Brendan Donovan Walk-Off Catch?! Michael Siani Bests Elly De La Cruz!

Brendan Donovan Walk-Off Catch?! Michael Siani Bests Elly De La Cruz!

Brendan Donovan are you kidding me what’s going on everyone and welcome in to this edition of bsha daily Brendan Schaefer here with you it is and I’m not even going to lie to you the early morning hours at this point of Saturday June 29th 2024 as I am up past 2: a.m. as I start recording this thing had a lot to get to with writing an article for kov so make sure you go read that on Friday night’s Cardinals win one nothing over the Cincinnati Reds on Andre Palante started the game for the Cardinals did a nice job but he really wasn’t even the biggest story of the game there were two one was Brendan Donovan’s game ending play at the left field wall right there in front of the Cincinnati Reds Bullpen he jumps up and makes the play on a deep drive by steuart Fairchild and the drama involved in this play was fantastic yet had Fernando crw the relief pitcher for the Reds standing up in the bullpen putting his arms in the air first of all like if you go back and look at the the play the replay of this Cruz is like leaned back into the bench his arms are like against the wall he is absolutely chilling at the very beginning of this play go watch it I’m serious you’ll see what I’m talking about and then the ball is hit Cruz gets up he throws his arms in the air to celebrate because he thinks that his teammate steuart Fairchild has just tied the game and then he sort of hesitates a moment and slowly kind of puts those arms down until they’re on top of his head right there on his melon and he realizes that Brendan Donovan has a beat on this ball and Donovan times it up takes a little bit of a circuitous route toward it he sort of rounds toward this ball as he makes his way toward the warning track and then the the left field wall and that makes sense he he had enough time the ball was hit so high in the air he was finding his timing basically to prepare for a jump strayed a little bit further straight back than he needed to initially so that by the time he realized okay the ball’s coming in to the left of me but that’s perfect because he can take his he described it after the game it’s a couple of steps and then a leap when you’re feeling that warning track beneath your feet you know how to time up the steps for a potential leap at the wall you’re processing everything that’s going on but you’re ignoring everything happening in the bullpen behind you he doesn’t know Fernando Cruz is making a fool of himself he doesn’t know that after he catches the ball the bullpen catcher starts just like wildly gesticulating going crazy spinning around frustrated he doesn’t know any of that’s going on he’s locked in on the play he’s locked in on finding a way to catch that ball and as he said once it hit the leather he had to put the squeeze on it to not drop it into the bullpen that was basically what he said we’ll play some Brendan Donovan audio we’ll play as much audio as I can there is so much good stuff from the Cardinal Clubhouse this evening and the fact that I’m starting this recording at 2 a.m. just pisses me off because it’s a day game on Saturday I know that this is going to be dead and buried but tell your friends to watch this YouTube video or at least listen to it because I just couldn’t go to bed without making it I thought about it I thought man I am so damn tired but this was such a fun type of game anytime you get a one- nothing game you know something interesting is probably transpired to to put it to that point but it’s not like this was even really a pitcher duel it didn’t feel that way anyway I mean Palante pitched well five and a third scoreless but he came out of the game after getting into some trouble in the sixth Ryan Fernandez continues to be I don’t know if he’s an unsung hero anymore of this Cardinal team because we’re starting to talk about him a lot more as well we should he’s starting to get some more pub and in the way that the questions are are asked to olly marmal and all he says yeah this Ryan Fernandez guy uh yeah we’re pretty fond of him but basically the the phrasing tonight was is the big three now more like a big four and all he said absolutely Ryan Fernandez has been a key cog in what the Cardinals are doing rookie rule five draft pick I mean that guy has done an amazing job and if you’re the Red Sox you’re going ah what do we do here how how do we let this guy get away because we didn’t see this coming from him but he is a leverage reliever in every sense of the phrase for the St Louis Cardinal and came through strained a couple of the inherited Runners that Palante left on there in the sixth inning which was nice to see for Palante because at Rick Woodfield kitridge came in and if you just are a box score Watcher and you don’t actually watch the games you’d look at Palante is out and get rickwood against the Giants and go oh boy Palante gave up five earn runs only five a third boo terrible no good he actually pitched pretty well I mean he pitched okay I’m not going to go crazy with it but he really deserved something more like five innings three runs in that game and kitridge came in and we know the rest it just didn’t go well there for him as he’s continuing to kind of work through some things it seems and those runs were ultimately charged to Palante of course because they were his Runners so that’s where the five innings or five and a third with five runs come from but tonight it was a different story Fernandez comes in he strands those Runners and now Palante looks like a hero five and a third no runs lowers his ER to 4.50 for the season and since he rejoined the Cardinals as a starter that was like at the end of May 3.86 the erra for Andre Palante and a starters role this year for St Louis so I don’t know man that’s 3.86 if you told me I could lock that in for my number five starter I would say yep that works for me whether Palante can sustain that we’ll see but I got to ask goe marmel tonight about the notion of do you see a different version of Andre Palante now that he’s sort of because the way I phrased it is it feels like he’s kind of Taken ownership a little bit of that starting role in a way that it just feels different it looks different it’s got that vibe to it for Andre Palante right now and I want to make sure to spend some time talking about him before I dig in more to Donovan and Michael canani is actually the other storyline of the night because he scored the run that held up as the only run scored in the game by the Cardinals or by anybody for that matter and there’s actually a pretty interesting backstory as to how that play developed and the familiarity that Michael canani actually has with Ellie De La Cruz