Wait, What?! Cardinals Place Tommy Pham On Waivers! Nado Leadership Boost?

well the Cardinals win a couple of games to wrap up the San Diego series but the news that Tommy fam has been put on waivers certainly sends an interesting message about where they're heading from here what's going on everyone and welcome into this edition of bsha daily Brandon schaer here on Friday August 30th 2024 Friday morning I am on the heels of and you can probably hear it in my voice the maou football home opener I found a way to Jet over to Columbia uh private helicopter actually uh but had to be there for the first game of a season that I think is going to be pretty awesome this is a cardinal page primarily we might put some mou content on here from time to time if the season really gets rolling and let me know in the comments if you'd be in favor of it and the people that aren't just don't click on those videos but that might be coming at some point soon um as well as maybe some blues content too for the baseball offseason but anyway uh my voice is a little bit shot as a result of uh being at FR field yesterday but I had to jump back on here and record be shave daily it's been a couple of days we're going to get back into a regular rhythm I promise this is just the craziest time of year for for me and everything that I'm doing trying to to launch fantasy football content that will actually die down once the NFL season begins um but right now with draft content that's kind of been taking up a lot of my time and my my son's second birthday is coming up so we've got a lot going on for that and because of that it's been a little bit lean on bsha daily so I do apologize but I want to talk a little bit of cardinal here the situation revolving around Tommy fam I mean this guy was one of the big Acquisitions at the deadline for the Cardinals folks were so excited to have him back and less than a month later he's reportedly according to Katie Woo been placed on waivers and I don't believe I've seen anything announced as of this recording officially on that because the way that this version of waivers works if I'm not mistaken is it can happen in the player can remain on the roster uh I believe it happened this way with Brandon Crawford and we just really didn't know it then they released him I think that's what went down I could be wrong on that and people who know better could correct me um I'm totally open to that but in this case with Tommy he will go through that waivers process but can still be on the active roster and if he gets claimed then obviously he would would be gone and the team that claims him would pick him up they would pay the rest of his salary on his contract which just happens to be the rest of this year it's a one-year contract so that's not anything too major but then he would be on that new team there's no trade there's no there's no nothing it's just you're claimed and you're gone if a team wants Tommy fam they can have Tommy fam and the reason it happens now is because at the end of the month you get to September 1st you've already got to be on that new team's 40-man roster to be eligible for their postseason roster and we saw it with Shawn Armstrong a couple days ago Cardinals DFA him and that means he can be claimed on waivers the reason the Cardinals DFA Armstrong instead of doing it with Tommy fam they they've just according to Katie's reporting is the only reason I think that we know this publicly is that they've placed him on waivers and now we're still waiting on the outcome and by the time you listen to this video it we may already know it so just bear with me a little bit we will be sure to to Circle back and mention whatever ends up happening with Tommy fam's situation um saw some reporting from the ballpark yesterday afternoon that uh from Jeff Jones Tommy did not want to answer questions after the game discuss any you know potential situation did not want to from a Cardinal's win was the tweet I saw from Jeff Jones so that's the situation though it you're going to trust Katie's reporting like this is something that's happening and we'll see if Tommy fam is claimed I saw Jeff also tweet regarding uh Vinnie pasquantino the first baseman for the Royals uh having an injury that's going to keep him out for a while the Royals are right in the thick of a playoff race and there's some familiarity with the Royals manager and Tommy fam from their time that overlapped in Tampa so maybe the Royals could be a team that would claim fam I thought the Roy and and I talk a decent amount of Royals on the Big Show because our Radio Show in columia is you've got Cardinal fans and Royals fans there congregating in the middle of the state I thought for the first few months of the Season I'm like the Royals need Tommy fam because I you know I knew what Tommy fam was about when he was with the Cardinals and thought that you know lead off hitter tone Setter could be a guy that could fit right in for Kansas City when they were just getting no production um then of course the Cardinals end up being the team to trade for him but now could he end up in Kansas City anyway why do the Cardinals make this move I think that's sort of you know the the Genesis of a lot of the like people I think understand it but a lot of The Angst is like is this just the White Flag coming from the Cardinals right here and in many ways I think you'd have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to suggest that it's not um I it's not so much the White Flag which is like a declaration that hey we are the Cardinals and we don't believe we're going to win