00:00 – Masyn Winn is showing us what we thought was going to be his ceiling.
17:01 – The Lineup Game!
31:21 – Sergei Bobrovsky is why the Blues don’t trade Jordan Binnington.
48:55 – Ask Us Anything
1:04:12 – Are the Cardinals overly reliant on players returning from the IL?
1:19:10 – NFL Quick Hitters
1:35:08 – Are the Cardinals utilizing Lance Lynn the right way?
1:53:06 – The Junk Drawer
2:02:23 – Does baseball have a difficult product to sell right now?
2:16:40 – Vladimir Tarasenko has found his late career NHL role.
2:33:50 – Ones Gotta Go
2:46:04 – BK & Ferrario Rewind
right back where it came from diving stop win thought about the bag instead a throw to first an amazing play by Mason wind to Rob grandall on a rocket up the middle l in right center field that’s going to roll for a while Mason wi streaks around first on his way to second he turns and burns he’s going to third here comes the relay it’s going to be late it’s a triple for Mason win with one out with Alex and Tbone on BK that courtesy of Valley Sports Midwest as the St Louis Cardinals picked pick up another win yesterday Alex you look back at that home stand you look back at that Series against the Pirates you win two out of three against them you you see how he amended that T-Bone he goes you look back at that home stand oh crap they lost to the Rockies look back at that pirate series yeah you you you didn’t lose the series against the Rockies and you did win the series against the Pirates see how I do that it’s not it’s not you split the series against the Rockies it’s you didn’t lose Ser the you didn’t lose the series against the the worst team second worst team in the national league right now but hey you sure didn’t winning is winning right you won three of your last four games that’s right you’ve won three of the last four four of the last six you’re feeling pretty good about where this team is at right now maybe I’m feeling really good about where Mason wi is at right now is the honest to God answer I was looking this up earlier today because I was thinking to myself man what is what are we witnessing because when I watch him on a night in Night Out basis Alex he always seems to do something that catches your attention and then you look at the the numbers for him so far this year he’s he’s probably been the Cardinals best player so far this season from start to finish not probably he has been the best Cardinal player he’s batting 302 he has 12 doubles already this season three triples on the year he’s added a few home runs as well his Ops is above 780 now if you look at War and I know people don’t like War but it it’s just one number that you can use to evaluated a season he has 2 and a half wins above replacement already so far this year Alex we’re a little more than a third of the way through the season he’s on Pace for roughly a five to six win season that’s unbelievable for a rookie to be able to do this at his age at that position is absurd and so you just look at the raw numbers he’s batting 300 which is one hell of a feet in the modern game where nobody hits 300 anymore so I wanted to look back especially at shortstop Who are the guys as young as Mason win that have got to this point in a season and we’re hitting at least 300 Alex over the last 20 years here is the entire list of Short Stops Mason wi’s age or younger it’s about at least 300 at this point in the season Jose Ramirez or excuse me Jose Reyes Hanley Ramirez Starlin Castro Jean sigura Francisco Lindor Xander Bogarts wander Franco and this year we’ve seen it from both Bobby Whit Jr and Mason win I just heard a lot of stars you don’t do this by accident you don’t just get to this point in a season at that age hitting 300 and lock into it if you do this you’re a star you’re a star what we are seeing is what I thought was going to be Mason wins ceiling and he’s doing it in his rookie year now we’ve seen this we’ve talked about it with Jordan Walker with Dylan Carlson progress is not linear we have no idea what next year or Beyond will look like but I’m shocked by the way that he’s playing so far year I can’t imagine where the Cardinals would be if they didn’t have this specific player playing this way at this point in the season Alex yeah I I mean like you you mentioned his Ops and like guys this season that he’s better than in terms of Ops Vlad Guerrero Jr Pete Alonzo uh Matt Olen with the Atlanta Braves like you’re not just talking about a dude who’s just come into his own and is just getting real lucky this has been from start to finish Mason wi has just been a consistent straight line player for the Cardinals you know exactly what you’re getting it’s no facade of like oh he’s got this power that we didn’t know about is it going to sustain it’s all about contact with him it’s all about the appropriate Approach at the plate and it’s all about his defense and every aspect of that game again I always go back and I think I’m going to for the rest of his career to the conversation we had with him last year where he told us I I’m a slow starter when I get a taste of the new league but as soon as I figure it out I’m off and running he’s said it was that way a double A it was that way a tripa a and that’s what he did at Major last year we were like oh this guy’s going to be a nine-hole hitter for the rest of his career but you’re going to get gold glove defense treat him like yachty that’s what we said right hey look at the defense that you’re getting not the good yach early career yachty where it’s anything that he does offensively is a plus the defense is why he’s in the line in a matter of two months he’s gone from that for me to this is one of your core pieces if you’re going to have success moving forward absolutely one of the biggest differences between what they are right now and what they were over the past two years is Mason win he’s the guy that I feel like every time he’s coming to the plate he’s making some kind something happened and when he’s in the field he’s also creating something out there and that was the backdrop to MLB Network’s conversation yesterday this is after the game they had a conversation about the Cardinals game and what they saw from it they broke down Mason win I thought this was a great way to phrase it from Chris Young he forces you to pay attention to him when he’s on the field he’s a gamer I love watching him do his thing out there on defense he’s plus six defensive run save he’s fourth in baseball as far as Short Stops go he’s a solid baseball player and I love to see him develop he forces you to pay attention yep that’s what Mason wi does in a day where very few baseball players get you to they force you to put your eyes onto the field whether you’re at the Ballpark and you’re you know in The Concourse trying to grab yourself a beer between Innings whatever if Mason wi’s name is announced in fat botom up his new his new song that they play have you seen he is my favorite player because of that song it’s one of my favorite songs he’s what’s the other one he has two he’s got that one and uh it doesn’t even matter box her that’s the other one that’s great but Fat Bottom Girls with Mason wi this is a 22-year-old who is walking up to Freddy Mercury singing Fat Bottom Girls won’t you take me home tonight that is a star and I’ve never seen anybody at that highest of a level that Mason win I didn’t even know what you were going with I didn’t either I started that sentence and didn’t know how I was finishing it uh Mason wi comes to the plate and you are forced to pay attention because you don’t know what’s coming next you don’t know could be a triple could be a double could be a homer could be a single a fat bottom girl it is consistent production that we have seen from him it’s hitting streaks it’s on base streaks it’s unbelievable plays at Short Stop that maybe three other guys in the league could make yesterday he had that highlight re defensive play as well he’s changing the way that you look at the Cardinals defensively and offensively because of what he’s done so far this year to say that about a rookie is unbel believable the other key difference though for this team compared to a year ago is the bullpen what you saw yesterday they they weren’t capable of that last year man no no chance they could have won that game last year because you end up getting less than five innings out of your starter and we would have known then three four in a third Innings three earned runs out of your starter over no chance you’re winning that game because you’re probably only going to score another run maybe two and your Bullpen is going to blow up well yesterday you’re able to go to John King for more than an inning you’re able to go to Chris Roy Croft who has become one hell of a weapon for them coming out of the pen right now Matthew Liberator Ryan Fernandez Andrew kitridge I did not mention JoJo Romero by the way or Ryan Hesley who are two of your high leverage arms that you did not have to go to last night because these other guys were able to lock things down for you to get half of the outs from that Bullpen yesterday and for them to allow exactly zero runs that is pretty damn impressive to be able to get through that the way that the Cardinals did yesterday OE did a good job I thought of navigating it more importantly the guys that were thrown out there they were all guys that you could trust in that situation that didn’t exist a year ago I’m going to do something that I never thought I would do on this show and that’s reference of T-Bone 3 because T-Bone nailed it and you don’t just have I think I could go three for three this year by the way let’s pump the brakes a little bit here you don’t just have three guys that you can trust I mean right now it feels like with the exception of a couple of dudes lehy and ludus are the two that I’m referencing right now sorry boys but I don’t I don’t get uncomfortable when anybody comes out of that Bullpen right now like with John King with Roy Croft with Liberator with Fernandez I don’t get uncomfortable with them which last year there was one dude that came out of that Bullpen I’m like okay we’re good here because everything else was going to be a disaster that is one thing that every Cardinals Fan should appreciate and applaud John mosac for because you’ve locked down that bullpen to where if you get to the playoffs and I’m still not buying into this team but if you get into the playoffs that’s a weapon that I’m not sure a lot of teams are going to have because you might have seven or eight maybe nine guys if you can use all of them including the guys that could be in your rotation and your Bullpen that are going to be a disaster for other teams remember last year when I said John King could be actually something that helps the Cardinals and you guys were like John King the CNN guy no I also remember you not being the biggest fan of him being on the roster points this season you at the beginning seon with joh King yeah you were actually joh King guy you know not great and I’m like what he’s been fine he’s like getting ground balls you know like what John King should do I don’t feel like I did that no you did you did we could go find the the cut if we want will find the cut of me saying that he’s better than people are giving him credit for last year I remember that all right well that team sucks I don’t really care about you what were about to say they run six deep in this Bullpen and they have guys for every role you know do you do you have high leverage arms that can be set up man check with kit Ridge and JoJo Romero do you have a elite club check with Ryan Hy do you have a kind of left-handed specialist that you can go to check that’s Matthew Liberator do you have that fourth or that third right-handed arm that can cover for wi H or kries down yeah you saw him last night in Fernandez hell you saw it with Roy Croft as well do you have a double play specialist check you got John King do you have a guy that doesn’t matter in the bullpen yeah check Kyle Le’s there like they have everything that they need you have a guy that doesn’t matter that’s not nice true it’s fair is it not nice or is it correct yeah like there’s always that Ro in the bullpen but wait Gio’s coming back soon he can take he’ll take that Che this is the best Bullpen they’ve had in a while and even you referenced 2023 I’ll go to the last playoff team 2022 they didn’t have this deep of a bullpen because on a day where you didn’t have Hy available and let’s say you didn’t have at that point Cabrera Avail SC it was Gio and then like who got you there it was like ver Hagen Woodford some guy named Junior Fernandez a lefty named pacy not that’s still in the organization Junior Fernandez through heat you just couldn’t get there like you just couldn’t the these are the type of games that that separate good teams good teams from the bad teams 314 399 9646 is the service text line to get involved in the show the YouTube chat is off and running at youtube.com sl101 espnl we’ll get to ask us anything coming up at the end of this hour from the 618 guys the Cardinals are six and a half games back in the division pump the braks will you no sir I will not will not because they’re only what three games out of the wild card spot they are in the wild card as of to no I mean the top Wild um they are three games back three and a half games back of the Atlanta Braves right now for the top wild card spot and the Braves are really scuffling uh they do not look like the Braves that we remember their pitching is a disaster their offense has not come together thank God for them Marcel Ozuna is hitting because nobody else is in their lineup That is a team that looks much more likely to fade than it is to pull away from the rest of the National League wildcard right now I’m not telling you the Cardinals are a great team I don’t think they are a great team we’ve said that for months now on this show but they’re good enough they’re good enough to be in this race and you look at what they have schedule-wise there is absolutely an opportunity in front of them right now uh to be able to gain some ground in the National League Wild Card race it’s a sign of the times the national league Wild Card race stinks but we’re going to talk about them like they’re a playoff team because as of today that is exactly what they are I I should amend to that I’m going to talk about them like I’m they’re a wild card team because as of today that is exactly what they are I can’t speak for the two of you I don’t think you’re going to talk about them like they’re bad they’re bad coming up in about 15 minutes Sergey bosski he’s like 40 years old he is exactly the reason why the blues should not trade Jordan Bennington we’ll talk about that in just a little bit but my understanding is the lineup is out that means we’ll play the lineup game for a Day game at Wrigley coming up next year on 101 ESPN e e e e e e e e all right it is time for the lineup game here on BK and ferrario with Alex and Tbone on BK it is a day game at Wrigley Feeling Just Right on a Friday going into Father’s Day weekend with a day game at Wrigley Field between two teams Alex that are fighting for a wild card spot this feels right feels good to be back Loosely using the term fighting for a wild card spot all right Kyle Gibson on the mound today for the St Louis Cardinals Jordan Wicks getting the start with his goggles on the mound for the Chicago Cubs he is a left-handed pitcher and so far this year Alex if you look at the breakdown of his splits it’s limited sample size but he does have some reverse splits so far this year righties have excuse me it’s got the the splits you’d expect are you having a rough day today I am I I’m having this issue with my throat I Adam’s Apple getting in the way no I’m having some some food particles that are getting stuck in I’m going to the doctor later on yeah probably is it like a one of those like CLS huh are you making up an injury is this like in the bathtub you know where like that the plug won’t lift up Le are hitting him slightly better than righties that’s I’m trying get the first time I don’t know I’m strugg tell us about your fake injuries over here all right so let’s lead this off the way we should there’s no back problems today the MVP of this team Mason win is leading off I’m watching the futur game and this thing’s all over Instagram it’s like this guy threw a ball 100 across the awesome but like how many throwing errors does he have shut up love that go I’ll let you take this one batting second today actually is kind of interesting to me what did you look at it already no I don’t think it’s going to be Alec burles and is why I’m saying it’s interesting to me so it’s not going to be their second best hitter on this team well I think you got to go with a righty here I think you go with Paul Goldman whoa Goldie’s been heating up though why wouldn’t you keep him in the three hole cuz I want to get as many appats as possible for a guy that I think has a really good chance able to destroy change for change sake PK what do you want to do no what do you want to do I got the first one I go PA Goldman all right go for it what the H is wrong with you guys what did I tell you before we started this segment said don’t bleep this up