Since Major League Baseball expanded to thirty teams with the additions of Tampa Bay and Arizona in 1998, the American and National Leagues have been out of balance in regards to the number of teams in each league. That year, Tampa became an American League team and Arizona a Nation League team, and in order to keep from having an odd number of teams in each league, the Milwaukee Brewers jumped from the AL to the NL. As a result, there are sixteen teams in the NL and only fourteen in the AL. This causes some problems in the grand scheme of things. The problem lies in two areas: Interleague play and the playoffs.

The interleague play problem is only minor, but it basically entails that when all American League teams are facing a National League team in interleague play, two National League teams will have to play each other. The logistics of it all work themselves out, but it is frustrating to me as a fan of baseball and of interleague play when every other team is playing an AL team and the Cardinals are stuck playing the Pirates.

The playoff problem, on the other hand, is much greater. Using basic math and statistics (and cutting several corners, like the differing size of the divisions in each league) an AL team has a 4/14 (or 28.6%) chance of making the playoffs in a given year. A NL team, on the other hand, has a 4/16 (or 25.0%) chance of making the playoffs. The difference is slight, but important. That is why I have come up with the following plan:

Major League Baseball needs to expand to 32 teams by adding two AL teams, and split into four divisions per league consisting of four teams each. This would also eliminate the Wild Card, and set up a much better scheduling system: 27 games each against the three other teams in your division (81 games), 6 games against the non-divions teams in your league (72 games) and 9 interleague games. That way half of your games will be against your direct competition for a playoff spot, but you will still see every other team in your league and keep interleague play intact. Seems like a perfect plan, doesn't it? Well, now comes the tricky part, where to expand.

Looking at the ranking of the United States' largest metropolitan areas, the top ten metro areas that do not currently have a major league baseball team are (with 2007 population in parentheses):

Portland, OR (2,175,113)
Sacramento, CA (2,091,120)
Orlando, FL (2,032,496)
San Antonio, TX (1,990,675)
Las Vegas, NV (1,836,333)
Columbus, OH (1,754,337)
Indianapolis, IN (1,695,037)
Virginia Beach, VA (1,658,754)
Charlotte, NC (1,651,568)
Providence, RI (1,600,856)

Every city in that list is currently growing steadily. However, I would consider several of those cities unlikely locations for baseball for different reasons. Orlando (Tampa/Florida), Columbus (Cincinnati), Indianapolis (Chicago/Detroit), Charlotte (Atlanta), and Providence (Boston) all are well within the market of other major MLB teams. Las Vegas would be unlikely because of the gambling stigma. So that leaves Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, and Virginia Beach as possible locations for expansion. Taking a look at my projected division re-alignment, you can see that there are potential vacancies in the AL South and AL West divisions. Of course, these divisions can be re-aligned to fit whatever city MLB decides would make for a better expansion team, but this is what I came up with:

NL East     			AL East

NYM         			NYY
PHI				BOS
WAS				BAL
PIT				TOR

NL South			         AL South

ATL				TAM
FLA				TEX
HOU				KCR
CIN				

NL North			         AL North

CHC				CHW
MIL				DET
STL				MIN
COL				CLE

NL West				AL West

ARI				SEA
LAD				OAK
SFG				LAA
SDP				

The most logical choices would be to put a team in Portland for the AL West and in San Antonio for the AL South. One city that is not in the above list that could be considered a good choice would be Oklahoma City, and it could replace San Antonio as the AL South team.

Anyways, I just thought this would be a fun little excercise and hopefully would generate some discussion. Thoughts?

Cardinals vs. Brewers

Looper vs. Sabathia

The next two games are of grave importance to the Cardinals. Even though the last couple of losses were gutwrenching, with a little luck and some solid play, we can come back and be right back where we were when this series started; in the Wild Card lead by a game. As it stands right now, we're behind the Brewers by a game in the Wild Card and the Cubs by two games for the NL Central. We need to win at least one of the next two games.

Let's Go Cardinals!!

Hello, everyone.

I thought I would create this Fanpost to allow VEB users to discuss trade rumors or trade ideas instead of seeing separate Fanposts on all the different ideas. We did this back in December during/leading up to the Winter meetings, and I thought it was a good idea.

So please, if you have any trade chatter you'd like to pass on to the users of this blog, use this Fanpost instead of starting a new one.

