Best Podcast In Baseball

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 CHICAGO -- Two showdowns loom for the Cardinals in the coming weeks. First, they face the division-leading Chicago Cubs for the first time with a four-game series at Busch Stadium.. Second, they face themselves at the trade deadline. Hall of Fame broadcaster and fixture on Cardinals' radio Mike Claiborne joins the Best Podcast in Baseball for his annual appearance around Flag Day. Claiborne has long argued that Flag Day is the first day to check the standings are start making plans on what kind of team the Cardinals are going to be. This year's time might take a little longer, but Claiborne tells baseball writer and BPIB host Derrick Goold what he already knows about the 2025 'transition' club. Claiborne and Goold also discuss what the Cardinal can aim to get in return at the trade deadline if the upcoming series against the Cubs point them in the direction of selling. That is if they c

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 From near his perch at Busch Stadium, where he calls games for the Cardinals' Spanish language broadcast, Polo Ascensio surveys the style of game, the style of play, and, yes, the style of his calls for the 2025 Cardinals. The nine-game home stand did not lack for some compelling games -- though evidently there is some debate on how entertaining the opening innings of the Cardinals' 2-1 victory against the Dodgers was -- and that had to be reflected in the calls from all of the broadcast booths. Ahead of Toronto completing a series sweep of the Cardinals, Ascensio spoke with Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold about those calls, about the enthusiasm and inspiration he brings to them as well as whether this team has made such energy easier with its style of play. Ascensio also discusses the catching history of the Cardinals and the catching present, with background on how two members

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 The first extended home stand of season brings two sides of the contending spectrum to Busch Stadium, with the Kansas City Royals in an upswing after some down years that have brought in high-end talent and then the Los Angeles Dodgers and how they can muscle their way into perpetual contention with financial might. Somewhere in the middle is where the Cardinals' must find their sweet spot -- not stomaching the downturn the Royals experience while unable to spend like the Dodgers do. Post-Dispatch sports columnist Jeff Gordon joins the Best Podcast in Baseball host and baseball writer Derrick Goold do discuss and compare the building of contenders through various blueprints. As the Cardinals rethink theirs, what can they borrow from each of the teams visiting this week, and what can they pull from their rival they're about to visit -- the Milwaukee Brewers? Gordon presents a hypothetical abo

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 A big, defining topic for the Cardinals' future and their development of a big, defining hitter needs a jumbo-sized Best Podcast in Baseball. For more than a decade, the Cardinals have had to go shopping for their middle-order hitters -- either by trade (Paul Goldcshmidt, Nolan Arenado, Marcell Ozuna) or, rarely, by free agency (Carlos Beltran, Willson Contreras) -- but during this "reset" year where offense has been a major part of their success, the Cardinals seem closer to having homegrown hitters in the middle of the order to build around. Brendan Donovan, currently hitting No. 3, leads the league in doubles and hits. Candidates to climb up to cleanup include Ivan Herrera. There is the catch. Herrera's bright future as a hitter seems clear. Less so, is where he fits at catcher. Kevin Wheeler, host at KMOX/104.1 FM, joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to discuss all of the ramifications of

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 In the wake of three managerial firings before Memorial Day, author and longtime baseball writer Scott Miller joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to discuss his new book, "Skipper: Why Baseball Managers Matter (and Always Will)". In his deeply reported work, Miller talks with managers, both current and past, to map the changing landscape of the role as front offices and analytics become more dominant and a perception grips the game that, as Miller writes it so well, lineups are being written for the manager not by the manager. With BPIB host and baseball writer Derrick Goold, Miller discusses the evolution of managers in the game from Sparky to Tony to Bochy, the traits that make a successful manager, and also how those traits have changed and adapted to a game driven more and more by data and run like the big business it is. The two baseball writers also explore what happens to game if, as o

  Near the visitors' dugout at Coors Field in September 2024, Cardinals veteran Matt Carpenter found a relatively quiet spot to discuss his career, his future plans, and the dramatic shifts he's seen in the game since his arrival in 2011 with the Best Podcast in Baseball.  Carpenter announced his retirement this past week after 14 seasons in the majors, and included a six-year run as one of the top leadoff hitters in the game to go with three All-Star appearances and a Silver Slugger Award at second base. This is a BPIB replay of the full episode that first dropped on Sept. 28, 2024. From the original launch of this episode: 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 b

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 “Change the atmosphere at the ballpark and start to mirror the scrappiness and the feistiness and that vibe that you talk about of this team. It is very interesting that for the last few years they’ve had a very stoic team and a very stoic ballpark. This is not a stoic team. This is a kinetic team. It’s time to have a kinetic ballpark.” PHILADELPHIA -- The wake of the Cardinals roll to a series win at the rocking Citizens Bank Park against the Phillies, Post-Dispatch sports writers Jeff Gordon and Derrick Goold discuss if expectations should change for the 2025 Cardinals after they won nine consecutive games and 10 of 11. The Cardinals' stated goal in this "transition" year is to be better in May than they were in April and better in June than they were in May. A brand new Best Podcast in Baseball explores this question: When they have a May that puts them within one

