Around the Blogs: Year End Edition

When you can't come up with something original to say, steal from those who do.  Let's see what everyone else is talking about.

This whole gimmick is inspired, in part, by the fact that Fungoes' 12 Days of Christmas is going on right now.  It's a holiday tradition that I've been reading for a couple of years and find it entertaining and informative all at the same time!  Pip does a heck of a job with these, so check it out.

The guys over at Future Redbirds are revealing their top prospect list.  Today, it's numbers four through six.  In related news, the Cardinal minor league system has moved up to number eight in the Baseball America rankings, an impressive result since they were dead just a few years ago.  While the change in personnel and focus is the major cause of that, I think Future Redbirds should get a little credit as well.  It's helped the fan base stay informed and demanding better results, plus I wouldn't be surprised if those front office types don't check FR to confirm (or challenge) their own thinking on a prospect.

The lack of activity has riled up Bugs and Cranks, taking their ire out on the ownership group.  I think that case would be stronger if there was just this flurry of activity and the Cardinals weren't any part of it.  But before the winter meetings, the Cards were one of the more active teams.  Since then, not much has happened (save the Yankees buying all the good players, but that has nothing to do with St. Louis ownership).  It'd be nice to see some activity, but I'm far from applying the "greedy" tag to them.

La Beisbolista has continued her "John Mozeliak goes shoe shopping" series.  Johnny Boy finally gets him a new pair, but not the way you expect.

The Redbird Blog tackles the ownership question as well, using a Bernie Mikalsz column as a jumping off point.  I'm in agreement that the moves made so far, coupled with the economic uncertainty, make sense from a competitive standpoint.

With the news of the improvement in the minor league strength of the Redbirds, Viva El Birdos takes a look at the top prospects of 2005, the year of the draft that signaled a change in approach.  And, as a longtime reader of Dan's last blog, it's nice to see that Chris Lambert knew where to find him.

Lots of different stories at the Cardinal section of Bleacher Report.  There's a comparison of the Astros and Cardinals, a discussion about how long Albert Pujols will be a Cardinal, and, yes, another blogger blaming ownership.

Though he's not a part of the UCB (yet), Brian Walton is taking a look at the year's top stories.  He goes beyond the Top Five you'll see in this space tomorrow, though, as he has No.11-15 up at the moment.

And, of course, you can always talk Cardinals at CardsClubhouse.

That'll do it for our trip around the blogs.  Check back tomorrow as we close down 2008 with the UCB project and get ready for 2009.