Kolek planning to go pro
White Sox are 22-5 since that bad doubleheader. I still am behind Mazara and Encarnacion leaving town.
After moving into 5th place all by himself on the all time MLB Doubles list last night, Albert Pujols ties Willie Mays for 5th place all time in MLB Home Runs with 660. https://twitter.com/FabianArdaya/status/1305259238457917441?s=09He is also top 5 in RBI's and Total Bases.
The only thing more depressing than watching a once great player stumbling his way towards “landmarks” is listening to a fanboy who’s obsessed by the sad spectacle.
Your psychological projection is showing. For someone not interested in the topic, your posting about it half a dozen times recently in this thread is an interesting way to show it. Speaking of Albert Pujols:In MLB news, Yadier Molina is 10 hits away from becoming the 8th catcher in MLB history to reach 2,000 hits. 👍
Parochial, Povincial, Tribalist Identity Fragility at MU Scoop is alive and well with some. Lol. Amazing. Sad, but, amazing. There's help for that. 👍Perhaps the few of you can list all of your favorite teams, schools, geographies, food, etc...so everyone else can simply post from the tribal list to make things easier for you.
I kind of thought everyone outside of St. Louis thought Molina was a whiner. Maybe he just has his blow ups in Milwaukee as he seems to be good for one or two a season.
So what does this have to do with Yadi being a little bitch?
Say what you want about Yadi. He is the best all around catcher since Ivan Rodriguez. Who was a cheater. Before him, I don't know, Gary Carter? He has been among the best defensive catchers in baseball since his debut, and made himself a good offensive player in the process.
Joe Mauer, Buster Posey > Yadier Molina.
I really hate Molina, but I really disagree.
With your post here, I believe a challenge for Mauer is he is barely in the top 150 of games caught as a catcher as he shifted positions midway through his career.
It's really not close.Career WAR:Mauer - 55.3Posey - 41.8Molina - 39.9WAR7:Mauer - 39.0 (5th all time for catchers)Posey - 36.6 (9th all time)Molina - 28.8 (24th all time)WAA:Mauer - 27.6Posey - 25.6Molina - 16.0Top 10 MVP:Mauer - 4 (1 win)Posey - 3 (1 win)Molina - 2 (0 wins)
While I disagree with the premise that games caught is important in determining the better player, i'll just note that two-thirds of Mauer's MLB starts were as a catcher. The comp to Torre - who made less than half his MLB starts as a catcher - doesn't really hold up.If the question is which player had healthier knees, Molina wins hands down. But Mauer was still a much better player. The objective data isn't close.
Games caught matters because it is much more difficult to hit playing catcher every day as opposed to a field position or DH. It matters a lot actually.Again, I wish other players well, but I will be happy for Yadi when he enters MLB HOF. It will be well earned, just as his recent Roberto Clemente Award was well earned.
Were you a catcher at the rec center at some point in time or something?
If you use fWAR, the numbers look different. Yadi is at 54.3, Buster at 52.7 and Mauer at 52.5. I think you also need to consider that Mauer played literally half his games at C, and the other half at 1B/DH (921 at C, 603 at 1B and 310 at DH). Not exactly an even comparison. Mauer didn't play really at all the last 5 years of his career. Posey has also played more than a season's worth of games (229) at 1B, and another 30 at DH. Yadi has a combined 49 games at those two positions. I don't think there is any doubt that playing C is far tougher on your body than playing 1B or obviously DH. Both Mauer and Posey have had much better seasons than Yadi, again, there is no doubt there. Posey had 28.8 bWAR in a 5 year stretch. Pretty amazing. Great no doubt. I'm honestly ashamed I didn't include him in my post. Mauer too, had 28.9 bWAR in a 5 year stretch. Yadi never reached those lofty heights. That is for sure. His best bWAR stretch was 22.6. But he really stands out on defense, and fWAR looks at defense differently than bWAR. I think there is debate between Posey and Yadi. Mauer just played too much 1B for me. Posey, at his peak was obviously the better player, really driven by being an elite offensive player, something Yadi could never claim. But even for Posey, Molina has caught about 1000 games more. I think that is quite an achievement. Though I know some like to discount longevity as a benefit in these cases. To me, it says that even though he is 37 years old, he is still capable of manning the most demanding position on the diamond day in and day out. And that means something. Edit: haha. Other people added much of what I was trying to say. I guess I should read everything before replying.
Excellent post, Buck. Also, let me add that I really love Shorthoops outlook on sports.