Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - 5 Bold Predictions For 2025

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

Thomas Gauvain From RedbirdRants.com joins us with his five bold predictions for the Cardinals this season https://redbirdrants.com/5-bold-predictions-for-the-st-louis-cardinals-in-2025/1 - Masyn Winn - Pitchers - Nolan Arenado - Rookies - Oli Marmol - Victor Scott II - Sonny Gray Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSTLCardinals?sid=YouTube Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLB Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Wonderful Pistachios Looking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more. Supply House Join the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com! Upwork Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free to connect with top talent and grow your business today! Just Ingredients Visit JustIngredients.us/Bryce-Harper and use code LOCKEDONMLB for 20% off your order! And for more wellness tips, follow @just.ingredients on Instagram. Monarch Money Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel Right now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) #ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Five bold predictions for the St. Louis Cardinals' upcoming season with Thomas Gauvain from Redwood Rance.com, including somebody losing their job. You are locked on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, there are Cardals fans. I'm J.D. Hafford and I'm your host for Locked on Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on X at JD Sports Radio. Follow the podcast at L.O underscore Cardinals.

We're on YouTube. Make sure you like, subscribe and comment, hit that notification button so you don't miss any upcoming episodes. Also available on TikTok and Instagram at Lockdown Cardinals. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation, giving the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by Fandall. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Thomas Covein from Redwood Rants.com. Joining us here today and talk a little Cardinal Baseball, final week of spring.

training is here. Your thoughts on what you've seen from the team so far. Optimistic, pessimistic. How you feeling? I've been told to discount all spring training stats. So at the moment, I think I'm just neutral. It's been good. I'm just happy to have baseball back.

I think it'll be fun once the regular season starts and see what this team has to show. I agree with you. It's just good to see the guys out there. And where there's not a whole lot of expectations, most people not expecting a whole lot from the team. And maybe it works in their favor where people underestimate him a little bit. But we won't really know until the regular season starts. I do see that you are rocking a cardinal shirt here today. Do you have somebody on the back of that shirt or is it just a normal t-shirt? It's Mason Wynn on the back. I got this last year. There you go. Mason Wynn.

I have this thing with our family. It's not just me, but our family. We don't buy shirts or jerseys of people that are actually on the roster because there's some weird curse in our family and it doesn't matter what sport, whether it's the Cardinals, the blues, any of our favorite football teams, Packers for me, whoever I buy, if they're on the roster, they will get hurt immediately. Like immediately. It's a sad state of affairs. So I just don't do it anymore. Mason wins. Been hurt. The sore wrist. You got an update on what's going on with Mason? Yeah, the last I saw was John Denton said that he got some work on the backfields yesterday on Wednesday. He's looking to be back in the game tomorrow on Friday after the off day.

Well, that's good. Yeah, a little sore wrist is what he's been dealing with. How many, do you have any issues with having injured people when you buy jerseys or anything? Who have you owned in the past? It's a mixed bag. The first one I ever got was Colton Wong probably like, what, 12 years ago, 15, I don't even remember. So he did pretty, yeah, Cardinals, defensive guy, solid, yeah. And then I had Harrison Vader and Tyler O'Neill. So this Mason wouldn't sure is he better pay off, I guess, based on my track record.

Yeah, the Tyler O'Neill one was a tough one, man. He was always dealing with injuries. I'm not going to put the blame on you for that one. I did not own one of his either. So blame is not on me. Again, I don't buy the people who are on the roster anymore. It just doesn't work out for me so much. You recently did an article giving out five bold predictions at redbird rants.

dot com for this upcoming season. It's supposed to be a fun thing. You know, not, don't take everything so seriously. But, you know, it's kind of like, these are things that they could happen realistically. And the first one actually has something to do with our shortstop, Mason Wynn. What was your prediction about Mason in 2025?

