Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Extending Masyn Winn & Ryan Helsley?

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

Thomas Gauvain from Redbirdrants.com joins us today - Brant Brown working with Gorman and Walker - Extending Masyn Winn and Ryan Helsley - Rule Five Draft Deadline - Tink Hence - Tekoah Roby 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! 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.

If the St. Louis Cardinals are going to compete in 2025, then there are two guys that are certainly going to need to step up their game. We're going to talk about them and how new hitting coach Bram Brown has already reached out to these individuals on Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinals fans. I'm Jady Hafford and I'm your host for Locked on Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio and the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals. We want to thank those of you who make Locked on Cardinals for first list.

And every day, we are free and available wherever you get your podcast, also available on YouTube. We continue to make that push for 11,000 subscribers. Last check, 13. Lucky 13 short before we started this. So just a couple of more guys. If you haven't stopped by yet, please do like, subscribe. and hit that notification button so you know when the new episodes are posted because 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 code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Once again, joined by our good friend Thomas Gauvain from Redbirdrance.com. You can follow him at Thomas Govain on Twitter X. And obviously all of his write-ups available at Redbirdsrants. Christmas movies.

Yeah, Thomas, have you been forced to sit down and watch any? Because we had a four Christmases party this past weekend with some friends, which was a lot of fun. What about you? There you go. Yeah, we've got a couple of them. I'm more of a classic, like the Claynation ones. I enjoy those. So we watched Frosty the Snowman, like the 1970s version of it.

So I enjoy those. I guess there's a difference when it, because, you know, you got kids. So you're probably watching them with the whole family there where we're sitting here watching. You know, it's just a bunch of couples that don't have any children. So language, we don't care. It doesn't matter. We've got we've got beverages going. We were eating like the cheese on the cracker as the hors d'oeuvres things like she goes in the movie and stuff.

We had wings. We had taboo going on. So we did the whole spiel. But for Christmas, I feel like very underrated film when it comes to Christmas movies. But anyhow, on to some baseball chat today. Bram Brown is the new hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was unceremoniously fired from the Mariners this past year after really not a whole lot of time with the organization. Apparently things just did not mesh well.

The way that he was teaching from what I've read just didn't mesh well with some of the players. And so they got him out of there. He was the offensive coordinator with the Seattle Mariners, not just a hit. coach. So he had a whole lot going on his plate there. But had stints with the Marlins before that with the Dodgers. And everybody is kind of curious what Brand Brown is going to bring to this team to turn things around from what we saw in 2024 where, you know, one year it's the offense is great. The next year the offense goes down and the pitching is much better. You know, it's this roller coaster for the Cardinals right now. And they can't seem to get everything on the same page. And we've

waiting to hear what Bram Brown is going to do to help turn things around. And we got a report from John Denton at MLB.com who gave us some insight as to what Bram Brown has been doing already if you want to enlighten us on what is the latest with Bram Brown and what he's been doing. Yeah, it was a great piece by Denton. He got one-on-one with Brant Brown and they were talking about what he's already done so far within just the first month of his time with the Cardinals. And he's reached out to probably the most important hitters for the Cardinals next year. And Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker, he and Gorman actually looked close to each other

out in Arizona near Scottsdale. And they've already made plans to get together, look at Gorman's swing path, and look at some film from last year. And then he intends on meeting with Jordan Walker sometime in December as well to touch base down in Florida. So I think him reaching out to those two hitters, it shows the fans that Brent Brown knows how important these guys are to the team in their future. But then it also shows his willingness to work quickly and jump into things, too,

with these guys. Yeah, and that's something that I think will be important to Cardinal fans because even though it's the offseason and I know we think nothing is happening. Like it's just people sitting around in offices just chilling. The guys are just, yeah, they're lifting weights and doing whatever. That's not really the case. You know, baseball has become a 12-month type of thing for these guys. And it's important to get these guys going because when we're talking about,

younger players and we're going to rely on them. We're going to let them play and we're going to let them do what they need to do and get their swings and going and the young pitchers to get more innings and whatnot because we want to learn what we've got instead of just going out and picking off veterans and paying ridiculous amounts for them anymore. They're going to switch in this new direction. And like you mentioned, Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman are as important as anybody in this lineup for next year. Wilson Gatreras obviously is going to be a huge. huge piece there in the middle. We don't know if Nolan Aronado is going to be around anymore, but those two guys are kind of the future of this team along with Mason Wynn. And if they're

