Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - It's The Battle Of The Contreras' As The Brewers Come To St. Louis

Episode Date: April 19, 2024

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Policygenius Check life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonmlb to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. Monopoly GO! Get in the game and join your friends. Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Play. Yahoo Finance For comprehensive financial news and analysis, visit the brand behind every great investor, YahooFinance.com. PrizePicks Go to PrizePicks.com/lockedonmlb and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! eBay Motors From brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. FanDuel FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARENTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) #ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are the Brewers as good as their record is? Are the Cardinals as bad as their record is? We answer those questions and more as Locked on Brewers host, Chuck Freeman, joins us today for this special crossover episode of Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, there are Cardinals and Brewers fans. I'm J.D. Hafford and I'm a national radio sports anchor,

born and raised in the Lou and a lifetime Cardinals fan, and I'm your host for Locktown Cardinals. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on TwitterX at JD Sports Radio. You can follow the podcast at L.O. underscore Cardinals. I want to thank those of you who make Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Brewers, your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast.

You can also find us on YouTube. Make sure you come by both of our YouTube sites. You like, subscribe, and comment. Don't be afraid to interact with us and chat with us. Hit that notification button so you know when the new episodes are posted. This is a show. serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. We're also sharing it today with the Brewers fans. And this episode is brought to you by

Price Picks, the easiest, the most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Go topricepix.com locked on MLB and use code all lowercase, locked on MLB for a first deposit match up to $100. All right, before we start getting into all the nitty gritties here, I want to introduce and welcome in for my Cardinals fans who may not be familiar with Chuck Freeman yet from Locked-on Brewers. Chuck, you've been covering the Brewers and pretty much Wisconsin sports in general for for how long now? Well, I started way back when I was in high school. I've been covered the team and way back, you know, the early 80s,

second year covered the team, the Brewers went into the World Series against the Cardinals and never would I guess that we'd be division rivals and develop this nice little rivalry between the two teams way back when I was a teenager. But here we are. And yeah, I mean, just like you, you get them on us, Google, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, get the video. And a long-time sportscaster here in Wisconsin. And looking forward to this weekend series. And I always love doing a podcast with you because every time if people can see us on YouTube,

somehow the locker room in St. Louis is always clear. Man, how do you get nobody to walking back to you and make faces? That's amazing. I tape it off and I have security. Take care of people in the back and make sure nobody. he's in my way. This is very important stuff. Chuck, I'm glad you brought up the 82 series, by the way, because recently the passing of former Cardinals manager, Whitey Herzog, who was the manager of that Cardinals team against the Brewers in that 82 World Series. Any thoughts on

Whitey and the time that he was a manager in St. Louis from a Milwaukee Brewers point of view? Well, just a great manager. And I remember him more as the manager of the Kansas City Royals because the Brewers were in the American League. And he was the manager in the late 70s. on those great George Brett teams. And you know what that was all about. And then in 82, I thought the Brewers had the better team in 82. And the Cardals ended up winning. Brewers had five Hall of Famers, future Hall of Famers in that team.

And the Cardinals, with the help of a former brewer, Darrell Porter, helped beat the Brewers in 82 World Series. And I remember in 82, when the Brewers lost, it was 15 years old thinking, ah, they'll be back. And still, here we are, 42 years later, still have not. been back to the World Series. Can't win a National League pet it now to save our lives. But I'm a great manager, one of the all-time great managers. There's no doubt about it. And I was sorry to see, but he lived a great life. I'm 92, 93 years old, whatever it was.

But yeah, he beat the Brewers. And the only World Series here in Milwaukee, haven't had one since. And who knows what another one's going to come. Well, so far, the Brewers have done well this year. I want to take you back to last year real quick. The Brewers in the end, ended up running away with the NL Central. 92 wins had a nine-game gap between them and second-place Chicago. But as often happens in the playoffs, they run into the hot wildcard team, right? The Arizona Diamondbacks come through, sweep them into games in the NL Wild Card Card Series on their way to a berth in the World Series where they would lose to the Texas Rangers. And the Cardinals fans, understand your pain, Chuck.

