On Friday, July 2, Fox Sports Midwest is honoring those that serve in the military with a game presentation entitled “This One’s For You.”  Troops will watch the game on American Forces Network, and members of the Missouri National Guard will be interviewed via satellite during the game.  You can see some of the players sending out their greetings and thoughts to the troops in these video clips.

We here at the United Cardinal Bloggers wanted to join with FSMW to honor our military, both retired and active, especially with the Independence Day holiday also this weekend.  So the membership has been encouraged to write posts on their blogs dealing with their thoughts or memories about those that serve our country.

As the blogs are posted, this post will be updated with links to those posts.  Please check back often and read our tributes to the men and women who sacrifice so much so we can have so much.

Blog Tributes

Baseball Digest
Busch Birds
C70 At The Bat
Cardinal Diamond Diaries
Cardinals Front Office
CardinalsGM
Fungoes
The McBrayer-Baseball Blog
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Stan Musial’s Stance

The Cardinals ride a two-game winning streak and some hints of a resurgent offense into today’s game with their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs.

After scoring only one run in the first two games in San Diego, the Redbirds have been serious the last two games, piling up fifteen runs.  Yesterday, the Cardinals chased Cub starter Randy Wells before he even recorded an out, scoring five runs on six hits.  The Cub bullpen was effective from that point on until Ryan Ludwick hit a two-run home run in the ninth.

However, with Chris Carpenter on the mound, five runs is usually plenty and so it was in the series opener.  Carp may not have been as dominant as he’s been in the past, but it definitely was enough to keep the Cubs from mounting a serious rally.

Today, the Cardinals hope to continue their hitting ways and provide a warm MLB welcome to Adam Ottavino, who is making his first appearance in the bigs due to Kyle Lohse’s injury.  Ottavino, who was 4-3 with a 4.17 ERA overall in Memphis this year, was given a long look in spring training by the club and seems to have made strides recently, striking out 22 and posting an ERA under 3 in his last five outings.  Ottavino becomes the third rookie in the rotation, following 2010 sensation Jaime Garcia and the fill-in for the injured Brad Penny, PJ Walters.

It seems completely possible that the fact that Lohse was supposed to start on Progressive Game Blog day was the final straw in him deciding to go ahead and have the surgery on his forearm.  In the inaugural PGB, Lohse was shelled by the Cubs in Wrigley.  Last year, Lohse also pitched the PGB game, dominating the Kansas City Royals but getting hit in the forearm with a pitch from Ron Mahay, a plunk that may be part of the recurring issues he’s had since then.

Carlos Silva is a long way from his MLB debut, having put in close to 12oo innings since his debut in 2002.  Obtained from Seattle in the offseason in a swap of terrible contacts (the Cubs sent off Milton Bradley), Silva has surprised a lot of people with his performance here in 2010.  He’s 6-0 with a 3.52 ERA and has a WHIP that currently is the second-best in his career.  His numbers across the board are much better than anything he’s put up in recent seasons and there’s no indication that it’s a mirage.

With him pitching that well, it may not be enlightening to see what he’s done historically against these Cardinal batters, but to add to the discussion, here’s the chart:

As you can see, not a lot of exposure to him, which isn’t surprising given that he’s spent most of his career in the American League.  Could we see Yadier Molina get another day off, even though he rested Thursday, do to Jason LaRue’s past performance?  Small sample size and all, but Tony La Russa does look for every advantage.

Sit back and enjoy the game, then read the perspectives of the bloggers covering the various innings.  A * next to the blog below means that the site has been updated with their inning.

First: Baseball Digest *
Second:  Fungoes*
Third:  Stan Musial’s Stance *
Fourth: Pitchers Hit Eighth *
Fifth: The Cardinal Virtue *
Sixth: Redbird Rants*
Seventh: Cardinal Diamond Diaries*
Eighth: Intangiball*
Ninth: C70 At The Bat*
Extras/Wrapup: Fredbird Follys*

On Saturday, May 23, the UCB will sponsor their second annual Progressive Game Blog as the Cardinals take on the Kansas City Royals.

Fashioned after a progressive dinner, each participating blog describes the action of one inning of Saturday’s game.  Since this is not a live blog, it gives the blogger an opportunity to elaborate on the action, bringing in statistical information, personal anecdotes or anything else to help the action come alive for the reader.  It’s like watching the same game through nine different eyes.

