Yes, I know, it was supposed to be a “reader mailbag” episode. Yes, I know, it’s my own fault for surveying the same post as the mailbag episode, but I think I received a much more valuable return from you guys on what you want or are hoping for from the podcast moving forward. Therefore, I’m claiming this as a success anyway!
This week, we discussed the Cardinals’ 6-3 homestand, the return of NOOOOOOOOOT, Nolan Gorman’s continued struggles and what the future of the 3B spot might look like, Jordan Walker is continuing to prove this isn’t a fluke, and we finish with a discussion centered around USA Today’s Bob Nightengale’s report about JoJo Romero and Dustin May potentially being on the trade block later this season.
Sorry, Doublehotdog, I tried to talk less this week, but it didn’t work. I’ll keep trying going forward, but that thing about old dogs and new tricks. It’s going to take me a while to pare it down. Enjoy!
Next week, we will be joined by Memphis Redbirds PxP man Alex Coil, and Scoops with Danny Mac, Springfield contributor, Andy Carroll, to talk upper minors!
Below the videos, we are trying something new. Show transcripts will now be available upon release for those who would prefer to read the dialogue, rather than listen, and follow along in their own way!
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YouTube:
-Thanks for watching/listening
Show Transcript –
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (00:34)
Welcome to the Viva El Birdos Podcast. As always, I am your host, Jake Wood, and I am joined this week by fellow writers Gabe Simonds and Scott Plaza. ⁓ This week we were supposed to do a reader mailbag, but because I am ADHD in a roundabout way, I ⁓ also included a ⁓ what’s the word I’m looking for? I asked your
opinion on what you thought of the podcast, and so you gave a lot more great candid responses to what you thought of the podcast rather than giving us questions and content to talk about, so that responsibility fell unto me, Scott, and Gabe to kind of determine what we were going to talk about tonight. And we’ll get into that in just a moment. But before we do, I do want to say a quick thank you to everybody who responded to ⁓ that little survey that I had put out. Thank you so much for your feedback. ⁓ as always, it’s very much appreciated and
Obviously, if you enjoy this show and enjoy what we do, please be sure to like and subscribe to this. Share it wherever possible. Like we really appreciate. Leave a comment. If you have any comments, thoughts, or suggestions for the show, please leave them in the comments. We really appreciate it. We really want to hear from you. You know, you guys ultimately drive the content and what we do here, so please reach out, let us know what you think. It’s always appreciated. Now that that bit of housekeeping is taken care of, ⁓ Gabe, Scott, how are you guys doing tonight?
Welcome back. It’s felt like a while since we’ve done this. You know, how how are how are you feeling? Let’s start with this real quick, just a quick, succinct thought on Blogger Day, what your thoughts were from Chaim Bloom, your overall interpretations of your first kind of face-to-face experience with him. Scott, I’ll let you lead us off.
Scott Plaza (02:18)
⁓ I’ll just say he’s a phenomenal speaker. ⁓ he took the time, rather, he appreciated, like you couldn’t tell whether he was annoyed by a question or not, because of the amount of effort and how much he explained what he was doing with his answers. So I just thought that was awesome. He was very very receptive to what we had to bring, and he stuck around for what, twenty minutes? It was while the game started, he was still, you know, kissing babies and shaking hands and stuff. So, it was very, very cool to do that. And unfortunately, that was the PCA game. But the Chaim Bloom experience is great.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (02:55)
Yeah, you don’t get the title of president without kissing babies and shaking hands. Gabe, your thoughts from Chaim Bloom on on your experience with him?
Gabe (03:05)
⁓ it was definitely an interesting experience, and I was sort of impressed by how long some of his answers were. He’s very good at giving you an answer without necessarily telling you anything new. ⁓ and that was interestingly a criticism of Mozeliak back in the day. Whereas with Mo when he was at Blogger Day, I felt like he was a lot more straightforward. I don’t know, it was weird for me because I felt like Mo was the opposite of his persona, whereas Bloom was ⁓ just that he took so long on his answers. And this has been influenced ’cause I had to go to the bathroom for like twenty minutes of that. Honestly, God, I was like, I have to pee so bad, but he’s still talking ⁓ but you know. It was a Yeah, no, I wasn’t gonna go to the bathroom while everybody else was standing still, that’s for sure.
