Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Fedde Flops, Wetherholt Rising!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Oh, Cardinals drop a stinker to the pirates and everyone is calling for Eric Fetty's head. Plus, we do have some positive news, some big news, good news about top prospect J.J. Weatherhole. This is 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, they're Cardinals. I'm Jady Hafer and I am your host for Locktown Cardinals, part of the Locktown Podcast Network, covering your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:38 You can follow me on X to JD Sports Radio, the podcast available on X as well at L.O underscore Cardinals. We're on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. Look for Locked on Cardinals. You'll find us. This is a show serving Cardinal 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 Fandle. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets with your first $5 bet wins. If you bet on the Cardinals on Monday, you were a loser, just like our Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:01:07 Yeah, after a weekend, they brought so much promise to people's lives made us all feel real good about ourselves. We were like, yeah, we're back. How quickly things can change after the Cardinals get embarrassed in Pittsburgh after running into the buzzsaw of Andrew Heaney and Spencer Horowitz. That's right. You know those guys, right? No? Oh, you didn't know that dynamic duo in Pittsburgh. Oh, well, you're not alone. Most people don't. And that's because normally those two guys are not dominating teams like they did the Cardinals on Monday night. But that is what happened. The Cardinals shut up in Pittsburgh to face Pirates team that granted, just blasted the doors off the New York Mets outscored them 30 to four in a sweep over the weekend. And I warned you yesterday that giving a team like that comment, It can go a long way. Normally the pirates are not a really good hitting team. Normally, the pirates outside of guys like Paul Skeens and Mitch Geller aren't a great pitching team. But things have come together quite well for them in the last four days. And the Cardinals were just the next team to get kicked in the teeth by them. I did have some people saying this has to do with, you know, Dave Parker's passing and, you know, the spirit of Dave Parker and their, you know, their, you know, their feeling inspired by this. Maybe that has something to do with it. It was sad to learn of Dave Parker's passing, of course, but the pirates are playing inspired ball, man. Andrew Heaney had the boys

Starting point is 00:02:39 baffled at the plate, soft contact swinging at balls out of the zone. It was rough to watch. It was not a whole lot of fun. And it's, you know, another soft tossing pitcher that the cardals just can't seem to figure out. And what makes it sting even more is that it's not like Heaney he's been doing this to everybody over the season. He's had some good games this year. Don't get me wrong. But his previous two games, he got destroyed by the Tigers and the Brewers.

Starting point is 00:03:08 Seven runs in each of those games. Like they just manhandled him. And then the Cardinals come in and watching them just get bedazzled by what he was tossing up there after hitting so well in Cleveland, too. It was very, very frustrating. It was not enjoyable. The Cardinals manages four hits on the night. They were getting no hit by Heaney until Victor Scott's single in the sixth inning.

Starting point is 00:03:32 Outside of that lead off walk to Brennan Donovan, which I kept forgetting about and kept tweeting last night about how it was like a perfect game. Apologies. I kept forgetting that Bernard Donovan walked the lead off the game. The Carles didn't have a base runner until Victor's base hit. So give some credit to Heaney, who was quite crafty. The sinker was really dancing last night. Normally it averages 31 inches of vertical movement. Monday he was getting 34.

Starting point is 00:03:58 That's a big difference, guys. How big is three inches? How big of a difference can that make? Uh, it led to a lot of the soft contact. Sometimes, sometimes the pictures are just on. And I mean, we've seen it just flipped the script. And we've seen it where Miles Michael is notoriously a very hitable guy over the last few years will go out and throw some absolute gems out of nowhere.

