Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - It's Been A Blood Bath In The NL Central

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

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The St. Louis Cardinals, welcome in the Milwaukee Brewers for a three-game set of a stadium. What is it about these two franchises that has them going into very different directions? This is a Locked on Cardinals, Locked on Brewers, Crossout. 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 and Brewers fans. I'm J.D. Haffern and I'm a national radio sports anchor, born and raised in St. Lewis and a lifetime Cardinals fan. I'm the host for Lockedown Cardinals, representing the first place

brew crew is longtime TV and radio personality and host of the Locked on Brewers podcast, Chuck Freeman, both of us, part of the Locked on podcast network covering your team every day. You can follow us both on Twitter X. You can follow our podcast. You can also find us on YouTube. Make sure you stop on by, both Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Brewers, make it your first listen each and every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. And as I mentioned, of course, we're on YouTube. You can find us there too. And we're here talking ball, talking about the NL Central, specifically today.

This episode is brought to you by Fandall now through September 22nd. All Fandul customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit fandle.com slash locked on to get started. All right, Chuck, how is life in Milwaukee? things are probably feeling pretty good right now considering how the record's going you guys have what like one five in a row is there anything to complain about right now well i'll tell you if you were to cover up the n-all central standings and you just looked at the records and you would say who's 70 and 50 or whatever the breweries are who's who's 20 games over the 500 mark if you had done this in april you would have said well the cubs the cardinals maybe the reds uh but certainly you wouldn't have put the Milwaukee brewer 20 games over the 500 mark. I mean, it's been an amazing season. Sometimes I don't know how they're doing it, but they are.

But the proof will be, as we always say in Wisconsin here, proof will be when October rolls around to see. Otherwise, all this is just, you know, they're a paper champion otherwise. Yeah. Yeah, no, I feel you're paying. The Cardinals have won the division a few times recently and went nowhere afterwards. And it's almost like, well, what was that all for? It was kind of useless.

So the Brewers and Cardinals are set to play each other six more times before this season is over. Three of them are going to be happening in Bush Stadium over the next three days. And then we got three more in Milwaukee in the first week of September. Now, for those who haven't kept up, the Brewers have dominated this series, Chuck. They have won six of seven thus far, swept the Cardinals in St. Louis back in April. It's been a while since we've seen each other. So I want to catch everybody up. In that series, they won two to one in 10 innings where the Brewers walked in,

the only run that the Cardinals scored that day. Then they crush them 12 to 5 after the Cardinals had a four to two lead. Then they beat up on Michaelis and Zach Thompson and Giovanni Gallegos, a couple of guys who aren't even here anymore, as well as Andre Palante. Then you get a two to nothing shutout win that Sunday. Colin Ray was on the mound for you guys that day. And I think he went five innings. The pen was fantastic.

They blanked them. Sunny Gray was his first loss of the year, despite his. pitching very well, struck out 12 that day in six and a third inning, allowed just two runs. The legendary Owen Miller drove in both runs that day, Chuck, if you remember. And then things go to Milwaukee for four games on that Mother's Day weekend. And the Brewers win the first three convincing fashion, 7 to 1, 11 to 2, 5 to 3. At this point, the Brewers are laughing at the Cardinals.

They've won all six games. And Mother's Day is when the famous Ali Marmal ejection happened. If you remember, he got worked up at the home plate umpire, and they started yelling back and forth. Daniel DeScalso was yelling at him. And it turned into this big thing. The Cardinals come back in that game. They actually win the game in their record at that point set at 16 and 24. The Brewers still 6 and 1 in this series.

They're fine. Outscored the Cardinals 42 to 16. It was a blood bath truck. Then from that point, though, the Cardinals kind of caught fire. They went on a tear for a while there. had one of the best records in the league. They went 34 and 22 from that point and finished the first half of the season at 50 and 46. So now Cardinal fans are starting to feel a little bit better about themselves.

Like, okay, man, we're in this thing. Wasn't really concerned about the division yet. But at least they were in playoff contention. They had gotten as high as that second wow card. Since the All-Star break, though, they've come crashing back to Earth. 11 and 17 since that point, they're 61 and 63. they're clinging for dear life at any sort of chance at making the playoffs now. Meanwhile, your brewers have just stayed the course, 55 and 42 at the break.