going to do anything over the next few years, those guys have to be like meat of the order type of guys. I'm not talking hitting six and seven in the lineup. I'm talking about these guys, he's got to be, you know, two through five type of guys that are huge for this lineup. Yeah. And the fact that Gorman didn't have his power last year. that we expected the strikeout's ridiculous. Jordan Walker couldn't get the ball in the air. I think his line drive percentage was like 8% last year in the majors, which was ridiculous. Hopefully, Brown can figure out how to limit Corman's whiff rates and strikeout rates

and elevate the ball for Jordan Walker, whatever it may be. But those two guys are so important for the lineup. We know what Wilson Contreras is going to do. We have an idea of what Mason-Wain is going to do at this point. Same with Brendan Doddman. We need those two guys, as you said, to be heart of the order bats to really carry the offense. Yeah, you want to mix them in because if there is an Arnado around this team next year, you know, that I'm still not anti. I'm like, I'm not actively trying to get rid of these dudes all the time.

Like I think it would be great to see Nolan Arnado in this lineup again next year. And if you can get, you know, more production from Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman, the way you thought you were going to get this past year, then this lineup does become pretty darn dangerous. I mean, you're really subtracting the Paul Goldschmidt aspect of this. but if you look at what he had done the last couple years, it's not all that much that you're trying to replace. And you've got a, you know, a Brendan Donovan. You're hoping for a healthy Lars Newbar and more production from a guy like a Mason win next year who had a monster year. Going through this article with John Denton, some of the quotes with Bram Brown,

I just want to give a couple of them here because, you know, people are worried that like, all right, he got fired in Seattle, like just a few months into this thing. What's wrong with him? Why was he out of there? And he wasn't good enough for a lineup who wasn't any good either. Why is he going to turn things around for the Cardinals? And, you know, one of the thing is, as I mentioned, was like maybe he just wasn't a good fit with that certain grouping of players. He talks about how he's a very focused individual. And he says sometimes that's a gift and a curse. He says he knows that about himself that focuses a way you can earn some respect with hitters because they know that I've got their back. They know that I'm going to give them a pat when they need it. And I'm going to tell them the truth when they need the truth.

And, you know, sometimes younger players get coddled a little bit, Thomas. And sometimes, I mean, as a parent, you know this. There's sometimes where you need to be like, hey, it's going to be okay. We're going to be fine. There's other times where tough love needs to be put in there because they've got to learn one way or another the way to do things. And it sounds like Brant Brown's going to be. proactive on how he needs to react to how these certain players are going to be instead of just being one way the whole time. Yeah, and I think it was Derek Gould. He asked a question about

Brand Brown, and John Moseilock said he's a good combination of Turner Ward and Jeff Albert between like the analytics and dealing with players. He seems to be a good mix of the two. He's going to be aware of the analytics and the swing paths and all those things that people can get into or not get into. But then he's also going to know how to talk to players. And that's something that could be important, especially for the young guys figuring out where they fit, what they need to do, and just give them the honest truth from time to time too. And I've spoken with our buddies over at Locked-on Mariners, and they told me that they think he would have been a great hitting coach, and they think there was just a little too much that he was going with as this office of quarter

where he was just like getting pulled in all sorts of different directions. And they were like, it's not so much that he was like a bad guy or a bad coach or anything. They're like, I think there was just too much for him to try to work on. And if he had just been able to focus as just like a hitting coach, which he will be for the Cardinals, they thought things would have gone much, much smoother for Bram Brown with Seattle. So positive things with Brant Brown and talking with two of those big names with Gorman and Walker because they're going to need them in 2025.

And you and I both have said to each other before, like, we believe in these guys. Like, you know, the pedigrees there. The talent is there. Just got to kind of reel it in and, you know, get it to produce at the major league level because we've seen them be able to do it in the minor leagues. This offseason has been littered with trade, thoughts, ideas, and a different direction is something that you've brought up.

