Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals ROTATION Issues Mount as Matthew Liberatore SUFFERS Another NIGHTMARE Start

Starting point is 00:00:00 After another rough start, how long can the Cardinals continue to go with Matthew Libertor as a member of the starting rotation? 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, Carlis fans. I'm J.D. Haffron. And today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. The biggest stage in world soccer is here. Let there be goals on Fandall. Visit fandle. Visit fandle. to get started now. On today's show, Joshua Baez, doing Joshua Vias things at Memphis. A couple of prospects did some good things. So we'll talk a little bit about that. Got to recap on the ownership press conference, which took place as well before the game on

Starting point is 00:00:51 Wednesday night. But we got to go to the action. We got to go to the field. What happened Wednesday night at Bush Stadium and all too familiar scene this season with Matthew Livertore getting the start coming off. a tremendous beating at the hands of the Royals his last time out where he gave up seven runs, five earned in just an inning in two thirds. Let me take some Mounted Bush Stadium with some optimism. You saw, at least I did, footage of him talking about, hey, we know, how do you, how do you move forward after getting bludgeoned by the Kansas City Royals in your last time out?

Starting point is 00:01:27 And he's like, oh, you know, there's things that you take away from it that you want to learn from it. but for the most part, you just like throw it away, get it out of your mind, got to move forward and think about the next start. I get that. I totally get that. The start in Kansas City, there was a lot of debate. You can hear it during the telecast last night where whether or not he might be tipping or not. But in my opinion, it really just comes down to execution, just like it does with all pitchers.

Starting point is 00:01:56 Okay. if you're not throwing 101, 102 to just blow it past people, your margin for error is very small. All right. Matthew Lipitor doesn't throw like that. It's got to hit his spots. He's got to mix things up. He's got to be a pitcher, you know? And when you can do those things, well, you should be able to navigate your way through things with the talent that he possesses. And through the first three innings on Wednesday night, things weren't bad at all. Things were actually very, very good. Libby looked excellent. You know, he gave up the two singles in that first inning. So you're like, uh-oh, this is enough to a great start. But he gets out of it, no damage, faces the minimum over the next couple of endings, retire seven in a row. Cardinals had a one and nothing lead. All right, here we go. But I know you're like me. And it seems like just about every game that Libby pitches, we all just sit here and kind of wait with baited breath for the implosion, for everything to unravel,

Starting point is 00:02:56 going to happen similar to the way that we used to do with Miles Michaelis. See, you thought you thought you got rid of him, didn't you? You thought you were rid of the Miles Michaelis types of problems where you're breezing right along and out of nowhere just bam, spit hits the fan. And you're staring at a massive deficit and another loss. And that's exactly what happened again in this game. fourth inning is where it happened this time around. And the annoying part is, is that it starts, again, very similar to Miles Michael's problems where it's batty balls that aren't even hit hard. It's soft contact. How long have we been hearing about this? Oh, you know, soft contact, man. It means the pitches were good, you know, just bad luck. But it just keeps happening.

Starting point is 00:03:49 You get that lead off single against the shift by Corby and Carol, who's one of the best hitters in the lead. and he takes it to the opposite field where nobody's playing, just rolls a little grounder over there, not hit hard at all. Then you get the walk, which obviously is a big no-no, Gabriel Moreno, and that's on five pitches, not a very competitive at bat, really.

Starting point is 00:04:11 I mean, there were closer pitches, but still five pitches, he's on base, and that brings in Nolan Aronado. And he gets ahead of Aronado 2 before Aronado, you know, sees that he's pitching him away, away, away. And he just kind of sticks his bat out and puts one over to the right side of the end field. Blaise Jordan was over at first base, makes a diving play.

Starting point is 00:04:34 And it kind of pinballs off of him. And then to JJ, they get the force out at second base. But now you got first and third. And then the blooper. Then the blooper happens to right field. Jordan Walker doesn't get a great break on the ball, but with his tremendous speed, he makes up for it, slides, can't make the ground. and that ties the ball game.

Starting point is 00:04:58 So now you're at one to one and nothing has been hit hard. Nothing has been like, oh, man, we're in trouble now. It's just little dinks, grounder, blooper, that stick your bad out line drive over to the first base side. Like nothing crazy here where you're like, wow, we're really going to, he's starting to lose it here. And then he gets Gurriel to pop out. but then with two outs, he gets ahead of Vargas, 02,

Starting point is 00:05:31 and he hangs a meatball curveball, which gets swatted down the line into left for a double, and that makes it three to one. Now you're like, all right, here we go, wheels are coming off. You're like, here it is. And, you know, they even said it during the telecast that that curveball, that pitch that you're trying to throw there, you got to bury that.

