Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals Manager Oli Marmol SHOCKINGLY Tops Poll | Pitching IMPLODES Against Blue Jays

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

Cardinals' reputation takes a hit in anonymous player poll. Is Oli Marmol's managerial style causing concern? JD Hafron breaks down the surprising results of The Athletic's MLB manager survey, where St. Louis Cardinals skipper Oli Marmol tied for least desirable boss. The discussion covers the Cardinals' mixed organizational reputation, potential factors influencing player perceptions, and Marmol's performance given the team's priorities. Plus, a deep dive into the Cardinals' recent 10-9 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, highlighting offensive bright spots and ongoing pitching struggles. Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-st-louis-cardinals/ Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/ Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Wonderful Pistachios Get snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! Supply House Join the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com! Monarch Money Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel Right now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. 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 #stlouiscardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A new poll on the athletic game out and Cardinals manager, Ali Marmal, one. Problem is this wasn't a poll that you wanted to be the top answer. And 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. I'm J.D. Hafford and I'm your host for Lockdown Cardinals.

Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. me on X at JD Sports Radio as well as the podcast at L0.1 or square Cardinals. We're on YouTube. Make sure you like, subscribe, and comment, hit that notification button so you don't miss out on stuff. And available on TikTok and Instagram at Locked on Cardinals. 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 Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on MLB at Monarch Money.com for 50% off your first year. So the St. Louis Cardinals lost another one on Tuesday night at Bush Stadium to the Toronto Blue J's score was 10 to 9. We're going to talk more about this game later on. But I wanted to jump in and share with you first because this first at least because I found this interesting. And I'm sure you've seen something about this online already. It is this anonymous players poll that the athletic puts out where they ask players. around the league about certain things under the protection of anonymity so that they can answer freely. There won't be any consequences for what they say or any ridicule.

So keep that in mind when we go through this. They asked about a number of different things. They asked about, you know, which player do you most like to watch play? Shohei Otani ended up being number one. No Cardinals listed. What hitter would you least want to pitch against the Game 7 of the World Series? Once again, no Cardinals listed in that one either. But the one that is going to catch Cardinals fans' attention

is the ones that had to do with the manager and the organization. The question was, which manager, aside from your own, would you most like to play for? And which one would you least like to play for? And Cardinals manager, Ali Marmal, finished tied for first place in one of these polls, but it wasn't the good one. new, no, no, no.

Ali tied with former Rockies manager Bud Black, who has already been replaced this year, with five votes as the manager that players would at least like to play for. Now, keep in mind that this is described as a poll that is conducted over the course of two and a half months from spring training until early May. They say that their writers interviewed more than 135 players across 21 teams and granted them anonymity to get their honest take.

So my first thought was, wait, hold on. It's more than 135 players. So is that 136? So, but not 140 people across 21 teams. So not all the teams are involved either. So you've got 26 players on a roster for 13. That's 700. I'm doing the math in my head.

And that's like, I don't know, about 17% of the players is who they're talking to. So keep that in mind. This is not a poll that went across every team to every player and that this is the majority feeling towards things. Second, if these were done in early May, as they say, the Cardinals as a team had not yet done anything all that good. Remember, May is when they took off. So the nine game winning streak and, you know, be happier vibes that have been around this team since the month of May. probably hadn't hit quite yet when the final polls were brought in. I'm not sure how much of a difference that would actually make,

but it's just something to keep in mind is all I'm saying, because until if you're saying early May, it means the Cardinals were still probably a losing team until that point. And since then, you know, obviously things have been a lot better for a lot of people, you know, fans, players, obviously, you know, as the Cardinals play much better baseball, though, what they've done so far against Toronto. hasn't been great. Anyway, we'll get to that.

But then on top of that, only of the 17% of the guys that they polled, only 40 of those players actually responded to this particular question. And of the 40, it's only 40 players from the whole league. Five of them chose Bud Black, as well as Ali Marmon.

coming in third place thought it was interesting former cardinals manager and current Padres head hancho mike shilt who is the name that constantly is brought up when people want to hate on ali which is fine you don't have to like ali it doesn't bother me um but every time they're like a little my shilts doing out san diego yeah here he is he's on the poll of guys that they don't want to they don't want to play for but again very small sample sides of people who voted on this thing um he was tied with the Angels Ron Washington. Others receiving votes for Gabe Kapler, who isn't even managing right now. Like it's been a couple years as he's been a manager. Dave Roberts of the world champion Dodgers. I thought everybody liked him. He got some votes. Derek Shelton, who just got canned in Pittsburgh,

