Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Bullpen MELTDOWN!

Starting point is 00:00:00 The horror movie that has been the Cardinals bullpen continued its reign of terror in Atlanta. How did a strong spot from last year get so bad? This is Locked on Cardinals. 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,

Starting point is 00:00:29 part of the Lockedon Podcast Network covering your team every day. follow me on X at JD Sports Radio. The podcast itself, L.O underscore Cardinals on X as well. We're on YouTube, like, subscribe, comment, hit that notification button so you don't miss any new material that we drop for you. Also available on TikTok and Instagram and locked on Cardinals. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans in baseball. All of the info about the birds on the bat. This episode brought to you by Monarch Money.

Starting point is 00:00:55 Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on MLB at MonarchMoney.com for 50% off your first year. year. The Cardinals blew another lead on Monday night in Atlanta. And thanks to come back in the ninth inning, the Cardinals eventually would lose seven to six and to help us sift through the wreckage. We've got Thomas Coveyne from Redbird Rance.com joining us as he normally does on Tuesdays. Thomas, how was your Easter weekend, man? Things good. Yeah, it was great. We went back to see my family in St. Louis, spent some time there. We had a nice five-day break, so Thursday all the way through Monday. It was good. How was yours?

Starting point is 00:01:32 Very nice. Ours was good. Excellent. So we had good weather and everything went well. I don't know why everybody in our family, we do like a brunch thing, but everybody brings like the same dish. It's just eggs and sausage and then cheese. And then nobody can go to the bathroom for like three days, which is probably a little

Starting point is 00:01:51 too much information. But anyway, moving on. Speaking of toilets, the Cardinals right now, brother. Yeah, there you go. Just a fair warning. Today's show is not going to be the most positive one. because things aren't going well, you know? So a heads up on that.

Starting point is 00:02:06 In fact, I'm switching things up today. Normally I'm wearing some sort of Cardinal Red or something for the YouTube folks. Today we're wearing, I don't know if you can see it very well, I got my ghost face, scream t-shirt on here today because things have been scary, Thomas. They really have, you know, it's something out of a scary movie. Got some ugly stats here for you. Here we go. They've now lost five in a row, which is the longest current losing streak in the majors.

Starting point is 00:02:31 they're 0 and 5 and 1 run ball games. They're 1 in 10 away from Bush Stadium, only the White Sox and the Rockies have comparable away issues. Sox are 1 in 9. Rockies are 1 in 11. The rays are 0 and 3 because they haven't hardly played on the road because of their stadium issues. And since those three wins against the twins, this team has lost 14 of 20 games. So we're going to get to some fan feedback in this episode because a lot of people are after

Starting point is 00:02:57 Ali's head. The Ali Marmal Haterade is flowing strong right now. We're going to talk about the offense as well. But one of the main issues that we want to begin with here is the bullpen. So feel free to cover your eyes on this particular part as well, everybody. This is also very, very scary. The numbers are frightening. The bullpen record is now one in seven.

Starting point is 00:03:17 Only the A's have one winner or less from their relievers. The bullpen ERA is at 5.06, sixth worst in the league. They've given up 76 hits and 79 and two-thirds innings. That's ninth worst. They've walked 36 hitters, 11th worst in the league. They've only struck out 67. That's fifth worst in the league. Their ninth worst in whip.

Starting point is 00:03:40 Opponents are batting 251 against them. That's the eighth worst. And you compare that to last year where this bullpen, 31 and 28, ERA, though, seventh best at 3.6.4. They had the fourth lowest walk total. And essentially, we're the backbone to a lot of the success that the team was able to find last year. So, Thomas, your thoughts on what is going on, and we lost Thomas?

Starting point is 00:04:08 There he's back. There he is. Your thoughts on what exactly is going on with this bullpen right now? Yeah, the bullpen struggled. Yesterday he saw it with Jojo Romero. It was the inherited runners. He had, he let all three in with that home run that he gave up. Your two best, two of your three best relievers,

Starting point is 00:04:28 Kyle Leahy, Phil Mayton have been overused for the last two series. Ryan Helsley hasn't gotten in in four days because we haven't given a chance to get in. Marmalt's just been forced to use his second and third tier relievers most often. And of course, they're going to give up three, four runs in their outings. They're just not as good as the other guys are. Yeah, you mentioned last night, Ali's most reliable arm in the pen so far has been film a ton. And he finally gets dinged and implanted. Like you said, the runners putting runners on with one out.

