Molina Takes the Time to Speak Up

Bengie Molina broke his season-long silence with the media Friday afternoon, saying the hamstring injuries that plagued him during spring training and the first few weeks of the season were the result of dehydration instead of reporting to camp out of shape.

“When I went to spring training, I went very, very prepared,” said Molina, noting that he had spent eight weeks during the off-season working exclusively on his legs because he was coming off surgery on his left wrist and had been asked to refrain from upper-body workouts. “I was ready to play the whole season.”

The Angel catcher said his winter workouts helped keep his knees, ankle and back -- areas that typically bother him a few weeks into spring training -- strong, but his failure to drink an adequate amount of water caused his hamstrings to tighten.

Molina said his decision to stop speaking to reporters stemmed from published comments regarding his weight.

“You’re telling the fans I’m overweight when I bust my butt all winter trying to get ready for the season,” Molina told a gathering of reporters in the Angel clubhouse. “Now the fans are going to see it a different way. That’s what hurt the most.”

Molina said the strained left calf that forced him to sit out 13 games in June resulted from favoring his left leg after taking four foul balls off an area near his right knee.

“I’m swinging on one knee, basically, because it’s sore,” he said.

Despite the leg injuries and a broken right index finger that landed him on the disabled list Aug. 3, Molina, listed at 5 feet 11 and 220 pounds in the Angel media guide, proclaimed himself in “probably the best shape” of his playing career. The two-time Gold Glove Award winner said that he preferred to maintain his weight during the season to sustain his strength.

“Usually, if I go down in weight, I start being sore in my knees, sore in my ankle, sore in my back,” Molina said. “I’m better off being where I was. That’s how I feel right now.

“I feel like if I was overweight like [certain published reports proclaimed], I would not be able to do what I’ve accomplished all these years.”

Angel Manager Mike Scioscia, who battled weight issues during his 13-year career as a catcher, said Molina might want to consider slimming down a bit to extend his career.

“Does his weight hurt him day to day? No. Will it hurt him year to year? That’s a possibility. I’ve lived that,” Scioscia said. “He’s able to go out there and do the things he needs to do and play at a very high level.

“But over the course of the next six, seven or eight years, as you get older, sometimes that ideal weight that you play at, you need to get below it.”

Said Molina: “I understand his point, but if I go down in weight and I don’t hit anymore and can’t catch, that will be a bigger issue. If he wants me to go down in weight, I’ll try it. But if I start doing bad, they might try to release me.”