Latest / Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast / Reactions to Liberatore Getting Opening Day Nod, Matt Holliday's WBC Insight

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Reactions to Liberatore Getting Opening Day Nod, Matt Holliday's WBC Insight · Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: How's it going, everybody. Welcome back to Cardinal Territory. I'm
0:11
Speaker 1: your sitting host, Kyle Gibson. I'm joined today by Matt Holliday.
0:16
Speaker 1: Welcome back, Holly. We're joined today by Jim Hayes. Jim,
0:19
Speaker 1: welcome back. You know, I know it was just a
0:20
Speaker 1: one show absence. Welcome back and in all transparency because
0:25
Speaker 1: Jim just got back from Washington, d C. We are
0:28
Speaker 1: a transparent show here, so we're going to continue that
0:31
Speaker 1: theme with what all of our politicians do. Obviously, we've
0:35
Speaker 1: had some technical difficulties today, so Lance has bailed on
0:38
Speaker 1: us because his technical difficulties were the worst out of
0:41
Speaker 1: all of us. So Jim, since you're back today, I
0:45
Speaker 1: just wanted to bring us in. It's your show. But
0:49
Speaker 1: I think these type of experiences are good for me
0:51
Speaker 1: to get some some work just in case, you know,
0:53
Speaker 1: like opening day, you have to bail on us and
0:56
Speaker 1: then you know, some of us get this hosting experience.
0:58
Speaker 1: So Jim, it's our show for you to control. Thanks
1:01
Speaker 1: for being.
1:01
Speaker 2: Back, Thank you for filling in, and you were better
1:04
Speaker 2: than MEA's host because you're a natural. And welcome back
1:09
Speaker 2: Matt Holiday.
1:10
Speaker 1: Uh.
1:10
Speaker 2: But we're going to start this one the way we
1:13
Speaker 2: always do by begging for subscribers. See, we're told we
1:18
Speaker 2: got to get to seven thousand. We blew past five.
1:21
Speaker 2: Weren't just six thousand territory. If you like this podcast,
1:25
Speaker 2: cardinal territory, go ahead, help us grow, help us get
1:28
Speaker 2: the seven k by hitting that subscribe button.
1:32
Speaker 3: All right.
1:32
Speaker 1: And if you liked it better on Monday when we
1:35
Speaker 1: only showed the graphic, go ahead and comment after this
1:39
Speaker 1: video and stay only show the graphic and don't beg anymore.
1:42
Speaker 1: If you liked it that way, all right, go ahead, Jim.
1:45
Speaker 2: I think the begging because that way you get two versions.
1:48
Speaker 2: You get the audio and the visual. Matt, it's good
1:51
Speaker 2: to see you. You were your way with Team USA
1:55
Speaker 2: at the World Baseball Classic. You've been on that team
1:58
Speaker 2: as a player. This time you were hitting coach and
2:02
Speaker 2: UH USA came up a little short against the red
2:05
Speaker 2: Hot Venezuela team. Obviously, all the teams are full of
2:10
Speaker 2: major leaguers and professional talent. Just your thoughts on the
2:13
Speaker 2: way it all went down.
2:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a It was a blast. I had
2:18
Speaker 3: had a great time with the guys and the staff.
2:21
Speaker 2: Uh.
2:21
Speaker 3: They put a great group of guys, players and coaches together.
2:25
Speaker 3: It's great honor to put the USA uniform on. For me,
2:28
Speaker 3: I've I've done it a couple of times before, but
2:31
Speaker 3: it never gets old. Represent your country and and really cool.
2:35
Speaker 3: Tournament had a lot of fun. Like I said, we uh,
2:40
Speaker 3: our offense wasn't as sharp as I thought it would be.
2:43
Speaker 3: It's roundball, round bat, hard competition, but I you know,
2:46
Speaker 3: I think, you know, for me, in looking back, I
2:49
Speaker 3: think a month from now, we had a lot of
2:51
Speaker 3: pitches that we filed straight back that that these guys
2:53
Speaker 3: are hitting over the fence. We had a hard time
2:56
Speaker 3: getting the leadoff, uh you know, hitter on base, which
3:01
Speaker 3: we weren't able to muster many rallies. I think we
3:04
Speaker 3: relied a little bit too heavily, maybe on on homers.
