Willie Mays anecdotes, Negro Leagues' legacy: Rickwood Field roundtable

Major League Baseball is technically making its debut at Alabama's Rickwood Field this week. But the best of the best began playing there before almost anywhere else.

America's oldest professional ballpark was once home to Willie Mays and Satchel Paige but also host to Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. On Thursday, the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals, two of the most storied franchises in the sport and current National League wild-card hopefuls, will play in MLB's first regular-season game at the beloved Birmingham ballpark (7:15 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app).

Accordingly, FOX Sports MLB experts Deesha Thosar and Rowan Kavner tackle these topics and more in a special roundtable.

1. Where do you rank the Giants and Cardinals among the extended pack of NL wild-card candidates? With more than a 70-game sample size, which of these clubs do you believe has the higher ceiling for 2024?

Kavner: Both have as good a chance to sneak into a wild-card spot as any team from that cluster, but I'm not sure the uptick in starting pitching the Cardinals have experienced lately will hold up over the long term. Ultimately, it needs to be their offense that carries them forward, and we just haven't seen their lineup sustain much of anything yet. Only five teams have scored fewer runs this year. Getting Willson Contreras back will certainly help, but now it looks like Nolan Arenado might end up on the shelf. Every step forward seems to include a couple of steps back. 

The Giants have their own share of offensive issues, but I think their ceiling is higher. Heliot Ramos has been a revelation this year, they'll get LaMonte Wade Jr. back soon, and the rotation could see a plethora of help in the second half from Blake