Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Why the St. Louis Cardinals SHOULD TARGET Harrison Bader or Miguel Andujar to BOOST Offense
Episode Date: January 20, 2026St. Louis Cardinals search for a big right-handed bat heats up as JD Hafron spotlights key free agents Harrison Bader, Austin Hays, and Miguel Andújar. With both Willson Contreras and Nolan Arenado g...one, JD Hafron questions if Jordan Walker or Thomas Saggese can emerge as true lineup anchors, or if an external upgrade is essential for 2026. Is defense or offensive punch the greater priority as the roster skews left-handed?From Winter Warm-Up reactions to front office transparency, JD Hafron dissects how president Heim Bloom’s moves reflect a new youth movement in St. Louis. Hear essential updates on Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar, and Victor Scott II’s development, plus bullpen battles and prospects’ chances to shine. JD Hafron challenges listeners: should Cardinals fans trust the rebuild and embrace the fresh start, or are critical bats still missing to spark true National League Central contention?0:00 – Cardinals’ 2026 Roster Needs6:19 – Free Agent RH Outfield Options22:55 – Winter Warm Up ReactionsFollow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-st-louis-cardinals/Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonstlcardinals.supercast.com/Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIOFollow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_CardinalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Turbo TaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life.Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Every Friday night, before the games tip off, FanDuel gives fans a new way to kick off the weekend with NBA Happy Hour. Check the FanDuel app and see what’s dropping during NBA Happy Hour — every Friday from 6 to 7:30 PM Eastern. FanDuel — the Official Sportsbook 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 #stlouiscardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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The St. Louis Cardinals are still looking for ways to improve their roster for 2026.
One need pretty darn clear.
We'll talk about it today on 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 Jady Hapford, a former national radio sports anchor.
Born and raves in St. Louis and a Lifetime Cardinals fan.
And welcome in to another episode of Lockedong Cardinals, part of the Lodontonts fans.
part of the Lockdown Podcasts Network, now the number one sports.
Podcast Network.
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If you're new, welcome in.
I hope you enjoy the content that we bring you each and every day.
This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving you all the info about the birds on the bat.
Today's show, we're going to cover some winter warmup aftermath, if you will,
just some thoughts on winter warm up, which happened over the weekend.
I want to chat about that.
But we're going to start, though, today with our main subject is going to be something that
every dayers know I've been talking about since the offseason began.
And that is the Cardinals need for a right-handed bat.
Now, top priority of this off season was to hopefully move on from the contracts of guys
like Sunny Gray, Nolan Aronado.
Not only did Heim Bloom succeed in moving those guys, got some stuff in return, also got
Wilson Contreras to agree to a trade as well.
The next thing that I think really needed to happen was they needed to address the
lack of pitching depth in the organization or the org, as it was being called all weekend
at winter warmup.
I guess that's how we're going to say it now.
The org.
Heinbloom has done that.
He has addressed the depth issue at the pitching portion of what's going on in the organization,
multiple signings.
The trades obviously brought new arms in.
So now you can always add more pitching if you need to.
There's no reason to ever stop adding pitching.
I'm sure Heim will keep his eyes peeled for any other moves that can net him more arms and more hitters because we can't forget about hitters.
That's important too.
Heim was actually asked by a fan about finding some offense for this team over the weekend and admitted that if there were position players,
that they liked and were available that they could have gotten in those deals.
They would have pursued them.
But it just so happened that the pitching ended up being the right move for them
and as well, they were able to get back for Wilson and Sunny.
And I mean, we still did get a pitcher back for our not,
but not a whole lot, right?
But you still have a possible deal with Brennan Donovan out there.
They would score them some more bodies, whether it's pitching or hitting,
maybe both.
You've got Joe Joe Romero is another guy still available.
We've even seen Lars Newpar's name pop up a little more frequently recently.
I don't know how many teams are trying to trade for him since he's coming off the heel surgeries,
but you're seeing his name get mentioned a little bit more now.
But as busy as this offseason has been, you know,
Heim's still not done piecing things together, not only for the future, but for 2026.
You know, it can't all be about 27, 28, 29.
We've still got a season to play here in 2026.
and one glaring need that I have pointed out on a number of occasions since this offseason began
is the need for a right-handed hitter that can play the outfield, and if possible,
play a little infield as well. That would be nice. And now that Willie and Nato are no longer in the picture,
that need for another right-handed bat is even bigger since both of them were right-handed
and we're going to be a part of the middle of your order. They were going to be meat of the order type of guys.
