Dave Cameron makes a pretty good argument that it's not much of an overpay for Molina: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.ph ... mium-rate/

After reading it, and seeing an article that shows catchers age a little better than people think, I like the deal a little more than I initially did. 5 years is still a bit rich for me though; I think 4/55 or 4/60 (which is still fair market value, just 1 less year) would have been more palatable.

7/91, for an AAV of $13m, according to Cots.

Which would be lower AAV than Yadi, which is either 14 or 15 depending on whether it is 70 or 75.

For reference, $98m in 1998 is worth $130m in today's dollars. 18.5 AAV using those calculations.

Yeah, I mean, thats certainly true, although not sure if baseball contracts follow the macro rates of inflation.

Just saying, this is an area we rarely see catcher contracts venture into. My point was that its tough to label a guy underrated when he lands a, for his position, historically large contract. I think he then has to venture either into "reasonably and fairly rated" or "overpaid".

I meant before he received this contract because of how tough it is to quantify catcher defense. Just looking at Molina's fWAR and saying "welp, he's a 3-win player!" doesn't do him justice; in reality, he's probably worth a full more win than that, maybe more.

I'm totally with you. I said post-contract in my initial post about how lucrative this is historically, for a catcher (at least I think I did; maybe at least implied it, or if not, was thinking it when I posted )

Underrated has long been a moniker associated with Yadi. But after he gets paid like an all-time great, I don't think underappreciation is going to be an issue he can claim going forward.

I try not to use the terms "overrated" and "underrated" becuase they objective words rooted in subjectivity, but I think to the extent that we could actually quantify underratedness, it would be possible to be paid well and still generally not rated appropriately by the public. But! This type of conversation is why I dislike the terms in the first place so PLEASE DO NOT REPLY.

MLB playoffs expanding to 10 teams for 2012, per Rosenthal. It's about time they made a decision.

Padres extended Maybin 5/25; great move. He's probably in for some regression next year (I'll take the under on +1.5 wins from defense and baserunning again), but he's still a pretty darn good player. Still don't understand why Florida gave up on him so quickly.

I don't get the Cameron Maybin love right now. Not singling you out, migs. I've seen it around not just here. He had a pretty bad year last year. He better improve on his numbers if he is to be considered a good player by me. He and Angel Pagan had similar years with the bat last year and we were all about getting rid of Angel. Sure, Cam is younger, has better tools with which to work, and has the reputation as a plus defender, but I don't see it. I think his defense is overstated. He has good range to cover the gaps, but struggles coming in on balls and going back on balls. He excels when he can kick it into his high gear and chase down a ball in the gap, but his judgement is off on balls behind and in front of him. And I don't see anything better than an average arm out there -- I may even say its below average.

For me, Cam is not someone you look to lockup long-term. He is someone you look to replace should better players become available.

You're completely ignoring the league and park factors with his bat. Once you adjust for those, his offense is a lot more rosier: 12% better than league average (112 wRC+). That's basically in line with the kind of offense Eric Hosmer produced last season (114 wRC+). If you're unfamiliar with wRC+, just think of it as a better version of OPS+.

It's reasonable to think WAR overrated him because it basically credits him for +1.5 wins from defense and baserunning. I'm not ready to accept that as a true talent level mark after just one season, but I do think he's definitely above average in both areas. And if you want to play the 'neutralize the defense and baserunning game', where you plug in league average values for defense and baserunning, you still get a very solid 3.0 WAR mark. If his offense stunk and he was just an all-glove guy, that number would be much, much lower.

There's no sabermetric voodoo or anything like that here. I think what taints your view of him is the poor-looking slash line, which is understandable; it is kind of not good, after all... but that's before you adjust for offense around the league and the fact he played in PetCo Park.

Maybin's numbers away from Petco are solid.
.294 .349 .457 .806 (7 hrs) away (though .351 BABIP helps)
.231 .294 .324 .618 (2 hrs) home (.307 BABIP)

Probably needs to adjust his game for the gaps.