Scott Plaza (03:41)
Ha ha.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (03:41)
Ha.
Scott Plaza (03:48)
Sacrifices.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (03:54)
I felt the same way, but I was also kind of working through like a sinus infection, so I was trying so hard not to cough and like distort everyone’s audio at the same time. So I was sitting there, like trying to work, you know, like coughing without coughing, that kind of thing.
Gabe (04:04)
Yeah.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (04:09)
⁓ I I I felt similarly. I was really ⁓ appreciative of the thoughtfulness and the ⁓ like extended thoughts he gave on any topic, and you know whether it be ranging from AI to whether or not barbecue sauce goes on a hot dog. He gave thoughtful, interesting responses to every topic that was given to him. Of course, we also gave some, you know, baseball-related questions to him, and he answered those as well as he possibly could. Obviously, whenever trades and when ⁓ extension talks came up, he gave the the quote unquote non-answer to those things because he really can’t answer them in those settings, and we understand that, of course.
Scott Plaza (04:50)
Can we all promise not to waste time on those questions in the future, knowing that the response is gonna always be we can’t get into that?
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (04:57)
Yeah, I think we can ask that, but I don’t know that anyone will ever follow through with that. There’s always gonna be the new upstart that, like me, was just too eager to ask the question. ⁓ but much like he talked about the team, let’s jump into it and talk about the team. The Cardinals finished off a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds today and went six and three overall on the homestand. ⁓ I just wanted to get your guys’ thoughts overall on the performance and maybe a little bit about how the roster is starting to take shape.
Scott Plaza (05:01)
Yeah.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (05:27)
We’re starting to see the Cardinals, you know, move pieces up and down and in and out and however you know, to make the puzzle come together. Gabe, I’ll start with you. Kind of your thoughts on the homestand overall between ⁓ Cincinnati, Texas, and the sweep of the Reds, and then kind of how the roster’s starting to come together for everything.
Gabe (05:46)
Yeah, I mean it was obviously a very good homestand. I thought, you know, the Cubs series just had one bad game, and then the other two games were very promising. And the Rangers were all more or less fifty-fifty games, and two of them happened to go against the Cardinals. They felt like the Cardinals could’ve won any of ⁓ and you know, baseball just sometimes throws you like, you’re gonna lose this one. ⁓ and then the Reds series, ⁓ honestly, I was more like, Wow, the Reds are bad, more than wow, the Cards are good, because they kept giving us leads. ⁓ for free, which I appreciate so much, and if every team wants to do that, I’ll be happy to take it. But yeah, no, I was very happy that we spotted the Reds ’cause they’ve looked like a fraud team for a while and I’m I’m I’m I’m so happy that we beat them. So yeah, very good homestand, I’m happy.
Scott Plaza (06:36)
Yeah, as as I’m as I’m looking into my fantasy baseball pickups, I’m like, who’s playing the Reds next? And it’s Walker Bueller tomorrow, so I’m trying to like, ⁓ but it’s Walker Bueller, like but the Reds are so bad right now, so I’m trying to figure that one out. But yeah, that’s that it’s interesting that they felt like they had to sweep to go seven and seven over this stretch. It felt better than that. ⁓ but Jake and I were talking about getting like the
brewer’s sweep, I guess, kind of gets outdone by what happened in the Cincinnati series. But how the roster’s coming together, ⁓ we haven’t. I don’t know if this is good or bad, but we haven’t really noticed a difference behind the plate, whether it’s been Crooks, Pages, or Herrera behind the plate. So I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I mean, we probably hoped for a little bit more out of Jimmy Crooks, but this gives a little bit more credence to look at what he was doing in the minor leagues. He’s not ready. It’s like okay, like we everybody was wanted something different to happen. Something different is happening and we haven’t seen anything different from that position just yet. ⁓ Velasquez doing his thing is super cool. And then ⁓ of course, with Noot coming up, we’ll talk about that here in a little bit, but
The roster’s coming together, and it’s gonna create some fun conversations through the rest of the summer for sure.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (07:45)
Yeah, I’m glad you touched on the Jimmy Crooks part, and I’m I like not here to like, you know, toot my own horn or you know, but it’s still early. It’s still a very small sample. There’s still a relative opportunity for him to take off, but as you said, I do agree. It has not been a tangible difference that I think a lot of Cardinals fans were hoping for, like an immediate impact. ⁓ one player who did provide some immediate impact, you know, Lars Nootbar made his return Friday night, which I was there and a part of. And for lack of a better term, ⁓ he appeared not to have missed a step in doing so, Scott, your little hat tip, foot, not miss a step. Haha. Anyway, ⁓ what do you guys thought thoughts on Lars Newtbar’s return and the kind of the like added energy that he’s kind of brought back to the t not that the Cardinals necessarily were lacking in energy, but it seems like he just genuinely brings that next level of energy to ⁓ th this Cardinals team, this offense. So ⁓ Scott, I’ll start with you on this one first. Just, you know, how refreshing it is to have Nootbaar back and, you know, how much do you think this changes the dynamic of the offense? Obviously, we haven’t seen the full lineup together all at once yet, but ⁓ just your overall thoughts.
