Ryan Helsley Gets Replaced On All-Star Team Leaving No Cardinals Left In The Game!

Ryan Helsley Gets Replaced On All-Star Team Leaving No Cardinals Left In The Game!

well if you’re tuning into Tuesday’s MLB allstar game hoping to see some St Louis Cardinals representation I’ve got bad news for you what’s going on everyone and welcome in to this edition of bsha daily Brendan schaer recording with you here on Monday evening July 15th 2024 back in the saddle despite no Cardinal game to break down tonight we do have plenty of topics to get into including Ryan Hesley out of the allstar game will not pitch in Tuesday’s contest between the NL and the All Stars we’ll talk about why that is and what we think of it now that the Cardinals are left without a team representative that’s actually going to be active for the game we’ll talk about the Home Run Derby that took place on Monday night and whether or not that was the worst national anthem before a sporting event in the history of forever you can weigh in on that Below in the comments if you heard it if you haven’t heard it don’t seek it out it was awful uh Bobby Wht darn near won the thing we’ll talk about a little bit about the Derby and what I thought of the presentation from ESPN and we actually talk a little bit about one team in particular that has already announced itself as a buyer ahead of the trade deadline with a trade that was made over the weekend it maybe was a deal that fell under the radar a little bit but I think it’s very interesting that this team has elected to be pretty aggressive in terms of its pursuit of improving and trying to make sure it gets at least a wild card spot and do we suspect the Cardinals are going to act similarly trying to make the Bold moves or even the intermediate moves that might be necessary to improve this roster on the fringes and find their way into a postseason spot plus we will mention some of our thoughts on the day two picks for the St Louis Cardinals in the MLB draft obviously the last episode of Bea daily hot and heavy on JJ weather Hol we spent almost an hour talking about the number seven overall selection in the MLB draft from Sunday night you can check out that video on the channel you can also find that episode and all episodes of bsha daily that daily St Louis Cardinal podcast that you as a Cardinal fan need to make sure you’re listening to on Spotify or apple podcast just search be shave daily it’s an exciting time for the podcast in the YouTube channel as we have undergone quite a bit of growth over the past few months this season but if you haven’t subscribed on YouTube yet well you should do so and the link to the brand new Discord is also right there in the video description here if you wanted to hop into a St Louis Cardinal Discord Channel I think they call it a server actually on that app but a lot of Cardinal fans talking with one another daily and I think it’s going to be really fun as the games start to ramp up and the playoffs start to come into picture and my goodness a run through October for the Cardinals in that Discord server is going to be a lot of fun so make sure you get in there it is free and if you’d like to join the bsha daily Lounge private chat within the Discord you can do so by just signing up as a channel member in the lounge tier here on YouTube lots of ways to support our daily Cardinals content here on the channel but let’s go ahead and get into to the conversation of the day which is Ryan Hy will not be a participant in the All-Star Game Derek gold for the Post dispatches down there in Arlington covering the event and hel was down there he talked with Derek today told him yeah that’s probably not going to be something that happens I’m not actually going to pitch in the game and then it wasn’t but a few minutes later that MLB actually announced that hel was officially being replaced on the All-Star Game national league roster by Washington Nationals relever Kyle finnean which means indeed that there are no St Louis Cardinals active for the game on Tuesday does it bother you as a Cardinal fan is my question regarding the fact that there won’t be a cardinal in the game does it decrease your interest in the game because I I feel like a lot of people maybe as the years have gone on don’t have quite as much interest in the All-Star game anyway but there were certainly years where you could expect to see a handful of St Louis Cardinals participating in the event and I think that might ramp up the support and the interest and the Intrigue within the fan base but in a year where you know going in that you’re not going to see a cardinal appear like if hillsley had been out there in the bullpen you might have been wondering in the the middle or later Innings oh are we going to see an inning from him and that might have been exciting for Cardinal fans but now we know for sure you’re not going to see an inning from him and there was no Cardinal replacement right like Kyle finigan replaces Hesley because he was the next reliever under consideration I suppose from uh MLB’s list because that’s another MLB named replacement and so he’s the guy that goes in it doesn’t have to be a cardinal that replaces him and finnean had a good season as well like kley is up there on the saves leader board Hesley leads it with 32 saves at the All-Star break but fegan’s got 25 saves for the Nationals and a 2.45 ER so he’s a deserving All-Star replacement for Ryan Hesley but does it disappoint you as a Cardinal fan to not see a cardinal in the game and what of it not being Hesley specifically I honestly think although I can understand some disappointment level in the fact that there won’t be a cardinal at all that you could potentially see on your screen Tuesday night if you’re going to tune into to the all-star game not the worst thing in the world that Ryan Hy is not going to be playing the fact that he’s not going to be called upon to pitch I think is actually a big time win for the cardal and I’m mildly curious how it actually came to be was this something that was kind of known when Hesley departed from St Louis for Arlington after Sunday was there a conversation with the Cardinals that was kind of hey how do we feel about this how do we view this in 2022 when Ryan Hesley was an