It’s with a sad heart that I see what’s going on in St Louis Baseball. The Cardinals, once a prized franchise, is being blown up by the current owners & management.

…Rejecting all 3 of the veteran pitchers options (Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson & Keynan Middleton), the Cardinals continue their purge of the roster of veteran, proven players. Each receives $1m buyout (which is peanuts in this MLB world). I’m not saying that this 3-some are HOF players, but they are proven professionals. Heck, minimum salary next year will by $800,000 for a player.

….Some fans may have expected it but the starting rotation now as it stands has only 34 year old Sonny Gray along with youngsters Andre Pallante & Erick Fedde. Veterans Miles Mikolas & Steven Matz may round out the rotation(if they’re still Cardinals). What are the odds that Mikolas & Matz will be “moved” prior to the season? I’ll be surprised if Nolan Arenado and/or Willson Contreras return as Cardinals in 2025. Arenado’s team-leading contract next year will be $21m. I don’t think that he’ll fight a move off this roster. One of the reasons that he cited for COMING to St Louis was their winning style. He’s gone through a couple of “long, long—losing” seasons. I think he’ll accept a move readily. Contreras is one of 3 catchers on the roster. Ivan Herrera (24 years old) & Pedro Pag’es (26) are ready.  Contreras is in the midst of a 5 yr, $87.5M (2023-27) contract. That doesn’t appear to square away with the Cards effort to slash payroll. As indicated above, pitching will be a target. Look for Nolan Arenado to be “moved” soon. His in-game actions seemed to indicate that he’d be willing to “move on”.  Only contending teams would be most interested in a player with his salary. Sooo…look for Houston Astros, Dodgers or Yankees to acquire him.

…Outside of St. Louis, the 2 World Series teams that have NO CONSIDERATION FOR BLOWING UP THEIR TEAMS the MLB season just ended (seems like the Cardinals season ended a long time ago!!)  The Dodgers wrapped up the series with a scintillating, come from behind win 7-6.  The Yankees were ahead 5-0 going into the 5^th inning. After a Kiké Hernández single — the Dodgers’ 1st hit of the game— Tommy Edman lined a ball into CF almost right at Aaron Judge who dropped it!  That put Edman at 1b and Hernández at 2b. Then Will Smith hit a ground ball to short, but Anthony Volpe’s throw bounced to Jazz Chisholm at third base. Ace Gerrit Cole then struck out Gavin Lux & Shohei Ohtani. It appeared that he was working his way out of the inning. Disaster occurred next! On a simple ground ball to the 1b, Cole thought that the 1b was going to take the play by himself. The 1b fielded the ball and expected the pitcher to be covering 1b! Cole was still on the mound. Mookie Betts, hustling all the way reached 1b easily and the Dodgers got on the scoreboard. It was a colossal mistake!! A mistake that occurs occasionally on high school level (or below). Freddie Freeman (Series MVP) followed with a base hit driving in 2 runs & the Dodgers went on to end the series.

…With the world Series completed, post-season baseball naturally becomes a topic. One might have the tendency to ignore the sensational year of Aaron Judge. Granted Judge had a horrible world series. He hit .222 with 1 HR & 3 RBI’s. In addition, he dropped an easy fly ball that led to a huge Dodger inning. But….looking just at  the unbelievable 2024 regular season stats for Judge—they are fantastic! The NYY Outfielder was 1^st  the AL in—OB%-.458 (think about that—it’s just about getting on base 46 times out of  every 100 AB’s!)..SLUGGING PERCENTAGE–.701; Offensive WAR, Judge was #1 with 11.7 (no one else was above 10); ON Base + Slugging (OPS), he was #1 with a mark of 1.159 (no one else in the AL was over 1.0); he was #3 in batting average with a .322 mark. He was 3^rd in RUNS SCORED, he was 3^rd in the AL with 122 runs scored. Judge was 1^st in the AL in Home Runs-58. He was 1^st in Extra Base Hits in the AL with 95! He was 1^st in the AL in times on base with 322 time. Remember, he played in 158 games (his times on base are more than 2x/# of games!!)

