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Recently in United Cardinal Bloggers CategoryKyle McClellan WeekendPosted on February 8, 2010 at 9:26 AM
If you wanted to find out about the Cardinal reliever that's looking to be the fifth starter in 2010, this was your weekend.First, the Post-Dispatch put out an article with quotes from Kyle McClellan. Then Brian Walton over at The Cardinal Nation Blog had a post up on him as well. However, if you wanted to hear from the man himself, you had the UCB Radio Hour. Nick from Pitchers Hit Eighth and I had the opportunity to speak with McClellan Saturday afternoon and found it a completely enjoyable time. Kyle reiterated that he never necessarily requested to be a starter, but that's something he'd like to do and is fired up about trying it. Obviously, he's good with whatever the team chooses, but he's glad to have a competition for that fifth slot. It didn't seem to bother him to bounce back and forth, though I'm sure he'd like to have a set role during the season. The fact that he's already down in Jupiter shows, in my mind, that he's ready to play some ball. If you haven't listened to the interview, I'd suggest that you do so. Nick especially asks some great questions about the difference between starting and relieving and how prepared he is for the new role, if he gets it. McClellan believes he could throw 150 innings in the bigs without much trouble now, which is a good sign. Also, you get to find out something about Fredbird that I bet you never knew and the location of the bullpen motorized cooler. So get over there and give it a listen! United Cardinal Bloggers To Interview Kyle McClellanPosted on February 5, 2010 at 10:23 AM
The United Cardinal Bloggers will be interviewing St. Louis
Cardinals pitcher Kyle McClellan on Saturday, February 6, at 4:30 pm Central
for a special edition of the UCB Radio Hour.McClellan, a Missouri native who has spent two years with the Cardinals, was 4-4 with a 3.38 ERA coming out of the pen last year. He has been a solid part of the bullpen since his debut in 2008 and has been conditioning himself to challenge for the fifth spot in the St. Louis rotation this spring. The United Cardinal Bloggers were formed in 2007 to foster
communication and collaboration between those that blog about St. Louis. The
UCB Radio Hour began late in 2008 and now
is a weekly staple, airing Wednesdays at 9:30 pm Central at Blog Talk
Radio and available for download as a podcast from that site and from
iTunes. No callers will be taken for the McClellan interview, though callers are encouraged on the regular Wednesday show. The McClellan interview can be heard here, and the show page at Blog Talk Radio can be found here. UCB Project: All-2000s Cardinals TeamPosted on January 29, 2010 at 11:30 AM
As I sit with the winter weather falling around me, it seems an appropriate time to do some reminiscing. The United Cardinal Bloggers are coming together today to look back at the last decade and pick out their All-Star team from the 2000s. Lots of similar names, of course, but it's always good to remember.These picks of mine aren't necessarily the strongest statistically (though I think they'd hold their own), but more of the players that I think represent the last decade. Of course, the danger in doing this is that you may overvalue those that are more recent, because they are fresh in your mind, but the early part of those ten years was pretty strong as well. So, let's get cracking..... Continue ReadingUCB Project: Top 5 Stories of 2009Posted on December 31, 2009 at 9:27 AM
There is no doubt that 2009 was a very eventful one for the St. Louis Cardinals. From the surprising dismissal of Adam Kennedy right before spring training to the continued pursuit of Matt Holliday as the year comes to a close, there was little time this year when something wasn't happening. The United Cardinal Bloggers are doing their annual look back with the Top 5 Stories for 2009. Below are my selections:
1) Midseason Madness Time was, Cardinal fans were used to moves in the middle of the season. Walt Jocketty cleaned up at the deadline numerous times, including a very active 2000. However, even when Jocketty was wheeling and dealing, he didn't make the impact moves that John Mozeliak made this summer. First off, Mozeliak made the move most everyone was clamoring for, trading off Chris Perez and a PTBNL (which turned out to be Jess Todd) for versatile player Mark DeRosa, who was toiling away for a Cleveland club that was well out of contention. While the price was steep, especially in retrospect, Mozeliak made the move that made the most sense for the team at the time. So, after getting possibly the second best hitter on the trade market, Mozeliak then pulled off a deal for the first. Giving up on top prospect Brett Wallace, along with Clayton Mortenson and Shane Robinson, was a steep price to pay for a player that wasn't guaranteed to return to the club in 2010. However, Holliday sparked the Cardinals and provided another big bat in the St. Louis lineup. To go along with all of that, Mo still made moves to rid the team of Chris Duncan, something many never thought they'd see, and to get a productive player for him to boot. The team also signed John Smoltz after he was put on waivers from Boston, and while he wasn't exactly vintage Smoltz, he definitely was a boost to the rotation. Continue Reading A Time Of ThanksPosted on November 25, 2009 at 9:13 AM
