Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Nolan Arenado Gives His Opinion On The Cardinals New Direction

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

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Nolan Aronado is back, and he spoke with the media this weekend about the offseason and gave his opinion on the Cardinals' new direction. You are Locked-on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Lopton Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, there are Cardinals. I'm J.D. Haffertan, and I am your host for Locked on Cardinals, part of the Lockedon Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on X at J.D. Sports Radio. You can also follow the podcast at Allo underscore Cardinals.

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if your first $5 bet wins. Download the app or head to Pandol.com to get started. Week two of spring training begins. Pitchers and catchers already there. Position players are here. And the big news over the weekend was the arrival of Star 3rd Baseman Nolan Aronado to camp. Now, most people myself included didn't think this was going to happen. I really didn't.

I just figured he would inevitably be moved this off-season to free up space on the payroll and the roster. But alas, no deals were able to be made. And Nolan Aronado is now at camp in Jupiter, Florida. Now, the, I don't know what the word to say, the narrative. I guess that I was somebody who wanted Nolan Arnautta trade it. I've seen that pop up a couple of times. That's not true at all. I don't know where you get that idea from.

That is not what I wanted to happen. That was the Cardinals plan, though. That was what they wanted to get done. They were not shy about this whatsoever. That the priority, again, one, two, and three was to trade Nolan Aronado. But it didn't happen. But I was on board with the idea. If that's the route they wanted to go, I was okay with it.

I had accepted that. It didn't work out. Didn't happen. And no one spoke with the media on Sunday about what was certainly a strange offseason for both him and the team. And I'm going to paraphrase a little bit here. So they're not direct quotes, but you're going to get the gist of it. But he said there's been a lot going on, a lot of truths out there.

Some lies out there. He tries not to get caught up in that too much and just focused on getting ready for the season. There was the possibility of him getting traded and a possibility of coming back and he's back and ready to go play ball. He's excited to see the boys. He said he feels good to be in Florida. Talked about how, you know, switching from West Coast down to East Coast time was

messing with him, but he's excited to get back to work. Just from his opening statements, it didn't appear to me at least that he's got any ill will towards the team or Mo. Does he seem a bit disappointed that something didn't get done? Sure. But I never expected him if he was going to have to end up coming to camp and reporting to sulk about anything. I didn't know when I was asking about stuff like that, whether or not, you know, if things were still going to be discussed that he was still in trade talks,

would he still want to report just to be possibly shipped away later? That's what I always said. It was like, you know, if you're Aronado and you're still actively being shopped and you think you might be traded still. Would you still want to report to camp? Or would you just wait until things played out. Clearly, you know, Mo came out and said that, hey, you know, we expect Arnaudo to be a part of this team now. You know, we've exhausted all of these other options. You know, one thing that obviously still bothers Arnaud, is the direction of the team. And yeah, he's not going to sit there and go, well, this sucks, man, I don't want to do this. But, you know, when they asked him about the Cardinals plans to, you know, what do you think about the direction of the team?

He spoke about it, says, yeah, do I wish the direction was all in? Of course, but is this what's probably best for the Cardinals? Probably. I think they do need to reshape some things here and do some things. But at the end of the day, I'm a ball player. I'm a Cardinal until I'm told I'm not, which sounds like a guy that just kind of understands the business side of what is happening with this team, which apparently is no longer being called a reset, but is now being called a transition.

instead. They're switching up the lingo, which is certainly more accurate to what has transpired this offseason. So we can put that word reset to bed, basically. And per usual, Arnaano, he didn't point fingers at anyone but himself saying that, you know, he's focused on being a better player than he was last year. And it said there's no excuse for it. If I was a better player last year, maybe things would be a little different. Maybe so, you know, if Paul Goldsmith was better last year. Would we be still having these conversations? Would Goldie be a member of the Yankees instead of of being a member of the Cardinals? We all thought that they would eventually sign Goldie to an extension and they decided out to. They decided to pivot. They did the anti-cardinal thing. The easy thing would

have been to just bring them back. They decided not to. And one of the things that I picked up on during Aronado's time in St. Louis is just how hard he is on himself. You know, every play, every pitch. He's just so focused and he expects so much of himself that when things aren't going well, there's nobody more upset about it than him, about his own performance than Arnado. Like, he's, he's so hard on himself. And sometimes maybe that's is to his own detriment, you know, in a game where failure is the norm. You're going to fail a lot more than you succeed in the game of baseball. And if you're a perfectionist like no one is and you're very hard on yourself like no one is mentally that's got to be extremely taxing. I'm a very laid back kind of guy. If something doesn't go right,