I predict that Wynn joins the 2020 club. It might not be overly like when you're bold, you think like, oh, MVP season for this one guy. And so. 50 for Mason It's going to be a crazy. It's bold-ish, we'll say. He's only hit, the most two hit

was 18 home runs in his career. That was as a minor leaguer. He's eclipsed 20 stolen bases before, but he's ever put the two together, the stolen bases and the home runs. So that in and of itself makes the 2020 season pretty bold for Mason win. He's talked many times about wanting to boost his speed.

I think that him tapping into some power would be very beneficial for him. Pugging 20 home runs is a shortstop is tough in general. So if he can get even to that 15 to 20 home run mark, I think that's good. And then he gets some more stolen bases, something that he did really well as a prospect. Yeah. And the thing with Mason is when it comes to the stolen bases, like, do they give him the green light? Because you just don't know.

Like if it's the coaching staff that's saying, well, let's not be too aggressive and like run into outs and stuff. Or is it the players not getting good jumps or good reads off the pitch? pitchers because it's not like Mason is slow like sprint speed. If you go to baseball savant.com, he's in the 87th percentile. So he's up there. It's not like this is some. He's okay fast. He's pretty darn fast.

And his ability to steal bases is something we haven't really seen a whole lot yet at the major league level. And again, it's something that the cardals just haven't done a whole lot of, even though the league has made it something that is easier to do nowadays. Like they're helping. They want to see you guys run a little bit more. Perhaps it's personnel that doesn't allow them to run as much as we would like. But, you know, hopefully I do want to see that, you know,

if you have somebody like Victor Scott on the roster this year, you know, obviously he can fly, Mason can fly. Jordan Walker has got like that he runs really, really well. Again, getting on base is the big part of this before you can feel second. you got to get on first. So that's something hopefully they'll be able to do. Your second one has to do with the veteran pitchers against the younger pitchers. I'm going to let you explain this one to everybody, this particular bold prediction. It's got some math involved in it.

Yeah, right. So as far as boldness, this might be the boldest. If you look at our starting rotation, it's Sunny Gray, Eric Fetty, Miles, Michaelis, Stephen Mats, and then someone after them could be two people if they knew the six-man rotation. They are all above the age of 32. So my prediction here was that pitchers under the age of 30 would throw more innings than pitchers older than 30 from the rotation. Not the bullpen. This is just the starters. Last year, pitchers over the age of 30 through 713 innings as starters for the Cardinals and pitchers under 30 through only 167.

So I have about 560 innings to make up here and flip. That's a big separation, buddy. It is. Well, I guess, okay, so 230, I guess if you want to split the middle. But either way, I'm thinking that McGreevy, Palante, Quinn Matthews, you could even see Matthew Livertore getting some starts. I'm thinking that those guys are going to really see some time once you hit June and on, and then even some starts throwing out throughout the first three months of the year.

So I'm predicting that pitchers under the age of 30 will throw more innings of starters than pitchers over the age of 30. Now, I'm going to ask you, what's going to happen to these over 30 guys? Are they getting hurt or do they just suck and we got to take them out of the road? Any one of the, there's three different options. Like Eric Fetty could be traded. Yeah, Stephen Mats could get hurt. And then Miles Michaels, you just throw up every one.

If he's underperforming DFA, something, get him out of there. Gotcha. The Miles Michael said, I thought it was funny during the telecast the other day because I got a lot of people chirping about it. Where, you know, Brad Thompson was talking about, you know, what's great about Miles is that he can take the ball every fifth day. And I'm like, well, yeah, I mean, he can, but I mean, he's good. Although Miles has looked all right in the spring, you know, it's the same situation with Miles as it is every year. You know, it's if he can hit his spots, pretty good pitcher, you know, he's good at changing speeds, moving in and out and up and down. He's definitely got a pitch. He just doesn't throw it by anybody.

And if he gets anywhere near that middle of the plate, they, they rip him. And that's what he's going to try to avoid it this year and not throw as many strikes when, I know, you know, when he's ahead in the count, he's got two strikes on a guy. It's going to try to work on making them chase a little bit more than, than like be afraid to walk him or something like that, you know, put the pressure on those guys. So things that Miles is working on here this spring. We've got more bold predictions, including one about Nolan Arranado.