Contreras was probably going to be with that cleanup. No one was probably going to be five or six.
Like these are important spots in the lineup. They are no longer here for you. They are not options.
So you look at the roster that the Cardinals are fielding right now and it's very lefty heavy,
which isn't a horrible thing. Don't get it misconstrued that this is a bad thing that they've got a lot of
good left-handed hitters considering that the majority of the pitchers in the major leagues are right-handed.
It's like something like 75% of the pitchers are right-handed. So it's nice that you've got plenty of
lefties to choose from. But at the same time, you do want to try to have some balance there,
right, to go up against either one. You know, in a perfect world, you find guys that can hit both
righties and lefties, but it doesn't always happen. Sometimes guys are just better against other guys.
So you go to the roster and you've got Newt, Victor, Donovan's still here, Burleson, Crooks,
Gorman, J.J. Weatherholt, when he comes up, Nathan Church, those got, all of those guys are lefties.
right from the right side got a couple of good names evan herrera pretty good mason win pretty good
jordan walker thomas and jacy pedro pahes Jose fermine and joel pozo not exactly the same
thump as you've got from the left side right now jordan walker god bless him could be the guy
that makes that next step and becomes the big bopper that we've all hoped he would be
and that would make a world of difference, right?
If he becomes a real threat in the lineup,
that changes things tremendously.
Because now he's taking over the role of,
you're hoping that Wilson Contreras has left behind
as far as, you know, hitting-wise.
You're hoping he can be what Wilson was.
You really hope he can be what Nato was,
which wasn't a whole lot.
You're hoping for more from Walker than that.
Thomas and Jacey could be something more this year
with more playing time against lefties,
whether that's while playing second base,
while playing third base,
can he dabble in the outfield?
I don't know.
We'll see.
Same can be said for Jose for me.
But if you're looking for a more experienced bat
that you can really put your trust into,
a little faith into somebody that's been there,
done that more times in the major leagues,
then there are a couple of guys out there
that remain on the free agent market
that would seemingly be good fits.
And I'm going to bring up three specific names.
apes in this in this episode that two of them I've brought up multiple times before on shows.
But now that, you know, they were brought up again this weekend with some ties to the Cardinals.
And it's former Cardinal, Gold Glover, Harrison Bader, who everybody still loves.
And former Cincinnati Red Miguel And Duhar.
Those are the two that we've talked about on this show extensively before.
And they're still out there.
And they make a lot of sense for this ball club.
Bader has, you know, we'll start there because he's been, you know,
we're all very familiar with who Harrison Bader is.
But since getting traded away by the Cardinals in 2022,
got sent packing to the Yankees, if you remember for Jordan Montgomery,
a trade that really caught me off guard.
But in hindsight, it ended up working out for the Cardinals.
You know, Mane was solid with them in his brief stint with the Cardinals,
while Bader has had some very unspectacular seasons.
Let's not sugarcoated that Harrison Bader has been some star.
on a bunch of these teams since leaving St. Louis because he hasn't.
Played with the Yankees, obviously, really struggled in his brief time with the Cincinnati
Reds, then went to the Mets.
And he kind of got back on track with them in 2024 with 12 home runs, 51 ribbies,
and 17 stolen bases.
Last year he starts with Minnesota, ends up finishing with the Phillies and was very good
offensively for both teams, hitting a combined 277 with 17 home runs,
54 RBIs, 11 stolen bases, and an OPS plus of 11, 17.
which was a career high.
We hadn't seen offense like this from Harrison Bader for a number of years.
And last year, he popped off.
And the ironic thing is when you think about Bader, right-handed hitter, right?
He was actually better against Ritees than he was lefties last year.
He hit 300 against the Ritees with 11 bombs and 38 ribbies while against lefties.
The average dropped to 227, significant drop there.
The OBP was below 300.
His slugging was down 86 points.
and his OPS dip from 845 to 689.
In his career, though, when you look at his entire body of work,
they're much more even than that.
Batting average 248 to 245.
The OBP 313 versus 312, slugging much better against lefties in his career,
448 against 384 against the righties.
OPS, also much better versus lefties.
760 versus 696.
I would look at Bader as a guy that you wouldn't necessarily even need to platoos.
against just lefties.
Like it doesn't have to be, you know,
whoever they fill, you know, bring in and is the right-handed hitter.
You want them to be able to hit lefties, obviously.
But yeah, if you can get a guy that can hit both, great.