Allstar he didn’t really get the full experience um because at the time his wife was pregnant with their daughter and so I think his his daughter was born right around the same time in 2022 that my son was and that was maybe a you know kind of a different summer for their family obviously with a uh preparing to welcome a new baby within like a month or two after the All-Star Game I imagine from what I understand I don’t think his wife could travel for that one and so it was maybe not quite the full experience this time I think Ryan Hesley gets the best of both worlds though right he he gets to have his family there and gets to participate in all the festivities and the leadup and gets to be there for the game you know presumably watching but doesn’t have to pitch doesn’t have to think about being ready to perform and more than that from a cardinal perspective Cardinals fans and in the club don’t have to think about Ryan Hesley Wasting Bullets right in a game that doesn’t have any meaning it and that’s why I’m going to bottom line this I think it’s actually a really good thing that this ends up taking place that h’s not going to participate in the game and I like I said I don’t know if the Cardinals maybe nudged him in that direction if it was something that he was thinking anyway you know a few days ago whenever the announcement was made that Hy was going to be the the Cardinals loone representative in the allstar game I said he’s definitely deserving but it’s a little bit of a like ah I kind of was hoping that maybe he would get the the week off right would be able to rest and come back from the All-Star break fresh and ready to ready to enter into some ball games in the ninth inning that the Cardinals are leading three to2 right like rack up some more saves because he has been an integral part of what the Cardinals have done in those late Innings to be able to lock down the ninth the way that he has 32 saves and 34 opportunities and the two times he didn’t convert a save successfully the Cardinals end up winning the game and Hy got the win in both of those games one was against the Dodgers like second or third game of the season and another one was more recent the one that snapped his consecutive save streak he ended up going back out I believe to pitch a scoreless 11th inning because the way that the streak was snapped was the Manford Man the automatic Runner scored from second base in the 10th inning so Ryan Hy more than earned his W on that day to be able to go back out and hold the Manford Man still on second base and and win it in 11 as he did in that one for the Cardinal so he has been fantastic 2.36 ER uh 40 some odd Innings pitch he’s got a few more strikeouts than Innings pitch so far this season he’s been really really really good for the Cardinals and such a big important part of why they’ve been able to to have success and look he gives up a run here and there occasionally it’s been a little bit more of an adventure sometimes than others but but again if we’re going to bottom line of situation we’re talking about bottom line Ryan husley has been the most effective closer in baseball because that 32 for 34 certainly means something and then when you consider the two failures were actually not failures at all the card won and Hy got the win that’s I mean it’s hard to get a lot better than that but in terms of looking at the usage and why it might be not the worst thing in the world that Ryan Hesley doesn’t have to throw competitive pitches in the middle of the All-Star break which is supposed to be the rest period for guys to to ramp up for the the final push of the season I hesitate to call it second half because the Cardinals and other teams around MLB have played far more than half the games it’s really a a push before the All-Star break and then a not quite a Sprint to the Finish because you do have to get through August you know those are the dog days but once you get to September that really is sort of the Sprint to the finish and and we’re certainly well beyond the halfway point at this Mark as the Cardinals have now played what 96 games I mean they’ve they’ve won 50 games and lost 46 so it’s you’re you’re pushing 100 games now at this Allstar break 81 would be the halfway point so before the final push of the season this is supposed to be that part of the the schedule or Ryan Hy and everybody else the Cardinal gets a little bit of rest and now that is going to be the case with Hesley not pitching in the game so on his usage he’s pitched in more games than all but 30 MLB relievers I think he’s got 41 game appearances on the season and that ties him with a bunch of dudes for 31st essentially in baseball in the most appearances 42 Innings 48 strikeouts over that span he’s been used to a decent amount right it’s not the most because there’s still 30 guys who have been used more but he’s on the higher end of that spectrum and knowing his importance to the team I I just think it’s a positive that he’s going to have the full complement of rest Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday before the Cardinals return to action to begin the final push as we’re calling it again not second half on Friday night in Atlanta that’s that’s what they needed you just kind of feel like that’s what they really needed Ryan Hesley to be able to have and so however the decision came to be I’m on record thinking that it’s a positive one no it is not a signal that he’s injured believe he told Derrik W no it’s not an injury this is just about maintenance and making sure he’s fresh to go and that’s exactly I think where everything needs to be look if Ryan Hy really wanted to pitch in this game and and it was going to be important for him to get to do so I don’t think the Cardinals would have stood in the way of that but I also think he understands how critical the rest is is potentially going to be to really provide that reset compared to if he’s pitching in the game on Tuesday didn’t pitch Sunday but did Pitch Saturday night so you go off day Sunday off day Monday but travel schedule a lot going on that that that’s going to entail and then he pitches in a game on Tuesday well you get Wednesday Thursday and yeah he he’d be available to pitch Friday for sure but just to have that 4 