Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - What A Debut For Two Of The Cardinals Top Prospects

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

- Positives - JJ Wetherholt - Tekoah Roby - Negatives - Sem Robberse's Tough Day - Nolan Arenado Rumors Continue Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSTLCardinals?sid=YouTube Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLB Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Wonderful Pistachios Looking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more. FanDuel Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) #ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The St. Louis Cardinals dropped to 0 in spring training, but there have been a lot of positives to talk about so far, including the debut of top prospect. J.J. Weatherholt. You are locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcasts network, part of the Lockedon Podcasts network, part of the Lockedon Podcasts network covering your team every day. You can follow me on X at J.D. Sports Radio and the podcast at Eleanor underscore Cardinals. YouTube, of course, we're there. Like, subscribe, comment, and hit that notification button so you know when new episodes are posted. Also available on TikTok, Instagram at Locked on Cardinals. We're all over the place because this is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans in baseball. All of the info about the birds on the bat.

Today's episode being brought to you by Fandall. Right now, new Fandul customers can get $150 in bonus bets. If your first $5 bet wins, download the app or head to. to fandal.com to get started. So this past weekend, the Cardinals took the field against actual opponents for the first time, which is always nice. And despite not winning either game, which I'm not going to get worked up about, like win or lose, it's just, you know, you want to pay attention to the little things that are going on. There were some positives. There are some negatives. There are some negatives to talk about. So let's get to the good stuff first. I want to start with

JJ Weatherhole, who made his debut on Sunday. And boy, oh boy, did this young man make an impression? overall pick in last year's draft, had a bloop single to center field in his second at bad and then cranked the Cardinals' first home run of the spring in his third, a three run opposite field shot over the left field wall, which gave the Cardinals the lead at the time in the game. O one fastball was the pitch that he hit, traveled an estimated 345 feet and was an exit velo of 100.6. So it wasn't like this massive shot by any means, but hey, it gets over the wall. gets over the wall. And it just had a really good sound off the bat, the crack of the bat on that one. You can tell that he hit it pretty well. JJ spoke with the media afterwards saying that it

felt better than my first hit for sure because that was a little blooper. I knew I hit it pretty well, but you never know at this stadium because the ball doesn't fly too well here. So I was just tracking and thinking this is either going out or it's getting caught. And I think he might be being a little bit modest, just a little bit modest there because the reaction that at least, that I saw watching the game after he hit it. It seemed like a guy that knew he'd gotten a hold of one. The home run also put a big smile on manager Ali Marmall's face, who reportedly plans to alternate the playing time at shortstop

between Mason 1 and Weatherholt over the next couple of weeks. So you're not going to see, you know, back-to-back games for Mason when. They're not trying to wear anybody out. They're just trying to get some work in. So that means good news because not only do we get to watch Mason Wendt play, but we're going to get to see a lot of JJ Weatherholt, while he's with the Major League camp for the next few weeks. Another positive from Sunday's game was the performance by a pitcher

Ticoa Robi. Very much impressed with what I saw on Sunday from Tocoa Robi, acquired along with Thomas C.C. and John King in exchange for Jordan Montgomery and Chris Stratton. And, you know, hearing Brad Thompson talk about it during the telecast on Sunday, you know, it was funny. He always said that Montgomery Stratton deal. And I'm like, it just sounds like a law firm every time I hear him say it.

And anyway, this trade, I know at the time, people were like, who are these guys? Who is Toccoa Robe? Who is Thomas C.C.? Who's John King? None of us really knew who these guys wore. And if Roby does what he did on Sunday, this is going to, it's going to be a pretty nice deal for the Cardinals in the end. You know, he made his debut, two shutout innings, struck out three, no walks, no hits either, some dominating stuff. and it wasn't like like fluke things either.

Like he, Roby stuff was nasty. It was nasty. I didn't, I was unaware that the fastball that's called Roby possesses was going to be hitting where it was. It was topping out at 98. He was throwing 98 yesterday in the second game of the spring.

Mixed in some nice breaking balls, broke a few off there, both the curve and the slider, had a devastating change up that he was showing, And like it was rough if you were a pitcher or you were a hitter on Sunday taking on Tocotobo Roby, man. That was impressive. And, you know, the thing with Roby was never that his stuff was bad per se or that he didn't

possess the stuff that people would find attractive for a pitcher. It was just being healthy. Healthy has been the biggest issue for Takao O'Obi. And he really looked healthy on Sunday. So I hope he continues to go down this path of feeling well and throwing well. Cardle's number six prospect, according to MLB pipeline last year, but he only appeared in 10 games going two and three, the RA 6.57. He allowed 10 home runs in those 10 games.

