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.
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Once upon a time the Royals were a model franchise. Of course, way back then drawing 2 million fans in a Midwest market was considered a big deal. That team had one of the best owners and one of the steadiest management teams. The decades of disappointment that followed remind of just how much damage poor ownership can cause. It wasn't that the subsequent owners didn't want to win -- they did -- but each group failed to find the right mix of consistent player development and strategic spending. -
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I'm not going to blame the performance to this point to a lack of effort. The biggest issue is poor offensive line play. That weakness was glaring at Kansas State and at home against Abilene Christian. Is that a schematic/execution issue or is that simply insufficient personnel? If it's is the latter, was that the result of poor recruiting, poor player development or both?And can that get fixed this deep into a season?
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In Wednesday's Game against the Padres the only chance the Cards had of scoring came with 2 outs with Pujols at 2nd yepez at first and Dejong coming up to bat. Snell had thrown about 110 pitches which was his season high and there was thought they might take him out. Instead they had a mound meeting and decided to leave him in. If there was any hope to win the game you would have to pinch hit for Dejong there, no? He went on to strike out fro the 3rd time and the cardinals would go on to lose not scoring a run and striking out 13 times in the game. Dejong wasn't the only one who struck out in the game and the offense was non existant as a whole, but he is so lost at the plate and doesn't really stand a chance especially against a good pitcher. Can he seriously be a lock for the playoff roster as it seems every writer who does one of these chats suggest? I get it if he's 100% on the roster for defensive replacement in the 8th-9th with a lead. But the thought of them facing a LH pitcher and running him out there doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility if he's on the playoff roster.
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I'm gonna harp on Drinkwitz. It's all about trend lines when it comes to coaches ... good recruiter, 2 good recruiting classes, smooth talker ... but the proof is in the pudding. I say, here in year 3, the trend line, small sample size, early data, is in the wrong direction. And if (and I think we will) get pounded at Auburn, that's enough for me. Why wait? Evidence suggests he's not the guy. Additionally, touted as "up and coming offensive genius" ... I've seen absolutely nothing in the prior 2 years, and year 3, that suggests he's an offensive genius - rather seems very vanilla to me ...no innovation to speak of.
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The Tigers run lots of motions and misdirection stuff under Drinkwitz, as well as at least one gadget play each game. And that's all well and good, but if the team can't run block or pass block with consistency, it doesn't matter. The lack of quality at tight end is glaring too. Worse yet, Eli couldn't afford to whiff at QB in the transfer portal once Connor Bazelak left -- and he did.So . . . he is stuck developing a QB behind a shaky offensive line and without a full set of offensive weapons around him. Given all of that, it's hard to grade his offensive design and playcalling.
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As always, there will be several prospects who will have to go on the 40-man roster or be exposed to other teams. But how many of those guys do the Cardinals actually want to keep? And which of the current 40-man roster players is the team willing to move on from, as they did with Junior Fernandez? That's the question.I believe pitcher Inohan Paniagua is an example of that. He has been playing in the organization since 2018 and he hasn't advanced past advanced Class A at Peoria, but he made big strides this season. Another interesting case is outfielder Moises Gomez. He washed out with the Tampa Bay Rays, signed on a minor league free agent and hit 37 homers and drove in 88 runs splitting duty between Springfield and Memphis. He is 24 and due to get a big league look from somebody. And it's not like any of the current Cardinals outfielder has nailed down a more permanent role here.
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Neighbors gets a free pass on his Traverse City non play? What's his ceiling 3rd or 4th line? We can get players like that off of waivers. The Coyotes and 25 other teams have better prospects then the Blues. Going forward you painted a picture if the Blues don't react to the poor prospects pool now we are in potentially a rebuild. I think what Yzerman did was good signing various UFA's. Copp is good at 6 million AAV and he took a chance on Kubalick and Perron at no cost to the team other then short term money. We need to clear cap space by trading high draft picks with bad contracts. I say forget about waiting 5 years for kids to develop for a couple years. Lots of players out there just for example--Sonny Milano good player top 9 inexpensive. The Rangers and Senators are overloaded with good prospects that will be available. Find the next Zabanajet the Rangers got him from Ottawa for nothing. Why wait for a kid when you can go that way? The draft is a dice roll Bokk, Nolan Patrick, numerous players never pan out.
