Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - UNDERDOGS: St. Louis Cardinals SHOULD Embrace Doubt and PROVE the Haters Wrong in 2026

Starting point is 00:00:00 In the spirit of Valentine's Day weekend, one thing I love about our St. Louis Cardinals this year that comes courtesy of the low expectations for this team this season. 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. Hafford and a former national radio sports anchor born and raised in St. Louis and a lifetime Cardinals fan. And welcome into another episode of Locked on. Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. Thank you for our everydayers for being here and being a part of the show since the beginning.

Starting point is 00:00:43 Thank you to the new people who are here. Welcome in. I hope you enjoyed our content. This is a show serving Cardal Nation, giving you all the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by Fandall. The winter games are on and there's no better way to follow them than with a bet on Fandall. Fandul, play your game. On today's show, we're going to hit on some of the things that Ali and Hime brought up

Starting point is 00:01:04 with their time speaking to the media this weekend, including their thoughts on J.J. Weatherholt, Andre Palante, Jordan Walker, search for a right-handed bat. But since it is Valentine's Day weekend, I thought we'd start today's show with something that I'm starting to fall in love with about this upcoming season. And let's face it, it is very easy, very easy to be down on

Starting point is 00:01:30 what this team is doing and what they might be this year. You trade away a bunch of well-known players, guys who were all-stars, fan favorites, future Hall of Famers, and you replace them with guys who have either had more failure than success in the big leagues, have been injury prone or our rookies. And you're going to get things like you got from the Pocoda projections where the Cardinals are projected to have one of the worst records in all of baseball. 65.8 wins is what Pocoda says. Only Colorado is projected to have less wins.

Starting point is 00:02:04 I find that hard to believe, but, you know, they're in business for a reason. And I'm already sick of other fan bases, specifically in the division, seemingly pointing and laughing at the Cardinals finally preparing for a down year. It's their time to kick a little dirt on us while we're down. I get it. But it's annoying. The fan of me says that, no way, no way are we going to stink that bad, right? these are the car dolls. We don't fall to those levels of putrid baseball.

Starting point is 00:02:38 We're not going to stoop to that level of futility, are we? But the realistic side of me says that I can see how it could happen. I could. Certain guys regress instead of progress. If injuries take their toll, others don't make the expected progress that they thought. Some guys are just not as good as we thought they were supposed to be. we will be in trouble.

Starting point is 00:03:02 But like I said, instead of focusing on that negative, which is the easy thing to do, and in the spirit of this weekend, happy Valentine's Day to everybody, I'm looking at all of this in a different way, where I'm going to embrace something here about this team and a projection like 65.8 wins. I'm embracing what we're going to call the underdog mentality.

Starting point is 00:03:25 And I like the fact that this team has something to prove coming into 2026 since so many people around the baseball world think they're going to suck. You know, it's kind of like the movie singles. You guys remember that one where it all took place in Seattle, but Matt Dillon's character, Cliff was his name, his band Citizen Dick, which is actually members of Pearl Jam. If you're a Grunge Rock fan, you would know that. They read their review, and he's like, you know, I don't want to hear it to be negative.

Starting point is 00:03:59 He has the band like scour through and they're like going through the newspaper reading it and they're not saying anything out loud. And, you know, they say, well, you know, they said this is good about us. But he's like, this, this negative energy just makes me stronger. We will not retreat. This band or in this case, this team is unstoppable. I want to see an attitude like that. You know, it's been three years of mediocrity at best, despite having all. all these guys that we've moved on from.

Starting point is 00:04:31 You know, we've had Willie, Sonny, Nato, Donnie, Healsley, Goldie, All-Stars, Future Hall of Famers, guys that are supposed to be really, really good. And we weren't winning anyway. They weren't winning with these guys. Time to move on. You got to tear the Band-Eyed off and fix the real problem, which was within. And now that they're gone, and you have this aura of uncertainty, and many are predicting that they're going to fail as a collective this year.

Starting point is 00:04:59 there's nobody who's going to be picking the Cardinals to win anything this season. And not that they won't be good eventually. It's not like everybody's like, well, this Cardinals franchise, what a joke. They're not seeing that. But they know this year is going to be rough. Nobody's saying they're going to be doomed for the next decade. In fact, the farm system continues to be raved about after all the deals that Himes made this off season.

