World Series MVP: 3B David Freese – St. Louis Cardinals
.348 AVG, 1 HR, 7 RBI

Will the 2011 World Series be considered one of the best of all-time?  Yes.  The reason.  It had everything.  By that I mean close, historic games and even come from behind victories.  Games 1 and 2 were one run victories for both the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers.  Game 3 we saw a historic performance from 1B Albert Pujols going 5 for 6 with 3 HR and 6 RBI.  Game 4 had one of the best pitching performances in a World Series by Derek Holland of the Rangers.  Game 5 gave Texas all the momentum to win their first World Series title, but Game 6 had one of the most dramatic comebacks in World Series history.

You can’t really say that the Cardinals were a team of destiny.  No one, me included didn’t even have them making the postseason at the beginning of September.  They got hot at the right time.  That’s usually the case with most of the championship teams in every sport.  That same case can be said about the World Series MVP David Freese.  He has struggled to stay healthy for an entire season, but he remained healthy going into August and September. Then he started to heat up in the NLCS.

The Milwaukee Brewers had no answers for Freese.  His numbers during the 6 games of the NLCS went as follows; .545 AVG, 3 HR, 9 RBI.  With Freese doing that in a lineup that includes Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday it’s pretty phenomenal. Freese’s story is amazing too.  A native of St. Louis, Missouri he was acquired from the San Diego Padres in 2007 in a trade for CF Jim Edmonds.  The Cardinals have a history of making subtle trades that eventually pay off in the end.  The scary thing is they won a World Series when one of their best starting pitchers went down with Tommy John surgery in Spring Training.  That’s right, Adam Wainwright should be back next year ready to defend this title.

Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals on winning their 11th World Series title.  Now they just need to re-sign Albert Pujols and everything will be fine in St. Louis.