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all tournament law. Thanks again for making lots on Carlos, your first list in every day. Leave your comments on YouTube as well as on X. Anytime you want, your feedback is always welcome and encourage Thomas Covein from Redmond Rance.com. joins us here today. Recently did a write-up about five bold predictions about the Cardinals upcoming 20, 25 season. Nolan Aronado obviously was a big story in the off season. Is he going to stay? Is he going to go? Where does he want to go?

Is he lying about where he wants to go? Is there sneaky? It was all of this nonsense back and forth, the bag of forth, of course, it ends up, nothing happens. You know, he ends up being in a Cardinals uniform. And so far, it's spring training, other than like the first week when people were bombarding in with questions. been relatively quiet as far as any kind of like drama surrounding Nolan.

We never really expected him to cause any drama. But you always wondered if media was going to be bugging him so much. They got on his nerves and there'd be an issue there. But it hasn't been a problem. Everybody said everything about the clubhouse with him being there, even though people didn't expect him to show up. You know, they thought I'd be going to be traded. Not that he was going to hold out or something,

but that everything's been seamless. There hasn't been any issues whatsoever. He's gone out and been. the Nolan Aronado that they expected him to be as far as a personality. So what is your bold prediction for Nolan Aronado in 2025? Is he staying in St. Louis? What's happening with him? What do you have? It's a double dipper for Nolan Arnato. The first part is that I think he'll be traded by the end of the year. I don't think that's too bold. As you said, the whole offseason is trade rumors. I could see something else popping up by the trade deadline, even possibly earlier in the year.

the other half might be bold he's entering his age 34 season and i'm predicting him to receive MVP votes once again not to win MVP probably not even to finish in the top five like maybe number 10 number nine somewhere around there for the MVP votes he seems motivated this year he has the weight change he had his strength to himself this offseason to seem to adjust his preparations i think his mindset's in the right place too he's got a chip on his shoulder trying to prove people wrong. His OPS Plus has dropped the last two years. His defense dipped in 2023. It came back up a little bit in 2024. So I think with a better offensive performance, some more home runs, some more slug, along with another solid defensive year, he'll see

some down ballot MVP votes. Yeah, the defense, as you mentioned, a bit of a slow start in 2024. But again, I'm going to guess that there was something bothering him. And then eventually that was taken care of, and that is how you started to see him a little more spry over there at third base. He's looked right down there so far in spring training. Offensively, the numbers haven't been what you were hoping you'd see from Nolan Aronado so far this spring. But you mentioned physique mentality. He looks good there. Anything you're seeing from his approach at the plate has looked any different so far in games this spring

that give you some optimism that he'll be better this year. Not so much that I've seen at the plate. I wish we had bat speed numbers from statcast. There are some stat cast coverage games, but I haven't seen bat speed anywhere. And I think that's something that he really needs to hit hard. If he can get his bat speed back up, hit the ball a little bit harder,

go back to what he's used to with pulling it in the air. I think that all that would go a long way for him for success. Yeah. And I'm not, like, coming into this season, I'm not so much looking for him to put up big power numbers. You know, I don't need 25, 30 home run, but I need the extra base hit. again is where I really missed Nolan Aranaado last year where, you know, it's not the easiest

place in the world to hit home runs at Bush Stadium. And being that he only gets it over the wall when he pulls it, makes it even more difficult for him. But being able to hit those power alleys and hit the gaps with line drives and stuff with something we missed out of Nolan Arnaudanato last year. It was weird that he wasn't able to do that as often. So I'm just hoping for more of that. I'm not worried about him hitting 20, 25, 30 home run. I'm not worried about that. I just need to see more of the extra base hits out of Nolan. I need to see those doubles. Next on your bowl positions, we're talking rookie of the year. What do you got there, Thomas? Yeah, it's been two years since anybody even received a vote for the Cardinals. The last guy we had was

