Latest / Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast / Cards Can't Solve The Miz, Libby Finds Punch, Telling Series vs Brewers?

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Cards Can't Solve The Miz, Libby Finds Punch, Telling Series vs Brewers? · Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Cardinal Territory.
0:09
Speaker 1: Jim Hayes alongside Kyle Gibson who's at his daughter's softball camp,
0:15
Speaker 1: and of course Lancelin. Before we start.
0:19
Speaker 2: There's good news.
0:20
Speaker 1: My shirt is staying on because we had a bet
0:24
Speaker 1: but the tarps off thing that said if we got
0:26
Speaker 1: to seven thousand subscribers, I would go tarp's off. We
0:31
Speaker 1: didn't get there, though we did make some progress. We're
0:34
Speaker 1: getting closer and closer. So if you'd like to help
0:37
Speaker 1: us get to seven k am, I sure, we'll stay on.
0:40
Speaker 1: Once we get there, go ahead and hit the button
0:42
Speaker 1: or tell somebody about Cardinal Territory and maybe they'll subscribe.
0:47
Speaker 3: All right, gentlemen, Jim, I don't remember you putting a
0:50
Speaker 3: timelin it on this. There was no bet on when
0:52
Speaker 3: we got sudd and Swee we get there, you would
0:56
Speaker 3: do it, So don't work. Everybody who's listening. That will
0:59
Speaker 3: stay everybody who's listening, that will stay in place. Jim
1:02
Speaker 3: will go tops off at seven thousands.
1:05
Speaker 1: One of the viewers told me that I said that
1:07
Speaker 1: there was a two game limit. One of the viewers
1:10
Speaker 1: of Cardinal Territory, the greatest of all Americans.
1:14
Speaker 3: I was released, so maybe you did it after I
1:15
Speaker 3: was DFA last week. I don't know.
1:17
Speaker 1: Well, you're back and I'm happy about it. So after
1:21
Speaker 1: a water log series in Cinci, the Cards open in Milwaukee,
1:25
Speaker 1: important series, and they opened a three game set with
1:29
Speaker 1: the loss, and Libby gave him three runs in the first.
1:32
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little about Libby because he
1:34
Speaker 1: also struck out a career high ten last start prior
1:38
Speaker 1: to that, struck out of which tied a career high nine.
1:42
Speaker 1: But he changed some things right. They added some velo
1:45
Speaker 1: to his slider intentionally, took a little bit off the
1:49
Speaker 1: curveball intentionally to sort of create a differential there, and
1:54
Speaker 1: we're seeing a difference in terms of swing and miss. However,
1:58
Speaker 1: he has given up some runs. Well, I'll start with
2:01
Speaker 1: you Lance. How difficult is it for a starting pitcher
2:05
Speaker 1: who has done things a certain way in the middle
2:09
Speaker 1: first quarter of a season to shake it up like
2:12
Speaker 1: that and try to do things differently. I know all
2:14
Speaker 1: you guys are always trying to get.
2:16
Speaker 2: Bet I'm for someone like Libya. I don't think it's
2:21
Speaker 2: going to be that hard. I think the only thing
2:23
Speaker 2: that kind of sucks about it when you do this
2:25
Speaker 2: is you will give up some runs because there's at
2:28
Speaker 2: times you might be in between. So once you get
2:32
Speaker 2: rid of that in between stage of developing these pitches
2:38
Speaker 2: and the arsenal the way you want it with velo
2:40
Speaker 2: and pitch shape, then you'll start seeing his outings kind
2:44
Speaker 2: of stay where they need to be as the outing
2:46
Speaker 2: goes on. So when it comes to the pitch shape
2:49
Speaker 2: and this and that, Libby can do anything that you
2:51
Speaker 2: ask him to do. Now it's honing them in, honing
2:55
Speaker 2: them in in the strike zone or in the chase
2:58
Speaker 2: areas that you need to own him to the right
3:00
Speaker 2: hitter at the right time. When you start adding pitches
3:03
Speaker 2: and stuff like that, you kind of just kind of
3:05
Speaker 2: throw it to whoever at any time. Some guys slower
3:10
Speaker 2: breakball is better than the than the harder one, and
3:13
Speaker 2: or vice versas. So that's gonna come with, you know
3:17
Speaker 2: what they do, game plan, game calling, stuff like that.
3:20
Speaker 2: Once they hone all that in, it's gonna be pretty good.
