July 13, 2012–The Baseball Bloggers Alliance, the top organization of baseball bloggers, today announced that after a polling of the membership, Bill Ivie would replace Daniel Shoptaw as the president of the group.

Ivie, who writes at I70 Baseball and Full Spectrum Baseball, is no stranger to large groups, having been an assignment editor at Baseball Digest in the past, as well as an active member of the United Cardinal Bloggers.  Ivie also is the organizer of Ivie League Productions, under which label the BBA has its weekly show, BBA Baseball Talk featuring David Mitchell.  Ivie’s voice can be heard weekly on Gateway To Baseball Heaven, as part of the Seamheads Podcasting Network.

“It is an honor and a pleasure to accept this position.  Daniel Shoptaw has done an amazing job cultivating this group and I look forward to working with everyone involved to help the organization grow and move forward consistently.”

Shoptaw was the founder of the BBA, starting the group in the fall of 2009 and watching it grow to hundreds of members.  Born out of a couple of personal projects, the Alliance quickly expanded to cover every MLB team and also included blogs with more of a general baseball approach or those that covered a specific aspect of the game, such as fantasy baseball or minor league baseball.

For his part, Shoptaw still plans to be involved with the organization but will focus more of his time on other projects, such as his blog C70 At The Bat and its related podcast Conversations With C70, his leadership of the United Cardinal Bloggers, and his weekly appearances on Gateway To Baseball Heaven.

Shoptaw stated, “It was time to move on.  I appreciate all the members of the BBA and what they have done to strengthen this organization.  It truly is a world-class collection of talent and I’m proud to know all of them.  I’ve known Bill for a long time and I know that he will provide extreme amounts of energy and leadership in this role.  I look forward to seeing what the next few years hold for the Alliance!”

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance can be found on Facebook, on Twitter, or can be reached via email at baseballbloggeralliance@gmail.com.

“I miss Jack Buck”.

Still to this day, those words are the one’s I feel define my writing.  An article I wrote for the now closed Baseball Digest site took that theme.  It was in Spring Training and I realized the game just did not sound the same.  That article, more than any other, has shown my heart and soul towards this game on every level.

 Read my thoughts on Jack from last year here on i70 as well as my original work for Baseball Digest on Going 9 Baseball’s site.  The original work, both the I Miss Jack Buck article and an interview with Christine Buck can be read by clicking the respective links.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the day heaven gained a legendary announcer and we all lost a golden voice.  Last night, during my weekly Seamheads podcast, Gateway To Baseball Heaven, Daniel Shoptaw reminded me of the anniversary.  I reminded everyone just what that anniversary was.

For many people around the world, they lost a lot of things when Jack Buck passed away.  Most remember the war hero, the poet, the author and of course the announcer.  Fans around the nation and the world lost a storyteller that had very few parallels within his peers.

For myself and many others, there was something more.  We lost a friend.

I remember that day 10 years ago, when the news was announced that Jack had left us.  I remember, for the first time in my life, I wept over a baseball figure.

I grew up with this game.  I watched “my team” lose the 1985 and 1987 World Series.  I suffered through horrible stretches of players and games.  I watched as a new generation of legends took over the game.  I watched as players that were involved in the tales that Jack himself would spin were no longer around, having departed this world and the game and I was seemingly unphased.

I teared up when Ozzie retired.  It shook me to my roots when the Cardinals took the field days after the events of September 11, 2001.  I was emotional when I said goodbye to a man known by many as The Mayor Of The Bleachers, the first real friend that I had developed because of this game.  Never before, however, had I openly lost control of my emotions over someone that I had never personally spent any time with.

That was Jack.  Through the years of radio listening, television watching and bonding with my father over this game that grown men play, Jack was always there.  For countless months every summer, nights when I was supposed to be asleep, and days that were too hot to fathom, Jack Buck was my companion.

He was real.  You never got the impression that Jack was not genuine.  He wore his heart on his sleeve.  He was professional and forthcoming yet a fan at the same time.  He was the expert in the room and the guy sitting next to you at the bar at the same time.

Time heals all wounds.  We find new friends and we move on when there is loss.  The Cardinals will employ many different announcers in my lifetime alone.  The game will evolve and change and somewhere along the lines a new legend will assume the role behind the microphone.  I’m not sure it will ever change anything for me.

