Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - The Nolan Arenado Revenge Tour Is Coming In 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 The 24 Nolan Aranato Revenge Tour is coming soon. And today we focus on why a big year from number 28 really shouldn't surprise anybody. Plus, a look at some of the new ball caps that the Cardinals will be sporting this year. 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. Haffern and I'm a national radio sports anchor, born and raised in the Lou,

Starting point is 00:00:39 We're a lifetime Cardinals fan, and I'm your host for Lockedown Cardinals. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter, X, at JD Sports Radio and the podcast at L.O. underscore Cardinals. I 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 on YouTube. You can stop by, like, subscribe, and comment, interact with us. We are creeping our way up to 9,000 subscribers. Hopefully we'll get there real, real soon.

Starting point is 00:01:06 We're like 8, 960, somewhere in that vicinity right now. But anyway, if you are a loyal listener and you come by and you check out the videos all the time, make sure you like and subscribe, hit the notification button so you don't miss out on new episodes when they get posted. This is a show, serving Cardle 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 fan. I'll make every moment more. News customers get $150 in bonus bets when you join today.

Starting point is 00:01:34 and that's if your first bet of $5 or more wins. So $5 or more, you win, and then $150 comes into your account. What's not the like there. Visit fando.com slash lockdown to get started. All right, as much as we all want to move on from 2023, we all want to do that, right? And as much as we want to just turn the page, put it in the rearview mirror and whatever cliche you want to use here, part of what will make this Cardinals team better in 2020. is learning from all of the mistakes and the pain that was 2023.

Starting point is 00:02:11 So gone, sure, but not forgotten by any means. It's always going to be kind of back there lingering until the regular season starts and they start winning ball games, plain and simple. And when a team goes down in flames the way it did last year, the blame will usually fall on the front office, which it has, the manager, the coaching staff, which it has, and then your star players and or highest paid players. Maybe they're not even stars on some teams because sometimes they overpay for people.

Starting point is 00:02:42 But now from what I have gathered over the many months that we've been able to sit here and ponder all of the problems from 2023, there hasn't been nearly as much blame put on the players as has been put on Mo and OLLI. And I think that's fair. I really do. Personally, I have put the majority of blame. at the feed of President of Baseball Operations, John Moseylock, who assembled the team. This was his vision.

Starting point is 00:03:08 He decided to go in these directions. I'm sure he had a little bit of help from some other people, but it falls on him. So, you know, when they didn't go get enough pitching or they didn't go get another bat or make much improvements to the team, it was on him to get those kind of things done and it didn't happen. However, there were also times last season when I thought, Ali, Mike it can't. And when I thought they might still try to salvage what was going on for the rest of the season by making a drastic move. But after a while, it was clear that that was not something they were interested in doing. They weren't going to do that. And 2023 just needed to be, you know, flushed away like last night's late night visit to a fast food restaurant after you've been out drinking.

Starting point is 00:03:53 So the next step of the blame game, you get past Mo, you get past Ollie and the coaching step. staff because, you know, people want to yell at Dusty Blake and stuff, and that's fine. You can do that. The next step of the blame game falls onto your star players. And in this case, the two people that stand out the most are Nolan Aronado and Paul Goldschmidt, because those are your guys. These are your two pillars that the team was built around. So naturally, that's where the fingers start pointing next, right? You're like, okay, well, what's up? What's going on here? What's the problem with you? You don't point the finger at Jordan Walker or Tommy Edmund. There was some blame put on Wilson Contreras, obviously, last year from a lot of people.

Starting point is 00:04:35 They apparently were on the team. So, but specifically with Arnano's, which is who I want to focus on today, you had some, you had issues going on last year. You had the trade rumors that were happening because the cardinal season was not going well. And people were wondering, you know, and myself, I was one of them. I threw it out there. I was like, what if the Cardinals decided to move on from all of this in trade? Nolan Aranato or trade Paul Goldschmidt.

Starting point is 00:04:59 As odd as that sounded, it was something that we had to think about when rebuilding a roster that was in big, big trouble last year. But he addressed that at the All-Star break said, look, the reason I didn't opt out of my contract is that I want to be in St. Louis. This is where I want to be. This is where I've signed. And I'm not trying to get out and go anywhere just because of one bad season. And then eventually Mo came out and said, you know, luck, we're not moving him.

