Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals’ Alec Burleson and Matthew Liberatore POWER Past Astros in EXPLOSIVE Win

Starting point is 00:00:00 bombs away. The Cardinals do some yard work to take care of business against the Astros on Thursday. 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 J.D. Hafer and a former national radio sports anchor. Born and raised at St. Louis Lifetime Cardinals fan. Welcome to another episode of Lockdown Cardinals. as part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. Thank you to our everydayers who continue to be here with us.

Starting point is 00:00:41 And, you know, if you are new to the podcast, welcome aboard. Happy to have you here. Happy to see you enjoying what is the beginning of the 2026, St. Louis Cardinals baseball season. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation, giving you all the info about the birds on the bat. I took a drink right before this. So I was, okay, let me just get this started right now.

Starting point is 00:01:08 Today's show, we're going to do Cardinal Confessions. It's been a bit since I opened up some of the emails and comments. So we're going to share those with you guys here in a little bit. We've got to talk about the game, obviously, on Thursday as well. Another home game at the friendly confines of Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida. Welcome to a split squad version of the Houston Astros on Thursday. but I just took a drink right before this because I'd been eating popcorn all night. Just saw the new Scream movie, Scream 7 came out and went and saw that.

Starting point is 00:01:41 I know it's hard to see on the YouTube here, but I got the ghost face shirt on right now. Not a, not a bad. It was good to see Dev Campbell back. Some very cool death scenes, some gory stuff going on there. which is obviously a lot of fun. Nothing is ever going to top the original one. But, you know, you go into these movies thinking that, hey, I'm just here to have a good time and you'll have a good time.

Starting point is 00:02:11 Okay, don't take it all so seriously. Don't look at how Ghostface becomes incredibly strong out of nowhere. Don't pay attention to that stuff. It's popcorn horror. Have a good time with it. Don't take it seriously. And you'll enjoy it. All right.

Starting point is 00:02:26 On to baseball. But I just wanted to explain that, like, why I was choking here at the beginning. of the podcast. All right. On to the baseball side of stuff. On paper, this was a, ooh, actually I do want to show you guys this. Here is the wife at the movie tonight. Yep, or the ghost face mask. I got our stud. Okay. Now we can talk baseball. Very few familiar names in the Houston lineup on Thursday. So on paper, this game very much favored the Cardinals. Cardinal side of things, the majority of the starters are guys

Starting point is 00:02:59 that you expect to see on day one in St. Louis against the Tampa Bay race. Leading off, he had Mason win. Alec Berlinson was bad in second. Yvonne Herrera made his spring debut. Good to see him back in the lineup. Hitting third was the DH, but Ali did confirm that he is going to catch this weekend. I think Sunday is the day that they have targeted for that. So that's good news as far as like the health of Ivan Herrera.

Starting point is 00:03:23 Batty clean up. He had Jordan Walker, fifth Thomas C.C. who was in left field today. betting six was your catcher, Joe L. Pozo, Victor Scott was seven, Cesar Prieto was eighth and playing third. And then Brian Torres was betting ninth at second base and on the mound. You have what we think is going to be the opening day starter in Matthew Libertor. So offensively hasn't been that great for this spring for the Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:03:48 It just hasn't. We've had a couple of highlights here and there. But as far as the guys that, you know, are going to be on the major league roster, Spill little frigid of a start for the bats there in Florida. Only two runs in game one. Game two, they win six to five against Houston, but it was Joe Alpozo and Cesar Prieto, driving in four of those runs.

Starting point is 00:04:08 Not that there's anything wrong with them, but they're not the big names that you expect to carry the offense this year. Game three, they win five to four over Miami, but three of those came in the bottom of the ninth inning with the minor league guys taking the abats. Game four, they lose six to one, but then on Wednesday, day, the Cardinals put up six on the Mets, highlighted by that three-run blast by starting third

Starting point is 00:04:31 baseman Nolan Gorman. And he did it and it wasn't off some scrub. It was off one of the Mets' fine young pitchers, Jonah Tong. So it wasn't like, you know, he hit it off to some dude that's, you know, going to be bagging groceries in a few weeks. No, Jonah Tong is somebody that the Mets are very much behind. And as you know, the lineup, you know, it flips every game at this point of spring. So Thursday's game featured a lot of guys kind of struggling so far. But today was a better day for a few of them as they combined to score nine runs on 11 hits, which included four home runs. And three of them were by guys who were in the big leagues last year for the Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:05:08 So let's get to our three stars of the game. My number one star, I'm going to go with biscuits. Let's go with Alec Berluson. He gets my number one star, scorched the ball twice in this game. First time up, he roped one at 107.6 miles per hour off the bat, travel 3991 feet. Sounds like it would be a home run, right? But the problem was hit into the wrong part of the field. Deepest part of the ballpark in center field ends up just being an out.

