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Cubs mailbag: Cade Horton, Matt Shaw, trade deadline and more · 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: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. It is
0:16
Speaker 1: a mail bag episode. As usual, the listeners the fans
0:21
Speaker 1: have stepped up and delivered some good questions. This team
0:25
Speaker 1: is playing really well. They are twelve and three fifteen
0:31
Speaker 1: games into a twenty one game stretch against bad you know,
0:34
Speaker 1: sub five hundred teams.
0:37
Speaker 2: Do you call them bad? They're bad? Yeah, the Reds
0:41
Speaker 2: aren't historically awful, but they're not like a good team either.
0:44
Speaker 1: Yeah. They didn't dominate the Rockies maybe like some people
0:48
Speaker 1: would have liked, but they won all three games. It
0:51
Speaker 1: was windy and kind of, you know, not beautiful days
0:56
Speaker 1: at Wrigley Field. This week. The Cubs grind out some wins.
1:01
Speaker 1: You know, you want to see him beat up on
1:03
Speaker 1: these teams they want. That's all that matters. Nobody's gonna
1:06
Speaker 1: care if they wont fifteen to one or two to
1:08
Speaker 1: one at the end of the day, or at least
1:11
Speaker 1: you shouldn't. And I think I said this at the
1:13
Speaker 1: beginning of this stretch of games. I mean, even against
1:16
Speaker 1: the White Sox, even like they don't look like they're
1:20
Speaker 1: playing their best baseball at times. But all that matters
1:24
Speaker 1: is get through this, get wins, get healthy, improve the team.
1:27
Speaker 1: We'll talk about potential ways to improve the team on
1:29
Speaker 1: this episode. I think that's all. That's all you can really,
1:33
Speaker 1: you know, you don't you don't want what happened. We've
1:35
Speaker 1: talked about this a lot, what happened in twenty three
1:38
Speaker 1: when they lost games like this that they should be
1:40
Speaker 1: winning and it cost them a playoff spot. Just getting
1:42
Speaker 1: the playoffs, you know, that's the bottom line. It doesn't
1:44
Speaker 1: always have to be what was Madden's saying, It doesn't
1:46
Speaker 1: that they're not all oil painting.
1:48
Speaker 2: Yes, our buddy John Greenberg referenced that this week Joe
1:52
Speaker 2: does have those perfect sayings to you know, you'll throw
1:58
Speaker 2: that one in Lake Michigan. They all can't be oil
2:01
Speaker 2: paintings things of that nature. So, yeah, it did not
2:06
Speaker 2: come to that against the Rockies. It's going to be
2:08
Speaker 2: a long season for them. I'm just a totally anonymous
2:12
Speaker 2: roster with almost very little to no traveling media, you know,
2:20
Speaker 2: interim manager, kind of a an insular front office. Yeah, wow,
2:28
Speaker 2: just bizarre.
2:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, tough season for them, all right, let's get let's
2:33
Speaker 1: get to the questions. Kate Horton has looked good so far.
2:36
Speaker 1: His ceiling is a top of the rotation arm. What
2:39
Speaker 1: does he need to do or change to go from
2:42
Speaker 1: good to great? This is from Ryan Foley. I don't
2:46
Speaker 1: know if he needs to change much. I was really
2:50
Speaker 1: impressed by his last start. I know it's against the Rockies.
2:53
Speaker 1: We just talked about it. But through that change up
2:55
Speaker 1: more he gets like he threw the curveball a little
2:59
Speaker 1: bit more. He doesn't. He's not as much as he
3:02
Speaker 1: may have been a two pitch pitcher in the minors
3:05
Speaker 1: this season. I don't think that's purely how he is. Yes,
3:10
Speaker 1: the fastball and the slider are the pitches that you're
3:13
Speaker 1: going to hear about the most. But the change up
3:15
Speaker 1: looks pretty good. And just you know, I think I
3:20
Speaker 1: said this about him kind of being dropped thrown in
3:23
Speaker 1: the fire against the Mets, and then he gets like
3:25
Speaker 1: this softer landing the rest of the way for about
3:27
Speaker 1: three four starts. Okay, go beat up or get build
3:31
Speaker 1: up your confidence, whatever you want to say. Against against
3:34
Speaker 1: lesser teams. I think what he needs is just more experience.
