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Yadier Benjamin Molina ((:ʝaˈdjer moˈlina); born July 13, 1982), also known as "Yadi", is a Puerto Rican professional baseball catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). A two-time World Series champion, he is considered an essential figure in the Cardinals' postseason success, with nine appearances in his twelve seasons. Other awards realized include seven consecutive selections to the All Star Game, eight consecutive Rawlings Gold Glove Awards, and one Silver Slugger Award. He has accrued more than 1,400 hits, 100 home runs, 600 runs batted in, and a .283 batting average. Coming from a baseball family, Molina grew up in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. His father was an amateur second baseman in Puerto Rico, and his two older brothers, Bengie and José, were also major league catchers. Molina's pitch-handling and throwing skills originally caught the attention of scouts before being drafted. The Cardinals' fourth round selection in the 2000 MLB Draft he made his MLB debut four years later, quickly garnering a reputation for possessing one of the strongest and most accurate arms in the game. As of 2014, he had thrown out 44% of runners attempting a stolen base over his career and led active MLB catchers with 52 pickoffs.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Yadier Molina statistics and history )〕 Molina also formulates fielder positioning plans and complete pitching strategies to opposing hitters, earning a reputation as an on-field leader. Initially considered a light hitter, Molina significantly improved his offense and raised his career batting average from .248 in 2007. As of 2014, he had a .290 career batting average in the postseason. In 2006, he became just the third catcher to play in two World Series before age 25, following Johnny Bench and Yogi Berra. He also played for Puerto Rico in all three tournaments of the World Baseball Classic. Molina is under contract through 2017. ==Early life== Molina was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, to Gladys Matta and Benjamín Molina, Sr. and attended Maestro Ladíslao Martínez High School in Vega Alta. Molina's father played second base as an amateur and worked as a tools technician ten hours per day in a Westinghouse factory. He was a .320 lifetime hitter and the all-time hits leader in the ''Doble-A Beísbol'' league, gaining election to the Puerto Rican baseball hall of fame in 2002. Molina's two older brothers, Bengie and José, eventually also became major league catchers. Each day when he completed work, Molina directly went home, ate dinner and crossed the street from his family's home with his sons to Jesús Mambe Kuilan Park, where he spent countless evening hours teaching them the fundamentals of the sport. He remained hopeful that his sons would become professional baseball players. Molina's catching aptitude showed as early as age five, and he developed quickly.〔 Nonetheless, he played all over the baseball field, and as Bengie Molina recalled, always seemed to "be the first player taken in the youth league draft."〔 Molina concentrated on infield positions until about age 16, when he began developing into the familiar Molina physique; as of 2013, he stood 5'11" and weighed 220 pounds. Molina's father also sought to accelerate him on the diamond. Following a suspension from his youth league about age 15, Benjamín Molina anticipated the desistance would stagnate his development, so he searched for an alternative. Against the wishes of coaches, family members and friends, he scheduled Yadier for a workout with the Hatillo Tigres, an amateur league team. Molina made the team after a single workout and immediately became the starting catcher.〔 The Tigres' first baseman, Luis Rosario, was the one that recommended him to the organization. The Tigres played in a league composed mainly of players ten or more years older than Molina, well before he was eligible for the Major League Baseball draft. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yadier Molina」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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