Podcast
Best Podcast in Baseball
Hosted by St. Louis Post-Dispatch · EN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch lead baseball writer Derrick Goold and guests discuss the Cardinals, MLB and anything related to the national pastime and the city that adores it.
23episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Both humbled by Brewers, Cardinals and Cubs clash for 1st time in series vital for hosts
5d ago01:12:35Tap to summarizeAs the longtime archrivals clash for the first time in 2026 with a weekend series at Busch Stadium, here is what the scuffling Cardinals and struggling Cubs share in common. They both got to this point thanks to the Brewers. The Cubs arrive in St. Louis fresh off ending a 10-game losing streak that yanked them from first place in the National League Central to last place, and the Cardinals slide home after being swept in Milwaukee. They've lost six of their past eight games against division foes. With both teams separated percentage points going into their first series of the season, this is a pivotal weekend for at least one of them. Patrick Mooney, longtime Cubs beat writer and senior writer at The Athletic, joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to discuss how the Cubs could go from the high highs of two 10-game winning streaks this season to the current questions at the end of a 10-game plummet. Along with BPIB host Derrick Goold, Monney discusses the Cubs' pitching injuries and limited depth, their center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, and the manager Craig Counsell and his sense of humor behind some stoic answers. For the Cardinals, this series is their first time back since "tarps off" and a chance to play in front of huge, lively crowds -- and sell them on returning. The writers also discuss what these longtime rivals, the Cubs and Cardinals, share in common. They're both chasing Milwaukee. More Post-Dispatch podcasts. Please consider subscribing. In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.
Transcribe →Central Casting: What role will Cardinals play in making the division a real race?
2w ago00:57:14Tap to summarizeCINCINNATI -- The Cardinals continue a stretch of 12 consecutive games against National League Central rivals, and all five division teams will reach their 50th game of the season with a record at .500 or better. At least four will have winning records as the first third of the season comes to an end. But is there a real NL Central race? Post-Dispatch editor Nathan Mills joins baseball writer Derrick Goold to discuss the division and what each team needs to do to win the title. The Cubs and Brewers stand out. The Reds have intriguing talent. The Pirates have a wicked pitching staff. The Cardinals ... must continue to win at the margins, and there's a word that Goold gives to that: "Zero Defect." Besides, the real race in the division may not be on the field at all. It could be in the dugout. If the Cardinals continue to play beyond expectations, manager Oli Marmol may present the best challenger in the division to Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy's three-peat as National League Manager of the Year. Also discussed on this episode: The method behind the six-inning starts from the Cardinals rotation. How to update classic pitching metrics for a modern starter. The invention, in real-time of Skyline Chili poutine. You're welcome. More Post-Dispatch podcasts. Please consider subscribing. In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.
Transcribe →Tarps off! BPIB is back on: Have Cardinals found their voice as a contender?
2w ago01:10:00Tap to summarizeKeep your shirts on, the Best Podcast in Baseball is back. And just in time, too. Good vibes have engulfed the Cardinals after returing from a successful swing through California to an eletrcic weekend at Busch Stadium, thanks to the fortuitous pairing of the Stephen F. Austin club baseball team, a walk-off win Friday night, and a mid-game revival Saturday against Kansas City. For several years, the host of the Best Podcast in Baseball has stumped and advocated for a change in the atmosphere at Busch -- from the need for a victory anthem to the idea of transplanting the supporter section from City SC to Busch, even for a weekend. Well, it's all happening. The students from SFA created that section organically, the Cardinals have adopted a victory anthem, and they're playing a style of baseball that is producing wins. Heck, they even have a home run prop. BPIB asks, have they found their voice as a contender? Host Derrick Goold, who misplaced his voice for several weeks, welcomes KMOX/104.1 FM star and BPIB fixture Kevin Wheeler discuss what elements of the Cardinals' success and the atmosphere at the ballpark has staying power. Also discussed: Wheeler suggests that the Cardinals have received produuction from Jordan Walker equivalent to a $40-milliion free-agent addition. Goold details his breakdown on the three types of statistics: narrative, qualitative, and predictive. And how each applies to discussing analytics for players, fans, and writers, and of course team executives, who camp out in the predictive category. The challenge of development when it comes to a character like Grogu as his big-screen debut approaches. This is the way BPIB returns More Post-Dispatch podcasts. Please consider subscribing. In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.
