Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - The Cardinals Are Still Waiting For The Heart Of Their Order To Be The Guys They Are Supposed To Be

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

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What the hell is that smell? Oh. That's the Cardinals' offense, stinking up the joint in their extra inning loss to Philly. Somebody, somebody open a window. 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. Haffern and I'm a national radio sports anchor born and raised in the Lou with a lifetime Cardinals fan. And I'm your host for Locktown Cardinals, part of the Locktown Podcast Network, covering your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio in the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals. We want to thank those of you who make Locktown Cardinals your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. You can also find us on YouTube. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans of baseball. All of the info about the birds on the bat.

Today's episode brought to you by GameTime, download the game time map, create an account, and use the code Lockdown MLB for $20 off. your first purchase. All right. So we're having a little fun with what's going on with the Cardinals offense right now because if you don't score runs, you can't win baseball games. That's a fact. That's a fact. And so far this season, the Cardinals offense as a whole has been a shell of what we thought we were going to see. And yes, it is early. We're only 11 games in. I know that. but we got to talk about what we're seeing on the field right now. We keep wanting to dismiss last season as an anomaly, right?

It was just a weird year. Everything went wrong. In 2024, it's going to be different. The guys who had down years last year, they're going to be fine. They're going to be back to normal. They've all been working hard all off season to improve their swings, their bodies, their mental approach. And we can keep saying that it's early.

And that's fine. Just like we said, hey, it's only spring training when none of them were hitting in the spring. But eventually, you got to see some production. And through the first 11 games of the season, I'm just not all that impressed with what I've seen from the offense this season. And Monday night was another example of how bad things are right now with this offense. Will they turn this around? Their numbers over their career say they will. But that hasn't happened yet. So we have to talk about what's happening now. Not what's going on in the past.

I know these guys are accomplished hitters. They've proven in the past that they will eventually break out of whatever this is and that they will be okay. But it hasn't happened yet. And when the best hitters on your team are not hitting like your best hitters, most teams are going to lose. Like if the Dodgers, top three, Mukie Bet, Shohayotani and Freddie Freeman all suck at the same time. even the godly Dodgers squad will lose baseball games. And sure, you might squeak out a handful thanks to other guys on the roster.

It's a team sport after all. That's what they're there for. But when the guys you're paying to be the guys in your lineup, the hitters that the other teams are supposed to fear are continuously failing in key situations, your team will lose the majority of those games. That is just what's going to happen. And that's what is happening with St. Louis Cardinals right now. Now, it's what happened to them again on Monday night.

The top four guys in the order, Brennan Donovan, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Gorman, and Nolan Aronado, a combined two for 19. Seven strikeouts on Monday. Now, Brendan Donovan, I know, I lump him in there just because it was part of the Ofer there, but he's been solid. One night does not define what Donovan has done for this team so far this season. We're not complaining about Brennan Donovan. But time and time and time again, the order comes around with runners, on for the other three guys. And time and time and time again, so far this season,

they have completely and utterly failed to do anything whatsoever at the plate. Two instances on Monday night, game was in their hands and they did nothing. I mean, nothing. Bottom of the third, scores at zeros. Victor Scott the second leads off the inning gets hit by a pitch. He steals second on the very next pitch. Donovan does what he's supposed to do, moves him over. Grounds out up the middle where Trey Turner was playing perfectly.

Normally, if that defense is a normal setup, that's going into center field, Scott's scoring. But Phillies, give him credit. They shifted defensively and they were right there for it. But Scott gets to third. Donnie does his job beautifully. Well done. Come on. Runner on third.

One out. You've got Goldie, Gorman, and Nato set to come up with the fastest dude on your team over at third base. So putting the ball in play, key here, right? Putting it in play, whether it's a ground out, whether it's a fly ball, probably doesn't even have to be all that deep. Should get Scott in with his speed. Just put it in play.

Just put it in play. But instead, Spencer Syung Turnbull strikes out Goldie and Gorman. Innings over. Goldie, he gets on just three pitches, makes him look foolish, a dismal at bat for Paul Goldschmidt. Gorman, he at least battled for a little bit, but he goes down swinging. Then in the 10th inning, after the ninth, he come back by the bottom of the order, which was awesome and so much fun to watch.