Starting point is 00:05:36 So tough luck there. Second time up, he walks on four straight pitches, but got a race done in Ivan Herrera double play ball. And his third time up was in the bottom of the fifth inning. Two one, Cardinals are down two to one. Brian Torres hit a one out single. Mason Wind ends up walking, which brought up Burley. And after he fell behind 02, he was kind of gifted a fastball up in the zone. All right?

Starting point is 00:06:00 Probably didn't want to throw it there. And Burley made him remember that you probably shouldn't throw it there because he walloped it for a three-run shot over the right field wall, 109 miles per hour off the bat. Yeah, that's hard. That's hit pretty hard. That gave the cartels a fortitude lead, which they would eventually surrender later on. Still, three excellent at bats for the Cardinal Silver Silver Silver Slugger winner from a year ago. It's his first hit of the spring, first home run, obviously, as well.

Starting point is 00:06:29 A lot of people are questioning whether, you know, this is kind of the conversation. I don't want to say questioning, but the conversation surrounding Alec Berluson is, is he overrated after he won the Silver Slugger last year? People outside of St. Louis probably don't know a whole lot about Alec Burleson. They just probably don't. And they say, what silver slugger? What? What?

Starting point is 00:06:52 How did that happen? Or are you part of the camp that says, you know, maybe Burley's a little bit underrated because people don't know him since his numbers have been solid for two straight years. And now he's finally got a position to call home over at first base. 2024 was a very good year for Alec Burleson. 2025, though, the batting average, the OBP, the slug and the OPS, they were all up. They were all up. The power numbers, he fell shorty at 21 and 24 and then 18 last year in 2025 as far as home runs go.

Starting point is 00:07:26 He also played in less games and had less at bats. So maybe he would have gotten up to those numbers. Not like he was way off, like he was right there on pace. But a lot of the numbers that you pay attention to, they went up for 2025. And for him to get the Silver Slugger Award in that utility role, it says something about what Alec Berlison is. So some people want to know if he's already peaked. Is this the best he's ever going to be? Maybe.

Starting point is 00:07:53 But it's pretty good when you're a silver slugger winner. I'll take this for the next five years, if that's what Alec Berlinson wants to be. Some people fear that maybe he's going to regress in 2026. We're going to find out. We're going to find out because he's entrenched at first base and is one of the top five hitters in this batting order for sure. I would assume he's going to be top.

Starting point is 00:08:16 three most of the time, but you never know. Ollie could move some things around and maybe he drops to five at some point. I don't know. We'll see how the season goes, but he's going to be a big part of whatever happens for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2026. I've got two other stars to get to. We'll talk about those guys coming up next here on Lockstone Cardinals. If I'll be opening day is almost here and you can feel it.

Starting point is 00:08:45 It's starting to get a little bit warmer and you're starting to see. you know, more of the regulars, getting more playing time at spring training, fresh starts, big expectations, and that first crack of the bat, it's all what makes opening me so much fun. So whether it's a breakout rookie like a JJ Weatherholt or division race that goes down to the wire, there's nothing like being in the ballpark to watch it all. The only problem is getting tickets can feel kind of like a grind, long queue, surprise fees, prices jumping at checkout. Who needs it? That's where game time comes in. The game time app gives fans the advantage with constant innovation. It's how you

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Starting point is 00:10:27 Now the baseball is back. Lock in by joining the everyday or club. If you haven't already, which gets you at free episodes, you'll get access to our group chat on Discord for the next week or so. They're also giving you the code spring, SPR, I, and G for a free month. So go to Lockdown S-Cardinals. That supercast.com where you can tack that link in the show notes to get more information. But don't forget that code.

Starting point is 00:10:50 Second start of the game. Let's flip it around. Let's go from offense. Let's go to the other side of the. equation and go with Matthew Libertor, who in his second start of the spring was able to go three innings, allowed one run, two hits. He struck out three. Nothing bad to see there, right? The first hit he gave up was in the first inning, second hitter of the game actually, and he got ahead of him, oh, too, and you hate to lose somebody in this situation, but it's what happened. He went

Starting point is 00:11:17 02, didn't get him to bite on a couple of off-speed pitches, went with the slider on pitch five. that one ended up going right down Broadway, right down the middle, and clearly missed his spot. You're not trying to throw a slider to go right over the heart of the plate. So that was where the base hit came into play, had an easy second inning, but in the third, he commits the Cardinal Sin. Let's say it together.