I still miss Jack Buck.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.
Follow him on Twitter here.

The parent site of i70baseball, Baseball Digest, has recently been running their end of the year Report Cards for each franchise. The following is the post written by Todd Fertig for the site about the Kansas City Royals.

The revolving door has spun crazily in Kansas City the last several years, but the turnover may finally have come to a halt. The decade-long “youth movement” may finally have produced some youth worth keeping. The Royals minor league system earned a number one ranking last winter, and though the big league team lost 91 games, one by one top prospects matriculated to KC. By the end of the season the team’s entire starting lineup was 27 years old or younger, and only dreadful pitching kept the youngsters from contending in the AL Central.

Rotation: F
Hopes for the Royals’ pitching staff were especially low entering 2011, so you would think it would be hard for the starters to disappoint. But the Royals’ youthful offense and fielding were unexpectedly strong, making the weakness of the rotation all the more glaring.

Kansas City finished 27^th in the league in quality starts, as well as team ERA, and 26^th in opponents’ slugging and OPS. Royal starters managed a mere two complete games, and just six shutouts. To comprehend just how directionless was the staff, consider that for an extended period KC utilized a six-man rotation, prolonging the Kyle Davies train wreck. He finished 1-9 with a 6.75 ERA before he was mercifully released.

It’s hard to believe the team’s best starter was nearly left off the roster prior to the season. But after searching high and low for anyone else, the Royals kept Bruce Chen, who wound up the team’s only starter with a winning record. Chen led the team in wins (12) and ERA (3.77).

Danny Duffy gained experience, but that’s about all you can say. Jeff Francis was a stop-gap at best. But Luke Hochevar may have turned a corner – he went 6-3 after the All-Star break, and finished with a 1.283 WHIP. Felipe Paulino was a revelation, posting 8.6 SO/9 and a 1.372 WHIP.

Bullpen: D
Though the bevy of young arms in the pen gained a measure of acclaim, this group was not really all that effective as a whole in 2011. Closer Joakim Soria’s troubles were well documented. Soria blew several saves when the Royals still had hopes of contending, and the psychological effect of those collapses on the rest of the club cannot be overestimated. Soria had never posted an ERA above 2.48. This year it was 4.03.

Setup man Aaron Crow started with the sizzle the Royals hoped for from a first-rounder. But after being named to the 2011 All-Star Game, he let teams hit .313 and score 4.34 earned runs after the break. The cast of Tim Collins, Louis Coleman, Blake Wood, Nate Adcock and Greg Holland was at times serviceable, while at other times atrocious.

BD Report Cards brought to you by Seamheads

Catchers: C-
The Royals foolishly hoped Jason Kendall had something left in the tank. The 37-year-old never made it off the DL. Matt Treanor filled in admirably, but there was never a hope he would hit. Bryan Pena disappointed at the plate as well, and the Royals finally turned to 21-year-old phenom Salvador Perez in September. His lock on the position is now rock-solid.

Infield: B
Seemingly every month, an infield position was handed over to one of the Royals’ coveted prospects. Alcides Escobar assumed the shortstop duties on opening day. In May, first baseman Eric Hosmer made his feverishly-anticipated debut. June saw Mike Moustakas move in at third base. The transition was complete in August when Johnny Giavotella took over at second.

Giavotella and Moustakas had mixed results. Moustakas struggled mightily for much of the season. But he broke loose with 12 doubles, four homers and 19 RBI in his last 36 games. During that span, only one player bested his .379 average.

Hosmer asserted himself as the team leader and will only get better. The 21-year-old made a push for Rookie of the Year with 19 homers and 78 RBI in just 128 games. Escobar, meanwhile, looks to be the long-term answer at short.

Billy Butler is a capable fill-in at first, and is arguably one of the best designated hitters in the league. He hit .291 and found his power stroke in the second half to finish with 19 homers and 44 doubles.

Outfield: A
A very convincing argument could be made that Alex Gordon, Melky Cabrera and Jeff Francoeur made up THE BEST outfield in all of baseball in 2011. Defensively, they blew the curve with 49 assists. Gordon earned a Gold Glove in left, and Francoeur got snubbed in right in favor of Nick Markakis.

