Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Cardinals Host The Brewers This Weekend

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cardinals and the Brewers are set to do battle for the first time this year. Why has one franchise flourished recently while the other one has plummeted? This is a Locked on Cardinals, Locked on Brewers crossover. You are a locked on MLB crossover, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, there, baseball fans. I am J.D. Hafford and I'm your host for Locked on Cardinals. Joining me today, Chuck Freeman.

Starting point is 00:00:35 of Locked-on Brewers. We are part of the Locked-on Podcast Network covering your team every day. We want to thank those of you who make Locked-on Cardinals and Locked-on Brewers, your first list in each and every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast, iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts.

Starting point is 00:00:50 Both of us are available on YouTube. Make sure you like, subscribe and comment, and interact with us. Hit the notification button so you don't miss out on any of our post. Time to talk some ball about what's going to go on this weekend. Busy time in the Wisconsin area, Chuck, the NFL draft taking place in Green Bay.

Starting point is 00:01:08 And we're also coming to the end of the first month of the MLB season of both the Brewers and Cardinals are, I think, where most people expected them to be. The Brewers are sitting right at 500 in second place in the Central, three behind the Cubs, who have had a tremendous start to the season, considering who they've been playing, a lot of good teams, while the Cardinals are below 500. They're sitting near the bottom at 10 and 16 with the pirates. The Brewers and Cardinals have been very competitive with the chance. other over the years since Milwaukee came to the National League. But the last couple seasons,

Starting point is 00:01:40 we've seen the Brewers continue to ascend and win the NL Central while the Cardinals have a record below 500, the last few seasons combined. We're going to start with your Brewers, Chuck. They continue to move on for big names, Corbyn Burns, Josh Ader, Willie Adamas, who was a thorn in the side today. Devin Williams, their manager jumped ship and went to the Cubs. But yet the brewers maintain their level of play. And although they haven't seen the success in the postseason that you guys would hope, at least they are winning during the regular season. And they're getting to the postseason each year without breaking the bank on high price free agents.

Starting point is 00:02:20 So what do you, Chuck Freeman, have to say about the brewers and how they continue to succeed? Cheney, first of all, it's great doing a crossover with you as always. You're going to see you, buddy. Go back go, by the way. It took a wide receiver. Am I allowed to say this you're a Packer fan? I don't know if you disclose that to your fans. They all know.

Starting point is 00:02:41 I'm a Packer's fan. I will not have it. I'm an owner for Christ's sake. Let me see that. We are an owner. You are confirmed Packer fan right there, my friend. You know, when he started off this podcast and you said, why is one team plummeted while another team has flourished? Well, 10 years ago, the rules were reversed on this.

Starting point is 00:03:02 Right. We were talking about the Cardinals and the Brewers. you know, one hit wonder and back to being mediocre again. And the Brewers are 13 and 13. They have flourished, even though this past week, it has been a struggle. After the game today, they had a closed door meeting. They just dropped three or four in San Francisco. And up until the series, they had bounced back from an 0-14 start and been playing pretty well.

Starting point is 00:03:30 We're knocking on the door of the Chicago Cubs. So incidentally, we both got to worry about. they're 16 and 10. But the Brewers have been overachievers. That's what they've been the last couple of years, overachievers, and doing all the things and not making errors and getting timely pitching and hitting and all that. This series was not that.

Starting point is 00:03:49 Walks, bad defense, bad base running, so many different things I've worked against them. So right now, I'm hoping it's not going in the wrong direction. They're at the 500 bark, but they continue this. this 10-game road trip Friday night in St. Louis. So looking forward. It doesn't always seem like we play this.

Starting point is 00:04:10 We play each other like the first or second or third series of the year. It's like we've, shouldn't we already have a series in against each other already at this point? I mean, the Cardinals have barely played people in the National League. Like it's been so many American League teams so far this year for us. And as long as we're at home, it's been okay. When we're on the road, it has not been good.

Starting point is 00:04:33 so far this year. But I want to get back to like the to what it is that the, the brewers have done right when it comes to moving on from these big guys. You know, when we have brought up those names that they've said goodbye to. Again, Willie Adomis, who's now with the Giants and all these other names. And yet you maintain a level of competitiveness. It's never like an elite level, I wouldn't say. And you're saying they're overachievers. So it makes me think you're not expecting them to be good each year.

