ground as he started 143 games, including the final 34 games of the season. Perhaps not surprisingly, after hitting .283/.329/.437 in the first half of the season, he hit .229 in August and .235 in September. More troubling, however, was the complete collapse of his plate discipline, with just three walks in the second half. We saw Madison Bumgarner exploit Perez's aggressive approach on the final out of the World Series with a bunch of high fastballs out of the strike zone.

After averaging .313 the previous three seasons, Molina hit .283 with less power. Some of that decline came after he hurt this thumb in July and he didn't hit well when he returned in late August, but his numbers were already down before the injury. Molina willbe 33 in July and he has a lot of mileage, so it's possible he won't bounce back to that 2011-13 peak level.

Edge: Cardinals. Perez is a nice player and I expect his offense to bounce back a little if Yost actually gives him a few more days off, but Molina is still the model defensive catcher in the sport and he gets on base more.

First base: Eric Hosmer versus Matt Adams/Mark Reynolds

As well as Hosmer hit in the postseason, he wasn't that good in the regular season, with a batting line that was just below league average. First basemen aren't supposed to be league-average hitters. Adams had the better season, although he's basically a platoon guy as he hit .190 versus lefties without much power. The Cardinals