With City SC headed toward the MLS playoffs, SLU men's basketball set to host Mizzou, and the Mizzou football team about to face Texas, there's a lot of potential excitement for sports fans in St. Louis.

At the same time, the Cardinals, committed to their rebuild, reach what could be a race to the lockout.

In this landscape, what needs to happen for the Cardinals' Hot Stove to spark attention?

Tamar Sher, sports anchor and reporter at KMOV/Channel 4, and Post-Dispatch sports columnist Benjamin Hochman join Best Podcast in Baseball host Derrick Goold to discuss the events in St. Louis and where Cardinals fit and whether they need to make a splashy move in this short window to invigorate the fan base. Hochman has a suggestion. He'd like the team to sign a specific free-agent third baseman, and that spurs the discussion that eventually leads to what happens when baseballn stops. Major League Baseball and the players' union appear unlikely to finalize a new Collective Bargaining Agreement before the current one expires at Dec. 1 and a lockout begins by the morning of Dec. 2. That will put a freeze on all major-league activities and interactions between teams and players. 

The podcast discusses whether that also puts a chill in the vibe around the Cardinals, or if it just further focuses the conversation on where it has been during the rebuild -- on the rising, young talent in the minors and when those players will arrive.

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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.