The participating blogs are as follows:

Pregame: United Cardinal Bloggers
First inning: Redbirds Row
Second inning: Bird Brained
Third inning: Baseball Digest
Fourth inning: Cards on Deck
Fifth inning: Redbird Chatter
Sixth inning: Whiteyball
Seventh inning: The Cardinal Virtue
Eighth inning: Fungoes
Ninth inning: Pitchers Hit Eighth
Extras and game wrapup: C70 At The Bat

To see last year’s pregame post, with links to all the participating blogs, click here.

There’s nothing that baseball does better than bring out the argumentative side of people.  Whether it’s trying to settle who was better or discussing what should have been done in the seventh, baseball fans are always talking and debating what could be or should be.

Today, 10 United Cardinal Bloggers square off on five different topics related to the St. Louis squad.  Check out both sides of the argument and decide for yourself!

Statement one: The Cardinals’ real rival is Houston, not Chicago.

For the prosecution, Stan Musial’s Stance
For the defense, Redbirds Fun

Statement two: The team should try to resign Rick Ankiel at season’s end.

For the prosecution, Baseball Digest
For the defense, Pitchers Hit Eighth

Statement three: The Cardinals should try to trade Chris Duncan instead of Rick Ankiel.

For the prosecution, Redbird Chatter
For the defense, C70 At The Bat

Statement four: If Troy Glaus is out for the year, Brett Wallace should be considered for a callup.

For the prosecution, Whiteyball
For the defense, The Redbird Blog

Statement five: Khalil Greene should be approached for an extension before the end of the year.

For the prosecution, Redbirds Row
For the defense, Fungoes

We hope that you’ll read all the different points of view and decide where you stand on the issues.  Thanks for reading!

We have spent the week looking at our predictions of what will happen in each division this year.  We covered the AL in one fell swoop (really all it’s worth), then expanded our views on all the NL divisions.

Today, we look at what happens after the season.  Who winds up on top and who takes home the hardware.  Check out all these blogs and see if you agree with any of them!  Come back throughout the day as more blogs are added.

Baseball Digest
C70 At The Bat
Cardinal Nation Globe
The Cardinal Virtue
Cards Cove
House of Cards
La Beisbolista
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Redbirds Rap
Stan Musial’s Stance

It’s hard to muster any enthusiasm after doing the NL Central, I know, but the UCB bravely goes forward, gathering up their strength to predict the National League West.  Continue coming back throughout the day as this post will be updated as more predictions are posted.

Tomorrow, the postseason!

4thebirds
Baseball Digest
C70 At The Bat
Cardinal Nation Globe
The Cardinal Virtue
Cards Cove
Fungoes
House of Cards
La Beisbolista
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Redbirds Rap
Stan Musial’s Stance

We hit the midpoint of the week and the high point of the project today with the National League Central, home of our beloved Cardinals.  This one could actually be tough on some of us, possibly having to rank the Cardinals not only not first, but behind the Cubs.  See how many of these were (and weren’t!) able to do that.

4thebirds
Baseball Digest
C70 At The Bat
Cardinal Nation Globe
The Cardinal Virtue
Cards Cove
Fungoes
House of Cards
La Beisbolista
Matthew Leach (we’ll count it as his entry, even though it’s not at Obviously, You’re Not a Golfer)
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Redbirds Rap
Stan Musial’s Stance

Now that we’ve taken care of the American League, it’s time to get down to business with the real side of baseball.

The NL East has a lot of strong teams.  It also has the Nationals.  Today we take a look at how this division will play out in the coming season.  So check out the following blogs for their takes.

4thebirds
Baseball Digest
C70 At The Bat
Cardinal Nation Globe
The Cardinal Virtue
CardinalsGM
Cards Cove
Fungoes
House of Cards
La Beisbolista
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Redbirds Rap
Stan Musial’s Stance

Welcome everyone to the official United Cardinal Bloggers site.  What better day to kick this off than a day already scheduled for a UCB project.

This week, we’ll be making our predictions on how 2009 will play out.  Some of us will be bookmarking this link for future bragging, some of us may want to have the post mysteriously disappear at the end of the season.  Nevertheless, this is how we see it.

We start things off by taking on the whole inferior league at one time.  Since we are Cardinal faithful, most often we don’t spend a whole lot of time on the American League.  Still, we hear they play baseball over there so it’s only fair to warm up by taking a shot at guessing how those divisions will play out.

So be sure to visit the following blogs and see how they view the AL in 2009.  Continue to check back during the day because blogs will be added to the list as they post their entries.

4thebirds
Baseball Digest
C70 At The Bat
Cardinal Nation Globe
The Cardinal Virtue
CardinalsGM
Cards Cove
House of Cards
La Beisbolista
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Redbirds Rap
Stan Musial’s Stance