all right Alec Burleson burle you’re so rugged and manly three the last four games You Can’t Stop This Train while it’s moving forward I don’t like it I don’t like it unbelievable I don’t think he should be batting second I think would you like to give yourself some Grace for this one to get right would you like to hear what Alec burles has done so far this year against left-handed pitching no no he’s batting 200 with an Ops of 580 so what you’re saying is the manager made the wrong decision yeah I think that it should be just wait till you find out the other mistake coming up oh God all right Dyan Carlon they will continue going with what they’ve done Paul gold Schmid batting third I love gold now this next one is probably what Tanner Hendrickson is referencing you want to do the honors day off for Nolan arado maybe because of the hand but Nolan arado Nolan is a security guard at the lumber yard can I give you his number so far this year against left-handed pitching are brutal you hate this lineup 225 batting average you want to know what his on base percentage is against left-handed pitching Alex he 230 that’s good he has one walk this season against left-handed pitching in 58 at bats that is hard that is hard to accomplish he has an Ops of 580 so you’re saying he’s due for a hit don’t love it all right Alex uh that is our cleanup hitter batting fifth I’m guessing they will go Gorman here but again got some not storing garage he’s taking the league by stor Ops of 700 against uh left-handed pitching so far this year that’s good batting six sixth I think this is going to be Herrera Herrera would make a lot of sense let’s go Ivon Herrera here I’m just going to say this right now I think Ivon Herrera is going to hit a home run right here Mar just literally called that at ballpark vill Vision all right 78 I think will be host fine and Dylan Carlson one way or another yeah I would say Dylan above fine you going to go Dylan Carlson yeah I would say Dylan because this is the opportunity they clearly view Jose fine as a better hitter against want go for me let’s do that I I think I would go Jose for here personally you are so wrong I’m let’s try Carlson hey Carl man I said to you don’t screw this up can we try Jose for me here sure buddy you’re wrong oh okay um not Donovan is it a p day well herrera’s in I know but you could go Herrera DH P well then you don’t have two catchers or you have both catchers in the lineup you can’t do that Kyle Gibson if this is true Kyle Gibson said I’m not catching Ivon Herrera and Herrera is gonna be an outfielder Matt Carpenter against a lefty that’s what I I’m confused here and Donovan’s probably not after getting hit yesterday what with the have Donovan we did no we didn’t Don’s the lineup Donnie no I don’t think Donnie’s in all right way to go Donnie never mind Donnie’s in my apologies and then you want to go this would be for me oh no because if Donovan’s playing Carlson’s playing bur with one of those guys as the DH you want to go for me uh let’s go for me no no no let’s go M look he the N hole hitter P they’re going to do the two catcher thing this is dumb I apologize huh I’ve had a bad segment I I just want to apologize to everybody I’ve had a really bad segment here well it’s because he’s got he’s got this thing with his throat where something gets stuck in it and it’s hard for him to swallow was that the nine that was the eight okay that that’s why I was confused you told me it was the eight hole and I was like that was nine that was the lineup this is the starting lineup because this segment’s not going not the leing off this is why okay now you’re having a bad segment leading off Mason win at Short followed by Alec burles and right then they’ll be Paul Goldman at first Nolan arado at third Nolan Gorman at second base Ivon Herrera is the DH batting seventh Dylan Carlson in Center Brendan Donovan hits eighth in left field Pedro pz will bat n because we got caught up with the Donovan one and I thought that one was the seven hole still we spent so much time on it Ah that’s a that’s a terrible lineup so here’s the problem for the Cardinals you’re using two catchers in the lineup uh no I’m actually fine with that because they don’t have a good lineup against left-handed pitching right now it’s weird because this has been a team that has crushed left-handed pitching over the last couple of years and a lot of that has come from Goldie and ronado well when ronado is playing the way that he has and he’s been horrible so far this year against lefties one of the worst I think actually by Ops your worst hitter among qualified guys against lefties your lineup just suddenly looks really bad I mentioned how I don’t like Burleson in the two- hole it’s fair of me to say but then okay if you don’t go to Bur in there you’re probably going to Goldie and then you’re going with like Herrera or Carlson batting third probably and then you’ve got Aron I suppose batting cleanup like you just you don’t have good options right now against left-handed starters and it’s why I think the next couple of days could be a real struggle for the Cardinals offensively they have got to be excellent defensively they need really good starting pitching especially today out of Kyle Gibson um they they’ve got to win these games in low scoring Affairs because their offense has struggled mightily against these left-handed starters specialty and that’s that it’s three straight lefties right in all three of these games for the Cubs yeah Wix imaga and then I don’t remember two out of three two out of the three okay yeah I mean this goes back to the Ali comment against the uh Pirates game and what was that the game the the first game where he was talking about there’s no options off of the bench and right now when you go up against a lefty you’re relying on Jose fine and Dylan Carlson to be your big bats for you and that’s the big thing to me and there’s your problem you need Dylan Carlson to get going yeah and I people know where I stand on Dyan Carlson I’m not a believer that it’s going to happen but the best thing that could possibly happen for this team and it would be a significant uh change in terms of what you’re seeing from them so far they need Dylan Carlson to be a guy that they can trust against left-handed pitching just go out there and whether that’s in right field long term or in Center I don’t care they just need him to be able to play because so far this year he’s batting 200 against right-handed pitching that is a bad Lefty against left-handed pitching so he’s he’s got to be a guy that can go up there batting right-handed and you have confidence is going to give you some some amount of production against right against lefties because you he’s not getting that from anywhere else in your lineup so far this year Cardinals against the Cubs coming up at 1:00 coming up in 15 minutes we’ll get to ask us anything 3143 99 9646 is the Air Comfort Service txt line but next guys Sergey bosski is showing us why the blues should not trade Jordan Bennington we’ll explain why next you’re on 101 ESPN e e e e e e e e ter HRI near with a sports center update d by Johnny lond Chevrolet and Johnny lond Autoplex the St Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday four to three as they take two of three they start three- game weekend set at the Chicago Cubs today 120 will be first pitch Kyle Gibson on the mound for St Louis Jordan WIS will be on the mound for the Chicago Cubs and tonight here on 101 ESPN the Boston Celtics look to sweep the Dallas Mavericks and win the NBA Finals game four tonight we’ll have pregame coverage starting at 6:30 the sports update was driven by Johnny lond chevlin Johnny lond Autoplex see them at l.com Chevy together we drive are you kidding me Alex as we’re watching this Stanley Cup Final right now and it looks like the Florida Panthers are going to run away with this thing as they’re up three to nothing I think there’s ‘s a decent chance this ends up being a sweep I thought last night Edmonton would come away with a win as this thing went back to Edmonton didn’t happen Florida once again um asserting their dominance for the vast majority of the game ended up being close at the end that was a Florida domination game uh and part of that is because they just have the better goalie you’re watching this series and you’re watching the two teams on the ice the skaters I I do think there’s an advantage for Florida but Edmonton certainly has plenty of talent in that regard the problem for they don’t have a goalie they don’t have a goalie that can play the puck I feel like we’ve underestimated that from Jordan Bennington over the years and you see it when you’re watching these teams on display Skinner just doesn’t handle the puck and it led to a a direct directly led to a goal last night uh by Florida and bobovski has been amazing and he’s been awesome all season long and Alex the reason I bring this up is because babski is 35 years old he’s playing in his age 35 season and one of the things that I feel like we see a lot on the text line is that the blues should trade Jordan Bennington because when they’re good again he’s going to be out of his prime he’s not going to be a guy that you can trust between the pipes be because he’s going to be 33 34 35 years old at that point well as I’m watching babski I think to myself why not why can’t he still be a really good player at that point in his career because babski has been their goalie in Florida for all of these playoff runs over the last few seasons and that started really in his mid to late 30s and I don’t think think he’s showing any real signs of decline right now so if you’re able to put the team around Jordan Bennington I see no reason to believe that he can’t age the way that bobovski has watching this so far in this Stanley Cup Final has given me a lot of confidence even more confidence that the blues can continue winning with Jordan Bennington in net whenever they are ready to start contending again and the part for Bob rowski too that I find so interesting and why it falls into what you’re saying BK is look at from 33 on he is started 53 games 49 games 58 games all in the regular season for the Panthers and has been out there sporting a 9913 901 and 915 save percentage so his regular season numbers are eerily similar to that of Jordan they really are and then the postseason where he in the last two seasons he started every single game for the Florida Panthers a 915 save percentage and then right now in the postseason a 916 save percentage so we talked about this with Petro when the contract negoti was going on and I remember Carlo kako telling us that like defensemen age like fine wine like some defensemen get better as they get older and although the go tending position is a lot more taxing position because there’s a lot more going on and if injury pops up it’s hard to get back to that if you’ve got the right goal tender that can sustain the longevity you’re talking about somebody who can be a top echon go tender all the way up until he’s about 35 years old I mean Henrik Lundquist did this and I know he’s a Hall of Famer I’m not saying Bennington is that but even a Jonathan Quick I was looking at this earlier started to dip off about 34 years old now he’s gotten a little bit better at this point and some of that’s the team that’s around him Jordan Bennington is a gamer we know that about him we heard that from him who’s always trying to find different ways to make him better because he’s so good now is a major reason why I wouldn’t trade him but if you believe you’re competitive in two years two or three years man you’re still 32 33 years old and as much as people believe he’s going to be out of his Prime and that may be the case if an injury po up you knock on wood but I’m not going to dictate a decision to trade him because of what could happen in two three years from now because what could happen is he could be Sergey babowski and if there’s anything people are learning from the playoffs right now it’s if you’ve got a good team you need to make sure your goal tender is a position you don’t have to worry about because Edmonton right now thought they had the goal tender that could do it and I would argue a lot of those players right now are wondering how they handle that goal tender because you make decisions predicated off of the goalie and what he does on the ice so unless I’m getting a massive deal that changes the Outlook of my franchise and expedites this retool by trading Bennington B rowski starting to prove to me that I’m not going to start searching for another one and it’s more than just that right like the the defensive cores are obviously significantly different in this series between what the Florida Panthers have versus what Edmonton has and the blues have to improve there as well there’s there’s a lot there’s a lot that goes into becoming a Stanley Cup Contender but somebody on the text line said guys is the exception not the rule ask yourself do you believe that Bennington can also be the exception to the rule my answer is yes I I I don’t have reason to believe that he won’t be it would be the way that I would frame it Alex we have not seen Bennington deal and again like you said knock on wood with a lot of injuries over the course of his career he does seem to take care of himself bodywise very well he trains hard he puts himself into in position to be able to start 40 50 60 games in any individual season he also just from a pure body perspective like the way that they are built he and bovy are similar in that regard they’re both pretty tall they’re both pretty lanky and they both over the course of their careers have really similar numbers so but but see here’s the thing BK it’s not I mean bosi is not the exception I I mean Ben Bishop had to retire because of injuries but Ben Bishop when he was 33 years old had a 9920 save percentage in 50 games played but the fact that we can name individual guys that were able to succeed late into their 30s does kind of speak to the point like it it’s not it is the Rarity most guys are not super successful when they get into their mid to late 30s I I will fully acknowledge that but some can some are the exception to the rule where you can continue to build around them and the other thing is and we saw you said Alex something abouty if you trade him you better get a hall an absolute Hall I don’t think they would and that’s ultimately what this comes down to for me is if the if the blues are able to get some God father offer where you just can’t refuse it all right I’m at least willing to listen I probably still wouldn’t do it but and you’ll find out this offseason because I think you’re going to see one or two goenda that show you a return of what you could get for Bennington and Soros and markstrom and the truth is like we just don’t see those kinds of deals come together very often in the NHL we see the value of a good goalie but guy teams just believe they can find that goalie whether it’s coming from internal or a guy that they can pick up off the scrap Heap like Darcy keer and the Avalanche have such a great team around him that we’re just gonna plug this guy in and we’ll see if it ends up working right it’s like relievers teams in Major League Baseball don’t value the closer position the way that they once did because most World Series winners do not have the closer in the world series that they had on opening day the vast majority of them finished the season with a different closer than they started with that’s due to injury it’s also because you continue adding relievers as you go along throughout the season if you’re a contender so I I think the same is true at times with gold teams just believe they’ll figure it out we’ll keep trying it with somebody new until we find one that ends up working if we’re a consistent Contender so I I don’t think they value the goalie position the way that we think they should the blues do the Blues clearly place a significant value on Benner he’s more valuable to the blues than he is to anybody else in the NHL right now and so the hope for them is he becomes the next Ser Sergey babowski and he’s the guy that you can win with two three four five years down the road and the other reason why I feel like longevity wise he’s not going to be one of those that’s out of his prime when you’re ready to compete is the workload being able to manage it because you’ve got Joel Hofer you’re not going to be REI like bossk’s had to be relied upon for 50 to 60 games because they haven’t had a legit backup up until this season when they had somebody start before him and then Bowski retook the Reigns later on in the season you’re still looking at two guys that probably I would say 45 you know somewhere in between that number in terms of mixing it up with Joel hfer and Jordan Bennington you’re going to be able to do that for the next couple of years and then by the time you’re ready to compete if Bennington is still in that Prime and you have Jill Hofer and I think you’re going to have two guys that are making less than $8 million you can 50/50 split it and I know Boston didn’t work out for them in the playoffs but it wasn’t because of goal tending you had one guy that was the number one but you had another