Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - The Decline In Nolan Arenado's Play Is Quite Alarming

Starting point is 00:00:00 After the snooze fest of a game on Monday, the Cardinals strike back with a vengeance on Tuesday to even up their series against the Cincinnati Reds. 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 and I'm a National Radio Sports anchor, born and raised in the Lou and a lifetime Cardinals fan. And I'm your host for Locked-on Cardinals, part of the Locked-on podcast network covering your team every day. One of the things those of you who make Locked on Cardinals, your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. You can find us on YouTube. Make sure you stop by.

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Starting point is 00:00:55 Today's episode brought to you by GameTime. You can download the GameTime app, create an account, and then use the code, locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase, terms of place. liar. So the Cardinals had a rough game on Monday. We know that in Cincinnati now. They're back on the road where the offense was just kind of asleep at the wheel on Monday. And honestly, they really may have been asleep during that game, you know, following the big win on Sunday night, the late night against the Cubs. The Cardinals had to pack up. Then they had to go to the airport, get on a plane, which landed in Cincinnati between 3 and 4 a.m. drive to a hotel, which is about 20 minutes away, check in, unpack and get to sleep. before getting back up and ready for a game that started at 4 o'clock Eastern time. So that meant that they lost an hour by heading to a different time zone. So a lot of things going against the Cardinals, not an ideal setup for them after the rain delay on Sunday making things very, very tough for them travel-wise.

Starting point is 00:01:52 Meanwhile, the Reds, they had just swept the Dodgers. Their game actually got pushed up by Major League Baseball to avoid the storms that were going through Cincinnati on Sunday and it ended up delaying their game for a little bit, but they were done in the early evening and got to just kind of sit around and rest after sweeping the Dodgers, much more ideal set up for them than the chaos that the Cardinals had to go through. Yes, these are excuses, absolutely, but there are real reasons why the Cardinals looked a bit flat on Monday, which, I mean, go watch the footage. They looked flat. That just is the way it felt. You know, I know, I know we'll have people who say, oh, but they get chartered flights.

Starting point is 00:02:36 They get to sleep in the best hotels, big deal, yada, yada, yada. And that's all true. But you got to admit that that was a pretty tough overnight schedule for the boys going into Cincinnati. Anyways, Monday, they had the leader Leon, thanks to the solo home run from Paul Goldschmidt, who had hit two home runs the night before on Sunday. So a nice little stretch for the former MVP. he looks to, looks like he's starting to get his groove back a little bit. Unfortunately, that was last of the offense on Monday.

Starting point is 00:03:08 The rest of the game, the team did very little. And as the game went on, they just kind of got worse and worse with each of bad. Nine of their final 11 batters struck out. They only had four other hits in the game besides Goldie Stinger. All of them were singles. Just an ugly day at the office for the bats, which was a bummer because Cardle started Lance Lynn actually looked pretty good. Six innings, allowed just one earned a run.

Starting point is 00:03:30 struck out five. He walked three, which, yeah, the walks are an issue there. Gave up the solo shot to Jamer, Candelario in the first inning. But the two errors on Otto and Goldie, those were the big issues that led to the other two runs scoring, and the Cardinals lose three to one, you know, not a great out, pouring of offense for them either team. You know, the Red, it's not like the Reds did anything special on Monday that made them feel superior than the Cardinals other than the score at the end of the game. They didn't do anything all that fun offensively either. Tuesday night, way better for the Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:04:05 The Cardinals jump on top first thanks to an RBI double by Mason win, extends his hitting streak to 17 in a row. He's up there with guys like Albert Poo holes. Remember last year, Jordan Walker had a nice streak. So, you know, Mason's doing some special stuff. Then you got home runs from both of your Dolans. First one was Aronado with the two run jack in the top of the fourth, just his fourth home run of the year.

Starting point is 00:04:30 First off, a left-hander, which is a little surprising. We're going to talk more about Aronado struggles later on in today's episode. But he looked good on that swing. Got a fastball down and in, and he put a classic Aronado pole swing on it, ripped it, line shot over the wall in left field. Look good to me on that one. I was actually talking to somebody who works with the Reds at the time it happened. And I was like, yeah, I was like, I wouldn't pitch him blowing in.