Starting point is 00:04:59 You get that overturned call at first base, which, was the right call on the infield single. He won't save. And for whatever reason, this throws Mayton completely out of whack. You get a walk, then a single, then another walk. Ollie gets tossed for yelling at the umpire on the way out for the pitching change. It was such a bad ejection. I feel like he could have gotten more his money out of that. Buddy, is that the most anticlimactic ejection?

Starting point is 00:05:22 I know. The managers actually on the field. You've seen guys get like thumbed for, you know, they're in the dugout or whatever and they might get thrown out and nothing happens. But, I mean, he's out there. and it almost seemed like he didn't realize that he'd gotten tossed. He's just going through like, you know, he's talking to the team on the map and like, yeah, okay, this is how we're going to attack this next year. No, you're out, dude.

Starting point is 00:05:42 Go through a fit. So, yeah, not much of a show to really get people fired up, which is what, you know, usually you're hoping for in a situation like that. At least that's what us fans want to watch. Then you mentioned Romero comes in. He gives up that sack fly to give Atlanta the lead before Sean Murphy mashes a hanging change up into the stands and left deal. Three two lead becomes a seven to three deficit in the blink of an eye.

Starting point is 00:06:09 And like you mentioned too, like, you know, we can point fingers of guys like Chris Roy Croft and Rotary and Munoz and these, you know, the back people, you know, they're the lowest guys on the totem pole. But those aren't supposed to be your big moment guys. You know, these guys like Jojo Romero, who's been a big disappointment so far, six flocks in eight and a third inning, just five strikeouts and he's allowed seven hits. that that's horrible. Ryan Fernandez, we know, been really, really bad.

Starting point is 00:06:34 He's getting cream daily when he gets out there, 11.25 ERA, 10-100 runs at eight innings, 14 hits. He's got five walks and just five strikeouts. John King, six and two-thirds innings, four walks, nine hits against Mayton, so successful until last night because he wasn't walking guys. And, you know, he puts two guys on and, you know, the damage ensues. Right, Halsley. I know that he had that really bad game in Boston, but six walks and nine.

Starting point is 00:06:59 seven innings, but, you know, these guys are walking too many people. Like they're making it too easy on the opposing bats, you know, they're, they're not missing bats. Obviously, there's not a lot of swing and miss going on, too many free base runners. And it's costing them ball games. Again, one in seven already this year with a team that, you know, despite some early success with the bats, wasn't expected to score the way that they had. And now that it's coming down back to earth a little bit, you're losing these close games and it's it's just crushing yeah it's terrible especially when the offense does as much as it does yesterday late in games i looked up yesterday to see what the scoring looked like

Starting point is 00:07:40 from the seventh inning on the last couple years last year the cardinals were 15th they had 1.3 runs from inning 7 through 9 this year they're already up it's up to 1.6 1 which is 6th in the league it would have been second in the league last year so the offense is doing its job late in games throughout the year. It's just the bullpen has not been able to keep it steady for them. Yeah. And it's just, it's deflating because, and it seems like, this seems like what we keep doing with the Cardinals each year is like, okay, we were good at this one year. And so we expect that to be good the next year and let's go fix this problem. And then everything changes. And what was good previously becomes bad. And what was bad becomes good. And we just keep going through

Starting point is 00:08:24 this cycle of mediocrity. And it's really frustrating. And it's really frustrating. And I mean, I honestly, like when I saw what we were bringing back, both in wise, I was like, well, you know, a lot of these guys were pretty good last year. Why wouldn't they be good again? And so far it hasn't quite worked out the way we had hoped it would. Do you think Ali should be bringing in Helsley earlier? You know, we had this thing last year where it was, it was one inning. That was the deals to try to keep them healthy. But, you know, in a situation like last night where, you know, things were close to getting out of hand and they ended up getting out of hand. Would you have rather seen him go to Helsley and then go to somebody else in the ninth inning? Or do you think it was the right thing to do with going with Romer? I don't know if last night's the best indication of using Helsley in a non-save situation. I would have preferred Saturday having to come in in the top of the nine, or the bottom of the ninth and a tie game. I know that's not what managers do.