the Short Stop on the play in question is not going to be a fond podcast listen if you’re Ellie De La Cruz or a member of his family perhaps because we’re going to lay into him a little bit for what I consider to have been a very bad piece of fundamental baseball by the Cincinnati shortstop that allowed the Cardinals to ultimately win this game you didn’t know it at the time in the third inning but it it did have a lasting impact because nobody else scored throughout the rest of the contest but forgive the stream of Consciousness version of bave daily tonight because if I don’t do it this way it wasn’t going to happen at all at this late hour but let’s go ahead and jump right back I’ll I’ll play you the Olie marmal audio on Andre Palante that I’ll play my question too because I’m very conceited and I like to hear my own self talk so I’m going to play that for you and then we’ll get into the rest of the topics for the night but here is well me and then Cardinal manager oi marmal on Andre Palante do you see an extra gear different demeanor from him now with this rotation spot that he that he kind of takes ownership of I I do I think we’ve seen a a little bit of an evolution from being timid um to actually going out there and having some present to him and it’s a big change I think the mentality is different his approach has been different and you can visibly see it so yeah I would agree that’s Cardinal manager oie marmal on Andre Palante it just feels different to me and this goes back to that first start that he had against the Reds when he when he first came back up and he held them scoreless that time as well and we heard from him after the game he said you know Ali marmal asked me when they they were going to send me down I was pitching bad in the bullpen they were going to send me down and and oie marmal said what do you want to do you know it’s kind of a fork in the road moment for Andre Palante not only really his season but his career in a lot of ways you’re in the Major League Bullpen to begin the year you’re not really dreaming of going back to the miners at any point this year you’ve kind of made it right you’re you’re around you’re a guy in the mix you don’t have to worry about that anymore getting sent down he gets sent down and the manager says what do you want to do do you want to continue to fine-tune things in the bullpen maybe be able to rejoin us 15 days if you can fix a few things and you know who knows what the opportunities could hold injuries Etc or do you want to go down there and would you rather stretch out work as a starter and that was the the the route that Andre Palante chose whether it was that simple I don’t know I don’t know I mean you figure John mosak would have to they’d have to cross his desk and he say yeah you can join the rotation for our highest ranking minor league affiliate like yeah that’s fine but Allie presented that as I think hey I’m going to advocate for you on this what do you want to do he wanted to start he went down he worked on developing a fast ball that could be effective against righy a two seamer and that was something that he mentioned again tonight that was working for him the consistency of that pitch I’m not sure that it’s been you know totally something that he’s commanded well and utilized effectively with aggression because you got to attack with that pitch that’s about going in on righties and and and jamming them doing whatever you can do to to to keep them uncomfortable because he’s got those reverse splits lefties are not effective against him but righties historically have been but Plante was was able to work that in tonight and I mean the curveballs working good but the aggression that he’s got he he threw a pitch tonight at 98.6 miles hour I assume that is the fastest pitch of not only his season but maybe his career I do remember back in I guess it was like 2022 whatever whenever he was starting games for that spell as a rookie he would get up there in the upper 90s on occasion but it’s been a minute since we’ve seen that from Palante and he he threw one at 98 and a half to ell De La Cruz tonight I I think he did put it in play and it was recorded for an out but but still that’s like okay I see you Palante I see what you’re working with there that’s impressive to me man I I mean the fact that he is getting after it like that I don’t know man there’s something to this guy and I I continue to say hey John moock ignore this for the most part continue to pursue and try to find a starter because the moment you think you’re safe and the moment you think you’ve got enough is the moment somebody’s going to go down somebody’s not going to perform well enough you’re going to lose it right so starter still needs to be a priority in my opinion for the Cardinals nothing that happens day-to-day right now should change that or take John moock off the hook for that being a heavy-handed pursuit in my opinion over the next month that being said I think Palante is safely installed right now as the number five uh as much as I did Advocate to see Matthew Liberator get another look in a starting role I am of the belief now that that is not going to come to fruition I was not at the Oli marmal media availability whichever game this was this might have been either Thursday pregame or or one of the Wednesday pream whenever it happened I’m to understand that during that he indicated that no Libby’s going to be back in the bullpen so that was again not something I was there for but that’s my understanding of what I was told that he indicated during that session so you know what I’m not going to spend a lot of time on that tonight I do I do think I’d rather see now that Libby’s done it and we saw it like could you bottle that and sell it could you bottle that up and find a way 6 days later to give him a look I don’t know it doesn’t sound like the Cardinals are going to do it so I’m not going to spend a ton of time poo pooing it tonight because doesn’t change the reality and we got a lot of other stuff to talk about so that’s that but Palante man I think he’s in a spot where just continue to trot him out and the curveball looks good the death ball has been an effective pitch for him he’s establishing this other fast ball his main fast ball he can get it up there the Sinker obviously is kind of his bread and butter being a ground ball oriented pitcher he still had a few walks that he had to deal with tonight but uh you know that’s that’s going to be usually a Hallmark of his outings for better or worse and it is usually worse but he also has the ability to erase guys on double plays he had double play tonight I feel like he’s in a good spot and just continue to let that right every fifth day I don’t think you have to panic about Andre Palante