Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Boy Oh Boy Did The Cardinals Need That!

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

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The Cardinals and the Diamondbacks squared off again on Monday night, and for a while there, we thought we might see a little bit of history. And then nobody expected the ending. It's time for a crossover episode of Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Diamondbacks. 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 Cardinals fans and Diamondback fans. I'm Jady Haffern and I'm a national radio sports anchor, born and raised in the Lou,

and a lifetime Cardinals fan, and I'm your host for Locktown Cardinals. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter, X at JD Sports Radio, and you can follow the podcast at L.O. underscore Cardinals. We want to thank those of you who make Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Diamondbacks, your first listen to every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. You can also find us both on YouTube.

Make sure you stop by our sites. Like, subscribe, and comment. Don't be shy. interact with us and hit that notification button. So you know when the new episodes are posted, this is a show serving Cardinal Nation and tonight serving the Diamondbacks. And I don't know if you guys call it Snake Nation. I don't know what the nickname is.

But we're here to give you all the info about what's going on between our two teams here. This episode brought to you by Monopoly Go. I admit it I've got a competitive side. I'm sure Miller does too. And we're big fans of Monopoly Go. It's the mobile hit twist on classic Monopoly. So join your friends download Monopoly Go. Now free on the app store or Google Play.

So Cardinals and Diamondbacks back on the field against one another on Monday night. And before we get into what happened at Bush Stadium, I want to introduce my Locked on Cardinals audience in case you haven't seen Locked on Diamondbacks yet. Host Miller Thomas joining us for this crossover episode to talk about, you know, what happened tonight and what might happen in the rest of this series. But first and foremost, Miller, thanks for coming out. And thanks for chit chatting tonight. How are you, man? After tonight's victory for the Cardinals. Yeah, you know, tough game, but happy to do the first crossover with JD, the man over here.

So excited to talk about the D-BACs games in the other series and the other games in this series because the first game in the series, not so fun for D-Bax Nation. Well, these two teams just saw each other, which is weird because we're at the beginning. We're in April. And Carls are in the NL Central. You're in the NL. West. And now we're already meeting up for the second time this year, which is a little strange schedule. a little bit wonky to get things moving here in 2024. But we were out in the desert about a week ago.

DeVax took two of three in that first game. The Cardinals scored nine runs, which is unheard of so far this year because their offense has just been poop. It was a season high for them. And then they got a lot of those runs against tonight's starter for Arizona and Brandon Fott, who was really, really good tonight. Things were much different on Monday night in St. Louis. And it's been no secret that the Cardinals, they've been.

struggling offensively. They've been the worst offense in the National League, which is surprised a lot of people. And Fott took full advantage of that coming out of the gate four perfect innings to start the game. What did you see out of Brandon tonight? And what did you like about what he was doing to the Cardinals? Yeah, I love the first five innings of Brandon Fatt. He looked dominant. He looked locked in. That sweeper was moving. It looked like he had full command of all his pitches. And then I don't know what happened in that six inning because all of a sudden he lost the command he lost the control he couldn't locate that curveball any longer and it just kind of all went away for brand of five in that six inning as he walked three straight batters to load that six and that's kind of where the game

really flipped right because brandon five i thought this was going to be maybe a deback start where he goes potentially seven innings or more maybe the debacks just cruised a victory so ho-hum night maybe they win like three to one and it just a quiet night debacks win when said we get a classic dbacks game game offense and brandon fought unfortunately gives up the game in the six inning and the bullpen does not help him out after the six either no and uh i i guess he just kind of ran out of gas i don't know if the the cardinals getting to see him for a third time maybe they they picked up on something because they were starting to to lay off some of the pitches that were closer but yeah he his command kind of went crazy and things were very, very different after that.

On the cardinal side of things, you have Lance Lynn, which by the way, Miller, what a body on Lance Lynn. Like when you see him out there, when you think of a professional athlete, Lance Lynn's body is the first thing you think of. You don't have to lie. And thankfully, I'm grateful for that body that Lance Lynn has because Morgan Carroll does not get his only hit in this game if Lance Lynn does not look like that Carol beats him out on a ground of the first base. Yeah, Lance Lynn is a, Lance Lynn is a thick man. And that those new uniforms don't

do them any justice either. And, uh, but tonight in so far this season for the Cardinals, Lance Lynn has been that guy that's just battled, you know, it's never been smooth and easy for him every time. But then you look up and you're like, wow, he really didn't get hammered as bad as we thought he was going to because there was a couple of endings. on Monday night where things could have really gotten out of hand. Like the Diamondbacks were threatening over and over, and he was able to limit the damage over five innings. He gives up three runs, seven hits.

