Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Gray Hammered Again, Koperniak Gets Cut

Episode Date: March 16, 2025

- Sonny Gray Struggles Again - Bullpen Set? - Cardinals Make Cuts - Bench Update 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! Wonderful Pistachios Looking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more. FanDuel Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. 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.

Definitely not the start that Sunny Gray and the Cardinals were hoping for as his hideous spring continues. 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, I'm J.D. Haffern and I'm your host for Lockedown Cardinals, part of the Lockedown podcast network covering your team every day. You can follow me on exit, JD Sports Radio. You can follow the podcast at L.O.1 or Cardinals. We're also on YouTube.

Make sure you like, subscribe, and comment and hit that notification button so you know when new episodes are posted, as well as those shorts that we like to put out, and also available on TikTok and Instagram as well at Locktown Cardinals. 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 is being brought to you by Fandrol. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So the Cardinals announced that Sunny Gray will be their opening day starter against the Minnesota Twins at Bush Stadium. on March 27th. We're all getting very excited about the fact that opening day is just around the corner,

all the festivities, all the Clydesdales and the legends and the red jackets and everybody coming out and having a good time. We're hoping for good weather, obviously. Not a surprise that Sunny Gray was named your opening day starter. Would have been the opening day starter last year. I'm sure if he hadn't had that setback with his hammy in spring training. But to say that Sunny has had a spring deserving of such an honor as opening day starter for your St. Louis Cardinals at home, that would be a complete and utter lie. It would because he has not been good. Now there are ways that you can manipulate the numbers to point out some good things like, let's say his strikeout total. Let's go there, for instance. Leads the club with 12 strikeouts this spring. That's good, right? Nine and two thirds innings,

strikeouts. That's good. We like that. He was really good at striking out people last year, if you remember as well, 203 and 166 and a third innings. Sunny doesn't have any problems striking people out. Never really has. And as far as we know, he's healthy. That we think we know too. But that's about it as far as positives so far this spring for Sunny Gray, who got obliterated once again on Sunday by the Miami Marlins. Now, the biggest problem, problem for Sunny on Sunday was command. That was an issue. He was all over the place. Walking five batters and just three innings of work and the three innings of work, it's a little bit misleading because he actually started five different innings today, but he was removed before the

innings ended four separate times. The only inning that he actually finished was the first inning when he only faced three hitters. After that, it was a mess for Sunny. And when I a mess, picture downtown bar bathroom after Mardi Gras or after St. Patty's Day. After those types of party atmospheres, picture a public bathroom that is down there. That's the type of mess I'm talking about. Just stuff everywhere. You got toilet paper on the ceiling. You've got urination over here on the floor.

Sometimes you're going to find feces in places it doesn't belong. just a disaster, right? 10 pitches in the first inning for Sonny Gray. Nothing too bad there. 22 pitches in the second. Then he got removed with two out and runners on first and third. The runs were then charged to him after they came around to score. Maybe Sonny ends up ending the ending of you keep him in.

He ends the ending on the next hitter and we don't even have to worry about any of this stuff. And none of that happens. But it did. And that's why these numbers are a little bit goofy, all right? Cardinals are down four to nothing after the inning. Two of those runs charged to sunny. Then he comes back out for the third inning. And he walks the first batter on four straight pitches,

and they weren't even all that close. Then a home run on the first pitch, four-seem fastball, Jonah Bride. Makes it six to nothing. Sixth home run of the spring off of Sunny Gray. But I will point this out. Like a couple of the other ones, this was very wind.

aided. This particular home run, very wind aided. It carried out to left field. They talked about how they, they moved the fences in at Rogerdeen Stadium this year so they could make room for the bullpins. Fences are in, wind blowing out to left, and it was a wall scraper. It just got over in left field. Newt and left. It looked like he had it, and he kept going and going, and then it finally went over the wall. And I think it was John Denton who posted that it would have only been a home run in, you know, two of the 30 major league ballparks. But it still counts. It still counts. It's a home run. But keep that in mind when you hear about this. Then he gets a strikeout. Then it's another walk. Single strikeout before he gets pulled again after 22 total pitches in the inning. Back-to-back doubles after that brings both of these guys around, which again gets charged to Sunny. Leave him in. Maybe he gets out of it on his own, but it's spring training. They're working on this pitch count thing. they pull them out, they bring in a guy who's not supposed to even be, you know, it's not going to sniff the major leagues this year.

