You know the United Cardinal Bloggers for their fine writing and their passion for the Cardinals. Now they want to inform you even more. Beginning with the July 23rd series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the UCB will be providing a series preview email entitled “The Bird’s Eye View.” This preview, written each series by a different blogger, will get you up to speed on the next few games. Each preview will have its own style and voice, but will always bring you great information and links that you need to be ready for the upcoming series.

So, if you want to get this exciting collaboration mailed straight to your inbox, please fill out the form below and make sure utdcardbloggers@gmail.com is on your approved senders list. Then sit back and enjoy!

You can also access the sign up sheet by clicking here.

In case you want to know, participating bloggers as of this moment:

Christine Coleman, Aaron Miles’ Fastball
Bill Ivie, I70 Baseball
Randy and Ryan Knuppel, Saint Louis Sports
Tom Knuppel, CardinalsGM
Chris Mallonee, Birds On The Bat 82
Bob Netherton, On The Outside Corner
J.D. Norton, Bleed Cardinal Red With Me
Daniel Shoptaw, C70 At The Bat
Tara Wellman, Aaron Miles’ Fastball

The Royals are heading in the right direction once again. Sweeping the Twins at home and looking good while doing it gives more sparks to the fire of success that has started to grow in Kansas City this baseball season. The Twins, who have plagued this franchise for over a decade, were absolutely out hit and pitched the whole series.

Photo Courtesy of Minda Haas

The series against Baltimore proved to be a challenge against not only their opponent but also the very stadium in which it was played. In the Wednesday night game Aviles hit a rocket to the gap and circled the bases for what appeared to be an inside the park home run. This score was wiped out due to the ball being stuck at the bottom of the outfield fence. (So much for home field, advantage) If this had happened to last year’s team, it would have sent them spiraling into one of their five game or more losing streak. Not this year though. The Royals responded the next night with a 9-1 shelling to clinch the series. Who knew Bruce Chen was this good?

Jason Kendall and Robinson Tejada are recovering and rehabbing but are being very cautious though. The Royals called up Eric Hosmer from Omaha, and demoted the struggling Kila Ka’aihue. With this move, it definitely has the potential of increasing an offense that needed at least one stronger bat in the lineup. Although, one could make the case that the Royals were doing okay by platooning Betemit and Aviles at third and first base since both are hitting well.

Friday night marked the return of David DeJesus to Kansas City. The Athletics pulled out a tight one but if this season has taught us anything, it will not keep this young team down for too long. They are still above .500 and in second place in their division, which is still exceeding any expectations. They have a tough week coming up going to New York and then to Detroit.

The Yankees struggled this week at Detroit, losing the last three games of the series. Detroit is nipping at the Royals heels in the division. A little bit of pressure early in the season against these quality teams will be a very good barometer of how far the Royals have come since last year.

The Royals hot bats have ended the week on top of the American League rankings in batting average, doubles and triples, while finishing second in on-base percentage. Their defense and pitching are on the upward swing. A call up on the pitching side of things could be in the near future if the young prospects continue to show promise and current roster members continue to struggle.

Being positively consistent is the key to success in this game and the Royals are showing that they are very capable of being just that.

The following information is provided to us by the staff for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. The I-70 rivalry meets at the Double-A level this week and the teams will host any current and former military members for free.

Series Preview: Naturals hope to stay dry against Cards

Through the first two weeks of divisional play, weather has played as big of a role as either the Naturals or their various opponents. Since the first 12 games of the season – all against South Division foes – the Naturals have endured six rainouts, only two of which have been made up to this point.

Such weather interruptions have resulted in a fragmented schedule, as rain forced the Naturals to miss three straight days of games between Apr. 23 through 25 and go another two days without playing entering this homestand, due to rain in North Little Rock. Such gaps are extremely rare in the regular schedule, as teams get one travel day between certain series and only during the All-Star break are there two scheduled days off in a row.

For their part, the Naturals battled through this inconsistent schedule to finish the road trip at 3-3, with two games left to be made up in June when the team next heads to North Little Rock. Each of the Naturals’ wins came courtesy of strong starting pitching, highlighted by Will Smith’s outing on Apr. 28 in which he allowed just one run over 7 1/3 innings – the longest appearance for any Naturals hurler this season. Mario Santiagofollowed with an impressive performance in a spot start, working six shutout innings in a win over the Travelers two days later. The Naturals’ offense played its part as well, as both Mario Lisson and Jamie Romak homered on back-to-back days during the trip.