Starting point is 00:05:54 That is not, you're 02. like you how are you hanging that you got to get on tie you got to make sure that crap is in the dirt and he doesn't and he just whewp might as well have been like an ephist pitch right over the heart of the plane when you hang them in this league they bang them and now you're in a spot where liby has he's got a nut up be like all right you screwed that up right there okay bad pitch now you're losing you got to get out of this inning. No more. Got to get out of this inning. Two-run, depth, sit. Get your offense back to the plate.

Starting point is 00:06:35 Dusty Blake comes out. I'm sure he's whispering sweet nothings similar to what I'm saying right now. Or he's like, look, man, okay, bad pitch. You got to move on from it. Let's get this next guy. He's the number nine header. All right. He's down at the number nine spot for a reason. All right, let's get this guy. Let's get out of here, get you back onto the bench and stop it before it gets really bad. and the very next pitch, the very next pitch to Groover is a cutter up in the zone, grooved it to Groover, basically. Two-run bomb.

Starting point is 00:07:12 Now it's five to one. And if that wasn't enough, now you're back to the top of the lineup. And two pitches later, it's Cattel Marte. He smokes a sinker left right over the heart of the plate for a solo dinger. It was like 420 feet away, a missile. Six to one. Nine men come to the plate in the fourth inning. Six of them come across to score.

Starting point is 00:07:43 Two soft contact hits, a walk, two dingers. Does it sound like anyone you know, like the comparisons to Michaelis and Eric Fetty are hilariously on point right now? Matthew Libertur has become the Miles Michaelis, and Eric Fettys of this staff. That's who he is right now. He's not good.

Starting point is 00:08:10 Has a couple of good innings and then nothing, just a meltdown. And it's happening over and over and over and over. And after the game, you know, Ali, I mean, what's he supposed to say? First three innings went well. We just have to solve for the big innings against him. It happens more often than he would like,

Starting point is 00:08:33 we would like, and it's something that we have to continue to figure out an answer for. Like the big inning continues to be the downfall. And I used to call it Miles, Michaelis Roulette. Michaelis Roulette was the joke I always made because you put, there's a bullet in the chamber and you spit it. And one of the innings that Michaelis is pitching, that gun's going to go off. And it's going to do damage. Which inning is it going to be? We don't know. It could be the first, could be the second, third, fourth, fifth, whatever. I guess we can rebrand. We can rebrand. it Libby Roulette now. June has been an absolute nightmare for him. We'll tell you how bad it's

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Starting point is 00:12:18 When they take on Turkey, it's going to be a 9 p.m. start, St. Louis time. From the opening whistle to the final kick, let there be goals on Fando. Visit Fandle.com to get started now. Thanks again for making it locked on Cardinals. First listen of the day. Thank you for making it locked on the number one sports podcast network. Get your daily Cardinals coverage completely add free by joining our everyday or club. You can start your seven day free trial right now and get closer to your team without those interruptions.

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Starting point is 00:13:25 The ways that I'm getting beat each time in that inning are different. I'm sure at some point we will find that common denominator and I'm hungry to do that because I'm tired of pitching like this. I believe that I'm better than what I've done over the past month for sure. And, you know, if the Cardinals were where they were supposed to be, which is, you know, meddling around 500, which they, kind of have been for a month now. But if they weren't in playoff contention,

Starting point is 00:13:53 if they weren't in a playoff spot, which they are right now for how long, I'm not completely sure because the good teams are starting to play better and they're starting to make up ground. But it just kind of amplifies things because each series is very important to stay where you are in the standings. And this is Matthew Libertor. This is your opening day starter, man.

Starting point is 00:14:18 You know, this was supposed to be one of your top guys, if not the top guy in your rotation. And since the start of June, he's been trash. And I hate saying that, but look at the numbers. Four starts. He's gone just 15 to 2 thirds innings. So he's averaging like four innings. He has allowed 22 runs, 18 of them are earned. He's walked six guys, has given up.

Starting point is 00:14:48 seven home runs. He's now giving up 17 on the year, which is one of the worst numbers in baseball. And he's got an ERA. He wants to talk about worst numbers. His ERA in June is at 10.34. And as a starter in his career, he's now 16 and 26 with an ERA over five. And a very chip carry-esque 69 starts. And it begs the question. And I'm just going to keep bringing it up because creating conversation is what we do here. Maybe he's better suited in a bullpen. I mean, you've given him all of last year. You've given him almost half the season this year. What have we learned about Matthew Livertore? What is he done to say, you know what? He is a starter. He is starter material. Now, I wouldn't expect them to make a change like this,

Starting point is 00:15:49 to move him to the bullpen anytime soon. But it's got to be. something they think about eventually, right? It has to be. It has to be. You got to put people in the proper spots to succeed. And if he's not good at starting, what else can we use him for? Oh, relief pitcher. Guys got trouble getting past two or three innings before getting his brains kicked in. Where can we put such a guy who's only good for a couple of the bullpen? It's something to think about. And I believe if the Cardinals had like a ton of starting pitching depth in the organization, which is something they're desperately working on,

Starting point is 00:16:32 I don't think they'd be going this long with Matthew Liverton. I think they would have made a move and they would give somebody else a chance. But they don't really have that luxury right now. And for what it's worth, you know, Libby doesn't seem to be phased by all of this. like just hearing him speak after the game. It seems like his head's still in a right place. I mean, confidence surely has to be a problem here. I've brought this up before.