3:37
Speaker 1: I think he's got all the ingredients and maybe leave
3:40
Speaker 1: a you know, a fewer of those sliders like in
3:44
Speaker 1: the heart of his own that seems to be what
3:46
Speaker 1: kills him the most is far too often when he
3:49
Speaker 1: gets hit, it's like a slider that he's hung.
3:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was exactly what I thought when I read
3:56
Speaker 2: this question of he just needs innings. And if you
4:00
Speaker 2: go back to you know, even in high school, he
4:03
Speaker 2: was a very decorated, you know, multi sport athlete, recruited
4:08
Speaker 2: for football as well to Oklahoma. Did not pitch a
4:12
Speaker 2: ton for the Sooners last year was sort of a waste.
4:17
Speaker 2: Uh you know, I'm sure he learned from it, and
4:22
Speaker 2: the Cubs learned from that in terms of building out
4:24
Speaker 2: this season, but it was not the innings sort of
4:28
Speaker 2: workload or foundation that that you'd want. And you know,
4:32
Speaker 2: I thought it was interesting that Craig Council this week
4:35
Speaker 2: referred to Kaid as kind of a clear eyed competitor.
4:39
Speaker 2: That's one of his buzzwords. You know, Councils aren't as like, uh,
4:44
Speaker 2: funny or as memorable as Joe Madden's slogans when he's
4:49
Speaker 2: bebopping and scatting during his media sessions, but Counsel used
4:56
Speaker 2: that in praising Kyle Hendry rics Justin Steel has a
5:03
Speaker 2: lot of those similarities and Horton is not there yet.
5:06
Speaker 2: But you can see the way he carries himself. You
5:09
Speaker 2: can listen to how teammates talk about him. You can
5:14
Speaker 2: see like from one start to the next, like he's
5:17
Speaker 2: kind of in control. He's getting a little better. You know,
5:23
Speaker 2: I don't know if he's been around enough to say
5:25
Speaker 2: he's good, and I think like greatness given the way
5:31
Speaker 2: pitching is now, just in terms of like the injury rates,
5:36
Speaker 2: the attrition, you know, the lowered expectations for starters, Like
5:42
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know if he's going to have
5:43
Speaker 2: that kind of top filling every time he pitches. But
5:48
Speaker 2: as far as like a really promising, interesting player with
5:53
Speaker 2: a good head on his shoulders, like he's checked all
5:55
Speaker 2: of those boxes.
5:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just don't. I would never feel comfortable predicting
6:01
Speaker 1: greatness for a picture, you know, It's just it's really
6:05
Speaker 1: hard to know. Nobody. I don't think we expected Justin
6:08
Speaker 1: Steele to be as good as he turned out to be.
6:11
Speaker 1: I mean, I just quickly looked it up Treek's Scooble
6:15
Speaker 1: was the highest he was ranked was by Baseball America
6:19
Speaker 1: pre twenty twenty one at twenty. I mean, that's a
6:22
Speaker 1: pretty good prospect, right, but still I just did Nobody
6:25
Speaker 1: expected this from Darik Schooble. So there's it's really hard
6:30
Speaker 1: to predict how good a picture is going to be.
6:34
Speaker 1: And it seems like when as at least outside from
6:39
Speaker 1: the outside looking in, the prospect people are wrong most
6:43
Speaker 1: of the time about pictures. And that's not because the
6:46
Speaker 1: analysis is wrong, it's more just like they get waylaid
6:49
Speaker 1: by injuries. There's so many names I could go through.
6:53
Speaker 1: The guy with the Guardians. I believe it's Daniel Espino.
