Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Sonny Gray Makes His Spring Debut And Why Brandon Crawford Is Now A Cardinal

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

Sonny Gray made his spring debut today against the Red Sox Brandon Crawford met with the media at camp Game Recap John King in trouble Arenado starts hot Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSTLCardinals?sid=YouTube Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLB Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! eBay Motors With 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. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. FanDuel New 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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How did Sunny Greyfair in his first game action as a Cardinal? Plus, what did Brandon Crawford have to say at camp today about his role with the team and motivating factors to play after officially signing? This is 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 Lou and a Lifetime Cardinals fan. and I'm your host for Locktown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, covering your team every day.

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So the Cardinals were back on the field today at Roger Dean Stadium to face Tyler O'Neill in the Boston Red Sox. Unfortunately, Tyler O'Neill not in the lineup today. Dave. So instead, the Cardinals ended up facing guys like David Hamilton, Sedan, Raffella, Willier Abraeu, Pablo Reyes. I recognize this guy, Bobby Dalbeck. There was no O'Neill or Raphael Devers or Trevor Story, Masataka, Yoshita. None of these guys, none of these guys were there for the socks today playing. So those are the people you would normally be familiar with.

But on the Cardinals side, you actually had a lot of their starters in the lineup. Brandon Donovan, Lars Newport, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arnato, Wilson Contreras, Jordan Walker, Mason Wind, Victor Scott, Thomas Jacey in the lineup as well today. They got some starts, which was cool. But the guy everyone came to see today. And it's unfortunate that the game was not televised, but everybody wanted to see New Cardinals, a Sunny Gray, take the mound. The ALSight Young runner up last year signed a three-year deal with the Cardinals back. November. And since then, he's said all the right things. Like anything that's come out of his mouth so far this year, I've been like, yes, yes, tell me more, Sunny Gray, whether it's leadership,

tenacity on the mound, his work ethic behind the scenes, wanting to be in St. Louis. He's just been feeding it to us. And it's been great to hear. And then he gets to camp, pitchers and catchers report and his ballpen sessions become must see action for the team and the reporters who were down in Jupiter who marveled at how in control he was of his ballpen sessions, the things he was saying, the attention to detail for each and every pitch. Most had never seen anything like that before. But now, now we finally get to see him face live hitters for the first time. And the Cardinals were wearing their white home uniforms for the first time this spring,

for the first time they finally got their proper patches on the sleeves, which was the big holdup, why they were having to wear the grays this whole time. So that's why I'm wearing the whites here today in our podcast if you're on YouTube. But the plan for Sunny Gray today was to throw either two winnings or 35 pitches, and he actually ends up doing both. It was not a flawless outing by any means. He did have to pitch around a little bit of traffic, to giving up a couple of hits.

He walked a couple guys, but he also punched out two hitters, picked off a guy at second base, and threw two scoreless innings on 41 pitches. According to Derek Gould, he showed six different pitches. He threw at least two of each of the sweeper, the sinker, the four seam fastball, cutter curve ball, and change up.

Average 93.3 miles per hour on his fastball, touch 94 with both the sinker and his four seamer. Gray got four swings and misses, three of them on sinkers. his first strikeout came in the first inning. He had runners on first and second and one out. Bobby Dalback goes up to the plate, got him to swing and miss on a sinker on the outside part of the plate.

Then with two outs, he picks off the runner on second base to end the inning, which was, I mean, it's always kind of cool when you see somebody get picked off when it's not your runner. Then in the second inning of work, he gave up a lead off single on a fastball over the heart of the plate, probably missed his spot there. Got the next hitter to line out.

Then got some help from his battery mate, Wilson Contreras, who threw out Pablo Reyes trying to steal. second base. He was up 02 on the next guy and then things got a little bit wild for him. We threw four straight pitches out of the zone, not even really close to being strikes, which is the odd thing. So he puts him on, but then punches out the next hitter on four pitches wiping him out with that sweeper that we've heard so much about so far this spring. And that was that. That was your sunny gray performance today. First outing,

probably a few jitters out there on the mound for the first time in a different uniform, getting used to his new surroundings and, you know, whatever. Even if he came out through up all zeros, though, even if he came out through two no-hit inning struck out six, you can't react to these things and then overreact to them as if, you know, it's the end of the world, okay? You know, the bottom line is he didn't give up any runs. That's good. He got to put in some hard work, which the whole point of spring.

spring training to get your work in. And he had to work hard to get out of some of those situations that he was put in or things could have really gotten out of hand. But he didn't allow them to get there. And more importantly, at least in my eyes, he didn't get hurt, which is great. Because we know how big health is when it comes to anybody on your ball club. But when it comes to your ace, you really don't want to be messing around with them getting hurt at all.