Cardinal Nation breathed a bit of a sigh of relief yesterday as Albert Pujols won his well-deserved third MVP. Pujols not only didn't lose the award, but he was one of the rare unanimous selections in NL history. Which, of course, touches off articles of praise for the best player in the game. You have Stan Musial congratulating the best Cardinal since he played. You have the discussion of how both the "art" and "science" side of baseball can come together in selecting AP.You also get this from the man himself: "This is my place. This is where I want to be. I don't hide that. I'm still going to be a Cardinal for two more years and hopefully 15 more years--if I can play for that long--and retire as a Cardinal."That might be more appropriate for Christmas, as it really is a gift to the fans. It's great to have Albert make all these public comments about wanting to stay. It's not, "Well, I'm a Cardinal for two more years and then we'll just have to see what happens." Pujols genuinely seems to want to stay in St. Louis and since both sides want the same thing, I hope that we'll have an extension to talk about soon. Which, of course, leads into the discussion of what you should pay a guy that has never finished lower than ninth in the MVP voting, and that was the only year he finished out of the top five. The Post-Dispatch roundtable on how much for just the Pujols came to the basic conclusion that, if he wants it, he should get it. (Love some of the comments on that story, BTW!) I do think that Pujols isn't going to hold the franchise up and get all that he can. I think the organization will want to give him the biggest contract ever, but I do think that it's going to be less than people think, definitely less than he'd get on the free agent market. I also expect they'll probably do a long-term contract that easily could be his last. You just don't let a guy like this get away, even if he tails off later on. However, in this season of giving thanks, Cardinal Nation is very thankful that #5 is still wearing the birds on the bat and will be for the foreseeable future. Other things to be thankful for, if you are a Cardinal fan:
Anyway, there were a lot of nice things written about this blog and its author over the course of that voting and I wanted to say that I'm thankful we have such a great blogging community. I'm honored to be a part of it and to contribute in my own small way. Of course, other people are thankful at this time of year as well......
My 2009 Cardinal Blogger Award BallotPosted on November 19, 2009 at 10:30 PM
For the third straight year, the United Cardinal Bloggers are voting on the Cardinal Blogger Awards. (It's probably best that we do it, instead of having the Dodger bloggers vote for the CBA.) If you want to see the past winners, you can find them here (2007) and here (2008). If you want to see who has voted in this year's incarnation, click here.So without a whole lot of excess rambling, let's dive into the nominees and make the selections. Of course, this is completely opinion and your mileage may vary. Chances are, if you are actually reading this, you are a member of the UCB and are voting anyway, so take a gander and see how close we are. Continue Reading2009 Cardinal Blogger Awards NominationsPosted on November 8, 2009 at 10:24 PM
For the third consecutive year, the members of the United Cardinal Bloggers will be voting on various aspects of this past season so as to bestow the Cardinal Blogger Awards. It's sort of the unofficial kickoff to the UCB year, as this was the first project we ever did as a group back in 2007.The rules are simple. Each member blog will post their selections on November 20. I will tally up the votes and post the results soon after. For every vote, a write-in selection is allowed. Members may split their vote in any category two ways, but no more than that. If they want to recognize more than two players or people, a group (i.e., the bullpen, the bench) must be selected. So, after the jump, the nominees for the 2009 Cardinal Blogger Awards, presented without any commentary or argument. Continue ReadingFiled Under: United Cardinal Bloggers