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 "The discussion around the Cardinals will be similar to one you and I are having right now," says Rich Waltz, broadcaster for Apple TV+'s Friday Night Baseball. "Who are these guys and where are they headed? Are the pieces they've got good enough?" The Cardinals reach the nation's capital riding a five-game winning streak, back at .500 for the first time in three weeks, and about to embark on what could be a defining three-city road trip. There to great them is a national broadcast as the Cardinals appear for the first time this season on Apple TV+'s Friday Night Baseball. Waltz will be at Nationals Park with Ryan Spillborghs and Tricia Whitaker to call the game. As he prepared for it, Waltz joined St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold for a brand new Best Podcast in Baseball recorded in Washington.  The discuss the Cardinals' winning streak coming out of a strong home s

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 If we can all agree that teams in the National League Central cycle in and then out of a window contention, then let's begin the discussion there as a brand new Best Podcast in Baseball does with a look at all five division rivals and where they are in their timeline to contend. Longtime Cincinnati baseball writer and Reds beat writer C. Trent Rosecrans, who is now with The Athletic and The New York Times, joins Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold during a rain delay at Great American Ball Park to look out the windows and see what teams are in a downcycle from contending, what team is square in an urgent window to do so, and where the Reds and Cardinals fit on the spectrum. The comparison between the Reds and Cardinals gets some added gravity when considering how the Reds have a young nucleus of players -- and arguably the most-talented position player (Elly De La Cruz) and most-tale

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 The Cardinals' recent road swing through New York and Atlanta revealed a team playing compelling baseball but vulnerable to late-game ruptures in the bullpen that led to a 1-6 record. That prompts the question to launches a brand new episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball: If the Cardinals are focused on development in 2025 and aim to develop winners for beyond 2025, should they have outfited the most volatile area of the roster -- the bullpen -- with more certainty to avoid losses like on the road trip?  KMOX/1120 AM's Kevin Wheeler rejoins the podcast to discuss that concept and what role the results of games actually play in the development of young players.  Along with Post-Dispatch baseball writer and BPIB host Derrick Goold, there are some hearty debates about the importance of fundamentals and style of play as a force multiplier not a counterpunch for superstar talent and a

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 Welcome to a brand-new Best Podcast in Baseball. St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer and host Derrick Goold is joined this week by colleague, sports columnist, and instant offense Jeff Gordon. They discuss the Cardinals’ “relentless bunch” – their league-leading on-base machine lineup and their leader, hitting coach Brant Brown. There’s even a quiz on his catchphrases. The two writers look at the Cardinals shift to a six-man rotation for the coming week. And then they dive into the numbers on attendance in the early series of the season, ticket sales, and whether the dip in attendance reflects exactly the drop in payroll. Will the assertive start by the lineup and this team’s style of play be enough to bring fans to Busch Stadium, or Goold asks, is there something else afoot hear? The Cardinals have advertised a “transition” year, so is com

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 There is a decades-old comic book from Japan that freelance journalist and baseball writer Brad Lefton carries with him and has promised to share when next at the Busch Stadium press box. It features a heroic baseball player, Kyojin no Hoshi, and, in one issue, Red Schoendienst and the Cardinals appear. A fictional character in the comic wears the Birds on the Bat as he becomes a rival to the comic's protagonist. So it was for the Cardinals for years -- two Cardinals teams, one led by Stan Musial and another by Bob Gibson, visited Japan on tours. The Cardinals were one of the first teams in Major League Baseball to sign a position from Japan when So Taguchi arrived in the early 2000s. He would go on to start in the World Series, win in a World Series championship, and be a key part of a pennant winner for the Cardinals. When he met Schoendienst he marveled that he was the same person he knew

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 It would be difficult for the Cardinals to script a better opening weekend for their "transition" year that an emphatic sweep of the visiting Minnesota Twins. The Cardinals got sturdy performances from the starters, stellar play from the defense, and 19 runs in three days from the offsenese. Lars Nootbaar ignited the weekend with a run scored in three of the Cardinals' first four games, and Victor Scott personified the three-game series sweep of the Twins with a dynamic catch in the opener, two stolen bases in the middle game, and the decisive three-run homer in the series finale. The Cardinals put on a show. And some of the smallest crowds in Busch Stadium history were there to see it. How can the Cardinals grow a team and regrow the crowds? Will one assure the other, or are the Cardinals entering more than a "transition" year in the front office and actually embarking on a whole new p

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5 When the rain clears on opening day, the Cyldesdales, red jackets, and 2025 Cardinals will take center stage in St. Louis for what's become a civic holiday. And yet, outside of the pomp of the opener, the real circumstance facing the Cardinals entering the regular season is how they've faded from relevance in the National League and NL Central. ESPN baseball writer Jesse Rogers, in town to cover the Cardinals' opener against the Minnesota Twins, joins the Best Podcast in Baseball and host Derrick Goold to discuss a national perspective on the Cardinals and the curious case of their "transition." For a youth movement, the Cardinals don't have a rookie on their opening roster for the first time since 2007. For a "reset," the roster is more of a copy -- with 25 of the 26 players on the active roster returning from 2024. The duality of the Cardinals' dilemma is as clear as the rain delaying the o

