Sonny Gray's Struggles, Jordan Walker's Effect On The Team, Boring Baseball Is The Worst

Intro Sunny gray struggles again in a lackluster performance against the Reds how worried should we be about the Cardinals top pitcher this is lock on Cardinals you are locked on Cardinals your daily St Louis Cardinals podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Show Open day hey there Cardinal fans I'm JD ha and I'm a national radio Sports Anchor born and raised in the L and a livetime Cardinal fan and I'm your host for lockon Cardinals part of the lockon podcast Network covering your team every day you can give me a follow on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio as well as the podcast at lore Cardinals I do want to thank those of you who make locks on Cardinals your first listen every single day you can uh find us free and available wherever you get your podcast also on YouTube if you haven't visited us there yet uh I don't know what you're waiting for we're on YouTube we're looking good we've got cool graphics we have got pictures and uh all kinds of stuff going on on YouTube plus you get to see who the hell it is that's talking to you all the time so come check us out and uh like subscribe comment this is a show serving Cardinal nation and giving the best fans in baseball all of the info about the birds on the bat today's episode being brought to you by FanDuel you can make every moment more as the playoffs wind down the Sports Stop sporting like we want them to but this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that's right there's something for everyone every day all summer long visit fanduel.com to get started so the Cardinals lose in Cincinnati on Monday night another loss to the fraking Cincinnati Reds which uh is annoying very very much annoying especially for me because my wife is a Reds fan so I have to live with this but they lose on Monday Night by a score of six to one we talked about the schedule yesterday where you know you don't just don't have a lot of room for error in the month of August because you've got to face the top teams in baseball after you get done with the Reds you've got the Dodgers the Brewers the twins the Padres the Yankees after this series in Cincinnati which is the team that is below 500 and is a team that you should beat they are they they you should beat them on paper you're a better team right now just go look at the names and stuff that that that's their lineup compared to your lineup like they have Tai France in their lineup you know like who are some of these guys you're like you know will Benson sitting under 200 is in their in their lineup and you can't beat him you had your top pitcher on the mound you had the day off on Sunday to travel and rest a little bit you get the Jordan Walker boost he comes into the locker room probably kind of fun to help boost your offense and you still lose now scoring one run isn't going to win you a lot of games so we'll talk about the offense a little bit later but the real question is what in the hell is going on with sunny gray Sunny gray what what is this this is something that has been a concern for a lot of fans for a while now and I've been someone because I tend to stick to the positive narrative in most situations uh that has stuck up for for sunny gray I've argued repeatedly with fans that he is worthy of being a a number one pitcher on a lot of teams certainly number one on this Cardinals team and people get mad when I say things like that and then I say things like I I throw the word Ace out there uh I didn't say he's an ace of Major League Baseball but he is the Ace of this Cardinal rotation you look at what you've got before you had Eric fetty Sunny gray was supposed to be your top pitcher and for the most part had been that top pitcher he's your number one guy the problem is last couple months he hasn't exactly pitched like a number one guy as much as you need him to few games here and there and you're like wow there he is and then poof something happens again I'm not trying to put all of the blame on Sunny this really this isn't a blame game thing going on here it's really difficult to score only one run at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati it's a tiny Place fly balls that would normally be outs at a lot of ballparks very much so at Bush Stadium are home runs at Great American Ballpark they land in the first couple of rows that it's a tough place to pitch so the offense not doing anything on Monday is just ridiculous it's ridiculous but even if the team had scored three four runs you still would lose that game because of the way Sunny gray pitched and we've seen Sunny gray struggle a lot over the last couple of months and if he's not going to pitch like the number one guy in your rotation then this team is really screwed like you're not going to survive this his first two months he was outstanding and a lot of the naysayers kind of shut the hell up when when I talked about it you know his first two months ER 2.60 the FIP 2.85 67 strikeouts and 52 winnings opponents were hitting just 209 against him team was seven- two in the nine starts that he made everything was wonderful it was it was was Blissful we were loving the sunny gray experience since June 1st though things have been drastically different the ER is at 4.81 the FIP is lower though FIP is still at 3.34 