Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - The Cardinals Hire Hitting Coach Who Just Got Fired This Year

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

- Cardinals Reset Continues - Brant Brown Is The New Hitting Coach - Rob Cerfolio Is The New Assistant GM - Jon Jay Has Joined The Coach Staff - Final Thoughts Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSTLCardinals?sid=YouTube Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLB Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! PrizePicks Download the app today and use code LOCKEDONMLB to win $50 instantly when you play your first $5 lineup. PrizePicks. Run Your Game. Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONMLB Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel You can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - guaranteed ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) #ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The St. Louis Cardinals have begun hiring some new and old faces to the coaching staff in the front office. We have got the latest on today's episode of 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 Jady 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 Lockdown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio and the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals.

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So the Cardinals had a busy Tuesday making multiple. announcements and hiring. So let's run through them really quickly and then we can talk a little more in depth about each one. We'll start off with the hiring of their new hitting coach, 53 year old Bram Brown. We'll be taking over for Turner Ward in 2025. The team has also hired 32 year old Robert Serfoglio as their new assistant general manager, player development and performance. You heard me right. He is 32 years old, young man. And former Cardinal, John Jay, who we're all very much familiar with, has been hired as a coach for the major league staff. So out of these three moves that have been done, I think the one that's going to get the most controversy is probably the heading coach, Brant Brown.

And as important as the other two hires are, the hitting coach hire was one that people were very much anticipating after it was announced that the team was going to move on from Turner Ward. And everybody's like, who's it going to be? where are they going to go? Were they going to pull somebody? Is it going to be Albert Poole? Is it going to be out of your Molina? No, no. It wasn't going to be any of those guys.

Brant Brown is your guy. And he's an interesting hire to say the least, considering what just happened to him in 2024, where he got fired. He got fired from his job as the bench coach offensive coordinator for the Seattle Mariners, not the Seattle Seahawks, the Seattle Mariners, less than six months on the job following their dismal start, offensive-wise, because they were winning ball games,

but the offense was terrible to start the season. Apparently this was the first time during the Jerry DePoto Scott Service era that the Mariners have fired a hitting coach during the course of season. Like this is something they don't do very often. Yet that is what just happened to Brand Brown in the 2024 season. And again, he got hired. I think December is when he when he actually got hired by Seattle. So at the end of May, six months is all they gave him. They were like, boom, you're out. We don't like what's happening here. You're out of here. So I've got a write up. I went through and looked at some of the old articles that Seattle people had written about the firing earlier this year.

Came across this one that is a writing about it. So let's get you through it. The club announced Brown's dismissal amid a season long offensive slump. They say season long there, even though it was only two months, but whatever. The Mariners entered Friday, ranked 29th in Major League Baseball with 3.64 runs per game and retired for 28th. total runs this season. They lead all of baseball and strikeouts. They go on to quote, Manager Scott's service, who was also fired later on in August, by the way, said this about moving on from Bram Brown. Obviously, we've had some struggles on the offensive side,

and it's not all Brown's fault by any means. It's just, you know, we want to make a change there, maybe a little bit different voice. With our players, we really need to get our guys focused back into doing what they do best. That's coaching. How do you get the most out of your guys? That's what we're going to focus on here going forward. Outfielder Mitch Hanager is in this article saying, our collective production as an offense kind of led to this decision.

All of us don't feel too great about that. Brown is not the one to blame for that. It's not his fault. Kind of sounds eerily familiar to what Cardinals players have said about their coaches in the past when they, their production didn't live up to expectations. I mean, and it's not like they're, they're trashing Bram Brown by any means, you know, they're being stand up about, hey, this is not all on him.

Like, this is also one us. You know, they're not saying he's a terrible coach or he's a bad person. So that's a plus. Now, if you're not familiar with Bram Brown, he did play Major League Baseball, played with the Cubs, pirates, Marlins as well during his playing days. after where he got into coaching, started off in the minor leagues with the Rangers organization, then went to the minor leagues of the Mariners before going to the Dodgers where he had a lot of success with the Dodgers.