What about extensions? What about extensions? We'll discuss that next on Locked on Cardinals. There's not a whole lot of things better than going to a live sporting event, whether it's, you know, sports that are in season right now, like basketball or hockey, football, of course, baseball, during the summertime. And with the Game Time app, you're going to be able to find tickets to all of your favorite sporting events, whether it's going to a blues game, Slew basketball, uh, Missou basketball and football, Southern Illinois sports, the St. Louis Am Bush. You want to go to all elite wrestling in December. They've got your tickets for that as well. Killer last minute deals all in prices. They'll give you the views from your seat, which is always really nice because sometimes you're like, where exactly.

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That's L-O-C-E-D-O-N-M-LB for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute, ticket's lowest price, guaranteed. Thank you for making Lockton Cardinals your first list every day. Leave your comments on YouTube as well as on. on Twitter X anytime you want that feedback is always welcome and encourage Thomas Govane. Joining us from Redbird Rance.com. You can also follow him on Twitter X at Thomas Govane. Trading Nolan Arnato, Contreras, Gray, Halsley, Thomas, we've been hearing about it ever since the

reset press conference was done. And, you know, it really threw a lot of Cardinals' minds, like the fans, into a blender. Because first off, we're not used to talk like that, where we're trying to get rid of people. And that doesn't have to be the way that it is. You know, what they've decided to do is, you know, talk to these veteran guys with the no trade clauses, be honest with them, say, here's where we're going with things. And if you want to be a part of it, cool.

If not, we'll do what we can to move on from this and get you to a better spot. And it doesn't hurt the Cardinals because they're shedding some payroll at the same time, which is something that they wanted to do this offseason. But your mind ended up spinning in a different direction. You're like, instead of thinking about trades, trades, trades and subtracting, you're talking about locking people up with extensions instead. You're thinking outside the box, Thomas, which is why we love you.

So, Tom, who are some of these guys that you're thinking about, all right, instead of trading, we'll extend them. Who are some of the guys on your list here that you think the cardal should reach out to about something like this? There are two guys in two very different spots, two. One was Ryan Helsley. Derek Gould brought it up in one of his chats, and then our site editor, Josh Jacobs, wrote a proposal for an extension.

We've talked about this before. Ryan Helsley is the pitcher that the Cardinals have wanted and needed for years. He's homegrown. He's talented. He's high leverage. He's good. And trading him would stink. But signing him to extension might be beneficial for both parties.

Josh proposed, let me see what he's got here. He has a six-year deal or, sorry, five-year deal worth $75 million. It goes up starting in $12 million this upcoming year and then going all the way up to $17 million mutual option in 2030. That would be the sixth year of his contract. I think that's good for both teams. Cardinals get a little bit of a discount towards the end of his contract. They also have the chance to then turn him into a starting pitcher, which is something

that he was in the minors. and some people have even pushed now. I don't think it makes sense to do a starter this offseason, but in the future, if they lock them up for many years, that could be good. And then I was looking at one for Mason Wynne, on the other side of the spectrum. He's got five more years of team control. But I think something the Cardinals have laughed for a long time is a long-term homegrown guy, like Adam Wainwright, Yadier-Malina level.

Those two guys brought fans to the stadium. There were jerseys everywhere you went in St. Louis with their names on them. we need another cornerstone long-term player and i think masonwin could be that giving him a contract extension and predicting what it might be is tough because he's so young there's so few people have done it i looked at an eight-year hundred million dollar contract that gets him as a free agent when he's 30 or 31 so we could still get one big deal after that six seven years which might be intriguing to him he gets paid a lot more for these next four years during arbitration but then we get a discount on the back end that would be less the market value and what would be his free agent years.

So Halsley and Mason win extensions would be my preference, I think. Now you bring up the starting pitching thing with Ryan Halsley. Are we not past that? Like, I mean, he's 30. He was just the NL. He was just the NL's best relief pitcher. Like, why would we, and this is just me being the other side of things. Like, why would we want to toy with a guy who's already at the top of his game?

Like, why would we even consider that? Don't you know, Moseilock loves 30-year-old starting pitcher? No, I think there's obviously more value in starters. They get more innings. They get more time out there. They have a greater effect on it. It's just something to throw around. I don't think it's necessarily something that needs to happen.