and then Marc Cotsay from the A's. And the only quote that they actually used from a player on why that particular person chose Ali as his answer. He said, I don't really know. know many managers. I'm trying to think of someone in our division just so I can say someone. Who's the Cardinals guy? Yeah, just put him down. Oh, so this is what we're going off of. Really no reason except that he happens to be the manager of the Cardinals. So keep that in mind, because I know there's going to be people who come out and are like, see, we told you, nobody likes Ollie. He's terrible and this and that. You're right to have. have that opinion. You can do that if you want. It's fine. But look at this. Like, I'm not really

taking this seriously. Not exactly a whole lot of thought being put towards that answer. I don't know. Somebody in the division, who's the Cardinals guy? I don't even know managers. The reason someone voted for Bud Black, the quote that the athletic gave. Because he doesn't stop talking when he's in the dugout. And as a player, it gets kind of annoying. Plus, it means I'd be pitching in Colorado. Honestly, whoever was the Rockies manager was who I was going to say. So it wasn't so much Bud Black is the problem. It was more of the fact that they don't like the Rockies. They don't play for the Rocky. So they're going to choose their manager. So it's fun to talk about these kind of things. We're going to continue with it because there's

more too at all. But as far as like, oh my gosh, nobody likes Ali. I kind of find that hard to believe. just based off of what the information they gave us. I mean, those were the quotes. The athletic shows were like, these are the best ones that we're going to put out there because the rest of them are worse. So it just leads me to believe it wasn't just about the managers in these situations

that some of these answers have to do with the organization as well. And the athletic also asked players, which organizations have good reputations among players and which ones have bad reputations. I'll let you know what they had to say about the Cardinals and where they got votes coming up next on Lockdown Cardinals. Ever check your bank account and wonder, where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment, it's very easy to lose track of the funds.

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leave your comments on YouTube as well as on X anytime you want. Your feedback is always welcome and encouraged. The athletic also with these anonymous polls, ask players which organizations have good reputations among players and which ones have that. Of the 135-ish guys they talk to, more than 135, they didn't bring up 140 though. The Cardinals only got one vote for a good reputation.

So that's a bummer. and they got three votes for bad. But let's compare it to everybody else. The A's got the most bad reputation votes with 39, followed by the White Sox, the Rockies, the Marlins, the pirates, and the angels. And then you've got the Cardinals and the Mariners tied with three bad reputation votes. The best team in baseball, the Detroit Tigers, got zero good reputation votes. Best team in the league, zero.

Cardinals got one. The Tigers also got two bad reputation votes. No surprise that the teams that are winning or aren't afraid to spend some more money, got a lot of the good reputation votes. Dodgers finished in first place, 82. Then it's the Yankees, the Braves, the Cubs, the Guardians and the Mets. Two responses they highlighted were teams want to win. they give everything to the players.

That's who they voted for. Teams that want to win and give everything to the players. And you want to be where they spend money. Those are the two quotes that the athletic chose to put out there as reasoning behind the choices of these certain votes. And it seems simple enough, right? Duh. Can't blame them for, yeah, I want to win.

And yeah, yeah, I want to make a ton of money. I don't blame them for voting for those particular teams. Cardinals have done very little of either the last few seasons. Remember, no free agents this offseason. Didn't spend any money on anybody before they brought in film Maytown later on. So you can see why that would be something that these people are kind of frowning upon these particular players. They also haven't done a whole lot of winning the last couple seasons leading up to this year. They didn't give a specific explanation on why the Cardinals got the votes that they did.

they went through a couple of teams. But with the way that they've been cutting payroll, I really shouldn't surprise you that players aren't like, yay, we really like the Cardinals. If they were forking over a lot of money, I would assume they would have got more boats. Four of the majors five lowest payrolls belong to the A's, the White Sox, the Marlins, the Pirates,

and you saw where they're ranked. They're way down there at the bottom. So money for sure has something to do with this, as well as those teams' inability to win much or even have a direction that is heading towards winning anytime soon. You know, the A's got all the turmoil going on with where are they playing ball. They're at a minor league park right now in Sacramento. I mean, that's not going to be something players want to be a part of. The White Sox just came off the season where they had the worst record in the modern era ever. The Marlins just continued to rebuild, even though they have a young,

team. They just keep trading dudes away. They might do it again this year. The pirates can't seem to just make that next step despite getting high draft picks. So you can see why people aren't so fond about those guys. Again, it's a small sample size. But at the same time, it goes to show you what some of these guys are thinking about those teams and how they're feeling about the Cardinals current state and how they feel about the guy running things in the clubhouse. Personally, I think Ali has actually done a pretty good job considering that winning was not the number one priority going into this season. It wasn't. That wasn't what they talked about.

