Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Some People Are Heated Over Arenado's Recent Comments

Episode Date: February 17, 2024

Nolan Arenado is catching some heat for recent comments about leadership in the clubhouse last season... but is that heat warranted?Predicting the Opening Day roster for the Cardinals with Thomas Gauvain from RedbirdRants.comhttps://redbirdrants.com/posts/predicting-who-makes-st-louis-cardinals-opening-day-as-spring-training-begins-01hnryy26yjh/4Willson Contreras continues to work on one specific aspect of his catching gamehttps://redbirdrants.com/posts/willson-contreras-looking-to-improve-this-aspect-of-his-game-this-offseason-01hpdkp0kkf1Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSTLCardinals?sid=YouTubeLocked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLBFollow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIOFollow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_CardinalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)#ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nolan Aronado arrived at camp and raised some eyebrows after discussing the leadership in the clubhouse last season. Plus, we discussed the opening day roster and more with Thomas Govain from Redford Rance.com on today's episode of Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Hey there, Carl's fans. I'm J.D. Hafford and I'm a national radio sports anchor. You're born and raised in the loo with a lifetime Cardinals fan,

and I'm your host for Locktown Cardinals, part of the Locktown Podcast Network, your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter, at JD Sports Radio as well as the podcast at LO underscore Cardinals. We want to thank those of you who make Locktown Cardinals your first listen every day, free and available wherever you get podcasts. We're also available on YouTube. Make sure you like, subscribe, and comment.

That way you're interacting with us. Hit the notification button so you know when new episodes are posted. Don't want to miss those because this is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans in baseball. All of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the code locked on for $20 off your first purchase,

whether it's sporting events, whether it's concerts. I know a lot of stuff is starting to get going. That is where GameTime is going to come in key for you guys. So use that code locked on and get $20 off your first purchase. All right. Once again, Thomas Gauveid from Redbirdranson.com joining us here today. Thomas, how are you? Are you feeling better after the Super Bowl hangovers and all over? Like, you guys are you good now?

Yeah, the city was pretty excited that day. It's tough to see it end the way it did on the parade. But overall, the game was great to watch, exciting. It's always fun when it ends in the fourth corners over time as close as it was. Yeah, and I'm assuming everybody's safe in your family from what went on with the rally afterwards, which was, like you mentioned, unfortunate incident there. Yeah, we all stayed away. I'm a teacher, so we were open in school that day. We had a couple of students down there, but they all came back just fine.

Good. It was good. Good, good. Yeah, I texted my brother that day. I go, I'm assuming you're not down there because he's got three little ones. And he's like, yeah, we didn't even think about doing that. So that was the news for the household. But pretty usual, you know, your thoughts and prayers go out to everybody that was involved in that. And hopefully they catch everybody that was involved. All right. Let's move on to Cardinal Baseball. which, you know, we had a tough year in 2023. We all know this. Everybody knows this.

Unfortunately, that now that pitchers and catchers have arrived, players are starting to arrive. We're rehashing things from last year because we got to talk about it and then get over it, which is what the theme of spring training seems like. If you've heard or seen any of the media sessions that John Moseylock or Ali Marmel have had, that's one of the first things they mentioned is like, we know last year sucked and we got to move on from it. We're all trying to do that. We understand you're going to ask questions about it right now, but we just want to get it out there that let's talk about it a little bit now and then we're turning the page.

We don't want to, we don't want to dwell on 2023 anymore. Well, Nolan Aronado has arrived at camp. And he ended up, as I mentioned in the intro, raising a few eyebrows yesterday. Obviously, it was a tough year for Nolan Aronado. but he ended up being kind of candid about how things went last year, specifically when he was talking to Jeff Jones from the Belleville News. They asked him about leadership in the clubhouse, and I'm just going to read this quote verbatim for everybody. Nolan Arnano's response to this was our team was just all young guys. And I don't mean this in a bad way, but they kind of overran the clubhouse. And usually the veterans run the clubhouse. And I don't mean that in a way that they were disrespectful.