I'm one of those dudes that just kind of we'll get them next time where other people are different and they focus on the bad that just happen and they can't get over it. So it's got to be tough. It's got to be tough for Nolan Aronado at this point in his career. You know, the organization is deciding not to go chase expensive free agents and stuff. Instead, they're going to stick with the guys that they got. He's at the point of his career, too, where things are starting to go down. You know, you're seeing the power drop. You're seeing the offense drop. You've seen even the defense has declined a little bit. You know, he's, he's getting older. It is happening. But it's something that he's going to have to get over. Really, I mean, there's no other way to

really say it. He's just going to have to deal with it. And, you know, the, off season. He spoke about the situation a little bit, same than the Cardinals. You know, they told them about this direction that they're going in. And he said he asked them to explore some things. Nothing was demanded. He made that known. Nothing was demanded. And he was told that that was something they were interested in doing also. And he said basically that was it. He said there were about five teams. He didn't want to name the teams because it didn't really matter anymore. And he kind of, you know, laughed about it. But he said there were five or so teams that he was interested in playing for. He talked about, you know, moving his family at this point in his career

and stuff. You know, it had to be something that made sense for him. But he did say, I think the one thing about me is this place, talking about the Cardinals, is very comfortable. And that's going to help me get ready for the season. He said, I'm in the right place. I feel ready. I feel I have a lot to prove. I'm very excited to take the field, which is great. You know, you like seeing a guy who's a, you know, a little chip on his shoulder, a little something to prove. But in the couple of minutes that He spoke with the media. He, he seemed like a guy who is kind of upset about people talking about his decline. And, you know, he he doesn't like that, clearly. I mean, it's got to bug him. Somebody who's been at the top of the mountain at third base for so long and for people starting to doubt you, it's got to, it's got to piss you off a little bit. I would think that a player of his stature might feel a bit slighted by the lack of interest in him. from the teams that he was willing to go to. Now, we don't know the specifics.

Like, that stuff has never come out yet. Probably never will. But, you know, why weren't any deals ever made? You know, the only one we ever heard about was Houston, that there was something in place. There were rumors that, you know, if Bregman didn't go to Boston, the Cardinals in Boston might have had something cooked up already. I don't know.

I don't know if that's true or not. But why were there no deals done? You know, was it the country? Cardinals asking too much in return or just not willing to pay more. Were the other teams just not that interested? We don't really know. We don't know. And likely we'll never know.

But the bottom line is he's in a cardinal uniform. He's a member of the St. Louis Cardinals and says that he's ready to rock. You know, he said his body feels good. Talked about doing a lot of weight training this off season, how we actually lost some weight as well. Said he's ready to play a lot this spring. And mentally, at least to me, he seems ready to prove some people wrong. and is ready to put this whole thing behind him. I don't think he wants to talk about it anymore

and just get back to where he's the most comfortable, which is certainly not in front of cameras and in front of microphones talking about himself and talking about off-the-field things to the media. His most comfortable spot is between the lines, playing ball, and in that batters box. And that's where we're going to see more of Nolan Aronado here in the future.

I saw some footage earlier today from guys who were at camp, him taking swings against people. Looks good. He's taking pitches to the opposite field, something that we saw him do a lot more of last year. Again, that's one of the things why I feel like his power numbers. I know that they're down, but that's where he's getting pitched now.

And, you know, he's doing what he needs to do by taking it to the opposite field. So I would assume he's going to see a lot of that again this year. But the real question is, does Nolan Aranano's return to this team? Does it actually make it better? Or is it holding the? the team back from being better by letting other people play. We're going to tackle that question next on Lockdown Cardinals. In sports, having a winning strategy is everything.