6:59
Speaker 1: I don't even know where he is, but he was
7:01
Speaker 1: a top five to ten prospect. Forrest Whitley with Houston Astros,
7:06
Speaker 1: who's looked at as like the next great thing. These
7:09
Speaker 1: guys Grayson Rodriguez keeps getting hurt. He seemed like he
7:13
Speaker 1: was the next great thing. There was another question from
7:18
Speaker 1: Jim I believe it was Jim Sellinger. Yeah, Jim Sellinger
7:22
Speaker 1: was asking about innings. Is there an innings cap for
7:27
Speaker 1: Kate Horton. We've talked about this a little bit Patrick.
7:29
Speaker 1: We've written about this as well. Teams don't look at
7:32
Speaker 1: that anymore, not the progressive teams. They don't look at
7:36
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Garrett Crochet is a good example
7:39
Speaker 1: from last year. You cannot you don't measure it by
7:43
Speaker 1: innings anymore. You don't say, well, he threw this many
7:45
Speaker 1: innings last year. Let's bump it up by x percentage
7:49
Speaker 1: this year. They don't like to do it that way. Yes,
7:53
Speaker 1: it's something I guess it's a crude way to monitor things.
7:56
Speaker 1: But they monitor everything else that you can imagine that
8:00
Speaker 1: or that you can't even imagine. Maybe even everything is
8:04
Speaker 1: measured now that they have wearables. They wear these things
8:07
Speaker 1: over that they look almost like sports bras that they
8:11
Speaker 1: wear on their chest. We see the pitchers always wearing those,
8:16
Speaker 1: putting those on as they're getting ready to go out
8:19
Speaker 1: and throw it. Monitors everything and monitors their warm ups,
8:22
Speaker 1: like how they work out. Everything's being monitored, so that
8:28
Speaker 1: that's how they how they measure these things more than
8:31
Speaker 1: just innings or pitches thrown. You know, you're seeing how
8:36
Speaker 1: their stuff is holding up over a start, over multiple starts,
8:39
Speaker 1: from start to start. How are how do they look
8:42
Speaker 1: in their bullpens. How fatigued are they And yes, there
8:45
Speaker 1: are specific things that are measured that that they're a
8:49
Speaker 1: little hesitant to share with us. I'm sure you know
8:52
Speaker 1: Harris has hurt, you know, Sarah's has heard about all
8:55
Speaker 1: these things. But there are certainly different things that they
9:00
Speaker 1: and that they that they look at that they want
9:03
Speaker 1: to understand better than innings pitched. And something I was
9:09
Speaker 1: told recently is like, the bottom line is they just
9:11
Speaker 1: don't know. They have to admit that to themselves. There's
9:15
Speaker 1: no perfect science here, so to restrict someone, you know,
9:20
Speaker 1: I like, since we're talking about Madden, Madden had this
9:23
Speaker 1: philosophy with Arietta. He didn't know how far he could
9:27
Speaker 1: push Arieta in that two thoy fifteen season. Yeah, twenty
9:31
Speaker 1: fifteen season. That's part of why he, Like people were questioning, oh,
9:36
Speaker 1: you shouldn't you shouldn't push him this many innings rest him.
9:40
Speaker 1: I think Madden's philosophy was like, we don't know, we
9:42
Speaker 1: don't know what's gonna happen here. Let's let's see what
9:45
Speaker 1: we can do with this guy. You know. I think
9:48
Speaker 1: he did get tired out by the end of that season,
9:50
Speaker 1: but it was still I thought it was interesting and
9:52
Speaker 1: there was some validity, and they're like, this is an
9:55
Speaker 1: unknown this is unknown territory. There's no reason to like
9:58
Speaker 1: put restrictions on this guy.
