Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Why Sonny Gray Isn't Starting The Cards First Spring Games

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

The Cardinals have announced their two starting pitchers for Saturday and neither of them are Sonny Gray!- Why a six man rotation could be needed in AprilWhat do the Cardinals need to become World Series contenders in 2024?https://redbirdrants.com/posts/5-things-that-would-need-to-happen-for-the-cardinals-to-compete-for-the-world-series-01hpd5w1crfm/6Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSTLCardinals?sid=YouTubeLocked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLBFollow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIOFollow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_CardinalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BackblazeReceive a fully-featured no risk free trial at Backblaze.com/lockedonmlb. Go there, play with it, start protecting yourself from potential bad times!eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Cardinals have announced their starting pitchers for the first spring games of spring training. Plus, it's debatable whether or not this team is good enough to actually win the division, right? But what would it take to get them to the ultimate goal, which is winning a World Series? We discuss it all today with Josh Jacobs from Redbird Rants.com on today's episode of Lockdown 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, Cardals fans. I'm J.D. Haffern and I'm a national radio sports anchor born and raised in the Lou and a

lifetime Cardinals. And I'm your host for Locktown Cardinals, part of the Locktown Podcast Network, your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio. You can follow the podcast as well at L0 underscore Cardinals. We want to make those of you who make Locktoned on Cardinals your first list. And every day we're free and available wherever you get your podcast. We're available on YouTube as well.

Make sure you like, subscribe and comment if you are going to come over to the YouTube page. more than welcome to let us know what you're thinking about whatever's going on in the world of the Cardinals, whether you agree or disagree with things we talk about on this show, agree or disagree with what's going on in the front office, on the field. Let your voice be heard. Make sure you hit the notification button so you know when new episodes are 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 Fandul. Make Every Moment more. New customers join today. you'll get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet of $5 or more wins. Just have to visit fandal.com slash locked on to get started. Now, before we actually get started here on this show, let's say hello to my brother from another mother,

our very own Josh Jacobs from RedbirdRants.com. Joining us here today and, of course, the new news podcast. Welcome back, Josh. How are things in your world, buddy? Good, J.D. It's nice to actually be talking about things happening on the field, finally after a long, cold, drawn out winter. Scott Boris wants to draw it out even more,

but the Cardinals are back. Let's go. Yes, they are. And today was the first full squad workout for the Cardinals in Jupiter. And we saw some footage, courtesy of many of the great folks who are covering the team down there, like our buddy Jeff Jones from the Belleville News, Derek Gould, from STL Today.com. We saw some footage of Andrew Kittridge throwing to Nolan Arnado today. I got a photo here from

that one's from Derek Gould. There's Paul Goldschmidt, apparently facing, he's not shown here, but facing Kyle Gibson today. I got one here, which I really like this one, Josh. It was Thomas and J.C. And Ozzy working together.

I mean, how cool is that? You get the wizard out there teaching Thomas A.J.C., one of your future infielders. And, you know, how great is that moment? That's got to be cool. That's something that the Cardinals can do, where they've got all of these guys from over the years who are Hall of Famers. He just come on by and hang out and throw out some knowledge left and right.

Matt Carpenter was taking some grounders today at third base, but it's just really nice to see all the guys out there on the field finally, as you mentioned, that we finally get some actual baseball happening after, you know, we didn't see a whole lot of smiling and fun times last year. The guys appear to be enjoying the start to spring training thus far. And I don't know about you, Josh, but in no other sport, not the NHL, not NBA, and as big as the NFL is, not even in training camp with the NFL,

it's just not quite the same as spring training with Major League Baseball. There's just something about the sun and the grass and the sounds that just kind of gets me giddy compared to all those other sports. For sure. And I feel like part of it's coming out of the cold long winter, but also too, like the dynamic, like you said, there's past legends that often show up to camps. you have the 20, 19-year-olds who are still years away from big leagues that are getting opportunities there.

