NEWSLETTER
Sure, Brett. Make Michael take the “Yadier Molina is overrated” post. I’m sure it’ll land well when the best fans in baseball find me. Sigh. We ready?
In a recent article at CBS Sports, Matt Snyder created what he considers to be the current “All-Overrated MLB Team,” focusing on one player per position who’s perceived value is dramatically higher than what he actually provides to his team.
To be sure, Snyder hedges his bet by admitting that labeling anything as “under” or “overrated” is tough, because they’re really such subjective terms. Indeed, an important thing to keep in mind is that an “overrated” player can still be a lot better than his underrated counterpart.
Again, this is all about perceived versus actual value, and here’s how his roster shook out:
C: Yadier Molina
1B: Eric Hosmer
2B: Rougned Odor
SS: Troy Tulowitzki
3B: Evan Longoria
OF: Jackie Bradley Jr.
OF: Jay Bruce
OF: Jose Bautista
DH: Albert Pujols
LHP: Cole Hamels
RHP: Adam Wainwright (oh no, not another one)
RP: Greg Holland
As you can see, many of Snyder’s picks are actually just formerly great players who are now past their prime, but still resting on the laurels of their young selves. For example, no one is going to argue that Evan Longoria, Albert Pujols, or even Yadier Molina, for that matter, were not among the best at their position (and baseball) for many years. It’s just that in 2010, those three combined for 16.8 WAR and in 2017 they combined for … 2.6.
But Snyder acknowledges all of that pervious greatness, so let’s have some fun and get into why Molina is so overrated (because, why not?):
The bottom line, though, is we’re talking about a player heading into his age-35 season after posting a 96 OPS+, 2.0 WAR, playing on an 83-win team and working with a pitching staff that was mediocre. He’s still a great defender behind the plate and his career acumen likely points to one of the best ever, but we’ve got a player with marginal numbers and his intangibles don’t really seem to be doing much for his team these days.
I tend to agree that Yadier Molina was among the greatest catchers of his generation both in terms of what he brought to and behind the plate, and also for the many things we can’t necessarily quantify (like it or not, when everyone claims the same thing about him (he provides so much more to his pitching staff/team than we can see), it’s probably true). But I also thing his best days are well behind him and aren’t coming back.
Gesundheit.
And at some point, his age is going to catch up with him behind the plate, too. So, I guess, enjoy him while you can, singular Cardinals fan reading this post while hastily mashing your keyboard in your well-actually reply (I’ll read it later).
As for the rest of you, what stands out? Did Snyder miss an obvious overrated player or include someone you disagree with? The Cubs correctly had no entries, right? Drop a line, I’m pretty interested to see where you land on this one.