To lb and the other editors: If you disagree with me, feel free to delete this, I just thought it would keep non-trade rumor Fanposts on the front page longer.

Greetings gentle denizens of VEB

As you may or may not know, I have never been to a Cardinals game in Busch. I've never even been to St. Louis for that matter. I know that needs to change, but in the past odd years I've either been too young, too poor, or a combination. Now that I'm making at least a (very) little bit of money (saving like crazy, though) I've begun to look into a possible weekend trip to the STL later this summer. Right now the dates I'm looking at are 7/18-7/20 and 8/1-8/3, series against the Padres and Phillies, respectively. Right now, roundtrip (nonstop) airfare from Atlanta to St. Louis for those dates is running at $188 for American Airlines, Delta, and AirTran. So what does this have to do with anything, you might be asking? Here's why I'm making this a fanpost...

Does anybody want to go to a game either of those weekends? Most of my friends here either don't make the money to make a trip like that, don't like baseball, or a combination of the two (lots of combinations in this fanpost, no?). I'd rather not go alone, although I'd do it just to get to a game in St. Louis. I'm also searching for some advice on hotels and accomodations (not to steal the thunder from yer dog first's post a few days ago), so if you live in the area and know a great (cheap) hotel to stay or know someone (or yourself) who would like to put up a complete 24-year-old stranger from the internet for a couple of days, I'd like to hear from you.

Either respond to this fanpost or shoot me an e-mail at the following address:

jdhogan1605 -AT- yahoo -DOT- com

If you e-mail me, make sure you give me your VEB user name in it so I know whom I'm talking to.

I'll even buy you a brat and/or a beer at the game, if you'd like. Thanks everybody, and of course, GO CARDS!

Sincerely,

Mr Redbird

There wasn't one up so I thought I'd take some of the bandwidth pressure off the main thread for today.

PHI Pitcher: Adam Eaton (2-3, 4.62)

STL Pitcher: Kyle Lohse (7-2, 3.92)

Let's go Cardinals!! Beat those Phillies!!

Um, trying to get to 75 words...let's not give up 20 runs tonight, I hope Lohse has a revenge game today, and let's have multiple HRs from Ankiel, Ludwick, Glaus, Molina, hell even Kennedy!

Hello, everyone!

Every day I come to this blog for the excellent insight and the camaraderie that I've found with the many users who also frequent it. It is my favorite blog on the web, and a multiple-times-per-day stop for me. The material found in the main posts is always relevent and well-thought out, and many of the fanposts offer a new and/or different outlook on certain things concerning the Redbirds or baseball in general. However, I though it would be nice to take a break from the endless number crunching and the implausible and/or tireless trade proposals (aren't the Giants looking for a left-handed 1B?) and focus on something different, namely the following question:

Why are you a Cardinals fan?

Continue reading this post »

I just ventured over to stlcardnials.com and saw the following headlines. It seem like either the person who wrote them is a VEB regular, or can see through the TLR bs:

"Cards' Izturis given long leash" - Not "He’s playing very well defensively. So, the errors — I don’t have any problems with. If you’re going to evaluate people on the number of errors in spring training, over time you’re going to make a lot of mistakes. There’s some guys who can’t play, but not him. Hitting, I think he’s getting better." (from Goold)

"Cards' Thompson starts strong as usual" - It's like they're saying how many times does Brad Thompson have to prove himself before we stop giving people like Jason Marquis, Kip Wells, and probably Anthony Reyes and Todd Wellemeyer, maybe even Mark Mulder the nod over him. I am by no means a major proponent for Brad Thompson, but he's been steady and reliable everytime he's toed the rubber.

Am I reading too much into these, or do you guys agree?

I know the WWL isn't very popular in these parts, but I was perusing around their website today and found this nice little article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/baseball/flb/story?page=mlbdk2k8stlpreview

Call me overly optimistic, but I disagree with the sentiments in this article. Specifically, the section labeled "Fearless Prediction". The following lines stuck out to me:

"This could easily be the worst team in the National League. (...) This is an old team full of bad contracts and health risks that's poised to miss the playoffs by a country mile. Expect La Russa and Pujols to land with another franchise soon so that the rebuilding can commence in earnest. St. Louis fans should hunker down over a slab of ribs from C & K and start wondering if the Rams will be any good this fall."