They've been better in the second half going 17 and 10, despite losing one of your top hitters and Christian Yellich for the rest of the season. We're all wondering, Chuck, we're all listening. We're all paying attention. All the GMs, I got them all on the horn here. How the hell are you guys doing it? What is it this year about the Milwaukee Brewers that is just churning out when after win. You know, it's amazing because you look at up and down that brewer lineup. There's

nobody who really bowls you over that offensive lineup. You know, you got the carders, got Goldschmidt, Aronado, even though Aronado's not having a very good year. But, you know, you got New Bar, you got guys, but Milwaukee doesn't have any of that. They have some young players, they have some future stars. They have Jackson Churrio, who at 20 years old, is right now their best hitter. I'm going to say he's their best hitter. And We didn't even know coming out of spring training if he was going to make the team, not for sure. He did sign a big contract in the offseason. And so I kind of did guarantee him on this team.

The pitching staff, it's a no-name pitching staff, got retreads out of the bullpen. But guys are all just doing their job. I don't know again, J.D. I'm telling you, and Brewer fans, they think they can speak for them as well. Every time we think this team is going to go south and go on a little bit of a skin. and their longest losing streak is three, they pick themselves right off the mad, and they win three or four more games,

and they get those losses back. Yeah, and one thing that's not happening when the Brewers happen to lose a couple of games, nobody gains any ground on it. Nobody wins at the same time. They all kind of stay together. So when the Brewers would drop two,

so would the Cardinals are. So with the, you know, nobody ever gained any ground on Milwaukee, and now you've got them running away with the division, and it's laughable how much they've just taken off and have dominated so far this year. Yeah, you know, the division is over. And I even said two months ago, JD, it was between the Brewers and Cardinals. The Cubs, the Pirates, I never took the Pirates seriously.

And the Reds, the Reds, the Reds who I did take seriously, but made a couple of threats, but never really, really made any headway. But the Brewers pulled away. And right now, I look at, you know, it's 11 games, but I'm looking at the Brewers possibly catching the Dodgers or the Phillies for one of the top two seats. And I think that's the key. That's where I'm at with Milwaukee.

You know, the division title is there for the Brewers, just a matter of when. They just got to catch one of those other two teams to get one of the top two records. Now, I remember 2011. Now, J.D., 2011, I remember listening to the post game show, the St. Louis Cardinals. And it was at the end of August.

So that was one of the final trading deadlines. They remember August 31st was a trading deadline. And the guy who was hosting the Cardinals post game show on KMOX, over it was, 101.1. I think it was, said, we got to sell off our guys. We just have to get rid of all our guys because we're not going to the postseason. Sure enough, you guys somehow got into the postseason, won the wild card. And I was thrilled when the Cardinals beat the Phillies in 2011,

because we didn't want to see the Phillies. I was like, fantastic. We were celebrating on the radio. Oh, we're playing the Cardinals. Sure enough. Don't ask for that. And six games later, and you guys are going to the World Series and the rest is history.

But I remember that postgame show on ESPN 101.1. I remember listening to it on the Internet. And they had counted you guys out. So I never counted the Cardinals. I think you guys are still in the wildcard race, but you're not in the division race. That's for sure, I'd say. Yeah, the division is long gone.

Because there was for a while there that some of us still talked about, like, what is actually the easiest route to get in? Because people were afraid that they would never be able to leapfrog so many teams, where the Mets were kind of on fire at the time. Arizona and San Diego were going bonkers at the moment. They don't stop winning. And so some people were like, maybe Milwaukee finally falls apart and stops winning all the time.

but at this point of the season, like, why would anybody expect Milwaukee to go down at all? Like, they've been able to just do what they've been doing all season long. And it's just play solid winning baseball, you know. You mentioned Cheerio and how good he's been. But like, you know, Adamas, who's one of the top RBI guys in the league. Reese Hoskins, quietly 20 home runs, 60 RBI is obviously Contreras behind the plate. It's been very, very good for you guys. Yelich was having a good season despite, uh,

the injuries, which unfortunately have taken him out. But I don't know, it's just a great, it's just a solid team. There's just not one major week's spow where you can point in and go, they're not good at this. I don't see that anywhere. No. And when I say they remind me of the Cardinals, the Cardinals to me, I've always been one of those teams that does a lot of things right.

ABC baseball, you know, the big picture, maybe not so much this year, but over the big picture, the Cardinals do a lot of things right. As what this Brewer teams does. they play with a very high baseball IQ. They, you know, they bunt, they get riders over. They do a lot of fundamental things right, which they have to do. Because if they don't, the margin of air have always said with the Brewers is very, very small. So, you know, they can't go out.