Transcribe →Should Cardinals' fast start to 2026 accelerate their long-range rebuild plans?
Apr 2001:07:02Tap to summarizeMIAMI -- Fresh off a sweep of the Astros in Houston, the Cardinals visit the Marlins with a tailwind of five consecutive wins and a fast start to their rebuild season. Does their early success suggest they'll outperform expectations in 2026, and if so should they accelerate their rebuild plans? That's the question that begins a conversation between 101 ESPN/WXOS host Brandon Kiley, of BK and Ferrario and the Redbird Report, and Best Podcast in Baseball host and baseball writer Derrick Goold. The Cardinals' rush to five games better than .500 this season is buoyed by defying some trends, such as their negative run differential and their undefeated record (5-0) in extra innings. Both indicate that the Cardinals will experience a correction. Still, they've played a crisp, opportunistic brand of baseball that can claim wins in April, and if they continue to outplay their projections how will that challenge the team's stated plan to focus on the longterm. Will the Cardinals keep their eye on the ball and make future-focused trades even if the club orbits .500? What message will they send fans if this team draws support for how it's playing, for how well it's playing? There are messages and actions that the Cardinals could in the months ahead that would find the balance between responding to the way the team has played now while not straying from their longer-range goals. Kiley and Goold discuss what that looks if the Cardinals just move their timeline up and what those moves look like. More Post-Dispatch podcasts. Please consider subscribing. In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.
Transcribe →Cardinals TV's Dani Wexelman relishes baseball stories she's ready to tell in her new role
Apr 900:34:21Tap to summarizeWASHINGTON -- In a recent social media post, baseball broadcaster and reporter Dani Wexelman shared a photo of her interviewing Matthew Liberatore when he was a high schooler and juxtaposed it with a photo of her interviewing him this year as the Cardinals' opening day starter. That is a great illustration of the arc of Wexelman's career telling baseball stories, from the backfields of Jupiter, Florida, covering amateur baseball and rising talents to front and center now with Cardinals.TV to capture what the club hopes is a rising team. Wexelman joins Best Podcast in Baseball host Derrick Goold while both of them are in Washington, D.C., covering the Cardinals to discuss the start to the 2026 season as well as the path that brought Wexelman to Mizzou and the back this year as a prominent part of the Cardinals' broadcasts. They also discuss how Wexelman's experience covering amateur baseball for many years and being a national pundit looking at Major League Baseball through a broader lens informs what she plans to bring to telling stories during these Cardinals' "new era." More Post-Dispatch podcasts. Please consider subscribing. In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.
Transcribe →Happy New Year! BPIB's preview of 2026 Cardinals comes out of left field
Mar 2600:57:23Tap to summarizeWhat do the roster decisions made by the Cardinals ahead of opening day tell fans about their timetable to contend? Probably more than their letting on. The Best Podcast in Baseball returns from spring training and to its weekly format with a preview of the 2026 Cardinals season told through one position and how so many revealing aspects of the team radiate from it. Editor Nathan Mills joins baseball writer and BPIB host Derrick Goold on the even of opening day to discuss the many tendrils that extend from left field -- from the Cardinals' roster choices to the Cadinals' style of offense, from the Cardinals' need for power and plans for Lars Nootbaar to their debut of JJ Wetherholt and what that says about their next window to contend. It all extends from left field. Just in time for the civic holiday known as opening day it's a brand new BPIB. Happy New Year, as we say in the press box. More Post-Dispatch podcasts. Please consider subscribing. In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.
Transcribe →Thomas Saggese flips the script with questions for BPIB and a new position for Cardinals
Feb 2800:51:16Tap to summarizeJUPITER, Fla. -- Thomas Saggese has questions for the host of the Best Podcast in Baseball. Moments after finishing his first ever start in center field for the Cardinals, Saggese joins baseball writer Derrick Goold to talk about the transition to a new position and how much work he wants there before playing it in the regular season. But that's not all. Through the years, Saggese has often shifted interviews to ask great questions he has about history, statistics, and specifically voting for the MVP, other awards, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was invited on the podcast so he could flip the script and ask those questions as part of a conversation. What follows is a deep dive into the decisions that go with a ballot, whether it's the MVP ballot or the Hall of Fame. The conversation explores how measuring a player with statistics contrasts with how a player measures themselves. Saggese talks about how he values batting average but avoids looking at it, and how when he's thinking about hitting he's seeking feel. Goold wonders what the reaction would be if he explained his votes for MVP and Hall of Fame by saying it just "felt right." And yet there's more common ground between statistics measuring a players production, especially as they evolve, and how a player works for that production. The podcast was recorded outside the Cardinals' new spring training facility, where construction continues. You'll hear it. More Post-Dispatch podcasts. Please consider subscribing. In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.
