Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Depressing Offseason Incoming?

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

- Sad Reality Of The Cardinals Offseason - Jordan Walker To 1st Base? Not So Fast - Pick Your Manager... Yadier Molina, Albert Pujols Or Skip Schumaker Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… ���� https://link.chtbl.com/LOSTLCardinals?sid=YouTube Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLB Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! PrizePicks Download the app today and use code LOCKEDONMLB to win $50 instantly when you play your first $5 lineup. PrizePicks. Run Your Game. Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONMLB Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel You can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) #ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As speculation about where upcoming free agents may go picks up, it is a sad reminder for Cardinal fans of how different this offseason is going to be. 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. I'm J.D. Hafford and I'm a national radio sports anchor, born and raised in the Lou and a Lifetime Cardinals fan. And I'm your host for Locktown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, covering your team every day.

You can follow me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio. Also follow the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals. What I think those of you who make Locktown Cardinals. You first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. You can also find us on YouTube. This is a show serving Cardle Nation and giving the best fans in baseball. All of the info about the birds on the bat.

Today's episode brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account. Use that code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Now, as a Cardinals fan, for as long as I can remember, the offseason was always something to look forward to, right? You didn't want the season to end, but you're excited about the possibilities of what might take place in the offseason. I mean, who doesn't love to go shopping for new toys each and every year, right? Which is what the off season has been for the most part for the Cardinals for the better part of the last couple of times. decades, right? It's like when you're a kid. You're a kid and your parents go, hey, make a

Christmas list or what do you want for your birthday? You get to make a list and you get to pick out all the little fun things that you're hoping to get. You know, I want that new transformer. I want that video game. And sometimes, sometimes you get what you asked for. And sometimes you wouldn't. But the excitement of it all, the anticipation of what could be was always an exhilarating feeling, right? You remember these feelings. Don't say you don't. This year, sadly, Cardinal fans will not have those feelings this offseason. Instead, this year, we're going to be getting socks and underwear, whether you like it or not. Sox and underwear instead. Yes, yes, yes, we need socks and underwear.

Okay, everybody does. It's not a whole lot of fun to go shopping for those things, right? Or putting them on, you know, when you get something cool for your birthday or Christmas and you put it on, I still remember to this day a Michael Jackson jacket. I was a wee little kid and my parents got me a janet. Was it? Is it parents or grandparents got me this Michael Jackson jacket? And they specifically, and I remember this, they were like, do not wear this to bed.

I know you're excited, but don't do it. I did it anyway. They took a photo of me laying in bed just and got my Michael Jackson jacket on. You don't wear your socks and underwear that you just got to bed because you're excited about that gift. Unless you get some fun socks like I do from time to time. I got these suit. I wish I had them on me. I'll show them to you tomorrow.

but some very fun Michael Myers Halloween themed socks that I get. I love Halloween. So my sock game is at a different level than a lot of people. It's not the black and whites. I get creative. But anyways, not the point. Sox and underwear are not fun presents. Okay, that's what I'm trying to get to.

Clothing in general is not a fun present. It's necessary, but it's not a fun present. And this offseason, it's becoming more and more apparent that this is going to be a very slow and boring offseason for Cardinal fans. They're going to fill some spots. They're going to have to. But it's not going to be anything fun. It's not going to be the new toy that you're excited about.

It's just not. In fact, the only real excitement, or maybe it's going to be anxiety, that you're going to feel this offseason is which Cardinals veteran player that you have grown to love over the years and maybe even bought one of their jerseys is going to get shipped out of town for financial purposes. Okay, these are things that we have not had to. to deal with as cardinal fans. We have been very spoiled over the years.

A lot of teams go through this cycle where they don't get to stay competitive on a steady basis, year after year after year like the Cardinals have. They have to go through this stuff much quicker. And as Cardinal fans, we haven't had to deal with it. And now here we are. And just speaking for myself as a spoiled Cardinal brat, I hate this, man. This sucks. in all my years as an adult watching this team, loving this team,

I've never had to go through this. Losing Albert Pooleholds and free agency was a real kick to the junk. But when you realized how much more the angels offered him and were willing to pay him, you couldn't blame Albert for leaving and taking that deal. And it proved to be a bad deal for the angels who are really good at giving out bad deals to players. they've been guilty of doing that on multiple occasions. Anthony Rendon, Josh Hamilton, but they're able to let Shoahotani walk.