He walks three, which is something that, you know, you get nervous when it comes to Len because you know he's going to give up some hits and usually a couple of home runs. And if he starts putting free guys on, then he's really in trouble. But he gets the seven strikeout. So for Arizona, it kind of had to be frustrating for you guys to see, you know, the constant people on base and yet not a ton to show for it with only those three runs. Yeah, I think that has to be the most frustrating part is not capitalizing on those opportunities

because last year when the D-BAC squared off against Lance Lynn in the postseason when he played for the L.A. Dodgers, the D-Backs absolutely destroyed him last year. And Lance Linn is someone that has a tendency to give up the long ball from time to time. And this D-Backs team, they added some much-needed power in a Eugenio Suarez. He had himself a good day. but we still haven't seen the power from the debacks that we want to see from a home run standpoint. And I thought Lance Lynn was a good opportunity for the deback to maybe break that barrier a little bit. They weren't able to do that. I think the weight for Lance Lynn helps him rack up those 7Ks because I remember when C.C.

Sabathia went through that diet where it was skinny Cici. And then I was like, man, he can only throw like 89 on his fastball. He started eating their crunch berries again and it added all that below back. So for Lance Lynn, as he's getting older, he probably needs to eat more. to maintain that Velo. Yeah, I mean, he could drop 30 to 40 pounds and he'd still be a big man. He's just a hulking dude. And yeah, that was a little bit humorous.

And I kind of felt bad for Lance Lynn on that play you mentioned where Corbett Carroll hits a ground ball to the first basement. It's too far for Goldschmidt to run to first base to beat Carol. Who's one of the fastest guys in the league? Let's give him credit there. And poor Lance Lynn had, and he got a good break on that ball too. It's not like he was late trying to get there. he just couldn't catch him. He just couldn't. I mean, I don't know if you had to race Corbyn Carroll with Lance Lynn, like I don't know what the lead would have to be for for Lynn to even tie Corbyn Carroll.

But I felt really bad for him on that play because, you know, big man trying to get over there. And he just didn't have it in it, man. He just couldn't do it. But you mentioned that after Fott's first five innings, he walks three guys to lead off that inning in the sixth inning. he ends up getting Wilson Contreras to pop out the shallow center field. And as Cardle fans, we're sitting there going, oh, God, here we go again. Because they have not been able to convert with guys and running with runners in scoring position all year. It's just, it's been terrible. It's been their kryptonite. And Lars Neupar, finally, finally, somebody's able to come through.

He lashes two runs single to left field, which ultimately ends Fotz Night. Were you okay with them leaving him then to face Newpar? or did you think that maybe they should have gone to the pen earlier? I was okay leaving Fott in because going to the pen meant going to Scott McGuff, who has been a big issue for the debacks this year. So Fatt, I was okay with him working through the struggle. Obviously, he gives up the two-earn run. And then McGuff immediately comes in and gets out of the jam for Fatt,

but then you see why I didn't want McGuff in the very next inning. When he does give up the game-tying home run to a Paul Goldschmidt. So really not a, it was kind of a lose. situation for the debacks because there's either a reliever I didn't like or is leaving fought in in that situation for a second year guy who might have not been ready in that moment. And debacks able to get out the jam, but then it still costs them the very next ending, unfortunately. Yes, it did. And we're going to talk about the big fly from Paul Goldschmidt. It was something that, like a huge weight lifted off of not only him, but the Cardinals in general.

So we'll talk more about that and how this one ended. Coming up next on this crossover episode of locked on Cardinals and locked on Diamondbacks. Game time is now an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball, which makes getting tickets even faster and easier. Prices on the game time app, they actually go down the closer it gets to the first pitch. This is something that I've been able to take advantage of over and over and over again because it works.

