Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Pete Crow-Armstrong keeps putting on a show (just not at the Home Run Derby)

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Pete Crow-Armstrong keeps putting on a show (just not at the Home Run Derby) · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Saadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:13
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. The Cubs
0:17
Speaker 1: take the first of three against the Brewers.
0:21
Speaker 2: The wind was blown out at his.
0:22
Speaker 1: Summer in Chicago. I think we're recording on a Wednesday.
0:27
Speaker 1: I think we're going to get a rainy, cooler day
0:29
Speaker 1: on Wednesday. But but summers in full bloom here. It's
0:31
Speaker 1: about to get really hot, and I think we're going
0:34
Speaker 1: to see a little change with Wrigley, something that hasn't changed,
0:40
Speaker 1: be just a daily occurrence now PCA making our jaws drop.
0:46
Speaker 1: The defensive play first was I don't know I come to.
0:51
Speaker 1: I was listening to the postgame show on Marquis. They
0:54
Speaker 1: had Caleb thielbar On and he kind of just was
0:56
Speaker 1: like I kind of turned around and almost expected him
0:58
Speaker 1: to be there.
1:00
Speaker 2: It was a ridiculous catch.
1:01
Speaker 1: He should have been nowhere close to it, and he
1:04
Speaker 1: almost made it look pretty simple. And he does that
1:08
Speaker 1: so so often. And then he hits a four hundred
1:11
Speaker 1: and fifty two bomb off the scoreboard and right field
1:14
Speaker 1: that just every single time he's it's become it was
1:19
Speaker 1: already to this point, but you can't you can't turn
1:22
Speaker 1: away if he's coming up, or like just the fact
1:25
Speaker 1: that if he's out there playing defense, you may miss
1:28
Speaker 1: something if you walk away from your TV screen or
1:31
Speaker 1: get up to get a beer at the ballpark.
1:32
Speaker 2: Whatever.
1:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I started typing, you know it was
1:36
Speaker 3: in you know, the catch in left center field, and
1:39
Speaker 3: then I kind of like readjusted my eyes like that
1:41
Speaker 3: was totally left field. I think Boo called it, you know,
1:43
Speaker 3: straightaway left field, like it was, yeah, sort of like
1:46
Speaker 3: no business being there, or.
1:49
Speaker 4: An average center fielder wouldn't get there.
1:52
Speaker 3: And that was one of those where you saw it
1:54
Speaker 3: over the weekend where Pete was making difficult plays look
1:58
Speaker 3: sort of easy just because of his ins and his
2:00
Speaker 3: bursts that he was just getting there and kind of
2:02
Speaker 3: catching it in stride. And I think we've seen this
2:06
Speaker 3: before sometimes the center fielders that make these sliding plays
2:11
Speaker 3: and they it looks good in the ten second clip,
2:15
Speaker 3: but really that could also be a product of a
2:18
Speaker 3: bad read or a bad jump, or you know, maybe
2:21
Speaker 3: a slower sort of sprint speed and he was just
2:24
Speaker 3: there and yeah, I mean, we cover the Cubs, but
2:27
Speaker 3: there are days where it feels like, you know, you
2:30
Speaker 3: could write a Pete crow Armstrong headline every single day.
2:34
Speaker 3: I mean, it's like what Hobby was during that twenty
2:37
Speaker 3: sixteen playoff run. I mean we're not quite at the
2:41
Speaker 3: I mean, did the Washington Post when Michael Jordan played
2:44
Speaker 3: with the Wizards just have a.
2:45
Speaker 2: Guy who covered Michael.
2:48
Speaker 3: I don't think our editors are quite there yet with Pete,
2:51
Speaker 3: but no doubt, like, as long as there are still
2:56
Speaker 3: outs left in the game, Pete krow Armstrong might do
2:59
Speaker 3: something just absolute spectacular.
3:02
Speaker 1: So we knew the baseline because of the defense. We
3:05
Speaker 1: knew that there was a baseline here that he could
3:10
Speaker 1: He was going to be valuable because he could play
3:12
Speaker 1: center plus plus center field defense. I think sometimes, at
3:17
Speaker 1: least for me covering the Cubs.
3:19
Speaker 2: Uh, we there was a lot of hype.
3:22
Speaker 1: Around Albert el Morris defense and Albert el Moore is
3:25
Speaker 1: and it wasn't a bad defender. Uh, he just wasn't
3:28
Speaker 1: this elite defensive center fielder that kind of he was
3:32
Speaker 1: billed to be. And I remember talking to a scout
3:35
Speaker 1: that uh was part of drafting him, and he said
3:39
Speaker 1: there's a lesson in there. You know, maybe I think
3:41
Speaker 1: we all can take take away like you need you
3:44
Speaker 1: need plus speed to be.