Starting point is 00:05:27 even though it took forever, but it's one of the things that Mo does. He tries not to address every rumor that's out there because he feels like it's a waste of his time. He's like, look, if I address everything, I'll be here all day, you know, talking about things. And then I don't want to deal with that. He likes to deal with things that are real. And apparently those Nolan are in auto trade rumors were not really all that real. Now, Nolan also dealt with back issues last year. We're aware of that, which is never anything you want to hear about a guy who's turning 33.

Starting point is 00:05:57 in April, and we'll never know how much it actually affected him, but last year was definitely a down year for him both offensively and defensively. Offensively, Nolan hit 26 home runs, 96 RBIs at the OPS of 774 and an OPS plus of 109. And for mere mortals, those are bad numbers, right? They're not bad numbers at all. Among third baseman in the entire league, he was 7th and batting average, sixth and hits, eighth and dingers, sixth in RBIs, OPS, 11th. You know, most teams would love to have that person batting cleanup for them.

Starting point is 00:06:35 But most of those numbers are career lows for Nolan. Not counting the COVID year or his rookie year, the 266 average, second worst of his career. The first one is his first year in St. Louis, where he hit, I think it was 255. The home runs, second lowest he's ever had, RBI's, second lowest he's ever had. second lowest he's ever had. 4.59 career low slugging. OPS, a career low.

Starting point is 00:07:02 OPS plus, a career low. That's clearly something when you see somebody going into their 30s and somebody who's played as much ball as Nolan Aronado has, since he got pulled up to the major leagues, everyday got, everyday got. So you don't like to see that. You don't want to think that, oh, my gosh, is this the cliff? Is this where it all just goes,

Starting point is 00:07:25 and you fall off the cliff, and this is just the guy he's going to become. You hope that's not the case. Defensively, failed to win the gold glove at third base for the first time in his career, losing Nicky Brian Hayes of the Pirates, which, let's be honest. He probably could have lost to him the previous year as well,

Starting point is 00:07:43 but somehow Nolan ended up getting the win there. But 11 straight years, six platinum gloves, heck of a run, but he finished a minus 11 in total fielding runs above average and had a one. in defensive run saved. Hayes had a 21, just to show you how good Key Brian Hayes was last year for Pittsburgh. It has been the last couple of years. So to say that the Cardinals need a bounce back year from Nolan Arnano, that's an understatement, right? We all know that. And it appears that he's fired up to prove some people wrong in 2024. And I like that. So we're going to delve into what Nolan said

Starting point is 00:08:16 when he spoke with the media, some changes he's made this offseason to become that player that he was before last year happened. So we're going to get out to that next here on Locked on Cardinals. Get buckets with your first bet on Fandol, America's number one sports book because right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 if your bet wins. You can bet on all your favorite NBA players and teams when they get back on the

Starting point is 00:08:51 court. Obviously, we just had All-Star weekend. And that was fun. I enjoyed that. I specifically like the three-point contest was cool. I don't know what they can do to make the dunk contest fun again. I just, there's nothing about it that excites me. You got a guy in the G League who's winning the dunk contest, you know?

Starting point is 00:09:08 When I was growing up, you had guys like Michael Jordan and Vince Carter, Sput Webb back in the day. And now you're just kind of like, there's a G League dude. Matt McClung who's winning the, what? But anyway, back to the stuff you could bet on on Fandall since the All-Star Weekends over. Now we get back to games. But they've got quick bets. They've got live, same game parlay.

Starting point is 00:09:29 They've got the exclusive prop, bets that you can make and a whole lot more. I mean, there's a ton of it. All the fun that you had with the NFL season and all the different ways that you could place bets and make games more entertaining, you can do it in the NBA as well. So visit fandle.com slash lockdown and shoot your shot. Fandall, official sports book partner of the NBA. Locked on has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. Locked on sports day is here for you covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of locked on.

Starting point is 00:10:06 our national shows, which include every league. Go to Lockedon Sports Today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel. And again, thank you for making Locked on Cardinals your first listen to every day. You can leave comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter to X anytime you want. So if you're listening to this, the audio version of this and you want to make a comment about things that are going on, Twitter X. That's where you can find us. That's where you can talk to me at JD Sports Radio at L.O. underscore Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:10:32 If you just want to hit the podcast up, we're all there for you. Your feedback is always welcome and encouraged. We want to hear the good. We want to hear the bad, everything, your concerns, the things you're liking so far in spring training. Hit us up. All right. So Arnato arrives at camp on Friday. And the media got a chance to speak with him.

