Gateway to Baseball Heaven: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

GTBH 7/29/18: The Shuffle Is Real

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  After weeks, months, maybe years of incremental changes, the Cards went big this week, completely reworking their bullpen with some internal moves Friday and a trade on Saturday.  What does this all mean for 2018 and beyond?  Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Bird Seeds, @tarawellman) break it down for you in this episode.  Does the redone bullpen mean the Cardinals are making a push?  Are they done making changes?  Who will go off the 25-man roster before Monday's game?  Who will be gone and who will stay after the deadline?  All this plus some of what this team is looking like under Mike Shildt and more!

GTBH 7/22/18: New Manager, Same Results

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  After spending last week with Adam Butler on Conversations with C70, Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Bird Seeds, @tarawellman) return to their normal locale to talk about the first week of the Mike Shildt era.  While there seems to be a different energy, a more transparent approach, and a more consistent offense, the fact remains that the Cards lost three of five to the Cubs and now reside in fourth place.  What can this team do to be better?  What should this team do at the trading deadline?  Who has the answers that you seek?  It's not us--but we'll talk about the problems anyway!

GTBH 7/8/18: A Giant Hill to Climb

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  Well, not every week, but after a week off due to travel Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Bird Seeds, @tarawellman) are back at it talking about another frustrating week for the Cards, topped off by an ugly loss to the Giants.  Is this team anything more than a middling, .500 squad?  With the trade deadline coming up, what should the front office be doing?  Plus there is talk about John Mozeliak's comments regarding Dexter Fowler and the selection of Miles Mikolas to the National League All-Star Team.  All that and plenty more!

GTBH 6/24/18: No, YOU Figure Out This 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.  Just when you think that everything is doom and gloom, the Cardinals pull out a split against the division leaders and show a bit of life.  What does this mean?  Heck if Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Bird Seeds, @tarawellman) know.  The two try to make heads or tails out of where this team is going.  Is it the team that lost four of five to Philadelphia and Milwaukee or the team that took two, one convincingly, against the Brewers to end the week?  Can we trust that this team won't go out and lose two of three to the Indians and/or the Braves this week?  How many times can someone be burned before they never trust again.

Plus they talk about Mike Matheny and his stunning choice not to fully back up Tommy Pham Friday night as well as the possible complete turnaround by Greg Holland.  There's no show next week so treasure this one even more than normal!

GTBH 6/17/18: Be Excellent To One Another

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  Fair warning, folks, this is what we call a rant episode.  This week, Dexter and Aliya Fowler were basically driven from Twitter by awful and disparaging comments.  Tara (Bird Seeds, @tarawellman) kicks off the rant against these fans and Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) tags in from time to time.  It's baseball, folks.  These are human beings.  Let's treat them as such, shall we?

After that, Daniel gets started on the news that Greg Holland is going to return to the team in Philadelphia even though nothing in his minor league results seem to indicate this is a good idea.  There's also the general lack of offense, whether changing the manager or the hitting coach would be a good idea, whether players have too much information (or, more accurately, aren't getting well-processed information) and whether there's too much of a "let's go try" rather than a "let's go win" mentality.

You know it's a tough show when the bullpen could be the highlight of it, but there are at least some signs that there are more options out there than Bud Norris and Jordan Hicks, so we'll count that a positive sign.  If you like the show, be sure to give us a rating on iTunes and let us know what you think! 

GTBH 6/10/18: A Whole Bunch of Ugh

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 probably only fair to say right up front that this isn't the most optimistic show our two co-hosts have put together.  From the passing of Red Schoendienst to the loss of Alex Reyes for the season to the bullpen blowups and the use of Jordan Hicks to the erraticness of Carlos Martinez, there was a lot of things that Cardinal fans didn't really want to see this week.  However, Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Bird Seeds, @tarawellman) tackle all of them, examining all the facets to see if there's something good in there.  You'll have to listen to see if they succeed!

GTBH 6/3/18: No No-No, You Know, But a Good Go

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  This is the 50th GTBH since the new format launched but Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Bird Seeds, @tarawellman) are spending it talking about #52.  Michael Wacha spent Sunday thrilling the faithful, taking a no-hitter into the ninth before coming up short of the feat last performed by the legendary Bud Smith.  Even without that piece of history, Wacha's been incredibly strong of late.  Can that continue?  And could that mean he's pitching himself into being an attractive trade target?

The pitching discussion continues with the pending return of Carlos Martinez--hopefully for more than one start--and the brief stop Alex Reyes made as an active major league pitcher.  The offense doesn't get entirely neglected, though, as the suddenly-hot Marcell Ozuna gets a little discussion as well.  So much stuff we couldn't cram everything into 30 minutes!

GTBH 5/27/18: No Sleeping on the Job

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  This week, Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Bird Seeds, @tarawellman) talk about the good and the bad of the last few days, from dropping a series to Kansas City to taking two of three from Pittsburgh.  Is Matt Carpenter back to his regular form?  Can Marcell Ozuna get going?  Should we be worried about Tommy Pham?  Then there's the Greg Holland "injury"--true or false?  Does it matter?  What's the outlook for Holland the rest of the way?  Then there's that little thing known as The Return of Alex Reyes.  Can he really be as dominant as he showed in the minors?  What does the rotation look like when Carlos Martinez is healthy?

All that and no mention at all of anyone oversleeping.  Guess we hit the snooze button there.

GTBH 5/20/18: Youth Will Be Served

Every week, two of the Best Fans in Baseball (TM) bring you all the news and analysis you need about the St. Louis Cardinals.  A masterful performance by Jack Flaherty on Sunday highlighted so many positives that the youth of the Cards bring, which means Daniel (C70 At The Bat, @C70) and Tara (Bird Seeds, @tarawellman) spend plenty of time talking about how that all works with the current lineup.  With Alex Reyes coming back, can even games like Sunday's save Flaherty's major league spot?  Do you run the risk of some of this talent withering at Memphis?  You also have Jordan Hicks and Tyler O'Neill doing work this week and making the show.  Can the Cards find a place for O'Neill's bat, for instance?

Much of the talk is about the manager, however.  We didn't plan it that way, it just sort of happened.  From Flaherty's 120 pitches to Hicks' four games in five days to the disconnect on who is going to play shortstop, if you are a big fan of Mike Matheny.....this one might not be the show for you.

GTBH 5/13/18: More Wainwrong Than Wainwright

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 was a rough day for Cardinal fans as franchise icon Adam Wainwright took the mound...and quickly left it, having walked six batters, had his velocity be minimal, and afterwards admitted his elbow acted up again.  Was this the end for the Redbird great?  Daniel (C70 at the Bat, @C70) and Tara (Bird Seeds, @tarawellman) talk all about that and the ramifications of what is going on with Uncle Charlie.  They also get into the problems with the offense, which notably struggled all week long save one game in San Diego.  But what can you do about it?  The tough questions are getting asked in the Cardinal front office, no doubt, but Daniel and Tara do their best!