Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Are The Cardinals As Bad As Their Record Says?

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

0:00 Cardinals' season after first month 5:05 Impressive offensive stats for Cardinals 10:13 DH position struggles for St. Louis 15:20 Starting pitching better than expected 20:58 Bullpen issues and inconsistencies 26:32 Ryan Helsley's early season struggles 31:38 Upcoming series against the Mets 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! Amazon Fire TV Stick 4k Did you know your Fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV Stick 4K devices — no console required. Head to Amazon.com/firetvlockedon to get started. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required. 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! Wonderful Pistachios Get snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! Monarch Money Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE 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 AND 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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The first month of the season is in the books. Are the Cardinals better? Are they worse? Or right where we expected them to be at this point of the season? 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. Hafford and I'm your host for Lockdown Cardinals. Part of the Lockedon Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on exit. J.D. Sports Radio. you can follow the podcast at L1 underscore Cardinals. We're on YouTube. Make sure you like, subscribe and comment.

Hit that notification button so you don't miss anything. Also available on TikTok and Instagram at Locked on Cardinals. This right here is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode being brought to you by Monarch of Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch of Money. Use the code locked on MLB at Monarch Money.com for 50% off your first year. So after 32 games, St. Louis Cardinals are currently four games under 500 at 14 and 18.

They're currently in fourth place in the division ahead of only the Pirates, who are 12 and 20, and are five games back of first place Chicago. The Cubs continue to play outstanding baseball. They're 19 and 13 on the year. They've had a really tough schedule so far too, which makes it all that more impressive, followed by the Reds who were at 17 and 15 with whom the Cardinals just split a four-game series with. And then you got the Brewers at 16 and 16. So with May starting up in a new series beginning at home against the Mets on Friday,

I thought, you know what? It's a good time to kind of take a look at everything, evaluate what we've seen so far from this team this season. Put up a poll question on X asking you about how you felt about what you've seen from the team so far. do you think they've been overachieving? Do you think they're right where they should be and where you thought they'd be? Or do you think they are underachieving so far this year? And a majority of the votes will double check it since, you know, it's been up for a while now. But the majority of votes have been, and they still are, where I thought they'd be. 65% of the votes so far say this is where I thought they'd be. 28.5% are saying that they're underachieving. And they're, they're then you've got 6.3 who think that 14 and 18 is overachieving for the Cardinals this year. So I guess they thought pretty poorly about what this team was going to be this year. And I'll be honest, like when I look at this record at 14 and 18,

and maybe you can call me crazy, but I feel like this team has actually played better than that. They don't feel like a 14 and 18 team to me. and I know that Thursday was sucked, you know, it was a rainy, crappy day and it just did not go the Cardinals way. You're going to see that from time to time. But so we've all got kind of like a, that was, that was ugly. But I just, it doesn't feel to me is that they played as bad as this record looks. So then I started moving around stats and looking at things and doing some research. And, you know, you're like, you're going to see some of this.

you're going to be like, how are they 14 and 18? Now, the obvious issue, we all know, has been playing on the road. A nightmare. The splits are pretty nasty. Home record of 10 and 5 along the road, they are 4 and 13. And like I said, that's after getting two wins in Cincinnati this week. The road has been brutal for the club so far. We're going to start with the offensive numbers because they're a little more fun.

Because the difference from last year, where the team did win, 83 games. And what that offense looked like and what this offense looks like has been night and day. And you're going to get bad days. Every offense goes through them. It just happens. Thursday was a bad day for the Cardinals offense. Wednesday was a good day in the grand scheme of things.

I know there was some lulls there in the second game, but you saw some firepower out of the offense. Overall this year, they're hitting 256 as a team. That's fifth in Major League Baseball. And it's behind some pretty freaking good teams, the Yankees, the Cubs, the Padres, the Dodgers. How much money have those teams spent? I know the Cubs didn't go out and spend a buttload or anything like that, but look at the payrolls. Look at those rosters.

I mean, those guys are supposed to be up there, right? Not bad company. All four of those teams have 18 or more wins already this season. Again, Cardinals are down here 14. Slugging. The Cardinals do dip a bit down to 10. in the league, which, I mean, that's not awful by any means. It's their lack of home runs that hurt that particular category.

