The Good: The Cardinals traded for Miami Marlins outfielder Marcell Ozuna last week without giving up any of their top three prospects.

According to Baseball America.com, 22-year-old right-handed pitcher Sandy Alcantara — who highlighted the deal — was the Cardinals’ fourth-best prospect, and was immediately named the Marlins’ top prospect following the trade.

Outfielder Magneuris Sierra (No. 7) was also included in the trade, but the Cardinals still have the bulk of their prospects to work with going forward.

That means the team still has plenty of money and prospects to make a few more moves in the offseason. 

The trade for Ozuna put the Cardinals firmly in the wild card hunt next season.

Another trade or free-agent signing could level them with the Cubs.

The Bad: You can’t convince me the Blues aren’t cursed. I’m talking worse than the Cubs cursed.

After making the Stanley Cup Finals in each of their first three seasons (1968-70) the franchise hasn’t sniffed a Finals appearance since.

But unlike the Cubs, who were mostly bad in the 100-plus years between championships, the Blues have been one of the most stable NHL franchises of the last four decades.

They made the postseason 25 straight times from 1980 until 2004, which is the third-longest streak in NHL history.

They finished first or second in their division 15 times in that span, and not only did they go 0-for-25 in Stanley Cup Finals bids, they only made the Western Conference Finals twice.

After rebuilding the franchise post-lockout, the team currently has the fourth-longest playoff streak, with six consecutive trips to the postseason.

Last season was a familiar finish, with the upstart Nashville Predators taking them out in the second round.

This season, like so many others, started with high hopes.

Then former first-round draft pick and budding star Robby Fabbri reinjured his left knee in training camp, and he won’t be back until next season.

That didn’t stop the Blues from getting off to a 10-2 start.

But then it happened again.

Top-line left winger Jaden Schwartz injured his ankle Dec. 9 and will miss at least six weeks.

Captain Alex Pietrangelo caught a puck in the same game and missed the next four games.

The Blues have held their own despite the injuries, and are second in the central division.

Best case scenario, Schwartz returns in January and the Blues will be fully healthy when the playoffs start in April.

But nothing from the last 40 years tells us “Blues” and “best case scenario” belong in the same sentence.

The Ugly: The average NFL franchise is worth $2.5 billion and it pays Commissioner Roger Goodell between $30-50 million a year, depending on incentives, which is to say money is not an issue for the league.

So that makes incidents like Sunday’s Steelers/Patriots game even funnier. 

The league hasn’t been able to figure out what constitutes a catch in years, so it wasn’t a surprise that the referees called back Steelers tight end Jesse James’ touchdown pass in the fourth quarter because “he didn’t survive the ground” despite controlling the ball and reaching across the goal line.

The Steelers would have likely had a 31-27 lead with 30 seconds to go.

Instead, the Patriots are in a great spot to secure the No. 1 seed and host the Steelers in the AFC championship game next month, instead of the other way around.

Later that night during the Cowboys/Raiders game, the officiating crew brought out the chains to measure a potential Cowboys first down in the fourth quarter.

When the ball and chain were so close together that the crew couldn’t see with their naked eyes, head ref Gene Steratore placed an index card between the objects. 

The card touched the ball and the stick, which told Steratore it was a first down.

This all happened on a 4th-and-1 play in a tie game in the fourth quarter of a mid-December game with playoff implications.

The Raiders dropped to 6-8 and are all but eliminated from the playoffs, while the Cowboys improved to 8-6 and are still alive for a wild card berth.

All because of a folded up index card.

God bless the NFL.