All of a sudden, you're looking at 9 to nothing Marlins by the end of the third. Six of those runs charged to Sunny comes out for the fourth inning and is greeted with a single, then another single, then a strikeout, and then a double gets pulled after 15 pitches, and comes Andre Grenio with one out. He gives up a sack fly, 11 to 2, two more runs charged to Sunny on 18 pitches, giving him 72 total in the game. Then, to the shock of most of us, he comes back out for the fifth inning. He walks the first guy on four pitches again. They were not really all that close. Then he gets a strikeout before getting pulled for the last time after eight pitches.

It's the 80 pitch mark final line for Sunny Gray on Sunday, three innings, eight runs, six hits, one home run, five walks and five strikeouts. But he pitched in five different innings. So it's kind of a mindbender about how all of these numbers go together. Again, would he have gotten out of some of those innings? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe things got worse. You know, you just don't know. What I do know is the sunny gray struggles this spring are real. They are. None of his three starts have gone all that well. First start against the Astros. Two and two thirds innings, three runs, four hits, three dingers, zero walks, three strikeouts. And again, the wind crazy in Florida when sunny gray pitches,

because all three of these starts, wind was blowing out at a ridiculous rate in all three of these games. Second start against the Mets, four innings, allows four runs, six hits, two more home runs. He hits a guy, walks a guy, strikes out four. And then you get today's game, which gives him a grand total of nine and two thirds innings pitched. 12 strikeouts, good. But 15 runs on 16 hits, six home runs. he's hit a guy, he's walked six. Obviously, the walks weren't even a big issue until today when he had five of them.

The six home runs given up are tied for the most in Major League Baseball this spring, along with Dean Kramer from the Baltimore Orioles. It is 15 earned runs are tied for the most with David Festa. He's with the twins and then Luis Ortiz of the Guardian. So some very well-known staff aces right there that Sunny Gray is grouped with. Then his 16 heads are the sixth most tied with. the few guys there. It's just been an ugly spring so far for Sunny. And you can see the frustration in Sunday's game. You can see it on Sunny's face and his mannerisms during the game.

Did not look all that comfortable, although he really never does because he's always twitching around and stuff. But give credit to the Marlins too, who took some tough at bats against him and made him work hard. You know, the Marlins scored. I think it was 12 runs in their last game against the Cardinals, 11 more today. They're picking up on something that the Cardinals are doing and hitting them pretty well. So should we be worried about Sunny? I mean, I'm not pressing the panic button, but I am leaning over towards it a little more than I would be normally. I mean, let's face facts.

Sunny Gray is not getting any younger. This is not a 28-year-old who, you know, still has a couple of his prime years ahead of him. He's on the back nine, that's for sure. And we've learned the hard way as Cardinal fans in recent years that some of these guys, they hit an age wall, and then it just goes, they just fall off the map. So I'm hoping that's not what's going on with Sunny Gray here. I mean, the V-Lo and stuff still seems to be fine.

Movement seem to be fine, but he's getting hit, and he's getting hit hard. And I hope this is an age catching up with them this season because we've seen when it happens, they don't perform well, and it really puts the team in a bind. Especially we're talking about a guy who's not going to be, you know, your fourth or five guy, you just sub them out and whatever. This is the guy that's supposed to be the anchor of your starting rotation this year.

And we've got some ugliness going on. So still some time to get things right and be ready for opening day, but not a lot of time. Not a lot of time. We keep saying that, but it's getting close. One of the big positives, though, from last year and this spring has been the bullpen. That we can say for certain. And it appears that we've got our group for the Cardinals set to go after some transactions this weekend.