They don't have enough talent on this team at this point or maturity on this team as far as major league experience to have three or four errors in the game and get by or have a start. starting pitcher go out there and give six runs with the first two innings and get by. The margin error is so small, but they do a lot of the right things to win baseball games, J.D. Yeah. And like you mentioned, that was something that, you know, for our Cardinal fan,

Cardinal baseball, that's what they were known for. They do the right things. They run the base as well. They play good defense. They don't make the silly mistakes that will cost teams that maybe don't have the talent of everybody else, but if they minimize those mistakes, they

can compete with all of them and come out with wins. And that's something that the brewers have mastered this year, whereas a lot of these other teams, Mike Cardinals, they just, they find ways to lose instead of finding ways to win. And that's kind of been the story this year. I do want to talk more about you guys being underrated, as good as you guys have been this year, like, how come the national audience doesn't give you any love? And do you prefer it that way? So I want to talk more with Chuck Freeman about that coming up here on this Lockedon Cardinals and Lockdown Brewers crossover. All right.

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Was he really? Oh, shame. Oh, God. Someone tweeted at me and said, hey. The same one, Sully. You know what you were talking about on MLB. He's been trashing the Brewers. He needs to have a discussion with you. And as you guys all prepare for the fall classic, because he's got it covered every single day on Lockdown MLB,

which is available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. It's part of the Locktown Podcast Network, your team every day. A reminder, you can catch every pitch of the Cardinals hometown broadcast with Sirius XM. Just download the SXM app and search the word Cardinals. Chuck Freeman, host of Lockdown Brewers. I am J.D. Haffron, host of Lockdown Cardinals doing this crossover. As we have another Titanic struggle in the NL Central, It's a three-game series at Bush Stadium in St. Louis between the Cardinals and the Brewers.

You mentioned it earlier, Chuck, this season, the Cardinals were selected by a number of people to be at or near the top of the division again, despite the awful season they had in 2020. I personally was not one of those people. I didn't think they were going to be a bad team. I just thought they were going to be kind of meh, like right in the middle. I predicted 84 wins, possible wildcard team, just sort of mediocre. I wasn't blown away with all the moves they made in the office. season. I didn't find Sunny Gray was great, but I didn't enjoy the Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn moves when you really wanted to make a push to become a much better team. They're okay,

but they're not that next level that I thought the team needed. And so far, I've been proven right. Some had the Brewers winning the division. Not a lot of people, as you mentioned, there were a lot of doubters out there. But the way you guys are running away with the division, considering all of the turnover, you know, especially in the rotation, you know, losing Corbyn Burns. Woodruff gone. Craig counsel leaves. You've had injuries to deal with and yet here you are. Steady Eddie. No big

deal. All smart for David Williams. Didn't get him back to a couple of weeks. Yeah, Devin Williams gone for three months of the season. One of the best relievers in all of baseball. And you look up and there you are. There are you are. Milwaukee Brewers. Their best record of the National League. They're a game back of the Phillies at this moment. Have

half a game behind the Dodgers, I believe. And then over the American League, where everybody thinks they're the gods of baseball over there. It's the Orioles, the Yankees, and that's where the brewers will be, right behind those teams as well. So why is it you don't hear as many teams taking the brewers seriously? Then, you know, nationally, I get the market size thing, which is always a problem for any of us Midwest teams. But what is it about? Because as we talked about in segment one, like, all it is is a solid baseball team that goes out, does their jobs, and wins

games. I thought that was the point. Why not the Brewers? Since 2017, they have the sixth best record in baseball, which is amazing. And nobody would know that if you weren't a Brewers fan problem. Because they haven't had a lot of postseason success. And they haven't won a playoff series since 2018, Colorado and the Divisional Series. Think about this. The Brewers are never on ESPN Sunday night baseball. Never. I'm talking never, ever. I mean, and through the bad years, good years, for whatever reason, I don't know why. I can't even think of the last time, and I go to a lot of games, that I went to a Sunday night game at Amfam Field with the Brewers play.

ESPN will not put them on on Sunday Night Baseball. I get a newsletter from in the morning, I get from MLB.com, and they always give me the top stories of the day. Brewers just swept the three-game series from Cleveland. All right, the two of the better teams in baseball. Not a word of the seven headlines. Didn't they get any of seven headlines? Oh, of course, the Yankees are.

The Dodgers are there. You know, same teams all the time. They talk about the same teams. And, you know, here we are in the Midwest. The, the Cubs, they don't talk about the Cardinals. They don't talk about the Brewers. I'm talking to the Brewers at all. And I don't know, it just, I feel like sometimes Major League Baseball wants seven teams

and the rest of us, they could care less about. Yeah, it can be annoying because, I mean, you're looking at the headlines, too. And it's like, you know, the Yankees blow a game on Sunday night against Detroit. It's like that where two very good teams in Cleveland and Milwaukee. We're sorry we're not in the biggest markets in America, but two very solid teams who are doing outstanding things without having to spend $300 million. And why wouldn't you show them a little bit of love? I find it as annoying as you do.

