Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Young St. Louis Cardinals CRUMBLE Under Pressure | Rafael Devers Trade Impact

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

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It was a week to forget as the Cardinals lose six of seven games in three or four in Milwaukee with the inning of the game on Sunday, being about as disappointing as you can get. 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. I'm J.D. Hafer and I'm your host for Lockdown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. Follow me on X at Janie Sports Radio as well as the podcast at L1 underscore Cardinals. We're on YouTube. Make sure you like, subscribe, and comment. Hit that notification button so you don't miss out on any of the new things that we drop. Also available on TikTok and Instagram,

a locked on Cardinals. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans of baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. The St. Louis Cardinals are in a really bad spot right now. This is not news. This is a continuation, if you will, of things that have transpired basically since they left the Texas Rangers. You know, they lost two of three, got smacked around for 19 runs in three games, had a shutout in the

middle of there. So it looks better than it actually was. The Cardinals at that time, 32 and 25 when they headed down to Texas. Since then, they are 5 and 10 and have slipped to 37 and 35 on the season. Now there have been a couple of one run ball games. And, there they won a couple six to five against the royals two to one over the dodgers but they also lost five to four and ten the end of the blue jays and then twice lost three to two to the brewers this weekend to give you a two and four record in one run ball game so on one hand you can say look this is how close we were to winning all six games but a loss is a loss right you don't want to hear that and the cardinals are looking more and more like the team that the people thought they were going

to be when the season began. And not so much like the team that surprised everyone by playing so well in the month of May. And one of the big reasons the team had played well and was doing much better this season was the development and production that they were getting from some of their younger players, Victor Scott, Jordan Walker, Mason Winn, Yvonne Herrera, Matthew Liberator, Kyle Leahy. All of these guys were key factors in getting the Cardinals within one game of the Cubs. in the division not that long ago. Like it wasn't like, oh, you know, at the end of April we were there.

No, a couple of weeks ago. They were right there. They were hunting down the Cubs. Cubs guys were texting me like, dude, what's going on with you guys? You guys won't go away. Teams in the division like, man, you guys are way better than we thought. And now on June 16th, it's as if none of that even happened. The season continues to roll on.

and some of these key young players have been regressing recently. And the way the game ended on Sunday was like a snapshot of how things have gotten for some of the younger guys. You know, let's go back to it. Cardinals are down three to two in the ninth inning. Nolan Arnada leads off with that incredible 12-fitchet bat, which was awesome and wins the battle over Brewer's Closer, Trevor McGill with a single. Nolan Gorman shocks the world with a bun single, friggin brilliant. Love that.

So now you're set up with first and second. You got nobody out with a team that when it was playing well, gets the small things done. They move guys over. They get the sack flies. And at the very least, you know, you think in this particular situation, I mean, you're set up pretty nicely.

But at the very least, you're going to get that tying run in. All right. You're going to at least get to the bottom of the night. And you got three of your younger guys coming up, guys that you believe in, guys that are supposed to lead you into the future for this Cardinals franchise. These guys are stepping up to the plate and they're going to try and get it done. Technically, you had four of them because Gorman, but he had already succeeded. So he's already done his job.

Now you need one of these next three guys to get something done. And your first guy is Jordan Walker, and we're not here to bash Jordan Walker. That's not what I'm doing. He's coming back from the injury, so it's going to take some time for him to get back into the groove, I'm sure. But apparently has no idea how to bun because they don't even try it. They don't even try it to do it here. He's swinging away first pitch at a knuckle curve, mind you. And I get it that you want this guy who's supposed to be a slugger.

I mean, we're not having usually power bats and they're not usually bunting, right? And you want him to get a chance to do what the big hitters do, you know, swing away, get a big knock. But given the situation and the fact that I just saw Nolan Gorman lay a bunt down successfully to not even make an attempt to lay down the bunt and move them over, that sucked for me. I was not a fan of that whatsoever. I don't know if Jordan Walker can bun. I don't know.

I don't know if I've ever seen him do it, to be honest with you. There's not like a memory of him laying down a bun at any point in his life that I've seen. But at the same time, to not even try it. I mean, we're not talking about, you know, I get it. You want him to be a slugger, but he hasn't been that guy yet. So why not? Give it a chance. At least make him think about it.

But that never happened. So Jordan whiffs at back-to-back knuckle curves to start the count and then watches a 99-mile-per-hour fastball go right by him for strike three. It was looking knuckle curve, got the heat, got the train, got the gas, and just a horrible event. Nothing accomplished, overmatched in every way. I even got a text from Chuck from locked on brewers during that at bat. The exact words were Walker is a waste of a roster spot right now. And I was like, that's a very nice chuck. And he's like, well, he just should be better by now.

