Molina’s defensive ability has long been acknowledged as is evident by his four consecutive gold gloves.  With that being said, his bat is just now in the starting phases of being the recipient of the respect of which it rightfully deserves. Yadi led the team in batting average (.305) last season during the Cardinals historic run to the teams 11^th World Series title and he’s still hitting over the .300 mark half-way into May in 2012.

Over his career nine year career, including this season, Yadi has been an impeccable hitter in clutch situations.  With two outs and runners in scoring position, Molina has hit .290 with 149 RBI’s, 7 homeruns, and 16 doubles in 400 at-bats while also drawing an additional 58 walks and being hit by two pitches.  He has an on-base percentage of .472 with runners on second and third with two outs in his career.  When the bases are loaded with no outs to spare Yadi manages to hit .295 and has driven in 30 runs in 44 at-bats.

So why all of this “Yadi! Yadi! Yadi!” love?

With two outs and David Freese on second in a tie, 6-6 ball game against the Chicago Cubs on a bright Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Molina did it again.  A groundball single to the right of a diving second baseman, Darwin Barney, brought Freese home and prevented the Cardinals from going winless in their last five games.

Molina is batting .310 over his career when the Cardinals emerge victorious.  However, Yadi’s ability at the plate goes far beyond the swing of his bat.  He has drawn 166 walks while striking out 174 times (a .954 walk to strikeout ratio) in wins.  He consistently goes deep into counts to, harassing pitchers into either making a mistake that he can hit or drawing the walk.

While it may still be a mystery as to why girls turn all school-girl giddy over the very thought of Yadier Molina, there is no wonder why Cardinals fans as a whole love and respect him.

Quick Hitters

Jon Jay on DL – Jon Jay re-entered the 15-day disabled list yesterday with soreness in his right shoulder.  Jay was the victim of a separated shoulder when he ran into the outfield wall chasing a homerun ball back on April 19^th.  Shane Robinson has been called back up to the major leagues after spending a single game at Triple-A Memphis.

Beltran’s Knee an Issue – Cardinals fans have two great players and either “Hall of Fame” or “Hall of Very Good” caliber players in Lance Berkman and Carlos Beltran.  The issue is that the two aforementioned players have reached the closing twilight years of their career.  Berkman is in need of constant days and/or innings of rest and Beltran appears to be in the same boat.  Last week’s NL Player of the Week is facing pain in his surgically repaired right knee.  While the DL is not a likely landing spot for Beltran, the surplus of versatile Cardinals defenders will  certainly come in handy to offer him a few days of rest.

Craig the Great – Allen Craig is hitting .404 this season with 18 RBI’s, 5 homeruns, and 5 doubles.  That average is bumped up to .500 with seven of those RBI’s and two of the homeruns coming over the past five games and 20 at-bats for the 27 year old California native.

San Fran Tram – The Cardinals start the first of a two game series against the San Francisco Giants tonight.  Jamie Garcia (2-2) and Adam Wainwright (2-4) will take on Madison Bumgarner (5-2) and Matt Cain (2-2) respectively.  The Cardinals are 1-4 in their last two series and have been outscored by the Diamondbacks and Cubs by a combined total of a total of 11 runs.  The Cardinals had not been outscored in any of their 11 series including the one-game series against the Miami Marlins to start the season; St. Louis and the Houston Astros both scored 14 runs when they met up for a three-game series from May 5^th to May 6^th.  Tonight’s game starts at 9:15 Central on Fox Sports Midwest and 1120 KMOX.

St. Louis, Mo – The St. Louis Cardinals have released 2008 World Series champion, J.C. Romero and called up the young right handed pitcher, Eduardo Sanchez, from Triple-A Memphis to join them for tonight’s match-up against the Chicago Cubs.

J.C. Romero’s release comes after three consecutive catastrophic appearances; this span includes the Cardinals May 5^th 2-8 loss to the Astros, May 7^th 9-6 victory over the Diamondbacks, and May 12^th 2-7 defeat to the Braves.  Romero allowed a homerun in each of these three games including two-run shots on both May 5^th to Jed Lowrie and May 7^th to Cody Ransom.