to go to if you needed to and that’s the luxury that the blues are going to have for the next three to four years as we see Alex what is happening right now in the Stanley Cup Final do you think people are ready to admit that we might have been right about the Western Conference being far inferior to the Eastern Conference I think you should save that question for Chris Kerber on Wednesday next week when you made the bet when we both made the bet with him because I I feel pretty comfortable with my assessment of that at this point this be a great comeback by the Oilers it hasn’t happened since the Maple Leafs in the 40s it’s not happening they’re done they’re done the you know the Maple Leafs the team that literally has been jinxed I think since that 3 nothing comeback I’m kind of rooting for them to win game four cuz I want to see this series back in Florida I I would like to see Florida win it at home there is something Bittersweet about a Stanley Cup being raised in Canada against a team that’s fair um but I sorry USA I don’t know that they have it in them I I don’t know that Edmonton has it in them I think this was their last stand they they tried they had a push I think it was the second period Alex if I’m not mistaken they had a push where it was like okay if it’s going to happen now is the time and didn’t happen game two was their tell game two was their tell game two they were playing poker and they basically told them what they had in their hand and and the Panthers called their Bluff when when dry Sidle took out barov that was Edmonton saying we don’t know how to beat you with a full roster so this is the way we’re going to accomplish that and that’s why I told you I thought game three was going in favor of Florida because when barov said he was coming back that felt like a defeat moment for the Edmonton Oilers now I know what’s going to happen game four Evander Kane is going to be all of a sudden healthy and he’s going to play and they think that’s going to eliminate Matthew kachuck I don’t believe Edmonton has an answer for the elimination of McDavid and drle you know their top five goal scorers and we talked about this two weeks ago T-Bone how it’s Hyman it’s nen Hopkins it’s McDavid and dry sidol and then beyond those four Dudes you have like a 15-point drop off in terms of playoffs none of those players I just mentioned have a goal in the series The Top Line has eliminated the other Top Line and now you go to depth and guess what Edmonton has no depth it Florida’s got depth this this series had to be won with the Stars if Edmonton was going to win it has to be won with depth if florid flid is going to win very simple formula the two teams are just totally different roster constructions and the depth has won the the the stars on the Florida Panthers have taken away the stars on the Edmonton Oilers and the depth has been able to outperform the depth on Edmonton and you look across the Western Conference this year like I just think what we’re seeing now is the reality that Dallas was good were they 115 points good no I think they just were in a western conference where they could rack up a bunch of points this year they they were they were solid team Winnipeg solid team Colorado nowhere close to what they have been in recent Seasons this year Vancouver really good team flawed Edmonton we know what they are they’ve been this team for a few years now it’s not anything different and I think we’re seeing that right now in the Stanley Cup Final the difference this year there’s no Vegas like they were there’s no Colorado like they were and so yeah Edmonton ends up getting through I think this Edmond team is the same as it’s been in recent seasons and then the Kings I think we saw like that was that was a fraudulent King team and the golden knights not the same team as they’ve been in previous years it’s just the entire conference was down and so when people were trying to prop these teams up they’re like yeah but look at the look at the Eastern Conference teams that got in and the points that they had versus the points that the yeah because the East was better going up against better teams throughout the season and so they ended up having depleted numbers in terms of their points Florida was the best team from start to finish this year it was Florida Carolina New York those teams were all better than anybody in the Western Conference and’ll fight anybody tooth and nail that’s fight man I hope Jam Rivers wants to take the other side of that one see here’s and nobody’s going to want to admit this but Edmonton had an easy path to get to the Stanley Cup Final and they were rested and that’s how they got past Dallas Dallas had to go through a gauntlet to get to the Western Conference Final and Edmonton didn’t and now you’re and that’s why I fully expected Florida because Florida had to go through Tampa Boston and the Rangers to get there Edmonton had to deal with the LA Kings the Vancouver Canucks which was a really good series and then who was the other team that they had to deal with Dallas Dallas Dallas okay and Dallas you’re talking about that was The Gauntlet and Dallas was a worn down team at that time I think you saw the scale heavily go into One Direction once Edmonton got to The Cup finals I just don’t think they were that good coming up next 304 9646 is the Air Comfort Service text line ask us anything coming up next here on 101 ESPN e e e e e e e e 314 39996 46 is the aircover service text line for ask us anything if you guys have any questions sports or otherwise go ahead and get them in right now on the Air Comfort Service text line from the 314 guys does the weak West make the blues try to speed up their retool and if so how do you think they go about it I mean I don’t think it causes the blues to be overly aggressive and make bad decisions because of the weak West but I if it if I’m in their shoes I would look at it and say maybe it is an offseason for us to be aggressive because I think without making any any moves you’re in the exact same position as you were last year where you’re 10 Le maybe less than 10 points out of a wild card spot because Calgary has made it pretty clear they’re rebuilding the Utah Hockey Club which they’re going to be kind of in the murky middle Seattle the same and then the bottom three are going to stink so I would be aggressive to try and make myself four to five maybe six points better to put you in the same conversation as the Nashville Predators LA Kings Minnesota Wild so I I think you could be a playoff team if you make a couple of moves I think you could be but I don’t think they will I I think the blues are going to stick with how they’ve decided this timeline I don’t think they want to over accelerate things because of a fear that maybe you make that one bad trade like a pier Luke duah type trade that throws the retool off its track so I think they kind of hold Pat and do what we’ve talked about try to get younger let the young guys play let Balou play Maybe dorski makes a team of play Zack Dean’s going to be playing with the team next year I think there’s still going to be a team that could potentially get worse before they get better you know that I’m lock upep with T-Bone on this uh that being said the the weaker Western Conference I believe makes it more likely or more beneficial for the blues to be aggressive like Alex said I just don’t think that I I don’t think that’s going to be the route that they decide to go from the 314 guys have we crossed the temperature threshold where you aren’t going outside unless you absolutely have to at this point yeah no you’re not oh yeah I am Alex what are you doing tomorrow oh well that’s a different story oh okay okay that’s a different story what are your plans tomorrow golfing in 99 degree weather which is not going to be beneficial but in terms of going outside yeah that my daughters wanted to go jump on the trampoline yesterday and I was like sure let’s go outside we went out there for about 5 minutes I said let’s go back inside it was so hot yesterday and my house was like 76° and myir my air conditioner was working you know how it works with a one-year-old you kind of have to do what they say there’s not really no man there’s no telling them no they tell you know you’s got to distract them with something else and Luca’s number one priority at all times is how quickly can I get back outside how quickly can I get back outside which was fine over the last few months oh yeah and as of yesterday is no longer fun it is no longer fun the good part is I have a three and a two-year-old who can like verbalize how they’re feeling and both of them said Daddy it’s hot and so they’re like yeah let’s go inside the problem problem is we’ve got like a water table that they always want to play with they’ve got the pool yeah and it’s like God brutal so uh tomorrow I’ve got a half marathon so that’s my plan and you’re saying my idea of going to golf was dumb at least I stand and sit in a golf cart you’re going to run if anybody is uh running in the love to run St Charles half marathon tomorrow come BYO I’ll be thinking of all you guys while you’re sweating and being miserable I’m hoping to pce at roughly a 150 what time’s your run 7:30 morning mhm I ain’t gonna be up at that time I’ll be up at like 10:00 a.m. and I’ll I’m off at 8:05 so I’m getting the golf in early I’ll be done between 9: and 9:30 I’ll still be uh dreaming because I’ll still be sleeping about 10 11 a.m. about must be nice to be young I don’t know the last time I slept all that time all right 3143 99 9646 is the year Comfort Service text line for ask us anything uh guys crazy hypothetical but what would the blues package look like to get them kachuck Chan and the seventh overall pick oh my god um there is no one neighbors B navic dorki and the 16th overall pick and probably K and probably no probably Hofer cuz they want a Bennington yeah that ain’t happening you can have one of those three I like your aggression though you can have one of those three uh from the 314 BL Alex any interest in uh Patrick l hell no no talking about a locker room problem yeah I was gonna say I mean this is a guy that has now been shipped around I think it’s this would be the third team that he gets traded to and I know he was having some off I problems with the Columbus Blue Jackets last season so I’m not trying to downplay that uh but uh he’s not what he was in his first couple of years in Winnipeg now he’s like a 20 goal scorer maybe 30 goal scorer that’s if he stays healthy all season and people are complaining about Jordan kyou there are just certain players I don’t want yeah there are certain guys that I don’t view as winning hockey players or winning whatever sport it is players he’s not one of them I I don’t want him I’m noted if you’re up James Harden of hockey if fans are upset about Kyra not playing defense and lack of scoring 40 goals you’re going to be really pissed off about Patrick l from the 386 what is your favorite thing to grill and what are you planning to grill this weekend if anything Alex are you grilling this weekend um no so I think we’re going out actually for both days but typically it’s either pork steaks or I’m big into briskets these days they take a long time but I’m big into doing the smoke no smoking it yeah I don’t have a grill anymore it’s a smoker really you got I got rid of the grill and I just do the smoker I’m a charcoal grill guy Stalter hates me why he doesn’t like charcoal grill guy well it’s it’s pointless to do a Charco girl oh I like you’re wasting all of your time what do you mean yeah you need to just turn the propane on and get bad boy it is nice to get it going but I I like the charcoal grow better I do the smoker and that’s why it’s the wood do whatever suits you I don’t care what you do one’s dumb and one’s right whatever makes you happy grilling wise cool do that I like the charcoal grill I think it’s fun um tone you’re invited over man to have some brisket thanks man yeah that sounds good I wish I had a smoke I know you’re having issues so I uh I’m playing the Gill of steak tonight what kind of steak is a real question I don’t really know I just bought it at schnu I’m not grilling you know won’t let me Grill we’re going over here he still won’t let you grill man he’s not letting man you even have his grandchild and he won’t let you grill Luka is more likely to be allowed to grill as a one-year-old on Keith’s Grill than I am as a1y old be great if Grandma and Grandpa had like a little play Grill and they’re like here you go Luca and then BK’s like can I grill no go back in the house go play with Luka Luca tells me know his pH like all right go make the potato salad uh somebody else on the text line said Happy Father’s Day gu guys love listening to the show thank you you thank you how do you celebrate Father’s Day T I have to go get a gift for my father that’s how you know we you have two fathers on the show with you that you could get gifts for you’re not my dad Alex what do you want for Father’s Day like car ask yeah car asked me the other day and I was like can we just like go out to dinner yeah this is this is the first Father’s Day because Katie’s parents are divorced so there’s two different dads we go see and then of course my dad and so this is the first Father’s Day that we actually have spread it out so we’re celebrating father ‘s day with my dad on Saturday and then we’re celebrating with her dad’s on Sunday evening so then I have all of Sunday and she goes what do you want to do and I said honestly I want to cut the grass I want to sit in the pool and I want to take a nap don’t buy me a gift just give me that that actually makes all the sense in the world I could even do that on Sunday and I’m not a father there you go man well not cut the grass I don’t think my apartment complex will give you come over and cut mine then I don’t have to do that then I could just sit in the pool and sleep all right last thing here from the 314 guys K Rosenthal mentioned Alex Cor a potential option for the Cardinals as a manager assuming that he’s not with Boston after this year thoughts on that potential fit I’ll say this if Heim Bloom is their plan to be the next president of baseball operations here in St Louis Alex cor will not be an option as a manager no chance why is that man well one of them is unemployed currently the other is still in Boston I think the two are related yeah it wasn’t exactly a state secret that the two didn’t get along like Alex Coral wanted more power and he wanted to win and he Bon was stuck in the middle figure out figure out how to get him out of the middle I think he’s I think I don’t think that would be a good fit I I don’t either I I think it’s more likely he ends up taking a front office role than it is that he ends up being a manager somewhere next year he does the Brad Stevens yeah Rosen mentioned the Dodgers if they fizzle out if they move on but I even if they fizzle out I don’t think you’re moving on from Dave Roberts to go to Alex cor that seems like a downgrade to me so somebody asked me about this it was actually Josh and asked me about this the other day he said um who is who’s the the manager the Cardinals could hire that immediately comes in and has like real poll to a man and what I mean by that is like the fan base is like super energized by this this proven manager like a tlr right The Proven manager that comes in with name recognition gravit like who is that guy that they could hire is Alex did does Alex cor reach that level because he won a World Series but I don’t know that he necessarily has like I think he reaches that level but I think people are aren’t I think they they’re not as as excited once they actually see the product with your team I think once you put him on a roster like this you realize that there’s not much there I think Dave Roberts would be the only one playoffs once in the last six seasons just hard for me to be like that’s the guy and then he’s every other year he’s been 20 games out I think it’s Dave Roberts would be the only one and maybe Terry Fran cona but I don’t even know I think I don’t think this fan base would be super excited about Dave Roberts yeah I don’t think they would either I I not sure how excited they’d be about Alex k i because I think cor is kind of an overrated manager it probably would be yti Albert um yeah does it have to be a former Cardinal is that what we’re getting at here probably skip would get a lot of excitement um yeah yti would get it Albert would get it skip would get it I’m trying to think there’s anybody other big names that would be like man like Madden would get it if he got hired I think he would I think there would be a certain segment of the fan base that would celebrate that in a certain segment that would be like really I think people would be excited about core off of name recognition of loan but like I said once you see it I think you’re going to be really you’re going to feel really like wanting more at that point I think that’s the case for any of these managers if I’m just being totally honest yeah because if your roster sucks the manager’s not going to do anything with it product of the roster that is at their disposal I think a lot of them would like the actual