TOWER GROVE — The Cardinals, led by manager Tony La Russa,  stumped  as often as possible this season for Yadier Molina’s Gold Glove candidacy. The award is voted on by managers, but La  Russa — armed with his experience as a voter — figured he’d spread the word of Molina’s defensive poweress to his peers through the media.    

So he called him one of the best defensive catchers he’s ever had.

He lauded Molina’s ability to handle a pitcher, call a game and control runners.

He quoted chapter and verse from the statistics, drawing on numbers that, at the end of the season, had Molina throwing out more runners (27) than bases runners stole against him (25). Molina was  one of only two catchers with at least 300 innings behind the plate that did that. (Minnesota’s Joe Mauer was the other.) The Cardinals privately fretted that Molina’s offense — career-high as  it was — would shrink his chances and that LA’s Russell Martin would be be golden with a big-league best 1,254 innings behind the plate, a .293 average, 19 homers and 41 thieves nabbed (forget the 41 successful thieves).

At least one postseason award supports the Cardinals’ crusade.

Two Cardinals received “Fielding Bible Awards” this morning. Molina joined Albert Pujols as recipients of the relatively new award that is based on the statistical analysis author John Dewan used for his book, The Fielding Bible. In addition to the numbers that attempt to define great defense, Dewan convened a panel of 10 experts to vote on the awards. Molina is a first-time winner. Pujols is the only repeat winner from last year’s inaugural round of Fielding Bible winners.

Quoting from the release from ACTA  Sports that announced the winners this morning:

“Albert Pujols is the only repeat winner from last year, and it was a landslide. He received the highest vote total of any position (91 out of a possible 100 points) and received 7 of 10 first place votes, plus three additional first place votes from our three tie-breakers. His excellent defense is beginning to become as well known as his incredible offense.”

And on Molina, Dewan wrote:

“Move over, (Ivan Rodriguez). Last year, Ivan Rodriguez and Yadier Molina were neck-and-neck in the battle for the Fielding Bible Award at catcher as they were named first or second on nearly every ballot. Molina maintained his incredible performance controlling the running game in 2007 throwing out 49% of would-be base stealers. Rodriguez’ drop from 46% last year to 26% this year convinced our voters to bestow the award on Molina.”

The other winners of the 2007 Fielding Bible Awards were, according to the release were: P Johan Santana, Minnesota; 2B Aaron Hill, Toronto; 3B Pedro Feliz, San Francisco; SS Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado; LF Eric Byrnes, Arizona; CF Andruw Jones, Atlanta; RF Alex Rios, Toronto.

It will be an upset — and so, so deserving — if rookie Tulowitzki snares the Gold Glove for shortstop. But it won’t be as surprising as some of these other awards, especially when compared with the favorites for the Gold Glove. Prevailing opinion is that Scott Rolen’s injury-riddled season will pave the way for Ryan Zimmerman to win his first Gold Glove at third base. Pujols has tremendous competition at his position with past winners Derrek Lee and Todd Helton both back and healthy and Adrian Gonzalez.

As for the NL catcher Gold Glove … the Cardinals campaign probably worked. Chatter around the ballparks at the time of voting was that Molina is the favorite.

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