day rest period in the middle of the season I don’t really know that you can guarantee to find him that at any other point if you do it’s because one of two reasons the Cardinals are winning big or they’re losing big and let’s be honest how often have we seen a consecutive stretch of either of those things happening in 2024 it hasn’t really been the case the reason Hesley has been used so much is because he is the the closer for this team and when he’s available and the Cardinals have that one run two run three run lead at the end of the game it’s his role to go in and close it down and he’s done a great job of it but it’s just the fact that he’s leading the league in saves comes also because of maybe some shortcomings in other areas of the team they haven’t been able to score enough runs to turn the some of those save situations into non-save situations that he maybe would not have been necessary uh it’s a positive to be able to have such confidence in a guy that can lock it down late but it’s also one of those catch 22s where you go yeah you’d like to not have to use him as often especially when you’re talking about the the first 100 games because those those last 60 games plus whatever the Cardinals are going to get out of October this year is where the the real opportunity comes to be able to to close things down at the end so you hope over the next couple of months the Cardinals find a little bit more consistency with the bats to be able to maybe extend out some of those leads and not have to go to Ryan Hesley for 68 or 70% of the team’s wins this year because he’s recorded I think three wins on the season and has 32 saves so you do you do that mat that’s 35 of the 70 and maybe he’s pitched in a stray win that didn’t involve him being the last guy with the ball but I I can’t remember one so yeah I mean they’ve they’ve relied pretty heavily upon him to this point and so the fact that he’s whoever’s decision it was joint decision whatever doesn’t really matter I think ends up being a positive for the Cardinals Cardinal fans yeah you’re probably disappointed but did you care that much anyway like be honest if you did and this is going to ruin your Tuesday night I am sorry but I think it’s going to give the Cardinals a better shot at doing what they want to be able to accomplish after the All-Star break and when the games begin to actually count again so if I’m sitting in the the shoes of Cardinal fans tonight I’m going oh thank goodness thank goodness Ryan Hy’s not going to pitch in this game because we didn’t really need that just think of the things that could go wrong right the things that could go right is he strikes out the side and looks like a badass and you know that probably would have happened okay but what does that really gain you in the long run I I don’t think a lot maybe it gains Ryan Hesley some more in arbitration because people have that in their minds and if it goes to another hearing then you know what I mean but I just think ultimately this was probably the right decision for all parties and it seemed like something that Hy was amable to in the way that he he spoke about it with Derek gold u in the video they they posted I think at STL today so if you want to check that out but uh those are kind of my thoughts on the Hesley situation I think it’s it’s not only is it not the end of the world I think it’s very very good that he’s not pitching so those are my thoughts there uh quickly I will talk about the Cardinals draft today they did not have a second round pick in this draft because of the sunny gray signing right that goes as a uh compensatory pick to the Minnesota Twins because he was a qualifying offer guy I think it was probably worthwhile but what it means is yeah you do lose the slot value so you don’t have as much money to play with and you obviously don’t get to pick anybody in that second round so when the Cardinals were on the clock again today it was 80th overall and they selected and this is going to confuse some people a right-handed picture Brian holiday out of Oklahoma State University when you hear holiday in Oklahoma State Still Water you’re thinking Matt holiday but no not related to Matt holiday how do I know he’s not related at all well cuz they spell the last name different holiday’s got two L’s if you’re thinking of Matt Brian holiday is spelled like you know it’s a holiday Christmas 4th of July Thanksgiving holidays 1 L that’s going to confuse the crap out of people but he’s a 511 203 pounder 21 years old born in May so won’t turn 22 till next season out of Tampa Florida and pitched at Oklahoma State University uh I’m just reading this off of the Cardinals press release they sent out sporting an oldfashioned high leg kick that’ll be interesting to see in a 12 to6 curveball sounds a little way noes except for this guy’s 5’11 and not 64 65 66 whatever Leno is 2.63 erra and 253 career inning in three seasons at Oklahoma State also maybe pitched some in relief 33 starts in his 55 games recorded six saves uh pardon me not three seasons at Oklahoma State three Collegiate Seasons finished up at Oklahoma State also Central Florida junior college and Florida Southwestern State junior college so Juco guy that that was able to get the opportunity at the Big 12 level with Oki State and obviously pitched pretty well to be able to turn himself into a third round rounder um this past season led the Big 12 in strikeouts with 128 K and 113 Innings uh near the top of the leaderboard in all of NCAA division one that’s seventh in strikeouts and was a guy that was high up there in the strikeout to walk ratio as well a 6.7 strikeout tow walk ratio I’ve seen that he was a guy maybe low 90s could touch 95 my initial reaction to the pick other than to say that it’s going to be a nightmare in terms of the the holiday one L thing and it’s even funnier too because Josh holiday of course Matt holiday’s brother is the coach at Oklahoma State and so was his coach there but anyway my thoughts were I’m going to reserve judgment on a pick that seems kind of underwhelming but when you hear about the picks that excite people on draft day it’s usually the guys that oh yeah he can touch upper 90s or he’s got this insane pitch or he’s unique for this reason this feels like another