Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Is Jordan Walker's Career with the St. Louis Cardinals DOOMED?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Jordan Walker struggles at the plate continue. And manager Ali Marmal and hitting coach, Bram Brown, have spoke out on what they need to see from him moving forward if he's going to succeed at the major league level. 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.

Starting point is 00:00:27 I'm J.D. Hafford and I'm your host for Lockdown Cardinals. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. If you haven't already, give us follow. on X at JD Sports Radio as well as the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals. We're on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram at Locked on Cardinals, so you can find us just about anywhere. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving you all the best info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by Game Time, download the GameTime app,

Starting point is 00:00:52 create an account. Use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. So the St. Louis Cardinals won another ball game last night behind another solid start from, hold on checking notes, Miles Michaelis? What? That's right. That's right. I was as shocked as everyone else pleasantly surprised, though. It's not like I ever root for Miles Michaelis or any of the Cardinals to fail. That's not my purpose. I'm pleasantly surprised, though, that Michaelis pitched as well as he did. We're going to talk about that game here in a little bit, but because of where the Cardinals are, which is currently 69 and 71, wallowing in,

Starting point is 00:01:33 fourth place in the NL Central. Winning a baseball game is actually not the biggest story on this Wednesday, September the 3rd. The big story is the talk surrounding Jordan Walker, recent comments from his hitting coach Bram Brown and manager Ali Marmal about the struggles that Jordan Walker is enduring right now. Now, multiple stories came out about this all at once. Derek Gold for the post dispatch, Katie Wu, the athletic, John Denton from MLV.com. Full credit to all of these guys for getting the quotes

Starting point is 00:02:09 and getting the information. We're going to be picking pieces from all of them because they all do great work. So if you don't follow those people, you really should. So check out their stories if you get a chance. Now, ever since, you know, Jordan Walker was taken in the first round by the Cardinals back in 2020. There had been expectations of him. And that happens with all first round picks, you know, organizations and fan bases expect a first round pick, no matter what sport it is, to become an impact player, to become an impact guy, a pillar that they can build around. And when that doesn't happen, the scrutiny and backlash is going to be huge. You know, why did you pick this guy?

Starting point is 00:02:56 He sucks. How did you fall for that? most of these people don't suck in high school or college when they get drafted. Busting sports happen all the time. You know, in the NFL, you've got, you know, quarterbacks that get taken too high. Jamarcus Russell, number one overall. Ryan Leif. There was St. Louis Rams when they were in town, took Lawrence Phillips.

Starting point is 00:03:18 That didn't work out so well, did it? In the NBA, you've got guys like Kwame Brown, Anthony Bennett, it. Michael Olova Candy. Like, you remember these names? The NHL. How about Nail Yakupov? Remember him? Edmonton took him number one overall. I ended up playing for the blues for a short stent. But a huge bust. Now, Jordan wasn't a top five pick or anything like that. Selected, what, like 18th overall, somewhere in that vicinity? Might have been later than that, actually, now that I come to think of it, Jordan Walker. When was he selected? What? pick was he. Let me double check. Twenty first, twenty first. Twenty first. Twenty first

Starting point is 00:03:59 first overall in that draft. So, um, the expectations were, you know, your first round pick, but he was coming out of high school. Uh, so you knew it was going to take some time to develop, but his stock started to soar very early on in his career by 2023. MLB pipeline had him as their number four ranked player, not in the Cardinals organization, but overall in major league baseball. He was up there with Gunner Henderson, who's become a star for the Orioles. Corby, Corby, Corby Carroll, who's become a star for the Diamondbacks. He was ahead of guys like Anthony Volpey, Jackson Churio, who's become a big deal for the Milwaukee Brewers, Ellie de la Cruz for the Reds, Pete Crow Armstrong for the Cubs. He was ahead of those guys. So needless to say,

Starting point is 00:04:46 expectations were quite high on him, which is why seeing him struggle as much as he has, still in 2025, it has tarnished the shine that once gleams so brightly off of him. Some fans have already given up on him and are ready to punt and move on. They're saying cut your losses, ship them out while he's still got some trade value. I'm sure we got plenty of those people who will chime in in the comment section that feel that way. They're like, don't let him be the next Dylan Carlson where you waited too long, had all these expectations. and then when it finally flamed out completely,

Starting point is 00:05:25 you didn't get anything for him. Didn't live up to all the expectations that they had for Dylan Carlson was sent packing for a reliever to the Tampa Bay raised. Sean Armstrong that lasted a couple weeks before the club ended up releasing him. They don't want to see that happen. That makes them nervous. Others, like myself, I'm in the group where Jordan's still young. He's 23.

