Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Is Nelson Velázquez's SPRING Enough to BENCH St. Louis Cardinals Starters? Liam Doyle STRUGGLES

Starting point is 00:00:00 Big days for two guys in two separate games who weren't on the roster last year, but seemed destined to have an impact in 2026. 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 Jody Hafford, and this episode of Locked on Cardinals is brought to you by MLB, the show, 26. Visit MLB-M-L-B-The dot show slash Locked-on and use code, Locked-on, L-C-E-D-O-N, to unlock a pack for use in Diamond Dynasty,

Starting point is 00:00:36 available now on PlayStation 5 Xbox and Nintendo Switch, rated E for everyone. Stay tuned later in this episode for our MLB top 100 highlight. On today's show, we've got not one but two games that we need to break down, but before we get to that, are we allowed to celebrate spring training sweeps? I'm asking for a friend.

Starting point is 00:00:55 Are we allowed to do that? Why not? Why not be in a festive mood? If you've got your brooms handy, bring them out, bring them out. Cardinals sweep the Nationals on Thursday with their normal Great Fruit League matchup. And then after that game completed, they went into the spring breakout game and were able to win that one as well, which featured the top prospects from both organizations.

Starting point is 00:01:18 So let's start with the regular game, which featured a mix of starters and minor league guys in the lineup and in the bullpen. You did have Mason win leading off and playing shortstop, early batted second at first base. Corwin was at third, batting third. Nelson Belasquez hitting cleanup in left field, pose a lot. catching Victor Scott and center. And then you had some minor leaguers. Ramon Mendoza, Bly Madrid, Madras,

Starting point is 00:01:40 Madras, I don't even know who that is. I'll be honest with you. And then Dakota Harris, I haven't talked about that guy at all. Blind Madriss. And the bottom of the order, you know, those guys, those three guys, by the way, would create some offense today. Then it was Quinn Matthews,

Starting point is 00:01:56 who ended up getting the start. We were anxious to see how he would look in this next outing. Three stars of this game. Let's get right to it. I'm throwing the top spot back to our guy, Nelly. Nelson Velasquez, who had a rough day at the plane along with the rest of the team, they all kind of stunk on Wednesday, was back to raking again, going two for three with an RBI, also had a run scored. The boy's got a going in the first inning against the veteran, Zach Lattel. You got to walk for Mason, which is great. You love to see that.

Starting point is 00:02:27 Single by Burley 103 off his bat. Gorman strikes out, but then it was Velasquez picking him up, doing what he's done for most of the spring. And that's coming up clutch. First pitch swinging. He lays his one to right field, driving in Mason from second, gives the Cardinals a one to nothing lead, his team leading 10th RBI of the spring. He then comes up, fourth inning. He leads off the fourth inning with a walk, ended up coming around and scoring on a Dakota Harris single, grounded out in his third at bat, but in the seventh, he rips one to right

Starting point is 00:02:55 field for a single before coming out of the game for a pinch runner. His work was done for the day. So here we are Cardinals fans coming into the final weekend of spring training. And it is Nelson Velazquez, who is hitting 333, which leads the club, at least among the regular guys who have been around the whole time. And, you know, there's nobody really like qualifying at bats. But you know what I'm saying. Like for the guys who have been here for the majority of camp, his 333 is the best. Leads the club and home runs with four.

Starting point is 00:03:27 Leads the club and RBIs with 10. Leads the club and hits with 13. team leads the club and runs with ape he's third in walks uh behind burleigh and jj he's only struck out three times in 46 plate appearances which is something new for belasquez because that's been his real trouble was uh striking out all the time he's got a 435 obp he slug in 667 the ops is at 1.102 if this was truly a competition and you were like hey competition whoever has the best spring is going to end up starting in our outfield, then Nelson Velasquez is Slew and the rest of the field is Georgia, you know, I mean, what a tail kicking, by the way,

Starting point is 00:04:12 very impressive stuff from Slew, beating the snot out of Georgia. That was something. But honestly, on a team that granted has at best suspect offense, we don't know where the runs are going to come from, really. But who expected Nelson Velasquez? to be the star hitter this spring. You're lying if you said that you thought this was going to happen. Personally, I was just hoping for a little pop. I was looking for a little thunder from the right side. And instead, we've gotten a guy that has not only shown that power,

Starting point is 00:04:48 but the ability to go the opposite field, take pitches, work walks. Again, he's not striking out like he used to when he was with Chicago and Kansas City. he's showing a clutch gene that not a lot of guys have. Didn't see a lot of it out of a lot of this group of hitters last year. So he's brought a lot to the table. Is he going to start in left field? Is he going to be the DH? I honestly don't care.

