Best Podcast In Baseball

The Hot Stove needs a spark, and the Best Podcast in Baseball has flint ready to strike steel. The forecast calls for a flurry of moves in Major League Baseball before next month's arrival of spring training, and big reason for that isn't market cooling. After the brief, jubilant sparks of signings around the annual winter meetings, the free-agent market has gone cold, and the Cardinals have had difficult finding a trade partner for Nolan Arenado as a result. Does Major League Baseball need a winter deadline for transactions to spur moves, to grab the headlines? St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold and sports columnist Jeff Gordon discuss how creating a signing deadline in the offseason would change the pace of free agency and possibly benefit. The two writers discuss the history of baseball's deadline-less offseason, compare to other leagues with their frenzy of signings in a allowed window, and explore when and how a deadline would work for a sport that has long defined itself by just alway

Fresh off the ice after covering the St. Louis Blues for a few days, St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist Jeff Gordon is greeted with this question to begin his weekly appearance on the Best Podcast in Baseball: Which was chillier -- the Blues game, the frigid temperatures in St. Louis, or the reception the Cardinals got at their annual Winter Warm-Up? While the Los Angeles Dodgers continued to collect a galaxy of stars, the Cardinals delivered their clearest messages yet about the direction they're headed for 2024. They're reducing payroll and prioritizing player development so that they can reconstruct a contender in this rapidly changing baseball economy. BPIB host and baseball writer Derrick Goold asked Cardinals ownership if the endgame of their "reset" -- their word for it -- will require a salary cap introduced to Major League Baseball as it has been in other professional sports leagues. The short answer from ownership was no. The long answer is that there are many ways to curtail spending and pena

Is it easier to get 400 baseball writers to all agree on who is a Hall of Famer or 30 Major League Baseball owners to agree on ways to address skyrocketing payroll disparity? That's the question that begins a brand new episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball. Esteemed baseball writer Tyler Kepner, of The Athletic and formerly with the New York Times, joins host Derrick Goold to discuss Ichiro Suzuki and his peers in the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Class of 2025. It's a robust class that includes a top left-handed starter CC Sabathia who got elected on his first ballot and a top left-handed reliever Billy Wagner who got elected on his final ballot. The class also includes Dick Allen and Dave Parker to further reveal the many numerous routes available to players to reach induction in Cooperstown. There is the expressway that Suzuki takes with near unanimous support. There is the state two-lane highway that will likely welcome switc-hitter Carlos Beltran to Cooperstown in 2026, and then there's the country

At the end of year press conference where the Cardinals announced a pivot toward youth and debuted their buzzword "reset" to describe a reduction in payroll and commitment to development, St. Louis' veteran sportscaster Randy Karraker asked what has changed for the club. It was just six years ago that ownership said a .500 team was acceptable in other markets, but just a winning record wasn't enough in St. Louis, where division titles were the goal and National League pennants fly high. Karraker's question prompted a discussion on whether the Cardinals are changing expectations and their brand. That is the launching point for a brand new Best Podcast in Baseball as host and baseball writer Derrick Goold asks Karraker what questions fans should ask at the team's annual "kickoff" to the season. The 28th annual Cardinals Care Winter Warm-up will be over the holiday weekend at Ballpark Village and Busch Stadium, and three times fans will have a chance to ask Cardinals leadership directly about this shift in direc

"Empty seats are empty seats; no-shows are no-shows," says St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist Jeff Gordon. "When you’re just accepting reduced attendance and you’re pointing to that for reduced payroll, now you’re setting yourself up for a spiral." Yet to spend a cent this offseason on a major-league free agent, the Cardinals are banking big on breakthrough seasons from their young players and betting there will be buy-in -- literally -- from fans. The payoff could be sparking interest and ticket sales from fans interested in a new direction, but the risk is significant as the Cardinals could spin into a financial whirlpool that leads to more severe cuts or a complete overhaul once new leadership is in place. In a brand new Best Podcast in Baseball, host Derrick Goold is joined by Gordon to discuss what the Cardinals' actions tell us about their situation and their motives. The Cardinals went 3-for-6 on finalizing deals with arbitration-eligible players, leaving salaries for Lars Nootb