Starting point is 00:05:52 I feel like it would be foolish to give up on him, to sell low on him, and to move him when his value is as low as it's been. And doing it on a team that, you know, it's not going anywhere right now. You know, what is the point of thinking about this now during this season?

Starting point is 00:06:12 And the off season, maybe it's something you consider. I think Heinbloom's got a lot of decisions to make about young guys on this team. But, you know, as of today, nobody's expecting the Cardinals to make any sort of splash this offseason that would make anyone believe that this team will somehow become playoff relevant next year. So whether Jordan Walker is still working through his struggles or not, is it going to make that big of a difference for this team for 2026? Probably not. So I just, I'm not ready to give up on him yet, though.

Starting point is 00:06:48 I think there's still a lot of talent. You know, the Cardinals had a feeling that things were going to be mediocre this season anyway, at best, which is why we heard all that chatter about runways and figuring out what we've got in our own house and let the young guys play more. And the two guys that that was really directed at was Noah and Gordon Walker, huge expectations for both of them coming up through the minors, both of them failing to make the impact that was expected of them at the major league level by now. both of them showed great promise early on in their careers. You know, Gorman hit 27 home runs in 119 games in 2023. Yay, we're all excited about that, right?

Starting point is 00:07:28 Walker 276, 16 home runs at 117 games that same season. Yeah, here we go, two dudes. The idea was that two guys, these guys, were going to become the part of the heart of the Cardinals order for years to come. And it seemed to be that idea was going to work. and then everything was on point. But since then, it's been bad for both of them. Both have had to move positions.

Starting point is 00:07:52 Gorman moving to second base because of Aronado. Walker to the outfield also because of Aronado playing third base because Jordan Walker was a third baseman when they drafted him. But also because of the massive amount of athletic ability that Jordan Walker possesses. The dude can run like the wind for his size at 6.6, maybe 6, 7 at this point in his life. It's got a cannon for an arm. We've seen that. People do not run on Jordan Walker.

Starting point is 00:08:19 They don't. So it made sense to utilize those abilities, but they're always going to be growing pains involved with learning a new position at the big league level, which is what they asked of both of these guys. So perhaps that played a part in the struggles for each of them having to kind of switch around. But after hearing what hitting coach Bram Brown and manager Allie Marmal

Starting point is 00:08:45 had to say about Jordan at this point in his career, at this point of this season and the struggles that he's been going through. Perhaps it's more than just a young kid going through the normal struggles. Maybe there's a little more to it. We're going to dissect what they had to say about Jordan Walker coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. Hey, Cardinal fans, are you still paying full price for gas? Stop leaving money behind. Makes no sense.

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Starting point is 00:11:59 Leave your comments on YouTube as well as on X anytime you want. TikTok as well. Get the comments on there. If you've watched Jordan Walker over the last couple of years, it's not like the kids not trying new things, right? You've certainly noticed the adjustments he's made in the box, specifically with the stance where he's been wide open when he first came up and then he kind of closed it up.

Starting point is 00:12:24 And then he was a little open again. Like, you know, he keeps trying new things that, defensive play has gotten much better. It really has from where he once was, if you recall that. We were like, oh, boy, oh boy, what are we doing with this? But things have gotten better. Again, he's young and he was just learning the position. So progressing on the defensive side of things was something that I fully believed was going to happen. He's too good of an athlete not to be a serviceable outfielder. offensive side of things though still have not consistently clicked for him now he's had two iL since this year and maybe that plays a part in it i don't want to use him as excuses but when you're

Starting point is 00:13:07 hurt and when you have things like an appendicitis issue and you can't swing a bat for a while it's going to take some time to get things going again so uh that that certainly could play part of it um but even when he's healthy we've still not seen him perform consistently the way he did in 2023 when he showed all that promise. And when he did deal with that appendicitis thing and he came back, remember he came back and all of a sudden he was like a new guy. Like he was hitting the snod out of the ball. Red hot slash land of 315, 354, 38 over 20 games.