3:45
Speaker 2: A great center fielder. He has it all.
3:49
Speaker 1: He has that plus speed, but he has these we
3:52
Speaker 1: can measure now right there, there's uh, there's stat cast
3:56
Speaker 1: has these measurements of jump and things like that.
3:59
Speaker 2: He has elite instincts.
4:02
Speaker 1: He gets this crazy jump to be able to go
4:05
Speaker 1: into left field and make a crazy catch.
4:09
Speaker 2: I think I think because I thought we all.
4:13
Speaker 1: Assumed we had this like baseline for defense, sometimes I didn't.
4:17
Speaker 1: I didn't fully understand how good it was going to be.
4:20
Speaker 1: And then watching it daily, seeing the jumps he gets,
4:23
Speaker 1: seeing the catches he make makes look routine, it's kind
4:28
Speaker 1: of mind blowing. And it's you know, even Council said
4:31
Speaker 1: before yesterday's game that you know, it's the best he's
4:34
Speaker 1: seen that he's been a manager for defensively. That's I mean,
4:39
Speaker 1: this is a guy that's been in baseball since then,
4:41
Speaker 1: you know, early nineties, so I mean that's high praise.
4:47
Speaker 1: And what he's doing offensively is just, you know, it
4:50
Speaker 1: is the ceiling kind of that we talked about. I
4:52
Speaker 1: remember talking to guys in spring training, Like, what can
4:54
Speaker 1: he be? They were all, like a lot of them
4:57
Speaker 1: were like, he can be.
4:58
Speaker 2: We know, we can be insanely special, but just let
5:00
Speaker 2: him play, Like, let's not put too much pressure on
5:03
Speaker 2: this situation. Even if he's good defensively, it'll be great
5:06
Speaker 2: for us. But he's he's doing it all and it's
5:10
Speaker 2: like the pressure is nothing for him.
5:11
Speaker 1: It seems like it seems like he enjoys it.
5:14
Speaker 4: It's unbelieva.
5:15
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, it seemed like a guy who said, hey,
5:18
Speaker 3: maybe could run into twenty homers at some point in
5:21
Speaker 3: a season, maybe in a couple of years, and he's
5:25
Speaker 3: got almost twenty and it's we're not even at the
5:27
Speaker 3: halfway point yet.
5:30
Speaker 2: I guess.
5:30
Speaker 3: The one piece of news that came out of yesterday
5:32
Speaker 3: or a piece of news regarding Pete was his lack
5:37
Speaker 3: of interest in participating in the home run derby. If asked,
5:44
Speaker 3: he's not really inclined to do that, he said, it's different,
5:48
Speaker 3: you know, performing at game speed in the shorter bursts
5:51
Speaker 3: versus putting on a show in batting practice. He said
5:55
Speaker 3: it was like I don't got pop like that or
5:57
Speaker 3: something like that, or you know, BP pop is one
6:00
Speaker 3: thing so that is kind of where his mindset is that.
6:03
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess that's not maybe set in stone.
6:09
Speaker 3: I still think people would want to see him in it.
6:11
Speaker 3: I'm sure does ESPN still brought out you know, ESPN
6:16
Speaker 3: wants a minute major League Baseball.
6:20
Speaker 4: I'm sure would love a minute. But at this point
6:24
Speaker 4: he is a no but not yet asked.
6:27
Speaker 3: And you're looking at the National League ballot update that
6:31
Speaker 3: just came out on Monday. I mean, he cleared a
6:35
Speaker 3: million votes, the leading vote get her among outfielders, and
6:39
Speaker 3: you know, Kyle Tucker's the next closest outfielder and he
6:43
Speaker 3: got a little over seven hundred thousand votes thus far.
6:46
Speaker 3: So just I mean, it really shows you how people
6:49
Speaker 3: how he's captured people's imagination.
6:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, the voting, the also game, all
6:57
Speaker 1: that stuff is fun. I don't think it's the biggest deal.
6:59
Speaker 1: What I do think is important is the Cubs are
7:01
Speaker 1: back on the map.
7:02
Speaker 2: There.
7:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, they weren't relevant in these voting, in the voting
7:07
Speaker 1: for years. Shoda made it, but I mean they just
7:12
Speaker 1: weren't a big talk about that. There was just no
7:15
Speaker 1: reason to talk about the All Star Game in the Cups.
7:17
Speaker 1: It just wasn't going to be that much relevancy for
7:22
Speaker 1: four years now, I mean more than that, because I mean,
7:26
Speaker 1: I don't even remember did anyone Did anyone make it
7:28
Speaker 1: from that group in twenty one they were they were
7:30
Speaker 1: struggling in twenty one, I'm not sure if anyone made it.
7:33
Speaker 1: So it's a it's just a different feeling. It's a
7:36
Speaker 1: different I think it matters in that sense, in the
7:40
Speaker 1: sense that, hey, the Cubs are back on the map.