games that the management would feel very similar to what you’re seeing right now with with Oli but the difference would be the name the guy that is in charge and the bigger difference would be Mo’s not the one in charge I I think people would view Oli a lot differently If instead of Mo being the one that hired him if it was hey when they fired shil they cleaned house and mo was gone schilt was gone and they hired I don’t know who whoever the next guy is let’s call it h Bloom at the time right just like that that’s who they put in place here in St Louis and if Heim Bloom then hired OE marmel I think there would be a very different feeling around what Olli is I think people view OE as a puppet of Mo right or wrong I don’t think it’s correct but I think there was a lot with how he was hired and who hired him that immed immediately bled into I don’t like this guy there’s nothing he can do that makes me like him unless he goes out there and wins a World Series and that’s what it would take for a lot of Cardinal fans all right coming up next are the Cardinals being overly Reliant right now on players that are expected to return from the injured list over the course of the next year some next month excuse me some interesting comments from John moso to kti woo that we’ll dive into next year on 101 ESPN e e e e e e e so Katie Woo had a piece up just a little bit ago on the athletic in a conversation she had with John moso about the roster about the trade deadline and about their plans between now and then with Alex and tone and I’m BK thought his comments in this Alex were interesting they revealed a little bit about the Cardinals current plan and where they see themselves he essentially said hey I think this team can still win I believe in this roster we need to get guys back from the injured list though before we can really make any decisions as to what we need to be able to add to this roster Katie said Katie writes in the article several injured Cardinals including contras Newar matz gagos O’Brien and Robertson are slated to return before June comes to a close Ed mid might not be far behind that group of six players the hope is the return of those players all of whom were pinned as impact players coming into the spring will boost the roster heading into the All-Star break and eventually the trade deadline then moso and his front office can act accordingly she then has this quote from John moso quote the trade deadline is still in six weeks it’s six weeks away directionally what we do or try to do between now and then we’re still open to ideas and thinking through some things but the reality is we have to get our team back on the field end quote Alex when you hear that you read that and that was kind of the theme of the entire piece you should go check out the entirety of it on the athletic it’s Katie Woo’s latest piece over there with John mosa good work by her to get this exclusive interview are the Cardinals too reliant right now in your opinion on getting guys back from the injured list uh yes and no I mean I under I can’t knock Mo for what he’s saying and I know a lot of people are frustrated with it but I mean in his position I’m not going to start selling off pieces of my farm system to go upgrade if I don’t know what this team looks like we do this all the time with teams to where if you don’t believe that they’re a team that can really do damage then don’t make trades just to make trades we all believe that they need to upgrade certain areas so on one hand I can’t understand where Mo’s coming from like look if I can’t judge this team off of being aggressive at the trade deadline unless I know what this team actually looks like and when contras when Nar is back those are really the guys that I feel like we’re talking most about I know Edmond and Matts and gyos are expected to be impact players but I don’t think they’re to the level of what contus and Nar are unless you get them back if I’m a president of baseball operations I’m not going to start talking about being aggressive at the trade deadline because I could get these guys back and my team still stinks and do I really want to make moves so on one hand I understand that but on the flip side of it like you’re you’re in a position where your team is keeping their head above water and if I’m a president of baseball operations and I’m looking at my team what else am I supposed to be told by a roster that is depleted with injuries that is still staying in this race I can’t sit here and say well I tell you what guys we’ll make a decision once we get a couple of weeks away from the trade deadline once guys are healthy I think you have to be aggressive at some point and say Let’s Make a Move yeah I I think they’re too over alied on this thought that when these guys get back that it’s going to make them A Better Baseball team because first off I’ll start on the pitching side on the pitching side those Bullpen arms of Robertson and O’Brien I’m not even sure they’re here you know I I think they’re probably in the minor leagues because of what we talked about earlier how good this Bullpen is Gio’s the only guy that’s going to be here and that’s just because he doesn’t have options to go down to Triple A you look at Steven matz he wasn’t very good as a number five starter when he was healthy so why should I believe that the number five spot suddenly is fixed and then I look at the lineup and Tommy Ed’s been out all season long so maybe he provides a little bit of a boost but he’s not a great offensive player he just adds maybe a League average center fielder which would be helpful to this team that could be a right-handed bat against lefties but even with contras and Newar when they had them in the lineup just went and looked to see and Newar missed the beginning of the season but it still is telling to me that up until conus got hurt they had played 35 games and the Cardinals had the second worst or second least amount of runs scored in baseball so that that right there just tells me okay even when you had contr even when you had Nar you still weren’t scoring you still weren’t a good offensive team and yes I understand in the first month Paul goldi went through an unbelievably bad stretch no Nana wasn’t hitting for power well he’s still not hitting for power yes Paul goldbit is playing better and some of the pieces are looking better of late but they’re still one of the worst offensive teams in baseball in terms of run scored so their thought process of when we get contr a new bar back the offense is going to take off we’re going to be healthy we’re going to be ready to go along with Tomy edman I’m just not buying it because I haven’t seen it this season from the offense as a whole so I think they are too overly reliant on that these guys are going to come back and really prop them up I just don’t think they can fix the offense this season I’m glad you mentioned the offense and not the pitching because I think that they are not over overly reliant on guys coming back when it comes to the pitching side of things if they believe that Matts is close and it sounds like he probably needs like two more rehab starts to be able to get himself at a place where he can pitch at the major league level again as a starter because he’ll have the length uh at that point I I think they should be okay if you get mattz and at least one of Gio or obrien in another Bullpen capacity they’ll replace lehy on your roster I think there’s a decent chance it it ends up being Gio and they try him out at first they put Brian down in triaa and if Gio’s good if he’s good to go great if not eventually Gio might get DFA that that has to be at least in their conversations in their thought process and then that guy gets replaced by Riley O’Brien eventually we’re talking about the last spot in your Bullpen though that that’s what we’re really breaking down here because every other guy I don’t want to remove from the roster right now Bullpen wise see my push back though on the pitching would be you know what your hole is and stepen matz isn’t making that any better he could though for you know another month I don’t think you have to though I agree but that’s what I’m talking about is like they’re waiting to get these guys back to make a move I don’t think they need to have urgency to go get that number two I think it’s okay to wait for the trade deadline to get that guy you don’t need to overspend to get it now there’s not necessarily A need to do that I agree with that but I’m not going to learn anything about my rotation with Stephen mats coming back I know I have a lot of dudes who are four FES I got Michaels who when he’s great he’s a three my problem is the two and Stephen Matts is not making that any better I agree and I think uh Mo probably agrees with that as well uh and he’s just got to find out okay where where are we at record-wise how much investment is worthwhile for this team and then they’ll decide is it best for us to get a number five to replace Steven mats or a number two to replace Steven mats we all know they’re probably going to go somewhere in the middle get a four is probably the way that they’re going to go about it winning the the lineup part though I think is far more compelling because I do think they are overly reliant on getting guys back in that regard because I don’t know how much you’re going to learn about them and these are significant injuries they’re coming back from man like Wilson contras might come back and not be the hitter that he was at the beginning of the season and if that’s the case that’s concerning and you can’t just say he’s eventually going to get it back I don’t know if or when Tommy Edmond is going to come back and I certainly don’t know if or when he’s going to come back at 100% capacity it’d be nice to have him as your starting center fields are right now but I don’t know if I can count on that by any stretch of the imagination Lars Newar okay he’s going to come back but how long for and what version of L new bar are we getting when he returns I can’t just automatically expect he’s going to be out there ready to go and be good for us for the rest of the season if I’m in John MOS lock spot because that hasn’t been his history he is somebody that is very injury-prone at this point in his career it’s fair to label him as such and your bench still stinks yeah even when you do get all of these guys back your bench will still include Brandon Crawford and Matt Carpenter and for just being totally candid those guys are not players that you want coming in and getting significant at bats and high leverage situations and that’s what you’re going to be asking of them potentially so are they overly reliant on players returning from the injured list on the pitching side of things to to make an urgent move I don’t think so I I think they can wait to the deadline and be able to see that thing through on the hitting side of things I do I think they are overly Reliant right now on guys that are coming back from the injured list and realistically even when these guys come back to to what you were saying you’re not going to these guys aren’t going to be at 100% Health until probably post trade deadline I mean you’re talking about significant inuries to Wilson contras and Tommy Edmond it’s going to take a few weeks to get your timing back and get back to that Comfort level to where you’re an impact bat and like you said with Newar I can’t rely on him being an everyday piece for me of being an impact bat because he’s so inconsistent so I mean I can sit here and rely upon these guys and say well I need to see how good the team is when they’re at full health you’re not going to be at full health until most likely post trade deadline and when you sit on your hands that long and say I want to see what it looks like you end up with what typically trade deadlines look like for the Cardinals and we also know that even then there’s going to be somebody new that gets hurt like we know how this works with baseball when they get these guys back somebody else is going to go on the injured list like yesterday they they avoided disaster with Nolan arnado it was totally possible that like they they went and got x-rays for his hand when he got hit on the hand from that pitch if that came back as he has a break in his hand well now he’s done for the next couple of months and especially with a hand injury like that he might not have power the rest of the season like that even if he he was starting to get his swing back on track well that might be the thing that that puts it off for the rest of the season so it it’s just always something that you got to watch out for is you can’t you can’t plan for your entire roster to be healthy the rest of the season if that is your plan you’re going about it wrong because it’s not going to happen nobody in baseball right now you look at their rosters nobody has 100% of what they expected to coming into the season it’s just not the way the baseball works man so I I think they’re doing okay on the pitching side of things this Bullpen is legit they are deep they’ve got guys left and right that can come in in basically any situ you’ve got length you’ve got uh ground ball guys you’ve got strikeout guys you’ve got everything the rotation needs an upgrade but I don’t know if it’s as urgent as we once felt that it was because Andre Palante has filled in admirably for the most part on the hitting side of things they need bench bats they need right-handed bench bats and there’s no way of getting around that and I don’t think that’s going to change at any point in the next six weeks no matter who is healthy so that is the one place where I would disagree with John moso’s characteriz characterization in a significant way with Alex and T-Bone I’m BK coming up in about 15 minutes or so yesterday interesting decision by the Cardinals with Lance Lyn decided to take him out in the fifth inning because he was starting to lose it it ended up working out are they utilizing him the right way right now was that the right call yesterday we’ll get into that in 15 minutes NFL quick hitters is next here on 101 ESPN e e e e e e e e with Alex Ando and I’m BK got BK and ferrario here on 101 ESPN Alex there was another contract that was signed yesterday in the NFL and another one that I don’t think you’re going to like it was a 5-year deal worth $275 million it has $200 million in full guaranteed money stupid and it went to the gentleman that goes by the name Trevor Lawrence the quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars we’ve been wondering when this was going to get done and it is officially confirmed that he’s going to be the second highest paid player in the NFL behind only Joe burrow Alex what was your reaction when you saw this news yesterday I mean they had to do it because this is this is the franchise that is a lot of money to give to an average Quarterback and honestly a quarterback and I get I know that rebuttal is going to be as he was he had a bad team around him trending in the wrong direction like you went from a really good season in 2022 to 21 touchdowns and 14 interceptions last season where they like put money into their offense that’s trending in the opposite direction of a guy that you need to win with pretty much right now before all of the money starts taking up the cap so uh congrats Jacksonville you’re going to be an average team for the rest of his career I understand they don’t have a great Supporting Cast around him but 46 touchdowns 22 interceptions over the past two seasons like am I supposed to be overwhelmed by that no am I supposed to look at that and say like that is the guy capital D capital T capital G and he’s got a good coach now at least a solid coach whatever you think of Doug Peterson I think he’s a solid offensive line a coach I couldn’t say that in his rookie season his rookie season was a disaster Urban Meyer never should have been in charge of that team last couple of years though I I don’t know man I think I think Trevor Lawrence is fine I think he’s fine and he goes about it in a different way than like Jared gof but I think he kind of fit he’s going to end up fitting into kind of a similar spot in the range of NFL quarterbacks he’s probably the 12th to 15th best guy in the league right now somewhere in that range I don’t want to be paying that guy $55 million a year to be a above average guy I think you’re the third you have to but I don’t want to I think you’re the third best team in the AFC South and you’re paying your quarterback $55 million that’s a problem that is a massive problem and you’re never to me the question though is like what do you do like okay no I know again you had to do it this is the guy you banked on there will come a point in time though where a team says no A team’s going to have to eventually say this guy’s not good enough for him to us to pay him long you know who it’s going to have to be a Young quarterback Miami well that but I don’t think it Dallas but I’m talking about for a young guy a young guy comes in and you’re like okay we we invested heavily in him and that’s part of this with Trevor Lawrence is he was the number one pick he’s their guy like you have built this around him you got to keep it going right but we’ve seen