Starting point is 00:13:41 He only had one home run, which is something that everybody's complained about, is that, you know, he should be hitting more home runs. But six doubles, OPS near 800 at 797. I mean, are we really going to, you know, bitch and moan a little bit about that. The one thing I noticed, and, you know, if you watch the telecast was consistently pointed out by Chip Carey and the boys, was that, you know, he was finally laying off those off-speed pitches low and away.

Starting point is 00:14:13 That was the big problem. Sliders, sweepers, boom, low and away, and Jordan would go fishing all the time and would never come close to hitting them. And he was not doing that anymore. He had stopped chasing. I don't know if he was just seeing the ball better, but he was taking them, tagging them.

Starting point is 00:14:32 And when pitchers would come back in over the plate, he wasn't missing. He was able to shrink the zone because he wasn't chasing those pitches. And when you have a better idea where that ball's probably going to be, gives you the upper hand as a hitter. And yeah, sometimes they would get in his kitchen

Starting point is 00:14:50 because when they wouldn't get him to chase, they try to bust him in. they'd get the best of them because he'd be looking away trying to avoid that and then they'd get in on his hands. But with the quick hands of the bat speed that he possesses, which if you go look at the stats are elite level, I like his chances of being able to turn on those, get his hips opened up and turn on those. And as long as you're not waving at pitches off the plate, you know, it makes your job a whole lot easier. But after that like 20 game stretch, things started to go south again. And he's currently mired in another slump since August 11th, betting 127, one home run,

Starting point is 00:15:33 three RBIs, 22 strikeouts and 59 plate appearances. Frustrating. And according to John Denton at MLB.com, not only would the Cardinals like to see a strong finish to the season from their former top prospect, but they also want to see him be more receptive to making the changes. needed to potentially make him more consistent at the plate. And quite frankly, the club's patient seems to be wearing thin, with the 23-year-old outfielder's receptiveness to the changes they have asked him to make.

Starting point is 00:16:06 Interesting, right? In Katie Wu's article, she has Jordan saying, quote, the approach feels very different from how I like to hit. I've seen some success with it, like right after the All-Star break, this is a game of ups and downs, and recently it's been down, so I need to see what the difference is. Now, if you remember in the early parts of Jordan's career, when they first called him up, even though I was one of the people

Starting point is 00:16:33 that was very vocal about saying, I don't know why he's on this team already. Straight from AA to the pros, I didn't make any freaking sense at all to me. It felt rushed. It felt like they were doing it as a, you know, a ploy to get more attention. I thought it was terrible. and he was up for a while and he kept hitting the ball on the ground. And the Cardinal sent him down to work on Launch Engel.

Starting point is 00:16:58 They wanted him to lift the ball more and take advantage of that untapped power they feel that he possesses. So they've been asking him to make adjustments since he got called up. I don't know what they were doing with him in the minor leagues, no clue. But since he became a Cardinal up on the Bigley Club, they've been asking him to tweak things. So it's been quite a while now, a couple of years. And it seems like to me that Jordan, you know, he tries some things for a little bit.

Starting point is 00:17:27 And when he doesn't find success right away, that he tends to revert back to what he used to do. I notice it more with the batting stance where he'll do something for a little bit. And then all of a sudden, he's got his leg open again like he used to when he first came up. And it just seems to me that he's got all his wires all crossed and things are all messed up. If things start to go bad, he just switches back to his old ways, thinking that he'll be that hitter again that he was when he was coming up. And that's not working.

Starting point is 00:18:00 And then the staff feels like they've got to start all over with them. And this is my opinion. This is just what I'm taking from these quotes and what I'm reading into it. Ali said this about Jordan. There's real work to be done and there's a real level of dedication and consistency that needs to come with that. I need to see Jordan have a sense of urgency for the things that need to take place to give him consistent results.

Starting point is 00:18:21 That goes with his moves toward the ball, his preparation in the cage, and his approach in games. Hitting coach Bram Brown said something similar in an interview on KMOX, saying at some point in time, he's going to have to devote more focus on preparation. One thing with Walker is we've played a massive game of tennis, going back and forth with what he feels like he needs to do versus what he really needs to do.