It's just a fun, dynamic mixture of culture of the old veterans, the newcomers, the guys that are even further out. And it's like you get messages like, I don't know if you saw from Derek Gold's story last night, John Moseil are speaking to the team and basically challenging them saying, I think in Gould's words, he said more inviting them, who's going to step up and be a part of the next great cardinal? Who's going to be the future? Who's going to be the next Yadi, Pujols, all that? and you see a Thomas Adjacy working with Ozzie Smith. And I'm not going to put Thomas DeJC in the Future Hall of Fame range, but you've got these young guys who are ready, like there's an opening here.

And so I think of all time, spring training is just different from all these other camps. But this one specifically for the Cardinals just feels like a breath of fresh air, something we've needed for months now. And honestly, since July when it felt like the season was over. So I'm, yeah, I couldn't be more excited. And there's already so much to talk about. We're not even a week into camp, really. And there's plenty of news going around.

Yeah, and you bring up a good point there too because it feels like a longer offseason because it's been so long since the Cardinals were competing. It has been since, I mean, you can maybe even say June when they were toast last year. So it's been a really long time since, you know, you felt as a fan that like, all right, here we go. We got a shot because you didn't in June of last year and certainly didn't by July and the end of August. So that's another good point. Now, we did get some pertinent information today, Josh, about the Cardinals plans for their first games this spring, which will take place on Saturday. They're going to do the split squad doubleheader, take on the Marlins and the Mets, and the team announced their starters for those games. And it's going to be two former first round picks in Zach Thompson and Matthew Libertor.

And it's also been reported today that to nobody's surprise that the Cardinals are setting it up to have Sunny Gray's spring training pitching schedule. set up so that he'll be the opening day starter. And if all goes his plan, he'll make his Cardinals debut at Dodger Stadium against L.A. on March 28th. And reports are that an unofficial or an actual official announcement will be made at some point from the club here in the near future, but it hasn't dropped just yet.

But back to Thompson and Libertor. They haven't announced which one is going to face which team yet. At least I didn't see that. But why is having these two guys start right away significant to you? I think it sets the tone for what's been one of the more than bigger storylines in camp so far, the idea of a six-man rotation potentially to begin the year. And to put into perspective a little bit of that, too, I think some people have blown it up to be more of bigger than what it is.

I talked to Jeff Jones on Sunday, who's down there and he's talking about the Cardinals just have a weird scheduling thing for the first few weeks of the season, where typically you play maybe eight to nine games in 14 days to start a season, and you're really ramping up in action for the first time. So sometimes last year, they used the schedule as an experience. excuse a lot, but like that first two weeks of the year, people's arms are, they're not used to the fall full grind yet. So you got to be careful. Um, and instead they're playing and think like 10 or 10 or 11 games and they don't have that initial off day that's usually built in because they're on the

west coast. They don't really to worry about the weather. So they play like eight straight games to start the year, then come back. They do like an afternoon game in San Diego and they come back for an afternoon game in St. Louis opening day. So there's just a lot going on. So they're floating the idea of what if we added a six man into the group, see what happens? are definitely not sold on that idea yet and some of it has to do with health but with thompson and libertore those are the two front runners right if you're thinking of who could be that six guy Thompson really stands out and the return is probably the second guy but then they're also both kind of i think uh ali marmal said it's not fair to say either of them are fighting for their future

as a starter of this camp but at the same time one of them could end up in the bullpen and that significantly hurts their development as a starter long term if they end up getting kind of pigeonholed to that role. So those two are kind of going neck and neck for, I want to be the sixth man. I want to be the guy they rely on if injury happens, but I also kind of don't want to have to be the guy who gets relegated to that second left-handed bullpen role. Maybe it's John King, so maybe the other guy goes to Memphis or they both go to Memphis. A lot of things still to be figured out, but these are the two guys. I know there's Gordon Gosepha. I know there's Michael McGreevy, but they're probably more on the outside looking at. It's Thompson and Liberator

that are looking to be that sixth man in the rotation or the next man up if someone gets injured. which, let's be honest, you've got a starting rotation with it's old. It is old. They're all in their mid-30s. I mean, Stephen Matt's is the youngest guy in the rotation. So the odds are somebody's going to go down at some point. And it's nice to be able to have somebody like Levertoe or Thompson ready to go. But you're right. It's something that we're going to wonder about because you're like, okay, which one has to go down if one of them sticks around and who's it going to be? Now, I want to ask you, you get to play the role of Mo or Ollie in St. Thompson and Liberator. Say, we'll pretend they're both pitching well in spring training.

