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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As a very long Mizzou fan, I have to tell myself this is the SEC, we know longer have Norm Stewart as the Basketball coach and Gary Pinkel as the football coach. Those 2 hall of famers would of found the SEC very difficult to win big also. I try to live in the real world unlike a large majority of Mizzouu fans. I realize we will never have the resources to run with the Georgia's of the world in football or the Kentucky's in Basketball. Our recruiting is always going to be at the best in the middle of SEC on a good year. and 8 win season in any football season would be incredible and a top 7 finish in SEC basketball would be great. We need to stay with one head coach and as long as we are improving and or at least competitive that should be the barometer. I know people would say that isn't the way to go about it, it is Mizzou we don't have sell outs we get very few 5 star players and we don't have a lot of mega rich boosters. It is what it is , we all knew getting into the SEC. would be very difficult and it has proven to be just that. We are many games under 500 in SEC football and incredible amount under 500 in basketball. Georgia has beat us 8 times in a row in football, there is a reason for that, their resources are twice what Mizzou has. Kentucky has owned us most years in basketball, they get 5 star players every year, we never do. Just my perspective but this is how I remain a passionate fan. I have zero interest in pro sports so Mizzou is my team and will always be my team. -
That is a realistic assessment, unfortunately. There will always be a chance to catch lightning in a bottle with the right coaching hire, as Alabama did with Nate Oats. We'll see if Dennis Gates can become that guy for Missouri. That's a level he has taken dead aim on and there's at least a chance he'll get there. But in football, building an upper-tier SEC program is so difficult. A school must secure a high volume of quality players every single year and then do an exceptional job developing them and maximizing their value in games. The top programs have every advantage on all fronts and they are set up to sustain that advantage. And SEC football will only get tougher with Texas and Oklahoma coming in.
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I do not want to play Milwaukee in the wild card series because of there top 2 starters. San Diego and Philadelphia also have top 2 starters, which the Cardinals do not. Looking at these playoffs it so obvious that the Cardinals need to trade or sign a top of the rotation starter for next season.
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On the other hand, that top starting pitching did not prevent the Brewers from falling into to a lengthy tailspin or the Phillies from fading badly toward the end of the season. But, yes, Oliver Marmol does share your enthusiasm for starting pitchers with swing-and-miss stuff.
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Earlier this season we heard week after week after week that the Brewers would not only run away with the National League Central this season bury the Cardinals for years to come because they had such a superior baseball operation. Week after week after week the whiners were lamenting this team's willingness to settle for a wild card berth. So now that the division title is in hand with still another 90-victory season, the whining shifts just bit.What can you say? Whiners have to whine.
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The Brewers have gotten their act together after a lengthy tailspin while the Phillies hit a late rough patch for whatever reason. It will be interesting to see how that race plays out. Either team presents problems, but the challenges for the Cardinals are internal.In the final six games the Cardinal must:1) Get Paul Goldschmidt back into MVP2 form offensively,2) Line up three starting pitches who are actually throwing well.3) Prepare the bullpen to have an outsized role in the best-of-three series.4) Get the better fielders among the supporting cast hitting well. Ideally, that would include getting Tyler O'Neal back to active duty -- but that might be a stretch.If those things happen, the Cardinals have a real shot to win a short series. If they don't meet those objectives, then they will need some help from whichever team they play to advance.
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Once the Blues made the financial commitment to Nick Leddy, dealing for Jakob Chychrun became a much more difficult proposition. Chychrun has two more years with a $4.6 million salary cap hit. That is team-friendly, but not to a Blues team that will be desperate for cap space next season when Ryan O'Reilly is due for next contract. Also, Scott Perunovich's injury history further complicates things because he's a player, if healthy, the Coyotes would almost certainly want in the return package.The Blues have been hoping that Perunovich would join the Robert Thomas-Jordan Kyrou nucleus and help usher the team to the next era. With each of his injuries, the seems less likely to happen.
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Jacob Stallings has Gold Glove credentials, but there's no much offense there and he's getting well into his 30s. He would be a stopgap addition at best. This team needs a more permanent replacement for Yadier Molina.Julio E. Rodriguez is 25 years old with six seasons of minor league play below the Triple-A level. He is an organizational soldier whose ceiling appears to be as a injury fill-in.