The trio was also a doubles machine. They combined for 136 doubles, each finishing in the top 8 of the league. As a group they also belted 61 homers.

At the plate, Gordon had one of the best seasons by a Royals outfielder in history. He was one of just five players in all of baseball to hit better than .300 with 20+ homers and 45+ doubles.

Top Offensive Player
Gordon’s 5.9 WAR was KC’s highest since 2003. In just his second year in left field, he became one of the best.

Top Pitcher
Chen missed more than a month, or his numbers might have been even more impressive. Even so, he continues to pitch like an adult, as opposed to Davies, Hochevar, Duffy, etc. Few in baseball get more from their physical ability than Chen.

Todd Fertig
I-70 Baseball

The parent site of i70baseball, Baseball Digest, has recently been running their end of the year Report Cards for each franchise. The following is the post written by Daniel Shoptaw for the site about the St. Louis Cardinals.

You know how when you were in college, if the teacher was in a real good mood, you got a nice curve to some of your scores? It is hard not to do the same when you are handing out grades for the team that just finished as World Champions. I mean, those issues and foibles during the season look so cute now, like “look at how that team is so cute hitting into double plays.” The afterglow of a championship is a powerful thing.

That said, it is time to take a serious look at a team that showed its fair share of schizophrenia this season. A team that played just well enough to be tied for first a couple of weeks after the All-Star Break, but then famously found itself sitting 10.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the wild card just a month later. They righted the ship, put on a furious run (helped out, of course, by a Braves collapse for the ages) and got into the playoffs, where they used that “every game is your last” mentality to battle through two rounds of National League playoffs and a World Series that will go down in history as one of the most dramatic.

Grades are reflective of the whole season. The bullpen at the end of the year hardly resembled the pen that caused so much heartburn earlier, but all facets of the relief corp had to be taken into account for their final score. So gather around the bulletin board, everyone, it is time to see how the final grades came out.

Rotation: B
The Cardinals may have had some pitching problems during the season, but by and large it did not come out of the starting staff, something that seemed so improbable in spring training. When Adam Wainwright went down with season-ending surgery before he was able to throw a pitch that meant anything, it seemed certain that the Cards were going to have to outslug their opponents.

Instead, the Cardinals ranked eighth in ERA and quality starts and seventh in opponent OPS among National League starting staffs. In fact, just about any significant category, the Cards were in the middle of the pack, a fairly notable achievement without their ace. Chris Carpenter stepped up to fill in the gap and the rest of the staff showed just enough brilliance to offset what at times could be some ugly outings.

Bullpen: C
When you average an F and an A together, it has to come out to a C, right? There is no doubt that the bullpen was the weakest link in the Cardinal chain at the beginning of the season. It started on Opening Day, when Ryan Franklin allowed a solo home run to Cameron Maybin to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth. It became more evident the next week, when the relief corp belied its name in blowing back to back games against the Giants.

Eventually, the Cardinals cut Franklin and Miguel Batista and turned the duties over to a younger group of players. The Colby Rasmus trade made at the July trading deadline brought in two different arms and moved Kyle McClellan from the rotation to the bullpen. The group quickly became a dominant force, with live arms coming out of the pen in almost every situation. The strongest measure of how this facet of the team had come about was in the NLCS, when the relievers pitched more innings than the starters, and the Cards still won four games to two.

BD Report Cards brought to you by Seamheads

Catchers: A
Yadier Molina may have lost a little bit of his luster behind the plate to the serious observer, allowing more wild pitches and passed balls than in past years. That said, a dimmer gold is still gold, as proven by the Gold Glove he won after the season was over. Besides still superb defense, Molina chipped in what might have been his best offensive season ever, easily setting career highs in home runs and OPS. Gerald Laird and, for a time, Tony Cruz backed up Molina and did so with acceptable results, though with Molina playing in 139 games, there were not many opportunities.

Infield: B-
Any infield that has a NLCS and a World Series MVP on one side and Albert Pujols on the other can not be all bad, can it? Pujols missed out on some of his yearly benchmarks this year but still showed that he is one of the top players in baseball. David Freese stayed relatively healthy (though he did miss much of May and June) and posted career highs in a number of categories as well, though he saved his best hitting for the playoffs and will never buy a meal in St. Louis again after Game 6 of the World Series.