which says that you know perhaps he's better than the erra shows you now the strikeouts are still there he's still getting the punchies 95 and 78 and 2/3 opponents are hitting 236 against him which you know that's not awful by any means but they're batting average on balls in play so when they are hitting the ball they're getting on they're hitting 307 but most importantly the team is only six and seven in the games that he starts that can't happen for the St Louis Cardinals to make the playoffs and be a good team now something that has certainly caught my eye and I'm sure you've noticed as well is the amount of home runs that he's given up remember when they signed him one of the things that stood out was that he kept the ball in the ballpark was something I was really excited about because we you know the signing of Lance Lynn watching miles Michels give up blasts all the time you know it was nice to say all right well we got a guy who at least is GNA keep the ball in the ballpark right we got him he allowed just stay home runs last year all Sonny Gray year it's like which is there was gonna be regression but I don't think we expected it to be the way it is right now after Monday night he's already allowed 17 long flies this year career high is 19 so like he's on Pace to blast right past that he's hit the 19 Plateau twice once in 2017 when he pitched for both Oakland and the Yankees and then in 2021 with the rets so for him to go past his previous record for home runs given up in a year it's not a great sign considering he also pitches his home games at Bush Stadium which we know is known to swallow up fly balls and have them die at the warning track a lot we've seen it a ton this year with the with the Cardinals so the question is is everything really as bad as it seems with sunny I know after Monday night everybody's feeling kind of down in the dumps about him again uh the strikeouts which I mentioned earlier have been a bright spot he's currently at an 11.2 strikeouts per nine clip which would be a career high for him he's seventh overall in major Le baseball in strikeouts fourth in the National League so that's not the problem he's got the swing and miss all buddy Josh Jacobs over at Redwood rant.com he dug even a little bit deeper into the numbers and says that compared to last year when he finished second in the alsi young voting he actually has a higher Chase percentage whiff percentage and walk percentage so he's not putting a lot of guys on um Josh points out that we haven't seen a drop in velocity that hasn't been an issue so the arm's healthy and the only true regression he has to this point is his Barrel percentage which explains why he's given up so many home runs this year last year gray had an unsustainable 5.2% home run flyball rate something we knew would regress in 2024 which I just told you um he says that home run flyball rate has now skyrocketed this year although some of that is inflated by 10 of the 17 home runs uh he has allowed coming in just three of his starts but the ball seems to be flying out of the ballpark against them a lot now Josh does not think that this is a time for Cardinal fans to panic I'm a little panicked I'll be honest but I don't think we should be flipping out where we're like oh my gosh we got the scrub he's not a scrub he he's still a very good pitcher he just hasn't been the guy that we saw the first couple of months nearly as often since June 1 uh outside of the hammy thing he's been very healthy in the grand scheme of things the contract that he signed is pretty good for what a pitcher like him is giving you right like I wouldn't think that you would say the Cardinal's overpaid for him I think he's probably right where he deserve to be and the other thing that's good about Sunny gray is that you don't have him on this like massive seven-year deal right now where you're really going to start seeing things tail off uh the later years of his career you know it's H you've got three this is one of them so two years after this um I think something else that's great about Sunny gray is that um he clearly gives a crap about this team this organization and you can see it in the interviews he's he's as hard as on himself as anybody about his struggles and you know I'm I he's only been on the team one year but I'm GNA go ahead and say I trust Sunny gray to get things headed back in the right direction but I'm not looking at this as what happened on Monday is like a blip on the radar like it's happened a lot more times than we need it to be happening and the voices who keep saying that he shouldn't be your Ace or your number one that a winning ball Club shouldn't have Sunny gray your number one those voices are getting louder and it's hard to argue against it as much anymore now if the Cardinals in a in a perfect world after this season is over whatever happens uh the Cardinals could somehow someway land a true number one that would be better and Pitch ahead of Sunny gray and then you would have that person and gray and then fetty and probably Gibson and then whatever and then Michaelis after that now we're talking now we're talking but that that is further on down the road not something we really need to get into yet because we've still got this season to worry about and we need a better Sunny gray if uh the way things are for the Cardinals and the standings are