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Dodgers sign Kyle Tucker, Chaim Bloom speaks at Winter Warm-up · Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Cardinal Territory.
0:11
Speaker 1: Jim Hayes alongside Matt Holliday and Lance Lynn. Kyle Gibson
0:16
Speaker 1: was with us, but then he lost Internet because he
0:19
Speaker 1: is on the road, and gentlemen, there is a lot
0:22
Speaker 1: to talk about still, the fallout after the Dodger signing
0:27
Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker. Also, the winter warm up is wrapping up
0:32
Speaker 1: here in Saint Louis, But let's start with the Kyle
0:36
Speaker 1: Tucker fallout. Now, there has been a number of guys
0:40
Speaker 1: in the baseball media that have predicted the Tucker signing
0:45
Speaker 1: is the end of baseball and quite possibly the end
0:49
Speaker 1: of civilization as we know it, and their argument I
0:53
Speaker 1: think has some validity to it. Basically, they're saying these
0:58
Speaker 1: kind of contracts for really just another piece to an
1:03
Speaker 1: already crowded puzzle for the Dodgers is unsustainable for baseball
1:09
Speaker 1: across the board. Again, I think there's some validity to it.
1:12
Speaker 1: But there's also the other side of the argument. For
1:15
Speaker 1: those that don't know the Dodgers signing Tucker, he's a
1:18
Speaker 1: very good player to a four year, two hundred and
1:22
Speaker 1: forty million dollar contract. So Matt, where are you on this.
1:27
Speaker 1: Is it the end of baseball or is it just
1:29
Speaker 1: something for baseball to work through.
1:34
Speaker 2: Well, look, I mean I think that look that they
1:40
Speaker 2: have the money, they're willing to spend it. They've structured
1:44
Speaker 2: all these contracts in a way that makes it doable
1:47
Speaker 2: for them. You know, when you have a player like
1:50
Speaker 2: Shoheo Tani who's backloaded, you know so much, they can
1:56
Speaker 2: do these kind of deals that are shorter term. I
1:58
Speaker 2: still don't think it guarantees them. I don't think you
2:01
Speaker 2: put him on their team and go, oh my gosh,
2:03
Speaker 2: they're gonna win the World Series so easily. I still
2:07
Speaker 2: think that they're that's not a guaranteed, you know, World Championship. Obviously,
2:14
Speaker 2: they have a lot of talent and and they've have
2:16
Speaker 2: the financial ability to to pay maybe more than other
2:20
Speaker 2: other teams do. But look, I don't I don't think
2:24
Speaker 2: that this is like I don't think it's as gloom
2:29
Speaker 2: and doom or as a man, it's we've got to
2:33
Speaker 2: do something drastic to to baseball to fix this. I mean,
2:39
Speaker 2: if you look at it, I mean, the Dodgers have
2:41
Speaker 2: won a couple lately, but I still think, you know,
2:45
Speaker 2: there's ways to win and and there's teams that are, uh,
2:48
Speaker 2: they're capable of signing Kyle Tucker uh to that contract.
2:52
Speaker 2: And there's teams that are capable of signing U Yamamoto
2:56
Speaker 2: to what he got and and and they just choosing
3:00
Speaker 2: not to. And so you look, I mean, I think
3:05
Speaker 2: Lance and I and Kyle probably would all agree that
3:08
Speaker 2: this is the The owners probably love this, and they're
3:11
Speaker 2: they're probably pushing towards, uh this being the time when
3:17
Speaker 2: we get the salary cap, that they finally have the
3:20
Speaker 2: the you know, sort of the ammunition uh to get
3:23
Speaker 2: the salary cap that they've wanted for so long. And
3:26
Speaker 2: they might they might get it, but I think there's
3:28
Speaker 2: certainly gonna have to be some some things come from
3:31
Speaker 2: the other side, whether it's you know, less years to
3:35
Speaker 2: free agency or less years to arbitration, or you know,
3:39
Speaker 2: bringing the minimum salary way up, or bringing the floor
3:43
Speaker 2: of payrolls, making these other organizations spend the money that
3:49
Speaker 2: they have, and and and bringing a floor that comes
3:52
Speaker 2: with the cap, and making sure that the cap is
3:55
Speaker 2: high enough that there's still a free market. So I look,
4:00
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot to work through and a
4:02
Speaker 2: lot to think about. But it's going to be an
4:05
Speaker 2: interesting next eighteen months in Baseball's.