Cards are down 5'3. Victor Scott starts at second base. Donovan gets a hit. And for a moment, he doesn't get a hit, but hits one. For a moment, I thought was gone. I did. It started carrying and carrying to left field, push the outfield or marsh to the wall. He makes the catch one out.

Scott kind of playing halfway, not sure if he should go or tag up. stays at second base. But here comes the heart of the order again, right? Paul Goldschman. Laces a single in the left field. Nice, solid line drive. Very good. Hope we see more of that out of Goldie. That was great. First and third. One out. Winning run comes to the plate. Here's Nolan Gorman. Guess what? Strikes out. Lefty on lefty. Soto, Gregory Soto, not an easy at bat for a left-handed header. I understand that. It's kind of nasty. He's pumping 98-99. Not an easy at bat for. Gorman. I get it, okay? But a strikeout, nonetheless. Then steps in Aronado. Had a double earlier in the

game, continued his hit streak, but got carved up at the plate in his other at bats, and he strikes out twice earlier in the game, and he goes down swinging on five pitches here. Only one of those pitches actually in the strike zone. I mean, Aronado is just fighting it, man. He wants to hit so bad. He's trying so hard. And it's causing him to chase things that a normal no one are a nato mental state type of player wouldn't be chasing these events the guy still doesn't have a walk yet this year dude doesn't have a walk yet this year and it makes me wonder and i i don't want to believe this but it makes me a wonder was last year actually an aberration when it comes to aranato what if this is who he is now still a great

infielder has looked great over there at the hot corner after struggling last year early on in the season but what if the power has just been zapped? What if the back injury that he was dealing with has zapped as power? And before I get people yelling at me for, oh, you're picking on Arnado, singling him out when the rest of the team isn't actually hitting all that great either. I know that, but the reason I'm focused on him is because he is supposed to be your superstar. That's who Nolan Aronado is supposed to be and who he's being paid to be. all right now whether you believe goldie is over the hill or not aronado doesn't really have that excuse i'm not buying

that okay he's in his early 30s where he should not be falling down the hill yet okay he's making 35 million dollars a year he's one of the top paid players in baseball he's held at a different standard because of these things and i i hate seeing him struggle the way he is i'm not wishing ill upon Nolan Aronado. I'm the one who predicted that he was going to have the Nolan Aronto revenge tour. And I thought early on in spring training that he was well on his way to doing that. But, I mean, he just doesn't look right at the plate. He looks confused. I wish I knew how to fix him. I wish I was like some top tier batting coach that had all the all the answers. Because it's not like he's not trying. The dude is probably working tirelessly to try and figure out what the hell's going on

with him. Maybe that's part of the problem. Maybe he's doing it too much. But something isn't right. I don't know if it's his back still. Is it his vision? Is it just a confidence thing? Maybe it's all of the above. But either way, those three guys, they got to get going in some way, shape, or form. If this offense is ever going to click the way that they need it to to win baseball games, then I hope they do. This is not me, again, trying to be negative about it. I'm just giving you observations of what's going on on the field right now. I'm not the only one that's that's talking about this, okay? A lot of us in the media are talking about this right now because the struggle is real and you see it each game. And I've got some stats and stuff to share with you.

Plus, we're going to talk about how good, because this isn't all going to be negative. We got to talk about how good guys like Miles Michaelis was last night, how good Mason win is like, We're going to get into some of the happier things about last night's game. That's coming up next on Locktown Cardinals. Game time is now an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball, which makes getting tickets even faster and easier. I like fast. I like easy.

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We want to thank you for making Locktown Cardinals for first listen every day. Leave your comments on TwitterX and on YouTube. We've had some heated discussions going on because people get upset at me because, you know, point out some of the negative things that are going on. If you've watched this or listen to the show before, you know, I'm genuinely a positive guy. You know, I am rooting for this team to be good. I don't want to see them fail. It's quite painful to me to watch them go down and lose. Like last year was really, really rough. But we're all kind of talking about the same thing right now, and that's this Cardinals offense and how it is underperformed so far. Okay, but you can't deny that.

It just has. Brandon Kylie works over at 101 ESPN in St. Louis was tweeting out some stuff after the game last night. I wanted to share a few of these with you because it's some of the things that people need to see. You know, you can follow him, by the way, at BK Sports Talk on Twitter X. I encourage you to follow him and the entire crew over at 101 ESPN and all of the people that cover the Cardinals because you'll get some really good information out of them. But in his tweets, first he gives a team staff. And I'm pointing out Goldie Gorman and Aranaado because they are the main three in the lineup. But it's not like everyone else is lighting things up either, okay? You know, because people are like, oh, well, what about this guy and that guy?