Starting point is 00:04:55 everybody's throwing them away right now. Andrew Abbott for some reason, went low and inside against him and he got burned. So then you got the score 3 to 1 in the seventh inning. Nolan Gorman strikes against Andrew Abbott as well. A 415 foot blast his ninth of the season to make it 5 to 1. Cardinals would tack on a couple of more. They pound out 13 hits on the night.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Yvonne Herrera was three for five in the cleanup spot. Goldie and Donnie each had two hits. The only starter who failed to get a hit was Alec Berluson. And it's not like he looked terrible at the plate or something. He just kind of hit it at people. He was 0 for 5. So his average dip down to 297 on the year, which is now tied with Mason win for the top batting average on the team so far this year.

Starting point is 00:05:36 The odd thing about Tuesday night is that despite scoring seven runs, the Cardinals were just one for nine with runners in scoring position. They left eight guys on base. So there was chances to do even more damage against the Cincinnati Reds. And they failed to do that. but still score seven runs. Meanwhile, Kyle Gibson, throwing for the cardals,

Starting point is 00:05:59 he was freaking cruising. Filthy, filthy bite on the breaking ball tonight, made many of those red sitters look straight foolish at the plate. Had a no hitter going through five innings before the solo shot by Will Benson to lead off the sixth inning. Ends up going six innings total. Gives up just one run on two hits, walks one,

Starting point is 00:06:17 strikes out six. His sixth quality start of the season, which is tops on the club. ZRA drops down at 3.6. 6-0 with Sitsum just outside the top 25 in the National League. Bulpin-wise, you didn't have to use any of the Trinity. The top three guys all got to get the night off. John King worked two scoreless innings,

Starting point is 00:06:36 and Ryan Fernandez finished off the game. Made things a little bit more dramatic than we needed them to be, but was able to get out of that basis-loaded jam in the ninth. Secures the victory. The Cardinals also, this is huge. Snap their error streak at 12 straight games. You had the Adonado and Goldie Air. on Monday. And then there was a chance that they were going to call an error on the one play.

Starting point is 00:06:59 I think it was Ellie Dale Cruz that hit it. And Mason win, you know, he had to pick what hop he wanted to try to field the ball luff off, went for the short hop version. It got by him. And Ellie was safe at first, but I think they ended up giving him a hit. So no error on that play. So the error streak, it's gone. No more. Thank God. So a lot of good stuff. went on on Tuesday, and they'll go for the series win on Wednesday afternoon. Andre Palante, who just got called up with Nick Robertson going to the IL. Palante is going to get the start on Wednesday, and he'll be facing off against Frankie Montas of the Cincinnati Reds.

Starting point is 00:07:37 So despite hitting the home run on Tuesday, the struggles of Dolan Aronado are something that a lot of people are talking about right now. So we're going to jump into that discussion and talk about his latest offensive funk next. on Locked on Cardinals. Remember the first day of school or the first day at a new job and you'd be wearing your brand new outfit that you picked out. So, you know, you just look and you feel your best. You're feeling confident when you walk through those doors for the first time.

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Starting point is 00:10:04 You can leave comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X. Anytime you want, the feedback, always welcome and encouraged. A lot of positive stuff lately. You know, we had a few trolls after Monday's game, but mostly positive stuff coming out.

Starting point is 00:10:17 But we got to talk about the elephant in the room right now, and that has been what is going on with Nolan Aronado. Again, you know, he's been one of the best third baseman in baseball since he came up with the Rockies. His first couple seasons in St. Louis, They went great. 30 plus home runs, 100 plus RBIs, great defense. But unless he picks up the pace at a major way here in 2024,

Starting point is 00:10:42 he is, which is possible. I'm not saying it's impossible, but he's going to fall well below the normal numbers that you would see for Nolan Aronado. Currently on May 28th, he has just four home runs of 25 RBIs at the two run shot on Tuesday. But he was dropped a fifth in the back. batting order for the first time on Monday since 2015.

Starting point is 00:11:05 Ended up going over four on Monday, but the whole team was exhausted. So maybe we'll give him a mulligan for that one. But over his last 18 games, including Tuesday's game, 15 to 77, just a 195 batting average was just three of 24 over his last six games with one RBI before Tuesday night when he hit the home run and drove into. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, here we are again. We're back in one of those Nolan Aronado funks. and it's just something that continues to pop up with more regularity over the past couple of seasons.

Starting point is 00:11:36 After Monday's game, Aranada, who doesn't speak with the media all that often, but when he does, it's usually about something important, and he spoke to the media about his swing saying, it's bad. The swing is not good, which, you know, we know that, dude. But he says, I've been working on it. I'm trying to figure this thing out, but my swing is not good. I'm a guy that pulls the ball in the air, and I haven't done that all year. I don't know what the answers are.

