Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals OVERCOME Tough Stretch With WINNING Record —Jordan Walker IGNITES Relevance

Starting point is 00:00:00 The St. Louis Cardinals make another jump in the power rankings following their 16 game stretch. But was that stretch a success or do you feel a little bit disappointed by it? 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. Hafford and on today's show, we'll be discussing the first 40 games of the season and who needs to step their game up, how things are looking in the division.

Starting point is 00:00:36 We've got a lot of division games coming up here soon. What should the Cardinal strategy be at the deadline if they do remain in contention and playing good ball? But we're going to start today with the stretch of games that we just completed. And to help us sift through all of this information is our good friend, Thomas Govain from Redbird Rance.com. Good morning, Thomas. How you doing it, pal?

Starting point is 00:00:56 Good morning. I'm doing quite well. It's almost summer. School's almost out. This is good. Feeling good right now. That's life is good. The Cardinals are winning. Nobody really expected them to be where they are.

Starting point is 00:01:08 So that's always an added bonus. Let's just jump into this recent stretch of games where, you know, at the beginning of this, you know, we all discuss about how this is going to be a really rough patch. You know, this is probably going to be really, really tough because of the level of competition that the Cardinals are going to be playing. You had three against the Mariners, which seems like it started a hundred years ago, three against the Mariners, who almost went to the World Series. You got four against the pirates who made major additions in the offseason in our division foe, three against the Dodgers who won the World Series again.

Starting point is 00:01:41 You had the brewers, supposed to be three against them who had the most wins during the regular season. Mother Nature kind of did us a solid with the rain out there. And then four against the Padres who have been neck and neck with the Dodgers in the NOS this year. One of the highest payrolls in the league. So, you know, they're tough. And the Cardinals get through that stretch at 9 and 7, Thomas. How impressive was that to you? Or did you feel a little disappointed considering how it ended with those two losses in San Diego

Starting point is 00:02:10 and that stupid Nick Castiano's helping out the Padres to steal a game away from the Redbirds? Well, he gave us one earlier, so I guess it's balanced, right? I think if you take a bird's eye view of the last 17, 16 games, 17 days, it's very successful. Nine and seven, you had those games in a very quick stretch. you've got five potential playoff teams that we bested for the most part it's a 563 winning percentage coming out of that that's pretty strong as well but then the bad taste in your mouth with those last two games i think that you would like to take one of those two but then it's also a serious split on the road against the padres and when you say just those words it feels very good

Starting point is 00:02:50 to hear them yeah and and i said something about this in yesterday's episode where you know the baseball season is usually like you said it's kind of a balancing act where You know, there's going to be games where you steal them from people and then it's going to happen to you too. It just is what it is. And the Cardinals have had a few games this year already where they come back where it looked like they were dead in the water. They come back. They steal a game from somebody and we're like, yay. And not like that's never going to happen to us.

Starting point is 00:03:18 Of course it is. It is going to happen. And it just so happened to me the worst part about it is that it's Nick Castiano. So I actually had a buddy who was a Reds fan. And he trolled me yesterday by wearing a T-shirt of Nick. Castellanos when we had to meet up for an event. And I was like, bro. And he goes, yeah, I can't let you forget.

Starting point is 00:03:38 I can't let you forget. Like, all right, whatever. But you know what that means, Thomas? That means the Cardinals are inside the heads of people. We're actually relevant this year when most people thought we weren't going to be. And it's driving people bonkers. I don't know if you've had reactions from friends who root for other teams or whatever. But most of them were like, I get the same thing.

Starting point is 00:03:57 Weren't you guys supposed to not be good this year? What is this? Why are you still here? And I cherish it every single time because this has been a lot of fun. And to see the Cardinals go through what we kind of consider a gauntlet of teams there, like you said, these are all teams that are very much capable of making the playoffs. And to see the Cardinals come away with it with a winning record, it says something about what this team is this year.

Starting point is 00:04:26 And it's that they don't know that they're supposed to be bad. All they do is go out there and compete. And when they win, they love it. When they lose, they move on to the next day. They've got a really good attitude about this, I think. Oh, absolutely. I agree. And that's kind of been, you mentioned it there with the fun part.

Starting point is 00:04:42 I don't have many friends in the opposing teams, but I have a lot of friends of the Cardinals who are fans as well. And everything I hear, everyone I talk to, it's like, this is fun. I didn't expect it. I don't quite care where it ends up. But for the time being, I'm enjoying what I'm watching and what I'm experiencing. And that's the same sentiment I have as well. Yeah, and I think that's with Cardo fans in general, it's not so much that not spending money or making bad trades.