going to improve so uh we'll get into the offense next because uh that was a very disappointing game on Monday night arguably the most boring game I've been to as a Cardinal fan in quite some time we'll get into it next on lock on Ibata cardos summer is winding down here 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Summer Olympics uh but FanDuel when Sports aren't sporting the way you want it to when things are a little bit slower FanDuel uh keeps the sports going whenever you want just open up the app and dream up bets anytime you are in the mood obviously MLB penet chases Wild Card races are all in full swing tonight you got Eric fety on the hill against hunter green for the Cincinnati Reds who has been outstanding this year I imagine that hunter green will strike out a few guys tonight in this Cardinals lineup that's what I would bet on I I'd be looking at hunter green strikeouts tonight that would be the safe bet in my opinion that he would probably hit whatever it is that fanduel's got it at at the moment and this summer FanDuel is also hooking up all customers with a booster bonus daily that's right there's something for everyone every day all summer long and uh all you got to do is head on over to.com lockon and that's the way that you start making the most out of what's left of your summer make it more fun if the Carlos are going to lose at least make some money off of it right FanDuel the official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball are you watching Fox Sports or Jordan Walker ESPN on your TV all day and have to turn it down because they keep shouting that make the switch to lock on sports today a free 247 sports streaming Channel program for you every day to bring you the biggest stories without all of the the screaming streaming 247 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day so Katie Woo at the athletic wrote a piece um about Jordan Walker and I want to get to this first before before we talk about how boring the game was I'll get to that in a little bit I don't want to continually bog us down with negative stuff all right so let's talk about some positive things let's talk about Jordan Walker all right Jordan Walker um got called up yesterday and um you know it was cool I mean it happened like right after I did the show yesterday you know and Katie Woo put out an article on the athletic kind of explaining what things are going to look like with Jordan Walker back on this team again now the first one that we needed to discuss was what is his playing time going to be like because that's what people are worried about they're like all right Jordan Walker's on the team are we really going to bench him a lot what what's going to happen to him like shouldn't he be progressing and playing every day I hear you I get that but according to Katy woo the Cardinals do plan to platoon Walker they'll start in right field against left-handed starters and come off the bench in games started by righties that decision as she says might come as a surprise to St Louis has been adamant here we are about prioritizing Walker's development but with six week six weeks remaining in the regular season maximizing lineup production takes priority over Player Development leading the Cardinals to temporarily deviate from the course now many fans reached out to me in regards to the call up a lot of people think that this team is already dead in the water uh after watching them on Monday I can see why you feel that way even more uh and they think that the the logical thing is to not risk harming his development any further by calling him up and leaving him at triaa where he was just starting to you know get hot and hit that potential that we all see in Jord Walker and they considered it a desperate move a lot of fans were like this is this reeks of being desperate and yeah it kind of does because as ktie woo points out you've got six weeks left we're not here to win Triple A championships we're here to win a World Series and if Jordan Walker can help this team in any way shape or form he needs to be on this team for the final few weeks of the season this is not going to be like he's up here for five months as a bench bat you know this is for six weeks and start against lefties so I see why people are worried about it I see why you are like no this is stupid you're going to ruin him because what if he does struggle at the MLB level again and they and they end up ruining him for good I would hope we don't see that but it's a risk it's a risk but the Cardinals they need something they need something against left-handers and uh as you saw on Monday night it's still not clicking uh how will Jordan's play affect others like how uh him being in the lineup now how is that going to affect some other people uh great question uh she says with the Cardinal set to platoon their Corner outfielders expect Brenan Donovan to move to second base against lefties and Alec Burleson to be the power bat Off the Bench Burleson kills righties we know this but he struggles against lefties hitting 205 his slash Line's 205 230 291 with just three home runs so um as great as brison has been this year he's just not very good against lefties so might as well let him sit like why why torture him and now that you got Jordan there that's that's good uh she says Donovan splits aren't as glaring he owns a 766 Ops against