He can come in and take on any pitcher.
Still offers that excellent defense,
which he's beloved for here in St. Louis,
had a plus 13 DRS and plus six out above average last year.
And he can play center field,
which is extremely important considering
right now, do you trust anybody else to play center field that's on this roster?
No, the answer is no.
Victor Scott is in center field right now.
He's the only guy, right, that you trust out there.
Now, you can put nude out there if you have to, but you don't really want to do that.
I don't want to do that.
You prefer him in the corners.
That's where he belongs.
So Harrison Bader still makes a lot of sense.
And it's not a matter of whether or not Bader is a good fit for the Cardinals because he most
certainly is. The question is, what would it cost to bring him in? And when the one fan asked
Hyman about that during his Q&A session, and he was like, so what's he asking? And I'm laughing,
he's like, I can't go into that with you. But that, that's the real question, I think, is what would
it cost to bring him in? Does he want to be in St. Louis at age 31 and be a part of what is now a new
youth movement in St. Louis? Remember, he was part of the last youth movement that came through and got
shipped away. Does he want to go through that and be that guy for the Cardinals to be kind of like
a veteran guy in the outfield for them? Calculated market value on spot track puts them at 10 million
per. 10 million per. So that's not cheap, really, you know, and where the Cardinals are financially,
I don't know if they're willing to do that. I know the fans would love to see him back. I would love
to see him back. I love Bader. The fit is there. Is Jersey?
number is not. Yvonne Herrera wears 48 now, so they'd have to do something with that.
But it makes a lot of sense. But my gut tells me that another team with playoff aspirations
would be more appealing to him. And some teams that have been listed as possible destinations for
them include guys in big markets like the Yankees and the Mets again. The Royals, the Reyes,
guardians, smaller markets there, Arizona Diamondbacks, the Giants, Giants got money. All of those
teams are in better spots than the Cardinals are right now. And I'm guessing would be willing to
pay more to seal the deal because they've got playoff aspirations where the Cardinals are trying to
find somebody to fit a role and aren't necessarily looking to go all in on some guy to try to
reach the playoffs this year. So I wanted them to go after Bader last year before he signed with
Minnesota. I thought it would have made since then. You never say never. But if Bader isn't the guy,
and I just don't feel like that's going to happen.
As much as it would be cool, I just don't feel like it's going to happen.
But if he's not the guy, another name I've brought up repeatedly has resurfaced.
And now we're hearing that the Cardinals are linked with him as a team that is showing interest.
So we're going to talk about him.
We're actually going to talk about two guys.
But one of them specifically, you've heard me talk about on this show before,
but we'll get into it next on Lockdown Cardinals.
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All right.
So let's say Bader's out of the picture.
He's too expensive.
Somebody else pays for him.
And he doesn't become a cardinal again,
all right, which is what I think is the more likely scenario.
If he's not the guy, there are a few other guys out there that still fit that
right-handed hitting outfielder role as well.
You've got another former Cardinal, Randall Gritchick.
I got another guy that I talked about last year.
who can also play center field, which, again, is a big bonus because we don't have a lot of those guys just floating around.
They can fill in for center field.
Same goes for Chas McCormick, another guy.
They can play center field, but neither of those two are the offensive guy that, you know, Bader was last year.
And as much as I value defense and as much as we love it in St. Louis, I need a dude that can drive in some runs, man.
And I do not want just some defensive guy.
And that's all he is.
You know, I don't need a newer version of Garrett Hampton in 2026.
And I understood the appeal of Hampson.
It's not, I'm not knocking him because the guy fit a very particular role.
You know, he was able to give you outfield.
He could also play infield.
He has good wheels, heck of a runner.
But the guy couldn't hit, couldn't get on base.
I got no time for that anymore.
I don't want to see that in a lineup anymore.
You're no good to me.
Great.
You can come in in the eighth and ninth innings as a defensive replacement.
Cool.
What else can you do?
I need more.
And I'm not settling.
And I think Garrett Hampson, I think he signed with the Reds actually on a minor league deal.
So we don't have to worry about that.
But I want to hit her, man.
We need some offense.
We need something.
We need a slugger in this lineup.
And you're not going to go buy one of the big dudes.
you're not going to go find Cody Bellinger and pay for those guys.
So you got to be a little more sneaky, a little more choosy about,
all right, who else can we look at that might be a good fit for what we're doing right now.
I'm definitely willing to sacrifice on the defense and the ability to play center field
if I can get myself a solid, capable hitter.
