August 9, 2023 • 22 mins
We're 114 games into the season, and we still can't settle on 3 outfielders for this Cardinals lineup. Woof.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
High noon continues now on five ninetythe fan. When Zoon leav you go
two Lante ready and he's one oneto Randy Rosarina swinging a line drive up
(00:26):
the middle face etcenter for here trottinghome from third, Franco rounding second and
holding law are the I single forRandy A. Rosaraina. But the Rays
have four straight hits. Here arethe eighth inning and their lead. Now
it's four to one. Oh BabyRays radio last night, coming back from
a one nothing deficit in the eighthinning and uh ultimately take down the Cardinals
(00:51):
by a score of four to two. Wilson Contreras hit nice bomb actually that
carried out opposite field homer for Wilsonin the top of the ninth inning,
but it was not enough, asthey spoil a pretty good outing by Miles
Michaelist and they lose the opener downin Saint Pete yesterday to the Rays,
who are a good team. Andagain it felt like the entire time watching
(01:15):
that game, the Cardinals weren't goingto win. They were going to somehow
figure out a way to lose theballgame. What told you that the previous
one hundred and fifteen games I thinkprobably in that in that in that number.
Yeah, that's kind of what Iwas thinking. But they're just they're
just not Obviously they're not good.They're not good in one run games,
(01:38):
which to me is still a stapleof what good teams present as a winning
an above well above five hundred recordin one run games, and with the
bullpen just being kind of what itis. I know there was a text
laid on the press box about maybeAli trying to make a point by sending
Polante into the game, but youknow, I would just ask you who
(01:59):
who you he got? If thegame's mattered and this is what you had,
you'd have gone Diegos Romero, Iguess. I mean, if you
if you had to have this game, if you're playing for something, didn't
that what you would do? Butthey're not, so it's not relevant.
Do you get all that excited thoughabout the Diegos Romero tandem. No,
(02:23):
I'm just saying that's the best youhave, right, I mean, on
on one night, maybe not everynight. I don't know. It's it's
such a trash bullpen like it is. Really, everybody this year has had
their major blow ups out there,and it seems like anytime you turn to
the hot hand, that's when theygo on a freezing cold streak when you
(02:43):
try to give somebody higher leverage spot. So there were there were two plays
in that eighth inning. One occurredin the top of the eighth inning and
one occurred in the bottom of theeighth inning. And okay, brother all
right, the Ray center fielder,which is a great name, mister Sirie
(03:04):
all right, made a phenomenal catch, is it Jose Sirie Jose Series?
Which can you imagine having that name? Like, hey, Siri, how
often would that prompt your Apple phoneto go off? As mine just did?
But Gorman hit an absolute shot tocenter field, and this was the
(03:27):
catch that Siri made. But theattention focused on Gorman had a high fly
ball center field towering series still goingback, He's gotta lead had he makes
the catch, SII got to thewall just about a half. If that
ball gets down, the Cardinals scoreanother run and it's two to nothing going
into the bottom of the eighth inning, which maybe maybe then to your theory,
(03:52):
Oli Marmel goes in a different directionin the bottom of the eighth inning
with a two nothing lead, butjust one nothing against the raises sketch you
to begin with. Then a ballhere in the bottom of the eighth inning
with Josh Lowe at the plate againstMiles Michaelis, and he hit a ball,
a curveball that hung up, andCarlson gave chase and left center field.
(04:13):
This was the outcome to attack theway that he's been doing this entire
ball game. Five ball center assprinted, still going at the wall.
Hey can't get it. Football diesat the base of the fence around second,
heading to third is all the crowis gonna be late, all right.
So I'm not saying I don't reallycare about what the catch percentage or
(04:40):
whatever was for Carlson. I'm tellingyou right now, if you're gonna be
playing center field, you better givea better effort than Carlson did in left
center field. Was a good effort, not good enough. When I see
Siri making that catch in the topof the eighth inning and you put him
side by side, they both wentabout equal distance. Now Siri went to
(05:02):
his left and back, Carlson tohis right and back, and I just
I it seemed to me like Igotta get more out of somebody in centerfield,
and I was watching. Honestly,especially if you're hitting two twenty,
you gotta be giving it all.You gotta be crashing into the wall.
I was watching a game yesterday afternoonin Philadelphia, and for whatever reason,
(05:25):
whenever I see a game at CitizensBank Park, I think about Aaron Rowand
going into the center field wall andbreaking his face. I think he literally
shattered his nose going into the centerfieldwall, and I'm sorry. You know,
for a team that doesn't have awhole lot of punch, you're sitting
in last place in the National LeagueCentral, and I get maybe I'm picking
(05:46):
on one thing here that would havebeen a good catch in center field.