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and it's programmed for you every day to bring you the biggest stories without all that screaming. Locked-on sports today brings you, can't-miss analysis, opinions. You've got news, and it's streaming 24-7. So no matter what time of day you're able to watch, it's there for you on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app, part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. Now remember, because the Cardinals are at home right now,

you can catch every pitch of the Cardinals Hometown broadcast with Sirius XM. Just download the SXM app and search the word Cardinals. We want to thank you guys for making Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Diamondbacks, your first listen every day. Feel free to leave comments on YouTube or you can hit either one of us up on Twitter X. You've got Miller's handle there below him on YouTube. You want to say it out loud for everybody in case they're just doing the audio version right now. Yeah, please follow me on Twitter at Career Thomas 24 for the personal account

or just look up a lot on Dimeback's both Twitter and Instagram for the podcast handle. All right, we're moving on to the seventh inning of Monday nights thriller at Bush Stadium in St. Louis. Former Dback Paul Goldschmidt burns his former team and he does it in a big way, Miller. He's got a monster shot opposite field, 432 feet away solo dinger. It ties things up. Goldie struggles have been well documented. And finally, finally, Paul Goldschmidt was able to barrel one. only his second extra base hit of the season, if you can believe that,

his second home run too, hadn't hit one since opening day. And we actually got a smile out of Paul Goldschmidt in the dugout following that, Jack. Even as a D-BACs fan, you had to feel a little bit good for him, right? Right, right? No, it still sucks. I know as a D-BACs fan, it's supposed to feel a little good, but guess what? Paul Goldschmidt hasn't been on his team since 2019. It is his sixth season with St. Louis.

He spent eight years with the debacks. He's almost no longer even the debaq just by the years he's already spent with St. Louis. So it's so far removed. The debacks is coming off the World Series. I want to see them get back to the postseason and you can't do that blowing games like this one. So even though we all have loving a heart for Paul Goswit, one of the best debacked franchise players of all time, I would rather him strike out in that moment than hit the game time home run.

You can hit home runs Paul Goh Schmidt when you're down 10 runs. but you can't do it to tie the game up. Well, on the Cardinal's side of things, it was huge. It was like a weight lifted off of his shoulders, the Cardinals, the fans, because situations like that, that's what he has been doing most of the time is striking out. He's been about as unclutch as you can get so far in 2024. And it hasn't been just him. I mean, it's been everybody.

It's just been a tough go for this Cardinals offense. We're going to fast forward to the night. I want to ask you, actually, J.D. real quick. How concerned are you with Paul Gochman? Because we all know, like, the last few years, the first half has been more of a struggle for him and he usually heats up throughout this season. So is there anything that you've seen this year that makes you feel a little bit differently about that? Because obviously the numbers right now aren't very good. Yeah. The hard part for me is that we know things weren't great last year for him or the team. So I'm not going to, you know,

say that because his numbers were down a bit from the MVP's in the previous year that I was all that concerned. But then when you saw him in spring training, and he looked lost, and things weren't getting any better. And now the first month of this season so far, he's looked lost. And it hasn't really clicked for him. Look better tonight, obviously on that one swing. But what I've noticed from Paul Goldschman is he's not catching up to the fastball anymore, which is a scary thing for a guy who's getting older because it's hard to get that bat speed back. You know, when it starts to deteriorate, you're in big trouble. Because if you can't catch you up to the fastball. They're only throwing it harder these days. They're not going to get any slower for

you to have slider bat speed. And that's the thing I'm concerned about with them. It is his final year of his contract. I know they discussed trying to maybe give him an extension. They were thinking one or two years because of his advanced age, but he's not doing himself any favors right now by by hitting the way he has. But at the same time, he's always been a slow starter. You know, it's not like this is unheard of for him in April, even his MVP year. It's not like he came out of the gate hitting $450 or something, like it took some time. And then he lit it up for like three, four months in a row. So it's hard to say you're not concerned when a guy is 37 years old and the bat speed looks the way it is.