this year and we're giving up it's over well that's not the case I mean arnado had the exciting walk-off hit on Wednesday and the reason I didn't do a b sha daily that day was CU I was at the mun if you guys saw my tweet not the munity the the Fox Theater free box seats for Hamilton uh does not that's not something that comes up very often so I had to bail on my plans to cover that game so sorry for being a flake but I don't know that many people could blame me as the Cardinals were setting an all-time attendance low for Bush Stadium 3 I was box seats for Hamilton which was just unbelievable at the fox but anyway that night arado has the walk-off hit and I thought one of the quotes that was really interesting from him and it was it shared by Brandon Kylie on Twitter is how it it came across my my eyeballs was ronado talking about just sort of realizing and recognizing at a certain point that even if he's not performing he doesn't need and it's not helpful for him to be and he used the phrase so I'm not going to I'm not assigning this to him but he said I don't want to be a clubhouse cancer this is the quote and it comes from uh an STL Today article by Lynn worthy but BK put the the the screenshot on Twitter so I'll read from that quote and this is from Nolan arado I think at the end of the day what I've come to realize is if I'm not going to perform well I'm definitely not going to be a cancer in this Clubhouse to anybody I'm still going to try to help I can still lead in different ways it may not be performance but I can still help these guys out spend time with them get to know them I feel like the young guys the energy has kind of helped me perform better because I just want to compete with them and enjoy it and uh BK also mentioning he said it's a small thing but this quot comes uh about a week after the uh the Instagram post if you saw it of late late night after a game arnado posted on Instagram and by the way if you follow the ronado Twitter account that's not him that's a fake account rado's Twitter is a real thing though I can confirm that um I mean it's not me confirming it you guys can see plainly that it's actually post by him rather than you know the Twitter account which just post publicly available photos that you could copy and paste from Google anyway all on this this Instagram post from the 22nd of August said long night but the Young Bucks still here eating dinner talking ball love it and you see Pedro pz Mason wi and LS Nar there eating eating dinner in the team you know dining room whatever at late night after a game is the implication there and so he's kind of hanging out with the guys like and and Kylie said that's a small thing but you know you can kind of feel the connection there between those two things and it's interesting because we've talked a lot about arnado at points throughout this this year like did it look like he was given his best effort all the time was he dogging it occasionally we accept that veterans sometimes aren't going to run out every ground ball but was was it maybe the Optics of it looking a certain way because he's not performing and so was he sort of down on himself and did that caused him to be down on you know the team and like what what was all going into that was sort of a topic of conversation and then you see this version of Nolan who I mean he's coming through with the clutch hit to win a game he's had two walk-offs in the last week and a half or whatever it's been won the grand slam and uh then then the single on Wednesday night to walk it off and so he's kind of really feels like he's integrated with the team right now in a way that's super I mean healthy it's just super super good to see that right so I don't know and then the Cardinals they find a way to win on on Thursday and you know they they' they're getting it just enough right now from the different areas of the team we've talked about the margin is very slim for this Cardinals team and you know Sunny gray was able to kind of grit through a a six good inning outing in that game on Thursday to be able to to win consecutive games now they're going to the Bronx they're going to New York that's obviously going to come with its own challenges but you see the Cardinals win that game of Grays on Thursday you have the um Palante performance on Wednesday guys Andre Palante is real it feels so good to uh to see him kind of getting the recognition and the reward I think for the work that he's put in and the success that he's really had the whole way through um I haven't done this in a minute but I want to go and actually within the game log see what the numbers are of Andre Palante as a starter honestly I could just go splits because his numbers as a reliever came at the beginning of the year and then once he came back he's only been a starter since returning from Triple A and it's just been not only night and day but if you look at over the stretch I know that it's May 29th that was when he came back to the big leagues and rejoined the rotation I mean he's just been absolutely fantastic as a starter 3 50 is the ER for Palante 82 and a third Innings pitched over 15 games so even as far as like how you know how deep in into games is he getting the average is 4.49 basically uh pardon me 5.49 Innings per start so he's averaging five and a half Innings per start which means there going to be some that are less than that but plenty that are more than that to average about 5 and a half and he's he's doing it with a three and a half ER he's been super effective he's been reliable he's been extremely consistent I mean you you