But let me ask you this. Is there something about being that underdog team that maybe you guys relish, that you're like, all right, fine, don't pay attention to us. We like it that way. Or would you prefer getting a little bit more respect? Well, I think it's been that way for all our sports teams, save the Green Bay Packers, who are a national brand, as you know, the box and the brewers.

I feel like it's always that way. So over the years, if they're on national TV, we're like, oh, wow, national TV, unbelievable. But yeah, but I look at it this, too. On the other hand, I say that the brewers don't get enough national attention and stuff like this, but you've been to one world series in 54 years. One world series and you lost it to you guys. And the purists were in the American League at the time.

I was a kid back then, Jady, and when we lost game seven, the Dakarado, I think I told you this. I was like, oh, I was not worried. I was like, ah, I wasn't sad because I said, oh, they'll be back. They'll be back. 42 years later. And we're still looking to get back, at least, just to get there at least. but no, I don't know about that underdog mentality.

I think it's all about J.D., going out there and proving yourself in the postseason. You've done it in the regular season here several years, but you've had several disappointing post seasons. I think that's what it's all about. Well, I always bring it up, too, and it's just something you can need to like, the Yankees have really won a whole lot recently. The Dodgers, outside of a COVID championship, had won dittily poo since 1988. but they go out and get the headlines because they pay for the people that, you know,

the guys want to write about and kids want to wear their jerseys, you know? Like who's the number one selling Brewer's jersey in Milwaukee? Do you think if you had a ticket, guys, who would it be right now? Christian Yellich. But Christian Yelich, who's been mostly disappointing, although he's having a good year this year, since 2019, mostly been disappointing. Yeah. And, but he's probably got the number one, you know, among males and females.

the number one jersey. Maybe Contreras is moving up the notch a little bit. I'm sure Jackson, sure he'll showing up all over the place. He's probably going to surpass Christian Yellish. But yeah, that underdog role, we've been in it before, but what the Brewers need to do, okay? And if you look at the lack of success on professional sports teams

in our sports history in America, the Brewers are one of the most pathetic when it comes to that at as far as championships. No, zero championships. So they got to go out and prove it. They got to go out and do something about it if they feel like they get this lack of respect. Now, did you think the trade deadline moves that the brewers made, was that enough? Or were you hoping for more?

Or was that exactly what you thought they were going to do? Because on the Cardinal side of things, we knew they were going to be buyers. We knew that they were going to go wild and, you know, give up the whole farm to go get a major name like a Garrett Crochet or anything like that. what they did was exactly what we thought they were going to do. It was it was Eric Fetty. It was go find some reliever off the heap and then also add a right-handed hitting bat. They could hit left-handers ended up being a former cardinal in Tommy fan. But Fetty was the big name that we were chasing.

And the Brewers didn't go after any big names either. Added a couple of guys. But did you feel like that was enough at the time or was that a disappointing deadline for fans? It was disappointing, J.D., because all of us were saying, Well, I wanted another bat because I figured you, I had a feeling yellowish was going to be gone for the year. And I wanted another bat in the middle of that lineup. Since then, the Brewers have increased their league, like I said, doubled their divisional lead on St. Louis and they're 20 games up. I wanted, you know, I wanted Jack Flaherty.

Yeah, I wanted him. And that was the final straw on trading deadline day. All of a sudden, about 10 minutes before 5 o'clock, I'm sitting here, ready to do a podcast. if the brewer's going to make a deal. Jack Flaherty goes to the Dodgers. And I was like, I'm out. I'm out. I give up.

I give up. Yeah. And it's funny because the names that you guys got were you got Savali from Tampa Bay, who has had a little bit of success with the years. But then you take a guy from in the division and Frankie Montas, who I mean, I tried to warn Reds fans about him when they signed him. I was like, oh, man, I don't know if he's going to be good enough for you guys. And it turned out he wasn't, but so far things have been okay for you guys with these guys into rotation.

They're 3-0 with his starts, but he hasn't been great in any of them. He gave up a three-run first in his last outing, pitched four innings, stuck around for five innings. Haven't had a quality start out of them yet. Three starts, surely yet, but so far I'd say underwhelming. The Brewers would tell me otherwise they thought Montes was great. He hit 97 on the gun. But yeah, the moves they made, no, nothing really substantial. you know in Milwaukee we look at it

while if a guy's coming off the engine list that's like making a trade because they got devon Williams off the engine list wow we have heard that one a lot that's a that's a john mosella classic right there it's like making a trade okay i thought that was only a brewer's thing

but oh man we do it too oh all right like a complaint we you know you guys your your payroll is 30 to 40 million dollars a year better than ours and we're like We're higher than that, to be honest.