3:23
Speaker 2: But you see the strikeout numbers is going to go up.
3:25
Speaker 2: Now it's just going the right one to the right
3:27
Speaker 2: hitter throughout account and then not over exposing them. So
3:31
Speaker 2: I think I think he's in a good spot. The
3:34
Speaker 2: strikeout numbers are coming. His stuff's there now, it's used
3:37
Speaker 2: the right pitch at the right time. Save something for
3:40
Speaker 2: later and then have another another I guess, another tool
3:46
Speaker 2: to go after him with later in games, and then
3:48
Speaker 2: we'll start next thing we know. I think we'll see
3:50
Speaker 2: him in the sixth seventh inning, cruising along like he
3:53
Speaker 2: does early in games.
3:55
Speaker 1: So he he went five, and Kyle, you're a guy
3:58
Speaker 1: who I think one of your one of your trade
4:01
Speaker 1: mark is you're able to adjust on the fly and
4:04
Speaker 1: adapt to whatever the hitters are trying to do against you.
4:07
Speaker 1: Libby gave up three runs in the first and we
4:10
Speaker 1: see that with a little with Polante sometimes that first
4:13
Speaker 1: inning gets them. How difficult is that first inning when
4:17
Speaker 1: you're trying some different and you just don't know how
4:20
Speaker 1: it's gonna shake out in the game.
4:23
Speaker 3: Well, the other thing that makes me think about this
4:25
Speaker 3: here is being a divisional opponent, right, the Brewers have
4:28
Speaker 3: seen him a few times. The thing about adding some
4:31
Speaker 3: villa to your slider, and really adding villa to anything,
4:35
Speaker 3: it's gonna actually take some of the movement out more
4:37
Speaker 3: than likely, very rarely are you gonna throw something harder.
4:41
Speaker 3: Even though it's gonna spend tighter, it's probably not gonna
4:43
Speaker 3: move more. It's move later, especially in a slider. So
4:47
Speaker 3: I think as the hitter see it, and as Lance said,
4:49
Speaker 3: as he starts to you know, set it up and
4:52
Speaker 3: sequence it and realize that it is a little bit
4:54
Speaker 3: different pitch, I think it'll be better. But you know,
4:57
Speaker 3: the hitters that are reacting to a slider that they
4:59
Speaker 3: think is gonna go but you know, essentially below their bat,
5:03
Speaker 3: you know, we'll say alrighty down into the righty below
5:05
Speaker 3: their bat and beat them to the spot. They're gonna
5:08
Speaker 3: be able to kind of adjust to that Velo and
5:10
Speaker 3: it's not gonna, you know, essentially slide into that swing
5:13
Speaker 3: and misslot right away. So I think that could be
5:16
Speaker 3: a little bit of it. I mean, I didn't watch him.
5:18
Speaker 3: I was pretty unplugged from baseball from the weekend for
5:20
Speaker 3: Memorial Day with the kids racing, But it kind of
5:23
Speaker 3: makes sense adding Velo. You're gonna take a little bit
5:25
Speaker 3: of movement away, but it's gonna make him sharper, and
5:28
Speaker 3: I think as he hones in on the locations is
5:30
Speaker 3: probably gonna be better.
5:32
Speaker 1: So the Cardinals didn't really get a sniff from Mizerowski
5:36
Speaker 1: last night. That guy had twelve strikeouts. The courts get
5:39
Speaker 1: two hits over seven innings, and he had fifty seven
5:44
Speaker 1: pitches one hundred miles of that hour or or more
5:50
Speaker 1: lace this This guy is sick. I don't know if
5:53
Speaker 1: you watch that game, but his stuff is just sick.
5:57
Speaker 1: He's twenty four. How good is he?
6:00
Speaker 2: I mean, you're looking at one of the best heaters
6:02
Speaker 2: in the game. Right When you're able to throw that
6:04
Speaker 2: many over over one hundred miles an hour, you're I mean,
6:08
Speaker 2: he's been like this since he showed up. He just
6:11
Speaker 2: seems to be getting more comfortable throwing the ball as
6:15
Speaker 2: hard as anyone in the game over the long period
6:17
Speaker 2: of time. So, I you know, when you run into
6:21
Speaker 2: guys like that, you just kind of you tip your
6:24
Speaker 2: cap and then you go on and get the next guy,
6:27
Speaker 2: or you try to do enough throughout the game for
6:29
Speaker 2: their pitch count to go up where you maybe get
6:32
Speaker 2: in the bullpen before the seventh just because this pitchcount
6:35
Speaker 2: gets too high. You have very few of those guys
6:38
Speaker 2: in the game. He is becoming one of those. There's
6:41
Speaker 2: not a whole lot you can do about it except
6:44
Speaker 2: battling as much as you can and then try to
6:46
Speaker 2: stay in the game as long as you can for
6:48
Speaker 2: maybe their bullpen to give it up. But he is
6:50
Speaker 2: turning into a young ace with electric stuff, and there's
6:55
Speaker 2: really not a whole lot else you can say about it.