It's been kind of an issue. Only 30 of them so far this season, which puts them at 17th. But you don't have to hit home runs to win. They certainly do help. I know that. I get that. They rank eighth and on-base percentage at 3.30. You love to see that.

They're getting on base and creating run-scoring opportunities. obviously very, very important. The teams have had of them in on base percentage. The Yankees, the Cubs, Mariners, Dodgers, Phillies, Diamondbacks, Red Sox, all playoff caliber teams. All of them have 17 or more wins so far this year. Again, Cardinals are at 14. OPS, Cardinals are 10th in the league at 727. Teams ahead of them, your usual suspects.

Yankees, Cubs, Dodgers, D-Backs, Mariners, Red Sox. Mets and Tigers, all of them playoff caliber teams and having tremendous seasons so far. Run scored. Cardinals are 11th. They're fourth overall in hits. Fourth. They're tied for second in the league in doubles. So even though they're not getting the home runs, they're shooting gaps.

They're putting them down the line. They're getting extra base hits. They're just one back of the Red Sox in doubles. They're in the top 10 in walks. Thank you, Lars Newbar. But also, you've seen them be more patient at the plate. They're in the bottom half in strikeouts, so they're not having empty at bats as much this year.

They're 11th in steals. Thank you, Victor Scott II, who is fourth in the league of those. Remember last year, what was the big problem for the Cardinals? They would get some guys on base, right? Nobody could knock them in. Runners in scoring position. couldn't figure it out.

This year, the Cardinals are betting 268 with runners in scoring position, which is tied with the Brewers for fifth in Major League Baseball. So when they are on, they're putting the ball in play. They're driving guys in. But let's look at here's where, you know, things start to take a turn. Because you look at what they do at home, and then you look at what they do away. And you can see why the records are as bad.

as they are. I shouldn't say as bad, as different as they are. At home, the St. Louis Cardinals, your St. Louis Cardinals, lead the league in batting average. They're hitting 289 at Bush Stadium this year. They're tied with the Braves. Braves are also at 289.

They're second in the league, in on-base percentage. This is at home. They're sixth in slugging. They're fifth in OPS. When the boys are at home, even though it's a hitter's ballpark, they're getting the job done offensively. Imagine how much better they'd be if more fans came out.

Am I going to tell you how to spend your money? I'm just telling you. I had a good time watching them the last four days, because Thursday was rough. Thursday was rough. That was a rain delay. It wasn't fun. But then you go on the road.

You go on the road with the Cardinals, and it's a totally different story. They're hitting 228 away from Bush Stadium. That's 15th and 1. 61 point difference. It's huge. The OPP. That's a P-P, not OPP, the OBP,

dips from 360 to 304. That's 14th overall. Slugging falls from 449 to 352, which drops them to 20 first. And then the OPS, it goes from 809 to 657, which goes down to 16th. Their OPS plus at home is 121. Remember, league averages at 100.

121. Outstanding. It falls below average to 94 on the road. So it's a drastic drop-off in how they hit the ball at home compared to the road. Can I explain why it's that way? No. They're just more comfortable at Bush Stadium, I guess. I don't have a real answer for you.

On the road, they've also, you know, they've faced the Mets. and four, which, you know, their pitching staff is outstanding. We'll talk about that later since they're in town. But it just hasn't worked out as well for them on the road. The DH position continues to be in black hole in this line of the DH. And it doesn't matter who it is. It's just whatever hitter is the DH that day, they're going to suck. That's really all there is to it.

Because the DH for the Cardinals this season is hitting 198. Zero home runs and two RBIs with 31 strikeouts and just 13 walks. The cartels are basically sending eight people to the plate, and the rest of the league gets nine. So we got to figure out some way to get somebody to step up in that DH role. And maybe when Ivan Herrera comes back, we will see him use there more with Pahas just catching. But you know how it is when you take a risk when you have both your catchers starting. Like, that's not ideal. You don't want to do that.