Starting point is 00:12:05 I've got to continue to try to find it. I can see the difference of when I was good and when I'm not. But trying to apply it in games right now is really, really hard for me. John Denton at MLB.com points out that Nato, who has a career OPS of 864, currently coming into Tuesday's game was sporting a career worse 663. He hadn't had a home run in 11 games. Last time doing that was against the Angels on May 13th, which, yes, he pulled one. down the line for a home run before he ended up going yard on Tuesday.

Starting point is 00:12:33 But Aronado continued when he spoke with the media saying, I think it's a mixture of mechanics, but mentally it's been frustrating. I mean, I've gone through struggles, but I'm still able to hit the ball in the air. But what I'm going through now is something that I've never gone quite like this, but my bats have been just terrible. I haven't felt like me all year.

Starting point is 00:12:54 It's been a while. I don't think it's gone. I still move fast and I've gone through all the numbers and the random numbers, and they still tell me that I'm moving as fast as I ever have, but there's a mechanical issue and approach thing. I haven't been me in the last five months of baseball. Denton points out that Nato's ability to pull fastballs for home runs has been an issue since he's been laid on a lot of them, which has instead forced him to hit the ball to center

Starting point is 00:13:21 field and into right field more often. And usually when he has to do that, there's not going to be a lot of authority behind that, so he's not hitting the ball all that hard when he does hit at those places. Nato continued when he spoke on Monday saying, I'm a guy who flirts with his swing too much, and I've always been that way, but I also know what I'm doing now is not good. So I don't want to just sit there and not work.

Starting point is 00:13:44 I always watch old video of myself and mimic those good moves, but sometimes when you create bad habits, they're hard to break. This one is taking a long time. And for me, I wonder if it's starting to, you know, obviously it's frustrating him as he talks about it after the game, but it's starting to affect his defensive play as well, because coming into Tuesday's game, Nolan Aronado,

Starting point is 00:14:09 the guy who is considered by many to be the one of the top defensive third basement of all time, minus five defensive runs saved so far here in 2024. Last year, you had a career low plus one defensive run saved. He's minus five. In 2022, he was plus 19. Like, that's how far he's fallen with the defensive metrics. Is it injuries? Is it mental?

Starting point is 00:14:40 I don't know. They're not putting any blame on saying there's something going on with his back or anything to go, you know, leg, shoulder, whatever, whatever it may be. But I, can the real Nolan Aronado please stand up? I had all the faith in the world coming into this season. that he would have just like this. And I kept calling it that Nolan are not a revenge tour. I thought that's what he was going on to.

Starting point is 00:15:05 I thought after seeing how he started things in spring training, I was like, all right, he's, he's back. This is the guy that we were looking for. This is the guy who finished third in the MVP voting just a couple of years ago. And he just has not been that guy. And when he's not good and when Goldie's not good, this team has, has some trouble. You know, you got two. cornerstone players in those guys that they need to be really good or they aren't going anywhere

Starting point is 00:15:33 this year, despite the recent winning ways. Like they just can't. Like they need these two guys. They're supposed to be your three, four dudes. And Goldie's starting to come around a little more. You're starting to see it more and more each game. I had a couple more hits on Tuesday night, the three home runs on Sunday through Monday. So you're seeing it with Goldie, but Nato has, has declined one.

Starting point is 00:15:59 again like we thought he was busting out and he's right back into it again where he's just not having very good at bats and he just looks a little bit lost up there the the great bernie mickles broke down more of aronado struggles in a recent article i want to share some of his intel and insight with you guys coming up next on locked on cardinals going to baseball games at st louis it is a tradition even if the team is losing which they haven't done a lot of recently been pretty good recently and you're starting to see people start show up at Bush Stadium once again. But you know, you want to take that trek. You want to get down there a little early, do some dinner and drinks over a ballpark village,

Starting point is 00:16:42 and then head on over to Bush Stadium to cheer on your Cardinals. And when you need tickets to the game and if they continue to play good, you know, they're going to be tougher and tougher to get your hands on, but you can still do it with the GameTime app. Game Time is an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball, and it makes getting tickets to any team. It doesn't just have to be the Cardinals, but it makes getting tickets faster and easier. Prices on the game time app, they actually go down.