I gotta see more. I gottasee more from my centerfielder when you're sixteen
games under five hundred and quite frankleague. To your point, he's hitting
two twenty. There's already been afew spots this year when he's been playing
right field where you know, maybehe didn't get a good read on it,
(06:08):
but he's letting a ball hop infront of him, and he's playing
it and not diving for the ball. There's just gotta be more in the
tank than what I saw on thatopportunity. To make a catch in center
field last night. That didn't occurto me. But I'm not gonna,
like I want to say frequently thatyou're wrong. I can't say you're wrong
(06:28):
on this as I looked at it, though I didn't, I didn't take
it quite that way. To me, it would have been a great catch,
and sometimes you need great catches,are great plays, or are great
at bat if you're going to bea winning team, and if you're gonna
be in the playoffs and you're gonnabe playing in one run games, you
gotta make plays. Those are theplays that put you up a game or
(06:50):
two games and win series. Andthose are the plays that you look back
on and go, oh, theymade their play in the top of the
eighth inning, and our guys Isort of didn't really know where the center
field wall was in Saint Pete.Granted they don't play there a lot.
It's a quirky building. I don'tknow about all the lighting and everything,
(07:11):
but come on, man, youcan't at the very least, you gotta
go crash into the wall. Tome, he's playing, he's defensively protecting
himself from trying to make the catch, and that's just not gonna cut it
for me. I didn't see itthat way, but again, I can't
say you're wrong. And the onlyreason why bring it up is because Carlson
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is such a unique player. Tome, there is so much intrigue about
his potential. But having watched himthroughout the course of his career and having
known that pitchers at the Double Alevel were not always fond of his effort
on balls that were hit in certainareas of the ballpark because he didn't want
to get hurt because that might ruinhis ascent to the big leagues, which
(08:03):
everyone knew was coming. That's gotto be something that you either that that's
either a label that you're going toadopt as a guy who's going to go
crash into a wall to make agreat catch in a one run game,
or you're going to be the guywho just couldn't quite get there. And
right now, I feel like that'shis entire career. He's a guy with
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so much potential to go full board, crash into the wall and make a
great catch, but he just can'tquite get there in every phase of his
game. And if Carlson is goingto be this kind of player, then
it's time to probably decide to moveon from from Dylan Carlson. You know,
it's interesting that you have information thatnone of the rest of us have
because of being there every day inthe minor leagues. So that is that
(08:48):
is different information. And as thatcontinues to play out, I think we're
starting to make a list of playersthat got to move. I see players
on this team. You know thestory going back to last week when when
Brendan Donovan still wanted to play despitethe team saying no, you need to
(09:09):
go have surgery. Right, Ithink you need more of that. I
think you need an out. AndI'm not saying everybody's got to be you
know, when they come in,they're gonna need to get the shout squirt
out, and I get you can'thave but you can take an ounce here
and apply it to your game.You can take little pieces of that style
(09:30):
and put it towards your game.And I think people will appreciate that brand
of baseball a lot in this town. And if you go back to when
the fans really soured on Dexter Fowler, that kind of play and maybe that's
not fair to say that kind ofplay, but there was that element of
loafing. There was that element ofnot necessarily giving it your all. And
(09:52):
when you are a forty nine andsixty five last place team in National League
Central, those types of things tome stick out like a sore thumb.
So let me let me extrapolate thisout to the extreme, which you haven't
said you're doing, but let medo that. So that means we want
(10:13):
to move O'Neil, and we wantto move Carlson. I've gotten on board
the Nate train and move Goldschmidt.So are you comfortable with newt Bars or
everyday center fielder or is that somethingfor which you want to trade who you
(10:35):
know. What's tough about this questionis that all of the outfielders that the
Cardinals have, they each have likeone area if you were to put a
cat, you know, if youwere to put quarters in there, you
know, different cups of what theydo well. Each outfielder has like a
few more quarters in one particular cupthat the other guy doesn't have. But
(10:56):
it's not so overwhelming to where yougo, that's the guy I really want
in the lineup or playing center fieldevery day. And so we're a hundred
and what are we one? Hundredand fourteen games into this, and we
can go back to spring training whenyou were waiting for an outfielder to grab
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a spot and say this is minebecause I do X, Y and Z
this much better than the other guy. And their cups are all still not
high enough for me, and they'reall pretty mediocre. Sure, maybe you've
got one area and one cup that'sabove average and you go, okay,
I like that aspect of his game, but not enough to say I am
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putting I am choosing that horse overthe other guy because of those cups,
that those quarters being a little bitfuller in this cup. So that is
a long way of not answering yourquestions. It is, And I was
going to put your feet to thefire. So there's a friend of mine's
dad who used to tell him,if you don't have a solution, then
(11:58):
don't complain about the problem. That'sso I can't really buy that, because
complaining is what we do. Yeah, and it's okay, So I don't
subscribe to that, but I'm gonnahold you to that. So I'm asking
you, are you willing to haveLars Newt bar beer everyday center fielder in
twenty twenty four, or do youwant another option from outside the organization.