Starting point is 00:10:51 And I got a few of the excerpts here from his session. A lot of this will go back to, which I'm going to link in the show notes here, to Derek Gould's article at st.l today.com. But as far as how Arnaado feels coming into the new season, he said, I just feel like I've got a little something to prove. It's almost like I've come to spring training with the mindset I had in Colorado in my first few years, where I'm trying to establish myself. That's kind of how I came into the spring for some reason.

Starting point is 00:11:22 I just feel that way. I do feel like I have something to prove again. And I think that's a good thing. And I couldn't agree more. You know, you want your players motivated. And I think someone like Nolan Aronado, who is, we know, a fierce competitor was a bit embarrassed by last year's performance. I mean, you don't like to hear that all of these numbers from last year are some of your

Starting point is 00:11:44 lowest ones you've had since you were a rookie, especially when you're somebody who's as good as no Leonardo has been. You know, he's got to be a Hall of Famer, one of the greatest defensive third basement of all time. And when things go as bad as they did last year, you're embarrassed by that. And he's embarrassed by what the team did last year. You know, he doesn't want to be on a loser. he had enough losing in Colorado.

Starting point is 00:12:06 He came to St. Louis, so he didn't have to deal with that anymore. And then you get last year, everything just went bad. And it just gives you an added incentive to show people that you are an elite player and that this is still an elite organization and an elite team. So now's the time to prove more people wrong and make your way back. I've been calling at the Nolan Arnada Revenge Tour. I want Arnada with some hedge, man. I want him a little ticked off.

Starting point is 00:12:32 I want all these guys to play with a chip. and to be ticked off at what happened last year. I want people doubting him because he's the type of guy who seems to me like somebody who will respond well to that. He's the type of competitor that feeds off that negative energy and hopefully it becomes a positive for him. He continues telling STL Today.coms Derek Gould about the leadership in the clubhouse, which we know has been a focus this offseason and how when things were going bad for the team and him, it was really difficult for him in the clubhouse. This is what he said.

Starting point is 00:13:02 I think I've got to hold myself accountable. I think it's hard to go to a young guy and go, you've got to do this when I'm not really doing those things from a performance, from a defense standpoint. It was hard to do that and be that voice because I didn't feel like I didn't necessarily do those things as a player either. It was hard. It was really hard last year. I think I've got to get away from that mindset.

Starting point is 00:13:25 I don't have to play well to lead. I think there are other ways. I've talked to Goldie about that. He shared with me, you don't have to perform. to be a leader here. Your resume speaks for itself. That is something I have to realize. It is hard, especially when you're losing. You want to be the reason why you're fixing the problem, not part of the problem. And you can understand where no one's coming from here. Like, who is he to tell somebody to do this, this, and this when he's not making the plays and he's not

Starting point is 00:13:55 getting the hits? And, you know, that's how we felt. He's like, well, who am I to tell so-and-so? they ought to be trying this a little bit better when I stink right now. And I'm glad that they were able to hash this out. And Ian Goldier can realize that, dude, it doesn't matter if you're over your last 15. You're still Nolan freaking R. Renato. You're still a stud. You're still a future Hall of Famer. You're the platinum winner.

Starting point is 00:14:17 You're the gold glove winner. You're the Silver Slugger winner. Like, they all look up to you anyway, even if you're not quite at the top of your game. Like, they're all going to feel that way about you. So Gould talks about what Aronano has done this offseason to improve. Aronado said he altered this offseason to focus on strength and flexibility, diving into Pilates for the first time in his career. He trimmed a few pounds off of his frame,

Starting point is 00:14:41 so he's carrying less and focused on loosening up the strength that he added to be a little more elastic. In the batting cage, Gould says he worked on creating more space for his hands as he ready to swing, finding a model to mimic his 22, 2020 swing, the one that produced an 891 OPS, 30 dingers, 533 slugging in production that was 51% greater than league average. Now, when it comes to his defensive skills, I mean, who was anybody to tell Nolan Arnaudu, what to do being the amazing, arguably top five defensive third basement of all time in the sport? But let's be honest, Aronado, he didn't suck last year at defense. It wasn't that, but he had that arm fatigue thing that was going on early on in the season.

Starting point is 00:15:27 then the back issues were flaring up. It made him tough for him to be the guy that we're used to seeing down there at the hot corner. So Gould says that Nato modified his fielding preparation so that he didn't enter the season looking for the misplay zip on his throws, which was a problem early on when I'm talking about that arm fatigue. He described how he, when he throws one across the diamond, that golden arm feels really good again. Last year, he felt his throws were a beat slow, and he traced his defensive troubles back to the change that he made to, to take fewer ground balls with fewer throws to have more durability and more stamina entering his mid-30s. This year, he's going to reduce the volume of his work but increase the intensity when he's at work. Not as quoted as saying, I'll perform at a better level if I'm feeling fresh.

