Tom Ackerman joins from Jupiter!- h4

you're just tuning in, David will be back on Monday. He's down in Jupiter doing the Jupiter thing, which is pretty great, man. We've seen if you want to see a couple of photos, uh, feel free to check out the Facebook page, the DJ's Facebook page, David sent us a few photos, uh, one of him in the broadcast booth with claves and Ricky and other one with the boys, all out.

For dinner today, it was out on the golf course. Dave has a collar on his shirt. It's crazy, man. I didn't recognize him like, who's that guy? Like, oh my gosh, it's Dave Glover. Well, one of the people he's been hanging out with is our own Tom Ackerman, who I think I hear on the down the line stream. Tommy Ackerman. How are you, buddy? I'm doing great. You want me to tell you where Dave is? We can track him down for it if you want. We can do a Dave tracker segment.

Dave and Dave and about an hour or so. We're going to go have dinner. So yeah, Dave's living the life. You know, Dave's down here, Jupiter, Florida, just living. It's pretty nice to see. Tom, I know you, you guys all took the same flight down there on Saturday. How did that go?

I went great. I thought it was a great flight. Everything was good. I told Dave today. I said, I'm going to make you this promise. If they start asking me to tell stories about the trip, I will not do it. I said, I'm going to save it. I know that your first segment out of the gate when you come back in studio is going to be a rundown of your trip. So, but he's doing great. He's having a great time. We had a good flight down, saw him at the airport. And ever since then, we've just been smiling and having a nice time.

Kevin knows he's been down here. He's training is really great. For us, there's a lot of work involved covering the team, but you just kind of brush it off. It doesn't feel like a grind necessarily when you're down here in Florida, you see friends and you get to spend time around the team.

And a game like we witnessed today, which was just pure fun. I mean, they're hitting on ones, you know, people are looking good. You know, pitching was good. It was one of those days where you just enjoy, you know, and you realize baseball is fun. And this team had a good day today.

All right, Tom. So I have only one question about the off the field stuff with all the boys on the boys trip. And that's it.

That's the only thing you want. It's just one question. I'll go as far as I can. Yeah, one question because we were kicking this around earlier.

You all went out, went out to dinner for about four and a half hours the other night. So it was you and it was John Hancock, Michael Kelly, Dave Glover, look like Claves was there and Ricky Horton as well.

Four and a half hours. Yes, that's what I was told. That's what I was told. It was a long dinner of all the group there. And he closed the place down.

All I want to know is, did you guys do splitsies or did somebody pick up the tab?

I'm going to let Dave answer that question. After talking to my legal representation.

Yeah, let me let me consult with Dave. He's my attorney in Florida.

That's good. Yeah. No, it was it was I'll just say this. It was a great night. It was really great night. Good.

And I especially enjoyed seeing John Hancock with just a big smile on his face. You know, he had just celebrated a birthday.

And Claves said it best. You know, it's just nice to be around people that you enjoy. Yes, spending time with.

And you know, that's one of the really great things about spring training is that very thing that, you know, there's a lot of times that you don't get to spend this much time with the players.

Or, you know, as close to the players on a daily basis and watch baseball as close as you can. But when you step back and think about it.

You know, it is one of those times where every turn here at Jupiter, you run into somebody. Yeah.

It's, you know, a sponsor or a friend or a fan you haven't seen in a while or an usher that you used to see at the ballpark.

Or in that case, you know, your own coworkers all sitting around together. Pretty cool stuff. Yeah, that's great. That's great.

Let's get to today. You mentioned, we talked about it a bit with Bernie earlier, but Bernie wasn't down there. You are a good day for JJ weather hole who left the yard again.

He's had an amazing spring. I was listening to you and high bloom yesterday on sports on a Sunday morning. A lot of good stuff about these young guys.

But specifically about Joshua Baez, when you guys talked yesterday, he had another big day today with his third home run.

He did. And he was just optioned to Memphis. Yeah. So we kind of knew that was coming.

Yeah, you knew that was coming and just so people understand that, you know, this was going to happen. The Cardinals were not going to go down the same road that they went down with Jordan Walker.

They were not going to have him rush into the major leagues. They need to make sure in Himes words that he completes the journey.

He wanted to make sure that he stopped every step of the way during the minor leagues and had a great experience. And he was outstanding last year.

I mean, he tore up double A. He's a really good player. He's got power and speed crushed a home run today.

I mean, at one point, Chris, Chris Tuno, who was doing the announcements in the press box said, estimated distance of the home run, whatever it was, 418 feet, which we believe is the end of the property.

