The St. Louis Cardinals, left for dead many times during the regular season and the postseason, have won their eleventh World Championship.  See how the members of the UCB are celebrating this amazing accomplishment!

Aaron Miles Fastball (One and Two)
Birds On The Bat 82
Bleed Cardinal Red With Me
C70 At The Bat
Cardinal Diamond Diaries
The Cardinal Virtue
Cards ‘N Stuff
El Maquino
I70 Baseball (One and Two)
The McBrayer-Baseball Blog
On The Outside Corner
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Redbird Dugout
The Redbird Menace
Redbird Rants
Redbirds Fun
RetroSimba
Stan Musial’s Stance
STL Cardinal Baseball
STL: Fear The Red

As is our tradition in the United Cardinal Bloggers, we take the end of the year to look back at what were the biggest stories of the past twelve months.  Not everyone agrees on the order or the makeup, which makes for fun reading.  Click below on the different posts and get our members’ take on 2010!

C70 At The Bat
Cardinal Diamond Diaries
The Cardinal Virtue
CardinalsGM
Fungoes
I’m Just A Fan, What Do I Know?
The McBrayer-Baseball Blog
RetroSimba
Throatwarbler’s Blog
Welcome To Baseball Heaven

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*

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 trademarks of the United Cardinal Bloggers is our regular e-mail roundtables, which we then post to let those outside the loop see what we are thinking. This year, the number of participants is down, but not the quality of responses. Keep checking back here as we add transcripts for the next week or so!

Whiteyball
Tailgate Crashers
The Cardinal Virtue (John)
Pitchers Hit Eighth (Nick)
Stan Musial’s Stance
Pitchers Hit Eighth (Josh)
Fungoes
C70 At The Bat

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.

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