That May 5^th long bomb by Lowrie put the Astros up by six runs (8-2) in the bottom of the eighth inning and sealed the Red Birds fate for the loss.

His May 7^th outing was even worse.  Romero let up five runs on four hits while throwing just 18 pitches.

On May 12^th, Romero helped two more runs cross the plate, both earned, on four hits and an astonishing 35 pitches.

In his previous eight games, the former Philly had yet to allow a run, but he also allowed four runners to reach base in just 4.2 innings of work.  Romero only recorded three strikeouts against the 19 batters he faced within this time span.

Regardless of his recent work, this seems like an awful quick trigger finger for a traditionally successful reliever.

Eduardo Sanchez would have been part of the Cardinal’s opening day roster if it were not for control issues during spring training.

In seven games, eight innings, Sanchez did not allow a run to cross the plate prior to the start of the regular season.  Only four batters reached via a hit for a .154 opponent batting average and he struck out an amazing fourteen members of the opposition.  The main drawback for Sanchez was that he walked five batters and lost control of his pitches at time.  So, despite an ERA of nil, the young righty was sent to Memphis for further seasoning.

Sanchez, who posted up a 1.80 ERA, recorded five saves, and struck out 35 batters in 30 innings in 2011, has continued his struggle for control in Triple-A.

The 23 year old Venezuelan has managed to record six saves in eleven games and 13.1 innings.  While he has struck out 13 batters, he has also walked 10 people.  His 1.30 strike out to walk ratio qualifies as the second worst of his minor league career thus far; he had a SO/BB ratio of 2.19 last season in the big leagues.

Quick Hitters

Puma’s Return – Lance Berkman returned to the Cardinals line-up on Sunday after being enrolled on the disabled list on April 19^th with a strained left calf muscle.  Fat Elvis went 1 for 5 with three strikeouts in the Cardinals 4-7 loss to the Atlanta Braves.  Shane Robinson was sent back down to Triple-A Memphis after hitting .311 with a homerun, two doubles, five RBI’s, and a stolen base in 45 major league at bats.

Beltran Rewarded for Crazy Week – Not to be outdone by the AL’s Player of the Week in Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers, Carlos Beltran received the National League’s weekly title.  Beltran, who leads the NL with 13 homeruns and is tied for the league lead in RBI’s (32), recorded long balls in six games with 13 RBI’s, and was a single shy of the cycle during May 11^th’s 12-inning loss to the Braves.  Beltran recorded two multi-homerun games last week including a grand slam and two run shot during May 8^th’s 6-1 victory over the Diamondbacks.

Rebound Time; Cards host Cubs – After playing possum to the Atlanta Braves the past three days and facing their first sweep of the season, the St. Louis Cardinals are ready to take on the Chicago Cubs in a short, two game series tonight and Tuesday night at Busch Stadium.  Jake Westbrook (4-2, 1.76 ERA) and Kyle Lohse (5-1, 2.08) will take on Ryan Dempster (0-1, 1.02) and Paul Maholm (4-2, 4.05) respectively.  Tonight is a 6:05 start on ESPN, Fox Sports Midwest, and 1120 KMOX will tomorrow’s game will appear on its usual stations with a 12:45pm start.

St. Louis victimized the Arizona Diamondbacks in all three games of the series as they outscored the desert rats 22-9.  It is almost a mystical wonder that the Red Birds, who hold have scored more runs than any other Major League ball club with 174 runs crossing the plate, had yet to sweep a team.

St. Louis, who is now on their second, four-game win streak of the year, had previously won the first two games of a series on four different occasions without ever securing that ever elusive third game.  These near sweeps came twice against the Reds (April 9-11, April 17-19), once against the Brewers (April 27-29), and once against the Pirates (May 1-3).  Of these four series, the Cardinals outscored opponents by 39 runs, or an average of 3.25 runs per game; St. Louis scored 76 runs while the opposition crossed the plate just 37 times.

Including Wednesday’s sweep of the Diamondbacks, the Cardinals have now been victorious in a total of nine out of elven series, including a one game series against the Miami Marlins to open up the year.  The Cardinals pitchers have held opponents to just 86 runs in these games while the Red Birds batters have drilled home 151; that’s a ratio of 1.76 Cardinals runs scored for every single tally marked down by the opposition.