I know. Nobody is really hitting all that great. The Cardinals batting averages right now at 217, slugging at 341, and their 80 WRC plus, which is weighted runs created, is the second worst in all of baseball. For those of you who aren't familiar with some of these terms, 100 is league average when it comes to weighted runs creative. And the Cardinals are at 80, so 20% lower than the average team. He then points out the OPS of some of the guys that are underperforming.

An average hitters OPS, case you're wondering, is around 700. And all of the following players that he lists are below that, and some are way below that. So he starts with Nolan Gorman, 657. The alarming thing that we brought up before, 42% K rate right now, he's on pace to strike out 280 times over 162 games. All right. That's a lot.

Nolan Aronado has a 610 OPS, zero walks. And here's something I want to point out. Where is the juice? Like when he does hit the ball, because he's got a hit streak going. People have pointed that out. Great. But when he's hitting it, he's not really hitting it all that hard either, which is just, you know, just points out that his timing and everything,

it's just off right now. average exit below at 85.2. Victor Scott is at 90.2. All right. Victor Scott has three hits, but at least he's hitting the ball hard. No one's not even doing that. His hard hit percentage is at 25. His career hard hit percentage 38.2. His barrel percentage is zero. Has not barreled up a ball yet. That's a problem. Again, he's fighting it. He's trying to. to get there. I know that. I'm just pointing out the stats. Paul Goldschman, 594 OPS. He has one extra base hit. That was the home run on opening day. He has struck out 13 times. He's on pace for 191 strikeouts over 162 game season, which would be a career high. His barrel percentage,

not much better than Aronados. 4.2. He's had one barrel so far this year, which I am guessing was the home run that he hit. Jordan Walker's at 536. Kylie points out one-line drive. He's chasing that away pitch. Remember the one game where he was chasing it. Next game, he hits two opposite field base hits. Then we're like, all right, he's figured it out.

What are they going to do to him next? They just keep pounding him away. And he keeps chasing and chasing, and they're going to keep throwing it out there. So he's got to figure out a way to not swing of those pitches. Alec Berluson, 448, 277. expected batting average. Brandon Kylie points out,

but the real batting average, 1-82. I know. People are sick of hearing, like, but he could be hitting. I know, you're sick of hearing that. I get it. I get it. It's time to produce. Victor Scott the second, 291. Kylie says, what did we expect?

He's now hitting 77 on the season. It's been tough for him. It's been tough for him, but he's jumping from AA into the major leagues because of injuries. Like, he's not even supposed to be here, but you have to admit his defense, been excellent when he is on base. It's fun. He's just got to get on base more. And you can look at

these stats and we'll continue to say, you know, looking at their body of work, which was pointed out online to me a bunch of times, that they will snap out of this at some point. And I hope that is true. As a fan, I want to believe that. But when we point the finger at why this team is at five and six right now, this is why. This is, this is the issue at the moment. It's not the starting pitching. It's not the bullpen. It's not the defense. It is the offense. End of story. And I know that there's been a couple games where the pitchers have gotten hit hard. You know, Michaelis got hit in a heart in L.A. on opening night. So did Thompson. Gibson got shelled on Sunday. I realized that. But it's not like the offense showed up all that much in

those games anyway. Even if those pitchers had limited those offenses in those games, the cartels were probably going to lose because they can't hit the ball. And even if they do give up five or six. It doesn't mean that the game is just automatically over. I watched the Padres last night, come back down eight to nothing to the Cubs and win nine to eight. Good offenses are always dangerous. And right now, the Cardinals are just not a dangerous offense. They're just not. I mean, Zach Wheeler's on the mound tonight. We know how good he is. We've seen him plenty of times. He could throw a no-no tonight with the amount of times that this team strikes out and doesn't put the ball in play.

Doesn't even give themselves a chance for something to sneak through a hole or just to plop into the outfield, you know, like a little blooper. He might throw a no-no against them tonight the way things are going. It wouldn't shock me. I hope it doesn't happen, but I'm just saying. Like the strikeout rate is crazy at the moment. Now, Miles Michaelis, not his fault last night. Miles Michaels, in fact, was really, really good.

