Good News For My Readers (Both Of You!)

Every year, my vacation consists of a trip to Ohio, where my wife grew up, to see her family and nowadays let the grandparents see the grandkids.  The first year of this blog (and I can't believe that I let the three year anniversary of this place get past me), Mike from Stan Musial's Stance was nice enough to write both here and his blog during that time.  Last year, I just let the blog sit quiet while I was gone.

This year, I've tapped into some of my connections in the United Cardinal Bloggers and the Baseball Bloggers Alliance to bring you what I think will be quality coverage during my time away.  Honestly, I'm pretty excited to read all the posts myself!

This Friday, July 30, Bill from i70baseball will kick it all off.  Bill's a member of the UCB as well as the BBA and you've probably heard him in his role as part of the UCB Radio Hour.  i70baseball is now starting its third week and is going strong, with the website and its own podcast.

Friday afternoon, we'll have the first of our series previews.  Brian from Raise the Jolly Roger! will be looking at the weekend tilt between the Cardinals and the Pirates.  RTJR is a quality Pirates site and Brian should be able to give us an unique perspective on that three-game matchup.

A week from today is actually my 35th birthday, so it's another day of double posting here at CATB.  First off, Joe Teterault from the BBA blog Teterault Vision will be taking the outsider's view of the NL Central race after the trading deadline has passed.  I look forward to seeing what Joe's opinion is on one of the tightest races in baseball.

Monday afternoon, our friend James from Astros County will stop by and give us the preview of the Houston/St. Louis series.  I'm sure there will be a lot of discussion about Roy Oswalt, whether a trade is made or not.

Tuesday, we'll continue with the NL Central theme as Shawn, another friend of this blog that writes regularly at Cincinnati Reds Blog, will venture into enemy territory to give his perspective on the pennant race.  I'm sure he'll discuss what has to go right for the Reds to stay alive, what worries him about the Cardinals, various things of that nature.

Wednesday, Mike Lynch from the incredibly well-respected blog Seamheads will be in charge.  Mike plans to talk about Austin McHenry, a outfielder on the Cardinal teams back in the early twenties who died during his playing career.  Always good to get a dose of Cardinal history, as rich as it is.

Thursday, Bill will get a second dose of guest blogging, most likely talking about whatever has happened that week and hopefully about a good long winning streak that the Redbirds are on.

The last day of the guest bloggers is another great one.  Friday morning will have Erik Manning, well-known throughout the Cardinal internet universe for his founding of Future Redbirds and his work at many places, including Play A Hard 9.  Whatever Erik will be discussing, it'll be good and backed up with quality stat work.

Our guests wrap up with the last of our previews.  Michael from Marlin Maniac will be breaking down the in-season matchup of the Feathers and Fins spring training rivalry.  There might even be some Josh Johnson vs. Adam Wainwright for Cy Young discussion....the pitching matchups don't go out that far, but if those two match up, it better be on Saturday or Sunday when I am home to see it.

I hope that you will enjoy the talented writers that will be filling this space during my absence.  I also hope you'll come back to this talentless hack when I return with a minimum of complaining!