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The Cardinals bullpen is a problem. How can they fix it? · Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: A very happy Cardinals off day after a not so
0:08
Speaker 1: happy Cardinals road trip.
0:10
Speaker 2: The local nine went one.
0:12
Speaker 1: In six on the road, and they lost a lot
0:15
Speaker 1: of late inning ball games, which has capitalized. On Wednesday,
0:20
Speaker 1: series finale against the Atlanta Braves, Ryan Fernandez serves up
0:23
Speaker 1: a three run homer in the eighth inning to Eli
0:25
Speaker 1: White and who I totally heard of entering the game.
0:27
Speaker 2: I totally knew who that was. And it just keeps.
0:31
Speaker 1: Snowballing for this A Bullpen Welcome back to Cardinal territory,
0:35
Speaker 1: Katie and Bernie coming at you for a Bullpen Breakdown episode.
0:40
Speaker 1: Lots to talk about, lots to say. Bernie, We'll start
0:43
Speaker 1: with you.
0:44
Speaker 2: What do you make of the situation here?
0:47
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, where to start? Right with you? The
0:53
Speaker 3: You know, first of all we talk about you know,
0:55
Speaker 3: they're two and eleven on the road. There's only been
0:56
Speaker 3: one Cardinals team worse than that after thirteen games. And
1:00
Speaker 3: I know you're thinking, well, why are you talking about that.
1:02
Speaker 3: I'm talking about that because you know what they're the
1:03
Speaker 3: bullpen's roady are is seven point twenty seven. So yeah,
1:08
Speaker 3: that's the needless to say, that's the worst of road
1:10
Speaker 3: raf by a bullpen in the majors. So I'm bringing
1:12
Speaker 3: that up because you know, I'm not saying that neither
1:16
Speaker 3: one of us are going to say today that you know,
1:18
Speaker 3: the bullpen's the only problem. Like I was really ticked
1:20
Speaker 3: off watching that game in Atlanta yesterday where the Cardinals
1:23
Speaker 3: had a chance of you know, get them runs off
1:25
Speaker 3: Bryce Elder who has not been very good at all,
1:27
Speaker 3: and they had a chance to take advantage of a
1:28
Speaker 3: fatigue Atlanta bullpen, and they did, but the game is
1:32
Speaker 3: still there and it just all blew up again. It's
1:34
Speaker 3: just Napalm City all the time. So I don't know
1:38
Speaker 3: how it gets better. That's the thing. I don't know
1:40
Speaker 3: how it gets better because Ryan Fernandez and Jojo Romero
1:44
Speaker 3: have both gone way way south, and they got to
1:47
Speaker 3: get Fernandez in the minor leagues. Try to try to
1:49
Speaker 3: fix them. Olli Marvel, and I want, I really want
1:53
Speaker 3: to get your thake on this. Oli Marvel made it
1:54
Speaker 3: very clear yesterday that you know, don't look for help
1:59
Speaker 3: down below. That's not going to change anything. And I
2:01
Speaker 3: thought that was a I thought there was a loaded
2:04
Speaker 3: comment him, but no, there's no question about it. The
2:08
Speaker 3: bullpen was a Cardinal's number one strength without a doubt
2:11
Speaker 3: last year, and now it is the number one liability,
2:15
Speaker 3: and it is worse than I even imagined. And I
2:17
Speaker 3: thought it the bullpen performance would go down some this
2:20
Speaker 3: year because history tells us you're not going to get
2:23
Speaker 3: too exceptional seasons in a row out of your bullpen
2:26
Speaker 3: because relievers are just all over the place. But I didn't.
2:30
Speaker 3: I could not comprehend that it would be as bad
2:32
Speaker 3: as it is. It's not only just the performance, but
2:34
Speaker 3: it's okay bad performance. Where are the solutions? The answer is,
2:38
Speaker 3: I don't know, because they don't know, right, correct.
2:44
Speaker 1: I think I have to say it now. I think
2:45
Speaker 1: I have to admit that I was wrong about the bullpen.
2:49
Speaker 1: I like you, I didn't expect them to be absolutely
2:51
Speaker 1: nails like they were last year, and some aggression was
2:54
Speaker 1: going to take place from any player that overperformed last season.
2:57
Speaker 2: I did not think it would have regressed to this point.
3:00
Speaker 1: Jojo Romero, Ryan Fernandez two staples in last year's bullpen.
3:04
Speaker 1: And when we get into this, because you brought up
3:07
Speaker 1: the quote that always said and we'll get there, it's
3:10
Speaker 1: important to note that this bullpen was crafted and designed
3:14
Speaker 1: with the belief that Fernandez and Romeiro would take steps forward,
3:18
Speaker 1: not backwards, and certainly not fall into this extent that
3:22
Speaker 1: they have. I mean, Fernandez has an era over eleven
3:25
Speaker 1: Jojo an Ara over seven kids just getting killed by
3:28
Speaker 1: Riety's as you pointed out on last week's show, and
3:32
Speaker 1: all they did was say, put this under their runway platform, right,
3:37
Speaker 1: It's all about opportunity.
3:39
Speaker 2: Let's get these guys opportunities.
3:40
Speaker 1: Well, relief pitching is so volatile, not even from season
3:42
Speaker 1: to season, not even from month to month, but from
3:45
Speaker 1: week to week. And this quote from Allie Marmal I'll
3:48
Speaker 1: read it because I like you, Bernie. When he said
3:49
Speaker 1: it on camera, I was like, Oh, that's that is
3:53
Speaker 1: saying the quiet part out loud. Here's what he said
3:56
Speaker 1: after Jojo and Ryan Fernandez combined for that thanning. This
4:01
Speaker 1: is who we got and we got to get them
4:03
Speaker 1: back on track. There's nothing coming from down below where
4:06
Speaker 1: it's going to change. We have to get these guys better,
4:08
Speaker 1: and the only way is for them to pitch. It's
4:10
Speaker 1: absolutely frustrating, but we're going to keep going with them.
4:13
Speaker 1: We have to continue to encourage them and continue to
4:15
Speaker 1: get on the other side of this. I took this
4:18
Speaker 1: the exact same way you did. That was a what
4:21
Speaker 1: else do you want me to do? We don't have
4:23
Speaker 1: anyone in the miners that's gonna come up and fix
4:25
Speaker 1: this problem. Now, it's use. They don't have guys you
4:28
Speaker 1: can bring back. You can recall Chris Roycroft. You can
4:31
Speaker 1: see what Riley O'Brien looks like.
4:32
Speaker 2: At this point, I get.
4:34
Speaker 1: Over the first two weeks of the season letting Fernandez
4:37
Speaker 1: go out there and trying to figure it out.
4:38
Speaker 2: I get that. However, it's been a month and that
4:41
Speaker 2: slider hasn't looked any better, and the more he goes
4:44
Speaker 2: out there and the more demoralizing it gets. So can
4:47
Speaker 2: you make the change to send Fernandez down and get
4:48
Speaker 2: him right in the miners and bring up one of
4:50
Speaker 2: those other guys?
4:51
Speaker 3: Yes?
