St. Louis Cardinals Seek to DERAIL Milwaukee Brewers’ Championship Dreams in Crucial Series

It’s an NL Central division showdown between the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals. How have the Brewers been able to sustain success on a budget while the Cardinals have floundered trying to do it? This is a locked on Cardinals locked on Brewers crossover. [Music] You are locked on MLB Crossover, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. Hey there baseball fans. I’m JD Haffron, your host for Locked On Cardinals. We got Chuck Freeman with me, host of Locked On Brewers. We are part of the Lock On podcast network, covering your team every day. We want to thank those of you who make both Locked On Cardinals and Locked On Brewers your first listen each and every day, free and available wherever you get your podcast. Today’s episode brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. So download that app today. Uh division games always have a little more juice to them. And this one, despite the discrepancy in wins and losses, should still have some flare to it. Uh with the Cardinals and Brewers clashing in Milwaukee one last time this season. And as always, great to see my brother from the north, Mr. Chuck Freeman from Locked on Brewers. Feels really good to see you, Chuck. always feels good, but it’s even better after a Packers victory on Thursday Night Football. I got my little flag here, buddy. Go Pack Go, Chuck. How are you and the rest of Wisconsin feeling today? Well, we do share that even though we’re on opposite ends with our baseball teams. You’re a Packer fan. I’m a Packer fan. And yeah, things are going well uh in this state. And uh you know, got the game done Thursday, so there’s no conflict with the game on Sunday. You know, you’d be surprised when the Packers and Brewers do play at the same time and the Brewers have a home game. The Packers, the Brewers still get good crowds. I don’t notice any difference. You don’t look at the crowd and say, “Man, the Packers are playing. No wonder why there’s nobody here.” No, they still draw really well on a Sunday afternoon. Now, in this case, the Brewers will play Sunday unopposed against anybody. So, it’ll be cool. Great to join you. I figure since now you’ve joined Locked on MLB, become a big star with the network. I don’t know. I don’t think you remember your boy in Milwaukee anymore. Uh I will never forget you, Chuck. You’re you’re you’re one of my my first real friends on this network, man. We’ve always clicked really well. Obviously, having the love for the Packers, which by the way, for moving forward, I I I must be uh announced as an owner of the Packers. I I’m not just a fan. I I am I am an NFL owner. Uh for for the last what, two years or so, I was able to get in on that. So, uh that’s how that’s how I want to be addressed from here on out. owner, Packers owner JD Haffron, as well as host of lockdown Cardinals. But, uh, the excitement surrounding the Packers obviously is massive right now. At the same time in Wisconsin, you’re also enjoying the best record in baseball. Things are things are really, really good for Wisconsin right now. The Milwaukee Brewers, who despite ranking 23rd in total payroll with a little under 113 million spent this year, have outperformed the rest of the league here in 2025. This is nothing new that they that Milwaukee has been amongst the elite teams in baseball during the regular season. Fourth best record last season, fifth best the year before that. Haven’t had a losing season since the co year in 2020, which nobody really counts anyway, unless you’re the Dodgers who won that year. Uh, and before that it was 2016. Chuck, I’m gonna ask you this. I’m g ask you nicely. Spill your guts. What is the secret to the Brewers sustained success while not overspending for overspending on players and having, you know, this bloated payroll that some of these other teams have? Well, I feel it’s a little page out of the St. Louis Cardinals playbook in that doing things right, playing baseball right, high baseball IQ guys, guys who are smart guys, guys who don’t make mistakes. They don’t have the most talented team in the world out there. They don’t have u all stars up and down their lineup, but they have a lot of good players, a lot of good, smart, heady players who make good decisions out there. And um I mean, I feel like this team, you know, has been delivering so much this year. Now, you look at it, they’ve been able to get to the best record in baseball. They’ve had two long winning streaks this summer, an 11 game and a 14 on two separate occasions. I mean, what baseball team? You don’t see too many times that happens over the years in MLB where you get two double-digit winning streaks. Now, since this 14game winning streak, which ended a few weeks ago, the Brewers have gone 11 and 14. So, they’re playing a little sub 500 baseball uh this uh since then. But, uh but since that 14ame winning streak, expectations have skyrocketed. And if the team goes on maybe a little twoame skin, it’s like, oh no, the sky is falling. But I still think this is the best team. Not only record-wise they are, but they’re the best team I think in baseball. Now on the roster, you know, we you look at the Brewers roster and you like you said, it’s not littered with superstar players. You know, I mean, Christian Yallich in his day, yeah, you know, obviously was an MVP winner, but uh you