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What's up with the Cardinals and a Quick NCAA update
108 Plays2 years ago
A discussion with Daniel Shoptaw about the St Louis Cardinals, A quick look at University of Illinois and University of Missouri an Illinois Football and Basket ball
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome folks to my spot up here on the bleachers. I'm glad you stopped by and as J.D. Clampo would say, come on up and sit a spell. I'm Don Glenn and this is Talking Sports on the Bleachers. You got to get it done. This is Gateway City Sports. The rumors are true.
00:00:24
Speaker
This is Talking Sports on the Bleachers with Don Glenn. A confident young man. A superb athlete. A look at the sports issues of the day. Grab a seat, top a cold one, and let's talk some sports. See, that sounds kind of interesting. Gentlemen, start your engines!
00:01:00
Speaker
Grown on the shotgun, here's a snap, Romo looking, dumps it off right, and her sentence! Her sentence was goal-lined by the Woodson! And there is your Gallagher! Rule for the widespread stance, arms out over the place. Bickford from the threat. The one-time hit. A play, and there it goes!
00:01:47
Speaker
Playoffs? Don't talk about it. Playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs? Are you crying? There's no crying! There's no crying in baseball! You don't understand I could have had class.
00:02:11
Speaker
I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody. Holy cow! Hey, Dad?
00:02:43
Speaker
You want to have a catch? I'd like that. Welcome back friends and sports fans alike. It's been a couple of weeks, but I've, I had to switch podcast host. Uh, I was with, uh, captivate formerly. I'm now with Zen caster. So I'm hoping this, uh, partnership works out very well.
00:03:12
Speaker
A lot of parts have been in motion, so finally I think we're ready to go and get this new chapter started. So, in honor of Mike Shannon, get yourself a tall, cold, frosty Budweiser, and we can get ourselves started. Well, for those of you who are familiar with the show, you know I normally bust it into four parts.
00:03:31
Speaker
and do a little bit of general news and we'll do a little bit of this and we'll do some college and then hit some St. Louis stuff. But today's show is going to be a little cardinal heavy just because of what's going on in this past April with the way the team played and
00:03:49
Speaker
Uh, some different things that have gone on. So we're going to be a little cardinal heavy today.
Focus on Cardinals and Listener Engagement
00:03:53
Speaker
I'm going to have a guest, uh, Daniel Shoptaw from meet me at the mutual and gateway to baseball heaven podcast. He's going to be on it a little bit, uh, or recorded an interview I had with him will be, uh, I do have a little college to pass along. I'm going to talk a little bit about the recent NFL draft, whereas it pertains to.
00:04:11
Speaker
uh, Missouri and Illinois, and maybe it was trying to hit some, uh, portal and recruiting news. I know, um, Russ and I did not do a, an NCAA report in April. That's because of the transfer portal and all the things that were changing every day that wanted to wait until that kind of settled down a little bit. So we'll get one out here shortly, probably the next couple of weeks. I'm guessing we're going to get things together.
00:04:38
Speaker
So, but before we get going, I do want to tell you that talking sports on the bleachers is a proud part of Gateway City Sports. At Gateway City Sports, we try to bring you as much of the bi-state singular sports scene as we can.
00:04:49
Speaker
we cover the pro sports like the battle hawks the blues the cardinal saint louis city soccer club we tried to cover the x the uh... nc double-a exploits of the missouri tigers in the only fighting on act but there's something that you're following and we don't cover it he let us know because you know we miss things from time to time we're only human so give us a call or a shout out somehow let us know that uh... you know you want to hear about uh...
00:05:15
Speaker
bowling or something. I don't know. We'll do something about that for you. Also, check out the other podcast. We've got, for Cardinal fans, you may have a Cub fan in the family, or a friend, or vice versa. Check out the Team of Rivals podcast with Ron Nuttle, Pete Gettys, and some guy named Elliot Dewey, whenever he shows up. For this Cardinal Talk, check out the That's All Winner podcast. It's Ryan Jenkins and Josh Brown.
00:05:41
Speaker
And if you want Cardinal to talk with a little bit of blues mixed in and maybe just some offhand thoughts, well give the mighty moose Mike Stevenson a listen on his two for three podcast and soon to be making his return to the airwaves is Derek King with the critically acclaimed Derek King sports show.
00:06:01
Speaker
I think he's going to call it the same, but he took a break. He's a reorganizer. He'll be back. Also, check out our friends over at Toasted Tavern. Scott Tobin and Wags do a really good job over there. And you can check out Gateway City Sports articles by guys like Russ Robinson and Brian Swope and myself. I even write a few from time to time.
00:06:23
Speaker
Now what I do here is you guys knows I give my opinion. I have thoughts about many different topics. And while there's those who may agree with me, that's fantastic. There's those who disagree with me. Hey, that's fine too. I like that. But let me know. I mean, I really would like to know. I mean, you know, I want to know because you guys are the ones that are listening and I want to make sure that
00:06:45
Speaker
I'm addressing what you want to hear. I may not say things that you'd like to hear, but I want to know what you want to hear. So reach out to the show via Gateway City Sports or you can contact me on Twitter. I'll have some more ways to get a hold of the show here coming soon. So you can always respond to where you listen to podcasts and make comments there.
00:07:11
Speaker
Just let us know and let me know what you want here on this show and I will do my best to make sure to get that done for you. Okay? Alright. So now with that out of the way, let's get this ball rolling along here.
Discussion with Daniel Shoptaw on Cardinals Challenges
00:07:30
Speaker
So I'm going to start with the interview I did Tuesday with Daniel Shopkaw. Then we'll come back on the backside of that with some other thoughts and comments.
00:07:41
Speaker
Joining me via the Gateway City Sports Zoom line is the host of Meet Me At The Mutual and Gateway to Baseball Heaven. The bloggers, he's known as C70 on his blog, C70 At The Bat and C70's Hacks. Please welcome to the show, Daniel Shaftal. Thanks for bringing me on. Hey, I really appreciate you coming on. You're like me, you've been a fan of the Cardinals, you follow the Cardinals, you report on the Cardinals.
00:08:06
Speaker
And lately they've had a lot of stuff to report on, but as I was talking with JD Haffner, it's all been bad. Yeah. It's been a pretty rough season so far. Um, and not, I mean, to some degree, I mean, if you're, if you're looking for, you know, quote, quote content, I guess maybe that helps. Uh, sometimes there's a lot of, a lot of different things to talk about other, you know, when they're going in a bad way like this, but I don't think anybody really wants to go at it this way. Much better to talk about a 17 game winning streak or something like that.
00:08:36
Speaker
Oh, no doubt. Now we are taping this on May 16th. So they are on a pretty good hot streak right now. I mean, took two out of three from the Cubs. They swept the Red Sox in Boston and last night just obliterated effort, lack of a better term, 18 to one against the central division leading brewers. Now we know that's not going to, you know, that ain't going to hold up, but can this winning streak hold up?
00:09:06
Speaker
I think there's good reasons to think it would, you know, obviously Nolan Arenado heating up is a big deal. He hit his fifth, uh, home run in a row tonight or in a home run at five straight games. Having that just kind of makes the offense click a little bit more. Like you said, we saw that last night, put up 10 runs in one inning late in the game. Uh, but yeah, so there's, there's reasons to think that, well, now there's reasons to think that
00:09:33
Speaker
there could be trouble keeping it sustained because the pitching staff is still struggling. I mean, it's looking better than it did, but it's still not a staff that is going to go six or seven innings on a regular basis. It's still not a staff that's going to usually put up, you know, one or two runs. We saw great outing from Jack Flaherty last night, and hopefully, you know, maybe we'll see more of that going forward, but it's a staff that's going to give up three or four runs a game probably at best. And, you know, if the offense is flicking, that's great. If it's not, then it's a problem.