Starting point is 00:04:21 That's what the boys got from Heaney on Monday. So they got really, really good. Andrew Heaney on Monday. My buddy, John Frisch from Locked Out of Angels. We were talking about it last night on M. will be game night. And he was like, this is what Heaney does. He'll throw these incredible games. You're like, oh, my gosh, look at this guy. And then he'll get pummeled a couple times. Then he'll have a couple OK games. Then throw another beauty. And then he'll get pummeled again. It's just kind of what he does. Cardinals happen to be in the way of the really good game for Heaney. pitching side of things for the Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:04:54 It was another disappointing performance by Eric Fetty, who for the second time in his many starts gave up a leadoff home run to the opposition, which obviously is very deflating. His last start, it was Ian Hap for the Cubs, which led to an 8 to nothing butt whipping. And now it's another leadoff home run. This time to Spencer Horowitz, who let's be honest, he's no Ian Hap.

Starting point is 00:05:17 I know Ian Hap hits the Cardinals very, very well, but he's a solid player. Spencer Horowitz is not somebody that most people plan around when they're looking at the lineup for another team. And he had a big night. And this led to do a seven to nothing pasting by the pirates. Things actually could have been worse as the pirates rattled off the three straight hits to start the game to get the home run. Then it's a double. Then it's a single.

Starting point is 00:05:43 And before that line drive comeback or the fettie snares turns to the double play, he settled in for a couple of endings where things weren't so bad. but in the fifth inning, the pirates opened up a big old can, a wolf ass, single, bun, which was a single as well, which always, when that happens, you're always like, oh, gosh, here we go. Which is why I wish the Cardinals could learn to bunt a little bit better and do that kind of stuff to the other teams once in a while, but single, bunt, single, double by Horowitz again, which docks in both runs. He had three RBIs on the night.

Starting point is 00:06:15 You get a fielder's choice, then single, double, intentional walk, single, single before I double play, ended the misery of that inning. And before you knew it, it was seven and nothing. And the game was over with the way the bats were looking. Fetty goes five innings, seven runs on 10 hits and the one home run to lead off the game. And if you were thinking to yourself that, wait a second, didn't Fetty just get creamed his last time? You'd be correct in his last two starts. He's gone just eight and two thirds innings.

Starting point is 00:06:44 A lot of 14 runs on 18 hits with five walks, four home runs, and two strike. That's it. That is what we call one ugly ass line. Now, before you crucify Fetty, because I know you want to and everybody does, I get it. You start labeling him as the worst pitcher since sliced bread. Please note that since the beginning of May and before these last two, very stinky starts, I know. Eric Fetty wasn't pitching all that poorly. Now, the metrics say that this was bound to happen.

Starting point is 00:07:19 but I'm going to share some numbers with you and show you why that these games that in the last two, the Feddy's gotten pounded on, it hasn't really been the norm. And the Cardinals are going to be relying on Feddy to turn it around in July. This is going to be imperative to what the Cardinals are going to be doing in the next couple of weeks. We will talk about it all coming up next on Lockdown Cardinals. ever check your bank account to wonder where did all my money go well think about it between dining out your online shopping entertainment whether it's going to sporting events whether it's going to plays whether uh comedy shows whatever it may be it's easy to lose track of how much money you're actually spending

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Starting point is 00:09:28 People are ready to ship Eric Feddy out of town after what they saw in Pittsburgh. That was a debacle. DFA them, send them to Memphis, leave them at the airport. I get a lot of fun messages when things do not go well. And they amuse me. I laugh about it. So know that I'm chuckling in the background. But the cardinals are attached to this Feddy train for better rewards.

Starting point is 00:09:53 here in the month of July because he's either going to be a part of their trade deadline plans or he's going to be a key part of them trying to make playoffs. And as brutal as these last two starts at Ben Fettie's overall numbers, paint a better picture for his 2025 season. And before I get into this, I'm not trying to convince you that Eric Fetty is some Cy Young award winning guy, that he's an all-star caliber guy. I'm not. I'm not doing that.

Starting point is 00:10:22 I'm just giving you some numbers for you to think about, and maybe you'll be a little nicer to what Eric Fetty is. See him for what he is supposed to be, not what you wanted him to be. Because from May 4th to June 19th, Fetty made nine starts. Okay, so we're going to just kill off those last two starts that he just made. Nine starts, May 4th to June 19.