I think you guys are around 115 if I saw that, and I think we're at 176. Is that what, it's that higher? Okay. No, I look at it like this. Well,

how come we're not spending as much as you guys in the free agent market or on salary, a total salary? Why are we down at 115 and the cart? Now, and I'm really bad that you told me it's even more. Why are you spending $60 million dollars more? Is St. Louis,

that bunch bigger than Milwaukee? Come on. I can't answer it for your say. On our side, I can say this much. Fans are mad that he doesn't spend more because he's a multi-billionaire owner. And they're upset that for all these years, they've spent their hard-earned money and sold out Bush Stadium over and over and over. And now it seems like mediocrity is okay. Where back in the early DeWitt years, he would not stand for such things.

In fact, when he fired former Brewer, Mike Mathini, that was. one of the big things was that like 500 may be good in some cities, but not in St. Louis, not with this fan base. And the last two years have been well below 500 if you take into consideration what the record was, traded everybody away. And then this year where they went out and made some moves, made some additions, and they're still under 500. So it's a very volatile fan base right now in St. Louis who feel like they are not getting their money's worth and that this ownership doesn't want it anymore and doesn't care enough about the team

that they're not trying to win championships. They're just hoping to get in. And it's a tough mentality to take when all these years we've been so spoiled in St. Louis, where we expect better than that. And when it doesn't arrive on the field and we keep getting excuses, like these guys, people are upset. They're very upset in St. Louis. Well, when you guys went out and got Paul Goldschmidt from Arizona.

Yeah. I was upset. I was like, how come we're never in on a deal like that? And then I thought you got Nolan Aeronado for a song, and the Cardos are paying some of his salary. Or the Rockies are paying for his salary. I'm like, how come we're not in on that deal? We can use Nolan Aronado.

But I see his numbers this year. 13 homers, he's batting 268. How are fans feeling about four years? Chuck, look at Goldies' numbers and try not to cry a little bit. I saw those two. But Aaron Aronald's are a little worse. But yeah. Yeah.

How are fans feeling about having Aronado, and he's opting in, I see, for those five years, 144 million. Yeah, he decided not to opt out. People are, you know, the goldy stuff, they're, they're kind of done. They kind of see like this should be the end of the road, but it would be a very cardinal move to try to extend him and try to squeeze another year or two out of them. So I've kind of told people to be prepared for that. Aronado, I just wonder if it's injuries, if it's back problems that are, that have caused the,

that just zapped him of his. power. I know they pitched him a lot differently. He's been, you know, a lot of stuff's been away. I went back and looked at some of the old Colorado Rockies highlights and anything middle in, he destroyed. And he's just not getting those pitches anymore. And when he is getting him, he's not hitting him like he used to. So maybe he just to age. I mean, the guy's been playing almost 162 games every year since he was, what, 22 when he came up. So maybe where it's hair has gotten to Nolan Aronado and he's got a couple of years left. But, you know, the Goldie thing is very shocking considering he was just the NL MVP two years ago. And Arnado was in third place

of the MVP two years ago. And to see the two pillars that this team was supposed to be built around collapsing and just not being able to be who they used to be, obviously has killed this team's offensive production. Goldsch bit as how old. He's, uh, 36 will be 37. And he's got how many years left on his contract? This is it. This is the end of it. Okay.

I'm talking about the future Milwaukee Brewer of Paul Goldschmidt. Those are the kind of guys we go after. Guys at the end of their careers, then we get in the bargain basement. We get those kind of guys. Well, the good thing for you, Chuck, is if he does become a free agent, hits the market.

When people leave St. Louis, they tend to become better hitters. For whatever reason it is, Dylan Carlson's doing it right now with the raise. So he'll probably be back to his old MVP form with you guys hitting in the middle of that order in between Contreras and Adamas. He's a free agent, right? Willie Adamas?

Yes, he is. He's not going to be cheap. I wonder what you guys' little move will be there. They won't rest. No question about it. They're not going to rest. They never talked about an extension with him. They're moving on.

That's unfortunate, man. It's turning away a guy who gets 100 RBIs like clockwork. That's not the easiest thing. to find in the shortstop position. And a great leader in the clubhouse. So, but. Sounds like a good card, though. You should send them our way.