Starting point is 00:16:14 And I'm sure that's something that Ali will try to help him out with this year. Perhaps more days off from the field and in general, we'll do the trick. I mean, you've got some capable guys to play third base down there. You've got Nolan Gorman who can do that. That's what he came up as is a third baseman. Brennan Donovan, obviously, can play some third base pretty good over there. Matt Carpenter, if you're in a pinch, can still probably do some endings over at third and at second base if you need him to.

Starting point is 00:16:42 Hopefully, you don't need him to do it all that much, but he's there if you need him to. The trick really is trying to get Aranaana to sit down because, he doesn't want to something he doesn't like to do he doesn't he wants to play 162 he wants to be out there for every inning but um as you get older than things have to be trimmed down a little bit I mean same thing with Goldie same thing with Goldie even though he's playing first base is not the most demanding position but getting these guys off their feet you're going to hear that phrase a lot is something that I would imagine they're going to look into he's hoping that some of the new voices like carp and the new coaches that have been brought in,

Starting point is 00:17:27 I'm guessing, Daniel Descalso will hold him accountable, talking about Nato here, hold him accountable and stop him from pushing too much and, you know, trying too hard. And when it's time to, you know, take a step back a little bit, he's hoping that these new guys, the new coaches and new voices are guys are going to help him be able to do that. And he'll be, okay, okay, all right. But he's got to know that when that time comes, that he can't be fighting these guys to stay back out on the field. Like, it's okay to take a few days up. It's a long season.

Starting point is 00:17:59 Nato's goal in 2024 in the article says, very simple. I want to be better this year than last year from an individual standpoint. Team standpoint, I want the best for them. I know when I'm playing the way I should and feeling the way I should, I can help this team win a lot of games. And that's exactly what we want to see, right? That's what we want to see. Nolan Aronado Revenge Tour in 2024. I'll put my money on it.

Starting point is 00:18:22 I trust him to come out with some fire. And I expect a really good season out of Aronado. I was expecting a good one last year. But obviously things went backwards. So hopefully they get back to where they need to be. Speaking about old stuff, how about the new old BP has? You guys seen these yet for the Cardinals? They're here.

Starting point is 00:18:43 I'm going to show those to you. Plus, we've got some news and notes from around the league, including where Brandon Woodruff is headed. I can say this much, it's not St. Louis. This is Lockstone Carls. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. Passion, driving patience is what brings home the winning trophy.

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Starting point is 00:20:36 If something to happen, something major, we're all over it. Go to Lockdown Sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel. So joining the red and navy blue interlocking STL caps. I got the red one on right now. If you can, if you're watching on YouTube, the Cardinals, you know, they got their normal ones. They're going to be wearing. So you got the red, you got the Navy blue ones that they wear when, say they're like in Cincinnati against another team that's got a red hat on. You'll see them wear the blue ones instead.

Starting point is 00:21:07 They've also got three different styles for official use that have been released, including a batting practice cap that is a throwback to Stan Musial's days. And apparently 2015, I don't remember them using these, but apparently they did. So the Cardinals, a new era, have added a spring training cap, which you've seen the guys in pictures already. It says spring training on the side. It's got the Sunday bird logo. So you know the hat that they wear on Sundays. They've got that on there. But there's a new clubhouse cap.

Starting point is 00:21:35 They got them in a bunch of different colors. I'm going to put up the red version on YouTube. That's what it looks like. I'm not a huge fan of that. I don't dig it all that much. I don't hate the little, you see the stitching on the side there. I think that's okay. and a little baseball stitching, but I don't know about the white around the logo there.

Starting point is 00:21:56 I don't know. That's just not me. I'm just not into that one. But they've got a batting practice cap with a dark blue shell, red brim, and the interlocking STL in red that I am a huge fan of because I love the throwback ones. You can see it on the screen on YouTube right now. I love these hats. Like when I'm playing, say, MLB the show, I don't have the cardinals wearing what they wear today. I got them wearing the old school stuff from Gibson's years and Musial's years.