4:52
Speaker 1: Sure, But are you really changing anything, Bernie, because all
4:55
Speaker 1: you're changing is the name on the journey? Are you
4:57
Speaker 1: changing the problem? No, you still don't have that. You
5:00
Speaker 1: feel comfortable under Phil Maton. And that's I think what
5:02
Speaker 1: Ali Marmal is saying.
5:04
Speaker 3: And he is exactly what he was saying, and he
5:07
Speaker 3: that message was directly, well not directly, because it's not
5:10
Speaker 3: like Moe was standing in the room, but that message
5:13
Speaker 3: was sent to John Moselek, and I have no doubt
5:17
Speaker 3: about that whatsoever. And I know how these things work.
5:20
Speaker 3: I also know that Ali is very frustrated, as he said,
5:24
Speaker 3: by the situation, and you know, he's kind of been
5:28
Speaker 3: left to try to figure this out on his own.
5:30
Speaker 3: Except they don't have enough depth, they don't have enough talent.
5:33
Speaker 3: And I don't like to turn these cardinal territories with
5:37
Speaker 3: you because it's a it's a privilege to do them
5:39
Speaker 3: with you. So I don't want to turn it into
5:41
Speaker 3: me doing the stat boy thing. But do it. I
5:44
Speaker 3: put this on X today. Okay, if we take Steven
5:48
Speaker 3: Mattz's innings in the bullpen, not the start, but in
5:51
Speaker 3: the bullpen, So Lay, Mayton Hellsley and Matt's forty nine
5:56
Speaker 3: to two thirds innings, they have a one nine to
5:58
Speaker 3: nine ERA, right, everyone else in that bullpen has got
6:03
Speaker 3: a nine to thirty three e er combine. Is that unbelievable? Seriously?
6:08
Speaker 2: Crazy? Is that nuts?
6:11
Speaker 3: So? And that that includes Matt's in the bullpen, and
6:14
Speaker 3: he's really not a full time bullpen you know, guy,
6:17
Speaker 3: I mean Lay, he's been phenomenal. Uh, may Tom's been
6:21
Speaker 3: really really good. Uh you mentioned the other day, and
6:23
Speaker 3: I agree with you. I do worry though, that they're
6:25
Speaker 3: going to run him into the ground. Ryan Helsley is
6:28
Speaker 3: an interesting case to me because you know, the last
6:33
Speaker 3: sixteen games he's he's only had three save opportunities. Like,
6:37
Speaker 3: he doesn't pitch anymore, no, we were.
6:40
Speaker 2: I mentioned that to him in Atlanta. I said, hey,
6:42
Speaker 2: have you have you pitched yet? And he was like nope.
6:44
Speaker 2: I was like maybe today, maybe today you will.
6:47
Speaker 3: And it's interesting because he's had some by by a
6:50
Speaker 3: closer standards, he's had some extended absences from pitching, and
6:55
Speaker 3: if you notice when he does pitch after these absences,
6:59
Speaker 3: he he does not have his vintage strikeout stuff. So
7:02
Speaker 3: it actually works against him. And so I don't want
7:06
Speaker 3: to jump ahead and see I'm already all over the
7:08
Speaker 3: place because there's just so much there. But it's okay.
7:11
Speaker 3: Some of the Cardinals, No, Ali is Olli's very very frustrated,
7:15
Speaker 3: you know, I think Oli. You know, frankly, I think
7:18
Speaker 3: Ali had to pester Mo over and over and over
7:21
Speaker 3: and over again to get philm Meton, and Mo just kept,
7:27
Speaker 3: you know, waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting I
7:30
Speaker 3: guess till the you know, he got the rock bottom
7:32
Speaker 3: price on him, which it seems. But where do you
7:35
Speaker 3: go from here? And I will I will, I will
7:37
Speaker 3: say this about Ali. Okay, take Matt Sjohnson. I'm not
7:41
Speaker 3: saying this guy's like the next Jason Israehausen, but listen,
7:45
Speaker 3: you don't have depth. You're leaning on guys like Fernandez
7:48
Speaker 3: and Romero who were just just getting blown up every time,
7:52
Speaker 3: just about. And if you're going to bring up someone
7:57
Speaker 3: and it's someone who did lead double A league in
8:00
Speaker 3: saves last year and he's been okay at Memphis, he's
8:03
Speaker 3: got to pitch. You can't just let him sit around.
8:06
Speaker 3: He's got to pitch. And I could use the old
8:10
Speaker 3: the old saying, it's like, well, you know, he can't
8:12
Speaker 3: be any worse than a couple of these guys down there,
8:14
Speaker 3: you know. So, But I worry that they're gonna I
8:18
Speaker 3: worry they're going to overpitch lady. I worry they're going
8:20
Speaker 3: to overpitch Maton. And then when they do that, then
8:23
Speaker 3: it's you think it's bad now. But I do think
8:26
Speaker 3: Ali and uh and Dusty Blake are conscientious about that.
8:31
Speaker 3: I think they want to protect those guys. They're just
8:34
Speaker 3: yeah and you and you're right there and you're always
8:36
Speaker 3: talking to them about that. Anyway, that's sort of my
8:38
Speaker 3: opening thoughts on this with a good stat thrown in,
8:41
Speaker 3: so you take it from there.
8:42
Speaker 2: That was a great stat.
8:43
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about Mayton because we collectively,
8:48
Speaker 1: Cardinal Territory family and Cardinals fans in general, tend to
8:51
Speaker 1: really overanalyze the bullpen in general.
8:53
Speaker 2: And it makes sense.
8:54
Speaker 1: Because when when the bullpen collapses, usually the game result
8:59
Speaker 1: comes with it. So I thought Ollie made great points
9:02
Speaker 1: yesterday about the runway that the organization extends to position players.
9:05
Speaker 1: You go out there and you run Jordan Walker out
9:08
Speaker 1: there every day, and if he goes over four, he's
9:10
Speaker 1: in the line at the next day.
9:10
Speaker 2: Same with Nolan Gorman. Take your pick.
9:12
Speaker 1: But if you were extending opportunities to these players in
9:15
Speaker 1: the bullpen, well, Ryan Fernandez goes out there and blows
9:18
Speaker 1: a lead and the Cardinals lose. You're fixating on that
9:22
Speaker 1: because it had a direct impact on the result of
9:24
Speaker 1: the game. So the opportunity and the runway for the
9:27
Speaker 1: bullpen is so much more complex than the opportunity and
9:30
Speaker 1: the run for position players. Also the way that we
9:33
Speaker 1: analyze bullpen usage. I'm not here and I'm not going
9:36
Speaker 1: to say Allie Marmel and Dusty Bay have been perfect,
9:38
Speaker 1: but there are so many other factors and which reliever
9:43
Speaker 1: comes in when other than right handed or left handed
9:46
Speaker 1: handedness splits and the three batter minimum. So yesterday, Miles
9:51
Speaker 1: michaelis great job, six scoreless Inians. You would have wished
9:54
Speaker 1: the offense could get to Bryce Elder.
9:56
Speaker 2: They couldn't.