The 13th year of the Best Podcast in Baseball begins with a conversation about something new for the Cardinals and their fan base, something that hasn't been discussed around Busch Stadium in decades, and something some might argue was overdue. "For the first time in forever, (they're) trying to sell hope," says Post-Dispatch sports columnist Jeff Gordon. The first BPIB episode of 2025 welcomes Gordon, longtime author of Tipsheet at StlToday.com, as a regular contributor to the weekly baseball podcast and puts him right to work on cross-examination. Continuing what's become an annual feature on the podcast, host and baseball writer Derrick Goold reveals his ballot for the upcoming class of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Ichiro Suzuki is eligible for the first time and brings more than 3,000 hits in the majors and 4,200 hits as a professional to his bid to become the first unanimously selected position player.  Ichiro, five holdovers from last year's ballot, and four newcomers, all pitchers, appear o

A revealing moment for the Cardinals and all who evaluate or rank their prospects came in the first round of the 2021 MLB Draft. With the 18th pick, the Cardinals went straight back to their sweet spot and chose Michael McGreevy, a right-handed pitcher out of UC-Santa Barbara and straight from central casting. He fit the profile of the pitcher the Cardinals had taken many times before. McGreevy has elbowed his way into the Cardinals' plans for their starting rotation less than four years later. All around the pick, the game and how rivals evaluated pitching was changing. That's the description Baseball America prospects writer Geoff Pontes provides in a brand new episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball with host and Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold. Pontes is fresh off ranking the Cardinals' top 10 prospects for the industry's leading prospect magazine, and he joins the podcast hours after finishing the organization's top 30 prospects for Baseball America's Handbook. That indispensable rite of spri

"There should be three expectations in life," MLB Network Radio host and noted baseball pundit Mike Ferrin says in a brand new episode of the Best Pocast in Baseball. "Death, taxes, and the Cardinals competing evry year. That's National League baseball." That may be the Cardinals' brand, but that is not entirely their plan this coming season. At Major League Baseball's Winter Meetings in Dallas, Ferrin joins Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold to discuss the direction the Cardinals are shifting and how they have a long way to go and a short time to get there. This isn't just about carrying on the torch of the Cardinals Way, but turning it into a more fuel efficient electric lighter.  Several years ago as a guest on BPIB, Ferrin, who hosts Power Alley on Sirius XM's MLB Network Radio, introduced this podcast's listeners to the phrase "player dev," short for player development. The conversation that followed in that episode offered a glimpse into where the Cardinals had started to go astray from th

While discussing how Major League Baseball could proactively move to help smaller-market clubs remain competitive, KMOX/1120 AM host and frequent Best Podcast in Baseball guest Kevin Wheeler strikes upon a model the Cardinals could aspire to emulate during their self-imposed reset. "The Atlanta Braves," Wheeler suggests. A team that develops, acquires, and keeps young impact players, Atlanta is closer, Wheeler argues, to the Cardinals in operations than the juggernaut Los Angeles Dodgers, aggressive-spending Philadelphia Phillies, or some of the big-budget barons of the American League. That prompts a look, position by position, about how the Cardinals could mirror Atlanta, and how wide the gap is for them to close. The Cardinals can start by accumulating talent, and that is what they're looking to do via trade this winter and, potentially, through the next season. This leads to the question on whether the Cardinals have a homegrown, surefire, superstar hitter ready to take a "Golden At-Bat" -- which is all t

During the past two decades in Major League Baseball, only the Houston Astros have won pennants and appeared in more World Series than the Cardinals and Boston. Two of baseball's most accomplished and celebrated franchises have won four pennants each and faced each other twice in the World Series, both of them won by the BoSox. The ties that bind go beyond shared Octobers these days as both clubs, perennial contenders for most of baseball's current era, are trying to find their footing and return to their postseason expectations. Rob Bradford captured the connection in a brand new Best Podcast in Baseball. "Both franchises are starving to find the certainty," he said. Bradford, the host of the wildly popular podcast Baseball Isn't Boring, joins the next-best baseball podcast to discuss the shared traits of the Cardinals and Red Sox — and the one link that is about to define the Cardinals future. Bradford, the Red Sox reporter at WEEI in Boston, covered Chaim Bloom's tenure atop Boston's baseba

