Grit Wears A Chest Protector

Lindsay Berra would like to tell you about the game's best catcher. It starts with the tyipcal admiration for Albert Pujols, who is the almighty sun god of baseball. It gets interesting around paragraph three.

But if Pujols is El Hombre, the Dominican successor to Cardinals legend Stan "The Man" Musial, [Yadier] Molina is the glue that holds the team together. In fact, he's the sport's one true game-changing catcher, playing the position like no other.

I disagree. To the point where I will write an overly critical response on a blog that a maximum of three people read.

Yes, Joe Mauer has won two batting titles,

Joe Mauer also has a 1.022 OPS right now. I would say that is pretty game changing. Yadier's .722 OPS? Technically it changes the game, just not really positively like Joe Mauer's does.

Jorge Posada owns four World Series rings,

Luis Sojo has five. And he was once called the best .200 hitter ever by the Yankees radio announcer. So top that.

and Matt Wieters may be the Next Big Thing.

But right now he's not very good.

But catchers throughout the game know who sets the bar behind the dish.

Joe Mauer right?

Says Posada, "The best defensive catcher in baseball is Yadier Molina."

Says Atlanta's Brian McCann, "Yadi is the best defensive catcher in baseball."

Says Cleveland's Victor Martínez, "Yadier is the best behind the plate."

Ok yeah, I agree with that. Yadier is definitely the best defensive catcher in the game. That is at most, half of the equation.

Molina is a throwback, a catcher in the grittiest sense of the word.

This is also true. On the Grit Scale, Molina scores a 57. Comparatively, Jason Varitek only scores a 39. Despite frequently getting into fights and starting controversy, AJ Pierzynski and his bleached locks score a rather pedestrian 25. And pothead Geovany Soto scores a -4. Note to Geo: There's no such thing as a gritty chill bro.

He's a master of an art driven underground by a collective lust for the long ball.

That's right, Yadier is one hell of a basket weaver.

In the early 1980s, when offense exploded and home runs became all the rage, many clubs started signing catchers for their skills at the plate rather than those behind it.

Not really. Here are the top 10 catchers for OPS+ in the 1980s:
1. Gary Carter-119
2. Carlton Fisk-112
3. Lance Parrish-109
4. Darrel Porter-109
5. Bob Brenly-106
6. Ron Hassey- 105
7. Alan Ashby-104
8. Erny Whitt- 103
9. Ozzie Virgil- 102
10. Mike Scioscia- 100

Basically anyone outside of the 10 best hitting catchers of the 80's was below average. Really you'd hope these guys were not being signed for their hitting skills.

In the '90s, Mike Piazza became the poster boy, and the nuances of the position began to fade.

Mike Piazza is a hall of famer. He was not typical.

But no catcher can drive in as many runs as he can prevent.

False. Patently, patently false. A catcher can really only prevent runs by blocking a play at the plate or catching a guy stealing. Maybe he throws out a bunt attempt. None of these things happens on an every game basis. Look at AJ Pierzynski, the guy has the weakest arm of any catcher in the league. He can not prevent a stolen base. Can't do it. His career catcher's ERA is 4.22. Yadier Molina, easily the best defensive catcher in the game, has a career catcher's ERA of 4.02. Adjust for the fact that instead of facing a DH, Yadier's pitchers face another pitcher. The best defensive catcher in the game and, arguably, the worst end up having about the same impact on run prevention. You know who prevents runs? Pitchers and shortstops and fast outfielders.

But it's not even about that. The best catcher can prevent about 50 stolen bases when compared to an average one (I obtained this by looking at how many bases have been stolen on Yadier vs. more average catchers). A very good hitting catcher, will create about about 40 more runs per season than the average catcher (done by comparing Victor Martinez's runs created vs. average catchers). So unless 80 percent of the people who steal bases wind up scoring, a catcher will likely not prevent as many runs as he could have created. But who knows? Maybe Yadier's superior plate blocking skills save his team dozens of runs per year.

The stat geeks have yet to master next-level fielding metrics for catchers, so Molina's defensive prowess is more anecdotal than measured, but his pickoff and caught-stealing numbers are telling. It all began in 2002, when, by his own account, he picked 26 runners off the bases at Single-A Peoria (the team didn't keep that stat).