Starting point is 00:17:06 The closer it gets to first pitch. I'll tell you this, not even a baseball story, basketball story. So a friend of mine is a Boston Celtics fan. She grew up in Boston. She wanted to go see the Pacers and the Celtics play. Decided to make the trip there. Last minute was like, you know what? I'm going to make the drive.

Starting point is 00:17:25 I'm going to go a couple hours and I'm going to go and do it. And she ended up going on to the GameTime app and found tickets for like 50 bucks. And she was like, they were great seats. And it was amazing. And I'd never in my wildest dreams thought I would be able to get playoff tickets at that price, where they wore so late in the day. And that's what it happens with the GameTime app. Last minute deals.

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Starting point is 00:18:11 Great price. So go on there. Create an account. Use the code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Again, terms apply, create an account, redeem the code, L-O-C-E-D-O-N-M-L-B for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute, tickets,

Starting point is 00:18:27 lowest price guaranteed. Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. It's now 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 Lockdown, plus our national shows, which cover every league. You can find Locked on Sports today now available on the Free Fire TV channels app. So Bernie McClis wrote a piece on Aronado. I will put the link in the description.

Starting point is 00:19:03 the show notes for you. But scoops with dany mac.com is where he writes for nowadays. And he shed some more light on some of the struggles that are going on with Nolan Aronado. And it's not pretty. Again, all of this was before a Tuesday's game when he hit a home run and drove in two more. But just some ugly stats.

Starting point is 00:19:25 Here, let's check them out. Aronado, according to Bernie McCliss, here's what he says about him, getting dominated right now by the four-seem fastball. batting to 11 with a poor slugging percentage. Aronado's yearly slugging percentage as a Cardinal when connecting on four-seem fastballs, 2021 was at 457, 22, 595, 2023, 669 this year, 263. Aronado's hard hit rate on four-seem fastballs this year is 26%. It wasn't lower than 40% in each of his first three seasons in St. Louis.

Starting point is 00:20:00 Aronado strikeout rate against four-seem fasts. fastballs is now at 25.4%. He says that's revealing in his first three seasons with the Cardinals Aronado strikeout rate against the four-scene fastball was 14% in 2021, 7.6 in 2022, then 14 and 23. And the punchout problem is a lot worse than 2024 all the way up to 25.4%. He also isn't hitting the ball with authority. Aronado's yearly hard hit rate is a Cardinal, 37 and a half in 21, 39% and 22, 38% and 23. Pretty consistent, right? 2024, 29%.

Starting point is 00:20:40 That 29% hard hit, Ray, Bernie says, ranks 235th among 291 qualifying MLB hitters this season. He also goes more in depth on the issues with pulling the ball more, which you can read by clicking on the article again, in the link down below or in the show notes. You can find it. And it's just, it's all quite alarming and how quickly the numbers have dipped and how they continue to go down.

Starting point is 00:21:09 You know, we've been seeing this recently with members of the St. Louis Cardinals, Paul Goldschmidt, you know, after his MVP year, we saw the decline last year. And then we saw how bad it got at the early parts of this year. Again, starting to come out of it right now, but it's going to take a scorching streak. over the last few months to get even anywhere near what his numbers normally are. We saw it happen to Adam Wainwright in his final year. Remember, he had one bad month in 2022 at the end of the season, thought he figured out what was wrong, and then just got creamed in 2023,

Starting point is 00:21:49 a lot of injuries that he was dealing with, but that was painful to watch. And, you know, the cardal still got no one or not locked up for a couple more years. So hopefully this isn't just the beginning of the end. for the once great Nolan Aronado. I hope that that's not what we're seeing here, that it's just, you know, a few struggles right now.

Starting point is 00:22:09 And hopefully he'll be able to pull himself out of this here in the very near future. You know, it was a good step on Tuesday night by hitting that home run. But, I mean, if pitchers, I'm going to guess Andrew Abbott missed his spot on that pitch that he wasn't actually trying to throw a ball low and into Nolan Aronado. They just keep pounding him away, kind of like they were doing with Jordan Walker. and Aronado just does not possess opposite field power. He doesn't hit the ball over the wall to center field or to right field. They just, that's not his thing.