(12:22):
So here's what I would say.I think Newt Bar just internally has the
the spirit, the scrappiness to gocrash into a wall more so than Carlson.
I think Kevin watched both of thoseguys play. I just see that
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edge a little bit higher in NewtBar's game. So if I had to
choose between those two going into nextseason playing center field, I think right
now I would probably say Lars NewtBar and then trade Dylan Carlson. Now
here's here's my out on the argument. I want better return for whoever's going
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to give me that out of thosetwo guys. I don't think Newt Bar
and Carlson can both be on aroster come spring training next season. So
if interesting, if you get morereturn for Carlson, then I think that's
the deal you gotta make. Ifyou get more return for Newtbar, that's
the deal you gotta make. Soyou would be okay with Carlson. You
just want more energy, absolutely,and maybe that includes a whole theme that
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I have labeled this team with allseason long, which is not enough guys
that are willing to grab a grassstand. I have an unbelievable one of
my favorite pieces of memorabilia that Ihave in my house is it's Ryan Ludwick
and it doesn't even showcase his face. But the Cardinals used at one point
all of these different bus stop thingswhere they had these huge posters of different
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Cardinals, And I've got one whereit's Yadier Molina behind the plate, you
know, it features his arm orwhatever like ninety five to home, one
hundred and two to second, youknow, showcasing that Maline has got a
gun for Ludwick. It was graba grass staning. And this is a
team that, in my opinion,needs to learn how to grab a grass
stan in more areas than one youneed. And I'm not just saying a
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grass staning on your jersey. I'musing that as a as a as a
means for just the your overall themeof your team. You need to you
need to really get dirty. Youneed to have a guy who's willing when
he's not feeling great to go outthere and figure out a way to get
through six innings, as opposed toI'm gonna cruise out here and Cadillac it
a little bit, or I've hitmy hundred pitches, Are you gonna come
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get the ball from me? Comeon, looking into the dugout, wondering
where's Ali at one hundred and onepitches, feeling like you did your job
when you're four and two thirds throughan outing and you're at one hundred and
five and ready to come out.You know, here's another example, you
know, Tyler O'Neill. I triedto defend him yesterday with the whole running
(15:01):
around third thing, but he's gotanother OUCHI and he's got to get pulled
from the lineup and he just can'tstay in there. So we can talk
all about Tyler's ability to hit lighttower power, which I've mocked before a
hundred times. Control. If youcan't play, you can't be on my
team, all right. If youare always hurt, if you are always
(15:22):
sore, if you always have anissue, then guess what you are not
an asset for my ball club.And at this juncture we have tried.
This is not six months, thisis not a year. This is going
on like four years with Tyler O'Neill. So if we're still not to the
point in the fork in the roadwhere you decide this guy's got immense talent.
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I know he's really capable, buthe just can't stay healthy. And
he's twenty eight exactly. So it'stime to move on, and it's been
time to move on. But they'reso obsessed with potential and this guy,
you know, maybe providing what hedid for a bit when he had that
amazing run when he finished top tenin the MVP voting, that they just
(16:07):
can't get over the hump. Soagain, I want to get back to
reality and practicality. Is Alec Barlsonyour everyday left fielder who we're moving two
of your starting out fielders. Ithink that you've got to bring in an
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external guy. I think that's whatwe're getting to in center field. I
think you have got to go finda everyday centerfielder who has produced in the
big leagues. And that's why Iwas so high on Bellinger in the off
season. Even though it's like cryingover spilled milk. I hate I hate
to admit it because I was criticalof your point. I hate to admit
(16:51):
it. You were right. Gosh, that makes me sick. You know
Bellingers at the Gholtsman. Now wehad the Bellinger tay, Oh my goodness,
Bob, but he much a gooddefensive player. Yeah, he's had
such a remarkable impact in the lineupfor the Cubs. And I'm just tired
of people who know the game wellwho sit on different platforms. And they
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joked at the idea that a Bellingercould help this team, like they're so
with with the players that the Cardinalshave that they think that any outside of
help might actually be a better option. Yes, we were wrong, don't
rub my nose in it, gracious. Oh, by the oh, you
want to know this is the weekthat that rammer was wrong. Uh remember
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I was critical of the Kik Hernandez. Yes, he's hitting like three twenty
since he's been there. Okay,I'm wrong. One week, I'm finished.