St. Louis is, quite simply, one of the best power hitting line-up’s in the Major Leagues.  They are currently tied for fourth in homeruns (40), tenth in doubles (54), and second in triples (11).  The Cardinals are also the proud sole owners of second place in the slugging percentage category at .467 percent.

The Cardinals have hit eleven homeruns in the past four games, including a five long bomb performance by five different players on Monday against Arizona.  Tyler Greene and Carlos Beltran have both recorded multi-homerun games within this time span including the grand slamai by Beltran in the second inning of Tuesday’s game.  Beltran is joined by Allen Craig in the team lead with three homeruns over the past four games while Greene is second with those two homeruns on Sunday and Holliday, Furcal, and Freese all joined in on the long bomb parade on Monday.

Only one Cardinal’s starter is tied with Albert Pujols’s one homerun on the season and that is Matt Carpenter.  St. Louisans may recall that single Carpenter screecher well as it was part of a one homerun, five RBI, double-short-of-a-cycle performance by the 26 year old Galveston, Texas native.

Footnotes:

Lance Berkman – Lance Berkman is expected to be in the line-up against the Braves on Friday.  This means somebody will have to acquire a ride back down to Memphis to make room for the first baseman.  Despite hitting .318 and scoring six runs with five RBI’s in 44 at-bats, Shane Robinson is the most limited player on the team in terms of being able to fill in at various positions.

Yadier Molina - Molina only faced bruising after a Mitchell Boggs fastball hit his wrist.  While he was not part of the Wednesday night’s lineup against the Diamondbacks, he is probable for a return on Friday.

Albert Pujols – The real story behind the Angels 6-2 victory over the Twins on Wednesday night came during the post-game team high-fives.  Erick Aybar playfully slapped the elbow of Pujols who responded with a scowl and a thrown glove at the back of Aybar.  The video is available here via Major League Baseball who describes the incident as the two “goofing off” after the game.

Last night, May 8, 2012 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Carlos Beltran went off for two homeruns, one two-run homerun and one grand slam, in the Cardinals 6-1 victory in the desert.  These were Beltran’s ninth and tenth homeruns of the year respectively.

Centerfielder Jon Jay led off the game with a triple to deep left center off the arm of Ian Kennedy.  “The Train” stepped up to the plate and hit a bomb to deep left field on the second pitch he witnessed of the evening to give the visiting Red Birds an early 2-0 lead.

Fast forward to the top of the second inning with the bases loaded via a Skip Schumaker double, a Jake Westbrook drawn walk, and Jon Jay being the proud new owner of a bruise via a stray Desmond pitch; up steps the red hot Beltran who has already recorded two homers in as many days.  He is searching for the tenth grand slam of his career with the last one coming on June 28, 2011 when the Mets were taking on Detroit’s Daniel Schlereth.  There are two outs and it’s a 2-1 count when Beltran hits a no doubter into deep right center to give the Cardinals their final six run total.

Yesterday marked the 31^st career multi-homerun game for Beltran and his fifth in just seven games.  Last night also became the second time he has hit long balls on consecutive nights this season; the last time was April 17^th and 18^th against Cincinnati.  Beltran now has 15 career homeruns against Arizona and 175 bombers away from his home turf.  His first homerun was the 67^th time “The Train” went deep on the second pitch of an at bat while the “grand salami” was the 61^st time he sent one soaring on the fourth pitch.  He now has 56 career dingers when batting second in the lineup; he has 173 when hitting third.  Beltran seems to favor the first inning as he has hit a career high 58 homeruns in the first, but he has also drilled a second career best 47 in the second.

Beltran is currently tied for third in homeruns in the MLB (10), fourth in RBI’s (as is David Freese with 26), and is also tied for sixth in runs (23).  He is currently second on the team with five homeruns trailing only Rafael Furcal and has drawn the most walks on the team at 17.

He provides flexibility in the line-up, hitting .333 with seven homeruns and 12 RBI’s in ten games when batting second and hitting .270 with three homeruns and 14 RBI’s when batting fourth.

