Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - All-Star Game Exposes The St. Louis Cardinals Alarming Decline | Best And Worst Of The 1st Half

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

0:00 Intro: All-Star Game and Cardinals' first half 5:07 Cardinals' decline since 2015 All-Star Game 11:49 Grading Cardinals' position players: Catchers 16:28 First base: Wilson Contreras' performance 18:30 Shortstop: Masyn Winn's strengths and weaknesses 28:18 Outfield: Burleson shines, Walker struggles 34:26 Outro: Feedback on grades and looking ahead Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-st-louis-cardinals/ Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/ Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 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! Monarch Money Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com/lockedonmlb 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 ONE HUNDRED FIFTY 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 #stlouiscardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What the All-Star game says about the current state of the St. Louis Cardinals, plus we're going to grade the position players on the first half of the season. And it's clear to me where the biggest weakness on this team is. You are locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Hey, there, Cardinals. I'm J.D. Haffern and I am your host for Lockdown Cardinals.

Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. next at JD Sports Radio, the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals. We're on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Lockdown Cardinals as well. This is a show serving Cardle Nation and giving the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's show being brought to you by Monarch Money, take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown, MLBia, Monarch Money.com for 50% off your first year.

All right, so things that we are going to be talking about today, the All-Star break is just about over. So we haven't had quite as much stuff to really focus on. So hopefully you've enjoyed the relaxation of it all with the, you know, not games happening every single night

and getting all worked up about everything that happens with this team. And before we can move forward with the season, you know, I wanted to take a look back at what we've gathered over the first half and what the Cardinals need to do moving forward or at least

where does the improvements need to come from. We're going to focus on position players today because it's just not enough time to do position players and the pitchers. So we'll do pitchers in the next episode. But we'll be doing the position players today. They're going to begin the second half of the season at 51 and 46, which it's a respectable record considering not many people thought that this team would compete at all this year. But us as fans, you want more, right?

I want more. You want more. and it shouldn't be enough to just compete. Like, that's lame, right? I don't want to just compete. I want to be in first. I want rings. I want trophies.

I want parades. I want star players. You know, I want to enjoy this team. And even though this team has been much more fun to watch this year than the last couple seasons, there's still not that person to come out and watch every day, is there? There's no superstar on this team where you're just like, I will pay $25 because I have to see this guy play live. They're just not.

They don't have that. And watching the All-Star game this year, it was painfully obvious how far down the Cardinals have fallen. You know, we're watching the game and my wife asked me, why are the fans in Atlanta, you know, they're booing certain guys during the introductions? And I pointed out that the people they were booing, I was like, oh, well, those are the Phillies and the Mets. They're in the division.

She's like, oh, duh. that makes perfect sense. Those are the guys they don't like, you know, and I reminded her about the all-star game that was in Cincinnati in 2015. She's a Reds fan. She's from Cincinnati and how all the Reds fans booed the hell out of my Cardinal players. So I actually went back and found the, you know, the footage of the introductions and how much booing was going on when, you know,

Yadda or Molina was out there. They rained down on Yadi. The reaction was hilarious. He ate it up. He was laughing, as you can see in the photo on YouTube here that I'm putting up there where he's like pointing at the back of his jersey. Like there's Molina. And he was having fun with it.

You know, the crowd was having fun with it. And it was cool. And her first reaction to the video was she started laughing too. She's like, oh, that's funny because it reminded her of how much fun that rivalry was back in the day. you know, we had Yadi and Brandon Phillips drawing at each other, the brawls and the competitive hatred. Hatred's a strong word, I guess, but it was like competitive hatred where it's not, I don't hate you as a person, but as my rival, I do not like you that these two teams had for one another. Those were good times. That was fun. But then she immediately pointed out something that kind of made me slump.