type of guy in the history of a long line of this type of guy being drafted by the Cardinals right-handed pitcher not a huge guy pitch maker not going to walk a lot of guys can move it around I think slider is the go-to pitch for Brian Holiday from what I understand and the fast ball is again like if you’re touching 95 you’re not really you’re not sitting mid 90s so low 90s kind of guy but we’ve also seen like Quinn Matthews is a good example from last summer and I think he’s a much bigger guy the guy out of Stanford who’s to me at this point maybe the Cardinal’s top pitching prospect it’s not that I am anti- Tink H but I’m just wondering about all right what’s the current status of his health and when is he going to be like is he going to be a starter at the big league level I don’t know you know health is going to dictate that workload is going to dictate that but Quinn Matthews 65 was not necessarily a super hard thrower and now is a guy that I believe has added a little velocity but he’s certainly working his way up the charts as he’s he’s performed well in double A in a short stint so far and I think ultimately is going to be somebody that we’re we’re talking about by not only the the latter portion of this season but next spring I think Quinn Matthews is going to be a name that a lot of people are going to get to know if they don’t know him already I’m I’m I’m high on the guy so my point with that is if Brian holiday just doesn’t sound like the most exciting pick in the world I understand because he’s I don’t care about the height thing like 5’11 dude I’m I’m like 5’7 and a half granted I’m not a baseball pro but I’m always going to going to pull for the little guy right and and in a world where 511 is little I’m like you give me that I could do a lot of damage if I was 5’11 all right I’m not the worst athlete in the world I could have figured it out but I I just am not going to hold that against a guy who still throws 90s and he’ll probably add velocity because guys often seem to do that when they get into the strength and training programs of of the MLB teams uh I’m going to reserve judgment on Brian holiday had good numbers I I can’t pretend I knew a bunch about him before today but it it does does seem like if you were looking for a reason to kind of poke holes in the in the pick that it feels kind of like a guy who can make pitches with his breaking balls big curveball good whiff rate on the slider I saw this from uh Kareem on Twitter who you guys if you’re interested in Prospect stuff should be following Kareem anyway but uh you know I I think it’s interesting it’s it feels like a guy where because you look on the different draft boards and the entities that do the their mockups before the draft and they say oh he was rated a lot lower than than than some other guys that the Cardinals maybe could have had and could they have had Brian holiday later on is sort of an opinion that I saw floating around and like maybe but I think it’s important to remember that we don’t necessarily know for sure what the team grades and rankings are for all of these guys just because you can come up with a bunch of different Outlets that do this on the outside externally and they come up with their rankings and and they maybe didn’t have Brian holiday as high the Cardinals feel like he’s at the top of their board and they’re looking to go pitcher with that pick and they have reason to believe that look we think this guy’s a good player other teams very well might think so as well so if we don’t pick him now there’s not guaranteed that we’re going to be able to down the line sometimes signability always comes into play with it and so do the Cardinals go with more of a of a safe bet if that guy’s going to save him a little bit of money on slot value and and be able to do some things later on in the draft but I from what I understand the cardal really I mean they’re leaning heavily on the the Collegiate route with a lot of these guys they drafted Ryan Campos a Collegiate catcher in the fourth round uh Lefty pitcher Braden Davis out of Oklahoma so that’d be kind of fun with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State on the same uh draft class there a lefty so they go College pitcher uh catcher again in the sixth round out of University of Cincinnati righty a pitcher I don’t even know how to say this man’s name Andrew D kenik dken pronounced dut kenich d D du canic du canic I’m gonna leave all that in there because it’s funny like this guy turns out to be a Hall of Famer it was me trying to pronounce his name uh Andrew dukic ivth man Chris Gardner the the producer for some of the old radio shows that I used to be on writers block with all the post dispatch guys and uh Martin kilcoy and Charlie Marlo their show midday grind Chris Gardner was a great radio producer now he’s a doorman which is awesome in its own way but uh he would have had a field day with some of these names if he was still in sports radio because he used to do the Ascot Allstars is what he called it which is just like if a guy sounds like he’s got a very kind of ID comes from generational family wealth sort of name you know what I mean the some of these names are like right up his alley in terms of I think JJ weather hold would be a great example of an ascot Allstar and then certainly the seventh rounder out of an vbt well I mean Vanderbilt that kind of proves my point but Andrew Duan IV dut k a n y c h and anytime you can put the fourth behind something you know it’s going to be uh you know that that’s going to be a a very interesting name and it says here he prefers the suffix the fourth to be pronounced after his last name so don’t just call him dianic call him danan IV I’ll make sure to do that hey anytime I get some some preferen stated I always try to try to go by them uh Marian County native is from the same county as Cardinal pitcher Lance Lynn so maybe they maybe they know each other he’s a little younger than Lance Lyn uh Jack Finley in the eighth round another pitcher Lefty drafted a third baseman in the ninth round I’m I’m reading this a lot of this as as you are because I didn’t I wasn’t exactly so locked in on the ninth round of the draft today forgive me but uh I just wanted to conf firm we’re looking