10:00
Speaker 2: I believe the quote in general, and it was more
10:03
Speaker 2: used I think in terms of hobby, but like the
10:05
Speaker 2: idea of a mind, once stretched, has a tough time
10:10
Speaker 2: returning to its original form, or something like that. One
10:13
Speaker 2: of Joe's saying that there's definitely something to that. I'm
10:20
Speaker 2: just surprised with Horton, Like if you kind of map
10:23
Speaker 2: out different scenarios this season, I thought be more like
10:26
Speaker 2: maybe he'd come up late summer, there'd be you know,
10:31
Speaker 2: kind of some you know wow moments, you know, a
10:35
Speaker 2: steeper learning curve. This is like they they need to
10:40
Speaker 2: do to can log innings like this has been you know,
10:44
Speaker 2: could have been a crisis, and you know he's really
10:49
Speaker 2: stepped in as kind of a nice stabilizer and you
10:55
Speaker 2: know has pitched to where you know, I don't think
10:59
Speaker 2: he would be the first guy optioned out, you know
11:03
Speaker 2: when when Showta gets healthy, yes, I mean a sad
11:06
Speaker 2: is not close and Steal's not done for the is
11:08
Speaker 2: done for the year, so they need him to be
11:15
Speaker 2: a consistent presence, a dependable, reliable guy in that rotation,
11:21
Speaker 2: because right now they're stretched very thin.
11:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree that. I mean Horton has become
11:27
Speaker 1: like it's not it's not like, oh, he's just here temporarily.
11:31
Speaker 1: I think you know they're gonna have to lean on him.
11:33
Speaker 1: That's kind of what's what's happened here. All right, let's
11:36
Speaker 1: take a quick break and get back to questions from
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Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, we know there is going to be
12:44
Speaker 1: plenty of trade deadline chatter. The Cubs are good, they
12:48
Speaker 1: are in it, their first place team, and they have flaws.
12:52
Speaker 1: We can all see it. They need pitching, pitching, and
12:55
Speaker 1: more pitching. So this is this question makes a lot
12:59
Speaker 1: of sense. Which prospects are the Cubs most likely to
13:02
Speaker 1: include in a deal? Is there anyone in their system
13:04
Speaker 1: at this point that would be considered untouchable. That's from
13:09
Speaker 1: Matt Philbin. I think the quick answer to the second
13:13
Speaker 1: part is anyone that's in the system. I don't think
13:17
Speaker 1: anyone's untouchable, you know, every they're all in the big leagues.
13:20
Speaker 1: Now I would have hesitated to include, to include Horton
13:26
Speaker 1: or Shaw in a deal I think the Cubs would have,
13:30
Speaker 1: is what I'm saying. And now I don't think that's,
13:35
Speaker 1: you know, even possible. We just talked about how important
13:38
Speaker 1: Kate Horton Is. We'll talk a little bit about Matt Shaw,
13:40
Speaker 1: but he's he's been great since coming back. You can't
13:46
Speaker 1: get rid of him. That was such a hole in
13:47
Speaker 1: their lineup. I think that's for the first part, I
13:51
Speaker 1: just don't see how anyone can I mean for that
13:54
Speaker 1: second part, I just don't see how anybody can be
13:57
Speaker 1: considered untouchable. Who's likely to be included. I think that's
14:00
Speaker 1: a little harder to answer because I don't know if
14:02
Speaker 1: you it's just what do teams want, what the team's like. Listen,
14:07
Speaker 1: the Cubs haven't had this amazing season in the minors.
14:11
Speaker 1: It hasn't been a disaster, but it hasn't been. There
14:14
Speaker 1: haven't been all these breakouts. There's some good interesting pictures.
14:19
Speaker 1: There's those the same names who have heard about by Asteros, Casey,
14:24
Speaker 1: Kevin ol'contra. There's still good there's still good prospects, but
14:27
Speaker 1: none of them is It's not like any of those guys.