I'm finished. Some guys, youknow, when they put on a
jersey that they have had success inbefore, they just read light up,
rekindle the spirit, whatever it is. And I saw from day one when
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Kika hit like a double and he'sat second base and he's doing his little
hip dance and he's getting into itand the LA crowd loves it. I'm
like, oh, oh, he'sback, he's got This game will wear
you down, it'll eat you upand spit you out and it'll stop on
your head. And if you don'tplay with confidence in the big leagues,
if you don't play like a guywho can go run down a ball in
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deep center field and crash into thefence without fear of, oh, I'm
gonna have my shoulder hurt. Youdon't. You're not the kind of guy
that I really am going to signup to play. Everything probably not gonna
last. It's not gonna work.If you're that fragile, that is not
good. He's fragile. He's veryfragile. Fragility gets you forty nine and
sixty five. That's where you're at. So that's disappointing. And one other
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thing on last night, if therewas a team all right that wanted to
come into last night and feel demoralizedabout their spot and where they're at,
it would have been the Tampa BayRays. They got devastating news yesterday.
They were hit with an absolute horrificnews story that Shane McClanahan, who had
been the front runner for the AmericanLeague Cy Young Award, is going to
(19:02):
have surgery and he's done for theyear. That's a huge shit. This
is on the heels of a raisedteam that did not really go out and
add a robust addition at the roadat the deadline. Okay, they added
Aaron Savali. I think he absolutelyBut when you look at some of the
guys who got moved in the AmericanLeague, you know, it's hard to
compete with what Texas did, gettingSuzer and going to Houston. So those
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types of moves even make you morewide eyed when you think, well,
we got Aaron Savali, Okay,well that's nice. Did you do enough?
And now, by the way,you were without Shane McClanahan, and
they knew that McClanahan wasn't hurt beforethe deadline, so it's not like they
didn't have time to maybe make animpact move there. So I think that
that was a mistake. However,my point being, if there was a
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team that was going to be alittle down on what they were hit with
earlier in the day, it wasthe Rays, and then to go into
the bottom of the eighth inning andstill have that fight and and figure out
a way to win a ballgame athome where they've been terrific at the trop
I think it showcases a lot tome about the Rays and the way that
the Orioles collapsed last night against theHouston Astros. I'm gonna say this right
(20:15):
now. My prediction is that theRays are going to win the American League
East. I think that the BaltimoreOrioles, with what has transpired and the
bad karma that that organization has chewedup with the Kevin Brown situation, and
you got the fans now chanting forKevin Brown and it became a whole storyline
in Major League Baseball. I thinkthat that bad karma is going to hurt
the Orioles. This was a teamthat was by and large flying nut,
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kind of under the radar. Theywere just going about their business. They
had won seventy plus games. Theyget the guy flarity, all right.
They made a couple of moves,they didn't share. They didn't rattle too
much with that team. They're young, and now you know what, that
spotlight is directly on the Astros.And when you are part of me,
the Orioles, and when you gofrom having a six two lead to blowing
(21:02):
it against the Astros in a fashionthat they did, to me, that
signals a team that may have justrecognized, oh, are we really supposed
to be this good this soon,and I'm predicting that the Rays are going
to come back and take the AmericanLeague Geest Bah from the Oars. It's
only two and a half games.By the way, one more play last
night, do you remember yesterday?I asked the question, and not as
(21:25):
a criticism, just an open question, is why it's it's Walker in right
field that they really want him tobe in right field? The answer was
given to us last night. Thatthrow throw was amazing. That's why with
that arm that if he can channelhis talent, that's why they like him
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as a right I've got the play. You want to hear it? I
do. This is an unbelievable throwby Walker, who just threw an absolute
strike. It was a perfect throw. It was a great throw. Who
do you get Diaz on on thatthrow? Of course now it's we're struggling
the load, but it was atremendous outfield assist by Jordan Walker. So
well, here it is all right. This is the I'll play of the
(22:11):
Ballet Sports feed here on the unbelievableplay by Jordan Walking. Yah throughout the
organization losing the Clanahandi is gonna betough. Walker in right, we'll play
that on the turf. Pig turnaround. First to day is to throw a
second a strike, hand in time, beautiful throw by Walker. Again,
that's the kind of stuff you wantto see more of out of this outfield.
(22:32):
Those are the plays that where yougo, all right, that's what
I want to see. That's winningbaseball to me. All right, quick
time out. It's one fifteen.When we come back our Wednesday segment,
we'll talk a little hockey. Fascinating, a little story developing out of Edmonton
with who they're bringing in to runtheir hockey operations. And he's got ties
to the best player in the NationalHockey League as a former agent, so
(22:52):
kind of strange. We'll get there. We'll talk to Anthony DeMarco when we return.
