Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Can The Cardinals Take Advantage Of The Colorado Rockies Again?

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

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The St. Louis Cardinals welcome in the Colorado Rockies for a four-game set beginning on Thursday. This is a special crossover episode of Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Rockies. You are Locked on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team. Rock on Rockies fans and Cardinals fans, welcome in to a special crossover episode of the Locked on Rockies and Locked on Cardinals podcast right here on the Locked on podcast network where you can find. find your team every day. And if your team is the Colorado Rockies or the St. Louis Cardinals, guess what?

You are in the right spot because that's what we do around here each and every day's. Talk Rockies Baseball, Cardinals Baseball, free and streaming on your favorite streaming services as well as on the Locked on Rockies and Locked on Cardinals YouTube channels where you can get daily videos breaking down your favorite team. Also, folks, today we are brought to you by game time. Game time is the best spot for tickets. you can download the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase terms do apply. I am one of your hosts today, Paul Holden, joined by the one, the only J.D.

Haffron of the Locked on St. Louis Cardinals podcast. J.D., how are you doing? I feel good, dude. We're coming on. We call it a happy flight after we leave a city and you end with a W. We're able to pull out the final game of the series in Houston against the Astros. And it was a good feeling because it was kind of a tough. tough series for the Cardinals. So we're feeling good. We're excited to get back home, get to St. Louis

and get the Bush Stadium where we will be meeting your Colorado Rockies, Paul. Yes. And in a matchup that will be an interesting one always when these two teams match up. I think now forever and always, especially during this era of baseball, when these two teams match up, the both fans kind of raise their eyebrows a little bit. We're going to get to that topic a little bit later on. But I want to focus on at least the here and now right here. The Rockies are coming off arguably one of their worst series of the season. They were absolutely embarrassed at home by your division rival. The Cincinnati Reds, a team that was not scoring a lot of runs, but what do they do? They go into Corsefield and do what a lot of teams do. They score a lot of runs, including the Rockies blowing a lead,

a one-run lead, in allowing six runs in the ninth inning and losing and getting swept at the home at home by the Reds for the first time in a decade. And I want to read you an interesting stat here, Jady, that I pulled from a friend of the show, Patrick Lyons. The Colorado Rockies are now the first team in the history of baseball, the history of baseball to give up five or more runs in the ninth inning or later a total of five times in the same season. The Rockies also have the record for the longest start consecutive games trailed to start

a season. So the Rockies have sent some pretty unfortunate milestones. What are your reaction to hearing some of those stats about the purple pinstripes? I feel like we're, we're winding a little too much here in St. Louis when I hear that stuff going on for you guys, man, because, you know, Cardl's fans here are so used to winning that, you know, what happened last year and what has happened this year, it's got them in an up war. I mean, we're talking about fire this guy, trade this guy. They one an overhaul of things going on there. And then when you go and you look and I hate to, you know, look at you guys be like, whoa, it's way worse than what you think it is in other city, St. Louis. So that's rough, man. When you hear the history of baseball and it's a bad

stat, that's saying something because baseball has been around for like a million years. And the Rockies haven't been around that long in the grand scheme of baseball. But I think that's an interesting kind of point in comparison for fans to consider here. Like as frustrating as it's got to be to be a St. Louis fan because I do want to tap into that a little bit because it's got to be really frustrating to be a St. Louis Cardinals fan right now because just two seasons ago, you had arguably MVP 1 and MVP2 on the corners of the of the infield.