2022, same thing happened. They got swept in a wild card round by the hot wild card team at the time, which was the Philadelphia Phillies, who ended up going to the World Series and losing to the American League team, which was the Houston Astros. So this offseason, the two organizations tackled things very much differently. The Cardinals went out and signed or traded for 10 new pitchers to join their pitching staff, just revamped the whole thing while the Brewers, they lose their manager and Craig Counsel, one of the best in baseball, to the slimy Cubs, by the way.

They trade away their ace Corbyn Burns to the Baltimore Orioles. They re-signed Brandon Woodruff, but we think he's going to be out for the rest of the season anyway. And on top of those two being absent from the current staff, they've also lost one of the best relief pitchers in baseball in a St. Louis native in Devin Williams, who's on the shelf with a back injury. And yet here we are a couple of weeks into the season and the Brewers. They're in first place again. They're 11 and 6. So let's start with the pitching side of things first. How the hell, Chuck, do you lose those three big guns?

And not only stay afloat, but continue to be a first place team. And Garrett Mitchell, the starting center fielder, but he will be back in early June. Perkins has been a nice, done a nice job, had a game winning base hit on Thursday. But yeah, they've been scoring a lot of runs, doing well with runners and scoring position. Unlike the Cardinals who are off to a slow start offensively, the Brewers have been just quite the opposite. Now lately, the Brewers are coming back a little bit to the mean. Last three games, they're not hitting as well, or with runners in scoring position all that well, they were almost, well, no hitter. Michael King and the Padres took a no hitter into the seventh inning against the Brewers on Thursday, on Wednesday, and they were able to win the game.

But offensively, they've been able to make up. Now, is this going to, is this going to trend going to continue? Are they going to score seven or eight runs a game? Highly unlikely, okay? The pitching is the biggest part, what worries me. And as you know, the 162 game schedule is the great endurance race in baseball. And I feel it's eventually going to catch up with them, not having Devin Williams, eventually going to catch up with them.

You know, this weekend series, we were just talking about it on local TV here in Milwaukee. And I feel like every series support, this is a big series, early series, between these two teams. You guys are trying to turn it around offensively. I know you had a three-and-three road trip. I thought you guys were going to win that final. game in Oakland yesterday after getting off to that three and two lead, three to two lead. But interesting series, the Brewers are throwing their best pitcher, Freddie Peralta.

But when you look at Freddie Peralta, he's their best pitcher right now and going into the season. He's the number one, but a number one on this team probably should be a number three starter on most teams. But I'm excited for this series to start. And yeah, great test for both teams because. you know, can Milwaukee keep that offense going? And can the Cardinals, and along with Paul Golch, but finally turn things around for them? Well, that's funny that you say Freddie Peralta would be a number three elsewhere.

I don't think you'd be a number three on the Cardinals pitching staff. He'd be right up there along with Sonny Gray because he's been really good so far. 2-0 record, a 2.55 ERA. He's got 26 strikeouts in 17 and 2-thirds innings, and he's going to be the starter on Friday night. So Freddie Peralta, I underestimated it. And at least the way he started the season so far, I knew it was a good pitcher. I did not expect him to lead the staff as well as he has thus far.

So he's been a very big surprise to me as far as being quite as dominant as he's been so far. As far as the Cardinals pitching staff, I mentioned that they've got a whole bunch of new pitchers in the rotation and in the bullpen. The pitching has actually been pretty darn good for the Cardinals so far. When you look at who are the names they were that they added guys like a Lance Lynn and at Kyle Gibson, which when you saw their stats, you're like, well, what? Are they supposed to be good? They've been better than I think a lot of people thought they were going to be as far as a team. ERA, 3.74, their 10th best in the league.

They've induced 19 double plays. I will point that out because they've been able to escape some jams due to the double play ball. That's the third most double plays turned in the league so far. They're not walking a ton of people. They're not just putting people on 2.87 per 9, which is 9th best. strikeout to walk ratio 2.85 also the ninth best. They've only hit two batters, so we're not going to injure you. That's great, which is tied for taps in the league.