High noon continues now on five ninetythe fan. When Zoon leav you go
two Lante ready and he's one oneto Randy Rosarina swinging a line drive up
(00:26):
the middle face etcenter for here trottinghome from third, Franco rounding second and
holding law are the I single forRandy A. Rosaraina. But the Rays
have four straight hits. Here arethe eighth inning and their lead. Now
it's four to one. Oh BabyRays radio last night, coming back from
a one nothing deficit in the eighthinning and uh ultimately take down the Cardinals
(00:51):
by a score of four to two. Wilson Contreras hit nice bomb actually that
carried out opposite field homer for Wilsonin the top of the ninth inning,
but it was not enough, asthey spoil a pretty good outing by Miles
Michaelist and they lose the opener downin Saint Pete yesterday to the Rays,
who are a good team. Andagain it felt like the entire time watching
(01:15):
that game, the Cardinals weren't goingto win. They were going to somehow
figure out a way to lose theballgame. What told you that the previous
one hundred and fifteen games I thinkprobably in that in that in that number.
Yeah, that's kind of what Iwas thinking. But they're just they're
just not Obviously they're not good.They're not good in one run games,
(01:38):
which to me is still a stapleof what good teams present as a winning
an above well above five hundred recordin one run games, and with the
bullpen just being kind of what itis. I know there was a text
laid on the press box about maybeAli trying to make a point by sending
Polante into the game, but youknow, I would just ask you who
(01:59):
who you he got? If thegame's mattered and this is what you had,
you'd have gone Diegos Romero, Iguess. I mean, if you
if you had to have this game, if you're playing for something, didn't
that what you would do? Butthey're not, so it's not relevant.
Do you get all that excited thoughabout the Diegos Romero tandem. No,
(02:23):
I'm just saying that's the best youhave, right, I mean, on
on one night, maybe not everynight. I don't know. It's it's
such a trash bullpen like it is. Really, everybody this year has had
their major blow ups out there,and it seems like anytime you turn to
the hot hand, that's when theygo on a freezing cold streak when you
(02:43):
try to give somebody higher leverage spot. So there were there were two plays
in that eighth inning. One occurredin the top of the eighth inning and
one occurred in the bottom of theeighth inning. And okay, brother all
right, the Ray center fielder,which is a great name, mister Sirie
(03:04):
all right, made a phenomenal catch, is it Jose Sirie Jose Series?
Which can you imagine having that name? Like, hey, Siri, how
often would that prompt your Apple phoneto go off? As mine just did?
But Gorman hit an absolute shot tocenter field, and this was the
(03:27):
catch that Siri made. But theattention focused on Gorman had a high fly
ball center field towering series still goingback, He's gotta lead had he makes
the catch, SII got to thewall just about a half. If that
ball gets down, the Cardinals scoreanother run and it's two to nothing going
into the bottom of the eighth inning, which maybe maybe then to your theory,
(03:52):
Oli Marmel goes in a different directionin the bottom of the eighth inning
with a two nothing lead, butjust one nothing against the raises sketch you
to begin with. Then a ballhere in the bottom of the eighth inning
with Josh Lowe at the plate againstMiles Michaelis, and he hit a ball,
a curveball that hung up, andCarlson gave chase and left center field.
(04:13):
This was the outcome to attack theway that he's been doing this entire
ball game. Five ball center assprinted, still going at the wall.
Hey can't get it. Football diesat the base of the fence around second,
heading to third is all the crowis gonna be late, all right.
So I'm not saying I don't reallycare about what the catch percentage or
(04:40):
whatever was for Carlson. I'm tellingyou right now, if you're gonna be
playing center field, you better givea better effort than Carlson did in left
center field. Was a good effort, not good enough. When I see
Siri making that catch in the topof the eighth inning and you put him
side by side, they both wentabout equal distance. Now Siri went to
(05:02):
his left and back, Carlson tohis right and back, and I just
I it seemed to me like Igotta get more out of somebody in centerfield,
and I was watching. Honestly,especially if you're hitting two twenty,
you gotta be giving it all.You gotta be crashing into the wall.
I was watching a game yesterday afternoonin Philadelphia, and for whatever reason,
(05:25):
whenever I see a game at CitizensBank Park, I think about Aaron Rowand
going into the center field wall andbreaking his face. I think he literally
shattered his nose going into the centerfieldwall, and I'm sorry. You know,
for a team that doesn't have awhole lot of punch, you're sitting
in last place in the National LeagueCentral, and I get maybe I'm picking
(05:46):
on one thing here that would havebeen a good catch in center field.
