Cardinal advent calendar, Day 11: Yadier Molina
| B-Ref name | ya mo |
| Contract Status | Signed through 2011 (signed four-year/$15.5-million, plus 2012 club option, contract on 1/20/08) |
| 2009 stat | He (along with Cardinal pitchers) had the lowest stolen-base attempt rate and the highest caught-stealing rate in the league. |
| Career stat | Set career highs with a 3.4 WAR, .366 OBP and .337 wOBA in 2009 |
| 2010 Projection | .317 wOBA (Bill James) |
| Quote | "I believe this is my World Series and I enjoy it more here … It’s one of the greatest moments of my life. The double that I hit tonight is going to be in my heart all my life." — on the World Baseball Classic, in which he hit a game-winning double against the Dutch this spring, compared to the 2006 World Series |
Coming off his best year to date, in which he fulfilled Albert Pujols’s seemingly impossible prophecy of him one day hitting .300, won his first Gold Glove and put up 2.4 WAR, what would Yadier Molina do for an encore? All he did was grab another Gold Glove, earn a spot on the All-Star Team and join his pal Pujols in receiving MVP consideration. He parlayed his spring World Baseball Classic success into a hot start to the season, in April putting up a 12-game hitting streak, the team’s second-longest of the season, despite batting exclusively in the lower half of the lineup (fifth, sixth and seventh)… Struck out least often on the team, only 7.2% of the time and has the second-best (behind Albert Pujols) SO/BB rate at 0.78… Led team in balls put into play (80%), making him a favorite of La Russa’s for the hit-and-run … batted cleanup briefly in May … scuttled La Russa’s "pitcher bat eighth" tactic by frequently batting seventh.