Not sure if I take offense to the stat geek reference, but I sure as hell don't care about how many Single-A Dream Chasers Yadier picked off. Especially if there's no evidence towards it.

In 2007, his fourth season in the big leagues, he threw out an astonishing 50% of the runners attempting to steal (the league average was 22%). But it wasn't until last season, when he batted a career-high .304 and his offense brought attention to his defense, that he finally won a Gold Glove.

I will include this sentence as my indictment against the Gold Glove voting. It is the biggest sham in professional sports.

Casual baseball fans may best know the 27-year-old Molina for, of all things, a home run -- one of just 36 he has hit in his career. In the top of the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS against the Mets, Molina, who had batted just .216 during the regular season, came to the plate with one on and one out and the game tied 1-1. He drilled Aaron Heilman's first-pitch changeup over the leftfield wall at Shea Stadium, giving the Cardinals a 3-1 lead and reducing to a footnote Endy Chavez's spectacular, over-the-wall catch of a Scott Rolen blast in the sixth.

Not to be contrarian, but I remember Endy Chavez's catch more so than Yadier's homer. In fact, I don't even remember that it was Yadier who hit the homer.

But it was the bottom of the ninth that revealed the essence of Molina.

Essence of Molina: the new fragrance from Old Spice.

With two outs, the bases loaded and Cardinal-killer Carlos Beltrán at the plate

Cardinal-killing Carlos batted .143 against the Cardinals that year. Granted he had an acceptable .762 OPS, but he was by no means a Cardinal-killer. The year before he had a .726 OPS against the Cardinals. In fact, up until this year, Beltran's OPS against the Cardinals was about 150 points lower than his career OPS. If Carlos were on trial for Cardinal killing in the great state of Kentucky, I would have to vote him not guilty.

the catcher signaled for an 0-2 curveball from closer Adam Wainwright. In a situation where a hanger or even a wild pitch could have spelled catastrophe, the rookie righthander, without hesitation, hurled a filthy bender that started up and away and bit hard to the low inside corner. The pitch froze Beltrán for an embarrassing called third strike and gave the Cardinals the NL pennant.

In no way is Yadier Molina responsible for Adam Wainwright making a good pitch. Adam Wainwright is responsible for Adam Wainwright making a good pitch. People that were equally responsible for Adam Wainwright striking out Carlos Beltran:

Albert Pujols
David Eckstein
The Other Molina Brothers
Jesus
Mel Gibson
King Abdullah of Jordan
Solange Knowles
Captain Crunch
Assassinated Archduke Ferdinand
Black Jesus
The Canadian Man Who Invented The Zipper And Won't Shut Up About It

"You don't ever have to worry about bouncing a ball to Yadier," says Wainwright, now a St. Louis starter. "He's a human vacuum behind the plate. The only thing you have to think about is making the pitch, because you know Yadi's going to catch whatever you throw."

You should always feel confident about your catcher catching your pitches. You are a professional baseball player and he is a professional baseball player. Together, you should be able to throw and catch a ball 60 feet on the fly.

That kind of confidence in a catcher can't be overstated.

Yes it can. By crediting the catcher for a great pitch when it was the pitcher who threw the ball.

"I don't think anybody in the major leagues does a better job," manager Tony La Russa says. "Yadi is wonderful."

Defensively, "Yadi" is the best. Only defensively.

In the early days of baseball, catchers were revered.

Here we go, we're going to the early days. Where shit is inarguably worse, but everyone pretends it was better.

With tales of heroism from the Civil War fading from memory, the ballpark became the battlefield, and catchers established the standard for courage and toughness. They went behind the plate without any equipment, not even a glove, shielded from bats and balls only by their own bravado.

And stupidity. Don't forget stupidity.

They would catch fastballs with the palms of their hands,

Not as impressive as it sounds. Overhand pitching was still banned for the first years after the Civil War. After that, it was standard pitching form to windmill your arms around twice, pause in the middle of your wind up, and have a motion that took at least 5 seconds. They threw from 55 feet away and no one was throwing faster than 70. Still impressive, just not insane. Mostly it was dumb.

withstand a firestorm of foul tips and drop to block a skittish spitball and rise undaunted. They were judged by the number of games they could survive without sustaining a season-ending injury -- a broken hand or jaw, a concussing blow to the head. Those who couldn't hack it gave up after a few innings; the best played a hundred games.

