GatewayRedbirds.com

I know I'm supposed to be happy that Yadier Molina is hitting .292 and that he has a third of the hits that he had last season, but I don't see anything to be overjoyed about.

*His .292 is nice until you take into account that he has a .337 BABIP, or Paul Lo Duca's Seeing-Eye Single Syndrome.

*He has five extra base hits, good for a .358 slugging average, which would put him around his career "high" in 2005.

*Before Wednesday night, he had all of two extra base hits.

*His 11 walks -- good for a 9% rate in his PA's -- looks better considering he drew walks in only 5% of his PA's last season. Then you realize that SEVEN of those walks came in one four game span from Apr. 15-19. And three of those came in one game. Nearly one-third of his walks have come in one game. Astounding...

*He's also drawn one walk since Apr. 22. That's one walk in the last 61 plate appearances.

*Yadi before the 13-game hit streak, .250/.347/.312. Yadi's numbers now: .292/.356/.358. Is .357/.372/.429 during the streak really that impressive? I'm not so sure.

*And throw out that four-game binge of seven walks, he's only drawn four walks in 102 PA's. That's one walk for ~25 PA's That's worse than last season when he drew a walk for every 17 PA's.

The point is, Molina hasn't turned a corner as anyone would like to think. The numbers don't bear it out. If he were really turning a corner, he would be doing a bit better than a .358 slugging. Or he would be drawing more walks. He's going to turn back into a good-field/no-hit pumpkin soon, and his average will probably remain around the .255-.260 range, and people will point to it and say, "yes, he CAN hit!" Even though he'll continue to stink.

But hey, the man calls a game like no other!

_________________
He's informed, connected, provocative and never short on opinion. He's Gateway Snayke

doesnt really matter to me. He has a hit in every game this month, and is making it to where the lineup turns over more than it did before hand.

he has a double in every game for the better part of the last week...

more than likely he will turn back into a .260 hitter, but anything is an improvement over last year...

Any production at this point is very welcome. Whether it's Yadi or Aaron Miles. The mental mistakes are killing us almost every game.

Molina's hollow .292 is the least of my worries. It's an improvement over last year. Who knows--maybe it means he has adjusted his swing and is getting comfortable with his mechanics, and he'll start the driving the ball a bit once he's settled in.

_________________
Silence is golden.

Aren't there a lot better targets to criticize than the one player we have that is doing better than career norms?

I thought it was a very good analysis. Besides, I don't want the team signing Yadi to a long term deal because he starts hitting .300 if he's only going to slug .350 and never take a walk.

_________________

Horror's Not Dead.com

overjoyed? How about satisfied? A stay of execution, maybe?

We're even bashing our productive players now? Come on...

The guy is hitting the ball on top of being one of the best defensive catcher in the game.

Give me a break.

_________________

If analyzing the numbers behind the numbers counts as bashing then I say everyone bash away.

_________________

Horror's Not Dead.com

Let's put it this way.

Yadier isn't known to be a good offensive player, and he leads the team in batting average.

_________________