The guy who wrote this article is Will Harris (someone I've never heard of) and the article is supposed to be a fantasy overview of the team. I don't think we'll be a playoff team or even a playoff contender by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think we'll finish better than last in the NL. Is his statement on Pujols finding another team soon based on any statements from the front office or a suggestion on how to proceed into the future? That's possibly the last thing I want to see. Anyway, I thought it was interesting, and would love to hear what the community has to say regarding it.

Unless you've been living under a rock over the past several months, you should understand that the Cardinals are beginning a rebuilding period. The moves of Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen for younger, cheaper players prove this. The off-season so far has got me thinking about the future of the organization, and I want to pose a poll question: When will be the next season our boys in Red are still playing in October?

Poll

When is the next time St. Louis will be playing postseason baseball?

42%

2009

109 votes

0%

2014

0 votes

34%

2010

89 votes

0%

2015

0 votes

5%

2011

13 votes

0%

2016

1 votes

1%

2012

5 votes

0%

2017+

0 votes

15%

2008

39 votes

0%

2013

0 votes

256 votes | Poll has closed

Continue reading this post »

I'll admit it, I love predictions.  I love it when predictions go right, but I especially love it when predictions go way wrong (Tigers in 3??).  So I thought of a fun little prediction excercise, and I don't want people to get carried away.  What do you think the lineup will look like on opening day, and why?

As in, you can't have the 2007 AL All-Stars and say we traded for all of them, I'd like to see at least a little reasoning behind it.

Take into consideration potential trades and free agent signings, but also take into consideration injuries that have happened or may happen.  Here's how I see it:

Aaron Miles SS
Rick Ankiel CF
Albert Pujols 1B
Chris Duncan LF
Ryan Ludwick RF
Scott Rolen 3B
Yadier Molina C
Adam Kennedy 2B
Adam Wainwright P

First, I think that regardless of whether he's managing or not, TLR's batting-the-pitcher-8th experiment will be over for the new season.  Actually, I think he will be managing next year.

For some reason, I've lately just had the feeling that we're going to try to retain most of the roster from last season.  Maybe it's the Pineiro deal.  Maybe it's the (supposedly) impending Eckstein deal (I for one think we'll let him walk).  I just don't see us getting any huge free agents or making any big trades, honestly.  And I also feel that we'll try the SS merry-go-round (a la the 2B merry-go-round from 2006) with BR getting the short end of the stick in favor of Miles more often than not.  Lastly, I have this feeling (I wonder why) that Jimmy E. is gonna start the season on the DL next year.

So there, that's my idea.  What's yours?

LB - I know that you've deleted every diary about Walt because it was redundant, but I found this very interesting article over at MLB Trade Rumors written by Brian Gunn (of Baseball Analysts and Hardball Times).  I posted it as a diary for fear that it would get lost at the bottom of the 300+ comment beast that is the main page thread on Jocketty.

Hey everyone -

I know that the Walt Jocketty situation has been delved into quite a bit this evening, but in the last hour or so a pretty good synopsis of Walt's career in St. Louis and his qualities was posted on MLBTradeRumors.com.  It was written by Brian Gunn.  Here's the link:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/10/brian-gunn-on-w.html

A few interesting quotes:

"[I]n 2005 the Cards led the majors in ERA with a starting rotation that cost, altogether, $17 million - or less than what Roger Clemens alone made that year."

I think this speaks volumes to his ability to manage talent.  However, things like this tend to be hit-or-miss, and it hit in 2005.  It missed in 2007.

"Jocketty was responsible for Albert Pujols, merely the best player in the league, if not all of baseball."

I'm not sure you can say he was "responsible" for Albert Pujols, considering we picked him in the 13th round.  That one just kind of fell into Walt's lap.

"Supposedly Luhnow lived in fear of being seen around Busch Stadium, especially with reporters, for fear it would get back to Jocketty."

I have not heard this before, but if this is true then that's just sad for Luhnow.  As professionals, you're not supposed to avoid one of your co-workers like he were the bully in 3rd grade.

I just thought the majority of you would find this unbiased review pretty interesting.  I know I did.

