Game 79 Open Thread: July 1, 2005

carp kennedy
11-4, 2.77 4-7, 6.92

SB Nation brother site Beyond the Boxscore is doing a division-by-division analysis of the midseason trade market. nl central analysis is up today, with this bottom-line assessment of the cardinals: "Minor improvements to the bullpen could help. Another starter would be nice. Either way, the Cards are stacked and are the odds-on favorite to take the NL Pennant again. Let's see if they can do it." that assessment gibes with BtB's "power 30" rankings, which have the cardinals in 4th place -- but 1st among the nl clubs. in fact, stl is the only national league team in the top 7; atlanta rates 8th overall, and the cubs are 10th.

you'll notice there's another poll running on the rh sidebar -- our second in two days (!). this one will stay up for a while; it's a new feature on all the SB Nation sites. i'll probably roll it over weekly, depending on the interest level. i'm not always that big on polls, but sometimes they can be illustrative, other times funny, at their best threatening to the social order . . . . anyway, now that the feature's installed we can use it however we want, for ill or good. i'd like your ideas

have a great holiday ev'ybody. i'll be posting the next sev'l days from a remote cabin in the rocky mountains, using a top-secret satellite uplink developed by test-tube-bred cyberbots . . . . . happy bday my country.