Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Pete Crow-Armstrong is providing the energy this Cubs team needs

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Pete Crow-Armstrong is providing the energy this Cubs team needs · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You gotta build a team that's expected or projected to
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: win ninety games, right, and so what does that look
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: like by the time.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: They get to Mason next year in regards to the
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: catching situation.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Welcome into North Side Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: I'm Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We're your
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: Cubs beat writers for the Athletic. We are talking Cubs baseball.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Patrick Pete crow Armstrong is on fire. He the Cubs.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: One Monday night in Pittsburgh eighteen to eight, they stole
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: how many bases? Nine? Ten?
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: Uh?
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: It was? It was, it was. It was a lot
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: of stolen bases.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I wasn't there.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: They talked about it so much that I lost track
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: three six, Yeah, nine, that's a lot. That's a lot
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: of stolen bases. Uh, it was we need on the line,
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah from these Yeah, and their pa had three of them.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: What stood up to me, Patrick was the moment he
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: got on first base. It was like the picture immediately
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: knew it's I can't just focus on the hitter. It
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: was immediately in the pitcher's head. The coaches had the
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: catchers head like it. He disrupts the game the moment
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: he gets on base. It's impressive to watch.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Without a doubt, And this is what the Cubs need
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: to see, right, I mean, because essentially over this last month,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I think they've gained like one game in the wild
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: card race, like this infatuation with oh getting a five hundred,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and then they lose or like you know, winning two
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: games of the series and not getting the sweet Like
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: it's it's.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Been a frustrating season.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: And I think you see why the Cubs were so
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: high on PCA and thought it was interesting to have
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: hovey Baia's roll through Wrigley Field last week and then
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: get shut down for hip surgery. And it's, you know,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Jed Hoeer said it, baseball is a young man's game.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: And we don't know exactly what happened with Hobvey and Detroit.
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: I'm sure there's a lot of different factors.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: But it's hard once you reach a certain stage in
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the game to just kind of you either slow down
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: a little bit, or you know, maybe you get a
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: little too predictable, or maybe you take certain things for
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: granted or whatever it is. But PA is in that
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: a really interesting place right now, and you see how
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: easier it is now to steal bases.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: That helps him.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: He plays a position that is really really hard to find.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: I think he's gonna be one of those guys who
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: just racks up big war seasons.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: I don't know how.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I think those can be misleading, just because you go
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: catch a bunch of balls, like like, I think there
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: are ways to sort of like juice your war and
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: there are certain players who are aware of that. But
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: like we can tell, he's a lot faster than Albert Almora,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and that was the guy that people wondered if he'd
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: be like that at the Cub's former first round pick.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: And just I don't know. He's one of those rare
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: guys that I feel like.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Will cross over, like you're gonna turn on if you're
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: just a baseball fan in general and you go on
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: to Twitter, like you're gonna see PCA Like he has
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: that highlight reel capability and a little bit of flash
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: that comes don't have a lot of and but he
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: also has substance. And you address this in our takeaways
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: piece the other day of the idea of his kind
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: of prep and routine, like what what have you observed?
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: What have you heard saded.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean it stands out to me that, yes,
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: is he a confident guy? Yes? Does he is? There
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: some flair there? Absolutely? But he you know, the struggles
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: really wore on him in a sense that he didn't like.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: He didn't like the failure. He didn't I'm not sure
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: if he expected it, you know what I mean, Like,
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: this is a guy that when it got to sure,
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: I'm sure he expected it as far as like I'm
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: coming to the big leagues. It's not going to be easy.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: He wasn't unrealistic, but I don't think he expected it
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: to last as long as it did. And I think
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: that that war on him to a degree to like,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: what am I What do I need to do to
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: succeed at this level? Can I like didn't. I wouldn't
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: say dinged his confidence as much as it It was
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: just he was just like, I'm putting in the work.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: What's going on? You know? And I he was surrounded
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: by veterans, he was surrounded like Craig Council was really good.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: I think where Greig Counsel is a really frank guy, right,
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: he doesn't like get beat around the bush, and I
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: think he was pretty straight forward with him about like
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: what he's doing at the plate and what he needs
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: to work on. And I thought it was interesting how
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: Counsel immediately said that the work ethic, the prep is
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: what is what has stood out about him. You know.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: It was one of those moments that where my where
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: you're in pregame and you're just kind of like, okay,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: we're going through pregame. You know you almost are like
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: half paying attention or like thinking of your next question
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: or whatever it is. And then and he said, like
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: he didn't expect him to get to this point when
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: it came to preparation. He didn't think he'd get there
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: this quickly. And we've I said, I don't think I
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: said this on the podcast, but like preparation routine is
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: this thing that I learned about early on in my
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: career talking to players where I was talking to Paul