He was initially an assistant hitting coach slash minor league hitting coordinator. Ended up getting promoted to hitting strategist in 2019. And then at the end of the 2022 season was hired as the hitting coach for the Miami Marlins. Now that Marlins team, when you go back, and look at it. And this was the team where Skip Schumacher won manager of the year. They won 84 games. They went to the playoffs, but they got, you know, they lost two games and were out. When you go back and look at that Marlins team, which is what I wanted to do, they weren't anything special offensively under Bram Brown. Like, I'm just looking at the stats here.

It doesn't mean whatever he's doing behind the scenes isn't wonderful and great. But numbers is what matters, right? Production is what matters. And that 2020 three season for the Marlins, they were last in the National League and run scored. Now, it's going to go a little up and down here. So stay with me. Last in the NL and runs scored. Second, though, in total hits. 12th and doubles, tied for 10th in home runs, last in RBIs, second to last in walks, had the third lowest strikeout total, which is good, second and batting average at 259, but 10th in OVP, 10th in slugging, and 10th in OPS.

The Cardinals this past year, ranked 12th in the National League in runs, 12th in home runs, 13th in RBIs, hitting with runners in scoring position. That was a big deal, right? That was like the glaring issue for the Cardinals this year. that we've brought up on numerous occasions. They ranked last in the National League in batting average with runners in scoring position at 229.

They were last in slugging, last in OBS, last in overs, and in RBIs. They were, they were torral. They're just terrible with runners and scoring position. 14th in the NL and on base percentage, 303 with runners in scoring position. So, how were the Marlins in 2023 with runners in scoring position? Among 15 National League teams again, they were 10th in batting average at 253. They were dead last in slugging at 398.

They were dead last in OPS at 725, tied for 10th in home runs with 39, and second to last in RBIs at 458. They were tied with the Cardinals for ninth for the most strikeouts, which is good. that they were down here. Ninth, you know, they weren't up in the upper five or anything like that. But they were 12th in walks and ranked 13th and on base percentage at 327. Are these improvements on what the Cardinals just did in 2024?

Yeah. But is it really that much better that anyone is going to be excited about this hiring? Like you didn't poach somebody from a team that was top five at all these categories. and that person is coming in and bringing that, you know, positive stigma, you're bringing in a guy who didn't have great success with voters and scoring position with that Marlins team and just got fired in Seattle for them sucking at hitting a baseball. That's your new hitting coach, just looking at the stats. Now, this Marlins team, again, not loaded with hitting talent, but I don't, I don't

don't think the Cardinals are loaded with hitting talent. We think they're better than what we saw this past year. But that Marlins team had Luis Arise, who was very good with the Marlins, and it's very good with the Padres. It was very good with the twins. Jorge Solair had a big year, 36 home runs that year. Jazz Chisholm, Jr., who's now a star for the Yankees, was on that team. He only played in 97 games that year.

He was hurt. But only Arise Saler and then Brian De La Cruz, who got traded this past year for the Marlins to the Pirates at an OPS plus over 100. Nobody else did. It's not like he raised the bar for a bunch of hitters on a team that were kind of where they should be. Like, it's why I'm kind of like, I don't know how to get excited about this yet. I think the Cardinals on paper have the ability to be more talented offensively than this Marlins team that we're talking about that was under the Brant Brown influence. But these numbers, I mean, scene and the fact that Seattle jumped ship from him two months into the season doesn't sound

all that promising to me. It's hard to get excited about it. Again, I don't want to like pass judgment on the guy and be like, oh, this is a terrible hire already. I'm not going to say that because I don't know what the goings on will be, you know, going through some videos and interviews and whatnot. It looks like Bram Brown is a very detailed kind of guy. I got a picture of here like with the marlins there he is with the iPad which i know people love to make fun of the cardinals coaches for using iPads there he is um but i saw that he can be very detailed uh some of the stuff might have been going over the heads of some of the mariners hitters and things needed to be simplified a little bit um mo was talking about in his uh his press conference

today about how you know it's kind of a short runway for him in seattle and that Brant Brown does have the ability to be kind of the in-between guy from what we had in St. Louis with Turner Ward and, you know, what we've had in Jeff Albert, that he was kind of the middle guy between those two things. And that if he needs to be very detailed for the younger guys who enjoy that stuff, great. If he needs to simplify things for veteran guys and four younger guys who may not need all the detail that he could do that too. Mo spoke about him as if they are very comfortable with what he's doing and, you know, kind of just in the tone of his voice.