They still give up a ton of hits. And you mentioned the Brewer's offense, which we're going to get to here in just a few minutes. But the Carl Spitching staff does give up a ton of hits, 158, ninth highest total, and the long ball is something that has burned them quite often so far this year. 23 given up thus far, fourth-th-th-th-th-th-th-totel in the league. Sunny Gray returning has been a huge addition since coming off. The IL hasn't allowed to run in his first two starts covering 11 innings. He'll be the scheduled starter on Sunday. Lance Lynn, 2.1.80RA.

Nice. I did not expect that from Lance Lynn after what we saw last year. The two guys that have been inconsistent to start the year just so happen to be the starters on Friday and Saturday, Kyle Gibson and Miles Michaelis. Gibson had a really good first start against the Padres, but ended up getting crushed by the Padres, gave up six runs of the first inning against them, then was throwing well against the Diamondbacks before a three-run shot, put the loss on him in Arizona. He's giving up five dingers already, Chuck, which is the second highest amount in the league.

Michaelis wasn't great against the Dodgers and his opener, was much better against the Padres in Philly, was looking really good through four against Arizona before the wheels fell off. So you're getting two of the most inconsistent starters that the Cardinals have to off. in games one and two before Sunny Gray comes in and has so far looked like the ace that they thought they were getting after finishing second in the Aosai Young Award voting last year. But we're going to get into the offenses next, Chuck. So get your stats ready. We're going to talk about both teams because one has been really good. One has not. And Chuck alluded to which one was which. We'll have more for you on the crossover of Locktown Cardinals and Locktown Brewers. It's playoff time in the NBA and NHL. Baseball's in full swing.

know this and Fandul is your place to bet on every single game. You're going to put some money on the Brewers this weekend. You're going to put some money on the Cardinals. How you feeling? Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets. That's guaranteed, by the way. That's 150 bucks. Win or lose. Do you understand that, right? You place the bet and whether you win or lose, you still get 150 bucks in bonus bets. That's a pretty good deal. And you can bet on everything. Like I said, You want to go baseball, you want to go Milwaukee, you want to go St. Louis or any of the other teams around the league. You can do that. Or you can start talking about NHL, Stanley Cup playoffs right around the corner.

You've got the NBA playoffs stuff going on right now too. So slap shots, home runs, slam dunks, all of it is available on the app that is safe, secure, and easy to use. So if you haven't joined yet, what are you waiting for? Visit fandul.com slash a locked on and make your first bet an automatic win. Once again, right now, new cup. customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed. Fandual, America's number one sports book. Are you watching Fox Sports or ESPN on your TV all day, have to turn down the volume with all of the shouting?

Well, make that switch to Locked on Sports Today. It's a free 24-7 sports streaming channel program for you every day to bring you the biggest stories, and you get it without all the screaming. There's no yelling at you. Locked on sports today brings you can't-miss analysis. You get opinions. You get news, and it's all streaming 24-7 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire. TV channels app. It's part of the Locktown Podcast Network. Your team every day I was actually

watching the channel last night because they were doing their mock drafts, Chuck. The NFL mock draft happened on Wednesday night. And that was interesting. They had the Packers taking Cooper DeGine out of Iowa in case you're wondering at 25. So I figured you were all over that. You knew that, Chuck. Well, you know, right now the draft is obviously huge. It was here because the Packers, as much as we love the Milwaukee Brewers, the Packers are number one. Yeah. Packers are number one. Packers want to.

Oh, Marble, I see is calling him out of the locker room here and he's probably, oh, he's getting a cheese hat. Okay. Because I don't know if you knew this, Chuck, but I'm a huge Packers fan. Huge. No. I didn't know. How did that happen?

Growing up in St. Louis, when I was young, we didn't have a football team. So I migrated to who. whoever was the biggest rival of anything Chicago, because that's what we do in St. Louis. We go against Chicago teams. And so who do the Bears hate? They hate the Packers. So I was like, all right, I'm going to go to the Packers.

Who stunk at the time? And then that Brett Farve guy showed up. And things turned around rather quickly. And that's kind of how it's been. Even when the Rams came to town in St. Louis, like I watched the Rams. I rooted for him. I wanted to see them do good unless they played the Packers.

And then I was all Go Pack Go. And then the Rams unfortunately went back to L.A. which was a disgusting thing by the NFL. But anyway, so I'm all over the Packers. And if they can land Cooper to Gene at 25, I'm all for it. I think that's a heck of a pick. Thank you guys for making Locktown Cardinals and Lockdown Brewers. Your first listen to every day.