Scott Plaza (08:59)
He’s back at just such an interesting time, just overall. ⁓ I I was talking with Jandy over on the Cardinals on My Time podcast, and we’re just like, how much Noot just like we were going back and forth of like I going into this season, I was like, let’s get him traded as quickly as possible, let’s get him healthy and then traded as quickly as possible. But then, my article today I was done with at noon yesterday, and then Noot came off the bench and hit a homer, so then I had to do a quick little spin for it for this morning. But the title was What Do the Cardinals Want from Lars Nootbaar? And I was like, well, it was originally like what do they want for Lars Nootbaar? But now it’s from. Like, do they want him to? Obviously, he’s at a 300 WRC plus. ⁓ he’s not gonna keep that up. ⁓
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (09:38)
Is that good? (sarcasm)
Scott Plaza (09:40)
Yeah, so apparently he’s better than Aaron Judge. So ⁓ keep him around forever. But no, it it’s it’s an interesting conversation of do they want him to be a run producer and keep this postseason dream alive as long as possible? Do they want him to keep up this stretch so they can trade him as long as possible? Do they want him to struggle so that they can keep the cycling going through the outfield and get bias up sooner? It is he’s just coming at a very interesting spot, but while he’s here every game I want them to win, so keep doing your thing, Noot.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (10:07)
Absolutely. I mean, it’s been really fun. I mean, there’s no other way to really say it. It’s been fun, it’s been exciting, it’s been ⁓ everything you could have hoped for from a healthy Lars Nootbaar in return. ⁓ and it helped lessen, I think, the impact of ⁓ JJ Weatherholt taking those couple of days off because you had Noot to slide right back into the top of the lineup there. And I think that ⁓ you know, obviously having Weatherholt back in this last game today and then going forward, it’s just that added element that Cardinals can hopefully to get back to that identity that they had early in the season with ⁓ you know being able to grind out at bats, grind pitchers down, get them out early, get into what most teams like underbelly is of their of their bullpen between like the fifth to seventh inning. That’s usually ⁓ your best chance to get to a team nowadays. ⁓ hopefully, the Cardinals and kind of identity and how they want to work counts and and grind guys out.
That lends to more winning in the near future. One guy who has been struggling with doing that is Nolan Gorman. He has been absolutely going through it. ⁓ You know, one name that gets brought up consistently is Blaze Jordan, and he was not really thought to be a real option at third base, at least until Ramon Urias developed tennis elbow and his other elbow. That’s right. He has Giancarlo Stanton syndrome, where he has tennis elbow in both of his elbows. ⁓ and now the Cardinals appear to be more seriously considering Blaze at third base, at least in the immediate future. That’s from that, at least speculation coming from our friend Jeff Jones over at the Belleville News Democrat. Because after that diagnosis to Ramon Urias that Blaze Jordan was back at third base again, and now it seems as though Blaze is at least gonna get a longer look at third base, at least at AAA. I don’t know whether or not he will get run in the big leagues for that, but how much of a longer a leash do you think Gorman gets, and how long until a potential blaze promotion might occur? Gabe, I’m gonna ask you this. I’m gonna throw this one over to you.