starting games right now 3.86 ER since rejoining the club and that’s been as a starter since that point I know there have been a couple of at least one real clunker in there the one against Houston was bad I’m not not going to call the one against the Giants a bad start I I think he start he was a a solid start that things went off the rails for him in the sixth inning a little bit and it was no different than what happened tonight but the bullpen did its job tonight that night not so much at least in in terms of of straining those inherited Runners it didn’t happen for Palante in that game so I I look at his body of work right now and I say you know what pretty solid and not to toot my horn but this is kind of what I thought you were going to get from Palante back I don’t know a month and a half ago when I was saying you know they might have a weird number five starter situation Brewing here back when Zach Thompson wasn’t working out and then they tried Libby and it wasn’t really working and they they kind of did it on the fly it didn’t make a lot of sense I said you could do a lot worse than Andre Palante I just think his demeanor is different he he establishes himself into the flow of the game and the rhythm of things as a starter because he just gets more time to to sort of deal with things and you don’t want a guy that’s going to allow so many base runners that he’s constantly dodging traffic seven base runners against Palante tonight in five and a third that’s a little bit heavy-handed on the whip but not the end of the world I I get it but I think he’s done it enough at this point where you do feel okay I’m not saying you have to feel over the moon but Andre Palante has done a nice job and I think certainly exceeding what most people’s expectations for him would have been in this role so that’s the deal on Palante uh Ryan Helly since we’re on pitching a little bit I talked Fernandez he has been fantastic he threw five outs tonight didn’t allow anything no hits no walks struck out two ER is down to 2.21 Jojo came in recorded a couple of ouns but walked the guy kitridge came in for the rescue did that got a strike out that was good to see him have a just a clean that was just one batter it’s all he needed in the eighth but got his got his man and then Hy comes in Hesley threw a couple Cur balls tonight he only threw like six pitches to record a quick and tidy ninth inning a couple curve balls and one of them for a strikeout that was gnarly and that’s it’s interesting because right now it kind of feels like he’s doing everything possible to not throw fast balls he threw two tonight one was at like 97 and then the second and final pitch that was a fast ball and it was his final pitch of the game was 99.9 located not I mean it not bad pitch maybe got a little too much of the plate he might want to get the ball up a little bit more out of The Hitting Zone for steuart Fairchild than he did but threw it 999 and Fairchild turned it around and that was the play where Brennan Donovan catches the ball at the wall to seal the deal for the Cardinals and Donovan had another catch where he was just like sprinting full scale to toward his right and crashed into the left field wall to to save certainly would have been an RBI hit I I know that there was only one out at the time so it it may not have scored both Runners that were on base for the Reds but certainly one run would have scored if that ball gets down and Cardinals only scored one run so they couldn’t afford any of that to happen Alec Burleson had a a play in right field that was similar and that it was clutch like if it doesn’t happen you’re talking about a much more dangerous situation later on in this game he makes a nice play the defense man The Outfield defense Michael canani had a play where he was you know there was one in like shallow left that involved Donovan it was a Bermuda Triangle kind of thing with the third basem and short stop and then there’s one for canani that was in left Center and canani charges takes charge makes the play and holds a runner at third at the same time which is key when you think about the way that the Cardinals ultimately win this game let’s talk about the canani role offensively tonight first of all swinging the bat really well had two that he stung pole side one went for a double I it just kept carrying man I thought it was going to maybe hit the track it was over the head of the right fielder he burned him because I think they were thinking Michael C light hitter not really going to do much burned him the first time I thought though base of the wall at best and this thing banged like six or eight feet up the the right field wall it was not that far from getting out of the yard he stung it really sweet swing left side from canani and then the next time the right fielder was back a little bit and hit another one pretty good poked it into the uh not really quite the Gap more toward right field than the the right center Gap but right fielder had to make his way definitely to his right and and even come back on it a little bit more but he was playing a little bit deeper and can you know just H hit into some bad luck on that one but he’s swinging the bat well on the double third inning double he he moves over to third base on a ground out and you didn’t know it at the time but this was the run that needed to score how does it end up scoring is fascinating the way that this ends up playing out Alec burles pop fly to shallow center field Elli De La Cruz we’ve seen this before sprinting all out great athlete unbelievable maybe the best throwing arm in baseball and I know you’re going to say Mason win Mason win I know Mason win is fantastic too I don’t really think we’re going to see the the contest between Mason wi and ell De La Cruz and O’Neal Cruz all these NL Central Short Stops that can let it eat probably any of them could hit Triple digits on their best day a lot of times though now Mason wi is understanding you know what I don’t need to throw at 100 every single time I throw to Goldie I need to keep Goldie you know alive over there don’t need to try to take his head off with these Mason didn’t start tonight it was Brandon Crawford but anyway la de la Cruz has a ridiculous arm we can acknowledge that but this moment cost his team the game again we didn’t know it in the third so it’s not very fair to say or frame it that way but it ended up being a very costly decision by ell de Cruz that I think was just the wrong choice steuart Fairchild the center fielder is coming in on this ball charging hard and I don’t know who was calling off who De La Cruz ended up camping underneath this thing not really camping but ranging back back toward the home plate and catching this ball which allowed Michael canani