Starting point is 00:22:39 And it's, you know, obviously going to hurt the slugging and the OPS and the power numbers. If he can't figure out a way to get pitchers to try to bring it back inside against them so he can pull the ball. Let's get some injury updates here. Lars Neupar, who was out with a hamstring issue for a couple of days. he was back in the lineup on Tuesday, which was great to see because I had read somewhere that they thought maybe he'd be out until like the weekend. And lo and behold, he was back in the lineup on Tuesday. He goes one for five. I played the whole game.

Starting point is 00:23:10 So it appears he's going to be fine moving forward. I'm sure they'll be cautious about it, you know, to make sure that he doesn't push it too much. And then he ends up on the shelf even longer. So that's good news. No injury for Brennan Donovan is good news. I know some people were concerned. My mom. my mom text me.

Starting point is 00:23:29 It was like, hey, what's the word on Donnie? Why'd they take him out? I know people were concerned when he got pulled from the game following the extra base hit that he had in the seventh inning where it was a double. He stretched it to get the third base after the bobble and right field. And just kind of went around second base a little awkwardly. You know, it just kind of looked off. And Ali said that after the game, Brent and Donovan came out because they were just going

Starting point is 00:23:54 to make the change for defense the next inning and decided. you know why let's just make the switch now we'll put siani in uh take advantage of his speed on the bases and it ended up working because mason wind comes up hits the ground ball the chopper to uh l a day la cruz a short stop and if that's brennan donovan running home that dude is toast but because it was siani uh daily cruz pumped and was like i'm not going to get him and then had to make throw to first base and uh the cardinals picked up an insurance run uh because of that's a smart move by holly marmal so um Keenan Middleton, not great news.

Starting point is 00:24:29 Had a setback. He's going to get some imaging done on his right elbow. Unfortunately, he hasn't thrown for the cardinals this year. You saw him in spring training, and we haven't seen him since. So it feels like a bust of a move, man. It happens, considering how well he pitched for the White Sox and the Yankees. And I was hoping that he was going to be a strong piece of this bullpen, which has been pretty darn good without him. But it would have made that bullpen even that much stronger.

Starting point is 00:24:57 And after spending several weeks rehabilitating and strengthening his forearm, he made five appearances, 2.25 ERA for AA Springfield. But pain has returned to that forearm following the relief appearances on the 22nd and 23rd. So he's going to get more imaging done. And, you know, I prepare myself for the worse because that's usually what happens. So I'll be prepared for the worst thing possible. And if we come back and we get good news, then we get good news. But not looking great. for Keenan Middleton right now.

Starting point is 00:25:29 Cardinals are back at it tomorrow. It's going to be noon St. Louis time. I know I did that short video, and I was like, okay, what time is the actual game? It is noon St. Louis time. One o'clock, East Coast time, which is where Cincinnati is. So a chance to get back to the 500 mark again. Can they do it? They're one game back in the wild card right now.

Starting point is 00:25:49 They're four and a half back of first place, Milwaukee, who lost to the Cubs on Tuesday. Not that all of that is great, but it's going to be. kind of impressive, considering where things were just a couple of weeks ago and how upset everyone was and how disappointed we all were and what was going on with the season. The fact that they've climbed their way back into this thing is pretty impressive. So once again, Andre Palante appears to be the starter on Wednesday to go up against Frankie Montas for the Cincinnati Reds. And we'll see what happens. I would love to take the rubber match in this one. So I don't have to continue to get trash talked by my wife, who is from Cincinnati and is a Reds fan.

Starting point is 00:26:35 So it's annoying, guys. I was with a group of like 25 people at the game on Tuesday night. And it was just this big grouping of friends of hers and stuff that we visited. And only one other person was a Cardinal fan next to me. And it was just Reds people booing us the whole time. time down the first baseline. So Wednesday's game, I'll be in center field. So I'm excited about that. And I'm going to put on the powder blues. I have the

Starting point is 00:27:04 powder blue Goldie on tomorrow. And looking forward to the game. So it should be a good one. Hopefully, Cardinals can come out a winner and take two of three in Cincinnati. So we'll see. Thanks for making Locked on Cardinals, your first listen every day. I'll be hopping on with Locked on Reds tomorrow afternoon. We'll do a kind of a series recap. And that'll be the episode after the game on Wednesday. So be on the lookout for that one.

Starting point is 00:27:29 If you haven't already, please give us a follow on Twitter X at L.O. underscore Cardinals and at JD Sports Radio. Like, subscribe on YouTube, help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans of baseball for a reason, and I will see you next time on Locked-on Cardinals.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - The Decline In Nolan Arenado's Play Is Quite Alarming

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