Gabe (12:14)
Okay. I would say the rest of the year, honestly, because I don’t think they really believe Blaze Jordan can play third base. We’re gonna give him more of a at least a try, but like the fact that when ⁓ Crooks got promoted, he didn’t play third base at all in the gap because they no longer ⁓ needed that DH spot to be used regularly. And I just think they can see the Cardinals clearly are trying for him not to be the third baseman, I think, and I know they’re starting to play him at third base because Urias is now hurt again. But I don’t know. I feel like they’re in a situation where they think Gorman is the best chance. He’s a very streaky hitter. I think they’re gonna hope that he hits one of his hot streaks, and you know, he can go on like, you know, four home runs in a couple weeks or something, which is certainly still possible, even though ’cause he struck out like six times in a row or something, and then he had a home run on a pitch that he didn’t even seem to get a good swing on, honestly. That’s just kind of a hitter he is. It’s weird. I I’m I I’m very skeptical about Blaze Jordan at third base. And I don’t see anybody else knocking on the door anytime soon, until you get to maybe Jesus Baez. But he’s kind of far away. So I think they’re gonna stick with Gorman unless they make a move at the deadline, for just like a you know, a soft like let’s just get this placeholder third baseman.
‘Cause we might make the playoffs, even though, and not give up like a big prospect.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (13:43)
Scott, you’ve been kind of the resident Blaze Jordan honk. Like, how serious would you be about the idea of getting Blaze Jordan in here and at least giving him ⁓ some sort of opportunity while also acknowledging that, like, the chase rates are concerning what he’s doing at Triple A, but the overall profile, like he’s still hitting, he’s still making an impact. What what what w what would you do in this situation if you were Chaim Bloom or slash Oli Marmol?
Scott Plaza (14:09)
My first take on minor league chase rates is, who cares? I’d rather those guys swing as much as possible. ⁓ I don’t want them down there walking. ⁓ they’re gonna hit. So go ahead and be aggressive with it. So if they swing out a pitch and it’s a good swing, I mean, we don’t see ⁓ all those swings off it, but if they make a good swing out of a pitch and they theoretically chased it, fine. Rather than taking those borderline pitches, I’m okay with that. ⁓ I love loved notice I said past tense, Nolan Gorman. ⁓ if he can’t get it done in the eighth spot, which was my tweet today, if he can’t get it done in the eighth spot, then it’s gotta be time to go. Which, whenever, does not go. ⁓ I’m with Gabe. I think it’s gonna be a year-long thing. But it’ll be interesting to see how the lineup works with Winn, Weatherholt, and Noot all together in the same lineup, which we haven’t seen yet. ⁓ but that does fit Gorman in the eighth spot, which, on paper, my gosh, look at our eight-hitter with thirty home run power. ⁓ Again, theoretically, he is currently hitting .199 after today’s game. But ⁓ Urias was here because the third base defense was supposed to be better. If Jordan could play somewhere similar to that, he would be up. I I I love him. ⁓ I I think he’s a professional hitter. ⁓ Right now, Ivan Herrera is the professional hitter taking the professional hitter spot. ⁓ so I think, unfortunately, I don’t want to say it, but Blaze Jordan has been my comparison to Luken Baker lately.
Gabe (15:33)
Do you think they should go to ⁓ I just thought about Fermin or ⁓ Bryan Torres playing third base, but neither of them has the arm, but like in the near term, do you think that would be a smarter play?
