Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - SURPRISE STANDOUT: St. Louis Cardinals’ HURLER Richard Fitts Is TURNING HEADS At Spring Training

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cardinals likely opening day starter was back on the Hill on Wednesday, but he wasn't the guy that opened the most eyes against Nicaragua. 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, a former National Radio Sports anchor, born and raised in St. Louis and a lifetime Cardinals fan. And welcome to another episode of Locked on Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:00:35 part of the Lockdown Podcast Network now, the number one sports podcast network. Thank you to our everydayers for being here with us this whole time. Welcome aboard to the new people who are just joining us. Appreciate you. This is a show serving Cardal Nation and giving you all the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by MLB the show 26. Visit MLB the dot show slash locked on and use the code locked on, L-O-C-E-D-O-N, to unlock a pack for use.

Starting point is 00:01:05 Diamond Dynasty, probably the most popular part of MLV, the show. Pre-order now because it's going to be available March 17th on PlayStation 5 Xbox and Nintendo Switch, rated E for everyone. On today's show, the newest top 30 prospects from MLB pipeline was released, so we'll kind of navigate our way through that. Should the Cardinals be mentioned among franchises like the Marlins, the A's, the White Sox, and the Pirates? I've got some thoughts on that. But we are going to start with what we saw on the field on Wednesday. Not a grapefruit league game, but an exhibition game.

Starting point is 00:01:40 It's an exhibition, man, an exhibition. Rocky 4, case you're wondering. Between the Cardinals and Nicaragua, who is gearing up for the World Baseball Classic. Now, the Cardinals lost this game by a score of 2 to 1. Incredibly boring. There was not a whole lot going on in this one. Another offensively challenging game for a team that,

Starting point is 00:02:01 you know, outside of a couple of games so far this spring, And they really struggle to put runs on the board, kind of a precursor of what many of us are expecting in 2026 from the Cardinals, where we think most of the team should be all right. It's offensively is where we're like, where are they going to get the production from? Where are they going to score runs? How are they going to score runs? They've struggled so far here in the spring. Now, this was not the full-blown lineup for the Cardinals that we're expecting to see when the regular season does begin, not even close to what the regular season lineup will be. but still you want to see some production.

Starting point is 00:02:38 You want to see that. They went with a very young lineup. Yvonne Herrera let off and was catching. Nathan Church was in center field. Nelson Velasquez was your D.H. Cesar Preeto was over at third. Joshua Baez in right field. Chase Davis and left field.

Starting point is 00:02:52 Blaze Jordan over first base. Jeremy Revis was starting in shortstop. Now of that group, two of them will probably be on the opening day roster. if I was a betting man and I had to place a bet down. I would say that the two guys at the top there, Yvonne Herrera and Nathan Church will make the opening day roster. Herrera for sure going to be a part of things, Church fighting for a bench spot.

Starting point is 00:03:18 But with Lars Neupar's injury, still where it is, feels like that he's going to make this team for the opening day roster. And he could be starting at left field on opening day, to be honest. So we'll see. If Newt's on the IL, he's for sure going to make this team. On the pitching side of things, you had multiple big names that got into this one, including the odds on favorite to be the opening day starter and Matthew Libert's. But he was not the one who people were really talking about after this game was completed.

Starting point is 00:03:50 So let's get into the three stars of the game at number one. We're going to go with the guy who finished up the game for the Cardinals. And that would be Richard Fitz. Richard Fitz got in his second game of the spring this far, and he'd only been in one where he threw two winnings. He allowed to hit struck out just one. But, you know, people were really impressed by the beelo that he showed in that first game and that first outing, consistently hitting 96, 97 with the fastball. And once again, he was right there. 96 regularly, sometimes in 97 area.

Starting point is 00:04:26 Fitz had those injury concerns last year. So to see him throwing free and easy is definitely a positive for the Cardinals. Against Nicaragua, he threw the final three innings, allowed no runs on four hits. He struck out four on just 41 pitches, 28 of them for strikes. He was using the full arsenal too. Like he wasn't holding anything back. We saw fastball, sinkers, curves, changeups, sliders, sweepers, five shutout innings now for Richard Fitz this spring.

Starting point is 00:04:52 And yeah, it's not against normal major league lineups. but you got to be encouraged by what you've seen so far from him in the spring. Now, as the competition for back in spots and the starting rotation continues, you got to just looking at what Fitz has done compared to the guy that I think he's up against and Andre Palante. So far, it feels like Fitz has separated himself from Andre so far. So far. We still got a couple weeks left.