3:06
Speaker 3: Just you know, I was just you know, we got
3:09
Speaker 3: to the finals. But I think, you know, if that
3:14
Speaker 3: tournament's played in the middle of the season, I think
3:17
Speaker 3: I think you've just seen a better representation from our offense.
3:19
Speaker 3: But uh, I think it all in all, it was.
3:22
Speaker 3: It was a lot of fun to be part of
3:23
Speaker 3: and I'm really glad I did it.
3:25
Speaker 1: As a picture you remember, I remember spring training kind
3:30
Speaker 1: of being a pitcher's time, right, you know, we're we're
3:33
Speaker 1: really in control of most of of what's going on,
3:36
Speaker 1: and the first month of April, offense is always down,
3:40
Speaker 1: it's colder. You know, hitters don't have their timing. Is
3:43
Speaker 1: that Is that kind of what you're relating it to?
3:45
Speaker 3: Now?
3:46
Speaker 1: Not all teams had that, right, team Emily scored eight
3:48
Speaker 1: runs a game, okay, So I mean I feel like
3:51
Speaker 1: that's just kind of like normal March April stuff where
3:55
Speaker 1: you know, it still takes time for these hitters to
3:56
Speaker 1: get their timing back, whether they started a month earlier
3:59
Speaker 1: or not, you know, didn't prepare for this WBC. Is
4:02
Speaker 1: that kind of how you see it how it went?
4:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think that I, like I said,
4:09
Speaker 3: I think a month from now, a lot of balls
4:12
Speaker 3: that we just mishit or just clipped. These guys are
4:16
Speaker 3: hitting them over the fence. You know, you got a
4:17
Speaker 3: guy like cal Rawley who had sixty some home runs
4:20
Speaker 3: last year who didn't hit one. You got you know,
4:25
Speaker 3: I just think that that we you know, like I said,
4:28
Speaker 3: in a month from now, a lot of pitches just
4:32
Speaker 3: messed that are that are that are barreled. So you know,
4:36
Speaker 3: I was surprised Kyle and and and seeing pitchers from
4:39
Speaker 3: all over the world the stuff, and and just even
4:44
Speaker 3: guys that have pitched last year in Korea, or last
4:46
Speaker 3: year they pitched in Mexican winning league, or you know,
4:49
Speaker 3: just guys maybe even were in Double A or not
4:51
Speaker 3: in the big leagues last year. The stuff that comes out,
4:54
Speaker 3: you know, this early in March. I was shocked at
4:58
Speaker 3: the v low and the secondary stuff from some guys
5:01
Speaker 3: that I I had never heard of from from a
5:04
Speaker 3: lot of different teams. So I think the pitching was
5:07
Speaker 3: ahead of the hitting. Like you said, there's outliers. I
5:10
Speaker 3: think Italy probably scored more runs than people predicted, but
5:15
Speaker 3: I think uh, I think in general the pitching was
5:19
Speaker 3: ahead of the hitting. But I have to tip my cap.
5:24
Speaker 3: Like I said, I thought the pitching was very sharp
5:26
Speaker 3: for this early in these season. The vilos were up.
5:29
Speaker 3: I thought the secondary pitches were sharp. Not a lot
5:32
Speaker 3: of balls left in the middle of the plate, which
5:35
Speaker 3: was I was a little surprised about uh this early
5:37
Speaker 3: in spring. But all in all, like I said, it
5:40
Speaker 3: was it was a lot of fun to watch such
5:41
Speaker 3: great baseball and and be a part of a great
5:44
Speaker 3: talent and learn from, you know, the current hitters and
5:47
Speaker 3: be around guys like the staff that I got the
5:50
Speaker 3: chance to be around was you know, a lot of
5:51
Speaker 3: those guys I know well and and so spending time
5:54
Speaker 3: with them, and I had read with me most of
5:56
Speaker 3: the time. So getting a chance to have him out
5:59
Speaker 3: on the field, yeah, and shagging and getting a chance
6:02
Speaker 3: to be around that environment was a really cool experience
6:04
Speaker 3: for me.
