MLB: Is Ivan Rodriguez the Best Catcher of All Time?

I'm a huge Reds fan, and I've always maintained that Johnny Bench is the best catcher the game has ever seen.

However, in light of the recent retirement of Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, I've decided to revisit the idea and see who the best catcher of all time was.

Consider his career offensive stats, along with the stats of five other catchers who I consider to be the best:

Name	Games	AB	H	HR	R	RBI	AVG.	OBP.	SLG.	oWAR
Johnny Bench	2158	7658	2048	389	1091	1376	.267	.342	.476	64.8
Yogi Berra	2120	8539	2150	358	1175	1430	.285	.348	.482	59.3
Mike Piazza	1912	6911	2127	427	1048	1335	.308	.377	.545	67.4
Roy Campanella	1215	4205	1161	242	627	856	.276	.360	.500	35.1
Ivan Rodriguez	2543	9592	2844	311	1354	1332	.296	.344	.464	50.4
Mickey Cochrane	1482	5169	1652	119	1041	832	.320	.419	.487	51.5

As you can see, Pudge's numbers are very good. He ranks first in games played, at bats, hits and runs scored. However, he's fifth on this list in oWAR, last in SLG, last in OBP and fourth in home runs.

Campanella only ranks behind him in oWAR because he was stuck in the Negro Leagues and had his career derailed by a car accident, which left him paralyzed.

Everyone seems to hold Rodriguez's offensive game in high regard, however, he's the beneficiary of one thing the rest of these players never got to experience—the DH.

Although he only played a little over 100 of his games in the DH spot, you can't deny the impact it's had on the longevity of catchers in Major League Baseball.

Rodriguez's offensive game is undeniably good. However, I'd take Bench, Piazza, Berra, Campanella and Cochrane over him in this area of the game.

Defense was Rodriguez's best asset however. Over his 21 year career, Pudge won 13 Gold Gloves (10 consecutively from 1992-2001).

Consider his defensive statistics (at catcher) in comparison to the same five players:

Name	Games (at catcher)	Chances	PO	A	E	FLD%	Rtot	PB	dWar	CS%
Johnny Bench	1742	10196	9249	850	97	.990	97	94	6.5	43%
Yogi Berra	1699	9646	8738	798	110	.989%	28	76	2.6	45%
Mike Piazza	1630	11701	10844	733	124	.989%	-61	102	-8.3	23%
Roy Campanella	1183	7155	6520	550	85	.988%	10	56	1.1	57%
Ivan Rodriguez	2427	16223	14864	1227	142	.991%	167	127	16.9	46%
Mickey Cochrane	1451	7365	6414	840	111	.985%	N/A	88	-.3	39%

Rodriguez is arguably the best defensive catcher ever.

In his 16,223 chances behind the plate, he recorded a .991 fielding percentage and accumulated the highest dWar and Rtot figures of any catcher. He also threw out an impressive 46 percent of base runners.

One last chart for the overall WAR values of each of these great catchers:

Name	Johnny Bench	Yogi Berra	Mike Piazza	Roy Campanella	Ivan Rodriguez	Mickey Cochrane
WAR	71.3	61.9	59.1	36.2	71.3	51.2

In comparing the players WAR values, you get a pretty accurate representation of how good they were. The only player who was significantly better than his WAR suggests is Roy Campanella.

This comparison leaves Rodriguez and Bench as the top two catchers of all time. Bench was significantly better offensively, while Rodriguez was the superior defensive player.

From there, it's pretty tough to separate one from the other. However, I still give the nod to Bench for several reasons.

First, Bench won two MVP awards in 1970 and 1972. Rodriguez won just one in 1999.

Finally, name recognition. When you're talking about the top catchers of all-time, the first two names generally mentioned are Bench and Berra.

Rodriguez is, on occasion, left out of the top five. For me, that's a deal breaker.

So, to answer my own question, in short, Rodriguez is not the best of all-time. However, he is certainly in the discussion for the top two or three in Major League Baseball history.