It wasn't anything like that, but there was just so many of that. And I think if you want to get the best out of young guys, they've got to see how the veterans do it. All stars and players who have been there before, and then that's how you get them better. But if they don't have those types of figures, it's hard for that to happen. I know me and Goldie were there, but there's only, it doesn't, we're not really vocal people either. So it's nice to have carp who's not afraid to go up to people and talk to them and hold people. accountable. So that's the quote, which I've retweeted from Jeff Jones's site or his Twitter account, which is at J.M. Jones, if you guys don't give him a follow, he's actually going to be

joining the show throughout spring training to tell us a little bit more about things that are going on since he's lucky enough to be in Jupiter where it's nice and warm time. It's covered in snow like it is in St. Louis. But anyway, that was the quote from Nolan Aronado. What is your take from that because people are on both sides of the fence here. Some people are like, Nolan, why are you being so wimpy? Like, why couldn't you take control? And they see it as a leadership fault on his side. And then there's the other side who are understanding of what maybe Nolan Aronado and

Paul Goldschmidt are as far as their way of being leaders in a clubhouse. And it maybe just didn't fit what style of people they are. Where do you sit on this, Thomas? I'm more of the, they just needed different voices in there, the more optimistic side. He said there, in the quote, two or three different ways, that the young players are definitely not at fault here. They're just going in there doing their work. I think that Aronado is getting at the fact that he is more of a lead-by-action, more than a lead-by-words kind of guy. And the same with Paul Goldschmidt.

Those two will be out there early on the field. They'll be out there late after games. but they're not going to be the guys who are yelling at everybody in the clubhouse. They're not going to be the fire beneath the people. That's what Lance Lynn and Matt Carpenter are there to do, which is exactly what Moseilocks been saying all offseason as to why they brought them in. Yeah, and I agree with you where when we got Aronado from Colorado, nobody was really sure, like, because sometimes you'll see Nolan go berserk on the field,

like with energy and passion, and you're like, oh my gosh, is that who you see all the time? and it's not. It's, you know, those are, those are bursts that come out of them. Like, if you throw up and in at him a couple times, you've seen that where you got a little worked up about that. You saw it in that opening series with the Reds, his first year here, when the whole Nick Castiano's flex move on Jake Woodford at home plate, you got really worked up about that.

But other than like a home run or two here or there, that's not really him. Like, he's a passionate guy. he wants to do really well. He doesn't like being embarrassed like he felt like he was last year and how the team was last year. But those are things that he really kind of keeps inside. We all know talking to Goldie is like talking. It's like watching paint dry. Like there's nothing exciting comes out of Paul Goldschmidt. He just goes out, does his job, does his business and takes care of things. And, you know, it's why this off season where people are like, why are they bringing in all these guys who just maybe they're, better players out there. And it's like you mentioned.

It's all about culture in the clubhouse. I mean, how many times do they bring that up this off season, that word culture? And, you know, it's great to have these guys that lead by example in the clubhouse, but you've got to have other guys that take control. I mean, doesn't it say something when people were calling Andrew Kisner, the captain last year? I mean, come on. He's your back. Catchers.

Yeah. Yeah. That's not how it's supposed to go. That's not supposed to go that way at all. So bringing in Sunny Gray, who it can, continues to just blow my mind to do everything right, in my opinion, with the way his bullpins are going and the way he talks to the media. Also, Lance Lynn, obviously we know that he's a sandpaper guy that's been here in St. Louis before. And then getting Matt Carpenter back, who has been here during some successful runs and can lead by not only example, but help these other younger guys understand what the Cardinal way is and get back to that style of baseball.

once again. What are your thoughts on all that? I think that's the key that they're going to going towards is the Cardinal Way again. I mean, Matt Carpenter is here for, what, eight years, I think, and he toiled through the minors in the system. Dano Descalzo is now a coach. He was in the Cardinal Way.

Ali Marvall has been in the Cardinal way. For as much chagrin as that phrase gets, it seems to be that's where they're heading back to or wanting to reach again. Because it worked. It was a winning formula back in the day. Now, the Cardinal way has been altered a little bit because it has to because you got to stay up with the times.

