Okay, so maybe I didn’t come up with “Season’s Readings” all on my own, but once I heard it, I knew I needed to use it.
As the year winds down and the holiday spirit(s) settle(s) in, I’m taking a moment to return to my roots here at Viva El Birdos. Today, I’m writing a link post—not just any link post, though, a special one. As a little gratuitous gift to myself, I’m revisiting some of my favorite Viva El Birdos pieces from 2024. So, settle in on this lazy Sunday before New Year’s Eve, and let’s take a stroll through a year of St. Louis Cardinals baseball, memories, and writing that I enjoyed, and I hope you enjoyed too. Thank you all for sticking around for another year!
Let’s kick if off with this delight from our esteemed former editor J.P. Hill. Back in January Jason wrote this post going through each Dungeons and Dragons class and assigned St. Louis Cardinals Greats to them. I have never played D&D, but I listen to NADDPOD (if you know, you know) and watch Dimension 20 and truly enjoy the collaborative story element to it. And then Jason just goes and combines that with baseball? This kicked off 2024 on a high note. (Pete Kozma is obviously a warlock, right?)
Cardinals Legends Play Dungeons ‘N Dragons
Next, we have a pre-season an analytical piece from Adam Akbani about the Cardinals catchers in 2023. The Cardinals pitchers clearly missed having Yadier Molina behind the plate and with the designated hitter in the National League, the Cardinals could have the best of both worlds with Willson Contreras at DH and someone like Iván Herrera at backstop. The graphs in this are fantastic.
Breaking Down The Cardinals’ Catching Conundrum
As Spring Training fired up, so did the players and the umpires and with that I bring you this post from yours truly. I actually had forgotten all about this until I saw it in my list, but apparently Lance Lynn was ejected from a Spring Training game. I broke it down in my “Anatomy of a…” series. It was a lot of fun write this one!
The anatomy of Lance Lynn being ejected from a Spring Training game – A Hunt and Peck
Once the season kicked off, we started to have even more to work with. Along with videos, Blake Newberry wrote this piece of Michael Siani’s incredible catches. In that first video Siani had a 10% catch probability and made it look like it was easy for him. Blake also apparently decided Siani’s D&D class in this one.
The season of course did not get off to the start we had hoped for. Luckily ORSTLcardsfan had some ideas to get things back on track. In this post ORSTLcardsfan analyzes and looks to remedy the various problems the Cardinals were encountering and makes some guess about what they might do.
Potential fixes for a Playoff Run
I have to include a recap of what was an extremely thrilling game. RedbirdNerd covered this game in which the Cardinals won with a walk-off grand slam. At the time the Cardinals did not have a winning record and were five games back of the second Wild Card with time running out. If they wanted to have a chance, they needed to win games like this one. And honestly, even though they ultimately didn’t make the postseason, games like this are the reason why you watch, right?
Walk-off Grand Slam Powers Cardinals past Brewers
The Cardinals did end the season with a winning record despite a negative run differential. While at first glance the season looks like the Cardinals were very lucky, Gabe thinks otherwise. He points out that the Cardinals were incredibly unlucky on both sides of the ball with runners in scoring position. If they hit according to their talent level in those spots, the runs scored increases by about 30 runs, which is still a negative run differential, but not as big of one!
Mid-season was the MLB Daft and with that some draft history. Skyricesq had us covered with this post of in-depth coverage of 1976 high school draft pick Leon Durham. It is part 3 of the series, with parts 1 and 2 linked in the post. Definitely worth a read for those that enjoy draft coverage or Cardinals history!
A History of Cardinal High School Position-Player Draftees Part Three
At the season’s close, we had to break down the Cardinals performance and dr. howl did just that. The doc goes above and beyond in this post, looking at what went right, what went wrong, including fun facts (like the Cardinals played better in night games) and had some lovely parallels between baseball and jazz music.
The 2024 Season Analysis: Failure, Mediocrity or Overperformance? You Decide.
Then there was the talk of rebuilding in the offseason. I enjoy a good optimistic post and Curt delivered with his 4 signs of hope during the Cardinals rebuild. It mentions that the Cardinals have been in the position before and managed to turn around. Quite frankly this is a perfectly normal baseball situation. There is a lot to look forward to and I look forward to it.
4 signs of hope during the Cardinals rebuild
Last, but not least, we look to the future. Jake kicks off his first post for Viva El Birdos with some predictions. Some might say this is (somewhat) bold, but I say it is truly bold. Predictions are tricky! I am not brave enough to make them, which I why I will read these from the comfort of my laptop.
My 5 (somewhat) Bold Offseason Predictions
BONUS!
This is my favorite post of all time from Viva El Birdos. Written by Danup in 2010. I have read it so many times because it is a work of art.
Happy Sunday and happy new year!
