Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Time To Admit This About The St. Louis Cardinals

Starting point is 00:00:00 So what did we learn from the series with the Colorado Rockies? And what needs to get figured out before the Pirates show up the Bush Stadium on Tuesday? 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 Jenny Hafer 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 Lockdown Podcast Network,

Starting point is 00:00:32 covering your team every day. You can find me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio. You can follow the podcast at Ella W underscored Cardinals. I want to thank those of you who make Locked on Cardinals your first list in every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast. You can also find us on YouTube. Make sure you like, subscribe, and comment that way you're interacting with us and hit the notification button so you know when the new episodes are posted.

Starting point is 00:00:55 This is a show serving Cardle Nation and giving the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by Fandul. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's right, $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. Just visit Fandle.com slash locked on to get started. So to say that the Cardinals four games split with the Colorado Rockies was

Starting point is 00:01:23 underwhelming, certainly putting it lightly. You know, from the play on the field to, the lack of fans and the seats. Saturday, you know, there was the announcement that the crowd was 34,577, where most stadiums, that's a pretty good number. They're going to be pretty pleased about that. That actually marks the smallest Saturday crowd in the history of the current venue, this current Bush Stadium, which opened back in 2006.

Starting point is 00:01:54 A lot of small crowds showing, I should say not showing up for Cardinal games. and which was interesting to me because there was a lot of cool giveaways this week. And you know, you had the Star Wars, Jordan Walker, Bobblehead on Thursday. You had Larry Walker Bobblehead on Saturday. There was some cool stuff going on. And still, people are staying away. You know, it was supposed to be a nice laid back series against one of the worst teams in baseball, the Rockies.

Starting point is 00:02:24 And it turned down to be a pretty hard-fought series where if you didn't know any better, and didn't know their records, you might think that the Rockies were a team that were competing for a wildcard spot, just like the Cardinals. You know, tip of the cats of the boys over in Colorado, man. I came away much more impressed with them than the Cardinals this weekend. I got to know a lot of their guys a little bit better

Starting point is 00:02:47 than learn a whole lot of new stuff about the St. Louis Cardinals. And I think part of that is because the Cardinals have expectations this year. The Rockies don't have any. They're just trying to. get going in the right direction as a franchise game. You know, they're working on things. They've got some good young talent there, along with Charlie Blackman, who has got to be 67 years old now, doesn't he?

Starting point is 00:03:10 He's got to be. Yet, there he was out there, had a hit in three or four kids. Like, he looked good. Anyway, but the Cardinals are supposed to be the good team. They're supposed to be a good team. They spend like a good team. And yet, they're not really a good team. You know, we've seen them sweep the Orioles.

Starting point is 00:03:27 And that was fun. That was cool, right? but the Phillies have kicked them around. The Dodgers beat up on them. The Brewers have dominated them. Plus, you've got the series lost to the White Sox on your resume, and I was split with the Rockies, both of those series at home. The rest of the league doesn't seem to have a lot of problems beating these teams,

Starting point is 00:03:47 yet the Cardinals have. So what's more true, that the Rockies and the White Sox, they're better than they normally play like? Or is it, is it? have we gotten to the point where we can realize that the Cardinals are just not as good as we want them to be? That they're just a middle of the road team and that's where they're going to stay. Now, unfortunately, as a fan, I believe it's the latter. And instead of expecting the Cardinals to beat these types of teams,

Starting point is 00:04:20 I think I'm to the point where I'm just hoping that they beat these teams. Like, I really don't know what you're going to get from this team when they take the field anymore. And it doesn't mean that everything that happened this weekend was all bad. But I think we can agree that it didn't quite turn out the way that we all thought it was going to. I know it didn't turn out the way I thought it was going to. But at this point, maybe this is what we should expect. Just an inconsistent lineup and an inconsistent defense day in and day out. You just don't know what you're going to get.

Starting point is 00:04:52 Game one on Thursday, sunny gray on the hill. That was the game I thought was a gimmie. I thought that one was in the bag. Calquantro, give him credit, pitch very well for the Rockies. And he's been good. But when you've got your number one on the mound against a team that's in the basement of Major League Baseball, down there with the White Sox and the A's, where the Cardinals wore not that long ago, you expect to get a win.