And that's where problems occurred the last couple of years. It wasn't just last year. Things just imploded last year. But they haven't won much in the postseason over the last few years either. So there's part of the cardinal way that continues to work on how you act in a clubhouse, how you are on the field, how you take care of your business day in and day out. And then there's the other side of it where it's like, okay, now we need to learn different things to do on the field that will make this team more successful, different styles of players. And that's why they brought in all these new guys. That's why you've got, I think,

I think Mo said that there's like 15 new members on the 40-man roster. I think I counted the other day. They made 13 different acquisitions this all season. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that is some serious turnover, which, I mean, obviously when your team stinks, that's something you want to do. Yeah, they were able to keep a lot of those really good players.

That's still intact. And that young core is still intact. They didn't trade anybody away. Let's talk about this is the tease, though, because we want to get into what the opening day roster is going to be. I know it's very, very early. Obviously, we haven't even had our full squad workouts yet at Jupiter, but it's something that you brought up in an article at Redwood Rance.com. So we're going to jump into that next. But let us know your thoughts on the Nolan Aronado Commons.

Do you take those as a sign of weakness from Nolan, or do you understand where he's coming from? and now you kind of get why guys like Gray, Lynn, Carbiter, Descalo, all the guys Thomas mentioned are now a part of this Cardinals Major League roster. So let us know in the comments down below. But we'll talk about opening day roster stuff coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. You shouldn't have to worry when it comes to buying tickets for your next big event. Game time is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all of your favorite things, whether it's sports, whether it's music, comedy, theater, events near you.

I mean, I know the blues are. on quite a run right now. So you'd want to get your hands on some tickets to go see the St. Louis Blues down at Enterprise. You can do that with the GameTime app. They've got Hill their last minute deals. They've got All-in prices. So that way you're not like, wait a second. It said that they were this price. And now you're adding all these fees. And it's like triple the amount. They'll give you the all-in prices. So it's not like you're getting fooled by anybody. You get views from your seat so you know exactly where you're going to be at. Plus the best price guarantee. Game time takes the guesswork out of buying.

tickets for, again, any event that you can think of. So download the GameTime app, create your account and use Code Locked-on for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem the code Locked-on. That's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N for $20 off. Download game time today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guarantee. Locked on is launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. Locked on Sports today is here for you, covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of locked on plus our national shows covering every league. Got a locked on sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel. And again, thanks for making lockdown cardinals your first list every day.

Leave your comments. Don't be shy. Leave comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X anytime you want. You don't always have to agree with what we're saying. Let's have a discussion. Let's talk about it. Your feedback is always welcome and encourage. Thomas Govain from Redbirdrance.com joining us again today. And we're going to link the article here in our show notes and down in the information and stuff below on YouTube.

But predicting who makes the St. Louis Cardinals opening day with spring training just getting started. We know things are going to change. It's inevitable. There's going to be some injuries or something's going to happen. So don't mark these down in permanent ink and then yell at us. if something gets altered because we don't know, but we can give you a guesstimate on what this roster might look like because another thing that's been brought up in the media sessions with Ali

and with John Moseilac was, where is the real competition for this team? Because a lot of positions look like you kind of know where they're going to go with things. One of those spots is certainly the starting rotation, which you've got the three veterans, they signed this off season, and you've got some guys that were here already. Tell us about the rotation and what you think it's going to look like, Thomas. Assuming nobody gets hurt, this is probably the most settled spot.

Fingers crossed. Yeah, this is probably the most settled spot on the roster. Sunny Gray, Miles, Michaelis, Kyle Gibson, Lanselin, and Stephen Mats will be the five. Apparently, there could be a sixth. That might be Zach Thompson or Matthew Livertor, depending on how they do in the spring. all five of these guys are penned in. They're not changing, assuming nothing catastrophic happens. But it's one of the oldest rotations in Cardinals history.

I think it's the fourth oldest. I did a piece a few months back on it. The average age is just a smidge above 35. So experience, I guess you could swing it, not just age, but with Sunny Gray at the top as the ace, he'll lead the team. I think Miles Michaelis has the ceiling of a three. possibly swim better if he can turn back the clock a couple years. Stephen Mats, to me, is probably our second best pitcher.