at all Collegiate guys and uh Collegiate outfielder in the 10th out of OU as well lot of Oklahoma guys not so sure about all that I won’t hold it against them though it’s it’s not got nothing to do with their football team so that’s okay see yeah Cardinals didn’t draft any High School guys that’s kind of like pretty Cardinal Z right so I don’t think they did anything crazy or offboard today what do you think of the draft there are there are people listening to this podcast guaranteed know more about some of the the prospects they they picked up in the later rounds than I do I’m not going to I never am going to be the guy that tries to pretend to know about something that I don’t know about and I haven’t I haven’t dived in on some of that stuff so if you got interesting takes on some of these guys in the comments let us know and this is a great thing for the Discord join the Discord and start telling everybody dropping your knowledge about some of these Collegiate prospects because the Cardinals went hot and heavy on those guys and by the way two catchers in the first six rounds across the first five picks don’t read into that either in the same way that we’re not reading into JJ weatherholt being maybe a short stop well they have Mason win well okay he can play second base well they have Gorman they have Donovan they have edin it doesn’t matter it doesn’t matter they figure that kind of stuff out positionally as time goes it’s more about the bat and when it comes to drafting these catchers I think it’s more amount the athleticism to be able to to play catcher at the Collegiate level you know it says something about the player and and usually a pretty smart player right good baseball IQ to play catcher so those guys don’t always stick at the catcher position but it’s it’s not the end of the world to have more of them than you need because it’s a commodity that can be difficult to find uh good versions of at the big league level so no issue with anything you know glaring coming from the Cardinals picks today um I like the weather Hol pick as we talked about yesterday feel free to go back and check out that podcast 3,100 of you did over 3,000 views on a a video for us on YouTube is is pretty solid so appreciate everybody who went and watched yesterday’s video If you haven’t caught the whole thing yet go check it out we did we did drop some uh some some pretty in-depth conversation about uh the Cardinal’s number one overall selection uh first round selection number seven overall maybe he was the best talent in the draft that’s up for interpretation but a lot of stuff on that for yesterday’s podcast if you’re interested but let’s move right on along here with the podcast tonight as we talk about the Home Run Derby a little bit and maybe the worst ever anthem performance in the history of the Universe um I don’t know that it’s going to get me into any trouble to play it because I think it’s just I don’t know about this being copyrighted right it’s pretty old song I I just mean in terms of uh I I realized that sounded kind of dumb in terms of it being part of the MLB broadcast I don’t want there to be any copyright issues but I’m just going to click at a random part of this Anthem and uh hope it’s the part that that screeches your ears off I told people earlier not to go seek it out so if if you want now just skip ahead 20 seconds or so because I’m going to play a little bit of it the [Music] actually I think that’s all we need that’ll do that’ll do for that uh this lady that sang it I think her name is something ingred something ingred Andress she’s got a country song that I had heard before that was a fine song but I don’t know what she was going for with this Anthem I think there’s a chance she did it on purpose I don’t know to make some sort of statement I have no idea but my other guess would be if you listen to the beginning of it it’s it’s not it’s not like amazing but it’s not the worst thing in the world it gets to become the worst thing that’s ever been recorded in human history somewhere in that like 30 second range or so and I it’s very possible and we talked about this this kind of Anthem stuff when Adam way right Sayang it at the end of of or the beginning of last year whatever it was I can’t remember opening day that sounds right when he saying it he didn’t have an earpiece in that basically plays back the sounds that you need to be hearing to yourself so you don’t have the delay and you could kind of focus your it’s very possible she had a technical issue earpiece goes out something that you don’t expect and then you’re out there just trying to gut through it when you can’t really hear anything because of the all the different technical things going on if I had to guess that’s probably what happened um but that also doesn’t excuse just the the horrific nature of what she did to the national anthem so that’s unfortunate um Francis Scott Key certainly turning over in his grave after listening to that one no doubt I do not think that’s what he had in mind when uh when writing that song back in the day but you know it happens I guess I mean not to me but it happens to some people I suppose it’s a hard song to sing by the way I do think I could probably pull it off though maybe not on that scale and now and hopefully nobody ever gives me the chance to do it because I’m talking a big game right now making fun of somebody for having a bad Anthem but like I don’t know you just kind of you just kind of do it you go for it it and you get through it you don’t Linger on it that’s the thing if anything you know I can say she had an earpiece problem and that’s probably true but she attempted to do a style of the anthem that was unnecessary just get through the song Respect the song and the song won’t eat you alive if you just sing it and respect it and move on you don’t need to you don’t need to make it your own right there’s a few people in the course of history that made it their own and it was unbelievable and they’ll be remembered for those performances forever right the Whitney Houston Anthem that’s kind of the one that you that people always bring up stands the test of time but you don’t need to be a hero singing the song just get through the song you know that’s kind of my my personal