Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals SEND DOWN Joshua Baez Despite RED HOT Spring Showing! Why NOW?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Joshua Baez has been one of the best hitters at camp this spring for the Cardinals. So why has he already been sent down? 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 of J.D. Hafford, a former national radio sports anchor, born and raised in St. Louis and a Lifetime Cardinals fan.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Welcome to another episode of Lockedon Cardinals, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. now the number one sports podcast network. Thank you to our everydayers for always being a part of our show. For those of you who are new, welcome aboard. We hope you do enjoy this content. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving you all the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by MLB the show 26.

Starting point is 00:00:51 Visit MLB-the-dot show slash locked on and use code locked on, L-O-C-E-O-N, to unlock a pack for use in Diamond Dynasty. Maybe you pull a diamond. We'll see. Pre-order now, available March. 17th on PlayStation 5 Xbox and Nintendo Switch rated E for everyone. On today's show, we're going to be talking about some of the best and worst showings at spring training so far, who we've been impressed with, who we have not been.

Starting point is 00:01:19 Cardinals said split squad games on Monday, winning one and losing one, so we'll touch on those results. But we're going to start today talking about what exactly is going on in left field. And to help make sense of it all, we've gone to the bullpen. ourselves. We've got Thomas Govain from Redmond Rance.com joining us here to talk it through. Thomas, great to see you again, buddy. How are things so far in your world during spring training here in 26? Yeah, it's going real well. We got baseball everywhere. World baseball classics, spring trainings kicking into higher gear. It's a good time to be a fan. Yeah, absolutely. And better soak

Starting point is 00:01:55 it in now because who knows what's going to happen in 2027. But let's talk about what's going on with the Cardinals, specifically in left field. Let's start here. We knew that the left field position was something that we were going to monitor when camp began doing large part to the heel surgery or surgeries, we should say, that Lars Neupar had to go through in this offseason, which was going to make his availability for opening day suspect. And from all accounts, Newt is on track. Rehab's doing fine. Safe to say he probably won't be ready for opening day, though, but he's going to be back at some point. This doesn't feel like, you know, flashbacks from, you know, PTSD from the Tommy Edmund time when, oh, it's just a wrist thing, a little, no big deal. And then we never saw him again. Like that's not what appears to be happening here.

Starting point is 00:02:43 Newt should be back, which people will be happy about. But with him on the men, the Cardinals were going to have to figure out how to get through while he was rehabbing. Who's going to be in left field to start things off? Who's going to absorb some of these innings with nude out? You have utility guys, Jose Fermin and Thomas O'JC, who's been with Team Italy and the WBC, in case you were wondering why you haven't heard much about him. Free agent signing Nelson Velasquez,

Starting point is 00:03:16 the team's 23rd-ranked prospect, Nathan Church, and then top 100 prospect number four in the system, according to MLB Pipeline, Joshua Baez. Those were like the most notable names, getting reps. So I'm going to run through these numbers real quick, offensive wise, because that's what we're more concerned with. And that's so much worried about the defense. We know it's a big deal. But numbers, they need offense. They need that. So for Mien, leads the team with 25 plate appearances this spring. And after getting off to a nice start,

Starting point is 00:03:44 those first couple of games, he has cooled down considerably, just four for 25. He's hitting 160. No home runs, one RBI, on base percentage of 250. Velazquez, 21, appearance. And after a chilly start, because he didn't do much early on, he's now seven for 21. He's been heating up, hitting 333 with a home run, two ribby's four walks, only two strikeouts, which is a big deal for me and the OVP of 440. So Jayce was three for nine, hitting 333, no home runs in an RBI before he left for the WBC's 0 for five with team Italy where he's been playing shortstop. Nathan Church offers the most upside defensively by a long shot.

Starting point is 00:04:23 He's been a phenomenal offensive player in the minor leagues. Speed, great arm. Four for 17 this spring, hitting 2.35, one home run, three rebis, the OBP at 409. And then there's Joshua Baez, Thomas, seven for 21, hitting 333, leads the club with three home runs after hitting another tank on Monday. He's second on the team in RBI is with five. He's got a stolen base. The OBPs at 417.