a little bit. She goes, look how many all-stars you guys had. And she didn't mean that like in a jerk way. It just was when they were naming them off. They were just like from the Cardinals, from the Cardinals, from the Cardinals. She was like more impressed with it all. You know, you had Yadde or Molina and you had Matt Holiday and Johnny Peralta and Carlos Martinez and Michael Waka and Trevor Rosenthal. All of them were at the All-Star game. You had former Cardinal Albert Poo-Holes playing for the Angels that. point at the game. Shelby Miller was on the Braves as an all-star at that game. You had future Cardinals and Paul Goldschman, Nolan Arnado, Brandon Crawford. Yeah, I know. It's hard to believe he was

a Cardinal for a hot minute. Sunny Gray, those guys were all there. But you had six legit Cardinal All-Stars on that team that ended up winning 100 games that season before getting bounced by the Cubs and the NLDs three games to one. That was the year of the Royals won the World Series, by the way, over the Mets. But it reminded me of how good things you. used to be. And where we are now with one lone reserve representative in Brendan Donovan on the nationally team this year. That was it. And a quick shout out to Brendan Donovan for having a solid all-star game, by the way. Only player who had multiple hits in that game, had a chance to earn a third, but tapped out to the catcher. Al-a-Hajio-Cur.

man like just letting that ball stay fair i was i was like come on dude pick it up but that ended the inning uh and sent this to a swing off which you know i enjoyed a lot i don't know about you i know i don't think they should use this format to decide any other games except the all-star game but it was fun to watch i enjoyed it it would have been cool to see you know an otani versus judge or a cow raleigh versus pita lanzo type of deal but i still enjoy enjoyed it. I still thought it was fun. The guys seemed to be having fun. You know, you saw them all out there outside the dugouts and enjoying it. So I thought it was cool. But back to the Cardinals. You know, just looking at how far things have fallen talent-wise and how the Cardinals are viewed by the rest of the league in 2025. I mean, and by the fan bases. You know, Carlos Martinez won like the fan vote that year to get into the All-Star game. and nobody got voted on this time. Nobody talks about the Cardinals anymore.

Nobody fears them anymore or is impressed with anything that they have going on. They are a surprise team this year that is getting a nice little pat on the butt for effort, right? Nobody's expecting them to make the playoffs. And everyone's just like, you know, you guys are doing good. Keep it up. You guys are good. You know, they're getting a participation trophy. That's the kind of team they are right now.

now. And you hear a lot of, have you seen the Cardinals? You know, they haven't been that bad. And that sucks to be in that spot now. I hate it. This was a franchise that was a pillar in the league that other teams strived to be like, 2015, 10 years ago, the Cardinals were second in tennis that year behind the Dodgers, three and a half million fans, payroll of $128 million, which was the 10th highest paper. The first half of this season, they are at 1.4 million, which ranks them as 15th in the league. And a payroll of, you're going to love this, 128 million, which is now 19th. It just, I don't want to say it made me sad, but just like, wow, look how far things have dropped. What is happening? I truly hope

they get back to being the winning style of franchise that they wore. Obviously, I'm a super fan just like you. I understand that the plan that they have in place is something that doesn't fix itself overnight. They didn't just go, you know, they're not going to go blow a bunch of money and buy a bunch of players and hope it works. That's not what they're going to do. They're going to do in a smarter, more efficient way. They're doing it. And it's a way to, you know, to not only build a team that's got depth and is good everywhere and it's not just like one or two guys, but, you know, it's to also combat the crazy salaries that these guys. guys are agreeing to. And I still believe ownership will spend eventually when it comes to that

time to do it, but that time is not this year for obvious reasons. They don't have the talent. So it's not going to tell you, like one or two guys is not going to push this team over, at least not one or two guys that are available. Sure, go get you in an Otani and a judge and whoo, there you are. But those guys are available. So this isn't the year to go out and spend like that. So again, I believe I have faith that they will eventually. they never were a top five type of spending team anyway. So I'm not expecting them to go crazy at some point, but to spend some money here or there to fill in the holes that are left by whatever they're going to develop.

I think that'll happen eventually. It's just not this year. So let's talk about this year. Let's go get into some grades next, shall we? We discuss what we've seen from the Cardinals so far this year. There's been some good. There's been some bad. We're going to talk about all of it.

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That's monarchmoney.com code locked on MLB, L-O-C-E-D-O-N-M-L-B for half off your first year. Thanks again for making a lot on Cardinals, your first list every day, leave you comments on YouTube as well as on Axe Anytime you want your feedback is always welcome and encourage. The Cardinals have been, I'm going to say, a good but unspectacular team so far. Very vanilla. It's not a team of superstars, as we mentioned. But the young guys, I think you've done quite well, considering a few of them are only in like their second full seasons.