Starting point is 00:04:58 And they keep surprising you. Am I right? You're exactly right in that. The jury still lost. and whether they've replaced Willie Adomas. Now, point in wise, you know, they've been one of the best starting rotations, pitching rotations in the league right now. ERA with the starters, one of the best in league going into the series against San Francisco.

Starting point is 00:05:18 But the Brewers just have called the prospects. They get it, they get the done. They get the job done. I've always said this with this team. The margin of error is very small. And because of that, they have to do all a little thing. correctly, which they had been doing up until this past week. Now, you're probably catching the brewers at a good time right now. The closed door meeting that Pat Murphy had with these guys was,

Starting point is 00:05:46 guys, we got to get back to doing what the things we did. You know, we're the underdog. We go out there and make the plays and not make mental errors and make all the defensive place. And that's what they have been able to do, J.D, to cover up for all these losses by playing sound fundamental baseball, which you guys are well familiar with from your history. Wars had been doing that. It's not like they replaced these guys, these key players with another player or, you know, next man up mentality. They've just done a lot of things right. And a little help from the old baseball gods have been on their side the last couple of them.

Starting point is 00:06:23 It never hurts. It never hurts. They don't say baseball gods for the cardinal success over the years. They call it devil magic is the words that they use for ours. So it makes us sound like like we're some evil schemers over here. But I got to tell you about you guys. Now, you got off to that 3 and 0 start against the twins. Yeah. And you know, expectations were not high for you this year.

Starting point is 00:06:45 Yeah. I'm like, you got to, and I text you. I said, man, I have not. Because I saw that three game series. I'm like, you know, the Cardinals again. You never can count them out. I know it's been tough sliding as of late, though. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:06:58 It's, uh, road woes have been the real issue. But it's also kind of the. way that sadly the way that this franchise has put this year together, you know, talking about maintaining success over the years, you know, when we saw the end of the yachty poo holes in Wainwright era just end with a whimper in those playoffs in 2022. You know, they fall apart and go to last place in 23. Last year they were more competitive and ended up with an above 500 record. But, you know, this offseason ownership slashes the payroll.

Starting point is 00:07:30 So as we're cutting payroll, we're going down. dropped about 40 million and then said that they're going to, you know, they're going to live and die with the young talent, which is something that the brewers have been able to do. You guys have developed some pretty good talents, some young talent, and they've done quite well for the brewers. And I think the cardals are like, well, we want to do that. We want to try to give our guys a chance to, you know,

Starting point is 00:07:54 lead us into this next era of Cardinal baseball. We're not going to go out and sign a bunch of expensive free agents and just kind of patchwork this thing. We're going to try to do it in a more sustainable way. And so far, the issue really has been a lot of that talent hasn't lived up to expectations yet, which has taken its toll on the fan base, on the attendance, because it's really sad to see Bush Stadium at half capacity, Chuck. You know, over the years, we pride ourselves on like,

Starting point is 00:08:23 we are the fan base. It always comes out. Three million fans every year. You know, we're competing with the Dodgers and the Yankees, much bigger cities for attendance records. And it is nothing like that right now. It's really sad. You know, I find myself sometimes, Chuck, this is sad.

Starting point is 00:08:40 You ready to hear this? I will go on to YouTube and watch old videos of games from like the 90s and the 2000s. You know, some of those years with McGuire when the home run chase was going on or the years with, you know, admins and pooholes and Roland and all those guys together and how electric the home games would be and what the crowds were like. And I mean, now you're watching a telecast and you can hear like full on conversations from people below the press box. And then like I mentioned, dad, the depression of it all, they're losing.

Starting point is 00:09:16 They're 10 and 15 overall, 2 and 11 on the road. And people are just not coming out to watch this team. And they're saying they're not going to do it until ownership, at least in their eyes, puts forth the effort to improve this team. and try to win, which is something that they don't seem all that interested in doing for this particular year. They want to win. Don't get me wrong. It's not like they're like, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, you know, tank this whole thing. That's not what they're trying to do, but they're not willing to make the investment to try and go get wins now. The focus has turned to

Starting point is 00:09:50 rebuilding the player development portion of their franchise, which had fallen well below the times in a major way compared to the rest of the league. league. They're moving on from John Moseilock at the end of the year and they're going to let Hyne Bloom take over to leave this new regime. But this year has become essentially to a lot of fans meaningless, which is really leaving a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths because they're not competing for a division title, let alone a world championship, which is, you know, it's the bar. That's what you're supposed to be doing, right? Well, you're not supposed to take a year off just to do it. You're supposed to be competing each and every year and they're not going to. And it's really been a