They're really neck and neck on who's got the better stats. There's really no difference. Which one of them would you prefer to remain a starter and which one would you send to the bullpen? That's tough because I like both of them a lot. And I think both of them have a future as a starter. upside. I don't know what that is for either of them, but I think either of them could start. I'd probably lean Thompson because of what he showed last year. Libertor outside of that one start against Tampa Bay, he just has really struggled to go deep into games.

And so maybe he is a guy that just needs to be in a short inning's role over time. But he's still only like 23, 24. So he's still a young guy. He's got plenty of time to develop. And I think there's a real scenario where especially if they don't go with the six-man rotation, they could send both of them to Memphis. And then you've got a rotation of McGreevy, Gressifo, Thompson, Libritore and Koffenstein, who are all kind of getting their reps in and then when the inevitable

injury happens, because almost every rotation has multiple injuries a year, then at that point, one of them can duke it out and become the next guy. But if I had to pick right now, it's probably Thompson, but that's not, that's not me casting Libertura side. It's just that's kind of my personal preference. And he really showed some strikeout stuff too. And he was coming into the rotation, being in the bullpen for so long. So you got stretched out a little bit in Memphis, but then he got put back in a bullpen role,

and then he got into the rotation, and he still found success. So I think I like that through adversity, Thompson was the better picture when Libertor, when he got inserted into the role was kind of given the opportunity to run with it. He just couldn't. So still think the Retour is a bright future, but Thompson's probably the guy lean right now. All right. So Josh thinks Libertor sucks and Zach Thompson is a future site. I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. But yeah, I've been the guy that's like, I just want him to pick a path with Thompson. Like you mentioned, the yo-yo thing that was going on. day. And part of it was they want him to be a starter, but things kept happening at the major league level where they had to keep using him. And it was just a bad scenario all around. I just, I just want him to pick a lane with them and be able to roll with it in a perfect world. All five of your guys who are supposed to be starters are fine for a long time. And you can let Thompson and Liberator continue to work their way up to the pros in a rotation type of idea as a starter

instead of putting one in the bullpen. But odds are somebody's going to go down eventually. So we'll just have to wait and see who it is. Now, we've seen the projections where some outlets have the Cardinals favored to win the division again, but not many are saying their name when it comes to winning the World Series this year. So that's the ultimate goal. We're going to talk about why that is and what would need to happen for the Cardinals to compete for a title. We'll do that with Josh Jacobs from Redbird Rants.com next on Locked on Cardinals. Passion driving patience.

What brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps you a ride or die a lot. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. We're talking about all the cool stuff. We're talking superchargers. We've got roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights. You still got some of them old lights in there where you're like squinting to see you in the dark on the highway. Don't don't do that anymore. They've got it for you at eBay Motors.

Whether you're into speed power or style, eBay Motors has you covered with over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die. you'll always find exactly what you're looking for. And with eBay guaranteed fit, your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time. Not just sometimes, every time. Or you get your money back. They're not going to let you hang on to something that doesn't work with your car. They'll take care of it because with eBay Motors, you're burning rubber, not cash. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it's easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win.

Keep your rider dial out at eBay motors.com, eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay guaranteed fit only available. to U.S. customers. Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. Locked on Sports Today is here for you covering the top sports stories of the day, 24-7 with the local experts of Lockdown Plus our national shows covering every league, whether it's NHL, NBA, NFL.

We've got it all. So go to Locked on Sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel. Once again, joined by Josh Jacobs from RedbirdRance.com, whom you can follow, Josh, J-A-C-O, then MLB on Twitter X. If you're listening to the audio version, you're like, Jacob, how do I do that? J-A-C-O, MLB, if you're watching on YouTube, you've got his Twitter handle right there below his wonderful face.