6:57
Speaker 2: And if you're at Milwaukee side, you're like, man, we
6:59
Speaker 2: got to got a special arm with special stuff, and
7:03
Speaker 2: you just hope that stays healthy.
7:06
Speaker 1: His goal, Kyle, is to get to one hundred and
7:09
Speaker 1: five miles an hour. Now, I'm an old man, so
7:12
Speaker 1: I remember if a guy ever hit a hundred, you're
7:15
Speaker 1: thinking to yourself, I've never seen anything like it. This
7:19
Speaker 1: guy's once in a generation. Now now everyone throws a hundred,
7:23
Speaker 1: and this guy's pushing for one hundred and five.
7:27
Speaker 3: I mean, it's obviously it's a special heater. And the
7:29
Speaker 3: thing about you know, those guys, whether it's you know,
7:31
Speaker 3: I don't know that I'm really ready to put them
7:33
Speaker 3: in the skiings category or schooble or something like that.
7:35
Speaker 3: But the thing about those guys, especially when they get
7:38
Speaker 3: a lead man, it's really tough on the offense, really
7:41
Speaker 3: tough on the hitters, feeling like they don't have a
7:44
Speaker 3: ton of pressure on them and then all of a sudden,
7:47
Speaker 3: an offense that feels pressure. Oh boy, especially against an
7:51
Speaker 3: ace like that, it's kind of tough. So you know,
7:54
Speaker 3: the Brewers did exactly what they needed to do to
7:56
Speaker 3: give Mizerawski the lead and let them go out there
7:59
Speaker 3: and do it work. But I mean, I think we've seen,
8:02
Speaker 3: you know, he does give up some runs every now
8:03
Speaker 3: and then. You know, this last one against us, it
8:05
Speaker 3: just seemed to be one of his better outings. And yeah,
8:07
Speaker 3: he throws hard, and he's got electric stuff, and you
8:10
Speaker 3: know those guys are tough to hit. It is a
8:11
Speaker 3: reason why people are chasing La right now. You know,
8:14
Speaker 3: decision making in time to make decisions is really important.
8:18
Speaker 3: You know, there are gonna be tis where he's gonna
8:19
Speaker 3: give up runs if he's not locating. But if you
8:22
Speaker 3: make the hitters think, hey, this is going to be
8:25
Speaker 3: a heater over one hundred miles an hour, which he
8:26
Speaker 3: did fifty two or fifty seven times. Like you said,
8:29
Speaker 3: they start swinging a heater every time because they don't
8:31
Speaker 3: want to get their doors balling off every time. You know,
8:34
Speaker 3: that was really a goal of mine, was I wanted
8:37
Speaker 3: arieties especially to think an inside sinker was coming as
8:39
Speaker 3: many times as possible, because you want to make them
8:42
Speaker 3: make a decision quick as the balls on the way
8:44
Speaker 3: to the plate. If you've got a guy sitting back
8:47
Speaker 3: and he can kind of take your off speed away,
8:48
Speaker 3: makes it hard. But obviously nobody can do that when
8:50
Speaker 3: they think a hunter is coming.
8:53
Speaker 1: So the Cards get another fastball or a guy young
8:56
Speaker 1: guy five and one and Kyle Harrison one point seven
9:00
Speaker 1: seventy kind of reminds me of Lance Lynn because this
9:03
Speaker 1: guy just throws fastball after fastball after fastball. So that
9:07
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9:10
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9:38
Speaker 3: This guy's a.
9:39
Speaker 1: Lefty, so my pick is gonna be Ivon Herrera, who's
9:42
Speaker 1: had a little uptick in power of late and I
9:45
Speaker 1: end up thinking that this guy's gonna hit twenty twenty
9:48
Speaker 1: five homers, so he's got to get going. Who is
9:51
Speaker 1: your pick for daily Dingers, Lance, Kyler?