00:10:03
Speaker
True, true. And, and I think I said this and for about the last, I, I seem like a broken record because I said this for probably the last three years. I look at what they do in the off season. I looked at the pitching staff and I'm saying, okay, are you guys seeing the same thing? I am, you know, Mo open up your eyes and look at what you got. I mean, two years ago, you had guys, two, two or three guys coming off an injury. You had a KK coming, you know, he,
00:10:31
Speaker
They were going to try and make him a full blown starter. And it's like, okay, you're not paying attention to what your team is doing here. And next thing you know, we're, we're, we're down to pictures at the start of the season and we ended up having to call the AARP for help, but yeah. But, uh, and then last year, the same, you know, uh, or two years ago, more of the same thing. I mean, it's just, I don't know how much longer they can continue going with what they've got and making adjustments at mid season.
00:11:01
Speaker
and not keeping any, I mean, now they did keep Montgomery this time around, but not keeping anybody around that's of any substance. Yeah, I think this offseason is going to, I mean, I don't want, you know, I don't want to go too far along. We're still just a month, six weeks into the season, but this offseason probably will be an interesting case for that. I mean, we knew going into the season that the staff was a little bit shaky for sure, but he also had five veterans
00:11:25
Speaker
that were locked into those spots. It was going to be hard to go out and get somebody else without making some sort of move that you don't normally. I mean, you, you can move Stephen Matthews to the bullpen, but you signed him for four year deal to be a starter. It seems a little early to do that. You may maybe make a trade or something like that. And again, some of the pictures that the Cardinals were at least fans wanted them to be after haven't, you know, have been hurt a lot this year, right? So we've not had this, wouldn't have helped a whole lot anyway, but going into next year, you just have,
00:11:55
Speaker
Michaelis with that extension and Matt's, those are the only two guys are absolutely for sure. And so I think if they don't go out and get somebody with some strikeout potential next year, at least one, you can get that stuff. Cause you could, or you could argue Matthew Liebator is a guy that could come up and take a spot. You may have some other people. I'm not real big on Dakota Hudson, you know, maybe that's the guy, but you know, I think you have to go out and at least get one big strikeout guy.
00:12:23
Speaker
And if they do that, I think that's an indication that they're taking this, they know what they need to do. Yeah. I heard, I saw something very interesting on Twitter. I think it was today or maybe it was last night. People were talking about, or maybe I didn't Facebook, one or the other. Anyway, they were talking about a possible mid-season trade or trading right now, trying to trade Carlson or O'Neill and maybe another, like a middle infielder type, like an Edmund or, or somebody.
00:12:53
Speaker
for Dylan Chase from the White Sox. As much as I like Dylan Chase, I'm not sure he's the answer. Well, it's hard to know for sure if anybody, you know, is an answer because I think you could use more than one piece. That would definitely be a good start, though. I mean, in the White Sox are struggling. I mean, you could also look, I mean, there's been talk about, you know, maybe a reunion with Lance Lynn or something like that. Yeah. Which would be probably a lower cost and still
00:13:21
Speaker
Upgrade this rotation in theory, but again, what are you, where are you, where are you going to put them? I think in season, you can probably do it a little bit better. You could move maps to the bullpen, like we saw at the end of last year and injuries do happen, of course. Um, but yeah, it feels like the Cardinal, I think this is the year where the Cardinals do try to make some sort of move like that. Yeah. I mean, now that the, of course, the other question becomes is that they've make that move. Is it going to be like it has been the last five, six years?
00:13:52
Speaker
one move and then we're done. I mean, I think that's the one thing people that I've talked to and, you know, I've talked with is the guys at gateway city and we, and other fans and whatnot, you know, they made the move and they traded for Paul Goldsmith. I think now I think we did get Adam Miller that same year or Andrew, Andrew Miller. Yeah, excuse me. Um, but then Aaron out of the next year, no, nobody else really. Um,
00:14:18
Speaker
You know, then we get, uh, we signed Steven Matt's didn't do anything else. Now granted and all a couple of those years too, we were re-signing Wayne over, re-signing Yachty and things like that. But it's just like they do this one and done. And then they expect us to loud their proudness. Yeah. I mean, to be fair, the Goldsmith and our, none of them are huge moves. I mean.
00:14:41
Speaker
The year that they just get Stephen Matts, and yeah, there's an argument there. I remember the year that they got Goldsmith, we were still arguing that they could make it a play for Bryce Harper, which I still think is probably one of the situations that they've withdrawn. Even with all the outfield situations we have, Harper feels like a guy that would have just
00:15:01
Speaker
He was looking for a place to set down roots and he didn't take as much money from the Phillies as we thought they would. I think he would have been a huge thing for St. Louis. But if you get him, maybe you don't get Aronado, it does a lot of what ifs. But yeah, I think that there are times where they have to make multiple moves and it just depends. What they use, what kind of talent they use to make a trade, I think
00:15:24
Speaker
this team has enough options to make a trade and then go find something. Um, but the Cardinals, I think the Cardinals look at their team less in chunks of years and more of a, of a window. I mean, and then windows, not even really the right term cause I never expect that window to close, but they're like, okay, we've improved this team from 2019 to now instead of being, you know, just that one year,
00:15:51
Speaker
They look at their all overarching moves. I think it's probably why we don't see as much of they're like they're adding on incrementally instead of thinking they have to do a remodel. Yeah, I can see that point. I can see that point. But, you know, when you look at and especially this last year's, I think is really what has fans upset is, you know, Mo's statement before the winter meetings, you know, payroll is going to increase and everybody's like, oh, good, now we're going to get somebody and they go and
00:16:22
Speaker
right or wrong, they go and grab Contreras and that's, you know, and they pay him $87 million. Okay. Then they stopped and the payroll did not, I mean, it may have went up, but not like fans were expecting. I mean, when you say payroll is definitely going to go up, you know, people are expecting 20, $30 million jump, not a two or $3 million. Right. Right. Yeah. Cause especially with the Cardinals, because they don't usually come out and say that, right? They usually come out and say,
00:16:48
Speaker
We're going to take all our options open. We're going to see what's out there. We're going to improve our team. But they don't necessarily be out now and say, we're going to spend more money. And so when they do that, yeah, you think, oh, wow, they're going to make some sort of big splash. You're looking at a, you know, they're going to go after a trade turner or somebody in the shortstop position because they really felt that that was the place where you could spend some money.
00:17:10
Speaker
Um, and they didn't do that. And yeah, I think payroll probably did go up, but like you said, it was a, it was a technical thing. It was, uh, two, $3 million because they count all of, uh, all of Wayne Wright's thing, but some of that's deferred. So, you know, however you want to play the accounting game. Um, so yeah, that was a little bit surprising to me. And then I think the Cardinals may have had a little bit more intention of doing some stuff that just,
00:17:39
Speaker
never panned out for them. They, they got scared off from some things, maybe a little bit faster than they should have. Do you think maybe they spit, cause you know, and here's another thing where I think Mosayla got himself into trouble was right before the winter meetings were going to come out of there with a catcher. Did he box himself into a corner and have to panic just for, cause the Contreras deal almost seems like a panic move because the Sean Murphy deal wasn't coming, coming out really well.
00:18:08
Speaker
They weren't getting any kind of traction with Toronto. And I'm not saying they settle for Contreras in any way. That's not my, my, my point is, but did they rush to sign him because they were afraid of leaving the winter meetings and not doing what they said? I mean, Mo doesn't strike me as that kind, but I think more than anything, he said that because he knew one of those options was going to happen. I don't think he, I don't think he signed Contreras just to say, we kept our word.
00:18:36
Speaker
Um, because yeah, I think he's oftentimes could easily said, well, we were going through, we got in on this, but you know, the market didn't happen. I think he just knew going into winter meetings that the Murphy deal was probably pretty close. Um, but they'd already talked to Contreras and felt pretty good about being able to pivot to him pretty, because they knew he was interested. They were interested in him. So they felt like one way or another, they were going to get one of those six done.
