Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - LOCKDOWN: Dobbins & Cardinals’ Staff SHUTS DOWN Angels, JJ Wetherholt HOMERS in Tight Battle

Starting point is 00:00:00 The St. Louis Cardinals win the final battle, but the angels win the war slash the series. This is a Locked on Cardinals, Locked on Angels crossover. You are a locked on MLB crossover, part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Hey there, baseball fans. I'm J.D. Haffron, host of Lockedong Cardinals. Joining me is my brother from another mother and one half of the Super Halo brothers, John Frisch from Locked on Angels, his co-host and real life, brother. That's the cool thing to call him.

Starting point is 00:00:41 Mike could not be with us today, a little bit under the weather. So we're wishing him a speedy recovery, obviously. So it is the dynamic duo, John. It's me and you from our MLB game night days. We're back, baby. A time in our lives where, you know, some people called us the next Dan Patrick and Keith Oberman. I don't know if you heard that.

Starting point is 00:00:59 I did. Yeah, they still do. Yeah, yeah. I would be. And, I mean, I think we're better looking. that I digress. Today's episode brought to you by O-Doo. Great organizations win because operations matter,

Starting point is 00:01:11 and that's why you should get O-D-O-D-D-D-D-D-com slash Locked-on. That's O-D-O-O-O-com slash locked-on. All right, welcome into this locked-on crossover between the Cardinals and the Angels. The series had two very exciting finishes, and one game that was really kind of decided in the first inning, honestly.

Starting point is 00:01:31 But because the Angels won, I do want to draw attention to what it is I'm wearing on the video side. Look at that. I got the black version of the Super Halo Brothers T-shirt and bow down in the greatness that is the angels, you and your brother and interim GM, John Moseilock. You guys are an incredible organization now as you take the Cardinals to the woodshed and beat them two out of three. Also, speaking of things that you're wearing, you've got the throw.

Starting point is 00:02:03 back hat on that you're sporting, which, uh, yeah, your jerk team wore those the whole series and made the Cardinals wear their weirdo red hats on the road, which I don't like. I like where were the powder blues, man. That's what we wanted to see. The old school angels versus the old school powder blues. I know you guys have those in the rotation. Yeah, those would have been cool. They only wear them on Saturday away games, although this upcoming weekend, they're having a

Starting point is 00:02:30 special night where they're giving away what the jerseys is like the the gate giveaway and uh they're going to wear the blues that night at home against the red so it's like the only time they're going to this year but yeah but that that i think that threw people off and that's why the cardinals sucked in this series but it sounds like it sounds like it's your fault in all honesty it might be it might be but let's begin with this final game real quick uh it's the uh latest one that that took place in anaheim on wednesday uh pitching match I've had Hunter Dobbins for the Cardinals, Redetmer's for the Angels. Both offenses decided, you know what?

Starting point is 00:03:06 Let's kind of take the day off. We don't need to do anything. Not much offense on either side. Cardinals taking one to nothing but are actually out hit by the Angels, seven to three, but it's the Cardinals getting the lone run of the game on a solo shot by NL rookie of the year candidate J.J. Weatherholt in the sixth inning. We had a little bit of drama on the ninth inning per usual, which is normal for cardinal fans.

Starting point is 00:03:28 But let's begin with the start. John. Let's talk about your guy first. What did you see? What did you like from Reed Detmer's today against the St. Louis Carters? I mean, man, it's the, it's the one mistake as he's cruising through this game and even, you know, battling through some, some longer at bats, right? But, you know, you go back and look at his VLO and it was sitting about 92 in that sixth inning. And that's when he got yanked. But man, I got to tell you, that's the second time in a row that he's been taken out of the game around 85 pitches. You know, we have not been huge fans of Kurt Suzuki in Anaheim.

Starting point is 00:04:05 And, you know, I can understand the rationale behind taking him out of that game when they did. At the same time, he's one of the top trade targets across baseball, him and Jose Soriano, and you got to see why in person, live and in person, right, this week and the series between the angels and the cards. And so, you know, maybe there's a little bit of like, hey, we're not going to exhaust you on this, you know, 95 degree day out here. And we'll take you out and kind of preserve you for the next team that comes a call. And I know we'll talk about trade deadline here in a second.