Starting point is 00:11:39 Bad, don't walk the lead-off hitter. Because guess what? Comes around to score on a double by Bryce Matthews, and I'll say it until I am blue in the face. Lead-off walks for the devil, and almost always seem to come around and score in some way, shape, or four. And it happened again, that inning to Libby.

Starting point is 00:11:57 So lead off walks, big no, no, no, big no. But outside of that, Libby, to me, looked pretty darn strong again. And in five innings so far this spring, he's allowed just one run on four hits. He's got seven punchouts and that one walk that he had on Thursday. Those seven games, by the way, currently tied for the league lead among all spring training pitcher so far. You don't have to get all crazy and excited about it, but he is, you know, Um, he's thrown five innings, which is, uh, pretty close to the top, uh, amount of, uh,

Starting point is 00:12:28 innings that anybody's thrown. But this is all good. And it's certainly a positive that, uh, he's getting the strikeouts. He was hitting a steady 95 with the fastball on Thursday. Also got a chance to throw the splitter that he's been working on this off season. According to Derek Gould, he threw four of them saying that three of the four splitters were relatively uncompetitive. That's not Derek Gould talking. It's Libby talking about the splitters. Uh, one of these led to a whiff, which Libby said was, it was nice to see. So a lot of good things for Libby. You know, it's a work of progress when it comes to the split finger fastball.

Starting point is 00:12:59 It's not an easy, easy one to get the feel for. So, but good stuff for Matthew Libertort. And then my number three start of the game. I'm actually, don't get, don't get worked up about it, but I'm going to call it a tie because I want to give props to both Joel Pozo and Jimmy Crooks for going yard in this game. Two of the Cardinals backstops, both got action today. Pozo was starting behind the dish.

Starting point is 00:13:24 Crooks came in as a pinch hitter in that DH spot for Yvonne Herrera, was able to come on in the fifth inning. Now, Pozo struck first in this particular game, the slim down, Joel Pozo, I should say. What was described as because the game wasn't on TV, so you have to listen to the broadcast on KMOX, which is fine. The word varmint was thrown around a lot today by Claiborne and company.

Starting point is 00:13:50 but the home run by Pozo described as a sky high towering home run. I was able to hit a curveball, which was low in the zone and just put it into the wind and got it out. Did that in the bottom of the fourth inning, tied the game up at one game apiece. The long fly was his first of the spring. Ended up lining out to right field and another at bat, grounded into a double play and his other two of bat. So the line out, obviously, you hit the ball hard. You got to be happy about that double play. Don't like that.

Starting point is 00:14:19 but the home run. There you go. You like to see that. And then our guy Jimmy Crooks got two at bats. He ended up lining out to left field in the fifth inning in his first at bat. But in the seventh, he, his big fly was the one that blew the game open with the two runs toinger to left center, 105.8 off the bat, 394 feet that made it an eight to four Cardinals lead at the time.

Starting point is 00:14:43 They would go on to win this one by a score of nine to four. you know, one of the big debates this spring is what exactly are the Cardinals going to do with all of these quality catchers that they possess at this time. Yvonne Herrera still wants to catch. People are going to, they're going to give him a chance to see what he can do. He's coming off of the, you know, the elbow cleanup. Arguably the most dangerous hitter, at least right-handed hitter in the lineup. You know, I would say him and Burley are your top two.

Starting point is 00:15:14 So do you need him behind the plate? Debatable. Pedro Pahas seems like a solid major league backup. He's got the trust of the coaching staff. Pitchers seem to like him a lot. You got Jimmy Crooks, who's one of your top 30 prospects, top 10, I think he's like number nine or something like that. Does a bit of both. Like, he's pretty good, like all around.

Starting point is 00:15:41 Solid hitter in his career in the minors with a 285 average. OPS of 823 in almost 1,400 plate appearances. Yeah, you're going to take that. He's also a very good defensive catcher, like has a very good arm and a solid defensive guy. Joel Pozo, we know he's a fan favorite. Great guy working in a catcher, also some first base so far this spring.

