Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Yadi's Back!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Yaddy or Molina is back. Well, sort of details on what he's doing this weekend at Bush Stadium and info about the new pitcher that the Cardinals claimed on today's episode of 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, Cardinals, I'm Jardell. And I'm your host for Locked on Cardinals, part of the Lockedon Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on X at JD Sports Radio. You can follow the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:00:40 You find us on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram at Locked on Cardinals. This is a show that serves Cardinal Nation and gives the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode being brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app. Create an account. Use the code. It's locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase.

Starting point is 00:01:01 Boys and girls, this is not a drill. Yada to your Molina. is returning to the St. Louis Cardinals. Problem is, it's for one weekend only. So get your tickets now. The future Hall of Famer is not going to be playing, although I bet he could still throw the ball down to second base, as well as any of the catchers we got on the roster.

Starting point is 00:01:20 But he is going to be in uniform this weekend. When the Cardinals take on the arch rival Chicago Cubs who are in town for a three-game series, multiple sources have confirmed this, including St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Derek Gold, saying that Yacht is going to be in the dugout. He's going to be in uniformed. He was invited by manager Ali Marmal to do so.

Starting point is 00:01:39 I'll have the link to Derek's story in the description, but Ali is quoted in that article saying it's the right thing to do for our players, our staff, and for our fan base. I want to have them around. I love the fact that he'll be in the dugout for two days. I think it will be awesome for players and for fans, for all of it, to have them here. And I agree.

Starting point is 00:01:58 We all love Yadi. He loves seeing him. He is in town for an appearance and assigning this weekend. So that's how the timing worked out. Just made more sense for him to be around the club and at the ballpark. Doesn't hurt that the Cubs are in town too. Kind of ironic that that would be the team that's here when this goes down. According to Gold Story, Molina will be in uniform sitting beside Ali Marmal in that dugout,

Starting point is 00:02:22 starting on Friday night and for two games, which we have confirmed will be Saturday as well. If you remember, Mo had that big announcement that he was going to join the organization ahead of that 2024 season. You know, that was coming off the dismal 23 season, but he announced it, then he was at the warm up talking about it. And it was something that fans were really happy to hear. Once again, we love Yadi.

Starting point is 00:02:45 No reason not to have him around. Although I think most people wanted him as the manager. That's the announcement they wanted not just as some kind of special assistant. But family commitments intervened. Nothing came out of it, much to the chagridden of fans who will forever. we're always going to want to see Yadi and Albert and Waino around the team in whatever capacity we can have them. We just adore them. So that's great news.

Starting point is 00:03:10 Yadi back, rocking the birds on the bat again during this series against the Cubs. The other side of this that I want to bring up, at least in my eyes, I think it shows an incredible allegiance to the organization that Ali would want this to happen, not because of any personal issues that he's got with Yadi at all. from everything we know they got along great in 2022. No issues to speak of. But we know that Ali is on the hot seat. We know he's on the hot seat right now, at least in the eyes of the fans.

Starting point is 00:03:43 They think and see Ali and they think average or below average baseball. Ali was managing the club in 2022, which was Yadis last year. And they were very good that year. A lot of that, thanks to Albert Poole, holes going nuclear in the second half of the season, but you had the MVP year by Paul Goldschmidt, an MVP caliber year from Nolan Aronado. Unfortunately, they get upset in that opening round against the Phillies. Some blame Ollie's use of Ryan Helsley in game one for that, for that collapse.

Starting point is 00:04:15 Then Yaddy and Albert retire and the walls came crumbling down as the Cardinals fell to an embarrassing 71 and 91 record despite going out and adding Wilson Contreras to the roster. Remember they had that whole fiasco where he comes in, he's catching, and then they're like, this guy sucks at catching. What are we doing? He doesn't know how to call a game the way we do it. They want to move him to the outfield. That all came out. It was just ridiculousness, right? You had a lot of players who's their production just dipped, you know, Goldianado specifically. Tyler O'Neill, he was constantly hurt, wasn't getting along with Ollie. Jack Flaherty was a disappointment. Miles Michaelis's fade began where he wasn't that bad. And then 2023,

Starting point is 00:04:56 is when things started to really go downhill for him. Adam Wainwright was atrocious. Like his numbers overall were terrible. We find out after the fact that he was pitching injured for most of the year was just trying to get 200 wins, which he finally did. But it was just a bad year. Then in 2024, the team got back to being at least competitive under Ali. They signed Sunny Gray, but then the front office goes cheap and they go get Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn instead of any real impact arms to help the rotation. They finish just over 500 at 8379. And while that was an improvement, the cardal fans aren't here to see 500. That's not what we want.