Starting point is 00:09:17 I know it's not protocol. But he was already on two days rest at that point, which is a good break for him. Now he's run on four days rest without seeing a pitch. I think Halsley has seen fewer outings than your average starting pitcher has the last 11 days, which is weird to say that your relief pitcher is getting less time out there than a starter is, but whatever. I would have preferred to use Helsley on Saturday. I still think there's an argument,

Starting point is 00:09:40 especially if the rest of the bullpen continues to falter to throw him in these higher leverage spots, even if it's not a safe situation, just to hold things steady for a little bit. Yeah, I mean, we might as well try something new because what's being used now, it's not working out so well. So perhaps they'll switch things up. I mean, obviously he's going to tell everybody to relax. Everybody's got their roles and this is what we're supposed to be doing. And eventually these guys are going to turn things around.

Starting point is 00:10:06 But you know how it is with fans. Patience is not something that we're all that great with. So we expect change to turn things around, which we hope happens, you know, losing five in a row. And most of these have been close games. So it gets to be a little nauseating after a while. We're going to talk about this offense next. including the struggles of lead off man Lars Newpar on Lockdown Cardinals.

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Starting point is 00:12:04 It's here. Make sure you guys are giving him a follow on X as well. Let's talk offense, Thomas. Lars Neupar is a guy that I like to key in on when it comes to the Cardinals, good and bad, whatever they're going through, because he got off to that red hot start to the season and it helped propel the offense to some pretty exciting and big numbers early on, which had us all very much happy, you know? It was like, hey, we're going to lose.

Starting point is 00:12:27 At least we're going down swinging, man. We're putting runs on the board. First seven games of the year. He was hitting 414. The OVP at 514. His OPS at 1.169. He had scored nine times in the first seven games. Unsustainable, obviously, for sure.

Starting point is 00:12:43 But that's the impact that a great lead-off hitter can have on an offense. Now, since those seven games, though, things have gotten a little licey for Newt. The last 14 games, nude is batting 160. The OPS is down to 583. He has struck out 11 times in 16. played appearances, and he has scored only three times. Part of that could be facing better pitching. You know, you face better pitching.

Starting point is 00:13:09 It makes things more difficult. But can you shed some light on some of the things going on with Lars Neupar recently? Yeah, he just hasn't seemed to be swinging at the pitches lately. He's gotten a lot of pitches in the zone, but his swing rate on those pitches in the zone is the ninth lowest of the league. He's swinging at 54.3% of pitches inside the zone. zone. A lot of lead-off hitters will not swing at pitches just so they can see higher pitch counts that allows the other batters to see what the pitcher has in his repertoire,

Starting point is 00:13:38 whatever it may be. But the fact that he's not swinging at some of these pitches down the heart of the plate is worrisome. He's mentioned with Marcelo Zuna, Adley Rushman, Mookie Betts as far as in-zone swing rate, but the contact he's getting at this point when he does swing isn't there. He just needs to make contact with the ball more often. Maybe start swinging earlier in the counts just to see if he can get some movement in a swing, adjust a little bit, but he's just not hitting the pitches that he should, not taking contact with them, not swinging at them when they're in the zone. Yeah, it's hard to put the ball in play if you don't take the bat off your shoulder.

