Join columnist Ben Frederickson for a live chat at 11 a.m. Tuesday
Ben Frederickson will answer all of your Cardinals, Blues, St. Louis City, Mizzou and SLU questions in Tuesday's 11 a.m. live chat.
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No question, just a comment. What CarMart did was not that bad. Over here in the DR, thousands go out and mingle socially. It's the culture. Say what you want about his ERA being absurd, but don't criticize him for what everyone over here does. He did nothing wrong.
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Everyone in the Dominican Republic films music videos in public with a crowd watching in the face of COVID restrictions?I have a hard time buying that.The only thing I'm criticizing him for -- in this instance -- is not seeming to have a better grasp of the importance of responsible behavior during the pandemic, considering he was hospitalized because of the virus this season.He has the antibodies, sure, but his actions invited the spread of the virus to those who don't.
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I'm pumped for the start of college basketball (fingers crossed anyways). I'm intrigued by Mizzou and everyone returning and the seniors putting in the work to have a great final season. What are your thoughts on Mizzou this season? Also, a lot of hype behind SLU as a favorite mid-major this year. Really hoping their free throw % improves and they can get a consistent 3 point threat going.
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Cuonzo Martin and his guys are more confident in their team than most outsiders. I can understand why. Their key leaders are back. They're healthy after a bad run of injuries. There's just no way they can miss as many 3-pointers as they did last season, so that should be an improvement just based on trends alone. So much of their success comes down to if Jeremiah Tilmon can be relied upon. Words no longer matter when it comes to this discussion. He's gotta prove it with his play. He makes a big difference when he's out there. It's not just scoring and shot blocking. It's rebounding, altering shots at the rim, running the floor better than the opposing big man. So much of what he does well has been overshadowed by his inability to maximize his minutes. If that does not change, Mizzou will be playing uphill again.SLU should be disappointed if it does not win the A-10. Its best players are back, and some guys who would have helped last season -- Fred Thatch and Gibson Jimerson -- are healthy. Making a few more free throws per game would mean a few more wins. The guards need to make more, more so than French. He can improve some, but that weakness is not going to just go away. But there's no reason guys like Goodwin should miss as many free throws as he did last season. I think that will improve.
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I'm impressed. This season has been held together by duct tape but he has shown impressive and innovative play calling and demonstrated an ability to motivate players during a trying season. He and Sam Pittman at Arkansas have been the pleasant surprises of the SEC's new hires.
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I think CMART coming to camp in 2019 out of shape and unprepared should not be tolerated. The so called "fight" was blown out of proportion and was tossed out. The latest mask incident is also blown out of proportion. Turner had Covid and went maskless and even was filmed kissing his girlfriend when he should of been quarantined and NOTHING HAPPENED to Turner. Is Carlos being treated fairly?
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For Bader and O'Neill, yes. At least I think so.For Lane Thomas and Justin Williams, no.O'Neill managed to drop his strikeout rate and raise his walk rate this season, but his on-base plus slugging dropped significantly for the third consecutive season. He has not proven he is anything more than a Class AAA mauler. At least not offensively. He did win a Gold Glove, which was impressive.Bader got a tick better this season, but he is what he is. A defense-first center fielder who is a fine No. 9 hitter but not in an outfield that can't make up for his bat in the corners.
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In a country that has hardly taken Covid protocols seriously, and in a city/state that is hotspot thanks to its citizens refusal to simply wear masks, the faux outrage over CMart's mistake is laughable and transparent. Harrison Bader was TWICE found to be socializing unmasked. Where was the outrage? The entire Blues team gathered in violation of protocols. Again, where was the outrage? He is an asset--at worst a stellar relief pitcher--and the Cardinals should hold onto him unless he can bring back a sizeable return, which won't happen given his recent health history.
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I do get the sense that some who shrugged off Turner's carelessness are now eager to hammer Martinez.That's bogus, and should be called out as such.That said the instances you mentioned did not, as you said, occur in a place that had strict mandates and correlating punishments in place.If you are in the DR, you should probably play by the DR's COVID rules.Right?I have defended Martinez and called him out when I think he's wrong, but I'm realizing there are really just two groups now: those who rip Martinez whenever a chance presents itself, and those who defend him even when he does something dumb. Neither approach is right.
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Benfred, Happy Thanksgiving.. With the current financial climate due to Covid in baseball, do you see that as a benefit for the Cardinals? Maybe get some 1 year bargain deals to bridge the gap to 2022. Hopefully they get a full season and Mo gets a better handle on what he has, and may I add understanding of what he has. Sometimes I think he's selling swamp land in Florida. Also CMart, million dollar arm, 10 cent head.
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Deferred deals can still be done. The Nationals do it all the time. Max Scherzer, for example, has a contract that ends after the 2021 season, but he will collect checks from the Nationals through 2028. Some players don't mind. Others, like Bryce Harper, don't like it; that became part of his reasoning for joining the Phillies. Players who want to get their money and invest it, for example, would like to have it sooner rather than later. Why let the team make the interest when you can? It's inside baseball, but to answer your question, yes, those deals can still be done.