Because if one of them goes down, you're in trouble. But perhaps that's something they look into. You know, one of the odds that one or both are going to get hurt. I mean, it happened in Boston where it got hurt. And you were in trouble. But overall, despite what we saw from them yesterday, which was an ugly day, the offense has been better than at least I thought would be. And I'm guessing many of you didn't think it was going to.

be this good either. And we're still waiting for more. There's more potential in this lineup. There's more thump there. Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, Alec Berlison, they're still waiting for those three guys to get going. They haven't. You still look, you see a little bit from Jordan here and there and then you see some really, really bad at pass. But then you see them, you know, rip a liner 113 off the bat. And you're like, it's there. How do we unlock it? How do we How do we keep it coming? Nolan Gorman, one home run this year, you know, had the injury, which set him back a little bit,

but, you know, we're waiting on him. Alex Burdelson doesn't have any home run yet this year, waiting for him to get going. Heck, you're still waiting for Wilson Contreras to actually get hot. He's been better, but we haven't seen him go on a tear yet. And, you know, we're in the second month of the season. We think it's going to happen. history shows us that it should happen at some point.

So we're waiting on that. We're waiting for Yvonne Herrera to get back in this lineup. Mason Wynn also had an injury along with Gorman. So they haven't been around the whole time. I've been more than impressed with this offense so far. Great job by Bram Brown. Great job by the Cardinals for hiring. And whatever they're doing, keep it up.

Not every day is going to be perfect. That's part of the game of baseball. But more times than not, you're seeing really good at bats and you're seeing a really good offense out there on the field. The pitching staff is next. All right, we're going to talk about the rotation. We'll talk about the bullpen.

And I think you're going to be surprised at the numbers that the St. Louis Cardinal starters have been put up so far. I think you're going to be surprised. We'll get into it next on Locked on Cardinals. Did you know your fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV stick 4K devices. No console required. Just grab your paired controller, subscribe.

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and encouraged. I know we got a lot of feedback about Thursday's game and people were not all that impressed with the lack of effort and energy. that seemed to go into the game on Thursday. I felt it too. You know, there's going to be days like that. It does happen in a long 162 game season, but hopefully they'll be back and ready to rock this weekend.

They're back home. New York Mets are in town. And if there's one thing that when it comes to the Mets, good pitching, right? That's what we're going to see this weekend. And so far, the Cardinals have been pretty good when it comes to their starting rotation. Good pitching often beats.

good hitting. For years, you've seen some good offenses thrive, but the team fails overall because the pitching staff isn't any good. The starting pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals has been better than most people think. When I went and looked at the numbers here, I was pleasantly surprised at how much better they were than I thought they were going to be going into it. The Cardinal starters have an ERA of 3.92. And I know, we're going to get people who are like, it's got to be in the twos to be effective. I guess. I, get it. It's not the best in the world, but it does put them smack in the middle of all of Major League Baseball. They're 15th. That's where it ranks. So it's not low as crap. It's not upper

echelon. I know that. Middle of the road. The are getting length from the starters, though, 172 in a third inning so far, which is tied for the eighth most in the league. And despite throwing more innings than most teams, they're 15th and hit them. They're 15th and hits. against 153 and 172 in a third innings. That's pretty good. They've allowed 75 earned runs, which again puts them right in the middle of the league at 15. They've allowed only 16 home runs so far, which is tied for the fourth lowest total among starters. Didn't see that coming, did you? I didn't. I sure didn't. Their whip, for those who don't know, that's walks and hits per innings pitched. Fourth lowest whip in the league. The batting average against is at 2.30.

which ranks 10th. Again, this is for the starting rotation, for anybody who's made a start. If there's something to really kind of bitch about when it comes to our starting rotation, it's the lack of strikeouts, lack of swing and miss. Rank 26th in the league there with 128. But on the other side of it,

they aren't walking people. They're not putting themselves in bad positions. Often, it does happen. two guys in particular. I've been having those issues from the rotation in Fetti and Palante. But as a whole, they've walked 47 hitters, which is tied for the third lowest amount in the league. They also lead the league in groundouts, 184 of them.