00:19:01
Speaker
Okay, of what we've seen so far this year. And I got my top two picks of who's impressed me the most. Who's impressed you the most so far? That's a good question. I'm got to say I'm surprised, very surprised still, but about Paul the young. Um, because I did not expect that to be anything like we've seen so far. And there's obviously, it's still kind of early in this, you know, he was hurt. He came back, but it's long enough now that it really feels like this swing change that he's doing.
00:19:30
Speaker
Um, and his approach is different and it makes for an interesting conversations. Um, other than that, let's see, I'm trying to think of course, obviously nobody in the starting pitching staff. Um, pretty, pretty early on, it was true for Hagen, but I think Chris Stratton has been a little bit, you know, it goes far as under the radar, but you know, you need that guy that could come in and the sixth or seventh inning of whatever game and just keep it there. And he's done that this year.
00:19:59
Speaker
Um, you know, obviously Nolan is Nolan and my Goldies Goldie. And I've liked what we've seen out of Contreras over the last week, but, um, you kind of have high expectations for those guys. He wasn't much of a surprise, but I have been impressed with the way it's happened. And that's Nolan Gorman. Yeah. That's my number one. Yeah. Uh, because you know, people were saying, well, he, he stunk last year, we should trade him while he still got value on Mike.
00:20:25
Speaker
Wait a minute guys, pay attention and look at his minor league stats. Every year that he got moved up, he struggled that first year, only to come back the next year and wipe out the world with them. I'm like, okay, I'm expecting, now I'm not, I did not expect to see him doing what he's doing right now. I mean, you know, he's, he's a, he's a one man wrecking crew right now. You know, again, obviously Arenado's catching up to him, but, but, uh, but he's done it. He's done just a fantastic to me, the fantastic and you know,
00:20:53
Speaker
dealing with the movement back and forth. I mean, Dave's not playing, he's playing second and, you know, and I think he's handled it very well. The other guy, I'm going to have to echo you on the Paul DeYoung because I really think, like you said, I think that swing change is something now, like, again, we're talking a small sample size right now, but if you look at what he's doing at the plate last year, he would, it looked like he didn't have a clue what he was swinging at. It looked like he could not recognize a pitch to save his behind.
00:21:23
Speaker
And this year, it just seems like he's more focused on the pitch. I think getting rid of that high leg kick, I think that has helped him a bunch. I'm interested to see if it keeps going. I was having a running conversation with a guy on Twitter who's saying, you know, this team's going nowhere without Edmond at shortstop. And I'm like, you know, you may say that, but
00:21:45
Speaker
Right now you got to play the guys that are producing and at least at this point in time, the young now, Edmund did have a really good night last night. Uh, but, uh, you know, so I think those two for me, if I had to pick a picture, I think I'm going to go with yours and say Stratton, although Gallegos was very, has been very impressive at the first start. He's kind of tailed back a little bit and he's kind of fallen back, but he was very good at the start of the season. And I think it's fair to say, you know, a guy like Ryan Helsley comes out of nowhere, but
00:22:14
Speaker
He really stepped onto the stage last year and those kind of guys don't always follow that up. Well, real well, but he has so far, um, he's been just about what we would expected it to be. And you know, relievers are so volatile. So if you can get two good years in a row out of a guy that really says something. Well, yeah. And I think the one thing that hurts Helsley as far as being a, a, a, a lockdown closer, if you will, is we haven't really had the support for him in that seventh eighth inning role.
00:22:44
Speaker
You know, where you've got somebody that can come in and keep the other team down. You know, he's, he's come in, he's had to, to come in some tough. Uh, what was it a week or two ago, they brought him in in the seventh thing. Yeah. You know, so I think until we can get some guys that are going to be, I don't want to say trust, we can trust more, but that can prove that they can go out there and get the job done.
00:23:08
Speaker
You may see Hellsley struggle a little bit more, but I think he's got the kind of stuff that is the makings of a good closer, or at least a good shutdown guy. Yeah, I think so. I think so. We'll continue my interview with Dan and Shoptaw in a minute. But I want to talk to you in a minute about car buying and stress-free car buying. At Fifth Street Motors, located at 2044 Rose Lane in Pacific, Missouri, they want to make your car buying experience less stressful. They'll help you find the vehicle you need, no matter what brand.
00:23:36
Speaker
That's because at 5th Street Motors, they believe in giving you the best price on a pre-owned vehicle that will fit your budget. Check out what stress-free car buying can be. Give Brandon or Don a call today. 573-259-1306 and tell them Don Glenn from Talking Sports on the Bleachers sent you. All right, continuing our talk with Daniel Shoptaw. Okay, we've danced around it and I don't think we can dance around it anymore. What is this debacle with players?
00:24:05
Speaker
I mean, first it was Tyler O'Neill. Now it's been Wilson and Contreras. Who's next? And what's causing all this? I think a question at the front office that now I will say this front office has always had a little bit of communication issues. I talked about this a little bit on.
00:24:23
Speaker
I think it was either mutual or gateway this week, but in the past, I still remember talking about how the players kind of found, some of them at least found out about the Alan Craig, John Lackey trade, you know, on TV. I didn't, didn't find out through the front office, you know, they didn't make as much of effort. There's always been some sort of communication issues and at some point in time, you know, maybe that's, gives to John Zalock and how he approaches things. I don't know.
00:24:49
Speaker
You know, this has obviously been something a little bit different than that. This has been more public than we've seen out of the club. The Tyler O'Neill thing didn't surprise me too. I mean, that seems okay. That was one of those one-day things and it shouldn't have probably happened that way, but okay. But the Contreras thing, that was weird. And that may have been a bit of a flailing around trying to figure out what to do with a team that was struggling. And, you know, for all of its flaws,
00:25:17
Speaker
And it has a lot, and I don't know that we can tie these resurgence of this team to that. But, you know, let's play better baseball since that happened. And maybe that's just a rally around a Contreras type of thing. You know, this was a kind of a wake-up call that some people needed. I don't know, but I don't think the front office designed it like that if it had worked out.
00:25:39
Speaker
I don't, I don't know. It seems very, very strange. What are you thinking on that? Well, when first came out that they were, you know, that, that he was being moved and you're going to play some outfield. And my, my first, my first thought was, okay, uh, Ollie, what in the devil have you been smoking? Yeah. You know, you've already got four outfielders plus Yepes plus Donovan.
00:26:00
Speaker
And now you're going to throw another one. Give me a break. We don't need that many outfielders. And then it was like, okay, you spent $87 million or a contract of $87 million for a guy who, and I pointed this out when they first signed him. He's never caught over a hundred games in a year as a, as a frontline catcher, never, you know, so you're already suspected signing that kind of a guy as your number one catcher.
00:26:27
Speaker
and now one month into the season you're going to take him away from catching and bring up and it's never to me that was a slap in the face to Contreras and you know is okay they're going to take him out of being the frontline catcher that I can maybe understand but to completely remove him from catching and bring up a AAA guy to be the backup I mean
00:26:47
Speaker
To me, that almost smelled like the philosophical differences with Schilt, if you will. Especially the way they explained it. We need Wilson to be comfortable with the internal workings of how we do things. Okay, he is your catcher for crying out loud. What internal does he need to know about? It's him in the picture.
00:27:09
Speaker
I don't look too much into the Triple-A, you know, bring up Chris Barrera because, you know, if you notice the day before that they did this move, you know, Contreras is VH-ing, they pinch it for Kistner in the eighth inning.
00:27:22
Speaker
which when they did that, Contreras had to then fly back to catcher and they lost their DH, which it didn't matter in that situation because it was the top of the ninth. They were, you know, whatever. I think they just, they wanted to have that option to be able to pinch it for Kizner without losing their DH. So that, that part I, okay. But yeah, I think that the idea that you're back and taking him out and so publicly, I mean, you could have probably let him DH for three or four days. Oh, they did for some degree, but they could have probably let him DH for a few days, let him catch a day.
