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*

It’s well late, but here they are anyway.

C70 At The Bat
Fungoes
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Redbirds Fun
Stan Musial’s Stance

Ah, the NL Central.  We’re home.  Something tells me the top of this division will have the same team from all of our contributors.

C70 At The Bat
Fungoes
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Redbirds Fun
Stan Musial’s Stance

Today, the UCB takes on the NL East.  A long time ago, this would have entailed where the Cardinals finished, but that’s ancient history.  Now, see where the UCB ranks Atlanta, Florida, New York, Philadelphia and Washington.

C70 At The Bat
Fungoes
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Redbirds Fun
Stan Musial’s Stance

All this week the UCB will be making their predictions about the season to come.  We start off with the American League as a whole, because we couldn’t care less about that league.

5 O’Clock Blogger
C70 At The Bat
The Cardinal Virtue
Fungoes
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Redbirds Fun
Redbirds Rap
Stan Musial’s Stance

One of the things the United Cardinal Bloggers are known for is their roundtables.  A question gets passed around via e-mail, everyone weighs in, and then the transcript gets posted on the questioner’s blog the next day.

The preseason roundtable always seems to be the biggest, and this year is no exception.  Seventeen of the UCB members–including our newest, Intangiball–(late edit: Fredbird Follys got into the game, so it’s 18!) will be discussing the Cardinals and the game of baseball for the next few weeks.  Links to the transcripts will be added here when they go up, but plan your internet browsing around these sites in the coming days!  (Date is the day the question is posed, so check a day or so after for the transcript.)

Feb. 22: Pitchers Hit Eighth
Feb. 23: La Beisbolista
Feb. 24: Bird Brained
Feb. 25: Redbird Rants
Feb. 26: Obviously, You’re Not a Golfer

Mar. 1: Whiteyball
Mar. 2: Thoughts About Cardinals
Mar. 3: The McBrayer-Baseball Blog
Mar. 4: Redbird Chatter
Mar. 5: Stan Musial’s Stance

Mar. 8: Fungoes
Mar. 9: All Cardinals, All The Time
Mar. 10: Intangiball
Mar. 11: CardinalsGM
Mar. 12: Five O’Clock Blogger

Mar. 15: Play A Hard Nine
Mar. 16: Fredbird Follys
Mar. 17: Cardinals Country
Mar. 18: C70 At The Bat

For our first project of 2010, we take a look back at the last decade, picking out who the top Cardinals were at each position.  While many picks may be the same, there should be just enough differences to make it easily worth your while to click on all the below.

C70 At The Bat
Cards Cove
Five O’Clock Blogger
Fungoes
Inside Pulse
la beisbolista
The McBrayer-Baseball Blog
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Whiteyball

Anytime Number 5 makes an appearance, it’s news.  Even when he doesn’t say much of anything.

Albert Pujols met the media yesterday on the closing day of the Winter Warm-Up and talked about his contract, his hitting coach, and his health.

Albert seems fine with Mark McGwire, saying that the big redhead will have to answer to a higher power someday but that basically we should move on.  I think there’s something to that–continuing to hound on it won’t resolve the issue or wipe it away, but it could hurt the focus of the ’10 team.

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The Winter Warm-Up got underway this weekend (and continues today) which means that there is usually quite a bit of news generated, even if it’s just what the players say.  This year was no exception.

Of course, you knew that was going to happen when Mark McGwire was added to the appearance list.  Mac didn’t stick around long, and his post-appearance press conference didn’t win him any fans with the local scribes, but the fan base appears to have accepted his apology and are glad to have him back in uniform.  I know it’s going to be a while, but I do hope that some of this steroid stuff will start to recede in the coming weeks.  Let’s see how he does as a hitting coach, OK?  That’s the important thing now.

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