But at the same time, you are thinking that after we get through the first couple of weeks, positively that he's going to hopefully return to the Paul Goldsmith we've been used to over his entire career. So that's where we're. Okay. Do you have like the same feelings in when like Nolan Aronado too? Because both of them MVP candidates. I mean, obviously Paul won it two years ago. Aronado finished third, but both of them the last two years just seem to be in a steep decline, Arnato probably more than Goldie with how he played last year. But this year you would say even though the OBP and slugging isn't there, at least he's hitting the ball. for average. So how do you feel about Aeronado compared to Paul Gochman at their respective points?

The thing about Aeronado last year is he was dealing with back problems. And we think that had a lot to do with, I mean, when was the last time you saw Aeronado struggle playing defense, which is something he went through last year too. We had apparently some dead arm issues. And then the back issues were creeping up. And we never really know how bad they are because both of those guys are dudes who were going to go out and try to play 162. You know, they're not somebody who wants to take a day off. And then after the season got out of control, that's when Arnado was finally shut down. But I believe it more had to do with his injury than a lot of people knew. And, you know, he was struggling early on too. Like he started offspring training really well. And then he went

into his funk and we were using the term the broken Aronado again like we did last year where he just looked like he'd never swung a bat before. But over the last like week and a half, he's definitely started to look a lot more like himself, although the Diamondbacks handled him pretty well tonight. They got him to ground into a double play and didn't really give up many hard hits against him. So I'm less concerned about Aronado due to him being 32, and I feel like more of what happened last year was with his health than anything else about the deterioration of skills in general, because he's looked great defensively. And I think that's kind of a key for him. If he's doing that fine, the hitting will come around.

Yeah, I feel like people look at those two as the two pillars in the team. But you guys got a nice little bit of core. It seems like there's a little bit of a changing of the guard maybe going on in St. Louis. Yeah, because we don't know how long gold he's going to be around. Like this is the end and this is his last year. Who is the next person to take up that mantle as part of the offense? You know, there's some hope that Jordan Walker is going to be that guy. But he's had a horrible start to the year, Nolan Gorman,

another guy that they won him to be more consistent. And he's had a tough start to the year. Although tonight, he did all right in his one at bat. We go to that ninth inning and the game is still tied up. Goldie ends up being the first guy to get on base. He's the lead off hitter. Hits an absolute smash down the line to Suarez. You know, Swarres has got a family to think about on balls like that.

Which we're kidding, because it traveled one foot, minus 54 launch angle on the ground. ball infield single because Goldie still got those wheels, right? And that leads off the getting with the single. Arizona goes to Nelson in the bullpen to face Nolan Gorman, lefty, lefty matchup. Were you okay with that? Or is Nelson another one of those guys in your pen that has not been very good? The issue is there's not really a lot of go-to guys in the pen right now,

so once Ryan Thompson was already looking shaky as the first guy, and he's like our second best reliever, once he stopped working out. And then you ended up throwing Kyle Nelson. We probably already knew the wheels were falling off at that point. So not a lot of options. Maybe we should have went to Kevin Ginko right away. I don't know. I saw the logic there in case you went to extra innings,

wanted to save a Kevin Ginko. Hopefully Kyle Nelson could just get you out of it as the lefty-unlefty matchup. But unfortunately, as we saw, Nelson gives up the long two-run walk-off shot. Yeah, this one was a no-datter off the bat. And I'm over here watching on the MLB. and like they barely made it out of commercial in time. All you saw was the ball flying over the right field wall when they came back to commercial.

I was like, what the hell is going on? I didn't know. I couldn't tell if it was like a highlight from some other game or so. I didn't know what the hell was happening. And I don't even think they put like the scorebug back on yet. Like I was just like, oh, I got, oh, I got to walk off. So yeah, 425 footer off of Nelson from Nolan. It was a slider, which I mean, just right down the pipe, really.

and he didn't miss it. And it was a no-doubter. They all knew it right away. 5-3 win walkoff for the Cardinals. The Cardinals, the fans, hell the city needed it, Miller, like it snaps a four-game losing streak and finally gave the Cardinals something to actually smile about. How about some takeaways from tonight's game

on this crossover episode of Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Diamondbacks? What are some things that stood out to you on the Arizona side of things? Yeah, I mean, three big takeaways. The first one is, of course, spread and a fight. Look good the first five innings, but has to get better that third time through. Just seem to lose gas, like you mentioned earlier in segment number one. So I wanted to see him finish games and go deeper. He's coming off a seven-inning start.