Starting point is 00:10:28 tough pill for the fans to swallow. And they're voicing that, that opinion and displeasure by just not coming to game. So I'm hopeful that some of your Brewers fans will make the track south and come down to St. Louis, fill out some of these red seats so it doesn't

Starting point is 00:10:43 look so empty over this weekend. But we will get into your game time app. Get all the games. Plenty of seats are available, Chuck. I can promise you that. And they'll get cheaper as we get closer to games. time. We're going to talk about the good and the bad of each team, like what has been the

Starting point is 00:11:03 downfall for both teams. Chuck mentioned starting pitching's been good for the Brewers. Well, what's going on? Why are they at 500? Things haven't been so bad for the Cardinals offensively yet. There are five games under 500. So something's up. We'll talk about it all coming up next on this crossover episode of Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Brewers. Did you know that your fire TV is also an Xbox. But you didn't know that. Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with fire TV stick 4K devices. No console is required. That's right. Just grab your paired controller, subscribe or sign into Xbox GamePass Ultimate with EA play included and you're ready to play. You can dive into hundreds of premium titles from, you know, EA sports college football

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Starting point is 00:12:38 Xbox GamePass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required, available on select devices, including Fire TV Stick 4K, 2K Gen, Fire TV Stick 4K Max first and second gen, and Fire TV Cube, third gen. Thanks again for making Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Brewers, your first listen every day. Your feedback is always welcome and encouraged on our YouTube page as well as on Twitter and X. So what's been going right and what's been going wrong with each team so far this year? We're going to start with the Brewers, Chuck. Good or bad? The floor is yours. You kind of mentioned that starting pitching's been pretty good for the

Starting point is 00:13:19 brewers. What else you got for us? Well, the pitching, they've got several players who they're counting on to be frontline starters who are on the injured list, but other guys have stepped up and it provided pretty good starts for these guys. Tobias Myers returned on Thursday. So, so start, walk some guys and all that. Yeah, the starting pitching has been pretty good. And up until this week, the decision making has been pretty good, the base stealing, the defense, and all that. Not bad. But lately, it is what has not been good, actually what's not been good the whole in season is the left side of the infield. Namely, J.D., shortstop, Ortiz moved over to shortstop when they lost Adama's of San Francisco. And Ortiz has been one of the worst hitters in Major League

Starting point is 00:14:04 baseball right now. They got him Ortiz and the Corbyn-Burns deal a couple of seasons ago in the off-season. And he's not been very good at shortstop. And at third base, the Brewers did nothing to solve the third base spot during the off-season. They got Caleb Durbin in the Devin-Williams trade. And Durbin, a prospect with the Yanks, has been pretty good so far. So far, he's been in the starting line up, about a week now. And Murphy said, you're my everyday third baseman because the platoon situation of Capra and Oliver Dunn had been just brutal at third base. So I'm hoping that there's going to be some more production over, over third base, but so far, the left side of that infield, they give no power. There's no power. And that's been a problem and very little,

Starting point is 00:14:56 very little production. With all that said, and the injuries that they've had, the starting pitching, still kind of amazing, despite the 0 and 4 start, that they've climbed to 13 and 13. But after dropping three or four to the Giants, we'll see where they go when they go to St. Louis coming up Friday night. Yeah, it was because until this past series, things were going quite well for you guys.

Starting point is 00:15:19 Like you mentioned, after that Yankees series, which was crazy, right? Like, whatever was going on, I don't know if we're blaming bats or whatever. It was just one of those like, holy crap, the Yankees came out hot. And the crews were just like, okay, okay, very early. We're not going to be like this the whole time. And then you guys ride in the ship a little bit.

Starting point is 00:15:39 And then, you know, tough going in San Francisco where, you know, the Giants have been a good team so far this year, which I think has surprised some people so far, kind of like the angels. The angels have been a surprise team that have been beating some capable teams thus far. What's the ballpins? been like with you guys, you know, moving on from Devin Williams, things still is locked down as ever at the end of the bullpen or are they still trying

Starting point is 00:16:03 to figure things out? Yeah, McGill takes over the closer spot. Abder Ribe was not good on Thursday, although he had been pretty good. And some other guys out there doing a nice job in the bullpen. They just called up one of their top pitching prospects, Craig Yoho, to fill out the bullpen. I'm satisfied with the bullpen. They have Pyeamps who has not been good in three outings this year.

Starting point is 00:16:24 And I'm not saying good. He's given a couple of those outings, those three outings. He gave four, five, six runs. Just been bad. So the bullpen, I'm still okay with it. They've covered up for the loss of Devin Williams, especially Williams, has been terrible in New York. So, you know, I think right now the brewers are what they are.

Starting point is 00:16:45 We'll find out very soon here which direction they're going to go. I said before the season, J.D., that this team, I don't think they were capable of winning 90 games, but they're capable of winning mid-80s and still winning the division. I still think they're the best team of the division. The Cubs are going to be a problem, though, to catch. They're three games behind the Cubs. What about you guys? Like I said, you got off to that 3-0 start,

Starting point is 00:17:07 then you lost that first game against the Angels. And, you know, you played a couple of tough teams since then. The Mets are just on a roll. You won that one game in Atlanta the other night, 10 to 4, but they beat you in a series as well. Yeah, it was, you know, the Angels won it was a series. that you were upset with because you lost a couple of games there that you really probably should have won, but you end up losing them in extra innings.

Starting point is 00:17:32 You lose that game that Fetty was throwing a no-no through six innings to the pirates and extra innings. You know, there's been some games where they certainly were right there winning. Outside of the disaster that was the game in Boston on Sunday night baseball, which was just a pathetic showing all around, like that was just embarrassing. outside of that game. Most of these games have been tight and have been competitive. I'm not going to say that the Cardinals have just been a team that the teams can roll over on. And they're just, you know, they come in, they beat us and then move on with their lives.

Starting point is 00:18:05 I mean, like you said, we've played some tough teams. The Angels caught him a little off guard by winning two out of three there. Boston sweeps them. The Mets look like the best team in the National League, even better than the Dodgers right now, like the way they're playing. I mean, they just swept them. So you have that, you have that going on. So you got a hot team there. Atlanta after their cold start, they were a hot team. You're able to get, as you mentioned, the one win there.

Starting point is 00:18:31 But they've been playing much, much better over the last week or so. But you were able to beat the Phillies. And that was in the Astros. You took two or three from both of those. Again, those were home games, though, where the team has been much better on the road. It's where they have struggled a lot. And a lot of that has to do with the bullpen. So the bullpen has just not been good.

Starting point is 00:18:54 They've got some of the worst numbers in the league. They're bottom five in the ERA, bottom 10 and batting average against. They've got eight losses already attributed to the bullpen, two relievers, which is tied for the most in baseball. And although it's not all of them, like they haven't all just been bad. But, you know, as well as I do, you know, you can't just throw the same three guys out there every day because you'll be dead by June. You won't have any arms left. So those other relievers, they got to step up and do their jobs. And it sinks the whole pen when two or three guys just aren't giving you what you need.

Starting point is 00:19:32 And that's usually how these games have been lost, where the Cardinals are either within scoring distance, like one run, or they're tied, or they might even have a lead. And then it just evaporates over the seventh and eighth innings before we can even get to Ryan Housley, the closer. So that's been a problem is how does Ali connect the dots to go from the starting rotation, which overall hasn't been too bad. Honestly, you got Eric Fetty, 3.33 ERA. Sunny Gray is at 3.41, Matthew Libertor at 3.60. Palante's just over 4.05. You got Michaelis at 5.7.

Starting point is 00:20:07 Thanks to that one really bad game in Boston that we don't try to talk about too much. You got. Stephen Matt's. Stephen Matt's because they've gone to a six-man rotation right now because of how many games are playing over the next couple weeks. His ERA is at 1.86. And if I told you and I told fans and gave you those numbers, that's what the starting rotation's numbers are going to be.

Starting point is 00:20:29 At the end of April, you probably wouldn't complain. You would think this team was doing all right. And then offensively, their second in team batting average in Major League Baseball, 264, behind only the Cubs. They're fifth and OBP in the league. They're sixth and sluggy. fifth and OPS. Again, if I told you this, and I gave you those starting rotation numbers, and then I gave you those offensive numbers, I don't think a lot of fans would complain.

Starting point is 00:20:56 You'd be like, oh, all right, so we're doing okay. And then you look up and you're 10 and 15, and it's really been the bullpen. Ollie can't seem to push the right buttons. And I'm not blaming Ollie, and I know a lot of fans are upset with him. I think he's a terrible manager. And that's fine if you want to think that. but Chuck, if you've got seven bullets and a gun and five of them are duds, what are you supposed to do? It makes it really difficult for any manager.

Starting point is 00:21:27 But the thing about it is you knew going into this season that it was going to be, if you want to call it like a throwaway season, it was going to be one of those that you talked about or a rebuilding season. So we knew this was going to happen with the Cardinals. You know, even that said, though, I don't like the fact that. that the brewers are going in the St. Louis, and St. Louis is not playing well. Because the Cardinals are still the Cardinals, and it's a divisional rivalry, okay? Divisional game. So I don't say, oh, I'm just, I'd be delirious that the Brewers can go in there and take two or three and play because of some good baseball. I'm not expecting to go in there and sweeping. Brewers aren't good

Starting point is 00:22:04 enough to be like that. They're not the Dodgers. They're not the Yankees. So I do not like the fact that we're catching the Cardinals when they're not. playing very well because that could turn around in an instant. And here's the thing, it's not that they're really playing that bad. Like the sweep in New York with the Mets where they lost four straight, which they hadn't done since 1986, but it's been pointed out to me multiple times. How many times are you play four games series against guys anymore, which is true. But at the same time, they were close games. It wasn't like the, the Mets just bashed them to death, but they beat them because they're a better team. Atlanta, you know, wins this

Starting point is 00:22:42 last game four to one and it was a tight game until the seventh, eighth inning. So it's not like they're getting clobbered by teams. They're just like one guy away, you know, and it's like they go to one guy. And the hard part about it too, Chuck, is I want to mention this too. So last year when the Cardinals did win 83 games, one of the main reasons why they did win that many was because the bullpen was good. And they didn't have that much turnover into this year. They were like, okay, we should be okay here, right?

Starting point is 00:23:12 They moved on from your boy, Andrew Kittridge, but brought in Phil Maton instead. And everybody's like, everybody's going to be fine, right? And it's been weird that guys like Ryan Fernandez, who was very good last year, rule five pick last year that they had to keep on the roster has been abysmal this year. Like he's just getting clobbered as he already is over 11. Jojo Romero has been nowhere near as good as he was last year. And those are two of the big pieces that they were supposed to be seventh, eighth inning guys. they're supposed to be that bridge to get you to Helsley.

Starting point is 00:23:45 And if those guys come in, it just seems like it falls apart each time for the Cardinals right now. And they don't have anybody in the minors to bring up that they're willing to, you know, say like, well, we'll give these guys a chance. No, these are the guys. Ollie's exact words where these are the guys. And we just got to, we got to work through it. We got to figure it out. So that's kind of, I think, might be a key to this series, because it has been for every series they've lost.

Starting point is 00:24:12 so far is if you can get through the rotation and get to that bullpen. If you can burn them out by inning six, you have kind of a good chance to beat the Cardinals right now because they don't know what to do to get to Ryan Helsley at the end of a game to close it out. Well, the Brewers are kind of the same situation with when I was talking about the left side of the infield. Those are the guys.

Starting point is 00:24:34 Yeah. As much as you can't complain about them, they're not being, nobody's trading their third basement. We're not going to do Ryan McMahon from Colorado or anybody else. Nobody's trading their guys at this point and sending a message to their fan base. We're out of the race. The Brewers, as Ortiz is struggling, you're going to turn to Andrew Monasterio, who's actually hitting pretty well down in AAA, but no, you're not going to do that.

Starting point is 00:24:58 So these guys can go out there and keep playing. They're going to be in a lineup every game because there's nobody else to turn to. It's kind of a tough position to be in, you know, there's no competition there. I got you. Well, we're going to get into these rotations. We've got pitching matchups. We're going to let you know who's going up against two who the scheduled starters are.

Starting point is 00:25:20 And then we'll give you our picks to click for this series. Who are going to lead our teams to victory? We'll have that for you coming up next on this Locked on Cardinals, Locked on Brewers crossover episode. Once again, thanks for making Lockton Cardinals and Lockedown Brewers. Your first listen today for your second listen, check out the all new Lockdown MLB game night, every game, every night.

Starting point is 00:25:48 all season long at 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. Jady Hafer from Locked on Cardinals, Chuck Freeman from Locked on Brewers. Pitching matchups in this one. A couple of names that maybe Cardinal fans are not all that familiar with. Chad Patrick will be on the mound for the Brewers on Friday night against Matthew Libitor. What can you tell me about Chad Patrick?

Starting point is 00:26:14 He's the guy the Brewers got for the A's last year. and they put him in the farm system, and last year it was 14 at 1, down in the minor leagues, AAA. He was great, yeah. He was fantastic. So they called him up because they needed someone, they needed starting pitching. So he did not make the spring training roster,

Starting point is 00:26:31 or he did not make the opening day roster, but he was on the spring training roster. So they called them up, and he's been real good in all three of three, four of his starts so far, four of his starts, been really, really good. So we'll see. He's yet to have really a clunker in any of his outing so far. So that's his book on him. Strong pitcher so far and looks like a guy who

Starting point is 00:26:53 belongs in the major league level. What about your guy? Is he, is he a power pitcher? Like, what kind of pitcher is he? Mixes it up. He's got the slider change up. He's got a few different pitches. He's not overpowering by any means. He's not, he's not coming in throwing 102. I don't have anybody that's in a starting rotation. Unfortunately, like that. But Maddie Libert tour for the Cardinal side of things. on Friday night. Left-hander, he was part of the Rania-Rosa-Rana trade with the Tampa Bay raised a few years ago. And Rani and Rosarana went on to become the god of baseball for a couple years, and specifically in the postseason, Libby, it's been a little while to get him to find

Starting point is 00:27:32 his niche. They had him in the pen last year for most of the year where he was very successful at the back end. That's one of the things that it's missing a little bit for the bullpen this year, is he was a guy that you could bring in with struggle against Ritey's, but lefties. He was completely dominant and he's become a starter this year. And early on, he was still having some trouble figuring on how to get the right handers out. He's still, you know, much tougher against lefties than righties, but he's been pretty darn good over his last couple of starts, 25 years old. He's a good young arm. So usually has maybe like one inning where he's just kind of like, and then most of the rest of the time, it's pretty solid so far. So we've been pretty pleased.

Starting point is 00:28:13 Quinn Priester against Sunny Gray on Saturday afternoon. Sunny Gray don't really have to tell you much about him. We've seen him with a number of different teams, Minnesota, the Cincinnati Reds, the A's, the Yankees. Quinn Priester, though, I remember him being in Pittsburgh's farm system. How do you end up in Milwaukee? And how's he been for you guys? Who's that? I missed that.

Starting point is 00:28:33 Skip the second. Quinn Prester. You're your starter on Saturday. Quinn, you know, you got it for the Red Sox when they really need a pitching help early in the season. and Priester has been, well, he wasn't very good in his last start, but real good in his first two starts with Milwaukee. And the Brewers, I thought, gave up too much for him. They gave one of their top prospects, you know, 18-year-old kid,

Starting point is 00:28:57 who I think has got a great potential, a compensatory first-round pick and just some cash. And just I didn't like what they gave away for him. So far, he's been pretty good. And it's going to be in the rotation. we'll see how long he hangs in the rotation. That's up to him. But the Brewers are going to have several players coming off the injured list very soon.

Starting point is 00:29:20 Maybe Brandon Woodruff as well. They just got Elias Myers back. But Prester's been good. He's been real good except for his last start. But he's had three good outings in a row or three outings in the row. Two good. Those last one, not so much. No, come.

Starting point is 00:29:35 Sunday, another afternoon game. It'll be Eric Fetty, who the Cardinals acquired. from the White Sox last year, part of the three-team trade that sent Tommy Edmund to the Dodgers, where once again, a former Cardinal becomes a god in the postseason and goes crazy, and he's having an excellent season so far. So Cardinal fans are still not all that happy with that particular trade, although Eric Feddy has not pitched all that bad this year. He's been pretty good. And in fact, he's been excellent, but the bullpen tends to blow the games that he ends up starting. Former Cardinal Jose Quintana set to start for the Brewers on Sunday.

Starting point is 00:30:11 How's he fitting in? Because I was extremely upset when I saw that he signed with the Brewers because that's exactly where I didn't want him to be. I didn't want him in the division. I got a lot of respect for Q. And I think he's a really good pitcher and he's got a lot to offer. How has he been so far for you guys? He's just been fantastic.

