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Happy Opening Day! · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  What's up everybody? Charlie Marlow here.
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  We made it. It's opening day, baby.
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  Cardinals at the Dodgers, Game one of 162 coming up.
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  It's a beautiful thing. Hope springs eternal.
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  Every team is zero and zero with an absolutely clean slate, which
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  is great, especially for a team coming off a 71 and 91 win
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  season. When you say hope springs
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  eternal, literally anything can happen.
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  Anything can happen. I have no freaking clue what's
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  going to happen to your 2024 Cardinals.
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  Could they have a season like last year and win 71 games?
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  I I don't think that's that's out of the question.
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  Could they be pretty Dang good? And could they could they be in
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  the hunt at the deadline? Could they add a pitcher or two
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  and be a legit contender? I don't think that's out of the
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  question. And you can say, Charlie you're
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  you're taking the easy way out. I I have no freaking idea what's
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  going to happen to this Cardinals team.
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  The other day low hanging fruit. Brennan Schaefer and I podcast,
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  I think I said 83 wins. I don't even know if that's a
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  good prediction for the Cardinals because I think it's
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  going to go one of two ways. If it's like last year, it ends
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  up like last year. But if they have a a decent
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  start and they're in the mix and they add like they did the
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  previous couple years before last year, so we're talking
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  2021-2022, I think there's a very good chance the Cardinals
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  then could could push for 90 wins and have a shot.
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  But I I just, I don't know what's going to happen because
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  there's so many unknowns in my opinion.
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  If you would have asked me and we talked about this a lot if
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  you'd asked me after the Cardinals kind of were were done
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  making their moves and and and we we discussed this where I
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  said, look, I actually think it's easier for this Cardinals
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  team to get to let's say an 85 win mark or 85 plus wins.
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  And a lot of people think because I think a lot of folks
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  are looking at oh, they won 71 games last year.
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  So you got to make like a 15 win improvement.
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  That's not how I look at the 2024 Cardinals, and I know I'm
• 2:24
  repeating myself, but Adam Wainwright only got starts last
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  year because the team was out of it, and he's going for 200 wins.
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  He was statistically one of the worst starting pitchers in the
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  history of baseball for a season.
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  OK, it's very easy to improve by just deleting Wainwright from
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  the rotation and adding anybody who's even league average, even
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  if that's Zach Thompson, who's going out there and throwing to
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  a 4 1/2 ERA. But he's league average.
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  The other part is clearly at the trade deadline.
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  They traded off everybody. You trade off Flaherty,
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  Montgomery, the young Hicks, Stratton.
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  Who am I missing? I can't remember.
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  But the Cardinals weren't trying to win.
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  They weren't trying to win baseball games for the final two
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  months of the season. So to me, that's not a 71 win
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  team. If the Cardinals were really
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  last year trying to win the whole season, Wayno doesn't get
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  those last ten starts. They don't roll out a 4A lineup
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  for the last two months. OK, maybe they finished it.
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  I don't know. 7778 wins, 76. Whatever it is, I'm not.
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  I'm not going to argue with you folks if you disagree, but my
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  point is now you're talking about A7 or an 8 win jump to get
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  back to 85. Not a 15 win jump if you're
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  thinking you're coming back from 71 wins.
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  So that's how I felt after the Cardinals had constructed this
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  roster. I have to say though, I don't
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  know how you don't change your mind a bit when you start the
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  season with six dudes on the injured list, and one of those
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  guys is Drew Rahm. So I don't know if Drew Rahm was
• 4:01
  going to be on the roster anyway, but let's just say for
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  sure five dudes who are going to be on your Opening Day roster
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  are not there for Opening Day. They're all on the injured list.
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  I mean pretty much the majority of your outfield.
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  Tommy Edmond seems like he's going to be out for a long time.
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  Lars new bar, it might just be couple weeks.
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  Whatever it is, Dylan Carlson. Feel terrible for Dylan Carlson.
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  Hopefully that's short, I have no idea.
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  Kenan Middleton, a guy that I think the Cardinals hopefully
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  will rely on this year as a as a a very good high leverage type
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  reliever injured list as well. And the biggest one, especially
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  if his injury lingers, is Sonny Gray.
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  So maybe Sonny Gray misses what, 2-3 starts.
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  He comes back, I hope he's good to go, full workload, throw 100
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  pitches. But then also my worry with
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  Sonny Gray is more that this thing comes back and and barks
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  again later in the year and he has to miss another block of 345
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  starts, whatever it is. So the guy who over the winter
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  said, OK, 85 wins, I I think it's easier than you think.
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  Now. Now I have to kind of chop away
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  at that when you're starting the year with five injuries, really
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  six guys on the injured list. But look, you can also, if you
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  look at the schedule, everybody knows Dodgers first four games,
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  you got Padres. And then correct me if I'm
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  wrong, I don't have the order. Maybe perfect, But after that,
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  it's Marlins, Phillies, Diamondbacks in some order.
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  So that's 16 games through the 1st 5 Series before you play the
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  A's. The A's suck.
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  We all know that. And so let's say you're able to
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  take care of the A's. You win the series or you sweep
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  and whatever it is hopefully. OK, So then you're at 19 games.
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  I just think that those 1st 19 games are very important because
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  for the majority of those 19 games, you're going to be
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  missing a lot of people. You're probably going to be
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  missing Gray for 3/4 of that. You're going to be missing
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  Edmond for probably all of it. You're going to be missing who
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  knows, Carlson for at least half, new Park for at least
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  half. It's a tough schedule.