Starting point is 00:04:37 But in all honesty, this was one of the better Demmer starts. And it's been what he's been doing so well consistently all through this season. We talked a lot about how he went into the bullpen last year because there wasn't a skill issue. It was kind of a mental skill issue. It was a mental thing where he just wasn't. in attack mode. He was afraid to use his best stuff. He just wouldn't go for the swing and miss. He'd get ahead of counts and then he'd fall behind and then he end up walking a guy. And I think, you know, in terms of seeing the Dutmers that you got today or yesterday against

Starting point is 00:05:12 the Cardinals, that's the, that's the version that he's been most of the time this season. Just looks like a totally different dude after, I don't know, learning how to attack in the bullpen because you can throw your best stuff and you can throw it as hard as you want. and then he moved back to the rotation and this is the result of that. So good stuff. A mistake to JJ Weatherholt, that could happen to anybody, right? So that's really all it came down to in this one. Yeah, we don't usually bury anybody for one bad pitch.

Starting point is 00:05:41 And, you know, give credit to JJ, too. Got a good wood on the ball there, took good swing and knocked it over the wall in a day where there wasn't a lot of offense going on. Yeah, you mentioned that he got pulled and wasn't exactly thrilled about it. I can tell you this on our side of things for the car. where, yeah, we were glad to see Detmer's get out of the game, although we didn't do anything against anybody else anyway. But at the same time, the Cardinals for the last couple years have had one of the healthiest rotations in baseball. It's been oddly healthy where they haven't had a lot of issues.

Starting point is 00:06:11 And that's kind of normal for them is to pull dudes around 85, 90 pitches, which is why their bullpen might be exhausted right now and hasn't been very good because you put a lot of pressure on them. but at the same time, if, you know, if the idea maybe is preserving Detmer's for the next couple of weeks so that he is healthy in case he does get moved, that would make a whole lot of sense. But, you know, as a competitor, you can see why Reid was upset. I mean, it was what the second he'd given up in the game. And it's one run and you're going to pull him. And he's like, what? And you don't want to leave those games. But on a business side of things, I kind of get it.

Starting point is 00:06:47 I kind of get it. On our side of things for the Cardinals, Sunder Navids. Yeah. Hunter Dobbins belongs in this rotation. If I, if I could say that, the issue for the Cardinals is not that Hunter Dobbins is a good enough. It's just there's not a spot for him yet. And you tease the fact that we are going to talk some trade deadline a little bit later. That's the key word is yet for him because he certainly earned it.

Starting point is 00:07:11 Solid again today. Six shutout innings, six hits against. Only one of them was an extra base hits. And that's kind of the motto for the Cardinals is you can live giving up singles. but as soon as you give up a bomb or you're giving up multiple extra base sits, that's when the trouble really hits. And when the Angels found holes, he was able to pitch around it. And they found plenty of them.

Starting point is 00:07:32 I mean, again, they had six sits against, but they were very sporadic. It wasn't like they got clumped together ever. So no walks, which obviously is huge. If you are going to give up singles, you can't be putting free guys on base. And the Cardinals didn't walk anybody. Dobbins didn't walk anybody. And the Cardinals themselves didn't do it until the last inning.

Starting point is 00:07:50 defense was solid behind him, which is something the Cardinals pride themselves in. So not a whole lot to complain about when it comes to pitching or defense for the Cardinals in this particular game. Offensively, I think we both have a lot that we can complain about. Not a lot got done here. I mentioned the six hits off Dobbins, but the Angels, they had only one hit after he left the game, although they made things pretty interesting in that ninth inning by taking a couple of those walks against Riley O'Brien, who continues to stress us out every single time he takes the mound. I don't have the stat in front of me, John, but one of the things,

Starting point is 00:08:24 I always am like, okay, if you're going to be a close, you got to have a lot of clean innings, right? You want to burn through your inning. You got to be that shut down. And he just doesn't do it. There's always somebody on base where he's walking a dude, hitting a dude, giving up hits. Like it is always something wild pitches after people get on base. Like it is stressful every single time he's out there.

Starting point is 00:08:44 But those were, again, the only two walks issued by St. Louis. Any takeaways for your offense and what the angels were doing at the plate or not doing against the Cardinals pitching staff on Wednesday? Honestly, I got to give credit to the Cardinals defense and even like Alec Burleson over there getting that double play, right? And that's just kind of what it felt like in this one. They were getting the hits off of Dobbins. But then even the ones that could have done some damage, they were getting snagged and, you know, people are getting doubled off and whatnot. And so I just, it was a tightly played ball game in all online. And I wasn't upset with, you know, the approach that the angels took at the plate.