take on it and look when you cover ball games you hear a lot of anthems because they sing it before every game and it’s the people that I appreciate the most that that have a nice voice but they just keep to the song and they sing it and then it’s done right you don’t you’re not the star of the show you don’t have to be because when you try to become the star of the show singing that song there’s a chance that you end up the butt of the joke and uh that’s what ingred Andress had happened to her tonight unfortunate but life goes on as far as the the the the Derby itself I almost said the anthem itself as far as the Derby itself um kind of me you know the format I guess was a little convoluted in the way that ESPN went about not really explaining what was going on somebody on Twitter had said you know if you listened if you tuned in the middle of it you have no idea what’s going on I think that was Pat dowy that I was going back and forth with and that was 100% true like I just don’t think they did a very good job of kind of keeping everybody a breast of okay here’s the way this works here’s but also with the bonus rounds and it’s a little convoluted anyway so you know we always though find stuff about the Derby to complain about we do this every year for some reason and I can’t quite Peg it it just seems to me like the broadcast crew that’s been on it in recent years and it’s Carl ravage and it’s Eduardo Perez you know I think they kind of try almost to go over the top in their reactions to some of the swings to try and convince the viewer that they’re seeing something crazy and special and historic and like not every Home Run Derby is like that so I don’t need you to pretend like it is I’ll be able to tell it it almost feels a little phony if you’re trying to go over the top and convince me but I get it this is not an easy event like from the media perspective to do I wouldn’t want to be on the broadcast for because what do people want to see everybody’s going to want to see something different but there’re going to be the people who are enamored with the the exit velocity and the launch angle and that kind of stuff and there are others who are like stop shoving the exit vow down my throat I don’t really care and so you’re never going to please everybody bottom line we talk about it every year the Home Run Derby We complain about it every year and yet it’s it’s on the Monday before the All-Star Game and there’s not really anything else going on in sports so we’re going to watch watch it you know and it feels like baseball knows that so they can kind of get away with whatever but they tried I mean to their credit they tried to change up the format this year to make it more Equitable where you’re not doing bracket format in the first round everybody gets to swing you know the the the same allotment so that you don’t have a guy go up against someone who only hits like four homers and then he hits five and he wins so he doesn’t have to continue so it was definitely more Equitable this year I don’t know if that makes it for a better presentation though and a better event I thought it would but then as it was going I was like okay we get it you’re all going to hit like 14 or 15 or 17 or whatever and okay you’re you’re going to advance and then you’re into the bracket format but now you’re already into the semi-finals and so I don’t know I also thought just the the the presentation was ugly to me from ESPN i w I just want to see it look a little more visually appealing on screen and the way they did the ticker and some of the different things I just didn’t really like it and I know that they kind of have to do the split screen but what was so great about it back in the day I feel like they didn’t do the full commitment to split screen like when Chris Burman was doing it I feel like they would have maybe a little box on the batter but you mostly are wanting to see the you know where the ball goes and then zip back to the batter I just think it’s a hard presentation to do and I know I’m just complaining without real answers of what they should have done differently but I don’t know it was kind of falling flat a little bit which is fine it’s it is what it is this is like the slowest Sports week of the calendar year because Baseball’s all it’s in season in terms of the the majors you know football baseball basketball hockey those four major sports if you’re a big soccer fan and they happen to be playing right now I’m sorry I I have no idea if they’re playing um that’s not you know my jurisdiction and there are other sports going on but you know Wimbledon just ended um trz is my my dog Alcatraz Carlos alarz um but there’s you know golf is not going to be going on a Monday there’s just not a lot going on so we’re always going to watch it we’re always going to complain it’s our annual tradition at this point to wish it would be better and then every couple few years you get one that’s just fantastic and memorable and usually when it’s memorable it’s not because of the final it’s memorable because of an earlier round that happens where somebody just goes absolutely Bonkers but then that guy is usually not the one to win because he kind of runs out of steam as the night goes along so they tried to figure out a format they’ll continue to tweak it I think every year but still kind of a fun event cool to see the players outside their element a little bit and and behaving a little bit differently and and uh you know Vladimir Guerrero Jr was supporting teoscar Hernandez even though he’s not on the same team anymore but he wore his Blue Jays Jersey from last year that’s kind of fun you know you kind of get to see those little inside things from from the players which I think is one of the aspects that’s cool about these events but it was also cool like Bobby wit almost won the thing and it was kind of it did ramp up a little bit with the finale and and getting to see those guys go at it you had the the swing off between Alec bom and T Oscar Hernandez in the previous round which was kind of cool bom if you’re a betting type of person I think had the longest odds was basically per the betting odds the least likely to win and it very well looked like he was going to make it into the finals and kind of