to tag from third and score on a short stop a sack fly to the shortstop wins this game for the Cardinals that has to be fairchild’s ball it just does and I watched the replay a couple times to make sure I’m not talking out of the side of my mouth here but Fairchild was was going to get to that ball if he didn’t want to avoid a collision with la de la Cruz who is a massive human being Fairchild could have had it he could have been charging moving his momentum toward home plate canani would have had zero chance to score at the dep that it was the only reason he scored was because and the reason that he knew that there was a reason to test it and and try to score was because back to the infield for Ed De La Cruz moving in the wrong direction momentum taking him toward Centerfield toward frieza’s lawn so he’s over there on third base Pop Warner on top of it both Donovan and canani credited went out of their way in fact to credit Pop Warner and his involvement being all over that and it was interesting too though because cani knows De La Cruz they were teammates they did this exact play a bunch of times over the course of the time that CI was with the Reds remember he was a minor leager with the Reds for a long time and then came up to the big leagues for a cup of coffee before I guess they DFA him and the Cardinals picked him up off of waivers I think if I recall and that’s the way that happened but he knows De La Cruz and he knows the I mean we all know the throwing arm of ell de Cruz but canani has done this play with him and understands that it’s beneficial to be the center fielder catching that ball charging in on it so that you you’re in a position to make a throw home and D La Cruz I don’t know if he wanted to end up on SC top 10 or what it was but he just made the wrong decision tried to do the flashy play when really it’s get getting the hell out of the way and letting Fairchild take it all his momentum coming toward the plate he can throw he can look back the runner whatever he has to do but this was not a deep enough Fly ball if a center fielder catches it to reasonably score canani now maybe they try it anyway just because you’re trying to spark something I we’ve seen that before from Pop Warner but I think it was specifically because it was De La Cruz that ended up catching the ball and there was a lot of good stuff from Michael canani postgame we’re going to play a little bit of an extended clip of his audio but because I had another One queued up again stream of Consciousness bear with me it’s 2:30 a.m. I want to at least play you the little quip from Brendan Donovan about what was going through his mind as that great catch was unfolding so I’ll play that and then I’ll find the siani clip and we’ll let that roll for you as you get some inside the clubhouse context from Friday night yeah so I I knew he hit it hard I knew it was high so I was just trying to get back to the wall and kind of get my footing in case I did have to jump and uh you know I went back and watched it I don’t know my glove was height like above the the fence I don’t know if it was going to come down and hit the top or if it was going to come in or whether it was going to go over but I knew it was close and once I felt it hit the leather I was just like just squeeze this thing as hard as you can so dump it in the ho did you see the Reds in the replay did you see the Red’s Bullpen coach with his arms up you make the catch and his hands go down no I didn’t see it instant drop on the on the excitement level there ballpark we we talked about it before you know uh you never know some flyballs will stay in this yard so you as an outfield you know that as well unfortunately you know as a as a hitter too so this’s Cardinal outfielder Brennan Donovan utility man really Brennan Donovan talking about that big play at the end of the game and John Denton had said Bullpen coach I’m pretty sure and I wrote this in my article for kov that it was Fernando crw as I talked about that was raising his arms number 63 three do not believe it was the bullpen coach if I was wrong I will make sure to issue a correction after I’ve had sleep but I’m pretty sure that’s what what it was out there and it was just I mean it just made the drama of the play so much more compelling and the bullpen catcher and him just kind of freaking out a little bit was yeah you just your team just lost the game I get it but it was happening right behind Brennan Donovan it was just such a compelling thing and then this cani stuff is so compelling too laying out that he’s got this familiarity with LA De La Cruz he knows that ell De La Cruz is inclined to range into center field because he’s faster than everybody else he can cover the ground and that’s all well and good he’s also got the strong throwing arm to be able to to pull off the flashy play but this was not his play to make but canani having played with him right because they’re both with the Reds having played with him knows that like he kind of tends to do that maybe and canani didn’t say it I’m going to play the audio for you so you can hear can was very complimentary of De La Cruz I’m not going to be though I’m going to say it was a bad play that cost his team the game whereas cani credited you know oh he’s so his his talent level that allows him to do that right to to make those types of plays but can knows that that’s what he’s going to do because he’s probably seen him do it before now granted and I asked canani this too I don’t I’ll I’ll try to play as much of the canani stuff as he was for five minutes and it was really interesting stuff if you want to nerd out on this on like one single play from a baseball game this is the play that I wanted to nerd out on on Friday night so I was waiting around like wait until canani gets into this Clubhouse because I’m not leaving I want to hear what he has to say about this and it just got more and more compelling the more that he talked but I asked him I’m like you want you’re the center fielder put yourself on the defensive side of this which kind of happened at one point not in the exact same spot on the field but similar where he’s the guy charging in wants to be in charge of that play so I don’t know you could go back in the archive were there ever times where De La Cruz actually called off cani to make it like okay that’s not the play that’s not what we do here but I don’t know I do know that in this instance cani was ready in case De La Cruz was the one to catch the ball and Fairchild I maybe maybe we put a little bit of the blame on Fairchild because he needs to be assertive enough to call off Ellie in that spot but it also kind of just had the look of a play you can go back and watch it to me it just kind of looked like Ellie was going to do