Starting point is 00:09:21 One of the things that they've done better with recently is just putting the ball in play and not striking out so much. And I know Dobbins had his, his strikeouts. And I know that's how they went down against in the ninth inning as well. And so, yeah, at the end of the day, I think that it was just one of those tightly played ball games or one mistake was going to be the difference. And that's really what it came down to. but again, I give credit to the St. Louis defense because it just seemed like, oh, there's one. Oh, never mind. That was going to get down. Oh, never mind. That's really what it felt like watching this game.

Starting point is 00:09:57 Yeah, those are frustrating games when that's happening to you. Cardinals, you know, say similar things. There was a couple of times there where they look like, especially that Jose Fermin one that was down the line and left late in the game. And Grisham made a nice play over at third in turns to double play. And you're just like, my gosh, Carlisle's only end up with two more hits. in this game other than the weather hold home run singles by blaze jordan and mason when the offense has been struggling for about two weeks now uh all-star break didn't seem to help them at all and refresh them uh j j was bat and just he was under 150 since signing his extension back on july 10 so it was nice to see him get one out uh ivan herrera oafour's hit in one ninety six over his last 30 games jordan walker was o for four with two k's top of the order is the engine that gets this

Starting point is 00:10:43 offense going for St. Louis, and it's been stuck in neutral for a couple of weeks now, and it's just a really bad time to stall, considering where we are in the schedule as far as the deadline and playoffs going on. Three for 29 on the day, three walks, 10 more strikeouts, and somehow they win the game. That's ugly stuff, John. That's not normal. That's not the line you want. And somehow you pull up a victory, which is you got to feel good about that if you're a St. Louis person. First time, the Cardals won a game one, nothing. You're ready for this stat? with the only run coming on a home run by a lead-off hitter since Bernard Gilke's home run provided the game's only run in a win over the Montreal Expos in 1993.

Starting point is 00:11:22 Wow. Love it. Oh, Bernard. Yeah. Bernard. What a man's name, Bernard. All right. Up next, we're going to discuss what stood out to us from the overall series, a series,

Starting point is 00:11:33 which the Angels won. And we're going to do some trade deadline discussion. That's coming up on this Lockdown Cardinals, Locked on Angels crossover. running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that weren't ever designed to work together. You know, one app is for accounting, another for inventory, another one for sales. And somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where Odu comes in. Odo is an all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform,

Starting point is 00:12:09 from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing. Everything works in one place, which is going to help your team move faster, stay organized and focus on growing the business instead of, managing software. The best organizations know that success isn't just about talent. It's about having everyone working toward the same goal. And that's true in sports, just as it is in business. One thing that has stood out to me about the Cardinals this year is they're all pulling in the same direction with this reboot, this rebuild that they're going through right now. They are revamping player development. They hired more coaches, more scouts. They're building from within.

Starting point is 00:12:43 They know that's what it's going to take to sustain winning baseball for the long run. And so far it's working out. Great organizations win because operations matter. And that's why you should get O-D-O-D-O-D-com slash locked-on. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-com slash locked on. Thanks for making it, Locked on Cardinals, your first listen of the day. Thank you for making Locked on the number one sports podcast network. J.D.D. J.D. Haffern from Locked on Cardinals, John Frisch, from Locked on Angels with the crossover here. Cardinals won the battle on Wednesday. Angels win the series, though. Their first series win in the month of July, if I'm not from a mistake. If I'm not mistaken. That's right. John, so kudos to you guys.

Starting point is 00:13:31 Honestly, John, was this the best you've seen these guys play this year? Because just from an outsider looking in, pitching wise, defense wise, it sure did it look like a 60 lost team to me. You know, it's interesting. You got the three best pitchers the Angels have right now. And out of the All-Star break, they kind of move some things around. So Detmer's ended up being the first starter out of the break. And of course, you know, they're cycling through the rotation a second time,

Starting point is 00:13:57 with yesterday's game with Debtmer's at the top. But you got to see Soriano and you got to see Walbert-Irana. And you and I were texting during his start. And you were like, all right, I told you he was kind of under the radar. Like he started in the bullpen this year, had like two outings out of the bullpen, and then went back down to AAA, started down there again. And then came back up to be a starter when I believe it was, it was either Cacucci or Grayson Rodriguez who went on the IL.

