Sometimes we have ideas about a topic, team, player, etc that just don’t match the actual event.  Thanks for your read of YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT….

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT that baseball hasn’t really changed that much in your lifetime. Well…consider…just look at the starting pitching. One would think that as the players, including the starting pitchers are bigger, stronger, and have more advanced training at lower levels that they would go deeper into games. But…not so much….look at the stats over the decades for the average length of innings of starting pitchers in a given year–2025-5.19;  2000-5.92;   1980-6.33;  1970-6.8.

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT that Mizzou would play a competitive game & maybe even pull off a win against Texas A&M. But, it didn’t turn out that way. #3 ranked A&M handled MU easily in a 38-17 win. Once Mizzou fell behind 24-7 late in the 3^rd quarter, they were forced to pass more than they probably wished to do. Then, Mizzou’s QB was rushed aggressively by the A&M defensive Line and often with the LB “firing in” it shortened even more the time of the release of the inexperienced Mizzou QB. The sound loss crushed any hopes of MU reaching the “FINAL 12” teams entering the national championship tournament.

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT that Mizzou would have a tough time w/o their starting QB. You were right!  It was very unfortunate that Mizzou was forced into starting a Frosh QB, Matt Zollers, due to injuries. The #2 QB was also injured last week (what were the chances?) Constantly, it seemed, he was under pressure, Zoeller initially seemed a bit overwhelmed. As the game unfolded, he assumed more poise, took a better look downfield, released ball quicker but..his stats speak loudly—7 for 22, only 77 yards (most throws were very short due to the heavy A&M pressure) 2 fumbles and was sacked twice with heavy pressure on many other throws.

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT that MU would have been better with their #1 QB…probably so… but…that doesn’t mean that it would have led them to a victory. Zollers DID improve as the game unfolded. He demonstrated the strong arm, that we’ve read about, on some deep throws. He “grew up” a lot last Saturday! Now…can he carry that experience over to the next game against Mississippi State?  

…btw…Mississippi State has a very powerful, high scoring offense with a very porous defense. It’ll probably resemble some of your ol’ touch football scores 😊 Ya know…the last team that gets the ball—WINS!!  I have no idea what the over/under will be for total points…but…it’ll be way up there!!

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT that the Mizzou loss to be strictly an offensive defect. NOT SO…it was a TEAM LOSS!   A&M demonstrated a powerful offense with 221 passing yards while running for 243 yards Yes..463 yards of offense. Consider that A&M had possession of the ball for 35min, 46 seconds. Mizzou had the ball for 24 min, 14 seconds. Sooo…Texas A&M had the ball almost 50% longer that MU! That makes it tough to establish an offense & to win!!

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT that if MU had two running backs with 100+ yards that the offense would be OK.  Yes…Mizzou did have success running the football (always a good sign).  Both Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts, each ran for more than 100 yards. That’s a very good sign. But, not so much with the passing game!  A shocking stat is that the leading receiver for the season, Kevin Coleman (from SM), had just 1 reception for 2 yards!!  WOW! Part of that may have been due to the inexperienced QB (Zoellers) but….the coaches HAVE to get their top receiver involved in the game, somehow, some way, to move the ball with some diversity.

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT that Missouri would have an outstanding season after a 5-0 start with the 4 overmatched non-conference opponents & an SEC team (S.Carolina) that has won  just 1 game in 2025. Against those over-matched opponents, MU looked good. But…MU’s squad had not yet been exposed to the speed, strength, scheming  & skill of the Southeastern Conference teams.

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT THAT MIZZOU WAS ALONE, but the Southeastern Conference has realized that fact also. Sooo… they added another conference game next year (making it 9 conference games). Thus, MU (and all other SEC schools)  will have only 3 nonconference games and only 1 of them for

Mizzou will be against a likely weaker opponent, Troy. It’ll be late in the season—Nov 21. That actually makes sense to me. Heck, make that the Senior Game…let the all the seniors play a lot of minutes, rack up an easy win, stay healthy. It makes a lot more sense to me having it late in the year instead of in opening weeks of the season with 3 consecutive cupcakes where the players get accustom to a slighter slower speed, slightly smaller, slightly less skilled type of opponent.

This season should have pointed out clearly to the MU staff & administration that beating up inferior opponents doesn’t REALLY prepare for the important games—the SEC gams.