Where the grade comes down is in the middle infield. Ryan Theriot was brought in and Brendan Ryan was shipped out, a move the Cardinals felt all year long at Theriot made error after error and did not hit enough to make up for his stone hands. Eventually the club traded for Rafael Furcal, who did not hit much either in St. Louis but at least was able to play above-average defense.

At second base, Skip Schumaker started off very cold and then got hurt, returning in mid-May from injury and finally warming up his bat. Daniel Descalso got a lot of time at all the different infield positions, often being switched into games as a defensive replacement for Freese but also seeing time at second and short, and played with a great glove along with a knack for getting some timely hits.

Outfield: B
There was a lot of intrigue in the outfield this season, but the one constant was the new guy out there. The signing of Lance Berkman raised a lot of eyebrows in the offseason, as he had not played outfield in a long time. However, his offseason training regimen actually got him into the best shape in his life (or at least the past five years) and he played an above-average outfield. Any miscues he might have made were quickly eliminated by his bat, as he returned to the player Cardinal fans were used to seeing terrorizing them from an Astros uniform. His 31 home runs and 97 RBI carried the team when Pujols struggled earlier in the year and when Matt Holliday was out with, well, whatever ailment he was out with at the time.

Holliday’s year was like something out of House, M.D. After getting three hits, including a home run, on opening day, he had to have an emergency appendectomy. He then had a quadriceps injury in May that kept him out for about a week. He also had a finger issue that sidelined him in September and reoccurred in the playoffs. He was taken off the roster for Game 7 of the World Series after injuring his pinky and spraining his wrist in Game 6. It got so bad that when a moth landed in the ear of a player, well, you knew it had to be Holliday. Between all the injuries, Holliday was his productive self and none of the injuries look to affect him in the future.

Center field was the domain of Colby Rasmus, whose tumultuous time in St. Louis came to a halt in July when he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for Edwin Jackson, Marc Rzepczynski, Octavio Dotel and Corey Patterson. Rasmus was having another down year and there was friction again between him and Tony La Russa. John Mozeliak was blasted for that trade at the time, but there is no way the Cardinals are kings of the baseball world without it.

The Cards also got key contributions from Allen Craig, Jon Jay, and occasionally Schumaker out in the outfield, covering for when Holliday was hurt or when the matchups did not favor Rasmus.

Top Offensive Player
For once, this award would not go to Albert Pujols. Pujols did not hit .300 or drive in 100 runs for the first time in his career, though he did have one memorable October night deep in the heart of Texas. However, Lance Berkman put up better all around numbers and was more consistent throughout the year. With an offense that rated fifth in batting average, third in on-base percentage, and sixth in slugging throughout baseball, there were a number of players that had outstanding years at the plate, but Berkman topped them all.

Top Pitcher
You could consider players like Jason Motte and Fernando Salas, two parts of that overhauled bullpen, but there is really no doubt that this was Chris Carpenter’s team. Carpenter was not perfect, was not the consistently dominant force that Cardinal fans saw in 2004-2006, but he still was able to come through when it mattered and his dominant, bulldog personality brought to mind another warrior in red that toed a different Busch Stadium mound.

Daniel Shoptaw
C70 At The Bat
@C70

The end of the regular season was one of the most exciting in history for the Cardinals and the post-season seems to be living up to the hype.

I have been covering the NLDS between the Cardinals and Phillies for Baseball Digest. You can read my in depth thoughts on the series daily at that site or by clicking here.

The Phillies set out to send a message in game one of the series, and they did just that, beating the Cardinals easily despite an early lead provided by a three run blast from the Big Puma himself, Lance Berkman.

Game two seemed to be everything the Cardinals needed it to be. Chris Carpenter struggled in three innings of work in his first every start on short rest in his career. After spotting the Phillies four runs with Cliff Lee on the mound, the Redbirds went to work and overcame the deficit to win the game 5-4.

The series now shifts to St. Louis for games three and four and has the Cardinals looking to do the exact thing that skipper Tony LaRussa preaches, just win two out of three.

In order to do that, the Cardinals will turn to their home field advantage pitcher, Jaime Garcia. It is time for St. Louis fans to come out in droves and join the Honkin’ For Jaime bandwagon. The Cardinals lefty is much better at home this season and has the opportunity to put the Cards in the driver’s seat for this series.