Starting point is 00:05:19 And number two star of the game is going to go to your catcher on Wednesday. and that was Yvonne Herrera who went two for two in the contest. You know the drill with Yvonne, clean up job on the elbow this offseason, still wants to prove that he can be a big league catcher. Cardinals are more than supportive of giving him a chance to do that. But what makes Herrera special, even if he's completely healthy and can catch, it's the bat. The bad is what makes him special.

Starting point is 00:05:44 He had that huge year last year, OPS Plus of 136 in 107 games. He hit 19 home runs. He drove in 66. The optimistic fans believe that he, He can continue to hit this way and will continue to be this guy and might even have bigger numbers with a full healthy season. Now, the pessimistic fans, which there are plenty of, think he could dip in production during his full season thanks to the wear and tear that he might suffer by being a catcher if he becomes, you know, one of the regular catchers. Again, that that is not a guarantee. We do not know how it's going to go down.

Starting point is 00:06:19 He didn't get a chance to throw anybody out on Wednesday. So, you know, the real test is, is the arm good enough? Is the arm good enough to hold runners at bay? So it wasn't last year. We'll see what happens the rest of the spring. But both his hits on Wednesday, they were singles. First one came on a 1-1 fastball that he laced into the left field. His second one came and his second aback, got it to a full count,

Starting point is 00:06:41 took a slider that was away, took it to the opposite field for a base knock to right. He also stole second base in that inning on strike three to Nathan Church, but got stranded there when Velazquez went down on strikes to end the third. These were his first two hits of the spring. And we all know the Cardinals are going to need Herrera to be a big bat for them this year. If they plan to score any runs whatsoever. I mean, that's the real question right now. How are the Cardinals going to score?

Starting point is 00:07:09 And Herrera and Burley are going to have to be consistently good. And the hope is that surrounding pieces will be good with them like Garman and Walker and Victor Scott. everyone's hoping they're going to have much better seasons. You add JJ Weatherholt, who's having a tremendous spring. You add Mason Wend, hoping he elevates his offensive production. And that's how your offense becomes competitive. Not going to be great, but it's how you make it competitive. But Herrera Burley are the guys that really need to lead the way.

Starting point is 00:07:39 So good to see Yvonne, getting a couple of knocks on this one. Our third start of the game, we're going to stay on the offensive side of things with this one. I'm going to give another star to Josh Baez, man. he's starting to show that talent that helped him explode last season, made him a top 100 prospect. He goes two for three in this one, 105 mile per hour base hits, the left field in the fourth and another base hits to left in the sixth. Both of those hits came against sliders away that he was able to pull to the left side. He also stole second base, but ended up getting stranded when Chase Davis went down on strikes. Grapefruit League play hitting 286, 414, does not have a home run

Starting point is 00:08:15 or an RBI. He has struck out five times. But if you add his numbers that he had in today's game, which is an exhibition game, so it doesn't technically count towards his spring training stats. But if you add this, he's now batting 353 this spring. All six of those hits are singles, mind you. But we haven't seen the power that he displayed last year, but he's got two steals. And you just just watching the guy. I mean, you can tell when somebody is an athlete, right? And Joshua Baez, 6-3-220, 22 years old. I mean, you can see why people are drooling over his potential. And now starting to figure things out a little bit, a few base knocks,

Starting point is 00:08:58 353 in the spring. So do I think he's going to make the opening day roster? I do not. I don't. There's no need to rush him. There's no necessity for him to be in the lineup right away. So I think the smart play is to let him go down to Memphis. And he hasn't played at AAA yet.

Starting point is 00:09:15 So let him go down to Memphis and see what kind of damage he can do down there. And then when the time is right, you let him take over one of your corner outfield spots, whichever one is up for grabs at the time. All right, we got more observations from this game. I do want to talk about Matthew Libertor's start, which was good for a little while. And then it got a little, but it wasn't all that bad. It really was that despite some of the stat you might see. So we'll get into that.

Starting point is 00:09:41 We've got the prospects to talk about. Colin Coward. Cruddy Cardinals, huh? All right. We'll get to all of that coming up on Lockdown Cardinals. Today we're thrilled to be talking about our sponsor, M.LBee the show, 26. Oh, it's getting close, boys and girls.

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Starting point is 00:12:49 S-Cardinals.com or tap the link in the show notes for more info. So it is first, two appearances this spring. Matthew Libertor been good, right? He's been solid. Five innings, seven strikeouts, only one walk, which is great, allowed one run on four hits. We've seen his innings go from two to his first start, went up to three. And then I think plan for Wednesday was, hey, let's get him through four if we can do it. And through the first three innings on Wednesday, things look pretty hard good. He strikes out the side in the first inning, wiped out that lead off hitter with the slider on three pitches. So, you know, he came out humming.