Brendan Donovan back in 2022, and he finished third behind Michael Harris II and Spencer Strider. 2023, nobody got votes. Last year, Masonman was close, but it was a very tough competition. He lost out to Paul Skeens, Jackson Churio, Jackson Merrill, and Shota Imanaga. So I think in 2024, we get back to Cardinals' rookies being recognized. It's a big part of the team these next couple years is this youth movement. So if they can have some national recognition via the voting, I think that will go a long way too. The guy I predicted would be Michael McGreevy to get some votes. I think he'll come up pretty early, get some starts, log some good innings.

if he can hit that 120 inning mark in the majors this year, I think that's enough to get some recognition as a pitcher. I would have said Victor Scott the second, but he lost his rookie status last year when the Cardinals extremely mishandled his situation. What? The Cardinals mishandled the situation when the young player, stop it. I know. It's unheard of, yeah.

Another guy to keep an eye on for that list, obviously, would be Quinn Matthews, you know, McGreeby, you know, appears to have, you know, a leg up as far as, like, being on the roster sooner. But Quinn Matthews is somebody that obviously everybody's very much excited for. So he's a rookie, obviously, to keep an eye on as well. But yeah, offensively, there's just not a lot of room for a lot of offensive rookies to make any impacts on the roster this year. So it's going to have to be from the pitching staff. If something like that's going to happen.

All right, your fifth and final bold prediction. Now, this one has somebody losing their job, Thomas, which, you know, nobody likes for that to happen to people. But inevitably, it does happen. What do you have going down as far as somebody losing a job this year? Yeah, it's not one of us. I think we're both keeping our jobs throughout the year. I guess we'll find out. We should.

We haven't done anything wrong yet. Yeah, right. No, I've got Ali Marmal being removed as the manager by the end of the year. And I think he may not stay in the staff this year, but I think they'll find a spot for him. The organization seems to really like him, especially he's touched with the younger players. I think he'll stay somewhere in the player development pipeline

or a special assistant, the president of baseball operations, one of those things. And then the guy who I have replacing him, my preference, would be Albert Pugols as manager. I think you get into some dangerous territory, bringing back former players,

especially legends like Yadir Malina and Pujols. Their reputation can be tainted pretty easily. managers are not there to be loved by the fans. And more often than not, you find managers being hated by the fans. But I think that Poolewold could do really well as a manager. He's shown success in other leagues and the winter leagues, those types of things.

So I have Marmall being fired and Pujol's replacing him. So we're going to can, Ollie, but we're going to keep him in the organization. That's the idea? Yeah, maybe not this year. It's weird to fire somebody and be like, no, just go down to motion, a few levels. But I could see it. Yeah, right.

In 2026, I think I could see him coming back as like a special assistant or someone who work with young players. It's not a familiar thing for people to do, but the organization seems to really like him in his role and what he's done for the young players. Yeah, something I noticed from Ali early on in spring training when he was able to spend more time with the media before all the games and stuff started.

And I feel like some fans got to see more of his personality and interviews with different media outlets. And they were like, well, wait a second. This guy actually is kind of funny and is kind of, you know, a guy's guy. And we kind of enjoyed hearing what he had to say and him ribbing people in the media. And maybe you just don't see that side of him all that often, especially when the games do start because it's, you know, he's got a lot on his plate. He's doing a whole lot. So it seemed like early on in the spring, people were like, well, maybe he's not as bad as we thought he was.

And he's not such a kiss-ass to Mo and is not just Mo's puppet or anything like that. But we'll see. It all depends on winning, right? Like if he comes out and the Cardinals do well this year and they went, let's say they win 85 games and surprise a lot of people, which 85 would be a lot for this team comparing to what other people are predicting for them. You know, there's a lot of people thinking mid-70s or lower as far as their win total this year. So if Ali is able to get more out of them than most people think, maybe that'll turn things around for people.

