By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing edit
(MIZ)—Missouri has climbed back into the teens in both national polls after two strong bounceback wins after their first two-game loss streat this season. Wins at home against Oklahoma and on the road against Georgia have put them 15th in the AP sportswriters poll and 16th in the USA TODAY coaches poll.
Mizzou is 19-6 now with six games left. They’ll play #4 Alabama at home tomorrow night.
(NCAA)—March is madly approaching and various prognosticators are telling us who will be in the NCAA tournament and what the seeding will be. Most projections we’ve seen indicate Mizzou would be a 5-seed after splitting the last six games of the regular season to finish 22-9.
(CARDINALS)—Nolan Arenado is in camp with the Cardinals, as he usually would be, despite his off-season being one of rampant speculation that he wouldn’t be. And the team’s president of baseball operations seems resigned to his failure to get rid of him. John Mozeliak told reporters last week that Arenado is “likely to be part of our club at this point.”
Arenado has three years left on his eight-million dollar, $260 million contract (pro-rated annually until 2041). He was hoping a team more likely to play in the World Series would cut a deal with the Cardinals this winter.
He told reporters on the first day he was in camp, ”I’m in the right place.” He heard a lot of things in the offseason but, “I try not to get caught up in it too much. I’m ready to focus on getting ready for the season.
Arenado’s contract has a list of teams for which he would accept a trade. But he told MLB.com he wasn’t going to talk about which teams they are and says the talk about those teams “doesn’t really matter anymore.” He’s indicated there’s more to his situation than signing a lucrative free agent deal: “I got a family now and to be willing to pick up my family and move them, it has to be something that’s worth it.”
Sounds as if his head is on pretty straight.
His presence is not a guarantee he will be with the Cardinals on opening day. Mozeliak’s comment can be seen to indicate the Redbirds are s till looking to move him.
(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals have extended the contract of VP and GM J. J. Picollo through 2030 with a club option in ’31. Piccolo is considered the architect behind last year’s surge back into contention last year.
The Royals also have exercised their option with manager Matt Quatraro. Piccolo and Quatraro finished second in balloting for executive of the year and manager of the year.
Royals owner John Sherman has hinted that conversations have resumed about a new stadium. WDAF-TV has him talking about “a very exciting thing for our community” as he advocates for “securing a long=-term home for the Royals.”
(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs have dropped some people from the Taxi Squad and have signed some people to it and they’ve told Travis Kelce they hope he’ll tell them by the middle of next month if he wants to keep playing.
(BATTLEHAWKS)—The UFL season opens March 28 with the St. Louis Battlehawks playing six of their ten games in the dome in St Louis. The first game, however, is on the road against the Houston Roughnecks. They’ll play the San Antonio Brahma’s twice. Last year, the ‘Hawks beat the Brahmas twice but lost to them in the first round of the playoffs.
Sports with Motors
(DAYTONA)—Nobody was surprised he had won the Daytona than the driver who did it.
William Byron, seventh with one lap to go, won the Daytona 500, his second straight win of the Great American Race.
Byron dodged the last big crash, which happened at the front of the field halfway through the last lap, to win by about 1.1 seconds over Tyler Reddick.
NASCAR heads to Atlanta next weekend.