Starting point is 00:16:05 And, you know, he was very good off the bench last season. Okay, he caught everybody by surprise at being able to contribute and produce the way he did. And then behind these guys, you've got Leo Bernal and you've got Renal who are both top 100 prospects. So the catching situation for the Cardinals very, very deep right now. But because of the unknown of Ivan Herrera and what his arm's going to be like early on this season, I think that's part of the reason why you didn't see a move with any of these

Starting point is 00:16:36 catchers, why none of them got traded in the offseason because they just really weren't totally sure. So they're going to let this thing play out. I've argued that Herrera should start looking at playing other positions. They used them a little bit in left last year. I would love to see him get some work at first base. I'm fine with him being the main DH on this team as well. I just, I don't need a guy who's going to be as important as he is offensively to take the abuse that most catchers take. They get beat up. back there. Have you tried doing squats for nine innings? Have you tried throwing the ball back every time the pitcher throws it in? You know, a pitcher will throw 90 to 100, like if that's a

Starting point is 00:17:24 really good game for a starter. You know, throwing the ball back to them, the 90 and 100 times two, is your catcher. It's a lot of wear and tear blocking baseball's chance of getting hit. We saw what happened to Contreras with the arm getting fractured. You know, the back swings, get guys in the head, like, just so many more chances to get hurt back there. And you don't need them to be your catcher. He doesn't have to be your catcher. If you can find other places for him, whether it's the age first, left field, wherever you want to do.

Starting point is 00:17:57 The argument is that, you know, if you can get that level of offense from your catcher, who is also a good catcher from behind, you know, behind the plate and throwing guys out, then you're ahead of most teams. You've got a leg up on him. He's coming back from the, He's going to catch this weekend. Sunday is the date. So we'll see what happens. But I don't know how you keep crooks down again. Like, are you going to carry three catchers? Are you going to carry four? Are you going to go Herrera, Pozo, Pahas, and

Starting point is 00:18:30 Jimmy Crooks? Are these all going to be up on the on the roster? Doesn't seem like that would make a whole lot of sense. But I don't know how you can keep crooks down again. And if he's going to be up on the team, he's got to play. They're not going to ride the bench. You're not going to have him platoon with Herrera Pahas and Pozo. And the one thing that Crook says going for him that is different from those other guys is that he's left-handed, left-handed slugger. And the majority of pitchers of Major League Baseball are right-handed.

Starting point is 00:18:58 So in theory, if they did go matchup-wise, he should get the bulk of the starts anyway. But we'll have to wait and see how it plays out this spring and what they decide to do. Some other notes from the game. Mason Wynn walks twice. Still hitless though this spring. Yvonne Herrera 0 for two in his first plate appearances. Jordan Walker was over three hitting just 1.25 so far. Victor Scott got his first base hit of the spring, but also made an error in center field when he overran a ball.

Starting point is 00:19:25 The Cardinals pitching staff combined to walk four hitters, which you don't love. But they also struck out 11. Solid numbers there. Jared Schuster, the lefty got the win, but also got the blown save after he allowed the tying run to score on the top of the seventh inning before the Cardinals took it back and put a four spot up in the bottom half. Gerson Moreno struck out the side in the ninth inning. Hello there. John John Gazzar was two for two with a solo home run, his first of the spring. Brian Torres also two for two with the run scored. But the offense outshines the pitching staff in this particular one. Fifteen runs in their last two games

Starting point is 00:19:59 for for them, which is great to see. But even after, you know, kind of lighting it up, the last two games. Cardinals are still just hitting 214 overall, which is 26th in the league this spring. Again, you're not going to panic over anything like that. No need to freak out. I am just reeling the stats to you that they are only hitting 214 as a team so far in spring training, but they're also four and two. So you make sense of it. Create conversation, right? And honestly, who cares about the win-lost record? Because we've seen that before where the cardals are the We got all the wins in the spring. And then we go out and suck in real in the regular season.

Starting point is 00:20:39 So it doesn't really matter all that much. But we'd love to see better numbers. Anyway, Quinn Matthews, scheduled to be the starter on Friday against the Mets first pitch. Going to be at 1205 St. Louis time. Once again, not talibized. That sucks. But what doesn't suck is your comment, suggestions, all of that jazz. Cardinal Confessions, coming up next.

Starting point is 00:21:02 What are fans saying about what they've seen so far? from the St. Louis Cardinals at spring training. This is Lockdown Cardinals. Workplace chaos, deadlines, stacking up, inbox overflowing in the position. You need to fill. Still sitting wide open. No, Bueno. When the pressure's on and you need the right higher, this is a job for sponsored jobs.