14:30
Speaker 1: It's like, well, this flaw that we saw coming into
14:32
Speaker 1: the season is no longer a flaw, and now they're
14:38
Speaker 1: this elite prospect by a. Stais Is still has still
14:41
Speaker 1: questions about catching Kevin o'contra, still has questions about, you know,
14:45
Speaker 1: chasing breaking balls. Owen Casey still has questions about swing
14:48
Speaker 1: and miss. Those are the three guys you'd point to
14:51
Speaker 1: because I think they'd be hesitant. Actually maybe not, but
14:54
Speaker 1: I think they'd be a little hesitant to trade at
14:56
Speaker 1: the lower levels because they are so top heavy and
15:00
Speaker 1: you start, you're gonna find yourself at listen. As much
15:05
Speaker 1: as they want to win this year, I think they
15:07
Speaker 1: will find themselves thinking rather trade from triple A depth
15:11
Speaker 1: than these low A high A guys that we like
15:15
Speaker 1: a lot and think you know that that's how you
15:19
Speaker 1: stay competitive in twenty twenty nine, twenty thirty, or use
15:23
Speaker 1: it in different ways to get long term impact because
15:26
Speaker 1: you don't want to it's hard. I know fans are
15:30
Speaker 1: going to push back on that and say just trade whoever,
15:32
Speaker 1: and maybe you would feel that way too, Patrick, But
15:35
Speaker 1: I just think this I'm looking for it. I'm looking
15:39
Speaker 1: at it more from like Jed hoy Er Carter Hawkins point. Yeah, yeah,
15:43
Speaker 1: you know they. I think they're looking at it their
15:47
Speaker 1: system as it's a little top heavy. If anyone at
15:50
Speaker 1: the lower levels has popped, would prefer to see what
15:54
Speaker 1: they can be and if they move them, move them
15:56
Speaker 1: at a higher value.
16:00
Speaker 2: You know, the Cubs don't ask for my opinion, but
16:03
Speaker 2: if I were them, I would any of those pitching
16:06
Speaker 2: prospects just trade them like they're they're gonna break down.
16:10
Speaker 2: They're probably over hyped. You know, some of these analytical
16:14
Speaker 2: front offices will be wowed by some of the stat
16:17
Speaker 2: cast metrics or whatever the Hawkeye is showing them. Uh. Yes,
16:23
Speaker 2: Kate Horton is essentially in an untouchable bucket because he's
16:28
Speaker 2: not really a prospect at this point. He is every five, six,
16:31
Speaker 2: seven days starter for a first place team, And like
16:37
Speaker 2: we just talked about, uh, you know, I would imagine
16:41
Speaker 2: that Ben Brown would be the one sent out before
16:43
Speaker 2: Kate Horton, like he is, you know, firmly in that
16:47
Speaker 2: mix there, especially after trading camp Smith. You want to
16:51
Speaker 2: hold on to Matt Shaw. He's a guy that they've
16:56
Speaker 2: you know, really loved from from the jump. He's shown
16:58
Speaker 2: a lot even through these not just what he's done
17:03
Speaker 2: right now in a much softer spot of the schedule,
17:05
Speaker 2: but just how he handled everything, his demeanor, his composure,
17:09
Speaker 2: the guy should hit and yeah, defensively, it's been there's
17:12
Speaker 2: been a lot of these like kind of wow plays
17:15
Speaker 2: that he's made, Like it's very noticeable how good he's
17:18
Speaker 2: been on defense. We know Jed Hoyer's philosophy. If you're
17:23
Speaker 2: a pure, true buyer, you don't really trade off your
17:29
Speaker 2: major league roster. There are certain exceptions, maybe there are
17:33
Speaker 2: pieces that don't quite fit, or you're kind of overloaded
17:37
Speaker 2: in depth in a certain area and you kind of
17:39
Speaker 2: trade strength for strength. But like matchas are everyday third
17:43
Speaker 2: baseman and he's crossed off, you know, kind of what
17:47
Speaker 2: looked like it could have been a big need at
17:49
Speaker 2: this deadline. If they think he can be their every
17:51
Speaker 2: day third basement, you take that off the table. And
17:55
Speaker 2: then otherwise you see with biasters, the fact that he's
18:02
Speaker 2: not up here when Miguel Maya's out for four to
18:05
Speaker 2: six weeks tells you something about what they think about
18:08
Speaker 2: his ability to be a major league catcher at this moment.
18:13
Speaker 2: When I asked counsel that you know, it's four to
18:16
Speaker 2: six weeks, you know, enough of a timeline maybe for
18:19
Speaker 2: Moises to re enter the picture or just like a
18:21
Speaker 2: longer term project, and he confirmed it is a much
18:25
Speaker 2: longer term project that he he needs reps behind the plate.