So I want to see more starts like that. Second, this game is basically a microcosm of what we've seen the debacks issues be all season. Late game offense after the sixth-seventh inning has been a struggle all year. We saw once again, they were not able to convert opportunities, and they were not able to score runs late in the game. And then the bullpen, most blown leads in Major League Baseball, I think, this season. They did it once again from Castro to McGuff to Kyle Nelson, even Ryan Thompson gave up and earned run.

They're just really no one you can trust right now in this debacks bullpen. Paul Seawald, we're recording this on Monday evening. He's supposed to be going on a rehab assignment Tuesday. So hopefully the debacks can get him back right away because they desperately need him. curious about your thoughts on what's going on with Corbyn Carroll, who, you know, rookie of the year last year, one of the more exciting young players in the league, not exactly hitting what we thought he was going to.

Are you concerned and what's going on with him through your eyes as to why he might be struggling so far? Yeah, Carol just hasn't looked like the same guy right now at the plate. He's just kind of searching and looking for himself. He looked kind of lost out there. You could tell sometimes when he hits a pop-up or whatever, you could tell he just searching and he just, just really frustrated with every at bat he has.

He's just not really lifting the ball right now. A lot of ground balls in his arsenal. He has been awful against the fastball this season. So I don't know if it's like one of those sophomore slum-sickneyer adjustments. I think Corby Carroll is still an elite player and he just has to find his way back to what worked for him last year. And I think Cor McCarroll will eventually do that. But he is right now kind of in the sunken place as a batter.

And I'm hoping he can finally find his way out of it. it because Corbyn Carroll is so important to what the debacks want to do offensively. He's got the power. He's, of course, got the speed as we saw today. And that's the guy who's batting number two every single night for the debacks. He's just not doing enough from that spot in the lineup right now. Takeaways from the Cardinal side of things, you know, watching Paul Goldschmidt's struggle, it's been painful for fans because everybody loves him.

You know, there's not a nicer guy in the league probably. And he's not an emotional guy. and you couldn't tell if he went four for four or he went 0 for five. Like he looks the same every single game. And it was really nice to finally see him come through not once but twice, the home run and also the lead off dinker down the line at third base, which got things rolling for the walkoff possibility. Outstanding as a Cardinals fan to be able to see him do that and to see him crack a smile in the dugout,

which is nice. First career walkoff home run for Nolan, he and the team needed that fourth home run of the season. he now leads the club, which is, you know, sad that four is the team leader right now. Hitting home runs has not been an easy thing for the Cardinals. One of the lowest home run totals for a team in the league. So to get not one but two is champagne worthy. And then Lance Lenn battling in this one, as we mentioned earlier,

things could have gotten out of hand really bad. The Diamondbacks were constantly putting pressure on Lance Lynn. Guys were on the basis throughout the whole night, like I mentioned, seven hits. Three walks. They were out there. But Lynn got seven strikeouts. And then the bullpen for the Cardinals, lights out again. Ryan Fernandez, shutout inning, two K's, ERA down to three. Andrew Kittridge, another inning in a third of shutout ball.

His ERA is now at one. Jojo Romero, key double play ball in that eighth inning. He's down at 1.59. And then Housley, your closer shuts the door on the top of the ninth. And it looks like it's something that's going good for the Cardinals, not going so well for the Diamondbacks when it comes to the bowl. Bullpen. Bolton's been really good for the Cardinals.

Not so much, not so much for the Diamondback so far. All right, we're going to move on and talk about tomorrow's game, Tuesday's game, depending on when you're listening to this. And we're also going to talk about the return of Jordan Montgomery to St. Louis. He's now a Diamondback. So he's going to make his return to St. Louis. So we'll get into that more on this locked on crossover episode of Locked on Cardinals and locked on Diamondbacks.