Leave your comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X. Anytime you want, your feedback is always welcome and encourage. Once again, Chuck Freeman, the host of Locktown Brewers here for this crossover episode leading up to the NL Central clash this weekend between the first place Brewers and the last place Cardinals. They are in last place. that far back, but they are in last place. So let's talk about the offense. Chuck, you mentioned it a little bit earlier. Brewkru's been one of the top hitting teams in the

league so far. Where is the production coming from? And do you guys have the best contraris on your team? Let's answer that. Well, it's funny because me and my 12 year old, my 12 year old, who I have a 12 year old who likes the Cubs. Imagine that. Yes. And he wants an L.Adele Cruz jersey of the Reds. And I told Jeff Carr, a buddy from lockdown. Reds, you will never get one of those. So, but Contreras has been leading the team. Now, they picked them up last year before last year, and he was great. He was their offensive MVP last year.

No one expected that. And this year, he's hitting like a league MVP through the first part of the season, coming up with clutch hits, just had the 12-game hitting streak coming to an end. So it starts with him. When they got him, they never expected him to be one of the focal points offensively. They're missing Christian yellow. She went on the injured list with a back injury. Reese Hoskins is playing first base.

Has hit three home runs so far. Still trying to find his way. Bryce Terrang has been excellent at second base so far defensively and with the stick doing really well. Outfield, I mentioned Blake Perkins earlier. Center field, been a pleasant surprise. Didn't know if he was going to make the team coming out of camp, has.

And with the injury to Garrett Mitchell, has been fantastic. Freelick, been getting some big, big hits at the plate in the middle part of that order. He's been fantastic. Adomis, the veteran on this team. some big hits, home runs as well. So I think a lot of people, J.D, have been contributing

to the offense so far. I mentioned the last three games, not as much as the first several. So offensively, been really well. They've been stealing. They've been running the bases. They've been playing a little ABC baseball. Get them on, get them over, get them in,

which has been fantastic. Now, when I look at you guys, I am struggling. I saw Goldschmidt's numbers today. And I don't know if I like that because I don't want the brewers to be the tonic for some of those guys offensively for struggling and turning it around this series. You guys are off to a slow start by Cardinals.

And I remember last year, J.D., when we talked, when you guys got off to that slow start, I was still worried. You guys were 14 games under the 500 market. I was still saying on the shows here in Milwaukee, watch out for the Cardinals. Don't take that for granted whatsoever. Now, you guys never turned it around, but still, I don't care where you guys are. you guys could have lost the first 16 games of the season. You guys are still always going to be a threat.

Yeah, and that's one thing. The fan base in St. Louis, they're unsettled right now because even though they were warned that April was going to be a tough one for the Cardinals from the get-go because traveling to the West, coming back, going back out to the West, and playing a lot of really good teams other than the Marlins, really? everybody else has been pretty good in Oakland. Obviously, we just got done with Oakland.

But even they've been playing all right baseball. It's not like they've been like, you know, the White Sox or something. Just nobody goes to their games. Yeah, that's a thing. Nobody's there to watch. We had like 3,000 people as it announced attendance on one of the game. I think it was Tuesday's game, which is like crazy to me. Only 3,000 people come out there.

And I watched yesterday's game when I got home with the Brewers game because we started a couple hours before you guys did. and we had a quick game. And I was watching the game, there had to be 800, 900 people in Oakland for the final game that is serious against the Cardinals. Yeah, it's sad. And it's tough to watch.