have not there have been everybody in this rotation has had those sort of blowup games from time to time it's just been the nature of the the Cardinal season that we've seen pretty much everybody in the rotation have one or two some worse than others sometimes at Lance Lind ends up being like 10 runs miles michelas gives up 10 runs for other guys it's maybe five or six but everybody's had here and there those types of starts you want to forget about but man Palante seems like he has not very many of those and and what it is it's kind of like a grinder he doesn't quite get through five and he gives up five I think his worst start was the one in Houston that was like his second start and since then he's just been totally nails like I I wanted to count okay sunny gray is averaging close to Six Innings per start which it doesn't maybe even really feel like that but it it is the case 5.9 Innings per start and so he's he's got Palante edged out in that regard but his ER for the season Sunny's at 3.96 so Palante is a starter 15 starts 3 and a half ER Sunny 3.96 um I'm not like pointing that out to say like Sunny gray is not doing what you want him to do I think I think he's been a little below expectation but he's still providing um some stability in this rotation to be sure but now you do kind of start to think about next year and go well Sunny gray Palante that's really the building blocks of this rotation for 2025 is it not I don't I don't think anybody else you're really feeling too excited about locking in and the Cardinals are going to have some decisions on their hands as as far as do you bring back Lance Lynn on the option do you bring back Kyle Gibson on the option and if you if the answer to those questions both is no it's like all right you know what who fills out your rotation Michaels is under contract not saying you're excited necessarily as a Cardinal fan to see him penciled back in but you would I'd probably be surprised if he's not um Steven matz is technically going to be owed another 11 million and do they try to do they basically look at it and say we would prefer to have Gibson and Orlin at $1 million but because we've already committed to having mats for that price we have to eat the cost of this if we're going to add another guy at that price or they could just have Matts be that pitcher and say instead of Lyn and Gibson or one of the two Matts goes right back into the rotation now the only way that works I'm not even saying that's an attractive option but the only way that works is if you in 2025 feel a lot better than you did in 2023 or even in coming into 2024 when they didn't know Palante was going to be this he was not being penciled in and being considered as a starter when they were plotting it all out in spring training so that's kind of a a bonus like a gift that has fallen into their laps that that it's gone this way but you'd have to feel a lot better about your depth behind your starters for 2025 to be able to say with a straight phase like Steven matz is going to be in our rotation because you just God bless him you just don't think that healthwise it's going to hold up we have seen a sample size of 3 years now where it just has not and you know his performance at times when he's sharp looks great but that it doesn't last and so if you're the Cardinals trying to plot out a rotation I could see Palante and sunny just being penciled in I I hope they don't do to Palante what you think they could do and like try to take a spot out from under him but no I'm penciling him in right now because he's been their best starter for the better part of you know three months basically he we're talking May 29th to August 30th he's that's 15 starts it's half a season he's got a three and half half I'm going to count that I'm going to say that that's that's tangible that's real and that's something that you can build upon so let's add Michaelis into that because he's getting paid let's add Stephen mats into that just for the sake of this argument and say hey maybe you do feel a little bit better about the guys that will take Matt's spot when he goes on the iel U that could be McGreevy you maybe didn't think very highly of McGreevy after he kind of stalled out 2023 it felt like he was a bit stalling out the first half of 2024 but then you know you you at least got a glimpse of him kind of starting to pick things up and then had the really effective start in the big leagues where he made his debut and you're like hey maybe Michael mcgrey is somebody that could do what Palante is doing in in maybe a lesser degree and say he's going to start 30 games with a 4.1 erra and maybe that you know maybe that just translates um maybe that's something the Cardinals don't feel comfortable doing but financially they might not leave themselves very much other choice if they're in a position where they don't want to spend a lot on you know options and and free agency and just checking back in on mcgrey he pitched um I could probably save this for down on the far but just because we're talking about him here five innings and two runs allowed on the 29th of August uh which that was last night and had seven strikeouts as well so he's even starting to to strike guys out at a little bit of a higher rate his last two outings in Memphis have been sharp and has been seven strikeouts in both of them so I don't know I wouldn't count mcgrey out from being just a guy that can eat some eat some starts in the back end of rotation and that's kind of how we thought of Palante too right it's like all right get him in there he'll eat some Innings he'll