9:57
Speaker 2: Lance, which one?
9:59
Speaker 3: Go ahead?
9:59
Speaker 1: Let's go, Let's go, Lance.
10:02
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to. I mean, obviously with a left
10:04
Speaker 2: you kind of always go righty, So I'll uh, I'll go,
10:08
Speaker 2: I'll go Walker.
10:09
Speaker 3: Tonight Man, Well, what a stock answer came?
10:12
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's easy. That's where you go. Right now.
10:17
Speaker 3: The guy I stay with is Weatherholt. I really like
10:20
Speaker 3: him at the beginning of the game. I really like
10:22
Speaker 3: his his uh, his power that's showing up. So in
10:26
Speaker 3: between Burley and I think if it was a Arriety,
10:29
Speaker 3: I'd go Burley. I like Burley his approach against lefties
10:32
Speaker 3: where he stays on the ball and sometimes hits it
10:34
Speaker 3: the other way and tries to take away that also
10:36
Speaker 3: to be like I was just talking about, So I'll
10:38
Speaker 3: go weather Holt backside.
10:41
Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna take a break here. Another Cardinal
10:44
Speaker 1: made his major league debut yesterday. We'll talk about that
10:47
Speaker 1: and what it's like to get your first taste of
10:50
Speaker 1: the bigs. You're watching Cardinal Territory on the foul Territory Network.
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11:55
Speaker 1: So Risan Motts made his big League debut yesterday. It
12:00
Speaker 1: came out of the bullpen. Was originally slated to start
12:03
Speaker 1: in Sincy, but that series was just one big puddle,
12:06
Speaker 1: so the rain caused havoc. So this guy came in,
12:10
Speaker 1: pitched three innings, gave up a couple of runs, gave
12:14
Speaker 1: the Cardinals some length which they were looking for. Lance,
12:17
Speaker 1: what do you remember about your big league debut? Because
12:19
Speaker 1: it comes, I know, with a lot of emotion but
12:22
Speaker 1: also a lot of pressure. What do you remember about yours?
12:26
Speaker 2: You know, you just remember outside of you are when
12:28
Speaker 2: you get going there. But I think the main thing
12:31
Speaker 2: when you go into it. I remember standing on the
12:33
Speaker 2: mound and then you're like, all right, don't throw the
12:37
Speaker 2: first ball off the backstop to start a game. So
12:40
Speaker 2: that was where I was at. I threw strike one,
12:42
Speaker 2: so that was like okay, and then I threw three
12:45
Speaker 2: straight balls, so I was like, don't walk your first hitter.
12:48
Speaker 2: So like anything negative that you can possibly think of,
12:53
Speaker 2: it creeps in there real quick, more so on your
12:57
Speaker 2: first start in the major leagues than any start you
13:00
Speaker 2: ever have in your life. So you have to figure
13:03
Speaker 2: out how to minimize the negative thoughts as fast as
13:07
Speaker 2: possible and concentrate on what you're doing. Then I think
13:10
Speaker 2: after I got the first hitter out, he flew out,
13:12
Speaker 2: and then it was kind of like, okay, hey, all right,
13:16
Speaker 2: well at least you got one out, so it's not
13:18
Speaker 2: all bad. And then here we go. So once I
13:21
Speaker 2: got the first out, it was like kind of normal
13:23
Speaker 2: after that, but that first hitter was kind of a
13:26
Speaker 2: It's definitely a weird experience.
13:29
Speaker 1: How about you, Kyle, first time you took the mound
13:31
Speaker 1: as a Major league or what do you remember about it?