I gotta see more. I gottasee more from my centerfielder when you're sixteen
games under five hundred and quite frankleague. To your point, he's hitting
two twenty. There's already been afew spots this year when he's been playing
right field where you know, maybehe didn't get a good read on it,
(06:08):
but he's letting a ball hop infront of him, and he's playing
it and not diving for the ball. There's just gotta be more in the
tank than what I saw on thatopportunity. To make a catch in center
field last night. That didn't occurto me. But I'm not gonna,
like I want to say frequently thatyou're wrong. I can't say you're wrong
(06:28):
on this as I looked at it, though I didn't, I didn't take
it quite that way. To me, it would have been a great catch,
and sometimes you need great catches,are great plays, or are great
at bat if you're going to bea winning team, and if you're gonna
be in the playoffs and you're gonnabe playing in one run games, you
gotta make plays. Those are theplays that put you up a game or
(06:50):
two games and win series. Andthose are the plays that you look back
on and go, oh, theymade their play in the top of the
eighth inning, and our guys Isort of didn't really know where the center
field wall was in Saint Pete.Granted they don't play there a lot.
It's a quirky building. I don'tknow about all the lighting and everything,
(07:11):
but come on, man, youcan't at the very least, you gotta
go crash into the wall. Tome, he's playing, he's defensively protecting
himself from trying to make the catch, and that's just not gonna cut it
for me. I didn't see itthat way, but again, I can't
say you're wrong. And the onlyreason why bring it up is because Carlson
(07:39):
is such a unique player. Tome, there is so much intrigue about
his potential. But having watched himthroughout the course of his career and having
known that pitchers at the Double Alevel were not always fond of his effort
on balls that were hit in certainareas of the ballpark because he didn't want
to get hurt because that might ruinhis ascent to the big leagues, which
(08:03):
everyone knew was coming. That's gotto be something that you either that that's
either a label that you're going toadopt as a guy who's going to go
crash into a wall to make agreat catch in a one run game,
or you're going to be the guywho just couldn't quite get there. And
right now, I feel like that'shis entire career. He's a guy with
(08:24):
so much potential to go full board, crash into the wall and make a
great catch, but he just can'tquite get there in every phase of his
game. And if Carlson is goingto be this kind of player, then
it's time to probably decide to moveon from from Dylan Carlson. You know,
it's interesting that you have information thatnone of the rest of us have
because of being there every day inthe minor leagues. So that is that
(08:48):
is different information. And as thatcontinues to play out, I think we're
starting to make a list of playersthat got to move. I see players
on this team. You know thestory going back to last week when when
Brendan Donovan still wanted to play despitethe team saying no, you need to
(09:09):
go have surgery. Right, Ithink you need more of that. I
think you need an out. AndI'm not saying everybody's got to be you
know, when they come in,they're gonna need to get the shout squirt
out, and I get you can'thave but you can take an ounce here
and apply it to your game.You can take little pieces of that style
(09:30):
and put it towards your game.And I think people will appreciate that brand
of baseball a lot in this town. And if you go back to when
the fans really soured on Dexter Fowler, that kind of play and maybe that's
not fair to say that kind ofplay, but there was that element of
loafing. There was that element ofnot necessarily giving it your all. And
(09:52):
when you are a forty nine andsixty five last place team in National League
Central, those types of things tome stick out like a sore thumb.
So let me let me extrapolate thisout to the extreme, which you haven't
said you're doing, but let medo that. So that means we want
(10:13):
to move O'Neil, and we wantto move Carlson. I've gotten on board
the Nate train and move Goldschmidt.So are you comfortable with newt Bars or
everyday center fielder or is that somethingfor which you want to trade who you
(10:35):
know. What's tough about this questionis that all of the outfielders that the
Cardinals have, they each have likeone area if you were to put a
cat, you know, if youwere to put quarters in there, you
know, different cups of what theydo well. Each outfielder has like a
few more quarters in one particular cupthat the other guy doesn't have. But
(10:56):
it's not so overwhelming to where yougo, that's the guy I really want
in the lineup or playing center fieldevery day. And so we're a hundred
and what are we one? Hundredand fourteen games into this, and we
can go back to spring training whenyou were waiting for an outfielder to grab
(11:16):
a spot and say this is minebecause I do X, Y and Z
this much better than the other guy. And their cups are all still not
high enough for me, and they'reall pretty mediocre. Sure, maybe you've
got one area and one cup that'sabove average and you go, okay,
I like that aspect of his game, but not enough to say I am
(11:37):
putting I am choosing that horse overthe other guy because of those cups,
that those quarters being a little bitfuller in this cup. So that is
a long way of not answering yourquestions. It is, And I was
going to put your feet to thefire. So there's a friend of mine's
dad who used to tell him,if you don't have a solution, then
(11:58):
don't complain about the problem. That'sso I can't really buy that, because
complaining is what we do. Yeah, and it's okay, So I don't
subscribe to that, but I'm gonnahold you to that. So I'm asking
you, are you willing to haveLars Newt bar beer everyday center fielder in
twenty twenty four, or do youwant another option from outside the organization.