In the 19 wins that the Cardinals currently possess, Beltran has hit .352 with all ten of his homers and all but two of his 26 RBI’s coming in St. Louis victories.  The Cardinals are also 5-0 when the speedy Beltran steals a base.

In conclusion, a simple word of advice for the opposition of Mr. Carlos at this point in the season;

Don’t mess with the Beltran.

The pitch.  Beltran takes off for second base.  The strikeout of Molina.  He reaches the three quarters mark to second when Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy throws the pick-off attempt, Beltran retreats.  It’s a play that’s used in high school and lower collegiate levels all the time; one player gets caught in a pickle so the man on third can steal home.  Greene races towards the plate and slides wide to the right; he misses the golden prize by six inches before being tagged out.

The new Cardinal’s manager, Mike Matheny, has proven himself to be a man with an eye for the dangerous side of life.  He is a man who wants to play an aggressive game.  He is a man who wants to use speed as well as power to win.

St. Louis, who ranked last in the National League in stolen bases just a season ago have already tied their 2011 snatch n’ grab total.  With 16 stolen bases this year the Cardinals rank eighth in the NL, but are just four steal n’ deals behind the 20 that the league leading Miami Marlins currently own.

Four members of the Red Birds are the proud recipients of double digit stolen bases.  Carlos Beltran leads the team with five, Furcal and Jay have both acquired three, and the deceivingly excellent base runner, Yadier Molina, has ninjaed his way through for two sneak n’ peaks.

This aggressive, yet alert, style of play is reminiscent of the Whitey Herzog with a modern day twist; the Cardinals have some serious pop in their bat.  St. Louis, who is second in the National League in homeruns (24), has discovered that this proves to be an excellent complement to their speed on the base paths.  Not only are opposing pitchers required to be alert as to the challenge of having a homerun slugger at the plate, but they must worry about having excellent, heads up base runners with some serious speed on the base paths; they are bound to make a mistake sooner or later.

Yester’ evenings game against the Brewers may have proved unsuccessful due to what can be perceived as a risky call by a young, inexperienced manager, but consider the rather abundant number of times that Tony LaRussa wagered games on bold pitching changes and double switches.  Whether one agreed with the moves that TLR made or not, his record speaks for itself.

Now this is not to say that Matheny will have the astonishing career that the highly esteemed Mr. LaRussa was able to achieve, but to simply draw a comparison between their boldness at this stage of the young manager’s career.  Matheny is willing to take chances when the reward of the risk is high.  He is willing to be bold and be assertive when needed.

When one gambles with house money, things do not always pay off.  Sometimes the roulette table lands on red when you guessed black and sometimes you have a 20 in blackjack but that dang house dealer gets a 21.

The difference is that Matheny is not gambling millions of dollars on a random eight of hearts and six of spades; he is counting cards.

He may be a young manager, but Mike Matheny has an exceptional knowledge of the game.  Sure, he may lose track of the card count every now and then or take a risk that doesn’t pay off, but he is taking the chance and, more times than not, he is hitting the jackpot.

With enthusiastic young players who are willing to run on a moment’s notice and a core of veterans that combine for what is probably the highest baseball IQ of any group of vet’s in the game, the Cardinals are in a position to win with this style of play.  A rather minute number of mistakes in a small sample size may seem devastating at this point in the season, but these are learning experiences for the younger players on the team as well as the young Cardinal’s manager.  Overall, these mistakes should prove inconsequential come seasons end due to the advancement in knowledge that the previous listed parties will possess by that time.

Get used to this Cardinal fans.  Get used to the depression of a close play at third gone wrong.  Get used to a close play at home gone right.  Get used to dramatic Cardinals victories.  Get used to the Rally Squirrel.

Sensational; ponder upon this word for a second.  Let your thought dwell into its meaning; sensational.  To be sensational is to be great, neah, it is to be exceptionally great.  To be sensational is to reach above your perceived shortcomings and simply dominate in an astonishing fashion.  To be sensational is to truly stand out in one’s craft.

Has Lance Lynn not done this through his first four starts of the year?  Has he not proven himself worthy of the “LYNNsational” title?