Starting point is 00:05:07 They just want to see a competitive product out there on the field in the last couple years. It's just been very stale, very boring, same old, same old. You had a lot of guys in the rotation that you didn't trust. You just kind of felt like, yeah, they're going to go out there and we're probably going to lose today. You don't really feel that way this time. Like it feels like I don't really know what's going to happen. They could be awesome. It could be a bad day.

Starting point is 00:05:30 I don't know. But more times than not so far, they've been able to pull out of victory, which has been great to watch. The energy on the team is great. The youthfulness, youngest roster in the league. It's really been an exciting experience so far. And eventually, I assume there will be a lull where they lose four or five in a row. And I hope that fans don't lose their enthusiasm for this team just because of that happening.

Starting point is 00:05:55 because, again, the balance of the season, eventually they'll probably go on a winning streak once again. But back to the stretch of games. Did you have a favorite game in this particular stretch that stands out to you? Yeah, I'm going to go back to the front half of it when we were playing against the Dodgers. It was the first game of that series. We won seven to two. You had two home runs, Burley and Gorman, both went deep. Jordan Walker went four for four.

Starting point is 00:06:20 Everybody in the lineup except for Pahe's and JJ Weatherholt got a hit. that's exciting as well. Leverator through 5.2 innings. Bullpen came in and closed it out just fine. It's always nice to beat the Dodgers. It's even nicer when it's a barrage of offense like that. Yeah. And it was kind of like one of those, whoa, whoa.

Starting point is 00:06:41 See, they're not scared of these guys whatsoever, you know? And that was the Sheehan game, who is a very good pitcher, very young and outstanding young pitch for the Dodgers coming up. Again, it wasn't against Shohei or like a Tyler Glass or anything. but at the same time, that was one of the tests was like, you know, are the Cardinals going to go into a series against the team like the Dodgers with all the Star Power and all the World Series rings and be intimidated, or are they going to come out swinging?

Starting point is 00:07:07 And they came out swinging. And it was a really fun series. And they were able to take two or three from the defending champs. Obviously, the go-to answer in this one, at least in my opinion, I thought you were going to go with one of the Pittsburgh games because the comeback where they were having a perfect game going against them. and then they just like, oh, smelling salts, they just woke up in the ninth inning and started hitting. That was crazy in one of the more, you know, bonkers comebacks that the Cardinals had.

Starting point is 00:07:34 And then, of course, with the game that they kind of had in hand, I think it was five to one at one point. Nathan Church had to make the game saving catch against the wall in left field to save Riley O'Brien from giving up another day. Yeah, a lot of great memories, a lot of fantastic games in that one. not a lot of games where they just gave things away. So like even in games that they lost, most of the time it was like, you know, it was a tough game. They lost. We move on. So very much impressed by how they handled everything over that stretch. And they came out of it healthy too, for the most part. That's the thing is like they didn't lose a lot of guys. You know, you didn't have arm issues or people fall in like, which can happen early in a season for whatever it is. The Cardinals,

Starting point is 00:08:17 fingers crossed that trying to jinx it, but they've been able to keep this pitching staff relatively healthy over the last couple seasons, and hopefully it stays that way. Up next, we're going to talk with Thomas about the individuals that he believes needs to step their games up to help the Cardinals in their next batch of games that are coming up. So we'll get to that next on Locked on Cardinals. If you've ever opened up your bank account and thought, hey, where did all my money go? That's a great question because you're not alone. Keeping track of subscriptions, spending, and bills can get really overwhelming fast.

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Starting point is 00:09:41 monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at RocketMoney.com slash locked on. That's RocketMoney.com slash locked on. Thank you again for making Lockdown Cardinals. Your first list another day. Thank you for making Lockdown on the number one sports podcast and network. Every Day or club is available.

Starting point is 00:10:05 If you're somebody who is, you know, really an enthusiastic Cardinals fan, every day or type of guy or girl, it unlocks every episode. You'll get those ad-free. You get access to our private listener group chat, which is fun where Cardinals fans come and talk about the team. You can tap the link in the show notes or go to Lockdown STL Cardinals. That supercast.com for more information. Once again, we got Thomas Govane from Redbird Rants.com joining us here today.