He won't pitch more than 130 innings, but he probably is the most talent. And then on a war per 162 game basis, he is near Sunny Gray. Which is saying something, considering Sunny Gray was just second for the AL-Sai Young Award in, in 2023. You mentioned the six-man rotation,

which is something we talked about in a previous episode. where were your thoughts on them doing that? Because here's the thing. Everybody started freaking out. Like, oh, my gosh, what are we doing now? Now we got six starters again. The idea is because of the hectic schedule at the beginning of the season with the travel, in spring training. They normally like to be on a six-man rotation type of thing that just for the first couple of weeks,

they thought that perhaps it might be a good idea. They haven't said they're going to do that. I personally didn't have a problem with it. I'm like, whatever keeps these guys fresh later on down in the season, it keeps them healthy. I'm all four. What were your thoughts on the six-man idea? Yeah, I agree. I think a lot of people took it as we have six starting pitchers again. And that's definitely not what the quote was saying. It was saying we might need to throw in a sixth because April is a doozy. They have the Dodgers right away for four games. They see the Diamondbacks, the Padres who are still very talented, the Phillies,

the Marlins and the Brewers, those five teams alone. They also go see the Mets. They play in the A's, so probably a sweep. And then the Detroit Tigers, who are on the rise, especially after their additions this year, I think that the sixth starting pitcher gives the team some leeway. It gives guys a little bit more of a rest. And you could swing it that Sunny Gray misses one or two starts by the end of the year. Instead of 34, he's at 32,

which is still a fantastic amount of starts for your ace on the team. It seems like the best bet for a very tough April schedule. Yeah, it's thinking ahead of, the schedule is what it really is. It's not saying that like, oh, look how many starters we got. We're so good. Like, it's not, it's not like that. It's genuinely saying, like, we know these dudes are kind of old and we want to keep them fresh and not put so much pressure on them right away when they're playing. I think it was like 13 games and 14 days to start the season. The whole idea is to not fall into the catastrophic pit that they fell in last April. So that's the idea of this. Maybe you don't

agree with it. You're like mad that they all five of them can't handle their business, but the idea is to keep this to, you know, just kind of keep everything safe and to have a safety net there to keep everybody healthy right away. Let's move on to your catchers. This is an easy one too. You're starting catcher Wilson Contreras. Your backup's going to be Yvonne Herrera. So not a lot of drama there when it comes to who's going to make the roster. But let's move on to the to the infield here, Thomas, in your in your article. infielders this year. An interesting grouping because you got a lot of guys who can also play other positions as well. Yes, Paul Goldschmidt and Arndado in the corners, obviously,

shortstop assuming his spring goes well as Mason win. If he struggles, it will be Tommy Edmund. And then Brendan Donovan and Nolan Gorman will get some sort of split at second base. The odd man out will get most of the reps at DH. The sixth man was different a month ago, and it was even more different two months ago. It's Matt Carpenter now. It was probably going to be richie Plasio. And then when we traded him off, I was thinking one of Thomas de Gacy or maybe even Cesar Preeto, Luke and Baker, Buddy Kennedy, any one of those guys. But when they signed Matt Carpenter to the league minimum deal, he probably slots in as the last spot, especially after the leadership comments recently. Now, do you think Matt Carpenter could see some time at second or third as well

as first base this year? Because, I mean, he's no kid anymore. And it's not like he was a great defensive guy previously when he was in his prime. He didn't kill you or anything like that. But at this point of his career, you know, San Diego last year used him exclusively at first base and DH. You saw the Yankees use them in the outfield a little bit because they wouldn't keep his bad in the lineup and that was whatever. Because I think that's maybe the fear that some people have is that they're going

to bring him in and go, Carpenter is going to be our new Taylor Modern. He's going to play all the time and fill in and stuff. And they're worried about that. foresee that happening if everybody stays held. He was taking reps at third base the other day at spring training. So sorry, fans, but I don't know. With no one, Gorman being able to play third base, there's at least five different people who could play second base in the roster.