Starting point is 00:10:44 So two months, really. Five and two thirds innings is what he averaged in those games. So close to six, which is the goal. ERA at 2.81. Now the complete game shut out against the Washington Nationals helps immensely with those numbers. Just like really good games help, the really bad games make things look worse than they probably are. Heck, I mentioned yesterday how just three bad starts from Sunny Gray have made his numbers look way worse overall than he's really pitched. And again, I'm not trying to convince you that Eric Fetty is anything special.

Starting point is 00:11:18 I don't believe he is. He's not. He's not. Eric Fetty is not a sexy pitcher. He does not strike out a lot of guys. He does not have amazing Velo. His best pitch is a sweeper. Okay.

Starting point is 00:11:31 So it's easy to see why he would fall out of favor so quickly with Cardinal fans. He's one of those guys that when he's doing well, you're like, well, he's supposed to. But when he gets killed, you're like, he is terrible because he just doesn't look like a guy that's supposed to be all that good in the first place. But for what, $7.5 million is what they're paying Eric Feddy. this way. Very serviceable pitcher to have in your rotation. The Cardinals aren't a team that's going to go out and spend a lot of money and go line up for a young award winners. They're not going to go and pay Otani and Yamamoto and Sasaki and Snell and Glassnow. Now, they're not doing that most teams are not doing what the Dodgers are doing. So the expectations that the Cardinals

Starting point is 00:12:16 should have all of these God tier pitchers in their rotation, it's not real. It's not going to happen that way. And if you can find a guy like an Eric Fetty for $7.5 million to give you what he normally does, that's a serviceable pitcher. You want better. I get it. I wish there was somebody else who was better and available right now that isn't like, you know, 22 years old and still making their way up through the minor league system. I wish that's what we had, but they're not ready to expose any of those young guys. to the major leagues just yet.

Starting point is 00:12:55 So Eric Fetty is what we're with. That's what we got. Just like we got Andre Palante, just like we got Miles Michaelis. These are the guys we have right now. Eric Fetty has had four really bad games this year. Six earned against Boston, seven earned against Milwaukee,

Starting point is 00:13:10 last two against the Cubs and Pirates, which when you go back and you let, I hate that he's getting killed by her divisional opponents. That's not fun. If you're going to get smoked, get smoked by like an interleague team. Stop doing it in the division, right? but that's 27 of his 47 earned runs against coming in four of the 17 starts that he's made,

Starting point is 00:13:29 which tells me on a positive side of things, you can look at it as a negative too, but on the positive side of things that 13 of 17 games, he's giving you a pretty decent chance to win, the ERA in those 13 games at 3.21, if my math is correct. I believe it is. I used a calculator. And then six of those 13 games, he earned quality starts.

Starting point is 00:13:51 Again, I'm not convincing you that he's a, stud and that the Cardinal shouldn't strive to have better pitchers than Eric Fetty. I'm not saying that. But you got to find value out there if you're going to be a team that's not going to spend a lot of money. You know, if you're going to spend the way the Cardinals are spending and appears they're going to be spending for a little while, you have to find value in guys. You have to be able to find veterans who can give you decent starts and give you a chance

Starting point is 00:14:22 to win more times than not. So finding value in an Eric Fetty at his price tag of $7.5 million, that's actually good business. It just sucks that he's gotten his butt kick the last two games. And it sucks that you had to give up a fan favorite like Tommy Edmund for him. And that's a stinger as well for fans. And I get it. But that's kind of my case for the Eric Fetty stuff right now. He's better than I think we give him credit for. but he's not great by any means, but he's certainly better than what we've seen the last two games. So hopefully he gets back on track soon because if they're going to use him as trade bait, he's got to be better because his stock is going right out.

