Time to do a community projection on another piece of the puzzle for the improved 2006 Jays lineup. We will take a look at how Molina should fare in 2006 according to three different projection systems, as well as with my own educated guess in there as well. I hope to see responses from you in the comments section with your own ideas as well of course.
Bengie Molina at his press conference
PECOTA and ZiPS project more power for Molina in 2006, with PECOTA being the most pessimistic for playing time. ZiPS seems to have the most optimistic projection: the highest average, highest On-Base, and highest slugging, but with the second least amount of playing time. This doesn't usually happen often with my projections, but I'm leaning more towards the Jamesian one as you can see. .279/.316/.408.
Gregg Zaun
Now I am not going to get into which projection I think is better, and which catcher should start for the Jays. What I am looking for here is responses to the projections themselves. The difference between these two is pretty simple: Molina has more power, whereas Zaun has more plate patience and walking ability. Who you think should be the starter really depends on your view of which is more important, and I support both camps depending on the situation. I based my playing time projections on the assumption that they would both get a "full season" of plate appearances, incase anyone likes counting statistics better than rate stats. On Edit: There seems to be some confusion on that last sentence. I don't actually expect both of them to combine for 800 plate appearances. I just did the projections as if Molina was the starter in his, and Zaun was the starter in his own projection.
I'm interested in seeing what you come up with in response to this. Use this spreadsheet like before if you want to have the math work out accurately.