4:10
Speaker 3: How do you look at it?
4:12
Speaker 4: I think you're looking at a team that's it's their window.
4:15
Speaker 4: They know what's going on, and they see kind of
4:18
Speaker 4: the you know, the outline of where everything's at, and
4:21
Speaker 4: they're not afraid to do what they need to do
4:24
Speaker 4: to keep going when everyone else has the opportunity to
4:26
Speaker 4: do the same things. You know, this is put in
4:29
Speaker 4: place when the Mets owner took over there. Everybody was
4:31
Speaker 4: worried about him doing this, and then Dodgers were like, okay, cool,
4:34
Speaker 4: you get structured away where we can defer money, we
4:37
Speaker 4: can have interest off this money, and then that interest
4:41
Speaker 4: off the money that we're doing is paying for our
4:43
Speaker 4: taxes that we're getting charged over with. So they're smarter
4:46
Speaker 4: than everyone, and everyone's pissed off about it. But everyone,
4:49
Speaker 4: every billionaire, is able to do the same thing. They
4:51
Speaker 4: just don't want to do it because it makes them
4:53
Speaker 4: look it makes it look bad, and it really puts
4:57
Speaker 4: a lot of pressure on the players everything to look
5:00
Speaker 4: at this as a oh, this is the only way
5:02
Speaker 4: to make it even. But as Matt just alluded to,
5:05
Speaker 4: there are so many things that the owners were going
5:08
Speaker 4: to have to give up to even make it reasonably
5:11
Speaker 4: thinkable as a possibility for the players to even make
5:15
Speaker 4: a cap system. So they're all talking about the cap
5:19
Speaker 4: and this and that, but they're not talking about all
5:21
Speaker 4: the things that they'll have to give up. And the
5:23
Speaker 4: owners in baseball have more rights over players for the
5:27
Speaker 4: longer period of time at lower salaries than any other
5:30
Speaker 4: sport in baseball, and they're not going to want to
5:32
Speaker 4: give up those. So how do you think the players
5:35
Speaker 4: are going to give up a salary cap when the
5:37
Speaker 4: owners aren't going to give up anything that they have
5:39
Speaker 4: to do to even make it respectably fair. And Matt
5:43
Speaker 4: and I all know this, and Kyle knows this. Every
5:46
Speaker 4: team has ballpark villages and all these things that are
5:49
Speaker 4: making them money that they don't claim as revenue from baseball.
5:52
Speaker 4: And they won't show the players what revenue that they
5:55
Speaker 4: count and what the revenue they don't. So there's a
5:58
Speaker 4: lot of different loop polesis owners are going to have
6:01
Speaker 4: to have to sure up to even make it. You know,
6:04
Speaker 4: they're not even open their books for players to see
6:06
Speaker 4: what a revenue sharing system, a cap system would look like.
6:09
Speaker 4: But they wanted there to be a salary cap. So
6:11
Speaker 4: I think it's all big ploy to, you know, kind
6:13
Speaker 4: of push the fans against the players, where the owners
6:16
Speaker 4: are doing nothing to make it even remotely easy to
6:19
Speaker 4: even put a system like that in place, because they
6:21
Speaker 4: don't show us anything that they make and they're crying, hey,
6:24
Speaker 4: we don't have any TV money. But everyone knows that
6:26
Speaker 4: there's certain TV deals in the works after twenty twenty six,
6:30
Speaker 4: when there's going to be a new CBA. So there's
6:33
Speaker 4: a lot of distrust because of the things that I
6:35
Speaker 4: just said.
6:37
Speaker 1: Now, the Dodgers have a TV deal that blows everybody
6:40
Speaker 1: out of the water, right, and it's not someway, it's
6:43
Speaker 1: not part of the revenue share. So let me just
6:45
Speaker 1: be Devil's advocate play that role here. I think a
6:48
Speaker 1: lot of people, not the people that are saying baseball's
6:51
Speaker 1: over as we know it, right, it's too much. As
6:54
Speaker 1: Matt points out, there's things that have to be worked out.