I don't think he'll get those spots. He'll probably spell at first base for Goldschmidt and then maybe a touch in the outfield. But there's another guy out there who is the fifth outfielder who could play first in outfield too. So I, D.H, first base a little bit, maybe second base. base, but that's about it. And I did hear the interview with Ali as far as what's going on with Brennan Donovan's arm where he's been cleared to do a lot of stuff.

They want to keep him at second base for now just because of the limitations of throwing that he has. But they seem like he's going to be fine, barring any setbacks, that he should be ready for opening day and everything and will likely be starting second baseman for your St. Louis Cardinals. Now, you mentioned the outfielder. You've got four of them that have been talked about a lot, then you've got one guy that we're kind of like,

what's his role in 2024? What can you tell us about the Cardinals outfield in 2024? John Noseilock said to himself, Lars Newper will be in left, Edmund and center, and then Jordan Walker and right. Dylan Carlson's the fourth outfielder, and then Alec Berluson would be the fifth. Burley lost some weight.

He focused on his defense this offseason. That was one of his offseason homework projects given by the team. So I think his bat performed really well in the minors. I think he could have some success up in St. Louis. He is corner outfielder, probably left field primarily, and then first base in designated hitter, as is most of the other players in this team, it seems like sometimes.

But Tommy Edmund getting a full run in center will be exciting. He had five outs above average last year in limited appearances. Jordan Walker's been working on his defense, and his bat could be the most enticing bat on the team. And it's always exciting to see Lars Neupar. in the corner outfield. Yeah, you got to keep, you got to keep nude healthy,

which has been an issue. Tommy, we're still not completely sure if he'll be ready yet. It's something that they're like, well, we'll wait and see. We've got to see what he can do health-wise after having surgery. I don't know if you caught the video of Jordan Walker in the cage yesterday, but

apparently he is now grown. He continues to grow. You got to remember, you're 21. 6-6-259 is what he weighed in at. 259. And it's not fat, you guys. It's muscle. They pointed out that his shoulders and the check, everything upper body looks

much larger than it was last year. And when people, people laugh, but I was like, do you guys realize he's as big as Jean-Carlo-Stan? You just don't notice it, but he is. He's a sick guy right now. Close to Aaron Judge. Yeah, and he could throw, and he's

21. Like, this dude has so much potential. I'm so excited about, and they said he was smashing balls over the wall. Granted, batting practice, spring training, whatever. I don't care. The fact is, he's getting some lift on it. And maybe we see a power surge out of him if he continues to bulk up the way he does.

I'm so excited for Jordan Walker this year. I think that's going to be a lot of fun to watch. Now, a quick question before we move on to the bullpen. If Mason win fails. and we don't think he's going to, but if something were to happen and it's really, really bad early on, and Tommy has to start playing more shortstop.

Do you see Dylan Carlson being the everyday center fielder in that case? Or do you think if somebody like, you know, people are excited about Victor Scott, do you think they bring him up and give him a shot? I don't think they do give Victor Scott a chance. They tried Jordan Walker from AA up to majors last year, and he had a hit streak at the beginning,

but he wasn't ready for the best. major leagues. I would suspect that Carlson gets the field reps and his defense has gotten better as he's gone in his career in center. Even if he has an OPS around 725, 750,

that's very good for a center fielder who has plus defense. And again, another guy that you just got to keep healthy. That's been his problems. It's, you know, yeah, he can't really hit right-handed pitching all that well, but the other side is he's hurt all the time. So

doesn't have a chance to try to get better at that when you're on the IL for a long time. So another guy in the outfield that I'm hoping for good thing. I just want to see D.C. healthy. I want to see him healthy and see what we can get out of him because I think the talent is there. And I just think it's been a shame that the last couple of seasons have been lost because of all of the entries. All right. We're going to jump into the bullpen. And I want to talk a little bit more about Wilson Contrera,

something that he's been working on this offseason to be, He's specifically trying to get better at a certain thing that Thomas wrote about. So we're going to get into that next year on Lockdown Cardinals. Get buckets with your first bet on Fandual, America's number one sports book right now. New customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 if your bet wins. I was talking with Thomas before we started the show. He was shopping with the family earlier.