Starting point is 00:10:32 40 games into the season, Cardinals are still a surprising 23 and 17, and they're currently ranked number eight in the MLB power rankings. Number one, you got the Cubs who had rattled off another 10-game winning streak before dropping a couple in Texas. Braves, who do have the best record in baseball, come in at number two at 28 and 13. That it's the Dodgers, Yankees, the Rays are at five, although the Rays. have the best record in the American League in 27 and 13. Who saw that coming, considering how the Cardinals played them in the first series of the year? Then you got the Brewers, the Padres, Cardinals, Pirates, and A's rounding out your top 10.

Starting point is 00:11:09 Do you agree with where the Cardinals are ranked at this moment, Tom and if not, where should they be? I do agree. I think you have to look back at where they started this year. And that's a lot of the things with power rankings. It's not necessarily who are the top 10 best teams here. It's where have they grown, where have they changed. I think that they're in a pretty good spot. I'd love to make an argument to pass up. I believe 25 maybe. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:11:37 Started the season. Like, it was back of the pack. Yeah. I think there's an argument with the Padres, especially since the series was split on the road. But once again, we're just nitpicking at that point. So I'll take the eight spot. Yeah. Now, MLB, they do a little, like a little blurb about like what exactly they think of the team.

Starting point is 00:11:58 And what they said about them, I thought it was interesting because he said of all the positive things that happened with the Cardinals in the last week. And there were a lot of them. The most positive might have been the nine strikeouts by Michael McGreevy put up in a one hit scoreless outing against the Padres on Friday. McGreevy has been excellent this year, but sports one of the lowest strikeout rates in baseball. If he's starting to miss bats, the cardals might have something even more special than they thought. Now, McGreevy, a first round pick, but we all know that he is a pitch to contact type of dude. The night in strikeouts, I would not get used to that. That is not something that he has ever done in his career.

Starting point is 00:12:35 He's just not that guy. But he certainly has been a pleasant surprise. The 2.18 ERA after, you know, the starts this season, obviously stand out. and he's been excellent. And even though, like, and I've said this before, you go to his baseball savant page. You know, we're always looking for the red, right, Thomas? We always look at how much red do they got on their,

Starting point is 00:12:55 their analytics and their savant pages? Very little, very little in Michael McGreevy. But what he is is a good pitcher. He doesn't hurt himself. He doesn't walk a lot of people. And he's not giving up a lot of hard contact. So he's been a surprise. Obviously, Jordan Walker has been the other big surprise on the offensive side.

Starting point is 00:13:13 But if we go and flip and go to the other side of the coin, Thomas, who are some guys that you feel need to start stepping their game up a bit to have a bigger presence on this team? I'll start with the resident ace, probably, with Matthew Libertor. I think that he needs to take his game to another level. You just mentioned McGreevy's baseball Savon page as a sprinkling of bread. There is only one bar that is above average for Matthew Libertor, and it's this off-speed run value.

Starting point is 00:13:42 Don't ask me what that means. But everything else, literally, everything else is below average. His block rate is at 50th percentile, but everything else he has is below average. He's got a 4.07 ERA right now. Strikeouts and walks are too close from my comfort. I think he needs to find that next level if he's going to be. And he's our number one, number two. I think you could put decimate at the top.

Starting point is 00:14:04 But he needs to be better if he's going to be number two, even a number three starter for a rotation over the next few years. And I don't even know what exactly he can do to be. a better pitcher because I mean you kind of think about you're like he kind of is what he is like he worked on some new pitches this offseason and you know he's just not a strikeout dude which is what you kind of need from your from your top guy uh I really liked his last start in San Diego though and one of the things that really stood out to me about him was the the breaking ball in that particular game but also his tempo in that game you know there's there's moments where

Starting point is 00:14:40 I see Libby and it feels like he's thinking a little too much. and he starts to labor and things slowed down. When he was just getting the ball and going in San Diego, it was just like, boom, boom. He was on the same page with his catcher that night. And I thought he, that was the best I'd seen him look all season. Do you agree with that? I do.

Starting point is 00:14:59 Yeah, the tempo seemed really on pace for him. I think he's just got so many pitches. That's probably the problem with most of our rotation is they have so many pitches. They're not necessarily applying them in the best way. I heard, I can't remember which other podcast it was, but they were talking about, I think, was going with Lance Lynn, he was talking about Kyle Leahy specifically choosing two, three pitches to use the first time through the batting order and then throwing in your others.