9:58
Speaker 1: Kyle Lahey comes in, does a great job, and you're
10:00
Speaker 1: feeling pretty good about where you are coming into the
10:01
Speaker 1: eighth and then you know, I'm looking in the press
10:04
Speaker 1: box and I take out my little binoculars and I'm
10:06
Speaker 1: seeing Jojo and Fernandez warming at the same time, and
10:09
Speaker 1: I think, Okay, Phil Mayton has to be down today. Yeah,
10:13
Speaker 1: And we were looking back and he didn't pitch on Tuesday,
10:16
Speaker 1: but he did pitch on Monday, so we were a
10:18
Speaker 1: little confused on why he was down. Jojo comes in,
10:21
Speaker 1: you know how that goes? Fernandez? Same thing. Well, Phil Mayton,
10:25
Speaker 1: And this is part of this is partly on the
10:26
Speaker 1: front office because they signed him so late in the spring,
10:30
Speaker 1: He's only got a three week ramp up period. And
10:32
Speaker 1: if you're looking at this from a calendar perspective, he's
10:35
Speaker 1: in week six of his throwing program. In week six
10:37
Speaker 1: of spring training, you are throwing too, maybe three times
10:42
Speaker 1: a week. If Phil Mayton would have come in the
10:44
Speaker 1: game on Wednesday, that would have been five times in
10:46
Speaker 1: a week. And he is as pro as it can be. No,
10:49
Speaker 1: he blew a game on Monday, and he was waiting
10:51
Speaker 1: for us at his locker like, yeah, come on, let's
10:52
Speaker 1: do it. And he's going to take the ball every
10:56
Speaker 1: time he wants to. He's durable for a reason. But
10:58
Speaker 1: if you overuse him in AP then.
11:00
Speaker 2: You don't have him in June.
11:01
Speaker 1: Not only are you screwing your team, you're costing that
11:04
Speaker 1: player's career and playing time. You know, film Aton's a
11:07
Speaker 1: ten year veteran. In this game, he goes out. He
11:09
Speaker 1: barely got a job in the first place, which is
11:11
Speaker 1: crazy because he's been great. He goes out and he's
11:13
Speaker 1: injured and he hurts himself. You're impacting his career as well.
11:16
Speaker 1: So we have to think about those things, which makes
11:19
Speaker 1: explaining bullpen usage really frustrating for me personally. And again
11:24
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that you know, every single decision has
11:27
Speaker 1: been the right one, but the constant clamoring over why
11:31
Speaker 1: wasn't this reliever used or why was on the bench?
11:34
Speaker 1: I think, you know, we need to process this not
11:37
Speaker 1: just from the result of the game, because there are
11:40
Speaker 1: plenty of times where the wrong reliever comes in and
11:42
Speaker 1: does great and we don't talk about it.
11:44
Speaker 3: Now.
11:44
Speaker 1: The several conversation that we need to have is that
11:46
Speaker 1: there just aren't many good relievers that can pitch for
11:50
Speaker 1: the Cardinals right now, and it's not like you can
11:52
Speaker 1: keep running out at this point. Fernandez and Romero they're
11:55
Speaker 1: not right and they need to get to be right.
11:56
Speaker 1: They're going to be pivotal for this team down the stretch.
11:59
Speaker 1: It's April twenty fourth, but we're almost right on time
12:02
Speaker 1: for our regularly scheduled April collapse.
12:04
Speaker 2: You need to avoid that, and so by doing that,
12:06
Speaker 2: you have to get those two right.
12:08
Speaker 1: The problem is, Bernie, like we talked about, who is
12:10
Speaker 1: going to come up and help you, You have one
12:13
Speaker 1: of your best relievers in the rotation in Matthew Libertoire,
12:16
Speaker 1: which is where he needs to be.
12:17
Speaker 2: Stephen Matz.
12:18
Speaker 1: You can't have him in that one ning role or
12:20
Speaker 1: so because he needs length to come in his SPOS
12:23
Speaker 1: star in the rotation. This is all a microcosm of
12:25
Speaker 1: saying what we have known for years. The Cardinals problems
12:29
Speaker 1: are not just major league level. They have infiltrated through
12:31
Speaker 1: the entire organization. They have virtually zero depth, and they
12:35
Speaker 1: presented a major league roster with a razor thin margin
12:39
Speaker 1: for error, and that is why they are ten and sixteen.
12:42
Speaker 3: I totally agree with that, And you know, I want
12:44
Speaker 3: to go back to something. You're right, there's a deep,
12:47
Speaker 3: fundamental flaw with where it's all just kind of hit
12:51
Speaker 3: home really really hard because it's been going this way.
12:54
Speaker 3: In fact, what they did last year with that bullpen
12:56
Speaker 3: was amazing, but it was also onrealistic to expect it
13:00
Speaker 3: to be even close to that. But I want to
13:02
Speaker 3: go back to something he said, because you're so right
13:05
Speaker 3: about you know, and I look at this way. A
13:09
Speaker 3: manager is going to catch hell one way or the other.
13:11
Speaker 3: Like take philm Maton, take your example. It was really
13:16
Speaker 3: really pushing it way too far to ask that guy
13:19
Speaker 3: to pitch again yesterday because you want him for one
13:22
Speaker 3: hundred and sixty two games. But the way it works,
13:25
Speaker 3: and this is true, I'm not ripping Cardinals fans. It's
13:28
Speaker 3: true of any fan base the way, and it's true
13:30
Speaker 3: of some media for that matter. So you have Phil
13:34
Speaker 3: phil Maton, who clearly needed a day. He just he
13:37
Speaker 3: would have pitched, but that's not the point. He clearly
13:41
Speaker 3: needed today, right. So if Ali brings him in and
13:46
Speaker 3: he's tired, he doesn't have his sharp stuff or whatever,
13:49
Speaker 3: and he gets blasted, it's like, well, he's been pitching
13:52
Speaker 3: a lot, why did he bring him in? You know,
13:56
Speaker 3: you know. And if he doesn't, if he doesn't pitch,
13:58
Speaker 3: it's like, well, why doesn't he used phil Maton? He's
14:01
Speaker 3: got Mayton down there, what is he doing? So Ali,
14:04
Speaker 3: actually any manager could lose in two different ways in
14:07
Speaker 3: this whole debate where fans are demanding a certain reliever
14:10
Speaker 3: come in. Either Mayton because he's pitched so much and
14:15
Speaker 3: he needs a day, is going to get ripped up
14:17
Speaker 3: in the in in his appearance, or and it happens
14:21
Speaker 3: a lot to relievers even he's durable, or he's going
14:24
Speaker 3: to get hurt. So they're screaming for him come into
14:27
Speaker 3: the game. But if he comes into the game and
14:28
Speaker 3: he's bad because he's tired, or he comes into the game,
14:31
Speaker 3: gosh forbid, you know, and he gets hurt. What are
14:35
Speaker 3: they going to be screaming about?
14:37
Speaker 2: Why screaming the game?
