Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Cardinals Get Swept By The Royals

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

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The I-70 doubleheader goes to the Royals in convincing fashion, why the Cardinals could learn a thing or two from what Kansas City did to them on today's crossover episode of Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Royals. 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 fans and Royals fans. I'm J.D. Haffron and I'm a national radio sports anchor. raised in the Lou and a lifetime Cardinals fan.

And I'm your host for Lockdown Cardinals. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio as well as the podcast at L.O. underscore Cardinals. Representing our brothers from another mother over in Kansas City is Locked on Royals host, Jack Johnson, who you can also find on Twitter X. He's available at Johnny J. underscore 15. We want to thank those of you who make Locked on Cardinals and Lockton Royals,

your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. as well as on YouTube. Make sure you guys like, subscribe and comment and interact with us and hit that notification button so you know when the new episodes are posted. This episode of Locked on Cardinals and Lockton Royals is being brought to you by booking.com. Booking dot, yeah, the right stay can make you a fan of any city, even your rival. So check out booking.com for your stay today.

All right, we want to welcome in for the Cardinals fans who have never seen Jack before or met Jack. if you haven't hopped on over to Lockstone Royals, Jack, welcome in and tell everybody a little bit about yourself and why you're a part of this Lockedon podcast network. What is it about the Royals that got you involved? Yeah, man, thanks for having me. I was born and raised here in Kansas City, and I currently work at our local radio station here, one of them, Sports Radio 810, WHB, do some hosting, co-hosting, and producing over there. and about, oh, a year ago around this time,

I got approached to do this podcast, which I immediately jumped on, because I would say even more so than any of the teams I root for. The Royals have always been front and center to me. I've been a big baseball guy, grew up playing baseball, played it throughout my entire life. And there was no other opportunity that sounded better than this than for coverage of the Royals every single day.

And that's not always been easy. This is un-started territory a little bit. bit over the last half decade. You know, last year wasn't as fun as this one's been, but, you know, in baseball, it can always change. So you can never take that for granted. Now, I've seen a couple of games at Kauffman Stadium over, over my years and always a nice trip over there.

Haven't yet got to see a Chiefs game at Arrowhead, which is something I plan on doing at some point in my life. But let's stick to the baseball stuff today. Royal sweep the double header on Wednesday, which, uh, You know, there's supposed to be two games separated, but because of the rain in St. Louis, make it into a double header. And the Royals take it eight, five and six to four, both very entertaining games, which much to the chagrin of Cardinals fans, both of them go to the Royals. But that was the kind of baseball I like to see.

It was good, clean games for the most part. And you saw action, you saw some good pitching, you saw some bad pitching, you saw some bad pitching, you saw some offense, you saw power, you saw some stolen bases. Like there was a lot going on in this series, which made it actually a lot of fun to watch, despite the final score for the Cardinals side of things. In my opinion, just watching it, the Royals just look like a better all around baseball team. I want to start with game one here. What were your takeaways from what you saw? Considering, you know, the Cardinals jump out to that three to nothing lead.

And, you know, and everybody in St. Louis were like, we got this. Big brother is going to take this one. and then the Royals, I mean, really show no quit and end up jumping back into things and, you know, run away with it actually in game one. And I was texting you and I'm like, oh my gosh. It was like, it kind of caught me off guard that the Royals were able to come back in this one. What were your thoughts about how they were able to react after being down three to nothing? Yeah, pretty shocking. I think against a team like St. Louis and on the road. I mean, from time to time this year, the Royals had shown that tenacity in coming back. They had a

eight-run deficit get erased and a game against Seattle. And that was their most notorious comeback this year. And a couple other times, one being against San Diego, they were down 11 to 3 in the ninth inning. And Nelson Alaskas had a ball that died at the wall that would have tied the game. So they had shown this year they can come back from three run deficits, four-one deficits, and eight-and-nine run deficits at times. But it had been a while since they had done that, and especially on the road. I mean, they were coming off a series in Colorado in which they scored three runs in the first two games of that series against Kyle Freeland and Austin Gumber.

So it wasn't like they were rolling in hot to this series. And I had wondered with the back-to-back off days, Monday being a traditional off day and then Tuesday getting rained out in St. Louis, was it just being flat, right? It's a day game. It's a doubleheader. You know, Alec Marsh hadn't been great over his last six to seven starts. And it was the third inning. and the Royals have one hit and it was kind of a bloop by Hunter Renfro.