Sincerely,
Mr Redbird

Completely off topic, fyi:

I am looking at tickets for the game between St. Louis and Atlanta at Turner Field on Saturday, July 21, and am having a dilemma.  As a broke, jobless 23-year-old, should I:

Spend $14 per person (2x = $28) for like 15th row outfield seats
or
Spend $47 per person (2x = $94) for mid-level terrace seats along the first base side (maybe 30 rows up)

Obviously there are pros and cons for each.  For Option #1, the price is excellent, but the view may be tough.  But, being in LF, I might get a Pujols homerun ball :P  For Option #2, it's a little pricey (right on the border of what I'd pay) but the view of the game will be much better and I may catch a Pujols foul ball.

Also, this is like the one game a year I get to go see the Cardinals play live, because I live a good ways away from St. Louis, but 2 hours away from Atlanta, so factor that as well.

Which would you do if you were in my circumstances?  Thanks for the advice, sorry if this diary just wastes space, lb feel free to delete if you feel that way.

After doing some thinking and some video game playing, I thought of some things TLR should (or at least I would do these) do to try and get the most out of his everyday lineup.

First, I think that he should settle on a starting lineup, and trot them out there every day, or 90+% of the time.  I think we need to establish a rhythm as a ballclub, and putting all the super-subs in in various positions doesn't help that.  I know, I know, the injuries haven't helped anything, but with Eckstein coming back and possibly Jimmy, I think we could get some lineup consistency.

Second, I would move Scotty Ro into the number 2 hole.  He isn't hitting for power, but he's getting on a decent amount.  Putting Rolen in the 2 hole would get him better pitches to see as well, and maybe he could regain his power stroke.  I also think Duncan should be in the cleanup spot against righties, and Juan E should be in there against lefties.  But don't leave Dunc out entirely against lefties, maybe bat him 5 or 6.  Something like this:

vs. RHP

1. Eckstein SS
   
2. Rolen 3B
   
3. Pujols 1B
   
4. Duncan LF
   
5. Encarnacion RF
   
6. Edmonds CF
   
7. Molina C
   
8. Kennedy 2B
   
9. Pitcher

vs. LHP

1. Eckstein SS
   
2. Rolen 3B
   
3. Pujols 1B
   
4. Encarnacion RF
   
5. Duncan LF
   
6. Molina C
   
7. Edmonds CF
   
8. Miles 2B
   
9. Pitcher

What do you guys think?

Well, the first "half" (more than half of the games have been played) of the season is complete, and we sit at 40-45, 7.5 games back of 1st place Milwaukee and 4.5 games back of 2nd place Chicago.  Making a push in the second half toward a playoff spot would be much easier if we didn't have two teams to climb, but IMO 7.5 games is doable.  It will require nearly flawless baseball, but it's possible, especially with the potential return of Carpenter and Mulder, hopefully to their peak ability.  My question to you is how many of our remaining 77 games do we need to win to win the division (because I think that ultimately the NL Central winner will probably have fewer wins than the NL Wild Card winner, so our best chance would be to win the Central)?

I think we need to probably go about 52-25 to be pretty safe, although it could be argued that maybe 45-32 could get it done.  We basically need to win 2 out of every 3 from here on out, or basically concentrate on winning every series we can.  We're not too far below .500, but I also don't think 83 wins will win it this year.  Just some thoughts.

Who do you think will represent St. Louis for the NL All-Stars this season?  I'm not sure if anyone is good enough + popular enough to be voted on this season (Chris Duncan is good enough, but not well-known outside Cardinal nation; the MV3 are popular enough but putting up pathetic numbers so far this season).  So who do you think TLR adds to the roster for the 'birds?

I think it will be any of these three players:

Chris Duncan
Braden Looper
Jason Isringhausen

Anyone think Tyler Johnson has a shot?  Is there a precedent for adding LOOGYs to the all-star team?  Anyone else that I may be missing?

So.  Yesterday (May 12) was my birthday and I can't remember the last time the Cardinals lost on that day.  So I've been trying to find like a year-by-year May 12 history on the club, and I can't find it.  Does anyone have any ideas?