Starting point is 00:04:49 He's slugging 762. He's got an OPS of 1.1. by all accounts, if this was a competition, you would have one hands-down winner. It would be Joshua Baez. But after the games yesterday, the team made the announcement that they've reduced the spring training roster to 46 players. Five guys going to minor league camp. They optioned Cooper Jerpy, who's still coming back. Bryson Mott's, Nick Rakey, Quinn Matthews is going back to minor league camp, and outfielder, Joshua Baez.

Starting point is 00:05:23 has been sent down. He's down to Memphis, AAA roster. Cardinals now have 30 Major League roster players, 69 roster invitees. This was not completely unexpected. Thanks to recent dialogue that Heim Bloom had over the airwaves on Sunday that you wrote about recently. But can you shed some light on this for people who may not understand why this is happening when in the past they're going to bring up Alver Poolehold. Yeah, he barely played at AAA. More recently, Jordan Walker did not play AAA.

Starting point is 00:05:58 Those guys came up. Despite being young and not having, you know, the time, service time down there, they were allowed to have sent to the major leagues while the Cardinals are taking the patient approach with Joshua Baez. Explain it to us, Thomas, because we want to know why the guy who looks like he's the best hitter isn't going to be on the team. When it comes to Albert Pools, I think we need to really recognize that he's a special guy. Like you don't see Albert Poulson your farm system even every 20, 25 years.

Starting point is 00:06:27 So that's a unique case. And I think we've also recognized that Jordan Walker's promotion was a mistake. And that's probably leaning into why Baez is staying where he is right now. Heim Bloom even mentioned that in his quotes with Tom Ackerman on Sunday. He talked very briefly about Jordan Walker and his potentially premature promotion. Baez has only had 273 at bats in AA, 79 games. He could probably use some more seasoning just to show. show that he what he showed last year wasn't a fluke.

Starting point is 00:06:57 You got to remember that before 2025, he was not living up to his prospect type. He was fine offensively, but his strikeout rate was off the charts. He wasn't showing what he showed last year with the speeder's defense necessarily. So then to continue what he showed last year into AAA this year, then that that's more of a proof of like, yeah, this guy's legit. It wasn't a fluky 2025 season. He is who we thought he would be. Yeah, all of that makes sense.

Starting point is 00:07:23 And it was funny yesterday because after he hit the home run, I posted the video of the home run. I was like, are we sure he shouldn't be in left field? Oh, boy, because Cardle fans are smart for the most part. You know, casual fans are going to be like, wait, hold on, I don't understand. But most of the Cardinals fans understood it. And oh, man, I was getting hammered as if that's, I forgot to put like the little wink emoji at the end of it because I understand why it. You understand why most of the Cardle fans get it as well, that there's no rush here for

Starting point is 00:07:53 getting Bayez up. And I'll throw this one out too with with newt healing because that's going to be his job when he comes back for the most part. It's going to be a large bar his job in left field. You don't want a Joshua Baez getting a little taste of the majors and then shipping him back down and making him feel bad if things didn't go quite the way you wanted it to. Plus, you're not sure that you want him starting right away, you know, and you don't want him in a platoon role. You want him to go down there and get all the abats. and all of the playing time he possibly can. So that makes a lot of sense.

Starting point is 00:08:27 Now, another thing that's been brought up is the rookie of the year chatter. So when you bring a guy up and if he wins rookie of the year, you end up getting that extra draft pick, which is something people are hoping will happen this year with JJ Weatherholt. And I also got some pushback there too. Like, well, we need him for the rookie of the year possibility in 2027. Do you think that should affect anything to get that draft pick after the first round?

Starting point is 00:08:55 Maybe 5% of the decision. I mean, it's not going to be something that Himes like this is far to hold them back, but it's definitely something that's crossed his mind, I would imagine, to get, assuming JJ goes off the way we expect him to, and he beats out like Conrad Griffin, Nolan McLean, those other guys.