Starting point is 00:14:25 and he's been electric, man. He's not going to get A.L. Rookie of the Year, but he certainly should be in the conversation, and maybe he'll get some, I don't know, some fifth place votes, because I know that there's a lot of great A.L. Rookie of the Year candidates around the American League, but the truth is, this guy has been awesome.

Starting point is 00:14:43 I don't know if they said this on your broadcast, but he had 16 pitches at triple digits all season long. And then he had 16 at triple digits in the first inning. on Tuesday night against the against the card so you just you got the best of the best in the rotation and honestly that's why a lot of angel fans including mike and myself are looking to move guys like detmer's and soriano they have two more years of control so they don't necessarily have to move them at the same time there's a lot of pitching starved playoff contenders out there who could use a detmers or a soriano and so for us seeing those guys go the angels kind of actually have a wealth of

Starting point is 00:15:25 good pitching prospects that they could turn to, which is surprising because the narrative is always the angels need pitching. But you really got the best of the best in the starting rotation right now. Greyrod has been, you know, often on the aisle throughout the year. And honestly, his first season back from, from, you know, his shoulder issues and his back issues, we figured this season was going to be a wash for him. They got him for three more years after this. And then, of course, with Soriano Deppmers and Arania that really was the trio that you had there.

Starting point is 00:15:59 But then also, you're right, like they were playing some really good ball defensively. They were, you know, putting together some stringing some stuff together. I know they got out to that huge lead on Tuesday and capped off by the Joe Adele two-run, home run. I call,

Starting point is 00:16:14 I teased with you. I said he's Jordan Walker 1.0. He was the guy everybody wanted to give up on. And now they're having great seasons, of course. Walker's been outstanding. We talked about this. This is no BS. John and I talked about this when Adele was having his breakout year last year where it started to come together for. And I'm like, man, if only our right field or Jordan Walker could be the next Joe Adele and become what we're seeing Joe Adele be last year. And lo and behold, here we are. And, you know, yeah,

Starting point is 00:16:43 Adele's baby regressed a little bit this year. But Jordan Walker has stepped up and been kind of like the Joe Adele 2.0. And I think both of us are kind of happy with what our right field looks like. right now totally and and the irony is that uh or maybe it's the uh the coincidence of it all joe is not short for for joseph it's it's actually jordan so you got jordan adele and jordan walker so there you go um but he's also somebody who is uh potentially going to be traded i mean he's got a year and a half left of control he's hitting lefties really well as he demonstrated on on tuesday night and uh yeah so there's there's a lot that to like about this angels team my i'm Mike and I talked about this yesterday on Lockdown Angels, and it's disappointing to see wins like they had in the first two games, and then they won against the tiger.

Starting point is 00:17:31 I'm sorry, not the tiger's on Sunday. And it's just like, man, this is what the team could be when they put it all together. But there's just not enough of that through the season. And then they dig themselves into such a huge grave, you know, like you said, 60 lost team and there are 20 games under 500 and all that stuff, that they start to click a little bit. but they start to be exciting, but it's just, it's way too much to dig themselves out of. And so that's, that's really what's disappointing is like, man, if you guys just did this for most of the year, you might be in a position to help yourselves. But a lot of the, a lot of the issues rest on the bullpen.

Starting point is 00:18:09 Of course, Kirby Yates in a non-safe situation, looks dazzling against the Cardinals yesterday. But every time he's had a safe situation, bro, he has just been a disaster more often than not. so yeah yeah uh yeah very much impressed with uh what you guys had uh in your starting rotation um yeah when you were talking about uh urania's start and what our guys were talking about and i was flipping back and forth i enjoyed whoever was on the angels broadcast you guys yeah it was pretty good i had no issues with that whatsoever it's uh wayne randazzo is the main guy and he does uh apple tv on friday nights he was also the one who got to call uh pool host's uh was 600th home run.

Starting point is 00:18:52 He hit 599 and 600 in the same night. Seven. Oh, sorry, seven. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. I'm shorting him a little bit. But yeah. 100 home run just shortened him, John.