You had, you know, generational talents. It's Cardinals being, you know, the Cardinals that we've known for basically throughout what has happened to this team this year and last year I know but specifically let's focus on this year I believe that we talked during spring training a little bit too and and I believe that you mentioned that this team had a solid foundation and there were pieces but you also had concerns I think going into this season as well just bring me up to speed on what's happening with the Cardinals here so far this year well that's the thing is the Cardinals fan base we've been very spoiled by by winning as

much as they have. And when there's finally a year, we're in a year in a couple of months, where things aren't quite going the way that we're used to having them go, you know, we throw a little tantrums, which is kind of what we're all doing. And I'm not just pointing fingers at our fan base. It's like myself, I'm just like, what is this? What are we doing? I mean, we're two games under 500. I mean, things can be worse, folks, but it's just the way we've been brought up in St. Louis where this is not how it's done. Like, we are supposed to big good. We're supposed to win. We laugh at teams that play the way the Cardinals have been playing over the last year and year and a half or so. And really what's kind of happened here is from the

season, the 2022 season where you're talking about where Goldie was MVP, where Nolan Aronado finished third in the voting as well. They also had that Albert Pooleholz guy who came out of nowhere and went bonkers in the second half, which actually pushed them into a winning season because things weren't going all that great in the first half until Albert Pujols just, you know, caught lightning in a bottle and went crazy in that second half. So a lot of us kind of saw the trends coming that, okay, if you didn't have that, that miracle finish for Albert, do you even have a winning record in 2022 despite having Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Aronado having these great years? And the answer is probably not. And the issue, it all stems back to the pitching staff.

All right, because, and you know as well as anybody in Colorado, you can have as much offense as you can possibly handle. But if you can't get the other team out, you're in trouble. And the Cardinals have let the development of their pitching in their system. They just let it. It got old. It got stale the way that they were running things. They weren't keeping up with the times.

And other people passed them. in whatever ways you want to say it, like whether it's analytics or whatever, what they were teaching wasn't working anymore. And they weren't developing people. And then they finally, it all caught up to them where guys that were supposed to be good, didn't reach the level they thought they were going to reach. And they ended up being worse than what they wanted. And they were stuck with them because they kind of put all their money on those guys.

Like a Jack Flaherty and like a Jordan Hicks. And they just didn't develop them properly. And now you see like Jack Flaherty doing well in Detroit. You see Jordan Hicks as a starter doing well in San Francisco. And it's got everybody like, what is wrong in St. Louis? Like, why can't you figure this out? And it's something that they're still trying to figure out. They had to go out.

And for this year, they were like, all right, okay, we don't have anybody who's ready yet that's down in the minors that we think is going to be good one day. So we need to go get some people that are going to kind of bridge the gap. So they go out and they get Lance Lynn. And they go out and they get a Kyle Gibson. and not sexy names to go along with the Sunny Gray signing, which Cardle fans loved. I loved.

We just knew that he would be a great fit in St. Louis. He's just got that kind of St. Louis Cardle vibe to him where he's not an exciting guy. He just goes out, does his job, you know, and it's another, you know, he doesn't have much of a, a little personality when it comes to, you know, interviews or anything like that. He'll show some excitement on the mound here and there.

But those are what they decided. to go with. But they were still stuck with the Stephen Matt's contract, which is not worked out. And they just don't have anybody that is ready at the major league level yet to be that number two. They got a Miles Michaelis who's still there. I mean, this rotation is, you know, 30, 40 years or older in every pitcher that's in it, you know, when they're healthy. And that was where the problems were last year. this year the pitching staff's been better, but the offense, which was supposed to continue to be one of the better ones in the league. We're not saying that they should be top five, but you think top 10 when you hear names like Goldie and Arenato and Nolan Gorman and you're supposed to have Jordan Walker and Lars Newport. You have all these guys. You're like, okay, they're going to be fine. Wilson Contreras and the first month of the season, they were terrible.

Wilson Contreras was the only one. It was hitting consistently. and then J.D. Martinez broke his arm when he was catching. So he was out. And ironically, the whole team started hitting after Wilson goes down. So that's pretty much the season in a nutshell. They've been playing very good over the last two to three weeks coming off a couple of tough series losses against the Phillies, who everybody loses to. So they shouldn't be embarrassed about that. But losing two of three in Houston, that was tough considering in game one, you felt like you had that game in hand and you let it slip away.

So, but overall, what you've seen out of the Cardinals the last two weeks has been more of what management, the fans, and the team itself expected them to be. And we're feeling better about ourselves. We're not by any means getting overly excited, but they've got one of the best records, if not the best record in the National League, since like Mother's Day. So things are headed in the right direction. And we just hope it keeps going that way with Colorado. coming to town. Well, and if you're going to slump, you want to slump earlier in the year.