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UCB Roundtable: Final QuestionPosted on November 4, 2009 at 9:12 AM
So sorry for the lack of posting. Between a crazy schedule at work and a lack of Cardinal news, there's just not been anything to put up.Last month, the United Cardinal Bloggers did their annual roundtable at the end of the season. I posed my question last and have been meaning to get the transcript up here. After the jump, read all about it! Before you get there, though, note that PJ Walters will be our guest on the UCB Radio Hour tonight, so be sure to join us! Continue Reading Big News On Many FrontsPosted on October 25, 2009 at 10:56 PM
For an offseason weekend with a team already out of the playoffs, there have been some seismic shakes going on in St. Louis.First, the relatively expected news that Tony LaRussa will be back at the helm of the Cardinals for his 15th season with the Redbirds. One report indicated that it would be a multi-year deal, but as always TLR will take it year by year and decide whether he wants to return or not. A strong finish to 2010 might be the end of the road for him. We've talked about this in the UCB roundtable, but I think that having TLR (and, by extension, Dave Duncan) back is probably a good thing for the club. LaRussa does a lot of good things for this team and tends to get the most out of the players. While some may criticize how he does it, he usually is able to have the team overachieve. October is another matter, but you never know what you are going to get there. It sure wasn't LaRussa's fault that Chris Carpenter had a terrible Game 1 in this year's NLDS. The bigger news, of course, is that Hal McRae was fired as hitting coach. That was expected--I mentioned that a week or so ago. What wasn't expected by anyone in the baseball world was that his replacement would be none other than troubled slugger Mark McGwire. A lot of people are really up in arms over this. Which strikes me as fairly ridiculous, really. Look, we know what the rumors are about McGwire, though there's been little hard evidence to connect him to it. Say it's true, though. How worked up can we be? I will admit, I've been a McGwire fan since his rookie year, so I'm not completely unbiased in this regard. But, as Pip will likely point out, a team that had Troy Glaus, Ryan Franklin and Rick Ankiel, players either tied to or actually suspended for steroid use, has little room for a high road. If people aren't going to be worked up about those guys, can you really get steamed about McGwire? Some would say the difference between those active players and McGwire is that they've admitted their guilt and served their time, as it were. There's some truth to that. My personal opinion, though, is that we are going to see something come out of this press conference tomorrow. I don't believe the Cardinals would have hired him naively thinking they could tell the press "don't ask about it" and that'd happen. I don't believe McGwire would bring himself out of retirement and subject himself to those kind of questions and harassments if there wasn't a plan in place. I wouldn't be surprised at tomorrow's press conference that McGwire doesn't say, "OK, here you are. One time thing. I'm answering the questions and then I'm moving on. Yes, I did it. It was not something I'm proud of. It was a time where a lot of people were doing the same thing and I felt like I needed it to stay in the game. I don't think anyone should use them and I'm sorry for what I did. That said, I'm here to do a job, and that's what I plan to do." There's going to have to be some addressing of the issue, otherwise this McGwire experiment will likely not last until spring training. Looking at it from a strictly baseball point of view, though, the move makes some sense. We've seen what McGwire's tutelage has done for Skip Schumaker the last couple of years. Obviously, Mac's not all about power and "grip it and rip it." He seems to have some general fundamental knowledge of hitting and how to impart that to other players. While he and Matt Holliday didn't necessarily work out well, I don't think that's an indication that he's not going to be effective with the players. It was obvious that there needed to be a change. The last couple of years the offense has struggled and sputtered, for the most part. Whether it was McRae's teachings getting old or just not being that effective, a change was definitely needed. There's no doubt that this counts as a change. We'll see if it was the right one. Needless to say, this isn't quite to that level, but it's still pretty big news nonetheless. Cardinals team president Bill DeWitt III will be our guest on a special UCB Radio Hour tomorrow night at 5:30 pm Central. Here's some background on Mr. DeWitt and we are very excited to have him on tomorrow!