He's a very, very good reliever top of the game. It'd be great if he stays in there. But if we can get a little bit more out of him as a starting pitcher, I think that's a nice route. Man, I would be shocked if something like that happened. Yeah. What? Relievers probably race days.

Did we learn anything from the Jordan Hicks situation where it was back and forth and we're trying to do it with Matthew Libertor and Zach Thompson? Now we want to do it with Ryan Halsley? No, I am anti that whole idea. The extension thing, gosh, do you think he'd be up for something like that? Just considering that he's one year away from really cashing in? I mean, I guess if he loves it in St. Louis, that's where he wants to be. I guess, you know, some people will take a discount to stay in certain places. But I don't know.

If I'm Ryan Helsley, I'm kind of like, I'm going one year away from really hitting that jackpot. So I don't know. Yeah, I think he'd probably hold off. He would probably beat out Riesel Iglesias' free agent contract. I don't think he'd get numbers like Edwin Diaz or Josh Hader. He could probably be out a manual class A's extension that he got to. So there's a lot of money that he could get from this. It'd be coming quicker than if he waited for free agency.

But like you said, he's one year away. He was probably in no rush to sign an extension. Yeah. I mean, I get that there's always that, you know, because he's dealt with injuries over his career. But, you know, there's always that chance to something bad go. So you get an opportunity to sign something long and something that's, you know, obviously contract fully paid and guaranteed.

Hard to turn it down, but I don't know. He's $75 million. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of dough, bro. Yeah. It'd be hard to turn down off on him as well. So I see why it would be food for thought, that's for sure. As far as the Mason Win thing goes, I couldn't agree more. I mean, you see what like Milwaukee did with Churio.

I love that. And I said something about this in yesterday's episode talking about some of the surprises from last season. And the way that Mason Wynn kind of took over as the face of the franchise, I thought was a big surprise last year. I think we thought he would be good. Did I think he was going to be a gold glove caliber shortstop? No, I didn't think he was going to be there yet. I think he was going to get hit 15 home runs and be this guy that ended up, like you said, you know, you want a guy that where kids are buying his jerseys and stuff and you want this face of the franchise type of guy.

And it's great when they're homegrown talent. Aronado and Goldschmidt, obviously, a part of an older era and who's that next torch going to. I think we thought it was going to be Jordan Walker, but, you know, things didn't work out this past year. and it ended up being Mason Wynn, who slid into that spot. Got a cool look about him. It's got the cool arm. There's not a lot to dislike about it. And the maturity level that he shows at such a young age already,

I mean, if you're going to back a guy and give him 10 years on this team, that's the guy. I'm completely with you on that. If they are interested and Mason Wins like, yeah, this sounds good. I'm cool with that. I'm bored with that. And he had the offense last year, too. I mean, I think people saw him as an average offense player with plus plus defense.

He had the defense. And his offense was actually a little bit surprising. I think he had like a 106 OPS plus, so six percent better than the average hitter. That's good, like from a shortstop especially. That's pretty good. And we're talking about a guy who at the end of the year got exhausted, you know, because he was playing every day. Remember how everybody was given the Cardinals crap for resting him here and there?

Brandon Crawford would get like one start and they, what the, what are we doing? Why? What is this? Because the dude is young and he's never playing this much baseball ever in his entire life. And you saw what happened at the end of the year. He was worn down and you saw his numbers take a big dip at the end of the season. So that's what they were trying to avoid. But, you know, you won't hear those guys complaining now. But that was the whole point of it was, you know, he's going to need rest days because he's not ready for as much ball. he's going to be asked to play. But yeah, he's outstanding in every way, shape, or form.

And I'm fully on board with backing that up if they want to lock him up. And you're doing it at a position that shortstop, which is hard. You know, it's not like, you know, Milwaukee getting Jackson, he's an outfielder. You find outfielders normally, right? You know, there are special talents. Sure, I get that. But finding a shortstop to be that guy, that's not the easiest thing to do.

And so Cardinals doing that would make a whole lot of sense. If you look at the prices of free agent short stops, it's ridiculous. Like those $300 million guys, we don't have to. Wait till you see what Willie Adamas makes this year. Yeah, right. You know, wait until you see that contract, boys and girls. And you're going to be like, and then you're going to think like 10 years, 100 million for Mason win.