Starting point is 00:13:27 Then second hitter, he got swinging on a slider up in the zone. Don't really want to live there, but it worked in that particular, a bad against Jeter Downs. Then his third strike out of the inning was also a pitch that was up, cutter up, and he got the swing and miss. No case in the second, but then he gets Jeter Downs again to end the third on another nasty slider low and in on the righty. Then in the fourth, it got bad real quick.

Starting point is 00:13:51 You got a lead off singer on a slider low and in on the righty, Mungia, who was three for three in this game, by the way. So he was seeing the ball quite well. It was a good pitch. Dude just got a hit. Next senator gets a fastball up, and it's an Apotaco two run shot to right field. It really wasn't the worst pitch in the world.

Starting point is 00:14:10 It was just clipping the top of the zone. But living up in the zone is very, very dangerous. If you're not throwing, 96, 97, Libertort does not throw that hard. So he got tagged on that one. His next hitter was Mark Viantos, who doubles on a slider. This one was in and off the dish. Viantos just got bad on ball and got a devil.

Starting point is 00:14:31 So three straight hits, the second time around in the order, and none of them were pitches that you would deem bad. It's not like he was just throwing, you know, pitches right over the plate. He didn't leave him out and over there or anything like that. The batters made good swings. So give him credit. Libby would pick up his fifth strike out of the game against the next sitter, got him on a curveball that was actually up in the zone a little bit,

Starting point is 00:14:53 probably should have been smashed. But that would finish his day. He goes three and a third innings, two runs, five hits, five case on 65 pitches, kind of a mixed bag of things because he got some strikeouts on some not so good pitches. And then he was giving up hits on some pretty good pitches that were painting the black and stuff. So kind of a weird day for Libby, but a little fatigue probably played a part in that in the end there.

Starting point is 00:15:17 But it wasn't like, again, that he was throwing meatballs. right over the heart of the plate. It really wasn't as bad as it may sound if you just look at the stats. So he now has 12 strikeouts at 8 in the third innings, which is fantastic to see. Only one walk for Libby. Didn't have any of them in the game today on Wednesday. So not a bad outy, you know. The rest of the bullpen, they were excellent.

Starting point is 00:15:43 Gersona Moreno came in for Libby, got the final two outs of that fourth inning, struck out a guy, Jojo Romero. threw a scoreless inning with two Ks. Ryan Stanik also got in an inning of work. One walk, one K, no runs. Offensively, as I said, there really wasn't a whole lot to talk about in this game. They only run the Cardinals got was from catcher Andy Yerzy, who hit a solo home run.

Starting point is 00:16:06 I know, you're like, who the hell is that? Well, it's not important, but he did hit a home run. Nathan Church, O for two with a walk, Velasquez, O for three with three Ks, has not been very impressive. So far this spring, we have not seen any of the power that we we were hoping to see. He could say the same thing about Blaze Jordan. What did we hear about Blaise Jordan when we made the trade? And he came over from Boston. Oh, my gosh, a dude drives and runs. He's got sick power. O for three in this particular game still does

Starting point is 00:16:33 not have a hit so far in spring training. So not great. Not great, Bob. Former first round pick Chase Davis struck out three times. So a rough day at the office for him. team was 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position. Again, this is not the everyday lineup that you're planning on seeing the Cardinals throw out there each and every day during the regular season. Like I said, only two of them probably going to make the opening day roster. But at the same time, you're hoping for a little more than what you got in this game against Nicaragua. So Cardinals are going to hit the road to battle the pirates on Thursday. Dustin May scheduled to get the start, his first start of the season.

Starting point is 00:17:15 spring. We've been hearing a lot of good stuff about him and his bullpen sessions, popping 99 on the gun, which is cool, healthy, which is great. He's going to take on Pirates, Tough Right Hander Mitch Keller, and yes. The answer is yes. The game is going to be on TV. So we'll all get our first look at the man they call Big Red on the boob tube on Thursday. First pitch will be at 1205 St. Louis time on Cardinal TV. Coming up next. The Cardinals new top 30 list from MLB Pipeline. Plus, who called our boys the Cruddy Cardinals? Got something to say about that.

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Starting point is 00:19:53 Play your game. Thank you again for making locked on Cardinals, your first listen of the day. And thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast network. So the new MLB pipeline top 30 is out. And the top three are, for the Cardinals, are exactly who you think it would be. J.J. Weatherholt is your number one. Liam Doyle comes in at number two. and then at number three, it is Renial Rodriguez.