You've got some good sinker ball guys. And they're making the other team hit it on the ground. And you got it infield. Aronado, really, really good. Mason win. really, really good. Donovan and Gorman. Gorman, you know, isn't phenomenal by any means, but he's not killing you at second base. And then Wilson Contreras, if he doesn't have to throw the ball, he'd been pretty good over at first base, right? Miles Michaels had that horrid game in Boston,

right? Really inflated the numbers for himself and the staff because of that particular game. Same can be said about the last start by Eric Fetty and inflated things. But they all count, so you can't dismiss it. But Miles Michael's last two outings against the Braves and the Reds. Neither of them considered offensive slouches. 11 and a third shutout innings. Nine hits, two walks, six strikeouts. He's always going to give up hits. He's a pitched contact guy.

It's going to happen. Balls are going to find holes. But whatever went wrong in Boston, he's moved on from it and has gotten better. He's pitched into the fifth inning in every game except that one in Boston, and has gotten into the sixth in three of the other five. People like to make fun of the, oh, he eats innings. Look at him go. He's kind of doing what he's supposed to be doing.

Are you expecting Miles Michaelis to go seven, eight innings in his outings? No. Because eventually when the lineup comes around by that third time, that's when, you know, teams can hit him a little bit better. Eric Fetty has had two fugly, and I mean, fugly outings. But in the other four starts, he's allowed just four runs in 24 innings. And it's gone at least six innings in four of his starts. He's got four quality starts.

Needs the cut down on the walks, as I mentioned. That's been an issue for him. And it's not like he's crazy wild and throwing things to the backstop or anything like that. It's not like he's wearing out the catchers, but he's missing his spots. People aren't chasing, and it's putting guys on base, which eventually will cost you. It's only so many times you can get away with it before you get burned. Sunny Gray, three and O is giving you six or more innings and four of his six starts has only allowed more than three runs once. And that was the game against the Angels when they hit the grand slam off him. He's had three

straight quality starts quietly. I feel like nobody's talking about how goods, Sonny Gray's been. Has he been exceptional and amazing? No, but he's been really good. Matthew Libertor's move to the rotation has been a success so far. You don't hear people whining and crying about that. I was the one that wanted to keep him in the bullpen. I was like, oh, if you move him, what are you going to do about what's going on to the bullpen? But for the future of Matthew Libertur in this franchise, they're like, let's go. He needs to be a starter. We need him to succeed as a starter. So far so good.

Sucked yesterday because of the rain shortened outing. That was a real bummer for him because outside of the home run ball, he was doing fine. Four quality starts among his five full games that he started. The only one that wasn't a quality start was the game in Pittsburgh, where he gave him five was having trouble getting right. He's out in that game. Still strike out seven, I think, in that game.

So it wasn't like he was trash. He had like one really bad inning. Stephen Mats, it is two starts. He's got an ERA of one. 11 strikeouts, no walks and nine innings as a starter for Stephen Mats. Stay healthy. Stay healthy. Andre Palante, moments where he's been really good. You see him breaking bats and getting a lot of ground balls, and he's not an easy at bat. Problem with Andre has been being consistent with the zone.

Cut down on the walks as well, just like Fetty, but hopefully he'll get back to being the guy. that we saw last year when he gets all of these control issues figured out. Just having trouble, you know, in some games, finding his spots. Throwes pretty hard. You know, a lot of movement going on there. And sometimes it gets away from him. But you're trying to, you know, develop this and make him so when he finds that balance and is able to be more consistent, how good is he going to be?

because when he's on, dude, like, they're just smashing it right into the ground. And the Cardos are like, thank you. We'll take all these groundouts. He's one of the reasons why they lead the league in groundouts. So offense good, right? Offens good. Starting pitching pretty good, right? I think we can agree on that.

Hide your kids. Hide your wife. Because we're going into the bullpen next and that's where things get a little bit scary. That's coming your way next on Lockedown Cardinals. ever check your bank account and wonder, where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment, it's very easy to lose track. That's where Monarch Money comes in and becomes your personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. And Monarch Money is not just a budgeting app.