If the guy can swing it, bring it.
That's me right now.
So that takes me to not one, but two, former Cincinnati.
Reds players. And the first one we're going to talk about here is Austin Hayes. Now, Austin Hayes will be
31 years old. 31 years old this summer, I think July is when his birthday is. 266, 15 home run,
64 ribbyes, OPS plus of 105 last season in Cincinnati, which we know. The home park is
nicknamed Great American Small Park for a reason. But he did all that with less than 400
to bats hit 319 against lefties and 91 official at bats two home runs 17 ribbies dealt with
quite a few injuries last year which is why the abats were so low it wasn't because he wasn't productive
they just couldn't keep him on the field last year he had a calf strain he dealt with a hamstring issue
he had a foot contusion when he fouled the ball off his foot he had back spasm so there was a lot of little
things popping up on him last year which obviously cut his playing time but when he did play
The guy hit. Now, he's not much of a defender.
And the market value on Spot Track reflects that and has him at only $5.1 million,
which is significantly less than what it would cost to bring in Harrison Thater,
who did a little bit of everything last year.
Obviously, he's good defensively, also hit really well last year.
So that's why he's more expensive and why somebody like Austin Hayes is half the cost.
but the guy I'm really interested in,
and you've heard me bring him up before if you are in every dare,
and his name is Miguel Anduhaar.
And what's great about this is when I, you know,
I brought him up and, you know, not everybody was in on Andrew Har.
They're just kind of like, oh, you know, but now we're hearing reports
that, you know, people are starting to think like me now.
And a number of teams are starting to show interest in Miguel Andueharr.
according to John Heyman, who says that Andrew Har off the big 2025 season where he hit 318 with an 822 OPS is drawing significant interest with the Rangers, Padres, Cardinals, Reds, Cubs, and A's among many in play.
Now, Andrew Har is going to be 31 in March, has seen time with a few teams since coming up with the Yankees back in 2018, hit 27 home runs and had 92 RBIs.
Finish second in the rookie of the year voting to some guy named Notani.
I don't know whatever happened to that guy, but Andrew Hart has not come even close to those numbers since.
He went to Pittsburgh in 2022.
He went to Oakland in 2024.
And then last year, he got traded to Cincinnati, but last year was his best season since that 2018 campaign when he just went crazy.
Last year, he hits the 318, combined 318.
He had 10 home runs and 44 RBIs and 34-RBIs and 341 plate appearance.
hit 359 after the trade to the Reds in 34 games with an OPS plus of 153.
And against Lefties last year, he hit 389 with four home runs and 11 ribbies and 90
at bats and he's a career 297 hitter against lefties with an OBP of 332.
He's a guy that's up there hacking.
He does not walk much at all, but the strikeouts aren't that bad, 15.5% strikeout rate
in his career.
he's nothing special defensively.
I'm not going to try to talk you into that he is,
but what he can do is play both corner outfield spots
and both corner infield positions as well.
And that's going to make life a little easier
for manager Ali Marmal with getting Nolan Gorman,
who has the tendency to go into very long slumps,
you know, very streaky guy.
You get a chance to get him out of the lineup when lefties are in there.
and, you know, just when he goes ice cold, which he always does.
Alec Burleson, who's going to be playing everyday first baseman this year.
We'll get him a chance to get off his feet and not play first base and maybe just
deage or get a day off because now you got somebody who can play first base.
You don't really have somebody who's done that all that often at the major league level
on this roster right now.
He can help out with Newt and Walker in the outfield when they need time off.
He can obviously be a DH as well.
Spot Track has his market value at $6.1 million, which I don't think is unreasonable.
So who is it going to be?
I give you three options right there.
Of those three, you got Harrison Bader, Darth Bader, Austin Hayes, Miguel Anduhar.
Which one do you like the most?
The fan side of me would love to see Bader back in a Cartnell uniform.
of course we would love to see Harrison Bader back in a Cardinal uniform.
But economically, and the fact that he can play infield as well,
makes me lean towards Miguel Anduhar.
But if you lose both and somebody signs both of those guys and they go away
and you had to fall back to Austin Hayes,
I don't think I would hate that either.
I respect his bat a lot.
I think he's a good hitter.
But let me know.
What do you guys think?
You get to play GM.
Let me know in the comments section below.
with all things considered. Price,
what a contract is going to look like for these guys,
where Harrison probably needs a multi-year deal.
The other two, maybe you can get by with just one and maybe an option.
