WizardofOz1982
Well-known member
There are several experts (guys like Bill James, Tom Tango, Tom Ruane, and others) who think there is a lot of value unaccounted for in Yadi's (as well as other elite framing catchers) current fWAR total. I've read and heard Bill James toss around, in his words, a very conservative figure of 30 WAR. That puts him right in the conversation of greatest all time right now. I'm not sure I'd go that far since Bench had that level of defense plus a superior bat but Yadi is a whole lot closer to the top of the heap than the career leaderboards on Fangraphs would indicate.
The offensive environments are so different between Pudge and Yadi's careers that it is important to use league and park adjusted metrics like wRC+ for comparison purposes. Pudge's career wRC+ is 104. Yadi's is an even 100. Even at peak Pudge is just slightly better, 127 to 123. I have no issue with saying Pudge was the better offensive catcher because he had a longer peak but to say he was a better hitter at their respective peaks than Molina is specious.