know, Jackson Cheurio we think is going to be a superstar at some point, but you know, the injury this year uh kind of knocked him down a few notches uh just because he wasn’t on the field. Not because his numbers have suffered at all, but you’ve been able to get the best out of guys like Bryce Derang and Sal Frick and Isaac Collins and Andrew Vaughn. Like, what is it about the Brewers and your coaching staff? Maybe what’s the secret to getting the most out of guys that other people would say is just, you know, they’re okay ball players, but they seem to go to another level while wearing that Brewers uniform. There’s very much a college coaching approach to the way Brewers do things. It’s they have a young team and they have a college coach, Pat Murphy. And when I say coach, it’s he’s a manager, but he’s also coaching these guys, too. If you watch him, he’ll get on guys in the dugout, just like you’ll see on the college level, some of these coaches. Uh he was a coach at Arizona State, coach at Notre Dame, and uh he took over for Craig Council, and he manages this team, but he coaches this team, too, if that makes any sense. Where he’s he demands that the teams go out there and execute and play smart baseball. There’s been times when a player has made a mistake, a mental mistake like u you know trying to steal home or not getting a good jump or making the throw to the wrong pa base and that player will come back in the dugout and Murf will let him have it or he’ll get pulled in a game. You don’t see that on the professional sports level. This team operates like that and they have a bunch of hungry guys on this team. just a bunch of hungry guys who are who are trying to make their own bones in Major League Baseball. Now, you guys have been able to make some pretty bold transactions uh in recent years, you know, and and I’m not talking about so many much as guys that you’ve signed, but the names that you’ve let leave Milwaukee that has shocked some people. Uh, they moved on from Josh her, Corbin Burns, Willie Adams, Devin Williams. You you moved on from your manager Craig Council. You’re like, “Bye. See you. Take the money. See you.” Which one of those moves do you feel like was the best move that they’ve made so far? And which one do you feel like, “H, if we could redo it, maybe we should have brought that guy back.” Or is there anything like that at all? Maybe you don’t regret any of them. I I don’t regret any of them. at first losing counsel and then I’m not all that impressed with him as a manager uh as I see him down in Chicago because some of the things that he he did as managing does at managing the Cubs we see see it here the Brewers when Council was the manager you’d see them just sometimes completely lifeless and I like to tag the Cubs as team lifeless and I know Cub fans don’t don’t like it but that’s just the way it is. I see sometimes those Chicago teams I feel like man they get down and that’s ball game or they get an early lead and they kind of sit on it. Brewers don’t do this under Murphy they’re not that way. There’s a fight, there’s a fire and there’s a passion which I didn’t see under Craig Council. So losing Craig Council, the Brewers got the better of the two managers. Pat Murphy clearly a better manager. Uh and then then Craig Councel. So I’m glad the Cubs didn’t take Pat Murphy and they kept them for us who was kind of an afterthought in the process. But even the players they’ve lost uh like Corbin Burns, they they they traded him in a contract year. He was going to play his final year under arbitration and that was it. They traded him, they got Ortiz out of it. They traded Devin Williams that worked out. They got uh Caleb Durban who’s been just unbelievable and fits into what the Brewers have to do. So I I would say I can’t regret anything the Brewers have done. Even at the trading deadline, JD, they did not make any moves. They didn’t do anything. Not at all. They got Danny Jansen earlier in the week and and some would question that, but so far, you know, they didn’t go out and make any big moves and, you know, you look at it and they’ve been just fantastic so far. Uh, and despite not making any of those deadline moves really. Yeah. And it says something about your front office which uh, you know, is very confident in the people that they have in the building already. And we were like, look, we don’t need that. We just need some complimentary pieces to go along with, you know, this this core that they’ve already built and put together. And uh it’s it’s been something very very special to watch. You know, people don’t talk about the Brewers quite enough just because they’re not in a major market and they don’t get the attention that I think they deserve for being as consistent as they have. that and you mentioned that’s something that the Cardinals used to be you know for the longest time and uh you know they’re still not like bottom of the barrel type of team in the league you know they’re still hovering around 500 but you know that’s not good enough uh for what we’re used to as St. Louis Cardinal fans, but to see how a team like Milwaukee and similar like teams like Cleveland and other guys that are in smaller markets, they don’t overpay, they don’t have bloated budgets, and yet they’re competing with the big teams in the big cities each and every year. And this year, the Brewers still hanging on to that top spot in the major league. So, we’re