Starting point is 00:05:17 And that didn't happen. Cards lose three to two because outside of the sunny gray struggles. But when you look at it, they still only gave up three runs in the game. The Cardinals couldn't produce any offense. Went over that on Friday show. Friday night, they jump out to a 4-0 lead, and it seemed like that they, you know, got their mojo back. But then things go in the wrong direction. You get that ridiculous, a little league inside the park grand slam.

Starting point is 00:05:41 I mean, who does that happen to? It's not supposed to happen to the St. Louis Cardinals. It's supposed to happen to worst teams. Supposed to have to be teams like the Rockies or the White Sox. It is not supposed to be happening to the Cardinals, but dumb stuff keeps happening like this. And it goes back to the shoddy defense, which has. has become more and more common of bad defense showing up day in and day out for the Cardinals. And just like that, you got a tied up ball game.

Starting point is 00:06:07 The Rockies end up taking the lead, but the offense comes back, which is something they've been able to do so far this year. It's not like a team of quitters where like it felt like last year. Remember you fall behind last year and if it's like the sixth inning, you're down a couple runs, it was over. Like you just had no faith that they would come back at all. At least this year, they still show fight until the very end. you know, heroics of Dylan Carlson on Friday night, which was awesome.

Starting point is 00:06:32 They went at 8 to 5, which, by the way, love to see that for Dylan. Love to see that for Dylan. I mean, he's a guy who's like Lars Dutbar and like Tyler O'Neill just continues to get hurt on the field. He's not doing anything bad. He's not doing anything weird. He's not getting injured out in public, partying or something. He's just playing baseball and he continues to get hurt. and it sucks.

Starting point is 00:06:58 Things just keep happening to him. I was questioning his health after the game on Thursday, and then he goes off and has his best game of the season and helps the Cardinals to a victory. So great job Dylan Carlson. I hope he continues to head in the right direction. Saturday, neither team can play defense all that well. Both teams make costly errors to keep each other in the game.

Starting point is 00:07:19 Kyle Gibson, he was solid again on the mound to start the game. Another quality start for him. And with the cartels up four to three in the seventh, Ollie turns the ball over to the guys he trusts all year, Andrew Kittred, who just has a bad night. It happens. Just like it happened a couple days ago, Jojo Romero in the series against Houston.

Starting point is 00:07:39 You just had a bad night. It does happen. These guys are not robots as much as we'd like them to be and think they are, and they should just come out, mow them down, one, two, three. That's not real. That's not how it works. And it was a bad night for Andrew Kittrich. He gives up the double,

Starting point is 00:07:54 then another stolen base. Single drives them in, then another stolen base. Two run shot by Tovar and there you go. Six-four. They go on to lose the game six-five. Flii. Cardles gave up eight stolen bases to the Colorado Rockies in this series. Something's got to get figured out with holding runners on better. I don't know what it is, but we went into length talking about it last week and it's still a problem. Sunday the Cardo is going to great start from Andre Palante, which was very, very nice. Had a rough go in Houston in his last start, but was on time.

Starting point is 00:08:24 top of his game again, tossing five shutout in as he strikes out six. The defense goes error free, which is very important. And despite going one for seven with runners in scoring position and stranding eight runners, they managed to do some small ball type of things to push five across. They get another home run from Alec Berluson, who the fan base is starting to fall in love with a little bit. This gets getting popular. They win this game five to one. And after winning the final game in just two of their first 15 series to begin the season,

Starting point is 00:08:52 remember we were making fun of the Cardinals because they could never. or win that last game of a series. Now they've won the final game of their last six series, but they've lost a couple of those series too. So it's what this team has been all year, up and down, up and down. It's been like this since day one. Pitching is good, hitting is bad. Defense was good. Now defense is in a bit of a rut right now over the last few weeks where they haven't played so well. Sunny Gray, hot start the year. He struggled over the last few starts. Kitcheridge and Jojo have had a couple of bad outings. when the Cardinals have had a lead.