And it's a time to figure it out. And especially in a division that, you know, the Brewers have a comfortable lead. But let's be honest, the Central is a lot more competitive than some of the other divisions, the Rockies being a team that, you know, makes the NL West a little bit more wackier when it comes to the Rockies are, I believe the Cardinals and the Reds, you know, they're fighting between a six to eight game behind the Brewers where the Rockies are well above, I think 15 games behind the Dodgers out of first place. So this is a situation again where the Cardinals have to handle business. And what's interesting is the Rockies, you say no one beats the Phillies, but funny you mention

that the Rockies beat the Phillies. You guys did it. Yeah. You guys got that run. Before losing on the road to L.A. and being swept at home to the Dodgers, the Rockies just had two back-to-back series wins against the Phillies and the Guardians, two of the best teams in baseball, which is just so maddening about this team where it's, my, whole big thing about the Rockies this year is that they are not a good team, but their ceiling is

higher. And they, I firmly believe that they are a better team than last year, the franchise's worst team by record in, in their history. But they have just, the bullpen especially has been, has been really bad. But in so many moments, the Rockies have gone and they'll go on a, they had a seven game winning streak, something they haven't done a couple years. Then they lose five in a row. They just win two series against two of the best teams in baseball. five-game skid, including a home sweep that you blew a ninth inning loss in. The Rockies are so maddenly frustrating that it's just a consistency thing. So for me, it's not that I'm, it's not that I'm upset at the talent necessarily.

I am continuing to get more and more upset with the organization at itself. And after the finale against Cincinnati, where Bud Black brings in a guy that's only pitched one other inning, which was the game before, and the Reds had some success against him in that game, he brings him in against Jonathan India, who's already seen this new guy before and had success on him the night before. And then Jonathan India hits a ninth inning grand slam off this, off this new guy. I'm drawing a blank on his name. I feel bad because he just got called up. But Bud Black has made a lot of decisions and a lot of calls that I'm just really wondering if the Rockies are truly committing to bettering themselves for the future. Because there's a lot

that you said there that's kind of the Rockies have the same thing. Pitching, big problem. and interesting contracts that are are really tough to work with. Chris Bryant on the IL for the second time this season after just returning with the same problem. And, and you know, you feel for the guy, but, but we're talking straight business here. The Chris Bryant contract and experience in Colorado has been an absolute failure up until this point. He has time on the contract certainly to turn it around.

But this is the guy the Rockies moved on from Nolan Aeronado for. and and unfortunately there's a lot of other things that just hasn't worked out mixed in with some really interesting stuff. The Rockies have one of the most exciting short stops in baseball, a thing that probably flew under the radar for a lot of people in this Reds Rocky series is two of the most exciting short stops in the NL. We're playing against each other and we're doing cool things and having a series where if the Rockies are able to get back, you will hear the conversation of Ellie Day,

La Cruz versus Ezekiel Tovar down the line. But it just shows you again that, man, the Reds are playing a different game than the Rockies. All these teams just have so many advantages over the Rockies. And I just really wonder if they can truly adjust to get to where they need to go. Let's dive a little bit more into what the teams need to do to be successful in this series and what the Cardinals fans are expecting from the Rockies and what the Rockies are expecting from the Cardinals facing them in this upcoming series. We're going to do that coming up in segment number two.

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Price picks, pick more, pick less. It's that easy. This is the Locked on Rockies and Locked on Cardinals podcast right here on the Locked On podcast network where you can find your team every day. We were summarizing the frustrations and storylines leading into this series between the Cardinals and the Rockies. But Cardinals fans, you got to be looking at this series as a chance to lick their lips. They just saw a division rival light up this team in their own home ballpark. The Rockies are notorious for being one of the worst teams on the road.

