Top Ten Years Position Player - 1970s

For the first time in history, it was a catcher dominated a best season of the decade list, and there should be no surprise that it came from Johnny Bench. For fans of the game today under the age of 30, it's hard to fathom a catcher, and the best defensive catcher to boot, that could hit as well as Bench. Yes, there were the years of Mike Piazza during the last decade (but Piazza was a poor defensive catcher), and Piazza's career from a hitting standpoint did approach that of Bench. But Johnny hit 40 HR, knocked in 125 RBI and had a maximum catcher FV of 2.10 in 1972, good enough, by far, to rank as the #1 year of the decade.

D/ARank Player ID Name First Year Team Lg HR RBI AVG Age PEVA-B
1 41 benchjo01 Bench Johnny 1972 CIN NL 40 125 0.270 25 42.271
2 144 allendi01 Allen Dick 1972 CHA AL 37 113 0.308 30 34.744
3 152 torrejo01 Torre Joe 1971 SLN NL 24 137 0.363 31 34.530
4 161 fostege01 Foster George 1977 CIN NL 52 149 0.320 29 34.233
5 167 schmimi01 Schmidt Mike 1974 PHI NL 36 116 0.282 25 34.027
6 176 stargwi01 Stargell Willie 1973 PIT NL 44 119 0.299 33 33.533
7 182 lynnfr01 Lynn Fred 1979 BOS AL 39 122 0.333 27 33.455
8 185 murcebo01 Murcer Bobby 1971 NYA AL 25 94 0.331 25 33.373
9 191 benchjo01 Bench Johnny 1974 CIN NL 33 129 0.280 27 33.034
10 193 morgajo02 Morgan Joe 1976 CIN NL 27 111 0.320 33 32.946