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TikTok, I'll figure it out. how we get to talk to each other. I don't know. I have not done a whole lot of TikToking in my life. That's that's my wife's world. And she's going to have teach me about this TikTok stuff a little more. But just know that your feedback is always welcome and encourage we will get to some fan feedback in segment three. First off, let's talk about the Cardinals. Are they a better team with Nolan Aronado? Yes. Yes, they are. People who think they aren't, I don't see how you can feel that way. Now, does the return of No-Anon Aronado hold the Cardinals back from doing things differently this year than they originally hoped? Yes.

Does it slow down the progression of some players to become Major League players? Yes, it's true. But I've said this before. I think the front office, they anticipated when it all came down that they're like, all going to do this reset thing. I know, we're not supposed to say that word anymore, but I got to take you back a little bit. I believe that the front office anticipated that veterans like Aronado, Sunny Gray, Wilson Contreras, that they were going to be more open to playing elsewhere.

I think they just kind of assumed that, all right, so we're going to do this. You want to go somewhere. We got you. We'll help you out. We understand that, you know, you came here to win a championship. We don't feel like we're there yet. And we need to do this to get to that point. Maybe not this year, but, you know, down the road.

The Cardinals seem prepared to go that. route. You know, they decided like, it's okay. We can take a year where this is what it is, but we got to do it to get to where we want to be. And it didn't work. You know, removing all three guys, those three specifically, Arnato, Sunny Gray, Wilson Contreras, along with the free agent departures of Paul Goldschmidt, Andrew Kittridge, Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn, you know, that would leave quite a few holes in the roster that they weren't going to fill by going out. out in signing expensive free agents. But instead, they were going to fill them with guys from within who just may not

have much of a track record at the major league level yet. I mean, no sunny would mean you would have your rotation, if it was today, would be Eric Fetty as your number one. I mean, I guess, Michaelis, Matt's, Palante, McGreevy. Sounds a lot better when you got Sunny Gray at the top of that, right? You remove Contreras and you'd still have the catching duel of Yvonne Herrera and Pedro But at first base, it's Alec Berluson and Luke and Baker. Sounds and looks a lot better with Willie's bad in the lineup, doesn't it?

So when Willie and Sunny decided to stay, it really changed some things because now you're not preparing for the drop-off in production that you were expecting to see. Where you're like, we're taking these guys out of our starting rotation. We're taking this guy out of our starting lineup, you know, our number three or number three. four hitter on most days. Caught up in a court here underneath my desk. Sorry. You take them out and obviously things are going to go down probably, right? And we don't talk about these guys is that they're just mediocre players because

Wilson, Ketraeus and Sunny Gray are not. And neither is Nolan or Anato. You know, MLB Top 100. They put their list out. They had Contraris at 86, Nolan Aronado at 95. grade in crack the top 100, which surprised me. He's one year removed from finishing second in the Sy Young. And this past year, first time in a cardinal uniform, a little bit of, you know, transition there, eighth in the league and strikeouts, not the national league. I'm talking about

major league baseball. He was eighth in strikeouts, 13th and whip, and tied for fifth and wins, but not a top 100 player in the league. Okay. The only other cardal to crack his out 100 was Mason when who came in at number 94. Ryan Housley, who was the NL closer of the year and was really freaking good the year before too. Didn't make it. Didn't make it. But Mason Miller of the A's,

David Williams of the Yankees made it. Paul Goldschmidt was number 96. If that tells you anything, after the season we just saw him have in St. Louis. He was still number 96. So now you've got Grayback. You got Willie back. You got all.

Arnato back at third where if he was gone, you presumably would have had Nolan Gorman playing most of the time at third base. I've been a big proponent of Gorman. A lot of people have given me flack about this. They're like, oh, you do not know what you're talking about. You're an idiot. Gorman sucks. I've been a big proponent, though.

I have not given up on Nolan Gorman. But who would you rather have in the lineup every day playing third base? Nolan Arnado, right? Wouldn't you? This is a better team with Nolan Arnado. win the line of because we know who he is. We know what he is. Okay. We still aren't sure exactly what Nolan Gorman is going to be. The power elite. We know that. Everybody knows that. Everybody sees it. Undeniable. Watch of strikeouts. We don't really know about his glove either yet.