righties 638 Ops against lefties and that his defensive versatility allows for more roster flexibility so his playing time isn't likely to see too dram too dramatic of a cut obviously he was uh in there on Monday and you know defensively wherever Donovan plays he's better than Alec Burleson right so there's not an argument there that's just the truth so that makes sense that Brennan Donovan would uh be in there even if a left-hander is on the mount and then finally talking about lineup construction Katie says with how things stand it appears marmel has five players he views as everyday starters Paul gold Schmid noan arado Wilson contras Mason WN and Victor Scott that leaves four spots to rotate and fam Walker buris and Donovan with Nar Gorman Crawford and Pedro pz as the reserves Mara likes to load up on right-handers with his team faces lefties which usually ensures a start behind the plate for pajes while contas slots in as the DH Monday's lineup showed that what will likely be the most common lineup against left ear you had Pedro catching while fam was in left Walker in right and then you had Victor Scott in Center Donovan started at the at second base and contras was your H so that is the effect the Jordan Walker effect on uh what's going to go on with the St Louis Cardinals over the next six weeks barring any other injuries or whatever has to happen there like we're still ways off for Michael canani coming back and even if he does Victor probably goes back down to Triple A it's not going to affect anybody else uh so Jordan Walker um he's here to stay I think for the rest of the year again barring something just horrible happening so let's not even speak that into the universe and just kind of say that hopefully things will get turned around against lefties we've been waiting all year so the odds are against us right because they haven't done it all year but um perhaps I get hot I don't I don't know what else to tell you but I can tell you this last night was one of the most boring games I've been to as a Cardinal fan this year so uh I want to get into it I want to talk about the offense a little bit more and then we'll do a quick preview of what's going to happen on Tuesday night at Great American Ballpark all coming up on lock on Sponsor Cardinals get supplies from the site that's made for the skilled trades supplyhouse.com supplyhouse.com is the reliable way to order Plumbing HVAC at electrical products online their easy to use website it's packed with helpful resources and the latest product info to help you get the job done right you can shop a complete inventory of over 200,000 parts from over 400 top brands and you get your order delivered right to your door you get fast shipping coast to coast and if you need help with an order which things happen right you can get the expert support and 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lockon podcast Network your team every day so I was at Great American Ballpark on Monday night and I was very excited to see uh Jordan Walker there uh we had our dog with us so we got to do the dog parade before the game which was fun so you get to get get on the field I saw Sunny warming up a little bit I did went live on YouTube for the first time uh I had never done it before so I guess it came out okay people were on there people were responding so you can see that video on YouTube in the video section as we make our way around the ballpark we ran into uh uh a family friend of ours and Annie Sabo which is Chris sabo's daughter uh she works for for balet sports um Ohio and so um you know we got to talk to her for a little bit but so many cool dogs nice walking around seeing the fans and stuff so that was neat and that was about the most exciting this game got on Monday it was one of the most boring games I've seen this team play live in person and I've been to some tough ones this year uh I saw them got get knocked around by the Reds of Bush Stadium on that scorcher of a day where I had the second row down the first Bas side which by the way at Bush Stadium down there and it was before you get to like where the ball boy and stuff is I had no idea that when you get down that close that the the field curves you know it's for drainage purposes obviously but it's weird because you're sitting and you're actually lower than the bases so that was weird I didn't really like that seat at all um but it was so hot anyway we a lot of us were inside most of the time but uh the Cardinal sucked that day um that was the other day that that Sunny got beat up on by by the Reds at Bush Stadium so uh that wasn't a lot of fun to watch saw the one to nothing wi over the Reds at Bush the previous night before in that same series but a very dull game because there was no offense whatsoever um part of it was a little exciting because it was one of those games where it could go either way you know uh Anything could happen if something did it could you know swing the game in a different direction but uh one to nothing not a whole lot of fun to watch uh waited through a two-hour rain delay on my grandma's 99th birthday to watch them get pulverized by the Nationals in July that sucked uh I have seen a couple of wins it's not that I I lose every time I go so I don't think I'm a bad luck charm but Monday night despite having a day off on Sunday getting Jordan Walker in the lineup which was