The St. Louis Cardinals will be represented by four players at the 2014 All-Star Game next Tuesday, July 15th in Minneapolis.
- Adam Wainwright – 1.89 ERA
- Yadier Molina – 17 Rtot/yr
- Matt Carpenter – 2.2 oWAR
- Pat Neshek – 3 ER in 35 IP
The National League team will be managed by Mike Matheny.
Wainwright’s selection was the easiest of the four. He appears to be headed for an NL Cy Young death match with Clayton Kershaw and by pretty much every metric anyone could value, he is in the top 5.
Molina was voted in by the fans as a starter. If we’re being completely honest? Jonathan Lucroy is having a must better 1st half than Molina (4.4 to 1.8 WAR). But he still ranks near the top of the NL catchers in most categories and deserves to be an All-Star, if not the starter.
Carpenter feels more surprising, but he’s putting together another nice season. He’s currently ranked as the 38th best player in baseball (including pitchers) on ESPN.com and 44th by Elias. He’s 2nd in the NL for 3B with 96 hits. His WAR is 2.8. He and Todd Frazier (CIN) have been the best offensive 2B in the NL during the 1st half.
If you would have sent us this list in March, Neshek would have been the one head-scratcher. He signed for 1 year and 1M dollars with the Cardinals before the season. Since then, he’s appeared in 40 games with 2 wins and 2 saves. He’s surrendered only 16 hits, 4 walks and 3 earned runs. Opponents are batting .134 against him in 119 total ABs. Left handed hitters are only batting .100 when Neshek pitches.
So, no surprises here.
You know, except the fact that the Cardinals are in 3rd place with 4 All-Stars and an All-Star manager as we approach the break. But details, right?
Photo: MLB.com
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