Starting point is 00:09:09 We get the draft pick for him, and then to repeat that again next year with Joshua Baez, I think that'd be, it's definitely crossed his mind, but it's definitely not a major factor. Yeah. And we know that this year is not about wins and losses. Of course, everybody wants to win more games than they lose, but you've heard the

Starting point is 00:09:29 same verbiage from Heinbloom over and over. No shortcuts. No shortcuts. We're not going to take shortcuts this year. We have a long-term goal. We got a plan for all of these guys. We know what we're doing, but we're not going to just, you know, skip over things just because it's going to appease a certain portion of the fan base or because so-and-so had a good two weeks of baseball. Like they're just not going to overreact to stuff. Just the same way that they're probably not overreacting to some of the guys who are struggling so far this spring. They're not going to overreact with what Joshua Baez. They're happy about it. They love it. And everybody's happy about it. But I think the

Starting point is 00:10:07 smart move, and you agree, is that he needs to go down to Memphis and continue his, his journey to get to the major leagues full time. Because when you, when you do bring them up, you're hopeful that you bring them up for good. And that's the last time you ever have to worry about that. Real quick, starting left fielder for the Cardinals on opening day, who you think it's going to be and who you want it to be. If nude is out, we're going to say newt's out. Who do you think it'll be there on the 26th? I think it'll be Nathan Church. There's been a lot of chatter about him throughout camps from the beat reporters. We've seen his name come around a lot. He's got a lot of tools. His speed is there. His defense has been really good

Starting point is 00:10:50 throughout his career. And he seems to be hitting. You mentioned the 880 OPS, once again, spring training, take that for what it's worth. But the fact that he is showing that he has a competent bat is nice. So I'd assume they'll go with Nathan Church, who I want would be Thomas Jaycey, just to see if he can like adapt into that Brendan Donovan or Tommy Edmund Roll as the super utility guy. Yeah. And I think he's going to get his looks. If I were to pick what I think the bench is going to kind of be like right now. I think you're going to see like a church Sejacy, Fermin and Pozo type of set up there on the bench. You know, some guys who have the ability to go to multiple places, utility type of roles with for

Starting point is 00:11:32 mean and Sejacy. You got Pozo who could be that third catcher, D.H. A little first base, the right-handed bat there coming off the bench. And then you got Church. He's got the defense, the speed. And then when Newt's back, you know, he's a guy that can still come off the bench. bench and take over for Jordan Walker and right field if you want to. But him and Victor Scott running around out there together, I'm kind of like that.

Starting point is 00:11:54 You know, if I'm that's something I'm excited about that I got those guys roaming around out there and chasing fly balls down. Coming up next, we're going to discuss the games from Monday, which included another strong start from Matthew Libertory. He's been pretty impressive. We'll talk about all of it coming up next on Lockstone Cardinals. So today we are talking about MLB, the show, 26. which like guys, you know this by now.

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Starting point is 00:14:02 which gets you ad-free episodes and access to our group chat on Discord for the next week or so. We still got that code spring available for you. Get your free month, SPR-I-N-G, head to locked on S-L-Carnels.com or tap the link in the show notes to learn more. Thomas Covein from Redmond, Rance.com, is with us today. Let's get into the games on Monday real quick because we had our one and only split squad scheduled, I believe. That's the only one that they're doing this spring. One half was at Roger Dean to face Baltimore. The other half was on the road to face the Astros.

Starting point is 00:14:34 Home team got the W, 7 to 2, a way team lost 10 to 3. Let's start with what we saw from Matthew Libertor, because this was the game that was actually televised. So we got to watch it, which was, which was lovely. Better to have these games on TV than no offense to the radio side of things. But Visual is always going to win. But he had another nice day, Thomas, five innings, two runs, five hits seven k's the spring year a now at 2.70 what are some things that you've noticed about

Starting point is 00:15:01 matthew libertory that you like and has led to his success this spring especially this most recent start it's about his change up he was locating it away and down against right east didn't throw it against lefties obviously but his change up location has been exceptional he's never going to have that blow away velocity of the 97 the 98 that we see from aces most typically in staffs, but he's got the deep repertoire. He's got the control. He's got the command. His location has always been pretty strong. And I think we've seen something different from him this spring, just from a personality perspective, too. The Cardinals pushed him out on their nest on YouTube. They've had him more as a front-facing guy. I think that they're really trying to make him

Starting point is 00:15:42 the face of the rotation. That's not to say that he's going to be a top 10 pitcher in baseball next year, but he could be very well the leader of the Cardinals' rotation for this year, maybe even next year as well. And with that, I'm a big believer in body language when I'm watching athletes out there on the field. And boy, does he look confident. Like, it doesn't look like he's searching or questioning what's going on with his mechanics or what he's going to throw. Like, he's like in bulldog mode out there so far this spring where, you know, he's like, I know what I'm doing and let's go. And he's attacking hitters and he's filling up the zone. Like I've been super impressed.