At third base, Arnado's resume speaks for itself, right? So if you went into opening day, let's remove all three of those guys from your lineup. you go into opening day. It would have been, what, Newton left, Siani in center probably, Walker and right, Gorman at third, went it short, Donnie at second, Burleson at first base, and Herrera catching. Eric Fetty is your opening day starter? Or Michaelis again, if you wanted to do that. I'd understand if that was the best you could put out on the field,

why you would have low expectations coming into 2025. I would totally understand that. I'd understand those who think that the Cardinals had enough question marks to finish in last place in the division. Even below the Pirate, some people still think that, even with the lineup that they're going to produce. But because of so many unknowns, I could understand why you'd be like, well, I don't know what the heck they can do. I get it. But you bring those three Vatirons back into your lineup. Contreras and Aranato become the meat of your order.

Sunny Gray goes back to the top of your rotation and things look a whole lot better. It's going to likely cost guys like Siani, Thomas U.JC, Victor Scott, some playing time or even spots on the roster initially. But I believe you're a much better team on opening day with Nolan Aronado in that lineup every day, starting at third base with Willie, with Sonny. And I know I'm going to catch hell for this and be called a homer, but I am cautiously optimistic that the team you have now, when healthy, because who knows.

When health goes, I mean, anything going to happen to you. But right now, cautiously optimistic, I don't see why they can't win 83 games again this upcoming season, if not more. You give me a full year of Contreras being the type of hitter he's been in his first two years in a cardinal uniform, which has been very, very quick. That's going to make a world of difference. You give me a motivated Nolan Aronado,

to be better than he was last year, at least. that's huge. You get significant progression from Walker and Gorman, which is obviously a huge F. I understand that, but it's not out of the question that they won't be better. You get Walker doing the things he was doing that first year as opposed to what he did last year,

more consistent Nolan Gorman. Herrera's bad in the lineup more than not. Didn't get a whole lot of offense last year if it wasn't Herrera catching. Mason win, hopefully getting better in year two. even if he stays the course and is just kind of where he was last year, pretty good. Donnie being Donnie, staying healthy again, you know, the elbow injury the year before. Can't have something like that happened, but normally, solid guy, right?

Newt staying healthy, another big question mark. But if he does go down as your center fielder, your offense is going to take a hit, but you still got some good defensive gloves that you put out there in Michael Ciani, maybe Victor Scott this year. pitching staff, Sunny being sunny. Will Eric Fetty build on what was a solid 2024 season, his first year back in the States? Michaelis, he's got something to prove after two down years.

Two years ago, he's an all-star, the last two years, been one of the most titable pitchers in Major League Baseball. You know, there was an article. Was it dent in the talk to him? I hate to give credit to the wrong person. So one of them talked to him about, you know, what's your biggest thing? He's like, I got to, you know,

put people away with two strikes. He's like, it's been a problem my whole career. I got to quit throwing as many strikes when I'm ahead in the count, something he's going to work on. Andre Palonte and McGreevy offer some hope as young arms with upside. Can they get better? Can Stephen Mats be the most effective for the team? Like, what is that role? It makes him the most effective for this team and keeps him the healthiest. Because when he's out there, he can be effective. But it's a big question, Mark. How do you keep them out there?

The bullpen, a lot of arms competing for a lot of spots in that bullpen, but you've got the strong nucleus with Ryan Helsley, Jojo Romero, Matthew Libertor, Ryan Fernandez, who surprised a lot of people last year as that Rule 5 guy. Will he continue to be really good? Will he get better? We'll get worse. I just, I don't hate this roster that the Cardinals have.

Nothing about it is sexy. I know that. There's not like one superstar. of it, you're like, oh my gosh, can't wait to see him each and every day. Mason wins the closest thing I feel like at this point that you have something like that, but you still have some really good players that are on this team. Do they have a lower ceiling than you'd like? For sure, for sure. But the floor isn't nearly as bad with Nolan Aronado coming back along with Sunny and Willie. So they're a better team. They just are. And,

guys with something to prove and being doubted, find a way to step their game up a little bit. I'm hoping that happens with a lot of these guys. We're going to hit some fan feedback next, talking about the return of Nolan Aronado. Some people like it. Some people not so much. We'll do that next on Locked on Cardinals.