6:06
Speaker 2: That is cool. Now in the last three games, the
6:09
Speaker 2: offense was really quiet, the bats where were cold. I
6:13
Speaker 2: think Kyle was blaming you when you weren't on the show.
6:17
Speaker 2: But what's it like as a as a hitting coach
6:21
Speaker 2: for a team that's loaded top to bottom with with
6:23
Speaker 2: great hitters. How much input can you really give guys
6:27
Speaker 2: like that?
6:29
Speaker 3: Well, I mean it's a two week sprint, right, I
6:30
Speaker 3: mean it's it's two weeks. You have the best hitters
6:35
Speaker 3: in the world, I think, you know, being a resource
6:38
Speaker 3: for them. They have their routines, that's why they're the
6:40
Speaker 3: best in the world. They all know what they're doing,
6:43
Speaker 3: you know, occasionally just talking shop. I think that was
6:46
Speaker 3: one of the cool parts about this group was is
6:48
Speaker 3: they like to sit around and talk baseball. They like
6:50
Speaker 3: to talk hitting. Alex Bregman's very much into all the
6:55
Speaker 3: details of mechanics, and you have you have, you know,
6:58
Speaker 3: the broad spectrum of guys that are more feel oriented,
7:01
Speaker 3: guys that are more mechanic oriented. So I think, you know,
7:04
Speaker 3: it's it's hard in two weeks to to learn every
7:07
Speaker 3: single guy, all fourteen of them, and and try to
7:09
Speaker 3: really make a big impact. It's it's, you know, with
7:12
Speaker 3: the best hitters in the world. What am I going
7:14
Speaker 3: to say? You know, I mean, I think that I
7:15
Speaker 3: got a chance to bounce some ideas a couple of
7:18
Speaker 3: guys they weren't feeling great, asked me my thoughts and
7:21
Speaker 3: and so that was fun. But like I said, in general,
7:24
Speaker 3: helping them execute their their routine every day, you know,
7:29
Speaker 3: learning about what they they like and don't like, where
7:32
Speaker 3: they feel, you know, how they talk about their mechanics
7:34
Speaker 3: and and what they talk about with their approach, and well,
7:38
Speaker 3: you know, it's it's it's uh, a lot of it
7:41
Speaker 3: is them talking to each other too, and the hitters
7:43
Speaker 3: meetings and things like that, so you know, you just
7:46
Speaker 3: kind of feel your way out what they need. And
7:48
Speaker 3: you know, like I said, you're just trying to support
7:49
Speaker 3: the greatest players in the world and you know, maybe
7:53
Speaker 3: throw your two cents in when it's when it's uh,
7:55
Speaker 3: when it's appropriate and and uh, you know, and just
7:58
Speaker 3: didn't watch them do their thing. And so I think
8:01
Speaker 3: that that's that when you join a group of people
8:03
Speaker 3: like that, you don't come in, you know, making changes
8:06
Speaker 3: or uh. These guys are well established All Stars is
8:10
Speaker 3: while they're on the team. So you know, for me
8:13
Speaker 3: and Sean Casey, it was a lot of fun just
8:15
Speaker 3: learning what their routines were and and talking baseball with them.
8:18
Speaker 3: And that was one of the things that I think
8:20
Speaker 3: I liked the most was just learning from the current
8:23
Speaker 3: players and and uh, you know, kind of some of
8:26
Speaker 3: the stuff that's new but since you know, I stopped playing,
8:28
Speaker 3: and one of the things that they look at and uh,
8:32
Speaker 3: there's a lot more data these days, which I thought
8:34
Speaker 3: was interesting than than we played and and uh so
8:37
Speaker 3: that was interesting to see how they deal with all that.
8:40
Speaker 2: Now, my my question for you is because the WBC
8:44
Speaker 2: was just fun entertaining. Obviously, it's good for baseball. It's
8:49
Speaker 2: good for uh MLB because the season is almost ready
8:53
Speaker 2: to start up and it peaks interest in it. But
8:55
Speaker 2: some people were questioning like if you guys brought up
8:58
Speaker 2: to have it at this point during bring training our
9:01
Speaker 2: hitters ready to go. Is there a better way to
9:06
Speaker 2: do this, or because there's a lot of other any
9:08
Speaker 2: other any other potential idea has problems associated with it
9:13
Speaker 2: in your opinion, is this the best way to go
9:15
Speaker 2: about doing the WBC.