Starting point is 00:14:13 And it's a tough thing with Newt, too, because we know how good his batting eye is, right? And he's so good that he's better than most of the umpires behind him. And it burns him sometimes where, you know, he ends up getting strikes called against to him that aren't strikes. And, you know, when the ABS shows up, I can't wait to see what kind of damage Newt could do to the umpires because we saw in the spring how good he was at it. And we're like, yeah, this is going to be an issue for umpires with new sitting. But, um, you still got to swing the bat from time to time. There's got to be at moments where you have to go into attack mode, right? And like you mentioned, I mean, if you're not swinging the bat, but I forget

Starting point is 00:14:52 which game wasn't it on Sunday or sandwich, where he took two just right down the and just watched it. And everybody was like, well, they don't get to look any better than that, dude. Like, what do you want? Like, what are you looking for? How did you get full twice like that? And that's the part about Newt, which, you know, sometimes you can, it's frustrating because you know he can get on by walk.

Starting point is 00:15:13 But at the same time, you've seen what he can do when he does put bat on ball. You know, look at the red in his baseball savant page. Like when he hits the ball, more of the times than not, he's hitting it pretty hard. it well and to take that weapon away and just watch pitches over and over. Because he's still walking. That's the thing. It's like over the last 14 games, I think he's still at 12 walks. It's not like he's not getting on base, but there's other ways to do it. And he also needs to be a guy that drives in some of those guys at the bottom of the order. You know, when that lineup turns over, you're not a leadoff hitter really anymore. You know, there's other guys

Starting point is 00:15:54 on in front of you by this point. So just something that maybe Newt can work on with Bram Brown. We're not complaining. It's just, you know, this is where some of the struggles are coming from for this offense. We're also seeing some regression. And we get your thoughts on the, the regression we're seeing from Jordan Walker, which is very disheartening. We're all rooting for him. Everybody wants to see him be great and be this fantastic guy who top prospect and become the guy we want him to be. but batting 156 in his last 12 games, how worried are you about Jordan considering that this is still April, but are you getting worried at all by what you see?

Starting point is 00:16:33 It's April still. He's still only 23, but there comes a point. I mean, he still has like, what, two and a half major league seasons under his belt at this point. I know he's got the age that he can always fall back on, but I'd like to see more growth and progression from him. His strikeout rate is a career high. It's around 30, 31%.

Starting point is 00:16:51 it's not the Jordan Walker we thought we'd see this year, especially after how hot he started, or at least how mild he started. He's really cooled off since then. It's worrisome for his future, that's for sure. It's still a wait-and-see year for me with him, just to see if he can make the adjustments he needs to on a month-by-month, even game-by-game basis

Starting point is 00:17:11 throughout the entire season. I would not be surprised if in May he goes off and we start talking about All-Star for our right-fielder. But right now, I'm keeping an eye on it. Worried, maybe a little bit. Yeah, you just want to see him do better. We want to see better at bats out of them. I know your colleague, Josh Jacobs, over at Redwood Grants,

Starting point is 00:17:32 said that he's starting to chase more on that outside pitch again, which was like a big problem for him last year. And early on this year, I wasn't doing it as much. You know, he was laying off of it or if he was swinging at it, he was taking it to right field. And he seems to be kind of getting into those bad habits again a little bit. So, but again, it is April and I, and people hate it to hear it over and over, but there's five more months of this guy. So, you know, if he turns it around and hits 285 the rest of the way, you're not going to be crying about what happened in April.

Starting point is 00:18:04 But obviously, you want to see more production from him. Same thing with like, you know, Nolan Gorman, which, you know, he had the injury. So again, I cautioned people like when they first brought him back after the injury, takes a little time to get you timing back from to Major League pitching. And he had a good night on Monday night in Atlanta. You know, you got to see him take some good swings. I loved how he had some bend in the knees there to go down and get a pitch. So, you know, you got to give these guys time as frustrating as it is.

Starting point is 00:18:35 I get it. The other part of the offense, which it's bizarre, is the DH position. Have you seen the stance on what's going on at the designated enter position? position. And I know it's like it's a combination of a lot of people, but we're seeing, you know, Burleson and Baker for the most part. But holy crap. So our DH position, I was in shock when I saw this. They're batting 212 as a team in the DH position. They have as many home runs as you and I, Thomas. They have none out of the DH position. And I'm not just blaming Burley and Baker. Everybody who's been a DH does not have a home run as a DH yet. So,

Starting point is 00:19:18 far this season. You know how many RBIs our D.H position is knocked in this year? I just pulled it up. I'm hearing. Yeah. One. Yeah. How was that even possible? It's supposed to be the best offensive position in the lineup.