Starting point is 00:09:26 This is the 2024 Cardinals, and it's what I think we should expect from here on out until they give us a reason to think otherwise. So I'm no longer going to go into any series. I don't care who they're playing. Don't care. Could be, they've already played some of the worst teams. I don't care who it is they play anymore,

Starting point is 00:09:45 but I'm not going in ever thinking they're going to go through a team and take two of three or three of four and that they're just going to win the series because they, they show up because they continue to prove that that's just not the case with this team so far this year. And we can continue to say, hey, once they get it all going at the same time, when is that going to be? We're in June. And it still has never happened. Why would it change? So, hence why fans are a little bit frustrated.

Starting point is 00:10:17 Perhaps that's why they're not showing up at the ballpark. I will say this. At least things are entertaining when you watch the game. You know, they're always tight games, which we're going to get into a little bit more here in a bit. But Katie Wu from The Athletic, just released an article talking about three takeaways from the series, places that the Cardinals need some answers, need to improve on at. And we're going to check those out and go through those next tier on Locked on Cardinals. Order supplies from the website that's made for the skilled trades.

Starting point is 00:10:49 Find thousands of parts from hundreds of brands and just a couple of clicks at supplyhouse.com. supplyhouse.com gives you 24-7 across to a huge selection of plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies, and fast delivery anywhere in the United States. Need help with an order? Get industry leading after-sales service from their friendly and knowledgeable customer support team, and you get to talk to a real person every single time. No robots. Those don't exist. It's real people trying to really help you and give you answers. And there's great news for plumbers, technicians and contractors being a pro has its perks. Trade industry professionals can join their free trade master program for free shipping

Starting point is 00:11:31 and serious discounts on every order. Over 100,000 pros already trust the Trade Master program to deliver results. Apply for your membership today. Get a competitive edge on every order at supplyhouse.com slash TM. Save money and time when you order online. Order plumbing, HVAC, electrical supplies, all of it from Supply. Playhouse.com. Real people, real service. Summertime means baseball, the NBA finals, Stanley Cup finals, and more. And you can bet on it all on Fanduel. Right now, new customers get

Starting point is 00:12:07 $200. We're up to $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $200 that you can use to bet on everything. From the finals MVP to who's going to hit one out of the park. We'll start in the NBA, Celtics, up two to nothing in the series as they head to Dallas for game three on Wednesday. Luca Donchich goes off in the last game, triple double in game two. They still can't beat Boston. So what's going to happen next? Will Kyrie Irving step up to make this a series? Or will Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum and company continue their dominance?

Starting point is 00:12:43 We'll find out on Wednesday you can make money on that by betting on these guys. Stanley Cup final with the Panthers and the Oilers. Panthers shockingly shut out Edmonton and their high-powered offense in games. game one, Sergei Bobrovsky standing on his head and not that game, right? Stopped all 32 shots. He's been quite the X factor for Florida in the playoffs. And you can bet on what's going to happen in those games. And you can bet on all of Major League Baseball that's going on.

Starting point is 00:13:09 Like you can do in-game bets. You've got the money lines. Like there's so many different things to go into. And you can bet on or against all of these players. So new customers, you're getting $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. So sign up today. visit fandal.com slash locked on and add a big win to your summer bucket list. Fandul, America's number one sports book.

Starting point is 00:13:38 Are you watching Fox Sports or ESPN on your TV all day and have to turn down the volume because of all the shouting? Then make the switch to Locked on Sports Today. It's a free 24-7 sports streaming channel and it's program for you every day to bring you the biggest stories without all the screaming. Locked on sports today brings you can't miss analysis, opinions and news streaming 24-7 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app. part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. You can catch every pitch of the Cardinals hometown broadcast when it continues with Pittsburgh on Tuesday with Sirius XM. Just download the SXM app and search the word Cardinals. And thank you for making Lockdown Cardinals your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:14:15 Leave your comments and suggestions on Twitter X or you can obviously put them in the comments on YouTube. If you're watching on YouTube, appreciate you. Friend of the show, Katie Wu, we've had her on here before, covers the team for the athletics. she put out a piece this morning talking about this series, how it was disappointing in her eyes too. And she had three takeaways from it that, you know, I'll link the story in the description and in the show notes for you. So you can read the full article because we're not going to go into all of it.