7:42
Speaker 1: Peter Armstrong is emerging, as you know with Shoho Tani
7:48
Speaker 1: and Aaron Judge. Maybe not the face but a face MLB,
7:52
Speaker 1: and that's that's huge.
7:54
Speaker 2: That's that they've been.
7:55
Speaker 1: Looking for that and you thought adding Kyle Tucker is, hey,
7:59
Speaker 1: here's a super star ideally to you know, really blow
8:03
Speaker 1: past expectations. Someone outperforms, uh, you know, with projections, and
8:10
Speaker 1: that's that's.
8:11
Speaker 2: What PCA is doing right now. It's extremely fun to
8:15
Speaker 2: cover and the energy that he provides at the ballpark
8:19
Speaker 2: is undeniable. Uh you know, PCA m VP chants, those
8:23
Speaker 2: are that's fun. That's fun to see and I you know,
8:27
Speaker 2: I think the team enjoys it. And he's he's kind
8:30
Speaker 2: of an easy guy to root for.
8:32
Speaker 1: He fun to watch, easy to talk to, says the
8:36
Speaker 1: right things, gives you a good headline with it. What
8:39
Speaker 1: he says, he's happy to talk to us. So it's
8:42
Speaker 1: it's kind of the full package right now.
8:44
Speaker 3: That's a great point about putting this team back on
8:47
Speaker 3: the map, because I don't remember a recent All Star
8:52
Speaker 3: game it was all about, you know, will Wilson Contreras
8:54
Speaker 3: get traded before then, or you know, even even Ian
8:58
Speaker 3: Happ was kind of sort of in the same boat there.
9:01
Speaker 3: And now you have legitimately one of the most exciting
9:06
Speaker 3: players in baseball wearing a Cubs uniform, very proudly representing Chicago.
9:13
Speaker 3: You know where his dad, you know, grew up in.
9:16
Speaker 3: I mean, Naperville's not Chicago. I know there's probably like
9:19
Speaker 3: an obvious shirt about that. But someone who grew up
9:22
Speaker 3: with I mean with you know, the framed Anthony Rizzo's
9:26
Speaker 3: Sports Illustrated cover of him catching that last out after
9:30
Speaker 3: Game seven of twenty sixteen World Series, just someone who
9:33
Speaker 3: gets it always delivers those like Marquee friendly sound bites
9:38
Speaker 3: about how you know it's different here, the fans are
9:41
Speaker 3: the best, Like the energy is amazing, but at the
9:44
Speaker 3: same time, to your point, it's also very humble, very
9:48
Speaker 3: eager to deflect credit to others.
9:51
Speaker 4: To you know, say, the main thing is winning here.
9:56
Speaker 4: That's you know, in that you know.
9:58
Speaker 3: I'm a part of a bigger puzzle, crediting coaches, veteran teammates,
10:07
Speaker 3: Craig Council. Really just kind of watching the way he's
10:11
Speaker 3: handled himself, particular considering how just rushed and overwhelmed he
10:19
Speaker 3: seemed as a September call up in twenty twenty three,
10:22
Speaker 3: and how lost he looked at times last year at
10:26
Speaker 3: the plate.
10:26
Speaker 4: It's just been a jaw dropping evolution for Peeko Armstrong.
10:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, like I said, been really fun to cover, and
10:37
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to slow down. It just
10:39
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like every single time I think there's a
10:41
Speaker 1: little dip in performance, he does what he did, you
10:44
Speaker 1: know last night. So all right, let's take a quick
10:47
Speaker 1: break and talk some more cubs when we get back.
10:49
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11:53
Speaker 2: Patrick. This team is as good as they are because
11:57
Speaker 2: of the stars. They have a great bullpen.
12:00
Speaker 1: It's the players on the field that are the reason
12:04
Speaker 1: they're this good. But they have the highest paid or
12:09
Speaker 1: second highest paid manager now with Dave Roberts getting his extension.
12:13
Speaker 1: But they paid Craig Council a ton of money. He
12:18
Speaker 1: didn't make his imprint last year eighty three wins after
12:22
Speaker 1: David Ross accomplished the same feat the year before. You
12:26
Speaker 1: can't say that anymore. You cannot say that Craig Counsel
12:30
Speaker 1: isn't making a difference. Impossible to know how much of
12:32
Speaker 1: a difference. We can't measure these things as far as
12:36
Speaker 1: a manager's value. It's really hard to understand it, I think,
12:41
Speaker 1: but it seems obvious to anyone that's around that team
12:44
Speaker 1: that he's making a difference this year.
12:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, separating out parceling out the blame or the credit,
12:52
Speaker 3: you know, is always really difficult with an operation as
12:56
Speaker 3: complicated as a Major League Baseball franchise. And you know,
13:02
Speaker 3: it's not that Counsel did a bad job last year.
