The Bernie Miklasz Show

The Cardinals are having their annual winter warm-up this weekend, and I don't know how much they'll be able to do to warm the mood of their fans in an offseason that's had no action, no movement, no excitement ... and no reason to get excited. This has been an offseason of cost-cutting so I hope the Cardinals won't turn down the heat to save money.

In this video, I also talk about some of the positive prospect ratings for several Cardinals' minor-leaguers, but wonder if top position-player prospect JJ Wetherholt will have his path to the majors blocked if the Cardinals are stuck with Nolan Arenado beyond 2025.

Last season was an absolute nightmare for Missouri basketball with coach Dennis Gates and his squad went 8-24 overall and lost all 18 SEC conference games. But Gates has his team rolling so far this season, with the Tigers winning 14 of 17 games overall including a 3-1 opening lap in SEC play.

Last season was a nightmare. Compared to that, Mizzou's reinflated team is more of a nice dream. Can it last? In this video I explained the important factors in Mizzou's improvement, and we saw those qualities on display in Tuesday's upset win at fifth-ranked Florida. And those factors -- those attributes -- make this a much more formidable team than we anticipated. Miissouri has a lot to prove in the diabolical SEC conference, but the hopeful start is a helluva lot better than last season's non-stop despair. 

Tuesday, I gave myself a big ol' headache during an extensive homework session that examined Nolan Gorman's hitting profile? What does he do so well when he's hitting lightning-bolt home runs and looking confident at the plate? And when Gorman goes into a slump, why is often so drastic and extreme?

In this video I share my findings. There are no revelations here, but it's mostly about controlling the strike zone, not chasing pitches, and not getting yourself out by taking the pitcher's bait. But I found some other interesting aspects to Gorman's up-and--down, high-and-low streakiness. Here's one thing: Gorman's odd inconsistency at hitting four-seam fastballs. I

n this video I also looked at Gorman's comps to see if other batters were able to overcome their strikeout disease to become better, more consistent hitters. But I also give some hitters who failed in the frustrating attempt to improve their plate discipline.

The question: is there hope for Nolan Gorman?

My answer is "no," Lars Nootbaar isn't overrated.

Because of a sequence of injuries that caused him to miss time, the full scope of Nootbaar's attributes get overlooked ... which is understandable. I don't blame anyone for being disappointed or exasperated over Nootbaar's absences from the lineup.

I feel the same way. The more a good player plays, the more valuable he is to his team. As is, Nootbaar brings plenty value to the Cardinals. And in my research I was surprised to see that the number of starts and innings played in the outfield over the last three seasons wasn't as bad as I thought. But no doubt, Noot's impact would be greater if he can start around 135-140 games each season.

In this video, I present the pertinent parts of my research that show us just how good Nootbaar really is when measured against other MLB outfielders ... offense, plate discipline, defense, baserunning, etc. The conclusion probably will surprise you. Thank you.

Hi, in this economy-sized video -- less than 15 minutes! -- I pick a winner between Thursday night's CFP semifinal scrum between Penn State and Notre Dame. I have had a hard time making up my mind on this one. I wouldn't be honest without admitting that I could have flipped a coin to pick a winner here. This should be a leather-helmet, slug it out kind of game. I hope it's fun! I did settle on one of the teams as the likely winner.

So far I am 8-0 in the CFB playoff at picking winners straight up, and I've fought to a 4-4 draw against the spread. This one Thursday could go either way.

Thanks for watching and I am sorry that I posted this so close to kickoff. I had a lot going on today, and it was a busy morning and afternoon at my home-office content farm.

Hello again. One of the things I want to do on a consistent basis is clean up mistakes I've made in my videos. I do so much research, I seem to get overloaded by information, and when I go to share the info with you, I look at the wrong thing and that ends up in an error.

For example: an alert viewer informed me that Kyle Lohse was signed by John Mozeliak -- and not Walt Jocketty, as I said in Wednesday's video. So for my own credibility I think it's important to own my mistakes and correct the record.