14:39
Speaker 3: Yeah? Why? What's why's Olly running this guy into the ground. See,
14:42
Speaker 3: I had a thing if if you don't mind this
14:44
Speaker 3: real quick, because it's all related. I gave Mike Matheni
14:48
Speaker 3: the U a very a very unfriendly nickname in terms
14:54
Speaker 3: of his bullpen handling, right, I nickname him, I'm sorry,
15:00
Speaker 3: I'm a bad person. I nicknamed him the wood Chipper.
15:04
Speaker 2: Okay.
15:05
Speaker 3: And and because it's like relievers would be out there
15:09
Speaker 3: all the time and then like one by one, they
15:11
Speaker 3: would just be physically destroyed. Our mutual good friend Trevor
15:15
Speaker 3: Rosenthal was one of those guys. Seth Manus was one
15:18
Speaker 3: of those guys. Kevin Segress was one of those guys.
15:20
Speaker 3: Matt Bowman was one of those guys. I mean, on
15:22
Speaker 3: and on and on and on. So many of those
15:26
Speaker 3: relievers were just broken, primarily I think through over usage
15:32
Speaker 3: right where you just pushed it too far. Even Mike
15:35
Speaker 3: Schelt and I think we both admire his skills as
15:38
Speaker 3: a manager. In the first half of the season in Gosh,
15:42
Speaker 3: I forget these years now, but they had three excellent relievers.
15:46
Speaker 3: It's twenty twenty one. I believe I had three. Yeah,
15:49
Speaker 3: they had. They had three excellent relievers in alexres Uh, Giovanni,
15:54
Speaker 3: Giho Goz and Hennis's Cabrera.
15:55
Speaker 2: Yes, there's seventy and Schilk.
15:58
Speaker 3: Just ran them out there over and over and over
16:01
Speaker 3: and over again. And I wasn't second guessing because when
16:04
Speaker 3: I was writing stuff about I was saying, well, you
16:07
Speaker 3: need you need to You might want to lighten us
16:09
Speaker 3: up a little bit. I mean, this is this is
16:11
Speaker 3: really pushing Alex Reyes and Diego's at some point is
16:16
Speaker 3: just to lose his steam, and Cabrera looks tired. Those guys,
16:21
Speaker 3: all of them were just totally different in a bad
16:24
Speaker 3: way in the second half. I mean, she'll burn his
16:27
Speaker 3: bullpen out, you listen. I empathize with managers. It's got
16:31
Speaker 3: to be tempting to go with your best guys, maybe
16:34
Speaker 3: more than you should, but you do it anyway. But
16:37
Speaker 3: it's just bad policy, and it's just you know, eventually
16:41
Speaker 3: they're gonna crack. Eventually they're going to break. And if
16:44
Speaker 3: you're you're thinking about one hundred and sixty two games,
16:48
Speaker 3: you've got to have at least some moderation in there.
16:51
Speaker 3: It can't be so intense and extreme. So I've seen
16:55
Speaker 3: manager after manager after manager do this, So I I'm
16:59
Speaker 3: particularly sensitive to this type of situation because because I'm
17:02
Speaker 3: very familiar with the history of what happens is if
17:05
Speaker 3: you push individual levers too hard.
17:08
Speaker 1: And to your point, Bernie, those three players that was
17:11
Speaker 1: my first year, Yeah, any of those three relievers the
17:14
Speaker 1: same after the twenty twenty one season they were.
17:18
Speaker 2: Alex Rays, didn't pitch again.
17:19
Speaker 1: Hennessis Cabrera is in the minors, Giovanni Geyuga, same thing
17:22
Speaker 1: on the sixty dil in Oklahoma City. So you have
17:25
Speaker 1: to you have to respect the career and take that
17:27
Speaker 1: into consideration as well. So that is just a just
17:30
Speaker 1: thing with cobblepen usage works. And to this day, this
17:33
Speaker 1: is my fifth year covering this team. I will walk
17:35
Speaker 1: into Ali Marml's officer, I'll like, see if Dusty Blake
17:38
Speaker 1: can come outside, and I'll be like, what is going
17:40
Speaker 1: on with this situation and why wasn't this used? And
17:42
Speaker 1: they'll tell me something I wasn't even thinking about. And
17:44
Speaker 1: it's my job to think about this thing, right, So
17:46
Speaker 1: of course I don't expect fans to understand or rationalize
17:49
Speaker 1: or get it, but I promise you it's such a
17:52
Speaker 1: complex decision and we overanalyze it so much because it
17:55
Speaker 1: impacts the game.
17:57
Speaker 2: I get it. It's the it's the.
17:59
Speaker 1: Most Being believer is the hardest thing in baseball because
18:02
Speaker 1: if you have a good day, a team wins.
18:04
Speaker 2: If you don't, they lose.
18:07
Speaker 3: It's you know, and the thing that is protecting them
18:11
Speaker 3: from injury is a big part of it. But the
18:13
Speaker 3: other thing, as we both saw in twenty twenty one,
18:17
Speaker 3: it isn't just this eventually caused them to break down.
18:20
Speaker 3: That's true, but they also lost their effectiveness in the
18:24
Speaker 3: second half of the season, and the Cardinals in some ways,
18:26
Speaker 3: I'm like still surprised they were able to get into
18:30
Speaker 3: the wildcard game, and then you know that was a
18:32
Speaker 3: disaster because you know, Reyes, poor guy, you know. So, yeah,
18:37
Speaker 3: it's got to be tough for these managers to be really,
18:40
Speaker 3: really disciplined about this. I think Marmo for the most
18:43
Speaker 3: part has been. But where does it get them? It
18:48
Speaker 3: gets them a lot.
18:48
Speaker 1: Of grief, right, He's done a nice job of deep
18:51
Speaker 1: breathing before the cameras turn on.
18:52
Speaker 2: I will say that.
18:55
Speaker 3: I can only imagine, Yeah, you need to Yeah, we
18:57
Speaker 3: need to have a hidden camon there. No, No, you don't,
19:01
Speaker 3: he's he's no. I listen. I you know the way
19:04
Speaker 3: it isn't you know with the Cardinals right now, when
19:07
Speaker 3: a Katie Wu or a Bernie Michlis or Derrek Ude
19:11
Speaker 3: or a John Denton or a columnist, when they well,
19:15
Speaker 3: Mamarl's in a tough spot, they don't have enough there
19:17
Speaker 3: for him, you know, mamol. You know, you know the
19:20
Speaker 3: organization's failed. You know, they haven't given him a good bullpen.
19:24
Speaker 3: It's very thin. It's you had guys that are just
19:26
Speaker 3: like going south. What's a manager going to do? And
19:29
Speaker 3: anytime I say this on a video or write it,
19:32
Speaker 3: you know, I catch hell. You know, it's just because
19:33
Speaker 3: they everybody wants to blame the manager. I get it.
19:36
Speaker 3: That is the That is the natural instant. Yeah, and
19:41
Speaker 3: I've done that in the past too, you know. You know,
19:44
Speaker 3: you always look at the manager and you think what
19:46
Speaker 3: did he do that for? And then you start, as
19:49
Speaker 3: time goes on, you start to maybe develop more depth
19:51
Speaker 3: than your thinking on these things. So that's a tough job, man,
19:55
Speaker 3: really tough job, all right, we'll.