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Kanerko and he said that's what turned his career around.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: He went from this guy that would had have a
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: great like first half or a great second half, Like
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: how do I develop a full one hundred and sixty
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: two game season and it was it was, according to
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: if I'm remembering this right, he he watched Jim Tomey
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: and saw, Oh, this guy's gonna be a Hall of Famer.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: And he has this routine that he goes through every day.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: This is what he does every day, and that gets
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: him ready for the game. And the greats do that.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: They they just stick to their routine. I mean, Danzy
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: Swanson talks about this. We see it, right, we see
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: it with it. Apparently PCA has developed that routine and
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm sure it'll evolve as the years go on.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: He'll get better at it, He'll you know, whatever it
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: may be. But he's he's sticking to a routine. He's
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: figuring out how he needs to prepare for the day.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: I think that's that that's impressive. That helps, And obviously
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: there were some things that he figured out. In Casey
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: with his swing, that feels good. You know, his mechanics,
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: he's hitting right now, he's seeing the ball well. I
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: just like it just when he's on the basis it like,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: it really stood out to me last night how how
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: much he disrupts the game. And I think he's he's
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: at like one point six war, one point seven war,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: whatever that is, and that's with like pretty bad offensive numbers.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Still he's like eighteen percent below league average, right, and
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: it's just like if he plays a full season and
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: if he's even slightly above average offensively, you get him
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: on base. This guy's a difference maker. Just it's the Cubs.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: You talked about it with Hobby felt like two ships
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: passing in the night type of thing, right, Yep, it's
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: it's pretty remarkable how how much this has turned around
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: for PCA.
• 7:54
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• 8:55
  Speaker 1: And the thing with Hobby that was probably surprising is
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: how like quiet and introverted he actually is like. And
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: it got to a point where he was rarely in
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the clubhouse like ever, including spring training, like just all
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: throughout the year, he was just kind of invisible, but
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: he became I think when he first came in, I
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: think there was a little more of that showiness. I
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: think it was I think someone put the rookie on
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: board bumper sticker on his like white Mercedes or something
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: in an early spring training.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: And why I bring that up is that PCA I
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: thought he is kind of.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: More calm and quiet than you would expect if you
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: only watched him on the field. He's around, at least
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: now at this stage's career, he's at his locker all
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the time, and like, you know, but he's not like
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: a loud, look at me presence, which I think is important.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: I will say last year, you know, he didn't look
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: like uh, you know, he was sort of taking it
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: for granted or like.
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: Having that look at me vibe. Last September, I just
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: was surprised on the field at how like hyperactive and
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: almost out of control he was that I thought those
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: instincts would be a little more refined because he was
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: so baseball famous growing up in southern California, because he
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: played for Team USA things like.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: That, and and he wasn't.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: But and I've said this to the PCA, but I
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: you know, I think it's impressive how he's kind of
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: harnessed a lot of that and how he took that
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: failure to heart and worked on it, worked on the
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: stuff you need to work needed to work on.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: And I think like when you take the stuff you're
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: talking about.
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: And what we've observed of like who the dude is.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Misic be an enormous win for the Cubs in what
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: is sort of turning into the developmental year. And you
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: can almost hear some of the talking points that like
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Jed will be using at his end of season conference.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Then I think another one of those guys is Miguel Amaya, Like,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: what what do the Cubs have here?
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's I mean, I think that's fascinating. We've we've
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: talked a lot about how catcher is going to be,
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: you know, the their primary focus, one of their primary
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: objectives is to upgrade that position. Uh. But it's hard
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: to ignore what Miguel Amaia is doing. Right. He he
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: took that time off to to kind of adjust his mechanics. Uh,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: it was about three or four games and since then.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: Let me let me take a look. Here, it's a
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: he has. I mean, it's it's good. Let's say that
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: it's like a nine hundred OPS. Right, he was hitting
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: one eighty six at the time and had a five
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: h four OPS. Now he had Now he's hitting two
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: forty three with a six seventy two OPS. To do
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: that late later in the season, to jump your to
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: have your batting average jump sixty points, your OPS jump
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: one hundred and seventy points, that's tough to do. You
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: have to be red hot to do that. Uh. And yeah,
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: I'm I'm impressed by it. I'm I'm surprised by it.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: When you're that bad, when you're that bad offensively, and
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: and to turn that around with a mechanical change, like
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: a pretty decent mechanical change in the middle of the
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: season is hard to do. Uh. It takes takes confidence
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: in the coaching staff and and just like a little
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: bit of guts to do that, because it could you
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: could go in a tailspin even further right and then
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: and then what what is it? You know, what does
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: it mean? You're you're thinking about your career and what
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: direction it's going. Right, But he's hitting the ball hard,
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: he's coming. I mean, I don't want to take away
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: credit from him, but it was kind of someone kind
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: of I think Taylor asked Counsel about like what does
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: PCA being on base for Amaya do for him as well?
