Three Cardinals to represent host franchise at 80th All-Star Game
CINCINNATI — First baseman Albert Pujols, catcher Yadier Molina and closer Ryan Franklin will be the St. Louis Cardinals three hometown representatives for the 80th All-Star Game, which will take place July 14 at Busch Stadium.
Pujols, who leads the National League in home runs and RBIs, has been selected for the eight time in his nine-year career as an All-Star. Both Molina and Franklin are making their first All-Star appearances. Pujols will be the NL starter at first base, having held a wire-to-wire lead in the fan voting at his position. Molina will start at catcher.
Franklin has spent the past two seasons as the Cardinals’ setup reliever and closer understudy. Entering this season, he was cast in a similar role — and as that of a mentor for the two young relievers that Cardinals considered candidates for the closer role. Instead, Franklin has taken over the role himself. He has 20 saves in 21 opportunities this season, and his 0.84 is the lowest of any closer with at least 15 saves.
Franklin was a manager’s selection to the team.
Molina won his first career Gold Glove last year and has told those close to him that an All-Star invite to the game in St. Louis would satisfy another career goal.
The Cardinals’ catcher is widely viewed as the finest defensive player at his position in the league, and he added to that a .300 average last season. Molina was hitting .278 with 25 RBIs and five home runs entering Sunday’s game.
The three representatives for the Cardinals are the most since the 2006 All-Star Game in Pittsburgh when the Cardinals put four on the National League roster.
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(11 votes, average: 4.64 out of 5)
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
Cool
All three Redbirds obviously deserve their selection. Others who may have merited some consideration include Skip Schumaker, Cris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright. (Meanwhile, Colby Rasmus is on track to merit Rookie of the Year consideration.) And the Cardinals, of course, in Ryan Franklin, will have the only ‘billie goat’ representative at the game. But there is no truth to the persistent rumor that Franklin will be put out to pasture prior to game time to keep the grass in check.
Schumaker may have merited consideration? Is that a joke? That’s as bad as Blues fans thinking they actually had a shot at the Cup this year.
Still, the three who made it deserve it. Great picks. Best part is that Pujols is a starter and TLR isn’t the coach, so he’ll actually get in the game.
Thrilled for Franklin! He has gotten it done nearly every time on the mound. The consistency of these three All-Stars is a breath of fresh air in contrast to several players on the roster who continually fail to put up any numbers.
selected for the eighth* time in his nine-year career
The fans voted and Yadi beat out Atlanta’s Brian McCann. Braves fans are a bit irate that Molina won out over McCann and looking at the offensive numbers who can blame them. However, IMO if I was picking an ALLSTAR WORLD TEAM, Molina would be my catcher due to his toughness behind the plate, his in game awareness, his handling of pitchers and the effect he has on the running game. Besides that his offense is good enough….does he not lead the NL in least strikeouts? He also has a knack of getting clutch RBI’S.