6:58
Speaker 1: But my question to you, Lance is there are folks
7:02
Speaker 1: that I think have a valid point worrying about the
7:06
Speaker 1: sustainability of this, and for teams that inherently don't have
7:12
Speaker 1: nearly as much as the big market teams, is there
7:15
Speaker 1: a way to try to level the playing field. I'm
7:19
Speaker 1: not saying these Look, the owners have a lot of money,
7:22
Speaker 1: all of them. But the guys in the smaller market
7:25
Speaker 1: that don't have the TV revenue and handing out Kyle
7:28
Speaker 1: Tucker contracts kind of like a sailor on a three
7:32
Speaker 1: day pass. Is that sustainable? And do you see that
7:35
Speaker 1: there is a way to find middle ground between players
7:40
Speaker 1: and owners.
7:41
Speaker 4: So here's the thing you just said is the owners
7:43
Speaker 4: won't even share amongst themselves, and you want the players
7:46
Speaker 4: to let them figure out a way to cap themselves
7:50
Speaker 4: and all that. Owners won't share their TV money with
7:53
Speaker 4: each other, like you said, the Dodgers and all that.
7:55
Speaker 4: If they put all those things together and all that,
7:58
Speaker 4: each team could probably have a floor of a one
8:00
Speaker 4: hundred and twenty two hundred and fifty million dollars and
8:02
Speaker 4: each team could have a cap around what the luxury
8:05
Speaker 4: tax is now thinks two forty something or somewhere around there.
8:08
Speaker 4: And if you do that, then yeah, you're going to
8:10
Speaker 4: create some you know, create some parody. But the game
8:14
Speaker 4: of baseball, it's a wave right now that the Dodgers
8:16
Speaker 4: are on, and like Matt said, there's not going to
8:18
Speaker 4: be a proven fact that they're going to win, and
8:20
Speaker 4: if they do, then okay, they did what they were
8:23
Speaker 4: supposed to do. They put a product on the field
8:25
Speaker 4: to win a World Series, which every team is supposed
8:27
Speaker 4: to do, but not every team does. And that being said,
8:31
Speaker 4: you're looking back at the history of the game. There's
8:34
Speaker 4: been a lot of different World Series winners over the
8:36
Speaker 4: last so many years, and then there's been a lot
8:39
Speaker 4: in other sports. They're very much on the same number
8:43
Speaker 4: of new teams that make the playoffs and same number
8:45
Speaker 4: of teams that win World Series and go to a
8:47
Speaker 4: World Series. Are the same number of teams that go
8:49
Speaker 4: into Super Bowls and things like that. So to say
8:52
Speaker 4: that the parody's not there, there's numbers in every league
8:55
Speaker 4: that say, hey, we're right on point with every other league.
8:57
Speaker 4: So there's not a big issue that they want to say.
9:01
Speaker 4: They just want to do it right now because hey,
9:03
Speaker 4: a lot of the media really needs the MLB to
9:06
Speaker 4: make sure that they keep their media going. So that's
9:08
Speaker 4: why they say, oh, the MLB wants this, we should
9:11
Speaker 4: be on board with this because of what the Dodgers
9:13
Speaker 4: are doing, and that's what MOLB is feeding everybody.
9:16
Speaker 1: Interesting point, and I should say that Kyle Gibson put
9:19
Speaker 1: together a nice graphic that sort of backs up your
9:22
Speaker 1: point that if you look at the parody for baseball
9:26
Speaker 1: and teams that are in the postseason or win, the
9:28
Speaker 1: whole thing actually better than the NFL that has more
9:32
Speaker 1: of a structured salary situation. So, Matt help us sift
9:37
Speaker 1: through all this. It seems like the owners and the players,
9:42
Speaker 1: especially in the wake of this Kyle Tuckers, are really
9:46
Speaker 1: far apart. It wasn't a pretty picture before, but there's
9:50
Speaker 1: a labor agreement that has to be hammered out before
9:53
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty seventh season. Your thoughts on where we
9:57
Speaker 1: are right now and the possibility of finding common ground.
10:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think that, you know, one of
10:06
Speaker 2: the things I think found is interesting is that Rob
10:08
Speaker 2: Manford keeps talking about expansion and he wants to add
10:11
Speaker 2: teams and realignment. If the industry is not doing well,
10:15
Speaker 2: and if we have this big problem and we're so
10:19
Speaker 2: you know, it's the end of baseball, and and and
10:21
Speaker 2: every everybody has all these problems. But we want to
10:25
Speaker 2: add two franchises. We want to expand and and and
10:29
Speaker 2: so I don't know, I think there's mixed message messages
10:33
Speaker 2: being sent out. I think the industry, I think, you know,
10:37
Speaker 2: baseball is in a good place. I mean, like I said,
10:40
Speaker 2: the Dodgers, you know, they they're they're spending their money,
10:44
Speaker 2: and like Lance said, they're they're they're they're doing it creatively.
10:48
Speaker 2: They they they have they have the means and they
10:52
Speaker 2: and they have the want to try to win. And
10:55
Speaker 2: I don't know that all owners have that. And so
11:00
Speaker 2: I look, I I know that everybody's angling towards this,
11:03
Speaker 2: you know, this, this next agreement, and this is gonna
11:06
Speaker 2: be the time where you know, the the crap is
11:08
Speaker 2: gonna hit the fan, and owners are gonna stand their ground,
11:12
Speaker 2: and we'll see if they can break the players and
11:15
Speaker 2: get their salary cap and get everything they want so
11:18
Speaker 2: that they can get more money and and don't have
11:22
Speaker 2: to worry about rogue owners like Dodgers and met Uh.
11:26
Speaker 2: These billionaire owners coming in and and uh and just
11:30
Speaker 2: spending whatever it takes. Uh. So uh, I get it.
11:34
Speaker 2: Like I think that it's gonna be it's gonna be difficult,
11:38
Speaker 2: but I'd also think it'll be interesting to see how
11:41
Speaker 2: how long you know, the owners can can hold can
11:45
Speaker 2: lock the players out because they stand to lose hundreds
11:48
Speaker 2: of millions of dollars if there's no baseball played, and
11:51
Speaker 2: just like the players stand to lose money and and
11:55
Speaker 2: and and service time. But it it's probably you know,
12:02
Speaker 2: I think every time we come up to a labor agreement,
12:05
Speaker 2: there's this momentum or this this talk that this is
12:08
Speaker 2: going to be the time where there's gonna be missed games,
12:11
Speaker 2: and this is gonna be the time where there's gonna
12:13
Speaker 2: be substantial lockout or strike or whatever. And when it
12:17
Speaker 2: gets down to it, both sides are are doing extremely
12:21
Speaker 2: well financially, the game is healthy, the fans love it.
12:25
Speaker 2: Are we really gonna risk, you know, sort of having
12:30
Speaker 2: the fans get mad that there's no baseball? And uh
12:33
Speaker 2: and I think that's part of been, like Land said earlier,
12:36
Speaker 2: part of been the picture that maybe trying to be
12:39
Speaker 2: painted is that we have no other choice as owners
12:43
Speaker 2: but to lock the players out so that we can
12:46
Speaker 2: get this thing under control. When they're the same owners
12:49
Speaker 2: that are handing out these contracts and signing the the
12:52
Speaker 2: line right next to the players. Uh So it's it's
12:58
Speaker 2: a it's it's a weird you're dynamic to me, uh
13:01
Speaker 2: to be talking about expansion and and and the game
13:04
Speaker 2: is thriving. Uh to Oh no, we need to we
13:07
Speaker 2: need to we need a cap and and and the
13:09
Speaker 2: game is is is going to suffer. And the game
13:12
Speaker 2: is we have to hold We have to lock the
13:14
Speaker 2: players out or else this thing is gonna you know,
13:16
Speaker 2: it's not sustainable. I mean, that's for the Dodgers to
13:19
Speaker 2: this side. If it's sustainable or not, that's not for
13:22
Speaker 2: anybody else. They everybody else can do what they want. Uh.