the play that might land him on a highlight reel and so can’s ready for it pop warner at third base in his ear ready for it and tests him man tests him and passes it ends up going as a throwing error on ell Dill Cruz actually because Luke meley did not catch the ball got by him and contras was able to move up to second thought that was maybe a little bit bit of a of a tough error though because conteras was likely going to get to second base regardless in that spot but I guess I guess because it would have been I think the third out like let’s say canani would have been out at the plate there’s one out in the inning Ball’s caught that’s that’s two if they if they NAB canani at the plate that would have been three so I guess technically contras wouldn’t be at second B I don’t know I think they probably could have gone without the error kind of funny though that Ellie gets the error for it maybe they’ll take it away at some point that’s his 16th of the Season by the way so you think about well Mason wi was making a lot of Errors there for a little while Ellie’s made 16 and he’s treated like you know this this walking highlight reel which he is at times but also you know the the the the bad comes with the good on occasion and I think he was it’s not even like a case of being too aggressive I think it’s just a I don’t know if I’d go as as far as just say selfish play that was some of the writers were talking about like it’s kind of a selfish play but if you if you really think about it you can make a case that it was because if his goal is to end up on a highlight reel and not to just recognize that the right baseball play is his center fielder if he’s able to to get to the ball which I I genuinely believe that Fairchild would have been able to do so he has to slow up a little bit toward the end because he’s going to run into De La Cruz if he doesn’t but I just think that’s the situation as it played out and that’s it it is a bad play no doubt about it but I think you guys really will get a kick out of hearing Michael canani walk through it so and I’m not sure where else you might have the the chance to hear this so if you if you’ve heard it elsewhere great but if not I’m just going to play through a lot of what Michael canani had to say uh talking about that play and and just kind of how he’s feeling at the the plate as well defensively there’s a lot of interesting angles to this so Michael CI from the Cardinals Press Box post game after the Friday a one- nothing win over the Reds the play that you scored on like the communication from pop how you track the ball off the bat and kind of what’s the go no go when you make that decision there yeah um I mean as soon as the ball goes up you know as long as it’s not like clearly in the infield you’re going right back to the bag regardless and then I mean he was right next to me the whole time in my ear so um as soon as I see I I know how I mean I played with Ellie I know how far out he can get I know how far he’ll run into center field and how talented he is in doing that so I see him take off and I know you know he’s going to go after the ball and Pops in my ear the whole time just checking him check him check him you know his back’s turned to me when he catches it and I know he’s probably pretty far out there so that in that spot take a chance to go and um I mean he’s got to make a perfect throw to get me out so um you know play aggressive as somebody who has played center with him playing short like have you had similar spots on the field with him like that and is it just a matter of you called him off or you didn’t I mean I don’t know yeah yeah yeah had that play happen with him a bunch of times where I’m in center and he’s he’s in short and like I said I know how far out he can get and I know how you know aggressive he can be and and that’s a great thing and it’s you know I mean that’s why he’s so talented but um you know on that play I as soon as I see him you know have his back towards me and you know and he’s so far out there it’s just kind of the reaction and Pops in my ear telling me go you know he’s on I’m on go there and you know go until I until I stopped so um yeah that’s kind of the read have you seen him make that play and throw the guy out uh usually they don’t run but he was pretty far out there so um so I mean he was you know he he made a good run for it and you know it wasn’t like one of those infield pop-ups where he kind of like just kind of camped under it he was never really had the ability to Camp under and get behind it so um you know as he continued to keep moving out further and further and um you know catch it over his shoulder I know he has the arm strength to get it home but like I said in that spot he’s got to make a perfect throw right right to right to The Catcher And and you know have a clean tag I mean I’m sliding there too you can never know what’s going to happen so um yeah it’s just you know taking a chance and pop again pop was in my ear the whole time so and defensively you have a play that’s you know somewhat similar where you’re taking charge in Center it as the center fielder that’s always going to be your preference to be able to have your momentum moving toward home plate and prioritize being the one to catch that ball I guess yeah in that situation I want to come in and and have my momentum going forward and catch it um have my direction going to the plate similar situation I mean I think I was a little more over towards left field maybe but um yeah I want to be as vocal as I can and come in and and take charge in that spot me or Donnie depending on how you know close it is to him um but yeah same idea like uh you want to try to get the momentum going forward and um you know I was able to get there uh relatively early enough to call off craw and uh try to be as loud as I could and uh get my momentum going that way Donnie kind of talked about those those are the types of plays those exact scenarios are what you’re working on like day one of spring training it’s one of the first things you’ll work on and just you speak to the the those little details and how they tend to manifest during the season you see how it makes a difference in a lot of games right I mean base running communication The Outfield little stuff like that so um yeah it is something we work on very early in Camp and and throughout uh spring training and um just being on the same page with your outfielders knowing your guys I mean knowing I got Burley next to me Donnie next to me DC’s out there new whoever it is right um so just just knowing who I got with me and and uh same thing with the infield too like those plays are going to happen where you got to come in and um you know you’re going to have that triangle where somebody’s got to