Join columnist Jeff Gordon for his live STL sports chat at 1 p.m. Friday
Bring your Cards, Blues, Mizzou, SLU and MLS questions and comments, and talk to columnist Jeff Gordon in his weekly live chat.
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Good afternoon Jeff. I just checked MLB's attendance totals. The Cardinals are second in average home attendance behind only the Dodgers. They're even ahead of the Yankees, who play in the country's largest market and are having a historic season so far. The local television ratings remain strong. To be fair, I know MLB attendance is down a little across the board but it seems all this talk of how fans were ticked off and would stay away coming out of COVID seems way overrated, no? All the predictions to the contrary were ridiculous and humorous. -
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Gordo:
In his chat on Wednesday Jim Thomas explained David Perron’s salary in comparison to other players with similar production the last four years, and it is clear that DP57 has been vastly underpaid over that time period.
Clearly as a “heart and soul” player in the organization, the team should do everything possible to keep him, shouldn’t they? How do they pull it off? Perron has the chance to cash in significantly on the open market, and I wonder how the Blues - given their salary cap dilemma - prevent this from happening. Your take? -
Well, David Perron will only be back if:1) He is willing to give the Blues the old hometown discount to keep his family here or2) Every other team in the league is concerned about Perron's age/injury history.I don't know if either outcome is likely. Armstrong would hate to lose him, but hated to lose Alex Pietrangelo and David Backes too.. He loved those guys, but he had valuation on them and he only budged so much.
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Jeff, these NHL playoffs left me feeling pretty good actually. Colorado had the best team and was a worthy champion. But the Blues played it tougher than anyone, including Tampa. The difference was not that much and we all know what happened to Binnington. Am I crazy for being really fired up for next season? My main concern? Colorado has Cale Makar and will have him for many years. That guy is crazy good.
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Are you into the NHL draft at all? There's this kid Connor Geekie big strong on the puck high compete Center. His brother is in the league. The knock on him is his skating lack of top speed. I was thinking sounds like a ROR clone when he came into the league. He will probably be available at the Blues pick.
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Mr. Gordon I’m not asking you to “rip” their model. The Cardinals do a lot of things well. Their draft and development is terrific. I know some fans are upset about the Marlins trade, but the team has more good trades than bad. That being said they are terrible at free agency. You could point to many many examples of how the team has been stupid on that front. I think it’s completely fair to point out ridiculous things fans say, but you should hold the front office to the same standards. You can improve a team 3 ways draft, trade, sign. The Cardinals have the first two down, but they couldn’t be much worse at the third. Why is it unreasonable to want the team to be good at all 3? By the way I never said free agency should be the backbone of their model. I like a good debate, but don’t straw man my argument. If the fans say something stupid and and you want to call us on it I’m completely on board. I just want you to apply the same standards to the front office when they give money to Drew Verhagen.
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Like I pointed out, the Cardinals front office clearly fell short on filling relief needs. This team cut corners there and signed guys who have not been helpful. They have half as many reliable high-leverage relievers that they need. I have raised this point repeatedly as an example of where the team must be better. I also wrote a whole column on how the Cardinals could learn from the Tampa Bay Rays on how to find real value in seemingly minor trades. That franchise has a knack for finding guys other teams overlook.But the bulk of this was home-grown. Then next biggest group is players added via trade. The smallest group is free agent adds. Paul Goldschmidt was sort of free-agent move -- trade for a guy, then re-sign him as a free agent -- and Miles Mikolas turned out to be a strong free-agent signing. We'll see Steven Matz is Mike Leake or something better.
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It's my contention that Kostin is not a 4 th line banger. I think Chief is not developing him right. He needs to play with skilled guys to excel. He would do well with Thomas as his center. You think the Blues should give up on him? Al Mcinnis said he has the quickest shot on the team. He's big strong good skater. I don't know about his hockey IQ though.
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I complain as much or more in these chats (hey, I need an outlet) but at my core I just want to see the team show fans that they are trying to win a WS. They probably will not. But too often their actions at the deadline look as if they are fully resigned to that fact in August. If you believe in your team every year, some years you have to actually show it. Maybe you still lose in the WC but at least you tried something new.
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If there is an opportunity to add an impact player at a less-than-insane price, I expect the Cardinals to take their shot at it. As noted earlier, they have young players stacking up and they can't keep everybody. But this team will not make a PR trade. It's great to show your fans that you care by making splashy moves, but it has to make sense. Ask the Phillies about the difference between "trying to win" as an organization and actually running a winning operation.