13:35
Speaker 3: A lot? Really? The Twins did an awesome job that
13:38
Speaker 3: gave me about four or five days notice. So I
13:40
Speaker 3: had a lot of family and attendance, had some high
13:43
Speaker 3: school friends that showed up. I had a high school
13:45
Speaker 3: teammate that bought tickets right next to our dugout. That
13:48
Speaker 3: was awesome. So I walked out of the dugout and
13:50
Speaker 3: saw one of my best friends sitting right there, got
13:53
Speaker 3: out there to warm up, and I was never a
13:54
Speaker 3: guy that had like tunnel vision. I heard everything. So
13:58
Speaker 3: I had another high school teammate up and right centerfield
14:00
Speaker 3: who yelled down and told me good luck. So that
14:02
Speaker 3: was cool. Uh So it really just felt those kind
14:05
Speaker 3: of interactions really calmed me down. Uh it got a
14:08
Speaker 3: little dicey after the first pitch, Alex Gordon hit a
14:12
Speaker 3: first pitch sinker literally to the track that was caught
14:17
Speaker 3: right in front of the wall in left field. Took me,
14:19
Speaker 3: almost took me backside. First pitch of the game. Uh
14:22
Speaker 3: So that wasn't wasn't great, but it was an out,
14:24
Speaker 3: so that's good. Uh So we got the first out,
14:28
Speaker 3: had a good outing, I think six innings, a couple
14:29
Speaker 3: of runs, got the win. So we got a lot
14:32
Speaker 3: of got a lot of things out of the way,
14:34
Speaker 3: first strikeout and everything. Uh and had fun but definitely
14:37
Speaker 3: some nerves. But it was man nothing like the first
14:42
Speaker 3: time in the big leagues and experiencing that. So it
14:45
Speaker 3: was really cool.
14:46
Speaker 2: Go this first back up.
14:49
Speaker 3: Old country breakfast, Billy Butler down and end sinker. Ye,
14:55
Speaker 3: the backfoot sinkers what it looked like, you know, started
14:58
Speaker 3: started in her third, just kept going. You nice, Miguel
15:03
Speaker 3: t Howe, Oh good one good name to gosh, that's
15:06
Speaker 3: a good one.
15:07
Speaker 2: Older, that's an old name right there.
15:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you guys have mementos from that? That's in
15:14
Speaker 1: your man cave? Like, do you have the man cave?
15:17
Speaker 1: And do you have your first strike, first win? What's
15:19
Speaker 1: in there?
15:20
Speaker 2: First strikeout, first win, major league debut, jersey? You got?
15:25
Speaker 2: That's those are those are no doubters. And then as
15:27
Speaker 2: you get older, I was, you know, I get two
15:31
Speaker 2: thousandth k, one hundredth career wins, stuff like that, all
15:35
Speaker 2: those all those balls get Uh, my boy, Chris Conroy
15:39
Speaker 2: over the years in Saint Louis had did a very
15:41
Speaker 2: good job of you know, making some of those uh
15:45
Speaker 2: you know, those official balls looked really nice for me.
15:48
Speaker 2: So I'll give him a shout out. And he always
15:49
Speaker 2: he always made sure I was able to make my
15:51
Speaker 2: starts in Saint Louis too, So I'll give him a
15:54
Speaker 2: shout out today too.
15:54
Speaker 3: You want to talk about you want to talk about
15:57
Speaker 3: absolute elite calligraphy, you know, pulling, pulling a word out
16:01
Speaker 3: of Webster right there. Elite calligraphy was Chris Conroy. My
16:06
Speaker 3: fifteen hundred strikeout in Saint Louis. He you know, I
16:09
Speaker 3: don't know where the ball is, and I'm like, CC goes, hey,
16:12
Speaker 3: I got it. I'm gonna get it back to you
16:13
Speaker 3: here in a couple of days. And my word, just,
16:16
Speaker 3: I don't know. That's something that maybe I can I
16:18
Speaker 3: can share a picture and reply reply on the link
16:22
Speaker 3: for the show. But wow, just he takes time and
16:26
Speaker 3: I feel like it has the inning, the count, the pitch,
16:28
Speaker 3: the batter, the day, like everything. It's it's awesome. But
16:32
Speaker 3: I got a couple of those. The baseballs tend to
16:34
Speaker 3: run together because they're all MLB authenticated, but not all
16:37
Speaker 3: of them have stuff written on it like that. But
16:40
Speaker 3: I've got, you know, game tickets actually from my hundredth win.
16:45
Speaker 3: Got the umpire gave me the scorecard, so I have
16:48
Speaker 3: the scorecards from that, which is really cool. Yeah. So
16:52
Speaker 3: I got a few things like that that that are
16:54
Speaker 3: pretty special. I don't know what I'm gonna do with
16:56
Speaker 3: them all yet, but I've got a few things that
16:59
Speaker 3: were pretty mean that I kept over the years.
17:02
Speaker 1: And back to Chris Conroy. He'll rub you down and
17:06
Speaker 1: he'll hook you up with the presentation ball well lettered
17:11
Speaker 1: in a little case that you can put on your mantle,
17:14
Speaker 1: and if your glove breaks, he'll fix that glove too.
