Where were the Mets on this?

Take it to the Branyan thread.

Is he the shitty one or the really shitty one?

The really shitty one. I think.

Does he run faster than Bengie?

Is this the Molina who is a catcher but weirdly isn't actually related to the other catching Molinas?

For all the #### Bengie gets [even besides the fact a snail is faster than he is] - Jose really shouldn't be on a Major League roster earning $400,000.

molina is so slow, he lived acorss the street from school and still had to take the bus

Is this the Molina who is a catcher but weirdly isn't actually related to the other catching Molinas?

That's Gustavo. Or Izzy, but he's long gone.

the chances that option is exercised are nearly as high as my chances of doing it with Megan Fox.

So... you're saying there's a chance!

It's amazing that there hasn't been a wave of decent hitters coming up who have learned to stick behind the plate. Would seem to be such a sure path to the majors for a guy who could hit, say, .270/.350/.450, but doesn't have the legs for middle infield or outfield.

Is it a case of baseball people being weirdly inclined to think that guys who can't hit can really field the position and call a game?

Would seem to be such a sure path to the majors for a guy who could hit, say, .270/.350/.450, but doesn't have the legs for middle infield or outfield

I think that's probably underrating how hard it is to be a catcher. Either you lose some bat from the day-in-day-out effort of it, or the physical requirements of the position trip people up.

How many players have been successfully converted to catcher? There's Posada, notably, but it seems like most of these stories--Delgado, Biggio, Zeile, etc.--are guys who either can't hack it behind the plate or are judged to be valuable enough to play elsewhere.

How many players have been successfully converted to catcher?

Piazza and Martin are two off the top of my head. The Dodgers seem to prefer converting catchers rather than drafting them.

Carlos Santana is also a converted 3rd baseman to catcher.

Jose Molina lost some of his defensive wiz last year (the Aj Burnett thing aside) he can still throw out / pick off guys from his knees but seems to have gotten a lot worse at throwing out guys at second (or maybe it's because he's catching AJ Burnett, not exactly the textbook of holding runners on base)

I think the Molinas are 'related' in the way the Ramones were 'related'.

That actually might be a fun game: for a Blue Jays fan, the upcoming season will most resemble which Ramones song?

Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue?
Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment?
I Can't Give You Anything?
I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement (of the AL East)?

Given the possibilities of a lineup featuring McDonald, Molina, and Gonzalez, it's certainly not going to be Beat on the Brat.

Is it a case of baseball people being weirdly inclined to think that guys who can't hit can really field the position and call a game?

"A catcher's perceived defensive skill tends to be inversely proportional to his hitting skill"

Nichols' Law of Catcher Defense.

And conversions to catcher have always been ... well common is the wrong word, but somebody's always trying it. Roger Bresnahan came up as a pitcher and played all over the place before settling at catcher.

Of course conversions the other way are common too. Rudy York and Carlos Delgado for instance.

The contract doubles to $800,000 if he makes Opening Day.

Given the possibilities of a lineup featuring McDonald, Molina, and Gonzalez...

I Wanna Be Sedated.

Of course conversions the other way are common too. Rudy York and Carlos Delgado for instance.

Jesus Montero in a year or two.

I think that's probably underrating how hard it is to be a catcher. Either you lose some bat from the day-in-day-out effort of it, or the physical requirements of the position trip people up.

Could be. It may be that there's some fuzzy line above which you can hit enough to play first or left field, and below which your hitting skills gradually (or not so gradually) become Jose Molina's. Or at least, say, Brian Schneider's.

I think the logic mainly goes like this:

a) if you've got a guy who can hit well enough to play 1B/LF/RF/DH in the majors, why risk screwing him up by moving him to C?
b) if you've got a guy who can hit and field well enough to play 3B/SS/2B/CF in the majors, why risk screwing him up by moving him to C?

So the most viable pool is guys who are maybe in the 95-105 OPS+ range but aren't capable of playing 3B/SS/2B/CF. So you'd be converting 4th OF and slow 2B mainly. In and of itself, that sounds like a decent gamble. The question is what are the chances that a 23-year-old AAAA LF can learn to play C quickly enough to be of use (given options, minor-league FA, rule 5, etc.). Rightly or wrongly, the last 100+ years of baseball has made it pretty clear that teams HATE putting bad defensive Cs on the field unless they can really hit.

The exception to (a) and perhaps especially (b) is if your team is already so deep at a player's position (and weak at C) that you make that shift.

Anyway, a bit like taking up the knuckleball, it seems something of a move of last resort. You don't have the bat for LF, you don't have the glove for IF, if you ever want to make the majors...

I Wanna Be Sedated.

Really...how the hell did he miss that?