Best Podcast in Baseball

If opening day offered a snapshot of the season ahead, the National League Central and the race for the division title could be a doozy. In this brand new episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball, brought you by Closets by Design of St. Louis, St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold talks with MLB.com's Brewers beat writer Adam McCalvy about the Brewers, their claim to repeat as division champs, and what the view of the Cardinals is from Wisconsin. This episode was recorded before Paul Goldschmidt's three-homer game. Just because you cannot hear us munching on cheese curds as we talked doesn't mean we didn't. The Best Podcast in Baseball is a production of The Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and Derrick Goold. BPIB can be found anywhere you get podcasts, and subscriptions to the podcast are available on iTunes. The weekly baseball podcast is part of the newspaper's Constant Cardinals Coverage, and subscription information can be found at StlToday.com.

In a crossover event with Fox Sports Midwest broadcaster Dan McLaughlin and his "Scoops with Danny Mac" program, St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold discusses the new club-record extension being finalized for Paul Goldschmidt. The Cardinals and their first baseman have agreed upon a five-year, $130-million extension, and that radically alters the perception of the team, the makeup of the team, and the long-term view of the team. McLaughlin and Goold, who do a weekday podcast throughout the baseball season, also debate what truly is the best podcast in baseball. The Best Podcast in Baseball is a production of StlToday.com, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Derrick Goold.

'The sea change in the game has come so rapidly ... We're still at the tip of the iceberg in the information age.' And so begins a brand new episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball, brought to you by StlToday.com and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Baseball writer Derrick Goold chats with MLB.com national baseball columnist Richard Justice about what he's seen from teams as he tours the Grapefruit League, what he thinks of the Cardinals, what he hears about their pitching, and the labor concerns that are bubbling, bubbling into possibly trouble all around the game. Justice and Goold discuss how baseball may have more talent than ever, and how quietly the Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. is at the nexus of influence for baseball in more ways than people might be aware. The Best Podcast in Baseball is a production of StlToday.com, The Post-Dispatch, and Derrick Goold.

All of that teeth-gnashing, hand-wringing angst about the free-agent market proved much ado about nothing -- for elite talents Manny Machado and Bryce Harper. But it wasn't so great for players like newest Cardinal catcher Matt Wieters. In this brand new Best Podcast in Baseball, recorded in Jupiter, Fla., St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold is joined by KMOX/1120 AM's Chris Hrabe for the second part of their crossover spectacular, and they have free agency on their mind. The podcast begins with a simple question: If baseball's newest richest players -- Machado, Harper, and Nolan Arenado -- were all free agents this past winter along with Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who should the Cardinals sign? Who would they? Would they at all. Hrabe offers up his rankings of those four free agents and over the course of the next 30 minutes, Goold reshapes those rankings with questions until the importance of the Cardinals re-signing Goldschmidt becomes obvious, and paramount. The Best Podcast in Baseball is a production of Derrick Goold and StlToday.com.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold and sports columnist Benjamin Hochman join KMOX's Chris Hrabe for a crossover episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball from Jupiter, Fla. Games have begun for the St. Louis Cardinals and in addition to twists and changes in a Mike Shildt-run spring training, the threesome of St. Louis content providers takes a look at the Cubs and whether chaos has swallowed their Cactus League camp. There is also a bit about the Cubs grammar. And the meaning of "lame duck." But mostly there's talk about Cardinals spring training. The Best Podcast in Baseball is part of the Constant Cardinals Coverage at StlToday.com and it is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Derrick Goold.

Hall of Fame baseball writer and MLB Network insider Peter Gammons swings through Cardinals camp and spares some time to talk about all of the changes blitzing baseball -- from the designated hitter in the National League to a pitch clock, coverage of the game to a frozen free-agent market -- and whether the Cardinals have changed enough to contend. In five decades of covering baseball, Gammons not only revolutionized how the game was written about with his beat work at The Boston Globe, he also lead the move from print to television and showed that scribes could thrive on multiple media. In this episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball, Gammons speaks with St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold about Andrew Miller's slider, Paul Goldschmidt's presence, and Mike Shildt's personality. The Best Podcast in Baseball is a production of StlToday.com and Derrick Goold.

As the Best Podcast in Baseball begins its seventh year, host Derrick Goold, baseball writer at The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, talks with Hall of Fame baseball Rick Hummel about the 10 questions -- and more -- confronting the Cardinals as they report to spring training. Health (Marcell Ozuna), production (Dexter Fowler), pitching (Carlos Martinez), and closing (Jordan Hicks?) are factors for the Cardinals to explore in March so that they can return to October. This episode, the season premiere of the longest-running podcast at StlToday.com, was recorded in Jupiter, Fla., where Hummel and Goold have reported to begin the Post-Dispatch's constant Cardinals coverage for the newspaper and StlToday.com. For Hummel, this month starts his 42nd spring training on the baseball beat -- prompting a conversation about all the changes that have taken place and whether baseball needs one of the biggest ones being discussed: the arrival of the DH in the National League. Baseball is nearing a crossroads and some are acting like it's broken. Not so says Hummel. "It's bruised."

Surrounded by the low murmur, modern pop, and tidying buzz of a hotel lobby, St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold and sports columnist Benjamin Hochman discuss the team that the Cardinals will try to pitch to fans during the annual Winter Warm-up. The three-day event in downtown St. Louis will be the first introduction of Paul Goldschmidt and Andrew Miller to the fans -- but have the fans already moved on, hankering for something new, something else, some spending already. Hochman and Goold explore this idea through the players the Cardinals need to "carry" them this season and the players who they need to "complement" this season. The podcast weaves from Marcell Ozuna's importance to Dexter Fowler's true role and then into the biggest question greeting the Cardinals at the end of winter: If they don't make a high-dollar move for one of the major free agents, is this winter a bust? Hochman takes his swing at an answer. Also, the difference between a good GIF and a key scene in a movie is discussed. In detail. Enjoy.

After a brief hibernation -- and two botched attempts to produce a podcast -- the Best Podcast in Baseball returns with the first episode of 2019. A chill has swept through baseball's offseason, leaving many free agents still on ice and fans icy about the moves not yet by the Cardinals. But have they closed the gap on the Cubs and Brewers? St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold and sports columnist Ben Frederickson explore the division race through the lens of winter moves and try to determine if the Cardinals, Cubs, and Brewers have really done anything to separate themselves -- and what they can yet do to take a lead spot in the division. There is something curious afoot with the Cardinals, who may have ascended to the top of the division with two moves while also putting the roster in a position it's rarely been: Temporary, by design. The Best Podcast in Baseball, now returning to its weekly schedule, is a production of StlToday.com, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Goold. It can be found on StlToday.com, iTunes. or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Best Podcast in Baseball returns to a weekly schedule with its first brand-new episode of the Hot Stove Season. Local broadcast hero Kevin Wheeler, of 101.1 FM/WXOS joins Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold for a lengthy debate on the many ways the Cardinals could go this winter to improve their team. Idling is not an option. Or is it? Is it even a strategy? Wheeler and Goold debate the different ways the Cardinals could use their two greatest assets -- pitching depth and straight cash, homey -- and what options are available in the market for the upgrades the team needs. A lengthy debate about Marcell Ozuna's power and right shoulder may or may not ever end. The Best Podcast in Baseball is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and can be found with all of the Constant Cardinals Coverage at StlToday.com.