Starting point is 00:19:03 Come on. And then Mark Goebus is, of course, who was an electric starting pitching for the Royals and won a World Series with them. So, yeah, they just, Goobie's been around forever for the Angels and Wayne Randazzo. It got awesome. Yeah. They got good chemistry. It was good.

Starting point is 00:19:19 and I like to do that. I like to jump over to other people and hear what they're saying about the Cardinals and whatnot. But when I was listening to the Cardinals side of that in that game for Urania, they were bringing up names like, and you're going to love this.

Starting point is 00:19:31 Like they were bringing up Sandy Alcantra. They were bringing up Paul Skeens, just about like what his stuff, how it compares to other people in the league. And they're like, that's where he is at, where his stuff, which is a stat now, how it compares to other people is like, those are who his name is among.

Starting point is 00:19:49 And then they were also bringing up Mizorowski with all the gas that he was coming with in that game. They're like, where did this come from? Where all of a sudden, everything's 100. Like this was crazy. So he was impressive. Detmer's good. Soriano good. I know our offenses have been struggling, but those three looked pretty darn good to me.

Starting point is 00:20:09 What's your biggest concern for the angels coming out of this series? For me, I mean, it's honestly, are they going to do the right thing at the trade deadline? And again, I know we'll talk more about that, segment three and John Loseilock and whatnot. But that's honestly it. It's, are they going to set themselves up for success? Because, you know, we're creeping up on that. And it's August 3rd when the deadline hits. And they have, this is a, there are some good players on this team.

Starting point is 00:20:41 Problem is, is that the angels will not be good again within the window of these guys being under contract. and they're not a good team with these guys, right? Like there's there's so much more to be done. You know, maybe it's the bullpen or maybe it's, you know, some, some more hitting. I know they're running out Nolan Seanwell, but he's, he doesn't have any left-handed thumb. I saw Vaughn Grisham back cleanup today and I almost crap myself. I was like, I was like, that that's not where you won Von Grisham hitting.

Starting point is 00:21:13 And I, I'm sorry, no offense to him, but he had not a cleanup hitter in Major League Base. Yeah. Well, and Salar, honestly, has not been great this season either. He started out really hot. And that's just, and then of course, he goes off against the, you know, the cards and does what he does this week in terms of driving in RBI and stuff. But, yeah, honestly, I guess what I'm most concerned with coming out of this series is, will the angels do the right thing? Because they, they put on a demonstration for why their pitchers ought to be dealt at the trade deadline. And Soriano and Detmer's really demonstrated that against the cards. I know we took two out of three and that's that's a whole lot of fun for us. But I know you guys are in the thick of a of a playoff race. And it's like I'd rather hurt somebody else's chances. I like the Cardinals. I don't want to hurt your guys's chances.

Starting point is 00:22:07 Don't be losing to the angels in a playoff race. Come on now. I told people you text me that the other day where you were like, you can't be losing us. And I'm like, what was my response? hold my beer watch right watch us go ahead lose two out of three to you yeah that's exactly what they did now I do have a positive take on what what we saw from the cardinals in this and again I don't want to keep saying well it's just the angels because it's still a majorly baseball team there's still good hitters in that lineup it's not just you know a bunch of no names that people

Starting point is 00:22:38 have never heard of I mean you got a mike trout and Joe Adele and you've got horace soler and you've got Zach Netto I mean these aren't bombs by any means but the angels I was I was impressed with the Cardinals pitching staff in this one, where the Angels only scored eight runs in this series and still took two out of three. And all eight happened in only three innings. You know, you got the home run by Adele off of Leahy on a hanger, which is what happens when you hang a pitch like that in the majors. Then the second in the ninth inning or the two in the ninth inning against Riley O'Brien,

Starting point is 00:23:10 where he just fell apart. You get five off of Libby in the first inning where they were smacking him around left and right, another hanger to Joe Adele. And then since that point, though, 17 straight scoreless settings after that, that's pretty good work for the pitching staff overall. One bad inning for Libby, one bad inning for O'Brien. But other than that, that's a positive thing in my eyes for Cardinals fans moving forward. All right, trade deadline discussion.

Starting point is 00:23:34 We're going to get into that next. What are the Angels parting with? What does John think that they should deserve in return? What about the Cardinals? Could they make a deal together and come together on something? We'll get into all of this coming up and these locked on Cardinals, locked on Angels crossover. A big thank you to our friends at Amazon for this limited break.