I didn't have much confidence at this point. But as I said with the comeback portion of this team, when they strike, they strike like that. Like it's three to nothing and all of a sudden it's four to three. It's not a three to nothing, then three to one, then three to two, then four to two, then four to four. It's pretty suddenly and the runs come in bunches. I mean, they can really kind of have the, the, the train start when it's just, you know, kind of like what they did in 14 and 15, just single, single, one guy, you know, clears the bases with the double.

And I think that was the perfect game they needed in game one because the Cardinals, of course, as you are very aware of, been one of the best teams in the National League of late. So it wasn't like they caught somebody at a great time they were playing poorly. That's kind of all the things that came together is why I wasn't too confident. But in baseball, you never really know. Yeah, and you mentioned starting pitch for the Royals, Alec Marsh, you know, the Cardinals jump on him with a couple of dingers and it looks like things are going to spiral out of control. And then all of a sudden, he just locks in and I believe it was 15 in a row at one point that Cardinals' patterns were retired. Did you notice anything that he was doing differently or that the Cardinals hitters were doing differently that all of a sudden it just was a complete 180 where it looked like they were seeing and smashing everything to just.

nothing and he just shut him down. There was one start I remember this year from Alec Marsh. He gave up one hit over seven shutout endings against the Yankees. And in those final three endings, he was out there against St. Louis, it looked a lot like that where, you know, the hitters were helping him out a little bit. He's got a firm fastball and he's got a pretty good sweeper and a curveball he likes to use in two strike counts. Nolan Aronado pounded one of the curve balls that stayed up in the zone earlier.

And that to me is when he spirals, is why when it was three to nothing, I'm going, when he gets tagged early, it's going to start spiraling in the fourth and fifth and sixth inning. And you kind of hope he can save the bullpen a little bit because you still had one other game that night. So what changed for me, I thought he was a lot more aggressive and almost looked like he pitched a little bit more comfortably. Like it was a three nothing deficit. It's, hey, at this point, my focus is on keeping this team in the game rather than holding on to a lead. Maybe he had confidence that the offense was going to turn things on at one point,

but you can see him pitching with a lot more confidence. He was living in the zone. He was setting up those two strike pitches, low in a way that was getting cardinal hitters to swing at it. And that's when he's going well. He can get seven, eight, nine strikeouts every other outing or so, but it'd been a long time since he'd done that because I thought in his last three or four, he was nibbling a lot, falling behind

2-0, following behind 2-1. And we saw that in the first three endings of this, but after he fell behind 3-0, he got that aggressive mentality back and started to pound the zone a little bit more. Yeah, and you can say the exact opposite about what happened on the Cardinal side with Andre Palante, who comes out dealing,

and through four innings, you're like, all right, here we go, Palante, shutting it down. And then in the fifth inning, things just kind of blow up in his face. And you go and you look back, at the box score now and you see the Palante lasted six in the third innings and Marsh last six. But when it started the way it did, you didn't think that that was going to be the case that

Marsh was going to be gone long before. Palante was. And you mentioned Marci striking people out, eight Ks against the Cardinals, only five for Palante. And it's something that I noticed about the Royals offense, which it's something that I've harped on about the Cardinals all year is the strikeout. are just maddening. The amount of strikeouts that the Cardinals hitters will put up each and every day. And I understand that sometimes pitchers are just good and you're going to strike out against these guys. But something that I did take away from those two games was the Royals put the ball in play

a lot more than they strike out. And it leads to a lot of good things happening. You know, you saw a lot of sack flies. You saw people getting moved over in the right situations. and on the other side of things, you see the Cardinals striking out in situations like that. And it's been a problem for them this year with runners in scoring position that they just don't put the ball in play enough. Nolan Gorman and Paul Goldschmidt, who were two of the big thumpers in the Cardinals lineup, strike out nine times yesterday. Nine in the two games.

Like, that's just something that you just cannot have in, especially about two guys that are, you know, in major positions in your lineup. Paul Goldschman batting cleanup. I mean, Cardinal fans were killing him yesterday. Like, why is he still in the four hole? What are we doing? This guy keeps striking out left and right. He's on pace to set way new high for his career in strikeouts for the season. So something maybe Ollie's going to tinker with down the road. And, you know, he did it with Aranato where he moved him down in the lineup to number six. And maybe that's something that'll happen with Paul Goldschmidt. So we'll find out. I want to talk more about game two. I want to talk about where these teams go from here.