While the Naturals’ week kept them near the .500 mark, Tulsa took the opportunity to move ahead in the standings at 13-9, one game ahead of Northwest Arkansas – though the Naturals have two games in hand thanks to the weather. The Travelers sit 2 1/2 games back at 9-0, with these visiting Cardinals a little off the pace at 9-14.

In terms of highly-rated talent, the Cardinals lag behind the rest of the teams in the Texas League’s North Division. Part of that is the result of St. Louis’ place at No. 24 in Baseball America’s organization rankings, but even within the system, most of the Cardinals’ talent is elsewhere in the minor leagues. In particular, the team’s top two prospects, right-hander Shelby Miller and third baseman Zack Cox, both currently play for Advanced-A Palm Beach and could reach Springfield before the end of the season. But for now, Springfield’s roster contains just two players among the organization’s top 30 prospects – catcher Steven Hill (No. 29, currently on the disabled list) and shortstop Ryan Jackson (No. 30).

Despite the team’s slow start, the Cardinals feature a pair of potent forces in the middle of their order. Outfielder Alex Castellanos leads his team with six home runs this season, while first baseman Matthew Adams sits just behind with five. Each player victimized Naturals pitching during the team’s recent series in Springfield.

The series opens up on Tuesday night as Chris Dwyer (1-2, 4.19) takes the mound for the first time since suffering a tough-luck loss against the Cardinals on Apr. 26, when two of the three runs he allowed were unearned. He’ll face Springfield’s Nick Additon (1-0, 2.60), who pitched eight innings of two-run ball against the Naturals on Apr. 27 and has recorded 25 strikeouts against only one walk this season.

After a quick turnaround, the teams will play the second game of the series at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Tasked with the early wake-up call will be John Lamb (0-1, 3.86) and Deryk Hooker (0-3, 9.16). Lamb turned in his best start of the year his last time out, allowing two runs (both unearned) over five innings against Springfield on Apr. 27. Hooker allowed four runs over six innings against the Naturals on Apr. 28 and has now lost each of his last three starts.

Thursday marks a return to the typical evening start time, as Smith (1-2, 6.48) pitches for the first time since that impressive outing on Apr. 28. Scheduled to start for Springfield is Michael Blazek (1-1, 5.55), who has given up at least three runs in each of his starts but struck out a season-high eight last time out.

The series wraps up on Friday night, when Heath Rollins (0-2, 6.35) looks to regain the form he showed in his first start of the season, when he allowed just one run on three hits in six solid innings. He matches up against Scott Schneider (1-2, 2.83), who has three quality starts this season but has gotten only enough run support to win one, when he beat Midland on Apr. 18. Schneider has racked up 23 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings this season.

Naturals offer Military free tickets

SPRINGDALE, AR – Inspired by the bravery of the Navy Seals in Sunday night’s mission in Pakistan, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals would like to recognize and thank all military members – active and retired – with free tickets to any of the next four home games at Arvest Ballpark, starting Tuesday evening.

Two free tickets in the best available seating will be offered with presentation of a military ID at the ticket window. This offer is valid for games through Friday evening only and is not valid with any other offer.

“The amazing work of our military is appreciated every day,” Naturals’ General Manager Eric Edelstein said. “In light of our military’s recent accomplishments abroad, we want to extend a special thank you to those who serve so we may enjoy our freedom.”

In addition, since Arvest Ballpark opened, the Naturals have offered a standing $1 ticket discount to active and retired Military at every home game. Like this special offer, that discount is accessible by presenting a military ID at the ticket office window.

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are the Double-A Texas League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals and play at state-of-the-art Arvest Ballpark, located in Springdale. The Naturals have a toll-free ticket hotline (1-877-444-2637) for fans to purchase Naturals tickets. Our website, nwanaturals.com offers fans the opportunity to purchase tickets online and avoid lines at the ticket windows by printing their tickets at home or at the office.

The Royals were involved in four close games this week (won by two runs or less) and were able to come out on top in two of them. What this translates to me is that the pitching, which was heavily in question since the off-season with the trading of Zack Greinke, Gil Meche retiring and a handful or green bullpen candidates, has been doing their job of keeping the games within reach for the offense to step up and win the game.