And I think we can all agree. He should be better by now. We want him to be better by now. And it hasn't happened. For whatever reason, he has hit a wall in his progression. Again, at this point in the season, coming back from an injury. And he was hitting better before the wrist inflammation started. But he's not where we thought he was going to be.

Your next batter is Victor Scott mired in a massive slump. last 69 plate appearances hitting 153 with 24 strikeouts, although we did have a couple hits in the series, three RBI, so hopefully he's starting to come out of it a little bit. Takes two strikes. Second one was off the plate. It was not a strike,

but it was called the strike anyways. Can't wait for the ABS next year. And then you get that Heavenson wild pitch that moves the runners to second and third. And now you're in business with one out, second and third, one out. now of a deep fly ball because it was well as new bar pinch running for arnado so he's got a little more speed obviously but um but now it's a fly ball this game's tied you know um but he gets blown away

by 101 up and away in the zone was in the zone i went back and looked at it hell of a pitch by mcgill to be honest but now there's two outs okay i mean he painted that corner there so uh two outs Next up is Mason win, your future All-Star shortstop. One of the faces of this franchise, surely he can rise to the occasion, right? He guesses fastball the entire bat, strikes out with one of the worst half-hearted swings you'll ever see to end the game and in the series. Cardinals lose three to two. Not Walker, Scott, or win could even put the ball in play. Disappointing to say the least.

Now let's not blow things completely out of proportion. I mean, we can get all worked up about this, but this is not the end of the world. The season is not over, but it's part of the growing page that the Cardinals signed up for this season, and we as fans are on that ride with that. And, you know, these guys, these young men are going to get a chance to step up and come through. And they have a lot already this season.

We've seen it happen plenty of times. but it didn't happen here. And it was pretty darn deflating for them to go down three straight strikeouts to end the game. When you were in a situation there to take another, at least tie it up and make the brewers beat you in the bottom of the ninth. But it didn't happen. Didn't happen. Very deflating.

I want to talk more about the series. And plus we'll look at the power rankings. And then we've also got to look at the Raphael Devers trade. I want to discuss that a little bit. But power rankings coming up. How far will the Cardinals fall this week after going one and six? Losing seven of their last date. Stick around.

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Always welcome and encourage. Keep them coming. I do have some positives. There are some positives from the Brewer series because if there's anything about it, my everydayers know this, we don't want to sit here and just bash on the Cardinals. Just because things don't go our way,

we don't want to turn into one of those shows and people that just, all it is is negativity and just ride on that, no matter what other people said. Like, I believe that there are two sides to all of these things. So there are some positives in this Brewer series, despite losing three or four. Miles Michaelis. Let's go back to Sunday. Miles Michaelis was really good on Sunday.

Another quality start, six innings, two runs, the home run by Yelich, who always seems to do that against the Cardinals. Seven strikeouts, though, can't blame him for how things went down on Sunday. He gets sadded with that tough luck loss and the false support for on the season. Eric Fetty, nothing special on Friday night, but he kept the Cardinals in it. They had a chance to win because of it. He was solid.

I'll say solid. Did not make it through six innings, but got five into third, three runs, just four hits, five strikeouts. The big positive about an Eric Fetty start is only one walk. Walks have been his biggest enemy so far this season. So to see him succeed a bit there and only give up one walk, you like that. The Wilson Contreras turning heel on Saturday was certainly a lot of fun to watch. Team obviously responded to it and won the game. they were looking for a spark, some sort of spark.

I talked about this on X, like I had put out a tweet about it. It was like, I was like, they just need something to fire them up. And for whatever reason, that morning, there was an account that had posted angry Yaddi or Molina moments. And I was like, this is something that Cardinals need. Now I'm not talking about like to do it the way Yaddy did, but I'm just say, they had some aggression. And it looked like Ali was trying to get tossed early on in that game.

He was not pleased with the strike zone at first. But hopefully it don't. He wasn't going to fall for it. He was like, no, I'm not throwing you out. I'm not going to. You can sit here and bark all you want, but you're not getting tossed. And so somebody else had to step up. And that person was villain Willie, as we call him, had to come out and rustle some feathers a little bit.