00:27:50
Speaker
the age, a couple more days. And people might not have even noticed maybe a couple of questions about, wow, why is he the agent so much? But nobody would have given it a second thought really, until you go out and say, Hey, he's not going to do this. Then I don't know if they didn't expect the firestorm that they were going to get. I don't know if they just didn't read the room at all. Or I mean, it almost has to be that right? Because they knew that the, the, the blowback they were going to get, I think they'd have done it a little bit better.
00:28:17
Speaker
Oh, I agree. I mean, you know, I don't think they really expected the blowback. And I think what really caused it all was if they were going to do something like it, what it should have been done, I think the announcement probably should have come from Mo first and where he said, we're just going to take a step back so he can, we can figure some things out. We got to, you know, because of this or that.
00:28:38
Speaker
instead of Ali saying, we're going to remove him as catcher and he's going to probably be the DH and play some outfield. I mean, you saw how quickly Mo had to jump in and say, no, no, no, he's not playing the outfield. So I think, I agree. I think between Ali and Mo, they didn't communicate how they were going to handle it very well. And I think.
00:28:58
Speaker
They just figured that, okay, it'll blow over and it, when it didn't blow over and they got so much, uh, cause they were getting it nationally. I mean, who was it? The guy from athletic. I can't think of his name now. Talked to talk to my head. Uh, you have Rosenthal over there. Rosenthal. Yeah. Rosenthal. I think John Benton even wrote about it, you know, calling them out and like, what are you doing? You're only 33 a month into the season and you're panicking with your, with your, you know, your free agent catcher.
00:29:25
Speaker
I just, I just didn't quite understand all of it. And, you know, I guess that hopefully, you know, now, now these back catching, I think maybe, maybe it'll die down. We'll see what happens. But I think they also figured out that it wasn't the catcher that it was the pitching staff. Yeah. Because the DRA didn't really change that much. No, no, things. I mean, they've won on the back of the offense more than anything. Well, yeah. Um, I will say though, if the Cardinals truly did think that there was an issue,
00:29:55
Speaker
for right or wrong. It's good that they took care of it now. Right? I mean, you don't want to write if, if there's, if it's a situation, and again, we can argue about whether this is the right way to do it or whatever, but the fact is they saw an issue and they addressed it early instead of letting it fester for the rest of the year or two years into this contract. So there is that I, I still don't think I would gone about it the way they did. I don't think that necessarily it was the right thing.
00:30:22
Speaker
But I have to give them credit for at least trying to address a problem that they saw and not letting it. Cause I mean, there've been times, right? We've seen that the Cardinals, you know, I'll talk about it for it. They need pitching, they need pitching, they need pitching. And all of a sudden it's July 30th and they're getting the pitching, you know, um, instead of waiting, you know, till next spring training and saying, okay, Wilson, you, you know, you just didn't catch the way we wanted you to, they,
00:30:48
Speaker
They tried to do it now. Thankfully, it was just a short week span. We won't see it, but it's also the fact that Yadi and Melina did more than the average catcher. Uh, he did more than any catcher pretty much. And it bear well, maybe that they're just trying to figure out how to adjust to not having Yadi and what that means in terms of preparation and stuff like that. Oh yeah. I mean, you're going to have a catcher. You can fill in for Yadi, but you're not going to have a catcher that can be Yadi. I mean, there's, there's this, you know, he's, he's one of the greats in the game.
00:31:19
Speaker
move on to another, what I
Cardinals Player Developments and Future Prospects
00:31:21
Speaker
consider strange, Jordan Walker. What was he doing so bad that he had to be sent down? Well, I think in Walker's case, and I think there's, I, you know, I was arguing that no matter how good his spring was, they probably shouldn't have brought him North. Um, and I think that still is a fair point. Um, but I think in Walker's case one, it wasn't about him. It was about clearing up that log jam in the outfield.
00:31:47
Speaker
and getting some people's, you know, taking out an outfielder and getting a little bit more consistency out of everybody else. But it's also about, you know, getting that, you know, getting him to hit the ball in the air a little bit more, right? I mean, he was hitting a lot of ground balls, beating a lot of them out because he was hitting them so hard. But, you know, I think they, you know, just tinker with it a little bit. I kind of thought we might see him back by now, because my thought was when they sent him down, they were also going to
00:32:16
Speaker
make a trade in a couple of weeks of an outfielder and then have a spot for him to come back up. Now, Tyler Neil's been hurt and he has not necessarily hit, I haven't looked at him recently. I know he was starting to come around at Memphis, but he's kind of finding his way down there. I'm not going to say he's struggling, but the numbers aren't there yet. So it's fair. I think it's fair for him to spend some time with AAA. I mean, the guy's never been there before and he's 20. So I think that's
00:32:42
Speaker
That's a fair thing. I just think that Cardinals would have been better off if they had just sent him there to start with instead of, you know, raising expectations a little bit on him. Well, yeah. Cause, you know, like a lot of people said, and I said it, I said, you know, that I wasn't sure if he was coming North or not. I said, but I'm going to tell you this, if he comes North, he's going to be starting because you're not going to bring a kid like that North and not started. Uh, just all the way two ways. I had one guy blow back on me saying, well, what about Burleson? And I'm like, uh, and I really didn't see Burleson making the club either.
00:33:11
Speaker
And I'm still not sure he doesn't need to be down in AAA right now. But with the outfield we've got, we don't really have many options right now because the new bar is about the only one playing any good outfield. Yeah, Cross was playing well when he's out there, but you know.
00:33:25
Speaker
out tonight with the ankle from Boston. O'Neill's got backs back. O'Neill's out with his back. I think that I could usually see a situation where if Walker starts to put together a week or two of good results at Memphis and has the hitting profile that the Cardinals are looking for, I could easily see them swap at him in Burleson.
00:33:54
Speaker
for a little bit of time. I mean, Brelson's still got plenty of options and stuff like that. And I know they like, unless, unless of course O'Neill or, or Carlson ended up on the IL. Right. Right. And then that's a situation as well where, where he could come up. But, um, no, no, but like Brelson, and I know that he's got a lot of the underlying metrics that work for him, how hard he has fallen and stuff like that. It just hasn't necessarily translated completely yet. And maybe it will in time, we'll see, but I would not hurt him to have some time down in Memphis either.
00:34:23
Speaker
Yeah, I've been kind of very intrigued with these kids that are coming out of triple A railroad, the miners right now, and how hard are I mean, Walker Burleson, that ball is smoking coming off their backs. I mean, what are they teaching down there? They're not teaching up here. Well, you know, honestly, though, I mean, you know, for all the grief that he got while he was here, the part of Jeff Albert's portfolio as a hitting coach was to revamp the minor leagues and to get them all in the same place. And so it's a lot easier.
00:34:53
Speaker
for you to take these guys that are 16 or 17 or 18 and start them out early on that path. And as they move up the thing, they're hitting, um, you know, when you're in the major leagues, I mean, one, you, I mean, we've obviously got some guys who are hitting ball hard and stuff like that, but they're also a little bit harder to mold into that. If that's not the way that they've been doing it for five, six, seven, eight years. Okay.
00:35:15
Speaker
talk about a couple of minor league players that have been outside of Walker that have been on people's minds. A lot of people are making big noise about Lucan Baker and what he's doing down there.
00:35:27
Speaker
You know, much like what Gomez did last year, obviously he's not coming up. We've already got a first baseman that I don't think you're going to replace an MVP with a rookie. Stranger things have happened, but do you see him as a mid, if he continues with this, do you see him as a mid-season trade piece?
