RT @walsha: Chicago DailyHerald: "An anonymous NHL executive said there are 6-8 owners shutting down a $3.3B business." Hoping for progress this week."

Joe Strauss had an excellent round-up here. www.stltoday.com

Now that the NHLPA has forced the NHL owners to take a big hit with the Winter Classic cancellation, perhaps real talks will begin.

The NHLPA's hard line was predictable for many reasons. Yet the owners chose to attack head on, full force. Economic carnage resulted.

The Cardinals drafted Rosenthal young, while he was at Cowley County Community College. He was throwing upper 90s then. Today is overall multi-pitch polish suggests a starting role -- although he appears to have closer make-up as well. Team needs figure to dictate which course he travels.

Beltran got no-trade protection but I do not believe Furcal gained the same. However, his elbow injury would make him nearly impossible to trade unless the Cards picked up almost all of his salary. And, yes, the Cards do need to address shortstop for the long haul. Mike Matheny showed no interest in Ryan Jackson playing there and we all saw what happened to Kozma when the clock struck midnight.

IMO, getting Taveras ready for big league at bats in 2013 is more interesting than adding a Jonny Gomes type for a year. Then again, it never hurts to hedge your bet. I'm a guessing a decent spare outfielder with power will available at a modest price this winter. Adding a Gomes-type would prevent Taveras from coming to spring training thinking that he has the big club made.

Mabry emerged as the leading option to move up into the role after his one year as an assistant hitting coach. It'll be interesting to see if the club looks outside for another former big leaguer (Larry Walker?) to assist John.

Tom Stillman is adamant about improving the "price integrity" of Blues tickets. That is, he doesn't want to discount them. And yet the lockout will definitely chill the market if hockey returns. This is why I find it hard to believe that Stillman is among the holdout owners trying to squash the NHLPA.

Joe Strauss threw out the name of Jonny Gomes. He would offer significant pop after hitting 18 homers in 333 at bats last season.

John Mozeliak will be in no mood to move any of his elite pitching prospects. A Texas surely would want quality pitching or, say, Oscar Taveras for Andrus. ESPN Dallas looked at the Andrus issue: "Even if the club decides (Jurickson) Profar is ready to play now, it doesn't mean that Andrus has to be traded. When Ian Kinsler signed his contract extension before the 2012 season, he said he'd be willing to move positions at some point. What if he played in the outfield and Profar played second with Andrus still here?

"Still, if Andrus could help net a frontline starter, I'm willing to listen. But like I said, the deal has to be a great one. Andrus hit .286 this season as the No. 2 hitter and had 62 RBIs. He was able to get bunts down to move over runners, is a dangerous baserunner (though he had just 21 stolen bases this year as opposed to 37 last year) and remains a solid fielder, making the left side of the infield a real strength. Texas is a contender and trading someone of Andrus' ability can't happen lightly. But exploring the options could open some doors."

Missouri is deeper than they have been since Mike Anderson had a squad that went 11 deep and wore down opponents with depth. And this team is deeper than that. Haith will have to redshirt at least one freshman (Bull) and expand his regular rotation to 10 or 11 to keep everybody busy. That will be his biggest challenge. The Tigers are loaded.

That would be an excellent question for Joe's next chat. Jimmy Ballgame is a great spring training asset, working with young outfielders. Since he was a notorious guess hitter, I'm not sure he would as good on the hitting instruction side.

They should win 30-plus games and target the Elite Eight.

Indeed. The Rangers burn through their pitchers, thanks to Nolan Ryan's disregard for pitch counts and pitcher safety.

An optimal move -- one we discussed here previously and elsewhere on STLToday.com -- is Stephen Drew. I believe he could be an excellent bounce-back candidate. He won't sell himself short on a long-term deal, so he might take big one-year money to reestablish his value.

Again, I'm not sure Jimmy's approach to hitting is one that young hitters need to emulate. It worked for him because he had exceptional talent and remarkable instincts.

We're months away from such speculation. Safety, OT and OLB look like big areas of need. The Rams will have a better idea of where Quick really is after eight more games, so that will impact the thinking at WR.

Fisher's first step for improving at the position is to get Quick up to Givens' level. Chris has become an impact deep threat, the best this team has had a long long time. Amendola is an elite possession receiver. So the immediate opportunity to upgrade the WRs is with Quick, a potential big target. Beyond that, the team will have free agency money to spend and a LOT of draft picks. Which avenue they travel will depend on the market at several positions the team needs to upgrade.

No, because there is no pattern to these injuries. Saffold, for instance, got hurt while running with the ball to advance a fumble.