(Get) A Sporting Life

 For a moment there I thought something big might be brewing. Word was Pavel Buchnevich and Brandon Saad were absent from practice (where Monty was evidently pushing them hard after last night's dismal showing,) and there was to be press availability from Army after the practice. Immediately my mind was filled with happy thoughts of the Blues General Manager fleecing another NHL team of valuable pieces for an on-again off-again Buchy and the desiccated husk of Brandon Saad.  Sadly, it was not to be.  Instead, we learned that Saad had been waived because the Blues couldn't find a trade partner willing to give anything up to acquire him. If no one puts in a claim for him Saad will report down to Springfield to clog up their lineup for a change. Army also emphasized there was no intention of recalling anyone interesting from Springfield to take these roster spots (Saad's and the recently traded Scott Perunovich's.) So, for Blues fans what you see is what you get. That will...

 I have to say I am not terribly impressed by the St. Louis Blues moving Scott Perunovich to the New York Islanders for a conditional 5th round pick. I felt this season Perunovich was scapegoated a little bit by the Blues. If you look at his advanced metrics they actually were among the best of all the Blues defensemen, but he simply couldn't crack the lineup as the Blues continued to prefer the aging Suter.  Don't get me wrong, Suter isn't a complete dumpster fire, but when he has a bad game he is a terrible liability out there. Perunovich at least offered a skill set moving the puck that the Blues could use more of, especially on the power play. Indeed, the Achilles heel of this team is the generally awful state of their special teams. In the limited play he got on the second unit Perunovich showed a little something, but, once again, lack of consistent playing time kept the unit from clicking. (It didn't help the Blues have had so few PP opportunities this season.)  ...

The idea here is to have a place I can record my thoughts on the current outlook for my exasperating but beloved St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Club. I also want to track things over the course of the season, to watch my peaks and valleys as the team lurches to what promises to be another missed MLB postseason. A good reason why the Cards are on track to miss the playoffs again is the seeming lack of interest in the major league club by the front office. The majority of the Cards efforts this off-season have been to improve the minor league side of the operation. Efforts on the major league side have been largely limited to waving goodbye to departing free agents. No multi-year contracts were given to any arbitration eligible player, though there was speculation about a couple (Helsley and Donovan in particular.) No move has added a player onto the 40 Man Roster who wasn't already in the organization except for Bailey Horn ("Bailey who?") The biggest change to date has been...