Starting point is 00:18:42 But for me, there's a really easy way out. He might have to be a little bit more uncomfortable to be able to achieve what we wanted to achieve. And in my opinion, the team, the coach is the front office is bad as some of the sounds. To me, it doesn't feel like they've given up on him. But they just want that word that popped out to me was urgency,

Starting point is 00:19:04 a little bit of urgency. You know, they want and need Jordan to be successful. They need him to be a success story for the Cardinals to win. They need that from him. They need it from Gorman. They need it from Mason, Wend, McGreevy, Libertor, any of these top picks that they made, they need them to be success stories. Because that's what the Cardinals are banking on right now is that the youth coming up is going to lead them into a better place in the next couple seasons.

Starting point is 00:19:35 And to me, it sounds like a situation where, and again, my opinion, that Jordan Walker was the best player on his team in high school. He's been the best player on his team no matter where he played probably, all the way. up through the minors. And when he finally got to the majors, doing things the way he did him, and then you started asking him to change things. And you were telling him it was for the better, but I don't think he was fully on board with that. I don't think he liked it. Like, why are you making me change? Like, I've been great. I'm the number four overall prospect in baseball. Why are you, why are you tinkering with me now? I've been really, really good. Why are we doing this? So there was probably a little bit of like pushback there.

Starting point is 00:20:23 But he tried them. I don't think he liked it. And the changes didn't work all that well for him as everyone thought they would. And some of these things that they ask him to do, it takes time to get used to those things. And we're in a world right now where I need instant gratification, right? you know, I want this, I want it now. And if it doesn't work, you're all, everybody's upset about, right? And anything in life, it's not just sports.

Starting point is 00:20:59 And because these changes didn't work and because he's like, well, I'll just go back to do what I used to do because that worked, it's going against everything the Cardinals are asking him to do, which is putting him in like a batting limbo right now. And he's trying to work his way out. And if there's one thing you've ever, you know, learned in life and maybe being 23, he hasn't learned this yet. But going backwards will not move you forwards. You know, he either has to buy in to what they're telling him to do and go for it or probably needs to go to another organization that doesn't want him to change anything and just let him do whatever the hell he wants to do. For me, it's something that he just has to keep pushing forward, you know, to it's a break on through on the other side to steal from the doors.

Starting point is 00:21:51 He's always going to feel that tug to go back to what he used to do when he was successful. But it's been three, four years now, bro. It's a struggle. And it's leading to these terrible results. Again, in my opinion, that's what I feel like the inner turmoil is that's going on with Jordan Walker at this moment. I once had a pitching coach just to relate to it in college. My whole life, as a pitcher, I threw from.

Starting point is 00:22:18 the far left side of the rubber, the first base side. That's where I was most comfortable. I had a three-fourths, you know, delivery, my arm angle, and it just worked out for me. College, I get to a school, and they tell me that my coach is like, I want you to move over to the far right now, which, you know, how big is the rubber? It's not that long, but it felt like the moon to me. Like, I was over there like, oh, I don't know what I'm doing. it screwed up my arm angles.

Starting point is 00:22:50 My accuracy was off. I was a mess. And instead of trusting him, even though he's got decades of knowledge and continuing to work towards perfecting what he was trying to teach me, as soon as I struggled, I would move back to where I was most comfortable.

Starting point is 00:23:07 And eventually those results weren't any good either. And that's because he was trying to go like, eventually this isn't going to work. You need to start doing this instead. And that's what happened to me. So from my personal experience, if Jordan doesn't trust the adjustments they're asking of them, then this is never going to work. It's not. He's got to buy all the way in or it's not going to work.

Starting point is 00:23:30 I hope for everyone's sake that it will. But this is the first time that I've started to feel that my confidence in what Jordan can be for this franchise, for this organization is beginning to wane a little bit. to hear that there is a struggle still going on there, three years into this thing of him buying all in and making the adjustments, at least that's what I'm getting out of this. That bothers me. That bothers me a little bit, and it makes me feel like a change of scenery. Maybe that's the best thing for everybody involved. So we'll see how it ends up.