They were kind of like, yeah, I mean, kind of short runway in Seattle, which I said too. Like, I'm like, that is very odd. It is very odd to hire a guy in December, hire him away from another team. And then two months into the season, you're already, you're already giving up on him. you're already punting from his ideas and his voice. And that in the interviews was the most thing I saw was like, people were like, you know, maybe just a different voice. Maybe it's the way he approached the hitters.

And they just didn't mesh well with him in Seattle. Perhaps that's what was going on. I don't know. I'm just saying the stats from what he did in Miami. Now he had a lot of success in L.A. with the Dodgers. But, you know, you got a lot more money and a lot more talent there than the other places. The idea is you want these.

guys to be able to elevate talent that's not quite as good and bring them up to a different level where I'm just looking at the stats. It's hard to say that he did that in Miami and in Seattle in the last two years. But again, we'll have to wait and see. We'll have to wait and see. Maybe it will be a match made in heaven. But again, it seems like one of those guys like old school baseball guys are going to hate this guy because it just seems like he's very analytical, very nice.

numbers driven, a lot of fancy words. You know, that's just, that's the vibe I'm getting about this. Maybe I'll be wrong. Maybe I'll be wrong. We are going to talk about the new assistant GM next because people are excited about this particular hire. We'll talk about it next on Locked on Cardinals. Game time is an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball that makes getting

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comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X anytime you want. That feedback always welcome and encouraged. The Cardinals have hired 32-year-old Rob Serfolio to be their new assistant general manager, player development, and performance. Now, I would be lying to you if I knew a whole live about Robert Sorfolio. 32-year-old from the Cleveland organization. There's his photo. Yep. He looks like a kid, right? Because he's young. He's a young man.

Doesn't mean there's something wrong with him, but let's get some background on him. This is courtesy of Katie Wu over at the athletic. Sirfolio joined the Guardians in 2015 after graduating from Yale University. The 32-year-old was named Cleveland's director of player development ahead of the 2022 season. after spending seven years in various roles in both player development and amateur scouting. In hiring Serfoglio, the Cardinals believe they've landed one of baseball's up-and-coming talents in player development. Sirfolio's background and development style are similar to those of top executives,

such as Cubs General Manager Carter Hawkins, twins president of baseball operations, Derek Falvey, and Blue Jays general manager, Ross Atkins. In his three years with the Guardian, Sorfolio oversaw one of baseball's youngest farm system. dose and one of the better ones, mind you. Sorfolio's hiring is expected to be the first of many this winter at the player development level.

Heinbloom is expected to bring on dozens of new employees as part of his multi-year plan to restore the Cardinals farm system. These roles will range from on-field coordinators and roving staff members to employees who will help utilize new technology that St. Louis does not yet implement. Again, you can find Katie's article on the athletic. I encourage you to go and do that. Now, my initial thoughts on the hire are pretty positive in the sense that they're getting someone from an organization that has had a lot of success with player development, with their pitching. Developing pitching obviously has been huge for them throughout the years.

It's an area that the Cardinals have fallen short in, both of those, whether it's pitchers, just player development in general. they've been falling short in it. They fell behind the times. We don't have to rehash this. We all know what happened. It's just they got complacent, decided to spend money in different areas. Instead of all of that, now they're going for it.