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Play. Once again, Monopoly Go. Download it today, now free on the app store or Google Play. Locked on is launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. And now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the Free Fire TV channels app. Locked on Sports Today is here for you 24-7 and it's covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of lockdown, plus our national shows covering every league. You can find Lockdown Sports today now available on the Free Fire TV channels app with the NFL draft. coming up. I have been watching this channel a lot because they've been doing a lot of mock drafts, draft coverage, which is always really nice to get as much knowledge as you can before your team makes their selection coming up on Thursday night. So let's get back to baseball, locked on Cardinals,

locked on Diamondbacks, Miller Thomas, joining me today. Stephen Matt's set to go to the Hill for the Cardinals on Tuesday Diamondbacks. So far, we're not sure exactly who's going to start. What's going on with the D-backs? And why is there nobody listed, Miller? It's because sadly, Merrill Kelly was scratched from his start on Sunday. We still don't know the official word on him just yet. I believe he was dealing, I guess, with some shoulder discomfort. I think we're still awaiting the MRI. I got to check on the results of that.

But Merrill Kelly not making his star against St. Louis Cardinals. So it will be Tommy Henry in his replace, as his replacement for this game. Tommy Henry has already made a few starts for the feedbacks this season. And it's been, you know, probably more down than up. but Tommy Henry is a guy that can battle. You can go out there, give you five solid innings, maybe three earn run ball. That's kind of the best case scenario. And going against a St. Louis Cardinals' offense, like you mentioned,

not the most poin this year. Could be a good situation for Tommy Henry to maybe get his feet wet and finally build some confidence, but could also be a case for the St. Louis Cardinals to potentially break one open against one of the struggling starters for this Arizona Dyingbacks team. Well, if they are going to be able to. to win this series as far as the Cardinals. Getting a win tomorrow is probably going to be a little bit easier than what's in front of them on Wednesday when Jordan Montgomery makes his return to Bush Stadium

in an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform. If you remember Jordan Montgomery, one of the better pitchers on the Cardinal staff last year, but the team was terrible. So at the trade deadline, they ship him to the Texas Rangers and he goes off. Wins a championship, a world series with the, the, Texas Rangers, best pitcher in the postseason for them, led them down the stretch. And then people thought he was going to land this monster deal somewhere. And it didn't really come to fruition that way.

And lucky for the Arizona Diamondbacks, he lands in their lap. How excited were you about Jordan Montgomery signing with Arizona? And how big is it that they did get him? And he's ready to go now considering all of the injuries that are going on with your guys are starting rotation. Yeah, you hit on the head. first of all, super excited when he signed him because it was literally like the day before opening day, like on the 11th hour we signed him.

We knew Ery going to the season was probably going to miss a little bit of time. So to get Jordan Montgomery to come in and be your number three starter off the team that beat you in the World Series, like you mentioned, he was the Rangers best pitcher all postseason. So we know we can do on a big stage. And for the debacks to add him to this rotation at just a mid-refer. rotation guy. Rich is on top of riches. And the fact that we now know, Erod has moved to the 60 day injured list, Jordan Montgomery, finally making his debut with the debacks, could not come quick enough with guys like who we're going to see tomorrow.

Tommy Henry struggling this season. He was optioned so Jordan Montgomery could get called up. Jordan Montgomery looked phenomenal in his first start of the year. You wouldn't have even known it was his first start because of how good he looked. Six innings absolutely dominated the Giants this past week. So I'm very excited to see him once again against his former team in St. Louis. And why didn't the Cardinals potentially do a little flyer on Jordan Montgomery? Went out there. He signed $25 million to Sunny Gray. You got some other veteran starting pitchers. Like, why not just take the money they gave to Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson and just give it to Jordan Montgomery? These are great questions, Miller. That's what we were all wondering in St. Louis.

We're like, okay, we could have understand. This was the, this was the thing in the offseat. the idea that we thought was that you go after Sunny Gray, he just seemed like a perfect Cardinal, and he wanted to come to St. Louis. It was something that he was excited about. So we thought that was a guy that was going to land there, but we were hoping that there was going to be another guy, another top three type of rotation guy. And instead they went out and get two fours, maybe two fives at best, considering the season Lance Linna just had.

and everybody was scratching their heads like, what, what are we doing? Like, why are we going for that next level guy that could make a big difference? Like if you line up a series, you know, you want to have that kind of one-two punch going. And right now the Cardinals, you have, you know, it's Sunny Gray, who you trusted coming in as a Cy Young runner up last year in the American League. And then it was kind of like, but the rest of the staff is just kind of me. Like, why aren't we doing that? And then it shocked me that other teams that were, you know, right there on the cusp of being a pretty good team weren't doing it either.