it I think Dak is going to be one of those guys we’ve seen it with Kirk Cousins now he was somebody that was good for the Minnesota Vikings but they decided it was time to start new because he’s getting older I will be very curious to see who the first team is that says thanks but no thanks we can’t do the long-term 50 plus million doll deal you said he’s the second highest quarterback now paid he’s the seventh best quarterback in my opinion in the AFC yeah and that is is why you will not be a playoff team with Trevor Lawrence Josh Allen yeah I’m guessing you’re going Aaron Rogers above him uh Lamar yep Joe burrow yep CJ stad yep Patrick Mahomes and have Justin Herbert e oh yeah eth okay yeah eth I must have missed one so the exact midpoint yeah the primary not $55 million and you asked like what’s the biggest takeaway from this contract like I can’t call it a mistake because they had to do it but what it tells me is the NFL’s got to get to a midpoint for these quarterback contracts there’s got to be that middle tier and right now it’s not right now it’s just the hey when your contracts do if you want to be the quarterback guess what you get to go right up to the top in the pay scale they’ve got to establish but how like it’s what you’re saying of teams have got to just move on from these guys but if they do Trevor Lawrence would have been the highest paid quarterback in the NFL from somebody else if if the Jaguars decided not to do it then the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Tennessee Titans or the Denver Broncos or the New York Giants or the you know like one of these other teams would have made them him the highest because they’re desperate they’re desperate for hope they’re desperate to believe this is the guy the Atlanta Falcons just showed us this I think her cousins is similar if not maybe a little worse than Trevor Lawrence and he’s older and he got this kind of a deal if you’re Minnesota and let’s say the off season played out where Jacksonville said no not paying him the money as a free agent if I’m Minnesota I’m paying all of probably paying that cont for Trevor Lawrence and spending my draft pick elsewhere because uh I mean this draft wasn’t very sexy so I mean that’s the problem more than anything teams are just desperate to the point where they’re not willing to say no to these guys so there’s always going to be well he’s the next highest paid quarterback he’s the next two is absolutely going to get paid this money I think the way that it changes and it would be hard but it would be a team like Jacksonville or Miami who’s going to be making two of the highest paid quarterback here soon probably moves on from the quarterback and then they find success with something else and the other team flops by giving them the contract that’s what it takes but I don’t know who’s going to be willing to do that there are 14 quarterbacks in the NFL making $40 million or more right now on an aav basis 14 of things and I got to be honest he’s probably lower than all of those quarterbacks uh the names are Joe burrow Jared gof Justin Herbert Lamar Jaylen Herz Kyler Deshawn okay momes Kurt Cousins Josh Allen Dak Prescott Matt Stafford and Daniel Jones I think there’s like three guys I would take Trevor Lawrence above Jones really Daniel Jones that is the one that should have they should have been the team that said this is good it’s not good enough good thing uh Drew Lock’s the leading candidate in that Clubhouse it’s crazy uh the the only guys that have that are veterans that have signed long-term extensions that don’t fit into that criteria are Baker Mayfield Gino Smith and technically you could add Jordan love but he wasn’t a veteran at the time when he signed it it was before he had started any games so it’s really just Baker Mayfield and Gino those are the only two guys that are in that middle tier and they’re making 33 and $25 million what about dere Carr where was he at uh he’s at 30 I guess he fits into this too 375 but he’s right below he’s basically okay but like that’s the that’s the conversation that Trevor lawren should be in agreed and Jacksonville screwed up now your roster is going to be solely predicated on your quarterback and I think your quarterback is average all right so I saw somebody ask this on Twitter I want to get your thoughts on it if you were starting a team today and I told you you can’t have Patrick Mahomes he’s ineligible for this answer you’re going with a quarterback you’re taking into account age and contract who are you starting that team with today Alex easy answer CJ strad to me by the end of this upcoming season I think we’re going to be talking about him being the second best quarterback in the NFL I think I’m with him I I think it’s CJ strout you got him on the rookie deal sleeping it we’re all in the same page here EAS who would be second on that list for you like if it’s not CJ strad who’s the next guy is it weird that I would probably say Caleb Williams I think he’s in the conversation he was somebody that I took under consideration Jen Daniels might be too you know who mine would be Jordan love nope Richardson although I love Jordan love you know how much I enjoy him I think he’s going to be the next highest paid quarterback in the league here in the not too distant future to the Richardson Josh Allen Josh Allen would be the next guy that I would go with if I have that dude I’m I’m contending I’m contending but I don’t know if I’m getting over the top I mean I I’ve got to get over the hump of Patrick Mahomes so it’s not easy to do that but Josh Allen gives me the best chance to do it I think that this season is going to sway that answer in one way or the other I would have gone Joe burrow if not for the injuries Joe burrow would have been my other answer but the the injuries just legitimately scare me at this point I do think this season people are going to side more on BK’s angle with Josh Allen if he has success and we find out that Stefan digs really was the problem but man if that team takes a massive step backwards and they’re saying that this is Josh Allen’s team and that’s how we’re going to win everybody’s jumping off of that crazy how quickly these Elite quarterbacks their contracts become values he is now the 11th highest paid quarterback in the NFL on a perear basis Patrick Mahomes is ninth so I can’t wait for Dak Prescott to make $65 million and be average also sucks as I know Stafford getting paid soon yep it’s coming his arm if your team whoever you’re a fan of if your team has a good quarterback forget Elite if they are good they will very soon be making $55 million or more how much would Brock P going if getting paid $55 million good God man oh Brock pie is going to get the Jared goof deal if I’m Brock P’s agent I will not settle for a a penny less than what the Lions just paid Jared gof and that is $53 million a year $212 million coming my way and if I’m San Francisco I’m more accomplished than that guy if I’m San Francisco go take a height I’ll find the next Brock pie yeah I’m F they will be interesting to see because I I think his ceiling is very limited and their pieces are going to start to a age and B start to disappear what do you do with Brock party and if there was one team that I think would try try and do the formula of let’s move on and try and find something else it would be San Fran can you imagine if San Fran next offseason said oh dak’s available we’re going to have to give Brock pie the contract and we think dak’s a better player we’ll go ahead and give it to deck and I think he’s a better quarterback and anybody can work in the Shanahan system that that’s where it’s going to be fascinating to see what they do I don’t know what if suddenly view Dak as a winner by the way if Dak wins to San Francisco that dude is doing a lot of winning in that system he’d get to a Super Bowl man he he would and that’s the thing that’s interesting with per is py can argue hey I’m a winning quarterback and I’ve gotten you to two was it two Super Bowls or two at least two NFC championship games he’s he’s a good player yeah but he’s better like you put him on Jacksonville Jacksonville has a below 500 record than like what Lawrence is that is Tanner Hendrickson he’s Alex ferrario and I’m Brandon Kylie coming up at 15 minutes we’re diving into the junk dra but next are the Cardinals utilizing Lance Lynn the way that he should be yesterday didn’t even get through five innings partly due to his own making and partly due to a managerial decision to pull him out of the game we’ll let you hear what olly marmal had to say about that decision after the game yesterday and give you some of our thoughts on the Lance Lin experience so far coming up next year on 101 ESPN e e e e e e e e ter Hendricks near the sports center update Dr by Johnny LOL shev and Johnny lond autolex Cardinals beat the Pirates yesterday four to three as they take two of three from Pittsburgh and they start a three- game set at the Chicago Cubs here in just about 40 minutes 120 will be first pitched Kyle Gibson will be on the mound for the St Louis Cardinal and tonight here on 101 ESPN game four the NBA Finals as the Boston Celtics look to sweep the Dallas Mavericks well pregame coverage starting at 6:30 this sports update d by Johnny lond Sher Johnny L Autoplex see them at l.com Chevy together we drive are you kidding me so the Cardinals had an interesting decision yesterday Alex they’re in the fifth inning lanin is on the mound he walks the lead off hitter then there’s a single then there’s another walk he’s got the bases loaded gets a swinging strike out and then Reynolds hits an in field single that ends up literally hitting Lance Lynn he ends up uh scoring a run on that everybody’s safe and so now you have the bases loaded with just the one out and you’ve got to find a way to get out of this thing what do you do that was the decision that was faced with olly marmal yesterday and his decision was to pull Lance Lynn in that spot he decided you know what it’s best for us to go to the bullpen to try to get Cruz out a lefty with our left hand Ed pitcher and John King it didn’t work that he ended up hitting an RBI single in that spot and they have they have to get out of it on the next that bat Al Varys ends up grounding into a double play it’s a tie ball game at the time when they pulled Lance Lynn they were up three to one they end up leaving the inning tied three to three here’s what olly marmal said after the game about that decision it worked out and our pend at a nice job I’m being completely honest I wish I would have let him work through it and see what that looked like I feel like he could have walked off the mound himself the score still in our favor but I don’t mind the matchup of a high ground ball guy and King getting trying to get the double play against Cruz there but that’s a that’s a spot where I can there’s an argument for letting them work through it I think it was smart I think they’re handling Lance Lynn the right way Alex I know people immediately when they signed Lance ly they were like Innings eater Innings eater no Kyle Gibson’s the Innings eater Lance ly is the guy that gives you a five and dive Lance ly is a prototypical five and dive pitcher at this point the problem for the Cardinals is the last three starts he hasn’t been able to get through five he’s got four four and four and a third so that’s frustrating but in his last five starts Alex Lance Lynn quietly has a 2.96 ER opposing hitters are batting 211 against him he has given the Cardinals quality even while he’s not giving them quantity of innings so yesterday he clearly had lost it and we’ve seen this from him in the past where suddenly it blows up in an inning don’t allow that to happen go to your Bullpen which has been really good this season get out of the inning go to the Lefty Lefty matchup try to get that ground ball double play it didn’t work but it was the right call in my opinion I think that he’s managing Lance Lyn the correct way even if it results in him not giving you as much depth as many were hoping for or expecting from him this season yeah I mean I can’t deny that because you’re finding ways to have success with it you’re just you’re managing him the right way but he’s not the player that you signed him to be and I understand that they are having success but like you said he was a five and dive guy that you were hoping for in these last three you haven’t even gotten to that point and the the part that you signed him and you paid him 13 or $1 million $12 million I think it was to be that five and dive guy and again you’re having success with it right now but I just feel like that you could have probably spent that money for somebody with more upside in the off season maybe but were they going to be able to give you the starts because we talked to Michael gers on opening day and he said I think people have made a little too much about the Innings eaters it’s about starts they needed guys that could come in and they could count on to start game one all the way to game 162 because we’ve seen it with with Steven matz going down I think what he said makes even more sense they don’t have depth dude imagine if they had signed that upside starter that you’re talking about maybe it’s a Louis srino somebody like that who similar in terms of the range of contracts that they were looking for went into the offseason one has upside the other has more certainty and the Cardinals were clearly shopping in the certainty basket this offseason if now srino has been good but let’s say that it and it could have gone this way it went the other direction he gives you two two or three really good starts and then goes on the I so now you’ve got Steven matz and Luis seino on the injured list and you’re trying to replace two spots in your rotation right now with guys from your minor leagues I don’t think the Cardinals could have handled that you would have probably Matthew Liberator and Andre Palante starting games for you right now that’d be a disaster dude so I I understand that this is not the Quant quantity of innings that people were expecting from Lance Len last year 17 of his 32 starts wi at least six Innings he’s not going to get there this year most likely um it’s just not going to be the the number of innings that we we all had hoped him starting 30 Games is what they need that that is the number one priority for them this season I know yes that is absolutely lowering the bar to clear I get it Cardinals fans I’m not telling you that you should settle for this or that you should have been happy about this but this is what they needed clearly because they screwed up so so badly with their talent pipeline through the minor league system that they needed a guy that could go out there and they could count on to get 32 starts that’s what Lance Lynn has given them so far this season and that’s why I can’t deny it I mean he’s giving them what they need right now yeah he’s giving them what they need and you can get away with him being the five and dive guy along as those Innings eaters are Sunny gray Kyle Gibson miles michelas I mean why were they set up so well to where they could just deploy the bullpen at will yesterday and not have to worry about oh should we stick with Lance Lin here see if he can wiggle out of this it’s cuz I got four qual starts in a row and because of that you’ve got a fresher pin you can go to those guys you don’t really care about the five and dive where you will start to get in trouble with the five and dive or in this case the four in dive from Lance Lynn is if Sunny gray doesn’t eat his Innings if miles Michaels doesn’t if Kyle Gibson has like a blowup game for some reason that’s when you start to see the trickle down effect and that’s why yesterday was such a success was because the bullpen fresher because the other guys did their job on turn you saw yesterday the value of Sunny gray giving you Innings yeah that’s what it was because Sunny gray gave you seven instead of five five and a third whatever it’s been recently and so then all you have to use is kitridge and Helly boom close out the game yeah Hy’s unavailable because he had uh gone out there two straight days but otherwise your entire Bullpen was essentially available to you yesterday and the other thing that we talked about in the open that has changed from previous Seasons I just I trust the guys that they’re going to I trust John King to get out of that spot no there’s not a lot of swing and Miss there but he’s going to be on the ground and you’ve got a really good infield defense right now for the most part Chris CS dude this guy’s awesome High leverage arm he’s throwing 98 he is big as hell and he’s got a wipe out slider like I I trust that guy Ryan Fernandez hot damn dude he started chewing gum and he’s striking out the side like I don’t know where this came from but all right I’m here for it you look at the eras of the of the pitchers that were out there for them yesterday in the bullpen 15 31 26 36 and that 36 is Andrew freaking kitridge who’s been awesome for the entirety of this season actually his middle name and I didn’t mention Matthew Liberator whose uh ER is inflated because he had to start a few games but on the season it’s still a 4-3 despite