(12:22):
So here's what I would say.I think Newt Bar just internally has the
the spirit, the scrappiness to gocrash into a wall more so than Carlson.
I think Kevin watched both of thoseguys play. I just see that
(12:43):
edge a little bit higher in NewtBar's game. So if I had to
choose between those two going into nextseason playing center field, I think right
now I would probably say Lars NewtBar and then trade Dylan Carlson. Now
here's here's my out on the argument. I want better return for whoever's going
(13:05):
to give me that out of thosetwo guys. I don't think Newt Bar
and Carlson can both be on aroster come spring training next season. So
if interesting, if you get morereturn for Carlson, then I think that's
the deal you gotta make. Ifyou get more return for Newtbar, that's
the deal you gotta make. Soyou would be okay with Carlson. You
just want more energy, absolutely,and maybe that includes a whole theme that
(13:31):
I have labeled this team with allseason long, which is not enough guys
that are willing to grab a grassstand. I have an unbelievable one of
my favorite pieces of memorabilia that Ihave in my house is it's Ryan Ludwick
and it doesn't even showcase his face. But the Cardinals used at one point
all of these different bus stop thingswhere they had these huge posters of different
(13:56):
Cardinals, And I've got one whereit's Yadier Molina behind the plate, you
know, it features his arm orwhatever like ninety five to home, one
hundred and two to second, youknow, showcasing that Maline has got a
gun for Ludwick. It was graba grass staning. And this is a
team that, in my opinion,needs to learn how to grab a grass
stan in more areas than one youneed. And I'm not just saying a
(14:20):
grass staning on your jersey. I'musing that as a as a as a
means for just the your overall themeof your team. You need to you
need to really get dirty. Youneed to have a guy who's willing when
he's not feeling great to go outthere and figure out a way to get
through six innings, as opposed toI'm gonna cruise out here and Cadillac it
a little bit, or I've hitmy hundred pitches, Are you gonna come
(14:41):
get the ball from me? Comeon, looking into the dugout, wondering
where's Ali at one hundred and onepitches, feeling like you did your job
when you're four and two thirds throughan outing and you're at one hundred and
five and ready to come out.You know, here's another example, you
know, Tyler O'Neill. I triedto defend him yesterday with the whole running
(15:01):
around third thing, but he's gotanother OUCHI and he's got to get pulled
from the lineup and he just can'tstay in there. So we can talk
all about Tyler's ability to hit lighttower power, which I've mocked before a
hundred times. Control. If youcan't play, you can't be on my
team, all right. If youare always hurt, if you are always
(15:22):
sore, if you always have anissue, then guess what you are not
an asset for my ball club.And at this juncture we have tried.
This is not six months, thisis not a year. This is going
on like four years with Tyler O'Neill. So if we're still not to the
point in the fork in the roadwhere you decide this guy's got immense talent.
(15:45):
I know he's really capable, buthe just can't stay healthy. And
he's twenty eight exactly. So it'stime to move on, and it's been
time to move on. But they'reso obsessed with potential and this guy,
you know, maybe providing what hedid for a bit when he had that
amazing run when he finished top tenin the MVP voting, that they just
(16:07):
can't get over the hump. Soagain, I want to get back to
reality and practicality. Is Alec Barlsonyour everyday left fielder who we're moving two
of your starting out fielders. Ithink that you've got to bring in an
(16:29):
external guy. I think that's whatwe're getting to in center field. I
think you have got to go finda everyday centerfielder who has produced in the
big leagues. And that's why Iwas so high on Bellinger in the off
season. Even though it's like cryingover spilled milk. I hate I hate
to admit it because I was criticalof your point. I hate to admit
(16:51):
it. You were right. Gosh, that makes me sick. You know
Bellingers at the Gholtsman. Now wehad the Bellinger tay, Oh my goodness,
Bob, but he much a gooddefensive player. Yeah, he's had
such a remarkable impact in the lineupfor the Cubs. And I'm just tired
of people who know the game wellwho sit on different platforms. And they
(17:11):
joked at the idea that a Bellingercould help this team, like they're so
with with the players that the Cardinalshave that they think that any outside of
help might actually be a better option. Yes, we were wrong, don't
rub my nose in it, gracious. Oh, by the oh, you
want to know this is the weekthat that rammer was wrong. Uh remember
(17:36):
I was critical of the Kik Hernandez. Yes, he's hitting like three twenty
since he's been there. Okay,I'm wrong. One week, I'm finished.