The young right hander is the only Red Bird starter to have recorded a positive note in each of his starts with four victories in as many games.  Kyle Lohse and Jamie Garcia are both also undefeated, 3-0 & 2-0 respectively, but Lohse did not receive a decision in a 2-1 St. Louis victory over the Reds on April 17^th while Garcia did receive blame in a 3-4 loss to the Reds on April 11^th or a 2-3 loss to the Cubs on April 23^rd.

Lynn has managed to acquire a team high 24 strikeouts in the second most innings by a pitcher this season; Lynn has pitched 27 innings while Lohse edges him out by a third of a frame.  With an earned run average of 1.33 and a .176 batting average by opponents, the 25 year old Brownsburg, Indiana native has proven himself a worthy replacement to the injured Chris Carpenter.

The key to Lynn’s success has been his high strikeout rate.  The ball has been placed in the defense’s hands just 27 percent of the time with him on the mound compared to 29 percent of the time with Wainwright, 33 percent with Lohse, 35 percent with Westbrook, and a team high 37 percent with Garcia; the league average for the ball being put in play is 30 percent.

That lowly .176 and high “K” rate has come via a strikeout looking just 25 percent of the time.  He has struck out batters on just three pitches five times this season and has forced the second most double plays on the team; Garcia has forced eight while Lynn has forced four.  The rare batter that does reach base against this “LYNNsational” pitcher only reaches extra bases 31 percent of the time; the league average is 33 percent.

Despite only having a grand total of six career starts at the Major League level under his belt, Lynn has a dominating presence on the mound that appears to give his team an extra boost at the plate.  He is receiving the second most run support on the team (5.91) behind only Jamie Garcia (6.94) this season.  If hard work and winning are contagious then the reason for the excess of runs can be easily explained.

Lynn averages the second most innings per start on the team at 6.8, Westbrook averages 6.9.  He is not afraid of being sore the next day from hurling too many pitches.  Lynn has reached the century mark in two of his starts and averages 97 pitches per outing.

It may not be easy to fill the shoes of a Cy Young caliber pitcher, but Lance Lynn appears to have the support of Cardinal Nation fans and players behind him as he is off to this sensational start.

At just 24 years of age, he will turn 25 on May 12^th, and only 22 games into his Major League career Lynn holds a lot of promise.  It would not be an unreasonable deceleration to state that this is just the start of the “LYNNsational” iceberg.

St. Louis Cardinals

Six is Serious, But Sixteen is Better: Including the one game series against the Miami Marlins to open up the regular season, the Cardinals have won six straight series in 2012.  In fact, dating back to last year, the Birds on the Bat have seen 16 straight series victories including the post-season.  The last time they lost a series was when they dropped two of three to the Cincinnati Reds between September 2^nd, 2011 and September 4^th.  Two of these series wins have now come over the Chicago Cubs.

Injuries Not a Problem:  With Jon Jay, Lance Berkman, Chris Carpenter, Scott Linebrink, and Allen Craig all either on the DL or riding the pine with an injury (Jay), the young guns on the bench have stepped up in spectacular fashion.  Matt Carpenter started off the season in shocking style as a fill-in at first base for Lance Berkman.  Daniel Descalso and Tyler Greene may just be hitting .209 and .226 respectively, but their defense  has allowed Descalso to be shipped around the infield as needed to spot other players days of rest or fill in for those on the IR.  Center fielder Shane Robinson has been hitting grapefruits through his first 24 plate appearances; he has a batting average of .391 with a walk, 5 RBI’s, 1 homerun, 9 hits, and has crossed the plate a grand total of 6 times in 11 games.  Outfielder Erik Komatsu and back-up catcher Tony Cruz have been providing solid defensive relief that has allowed for the likes of Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina to be spotted rest days.

Pitching Domination: The Red Birds offense has received high praises for scoring five or more runs in 50 percent of their games, but their pitching has been nothing short of dominant itself.  The Cardinals hurlers are allowing under three runs a game and have the fourth best ERA (2.72) in the National League.  While they may rank tenth among their fellow NL’ers in strikeouts, they rank third in opponents’ batting average with those in the batter’s box hitting just .222.  They have forced the 2^nd most double plays (16), have allowed the least amount of stolen bases (3), and are the proud owners of the second best opponents on base percentage (.270) in the NL.