Starting point is 00:05:23 I think he's done a really nice job with restocking the shelves in the minor leagues in a very short period of time. Look at all the stuff he's brought in since he's taken over where it's like his baby. But the 2026 expectations, they're low. They are low because of that uncertainty and the unknown about a lot of new faces that are here. And some of the ones that are still left over that haven't impressed many people. And the question is whether or not this team is going to rally around that idea that most people don't believe that they can be any good this year or will they crumble and start believing that they aren't supposed to be good and won't be good. So what's the difference? That's where leadership comes into play. That's where Ollie, the coaching staff, they're going to need

Starting point is 00:06:06 some guys in that clubhouse to step up and be the leaders this year. You know, we've heard stories about Michael McGreevy stepping up already, acting like one of the veterans on the team despite, you know, a guy that's about to begin his first full big league season in the pros. Dustin May seems to be eager to take on that role. The team is really pulling. pushing Matthew Libertor into a leadership role. You're seeing all the attention he's getting on social media. The Cardinals want him to take on that mantle. Who are the position players that are willing to take that role?

Starting point is 00:06:39 You would assume it's going to be guys that have already found success in the big leagues. Guys like Alec Brolinson and Mason win. Lars Neupar Will for sure, but he's hurt right now. Is this JJ Weatherholt's team already? Is he ready to lead a major league team? Has it played a minute of Major League Baseball? yet. If things go well, he will take on a role like that. I have no doubt, but that's an awful lot to ask of a guy who will be a major leaguer for the very first time in his life. But it's

Starting point is 00:07:08 one of the things that also, we don't know, can make you nervous, but it also is a little bit exciting. And you can kind of sense that coming from camp so far. And I know we're only in the early days of it all, but you're getting a sense of a youthful energy and a fun atmosphere in Jupiter. We're going to get to see these guys grow together as a unit and become a family together. Some of them have already played together in the miners and found success as a group. And now they are becoming big leaguers together. Some will end up doing better than others. But there should be a us against the world mentality, in my opinion.

Starting point is 00:07:47 I want that seared into their brains. Why not us? We've all been really good at other times of our lives. in our careers in baseball, like, why can't we do it at the next level? So I want to see that where everybody doubts them. I want them to embrace that. Why not us style? And I'm eager to see how it plays out.

Starting point is 00:08:08 I'm Bluven Ali met with media on Friday. We're going to talk about some of the things that they mentioned, including the search for a right-handed bat. That's coming up next year on Locked on Cardinals. The winter games are officially here. And if you're anything like us, you're locking in for the events that you really only get to see on the biggest stage every four years. And that's why following the winter games on Fandall just makes sense.

Starting point is 00:08:34 You know, from metal counts to individual events to finding your angle on the sport you care about most. Fandual is going to give you the most ways to stay connected to the action, speed skating, the skiing, the big alpine skiing. Obviously, hockey is huge right now. You know, Team USA, doing all right. Let's go. You know, you've got all the curling.

Starting point is 00:08:55 Obviously, you see the drama with the curling. with teams accusing each other of cheating both on the men's and the women's side. Like, I'm here for it. Figure skating. Why not? Why not? It's fun. We don't get to see it all that often.

Starting point is 00:09:06 And Fandall keeps the entire Olympic experience engaging from start to finish. The winter games are on and there's no better way to follow them than with Fandul. So go with Fandle. Play your game. Thanks for making Locked on Cardinals your first listen every day. Thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast network. You already live your team every day. Take it up a level now.

Starting point is 00:09:30 Go add free. Join the Every Day or Club today and get locked. on Cardinals with no interruptions. Members only Discord access, and you do it for just five bucks a month. $50 a year, go to locked on STL Cardinals. That supercast.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more. So Heim Bloom continues to talk about everything, really, which is great. I mean, anytime we get soundbites from Heim, I'm a happy dude because it doesn't feel

Starting point is 00:09:57 boring like it did with, you know, somebody else who used to be in charge where it was just kind of like, ooh, it's like listen to Ben Stein talk, you know, Bueller. It just got old, right? Heinblum doesn't feel that way. When Heim Blum gets on the mic and he starts talking to you, like, you're engaged with him. Like it's, I don't know, he's really good at it. And he offers a lot of information each time he hops on too. So I appreciate the fact that he keeps joining the media.

