IT’S A MADD MADD WORLD. . .

Wednesday the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina became the sixth catcher in history — and first with one team — to catch 2000 games. Just another credential in a first-ballot Hall of Fame career. My first criteria in evaluating players for the Hall of Fame is: Did this man dominate the game at his position? In Molina’s case, the answer is an emphatic “Yes!” Not only has he been one of the all-around finest defensive catchers in major league history, he’s hit a very respectable .282, accumulated over 2,000 hits, been selected for nine All-Star teams, and been a class act off the field . ... How much is the loss of Eloy Jimenez being felt by the White Sox? As of Friday, the Chisox leftfielders were a combined 5-for-42 (.119) with one RBI . ... OK, so Rob Manfred’s inner circle “geek patrol” has come up with yet another new experiment to inject more action into the game — this one moving the pitchers rubber back 12 inches, which will be tried out in the independent Atlantic League this summer. The theory behind this is that it will give the hitter that much more time to read the pitch and make contact, putting more balls in play. As if pitchers aren’t having enough problems with location. They say moving rubber back won’t cause pitchers to alter their pitching style and there is no injury risk associated to it. Tell that to the pitchers themselves who have been throwing the ball from 60-feet six inches their entire careers.