You know, I mean, make it make sense. Imagine if you were an Angels fan. Gave all that money to Mike Trout. Nobody thought it was such a bad idea, and he's been hurt every year since. But I've never seen the Cardinals actively trying to reduce payroll. Like, dude, we got to shave some stuff here, man. we're in trouble to the extent where anyone making significant money could be on the move.

I've never gone through this as far as I can remember. And I understand the business reason why that this is happening. But the fan side of me absolutely hates this. I freaking hate it. When they acquired Nolan Aronado, I was so excited. I admired him from a forefront. far when he was with the Rockies, just a big fan of his work ethic, his love for the game, the attitude that he brought to the field. I used to buy tickets on purpose on the third

base side, as close as I could, just so I could be in the proximity of Nolan Aronado. This is when he was with the Rockies before he even became a Cardinal, just so I could watch him play up close. I had so much respect for him. Still do. But, you know, he just had that old school kind of feel about him, which I really appreciated. And I respected so much. And when the trade happened, you know, because we had kind of been teased over the years that, Hey, no one Arnano, the Cardinals, maybe. And when it never happened and it just kept getting teased, I was like, well, we're not going to get this guy.

And then when it happened, I couldn't believe it. Nolan Arnato was a St. Louis Cardinal. I thought he retired a St. Louis Cardinal. And now he could be gone. You know, Wilson Contreras, the Wilson Contreras signing, although not as personal to me. I was never a catcher, so it didn't mean much to me about guy. You know, I'm just not as into it as I was about, you know,

an infielder, third baseman or a short snap like I was for Aronado. But it was one that made sense after Yadi retired. If you remember, they weren't worried about the defensive side of being a catcher, which, you know, obviously Lilsa Contreras is not. Nobody really is as good as Yadi was, not by a long shot. but the complaint in 2022 is that the catching position was a black hole in the lineup. It was just like an automatic out. So they went and got the best hitting catcher available in free agency.

They were like, all right, what new toy can we bring in? Remember, we got to talk about maybe trading for Sean Murphy from the A's or was Wilson Contreras, the right fit? Were we going to trade with the Blue Jays for one of their three catchers? The hitting side of him is worked out. He's hit quite well. Injuries robbed him and us of what appeared to be a really good season for Willie this year. He looked much more comfortable behind the plate as a catcher. None of the nonsense from 2023 with talks of moving him to left field, wherever the hell that was. He was the number one catcher. And he was also one of your top DHS as well. He was going to be in the line of just about every day. And he was hitting the hell out of the ball.

But then the broken forearm in May and later the broken finger after hit by pitch in August, just fluke accidents. and it was over. Now he could be gone. Sunny Gray. Sunny Gray seemed like a perfect fit for the St. Louis Cardinals, in my opinion. After Waino retired, the Cardinals moved on from Jordan Montgomery and Jack Flaherty and needed a new guy to lead the rotation. Sunny is coming off a second place finish in the American League side. Young made sense, you know, a veteran guy, but not like a super old guy.

We're not talking about, you know, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson aged. type of guy. You know, we're talking about a guy who's, who's 34, great strikeout stuff, fiery attitude on the mound, a competitor through and through something that all of us respected. And after one year, where he had very respectable numbers, and I know people get very mad, like, not an ace, he's a number two, he's not really as good as we think he is. he still won 13 games for a team that only won 84, had an ERA of 3.84, had over 200 strikeouts. He was everything you wanted him to be,

unless you were hoping that he would go out and win 20 games, which is not what he did last year either with twins, if you remember, gave up a lot more home runs this year. That was something I did not expect. But other than that, everything else that he did, I thought that's what he was going to do. I was more than happy with what I got from Sunny Gray this year. year now he might be gone and it saddens me to see how things have gotten so out of whack with the