00:35:46
Speaker
I think I do. Um, the problem is, and I talked to Kyle Reese, who of course, everybody knows, knows everything about the miners and then some, uh, he was a guest hosted on mutual with me this week. And we talked about Luke and Baker and, you know, his point is a lot of organizations have a guy like that, a slugging first baseman. Um, and so they may not be as valuable of a chip as we might think that said though. Yeah. I mean, I think that unless there's an injury,
00:36:13
Speaker
You know, someplace he could probably go and play either first base or DH or somebody get, you know, are you, is he going to be, can you trade him for much? No. Can you put him in part of a package? Maybe. I do think that at some point in time, he's probably going to have to go to an organization that has a clearer path on the, you know, first base DH spot because yeah, it's really hard to see how the Cardinals, you know, again, barring injury and knock on all sorts of wood can, uh, can find a place for him. Mason win. I mean, gosh.
00:36:43
Speaker
With all the log jam we have right now, with you've got Donovan, you've got Edmond, you've got DeYoung, who leads to make room for win? Well, I mean, I love me some Mason Wynn. Don't get me wrong. Cause I think he's, I'm talking about maybe next year. I don't think he's not coming up this year. DeYoung is, even with his improvement, it's still a little bit hard for me to imagine that the Cardinals pick up those options.
00:37:10
Speaker
It's not impossible. At the beginning of the year, I would have said, though, this isn't happening. Now, it's a possibility. The options aren't just completely out crazy if he's hitting more like he's going to hit. Still small, simple, that's what's hard to say. Assuming he's not there. Yeah, I think you probably shift Edmond over and let wind play. But then, yeah, when you do a Donovan, how often does he get on the field? You know, Gorman then is pretty much almost limited to DH on a regular basis.
00:37:40
Speaker
Second base maybe sometimes at third if you're really getting a pinch. Yeah, I mean those days, those four days a year that Nolan Arnaud doesn't play. Could you see something this offseason that moves somebody like a Donovan? Maybe. I have a problem imagining that Tommy Edmond is as valuable
00:38:00
Speaker
To anybody else the CS to the Cardinals He's one of those guys that I feel like he fits in st. Louis But I don't know that anybody's just gonna go out and be actively training for him that said, you know He is a gold glove kind of guy He's you know hit for three or four years now and it could be that some somebody would like to plug him into a Spot but well and he's versatile. I mean he can play short. He can play third. He can play second plays corner outfield. He can
00:38:25
Speaker
I mean, you know, he's a guy that can play all over much like Donovan is. Yeah. I mean, both of those guys have a lot of, a lot of things to go for them, but they're also not the things that they have built formed aren't the things that necessarily bring a lot back and trade. Oh yeah. They're, they're going to be part of a package for sure. Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, you know, that is that you're going to grab prospects from one of the others. Right. Yeah. But I think that, yeah, I think the young has to go. And then, you know, we said probably one of those guys gets moved in some sort of deal. I think.
00:38:55
Speaker
unless something really strange happens, Mason, when it's probably you're starting shortstop next year. Yeah, that I've kind of said the same thing in a couple of different places. I've said that, you know, there were talks about the young or Edmund or Donovan. I'm like, you know, you guys might as well just quit talking about him this year. Cause next year ain't, ain't none of the three I'm starting to source. No, it's going to be Mason went because I, from what I understand, he's, he's destroying the ball down in, in a triple A and.
00:39:23
Speaker
actually putting a few balls over the wall more than he has. We've heard a lot about it the last couple of years, Libertors. You mentioned him earlier. Is he ready? I don't see why not. He obviously pitched some for the Cardinals last year.
00:39:41
Speaker
kind of struggled, uh, kind of, it was kind of mediocre if you will, but he's picked up speed on his fastball. He's putting it all together in Memphis and it's a low bar right now. Right. I mean, you know, that's true. I mean, that's the thing is what I have been surprised that again, the rotations has stabilized a little bit or it feels like maybe it just feels like that because they're winning ball games, but it feels a little bit better than it did earlier on. But I, I'm still a little bit surprised that he hasn't taken over like
00:40:10
Speaker
at least getting a spot start or something like that. Yeah. You know, he's got a three 13 ERA in Memphis with a 56 strikeouts and 46 innings. And that's the kind of stuff that that kind of strikeout potential that nobody else in that starting rotation has. And so, except, you know, again, flirty on a good day, you can get some of that. But I just, I think that soon at some point in time, he'll get it up here, whether it's somebody getting hurt or, or something that has happened, he'll get it, he'll get a shot again. And
00:40:39
Speaker
If he runs with it, he, he'll probably lock down a good rotation spot for the rest of the year. Okay. Sounds good to me. Hey, one final thing, and then I'm going to let you go. What are your, what is your vision and what is your reality for going forward for the Cardinals this year? I mean, you go into today, the Cardinals are, are what? Six and a half out from the Brewers and four and a half out of the last wildcard spot. Right. Although.
00:41:07
Speaker
trailing right now as we record this that may add a gain to that. I still think it's very feasible that this team puts together enough of a run that they can be a playoff team. I don't think that's unrealistic, maybe it is, but winning what six or seven or whatever they're at right now
00:41:26
Speaker
has improved their standing quite a bit. I mean, when they were 10 games out, then you started to start to write off the season and stuff like that. But the good thing is, you know, the Pirates came back to earth and the division's not that great. I think that if the Cardinals can shore up the pitching somewhere along the way and hopefully to do that before the last day of the, before the dreading deadline, I don't think it's out of the question to see them even still winning the division.
00:41:49
Speaker
I tend to agree, and I'm like you. I think it's going to have to come down to how the starting pitching progresses from here. And like I said, we've seen two good back-to-back games with Michaelis and Flaherty. Flaherty looked outstanding last night. Well, after the first inning, he kind of struggled. But after that, he looked outstanding. Michaelis, I don't know how you go through what he went through and not strike out a batter, and then still come up with the win. But he managed to do it.
00:42:18
Speaker
I think matches had games where he's gone three, four, five, three or four innings where he looked good. And then all of a sudden he has that one inning. He just blows up and Montgomery Montgomery has probably been the steadiest of all of them, uh, to be honest. And I kind of looked for that to continue, but yeah, they're going to need some help. Somebody's going to have to stay hot, stay healthy. Like they've been to add to Montgomery being consistent.
00:42:43
Speaker
And then, like I said, hopefully before the deadline, sometime in June, we actually pick up a pitcher instead of waiting until July, you know, or like I said, or libertor comes up and they'd give him the ball and let him run with it. I think the division is within reach still talking in 30 days. I might change my mind, but hey, Daniel, it has been fun having you on. I'm going to have to do this again for sure. Again, you are the host of.
00:43:08
Speaker
meet mutual and gateway to baseball heaven. You can find those wherever you find podcasts. Most likely you can find me on Twitter at few 70. I write, although not as much as I used to at, uh, either parts conclave.com or cardinal 70.substack.com. So, uh, one of the, one of the two places I just, you know, we'll throw something up every once in a while, just not as consistent as they used to.
00:43:32
Speaker
Daniel, again, thank you much for joining me. It's been a pleasure. We will definitely have to do this again sometime down the road. Thanks for having me. I look forward to it. Hey, I hope you enjoyed that interview with Daniel Shoptaw, C70, as he's known to bloggers. That was done earlier this week. Sorry, I wanted to get this out earlier in the week.
00:43:58
Speaker
been a little busy but put new floor in the basement and doing some things outside and that last couple of days been just too busy or busy and not feeling well but we're gonna get this out today so anyway we're gonna continue on let's take a break from baseball we're gonna talk a little bit NCAA right now yeah I know my NCAA report co-host and I Russ Robinson didn't get a report out in April but
00:44:26
Speaker
There's a reason for that and that's because with all the portal action and everything that was going on I think we just we felt we wanted to make sure we had all the information we could get one to get the portals closed first So probably sometime next couple weeks. We'll get something out there about that Get our report out. We'll get a portal Both football basketball do some recruiting talk. We'll just have a little bit of fun with that
00:44:50
Speaker
Some interesting facts, though, I did want to hit on. In the recent NFL draft, Illinois did very well.