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long. Thanks again for making a lot. to talk. Carlos, your first listen every day, leave your comments on YouTube as well as on X anytime you want. Your feedback is always welcome and encouraged. Opening day on March 27th, getting down to crunch time for the Cardinals to decide on who's in and who's out. Got to get it down to 26 people. It's a 26 man roster for those of you who don't know. And the good thing about spring training this year is that there's been a lot of healthy competition among their younger players that has made some of these decisions pretty darn difficult for for Ali and Mo and the boys,

particularly in the bullpen and for the bench rolls. You know, you kind of had an idea who the starting nine were going to be, and as long as everybody stayed healthy, everybody's kind of in the places that they need to be. But when it came to the bullpen and when it came to Benchrolls, there were some battles to be had. And what makes these battles so intriguing, at least to me, is that it hasn't been because guys have been so bad that,

you know what I mean, where you're choosing out of people who aren't really all that good. And you're like, well, I mean, do we go with this guy? I mean, he kind of sucked to. It hasn't been the issue at all for the Cardinals. They're deciding between guys who all legitimately belong on this roster in one way, shape, or form. You know, they're making decisions on guys who have pitched really well or hit really well. Take, for instance, the moves that they made this past Saturday.

optioning right-hander's rally O'Brien and Rotary Munoz to AAA Memphis. Neither of them have done anything wrong to not be on the roster, but they got to figure it out. They got to cut it down. The demotion is not because they've pitched poorly. It's just that other guys had pitched as good, if not better, this spring. With O'Brien, it's a little bit different because with O'Brien, we knew something fishy was going on, right? You know, I mentioned it earlier this week.

We talked about it with Jeff Jones on Friday. I went and I was asking, where the hell is Riley O'Brien? Has anybody heard from him? Is he MIA? Is he in witness protection? What has happened to Riley O'Brien? Where has he been? Had been in a game since February 26th,

but there had been no mention of him being injured or anything. And when there's radio silence about a guy like O'Brien, who's dealt with some injuries, you just kind of get the sense that there's something up. They're hiding something. Something has gone down, and we don't know what. it's either going to be an injury, a personal matter, or an illness of some sort. And we found out that it actually was injury related, a bump in the road,

is what O'Brien called. They basically felt some discomfort in his elbow. There was some soreness there after his last game on the 26th. And according to Derek Gould at STL Today.com, he did not go for a scan of the joint because of how the elbow immediately responded to rest in treatment. But it took some time to restart his throwing so he could get back in relief. So basically what went down, didn't feel all that great. They started before freaking out and going into scans and stuff.

They were like, well, let's see how it reacts to this. Gave it some rest, gave it some treatment, and it bounced back rather quickly for him to where he was able to face the Mets on Friday through another scoreless inning. Gave up one walk, one hit. He struck out one, was close to touching 99 with the sinker in that game. So he appeared healthy and has now thrown three innings allowed no runs, three hits, walk two, struck out six. You hear the word electric used to describe his stuff.

And that's great because when he's out there, it looks nasty. You can see it in the games that he pitched last year, in the games that you've seen this spring. The problem is he can't seem to stay out on the mound. They can't really trust him. He's got to be healthy to use this electric stuff that he possesses. So with him only throwing three innings, it kind of cost him his spot on the roster. Any bit of competition that he was going to have to be able to be on the opening day roster,

went out the window when he misses two weeks. So he's going down to Memphis. Roderry Munoz, whom the Cardinals grabbed off waivers from the Marlins, still only 24 years old. Cardinals are now the four. realize this fourth organization that he's been with already. I did not realize he'd been with the Braves and the Nationals already before he became a Miami Marlin. Maybe it's something to do with the NL East that he doesn't like, doesn't want to be there. So the Cardinals got him. He's got a great arm.

You see that in the spring. He's got an outstanding arm, plenty of strikeout capability. So the future and the ceiling for Roder Amunios is pretty high. He was also in the game on Friday against the Mets. He tosses two winnings. He allows one. unearned run on one hit. He walks one as well, but he strikes out four. And for the spring, final number, seven innings, four runs, only two of those earned, by the way, four hits, two of them were dingers, two walks, but ten strikeouts. So certainly someone to keep an eye on down at Memphis, because he's kind of, from what I've gathered, he's been a starter, he's been a reliever, not sure which role he actually prefers, if either.