He struck out only 39 and 38 and third innings. And so when you just see that stat line, you're like, not all that impressive, right? And he's not a huge guy either. Roby stands, I think, at like, 6'1. so it's not like he's this big menacing guy on the mound, but man, did he look good on Sunday? Last year, shoulder injury is what sidelined him for a lot of the year.

So hopefully he can remain healthy this year and continue to be what he was on Sunday. Because if that was a sign of what his ceiling is going to be, man, that trade that also, like I said, brought over King, brought over CJC, could turn into quite a blockbuster for the Cardinals. Pretty big win there. Although, you know, the Rangers got a World Series out of it. so I don't think anybody's complaining. Another positive. And it's normal that pitchers are ahead of hitters at this point in camp.

You're going to hear people say that over and over. And it's true. But for the most part, the Cardinals pitchers, at least the ones that, you know, are more likely to be on the opening day roster, they have found some pretty good success over the first two games. He had Saturday starter Eric Fetty. He allowed two hits. One was basically a swinging bunt. and the other one actually hit the runner and they give them a hit on that.

So it's not like the Marlins were stinging the ball against him or anything. After Fetty, it was Matthew Liebertoor's turn and he tossed two, no hit. Innings struck out one, Ryan Fernandez, Chris Roycroft, Riley O'Brien, names that you're familiar with. You've seen them in a Cardo uniform already. They were up on the big club last year. They followed those guys with three no hittings as well. Riley O'Brien was a very interesting. Remember last year, Riley O'Brien was the talk of camp.

Nasty stuff, right? And everybody was really excited about what he could do for the Cardinals' bullpen last year. And, you know, he strikes out Shohei Otani in that first game against the Dodgers and then injured. And we hardly saw him the rest of the year. He had an interesting inning in his inning of work on Saturday, had a throwing error on the first batter, walked his second guy. we're like, oh boy, a little bit rusty, right? But he locks in and he strikes out the next three guys to end the inning. He was topping out at 99 with his sinker, 99 mile an hour sinker.

Just easy 99 too. He doesn't ever look like he's, you know how you get Sunny Gray out there, he's doing the grunting. And you know, it looks like he's putting forth maximum effort where it's just nice and easy for Riley O'Brien. 99 sinker, breaking pitches for solid as well, a lot of movement on those. those guys. So he, he looked pretty darn good. So

we need him to stay healthy as well. That's very important. Then on Sunday you got two shut out innings from Miles Michaelish. He had two innings from Roby, which we talked about already. Jojo Romero struggled with control early on in his appearance, but because he walked the first two guys, he allowed of single, but then he strikes out the next three guys

who escape that jam in the inning. John King threw a clean inning of work. Ryan Lutos, who could be on the opening day roster. He's a guy we've seen in St. Louis already. He got in an inning and allowed one hit, but he struck out too. So a lot of positive things to talk about when talking about the Cardinals in their first two games, two games that they lost. So it wasn't all sunshine and lally pops because, you know, Cardinals are 0 and 2 heading into Monday's

supposed to be a lot of rain in the forecast. So we're going to discuss some of the bad stuff that we saw next on Locked on Cardinals. When the game tips off, the NBA action is just getting started and there's no better place to get in on it than with Fandall, America's number one sports book. With Fandall, you can place live bets throughout the game. So even if you miss the opening tip-off or you just want to bet on a fourth quarter comeback, you can stay in the action. And if you're looking for a bigger payout, you can combine your live bets into a same game parlay and really boost up that money. Now, Fandle makes NBA games more fun to watch, period. If you're not a huge NBA guy, this is going to make the games even more entertaining for

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Now, I do want to remind everyone that we shouldn't get overly excited or overly depressed about things that happen in these spring training games just yet. Because you heard Brad Thompson talking about the telecast yesterday that a lot of the times these guys are going to come in and they're working on specific things, whether like we want you to work on, you know, your cutter today or your change up or whatever it may be. There are specific things that they are working on. So if things don't go so well, maybe you can attribute it to that. Other things, you know, just being rusty, just getting on the mountain for the first time. And against real opponents, you know, it's something you got to get used to first.

