ORGULLO BORICUA! If you don't know who Yadier Molina is, you are definatly not my friend... kidding... Anyway, he is one of the greatest baseball players in the world. He plays for the St. Louis Cardinals. Up here, you can see Ryan, Yadier and me. Yadier is wearing the Carolina Gigantes jersey, the team for whom he plays during the off-season in Puerto Rico... We went to a game last december wearing our Cardinal's gear. We got there early for batting practice and when he saw us he came over, talked to us, gave us his autograph, and took pictures. He was awesome!!!
Below I copied an article by Bernie Miklasz from the St. Louis post-dispatch about Yadier. I was at the Aug. 22 game the article talks about. Makes me so proud to watch a fellow Puerto Rican make history. =)
Let's get defensive: Molina's unparalleled
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
08/23/2007
Whether they excelled with their arms or bats or led with a bulldog attitude, the Cardinals have been served by excellent catchers through their history.
The roll call would include Walker Cooper, Tim McCarver, Joe Torre, Ted Simmons, Darrell Porter, Tony Pena, Tom Pagnozzi and Mike Matheny.
Before his career is over, Yadier Molina might prove to be the greatest of them all.
No, Yadi won't hit like Simmons or Torre, though he did have a fifth-inning solo homer and a score-tying double in the seventh Wednesday in the Cardinals' 6-4 victory over Florida at Busch Stadium.
Molina is batting .378 with three homers and 14 RBIs in 74 at-bats since July 26. Jim Edmonds won Wednesday's game with a two-run homer, but Molina's double to deliver Scott Rolen for a 4-4 tie was a pressure point that cracked Marlins starter Scott Olsen.
"That's as clutch as you can get, what he's done for a while here," manager Tony La Russa said. "Yadi is having as good at-bats as anybody."
This started last fall, with Molina's signature moment, the winning homer in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series that beat the Mets to lift the Cards into the World Series.
Molina has made genuine progress as a hitter. After batting only .216 in 2006, he's up to .282 this year. And because he's already posted a personal high for most walks in a season, Molina's on-base percentage has climbed to .356.
With Molina, offense is a bonus. In terms of defense, Molina is setting a standard that exceeds anything we've seen before in St. Louis.
And because we see it every day, we may take Molina's defense for granted. But Cardinals' opponents don't overlook him except in the voting for the Gold Glove awards.
"It's not even close," former Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said, when asked if Molina is the NL's best catcher. "It's not just the way he throws people out. But he's so good, teams don't want to try and run on him. He just takes away the running game. I don't know how they could vote for anyone else."
Florida's Hanley Ramirez entered this series with 39 steals, third in the NL. He immediately tried Molina, in the first inning of Tuesday's game. Result? See you later.
The Marlins didn't try to steal a base Wednesday night. Nothing new; teams have tried to run on Molina in only 26 of his 77 games this season.
In an inexplicable and bizarre outcome, Houston catcher Brad Ausmus was awarded the Gold Glove last season, despite throwing out only 12 of 72 base-stealers, or 16 percent. Molina clipped 26 of 63 stealers, or 41.3 percent.
I'm not sure how these wise men plan to vote this season, but Molina has done enough (again) to bring home the gold. He's nailed 18 of the 34 who have dared to try him. The caught-stealing rate of 52.9 percent is the best in the majors this season. Second in the NL is Cincinnati's David Ross, at 38 percent.
It's a huge gap between Yadier and the others. And the same is true of Molina and other Cardinals' catchers.
As good as Matheny was, he snuffed base stealers 31.7 percent off the time, compared to Molina's career rate of 48.6 percent.
And when the Cardinals don't have the big cat behind the plate to pounce on the mice, they take advantage. Opponents have succeeded in 28 of 31 steal attempts against the Cardinals this season when Molina isn't there.
Molina's career caught-stealing rate of 48.6 percent might not seem like a sensational number, but consider this: the best percentage in major-league history is 43.2 percent, by Ivan Rodriguez. Molina will be No. 1, all time, as soon as he logs enough innings to qualify.
So the next time you're at Busch with the kids, point to Molina and make sure they realize they're seeing one of the great defensive catchers in baseball history.