I do know that on that day in 1966 Busch II was opened for the club.  And in 2007 we beat the Padres 5-0 :-P

About a week ago there was a diary that had a list of fifteen players and we were supposed to subtract a point from the player on the list we liked the most and add a point to the player on the list we disliked the most.  Well that got me thinking -- along with my idea to rank the 30 MLB teams in order from favorite to least favorite -- that we could do the same for MLB teams.  Here are 26 of the 30 teams:

1. Arizona Diamondbacks 10
   
2. Atlanta Braves 10
   
3. Baltimore Orioles 9
   
4. Boston Red Sox 11
   
5. Chicago White Sox 10
   
6. Cincinnati Reds 10
   
7. Cleveland Indians 9
   
8. Colorado Rockies 10
   
9. Detroit Tigers 10
   
10. Florida Marlins 10
    
11. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 10
    
12. Los Angeles Dodgers 10
    
13. Milwaukee Brewers 10
    
14. Minnesota Twins 10
    
15. New York Mets 11
    
16. New York Yankees 10
    
17. Oakland Athletics 10
    
18. Philadelphia Phillies 10
    
19. Pittsburgh Pirates 10
    
20. San Diego Padres 10
    
21. San Francisco Giants 11
    
22. Seattle Mariners 10
    
23. Tampa Bay Devil Rays 10
    
24. Texas Rangers 10
    
25. Toronto Blue Jays 9
    
26. Washington Nationals 10

I left out the Cubs, Astros, and Royals because I figure those are our 3 biggest rivals, and most people will want to vote them as least favorite (I don't hate the Royals, but I don't live in Missouri, so I don't know what it's like to deal with Royals fans).  I also left out the Cardinals, because, well, everyone would subtract a point from them and it would be pointless.

Pick the three teams you dislike most and add a point to their total.  Pick the three teams you like most and subtract a point.  I already put in my answers above.  Have fun!

Also, just for fun, my 1-30 favorite to least favorite teams:

1. St. Louis Cardinals
   
2. Cleveland Indians
   
3. Baltimore Orioles
   
4. Toronto Blue Jays
   
5. Oakland Athletics
   
6. Washington Nationals
   
7. Philadelphia Phillies
   
8. Texas Rangers
   
9. Arizona Diamondbacks
   
10. Florida Marlins
    
11. Milwaukee Brewers
    
12. Seattle Mariners
    
13. Pittsburgh Pirates
    
14. Kansas City Royals
    
15. Detroit Tigers
    
16. Atlanta Braves
    
17. Colorado Rockies
    
18. Minnesota Twins
    
19. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
    
20. Los Angeles Dodgers
    
21. Tampa Bay Devil Rays
    
22. Chicago White Sox
    
23. San Diego Padres
    
24. Cincinnati Reds
    
25. New York Yankees
    
26. San Francisco Giants
    
27. New York Mets
    
28. Boston Red Sox
    
29. Houston Astros
    
30. Chicago Cubs

So, now that we have a pretty good idea of how good the team is, why not another poll about what the outcome of 2007 will be?

Don't just answer the poll, give me some projections.

Will Pujols' BA get up to .250, .275, or even .300?
Will Looper keep his ERA under 4 or 5 all season?
When will Carp come back?
Give me some other predictions that you come up with.

These are just fun predictions, nothing more, nothing less.  Have fun!

Poll

How will the Cardinals finish the season?

58%

A little above .500

10 votes

23%

A little under .500

4 votes

11%

We'll be lucky if we don't lose 100

2 votes

5%

Close to or above 100 wins

1 votes

17 votes | Poll has closed

Hey guys.  If you haven't looked at the NL Wild Card standings lately, go take a look.  It's really intriguing to me.  With 10 teams within 6 games (and 11 within 7.5) it's really anybody's game.  I want to know which team will win the Wild Card.  Assuming the divisional leaders stay as they are (which is a HUGE assumption in the Central and West divisions), which of the ten teams will come out on top?  Also let me know if you think St. Louis or San Diego will fall out of their division leads.

Mr Redbird

Poll

Who will win the NL Wild Card?

0%

San Francisco Giants (4 GB)

0 votes

7%

Arizona Diamondbacks (1.5 GB)

5 votes

0%

Milwaukee Brewers (5 GB)

0 votes

2%

Colorado Rockies (2.5 GB)

2 votes

5%

Atlanta Braves (5.5 GB)

4 votes

1%

Philadelphia Phillies (3 GB)

1 votes

1%

Florida Marlins (6 GB)

1 votes

29%

Cincinnati Reds (0 GB)

20 votes

4%

Houston Astros (3.5 GB)

3 votes

46%

Los Angeles Dodgers (1 GB)

31 votes

67 votes | Poll has closed