It was, you know, he, and that was down the left field lines. Yeah. That is an absolute bomb. I mean, that was like, you know, 80 feet past the foul pole.

You know, I saw a couple guys hit him out there like that in the past when I was down there and their names were Marcelo Zuna and Giancarlo Stanton.

Yeah, I saw David freeze one time and there was like a dumpster out there and left where they parked their ambulance. Yeah.

And he hit one in the dumpster and I said to him, as we're walking to the clubhouse, I said, dude, that went in the dumpster and he goes, he shrugged, he goes, amateur hack.

So, you know, it was, it's fun down here when you hit home runs and do all that stuff. And I'm sure Joshua Bias feels pretty good today.

Even though he was option, he knew that was coming and the best thing for him is to get all the bats he possibly can in the minor leagues.

And then when called upon, believe me, he's going to come up and he's going to be special, but he needs to go through the ups and downs.

The other guy who hit two home runs today was Chase Davis, who has really struggled.

You know, he was the first round pick of this team back in 23. Yeah.

Last year, he only hit 10 home runs all year and struck out 146 times.

And so both players have kind of been products of this system where the Cardinals are trying to teach these young players a new way of thinking, a new way of hitting, working with the technology.

And what the hope was that that carried over, especially for Bias, who had so much success through the winter and into this spring and it has.

And now Davis, maybe that unlocks something because he wasn't all that great leading up to this two home run day for him.

So it was a good day for him.

JJ Weatherhold, who's been great ever since from day one uniform. Yeah, hit a home run today.

Yeah, he's just been solid. He's doing nothing, but just confirming he's the starter and certainly looks like he's going to hit the top three in the order.

There's no, there's no reason not to do it the way he's been going. All right, let's use the Bias thing Matt.

I must call you Matt. Thomas as a jumping off point for something that Bernie and I are going to talk about on rush hour sports next hour.

Because there are a lot of good things happening, especially on the pitching side.

Bullpen's been really good. All the guys you're hoping to look good have looked good. Your starters have done a pretty good job.

Libertor is really good today. I think 16 swings and misses. I think it was in five innings of work. That's phenomenal.

Now again, we all know the context because you're facing a lot of guys that aren't big leaders, especially a traveling team coming to your place.

But there's also some stuff down there that's pretty concerning.

And using the Bias conversation, we knew he was going to go down that he's got some things to work on.

But I'll say this if Victor Scott and Jordan Walker don't start to figure some things out.

He may be up sooner than we think because those guys haven't shown that much of their offseason work is paying dividends.

And I know stats aren't that big of a deal in spring training. I'm the first one to tell everybody that.

But when you've clearly have been working on trying to do certain things and you're not seeing those things, that's a concern.

Now Jordan Walker is going to play regardless. So he's going to play and he's going to see a lot of time.

Well, at least at first, but I mean, yeah, at first, but not forever.

Yeah, you know, he's going to this is the year where he's got to show off a little bit more.

They played Houston today, the other split squad and he had a hit. I think that was about it. I think he had one hit down there in West Palm.

But he doesn't have an extra base hit yet. And that's no, he doesn't.

And that's facing a lot of minor league pitching. Yeah, he was one for four and he struck out three times.

Oh, my God, two 17. So you know, it's not good. And now it's again, it's March nights.

So you got to let him work through spring training. He's fixing the same things happen over and over and over again.

Then yeah, they will have people ready to go. I think your candidates in the short term are Nelson Velasquez, who started and right field yesterday.

He's got some major power that they want to see on a consistent base.

I think he's got some big power. The other one though is Nathan Church. Nathan Church is legitimately in a time would not confirm this completely.

It was a good question. And he, he, he looked at me like, you know, I, like he, he was choosing his words.

And I said, am I wrong about this that that center field is a competition right now in Nathan Church is in it. And he said, you're not wrong about that.

But that doesn't mean we're giving up on Vic. But he basically said Nathan Church, he didn't put them on the team. Right.

But he pretty much said that that that church is going to be in this outfield mix in some way. Nathan Church has power.

And he has a rocket arm. And he can run the defensive ability. You can run. He's got all the tools that you need. So one of these guys is going to get passed by Nathan Church.

I think bias probably takes a little more time to get some seasoning. He needs more at bats. Church has had more minor league at bats than bias has had.

And then, you know, beyond that, you're looking at left field.

So JC for mean and bias started out there today. Yeah. As I said, he. So did church in the other game. Yeah. I mean, so he was in left with for mean and center, which tells me they're trying to get him used to left field.

Isn't that something because I said to him yesterday, I said, I noticed the church hasn't played in left yet. So does that mean that he's in this center field?