18:29
Speaker 2: That catchers, you know, usually comes later. That's why you know,
18:34
Speaker 2: you think counts a call like the oldest position player
18:38
Speaker 2: group in the majors and just kind of anecdotically we've
18:43
Speaker 2: seen that, whether it's you know, kind of how David
18:46
Speaker 2: Ross's career evolved. Mentally looked this up. I mean, when
18:52
Speaker 2: did Wilson Contraras make his major league debut? Was it
18:55
Speaker 2: more like it was no, like how old was he?
18:59
Speaker 2: It was like he was probably like twenty.
19:01
Speaker 1: Fourish, right or let's take a look.
19:05
Speaker 2: But he's been a long time in the minors and
19:08
Speaker 2: then it took a long time in the majors for
19:13
Speaker 2: him to kind of get to a place that twenty
19:17
Speaker 2: four he was twenty four, Okay, So like if Biastarrius
19:20
Speaker 2: is twenty one, like there's there's a gap there. And
19:26
Speaker 2: but otherwise I don't to me, just trade the pitchers.
19:31
Speaker 2: They're probably gonna break down anyways. You know, get what
19:33
Speaker 2: you can. You need pitching right now, you can't worry
19:36
Speaker 2: about you know, Daniel Plenti is looking really good as
19:41
Speaker 2: the Cubs closer right now. You know that took what
19:44
Speaker 2: he was acquired like four years ago, and it's kind
19:48
Speaker 2: of just now being trusted in big moments on a
19:53
Speaker 2: contending team.
19:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I agree with most of what you
20:00
Speaker 1: said there some of the names that I would you know,
20:04
Speaker 1: the not the names that you didn't mention that you know,
20:06
Speaker 1: maybe aren't on everyone's radar. There's a lot of pitchers
20:09
Speaker 1: there that that have looked good good, you know, I
20:13
Speaker 1: don't know if what how good they are. Will Sanders
20:16
Speaker 1: reportedly has moved up to Triple A, has looked good
20:19
Speaker 1: this season. Connor Nolan hasn't looked great, but you know,
20:22
Speaker 1: Triple A already. Some view him as a future major leaguer.
20:26
Speaker 1: Jackson Wiggins moved up to Double A, has pitched great,
20:31
Speaker 1: ton of stuff. That's the second round pick from the
20:35
Speaker 1: Shaw Draft. I want to say, that's who had TJ
20:40
Speaker 1: and and is finally healthy now Nazio and Mulay I
20:44
Speaker 1: just looked up. Hasn't pitched recently and had gotten blown
20:48
Speaker 1: up in a couple of starts. But he's got a
20:50
Speaker 1: ton of stuff. These are the types of pitchers that
20:52
Speaker 1: you could, you know, uh, front another front office could
20:55
Speaker 1: fall in love with. Christian Hernandez is finally kind of
20:58
Speaker 1: living up to his prospect type. You have young international
21:03
Speaker 1: prospects that that could you could move if if teams
21:08
Speaker 1: are in love with these guys. Jefferson Rojas looks great.
21:14
Speaker 1: He's definitely a top one hundred prospect. He would. I
21:19
Speaker 1: think he's the type of guy that you'd have to
21:21
Speaker 1: get a ton of value in return for. Like this
21:23
Speaker 1: is a guy that they've always liked, and they probably
21:27
Speaker 1: view him as like this, this guy's a legit prospect.
21:31
Speaker 1: All right, let's take a quick break and then get
21:34
Speaker 1: back to and do the rest of these questions.
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22:09
Speaker 1: The next question here is about Hey, someone's giving credit
22:13
Speaker 1: to the hitting coach. About that, Tyler Terschell says, the
22:18
Speaker 1: offense is relentless. What has Dustin Kelly and the rest
22:21
Speaker 1: of the coaches done to help launch this team's success
22:25
Speaker 1: this year? Patrick, I think you've talked to some people
22:29
Speaker 1: about this. I know we've both. I mean, it's not
22:32
Speaker 1: a one year thing. It's not something new, I don't think.
