Redbird Rants - A St. Louis Cardinals Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

Prince Fielder‘s massive new deal with the Detroit Tigers helps the St. Louis Cardinals in many ways. First, it gets him out of the division and makes the rival Milwaukee Brewers that much weaker. As of now, Mat Gamel will be starting at first base for them. Secondly a Brewers team without Fielder and possibly Ryan Braun for the first 50 games due to a possible suspension, weakens their offense immensely. The Houston Astros are in complete rebuilding mode and won’t be in the division after this year. The Chicago Cubs will also be in rebuilding mode with new president Theo Epstein. The Pittsburgh Pirates are too young to contend quite yet, but they do have some prospects on the way. Continue reading this post »

The game of baseball is full of stats, comparisons and iconic moments.  The faithful followers of the Cardinal Nation embrace our rich history.  We have had some of the all time greats that have played the game.  We have had the record holders and the record breakers.  We have witnessed some of baseball’s most iconic moments.  As baseball fans we have resolved to the fact that records are made to be broken.  It is part of the excitement of the game.  But, we also love those iconic moments.  Those moments that generates the talks of “do you remember” or “did you see”.  Well, today’s edition of “Who am I? Name the Cardinal” is about one of those iconic moments. Continue reading this post »

Professional baseball has been played in St. Louis since 1882. The team was then called the St. Louis Brown Stockings. They became the Cardinals in 1900. Since then, the team has won 18 National League Pennants and 11 World Series titles. With so many great teams there is an abundance of iconic moments in the team’s history. Redbird Rants’ staff writer Marilyn Green and I have come up with our top five iconic moments in the franchise’s great history for the United Cardinal Bloggers monthly project. Continue reading this post »

This month’s United Cardinals Bloggers project is naming the 5 most iconic moments in St. Louis Cardinals history. The simple answer? It’s very tough. There are some that stick out in my mind. Granted, I was watching the game on television when it happened, no less.

I’ve gone back and forth on this, rearranging my list numerous times. Click here to continue reading

Oct 9, 2011; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun reacts after hitting a two-run double in the fifth inning of game one of the 2011 NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

All is quiet on the offseason front for the Cardinals.  Because there is not a lot of news, there is not a lot to talk about until Spring Training.  For that reason, I am going to go off on a topic that is not about the Cardinals specifically but does have some potential impact on them for the 2012 season.  The topic is the pending PEDs issue with Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers, one of the Cardinals’ toughest rivals in the NL Central.  The basics of this story is known to all who care to know about it.  I am going to focus on two issues involved, the appeals process, which is currently pending for Braun, and the issue of confidentiality.

If you don’t know it already from reading my bio, I am a licensed attorney.  As an attorney, my interest is in the legal issues involved and I will be addressing the story from that angle.  However, there are baseball issues involved as well and I will also be touching on them as it relates to the Cardinals. Continue reading this post »

As was expected, the St. Louis Cardinals and general manager John Mozeliak will not need to worry about attending arbitration hearings in 2012. The Cardinals reached an agreement with assumed closer Jason Motte. The contract is reportedly for one-year and $1.95 million with $75K in incentives according to a tweet from CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman. The guaranteed amount is the mid-point of the figures each side swapped last week. Continue reading this post »

Major League Baseball announced yesterday that former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa will be the manager for the 2012 National League All-Star Team. This is a nice honor for La Russa since he is no longer the manager of the Cardinals or associated with MLB. I know this is a Cardinals site, but for this post, I’m going to use the connection of La Russa’s managerial career being extended by one game to describe why I feel this adds to the nonsense that continues to surround the MLB All-Star game. There is one tie-in to the Cardinals however, and I begin with that after the jump. Continue reading this post »

Mike Matheny’s first Spring Training as the skipper of the St. Louis Cardinals is just around the corner. My thoughts often turn to music or random movie quotes at the drop of a dime. When I began to think about my topic for this post I thought about what Training Camp for the Cardinals would look like this year. Mostly because I am hoping to be able to attend a game or two if my travel schedule allows. I was at my nephew’s birthday party this weekend and my brother in law and sister in law had some Sinatra playing for background music and it I suddenly realized that some of the lyrics were very fitting. More on that later. LaRussa’s training camps have become somewhat legendary for how they were structured and conducted. The question of how Matheny’s camp will look has intrigued me since his announcement as Manager. Continue reading this post »

As we draw closer and closer to the start of another baseball season, it’s not a bad time to take a look at how things are shaping up for the future at the first base position. Albert Pujols is gone, Lance Berkman’s career is winding down, and the Cardinals will soon need to find someone to man the corner opposite of budding star David Freese. Is last season’s Texas League Player of the Year Matt Adams capable of filling this role long term? Find out after the jump.

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Over the course of the next few weeks, Redbird Rants will begin posting new weekly features. Earlier today, Justin McClary wrote the debut edition of the Cardinals Minor League Report. For the remainder of the offseason Justin will focus on the Cardinals minor leaguers at each position. Once the season begins, the report will be regularly available on Saturdays.

We are not just writers here at Redbird Rants; we are also avid readers of Cardinals content. Until bloggers are given the ability and license to completely cover a team as those in the mainstream media receive (press credentials), we have to rely on what we read in print or online as well as what we hear on television and radio for an abundance of our information. In doing so, we get to read some very good work provided by columnists and the reporters on the beat. Each Tuesday, I’ll provide some links from media outlets which cover the St. Louis Cardinals that I think are worth a look. We’ll call it Media Minutes. Continue reading this post »