…In the Lou where the team appears ready to part with veterans with decent MLB salaries as they set the stage for a painful 2025. Granted, they’ve  been painful the last 2 seasons but they have really spoiled us. Since 2000(25 years), the Cards have been in the playoffs 16 times!! That’s 64% of the time!! They’ve won 2 of the 3 World Series SINCE 2000 and have been in the playoffs 16x ! We are definitely spoiled!! 😊

…BLOWING UP ALL PRE-SEASON PREDICTIONS … In the Big 10 (or what used to be called the Big 10), the two teams tied for 1^ST place are shocking.  Indiana & Oregon hold 6-0 conference records. Each team is 9-0 for the 2024 season!! Indiana has won the B-10…oops.. B-12..twice! Once in 1945 and again in 1967. Oregon last won the Pac-12 championships in back-back years of 2020 (shortened year due to covid) with 3-2 record and in 2019 when they were 8-1 and beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.

….In more BLOWING UP THE FORMER BOWL SYSTEM, the NCAA-Football committee has installed their playoff system as part of the Bowl System. The brackets are designed as a 16 team bracket but there are only 12 teams. So, the Top 4 teams get a BYE in the 1^st round. The Playoff tournament will last 4 weeks. Week 1—16 team bracket with 4 byes; week 2 sees 8 teams remaining; week 3 has 4 teams playing and in week 4—championship game. How along until it’s a 16 team bracket…I’m guessing 4 years. In addition….there’s talk of SPRING football games! Is this overexposure going to kill the Golden Goose of College Football?

…. BLOW UP YOUR THOUGHTS about NCAA-Football powerhouse programs dominating the NFL draft. Go ahead….following is a list of which colleges have sent the most #1 OVERALL draft picks to the NFL Draft. Remember, some schools that were powerhouses a couple decades ago no longer reach that lofty spot. Here they are—the TOP 5 NCAA schools in overall #1 NFL overall draft picks—(how many do you remember from college or pro football?) 

Southern California (6) — Caleb Williams (2024), Carson Palmer (2003), Keyshawn Johnson (1996), Ricky Bell (1977), O.J. Simpson (1969), Ron Yary (1968)

Georgia (5) — Travon Waker (2022), Matthew Stafford (2009), Harry Babcock (1953), Charley Trippi (1945), Frank Sinkwich (1943)

Notre Dame (5) — Walt Patulski (1972), Paul Hornung (1957), Leon Hart (1950), Frank Dancewicz (1946), Angelo Bertelli (1944)

Oklahoma (5) — Kyler Murray (2019), Baker Mayfield (2018), Sam Bradford (2010), Billy Sims (1980), Lee Roy Selmon (1976)

It’s surprising to me how few of those #1 picks turned into NFL stars!! You may have expected, like I did,  to see Alabama with the most overall #1 picks ….but they’ve had only two (2) #1 overall picks.

…BLOW UP YOUR THOUGHTS OF A BUDGET for NCAA Coaches are the Salaries for the NCAA Football Coaches of the Major programs. It has soared in recent years. With Nick Saban out of the picture, the top salaries are: Georgia’s Kirby Smart is now the top-dog with a $13.28m annual salary (per USA Today’s newly updated database). Clemson’s Dabo Swinney  is at $11.12 million; Texas’ Steve Sarkisian earns $10.6 m, USC’s Lincoln Riley–$10.04m and Ohio State’s Ryan Day–$10.02m follow Smart in the top five. Mizzou Coach, Eli Drinkwitz, isn’t far behind….he’s being paid $9m for 2024 and for 2025. In 2026 & 2027, he’ll receive a raise to $9.25m and his contract wraps up in 2028 with $9.5m yearly salary.

…Thanks for your time & read! I’d love to read YOUR thoughts. I realize that some…maybe many of you…will differ in your views of some of the topics mentioned above. BLOW UP YOUR HESITATION…send me your thoughts. There’s no right or wrong…it’s YOUR thoughts. Thanks!!!  Bob