Tentative Batavia Muckdogs Opening Roster (subscriber content) – The first 27 players expected to become part of the Cardinals’ initial Batavia roster are disclosed.

Springfield Cards: 5 Texas League All-Stars – Five players from the St. Louis Cardinals system are 2011 Texas League All-Stars.

Cardinals Sign 27 Players from June Draft – The St. Louis Cardinals have signed 27 players from the 2011 June First-Year Player Draft.

Subscriber hot news items in the last 72 hours have been posted about Jesus Montero, Kyle Conley, Packy Elkins, Geoff Klein, Robert Stock, Juan Castillo, Virgil Hill, Oscar Taveras and Allen Craig.

Coming soon

In conjunction with the 2011 draftees, I have been getting player bio information into The Cardinal Nation main player database.

Johnson City, Batavia and Gulf Coast League rosters will be updated as their seasons begin. Batavia’s opener is on Friday, Johnson City has an exhibition game on Sunday and the GCL begins next Tuesday.

Shortly after, I will refresh the Roster Matrix here to reflect all of the above.

Finally, in the next week, I will see four clubs in action: Quad Cities, St. Louis, Springfield and Memphis, and will report accordingly.

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Here is a good example looking at how four main sources rolled out the news this week of the St. Louis Cardinals prospects selected to play in the Arizona Fall League.

Note the times and dates of the articles as well as the number of words devoted to Cardinals prospects. Articles are listed in time sequence of posting.

Tuesday, August 25

MiLB.com: 1:00 p.m. (CDT)

“Strasburg, top picks highlight AFL”

0 words (general AFL article did not mention any Cardinals, but rosters were posted elsewhere on site)

The Cardinal Nation: 1:28 p.m. (with a 2:30 p.m. update with individual capsules on all eight players)

“Jones Leads Eight Cards to Arizona Fall League”

1330 words

Future Redbirds blog: 1:48 p.m.

“Arizona Fall League 2009”

87 words

Wednesday, August 26

Post-Dispatch: 10:16 a.m.

“DG’s 10@10: The Cardinals’ Three-Headed Monster”

228 words (item number six in a multi-subject blog post)

The Cardinal Nation blog: 2:28 p.m.

“Cardinals early Arizona Fall League leftovers”

908 words

Post-Dispatch: 3:11 p.m.

“Eight Cardinals prospects to go to Arizona”

169 words (article)

Cardinals AFL coverage	Tuesday words	Wednesday words	Total words
MiLB.com	0	0	0
The Cardinal Nation/TCN blog	1330	908	2238
Future Redbirds	87	0	87
Post-Dispatch	0	397	397

So, there you have it. If you haven’t already, click on the article titles and check them out. Are they all equal in timing and depth of Cardinals-related content delivered?

Further, which one will be reporting live from Arizona for the seventh year in a row and which ones will be following box scores? And don’t forget our best-of-breed Cardinals Minor League Notebook, provided free seven days a week.

Sure, some articles on Scout.com are subscriber-only (the ones referenced here were not), but sometimes, you get what you pay for.

Think about it.

While our name has changed, in terms of site access, nothing has changed – other than a new logo and the fact that the URL thecardinalnation.com will be pointing to stlcardinals.scout.com, instead of here.

All of our writers remain and their content continues uninterrupted, including prospect interviews, team reports, and insider news. Our great free features continue like our daily major and minor league reports, extensive player database with photos and links to an entire career of feature articles, along with free message boards to discuss and debate the Cardinals and their minor league affiliates.

“The Cardinal Nation blog”, thecardinalnationblog.com, continues right here with my more personal commentary and opinion-type pieces.

To summarize the URLs:

Scout.com website, The Cardinal Nation: stlcardinals.scout.com or thecardinalnation.com

My blog, The Cardinal Nation blog: thecardinalnationblog.com

I appreciate your readership and hope you like the changes and increased energy we are bringing to the Scout.com site.

As it has all along, this blog will remain ad-free, clutter-free and will offer new Cardinals news and commentary on a daily basis – because I love what I do. Thanks for stopping by!

That’s right! I am pleased to announce that this blog, “The Cardinal Nation”, will be highlighted on St. Louis’ KSDK Channel 5’s weekly series “This Week In Cardinal Nation” on Sunday.

A segment called “The Cardinals Time Machine” will feature an interview with a youthful Albert Pujols back in Spring Training 2001. Backing that up will be a series of stats from here at TCN demonstrating Pujols’ excellence during the eight-and-a-half record-breaking seasons since.

For those unfamiliar with it, “This Week In Cardinal Nation” is not a highlight show, but instead a light-hearted series that celebrates the fun of the game and romance between the Cardinals and their fans.

Those in the Channel 5 broadcast area can catch “This Week In Cardinal Nation” on KSDK in St. Louis every Sunday at 10 a.m and again at 11 p.m. In addition, a subset of the segment that includes my contribution will be posted on KSDK’s website by mid-day on Monday. I will post the link here at that time.

As promised, here is the video: