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Join columnist Jeff Gordon for his live St. Louis 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.

3rd & 7 37yd

I imagine his are still barking at him during the season.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:32:03 PM
I thought this was a sports chat. Must be a slow day!

by Ed 12/2/2022 9:32:13 PM
We'll field the occasional off-topic question to break things up a bit.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:32:38 PM
Good afternoon. I have dove into the deep end of the Mike Leach pool in terms of stopping all the nonsense with NIL, transfer portals and so forth. Let the D-1 football and basketball players become professionals. Players sign contracts for X amount of money, for X amount of years. Includes a scholarship which is priced accordingly. Players can be traded. Players can be cut or waived from the roster. Contracts could be bought out. May be unionizing issues with establishing a minimum and maximum amount a player can receive from the "sponsoring university's" athletic department. I know the NCAA and the universities don't want player unions. That has got to be worked out, just like going to a CFP with 12 teams. Never going to happen a few years back. Done deal now in 2024. Do I need a life preserver swimming in this deep end, or is it your feeling let's see what happens? Cannot be any worse than this nonsense we have now.

by Palmetto State Fan 12/2/2022 9:33:07 PM
Actually, some coaches are warming up to college athlete unions as a more sane alternative to the unregulated free-for-all currently in place. I'm with you in the deep end on this one, for the sake of the coaches.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:34:26 PM
If the Jays would take Burleson and a pitcher, say McGreevy, could we get Jansen? I think that might do it.

by Spy Guy 12/2/2022 9:34:30 PM
Maybe one more piece, a minor one. But that seems realistic.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:34:54 PM
If the Cards were to get Murphy, where would you bat him in the lineup?

by Spy Guy 12/2/2022 9:34:56 PM
That depends on other things, of course, but he could be a No. 7/No.8 hitter. Ideally he would be No. 8, which means you found other answers too.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:36:04 PM
It's been 63 years since Hawaii entered the Union, by far the longest gap in US history. What's the delay on #51? Puerto Rico, DC, ten Canadian provinces to annex -- let's get going!

by JJ 12/2/2022 9:36:08 PM
Even Prince Edward Island?

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:36:21 PM
Can't wait to see who Mo trades. The talent we get back might be tainted if he let's a future star go.

by Joe 12/2/2022 9:36:56 PM
Most of these prospects discussed in trades seem certain to play in the majors, anyway. But, yeah, you would rather trade a Luke Weaver than a Sandy Alcantara.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:37:50 PM
Hey, Jeff.
Someone asked if this was the best group of Redbird prospects in the last 20 years. Very likely not, since exactly 10 years ago they had Oscar Taveras, Carlos Martinez, Shelby Miller, Kolten Wong, Michael Wacha, Trevor Rosenthal, Carson Kelly, Matt Adams, Stephen Piscotty, Seth Maness, Greg Garcia, Kevin Siegrist, and apologies to anyone I'm forgetting. It was a lot of meaningful future MLB contributors. If Taveras hadn't killed himself and his girlfriend, it might have turned out to be a top 3 system, as was predicted at the time. (The current prospect crop is top 5, distinctly behind only Baltimore & Arizona.)

My question, Gordo. Assuming the team wisely trades for either Sean Murphy or Alejandro Kirk for catcher, that will actually make almost zero difference in player payroll. Therefore, whom would you most expect the club to add, to get to the roughly $20M increase in player payroll? Senga? Yoshida? Other?

by Brian Jordan was twice as good as Bo Jackson 12/2/2022 9:40:36 PM
Getting a cost-neutral catcher would allow more spending on an outfielder. We mentioned earlier than Haniger was getting projected at three years and $45 million. That's what the middle tier looks like. There could also be a trade that moves some salary and gets some salary. So I don't have a guess.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:42:44 PM
One other question on the D-I transfer portal. Do have an idea as to how many of the players that entered the transfer portal in 2021 are still in the portal with no team, no education, no hope. To me, this number says a lot about how much the NCAA gives a darn about the student-athlete. Again, what a mess.

by Palmetto State Fan 12/2/2022 9:42:58 PM
I do not have an idea on that. But I do like giving players freedom as long as the scholarships are just for one year -- since schools haven't been shy about pulling scholarships if a player didn't pan out.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:43:56 PM
I have to disagree with longlivesudsy. I like Jay Bouwmeester a lot and he was a big part of the Cup-winning team but he is NOT a Hall of Fame defenseman.

by Roy Earl 12/2/2022 9:44:17 PM
Will Gary Pinkel be the only coach in the hall of fame that didn't even win 1 conference title?