he'll be a five starter That Gets You Through The Fifth and that's really all you can hope for and then you just hope that they score a bunch of runs and they can maybe win some of those games if you come into 2025 with that attitude about Michael McGreevy I'm not saying he couldn't I think he's got a very similar temperament and mentality to Palante he's a kid that's really competitive I I've talked about this a lot and it kind of probably fell on deaf ears when Palante was had a 6E as a reliever and people are like this guy's stinks but I've always thought that just being around the the clubhouse Palante has like an edge to him where you can just he's got a chip on his shoulder man he has got that Competitive Edge that you want from a starting pitcher that that I'm going to blow you away even if my my stuff doesn't indicate that I'm going to I am going to I'll show you and and to to plante's credit he does have stuff I mean he throws 95 plus he he can he can ramp it up there when he needs to so that that's kind of the edge that I can see a little bit of in Michael McGreevy where I'm like look I know what the stat cast says and I know what the the the repertoire and and the the baded ball data I understand all of that something about Michael mcgrey kind of has that I think he's going to outperform what you think he's going to do sort of vibe and that's something I still think he's got even though it feels like we kind of all rode him off as his minor league Seasons continued to sort of stall out a little bit now I'm wondering if it's like hey coming into 2025 like throw that guy a bunch in Spring and just see if he can maybe next year's Palante in terms of you really had kind of considered him an afterthought if you're thinking about the big league starting rotation and maybe he's going to prove you wrong I'm not saying that that's a like the Cardinals can't go into 2025 if they're doing that and say hey we think we're going to win the division like I guess they can but I think the messaging to the fan base is important to kind of shift gears a little bit and this is still under the assumption that they don't save the day here in 2024 but I am kind of curious about you know how that gets whether whether it's different leadership or whatever changes may or may not happen the messaging is going to be important of like hey we aren't necessarily all that far off but we're going to have to invest some a season in some of these younger guys and let them sink or swim because that's how we're going to learn about getting this organization to the next iteration of what it can be like rather than like plugging all the holes with 35-year-old veterans we might have to see if some of our development of these young players can have a chance to sink or swim and that that's not going to S come with a mentality of we expect to be in the playoffs this year in 2025 and I don't know how fans are going to take that but they might be understanding of it if it's messaged and delivered in the right way of it we have to do this in order to learn and it's and and we have every expectation that these guys you know these guys want to go out there and win and so you know we are going to compete but realistically it may take a little bit of time like I think that could be the messaging that you send but it it's kind of already beginning a little bit bit when it comes to the 2024 season the fact that they're at 500 they're technically within Striking Distance but as I as I jumped to at the beginning of the show and then sort of talked in a circle around it they're they're taking veteran players that were supposedly going to be their additions to get them over the hump at the deadline and those guys are now being either dfed or waved in the case of Tommy fam now the other part of it is with Tommy fam because I did mention you'd have to be doing some severe mental gymnastics to try and imply that this is not a white flag move to to wave Tommy fam and look he may he may not be claimed I imagine he will be though there's enough teams that would say oh a free player that all I have to do is pay him you know few hundred, whatever it is remaining on his three $3 million contract and that's all I have to do to make sure that we get a guy for free we don't have to give up anything like Tommy fam's going to be claimed by a contender he I mean there you would think that it would be a contender a non-c contender wasting their time claiming him would just piss him off because I think part of this is Tommy fam wants to be on a contender so if the Cardinals are if he like all right you're waving your DFA in strong Armstrong I thought that was somebody you brought in you know I'm a platoon guy right now anyway so I'm not playing every day I'm trying to play for a contract I'm not even I I won't even say it's like a selfish thing but I think Tommy fam with where he's at in his career kind of thought hey I'm going to be the piece to get us over the hump with St Louis August went the way that it went and now I think he might even be kind of driving the boat a little bit like hey Cardinals you know s or get off the pot as they say because I would I want to be a part of something here I'm not getting any younger right so I don't know if Tommy fam was at all a driving force behind the the move to get him waved um because I think he would like to end up in a he wants to win World Series I mean he got a taste of it last year got the play in one as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks and then obviously that comes in a losing effort and when the Cardinals traded