Starting point is 00:16:22 Like this looks like a totally different guy than we saw last year who was, you know, for the first time in his career at the major league level was a full time starter. Remember it? It was like kind of late in spring. And they're like, yeah, we're just going to, you know, he's going to the rotation. And I don't know if he ever got fully comfortable being there. But he knew that that was going to be his role coming into the season.

Starting point is 00:16:42 And he just, he just looks like he's in command and knows exactly what he wants to do and how he wants to do it. So I've been thoroughly impressed with Matthew Livertor so far this spring, which is great news for the Cardinals moving forward. Bulpin wise, very good against Baltimore, Matt's Fonson, Ryan Fernandez, Chris Roycroft, George Soriano. They all threw up zeros. Fernandez, a guy that I've kicked around on this show a couple of times for good reason because he hasn't been very good had that really rough start in the first appearance of the spring. but since then, Ryan Fernandez has been pretty good, you know, more like the guy we saw in 2024,

Starting point is 00:17:19 hasn't given up a run since, has walked a couple guys here and there, but, you know, we'll get by the fact that he hasn't been getting knocked around the park, positive. Sphonson 2Ks, Fernandez 2Ks, our buddy Chris Roycroft, another guy that we like to use as a punching bag on this show from time to time, still has not given up a run yet in the spring,

Starting point is 00:17:40 so good for him. And then Soriano strikes out, too. He still hasn't given up a run. So competition in the bullpen has been very impressive, I think, so far. Would you agree? I do. Yeah, the right-handed depth is crazy. And it's not like superstar, Ryan Housley, right-hand depth,

Starting point is 00:17:56 but you go from Ilo-O-Bryon, Sonson, Stanik, Pushert, Soriano, Grisepho, Tink Hensu is just optioned as a choice too. Chris Roycroft, Ryan Fernandez. There's so much right-handed relief depth, which is nice as you go through the season. These guys can be plucked, moved up and down for an extra day off, some rest. whatever they need. Yeah. And, you know, we always got to be ready for the, the injury possibility. You know, we always talk about last year where the Cardinals were basically unscathed last year. You know, John King was the only dude that really had any injury issues, which is very bizarre.

Starting point is 00:18:30 That does not happen normally. And one of the things that Heinblum targeted was like, do we need pitching depth? Because that's probably not going to happen again. Rotation, bullpen depth. And that's something that I think so, far, we've seen that they've got that available, at least so far here in the spring. We'll see when they really start mattering in March or later in March how that affects things when they have to face all big league hitters. But that's later on down the road. Offensively, our buddy, JJ Weatherholtz, another solid day, Apotaco home run, which is always cool to see his power to the opposite field has been very impressive

Starting point is 00:19:09 ever since he's become a professional. his second of the spring. We mentioned Bayez had his third. Chase Davis, though, Thomas, Chase Davis, two taters. Drove in three, nice to see the former first round pick putting bat on ball because that's really been his biggest

Starting point is 00:19:25 problem. The strikeouts were really, really high. They are this spring again. I think he leads a team with nine of them, but you see the damage he can do and how he can be a dangerous hitter when he's putting the ball in play. Yeah, absolutely. The two home runs yesterday was huge for him. I'd love

Starting point is 00:19:41 to see more walks, especially after last year with a strikeout rate the way it was. Spring training, that's fine. But he feels like a guy who I would have wanted to see a heavy focus on the walks. He's got the slug. He's always pretty much had that. I don't think there's a more beautiful swing in the Cardinals camp than his as well. But I'd like to see a focus now on the walks for him these next couple weeks. He will probably get sent out of major league camp very soon once they make the next round of cuts.

Starting point is 00:20:06 But if he can start showing some advancements in his plate-up participant in an approach, I think that'd be huge for him. Yeah, he's another guy that hasn't made it to Memphis yet. He was part of the Springfield team last year. It was a major part of the winning that they did at Springfield. And yeah, you mentioned that swing. And, you know, we're always going to have. Our eyes are always going to be, you know, towards the lefties and how pretty their swings can be.