I know the hard part is saying no. I feel like as a fan saying no to Albert or Yadi and said who want to be here clearly. They have aspirations of obviously being a major league manager, would love to do it in St. Louis, but they're willing to go other places. They've said this, that they're willing to take jobs at other cities if that's what has to happen as long as they get to chase their goals.

And gosh, it would be weird for like, imagine the backlash if Ali stays and they say no to Yaddy and to Albert and they end up. There'd be riots in the street. Yeah, having forbid they're on a team and like in our division, you know, it just, I just can only imagine the mess that that would cause, would be a tornado. Yadi even mentioned the Cubs by name. He said the Cubs by name as a team he'd go to. Man, that we'd have some.

Yeah. Here's the thing. Cubs are kind of all right with Craig Counsel right now. I don't think they're trying to move on from him. They paid him a lot of money. And it'd be, I find it hard to believe. The only team that's really kind of like, eh, we don't really have a man is probably Pittsburgh with Derek Shouts it. You know, everybody else in the division.

I mean, Milwaukee loves their guy. The Cubs paid extra to get their guy. The Reds go out and get Francona. So there's not a lot of openings here in this division outside of Pittsburgh, maybe. And then, of course, in St. Louis, where, you know, Holly, obviously, you got to show us what you got this year. Good season is first year. Things go crazy the second year and everything goes haywire and we suck.

And then last year, I think he surprised some people. Like when you consider how bad some of the stuff, you know, Goldie, not a not being what they normally are, not getting anything really out of Gorman and Walker, which were supposed to be big cogs and still winning 83 games with that team, I think that was a really good job. I mean, people are still aren't going to like Holly, no matter what he already does. But I was impressed with how he was able to put it all together.

It just, you know, it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough. Need some help from the front office for stuff like that. And they went the absolute different direction. We said, well, we're just going to give you all these guys back. Figure it out. Run it back. Yeah, run it back.

Go ahead. You mentioned Victor Scott. I do want to talk to you and get your input on your feelings towards this. center field stuff that's going on and what you think. I want to get your opinion of what you would do if you were in charge with, you know, Victor having the great spring that he has. Some of the other guys not performing the way they hope they would. So we're going to talk more about that with Thomas Covey.

I also want to get his thoughts on Sunny Gray. So we'll get to that next on Locked on Cardinals. The NCAA tournament is here and so is the bracket breakdown. Locked on podcast network and Amazon Fire TV channels are teaming up to deliver NCAA tournament coverage like never before. Watch studio shows featuring former players and Lockdown's local experts as they guide you through every upset, buzzer beater, and bracket matchup. Stream it all for free on Amazon Fire TV channel.

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You can find locked on fantasy baseball on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Thomas, do you do the fantasy baseball or, you know, being the family guy and the kids and stuff, do you not have time for such things? I do fantasy baseball and whoever plays against me gets to win each week because I can't update my lineup often enough. So you're the easy win guy who's too busy to set the line.

You know, they have it. just hit quick lineup and it just sets up. I know, but that means I have to check on Sunday night and remember every, it's just, I don't know. It's only a $5 league. If I lose, I lose. If I win, good for me. Okay. All right. All right. Well, if you're a fantasy baseball guy, just so you know, I'm big on in the first round, Bobby Witt is a guy that I've been targeting. And I'm, I've just been a huge fan of Jose Ramirez for years. And I feel like he doesn't get the credit he deserves. And I, I've just loved him. So those are the guys, because they're not. Not the sexiest picks, maybe Witt is, but most people are going to take other people ahead of them.

Those are the guys I'm keeping an eye on this year in fantasy. All right. You know, a guy who could make some noise in fantasy this year. If the Cardinals let him be on the roster is Victor Scott the second. Thomas from Redburantz.com. I put out an episode yesterday talking about this conundrum that the Cardinals are in right now because they promise things for people who so far this spring haven't delivered at all. And I'm talking about Jordan Walker.

