Yadier Molina

With the candidates for the American League MVP Award essentially determined already (Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera), let’s turn our attention to the National League. The award is wide open this year with no clear favorite standing out.

Who will claim 2014’s National League Most Valuable Player Award? You can be sure it will be one of these players.

Once the Cardinals finish up their West Coast swing through Arizona and San Francisco, they'll find themselves smack-dab in the middle of a duel against their fiercest competition for the NL Central crown, the Cincinnati Reds.

If Puerto Rico is going to win the World Baseball Classic, it needs prime production from every member of its lineup, especially cleanup hitter Yadier Molina.

After taking care off business against Team USA and Japan, the only thing standing between Puerto Rico and the World Baseball crown is the undefeated Dominican Republic. 

Yadier Molina has become the current face of the St. Louis Cardinals organization.  After Albert Pujols packed up last offseason and headed west, Cardinal fans turned their focus to hoping Yadier wouldn't follow Albert out of town.

After another great outing from Adam Wainwright, the St. Louis Cardinals fall again after bullpen struggles and defensive miscues continue to plague the team.

Wainwright put together a big night going seven innings giving up only two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts. By any stretch, that's a great night. Not only was he pitching well, he got an early base hit and made a pair of key defensive plays.

After the loss of star slugger Albert Pujols to free agency over the winter, the Cardinals were seen as a team surely on the mend. 

Yadier Molina was a tale of two players last year. In the first half of the season, he hit .223/.301/.294. In the second half, he hit .315/.368/.405. His end of the season splits ended up at .262/.329/.342. The big question arises. Which Molina will show up this year?

In the first half of last season, he was practically unusable. In the second half, he was a pretty solid option at catcher.

When two objects plummet towards a narrow abyss, a meeting becomes more and more likely, until it is inevitable.

Such is the case of the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants pitcher Barry Zito.

Can signing the games best player be the worst decision of your life? The St. Louis Cardinals could find out if they give him Alex Rodriguez money.

The self-imposed contract deadline came and went for the Cardinals slugger. Now, Albert Pujols will walk into the 2011 season without a new contract and the possibility of playing somewhere else next year.

When fans, analysts, and experts alike begin to determine a player's value, defense is often second nature. It doesn't jump off the back of a baseball card like Albert Pujols' home run totals, Ryan Howard's RBI totals, or Jose Reyes' stolen bases. However, defense is a crucial part of the game of baseball. It makes great offensive players elite, and players who lack the offensive wherewithall a positive outlook on their game.

So, how do you go about ranking the best defensive players in baseball?