13:26
Speaker 2: So that's what kind of where I stand on it.
13:29
Speaker 1: Okay, And so Lance, I'm gonna ask you to put
13:31
Speaker 1: on the hat you're a man of means. Let's say
13:34
Speaker 1: you are a part owner of a smaller market team.
13:38
Speaker 1: And the reason I even say sustainable is because the
13:41
Speaker 1: Dodgers do have an endless pool of money. Even if
13:44
Speaker 1: you're a wealthy owner in a smaller market, you don't
13:46
Speaker 1: have that. And also, cost certainty is something that all
13:50
Speaker 1: businesses tend to thrive on knowing what the costs. Uh,
13:55
Speaker 1: in terms of overhead, what you have to lay out
13:57
Speaker 1: on salaries has to be there. So I do think
13:59
Speaker 1: there is again some validity in trying to control that.
14:03
Speaker 1: But Lance let's say you were an owner of a
14:06
Speaker 1: smaller market team, how would you go about trying to
14:10
Speaker 1: compete with the big boys who have an endless supply
14:15
Speaker 1: of cash.
14:17
Speaker 4: You get to figure out a lot of things that
14:18
Speaker 4: are maybe thinking outside the box and trying to not
14:21
Speaker 4: be cookie cutter as some organizations are. You all right,
14:25
Speaker 4: what's gonna be my my my yearly salary for my
14:29
Speaker 4: team on the field? You know, you know what's your
14:32
Speaker 4: what your minor leagues and all that stuff costs you
14:34
Speaker 4: that comes with the territory. So it's like, hey, what
14:36
Speaker 4: do I see to be the number that makes me
14:39
Speaker 4: able to use you know, whether it's one twenty to
14:42
Speaker 4: one forty range, I'll use those because it's like, all right,
14:46
Speaker 4: what product can I put on the field that makes
14:48
Speaker 4: me win. I'm gonna have to have some young players.
14:50
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to have some maybe undervalued free agents,
14:54
Speaker 4: and then I'm gonna have to have maybe one or
14:56
Speaker 4: two guys that are our stars that can kind of
14:59
Speaker 4: help these guys do the things they do. Where I'm
15:02
Speaker 4: not pushing things out too far, but I'm also developing
15:05
Speaker 4: the right way and managing the way that I do
15:08
Speaker 4: some things. As the years go on, and then you
15:11
Speaker 4: know you're gonna have to be okay with the years
15:13
Speaker 4: that the first half don't go well. You you spend
15:16
Speaker 4: a piece that you might like a lot for a
15:18
Speaker 4: couple different pieces and hit on them. Those are the
15:21
Speaker 4: things you have to be able to do as a
15:23
Speaker 4: market as a smaller market team. But you also have
15:26
Speaker 4: to be willing to be like, hey, I know that
15:29
Speaker 4: the number is going to be around one twenty to
15:31
Speaker 4: one forty to be what I call respectable and have
15:34
Speaker 4: a chance to win, and then at that deadline, I
15:37
Speaker 4: can add or subtract, whether depending on how my season's going,
15:41
Speaker 4: and then be able to put a lot of value
15:43
Speaker 4: into Hey, I'm developing baseball players so when they show up,
15:48
Speaker 4: I can win games. And Milwaukee's a team that you
15:50
Speaker 4: can look at and be like, oh, okay, that makes sense.
15:53
Speaker 4: And a lot of teams don't do that. They don't
15:54
Speaker 4: develop baseball players. They're developing statistics or certain sabermetrics that
16:01
Speaker 4: don't accumulate into wins. So teams are going to have
16:04
Speaker 4: to kind of say, all right, these sabermetrics, are these
16:07
Speaker 4: numbers accumulate and to on field production, But how can
16:10
Speaker 4: I put a team together. That's going to accumulate wins,
16:12
Speaker 4: and that's what Milwaukee and teams you know, kind of
16:15
Speaker 4: like Milwaukee have done.
16:16
Speaker 3: And you got to have youth.
