STL sports chat with Ben Frederickson
Bring your Cardinals, Blues and St. Louis sports questions, and talk to Post-Dispatch columnist Ben Frederickson in a live chat starting at 11 a.m. Monday.
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Greetings, chatters.Another Monday chat this week.We should be back to our usual Tuesdays moving forward.Before we begin, let us take a moment to shed a tear for the Patriots.It's a real shame they're not in the playoffs anymore.Now, where is that sarcasm font button?Let's roll. -
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Pretty quiet on the Cardinals front, though they have never been one to market their moves. All eyes on Ozuna's situation, as the Cardinals are still players there. To what degree remains to be determined. Leaving the door open and trying to get someone to walk through it are different things.
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I was very surprised to learn the CFP championship game is not tonight - how much time do they need? My real question is why Monday? Why-why-why?! Monday is not in any way associated with college football, prior to this game. In fact, it is the only day other than Sunday that they don't play games during the season. I understand that the NFL dominates the weekends during their playoffs, but why can't they play the game on a Thursday or Friday night?
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Pretty much any question about when and why when it comes to sports on TV boils down to what makes money for the sport and the TV partner. Postseason games are drawn to build hype and allow for promotion. Picking a night where you will dominate the viewership is smart. Don't want to get lost in the shuffle. Maximize eyes and dollars. Live sports is one of the few things we are forced to watch live. No one is watching the big game on DVR.
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Pure honesty here. Anyone who thinks they know much about which XFL team is better than the other is just guessing. We know the coaches and the quarterbacks. That's about it. There's a presentation tomorrow about the rules of the sport, something most of us are still a bit fuzzy on. So, keep that in mind. When the league is so rule the rules are new, trying to predict who is going to be best seems very much like a shot in the dark. That said, hard for me to buy that St. Louis is the worst team in the league. I think Jordan Ta'amu is good for this league, and his offense should let him show off that arm.
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Second part first.Officials usually increase the whistles to begin conference play.They are often told to reinforce the season's officiating talking points before conference play, and we will see that across the sport for a while. Getting things cleaned up. Happens almost every year. And then comes the biggest games of the year, and the officiating fades to the background again. You will not see the small stuff that will be called religiously over the next couple of weeks called in late February and March. Unless maybe it's against Jeremiah Tilmon. I think he clubbed an official in the knee in a past life or something. His first foul the other day at Kentucky, I think, was for breathing.Now, the first part. One way to do it would be to -- gulp -- sit down Tilmon. The more we watch, the more it seems like the team's chemistry is better when Tilmon's ups and downs are not dictating the game. I think the Tigers might be getting to a point where they are better if he has a smaller, more limited role.
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If I had to guess today?I'll go Lane Thomas in left, Harrison Bader in center field and Dexter Fowler in right.I remain unconvinced that the Cardinals will do more to sign Ozuna than another team.And I think Dylan Carlson will start his season at Class AAA unless he just tears it up during spring training. He won't be there long, I imagine, but I do think he starts there.If the Cardinals really think this wave of young outfielders is going to be able to lift the lineup to a better place than bringing back Ozuna, then they should not leave left field as the only place open for playing time. But I imagine both Fowler and Bader will get the first shot in meaningful games, unless they have troubled springs.There's my guess.
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I think the Cards have 4 everyday positions with major production concerns: 3B, RF, CF and LF, how can the team expect Carpenter, Edman, Arozarena, Thomas, Oneill, Bader and Fowler to produce enough offense? I know Carlson is coming, but let's tap the brakes on him for a bit, There is not enough OFFENSE to win the division, your take, BenFred?
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I agree with the positions you've mentioned.Those are the question marks.Hitting the gas on Carlson might be better than tapping the brakes, considering the concerns you've mentioned.Edman is the security for Carpenter.Expecting Edman to reproduce his remarkable rookie season is a question on its own.The depth is the security for the outfield, but that depth lacks guys who have been there and done that.Lots of hope.Lots and lots of hope.However, I'm not sure how anyone is claiming the Cardinals could not win the division. They just won the division. What team, other than the Reds, has gotten better after finishing behind the Cardinals? The Brewers made lateral moves, if that. The Cubs made no real moves of significance. The Cardinals are back on top, and acting like it. No one is really pushing them at the moment.A reminder: The Reds, while winners of the offseason and bound to be much more competitive in 2020, finished 16 games back in 19.
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My 2020 wish for the Cardinals is that they are able to remove all uncertainty about what to do with their aging vets and their prospects on the cusp. Win, lose, or draw, I just want this team to enter next winter with a clear blueprint of how to proceed at each position and where they can/should acquire core pieces.