Scott Plaza (15:44)
Torres Arm I was kind of disgusted by watching him throw from left or from second base. I mean, left field, you’re just kinda like two hopping it to the cutoff man, which is fine, it got to the cutoff man, but for mean he’s deserved the playing time, so go for it, I think, right now.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (15:58)
I think I would be fine with Fermin, at least in the like a temporary while Gorman is working through his extremes, ⁓ and he kinda seems like he’s caught in between a lot with between the fastball and the changeup, ⁓ I think that like Fermin at least would make a a small amount of sense to at least get a little bit of run there, ⁓ just because of his versatility and his ability to kind of I think his right handed bat would also help with kind of offsetting the platoon lefty righty at the back end of the lineup as well. Not that he’s necessarily like a roadblock in the ilk of Ivan Herrera is to left-handed pitching, but just a little bit obviously better than what Gorman has given you. ⁓ and again, while he’s working through that slump. ⁓ But speaking of slumps, a player who has managed to maneuver his way through two mini slumps this season is Jordan Walker, and I think it’s fairly safe to say at this point that Jordan Walker is becoming who we all thought that he was supposed to be initially, and we are all exasperatingly relieved by that outcome which you know I kind of also think has driven a lot of this like better than expected ⁓ team performance. Like, we didn’t see this coming into the season, we didn’t expect Jordan Walker to be on pace for like seven wins and potential MVP votes, but you know, we all had kind of like hoped and crossed our fingers and like you know were hoping that that was in there, but we didn’t necessarily expect it to happen this season. ⁓ Scott, I want to ask you, like, how much has Jordan Walker’s breakout changed the trajectory of kind of how you see this team ⁓ and how maybe more in the near immediate future they can be better than expected?
Scott Plaza (17:46)
I think Chaim was kind of asked that question, like how does Jordan Walker performing well, like change your outlook on things? And he’s like, that’s just one less position to have to worry about, which lets you put time and resources either in development or in the trade or whether it’s free agency, to fill those other positions, be it left field, be it center, be it third ⁓ there’s potential to be creative when you have one less spot to worry about. or starting pitching, I guess I can’t forget about that. ⁓ but Jordan Walker changes a ton, and I think it’s we’ve always been like, Well, we gotta wait, we gotta wait, we gotta wait to see if it’s real. There’s ninety nine games to go. I think the three-hundred average might not be for real, but everything else, I think we can even buy into. He missed the low and away slider today, and then still had good at-bats before and after that.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (18:36)
I think the low and away slider thing is just gonna be occasionally a part of his game. It just is. But you know, is he able to find a way to get impact ⁓ in other places throughout the game whenever that inevitable low and away slider chase comes? And it’s just like one of those things where it’s gonna be a part of it. ⁓ Gabe, what about you? Like, how does Jordan Walker breaking out change kind of how you project this team for the rest of the season?
Gabe (19:05)
I mean, well, for one thing, it makes it sort of believable that the Cardinals could sneak into the playoffs, which I don’t think would have been believable without Jordan Walker doing what he’s doing. And I wonder if we would even notice the low and away slider chase if it wasn’t for the fact that we had like three years of seeing it be really bad. And it’s like it’s not like players don’t chase pitches all the time, and we just don’t think about it if they’re doing well normally. And ⁓ yeah, I mean
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (19:22)
That’s true.
Gabe (19:31)
Every time he’s slumped a couple of times, and every time it seems like people online are like, Well, it was nice for a month. That was nice for two months. It’s like, Okay, well, now he got back. He’s ending those slumps early. That’s the whole key to things. That’s to bring it back to Gorman, the reason why he is not a good hitter anymore is that his slumps just last forever, and right now, at least, he’s not making up for hot streaks. But yeah, but Jordan Walker, I just think ⁓ I don’t know that he’s like this good
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (19:38)
Mm-hmm.
Scott Plaza (19:38)
Yeah, exactly.
Gabe (20:01)
That might I might need a year or two for that, but he’s certainly a great hitter, I think. I think I can buy into that pretty easily. ⁓ and I’m I’m on board the train for sure.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (20:11)
Well, the reason Gabe why I asked you about this season is because Bob Nightingale over at USA Today wrote in his Sunday article column that if the Cardinals were to fall out of the wild card race, that ⁓ lefty reliever Jojo Romero and right-handed pitcher Dustin May are expected to be dealt at the deadline. ⁓ You know, you had kind of an obvious response to that whenever I first told you about that, Gabe. Yeah, like, well, I guess, should I ask, does this surprise you guys, or do you find it to be more of what you expected coming?
Scott Plaza (20:34)
Make bleep up!
Gabe (20:36)
Yeah, I think this would be news if he made the the made the report the Cardinals are planning to trade them even if they were in first place. That would be news. If they fall off the wild card race, they’re trading two guys who have expiring contracts. Yeah. Come on. That doesn’t mean, no mm, I’m trying not to say the word. But yeah. Yeah. ⁓ You guys should probably fill in the blanks on that one. ⁓ of of course they’re trading them if they’re out of the wildcard race. Come on.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (21:01)
I’m not trying to get you in trouble, Gabe. ⁓
Gabe (21:13)
Bob, why did you even report this news? We know this.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (21:17)
Scott, your thoughts on the report.
