St Louis Cardinals

The bat that St. Louis Cardinals backup first baseman Matt Adams packs at the plate has a reputation that precedes it.

Adams has demolished balls at every level of professional baseball. His lightning fast bat speed, combined with a tight swing and a good eye, is what have carried Adams to where he is today.

Little has been said of his glove—until now, that is.

The St. Louis Cardinals will spend Independence Day in 2013 remembering the day Albert Pujols became independent from their team.

The Texas Rangers (42-32) defeated the St. Louis Cardinals (47-37) 6-4 at Busch Stadium on Friday night.

Neal Cotts (4-1) earned the win in relief, Trevor Rosenthal (1-1) suffered his first loss and Joe Nathan tallied his 23rd save of the season.

Nelson Cruz led the way with three RBI and Derek Holland recovered from a rough start to throw seven innings and receive a no-decision.

The St. Louis Cardinals are 8-2 as home favorites of -175 to -225 during the 2013 season, which is important to consider when making your MLB picks Tuesday, as they continue their four-game series against the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium.

With the MLB First-Year Player Draft set to kick off Thursday evening, the St. Louis Cardinals are no doubt busy with their own mock drafts.

The Cardinals have had a pretty amazing May to say the least. In fact, they have had the best record in Major League Baseball for a while now. And they couldn't have gotten there without the performances of each individual player.

By comparing each major player's statistics from the past 28 days to their 2012 numbers, I've attempted to measure their success against what is expected of them. 

The St. Louis Cardinals entered the quarter-season mark of 2013 with the best record in baseball.

To say that exceeds the expectations of some is quite the understatement. Many, arguably most, baseball writers had the Cincinnati Reds picked as clear favorites to win the National League Central Division.

The St. Louis Cardinals certainly have no shortage of young star pitching prospects in their farm system. Shelby Miller sat at the top of that list of prospects coming into this season, and he has done an outstanding job fitting into a starting rotation that is arguably the best in the entire MLB right now.

The St. Louis Cardinals are engaged in a tight battle already in the NL Central, and some sobering news on Friday will make their fight to stay alive in that race a little bit tougher.

The St. Louis Cardinals will not have reigning National League saves king Jason Motte as their closer at any point during the 2013 season.