/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55369527/usa_today_10080943.0.jpg)
Yadier Molina is in the decline phase of his career. This does not mean he is not a valuable player or even a good a player, just that his days of peak baseball performance are in the past. It is not a bad thing. It is just the way time and aging works. In fact, as far as declines go, Yadi seems to be resisting as much as possible. He is a thirty-four year old catcher with nearly 14,000 innings played, for crying out loud.
This decline, though, seems to have made people turn on Molina a bit. While yes, he is not the player he once was, he still once was that player. And that player was incredibly good - and has been around for a long time. 14,000 innings. 13,753 and two-thirds to be exact, and 500 already this year and is still playing at an average level. It is impressive. So impressive, that a Phillies rookie might have accidentally called him "sir". Per Teddy Bailey of The Philadelphia Inquirer:
"Getting to hit up there and Yadi telling me congratulations," [Cameron] Perkins said after the 8-1 loss, "I couldn’t think of a better catcher that I grew up looking up to. I think I called him ‘sir’ by accident, I was pretty locked in at the time. Did I really just say ‘sir’ to Yadier Molina? It was definitely one of my top life moments."
To some, Yadier Molina may be the Cardinals aging backstop, but to others he is one of baseball’s great heroes. That is pretty cool.
Cameron Perkins debuts with Phillies and savors the moment | The Philadelphia Inquirer
what else is going on in baseball...
- Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger lead Dodgers' win | MLB.com
- Jose Altuve fell down after a hard swing, but we can all learn from his example | MLB.com
- Braves Freddie Freeman could play third base | MLB.com
- Which AL players have best All-Star cases? | Sports on Earth
- Everything you need to know about bat flips, in charts | MLB.com
- 2017 Top NL Contact Survivors | FanGraphs Baseball
- Brad Peacock Has Become a Strikeout God | FanGraphs Baseball
- Clayton Kershaw Has Developed a Home-Run Problem | FanGraphs Baseball
- Kenley Jansen is Mariano Rivera 2.0 | FanGraphs Baseball
- Cody Bellinger is modern baseball, and that’s not a bad thing | SBNation.com
- Let’s Talk About That Weird Sonny Gray Trade Rumor | FanGraphs Baseball
- LSU suddenly forgets how to play baseball during the College World Series | SBNation.com
- The unsung hero on every contending MLB team | ESPN
- Baseball's numbers revolution is spreading to Latin America | ESPN
- Eric Pardinho is Brazil's first million-dollar arm | ESPN
what the cardinals are up to...
- Cardinals score 7 in 11th to beat Phillies | MLB.com
- Floodgates Open In Extras, Cards Take Opener | Viva El Birdos
- BenFred: Has Brett Cecil turned the corner? | Ben Frederickson | stltoday.com
- Ortiz: It might pay for Cardinals to be sellers | Jesus Ortiz | stltoday.com
- Update: Cardinals finalize deals with many draft picks, including fifth-rounder | Derrick Goold: Bird Land | stltoday.com
- Daily Bernie: June 20 - Would a Cardinal Managerial Change Make More Sense Than a Roster Overhaul? | 101Sports.com
KNOW THINE ENEMY...
the philadelphia philidelphias
- Are the Phillies targeting Giancarlo Stanton? | The Good Phight
- Walks will kill ya: Cardinals 8, Phillies 1 | The Good Phight
- A Philadelphia Phillies community | The Good Phight
the nl central
- Anthony Rizzo Clearly Violated the Posey Rule | FanGraphs Baseball
- Thanks to Anthony Rizzo’s slide and Joe Maddon, the Cubs are now more villainous | SBNation.com
- Cubs catcher Miguel Montero discusses money, his father and what set him apart from other prospects | ESPN