After a brief discussion about a shared fondness for a recent, deeply moving and haunting collection of linked short stories, Sequioa Nagamatsu's 'How High We Got in the Dark,' two baseball writers focus on another work of speculative fiction. What to make of the 2025 St. Louis Cardinals. CBS Sports baseball writer Dayn Perry joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to discuss his lifelong fondness and connection to the Cardinals, and his questions for what comes next. Along with St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer and BPIB host Derrick Goold, Perry discusses if the Cardinals have reached a point where fans, like him, must "adjust their expectations." If so, the podcast explores, are the Cardinals still stuck in the middle, not committing to an all-the-way rebuild in the same way they came shy of an all-in contender. Perry makes the case that the future of the Cardinals may come down to Jordan Walker's bat. It is the tent pole around which a lineup and a contender could be built, Perry argues, and the young out

While awaiting the parade's arrival at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Times sports columnist Dylan Hernandez veers into nostalgia as he wonders whether the Dodgers' run of success and appetite for more might spur the Cardinals to defend their place in the National League and re-spark one of his favorite rivalries. Hosting a parade in Los Angeles for the first time since 1988 -- COVID restrictions kept one from happening in 2020 -- the Los Angeles Dodgers claimed their eighth World Series championship, their seventh since moving from New York. That ties them with the San Francisco Giants for the second-most titles by a National League club. For 80 years, it has been the Cardinals' brand and their claim to fame that they have the most World Series titles of any National League club, and since 2006, the Cardinals have had the second-most World Series championships in MLB history. Yet, the gap between the Dodgers' eight titles and the Cardinals' cherished 11 feels a lot closer. Post-Dispatch sports columni

As much as the standings and missteps of their player development system will shape the Cardinals' offseason, arguably the most significant factor in any of their decisions will be when the broadcast sports sinkhole reaches them, and how deep it goes. The consternation will be televised. This much is certain: The Cardinals games will be available to cable subscribers in 2025 and also subscribers to a forthcoming streaming service. What happens next, well ... stay tuned. To explain how Major League Baseball (and other sports), Bally Sports Midwest/FanDuel Sports Network Midwest (and its parent company), and the Cardinals (and almost every other baseball club), got into this bind, the Best Podcast in Baseball brings Dan Caesar into the conversation. The Media Views columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch since 1988, Caesar could only think of one bigger story on the sports broadcast beat in his four decades than the one currently playing out in a Texas bankruptcy court. Diamond Sports Group, the parent company

Continuing the conversation that began in the Best Podcast in Baseball episode 21, season 12, KMOX/1120 AM's Kevin Wheeler considers the question on how the Cardinals can accumulate younger talent, draft picks, or both. The answer begins at first base. The questions continue from there in this brand new Best Podcast in Baseball that ultimately reaches a discussion about the World Series and whether a clash between high-spending baseball royalty, the Dodgers of Los Angeles and the Yankees of New York, is great for marketing the game, good for the fans, great for the history buffs, potentially grand for TV ratings, and yet is it a positive for the industry? The 2024 World Series is the culmination of several years with a consolidation of talents. On the field will be two handfuls of future Hall of Famers, two 50-homer players, and the favorites to win this year's MVPs in each league. In fact, no World Series has featured this many past MVP winners. And all of them have either been traded or, in the case of

The official changes to some Cardinals' leadership roles, from the front office to the dugout, as they approach their "reset" winter continued on the eve of the World Series with the first new addition to the front office, a new coach, and a new role for an all-time great. Kevin Wheeler, co-host of the drive-time show and baseball coverage at KMOX/1120 AM, joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to discuss with Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold the moves the Cardinals have made, the names involved -- and some of the motivations and goals driving them. From there the conversation expands into an audit of the Cardinals strategy and financial position. The team has advertised as cut in payroll as it bends young and reinvests in an eroded player development program, but there's more going on than just a shifting of dollars and sense. There is the potential for a huge cut in revenue that is driving some of their decisions, and is not their plan to increase spending on minor-league coaches and technology, nor