After watching Wednesday's video on Jocketty-Mozeliak and starring pitching, some of you noted that I neglected to mention the enormous role that pitching coach Dave Duncan played in the success of Cardinals' starting pitching through the Jocketty years. Absolutely right, and needless to say Dave Duncan is one of the all-time great pitching coaches in MLB history, and he had an amazing track record of taking down-and-out pitchers and finding ways to improve them -- substantially so.

My failure to mention Duncan was an oversight; part of that was assuming that Cardinals fans knew of his impact. But to be sure, I should have included Duncan in Wednesday's discussion. Thanks for spotting my errors, because that gives me the chance to correct the mistake.

In this video, I talk about three things that have been at the center of our collective thinking:

(1) The strange, strange offseason for the Cardinals. Senifeld was billed as a "show about nothing." Well, this is an offseason about nothing here in St. Louis.

(2) The do-nothing Cardinals, with John Mozeliak unable -- so far -- to complete his top offseason priority: trading Nolan Arenado.

(3) And then there's Arenado, who may have to settle back in St. Louis after being rejected by multiple teams who took a pass on trading for him ... and after he rejected the Astros, who wanted to trade for him. Could Arenado make the best of an awkward situation if he plays for the 2025 Cardinals?

I think he can, and I explain why in this video.

Only 35 days remain until the Cardinals report to spring training in Jupiter. Thank you for watching!

In this video, I took a look at the Cardinals' decline in developing meaningful, impactful and consistently good starting pitching. And to make the point clear, I reviewed the brilliant record of former Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty in cultivating starting pitching -- and contrasted it to the substantial downturn under John Mozeliak's baseball operations department over the last 10 seasons.

Some of the starting-pitching numbers -- the difference between Jocketty's track record and Mozeliak's - are remarkable. So please watch the video throughout so you can get the information.

Finally, I explain why the hiring of Chaim Bloom and Rob Cerfolio are so important to STL's baseball future. Both learned about drafting and developing or otherwise cultivating excellent starting pitching while learning in two intelligent organizations, Tampa Bay and Cleveland.

The Cardinals last had a Cy Young winner (Chris Carpenter) in 2005. Developing Cy Young winners has not been a problem for the Rays or Guardians, and I'll offer proof.

Thanks for watching.

In my latest video I cover several Cardinals-related topics:

1) The Cardinals so-called youth movement. If Nolan Arenado stays, and unless they make room for younger arms in the starting rotation, the Redbirds really won't be much younger (if at all) in 2025. At least with their position players and starting pitchers -- and obviously this is all subject to change between now and the start of the regular season. But as of now the core of the Cardinals isn't exactly a bunch if kids.

2) The diminishing trade market for Nolan Arenado and the factors that have gone into this, including his no-trade clause that significantly reduces the number of teams that may have looked into a trade for the slick-fielding third baseman.

3) The Cardinals' stubborn attitude -- at least for now -- about putting up a lot of money to defray the cost of Arenado's remaining three years on his contract. This stance could be limiting the trade market and making it much harder to deal him to, say, the Yankees or Red Sox. This could be posturing for negotiations, which I understand, but ...

4) The Cards have many reasons to trade Arenado, and even if they eat more of his contract than they want to, they would still save a lot of money on Arenado's salary costs over the next three years. 

5) The Fenway Park factor for Arenado if he's dealt there. Hint: it's not what you think, and I'm happy to explain why.

6) Finally, I address the Cards fans who tell me there's no reason for the Cardinals to emulate Tampa Bay and Cleveland as models for drafting and player development ... simply because the Cardinals have won more World Series than those two teams. Which ENTIRELY misses the point of what I said in my video posted on Jan. 3.

Thanks for watching the Bernie Show here on YouTube!

In this video:

There's a lot of info for you in this video, so please check it out. Thanks for your support of my YouTube channel.