Starting point is 00:19:35 21 strikeouts. A freaking pitcher can do this. Like, do we need a D.H? Why don't we just let Stephen Matt's hit? I hear he's pretty good at it. Like, that's crazy to see that the D.H, the one guy. that only has to focus on batting and nothing else has to be on his mind is as bad as this. So far this year, it blew me away when I was like, I was like, no way.

Starting point is 00:20:01 Did I click the button right? I was like, no way. But that's, I just, it's, you look at out, it's mostly Alec Burroughsson, I would assume, and you look at his stats, and they're just not good this year. I'm starting something about like free agents that the Cardinals could still sign. I know. It's blasphemous to even consider. J.D. Martinez is still out there. Like, go sign that dude for pennies.

Starting point is 00:20:24 Put him in your five bowl and let him rake for the rest of. He's not going to block anybody. At this point, we just get something out of your G.H. spot. I get you. See, I feel like, see, Thomas is panicking a little bit. You hear that? He's ready to spend money? Not my money. No, never my money.

Starting point is 00:20:41 They're not going to spend money on that. They'll let somebody else, D.H. The J.D. Martinez thing is probably. Yvonne Herrera, honestly, probably when he comes. comes back, it'll probably be Herrera, a potter. It's fine. Get Herrera has a bet still one way or the other. Paix hasn't been bad either.

Starting point is 00:20:55 Petty's that seems to like him. Yeah, they all hit fine when they're a catcher. That's where I don't know what happens, man. It is a black hole in this offense right now. And it's just, it's absolutely shocking that it's been as bad as it is. And I couldn't believe it on my side. So, all right, coming up next. So people are starting with the streak being as bad as it is,

Starting point is 00:21:16 the losing being as bad as it is. everybody's coming after Ollie. You know, everybody's like, I'm not watching until Mo and Ollie are gone. And we know Mo's going to be gone at the end of the season. So I don't know what, nothing's going to happen there, you guys. But people are really getting on Ollie, dude. And I'm getting all these comments. And I just want to share a few with you.

Starting point is 00:21:35 And then we'll get your thoughts on how much of this do you put on Ali's shoulders. That coming up next on Lockedong Cardinals. Thanks again for making Lockedong Cardinals. You first listen today for your second list and check out the all new Lockedon MLB game night every game every night all season long get local analysis on a national scale you can find MLB game night on locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast also we've been doing each week this roundtable thing where we gather hosts from other teams around our locked on MLB network so where we just kind of have like a round table discussion of all things going on in baseball a lot of it is us just ripping on each other and making fun of each other so it's it's pretty entertaining it's not just stats and stuff. We've gotten some good feedback on that so far. So if you haven't seen that yet,

Starting point is 00:22:30 make sure you check that out. That comes into your feed every Tuesday so far. All right, Thomas Cobain from Redwood Rance.com. I want to give you some of the material that gets sent to me about Ali. I can't use the ones that use, you know, bad language in it, but I can give you some of these. I've never seen a manager so eager to use every army has in the pen every game. I've also never seen a manager so scared to allow a starter to go eight and nine innings.

Starting point is 00:23:00 Marmal manages every game like he's hellbent on finding the pitcher that stinks today. How long is the rope for Ali Marmal before he finally gets fired? I'm sick and tired of this team losing. Ali doesn't have a clue on how to manage a ballpen. Ali Marmal is the worst manager in baseball. The Cardinals haven't been able to win since he got here. why does he still wear this uniform? I could just keep going if you wanted me to,

Starting point is 00:23:27 but you get the gist of it. People are like just fed up with what's going on. In your opinion, Thomas, because you're a calm guy, how much of this do you put on Ali's shoulders? I've never been the whole, like, it's the manager. These are grown men playing a game who should probably be able to figure out how to play it better than they have been. So I don't give Ali a lot of the beef.