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He recently just talked about this whole St. Louis Cardo, Nolan Aronado situation. You can find locked on MLB on YouTube and wherever you listen to your podcast. Time for the fan feedback where we answer your questions, we discuss your comments. And today we're going to focus on the return of Nolan Aronado and how people are feeling about it. Timothy Williams says, who wants to see Gorman make 25 errors at third base, hit two 10, 22 home runs, and 185Ks. No thanks. Screw the duets. I still enjoy seeing Aronado at third.

All right. Well, screw the duets. I don't know what I... Your opinion, you can say that if you want to. But to my point earlier, the unknown with Gorman is a little frightening, isn't it? You know, we know what we think he can be. And I've always said to me a... My ceiling for no one Gorman is...

is a Max Muncie type of guy. You know, a 230 type of hitter. He's going to strike out around 150 something times in a year, but give you 34 home runs, 95 RBIs, give you that OPS plus of 123, which is what Max Muncie's is, his average in over 162 games, 123.

That's where I think he can get. Now the floor, or that's scary because we've seen it a couple of times in his stints at the major leagues where he's more like, you know, Oakland Zach Gelloff like last year where he hit like 21, 17 deers, 49 RBIs, and 188 strikeouts. That's the Gorman we don't want. That's what we don't want. And if you hand him the everyday third base job, how will he even be at the hot corner? You know, can you live with the drop off and defense compared to what? what we've seen from Nolan Aronado over the last few years.

You know, that might be the toughest pill for fans to swallow is also watching him try to play defense because he's yet to show us that he's that great with the glove either. Like, all right. You know, it's not like you watch him and you're just like, oh, this guy has no clue what he's doing out there. It's just that it's been tough, you know, because he transitioned from third to second. So I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. he's just learning kind of the way Jordan Walker just started learning the outfield two years ago. But it's just handing him the keys to third base. You know, it's a little scary because you're just not sure.

At least I'm not. Andy Ihausen says, I honestly hope Nolan gets a standing ovation on opening day. He's had multiple chances to get off this team. And he wants to stay. Good for him. Yeah, I mean, I don't see why the fans would be mad at Nolan Aronado by any means. In fact, most of the people that I've talked to and seen the comments online didn't want him to go in the first place. They love Nolan Aronado.

They think he's a great guy, a great player, obviously, going through a tough couple seasons. But, you know, a lot of people still believe in him. And, you know, your point about him wanting to stay, you know, this is something that's been brought up a lot. I know Derek Gould over at the Post Dispatch, and SCLTay.com has pointed out repeatedly. that, you know, he wanted the trade to St. Louis from Colorado, asked to be here, wanted to be here, didn't take his opt-outs when he could have, vetoed the deal to Houston, has done everything he can to stay in St. Louis. It's like he's had these chances to get out if he didn't want to be here and didn't like it here. Clearly, that's not the issue. It's not. He likes St. Louis. He likes the

Cardinals. He's just disappointed, I would think, that instead of, you know, splurging to go get some immediate at help like some other teams have, that they're, you know, they're looking at the long-term needs for this franchise instead, which is smart on the cardinal side. It's just got to be a little disappointing for, you know, veteran players. Like he said, in his time with the media on Sunday, you know, if he's better and is more like himself, a more normal Nolan Arnato season, than what we saw in 2024, that that's a big boost to the team. And he can make any team better. You know, obviously it's going to make the Cardinals better if he's better. Father Time might have something to say about that.

That's the only thing. It's the one thing you just can't beat unless you're cheating with PEDs. But we know he's done everything he can during this offseason. He talked about it, the weightlifting, the losing weight, taking some martial arts classes or something, working on his explosiveness. He's got a new voice as his hitting coach in Brant Brown. the pieces are in place to try and make him have a better year. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens.

It's not like it's not a lack of effort. Dennis Smith says, I'm not upset. He and his family loves St. Louis. He's not going to get a ring in St. Louis. But spring training could change that or when the season is in swing, it might change. Can't blame him for not wanting to go to Houston.