College Sports Highlights: NFL Draft and Recruits
00:45:00
Speaker
Four players drafted, including the number five overall pick in Devon Witherspoon. Chase and Sidney Brown both were drafted. Sidney in the third, Chase in the fifth.
00:45:14
Speaker
They are the ninth set of twins to be selected in the draft and only the third set to be drafted in the first five rounds, which I think is pretty cool if you ask me. Witherspoon was the seventh first round pick for Beelama. Chase Brownman was his 11th running back to be drafted. So he's done pretty well over the years in draft as far as players being drafted.
00:45:39
Speaker
And as for the team itself, they brought in, they've also had a few sign-ons, undrafted free agents that signed too, I think. Oh, Tommy DeVito and a couple of the guys I know were drafted or were signed to undrafted free agent contracts. Now the team itself is they've lost people, they're bringing in people. They've already signed, got 12 freshmen enrolled.
00:46:07
Speaker
including four-star recruit Caden Fiegen from nearby Arthur High School. He's listed as a 6'3", 220-pound, multi-positional player who's played some running backs and wide receivers, some linebacker, maybe a little bit of safety. So he's one of these, what they call, athlete positions, where you're just going to see what he fits best in in college. They say he does look more comfortable in the offensive side of the ball.
00:46:37
Speaker
And now they've got also 11 letters of intent signed, which include four star recruits. Uh, Meilik Elzi is 6'2, 204 pound wide receiver from Simeon high school in Chicago. Um, could be a big red zone threat. And, uh, listed as probably as better positions like split end or the slot.
00:46:58
Speaker
They also picked up a letter from Sabor Karim, another wide receiver, slash safety, plays both sides of the ball from Orange, New Jersey, 6-3-1-80. He's better suited, they say, for the defensive side, but does show good hands. And while he's not really a speed burner, he is kind of elusive. So that could be a disadvantage, maybe as a two-way player in college.
00:47:23
Speaker
Five incoming transfers the biggest one and the headliner of all this is quarterback Luke Altmeyer 6-2, 190 from Ole Miss. He's been a backup the last few years for the Rebels. He's filled in as a freshman in the 21 Sugar Bowl after Matt Corral is injured. He didn't do great. I mean, 15 of 28, 174 yards, a touchdown, two picks.
00:47:44
Speaker
But again, we related to the back up roll last year, 8 of 17, 125 yards, two TDs, one pick. But he did have a 135.9 passer rating. And he's already impressed Bilema in the spring drills. He's up already, impressed the coaching staff. And he right now is the odds on favor to start in Illinois' first game versus Toledo on September 2nd.
00:48:09
Speaker
And he's also helped in recruiting. His 2024 commit, Trey Petty from Starkville, Mississippi, which is Altmaier's hometown, has committed to Illinois for 2024, as I said. Petty said, of Altmaier, he said, he likes it up there, so I know I would. So he's already picked up some dividends. Also on Mother's Day, Illinois picked up
00:48:38
Speaker
pretty good commit for 2024 as a Demetrius Hill, 23, Demetrius Hill, 6-2, 190-pounds defensive back from Florida National. We had 95 tackles. The strange part is only three and a half tackles for loss. He figured he might be blitzing more, but he did force three fumbles, no picks, at least from what I can see last year. But he was named to the
00:49:08
Speaker
FWA all American freshmen team. So a couple of good pickups for Illinois in that respect. Moot going to basketball, Brad Underwood and the basketball team have made use of the transfer portal to plug some holes left by the parchers of Skye Clark, RJ Melendez, Jaden Epps, and also reserves Brandon Leib and Connor Servin.
00:49:30
Speaker
And still, they are unknown with the status of Coleman Hawkins and Terrence Shannon Jr. I've been kind of following that a little bit. And Terrence Shannon is probably still 50-50 on whether he's going to be continuing with the NBA draft, because they're going through the combines. Hawkins did not quite have as good. I mean, he was impressive in some respects, but not quite as good as Shannon.
00:49:59
Speaker
The common feeling is that Illinois could get both of them back because they did not enter the transfer portal and the portal is closed now. So if they do not go to the draft, their only option is either to go to Europe or come back to Illinois. And both have expressed the interest that coming back is what they're going to do in their future. That's what they're going to do.
00:50:25
Speaker
It's very possible to get both. I think if I had to bet I think I would bet that we're going to get Hawkins back For sure and Shannon like I said, I think he's 50-50 now They did pick up as I said in the portal Underwood did he's went there and he picked up along with two incoming four-star freshmen in six eight 225 power forward Amari Hansberry
00:50:53
Speaker
And 6'1 combo guard, Dre, gives Lawhorn. That now gives Underwood nine four-star recruits, or more, or better, four-star or better recruits in the last three seasons. That's just phenomenal. I mean, that's telling you your recruiting is good right there.
00:51:14
Speaker
As far as the transfer portal for, like I said, for Illinois, they picked up 6'6", 250 pound Marcus Damask from SIU. Really good score. He scored about 17 points a game for SIU. Good outside shooter. I think the decent ball handler, I think he'll be able to help relieve some of the loss of Melendez, because I do think Melendez was probably a better outside shooter than what people
00:51:42
Speaker
saw. They also picked up 6'9", 190-pound Quincy Guerriere from Oregon. Another one who's, he's going to be more of a, he's kind of like a carrot shan, he can do the inside, he can drive, he can play a little outside. And then they also picked up 6'4", 190-pound combo guard Justin Harmon from Utah Valley, who is a, they say is a pretty good three-point shooter.
00:52:07
Speaker
Uh, so he should help in that respect. And they are also said to be in on, and I have not heard anything yet, but supposedly in the next couple of days, we should hear something. Uh, RJ Dennis point guard from Toledo, if they can pick up him, that would just, uh, that would take care of it as far as, uh, I think, uh, making this team fill out after the loss of Epson Clark.
00:52:31
Speaker
Now for the University of Missouri, they had one player drafted in the NFL Draft defense event, Isaiah Maguire, went in the fourth round to Cleveland. They did get a couple players on undrafted free agent deals. Now as far as recruiting going, they boast this season the 33rd best recruiting class in all of college football, which is the head of only, I think only was like 45, something like that.
00:52:57
Speaker
They picked up a bevy of four-star recruits, a tight end Brent Norfleet, 6'7", 220, who chose Mizzou over the likes of Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona State. He was also a D1 basketball recruit, so he's got good hands, doesn't have field-stretching speed, but they said he has a really good short immediate game and is a very good blocker.
00:53:24
Speaker
Wide receiver, Joshua Manning, a 63190. Wide receiver has good body size, capable of running deep routes. They also got four star safety, Marvin Burke, 62190 from Cardinal Ritter, local kid.
00:53:40
Speaker
He has the ability to play up as an extra linebacker, play the deep secondary, so he's pretty versatile. They picked up quarterback Jabari Johnson, 6'2", 200, who's a dual threat, can beat you with both his legs and his arm. They picked up some beef on the line with offensive tackle Logan Reichert, a 6'3", 350 pound tackle with a 6'10", wingspan, so he can take up some space, guys.
00:54:08
Speaker
a two-sport athlete as he also played basketball. I can't imagine the 6'6", 350-pound guy playing basketball. I mean, good, my God. But they say even given his size, he can also play guard. So good offensive line pickup for Mizzou. Now, Coach Drinkwench has been looking to transfer portal well, picking up eight players.