We'll give you Goldie. You give us a Domus. Oh, well, that would be a brewer move right there. Like we got Dallas Kichel a couple of, but a month ago. That's right. You did. You guys took a flyer on Kikek. That's what it is always, Janey, taking a flyer on some of these guys who were great

10 years ago. We got a Lance Lynn. I'll see, I see your Dallas Kikl and I'll give you a Lance Lynn from our rotation. He loved the guy. We think he's a great guy. We love the dude. There's not a guy in the locker room that we don't like, but production is what it is

at this point in his career. And that's one of your big free agent signings. You're like, oh boy, here we go. Well, I want to get into, we're going to go into the pitching matchups here in just a moment. Also want to get some team awards from you. Surprises, disappointments. I want to hear what you have to say

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You can find the link to Locktown MLB in the description, so you don't have to search for it or anything. Part of the Locktown Podcast Network, your team every day. So with our teams in different spots, mind disappointing, chucks, flourishing, enjoying life. Let's go through some of these awards that you would hand out to some of the team members. Now, I want to start with your office.

Offensive MVP this year, Chuck. Who do you think it is in Milwaukee? You got a couple of guys there. At one point, Contreras was in running for MVP of the league, and he's running that right now. I will say it's got to be Willie Adomas because he's come up with so many big hits on this team. I'm going to go with Willie Adomis.

I know Jackson Churio is knocking on that door, but overall, clubhouse, I see Willie in the club. house, what he's done at shortstop, although the whole, the whole, the whole Willie Adomis package, he's my MVP. Do you feel like, okay, so if they're not going to bring him back, is there going to be a Josh Hader like effect in that clubhouse?

That didn't work out so well when the Brewers decided to move on from him is, uh, we'll be moving Adamus like when he's not there anymore, if that's what ends up happening. How do you think the team's going to react to that? Well, I feel like if they would have, uh,

done this at the trading deadline, that would have been, That was the problem with Haydard, the pedant race. They do it in the offseason a little bit different. That's just business, all right? And what's going to do is it's probably going to move Ortiz, the shortstop, and then they've got to find themselves another third baseman. But I think that's the way they look at it.

The Hater thing was right during the team. It's like, why? We're in a petting race. So off season's a little different than trading them during that time. Fair enough. Fair enough. All right, offensive MVP for the Cardinals. hasn't been a lot of good ones this year.

The offense has been kind of stuck in a rut for quite some time. I'm going to go ahead and give it to give me, give me Alec Berlinson. I have to go with Alec Berluson. He's also probably going to be my choice for biggest surprise just because nobody expected what Alec Berluson is doing. He's not good against left handers, but nobody in this lineup is.

But man, does he mash against those righties? And he has been a force. Him and Mason win. at the top of the lineup, by far the biggest surprises and your offensive MVP's this year. It's not the names that you're used to seeing. This is kind of the turnover that we feel like is happening in St. Louis, where some of these names that you're more familiar with, they're not the main pieces anymore.

Contreras, obviously our contraris dealt with the injury with the broken arms. So he might be up there because he was hitting very well before that happened. But yeah, give me some Alec Berlinson. Keep an eye on the guy we call Vist. skits in this series, Chuck. How about your top pitcher? You can go starter or reliever. Who's it been for you?

I'm going to go, Colin Ray. It'd be a toss-up between Colin Ray and, I said, I want to go at the start of this. There's been guys on the bullpen who have done it for the Brewers this year, McGill, Hudson, K&A, but I'm going to say, I'm going to go with Colin Ray. He's coming off two hits over seven-plus endings on Sunday. He edges out Tobias Myers for pitcher of the year. And like listen to these names that Chuck's bringing up. Cargill fans are like, who?

Who is he talking? Is he making these people up? No. But that's how good the Brewers have been, dude. It doesn't matter who they use. Things have just worked out. It's been amazing to watch. Pitcher for us.

I'm going to go relief pitcher because the starters have just kind of been up and down. Sunny Gray was a nice signing, but we thought he'd be better than what he's been. He's kind of hit a wall over the last month and a half. But Ryan Halsley, the closer, 38 saves, I believe, is where he's that now was it for a long time, tops in the league. I don't know if he's still number one in saves after today's action or not. But he's been something else.

Things get a little iffy sometimes in the ninth inning, but he's only blown, I think three saves this year. And it's been nice because there has been many years of the Cardinals where it's like, we've got guys out there who have blown 10, 11, and you're just like, what are we doing? Where Helsley, Hells Bells, as we call him,

he's been pretty locked down most of the years. year. So he's somebody that I've been very much impressed with. How about your biggest surprise this year? Who's a guy that came from nowhere? And it is just like, now you can't take him out of the lineup. Jackson, Churiel, when I say surprise, better than I thought he'd be at this point. He's 20, right? 20 years old, six home runs and the heart of the Brewers lineup, just doing great, great things at the plate. There's been a lot of comparisons with him and other great great ball players. But I just think him, not that I didn't think he was going to be like this,

but I didn't think it was going to come this soon. Yeah. Can you give us a secret on how you develop young hitters in Milwaukee? Because we're having a problem in St. Louis guys like Dylan Carlson and, you know, Tyler O'Neill and, you know, Randy a Rosarina and Adolice Garcia. They all go everywhere else and do very, very well. Now we're freaking out about Jordan Walker, who was our top hitting prospect. Mason Winn has been fine.

nobody seems to whine and complain about him, but Jordan Walker cannot seem to get it together. Nolan Gorman's another one that has really regressed this year despite showing some promise. Is there a secret that you can share that I can pass along to the coaching staff over in St. Louis? J.D., Jordan Walker surprises me because I looked at that guy. When I saw him, I saw a guy who's got a lot of talent.