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Starting point is 00:22:20 Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Thank you again for making Lockton Carlis your first listen to the day. Thank you for making Locked on the number one sports podcast network. All right. Here's where we kind of hand the mic over to you to the listeners. and you get to air your grievances, your thoughts about the team. We call it Cardinal Confessions because we don't call you out by name.

Starting point is 00:22:47 We're not going to point at you and go, what are you said? That's not what this is about. It's just a chance to have your voice heard and not trying to embarrass anybody or bash anybody. Just having a conversation. And I'm pleasantly surprised that the last few episodes, mostly positive stuff. and there are going to be the negative people in the chat and in the comments all the time. It's going to happen. And it's okay.

Starting point is 00:23:15 It's all right to be down on the Cardinals if you want to be. You want to be mad at ownership. You can be mad at them. It's completely up to you. I understand it. I really do. But you have to admit there are some good things going on with the Cardinals as well. So it depends on how you want to look at it.

Starting point is 00:23:30 So let's get a couple of these in before we wrap up. This one was basically on all things Cardinals. They just went through a whole gamut of stuff. Pointed out, talented pitching translate to close games. That's why I don't agree with 68 wins, which is like one of the projections that people were talking about. It says, in my opinion, Victor Scalbel never learned a hit over bunting every game. I like his swing, even though the average isn't there yet.

Starting point is 00:23:58 Victor worked very hard this off season to try to get the swing squared away. Did it get a base hit on Thursday. Sphonson is your closer, hopefully. sure, that's fine. If that's the way you want to do it, certainly earned a chance to be your closer last year. So I'm fine with that. Says, love the stats, JD,

Starting point is 00:24:20 allowed to be happy back to the Cardinal Way. JJ, I'm not sure what's happening there with the defense. I'm sure it's just timing and footwork. Ozzie and Colton Wong should help with that. Yeah, I mean, it's just a young guy who's at major league level infield. for the first time in his career. And I'm sure there's some nerves, you know, playing second base, not the most comfortable position for him.

Starting point is 00:24:44 He came up as a short step. I'm not worried about J.J. Weatherholt and his defense. I'm really not. And I just pointed out that he has made a couple of errors, but it's okay. Make them now. That way you're ready in the regular season. Also says tough call between Yadi and Albert for the Hall of Fame,

Starting point is 00:25:01 but based on Yadi staying here and his commitment, I would vote for him. Sorry, Albert, next time. For what it's worth, the poll on X at L0 underscore Cardinals ended up with Yadi winning that poll with 51.3% of the vote to Alberts 43.5. But we know there's no wrong answer there. And if you vote for Brian Jordan or George Hendrick, there's no wrong answer here. You can vote for all. They all deserve to be in, in my opinion.

Starting point is 00:25:29 And it's just going to be, I think Yadi's going to win the vote. I just think that's what's going to happen. On Nolan Gorman. Here's another one. I don't know why people keep scratching their heads with Gorman the last two seasons. The difference in those two seasons and his first is that he was getting more consistent at bats. He will strike out a lot. It's who he is.

Starting point is 00:25:49 But if you give that man 600 played appearances, he will get you around 30 bombs and 90 RBIs. It's not hard. Just play him and let him right out the slumps instead of benching him. A player like him can't find any kind of rhythm getting jerked around like he was the past couple of seasons. They can't find consistency without consistent played appearances. Well set. And, you know, it's part of the reasons why the Cardinals did what they did this offseason.

Starting point is 00:26:15 They shipped off the veterans, not only to, you know, get rid of payroll that they didn't want to spend with all of the changes going on with, you know, the TV deals going down and lockout on the horizon. You know, there's a lot of different reasons why you could see why they wanted to shed this payroll, but also part of it is that they want to give other guys chances. Aranaano was blocking Gorman over at third base. He made the shift over to second base, but you still have Brennan Donovan there. Brennan Donovan was blocking J.J. Weatherholder and Nolan Gorman over at second base. So with lanes opened up for both of those guys, they're not going to get a full season to do

Starting point is 00:26:54 just what you said, which is consistent playing time, consistent at bats. Same with Jordan Walker and right field. They don't want to keep sending these dudes down and, you know, having them on that, that Memphis shuttle. They don't want to do that. They want to see these guys sink or swim in the big leagues with consistent at bats and playing time. That way they can have a better idea on what their futures are going to be with this organization. Do they want to even keep Gorman and Walker around if both of them have terrible seasons in 2026? That's a real question. J.J. obviously, you know, they're fully on board with dealing with the warts that are going to happen with JJ, offensively and defensively in his rookie year.