Where they can play, what they can do.
They're right around the same age, all of them.
So who do you think the Cardinals ultimately roll with?
Do it this.
Who do you want?
And then who do you think the Cardinals take?
Do they get any of them?
You think they just rely on people who are inside the org already.
So hit me up down below.
Let me know.
We're going to talk some winter warm up next on Locked on Cardinals.
Thank you again for making Locked on Cardinals, your first listen of the day.
And thank you for making Lockton on the number one sports podcast and network.
It was another cold and frigid winter warmup.
What was the last time we had one where it wasn't just like frozen cold out?
Man, it was frosty on the outside.
but I'll tell you what, there was a different tone to this year's warmup.
It just wasn't the same old, and this is how I felt.
And if you feel differently, let me know in the comments below.
But it wasn't the same old like, you know, we're hoping to compete.
You get into the playoffs, anything can happen.
It wasn't that nonsense that we were hearing this weekend.
There was a tonal change where the players, coaches, management, ownership,
They all seem to be doing their best to convey that, yes, we know that this team is not where we want them to be.
And they've got a lot of work to do.
And they brought that up.
We're tirelessly working behind the scenes.
We wish you guys, you know, had cameras to come back and watch us every day how hard these guys are working to get this franchise back to where it needs to be.
Back to the top where they're popping corks again, right?
That was the phrase that Heim said.
But they were also very quick to point out that, you know, this isn't some tear down where we are just nukeing the whole season and don't care.
This isn't some group of just has-beens and wash-ups and never-will-bees that have been collected to just get us through the season so that we can focus on 2027 after hopefully the CBA is signed.
everybody's really starting to get nervous about that and I don't blame you.
But so that, you know, it's not like some of these other organizations have or had become when going through similar situations where they just kind of need to reboot things and reorganize things.
And it's time to get away from veterans and start to build your own stuff at, you know, at home.
They all seemed genuinely excited for this group of young players.
And, you know, they've assembled a nice crop of people.
And of course, you can take, you know, their enthusiasm for everything as a selling ploy to get fans back in the ballpark, which it is.
It partially is.
You know, I'm not so naive that I don't see that and recognize that.
And of course, they're not going to be like, well, we're not going to be very good.
So I wouldn't come down if I was you.
They're not going to say that.
But there are things about this club that.
I'm very excited to see.
You know, I'm excited to see what these young guys can do together,
how they're going to grow together as a team, as, you know,
as I say in Hoosiers, one single unit.
Like all of these guys are going to be growing into this together,
which is kind of cool.
The pitching staff, you've got Libby, Leahy, Dobbins, Fitz, McGreevy,
guys like Matthews, Mottes, Henderson, Doyle, and others behind them.
guys that were coming back from injuries and whatnot.
You know, they went out and signed Dustin May, and that's great.
It's probably going to be a one and done in St. Louis.
But the rest of that group right there, they got them locked up.
They're going to be here a while.
The bullpen has certainly got some things to figure out.
One of those things is whether or not Jojo Romero is actually going to be here in
26, but you've got Jojo, like right now.
You've got him.
It's Fonson and Riley O'Brien.
Ryan who was able to stay healthy last year and you saw what he could do.
Ryan Stanick, they ended up signing him.
I feel like he's got, you know, obviously some bounce back potential after a down cycle with the Mets.
Can Ryan Fernandez recapture what he was in 2024 and forget what he was in 2025?
Because that was awful.
Gordon Grecethel, used to be one of your top arms in the organization.
Can he thrive in a full-time bullpen role?
What does Matt Pushard bring as that Rule 5 guy?
How does Teen Kent fit into the plans these days?
Have we moved on from him starting?
Can he be a part of this ballton?
I don't know.
Can he stay healthy?
I don't know.
But I want to find out.
I'm excited about that.
I can't wait for J.J. Weatherhold.
Obviously, we're all excited to see him come up and see his number 26 in the bright lights at
Bush Stadium at some point playing alongside your gold Glover.
Mason win.
Will Gorman's bat come back to life now that he's.
he's a full-time third baseman back to where he was comfortable coming up and where sluggers
normally play. Will that get him back to being what he was a couple of years ago when the,
cardinals called him up and he was one of their top prospects? Well, Jordan Walker finally live up to
the expectations as a former top five prospect and all of baseball back in 2023. The ability
is still in there. He's a young man. Are they going to be able to get it out of him this year?
Can Victor Scott get on baseball? You heard about the work that he's,
done this offseason and all of the things he's gone into to become a more offensive player.