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: You know, like the pitcher has to pay attention to PCA,
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: and Counsel even said He's like, I don't want to
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: take away from Amaya, like what he's doing is impressive,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: but he did kind of admit, yeah, that it's constantly
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: in the pitcher's head. So there's just like that added
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: bonus of of of that kind of helping Miguel amayaut.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: But but Counsel was right, And I don't want to
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: take anything away from him because watching him, it's it's
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: completely changed the way the lineup and the Cubs feel
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: because they were getting nothing from that part of the lineup,
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: and suddenly, you know, danceby Swanson is starting to look
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: more like the Dance by Swanson he was last year.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: Not a superstar on offense, but productive. Maya just looks
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: really good. And it has to bring about quot sessions
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: about how do you handle the off season. You don't
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: want to overreact to what's been basically a month and
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: a half two months now of offensive production, but you
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: also can't ignore it, right. This is all part of
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: what do they say what a Carter and Jed say,
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: like it's these are more data points to add, right
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: or whatever however you want to phrase it.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: And progress is linear.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right, that one as well. So yeah, it's it's
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: it's something you have to pay attention to. And and
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm not saying like Miguel Amaya deserves eighty
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: percent of the starts next year. We'll see what the
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: final month of baseball gives us as far as his production,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: but it has to be at least putting something in
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: Jed and Carter's head about how they attack the off season.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's a lot to unpack with a
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: maya of you know, he's only twenty five, and I
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: think we both agree like catching generally comes a little later.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, he was a good offensive prospect coming up
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: through the Miners. At the same time, the knock on
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: him in the miners right was that he couldn't stay healthy.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: And I'm kind of surprised, you know, at how durable
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: he's been thus far, and I think that would be
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: a concern moving forward. I think ideally when they moved
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: on from Wilson, didn't they basically say like we kind
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: of want like a timeshare cod catcher type deal moving forward.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: So I still think you address it.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't cross my fingers and hope Amaya and Baalisteros
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: are like it. I mean, maybe they could be, and
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: maybe Amaya and Baalisteros get DH at bats at some
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: point moving forward, but.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I think this is really gets to a lot of
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: what we're seeing out of the Cubs. Like, you know,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Christopher Morell had this great reset last year in Anaheim,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: right where they put him in time out for three
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: games and all of a sudden, you know, you look
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: up and wow, he had a really great year, Like
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: this is like, let's see what we got and it
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: absolutely cratered and they traded him for parade days. So
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I think there is a kind of a danger in
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: overreacting to some of the stuff. I think that I
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: think they have to get it catured.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: No matter what.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: They've been pretty lucky, like I said, healthwives. Obviously needle
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: went down, but and they were able to get some
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: of those extra depth guys to come in and boost
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: it a little bit. But this to me goes back
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: to what you say, sid of like, you got to
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: build a team that's expected or projected to win ninety games, right,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: and so what what does that look like by the
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: time they get to Mason next year?
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: In regards to the catching.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: Situation, Yeah, so a couple of things. First of all,
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: fact check eight stolen bases last night and PAS twenty
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: six at twenty seven. Man, that's insane. And the one
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: that he was caught stealing was that failed a bunt
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: attempt where he strayed too far off third. So but
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: with Maya nine to ninety one ops in his last
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: one hundred and one plate appearances, So that's like what
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: like a quarter a fifth of us full season if
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: you're the full time, full time catcher. I don't want
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: to get too crazy with this, right, but when you
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: have a moment where where you change something specific, like, right,
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: this isn't just a hot streak that came out of nowhere,
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: something specific was changed, you have to you know, you
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: have to at least pay attention a little bit more.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: But I think what we're what we're seeing here, probably
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: even if it's a hot final month two, you want
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: to get like, like you said, you want to up
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: those projections. I still think you need like you want
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: to go into the season feeling like we have a
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: fifty to fifty time share at minimum, right, if not,
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: if not sixty forty with the new the new guy
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: taking more like uh starts behind the plate. Well, however
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: they end up seeing it, I just Catcher won't be ignored, right,
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: they're not. I'd be very surprised if they're going into
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: next season expecting Biostais to be the the backup or
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: they don't know.
