.1
2002	NYN	33	135	13.6	13.2	2.4	1.1
2003	NYN	34	67	6.4	6.4	0.9	0.3
2004	NYN	35	129	11.2	11.9	0.2	-1.0
2005	NYN	36	113	9.7	10.6	0.6	-0.4
2006	SDN	37	126	10.9	10.6	1.8	0.7
2007	OAK	38	83	6.6	7.1	0.1	-0.8
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			1,911	213.7	173.6	64.6	45.2
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			32	2.5	3.4	-0.5	-0.8
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			1,943	216.2	177.0	64.2	44.4

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1992	LAN	23	21	1.5	1.5	0.1	0.0
1993	LAN	24	149	17.9	13.7	6.2	4.7
1994	LAN	25	107	12.3	9.9	3.9	2.8
1995	LAN	26	112	14.6	10.1	6.2	4.9
1996	LAN	27	148	18.4	14.0	6.5	4.9
1997	LAN	28	152	18.6	12.9	7.5	5.9
+– 1998		29	151	18.2	13.6	6.8	5.2
	FLO		5	0.5	0.5	0.0	-0.0
	LAN		37	4.3	3.6	1.2	0.8
	NYN		109	13.5	9.5	5.6	4.4
1999	NYN	30	141	17.9	14.0	6.0	4.5
2000	NYN	31	136	17.3	12.4	6.9	5.4
2001	NYN	32	141	16.8	13.3	5.8	4.3
2002	NYN	33	135	14.4	12.4	3.9	2.5
2003	NYN	34	67	6.8	6.1	1.6	1.0
2004	NYN	35	129	11.8	11.3	1.3	0.1
2005	NYN	36	113	10.1	10.3	1.2	0.2
2006	SDN	37	126	11.2	10.2	2.5	1.4
2007	OAK	38	83	6.5	7.2	-0.1	-1.0
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			1,911	214.3	173.0	66.3	46.8
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			32	2.8	3.0	0.2	-0.1
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			1,943	217.1	176.1	66.5	46.7

Mike Piazza is considered by many to be the best hitting catcher in major-league history. Player won-lost records agrees.

The next table shows the top 10 players in offensive wins over positional average as a catcher since 1961 (the first year of major-league expansion and the 162-game season).

		Top 10 Catchers, Offense Only
		eWins	eLosses	eWinPct	eWOPA
1	Mike Piazza	173.2	132.1	0.567	47.0
2	Carlton Fisk	198.7	169.2	0.540	40.2
3	Johnny Bench	170.5	134.7	0.559	39.1
4	Gary Carter	184.2	160.1	0.535	29.2
5	Jorge Posada	130.2	112.6	0.536	26.8
6	Ted Simmons	167.1	146.6	0.533	24.7
7	Gene Tenace	71.3	52.4	0.577	20.6
8	Joe Mauer	86.9	71.8	0.548	20.4
9	Bill Freehan	130.2	115.0	0.531	19.7
10	Joe Torre	85.4	69.6	0.551	18.2

But Player won-lost records go one step farther. Mike Piazza was not merely the best hitting catcher since expansion, he was arguably the best catcher, period, over this time period.

The next table shows the top 10 players in wins over positional average as a catcher since 1961.

		Top 10 Catchers, ranked by eWOPA at Catcher
		eWins	eLosses	eWinPct	eWOPA
1	Mike Piazza	192.1	154.9	0.554	43.2
2	Johnny Bench	193.0	154.2	0.556	42.2
3	Carlton Fisk	227.2	196.1	0.537	41.8
4	Gary Carter	219.9	190.6	0.536	34.4
5	Jorge Posada	147.5	131.2	0.529	25.5
6	Ted Simmons	192.0	171.5	0.528	24.8
7	Joe Mauer	95.2	79.2	0.546	21.3
8	Ivan Rodriguez	228.4	221.8	0.507	21.0
9	Gene Tenace	83.3	64.7	0.563	20.4
10	Bill Freehan	150.4	134.5	0.528	20.3

Mike Piazza's record as a catcher is virtually identical to that of two-time NL MVP and 10-time Gold Glove winner Johnny Bench. The choice of which one was better comes down to one's choice of positional average.

Mike Piazza had a well-deserved reputation for being extremely poor at controlling an opponent's running game (what I call Component 1). And, with the possible exception of game calling and pitch framing, which Player won-lost records make no attempt to measure, Component 1 is by far the most important component of catcher defense.

But, outside of Component 1, Mike Piazza was actually quite good at the other aspects of catcher defense which I measure: preventing wild pitches and passed balls (Component 2), fielding balls in play (Component 5), and preventing baserunner advancements on balls in play (Components 8 and 9).

The next table shows the top 25 players in fielding wins over positional average as a catcher, excluding Component 1, since 1961. As I said above, these records do not include any evaluation of a catcher's game calling ability or his ability to frame pitches. But recent research on these topics by other researchers suggest that Mike Piazza was well above average in these aspects of catcher defense as well.