13:05
Speaker 3: It was just that David Ross brought the Cubs competence, respectability,
13:13
Speaker 3: likability in the clubhouse. You know, he represented this link
13:19
Speaker 3: to their only World Series champion since nineteen eight. And
13:24
Speaker 3: so when you get rid of a guy like that
13:26
Speaker 3: and hire a guy away from your rivals, you think
13:32
Speaker 3: there's gonna be more there there from the start. And
13:35
Speaker 3: the Brewers did not look like they missed Craig Counsel
13:38
Speaker 3: at all last year.
13:39
Speaker 4: I mean they were sort of a wire to wire
13:42
Speaker 4: type of team. And you know now.
13:47
Speaker 3: That Council has had a year to sort of observe
13:50
Speaker 3: he's brought in. It didn't entirely change the staff, but
13:54
Speaker 3: he made a few few small changes, and obviously the
13:57
Speaker 3: big move was for Kyle Tucker. I mean that is
14:00
Speaker 3: what I think we all think really turbo charged this
14:04
Speaker 3: team in a lot of different ways. But it's hard
14:08
Speaker 3: to look at Pete crow Armstrong's development and think Council
14:12
Speaker 3: had nothing to do with that because he was the
14:14
Speaker 3: one who told him last year, look, just go play
14:17
Speaker 3: great defense, run the bases, and don't worry about your
14:20
Speaker 3: offense at all. Like his patients, I think really helped
14:24
Speaker 3: in this process. The Cubs have a six and a
14:28
Speaker 3: half game lead in the division while they're opening. The
14:31
Speaker 3: rotation is in absolute tatters, the record in one run games,
14:37
Speaker 3: the way they're stealing bases, the bullpen, which you've written
14:41
Speaker 3: about at length, like, yeah, he can manage a bullpen
14:46
Speaker 3: that doesn't have Devin Williams or Josh Hater at the
14:49
Speaker 3: back end, and I think it's just you were actually
14:51
Speaker 3: the one who really pointed this out to me. Sahadev
14:53
Speaker 3: of like council has a ton of feel that. Yes,
14:58
Speaker 3: he fluent in all the numbers, he's always talking to
15:02
Speaker 3: the front office, but there is just a something about
15:08
Speaker 3: being around the part of a team, being in the
15:10
Speaker 3: clubhouse that Council just loves.
15:13
Speaker 4: I think you see it every day you're at the
15:15
Speaker 4: ballpark too.
15:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's it's little things, right. He made
15:20
Speaker 1: changes to the dugout because he wanted he thought it
15:23
Speaker 1: would like bring like keep the team closer together, like physically,
15:27
Speaker 1: like they're they're around each other more, they're able to
15:29
Speaker 1: like intermingle easier.
15:32
Speaker 2: Uh he he.
15:33
Speaker 1: Says things that are just uh, this is not this
15:38
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with data, It has nothing to
15:40
Speaker 1: do with things you can measure. But he talks about
15:45
Speaker 1: and they're simple things that I think if you're around baseball,
15:47
Speaker 1: you know and you understand.
15:49
Speaker 2: But they're good. They're good messages.
15:52
Speaker 1: Like the other day he was talking about how you know,
15:55
Speaker 1: you have to just focus on that day, although if
15:58
Speaker 1: you if you're focusing on last night, what happened last night,
16:01
Speaker 1: or you're thinking about the next day, like today's going
16:04
Speaker 1: to eat you alive. And it's just such a simple
16:07
Speaker 1: message that I think baseball players need to hear.
16:12
Speaker 2: I mean, think about it.
16:12
Speaker 1: They have all these so many of them have like
16:16
Speaker 1: you know, mental coaches or whatever it is, or people
16:21
Speaker 1: that like talk them through things, and they need like
16:24
Speaker 1: mantras to get.
16:25
Speaker 2: Through the day.
16:26
Speaker 1: Council has all that stuff, but he doesn't seem like
16:29
Speaker 1: that type of guy at first blush, but he totally
16:33
Speaker 1: believes all that stuff.
16:33
Speaker 2: He goes by his gut, He trusts things. What was
16:38
Speaker 2: it that he said yesterday?
16:41
Speaker 1: He had a teammate who said, the most important game
16:45
Speaker 1: is today, the biggest game of the year, biggest game
16:48
Speaker 1: of the year, said it every every game, before every game,
16:51
Speaker 1: and that's and that's kind of like how Counseol looks
16:54
Speaker 1: at it. It absolutely is they just got to focus
16:56
Speaker 1: on today because this is all that matters. And these
16:58
Speaker 1: are things that you don't you don't get from.
17:05
Speaker 2: Most people in baseball anymore.