I mean, this is another situation, I think, for a team like St. Louis. And I have this conversation a lot on crossovers, but you got to win the series, right? Yeah, this is a chance for the cardals have not gotten over the 500 mark yet this year. And as I mentioned earlier, they're there are two games under right now. This is an opportunity to finally get past that threshold and finally make it over the 500 mark, which has been a tall hill for them throughout this season. They like get the 500 and then they fall right back down. And that's something that they're hoping they'll be able to not put up with when the Rockies are in town.

I know Austin Gomber is going to be pitching one of the games. So I'm waiting for that Gomber, you know, the Gomber revenge game. So three out of four would be nice. Obviously, a sweep would be great. But I've also seen the Chicago White Sox come into Bush Stadium this year and take two of three from the Cardinals. So I never know exactly what to expect. But I will say that that was at a time when the Cardinals weren't playing such good

baseball. And right now they got a lot of a lot of things going for them. momentum wise in a positive way as to, as opposed to the negative stuff that was going on just a few weeks ago when the White Sox were in St. Louis. And we're in for a treat. I, the Rockies fan, I mean, people not following the Rockies will be surprised to hear it's Austin Gomber, especially I think for St. Louis fans, this is arguably, if he can carry this throughout a full season, I don't think it's going to be any argument that this is his best season, maybe as a pitcher in his career, but easily as a Rocky. So we'll be interesting to.

to see him in game two and how that matches up. But this first matchup is actually going to be a really, really good one. Cal Quantrell has been great for the Colorado Rockies, 3.84 ERA, 1.29 whip and 68 innings here. He's giving up the 63 hits, but 50 strikeouts. That's the big difference maker here, as we're going to see in the series, as this goes for four games, which I think is interesting, you know, when you get this long series, you're getting the basically the full experience here. And the Rockies, the difference between Cal Quantrell and Austin Gomber,

and Ryan Feltoner, Dakota Hudson, and, you know, and, et cetera, tie block is a big one. But, you know, but 50 strikeouts, but here's the kicker, 25 walks as well. He's allowed this season, eight home runs. So the long ball hasn't been too much of a factor. And Sony Gray has been great. You were mentioning that in, in this segment, one seven and three with a three point OERA, a whip of 1.0.05 and 57 innings pitch,

77 strikeouts. And he's going up against a team that strikes out a lot. lot, 15 walks, six home runs. So, you know, the Rockies, maybe if they're patient, they can get there. But again, I think the Rockies, Cal Quantrell is going to be able to fight. The Rockies offense, when I see 77 strikeouts from a pitcher, I worry because that says 10 double-digit strikeout performance incoming from Gray. Yeah, Sunny has been outstanding.

He's only had a couple of games where, you know, some issues with where, where he threw the ball, where he would just miss his spot. And he would get burned. Last year with Minnesota, he'd only given up. I think it was eight home runs the whole year. And he's well on his way to passing that this year. And it's only been just a couple of pitches here and there. And it's just when he has left it up and over the plate,

he's gotten burned this year. And they've gone a long way. But for the most part, if you take two or three of those away, he's been outstanding. He's been everything that the Cardinals could have asked for and expected from him when they signed him as a free agent this offseason. and he's been a leader in the clubhouse. He's been the guy that's kind of led this rotation

and kind of showed him some new ways to go about their business, which has been really cool too. He's had great chemistry with all of the catchers. You know, he was doing great with Contreras when he went down with the injury. He's picked it right up with Yvonne Herrera. They're two rookies, by the way, who are the catchers right now for the Cardinals with Contreras out. So with Herrera and with Pedro Pahas, he's been just fine.

And like when they ask him about it, because, you know, it's kind of a big deal for a veteran to throw to a rookie catcher. And when he when asked about it, you know, what's it like having to go from Contreras of these guys? He's like, I'm good. He's like, they're great catchers. We're fine, which is, which is nice to get that stamp of approval by somebody who just finished second in the ALSai Young Award voting last year. Yeah, that's high compliments.