I'm talking about Nolan Gorman. And I'm talking about not really Michael Siani, but the fact that they want to continue to use him as somebody who would be out there a lot more than he probably should be. You've got Victor Scott who comes into spring training this year. And, you know, the idea is that you're competing for jobs in spring training. and he has done just about anything you could ask of him. He is filling up the stat sheet, home runs, which you didn't expect, the RBIs, the walks, the stolen bases, the batting average, the on base percentage. Obviously, we know he's a good center field.

They're not at the level of Siani is, I think, but he's not that far off. You know, it's not like you're sticking somebody out there who doesn't know what he's doing in center field. Like you might be doing a little bit with Lars Nupar, if you've ever seen him go after a fly ball in center field. So he's clearly a corner guy. But we keep coming back to the fact that, well, if Victor is going to be on this roster, he's got to play every day and we're not going to play him every day. So we're going to send him down.

And it just, it bothers me that, so you're genuinely not putting together your best team. You're just trying to put best pieces together to make the roster make a little more sense. There's part of me that gets it. But as a fan, it drives me nuts. Like when a normal fan, looks at what Victor Scott has done this spring. And if he gets shipped to Memphis,

the reaction is going to be crazy. And I want to know what your thoughts are on it because I suggested that why do we have to have Jordan Walker on the roster right away? Coming off the knee thing, can we give him a couple weeks down to Memphis just to get his feet wet and get back to things? Unless he starts ripping the hell out of the ball

in the next like four days, Like I'm just, the fact that they said that we're giving these guys runway, but they haven't earned the runway yet is what bothers me, I guess, when there's guys that have clearly earned it, you know, and Victor Scott's the guy I'm looking at. Like, is there no way to balance this out and get Victor on the roster? What are your thoughts on it? And do you think what I'm saying is right? Or do you think, like, what the Cardinals are probably going to do is the right move overall? Yeah, it's tough. the easy solution to all this would have been to trade no one are in the off season because then you ship to form in a third, Donny to second. Yeah, the domino effect is easy there. Burley can DH, Newton left. Yeah. So Michael Ciani is your fourth outfield or where he should belong or somewhere in AAA. I don't know, this is tough. If I were general manager of the Cardinals right now, I think I'd send Victor Scott the second down to AAA. Let Lars Newtcar get his run,

let Jordan Walker get his run. I never thought about what you said about getting Walker and starts in AAA just to get him rehabed, essentially, almost and warmed up because he missed so much of spring. Just used the first two weeks of Memphis as his spring then. I would probably send Scott down to AAA, run with the lineup that you thought you'd have at the beginning of the winter, before Scott had an 1149 OPS with three home runs and five-so-one bases.

Like his stat lines insane this spring. It's amazing. Yeah, you can't just count stats entirely in spring. For some young guys, especially, I think you need to put some stock into them. I'd probably put him down into the way. We're transitioning. We're letting the young people play, but not the best ones, apparently. Right.

Would you keep him up or would you send him down to start? That's the thing. It's like, if I'm them, I'm trying to find a way to get him on this roster. And it's just because I... my, as a fan, my goal is I want to win as many games as I can at the major league level. And I feel like Victor Scott is giving me a better chance to win every day than having either Gorman or Walker in the lineup right now. I feel like there's just a dynamic about him.

And it'd be different if Gorman and Walker looked really good at the plate, you know, Gorman's look better. I get that. I'm rooting for the guy. This is I'm not against Walker or Gorman, you know, doing well. It's not like I have something out for either one of these guys. I need, they need to be great for the Cardinals this year. They need to be an important cog of all of this.

But I just, it's hard for me to say no to a guy that's doing everything you could possibly want. This is not some 20-year-old guy. This is, you know, a guy that's played his college years. It's a guy that's been on this team already. He just offers things that the rest of this lineup can't do. Like his ability to steal bases is, is unbelievable. I'm not expecting this power to last. It's nice. It's nice to see, but I'm not expecting that out of Victor Scott. But clearly he looks

different and he looks better than he did last year when he got his first crack when he wasn't ready. And I just, it's tough for me to say to him, you got to go down. Sorry, buddy. We just don't have room for you on this roster when it's a roster that's starving for any sort of office whatsoever. I'm so encouraged by what I'm seeing from Lars Newport. this spring because he's healthy. Yep, you know. He's walking like crate. Is he like a 30% walk rate right now, isn't that?