19:57
Speaker 2: Get into some solutions here.
19:59
Speaker 3: First they'll what solutions.
20:01
Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing I need to.
20:03
Speaker 1: Do this library so I can think if there are any,
20:04
Speaker 1: because right now I.
20:06
Speaker 2: Don't have any. Let's your hungry Root. We'll get right
20:08
Speaker 2: back to it.
20:08
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21:11
Speaker 1: All right, So heading into the weekend, a quick three
21:14
Speaker 1: game homestand against the Brewers, just the second division matchup
21:17
Speaker 1: for the Cardinals and the Brewers, and we'll have a
21:20
Speaker 1: preview of that episode out tomorrow with Brewers pre and
21:23
Speaker 1: postgame radio host Dom Countriana. So that will be exciting.
21:27
Speaker 1: And then a quick roady four games and Cincy that
21:30
Speaker 1: will take us to the end of April. Time flies
21:33
Speaker 1: when you're having fun. I'm not sure what we need
21:37
Speaker 1: to see from the Cardinals given what they have to
21:39
Speaker 1: get this back on track, because who would have thought
21:42
Speaker 1: that the best asset of this team so far would
21:44
Speaker 1: be that starting rotation. The offense has really struggled, honestly, since.
21:48
Speaker 2: Herrero went down.
21:49
Speaker 1: They've had good days, but they still haven't fully clicked
21:51
Speaker 1: all the way since that injury. But this bullpen something
21:55
Speaker 1: has to be addressed and I'm not sure what the
21:58
Speaker 1: Cardinals can do here except for, like we talked about,
22:01
Speaker 1: you can bring someone up from the Memphis Express, But again,
22:04
Speaker 1: does that really All it does is change the name
22:06
Speaker 1: and that would put on the scorecard.
22:08
Speaker 2: Does that really.
22:08
Speaker 1: Change the problem. The problem is outside of your big
22:11
Speaker 1: three in Hellsley, who never pitches, because if they're never
22:14
Speaker 1: in a same situation, Phil Aiton and Kyle Lahy, you
22:18
Speaker 1: don't really have any weapons.
22:20
Speaker 2: You don't really have a lefty.
22:21
Speaker 1: John King has been okay, but you can't go through
22:25
Speaker 1: a bullpen with only three out of your eight spots
22:28
Speaker 1: confident in Bernie, what do you think the Cardinal should
22:31
Speaker 1: do here?
22:32
Speaker 3: Well, the first thing is it's easy for me to say,
22:35
Speaker 3: but you know Ryan Fernandez and I overlooked this. He
22:40
Speaker 3: actually started to struggle after the All Star break last year.
22:43
Speaker 3: So if you go all the way back to the
22:44
Speaker 3: All Star break, through this part of the season, he's
22:49
Speaker 3: got an ERA of about seven sixty and Romero over
22:54
Speaker 3: his last fifty games, going back to last year, he's
22:58
Speaker 3: got an ERA of five points and he's got a
23:00
Speaker 3: seventeen percent strikeout right, It's like, oh my goodness. So
23:06
Speaker 3: the reason I'm sort of beating that to death is
23:09
Speaker 3: just to point out you can't keep going to them
23:11
Speaker 3: over and over and over and over again. Fernandez needs
23:13
Speaker 3: to be fixed the minor league. He has to be
23:16
Speaker 3: in Memphis to start to fix this. You don't let
23:18
Speaker 3: him continue to just take beatings up here. It doesn't
23:21
Speaker 3: help the team, It doesn't help him and Romero. I
23:24
Speaker 3: don't know what to say about him. They you know,
23:27
Speaker 3: in the old days, you could protect him because you
23:29
Speaker 3: could make him a true lougie, you know, left handed
23:32
Speaker 3: specialist never had to worry about a right handed hit her.
23:35
Speaker 3: But he can't do that anymore. We get to phase
23:37
Speaker 3: three batters and so they feast on him. When the
23:40
Speaker 3: right they have the right, he's ready to go. So
23:41
Speaker 3: I don't know what to do there. The one one
23:45
Speaker 3: thought I had, and again it's not an original thought,
23:51
Speaker 3: you know, one thought I had before we talk about
23:53
Speaker 3: Memphis options, is why can't you just make McGreevy the
23:57
Speaker 3: designated six starter and you put Matts in the bullpen
24:00
Speaker 3: and McCreevy can come up to make those what turns
24:02
Speaker 3: out to be they're kind of like spot starts exactly,
24:05
Speaker 3: And I know it's kind of tough to coordinate all
24:08
Speaker 3: the schedules. But it can be done. But who down
24:11
Speaker 3: in Memphis? First of all, if you called up Matt Sjohnson,
24:15
Speaker 3: who's here? Why don't you? Why don't you let him
24:16
Speaker 3: pitch and see what he does? Right? Riley O'Brien's got
24:21
Speaker 3: the last time I checked, fourteen strikeouts and seven innings,
24:23
Speaker 3: and he's got electric stuff. But he's always hurt, even
24:27
Speaker 3: when he's not technically injured. There's always something going on
24:31
Speaker 3: with him where he doesn't feel right. And apparently he's
24:33
Speaker 3: the type of picture that will tell the manager and
24:36
Speaker 3: the coach, I don't feel something's not right, you know.
24:39
Speaker 3: So I don't know if you can rely on him
24:41
Speaker 3: that that part of his profile is kind of shaky.
24:45
Speaker 3: The durability. Do you do you give Roddery Munoz an
24:51
Speaker 3: extended run? At this? He seems very hittable, but maybe
24:55
Speaker 3: he would. He would thrive in a relief role if
24:58
Speaker 3: you give him a chance to and you give him
25:00
Speaker 3: some ways to sort of get people off that fastball
25:04
Speaker 3: or whatever. And do you do you recycle Chris Roycroft?
25:10
Speaker 3: I think you probably do. And who am I leaving
25:13
Speaker 3: out here? What about this? Andre Garnillo he's not on
25:16
Speaker 3: the forty man, but apparently he's pitching pretty well there.
25:19
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm like everybody else, I'm just throwing names
25:22
Speaker 3: out there. If they're not going to get help from
25:24
Speaker 3: the outside, whatever's out there, it's going to have to
25:27
Speaker 3: come from Memphis. What do you think?
25:30
Speaker 1: So the problem with those lists of names that you
25:32
Speaker 1: just ran off is that not one single name jumped
25:34
Speaker 1: out to me.
25:35
Speaker 2: You're excited to me.
25:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the fix, except for your idea of using
25:41
Speaker 1: Michael McGreevy as a spot starter. It's complex, and we've
25:46
Speaker 1: talked about if Stephen Matts, We've talked about this with
25:48
Speaker 1: Ali over the week or over the week in Atlanta,
25:51
Speaker 1: if Stephen Matts can be your who Matthew Libertire was
25:55
Speaker 1: for you last year, and then you can use Michael
25:58
Speaker 1: McGreevy as a spot starter, because really the sick Man rotation,
26:01
Speaker 1: they're going to use it twice before they have I'm
26:03
Speaker 1: looking at my schedule four consecutive Thursdays off after the
26:07
Speaker 1: Cincinnati final game of that series, so you don't need that.