17:07
Speaker 1: Don't think like, at least the forward thinking that what
17:10
Speaker 1: you think is the prototype of the modern day manager.
17:13
Speaker 1: You would think that these aren't aren't part of their
17:17
Speaker 1: their toolkit. But that's absolutely not the case with Counsel.
17:21
Speaker 7: Uh.
17:21
Speaker 1: He's able to kind of meld it all together. And
17:24
Speaker 1: he's not we were just talking about PC A PCAs
17:29
Speaker 1: he is going to create headlines all the time that
17:32
Speaker 1: Council isn't like this exciting, over the top personality. He'll
17:37
Speaker 1: give you great quotes, he's very straightforward. He's he's cerebral.
17:42
Speaker 1: He'll give you intelligent analysis, but he's also like not
17:47
Speaker 1: looking to do that.
17:49
Speaker 2: It's just who he is. And sometimes he'll be super
17:52
Speaker 2: dry and.
17:53
Speaker 1: Just give you a no, or you know, he'll he'll
17:57
Speaker 1: understand the question, but also not want to play the
18:00
Speaker 1: game and just and just go give you a It's like, no,
18:03
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that one.
18:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know what you're looking for.
18:06
Speaker 1: You're trying to create some narrative here, and I'm doing
18:08
Speaker 1: this instead saying no, and yeah.
18:12
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. You know, he does it to all
18:15
Speaker 2: of us.
18:15
Speaker 1: It's not just like he's He did it to me
18:17
Speaker 1: recently when I asked about what something about I can't
18:20
Speaker 1: even remember.
18:20
Speaker 2: What I was asking about. Oh, like, what can you
18:22
Speaker 2: take away from from playing Aces? When you when you
18:25
Speaker 2: face aces or like, what's the success beyond winning and
18:28
Speaker 2: he's like nothing. He's like, you win. You've got to
18:30
Speaker 2: win winnings, all that matters. And I appreciated that. That's
18:35
Speaker 2: how he's very straightforward.
18:37
Speaker 3: There's a simplicity in the way he communicates that I
18:41
Speaker 3: think cuts through a lot of the clutter. And I
18:44
Speaker 3: think there are different elements you can see too of
18:47
Speaker 3: just how and it's this is not all him, clearly,
18:53
Speaker 3: but comes were very aggressive in swapping out some bullpen pieces, uh,
19:00
Speaker 3: demoting certain players to IOWA, such as Matt Shaw, who
19:03
Speaker 3: has come back and you know, performed very well all
19:09
Speaker 3: things considered, particularly on the defensive side. Uh, you have
19:15
Speaker 3: relievers or out getters, I should say, who have really
19:18
Speaker 3: bought into their roles fully. You know, Brian Presley didn't
19:23
Speaker 3: get buried after like one of the worst innings ever.
19:26
Speaker 3: I've shown a ton of trust in Daniel Polentci, and
19:29
Speaker 3: I believe Polentcy has acknowledged that that it meant a
19:31
Speaker 3: lot that he just kept running him out there even
19:34
Speaker 3: though he uh, you know, had a bad game in
19:37
Speaker 3: Miami or whatever it was incorporating you know, Drew Pomeranz,
19:43
Speaker 3: who he wrote about this week UH and some of
19:46
Speaker 3: the other sort of casts off cast offs. This schedule
19:53
Speaker 3: was front loaded with h playoff contenders, and the Cubs
19:58
Speaker 3: more than UH survived. They weren't complaining about traveling to Japan.
20:04
Speaker 4: I just think.
20:06
Speaker 3: All of it kind of goes towards the same thing
20:10
Speaker 3: of the Cubs being a like, well run competent, you know,
20:16
Speaker 3: little drama type of team.
20:21
Speaker 2: When it comes to the bullpen.
20:23
Speaker 1: I feel like you could have there's so many guys
20:25
Speaker 1: you mentioned Presley, There's so many guys you could have buried.
20:28
Speaker 1: Caleb Thielbar had more walks than strikeouts on after his
20:33
Speaker 1: outing against the Diamondbacks on April eighteenth, and now he's,
20:39
Speaker 1: you know, just a dominant lefty out of their bullpen
20:42
Speaker 1: hasn't given up a run and earned run since April thirtieth.
20:46
Speaker 1: I believe so what I saw. It's insane that this
20:50
Speaker 1: bullpen is on a run. That's it's kind of like
20:53
Speaker 1: over the top. It has you know, Chris Flexen and
20:56
Speaker 1: Drew Pomerance aren't going to have zero raise all season,
21:01
Speaker 1: is it?
21:01
Speaker 2: What did I say, I said flexing? Did I say flexin?
21:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's there's so many sort of casts off that
21:06
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, flexin.