You know, the tripping of the player at first base, although I don't believe it to be intentional, it served a purpose because it got Reese Hoskins and the Brewers to start chirping it. Wilson got them to react and that ended up motivating Willie. It clearly, you know, was something he was thinking about. Now, whether or not you like the fact that he stared into the Brewers dug out after hitting the home run, there was a time that I would have been like, come on, man, you got to be better than that. But I'm not that dude anymore, you know, I would have hated it back in the day,

but I'm embracing the theatrics of it all. any of the stuff that's going on with baseball anymore, you know, the bat flips, the swagger that some of these guys have. I'm kind of fine with it now. There needs to be an entertainment value to it all. You don't have to just put your head down and run around the bases. No, why not have a little fun with the bench? He was just yelling at you. Why not?

And then to have his brother hit a home run and, you know, do the sleut track around the bases. I laughed about it. I was like, all right, all right, little brother doing his thing. You know, I'm just, I'm okay with it, especially when you back it up, right? When you hit a home run like that after Wilson's getting chirped at by those guys and to hit the dinger, one of those that, you know, an insurance run at the time, that was nice, you know, was really hoping to see him have another big moment on Sunday, especially that eighth inning with the runner on second, two down, chance to tie the game up.

But he went down swinging instead, which really got the Brewers fans going. But I think it's fun that way. You know, I mean, how many guys do we do the Cardals boo when they come to the plane in St. Louis anymore? You know, it used to be a long time. There were some guys on the other team that you don't like them. Brewers fans don't have to like Wilson Contreras now. And I'm okay with it.

I think it's fun. Noah Gorman, three walks and four hits in the series. Hey, hey, Storm and Norman. I always say it that way. Storm and Gorman. I don't know why I say it Norman all the time. But anyway, big three run bomb. Obviously, that was a monster hit for them,

propelled them to victory on Saturday. So far in June, batting 3-44 with three home runs and eight RBIs and 37 plate appearances. Yes, please. Yes, please. We will take more of that. Thank you. Nolan Aronado had a hit in all four games.

It's got a modest six-game hitting street going right now where he's batting 3-48. The bullpen was very good. Just two runs, I believe. My mask is correct, because I kept going back and more than my mind. Is it two, is a three? I believe it's just two runs and four games is what I'm seeing. King gave up one on Sunday.

This one suck, too, because it proved to be the game winner, and it was on a weak-ass tapper. Like, just lame. I don't know where I can find the stand for. Maybe somebody else can point it out to me, but who has got the most, like, infield hits against so far this year? Because I swear to God, the Cardinals give up two or three of them every game. they don't get a swing and miss instead they get a little

tapper or a bleeder down the line and that person ends up getting on base and it is infuriating. But it's hard to get mad at John King for that. Makes a good pitch, gets weak contact and it still scores a run. Just sucks. And then Helsley gives up the home run to Contreras in the ninth on Saturday, which in the grand scheme of things did not mean much, but it's just yet another appearance where Helsley gives up a run

and now it's four games in a row that he's got the exact same line where it's one run on two hits. Two of those eight hits in those four games are now home runs. One of them ties the game. One of them is the contraris in that one on the other side of things. Because again, we're not going to stay negative. We are going to keep spinning out some positive things on this. The other side, he's only walked one person, and that was an intention to walk. And he's also struck out seven guys.

but it's crazy. Like that as good as he was last year, that he cannot get through an inning clean. He just can't do it. And he's giving up runs in four straight now. And that is not good if you're a closer. Lars Dupar struggles. Donnie being out the toe issue obviously caused some problems

with the offense for this particular series. You know, watching nude has been very, very painful. I mean, he looks like a shell of the game. guy that we had at the beginning of the season. I'm assuming he's healthy. I haven't heard anything that has said that he's not. But Ali is just, you know, I'm just giving him a couple days off. I only had to wave the white flag and say, all right, they're taking you out, dude. Clearly something is wrong here. There's something broken inside you and we got to get things worked out because the strikeouts that is not the way Newt normally is, not taking walks, swinging

wildly at crap. Maybe he needs to get his eyes checked. Like, I know that's a lot. I know that's funny, but maybe it's true. Maybe there's something going on because it is, he is night and day different to what he was at the beginning of the year when the Cardinals were rolling. You know, but hopefully getting a couple days off, just checking out a little bit. Maybe that'll help him. You know, losing your leadoff guy and your number three guy, it's going to cripple most offenses. So let alone one as thin as the Cardinals who don't have much at all on the bench to fill those roles. So just an ugly spot for the team right now. You know, Walker has been out. Scott's been struggling. So it's been a tough spot to lose those two guys in this particular moment of the season where,

you know, a lot of games and a lot of days. And it's just kind of piling on. It looks like a tired St. Louis Cardinals baseball team right now. So this day off on Monday, hopefully refreshing. Power rankings. Obviously with the Cardinals not being as well. good recently. You're starting to see them dip. Remember, they were in the in the top 10 for a while. And they've fallen from number 10 to number 13 this week. The write up on what's going on with them says that the Cardinals were riding high after winning two of three against the Dodgers last weekend in front of their biggest crowds of the season. But all those good feelings went coblewey this week in which they went one and six against the blue jays and Brewers.