Key Factor – Rafeal Furcal: The Cardinal’s starting shortstop is somehow managing to hit .369 this season and is hitting .500 in his last six games.  Over those six games, Furcal has hammered in four RBI’s, crossed the plate four times, doubled three times, and has walked three times while only striking out once.

Player to Watch – LYNNsational: Wednesday’s predicted starter, Lance Lynn, has been so spectacular as a fill-in starter for Chris Carpenter that he has earned his own, special bulletin in this series preview that is separate from the rest of the IR fill-ins.  Lynn is currently 3-0 with a 1.42 ERA in three games, 19 innings, and is currently leading the team in strikeouts at 17.  Opponents are only averaging a run a game against Lynn.  While he went just 5.1 innings during his last outing against the Cubs on April 14^th, he managed to fan five Cubbies in the team’s 5-1 victory.

Chicago Cubs

Struggling Pitchers, Struggling Team: The Cubs are throwing out three starting pitchers in Matt Garza, Jeff Samardzija, and Chris Volstad who are all coming off of a loss.  Garza earned six runs in just five innings during his last outing against the Marlins on April 18^th.  Samardzija was the starting pitcher for the Cubs lone win against the Cardinals the last time these two teams met up, but St. Louis managed to score five runs off of him in as many innings; he has actually allowed five runs in two straight games now after his loss on April 19^th to Miami.  Volstad has allowed a total of 11 earned runs in three games and is still searching for that first, ever so precious “W.”

2-3-5 Says it All:  Our friends from the north are hitting just .235 this season, 23^rd in Major League Baseball.  They manage to bump up to 20^th in overall runs scored with 59 in 16 games, but are tied with the eighth most strikeouts in the league at 123; the Cardinals are actually seventh at 126 swing and misses.  The Cubbies have the third least amount of extra-base hits at 34, but they actually manage to pull in a runner up spot in one category; they have grounded into the second most double plays in the league (16).

Home Field Disadvantage: The “Friendly Confines” have been everything but friendly to the Chicago boys.  The Cubbies are 3-7 at home and have been rocked for four or more runs on five different occasions already this season.  They are hitting just .243 with 3 homeruns and 36 RBI’s as a team at home.

Key Factor – Starlin Castro: The Cubs’ shortstop hit .500 the last time he met the Cardinals with 3 RBI’s, a double, two runs scored, and a stolen base in the series.  He’s hitting .375 in his last six games with two triples, a double, and three runs scored.

Player to Watch – Steve Clevenger: Having played a grand total of ten Major League games, Clevenger is still an unknown at this stage in his career.   Of the eight games he’s played this season, he played two in 2011, he is hitting .556 with four doubles, two RBI’s, and four runs scored.  Clevenger has hit safely in six of the eight games in which he’s made a plate appearance; this includes going 0-1 against the Cardinals on April 15^th.  This utility, catcher-first baseman combo hit .407 in 25 games with the Cub’s AAA affiliate in Iowa last year; he knocked home 15 RBI’s with three homeruns, three doubles, one triple, and nine runs scored in that brief time spent in the Pacific Coast League.

Probable Pitchers

Monday, April 23, 2012

Jamie Garcia vs. Matt Garza

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Adam Wainwright vs. Jeff Samardzija

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Lance Lynn vs. Chris Volstad

The soon to be 35 year old outfielder is off to one of the best power seasons of his career.  The lineup shuffle has placed Beltran in either Matt Holliday’s old role as the team’s fourth place hitter, Beltran’s second best power position in the lineup in his career, or batting second.

In 285 career games while batting fourth, Beltran is hitting .294 with 48 homeruns, 72 doubles, and 11 triples, while slugging .515 percent.  His best slugging percentage for a position in the lineup in which he’s played over 40 games is .554 percent when batting second with 53 homeruns, 55 doubles, and 13 triples in 238 games.  In 957 games as a third place hitter, the new Cardinals right fielder hit just .279, but drilled 173 homeruns, 217 doubles, 37 triples, and slugged .498 percent.

