Piazza Not Most Valuable to Baylor

Don Baylor, manager of the Colorado Rockies, meant it as campaign rhetoric on behalf of Larry Walker’s candidacy for the National League’s most-valuable-player award.

Nothing wrong with that. Walker, the Rockies’ right fielder, is having an excellent season. The manager would be expected to support one of his own.

It’s just that Baylor seemed to deliver it at the expense of Mike Piazza, making it appear to be more a reflection of Baylor’s long hatred of the Dodgers than innocent lobbying for Walker.

Quoted by the Denver Post in two stories this week, Baylor called Piazza a one-dimensional player who didn’t carry his team when it was scuffling this year.

“Some people are not as diplomatic as others, but I just think he’s trying hard to help his guy,” Piazza said before the Dodgers left for Houston on Thursday.

“I take pride in my catching and don’t consider myself one dimensional, but I don’t take it personally. I don’t expect him to lobby for me, and I can’t lobby for myself.”

Baylor, reached in Denver on Thursday, said his comments were taken out of context.

Well, sort of.

Told the Dodgers had taken exception to the one-dimensional reference, believing Piazza had made significant strides behind the plate, Baylor said:

“When? This year?”

However, he also said: “I respect Mike as a player, and there is no way I’d take a cheap shot at him. He’s one of the top three hitters, not only in our league but in all of baseball.

“You have to have respect for what he’s done [offensively] playing a tough, demanding position every day. Only Johnny Bench and Thurman Munson did what he’s doing at that position.

“What I meant by one-dimensional is everyone tends to look at Piazza as an offensive player while guys like Walker and Craig Biggio are looked at as players who can do it both offensively and defensively. When you start adding in things like runs and stolen bases and defense, that’s when you distinguish between guys.

“With the MVP, I don’t think it’s a slam dunk for any of those three [Walker, Biggio or Piazza], but I think one of them has to win.

“I won’t be disappointed either way.”

Quoted in the Post, Baylor had said:

“The other day I heard [TV analyst] Tim McCarver say that without a doubt this year [the MVP winner] should be Mike Piazza.

“I’m going, ‘Why?’ He didn’t carry that club. They were scuffling a long time. He has less in every [statistical category than Walker].

“If you’re talking one-dimensional you might vote for Piazza, but when you hit [43] homers and steal 30 bases [Walker is the fifth player to reach 40-30], that puts you in an exclusive group.”

No question about the exclusivity of the company Walker has joined, but there is also no question as to what Piazza has meant to a team leading the division in which the Rockies are third among four teams.

The bite is that one-dimensional bit.

“We wouldn’t be in first place if it wasn’t for the job Mike does behind the plate,” said Mike Scioscia, the Dodger coach and former catcher who continues to tutor Piazza on the nuances of catching.

“You have to see Mike’s progress on a daily basis to assess it. The proof is in the pudding.”

Scioscia meant that the Dodger staff statistically is second in the big leagues only to the Atlanta Braves’, and that can’t happen if the catcher isn’t doing the job.

“Our guy might not have the numbers that [Walker has], but he’s more valuable to our team than Walker is [to the Rockies],” Manager Bill Russell said. “They could win without Larry, but we couldn’t do that here. For us, the game doesn’t start until Mike starts it.”

It is a measure of Piazza’s maturity and equanimity that he simply rolls with comments such as Baylor’s.

“Last year I kind of got caught up in the MVP thing with [Ken] Caminiti, and I’m trying not to let that happen this year. I’m trying to focus on my job and the race,” he said.

“Larry Walker is a great player having a great year. He plays in a great hitter’s park, and I think it’s unfortunate that some of their players don’t get the credit they deserve because of that.”

Walker leads the National League in batting (.371), homers (43), runs (131), total bases, on-base percentage, (.456), slugging percentage (.715), extra-base hits and multi-hit games. He is third in runs batted in with 114, third in doubles and sixth in stolen bases (31). He is 28 shy of 400 total bases.

No National League player has reached that plateau since Hank Aaron in 1959. No player in National League history has hit 43 homers and had a higher average than Walker’s .371.

Is all of this the product of Coors Field? Hardly.

Walker is batting .352 on the road, where he has hit more than half of his homers (24) and collected 42% of his RBIs (49).

Piazza is third in the league in batting (.355), third in total bases, second in slugging percentage and third in on-base percentage. He has 34 homers and 105 RBIs. Scioscia referred to the high average and high power and said, “That’s more than one-dimensional in itself. There’s only a handful of guys doing that, and none of them play the demanding position Mike does.”

Said Piazza: “I don’t take credit for the success of our pitching, but I think I contribute to it. I regard myself as a blue-collar catcher. I’m not in the class of an Ivan Rodriguez or Charles Johnson. I’m not the prettiest or most technically sound, but I think I get the most out of my ability.”

Piazza has been in the MVP top 10 each of his four full seasons and said he considers that an honor in itself.

Should the award go only to a member of a winning team?

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve heard the various theories. I haven’t sat down and written a thesis on it. I’m just glad I don’t have to vote.”

Baylor doesn’t have a vote either. He has harbored a dislike for the Dodgers since he played for the Angels and felt they were always in the shadow of the blue.

“I have to watch what I say about Piazza and the Dodgers,” he said Thursday.

Indeed, the final arguments in this debate--about the MVP and a lot more--may be heard when the Dodgers end the season with four games in Coors Field. A Most Volatile Possibility.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

MVP Race

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PIAZZA WALKER .355 (3) Avg. .371 (1) 34 (5) HR 43 (1) 30 (*) 2Bs 42 (4) 105 (10) RBIs 114 (3) 92 (10) Runs 131 (1) 5 (*) SBs 31 (6)

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League rank in (); *-not in top 20.

NATIONAL LEAGUE MVP

A look at the leading candidates (all numbers are through Thursday’s games): *--*

Mike Piazza, Dodgers .355 34 HRs 105 RBIs Larry Walker, Colorado .371 43 HRs 114 RBIs Jeff Bagwell, Houston .279 38 HRs 120 RBIs Andres Galarraga, Colorado .321 36 HRs 126 RBIs Tony Gwynn, San Diego .369 17 HRs 111 RBIs

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