come in and call it off or um you know you let the infielder take it so it’s something we work a lot on um and you know in that situation it’s first and third so um you got to be able to you know take charge and make sure you’re behind the ball and and uh you have that direction going towards the plate it’s just so interesting to me and Michael C was great we appreciated his time post game it’s so interesting to me how like we say the narrative type of stuff all the time about doing the little things and how much it matters and but like how many times this year have we legitimately seen these games as the Cardinals continue to play so many close games come down to the little things and fundamentals and the kind of stuff that you do work on day one of spring training Brenan Donovan in addition to making sure like he stopped and shouted out Pop Warner for the job that he did on that on that canani play because everybody saw the way that was handled he said this is the kind of stuff that we are drilling right out of the gate in spring training and the fact that you’re seeing it make a difference and look you can make the case that it’s not to say that the Reds aren’t working on these things but I I would argue their Short Stop in a similar scenario made a mistake on a play that cost his team a run whereas the Cardinals when they had a spot sort of in that Bermuda Triangle area Donovan’s converging Crawford’s kind of in the area who’s going to want it who’s going to take it it’s first and third canani takes it because he’s the one that you know if if it’s closer to Donovan as SE said there then he can be the one to take it and he can be in a position to make that throw home but one of the outfielders is ideally going to get to that ball to avoid Crawford with this back turn having to be the one to make a play or even even if it’s Mason win it short stop that day you know that’s not going to be the ideal scenario to make sure you cut down a run at the plate or prevent that guy from even going in the first place so those are the things that are I I think we continue to see time and time again these things crop up for the Cardinals it’s the delayed steel the other day that also involved Brandon Donovan you talk about a fundamental baseball player but that was a play that the Cardinals ended up winning that game by one run and if that run doesn’t scored who knows how score I should say who knows how the rest of that game plays out these little fundamental things that for a while like errors were being made and things were it didn’t seem crisp and then I don’t know when it changed miday or so the Cardinals started to play a better brand of baseball again and they have just they’ve been pretty consistently locked in on the fundies since then it’s not every day that they’re going to have a great offensive day look Frankie Montage shut him down Bullpen they they scored one run they scored on a sack Flight of the short stop and that’s it so we’re not praising everything about this team right now there are still going to be some concerns about the offense but hitting is not in some ways hitting can be fundamental if you’re doing the little things moving Runners over putting the ball in play in C certain circumstances where that is demanded of you but largely I’m not really talking about are they slugging when I’m saying they’re doing the little things right they’re doing the the other things that shouldn’t ever slump it’s because it’s related to preparation and related to just playing the game the right way that’s the kind of stuff that I think Cardinal fans appreciate so let me know in the comments below if you think I’m on the right path with this one I’m just so impressed by the way and like seani is that kind of player I I continue and I’ve done this already where I said M AA there was a point in time where I thought how much value does this Michael CI guy really have to the 40 man and I I just could not have been more wrong and he continues to impress me more and more I’m not like re apologizing for that because I already have done this before but he is the type of player that embodies a lot of these a lot of these aspects and Brandon Donovan is as well so here’s the question I asked to Donovan I alluded to it already a little bit but I’ll let you hear the answer as well um basically the same question I asked canani because for Donovan you can get that perspective from both an infielder and an outfielder’s perspective because he’s played both and so he’s going to be aware of all of it it was just basically me trying to get is anybody going to throw Ellie De La Cruz under the bus no so can I ask these questions in a way that’s like we’re all on the same page here right in that situation not talking about Ellie but in any given situation generally the outfielder is going to be the one that wants to take that right and so that’s kind of the the angle that I was playing post game and the the funniest part of it with siani was Jeff asking him do you remember anybody actually scoring on that against d Cruise does it normally go that way he said well usually they don’t run which is just so cheeky because well he’s the guy that ran on and he scored so fun but here’s my question to Donovan and then I’ll talk about a few other things that I wanted to note from this game and from the Cardinal minor league system on Friday night defensively to that same play like y all kind of had one that was similar where canani kind of took charge and and made is that one that you’d really rather have the outfielder catches that’s something you guys work on as middle and fielders to know you know a perfect world you make sure you make the catch but if you have your brothers you probably want the outfielder catching it I guess if that makes if it makes sense how I’m asking that yeah yeah for sure so I mean obviously the momentum for the outfields working in it stems back to spring training you know it gets a little uh little old but you drill it you know it’s uh Fly ball and pop a priority it’s like one of the first things you do in Spring training you’re like why are we doing this well it matters you know and uh I think that’s one thing we we really focus on this uh the spring training was we’re going to we’re going to do the little things right and these little things are going to help us One games along the stretch and uh I mean as soon as the ball’s off the bat se and I were hauling in and I knew he had the angle um he had the momentum and he was calling it early so all I’m doing is I’m just getting out of the way and letting him do his thing like that’s Cardinal baseball guys that’s what it’s supposed to be and you’ve got a number of guys that are in the mix right now that I do think embody those things so I was