Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Non Roster Invitee Pitchers To Keep An Eye On!

Starting point is 00:00:00 You know most of the starters and veterans at camp with the Cardinals. But how about some of the non-roster invitees that are in Jupiter? Today we're going to talk about some of the guys with the really weird numbers on the backs of their jerseys. That's today on 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, Cardinals fans. I'm Jady Haffern and I'm a national radio sports anchor born and raised in the

Starting point is 00:00:40 Lou and a lifetime Cardinals fan. And I'm your host for Locked on Cardinals. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Follow me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio, the podcast available at L0 underscore Cardinals. I want to thank those of you who make Lockedong Cardinals your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. And if you found us on YouTube, welcome. Be sure to like and subscribe.

Starting point is 00:01:01 If you haven't done that already, make sure you comments. You're interacting with us and being a point. So you can be a part of the show, really is the whole idea of it. I want to get your thoughts and ideas and share. them with the group, share them with the class. Be sure to hit the notification button that way you're not left out when the new episodes are posted. This is a show serving Cardle Nation and giving the best fans of baseball, all of the info

Starting point is 00:01:21 about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by Fandual. Make every moment more. New customers, you join today and you'll get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet of just $5 wins. All you got to do is visit fandle.com slash locked on to get started, but first bet $5 or more. It's not just $5. You can also put in more if you want to.

Starting point is 00:01:42 And you win, boom, $150 in bonus bets coming to you. Again, fandal.com slash lockdown to get started. Cardinals Camp has already gotten started. It's already buzzing with pitchers and catchers and attendance in the first full squad of workout coming up on Monday the 19th. Now, the casual fan knows the big names on the roster. I got a couple of the uniforms in the back there. One Paul Goldschmidt, one Nolan Aronado, Wilson Contreras, Sunny Gray,

Starting point is 00:02:09 Miles Michael. You know these guys, right? The next level of fan is more familiar with not just those guys, but also Tommy Edmund, Freda Donovan, Lars Newport, Noah Gorman, Ryan Helsley, Dylan Carlson, Giovanni Gallegos, Jordan Walker, you know the drill. You know what level I'm talking about. Then you go up another level and you've got fans who are familiar with rookie Mason win or Yvonne Herrera, Matthew Libertor, Zach Thompson, plus newcomers like Andrew Kittridge. Keenan Middleton, and probably also familiar with other bullpen arms like Andre Palante, John King, and then you've got the elite level, the locked on Cardinals type of fan that listen to podcasts every day like this, which is why you're here, and are in tune with pretty much everything that is going on with the team, day in, day out, you know them. So going on and on and on about the meat and potatoes of the team, can sometimes get a little dull, right? So how about we dig in to some other people maybe that you're not quite as familiar with,

Starting point is 00:03:17 even the elite level people, okay? This is going to be a learning thing for everybody involved. I mean, how many times do you want to hear that the Cardinals targeted pitching this offseason and picked up innings eaters and guys who wanted to be in St. Louis, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you've heard me say it a billion times. Got a bunch of a variety of veterans who have, been here before like Lenin Carpenter and some who always wanted to be here like, you know, Sunny Gray and Kyle Gibson, you know, I don't want to continue to repeat myself

Starting point is 00:03:47 over and over and over, even though new audience, new day all the time. But instead, I want to switch things up today and talk about some of the non-raster invitees who will be at camp this year, the guys who are going to be wearing the weird numbers, like I said, of the intro, like number 84 on the back of their jersey, which is, by the way, former first round pick, Cooper Jerpy, who's going to be rocking the 84 at camp this year. But just because you don't know them well yet, you're still going to see plenty of them during spring training. You're going to hear about them during spring training. And odds are one or two of them are eventually going to make their way onto the major league roster at some point. And just think how cool you'll feel when you're

Starting point is 00:04:26 already familiar with these guys' names and their backgrounds. And, you know, you can tell the rest of the family, like, who is that guy? And you'll be like, I know, I know the answer to that. You know Because Locktown Cardinals and JD helped me out with that. So friend of the show, Daniel Guerrero, also going to help us along here from STLt Today.com and the post dispatch. He recently unleashed an article which went over all of these names, all of the non-raster invitee names. And we're going to use that as a guide.

Starting point is 00:04:54 I'm going to link that particular article in the description and show notes for you to check out for yourself. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with what a non-raster invitee actually is, usually it's a top prospect. It can range, to be honest. It can go from a top prospect type of guy and not necessarily one that they plan to have up in St. Louis this year, but someone that they, you know, they want to get a closer look at against some big league competition.