going to talk about the playoff picture in just a little bit, but we’re going to uh discuss in more detail the specifics about this upcoming series between the Brewers and the Cardinals coming up next on this lockdown crossover. Today’s episode is being brought to you by Neutrifull. Now, you’ve probably seen a million ads for hair growth products and thought, “Yeah, right. Sheriff, if that doesn’t work, does it?” I’m sure it does, right? Yeah. There are so many products that are that are out there on the market. It’s hard to know which ones are actually going to do anything for you. And that’s why you should give Neutrifol a closer look if you haven’t already because they are the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand trusted by over one and a half million people. And it’s not just hype. This is a supplement that is clinically tested to target the root causing of the thinning and the shedding of the hair with a proactive approach. 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If you enjoy daily content about the Cardinals or Brewers or both, be sure to like, subscribe, and follow us on all of our social media platforms and on YouTube. And we greatly appreciate your support. Chuck Freeman from Locked on Brewers. JD Horn here from Locked On Cardinals doing our crossover here because our two teams are going to be button heads this weekend. Chuck, Brewers are uh, you know, they were, you mentioned earlier those winning streaks that they had. Uh, they were on quite a heater for a while there. And you mentioned as well that they’ve cooled off just a little bit recently. uh in your opinion, what’s been going on with the Brewers in the last, you know, week or two? Uh and does what you’re seeing now make you nervous that maybe they got hot too quick? Because some people will say that they, you know, you need to be playing your best baseball the last two weeks of the season. Uh obviously, we’re not quite there yet, but uh you know, people wonder, uh oh, did the Brewers get hot too quick this season? Your thoughts? Well, the Brewers are just coming off getting swept by the Texas Rangers in Texas. Yeah, hot team. Those guys right now. Oh, without question, man. And JD, this is the first time the Brewers have been swept in a series, a three-game series since u since the end of March when the se Yeah, when they open the, you know, this is the second time. And um see how they bounced back. They had the off day on Thursday. You guys are coming to town. I know you had a tough series in Seattle against the Mariners. Were hanging in every one of those games. In fact, I I think you guys had early leads in all three of those games, right? Yes. And then Yeah, I think you had early leads, but um you know, Seattle’s good and Seattle’s had one of those magical years as well. I saw they uh they won last night against the Angels in extra innings, but yeah, I we’ll see how the Brewers bounce back against the Cardinals. Um you guys couple of games under the 500 mark. Technically, still in the wildard chase. I don’t look at it like, man, time to get fat on the Cardinals. I don’t care if you guys were winless at this point. You’re gonna you’re going to come in here and fight these guys with Palante on the hill tonight. Preachers going for Milwaukee. I’m hoping the Brewers can take two or three. All right. I I’m not expecting a sweep. Uh but I would love to see them get back on the winning track and end this uh brief three-game skid tonight against the Cardinals. Yeah, the uh series with Seattle, it was really actually a lot of fun to watch despite the Cardinals getting swept. Like you mentioned, they jump out to some leads by the Seattle Mariners that the offense and the their bullpen like they they got that’s a dangerous team come playoff time. I I can promise you that. And they they’re playing defense out of their minds, which is not something they were really that well known for, especially on that left side of the infield. And they just dude, Auano was making diving plays and so’s JP C. I’m like, who the heck are these guys? This was not supposed to happen. like this. But um you know they were hard-fought games that the Cardinals would lose and but at the same time like for the most part well played games. You know there there’s going to be mistakes here and there and that happens when your teams as young as the Cardinals are right now. Uh but it was it was fun. They were competitive games. You know that last game went 13 innings and then like you mentioned the Mariners had to play another I think it was 12 innings against the Angels last night. So 25 innings of baseball for those guys recently. They had 21 extra inning games already this year. Or I should say, and the Mariners are the first team in baseball history since we’ve gone to that courtesy runner at second base to play two extra inning games of 12 or more in a row. Yeah, that that is nutty for them. But I was proud of the Cardinals the way that they competed against Seattle, who, you know, many are picking to do quite well. You know, some a lot some people were thinking that that’s the the team that’s going to come out of the American League this year into the World Series. Um, so I was proud of that. Th this is going to be Go ahead. Oh, I’m sorry. I want to ask you about your team. Um, your you guys were supposed to have a rebuilding year. Um, and and by the Cardinal standards, it maybe kind of has