Starting point is 00:05:37 We want good baseball. We want smart baseball. We want winning baseball. And that's when the attendance number started to fay. When they only got Sunny Gray and didn't do anything else to improve that team after a 71 to 91 record, Cardal fans were like, all right, screw you then. we're done until you prove that you're ready to be serious about this. We're done.

Starting point is 00:06:01 And now the home attendance is, I think last time I checked, it was 19th in home attendance in the league, which has never happened since I've been an adult. The team is at 500 at 58 and 58. And when fans think about the last three years of Cardinal Baseball, they're going to point fingers at ownership, John Moseilock. and Ali Marmal. Fair or not to Ali, that's what's going to happen. Change is coming in the front

Starting point is 00:06:31 office. We know Mo is stepping down at the end of the year. Heinbloom's going to take over. We don't know what his intentions are as far as who's going to manage this team moving forward. Ali's got one more year on his current deal, but that's not going to stop him from firing him if that's something he wants to do. But it also means that he doesn't have to go out and find a new manager right away. he can just hang on to Ali if they feel like that's the best interests of the club. Now, many fans are going to see, you know, Yadi and uniform and in the dugout and go, yeah, we want him as our manager. They basically want three former Cardinals as the next manager.

Starting point is 00:07:09 They want Yadi, Albert, or Skip Schumacher. In a perfect world, you'd go find all of our favorite Cardinals to bring them back. You know, you bring all three of those guys and Chris Carpenter can work with pitchers and holiday with hitters and you got John Jay and Daniel DeScalso, get Willie and Ozzie to come back and Mark McGuire, get a Jose Okendo back into the fold every day. That's what all the fans would love to see, but not going to happen. But in all seriousness, the most qualified guy in this would probably be Skip Schumacher when you think about it, already has an NL Manager of the Year award on his mantle already. Then there's Joddy, I think is the next best one who's

Starting point is 00:07:47 been doing plenty of managing already in winter ball teams. And with team Puerto Rico has been successful with those teams, too. And then you got Albert, who's been dipping his toes into things as well. So to have one of them in Yonty coming in this weekend and standing next to Ali in the dugout, I think it's kind of a ballsy move for Ali. And I commend him for it because he's thinking about the best interests of the fans and the team. And that's cool. I hope it helps them.

Starting point is 00:08:19 I hope it helps them this weekend. I hope they do well against the Cubs. Maybe it'll put a few extra butts in the seats at the ballpark this weekend. I don't know. When the Cardinals were just, what, two and a half games behind the Cubs for first of the division, nobody showed up then either. So it was pretty empty ballpark. So I don't think Yadi being in the dugout is going to make a huge difference.

Starting point is 00:08:40 But you never know. Now, the Cardinals did add another waiver wire pitcher to the fold on Thursday. Dude's got some serious heat, has a great arm. But if it's so good, why is he even available? Well, we'll tell you why. That's coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. We've all been there before, logging on early, waiting forever for your concert tickets to go on sale, and then something happens. You get booted and you lose your spot for the show that you've been dying to see, and that's not fun. And live music should be about making memories, not dealing with the stress of fire your tickets and that's where game time can come in and hook you up. Game time makes getting

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Starting point is 00:10:03 guesswork out of buying your concert and show tickets with game time. Download the game time app, create an account, use code locked on MLB for $20 off. Your first purchase, terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem the code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-M-L-L-B for $20 off. It'll work for tickets this week and against the Cubs as well. So download the game time app today. Last minute, tickets lowest price, guaranteed. Thanks again for making a lot on Cardinals your first list every day. Leave your comments on YouTube as well as on X or TikTok anytime you want. Feedback always welcome and encourage. A lot of people pretty happy looking at the shorts that I put out earlier today on YouTube and on TikTok about Yadi being in the dugout this week.