st louis cardinals organization it bugs the hell out of me that this is where we're at and this is what this franchise has to do they've made enough mistakes to where this is where they have to go and it's the right move don't get me wrong it's the right move they need to do this it's time to this doesn't mean I have to like it it doesn't mean I have to enjoy it they didn't win anything with these guys as great as Nolan Aronado and Paul Goldschman and Will's Contreras and sunny gray and Ryan Heldley all these guys that we are feeling like are great players they don't win anything with them so why keep running it back with them I get it I don't have to like it and neither do you it's okay to be upset about it and if you want to point fingers

and who did what to get us here. That's fine too. That's something we discussed already. A lot of blame to go around. A lot of blame to go around. It's just a bummer. It's just a bummer. And I just, you know, wanted to kind of get that off my chest talking about things

because I was going through at the athletic today. And Jim Bowden had written up, and I think it was his top 45 free agents to be coming up this year. and what were the best places that they could land. You know, he always does that article where he's like, okay, and this is the spots that make the most sense for him. Not one of them. This is the first time I've ever seen this.

Not one of them was a fit for the cardinals because he knows they're not going to pay any of these guys. And it was rough. I'm going through it. And I'm like, obviously you got the familiar names like, Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers. You know, you got the expensive guys, Phillies, whatever. And usually you have the Cardinals kind of sprinkled in there. As you know, this would be a good fit.

Not one. Not one. So it started making me feel pretty damn bad. And so I wanted to share with you how bummed out I was. I want to get some fan feedback next. We've got to talk about replacing Paul Goldschmidt, an episode we did earlier this week. Some talk about Yadi's new managerial position and that question I posted for you guys on our Twitter page.

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after you play your first $5 lineup. Price picks, run your game. Thanks for making Locked on Cardinals your first listen every day. You can leave your comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X anytime you want your feedback. It is always welcome and encouraged. And we do these fan feedback segments during the show specifically during the offseason when there's just not a ton of action going on,

but it's also a way to kind of get your opinions heard and get your voice out there as well. Recently, we did a show talking about replacing Paul Goldschmidt at first base. My guy Chuck over at Locked on Brewers, he was just texting me the other day, and he's like, Goldie to Milwaukee starting to heat up. And I was like, oh, yeah, which obviously would suck for the Cardinals, because that means you'd have to face him a bunch of times. And undoubtedly, he would destroy us in those games, specifically at Miller Park in Milwaukee,

where he's just always hit the ball well, even with the Cardinals, with Diamondbacks. He sees the ball well in Milwaukee. So that would be a bummer if Paul Goldsmith remained inside the division and ended up signing with the Brewers or even with the Cubs. I've seen talk about that as well. But we mentioned a bunch of different. names, ways they could fill the void over at First Bay. Some were realistic than others.

So if you've missed that episode, I encourage you to go back and check it out. But we've got some feedback from some of our listeners about things. And most people agreed that what they think is going to happen is what I thought was going to happen, which is probably more of an Alec Berluson, Lucan Baker, maybe Yvonne Herrera, some sort of combination of internal options that will become your first basement. You know, it's not going to be one guy. You know, you've got the splits between Baker and Berlison. It makes sense.

Can they play defense? I don't know. They're not going to be as good as Goldie. I can almost guarantee you that because he's been a gold glove caliber defender at first base for a very long time. That they're going to miss. But the offense, the Goldie has supplied in the last couple of years after his MVP year, I think they can recreate it with Baker and Burleson.

So that's where I think it's going. But another option that was brought up was possibly Jordan Walker going over to first base. And there were many people who had some opinions on Jordan Walker playing first base and why he's in the outfield still. One of them was Stephen in the Lou says, I still don't know why they still see Walker as an outfielder. The guy can't even be a plus player due to his poopie defense. I substituted poopie in for a different work. case you're wondering. He says, I get that he has improved a bit,

but he should be a first baseman or D.H and just concentrate on hitting. That's what big lumbering guys do. This has been a very stupid organization for far too long. All right. Well, Stephen, thank you for participating and giving us your opinion about Jordan Walker in the outfield and you'd rather see him at first base. And I think moving him to first or focusing.

on DH. It's an option, obviously, at some point. But Jordan Walker is still 22 years old, right? He's still 22. I think there is still hope out there that his athleticism will allow him to become a better outfielder. Some forget that he's only been out there for two seasons now. He did not play outfield in high school. He was not playing outfield in the minor leagues until the Cardinals said, hey, we want you to start working on this. That was two years ago. So this will be year number three. And he has shown improvement. He's nowhere near where fans want him to be and probably where this organization thought he would be. They probably thought that he would have been a better outfielder than this already. But he's still learning. He's still learning out there.

