Rachel Crader is the editor of semoball.com. She graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in May of 2009 before spending the summer covering the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Highlights from Rachel's days in college include having a class down the hall from Chase Daniel and having NCAA wrestling champion Ben Askren hold the door open for her at Brady Commons, Mizzou's student center. She spent time covering Mizzou basketball, softball and baseball while working for the Columbia Missourian and is excited to return home to Southeast Missouri to cover local sports for semoball.com.

Rachel has covered three Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournaments for the Southeast Missourian and semoball.com, and she'll see you courtside again this year.

Opening Day Cardinal Contest! Deadline is Friday. (Still yay for no prizes!)

Posted Tuesday, April 6, 2010, at 11:22 PM

We're officially less than three hours away from the start of a new Cardinals season. Opening Day is always one of the best days of the year, but I haven't been this excited to watch a team play every day since the Pujols-Edmonds-Rolen glory days.

Of course, that was only a few years ago, which just serves as a reminder about how lucky Cardinals fans have been over the last decade or so.

Here is something to ponder over while you watch today's game (or while your catching up after work). If your game to play along with a contest that we won't know the winner of for months, predict the following:

Number of home runs Albert Pujols will hit this season:

Number of RBI Matt Holliday will have this season:

Number of wins Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright have combined:

Number of saves Ryan Franklin will have:

Number of games the Cardinals will win/lose the National League Central by:

*In this case you must list the if you think they'll win or lose, followed by the number of games

I'll give everyone until Friday to lock in their numbers. And if get a decent amount of responses, I promise to do my best to find a prize for the winner by the time September rolls around. No promises on my success, but we'll see.

The lowest score will win. For example, if you predict that Albert will hit 50 homers this season and he hits 54 (Yay for Opening Day optimism!), you would get a score of 4. Obviously, you want to end up with low scores because you want your number to be close to the real number at the end of the year. For the last question, if you say the Cards will lose the division by 2 games and they actually win it by 5 games, your score will be 7.

I'll post my guesses a little later in the week, and I'll see you all in the semoball pro forums during games this season, starting today.

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1. Pujols HR? 42

2. Holliday RBI? 96

3. CC & AW wins? 37

4. Franklin saves? 25

5. NLC finish? Cards win by 3.

-- Posted by Luke11 on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 9:40 AM
1.Pujols HR? 48

2 Holliday RBI? 105

3. Carp & Wain wins? 34

4. Franklin? 25

5. NLC? Cards win by 5

-- Posted by Producer1 on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 11:31 AM
1. Pujols HR? 51

2. Holliday RBI? 114

3. Carp and Wain wins? 36

4. Franklin saves? 31

5. NLC finish? Cards win by 6

-- Posted by yah-yah on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 11:55 AM
Pujols HR - 49

Holliday RBI - 111

Carp and Wain wins - 37

Franklin saves - 36

NLC - Cards by 10

-- Posted by joefrank78 on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 11:59 AM
Pujols 43 hr

holliday 106 RBI

wain carp 39 win

Franklin 26 save

nlc 5 games

-- Posted by ndsportsfan on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 12:09 PM
Pujols 45 HR

Holliday: 122 RBI

Wain/Carp 36 wins

Franklin saves: 22

Cards win by 7 games

-- Posted by BobMiller on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 2:44 PM
1. Pujols HR? 55

2. Holliday RBI? 105

3. Carp and Wain wins? 35

4. Franklin saves? 28

5. NLC finish? Cards win by 8 games

-- Posted by Haterade on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 2:46 PM
I'd like to change my ballot to 94 hr for pujols haha

-- Posted by ndsportsfan on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 3:00 PM
1. Pujols HR? 45

2. Holliday RBI? 101

3. CC & AW wins? 36

4. Franklin saves? 10

** Franklin won't be the closer by the All-Star break

5. NLC finish? Cards win by 8.

-- Posted by deadred on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 4:10 PM
Pujols: 45 HR

Holliday: 105 RBI

Carp&Waino: 37 wins

Franklin: 31 saves

Cards win NL Central by 9 games.

-- Posted by oldtrougher on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 4:36 PM
Pujols 43 HR

Holliday 112 RBI

CC & AW 35 wins

Franklin 27 saves

Cards win NL Central by 8 games

-- Posted by buck on Mon, Apr 5, 2010, at 6:54 PM
Pujols HR 51

Holliday RBI 126

Carpenter/Wainwright Wins 37

Franklin Saves 29

Cards win Central Division by 7 games

-- Posted by cstan on Tue, Apr 6, 2010, at 8:39 AM
Pujols is on pace to hit 324...hahahaha.

-- Posted by yah-yah on Tue, Apr 6, 2010, at 9:11 AM
Pujols HR: 44

Holliday RBI: 111

Carp and Wainwright Wins: 35

Franklin Saves: 31

Number of games the Cardinals will win/lose the National League Central by: Cards win the Central by 6 games!

-- Posted by mandm96 on Tue, Apr 6, 2010, at 11:15 AM
1. Pujols HR? 50

2. Holliday RBI? 100

*I agree with the guy that said this should be weighted: how about a 2:1?

3. CC & AW wins? 35

4. Franklin saves? 20

5. NLC finish? Cards win in a one-game playoff - so 0, but I get the tiebreaker if they win!

-- Posted by DonT15 on Wed, Apr 7, 2010, at 1:40 PM
1. 57

2. 119

3. 43

4. 19

5. Win by 12

-- Posted by redhawkstudent on Thu, Apr 8, 2010, at 9:41 PM

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