Starting point is 00:10:45 And so it's good to see some positivity going online about the Cardinals because there hasn't been a whole lot of there recently. You know, after trading away Ryan Halsley and Phil Mayton and Stephen Matt's at the deadline, the Cardinals were left with three of their, without three of their top arms of the bullpen, like they were gone. And we're all well aware of the lack of pitching depth in this organization, thanks to not being able to develop pitching talent as well as injury. So we knew the team, they were going to be scrambling a bit to find guys to replace those three, not only on the active roster, but you also got to think about the 40-man roster as well.

Starting point is 00:11:23 And those spots that have opened up. So the Cardinals, to fill those roles, they promoted Rotary Munoz, Ryan Fernandez, and Andre Grinio. But that still left some holes on the 40-man roster. Those guys were already on the 40-man. They ended up claiming a left-hander Anthony Veneziano from the Marlins on Monday, but the Dodgers claimed Luke and Baker.

Starting point is 00:11:44 So they essentially just swapped out the 40-man spot there. So that left them with still just 37. So three spots still open. So with that room, they made another wire claim snagging 30-year-old right-hander Jorge Alcala from the Boston Red Sox. Now I know you're thinking, oh, 30 years old. What's wrong with this dude? He sucks, doesn't he?

Starting point is 00:12:09 I'm not going to say that. At this point of the season, remember the Cardinals are looking for guys with some sort of upside. Alcala has certainly got some attributes that make you go, okay, there's something there. The first thing that you want to know about him is that he's got serious smoke in that right shoulder. Top 25 prospect for the twins back in 2020. So I went back, go to his scouting report,

Starting point is 00:12:39 at a 65 grade on his fastball. Again, the grading scale when it comes to the MLB pipeline, 2080 grade scale, 80 the best, 20 to the worst, 20 the worst. He got a 65. An elite guys like Mason Miller, who throws 104, right, for the Padres now. He got a 70 grade. So 65 is pretty freaking good. The slider was a 55. Then it falls off. It goes to the 45 for the curve and the change control. Overall grade, they gave him a 40. Now, the report said this about him. There's no question about Alcala's arm strength, six foot three right-hander. He can bring it. Fastball that now regularly sits.

Starting point is 00:13:16 in the 95, 98 miles per hour range with good life to it. His slider has become his go-to out pitch, and it can be nasty at times. Sometimes it runs into his curve. Sometimes they are to sting pitches. But the slider is much better than the curve at this point. He does have a change up that he might not need as much coming out of the bullpen. And when I hear a fastball slider guy, as a Cardinal fan, I think Ryan Halsley. That's immediately who I think of because that's kind of what he went to.

Starting point is 00:13:42 He basically ditched that 12-6 curve ball as nasty as I thought it was. And he basically was slider fastball. That's all he really went with. The twins got him. Originally he was with the Astros. And the twins got him in a trade that had Ryan Presley involved. And he'd been with Minnesota since 2019, never started. It was always a bullpen guy for them at a couple decent years.

Starting point is 00:14:07 But the command issues were consistently there for him throughout his tenure with them. Last year, he was four and three with a 3.24 ear. and 54 games strikeout per 9 at 8.9, 58 punchies and 58 in the third innings, but he also had 20 walks. But the ERA plus was 130, and that's something that you will take for sure. Like, that's good. This year was very rough with the twins. 22 games, ERA of 8.88.

Starting point is 00:14:36 The strikeouts per nine, actually up at 10.4, but so were the walks. At 15 of those and 24 at a third innings, and he was getting hammered. Opponents were hitting 302 against him. He gave up 29 hits, five home runs, and 25 runs in those 22 appearances. So he was awful. He was not very good. Red Sox trade for him. They swapped minor leaguers.