Starting point is 00:24:03 Let's hope none of this has to happen. And, you know, we just get a great final month out of Jordan Walker. And, you know, we'll all live happily ever after. but this isn't good. It doesn't sound good to me. Miles Michaelis, shoves, shoves against one of the best lineups in baseball. What a bizarre world we live in. We'll discuss it next on Locked on carts.

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Starting point is 00:26:03 Your ultimate college football weekly preview. Drake Toll of Locktown, Big 12, leaves the conversation alongside two-time AP coach of the year, Gary Patterson. Former college star Jesse Holly are Lockdown's local experts. It's a college football preview. only locked on can do. Catch college football kickoff every Thursday throughout the season, only on fire TV. All right, Cardinals went two to one on Tuesday night behind an excellent start by the lizard King, Miles Michaelis. Yeah, buddy, who I admittedly thought was going to get abused by the ace in this game. They were getting their two sluggers back in Nick Kurtz and Shay Langaleers on top of the

Starting point is 00:26:40 lineup that just lit up Sunny Gray in the bullpen for 11 runs on Monday. Here comes Miles. It just laughs in the face of all of these young sluggers. He keeps swinging at the first pitch and he shuts them down, allowing just one run on five hits over six innings. Four of those were doubles and a couple of them. If they had any air underneath them whatsoever would have landed like 500 feet away from home plate. But they didn't. They didn't. And Miles walked away with his second win since the All Star break seventh on the year. Said he just wanted to keep the ball down in the zone because they like to swing and swing pretty early in the count. I just wanted to keep the ball on the ground. I'll let my defense work. They're going to swing a lot and swing early, and I want them to swing in my pitches. And that's what they did. That's what they did.

Starting point is 00:27:22 Michaelis took advantage of that. Young, eager, athletic hitters, although he didn't record a single strikeout, which is crazy in this day and age, but he got him to hit the ball like guys, whether through skill or luck, it worked out. Not sure how much impact rookie catcher Jimmy Crooks had behind the play, but he and Miles, along with Matt Sonson and Jojo Romero,

Starting point is 00:27:45 who pitched the final three innings. It worked pretty good. Worked pretty good. You love to see Jimmy Crook's doing well behind the dish. We know that he's a pretty good hitter, although he was over on Tuesday night. But we know that his strongest thing is, you know, that he's going to be a really good hitter.

Starting point is 00:28:04 He's also been a pretty good catcher behind the plate over his minor league career. So maybe the Cardinals got a little something here. But it was nice to see him work well with these guys. The offense didn't get much going, but Yvonne Herrera had the big shot, the big two run blast in that sixth inning after the A's went to their bullpen. It was Herrera's 13th of the season. Feels like he's got more than that. I don't know why, but it feels like he should have more than that.

Starting point is 00:28:30 But that was a big one. Back-to-back nights that Yvonne Herrera has gone yard, so you love to see that. A quick and a fishing game under two hours. That's awesome, obviously. What wasn't awesome was that it took place in front of a new record low attendance for Bush Stadium, 17,002 paid. Obviously, we know not that many people were there. That's tough luck, man.

Starting point is 00:28:55 It sucks seeing the fans not there to see the stands as empty as it is. But your prerogative if you don't want to go. I can't yell at you for that, man. It's your money. But a victory nonetheless, rubber match is going to take place tonight. Matthew Libertory gets the ball against fellow lefty, Jeffrey Springs. The A's hit lefties pretty good. 259 batting average against lefties this year.

Starting point is 00:29:17 Sixth best batting average in baseball. Cardinals 11th at 249. I know we like to talk about how they struggle against lefties, but they're not quite as bad as we make them out to beat. But that's what we're looking at tonight. So hopefully we get another good game and hopefully another Cardinals victory. That's what I'm hoping for. I predicted they'd win two or three.

Starting point is 00:29:36 I got them swapped in the first two games where I thought they would win game one, lose game two. we'll see what happens here in game three tonight. Enjoy the ball game. I'll be online talking about it throughout the entire game. So if you guys want to hop on to X and join me there, that would be great. Thanks for making Lockedong Cardinals for first listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L.O underscore Cardinals at JD Sports Radio,

Starting point is 00:29:59 TikTok and Instagram and Lockdown Cardinals. Like subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on Lockdown Cardinals.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Is Jordan Walker's Career with the St. Louis Cardinals DOOMED?

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