couldn’t find a way over the hump there but Bobby Whit Jr I think would have been really fun to see him win I got nothing against T Oscar Hernandez but I was I was kind of hoping to see Bobby Wht do it especially after the earnest reaction he had to Michael Buffer saying his name that was cool like get bring it in Micha buffer who I don’t know if if people think that his act is a little bit like tired I always get a kick out of it though because it it just does make an event feel big time and he does the let’s get ready to rumble it’s a whole thing and it was cool Bobby Wht was clearly thought it was like the best thing that’s ever happened he was they said he was turning to his family in the crowd like can you believe Michael Buffer is saying my name right now it was pretty like you got that impression to just watching it before the ESPN reporter on the sideline mentioned that that’s how he was reacting to it so that was kind of neat Earnest uh young guy that was just he just thought it was cool and that was I enjoyed seeing that but uh you know he didn’t win and Hernandez did and it was fine you know it was fine what do you think of the the uh the All-Star Game Home Run Derby if you happen to watch it and do you have a suggestion for something MLB could do differently during this week to kind of pump up the the Intrigue level a little bit more because I think other sports like the Pro Bowl is nobody cares about the Pro Bowl but I I think the little skills competitions that they involved now at least makes for some good social media highlights like you would think with the the concept of a home run derby that there would be more Buzz for it and you’d see more on social media and it would be more of a cool thing I know everybody’s just playing EA college football right now because that’s out apparently I have not gotten it yet we’ll get it eventually and I would love to stream that as well as the show on the channel but that’s for another day but like the NBA has sort of Incorporated you you have the the dunk contest and the skills contest with the little teams and ano’s got a team and they they do some different things to I think engage people D contest kind of sucks but the Three-Point Contest now is sort of taken over as I think the coolest thing and they they usually have some pretty interesting participants in that hockey has done what they can to try to make a skills competition more exciting for their All-Star festivities you know baseball’s got the Home Run thing but is there anything else they could do that you’d like to see in future years uh let me know in the comments if you if you’ve got any thoughts on that speaking to Bobby Whit Jr though I want to talk a little bit about the Royals because I think it’s relevant to the Cardinals in that the Royals have already announced themselves the Royals of all teams have announced themselves as basically the the most aggressive buyer to me at this trade deadline as they made a trade over the weekend for Washington Nationals reliever Hunter Harvey that if when you hear the price of this trade it feels like that they they paid a decent amount to get this guy Jeff passon reported the deal in the evening of July 13th so what day would that have been was that today’s Monday so Friday night Royals acquire Hunter Harvey from the Nationals on Saturday pardon me yeah Sunday the 15th no that’s not right today is Monday no it’s not oh it’s after midnight now another thing that I’m going to leave in you guys just get to see my creative process at work I’m looking at my computer and it says July 16th I’m like okay I’m counting back a couple of days why would that be I’m after midnight it’s actually Tuesday now as I’m deep into this recording so that’s what happened sorry about that Hunter Harvey is now a Kansas City Royal and what they paid for him was the 39th overall draft pick in Sunday’s draft and then a third Bas Prospect Kaden Wallace one of Kansas City’s top prospects I mean Caden was drafted in the second round in 2022 out of Arkansas I don’t know how you know how much the hype has been sustained by him but it’s only been a couple of years he played double A was in able a this year hitting 282 a 777 Ops he’s 22 years old so that’s a little underwhelming for his age but that’s I mean even 22 is not old for double A he’s below the average age by a couple years of of that level and you know I 777 Ops so he’s okay like he’s playing he’s doing the darn thing and then to give him up who was just recently a second round pick and you give up a first round pick as well essentially the the 39th overall one of the few picks that can be traded is that competitive balance pick that the Cardinals are are sometimes in the running for but they didn’t end up with one of them this year don’t think they had one last year either but the Royals trade basically a first and a second in so much as you can trade draft picks for Hunter Harvey and his numbers are okay but they’re not outrageous so a couple of thoughts that I have on this that I’ll try to relate back to the Cardinals since I know it’s not a Royals podcast he’s got a 42 ER in 43 games so he’s pitched a ton is that going to be a concern for the Royals I was making it a deal to talk about Hesley pitching in 41 games Harvey’s pitching 43 45 Innings 50 strikeouts he’s got good numbers on that front but a 4.2 ra is kind of like you know that’s fine experienced guy has been with the Nationals for 3 years Baltimore for 3 years before that career 3.20 erra 185 K and 168 and 2/3 career Innings so he’s I mean he’s been good last two years with Washington he was very good sub3 ER both years and this year he’s ballooned a little bit but you know that could just be a couple of bad outings that might contribute to that so I think he’s a 3.16 FIP I think he’s a good reliever that you know seventh eth inning guy for a Royals bullpen that could use a little bit more in that regard but he also feels like right in the range of if the Cardinal had traded for him today I would have said oh man really nice trade like yeah I think they got a guy that that can be in that mix for another lagey seventh inning maybe in a pinch eighth inning type of guy and he’s a right-handed pitcher 63 230 so I I like the aggression of the Royals