Starting point is 00:10:25 And it is, again, very transparent with things that are going on with the ball club, with the facilities, with what he's trying to do here. So it's awesome. It's a breath of fresh air. And he continues to talk about finding a right-handed bat that can play the outfield. And he was asked about it again. We had a media scrum on Friday. Was asked about it again.

Starting point is 00:10:43 Here's what Heim had to say about the outfield situation and a right-hand bat. The options that we have in camp here as well. There's a few players we have on this roster that have some versatility that we're also going to look at, which may open up some options for us to be a little more creative in how we put the roster together. But I do think there's room for us to add from the outside. We want to make sure it's the right fit, but it's something that, you know, I expect we'll be on the, on the hunt for, for that in the coming days, weeks, whenever we find the right fit. Now, one of the guys that's been brought up was Nick Castellanos, but he has decided to sign with the San Diego Padres, which honestly is one of the most Padre moves like ever. You know, most of the teams are kind of like, oh, I don't know, he's got can't play defense.

Starting point is 00:11:28 And, you know, maybe he's got some issues in a clubhouse. Padres are like, bring them on. It's such a Padres move. I wish I'd said something about it because I mentioned like Chicago, New York, Detroit, did not mention the Padres. I wish I had because now when you look back at it, you're like, that's an easy landing spy. That made a whole lot of sense.

Starting point is 00:11:46 So, you know, it's a team that really just doesn't care about outside noise. They're going to do whatever they want to do. They would look past any character flaws that any player might have. So, you know, it's the Padres. They're very aggressive normally. They continue to reach for guys that might get them that long, sought after title that they've continually fallen short of. They also signed Griffin Canning, for those of you keeping score at home.

Starting point is 00:12:08 So the options on the free agent market, they're dwindling, right? So not sure who Heim is still looking at. I'll keep saying Gritchick until somebody tells me not to, but we don't know. But mentioning guys that are already with the team, a name that I've brought up before is Thomas C.C. And Heim was actually asked about him specifically. here's what he had to say about Thomas C. Jacey and his versatility. Yeah, he's a good athlete.

Starting point is 00:12:33 I know our staff's going to sit down with him and run through some things that he can do during this camp. But the possibility that is intriguing out there, he did get a little work last year out there, spent some good time with John Jay starting to introduce that. And it's something we definitely feel could be in his tool belt and he has the ability to do it. So, you know, he's one of those guys that this camp is a good opportunity to look at what they can do. All right. And I'm, I'm all for finding your next Brendan Donovan, which isn't an easy thing to do. It's not like those things just grow on trees, but I'm all for finding somebody who can do a little bit of everything. If the JC can be

Starting point is 00:13:15 that guy, more power to him, right? Makes a whole lot of sense. Good athlete, got good wheels. I don't know how the arm is genuinely like compared to other people, but I don't, I've never heard that it's a problem. Seems like one of those guys that's eager to learn anything he needs to learn to become a major league baseball player like an everyday player. I think Jose Fermin is another name as someone who should also get a look. We've seen Ivan Herrera get some looks in left field as well. So if that's something maybe they fall back on if the catching thing doesn't work out, that's a possibility as well. They've also brought in Nelson Velasquez, who Derek Gould did a story on at SEL today.com.

Starting point is 00:13:57 Cardinals don't have a ton of power, right? You know this. I know this. But Velasquez does offer that. If there's anything he really offers, it's the fact that he's got some pop. He had 11 dingers at AAA for Casey and Pittsburgh in just 51 games last year, while up 15 more of them in the Mexican League while hitting 357 and 49 games. And I know, I know, it's the Mexican League. No, get all excited. Not a big deal. But he's also hit 31 home runs in 194 career games.

Starting point is 00:14:27 games in the big leagues, which over 162 game season would average around 26. So if there is something he does well, and it's something that Gartles are missing, he puts the ball over the wall. Okay. We'll see if what he learned at the end of last year, if that's real or not. You've also got Brian Ramos, who they claim for the White Sox, has seen some limited action at best in left field in his minor league career. Would he be somebody that they give a chance to?

