Should Molina hit 2nd?

I don’t mean to bash Skip all the time, but people have an unrealistic view of his abilities. He’s not speedy. In 7 minor league seasons, he stole all of 89 bases, with a 65% success rate.

Ryan’s a little better, 78 in 6 seasons with an 80% success rate.

But of the three, only Barton is speedy, 82 in 3 seasons, although only with a 75% success rate.

First off, I didn’t mean that his OBP was a lie. I meant that the fact that his contact rate and OBP rate are high does not mean he would fill the role of the 2 hitter competenly. In this lineup with Albert hitting 3rd, you are going to want to have a dangerous hitter in the 2 hole that is going to see better pitches as a direct result of Albert looming on deck. Molina isn’t by any stretch of anyone’s imagination a “dangerous” hitter. He’s an okay hitter for a catcher and thats about it. In fact, he currently is sitting at a .370 slugging percentage which is more like .350 for his career. Furthermore, his career OBP is .310. Thats a career OPS of roughly .660—compare that with Aaron Miles, who also doesn’t strike out much, who has a career OPS of roughly .680 and you can easily tell we are not talking about someone who is gonna be feared hitting infront of Albert. While I agree that Molina has seemed to improve significantly over the last 2 years, he still doesn’t hit for power. You make the argument that you can best hide his footspeed at the 2 spot, but that is actually where he is going to be the MOST exposed. Albert came into this season averaging 42 doubles per season. Let me ask you, how many times do you think Molina can score from 1st (which if he made it on base is where he’s going to be the VAST majority of the time) on a double out of 42 tries? I would assume around half or less. How many times do you think Ankiel can score from first on a double in 42 tries? I would assume nearly every time. Also, if Molina is on first, the opposing team will be even more inclined to pitch around Albert because of the fact that pushing Molina to 2B still means we need at least a double to score, A single won’t score him from 2nd as often as it would say…i don’t know…anyone else on the team. Here yet another reason…assume molina is on first with 1 out or less…Albert doubles (molina due to poor speed doesn’t score)....that gives you 2nd and 3rd 1 out or less. Ludwick hits a moderately deep fly out…molina can’t score again…because of poor speed. Game on the line situations with albert or luddy up…your going to have to pinch run. This will also mean that you’ll have to do a double switch unless you want the Mighty Jason Larue as your new 2 man. Which means the 2 spot will either become the pitchers spot or you’ll have to sub out another fielder. His lack of speed has suddenly become the focal point of the entire game, whereas if you had ankiel in there instead there would be no concern about his ability to score on a single up the middle. you get to leave molina in the game and you don’t have to do all this damn juggling with the lineup with a series of pinch hitters in front of albert. There are waaaaay too many situations that could come up where this is gonna be a problem. Hitting him infront of kennedy, ryan, izturis, and the pitcher these problems don’t crop up nearly as often due to their lack of extra base hits. All of these guys are singles hitters, where as you want to clog up the bases with him while Albert, Ludwick, Ankiel, Mather and Glaus are mashing balls into the gap. It wouldn’t work. There’s not a manager in the league that would bat him there in any line-up in all of baseball. Its just common sense. You have to put a power guy infront of albert so he gets big fat juicy pitches that he can hammer over the wall. If I’m not mistaken this has been a HIGHLY successful way of doing business for the cardinals since he broke into the league.