Starting point is 00:05:20 They want them mingling around with the big boys who were going to be on the team in the show. But they could also be like random minor leaguers. Remember Taylor Modder last year. Did anybody know who the hell Taylor Motter was last year until spring training? And you started seeing him popping up. all over the place and just some minor league veteran who out of necessity ended up playing a decent amount in St. Louis. Not that it was the best thing in the world because that meant that people were injured and people weren't playing well or whatever. But at the same point, that's how we found

Starting point is 00:05:51 out who Taylor Monter was and why he was on the team in the first place. So some of these guys aren't going to be around camp too long while others will get extended looks and then if heaven forbid something were to happen to one of your starters, any injuries or performance issues, then these guys can fill in at both the minor league and major league levels if needed. These are not stars by any means. Some of them could be one day because a lot of them are really good prospects and others. You're going to say, whatever happened to so-and-so who had that really good camp in 2024? You're going to be saying stuff like that to yourself about some of these guys.

Starting point is 00:06:26 So we begin our non-raster, invitee journey, and we're going to talk pitchers today. That's next on Locked on Cardinals. Get buckets with your first bet on Fandol, America's number one sports book, because right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bed. That's $150 if your bet wins. I mentioned this the other day. I am going to be moving soon. All of this that you see behind me at the moment, gone. We're not going to be here anymore.

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Starting point is 00:07:22 There's going to be plenty of stuff for you to bet on. When it comes to the NBA All-Star game activities, you know, you've got the dunk contest and the three-point competition. And then, of course, the game. and then when the NBA gets back going again with the regular season, you can place bets on that as well. All you have to do is visit fandle.com slash locked on and shoot your shot. Fandall, the official sports book partner of the NBA.

Starting point is 00:07:52 Locked on is launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. Locked on Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked-on. Plus our national shows which cover every league. You'll go to Lockdown Sports Today on YouTube. then you subscribe and you can be a part of the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel. That way, if you've got like a weird shift, maybe you're a third shift kind of guy and, you know, all the sports shows are all gone by the time that you get off work.

Starting point is 00:08:21 Boom, 24-7. We've got you covered there with Locked on sports today. And again, thank you for making Locked on Cardinals your first list in each day. You can leave comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X anytime you want. Feedback, always welcome and encouraged. First split squad games for spring training are set for February 24. it. So we are going to be there very, very quickly with games against the Marlins and the Mets. And you're going to need arms to cover all of the innings and these games and throughout the entire spring training schedule.

Starting point is 00:08:49 And that's where the non-roster invitee pitchers come into play. Now, first on Guerrero's list, again, linked in the show notes and in the comment section. So we'll have that in the info section. I'm sorry for you to follow along if you want to. But first on the list for Daniel Guerrero at STL Today.com, Gordon Gricepho, also a friend of the show. We had Gordon on before last season got underway. He was really excited to get into the season after coming off such a big year in 2022, where he was the Cardinals minor league pitcher of the year. But unfortunately, it was limited in 2023 to just 86 in AAA because of a shoulder injury. Now, we had a dip in his strikeout rate compared to his breakout in 2022, but finished

Starting point is 00:09:33 the season healthy as he posted a 4.92 ERA, struck out 81 batters over 21 appearances. That's 18 starts total with Memphis. This will be the 23-year-old second spring as a non-raster invitee. Now, I don't need to tell you, at least I don't think so. I don't think I need to tell you that Gricepo season last year was a disappointment for everybody involved, for Gordon, for the fans, for the organization, because of all the hype that he got in 2022, where he just shot up, the MLB pipeline list. The good thing is after the deadline trades last year, the pressure is kind of off of him of having to make an immediate impact on the big league roster sooner rather than later coming off of his injury marred season. Now they can be patient because they went out and got some

Starting point is 00:10:21 extra arms. They can go out and be patient and getting him back to where he was before all the injuries zapped him last year. So by no means has anybody given up on Gordon Grecepho after one season where things didn't go quite so well. Again, he is still, what, 23 years old? Yeah, so nobody's freaking out about this. Nobody should be, all right? Everybody just relax. He's going to be fine. One of the guys talking about getting guys at the deadline last year to add depth to the organization was Ticoa Robi. Toccoa Robi, a big name to know. He logged 25 and two-thirds innings over nine combined outings in AA and the Arizona Fall League. 22 years old struck out 37 batters in his time with Springfield and in the AFL.