Starting point is 00:15:25 I think the divorce got that same issue as well, showing too much early. Yeah, that could be a thing too because that's, yeah, you want to keep something in your bag and that they haven't seen that way when you get to your second time through the order or third time through the order, hopefully, which means you're working probably into the fifth and sixth inning, that you still have something they haven't seen. yet. And it comes with also having pitches that, you know, that you trust and you feel like are dominating pitches. And if you don't like any of those first three, sometimes you feel like you've got to go to that last one to get out of a certain situation. And, you know, that can be an

Starting point is 00:15:59 issue. So, yeah, when you don't have like your first two pitches aren't like your primary dominant ones, it makes that tough. And then at the same time, like you said, when you got so many pitches, you know, maybe you should reel it in a little bit and focus on those four instead of worrying about six and seven and just kind of, you know, make sure those are great pitches before you start tinkering around with these other ones. So that's another thought about Libertory. How about offensively? Is there somebody on the offensive side that you feel needs to step up and really become a greater presence for this team? Spots five through nine in the bad just collectively.

Starting point is 00:16:36 Nolan Gorman, I think, needs to be better than what he is. I'd say Victor Scott's second, but I think we've beaten that horse to death at this point. So I'll go with No one Gorman. 82 WRC plus. He has five home runs, gives him about a 20 home run pace. I think I'd like about five to 10 more thrown in there by the end of the year as well. His strikeout rate is fine enough for me at 30%. He's walking well at nine and a half. I just need more pop from him, more contact in general. Yeah, yeah. And he's the guy that, I mean, it was always him and Walker, everybody complained about and now that Walker is taken off and become what he's doing, it's all going to fall on Gorman. And I'm already getting texting stuff from buddies. He's like, why does Gorman still

Starting point is 00:17:19 suck? And I'm like, I don't know if he sucks. I just don't think he's just not as good as everybody thought he was going to be, I guess, you know. And we still haven't seen him get hot and go on a stretch of games where like he clubs four home runs and, you know, seven games or something, where he's really, really, you know, doing some damage. It's been like sporadic home runs. here and there. So maybe he does get hot. And then at the end of the year, if you go and look at his numbers and he's got 85 RBIs and 25 home runs, you're going to be like, well, I guess it wasn't that bad. But it does feel like there's a lot of situations where he does not come through and it's a and it's a strikeout. And it's really disappointing. So I get it. And especially when you're

Starting point is 00:17:59 hitting behind Walker, who seems like he's on base all the time now. And you just need that steady impact of somebody right behind him that can put the ball in play while George. on. So I've seen some write-ups about maybe that's going to be Lars Newpar's possible role. You know, when he comes back into the fold, if you move. I love that. Yeah, if you move Nathan Church to center and have Victor either coming off the bench or going down to AAA to just kind of get right again, whatever needs to be done there. And then you have Lars Newport come in and number five, who's one of those contact guys.

Starting point is 00:18:32 It's going to put the ball and play more often than Nolan Gorman does. And then you just slide Gorman down. So that could be an idea. That could be something. We've got to get New Bar healthy first before we can even get to something like that, which is easier said than done. Let's talk about the rest of this month because it's not going to be a picnic, man. You got three against the A starting tonight, who, as you heard, ranked 10th in the power rankings.

Starting point is 00:18:55 Then it's back home against Kansas City, who are 19 and 22 right now, but they've won seven of their last 10. So they're starting to put things together a bit. Then it's a lot of games against the division at home against the Pirates for three on the road. in Cincinnati for three, then to Milwaukee for three before coming back home to play the Cubs for the first time. You don't see the Cubs until the end of May for the first time this season, which is crazy. But there could be a lot of fluctuation there in the division standings over that 12 games period. What do you think would be an acceptable record for you coming out of that 12

Starting point is 00:19:27 game block against the Central? Don't think about, you know, the Royals and A's, but think about just those 12 games. What would you like to see be a record coming out of there? You'd be like, All right, I can handle that. Ooh, 12 games. Let me think. I'd love two against pirates, two against Cubs. I think if you split, I think if you come out of their 500, I think that'd be fine enough with me.

Starting point is 00:19:55 It's not ideal because it's against the division, but you've got win the series at home, win one of the Reds or the Brewer series. And I think I'd be happy with that. Yeah. Don't lose ground is. It's kind of the goal. Yeah, right.