Starting point is 00:20:30 Him and Colton Ledbetter have been the two swings that I'm like, ooh. And I've been calling him Colton Lead Butter because his swing is like butter, Thomas. Very impressive stuff. So it was nice to see Chase Davis putting him on the board last night, or yesterday, I should say. Now against Houston, let's jump over to the other game. We had Richard Fitz getting his second start. The first one went really, really well. Everybody was like, all right, put him in the rotation.

Starting point is 00:20:57 He's God's gift of pitching. And then yesterday he got roughed up a little bit, two and two thirds. And he started off really nice in the game. But then two and two thirds innings, he allows four runs on six hits, one dinger, strikes out three. He's still belo-wise, popping 97, which obviously is going to open up some eyes, but would have been your impressions of Richard Fitz so far. And do you think he should be in this rotation?

Starting point is 00:21:22 You know, I know obviously we're a few weeks away from picking all of that, but do you think he deserves a shot to be in that rotation over, say, Andre Palante at this point? Yeah, I was about to say his name if you didn't. But I would imagine Fitz starts in AAA just to work out some of those kinks. his velo's there. It looks like that's going to hold over these last couple of starts as he continues into the regular season. His location could use some work. He needs a little bit more of a touch against left-dated batters. I would suspect they put him in AAA just to get these kinks out.

Starting point is 00:21:52 And then, I mean, honestly, fantastic that if you've got a call on a guy for an injury or if after May, after the month of May, you still see Kyle Leahy or Andre Palante struggling to have Richard Fitz ready to go. I'm perfectly fine with that. It's much better than what we've seen. the last three years as far as backup goes. Yeah, absolutely. Having him and Hunter Dobbins, who was on his way back from the knee injury. Quinn Matthews, too.

Starting point is 00:22:18 You've got him. Yeah. Yeah. So there's, again, we're talking about depth that Heinblum has gotten the Cardinals where when things go sideways, you don't have to watch a guy continue to struggle over and over and over.

Starting point is 00:22:31 And give credit to Andre Palante. He hasn't had a bad spring whatsoever. And, you know, if he earns that spot, then so be it. Like, and I keep telling people, don't freak out just because of the opening day roster. I was like, this thing is fluid all season. Like people are going to go up and down and people are going to get hurt. So don't just freak out over who the people are just on opening day.

Starting point is 00:22:54 All right. There's plenty of time for things to change. Veteran left hander Bruce Zimmerman had a rough day yesterday. He only lasted an inning into 30, a lot of five runs on six hitch. And that's when, you know, the game. kind of got really out of control against the Astros. Offensively, Nathan Church, one for two with a walk. Nelson Velasquez, two for three with an RBI.

Starting point is 00:23:15 Jordan Walker was one for four, but also struck out three times. So not a ton to brag about in this one as far as the offense, who did work seven walks, but they also struck out 13 times. So any other takeaways from that particular game that you want to hit on? Gorman and Walker, please. But I think what's seven to cement. Save those. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:37 Let's save those. Because we're about to jump into a new segment. And it's because I've been watching for whatever reason, Thomas. I've been watching more WWE wrestling on YouTube and on Netflix. And the macho man kept popping up. And I was like, oh, yeah. And I was like, ooh, that sounds like a segment. So the oh, yeah's and uh-ohs of spring training so far.

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Starting point is 00:26:39 Thomas Covein from Redbirdrance.com is with us. the oh yes and the uh-os first off do you have a macho man randy savage impersonation thomas this is important you're still on mute i'm sorry i'm sorry during the commercial break he's siking me out like i was like oh my gosh oh no he doesn't have no that's my head i try to there's sounds in the background during the commercials i want to be all you know professional that's what we're doing here it's no i do not i do not watch wbb so that's yeah i'm sorry Oh, yeah. You can't give me that?

Starting point is 00:27:15 I cannot. No, it's going to be clipped. You know, someone's going to clip it. I know you can give me some oh, yes, and uh-ohs from camp so far. So I'll let you decide what path do you want to start on. You want to go with the oh, yes, which is the good stuff, or do you want to go with the uh-ohs? I'm starting to hear myself and I sound more like the Kool-Aid man than I do. Yeah, there you go. I'm just putting that out there.