They didn't talk about, you know, we're here to compete for a championship. You didn't hear that. You heard, well, this is a year that we're going to use to take a long look at some of these younger guys and see what our futures with them are going to be. And we still think we're going to win some ball games, but, you know, the aspirations of winning a World Series, which is what you want every single year was not something that was talked about. And for the team and for Ali and the coaching staff and everything to put together a competitive and entertaining product onto this field, most nights, I think that should be applauded. Most people didn't expect the cartels to do anything this year.

A lot of them were picking them to finish in last place in the division. and you don't have to be thrilled with everything that's going on this year. I mean, there's a lot of people disappointed after the last two games against the Blue Jays, and I get it. But overall, aren't you pretty surprised with how good this team has been? You know, you've seen some of the young guys like Yvonne Herrera and Mason Winn and Matthew Libertor become integral parts of the success this team is having. We haven't seen the growth out of the two main guys that everyone wanted to see it from

with Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman. At least you haven't seen it to the extent that people were hoping for, right? You saw Jordan Walker start to unlock some things and then bang, goes down with the wrist. Huge bummer. And then it's hard to grow when you don't play in Gorman's case. The fact that they couldn't trade Aronado kind of screwed Nolan Gorman over this year because there's nowhere to really put him. You've still got Brandon Donovan.

You want to keep his glove at second base. You've got the outfield where you've already promised a job to Jordan Walker, you're not going to keep Donovan out in the outfield. Alec Berlinson has been outstanding at the plate. Yvonne Herrera is basically your DH does catch. But, you know, the pitch staff doesn't do all that good when he's catching. So there hasn't been a lot of room for Ollie to get Gorman in. He doesn't want to have him going up against lefties.

So that really limits the amount of times that Nolan Gorman is going to see the field, although he is in the lineup against the lefty today with Donovan out due to that toe injury. And the organization, it is changing. You know, Mo is out after this year. Heim Bloom and his vision will take over. Hopefully that improves things in the minors and at the major league level. They've already addressed some of their own issues. He pointed out, you know, looked in the mirror and said, look, this is where we kind of suck at.

And we're going to make some improvements. We're going to start moving this thing in the right direction. Again, it's just not something that's going to happen in one year. It's going to take time. but at least they're starting to address these things, right? So that's progress. The one constant is still ownership. You know, if they don't want to spend more money,

then the Cardinals likely won't improve much in these particular polls. But I don't care as long as they're winning. You know, again, look at the Tigers. They didn't get any votes. And if the Cardinals were in the same spot as Detroit is, record-wise, I don't give a crap about these polls. I could care less. I just want to win.

And as far as the manager goes, I continue to bring up that throughout this reset, that the players have never called out or pointed at Ali as the problem or any of the coaching staff as the issue. They've never appeared to not respect him or dislike him in any way. Just watch the way that they interact with him in the dugout. Like there doesn't appear to be any issues there. Do I think he'll be around after Mo is gone? I doubt it. I really do. I doubt it. I would imagine that, you know,

Hyme Bloom and them would want their own guy in place moving forward. But I don't think Ali is the main reason for how this team and organization got to where it is at this point. He just happened to be the manager when it finally crumbled. So speaking of crumbling last night was entertaining. But the pitching staff let the cartels down in a major way. Another tough loss at home against the Blue Jays, another one run game. game. We'll discuss it here coming up on Locked on Cardinals. Get the supplies you need from the site made for the skilled trade supply house, whether you're in plumbing, HVAC or electrical work,

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scale. You can find MLB game night on locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts. A rough night for the pitchers in general on both teams, but certainly not a good one for the Cardinals. We don't care of the Blue Jays guys have a tough night, but when our dudes have it, it affects us. They got beat up. 10 runs, 16 hits and a 10 to 9 loss to the Blue Jays, a game that let's be honest, really wasn't as close as the score appears, but the Cardinals' offense, they did fight to the end to make it look better than this game really was. Miles Michaelis looked like the old Miles Michaelis. I know he's had much more success this year, but this was,

this looked like the dude from last year, for sure. Got popped for a three-run shot in the first inning on another one of these patented batting practice, 92-mile-in-hour fastballs that are right down the middle. back-to-back games that Michaelis has served up such a pitch in both times, they got crushed and got hit over the wall. Once by Jonathan India for the Royals, and then this time by Andres Jimenez. Neither of these guys are power hitters.

These guys are not sluggers that you expect to see big home run totals from. And the thing is, you lay in a meatball like that to any major league hitter. And it's going to get splattered. and that is exactly what happened. You saw what happened to Helsley on Monday night. Class A, that is not a power hitter, but you lay one in right over the heart of the plate, right down the middle, they're going to hit it.