And of course, we're going to get into some trade deadline talk with both teams in playoff contention. So I want to get some thoughts on what Jack thinks the Royals might do at the trade deadline. So we're going to get into all of that on this Locked on Cardinals Locked on Royals crossover episode. Remember the first day of school or say the first day at a new job and you'd be wearing that brand new outfit that you picked out, and you know, you're feeling all good about yourself. You got some confidence as you walk in through those doors. Well, did you know that you can get that instant confidence boost back with our friends at Stitch Fix? And get this.

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You'll get the opinions. You get the news streaming 24-7 on YouTube. So no matter what your schedule is, it'll be there for you. Or you can also find it on the free Amazon Fire TV channels app. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. A reminder, you can catch every pitch of the Cardinals hometown broadcasts as their homestand continues this weekend against the Cubbies with Sirius XM. Just download the SXM app and search the word Cardinals.

and thank you for making Lockdown Cardinals and Locked on Royals your first list in every day. Leave your comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X anytime you want that feedback. Always welcome and encouraged. I'm J.D. Hafer from Lockdown Cardinals. We got Jack Johnson from Locked on Royals talking about game two of this series where once again, Cardinals show a little pop early on. Lars Newport, just coming back from the IL hits the home run. And Cardinals are off and running.

You're thinking, all right, here we go again. All right. We're fine. and then the Royals are like, stop it, stop it. And they just kind of take off with things. I can tell you this much, whatever the game plan is against Salvador Perez for the Cardinals, stop it, rip it up, throw it away.

It sucks. It's terrible. He's amazing and I get that. But holy crap, I mean, the bomb he hit in game too, I don't know if it landed over in your neck of the woods, Jack, or what? Because our left fielder, Brennan, had no idea where it went it went so far over the concourse like just an absolute bomb tell me what it's like having a guy a thumper like salvador Perez at this point in his career still doing

the things that he's doing yeah i mean i think this is one of the main reasons why the royals are eight games over 500 i mean there are five games off of where their total was last year it's one of the biggest turnarounds that you know we've seen here in royals history and yeah bobby wood junior Seth Lugo, Cole Regans, they're going to get the talk, right? But Salvador Perez kind of drank from the fountain of youth. I mean, he's a 34-year-old catcher. I've always brought up that, you know, his size, like in the end was going to deteriorate his play. I mean, he's six foot four, 250, 250, 260 pounds. It's hard to go behind the plate every single day at that size. And the Royals know that a little bit. And they've moved him to first base from time to time. But I go back to 2019.

He missed the entire year with Tommy John surgery. And then he had the COVID year, which only played 37 games of the 60. That to me is why he's able to have this offensive resurgence late in his career because he had almost two years off. I mean, he had a year and a half at least off, only getting 37 games over two years. It allowed him to rest his body. And now we can see him hopefully a playoff push,

a Salvador Perez that we had been hoping to see the last. you know, handful of years, 2021, he had the 48 home run season. But he had had a couple of down years and also years where he missed a lot of playing time. And to put him in the forehole to, you know, find that power again, I'm still in awe that, you know, at his age. I mean, 34 is not that old, but, you know, 34-year-olds aren't really hitting 450-foot bombs at 112 miles now or that much. So as a Royals fan, I mean, he's going to have a statue out at Kaufman Stadium one day. he's one of the most beloved royals of all time. And to see him still play like this, to get the nod of the All-Star game, it's a really

cool thing here. I mean, yeah, Bobby Wood Jr., we love to see the future of this team. But to have the past and the present and the future with this team, you know, Salvador Pres being a big part of that. It's awesome to see. Yeah, and specifically after, you know, last year was a terrible year for both of our teams. But there was a lot of chatter that is it time for the royals to move on from Salvador. Perez should they trade him now while he's got some worth left and what does he do this year?

He just comes out and mashes. And it's one of those cool things as somebody from an outsider's perspective to see a guy. You know, we had Yadde and Molina all those years behind the plate for the Cardinals and, you know, never went anywhere else. And it would be odd to go see Salvador Perez at some point getting moved on from Kansas City. So as a baseball fan, it's great to see the Royals progress. and getting better. That way, we don't have to see Salvador Perez wearing pinstrives or in a Dodgers uniform wherever, you know, whoever was going to try to pill for him out of Kansas City. It's nice to

seem. I hate that he's crushing the Cardinals. But when you guys kill everybody else, it's, you know, it's good to see. It's something that, you know, you miss in baseball around this time when we're talking trade deadline and stuff. And you see a lot of these guys, they just, they don't stick around with the same cities and the same teams anymore. So Salvi does still be doing what he's doing in Kansas City, I think is a good thing for Major League Baseball. A guy that's worn a couple of different uniforms, including the Cardinals, was your starter yesterday and Michael Waka in game two.