26:10
Speaker 2: You don't need to save Matts for length.
26:12
Speaker 1: The problem with Stephen Matts is actually thrown the ball
26:15
Speaker 1: really well, and he can make an argument for being
26:18
Speaker 1: a starter in that rotation.
26:19
Speaker 2: But you sure as hell aren't taking Livy.
26:21
Speaker 1: Out, You're not taking Polante out, and you can't take
26:25
Speaker 1: any of those three veterans out. So, oh my gosh,
26:28
Speaker 1: oh no, the Cardinals have a roster construction problem. We've
26:30
Speaker 1: never said that before. Here we are again, Here we
26:33
Speaker 1: are again. They have so many pieces that and flashes
26:37
Speaker 1: will work, and no way to put them all together.
26:39
Speaker 1: So the worst thing that they can do from a
26:42
Speaker 1: fan base perspective is keep running out the same guys
26:45
Speaker 1: every single day. If Brian Fernandez blows one more game,
26:48
Speaker 1: I think Cardinals Twitter.
26:49
Speaker 2: Might explode and the it's going to take me down
26:51
Speaker 2: with it. I don't want to go down like that now.
26:54
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what else they can do rather than okay,
26:57
Speaker 1: can Stephen Mattz be your lefty guy? And you just
26:59
Speaker 1: hope that someone else doesn't get hurt, and you hope
27:02
Speaker 1: that your starters can stay healthy. Hope is not a
27:05
Speaker 1: viable strategy, as I once heard in the manager's office.
27:09
Speaker 1: The problem here is that there isn't a viable solution
27:13
Speaker 1: and there has not been one, and the organization, the
27:15
Speaker 1: front office just let it happen as part of their
27:18
Speaker 1: transition season. I'm all on board with what they're doing here.
27:22
Speaker 1: You need to know what you have in guys, so
27:24
Speaker 1: you know whether they're going to build or not, whether
27:27
Speaker 1: are these people that you can build around, These players
27:29
Speaker 1: that can be part of your future. Relievers don't necessarily
27:32
Speaker 1: fall under that bucket for me, because, like we talked about,
27:35
Speaker 1: they're so finicky, they are so volatile. They fluctuate all
27:39
Speaker 1: the time. That's the nature of their position. This makes
27:42
Speaker 1: sense to do with the rotation. It makes sense to
27:44
Speaker 1: do with the position players. By leaving virtually no options
27:48
Speaker 1: in your bullpen other than the believer that you signed
27:50
Speaker 1: halfway through spring, this is what you're gonna get. You're
27:55
Speaker 1: dangerously close to panic level in April again for the
27:59
Speaker 1: third straight year, and at this time third times a charm.
28:03
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if they're going to be able to
28:04
Speaker 2: get out of it.
28:04
Speaker 1: They certainly didn't in twenty three, they barely did in
28:07
Speaker 1: twenty four. They're playing with fire rapidly, Bernie. As you know,
28:10
Speaker 1: there is no more demoralizing a feeling as a baseball player.
28:13
Speaker 1: To hold the lead for seven and a half innings
28:16
Speaker 1: play a good game and lose it like that. That
28:18
Speaker 1: happened to them four times in the last seven games,
28:21
Speaker 1: and it takes a.
28:22
Speaker 2: Toll on everybody.
28:24
Speaker 3: I didn't realize that until you just said it. That's
28:26
Speaker 3: pretty drastic stuff, you know. That was That was Tony
28:30
Speaker 3: Larus's thing because I we would talk a lot of philosophy,
28:33
Speaker 3: we talk a lot of perspective things, and he said,
28:35
Speaker 3: he said, that is the worst thing that can happen
28:37
Speaker 3: to your team. He's other than an injury, he said,
28:39
Speaker 3: I'm the injury is a separate thing. He said. There
28:42
Speaker 3: is nothing worse, nothing worse when you have a game
28:46
Speaker 3: basically won and it gets away. He said, that's the
28:49
Speaker 3: only he said, all the years I managed, that's the
28:51
Speaker 3: only thing that's ever really you can see that. It
28:54
Speaker 3: demoralizes your team, and some of them really fester for
28:59
Speaker 3: a couple and so that that's absolutely right when you
29:03
Speaker 3: get your heartbroken all those times when you've played some
29:06
Speaker 3: good games and let's credit them credit to they play
29:10
Speaker 3: exceptional defense and they're starting pitching has been good. That's
29:14
Speaker 3: what's sad about this because they have some things working
29:16
Speaker 3: well for them, right, But when the offense sort of
29:22
Speaker 3: goes just kind of goes Haywire, not in a good way.
29:26
Speaker 3: I mean, you realize they hit they hit more home
29:30
Speaker 3: runs in the first seven games than they have in
29:33
Speaker 3: the last eight, the last fifteen, no, the last eighteen,
29:36
Speaker 3: they've not. The power drain is really hurting the offense.
29:41
Speaker 3: And the only reason I'm bringing up is just to
29:43
Speaker 3: make the point again, there's a lot going on there,
29:46
Speaker 3: and a couple some of the things are really really good,
29:49
Speaker 3: But these games are so intricate because just like Miles
29:55
Speaker 3: Michael As he pitches great yesterday, right, it's a gift.
29:58
Speaker 3: He gives you six scoreless innings, and then you can't.
30:01
Speaker 3: Your offense shuts down, and then you have another blow up,
30:04
Speaker 3: and you're asking you put in a situation where the
30:09
Speaker 3: margin for error or the margin for any kind of
30:12
Speaker 3: failure by an individual reliever, because your offense is not scoring,
30:16
Speaker 3: your starting pitchers are not getting run support from the
30:19
Speaker 3: standpoint where you know you can have a laugher here
30:21
Speaker 3: and there where you're up six to one or whatever.
30:24
Speaker 3: It's like everything is tense, everything is high is high intensity,
30:29
Speaker 3: everything's high leverage. Everything's pressure, pressure, pressure, and it takes
30:32
Speaker 3: like one mistake and the whole thing falls apart. I mean,
30:35
Speaker 3: because they're taking so many games late, because in part
30:40
Speaker 3: because the offense isn't getting enough done early, so they
30:45
Speaker 3: take they drag all these games into the seventh, eighth,
30:47
Speaker 3: and ninth inning. And last year they had the bullpen
30:50
Speaker 3: to win those games or protect those leads, or to
30:53
Speaker 3: win tie games, because they'd win the battle of the bullpen.
30:56
Speaker 3: This year, when you carry those tight games into the
30:59
Speaker 3: late innings on a night or day when the offense
31:02
Speaker 3: is not clicking, it takes like one pitch and it
31:07
Speaker 3: all goes smitherings. You know, it's they are navigating such
31:12
Speaker 3: a treacherous path because of all those factors I mentioned,
31:17
Speaker 3: And there's gonna be a lot of bruising and a
31:20
Speaker 3: lot of demoralized players after a lot of these games.