Scott Plaza (21:19)
Yeah, if there was first-place news. I think it’s notable ’cause I think it’s they’ll do it in the wild card race if they’re, you know, where they’re at or hovering as the third wild card spot. I think JoJo Romero for sure I think could be going regardless. Dustin May, I’ve hoped he’d been around for a two-year contract. I’ll keep beating that drum when they signed him. ⁓ Mutual options are not two-year contracts. We know that. So I think he’s gonna unfortunately ⁓ I’d I don’t know. I think he’s gonna go, but I’d like to see him around ⁓ if they could hammer out either an extension or, you know, offer him something around the qualifying offer, whatever that’s going to be for an extension at this point. But I think Jojo Romero is gonna be for sure, regardless of where they are in the wildcard race.
Gabe (22:07)
I think he’s eligible. Give him a qualified offer.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (22:08)
Yeah, he is.
Scott Plaza (22:09)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (22:11)
⁓ obviously, he has the what is it a mutual option for twenty million dollars withstanding at this point, which is never picked up by both sides. I think it’s like twenty fourteen was the last time there was a mutual option that was picked up, if I remember correctly. And so it’s like it’s not something to really think about, I guess, unless he got hurt. which, you know, knock on wood, still is not occurring. The Cardinals are now ⁓ like, nine straight months without a starting pitcher injury at the Major League level, so take that for what it’s worth. ⁓ been incredible whatever Karl Kochan and the performance staff have done to get these guys ready and and ⁓ to for the rigors of a full season along with Oli Marmol and his staff and how they’re kind of ⁓ you know maneuvering this and and kind of planning it out has been very successful and and we’re seeing the healthy fruits of that labor. ⁓ I think that you guys summed it really well. I think that obviously if the Cardinals fall out of it, duh. Like they’re gonna trade those guys. But I also kind of am. I’m fifty-fifty on the Jojo Romero thing, and I’ll explain why. ⁓ It’s because of his extreme ground ball profile, like in his ground balls in his profile. I think he might wind up being more important to the Cardinals than he would be to another contending team, and I think that he might be one of those guys that’s just more valuable to you than he would be to another team, and what you might be able to acquire for him. So you might just continue with him in that role because he doesn’t necessarily elicit the swing and miss, the chase that you would think of when you think of a high-leverage arm. And so I’m kind of in the camp that I think that you keep JoJo and just ride it out with him this year, and if the Cardinals even wanted to extend him for another season, like that, I would be fine with that. ⁓ I don’t know that you’re gonna get some gigantic return for him. The underlying stats
Scott Plaza (24:12)
I don’t think they I’ll I’ll jump in. I don’t think they’ve
been treating him like a closer and I don’t think anybody’s gonna expect t him to jump into that role, so
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (24:17)
I’m not
No, no, I didn’t say closer, I said high-leverage reliever. I don’t think that anyone would, but because I think that there are a lot of contenders who don’t have nearly as good a defense behind them ⁓ that would cause them to be like, we gotta get Jojo for this spot. I think that he may be more like on a contending team profiles more as that’s quote unquote second lefty out of their pen, somebody who comes in in the fifth or sixth inning, and I don’t think that teams are gonna be like throwing you like a top ten prospect in return for that kind of a guy, and so I just I wonder what if the Cardinals would value trying to push for that wild card spot rather than the fifteen to twenty-ish prospect you might get out of a system that may not end up becoming anything for the Cardinals anyway.