You know, you expect these guys. We just think that they're automatically supposed to be superstars right out the gate. And it just doesn't work out that way all the time. Some people get lucky and people go off in their second year, but it's not really all that common. And with the young green guys, and you've also got some solid veteran play to go with them. And that's put them in the discussion for the NL Wildcard. You know, it ain't going to be easy because some of these teams are going to be adding significant pieces to move ahead of the Cardinals. The Cardinals seem to be on track to be a selling team at the trade deadline, which I totally get.

It's not going to upset me if that's what they do because this was never about this season. It's supposed to be about building for the next five to 10 years, not for just 2025. So the fact that we've gotten a chance to be in the running for a wild card and such so far this year, I think has been fun. It's been entertaining. I would love to see them continue to compete to be in the playoffs. But if it doesn't happen, I'm not going to be all that angry about it. I get where they're at. But they've had some good and bad stuff so far this year.

I got grades for the first half. We're going to go by position. We're going to start behind the plate with the catchers. The combination of Yvonne Herrera, Pedro Pahez, and Joel Pozo has, it's been a mixed bag because each one of them does different things well. You know, the real issue, in my opinion, has been just keeping Yvon Herrera healthy. He's no longer actually going to be a part of the. catching duties, at least not on a regular basis.

They're going to have him focus on DH duties. We heard that he's been, you know, taking some fly balls in case he needs to go out there and play in the outfield. I've mentioned it, I don't know, 100 times, make it 101 that he should be learning to play first base. Because when Wilson Contreras is done, they're not going to re-sign him and they're going to need a first baseman. They don't really have one in the minor leagues right now that is ready to rock and roll. Herrera makes a lot of sense. get your butt on over there to first base, man. I'm sure you'll be fine.

But they're doing that to alleviate the wear and tear on the legs, which has caused him to miss as much time as he has a lot of games so far. As a group, when catching, so you don't count the DH numbers from Ivan Herrera, but as a group as catchers, 259, 15 home runs and 51 RBIs, OPS at 740, all of which are top 10 numbers at the position in Major League Baseball. so that's the good news. The bad news, defensively, they are not good.

They've allowed 74 stolen bases this season. I get not all of that is on the catchers. I mean, how many times have you seen runners just take off on a cardinal pitch who's not paying attention? So it's not all on them. I get that. But 74 stolen bases against, tied for ninth highest amount against.

They've thrown out just 17, fifth lowest amount, have eight pass balls, which is the fourth highest amount. and have a fielding percentage of 991, fifth lowest. So you get decent heading, but you're not getting much on the defensive side of things. And we know the pitchers love Pedro Pajas and how he calls games and that's great, but certainly a lot of room for improvement behind the dish is where they really, really need it. I think Poso's been a great story this year who doesn't root for this guy.

He's turned into a solid right-handed bench bat as well. Nobody saw that coming. Pahez is the better catcher of the group. But Herrera has the best bat, but his catching days are all but over, in my opinion. So I'm going to give them a grade C as a grouping, but it's closer to a D than it is a B, because the defensive stuff is,

it's just not good enough. First base, Wilson Contreras has somehow stayed healthy, despite getting plunk 14 times. season and looking like he's going to tear his growing muscle every time he stretches at first base. I get so nervous about that. But 14 times third highest amount in the league that he's been hit by a pitch. So you can see why he's frustrated. Among NL first baseman, he is eighth and batting average at 253, fifth in home runs with

12. Fifth in RBIs of 55, eighth in OPS at 765. Defensively, he's been much better than I think most of us anticipate, at least for me. he has made four errors, but he's plus two in defensive runs saved and is behind only the Braves, Matt Olson and outs above average at plus six in the National League. Selfishly, I want more from him offensively. You know, I'm not trying. I got to be a little nitpicky, right?

But, you know, where his numbers are and then remember when he had that horde beginning of the season, when he was, what was it, O for his first 19? something like that, four for 43 in his first 11 games. So where he's come from since then, he's been a lot better, but the numbers are still down some because of how bad that started the season was, because it still counts. But I'm going to give him a grade B because of how much better he's been defensively than I thought he was going to be.