You feel bad. You feel bad for him. Speaking of touch, tough to watch, you mentioned the Cardinals offense, guys like Paul Goldsmith. As a whole, the team is really,

really struggling. Eight lowest batting average in baseball, 226. Second lowest home run total in the league. If you had to take a guess, Chuck, don't cheat. How many home runs do you think? think a lineup that consists of Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Aranato, Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman,

and Lars Newbar just getting back, but how many home runs do you think they've hit so far if you had to guess? Six. Well, that's way worse than that, than what they're at. They're actually at 13. I was shooting low. I was shooting low. Second lowest home run total in the league, though, at 13. Fifth lowest run total at 70. They keep getting stuck on the number three. That's where they score three, and then they're done. That's all they get. It's really bizarre how many times they've done that so far this year. The one thing that they've been pretty good at is getting hit by pitches, if that counts, 12, third highest. And I don't know where you find catchers interference stats, but we've had like three of those go our way as well. Is that a thing in the league? Is that something

When I think we have had a couple of those too in our team. I'm like, God, it must be going around. Yeah, it's something with the way that the catchers are reaching for the balls trying to frame these days, which is leading to it, at least that's what I'm told. But you mentioned Paul Goldschmidt has gotten off to a rough start, even though everybody keeps saying be patient, be patient, he's going to be fine, be patient. I mean, you saw the slide last year. He's not getting any younger, had a tough spring, and here he is.

two weeks in the season, almost three weeks, he's hitting 182, has one extra base hit, Chuck. One, and he did that on opening day when he hit a home run. Hasn't had one since. It's bizarre. I generally wish he was, I wish we were going to Milwaukee for this series because Paul notoriously, pretty good hitter in Milwaukee. But, you know, we're going to be a Bush Stadium. So no such luck on his side for that one.

Nolan Gorman had a one two home run game so far this year. outside of that he's got just one dinger. He's striking out a ton. Jordan Walker hasn't been able to put anything together. They're pitching him away, away, and he's taking a few of them here and there. He's trying to adjust, but he's a young hitter. You know, it's going to take some time. And then the center field spot, they're just getting no offense whatsoever.

As a combined center field duo, Victor Scott II, who's a rookie who shouldn't even be in the major leagues right now. He's supposed to be at AAA. And then Michael Ciani, who they picked up on waivers from the Reds last year, combined they're hitting under 100 as the center field duo so far. So that's been tough. Nolan Aronado, William Contreras's older brother, Wilson Catreras. He's looked really, really good, got hit on the hand in San Diego.

So he had some games where he had to sit out. So his numbers might be a little bit low because of that. But as he's gotten healthier with that hand, he's starting to turn it around, has continued his hot hitting from what he was doing in the second half last year, where he was huge. Brydon Donovan's been pretty good at the top of the lineup, although he keeps getting hit by pitches and suffering weird injuries too. Just got Lars Neupar back.

And we're still missing guys like Tommy Edmund and Dylan Carlson, some big names that were scheduled to be our center fielder's. And I couldn't do that because of injuries so far. So they're progressing, but they won't be around for this series. Some highlights of the offense have really been a couple of rookies. Mason win or shortstop. then Yvonne Herrera, who's a rookie catcher, who is the backup to Wilson, but he's been hitting so well, Chuck, that they're having a tough time not putting him in the lineup.

And I know it's difficult when you do that because you're like, well, yeah, you want your best hitters in there. But if one of those catchers goes down in a game, you don't have a third one on the roster. So it's tough to keep both of them in the lineup at the same time, even though Ivan Herrera has been hitting as well as he has so far this year. but Mason Wend has been a breath of fresh air and shortstop hitting 347 so far, Chuck. And they've had him down on the order. Some people have been clamoring about moving him up a little bit.

Maybe that should be something that they do and move Paul Goldschmidt down. I don't know if that's a realistic thing that manager Ali Marmel will ever do to move Paul Goldsman out of that number two spot and drop him as low as like a six or a seven despite all the struggles. I feel like he's going to continue to keep Goldie up there at the top of the lineup. And as long as he continues to struggle and Gorman does, as they're both hitting in the meat of this order, it just, it's a rally killer almost every single time. So something that I would imagine the Brewer's pitchers are going to try to take advantage of as much as possible in this series.

Is there a guy in the lineup other than Goldie that you have your eye on that you're kind of like, yeah we're gonna keep an eye on this guy this guy's pretty dangerous well they're all to be all those names that you mentioned always strike fear in my heart because uh i feel like they always you know those guys are all tough owts and i'm just surprised to see the struggle the way it is with with the cardals and all those bats because you guys i mean you're good at the corner you're great at the corners and everywhere else i mean fundamentally so sound the team has been um you know, I just, I'm surprised that the Cardinals are struggling offensively. And I hope, now the brewer pitching, I told you about the starting staff.