Back In The SaddlePosted on October 21, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Been a while, hasn't it? I've been out of the office, been busy with the Baseball Bloggers Alliance award work, and there's not been just a ton of Cardinal news to talk about. There are a few stories today, though, that I thought I'd touch on.First off, the top story is, of course, that Albert Pujols will need more surgery. There was a link out there last night indicating that Pujols would need Tommy John surgery, which would keep him out until June or so. (Well, normal people would be out that long. We know AP tends to heal faster than regular mortals.) Thankfully, that's not the case. In fact, apparently, things went great today in the surgery. Here's the official press release:
So the Cardinals dodge a pretty big bullet there. Hopefully this surgery will work out a little better than last year's, at least in how long the effects last. There's doesn't seem to be any doubt that it started to mess with him as the season wore on. Next up is the fact that David Freese is the leader in the clubhouse for the third base slot for the 2010 Redbirds. I think this is good news, not only because Mark DeRosa wasn't the offensive wunderkind that we thought he was going to be when the deal with Cleveland was made but also because it indicates this organization is going to be clear-headed about moves. Jess Todd and Chris Perez are sunk costs--they are gone no matter what happens with DeRosa. Freese proved he was ready for a shot at the job, and that should help also with the financial aspects of pursuing Matt Holliday. Holliday is the one guy this organization really wants to keep, I think. All the other free agents can walk (though hopefully after they've accepted arbitration). Finally, the club is starting to look into the backup catcher slot and try to decide what they want to do with it, since resting Yadier Molina more might be a good thing. If so, that means Jason LaRue will be gone, since he probably can't play much more than he's playing now. Will that mean that Bryan Anderson finally gets a shot? I don't think that many people in Cardinal Nation would be that excited about Matt Pagnozzi if the idea is for the backup to play more often. It's a small decision and it doesn't necessarily indicate anything, but it's interesting nonetheless. At this time of the year, you take what you can get! The United Cardinal Bloggers are working on their annual year-end roundtables. Whiteyball has the first transcript up, looking at the Holliday issue. More are on the way throughout the next couple of weeks. And be sure to tune in to Josh and Nick tonight on the thirty-minute UCB Radio Hour!
Browse past entries in the United Cardinal Bloggers category by date
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Blogs In The Network
Baseball Bloggers Alliance
The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed in 2009 to foster
communication and collaboration between bloggers across baseball.
Member blogs are encouraged to use one another to deepen their
understanding of the game and the teams that play it. While no formal
requirements for membership exist at the current time, participating
blogs are asked to keep their blogs current and to link to other member
blogs on their blog roll.
The BBA has, as a secondary aim, the goal of producing year-end awards in a similar fashion to the Baseball Writers of America. These awards can be found here in October with links back to the voters, ensuring transparency and, most likely, the onset of some good baseball arguments.
Arizona
Venom Strikes
The BBA has, as a secondary aim, the goal of producing year-end awards in a similar fashion to the Baseball Writers of America. These awards can be found here in October with links back to the voters, ensuring transparency and, most likely, the onset of some good baseball arguments.
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Ace of Braves
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PIMC-Braves Blog
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Tremendous Upside Potential
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Bullpen Brian
Lakeview Nights
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Ace of Braves
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Baltimore
Camden Crazies
Eutaw Street Hooligans
Oriole Post
Boston
BoSox Injection
Boston Red Thoughts
The Bottom Line
Inside The Monster
The Joy of Sox
Sox Tea Party
Chicago (AL)
Tremendous Upside Potential
Chicago (NL)
Bullpen Brian
Lakeview Nights
Prose and Ivy
The Win Flag
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Cincinnati Reds Blog
Red Reporter
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Cleveland
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Los Angeles (AL)
AngelsWin.com
Go Halos
True Grich
Los Angeles (NL)
Dodgerfan.net
Feeling Dodger Blue
Milwaukee
Bernie's Crew
Quevedo At The Buffet
Minnesota
Over The Baggy
Seth Speaks
Twins Target
New York (AL)
Bronx Baseball Daily
It's About The Money
Lady Loves Pinstripes
lenNY's Yankees
Pending Pinstripes
Subway Squawkers
Why I Like Baseball
New York (NL)
Disgruntled Mets Fan
The Eddie Kranepool Society
Hoops Approved
Phils Baseball
Pittsburgh
North Side Notch
Raise the Jolly Roger!
Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke?
St. Louis
C70 At The Bat
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Pittsburgh
North Side Notch
Raise the Jolly Roger!
Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke?
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C70 At The Bat
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Avenging Jack Murphy
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Rays The Stakes
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Tampa Bay Rays Fan
Texas
Pitchers Hit Eighth
Stan Musial's Stance
San Diego
Avenging Jack Murphy
Friar Forecast
Padres RunDown
The Sacrifice Bunt
Websoulsurfer
San Francisco
Bay City Ball
El Lefty Malo
Seattle
Bleacher Report
SoDo Mojo
Tampa Bay
Rays The Stakes
Rise of the Rays
Tampa Bay Rays Fan
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