16:17
Speaker 4: You gotta have some guys that you can carry you
16:19
Speaker 4: times throughout the year. And then obviously you always need pitching,
16:22
Speaker 4: and that's going to be the main thing is you
16:24
Speaker 4: got to be able to develop pitching.
16:26
Speaker 1: If any of our viewers are out there and have
16:28
Speaker 1: a lot of money, I'm talking about a lot of money,
16:31
Speaker 1: pull it together and buy Lance Linn a baseball team,
16:35
Speaker 1: because I'd like to see a team owned by Lancelnn.
16:38
Speaker 1: You are watching Cardinal Territory on the File Territory Network.
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17:44
Speaker 1: There is no better sign th baseball is around the
17:48
Speaker 1: corner than the Cardinals winter warm up. I know, I
17:52
Speaker 1: know that lance Lynn loved to go to that thing.
17:55
Speaker 1: I know Matt Holiday love to go to it. Well,
17:57
Speaker 1: this year's is nearly over, and I thought it was
18:00
Speaker 1: very interesting because it was hein Bloom's first winter warm
18:03
Speaker 1: up where he was out front kind of trying to
18:07
Speaker 1: sell his rebuilding plan. And what he did was he
18:10
Speaker 1: said look, we're upfront about it. Is he called it building.
18:13
Speaker 1: Mister DeWitt called it called it building as well. But
18:18
Speaker 1: they're going to see some young guys on the field
18:21
Speaker 1: this year, and he's asking fans to buy into it,
18:24
Speaker 1: to show up, and he hopes that they will be
18:27
Speaker 1: a competitive team, a team you can root for, understanding
18:31
Speaker 1: that this is the path toward sustain success with the Cardinals.
18:36
Speaker 1: So he's basically asking for buying from the fans. Matt,
18:40
Speaker 1: you've been to many winter warm ups just what hein
18:44
Speaker 1: Bloom is asking from Cardinal fans understanding that this is
18:48
Speaker 1: not necessarily when now it's part of a process.
18:56
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, look, I think that we all know that.
19:00
Speaker 2: I just think that it's it's tough to swallow as
19:05
Speaker 2: a Cardinal fan. I think when you've been so good
19:08
Speaker 2: for so long to to enter into this build or rebuild,
19:13
Speaker 2: whatever whatever you want to call it, basically for the
19:17
Speaker 2: Cardinals to go into a a season and I guess
19:21
Speaker 2: it's been a couple now where you know, winning the
19:24
Speaker 2: World Series or or maybe even you know, making the
19:28
Speaker 2: playoffs doesn't seem to be the number one goal. I
19:32
Speaker 2: think that's hard, that's hard to that's hard to swallow
19:34
Speaker 2: as a fan, and and and Saint Louis and and
19:37
Speaker 2: call them spoiled or you know, call the call. You know,
19:41
Speaker 2: the fans they've they're just used to winning and having
19:45
Speaker 2: a team that's it's enjoyable to go watch, uh on
19:49
Speaker 2: hot summer nights, and and it's it's, uh, yeah, look,
19:55
Speaker 2: we all understand it's a build and a rebuild, and
19:58
Speaker 2: and uh, you know they've they've traded three uh, three
20:02
Speaker 2: guys that have been All Stars. So I don't know
20:05
Speaker 2: how many All Star appearances you have on the current roster,
20:08
Speaker 2: maybe just a couple. So it's it might be a
20:14
Speaker 2: tough sell, uh to come to come watch you know,
20:18
Speaker 2: I guess you sell the idea of of J. J.
20:20
Speaker 2: Weatherholt and Mason Win and some other young players and
20:24
Speaker 2: and uh uh but it's a it's certainly a different
20:28
Speaker 2: situation than when Lance and I were coming to to
20:30
Speaker 2: winter warm ups, where uh, you know, the expectation and
20:33
Speaker 2: the goal every winner warm up that I went to
20:36
Speaker 2: was we want to win the World Series, and we're
20:39
Speaker 2: gonna be in the playoffs and and we just have
20:41
Speaker 2: to find a way to win the last game to
20:44
Speaker 2: where now it's it's all these words that we weren't
20:47
Speaker 2: used to or build or rebuild or you know, introducing
20:52
Speaker 2: young guys that are gonna, you know, give gives some excitement.