being a bad starter for them for a couple of weeks so I just I think that’s a part of this as well Sunny gay giving them seven big part of it the bullpen having more arms that you can go to that you trust big part of that I thought it was the right call yesterday I know OE second guessed it but I thought it was the right decision there’s one other thing that all said postgame that I want to get to here Alex T-Bone mentioned this before the show Cardinals are winning a bunch of close games they’re playing a bunch of close games but they’re also winning a lot of them here’s what Oli marmal had to say about the value of that yesterday it makes you better for when it matters I mean you think about all the games we’ve played and they are a lot of one two three run ball games and um I mean we’re up there in the league either first or second in doing that um but it allows you to learn how to play in close games and when you go down the stretch that’s what matters and your ability as a team to not panic when you’re down one or down two or you have to hold the one-run lead from the fifth Inning on I think it it does build character and I think we will benefit from that here over the next several months Alex what do you make of the Cardinals and their ability to to win these games that are close so far this year the Cardinals on the season have played 48 three-run games so it decided by three runs one way or the other win or loss uh only Chicago has played more close games so far this year uh they are on the season 26 and 22 when the game is decided by three runs or fewer what what do you make of that I agree with them I think those are really good weapons to have in your Arsenal one the ability to come from behind and two hold on to leads I think those are two weapons that are desperate to teams that want to have success in September and October so he’s right there I just personally believe the Cardinals have relied too much on that and they don’t have the ability to just blow out in an opponent they’ve relied all season on those one-run games or when they’re down because their offense isn’t hitting that they’ve had to come from behind and as great as of a weapon as that is it’s also exhausting to play for 6 months and by the time you get to September if you’ve been unable to use the let’s blow out the opponent here and not have to use these certain guys and give them a couple of days off those guys are going to be exhausted to that point and you could your higher possibility of breaking once you get deeper into the season so it’s a great weapon to have but man that could bite you also and the Cardinal’s 48 games decided ton I want to hear your thoughts on this decided by three runs or fewer the Cardinals have had a slugging percentage in those individual games above 400 which is not a high bar to clear guys slugging percentage above 45 of them that’s the thing they’re not slugging their way through these games that are close and that’s why they’re playing so many of them yes I do agree with olly this could pay dividends down the road it’s frustrating to watch though man because the other the downside of it is you’re having to use your high leverage arms all the time and every inning feels like a stress inning every single one of them you’re never just watching a Cardinals game and able to do stuff on the side you’re always like damn this could be the inning that it gets away from them because they’re always close late in games so and that’s kind of where I was going to go was it’s weird because like yes I do think this is inherently a good thing you know like I I do think teams need to have some sort of adversity that is whether it be playing close games or having to come from behind you need that kind of lesson to learn in the regular season for the postseason the weird thing is is like I feel really good about that Bullpen when it comes to these close games both whether it is you got to use the lower leverage arm like they did yesterday to bridge your way to the high leverage arm and kitridge but the weird thing is it’s like I don’t feel good about the offense in the close games you know and it’s not so much that they’re not blowing people out it’s the runners in scoring position you know they they seem to like short circuit when they’ve got a chance to have somebody on where okay second and third we’re down by two do the Cardinals come through half the time I’m sitting down watching the Cardinal game going ah crap here we go again we’re going to blow another opportunity always feels like canani or P like those guys that are at the bottom of the order Crawford it always feels like the guys at the bottom of the order the ones that are coming up in those really high leverage situations and it’s either go to them or go to your bench and I don’t feel comfortable with either of those options so that’s when it was tied yesterday I’m like oh cool so this one’s going to get decided in the 10th inning because I didn’t expect the Cardinals to score any more runs and they found a way they found a way to be able to singled them to death no no we HED yesterday one was a wall scra one was a wall scraper that’s what I did in softball Brendon Donovan by the way heating up he’s looked a lot better of late Brendan Donovan is a winning baseball player player and if you just give him a little bit of time over the course of the Season he’s going to put up some numbers that you’re really confident in hell yeah guess that was a T-bone three also wasn’t it no it wasn’t actually no might I’m telling you the T-bone three might go three for three this year I think he might hit 15 home runs this year Donnie what’s he yeah and I I think I saw his hard hit rates up again got almost 100 games remaining in the season he’s on Pace right now for 12 I could see him getting up to 15 as it starts he continues heating up soundss like a World Series Contender to me yeah all that offense he’s got 15 n’s got G’s got 40 gold 40 Goldie’s up to eight by the way put that damn conductor had on World Series end up getting to 25 this year Goldie is like secretly starting to Slug and nobody’s talking about it because again he gets roped in with arado but Goldie’s been really good of late wait till it starts to cool down just when it matters most Nolan arnado still tied with Wilson contras six how long’s it been since cont last played the baseball played 31 games and arado played in 65 contras had 107 at bats arado has 250 it’s not what you want man it’s not what you want coming up next to jum drawer here on 101 ESPN e e e e e e e e e e Alex I got some questions about what’s going on in neum Massachusetts probably nothing I’ve never heard of they had their middle school graduation last week and 10% of the eth grade class was made up with twins Yes you heard that correctly they had 23 sets of twins that graduated from an individual Middle School in Massachusetts now if you got a few sets of twins I don’t know how many twins you guys want to I ton want to school with five other people one set of twins in mine if you got a few sets of twins you got a uh got the Brady Bunch so I’m talking about in a school if you got a few set sense like I think I would stop after the first set of twins what’s going on in neum Massachusetts where they’ve got 23 sets of twins in one Community for one graduating class so they’re all the same age I’m sorry but there’s something up there we need to research project I would never go to neita Massachusetts because that’s like Children of the Corn stuff they only breed Twins and it’s creepy I’ve never heard of something that like I’ve heard of like a group of twins that’s more than a group of twins they have 450 kids in their class that’s wild so they had 46 twins as part of that group of 450 kids that graduated in 10% of the class it’s insane dude can you imagine like 10% of the people walking around day to-day in your graduating class and that’s a that’s a big class 450 kids 10% of them are brothers and sister here’s a real question they look like one another many the class in which you have to just guess and hope that you get it right that’s got to suck to be the teacher it doesn’t say specifically how many of them are identical or fraternal but I I would imagine there’s a pretty decent mix everybody has to wear a name tag in that School everybody wears an name or you’re Michael Scott and you’re putting permanent marker on him to try and make sure you know who those teachers have to be infuriated because I’m sure there are some like Cara mentioned my my wife she has a twin um in high school at one point they switched classes um just to see if they could play a trick on their teacher and the was on them well it did work unfortunately they had a pop quiz in one of their classes that day so Christie and Cara’s sister ended up having to go get Cara and be like hey that’s you need to go back to your class I’m not taking this fun story that’s how Vince Dunn became a defenseman his him and his brother are twins and they were on the same junior team and the coach mistak or mistake Vince Dunn terrible Language by me Vince Dunn was supposed to be his brother and his brother played defense and his coach didn’t know the two from each other and so Vince Dunn got placed in the defense group there was only one set of twins in my class I don’t know there probably were others that were in like my high school for example but there’s one set in my class I never knew which one witch I always get I had never talk to him not enough to know I I’d go are you uh Tori no I’m I’m what the other one was I was like a damn all right we W talk for a month never had twins in my class and like any level of Education we didn’t have I don’t I don’t recall any twins in my graduating class and we had a big I graduated with 600 kids so I in eighth grade I graduated with nine so nine kids yeah there was nine kids including myself did you go to a Catholic no it was a Lutheran school it was a parial school but yeah there were nine kids and then I went from eth grade graduation with nine kids and then I graduated Fox and I had like 750 kids it was weird think we had 200 in my class you had 200 I’m actually surprised that I don’t think we high school or high school grade school well yeah all the above like I think we prob it’s like one school small school and then once I got to high school I’m like well this is is one of the bigger ones in the area isn’t it yeah and no twins no twin well I mean probably I didn’t talk to a lot of people in high school this might surprise you I had my small group of friends and that was about it did you feel like you went to a smaller school by going to lyndenwood than by being at Fox or similar at least no lyndenwood always felt pretty big to me yeah Lynwood always kind of felt big lyndenwood felt bigger than Fox and fox was big it’s telling to me cuz I went from all the Illinois to Louis Clark I was like whoa this place wow ton thought he was at Duke he’s like whoa when I toured University of Illinois I was like oh my God this is like a spaceship Lyon wood uh 5800 was there yeah that that always felt big that’s like half the size of my hometown my hometown is 10,000 but at College there was not a lot of socializing because I think I was broadcasting almost every other night and if I wasn’t I was doing stuff doing my internships with the blues like the moment I got the college so broadcasting or going to Six Flags and throwing up on the girl that you went with that’s a story for another day coming up next I told that story didn’t I does baseball have a difficult product to sell right now we’ll talk about it here on 101 ESPN e e e e e e e e e baseball is a tough product to sell right now offense not exactly living up to the hype right now are you seeing this National League playoff race yeah even the uh incredible everybody’s in it the Atlanta Braves Who currently maintain the top wild card spot they have one player one player on their team that is 20% above League average offensively so far this season just Cherry they have one guy on their team with an Ops over 800 it’s Marcel Ozuna who has an Ops of a thousand by the way so far this year he’s has been unbelievable offensively but nobody else on their roster is hitting and they are the fourth best team in the national league right now it’s crazy what is happening so you look around the league and we think about this as a Cardinals problem right I heard the fast lane talk about this the other day is is is what we’re watching with the Cardinals is this are we frustrated because it’s a Cardinals problem or is it a baseball problem I think it’s a little bit of both but the bigger problem Major League Baseball has right now in terms of selling its product is that it’s not a very good product League wise so I was mentioned this off air to Tanner and Alex wasn’t listening so we’ll go ahead and do it on air I’ll listen now I just prefer not to listen to you for three minutes Alex I just put this together if you look at individual Seasons by a team like the team OPS dating back to 2016 the best team Ops since 2016 is the 2019 Astros because of course at 8:48 okay they they have the best individual season by any individual team in Ops okay this year the best team in major league baseball in Ops is the LA Dodgers surprise surprise once again where do you think they rank on that list of the best team ops’s in any individual season since 2016 so the last eight seasons where do you think the Dodgers would rank bottom 10 my guess 20 to 25 range Alex didn’t understand the game no I didn’t 40th they are 40th there have been 39 teams okay so bot 10 I nailed it since 16 that are better offensively than the best team from 2024 offense stinks Guys across the league nobody is hitting I saw this the other day raldo Lopez the the relief pitcher that the Braves made into a starter have you guys seen his ER on the season super low I know I it’s like 17 as a starter so far this year and you’re seeing this all over the play starting pitching is just so far ahead of anything that these teams are doing offensively it is crazy Alex are you enjoying watching this product right now no God no I’m not enjoying this product The League average for Ops has dropped below 700 by the way T-Bone mentioned like he loves old school pitching matchups and I agree like watching Paul SK and Miles Michaels go head-to-head was very fun but there’s a difference of watching pitching matchups where it’s great offense that are getting shut down than watching two crappy offenses that can’t hit either good pitching or mediocre pitching I think that was a legitimately good match that one was I props to Miles michelas because he pitched really well but I also understand that the Pirates offense sucks the Cardinals offense has been really bad this season it’s not fun it’s not fun this is the worst season for League wide average Ops since 1989 in the last 35 Seasons we have not seen an Ops this low again it’s now down to uh$ 699 prior to this you had to go back to like 2014 it was right around 700 the hope is that it as it starts to heat up again as the injuries continue to pile up you’ll see some more hitting offensively but dude what we have seen so far this year this is a bad product it’s just bad baseball that we’re watching across Major League Baseball and this is not just a reflection of the standings it’s offense the the league needs more offense and I wonder why it’s happening because you can’t just explain it by saying well look at the sliders look at the pitching yeah but that’s been the case for a while now what happened this year that that puts us in this spot I I don’t I genuinely don’t know the explanation maybe it’s pitchers adjusted to the pitch clock maybe its pitchers adjusted to the lack of a shift and so you’re going back to that I I wouldn’t think that it would be this significant in terms of how much that would set things back offensively but it is weird to see it go this far in this direction yeah and I would think it’d be better because like you’ve got the shift that was ban and you saw the uptick last year you know it’s not like you didn’t see an effect of that last year you did in a positive way for his and somehow it’s regressed back to the norm and I think I don’t know I thought it was you that told me this BK The League wide teams are now hitting the sweeper better than they did a couple years ago they’re not whiffing as much so that I would think doesn’t make much sense I don’t know I I do agree that the product is bad I I do enjoy a good old school pitching matchup like when you’ve got like two Aces that take them out but I shouldn’t be able to like look at Jordan Wicks or whatever his name is it’s starting for the Cubs today and see him throw six Innings and have a quality start like that shouldn’t be the case I I don’t know what it is but the product itself is not good and and it’s leading to this NL I say race and air quotes for the wild card spot where you’ve got all these teams below 500 it’s just not it’s not a good product it’s why I just don’t buy into the Cardinals I don’t like watching below 500 baseball teams and the part that is just so unfathomable is all the stars that you expect in the game like when I say a baseball team I can you would typically