Stuff like this bothers me

In ESPN's pregame writeup of the Yankees-Royals game (Ian Kennedy was a last-minute scratch), they were talking about the various Yankee injuries, including Jorge Posada's shoulder that forces backup Jose Molina into action. In that writeup, Joe Girardi said something entirely unnecessary and probably false:

"Jose is an accomplished catcher," Girardi said. "That's why he's here. You can live with Jose."

http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/molinjo01.shtml

Perhaps Joe is confusing Jose with his brothers. Jose has played 407 major league games, with a .243/.279/.346 line. His most similar batters are John Marzano, Wiki Gonzalez, and his brother Yadier, according to B-R, although by adjusted OPS Yadier is better than Jose. Yes, better. I'll say it again: Yadier Molina is a better hitter than his "accomplished" catcher-brother Jose. For all catchers currently in the bigs with at least 400 career games, Jose's adjusted OPS is 36th of 40, just ahead of Gary Bennett, Paul Bako, Chad Moeller, and Alberto Castillo.

I only say all this to say: I hate when managers overhype mediocre players because they're their players. I have no idea about living with Jose, but he's not accomplished by any stretch of the imagination. Optimism is a fine thing in a manager, but saying stupid stuff is just...stupid.

When I went to the MLB winter meetings, I passed by Joe Girardi, in a passageway; we were about a foot apart. Despite my Yankee hatred, I played the Christian and didn't say anything that was on my mind. Maybe I could at least have said, "hey, catchers with OPS+ of 64 aren't accomplished, buddy." Probably wouldn't have registered with him, though...

Then again, Girardi's career numbers aren't that much better. Maybe if he feels accomplished, he has to say it about Jose too. Managerial dishonesty when it's that stupid is just inexcusable.

Probably writing this many words about it is inexcusable, too. Thus will I close the e-mouth of the blogosphere.

:-x