26-year old righty swinging David Freese and 25-year old righty swinging Allen Craig have waited patiently in the minors for their big chance and they will battle this spring for the starting job at 3B for the Cardinals in 2010. Freese has a slight edge in this competition heading into spring training. Freese played in 17 games for the Cardinals last season and he was 10 for 31 (.323 avg, .837 OPS) with 3 runs scored, 1 homer and 7 RBIs. Freese also played in 74 games in Rookie+AA+AAA ball last season and he was 71 for 227 (.313 avg, .931 OPS) with 39 runs scored, 12 homers and 48 RBIs. Freese didn’t make any errors at 3B for the Cardinals last season while showing below average range.

25-year old righty swinging Allen Craig is also a player on the rise. Craig played in 126 games in AAA-ball last season and he was 152 for 472 (.322 avg, .921 OPS) with 78 runs scored, 26 homers, 83 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. Craig is slightly behind Freese as spring training starts but he’s not too far behind to catch up quickly.

27-year old righty swinging Joe Mather is a big longshot to win the job at 3B. He played in 59 games in Rookie+AA+AAA ball last season and he was 38 for 202 (.188 avg, .573 OPS) with 21 runs scored, 4 homers, 28 RBIs and 7 stolen bases. Mather did play in 54 games with the Cardinals in 2008 and he was 32 for 133 (.241 avg, .780 OPS) with 20 runs scored, 8 homers and 18 RBIs.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE 3B IN 2010: C