Not everybody's just going to come out and look amazing, you know, and as impressive as it was to see, you know, J.J. Weatherholt, to Co. Aroby, and what others did on Sunday and Saturday already, it's smarter to stay grounded about it all. You know, you're going to see people popping off on social media where, like, you know, Weatherholt, he should be on the opening day roster already, where Roby should be starting over Stephen Mats already. And, okay, I know that you're excited, but let's pump the brakes a little bit. It's just, it's just the first appearance and first gave. So let's let's calm down some. Same goes for the bad stuff, though, too. As excited as you might be for the good things that we've seen so far when it comes to the bad stuff,

that someone struggles and has a tough day at the yard. We shouldn't immediately dismiss them as being terrible or call them things like trash, which I've seen that were thrown around a lot or demand that they get released or that they are bus and they should be traded and relax a little bit. All right. With that being said, we've got a couple of pretty bad outings from a couple of pitchers that happened in the first two games. We're going to start on Saturday where after the first five pitchers through six shutout innings, the trio of Bailey Horn, Rob Kaminsky, and Matt Fonson did not fare. Did not fare so well. Cardinals were up six to nothing at the time that Bailey Horn came in. This is another guy that they pulled from the Red Sox organization and he had

control issues right away. Again, I don't know exactly what he was working on, whether it was certain a pitch or what, but he ends up walking three, he throws a wild pitch, he gives up a single. Kaminsky comes in, Kaminsky, former draft pick of the Cardinals. This is the third stint that he's had with the organization. He comes in, gives up a double, throws a wild pitch, and all of a sudden we're looking at a six five ballgame. Svonson comes in the next inning, and he walks the first guy. You're noticing the problem here is that, you know, it's control stuff, it's walks, it's putting guys on base. Then he gives up a single. Then it's a double. Then two more singles. And all of a sudden, we got a seven to six game. And that's how it ended. And Cardinals lose their first game of the

spring. Now, the three pitchers combined to throw just two innings. They allow seven runs on six hits. They walk four. They strike out none. Sponson took the loss, but none of them had much success whatsoever. So, you know, you're hoping for better things from those guys. But again, these are three names that are not likely going to be on your opening day roster. They're their depth pieces at best. And, you know, Svonson has had some success in the miners. But, you know, this is, these are guys that they're just getting in some work. These aren't the guys that you got to freak out about.

Then on Sunday, it was poor Sim Robersa, who took the punishment. And to say that Sam had a rough day, it's a nice. understatement. It's an understatement. The hardest part about it was that he had to go through it not once but twice. So if you didn't watch, I'll explain it to you. In spring training, they've got that re-entry rule in effect so that if a pitcher, you know, hits his limit on pitches in an inning. Okay. They're like, all right, well, we don't want him throwing anymore. Let's get him off his feet, bring him back. And they allow the teams to remove a pitcher. And if they want to bring him back in, they can do that.

And unfortunately, that is what happened to Robbersa on Sunday. The Cardinals were up two to nothing at the time. And it just came on like a tidal wave, like just rushed him. He gets the first two hitters out. Like it was pretty quick, actually. He faced him. First, I forget what the first guy did, but the second guy tapped on back to him. Two outs right away.

Then there's a single. And then there's a home run. And that tight thing. up at two at the time. Then four straight singles makes it four to two. And Sim was simply, what was wrong with him? I don't think there was anything wrong with him. He was missing over the plate. You know, he was just, he was throwing it over the heart of the plate. You just can't do that. So after Dusty Blake makes a visit, things don't get much better. So Ali comes out and he pulls the right hand and brings in Zach Weiss, who got the last out of the inning. And we move on with

our lives, right? But it wasn't over for robbers. So who shockingly, despite having such a rough half inning, starts the next inning. They bring him back out. He had to continue to get his work. There was a certain pitch count. I think they wanted to get him to. And they're like, all right, well, we'll get you back out there and see what you can do. Cardinals had retaken the lead at the time after the JJ Weatherhold opposite field home run.

