The fact that the Los Angeles Dodgers' Russell Martin won the Gold Glove award over St. Louis' Yadier Molina isn't just ridiculous - it's laughable. A joke. The Gold Glove awards have been lacking credibility for some time - anybody remember Rafael Palmeiro's award at first base after playing less than 30 games there? - but it's almost at the point where they should be scrapped altogether. Because really, they mean nothing.

Martin is an outstanding player, and he's a much better hitter than Molina. But defensively, they're not in the same stratosphere. And with catchers, it's about more than just errors. It's holding runners on, throwing them out, calling a game, etc. In fact, I won't even have to make the argument for Molina. I'll just go ahead and let others do it for me, from both local and national viewpoints:

- Bernie Miklasz, columnist, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Martin had the most errors (14) of any NL catcher. According to STATS LLC, Martin threw out only 28.7 percent of those who attempted to steal bases on him ... Only three catchers in MLB allowed more stolen bases than Martin (82) ... Molina: he led all MLB catchers in nailing base stealers, throwing out 23 of the 46 who challenged him (50 percent). He also led NL catchers in assists per nine innings. That only 46 steals were attempted on Molina tells us everything we need to know.

How does a manager go from “Boys, don’t even dare try to steal a bag on Yaddy Molina” to writing Martin’s name on the Gold Glove ballot when these same people exploited Martin for a 71.3 percent success rate in stolen bases?

- Rob Neyer, ESPN.com: Russell Martin benefited from the same (hitting) bias. He's not real strong against the running game, but otherwise he's solid. Still, if the evidence exists for his superiority to Yadier Molina, I've not yet seen it.

- BillJamesOnline, Fielding Bible Awards (best fielders in MLB at their positions): Move over, Pudge. Last year, Ivan Rodriguez and Yadier Molina were neck-and-neck in the battle for the Fielding Bible Award at catcher as they were named first or second on nearly every ballot. Molina maintained his incredible performance controlling the running game in 2007 throwing out 49% of would-be base stealers. Rodriguez’ drop from 46% last year to 26% this year convinced our voters to bestow the award on Molina.

- Jeff Gordon, StlToday.com: NL managers and coaches know if they give their runners the green light to run on Molina, bad things will happen. Runners get thrown out at second, runners get picked off first, potential big innings die . . . yes, it’s best not to run on Yadier. And yet these same NL managers and coaches decided that Russell Martin is the best defensive catcher in the NL. Interesting.

Coming off a World Series title, the St. Louis Cardinals looked poised to make another run at the playoffs, continuing their streak of reaching the postseason every year this decade. Then, the first game happened.

Pitcher Chris Carpenter, their ace and a former Cy Young winner, lasted all of 6 innings before his season ended. Carpenter hurt his elbow, and ended up having reconstructive elbow surgery, sidelining him for at least a year.

That malady started a trend that saw every starter except one from that game spend time on the disabled list. Five of those players ended up having season ending surgery at some point. Only Albert Pujols avoided the D.L., but he played most of the season battling leg and elbow injuries, and it looks as if his season could be over now as well.

It wasn't only the starters that were injured. Valuable bench players, relievers and other starting pitchers were injured at some point during the season.

Here is a look at every starting player, followed by starting pitchers, relievers and bench players who have been injured or spent time on the D.L. this season.

Starting Line-Up

C - Yadier Molina: The Cards catcher fractured his left wrist in May, landing him on the D.L. for nearly the entire month of June.

1B - Albert Pujols: Never missed significant time until recently, but he has played through various leg and elbow injuries, and now he may be done for the rest of this season.

2B - Adam Kennedy: Kennedy was having a horrendous year, and that was compounded by a knee injury in August, ending his season.

3B - Scott Rolen: The perennial Gold Glover was never right in '07, as he continued to struggle with a shoulder that had been operated on twice. The shoulder progressively got worse, leading to his worst season in baseball. He was shut down in early September.

