Major League Baseball brought its traveling roadshow to Taiwan less than 48 hours after the 7th game of an epic World Series capped the season in North America. New York Yankees stars Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano lead the MLB squad, which will play five games this week against a team that includes former Yankee -- and current Washington National -- Chien-ming Wang, one of a pair of...

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Alex Rodriguez is showing something extra this spring. Rodriguez hit his first home run of the exhibition season and the New York Yankees outslugged the Houston Astros 10-8 on a windy Sunday. With girlfriend Cameron Diaz cheering from a front-row seat near the Yankees dugout, Rodriguez kept his extra-base hit streak going -- he's gotten at least one in all five games he's played.

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In the eyes of most, the San Francisco Giants were fortunate to make it to the post-season, let alone advance to the World Series. The Giants barely snuck into the playoffs with a win over the San Diego Padres on the last day of the season to determine the final playoff spot in the National League. Once they arrived though, they played like a team who had been there before. They eliminated the Braves in four games, knocked out the two-time defending NL champion Phillies in five games to advance to the World Series for the first time since 2002.

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Yankee team ERA in games that Pudge has caught: 7.80

Team ERA with Molina behind the plate: Awesome (sorry, couldn’t find that one…).

I’m not sayin’…I’m just sayin’…

Sure, it’s only five games for Pudge…and yes, those were games against the Angels and the Rangers…but the Yankee pitching has taken a turn for the worse with Pudge Rodriguez as the everyday catcher. He did call seven-innings of shutout ball for Sidney Ponson against Ervin Santana last week, but otherwise it’s been ugly. Aside from that Ponson game (a 1-0 loss), the last time a Yankee starter pitched well was when Mike Mussina got the win in an 8-2 victory over Angels — a game caught by Jose Molina.

Now, I’m not calling Pudge a bad signal caller, but Molina seems to have a certain knack. Let’s look at last night. Ponson struggles badly giving up two runs (and what should have been more) in two innings with Pudge behind the plate. Pudge gets knocked out of the game saving a third run and Molina comes in…Yankee pitching then only lets up one run the rest of the game.

Perhaps the data sample is too small to say anything at all…and again Pudge’s games have been against two teams that can really score runs. But I’m starting to wonder if Pudge’s offense is worth losing Molina behind the plate…

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