21:07
Speaker 1: Too, Yeah yeah there, I mean field Bar to me
21:13
Speaker 1: was someone that I was like, this isn't working, Like
21:15
Speaker 1: this guy is looks like a mess.
21:18
Speaker 2: What are they going to do? They have no lefties
21:20
Speaker 2: and he's stuck with him.
21:21
Speaker 1: He he understood. He's like he's just getting locked in.
21:24
Speaker 1: He's he's trying to find his rhythm. He said similar
21:27
Speaker 1: things about President. He just needs to get out there.
21:29
Speaker 1: He needs to pitch. U don't overthink this. He's a veteran.
21:32
Speaker 1: He's gonna get right. He had that terrible It would
21:35
Speaker 1: have been so easy to.
21:36
Speaker 2: Dfa him or push to like I'm or just you know,
21:41
Speaker 2: bury him. Whatever. You know. He's his last few outings.
21:46
Speaker 1: He's starting to show more strikeouts since that San Francisco
21:49
Speaker 1: out and he hasn't allowed to run. Uh it's wait,
21:54
Speaker 1: did he give up a run? Maybe he gave up
21:55
Speaker 1: a run recently. Maybe I'm wrong, but uh.
21:58
Speaker 2: Either either way, he's been he's been brilli.
22:00
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm probably thinking of someone else that gave up
22:02
Speaker 1: a run recently.
22:03
Speaker 2: But whatever, he.
22:04
Speaker 4: Might bearned run maybe something like that.
22:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, he he hasn't. He hasn't. He gave up
22:09
Speaker 2: an unearned run against Washington. That's what it was. Uh,
22:13
Speaker 2: either way, I mean, these are it's so easy, and
22:16
Speaker 2: I ah, it's one thing for fans to push for
22:20
Speaker 2: this stuff. I get it.
22:21
Speaker 1: Fans that have shorter fuses than that they have to
22:25
Speaker 1: that it's normal or the management. Management and the manager
22:28
Speaker 1: have to have more patience. But a certain point, even
22:33
Speaker 1: us in the media, like is this working? Is this
22:35
Speaker 1: gonna work?
22:36
Speaker 2: Is this guy?
22:37
Speaker 5: Like?
22:37
Speaker 2: How do you survive with this guy on the roster?
22:41
Speaker 2: And and he's gotten them back, He's gotten them back
22:43
Speaker 2: to who they are. Sometimes it doesn't work out. Sometimes
22:45
Speaker 2: it's hector nares.
22:46
Speaker 1: Uh, that's that doesn't seem to be the case with
22:49
Speaker 1: a lot of these guys. Deal Bar stands out to
22:52
Speaker 1: me just because of how bad he looked early, but
22:55
Speaker 1: I think it applies to Pressley as well.
22:57
Speaker 2: And then just immediately throwing due prompt drew Pomerans into
23:01
Speaker 2: the fire.
23:02
Speaker 1: And then him just like quickly becoming one of their
23:06
Speaker 1: most trusted relievers. You could say he doesn't like he's
23:10
Speaker 1: forced to do this, but I also think, you know,
23:14
Speaker 1: it's kind of his managing style, his ability to kind
23:17
Speaker 1: of have the feel of who who to go to Yeah.
23:21
Speaker 4: Look, I mean this is a.
23:24
Speaker 3: Chunk of the baseball operations budget that's devoted towards the manager,
23:29
Speaker 3: and so like, the Cubs should probably have more choices
23:37
Speaker 3: than they do in terms of, you know, the players
23:43
Speaker 3: they acquire, but the way the team has run as
23:46
Speaker 3: Jed gets X, and it's for baseball operations and he
23:49
Speaker 3: can do with it what he wants. And so, yeah,
23:52
Speaker 3: eight million dollars this year is not a lot of
23:56
Speaker 3: money in the grand schemes of the Wrigleyville use, but
24:01
Speaker 3: it was a choice they made to get rid of,
24:03
Speaker 3: you know, a capable, popular manager and to invest in
24:10
Speaker 3: Craig Council to take away from a division rival as well.
24:14
Speaker 3: And just last year the Cubs never quite got going.
24:20
Speaker 3: They had a nice April and then just like kind
24:21
Speaker 3: of as Jed said, took hope off the table.
24:25
Speaker 4: And this is you can.
24:27
Speaker 3: See how much Counsel is enjoying this. You know, he's
24:35
Speaker 3: not he doesn't have a lot of catch phrases. He's not,
24:40
Speaker 3: you know one while the cameras are rolling to smile.
24:43
Speaker 3: He's got such a sneaky sense of humor that's really
24:46
Speaker 3: hard to describe unless you're actually.
24:50
Speaker 4: Talking to him.