Maybe he's just whatever. But it appears the Cardinals are likely going to keep him in the bullpen and use them that way down in Memphis. So for those of you keeping track at home, after those two moves were made this weekend, the Cardinals were down to 45 players in Major League camp, the bullpen, you know, it continues to dwindle down and when guys like O'Brien and Munoz aren't making the cut,

that's a pretty good sign. That's a pretty good sign as to how strong this bullpen has been this spring and can be when they're healthy. And very few spots were available in the first place because you've got Ryan Helsley closing. You've got Ryan Fernandez, Jojo Romero, those are your setup guys. Matthew Libertor who got into the game on Sunday. Newly signed Phil Meaton. John King. These guys are set.

They're ready to go. that gives you six who are in the pen locked in. You add that to your starting five, which gives you 11. And that means that you only had two spots left. And it seems like Kyle Leahy and Chris Roycroft are going to be those guys. Neither of them has given up a run yet this spring over 15 combined innings. They've also struck out 15. We've liked what we've seen from Leahy and Roycroft.

So you've got three lefties. You got five varieties. where the only question mark is what to expect from Maytime, who kind of had a jackal and hide type of season in 2024 after his bad start in Tampa Bay, figured some things out, was pretty good at the end with them, then along with the Mets,

very good at the end of the regular season with New York, and then playoffs happened, and he got lit up like a Christmas tree. But if and when someone goes down, and it always happens, nobody stays no staff stays healthy the whole season. It's nice to know

that the Cardinals got some some high ceiling depth at Memphis who helped them in a pinch when needed. Same idea can be said about Michael McGreevy. If he goes down, which is what looks like is going to happen, then he's going to be the odd man out of the rotation

that, you know, someone goes down. You've got a guy who's ready to rock and roll that can fit right in seamlessly. No big deal. The Cardinals did make some roster cuts after Sunday's game. One, which might rub some people the wrong way, we'll run through those coming up next on Lockdown Cardinals. Thank you again for making Lockdown Cardinals. Your first listen today for your second listen. Find Lockton MLB, baseball guru Sully brings you a daily blend of humor in baseball, keeping you updated on all the teams during spring training and up to opening day. We can find Lockton MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast.

So the Cardinals may have solidified their bullpen. We think we know where everybody fits there. But the bench rolls, that's still something that has yet to be completed. The team made a number of cuts on Sunday, reducing their spring training roster to 31 players with 13 players moving over to minor league camp. The option infielders Michael Hellman and Thomas Adjacy and outfielder Matt Keperniak to the Memphis AAA roster. The team reassigned non-raster pitchers Michael Gomez and Andre Greeneo, catchers Gavin Collins, Wade Stoss, Chance Cisco, and Yoel Pozo, infielder Cesar Prieto and RJ Yeager.

No more Jaeger bombs. And outfielders, Nathan Church and Ryan Vallade to minor league camp. They currently have 29 Major League roster players and two non-raster invitees remaining in the team's Major League Spring Training Camp. Now the names that stand out on this list, Thomas and Jacey, and Matt Copernic. And we discussed with Jeff Jones on Friday. If you missed that episode,

please go back and check it out because Jeff and I had a nice conversation about what to expect about this roster on Friday before the weekend and before all of these cuts started happening. So, Jayce just needs to play every day. He needs to. He's a top five prospect in your organization, sitting on the bench behind our Anato and Wynn

and Donovan and Gorman is not going to help us to play. development much. Just hanging around in the clubhouse. Cool. But he's not playing. He needs to play every day. This spring, 30 of bats, 267, one home run at a double two ribbies. He struck out nine times. He walked just once. There's not a place for it. There's not a place for him at this moment. Let's put it that way. Matt Coperniac's only negative this spring. And this is the one that people are going to be upset about. I think people figured Cigieg was on the outside looking in. but Keperniak was somebody who has done everything he's been asked of in spring training. The only negative about him, and it's something he can't do anything about,

is that he is a left-handed hitter. That is it. That's his only issue. If he was a right-handed hitter, this is probably a different story altogether. Because numbers-wise, he's had a very good spree. He's hitting 355 with two dingers and six RBIs. A couple walks, seven whiffs. Got a stolen base in there as well.