Starting point is 00:14:44 But I just want to give you some of the highlights, things that I thought were kind of cool that Katie brought up. So the number one thing that she says that she learned about this weekend. And what's going on with the Cardinals right now is the lack of a number five starter. Now you might say, wait, hold on, isn't Palante the fifth guy? Just won the game on Sunday. What do you mean to have a fifth starter? Well, yes and no, he is. You know, Katie points out that they haven't used him as a traditional starter yet.

Starting point is 00:15:12 He was not announced his Sunday starting pitcher until early that morning and was not told officially that he would start until late Saturday night, certainly not normal behavior for someone who has taken control of the spot, which was vacated by Stephen Matts, who you can see up on the screen right now on you, two. Palante has won two of his last three starts, but again, that was against the Reds, who at the time weren't hitting very well. They've gotten a lot better recently, have gone on a pretty good streak, one three or four from the Cubs, and then the Rockies, who have been one of the worst teams in the league. But she does point out that not having a game plan and just kind of winging it

Starting point is 00:15:47 each series isn't sustainable. Now, Stephen Matts needed 24 pitches to get through two scoreless in his first game with Memphis. He's working his way back right now. He is seven. He is set for his second rehab appearance on Tuesday, where he will be scheduled for 40 pitches. Now, Katie says that that pitch count suggests that he's still at least two weeks away, which means the Cardinals will again need to backfill the fifth starter roll and leaves them scrambling during a time where they should be surging, which is a 19-game stretch against teams with a below 500 record. These are the games that the team is supposed to be taking advantage of right now.

Starting point is 00:16:25 and after the first four, they're exactly where they were when they started, going two and two against the Rockies. Next thing on her left, she says, is the offense. Says the offense has improved, but still underperforming. She points out that St. Louis has a 676 OPS, which ranks 22nd out of 30 teams. It averages 3.95 runs per game. Seventh fewest in baseball. Their 61 home runs are the fifth fewest in the National League. I'm curious what their warning track stats are right now because it seemed like they had eight, nine that went to the warning track in the series against Colorado.

Starting point is 00:17:03 They just died at the wall. I don't know what's going on why those balls aren't floating out. I know it's not the easiest ballpark to hit home runs in. But so it was just a lot of it, a lot of them just dying at the wall at Bush over the last four games. But the stats is overall for the offense, not what we feel. thought was going to happen when, you know, you thought coming into the season, you had a lineup with two possible Future All of Famers and Nolan Aronado and Paul Goldschmidt, along with a catcher with the offensive capabilities of Wilson Contreras. You've got Nolan Gorman, Mason Wynn, Jordan Walker,

Starting point is 00:17:39 Lars Newpar. These were all people who were supposed to be in the lineup every day. And they thought they were going to be getting and improving Jordan Walker and a healthy Tommy Edmund to be a part of it all. And for whatever reasons, it just has not clicked on a consistent basis. Katie points out that because of their games being tighter, that the margin of victory, it's been tough on the team itself because they're not getting easy games. Let's put it this way, okay? Games have been tighter.

Starting point is 00:18:12 Entering Sunday, the Cardinals had 71% of their games decided by three runs or fewer. That ties the Mets and the Cubs for the most in Major League Baseball. The Cardinals also hold the second lowest margin of victory, 2.50. in baseball. You hear Chip Kerry, he brings it up all the time during the telecasts of how the Cardinals just have not had really any games where they've been able to just kind of coast and enjoy things. You know, they're not, they're not blowing anybody out. You know, you get these starts to games where you think that's going to happen, which was, you know, something that happened on Friday. You know, we thought they get to jump out to this four to nothing lead. They look all upset because they lost the last game. It looks like they're going to. going to run away with it and they lose the lead. They blow a four run lead and they have to claw their way back to win, which is great that you got the W. But yeah, there hasn't been those games where they're up seven, eight runs and they're able to pull Nolan Arnato or Paul Goldschmidt and get them off their feet. And it's everything has been just tight. It's been a lot of anxiety

Starting point is 00:19:21 involved in how they get these wins. So it hasn't been easy. It hasn't been easy. And that takes its toll because, you know, when you're constantly on the grind, like, and there's no chance to just, oh, we're good today, no problem. Like, it wears you out. It wears you out mentally. And that takes its toll on you physically.