sa like for Arizona who was someone you would name for the Arizona Diamondbacks you’d say Corbin Carroll he’s terrible this year I say Chicago Cubs you’d go Cody Binger he hasn’t played well this year when he I say the Cardinals you’d say Nolan arado Paul goldi Nolan arado has not played well this year Goldie has now started to get things figured out it’s just bad and it’s a bad product when your Superstars themselves offensively are really struggling yeah it I I can’t explain it and a lot of people on the text line are saying guys it’s very simple they’re messing with the baseball again like that that’s clearly what’s happening here and it’s it’s entirely possible that ends up being the explanation for this maybe they dead into the ball and that could help to explain some of the issues for Nolan arnado for example like if you’re a severe flyball pull hitter and the ball has changed and you’re playing in a ballpark at home where it suppresses home run power for right-handed hitters in general and you you’ve entirely like your game is driven towards this one thing and the ball makes it harder to do that I could see how it would result in him not being the same player that he once was but I I don’t know I don’t think that’s the case I haven’t heard a single baseball player complain about the baseball yet and every year that happens every year it is like the pitches like when offense really took off and it was like the Home Run ball really skyrocketed what did you hear you hear pitchers complaining the baseball feels different the seams are different surely play we would be hearing player complaints publicly not just privately where reporter say according to sources no you would hear players complaining about it and I don’t see that so I don’t think that’s the case somebody else on the text line said guys could this have something to do with analytics uh You’ got to wait for this you got to pitch to that you got to don’t swing at this not swing on that another person said guys it’s a product of analytics everybody is so home run happy that is that has been the direction League wide I I just I would have thought that would have happened over the last few seasons as well if if analytics were the driving force behind this and maybe it is just a combination of a bunch of different stuff and analytics is one piece of that it it’s possible I’m open to any uh Theory right now because of how much we have seen offense nose dive in 2024 but if it was analytics that was driving this bus and going off of the cliff offensively that should have shown up at some point over the last few seasons as well because it’s not like analytics just showed up overnight and they were like ah 2024 this is the year that analytics Ru in the game no I I think a lot of people have seen analytics being implemented for the better part of the last 15 years get I think I think we’d hear players talking about that too if that was a problem of there’s too much of don’t swing at certain pitch and needs to be more free flinging from the plate I feel like we’d be hearing somebody complain about it if that was the case somebody else said guys how do you explain the Yankees this year offensively I mean Aaron judge and Juan stto yeah look at the guys that are producing for them in their ballpark it’s it really helps when you have two guys that are putting up special Seasons the way that judge and Soto are I mean we’re going to look back and we may if they continue doing what they’re doing both of them right now are hitting at least 300 with an Ops above 1,000 if they continue on that pace it will go down as one of the best onew seasons that we’ve ever seen in the history of the sport like that that is and it could happen in two different spots there and in La it’s pretty remarkable with those two teams but the third best Ops on their team is J Carlo Stanton this year at 770 like there’s a massive Gap so the their numbers are being boosted by the fact that they have two Hall of Fame level producers in the middle of their order that are hitting as well as they ever have at any point in their Major League career so that’s how I would explain the Yankees and how you explain the Dodgers is look at the middle of their lineup as well it’s being boosted by those future Hall of Famers else where guys just aren’t doing that I I can’t explain it I don’t understand it and it’s making the game harder to watch I like watching good pitching I don’t like watching guys that are overmatched by relievers I’ve never heard of that that is not good for the game overall and seeing a lack of offense a lack of action uh it’s not even necessarily the strikeouts it’s just batted balls that aren’t dropping for hits this year it’s not good for anybody and I will be curious to see as we continue along here if this is a trend and not just a blip if we end up seeing some kind of an explanation that comes out Midway through the season as to why this is happening across the sport coming up in 15 minutes 31 4399 9646 is the Air Comfort Service text line for one’s got to go you give us four options we’ll tell you which ones got to go here on BK and ferrario but next Vladimir terce enko sure seems to be finding himself a late career NHL role could David pan have a similar rooll here with the Blues next season we’ll talk about it next year on 101 ESPN e e e e e e e with Alex and Tbone and on BK Vladimir tereno seems to have found his late career role in the NHL Alex last night he ended up scoring a goal for the Florida Panthers he is the guy that contenders are going to trade for at the deadline this is who he is he’s going to consistently be a we need to add a little bit of scoring punch to our middle six who’s out there who’s available for us that we can get on a reasonable deal that’s not going to cost us an arm and a leg to add to our roster the answer is always going to be Vladimir tereno that seems to be where he’s at Alex what is it like for you as somebody that was a lifelong Blues fan and saw the beginning of Vladimir terasen CO’s career and then you saw it cresendo with him hoisting the Cup in 2019 all of the Buy in the uh the front of the video game cover like what’s it like for you to see this period of Vladimir terce anko career as a Blues fan I mean it’s it’s pretty cool to see him go on and have another shot at a Stanley Cup I know people don’t like it when former Blues go on and win because you know wishing it was still with your team feel like it’s different with vlat I feels like that two and I feel like it ended the perfect way with flatty here in St Louis to the point where everyone was so upset but then he backed it up with a 40 goal per performance and then it came down to him being traded and then you got a first round pick in return because the team was turning in the right direction it’s it’s kind of the perfect Crescendo to his career in St Louis and honestly it feels like it’s going to end the right way with Vladimir tereno because of how he’s gone on to have success but it hasn’t been like he’s gone on to be a superstar elsewhere he’s gone on to be a really good role player you saw the best years of v tereno in St Louis honestly and they’re not the same players so do not get me wrong here but it feels a lot like how the Albert pohole story felt in St Louis for the Cardinals you got all of the best years of Albert so when he went on to have success elsewhere it didn’t sting as bad as he also never got a playoff one elsewhere though very true very true but because you saw vlat being the the star he was here and he’s never really gone on to be the star for the Rangers or even with the Panthers I think that makes it a lot sweeter for blues fans I think it’s kind of cool I I’m enjoying this and I I think it’s cool that he has seemingly accepted this role and I think that’s something that for a long time was hard for vlat was to accept a role of like I’m not the Superstar on this team and now I think he’s gotten to a place I mean he had to settle for signing with Ottawa this past off that’s where I think it hit him that I need to change who I am and and when you when you have to do that as a player and you just have to eat it and you’re like okay I guess this is where I’m at you can go one of two different ways you can silk and not be happy in your role and not be happy that you have to sign with what is in most people people’s eyes a non-c contender or you can go out there and play well and get to a place where hey I’m at the deadline and now I’m going to be in a spot where other teams want me like this is It’s kind of the Tommy fam honestly he would be probably it’s different because Tommy fam wasn’t a star the way that Vladimir tereno was but fam in his late career has been able to to carve out this role of hey teams at the deadline that are contending they’re going to trade for me no matter who I sign with at the beginning of the year because I’m going to produce and teams will see it and they’ll say we need a right-handed bat who can we bring in that can fill that role ansers Tommy fam flatty’s kind of become that guy in the NHL and it’s cool to see him doing it with the Florida Panthers and being a guy that man they’ve needed him in this postseason he’s come up with some big time goals now yesterday yeah he’s just standing in front of the net so it’s not like that was some Superstar level play but he’s standing in front of the net yeah he’s buying into the stuff that for a lot of his career wasn’t necessarily front of mind for Vladimir tereno so I’ve really enjoyed seeing this version of him at this point in careers for guys you have to become a role player if you want to win a cup some guys want to go on and still be the star elsewhere and that’s why you don’t see a lot of cups for guys that go elsewhere because they want to still be the number one guy I think after that New York Rangers series to where he was traded and had an opportunity to be the guy number one power play with their stars and it didn’t work out in the playoffs I think the moment he got to Ottawa he realized that now we’re in the veteran stage of my career and it is really reminiscent of vlat going back to when he was a rookie to him playing with all of those guys where he was the rookie and the veterans took him under the wing Ottawa was the I have to be a role player I’m not the number one guy and then once he got to Florida when he realized that there was a legit shot at a Stanley Cup that’s when you fully engulf yourself into cool I’ll do whatever we need this team to do to win what do you think is next for him like has he he’s 30 he’ll be 33 years old next year has he proven enough with this Florida Panthers team and with this run that they been able to go on and what he has contributed towards it that a contender would sign him this offseason and say okay let’s slot him in on like a three-year deal few million bucks to be our third line Winger over the next few years or do you think he’s going to have to do what he did this year again where he goes to a non-c contender signs for a little bit a one-year deal and then somebody else trades for him at the deadline I think it depends on what vlat wants if I’m honest with it I think Florida probably resigns him he wants to be in Florida he’s wanted to be he’s wanted to be in Florida for a long time that’s where he works out in the offseason where a lot of those guys work out in the off season and Florida’s going to have to move out guys and put younger guys into different roles so that they can have cap space and reide certain players if I’ve got a guy who’s 33 who has been good for me and is a perfect second third line player that could play up and down the lineup I’ll resign him and he’ll probably sign for Less so vlat might have found the perfect spot to where he could play the final few years of his career and then call it a career if you’re himim there’s no point in going into another non-c Contender to get all of the money you’ve gotten the money now you stick with the team that you can win multiple championships with so another guy that I’m going to be curious about this off season and we talked about him a little bit yesterday and Alex had the benefit of being able to literally talk to him yesterday on the last minute Blues podcast with Jeremy Ral theer and Donnie Fandango the guys were able to talk with David pan former Blues forward Stanley Cup champion they did this to continue celebrating we went Blues day if you want to listen to that entire conver ation you can check it out right now 101 ESPN app the 101 espn.com website or you can check it out on YouTube because he joined them via Zoom he he was on video with the guys youtube.com 101 espnl is where you can go to find the full interview with David Pon you guys asked David Pon about how it ended in St Louis I thought he gave an interesting response here is Pan’s answer to that uh management Doug Tom Stillman I am not even close to being here I’m I’m not even close to anywhere having a chance to keep playing uh at my age these guys everybody would push me in the right um areas and like I don’t know like I I’m GNA try and look forward and it is one of the harder time I’m never goingon to shy away from that I’m not changing any of the story anything I said it’s what I said and then that’s what happened but at the same time um it’s just it’s a career the decision was made it is what it is and and I’m just so proud that I was uh able to play for blues all these years win the cup with them and who knows what happens in the future pan was not the same player this year as he was the year prior Alex he had a Down Season by his standard 17 goals 47 points still pretty productive though very productive for a guy that’s a third line Winger Puck possession good leader brings all of the offi stuff that you could possibly ask for 36 years old for next season we’ve asked this a million different ways but we’ll ask it one more time because you were ble to talk with him yesterday would you consider bringing him back I would I I really would and do yourself a favor and listen to the full thing because just listening to him talk one about the team in 2019 and what worked but then when we were talking to him about how it ended in St Lewis and he was just talking about how he’s looked forward and how he’s taken on a leadership role with Detroit and how he sees a lot of the Blues in Detroit it’s just like you’re talking to it’s like you’re talking to a guy who’s at the end of his career and one want to be a part of something special before he calls it and you know how much the city of St Louis the team means to him he’s got a leadership role in his mind and I think that’s why Detroit wants him so bad and where this Blues team is at you’re not asking him to come here and be a topl line player you’re not asking him to be a 30 goal scorer you’re asking him to instill the culture that was here for the longest time with this group of players I think if you were to give truth serum to Doug Armstrong you’d probably look at that as you know I’d go back and change things a little bit different with David pan because that’s a player that I think could have limited the the downside over these last couple of seasons for the blues I don’t think he’s going to be asking for a lot of money I don’t think he’s going to be asking for a long-term contract I would seriously look at bringing back a David pan because he’s he’s the embodiment of what you want this team to take the step forwards with and it’s no coincidence you’ve got a Steen and roll that’s going to be taking over sooner or later pan seems like the guy that you’d want for the final couple years of his career I also don’t think pan would I think pan is more likely to end up in Toronto interesting he talked a lot about how impactful Craig Ruby was in his career and like that makes a ton of sense but if he’s standing there and the music’s about to stop with all the chairs taken up at free agency man I would seriously look at that and say let’s just bring it back for one more let’s bring it back for one more round with David pan and this can be your this can be your final call I think it all comes down to do you trade vavich this off season because if you don’t your top nine forwards are probably pretty much set neighbors Thomas Kyu sad dorski uh bch Shin Hayes baluk those are probably your top nine shouldn’t have if you wouldn’t have traded for Hayes Pan’s the perfect person to give the Hayes money to in that spot or or if you get rid of Hayes this offseason if you decide to either buy him out or trade him elsewhere that that’s another move that could make a spot come open for this but if you do trade B navic you’ve got that third line role Alex where he could play with maybe it’s uh shin and baluk Shin with Pon and baluk that that makes a lot of sense and I want buluk to play with guys like that and then you’ve got dorski playing with like sod and bvic and you’ve got kyou Thomas and Neighbors on your Top Line like you’ve got young guys that are mixed in with veterans on every single line and I think ideally that’s the way you would like to make this thing work um it it’ll be interesting I think they’re probably not going to do it and to your point I think pan would probably like to sign with a contender