17:18
Speaker 1: That guy's a trainer who does absolutely everything.
17:22
Speaker 2: One of the best surrends, the best serem.
17:25
Speaker 7: Yeah, let me ask you about where he can sing.
17:30
Speaker 7: And I mean he's a true like man of so
17:35
Speaker 7: many talents.
17:36
Speaker 2: There's really no other way. I say. It keeps a
17:38
Speaker 2: dugout alive and rolling. You gotta love it, really, Empire,
17:44
Speaker 2: don't mix him up.
17:44
Speaker 3: Don't mix him up with the umpire Chris Conroy. But
17:47
Speaker 3: I'm guessing at some point Chris Conroy is going to
17:50
Speaker 3: eject Chris Conroy from a game, because if I was
17:53
Speaker 3: Chris Conroy, that'd be a goal of mine. Uh, to
17:56
Speaker 3: get thrown out of a game by my counterpartner.
17:58
Speaker 2: I liked that. That's a good point.
18:00
Speaker 1: So let's talk about where the Cardinals are right now. Okay,
18:04
Speaker 1: they're in a stretcher. They're losing some games. They were
18:07
Speaker 1: at Cincinnati with I think they were able to play
18:09
Speaker 1: one game because of the rain. They're in Milwaukee now.
18:12
Speaker 1: They lose the first but this is an important stretchch
18:15
Speaker 1: I think Cardinals have two more games in Milwaukee in
18:18
Speaker 1: this set. Then they come home to face the Cubs.
18:21
Speaker 1: They're facing division rivals. Lance how important is this particular
18:27
Speaker 1: stretch of games for the Cardinals right now?
18:30
Speaker 2: Now? I think we knew once the central part of
18:33
Speaker 2: the schedule hit that they were going to be pretty important.
18:35
Speaker 2: So you've gotta you know, you got to get through
18:38
Speaker 2: this stretch, you know, worst case scenario around five hundred.
18:42
Speaker 2: They're playing some teams that are beatable. They they can
18:45
Speaker 2: play well against. Uh, they got to score some rons,
18:48
Speaker 2: play good defense and pitch the way that they're capable of.
18:52
Speaker 2: You just never want to go through a a a
18:55
Speaker 2: losing streak, especially when you're playing division opponents. So whenever
19:00
Speaker 2: you have these stretches where you're doing this, you're got
19:02
Speaker 2: to make sure you don't get on that five six
19:04
Speaker 2: game losing skit. So they're very important to stay at
19:08
Speaker 2: five hundred tread water worst case scenario or the best
19:12
Speaker 2: time to get hot. So if they could get hot
19:14
Speaker 2: right now, that would be really big, especially going into June.
19:18
Speaker 2: Either on a nice little heater against the division and
19:21
Speaker 2: you head into June where you need to and then
19:24
Speaker 2: you can really start seeing where you lay as the
19:28
Speaker 2: season goes on.
19:29
Speaker 1: Here, every team in the central right now is Kyle's
19:34
Speaker 1: there you go. Every team in the Central, Kyle, is
19:37
Speaker 1: above five hundred. I don't think anyone saw that coming.
19:40
Speaker 1: The more the season goes along, the more these teams
19:43
Speaker 1: believe in themselves. But to me, Kyle, every team in
19:47
Speaker 1: the Central has flaws and every team is beatable. Just
19:53
Speaker 1: your assessment of what these teams have in the Central
19:57
Speaker 1: compared to the rest of the National League.
20:01
Speaker 3: Oh man, I mean, I don't know. I don't get
20:04
Speaker 3: a chance to watch all these teams in the Central.
20:06
Speaker 3: I mean, I think you have a few teams like
20:09
Speaker 3: the Reds, the Pirates, and the Cardinals that you know,
20:12
Speaker 3: I think people expect the Reds to be pretty good,
20:14
Speaker 3: and with the Pirates additions, I think they expected them
20:17
Speaker 3: to be better. But I think you have a young
20:19
Speaker 3: core that is, you know, really competing with all three
20:22
Speaker 3: of these teams and doing well. All three of those
20:24
Speaker 3: teams pitched the ball really well. Uh, And I think,
20:27
Speaker 3: if I had to guess, that is probably be the
20:30
Speaker 3: thing that stands out in this division. You know, obviously
20:33
Speaker 3: Milwaukee can pitch. We just got them talking about those guys.
20:35
Speaker 1: Uh.
