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.

Mark DeRosa, Colby Rasmus and Ryan Ludwick have been ripping the baseball for the Cardinals so far in the playoffs. DeRosa has been outstanding as he is 5 for 9 (.556 avg, 1.223 OPS) with a double, 1 run scored and 1 RBI. Rasmus has not looked intimidated by the experience of the playoffs as he is 3 for 6 (.500 avg, 1.404 OPS) with a double, a run scored and 1 RBI. Ryan Ludwick needs more guys to get on base ahead of him as he is 3 for 8 (.375 avg, .819 OPS) with 1 run scored and 1 RBI. With DeRosa, Rasmus and Ludwick batting in the 5th to 8th spots in the batting order the Cardinals need production from the top of the lineup if they are going to come back and win this series.

31-year old righty swinging outfielder Ryan Ludwick didn’t match his career year of 2008 for the Cardinals but he still had a solid year. Ludwick has played in 135 games this season for the Cardinals and he is 126 for 470 (.268 avg, .784 OPS) with 61 runs scored, 22 homers and 92 RBIs. He started slow with the bat this season but he’s hitting good right now and the Cardinals are banking on him to continue his solid hitting in the playoffs.

23-year old lefty swinging CF Colby Rasmus was the Cards’ #1 rated prospect heading into this season according to Baseball America. He has played in 139 games for the Cardinals this season and he is 114 for 446 (.256 avg, .727 OPS) with 69 runs scored, 16 homers and 51 RBIs. He has a huge upside as he has power to hit 25+ homers in the future for the Cardinals. He has bumped last year’s CF Rick Ankiel to the bench and probably off the Cardinals roster in 2010.