Gateway to Baseball Heaven: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

GTBH 3/8/20: A Little More Sunshine

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) give you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  It may be the strangest way that "baseball works itself out", but the bench situation got a little clearer this weekend when Yairo Munoz took his ball (or at least his equipment) and went home.  Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Birds on the Bat, @tarawellman) talk about what this means for Munoz, why he should have waited a few days, and if the team will really notice his departure.  (I mean, it took a few days.....)  They also discuss the Cardinals' renewing Jack Flaherty's contract plus what the injury to Andrew Miller means for the pitching staff.  So much to talk about it allowed us to fight off the tired from losing an hour of sleep!

GTBH 3/1/20: Everybody Pitching In

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  Spring training is in full swing and while the stats may need to be taken with a grain of salt, they are worth talking about.  Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Birds on the Black, @tarawellman) talk about the seeming depth of the pitching staff and all the possibilities and permutations that the rotation and bullpen could take on to start the season.  Can Austin Gomber or Daniel Ponce de Leon force their way onto the roster?  How do you use arms like Genesis Cabrera or Junior Fernandez?  Plus they talk about the offense and get into why it is possible to justify Dylan Carlson starting at Memphis without using service time as an issue.  Come talk some baseball!

GTBH 2/23/20: We Have Baseball, People!

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  The Cards played baseball this weekend!  Sure, it was just two games and you really can't draw a lot of conclusions about them, but Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Birds on the Black, @tarawellman) had fun discussing them anyway.  (There's a little bit of a rabbit trail about conditioning which leads to minor league talk, but you aren't really surprised about that, are you?)  Harrison Bader, Tyler O'Neill, and Matt Carpenter are off to good starts.  Can they continue?  How much do you put into some early homers, anyway?  All that and a bit on one of the surprising options for the rotation.  Baseball is back!

GTBH 2/16/20: Mad About Manfred

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  Spring training has started and while there is Cardinals news, things from the baseball commissioner are dominating the news cycles.  Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Birds on the Black, @tarawellman) do talk about Miles Mikolas's injury and a few other tidbits out of camp, but the focus of most of the show comes from Rob Manfred's press conference.  What exactly are players supposed to do about the Astros since the commissioner doesn't want people throwing at them or talking bad about them?  And then we get Tara wound up about the minor league issue again.  No wonder this one runs long!

GTBH 2/2/20: Big Game Ranting

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  The football season is now over and baseball can take center stage.  So why aren't they making a bigger deal about it?  Tara (Birds on the Black, @tarawellman) has some strong thoughts about the lack of MLB marketing and Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) is along for the ride.  They also touch on what the Cardinals' lack of offseason activity means and whether the front office deserves the benefit of the doubt.  Plenty of ranting in this one so be sure to give it a listen as we wrap up Season 3 (sorta)!

GTBH 1/19/20: Warming Up to the Subject

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  It's Winter Warmup weekend (even if the weather doesn't show it) and the players are in town to talk about the coming season.  Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Birds on the Black, @tarawellman) talk about some of the things that came out of the annual event.  Matt Wieters is back in St. Louis--what does that mean for Andrew Knizner.  What about the status of Yadier Molina's contract?  Matt Carpenter said he'd waive his no-trade if "it made the team better"--plenty of talk about that, as you might expect.  All this and much more!

GTBH 1/12/20: Trades, Made and Potential

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  New year, new Cardinals it seems, as the winter finally livened up with a trade on Thursday, sending Jose Martinez and Randy Arozarena (plus a draft pick) to Tampa Bay for top prospect Matthew Liberatore, plus another prospect in Edgardo Rodriguez and a draft pick.  Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Birds on the Black, @tarawellman) talk about what that means for the Cardinals and the chances that it actually could make them better in 2020, much less the future.  Then they get into all the smoke around the potential of Nolan Arenado coming to St. Louis.  Does it make sense?  Are the rumored names really what the Cards are thinking of dealing?  What are the odds Nolan is manning the hot corner in Busch on Opening Day (well, that last one is 0%--the Cards open in Cincinnati)?  All that and then some!

GTBH 1/5/20: New Year, Same Team

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  With the holidays over and Winter Warmup on the horizon, Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Birds on the Black, @tarawellman) get together and talk about what has been happening--or not happening--with the Redbirds.  The Cards signed a new pitcher from the Korea--what does that mean for Carlos Martinez, if anything?  Can Carlos be the dominant pitcher he used to be?  The lineup hasn't gotten a similar infusion--will their faith in Jeff Albert prove to be prescient or to be their weakness?  Plus another check-in on Marcell Ozuna and some talk about what another team is doing with their roster.  Happy New Year, everyone!

GTBH 12/1/19: Minor Contractions

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  While there's not much going on with the Cards, Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Birds on the Black, @tarawellman) talk about what has happened, which is pretty much the waiving of Dominic Leone, but spend most of their time on Tara's recent post about the contraction threat looming over minor league baseball.  What in the world is MLB thinking?  What's going on with this whole thing?  Tara does an outstanding job of lining out the issues and why the minor league teams are very frustrated and really in the dark about everything.  It's an ongoing situation so be sure to check out Tara's posts on the subject!

GTBH 11/10/19: S'more Enthusiasm, Please

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  The Cards had their end-of-season press conference and Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Birds on the Black, @tarawellman) came away less than excited about the offseason to come.  While the organization has somewhat painted itself in the corner, is it really a good plan to just hope that everyone is going to be better next season?  As Daniel likes to say, rebellions are built on hope but not baseball teams.  Is there a large disconnect between the front office and the fanbase?  What happens if things don't work out?  All that plus some excellent analysis of Adam Wainwright's s'mores technique!