Pudge Rodriguez, best catcher ever???

maybe it's my age or prejudice ( i used to play on a team called the red's, and was the catcher) but i'd take johnny bench over any other catchers past or present.

well they argued that pudge was better. But i can't try and argue that he is.

Probably, but only probably, he's the best catcher in MLB today.

Let's see some stats.

Batting, among catchers: he has the best batting average, he's second only to Kendall in stolen bases, second in RBIs behind Víctor Martínez, second in slugging behind Martínez, fifth in homers behind Wilson, Martinez, Piazza and Javi Lopez, and also fifth in runs scored.

Fielding: he has had only 7 errors this season. And he's probably the most difficult catcher to steal from (there, for example, Martinez has a lot to learn).

But the most important of a catcher's job, assisting the man in mound, asking him for the right pitch, disturbing the batters... that, we don't really know.

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Now, it's way too early to rank him over such legends the size of Johnny Bench, Roy Campanella, Yogi Berra, Carlton Fisk or Gary Carter.
It's mediatic brou-ha-ha.

I think he does have the ability to call an excellent game, he led the Florida Marlins to be world series champions. To do this he had to tame yound pitchers like Dontrelle Willis. And how good is Dontrelle doing this year without the help of Ivan Rodriguez?

pudge gets the nod defensively, but i'd say piazza is the best offensive catcher.

take a look at their career batting stats:
piazza is a lifetime .317 hitter; pudge .307
on base %: piazza .387; pudge .347
slugging: piazza .567; pudge .491
walks: piazza 649; pudge 385
dingers: piazza 375; pudge 244
rbi's & runs scored are close.
pudge has over 100 more doubles than piazza

the most homers by a catcher mark may never be broken...