Post-Dispatch podcasts page Please consider subscribing While typing the introduction to a brand new episode of Best Podcast in Baseball, I'm sitting in the press box at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, Florida, having just watched rookie Michael McGreevy carve through the Mets lineup, pitch around two errors, and finish his impressive spring trianing with five scoreless innings. Meanwhile, down in Jupiter, Florida, Victor Scott II has homered. Again. McGreevy and Scott personify the decision the Cardinals are going to have to make weighing whether it is better for their future to have a deserving player sitting in St. Louis or playing in Memphis. That's the crux of quesitons facing the Cardinals as they crystallize their roster before leaving Florida for the start of the regular season and opening day Thursday against Minnesota at Busch Stadium.  The final Best Podcast in Baseball from Florida centers on that choice -- sitting in the majors, playing in the minors -- and what is best for the players, what

Post-Dispatch podcasts page: https://go.stltoday.com/0hfn43 Please consider subscribing: https://go.stltoday.com/9aigz5   JUPITER, Fla. -- Cardinals broadcaster Chip Caray lobbed a compelling question into the conversation he and other members of the media had this past week with Tony Clark, chief executive of the Major League Baseball Players' Association.   Caray, a longtime presence on baseball broadcasts and third-generation Caray in that role, wondered what it would look like if Major League Baseball ditched geographic divisions and reimagined itself along economic lines. The divisions would be organized by market size, not region. Tampa Bay would be free from competing against the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox for a division playoff spot. The Colorado Rockies wouldn't have to keep pace with the wallets in the National League West, if they were in the Plaines Division with Kansas City.   It's one way to open up more spots in the postseason for markets that are increasingly seein

JUPITER, Fla. -- With three weeks of spring training remaining before opening day at Busch Stadium and three weeks to make decisions on the bullpen, three weeks to explore any last-minute trades, three weeks to stir the offense, and three weeks to make that first free-agent move of the offseason, the Best Podcast in Baseball considers camp with a pair of threes. Three up. Three down. Post-Dispatch sports columnist and instant offense for StlToday.com Jeff Gordon joins baseball writer Derrick Goold to discuss three ups of spring (players who have stood out) and three downs (trends of note), and all of that leads to the one major lineup dilemma looming over the team. Manager Oliver Marmol likes to say it will take a larger room to come to a conclusion on some of the defining decisions of March. This is a look at how those talks could go. Gordon joins the podcast from St. Louis, while Goold is in Jupiter covering spring training for the Post-Dispatch's constant Cardinals coverage. The Best Podcast in Baseball, s

JUPITER, Fla. -- Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado created buzz within the Yankees' social media greenhouse for driving to visit a couple of close friends and, oh, playing six or so innings in an exhibition baseball game. That is where the discussion begins in a brand new Best Podcast in Baseball featuring host and baseball writer Derrick Goold along with Post-Dispatch sports columnist Jeff Gordon. The downstream impact of Arenado remaining in Cardinals camp and starting at third base for the Cardinals is a major factor in their spring training, but it doesn't disrupt the priority playing time as much as it might seem. Nolan Gorman will still be able to receive ample at-bats, just at a new position. Brendan Donovan won't be budged from the lineup, just to the outfield. And so on, all the way to center field,. That is where this podcast goes. Looking at center field, the big-league bench, the rotation, and the bullpen, Gordon and Goold explore the decisions the Cardinals must make with young players that w

JUPITER, Fla. -- There is a sense around the Cardinals that one of the reasons for reducing expectations, seesawing between the words "reset" and "transition" but never once using the world "rebuild," is that the club is trying to create a valve to release some of the pressure that greats young players when they arrive in the greenhouse of October demands. It's as if the Cardinals front office is trying to take the team out of the Jiffy-Pop tin of its usual brand and try something new, trying to see what grows when that greenhouse is a little cooler. Former Cardinals pitcher, current Cardinals broadcaster, and winner of the 2025 St. Louis Baseball Writers' of America Chapter's 'Good Guy Award,' Ricky Horton joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to discuss that release of pressure and what it means for the Cardinals. Horton, who appears on the KMOX/1120 AM and Cardinals Radio Network broadcasts,  discusses with BPIB host Derrick Goold what he'll be watching as spring games begin. The two also talk about what

JUPITER, Fla. -- The 13th season of the Best Podcast in Baseball begins as it traditionally does with a gathering of the Post-Dispatch writers covering the Cardinals spring training and an answering of the 10 questions facing the club as it begins a new season. And what a new season. For the first time in the span of the podcast, the Cardinals have dropped the pretense of contending for a World Series championship and attempted to lean into a new message, a new direction, a new emphasis on youth and prospects and player development just before a new front office takes over at the end of the 2025 regular season. That has prompted a lot of questions. Ten to be precise. The Post-Dispatch's annual look at the 10 questions facing the Cardinals is once again the backbone of a podcast that aims to answer them. BPIB host Derrick Goold welcomes Post-Dispatch writers Benjamin Hochman and Daniel Guerrero to the table at their shared rented condo in Jupiter to explore the answers to these 10 questions: What's the fallou