Starting point is 00:14:56 And that happened back on June 11th. And he's been better with Boston, 19 games, 16 and a third inning, 3.31 ERA, 18th strikeouts, still eight walks. He gave him four home runs. Opponents were 288 against him, which is better, but not that much better. And when he's faced the Cardinals in his career, he has pitched in 14. games and the cards of let them up too. Five runs on five hits with a home run in three and two-thirds innings, the area at 12.27. So it doesn't sound like there's a lot to be excited about when it comes to Jorge Alcala. Scott Plaza from RedbirdRance.com pointed out some things in his recent article

Starting point is 00:15:36 that he put up about it saying fastball good walks bad, basically what I'm telling you right now, says the intrigue with Alcala comes from a high-powered fastball at an above. average slider that he was able to use effectively for a great 2024 campaign. Last season, the reliever had a 3.24 ERA, 24.7% strikeout rate against an improved 8.5% walk rate. Fastball currently averages 97.2, which is down slightly from last season, but still near the top of the league in velocity. Interestingly, Alcala's slider has been his most effective pitch in 24 when he threw it to 39% of the time with a 32.6. percent with rate. Again, sounds a lot like Ryan Housley to me. This year, though, Alcala has added a

Starting point is 00:16:21 curveball that has become his go-to secondary pitch, but the results with that pitch have not been great. He has thrown it more often than his slider, even though each of the pitches is at or below league average in terms of effectiveness. Again, a move like this is about fighting a dude with upside. All right? This is not our savior with the Cardinals. This is not your new closer. This is a dude that they want to be able to put into the bullpen and help out with getting through the rest of the season and seeing if they can get anything out of them. You know, the V-Lo will always be intriguing.

Starting point is 00:16:55 And maybe their scouts have spotted something that they can adjust and help him improve. Don't hold your breath by any means. But you know what? It's a shot in the dark. And if it doesn't work out, so what? So what? But if he can become useful and you can use him and make him effective

Starting point is 00:17:12 and have him be somebody you can count on moving forward this year. Maybe you keep him around into next year. It adds a fireballer, that's for sure, into the mix, which is something the Cardinals really don't have a whole lot of right now. A couple guys who can get it up in the upper 90s, but not a whole lot in the organization that's got that. So we'll see. We'll see what ends up taking place.

Starting point is 00:17:36 And I still have not seen a transaction as to whether or not he is back. like if he's up with the Cardinals yet or not, you know, there was some discussion about, you know, maybe one of these other minor leaguers might, or not I shouldn't say minor leaguers, but one of these other guys might get sent down instead, you know, like a Ryan Fernandez or an Andre Grenio or somebody, but I haven't seen anything like that yet.

Starting point is 00:17:59 So we'll wait and see it. We'll wait and see. Last night, big game by Cardinals top pitching prospect, Quinn Matthews. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about tonight's matchup. They're not going to be an easy one with the, goves in town. That's coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. This episode is brought to you by

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Starting point is 00:20:16 So after winning the minor league pitcher of the year awarded 2020, We had some high expectations for left-hander Quinn Matthews. You know, he moved up through the organization really, really fast last year and got to AAA. Kind of burned out at the end there. Didn't have as much success with the Memphis team as you had hoped, but it was at the end of the year. Fatigue might have been a thing. And then this year, due to some shoulder injuries, it just hasn't lived up to the lofty expectations that one has. when you hear, hey, this was the minor league pitcher of the year.

Starting point is 00:20:52 They had all of the minor leagues. It wasn't the just cardinal pitcher. All of them. And he just hasn't lived up to those expectations. And again, most of that has been due to, we think, the injuries that bit him early on this season. Thankfully, they weren't like such a severe injury that he had to go under the knife at all. There was no surgery involved. So it wasn't the dreaded Tommy John, which has picked off three of the team.

Starting point is 00:21:19 team's top prospects, Toccoa Robi, Sim Robesa, and Cooper Jerpy. You know, Ticoa was a guy that I was very excited. He was having a good year, and I was hoping to see him in the final six weeks of the season. And now we may not see him again until 2027. That sucks. But it did take a bit before we started seeing Quinn Matthews looking like himself, or at least more like last year's version of himself, which had everybody so excited about him. Last night, outstanding game.