I want more offensively. That's what I want. Second base, Brenton Donovan with the bulk of the playing time. He's an all-star. What are we going to complain about? really with Donnie. He does everything this team asks him to do. Play second.

Play left field. Hit third. Hit lead off. Just do it all. And he does it. So not a whole lot to complain about there. Nolan Gorman has started to come to life at the plate with more regular bats. Nine home runs now.

So that's good to see. More work in at third base, possibly with Aronano being bothered by that index finger injury. And maybe just a couple extra days. days off from the field here and there, just because he's not a young guy anymore. So I'm pretty pleased with what we're seeing at second base. I'm going to give an A for All-Star for Donnie because he's the guy doing the bulk of the work there and there's nothing bad to really say about him. At shortstop, it's Mason Wynn.

He's had his moments where it appears he's going to be a star. And I have to remind myself that he's only 23. I forget that sometimes. This is only his second full season in the big leagues, and he's still figuring things out offensively, still adjusting. His numbers at the dish, they're not great.

They're not crap. They're not awful by any means compared to the rest of the league at the position. Power, seven home runs, which is 10th in the league, so not a ton, but you know, he'll take 15 home runs over the long haul, wouldn't you? Fifth and run scored,

RBI is he's 10th, but, you know, that's not his thing. Batting average, though, 10th. OPS 12th where I want him to really get better at is taking walks and the on base percentage. You know, the OBPF 317, that's 10th among short stops. He's only got 27 walks and he has 64 strikeouts. I think that needs to be better and I still don't understand the stealing bases issues. Ten attempts this year.

Five successful. Five unsuccessful. 50-50. This is a guy that's 81st percentile in sprint speed. not a running problem. He's got wheels. But for whatever reason, it has not resulted in more stolen bases. I think the goal he said was, I want to get to 30 stolen bases. He's not even going to sniff that. He might get the 10 the way he's at. You know, and just for comparison, because it's not all about sprint speed, C.J. Abrams for the Washington Nationals. It's got 20 bags this year that he's stolen.

74th percentile in sprint speed. So he's slower than Mason when. But yet, 20 stolen bases has been caught twice. I don't know if it's bad jumps. I don't know if he has issues reading pitchers, but that's got to get fixed. He's got to be a weapon out there. He's never going to be Victor Scott style type, but he's got to be more than that.

Defensively, he's outstanding. Leads Major League Baseball at shortstuffs and fielding percentage, 994. He's got just two errors. Is defensive run saved plus three, which is third in the National League, outs above average, plus 15. second to Major League Baseball.

The Nick Allen guy for the Braves is a stud, but he can't hit worth a lick. I want Mason Wend to be more of a threat offensively. He's awesome on defense. There's nothing really to whine about there at all. Take more walks, cause more havoc on the base pass. But with what he's doing offensively and the elite defensive work, which has him in the lead, in my opinion, for the NL Gold Glove, grade B. If we got more offense out of them, he'd be an A.

Third base, Nolan and out of the future Hall of Fame of the days of old, where he was an elite, offensive player appeared to be for real gone. We thought maybe he could have that, oh, that one bounce back. It's not happening. He's not a scrub by any means. People talk about him. He's just like this guy. He's hitting 150 or something.

He's not. He's just not the guy that he used to be where he was just, you know, rattling off All-Star games over and over and over. He's betting 246. That's 12th among MLB third baseman. He's 10th at home runs, which is, or he has 10 home runs, which is seven. 42 ribbies, that's fifth among third baseman. He only has 34 strikeouts, but the OBP is quite low, 305, which is 14.

The slugging 388 is 11, Zopias 693 is 11. Has had some big hits this year for sure, but he's just not the heart of the order guy that they wish he was anymore. He's just not. Defensively, I couldn't be happy with what we're seeing from Nolan or Aronado at this point in his career and at his age. 986 fielding percentage, which leads all third baseman, is committed just three errors. DRS plus four, his outs above average plus three. You know, Key Brian Hayes is really good for the Pirates.

Matt Chapman is really good for the Giants, although he's been hurt this year. Nolan Arnano, I hate saying it, but he's a fading superstar. I don't want to say that, but that's what it is. Still extremely important to this team, extremely important to this team and in that clubhouse. But the numbers are what they are. I want to give him a B. I want to, but he needs to be more productive offensively for me to go there. grade C for Nolan Aronado.