Starting point is 00:27:38 I mean, to expect him to come out and just be a superstar in year one, probably not the smartest thing to do. Expect some struggles. Expect him to, you know, take some time to get used to everything. It's okay. And then eventually, when he gets to there, I'm sure he'll turn it around. and when he gets comfortable. But, you know, if he does come out of the gate and is hitting like 125 after the first couple of weeks, don't freak out.

Starting point is 00:28:05 He's a rookie. Most rookies aren't very good when they first get to the big leagues. It takes a little bit of time. And when you have a season of, you know, low expectations like the Cardinals do this year, one of the good things about that is that you don't feel the pressure of having to move off of a young player when they do struggle, which is kind of where, Gorman and Walker wore the last couple of seasons because you were still in a window where management

Starting point is 00:28:33 thought that they should be competing for a playoff spot. And when those guys would have their bad streaks for a couple of weeks, they're like, dude, we can't keep doing this. We're in the hunt here. And they weren't allowed to struggle and then get themselves out of it. This year, they're allowed to because this is their team now. they're going to get a chance to build something together with the rest of this young core, with Gorman and Mason Wyn and JJ and Burley and Victor and Jordan Walker and Yvonne Herrera and Jimmy Crooks and, you know, Jose Fremine, Thomas U.JC., Nathan Church.

Starting point is 00:29:13 Eventually, you're going to have Joshua and Jesus Pius. We talked about Bernal, Rodriguez, Chase Davis, former first rounder, Blaze Jordan. But you got in the Stephen Matt Steele, Danielle Ortiz. a huge year in the minor leagues last year and so forth. There's a lot of big names. And that's just your position players. We're not even talking about the pitching that they've acquired and assembled with, you know, Liam Doyle and Sanja and Quinn Matthews and Brandon Clark and, you know,

Starting point is 00:29:41 Heeker Faro. It's Kobe when he's healthy. Like it was such a bummer that his elbow went out last year because he was like on the cusp of coming to the big leagues. Tink Hens, Eshon Henderson, Bryson Mauts, Tanner Franklin, Braden Davis, my guy Luis Gastilum. Like, come on, man. Some of them are going to work. Some of them are not.

Starting point is 00:30:05 Some of them won't pan out. Some of them will get traded for established stars like the Cardinals used to. But on paper, my opinion, it's an exciting group of players that Heinbblum is pulled together here. And you pair that, all of this talent that you've acquired, and you pay that. And you pair that with, you know, the upgrade in the facilities, more coaches, more instructors. Like, the attention to detail is where it needs to be finally. And it hadn't been there in a very long time.

Starting point is 00:30:35 But it's going to take time. As Hime has said that, you know, there's no shortcuts here. They're not going to do that. They got to stay disciplined. They got to stay the course. Stick to the plan that they have laid out. And if that means 70 wins in 2026 or less this year, then so be it, if it means that they can flourish in 2027 and beyond. They'll make that sacrifice.

Starting point is 00:31:01 If that's what they got to do, then so be it. I'm on board with it. And I think a lot of cardinal fans are as well that there's finally a vision. They've selected a path. They're going down it. They're not looking back. They're not iffy on what they're supposed to do. They chose.

Starting point is 00:31:15 And I think they chose wisely. and I'm looking forward to watching it Blossom. So thanks for making a lockdown Cardinals. You first listen every day. If you haven't already, please give us a follow on X at L0 underscore Cardinals in a JD Sports Radio. You can find us on TikTok and Instagram at Lockdown Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow pushing for 14,000 subscribers before opening day.

Starting point is 00:31:39 We're getting there. We're getting there. We're at 13.8. If you have never missed an episode, check out that every day or club. Built for you, get locked on Cardinals ad-free, plus members-only, Discord, access, and more. I do Lockedon, S-E-L-Cardels.supercast.com to join the club. Don't forget to use the code Spring, S-P-R-I-N-G, which will get your free month. For those of you on video, we're going to send you to the first ever 24-7 National Lockdown Podcast Network,

Starting point is 00:32:05 YouTube channel and audio style. Make sure your second listen is Locked on MOB. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. I'll be back on Saturday with another edition of Locked on Cardinals. Thanks.

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