Join Jeff Gordon for his live STL sports chat at 1 p.m. Friday
Bring your Cards, Blues, Mizzou, SLU and MLS questions and comments, and talk to columnist Jeff Gordon in his weekly live chat.
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Not sure I understand the response to the Brad Miller question. Is a hitter with a 120 OPS+ every single month somehow more valuable than a hitter who, say, alternates a 150 and a 90 every other month? Or has a 200 for the first half and 40 for the second? They all end up at the same place, and thus contribute identically to their teams.
Anyway I am deeply concerned that the departure of Wong & Miller leaves the club with no infield depth or flexibility. A playoff contender cannot commit a starting lineup role to 35-year-old Matt Carpenter (bad in 2019 and terrible in 2020) without a backup more substantial than Edmundo Sosa and Somebody Rondon. It's a recipe for Shildt sticking with Carpenter for weeks or even months beyond his expiration date. Penny-pinching with Wong/Miller is metric ton foolish.
My question, good scribe: Have you any Hank Aaron or Don Sutton stories to relate? And keep it clean! -
Brad Miller went 4 for 6 with two homers and seven RBIs on Sept. 1 last season. He also went hitless 18 times in multi-AB games in the final month-plus three games. He closed out in a 3-for-32 funk. He looked helpless at the plate at the end. Subtract that Sept. 1 game and his finish was ugly.As for Sutton and Aaron, no stories from me. I never spent time around either during their playing days. Both were class acts during their second careers. -
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Thanks for doing this, Gordo. Seems Pietrangelo did his old team a big favor by joining the COVID list. Blues get a welcome break before two straight weekend games in Anaheim at the end of a tough stretch. Has the lack of a real training camp hurt the Blues in particular because of their reliance on the very tight-checking system that takes time for the players to adopt?
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Shildt biggest issue is finding enough AB to figure out the OF logjam so unloading Fowler in the hypo. trade should be a priority. Otherwise unless injured or he flops terribly you have Carlson needing to play almost every day and that leaves one spot for Bader, O'Neil, Thomas and even Dean and Williams. In this scenario Shildt could miss out on another Arozarena which he and management are I'm sure paranoid about.
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I don't see much of a logjam. Dean and Williams look like Class 4A guys, guys who can hit at Memphis and fill in if three guys end up on the injured list at once. Lane Thomas has some tools but an unremarkable minor league track record. Bader has proven he can't hit right-handed pitching, which makes it hard for him to play every day. Fowler figures to get phased out in his final year unless his magically hits .370 again. Maybe O'Neill can become an everyday guy, maybe not. Carlson is almost certainly an everyday guy . . . and in this group, he is the only guy worthy of that designation at this point.
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Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have beaten me, then, because I despise them, and Bonds, Clemens, A-Roid, Big PEDi, Ben Johnson, Marion Jones, Lance Armstrong, and everyone else who cheats the opposition and the fans out of a fairly fought sporting battle. Just like in Fargo, into the chipper with all of them! (Disclaimer: this is a joke, and the author is not actively advocating actual violence against actual persons, unethical or otherwise.)
My query, Bobo, is this. Which team is your dark horse in each MLB league to reach the World Serious? I'll go with the Injuns in the Junior Circuit and Phightins in the Senior. When in doubt take the managers who've done it before, and Francona and Girardi have exceptional track records. Sorry if I stole either of your teams. -
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Great old school manager. Great promoter of the game. He loved the game and his job so much. But you did not want to crowd into the small visiting manager's office in Busch Stadium II to quiz Lasorda during his postgame meal. The scribes on the front line of that scrum needed a splatter shield when Tommy barked out answers in mid-bite.
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Where does the wishes of the player fit into your trade analysis? If Arenado is not happy and wants out to be on a constant playoff team dedicated to winning, how much does that effect the deal? What do you do with a player in that situation if you are the Rox GM? You really want to upset your already unhappy superstar. Thanks!
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A lot of GMs find themselves in this spot and it's no fun. In baseball, the season is a grind and these sorts of dramas can take a toll. So there comes a time when a team has to move a guy just to reset the team's mood. And that may be coming with Arenado, which is why this is a hot topic. It's hard to make a good trade with an unhappy guy. Other teams an exploit the motivated seller. In the NHL, the Blue Jackets and Jets swapped one malcontent star for another. Usually it's not so simple.
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Not sure what the heck happened there, but this promising season has turned into a nightmare for SLU. The Billikens could use a few more days of practice before playing again, but this is a weird way to get that. I wonder what the A-10 office thinks about all of this.
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Thanks for the chat, Gordo!
Re the Cardinal finances, I know there's a consensus that we just cannot know any club's true finances because they will not open their ledgers to the public. But I think "not knowing" is far too generous of an appraisal. Whether it's Tom Brady's text messages, Hillary Clinton's emails, Donald Trump's tax returns, or MLB owner's tally sheets, whenever a person or organization destroys or otherwise covers up their records, you can be 100% sure they are lying. And not lying in a small way -- you don't conceal minor exaggerations or embellishments. They are lying in a large way and that's that.
My question, Bobo, is about the 2021 Redbird defense. With a dropoff defensively from Gold Glover Wong to Edman at the keystone, and with badly ageing Matt Carpenter apparently just handed the hot corner, isn't the team defense taking a substantial hit? And won't Paul DeJong be forced once again to make 95-99% of the starts at shortstop, and thus burn out just like in 2020? (Can't slide Edman over to short for 3 or 4 starts a month, because then who plays second base?) Color me concerned about the pitching/defense template right now. -
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The concerns about the fielding are real. Wong was exceptional at second base. Fans will appreciate that even more in his absence. This team could use an upgrade in the utility infield position to offer more protection against Carpenter's arm at third base and DeJong's fatigue.
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