Starting point is 00:20:24 So no real surprise is there. Get you a shot of Mr. Doyle right there. After that, you got Joshua Baez at number four. Gerangelo Sangea comes in at number five. Leo Bernal at six, all three of those guys, other than that I'm talking about, Bayez, Sanja, and Bernal. All three of those are ranked in the top 100 by MLB Pipeline as well as, you know, JJ, Doyle, Rodriguez.

Starting point is 00:20:51 as Quinn Matthews is after that. Then Jimmy Crook's, Brandon Clark, Tocoa Robi, round out the top 10. So two new faces acquired this offseason end up cracking the Cardinals top 10. 2025 draft picks Tanner Franklin and Ryan Mitchell are at number 11 and 12, pitcher Yoheeker Fuhardo, who came over in that Wilson Contreras deal with Boston is at number 13, followed by the lefty, Ishaun Henderson, Tink Pence, 18-year-old shortstop, Yato Padilla, who is at 16. Cooper Jerpy, who is coming. back from injury and is hoping to return by July comes in at number 17. If you guys didn't see the article from our friend Daniel Guerrero, who's been on the show

Starting point is 00:21:29 a couple of times over at STL Today.com, he's got a nice write up about Cooper Jerpy and, you know, his rehab and how he's doing. That's available at STL Today.com. If you are so inclined to go check that out. Newcomer Thai Pete comes at at number 18 prize international signing. Emmanuel Luna at number 19, Jesus Baez, who came over in the Ryan Hell. deal with the Mets is at 20. Raining Cardo's minor league pitcher of the year.

Starting point is 00:21:55 Bryson Mott's at 21. My guy Luis Gastilum is at number 22. Possible opening day starter in left field. Nathan Church comes in at number 23. Friend of the show, Danielle Ortiz, comes in to number 24. 2025 fourth round pick, Cade Crossland. At number 25, you got the 6'4-7, Chinway Lynn at number 26, plays Jordan at 27, lefty Braille Davis, at 28.

Starting point is 00:22:20 Handsel Rincol in number 29, and then first baseman, Jack Girovich rounds out the top 30. So a lot of talent there, a lot of talent there. You're going to see a decent amount of that at the major leagues at some point this season. But at the core, just a nice group ready to make an impact, mostly not this year. Probably 27, 28 is more of the target dates for a lot of these guys, but pretty good. pretty good. And finally, I want to wrap this up with something that caught myself and Cardinals fans off guard the other day. And that's when Fox Sports Personality, Colin Coward, fan or not, you know, this is what these guys do, right? They go on TV and they say stuff just to get reactions

Starting point is 00:23:10 from people. It's part of the gig. And he was discussing the popularity of baseball and how there was a survey of the athletic that said that fans are happier with the sport now than they were three years ago. And he was giving credit to teams like the Dodgers and the Cubs for those results. And then he decided to go after the franchises that he thinks are the problem when it comes to, you know, people not being all that excited about baseball. He says, you know, the Dodgers are winning a lot and everybody is almost entirely happier, three times more happy than three years. ago, what hurts baseball is the A's, the Marlins, the White Sox, the cruddy Cardinals, and the Pirates. Whoa. Like, why are the Cardinals catching astray? The cruddy Cardinals?

Starting point is 00:24:04 Now, here's my thing, because I know people who are in sports radio and I know that part of the job is to say something outlandish to get a reaction. And oh, yeah, this got a reaction online from Cardinals fans for sure. Maybe that's why he said it. Is it just to get Cardle fans worked up to give him something to talk about? Perhaps. Perhaps. And if that's all it was, then it's doing its job. Okay, we're letting Colin Cowher win. I mean, I'm talking about it right now. I don't think I've ever brought him up on the show before ever. And here we are. I do know that some fans think that he's right. I mean, go look at the comments section to some of the videos on YouTube. Fans are saying this stuff all the time saying, hey, Cardinals are becoming just like those franchises.

Starting point is 00:24:47 Last one of the, there was a couple of people. They were like the St. Louis Pirates, yay, making fun of them. And to this argument, you know, are the Cardinals not allowed to rebuild things after being one of the top ten payrolls year after year after year for the longest time, despite being in a middle market. They're not allowed to do that. They've had two losing seasons since 2008. No, that's cruddy. Now, I don't want to live in the past,

Starting point is 00:25:25 and neither do the fans, which is part of why things are happening the way they're happening, because the Cardl's formula, their decision-making, their continued disregard for keeping up with player development, put them in this position, and it's a not so familiar hole. They didn't know what the hell to do.

