The Bernie Miklasz Show

On a wild Saturday night in CoMo, the Missouri Tigers overcame a dull start, a plodding offense and a halftime deficit during a crazy, cuckoo 2nd half to outlast visiting Oklahoma 30-23. The star of the show was Missouri backup quarterback Drew Pyne, who shook off an ineffective first half to repeatedly come through with big plays with the game on the line. On the drives that led to his trio of touchdown passes, Pyne completed 8 of 13 throws for 120 yards and the three scores. With everything at stake, Pyne was outstanding when Mizzou couldn't afford him to be anything less than brilliant. This should be a significant confidence boost for Pyne.

After the game, MU coach Eli Drinkwitz stirred up some in the national media by insisting that his Tigers were still in the hunt for a spot in the 12-team playoff tournament. Drink's claims were intentional ... he wanted to attract attention ... and sure enough he got people buzzing about him and his team, which is now 7-2 with a chance to go 10-2 for the regular season. In this video I take a look at where Mizzou stands in the national picture with three games to go on the regular-season schedule. But what shouldn't be overlooked is MU's 18-4 record since the start of last season. And that's worth talking about.

St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn is a terrific player who turns 23 on March 21. The best is yet to come. But as a leadoff man, Winn struggled to get onbase, especially when facing right-handed pitching. And for the season, his .290 leadoff OBP was 29th among the 30 hitters who had the most plate appearances batting leadoff. Overall, Winn was 25th among 30 leadoff men with a 93 wRC+ -- which translates to 7% below league average offensively. He was much worse (23% below league average) against RH pitchers. Manager Oli Marmol has attractive leadoff options in Brendan Donovan. What will Marmol do if Winn struggles, again, in the No. 1 spot?

The Cardinals announced three more hires Wednesday, as Chaim Bloom and Rob Cerfolio to continue to make moves to bring in smart baseball minds that will take the organization's collective Baseball IQ to a much higher level. In this video, I tell you all about the three new hires, and everything you should know about them, and why they appear to be a great fit for the Bloom-Cerfolio revival show. I have many details to offer, as well as some historical perspective, and I explain how a former Cardinals pitcher played a role in this.

This video isn't a quickie, but here's what I have to say about that: if you want the info, I am pleased to provide it. All of it. For now, let me leave you with this: as a Baseball Operation, the St. Louis Cardinals are a heck of a lot smarter today than they were a year ago. And that's even before Chaim Bloom officially takes over as head of the baseball department after the 2025 season.

It's somewhat overlooked, but the St. Louis Cardinals went through a lull from 2007 through 2010, making the playoffs only one time in four seasons. What happened? A lot of core-nucleus talent and effective role players had inevitably moved on after the team's phenomenal stretch from 2004 through 2006.

Jeff Luhnow's dramatically revamped draft, development, farm system and analytics operation required an investment of patience to pay off, but prospects were beginning to graduate in waves and by 2011 the Cardinals were all set to go off on another run -- leading MLB in regular-season wins and postseason wins from 2011 through 2015.

That rich set of history included a 2011 World Series title, two National League pennants, and four appearances in the NLCS over five seasons. And a lot of that kicked in, even though the Cardinals lost Albert Pujols to free agency and Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan to retirement after the 2011 campaign.

Cards chairman Bill DeWitt has learned something from his own history: it's essential to have a strong, impactful and sustainable farm system and player-development program that can rejuvenate your franchise. DeWitt was at fault for letting the system deteriorate, and other mistakes were made. But with the hiring of Chaim Bloom, DeWitt is attempting to recreate the farm-and-player-development revival that bloomed after Luhnow was recruited to change the way the Cardinals drafted and developed players.

I'll answer the question: No, Cardinals fans are NOT spoiled. They have many reasons to be frustrated, angry, and demanding more from ownership and baseball management. That's why ESPN.com put Cardinals fans on The Top 10 list of the most aggrieved fan bases in the majors.

But in this video, I wanted to make a few points:

1) The overwhelming percentage of complaints about the Cardinals' decline are valid, justified and warranted.

2) The current downturn -- out of the postseason for two straight years and minimal postseason success since 2019 -- could have been prevented, but even some of the finest baseball organizations have gone through a stretch of difficult,, unsatisfying and unsuccessful seasons. And now it's the Cardinals' turn.

3) Fans who compare the Cardinals to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago White Sox -- two futile franchises -- demonstrate a complete lack of perspective and lose all credibility.

I've been outspoken in my many criticisms of the way the Cardinals have been driven off the road and into the ditch ... but I do believe at times like this, it's important to keep this in perspective. No team wins forever. Not even the Yankees, who haven't won a World Series since 2009.

It's up to Bill DeWitt Jr. to get this team back on track, and I think we can all agree with that. Thanks for watching.