The bullpen has been taxed a little bit because the Brewers had to bullpen their way through a game on Wednesday. They used all five relievers to throw nine shutout innings. So a couple of those guys might not be pitching in maybe early in the series. I saw, you know, we're talking about Fandual. The Brewers are favored in Friday night's game with Peralta on the Hill. It's like, that scares me already. The brewers are favored going into St. Louis. But I got to ask you about Marmel.

You know, after the tough season that they had last year, and I'm sure because fans are, it's like this in every Major League City. Sure. What's the reaction? Is there a long leash, short lease for Marmo? Is he good for the all season? What's that status like? Well, most people thought that after last year's catastrophic season,

that he was coming into his last year of his contract. And what seemed to be the plan, at least for most fans, was that Yadda here Molina, former catcher, Cardinal legend, was going to come in and become the next manager of the Cardinals. If Ali had a bad year this year, they didn't live up to expectations this year, that it was going to be a transition where Yadi would come in, Ali would go out, and that's just the way it was going to be.

It looked like the season was going to be set up for failure for Ali, to be honest, which was a tough spot. And they made the announcement in the off season that Yadi was going to be a special assistant. He was going to be around. He was actually going to be in the dugout for a few games and stuff. And I always said it was going to be weird to have a guy that is gunning for your spot, just looking over your shoulder the whole time. And I was like, that's a weird spot to me.

Anytime somebody's named a special assistant, it's like, oh, boy, that was with Craig Counsel. He was a special assistant in the front office. He's thinking, you know, he's the manager of the team. Yeah, well, this offseason, before the regular season got underway, they decided to sign Ali Marmal to an extension. They were like, look, we don't want it to feel that way. We don't want him going into the season thinking we're setting him up just to take the job away from him. Like, we want him to know that we believe in him, and he's got job security.

And guess what? Since that's happened, there has not been a mention of Yadia Molina anywhere within the Cardinals organization. We haven't heard a peep. We don't know where he is. He was supposed to show up during spring training. He was, they said, well, we're giving him some time to be with his family. He'll probably show up when minor league camp gets underway. And it has been radio silence ever since.

There has not been a word about Yadda or Molina and what his role is with this organization anymore. And we're talking about the middle of April now. And nobody's heard from him. Nobody's seen him. Like, is he pulling a paycheck from the Cardinal still? We don't know. We have no idea. Well, that's something for Marble, though, because you don't need a manager.

A manager doesn't need somebody looking over his shoulder. He's trying to do his job. Yeah. It'll be there. I was surprised. From what the GM, you know, the president of baseball operations, John Moseilac has said, is that they're not blaming him for what happened last year. It was their fault. They put together a team that was just not good enough.

They thought they were going to have better results from certain people. It didn't happen. And they did go out and make a lot of changes this year to make sure that that didn't happen. But here we are. And they're in last place again. So the natives are restless as far as. Ali Marmel and they continue to blame him and blame the coaching

staff for a lot of these those starts. I was just surprised the guy rid of Shulte to begin with. He was just in here with the Padres. I thought he was a good man, a real solid manager. He won one manager of the year award in his three years and was up for it in that last year before they canned him. That became an issue

between him and the front office. They didn't see eye to eye philosophical differences was the narrative and they showed him the door and he is at until this year hadn't been a manager in the league since. So it's a it's been an interesting and very tumultuous couple of years with the St. Louis Cardinals and they're hoping for things to be better this year here in 2024. So far losing record.

They're 9 and 10. So we're going to get our, I guess, predictions or what we're going to look for in the series, our picks to click. We'll have all of that coming up for you more on this crossover episode between Locked on Cardinals and locked on brewers. Baseball season is officially underway. Don't miss your chance to add your favorite players from the diamond in your prize picks entries, whether it's strikeouts, RBIs, first inning runs.

You can take your pick of more or less and add them to your price fix entry today. Get in on the playoff action and went up to 100 times your money on price picks. As you and the world's best players take the game to a new level during basketball's postseason, which is going on. Man, it is. The play in tournament stuff is happening. It's been pretty darn exciting if you haven't been watching. You might want to tune in and you can win some money on it with prize picks.