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Starting point is 00:24:55 Shop back to school at Amazon and spend less on your kids. Thanks again for making Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Angels. Your first listen of the day. Thank you for making Lockton on the number one sports podcast network. J.D. Haffer and John Frisch with you. Trade deadline, August 3rd, as John mentioned, these two teams are in very different spots right now. Although I think at the beginning of the season, most Cardinals fans thought that they would be

Starting point is 00:25:24 kind of where the angels are as far as record-wise about what their idea of what the trade deadline is going to look like. And the Cardinals are still hanging around. Like they're right there in the NL wildcard chase. So let's start with the Angels. And you mentioned they got this plethora of pitching that teams are going to want to get their hands on. You mentioned Detmer's.

Starting point is 00:25:45 You mentioned Soriano. Those are the big names that have been circle around rumor mills. You mentioned Joe Adele. I did not realize that they were thinking about moving him. Is there anybody else on the roster that you think other teams might be checking in with the Angels on. Yeah, they're listening on Zach Netto. And I know every team listens, right? Like you always listen to what people have to offer. But that's a, that's a big departure from where they were just a year ago and even three, two months ago

Starting point is 00:26:12 with, with Perry Manossian in charge. And that's because John Moseilock has come in to be the interim GM. J.D., I got to tell you. This guy? I'm sure we have plenty of pictures of Perry This guy? This guy? So if you're on video, you're seeing the picture, which is an infamous photo. It's somebody made years and years and years ago of John and his like it's his work picture. And then they turn him into a cloud. So that's his LinkedIn bio picture, right? But here's the thing. Mozo the clown is what they go. So that's great. The thing is, man, is like you could say the same thing.

Starting point is 00:26:55 And I'm sure everybody, you know, everybody who's a fan of their team will say stuff about their front office, right? Here's the thing. Like, John Moseilock came in and he feels like the adults in the room, right? Because for the last five years, all we've heard is like, well, the angels want to be competitive. We plan to compete this year and we plan to compete next year. We plan to compete, you know, in the offseason. It's just like, stop trying to gaslight us into saying that this team is something that they're not. And so for Moseilock to come in and be hired without Moseilok.

Starting point is 00:27:24 without much involvement from owner Artie Marino was kind of a breath of fresh air. And I'll tell you, he's the most experienced front office guy since the Angels had Bill Stoneman when they used to win in the early 2000s to the late 2000s. And so this is the most experienced guy that they've ever had.

Starting point is 00:27:45 Every GM after Stoneman was a new GM, first time GM who might have been an assistant somewhere else and whatnot. And so I just got to tell you. I know you've told me that like people say that he can be a politician, man, you have not heard a politician until you heard Perry Menassian speak about this Angels Club. So honestly, it's really refreshing to hear that they're actually considering a lot of what the future holds for the angels for the first time in about 15 years, honestly. And it's something that should have been done a long time ago. We always talk about Shohei Otani and how he could have been traded in 2023. A lot of those Padres that are, cooking right now. A lot of those Washington Nationals that are cooking right now, they could have been angels because they all would have come from the Padres in 23. And then you hear, you know, Junior Caminero and somebody else might have come over to the angels when there was two months

Starting point is 00:28:37 left of Shohei Otani under contract. And they still didn't do it. And so it's just, it's nice to have an adult in the room who is not afraid to hang on to players because they're under the illusion that they're going to be competitive this year and maybe even next year as well. And that's always been the problem with the Angels is we're going to be competitive. So I'm really excited to see what can happen at this deadline. I would I would sell the whole thing, but I know that's not always the realistic thing to do. But at the very least, if they move Soriano, Detmer's, one of those guys, I'll be much happier than if they if they do not, honestly. Yeah. And we we tease about Mosaic. The honest to God truth is he did a fantastic job while he was in St. Louis. And 95% of his