24:51
Speaker 3: But I think, you know, Cubs fans can see the
24:55
Speaker 3: difference this year, and I think more of that personality
24:59
Speaker 3: and care character will be revealed over the course of
25:02
Speaker 3: the summer.
25:04
Speaker 2: All right, Patrick, let's take one more break and wrap
25:06
Speaker 2: this up with some Brewers talk.
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26:10
Speaker 1: Patrick, the Cubs, there're seventeen games over five hundred. I'm
26:14
Speaker 1: pretty sure that's the first time since twenty eighteen. I mean,
26:20
Speaker 1: that makes sense, you know, that's it's the last time
26:23
Speaker 1: they had a ninety.
26:25
Speaker 2: Plus win team.
26:28
Speaker 1: You know, it was in the heat of them, you know,
26:31
Speaker 1: just just winning a World Series, that that World Series
26:34
Speaker 1: core was still playing well.
26:37
Speaker 2: This, you know, is.
26:39
Speaker 1: This seems like the season headed in that direction as
26:43
Speaker 1: far as potentially winning ninety games in a postseason. But
26:48
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Brews are still tesky and hanging around. The
26:51
Speaker 1: Saint Louis Cardinals are two for some somehow. But after
26:58
Speaker 1: last night's win, they're six and a half games up.
27:01
Speaker 1: That's I mean, they've avoided the sweep, and the sweep
27:05
Speaker 1: is probably the one thing, you know, you really didn't
27:09
Speaker 1: the Brewers sweep them. They're two and a half games out.
27:11
Speaker 2: Now.
27:12
Speaker 1: The best they can do is is before and a
27:15
Speaker 1: half games out. They have good pitching. They have the
27:18
Speaker 1: pitching advantage. These next two games Wednesday, and Thursday. If
27:23
Speaker 1: the Cubs can win this series, I think it's huge
27:25
Speaker 1: because you were either beating their stud you know, prospect
27:30
Speaker 1: that comes up and throws one hundred and two, or
27:32
Speaker 1: you're beating their ace.
27:34
Speaker 2: Either way you take it, and it's just the Brewers
27:38
Speaker 2: are pesky.
27:39
Speaker 1: But the Cubs winning that first game feels like kind
27:42
Speaker 1: of like a swing in the in this at least
27:45
Speaker 1: early part. It's nothing's over yet, it's still June. I
27:48
Speaker 1: don't want to give the division to the Cubs, but
27:50
Speaker 1: it does feel like a significant victory in that sense.
27:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, in the Cub's longest losing streak this year is
27:57
Speaker 3: three games, which is of considering how the last two
28:02
Speaker 3: seasons cratered and kind of collapsed under the weight of
28:10
Speaker 3: you know, kind of feeling like this was, you know,
28:12
Speaker 3: a playoff type year and just either not having the
28:15
Speaker 3: kind of endurance or the high end talent or whatever
28:20
Speaker 3: to kind of stop those spirals and they have.
28:26
Speaker 4: You know, we're approaching the halfway point of the of
28:28
Speaker 4: the year.
28:30
Speaker 3: You'll get a nice look at the Cardinals in Saint
28:32
Speaker 3: Louis next week, which I think, you know, four games
28:35
Speaker 3: at Bush Stadium.
28:38
Speaker 4: Will be telling.
28:40
Speaker 3: I'm I'm kind of fascinated to see what the Cardinals
28:43
Speaker 3: do at the deadline.
28:45
Speaker 4: And also the Brewers.
28:46
Speaker 3: I mean, they traded a starting pitcher to the White
28:50
Speaker 3: Sox recently, and they they operate from a different playbook
28:55
Speaker 3: than than most teams. They're probably smarter than most teams too.
29:01
Speaker 3: And yeah, the car like, are the Cardinals going to
29:04
Speaker 3: go for it? Are they going to just punt? Or
29:09
Speaker 3: are they going to sort of keep this team together?
29:11
Speaker 3: And I think it speaks to like the Cubs had
29:14
Speaker 3: to be on top of their game in these first
29:19
Speaker 3: couple of months, between the way, the difficult schedule, and
29:24
Speaker 3: a division that has pushed them in a way that
29:27
Speaker 3: you know, I didn't fully anticipate.
29:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't either. I didn't.
29:32
Speaker 1: Well, I guess I'm I've learned my lesson with the Brewers,
29:36
Speaker 1: so I always think they're going to be in it.
29:39
Speaker 1: I did not think the Cardinals would be in this.
29:42
Speaker 1: The Reds are, you know, a Terry Francona team now,
29:45
Speaker 1: and they have a ton of talent. I expect them
29:47
Speaker 1: to you know, I don't expect them to go away.
29:50
Speaker 2: I know they're not.
29:52
Speaker 1: Dominating or anything, but they've gotten better as the year
29:55
Speaker 1: has gone on, and I don't expect them to just creter.