very impressed by both Donovan and canani uh tonight not only in the game but with the way that they explain things after the fact uh was pretty insightful so I thought that was cool but that’s kind of that’s all the Audio I have for tonight but I wanted to I jotted some things down during the game and this is something that if I were more organized I would do a better job of doing this but just a few other things that I wanted to mention I just thought it was funny just like a notable moment of Palante when he had allowed a couple of base runners in the sixth he was I think I don’t remember if the second one was a walk and he was turned around facing just like a la Cruz he was facing the center field wall basically and the infielders started to kind of converge on him to where you know that there’s somebody coming out of the Dugout but he waited like multiple seconds before turning around to see if it was going to be oi or if it was going to just be Dusty Blake and it was Dusty which meant that Palante at least had one more batter and that was uh Noel V Marte I believe and he got him out but that was his last guy I just thought it was notable one of those things like if I if something strikes me I want to start just mentioning it I should name the segment and have something you know piy to name it but just kind of throwing some stuff in there if that’s the kind of thing you’re interested in like just like remembering some random moments from the game sometimes when you’re at the Ballpark 2 you’ll see things that they maybe won’t even see on TV I don’t know how that if that was displayed or if I’m reading too much into it but I thought man Palante is really just like waiting he knows that there’s a mountain visit coming he just hasn’t turned around and he like slowly turned around to see who was there there I thought it was kind of funny just thought it was notable uh another aspect I wanted to talk about regarding Michael canani like who’s going to be the center fielder for the Cardinals long term we know Nar is on his way back we know Edmund is eventually supposed to be back and Jeff Jones I was talking to Jeff Jones about it during the game sitting next to him in the Press Box and he said basically exactly what I was thinking get the Ops to start with a six if you can get Michael C’s Ops to start with a six instead of a five I think that might be all it takes for the Cardinals to feel pretty fine about him as the primary center fielder not every day but primary more than half a time I think he could play that frequently and again tonight he really did look good swinging the bat hit a double ended up scoring on that had another swing that was a a line out fly out whatever you want to call it to Right Center took some good ABS he’s really swinging the bat well we know how good he is defensively like canani could be a long-term fixture for the if he just does a little bit more with the bat and maybe that’ll come around maybe it won’t but I really do think he’s on the cusp of something if he can if he can figure it out at the plate a little bit more consistently so wanted to mention that and also want to mention the pickoff of ill Cruz I’m going to get on my soap box for a second here and then I want to talk about a couple of the standout performances from the minor leagues tonight in the Cardinal organization El La Cruz was picked off by Wilson ceras at first base I don’t remember the inning but if you watch the game you know what I’m talking talking about it was a weird just like an extremely weird trip for Ellie De La Cruz because it was against JoJo so it must have been the eighth inning I’m remembering it now he is leaning off first base and then Dives back in when JoJo actually throws a pitch so I don’t know if he thought because a lefty he misread what the timing the step was going to be thought he was going to throw over actually like like jerk back to first base and instead of taking a secondary lead which was funny and then he was doing the opposite of it after a pitch he took a big lead like practically fell down contras had him dead to rights Goldie initially they said he tagged him out was a nice moment Reds are screwed big play because we know he’s a threat on the bases he could steal second he could steal third but then they review it and it takes forever I mean forever I don’t remember a replay review lasting this long but ultimately they overturn it and say that Ellie is safe and then he does later steal second base I just considered this though to be a prime example of taking the replay review rules and ignoring them which I don’t think the rules are are good as they stand but the rules are the rules so you should enforce them consistently here’s what I mean by this normally it’s got to be like conclusive indisputable video evidence you know blah blah blah the way that they phrase it in order to overturn a call on the field but how many times do we see one of these play out where we’re like 60% or maybe 75 80% sure the call in the field was wrong but we know that because it’s got to be conclusive they are not going to change the call like you can sit there watching the two minutes that they’re showing these replays and going all right I see what I see what this is in the universal truth that guy’s out right but because they called him safe on the field they’re going to stick with it because they’re only like 70% they don’t have the angle maybe to definitively show and so they’re not going to change the call this one though felt like I was like 85 to 93% sure that Goldie missed him on the replay missed the tag but I also I just won’t believe you if you tell me that they conclusively determined that Goldie did not tag a dreadlock a piece of hair from ell De La Cruz because I I think it was literally that close you could not I maybe they had a camera angle that I didn’t that’s the only thing that I could consider as plausible that they didn’t show in the stadium what they were showing in the replay room in New York and they said no he didn’t tag his hair but hair is part of the uniform which is part of the body and I thought there’s just no way to definitively tell that he didn’t but because it’s not like a 75% it was like a 90 to 95 percenter that no I don’t really think he got him but that’s not supposed to be the way this works you’re not supposed to be able to overturn it unless it’s definitive and conclusive and I do not believe that this was but I believe that because they said H like we pretty much know that it was very unlikely that he that he got the tag down you know initially we thought he did we we slowed it down and I think he missed him but I just don’t think there’s any way they could have seen that definitively he didn’t tag piece of hair that was flying off