Photo Courtesy of Minda Haas

However, it has been hit or miss this week when it comes crunch time for the Royals offense. The Royals have stranded 46 runners in the first six games of the week, including twenty in the last two games against Cleveland. The Royals cannot afford to leave a small village of base runners every single night.

It’s not all bad news though for the Royals offense. They have four every day lineup players batting at or over .329 after Friday nights contest. These four players also make up the 3-6 in the lineup, which you would expect your best hitters to be. However, Getz the leadoff hitter needs to ramp it up a notch after this week. He only has two hits this week, which took his average from a mediocre .269 down to .239 after Friday’s contest. As a team the Royals are currently tied for first in the American league in batting average (.269), rank second in on base percentage (.340) and first in stolen bases with 26.

The pitching and defense have both moved up a few slots in terms of performance related stats this week as well. No longer at the bottom or near it, they are in the middle of the pack in the American League. With strong consistent efforts by the likes of Alex Gordon (leads A.L. outfielders in assists) and the rest of the outfield, the defense will continue to progress and get better as the season goes on. The catchers, who are often unsung heroes of the defense, have stepped up very well this month. They have thrown out six runners and only allowed ten stolen bases, which is good enough to be in the top five in both categories.

The Royals have a tough week ahead against the defending American League champions (Rangers) before getting a day off, and facing off against Cleveland again for a three game set. Then they come back home to face the Twins next weekend. A tough stretch of games, but if the Royals can find a way to get some timely hits over the next five or six games, they may be at the top of the division by next weekend.

The excellent website, Royals Treatment, provides I-70 Baseball with series previews this season for the Kansas City Royals games. Kansas City travels to Texas to take on the defending American League Champion Texas Rangers in The Ballpark In Arlington.

The Melk-man delivered again with a clutch game-tying & go-ahead RBI single off astound Indians closer Chris Perez on Thursday night inching the Royals that much closer to the division lead. They now travel deep into Texas for a series with the reigning AL Champion Rangers! :

Fri. Apr. 22. 7:05 pm CT - Jeff Francis (0-1, 3.00) v. Derek Holland (2-1, 3.66)

Sat. Apr. 23. 7:05 pm CT – Kyle Davies (1-1, 7.20) v. Alexi Ogando (2-0, 2.33)

Sun. Apr. 24. 2:05 pm CT – Bruce Chen (3-0, 2.42) v. C.J. Wilson (2-0, 3.08)

This series features a pair of tremendous left-handed pitching duels, sandwiched around a date with an elite rookie Rangers flamethrower in Ogando. The ball flies out of The Ballpark at Arlington so regardless of who’s on the mound, plentiful amounts of runs should still be put on the board.

You can read the remainder of the series preview by clicking here.

Make sure you drop by our friends, Cards Droppings, for their analysis and generally solid baseball coverage. Thanks to them, we bring you a series preview for the Cardinals and Dodgers.

Now that the slugfest in Arizona is over, the Cardinals travel to Hollywood to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers. I’m sure all of the Cardinal hitters would love to stay at Chase Field, as Dodger Stadium is a much tougher place to hit. In three games against Arizona, the Cardinals went from being at the bottom of the league in hitting all the way up to fourth. They scored 31 runs in three games, and the early season talk (from me, admittedly) about our struggling offense has vanished. Even washed up Albert Pujols has raised his average above the Mendoza line. Now, the team moves on to a four game set with LA and their very formidable pitching staff. Hopefully we can keep the offense rolling, but that will be a tough task.

The Dodgers are managed by Don Mattingly, aka Donnie Baseball. He was a childhood favorite of mine, and my mom spent countless hours (and dollars) shuttling me around to various baseball card shops looking for that Mattingly card that I just “had to have”. I still have the collection, and if it wasn’t for Mattingly’s notoriously bad back, that said collection would be worth quite a bit more than it is today. Perhaps if Mattingly finds his calling as a manager, he’ll make it into the HOF after all. He’s got a long way to go, and with the offense that the Dodgers have, he’ll have to be Casey Stengel, Gene Mauch, Earl Weaver and Sparky Anderson all wrapped into one.

The Cardinals will get to say hello to former teammate Blake Hawksworth as well. He was traded for Ryan Theriot, so I’m sure he’ll be looking forward to facing his former mates (save for perhaps Albert Pujols).