And I know he's a big guy. but he's not a big lumbering guy, all right? So I don't know where this idea that Jordan Walker is some just huge, massive, slow guy out there on the outfield. I mean, I know he's the size of Giancarlo Stanton, but runs infinitely better than Giancarlo Stanton. I know you guys had to, if you're watching the World Series, you saw him get thrown out at home the other night and so many memes and jokes online about Stanton's speed on that one.

Jordan Walker is not that. He runs rings around John Carlos Stanton as far as speed goes. His sprint speed is in the 78 percentile of all of Major League Baseball. And if you go to Baseball savant.com, which is a great website if you have to go there, but tons of stats. So if you're at a stat nerd, you're going to go crazy there. If you cycle down and you make it where it's like, Okay, who are the fastest guys on the St. Louis Cardinals relative to sprint speed.

So feet per second. Jordan Walker is at 28.4. What does that mean? Right? You're like, well, I don't know what the hell it means, right? It means that he only trails Victor Scott, who was at 30, Jose for me, 28.9, and Mason went at 28.8. He's a fraction faster than Michael Siani, who I think a lot of us would agree pretty quick dude out there in center field, right?

Siani's sprint speed feet per second, 28.3. Jordan Walker is at 28.4. He runs extremely well. And all of those guys are quite tiny compared to the size of Jordan Walker in his 6-6-250-pound frame. He's also got a cannon for an arm, 97th percentile in all of baseball in arm strength. He just is not very good at judging the fly ball shit. That's his problem, which I know, kind of a big deal as an outfielder. I get it. But you're hoping that that area of his game will improve with more repetition as time goes on as he continues to play. and learn how to play the outfield. It's why I've said repeatedly that moving him to first base,

I get it, I get why you want to do it. It just seems like such a waste to me of his God-given talent and athletic ability. Like, what's he going to do with a 97th percentile arm over-road at first base? The hell is he going to do with that? What's he going to do with sprint speed that he's got where he can track balls down in the outfield after he learns how to judge a fly ball better. But that's why. That's why this is a project of trying to turn him into a better outfielder. And it's taken a little bit longer than I think a lot of people anticipated. So this year, he was a minus four

directional outs above average. Okay. So it's judging his range and what he can do in the outfield. So who are some other people who are minus four like that? Well, some notable names. Let me tell you about a couple. How about two-time gold glove winner Tyler O'Neill? with the Boston Red Sox. He was minus four this year. I think we can all agree that Tyler O'Neill is pretty darn good outfield. Two-time gold glove winner. Michael Conforto of the Giants.

Juan Soto and Aaron Judge were minus five this year. Yor Don Alvarez. I know. More of a hitter than anything, but he has to play the outfield, right? Because he's not really to get anywhere else. Minus seven. If Jordan Walker becomes the hitter that many of us believe, that he will and then can stay at the level he's at outfield wise or get better considering

he's 22. The guy's only been able to legally drink for a little over almost two years now. Like, what were you doing at age 22? Okay. But if he's got to continue, but he's got to, here's the thing. I know he's not great out there by any means yet. But the talent that he possesses and his body tells me that he has the ability to play this position much, much better. So he's got, he's just got to continue to improve in that area.

And I believe he was much better after year one was much better this past year. And going to a third year as an outfielder, I think he's going to get better again. I mean, he's got to improve in all areas to live up to the enormous potential that he has. you know, he's got to learn to lay off the breaking pitch away. He needs to learn to hit the ball to the opposite field with power. He needs to learn to track the balls better on fly balls, take better routes on certain balls, you know. I would love to see Jimmy Edmonds work with him this offseason.

