For the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees, the wins just keep on coming in 2004.
Everybody knows that the Yankees are always the team to beat in the American League, and in case you didn’t know, they picked up some Rodriguez guy from Texas and he’s not too bad. So now it’s just not fair.
Pitching was the Yankees’ major concern going into the 2004 season, because they lost Roger Clemens and Andy Petitt, but that doesn’t even matter because the Yanks are putting up so many runs they really don’t need pitching.
Their latest big pick-up was pitcher Esteban Loaiza from the White Sox, and he has provided an extra boost to the starting rotation.
They also have Kevin Brown, who has been battling injury all season, and the great closer Mariano Rivera. Mike Mussina is another solid starter for the Yankees, but he is currently on the disabled list.
Okay, enough talk about Yankees’ pitching – let’s talk about that offense. If you want big names, the Yanks have them: Derek Jeter, A-Rod, Bernie Williams, Gary Sheffield and Kenny Lofton. And you can’t forget about Hideki Matsui, who is having a great year, hitting just over .300 with 24 home runs. A-Rod has also proven himself to be worth the money for the Bronx Bombers.
After a slow start to the beginning of the year, Rodriguez has settled in, hitting 29 home runs. Jason Giambi is on the disabled list right now, so Tony Clark has been playing first base most of the time.
The Yankees also just brought in veteran John Olerud, who will also help out at first base.
The New York Yankees have the second-best record in baseball at 75-43, and they are nine games ahead of their archrivals, the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees are dominating the American League, but the Cardinals are in control of the National League.
As of right now, the St. Louis Cardinals have the best record in baseball – they’re three games better than the Yanks at 78-40. The Cards are definitely the surprise team in baseball, because they have such a gigantic lead in the National League Central Division.
The NL Central had all the fixins to be a competitive division, with Houston picking up Clemens and Petitt, and the Cubs’ strong pitching staff, but the St. Louis Cardinals have ran away with the division and don’t show any signs of folding toward the end of the season.
The Cardinals probably don’t have as many big names as New York, but that doesn’t matter, because their line-up is putting up some stellar numbers this season. Most of St. Louis’ run production comes from Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds.
Rolen has the best batting average of the three with a .328 mark, not to mention he already has over 100 RBI. Pujols is the money man, hitting .323 with 37 home runs – and he’s only 24.
Edmonds is not far behind, batting .297 with 31 homeruns. All three players combined have 96 home runs, and the scary thing is that they are all in a row in the Cardinals’ current line-up.
If St. Louis is going to go deep into the playoffs, it will be these three all-stars who carry the along with the pitching staff, which includes aces Matt Morris and Woody Williams.
If things keep going the way they are for the Yankees and the Cardinals, we could see these two teams meet in October for the World Series.

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