Specifically in the NL Central, I was shocked that, you know, maybe the Cubs didn't go after him, that, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the reds or somebody else that it was right there wouldn't have made a move for him. And he ends up going to the diamond backs. And I'm like, well, it's kind of a nice spot for him. And I think really what happened was that I don't think he wanted to come back to St. Louis. So this is just my opinion. I have no facts that say that.

But I think when they decided to not try to extend them in the offseason last year, and instead gave their money to Miles Michaelis, he was like, all right, well, you had your chance. I'm going to go. And after seeing what the Cardinals did last year, who would you rather play for? Would you rather play for the Diamondbacks? Would you rather try to figure out what the hell went wrong with the Cardinals

and see if you can help them again? I think it was an easy decision. And I'm a little shocked that the Yankees didn't throw a buttload of money at him and try to bring him back to New York instead. But I'm happy for him. I think he's going to be well received in Arizona. I think you guys are going to enjoy him. He was a great competitor in St. Louis.

And whatever's clicking for him since they got him from New York, it looked like it was working just fine again when they took on the Giants. Yeah, I'm just shocked to see that it was the debacks that day. Because like you said, the Yankees with Garrett Cole going down, I mean, the Texas Rangers could still use Jordan Montgomery in their rotation. So I'm just shocked when you see all these baseball contracts that like go to the final days of free agency. The JD Martinez is who have to wait, you know, first week of the MLB season to sign out. Yeah, Blake Snell.

Yeah, was he a Scott Boris guy too? I wonder if it just. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, ah, those guys, he wants 35 million a year. We're just going to make them wait to the last day this season. Yeah, I guess teams were just like, uh, we're not falling for this again.

We're not giving him this monster contract. And yeah, you mentioned that. Rodriguez, like, were you happy with that signing when it first went down? Because he was a guy I was kind of like, I kind of didn't want him. He just seemed like a risky guy to go after. And unfortunately, the injuries now have caught up to him this year. Yeah, definitely a risky guy. But I was in favor of the move at the time because he was coming in to be the number three starter.

And at the time, I thought he was going to start this season. healthiest. I was like, I know about the health risk, but we'll cross that bridge when we got there, when we get there. The bridge, it came before the season even started. So we all, we already knew about the injury risk with Erod. They were realized immediately from the start of the season. But listen, if he comes back midseason and the debacks are cruising their way, maybe not cruising, but look like a playoff team. And then you add in Erod to be your number four starter, like the depth of your rotation at that point to just so much strong. And even if Erod never gets it together. You still have a guy in Brendan

fought to be your number four starter. Of course, the E-Rod contract would get kind of blown up at that point, but maybe for this season, he becomes your number five start in the postseason. Then we revisit once again when he has a fully healthy season under his bell in 2025. Well, Cardinals fans are probably going to throw up

if they see two former guys in Zach Gallin and Jordan Montgomery lead you to the World Series again in the National League because that's all they need is to see another former Cardinal succeed and just, you know, be awesome. and it seems to have happened a lot. And the Diamondbacks have cashed in on that with what's going on with Zach Allen being their ace now.

So Monty Revenge Game on Wednesday, possibility we shall see. Any final thoughts on Monday's game? Yeah, just want to erase that one from my memory because that was awful to see. I hate to see your team get walked off. So hopefully the debacks and take everything that they fell in Monday's game and put it toward a redemption effort in game number two and game number three. All right. Well, once again, thank you guys for making Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Diamondbacks, your first listen every day. If you haven't, go ahead, give our man Miller Thomas a follow.

Once again, throw that handle at him, buddy. At Creator Thomas 24 for the personal account, look up Locked on Diamondbacks on Twitter and Instagram for the podcast handle. And please hit subscribe to Locked on Diamondbacks on YouTube. Yes, do that. Like and subscribe as well for Locked on Cardinals. And you can also follow me at JD Sports Radio. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. and we will see you next time. Miller, fantastic talking to you today, man. Enjoy the rest of the series, buddy. You too, sir.