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Some of that will depend on who is available and at what cost.I don't think the Cardinals are looking at it as specifically needing a second baseman, because they know Edman can play there.But if someone like Schoop is available and relatively cheap, then that power could be added and Edman can shift back to being the versatile guy.
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Is was listening to an STL sports talk radio show and they were discussing the Cano suspension, and how it could be viewed as a blessing. They asked what Cardinal player would fit into that category. They listed Martinez, Carpenter, Fowler, and even long term Mikolas. Something they didn’t bring up was on the flip side what contracts do the Cards have on the books that are a great deal? You could argue Dejong falls into that, but calling his great is a stretch. I’m not calling for Mozeliak to be fired, but can someone please take they keys away from grandpa? He doesn’t know what he’s doing anymore, and nothing good is coming from staying on the teams current free agent path. I’m not saying he’s bad at everything, but he’s bad at free agency.
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Mozeliak is 51. Hardly Grandpa status in terms of running a team. He's had some bad misses via free agency. No debate there. But his biggest whiff was not a free agent. It was the needless extension to Matt Carpenter. Kim was a great fee-agent addition. Brad Miller was a pretty good one for a chunk of the season. I'm not as down on Miles Mikolas as some, but again, if that goes bad it would have been the extension he received, not the free-agent addition that brought him to St. Louis. Just trying to make sure we are all on the same page. As far as predicting which players could be popped for steroids, I want no part of that.
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Hey Ben: I'm curious about your perspective of all the palace intrigue at U of Tennessee, your former beat. I was there doing graduate work when the Schiano hire/non-hire and the Fulmer bloodless coup happened. It was chaos (and as a Mizzou grad, I found it kind of hilarious to watch). When I was there, I think at one point the school was paying four football coaches (Dooley, Fulmer, Jones, and Hoke), and three ADs.
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Knoxville is a great place. Love it and go back once a year. That said the UT sports side of things is wild. Great for covering. Never short on material. There is little patience and a lot of factions. And a lot of money tied up in boosters who try to influence decisions. The university side has little oversight over the athletic department because those roles have changed so often. Expectations for the football team are towering despite years of being a national championship contender, and there is still somehow this forcefield that seems to surround Fulmer. He can do no wrong. Except he does. The Pruitt hire has not worked out so far, and Fulmer gave both Pruitt and himself an extension this season for reasons that can't be explained. It's not going to end well, I'm afraid. And that's just the most recent wave. Butch Jones was a fraud. Derek Dooley was exposed. Lane Kiffin left in the middle of the night. It's wild.
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And I think he gets that shot. The Cardinals can send all of the potential starters into spring training, whether that's here in St. Louis or in Jupiter, with the plan of starting and build the bullpen as that competition crowd thins. If Reyes does not prove himself as one of the best available starters, he's perfect for the bullpen.
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Re: that earlier Randy A comment and your response that it happens all the time to college players the first season they get on a meal plan and do the workouts required of a college sport.
Randy had 3 seasons in the Cardinals minor league program, including 153 games at AAA. What about his month in the big leagues with the Cardinals? Wouldn't these have been his first exposures to those concepts similar to the first exposure in your college athlete example?
Are the Cardinals (and their minor league affiliates) really not exposing minor league players to meal plans and workouts? If they are not doing this that would be truly incredible.
We aren't talking about cutting edge concepts - sports nutrition and sport-specific weight training. Teams and players are aware of these things.
If the Cards are failing to unlock potential and get a true picture of the skills a player possesses because they aren't equipping with the best tools, based on some pretty basic & well-established concepts, tools then that's amazing.
I don't think he's doing anything "funny," but man that narrative that surfaced that he suddenly put on weight and it changed everything is either (1) hard to believe that is was some new revelation or (2) hard to stomach that exposing him to the basics of nutrition and weight lifting is all we needed to do to fully reveal he was awesome. -
The assumption that he did what he did because of the added weight, and that alone, seems to be a convenient reach by those who framed it that way.It also suggests he did not hit well when he was with the Cardinals.He did.He hit so well the Cardinals had to call him up, and then averaged .300 with a .391 on-base percentage and a .500 slugging percentage in 2019, but received just 20 at-bats.The Rays gave him opportunity, and the muscle/weight gains he made seemed to help him expand on that power that he had flashed earlier.
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I don't think the Cardinals wanted to find themselves as the face of a fair accusation that they tinkered with a veteran player's playing time in order to dodge a prorated option during the COVID-impacted season. Especially when the player making that accusation, fairly, would have been one as well-liked and with as big of a reach as Andrew Miller, who has a direct line to all players through his leadership with the players union. Teams that do stuff like that wind up reaping the consequences. Letting Miller's option vest was a decision that was made while the Cardinals were pursuing the best possible outcome for 2020. Not picking up Wong's option was a decision made for 2021 planning. You can disagree with the decisions, and that's fair, but there is a difference between the two. As there should be.