Starting point is 00:19:42 So she points out one more final thing. It is a positive thing. So I'm going to jump into that next for you when we continue here on Locked on Cardinals. Are you struggling to close deals? B2B selling is tougher than ever. and that's why I want to tell you about LinkedIn sales navigator. LinkedIn's sales navigator is a sales intelligence platform that helps professionals effectively prospect and engage,

Starting point is 00:20:07 high value customers, drive higher revenue, and increase sales performance. Sales Navigator helps you target the right buyer's surface key signals, such as job changes or which accounts you should prioritize, and then it shows you hit an ally so you can find those buyers that are most likely to convert. fueled by LinkedIn's 1 billion member platform sales navigator gives you the most up-to-day, first-party data enabling you to unlock conversations with the people that matter. Right now, you can try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a 60-day free trial at LinkedIn.com slash locked on.

Starting point is 00:20:43 That is LinkedIn.com slash locked on for a 60-day free trial. Let LinkedIn Sales Navigator help you sell like a superstar today. Just go to LinkedIn.com slash locked on. It started. Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel. It's on YouTube, and it's now also available on Amazon Fire TV. It's a free fire TV channel's application looking for it. Lockdown 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.

Starting point is 00:21:21 You can find Locked on Sports Today now available on the Free Fire TV channels app. Now, if there has been one area where we can't really complain too much, been pretty darn consistent, it's been the bullpen this year for the Cardinals, right? No bullpen is perfect, but the Cardinals have had a really good one, despite losing some guys who they thought were going to be a major part of how the bullpen was going to work. Like Keenan Middleton was supposed to be a big piece of this bullpen. in these high leverage situations where, you know, maybe Andrew Kitcherich has thrown a couple of games in a row.

Starting point is 00:22:01 He was supposed to be that next guy. Never pitched for him. Never pitch for him. Riley O'Brien lasted all of one inning. Remember how excited we all were for Riley O'Brien coming in to spring training? And then we saw what he could do, what he dazzled. He struck out Otani and his one inning of work. And then he got hurt.

Starting point is 00:22:21 The forearm tightened up on him. he's working his way back. We'll have an update on what's going on with him here in bit. Giovanni Gallegos, love him or ate him. He was supposed to be a part of this bullpen. He continued to regress this year and then goes down with an injury. We think it was an injury or maybe just kind of do a soft reset of everything going on with him. But either way, the bullpen's been pretty good, right? And she's not just talking about the Trinity, as I like to call them. The Kittredge, Jojo Romero, Ryan Helsley, Trio,

Starting point is 00:22:55 they've been special this year outside of a game or two. They've been just about as locked down as you can be at the end of a game. But Katie points out that the secondary tier of the bullpen has also been pretty darn good, specifically in this series against the Rocky. She says that the Carter relievers log 16 innings over the four-game series, allowed just five earned runs. Ryan Fernandez has been really good. You got to like what you've been seeing from him,

Starting point is 00:23:19 the Rule 5. pick. John King. The resurrection of John King has been outstanding. I'm so happy for that dude because he didn't have a good spring training, even though he was good with the Cardinals last year after coming over in the Jordan Montgomery trade with the Rangers. He wasn't all that good in spring training this year and it looked like he had lost his spot on the roster. Ends up coming up and has been excellent, excellent. Chris Roycroft, she points out. Also, surprising and encouraging addition. So you got to like what you're getting out of him. I like he's kind of like a mean dude out there, too. I like a little attitude.