20:57
Speaker 2: It's it's certainly a big change from what most Cardinal
21:02
Speaker 2: fans and players like Lance and I are used to.
21:06
Speaker 1: I know Lance didn't like when we called it a reset.
21:11
Speaker 1: He called it a teardown. He didn't say it was
21:14
Speaker 1: a full down to the down to the bolt teardown,
21:17
Speaker 1: but he said it was well on the way. Lance,
21:20
Speaker 1: what about a fine blown saying.
21:22
Speaker 3: We're finally calling it rebuilt.
21:25
Speaker 1: No, no, they're calling it a building.
21:26
Speaker 4: A built Yeah, because they're rebuilding, got it?
21:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're building it definitely, so you're rebuilding it. Got it? Ok?
21:35
Speaker 1: Okay, But there are some young talented players to watch.
21:39
Speaker 1: How would you go about trying to tell your audience,
21:42
Speaker 1: your fans who are used to winning baseball, used to
21:47
Speaker 1: having a shot at going all the way, they do
21:49
Speaker 1: have some young exciting If JJ Weatherholt emerges from spring
21:52
Speaker 1: training as a starter, he'll be fun to watch. Certainly,
21:56
Speaker 1: Mason win Burlison Herrero there. How would you sell it
22:01
Speaker 1: if Lance Lynn is again owner of that smaller market
22:05
Speaker 1: team that maybe didn't invest in big stars.
22:08
Speaker 4: All right, so you're asking me to be positive. So
22:10
Speaker 4: I was ready for this. I So here's how here's
22:13
Speaker 4: how I look at it. You're looking at a team
22:15
Speaker 4: that when you look at win loss last year, there
22:17
Speaker 4: were four more wins or three or four more.
22:20
Speaker 3: Wins away from being a five hundred team.
22:22
Speaker 4: But Contrera's, Nato and and Sonny are gone.
22:27
Speaker 1: Uh not o.
22:28
Speaker 4: Contrera's were hurt at times throughout the year, and this
22:31
Speaker 4: and that Sonny is the kind of the innings and
22:34
Speaker 4: the stabilizer that you got to kind of maybe fix
22:38
Speaker 4: so far and you got a deep rotation. You've collected
22:41
Speaker 4: a lot of arms. So if you look at it
22:43
Speaker 4: this way, I hope they're not done. And the off
22:45
Speaker 4: season because you get to that time of year right
22:48
Speaker 4: now where some guys might have fallen in free agency
22:52
Speaker 4: and you might be surprised what a one year looks like.
22:55
Speaker 3: So if you do the.
22:56
Speaker 4: Right little one year deals with the team that you
22:59
Speaker 4: already have on the field that you can say was
23:01
Speaker 4: a seventy you know, high seventies win team last year,
23:05
Speaker 4: add a few veteran pieces with the holes that you
23:08
Speaker 4: know that you need to feel. They need to feel
23:10
Speaker 4: a right handed hitting outfield bat. They need to feel
23:13
Speaker 4: maybe a right handed hitting infielder that can do some things,
23:16
Speaker 4: whether it's third or second and or first in DH spot.
23:21
Speaker 4: So I don't think the finished roster is done yet,
23:24
Speaker 4: at least I hope not. And if you add the
23:26
Speaker 4: things we're talking about and then seeing what veteran pitcher's
23:29
Speaker 4: there for one for five to eight, at the end
23:31
Speaker 4: of this year, you've replaced everything that you lost in
23:35
Speaker 4: free agent or non free agency, but in your trades.
23:38
Speaker 4: And then you've also added a boatload of minor league
23:41
Speaker 4: arms that you don't know what they're going to be.