Starting point is 00:15:07 Like he's not doing himself or the Cardinals any favors for not only this year, but Fetty, you know, he's going to be a free agent. He's going to want to sign a contract and get paid. Like he doesn't want to suck and have like another one-year deal. coming his way or something cheap like that he got from the White Sox when he came back over from overseas. He'd like to do better than that, I'm sure. So, you know, he needs to get back on track.

Starting point is 00:15:33 Or he also needs to be back on track so the Cardinals can continue to make a push for the playoffs. He's got to get back to being the unsexy but solid guy that he has been most of the time this year. I know the 3 and 8 record is ugly. some of those games are not his fault that the team just didn't score runs when he pitches, but these last two games were awful. They were awful. And it just can't happen, especially against divisional opponents. So doing it against the Cubs and the pirates and seeing that he also had that problem with the Brewers,

Starting point is 00:16:06 only the Reds left to complete the four teams in the division to beat them up. So hopefully that doesn't happen. But I will also say that it pleases me to know that, at least, I think I know that neither Eric Fetty or Miles Michaelis will be back with this team next season. Both will be free agents. Hopefully they'll be replaced by younger, more exciting arms that are ready to tackle the major leagues, Toccoa Robe, Michael McGreevy, Quinn Matthews, and maybe some other people. Maybe somebody else steps up.

Starting point is 00:16:40 Maybe they sign a free agent. I don't know. But next year it should look different, but I know getting through this right now where you've got some very hitable guys that are still on the rotation. I know it's not a whole lot of fun, but the Cardinals are doing the best with what they got on this transition year, whatever you want to call it. And so far as a team,

Starting point is 00:17:00 they're doing well enough to be in a playoff spot at the moment, which is a lot better than a lot of people thought they'd be. How about more positive news about Cardinals' top prospect, J.J. Weatherhole? Got some news about him. We'll talk about it next. Coming up on Lockdown Cardinals. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you're all about baseball under the lights,

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Starting point is 00:19:02 It will be on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. So congratulations to J.J. Weatherhole, who is going to be a part of the futures game at MLB All-Star Weekend in Atlanta. This game will take place on July the 12th. JJ is enjoying his first full season. And the minors at AA Springfield overall hitting 305. He's got five home runs, 27 RBIs and 13 stolen bases, does a little bit of everything. And that's over 57 games thus far.

Starting point is 00:19:31 And he's been on a freaking tear in June. In June he hit 356, two home runs, 10 ribby, six stolen bases. 19 walks. The on-base percentage is at 500 in the month of June. So every other at bat, he's on base. That's crazy. And that tells me, the walks is telling me that he's ready to move up to AAA Memphis because he's not chasing the crap that you see at double A.

Starting point is 00:20:00 And I shouldn't say crap. But I'm just saying they throw more strikes. The higher you go on levels, the more strikes they're going to be throwing. But the nastier of the stuff is going to be. Lower levels tend to walk more people. They don't throw as many strikes. and they get people to chase more, which leads to bad habits. Seeing 19 walks in the month of June tells me he's laying off that garbage.

Starting point is 00:20:23 He's not falling for it and taking advantage of it by getting on base. But when it is in the zone, smacking the hell out of it at 356. He's also leading the team to victories. Because as Derek Gould pointed out, STL Today.com, a nice little thing that he put out there, that last year after he got drafted, he went on a tear where he hit 468 15 RBIs in his final 11 games to lead low A Palm Beach to the Florida State League title, which, you know, yeah, cool, right? Now he's also led double A Springfield to the first half division title and guaranteed them a Texas League year in playoff birth. That is being a leader.

Starting point is 00:21:06 That's being a captain that is, you know, having a winning culture. around you that wherever you tend to fall to, that is where winning begins to start happening. And that is a great trait to have. You know, when you talk about guys like Derek Jeter and people get in the arguments about, well, he was overrated and this and that, but just winning followed him with the teams that he was on with the Yankees, like winning, it was just part of his DNA to be a winner. And that feels like what's going on with JJ Weatherholt, where it just, he brings a winning mentality to the whole thing, which is going to be great when he gets up

Starting point is 00:21:50 to the show at one at some point, whether it's next year or sooner. I don't know. Maybe something could happen at the end of the year. But that team down in Springfield has got an impressive group of players that the Cardinals are hoping will have an impact at the major league level in the future. Leonardo Bernal, a very highly rated catcher. Obviously, you know, team Kent's outfielder is Joshua Baez, former first rounder Chase Davis is starting to show some pop and become the guy that they thought they were drafting out of college.