to try to because this says hey we’re trying to win they’re in a spot right now where they’re vying for a wild card last year they lost 106 games they’re going for it and I think that’s actually kind of cool that’s something that we should respect as Baseball fans to say hey when you’re in the mix it should be incumbent upon your team to try to go win for your fan base now granted you could be cynical about it and say oh they’re just trying to you know look as good as they can because they’re trying to get a new stadium out of somebody okay whatever I think that’s a different department that’s dealing with the stadium stuff more so than the baseball Ops folks who are just trying to do the best thing they can to run the club from a baseball perspective but I I do think it’s kind of interesting that they had to pay as much as they ended up paying for a reliever that I would have said yeah good add Cardinals if they had added him but I wouldn’t have been over the moon uh and and I mean they trade a guy who was a second round pick a couple years ago it was that was a different front office I think it’s worth pointing out because JJ Picolo although he was in the front office at the time he was not yet in charge of everything he was a GM as of September 2021 so that 2022 draft pick of Kaden Wallace in the second round was while he was with the team but he wasn’t the chief decision maker necessarily and now he’s the executive whatever the heck they call it Picolo is Executive Vice President that’s what they’ve called him instead of uh M get’s called the the president of baseball Ops and he’s Executive Vice President so at any rate I think it’s kind of interesting that they paid as much as they did for Hunter Harvey is what I’m saying I think it’s commendable because it means oh a team that has recently not really been trying is telling its fan base hey look we’re trying um did they end up getting a guy that’s like going to be good and going to help him we’ll see 4.2 ra but I like the peripherals on him I think it’s a nice move and I I just commend them for like doing it for trying to win earlier in the season when Luis RZ was traded to the Padres we heard the Royals were actually interested in trying to get him as well didn’t come to Pro but like those are the kinds of things that the Royals are thinking about that’s interesting obviously they just swept the Cardinals in that double header last week but I’m kind of intrigued that the Royals have basically been the first team to maybe I’ve missed another move but to really announce themselves as a buyer ahead of this deadline by adding a adding a little relief help which is something that they could have used I think the Cardinal could as well but the Cardinal have a top 10 Bullpen R the Royals do not so that would be the difference there so let me know what you think about that if anything maybe what you think about it is dude shut up and stop talking about the Royals we don’t care but you know what on this channel I do want to try to do some other things and and talk about baseball for the most part but there are going to be some times where um that baseball team that we’re leaning on is not the Cardinals and and if you’re a baseball fan hopefully you’ll still enjoy that aspect of the channel um I was looking to see what the the rate for the Cardinal relief core actually is and I clicked on the wrong thing I clicked on their batting average runners in scoring position and that’s not a thing for the relievers uh seventh in bullpen RA are the St Louis Cardinals right now at 3.50 whereas the Royals are down at 21st overall 4.21 so only about a 7 run differential there but that’s a lot of spots and and that’s kind of where the margins are going to be decided between are you a good Bullpen or a bad Bullpen Cardinals have a good Bullpen I think it has a chance to be a great one I just think they need to add a a great reliever to it and then you’re talking about being five deep with Leverage guys whether it’s Hesley kitridge Romero and I’m I’m counting Fernandez among that group add one more that’s at least as good as those guys and I think you really might have something and then you know mix in the John Kings and the liors and you know that might mean having to make a decision on giovan gagos but Roy Croft in the mix Ley in the mix kind of interesting but anyway let me know what you think that’s going to do it though for this edition of the show I guess well wait a minute I guess I could do a little down on the farm action if there if there was some is Triple A still playing nope it’s Monday so of course they didn’t play they never play on Monday but they do nope I guess they do get a little bit of a breakdown too so maybe not as much to do with under the farm until Friday as well but that’ll come back and I promise my guy Mark by the time under the farm returns in its glorious uh fury on Friday we will have the recording done for his sponsorship of down on the farm so appreciate it guys for listening that’s going to do it for this edition of the show let me know if you’re intrigued by the All-Star game on Tuesday night and if you’re not what kind of content would you rather hear me talk about because I’m sure we’ll end up talking about the All-Star game if we’re doing a post tomorrow which I I think we probably should still do even if it’s just a shorter one but that’s what’s going on no Ryan Hesley no Cardinals in the All-Star Game the midsummer Classic on Tuesday appreciate you guys for listening and we’ll talk to you next time on bave daily peace

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Brenden Schaeffer discusses Monday’s news of Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley being replaced by Kyle Finnegan on the NL All-Star roster. We explain why it’s actually very good news (no, he’s not hurt).

We also discuss the worst anthem in the history of anthems at the HR Derby Monday. Bobby Witt Jr. almost won it, but at least Michael Buffer said his name all cool and stuff.

Plus, a thought on the surprising team that has already announced itself as a buyer with an interesting trade that could shed light on what it could cost to land helpful relievers at the deadline.

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