Thoughts on Michael Waka, because on the Cardinals side of things, because people were like, oh, look at Waka, owning the Cardinals. And I didn't see it that way. I thought they hit Waka pretty good. And there were a lot of balls that just kind of died at the warning track that might have been home runs in a lot of different ballparks. I saw a lot of line drives just going right at other Royals players. And it seemed like there was a little bit of bad luck going on for the Cardinals. But what were your thoughts on what Michael Waka showed you yesterday and

how you feel about him overall this season with the Kansas City Royals? Yeah, Waka was not missing many bats yesterday. So anybody that thought that he was carving up the Cardinals, I just, I don't know what game you're watching because, yeah, he did get, you know, 15 hours. in the game, they were loud. Those scouting outs were very loud. And there was a lot of times that I thought the ball was going to leave the yard. One of my good buddies, David Leske, who covers the Royals as well, he had brought up a stat last night of like balls that were hit over 350 feet.

And I'll just say there were a lot of balls that were hit over 350 feet. And, you know, it was surprising because Michael Walker has been fantastic over his last seven or eight starts. He's having a, you know, carbon copy, you know, two thousand or, or a comparison to his 2023 season in which in April wasn't very good. ERA was in the high five-fives. And then he had like seven to eight, maybe nine starts in a row where it was just pumping out quality start after quality start.

His Vila was up. Even last night he at 95 and 96 a few times. He's been a fantastic addition to the Royals rotation, which is why they're second in the American League in quality starts this year. Because, you know, Seth Lugo, every time he takes the ball, he's going six. settings and he's likely keeping teams the three runs or less. Cole Regans is kind of your wow factor when you throw 98, 99, 100 with a wipeout curveball, wipeout change up.

You know, that's going to be the eye catcher. But Michael Walker has been very steady. And when he was out for about three or four starts and the Royals had to go with Daniel Lynch, it was noticeable. It was very noticeable. The lack of depth this team has in the rotation. And even losing a guy like Michael Walker, who hasn't been lighting up, I think he's been a very good number three in this rotation. But when you lose that number three, especially in Kansas

City, there's not another good arm to throw in there and just keep the pace. Like that's, I think the biggest concern is if the Royals lose one of those top four starters for the rest of the year an extended period, they don't have the depth to just go and eat those endings in the way that these guys have been able to. And that leads me to what we're going to be seeing from both of our teams here in the future. We got the trade deadline coming up here in less than a month now. And it seems like a lot of teams that are in playoff contention are kind of in the same spot.

We're all kind of looking for the same stuff. But I want to get your thoughts on what you think the Royals might target coming up here at the trade deadline, who are some names maybe that you got your eye on. And we'll mix and match and see if there's something going on where maybe the Cardinals and Royals get into a to a vetting war for some of these guys. So we'll talk more about the futures of these two teams and what they might do at the trade deadline coming up next on this Locktown Cardinals, Lockdown Royals, Lockdown Royals, being brought to you by booking.com. Booking dot, yeah, with summer travel heating up, especially travel for baseball games. It's time to explore those U.S. cities that you always secretly wanted to learn more about.

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available on Amazon Fire TV and the Free Fire TV channels app. Locked on Sports today is here for you 24-7 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. Jack Johnson from Lockdown Royals, JD Hafer from Lockedon Cardinals. All right. So what's on tap for the Royals? Cardinals got the Cubbies coming in. It's a four-game series this week in a Bush Stadium. They're going to do a double-header on Saturday. Luckily for the Cardinals, they won't have to face Shota and Managa or Justin Steele, set to pitch against the Orioles today. I'maaga shut down the Orioles on Wednesday night.

So what's on tap for the Royals? Where do you guys go from here? Yeah, one of the biggest series of the year coming up this weekend. They'll be off. today, then they'll head off to Boston to take on the Red Sox at Fenway. And for a lot of Royals fans that have been listening to me, the Red Sox of the team that I think you got an eyeball as for that final wildcard spot. Of course, Houston with their playoff pedigree, they're right on the Royals heels. But, you know, they play later tonight against Oakland, Boston, that is. But they're only a half a game back or ahead of Kansas City in the wild card race.