Starting point is 00:17:01 But he says he's good. He goes, I still have confidence in my stuff. I really liked how I threw the ball outside of what happened in that fourth inning tonight. We had some things that we were working on this week coming into the start. And I felt like I did a really good job executing on all of them. Just an unfortunate fourth inning. unfortunate indeed. Yes, it was because the Cardinals are now in danger of losing yet another series to a team that they seemingly should be beating. Now, I think the Diamondbacks are a better team

Starting point is 00:17:33 than, you know, they get credit for it, but they're very beat up in the rotation. Like, you had a kid making his Major League debut, doesn't throw all that hard against what is considered a good offense, and they didn't do much against him over three innings. And they, I, you know, Again, they didn't do much in this game until late in the game offensively. But the twins, you would think the Cardinals are a better team than them so far this year. The Royals, for sure. And now you got the diving backs who were a terrible road team and their offense wasn't doing much of anything heading into the series. Like I, because I like to watch the other telecast.

Starting point is 00:18:11 Like, I don't want to hear Chip and Brad and all of them gush over the Cardinals all the time. I enjoy them. I'm not knocking them. I'm just saying, like, sometimes I want to hear what the other side. to say and all the Diamondbacks announcers we're talking about was like what a rut this offense is in and how bad things have been and nothing seems to cure that like a healthy dose of Cardinals pitching these days you know what was Minnesota and Kansas City doing before the Cardinals showed up they weren't doing all that much with their offenses and then flop flop flop flop and the you know balls are flying all over the art it's an issue it's an issue and And when you struggle against teams that you're supposed to be beating who are below you, the good ones are going to catch up to you. And that's what's happened.

Starting point is 00:18:57 The Cubs sweep a double header over the Mets and are now in a tie with the Cardinals for second in the division. The Phillies have caught fire and had these incredible comebacks with two outs in the ninth inning and have passed them for the top wild card spot. And we haven't even gotten to what I think is the scary part of this schedule that's coming up here at the beginning of July. You got a Marlins team that's played pretty well so far in the month of June. They're on the horizon this weekend. And then to start July, you got to face the Brave six times, the Brewers five times, and then you got the Cubs for three.

Starting point is 00:19:33 Like that could be a crippling 14 game schedule right there for what the Cardinals have accomplished already so far this season. Like you have, if you crater during that and go, let's say you, go three and eleven or something just frightening. Where are you? Like you're right back where you were last year. And all of this goodwill and this fun that we've had the first half of the season is for not.

Starting point is 00:20:00 It just yesterday's news. Some of the comments after the game talking about Matthew Levertoor, send Libby back to Memphis so he can hang with his buddy Gorman again. Liberator sucks. Please stop starting him or send him to Asia. embarrassing last two games. My God, get Matthew Libertor off my team. Libby sucked again.

Starting point is 00:20:23 Bring up Dobbins. If we continue to stick with Libby, our season is over. Libby is legit dog poop. Letting him start again as a white flag on the season. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of comments like this. A lot of angst out there. Because it feels like we're slipping and we're starting to fall into a ditch where many people thought the Cardinals were going to be all season.

Starting point is 00:20:49 And I think we're scared. And I get it. I get it. Again, twins, royals, diamond bags. These are series that you thought were going to be different, that they were going to be on the other side of these. And instead, we're losing ground quickly. As far as Dobbins goes, he didn't fare so well yesterday.

Starting point is 00:21:10 But Memphis did get another dinger from Joshua Bayes. So we're going to talk about some prospects, how they've been looking. and we'll discuss the recap on the ownership press conference as well. That's coming up on Locked on Cardinals. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales,

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Starting point is 00:22:05 It's about having everyone working toward the same goal. And that's true in sports just like it is in business. The Cardinals have a common goal right now. It's to rebuild this franchise, rebuild player development, rebuild this farm system so that down the road, it's not just a hey we're good one season not so good the next they want to be consistent winners that that's the goal here and that's what everybody is bought in on and that's what great organizations do they win because operations matter and that's why you should get odoo try for free today at odu.com slash locked on that's odoo dot com slash locked on workplace chaos deadline stacking out the inbox is

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Starting point is 00:23:58 Sponsored jobs. Thanks again for making Lockdown. Cardinals, your first listen of the day. Thank you for making Locktown on the number one sports podcast network. Cardinals prospect Joshua Baez continues his onslaught in the international league. He hit his 26th home run that leads the league. Solo shot top of the seventh inning in Wednesday's game. The right-handed slugger ended up two for four, had an endfield single.