They're going into the player development stuff, and they're going to spend money in it and really, really pay attention to it and overhaul things in the organization. Okay. My next thought was, my God, is this dude young? I mean, 32 years old, 32, 32 years old. Now, I may seem old to some of our listeners, but to many of them. And I see the analytics and stuff about who's listening to this podcast.

Many of you are going to feel like I do that 32 is, oh, my goodness, awfully young to be in charge of such a massive job. But I don't think the age is, it's a bad thing. It's going to catch people off guard. It's going to catch fans off guard because 32 is very, very young to be in charge of stuff like this, specifically in the Cardinals organization, which has always had like that veteran presence about it over the years. But at the same time, this organization, as you can tell, it's in flux. Things are changing. And they were in need of a youthful injection, if you will.

for years it's kind of been the same guys in the same spots and things got stale now that some of these people are moving on you're seeing the cardinals get more aggressive about going after younger people in the business i'm bloom sir folio as much as people don't like amali marbles still 38 years old it's not like he's some old fart that got hired and's only got a couple of seasons left in him you know the the Cincinnati Reds, Terry Francona hire. Of course, I think Terry Francona is a great manager. But how much longer is he going to do this?

Is this a one or two year thing? And then it's over and they're doing it again? Perhaps the Cardinals are going to have to look for a new manager of things that work out this year. I don't know. But it sounds like that, you know, Ollie's got their backing and stuff. And they won't have to change managers. But, you know, it's a youthful thing that is going on with this organization. They're getting younger.

They're getting younger and they're doing it pretty quick. It's a changing of the guard. And you're also seeing them getting guys from organizations that do more with less. And what I mean by that is Heinblu. Yeah, he was with the Red Sox, but most people know about him and his success and his work with the Tampa Bay race. Sirfolio coming from the Guardians. We're talking about smaller markets, smaller pay rates. smaller payrolls, but a lot of success.

Now, does this mean the Cardinals are going to dip their payroll to like $100 million, which is kind of the happy medium between the raise and the guardians right now? No, I don't think that's going to be the case. I don't think it's going to drop that drastically. But the idea of doing more with less is smart business. the idea of developing your own talent instead of having to overpay for someone else's is what they're shooting for. That's the goal.

That's the goal. And unfortunately, it's going to take some time to get that machine up and running the way they want it to. So am I saying the carnals are going to be crap and suck for the next few years? no, I'm not saying that. I'm sure they'll still put a competitive team on the field. But you're not going to see them spending money like they used to or even approaching what like your two World Series teams are doing, like the Yankees and the Dodgers and the Mets and the Phillies

and all the money that they just throw around. They're not going to go about it that way. They're going to go about it a different way. And hopefully it works. I think people appreciate that they're finally, picking a lane. You know, they're not just kind of stuck in the middle anymore. They're not like, well, we can kind of spend money or, well, we kind of want to use young

players. They're like, all right, that's, we're cool. We're not getting into this business anymore where we're going to go buy the high price talent, you know, we will fill spots with free agency and complement our younger players. That's the idea. And that's how it's supposed to work. Like, you're not supposed to go buy a whole new team every year, only a few of those organizations have the have the money to do something like that.

Cardinals aren't going to be that team. They're not going to be that team. So if you ever thought they were going to, better get over that real quick. One final hire was made former Cardinal outfielder John Jay, joining the staff as well. We'll discuss it next on Lockdown Cardinals. Hey, NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on fan to All America's number one sports book.

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Thank you for making lots on cardinals your first list. today for your second listen. Find Locked on MLB. Baseball guru Sully brings a daily blend of humor in baseball, keeping you updated on every aspect of the World Series. Find Locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. So former Cardinals outbuilder and World Series champion, you remember him from back with that 2011 team. There he is. The One and Only John Jay. He is back in the fold with the Cardinals will be a member of Ali Marmills coaching staff this year, spent the last two seasons with another former Cardinals. Skip Schumacher with the Marlins as their first base coach and the outfield coach with them. He will now be responsible for outfield defense, but will also have exposure to other elements as well. That according to John Moseilock in his press conference today. Willie McGee, who was an assistant coach on the staff, was always working with outfielders.