…I have to add…money comes into EVERY sports decision these days. By adding another conference game, the SEC televised games will get an additional good week of games to choose from to televise on their network. Sure…they do non-conference games but what sponsors want to pay for the same high rights for commercials for those type of blow-out games?  You know that many viewers change channels early in those blow-out games & the sponsors message isn’t even seen.

…This week, YOU’VE PROBABLY THOUGHT that Mississippi State would be a pushover. But hold on… look a little closer… Miss State’s 2025 offense averages 23.1 points per game, which ranks them 96th nationally. They rank 73rd in yards per game with 370.5. It looks like a scoring spree. On the brighter side, Miss State is 5-5 for 2025 but only 1-5 in conference. It looks like they had the same type of pre-SEC schedule as Mizzou (4 cupcakes).

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT that over the last several years in college football that SEC teams have TOTALLY DOMINATED as being listed @#1 team at the end of the season. The unofficial “champion” for the year.  It actually was more of a domination of just 1 team—ALABAMA! Alabama was named as the “national champion” in many years: 1961, 1964, 1965, 1978, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020. Bear Bryant won them in 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, and 1979. Nick Saban with Alabama and in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, and 2020. Sooo…the two of them won all but 1 of Alabama’s National Championships except for 1992. In 1992 the Alabama title was won by HC Gene Stallings who was HC 1990-96 for Alabama. 

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT…is NCAA basketball just around the corner?  YES, IT IS! Here’s an oddity….Cameron & Cayden Boozer, twin brothers, are going to Duke this year as highly touted players. Their father, Carlos Boozer, who played 13 years in the NBA, won an Olympic gold medal and a national championship with Duke. I don’t know how good they are…but there are 2 of them!!

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT….it’s clear, this is going to be another “REBUILD” year for the Birds. Last year, the Cardinals attempted to use a code word for REBUILD. To them, it was called a “RESET”. Either way, its a code word meaning…. we’re aren’t going to be real good, or actually not be“good at all”.

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT… The Cardinals will make more moves in 2026. It’s anticipated by many that Gray & Arenado will be moved.  Arenado will be tougher to move….his numbers sank badly last year. His batting numbers were–.237 batting average, 12 home runs, 95 hits, and 52 RBIs in 107 games. His on-base percentage was .289, and his slugging percentage was .377, resulting in a .666 OPS. Those are NOT numbers to brag about! But the big numbers come to play when you look at his salary– $27 million, with the St. Louis Cardinals. This amount is part of the remaining two years on his deal and includes $6 million in deferred money. Additionally, the Colorado Rockies will be paying $5 million of his 2026 salary. It appears that the Cardinals will really have to swallow a lot of money to “move” him.

… YOU’VE PROBABLY THOUGHT– Fans like familiarity, consistency, speed, good defense along with sound skills no matter if it’s in a good year or a “RESET” year. With the OF looking disheveled currently, why not consider some ol’ relatively inexpensive, favorites?  Harrison Bader &/or Randall Grichuk?  Bader hit .277, OPS-.796 (very good), 17 HR, 54 RBI’s, struck out a lot 136x but had a reasonable (these days) $6.25m contract. Grichuk posted batting marks of 113 games, 62 hits, 9 home runs, 27 RBIs, and 35 runs. His season stats included a .228 batting average and a .674 OPS. He carries a “light” (in MLB terms) salary of $2m. Of the two, I lean heavily towards Bader.  If they would be “holding back” some young stud….pass on them.

…now, YOU’VE PROBALY THOUGHT…who ARE our top OF prospects?  Well, the top 2 listed Cardinal outfielders are listed as the overall #10 & #11 best Cardinal prospects.  At #10 in the Rookie League is 18 year old Ryan Mitchell @#11 is Joshua Baez, 22 years old, 6’3” 220 pounds playing in AA level. Just reading about them in this short capsule, it doesn’t seem to me that either is close to the MLB.

…YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT…how nice it’d be to have all home games as a team & coach.  Well… St Louis U has trended towards that mark.  From the opening game to the end of this calendar year, the Billikens have 11 games with 9 of them being home games! WOW! It’s good to open with a gaudy winning record but what about preparing for the tougher conference road games with a couple non-conference, away games in December? Quality wins always seem to  “carry” more weight? From my view, they DO count for more. Quality wins are wins over high caliber teams (home & away) or against good teams on the road.

…It’s time to wrap it up. I’d like to know (and others too) what YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT about any of these topics.  Thanks for your time/read/responses!  Bob