Obviously, John Jay coming in is going to be all over him this spring, helping him, conditioning him, teaching him. John Jay and Jordan Walker need to be attached at the hip this off season. when it comes to working in the outfield. That should be his number one priority because I believe he's a good hitter. I genuinely feel if he can get to a spot where he's at peace and trust his defensive side

that the offensive side will take off because he won't have to worry about it so much. They'll be able to just go out there and play and just be himself. I think he'll have more success. But that's my take on Jordan Walker right now. And I know it's a lot of but if and what if? I get that. But that's what it is with prospects. It's always what if. Can he,

will he live up to this or that? That's what a prospect is. We don't know. It may be great down to the minor leagues. They get to the major leagues and sometimes it just doesn't work out. So hopefully it does in Jordan's situation. And I'm behind him 150%. I'm excited for him. I want to see him up on this team at the beginning. I don't ever want to see him go down to Memphis again for anything. Hopefully he never gets hurt or anything like that. And I hope from here on out, he is that star player. The Cardinals thought he was going to be. And I think he's got in him for sure. I definitely do. And I think this past year was probably a good learning situation for him where, you know, you just can't take it for granted that you're just going to

be there and everything's going to work out. You know, it was one of those years where, you know, we had to take a step back, go, all right, well, geez, I got some work to do, don't I? So maybe a little kick in the butt for it. We'll see. More fan feedback on Yadi's new gig. And if you had to choose between Yadi, poo holes, or skip, who would you want as your manager? That was my question for you. We'll talk about it next on Locked on Cardos. Game time is an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball that makes getting tickets faster and easier with killer last minute deals, all in prices. you get views from your seat and their lowest price guarantee game time takes the guesswork out of buying

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They can get you into all of this, flash deals, zone deals, all in price. the seat views. Just take the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets with GameTime when 2025 rolls around and you're ready, get down to the ballpark and see my guy, Jordan Walker, doing his thing. Download the GameTime app. Do it do it the right way. Create your account. Use code locked on MLB for $20 off to your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account redeem the code locked on MLB. That's L-O-C-E-D-O-N-M-L-B for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. Thank you for making Lockdown Cardinals, your first listen today for your second listen.

You can find Locked on MLB. Baseball guru slowly brings a daily blend of humor and baseball, keeping you up to date it on every aspect of what's going on in the World Series. I know we're doing a night one here tonight episode and Yankees after that, oh my gosh, inning. Talk about imploding defensively, but they are up six, five in the top of the seventh at the time of this recording. but solely he'll be talking about it no matter what happens tomorrow you can find locked on on him will be on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts so uh yaddy got that new job as a manager in the dominican winter league uh same league that albert pool holes is managing in right now both have aspirations of managing in the big leagues at some point so this is a good spot for them to continue

to gather more experience as a manager skip schumacher does not have a job at this current moment his contract in Miami is done. He's a free agent with the NL manager of the year award on his resume and on his mantle. Like I said yesterday, if things go south for the Yankees, which again, they're up at the moment. But like if they don't pull this out or at least make a better series of it, if you're New York, are you calling Skip? Like, let's talk. Let's talk about thing.

I don't know what this Aaron Boone thing anymore. but there's a real chance that Skip Schumacher may not have a managerial job to start the 2025 season. But I asked you to comment on those three guys and current bench coach, Daniel DeScalso. Who would you want to be your manager? As you can pick one, what would you want to do? And some of you not only picked the manager, but you told me where you wanted all these people. So a lot of responses to get through. So I want to roll through a couple of them for you real quick.

You mama, not to be confused with yo mama, you mama, 1777 says, I think I would want Skip as manager. Yaddy is my bench coach. Albert is the hitting coach and first base coach and Daniel the Scalso as the third base coach. So Mama is just going to keep them all on the staff, man. Got a super staff, but is going to go with Skip as the head honcho. The problem here for a situation like that is that all these guys want to be managers, right? they all want to be managers. So getting them to accept lower roles on one team's probably not going to happen. So good luck. Good luck trying to get that group together. If it happened, oh, my gosh, that had been so cool.