He did base running. He helped with hitting. Jack of all trades for Willie McGee. He's going to move up to the front office and take on an advisory role. Now, this is not, I know when it first pop and it was told that Willie McGee was no longer going to be with the staff. Some people were like, no, not Willie. Well, Willie's not getting demoted. This is not a bad thing.

According to Mo, it's going to allow Willie more flexibility in his life and with the organization. I mentioned this when the announcement was made. I was like, you know, at his age, probably, doesn't really want to be on the road as much as a majorly baseball team is, which is one of the reasons why, you know, when they tried to hire Matt Holiday and he was kind of like, you know, it's kind of a grind, man. I don't know if I'm up for it yet. That's the hard part about it all.

When people bring up Jim Edmonds as being a hitting coach, I'm like, I don't feel like he wants to do that and be on the road all the time. Well, you know, these are the guys that, you know, they want to be helpful. They want to be advisors and stuff, but they don't want to have to, you know, I don't want to put a uniform on again. and be in the clubhouse and on the road for, you know, a hundred days out of a year, whatever it is. You know, it's not easy.

So Mo mentioned that Willie would probably be visiting some of the minorly cities throughout the year, going to those teams. And I'm sure we'll see them at spring training as well. And I'm sure he'll be around the ballpark at times, but just won't have to be down in the dugout each and every day. So essentially, Jay, who was a younger, will slide into Willie McGee's role. So again, it's more of that.

youthful transition that's going on and taking place throughout the organization. Mo also mentioned in his press conference when asked whether he'd spoken with any players about the direction of the team following the last press conference, where it was the end of season, when they were talking about the reset and whatnot. And he did say that he had some conversations and that more conversations were to come with the players and that the direction that we're going to be going is going to be creating some opportunities for,

our younger players. So he didn't say in detail that, yeah, we're trade a bunch of people away and we're going young. He didn't say that exactly. But at the same time, it's not like this team is just littered with old people, you know. So I can only assume that what he's implying there is that the guys that we've brought up before, the Nolan Aranato, Rosa Contreras, Sunny. Gray, Miles Michael, Stephen Matt's, veterans who are pricey are well aware of what's going on

with this team and with this franchise right now. And specifically those first three guys who have no trade clauses and are anato contraris and Gray that they've probably been spoken to and said, look, you need to make a decision on if this is something you want to be around while we do this, while we make this transition, while we do this reset, do you want to be. be around for this. Do you want to stay in St. Louis for this? Or are you open to being moved this off season? Would you like to go somewhere else? Is there something else we can do that would make a life better for you? Because I don't think there's any ill will about this, but it is a business.

And these guys are human beings. And, you know, like in Arnado's case, he still has not want to ring. Would he be interested in going to L.A.? to try to pick one of those out? go play with show hay and stuff. What do you rather do that than be in St. Louis while they try to put this thing back together. Wilson Contreras, what's his future? You got two catchers on the roster. Are we keeping three? Are we trading?

Are you trading one of the young guys so that Contreras can keep playing? Or are we doing something else? Contreras going to make a move over to first base for a little bit. These are things that you got to think about. Sunny Gray, obviously. coming to St. Louis was a big deal. He wanted to be close to his families or somewhere else that you'd be happier playing right now.

It might be more of a contender for the next two years compared to what the Cardinals are going to be doing. Decisions they have to make. Mo did say, you know, more to come after the World Series, and we'll find out. We'll find out, as we said, this off-season is going to be an interesting one for the St. Louis Cardinals.

So leave your comments, suggestions, and whatnot in the comment section down below on YouTube, hit me up on Twitter X if you want to give me any feedback on today's episode. Again, thank you for making Locked on Cardinals your first listen every day if you haven't already. Give us a follow on Twitter X at LWHourn or square Cardinals at a JD Sports Radio, like, subscribe on YouTube, and help our channel and our love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason,

and I'll see you next time on Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals.