The Cardinals signed 33-year old switch hitting infielder Aaron Miles after a year in a half in the dumps. He has revived his major league career in St. Louis. He has played in 57 games for the Cardinals this year and he is 35 of 107 (.327 avg, .721 OPS) with 12 runs scored, 8 RBIs and 1 stolen base. Miles has been a huge help off the bench as he can play pretty much everywhere on the field and he is a solid hitter for batting average.

The Cardinals felt that they could deal Ryan Ludwick to acquire Jake Westbrook because of rookie outfielder Jon Jay. The 25-year old lefty swinging Jay has played in 52 games for the Cardinals this year and he is 45 of 123 (.366 avg, .968 OPS) with 22 runs scored, 3 homers, 13 RBIs and 1 stolen base. Jay was the Cardinals’ #13 prospect coming into this season so they have high hopes for him both now and in the future. But the Cardinals need him to keep producing the rest of this season because the Reds are for real this year.

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.

23-year old lefty swinging CF Colby Rasmus had a solid rookie season in 2009. He played in 147 games for the Cardinals last season and he was 119 of 474 (.251 avg, .714 OPS) with 72 runs scored, 16 homers, 52 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. This year Rasmus is hitting the ball much better. He has played in 64 games this season for the Cardinals and he is 56 of 203 (.276 avg, .930 OPS) with 42 runs scored, 13 homers, 34 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. The Cardinals have to be ecstatic with the way Rasmus is swinging the bat right now and they hope he keeps up the good work.

28-year old righty swinging outfielder Nick Stavinoha is having his best season in the majors this year. He has played in 39 games for the Cardinals and he is 14 of 49 (.286 avg, .742 OPS) with 7 runs scored, 2 homers and 6 RBIs. Stavinoha has whiffed 16 times this season so he does have some holes in his swing but that’s nitpicking a bit as he usually only bats one time per game. He did hit a huge walkoff homer off all time saves leader Trevor Hoffman in April which seemed to set the tone for the season.