A Preview A Day Keeps the Winter Away, #7

For the month of March I will be doing a season preview, with a new team each day, going in alphabetical order by team so I can save the Yankees for last, because I am, in fact, that devious.

As this is a Yankees' blog, the previews for AL East teams will be more detailed than those of AL Central and AL West teams, and any AL team previews will be more detailed than NL team previews, save maybe for the Mets. Each preview will involve consideration of how much 'threat' a team is to the Yankees, for fairly obvious reasons.

Up Today: The St. Louis Cardinals

I'm going to let you guys in on a little secret: the 2007 Cardinals were, more or less, the immediate inspiration for The Season. All the off-field problems they had to deal with would be enough to ruin any season; that the Cardinals stayed in the running until near the very end speaks volumes.

Rick Ankiel had some amazing heroics last year, and Albert Pujols is arguably the NL's greatest player, but their starting rotation has been bit bad by the injury bug, and Tony LaRussa is rumored to be a, shall we say, interesting presence in the clubhouse?

Yeah. It's a wonder this team won the World Series in 2006, but then I generally think of that entire baseball season as an anamoly.

Anyway.

Threat to the Yankees: Green, Proceed Normally.

In the NL Central, the Cardinals have to contend with the Cubs and the Brewers, and in the Wild Card, the entire NL West (save the Giants). The likelihood they will have any impact on the Yanks is extremely slight.


(I know this was a really short one but I'm tired and have to drive four hours tomorrow, and, yeah, it's not like the Cardinals are in the same league, let alone the same division).