A big part of the problem, they point out the dreadful slump that Lars Neupar is going through, look like an all-star for a good part of the season. Now O'Fers' last 24 has taken the last two days off to get his mind right. The would-be-on-based spark plug is a 240 OBP and a 226 slugging over his last 24 games. Yeah, it's been bad. And I've said this all season.

This team goes as Lars Dupark goes. You know, he's going to have a couple of days here and there where he wasn't getting on base, and you would see that other guys would have to step up. But in the grand scheme of things, If he's not on base and is not causing problems at the top of the order, it's an issue. It's going to be an issue. And then when you had Donovan out because of the toe and he's been struggling, probably because of that toe as well, it's a major issue.

Because now you're missing two of your top three hitters. And you're seeing it with what's going on with the offense. Teams will go through slumps, no matter how much you spend, no matter what your payroll is. Again, the Phillies just had lost nine of ten recently, one of the most expensive teams in the league. It happens no matter how good you're supposed to be, slumps will happen. What you can't do is look at this stretch like the kiss of death. You don't want to look at it. This hasn't derailed the whole season and now they're just a piece of crap team.

That's not true. But it might make you reevaluate what your chances are as far as making it to the playoffs and well, your mindset will be in a month and a half when the trade deadline rolls around. Huge trade on Sunday. The Red Sox and Giants made this major deal, a shocking deal. And we're going to discuss how that relates to what the Cardinals are going to be doing in the future. That is next on Lockdown Cardinals. Get the supplies you need from the site made for the skilled trade.

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That's supplyhouse.com. Thanks again for making a lockdown carlis your first listed today for your second list. And be sure to check out the all-new locked-locked on MLB game night every game, every night, all season long at local analysis. On a national scale, you can find MLB game night on Lockedon, and they'll be on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. I'll be back on there tonight. Hosting with my man, John Frisch from Locked on Angel.

So come check us out. The Boston Red Sox and the San Francisco Giants. Whoa. Eye popping deal on Sunday sending Boston's DH, Raphael Devers, to the Bay, performer Cardinal Jordan Hicks, who has not been very good. I think he's even hurt right now.

I think he's got inflammation in his toe. I think that's what he's dealing with. Leftander Kyle Harrison, who's been one of the Giants top pitching prospects for quite a bit now. Jose Bello, Orbeo, and last year's first year, draft pick, 13th overall pick, James Tibbs, the third. So the Giants get a middle of the order bat that's as good as any in baseball, 28 years old, but they also take on the massive contract that he's under. He's in just the second year of a 10-year, $313.5 million deal.

And weirdly, that's another face of the franchise guy that the Boston Red Sox have traded away. Mookie Betts being the other one. That did not work out so well. Worked out for the Dodgers. It's not worked out for the Red Sox. Will this be another one that blows up in their face? And you kind of saw this developing when they signed Alex Braggman. Remember there was all that trade talk where maybe the Red Sox are going to get Nolan Aronado to solidify.

the defensive side of third base because Devers was a terrible third baseman. But it caused issues because Devers didn't want to just be a D.H. He still liked playing third base, even though he weren't very good at it. But eventually he was like, all right, I'll go to D.H. Then they asked him to play first base after the Tristan Casas injury. And he said, no, because I'm not doing it. That's not exactly the most team-oriented thing to do, right? Like imagine if Wilson Contreras told the Cardinals, no.

I am not moving to first base. I'm a catcher. You paid me to be a catcher. I won't do it. Imagine the ripple that would have had on what's going on with the Cardinals, not only this year, but just the fan base in general and knowing that he's locked in. And he's got a no trade clause. So how would fans have reacted to that?

Think about that. But more importantly, instead of thinking about fiction, And let's think about facts. My guy Thomas Gawain over at Redwood Rands.com. I've seen them on the show many times, wrote a piece about this deal and how it affects the cardals who are staring up at not only the Brewers and the Cubs in the NL Central, but also the Padres, the Giants, and the Phillies in the Wild Card.