The Cardinals quest for 11 in ’11 continues on Tuesday night on TBS at 5 p.m. CDT.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.

Well hello there.

My name is Bill Ivie and last year I launched a new Baseball Digest affiliate site known as I-70 Baseball. That site is supported by fourteen writers, a weekly internet radio show, and countless man hours of design, writing, and editing. The site covers the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals on a daily basis. All in all, the site has been successful and given birth to a new company, Ivie League Productions.

At Ivie League Productions, we look to capitalize on the success of that website to produce others similar to it. We also look to continue to provide top quality internet radio programming on a nightly basis. Currently, you can find shows five nights a week from Ivie League Productions, ranging in topics from all over baseball. The Sunday night show that was launched over a month ago is hosted by David Mitchell and Mark Donahue and supports the very site we announce to you today.

Today, it is my pleasure to bring you a team of writers dedicated to covering the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians. The writers here will be impartial observers of the team and will aim to keep the pulse on what you, the fans, are feeling. They have been tasked to bring the best coverage of the teams that they can and I have no doubt they will succeed.

I have said many times that the people that write for me on the various websites I represent are my favorite writers from around the world. This site is no different and I invite you all to add this site to your bookmarks, your Google Readers, or any other way you would like to read the content. The various voices will aim to entertain and inform you in as unique a way as possible while discussing the game we all love.

So welcome, to Battle Of Ohio Baseball, we all hope you enjoy.

Bill Ivie is the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com and the founder of Ivie League Productions.
His love of the game comes second to very few things in his life.
Follow him on Twitter.

One of my favorite projects that I have the pleasure of putting together on a regular basis, Baseball Digest Classic Discussions takes on some of the hard hitting and more personal issues surrounding the game. At the end of August last season, the Discussion series took on the subject role models and higher standards for athletes.

In the series, I suggested that parents and fans take time to learn more about the players that they take their kids to see. Take a look at how the player interacts with fans, the charity work that is done off the field, and the projects that he involves himself in. Today, in the midst of a season ending injury and one of the most disappointing moments in his career, Adam Wainwright moved himself into Role Model status in my mind. In an open letter on a blog site set aside for discussions of fellowship, Wainwright addressed the 2011 season.

I truly believe I was better prepared to play ball this year than ever before. This was supposed to be my year. Everyone I know, and don’t know, was telling me this was my year to win the Cy Young. I had thrown 7 bullpen sessions in preparation to face hitters for the first time, and everything was going great. I honestly can’t remember a time where my delivery and overall confidence in my stuff was even close to where it is now. But, God had different plans than all that for me this year. While facing hitters the first time I felt a twinge in my elbow, and long story short I am scheduled to have Tommy John surgery on monday morning.

Strong in his faith, the result was a heart tugging, inspiring, and emotional. He takes his reader through the thought process of a teammate, an athlete, a husband and a Christian. During one point of his open letter, he stated:

I believe I can still greatly impact God’s Kingdom from this disabled list. And if any of you people who I just bragged about catch me slippin….please slap me around.

Not many people can admit the challenge they face is minor in the grand scheme of things. Very few athletes take the time to thank God for an injury instead of a strikeout. Not many athletes would take the time, just days after a season ending diagnosis, to reach out with a very personal letter to his fans.

The Cardinals have an ace on their staff and in the clubhouse. It is not because of his 20-win seasons or climbing strikeout rates. It is not because of his bull dog attitude or ability to command respect. It is because he is a teammate, a friend, a hard worker, and a man strong in his faith.

You can read the entire transcript here.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.

During the overrun period of I-70 Baseball Radio Monday, the first of many announcements for 2011 was made concerning the network of sites, broadcasts, and voices that will be featured going forward.

The first part of this announcement was the creation of Ivie League Productions, a parent company that will oversee the production of multiple sites and the various outlets that those sites will provide.

Along those lines, I-70 Baseball is being billed as the flagship enterprise of this new company, providing a solid footprint of hos things can be done successfully when providing this coverage. I-70 will continue to bring fans a one hour radio show every week, new articles about the Cardinals and Royals on a daily basis, and social media outreaches through Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis. The same great coverage our fans have come to expect will continue to be present throughout 2011.

