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Welcome to Saint Louis, where the Summer weather is hot, the Budweiser is pedestrian, the steaks at (Stan and) Biggie’s are still good, and the Arch is, well, archy. The defending World Series Champions are still in second place. When we last saw them, they were in second behind the Pirates in the National League Central. They’re now behind the Reds, with the Pirates nipping at their heels for a playoff spot.
C Yadier (insert your favorite epithet here) Molina is still having a solid year with the bat and the glove. He was leveled in a home plate collision on Tuesday night. Give the Pirate who ran him over a cigar.
1B Righty hitting Allan Craig, has taken over on an almost full time basis. But he has been splitting time recently with another righty hitter, David Freese (who had been at third base). He hasn’t played much, but I’d like to give some props to young lefty batter Matt Adams, if only because he went to good ol’ Slippery Rock U.
2B Daniel Descalso has solidified his position as the starter because of his glove. He still hasn’t hit much..
SS Rafael (Fecal) Furcal - While the weather has heated up, he had cooled off. Since the last time the Mets saw him, his average had gone down faster than (this one’s for you, Fman) a co-ed at a toga party. - more than 60 points. He recently tore something in his elbow and was declared out for the season. No word yet on whether a full time replacement will be named or they will play mix and match.
3B Lefty hitting Matt Carpenter has been playing a lot recently because of his hot bat, pushing David Freese into a platoon role at first.
LF Matt Holliday has been hitting well for both power and average. The shudda’ cudda’ talk continues..
CF Jon Jay An excellent flyhawk with a decent bat, has come off the DL and is a very good ballplayer.
RF Carlos Beltran is still having a good year.
The bench is comprised of outfielders Shane Robinson, Erik Komatsu, Adron Chambers and utility guy Skip (pain in the arse) Shumacher. The backup catcher is Tony Cruz. Bryan Anderson was just called up to replace Molina.
The starting pitchers are Klye Lhose, Jake Westbrook, Lance Lynn, Adam Wainwright, Joe Kelly and lefty Jaimie Garcia. Wainwright had come off TJ surgery and was on a 6-0 with an ERA under 2.00 streak until he gave up six runs in his most recent start.
The bullpen guys are righties Mitchell Boggs, Victor Marte, Fernando Salas and lefty Mark Rzepczynski who still scares proofreaders and lefty batters. Jason Motte has been an effective closer.
The Cards activated 1B Lance Berkman from the DL and also added infielder Pete Kozma and pitcher Trevor Rosenthal when the rosters expanded..
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The numbers are:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/STL/2012.shtml
Later
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