Starting point is 00:14:56 They're going to try this stuff. Why not? Why not? You don't know until you try it. And maybe one of them pans out. Maybe none of them do. And they got to go find somebody else. You've got a guy in your system already in Joshua Baez,

Starting point is 00:15:10 who just went off in 2025 at AA. How patient will they be with him if he tears the cover off the ball again this spring? I don't know. No need to really rush guys. I'd hate to see him do it. I don't need to see another Jordan Walker situation where, you know, Jordan was doing everything. very, very well in the minor leagues.

Starting point is 00:15:28 They bring them up and things haven't quite gone so well since then. So you don't really want to go down that route again. But we won't really know until position players officially report to camp. But these guys, they're going to get a chance to showcase what they do and what else they can do on top of that. So we'll see who ends up taking advantage of that and who doesn't. Now up next, you're going to hear from Ali. I'm going to give you his thoughts about Andre Palante, Jordan Walker, as well as J.J. Weatherhole.

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Starting point is 00:17:19 That's Indeed.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply. Hiring, do it the right way with Indeed. Thanks for making lockdown cardinals. We're first listening of the day. Thank you for making lockdown on the number one sports podcast network. So the Cardinals starting rotation, excuse me. I've been sick the last couple days. When the weather goes up and down, man, it is a mess for me.

Starting point is 00:17:44 Anyway, Cardinals starting rotation has some competition this year, which is great, which is great. It means that we've actually got some death, right? Dustin May, Michael McGreevy, Matthew Libertor. They appear to be locks right now. And then there's the battle for the final two spots between Kyle Leahy, Hunter Dobbins coming back from injury. Richard Fitz and then Andre Palante.

Starting point is 00:18:04 Now, Palante, we know. Don't have to bring up the stats. Tough year in 2025, right? And I'm not the only one that's down on him coming into camp. Most fans are like, I don't need to see him anymore. We heard John didn't say, I don't think it's going to really work out. It just doesn't seem to have it. But we'll see because they're going to give him a shot.

Starting point is 00:18:23 And when Ali was asked about Andre and what he's been working on to improve on what was a disastrous, 2025 for him. Here's what he had to say about one, Andre Palante. It's one of those guys where there's a couple things that he's working on, not only physically, but mentally in order to give himself the best shot of having success and taking that next step in his career. And when you look at, when you get to know the kid and then you look at the offseason and the time he's put in, you're eager to see it live and see kind of where he's at and be able to evaluate it. I think part of that quote came from my excitement just overall about the depth that we have in the rotation and having options. And if everybody stays healthy, which we hope that's the case, man, we're going to have some decisions to make.

Starting point is 00:19:14 And that's a good position to be in. But those guys, some more than others, understand what that stake. And it'll be an important spring training for them. Yeah, and Andre, if he doesn't make the rotation, it's not like they're just going to cut this dude, all right? There's too much there that you can still work with. And we've seen him have success in the big leagues before. So whether it's coming out of the bullpen, which is what I think he should be doing at this point in his career until he proves that he can, you know, take on a starting role, you know, he's got the ability to get left-handers out. He's one of those strange phenomenons that is a right-hander that gets lefties out better than righty.

Starting point is 00:19:57 So that's a weapon, especially with a team like the Cardinals, don't have a lot of left-handers in the bullpen out there that you know a whole lot about outside of Jojo Romero. As far as position players go, two guys that Ali will be relying on this year to have much better seasons offensively than last year are Victor Scott and Jordan Walker. They're going to be huge for this team. They're very excited about what they've seen out of Victor and what they think. he's going to be this year. There's been a lot of chatter about him. But here's Ali on the biggest point of emphasis for what Jordan Walker needs to be doing this spring to kind of turn his career around and get back on track the way they wanted to. It'd be easy to say he needs to

Starting point is 00:20:35 show well or produce, but I think a lot of it is going to have to also be kind of how he handles certain situations and what the at-bats look like, not just results, but if we're starting to see some of the things that him and Brownie and all the work he put into this off season from a posture standpoint and just swing plane standpoint that those things actually carry into the game. And we don't want to be fooled in spring by some of the numbers not being there, but the work and the things that we're really truly looking at actually showing well. So we'll keep a close eye on that more than anything. Showing well appears to be one of the new phrases of 2026 for this team.