Starting point is 00:22:23 I love the throwback stuff. I wish they were allowed to use more of that. You know, I love those things. And I think this hat's awesome. Like, it's so simple, but yet it's great. And anytime you can throw back to something with Stan the Man, I mean, you're going to do that. The Cardals caps are a modern take on the blue shell red brim caps at Musial War throughout his 3,630 career games with the Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:22:53 It's the hat that appears in his photo on baseball reference.com. It's the one he was featured in on the cover of Time Magazine back in 1949. And the cap he's wearing in the painting of him signing autographs for kids that appeared in the Saturday evening post, I guess with the Post dispatch, STL Today.com. I think I was on Derek Cold as well, who put that little piece together. I love it. I can't wait to order it. I got onto Fanatics right away when they released.

Starting point is 00:23:18 I don't see it on there yet. You can see those other ones. The clubhouse hats and the spring training ones are there. I did not see the new blue with the red brim and interlocking STL and red, but I will be getting one of those. Oh, yes, it will be mine. All right. The guy who will not be a Cardinal anytime soon, Brandon Woodruff, that dream of him coming to St. Louis will have to remain a dream because he is reportedly returning to the Brewers.

Starting point is 00:23:48 source told MLB.com's Mark Feinzan on Monday that the team has not confirmed the deal, which MLB Network and Senator John Heyman reports is for two years. Woodruff, who underwent shoulder surgery in October, is expected to miss most of or all of the 2024 season. There's no guarantee that he's going to bounce back and be the Brandon Woodruff that he has been, but the guy was really freaking good before surgery. I would say Brandon Woodruff is underrated because I feel like you heard more about Corbyn Burns over the last couple of years than you did Brandon Woodruff.

Starting point is 00:24:21 And Woodruff has been so good. Only seven pitchers since Woodruff debuted in the majors has a lower ERA than his 3.10 in that span. Again, we don't know if he's going to be the same guy when he gets back. But, you know, as a Cardinal, I would have loved to see him take on the birds of the bat and prove everybody wrong wearing our uniform. But going back to the Brewers. That's done. NL.S. I Young Award winner, Blake Snell, somebody that people, you know, have been like,

Starting point is 00:24:48 hey, why not sign him? Still a free agent. So is Jordan Montgomery, still a free agent, but reportedly has an offer on the table from the Yankees. Mark Feinzand also says that the Angels and Giants remain possibilities for him as well. That's, if the Yankees lands, now, that's pretty cool. The reason I say that is because you would have the AL and NL. Sight Young Award winners in the same rotation. Now, that would be something, right? that would be something. I'm not a Yankee hater. They don't bother me. I don't have a problem with them. So I think that would be kind of cool. I still feel like just something inside me says Blake Snow wants to be on the West Coast still. He just feels like that kind of guy to me. Even though he spent all those years in Tampa Bay, I feel like he's a West Coast guy.

Starting point is 00:25:33 Grew up in Seattle in Washington. I just feel like he belongs out there. So Yankees are probably going to have to overpay for him to get him. but that's never been a problem for them in the past. And one final move in the ALEs, the Red Sox, have agreed on a two-year $10 million deal with three-time all-star reliever. Liam Hendricks, contract includes performance bonuses that can bring the value up to $20 million and includes a mutual option for 26. Liam's been one of the better relievers in the league, but had to go under, had to undergo Tommy John's surgery back on August 2nd to repair a torn right

Starting point is 00:26:10 ulnar collateral ligament hoping to return at some point this season he's on the early side of the 12 to 14 month recovery timeline at the moment but that wouldn't put him back in the majors until after the all-star break he's somebody i brought up in the off season that hey why not throw him a bone but uh yeah that's way more money than i thought he was going to get um if he's able to get it up to 20 million so i'm not i wouldn't have done that if i were the cardinals since he's coming off the Tommy john surgery he's not a kid anymore either in his late 30 so best of luck to you. Best of luck to you in Boston.

Starting point is 00:26:43 All right, thanks for making a lockdown Cardinals. Your first listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on Twitter. X at L.O. underscore Cardinals and a J.D. Sports Radio, like and subscribe on YouTube to help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. Leave your comments down below. How do you feel the season's going to go for Nolan Aronado? Are you still mad at him for his lack of leadership from last year?

Starting point is 00:27:03 Are you understanding a little bit more about why maybe he didn't feel like he was the guy who should be that leader? because he wasn't going to have a good year either. Like, let me know your thoughts on everything that went on with Aronado. Let me hear about the hats. You like the new hats? Tell me about it. You're the best fans in baseball for a reason.

Starting point is 00:27:19 And I will see you next time on Lockdown Cardinals.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - The Nolan Arenado Revenge Tour Is Coming In 2024

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