So the Royals yesterday gained one and a half games in about nine hours on the wildcard spot because the Red Sox lost. So big time series right before the All-Star break, now hoping they take two out of three in that one. So the trade deadline at the end of July, and because of the three wild card spots, there are a lot of teams that are still in the mix here. As much as I know the Royals and the Cardinals looks like we're probably pretty safe, but you never know what's going to happen. We've still got a whole second half of the season to go.

But they both look to be buyers at this year's trade deadline as opposed to what we, we look like last year when both of us were like, we're terrible. Let's start all over, blow it up, whatever we got to do. One year later, here we are. And both teams have made a big turnaround. Cardinals currently second in the wild card behind the Braves. They got the Padres on their heels right now.

And then the Mets have been playing pretty good. You can't rule out the Diamondbacks just yet. You saw the run they went on last year. So what do you think the Royals are, you mentioned pitching, which is something that, you know, everybody wants pitching at the trade deadline. But what is it specifically that you think the Royals are looking for? Because during the telecast yesterday, the one thing that they pointed out for kids, they were like, if there is kind of an issue with what they got going on is maybe they lack a little bit of bullpen depth.

But you mentioned starting rotation stuff in case an injury to Waka, who's, you know, had injuries over his career. If he goes down that there's not a lot of answers there, what are you guys looking for? and who specifically, what are some names that you guys might be looking at? It's got to be bullpen. That's been the thing I've harped on for about a month and a half now where you look at bullpen options, A, they're affordable because the Royals don't have a deep farm system. And B, there's so many relievers out there.

I mean, there's guys that are likely available that we don't talk about a lot and all of a sudden they're going to be dealt to some other team. And that really is the only opportunity I think the Royals can go cash in on getting some help. And they desperately need help in that bullpen. Like when they had a one run lead or a two run lead in the final three innings of game one and then also last night, you have James MacArthur in the ninth. Other than that, it's kind of a toss up. Like Will Smith threw in game one. He sometimes throws theirs. He sometimes does it on hell Serpa through in game two. He sometimes throws in spots like that.

He sometimes doesn't. And the glaring problem with the bullpen has been they don't strike anybody out. So you have a situation of a runner at third, one out. Yeah, you can bring the infield in, but the Royals don't have anybody that can just go ramp it up at 98, 99, 100, blow somebody away. And then you get out of that inning. So they're going to keep their eye, I believe, on a couple of guys. One name that I've been trying to talk a little bit about because of, I think, the affordability would be kind of in the Royals wheelhouse is Michael Kopeck. He's been bad over the last couple weeks, but through a maculate inning yesterday against Minnesota, he's got the big time swing and miss can run it up to 100.

He could be your eighth inning guy. Maybe he's just not a closer or maybe he's not pitching well because he's not on a team that's very good. Carlos Estevez, I know a lot of people are in on. I once thought it'd be an option. I just think there's too many teams and the Royals certainly aren't going to win many bidding wars. And I kind of lump Tanner Scott in that same conversation. But you could look to Oakland as well. They've got Austin Adams down there that could be affordable.

Lucas Ursig is another guy I've brought up a few times. So those five or six names, I think the worlds are trying to keep their eye on. But if it comes down to seven or eight teams being interested, they're not going to outbid any of those other six teams. Yeah, and it's a similar spot for the Cardinals where, you know, you see the big markets, you know, Kansas City considered smaller than St. Louis. Obviously payroll, you can see. Cardinals are willing to spend a little bit more than the Royals ever do.

but, you know, even the Cardinals are kind of like a smaller fish in the big pond when it comes to, you know, Atlanta, the Phillies, the Yankees, the Mets, the Dodgers, you know, all these guys, it seems like they can come in and just take whatever they want from anybody they want. You know, I'm here in the Phillies are like, well, if the Cubs are going to sell, we'll bring in Cody Bellinger. And I'm like, what the hell, man? It's like, we got to add belly to the lineup that's already got all of those stars in Philadelphia. Like, that's not fun. So the Royals and the Cardinals are both kind of in a similar situation. where, all right, so the top tier guys we're probably not going to get because of the fact we're not going to outbid anybody. We aren't going to take on some serious contract for anybody else.

And our farm systems at this point, there's not enough ammo in them to go and make that big splash to go get like a Garrett Crochet instead of Copac from the White Sox. We just don't have it in us to give up what it would likely take to go get somebody like that. So we do have to nibble a little bit. And, you know, you mentioned Tanner Scott for the Marlins. And that's somebody that obviously the big boys are going to be chasing down him too since he's got an expiring contract in Miami. Miami's got some other names. The Washington Nationals got some names that we've talked about on the show before, guys like a Hunter Harvey or a Dylan Floro. Some of those guys that's more of the wheelhouse of where I think our two franchises will be at.