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That's … optimistic. And unrealistic. Dexter Fowler and Matt Carpenter are under contract through 2021, not 2020. People seem to forget that. Yadier Molina has shown signs of pursuing another extension this spring, and we know how the Cardinals handle those kind of legacy contracts.
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It's hard to predict what will happen at the trade deadline when we don't know a) how the team will be playing and b) what the team will need at that point. The Cardinals' recent trade-deadline moves have been pretty unremarkable. I wouldn't bank on a big deadline splash just for the sake of one. A lot of it will depend on where the Cardinals are, and how some key players have performed.
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If the world was binary and without nuance, this would be possible.There would be two types of players -- good ones and bad ones.You would play the good and sit the bad.You would also not pay the bad.It's a little more complicated than that.Sometimes good players have bad stretches.Sometimes bad players have good stretches.Sometimes it's hard to tell who is good and who is bad, because a bunch of guys are swirling around in the middle.Baseball teams, like any business, tend to give more chances to employees who have done good things and employees they have invested heavily in.The Cardinals are more patient than many.
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The fans are growing restless, but consider Josh Whitman. See his approach with Lovie Smith. He believes in Underwood. More importantly, he hired Underwood. I think he will give Underwood the Smith treatment, meaning he's safe from real job security issues despite fan grumbling.
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I can't fathom why SLU and even MIZZOU to a lesser degree can't hit free throws, Ford when he was playing was shooting close to 90%, you would think that some of that would rub off on his players. How does anyone shoot 35% from the line like French, maybe he should try shooting underhand ala Chamberlain.
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Don't put SLU and Mizzou in the same category free-throw wise.SLU is one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the country.It drives Ford crazy, in part because of what you just mentioned.He can still step to the line and make them one after the other.I think modern players think it's embarrassing to try alternative approaches like an underhanded free-throw shot.I think it's more embarrassing to get fouled intentionally because opponents know you are going to miss.French is a big guy. He rarely shoots from out there if it's not a free throw. That's not an excuse, but what is more confusing and frustrating are the team's guards, who can make 3-pointers but not free throws.At some point it's a pride and practice thing.A coach can't make his players make free throws. Ford is trying. Guys have to do it on their own and figure out how to take into a game.Ford's players mostly make free throws in practice. Then the game starts, and it's like they've never been to the line before.It's almost contagious.
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Happy Monday & thanks for the chat!
I had the pleasure of attending Games 1 & 2 of the Pujols return series and I gotta say, Busch was about as electric as I've ever seen it that weekend. Even if Albert isn't what he used to be, getting to see him play baseball in St. Louis just one more time was a pleasure.
My question is about the Cardinals & Pujols' future together. While it certainly seems like there was some friction at the time he opted to head West, that weekend sure made it feel like any lingering animosity between the Cardinals & Albert is long gone. The team rolled out the red carpet for him, the fans simply could not get enough, and Albert seemed to be excited & eager to soak it all in. I know he has the 10 year personal services clause with the Angels, but I assume he doesn't HAVE to work for the team if he doesn't want to. Do you see him being a regular around the Cardinals post-retirement? He's obviously a shoo-in for the Cardinals Hall of Fame (and Cooperstown, for that matter), and I imagine we'll see his number retired and a statue at some point, but not seeing him lined up with the rest of the red jackets on Opening Day every year would be a huge bummer.
Also, it doesn't seem likely with Goldschmidt in the fray, but a small part of me hopes that if the Angels fall out of contention in 2021 the Cardinals make a deadline move to bring him back for one last victory lap. -
I'm with you on the closure. And the number retirement and statue. I think those are just a matter of time. For both Pujols and Molina, I imagine. I don't think Pujols will play another game for the Cardinals, though. And it's probably better that way. Some of the reason his time here was so special was that it was almost vacuum sealed. St. Louis didn't see him age. Didn't see him begin to decay. He arrived like a lightning bolt, starred as one of the best to ever do it, then went away and became human. There's some mythology there that shouldn't be ruined by old, worn-down Pujols coming back as a sideshow. Just my opinion. As for the nitty, gritty of the personal service clause, I have not read it and don't know the ins and outs of it. I've always thought that Pujols, after his retirement, will be as much of a part of Cardinals events as he wants to be. The Cardinals certainly are not going to turn him away. And you saw what it meant to him to be back. I would bet on him being a part of opening days in the future, even if it takes a while.