Past The Midpoint

All right, this is getting ridiculous.  Save a Christmas parody and a devotional, I’ve not written in this space in almost a month.  December’s always a busy time for me (and for most people) and so blogging does tend to take the back seat around the holidays.  (Speaking of, hope you and your family had a great one and best wishes for a happy new year.)

Then again, it’s not like I’ve missed out on anything.  All that’s over at the Post-Dispatch site is a report on Carlos Martinez and his winter league results, a discussion with Red Schoendienst about the young pitching, and a couple of Bernie Miklasz columns that. while good, repackage a lot of points we’ve discussed in the past.  In other words, there just isn’t much going on.

It’s hard to blame John Mozeliak for this.  Well, actually it’s not hard to blame him for it, because it is at least in part his fault, but griping because a guy is so good at his job that he takes care of all the needs before the Thanksgiving turkey is cold seems a bit counterproductive.  While not all the questions on this club have been answered, the only ones that haven’t will take the input of spring training to solve, not the juggling of player assets and/or cash in the offseason.

There is hope, though.  My friend Dan Day every year calculates the Baseball Solstice.  It’s the midpoint between the last out of the World Series and the first games of spring training.  The Solstice was yesterday, meaning that we are now on the downhill side of things.  (Even more so since the calculation isn’t until when pitchers and catchers report, which would shift it by a couple of weeks.)

After you get past ringing in the new year, there are mileposts along the way to help you mark the time.  First off, the Hall of Fame election will take place next week and we’ll have a lot of baseball to debate as no doubt some qualified people are left off the ballot.  The Baseball Bloggers Alliance released their recommendation this morning, selecting Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas, and Tom Glavine.  We’ll have to see how close they are to the actual results.

The Winter Warm-Up will be in just three weeks and there’s likely to be some news come out of there.  In the past, a select group of bloggers has been granted media credentials for this event and I would expect that to happen again.  In fact, your humble correspondent is actually thinking about going this year, rather than farming it out to others, though that’s still up for debate (and, of course, contingent on being invited!)

Pitchers and catchers report right about Valentine’s Day, which is the best gift you could get for the occasion.   We’re talking just 45 days from now, right?  We can make 45 days, surely.  Then the news will pick up, with people trying to win spots on the roster.  Who goes north, Pete Kozma or Daniel Descalso?  Will either Jason Motte or Jaime Garcia (or both) be ready for prime time after their surgeries?  Will Oscar Taveras force his way onto the roster?  These are the kind of things that we’ll be talking about.

Until then, we watch, wait, and try to come up with something to fill the page.  Tomorrow the UCB tackles the Top 5 Stories of 2013, which is always fun.  After that, who knows?  Just keep checking back, because we need each other to get through this trying time!

  • Daniel Day December 30, 2013, 5:57 pm

    It’s great to be on the downhill slope, picking up speed! Happy new year. Dan

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