St. Louis Cardinals: 2016 All-Star Chances

Jul 13, 2015; Cincinnati, OH, USA; National League catcher Yadier Molina (4) of the St. Louis Cardinals talks with outfielder Matt Holliday (7) of the St. Louis Cardinals during workout day the day before the 2015 MLB All Star Game at Great American Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 13, 2015; Cincinnati, OH, USA; National League catcher Yadier Molina (4) of the St. Louis Cardinals talks with outfielder Matt Holliday (7) of the St. Louis Cardinals during workout day the day before the 2015 MLB All Star Game at Great American Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports /
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Infielders

Yadier Molina

easy call, here. Yadi leads the vote for National League catchers, and he is a virtual lock to make his eighth straight all star game.

Yadi was nearly 80,000 votes ahead of second place man Buster Posey following the first balloting update on June 1. Even if Posey managed to overtake the voting lead, there’s no way Yadi isn’t in as a reserve.

Matt Carpenter

He’s a ways down on the voting list for NL third basemen, and at a stacked position, Carpenter is going to have a really tough time making up any ground.

Still, though, at .281/.388/.543, he’s not that far off from having all-star worthy numbers. Carp could certainly slide in as a bench guy with a big month of June.

Aledmys Diaz

Even after cooling off a bit from his torrid start to his MLB career, Aledmys Diaz still leads all National League shortstops in batting average and OPS. He trails Trevor Story in slugging by a few decimal points, despite notching seven fewer home runs.

Now that Mo and Matheny have expressed confidence in the 25-year-old rookie by announcing their plans to keep Diaz at short full-time upon Jhonny Peralta’s return, I think we could see Diaz really take off.

The sky is the limit for Aledmys Diaz. He hasn’t gotten much all star consideration after the first ballot process, but if he keeps going like he has, he’ll start to get plenty of attention.

Matt Adams

I’m sure there are still plenty of Cardinals’ faithful that still think that Matt Adams is no good at first base, that we should ship him off elsewhere and give the job over the Brandon Moss.

All I can say is that numbers don’t lie. He’s slashing .325/.382/.569 with seven home runs and 27 RBI through 136 plate appearances. He’s hitting .364 against lefties, his biggest knock ahead of 2016.

His problem, though, is that he doesn’t have enough at-bats to be considered amongst the league leaders for production by National League first basemen.

I don’t know if the slash numbers would be that high through, say, 200 PA’s…but there’s no denying that Adams has been very good through the first third of this 2016 season.

Next: Outfielders