St. Louis Cardinals Opening Day – Welcome Back, Boys. Baseball is Back, 162 to Go
Oh, hi. Didn’t see you there. It’s been a while. Only five months, you say? Seems like an eternity. “How can you not be romantic about baseball?” Billy Beane asks in Moneyball, one of my favorite films of last year. I can’t really argue with him, and Opening Day is the ultimate in romance. It’s […]
Cardinals Set Opening Day Roster
It’s a beautiful day for baseball, boys; let’s play two. On Friday, manager Mike Matheny made official his opening day roster. He waited until Friday so he could see how the battle for the backup catcher spot played out between Bryan Anderson and Tony Cruz. In the end, Cruz won out because of his prior […]
A Look at the Cardinals; Best Baseball Player Names EVER
Well, here we are, with spring training well into its twilight (sidenote, I still shudder every time I write the word twilight), so with a week to go I thought I’d take a look at the status of the Birds. Most of the starters are locked in, but there are a few key position battles […]
Previewing the 2012 St. Louis Cardinals – Bullpen
This preview’s somewhat tricky, as the roles in the bullpen are somewhat undefined, and some of the spots are up for grabs. I’ll try to point out a few key roles and the candidates for them. Fortunately for right-hander Jason Motte, Mike Matheny’s quicker to anoint him as the closer than Tony was. The former […]
Previewing the 2012 St. Louis Cardinals – Starting Pitching, Part Three
So now we get to the back end of the rotation. For a little while, it appeared as though Roy Oswalt would be coming to the Cardinals, but he elected to remain a free agent. As it stands, the fifth and final spot belongs to Jake Westbrook. The Cardinals also have a couple of options […]
Previewing the 2012 St. Louis Cardinals – Starting Pitching, Part Deux
Part one covered the first two spots in the rotation for the Cardinals, which is a pretty potent ace combination. This isn’t a unique situation, though, as there are many teams around the league with a strong 1-2 combo. What sets the Cardinals apart from most teams (aside from teams such as the Phillies and […]
Previewing the 2012 St. Louis Cardinals – Starting Pitching Part 1
The 2011 St. Louis Cardinals were admittedly built around their offense. The trade of Brendan Ryan coupled with the acquisition of Ryan Theriot meant a defensive sacrifice at one of the toughest spots in the field. Combining this with Skip Schumaker at second and the rather limited range of the outfield, the team surrendered 84 […]
Previewing the 2012 St. Louis Cardinals – Right Field
Of all the positions that pose question marks for the Cardinals, none may be more high risk/high reward than right field. After the Cardinals lost Albert Pujols to the Angels, the question arose as to who would replace his presence in the lineup. While you can’t really replace one of the greatest hitters ever, the […]
Previewing the 2012 St. Louis Cardinals – Center Field
Well, at the outset of the 2011 season, this position seemed like it’d be locked up by Colby Rasmus for the next decade. Rasmus was just coming off an underrated 2010 campaign (.276/.361/.498 with 23 HR and 66 RBI, his .859 OPS was tops among major league centerfielders who qualified for the batting title), and […]
Previewing the 2012 St. Louis Cardinals – Left Field
Hey there, sorry for the hiatus. I’m sure both of you noticed. Matt Holliday, 7 2011 statistics – .296/.388/.525, 22 HR, 75 RBI, 0 SB, All Star 2011 was a pretty weird season for Matt Holliday. There was the time he got appendicitis. There was the time he got a moth in his ear. There […]