Starting point is 00:11:04 This will be the first big league spring for Roby, who ranks as one of the top pitching prospects in the Cardinal system. Roby was number five at the end of last year, according to MLB Pipeline and got to be rocking one of Tori Holt's old numbers, number 88 at camp this year. By the way, Tori Holt got robbed. Should be in the Hall of Fame. Ridiculous.

Starting point is 00:11:25 But anyway, looking forward to seeing what Toccoa Robey has got. People are very high on him. Tink Hintz is the only guy ranked higher than Roby at the end of last year. And he's the next guy on our list here because Tink is somebody who we're not exactly sure what he's going to be yet, right? They haven't decided whether he's going to be a starter, whether he's going to be a reliever. He's viewed by many as the Cardinals' top pitching prospect comes into spring after setting a career high in innings with 96, despite battling injuries. He's still only 21 years old. maintained a 4.31 ERA over 23 starts with most of his struggles coming over the summer once he reached Class AA. He focused his winner on correcting mechanical issues formed after he returned from the injured list last May,

Starting point is 00:12:12 which is something that does happen like when you hear some of these guys and they dealt with injuries last year. That's one of the problems is when you're coming back from injuries like they have, especially with your arm and your shoulder area, you start adjusting things to make up for when you were dealing with pain earlier. You start your, your mechanics get out of whack and then it starts screwing things up. You lose velocity. You lose accuracy. This is nothing new. This happens to almost every single pitcher who deals with any sort of injury because they start compensating for whatever's bothering them in another way. They start altering motions and deliveries and it can turn into a big mess. So the Cardinals added a lot of arms to their organization since last year's deadline in the offseason.

Starting point is 00:12:57 And so like Crescepho, the Cardinals can afford to be patient with Tinkins this season. All right, how about a name? Since those are kind of like the three top guys, how about a name that had some buzz coming into 2023 after what was a spectacular, spectacular showing in the Arizona Fall League. And then he just kind of disappeared last year talking about left-hander Connor Thomas. All right. Now, Thomas is coming off a year, which he dealt with a lot of injuries. very inconsistent in AAA. He's 25 years old now. His season ended last year with a 5.5.5 3 ERA, just 69 strikeouts at 94 in a third innings, over 21 outings. 17 of those were starts.

Starting point is 00:13:40 Actually, it was designated for assignment ahead of the Rule 5 protection deadline back in November and outright into Memphis after allowing a career high 879 OPS to opposing hitters. And here's the thing. We talked about him last year because he won the award for the best pitcher in the Arizona Fall League before the ugly 2020 three season. So people were really excited about what kind of Thomas would be able to offer in 2023. And it just went and nothing came out of it. I think what was it a cutter that he had added to his arsenal that was just baffling people

Starting point is 00:14:18 at the Arizona Fall League. And we thought like, wow, maybe we found something here. And then 2023, just a mess. So hoping that he can recapture that magic that he found there and applied in 2024. But he's one of those guys that he's turned into more of a depth arm than anything else than a prospect. And at age 25, he needs to impress in this camp if he wants to stick around the organization. We're going to continue making our way down the list with a guy that I think could make a sneaky impact on the Major League roster this season. We'll talk about him next on Locked on Cardinals.

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Starting point is 00:16:39 Once again, Locked on has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. Locked on sports today is here for you 24-7, covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked-on plus our national shows, which are covering every league. Go to Locked-on Sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel. Now, my everydayers, you've heard me mention this next guy's name a few times. and unless he gets shelled this spring,

Starting point is 00:17:09 I'm going to continue to beat the drum for this guy. And I think he's going to be a sneaky dude who ends up in the major leagues at some point this season. I don't know if it'll be right out of camp because there's a lot of guys that they picked off from other organizations. You know, Heim Bloom came in and gave them some recommendations and they pulled some guys in where they might have enough depth right now where this guy ends up down in the minor leagues to start the year. But I'm talking about right-handed pitcher, Andre Grenio. All right. He's the reliever. He's the closer with the cool hair and the beard.