Natural selection at it's finest. Those who had the mental capacity to wear gloves continued to play.

Eventually catchers donned masks and gloves, shin guards and chest protectors. But while the prototype backstop has changed -- from Mickey Cochrane and Bill Dickey, through Roy Campanella and Yogi Berra, to Johnny Bench and Carlton Fisk -- the essential characteristics of the catcher haven't.

Let me guess… some combination of heart and guts and other cliches.

Molina touches his hand to the redbird logo on his chest. "If you're weak here, in the heart, you won't last," he says. He taps two fingers to his temple. "If you're weak here, in the mind, you won't last. And guts. You have to have guts."

Thought so.

To spot all that, you really have to look. As Molina stands in front of his locker after a May 19 win over the Cubs, without his cap or catcher's mask, his Mohawk is the first thing you notice,

MOLINA HAS A MOHAWK!?!?! This adds four more points to his Grit Factor, putting him at an unprecedented 61 Grit Points! We haven't seen something this gritty since Kirk Gibson homered in the 1988 World Series on two bad legs and then tore down the Berlin Wall with his handmade steel-toed boots. That was truly a fine day for America.

and his calf-scraping jean shorts and canvas Ed Hardy sneakers make him look more like a punk skater than the man who just engineered Joel Piñeiro's shutout. The pitcher had lost three tough games earlier in the month, in the middle of a 4-10 Cardinals slide, and tonight he started slowly, giving up a leadoff single to Alfonso Soriano. But five pitches later, Molina picked Soriano off first, and Piñeiro allowed just two more hits the rest of the way.

It goes on like this with anecdotes for several paragraphs. I won't waste your time with them, but among the points that Berra makes are:
1. Molina steals 10-12 strikes per game based on his ability to frame pitches. Can't be proven one way or another, but I doubt it.
2. Yadier gets the ball down to second base about .2 seconds faster than the average catcher. I believe it.
3. Part of Yadier's defensive prowess is his ability to pick a guy off first base. He has done it twice as much as the second best guy since 2004, but still only amount to 5 or 6 outs a year. Scott Podsednik, he of the terrible fielding ability, will gun the same amount of people out at the plate this year.
4. Molina's arm prevents people from going first to third and keeps double plays intact. Probably true, not sure how many plays it actually impacts per year. Again, probably not a lot.

We will back jump in here:

Molina's expertise behind the plate has helped him as a hitter. After batting .304 last year, this season he's on pace for a career high in home runs.

His career high for home runs is 8. He is on pace to tie it. Kudos to Yadier.

He's also one of the toughest hitters in baseball to strike out.

Yadier is seventh among catchers in sacrifices. Otherwise a strikeout is the same as flyout or a groundout.

In the second inning of the All-Star Game, he stepped to the plate with runners on first and second and quickly went down 0-2 against Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay. But Molina shortened his swing and slapped an RBI single to center. "He puts the ball in play," says Pujols, who has become Molina's de facto hitting coach. "But the thing I really admire about Yadier is it doesn't matter if he goes 0-for-4 or 5-for-5; he has the same attitude every time he gets behind the plate. He cares about his defense more than anything because, through his defense, he will be able to help us win more. But he'll still get that big hit when we need it."

He's a below average hitter with a good approach. That still makes him a below average hitter.

After the All-Star Game, the best defensive catcher in baseball entertained a large crowd at his locker, chatting about his RBI.

I like to think Lindsay Berra qualified that term using "defensive" because of me. Although I will say that the final paragraph is an odd to place to temper the vocabulary.

It didn't matter that the reporters were waiting for Pujols, whose locker was next door, to get out of the shower. Molina always knows the score. "Is that a souvenir from your first All-Star Game?" a reporter asked about the ball Molina was holding. "No," he replied. "It's for my family. It's signed by Albert Pujols."

Worst ending ever.