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: If he can catch at all, to be right right
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: level on a consistent basis.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: Exactly and he's it's not like he's destroying Triple A offensively,
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: Like he's hit a little bit of a bump in
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: the road and that's that's not to rip him in
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: any way. He's a twenty year old kid at Triple A.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: This is how it works. He should hit a bump
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: in the road. It's normal and it'll probably help his
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: development in the long run. But so that the discussion
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: then becomes in my mind, do we see the Cubs
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: pursue someone like Danny Jansen or Carson Kelly that type
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: and go with a veteran that they know can catch,
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: that they know will it, like you know, gives them
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: a floor, so to say, and someone they can rely
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: on to like like carry the load with Amaya or
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: do they go hard after a hobby again or a
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: different catcher that that may be available and have someone
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: that's catching seventy percent of the time. And I don't
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: think either route is terrible with the way Amaya is
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: playing right now. But when you bring up Morele, you're right,
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: we don't know. A couple months of success doesn't mean
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: that you change your strateg completely. It just can't eat
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: like it would be really risky if so when Jed
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: said at the deadline he wanted to see some things
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: from the offense, I think what he was saying is,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: like guys that have performed, he wanted to make sure
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: like something wasn't completely off with them, or he wanted
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: to see some progress with these guys. I don't think
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: it was gonna sit like it was more about like,
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: oh no, oh, we're fine now. I'm not adding offense
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: right that. I don't think that's what he was saying.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: I know, not at all.
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I never took it that way at all.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, it was it was I want to see progress.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: I want to feel better about this group, and then
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: we can supplement and add here and there and know
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: specifically where and what we need to add and maybe
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: feel a little bit better. It's like what we're talking
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: about right now with Amaya. Do they go hard after
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: a star bat that can catch or do they say,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: you know what, he can handle fifty to fifty and
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: we can win games with a veteran paired with him.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: And I think that's that That's what they're probably debating
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: right now, and it's certainly an interesting conversation and it's
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: got to be hard, like how do you how do
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: you know what's real? How do you know? How do
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: you trust that this this can carry over? And how
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: do you what if you make the mistake that, shoot,
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: he should have been the guy who we should have
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: given him seventy percent of the start. So what if
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: what if it takes what if to get that catcher
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: takes giving up Miguel Amayah? You know what if they
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: decide to go after a star catcher and it takes
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: giving up Miguel Amaya, Do you make that move? I
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: don't know, Like he's putting, he's putting these thoughts in
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: my mind that I did not think I would have
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: a month ago.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Well, I think it's important to remember he kind of
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: triggered my mary. This guy had fifteen games at.
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: The Triple A level for his entire.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Part, just with the roster crunch as and the options
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: running out as.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: A international free agent who had signed and dealt with
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: a lot of injuries that had just been kind of
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: stashed on the forty man roster for a long time
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: before he made any sort of.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Impact. I thought it was interesting, I thought of you.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: When the Angels announced a short extension for their GM
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: that to me, my gut feel would be they would
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: probably hold on to Hoppy in that scenario. I do
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: think this rules out the I don't know, I'm pronouncing
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: his name right.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Shae Langeliers from Oakland. I think if Amaya.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Is like pretty good, like a backup. Plus, I don't
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: know if you go all out for a guy who
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: may not be like a huge difference maker coming out
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: of Oakland, But I could certainly see the wisdom of
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: a nice two year deal for a guy like Carson Kelly,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: if you think. And the unspoken thing that's always really
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: hard to get a good handle on is the soft
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: factors behind the plate, because at times it feels like
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: they're overblown.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: It feels like.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you know, uh, I'll just use Kyle Hendricks as
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: an example. Kyle Hendricks is the greatest teammate ever, right,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: so if you ask him about a catcher at any times, oh,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: he's the best back there, right and.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: He probably means it, like in his heart he means it.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: But like, is that the most like incisive.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Look at what the Cubs catching situation is at any
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: given time? Like sometimes it's it's hard to tell, and