So to see him come out of this unscathed and everything's good. positive performance. Not that it comes as any surprise, but it was announced as well that Sunny Gray will indeed be the Cardinals opening day starter against the Dodgers. He was given that. He even said that it gave him chills

when it was announced when Ali gave him the news. And he says there aren't a lot of things that give him chills anymore when it comes to this game, but that he got some chills about it. So he's excited to be a Cardinals. He excited to be the ace. And he's looking forward to a really good season.

Now we're going to talk more about the new look Cardinals pitching staff who got some good things from a lot of new faces today in their game against the Red Sox, which, by the way, ended in a three-to-three tie. I know, I know. We'll get to that a little bit later, but the Brandon Crawford signing was made official today. So it's done. He was at camp and he spoke with the media. So to John Moseilog, so I'll share with you what he had to say about joining the Redbirds next on Locked on Cardinals. passion, drive, and patience. What brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive.

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league. You can find Locked on Sports Today. Now available. on the Free Fire TV channels app. And thank you again for making Locked on Cardinals, your first list in every day. You can leave your comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X. Anytime you guys want to, feedback always welcome and encouraged. Brandon Crawford is now officially a St. Louis Cardinal.

I have got a photo of him right here for you, courtesy of STL Today.com. Derek Gould, this is the little media session that he was doing today at camp. The Cardinals and a longtime giant have agreed on a one-year major league deal. It's not a minor league deal. It's a major league deal. So in a corresponding move, as I predicted yesterday, the Cardinals have designated infielder,

Buddy Kennedy, for assignment, which, by the way, FYI, that's two in a row that I have nailed. So you can just start calling me the DFA Nostradamus if you want to. That's fine. You're allowed to do that. One of the few question marks that were remaining as far as roster construction this year has now been answered. Mason Wynn will get every chance to be the starting shortstop

throughout the season. Crawford is not being signed to come in to be competition for the position. You know, people are looking at his age. You know, he's 37, declining numbers both offensively and defensively last year. And they start to freak out a little bit. Like, why are we signing this guy? This guy, he's old. He sucks.

Why is he here? But again, he's not signing to be the starter. and barring anything catastrophic happening with Mason Wynn, he won't be the starter. I'm sure he's going to get some spot starts here and there at short. We heard yesterday that he's open to playing other positions, whether it's second or third base. I'm sure they'll use him at those spots if they need to,

although they've got most of that covered. But right-handed pitching, you know, most of the league is a right-hander. Brandon Crawford hits left-handed. So you got a left-handed off the bench again. So pinch hitting duty is obviously going to be some. something there. But as long as Mason, wind is healthy. You're going to see when out there as much as possible. When even talked about the signing today saying they let me know right before my first

game and I had a decent game. So you know that definitely lit a fire under my ass. I probably needed it, but it's going to be great to have them around. Crawford was there, as you saw in the picture there, in Cardinal Gear today in Jupiter, took some ground balls, also spoke with the media, as did, president of baseball operations, John Moseilock, who talked about why Crawford was some somebody that they were interested in bringing in saying, just to make sure we had some death there. Also to bring in someone with his resume and what he's been able to accomplish, we think he will be a great resource for Mason as he continues to develop.

Let's be clear, though, this is Mason's job. And I'm glad that John Moseilock said that out loud so everybody could hear. Brandon Crawford is not being brought into really push Mason when or to make him look over his shoulder and make him nervous. No, the idea is to help him become the best shortstop he can be not only this year, but into the future. Okay. Brandon Crawford has been a solid, very good Major League Baseball player for quite a long time. You know, a three-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove Award winner, two-time World Series champion. He's got a great resume. And it's not going to hurt to have those kind of guys around these young

that you plan on making the future of your franchise. You know, guys like Gorman, Walker, when these are the core of what the future of the St. Louis Cardinals organization is going to be. Brandon Crawford spoke today on his decision to join the Cardinals. He had to say that the Cardinals were one of the few teams that could lure him to Florida for spring training for spring training from Arizona, because that's where he lives where and that that's where he's had spring training with the Giants for

13 seasons. He said being with the Giants my whole career, I've always respected and appreciated the Cardinals organization. I always like going to St. Louis and playing at Bush Stadium. The fans have always been great too. On the motivating factors to come back to playing 2024, because a lot of us thought he was going to be retired. I had no idea he was coming back. But he said his kids really wanted him to play. He said that was the biggest motivating factor in his decision to continue to play in 2024 and also agreed that after a tough injury riddled season and a tough year on the field as well, that he wanted to come back and be as healthy as possible and that he feels good and should get going here real soon with the team. Again, he took some ground

balls today, but, you know, they'll take their time getting him up to speed on things. According to Katie Wu at the athletic, the Cardinals had been actively monitoring the backup infielder market over the course of the month with Edmund status for opening day still unclear. Personally, it's looking gloomier and gloomier every single day. I think this acquisition also tells you that they're a little concerned when Tommy Edmund is going to be available. They don't really know. They're taking a day by day, but they really don't know.