yeah but if he’s into the idea of it and if contenders say you know we’re kind of going a different direction we’d like to see somebody a little younger a little bit more spry I would love to see him back here in I that’s just the dude that I think you have to have on this team because of baluk dorski and snuggerud moving forward because his mindset is what I want every player on this roster to have going into the next three to four seasons maybe it’s not going to be this year but just talking with him and understanding how much this this team in this franchise the city means to him it would not surprise me if he’s back with this roster either at the end of his career or once he calls it a career in some capacity think would value him Alex Steen yeah coming up in 15 minutes we’ll hit the BK and ferrario Rewind but coming up next we’ll get to ones got to go you give us four options we’ll tell you which ones got to go 3143 99 9646 is the place to do so here on 101 ESPN e e e e e e e e ter Hendricks de with a sports center update brought to you by SGA he and cooling Cardinals currently in action as they’ve started game one of their three game set in Chicago they are tied 0 in the top of the second against the Cubs Cy Gibson is on the mound for St Louis and tonight here on 101 ESPN game for the NBA Finals as the Boston Celtics go for a sweep over the Dallas Maverick will pregame coverage starting at 6:30 this sports update was brought to you by SGA heating cooling an independent American Standard hegan air conditioning dealer e with Alex and ton on BK let’s dive into one’s got to go 3143 99 9646 is the Air Comfort Service text line you give us four different options we’ll tell you which one’s got to go here on BK and ferrario Alex one’s got to go Seasons Edition summer winter spring or fall I think you know the options no I didn’t I was hoping you’d explain those to me a little bit more what is this thing you call Spring because we don’t really have that in St Louis we actually got a pretty good spring this year yeah I’d still get rid of it I’d still get rid of it spring mhm summer already sucks can you explain that one to me a little bit like summer man even when it’s hot I still enjoy spring uh allergy season that’s big one for me man I feel like we had some really nice rain this spring well I know you doom and gloom love that we I remember seen a lot of tornado warnings yeah I remember seeing a lot of hail damage and people being obliterated by tornadoes now there was that too but there there was some some pleasant rain for the most part even though the weather is awful because it is when it gets this hot I still enjoy it FM to this is miserable yeah I’m getting her of Summer and I say that as a guy that’s got a birthday in the summer me too man I my birthday was the wor miserable I’m trying to decide at this point in my life what’s worse the extreme heat or the extreme cold and I don’t know it’s the only time you can go in the water I can handle the cold I can handle the cold you can always bundle up you can’t take clothes off miserable though dude when it gets super cold outside you can’t do anything yeah but it’s the there’s nothing to do out there the only avoid it it’s the only season you can go in the water is nice it’s the only season you go in the water I’m saying I like I there are activities you can do that make the heat tolerable there is nothing you can do out there when it’s cold I mean I do get C fever in the winter time 5 degrees you’re just inside at all there’s nothing better than being by a nice warm fire drinking some hot cocoa I do enjoy a good fire not hot get the get out of here who said that somebody on the text line so this is It’s supposed to be 95° for like each of the next three days get the hell out of here but I don’t think the humidity is supposed to be bad couple days tomorrow the humidity is bad that’s why I’m golfing it’s terrible idea I I still my phone is red just red why is it red man next to the the temperatures it’s just red for the next week get out of here do what I’m going to do not go outside be miserable yeah that’s why I’m not going to be out Happ Father’s Day everybody yeah I still would take summer over spring any day of the week so there’s not much goes on that spring to answer the question I’m getting rid of I think I would get rid of get rid of it all right one’s got to go 314 39996 46 is the Air Comfort Service tax line you give us four options we’ll tell you which one’s got to go one’s got to go Highway Edition in St Louis all of them all of them 55 270 44 or 644 it will always be 64 I hate that Highway and I’ve made it very clear to my wife we will never live anywhere near that Highway where I would need to take it I hate everything about it I hate 270 and I mean I do too I take it every every day when I load to the grandparents it gets clogged up for truly no reason at all dude I was about say have you ever been on 40 I don’t do I don’t do that does matter what time day is try coming home from Bush Stadium at like 3:00 in the afternoon when there’s no problem and take 64 East dude 40 you get to um what is that at Brentwood yeah right by Big Bend doesn’t matter what time of the day is it could be 3:00 a.m. or 300 p.m. so what I said was right all these highways stin well no 55 actually is not bad until they got the road construction I always took 55 that was great but now they got like two lanes shut down because you I like 44 either oh I love 44 44 is the easiest travel never problems with it I love 44 last time I took you know what I love is 370 370 really makes my life much more enjoyable this whole conversation does it though being out in St Charles and having 370 and 364 Life Changers yeah Absolut life all suck all right 314 399 9646 is the your comfor service text line one’s got to go eating competitions for Tanner Edition oh I’m gonna get rid of that part just eating competition oh you just selfish and don’t want Tanner to answer yeah I but why am I the one that got singled out there you know that’s what he does man he singles people out I’m not in my Prime but I’m not that big a guy all right’s got to go eating competition Edition hot dogs sliders wings or nachos which ones got to go oh you can’t do an eating competition with nachos you would stab yourself in the mouth so if you would have said tacos it would have been a little different nachos man you stab yourself in the mouth so many times it’s not even funny get rid of the nachos nachos it’s a terrible decision if you’re doing nachos you got to enjoy the nachos all those other ones you can eat fast yeah I’ve done a cerine contest before really that feels like it poor that one would make me sick it was not fun all right On’s got to go blu’s trade Edition sod Ley bch or cyou which ones the one I wouldn’t trade well they would be gone so the one oh the one you would trade I’ll say Sad here I think I think the other ones have the high upside I think sad you know exactly what it is it’s good but I’m okay if I move on from it I trade B I think best return out of all those like sad is more of a salary dump and you probably get more for him at the deadline kind of the same with lety Kyu is like a a hockey trade at sense B is one where you can gain real assets so I would say boot would be the one for me what I trade been your best defenseman last season with Colton Paro yeah I want to I want to upgrade well I do too but you should probably move on from other guys I would deal lety because of the roster spot I I want them to bring somebody else in that and they would have to like there is no other option you can’t just run it back and like use the same guys that you had from a year ago if you were to trade Nick lety it would necessitate them making a move so I’ll say go ahead and trade Nick lety to make sure they are getting something of significance uh top pair left-handed defenseman that would probably be the one that I would go with here if I if I had them name at least one of them for Alex ferrario and Tanner Hendrickson I’m Brandon Kylie right now is your chance to score a pair of tickets to see de leopard and joury with Cheap Trick that’s coming up on July 6th at Bush Stadium tickets on sale now or you can just win right here on 101 ESPN this is your last chance to do so this week here on BK and ferrario 314 399 9646 is the Air Comfort Service text line if you are text number 101 with the correct answer to the following question you’re getting that pair of tickets to see de leopard and journey with Cheap Trick earlier today during the junk tour we talked about the middle school that had like 20 pairs of twins that had graduated in the 8th grade class what state was that school in what was the state in which that school uh existed in if you have the correct answer to that question you’re getting that pair of tickets to see de leopard and joury here from BK and ferraria coming up next we’ll hit the rewind here at 101 ESPN e e e e e e e e e with Alex and TBO and on BK 314 399 9646 is always the Air Comfort Service X line to get involved in the show we do have our winner of the de leopard and Journey tickets so no need saying stop texting we don’t want to ruin the text line for the fast lane and sometimes the guys get a little upset send those tongue emojis uh so don’t do that please um their comfort service X line will be back open whenever the fast’s on what’s the reaction if it’s just a slew of tongue emojis at 2: what are these guys talking about they’d be like hey did Josh come back in for a 145 segment got some questions about it if you missed anything from today’s show be sure to check it out on the podcast page 101 espn.com and the free 101 ESPN app is where you go to find it it’s all presented by dos TI in Auto Centers Alex Cardinal playing right now KY Gibson on the mound it’s a scoreless tie unfortunately for the Cardinals they are now ineligible to score runs the rest of the game because uh Wix the starter for Chicago has left the game and that means Kyle Hendricks has entered the game for Chicago and we know Alex that means the Cardinals can’t win yeah I I don’t know if people know this about Kyle Hendricks but he’s an average below average pitcher unless he plays the Cardinals then he is sa young and uh basically it’s going to be no hit baseball the rest of the way so congrats Cardinals you’re going to lose one to nothing you seen what he’s done so far this year yeah a bullpen arm for him he has a nine erra on the season today he’s going to drop that bad boy down to about a seven yeah he’s abysmal this is why these pitch to contact pitchers uh it’s a lot harder for them to age uh gracefully now in baseball it’s worth noting in his last two appearances he’s gone four in a third Innings and has not allowed a run so we’ll see if he continues that so going the rest of effort today all right Alex let’s finish off the show by talking a little bit about the Cardinal heading into this weekend it does feel Like An important series for the Cardinal but every series at this point feels important they’re in this race with the terrible teams in the middle of the National League Chicago’s included in that and this is where the schedule continues to remain open it started with Colorado they didn’t take advantage there they only won two out of the four they won two out of three against Pittsburgh good job you deserve the credit for for doing that you did the job that you needed to you got to continue doing that against Chicago and then against Miami and then against San Fran and yes I’m going to include Atlanta in here because they’re not very good right now either Cincinnati Pittsburgh Washington Chicago the rest of the first half of the schedule leading into the All-Star break should be needs to be the time in which the Cardinals take advantage of the opponents on the schedule and make a little bit put a little bit of distance between themselves and some of these other teams that are vying for those Wild Card spots yeah you just did it with the Pirates by taking two of three you buried them down a little bit more like this Cub series to me for how bad the Cubs been and I know it’s hard to to get sweeps in baseball you sweep this team you bury this team and that’s when that’s an opportunity for at least the big skeptic like me to start believing like yeah you can get the playoffs I don’t know if I still believe you do something but you pick up three wins you’re talking about pushing this team four games behind you for one of those Wild Card spots and then you got the Reds to do it against you’ve got the Nationals to do it against San Francisco to do it against start separating yourself from the pack because if all you do is pick up a a series win or if if you lose a series in one of these games then you’re right back to who we were claves always talks about Flag Day well today’s Flag Day you pick up a win you’re 500 you don’t you’re two games below 500 I think that’s exactly who you are yeah I I think it’s about building momentum against these teams because June is about that month that we’ve talked about is when the wild card picture starts to separate a little bit and you don’t want to be stuck in the middle to where you’re having to climb above a couple of teams once you start to get close to the all-star break and close to the trade deadline but this is the time frame where you can say okay take two of three take two of three take two of three all of a sudden you’re the one that kind of separates yourself so it’s about momentum you built good momentum you did your job you beat the Pittsburgh Pirates now it’s about doing that in Chicago which has been a tough place for the Cardinals to play weird stuff happens with the wind that’s down up Atley exactly so it and in a series in which you don’t really have the pitching lineup the way you’d want you know you got Gibson today which is nice but you got Palante tomorrow and michelas on Sunday that’s not ideal for how you’d want to go into Wrigley but can you just find a way to win two a three and continue to build momentum and then the series you get next is Miami that’s a cupcake that that’s when you should be building momentum once you start to come back home for that important stretch Chicago has not won a series that counts in a month wait hold on what’s see caveat of counts it’s not a real baseball team that they beat they they beat the white socks two in a row who they beat earlier this season again it didn’t count oh they’re not a real baseball team just like I say the Orioles win doesn’t count the last time the Cubs won a series against team not Nam the white so was May 10th through the 12th a month ago literally a month ago against the Pittsburgh Pirates that was on the road but since then they have not won a series against anybody other than Chicago White Sox this is a bad team right now you’re catching them at the exact right time they are really going through it offensively uh their beat Riders their columnists up in Chicago are talking about how this this roster construction is a disaster the team has not come together as anticipated the bullpen isn’t as good like they they’ve got a lot of problems right now in Chicago keep them feeling that way remember when everyone was like Craig council’s joining the team they’re going to be the best in the NL Central because of their manager and then the Milwaukee Brewers were like peace we’re going to keep being the best team in the NL Central they did the Tyreek killer one just looking back with the peace sign that’s what they’re doing as the uh the Cubs right now are seven and a half games back of the Milwaukee Brewers in this putrid division uh credit to the Brewers dude they just keep doing it the Brewers right now are two wins they have the same number of losses but two wins behind the LA Dodgers I I don’t it doesn’t make sense to me but credit words too they are if you’re looking at run differential a 100 runs better than the Cardinal so far this year they’re a plus 61 Cardinals are a minus 38 it’s unbelievable I just literally can name three position players on their roster is like they’ve got so many injuries with their starting staff I think Peralta is on the iil now if de Williams not there hater’s gone like it’s like it’s crazy it’s it’s honestly one of the most impressive things of this Major League season that they are as good as they are told if you told me that they had a solid offense I’d say okay could see that where you have ad Damas bounce back yeled bounce back Hoskins is there uh I the one I didn’t see was like okay look at the rotation I look at the rotation like that’s not very good and then okay now like now take four of those guys away and they’re still pretty good it’s amazing Kudos kudos to them the front office the management everything the Cardinals keep approaching the offseason like we can compete in the NL Central for Alex ferrario and Tanner Hendrickson I’m Brandon Kylie I will talk to you guys on Tuesday Alex and T-Bone with Grant will have you taken care of on Monday I’ll be back in with the morning show on Monday morning so we’ll talk to you guys then it’s my first Father’s Day for all of you that are celebrating Happy Father’s Day to each and every one of you we’ll talk to you guys next week here on 101 ESPN