You definitely can't, can't disagree with that. And good catchers is what we'll see in this series as well. Alias Diaz is having a solid season as well. So, I mean, when I see this Rockies team and I see the Cardinals, I kind of feel the same way I do feel about the Reds, good team, talented team, but if the Rockies play their best ball, the ball that beats the Phillies,

the ball that beats the Phillies, the ball that goes on a seven-game win streak, that also takes down the World Series champs, I think the Rockies can do this. But I worry. I mean, again, this team hasn't shown me enough consistency for me to fully buy into their abilities to take advantage of anything. And so when I see, again, an effective pitcher, a whip of almost one is really, really good. And especially for Rockies fans, I mean, that's pretty unheard of when you consider the rest of the Rockies rotation outside of these two

pitchers is sitting at above 1-5 in that category at least. Walks have been killer for this team mixed with a team that strikes out a lot. So the perfect storm kind of bruised for a St. Louis team to build some momentum against the Rockies just like Cincinnati did. Cincinnati has to be feeling good heading out and moving on. And the Cardinals, they're looking to keep the best record that you mentioned since Mother's Day going against the team that's bad on the road. So what are your possible concerns, however, for the Cardinals, if any, about this Rockies team? Well, Ryan McMahon stands out to me as an elite hitter from the left side of the plate. You know, it's all righties in the rotation for the Cardinals.

So left-handers tend to hit a little bit better against them. So obviously he's somebody to keep an eye on. When it comes to the Rockies, because they're such a young team where it's like a lot of the guy, like Cardle fans aren't going to recognize a lot of the names that are in the Rockies lineup. And I think part of that might be a little bit scary because you don't know exactly what you're going to get from the Colorado Rockies. kind of similar to the way the White Sox played the Cardinals earlier this year, where they came in, and it's guys that, you know, you don't hear a lot about. They don't have these big baseball numbers that jump off the page at you, but they string a couple of hits together. The Cardinals kicked

the ball around a little bit. All of a sudden, they've got confidence. And it just, it just rolled for the White Sox in that series. And that's what scares me the most about the Rockies is that they don't have a book on these guys yet. There's not a lot to really know about them because a lot of them haven't been in the major leagues for very long. So scouting them is probably pretty difficult. And I feel like they could go to the Rockies advantage because of that, because they just, they don't know these guys all that well.

So you got to make sure that you don't put them on base, obviously, you know, don't give them extra chances. That's one thing the Cardinals have been doing a lot of lately is kicking the ball around. they did not have an error on Wednesday, but they had made, I think it was 22 errors in 18 games leading up to Wednesday. Like for some reason, they're just fumbling the ball. It's a lot of it's on the infield too, and it's a lot of like routine plays. And when you give young teams extra at bats and you give them extra chances, they tend to come up and bite you. And that's something that worries me about the Rockies in this series that I hope this doesn't offend anybody.

but you don't want to play down to their level, right? You know, it's obviously not a team that wins a whole lot of games, but you don't want to play down and just give them hope because you give them hope, and then they're going to come back on you. And that would be my biggest concern when it comes to the Rockies this week. All right, let's do what the folks I know in the back of their minds are talking. You already teased it a little bit. Let's talk RIMAC.

Let's talk Aeronado. We're going to take a quick break. So don't go anywhere. That's coming up in segment number three. Before we do that, though, folks, got to tell you about some of the folks that help make this show possible, and that includes Game Time. Game Time got me to the All Star game last year, folks, on a great deal. It's my favorite story to tell you, because it is really the perfect reason that I have now sold. Game time has now

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on the game time app and redeem code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-M-L-L-M-LB for $20 off. Download game time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. This is the Locked on Rockies and Locked-on Cardinals podcast. We are free and streaming on your favorite streaming services and on the Locked-on Rockies and Locked on Cardinals YouTube channels. And we got to talk about it here. the big stars, I think, of this series and, of course, going to be a storyline that I'm sure both teams will be talking about the third baseman of both of these teams. Ryan McMahon on an all-star pace. Ryan McMahon really having a solid season. 10 home runs, 278 batting average 34 RBI for him on this year. I've got to admit, this is finally the first year I can safely say I have put Nolan Aeronado in the rearview mirror. It still brings up a lot of passion. It still brings up. But I'm not actually.