Beltran recorded his fifth homerun of the season yesterday after he hit one deep off of the arm of Reds starter, Mat Latos, in the second inning.  This is Beltran’s second quickest season to five homeruns in his career.  In 2004, the same year that he and the Met’s lost to the Cardinals in the NLCS, it only took this powerful switch hitter ten games to reach that five homerun mark; it’s taken him just eleven games this year.  For the record, the longest it took Beltran to reach five deep ones was 72 games in 2000, just a season removed from his Rookie of the Year season, with the Kansas City Royals.

The seven time All-Star looks to be making a trip to Kansas City this year to appear in his second straight Midsummer Classic.  Compared to his last season, Beltran’s already reached 15.4% of his overall runs scored (12 runs in 2012 / 78 runs in 2011), 22.7% of his overall homeruns (5/22), 8.3% of his overall RBIs (7/84), has already drawn 11.5% of his overall walks (8/71), and is hitting .41 points higher than his end-of-the-year batting average (.341/.300) in just 7.7% of his overall games played last season (11/142).

Just for fun, let us cover up that old number 5 of Pujols with Beltran’s number 3 and compare the two’s production thus far this season.

Beltran has three more RBIs, five more homeruns (Pujols is still searching for his first), has a batting average that is .76 pints higher than “El Hombre’s,” has drawn seven more walks, and has scored eight more times than the former king of St. Louis in one less game.

Ponder upon this for a brief moment, the Cardinals are Major League Baseball’s most potent offense scoring 70 runs in 12 games.  Carlos Beltran has recorded 7 RBIs this season which is 10% of the team’s overall runs.  He has also crossed the plate a total of 12 times himself which accounts for 17.1% of those runs with 41.7% of those coming off of homers.  Now take into consideration that every one of those 7 RBIs credited to Beltran’s name has come via the long ball.

Now there’s no reason to expect Beltran, who turns 35 years old next Tuesday, to continue producing at this extreme of a high level for the remainder of the season.  Recall Lance Berkman’s incredible first half of the season a short year ago when the Puma exploded for 24 homeruns and 63 RBIs; he was nothing short of dominant.  Now venture back unto the second half of the year and evoke the memory of how his final 63 games went.   While his average (.315 compared to .290) and on-base percentage (.423 compared to .404) both rose, he only hit 7 homeruns and 31 RBIs.  Break down those numbers a little bit further and one will discover that in the final two months of the season, Berkman only hit 3 homeruns and 22 RBIs with just 1 of those homers coming in the final 25 games.

With all of that being said, Berkman played a huge part in the Cardinal’s first half success last season and Beltran appears poised to do the same.

Beltran and the Cardinals take their 9-3 record and hoist it up against the Cincinnati Reds today at 12:45pm CST on Fox Sports Midwest and 1120 KMOX.

Berkman was hitting .375 in his five games prior to taking residence in the Red Birds’ dugout.  While he has yet to record a homerun in his 16 at-bats, 23 plate appearances, he has shown off a nice combination of power and speed thus far in his 14^th career season.  The Puma already has two doubles and one triple under his belt this season and while he may have just one RBI, he has crossed the plate five times.

One small, minute detail to add onto Berkman’s .375 average and run-scored-per-game average is the fact that he’s walked an astonishing six times already this season.  While it may be a deceivingly small sample size, Berkman is currently getting on base .565 percent of the time.  He has also been hit by one pitch and drawn two intentional walks.

Matt Carpenter, who has been filling the shows of Fat Elvis in his absence, is diligently carving a post for himself as a fan favorite in the Gateway City.  The young Carpenter hit .500 (8 for 16) with two runs, one double, two triples, one homerun, and seven RBI’s since taking over at first base on April 11; the Missouri City, Texas native has knocked in 30.4 percent of the Cardinal’s runs since that date.  These numbers do include a monster 4 for 4 performance that resulted in five RBI’s and Carpenter coming just a double shy of the cycle during Sunday’s 10-3 victory over the Cubs.

Berkman has taken up residence in Matt Holliday’s old position in the lineup as the team’s clean-up hitter.

Tonight’s game has a 7:15pm first pitch at Busch Stadium.  It can be found locally in St. Louis on Fox Sports Midwest or 1120 KMOX.

