Every little boys dream is to play in the post season with their favorite hometown team, this dream has been achieved by David Freese(as well as Kyle McClellan) this year and he has been quite a threat. The Cardinals young third basemen won the 2011 NLCS MVP with an impressive performance batting .545 with 3 home runs and 9 RBI’s, as well as a total of 4 home runs, a .425 batting average, 5 doubles, and 14 RBI’s in the 2011 postseason.  Let’s take a look at the brief career of our post season hero, David Freese:

Freese a resident of St. Louis who attended Lafayette High School would go on to play college ball in the University of South Alabama, until he was drafted in the 9th round of the 2006 draft to the San Diego Padres. After spending the 2007 season in the Padres minor league system he was traded to St. Louis, for Center fielder Jim Edmonds.

Freese would tear it up in AAA Memphis in 2008 where he hit 26 home runs, driving in 96, while batting .306. After a pre-season injury to third baseman Troy Glaus the Cardinals, had Joe Thurston, Brian Barden, and David Freese sharing playing time at third base. In his first season with the Cardinals he batted .323 with 1 home run and 7 RBI’s, in just 17 games before he dealt with ankle injuries.

In 2010 Freese won the starting job at third base where he was seriously considered as a candidate for rookie of the year along with Jaime Garcia, before ankle injuries ended his season once again as he required surgery.In 2010 Freese hit .296, with 4 home runs while driving in 36.

 

Finally in 2011, Freese was seemingly healthy but due to his injuries in the past two seasons he would split time at third with Daniel Descalso, Freese excelled at hitting until he was hit by a pitch that fractured his hand and caused him to miss around a month, but once he was back he kept on hitting. Freese has become arguably the best opposite field hitter on the team, nearly all of his homeruns have been hit on the opposite field. He has also become one of the most underrated sluggers on the team, though he only had 10 homeruns and 55 RBI’s this year, he will be a huge threat in years to come with the Cardinals. He is not a free agent until 2016, so he is cheap, affordable, and effective. Expect to see Freese drive in more runs, have more playing time, and a bigger role on this team.

No matter what happens with the rest of his career, Freese will always be remembered for his heroics in the 2011 Postseason and hopefully we will be able to say it resulted in a World Series Ring.