And sadly, it was just more of the same for Robert's a leadoff single, another two run shot. Then it was another single. And then he makes a throwing error on a play that, honestly, he should have done. just got me out at first base, but that's what spring training is about. I had a, had a tapper that went to his left. All his momentum is going towards first base, but he tries to make the hero play to second phase, ball sails into the outfield. Then he hits the next guy, just beams him right in the back, right in the rib area.

And Ali mercifully comes out. He's like, all right, buddy, let's get you out of here. And, you know, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? just a bad outing. And things didn't get any better for the Cardinals. Marmal brings in Andre Greenio, a guy that we've talked about on this show many, many times, another guy who has found success in the back of the bullpen down in the minor leagues.

And, you know, maybe he has a role on this team this year. But he probably walks the first guy he sees, brings in a run, gives up an RBI single. We're looking at an eight to five Houston lead here. Then a fielder's choice makes it nine to five. Then a couple of singles. Plates two more. and then it's 11 to 5 before Grenio is finally yanked for O'Donier Mosquito, is how you pronounce it. O'Donier Mosquito.

He comes in and finishes things off, but tough, tough to A, the office for Sim Robbers. Final line, two thirds of an inning. First two batters he faces, he gets out. And then nothing after that. Two thirds of an inning, nine runs, seven of them earned because of the one error. nine hits, two of them home runs, no walks, no strikeouts, the ERA 94.50. Bad day. Bad day at the office, like I said.

For a guy who the Cardinals have, well, I should say, M.L.B. Pipeline has as the Cardinals 12th ring prospect in 2024. So there'll be some fluctuating, I'm sure, when they announced their new ones, but it's not like this is some bum that people aren't excited about, you know, last year, Memphis, he was five and four, ERA of 4.59, definitely not an overpowering strikeout guy. That is not what he, he showed me. Some folks online were commenting that it was cool to see him that he has added a sinker to his arsenal, which they think will help. But just, you know, any picture that doesn't have high velo or wipeout breaking stuff.

you got to hit your spots to get out. You know, Miles Michaelis. Miles Michaelis is not an overpowering guy. You know, you throw 95. But it's all about location, location, location, location, with guys like Michaelis and the guys like Sim Robbersa. And you just can't live over the heart of the plate. And that's what was happening.

Every ball was just hitting the meat and the Astros were stinging it. You know, and this was the Astros B squad. We didn't have the big boys here. It wasn't Christian Walker and it wasn't Yordaun Alvarez and Jose Altuve. This was the B-Squat that lit him up. And, you know, it's going to happen. It's going to happen. So, again, jumping to a conclusion that Robursa is a bust and is not a good picture

after one bad outing in spring training, very, very premature. So let's not go down that path and start calling him names and stuff. It's very silly, in my opinion. There will be better days for him. And, you know, when stuff like this happens, you just try to, try to learn from it, you know. You take this disaster of an outing and pull it apart and see what were the good things and what are the things that we need to work on. And what are we got to pay more attention to and try to do better the next time they call your number. So that's really all there is for a person robber.

So let's not destroy this kid already, okay? So we're going to talk about the offensive struggles because it wasn't just the pitching that has had some issues over the last couple of days. we'll get into that plus the latest Nolan Aeronado rumors. That's coming up on Locked on Cardinals. Thank you for making Locked on Cardinals. Your first listen today for your second listen. You can find Lockdown MLB. Baseball guru Sully brings you a daily blend of humor in baseball,

keeping you updated on all the teams during spring training. You can find Locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. So the offense, not going to get off the hook here either for the last two games because they've hardly been ripping the cover off the ball either. So it's, and as I mentioned before, pitching is ahead of hitting at this point of camp. It happens every year. So no need to really freak out about it. But in the game on Saturday, the team, when you look at the box score, you're like,

ooh, six runs, all right. And then you look next to it and you say, oh, three hits. Yeah. They walked seven times. So I, you know, give them credit that they, you know, weren't up there swinging at balls out of the strike zone and making outs, you know, they got walks. They were able to get a few guys in and they score six runs, but three hits, it's pretty weak.

Then on Sunday, you had the big game from Weatherholt, who drove in three with that home run. Victor Scott, our boy, had a two-out, two-run single in the fourth inning, which was something we saw very little of last season for the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals, remember last year, and you might have some PTSD going on here, but remember when the Cardinals would come up with the bases load? and it was like a joke all season. We're like, oh, boy, how are they going to figure out a way to not score any runs whatsoever,

even though the bases are juiced? And it happened a lot. You know, they were miserable with runners in scoring position. So to see Victor come through in a situation like that, pretty nice. RJ Yeager hit a solo home run in the ninth inning, which gave us an excuse to say, Yeager bombs, just a missile over the left field wall, exibialo at 102.2.2. but that was really it for the offense. It wasn't a whole lot going on.