Starting point is 00:20:11 You know, because if you stay, say you say 500 the rest of this year, obviously that's going to put you in a really nice spot to be in contention for a wildcard spot or something down the road. I think they're tied for the second wild card right now in the ENL. So, but we'll see. We'll see how it goes, obviously there's a lot of time here. But it hasn't stopped people talking about, hey, so what are we going to do with the trade deadline? Because barring a major collapse, which could still happen, don't brush that off. But the Cardinals start to the season has got folks already talking about trade deadline strategy.

Starting point is 00:20:44 What are we going to do? Well, we're going to discuss some of those ideas coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. Baseball season is here and now you can trade every game on Calci. On Calci, you can trade every single game. So the Cardinals tonight trading at 43% to beat the A's, meaning a $100 trade pays out $233 if they win. If you go with the A's, boo. Trading at 57% a $100 trade would pay out at $173. You know in your heart you want to go with the Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:21:22 And on Calci, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. For a limited time, download the Cal She app and use code locked on, L-O-C-E-D-O-N to get $10 when you trade 10. CalChi is spelled K-A-L-S-H-I. Cal-She, trade on anything. 18-plus-only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract, trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors, prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned.

Starting point is 00:21:56 For more information, see calci.com slash regulatory. Thank you again for making lockdown. Carlos your first list of the day. Thank you for making lockdown on the number one sports podcast network. Thomas Govane from Redwood Rance.com is with us. the trade deadline is still two and a half months away, but with the Cardinals playing the way they are and as obsessive as our fan base is about,

Starting point is 00:22:23 all right, so what are we going to do next? People are curious about the team's intentions considering what this year was supposed to be about. Retooling, rebuilding, relying on the youth, planning for the future, more than the present. The Cardinals have some guys on this roster that other teams will surely be interested in at the deadline, even if they're not winning.

Starting point is 00:22:43 Like even if this team wasn't winning, people will see guys on this roster like, hey, we could use that guy. He could plug a hole for us. Some of the names, most of it on the pitching side, Dustin May, Riley O'Brien, Jojo Romero, Ryan Stanik, Ramon Oureus, Lars Neupar. Think about him. Those are some of the names that have been brought up. But if this team is in contention for a wildcard spot or even a division championship, can't rule that out yet, then what? What happens next? Your thoughts on this dilemma, Thomas, you get to be Hind Bloom.

Starting point is 00:23:16 And you're talking to all at Cardinal Nation who's like, hey, we're starting to come back to the stadium. What are you going to do for us? We're right there. What do you stay to him? He's already talked about this a few times. So I don't know if I need to fully pretend to be Hyme Bloom here. But I think his mindset is to stay the course. And I think that fans will be fine with that so long as he remains transparent with these goals and with this plan.

Starting point is 00:23:38 I do see a world where he can kind of do two things. at once you can sell those pros of those players that are on expiring contracts net a couple prospects and then trade from our prospect up to get other guys i really don't expect us to be in the deep market like the joe ryan's i just posted about joe ryan but it was just for fun i don't think we're going to get in there i don't think that's a trade deadline thing where we trade and then extend the guys like we used to do with colt schmid and mad halliday that would surprise me a lot i really suspect it's going to be trading our rental players maybe flipping some of our prospects we currently have in our system out,

Starting point is 00:24:17 just cycle through the prospects, fill some holes from there. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, you can always trade from depth areas that you might have, whether it's in the outfield, obviously catcher is something that's been brought up a lot. I saw a hilarious meet. And I wish I remembered who it was. I had it on there. But it was like the Cardinals catching situation talking about with Rodriguez getting moved up

Starting point is 00:24:38 Springfield and how he's on the climb and he's going to be on the move here and they had him where it's like uh pahez and then there's somebody with a gun and with the back of his head which was fernal and crooks and then at the top there's like a sniper and that's rodriguez because they're all competing for the same spots and it was just it was really funny because eventually there's not going to be enough room for all these guys somebody's going to eventually have to go from that catching depth uh it appears that you know i'll admit Yvonne Herrera has been really good behind the plate this year. Like, he's been impressive.

Starting point is 00:25:13 The throwing is not nearly where you wanted to be, but as far as calling games and being able to be a suitable catcher, to go along with what the offensive side that he brings, it's been good. I have had no issues there whatsoever. We still hear a lot of complaining about Pahas getting too much playing time. I think that more has to do with keeping Herrera fresh is the whole idea. I don't think it's so much like, hey, Pedro's great.