Sure. What is he doing? $6.250? Just a monster can run. He's got a cannon for him. arm. What was he not in the minor leagues for? He couldn't, he wasn't hitting all that great down there until recently either, where he was struggling to get launch angles is what we were talking about. And he was unable to get the ball in the air and was smoking the ball down at Memphis over the

last week or so. They bring him up after Carpenter goes on the IL and he's got one hit since he came back up. And it's weird because they're platooning him in right field. His splits say that he's a better hitter against right-handed pitching, but they won't start him against right-handers. They want him to hit against lefties, and he hasn't done anything yet. Like, it's bizarre. Everybody's worried that they're screwing him up, just like they've screwed up a lot of their other young hitters, and that this is going to be another disaster, and he's going to end up being a superstar for somebody else.

Maybe Milwaukee one day. Maybe he doesn't. The Cardo's asking the Brewers how to get things done? We need help, Chuck. We're not used to this. We don't know what we're doing anymore. Before we're crowned anything. That's true.

I know, but we're very frustrated here at St. Louis. All right. Who's your biggest disappointment on the year? And I know you can go injuries because that happens to everybody. But if there's somebody that's not injured where it's just been like, who would it be? Well, initially, I would have said Christian Gillage on that. I would go with, there haven't been a lot of disappointments on this team at all. You know, Reese Hoskins does have the 20 home runs.

He's picking it up a little bit now. At one point, I would have said Reese on that answer. I'm going to go with Garrett Mitchell, who's been up and down sliding. Some days good, some days bad. He's on a slide right now. I would say Garrett Mitchell, but overall, he's a young guy, so I can't be all that disappointed in him. What about you?

Well, I mean, there's a number of them. I'll give you Goldie, Aranato. I can give you all these guys. What's funny is you're like, you know, hey, you know, Yelich would be my biggest disappointment where his numbers are very comparable to Nolan Aronado. And your guy was hitting 315. Well, we're at 268. But it's got to be my biggest disappointment.

And I know it's been a tough year for both Goldianato. But the Nolan-Gorman problems had really blown me away where he's got, here's the thing, Chuck. He's got 19 home runs. He's got 50 RBIs. And they don't even play him. anymore because he went into such a rut where he was striking out 42% of the time. Like he's not putting the ball in play. And he's young.

And it's another one of those situations where we're worried that the cartels have screwed this guy up. He's 24 years old, shows all this potential is starting to play a very good second base. And now they can't even put him on the field because they don't trust him to put the ball in play anymore. And it's like, what happened? Like, how did it get this bad? And how have we not fixed him?

And why is he still in the major leagues if he needs to go fix things somewhere else and get at bats every day? I don't know. It's a very confusing time. So, yeah, the veterans not showing up have been really, really tough. All the promise that I could go on and on about the disappointment. It's large noobar. Like, he has never lived up to anything that people thought he was going to be this far. Injuries continue to be a problem.

Yeah, I could say. here and whining complain this whole time. I don't want to do that over and over. Because you want a bowl division, JD. No, what I'm saying over, I mean, the Brewers right now got this division wrapped up. But I mean, I think going on the season, I think this division was wide open for a number of different teams. You know, if you go into the nationally West, you'd say, well, the Dodgers, America League East, well, maybe Baltimore, maybe the Yankees. But this division, I mean, there was so many different names who were throwing out there to win this thing.

And I still think it's wide open. I don't think the brewers have a stranglehold on this division. Just because they're winning, I mean, this year, yes, but I'm saying, more than of course, of the next several years. You know, it depends on who goes out and improves their team in the offseason. Yeah, and it's really about developing, I think, because none of our teams, even Chicago is the, you know, they're not, they're like, we're not going to go spend $350 million on a payroll.