So the Cardinals have not won a World Series title since 2011. Josh, that is 13 years ago. So I dug back into the archives to find out what was cool in 2011. So the number one song that year, Adele, nobody even knew who the heck she was. And then she released Rolling in the Deep and then won all the Grammys and she was the top artist of 2011. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was the number one movie in 2011. I don't know if you're a Harry Potter fan. I ended up watching him after they all came out on DVD back in the day.

So I watched them all then. Moneyball was released that year, Josh, with Brad. So that was a good one. How about the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Most of us who do podcasts are nerds. So we like nerdy movies too, the superhero movies. So the Marvel Cinematic Universe was just starting to get going. Iron Man had already been out, but the first Thor and the first Captain America movies came out in 2011.

Osama bin Laden got killed in 2011. And my Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl that year. I was kind of living the dream, dude, both my baseball and football teams winning. What happened? term winning in 2011, by the way, that was popular. So these are all the things that were happening back then. It's been a long 13 years since the Cardals were the last team standing. They've lost in the World Series once since then, NLCS three times, NLDS once,

wow in a wild card three times and missed the playoffs four times. Now, many teams, many teams would kill to have that many postseason appearances. But we as Cardals fans, we expect more from our organization. him. We want titles. And we both agree that the Cardinals should, should be good enough to compete for the NL Central title in at least a wild card spot. You've got arguably the best pitcher in the division, starting pitcher-wise in the division and Sunny Gray, three of the best offensive position players in Aronado, Goldie, and Contreras. You got one of the top budding stars in the league in Jordan Walker and his massive upper body now. I don't know if you've seen the pictures, but holy crap. Two of the most earth pal guys in Donovan and Edmund. You got a dominant closer in Helsley. You got a lot of pieces here, Josh. So why aren't people talking about the Cardinals in a World Series title? Yeah, I think it's multifaceted.

The obvious one doesn't even have to do with them. It's the talent of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves, right? It's like everyone's looking up at them right now. But as the Arizona Diamondbacks proved last year, you don't have to necessarily be one of them to make the World Series. So I think that part of it's, again, there's just a higher class in the National League right now. And then there's real questions about the pitching, right?

I believe it's been upgraded. I think you do as well. But like how much, I mean, remains to be seeing. Their methodology makes sense, even if I don't fully agree with it, but the results on the field have to show. The offense has all the pieces there, but last year underperformed. So can you really trust that it's actually going to take the step forward? The defense and base running was a mess last year.

Should that, will that be tightened up? Who knows? So I think there's a lot of just like question marks with the team. But you can see if a lot of these things. actually line up the way the Cardinals think they will this year, they can be one of those teams that shouldn't be favored against the Dodgers or Braves by any means, but could go toe to toe with them and pull an Arizona Diamondbacks type upset over them.

And honestly, I think they'd be a better team than the Diamondbacks were last year if they were firing all cylinders. But as of right now, the games haven't been played. They haven't been able to show, like, I think end of April will be when you can really start to pinpoint. Like, is this team even a contender? And if it's a contender, how real if a contender is it? we'll see but yeah i get my people of question marks right now but i think there's a lot of

upside that i think a lot of people can see the upside it's just hard to say like they're there the daughters and brides have proved it the cardinals have not yeah and um you know it's unfortunate too that their april is going to be so difficult when you look at the the competition that they're going to face and then the scheduled stuff we're not making excuses okay these guys are flying in jets then they're perfectly comfortable and sleeping in the best hotel we get that but yeah how exhausted are you when you travel just for a couple of of hours one day. And these guys are going back and forth from the West Coast over the first couple of weeks. And it's going to take their toll. And it's going to be a real challenge for them

in April because they face a lot of great teams that are supposed to be really, really good this season. And we're good last year. So April's going to be a serious test. And I hope people don't get down on them if April doesn't end up being even in a winning month. Like it's it's not going to be easy to walk out of April with a winning record, the way they got things set up. But you did a write up recently listing some things that the Cardinals need to, they need these things to happen to become a part of the World Series chatter around the league. They're not there yet. We're not saying they are. We think they've got potential. You know, we've Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn become the guys that, you know, Lynn is the guy from a couple years ago and Gibson continues to be who he is.