But I don't think that one's going to fly. I kale ins says my pick for manager is Albert, hands down. Anyone who was smart enough as a young player to spend tons of time with TLR, Tony LaR, learning the ins and outs of managing. has my vote and he's got the Albert effect. He walks into a room and everyone immediately hushes and says, hey, that's Albert Pujols. How can 700 home runs be wrong, right? Plus, Albert, in my opinion, he seems like a guy who likes to embrace that teaching role. You know, remember his last year in St. Louis,

Juan Yepez was constantly following him around. They always talked about it. He's like, oh, Juan Yuppez is like a little mini pool holes. And he just, he's like a, he's like a, he's like a, puppy just following him everywhere he goes, trying to soak in everything that Albert has. Unfortunately, Wanya Pes, no longer with our organization, with the nationals still, I believe. But watching him go through that, Albert, seems like a guy who's got the patience to be able to work with young players. Yet, you know, if he's got veterans in the room as well, obviously can

speak to them, you know, in a proper tone and a way to show. Joe respect wouldn't be a push over kind of manager, how some, some player to become managers, kind of, you know, they're a players manager and they, you know, they kind of lose control of the clubhouse where I don't feel like that would happen. I feel like Albert, there's much more respect for what Albert Pujols is and what he's done over the years that I don't think that would happen to him. Kurt Welling says Yadie was born to be an MLB manager. Obviously, Skip is great. Albert could be great, but my judgment is that Yadi has this in his bones. Yeah. I mean, I don't disagree with you there. I mean, it's obviously something he's very passionate about to become a manager at some

point. I just don't know if it's going to be in St. Louis ever. Let's rip through a couple of these. Donze macabre. Well, macabre, right? And that how you're supposed to say you don't say macabre. So it's supposed to be like dance macabre, but it's Donze. There's a Z in there. Anyway, Albert is great with young players and Larusa said he was the smartest player he's managed, but I don't think you could go wrong with Yadi or Skip. Bobby Rose says,

Albert is the only one that can get this team back to playing Cardinal baseball. Yadi is not willing to show up. Skip did not show enough as a manager. He could not save the Cardos. Well, the Yadi thing, you know, we kind of got a little bit of clarity on what happened there where it was a lot of stuff

with his family. And it seemed like any time that they did, according to reports, that when they did come to an agreement of when he was going to show up and whatnot, that something else would happen. And it would take his focus away from doing anything with the Cardinals where he had to handle some stuff back home. You got to respect that. And as far as Skip, not showing enough as a manager, I mean, he won the NL Manager of the Year Award in 2023. What he wanted to do?

This past year of Miami, obviously, was awful. but that's because of all the pitching injuries they went to. I mean, Sandy Alcantra, Syong winner, gone. Jesus Lazzardo hurt most of the year. Yuri Perez, their top pitching prospect, gone. Max Meyer was a guy. Six-toe Sanchez was a guy. They had a bunch of them, man.

So it's hard to win when your whole rotation that you're banking on is sitting on the sideline due to injuries. Poll results from the poll that I had up on Twitter X, where I only had Yadi Albert and Skip. Sorry, Daniel, I didn't mean to leave you out, but it happened. Your winner was Yadi with 43%. Skip 38, Albert at 19. I'm not sure when, but eventually all three of these guys will be in charge of a major league team.

In Skip's case, again, the other two at some point, they'll be managing in the major leagues. I have no doubts about that. It would just be a shame to see all three of them get away from the Cardinals organization. Again, we know Skip was with us, goes to Miami, has good success, is now considered one of the top managers in baseball, doesn't have a job right now because there's not a lot of openings or places he would want to go. Even the White Sox filled their role already. Was it Will Venable who's taken over there? But I don't think any of those three want to be in Ali's shoes right now at the moment where he's basically going to try to keep things. things afloat during this reset, something that none of us are used to.

So it's going to be a tough spot for Ali, and he's got two years left on the contract, and we'll see what happens. We'll see when Mo steps aside, if Hyne Bloom is like, you know what, I'm going to pick my own guy. We'll see if that happens. But going into next year, it's going to be Ali Marmal, that's for sure. I don't know what the future holds for those three guys, but they'll find success. That's what they do.

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