Starting point is 00:17:41 And I just dig everything about this dude. Former 14th round pick. So it's not like he was selected way high and there's all this pressure on this guy. But he finds himself in his first big league camp after an awesome showing in the Arizona fall league. He's 23, 1.80 ERA, notch 14Ks in 10 innings last fall after posting an 11.7Ks per nine. while with AA Springfield and AAA Memphis. Now, when he did get up to AAA, struggled a little bit, but AA, he was amazing.

Starting point is 00:18:10 His 32.5% strikeout rate over the last two seasons is the highest among Cardinals minor leagues, pitchers, and with a minimum of 120 innings per fan grabs. You want swinging this stuff out of the bullpen. That was something that we talked about, that Mo and everybody was craving this year. I give you Andre Greenio, all right? Now, he won't be one of the guys who gets the first show.

Starting point is 00:18:32 shot at a spot in the bullpen. Again, they went out and found some other arms to add the depth to make it where he wasn't supposed to be there right away. You know, they're going to probably let him go down to AAA and be the closer down there for a little bit. But if he ends up opening some eyes in Jupiter, may not be long before the Cardinals are calling him up to St. Louis to be a part of the bullpen puzzle that they're trying to build this year. And I have been that guy that has liked what the Cardinals have done in their bullpen. They've gotten a couple of veteran arms in Middleton and Kittridge. And then they're surrounding them with lots of younger arms with a lot of potential

Starting point is 00:19:09 high ceiling type of stuff. And they've got enough of them where if one guy doesn't work out so well, ship them down and bring a different guy up, which is good, which is good. It's nice to have that depth. This next guy was part of the Tyler O'Neill trade with Boston. This is Victor Santos. Santos centers his first spring with the Cardinals after spending the first five, years in pro ball with Boston and Philadelphia. He's 23, did not pitch in the 2023

Starting point is 00:19:36 minor league baseball season due to an elbow injury, but made up for lost time by logging 51 in the third innings during the Dominican Winter League. He owns a 3.7 to ERA and an 8.15 case per nine over his minor league baseball career. Because he wasn't in the organization, I don't have a ton of info about Victor Santos and what he can offer. So this spring training, we're going to get our first real looks at him wearing the Cardinal Red or gray because they have to wear their gray uniforms. I still don't like that. Anyway, so we'll see.

Starting point is 00:20:09 We'll see. I'm not banking on Santos doing anything special for them this year, but I'm not condemning him saying he's garbage and he doesn't belong there. So we'll have to wait and see on him. Another former first rounder in camp is Cooper Jerpy. Cooper Jerpy. All right, man. I forget who posted this.

Starting point is 00:20:29 and I apologize who did it, and I'm not giving you credit enough. But if I find it, I'll post it again. But it showed on one side, Cooper Jerpy. And on the other side, it was New Braves pitcher and Seven Time All-Star Chris Sale. And it showed their windups side-by-side throwing a pitch in slow motion. And yes, they are very similar. So clearly, Jerpy is the next Chris Sale. Case closed.

Starting point is 00:20:54 Lock it up. You're done. Good job. Way to go. We got a seven-time All-Star in camp. No, I'm kidding. I mean, he could be, I guess, one day. But Guerrero writes this about Jerpy.

Starting point is 00:21:05 Coming off the season limited to 49 and third innings between High A and the Fall League because of elbow surgery, Jerpy enters his first major league spring with a chance to showcase his swing and miss stuff. When healthy in 2023, the 22-year-old and 2022 first round draftee produced a 31.7% strikeout rate and allowed 20 earned runs over 17 total appearances. The bottom line with Jerpy for me, he just does not. He does not look like a guy that is a whole lot of fun to get in the box against, right? Especially from the left-handed side of the plate. He does not look like he's an easy person to hit off of. And again, and I'm sorry to repeat myself, but with the depth that the organization acquired,

Starting point is 00:21:48 there's no need to push him this year coming off the elbow injury, although he did make it back last year and he seemed to be fine. It wasn't like he had Tommy John or something like that. They just cleaned up some loose pieces that were going on there in the elbow. But good things for him and the Cardinals moving forward. People seem to be pretty excited about Cooper Jerpy and what his future will hold. I don't know if he's going to be a starter. It looks like he could be one of those really good, awkward lefties to come out of the pen

Starting point is 00:22:19 and just, you know, cut things down against left-handed hitters. But he could be more than that. He could be more than that. We'll see. Still very, very young again, 22 years old. The first rounders continue here with a right-hander, Michael McGreevy. Michael McGreevy enters his second big league spring after logging the second-most innings in minor league baseball with 153 at a 4.49 ERA, 11 and 6 record and 24 starts while with Memphis.