Toward the end of his first professional season, not too long after he told a roommate Oliver Marmol about his personal and accelerated timetable to reach the majors, Matt Carpenter got a phone call that could have forever changed his career in baseball. He was approached about being a coach, and he was tempted to take it. The next summer his playing career took off. There are baseball cards galore and probably a Cardinals Hall of Fame red jacket in his future that tell how that story ended, but Carpenter shares with the Best Podcast in Baseball how close he came to moving to a role in the game that he might eventually also have. A three-time All-Star who returned to the Cardinals for the 2024 season, Carpenter joins the Best Podcast in Baseball and baseball writer Derrick Goold for a conversation many months in the making. The two spoke this past week near the batting cage at Coors Field, just ahead of the Cardinals' season finale in San Francisco. From his early days with the Cardinals as a spring-training

A year after "pitching, pitching, pitching" dictated the Cardinals' approach to the offseason, the club faces a far broader challenge this winter. PR, PR, PR. Or, as Best Podcast in Baseball guest Brooke Grimsley, noted: "Change, change, change." The 2024 Cardinals' season comes to a close with the club trying ot break the hold of .500 and avoid a second losing season, what would be the first back-to-back losing seasons in a full schedule since Stan Musial played for the team in the late 1950s. Crowds, like wins and playoff appearances, have dwindled, and the one-off season the Cardinals promised after 2023 has become something more problematic for the club: a trend. Grimsley, co-host of The Opening Drive at ESPN 101.1 FM/WXOS in St. Louis, said the feedback they've received from listeners and fans suggest that fans are moving from anger to acceptance to something more alarming for any club -- apathy. With BPIB host and St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold, Grimsley discusses what messages an

Despite the smallest market in Major League Baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers have become a marvel of what it means to be a modern contender. The organization the Cardinals used to be and the Cubs wanted to be , the Brewers now are, complete with the 10-game lead in the division standings ahead of the former kings with a month of the season remaining. MLB.com's longtime Brewers beat writer Adam McCalvy joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to talk about Milwaukee's rise within the division and reign atop. McCalvy talks with Best Podcast in Baseball host and baseball writer Derrick Goold about the "culture" the Brewers have created, one that seems to benefit from the team's business model, strong development infrastructure, and something the Cardinals have not shown, and may not be able to show. Patience. The Brewers appear to have hit Yatzhee on almost every move. They waited out the market to land Christian Yelich from Miami via trade, ending up with the best fit of the three Marlins outfielders available at the

Within the span of only a few hours, the Cardinals demoted two of their top prospects from the past decade, sending in separate moves their top left-handed slugging prospect and one of the top right-handed hitting prospects in all of the minors. What gives and what does it mean for the Cardinals ongoing, completely confounding "riddle" when it comes to developing young hitters? To explore this defining question for the current era of Cardinals baseball, the Best Podcast in Baseball turns to a Hall of Famer. BPIB co-founder and former Post-Dispatch sports columnist Bernie Miklasz joins podcast host Derrick Goold to discuss a week that featured Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker returning to Class AAA Memphis just a few months after they were supposed to emerge as the next core contributors in the Cardinals' lineup. Urgency rules as the Cardinals try to capture magic from a series win against Milwaukee and turn it into a last-gasp run for a playoff spot. But is that same urgency, that same pressure to produce and p

The proverbial turtle on a fencepost that clearly did not get there by itself is also an apt metaphor for the trouble a Major League Baseball club finds itself in when trying to balance between the hedge-fund tycoons and the heavy tankers. Stuck in the middle is a tough place to be as the Cardinals have shown -- and, as with the turtle, it can take looking beyond the shell for a way out of it. The Best Podcast in Baseball hosted by baseball writer Derrick Goold returns with guest Kevin Wheeler of KMOX/1120 AM to discuss the Cardinals as they emerge from a disastrous series in Cincinnati and begin the most grueling stretch of their season. They are, once again, balanced around .500 -- waiting for the wind of change to knock this turtle into one direction or the other. And that becomes the crux of the conversation. If the Cardinals are able to put together a 41-game sprint for October and a playoff berth, does such a run risk masking or misleading the direction the franchise is really headed. Look to the most r