Starting point is 00:30:30 In fact, I hate that. Three and oh, he's come in and won his first three games with the Brewers so far. And you know that he's he's played with everybody. And I don't think the Brewers will be his last team either. But the Brewers got him really cheap. One year, $4.5 million. And already he's earned that. And I just on my podcast the other day, locked on Brewers.

Starting point is 00:30:52 I was talking about all the money that all these other teams spent on guys. And so far, they would all love to have Jose Kentana with the Brewers didn't get until spring training. But he's been very good so far. classic Kentana veteran pitcher mid 30s and three and no first he's the first brewer to become to be three and oh when his first three starts with the team since Cici Sabathia came here in 2007 so that's pretty good comparison it's been 18 years since somebody has won the first three started as a brewer when the Cardinals let Cantana walk after that 2022 season.

Starting point is 00:31:33 I didn't even understand. I was like, what are we doing? Like, what are we doing? Like, what is this guy? He's not expensive. You just had him starting game one in your your wild card series against the Phillies. That's how good he was after you acquired him.

Starting point is 00:31:50 And you just let him walk away. You just were like, fine, we're fine. It's unbelievable to me. The Mets are the same thing. The Mets pitch Kentana against the, Brewers in the wild card. They just let him walk. They paid Baniya.

Starting point is 00:32:05 And they're not getting anything out of there. They paid him for him. And they had no interest in resigning Kintana. Yeah. I was supremely bummed when he got away. And then I was even, I just became angry. When I was like, dang those brewers, they're so smart. Got a guy that is going to be good for him as long as he's healthy.

Starting point is 00:32:24 He certainly came out of their price. That's the reason why he's here. Yeah. Well, what did you say? Four and a half million is what they're paying him this year. Yeah. We're paying house Michael is $17.5 million. It's ridiculous.

Starting point is 00:32:35 It's dumb. I don't understand it. I never well, but whatever. I'm moving on. All right. Picks to click for this series. Who's the one hitter you got on your mind this series that you think's going to go wild against the St.

Starting point is 00:32:47 Louis Cardinals? Brewer fans aren't going to like this because they're down on him right now, but I think Christian Yelich. Are they mad at him because he dropped that fly ball and left? Well, he not only did he drop a domic by the barball, But, you know, he's hitting, he had the back surgery last year. And he's showing signs from time to time. He hit a grand slam the other night.

Starting point is 00:33:09 But he's a guy, I'm going to say, is going to have a big series against St. Louis. And watch, he's going to go over 12. I hope he does, too. I hope he does. Chuck, I hope he's terrible. What do you like? Let's see. You got two righties starting.

Starting point is 00:33:26 You got a lefty on Sunday. Give me, you know, who's? been warming up. I'm going to tell you, give me, give me your catcher's older brother, Wilson Contreras in this series. Okay. Horrible starts of this year. Amazing spring. Horrible start. Starting to turn things around a little bit. He's also a guy that switched to that torpedo bat after a couple of bad weeks of hitting. And I just saw him on Thursday night at the St. Louis Blues game, which they whoop the Winnipeg Jets. He was there in a blues jersey. Got to a standing ovation on the jumbo trana.

Starting point is 00:34:02 He's feeling good. He's got the good vibes going. Give me some Wilson Contreras teaching your little baby contraris catcher a lesson or two about hitting in this series, which means that your catcher will go off and mine will go over. I always tell my listeners, I say, man, whatever I like, take the opposite. Yeah, it seems to work out their way all the time. All right. Well, let's wrap it up, Chuck.

Starting point is 00:34:26 Thank you guys for making LockoCardos and Locked Up Brewer is your first listen. every day if you haven't already. Make sure you guys give us a follow on X. Chuck, what's your, what's your handle on X? Just Chuck Freeman, right? Freeman, F-R-E-I-M-U-N-D. Find us on Google, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, number one brewer podcast on the internet because the great brewer fans out there and you guys are destroying it to St. Louis as well, J-D. Amen, brother. Like, subscribe to both our channels on YouTube. Help our channels grow. the more of you, the more episodes come and the more fun we have. So find us on Instagram and TikTok as well.

Starting point is 00:35:02 Enjoy the series. I'm sure Chuck will talk again post-series to discuss us all that went down over this weekend at Bush Stadium.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Cardinals Host The Brewers This Weekend

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