Michaelis bounces back. You've got a good rotation with Sunny Gray and stuff like that. But again, like you said, they haven't proved it yet. So the first thing that you listed in the article, which you guys can read at Redbirdrance.com. I'll link it in the description below and in the show notes. You mentioned the offense is something that they have to, they have to, basically the word you used is be elite. Yep. Yeah, because if you look at their rankings through July 29th,

to put this in the article, they were top seven in pretty much all the really important statistical categories. But then that's the day Brendan Donovan played his last game. That's the day they really sold off. And they ranked it between 20 and 23rd with most of their rankings after that, but then they stayed in their Wobo, which is like their, basically their expected stats was still top 10, even with a lot of the injuries and stuff that are happening. So the talents there, it's just last year, I think their top seven hitters only played eight games together the whole year, 10 games, something like that.

Isn't that crazy? Like, you know, people don't remember that. But yeah, they never had their lineup together. Yeah. So like Donovan missed most of the year. Walker only played like 110 games because he was demoted. New Bar, Gorman only played about 110, 120 games. Arnado missed significant chunks

Contreras missed weird chunks. There's a lot of guys who miss time. If they could be playing consistently, that's number one. They need the people in the lineup consistently. Number two is you can expect guys to be taking steps forward this year, right? Like Jordan Walker could go from an exciting second half

where when Mason, the day Mason win was called up since then, so it was about a month and a half left of the season, Walker had a 130 plus WRC plus, which would make something like a top 15 hitter in all baseball. Nolan Gorman was like that. every month outside of June. Brendan Donovan, last 10 weeks of the year, was the top 15 hitter in all baseball. Lars Neupar had a two-month stretch where he was a top 20 hitter in all of baseball.

Do I think all those guys are top 20 hitters in baseball? No, but do I think they can all play like it for significant stretches? They've shown it. See, if those guys are taking steps forward, Aronado bounces back, Goldschmidt bounces back a little bit, or even it's just the same as last year, Contreras had an elite second half. They can go one through eight, one through seven, at least with maybe the strongest top seven hitters in baseball outside of the Braves. They might not have the middle of the order that some teams have, but they have the lineup death that I don't think really any team outside of the Braves can rival them in. I think there's a real chance the Cardinals have a top five lineup in all of baseball this year.

And if they're doing that, that's the first and most important step towards success, because I think that's the easiest one for them that actually occur. If the offense is struggling, I think that's the biggest red flag for them, because that's the thing that needs to be their strength. Yes, because it's expected. You know, they expect, we expect the starting rotation at least three of the five guys to have an ERA around four. Like nobody's expecting, you know,

somebody to have it in the twos outside of Sonny Gray. And it's going to be really relying on the offense this year to make sure that they don't have a lot of, you know, dips in production. Because when they do, it's going to be tough with this pitching staff because you're not going to win a lot of one-to-nothing ball games with that. So definitely something to keep an eye on for sure. And it's something that like when I toy and I don't want to start releasing the lineups yet or anything, we're a little early for that. But when you got Jordan Walker who might be like your seven or eight hitter, like when you look at it when there's

certain matchups and you're thinking lefty, righty in certain spots, you're like, oh my God. Like you got Mason win probably hit nine all year. But how high up does Jordan go? If you're going to push him up, that means like a guy like Contreras comes down or, you know, you've got. New Bar, if Donovan's leading off, there's so many different ways they can go about this. And it just shows you the level of talent that when healthy and when they're all in the field, they've got a lot of offense there. All right, you've listed a couple of other things that we're going to get to different ways that the Cardinals need to improve or things that have to happen to make them part of the World Series discussion this year.

So we're going to do more of that with Josh Jacobs from Redbirdrance.com on Lockedown Cardinals. Get buckets with your first bet on Fandall, America's number one sports book, right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150. If your bet wins and you can bet on all your favorite NBA players and teams when they get back on the court. They just got done with the All-Star weekend, which was pretty darn entertaining. But the real games will get started again on Thursday. You've got quick bets. You've got live, same game parlays. You've got exclusive props. There's a whole lot of stuff that you can bet on,

just like you did with the NFL earlier this year. So many fun and interesting ways to make NBA games even that much more entertaining for you when you're watching them. Just visit fandle.com slash locked on and shoot your shot. Fandall, the official sports book partner of the NBA. Once again, Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. Locked on sports today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with your local experts of locked on. Plus our national shows which cover every league. Go to Lockdown Sports Today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever national sports.