I've mentioned this before, Chuck, my favorite aspect about prize picks is that it's simple and it's quick. You know, I'm not screwing around, trying to find things and try to figure out what am I doing on this app. I don't get it. I understand it. It's very simple to use and you can make your picks and submit your entries and do it in less than 60 seconds. And the other side of it that's really quick is when you do win your money, which you will on prize picks. You get your money quick.

They pay you out right away. Quick withdraws, easy gameplay, an enormous selection of players and stat types. That's what makes prize picks. The number one, daily fantasy sports app. So download the app today. Use the code locked on MLB for a first deposit match up to $100. Download the app today. Use the code, lowercase, L-O-C-E-D-O-N-M-B for a first deposit match up to $100.

Pick more, pick less. It's that easy. with prize picks. Locked on has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube and now what's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free fire TV channels app. Locked on Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of lockdown plus our national shows covering every league. Find Locked on Locked on Sports today now available on the free fire TV channels app. All right, Chuck Friedman, lock on Brewers host.

Time to make your picks on who you think is going to shine in this weekend. series in St. Louis Bush Stadium. It all starts Friday night. Goes on through the weekend. Who are you looking for offensively to be your pick to click on the Brewer side of things? Sal Freelich.

I think Sal Freelick's going to have a real good weekend. I just love fundamentally, goes to all fields. He's not trying to pull the ball. He's not trying to yank the ball out of the ballpark. I think Sal Freelich. And I have a hunch that Reese Hoskins is going to have a big weekend.

A little slow offensively for Reese. Great pick up for the Brewers. I think he's in a big summer. Still think he's going to hit 30 to 35 home runs on this team. I'm going to go with Reese Hoskins. Not a bad pick. The guy I'm interested in on your side of things, by the way, Bryce Tereng.

If there's one thing that I want to point out is that nine stolen bases, I think is where he's at. Legally. Yeah, yeah. The Cardinals have thrown out one. Base Steelers. Oh, one. That's it.

Interesting. And I think they've given up. I'm trying to remember off the top of my head. I think there's like 16 stolen bases against. Like it's something, it's something ridiculous. So they've only gone one. That's a guy.

That is a guy that I would keep my eye on if I was a Cardinals because if he gets on base, he could do some damage out there on the base pass running around like that. Offensively for the Cardinals, I'm going to go with Nolan Aronado, who had gotten off to a slow start. I know. That's a lane pick because. It's Nolan Aronado, right? But here's a thing.

Slow start to the season to a point where even I use the term broken when watching him swing. He was so off to start the year. And slowly but surely, you're starting to see him pull the ball with authority. He's also, when they're going to throw him away, he's been taking it to the opposite field, which is great. Finally hit his first home run since August of last year, Chuck. Finally hit that. So, but he swing did a lot better, thought he had another one in Oakland.

but Oakland's the Oakland Coliseum like I mean it's like the pole runs yeah it wasn't a problem for the A's hitting home runs they hit one in every game cardinals didn't hit any in Oakland but one of them looked like it would have been out of every ballpark except for Oakland and that was a Nolan aronado deep fly to left field so give me Nolan aronado because he's just he's headed in the right direction things are starting to look really really good for Nolan and he's playing really well defensively too so when that's working out for him it all starts to come together with him at the plate as well, pitching wise, who do we look out for in Milwaukee, buddy? And by the way, if you guys don't want Nolan Aronado,

people are complaining about him, we'll gladly take him off your hands. I'll bet you would. I know a lot of people. I know a lot of people. I'd take him in a second two, no matter how much he's struggling pitching. I think Freddie, I do like Freddie. He was talking about, you know, the Brewers are favored at the first game. Freddie's been their best pitcher, best starting pitcher.

He's pitched real good in all his starts. Probably is due for a bad one because this has been the history of Freddie. you can be sailing along and you buy, buy, buy on. I'm going to think you're great, great, Freddie's pitching. And then he comes back and has a three home run game. But I'm about like Freddie in the opener in this one. Originally, he was supposed to start on Wednesday. I think they saved him, but the Cardinals gave him the extra day off.

