I know I posted something similar before, but I didn't get much of a response since it was June and we are getting to the point where I would need to do something.

I live in AZ and I can't wait for the Cards to visit the Valley of the Sun. I know its cold with a slight chance of colder in Kentucky in December and I hope a lot of people are planning on coming out to Phoenix for the big game - Pitino vs Tubby.

I would love to set-up a "Cards bar" here in AZ for the game if any of you are interested. I do need a bit of a headstart on things to do so and because of that I apologize for leap-frogging football season a bit.

For those reasons, I would like to know who is planning/thinking of coming out for the game and where in Phoenix the group plans on staying?

If you are one of the other numerous Cards bloggers out there, then please direct your readers over to this post and give a response.

I want to turn Phoenix into a Cards hotbed for that weekend, so please let me know.

Regards,

Evan - M.S. 2004

I don't know if any of you are reading the NFC West blog on ESPN, but Mike Sando has created massive sortable rosters in an Excel spreadsheet. Sando describes it best:

The rosters I maintain for each team feature 25 columns of information for each player. They show current players at the top, ranked in descending order of jersey numbers, followed below by every player who has been on the roster or visited as a free agent over the last year or so.

Here is the link: http://www.mediafire.com/?dy3yoja1jij

The D'backs just traded Bonifacio to the Nats for P Jon Rauch. I just got the text from KTAR.

Link

Rauch, who took over as the Nats closer when Chad Cordero injured his shoulder in April, was 4-2 with a 2.98 ERA. The 29-year-old covered 17 of his 22 save opportunities. Rauch, who made $1.2 million this year, is set to make $2 million next season and there is a club option for 2010 at $2.9 million.

[Tidied up and promoted to the front page. Here are my thoughts on the deal. Jim]

This looks to me like we just got Qualls v2.0. Before you cringe, let me point out that by this, I mean Rauch is a decent quality [ERA+ of 127, 117 and 144 over the past three years]  reliever, who throws a lot of innings and will be under our control for a relatively-long term.

In fact, he has the most innings in the majors of any "pure" reliever [90% or more of appearances in relief] since the start of 2006, and gives Arizona two of the top five:

1. Jon Rauch: 227
2. Aaron Heilman: 225.1
3. Scott Proctor: 220.1
4. Chad Qualls: 216.1
5. Saul Rivera: 210

The trade also means Randy Johnson is no longer the tallest player on the roster: if you remember the recent Washington series, you'll likely recall Rauch, who is listed at 6'11" and 291 lbs...

Losing Bonifacio does remove one of the major possibilities as far as replacing Hudson goes. If we don't re-sign the O-Dawg, we are going to have either to trade for someone or make a major shift in position for someone currently occupying another spot. But, for the moment, it certainly strengthens our pen, at the cost of someone who was only a fringe player on the current roster.

We need to get some support on this page. Cgolden is putting work into this and I know there are Cards fans out there. Let's get this page going and make it one of the best on the SBN. Univ of Phoenix Stadium is sold out every Sunday and I know there are people here in the Valley and elsewhere that can get this thing going. It is NOT embarassing to embrace the Cards!

So I am a Louisville alum living out here in the Valley of the Sun and I was wondering how many of you might be making a trek out here for the game on Dec 20th? If enough decide to come, then I can help with organizing a "home bar" for all Cards fans. The Glendale area of Phoenix is not in the prime-est of locales, so I was thinking of somewhere in Tempe by ASU (my other alma mater.)