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: you know, I felt like there were times they were
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: a little hard on Wilson. There were certainly times where
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: you kind of looked at Wilson and be like, dude,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: are you serious, Like you know what, like you kind
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: of get why maybe they'd have some some reservations there.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: So like, if.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Maya has shown enough defensive progress, I think that's another factor,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: and that is ultimately that they'll just show us that.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Like it's really hard to get someone to tell you.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: You can get certain people to talk about it, but
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: to get like to the heart of the matter is
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: really hard because you're dealing with, over the course of
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: a season, so many pitchers. There are so many coaches
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: and analysts involved in this, and then there's the offensive
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: factor too. So if but I do think that Amaya,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: as I've known him over the years, you know, seems
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: like a pretty genuine guy who's humble and quiet and
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: wants to work. And you know, whatever happens, credit to him,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: because even just like doing some of this bare minimum
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: stuff means he could have like a ten year career
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: in the.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: Big leagu right right backup catchers have long careers as well,
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: and obviously he's got potential for more. So the Cubs
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: have to be you know, that that that has to
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: that's a bright spot so far in the second half
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: among a few of them, that that gives them some
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: hope for twenty twenty five, while still you know, giving
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: them the slightest bit of hope for this season, which
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: Atlanta just keeps winning. Patrick So so we can't. So
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: we can't. You know, the Cubs can't celebrate too much
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: with their better performance of late.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I wanted to.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: These things are important because I think it gives context
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: to like, the rest of the organization. You have a
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: good piece up on the athletic on Cam Smith, the
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Cub's most recent first round pick, and I think, like
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: I personally have some prospect fatigue and that like when
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: things aren't working at the major league level or as
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: certain prospects fall off. I do think there's like a
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: shiny new object element to all of this.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: But I thought you did a good job of putting
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: it in.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Perspective of like how this guy popped as a prospect,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: you know why they targeted him, and like what he's
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: done so far in the minors is pretty remarkable.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, he ended his Myrtle Beach career with
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: six homers in six games, six, six st eight games
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: with homers. I believe that was a myrtle beat. I
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: believe five was the record, and you just kept going.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: I could be wrong. I'm going off my memory based
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: on tweets, But but he he's a he's a pretty
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: interesting prospect. So defensively, it's it's a great arm, it'll
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: stick it third, right, he'll stick it third with the arm,
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: it's that the hands like are about average, and then
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: the footwork needs work, and it sounds like from what
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: I've gathered, that will be a big focus in the
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: off season as far as his defensive work. Scouts outside
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: the ORG, most of them really liked this pick. They
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: that want. One scout was was kind of like it
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: was like I love how aggressive they were with not overthinking, uh,
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: not overthinking this pick, because this is someone that kind
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: of popped suddenly right his his freshman year, too much
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: swing and miss. Didn't really seem like a first round pick,
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: Like you wouldn't have selected him in the first round
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: if you're looking at his freshman numbers, you kind of
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: rework some things. He has an unorthodox setup where like
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: the bat is like almost in front of him and
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: there's not a lot of movement, which makes you think, okay, this,
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: how does this guy generate power because he's really strong,
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: and they like he's a big dude who's strong. It's
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: not so oh in case he has like elite exit velocities, right,
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: it's not there. But Owen Casey also has elite exit
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: velocities for like for big leaguers. He's like in Geene
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: Carlos Stanton range. But cam smith is is like elite
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: for a draft prospect. Like in the draft it was
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: among the best for for exit velocity and bat speed
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: and they have these The Cubs have these swing properties
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: that they look at, like the swing plane and things
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: like that, and he like batspeed like I mentioned, and
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: he's he has all of that. He hits for power,
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: he makes contact, he doesn't the in zone swing and
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: miss reduced greatly this season. I think that was the
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: big thing that scouts took notice of, Like this guy's
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: not missing at pitches in the zone anymore. He does
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: damage on those pitches, which freshman year he wasn't doing that,
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: and and they they saw the swing change. It's kind
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: of like what I was saying about with Amaya. Right,
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: It's one thing if you suddenly change and there's no explanation.