I don't, I don't really, I'm not really curious about his stats. I'm not really curious necessarily how much he's doing as I was as the, as the, as the, uh, the, the, the heartbroken X as it felt like basically. Tell me what's up with Nolan and, and kind of run me up to speed how you're feeling about the Aeronado experience at this point. Well, um, this year has been quite different from, uh, the previous season since Nolan came over from Colorado. Uh, this, this year has been really, really tough with them. not only offensively, but now we're starting to see defensive issues,

which is something I never thought I'd say about Nolan Aronado. Like if there was one thing that you could always count on, was that even when he's struggling at the plate, he'd be that platinum glove winner over at third base. And he is not that guy. Like there, he, I had to get the chance to look out his defensive run saved before we started here today. But just last week, he was at minus seven, just to put it.

Yeah. Did you ever think Nolan Aradatta would ever be at that level when it came to the defensive capabilities that we've seen for over a decade with both the Rockies and the Cardinals? It's wild. And he refuses to say that he's dealing with any injuries. He says it's no excuse that anything that's been going on with him ever. That's not what he should be blaming it on. It's just not being able to make the plays. And he is getting older, but he's not like Paul Goldschmidt old. You know, Goldie's, you know, 37. You know, Nolan's supposed to have a couple of more good years left. And to see the decline as quickly as it's happened to him, you started to see it a little bit last year. And then this year, it's like night and day of the guy you saw in 2022,

who finished in that top three in the MVP voting in the National League. So it's tough to watch because you know as well as anybody, Nolan Ardano cares as much as anybody. Like if there's one thing, he's not loafing. He's not going to dog it out there. He takes everything very seriously, almost to a detriment to himself, where I think he's so hard on himself that it makes things worse when he does struggle, that he just gets into his own head a little bit.

And it's tough to watch this year. It is because you will still see him make very nice plays. Like early on in the season, he looked like that gold glover again. But slowly but surely as things have gone on, And maybe it's just contagious the bad defense on the infield because it's not just him that's booting the ball. I mean, we got Goldie over here dropping balls. We've got, you know, two young guys up the middle and Mason Winn and Nolan Gorman and they're kicking routine stuff. And, you know, it's happened to Arnato on a few occasions too. In Wednesday's game, he had a play that one of those

plays were Nato, you're like, oh, no big Nato's got this. He would short hop it, throw from his back, like just this. And it's the classic. It didn't work. It didn't happen this time. The guy was safe. What's happening to this? this dude. And so some of those plays that we took for granted over the years, now he's just not making them as often. And the part that's really frustrating is, is the routine stuff that he's missing where it just feels like, and I, this goes again for the whole, I feel like they're rushing things a little bit. They're trying to get rid of the ball so quickly and get it over to first that they don't receive the ball. And that's what's causing the problems here. They're either

looking up too quick, trying to, it's, that's at least to be, because I know that they're out there trying. I know they're working on it and I know that they're concentrating and I don't want to use those as excuses. I just think that sometimes they're trying to rush things a little too much and that's why we're seeing as many errors as we are. Offensively, outside of a couple of weeks, he's been pretty lost. And I don't remember him because I mean, obviously I didn't follow him quite as closely when he was in Colorado. But did he go on like two, three week benches where he looked like he's never swung a baseball bad. Do you remember anything like that when he was in Colorado? Maybe in the early times, but not often, but I mean, bad slumps happen, but he's often,

we haven't really seen Rockies players put up power numbers like that since he's been gone. The Rockies had one, you know, about, you know, one and a halfish years of Trevor's story left with injury and stuff that after the Aeronado trade. So I don't, things that I don't remember, did they happen? Certainly. I mean, you can, you can look into points where. the Rockies really struggled in 2019 after those back-to-back postseason years in 2020, where the Rockies started off red hot in that shortened pandemic season, the best team in baseball at one point in that shortened season, but then falling completely off and not even being able to go remotely close in a small sample

size to get themselves even in those expanded playoffs. I'm sure you can point to some instances there, but it certainly wasn't Aaronado's offense that was the concern other than in the postseason when the Rockies did have, that's, that's. where you can say Aronado struggled. I mean, there were big, in big moments in those games, he certainly came up short there.

