Cardinals news and notes: Carson Kelly, base running, El Gallo

Kris Bryant won a much-deserved 2016 NL MVP award yesterday by receiving 29 of the 30 first place votes. The only Cardinal to receive votes was Yadier Molina who got a couple of 10th place votes, but this marked the third straight year that a Cardinal didn’t finish in the top five, and the second straight year without a top-ten finish (Adam Wainwright finished 8th in 2014).

Winning games and making the playoffs is vital to the cultivation of a fan base but so is elite talent. Albert Pujols was that elite talent. He finished in the top five of MVP voting in ten of his eleven years with the Cardinals and won the award three times (2005, 2008, 2009). He hasn’t been the same player during his five years in Anaheim but I think most of us miss him all the same.

Here’s what you may have missed yesterday at VEB:

Carson Kelly

Joe Schwarz wrote about Yadier Molina’s heir apparent Carson Kelly, and why it might make sense for him to be with the club learning directly from Yadi rather than getting regular reps in AAA.

Base running

I wrote about base running and why the 2016 Cardinals were basically a bunch of NES Ice Hockey fat guys.

Farm report

Pitching prospect Austin Gomber continues to do well in the Arizona Fall League.

Carlos Martinez

Every Thursday evening I get tasked with recapping Lil Scooter’s weekly post about Carlos Martinez. She’s often chuckling about something from his Instagram page which every time shows up like this on my computer:

I problem need a new computer or should sign up for Instagram.