Molina's Mistake

Yadier Molina is my favorite catcher.  No joke, I think he’s great.  I’ve never seen someone fire missiles like he can from behind the plate.  And, over the past few years he has turned into a decent hitter and is having his best year currently with the stick.  I rarely can find fault with a catcher providing tremendous defense and hitting 313/366/490 with a wRC+ of 138.

But...

Top of the 9th in San Diego, NO ONE OUT, runner at second, he drops down a sacrifice bunt.  Good old fashioned NL style smart ball right?  Right?

No.  It isn’t smart or the right play in that situation.  Why?  Well I’m glad you asked.  Here’s the situation:

1) You’re on the road down by one.  You can’t play to tie on the road, you have to play to take the lead.  Especially with as poor and leaky as the Cardinals’ pen has been this year.  If you get a chance to take a lead, you go for it, but not taking the chance to tie.

2) The runner is already at second base, so getting him to third with one out is stupid.  With no outs and a runner at second, the run expectancy is 1.170.  You’re almost guaranteed to score more than one run.  With a runner at third and one out, the expectancy is 0.989, meaning that you are most likely but not nearly guaranteed to score the one run, but a big inning isn’t nearly as likely.  So, you’re wasting a precious out, one of three remaining mind you, for...nothing.

3) Adron Chambers came in to pinch run for Allen Craig following his leadoff double.  That means that even if the game gets tied, you’re down a big run producing bat in Craig which will make it way too difficult to take the lead in the later innings.

4) Molina is one of the best hitters on the team, and it’s a team that is struggling to score runs lately.  Taking the bat out of his hands is like telling one of your great pilots in the air force to become a Kamikaze bomber.  Or like taking the sword out of your best knight and tell him to protect a lesser knight with his chest.

Following the game, Molina and Matheny said that the bunt call was Molina’s.  Matheny said that he has earned that right.  Ugh.  Look, Yaddy, buddy, you haven’t earned that right.  Albert Pujols had earned the right to call plays on his own because he is a no doubt first ballot hall of fame player and hits the ball hard and well.  He has done that for the better part of 12 years now.  You, my squatting friend, have been a good hitter for only 4 or 5 years now.  You have NOT earned that right.  But with the boneheaded moves that Mike Matheny has made this year (might do a post on that later), I can see why you would do that.  But please, grow a brain and never do it again.  I’m begging you.  I still love you, but I might have to divorce you if you ever try something like that again.

Every Time I Think I'm Out...

Someone pulls me back in!

I’m moving in two days (now one I guess), and after finishing that long project I wanted to take some time off and recharge.  I decided to enjoy what little MLB Network I’ll get in those days, and who is the first person to talk to me on there?  Harold Friggin Reynolds.  And, here’s a big shock, says something stupid.

He was talking about AJ Pierzynski’s year, and saying how great it was.  And he’s right about that, he is having a legitimately great year.  But then he screws it up by saying that he’s having the best season as a catcher in baseball.

Ugh.  No.  Not even close.

Let's compare, shall we?

AJ has 23 HR, and a slash line of 300/348/553.  He has a wRC+ of 137 and a wOBA of 379.  Great numbers, especially for a catcher.  Let's not forget that he plays in a great hitters park in US Cellmisky Park.  Away from there, his slash line drops to 278/306/443.  Not really impressive.

Now, there’s this other catcher that came to mind immediately, who is hitting 312/364/499 with 16 HR, a 138 wRC+ and a wOBA of 373, all while playing in a fairly pitcher friendly park, which is factored in to his wRC+.  This catcher also happens to have a fielding score of 8.5 to AJ’s -3.2, and is already worth 4.7 WAR (and on pace to be worth 6.6 WAR!), while AJ is currently worth 3.5 and is on pace to be worth 4.4.

Yadier Molina is blowing him out of the water, especially defensively.  And HFR was praising AJ for his defense, saying some stupid stuff about controlling a young pitching staff or something.  What about, if you want to look at catching that way, the job Molina has done in the absence of Dave Duncan for the Cardinals?  Lohse and Westbrook are having great seasons, Wainwright is settling down, Joe Kelly filled in well for Jaime Garcia, Lance Lynn has been remarkable, why doesn’t Yaddy get credit for these guys and AJ gets credit for working with a staff headed by Jake Friggin Peavy who has won a CYA in his career?

Now, HFR, anything else you want to add?

“He’s in the lineup EVERYDAY!”

Oh, you’re really an idiot aren’t you?
Number of times AJ has been in 140+: 1
Number of other times 130+: 6

It’s not really that extreme for a catcher.  Yaddy has similar numbers.  And, interestingly enough, has been almost as valuable in his 9 year career than (23.6) than AJ in his 15 years (23.8).
That felt pretty good, actually.  I miss picking on dumb or stupid comments by idiots paid to get say stupid things.  I should do this more often.

Just wanted to add, Yaddy's not even having the best season for a catcher. Look at what Posey has done in San Fran. He's got a wOBA of 403 and a WAR of 5! And Pierzynski, who has the 5th highest WAR of any catcher in baseball is the best catcher in baseball? Bull dinkey!