They have target dates probably. You know, they're shooting for opening day. But it appears to me that they're willing to let him heal a little slower than what was first thought. was going to be the amount of time that it was going to take for Tommy Edmund to get back. And that's okay. It's all right. They've got enough depth here. Crawford adds to that depth so that they're not freaking out about Tommy Edmund being hurt. Wu continued here with the reserve infield market has picked up speed over the last several days. If you're wondering why they waited until now, you had Tim Anderson signing that one-year deal with the Marlins.

Ahmed Rosario signed a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay raise. last week. Yesterday, Nick Ahmed reportedly reached that minor league deal with the Giants. And by yesterday afternoon, you had Kike Hernandez going to the Dodgers. So there wasn't a lot of players to choose from. And if you ask like, well, why didn't they go get one of those guys? Well, maybe those guys didn't want to come to St. Louis. I keep telling you that. Not everybody wants to be in St. Louis.

Some of these guys wanted to be in other places. Hernandez had been with the Dodgers before. Tim Anderson probably wants an opportunity to play every day, which he might get with the Marlins now. That wasn't going to have it in St. Louis. The guys, these guys want to play. And Nick Ahmed, sure, I guess you can make a case for why not. Take him instead of Brandon Crawford, but maybe he wanted to be in San Francisco. Maybe that was his choice.

Katie Wu continues here. While there is still a month of spring games remaining, the Cardinals couldn't afford to wait out a rapidly changing market and risk missing out on needed shortstop depth. Wynn is still expected to be the frontrunner for the starting shortstop position, but having an experienced veteran in Crawford backing him up should alleviate some pressure. And that's the idea. It's not to make Mason Wynn think that he could lose his job at any given moment if he makes an error or he gets thrown out stealing or he goes into a mini slump or he's over 10.

That's not the idea. The idea is that they needed somebody who could play shortstop when Mason Wynne needs a day off because that's going to happen. Brandon Donovan still recovering from the elbow surgery. They aren't comfortable with him playing shortstop yet. They don't want to put that pressure on his arm yet. So Brandon Crawford is the guy they go with. And it costs you, buddy Kennedy, I think you're all right with that.

We're going to talk more about what happened in today's game against Boston, specifically the pitching. That coming up next on Lockstone Cardinals. Get buckets with the first bet on Fandul, America's number one sports book because right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. So you place a $5 bet on something simple. All right. Say you're thinking assists for Nocich or so you know, Nicholas Yokic. Who else? Who else can we say that it's going to do something no matter?

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YouTube and now it's available on Amazon Fire TV and the Free Fire TV channels app. Locked on Sports today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Lockdown plus our national shows covering every league buying Locked on Sports today now available on the Free Fire TV channels app. So with pitching being the emphasis this offseason, pitching, pitching, you've heard it a bazillion times, right? You saw some good stuff from a lot of the new names and faces today in their matchup against the Boston Red Sox. Again, the Red Sox did not have their A squad out there today, but you can only go up against who they put there on the field. So the next three pitchers after Sonny Gray, who threw two shutout

innings also threw shutout innings. Keena Middleton, Riley O'Brien, and Andre Palante, all three shutout innings. Now, they all three gave up a hit, but no damage was done. Shockingly, only Middleton had a strikeout. O'Brien and Palante didn't get any punches, but that's okay. Not the end of the world. John King, John King, man, had another ugly day on the mound. Two runs, three hits, one of them, a home run and two walks and just one inning of work.

Do you hear that? That ticking noise? That is John King's time with the Cardinals fading quickly. Two appearances. It's been hammered for five runs on seven hits and just two innings. And he was a guy who was so good last year. after coming over from the Texas Rangers. And it just has not clicked so far in spring training.

But again, this is why the Cardinals went out and got so many different arms that can be in the bullpen. And if one or two of these guys doesn't pan out the way they wanted them to, they're not freaking out again. They've got depth, just like with the Crawford move, they've got a bunch of other arms that can step up. And it's not like, oh, man, what do we do now? you know, John King was our one of only two left-hanners that we were going to have in the bull pit. That's not the case. They've got other guys now. You know, you've got Liberator and Thompson and Jojo Romero.