That's where you're like, what is, that's where you, I think for Rocky's fans' experiences where they can go backwards, just like, it's pretty crazy that, you know, in these big moments that, that we've seen him so confident before, but in the biggest moments for him,

he hasn't been the same type of guy. And now for, for Aronado, that defense, that's such a key thing and that's a big reason why you you buy fully into him and now you know again that's a that's another contract that's that's something that's got that long term i don't know if the money's necessarily as much of a problem because man if aranado opted out what was it last year or the year before that i can only imagine what his contract would be uh right now so you know in terms of

you're looking at the length then you might start in the back your mind but also nolan aranato the guy's been a perennial mbp candidate basically his entire that's what we keep saying first as we're like he'll he'll be fine he'll be fine he'll be fine it'll get there we're not worried about him but when you start to see it last as long as it's been going on for now you start to question like is maybe this is just him now we maybe this is just where he's going to be over the the final couple years of this deal you know he's hitting 252 which isn't god awful by any means but the the power is something that has vanished and i think part of it too is that pitchers are refusing you know how the sweepers become such a big pitch. They're refusing to throw anything inside to him anymore.

They're like, all right, we give up. He can make that over the wall and left field now. And he still can. He yanked one against Houston on Wednesday that looked vintage Aronado. But when they throw it away, you know, people have finally picked up on the fact that he just doesn't have a lot of power when it goes to center field or opposite field. It's all, it's got to be all down the line or he's not going to hit it over the wall and he's not going to destroy you that way. and I think that's been part of the problem, too, is that the way he's getting pitched is kind of dictating what he can do with the plate.

You know, when you got him just hitting flares to right field, it's nice when they land, but it's not the damage that you're looking for and what you're used to when it comes to Nolan. Yeah, I mean, it's always tough. You never know how the back end's going to go. Again, we mentioned a little bit. Chris Bryant, MVP, World Series champion, hasn't been able to, you know,

at least Aaronados on the field, you know, and you trust him enough to, to be that great player that he is. And again, maybe we'll be looking, you'll be looking back at this slump here in June at the end of, in May in June. And you're like, it doesn't matter because he's on a bender helping us rage through here at the end of the

season because that's, that's the type of guy that Aronado is. I mean, he's still a player that that is desperately missed there by the Rockies. But we'll be interesting a storyline to keep your mind on, but something we unfortunately don't have time to talk about. I bet on this in the second game of the series, you're going to see every piece of the Nolan Aeronado trade playing.

You're going to see Gomber pitching, Montero on the field as well, and Nolan Aronado playing. So if you are interested to just kind of keep your eye on how that's played out, that'll certainly be a factor, I think, in game too. But J.D., where can people go to stay up to date? And if you got a closing thought, you got it. I was going to say it real quick for Rockies fans as well, if you happen to be going to St. Louis for the series, Saturday is going to be Larry Walker Bobblehead night. Whoa. I should say day because it's a day game. So, yeah, another former Rocky that ended up coming over to the Cardinals near the end of his career and, you know, had a couple of good seasons with St. Louis before he hung it up.

But it'll be a Larry Walker bobblehead afternoon on Saturday. So that might be something that would peak the interest of Rocky's fans. But, yeah, you can find me at JD Sports Radio on Twitter Ax also for the podcast itself at L.O. underscore Cardals. We're available there. We're available on YouTube, obviously, as well. So feel free to reach out and interact with us during this series because a lot of Cardinals fans go back and forth and just chit chat during games. And we're never, you know, sour about anybody from the opposing squad coming in and, you know, talking some ball with us. Absolutely. Rockies fans love to talk ball as well.

You can find me at L.O. Rockies on the ex-Twitter there. And you can also find Locked on Rockies on YouTube. But until next time, this is Paul Holden saying so long from the Lock. on Rockies and Locked on Cardinals podcast.