20:36
Speaker 3: We know the Cubs built a really complete team and
20:38
Speaker 3: if anything, they're probably underperforming a little bit. I would
20:41
Speaker 3: guess according to their what their expectations were. But it's
20:45
Speaker 3: a division that can pitch, and you know, as Lance
20:48
Speaker 3: and I have talked about, and Jim you've seen in
20:50
Speaker 3: your experience, pitching is something that you know wins games
20:55
Speaker 3: and and really changes the course of a season. Because
20:58
Speaker 3: I think it's it's one of the things. Yeah, offenses
21:01
Speaker 3: can go on ten game streaks where they just hit
21:03
Speaker 3: the ball really well, but it's easier for pitching to
21:06
Speaker 3: go on those type of streaks in today's game when
21:08
Speaker 3: you have velo and stuff, and pitching and defense keeps
21:12
Speaker 3: you in every single ball game. So if you go
21:15
Speaker 3: on a ten or fifteen game stretch like say the
21:17
Speaker 3: Rays or the Brewers have done this year so far,
21:19
Speaker 3: you look at why the Rays did it, it's because
21:21
Speaker 3: they had like a two and a half era over
21:23
Speaker 3: a sixteen game stretch, You're gonna win a ton of
21:25
Speaker 3: games like that. And I just think the Central has
21:28
Speaker 3: has their pitching lined up, and it's something that's been
21:31
Speaker 3: big for the Cardinals as well, you know, to getting
21:33
Speaker 3: better pitching than you expected and and then you know it.
21:37
Speaker 3: I just think it's the young cores, if kind of
21:39
Speaker 3: you know, maybe exceeded some timeline expectations as well for
21:42
Speaker 3: some of these teams.
21:44
Speaker 1: So the Cardinals have lined up their starters where they
21:47
Speaker 1: get like extra day's rest in there, because, as we
21:50
Speaker 1: talked about on this podcast, there's a bunch of guys
21:54
Speaker 1: except for the veteran may who's seen some innings but
21:58
Speaker 1: also in had injuries along the way, it's a group
22:02
Speaker 1: of starters that hasn't really been pushed in terms of
22:06
Speaker 1: major league innings as a starter for a long.
22:09
Speaker 2: Period of time.
22:10
Speaker 1: But I think the Cardinals are handling it the right
22:12
Speaker 1: way because they're not pushing these younger arms too far
22:17
Speaker 1: where they're already gassed at this point of the season.
22:21
Speaker 2: Lands Yeah, I also think you looked early in the year,
22:24
Speaker 2: there's a lot of five, five and dives. So that's
22:27
Speaker 2: one of the things that you all, right, what was
22:29
Speaker 2: going to be the play early on? Are we going
22:31
Speaker 2: to go six man or are we going to subtract
22:33
Speaker 2: an inning in pitch count? What they did early on
22:36
Speaker 2: was to make sure they didn't extend them pitch count
22:38
Speaker 2: wise and innings wise. So now as you get into
22:41
Speaker 2: the season, hopefully that five at eighty to eighty five
22:45
Speaker 2: pitches turns into six at ninety five, and then as
22:48
Speaker 2: the year goes on, you're able to start pushing them
22:50
Speaker 2: through that six inning mark and then try not to
22:53
Speaker 2: ever extend guys to one hundred and ten pitches, especially
22:56
Speaker 2: when they haven't done that in their careers and you
22:58
Speaker 2: want to push them through the year. The number one
23:01
Speaker 2: thing for all these guys and you look at May.
23:03
Speaker 2: May was at one hundred and thirty career innings for
23:06
Speaker 2: his career year last year at one hundred and thirty,
23:08
Speaker 2: So you can't really expect to push any of these
23:11
Speaker 2: guys to one hundred and eighty innings, So figure out
23:14
Speaker 2: a way to keep them healthy throughout the year. You
23:17
Speaker 2: would rather have them finished a year strong or finish
23:19
Speaker 2: the year starting so next year and the years after
23:22
Speaker 2: they're accustomed to it. But how can you look up
23:25
Speaker 2: and they're all around one hundred and fifty. I think
23:27
Speaker 2: would be huge for the whole group, especially if they
23:30
Speaker 2: stay healthy, and you do that by not extending any
23:34
Speaker 2: of them the extra inning and keeping that pitch count
23:36
Speaker 2: right around eighty five to ninety five. If you can
23:39
Speaker 2: get through six at ninety five two hundred, you're golden.
