ST. LOUIS (AP) — n the 10-day injured list Friday because of a strained right thumb tendon.The 36-year-old http://www.raysfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , a nine-time All-Star, got hurt during Saturday’s game against Atlanta and tried to play through the injury.“It’s just a slight little tear between the thumb and the webbing, his right finger, rather,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said.Shildt said the injury affected Molina’s batting.St. Louis said the roster move was retroactive to Wednesday.Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said surgery had not been discussed.“We did an MRI this morning and that indicated that there is some damage to the tendon in his thumb, throwing hand, and we’ll have him see a specialist this afternoon, as well,” Mozeliak said. “Probably have a better idea of maybe length and what to expect by sometime tomorrow morning.”Matt Wieters will get most of the playing time while Molina is sidelined. St. Louis selected the contract of Andrew Knizner from Triple-A Memphis.Molina is batting .265 and four home runs and 33 RBIs and started 49 of the Cardinals’ first 53 games. He is on the disabled/list for the sixth for the sixth time.The 24-year-old Knizner was batting .286 with five home runs and 17 RBIs at Memphis. No man has come closer to winning an MVP in a Diamondbacks uniform than Paul Goldschmidt. Did the voters get it wrong?"WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Diamondbacks Farm TeamsGameday ThreadsDiamondbacks NewsDiamondbacks Game ReportsFang FoodDiamondbacks Opinion & AnalysisShould Paul Goldschmidt Have Won An MVP With Arizona?New,52commentsNo man has come closer to winning an MVP in a Diamondbacks uniform than Paul Goldschmidt. Did the voters get it wrong?ESTShareTweetShareShareShould Paul Goldschmidt Have Won An MVP With Arizona?In their 21 seasons of existence, the Arizona Diamondbacks have yet to have a player win the National League Most Valuable Player. They’ve had enormous success with the Cy Young Award because of a certain flame-throwing, Hall of Fame southpaw finishing out the twilight of his career in Arizona. However http://www.rangersfanproshop.com/authentic-matt-moore-jersey , none of their position players have been able to outshine their peers enough to earn the MVP. Before the Paul Goldschmidt Era, Arizona had a player finish in the top 3 only twice, Matt Williams in 1999 and Luis Gonzalez in 2001, and an additional top 5 finish by Justin Upton in 2011. As you’re surely aware, all of those mentions came in seasons where the Arizona Diamondbacks made the postseason. That’s important because the “team must make the playoffs” argument was used against Paul Goldschmidt in his breakout 2013 season. It is occasionally used as criteria for the award when evaluating two players with equitable production in a season. The argument is that a player who did not lead his team to the playoffs can’t be more valuable than a player of roughly the same caliber of performance who did. That hurts Goldy because the Diamondbacks made the postseason only twice during his time here. I won’t pretend that it’s the only criteria that voters consider, hello 2001 Barry Bonds and 2017 Giancarlo Stanton, but it’s part of the conversation nonetheless.Regardless, no man has come closer to the award for Arizona on so many occasions than Paul. He amassed two runner ups in 2013 and 2015, an 11th place mention in 2016, top 3 in 2017, and a 6th place finish in 2018. Was he more deserving than the eventual award winner in any of those seasons? Let’s take a look at all the seasons he finished in the top 10 in voting.2013Paul had just finished his first full season with the D’backs when Kevin Towers approached him, at the perfect time Ivan Rodriguez Jersey , with a hefty contact for a still unproven player during Spring Training in 2013. It paid off for the team as a bargain immediately for it was the 2013 season where he emerged as a perennial MVP candidate. America’s first baseman led the Senior Circuit that season in home runs (36), runs batted in (125), OPS (.952), OPS+ (160), ISO (.249), total bases (332), and intentional walks (19). The last one is particularly my favorite because it shows the respect other teams has for Paul’s bat in only his second full season. He was named to his first All Star team that year and didn’t have one truly awful month that season.His competition for the award in 2013, in terms of votes, came from Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Yadier Molina and Matt Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals (the irony is agonizing). One important distinction between these four men is that the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates played postseason baseball while the Arizona Diamondbacks played golf in October. Fangraphs, Baseball Reference, and Baseball Prospectus were all in disagreement as to which player was the most valuable in terms of WAR. 2013 WARPlayerbWARfWARWARPAvg. PlayerbWARfWARWARPAvg. 2013 WARThe above table provides both clarity and uncertainty when discussing the 2013 NL MVP race. Carlos Gomez was drastically undervalued by voters while the opposite is true about Yadier Molina. They finished 9th and 3rd in the voting respectively. Guess what? Carlos Gomez and the Milwaukee Brewers didn’t make the playoffs in 2013. Gomez should have finished higher in voting http://www.rangersfanproshop.com/authentic-matt-moore-jersey , but inside the top 3 is where things get murky. There is much disagreement in value between the three metrics, and the margin between the final average is so close that it affords voters the freedom to define value in terms outside of WAR.That’s where metrics which attempt to quantify value fall to the wayside and allow narrative to enter the discussion. What Goldschmidt meant to the Arizona Diamondbacks franchise is arguably equal to McCutchen’s value with the Pirates in 2013 during the peak of his career. Cutch is a quality person on and off the field in his own right. Pittsburgh had not made it to the postseason in two decades before Andrew carried them there in 2013. That is undeniable value to a franchise. This is likely what tipped the scale in McCutchen’s favor over Goldschmidt. By traditional statistics, Goldy was slightly more deserving than Cutch leading the NL in many categories, but WAR saw it as a closer race between the two. In need of a tiebreaker, the voters had an interesting narrative to latch onto with Andrew. Another factor to consider was the Major League experience and name recognition between the two. There is no way that I can possibly prove this, but I would allege that familiarity played a factor. McCutchen was playing in his 5th MLB season at the time and had the benefit of incumbency. Goldschmidt was just beginning to make himself known to the national media. It’s possible the voters were so impressed by Goldy’s breakout they figured he’d secure the award easily within the next few seasons, while simultaneously rewarding Cutch for a career best season among an already impressive track record. That’s not intended to take anything away from Andrew and say that he wasn’t deserving, but it’s something to ponder.