So we're going to talk about that. We'll bring up the bullpin and some injury updates for you next on Lockedong. Cardinals. Baseball season is officially underway. Don't miss your chance to add your favorite players from the diamond in your prize picks entries, whether it's strikeouts. How many is Zach Wheeler going to have tonight against this Cardinals lineup? RBIs are first sitting runs. Take your pick or more or less and add them to your price picks entry. Today you can get in on the playoff action when it comes to the NBA, which is getting ready to heat up here shortly. Went up to 100 times your money on price picks as you are in the world's best players. Take the game.

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You put in $25. They're going to give you $25 to use. So don't miss out on your chance to cash in on all your sports knowledge. You think tonight's the night, then the Cardinals break out. Nolan Aronado, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan, Gorman, everything's going to be fine. They're going to do fine tonight against Zach Wheeler. You feel that way? Put your money where your mouth is. Download the app today. Use the code locked MLV for a first deposit match up to $100. Pick more, pick less. It's that easy with price picks. Locked on has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube.

And now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the Free Fire TV channels app. Locked on Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of locked on plus our national shows covering every league. You can find Lockedon Sports Today now available on the Free Fire TV channels app. Miles Michaelis last night. Six to two-thirds inning, six hits two runs. That was his line. A couple of walks, three strikeouts. That's pretty good.

That's pretty good. And when you get that kind of a line from anybody in this rotation, considering how they can get hit from time to time, hello, Kyle Gibson on Sunday, you would expect the Cardinals to pick up the win. I've thrown the quality stats at you over and over and over again and how good this team was, even last year when they weren't a very good baseball team, that when they got a quality start from someone in the rotation, they won a lot. That's now back-to-back quality starts for Miles Michaelis,

who since opening day has looked more like the guy we've become accustomed to over the years. No home runs hit off of them last night, which was really, really nice. Unfortunately, the Cardinals pitching staff did give up a dinger. Brandon Marsh pops one off Giovanni Gallegos in that ninth inning, which proved to be a big deal, the Cardinals came back and tied things up in the bottom of the night, thanks to the lower portion and the younger portion of their order, which was super fun to see, to see Herrera and Walker and Burleson

and Winn put together the rally in the bottom of the night and get it done. That was really, really cool to see. But pitching-wise, that's now 18 home runs given up by the Cardinals pitching staff this year, second most in the league behind the Blue Jays, who have given up 21. Another solo home run, they'll continue to tell you that, hey, if you're going to give up one, solo home runs are the ones that aren't going to kill you.

But when you give up so many of them, eventually that's a problem. Be nice to keep the ball in the ballpark a little more, right? Right? Just say. Matthew Libertori, how about that? Livy looked good again last night coming out of the pit. It's nice to see him find a spot where he looks comfortable. He's thriving in this role a little bit.

So I said at the beginning of the season, if his role, if he's best suited and will be best used by being a bullpen guy, leave him there. Leave him there. Let him be that guy. Let him have some success for a while. And hopefully there's not any more injuries to the rotation where you've got to move him around and have to move him back into a starter's role. If that's where you can get the most production out of them, leave them there. That's fine. That's fine.

It's okay. You need bullpen arms. Very important in this game. Hellsley. All right. So, Helzley last night, tough spot. All right. Tough spot for any pitcher to come into.

You get a runner on second. Nobody out. But that's the point of this extra inning's rule. You know, they wanted to be high pressure situation. And you're just hoping that your number one guy who's got good strikeout stuff can get out there and put up a zero, got the first batter, intentionally walks Bryce Harper, which I didn't hate it all. Dudes a beast. I mean, if you have your choice of having to battle Bryce Harper or Alec Boehm, who you take it? You're going to do that over all day, every day, right? You're going to

take your chances with Alec Boehm. But unfortunately, Boehm delivers with that double inside the bag at third. Bryce and Scott ends up hitting a sack fly. And that's how the second run comes in, makes it five to three, which is how it ended. We already went over what happened in the bottom of the 10th inning. Cardinal strikeouts, 11 times, 11 times again last night, the eighth time in the season's first 11 games that they've had nine or more strikeouts. 106 strikeouts so far in the season, fourth highest total in the national league and fifth highest total in major league baseball. I will never not get annoyed by strikeouts. I don't care if people deemed unacceptable these days. It is my pet peeve. It drives me nuts. I don't know how many times