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: This guy's just hot, okay, but why the why is
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: he made changes right now? There are some things they
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: want him to be, like a little looser and freer
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: in the box. One thing I was told is the
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: philosophy of the front office right now is as far
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: as player development goes, is we're not changing anyone's swing
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: unless they fail. Uh. So you know, this guy there,
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: there is a chance that they'll make some changes with
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: with whether it's his setup or his mechanics, but it's
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: not going to happen right now. He's because yeah, right,
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: but but this guy right now is crushing the ball.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: He's been promoted to South Bend. Uh, there's like he's
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: kind of on the Matt Shaw track right now. And
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: to be uh, if he crushes South Bend, Tennessee is
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: going to be in the playoffs. Uh he could he
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: could be called up and play a few games for
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Tennessee as well, kind of like kind of like what
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: happened with Shaw last year. So we'll see if we'll
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: see where is it's an it's a they've they've done
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: a good job. They seem to, like I was told,
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: like they targeted. A lot of the said that I
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: had someone outside the org raving about their second round
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: pick too. But uh, but camp Smith definitely an interesting
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: prospect and someone yet again they what was it fourteenth
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: they selected this year? Is that right?
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: It sounds about right?
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: And and uh and they're getting a guy that's gonna,
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: you know, probably be mentioned in top one hundred lists.
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: Uh yet again that that's that's pretty good. You have
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: to you have to give them some credit there where
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: they're not just drafting in the top ten. They're not
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: drafting top five every time, and they're getting quality prospects,
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: possibly impactful prospects, which.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Means they said, start trading some of them this offseason. Yeah,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: that'll be a separate podcast. But that would be my
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: if not that no one's asking me, but if I
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: was a special assistant in there getting rid of some
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: of these guys that you know, the prospect writers love
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: that if their top one hundred, like, I would start
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: moving some of those those guys because.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: It's it's time to win. It's been a been a
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: tough watch this year and that I think if you.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Can get some some major league imping talent in there,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: I would I would that would be the route I
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: would choose.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I don't want to hear spin of
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: You know, this is a second place team. This team
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: is barely outside the playoff race. You know that that'd
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: be the second year in a row we could make
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: some of those excuses. I agree. I'd be a little
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: surprised if there isn't at least one big trade. What
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: they what role they fell like, what spot they feel
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: We'll we'll find out. Yeah, and we'll continue to dig
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: into and and talk about this off when once offseason
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: gets here. But uh yeah, trading prospects is going to
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: have to be something that they consider and and and
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: look into and probably be pretty aggressive with. They can't
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: play all these guys. And and it's not like I
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: know people complain about Happen and Suzuki at times. They're
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: both really productive players. Yeah, it's not the issue. Yeah,
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: So so you you need to start thinking about who
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: to move. And in the bottom line is you have
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: to be right. We say this all the time. They
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: got to pick the right ones. They can't move the
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: ones that turn into stars. So they're the ones that
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: know that they're the ones that are on top of
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: these guys. So use the information that you have, and
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: and and go target the right players. Uh, Patrick, they
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: have two more against Pittsburgh, three against the Nationals, and
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: then I believe three more against Pittsburgh at home. Right. Uh,
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: it's not gonna be easier. Yeah, it's not gonna be
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: easy because Pittsburgh has Paul Skeins, Jared Jones goes Tuesday night. Uh,
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: these aren't These aren't easy pitchers to face. We'll see
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: how the Cubs. They did a great job against Keller,
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: We'll see if they can do that against Jones. They
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: need to start sweeping some series here. They need to
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: start gaining some ground on Atlanta. Otherwise we're gonna have
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: to squarely focus on on twenty twenty five and beyond
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: because they're barely hanging on to hope here. So we'll
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: see if they can finish off a series, if they
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: can even get a chance to sweep, because Jared Jones
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: is no pushover. So we'll see. We'll see how they do.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: If this offense can put together back to back strong
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: offensive nights, you know.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Scoring eighteen runs, you know they're gonna get like get
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: shut out one of these, right, I mean, it just
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: happened just happened in Miami, right They score fourteen and
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: then scored two against Adam Ahller.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: So Skens and Jones are a little tougher competition too,
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: So we'll see what they can do in Pittsburgh the
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: rest of this series, and then out in DC where
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: Dylan Cruz was just called up, so you know that
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: there maybe there'll be some prospect hype in Washington as well.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: All right, thanks for listening everyone. Make sure to subscribe, rate,
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: and review to Northside Territory, Subscribe to the YouTube channel,
• 34:09
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• 34:12
  Speaker 3: my work on the Cubs. We always appreciate that. We
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: appreciate you engaging with us and helping the podcast go.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: And thanks to everyone behind the scenes for doing all
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: the work to make sure that this podcast sounds great
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: and is ready for your ears on a day on
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: a weekly basis. Appreciate it everyone. Thanks for listening. Take care,