We know the defense is great. We got no problems with that. He was a goal goal finalist.
He's awesome. But I need you to be able to get on base and hit and use that speed. He's got this
goal of 70 stolen bases this year. You're going to have to get on base a lot if you're going to
steal 70 stolen bases. I think he can do it. I believe in him. We'll see what happens.
Will he be the, you know, the guy at the top?
of the order that gets this offense going each game. That's what they need him to be.
Where does Thomas and Jacey fit in? If Donnie gets moved, can Burley take another step as the full-time
first baseman now that he's got a spot? He's no longer playing different outfield positions
and sometimes at first and sometimes they, no, you are our first baseman. You're the guy.
You're the man. Can he take that and improve on his Silver Slugger season? Can he von Herrera catch?
can he do it?
And if not, where does he go?
Because you've got to have that bat in the lineup because the bat is tremendous.
It's a lot of unknowns, but I think fans, the way I took it from the way people were reacting
in winter warm up, I think fans are excited about what I deem the unknown potential of this
roster.
There's certainly, I can tell you this much, the fans that I spoke with and saw and heard
speak, they are very much impressed with what Heinblum has done so far. And I'm not talking about
just the moves in the front office, because obviously you're going to question like, did we have to
do that? Do we have to? But they're impressed with who Heinblum is, like the personality of Heinblum.
They like his honesty, his fresh outlook on things. I heard multiple fans comment on how much they
enjoy his speaking ability, his ability to communicate better with them as fans than his predecessor did,
which was always a big sticking point
that if you were like,
I don't even know what he's saying.
I don't trust him.
He just sounds like he's sleazy.
I've heard that before in descriptions about Mo,
who I just think when you saw Mo,
this was funny too.
It's like Mo is the guy, you know,
is the suit.
It was a totally different guy than he was.
Like if you heard him doing interviews
with some of the morning show guys on 101 ESPN and stuff,
like totally different dude,
totally different personality.
Same way with Out.
Ali, when he's on there just relaxing with the dudes, you would have loved him.
And I hope more of that personality comes out this year because he's a likable dude.
He really is.
There's a youthful energy that surrounds this team right now.
And there certainly will be times this year where you're going to want to tear your hair out.
You know, they're going to make mistakes both physically and mentally, like simple things will go wrong.
And you're going to be like, oh, my gosh, what are we doing here?
But it's part of the growing pains that they have.
have to fight through as a young team and learn from.
And I tell you this, I'd much rather see these young guys go through it together now
and become a tighter and better group because of this than watch overpaid veterans
who aren't helping you win anyway and have them making the same mistakes and costing you
ball games.
I don't want to see that.
I'd rather watch these kids learn and become better for it.
the fans as bummed as they are,
knowing that, you know,
there's probably not going to be any parades in St. Louis at the end of the season.
They appear to be pleased that at least the organization has chosen a direction.
The org has chosen a direction.
There's this vision and they're following through with that.
They're improving things in all the areas that needed improvement.
They're doing what they can to fix it.
It does take time.
It's not an overnight project.
It's going to be a little bit.
but I'm sure you as well as a fan are hoping that it will just lead to better nights at Bush Stadium.
You know, I hope there's more fans in the stands this year, more families enjoying a night at the
ballpark and watching these young whippersnappers take the field.
Like ultimately winning is what's going to bring the fans back in droves.
That's what it will need to do.
But it feels at least to me like the Cardinals are taking the proper steps to finally make that happen again.
instead of just being content and floating around 500 and trying to sneak into the playoffs,
which is how it felt the last three years where, well, we're not going to do enough to really be
that good.
We're not going to be garbage.
We're just going to, maybe we can get in.
That's over with.
And I'm glad, you know, leave your thoughts and comments on winter warm up down below.
Would love to hear any cool stories you guys had.
Did you get to meet any players or coaches that impressed you?
Did you get anything autographed?
You know, I would love to hear about it.
Biggest takeaways from the weekend while you were at winter warm up,
things that were good, things that were bad.
Will you stay away this season because you still don't like Ollie?
Or you're still mad at ownership for their lack of spending
and what they're doing this year?
Or will you give these kids a chance?
Give them a chance first before making that decision.
Nope, not going, not spending, not doing that.
You have every right to do whatever you want, your money.
I, for one, though, just feel like it's a fresh start, and I'm kind of excited about it.
And I think they're going to be better than people think they are.
But that's me.
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