Starting point is 00:29:23 tenure was winning and it was awesome. And it's just the at the end of his era with the Cardinals, it left a bad taste in some people's mouths. Sure. Things were going. And that's just, you know, he'd probably still be here if things were going the way they wanted it to. But, you know, it was just time for a new voice. He'd been there for a quarter of a decade or for a quarter of a century. So it's like, you know, it was just kind of time to move on and move into different places and get some new voices in there. And And it's fine. And we wish John the best. And I, I hope he kills it for you guys. And I got a chance to hear him on the Angels broadcast during the, during the series as well. And he seems pretty happy. He's like, it's kind of fun living out here. You know, me like St. Louis and Anaheim totally different places. So, yeah, so we're wishing him the best. And, you know, hopefully he's taken some of the stuff that he's learned recently about being in that role and how things kind of, you know, soured here and. St. Louis, and hopefully he takes that, learns from it, and becomes a better executive for you guys

Starting point is 00:30:27 moving forward. As far as the Cardinals go, I think most of our fan base is still in cell mindset. I think a lot of us, like, we just, the thing is, we know in our hearts that this team is not good enough to win a championship. They might sneak into a wild card, but how far are we going, not too far? It would still be cool to make the playoffs, so it's not like, you know, Hein bloom's going to be selling off names that really means something, you know, like an Alec Berluson or something like that. Somebody who's not, you know, under an expensive long contract or anything. But the guys like, you know, Lars Neupar and some of our, like Dustin May is obviously

Starting point is 00:31:07 a name that has been kicked around a little bit. I don't know what their worth is, honestly, out there. That's what worries me is like, you know, Cardl's fans were like, oh, man, we should be getting all kinds of cool stuff. How good is Dustin May really? Like, yeah, he's had a few good games, but how good is he really in the grand scheme of Major League Baseball? ERA plus says he's below average. So that's a name.

Starting point is 00:31:31 Riley O'Brien has been a name. You get him to the All-Star game and then he does what he does. And he screws up that first game against the Angels. And then, you know, he almost blows it again on Wednesday. And there's just that aura of unknown with him when he comes into games. And again, some of these guys are. I mean, we keep thinking, Riley O'Brien's a closer for the Cardinals, but that doesn't mean he's going to be a closer for whoever trades to get him.

Starting point is 00:31:57 Like he could be a seventh inning dude for those guys. So it'll be interesting. Well, we'll see. We haven't had Heim Bloom have to make any trade deadline deals yet. You know, everything in the off season was unloading salary, right? It was Nolan Aronado and Wilson Catreras and Sunny Gray, who are all flourishing in other places right now. And the Cardinals got younger. They got cheaper.

Starting point is 00:32:18 And we'll see what he can do. We're just hoping that he continues to build and add onto this player development and this prospect pool that they've been able to put together, which, you know, shot up pretty high since High Bloom has been around. And especially since he's been in charge this last year with all those big trades, they've really replenished the prospects that they've got. And I think they're going to continue to do it that way. So can this team still win without a Dustin May and without a Riley O'Brien and a Joe Joe Romero? Absolutely. Absolutely. That's not the meat of your team. So I would encourage fans to get on board with this because it's what's best for the franchise moving forward.

Starting point is 00:33:01 Maybe not specifically for 2026, but moving forward. So that's what we got for the trade deadline. And that's what we got for this series. So once again, congratulations. Oh, yeah. I wear proudly the Super Halo brother's shirt. I told J.D. I said, you got to bust out the shirt.

Starting point is 00:33:17 And he said, all right, but you got to win the series first. So he lived up to his work. word, everybody. And it looks, it looks good on you, my friend. I like, I like the black with the graphic there. You can buy, we got a merch store. If you want to, uh, check it out and support, support the Halo Bros. You can certainly do that. As you should, as you should. It fits great. I love it. I love. I'm going to wear it to bed tonight. Think about that as you go to sleep tonight, me sleeping in your shirt with your face on my chest. We'll leave it at that. Thanks for making locked on cartels and lock on angels. You're first listed every day. If you haven't already, give us a

Starting point is 00:33:48 follow on X. We're available there, TikTok, Instagram. You can like, subscribe on YouTube and help our channels and our love for our teams grow for your second list and check out Locked on MLB Game Night where you can still find Josh, John doing his thing every game, every night until a World Series champion is crowd. Get local analysis on a national scale. You can find MLB Game Night on Locked on it. It'll be on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. As always, buddy, it's great to see you. Great to get to share a mic with you once again. And I don't know, we won't get to play each other again. this year, but we'll talk soon, okay, man.

Starting point is 00:34:20 Absolutely. It's always a pleasure hanging out with you, my friend.

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