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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The Blues are missing about half of their best players due to injuries. Instead of putting three scoring lines on the ice, they are putting just two. Also, their power play has ranked near the bottom of the NHL all season. Also, they just played two defensive-minded teams. For those reasons goals have become hard to come by.
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I don't believe the loss of Parayko would doom the team. That would make the path tougher, for sure, but let's see how well Niko Mikkola plays. There appears to be a big upside there. Vince Dunn certainly has room to improve. Marco Scandella settling back in should help as well. He was missed.
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I believe 13 pitchers is plenty, but let's see what sort of shape the group is on coming out of spring training. Will the Cardinals have at least four starters who can consistently pitch six-plus innnings? That will determine how many long relievers the team will need.
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I believe the players association could change its mind on that as that group and the owners consider roster size and other COVID-19-related issues on the fly. But I certaintly don't expect a reversal of course now that spring training is underway and NL teams prepared to play without the DH.
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Mr. Stillman, if you’re reading this…. burn those red sweaters as soon as possible. They play like something that dropped out between a tall cows legs when they wear them. We are the St. Louis BLUES… not the reds. Wish I had watched the game on an old black and white TV.
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Gunnarsson's demise frees up another $1.75 million in cap space. So I believe that resolves the issue. But I would defer to Jim and Tom on this issue. Another big issue for this team is whether Tyler Bozak will end up on LTIR. His return is looking more iffy all the time.
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Arenado's presence allows fans to breathe a sigh of relief, but it doesn't eliminate the 2021 theme of "contracts and legacies" in terms of who plays when and who bats where. We know how the season will start but is Shildt empowered enough and confident enough to play the best 8 down the stretch?
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Well, he did that last year. Matt Carpenter saw his useage decline down the stretch and he is ticketed for a part-time role this season. Of course, last season he had a tough time finding nine good hitters (with the DH) for any given game. Players of all contract sizes were struggling at once.
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The Cards organization knows pitching and Maddux is a top notch coach. But it feels like if all things were equal (specifically contracts) there is just no way Reyes is not in the rotation in '21. Take the bubble wrap off this kid before you wake up one day and he is 30.
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Let's see if he holds up this spring before declaring that he is ready to shoulder a starting workload. This will be his umpteenth opportunity to prove that he can handle such a role. We all know his lengthy and varied injury history. And even if he has a great spring, his fate will be tied to how more accomplished pitchers are faring.
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You are assuming Andrew Knizner has big trade value. He does not. Nor is thre any danger of him blocking somebody else in the organization. The scouting report on his catching mechanics are not good. He can hit and he's still learning to catch. So he is good enough to fill in, but not good enough to become the Next One behind Molina. Also, Knizner can play the corner infield spots so he could have utility value if hits well enough.As for the others, the Cardinals want to have veteran options at the MLB level as well as Memphis. Herrera has risen nicely, but he also missed a year of development. There is no need to put too much on him too soon.
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To me I see the roster is set barring injuries of course: Pitchers (13) Flaherty, Mikolas, Wainwright, Kim, Martinez, Reyes, Ponce, Gant, Hicks, Gallegos, Webb, Hensley and Miller. Position Players (13) Goldschmidt, Edman, Dejong, Arenado, Molina, Bader, O'Neil, Carlson, Kinzer, Sosa, Carpenter, Thomas and Dean. Do you see any surprises beating any of these out?
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The Cardinals are always looking to make improvements, although I imagine the team won't be eager to add much payroll until 2022 when attendance will come back and the Carpenter/Fowler money goes away. The moves the team makes will be determined more how much or how little the young outfielders and young pitchers improve and how much (or little) the team will get from Wainwright and Molina in '22.As for Arenado, if he opts out, he opts out. The team traded a lot more to get Ozuna than it did to get Arenado, so if he's turns into a rental, so be it. I don't expect him to walk away from all of that money, but if he does then the team will have money to spend.The Cardinals try to contend every year. That is the stated goal, not satisfying Arenado so that he stays,
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The players union used former the stupid comments made by Mariners CEO Mather's as proof that front offices widely manipulate the service time of players, which was always plainly clear. But the union also said Mather's bigoted comments about foreign born players was also indicative of wider problem that also exists in front offices. Jeff, in your experience covering baseball, would you say this type of disdainful attitude towards players is pervasive throughout segments of baseball or just limited to a few idiots in just a handful of front offices?
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Major baseball has been multi-cultural for a long time. The Cardinals have had a lot of success with Latin American players as well as the few they have brought in from the Far East. I don't see a problem here or in the overall industry. But I imagine some level prejudice exists in every corner of society. That has always been part of the human existence, so there's no reason to believe it will ever vanish entirely.
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With the Blues decimated by injuries and a shorter schedule leaving very little time for getting guys back healthy, is there any scenario you can see where Army decides to become a seller at the deadline if the team doesn't creep back toward playoff contention? Hoffman as a rental has value, as does a guy like Scandella whose reasonable contract and production make him possible target to be grabbed by the Kraken during the draft.
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Hello Jeff!
The NCAA's contingency plan is that if a top team Has COVID issues, they will not reseed, they will take a team left off of the 64 team bracket and replace that team. What the NCAA is not addressing about their contingency plan is that that replacement team, by all accounts, is a good team. Then that team would be most likely be in the NIT tournament at that point. Would they pull the team from that tournament? No. So what happens then? Would they choose a team would be outside of the top 80 (NCAA and NIT)? They would come in and assume the #1 seed spot to replace that team? The easiest path? That's what it sounds like. This is all a joke. -
The replacement team would come from the first four out of the 68-team bracket. Those four teams would be in COVID-19 protocol, waiting to see if their number is called. If it is not, then they would be No. 1 seeds in the NIT.Once the NCAA Torurnament starts, there will be no subbing in. If a team bows out, then its opponent advances.
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Happy Friday Jeff! Would it make sense to limit Waino to 4 innings this year and piggy back Miller or Cabrera after him? It seems there's enough LH pitchers this year and there's a better chance Waino could make a full season if he kept the pitch count down. Thanks for the chats!
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If Wainwright is able to consistently work six-plus innings, let him go. I imagine there will be stretches where some starters are not working deep into games. Save the middle-relief innings for that. Piggback starts make sense for the minors, but I believe it creates unnecessary problems at the MLB level.
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Down central, can of corn, dead arm, uncle charlie, frozen rope, and, oh yeah, if you go 3 for 10 you are not batting 300 you are batting 3 tenths. I love all of these and all the other baseballisms so why do so many annoucers say " 15 rbi instead of 15 rbis Yeah, yeah, I know it is not grammically correct but it is baseball speak just like the above. Got that off my chest. What do you think?