9:18
Speaker 3: I think it'll be interesting.
9:23
Speaker 1: Sorry, I think it kind of comes down to how
9:27
Speaker 1: much MLB is committed to growing this tournament when maybe
9:33
Speaker 1: it doesn't necessarily grow their product just MLB. You know,
9:41
Speaker 1: I think they'll be ripple effects that will grow MLB.
9:44
Speaker 1: But obviously if you put a tournament in the middle
9:46
Speaker 1: of a season for two weeks, it's going to take
9:48
Speaker 1: away from just the MLB product. So I think it
9:53
Speaker 1: kind of comes down to how much they're willing to
9:56
Speaker 1: dedicate resources and allow players to play in something that
10:01
Speaker 1: is not just a MLB license the game in the.
10:06
Speaker 4: Middle of the year.
10:09
Speaker 2: What do you think, Holliday, Is there a better way
10:11
Speaker 2: to do this or is this what we have to
10:14
Speaker 2: work with?
10:16
Speaker 3: But I think that it'll be interesting to see what
10:18
Speaker 3: they do with the Olympics. You know, I think they're
10:20
Speaker 3: talking about adding kind of like the hockey where they're
10:23
Speaker 3: adding the five or six days they all start break
10:25
Speaker 3: in a couple of years or whenever the Olympics is.
10:27
Speaker 3: And I think that obviously, if it's in the middle
10:30
Speaker 3: of the in the middle of the season, then you
10:32
Speaker 3: don't have the pitching restrictions, and you have trek scruple
10:35
Speaker 3: and you have you know, some of these guys that
10:37
Speaker 3: are available to throw a hundred bitches and and uh
10:40
Speaker 3: and same with the other team. So I think you
10:42
Speaker 3: can get a full scale look at you know, the
10:46
Speaker 3: best in the world and then so that But again,
10:50
Speaker 3: I don't think you can do that very often where
10:52
Speaker 3: you extend the All Star break, and I think it's
10:55
Speaker 3: probably more of a special occasion with the Olympics. So
10:58
Speaker 3: what they're currently doing right now is the best we're
11:00
Speaker 3: gonna get, I would say outside of.
11:05
Speaker 1: I think one of the front office people behind Matt
11:07
Speaker 1: has a cell signal scrambler so that they can secretly
11:12
Speaker 1: and and encrypt text messages because you just turned into
11:15
Speaker 1: a robot, and it's like, as soon as he walked,
11:20
Speaker 1: you've been the clearest picture of any of us, and
11:23
Speaker 1: as soon as that front office conversation happened behind you
11:26
Speaker 1: scrambled eggs hurt half of it.
11:30
Speaker 3: That's what I hear from you guys too. This is
11:32
Speaker 3: going really good, he does.
11:36
Speaker 2: He seems all of a sudden, Matt Holliday is a robot.
11:39
Speaker 2: All right, let's see if it passes. So, Kyle, I'm
11:41
Speaker 2: gonna ask you the next question. I don't know if
11:45
Speaker 2: we hit on it while you guys were together, whatever,
11:48
Speaker 2: but I'll say this, Mark de Rosa was a very
11:51
Speaker 2: good baseball player, really good guy. Got to know him
11:54
Speaker 2: a little when he played for the Cardinals before he
11:56
Speaker 2: heard his wrist.
11:57
Speaker 4: Uh.
11:58
Speaker 2: He actually called himself the pole to the clubhouse at
12:01
Speaker 2: that point. And he's a great broadcaster, I mean, better
12:04
Speaker 2: than I'll ever be. But he's taken a lot of
12:07
Speaker 2: heat because you know, he said we punched our ticket
12:11
Speaker 2: and then he kind of managed the game where you
12:14
Speaker 2: could second guess and maybe thought that they had punched
12:17
Speaker 2: their ticket. And you know, he's taken a lot of
12:22
Speaker 2: a lot of blowback on that. So do you think
12:24
Speaker 2: any of it's justified? And then we'll ask Kyla Day
12:27
Speaker 2: to see if he's still a robot? But I'll start
12:29
Speaker 2: with you.