very exciting the the boys came out flat again and they continue to have these issues against left-handers and it's unbelievable I wish I knew the answers to fix this but it is so bizarre to see a a lineup that's got all of these capable right-handed hitters in it not able to do things against lefties you know contras are anado and gold in their careers have beat the hell out of left-handed pitchers and they're just not doing it this year um they weren't completely worthless Goldie had a couple of hits contas had one scored the only run arado had the RBI single but you look at other guys in the lineup Mason win 0 for four he's only hitting 243 against lefties compared to 294 against the FR Tommy fam brought in to be able to hit the lefties has cooled off since you know the hot start since getting traded over he's over for three uh he did walk in this one Jordan Walker had an outstanding at bat his first at bat I was really excited for him all right first off he looks like he's 68 now like he looks like he's he's grown even more a monster out there uh I was out in the right field area so we got to see him up close and personal uh but he had an outstanding first at bat you know was behind 02 it all the way back got the walk before Pedro pz hit it into the double play which really sucked the life out of the offense because that that was the chance right there to really do some damage and really uh put the Reds behind the eightball and they just didn't do it double play ball boom over uh but Walker was over for three after that paaz had the the single against abot later on in the game but the double play ball obviously was a killer in that crucial spot and then your two lefties ofer on the night and uh Brennan Donovan and Victor Scott and it's just truly remarkable how bad they are against lefties only the Reds the Marlins the White Sox and the Mariners have worst batting averages against lefties this season Seattle has been a terrible offensive team they got great pitching which is why they are where they are in the sandings um the Cardinals they get hits but they don't do any damage you know like they get singles just singles all the time they never like do any damage against the lefties they're third to last in Ops and only the Blue Jays Nationals white socks and Marlins have worth slugging against lefties in the league like that's where they are those aren't playoff teams and right now neither are the Cardinals then you get Ali getting thrown out later on for arguing balls and Strikes but even that didn't work because immediately Sunny gives up the three-run jack to Spencer steer his second of the game and that was really all she wrote it was lifeless it was dull it was boring and it's something that continues to be an issue for me where these guys just look dead on their feet like they look like they're 10 games out of it instead of being two and a half back in the wild card and of course you know if you have any hopes of coming back in the division you have to pretty much win every single time the Brewers lose the Brewers have now lost two in a row Cardinals lose two in a row they are never going to make up any ground like this and and are about to dive head first into that murderer row of teams here at the end of August where they could get buried for good and I I just wish I just wish I saw a sense of urgency from this team and last night I I felt nothing nothing whatsoever even Ali getting tossed and I don't know what it was like on TV but at the game even then which usually it gets you know a Ruckus from the crowd like yeah get him out of here because you know you're at a away Stadium it was hardly anything happen like even the Reds fans were bored of what the Cardinals put out there last night you know I'm at the game with a bunch of them there was a ton of us hanging out and they even commented how defeated and slow the Cardinals looked they're like dude you wouldn't expect it considering where they are in the standing they're like I know coming off an off day it's not like they were out west the Reds had to play on Sunday that was supposed to be the tired team not the Cardinals and it's not like the Cardinals flew in from La the flight from St Louis like 40 minutes so I I don't know it it's extremely frustrating but as we've said before what did we really expect from this team at the beginning of the year you remember my prediction I said 84 wins basically an average record for an average team and they're proving me right they're proving all of us right who said that they just had they didn't do enough in the offseason to be one of the top teams to go after a division title and so far we're all right unless they catch fire and what about this team is showing you that they are capable of Catching Fire not much uh Eric fetty vers hunter green tonight they do hit ry's better yay positive green is really good I hope they surprise us tonight I hope uh something happens to light of fire under their butts tonight and they come out hacking we'll see thanks for making locked on Cardinal your first listen every day if you haven't already please do me a solid give me a follow on Twitter X _ Cardinal in JD Sports Radio like subscribe on YouTube and help our channel in love for the Cardinals grow you guys are the best fans in baseball for re and I'll see you next time hopefully with better news on lock cardal