St. Louis Cardinals

Hot start once again:  The Cardinals are off to their eighth, 7-3 start in 15 years.  They have started their first ten games over .500 on 13 different occasions in that span; that’s 86.7% of the time.

Forget “Pujols Power”: Despite the lack of a certain, thou-who-shall-not-to-named, highly paid, power hitting first baseman, the Cardinals are tops in the league in every power hitting category.  The Red Birds are tied for first in the league in homeruns (15), tied for seventh in doubles (18), second in triples (5), and are first in slugging percentage (.504).   The Cardinals had six home runs in their last outing against the Reds.  Five St. Louis based players went deep against Cincinnati in their last series; Freese had 2 long bombs while Holliday, Molina, Beltran, and Jay all hit one deep ball.

High average, More Runs: Top off those impressive power numbers with the fact that the Cardinals are currently hitting .299 as a team with a .359 on base percentage and the Cardinals offense is one of the most impressive lineups in the league at this point in the season.  They sit at first in runs produced with 57 runs, six more runs than the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox who are each tied at 51 runs; it is important to note that the Indians have only played eight games as opposed to ten games by the Red Sox and Cardinals.  The Cardinals have four, top 35 players in average; #5 Freese .406, #17(t2) Molina .353, #23 Jay, .344, and #33(t2) Beltran .325.  All of these players are top 35 in hits as well; Furcal is added into this category with 12 hits in his 10 games, 41 at bats, and .293 average.

Player to Watch – Matt Carpenter:  After an impressive Spring Training, Carpenter had an even more astonishing game against the Cubs on Sunday when he came up just a double shy of the cycle.  He went 4-4 with a triple, homerun, and 5 RBI’s.  He has at least one RBI in half of the eight games in which he has registered a plate appearance.  While he is currently not able to qualify for a top spot in batting average, he is swinging .409 with a .417 OBP against opposing pitchers.

Key Factor – David Freese: Freese has picked up right where he left off in the NLCS and World Series.  He is hitting .406 with 3 homeruns and 11 RBI’s in 8 games and 7 starts this season.  The young third baseman has simply been dominant at the plate in his career against the Reds with a .333 average, 6 homeruns, and 16 RBI’s in 28 career games and 22 starts.  Reduce that sample size to the 3 games, 2 starts, he has against the Reds this year and you get a .444 average in 10 plate appearances with a walk, 3 runs scored, 2 homeruns, and 4 RBI’s with a .500 OBP.

Cincinnati Reds

Size of a Marble:  The Reds are ranked 27^th in batting average as a team coming in at a lowly .205.  They have just one player in the top 50 in batting average; Zack Cozart sits at 27^th in the league with a .342 average.  Cozart is the only player above .300 on the team and is just one of two players hitting over .250; Joey Votto is hitting .294.

Needing Glasses:  The Reds top off that lovely team batting average with a large strikeout rate.  The boys from Cincinnati have three players in the top 30 in strikeouts; #7 (t10) Stubbs 12, #17 (t11) Votto 11, and #28 (t14) Bruce 10.  They are tied for the eighth most strikeouts as a team with the Diamondbacks and Athletics sitting at 76 swings and misses.

Mediocre Pitching:  The lone saving grace for the Reds is their pitching which comes in with a 3.36 ERA in 95.0 innings.  They are in the dead middle of the National League in ERA but are top five in overall earned runs at 39.  Their pitchers sit at 10^th in the NL with opponents’ batting .249.

Player to Watch – Scott Rolen: The former Cardinal is hitting .271 against his old team with 13 homeruns and 46 RBI’s in 78 games and 77 starts.

Key Factor – Aroldis Chapman:  This power throwing right hander has only allowed 3 hits in 8 innings and has yet to let a run cross the plate under his watch.  He actually leads the Reds in wins with 2 W’s in his 5 relief appearances.  The Red Birds hit just .185 against him, but, with 7 runs scored on the young power leftie, they have scored more runs off of Chapman than any other Major League club.

Probable Starting Pitchers:

Tuesday, April 17.

Johnny Cueto v. Kyle Lohse

Wednesday, April 18.

Mat Latos v. Jamie Garcia

Thursday, April 19.

Bronson Arroyo v. Adam Wainright