Six runs on nine hits. Weather Holden Yeager accounted for four of those nine hits. The bats had been a little quiet early on. But again, not freaking out, just observing, discussing, talking about what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing so far. So stay calm. Stay calm, everyone. Now, something that got fans worked up this weekend

was the report that the Houston Astros had rekindled their interest in trading for Nolan Aronado after Alex Bregman signed with the Boston Red Sox. John Denton and others at MLB.com reported in multiple sources confirm the Astros renewed interest in him. But Derek Gould, who covers the team for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch STL Today.com as well, a guy that I certainly trust with his reporting. He's one of the best. Had this little tweet where he says John Moseilock says he does not feel like anything. is imminent. When it comes to trade talks for Nolan Aronado, I cannot comment or chase every rumor, adds the president of baseball operations. Nothing has changed since Aronato reported to camp. Now, does that mean that what John Denton and the group at MLB.com put together is false? No, not necessarily. Perhaps the Astros are interested again. Perhaps the Astros called Mo and was just like, hey, so we're still kind of curious, you know, what's going to? on with Aronado? Is he, you know, is he still want out? Or is he enjoying his time at camp so far? Like,

what's going on? Perhaps that's all it was. And whatever. It doesn't mean that all of a sudden there's going to be this big blockbuster trade and you're starting to see people talk about it and more and more often. You're starting to see Astros fans and Yankees fans getting a little lancy because, you know, they're seeing what they've got, you know, at the, at the hot corner and they're like, well, maybe this Aronado guy wasn't such a bad idea. And maybe other teams come calling as we get deeper into camp when they realize that, you know, Aronado is someone that they could use, you know, better than they thought, you know, maybe they're like, well, we thought this was going to work out.

Maybe it's now. Maybe we ought to call the Cardinals again. So obviously they're going to keep. in contact with people that's going to happen. The athletics, Katie Wu and Chandler, Rome wrote that although the Astros re-engaged in brief trade discussions with the Cardinals regarding their third base, Villan Aronado, multiple sources said that no deal is gaining traction, nor is Aronado's thought process change for now about approving a trade to the Houston Astros.

So it doesn't appear that anything's imminent. And personally, I'm exhausted talking about the whole situation. I was really hoping that it was over because I just want to get back to playing ball. You know, the off-the-field stuff, you do it all off-season, and when that's the one story for the Cardinals for most of the year, you just get tired of hearing about it and get tired of talking about it. I'm right there with you. I understand that.

That's why I didn't put it in the lead today because there's nothing to report, really. You know, it's people just talking. So big whoop, you know, if something does go down, obviously, we'll bring it up. for now, doesn't appear like anything's going to happen. Things can change, I'm sure, but I'm not going to sit here and waste a ton of time talking about, hey, so-and-so called so-and-so. Cardinals are back in action today on Monday with the Mets in town at Roger Dean Stadium. A ton of rain in the forecast in Jupiter, so odds are that they probably will have to stop play at some point if they get it going at all. Stephen Mats, which is a bummer because Stephen Mats,

set to make a spring debut. The team also mapped out at starters for the week. Quinn Matthews set to start on Tuesday against Toronto. Michael McGreevy will take on the Yankees on Wednesday and then Andre Palante will go on Thursday against the Marlins. Missing from the list, Sunny Gray, obviously, a name that's quite important for the Cardinals through two innings of live batting practice on Sunday on the backfields of the Cardinal spring training complex and according to the athletic remains on track with his throwing program. So nothing to worry about there. They just, this is the way it's going and it's, It's nothing to worry about.

Everything seems to be fine. So that's good news as well. All right. Thanks for making a lockdown cardinals for first listening every day. If you haven't already, please give us a follow on X at L0 underscore Cardinals and a JD Sports Radio. You got us on TikTok. You got us on Instagram.

Of course, we're on YouTube as well. Please like, subscribe, and comment and help our channel in love where the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. And I will see you next time on Locktown Cardinals.