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Thanks for making a lot. So, Carlos, your first listen today for your second list and check out. But you all new locked on MLB game night, every game, every night, all season long, get local analysis on a national scale by an MLB game night on Locktown, MLB on YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast. Lindsay Crosby and myself did last night's games together and, you know, some entertaining stuff going around in the world of baseball. And we get to check in with each locked on host who covers that particular area to give

you the inside scoop of what's going on with each team and each game. So it's really good stuff. So if you haven't checked it out yet, make sure you do that. All right. Last year, the Cardinals bullpen helped out tremendously with any shortcomings that the rotation had. people were not happy with the rotation last year. But Miles Michael is not having a good year. Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson,

Sudden Gray wasn't what they thought he should be. You know, there were some issues. And the bullpen helped hide some of those problems because they were really good last year. You know, most of the time, Ali could depend on them to whoever it was that would come in. Normally it was, you know,

Kittridge and Jojo and Libertor and then of course, Helsley was amazing last year. And if you got to the sixth inning, chances were, the Cardinals were going to have a good chance to win. It has not gone quite as smoothly this year. Relievers for the Cardinals have a combined ERA of 4.69, which would make Chip Carrey smile, as he likes to point out when anything is at the number 69 during the telecasts.

I don't know if he did that stuff when he was in Atlanta, but he does it with his cardinals and it's a little weird. And that, by the way, 4.6.9, 7th worst ERA in all of baseball among relief ventures. They've had 13 save opportunities. They've only got six saves as a group. That is seven blown saves already in the first month. That is unacceptable. Two by Halsley.

Ryan Fernandez has one now in the minors. L.A. He's got one. Phil Maton's got one. John King's got one and Stephen Matt's has one. Teams are hitting 241 against them, which is not horrendous, but it does rank them in the bottom 12 in the league. Like it's not good. Walks have been a real issue for this group. 48 total, that is tied for the sixth most in the league among relievers,

and they have the third lowest strikeout total at 93. So that is not a good. ratio whatsoever. Only the Royals and the Reds have less strikeouts from their belief pitchers. Let's start with Ryan Housley. Ryan Housley has not been the guy we saw last year. He hasn't. Ten innings of work, 10 strikeouts, eight walks. Now, four of those walks did come in that nightmare in Boston, but so did two of a strikeout. So if we take that away, he's still had eight strikeouts and four walks in his other nine appearances. That's a 1.2, K-walk ratio.

Last year he was at 3.43. He was not putting on as many guys as he's doing now. It has been a problem. For whatever reason, he has not been able to come into games and just mow people down. Like, he's usually walking a guy. And that's no good,

especially if you're in tight one-run ball games, which the Cardinals tend to get into. Kyle Leahy and Phil Meaton, I'm not going to bitch and moan about anything with them. They've been very, very good. and every reliever is going to have a bad day to expect them all to be perfect each and every time is ludicrous. Not good. But overall, Kyle Leahy has been incredible.

15 appearances. He's been scored upon just three times so far this year. The ERA is at a sparkling 1.47. Outstanding. And you can see at the spring how good he was. And you're like, ooh, look at him. It's got a little giddy up this year. here looking good. So Kyle Leahy, beautiful. Keep it up. Phil Mayton has only been scored upon in two of

his 15 appearances, had the really rough game in Atlanta. Other than that, no earned runs have scored upon Phil Mayton except in that game. None. It's been incredibly good for this team. And I like that it's like he's on like a revenge tour around the league because nobody would sign him. I'm glad. I'm glad he came to the Cardinals. I'm glad he came to the Cardinals. I'm glad he came to the Cardinals. But after those guys, it's been really dicey. You know, we know about the struggles with Ryan Fernandez. No need to kick dirt on him right now. He's getting sorted out in Memphis, we hope.

And I hope he does get it right and comes back because he was a big piece of why the bullpen was good last year. A surprising piece as the Rule 5 pick. But we were expecting a whole lot better than what we got this year. So hopefully he gets it straightened out. Joe Romero has been really disappointing so far. seven walks, seven Ks and 10 and a third innings. ERA is over six. Instrumental in the success last year of this bullpen was really good this spring too.

And for whatever reason, has not been able to find the consistency yet in 2025. Last two outings have been better after three straight games where things were not so good. Some duds there. So got to get him right. He's such a big part of this that if you get JoJo back to what he was doing last year, you're now you're talking now you're talking because you need that left-hander john king 16 hits and 10 and two-thirds inning so far this year opponents are hitting 366 against him when they put the ball in play and he's not a strikeout guy so it's going to go and play more times than not so uh hopefully some

regression in that number at some point uh chris roycroft he was having a rough time Fernandez uh as we mentioned was having the rough time both of those guys are in memphis right now Matt Fonson was great in his first three outings. A little trouble on Thursday, but it's bound to happen. Again, weather was weird. You had the delay. He was coming in after Libby's outing got cut short because of the rain and just had some issues with his control. Couldn't get the breaking ball over.

