Gold Gloves Are Bunk!
Catcher comparison of Martin vs Y. Molina
PlayerGPAttempts% CSInn/SBFld %Martin15412333.315.3.988Molina107305437.4.991
In what areas was Martin better? He did have only 5 passed balls (1 every 250 innings) vs. Molina's 7 (1 every 123 innings), but Martin had a much better pitching staff to work with. On the flip side, Martin's errors were highest in the NL and only three other catchers allowed more stolen bases. The only area in which Martin dominated was that he was in 42 more games than Molina due to Yadier being injured. But Molina's June and late season absences even emphasizes Molina's ability. Yadier shuts down the opponents running game so much that when he wasn’t catching for the Cardinals in 2007, teams had 30 steals in 35 attempts. However, the 107 games Molina played shouldn't be that much of an issue. Palmeiro won a GG playing only 28 games at 1B! But more realisticly, Cardinals catcher Matheny got the GG in 2004 with 110 starts behind the plate.
Martin is a solid catcher while Molina is a shut-down catcher. The only remaining possibility is that Martin is better with the lumber, but when did batting get factored into the Gold Glove award?
Then again, Ausmus got it in last year while only throwing out 12 of 72 base stealers.
PlayerGPAttempts% CSInn/SBFld %Martin15412333.315.3.988Molina107305437.4.991
In what areas was Martin better? He did have only 5 passed balls (1 every 250 innings) vs. Molina's 7 (1 every 123 innings), but Martin had a much better pitching staff to work with. On the flip side, Martin's errors were highest in the NL and only three other catchers allowed more stolen bases. The only area in which Martin dominated was that he was in 42 more games than Molina due to Yadier being injured. But Molina's June and late season absences even emphasizes Molina's ability. Yadier shuts down the opponents running game so much that when he wasn’t catching for the Cardinals in 2007, teams had 30 steals in 35 attempts. However, the 107 games Molina played shouldn't be that much of an issue. Palmeiro won a GG playing only 28 games at 1B! But more realisticly, Cardinals catcher Matheny got the GG in 2004 with 110 starts behind the plate.
Martin is a solid catcher while Molina is a shut-down catcher. The only remaining possibility is that Martin is better with the lumber, but when did batting get factored into the Gold Glove award?
Then again, Ausmus got it in last year while only throwing out 12 of 72 base stealers.