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You don't like Jake Neighbours, but the Blues like him very much. The team noted his increased speed through the neutral zone during his work with the Traverse City and independent analysts noted his improved ability to make plays moving up the middle of the ice last season.Here two independent assessments:Corey Pronman, The Athletic:Neighbours has legit NHL skill and vision, but it’s his work ethic combined with the skill that gets scouts excited about his future. He wins a lot of battles and projects as a reliable two-way player in the NHL despite a lack of great speed. I’d like to see a more consistent scoring touch from him, but I’ve seen enough of it over the years that I think it’s in there. Neighbours projects as a top-nine winger.Elite Prospects:What's really taken Neighbours game to the next level, though, is the development of a more projectable approach to creating off the rush. Where the 6-feet-tall winger used to attack in straight lines and without a change of pace game through the neutral zone, he's now using the middle of the ice, attacking on an arc, drawing defenders towards him before moving the puck, etc.As for you sudden Sonny Milano obsession . . . whatever dude.
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Missouri fans are horrified when the school's SEC future is questioned here or elsewhere, but college sports has become ugly business. Right now Missouri has a bottom-tier SEC program in the two sports that matter most. The school is also in the bottom tier of the conference for generating revenue. The SEC has two power schools coming in and you can't rule out future expansion in this environment. Nor can you rule out conferences shedding teams that no longer fit. You can pretend that could never happen, but we've reached the "anything goes" stage of this business.Given all that has happened and all that could yet happen, every school hoping to stay at the power conference level must keep proving its value. A lot of Pac-12 schools are in similar spot these days. Some ACC schools could feel that pinch as well.
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I believe HCED's winning percentage at this point is 12-13 or a 48% winning percentage over the 2020-2022 to date seasons. What were the winning percentages for Smith, Pinkel and Odom at 25 games as a head coach? Point being this "fire the coach" stuff has got to stop. Why in the world would a talented FB player want to come to Mizzou? Why would any donor want to get on-board with donations and/or NIL deals? Why would a talented player on the roster not look at the transfer portal?
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For me, the issue is this: What would you do next? If the school moves on from Drinkwitz, who could it hire? What kind of contract and operating budget would that coach get? How much additional NIL support would boosters provide? What further steps would the athletic department take to address the attendance problem? What is the larger plan for moving this athletic program into the middle of the SEC pack at least? Missouri could find itself cycling through coaches like Vanderbilt or Kentucky before it stuck with Mark Stoops. That would be a bad place to land after all that Gary Pinkel accomplished for the school.
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His career is not over. His availability for the postseason remains in question, so we'll have to see about that. Many fans are ready to sell low on him. But none of the other outfielders has nailed down a more permanent role here, so I'd leave him in the competition for next season. When he's healthy, he adds run production, excellent work in left field and speed on the bases. Those are all good things. If the team has to give up on him down the road, so be it.
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Hi Jeff, I'm a longtime fan going back to the 1960's. I still see a concern with the young offensive players developing into consistent impact major league bats. I don't tend to want to blame the hitting coach or coaches. But Mr. Albert has been around for quite a while now. I know they're young and they don't all pan out, but the outfield continues to be a big question mark for me.
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These guys have all hit well in stretches and also hit poorly in stretches. Fans want to fire Jeff Albert when the team slumps . . . and then, when the team is winning, weeks go by without his name coming up in the chats. Fans always want to point to scapegoats and seek magic wand solutions when times are hard. Success and failure is more complicated than that.
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I really think for both bat and glove our infield needs to be Goldschmidt, Edman, Donovan and Arenado. But our outfield is puzzling to me. I would love to get a healthy O'Neil in left. Seems like Lars and Dickerson belong ... but perhaps they platoon with Carlson? Thoughts?
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This outfield remains unsettled. Alec Burleson is becoming an OK outfielder and he doesn't strike out much, so he merits further discussion. Juan Yepez aspires to be an OK outfielder too and he can hit some. Jordan Walker will factor in at some point next season. Lars Nootbaar is trending up while Dylan Carlson trends down and Tyler O'Neill camps in the trainer's room. So, yeah, it's an unsolved puzzle. Maybe the pieces will finally come together next season.
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