31:24
Speaker 3: And I would and I wish the offense could just
31:27
Speaker 3: start to unload again because they would take the pressure
31:30
Speaker 3: off the bullpen. That's yesterday. Yeah, yesterday's game was so classic.
31:33
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Katie, go ahead.
31:35
Speaker 1: No, I completely agree. The problem is the more that
31:38
Speaker 1: you have games like Mondays, Wednesdays, any of the New
31:41
Speaker 1: York series, the more it becomes a thing, the more
31:44
Speaker 1: it becomes something that's nagging in the back of your mind,
31:46
Speaker 1: whether you're the reliever, whether you're the catcher, whether you're
31:49
Speaker 1: the manager, whether you're the outfielder. You know, and the
31:52
Speaker 1: second a believer comes in in a late Ian one
31:55
Speaker 1: run tie ball game and walks about her, you get
31:58
Speaker 1: this sense like, oh, here we go again, right And
32:01
Speaker 1: that happened to us upstairs. We saw Jojo put two on.
32:05
Speaker 1: I mean that hard hit single, the first one I
32:07
Speaker 1: can't remember for who it was.
32:09
Speaker 2: Immediately we were like, here it is and then.
32:11
Speaker 1: Puts another one on a gift of a put out
32:14
Speaker 1: from Sean Murphy, a nice played by Joel Poso, and
32:17
Speaker 1: incomes Fernandez and we all knew. All of us were like,
32:21
Speaker 1: this game is ending right now, and it's no knock
32:24
Speaker 1: on Fernandez, it's just how many times have we seen
32:26
Speaker 1: this before? And that becomes in the back of your
32:29
Speaker 1: mind and it impacts your performance, whether you're aware of
32:31
Speaker 1: it or not. So I don't know what the solution
32:35
Speaker 1: is for these Cardinals. I would hope that they could
32:37
Speaker 1: swing it a little bit more. I thought Mason Winn
32:39
Speaker 1: coming back would help, you know. I understand the frustration
32:45
Speaker 1: that the coaching staff is in They didn't inherit these players.
32:48
Speaker 2: This is not the wrong.
32:49
Speaker 1: They don't make the roster and I'm not quite sure
32:52
Speaker 1: how they can use the eight that they have right
32:55
Speaker 1: now any better than they are.
32:57
Speaker 2: And that to me is the problem.
32:59
Speaker 1: But the good news everyone is if you want to
33:01
Speaker 1: watch the Cardinals blow another leaving the eighth, you can.
33:03
Speaker 2: You can watch them on FanDuel Sports Network stream. Let's
33:06
Speaker 2: hear it from.
33:09
Speaker 4: Me out to my tvandal Sports Now work. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
33:14
Speaker 4: watch me some fingers and not be us.
33:18
Speaker 3: I'm just glad I am the local delve Forets group
33:21
Speaker 3: Phil for the Cardinals on ban Duel Sports Now. Cardinals
33:29
Speaker 3: gage the first on the ban.
33:35
Speaker 5: Streamer.
33:38
Speaker 1: All right, our final segment of the day, we gotta
33:42
Speaker 1: do our FanDuel Sports Network player to watch ahead of
33:46
Speaker 1: this three game set against the Milwaukee Brewers. We're gonna
33:50
Speaker 1: stick to our bullpen theme. I'm going Kyle Lady. Let's
33:53
Speaker 1: do a quick run through his stats. He's appeared in
33:55
Speaker 1: thirteen games, fifteen and two thirds and sixteen strikeouts, A
33:59
Speaker 1: one to seven who e er Ray fills up the zone,
34:02
Speaker 1: nasty Arsenal. I was funny, Allie was telling us when
34:06
Speaker 1: Kyle Lahy first made his way into the organization, Dusty
34:09
Speaker 1: Blake said, there's a chance this guy could be our
34:11
Speaker 1: best pitcher in the next two years.
34:13
Speaker 2: And I wouldn't put him.
34:14
Speaker 1: Right there yet. Sunny Gray still on the team. I
34:16
Speaker 1: think he does have some of the highest potential. He's
34:19
Speaker 1: going to see a lot more high leverage opportunities because
34:22
Speaker 1: there's no way in heck that they can keep running
34:24
Speaker 1: out Fernandez from the right side given where he's at
34:26
Speaker 1: right now, and we've seen that already. We saw lay
34:28
Speaker 1: come in the seventh after Michael has to be kind
34:29
Speaker 1: of the stopgap guy. I think he's really fascinating to
34:33
Speaker 1: watch as a reliever this year, and I would not
34:35
Speaker 1: be surprised at some point if they take him and
34:37
Speaker 1: turn him into what they're doing with Liberator, because his
34:40
Speaker 1: stuff is just that good. So if you're looking for
34:42
Speaker 1: lever Linings guys, Kyle Lahy good.
34:45
Speaker 3: Reliever, Yeah, you know. And the thing about him is
34:49
Speaker 3: the dude has this season. The dude has a higher
34:53
Speaker 3: strikeout rate than Ryan Helsley. He's also got a hell
34:56
Speaker 3: of a ground ball rate. And what makes him special
35:01
Speaker 3: and it's exciting. He's a right handed pitcher, but he
35:04
Speaker 3: is actually tougher on left handed hitters than right handed hitters.
35:08
Speaker 3: Like in other words, neither neither group do much against him.
35:11
Speaker 3: I mean, the batting the average against him before yesterday
35:14
Speaker 3: was like sixty nine or something. I mean, it's just
35:17
Speaker 3: ridiculous how great he is and a guy. They've hit
35:21
Speaker 3: his four seing fastball a little bit okay, but the
35:23
Speaker 3: other four pitches he throws, like the batting average on
35:27
Speaker 3: all those pitches combined, it's actually something that truly would
35:31
Speaker 3: make you laugh out loud. It's ridiculous. They can't do
35:34
Speaker 3: anything with these pitches. They have no idea what's coming
35:37
Speaker 3: because he commands five different pitches, and hitters are saying, well,
35:41
Speaker 3: this is when he'll throw the change up. Well, I'm
35:43
Speaker 3: gonna look change up and then he he he just
35:46
Speaker 3: messes him up all the time. They're guessing wrong all
35:49
Speaker 3: the time. That sounds like a starting pitcher in the
35:52
Speaker 3: making to.
35:53
Speaker 2: Me, right, I totally agree.
35:54
Speaker 1: I mean, he's an uncomfied bat through and through from
35:57
Speaker 1: both sides of the ball, as you mentioned, and there
35:59
Speaker 1: was some talk about it in spring on what he
36:01
Speaker 1: could look like if the Cardinals get to a point
36:05
Speaker 1: this season where they continue their ten and sixteen record
36:08
Speaker 1: and its.
36:08
Speaker 2: Spirals even more.
36:09
Speaker 1: I could see them maybe starting that experiment early, But
36:12
Speaker 1: right now I really like what lay he's doing. I
36:14
Speaker 1: think this is a great showing for him as a believer.
36:16
Speaker 1: I think his ceiling is a starter. Six pitch Arsenal
36:19
Speaker 1: has nasty stuff and just look at we try to
36:22
Speaker 1: read the swings of opposing players. You're spot on. They
36:24
Speaker 1: have no idea what's coming. They're guessing, and he knows it.