Yeah, I'll take that. Yeah, right. Let's do it. Right now. Do it. All right. Speaking of young guys, the Rule 5 draft deadline to put. people on your 40-man roster. That is today on this Tuesday of the 19th. And we've got some names to

keep an eye on, some guys that probably need to be added. But the Cardinals are working with only a few spots here. So we'll discuss who we think they should be saving from the Rule 5 draft. We'll do that next year on Locked on Cardinals. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fanduel, America's number one sports book, because right now new customers can bet $5.00. Get $1, in bonus bets if you win. That's right. You can bet $5. You win that bet.

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Thank you again for making Lockton, Cardinals, your first list and today be your second list. And I want you to go find Locked on MLB with my man Sully. Got an incredible blend of humor and baseball, and he's got stories. And the guy is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to everything baseball. and just people in general. So if you haven't seen it yet, make sure you check them out. Find locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast.

Thomas Gauvein from Redbirdrants.com joins us today. A year ago, the Cardinals made three additions to their 40-man roster. And I know some of this stuff is mundane and can be a little confusing for people. So I want to try to explain what goes on here as simple as I can. But you got a 40-man roster. And last year, they ended up adding guys like Adam Klopfenstein. Sim Robbersa, who were part of that Jordan Hicks trade. Pedro Pahez was added to the 40-man roster.

That came into play last year. It was kind of a big deal. Kloffinstein also ended up making the majors last year. So when a player is signed, I want to make sure I say it's right, when a player is signed in 18 years or younger, you must have them added to a club's 40-man roster within five seasons. and player signed a 19 or older must be added within four seasons to be protected from the Rule 5 draft. If you guys remember, the Cardinals were able to take a guy by the name of Ryan Fernandez in the Rule 5 draft this past year.

And he ended up paying huge dividends for the Cardinals and is probably going to be the guy that replaces Andrew Kittrich in the bullpen this year. That's probably the spot he's going to be. Now, as of Monday, the Cardinals had 36 of their 40-man roster signed and ready to go. Now, they can obviously adjust things if they need to, but right now they've got 36, which leaves you four spots. And there are plenty of names to go through here that probably deserve a spot, Thomas. So what are some of the names at the top of your list that should be added in your opinion? Well, I think there's 48 eligible people who need to be picked.

My math could be off. I just kind of... There's two big names, Tink Hens and Toccoa Robi. They'll definitely be added. We need to see what Roby has once he's fully healthy, and Tink Hens needs to continue its development. They're both good pitchers. They're solid.

They could be... I think Roby could be a very good reliever. I think Tink Hens has the ability to be a middle of the rotation pitcher. Some of the other fringe guys that you might hear are Matt Keperniak. He's an outfielder. You can play all three positions, good offense, decent defense. He'd be a nice outfield depth out there. Andre Greenio is another pitcher.

Matt Sonson is, he has closer potential. He wasn't the minors. He had 27 saves last year, which was second most among all levels. I think it was the most for the level he played at. Those four are probably the biggest ones, or five, sorry, those five are probably the biggest ones? Are there any other guys that you have heard that you think might be a good idea to protect? Ian Badell is a guy.

Yeah. Great guy. I also like. Um, he's, we've had him on the show before and I, he's just one of those guys that always intrigued me. Um, that was some injuries. And so I like, there's not room for everybody. And I understand that. Uh, you know, some of these guys will not get claimed. But it's hard to argue with the guys that you mentioned already. You know, you're talking bullpen guys, uh, Grenio and Svanson. That that's what they do. You know, You're talking about rebuilding a bullpen.

Well, I guess I shouldn't say rebuild, but you know, you're dropping some names from from this year's list, you know, like a Kittridge. You know, you're not, Keenan Middleton was supposed to be a guy. He ended up being nothing because of the injury. But something we learned this year is that you can never have too many arms for the bullpen. And those guys, the guys that you mentioned with Svanson and Grinia, they're guys that are right there already.

Like they are guys who could be on the major league roster. you know, if there had been room last year, you might have seen them. So those are guys that I hate to lose somebody like that who's that close and has found success in the minor leagues as a relief pitcher and in closing situations for both of them. So if I have to choose between those guys, you know, maybe Ian Biddell's the guy that ends up getting dropped from the list. Coperniac is somebody that feels like he deserves a shot to be.