You know, you've got these guys where if King doesn't work out and he has to either be sent to Memphis or designated, not the end of the world. Former Red Sock Nick Robertson, who they got in the deal with Tyler O'Neill. Had a better day after a shaky first appearance, but he still gave up a run after walking to command, issues were his problem in that first game and he had an issue again today. Rule 5 pick, Ryan Fernandez from the Red Sox as well. Struck out three in his lone inning of work. Wilking Rodriguez gave up two hits, but he worked out of trouble. He struck out too.

He looked healthy, so that's good news. On the offensive side of things, Nolan Aronado continues to swing a hot bat early on this spring. Had a second inning. He let off the second inning. Got a hit, scores on Wilson Contreras's double, all the way from first, by the way. Look at Nato with the wheels.

He's hit in 571 so far this spring, which is great. I keep telling you, revenge tour from Nolan Aronado, coming your way. I also mentioned the PTSD of last season in yesterday's podcast when I was talking about Giovanni Gallegos' performance this weekend and how the offense was stranding runners on base. And we saw another relapse today in this second inning that I'm talking about after the RBI double from Contreras. He ends up going to third base on a pass ball.

So now you got Wilson over at third. Nobody out. Nobody. And the Cardinals fail to score him. Again, I'm not going to get been out of shape. I'm going to bite my tongue a little bit there. I'm not going to get bit out of shape. But that cannot happen.

That cannot happen. Jordan Walker, 0 for 7 so far this spring. He struggled. And he's been up in numerous situations so far to really do some damage, drive some runners in, and the swing is just not there just yet. He was up 3-0 because he was the next hitter. So you got Contrars on third Walker at the play with a 3-0 count, and he ends up striking out.

Next hitter is Mason went, and I haven't seen whether or not it was a called bump play or someone missed a sign or Wynn decided to do it on his own. I'm sure we'll get some clarification on it, if not out already. But on the first pitch, he lays down a bunt to the third base side. and just gets thrown out of first. And Contreras didn't break for home. So he's still on third. Now you got two outs.

And Thomas C.C. comes up, grounds out on the second pitch he sees, and the inning is over. So in six pitches, you went from a runner on third and a three O count to Jordan Walker. In six pitches, the next three hitters are out. And they don't even get the ball out of the infield. The run does not score. That's not good. That's problem.

I'm sure though that'll be addressed. Again, not sure what the bump thing was, but an ugly ending to a promising ending. Cardle's offense really didn't do all that much today until you get to about the eighth inning. And then Michael Siani got hit by a pitch. So he was on base. Cesar Prieto singles, move Siani over to third base. And then Lucan Baker had a couple hits today. He singles home a run. Then in the ninth inning, Alex Burleson singles to lead off the inning. They pinch run, Mike Antico for him. Catcher Pedro Paul has. He ends up walking, a wild pitch, moves the runners up. Then Jose Fermin ends up walking, followed by a Jeremy Revis walk, and boom, all of a sudden we're tied 3-3, but then Siani and Prieto both fly out, ends the game in a 3-3 tie, which a buddy of mine says is like kissing your sister.

I've never kissed my sister, so I don't know what that's like, but that's what he said ending either a football game or a baseball game and a tie is like, I'll take his word for it. Anyway, tie ball game. That's how it ends. Still not a loss. Still not a loss. That's the good thing, right? Cardinals set on the road to face the Mets again tomorrow. It'll be Miles Michaelis,

scheduled to make his spring debut first pitch, set for 12.10 p.m. St. Louis time. And you will be able to watch that on MLB.tv. I don't think it's on valleys, but don't hold me to that. But MLB.com for sure, supposed to be on that. and for some reason you have the New York Mets Network.

It'll be on that as well. So there you go. That's what went down today. Let me know your comments on everything that's going on with the Cardinals, what you thought about today's game, Sonny Gray's performance, the Brandon Crawford signing, your feelings on that get at me. I want some, I want to do a reaction video to all of this here in the near future.

So thank you for making Locked on Cardinals, your first listen every day. And if you haven't already, do me a solid. Give me a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Cardinals and a J.D. Sports Radio. Like, subscribe. on YouTube, help our channel and our love for the Cardinals grow. We're making the push for 10,000 subscribers. We blasted past 9,000 recently, and we continue to grow, and it's all thanks to you.

So keep it up, guys. You're the best fans in baseball for a reason, and I will see you next time on Locked on Cardinals.