Starting point is 00:25:38 I don't think that's the case. I think it's just to keep Yvonne Herrera on the field as much as possible, whether it is deaching or behind the plate. So, yeah, that's certainly a way that you can do it. And I agree with that. I think you stay the course. You trust the guys that you have in your organization that's in-house already. And yeah, if someone makes you an offer that fits with your long-term plan, then you can pull the trigger. I mean, you don't have to trade Riley O'Brien.

Starting point is 00:26:05 You don't have to trade Lars Neupar. But if somebody comes at you and it's just like, yo, I want to give you this former number one pick plus whatever. I mean, you got to start thinking about that. And I'm not really all that interested in trading away from our prospect pool because I still think it's a work in progress. I know it looks good on paper right now and everybody is in, you know, hey, Cardle's got this top five, you know, farm system right now. Let's keep it that way and let's build it and get it to number one and make it the best. And that way you can get into that whole idea of like what Walt Jockney used to do where he would trade away these guys.

Starting point is 00:26:39 and then go get those superstars that you're talking about. But I'm not interested in doing that yet. You know, and you got the labor issues coming up as well. I just, I just don't feel like risking anything. I'm not ready to get in on any big term contracts unless it's somebody. You mentioned extensions, unless we're talking about guys that are already here. You know, the Walker's, JJ Weatherhole, basin wins. You want to extend those guys?

Starting point is 00:27:03 I'm on board with that. But yeah, I'm not throwing money around any free agent dudes that are going to be free agent. I'm not, wait for this labor stuff is done first because this is going to get nasty because when that stuff gets settled, hopefully it doesn't cost us a whole season. But if ownership wants to open up the checkbook and start, you know, spending again to add to the young core, then go for it. But this team, in my opinion, it doesn't have the horses. Like even if you added like one or two major names, is it still going to make it in a postseason

Starting point is 00:27:34 against guys like the Dodgers that? Probably not. Probably not. They're just not there yet, and that's okay. They're not supposed to be. It's not their time. But I sure I'm having fun watching it. I'm having fun watching the same gel,

Starting point is 00:27:47 and I'm interested in watching the puzzle pieces come together, and they've been blowing our expectations out of the water so far. So not a whole lot of complaining to do on our side, is there? No, not at all. This is fun. It's better than what we've had the last few years. Let's enjoy it. And I'm also enjoying,

Starting point is 00:28:04 and I want to throw this out there, because when I'm hard on somebody, I, you know, when they start to do well, I want to give them props, and I said it yesterday's episode. Ryan Stanick over his last five games. Looks like he's starting to figure things out. Whatever the control issues were,

Starting point is 00:28:20 Dusty Blake and Company have got him on the right track now. Now let's get Sponson back to where he needs to be. And then you're really talking about some good stuff. Absolutely. Well, I pick Sponson as our best pitcher in the off season, so I am rooting for him. stuff is still there. There's just, you know, there's some mechanical things going on here. We got to figure it out. And, you know, we're rooting for him. But you think about that.

Starting point is 00:28:46 If you get static to where he is, because you see how nasty he can be when he's throwing strikes. You put that with Riley O'Brien, despite the home run. We all know how good he's been. Jojo, been a little up and down, but you've seen him the last few times. I mean, this whole series in San Diego, there's not a lot to bitch about when it came to the pitching staff at all. You know, you give the one home run to Castiganos. But other than that, most of these guys were lights out. Even Justin Broll, chipping in and doing some good. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:29:14 That's what you need out of your bowl. But they're going to go up and down. But hopefully it's more up than it is down. Yeah, yeah. Another surprise has been Andre Palante. He gets the start tonight against the lefty, Jeffrey Springs in Sacramento. First pitch will be at 840 St. Louis time. So make sure you guys tune in for that.

Starting point is 00:29:30 As always, Thomas, you can find at redwood rants.com. and you've also got the X account at Thomas Govane. Anything new coming up for you as far as rubberbrands.com? No, I've been stalled out at the end of the school year, stuff like that. I'll get back on it when someone rolls around. All right. It's got to take care of job number one before we get the job number two. I only understand that one.

Starting point is 00:29:52 So all right, buddy. We'll appreciate you joining us as always. Thank you guys for making Lockstone Cardinals for first listed every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L.O. underscore Cardinals. TikTok, Instagram, and Lockdown Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube. making that push for 15,000 subscribers. We're getting there. If you never miss an episode,

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