been, but I don’t think it’s as bad a year. I mean, from the outside looking into you guys, as as maybe we thought it was going to be for your team. You’re still only a couple games under the 500 mark. Yeah, I I think things have gone better than many predicted it would. uh that really good month of May has kind of helped them along. Uh they haven’t been nearly as good in the second half, but there’s also been some injuries. You know, some of the guy the veteran guys that were around like uh you know, Nolan Arnado, although not having a great year offensively, it’s still him. It’s still Nolan Aronado and it’s still him down at the hot corner playing and it’s his vibes in the dugout. Uh Brennan Donovan, the lone all-star from the team. You know, he’s dealt with some injuries. Should be back this weekend against Milwaukee though. Um so they had those issues. is Wilson Contrarus has been beat up again this year. He’s been plunked a hundred times. It’s been crazy. Uh just came off that suspension. Uh Alec Berles was down for a little bit. So, they’ve had some some reasons why. I I don’t want to say excuses, but overall, I just think it’s just they need more talent. And this was a year that they were going to let a lot of these younger guys play more. And despite the injuries hurting them in the standings, it’s actually opened up the door for some of these guys like a Nolan Gorman and a Thomas JC and some guys that they’re hoping will be big parts of their future to, you know, see more action on the diamond. Um, pitching wise, it’s it’s been a it’s been an issue. You mentioned tonight’s matchup. Quinn Pester 12-2 this year against Andre Palante at 6 and 13. He has regressed in a big way from uh what he did in the second half last year. It’s been an issue. uh although he pitched well in his last outing. So maybe you know he he he’s he’s figured something out and uh can take that into tonight’s matchup. But uh Quinn Pster one of those guys that nobody predicted would be a big part of anybody’s team this year and here he is at 12 and two for the Brewers. What’s been the big reason for the turnaround for Quinn? They got him on the night of the national championship game in college basketball and they they got him they gave a big hall for him uh to to Boston which I was surprised at and he was down there in the farm system he’s come up here he’s he’s it is in his first year with the Brewers he has set a franchise record he’s won 11 straight games in a row even the games that um he doesn’t get a decision the Brewers seem to win. So he’s got that going they just win with him on the mound and he’s been great. Now, he hasn’t pitched in a week. The Brewers, uh, not only with the day off, but they also gave their starters an extra day off by calling up Chad Patrick to pitch on Tuesday night. So, they got that going for them. Um, we’ll see how Preacher with that much rest how he is tonight on the mound. But, he’s been great. He’s been absolutely great in making a case to start at a postseason game. Yeah. And he was actually a prospect that came up with the Pirates. And you know, that’s just another one that looks like might have gotten away from Pittsburgh, which has got to be driving them nuts. Saturday, it’s a veteran match up between Sunny Gray and Brandon Woodruff. Uh Sunny has been the Cardinal’s best pitcher. Uh his issues really have been the long ball. If he can keep the ball in the ballpark, he normally wins. If he doesn’t, that’s when problems start happening. Uh and we know how well the ball flies in Milwaukee. Woodruff bouncing back from injury. Uh, how have you felt about his response to coming back from, you know, an injury that knocked him out for almost two years? Oh, he’s been great. Pitch shutout baseball in a six innings his last time out last Saturday in Pittsburgh. If he starts, couple of them before that, but I thought he really got back on track against the Pirates this past week. And so far, better than expected for a guy who’s uh, you know, coming off shoulder surgery has been excellent, I think, for the Brewers. can make a case that he could be their number one starter. I think he’s got to for sure start a postseason game. Um, another guy tonight coming off a week’s rest uh like we talked about with Pster. So, I I I’ve been been feeling good about him. Really good. I love I love Woody as a competitor and I’m looking forward to that match up on Wednesday night against or Saturday night with uh Sunny Gray on the mount for you guys. Yeah, I know a lot of teams around the league, including the Cardinals, where when Woodruff was supposed to become a free agent despite the injury, everybody was like, “Oo, this could be a guy that he was like, “No, I’m not going anywhere.” So, uh, excellent. Yeah. Excellent signing in, uh, putting faith in in one of your guys for Milwaukee, and it’s paying off for them. And then on Sunday, Miles Michael against the Miz, Jacob Miserowski. Uh, a lot of controversy earlier this year about whether or not the Miz should have been in the All-Star game or not. People got all bent out of shape about it. I’m like, dude, it’s the All-Star. Who cares? It’s it’s it’s a chance to put some of the young stars on a platform. Who cares? Let him let him have it. It’s fine. But uh things have gone not as good for the Miz. You know, he dealt with a little bit of injury there as well. How’s he been looking recently? Well, his last start too in Pittsburgh