As the Cardinals head west for the second time in the first month of the regular season, they do so lugging the baggage from one of the least productive lineups in the majors. The Cardinals' rank in the bottom five for many significant offensive categories. Four of the team's home runs have come from the catcher position, none from third baseman Nolan Arenado. He and Paul Goldschmidt, only one full season removed from finishing No. 1 and No. 3 in the MVP voting, have struggled to start the season. So, can it be easily dismissed as small sample sizes? Or, is it right to consider how last season ..read more

From the back fields and press box at Sloan Park, the spring training home of the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball Derrick Goold and Cincinnati Enquirer baseball writer Gordon Wittenmyer survey the National League Central and discuss ballpark factors, dead zones, and whether any of these teams is actually going to win the division, or will it be won by default? A long-time baseball writer who has been on both the Cubs and Reds beat, Wittenmyer is skeptical of the Cardinals' pitching additions and the Cubs bringing back the same team, while he sees a wide bandwidth for possibiliti ..read more

The 2023 Cardinals, on their way to 91 losses and a last-place finish, diagnosed the rotation, an inconsistent outfield, and a difficult schedule at the start of the season as reasons for the fist last place finish in more than 30 years. Well, deja vu. The Cardinals near the start of the 2024 regular season with injuries in the rotation, uncertainty in the outfield, and a difficult schedule that begins Thursday at Dodger Stadium. So, did lessons learned from 2023 influence changes to the choise of 2023 or are the Cardinals poised to have the same slow start, the same, familiar failings? St. Lo ..read more

Within the first 90 seconds of his camp-opening comments, Cardinals executive John Mozeliak said one of the "critical" questions of spring was whether the team could stay healthy. He noted that is something he has probably said in all 17 years of addressing the media on the first day of official workouts. Injuries, after all, are part of the game, and they're definitely a rite of spring. Consider the past week for the Cardinals. In order, the Cardinals had 30% of their planned opening day lineup deal with injuries that make them questionable or "doubtful" for March 28 at Dodger Stadium: Lars N ..read more

Ten prospects. Two minutes each. Start the clock. St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Daniel Guerrero, one of the few staff writers at a daily paper dedicated to covering minor-league affiliates of the city's major-league team, joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to discuss 10 prospects who are set to have a leap year in 2024. Building off of Guerrero's article in the Feb. 29, 2024, edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Guerrero adds to the four players mentioned in the article with others who will leap in sample size, leap to the majors, leap to contribute, or leap into the conversation ..read more

"See a Different Game" was the motto of The Sporting News for a long time, and for a long time The Sporting News was known as the Bible of Baseball. Like everything, The Sporting News has changed, baseball coverage has changed, but more and more the best coverage remains true to that directive, "See a Different Game." And the best season for telling those kind of stories? Well, it just might be spring training. Stan McNeal, veteran baseball writer and editor and a senior staff writer at Cardinals Magazine, joins St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold to talk storytelling in a br ..read more

On a windy day on the back fields of Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla., Mike Claiborne, one of the radio voices of the Cardinals, joins baseball writer Derrick Goold to discuss how maybe Flag Day is too late in the schedule to determine where the club is headed in 2024. So it's time for an earlier Claiborne appearnce. It's a Leap Year. It's after a losing season. It's after a last-place season. That date will come much earlier. Claiborne, a regular on the Best Podcast in Baseball around Flag Day, the day he has annually suggested it's time to check the standing, agrees with the premise that ..read more

As Cardinals prepare for the official opening of spring training, what tone must be set early and what lessons from last year's losing season and curious spring will inform this year's camp? St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist Ben Frederickson joins baseball writer Derrick Goold to discuss how more than just the Cardinals' spring training facilities in Jupiter, Florida, need an overhaul. The roster received one. The club suggests the leadership in the clubhouse is next for a dash of retro restoration. In a brand new episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball, the two writers detail the new l ..read more

New Cardinals reliever Andrew Kittredge, less than 72 hours after the trade that brought him from Tampa Bay to St. Louis, talks with the Best Podcast in Baseball and host Derrick Goold about the move, and why it wasn't entirely unexpected. Kittredge also details the slider that got him to the majors, and how the Rays and their creative and collaborative pitching culture accelerated his career and gave him the opportunity to pitch in the majors, in high-leverage situations, in the playoffs, and in the All-Star Game. Kittredge details his approach to pitching and dives into some of the analytics ..read more

It's the Best Podcast in Baseball Holiday Episode: Part 2. Comedian Greg Warren, an All-American wrestler at Mizzou, considers a question posed by Post-Dispatch sports columnist Ben Frederickson: What current Cardinal would make the best wrestler? The physical skills and mental strength necessary propels the discussion in this is second part of the holiday BPIB, recorded at Sunday Best, a restaurant in St. Louis' Central West End. BPIB host and baseball writer Derrick Goold poses the question about holiday shopping for Cardinals fans and whether the timing of the Cardinals' moves have as much ..read more