you have to go see games where if you just put the ball in play, things can happen. You have to make the other team field the ball. They have to make good throws. They have to make good decisions. All of those things have to happen for them to get you out. But if you don't even put the ball and play. Easiest thing in the world, right? They don't have to do anything. They just sit back and relax, grab a lemonade and chill. So they got to figure out a way to cut these down. Strikeouts are a problem. Also love seeing Mason win play. Tell me you're not having fun watching Mason Winn play shortstop right now. You're lying if you say that you're not enjoying defensively outstanding. How much fun is he? Like cannon arm, we know about it, but he's making diving plays. He's turning

double plays. Everything about this has been awesome. Paul Goldschmidt last night. I know I bag on him for the offense stuff, but how amazing was he at first base yesterday? Gold glove caliber stuff over there at first base, making a couple of awesome plays, stretching, keeping his toe on the bag. Like, he's incredible when it comes to that. I don't know how he does it. It's like he's got a little magnet in his toe there. So good. But Mason went offensively. The maturity he's showing. You're seeing it. He is a better hitter than he was last year. And we kind of knew that was supposed to happen and was going to happen.

Because at every level he's been at, he struggles early on, and then he adjusts, and then he becomes a good hitter. Is he going to hit 350 or something like that? Probably not. But he's getting it done. And that clutch hit in the bottom of the ninth, that was huge. That was huge. The energy that he was showing to the dugout after he hit it. I love that stuff.

We might have a star in the making here. You might have a star in the making here. here. He's great. Injury updates. Wilson Contreras originally in the starting lineup last night, got pulled again for the fourth consecutive game, hasn't played since he was hit on the hand in last Wednesday's game, got hit by a pitch in San Diego. Ali said that he likely will play tonight. We'll see because he's been in the lineup twice, and then at the very last minute, they pull him out because things don't feel right. So hopefully he'll be back in there because this offense misses him. Dylan Carlson, who sprang that AC joint in his left shoulder on March 25th,

saw team doctors in St. Louis yesterday, has not been cleared to resume baseball activities yet because of lingering pain and a lack of range of motion in the joint. Like, you just feel bad for Dylan Carlson, having, after a slow spring, and then he finally gets the job, and he's looking good again. He looks like that top prospect, and then he gets hurt in the second to last spring training game. It just sucks. He'll continue to do range of motion and strengthening exercises over the next two weeks before he gets evaluated again. Tommy Edmund got some positive news.

As yet to fully go through baseball activities yet after surgery in October on that wrist. But he got cleared by team doctors on Monday to resume swinging a bat. He will be allowed to swing at balls on a tee from both the right and left sides of the plate because of pain and swelling. Hadn't been able to swing from the right side. It had only been limited to only swinging from the left side. So that's positive, at least. Lars Newpar, been out since March 2nd after fracturing two ribs on his left side. He was at Bush Stadium.

I'm sure you've seen the pictures. He was out there hitting. He was diving. And, you know, he's getting close. He wore a T-shirt that apparently had like a gel padding inside the liner of the shirt, which is kind of cool. Repeatedly dove back into a base to test out the ribs, said he reported no ill effects. Still struggling to regain his timing so far. so he's going to go to AA Springfield and play today.

Try to get more at bats. The idea it seems to be is that he'll be back with the Cardinals by April 11th when the team travels to Arizona for a three-game series. Keenan Middleton received a PRP injection into the forearm on April 6th, 72 hours without activity and a week without throwing before he'll be re-evaluated. We're hoping for good news there because he obviously was a signing that we were excited about. So kind of a bummer that he went down. And then, of course, you've got Sunny Gray set to make his regular season Cardinal debut tonight.

Pitch count going to be around 65. Hopefully we can squeeze three or four innings out of him before he hands the ball off to, I would assume, Zach Thompson will be next in line. And then the rest of the bullpen will follow as needed after that. But it would be great to see Sunny Gray on the mound tonight. We hope for good things. And hoping for a Cardinals victory. Let's see.

It's not going to be easy. Zach Wheeler on the mound tonight for Philadelphia, who he's a beast. I don't know what I'll say about him. He's really, really good. But again, thank you for making lockdown Cardinals for first listen to every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on Twitter X at L0 underscore Cardinals and at JD Sports Radio. Again, feedback is always welcome and encourage whether we agree or disagree with each other. We're just having Cardinals discussions.

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