23:43
Speaker 4: But it also gives you a lot of depth throughout
23:45
Speaker 4: a year. And everybody knows you need a lot of
23:47
Speaker 4: arms and depth throughout out of the season. And they
23:50
Speaker 4: have a lot of those guys that are going to
23:51
Speaker 4: be in the Triple A level that they got back
23:53
Speaker 4: in these deals. So you look at it that way,
23:56
Speaker 4: and like I said, you find a way to put
23:58
Speaker 4: winning products on the field by say, hey, I'm giving
24:01
Speaker 4: Ali the idea of saying this picture, these matchups, these players,
24:07
Speaker 4: these positions. Let him go figure out how to put
24:10
Speaker 4: a product on the field to let these guys not
24:12
Speaker 4: only get in situations where they succeed but also become
24:16
Speaker 4: major league talented players, but put that on a winning product.
24:20
Speaker 4: And those things are all there. The question is how
24:23
Speaker 4: are we going to finish up the roster. So Alli
24:26
Speaker 4: has the pieces that he does to not overexpose anyone
24:30
Speaker 4: but also put them in situations to win.
24:32
Speaker 3: So that's my positive, positive look on this. I like it.
24:36
Speaker 1: I like it. And heim Bloom did say, yeah, they
24:39
Speaker 1: need a right handed outfielder that they will still pursue
24:42
Speaker 1: when he mentioned maybe a guy with a little bit
24:45
Speaker 1: of a veteran cachet in there and him said he's
24:49
Speaker 1: always looking like he's never stop looking for deals. He's
24:52
Speaker 1: gonna keep going. So maybe there is more to do.
24:55
Speaker 1: Last thing for you guys, because I'm sentimental, But Matt,
25:00
Speaker 1: you've been to many Cardinal winter warm ups. What's that
25:05
Speaker 1: like when you get to you know, not only hang
25:08
Speaker 1: with the media, which I know you love, but also
25:11
Speaker 1: see the fans, you know, elbow to elbow and eye
25:14
Speaker 1: to eye like with the media that you apparently don't like.
25:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I I think winter warm up was
25:22
Speaker 2: always fun. You know, it's always exciting to see the
25:24
Speaker 2: fans and and you know it meant screen trainers right
25:27
Speaker 2: around the corner, which when you're you know, when you're
25:30
Speaker 2: living you're around in Saint Louis, which we were for
25:32
Speaker 2: a couple of years, was was a good feeling knowing
25:35
Speaker 2: you're about to go down to some warmer weather and uh,
25:37
Speaker 2: and the excitement of baseball season was right around the corner.
25:40
Speaker 2: So always enjoyed that. And uh, you know, even when
25:43
Speaker 2: I had to answer dumb.
25:44
Speaker 1: Questions and when you lived in Saint Louis, we were neighbors, Lance,
25:49
Speaker 1: do you have a warm and fuzzy memory of of
25:52
Speaker 1: the winter warm up in Saint Louis?
25:55
Speaker 3: Uh?
25:56
Speaker 4: You know, you know, I've never had a bad time
25:58
Speaker 4: with the winter warm ups. You know, you do the
26:00
Speaker 4: caravan and stuff like that. They've always put on a
26:02
Speaker 4: good show for the fans. And you know, I've never
26:05
Speaker 4: been on a team that did any of that for
26:08
Speaker 4: fans and stuff like that. You see very few times
26:10
Speaker 4: that you know, these have these things. But I will
26:14
Speaker 4: say this, the Cardinals, you know, they try to do
26:16
Speaker 4: everything they can for their fans. Right now, they're frustrated
26:19
Speaker 4: with them, as they have every right to be. Because
26:22
Speaker 4: you see kind of a product on your field that
26:25
Speaker 4: isn't tailored for making playoff pushes and stuff like that
26:29
Speaker 4: in their minds.
26:29
Speaker 3: But they're always, you.
26:30
Speaker 4: Know, trying to make sure the fans have things to do,
26:33
Speaker 4: whether it's this with the winner warm up and or
26:35
Speaker 4: when players come back and during the season and do
26:37
Speaker 4: signings and stuff like that, where you you know, not
26:40
Speaker 4: all organizations do that.
26:42
Speaker 3: It's nice.
26:43
Speaker 1: It's very nice, gentlemen. We appreciate the time, and don't forget.
26:47
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26:54
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27:00
Speaker 1: on there for us. That's gonna do it for this
27:02
Speaker 1: edition of Cardinal Territory. We'll see you next time and
27:05
Speaker 1: hopefully that episode won't suck.