for him there was that exuberance there was that burst of energy right off the top but then you know that didn't last for for really him or the team in terms of the performance um and now you're the Cardinals are where they are but it's it's tough because there are these dueling viewpoints these conflicting pieces of of where the team is because all right you've won a couple games in a row you haven't lost a series since that Dodgers series if I'm not mistaken right they won the they did they not win they won the Twin series they won the Brewers Series so like and and you felt like you were certainly going to lose the Padres series but you end up battling back to win the last two and you split it so like there there're still you can basically say this stretch of season that started with that Friday night against the Dodgers on the 16th of August it's about two weeks it's been they lost that Series against LA but since then they haven't lost a series they won two series um barely right they didn't get any sweeps but they won a couple series and then they split a four gamer which technically still keeps you right about where you were now it's a matter of I think they have to almost do something emphatic in New York for people to go all right wait a second maybe and part of it could be too like when I say White Flag I think it is it's it's always better to have context to that of okay maybe Tommy fam wants to go somewhere where it seems like there's a better chance for him to win and like that you can make your decision on what you want with that he's always been known as a player that is looking out for Tommy fam of course but I also don't necessarily I think it's totally unreasonable when you've got an opportunity potentially to to join something that's got a better chance of getting you a ring and you're in your mid-30s and you're not a starter anyway you're kind of in a platoon spot right now so I like it's hard to even if Tommy fam had been the driving force behind this I'm not saying I know for a fact that he is but I'm just reading tea leaves that's one of those things that you could kind of look and go all right I guess I can understand where he would be coming from on that but that being said like the guys that are in the clubhouse you're you're getting a Resurgence from Nolan arado in in terms of like I think his personality is really coming around and he is feeding into his teammates rather than and look I didn't say he was being a cancer before it was his words where he said I don't want to be a Cancer all right to even bring that up almost implies maybe a little bit of self-reflection that at times maybe he wasn't carrying his weight as a teammate like I think that's that's what that statement says to me if you're going to be the one to bring that up it tells me you've kind of been thinking about that and and to his credit making changes to say I don't want to be a guy to racting from my teammates I want to be a guy pouring into guys and building guys up and and not kind of just being over by myself when things aren't going well to where and nobody really wants to interact with me because they know that I've you know I I take losses hard I take failure hard and so like I don't know that could be huge I mean that could be that could be tenure changing for ronado as a cardinal to have that realization and stick with it now granted I don't know what the offseason's going to bring noan arado could be in a spot where he goes I I want to win and if they're not if they're telling me they're slashing payroll well I could be an easy way to do that right and so I he may be gone you know we don't really know to it's going to depend on on I mean it's going to be very interesting off season you could make drastic changes where the veterans look around and go wait a minute what is this going to be you know why am I why am I spending my 30s on this roster if it's not going to be a winning roster and and or you have veterans that come together I'm talking about Sony Wilson ronado those guys come together and go look man we we can be the change we want to see in the world like we can be the leaders of this thing to guide young guys and it's not there's no there's no two threee rebuild this is a turnaround that happens today and you and I mean that can be real that can be something that starts this month even if they don't make the playoffs but if it's something where there's buyin and largely the same team coming back next year I mean those sorts of things can happen Paul gold Smith's rle and all that's going to be very interesting he's got RBI in four straight games like he's coming around um you know he's got a a hitting streak I don't know if it's longer than the five games I'll have to I'll have to pull up the game log to exactly see but he's I mean he's pushing 700 Ops if he has a great game or a great weekend at least in the in the Bronx yeah five game hitting streak hits in like seven of his last nine Goldie's been putting it together a little bit and yeah maybe to a little too late but if he goes on a tear for the rest of the season like he's been the last week he'll get the Ops to 7:30 740 and and you're like all right maybe this guy would be worth bringing back keeping around I don't know I don't know what the cost would be I don't know what he wants I don't know if the if he'd be open to platooning if the Cardinals would ask him to platoon I like having gold smmi around but it's like they have to kind of figure out whether the role is going to be um his defense would be valuable he would almost be like a very interesting