Bullpen is rested after having the Thursday, a much needed Thursday. But I like Freddie Peralta. Yeah, I mean, if he wants to have a bad game, Chuck, that's cool. We're down with that. We could use that. And a bad game for Freddie Peralta is giving up what? Three runs? We're really good at scoring three runs.

runs, Chuck. We can do that. Pitching wise for the Cardinals, a guy that has dealt with some injuries over the years. Last year was a tough year for him. Previously, he was an all-starred, though. It's a non-starter. Ryan Helsley, the closer for the St. Louis Cardinals, currently tied for the league lead in Saves with seven has looked filthy so far this season, Chuck. And that's been a problem for the Cardinals going back to last year was being able to finish off games when they did have the lead. they constantly were coughing things up. Well, this year, things have been different in that bullpen. They've added Andrew Kittridge, who they got from the raise.

He's been fantastic. Jojo Romero's been pretty good from the left side. And then you've got Giovanni Gallegos, who he's up and down, but he's been decent enough where the bullpen hasn't been blowing saves and Halsley outside of one game where he didn't pitch very well, has been really, really good. So he's a guy that I think if, you know, they can bring him in at least in, two games because the ninth inning's been his. That's been the, they don't bring them in just to get an out in the eighth and bring him back

in the ninth. It's the ninth inning. That's it. He's not expected to throw anymore or any less than that. If he's getting into games, that means the Cardinals are winning. And that means he's going to be a key to the victories for this weekend. So looking forward to it, man. What's your prediction?

Two out of three, you think a sweep for the Brewers? What are you going with? No, I'm hoping the Brewers can at least take two or three. How's the weather, by the way, going to be there this weekend? That's a great question. I did not check the weather for this weekend. I thought about going down there to the series. All right.

Looks like a little bit cooler. High of 63 on Friday, 61 Saturday, 62 on Sunday. But as of right now, no rain in the forecast. That's a little bit cooler in Milwaukee. We'll take that in a heartbeat. So no rain. That's key. So I'll get all three of these games.

And I'm going to say the Brewers are going to take two or three in the series. I feel good about the way they're playing. plan, just lost a series. I think the Brewers, right now I pick the Reds that win this division, beginning and I'm not going to change from that, but I like the way the Brewers are playing, and I can see them going down there and taking two or three. Yeah. Like if I wasn't a Cardinals fan, I probably would agree with you, just because of the matchups

that they got, because it is, it's Kyle Gibson Friday, and then it's Miles Michaelis on Saturday. I don't know which one I'm going to get. I don't know, am I going to get the good pitcher from them to, or I'm going to get the bad one. I don't know. But I would pick Sunny Gray to win on Sunday in that matchup. Was it Ray that's going for you guys on Sunday? So give me Sunny Gray there. But yeah, it's going to be tough for the Cardinals to take two or three. But stranger things have happened. So we'll have to watch and find out exactly what happens. So thank you guys for being a part of

this crossover episode of Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Brewers. And thank you for making it your first listen every day. If you haven't already, please give both of us a follow on Twitter. X you can find me at L-O-1 underscore Cardinals and a J-D Sports Radio. Chuck, you got to spell your name for everybody who's listening audio-wise because they're going to not have any idea how to do it. Chuck Freibon, F-R-E-I-M-U-N-D. Chuck Freibon at Chuck Freibon, F-R-E-I-M-U-N-D. I missed reading Rick Hummel's stuff, the commissioner.

He's always great when he came to Milwaukee and covered him. The commission missed him. And my good buddy, Matt Pauly, is the post-game host on KMOX. So a shout of the him. I know he watches your. videos and all that. So, yeah, my two connections there from and the St. Louis, but yeah, we're going to miss the commission coming to town when the Cardo's coming to town here because always miss him in his hat. Yeah, yeah. Cardinals have dealt with a lot of loss in the last

couple of years as far as legends, both on and off the field for their franchise. So it hasn't been easy. But yeah, Hummel definitely somebody that's been missing. You need to go ahead and tell you, we said hi, as well. Former Cardinal legend, Bob. hooker as well. So make sure you guys like and subscribe on YouTube. Help our channel and our love for the Cardinals and the Brewers grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. And we'll see you guys next time on Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Brewers.