7 streaming channel. We talked a little bit about Sunny Gray earlier in the show on your article at Redwood Brands.com. Josh Jacobs joining us here today. Sunny Gray was point number two. Something has to happen with Sunny Gray to get them into World Series contention. What does Sunny need to be? He's got to be the guy that we've seen the last few years, right?

I believe he's a guy that's reinvented himself. And he's been really good over the course of his career. I think he's like top 15 and ERA since he entered the league. It's just, he's been sneaky good. And that stretch in New York and the fact that he was in Oakland and Cincinnati where no one really talks about, like the star players, really, unless you're L.E. De La Cruz, like, you don't get the attention. He's been a guy that's been really good. He's got to be that again.

He's got to be a front line starter. I think the word ace is just so, it means different things to different people. To me, there's like 10 aces in the league. There's like 10 guys that can go up against anyone and you favor them every time. But then there's a lot of guys that are front line starters that, sure, they're, okay, they're one. a two who cares like jordan montgomery and nathan avaldi just won the world series is the top two starters i don't think any of us think they're top ten pitchers right so sunny gray he could be he can pitch like the third best starter the second best starter in the league like he did last year um he

it doesn't necessarily need to be that good but he needs to be a guy that game one the nLC uh or nl wild card series or division series whoever they face you know he has a chance to go toe to toe with the other starter he has to be that guy and then i think the other thing that has to happen within the current bunch of starters they have right now is they have to have someone else emerge. And I'm not talking about someone be like a true number two starter because I don't think that's realistic. But it's right now it's Sunny Gray and then a bunch of guys that are fours and fives. If they can even have a guy be like a true number three, like if Stephen Matt can be healthy and his stuff play up, if Gordon Gerecopho can come up and be that guy, if Lance Lynn can regain his stuff,

whoever it is, someone can be a true middle of the rotation arm that is a tier below or two tiers below Sunny Gray, but a tier above the rest of the guys, that would help stabilize the rotation enough where you can see them having a good record by the deadline. They have a game three starter. They have a game one or two starter. They just need to go get that other guy. Yeah. And guys like, you know, you mentioned Lance Lynn, where the Cardinals have a plan here with

him. And they think they, when you hear Mo talk about him and they're like, well, it's not that he just needs to be in better shape. That's great and all. But we think we saw some things that he was repeating things a little too much that he should have got away from. He wasn't taking advantage of certain pitches that he has at his arsenal. He wasn't throwing them enough.

So they have a game plan of how to get him back to where he was just a couple of years ago where he was an all-star with the White Sox. So Kyle Gibson was very, very good in Baltimore last year. I know we look at the hits and the contact that he gave up last year, but he still won 15 games for a very good Baltimore Orioles team, who until getting Corby Burns had really filled those. holes like that was going to be a big spot for them. So these guys are good,

good pitchers and no, we're not expecting them to win 18 games or something, but like you said, you want somebody else who, you know, who could step up. And maybe, maybe if they're in contention when they get to that trade deadline,

that is something that they can do is add to the rotation, which is another point that you made in your article. Yeah, and I love the Baltimore Orioles as a comp for them, because like you look at their team last year, they had Kyle Bradish, who's awesome. And then a bunch of guys.

And the offense was just good enough because the starters kept them in the game. They gave up three or four runs over six innings. It wasn't flashy, but the offense was good enough to outscore the other team every time. Last year, the Cardinals offense had to score nine or ten runs to win a game. So it just wasn't like you can't ask an offense to do that. So not saying the Cardinals are winning 100 plus games like the Orioles, but the Orioles had that regular season blueprint. But you alluded to it.

They need another guy. I just don't see even if Lance Lynn's at his best. I really don't think Michaelis has it in them anymore. I think he's a back end of the rotation guy. that's the expectation. Who knows, maybe it's a Co-Aroby somehow makes it up and it's just like lightning in a bottle. Maybe it's Gordon Gerocepho. But they really don't have that guy to pair with Sunny Gray right now.