the side of Allie de Cruz so that’s just me I had to soapbox it about the replay stuff because I think the best way to do it would be actually for that for Ellie to have been safe there what they should do though they have to change the rules to allow for it that’s why I have a problem with what they did they should change the rules the NFL screwed everybody on this years ago because they were the first League to really start with replay and they did this in you know got to be conclusive indisputable video evidence to overturn the call on the field if it’s not it’s a stands instead of a confirmed right but this one I just had the gut feeling I’m like they’re not going to say this STS they’re going to overturn it but I know in my soul they didn’t have a again maybe not in my soul because they might have had a camera angle I didn’t have but it’s just it seems unlikely to me that they had the ability to enhance enhance enhance and see that he didn’t touch with the glove the hair because there was a straand of hair that I thought I think I think he might have gotten the hair what should happen is they should be able to make their best judgment off of looking at the replay if you’re going to bother to send it to replay like replay is not to get the call correct it’s not not with the way the rules are functioned replay is to overturn the ones that are obviously Miss calls that’s why it’s there for the calls that are in between if it was to get the call right they would look at the video and go we’re going to make our best judgment on this based on what we see and then we’re going to go tell you what it is but they’re they don’t do it that way they adhere to the call on the field except for when they don’t because tonight I think they didn’t even though I do not believe they definitively knew that the tag was missed but that’s just my Soap Box here’s a couple of things I want to talk about and then I’m going to get out of here go to bed Memphis Redbirds Jordan Walker bang Luke and Baker bang Luke and Baker’s 22nd Homer of this season good to see from Jordan Walker but for Luc and Baker I I I think you got to get him up I just don’t know how you do it it’s Matt Carpenter’s spot and Matt Carpenter is giving wisdom to guys like Alec Burleson so you’re not going to you’re not going to Nuke karp off the roster his presence I do think that it carries value as much as we were like snarky about it in the offseason he’s bringing things to the table guys like Lance Lynn are bringing things to the table behind the scenes that are mattering tangibly on the field so they’re not going to they’re not going to have a spot for Luke and Baker is the shame of it and I get it there’s going to be 10 million comments not that many people don’t listen to this show like that but there going to be comments that say well just trade Goldie right trade him for a reliever he’s expiring anyway and bring up Luke and Baker to play first base I get it they’re never in a million years going to do that and I don’t think I’m not even advocating that they should the veteran part of it the it’s Paul goldi part of it he is probably I mean if you’re telling me Paul goldi and Luke and Baker are both going to get the chance to play every day the rest of the season for their respective teams let’s say Luke and gets traded whatever who am I taking for the Ops I’m probably still taking Goldie right like I’m not I’m not so far out on Goldie that I’m like oh just trade him because you can upgrade the position from the guy that’s at the minor that being said Luke and Baker’s got 22 home runs and it’s not even July so guy needs to be in the big leagues to just see what it looks like needs to be dhing for if he’s not going to play for the Cardinals trade him for a reliever because he might have enough value at this point with the homers that he’s hitting that you could probably get a reliever for him that could be useful and then he gets the opportunity to actually start playing Big League Baseball which I think he deserves at this point he spent enough time in triple A hitting nukes he’s set the Memphis home run record took it from Nick stavano which is another guy that kind of like okay maybe this is a go to Japan kind of guy eventually if you’re luk and Baker make some money over there hit some bombs but I also think he maybe deserves a chance in the big leagues first I don’t know how it happens just throwing that out there Zack Thompson walked six tonight he was kind of banged up for a little bit I don’t know the injury but I think he was a little bit injured because he went like 10 12 whatever days it was not pitching he walked six and only pitched three Innings tonight so still dealing with some command stuff had been really pitching well prior to that I think might have been like June 12th is that was his last outing so I think he was out for a little bit but uh tonight he was not sharp so that’s unfortunate and uh down in Springfield Mike Antico hit a homer multi-hit game scored three runs Cardinal outfielder I’m just going to try to throw some little tidbits in so you guys know what’s going on down on the farm from time to time let me know if you think that’s a good idea bad idea sucks whatever uh all right I’m going to be done I think I’m going to be done it’s past 3:00 I’m Delirious we’ve done this for 50 minutes I think this was hopefully you guys got something out of it uh hit that subscribe button if you enjoy Cardinal’s content I do it every day even if it’s the middle of the night and you can check out the channel memberships here on YouTube if you are so inclined to support the channel in that way be shap daily also can be found on Spotify and apple podcast you can subscribe or follow over there find the description the link in the description for the uh Channel memberships right here on YouTube that is going to do it for this edition of the show appreciate you guys as always we’ll talk to you next time on be shave daily peace

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Brenden Schaeffer breaks down the Cardinals 1-0 win over the Reds from Friday, June 28, 2024.

Brendan Donovan, walk-off catch?! Unbelievable game from BFD in left field.

Michael Siani got the better of Elly De La Cruz. The pair were former teammates in the Cincy org, so Siani knew what to do when Elly ranged further into CF than he had any business being on the third-inning play that ended up leading to the only run of the night at Busch Stadium.

Pallante was really darn good — are we seeing another side of him since joining the rotation?

Hear some incredible insight from Siani and Donovan from the postgame clubhouse as well as all kinds of other details on this episode of B-Schaeff Daily.

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