12:29
Speaker 1: Kyle, I mean, sure, is that's part of it justified?
12:37
Speaker 1: To give him a hard time for not realizing that
12:41
Speaker 1: the tiebreaker situation was pretty in depth and pretty a
12:47
Speaker 1: pretty big deal and still in play. Yeah, sure, I
12:49
Speaker 1: think it's fair to get a hard time. I think
12:51
Speaker 1: he was probably disappointed in himself that he said that
12:55
Speaker 1: and that he managed that way, and that nobody around
12:58
Speaker 1: him that something right. So I'm sure they were a
13:02
Speaker 1: little disappointed because they their fate was hanging with Team
13:05
Speaker 1: Italy at past that.
13:09
Speaker 3: Uh.
13:09
Speaker 1: You know, I've heard people talking about not pitching, Mason Miller,
13:13
Speaker 1: not having this, not being able to play this, Like,
13:16
Speaker 1: I mean, holiday's telling you you got the best players
13:19
Speaker 1: in the planet. Sure could Cal Rawley have hit in
13:23
Speaker 1: the eighth or ninth inning for somebody, Yeah, I'm sure,
13:25
Speaker 1: But I don't know that he had a hit in
13:27
Speaker 1: the WBC. I mean, like, and that's nothing against Cal
13:31
Speaker 1: He's a great player, But maybe he was just in
13:33
Speaker 1: the middle of a slump. So you used to leave
13:35
Speaker 1: the ride here on right matchup because of a guy
13:38
Speaker 1: that is seeing them a little bit better. I mean,
13:41
Speaker 1: let's face it, he's managing an all star team that
13:43
Speaker 1: is playing in a playoff atmosphere, and when things go wrong,
13:48
Speaker 1: maybe it's just that the other team's all stars played
13:50
Speaker 1: a little bit better. And I know fans don't necessarily
13:54
Speaker 1: like that, but that's sometimes that's how it is.
13:57
Speaker 2: So Matt, we're gonna cross her fingers that your signal
13:59
Speaker 2: is improve. You were there for the whole thing. You know, Durosa,
14:05
Speaker 2: everyone says he's a great guy, but he is taking
14:08
Speaker 2: some heat on this. Is any of an.
14:10
Speaker 3: Justified Yeah, I mean, look, I think he said what
14:19
Speaker 3: he was gonna say. He took accountability. He said he
14:21
Speaker 3: you know, he misspoke, he didn't he didn't know the
14:24
Speaker 3: exact rule. But we still had to get those guys
14:27
Speaker 3: in the lineup when those teams come. And that teams
14:29
Speaker 3: give their players, especially their their best players, the option
14:32
Speaker 3: to go play in the World Baseball Classic, you have
14:35
Speaker 3: to play them. You can't sit Ernie Clement for two
14:38
Speaker 3: and a half weeks and then expect the Blue Jays
14:41
Speaker 3: to cooperate next time around. So I mean, look, I think, yeah,
14:46
Speaker 3: maybe the lineup would have been a hair different, or
14:51
Speaker 3: you know, maybe managed slightly different. But I think, you know,
14:55
Speaker 3: some of the stuff that people don't know about is
14:58
Speaker 3: the rules the teams give know and maybe the team
15:02
Speaker 3: calls and says, hey, so and so is not available
15:05
Speaker 3: unless it's a safe situation, or so and so is
15:08
Speaker 3: not available unless it's a one run leader or two
15:10
Speaker 3: run leader. This guy's not available for you. He's pitched
15:13
Speaker 3: too much, or he's managing thirty teams and you know,
15:19
Speaker 3: twenty six players and he's managing rules and pitch counts.