Seems like Elaine Thomas all over again. Right. You know, that's what I'm saying. I was like, didn't we, we made mistakes with some of, some of these guys before. He's a guy that, I mean, he had huge numbers this year. What did he hit this year? It was like three, 309, 20 home runs, 28 doubles, career highs in on base percentage and slugging percentage. Like, I mean, why would we cast aside a guy like that at 26?

He's not making any money. Doesn't need to be a starter. Like, he sounds like a guy that would be a nice bench bat. instead of, you know, I enjoyed having Matt Carpenter around, but he'd be a nice benchback for somebody. And he can play all three positions out there. Yeah, pretty capably, too. I think some of that's noteworthy.

He really struggled with strikeouts last year. They sent him into the Arizona Fall League. I think that was one of the things he really worked on. He upped his rate greater than nine for nine strikeouts per nine innings, which is nice. That's a good figure he needed to be at. So his fall league showing might push him up into the next level.

I don't know how much stock the team puts into, what, 15 innings in Arizona over a month's time. We'll see. Right. Well, I mean, Thomas Adjacy is the greatest hitter in baseball because of the AFL. Yeah, right. He had some sick numbers there, so which made us very happy.

Going against double-A pitchers. Yeah, exactly. I know you can't get overly excited. I remember Connor Thomas was pitcher of the year in the AMA. Yeah. Long ago. And what's he doing these days for the car? Cardinals, not, not, not, not what we thought he was going to be doing.

But, yeah, it's interesting to see who, and again, there's no guarantee that just because they, they aren't on the 40 man that these guys are going to get drafted. So, but that's, if I, if I'm going to take a chance, unless there's something about these guys, they don't like. And obviously, Sponson getting selected to go to the AFL and work on things, you know, the Cardinals are probably like, you know, there's something there that we want to keep an eye on. So I don't think that's a certain guy that they would leave off the list. Henson Robey obviously make perfect sense.

Chandler Redmond is some guy that, you know, did he hit four different, was he the guy that the four different home runs in the same game. Yeah. Yeah, he plays first base and it has pop and stuff like that. But again, you've only got Rube. Mike Antico was a guy that I've always liked because I got that blend of speed, some power as well.

and, you know, it was an outfielder, but it's tough, man, because there's only room for so many guys. So there's the minor league portion of it, too. Like, just because we don't add all these guys, they can still come back on in the minor league rule five draft or minor league contracts, even if we wanted to do that with them. Well, if we had to pick just four, say they don't make any adjustments and you only got the four spots, which four are you keeping? Hence, Roby are your top two. Who's your other two? Probably Coperniac and Swanson. Sponson. Yeah. It's hard to argue with that, man. It really is. Maybe swap out for Nio and

Sphonson, but it's hard to argue with those. But we'll find out. Deadline is today and we'll see what happens. And, you know, hopefully it works out and we're not unleashing somebody who ends up being a superstar for some other team here in the near future. That's our track record, isn't it, right? That's what we do. Yeah. Like, if your other teams in the league, aren't you just like, all right, who are they leaving off? Because I'm taking off of them. One of them's going to end up leading us to an NL pennant or an AL Penet. It would be amazing in the postseason.

It's great. So, any of them. All right. Well, what are some things that you're working on at Redwood Rance.com in the near future that people can look forward to? I had the piece about Brant Brown today. I've got one about the Mason-Wind contract extension. That's pretty much all out of them the docket for right now.

I'm going to take it slow. It's holiday season. Let's do some family time. right it's smart it is smart it looks like i'm going to see a christmas carol this weekend enjoy any any here all right well check out all the thomas's work at redbird rance dot com and of course the entire staff at redbirdrance dot com they've got a lot of good stuff in there a lot of great writers thomas being a number one in our book so thank you as always thomas for joining us here today give him a follow on twitter x at thomas govane and

as always man we appreciate you stopping in and hanging out with us absolutely and Enjoy your show. Thanks for making a lockdown cardinals. Your first listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on Twitter X as well at Ella underscore Cardinals at a JD Sports Radio. Like, subscribe on YouTube and help our channel and love for the St. Louis Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on lockdown cards.