The Cardinals are sending C Yadier Molina, 1B Albert Pujols, OF Matt Holliday and starting pitchers Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter to the All-Star Game. Molina was elected by the fans (which shows how great the fan support in St. Louis is) to start in the All-Star Game. Molina has played in 73 games for the Cardinals this season and he is 56 of 245 (.229 avg, .611 OPS) with 16 runs scored, 3 homers, 31 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. Don’t believe the experts who are saying that Omar Infante is the least deserving All-Star as that dishonor falls to Molina who isn’t hitting a lick this season. It will be Molina’s 2nd All-Star appearance of his career to date. Albert Pujols will be the starting 1B for the N.L. It will be his 9th appearance in the big game. Pujols has played in 81 games for the Cardinals this season and he is 91 of 298 (.305 avg, .981 OPS) with 48 runs scored, 20 homers, 60 RBIs and 9 stolen bases. Outfielder Matt Holliday has been picked as a reserve for the All-Star team. He has played in 80 games for the Cardinals this season and he is 90 of 302 (.298 avg, .867 OPS) with 45 runs scored, 11 homers, 39 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. I was a little surprised that Holliday made the team. It will be his fourth All-Star appearance of his career. Chris Carpenter will be on the pitching staff for the N.L. He has started 18 games for the Cardinals this season and he is 9-2 with a 3.16 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. This will be Carpenter’s 3rd All-Star Game. 28-year old righty starting pitcher Adam Wainwright has also made the N.L. pitching staff. He has started 18 games for the Cardinals this season and he is 12-5 with a 2.24 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP. Wainwright has only allowed 96 hits in 128 1/3 innings this season while whiffing 123 batters showing what kind of stuff he has. Wainwright will be making his first All-Star appearance. The Cardinals players could be a huge factor into whether or not the N.L. has home field advantage in the World Series.

27-year old righty swinging catcher Yadier Molina tied Miguel Tejada for 23rd in the voting for the N.L. MVP Award. Molina played in 140 games for the Cardinals last season and he was 141 for 481 (.293 avg, .749 OPS) with 45 runs scored, 6 homers, 54 RBIs and 9 stolen bases. He has now played in 669 games in his six years with the Cardinals and he is 596 for 2,215 (.269 avg, .692 OPS) with 189 runs scored, 35 homers, 263 RBIs and 13 stolen bases. Molina had perhaps his best season in the majors in 2009 as he is a great handler of the pitching staff and he swung the bat pretty well. The Cardinals will expect that to continue in 2010 and beyond.

29-year old righty swinging LF Matt Holliday finished 16th in the N.L. MVP Voting despite only playing two months for the Cardinals. Holliday played in 63 games for the Cardinals last season and he was 83 for 235 (.353 avg, 1.023 OPS) with 42 runs scored, 13 homers, 55 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. He has now played in 854 games in his six years in the major leagues and he is 1,030 for 3,237 (.318 avg, .933 OPS) with 573 runs scored, 152 homers, 592 RBIs and 80 stolen bases. The Cardinals would love to bring back Holliday but he will likely be way out of their price range unless they dump a lot of players and that wouldn’t be smart.

Albert Pujols won the MVP Award in the National League by getting every single first place vote. He played in 160 games for the Cardinals last season and he was 186 for 568 (.327 avg, 1.101 OPS) with 124 runs scored, 47 homers, 135 RBIs and 16 stolen bases. In his 9 years with the Cardinals, Pujols has played in 1,399 games in which he is 1,717 for 5,146 (.334 avg, 1.055 OPS) with 1,071 runs scored, 366 homers, 1,112 RBIs and 61 stolen bases. This was Pujols’ third MVP Award and there is no reason to doubt that he will have a few more if he can just stay healthy.

28-year old righty Adam Wainwright finished 3rd in the voting for the Cy Young Award voting despite having the most first place votes. Wainwright started 34 games for the Cardinals last year and he was 19-8 with a 2.63 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. He only allowed 216 hits in 233 innings while whiffing 212 batters showing what kind of stuff he had in 2009. Wainwright has now pitched in 149 games (86 starts) in his major league career and he is 46-24 with 3 saves, a 3.17 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. Look for Wainwright to eventually win a Cy Young Award in the near future as he keeps getting better every year.

UPDATE: Wainwright also finished 15th in the MVP Award voting in the National League.