15:25
Speaker 3: And I don't think people understand the time and effort
15:29
Speaker 3: that he and Andy put in just managing the pitchers alone,
15:34
Speaker 3: never mind trying to make sure that our hitters were
15:37
Speaker 3: getting enough work so that when they go back to
15:39
Speaker 3: spring training for six days that these teams don't say
15:44
Speaker 3: the heck with that, We're never letting our players participate again,
15:46
Speaker 3: We've got not getting at batts, and we got a
15:49
Speaker 3: season to win. And so I think it's a very
15:53
Speaker 3: delicate job, and I think that he was very stressed
15:57
Speaker 3: about it. I mean, he put his heart and soul
15:58
Speaker 3: into that for the last two years, and so, you
16:02
Speaker 3: know whatever, if you want to criticize him for not
16:04
Speaker 3: knowing the tiebreaker rule, that's fine. But if people knew
16:10
Speaker 3: everything that he put into this, I think they would
16:13
Speaker 3: appreciate the job that he did and the difficulty that
16:15
Speaker 3: it was to manage all of the things that you
16:18
Speaker 3: have to manage with this tournament.
16:21
Speaker 1: I mean he continuing for Bryce Harper not playing against
16:24
Speaker 1: the Arty and putting Goldie in there. It's like, guys,
16:28
Speaker 1: I don't think fans understand Bryce Harper on March eighteenth
16:32
Speaker 1: has probably not played four games in a row yet.
16:37
Speaker 1: I mean, he's it's just there, there's a lot to it.
16:39
Speaker 1: Like you said that, it's just I understand fans think, well,
16:43
Speaker 1: you know what, every other team is just putting it
16:45
Speaker 1: all on the line for their country. Well have you
16:48
Speaker 1: followed every other team. Did au Hennuisporrez played every single game?
16:53
Speaker 1: Maybe he did. I don't know because I didn't follow
16:55
Speaker 1: every other team. But the fact that it's just, you know,
16:58
Speaker 1: I guess maybe the loudest voice is social media kind
17:01
Speaker 1: of give him the most heat. But Price Harper's not
17:03
Speaker 1: going to play ten games in a row here for us, Like,
17:06
Speaker 1: you got to give him a break. It's it's only
17:07
Speaker 1: March fifteen.
17:10
Speaker 2: I also think, you know the stuff that Matt mentioned,
17:13
Speaker 2: like players come to the WBC with limitations set by
17:18
Speaker 2: the team and the manager has to not just manage,
17:22
Speaker 2: but he's got to remember, oh, this guy can't do that.
17:25
Speaker 2: This guy can't so there's a lot of things he
17:27
Speaker 2: has to juggle. I would like to see Team USA
17:31
Speaker 2: win the whole thing, but let's face it, the whole
17:33
Speaker 2: thing was great for baseball, and that I'm happy about.
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18:45
Speaker 2: All right, now, we turned to some Cardinal business and
18:49
Speaker 2: Onie Marvel has announced that Matthew Librator will be the
18:53
Speaker 2: cards opening day starter. Now, Livy was on Cardinal Territory
18:58
Speaker 2: back in January, and as a recall, there was a
19:02
Speaker 2: lot of real serious foreshadowing going on. Be honest with us,
19:07
Speaker 2: do you want to be the Cardinals opening day starter?
19:10
Speaker 2: I think that's a fair question.
19:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not gonna lie on it and make something
19:14
Speaker 4: I've thought about since the season ended. You know, whether
19:18
Speaker 4: that that honor is given to me or not is
19:21
Speaker 4: not one hundred percent in my control. But I'd be
19:24
Speaker 4: lying if I'm saying if I said that, I'm not
19:27
Speaker 4: doing everything in my power to force their hand on that.
19:30
Speaker 3: So there you go.
19:31
Speaker 2: You see Cardinal Territory breaking news ahead of the curve.
19:35
Speaker 2: As always kind of I'll ask you it's you know,
19:38
Speaker 2: Levy had a really good spring training, not surprising that
19:41
Speaker 2: he's the opening day starter, I would assume in your view.
19:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think, you know, this is something that
19:49
Speaker 1: we've kind of made a little bit of theater out of, right.
19:52
Speaker 1: You know, MLB has each team posting videos and stuff,
19:56
Speaker 1: and I don't think fans and I don't know. I
20:00
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not gonna say a holiday took took
20:02
Speaker 1: it for granted, right, But how many opening day lineups
20:06
Speaker 1: was Matt not in? Right? And I know, I'm sure
20:10
Speaker 1: you know you appreciate every uniform you had on your
20:12
Speaker 1: back every year, Hollwy, So I'm not saying that at all.