Gabe (25:02)
I think they however though they are perfectly capable of getting like a Mason Molina type prospect who suddenly looks like he might be somebody worth paying attention somebody worth paying attention to. And he was added with two other prospects for Phil Maton, who I don’t necessarily think will have a ton more value than JoJo would have. I mean, maybe I’m crazy, ’cause ⁓ Maton was just a guy we signed for two million and then he had a really good four months. And I would be surprised if he has significantly more value than Jojo will have, personally. So I think you can find some hidden gems in the ten to twenty to thirty range that can outperform whatever the normal production would be.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (25:45)
The other element I’m like considering here is like, look at the left-handed relief options you have in-house if you trade away Jojo Romero, if the Cardinals are still in it, right? So like if that’s my whole thing. If they fall out of it, move Jojo. Like, get what you can for him. That makes a ton of sense. If you still think that you have an inkling of a chance to contend and you that’s the direction you want to go in that direction this season without giving up your farm to do so, I’m fine with that. I think that, you know, whatever type of experience you can get for your young players down the stretch and in a contention window is great. But I also think that, like the Cardinals being able to, if you move out JoJo Romero, Justin Bruihl slides into where JoJo Romero is. And I know that you guys are not entirely confident in that being in your primary left-handed relief lanes rather than being that quote-unquote second lefty.
Scott Plaza (26:30)
Well, my argument is honest for that, though it was ⁓ Brycen Mautz instead. ⁓ if if there’s not gonna be a path to the rotation this year, ⁓ I know they want him to stay as a starter, but if they’re not going to win it all this year, ’cause a ⁓ yes, just get in. But this team is I I think, Gabe said it a couple weeks ago, like this is not a World Series winning team. And we all know, like, yes, anything can happen. But I would rather have Brycen Mautz get that major league experience, get something for Jojo that could be useful next year, because he won’t be useful to the Cardinals next year, whether they keep him or if they trade him. So trade him, get something like Mason Molina or whatever, and allow Brycen Mautz to step into that spot. And if it doesn’t work out, then I guess it didn’t work out. But ⁓ the if we’re playing for the wild card, I know the goal is always to win the World Series, but I don’t want to just play for the wild card. You know. Yeah.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (27:29)
To be fair, I’m right there with you, Scott. Like, you make a ton of sense. Gabe, I’ll let ya I’ll let you jump in here in just a second. Like, I’m with you. Like, if they decided to still go down that route, okay. But then you’re also telling me that, like you’re not genuinely pushing for the or at least you don’t genuinely believe that you are capable of even making it to the wild card round if you’re moving on from Jojo Romero. Like if that’s what you’re telling me, okay, like okay, I’m down with that. Like, if the idea is we’re still completely invested in twenty twenty eight, we’re not moving off of that, regardless of where we are right now, okay, I’m with you. But I think you could make the argument or the case that if the Cardinals wanted to continue to ⁓ push this season for something and
Scott Plaza (27:45)
Mm-hmm. Right. It’s a balance.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (28:12)
And kind of kick the can on Jojo down the road for another year, even. Like I would also find that to be an acceptable response. Gabe, go ahead with your thoughts.
Gabe (28:22)
I think there’s somebody, multiple people listening, who are screaming out a name in addition to Mautz. Cooper Hjerpe. He’s probably not going back to start. I don’t think he has enough time to get enough innings to start. And I think he’s just playing his first ⁓ rehab game, right? Or is he about to? Something like that. And yeah, and I don’t think he has enough time to really like not enough time. He hasn’t built up enough innings to where he could realistically start the whole year.
Scott Plaza (28:28)
Yeah, that’s what I said today, too.
He’s on the forty-man.
Mm-hmm. Hey, hey, pitching it,
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (28:40)
Something
like that.
Gabe (28:50)
And you wanna get a major league time at this point, he’s already twenty-five. He might be headed to the bullpen anyway. I think post-deadline certainly, he might be one of our lefties, maybe even before then, but probably not. Yeah.