Starting point is 00:23:50 I give him some of the blame. You look at Saturday's game where he had Ryan Fernandez in. You look at last night's game, it was perfectly set up 7, 8, 9 for Leahy, Mayton, Helsley. That's what the plan was. It fell apart. I don't know what more you want Ollie to do at that point. He had his guys lined up.

Starting point is 00:24:07 That's the best it could happen. Ryan Fernandez and the 9th on Saturday. I know, was that Saturday or Sunday? Saturday. That was on, yeah. Okay. He had, nobody's going to put their closer in at that point. You're on the road.

Starting point is 00:24:21 It's a tie game in the ninth inning. You save your closer for when you're in a lead. I understand you want your best pitcher against their best hitters. But that's not something that's done in baseball. That's just not how it goes. Katie Wu had a quote from Marmal about letting the growing pains go, letting the bumps happen. He said Saturday was a perfect example of a youthful game in a lot of different ways.

Starting point is 00:24:41 They're youthful moments and they have to experience that the players learn from that. Our job is to make sure it doesn't look that way in July. He's trying to get growth out of these guys at this point this year. year. So I don't, the way you expect a game to be managed needs to be changed a little bit, probably for the Cardinals in Marmel this year. Has he made mistakes? Absolutely. But go find me a manager that hasn't made mistakes. And then hire him immediately. And that's the hardest part about his current job, because you can tell when Ali is starting to get frustrated. Or he's like, and he's just kind of like, he's like, these are the cards I've been dealt. Okay. And we have a plan to try to get. get the most out of these particular players. All right. We're not going to be switching out all of these players over and over. With moving Ryan Fernandez to Memphis to kind of get right be a bad thing,

Starting point is 00:25:32 I don't think so. But they don't want to do that because they want them to be better at the major league level, you know, and that's the same things with like guys like Gorman and Walker. I mean, people are like, get them out of here.

Starting point is 00:25:43 They stop. That's not how it's going to work this year, boys and girls. Like, it's not going to happen. They're going to ride this train. and see where it takes them. And like you said, they're also thinking further on down the road.

Starting point is 00:25:55 So, and I think one of the things when you see Fernandez coming in the game on Sunday, you only have so many arms. And you've got a lot of games in a row coming up, right? And certain people need to pitch. That's why, like, you know, keeping Ryan Helsley back in the pen and not using him, you're like, well, eventually you got to throw them, right? Because you're going to wear all these other dudes out, like you mentioned. You know, it feels like Maytown's been in every game so far this year.

Starting point is 00:26:18 And finally, you know, eventually. they're all going to lose a game. Like it's just going to happen. They're going to get hit or something that's not going to work. But yeah, this is just the way it is. And as frustrating as it may be for the Cardinals fans, it's just as bad for Ali. He doesn't want to lose games,

Starting point is 00:26:35 but he's got to ride the peaks and valleys. And people are going to get sick of me saying that all year. And I know they are because, but that's what it's going to be. It's this roller coaster. It's all the ups and downs, but they're willing to ride with the downs so that they get the best possible,

Starting point is 00:26:50 production out of the young guys at the end of the year, and they know exactly what they're working with when Heim Bloom takes over next year. Well, let's pretend. If you do fire, Oli, who do you, Daniel Scousousalb becomes your manager. You want that? Schubacher's not going to leave his cushy job

Starting point is 00:27:09 in the Rangers front office. Yaddy and Albert might, but does Heimblum want Yaddy or Albert? Do we want Yaddy or Albert's legacy to be tarnished? Nobody likes the manager. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, it's, these are all great questions that after this off season, we can start getting into this. But Ali Marmal is going to be your manager this year, guys. Him and Mo are ride or die together here in 2025. So you can complain all you want. They're not going to fire these guys. Like, it's just not going to happen. So if that's what you're waiting for, we'll see you in 2026 because it's not going to happen. A couple of other ones real quick. Walker still has not proven. He can't. and hit MLB pitching. Gorman has proven most definitely that he will never amount to anything as a hitter. Our terrific bullpen last year was due primarily. Here's a good thing due to the lack of