You mentioned some guys in Oakland that maybe you can find. a nice deal on because we don't know what the hell they're doing. They're going to be playing in Sacramento the next couple. I mean, who knows what they're trying to do with the guys they got on that roster. But I feel like the Royals and the Cardals are going to be fishing in the same areas. And so it might come down to what either squad is willing to give up to improve this team as they head towards that trade deadline. How about bats real quick? Do you have any bats that you guys might need? Or do you think you guys will stand packed barring any injuries? I think the one thing that would really help this lineup out is having a consistent lead-off hitter.

That's really come to fruition over the last, you know, month or two is because Michael Garcia, who I'm very high on just isn't a stereotypical lead-off hitter. He doesn't get on base at a high clip. He's not been working the count as deep into games. He's not hitting for, you know, any power anymore. I mean, he's kind of become this singles guy, but not many singles are still showing up in the box score. I mean, he's just, he's had some really, really bad stretches.

So the idea has popped up of, can you go out there and acquire leadoff hitter? You know, Jazz Chisholm was mentioned a few days ago when the Royals would be one of those teams that are interested. I don't think they had the capital to do that. I know Jazz Chisholm is not going to cost the world, but the Royals have one top 100 prospect in a couple of the other rankings. And it's Blake Mitchell and he's still like, I think 92 or 93, if I'm not mistaken. So it's going to take more than that. Another name, kind of going back to the White Sox, Tommy Fam. He's been leading off for them this year, 36 years old, expiring contract.

He feels like he could be affordable just because he's only played in 50 to 60 games this year. He's played well enough. I think he'd pencil in well as a lead off hitter. But I've also had a lot of Royals fans tell me they don't want him in the clubhouse. They don't want him punching players because of fantasy football or trying to start fights. But hey, don't try to make shady trades. He won't bother you there. There you go.

Don't try to cross them. And hey, maybe some teams, there's a reason he's been on a lot of playoff teams because Arizona last year, they go on and acquire them. Maybe they don't make his deep of run if Tommy Pham's not on that team. The overall numbers are never going to jump off the page. But I think some of the underlying metrics and what he can bring from the leadoff spot could be perfect for the Royals and also perfectly affordable. Yeah, yeah.

And again, that's another name that Cardinals fans have thought about too. You know, we're thinking about guys like a Tommy fan, like a Kevin Pilar from the Angels. These are some of the guys. This is the type of tier of player that our teams are going to be looking at. And there's a few of us out there that are going to be like, all right, you guys can go bid for those big names. And we'll be down here. We'll find some pieces to just kind of add to the puzzle of what we hope is a playoff team. So it's going to be a fun couple of weeks heading towards a deadline as some teams fall off.

Some other ones keep going. And hopefully for both of us, our teams continue to go into the right direction, to inspire what you guys do to the Cardinals yesterday. So either way, it was a fun day, unfortunately. It was all in one day. But it was fun to see the Royals again. And we're looking forward to hopefully seeing you guys succeed down the line into the playoffs. And for everything that goes on with the Royals,

make sure you guys are following. Jack, he's available at Johnny J. underscore 15. What's the 15 stand for? You know, this is going to sound so cheesy, but when I created that Twitter like years ago, my name's so basic, I needed a default name, so they just gave me the options. I clicked the first one. And so that 15 is just kind of random. And I tried to change it a couple years after that, and it was too late at that point. So I always tell people, it was, it was computer generated this name. I wasn't trying to be creative or anything. See, we got to come up with something better than that. We got to be like, that's how many left-handed grand slams you hit in your baseball career, something like that.

You got to come up with something. I can lie a little bit. I can be able to. Well, thank you guys for making Lockouton Cardinals and Lockhartals, your first listen every day. Again, if you haven't given us a follow here at the Cardinals channel, you can follow us on Twitter X at L.O. underscore Cardinals and me at JD Sports Radio. Again, Jack, it's Johnny J. underscore 15. Please like and subscribe on YouTube and help our channels grow.

Enjoy your race towards the trade deadline. I'm sure we'll all chit-chat again here very, very soon when we have one of those trade deadline shows talking about what we've added, what we've subtracted, where we're going from here. So it should be a lot of fun. So thanks for hanging out today, Jack. Anytime, and I'm looking forward to doing this again. All right. And thank you guys for being a part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.