The best fielders these MLB players saw! (Yadier Molina, Ozzie Smith, Cal Ripken all mentioned!) 

Yeah. As a diehard Cards fan I feel the true main factor in our collapse was the lack of our anchor. The master of everything a catcher needs to be to dominate behind the plate. Famed cannon arm. Interview of Cardinals have even said how managers would ask Yadi for advice. He was in a way a player manager. He's also my childhood hero. If you ask me a legendary Catcher doesn't need to be a great hitter, they're so critical to the success of a defense that if you're gonna have a hole in the batting order the Catchers a great spot. Though he's not as bad as people let on.

Johnny bench was the same way, Molina played kinda like him

Yeah Him, Pudge and Buster Posey...

Ivan Rodriguez is the best I seen

Pudge Rodriguez?

Me too! Last season was such a gift.

me too yadi got me into baseball and played almost all of my life except for this season

Same, I'm so grateful to be a cardinals fan born in 1997 getting to watch Yadi throughout my entire childhood into adulthood

I feel spoiled

Never got to see him except here on youtube. I grew up in San Diego during the Benito Santiago era. 😁

Idk man Ozzie was pretty powerful

Best ever at the position

We in Cincinnati didn't like Ozzie too much cuz he always got voted to start All Star Game over Larkin

nope, two Tigers hold that distinction, and it's not subjective, they've got the numbers to back it up.

It’s too bad they didn’t get that much time together

Bro I'm a Giants fan, but growing up I always wore #12 on my jersey cuz Alomar was just that dude. The 92/93 team was insane

As a Cardinals fan who started watching in the early 2000s as a kid- Edmonds was the greatest defender until Yadi came up. But I still say Edmonds is the best outfielder I’ve ever personally witnessed.

Jim loved playing defense. Those back to home plate catches were routine

Jim Edmonds' read on the ball was spot on and instantaneous. Combine that with his baseball IQ and it was just unfair.

That’s what I was thinking. A Red Sox fan, so saw him a lot. Was at a game wher he made two errors in one inning. Probably only time it ever happened and everyone was stunned. Rarer than a perfect game. Watch the 70 World Series against the Reds. He demoralized the Reds, especially Bench.

Brooks was great!

It’s crazy to me that Yadi is probably most known for his pickoffs at first base, but he had 69 in his career (which I believe is the 2nd most ever by a catcher) and Pudge had 90.

Alex Gordon?????

​@@llamapenNHLIn all fairness, Pudge had more people attempting against him versus Yadi because of the era of the speedster. Pudge didn't prevent too many from attempting to steal, Yadi did. I forgot the stat i saw but im sure a channel has it on here, but when in the years that Yadi played up until 2018 or something, the Cardinals were the only team where the opponent didn't attempt 1200 steals, and in that time span the Cardinals had less than 800 attempts

@@Dr.Frankensteen Yea Pudge’s rise kind of coincides with stealing becoming less common. I know after his first few years in the league attempts on him were cut literally in half, but I’d be interested to see how that compared with other catchers and teams from that same time.

​@llamapenNHL During Pudge Rodriguez times, there were more steal attempts than Y. Molina time. Even better stealing runners. From R. Henderson, V. Coleman, O. Nixon, K. Lofton, T. Rains, M. Grissom. The avg stolen bases per season from 1988 to 2000 was around 1,500 vs 1,200 from 2002 to 2010. and 1,300 between 2011 to 2019. During Pudge Rodriguez time runners attempt more stealing than Yadi time.

Pudge Rodriguez?

Less people attempted to run on Yadi than Pudge. Not saying Pudge wasn't great because he absolutely was a top 2 catcher of all time, but in terms of stopping the run game Yadi is the standard. Pudge is the best all around catcher of all time though

@@Dr.Frankensteen and I’ll politely disagree. Watch his early stuff. He would commonly pickup guys at first and third. Saw it in a game once. After that NO ONE RAN ON PUDGE. WATCH THE EARLY HIGHLIGHTS PLEASE.

@@glennvastine4118 I've seen Pudge's highlights and he without did help stop the running game in his time. I'm not going to dispute that. What I'm saying is he didn't stop it on the same level as Yadi. In terms of defense and stopping the run game, Yadi is my number 1 followed very closely by Pudge. It's not a slight against Pudge in the least so I mean no disrespect towards him. Pudge is still the GOAT catcher in my opinion.

@@Dr.Frankensteen we agree to disagree. I watched maybe 700-800 games of his. Yadi was definitely 1B……I’m sure people in Cincinnati would think Johnny Bench was the greatest catcher ever. That’s what makes it fun. They were all magnificent. The game will never see their equal.

@@glennvastine4118 Fair enough. I did love Pudge though. That '06 World Series was basically the passing of the torch from Pudge to Yadi as the most dominant defensive catcher in the league

Never even heard of him before this

Man's was depressed and had anxiety and the pressure of MLB got to him. Who knows what could've been if he found a way to manage like Zach Greinke but he didn't and because of that he only lasted a few years in the league.

joking yes?

Nomar Garciaparra

@@tobyhahn2960 You do remember that Boston gave him, a Yankee a standing ovation his last game at Fenway? That says something. 😂

Andruw and Andrelton are the two, for me

@@EaglesFan592 100%. Forgot about Simmons.