Starting point is 00:05:19 I don't care. But you can't not reward this man for doing exactly what you asked him to do and then go out and do it even better than anyone expected. I love my guy Nathan Church. He's going to be my boy this year, I think. And with new doubt, I fully understand why you would want Nathan Church in left field. But benching Nellie's bat just seems foolish. And again, if Herrera is healthy and he seemed pretty healthy,

Starting point is 00:05:51 he was moving around just fine behind home plate when he was catching his last time out there, if he's healthy and he's your catcher, why not Nellie at D.H. Nathan Church in left field with the defense makes a lot of sense to me. Now there's going to be people who say, well, yeah, why don't you just put Velasquez and rightfield

Starting point is 00:06:15 in for Jordan Walker? They're not going to do that. At least I don't think they're going to do that. It certainly feels like, dude, we ride and die with Jordan Walker. I don't see them benching him for Nelson Velasquez and Nathan. church to start the year. But one of them's going to be in left field. And then somebody's going to have to DH. And if, you know, as hot as Joel Pozo was at the beginning of the spring, things have cooled

Starting point is 00:06:39 off a little bit. And Velasquez has continued to hit. So he would be my choice. He would be my choice if we had to start the season tomorrow. But we don't. Still got a little bit of time here. So we'll see what they decide. But let me know in the comment section, how you were feeling about this eye-popping spring from Nellie and where where you want him or where you don't want him to be on opening day. Maybe you don't agree. Maybe you're like, yeah, cool, put him on the bench. He's going to be a great bat off the bench. Maybe you want to do that. It's up to you. You decide. Let me know in the comment section. We'll get some of those for the upcoming cardinal confessions here in the near future. Battle for bullpen spots continues to be fire. Fire, I tell you. Like,

Starting point is 00:07:25 These guys are battling each other big time. We're going to talk about how they looked on Thursday. Coming up next on Lockdown Cardinals. What of sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long.

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Starting point is 00:10:10 Don't forget to check out the everyday or club for ad-free episodes and access to a group chat with myself and other listeners of the show. Just tap the link in the show notes or go to locked on STL Cardinals.com for more information. My next stars of the game and I say stars, if you caught that, it's plural. Once again, I'm going with the bullpen in this one and they gave up nothing. Nata. Z. tip over five innings. When Quinn Matthews was done, they come in and there's a little bit of struggle here and there,

Starting point is 00:10:47 but nothing, no runs. The bullpen battle is just white hot right now. These guys are competing and I love it. Competing for spots instead of just handing them over to veterans who you have on some contract that is way overpriced. This is way more fun to watch. I love seeing these guys go head to head and figure out who's going to be on this roster come Thursday because there's only a couple of spots left and there is some serious competition

Starting point is 00:11:18 for it. Matthews finished his four innings and then it was Riley O'Brien who came in first. And again, he's been kind of up and down the spring. He had the injury early on. He allows three hits, got out of trouble thanks to his defense, struck out a couple guys. The spring ERA is still at 1.93. It just feels like he's getting. out of trouble a lot more often than you hope. You know, you like to have some cleaner innings out of Riley O'Brien. But hey, he's behind everybody as far as getting his work in. So hopefully he'll be fine once the regular season rolls around. After that, we didn't see much out of Washington's offense at all. Gordon Grecepho, welcome back from the WBC. He fires a shutout

Starting point is 00:12:00 inning. Chris Roycroft. Another shutout inning for Chris Roycroft. He's got seven total of the spring. George Soriano. When that trade went down for Andre Grenio, we were all scratching our heads. We're like, what, why do you a righty for a right? What? What is this? And George Soriano's been really good. Seven shutout inning of the spring. And then mopping up that last inning was the rule five guy Matt Pushard who had his third consecutive scoreless appearance. So, you know, granted, the bullpen doesn't always face the starters in the spring. You know, the guys go a few innings. and then you get the minor league guys and the backup guys coming in. So you don't want to get overly excited by some of the numbers these guys are putting up