30:00
Speaker 1: I will say that, you know, they've the Cubs haven't
30:04
Speaker 1: been playing great baseball, and they've built this lead in
30:08
Speaker 1: the division. I mean, I think I keep you know,
30:12
Speaker 1: we hear like, oh, the offense isn't clicking whatever, you know,
30:16
Speaker 1: they're not dominating winning teams, and then you look at
30:19
Speaker 1: the standings and their lead continues to grow, and I
30:22
Speaker 1: guess that's all that matters. Uh, just win the games.
30:26
Speaker 1: Just find ways to win a couple of series here
30:28
Speaker 1: and there. Uh, stay healthy, and and things will, things
30:32
Speaker 1: will kind of fall into place in the end. You
30:36
Speaker 1: don't they've had I don't you know, maybe things can collapse,
30:41
Speaker 1: anything can happen.
30:42
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not ruling that out.
30:44
Speaker 1: It just looks like this is a steady team that
30:46
Speaker 1: is able to weather different challenges that pop up, whether
30:49
Speaker 1: they're injuries, Uh, the offense going into mini funk, the
30:54
Speaker 1: bullpen struggling to start out the season, whatever it may be.
30:57
Speaker 2: They're they're managing to do that. The Brewers are probably
31:02
Speaker 2: the main.
31:02
Speaker 1: Competition here and the biggest test to their ability to
31:07
Speaker 1: you know, take this division over again.
31:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, we always write what's in front of us, Like
31:13
Speaker 3: we like, it's really not that complicated. You know, the
31:18
Speaker 3: the coverage seems more positive when the team is winning,
31:21
Speaker 3: and when the team is not winning, obviously there's you know,
31:24
Speaker 3: a sort of negative slant to that. And I think
31:28
Speaker 3: that is probably as we talk through this team and
31:32
Speaker 3: our story ideas, like that's going to be a story
31:35
Speaker 3: here pretty soon, you know of like how does this,
31:38
Speaker 3: where does this go wrong?
31:39
Speaker 4: How could this collapse?
31:42
Speaker 3: Not saying that's going to happen, but there are a
31:46
Speaker 3: few a few things that you can sort of point to,
31:49
Speaker 3: whether it's that offense, where it's the state of the rotation, Bullpenser, Fickle.
31:53
Speaker 3: Other teams can be good too, Like that'll be that'll
31:56
Speaker 3: be definitely a component to the summer.
32:00
Speaker 1: Well yeah, yeah, before we wrap this up, I think
32:03
Speaker 1: that's and that's not you being negative.
32:05
Speaker 2: That's how front offices think that. Yah.
32:07
Speaker 1: Theo Epstein philosophy, what do you go wrong? And how
32:11
Speaker 1: do I you know, how do we you know, guard
32:14
Speaker 1: against it?
32:15
Speaker 3: Uh.
32:16
Speaker 1: When we talked to Jed in Philadelphia, he wasn't ruling
32:21
Speaker 1: out any type of addition, and he also pointed out
32:24
Speaker 1: you can't make you can't make those moves that you
32:27
Speaker 1: used to be able to make in August.
32:28
Speaker 2: So you have to kind of protect yourself.
32:33
Speaker 1: The bullpen looks good now, who knows what it'll look
32:36
Speaker 1: like either before the deadline or right after the deadline.
32:38
Speaker 2: You have to guard against us. How do you do that?
32:41
Speaker 1: That's why have it like just saying like DFA this
32:44
Speaker 1: guy for this guy. It's not as simple as that.
32:47
Speaker 1: The depth matters, having numbers matters. There's no area that
32:53
Speaker 1: we can say is perfect. If they think they need
32:57
Speaker 1: a bench bat or a supplemental bat, that they'll likely
33:01
Speaker 1: go out and try and get that guy. I don't
33:03
Speaker 1: think we can assume any any any unit on this
33:08
Speaker 1: team is perfect. There's there's nothing that can't be upgraded,
33:12
Speaker 1: and they'll look for ways to fortify it because six
33:16
Speaker 1: and a half games right now, who knows what it
33:18
Speaker 1: is a month from now, and they just don't want
33:20
Speaker 1: to They don't want to have to worry about things
33:23
Speaker 1: that they can't address in August and September.
33:25
Speaker 2: They have to be proactive with that stuff.
33:30
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, We'll be back with one more episode
33:32
Speaker 1: this week, wrap it up with the Brewers, and then
33:35
Speaker 1: three against the Mariners. This weekend at Regally. All right,
33:39
Speaker 1: thanks for listening everyone. This is Northside Territory. Make sure
33:42
Speaker 1: to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and
33:45
Speaker 1: subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are on
33:47
Speaker 1: top of all things cubs. Thanks for listening to everyone.
33:50
Speaker 1: Take care and she ad do they anything else