All hail Austin Barnes

Phil Gurnee ♦ October 8, 2017 ♦ 1 Comment

Updated 10/10/17

The hottest hitter in the NLDS is not Justin Turner it is the Dodgers most versatile player, Austin Barnes.

Year   Series  Opp PA H 2B HR RBI SB BB   BA  OBP   SLG   OPS
2016     NLDS  WSN  1 0  0  0   0  0  0 .000 .000  .000  .000
2017     NLDS  ARI  9 4  1  1   3  1  1 .500 .556 1.000 1.556
2 Yr     2 Yr 2 Yr 10 4  1  1   3  1  1 .444 .500  .889 1.389
2 NL     2 NL 2 NL 10 4  1  1   3  1  1 .444 .500  .889 1.389

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/10/2017.

Which should not surprise anyone who has followed the team this year.  Austin Barnes was only allowed 269 plate appearances but he made the most of them. Only six catchers in LAD history have had at least 250 plate appearances and an OPS+ over 130.

Austin Barnes is one of them.

If you take away HOF Mike Piazza, using OPS+, Austin Barnes just had the 3rd best offensive season ever for a LAD catcher.

Those of us who watched Joe Ferguson tend to forget what an offensive force he was as a catcher.

Player          OPS+  PA Year Age  Tm
Mike Piazza      185 633 1997  28 LAD
Mike Piazza      172 475 1995  26 LAD
Mike Piazza      166 631 1996  27 LAD
Mike Piazza      153 602 1993  24 LAD
Todd Hundley     143 353 2000  31 LAD
Paul Lo Duca     142 519 2001  29 LAD
Mike Piazza      140 441 1994  25 LAD
Austin Barnes    137 262 2017  27 LAD
Mike Scioscia    136 526 1985  26 LAD
Joe Ferguson     136 585 1973  26 LAD
Joe Ferguson     132 430 1974  27 LAD
Joe Ferguson     131 442 1979  32 LAD

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/8/2017.