ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - If you live anywhere within the wide reach of St. Louis Cardinals Nation, you don't need much help debating Yadier Molina's Hall of Fame resume. But we've got another bit of proof of why he belongs among the best of all time.
The 38-year-old played his first full season of baseball in 2005 and since that year the Cardinals have limited its opponent's running games better than any team in baseball. And, thanks to Yadi, it's not even close.
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All the credit goes to Viva El Birdos writer lil_scooter93, who tallied up the total stolen bases and caught stealing numbers by each team over the past 16 years, to get the total attempted steals. St. Louis has had more than 400 fewer attempts than the next closest team.
And when the writer put those year-to-year numbers on a graph, it paints a pretty clear picture of the fear Molina strikes into opposing teams' running games. Look at just how much wider the attempted steals margin grows one year after the next:
And if you need video proof of how good Molina still is, even when he's forced to throw down to second or third base (or behind a runner at first), check out what happened this weekend in a spring training game against the Astros:
There was another tip of the cap to Molina by the TV broadcast of Tuesday's spring training game against the New York Mets. It showed "The Yadier Molina Effect" in which St. Louis has the fewest stolen bases allowed since 2004. And again, it's not even close:
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