All right, we're going to head into the outfield next and talk about these guys on locked on cardinals. Don't move. Get the supplies you need from the site made for the skilled trade supply house. Whether you're in plumbing HVAC or electrical work, supply house is the reliable way to order products online. They're easy to use website. It's packed with helpful resources and the latest product information to help you get the job done right. Complete inventory, massive. Over 200,000 parts from 400 plus.

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just a few clicks. Plus use promo code SH5 for 5% off your first order. That's promo code SH5, 5% off your first order with Supplyhouse.com. Thanks again for making a lockdown carl's your first list on today for your second list and check out the all new locked on MLB game night. Every game every night all season longer local analysis on a national scale. You can find M will be game night on locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. We'll have game night up and running again on Friday after some games start again. So be on the look after that.

All right, we're in the outfield for guys that we got to talk about and focus on Lars Newfar, Victor Scott, Jordan Walker, and Alec Berlinson. Jordan Walker has only played in 55 games due to injuries and lack of production. I want to give him an incomplete for that. but I'm not. I want Jordan Walker to succeed. This franchise needs him to succeed. They need a prospect that pops and becomes a winner. A couple of them are doing fine,

but Jordan Walker was supposed to be the crown jewel. Former first round pick, size, speed, cannon for an arm, has all the intangibles that would say, this guy is going to be a star. And this year has been another disaster. He's hitting 210 with three home runs and 23 RBIs in 176 at bats. He's got seven extra base hits this year. Seven.

Four doubles, a triple and three home runs. That is awful for somebody of Jordan Walker's stature. That cannot happen. He's made strides defensively, which we applaud him for. That's great. but the offense is not even major league worthy right now. He doesn't belong in the big leagues right now with what he's doing with the bat. He just doesn't.

And he's not even hitting that well at double a springfield while he's rehabbing. I mean, he's got a couple of home runs, but he's not doing anything else. Like he's hitting under 200, I think, down there. So I want to give him an incomplete, but I'm going to be tough on him. today and Jordan Walker is getting an F. Lars Newpar. Currently on the IEL again. First time this year,

which is good that he's stayed relatively healthy this year. Outstanding start to the season where he was hitting 263, but it was the OBP that you love. 400 OPS 839 through the first month. It was awesome. And we're like, okay, there he is. There's the new bar we've been talking about. Finally, his baseball savab page is matching

up with the production you're seeing on the field. And since that first month, has fizzled. Badly. In May, he hit 21. The OBP dropped at 286. OPS 665 June. Worse, 169 average,

297 OBP 595 OPS. The walks and the strikeouts, those are the biggest things that make Lars Neupar special, right? He gets on base, though he might not get hit, it would be walks, right? That's what he's known for, that great eye, right? Strikeouts went from a 25 walks to 21 strikeouts in that first month to eight walks,

28 strikeouts, and then 12 to 28. And now he's out. Now he's hurt. And although he's got 12 home runs, which is great, it's tied with Willie for the league, for the lead in the clubhouse, 37 RBIs, has him on pace to shableness. or his previous career mark of 46. That's great. But the batting average, the OBP, the slugging, the OPS, all of that is currently at career lows. Great first month. Not much sense. D for Lars Newport. Alec Berlinson, let's talk about a happy guy. Biscuits, as he's known,

he's been a lot of fun to watch this year, whether he's playing in the outfield or he's playing at first base. He's given maximum effort. He does the best with what he's got, and we appreciate all of that. The bat is what he's getting paid for, though, and what he'll get paid for moving forward. That has answered the bell. 290 at bats, sixth most on the team, because it took them a while to continue to include him into the lineup. Jordan Walker's demise has led to Burleson getting more at bats and more production. 293, 11 home runs and 43 RBIs. If I told you, that was Jordan Walker's numbers. You'd be, you'd be, you'd go streaking.