It doesn't matter if it's triple digits or not. They're going to hit it, and that has happened. Once again to Miles Michaelis. So, you know, it just puts you right, you're losing by three right away in that first inning. So the Cardinals have to play catch up all night. and good thing is the offense is pretty darn good. They're able to tie things up in the fourth when Storm and Gorman, Norman,

I don't know why I always say Norman because that's not his name, but it's Nolan Gorman, smacked his third home run of the year, a three run shot off of Chris Bassett to make it four to four. Gorman now hitting 467 in June, two home runs, five RBIs and just 15 at bats. As I mentioned, Donovan not in the lineup on, what is they? Wednesday, I lose track.

on Wednesday. That toe issue is obviously a problem. I haven't heard about anything with the IEL or anything yet involving him, but clearly that's been an issue. So Gorman should get more playing time. He should be the everyday second baseman now while Donovan is out. And he's got him in the lineup today against the lefty for the Blue Jays. And when your offense, you know, when it gets you back into a game like that, when you're down four to nothing is what the deficit was and your offense fights back and ties that up. What do we always say? You're hoping for that that as soon as that happens, the next inning that you need your pitcher to put up a zero so that you can ride that newfound momentum into the next chance where your team is at the plate. But that didn't happen.

Didn't happen twice in this one. Miles Michaelis gives the lead right back. Two more runs in the top of the fifth inning. Blue Jays extended to eight to four after a two-run blast off of Kyle Leahy by Alejandro Kirk, who's, I mean, that's the greatest hitter of all time watching this series. But it's 8 to 4. And then you get a two-run blast by Nolan Aronado. Big hitting that eighth inning cuts the lead to 8 to 6. So you're in striking distance. It's not those 8th of the year, by the way.

He now has 35 RBIs, like kind of sneaky. 35 RBIs. That's the fourth highest total RBI total among all third base been of baseball. So everybody, myself included, where you're like, Ah, you know, Nado's having a down year. Not really. Like if you look at it, he's made up some ground recently. So eight home runs and 35 RBIs.

Yeah, I'll take that. But the Cardinals just, they couldn't stop the Blue Jays, Chris Roycroft, who, are we at the point where we're over this Chris Roycroft stuff? Like, I don't know. I just don't know if he can do it. I just don't know. because it seems like every time he comes up to the major leagues, it doesn't work.

It just doesn't work. Gives up two more runs in the top of the ninth. The last one on a wild pitch, which at the time you're like, oh, well, of course, a wild pitch made it 10 to 6. But this would be very significant because in the bottom of the ninth,

the Cardinals offense puts together some stuff and gets a three-run bomb by Contreras to make it 10 to 9. And now it's a one-run ball game, and you go look and you're like, the run on the wild pitch. The run on the wild pitch. That's the closest they would get. Game ends 10 to 9.

Pitching was bad. Michael is five innings, six runs, nine hits. The really bad home run. John King, one run in a one in a third innings. Kyle Leahy gives up the tater to Alejandro Kirk, who is murdering the Cardinals in this series, got seven hits and two dingers in two games. Like, whatever you're doing isn't working.

Like, it's not. Do the exact opposite from here on now. Roycroft, two runs, three hits and an inning of work with the wild pitch. Credit to the Blue Jays for being good hitters, but at the same time, we're worried about our people and the pitching staff has got to be better than this. The Cardinals aren't made to outslug opponents, and you lose five to four after taking the lead late, and then you lose 10 to 9 in game two.

It's a deflating feeling because it's like, what do we do? We're finding ways to lose ball games is what's happening. And that's not good. Ollie was certainly proud of the guys, spoke about it after the game, how this was like one of his favorite games of the season because of the way they fought back, never quit. I wholeheartedly agree that's great, but you're still losing. And that's not good.

So we got to find ways to win. Quit finding ways to lose, find ways to win. Bolpin has cost them the first couple games here in this series. They've got to clean it up to avoid the sweep on Wednesday. hopefully good things from Matthew Livertore after a couple of that outings. But the bullpen's got to be better or find people who can make it better because the guys they keep rotating into this thing, it's not working. It's not working.

You've got your main dudes. You know, you're not moving Leahy. You know, he hasn't been as good, but you're not moving him. Maton, Romero, Halsley. These guys are all locked in. Matt is locked in. But the guys at the bottom there, you know, is John King the answer?

Do we need to start thinking about somebody else there? Obviously, the Roycrofts, the O'Brien's, the stuff like that, the Rotary Munoz's, they're not working. So that's been an issue because every time they come in, something bad happens. And it's costing these Cardinals wins. And that you just can't have. All right.

Thanks for making a lockdown cardinals, your first listen every day. If you haven't already, please give us a follow on X at L1 underscore Cardinals and a JD Sports Radio, TikTok and Instagram, at Lockdown Cardinals, like, subscribe on YouTube, help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We'll see it next time on Lockdown Cardinals.