20:15
Speaker 1: But I only pitched on the first game of the
20:18
Speaker 1: season twice in my thirteen seasons, so I was just
20:23
Speaker 1: standing on the sideline getting introduced and then cheering on
20:28
Speaker 1: the team. And I think that's why you do see
20:32
Speaker 1: it turn into a little bit more theater. And I
20:34
Speaker 1: think that's why you do hear answers from guys like
20:37
Speaker 1: Libby because it just doesn't come around that often. You know,
20:41
Speaker 1: the only one guy on your team gets to do
20:44
Speaker 1: that in a given season, and it's a pretty special honor.
20:49
Speaker 1: And I'm excited to see Libby go out there and
20:51
Speaker 1: do it and have fun with it. I'm sure it'll
20:53
Speaker 1: go better than my first opening day start, which was
20:56
Speaker 1: one third of an inning in four runs. So Libby,
20:59
Speaker 1: here you go, go out there and take the bull
21:02
Speaker 1: by the horns on opening Day.
21:06
Speaker 2: Now, Matt, you've been busy with Team USA, so I
21:09
Speaker 2: know you haven't been able to really watch a lot,
21:11
Speaker 2: But I did want to ask you about Jordan Walker. Right,
21:15
Speaker 2: he's you know, trying to find it again. We saw
21:18
Speaker 2: in his rookie year. The guy is talented. He's only
21:20
Speaker 2: twenty three. It's not like he totally lost it. He's
21:24
Speaker 2: just got to find it again. So the Cardinals are
21:27
Speaker 2: saying they want him to be with the big league
21:30
Speaker 2: clubs so there can be more coaching, more eyes on him.
21:33
Speaker 2: And there's another school of thought that I've heard, Well,
21:36
Speaker 2: maybe it's best for him to go to Triple A
21:38
Speaker 2: because he struggled at spring training. How do you look
21:41
Speaker 2: at that? What do you think might be the best
21:43
Speaker 2: thing for Walker as he tries to find the talent
21:46
Speaker 2: that we know is in there.
21:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, they know better than I do. Obviously,
21:52
Speaker 3: they're around him every day. They know what his need
21:55
Speaker 3: heeds are. I think you know, as a you know,
21:59
Speaker 3: the guys has played well in Triple A. He's got
22:02
Speaker 3: enough big le service time to where you know, he's
22:06
Speaker 3: he's kind of sink or swim in the big leagues
22:08
Speaker 3: with him, you know, I mean, he's he's uh, he's
22:12
Speaker 3: played well in Triple A A. I don't know that
22:17
Speaker 3: sending him down at Triple A and and you know,
22:21
Speaker 3: I don't know that you find out much even if
22:24
Speaker 3: he goes down there and does really well. So look,
22:29
Speaker 3: you know, at some point, yeah, I'm interested to see
22:34
Speaker 3: what his role will be in the big leagues, you know,
22:35
Speaker 3: I mean I think is he is he a right
22:37
Speaker 3: handed platoon? You're gonna play him against left he's in
22:40
Speaker 3: right field, you know what. I don't know what they're
22:44
Speaker 3: gonna do, you know, as far as getting him playing time,
22:46
Speaker 3: But he needs to get at bats. I mean, obviously
22:48
Speaker 3: he's a hitter. You can't find your timing, you can't
22:51
Speaker 3: find your talent if you're not playing, and if you're
22:54
Speaker 3: not getting at bats. And so I think that if
22:56
Speaker 3: he's gonna get at bats in the big league is great.
22:58
Speaker 3: If not, then yeah, you probably need to send him
23:00
Speaker 3: down where he can you know, at least, you know,
23:03
Speaker 3: have pitches to look at and things to work on.
23:05
Speaker 3: So I don't I'd be interested to hear what kind
23:07
Speaker 3: of role they put him through.
23:10
Speaker 2: Well, gentlemen, opening days fast approaching. I know we're all
23:14
Speaker 2: looking forward to that, and that's going to do it
23:17
Speaker 2: for this edition of Cardinal Territory. We'll see you for
23:20
Speaker 2: the next episode, and hopefully that one won't suck