Transcribe →BPIB Season No. 14 premieres with Cardinals spring training roundtable
Feb 1600:44:50Tap to summarizeJUPITER, Fla. -- On the even of the Cardinals opening their full-squad workouts for spring training, four reporters covering the camp gather at a table nearby the brand new complex to discuss the bran new questions facing a club in a rebuild. Best Podcast in Baseball begins its 14th season as the leading podcast about the Cardinals and baseball in St. Louis with host Derrick Goold joined by KMOV/Channel 4 sports anchor Tamar Sher and two St. Louis Post-Dispatch colleagues, baseball writer Daniel Guerrero and columnist Benjamin Hochman for a roundtable discussion about what spring means and what spring must prove for the Cardinals. The group discusses the players with the most opportunity this spring, the people facing the most pressure this spring, the player most likely to make the most of this spring, and also just how to judge a team that is departing from the franchise's historical pursuit of the next pennant to something more nebulous -- the next core. More Post-Dispatch podcasts. Please consider subscribing. In its 13th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.
Transcribe →The big deal: What have Cardinals added with all of this subtraction?
Feb 701:00:34Tap to summarizeThe Cardinals' winter of accumulation climaxed with the trade many months in the making: They moved All-Star utility fielder Brendan Donovan in a three-team trade to Seattle and received a windfall that included two of the Mariners' top-10 prospects and two draft picks, one each from the Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays. So, it's time to take stock. What did all of this subtraction actually add to the Cardinals? Back from a brief winter vacation, the Best Podcast in Baseball returns to discuss exactly that. Post-Dispatch editor Nathan Mills joins BPIB host and baseball writer Derrick Goold to explore the ramifications of the Donovan deal and much more on the eve of spring training. The podcast also explores whether the Cardinals should prioritize a contract extension for manager Oli Marmol, what the bigger benefit is for the two draft picks acquired, and what to take from the Cardinals' rise to No. 2 in Baseball America's farm rankings. It wasn't just prospects the Cardinals added this winter. They've got a bigger scouting apparatus -- they call it an acquisitions department -- and they're going to see how big and how soon that pays off. More Post-Dispatch podcasts. Please consider subscribing. In its 13th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.
Transcribe →A melancholy end to what could have been for Cardinals and Nolan Arenado
Jan 1501:07:46Tap to summarizeIf you sensed some melancholy from both the Cardinals as they announced trading a Hall of Fame-caliber player to Arizona and also from that player, Nolan Arenado, as he described feeling "in the way" where once he expected to retire, that's fair. There was that disappointment on both sides as what could have been came to an end. In a brand new episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball, St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold and editor Nathan Mills discuss the conclusion of a trade more than a year in the making and potentially a streak that stretches back more than a century. For more than 100 consecutive years, without pause, the Cardinals have had a Hall of Fame player or manager in uniform with the team, and that streak could end with 2025. Or, it will be a young player who has yet to emerge as an All-Star who we'll discover in hindsight continued it. The Cardinals reach their annual Winter Warm-up after trading their third namebrand All-Star of the offseason and facing a difficult task of selling a team to a fan base that already had a record-low appetite for purchasing tickets. The pulse of the fans will be on display during the weekend Warm-up, but less clear is how the Cardinals will promote their future and what jerseys will fans be able to purchase. Mills and Goold discuss that and more, like who takes over at third base for the Cardinals and who should take over at third to excite the fans. The podcast concludes with one things fans can look forward to doing in 2026 and how that one thing, voting Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina into the team's Hall of Fame, can be used to create an event that will thrill Cardinals Nation as well give the current Cardinals a feel of what the ballpark is like at its best. Halls of various fames become a recurring theme of the podcast, allowing Goold to note there may not be a Hall of Fame at his high school but he can totally brag about being in class with a future astronaut, Jack Fischer. More Post-Dispatch podcasts. Please consider subscribing. In its 13th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.
Transcribe →