Starting point is 00:27:39 But which path do you want to go to? I'll start with a no, yeah, and I'll start on the infield. We'll give it to Alec Burleson right away. He's got 294-494-455-471 slash line, a home run to his name. He's just producing the way that we needed him to in spring. I feel like he's kind of flown under the radar. Like you've heard all the prospect names. You've heard a lot of focus on the pitchers, rightly so.

Starting point is 00:28:02 But Burley's just out there doing his job exactly what we need him to do right now in spring. Yeah, because we do a locked on top. 100 list and nobody from the Cardinals made the list, which was sad, but it wasn't totally unexpected, but I'm like, there's a silver slugger guy in this lineup. Yeah. He's finally got a position he can call home and just gets no love whatsoever. So completely under the radar coming into 2026 and hopefully Burley will open up some eyes and we'll get a little bit more attention this year.

Starting point is 00:28:36 All right. Who else you got? Oh, Josh Baez, but he's an obvious candidate there as well. I'll also go, I don't know, okay, so I'm trying to build up some good will here. We'll go to Al Pozo. Why not? Let's get me unblocked here. 1141 or 1143 OPS.

Starting point is 00:28:55 He has not struck out yet. He's got his three walks, so his plate discipline is there. He came into camp. Everybody's been saying he's looking fit, looking better than he ever has. I know you always hear that. But like for him where he's going to be flexing around at first base. I would be surprised if we see an outfield game or two thrown in there as well. I've been impressed with Joel Pozo's makeup this spring.

Starting point is 00:29:16 Yeah, coming in camp, 30 pounds down, looking light, looking fit. And he's one of those guys, too, that the clubhouse loves. He's an energy guy that everybody feeds off of. So you can totally see just by doing what he's done offensively, but why they want him around. and, you know, it appears that he's going to make that opening day roster after Jimmy Crooks got pushed down. I'll bring up J.J. Weatherholt. You know, obviously we're expecting big things out of JJ. Hot start, cooled off a little bit, hits the dinger on Monday. And, you know, it's second base is his job.

Starting point is 00:29:54 And a chance to win the NL rookie of the year coming up in 2026. And I want to give some love to just the pitching overall. Yeah. I see some wacky scores so far this. spring. A lot of it's out west, but you've seen some wacky scores. And for the Cardinals pitching staff to, and I know it's spring and you're not supposed to get overly excited, but I can't help but feel positive about what we've seen at camp so far from the guys that are supposed to be competing for spots. You know, you're going to see the minor league or struggle here and there, but for the most part, it's been pretty impressive what the rotation and these bolton arms have been able to do. All right, let's switch it up.

Starting point is 00:30:35 go to the uh-oh who are some guys that you're worried about that you've seen a camp so far and you're like buddy you better pick it up i was going to go with gorman as like the big uh-oh i don't know if it's as big as we might be thinking he's got three walks and three strikeouts which is it's good to see his slugging percentage is 409 which i'll take out of him i'd love another home runner two maybe at some point but it's not that bad i think what we're seeing from him is similar to what we saw from June to August last year, where he focused more on the on base and the approach, not necessarily the batting average. I mean, he's hitting 136, which is pretty abysmal. But he's still got those three walks in there that helps his OBP a little bit. It's only

Starting point is 00:31:14 240. You need a 300's there. But I think Gorman's struggles might be a little bit overblown when looking at the underneath stuff. Yeah, I haven't been totally upset with him when I have seeing them in game action. He's looked pretty good over to third base, too, which is a other thing. Yeah, that's the other thing. He's switching positions back over to third base. But that's kind of what I think he's going to be at his ultimate power. He's low average, high power.

Starting point is 00:31:47 And obviously the strikeouts are going to come, but you just want that OBP. You want him to be able to walk. I always compare him to Max Muncie from the Dodgers. That's the kind of style I need him to be. You know, I'm not expecting. him to hit 250. I'm expecting him to sit around 225, but I need OBP and I need the danger ability of his power. So we'll see if that comes to

Starting point is 00:32:09 fruition this year. You mentioned Jordan Walker. I know you got something you want to get off the chest about Jordan and when he's done so far. So let him have it, Thomas. What's up with J. Dub? Get a hit, man. I mean, this is his year. He needs He needs to show that he could hit baseballs, especially high fastballs and breaking balls down in the way. And he is currently hitting 217, 280, 27. No extra base hits, 497 OPS, eight strikeouts to two walks. I just don't know if he's seeing the baseball right now.

