St. Louis Cardinals’ Top Twitter Follows Part 1

With the St. Louis Cardinals’ season looming and March Madness hours away, a fellow writer has developed a bracket of the top Twitter accounts for the season.

A very esteemed blogging colleague of mine (@CardinalsFarm) that I respect a lot has put together a neat little contest on twitter, pitting some of the best St. Louis Cardinals’ themed follows on twitter. The idea is based loosely off of a vote that Daniel Shoptaw (@C70) of Cards Conclave does every year gathering the top twitter accounts across Cardinals’ nation.

The contest is seeded exactly like the NCAA tournament with 64 twitter accounts seeded by the amount of followers, with sites like ours and Viva El Birdos being excluded and bringing it down to just individuals who tweet about Cardinals’ baseball.

The enitre field can be found here via KangarooCourtSTL.

Redbird Rants Inclusions

#1 @miklasz vs. #16 @SMcNeil_87

I had the unfortunate draw of being seeded up against the legend Bernie Miklasz (@miklasz), who I listen to just about every weekday morning, as well as checking out his pieces on 101 Sports. The draw is rough, but it is a pleasure simply to be mentioned in the same sentence as Bernie.

When I started writing back in November of 2014, I never thought I would have gotten to where I am today, and I look up to Bernie as a writer a lot. I love doing this, and I love interacting with you all here and on twitter.

If you appreciate my work here, I would love it if you gave me a vote. Help me try to make an impossible upset somewhat possible.

#5 @buffa82 vs. #12 @KeeneMLB

Also in the bracket, we have three writers featured in the bracket, we first off we have Dan Buffa pitted up against KeeneMLB, both are great follows and I have had great exchanges with both guys. However, I will undoubtedly placing my vote with the writing superstar Dan, who is always providing hot takes here and other places, as well as providing excellent analysis on his twitter account as well.

#2 @BirdsOnTheBat13 vs. #15 @lil_scooter93

We also have the famous @BirdsOnTheBat13, who also is a writer here with us, but hasn’t found the time to get started quite yet. However, I am sure that as the season starts up he will be chomping at the bit to have his voice heard and not be bound by 160 characters. In addition to that, he is always providing great interaction on Twitter and has built up a very nice following on his account, as he sits with 35,638 follows.

He will be pitted up against a 15 seed in @lil_scooter93 of Viva El Birdos. Scooter may be slotted in at 15 seed, but she is a great writer, who is a great follow on twitter. She writes at a different angle than most and that’s okay.

In a community dominated by men, Scooter is one of the best writers out there and she has garnered the attention of many in the United Cardinals’ Blogger community. But, with that said, I got to go with my guy here in @BirdsOnTheBat13, he is a giant and a great asset to our team.

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#4 @StullySTL vs. #13 @dsolzman

We also have one of our former editors in @dsolzman (Daniel Solzman), who has transitioned into “Staff Writer” mode since last summer. Daniel is a fantastic writer, who goes off the beat to cover the topics that not many cover, and is relentless at nailing down interviews with former players, prospects, writers, and analysts.

Daniel is pitted up against a fabulous writer in Brain Stull (@StullySTL), Stully is a dark horse in the media world. He doesn’t have the presence that a Derrick Goold or Jenifer Langosch do with the Post Dispatch. Instead Stully writes for his own site in STLBaseballWeekly, as well as doing a weekly radio show that can be found on three different radio stations in the Cardinals’ viewing area.

This is a tough one, Stully is a great writer and is doing it all on his own essentially and I admire that. He has a great presence with the players and interacts well with his readers online, I miss hearing his nightly show on 101ESPN, but he has moved on.

However, I got to go with one of the guys who helped me get to where I am today in Daniel Solzman. When I came on last year Daniel was the Editor and he helped me along in my first couple of months. Daniel has been a great part of the staff here and I value his work.

Intriguing Matchups

Instead of boring you all by going through the entire bracket, I will highlight a few matchups that are intriguing matchups and upset potentials.

#8 @craigjedwards vs. #9 @TexasCardsFan1

First off, we have @CraigJEdwards of Viva El Birdos up against @TexasCardsFan1, Craig is the managing editor and site manager for Viva El Birdos, as well as a very good writer for Fangraphs. I read Craig’s work a lot and respect him a ton, he is always putting up solid work and is a giant in the Cardinals’ blogging community.

On the other side of things is someone I would call a “Twitter Friend”, TexasCardsFan and I have had many of discussions based on this team and other things as well. He is always very cordial and is often a reader and promoter of my work here. He is one that is not afraid to share his opinion with anyone and is a relentless fact checker, and I appreciate that about him.

With that said, my vote goes to the #9 seed in TexasCardsFan, nothing against Craig, but since this is a Twitter vote, I am going based off of Twitter interaction alone and TexasCardsFan is an automatic here.

#7 @stlCupofJoe vs. #10 @JohnMoGM

The next intriguing matchup here is StlCupofJoe (Joe Schwarz) of VivaElBirdos vs. @JohnMoGM. What I like about this matchup, is that you have two things. You have a writer/blogger, who is one of the best, and you have a parody account, who is a writer/blogger as well.

While I have had some exchanges with @JohnMoGM, I have not had really enough to gauge what he has to offer in terms of positive interactions. However, StlCupofJoe is a great follow and a great writer, who has helped me out a lot, and is someone I respect in the Cardinals’ blogosphere.

He is always on point with his statistical analysis, and is very friendly and approachable on Twitter. So, my vote will without a doubt go to Joe here.

#3 @MattSebek vs. #14 @elmaquino 

Here we have an eccentric digital media guy who is funny at times, but tries too hard at times as well, up against a former writer, who has some strong opinions and looks at the game from a more analytical point of view than most.

This is a no contest for me and it should be a big upset in terms of seeding, but in terms of a must follow, it won’t be really. Sebek is known for his funny pictures and t-shirts, as well as the neat “Rookies” App that allows you to make your own baseball card with your own pictures and info. However, in terms of a must follow for Cardinals’ analysis it really is no contest, as elmaquino has been a must follow for years in that realm.

Next: Aledmys Diaz Could be Shortstop Frontrunner

Part 2

Tomorrow, they will be unveiling the second half of the bracket, and I will have you updated on who made it from our staff and the intriguing matchups. So, if you liked this piece, come back for more tomorrow.