bellyitcher

Now that the 25-man roster is mostly set, and because there's nothing else going on, I figured I would take a look at Watchability for the infield this week, starting with Yadier Molina.

ON FIELD

1. Defense
   i. Hustle (5) He threw out 47% of runners last year. 7 points.
   ii. Agility (7) The kid's a tank-which is both good and bad. 10 points.
   iii. Catcher? (5/0) Yep. 5 points.
   iv. Awareness (4) Well, at one point he caught three shutouts in a row. 6 points.
   v. Defensive Stance (6) He's a catcher. 10.5 points.
   vi. Pitching Face (5/0) No. 0 points.
2. Offense
   i. Hustle (5) I'm sure he's running as fast as he can out there. 7 points.
   ii. Batting Stance/Face (6) Nothing unusual. 6 points.
   iii. Power & Average (6) At least he'll hit better than Matheny. 5 points.
   iv. Line Drive v. Fly Ball (3) He had 2 homeruns in Puerto Rico! 3 points.
   v. Chatty (3) Probably not; he was a rookie last year. 3 points.
   vi. Selflessness (7) He seems to fly to right a good deal. That could be useful. 10 points.
3. Dugout/Clubhouse
   i. Press Conferences (4) Nope. 0 points.
   ii. Quotes (4) Fairly original. 5 points.
   iii. Chatty (4) He had some sort of special bond with Kline, I think. 4 points.
   iv. Fights (3) He did have that nice chat with Manny Ramirez. 5 points.

OFF FIELD

1. Personal Hygiene (8) He's got a little bit of a belly. 9 points.
2. Commercials - local (4) No. 0 points.
3. Commercials - national (5) No. 0 points.
4. Commercials - MLB (5) No. 0 points.
5. Dress (5) I think it's ok. 5 points.
6. Rumors (3) Just that he's better than his brothers. 4 points.
7. Awards (3) Not yet.... 0 points.

Molina gets 104.5 points. That's a little below average (110), but he did only play in 51 games last year. He hit decently enough in Winter Ball (.275/.299/.363). The bad news? He'll never be Mike Piazza at the plate. The good news? He'll never be Mike Piazza behind the plate.