last Sunday. Fantastic. Walked the first two guys of the game. Bounced back. Longest start of the year, seven innings through over 100 innings. They really stretched him out in that game. So, uh, another guy who, uh, he was so good when he first came up here and drew all that attention late June, uh, mid June and then into the July and into the All-Star and had a couple of shaky made his first made his first start against the Cardinals and blew right through them. That’s right. That’s right. Now, you know, it’s a learning curve still for him. So, the problem is sometimes he gets into issues walking guys and high pitch counts and all that. So, uh, another guy I’m looking forward to seeing how he does on Sunday after a terrific start last time out. Yeah. Uh, as far as these matchups goes, best bet for the Cardinals to win a game might be, I would say, Saturday with Gray against Woodruff because you just never know what you’re going to get out of Palante and Michael, and there’s always that chance that they’re just going to get murdered on the mound that things are not going to go well. So, uh, Michael has pitched much better. So, uh, obviously we’ll see how things play out. MLB playoff picture. I want to ask you about this next, Chuck. Uh, you know, see if you if there’s anybody that you might be worried about in the National League on the Brewer side of things as we get closer and closer to October. We’ll talk about those coming up next on this lockdown crossover. The NFL season is here and Faniel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’t miss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love using FanDuel because it fits however you want to bet. You want to do player props? Perfect. They got it for you. What about same game parlays, something I did last night, they got it for you. Or maybe you just want to jump in live on the as the action unfolds, you can do that, too. Packers tight end Tucker Craft. I I hold him near and dear to my heart. 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Brewers are trying to hang on to that number one seed. Chuck was kind enough to say Cardinals aren’t out of this playoff picture yet. Well, okay. But the Brewers we know are in. Brewers we know are in. They’re trying to hang on to the top spot. Phillies, despite losing Zack Wheeler and having Trey Turner out right now, just humbled the Mets, took care of business there, which is helping some of the other teams in uh the National League Wildcard chase, namely the Giants and the Reds. But right now you’ve got the Brewers in the top spot. Then it’s the Phillies, Dodgers, Cubs, Padres’s, and Mets. First question for you, Chuck. Do the Mets make it? And if not, who do you think sneaks into that final wild card spot? The Mets, man, beginning of the season, if you would have told me, I would have said the Mets are shoeing because they were great. They were like 20 games over, right? I don’t know what I saw the Mets here. I don’t know. They have all this talent. I don’t know what their problem is. I mean, even like yesterday, they jumped out to a four nothing lead on the Phils. I don’t know what their issue is, but they have no interest. There’s just a lack of interest out there uh with them. The team that I would worry about I and I don’t think the Brewers have to take a backseat to anybody. The Phillies are coming on strong right now. As you mentioned, though, they swept the Mets and they’re two and a half behind Milwaukee. I really think it’s so important for the Brewers to get a top seed. They’ve had this top seed for most of the summer. They got to hold on to it and they got to stave off the Phillies. So, I’m scoreboard watching these days, but not about the Cubs because I think the Brewers are still going to even though they’re only five and a half only five and a half ahead of the Cubs. I’m worried about the uh the way the Phillies are coming on strong right now. Yeah. If um the Mets don’t make it in, who do you like, Giants or Reds? Wouldn’t that be something? Three more teams from the Central. Oh, I’d love to see the Reds in there. I think the Reds, they I think they play with some fight. Uh I I know that, you know, there’s there’s been times that they’ve struggled and I’ve I’ve liked the Reds the last couple of years. In fact, I even picked them to win the division last year. I’d love to see a team from our division get in and and to our guys from locked out Reds. Uh you I love to see those guys uh have their season extended for a little bit as well. But yeah, I I think the and you know, St. Louis, I’m sorry. San Francisco turned its season around, so to speak, here in Milwaukee. They won an out of nowhere, too. It just all of a sudden you’re like, why are the Gi the Giants are here? What What is going on? Well, that’s the thing. The Giants won a game here on a Sunday afternoon. They were down to their final out and a two-run single up the middle gave them the win over Milwaukee and they’ve been on fire ever since. They cooled off a little bit here last couple of days, but man. Yeah. Well, that’s why that’s why when I say, you know, you guys are still in it. You could come here and play well and who knows what’s going to happen here in the final couple of weeks of the season. I know you got a lot of teams you’re going to leaprog, but I don’t think you’re out of it just yet based on the craziness what we’ve seen in September. Yeah, I just my thing