Offensively, the Dodgers are a bit rough around the edges, to say the least. Outfielders Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp are superstars and I’m sure they’ll do their share of damage this weekend. Kemp really seems to have found himself this year and a lot of the baggage that he’s carried with him in previous seasons seems to have vanished. Maybe it was the breakup with Rhianna that made him a changed man. Ethier hits lefthanded, and I’m sure that we’ll see a Trever Miller / Ethier matchup more than once this series. It’s a bit unfortunate that the Cardinals will be without a second lefthander due to the Brian Tallet injury. It would have been nice to have him available to face both Ethier and first baseman James Loney. Other than the aforementioned Ethier and Kemp, the Dodgers are really pretty brutal. Tony Gwynn Jr is nowhere near the player his dad was (although we’ll see Marcus Thames in the lineup against the lefty Garcia tonight). Shortstop Rafael Furcal is already out with an injury, and he’ll be replaced by Jamey Carroll. At third, Casey Blake is serviceable at best. Rod Barajas, Juan Uribe and James Loney aren’t that great, either. Bottom line–this should be a team that can be pitched to. We’ll see if the Cardinal hurlers can actually execute that.

The strength of the Dodgers is their pitching. We’ll face three very tough pitchers this series in Kershaw, Billingsley and Kuroda. In relief, the Dodgers have fireballer Jonathan Broxton and dominate lefty Hon Chi Kuo. Matt Guerrier is another tough righty and former Cardinal Mike MacDougal is familiar to all of you redbird fans.

Check out the pitching matchups and in depth breakdown of each game by clicking here.

Make sure you drop by our friends, Cards Droppings, for their analysis and generally solid baseball coverage. Thanks to them, we bring you a series preview for the Cardinals and Diamondbacks.

The Cardinals travel from San Francisco to Arizona, having dropped two of three to the Giants. If we had a decent closer, it’s very possible that we could have swept that series. Enough of that for now, as this is supposed to be a preview of the series with the Diamondbacks.

Arizona is off to a 4-4 start on the young season, but they just took two of three from the ’27 Yankees, er, I mean the Reds. They are led by manager Kirk Gibson, he of the “I don’t believe what I just saw” fame. The Cardinals really need their bats to wake up, and Arizona’s home stadium is a great place for offense. Hopefully with Matt Holliday back, we can finally begin to see the true potential of this team’s offense.

Our lineup tonight includes Holliday, Berkman, Pujols and Rasmus for the first time since Opening Day: Theriot 6, Rasmus 8, Pujols, 3, Holliday, 7, Berkman 9, Freese 5, Schumaker 7, Molina 2, McClellan 1. I sure wish TLR would consider swapping Berkman and Rasmus. I think Berkman is going to have a higher OBP at the end of the season and it would be nice to give guys like Pujols and Holliday chances to drive him in. Although, now that I say that, all it would do right now is give Albert more chances to ground into double plays…

Arizona has a lot of potential in its lineup, although it is one that can be pitched to. The offense is anchored by outfielders Justin Upton and Chris Young. Shortstop Stephen Drew, catcher Miguel Montero and second baseman Kelly Johnson are also threats, especially from the left side of the plate. All of these guys strike out at a pretty high rate, so hopefully our pitchers can avoid mistakes and give us a good shot at winning the series. The Diamondback bullpen is nothing too special, although JJ Putz and David Hernandez are going to be fairly tough at the back end of a game.

The Diamondbacks definitely figure to be one of the weaker teams in the National League this year, so it’s vital for the Redbirds to take two of three before they move onto a four game series at Dodger Stadium.

Check out the pitching matchups and in depth breakdown of each game by clicking here.

Joe White from Cards Droppings continues to breakdown the upcoming Cardinals series as they arrive. Here is his thoughts on the Cardinals trip to the Bay Area to face the Giants.

After a rough opening week, the Cardinals head west on an extended road trip. Over the next ten days, the team travels to San Francisco, Arizona and Los Angeles. For the sake of the Cardinal hitters, one would think that it may be beneficial to have a change of scenery. After managing only eight extra base hits (to go along with 10 DP’s) against the golden arms of the Pirates and the Giants, the team has to face the defending World Series champion and pitchers that actually will have an ERA under 5.00 this year. It’s going to be a tough task for the team, as it’s the Giants’ home opener and they’ll be getting their World Series rings. Hopefully this provides a little extra motivation for the Redbirds as well. AT&T Park (the Giants’ home park) is tough place to hit, and it’s even tougher when the opposing team has a staff as talented as San Francisco. Luckily, the Cardinals will miss two time Cy Young Winner Tim Lincecum and talented second year pitcher Madison Bumgarner. There is no word yet on whether or not Matt Holliday will be back with the team, but the hope here is that he’ll be able to play. Having his bat in the lineup against the two lefties we’ll see this series could prove pivotal.