Starting point is 00:12:43 because a lot of them are just not giving up runs. But the Cardinals team ERA as a whole is now down to 3.82, which is fifth best overall in spring training action. Relievers have the seventh best batting average against it, 231. ERA tied for the sixth lowest at 3.98. For what it's worth, the starters have been no, have been no. slouch either. Two 18 batting average against that's sixth best. And their ERA is 3.57, which is also seventh. And when you look at the guys that are going to be in the rotation, we know who it is now,

Starting point is 00:13:19 outside of Kyle Leahy, they've all been excellent. And Leahy's had a couple of bad endings, but overall, you've been pretty happy with what you've seen from Kyle Leahy making that transition from the bullpen to the starter. So, you know, Libby's looked great. Dustin May has looked great. Andrea Palante, Michael McGreevy. All four of them have been fantastic so far this spring. But the bullpen has been outstanding as well.

Starting point is 00:13:46 I know spring stats, take them or leave them, but I've seen some good things from these guys, which is very, very encouraging. Third start of the game, we're going to give this one to our boy, Alec Berluson, all right? Biscuits. Two for three, walk, strikeout. He's now hitting 323 this spring,

Starting point is 00:14:05 and it's not like he's just hitting little bloopers that are getting in. Dude, he's stinging the ball pretty darn good during the broadcast because it was on TV, but you can hear the broadcast. John Rooney and Ricky Horton were, we're complimenting Burley and how they're like, he's ready. He's ready to roll, man. He's ready for this regular season to get going. We haven't seen the long ball all that much, just one home run this spring.

Starting point is 00:14:27 But, you know, that's not really his game in the first place. You know, he's not a slugger like that. One a silver slugger award, but he's not really that guy. Like he's going to run into a few, but just smack and line drives in the gaps is really the game for Burley. And although he doesn't have a double yet this spring, which is a little weird, but 10 heads, nine walks, OBP at 488 OPS 907, you'll take that. That's not bad, right? You'll let that slide.

Starting point is 00:14:57 Other takeaways from this game. Let's talk about Quinn Matthews. Quinn Matthews, some more control issues early on, but he settled in after a little while. He got better as the game went on. He ends up throwing box score-wise, four innings, one run, two hits. The three walks is, you know, obviously something you're keeping an eye on because that was a big problem last year for Quinn.

Starting point is 00:15:19 He had the health issues and the mechanics were all out of whack, and he was walking people all over the place. So three walks, not exactly what you want to see, did have the fourth strikeout. not as good as his last time on the mound when he was just burning through people. But in the end, you look up and you're like, one run, two hits over four innings. Okay, okay.

Starting point is 00:15:41 Because you wipe out those walks and you're looking at a really strong effort from Quinn Matthews. So promising stuff from the lefty. He's going to Memphis. He's not going to be up on the big league roster right away. So hopefully he works out the kinks. And we see more of a 2024 version

Starting point is 00:15:58 than what we saw last year in 20, where things weren't so good for him. Mason went, 0 for 3 again, with a walk, two strikeouts. Batting average is now down to 121 for the spring. He said after the game that he feels good, said that if you asked him last year, he would have been lying to you if he told you he felt good because he didn't, but says he's not too worried about it.

Starting point is 00:16:22 I'd much rather perform during the season than in spring training, but we're still working on some stuff, and it just hasn't translated into results yet. I feel comfortable at the plate. It's only a matter of time before things start clicking. All right. Well, clock is ticking, buddy. We got regular season coming up here in less than a week,

Starting point is 00:16:40 and we have not seen all that much out of Mason win. There's a few guys that we haven't seen a whole lot of so far. Obviously, we've gone down the Jordan Walker path many times. Another guy that's been struggling is Victor Scott, one for three with a double, which is great. Had another strikeout, but he's only hitting 161. So something that you use. need to see improve because I've gotten comments from people and, you know, thinking outside of

Starting point is 00:17:05 the box because we automatically assume that Victor Scott is your center fielder. He was there last year. The defense is great. The speed's phenomenal. It's got to get on baseball. We all know that, right? But Nathan Church is so bad either. So when Newt gets back, if Victor Scott ain't hitting, why not Nathan Church in centerfield? Why not? Like, you got to produce. You can't just do this. You can't hit 200. Like, that's just not acceptable. Not with that speed and the bunning ability that he has. He should be on base a hell of a lot more.