Those teams have never been shy about going out and making improvements at the trade deadline. They thrive on it. They make big deals. Giants just made a huge deal. Padres went after Juan Soto a couple years ago. They're not afraid to do it. The Phillies, obviously, will go for anybody. They have no fear whatsoever about that stuff. Money is not an object.

So here's what Thomas had to say about this, that the Giants got much better with this trade. Yes, they did. The Cardinals, meanwhile, are likely going to make marginal moves over the next six weeks, if any moves at all. The Padres are a better team on paper than the Carliners. Cardinals, the Brewers just took it to the Cardinals over four days in Milwaukee. Clearly, there's a talent gap between the Cardinals and these other playoff contenders.

Yeah. We all knew this before the season even started, but the Devers trade and the impending trades will only increase this gap. The Cardinals simply lack high in talent compared to the elite teams in the National League. All of this proves that the Cardinals should be sellers at this year's deadline. And I completely agree. You know, when you look at other teams, and this has been brought up a few times, and like the Cardinals do not have any superstars on their roster right now. You know, a couple of years ago, obviously Goldie, Nolan Aronado,

were considered superstars. Aranato has fallen off. Goldie fell off after one year after winning the MVP. He's now a Yankee, having a very good season for the Yankees. But they got older real quick. And there has never been the year. young supply of prospects coming up that would take over the mantle as a superstar player. They don't have it right now. You've got some guys that have talent like Yvonne Herrera.

I'm very excited for. The talent that Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker possess should elevate them to very good to all-star status, possibly at some point. But it hasn't worked out so far. Even this nice little streak that Nolan Gorman's got going right? now does not eliminate all of the bad stuff that we've seen over the last year and a half. But when it comes to what the Cardinals will do at the trade deadline, you've got some names like Ryan Hellsley, Phil Mayton, Stephen Matt, Eric Fetty. Everybody wants pitching at the trade deadline, right? There's only a couple of thumper type of bats that are usually available, but everybody needs pitching.

They want to solidify bullpins. They want to solidify rotation. So the Cardinals got four pretty good one right there that are all on expiring. contracts, which will also hurt them a little bit because they're not going to get as much in return. You know, these are rentals. But all of them should be available. Thomas suggests that maybe the club could also get creative and ask Sunny Gray, Nolanardo, if they would like to be traded because they have the no trade clauses.

Michaelis, Contreras also have no trade clauses. But, you know, do they ask that, be like, hey, are you interested? You still want to be here? Or has your mindset changed? that the season is where it is. And do you want to, you know, go somewhere else? You know, those are possibilities too. Those are big names that could get you a nice return in prospects.

Because there really is no reason to believe that the Cardinals are a World Series contender this year. Even when playing their best baseball, it was a lot of fun to watch. They still are fun to watch. It's a bad week. I get that. But I don't feel like this team is just trash now. But even when they were playing their best, it would be tough to imagine them defeating any of these bigger teams in a series. Not impossible.

It can happen, but highly unlikely. I mean, are the Cardinals built to go on a run like the Detroit Tigers did last year? Just go look at the pieces. It doesn't look like they match up well with what the Tigers were last year? Maybe. But you need these guys like Walker and Gorman and Win and Victor, they all have to elevate them. their games. They all have to get to that next level again. They can't be where they are now, for sure. Everybody needs to be back up here where it looked like everybody was in May.

That's got to happen. Matthew Libertor has got to be better. You know, the Cardinals don't have a Terrick Scoobal to just rely on. You know, they got to get more out of the younger guys. So really for the Cardinals, nothing, in my opinion, really changes. I think they've always been the team that's going to sell at the trade deadline. And then the rest of it, you just, you compete, you play hard, you play smart. And, you know, some of these assets that they have become intriguing to other teams, then great. Take advantage of other teams' desperation, you know?

What is it? Alonzo from training day. This is chess today, checkers. So can Mo pull off some stuff before he heads out the door and get some good assets that's in return. We'll see. We'll see. Day off on Monday, obviously, a chance to turn things around against one of the worst teams in the league in the Chicago White Sox. We said that last year when they played the White Sox, and they ended up losing to them. They lost the series, too, which was super embarrassing, considering that has the same team that set a record for losses in the modern era.

So hopefully that doesn't happen again this year. But thank you for making a lot on Carlisperth listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L1 underscore Cardinals at a JD Sports Radio, TikTok and Instagram at Lockedong Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube, and help our channel on love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on Locktown Cardinals.