And there's it, I think, an underrated storyline that haven't heard a lot of people talk about right now is that the Cardinals have come into most trade deadlines the past few years with massive holes that need to be filled. And we say at the top of the rotation is a hole. But to them, that's more of a want. They've had to go get a couple back in the rotation guys because they just did they had Oviedo getting destroyed or they had Plante making spot starts or they had to go out and get center field depth like whatever it is they've had to make these little patch

whole move or patchy work moves if they're if they're work this off season actually works and they patch those like bottom of the barrel things that are you have to just you have to have them in place to be a contender they're not flashy but you'll lose a lot of games if you don't have them they could go into the deadline and be like well we like

the back of our rotation we like our lineup we like our bullpen maybe we pull together resources to go get that Dylan ceased to go get that whatever starter becomes available because the team's underperforming. I think this is the first time in a while. It could end up making sense

that they make that swing at the deadline. I thought they'd do that this year or this past year, but obviously things fell apart so they didn't even have the opportunity to do that. But yeah, they have to go get a number two because right now who starts the second game, Matt's, Michaelis, Lynn, I don't know. And if you're going against the Dodgers

and it's class now game two or it's Bobby Miller game two, I don't like your chances there. But if you can get Sunny Gray, another guy, and then Stephen Matt, Slane, Slane, whoever it is, that's good enough. That's good enough for a playoff rotation. Yeah. And that's something that this offseason, Mo has talked about too, where he's like, well, you don't just fill, you know, just put your payroll right to the top. Like, you want to leave yourself some wiggle room for later on down the road.

That way you can add a piece. Like you're not trying to max things out right now as much as it drives people nuts, you know, and they're like, no, spend now and worry about that later. they've never been that team. That's not who they are. They always kind of leave themselves some room to make an addition later on. And as much as we give crap to Mo for things that he's done wrong, the Jordan Montgomery and Jose Cantana, you know, additions when they were contenders that year, pretty awesome,

considering, you know, what you ended up getting from them. And then what you got from Jordan Montgomery after the fact last year, even though it was a losing team, like those were huge additions. argue that those were better than anybody else. So there's part of us that I know we don't trust Mo at times, but then there's part of you that's got to go, all right, he has done some good stuff in the past before. Let's give him a little bit of credit. Just because one year didn't pan out, we shouldn't just flush everything good that he's done down the toilet. Well, I want to encourage you guys to go to Redbird Rance.com and check out all of Josh's stories and all of the different

you know, Thomas Govain and all the rest of the great writers that are there. This article, again, linked in the description below, because there's some other things. that you have, that the Cardinals need to get, to take care of to become World Series contenders. I want to give everything away. Check out the article for yourself and read up on the rest of it. And as I always say, you'll end up going down that Redbirdrance.com rabbit hole and then hours will go by and you'll go, what just happened? What just happened?

What day is it? And that's what happens to almost everybody. So don't be afraid when it does happen to you. And we want to thank you guys for making Locktime Cardos your first list in every day. Josh, appreciate you coming on. again this afternoon and talking to us. And we'll have you back on again very, very soon. At Josh Jaco MLB on Twitter, hit them up there.

Make sure you guys are checking out the Newt News podcast. When are you guys going on again? Tomorrow. So we've got an episode with Bryson Moth's Cardinals prospect in the system. So we're excited to talk to him. And we just talked to Jeff Jones on Sunday about spring training. So we've got some content in the, we just did like our first scripted content, which was pretty fun.

We've got some more fun, like narrative podcast ideas coming out soon. So we're throwing a lot of contents out. out there. So new news podcasts, you find on YouTube, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. JD, thanks for having me all, man. Your show's awesome. So I'm tuning in all the time and grateful to be on. Yeah, great to have you, man. So we'll have Josh back on as soon as we can. And for those of you who haven't followed him yet at Josh Jacob MLB, also follow us here on the lockdown Cardinals at L0 underscore Cardinals. Of course, you can find me at JD Sports Radio. Like and subscribe on YouTube, help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best

fans in baseball for a reason, and we will see you next time on lockdown cardals.