Starting point is 00:27:58 familiarity. Now that players have seen guys like Fernandez Moore, nobody is fooled by them. Newbar is an average player whom the front office is convinced will be a superstar. We constantly overrate and underprepared our prospects. Any thoughts on that particular remark? Well, for what it's worth. No one Gorman is striking out only 25% of the time right now. Yeah, buddy. I'm going to hear from the Gorman positivity. I will lie. Yeah. Right. I want to say this guy, dude, because I'm going to die on my Gorman Hill that he's actually going to be a capable player. I don't. It's, it's a peak, you said, it's peaks and valleys. Like, you can't look at a weak stretch for any player and say this. You look at New Pars first week. You'd say

Starting point is 00:28:38 he is the best player since Babe Ruth. You look at New Pars last week. You say that he needs to be out of the league. You've got to take a larger approach at these stats. of things and you've got to look at players from a holistic approach Jordan walker's defense is much improved in the corner his offense hopefully catches up large new bar is a wonderful all-round player who's just on a bit of a cold streak like right now I the cardinals will not be very good this year they will probably not make the playoffs but you've got to take the players as a holistic approach I'm frustrated too I would love to see large new bar hitting 280 in lead off and walking 20% of the time but that's just not going to happen for a full year yeah and

Starting point is 00:29:16 And people have brought up too, like, you know, maybe, you know, we're losing right now, but Yvonne Herrera got taken out who. Mason, he both predicted. We talked to Zazzo. I was like, I think Yvonne Herrera is going to be huge this year. I think he's going to be a really good hitter. And he was. And then he went down and things haven't been the same sense.

Starting point is 00:29:34 Mason Wynn has been out as well. You're starting shortstop. The Thomas and J.C. discussion, whether or not he should stay up or stay down. I mean, it upsets people, but I got into it in the last episode where, like, he's got a play. every day. If he's just going to be a bench guy, then what's the point of having him up on the team on a team that doesn't have playoff aspirations right now? So, you know, you're going to get some of these guys back. Starting rotation's been pretty good. Super impressed with how Eric Fetty has been so far this year outside of, you know, a couple of innings here and there. But, I mean,

Starting point is 00:30:04 he's been awesome. Sunny Gray's been really, really good. There are some positives about this team. They're just in a bad spot right now. And they're playing the Mets and the Braves, who last check. And I don't I know the Braves had a tough start for the season. But weren't both of those guys supposed to be two of the best teams in the National League? I believe so. So losing games of these guys, it's not like you're dropping games to the Marlins and the White Sox and, you know, lower tier teams. Okay. These are good teams that have good players.

Starting point is 00:30:34 And they're expected to win this year. They have World Series aspirations. Cardinals do not. So to see them come out on top, it's not shocking. But at the same time, you know, you see how you're losing games and it becomes a little difficult for the fans and I can understand that. All right. Anything you're working on, Thomas here, you mentioned some JD Martinez stuff.

Starting point is 00:30:54 Love the first name. Yeah. Oh, yeah, there you go. Yeah, I'm looking at some free agent supplements just to fill some of the holes. Nothing major. Just a couple of really pitchers. I've been running some polls about the best spots of the franchise. I started with the best stadium, owner, general manager, manager.

Starting point is 00:31:11 We're on the best pitcher right now. And then I'll close off with the best position player today and tomorrow. And then I'll write about the results from there. Other than that, just some regular news updates. Probably something at some point about what to do with Thomas, Jacey. I know we've got a couple of things about that, but I'd like to explore that as well. All right.

Starting point is 00:31:29 Well, check out all of Thomas's work at Redwood Brants.com. And thank you guys for making Lockdown Cardinals for personal listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L0 underscore Cardinals into JD Sports Radio, TikTok and Instagram and Lockedong Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube, help our channel in love for the Cardinals grow. making that push for 12,000 subscribers or within the final 100 to get to 12,000. So if you haven't subscribed, we'd love to have you on board because you guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on lockdown Cardinals.

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