Starting point is 00:17:39 And if it ain't working, then look out. Nathan Church coming for your job. Shout out to Dakota Harris, two for four, two ribbies. Ramon Mendoza walks three times. Trey Page for stinger of the spring. Congratulations to Trey. Up next, we're going to talk about the spring breakout. I mentioned that there were two big days for two big games for,

Starting point is 00:17:59 two different guys. And that other guy is J.J. Weatherholt. He had a nice day. Joshua Baez had a nice day. There were some guys that did pretty well. So we'll get into the spring breakout game that gave us our first look at Liam Doyle this spring as well. So we'll talk about that stuff coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. Top 100 list. PlayStation MLB 100 list. All right. This week's MLB top 100. Highlight is brought to you by MLB, the show, 26. The latest from the beloved video game franchise, which I'm having a blast playing each week. We highlight the stars of MLB's top 100 players list, the elite names that you're controlling in their game, building around going head to head with an MLB the show.

Starting point is 00:18:49 Today we're going to spotlight a former cardinal. Again, none of our guys cracked the top 100, which is embarrassing. But not a lot of X guys crack the top 100 either. Today we're going to talk about the guy who landed at 100. Former Seye Young Award winner, Sandy Alcantra, electric, But coming back for Tommy John's surgery, been a little more difficult for him. But if you're a Cardinals fan and you look back at that trade with Marcelo Zuna

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Starting point is 00:19:38 If you love talking baseball, you'll love playing it even more. Visit MLB The Dot Show slash locked on, use code locked on to unlock a pack for use in Diamond Dynasty. Internet connection required. Available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox series S and X and Nintendo Switch rated E for everyone. College basketball nonstop right now with the tournament going on, big games, tights, spreads, momentum swings, early tip-offs that have been going on all day. You got the late night games as well. there's always action on the board.

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Starting point is 00:20:36 you had Fandall apply that profit boost and instantly bump up the potential payout. Mazoo on Friday against Miami. Can the 10 seat upset the seven? A lot of my friends went to Mizzu. They think they well. Will you go safe? Will you go bold? Will you just ride with the teams that you've enjoyed all season?

Starting point is 00:20:53 It is your parlay, your style now with more upside behind it. Head to fandle.com to get started. That's fandle. That's fandle. Play your game. Once again, thanks for making lockdown carlos your first listen of the day. Thank you for making locked on the number one sports. podcast network. Prospects versus prospects. Great idea. I like the spring breakout. It's fun for us.

Starting point is 00:21:18 You know, the casual fan may not be into it as much as we are, but us baseball nerds, like we love seeing these prospects. And now that the Cardinals have one of the top five, you know, farm systems, it's a lot more fun to watch because there's a lot of talent down there. Next year, they're going to go to a tournament style for the spring breakout, which could be cool. But for now, one game and the Cardinals had theirs today. A lot of huge prospects in their lineup today. Tai Pete was leading off. J.J. Weatherhole, Joshua Baez, Leonardo Bernal, Rani El Rodriguez,

Starting point is 00:21:53 plays Jordan, Jesus Baez, just some of the notables who got to start in this one. And then on the mound, it was Liam Doyle. Now, Liam Doyle has been at minor league camp this entire time. We knew this was happening. They were like, look, we don't want them to get sidetracked with crap with the Major league stuff, you know, let's just get him into minor league camp and really work with him and concentrate there. He's the Cardinal's top pitching prospect, and we were all hoping for something special today that we'd really get a look at the Liam Doyle that, you know, we got to see a little bit in the miners last year and obviously saw him at Tennessee. But unfortunately, he did not have a very good day on the mound.

Starting point is 00:22:34 It was struggling with his command. He was all over the place. I got lifted in the first inning. They reinserted him with that spring training role where you can. reinserted somebody, came back in the second inning and got lifted again due to pitch count. All told, he lasted just one inning, only got three people out, gave up four runs on two hits, four walks, and three strikeouts. So it was not a pretty day for Liam Doyle. The nationals hitters, they were just standing there.

