Best Podcast in Baseball

With City SC headed toward the MLS playoffs, SLU men's basketball set to host Mizzou, and the Mizzou football team about to face Texas, there's a lot of potential excitement for sports fans in St. Louis. At the same time, the Cardinals, committed to their rebuild, reach what could be a race to the lockout. In this landscape, what needs to happen for the Cardinals' Hot Stove to spark attention? Tamar Sher, sports anchor and reporter at KMOV/Channel 4, and Post-Dispatch sports columnist Benjamin Hochman join Best Podcast in Baseball host Derrick Goold to discuss the events in St. Louis and where Cardinals fit and whether they need to make a splashy move in this short window to invigorate the fan base. Hochman has a suggestion. He'd like the team to sign a specific free-agent third baseman, and that spurs the discussion that eventually leads to what happens when baseballn stops. Major League Baseball and the players' union appear unlikely to finalize a new Collective Bargaining Agreement before the current one expires at Dec. 1 and a lockout begins by the morning of Dec. 2. That will put a freeze on all major-league activities and interactions between teams and players.  The podcast discusses whether that also puts a chill in the vibe around the Cardinals, or if it just further focuses the conversation on where it has been during the rebuild -- on the rising, young talent in the minors and when those players will arrive. More Post-Dispatch podcasts.  Please consider subscribing. In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.  

The search for larger truths from a small-ball, smallest-market World Series is on, and it's possible that this year's Fall Classic, pitting two of the most innovative and shrewd clubs in the game against each other in the Brewers and Rays, does not buck recent trends as much as prove them. Best Podcast in Baseball host and Post-Dispatch Baseball writer Derrick Goold welomes recurring guest Kevin Wheeler, of KMOX/104.1 FM, to discuss this years World Series that will crown a new champion for the first time and what, if anything, the Cardinals can learn from it. Both the can-do Brew Crew and the Tampa Bay Rays have their roots in in the same place, sharing some of the same executives, but they've grown through nurture and opportunity in different directions to meet in this World Series. The Cardinals intend to follow that path with president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, who spent his formative years with the Rays, leading the way. But catching up to the division champion Brewers isn't the goal. Getting ahead of the game is, and Wheeler and Goold discuss where the Cardinals can do that and which organization has the brighter future as of right now. The backdrop to the World Series is the onrushing expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and imminent lockout. With two smaller-market, smaller-payroll teams playing for the championship, the Fall Classic has become an inkblot test. It can be whatever suits the argument for or against a salary cap, for or against restrictions that narrow the payroll disparity, for or against the structures said to be needed to spur competitive balance. In reality, this World Series only affirms the trends already in place and the edges that bigger-market, higher-spending teams already have and how the owners may need to explore significant adjustments on their end for that to change. A depth of talent to survive the postseason and be versatile for matchups is what wins, and the fatter the wallet the easier it is to acquire and maintain that depth. Wheeler and Goold outline the reasons why. More Post-Dispatch podcasts.  Please consider subscribing. In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.  

A World Series preview 44 years in the making: The Fall Classic returns to Milwaukee for the first time since the Cardinals were there in 1982 and upended the American League champion Brewers.  Forty-four years and one league change, and the Brewers are back in the World Series. And they sure look like a team that's only going to get better for a few years. To discuss what the Fall Classic in Milwaukee means in the history of the Brewers and for the future of the National League Central, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel beat writer Curt Hogg joins the Best Podcast in Baseball for a conversation with St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold. They detail what the reaction in Wisconsin has been like for this team, when expectations are going to start applying pressure (if they haven't all ready), and how the Brewers built a juggernaut when it comes to developing pitchers. A recurring theme of the conversation is an edge the Brewers have often played: patience. Hogg also offers a scouting report on the two prospects the Cardinals received from the Brewers at the trade deadline in exchange for pitchers Dustin May and JoJo Romero. Both Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale are outfielders, and the Cardinals were thrilled to get two talents from a system that is among the best at spotting, acquiring, and developing talent. Just check the standings. More Post-Dispatch podcasts.  Please consider subscribing. In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold. 

Two years into their overhaul of the minor-league system to modernize it, staff it, and reanimate it, the Cardinals are on the power play. By adjusting their scouting focus and expanding their avenues for acquiring talent (i.e., trading All-Stars during one whirlwind winter), the Cardinals have radically changed the potential within the system, especially when it comes to power. An example of this was a recent exercise by Baseball America that had hosts of the Prospect Podcast draft teams of power hitters and also power pitchers. The Cardinals had five hitters, including top prospect Rainiel Rodriguez and breakout talents Joshua Baez and Jose Baez, selected, four of them by one BA writer. The same BA writer chose several rising talents for his power pitching team. Geoff Pontes, a prospect writer at BA, joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to discuss his selections and the state of the Cardinals' farm system with Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold. Pontes sees not only the Cardinals' answers at third base and for the middle of the order ascending (and fast) in the system, but for the possibilty of two pitchers arriving in 2027 who could be the left-right, Nos. 1-2 combo in Liam Doyle and Tanner Franklin, respectively.  Prospects specifically discussed include: Jake Gurevitch, Doyle, Franklin, Rodriguez, Jesus Baez, Joshua Baez, Josiah Ragsdale, Sandro Santana, Daniel Eagen, Jack Martinez, Nate Dohm, Brandon Clarke, and more. During the conversation, both writers reference the 20 to 80 scale used by scouts to describe upside for various tools, such as 70 power or a 60 slider. Eighty is rarely given, but the higher the score the better. And this episide of the BPIB is an 80 conversation.  More Post-Dispatch podcasts.  Please consider subscribing. In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold. 

After a lengthy delay, the Best Podcast in Baseball is back and making up for lost time.  Or, well, going back in time. On the 100th anniversary -- to the date -- of the 1926 World Series and the Cardinals' first world championship, author Terry Lemons joins BPIB host and Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold to discuss the significance of that title and its role in creating St. Louis as the baseball city we know so well. Lemons' book, "The Year St. Louis Became a Baseball Town: The Cardinals, Babe Ruth, and the 1926 World Series" explores how that series was much more than a best-of-seven showdown. It pitted Ruth and the mighty Yankees against the furthest team west and furthest team south in the majors, and a Cardinals club that wasn't even in the most popular major-league team in its city. Lemons presents the idea that the series and the Cardinals' victory was the "lightning strike" that made baseball, already popular in St. Louis, part of the city's identity. And that goes right down to the practice of cheering for the opponent. And at the center of it was the Great Bambino and what Lemons called the "Ruthian" mistake that ended the series. Signed copies of his book is available at his website, 1926Baseball.com. Thank you listeners for the patience as BPIB took an unplanned break for a few months and will now resume a more regular and recurring schedule as it reinvents itself a bit. We appreciate the support. This podcast only exists (persists?) because of the listeners like you. More Post-Dispatch podcasts.  Please consider subscribing. In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.