I-70 Baseball and Ivie League Productions are proud to announce the newest member of the family, Battle Of Ohio Baseball. The team of writers at Battle Of Ohio Baseball will provide daily insight into the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians. The site will launch during Spring Training 2011 and will be supported by a separate, hour long radio show to be featured under the Ivie League Productions network on Blog Talk Radio. Battle Of Ohio Baseball is the latest Official Baseball Digest website set to launch.

All of us at I-70 Baseball look forward to working with the new team at Battle Of Ohio Baseball in 2011 and beyond.

You can find Battle Of Ohio Baseball on Facebook here.
You can find Battle Of Ohio Baseball on Twitter here.

“A star works at being a star … that’s how you tell a star in baseball. He shows up night after night and takes pride in how brightly he shines. He’s Wilie Mays running so hard his hat keeps falling off; Ty Cobb sliding to stretch a single into a double; Lou Gehrig, after being fooled in his first two at-bats, belting the next pitch off the light tower because he’s taken the time to study the pitcher. Stars never take themselves for granted. That’s why they’re stars.” – Jim Murray

Jim Murray was one of the greatest sportswriters who ever lived, and his excellence earned him a Pulitzer Prize as well as enshrinement in the Baseball Hall Of Fame. One of the great things about the Internet and social media is that I have found there are thousands of budding Jim Murrays out there.

If you’re one of these once and future baseball scribes, you can show off your writing chop by entering to win the BaseballDigest.com BASEBALL Essay Contest!

Entering is easy, just go to the Baseball Digest Facebook page, sign up, and post what your essay is going to be about*. Then, send your essay (no more than 500 words) to Baseball Digest Online Editor Mark Healey (mhealey@baseballdigest.com).

If your essay is chosen as a winner, it will be published on BaseballDigest.com and you’ll be entered to win the Grand Prize of a copy of “BASEBALL” The 2010 DVD Boxed Set (which includes The Tenth Inning).

*Only entries by certified Baseball Digest Facebook followers are eligible to be selected for the Grand Prize drawing.

Special thanks to Matt Wilson from Baseball Digest for taking over for me the last couple weeks while I was on vacation.

With two weeks remaining in the season the Cardinals take to the road. They travel to Florida on Monday for a make-up game, then on to Pittsburgh and Chicago for a three games series each respectively. Here are some Cardinals that must be in your lineup till seasons end.

Albert Pujols batted .292 with four home runs and 10 RBI’s over the last 11 games. Even though the batting average may not be where we are used to seeing it, he is still doing enough to be active in all fantasy formats. On the season Pujols is batting .308 with 39 home runs and 107 RBI’s while scoring 104 runs. He has batted .340 with eight home runs and 19 RBI’s against this week’s opponents.

Matt Holliday is currently on an 11 game hitting streak. During this streak, he is batting .439 with two home runs, 11 RBI’s and scoring seven runs. He is having another solid second half which fantasy owners have grown to love and expect. Against this week opponents he is batting .366 with two home runs and 16 RBI’s. No reason to expect anything less from Holliday for the final two weeks. He should be active in all fantasy formats.

Colby Rasmus hit his 23^rd home run Sunday against San Diego and has shown he has returned to early season form. This month he is batting .371 with four home runs and 10 RBI’s while scoring 14 runs. He remains a viable option for the final two weeks.

Adam Wainwright dominating stuff returned Sunday against San Diego. He recorded his 19^th win on the season. He struck out seven, walked three, and allowed one earned run through eight innings. Wainwright lowered his season ERA to 2.45. He is scheduled to pitch Friday against Chicago. His last outing against the Cubs on September 14^th, he took the loss while allowing five earned runs and striking out eight. Despite not being as dominate as he was earlier, Wainwright should be active in all formats until seasons end.

Chris Carpenter is scheduled to pitch Monday at Florida and Saturday at Chicago making him a two start pitcher this week. He allowed 11 earned runs in his last two starts and has lost three of last four. He has 15 wins and a 3.21 ERA this season. Since Carpenter is a two start pitcher for the week, he should be a must start option.

No other Cardinals are worth being active to give your fantasy team the help you need for the final two weeks. Best of luck and hope you had a successful fantasy baseball season.