by Josh 12/2/2022 9:44:29 PM
I don't have time to look that up. But he did coach in an era of conference divisions and he did win those.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:45:21 PM
Hey Jeff, Everyone talks about protection of Goldy and Arenado but I seems like to me that the Cardinals need a 300 plus batting average with a high OBP with speed more than anything. It seems that Edman gets close and then goes on a long slump. Some of the prospects like Walker and Winn might fit this bill eventually but do you think that Edman will get to that level of a 300 hitter or possibly Carlson that could be that ultimate lead-off hitter? Donavon might but I am not sure he has the speed.

by Timcomo 12/2/2022 9:45:39 PM
I'm not sure any of those guys will ever fit the bill for what you are looking for there. Having a consistently great OBP guy ahead of those hitters would be great, but those guys have been increasingly hard to find.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:46:43 PM
"Unlikely" that the Red Sox would pay half of Chris Sale's contract to get rid of him, or "unlikely" that the the Cardinals would want to add Chris Sale's corpse to their rotation?

by JP Morgan 12/2/2022 9:47:48 PM
What has he pitched, 48 1/3 innings in two years? And he has $44 million coming to him the next two seasons? Man, that's a lot of money Boston would have to eat, even if the latest medical reports on him offered some hope.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:50:02 PM
One of the catchers Toronto has looks a bit over-weight and we did that already. Lets go for an athlete.

by Joe 12/2/2022 9:50:16 PM
Molina was a great athlete. You don't catch all of those games unless you are a great athlete.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:50:40 PM
Hey, I've got third cousins on PEI. They own a strawberry farm. They're very nice people, and we should not subject them to our American way of disfunction.

by Poles 12/2/2022 9:50:45 PM
One of my favorite sports people, former NHL coach and executive Doug MacLean came from the island. He's a beauty. If all the citizens are like him, the Island must be fun.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:51:48 PM
why are people more reluctant to give up nootbar in a trade with toronto than they are to give up burleson? Burleson was more highly rated and has done nothing to dissapoint in his climb through the minors. I get it that in 48 ab's he had a .535 ops but 48 at bats in september doesn't define your career

by Brandon 12/2/2022 9:52:06 PM
Nootbaar's glove gives him a high floor. Burleson has power, but he isn't much of a fielder and the Cardinals have several young hitters with power and suspect gloves, They can trade one of them, anyway.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:52:54 PM
You're old. Do you have any Christie McVie/Fleetwood Mac memories you'd care to share?

by Lara 12/2/2022 9:53:11 PM
Ah, driving my old '72 Buick LeSabre listening to songs off the Rumours album. Good times.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:55:48 PM
by Jeff Gordon via YouTube 12/2/2022 9:55:50 PM
Re: Chris Sale -- somebody's gotta fill that "Can he be healthy enough to pitch tonight?" spot in the rotation that Adam Wainwright is vacating.

by Jay 12/2/2022 9:56:06 PM
Or the, "Hey did Steven Matz just step on a landmine trying to cover first base" slot.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:56:40 PM
Athletes can run and maybe even hit a little. Yadi is A HOF but maybe played a year too long.

by Joe 12/2/2022 9:56:45 PM
True, but let's not remember him that way. Let's remember the good times.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:57:09 PM
"For the sake of the coaches" I wouldn't worry about them. There quaranteed salaries can comfort them if they're unsuccessful. If they're successful they can blow they're noses on their contracts and go to a school that will them even more obscene money.

by Jay Lewis 12/2/2022 9:57:24 PM
Is that Bryan Harsin on line 3?

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:57:38 PM
OK, gotta run. It's been real. Good job today folks. See you next week. Stay well.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:58:12 PM
This talk of guys having a bat but not a good fielder is getting old. Burleson has played outfield full time what 1 season? can the guy not improve? He was a pretty good pitcher does his arm strength not go to the outfield with him? the reason the cardinals are in the spot they are in the outfield is they've bought into this idea that everyone has to be a plus defender. The phillies did pretty well with Schwarber playing LF everyday. Manny Ramirez had a pretty healthy career being made fun of for his outfield defense. Lets get some guys who can bop and not be so uptight about "well he can mash but he only gets to 90% of the balls a guy who hits .200 could get to"

by Brandon 12/2/2022 9:58:53 PM
OK. one more comment: The Cardinals are built on pitching and defense. Burleson has worked hard to improve and maybe will earn a long-term role here. But if he does get traded, his fielding will be a factor.

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 9:59:51 PM
Now go have a nice weekend!

by Jeff Gordon 12/2/2022 10:00:00 PM