Starting point is 00:23:00 They were more than happy to let him throw the ball all over the place, just could not, could not find the release point that he needed. And although it wasn't the start we were hoping for, obviously, you did get. get to see a glimpse of why people think he's so special with, you know, the lively fastball that he does possess. Because after a while, that was like the only thing he could throw for a strike. So we just kept pumping it in there. And he was blowing it past people, even though they kind of knew it was coming.

Starting point is 00:23:26 On the good side of things in this game, JJ Weatherhole, got a couple of hits, walked once, scored twice. I know some people were concerned with the way things have been going for JJ here recently at Major League camp. Nobody's worried about them. They're not. In fact, I'm still on the JJ batting leadoff train. I'm all for it.

Starting point is 00:23:49 The dude just gets on base. He's a patient hitter. He's got good speed. It just makes a whole lot of sense to me. And I think he's a guy that mentally can handle that. Like, I don't think it's going to be too big of a spot for him, you know, to have him in front. of everybody and kind of setting the tone.

Starting point is 00:24:10 I feel like JJ's the type of guy who can thrive in a situation like that. So I'm all for him bat and lean off. I don't know if it's going to happen. Like Mason Wynn might be the guy, even though he's having a horrendous spring. I just, I would go with JJ. I don't know about you guys. Joshua Baez crushes another home run in this game, which was super awesome to see. 412 feet, 112.7 off the bat.

Starting point is 00:24:38 I don't necessarily, and I know we're all excited about Joshua Bias for good reasons, but I don't necessarily have to see him in the big leagues this year. Obviously, starting his clock on a team that's not going to be competing for much, at least we don't think. But if he's lighting it up in Memphis, like just crushing the ball. Like if he's doing what we've seen him do this spring and what he did last year at Springfield and you have other outfielders. I don't think I have to say their name that's not.

Starting point is 00:25:08 It's going to be awful tough not to bring this dude up. Like, fans want to see winners and they want to see guys who are doing well. They don't want to see people who are still trying to figure out their swings at the major league level. So we'll see. The other bias, Jesus bias also had a strong game. Two for three with a run, RBI, and a walk, plays Jordan in a couple knocks, including a double. Remember, he was starting to heat up. had a really tough camp for the first week and a half for two weeks and started heating up there right before he got sent back to minor league camp.

Starting point is 00:25:40 So a couple knocks for him, which is great to see. Clubs number 12 rated prospect, Ryan Mitchell hit a dinger in this one. Sadly, our catchers did not have a great day. Bernal and Rodriguez were 0 for 6. The Washington runners were all over the place, like stealing bags. Rodriguez got an RBI when he got hit by a pitch. exactly how you want to drive a run in, but I guess he'll take it. I guess he was fine.

Starting point is 00:26:07 But unfortunately, when he could see them do much damage, Tanner Franklin, who went to Tennessee with Liam Doyle, tossed three innings, struck out three, including 2025's first overall pick, Eli Willits, who he blew away with a 99.9.9 mile an hour fastball, was sitting comfortably at 97 for most of the time that he was out there. The bellow, very, very sexy. And that's a guy I don't think we've talked enough about is what Tanner Franklin could be for this team at some point. Is he going to be something here in 2026? Doesn't necessarily have to be.

Starting point is 00:26:43 But somebody with like, dude was pumping it in there. And obviously he got a little more jacked up with Willits at the plate there. I mean, who would, the former number one overall pick? But at the same time, lightning bolt on that arm there. Yoker Fuhardo also got in the game. game came over from Boston. He pitched three innings as well. All things, although things got a little tied at the end of that game. The Nationals didn't just roll over after giving up the lead. Boys hung on to win this one by a score of nine to eight. Really the guys that stood out to me,

Starting point is 00:27:16 unfortunately not Liam Doyle, but JJ, both the Baezes, Franklin, those were my real standouts watching that game. I wish Doyle had looked better, but better days are ahead for him. So Friday, cards and Mets at Port St. Lucy. First pitch going to be at 12. in St. Louis time. Matthew Libertor. Your opening day starter scheduled to make his final start of the spring. Thanks for making a Lockton Cardinals. You've ever been already. Give us a follow on Axet, L.O. underscore Cardinals,

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Starting point is 00:28:12 your second lesson locked on MLB with sully you guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason we'll see you next time on locked on cardinals

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Is Nelson Velázquez's SPRING Enough to BENCH St. Louis Cardinals Starters? Liam Doyle STRUGGLES

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