		Catcher
		eWins	eLosses	eWinPct	eWOPA
1	Carlton Fisk	10.9	8.9	0.550	2.0
2	Matt Wieters	5.4	4.0	0.575	1.4
3	Brad Ausmus	8.5	7.1	0.545	1.4
4	Bill Freehan	8.5	7.2	0.541	1.3
5	Terry Kennedy	6.7	5.5	0.550	1.2
6	Dan A. Wilson	5.4	4.2	0.561	1.2
7	Charles Johnson	5.7	4.6	0.551	1.0
8	Jason Varitek	5.4	4.5	0.549	1.0
9	Johnny Bench	9.1	8.1	0.528	1.0
10	Jim Sundberg	9.0	8.1	0.527	0.9
11	Jake Gibbs	2.8	1.9	0.595	0.9
12	Buster Posey	4.8	3.9	0.551	0.9
13	Tom Haller	6.5	5.7	0.536	0.9
14	Jason Kendall	11.2	10.4	0.519	0.8
15	Greg Myers	3.6	2.8	0.563	0.8
16	Elston Howard	5.0	4.2	0.543	0.8
17	Scott Servais	3.8	3.0	0.557	0.8
18	Mike J. Ryan	3.8	3.0	0.557	0.8
19	Mike Piazza	7.4	6.6	0.527	0.8
20	Gary Carter	10.0	9.2	0.519	0.7
21	Robinson Chirinos	2.6	1.9	0.583	0.7
22	Steve Yeager	5.8	5.1	0.534	0.7
23	Bruce Benedict	4.2	3.5	0.547	0.7
24	Mike Matheny	5.6	4.8	0.534	0.7
25	Brian McCann	7.9	7.2	0.523	0.7

Expanding beyond catchers, Mike Piazza's offensive contributions at a key defensive position lead, as one would expect, to his ranking very highly among all major-league baseball players. The final table below shows the top 30 non-pitchers (since 1961) in pWins over positional average.

		Top 30 Position Players (since 1961, ranked by pWOPA)
		pWins	pLosses	pWinPct	pWOPA	pWORL
1	Barry Bonds	466.8	310.6	0.600	136.5	174.4
2	Joe L. Morgan	371.9	293.9	0.559	84.9	117.6
3	Alex Rodriguez	373.8	298.7	0.556	81.2	114.9
4	Albert Pujols	359.9	267.3	0.574	71.8	104.3
5	Mike Schmidt	338.5	257.6	0.568	71.0	99.7
6	Chipper Jones	336.2	257.6	0.566	69.6	98.6
7	Willie Mays	267.8	189.7	0.585	67.5	90.4
8	Hank Aaron	332.1	248.9	0.572	63.1	92.5
9	Rickey Henderson	428.4	350.3	0.550	62.5	100.5
10	Frank Robinson	296.7	217.8	0.577	61.6	88.1
11	Derek Jeter	367.7	323.1	0.532	61.2	94.8
12	Manny Ramirez	320.0	247.6	0.564	60.2	88.9
13	Reggie Jackson	370.0	295.8	0.556	58.4	92.6
14	Mike Trout	177.9	122.5	0.592	53.3	68.1
15	David Ortiz	250.9	189.0	0.570	52.4	81.4
16	Jim Thome	273.9	209.5	0.567	52.2	78.7
17	Barry Larkin	291.5	249.5	0.539	51.6	77.9
18	Johnny Bench	247.2	196.8	0.557	51.5	73.3
19	Lou Whitaker	303.8	262.6	0.536	51.2	78.5
20	Frank E. Thomas	254.1	190.3	0.572	50.8	76.9
21	Jeff Bagwell	276.5	202.4	0.577	50.8	74.3
22	Cal Ripken	382.3	351.6	0.521	49.2	84.5
23	Willie McCovey	280.2	209.2	0.572	49.1	73.6
24	Mark McGwire	221.2	158.3	0.583	48.7	67.2
25	Jim Edmonds	258.9	207.3	0.555	46.4	69.3
26	Harmon Killebrew	259.4	197.1	0.568	46.4	69.5
27	Willie Stargell	295.7	230.0	0.562	45.7	71.8
28	Dwight Evans	330.1	271.9	0.548	45.6	75.3
29	Darryl Strawberry	219.9	163.2	0.574	45.6	64.3
30	Carl Yastrzemski	430.9	360.2	0.545	45.5	85.7

Mike Piazza: easy Hall-of-Famer.

Article last updated: October 9, 2019

All articles are written so that they pull data directly from the most recent version of the Player won-lost database. Hence, any numbers cited within these articles should automatically incorporate the most recent update to Player won-lost records. In some cases, however, the accompanying text may have been written based on previous versions of Player won-lost records. I apologize if this results in non-sensical text in any cases.

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