23:43
Speaker 2: And I think as a group, they'll stay fresher and
23:46
Speaker 2: then they'll be able to really push through the times
23:49
Speaker 2: that it gets a little tiresome as year goes on,
23:51
Speaker 2: because they weren't throwing one hundred and fifteen pitches a
23:54
Speaker 2: night early on in the year and trying to throw
23:56
Speaker 2: seven eight innings. So I think they've got a good idea,
23:59
Speaker 2: good plan. They're able to mix in the starters when
24:01
Speaker 2: they need to. They have some guys that they can
24:03
Speaker 2: do that too, when they need to go six man
24:06
Speaker 2: and or when they play fifteen to eighteen games in
24:08
Speaker 2: a row, they can mix in a starter or two
24:10
Speaker 2: there to really monitor these guys. So they're in a
24:13
Speaker 2: good spot. Now, it's just staying healthy and keep you know,
24:17
Speaker 2: keep the train going where you're where. You're not pushing
24:19
Speaker 2: them to you don't want to have any setbacks.
24:22
Speaker 1: Take some discipline. I would imagine for the manager sometime
24:26
Speaker 1: to say, Okay, I'm gonna come get the ball now,
24:28
Speaker 1: last thing, Kyle before we wrap her up. Okay, we're
24:32
Speaker 1: towards the end of May right now, divisional play has
24:35
Speaker 1: really kicked in. When do you think, okay, this is
24:39
Speaker 1: and who knows what goes beyond it? But when is
24:42
Speaker 1: it time to say this is who the Cardinals are.
24:45
Speaker 2: I believe that this is what we're taking.
24:48
Speaker 3: I knew it. I knew it. When is it real,
24:51
Speaker 3: Kyle that I knew that was coming. I saw this,
24:54
Speaker 3: saw this from a mile away.
24:56
Speaker 2: I tip my pitches.
24:58
Speaker 3: You did you tip that pitch? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, Jim.
25:03
Speaker 3: I mean, I think what we're seeing is possibly the
25:09
Speaker 3: floor on some of these guys raising up a little bit.
25:11
Speaker 3: I don't know that any of them have hit their
25:13
Speaker 3: ceiling yet. I think there's some players on this team
25:15
Speaker 3: that have a chance to be really, really good. You know, maybe, Okay,
25:19
Speaker 3: have we seen walker ceiling at times? Okay, possibly, But
25:23
Speaker 3: I think we've seen the floor raise a little bit,
25:26
Speaker 3: which is how you have a consistent season. And I
25:28
Speaker 3: think we've seen that when this team plays complete games
25:32
Speaker 3: and they play well, they have a chance to beat anybody.
25:35
Speaker 3: So I think we've seen what this team can be.
25:38
Speaker 3: I think with a young team, and this is what
25:41
Speaker 3: you know, fans and analytics people probably hate to hear,
25:44
Speaker 3: but what a young team could come tough stretches that
25:48
Speaker 3: maybe extend a little bit longer. And that's where I
25:50
Speaker 3: think all he's going to do a good job. That's
25:52
Speaker 3: where I think Dusty's going to do a good job
25:54
Speaker 3: with the pitchers. And some of these guys that have
25:56
Speaker 3: been around Burrows and Gorman, Walker, Newt bar may like
26:01
Speaker 3: standing in the pen like some these guys can kind
26:04
Speaker 3: of help these young guys along through some of these
26:06
Speaker 3: tough stretches that are gonna come. So there's gonna be
26:09
Speaker 3: rough patches, there's gonna be uh, you know, some flourishing times.
26:13
Speaker 3: But I think we've seen with this team is and
26:15
Speaker 3: I think this is. I know we were called crazy,
26:18
Speaker 3: however many months ago when we were doing this stuff,
26:20
Speaker 3: even before Cardinal Territory. I know we were crazy for
26:23
Speaker 3: being being optimistic on this team. But I hope that
26:27
Speaker 3: people are seeing why we were optimistic. I think this
26:29
Speaker 3: team has a chance to be really good and compete
26:31
Speaker 3: for the playoffs.
26:33
Speaker 2: I like it. I like it.
26:34
Speaker 1: Gentlemen, that's gonna do it for this week. We'll see
26:38
Speaker 1: you next time for another addition of Cardinal Territory, and
26:41
Speaker 1: hopefully that one won't suck.