I'm finished. Some guys, youknow, when they put on a
jersey that they have had success inbefore, they just read light up,
rekindle the spirit, whatever it is. And I saw from day one when
(17:57):
Kika hit like a double and he'sat second base and he's doing his little
hip dance and he's getting into itand the LA crowd loves it. I'm
like, oh, oh, he'sback, he's got This game will wear
you down, it'll eat you upand spit you out and it'll stop on
your head. And if you don'tplay with confidence in the big leagues,
if you don't play like a guywho can go run down a ball in
(18:18):
deep center field and crash into thefence without fear of, oh, I'm
gonna have my shoulder hurt. Youdon't. You're not the kind of guy
that I really am going to signup to play. Everything probably not gonna
last. It's not gonna work.If you're that fragile, that is not
good. He's fragile. He's veryfragile. Fragility gets you forty nine and
sixty five. That's where you're at. So that's disappointing. And one other
(18:41):
thing on last night, if therewas a team all right that wanted to
come into last night and feel demoralizedabout their spot and where they're at,
it would have been the Tampa BayRays. They got devastating news yesterday.
They were hit with an absolute horrificnews story that Shane McClanahan, who had
been the front runner for the AmericanLeague Cy Young Award, is going to
(19:02):
have surgery and he's done for theyear. That's a huge shit. This
is on the heels of a raisedteam that did not really go out and
add a robust addition at the roadat the deadline. Okay, they added
Aaron Savali. I think he absolutelyBut when you look at some of the
guys who got moved in the AmericanLeague, you know, it's hard to
compete with what Texas did, gettingSuzer and going to Houston. So those
(19:29):
types of moves even make you morewide eyed when you think, well,
we got Aaron Savali, Okay,well that's nice. Did you do enough?
And now, by the way,you were without Shane McClanahan, and
they knew that McClanahan wasn't hurt beforethe deadline, so it's not like they
didn't have time to maybe make animpact move there. So I think that
that was a mistake. However,my point being, if there was a
(19:51):
team that was going to be alittle down on what they were hit with
earlier in the day, it wasthe Rays, and then to go into
the bottom of the eighth inning andstill have that fight and and figure out
a way to win a ballgame athome where they've been terrific at the trop
I think it showcases a lot tome about the Rays and the way that
the Orioles collapsed last night against theHouston Astros. I'm gonna say this right
(20:15):
now. My prediction is that theRays are going to win the American League
East. I think that the BaltimoreOrioles, with what has transpired and the
bad karma that that organization has chewedup with the Kevin Brown situation, and
you got the fans now chanting forKevin Brown and it became a whole storyline
in Major League Baseball. I thinkthat that bad karma is going to hurt
the Orioles. This was a teamthat was by and large flying nut,
(20:38):
kind of under the radar. Theywere just going about their business. They
had won seventy plus games. Theyget the guy flarity, all right.
They made a couple of moves,they didn't share. They didn't rattle too
much with that team. They're young, and now you know what, that
spotlight is directly on the Astros.And when you are part of me,
the Orioles, and when you gofrom having a six two lead to blowing
(21:02):
it against the Astros in a fashionthat they did, to me, that
signals a team that may have justrecognized, oh, are we really supposed
to be this good this soon,and I'm predicting that the Rays are going
to come back and take the AmericanLeague Geest Bah from the Oars. It's
only two and a half games.By the way, one more play last
night, do you remember yesterday?I asked the question, and not as
(21:25):
a criticism, just an open question, is why it's it's Walker in right
field that they really want him tobe in right field? The answer was
given to us last night. Thatthrow throw was amazing. That's why with
that arm that if he can channelhis talent, that's why they like him
(21:48):
as a right I've got the play. You want to hear it? I
do. This is an unbelievable throwby Walker, who just threw an absolute
strike. It was a perfect throw. It was a great throw. Who
do you get Diaz on on thatthrow? Of course now it's we're struggling
the load, but it was atremendous outfield assist by Jordan Walker. So
well, here it is all right. This is the I'll play of the
(22:11):
Ballet Sports feed here on the unbelievableplay by Jordan Walking. Yah throughout the
organization losing the Clanahandi is gonna betough. Walker in right, we'll play
that on the turf. Pig turnaround. First to day is to throw a
second a strike, hand in time, beautiful throw by Walker. Again,
that's the kind of stuff you wantto see more of out of this outfield.
(22:32):
Those are the plays that where yougo, all right, that's what
I want to see. That's winningbaseball to me. All right, quick
time out. It's one fifteen.When we come back our Wednesday segment,
we'll talk a little hockey. Fascinating, a little story developing out of Edmonton
with who they're bringing in to runtheir hockey operations. And he's got ties
to the best player in the NationalHockey League as a former agent, so
(22:52):
kind of strange. We'll get there. We'll talk to Anthony DeMarco when we return.
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