The Giants have a very talented team, as evidenced by their World Series title last year. Rookie of the Year Buster Posey anchors the team’s offense. He’s an outstanding catcher and an even better hitter. They have another rookie this year, 1B Brandon Belt. He’s struggled a little bit to start the season, but the Giants deemed him talented enough to move Aubrey Huff back to the outfield. Pablo Sandoval at third base has lost over forty pounds and he’s out to prove that he’s still very capable of becoming a superstar.

San Francisco has had a bit of hard luck to start off the year, with injuries to closer Brian Wilson and postseason hero Cody Ross. Wilson is back with the team now, and will be available to close. Ross is still several weeks away. They, like the Cardinals, have started off the 2011 campaign with a 2-4 record. Let’s hope, for the Cardinals’ sake, that we’re catching them at a good time.

Take a look at Joe’s game by game breakdown by clicking here.

Our new friends over at Rant Sports have Connor Nielen covering the Royals for their network site, Royal Treatment. Connor provides series previews and I-70 has reached an agreement to bring his excellent work to our readers in exchange for introducing our readers to his excellent site. So give his site a read and check out his thoughts on the Detroit Series.

Falling just three outs short of a fifth straight victory, the Royals can hold their heads up high after splitting a back-and-forth series with the White Sox in which the teams combined to score 30 runs in just two games. Kansas City now begins their first road-trip of the season, heading to Detroit for a trio of contests with the division-rival Tigers:

Fri. Apr. 8. 2:05 pm CT – Kyle Davies (0-0, 6.75) v. Max Scherzer (1-0, 10.80)

Sat. Apr. 9. 3:10 pm CT – Bruce Chen (0-0, 9.00) v. Phil Coke (0-1, 7.71)

Sun. Apr. 10. 12:05 pm CT – Luke Hochevar (0-0, 6.17) v. Rick Porcello (0-0, 9.00)

You can read Connor’s in depth analysis of the series by clicking here.

The regular season will come to a close on September 28th this year, but that does not mean the month will be easy for a club that should find themselves in contention.

The Cardinals will face off against some tough division foes and some tough teams in general in September. The team will travel to Philadelphia for a four game series that may be a Divisional Series Preview. A home stand will see six games between the Cards and the Reds and Brewers in a battle for the division title. Relief may be in site the last week of the season, but teams like the Mets, Cubs and Astros always prove to be a strong foe, despite what the records show.

September Breakdown:

Total Games: 26

Home: 15

Road: 11

Vs teams with winning records in 2010: 10

Vs teams with losing records in 2010: 16

Vs teams in the NL Central: 16

Key Series:

September 2-4 vs Cincinnati – the Reds roll into town as the defending Central Division champs and both teams will try to ensure the other is buried in the standings by the end of this one. A heated rivalry that is sure to spark interest in the months leading to Fall, the two divisional favorites will converge for their final three game set to see if one of them can claim supremacy.

September 5-7 vs Milwaukee – are the Reds not enough of a threat to you? Right as they leave town, Milwaukee will square off with the Redbirds for the final time in 2011. The most improved team in the division this off-season will look to leave their mark, and hope to have their pitching staff in tact, in this early September battle for the NL Central crown.

Key To a Hot September:

Again, the Cardinals have to win the games against the weaker opponents and prove that they are a superior team. In addition, with teams like the Reds, Brewers, and Phillies on the schedule, they also need to show their dominance of those franchises and prove that they belong in the post-season discussion.

At the end of September:

If the Cardinals have 16+ wins… they are probably doing just enough to prove that they deserve the division crown and to show they belong in the playoffs. They may need to perform just a little better than this to be considered playoff contenders, though.

If the Cardinals are above .500… they are not doing enough. This team, this late in the season, needs to put the final nail in the coffin of multiple opponents to get the job done.

If the Cardinals are below .500… the only hope is that it’s 2006 all over again and they can back their way into the playoffs. I don’t see it this season, however. The team, the competition, the division is not stacked up that way.

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.