It's beautiful. It's beautiful, you know. Lead off hitter. Lead off hitter. Yeah, yeah. I'm not bad enough, right? I mean, to have Mason Wynn cemented as your number one spot seems a little silly. Like, why does it have to be that way?

We don't know. But like, isn't the best team, like, if I were to put the best team together for you right now, the starting team. I don't think it has Nolan Gorman at second base right now. I think he's either going to be a DH and you've got to squeeze Alec Burleson for a Bats because I think the best is Donovan at second. Newton left. If you've got to give Walker his runway, you put him in right and you get Victor in

center field. That's personally, that's my best lineup right now. And I think fans would agree with me, but I don't think it's what the Cardinals are going do. Yeah, I agree. And it stinks for Burley there because he, I mean, last year is one of the best hitters. He did everything you needed to last year except for not hit lefties, but he's 80% of the pitchers in the league are right-handed. He can get those at bats there. Yeah, I just say it just sucks. Again, it all goes back to what you said. It's the trickle-down effect from what happened by not moving Nolan Aronado, which clogs that number, you know, the third base spot, because,

because Gorman could have slid there. Donovan would have went the second year. Like you said, we would be really having this discussion. But that's where we are right now. And I feel bad. I feel bad that the odds are Victor Scott is going to have this incredible spring and get sent down to Memphis anyway. So it's unfortunate.

All right, quickly thoughts on Sunny Gray, not having the spring we were hoping for, really weird and rough outing his last time out where we had to keep. getting removed from the game and kept coming back and just had an outful time throwing strikes. How's your concern level with Sunny Gray right now? Or do you think that you're just like, he's going to be fine? Yeah, he's one of those veterans where he's probably working on stuff right now. I'm not, I don't put nearly as much stock in his spring as I do a guy like Victor Scott or Nolan Gorman. Like he's a veteran, he's been doing this for X 9, 10 years.

I think he said this is his 13th spring training. So he knows what to do at this point. He even said, I've experienced it all, ultimately does not. matter. It doesn't matter. Do what you can. Get your stuff done and get out of here in regards to spring training. So I'm not worried about him. I think he's ready to start the year and he gets tapped for opening day. Yeah, he's pitching on Friday. He's going to take on the Astros and Jupiter and hopefully you just get a nice outing out of them. Doesn't have to be perfect or anything, but just something positive to go from when you get to opening day against the twins on the 27.

the one thing I will say about watching that last outing from gray that because I'm a big guy in body language like being able to read what these guys are doing and how they're feeling and you can see him just going I'm just so fra I just don't have it today I just I can't seem to find touch and he just looked so frustrated but he didn't look like he was like God like I'm pissed and I you know that there's something really wrong with them you know he kept saying he looked upbeat still he was just kind of like man I'm just having one of these days where it is just just just not coming together for me. And he's like, I'm glad I got my work in. But that's how I read it off of the way Sunny Gray was reacting. So it doesn't look like he's freaking out at all. All right, Thomas, you've got some new stuff that has been released. You've got some things you're working on. Tell the people about it.

What can they find at Redbird grants.com? Yeah, I'm actually going to write something about this whole positional logjam and five ways to solve the issues. I just had something published today about the early season schedule. I've got stuff about payroll coming out, just some small update pieces. All right. Well, make sure you guys check that out at redbrandts.com

and give Thomas a follow on X at Thomas Govain. And I'll be more than happy to converse with you guys on the social media. He's good about that stuff. So make sure you check them out. Thanks for making a lockdown cardinals. Your first listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L.O underscore Cardinals and at JD Sports Radio.

We're on TikTok at Lockdown Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube and help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on Locked on Cardinals. Thanks, Thomas. Absolutely. Have a good one.