I'm sure he would have loved to have had another extra $150 to go spend on things. as a new dad and everything. I'm sure he needs that. I'm going to be moving places here real soon. I would love to have some extra cash. And Fandul is a fun way to go about and try to get that into your pocket. That on all your favorite NBA players and teams, they've got the quick bets. They've got the live same game parlayes, exclusive props. You got All-Star weekend going on, but the boys will be back on the court coming up next week. So make sure you're locked into what's going on with Fandall. Go to fandul.com slash lock. Locked on and shoot your shot.

Try to make some extra dough and have some fun with it with Fandul, the official sportsbook partner of the NBA. Once again, we're joined by Thomas Govain from Redbird Rance.com. And a reminder that 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 Lockdown, plus our national shows covering every league. Go to Lockdown Sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever national sports. 4-7 streaming channel.

All right. So a place where I'm excited about the competition for the opening day roster when it comes to the bullpen because there are a lot of new faces, a lot of new names that were acquired not only at the deadline last year to give us some competition for what's going on here, but also this offseason where there have made some trades like the Tyler O'Neill trade to Boston. And so there are a lot of names that are going to be competing for a spot here in spring training and we might see some shifting as far as the way things are done in

their bullpen this year. There's going to be some guys you haven't heard of. There's going to be some familiar guys like Ryan Housley and stuff. But who are you thinking and predicting to make the bullpen this year in 2024, Thomas? The three main guys would be Ryan Helsley, Gallegos, and Joe Romero. They've got the track record. They have a familiarity with the team. They'll get back into the bullpen. Keenan Middleton and Andrew Kittridge are the next two guaranteed spots. We acquired both of them through free agency and trades, respectively. And then my guys for the last three spots, which are probably the most competitive on the roster this year, are Andre Palante, Zach Thompson, and Ryan Fernandez.

Okay. So if we're going there, that means no Matthew Libertory. You're shipping him down to Memphis to presumably work on just staying a starter, right? Yeah, working on the stuff that he needs to keep himself successful. majors. Now, some other names that have been brought up this offseason of guys who could be competing for spots in the bullpen. You've got Riley O'Brien, which was the guy they got from the Mariners. Is there anything specific about him that maybe you're like, I don't know, I don't think

he's going to make this roster. I don't know if the Cardinals are fully committing to him being on the major league roster. He was a nice pickup. He's got fantastic stuff, but he feels like a Guillermo Zunigo, Geremo Zunigo, DiRomo Zuniga Part 2. Great stuff. Not quite putting up the numbers. How about John King, the veteran lefty?

I did not see his name in the list there. This is what I mean is like I'm excited about the competition here because you've got a lot of guys are going to make these decisions difficult. So John King not on there. How come? I prefer Palante's upside to John King's regular consistency. Panty is reverse splits. so he is essentially left into pitcher.

And I think that his ceiling is a little bit higher than John Kings. And you hope that he does turn things around because not last year, but 2022, we liked what we saw at a Palante. And you were like, wow, this guy looks like he's going to be a weapon. And from the get-go last year, from the World Baseball Classic, like he wasn't good there. And it just continued throughout the season. It was a rough year for Palante. So a bounce-back year, nobody's going to get upset about that.

if that ends up coming to fruition. All right. Let's talk about Wilson Contreras here, Thomas, because, you know, he caught a lot of flack last year. Clearly, because everybody has been coming to his aid and saying, look, it wasn't all Wilson. This is, that was bad. It shouldn't have been that way. And Wilson, being the professional that he was, took it in stride and was still able to become one of the best hitters, not hitting catchers, but hitters in the game in the

second half of the season last year. Because the Cardinals were losing, I don't think people paid as much attention as they should have to how good Wilson Contreras was in the second half of the season last year. But he wants to work on being a catcher. He doesn't want to be a DH. He doesn't want to go play left field every once in a while. He wants to be the St. Louis Cardinals every day, full-time catcher, and he wants to be good at it. So there's a certain aspect of this game that he's paid more attention to than others this offseason. What was that? Because you wrote about it recently at Redbird Grants.com. Yeah,

it's his pitch framing, and that's actually been one of the least, one of the worst parts of his game for his career. He's got a great arm. He is able to keep runners at bay, but his pitch framing has been something that he struggled with. Looking at his charts last year on baseball savant, they used colors, thank goodness.