So a church he, as they call him, ended up in left today. I think that it's does bear watching here over the next two weeks what this outfield is going to look like.

I think that this is the year. We feel like we've been talking about them forever, but this is the year for Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman to show what they can do. I remember a few years ago, it was such a big deal that Jordan Walker could possibly make this team.

Remember how big of a story. Oh my god. Yeah. It was the story of spring. I mean, I remember being in Port St. Lucie up in the press box. And somehow it leaked out. There was a transaction that showed up.

And it looked as if if you connected the dots, the Jordan Walker had just made the team. So we were reaching out to Don Mosellock about it.

And I asked him, can I have some time with you? I mean, if Jordan Walker just made the team, I think you and I need to talk and do an interview.

So he called me downstairs after he talked to the writers and he had me down for an interview and talked about the whole thing. It was a huge deal. I remember Mason when was was down there and was supportive. He was not going to make the team and Walker was.

And Walker, I just remember how big that was. I don't think we're going to be going through that now. I think that you're going to see this is about veteran players and a few others who have gotten experience. But man, I'm telling you, the day that you get bias and Reniel Rodriguez and some of these other cars, it's going to be a fun lineup if they stay healthy and if they stay on this track.

Yeah, I was looking at it. I mean, obviously large new bars not going to be ready for the start of the year. But he sounds like it's going to be fairly early in the year. You know, I mean, it's like he's not in games or doing stuff now. It'd be hard to believe he's going to be ready for opening day. But that leads me to my prediction on opening day with right hand or drew Rasmussen pitching for Tampa. I think your left fielder is going to be Nathan church. I think it's going to be church Scott and Walker to start off with.

And then a couple of those guys like CJC and for me, and providing right handed bat depth for anybody that needs it, but in particular for church and Scott being the left handed hitters.

Yeah, I agree with you. I think that is the likely scenario. And, you know, I don't see any other way. I think that's what's going to happen.

It's pretty good outfield. By the way, defensively, if church is in left and Scott's in center, you're going to cover a lot of ground between those two guys.

Churches are very, very good defensive player. We already know Vic is elite, but churches are really good defensive player.

I think that that could very well happen. I think that you still have to. I just, you know, I have like all these memories of us saying, my gosh, Dylan Carlson is the greatest spring of all time.

He had this amazing spring. And then right before the season starts in Mesa, they're playing the Cubs in that exhibition game.

And he and Jordan get crossed up and suddenly disaster strikes. So yeah, let's just wait that they need to make sure that they get some depth in case.

But the outfield shouldn't be too bad defensively. And they are seeing some signs of progress in Jordan Walker playing defensively out and right. But as you said, he's here to hit.

I mean, this guy is supposed to be the elite campus prospect. And at some point, it's got to click no doubt about it. All right, buddy. Have a good dinner with Dave and the guys. Look forward to talking to you again tomorrow. And in the meantime, I am very jealous of all of you.

Dude, we love to have you back down here. Get on a flight. Let's go.

I wish, man. I wish maybe next year. We'll talk about it. All right, buddy. We'll talk to you tomorrow. All right. See you later, guys.

If you're making real money, she's a good girl. Love is in my heart. Love's Jesus.

A segment here is we continue on on a Monday on DGS Davis down in Florida. We'll be back next week. The three of us going to hold things down in the meantime.

So we talk a lot about the effects of social media, particularly on kids, but on all of ourselves, right? I mean, Dave talks about the negative impacts that he feels from it. You do the same rage. Andrew does.

I don't feel as much of the negative impacts, but mostly because I, I just put it down and then I don't miss it. But, you know, but I'm on it all the time. So, you know, I can't say that I'm not exposed to everything, but apparently the British government did a review.

And they found no evidence of causal effect when studying social media usage and problems that kids and teens are having, whether it's anxiety or things along those lines.

So they're saying they're not saying there's no impact, right? They're saying it's not the cause. Or at least there's no evidence that it is the cause based on the review that they just did.

And the reason that came up is great Britain is thinking about doing something along the lines of what Australia did, which is banning people from being on social media. I think under the what's under the age of 16. Yes, that what it is. Yes.

And they're thinking about doing the same thing and critics are saying, well, wait a minute. If the government did a review and they're not seeing that this is causing anything, then is it necessary to do that?

And I think it's an interesting question. Now, I think it should be up to parents personally. But we have age limits for all kinds of things.

So it's not inconsistent. And is anybody really harmed if they're not on there when they're 14?

Yeah, that's the big question is like, okay, maybe it's not causing direct harm, but also what good is it doing? I think that's a that's an interesting question.

And even if it only enhances something that's already there, that's still a problem. Yes.

I think it's not