Talk:Top ten catchers of all-time/@comment-Steaksammich-2006051781230

Alex - Posada is going to have to keep it up for at least another 5 years to crack the top ten. So far in 11 seasons he still hasn&quot;t cracked 200 HR and here in New England he has the nickname "Passed Ball Posada" for all the pitches he lets by. (on a side note, does anyone know where you can find the all time leaders for passed balls? I go to baseball-reference for my stats most of the time and they dont&quot; have it)

Bball - You&quot;re right that there probably is a difference between the very top tier and the very bottom tier. That&quot;s about 750 extra bases that teams were able to get on Piazza that they weren&quot;t able to get on Rodriguez. They&quot;ve both played about 15 years so that&quot;s about 60 extra bases a year, a pretty significant number. But in 2004 Edgar Renteria had 30 errors. That&quot;s about 28 plays he didn&quot;t make that Ozzie Smith would&quot;ve made. And that&quot;s not taking into consideration the fact that Renteria&quot;s range wasn&quot;t very good either. Smith probably could&quot;ve erased 50 batters from even reaching base in a year. A catcher is probably more important than the guys at the corners, but I think a great defensive guy up the middle (second, short, and center) is a lot more important than the guy behind the plate.

AW - A great case could be made for Piazza at the top of the list. By the time he&quot;s through he&quot;ll probably be there, if he&quot;s not already.

DNL - I think most catchers will catch the tough pitches and block the plate. The passed ball numbers from one catcher to another don&quot;t usually vary all that much (unless you&quot;re Josh Bard catching Tim Wakefield). I&quot;d like to see an extensive study on the catcher&quot;s effects on ERA though. I&quot;ve seen some stuff from guys who took glimpses at it and from what I&quot;ve read they think the effect of a catcher on a pitcher might not be as much as we think it is. But I haven&quot;t really seen anyone get too in depth with it