36:27
Speaker 1: So I if the Cardinals can get in the perfect world,
36:32
Speaker 1: the same was Cardinals get six Indians, they get quality
36:34
Speaker 1: starts from their rotation, which actually happened pretty often, and
36:37
Speaker 1: you get Lay for the seventh against.
36:39
Speaker 2: You know, it doesn't really matter.
36:40
Speaker 1: He can take the lefty lane or the righting lane,
36:42
Speaker 1: get you to Mayton, gets you to Helsy, high five, handshakes,
36:45
Speaker 1: high five's game over. The problem is they have not
36:47
Speaker 1: been able to do that and playing having a blueprint
36:50
Speaker 1: where your most perfect brand of baseball is the only
36:54
Speaker 1: brand of baseball that gets you a win.
36:55
Speaker 2: That's how you get ten wins. By April twenty fourth.
37:00
Speaker 3: Well said nothing to add except can I can I
37:02
Speaker 3: do one real quick thing, but maybe player to watch
37:05
Speaker 3: and if I could get off the bullpen, I'll be
37:06
Speaker 3: quick about it because I have a I have a
37:08
Speaker 3: stat that I love. Yes, it's also unbelievable, and I
37:11
Speaker 3: had to like quadruple check it just to make sure.
37:14
Speaker 3: So you you told us not only are a Cardinal territory,
37:18
Speaker 3: but you told us on the in the athletic they
37:21
Speaker 3: really want to give Nolan Gorman a lot of run
37:23
Speaker 3: at DH. Okay, yes, please, yes, just make up the
37:28
Speaker 3: DH and let them go. Katie, this is unbelievable, and again,
37:32
Speaker 3: I want to tell everyone. I quadruple checked this. I
37:35
Speaker 3: checked a Baseball Reference of fan grafts everywhere Cardinals designated
37:40
Speaker 3: hitters as a group, They've they've had one hundred and
37:42
Speaker 3: two play plate appearance, one hundred and two plate appearances
37:45
Speaker 3: this year, one RBI, one RBI. Trust me again, no
37:55
Speaker 3: home runs specifically the DH position, no home runs one
38:01
Speaker 3: RBIs one one and oh as an added bonus, the
38:08
Speaker 3: boy said, being sarcastic, Oh, they've they've hid in a
38:11
Speaker 3: five double place. I mean, wow, the Cardinals, everything just
38:20
Speaker 3: about everything is just so crazy.
38:23
Speaker 2: Who not crazy? Good?
38:25
Speaker 3: Crazy? In what universe does the team have one hundred
38:30
Speaker 3: and two played appearances from their dhs, and the primary
38:33
Speaker 3: guys have been in terms of at bats have been
38:36
Speaker 3: you know, Burleson and Cantraras and Baker and Gorman and
38:40
Speaker 3: Donovan just like maybe one turn each. But what kind
38:46
Speaker 3: of crazy, crazy team you get twenty five games into
38:50
Speaker 3: the season and your dhs have driven in one run?
38:52
Speaker 3: It was It was an RBI by Burlison. I don't
38:55
Speaker 3: even remember when it was, But go ahead and check
38:57
Speaker 3: for yourself, because I know it's one of those things
38:59
Speaker 3: you hear you say, oh, there's no way that can
39:01
Speaker 3: be true.
39:02
Speaker 2: Check check, Okay, okay.
39:04
Speaker 1: A rule of thumb if you're thinking, if you're talking
39:06
Speaker 1: about the same with Cardinals and you think, no, wait,
39:08
Speaker 1: can that be true?
39:09
Speaker 3: That's true.
39:10
Speaker 1: It can be true, as you and I know, that
39:13
Speaker 1: is an insane stat Really just kind of wraps up
39:16
Speaker 1: this whole.
39:18
Speaker 3: It's just nuts.
39:19
Speaker 2: Whatever the heck.
39:19
Speaker 1: This last week was listeners Cardinals territory fans. Hopefully you
39:24
Speaker 1: were able to commiserate and vent with us a little bit.
39:26
Speaker 1: Maybe this could be a nice little therapy session for you.
39:27
Speaker 1: It really was another grueling road trip. I don't know
39:30
Speaker 1: why each road trip has felt like eighty four years.
39:34
Speaker 1: But this last one I think just across the board.
39:37
Speaker 1: One in six not good. Hopefully they can get right
39:40
Speaker 1: against the Brewers, but that's a brewisting that's heating up.
39:42
Speaker 2: They look good too. I don't know, Bernie, I don't.
39:46
Speaker 3: Know, you know, And they're so bad on the road.
39:48
Speaker 3: They got three with the Brewers, and then like I think,
39:50
Speaker 3: I think it's thirteen out of the next nineteen after
39:53
Speaker 3: that'll be on the road. Oh oh oh, I don't
39:57
Speaker 3: want to do that. Yeah, I forget what cities. I
40:00
Speaker 3: know DC's one of them, which is well Cincinnati.
40:04
Speaker 1: Then we have a week at home Mets Pirates, and
40:06
Speaker 1: then a ten day road trip DC, Philly, Kansas City.
40:11
Speaker 1: So let's see where the team is. Hopefully they're in
40:14
Speaker 1: a better spot than where they are right now. The
40:15
Speaker 1: bar is low, Cardinal Territory. Back at you Friday, April
40:19
Speaker 1: twenty fifth for that Cardinals Brewers series preview. Before we go, though,
40:25
Speaker 1: I need to remind you about something that I almost
40:27
Speaker 1: got to do myself. You can watch same with Cardinals
40:32
Speaker 1: games now at FANDUAL Sports Network. You can stream them
40:35
Speaker 1: and if use the promo code Baseball thirty, you can
40:38
Speaker 1: start it off with a thirty day extended free trial
40:39
Speaker 1: at fandelsportsnetwork dot com slash packages. This deal expires May
40:43
Speaker 1: second five, nineteen ninety nine, a month after your free
40:46
Speaker 1: trial canceled during a free trial. To avoid charges eligibility
40:49
Speaker 1: restrictions supply, visit fandelsportsnetwork dot com for details. You will
40:54
Speaker 1: see Matthew Libertour, Sonny Gray, and Eric Fetti this weekend.
40:59
Speaker 1: Stephen Matts will make another start at some point during
41:01
Speaker 1: the next four game series at Cincinnati, and you might
41:06
Speaker 1: I don't know this.
41:07
Speaker 2: If I did, I would.
41:07
Speaker 1: Tell you might see some Bullpens shake up, but I
41:09
Speaker 1: would not be surprised if you don't.
41:12
Speaker 2: We'll see. We're gonna write this.
41:13
Speaker 1: Together, Cardinals fans. It's a long season and it certainly
41:16
Speaker 1: feels like it right now.
41:18
Speaker 2: That's all I got, Bernie.
41:20
Speaker 3: Always a pleasure to talk baseball with you. Always.
41:23
Speaker 2: I agree. We'll be back at it next week. Thanks
41:26
Speaker 2: for listening. Talk to you soon.