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To add on to Laddie's idea: each team gets a hard NIL cap and your ability to spend more is based on your overall finish. Plus, any player that accepts NIL money is bound to the program for 3 years. You freeze NIL for a 4-year cycle so that all the programs can get back on the same footing and start the Premier model in 2026.
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This concept the FO sells to fans of "wait until this guy arrives..." is great, but take a look at who is aging and leaving during that window of time. At some point the "now" has to be the priority. And I think it is incredibly over-dramatic to claim that making an impact move would set the team back for years. Again, to your point, look at the young talent in the majors now. You don't have room for everyone, so, MO, do your job and try and push out the prospects closest to their ceilings.
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The tank-and-rebuild teams sell the future promise to fans. The Cardinals stay in the chase every season. And, yes, they will hold off trading certain top prospects to get immediate help. We all know what happens when one of those top prospects traded for immediate help becomes a star somewhere else. Fans fly into a rage.
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Just joining the chat. I watched your Inside Pitch with BenFred, and I agree that the Cardinals are in a position to trade for pitching without giving up prospects, but to me the name to move is Tyler O'Neill. Yes, you need for him to get healthy and start hitting to get his value back up, but the team can't really think long term with him. He's sneakily already 27 and he just can't stay on the field. Obviously, he is more dynamic than someone like Yepez or Donovan, but I think you can already see where those two are going to be more consistent players than O'Neill ever has been. And if you trade him this season, the recipient still has two more years of control after this one. That's got a lot of value.
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We touched on that earlier. O'Neill is getting into his bigger earning years and buying into his free agency with a contract extension would not be cheap. So is that an investment the team wants to make given his inability to stay on the field? And if not, doesn't that make it easier to ponder a Colby Rasmus-like trade? Food for thought with all of these outfielders starting to pile up.
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So, as college sports moves more towards massive superconferences, then what is the value of a conference other than money? And maybe that's the only answer. But at a certain point, you're not playing the other teams more than once a decade, which sucks for the fans, not that they ever factor into the equation.
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If your gonna trade shouldn't Mo "sell high"? I always hear that Mo shouldn't sell low on player X but never any suggestions about selling high. Carlson comes to mind and I think they could get some excellent pitching for a league average hitter and a league average fielder. It's a gamble but you have to give someone of value to get someone of value.
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The trouble with trading O'Neill, as noted earlier, is that it would be "sell low" due to the injuries and the lack of recent production. Maybe a team will trade fairly based on his '21 numbers. Or maybe Tyler could come back before the deadline and win over talent evaluators with a power surge.My argument against dealing Carlson is this: There may be more levels to his play. Maybe this is who he is, but maybe this recent run of extra-base hits is a hint of much more power to come. And if Carlson does become a superstar elsewhere, fans would never quite complaining about losing him for some near-term pitching help.
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Jeff: Jim Thomas said something interesting in his chat re: David Perron that in his experience the closer a player gets to free agency in an offseason, the more likely he is to test the waters and sign elsewhere. What do you think will happen with him. I read that he was one of the most underpaid over the life of his most recent contract given his goal production, and that there's no way he's taking a pay cut (which is reasonable, IMO). Do you think it will just come down to years? I'd be inclined to give him the extra one because I think as he gets older, he would still have tremendous value as a powerplay specialist and getting lots of O-zone starts.
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I agree that if a player isn't re-signed this close to free agency, he is more likely to test the market to see if his self-valuation is accurate. As noted earlier, he stays only if he gives the team a discount and/or other teams aren't willing to buck up due to his age and injury history.
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So looking back at Binnington's season what do you think? He could not stop a beach ball during the year. Really bad Villie earned the net. Then for 5 games he looked like 2019 in the playoffs. So now what should we expect? Too me we need a tandem Binner gets gassed with the long season he's not a big man.
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BoBo hard core fans are going to complain anyway and you know it. I complain but not about the Arozarena trade or the Alcantara trade because I know trades are a gamble. Some of Mo's FA signings are what sickens me. They have outfielders falling out of trees and Carlson has struggled against RH pitching. LA and NY are looking for an outfielder so Mo needs to strike while the irons hot. If Mo can get a starter like Montas (there way trade) for Carlson shouldn't he take it?
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