Starting point is 00:24:24 single, the home run, a walk, two runs scored in his first appearance of this particular series for Springfield or for Memphis, starting pitcher hunter Dobbins, ended up losing his first AAA game. Not so good in this one, allowed six runs. Four of them were earned on seven hits, walk three, struck out three over four innings pitched. Not exactly a ringing endorsement to come back to the big leagues, but I'm not concerned. I'm not worried. He's healthy. He will eventually somehow some way end up back on the Cardinals roster at some point this year. Now this past Sunday, Memphis claimed their first ever international league title in any form since joining the league ahead of the 2021 season.

Starting point is 00:25:06 They're scheduled to host the 2026 International League Championship Series at AutoZone Park. That'll come up later in September, the 22nd through the 24th. The International League, what they do is they have the playoff field consist of four teams. you have your first half champions and then you have your second half champions and then everything happens like postseason wise in September. But usually, you know, minor league rosters have so much changeover by then. It's rarely the same team that's competing at the end of it all. In other prospect news, 19-year-old Raynail Rodriguez, homers for Springfield.

Starting point is 00:25:42 He's now hitting 260 with five home runs and 17 ribbies in 32 games since getting promoted. It was a cold start when he first got up there. And since then, he's been, he's been fantastic, figured it out. He looks great. The Cardinals also promoted shortstop, Hesuys, and outfielder Wadbuncho from Peoria to Springfield on Monday. Both of those guys chipped in with home runs in the same game that Rodriguez went yard for for AA Springfield. Trey Richardson, the third, who also got brought up from Peoria also ended up going yard in this game.

Starting point is 00:26:15 They win that one seven to one. so it's good to see a lot of these pieces having success at the new levels that they're getting to. As for the ownership press conference, I mean, it went just like we thought it would. You know, there wasn't really inner surprises here. Bill DeWitt III has been promoted to chief executive officers, succeeding his father, Bill DeWitt Jr. He'll be in charge of both baseball operations as well as the business operations, which he had been running for the last 18 years.

Starting point is 00:26:42 Bill DeWitt Jr. will remain the chairman of the board and principal owner and will continue to involved in significant team business and decisions. The Cardinals also announced the promotion of a new Corinna Ratne to president of baseball or president of business operations. I apologize. He's going to assume Bill DeWitt the Thirds, former position. So it's just kind of a shuffling. Like people are just getting moved up.

Starting point is 00:27:08 Well-deserved promotions. You know, that's how this works. Karina Ratne has been with the team since, what, 2024? Senior VP business operations came over from the Blue Jays. So, but he's been a good voice. People seem to like him a lot. So congratulations to all of those who ended up getting promoted. Good for you.

Starting point is 00:27:27 The team will try to earn a split with Arizona tonight. Michael McGreevy gets the ball looking for a healthy, nice, long start from Michael McGreevy. That would be nice. But you should have all of your big pieces from the bullpen ready to go tonight. So all hands on deck should be good. maybe not Chrisopo after pitching last night, but we'll see. But you go up against former Cardinals, Zach Gallen,

Starting point is 00:27:52 who has not been very good. This would be an easy target for the Cardinals' offense to let some frustrations out on. And hopefully McGreevy can slow down what is all of a sudden a fantastic Arizona offense. But how that works out when you face the Cardinals. Miami Marlins are in town next for the weekend, which will not be an easy series either. So life's not getting easier.

Starting point is 00:28:13 It's getting tougher for the Cardinals. if they want to remain where they are, which is currently in a wild card spot. Thanks for making a lockdown carlos. If you haven't already give us a follow on exit, L.O. underscore Cardinals, Tick-Tac, Instagram, at Lockdown Cardinals. You can like, subscribe on YouTube,

Starting point is 00:28:27 making our push for 15,000 subscribers. We're getting closer, but need your help. If you never miss an episode, try that every day or club. You've got the free seven-day trials going on right now, locked-on STL-Cardels.com for more info. For those of you on video, we send you to the first ever 24-7 National Lockdown Podcast Network, YouTube channel on the audio side of things.

Starting point is 00:28:46 Make sure your second listen is locked on MLB. You're the best fans of baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on Lockdown Cardinals.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals ROTATION Issues Mount as Matthew Liberatore SUFFERS Another NIGHTMARE Start

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