Adam Black says, like you said, in no way are the Cardinals better without our not on the left side of this infield is solid. a cannon at third and shortstop is a plus. I mean, that's a great left side of the infield. You know, back in the, back in the good old age, when we had Ozzy and Terry Pendleton, you know, Ken Oberg fell over at third base. But I specifically remember the infield with Tommy Hurts second and Ozzy at short and Terry Pendleton at third.

And you're just like, this was awesome. This was awesome to have a defense like that on the infield. So it's going to make a big difference. It makes a big difference. If you can keep the ball in the yard and you got those two on the left side over there. Now, well, Wilson Contreras being good at first base, you know, saving a few runs. Because Goldie, I feel like he was really underrated. Even though he's won a couple gold gloves in his career, I feel like he was very underrated as a defensive first baseman for the Cardinals while he was in a Cardinal uniform.

Like, I loved watching him over at first base. It's very, very dependable. So hopefully Wilson will be okay, but we just don't know. We don't know yet. Bayo 2728 says sad if he stays, Gorman will finally have a decent hitting coach and won't see much playing time. Never seen an organization ruined so many players. Walker's in the same boat, but at least he's going to get the play. I would imagine C. and others will have the same happen to them.

Just trade Gorman now. Let the kid have a chance elsewhere. I mean, Gorman's had chances. This is going to be his third year. It's not like they haven't given them opportunity. to show what he can do. And he is going to get chances this year. He's going to play second and he's going to D.H.

And he's probably going to play some third, I'm guessing. I know we like the bag on the Cardinals for the lack of prospect development and ripally so when you've seen the outcomes for some of these guys like, you know, and Alex Reyes, he couldn't stay healthy, Dylan Carlson. He just never could get it together and stay healthy. Trading guys away who end up going and flourishing elsewhere. I get it. I've been right there with you making fun of them about this stuff.

but trading Nolan Gorman right now doesn't make any sense. Very little sense because the stock on Nolan Gorman is not high. You'd be selling low and that's bad business. Would it be in Gorman's best interest to be somewhere else? Maybe, maybe, but that's not his call. And if Bram Brown can turn him around and his bat becomes a force again, he's got to see the field. They're not going to not play him if he's slugging in doing things that we,

think he can do and then he's capable of doing. They're not going to bench him. They're not trying to lose. They want him to succeed. They want Walker to succeed. It makes them look good if it works out. They need both of these guys to live up to expectations this year. And a guy like Cajee, you know, he's just going to have to wait for something else to open up. Just the way it is. And even if they traded R and out of, it didn't guarantee that Cajie was going to get a starting job by any means because I'm guessing Donovan would have become your everyday second baseman. Gorman goes to third. So it really wouldn't have opened up a path for Sejcall as much as it would for

Siani and Scott in center because Newt would slide to left and then you would have the opening and center field for those guys. So Jacy would still be, you know, a platoon player. It wasn't like he was going to take over the second base job. Would you have another opportunity to do that? Sure, sure. Maybe it would have gotten more bats to do that. but you've got Helman on the 40-man roster right now.

So he can be your Tommy Edmund type guy who I'm not saying as good as Tommy Edmund, don't get me wrong, but can fill in it shortstop. He can play on the infield. He can play in the outfield. So there's not a need for C.J.C. to be on this opening day roster when everybody's healthy. But that's just me. Maybe you disagree. Before we end things, some news and notes for McCartle Paul DeYoung, found another job.

It's going to be with Washington Nationals this year. and some bad news for the Mets. Pitch of Frankie Montas has a high-grade lat strain and will be shut down for six to eight weeks and then we'll need an entire spring training type of time frame to rev things back up to be a part of their rotation. So kind of a big blow for the Mets who I don't, I hate to say I told you so, but I have told people to stay clear of Frankie Montas for a long time, many, many years. And I, I, I, continue to be proved right that I just it is what it is man sorry you wasted your money more proof that just starting pitching debt is so crucial in this league and good news for the

cardinals as of today I haven't heard anything but everybody's healthy so that's uh that's good all right thanks for making lockdown cartels for first listen every day if you haven't already please give us a follow on exit L0 underscore cardinals at a jdney sports radio ticot at lock down cardinals uh plus like and subscribe on YouTube, help our channel in love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We'll see you tomorrow on lockdown Cardinals.