Did that all in 31 at bats. That's production. That's beautiful. And if that line was behind Nolan Gorman or Jordan Walker, we'd be doing backflips right now, like my man Ozzie back here. He'd be doing backflips. We'd be like, yes.

These are the guys that need to be doing. doing that. Instead, it's the guy who is stuck behind a bunch of other left-handed swinging outfielders named Donovan and Newpar and Burleson and Victor Scott II and Siani. Plus, you got Gorman. And I'm sure it stings. If you're Matt Keperniak right now, it stings to know that he's got better numbers than all these dudes. All of everyone on the list is beneath him, stat-wise. And you Yet he's going to Memphis. He's not going to make the Major League Club. If he could play center field, I'd put him in over Siani, for sure.

But he doesn't. He doesn't play center field. He's a corner outfielder or he's a DH. And the Cardinals do not have room or a need for another left-handed version of that at this time. It sucks. I'm not saying a dozen. Is it right? Not really.

But when you talk about roster construction and setting up things for what's going to happen later in games, another left-hander didn't make any sense. Lucan Baker smoked his team leading fourth home run on Sunday. A 417 footer, what was there, like 112 off the bat or something? Like just a missile again. It looks like he's done enough to make this roster, which is great. like I'm happy for Luke and he's one of the guys I was rooting for. So it looks like he's done enough to make the roster.

And Coperniac going down kind of gives me the vibes that Luke and Baker has made this team. And as I've said before, like, do not be shocked if despite getting outplayed in almost every way possible that Michael Ciani ends up making this roster over Victor Scott the second. I don't explain why. It's so that Victor Scott can play every day instead of sitting behind the trio of Brendan Donovan, Lars Neupar, and Jordan Walker at the major league level. Now you can make an argument that Victor Scott should be starting in center, Newt should be in left, Walker should be in right field, and that Donovan should be playing second base, and Gorman should be coming off the bench. You can make that argument, but it's not what the Cardinals want to do. They want Gorman in there as much as possible. And they're willing to move things around to make that happen.

Again, this all goes back to the Nolan Aronado trade issue. If Arnato is traded, Gorman goes the third, Donovan's at second, Newton left, Victor Scott gets to start and center. And we're not having this discussion. But he's not. That's not how it is. So looking at your bench, you would have Luke and Baker. One of the catchers, Pahez is the backup in my eyes.

Herrera had a couple other hits today, is now batting like close to 350 this spring. You've got to have his offense in the lineup. Burleson, who will be your DH for Spaceman outfielder, but he's going to be in there a lot. Siani or Scott, likely Siani, because you don't want to stump the growth of Scott. by just burying him on the bench. And then you need somebody who's an infielder with flexibility and with Helmin out. They were hoping that maybe he could be that guy. But with him out, that leaves Jose Barrero and Jose for me.

And the thing that separates those two is not so much stats this spring, but it's the fact that Barrero has the capability of playing infield and outfielder, and he can play some centerfield. It's not like he's just relegated to the corners. He can also play in centerfield. He's got good enough instincts and speed and so he can do it. He's a more flexible piece for Ollie to do utilize latent games. So that's kind of what we're looking at right now.

Roster-wise, after this weekend, so after all these cuts and after the stats and everything have settled, this is where we're at. And we've only got, what, 10 days? And the idea is that they don't want, they want whoever is going to be on opening, day to be the people that go down to Memphis as well for that game. So, you know, it's, we only got a few days left to get it down to 26 or at 31. What are your thoughts on the roster construction? Does it upset you? Are you okay with all of these moves the way I've explained them? Agree and disagree to the decisions that are making. What are your thoughts? Let me know in

the comments section down below. Thank you for making locks on Cardinals and first listen every day. If you haven't already, give us follow on X at L.O underscore Cardinals and at JD Sports Radio. You can on TikTok and Instagram at Lockedon Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube and help our channel and our love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We're getting closer to these games, meaning something. We'll see you next time on Locked on Cardinals.