Starting point is 00:32:42 And he very well could be working on some stuff in other areas, but you would hope that the thing he's trying to work on in spring training is the high fast balls and breaking balls down and away. And I'm not sure if he's making those adjustments yet. He's gotten the time. And he's got 23 at bats. He's new to the top of the team in that bats, at least. Yeah, they're not hiding him by any means. No.

Starting point is 00:33:03 One thing I saw the great Bernie McClis, who I used to read a post-dispatch growing up, and obviously he still covers the Cardinals in a number of different ways. But he had a stats, and I'm trying to remember where he put it. I know it was on X, but I don't know. He was talking about the ground ball rates and stuff of Jordan Walker so far this spring. And it's like 60%. Yeah, here it is. This is a tweet. 32% strikeout rate. And according to fan graphs, 80% of his batted balls and play are ground balls or infield pop ups.

Starting point is 00:33:37 Ground ball rate at 60%. I mean, none of this is what we were hoping to see this spring after hearing about all the hard work he put in in the off season. We're still rooting for Jordan Walker. Again, you can't overreact to all the good things and then overreact all the bad things either. So you got to kind of stay even keel, but certainly we're hoping for more from Walker. And another name I'll put out there is Victor Scott. You know, I wanted to see more from him. He had another stolen base on Monday, so he's got three this spring. But, you know, six strikeouts. You know, the walks are there.

Starting point is 00:34:11 He's got four of those. But, you know, we just need him to be on base more so we can be that weapon, you know, as the stolen base machine that we know that he's capable of being. So any other, uh-oh. that you're worried about this spring, or is that really kind of wrap it up for you? That's pretty much it on the hitting side. I think you touched well on the pitchers.

Starting point is 00:34:30 The ones we needed to see have performed pretty well. I think if Matt Pusherd is one of those back end, right hand, or the deep in the bullpen guys, I think I'd like to see a bit more out of him, but once it's only thrown three innings, so it's given some time. Yeah, yeah. All right, guys.

Starting point is 00:34:47 Well, let us know in the comments section. Who are some of your, oh, yes, and uh-ohs that you've been impressed with at Camp so far and which ones are you disappointed in. But yeah, the Gorman Walker, Victor Scott, those were kind of the three guys that, you know, you're really hoping to see production from in the spring, just to give you some good vibes going into the season.

Starting point is 00:35:07 They're going to be on the team. That's not that they're not going to be, but you're just hoping that there'd be some positive stuff going, some positive juju heading into opening day. And so far, it's been limited at best. I think that's the nicest way to say it. So, but yeah, let us know in the comments section, your thoughts on this stuff. Thomas, anything you're working on for RedbirdRance.com that our

Starting point is 00:35:27 listeners should be aware of. Little by little, I'm chipping away at ranking our nine starting pitching options for next year. That might take me a couple days, but then otherwise, just some news and notes that I come up with throughout the week. All right. Well, give Thomas a follow at Thomas Govain on X and obviously go read his work at RedbirdRantz.com. Thank you guys for making Locktown Cardl. First listen every day.

Starting point is 00:35:49 If you haven't already, give us a follow as well on X at L-O-U-Nor-Square. Cardinals at a JD Sports Radio. You can find us on TikTok and Instagram and Lockdown Cardinals. Like subscribe on YouTube. Push it for 14,000 subscribers. If you never miss an episode, every day our club is built for you. Lockedong Cardinals ad free plus members only Discord access and more head to Lockedon, STL Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:36:08 Supercast.com. Use the code spring for that free month. And for those of you on video, we'll send you to the first ever 24-7 National Lockdown Podcast Network YouTube channel on the audio side of things. Make your second list. And Lockdown, Imel B with Sully. Thomas, always great. catch it up with you, brother, and thanks for hanging out with us here today.

Starting point is 00:36:26 Absolutely. Thank you for having me. You guys are the best fans of baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on Lockdown Cardinals.

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