Starting point is 00:22:43 23 years old, low walk, high ground ball tendencies, focuses winter on adding some extra velocity. They can be sustained over an entire season and one that may help them stay in a more crowded pitching mix. Michael McGreevy to me. When you look at the numbers and you look at the style, you know, he's not a swing and miss guy. Reminds me a lot of Dakota Hudson before Dakota Hudson got hurt, you know? Just the, and I'm not saying that's the kind of pitcher he's going to be, but just my first impression of what I see with his numbers,

Starting point is 00:23:19 it reminds me a lot of Dakota Hudson. And remember, Hudson was somebody that the Cardinals were very highly on, another former first round pick. and then the injuries got him and he just never was quite the same, had trouble fighting the strike zone. But when you talk about innings eaters, maybe in the mold of a guy like a Kyle Gibson,

Starting point is 00:23:40 maybe Michael McGreevy becomes that type of pitcher one day, which is a solid major league starter. Okay, nobody's saying this guy's going to be a number one or number two one day, but you still need guys to fill out the four and the five spots in your rotation. Maybe McGreevy becomes one of the, those guys. All right, we got time for a couple more here. How about how about a couple of guys who dealt with injuries last year? Let's go to Wilking Rodriguez. A name that was mentioned a lot last year and things just did not work out for him health-wise in 2023. Five and two-thirds minor league

Starting point is 00:24:11 innings because of a shoulder injury and subsequent setbacks. Hard thrower. Remember he's upper 90s through he's older though. Remember that too. 33 years old returns for a second year with the Cardinals after he was signed to a minor league deal. back in November because remember they released them and then they brought him back. Seven to two thirds innings of relief and allowed five-heard runs while in the Venezuelan Winter League over the offseason. The Cardinals, again, they seemed high on him last year. They're willing to give him another shot because they like the triple-digit type of potential

Starting point is 00:24:41 with his arm. But again, 33 years old. And the Cardinals were high on a lot of guys last year. And it didn't work out all the time. It didn't work out all the time. And Wilking Rodriguez was certainly one of those guys that they were hoping would be a part of their bullpen and it never came to fruition. So I'd love to be surprised by Rodriguez,

Starting point is 00:25:01 but I'm not holding my breath on this one. And finally, let's go to a guy who was with the Cardinals last year and injuries got him packing on. And the lefty began 2023 on the opening day roster in the bullpen, made four appearances in relief before requiring seasonning surgery on the flexor tendon in his throwing arm. So major surgery there. The 27-year-old was outrighted off, the 40-man roster.

Starting point is 00:25:24 in November ahead of the Rule 5 protection deadline while in the majors in 2022, which is where we saw him a lot more at a 4.780RA and 32 innings of relief. Another guy that, you know, if he comes back from the injury, could be serviceable, but he's not somebody I'm banking on this year. When it comes to the left side of the bullpen for the Major League roster, John King, Jojo Romero, you've got a Zach Thompson. maybe even Matthew Libertor who are going to be out there. I just, it's got to be tough. It's got to be tough for Packing Norton to crack the roster. But we'll see what happens here in spring training. There are some other names at camp, part of the pitching staff that are non-raster invitees,

Starting point is 00:26:15 but we're not going to go through all of them. But if you want to go to Daniel Guerrero's full article, again, I've linked it in the description and in the show notes, go check it out. He talks about some other guys, some guys with some local ties in St. Louis, but the full article is available there. But those are the ones that I found kind of the most interesting when it came to the guys that I think are going to make more of an impact during spring training. And you're going to hear their names a little bit more. So we can go into position players next week when the full workouts began because we got a lot of them to talk about.

Starting point is 00:26:47 A lot of position players, a lot of middle infielders to talk about. So we'll do that next week. but let me know your thoughts on these guys as far as the pitchers go. Who do you see surprising some people? Are there some guys you're high on? Are there guys that you wish we didn't have to hear about anymore? It's fine. Let me know who you're most interested in hearing more about. And we'll try to do more of that here at Lockdown Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:27:09 Again, thank you for making Lockdown Cardinals, your first list in every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on Twitter X at L.O. underscore Cardinals and at JD Sports Radio. Like and subscribe on YouTube to help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. you guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. I'll see you next time on lockdown cardinals.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Non Roster Invitee Pitchers To Keep An Eye On!

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