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It would depend more on how his pitches look than what his pitching line looks like. Lately his pitches have lacked late movement. The cutters haven't cut enough, the curveball have lost some bite and the fastball (such as it is) has been flat. So he has been yielding hard contact instead of soft contact.
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The Mizzou loss at Auburn didn't bother me that much. The game was a slow moving train wreck and it felt like a good representation of the heartbreak and misfortune that have defined 80% of my fandom since the early 80's. What was going through your mind during that game?
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That game was so winnable. Auburn did everything it could for three quarters to lose and get its coach fired. Even for Missouri, it's hard to believe that a team could find THAT many ways not to win. Of all the mind-boggling losses the program has suffered, this might have been the most boggling. Other losses were more costly, sure, but the creativity in this loss was Next Level.
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Drink seems like he's getting worn down by weight of wearing two hats -- O coordinator and head coach. How can anyone effectively work two very difficult full-time jobs and not have it affect both? He has so much to learn about running a program, it's no wonder his offense is suffering. I fear he will lose another D coordinator -- a very good one -- at the end of the year, and that will be the end. Mostly because the head coach spread himself too thin due to the hubris that comes with inexperience
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It's hard to do both for sure. There was a great photo of Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher fumbling with a stack of offensive play sheets on the sideline. At least one pundit likened that stack to a Cheesecake Factory menu. And, yes, Fisher has faced questions about his role as the offensive play-caller there. It's hard enough to be the CEO of an SEC program, handling all the duties that entails, and also design and call offenses for each game. Any head coach who also serves as a coordinator faces this question unless his team is rolling.
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I was listening to my Bob Seger greatest hits and I thought of you since you're the only guy I know from Motown. Then I saw Nathan Walker fight last night and I thought poorly of you. Here's a guy growing up in Sidney Australia where there is no ice. Watched the Mighty Ducks and said to himself"I'm going to be an NHL player one day!" He's my hero. He's an inspiration to anyone. Nothing was going to stop him not his size, not Australia, he moved to Czechoslovakia to up his game. He speaks Czech and Russian. Berube loves him. Now you and to a lesser degree Tom Timmerman bagged on him 2 years ago falsely labeled him a permanent AHL player. Do we or more importantly Nathan Walker ever get an apology from you two? No! Does anyone write a great article on him? No! You're a great writer for your paper but so what! You always have to be a decent human Being for me and other fans to respect you. You owe Nathan Walker for disparaging his career arc. And you owe me for ruining my Bob Seger sing along this morning. Don't let me down show some crow eating or humility. Arrogance is the death of us all Gordzonga. Sincerely!!
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Happy Friday, Mr. Bobo.
Just want to say how much we hoi polloi enjoy these chats you and your fellow P-D scribes provide. They really do give entertainment & enlightenment, all in all.
I also do have one question, Gordo. Assuming Brendan Donovan continues to be a very good MLB hitter, do you think he has the defense to start at second base full time? Or should he start 4-6 times a week, all over the diamond, since his glovework isn't good enough to start at any one position? -
At this point, I'd like the look of his fielding/bat at second base. That would leave Tommy Edman at shortstop and put Nolan Gorman in the DH platoon next season. If Masyn Winn pans out, then maybe Donovan could get bumped into a super-utility role. As for Paul DeJong, if he sticks around it has to be as a defensive replacement until Winn arrrives.
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Quintana would love that contract because he is on a one-year, $2 million deal now. I could see the Cardinals offering him another one-year deal for somewhat bigger money, but remember that the team has lefties Jordan Montgomery and Steven Matz in the rotation next season. Do they want to go left-heavy with their starters?
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I have no doubt that Donovan could be a good fielder at second base with regular work. The guys with limitations are Juan Yepez, Nolan Gorman and Alec Burleson. Yepez and Gorman have had to play out of their natural position and Burleson is a converted pitcher. While Yepez, Gorman and Burleson have worked hard on their fielding and improved, it's fair to say that none of them are likely to be good fielders at the primary position they are currently playing.