And at the top of the zone, it was red, meaning he stole more strikes than the average. And then the middle two zones and in the bottom three, were both blue, especially in the bottom, meaning that he has a hard time framing outside pitches and then pitches down low. I was never a catcher, but from what I've read and from I understand,

the new mode of catching is starting on one leg, keeping the glove lower in the dirt, and then sweeping it up as the ball comes in. It tricks the umpire's eyes. If you start up high and you jerk down low, it's going to look like a ball, then it would be a strike. So by him starting lower and sweeping it up,

it frames the pitch in a better way. And there's been footage of that posted out there. I believe you, did you throw one out there? No, it was Cardinals Rieck on Twitter. Jacob, I think he posted on his main account, though. But it was like him and his brother doing it side by side and how he's been working on things. And obviously, when you get that one guy, what's his name,

Yadier Molina? Is that how you say it? When he gets and arrives into camp and stuff, obviously these are some things where, and I'm sure Wilson's already talked to him about this stuff. But, you know, seeing them together, working on stuff together will be nice when he's back from the winter ball and vacation time with his family and stuff that he's earned. And they talked about like, Mo wasn't freaking out about that either where like people are like, oh my gosh, it means he doesn't want to be here. No, man, he needs some time away, dude. 24-7 baseball is not healthy for anybody.

He wants to see his family. He wants to be around them. And then he's going to come then. And so when minor league camp is the idea when Yadi should be arriving is when minor league camp opens too. They said that would be a good time. It might coincide with that. But it would be a couple of weeks. But these are some things that, you know, Yadi will be able to help Wilson with and Yvonne Herrera with.

Because it's not like Yvonne's been known as the greatest defensive catcher of all time either. So these are some things they can work on. And let's be honest, if Wilson and Traders can be a better catcher as far as the way he's receiving the ball and how he's framing things, it's going to help this pitching staff where last year it was kind of doing them a disservice, wasn't he? Yeah, he was. It's mixed reports, obviously, whether he was called wrong pitches or what the case was. But if he can continue his offensive output while continuing his strong arm and his blocking game

in addition to adding this framing touch, I mean, we could be looking at the top three catcher in baseball next year. And that's what we're hoping for it because we know the dude can mash. That is for certain. So we're going to have links to all of these. stories that Thomas has written at Redbird Rants.com. He continues to churn out fresh new product each and every day. He's endless because with being a new dad, we were talking about this. You've got some late nights that you're able to write. It's the middle of the night, actually. Yeah, that one to

four a.m. stretch where I got nothing else to do because sleep isn't bad. But continue to give you guys fun things to read and discuss amongst each other. So do Thomas O'Sullid. Give him a follow on Twitter, X, at Thomas Gauvin, which is special. L-G-A-U-V-A-I-N, and then head on over to RedbirdRance.com. Make sure you bookmark that because Thomas and the rest of the writers over there, they're doing fantastic work. When things are breaking, that's a great spot to go check out and see exactly what they're talking about right away.

Anything new coming down the pipeline that you want to tell everybody about, Thomas? Yeah, I got in touch with one of the minor leaguers for the Cardinals. I'm not going to say his name or anything, but interviewing him earlier in the week next week, and then I'll get something out by Wednesday, hopefully, the interview. All right. Sounds good.

Well, Thomas, as always, we appreciate you stopping in here, especially on a weekend. And we'll catch you next week, buddy. All right. Take care, JD. Thank you. And thank you guys for making Locked on Cardinals.

Your first listen every day. If you haven't already, please give us a follow on Twitter, X at L.O. underscore Cardinals and a JD Sports Radio. Like and subscribe on YouTube, help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You're the best fans in baseball for a reason,

and we'll see you next time on Locktown Cardinals.