yadier's burden

before we leave the subject of yadier molina and cardinal catcherdom (see jan 16 and jan 17 posts):

molina inherits a 25-year tradition of excellent glovework behind the plate in st louis. at least, so say a couple of sabr studies that examine catchers' glovework. according to this one, authored by jim weigland and online at retrosheet, mike matheney is the 6th-best backstop to don the mask since 1969 --- bested only by bench, pudge rod, munson, benito, and steve yeager. the same list puts three other cardinal catchers in the era’s top 25: tony pena (the era’s 15th best catcher), tom pagnozzi (22d), and darrell porter (24th). if we take weigland at his word, it means the cards have fielded one of the era’s premier catchers virtually every year since 1981.

the other study, by chuck rosciam and also online at retrosheet, uses the same data but only looks at catchers since 1991. this one credits the cards with having two of the era's 10 best defensive catchers — pagnozzi and marrero. the list only rates matheney 17th, which is preposterously low in my opinion — also and hard to reconcile with weigand’s study, which lists matheney 6th over a longer time period, among a much larger pool of catchers. . . .

. . . . well, you know, it’s just stats-turbation.