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April 11, 2008

Jose "Mr. Doubles" Molina

Jose Molina had two doubles in the Yankees game today.

True story: Since the start of the 2001 season, this is only the third time where the Yankees "back-up" catcher had a game where he hit two doubles in the contest. That's just three times in the last seven (and a tad) seasons.

In addition to Molina today, Wil Nieves last did it on July 21, 2007 and Todd Greene did it before Nieves on June 7, 2001. (Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Game Finder for this information.)

Next, I turned to the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia for some more data on catchers and doubles.

I asked the "CBE" to give me a list of the most doubles by a catcher, from 2004 to 2007, where the back-stop had at least 800 PA during that period. Then, I dumped the data into Excel to come up with a list of the best "Doubles per PA for Catchers, 2004 to 2007." Here's the result:

	        2B	PA	2B/PA
Brian McCann	79	1248	6.33%
Josh Bard	53	845	6.27%
Johnny Estrada	113	1807	6.25%
Michael Barrett	106	1768	6.00%
Damian Miller	87	1455	5.98%
Mike Matheny	64	1081	5.92%
Victor Martinez	148	2510	5.90%
Rod Barajas	78	1355	5.76%
Ivan Rodriguez	124	2195	5.65%
Mike Lieberthal	72	1284	5.61%
Joe Mauer	97	1755	5.53%
Jorge Posada	123	2227	5.52%
Javier Lopez	62	1126	5.51%
Mike Redmond	50	920	5.43%
Russell Martin	58	1088	5.33%
Gregg Zaun	85	1634	5.20%
Yor. Torrealba	57	1104	5.16%
Paul Lo Duca	109	2129	5.12%
Kenji Johjima	54	1055	5.12%
Javier Valentin	48	942	5.10%
Jose Molina	44	868	5.07%
Henry Blanco	43	850	5.06%
Jason LaRue	65	1292	5.03%
Gerald Laird	46	918	5.01%
Ramon Hernandez	89	1793	4.96%
Jason Phillips	51	1055	4.83%
Mike Piazza	42	881	4.77%
A.J. Pierzynski	97	2059	4.71%
Toby Hall 	62	1318	4.70%
Jason Varitek	94	2009	4.68%
John Buck	69	1496	4.61%
Chris Snyder	49	1076	4.55%
Ronny Paulino	44	980	4.49%
Miguel Olivo	68	1531	4.44%
Yadier Molina	62	1429	4.34%
Brian Schneider	79	1828	4.32%
Jason Kendall	103	2474	4.16%
Gary Bennett	33	814	4.05%
Dioner Navarro	37	942	3.93%
Bengie Molina	69	1787	3.86%
David Ross	36	972	3.70%
Brad Ausmus	65	1798	3.62%

There's our new buddy, Jose Molina, just knocking on the door of the "Top 20" for "2B/PA By Catchers" over the last four seasons. Not too shabby for a guy who looks like a fat Luis Sojo when he steps to the plate. Not too shabby at all.

Posted by Steve Lombardi at April 11, 2008 11:35 PM

Comments

First off, the reason we have Molina is so that we don't wind up with a giant hole in our lineup in order to rest Posada - who Joe G is giving plenty of time off to because Joe knows that a rested catcher behind the plate means a bat and legs ready for october. Also, Molina and Posada both call good games and Molina works with the pitchers to command the whole plate.

If Jose Molina wants to get on base every time he play I will not complain

Second, Jason Giambi? Steve, you and I probably agree that Giambi has probably hurt this team more than any other acquisition since Dave Winfield. Giambi needs to be able to put the ball on the left side of the field. This is getting rediculous. The shift is probably so effective because Giambi can't do what every other good lefty batter should be able to do - hit to the other side of the field. Joe should make GIambi do pushups every time he hits to the center/right of the field ala Major League

Third, I know a lot of people were raggin on Abreu for the home run that could have been caught. In the rain, after 2 long balls, and in Fenway is probably not the best time to not catch that ball. However, Bobby came through throughout the whole game and certainly made sure his mistake didn't doom the team.

And finally, A-rods "error" was just a high throw on a well hit ball to the hot corner. Name another third baseman that could have done better while hitting as well as A-rod can.

I don't even need to say anything about Worm Killer. Man, I know how it is to watch a sure thing now, kinda like Guidry and Pedro back in the day where you just knew that the game was won with those two on the mound.

Posted by: Straylightrise [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 12, 2008 02:18 AM