Starting point is 00:21:49 against the Durham Bulls minus Crash Davis and Nucle Lusch. They were not a lineup. If you're a Bull Durham fan, you know what I'm talking about. But Matthews allowed just two hits, had nine strikeouts and seven scoreless innings. Of his 86 pitches, 21 swings and misses. The change up was on point last night. Dudes were looking foolish. I was watching this game.

Starting point is 00:22:09 They looked like they'd never see the change up in their life. And that's good because that means that thing was dancing a little bit and really had everybody off. He did not factor in the decision, unfortunately. Memphis didn't have the lead while he was in, but they go on to win the game three to one thanks to another prospect, catcher Jimmy Crooks to run double late in the game. But it's another solid start for Matthews, who now has a 2.35 ERA in his last seven starts.

Starting point is 00:22:33 He's dealt with a lot of control issues this year. And again, this could be injury related or maybe just having an off year. Four starts in July, he had 15 walks and 16 in the third innings. And this has been normal for him this year. It's been, the walks have been wild. He also had 22 strikeouts in those games. So, you know, the wildness maybe helped him a little bit. But you don't like to see that.

Starting point is 00:23:00 And in his first two games here in August, he's been much better. On the first of August, he went six and two thirds, two runs, five hits. The two runs came in on solo home runs. He walked one. He did hit two guys. But he struck out nine. Now, I don't know if he hit those guys in the back or he just great. raised, you know, an elbow pad or whatever.

Starting point is 00:23:20 But he did hit two guys plus a walk. But struck out nine. Then last night, as I mentioned, seven innings, no runs, two hits, one walk, one hit by pitch, nine strikeouts again. You know, perhaps he's just getting a better feel for things. Maybe he's feeling healthier. But either way, it's positive progress. And if things remain the way they are and he continues to be that kind of pitcher over

Starting point is 00:23:42 the next few weeks, maybe we do see him in September with the Cardinals. Maybe he does get a starter too, just to kind of get a feel for things to see what it's like to be in the big leagues. I wouldn't hate that because we know that the Cardinals rotation next year has got a lot of holes. There's some holes there, man. And we don't know exactly who's going to be filling them. Somebody's got to. And if Quinn Matthews is ready and pitches well in the spring and continues to be good this year and stays healthy, I don't see why it couldn't be him next year at the back of this rotation.

Starting point is 00:24:14 So, but just some good news about Quinn Matthews. I wanted to share that with you. Cards and Cubs tonight, tough matchup. A damn Matthew Boyd, it's going to be back on the mound. This will be the third time the Cardinals have had to face this dude so far this year. He's coming off seven shutout innings against the Orioles. Had one hiccup recently against the Brewers who bug everybody. But other than them, he gave him five runs against them.

Starting point is 00:24:39 Other than them, he's just been dominant over his last 11 starts. He's got a 1.69 ERA. Cubs, oddly, six and five in those games. Again, Cardinals have already faced him twice, and it sucked. It was not a good time. It was no picnic. Hasn't a lot of running against the Cardinals this year in 11 innings. He has given up just six hits and has struck out 12. He has owned the Cardinals. One game in Wrigley, one game at Bush Stadium. Will the power of Yadde or Molina, will the momentum of what they just did against the Dodgers carry over into this weekend against the Cubs. My buddy Chuck over at Locked on Brewers said he sees a lot of cracks of the foundation for

Starting point is 00:25:21 the Cubbies right now. They're not hitting the home runs. Tucker's been off. PCA has had a horrible August so far. He thinks the Cardinals can win two of three. He thinks it can happen. I hope so. I think that would be great, but it ain't going to be easy tonight with Matthew Boyd on

Starting point is 00:25:38 the mound. They're going to get Shota and Managa in this series as well. for Sunday night baseball. So two very good left handers against the team who does not hit left handers very well. Awesome. But who saw them winning two out of three against the Dodgers? Not me. Not this guy.

Starting point is 00:25:53 And it still happens. But it could be a long night for the offense tonight. So just prepare yourself. Thanks for making Locktown Cardinals. First listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L.O underscore Cardinals at a JD Sports Radio, TikTok, Instagram, at Lockdown Cardinals. And of course, on YouTube as well.

Starting point is 00:26:08 You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. Yadi is back. Enjoy it. This has been locked on gardens.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Yadi's Back!

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