- This topic has 42 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 5 months, 3 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
First go-round of Sunday's #stlcards Winter Warm-Up media interviews, with all photos, audio and video up. My written summaries are yet to be added, but are coming. ALL FREE! https://t.co/Zcc0RXWnjv pic.twitter.com/LUrpoI5Eoi
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) January 18, 2026
Brian, very much appreciated on the audio. You have given me plenty of baseball content for the coming week or so at least to go through.
I’m curious, did you have some high level takeaways positive, negative, or things that surprised you? Maybe too much of a question for the forum and may be an article amount of content though.
Kyle and I will devote Wednesday’s podcast to our takeaways from WWU. I may post some bullets (aka my notes) on the member forum.
All my written summaries are now loaded into Sunday’s free article. Enjoy!
So, in an earlier post I made about the types of questions – I understand that this is a team sponsored fan event designed to build some excitement for the coming season. It’s not the time to 3rd degree grill the players. Gorman (who did not attend), Walker, and maybe Scott would have been the three to drill down on and dissect their numbers.
That’s not the purpose of WWU and might have left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. So, most of the player interviews were centered more around positive subject matter not the ‘800 pound elephant in the room’ performance issues that could lead to the end of their road as Cardinals and in Walker’s case maybe even his time in the bigs.
Was Walker asked to directly comment on Brandt Brown’s assessment of his hard headedness and inattention to detail last year? I don’t recall hearing that and again, I’m not saying that this was the time & place for hard boiled journalism.
No, Walker was not asked about Brown’s comments from last summer. IMO, the best time to have done that was at the time it occurred. Perhaps the beat reporters did. I was not there then.
However, Walker did discuss how Brown is working with him this offseason. They have Facetime sessions where Walker hits live and goes through drills while the coach watches and offers suggestions.
Scott spent a lot of time talking about how he identified what is needed to fix his offense and what he is doing about it.
I have generally been a Walker supporter but I didn’t really like his body language during his interview. It may mean nothing but I read into it that he has no clue where to go from here and he’s hoping and praying it all works out. I didn’t see accountability or determination in his face or body language. Again, I may be reading too much into a silly promo interview.
On the flip side, I thoroughly liked the Andre Pallante interview. I can buy into believing in him based on his session. I also thought Dewitt III came across infinitely better this year than last year although Dewitt Sr was equally bad.
I haven’t watched all of them yet. Thanks for posting Brian!
Just read an article from the Athletic about Graceffo going with the kick-change and now I read the same from Pallante. Do you know if that is something coming from the club or if the guys are picking it up on their own? And is the kick change replacing Pallante’s “death pitch” or whatever it was called? Wasn’t that a change of sorts?
The kick change has become an extremely popular new pitch because of the results guys are getting that are using it. Lots of pitchers around baseball are tinkering with it.
Pallante didn’t saw anything about dropping his deathball (which is really just an extremely hard curveball). However, he did say he needs to be able to throw all his off speed pitches consistently better for strikes and not waste so many pitches. The death ball was often a pitch that appeared to be wasted last season because it bounced before getting to the plate so many times.
Death ball…Kick change…Sweeper…I’m waiting on a fancy new pitch called, “First pitch, get ahead strike.” It would be my guess that if a guy could work to the hitter with a pitch similar to that one he’d hang some W’s up on the board.
From what I understand Bill DeWitt III did a segment on upcoming renovations of Busch Stadium. He made reference that the Cardinals might seek funds from the state legislature like the Chiefs and Royals did. Of course the Chiefs are moving to Kansas.
Yes, DeWitt III did talk about the renovations. It is in the audio posted on the home page for Sunday. Maybe 2/3 of the way through.
He made reference that the Cardinals might seek funds from the state legislature
Maybe see if Mark Lamping is doing anything.
Another comment by BDW III that caught my attention was when he said “Competitive balance is a huge issue, probably the commissioner’s primary issue heading into the agreement.”
As I have mentioned before the upcoming lockout over a salary cap is being driven by small and mid market teams and they are leaning hard on Manfred. I view the above comment as another indication of that.
Agreed. While everyone is resigned to a work stoppage, why does it have to be? Why isn’t Manfred caucusing the owners right now and forcing them to get on one page, whatever it is? How can the Players Union negotiate with them when the owners are not in agreement among themselves? If there is a stoppage, I will blame ownership 100% for not getting their own act together when there was plenty of time to do so. Agree with them or not, but at least the Union speaks with one voice.
Yes, Manfred’s job is difficult. But he often brags about his vast experience in labor negotiations. His biggest mess is in his own front yard. Do something about it, Rob. Earn that $25 million in annual salary and bonuses.
That is correct Brian. Everyone assumes this issue is players vs owners but the owners don’t view this issue the same. The Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, Phillies, Red Sox, and Blue Jays most assuredly have a different viewpoint on the salary cap as other teams do.
Wetherholt’s comments were interesting. First off I like the poise he has. But the comments about the org wanting him last year to pull, pull, pull when he is a spray hitter stood out. I like that he seems to at least speak his mind and not just blindly follow the team’s guidance and instead wants to excel at what he is good at.
The three assistant general managers of the #stlcards participated in a panel discussion at Winter Warm-Up. I summarize their remarks, exclusively for members of The Cardinal Nation. Join today! https://t.co/ScZXBhcCUq pic.twitter.com/TQEpqED3oH
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) January 22, 2026
He made reference that the Cardinals might seek funds from the state legislature like the Chiefs and Royals did.
DeWitt is quickly becoming the welfare king of the midwest.
First, he joined the MLB welfare club. Now, he wants taxpayers to fund his private business, so he can make more money.
The billionaire way.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.