Scott Plaza (29:00)
I like it.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (29:01)
Hey, I hear what you’re saying, but he also still hasn’t even pitched an inning in Triple A yet. ⁓ and so we know that pitchers who move up that level to Triple-A have an adjustment to the big league ball, and like if the Cardinals say they want to continue to contend and you want to move Jojo out for Hjerpe in, I just maybe think that’s maybe putting a little bit too much stress on his arm right away as he’s recovering from Tommy John. ⁓ I I like the thought, but I think that maybe that might be pushing him just a little bit too quickly for their liking. ⁓ The other name that I might bring up, just because of his command issues, but also has extreme swing and miss, and might play up in the bullpen, at least for the last two months, would be exactly
Quinn Matthews would be the name that I would maybe bring up in that situation because if you move Jojo, then you have an open 40-man spot. You put Quinn on who has to be put on this offseason, regardless. Maybe that’s a way that you do it a little bit early and give Quinn some big league exposure in a more controlled ⁓ environment, bringing him into the bullpen out of the bullpen where he could, you know, theoretically have more success and shorter spurts. I don’t know. It’s an open discussion, and I think it’s really gonna be a genuinely interesting discussion to have over the course of the next six to eight weeks. ⁓ I’m gonna try to not only have it be trade-related, but obviously, that’s I think what a lot of people like to lean into those types of conversation. ⁓ Let’s finish this off with this. The Cardinals are heading to the dumpster fire Mets and the Twins, who are surprisingly kind of .500, not really sure what they are at this point. You know, Joe Ryan and Byron Buxton are great, but outside of that, what the hell else do they really have going for them? Scott, what are your kind of thoughts as you look forward to this for this week?
Scott Plaza (30:53)
My thoughts are towards the six-man rotation and who’s gonna get moved where to fit whose schedule. ⁓ I think Jeff Jones has said Hunter Dobbins has been staying on some sort of a schedule. So I think that’s gonna be the thought. Not then the Nightingale no crap piece. ⁓ My thought was then, well, that brings to Kyle Leahy and Andre Pallante being kind of locks for the year-long rotation kind of idea. ⁓ So then with Hunter Dobbins just kinda sitting in for May. So I wanna see the six-man rotation fill out. ⁓ and I don’t want to get too excited about Dobbins, but again, it’s just something different that we haven’t seen all year. ⁓ so it’s always fun to check in on that.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (31:36)
I believe that Jeff also reported that Dobbins is slated to start on Thursday, game three of that series against the Mets, and so he is effectively pushing Kyle Leahy either back or eventually out, I think, is kind of where it’s looking. I know that Oli has been staunch in his belief that Kyle Leahy can do this and fill this role, but we’re starting to see that experience leak a little oil. You know, Gabe, what are your thoughts on the week ahead and what you’re hoping to see from the Cardinals?
Scott Plaza (31:42)
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (32:06)
Thank you.
Gabe (32:07)
⁓
Well, I think the Mets might be a bit harder than it sounds on paper because they got they gotta face Freddie Peralta, Christian Scott, and Nolan McLean, and they’re just probably their three best starters ⁓ right now. I mean, they only got four people on roster resource, but I think the pitching, like whenever they have a tough lineup of pitchers, I’m always like a little scared, no matter how good the team is, because it’s all you, the offense doesn’t need to do much for the other team to possibly win. ⁓
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (32:36)
And their offense has been bad.
Gabe (32:39)
Yeah, I know, but I mean, that’s a tough line. I mean, I’m never gonna put like, we’re gonna dominate this series just because ⁓ they’re not a good team, because I always like to look at the pitching matchups and they might have the better pitcher in each game, which is ⁓ always a struggle. And I know we’re facing Joe Ryan against the Twins in the first game of that series. So I don’t know. We’ll see. Anything could happen. It’s baseball. ⁓ I’d I vastly preferred the pitching matchups in the Red Series. So we’ll see how this goes out.
Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (33:14)
Well, yeah. Speaking of the Reds, I think that’s kind of the approach that the Cardinals should take over the next two series, which is to get the starter out quickly. Obviously, the Mets’ bullpen has not been all that great this year. The twins have relatively nobody in their bullpen either, so get those good starters out early and then just kind of get to where they are weakest at, which is in the bullpen. ⁓ we’re we’re kinda running up against it here on time. Thank you guys, Gabe Scott, for being here. ⁓ we’ll talk to you guys next week. ⁓ obviously, thank you so much for all of you for joining us for this episode of the Viva El Birdos podcast. Don’t forget to rate and review, and hit that subscribe button so you can be notified every Monday morning when a new episode is released. We will talk to you all next week when we are joined by Play by Play man for the Memphis Redbirds, Alex Coil, and Scoops with Danny Mac, writer for the Springfield Cardinals, Andy Carroll, when they join the show. Have a great weekend, and let’s go, Cards.
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