Starting point is 00:22:21 Then you got at Memphis, the pitching is really the highlight of things at Memphis with Toccoa Robe, McGreevy, Matthews, another highly rated catcher and Jimmy Crooks. Nathan Church is having a nice year. You had Thomas and J.C. and Jose Fermin were down there. They're now up with the Cardinals. Cesar Prieto looks like he could be a nice benchral guy. So it's a solid group coming up, and the Cardinals will obviously continue. to try to add to that and could be doing it as soon as the end of this month when they make a

Starting point is 00:22:49 decision on whether or not they're going to sell some pieces away at the trade deadline. And, you know, obviously there's going to be a lot of people interested in names like, hopefully Eric Fetty will be one of those names that people still wish to have on their teams. But Ryan Helsley, Phil Maeton is a guy, although I'd like to keep him, you know, his stock's pretty freaking high right now. So we'll see what they end up doing with some of these guys. Stephen Matt's. Is that another guy that's going to be shipped out?

Starting point is 00:23:18 I mean, his contract is expiring as well. But right now, as of today on July the 1st, the Cardinals are trying to make the playoffs and those guys are still on this team. And after last night's turd, again, I say this after every time they have one of these games where it just looks like nobody showed up where it's just a zombie squad out there, you flush and you move on. flush wipe move on get you a dude wipe and clean everything and get out of whatever that was

Starting point is 00:23:47 that you saw last night because paul skeins is coming to the mound tonight at p and c and the cardinals better be ready the cardinals have had a decent amount of success against him it's a short career so far for paul skeins but he's still such a special talent that expecting to continue to do well against him is probably wishful thinking eventually he's probably going to get you. Let's hope it's not tonight. Let's hope it's not tonight because the Cardinals could use a bounce back game after what we saw last night. And the series is on the line. Paul Skeens beats them tonight. They're going to lose the series to the Pirates. And that is something that coming into the series, you're like, that's not even something I'm thinking about. But they're a hot team right now. And they showed it on Monday night. And not only do you got to beat Paul Skeens, but you've got to slow down the Pirates bats who have just been mashing the last four games.

Starting point is 00:24:43 Andre Palante will be assigned with that task, which not a great matchup. I'll be honest with you considering opponents are hitting 260 against Andre this year. That is the 12 highest batting average against among starters in baseball. Against the team that is hitting everything right now. Fetty, by the way, right next to him now at 258. Matthew Liberator in the top 20 as well. Opponents are hitting 252 against Libby. I would not have guessed that.

Starting point is 00:25:10 But not going to be an easy task tonight. Got to take this one very, very seriously because we don't want to lose this series against Pittsburgh. Not in the division. That's a big no-no. Not to the last place team in your division. That can't and shouldn't happen, but you're going to have to get through schemes to do it. So no easy task, but that is why they play the games. All right.

Starting point is 00:25:33 Thanks for making a lockdown card. listen every day. Make your second listen. And we'll be game night. I'll be on there again tonight with John from Lockdown Angels. We'll go through all the games in Major League Baseball. If you haven't given me a follow yet, I would love that. That would be great. Follow us on X at L.O. underscore Cardinals and a JD Sports Radio, TikTok and Instagram at Lockdown Cardinals. Been seeing a lot more fans rolling through that TikTok. We get those short videos out there to you and people seem to like them. So check that out. Obviously, like, subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason.

Starting point is 00:26:07 And I will see you next time on Locked on Cards.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Fedde Flops, Wetherholt Rising!

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