start him every game against lefties start him maybe 25% of the time against righties and when you do you can DH a Burleson or somebody else because his defense is still very good I think Goldie still plays first base at a very high level and and and saves a lot of errant throws that the left side of the infield is able to be very aggressive because they know that Goldie is going to be over there and scoop it for both Nolan arado and Mason wi those guys can try stuff and I don't think it'll be the same if it's Alec burles or or you know lukan Baker or somebody you know Wilson contaras or Herrera like I don't think it'll be the same as far as the defensive aspect of it so I don't know maybe I'm maybe I'm talking about a ship that's already sailed on gold Schmid but it would be nice to see him be able to bring it back and turn himself into somebody that can finish as a cardinal in his career um I I I don't really know what that would have to look like and like I said it may just be that that's not even on the table but he's hitting lefties I mean the numbers against lefties all season have been fine for Paul Goldman I'll pull up the splits but if he's starting to come around and he's got 20 home runs you could squint and see that he finishes this season with a with a decent you know decent numbers his Lefty numbers have actually gone down over the past week despite overall numbers coming up so he's been hitting righties a little better um 802 Ops against lefties still not a ton of power against lefties though but he's hitting 286 against them all season um but just four home runs and 142 plate appearances so that's really like a 16 18 home run Pace he's actually got a better home run Pace um by far against righties interestingly enough but anyway I don't know what ever anybody's thoughts on that might be let me know but he's got 800 Ops against lefties I don't know as far as Goldie's concerned it's just kind of like very interesting to think about long range thinking on the roster and by the way earlier when I was I've done this twice now talking and I think I did it on the Big Show last week when we're talking about the rotation for next year and I'm going Sunny gray and Palante and you got michelas and maybe mattz and maybe McGreevy I keep not saying Eric fetty he's the one guy that the Cardinal are not going to wave or DFA from the trade deadline because he's got a contract that's very affordable for next year so my apologies to Eric fetty I I think Eric fetty's honestly going to fit really nicely into what they're looking to have him do next year so if you can go I I do think they need a number two or a number one if but I don't know where that comes from it could be Quinn Matthews though let's play this out let's just say he's so dominant in Spring that they have to bring him up and I'm not I don't want to put that out there as something that has to happen or it's a failure because the kid has risen four levels so far this season he's in tripa a now more down on the farm talk that I keep taking away from that segment but that like if Quinn Matthews let's just say he keeps going and he just doesn't stop and he he's Paul sk's esque in the terms of he just has to be in the big leagues now if if you have Quinn Matthews as a dominant and finally they developed one to pair with sunny gray fedy Palante Michela says you're five like you could see a world in which they're close to having that be a rotation that might not lead the league but if if you get even or sunny level performance from Quinn Matthews which again this is hypothetical I'm not predicting this happens but if it happened and would it shock anybody if it did based on what Quinn Matthews has done this year suddenly you're going hey now wait a minute this is something this rotation could be mid pack you know if Michael is truly your five and I mean Palante is your four fetty's your three sunny and and Quinn Matthews are like duking it out for the Ace Hood it they just need one stud to develop and maybe quinnn Matthews could be that guy and look I I'm I'm thinking Tink hence is more of a late 2025 see where he's at 2026 kind of name just because of the Innings I don't think he's going to be able to slide into the rotation and just be he's going to have to be monitored on Innings from just he's just not been built up enough yet but I mean there there's a world in which the Cardinals can stop just having to go to stop gaps every offseason to fill their rotation they just have to develop it's what we've been talking about for years and years and years um but that's kind of where I'm at let me know your thoughts on the Tommy fam stuff on the Quinn Matthews stuff um I've kind of ruined down on the farm based on the fact that I've talked about it already so uh I'll just remind you that Hastings layers premium egg sponsors the down on the farm segment um but I won't play the move for today I just want to get out of here in 30 minutes or less so that you guys get a chance to listen to this uh do apologize for the delay on the most recent episode but I will try to connect with Josh Jacobs as well and throw a uh a philosophical differences at you guys later on today but I appreciate the support of the channel you guys have been incredible um I I don't ever take that for granted how much it means to me that you guys are listening and even when I miss a day or two the next podcast has 6,000 views on YouTube like it's just incredible so thank you guys so much make sure to subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and we'll talk to you next time on bsha daily peace