Starting point is 00:23:54 Why does everybody got to be so friendly these days when they play? Anyway, she says that Riley O'Brien, who we talked about a few moments ago, injury update with him. He is going to be throwing a live bullpen session early next week and embark on a rehab assignment if all goes well. There's no guarantees because the forearm tightness. They remember Keenan Middleton was coming back and it seemed like, oh, he dodged a bullet here. And now he's gone for the year. I'm cautiously optimistic about Riley O'Brien. So hopefully whatever it was going wrong, they caught it early enough,

Starting point is 00:24:26 and he'll be able to contribute for the team this year. Giovanni Gallego is still working his way back. He's had four appearances so far. Two of them have gone well. Two of them have not gone well. But it's also, you got to remember that his first couple times that he was in his rehab assignments down in the minors,

Starting point is 00:24:46 he wasn't exactly throwing every pitch and trying to strike people out and do all that stuff. He was just kind of, you know, working on a couple of things. So that's something to keep an eye on because if you get Gio back to be the guy that he was a couple of years ago, sure, that's going to be a boost to what's going on in the bullpen. Other injury news, Wilson Contreras continues to recover from that broken forearm underwent a CT scan that showed significant healing and his surgically repaired left forearm. And he has been given medical clearance to restart baseball activities. He caught Andre Palante's bullpen session prior to. the June 7th game versus the Rockies,

Starting point is 00:25:22 and he'll begin taking two-handed swings at balls off the T and on soft-toss throws on June 8th. So there you go. He's on his way back. Looks good. Got the new hairdo going on. You saw that in the dugout during this series. It reminds me, I forget what the movie was called,

Starting point is 00:25:39 but where they had like the micro machines driving through the, it was like a, it was like a Wayans Brothers movie or something. But anyway, Tommy Edmund. Where's Tommy? right as a plate all year after undergoing the wrist surgery. He's been taking batting practice from both sides of the plate in the past week. When asked about him, Ali said he just has to be able to do his work leading into a game without pain.

Starting point is 00:26:00 He's been able to do the progressions this time through with that being in the case. He's doing BP from both sides and he's feeling pretty good. I believe next would be pitching machine work and getting him in some batting practice lives and then maybe game. So I'm still thinking an all-star break for Tommy Edmund at the earliest, but at least he seems to be progressing and we're getting some good news out of him because for a while there, I was nervous he just was going to miss the whole year.

Starting point is 00:26:25 It didn't look too optimistic, but here he comes. There he comes. And then you've got to figure out what you're going to do in center field. I mean, I guess you bench Siani, but it's been so good out there. How do you do that? Anyway, we'll figure it out when we get to that point.

Starting point is 00:26:44 So that's all the latest. Team is off today. They start a three game series with, The Pirates on Tuesday. The NL Central is crammed right now outside of the Brewers who lead the division at 38 and 27. You then got the Cubs and Reds at 32 and 34. The Cardinals are at 31 and 33, but all three teams are technically just six and a half games back of Milwaukee.

Starting point is 00:27:03 And the Pirates are right there at 31 and 34, seven games back. In the wild card, the Cubs, Reds and Giants are tied for the last spot with the Padres and Braves, taking the first two in a wild card cardinals are technically tied, but the other teams are ahead of them and they've played two more games than the Cardinals. So that's why you see that one little 0.001 percentage point difference there. But Tuesday, we'll talk about the pirates. We'll do a crossover episode with Ethan Smith from Locked on Pirates. He's always a fun guy to talk to. He wears, I think he's still got him. He wears these cool headphones when he plays. And he's, he's on MLB the show with me. So he's a fun guy to be around. So we'll preview the upcoming series.

Starting point is 00:27:44 Pittsburgh will have rookie phenom Paul Skeen on the mound. on Tuesday nighting game one. So looking forward to seeing him, but hopefully beating him. That's what we want to do. Thank you for making Lockdown Cardinals. Your first listed every day if you haven't already. Give us a follow on Twitter,

Starting point is 00:27:59 at Lerner underscore Cardinals and a JD Sports Radio, like and subscribe on YouTube to help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in 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 - Time To Admit This About The St. Louis Cardinals

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.