This is not going to happen. So we all have to learn to develop these players, and some teams have just been better at it than others. And that's just kind of where the pecking order is at the moment where the brewers have been able to make some shrewd moves. Like the Adamas move has been a monster one for them over the last couple of years. Grabbing a Reese Hoskins has been huge for them to replace people. So I don't know, things are just clicking in Milwaukee and as bad as it pains us to watch it is just a fan of baseball. I think it's cool to see a team like a Milwaukee brewer team.

up amongst those other cities in New York and Baltimore and L.A. and playing right along with the Phillies and stuff like that without having to spend all that money. It was something I've always respected about the Tampa Bay raise over the years, and I think this is cool. And I wish you guys the best of luck. I still want to beat you over the next three days. This is your pitching matchups. Frankie Montas will be against Eric Fetty on Tuesday,

so both guys that both teams got at the trade deadline. You mentioned Tobias Meyer. he'll be taking on Kyle Gibson, who, you know, he's one of those guys that's really good for a few games. And then he has one really bad blowup game. Just had that blowup game against the Red. So Gibson might be back on if he goes to what his normal path is. And then it's going to be Freddie Peralta against Miles Michaelis on Thursday. The Brewers have beaten the snout out of Michaelis many times.

I don't know why they wouldn't do it again this time. So the Cardinals will be lucky to take two of three, but more. likely is that the Brewers either take two or three or sweep this one. I'm pretty sure you see it the same way, right? Are there two Miles Michaels on your team? Because I feel like he's always pitching against the Brewers. There's got to be two of them. There's got to be two of them.

You probably want that because both of them probably stink because he's not very good. He's another one of those guys, Chuck, that I love as a human being. And I think he's an outstanding locker room guy. He just doesn't have it, man. He just keeps better than this, though. He's not. And that's the thing. He's making $17.6 million a year.

And he's always been like this, where he gives up a lot of hits. And as he gets older, which is what he's doing, they're going to hit the ball harder against them. If he is that doesn't have pinpoint accuracy, he gets pummeled. And by the time you've seen him the third time around in the lineup, I don't even know why he's out there anymore. Because by the time they get there, that's when they really lay the lumber on him. So it's, but he's one of your guys, and he's under contract for another year next year. So he's going to be there, both Miles Michaelis,

two-face Michaelis, will be there to face the Brewers on multiple occasions next year as well. So I hope you're ready for it. Every time we go in a matchup with Michaelis, I think, oh, boy, we're facing this. And then all of a sudden, you're right, the Brewers shell him for. I would be cheering if I saw Miles Michaelis on the card. Yes. We got that guy? All right.

It should be, we're going to have some fun with the series. Maybe the Cardinals can make some games out of it. They just played the Dodgers pretty tough after just getting blasted by the Cincinnati Reds in Cincinnati. They lost two or three to the Dodgers, but it was a two to one ball game. Kirshall was awesome on Sunday. And then they blew the lead on Friday night, but it was a one-run game, seven to six. So hopefully they're entertaining games, and we'll be here to talk about them and cover them all.

So where can everybody find you, Chuck, in case they're looking to keep up with you and haven't done that yet? All right. Lockdown Brewers, Google, Spotify, Apple are on all the major downloads. Go to YouTube, search Lockdown Brewers, hit the subscribe button, hit the bell. That'll let you every time we drop an episode. Also, hit me up on Twitter, Chuck Freeman, F-R-E-I-M-U-N-D. And by the way, in this past weekend, I was actually pulling for you guys, because, like I said earlier, we're trying to catch the Dodgers. So I can't realize.

I was cheering for the Cardinals. in August. Yeah, not something normal for you. You probably felt weird. I probably felt icky. Did it feel icky, Jeff? I was, I was disappointed when you guys won or when you lost. Like yesterday, a two one game new part, though only running that day. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, Kershaw looked really, really good. And again, here's one thing. I feel like you guys are doing us a solid. You're starting all right handers in this series, which is the ones that we hit better than we hit lefties. So if you know, know any left-handed pitchers. If you got any of them floating around the stadium,

you just bring them in, and they'll probably shut down this Cardinals lineup. So just keep that in mind, okay? We'll do that. Hang in there. Enjoy the final six weeks of the seas of JD. And again, it feels good for the shoe to be on the other foot for a change, and that we're winning, and you guys are losing. It's been always reversed in that way for most of my lifetime. I know. What goes around comes around. And I'm catching hell from listeners and stuff for laughing too much during these crossovers, but what else can you do at this point of the season? Like I can sit here and sulk and be mad a whole time or, you know, I can have a good discussion with good people like you, Chuck, and talk about ball.

So that's what we try to do here at the Lockdown Podcast Network. So make sure you like, subscribe on our YouTube and on our Twitters. And of course, everywhere you find your podcasts and help our channels grow, our love for the brewers, our love for the cardinals, all of it. You guys are the best fans of baseball for a reason. And we will see you next time. We'll cross it over again here real soon, Chuck. We're not done yet this year.

We'll do it real soon here on the Locked-on Podcast Network.