The month of September brings us several changes. Some of them are “SUDDEN”…i.e. things that may have changed over recent weeks but SUDDENLY we realize it! Temperatures decline, sports seasons change, schools in full sessions, outdoor swimming declines, etc. So too in the Sports World.
…Take a look @ the MLB standings. I realize most of you have give up doing that since the Cards have been snoozing in the basement for weeks/months now. SUDDENLY I noticed a real change in the usual playoff contenders of the leagues. In the NL, the leaders are what you would have expected—Atlanta (the best team with 91 wins), Milwaukee & the Dodgers. The change comes in the look @ the Wild Card teams. In the NL, Philly has 77 wins, the Cubs 76, Cincy & Arizona-73 wins & Miami are still in it with 72 wins. San Francisco is hanging on by a thread . They are within a possible win-streak away with 70 wins. Shockingly, 3 teams from the NL Central are still in the running!!
…In the AL, the 3 top teams are Baltimore, Minnesota & Houston. While Houston seems to me [j1] to be the best team of the AL, the Orioles & Minnesota DO have starting pitching. Tampa Bay has 86 wins as the best Wild Card team at this moment. Then there’s a tight bunch-Seattle has 77 wins, Texas & Toronto—76. This is EXACTLY what the owners wanted when they designed this “new” playoff system with 3 wild card teams in each league.
…After all the weeks of hearing about his “cleaning house”, Dion Sanders SUDDENLY had his team jump into national prominence with its 45-42 opening game win over TCU. Remember, TCU played in the NCAA Championship game last year (Georgia walked all over them). Sanders only has 20 of the 83 scholarship players from last year. Upon his arrival, he bluntly asserted to the returning Colorado Players that they should jump into the portal. “Get Your Bags Ready” he said in a blunt, honest way.
Sanders’ son, Shedeur Sanders, passed for 510 yards, 4 TD’s and was 38/47 in passing in the opening game. Will this (tell your former players to leave) become the new standard for newly hired NCAA Football Coaches?
…SUDDENLY the transfer portal in College Football has become THE way to recruit. Don’t put your faith in HS players who haven’t proven that they can play at the college level. Go directly to players who you can watch on film and determine if they’’ help your program. Between Aug 1, ’22 & May 1, ’23 8,699 NCAA football players entered the portal. That’s a 5.5% increase over last year and more than doubles the amount of 4076 of the inaugural season of portal usage in 2018-19. The “winners” in the transfer portal are the schools with the most money! No surprise really! The NCAA football world won’t be competitive for most schools until the expenditures spent on transfers though the NIL world are somewhat even. Right now… Mizzou doesn’t seem to have the ability to “run with” the big dogs of the SEC in the NIL world. Hence, we can’t run with them on the football field either 😊
…Transfer portals “pay off” immediately” Colorado had 31 transfers & swamped TCU. Texas State had the 2nd highest total of transfers & upset Baylor in week 1. (had you ever heard of Texas State?) From the other side of it…Clemson had the lowest total of transfers (1) and got whipped by Duke 28-7.
…SUDDENLY …or maybe not so suddenly, the entire idea that college is used to develop skills for each individual to be able to earn a living for their entire life has evaporated for the athletes. So many High School Athletes dream of the NFL. Their percentage of reaching the NFL is .23% (23/100 of 1 percent) For the Best HS players who play college football, it’s still a steep climb. Last year only 677 NCAA players made the NFL rosters as 1st year players!! Further, the average NFL career is just 3.3 years. Soooo… you either make tons of money in those 3.3 years or face the reality of working in the “real” world…not the sports world.
…SUDDENLY it dawns on people, schools, coaches that being a Big Fish in a Small Pond is a lot better than being a very small fish in a Big Pond. Sure….a school makes money in the Big Pond but is it worth it? Take Nebraska…they once were a tremendous football powerhouse in the Big 8 (now the Big 12). Tom Osborne had his teams ranked #1 at season’s end for the 3 of his last 4 years (total 25 years). Where is Nebraska football now? The Huskers last had a winning season back in 2016 under Coach Mike Riley. This year looks like more of the same. They lost their season opener to Minnesota. Moving to the Big 10 or 12 or 20 or whatever it is now….hasn’t worked well for the Cornhuskers. Mizzou are you reading this? You’ll never be a big fish in the SEC. You may make lots of money seeing your teams lose regularly in the SEC as you cash in your SEC checks. That big money comes from TV contracts. The South is addicted to NCAA Football so they “LIVE IT” every day. Keep in mind that there are very, very few professional teams in some of the SEC states- Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana (only New Orleans), Mississippi, S. Carolina to name a few. With the expansion of Texas & Oklahoma, the league will grow. Again.. Oklahoma has just 1 or 2 professional teams. At some point, good HS players want to be on a winning team…not just earning money for the college.
…SUDDENLY it dawned on me… the Cards seem to be rewarding some of their “lifetime” minor league players. For example, Taylor Motter. He’s 33 years old and has been on 7 different MLB teams & a Korean team for short, quick stints. Casey Lawrence is 35 years old. In the 4 years that he’s appeared in the MLB, he’s made 48 scattered appearances with 1 win, 2 saves, 1 hold. Joe Fermin has been in professional baseball since 2016. He finally reached the MLB level this year. He’s batting .160 with 4 hits in 25 AB’s with no extra base hits. I admire these gentlemen for their “drive” and persistence but.. they are professional minor-league players not MLB talent. Yet…here they are… playing for the Cards in 2023.
….. I’d much prefer to bring up “future” players like they’ve done with Jordan Walker & Masyn Wynn. The next tier of top prospects—pitcher Tink Hence, and the bevy of prospects from the trade deadline. Catching the eyes of many is César Prieto (Inf)—currently @ Memphis –AAA team. He’s batting .333 with 3 HR and 12 RBIs. He had his 15-game hitting streak snapped on Aug. 22, but he responded with hits in each of his next four games. Another INF prospect, Thomas Saggese (obtained in Montgomery trade) holds a .363 average with a sparkling .1.180 OPS & 9 HR with 21 RBI. There are several other MiB players that we obtained in the dump off trade deadline moves that “moved on” from Jack Flaherty, Jordan Hicks, Jordan Montgomery, Chris Stratton and Génesis Cabrera. Clearly our pitching staff isn’t nearly as good right now as it was 2 months ago but the goal is to be better in the future(hopefully, the near future). However, it seems that many of the prospects that we added to our system aren’t pitchers!!?? Improvements @MLB level won’t happen SUDDENLY but we DO HOPE to see progress!!
.. Thanks for your time & the read! I’m interested (and others are too) in YOUR thoughts on any of the topics. Just put them directly on my Facebook page or…if your prefer…send to me & I’ll post them.
Have a GREAT WEEK! Bob
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