The curse rolls on: the podcast is haunted, the Cardinals keep losing players, and JJ Wetherholt is the latest to hit the IL. Nate and Ben map out the team's slim 2.5% path to October, make the full-throated case that JJ is getting robbed in the Rookie of the Year race, and marvel at Josh Baez's absurd swing metrics. Plus a wave of call-ups led by Leo Bernal taking over behind the plate.

In league news, Arte Moreno sells the Angels for a record sum, the Rays' stadium saga inches forward, and expansion looms. 

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The show is cursed. Last week's audio came out haunted, three Cardinals hit the IL in a matter of days, and Nate and Ben have made peace with the grudge ghost now living in the podcast. Between hauntings they cover a tired, banged-up team still hanging around the wild card: Masyn Winn's season-ending thumb, Josh Baez's wildly unlucky start, and a Kyle Leahy who's quietly pitched like an ace for two months.

Down on the farm, Rainiel Rodriguez keeps mashing, and the Cardinals now have baseball's second-best farm system. Plus Pirates and Dodgers previews, the Astros' bizarre firing of Dana Brown, and a new game about ballpark calories.

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Joshua Baez made maybe the greatest MLB debuts of all time — three home runs, three different pitches, three different parts of the ballpark. Nate and Ben soak it in, then dig into a Cardinals team that's back above .500 and squarely in the wild card hunt: Jordan Walker solving the slider, Alec Burleson leading baseball in a brand-new defensive stat, and a rotation that keeps winning while defying every metric.

Down on the farm, Rainiel Rodriguez is climbing toward the top of prospect boards. Plus Phillies and Orioles previews, a very strange batch of league news, and the return of an old friend.

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The Cardinals are hovering around .500 and mostly out of the race — but the offense is waking up at the perfect time. Alec Burleson is launching bombs, Ivan Herrera is crushing everything again, and José Fermín looks like the next guy about to break out. Nate and Ben dig into all of it, plus why Kyle Leahy is quietly the ace of this staff and what's gone wrong with Matthew Liberatore.

Down on the farm, Nolan Gorman is destroying Triple-A with a new swing. Plus Cubs and Reds previews, Tim Anderson's retirement, and our Draft Day check-in at the three-quarter mark.

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The Cardinals sold at the deadline — Dustin May and JoJo Romero are Brewers, Lars Nootbaar is a Diamondback, and the returns are genuinely exciting. Nate and Ben break down the four prospects coming back, why the Dustin May signing worked out about as well as it possibly could have, and the catching logjam Bloom still didn't clear.

Plus: Quinn Mathews makes his MLB debut, Tink Hence gets a surprising DFA, previews of the Rockies and Phillies, the Harrison Bader drunk-scooter saga, and much more! 

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It's the last episode before the trade deadline, so next week's Cardinals might look completely different. Dustin May has pitched his way into a real trade chip, and Lars Nootbaar, Ivan Herrera, and even Masyn Winn could all be on the move.

Plus: the offense is somehow leading baseball in hard-hit balls in July and still can't score, Blaze Jordan quietly became the best third baseman on the team, and previews of the Blue Jays and Yankees. 

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The Cardinals have lost four in a row and each one hurt in a different way. They gave away a 7-0 lead to the Diamondbacks. Riley O'Brien hit a guy to bring in the winning run against the Angels. And underneath all of it, the offense has fallen off a cliff — 28th in baseball over the last 30 days, with Jordan Walker and the Furminator the only Cardinals hitting above average.

Meanwhile the pitching staff has quietly been top ten over that same stretch. Development or luck? We dig in with the deadline coming up. Plus: John Mozeliak joins the ESPN booth and says absolutely nothing, a Reds and Cubs preview, Who Charted?, and the worst fishing story ever told on this show.

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Jordan Walker is the first Cardinal in history to win the Home Run Derby. He beat Kyle Schwarber in Philly, hit four in a row off the magenta ball to close it out, and looked like the coolest person in the building while 40,000 people booed him.

JJ Wetherholt signed an 8-year, $112.5 million extension. Kyle Reis joins us to break down the entire MLB draft — Trevor Condon at 13, a 17-year-old shortstop named Rocco Maniscalco at 50, and why Kyle calls it the best Cardinals draft class since 2020. Plus: who gets extended next, MLB's salary cap propaganda ads, and much more!

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Jordan Walker is an All-Star. Twenty-one home runs, a 142 wRC+, and the breakout is officially real. Meanwhile, JJ Wetherholt — 9th in fWAR among all position players — got snubbed, and we have thoughts.

The Cardinals lost four straight to the Brewers, who are perfectly built to expose this team's weaknesses. The wild card picture is tightening, the trade deadline is approaching, and the Pirates somehow have higher playoff odds despite being behind in the standings. Plus: Verlander retires, Kyle Leahy can't be explained.

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The Cardinals are 44-38 and the playoff picture is getting tight. Playoff odds dropped from 55% to 33% in two weeks, the Cubs are surging thanks to Pete Crow-Armstrong's MVP-level June, and seven games against Chicago and Milwaukee are about to define the trade deadline conversation.

Rainiel Rodriguez might be the best prospect in baseball. He's 19 years old, crushing Double-A with a 1.023 OPS in June, and hitting opposite-field home runs that look like a lefty pulling them. Plus: the bullpen had its worst month of the season, Burleson is the unluckiest hitter alive, Liberatore bounced back, and John Mozeliak is somehow the Angels' new interim GM.

Have a question or comment for the show? Text or leave us a voicemail at: (848) 48-BIRDS (848-482-4737)

Talking About Birds is listener supported on Patreon. Support the show and join our private discord server at: www.patreon.com/talkingaboutbirds.

Play Nate's game at: https://crossonym.com/