The Catcher

St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina will be sidelined four to six weeks with a fractured left wrist.

The catcher is an important part of the team for a lot of reasons. As you can guess, the pitcher/catcher combination is the most active during the game. The catcher usually stays in the whole game and plays something like 3 games and rests for a game. The catcher helps the pitcher decide what pitch to throw, but also keeps a 90 mile an hour pitch in play by either catching it, blocking it from going past him or running after it. He keeps runners from advancing to second base if they try to "steal" second (advance after the pitcher starts to deliver the pitch and the batter doesn't hit it). Molina has a great arm and is incredibly fast, so not many guys steal bases off of him.

Molina's been playing with the Cardinals for a few years and is an integral part of the team. He plays more than anybody else. The impact of him being sidelined is significant.