SS - David Eckstein: Eckstein missed nearly a month with a back injury, and he has struggled with it most of the year.

LF - Chris Duncan: The left fielder had a great first half, but was awful after the All-Star break. As it turns out, he had a sports hernia and underwent season-ending surgery.

CF - Jim Edmonds: Jimmy Ballgame started the year at less than 100%, and he was never fully healthy. He suffered from a pinched nerve in his lower back and missed more than a month of action.

RF - Juan Encarnacion: Encarnacion started the year on the D.L. as he recovered from offseason wrist surgery. A freak accident saw him get hit in the eye by a foul ball while standing in the on-deck circle in August. Not only did that end his season, it may end his career. Cardinals team doctor George Paletta called it, "the worst trauma I've seen."

Pitchers

SP - Chris Carpenter: As mentioned above, Carpenter pitched 6 innings before his season was over. 2008 is in jeopardy as well.

SP - Mark Mulder: Mulder started the year on the D.L. after having rotator cuff surgery last season. He pitched in a few games this year before shutting it down due to soreness. It was recently learned he must undergo another operation on the shoulder, ending his year.

SP - Braden Looper: The surprisingly effective Looper suffered from tendinitis in July, landing him on the D.L.

SP - Mike Maroth: After being blasted in start after start, Maroth went on the disabled list with what was called elbow tendinitis.

RP - Tyler Johnson: Johnson, a valuable lefty out of the pen, missed nearly two months with a shoulder injury.

RP - Josh Kinney: Kinney's season was over before it began. After serving an important role in the bullpen in the '06 postseason, Kinney had Tommy John surgery before spring training.

RP - Todd Wellemeyer: Wellemeyer was a mid-season addition who was used as both a starter and reliever. He missed a chunk of time due to a sprained elbow.

RP - Josh Hancock: As most people know, Hancock passed away due to a drunk driving accident in April.

Bench Players

OF - Preston Wilson: Wilson played in just a handful of games before going down for the season with a knee injury. The injury may end his career.

UTIL - Scott Spiezio: Not only did Spiezio miss time due to injury, he also missed five weeks while undergoing treatment for substance abuse.

In total, that makes 18 players who have had to miss time this year, including every member of their starting line-up and their two best pitchers.

Well, that was anti-climactic. After much pomp and circumstance surrounding the pre-game festivities, So Taguchi, Preston Wilson and Yadier Molina played like So Taguchi, Preston Wilson and Yadier Molina do.

The lone highlight for Cards fans from Opening Day in St. Louis was knowing that someone at Busch Stadium actually once had sex with Angelina Jolie. That lucky bastard would be Billy Bob Thornton, co-emcee on the night along with Cards radio announcer John Rooney.

At this point, putting So Taguchi in left field isn't that much of an upgrade over Chris Duncan. No, seriously. And Yadier Molina hitting fifth? This is a guy who has a lower career slugging percentage than Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano, as Jerry Crasnick points out.

Preston Wilson? All he managed to do was stave off one rally before it began, hitting into a double play in his first at-bat of the season in the first inning, and killing another potential rally by striking out with runners in scoring position. Nice.

While it is easy to blame the players for going limp in their opportunity, somebody has to question what Tony LaRussa was doing putting that line-up on the field in the first place (insert not funny joke about alcohol here). While Cardinal Nation is familiar with LaRussa's love for match-ups, Taguchi and Wilson seem odd choices for the assignment, given their history against Glavine was a combined 11 for 59, and both struggled mightily this spring. Wilson and LaRussa even had a minor war of words early in spring training about Wilson's "long" swing (I'll save you the link - it was much ado about very little. LaRussa basically told Preston to get his ass in gear).

So, what does this mean for the 2007 season? Very little. Chris Duncan will play more than So Taguchi, Scott Spiezio and his colorful facial hair will probably play more than Preston Wilson, and Chris Carpenter is sure to pitch better. It was a strange way to open the year, but I'm willing to look past it...for now.