So if he can continue to contribute like he was in the first three outings, maybe he helps settle things down some. You know, he's had really good numbers in the minors. Maybe he takes over the Ryan Fernandez spot if Fernandez can't figure things out. Riley O'Brien, I mean, he's lower on the totem pole here in your bullpen. I mean, not every dude is going to be lights out. He's got the stuff as yet to find the success at the Major League level that he has in the minors, had another rough go on Thursday.

But if he can be consistent, that's the real issue with him, too. It's like, you see the movement and you see the velo and you're like, ooh. and when he can't throw strikes, it's an issue. Ricardo's can't throw Leahy and Maton every day. Their arm would fall off. Unless we can teach him how to do what they do left-handed as well. These guys got to get better around them.

We got to throw strikes. I'm going to keep harping on that because that's the big thing. Reliebers would come in and walk people are a manager's worst nightmare. It's a fan's worst nightmare because you're just like, bro. You have the leads. Throw it over the plate. Make them hurt you. Make them beat you.

Don't beat yourself. You know, there's only so much Ali can do when he's only got two guys he can trust in the bullpen. As much as people want to harp on Ollie and get mad at him and chirp him for his use of the bullpen. He needs these guys to be better. Okay? Romero and King got to figure out how to get a right-hander out once in a while.

The lefty, you know, the lefty specialist role went by. by long ago when they made that three-batter minimum rule. So they're going to have to face right-handed hitters. And Jesus take the wheel when a right-hander comes up to the plate against either of those guys. Routies are hitting 414 against King, 348 against Romero. They were hitting 357 against Roycroft, 333 against Fernandez. Hence why those guys are no longer here. King and Romero aren't going anywhere.

These are the guys. They just got to get better. they're very good against lefties. Like both of them, very good against lefties, which they're supposed to be. But they've got to figure out a way to get a right-handed around here and there. You know, because they've got to face three guys. Ali has figured out that his best path to get the Hellsley is through Leahy and Mayton in a sprinkle of JoJo and King against those lefties and praying they don't have to face a righty.

It's a work of progress, but you can see how they're trying to massage this thing and figure it out. Mets in town tonight. And they took four straight from the Cardinals in New York where the Mets are 13 and 3 at home. They're 8 and 8 on the road. They've actually lost two in a row at home. Like that's before they started this trip where they're coming to St. Louis, which shows you how dominant they had been. They were 13 and 1 at home in those two games.

The Mets pitching has been otherworldly so far this season. Their starters are a league leading 2.24 ERA relievers are at 3.26, which is like 8. So the runs aren't going to be easy, no matter how good the Cardinals' offense has been, it's not going to be easy. So be prepared for that when you watch this weekend that, you know, don't try to get on the Cardinals hitters too much because these guys are really good. Friday and Sunny Gray against Clay Holmes. Holmes gave up one run over six in their first matchup against the Cardinals. Saturday, you've got Eric Fetty against Tyler McGill, who they didn't see in the last series, but he's been incredible. sporting a 1.7 for ERA, 39 punches and 31 innings pitch.

He's very, very good. Then Sunday, the Cardinals will start Andre Palante. The Mets haven't officially named their starter yet. It was supposed to be Griffin Canning. I'm glad it's not because Griffin Canning dominates the Cardinals. He's been bumped to Monday, and the reports are that Blade Tidwell, that's a real person, not an actor. Blade Tidwell is going to make his Major League debut.

kind of an adult film actor name there, Blade Tidwell. Anyway, he's their number 15 prospect, according to M&B Pipeline, had an area 5 and 6 starts at AAA Syracuse. Cardinals just faced one of the Red Stop pitching prospects and beat the snot out of them on Wednesday. Hopefully they can do the same to Blade Tidwell, who's starring at a Triple X Theater near you. All right.

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