with the Cardinals and why I feel like it’s a bit of a lost cause. It’s not because they’re not trying and it’s not because they’re a terrible team or anything. I just don’t trust the starting pitching, you know, like when you get the series that we’re going into right now, Sunny Gray, you’re like, “Okay, we’ll probably get a decent start out of him.” But again, the the question marks over Palante and Michael and when every third day there’s somebody like that that is throwing for you where it could just go haywire and it could just destroy your bullpen because that guy can’t get through three innings, it’s just it’s tough to trust, which is where I’m at right now with the Cardinals. But I am enjoying the fact that, you know, like I said, that Seattle series, I had a great time. They got swept and I had a great time watching them play ball and compete with uh one of the best teams. And I hope we get the same fight and the same type of intensity out of them in Milwaukee this weekend when uh when they face the Brewers. If they get swept again, I’m not so much concerned about wins and losses right now. I just want to see progress out of uh what the Cardinals are doing. Um, second question for you. Uh, American League side of things. I know this is a National League crossover, but American League side of things. Who are you liking, uh, over there in the AL? I do like Seattle. You know, you talked about them earlier. I do like the Mariners. I saw them in your series with your team and I saw them play last night against the Angels and a lot of them this year. Randy Rosarina, man, he has just got the clutch gene in him. Who who would trade that guy? I mean, I would love him here, man. Would do that, man? That guy is just so clutch. Uh, and Cal Raleigh, of course, you know what he’s done this year, playing on an MVP caliber, but I think the Mariners, man, are just uh they do a lot of things right as well. You mentioned how well they play defense, too. I I the Seattle is my pick to come out of the u the American League. Although, the Yankees, you know, playing much better again. They blew up Detroit last night. Maybe the Tigers, but I like Seattle. Who Who do you like? I mean, after coming from Seattle, it’s hard not to be impressed with what they’ve got. And I’ll tell you what, it’s because they’re lineup one through six is disgusting. Like 7 8 n, you know, you could probably get through those guys and not have too much concern. But, um, one through six is just nuts. And even Palano, like maybe it’s one through I it’s it’s a deep team when it comes to their lineup. And then uh you’ve also got obviously very good starting pitching out of those guys. Uh they some of them haven’t quite gotten to the level that we thought they were going to be at this year, but their bullpin with Munoz and Matt Brash, like holy cow. I don’t even know how people hit that, dude. It’s It’s insane. So, um it’s going to be tough. It’s It’s going to be tough to take them down in a series. Which brings me to my final question for you. Brewers, they get in the playoffs, which we’re pretty sure that’s going to happen. Who do you think are going to be your top three pitchers uh come that first series uh in the postseason? I think Freddy Peralta without question is the number one starter on this team. They’ve been getting in high pitch counts. You won’t see him this series, but he’s been pretty good. Struggled the other day though. Uh 16 wins. Sai Young candidate. Uh I’d say Woodruff in game two. And if you’re telling me right now game three I I’m going with Quinn Pier. I’m going with Quinn Pester. And those would be my top three guys as of right now. I think Pster has earned himself as of the moment the number three spot in the postseason. It makes sense. All they do is win when he when he’s on the mound. So that’s the whole idea of this thing. All right. Well, we’re looking forward to a fun series in Milwaukee. Uh once again, thank you guys for making Lockdown Cardinals and Lockdown Brewers your first listen every day. If you haven’t already, please give us both a follow on X, like, subscribe on YouTube, and help our our channels grow because without you, there is no us. And, uh, Chuck, best of luck in this series, dude. I’ll I’ll be texting with you. And, uh, just remember, I’m a Packers fan, too. So, be nice. If things don’t go well, be nice. Don’t get too cocky. As I’ve always said, Yeah. even though our two teams don’t like each other and our fan bases don’t, you can still be friends. That’s right. We’ll remain that way. Thank you guys for being a part of this Locked On crossover, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day.

Brewers stun MLB with budget brilliance. What can the Cardinals learn from them?

JD Hafron and Chuck Freimund break down the Milwaukee Brewers’ impressive success despite ranking 23rd in payroll. The discussion covers Pat Murphy’s college-style coaching approach, recent bold trades, and how the team’s strategy is reshaping the MLB landscape and how the St. Louis Cardinals need to try and mimic their approach. Key topics include making good trades, when to let go of expensive free agents, pitching matchups and MLB Playoff scenarios.

Don’t miss this in-depth analysis of the Cardinals and Brewers’ series with possible paths to postseason glory and insights on American League contenders like the Seattle Mariners.

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