Starting point is 00:25:42 And instead of continuing to just try and cover up the real problems by spending more money on more Band-Aid-type players like your Sunny Grays, Nolan Aronado, Wilson Contreras, the Cardinals, as painful as it was, decided to rip and tear those band-aids off and start medicating things at the root of the problem. the fans knew this two years ago that there were problems. And because ownership and management refused to pay attention,

Starting point is 00:26:18 the fans made them face the problems the only way they knew how, and that was by not showing up. They're like, you're not doing it right. You guys are screwing us all up. Why are you continuing to go down this path? We don't know. We're not going to pay for it anymore. You guys need to be as smart as we.

Starting point is 00:26:37 are as fans and get this going in the right direction again. The fans knew that massive changes needed to happen. And finally, after witnessing in 2025, night after night after night of this endless sea of empty red seats at Bush Stadium, decisions were made. A direction was finally chosen. New voices were brought on board. a breath of fresh air with Heim Bloom around bringing in his assistants, his guys, the same type of people that helped do good things with the Tampa Bay Rays,

Starting point is 00:27:19 that helped rebuild the Boston Red Sox Farm System. Go look at some of the talent that not only the Cardinals were able to bring over, but like other guys that are now flourishing in Boston, because those were the guys that while Heim was there, he's the one who found those people. and they fired him for it. They didn't give him a chance to see the whole thing through. We're not going to have that problem in St. Louis.

Starting point is 00:27:43 It's like they trust Haim a lot. And the fans, I think, are believing in Heim Bloom as well. They're a little upset. Some people who are worked up about Olly getting that extension. But let the man cook. Let him do what he does. They've rebuilt this farm system from what was a bottom tier system into one of the top five in the league in just one off season. That's impressive.

Starting point is 00:28:09 They had to sacrifice money. They had to sacrifice our beloved Brendan Donovan to get there. But these are things that needed to be done. They were smart business decisions. Do they make them a better baseball team this year on the field? No, they do not. But they know that. They're sacrificing this season and probably 2027 to get to where they want. to be. Now, the next step is they have to develop all this talent that they've acquired. And they got to do that properly. It's another thing that they needed to work on after watching many of their top prospects fail to live up to the expectations over the last few years. But that's what this 2026 is about. They know it's not going to be easy and there's going to be

Starting point is 00:28:58 some nights at Bush that are ugly. And I'm not just talking about people not showing up. I'm talking about on the field where these kids are going to be learning to play the game at the major league level. But think about how young this is. You know, Herrera, Crooks, Gorman, Wyn, Weatherhole, Walker, Scott, Sejacy, Fermin, Church, Libertor, McGreevy, Fitts, Dobbins, all of them are 26 or under. All of them. And then you've got that next level below them with, like, Doyle and Joshua Baez and Rodriguez and Bernal and Sanger. Those guys are all top 100 prospects,

Starting point is 00:29:38 expected to make a difference for this Cardinals franchise at some point. And when the Cardinals are ready, I have no doubts that they will spend again. But they've got some issues, right? The TV stuff has been a mess. The CBA's coming up next year. I don't want to say those are excuses, but they're real things to think about when, you know,

Starting point is 00:30:03 it's easy for us to throw the money around and not give a crap because it's not our money, but you think the owners just want to blow money? No, of course not. This is a business for them as well. But they're not up to that point yet. There was no point in going out and signing a bunch of free agents this year because they weren't going to make a big enough difference to make them any good. So they did what they needed to do. There's a plan in place. And even your smack talking, Mr. Cowherd is not going to change it. So make fun of them. Make fun of them right now. Call them names. kick them while they're down. But we'll be watching and we'll be keeping receipts.

Starting point is 00:30:39 Thanks for making Locked on Cardinals, your first listen every day. If you have not already, please give us a follow. We'd love to have you on board on X at L. underscore Cardinals at a JD Sports Radio. You can find us on TikTok and Instagram at Lockedong Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube. Help our channel and I love for the Cardinals grow. We're making that push for 14,000 subscribers.

Starting point is 00:30:58 We're getting really close. So if you haven't subscribed yet, we'd love to have you as a part of this. If you never miss an episode, every day air club, built for you, get Locked on Cardinals, ad free, plus members only Discord access and more. Head to Lockedon, STL Cardinals.supercast.com to join the club. Make sure you use that code spring.

Starting point is 00:31:16 Get yourself a free month. For those of you on video, we're going to send you to the first ever 24-7 National Lockdown Podcast Network YouTube channel on audio. Make sure your second listen is Locked on MLB. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. You're smart. You are.

Starting point is 00:31:31 We'll see you next time on Locked on Cargles. Thank you.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - SURPRISE STANDOUT: St. Louis Cardinals’ HURLER Richard Fitts Is TURNING HEADS At Spring Training

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