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  This team sucked last year. They need a good start in my
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  opinion. They need good things to happen.
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  Nobody wants to start the year 2 and 9 looking up and playing
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  catch up all year long, but I think again, those 1st 19 games,
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  if they're just 500, even a couple games below what?
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  I mean if they're obviously if they're 9 and 10, if they're 8
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  and 11, nobody's panicking. You got through a rough stretch
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  schedule wise, hopefully got through a rough patch injury
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  wise and you're rocking and rolling, feeling good.
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  And hell, it's only at this point like April, what, 15th or
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  something, it's right around tax day.
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  You have the whole fricking season now to to get on your
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  roll. So 1st, 1st, 19 games, 1st, 16
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  games. Especially Very important for
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  the Cardinals. So I think the offense is going
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  to be good. OK.
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  I think the bullpen could be really good.
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  I have no idea about the starting rotation.
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  I don't think it's going to be good.
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  Could it be average? I think.
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  I think you'd take average. If they were right in the
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  middle, 15th, 16th in baseball, I think you'd take that.
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  Could it be bad, though? I think there's a good chance it
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  could be. It could be bad.
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  I don't know. And then here's my other part.
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  You have a team that's really old, and we know that.
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  But most of these guys, they're they're not.
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  They're not so old where you're thinking they're done.
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  But the problem is, in my opinion, you don't know these
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  dudes are done until they're done.
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  Nobody knew Adam Wainwright was done until last year, when he
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  proved he was done. If you remember, the year
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  before, he was actually really good until that.
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  What final month of season? And I can't remember what his
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  ERA was for the year, wasn't it 3.7.
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  So I'm talking about 2022. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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  So what I'm trying to say is, look at Goldie for example.
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  Goldie has been really bad in spring training.
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  Do I think he's going to hit 100 for the year?
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  No, but Goldie's not young now. Goldie does a lot of things well
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  defensively, runs the bases, all that.
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  But some of these guys also hit a hit, a point in your career,
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  in their careers where they're just done.
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  And so I think there's a good chance that could happen to one
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  of these guys. I'm talking about whether it's
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  it's Goldie when I say done, I mean no longer for him, an elite
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  player or even a a positive OPS plus guy.
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  I mean could could Paul Goldschmidt be A league average
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  OPS plus guy? I think.
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  I think that's a possibility. I wouldn't bet on it, but it's a
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  possibility. But then the pitchers, for
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  example. So look, Zach Thompson is, is
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  young, but everybody else, Sonny Gray?
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  Older, already banged up. Miles Michaelis older.
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  Kyle Gibson older. Lance Lynn older.
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  That's four dudes, don't you think?
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  The odds are probably one of those dudes.
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  One of those dudes might be done.
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  I I don't know who it's going to be, but I'm saying is at the end
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  of 2024, we might point to one of those pictures and be like
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  that was it Sometimes it happens to dudes who are 35363738.
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  Whatever it is, there's a very good possibility that happens to
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  one of those pitchers now. Now maybe if it just happens to
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  one of them, Cardinals can get through it.
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  They can add a starter at the deadline, Add a reliever at the
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  deadline like they did in 21 and 22 and still make the playoffs.
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  I don't know. So I'm just sitting here arguing
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  with myself. I have no freaking idea what's
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  going to happen to this Cardinals team.
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  But that's that's part of the beauty, That's part of the fun
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  of baseball. And look, I know people can be
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  pessimistic, we can be negative and all that.
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  But baseball season's great. Cardinals baseball is the best.
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  I've said for years. I'm not just, I'm not just
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  saying this to the B fib. Saint Louis is the best baseball
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  town in America. Baseball heaven.
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  You know, we joke about the beef, but it's true.
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  Baseball means more in Saint Louis than any other city or
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  market in the United States of America.
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  I'm not just pandering, I truly, truly believe that.
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  So enjoy baseball season and it's awesome, man.
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  Like I said, I'm taping this the night before so you could have
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  this early morning. How about for once, I'm actually
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  planning ahead? Look at those.
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  Look at those buds or flowers, whatever the hell those are on
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  the tree. So there.
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  There you go. Hey, we made it, guys.
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  We made it. Long winter, but we're here.
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  Lot of injuries. Not an easy start versus the
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  freaking monster. Checkbook Dodgers, as Miles
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  Michaels calls them. Let's go, Let's go.
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  This is what This is why you do it.
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  This is why you put the the roster together to roll out the
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  basketballs like the gym teacher used to used to do back in the
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  elementary school and play. Just play.
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  Let's see what we got. Let's see what we got.
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  This team has been put together. It's banged up.
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  Let's see what they got right out of the gate.
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  Versus one of the best teams in all of baseball in the LA
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  Dodgers. All right.
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  Comment, like, subscribe. Thanks for watching.
• 11:43
  Share the videos. Please.
• 11:45
  Share the channel. Put in your group text, put on
• 11:47
  social media. We're going to do a ton of
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  videos. We got the podcast.
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  We got everything going. It's going to be an awesome 2024
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  baseball season. I hope it better not be like
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  last year. That was freaking shit.
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  We can't have that anymore. That was a one off.
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  We don't want that. Sometimes negative drama can be
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  good for one year. It's different.
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  But we're done with that. We need some positivity.
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  We need some wins. We need the Cardinals to be back
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  to being the Cardinals. All right, peace, guys.
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  Enjoy the game. Baseball is here.
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  You deserve it. Let's go.