00:54:33
Speaker
And two names I think to note here are four-star transfer, and I'll have to check with Russ on this, but four-star transfer from Eastern Michigan, Marcellus Johnson, the 6'7", 270 pound offensive tackle. And a four-star transfer from Oklahoma and wide receiver Theo Weiss, 6'2", 201. I think both are going to probably be having immediate impact on the Missouri football team. Over on the hardwood, Dennis Gates has had some inside help coming in.
00:55:03
Speaker
with 6,880 pound Power Forward Trent Pierce from Chandler, Arizona. Excuse me, not Pierce. Over on the hardwood Dennis Gates has had some inside help with coming with a 6,880 pound Power Forward Trent Pierce from Chandler, Arizona. Pierce shows Missouri over Florida, K-State, Oklahoma, and Illinois. He beat, he beat Underwood on a guy. Imagine that.
00:55:30
Speaker
Uh, so I have to tell you Gates has got his recruiting, recruiting shoes going as well. Uh, the other is a seven footer, 195, kind of slight. Uh, but, uh, Jordan Butler from Greenville, South Carolina, good hands, high basketball IQ. But I think he's going to have to, he and the strength coach over Muzzi were going to have to get together and put a little beef on that frame. Uh, they've also been using the portal of their advantage, uh, by picking up
00:56:01
Speaker
Indiana's Tamar Bates, a 6'4", 175 pound shooting guard. So things may be looking good for both teams as far or both schools as far as football and basketball and recruiting. But I guess we'll get into that with Russell a bit more. One quick note I want to make on the transfer portal thing.
NCAA Transfer Portal Impacts and Speculations
00:56:23
Speaker
I still think the NCAA is going to step in and try and close the barn door here, but, or maybe not close the barn door, but at least controllable flow. I don't think they will do too much right now since they're still players that are in that COVID year of eligibility that they've got to get work through. But once they worked out through, and I think once they see the numbers, if the numbers continue to stay high on transfers, I think they're going to end up having to do something, um, just as a,
00:56:51
Speaker
I don't know. It just doesn't seem like it's good for college basketball to have kids using it as a minor leagues of sort. I know. It's been that way for years. I realize that. I realize that a lot of people say that the college basketball exists as a minor leagues, but now you've got the G League. Now you've got the D League. So I don't think that's a valid argument anymore.
00:57:19
Speaker
So I think something's going to have to be done eventually and it probably will, but nothing's going to be done. I think with the transfer portal until they can control the NIL money. And I think that's the, that's the big thing right there. So, uh, we're going to take a little bit of break here for an ad from the Wiley group. Hello, this is Don Glenn from Talking Sports on the Bleachers at Gateway City Sports. We all know how important it is to stay protected.
00:57:48
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:58:41
Speaker
Maybe I should have them on the show someday. With work and kids and social functions, we all have busy lives. So you can also email Sean at seanwily at allstate.com. That's S-E-A-N-W-I-L-E-Y at allstate.com. Talk to him about your coverage options and remember, you're in good hands with Allstate. Okay, now let's finish this off.
Cardinals' Recent Improvements in Performance
00:59:07
Speaker
Meet me in St. Louis. Yes, sir.
00:59:10
Speaker
Well, the Cardinals have now won three series in a row and are facing off with the Dodgers today to win their fourth.
00:59:18
Speaker
as we're taping, I'm taping the podcast on the 21st Sunday morning. So I could, the interview with Dana Shoptal was earlier in the week. I wanted to get this out earlier in the week, but I had some issues with just some other stuff going on. So, but anyway, so they're going for their fourth series win in a row, you know, beating the Cubs two out of three, beating the Brewers two out of three, sweeping the Red Sox in Boston. And this is a nice run.
00:59:48
Speaker
And we can't ignore that. As much as they had issues in April, as much as they are in fourth place now by percentage point, we can't ignore that this is a nice run that they're on. Can they sustain this? If this offense stays the way it is clicking with Gorman, who last night
01:00:11
Speaker
uh, won the game for him with a three run shot. His 13th home run and 39 are 39th RBI of the year. And we're only in May. This is the middle of May folks. He's got 13 almost 39 RBI eyes. If you portion that out, he's on track for 40 plus home runs and a hundred and over a hundred RBI is 115 120 RBI eyes.
01:00:40
Speaker
Can he keep it up? I don't know. I don't know. I hope he can. But, you know, even if he slumps a little bit, he's still looking probably at 30 home runs, 90 RBIs. And there were some of you out there, and don't lie, because I can look up Facebook and find it, but there were some of you out there that wanted to trade him in the offseason. You want to trade him now? Yeah, I know we could use pitching.
01:01:05
Speaker
But do you really want to trade that offense for pitching? Because the pitching actually has picked up. It's not great. I'm not trying to sugar coat this and say the pitching is fixed after the whole Contreras debacle, which I think maybe has led a little bit to this. I don't think not so much because Contreras was benched. Well, because he was benched, but not because of him, but because I think the pitching staff realized that, hey, we need to pick it up on our end.
01:01:35
Speaker
were the ones causing this. So I think what Daniel said, they had to do something. And outside of sitting down the entire pitching step, which you could not do realistically in any way, shape or form, you put the blame on somebody else.
01:01:56
Speaker
And then they're best, oh, wait a minute. We don't want to, no, no, it's hard. And you saw how quick Wainwright and Flaherty came to contrast his defense. So, hey, we need to step it up. And Adam included himself in that. I think the quote was, he said,
01:02:15
Speaker
I think everybody if you ask everybody every picture every picture to a man he said with the possible exception of Jordan Montgomery he's been good all year we have all not done our job properly or something to that effect and he's right he's right and once this pitching staff gets solidified and a big step I think Daniel and I talked about it Tuesday was Matthew Libertor coming up or doing something that's going to to push
01:02:44
Speaker
you know, push the staff or give the staff a shot and Liverpool did. Came up first, last game of the Brewers series and pitched very well. And it only went five innings, but they had him on a pitch count. But he did really well, struck out like seven batters, six, seven batters, walked out of there with the lead. You can't say enough about what the kid did. And people understand, he's still a kid.
01:03:14
Speaker
He's only the same age as Gorman or maybe a year older. He's only 23, 24. So, you know, this idea, yeah, we've heard about him for a long time, but heck, he was signed when he was 18, just like Gorman was.
01:03:27
Speaker
So, you know, we've heard about him for a long time. I think now we're finally seeing the fruits of the labor. So now that a Rosarina trade, as much as people still want to harp on that, Oh, if we only had Randy, a Rosarina, you know, we can say that about a half a dozen ballplayers in the last, well, we can say about at least two or three players every year, probably, you know, I mean, you go back and look, Oh, if we hadn't or let our Garcia go, or if we hadn't,
01:03:56
Speaker
Traded this guy or why did we trade? Yeah, everybody got upset years ago when they traded? Matt Adams I couldn't think of his name when they traded Matt Adams for Juan Yepes All right now who's playing? Juan Yepes Matt Adams You don't hear of him. I don't even know I'm not even I think he's still in baseball. I'm not sure where I
01:04:22
Speaker
I mean, he's not putting up any numbers that anybody's really saying, oh man, we miss him. You know, you can say that about a lot of guys, but you don't know what's going on until the end of the trade. Now, yes, you can look at the Ozuna trade and say, we lost out. And, you know, in some real effect, we probably did. I mean, we did get two decent years out of Ozuna. If he had been healthy that first year,
01:04:51
Speaker
or both years, we would have put up, well, that second year, he was on track for just hellacious numbers until he broke his hand. But you can't, injuries you can't figure in. Now, did they buy damaged goods with Ozuna when they got him? That's possible. And that's on Moe. If he was injured, and if they knew he was injured when they got him, that's on Moe. I'll give you that one.
01:05:21
Speaker
let you have that, 100% behind you. And yes, we gave up Alcantara and Galen. Galen at the time, nobody thought was going to be that good of a pitcher. They figured he'd be a good major league, you know, fourth his starter. Nobody figured it's him to have the career he's having out in Arizona. And that's the one thing you have to also understand that we traded Galen to Miami. They traded him to Arizona. So they didn't even really consider him part of their rotation.