You'd be so happy. At least I would be, I'd be like, yeah, there he is. But it's not Walker. It's Alec Berlinson instead, mash his righties, destroys him. 314, 9 dingers. He does struggle against lefties still. That's the problem, 213 batting average. But it's hard to take him out of the lineup anymore,

even though he doesn't hit his well against lefties because you're like, I mean, it's not like Jordan's doing any better. Who else we're going to put in? Garrett Hampson? No. So Burleson's in there each and every day and tortures the right-handers, left-handers kind of have his number. But grade B for Alec Berluson, if there had been more improvement

against lefties, then he would have had an egg. Victor Scott, hot start, 271 in the first month, has declined every month since. Hit 244 in May, 217 in June. He's at 167 in June. July. The strikeouts have piled up. He doesn't walk nearly enough with his speed. 27 walks, 88 strikeouts. That is awful. That just, it has to be better. But when he is on, he's a threat to run. 24 stolen bases. What is that? Third or fourth in the league somewhere in there has only been caught twice. Ah, love it. Defensively, awesome. One error, DRS, plus eight.

out's above average plus 11. He is a gold glove worthy center fielder. Maybe he wins one at some point because don't they just do it as outfielders? They don't have to do left fielder. Does it do they do it after time remember? The problem is Pete Crowe Armstrong for the Cubs is also in center field. And he's incredible and he's just better than Victor Scott is. So he has to contend with PCA and center field in the national league.

Good luck. I don't know how you're ever, he's going to, he's so good. But Victor Scott as a whole better than last year offensively, but you want more offensively, right? I do the 31 RBIs from the nine hole, which is where he hits more times than not, very, very nice. That I'm not complaining out, but I just want to see him on base more, you know, walks, buntz, whatever you got to do, something,

do whatever it takes to get on there because he's, you know, he's such a weapon on the base pass. And honestly, I want to see. him run more. There are multiple times. I see him on base. I'm like, go, just go, go, go. And he doesn't. So I can't complain with how well he does it because he's only been thrown out twice, but I would like to see it a little more. But he's got to be on base to steal more back. So I'm going to give Victor a grade C. So obviously when you go through my grades here, the outfield needs a lot of work.

New Bar Walker, we got a problem. We got a problem. Victor, I'm pleased with, and I think there's more to come. Obviously, he's still very young. Alec Berluson, hard to complain about everything he's been doing. I mean, what are you going to bitch about with him? Newton, Jordan, they just got, they have to do more.

They just have to. They got to be better. So those are my positional player grades. Biggest disappointment goes to Jordan Walker. I'm not giving up on him. He's still only 23. So I don't think you should either. I don't think everybody should be like,

yep, he's done, get rid of him, punt on him. No, you don't do that. You don't do that with a 23-year-old former first round pick. That's ludicrous. You don't. You just hope that in the next half of the season and moving forward, he does progress and get better. I would love to see him.

I hope he gets healthy. And then here in the second half, he just starts mashing and that the future will be bright for him. But it's much dimmer than where we thought he would be when this season started. My biggest surprise, I'm going to go with Wilson Contreras's defense in first base offensively. I'm not surprised at what Burley or Herrera have done so far. I told you in the preseason, I was like, I think Von Herrera is going to have a monster year. And he is, he's just got to be healthy. I'm surprised at how poorly things have gone for Newt after how it started and for him to be playing as much as he has this year and hasn't done, dealt with a bunch of injuries.

He's hurt now, obviously, but as far as we knew, he'd been healthy for most of this year. I know he's had the side issue for a couple of weeks now, but, you know, I'm surprised that it hasn't been better. Need to keep Herrera in the lineup. Got to get him in there. got to keep them in there. That's the point of him deaching from here on out because he's such a difference maker. You know, this team sucks against left-handed pitching, and he's huge against them, 333-3-batting average against lefties this year.

You know, having him miss a month and a half so far of this season has been a problem for the Cardinals. He's arguably their best hitter. So you need to keep him healthy, keep him in there. I need your thoughts, your comments on these grades and feelings moving forward. Are you ready to move on from certain guys? Are you hoping that certain position players get traded? Are you hopeful about other ones? Are my grades too high?

Are they too low? Let me know in the comments section. We can discuss it in an upcoming episode. Big thank you for making Lockdown Cardinals, your first listen every day. If you haven't already, please give us follow on X at L.O underscore Cardinals in a JD Sports Radio, TikTok and Instagram at Lockdown Cardinals. You guys love the Liam Doyle stuff. So I'm glad to see those numbers popped.

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