Starting point is 00:21:28 You know, Jordan Walker, he says they're like, we don't want to really, you know, just focus on the stats that he might or might not have here in the spring. You got to see production, though, man. I don't care if he's a really good batting cage hitter. That's the part that is frustrating because we don't. don't see those things, right? We don't see the behind the scenes. Look, Jordan Walker's been working this offseason to become a better ball player and be ready to go this year. We know there's talent in there. And same with like a Nolan Gorman. We know there's talent in there. We've seen it at the major

Starting point is 00:22:01 league level before. How do we get it back? How do we pull that back out? Hopefully some of the instruction that he received this offseason is going to help him get back to be in that guy. I don't know how much moving to the outfield mess with his head and he was more worried about that than the offense. I don't know. I don't know. But you want to see production.

Starting point is 00:22:21 Like I need to see Jordan Walker hitting the ball hard and doing some damage this spring. Like I can't watch him go, you know, bat 115 with one home run and like four RBIs and like 15 strikeouts this spring. That would be devastating. So we need more from him, but we need all of these guys to come up.

Starting point is 00:22:42 You know, the guys that we really were kind of disappointed in offensively last year. And those three guys are the ones, really, it's Walker, it's Gorman, it's Victor Scott. We know there's more there offensively for them. Hopefully we see it this spring and hopefully it gives them the confidence going into the season on opening day. And lastly, we've got Ollie here talking about a guy that we're all excited to see.

Starting point is 00:23:02 J.J. Weatherhole, right? We all want to see J.J., who is, well, is he wearing 77? was that one of the number he was wearing? Something like that. He's not on the 40-man roster yet, so he doesn't get his own number 26 jersey, but it's waiting for him. It's waiting for him. But here's Ali talking about JJ and how close he thinks he is to becoming a big leager and what's been the most impressive thing about JJ thus far at camp. Very close. This is a guy we're all excited about. He's obviously the skill sets there. We've talked about that, that, that part of quite a bit. He was challenged with being able to do some things defensively, and he's worked really

Starting point is 00:23:45 hard at that as well. His overall game is pretty elite, and I've set it on several different shows and just talking to our writers. The most impressive thing is his personality and overall demeanor and how he handles himself. It's pretty impressive. This is, especially for his age, the way he carries himself, the way he goes about his work, the way he communicates is something.

Starting point is 00:24:08 that I've really enjoyed. You put that together with his skill set, and it's pretty neat. So he's very close. He's going to be competing for a position with this, and he'll have every opportunity to do so. He's your starting second base. I know they can't say that because what if he comes out

Starting point is 00:24:30 and it's just awful, I know they can't say it, but he's going to be your second base for this year. So get ready for it. And he might see some time at third base as well, maybe even some time at shortstop. when Mason one needs a day off. But we're all high for JJ. And he's one of the few guys where, you know,

Starting point is 00:24:46 being that he's been in college and he was, you know, expected to be like a number one overall pick possibly. And he's had the light on him ever since college. Like the spotlight has always been on JJ Weatherhole. And he has handled it tremendously every single time. And this is one of the reasons why I'm not that concerned or nervous about him falling flat on his face in the big leagues. He just doesn't have that demeanor to him that strikes me as like that he has any fear

Starting point is 00:25:17 or is nervous about coming to the pros or whatever. He's very calm, very chill, very smooth, and I can't wait to see him. And if there's one thing to come down to the ballpark this year to watch, other than some of the familiar names you know already, it's a chance to see JJ Weatherhold in this first year. So I'm pumped about it. Clearly you can hear Ali's demeanor. changes. Oh, he's really good. Like they get really excited about him. And they should. You should

Starting point is 00:25:43 too. You should too. It's one of the one of the bright spots that we've got coming into the season. So excited to see him play this spring. And then of course, at Bush Stadium at some point. All right. We're going to wrap things out. Thanks to make it locked on Cardinals. First listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on acts at L.O underscore Cardinals into JD Sports Radio. TikTok, Instagram, and locked on Cardinals. Like subscribe on YouTube. Making that push for 14,000 subscribers. Join the everyday air club. If you're somebody who never misses an episode, get locked on Cardinals ad free, members only Discord access, and more. Locked-on, STL Cardinals. That supercast.com is how you join. For those of you on video, we're going to send you to

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Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - UNDERDOGS: St. Louis Cardinals SHOULD Embrace Doubt and PROVE the Haters Wrong in 2026

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