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#ASGWorthy: Yadi, Posey state cases
- Updated: June 5, 2016
With the first wave of votes in, two perennial All-Star candidates are back atop the catcher rankings on the National League ballot. Cardinals backstop Yadier Molina, who has made the last seven All-Star Games, leads the voting. Behind him is the Giants’ Buster Posey, a three-time All-Star himself in the past four seasons.
Neither, perhaps, is having as good a season as the Brewers’ Jonathan Lucroy, who leads all NL catchers in FanGraphs’ Wins Above Replacement, with 2.1 WAR. Lucroy enters play on Sunday with a .312 batting average, nine home runs, 30 runs scored and 28 RBIs, all among the top figures in the league, yet does not appear with the top five vote-getters at his position at the first ballot update.
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With Lucroy’s impressive season in mind, MLB breaks down the competition between the two current vote leaders, Molina and Posey, in the batter’s box and behind the dish.
At the plate:
Molina, in his age-33 season, isn’t putting up quite the offensive numbers he did a few years ago. The veteran is batting .257 in 2016, with a .338 on-base percentage, 12 doubles, one triple and 20 RBIs. He’s walked 22 times and struck out 23.
Posey, though, one of the elite hitting catchers in baseball, is off to a relatively slow start. He has a .257 batting average, .316 on-base percentage, 11 doubles, a triple and 26 RBIs. Posey has 18 walks and 26 strikeouts.
With Molina and Posey’s statistics similar in terms of contact hitting, the difference-maker is power. Molina, not a power hitter but once capable of double-digit-homer seasons, has only a single long ball this year. Posey, on the other hand, has eight so far, which separates him from Molina in terms of offensive production.
Edge: …
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