01:05:51
Speaker
Alcantara, yes, he's turned in the lights out. And now we don't have Ozuna, they still have Alcantara. Arizona's doing quite well with Galen. So yeah, we came out on the short end of that one. I'll give you that. I don't see anybody though griping about the Goldie trade now. I mean, we got Goldschmidt. Yeah, we gave up Carson Kelly. We gave up Luke Weaver. Nobody's griping about that.
01:06:20
Speaker
I don't see anybody shedding tears over the amount of guys we gave to Colorado, the Montero, and a couple of guys are doing fairly well, but nothing like what we got for Aeronado. So you're gonna have trades like that. You're gonna say, what if we didn't trade this guy? Well, it's kind of like saying, well, what if we had gotten Bryce Harper a few years ago, or Max Scherzer a few years ago?
01:06:49
Speaker
Well, would we be better off? Probably, maybe, but you also probably wouldn't have Nolan Aeronado.
01:06:57
Speaker
You wouldn't have signed a Contreras, more than likely, because let's face it, and call it what it is. Frugal, cheap, I don't care. Put a moniker on it. You decide your own moniker. The Cardinals, traditionally, even going back to Gussie Bush, Cardinal ownership has never been one that has put a lot of big money into free agents.
01:07:24
Speaker
So to sit there and say, well, what if we had signed Trey Turner? Well, if we had signed Trey Turner, I'm going to tell you this right now, that lineup is awesome. We weren't going to sign Trey Turner. They were not going to pay on top of what they're paying Goldschmidt and Aeronado.
01:07:38
Speaker
They were not going to pay another $35 million a year player. Bank it. It is not going to happen. And as much as people want to sit there and bitch and gripe and moan and complain, Oh, we don't spend money. We don't get these big, bright stars. Look at the free agent pitching market this last off season. How many of those big, bright stars are doing anything? The Grom hurt. Verlander was hurt. He's not pitched very well.
01:08:07
Speaker
Yeah, you go on down the list. Quintana out. Rodin's not pitching well. You can look at every free agent pitcher that was signed for big money this year. None of them are living up to their contracts. So where did that put us? Yes, a couple of them probably might be better off than, than Matt's right now. Um, and I'm not saying Matt's is going to turn around. Don't get me wrong. Don't, don't, don't read into that.
01:08:33
Speaker
But it, it just boggles my mind to think that, that, that we're going to gripe and bitch about what we don't have. Let's look at what we've got. Okay. We've got Nolan Gorman, who is all, I mean, if this, if he is not in the all-star game, it's going to be because he collapsed because right now the way he's playing, he's going to be in the all-star game. You've got a Don, you've got Donovan playing very well.
01:08:58
Speaker
I don't see anybody griping about really him. Burleson, I'm still, as I told Daniel and talked with Dan, I still think he probably should have stayed in the miners or maybe they should have sent him down instead of Walker or maybe with Walker, however you want to do it. I think bringing up Oscar Mercado, people forget that he had a really couple good years in Cleveland.
01:09:23
Speaker
And people were griping about that. Oh, we gave away Oscar Mercado. Well, they released him folks and we got him back. Guess what? I mean, you got to give a little bit of credit where credit is due. And you got to give criticism where criticism. I'm not saying again, I'm not saying most perfect. I think I outlined it pretty well. I have been upset with him and not addressing the pitching staff. Yes, there was a time we should have gone after Scherzer when Scherzer said I would like to pitch in St. Louis.
01:09:51
Speaker
At that time, we didn't have a lot of big name free agents. We should have went. We should have jumped. I'm going to agree with a couple of guys at Gateway. I'm going to agree with Brian Swope and Mike Stevenson. We should have jumped. When Scherzer said, I would like to pitch in St. Louis, Moshe said, oh, come on over. Let's talk about it. I'm sure there could have been a deal worked out. Yeah, there's deals like that they should have jumped on. And then there's deals I'm glad they didn't make.
01:10:17
Speaker
As much as people are saying, oh, why did we not pick up Soto? Where's San Diego at? And look at all damn all stars. Look at all the millions of dollars of contracts they got and where they at. And I'm going to tell you this. I said this before and I'm going to say it again before it's all said and done. I think Jordan Walker is going to be a bigger story than Juan Soto. I know. I know what you're saying. Don, are you nuts? What are you smoking? I'm looking at it.
01:10:46
Speaker
And I'm seeing that Soto is not a be all end all player. He's a good hitter. I'm not denying that. He can hit. The kid can hit. I am not sold on his defense. I'm not sold on his base running, which I think is where Walker is ahead of him, or will be ahead of him very soon. I think Walker is more of a five tool player than Soto is. And that's what I'm basing my just feelings on.
01:11:14
Speaker
I think what we're going to see with some of these young pitchers we got like Kinchenz, McGreevy, Libertor, I think we're going to start seeing some fruits and fruits to the labor there. Doesn't mean I don't want to go out and get a number one ace if we can grab one somewhere this off season or even if somebody's selling one. You know, while we talked about Dylan Chase earlier, there's a couple other guys that I think could be huge upgrades for this pitching staff and still
01:11:43
Speaker
be able to hold on to a couple of good, good young arms that can come in and give us some help. But anyway, so that's, that's my thought. I think the Cardinals still had the shot of making that division. I guess only five games out now. And, uh, you know, we've already, I think we're starting to prove ourselves that we can compete with the big boys now, uh, or at least the teams ahead of us. I shouldn't say the big boys, but the teams ahead of us. Uh, so we'll see how that goes. Uh, I want to talk a little bit about, uh, the
St. Louis Sports Scene and Team Successes
01:12:12
Speaker
St. Louis sports scene in itself. I mean,
01:12:15
Speaker
If you look at what's been going on with the Cardinals and then you look at the Blues season, which was pretty disappointing for him. A lot of people, uh, the battle Hawks had a really good run. Didn't make the playoffs, but I want to tell you what this city soccer team, those guys are, they're making a name for them. So they're making something out of, of the St. Louis scene. I mean, they're, they're energizing that St. Louis sports scene, if you will, uh, right now the third place they beat, uh, Kansas city yesterday, Fortin up in that home.
01:12:44
Speaker
Their third place, Klaus still leaves the team with five goals. Eduard Loewen leaves the team with five assists. And here's an interesting. Goalkeeper Roman Berkey has 52 saves for an 80% save percentage. 80%. That's pretty good goalkeeping right there. They're only getting an average of one goal per game scored against them. That's good. They're ninth in attendance, averaging 22,423.
01:13:14
Speaker
in the five or six home. Well, it was the five home. I don't have the attendance from last, yesterday's game, but, uh, which is, he's thinking that's a sellout every night, pretty much because there's a capacity at city park is 22,500. So they pretty much sell the place out every night. They are putting the St. Louis sports scene on the map and kudos to them. Kudos to the ownership. Um, so anyway, well, I'll tell you what folks, that's going to do it for me.
01:13:41
Speaker
If you like the show, I'm still kind of getting all my contacts put together for this new hosting service. But if you'd like the show, let me know on Twitter, at T-S-O-T-B-G-C-S, or you can go to GatewayToCitySports.com and leave some comments there. You can go to Apple, Spotify, Google Podcast, and I think you can leave comments there still.
01:14:10
Speaker
Also check out my articles at GatewayCitySports.com. I'm also thinking about them. I got rid of my website. I had to, but I'm thinking I may be doing either another website or a Facebook page. So I'll have some of that probably next couple shows from now. So until next time, stay safe, have some fun, and we'll see you again when we can talk sports on the bleacher.
01:14:43
Speaker
Thanks again for joining us and you have been listening to talking sports on the bleachers. Here's hoping you have a great sports day.
01:15:13
Speaker
you