22:35
Speaker 1: But I think it's you know, it's kind of finally
22:39
Speaker 1: all coming together on the field, and you know, it's
22:42
Speaker 1: it's on the players, I think most of all, but
22:45
Speaker 1: certainly Dustin Kelly and his ability to kind of communicate
22:48
Speaker 1: and get the most out of these guys. He deserves praise,
22:51
Speaker 1: as do the rest of the coaches. John Maylee Corbreja
22:56
Speaker 1: One Corbrea like that they have some they have some
22:58
Speaker 1: quality coaches there that are helped with the communicate with
23:02
Speaker 1: younger players, help develop them. And then you know, just
23:05
Speaker 1: in general, get the most out of these guys.
23:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, and having Kyle Tucker certainly makes them look better
23:12
Speaker 2: at their job too. But you know, Tyler always has
23:16
Speaker 2: good questions and you know d k was on the
23:19
Speaker 2: show with us, and I think if you watch or
23:21
Speaker 2: listen to that episode, you can see how he communicates.
23:26
Speaker 2: Like he's very or relatively soft spoken, but he can
23:32
Speaker 2: explain you know, concepts and very easily accessible terms. He
23:39
Speaker 2: does not get too high or too low. And you're right,
23:43
Speaker 2: this has been kind of a multi year project, and
23:46
Speaker 2: I think the Cubs are benefiting from having continuity that
23:51
Speaker 2: was never associated with this position. And the group of
23:59
Speaker 2: you know, students you could say, are very eager to learn,
24:03
Speaker 2: like they're all kind of baseball Jim rats. John Maley,
24:09
Speaker 2: who you mentioned, deserves you know, a special mention for
24:15
Speaker 2: his work with pie Crow Armstrong sort of in Iowa.
24:20
Speaker 2: Is really kind of prepping him for the next level.
24:23
Speaker 2: And he did, you know, a great job with the
24:25
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen World Series team. You know, it's a weird
24:29
Speaker 2: it's a weird job. You know, at any given point,
24:31
Speaker 2: as Dustin would say, you got maybe four guys who
24:34
Speaker 2: are killing it, four guys who are kind of, you know,
24:37
Speaker 2: figuring it out, and four got four or five guys
24:40
Speaker 2: who were just like totally hopeless and you know, throwing
24:45
Speaker 2: stuff and you know, lost in their own heads. So
24:49
Speaker 2: it'll come and go. But I think you know you
24:51
Speaker 2: made the point earlier Sha on a previous episode of
24:54
Speaker 2: like this group can withstand you know, hitters going on
25:01
Speaker 2: those cold spells because so many different guys have have
25:04
Speaker 2: carried the group. A lot of a lot of hitters
25:08
Speaker 2: in baseball have their own like private coaches anyways, But
25:12
Speaker 2: in terms of like kind of a group approach being
25:15
Speaker 2: adaptable for Wrigley Field, which was freezing again this week,
25:20
Speaker 2: wind blowing in credit to.
25:23
Speaker 1: Them, Yeah, I talked to Dustin earlier this season about
25:29
Speaker 1: some numbers that stood out to me, and the trend
25:32
Speaker 1: has continued. They focus on, you know, you know, being
25:36
Speaker 1: really deliberate about your pitch and don't chase. Don't like,
25:41
Speaker 1: do not chase and search for in your zone until
25:44
Speaker 1: two strikes. You have these spots that are your damage zones.
25:49
Speaker 1: That's where you swing until you see it there or
25:52
Speaker 1: you get to two strikes, do not swing the bat.
25:55
Speaker 1: So they're willing to take strikes if it's not their
25:58
Speaker 1: pitch until they get two strikes. They're confident with two strikes.
26:02
Speaker 1: Most of these guys are pretty confident with two strikes.
26:05
Speaker 1: It's a simple approach. It's really hard to execute though.
26:08
Speaker 1: It's simple sounding, but it's it's not like they suddenly
26:12
Speaker 1: decided that this is how they want the offense to behave.
26:16
Speaker 1: They've been preaching it it's just hard to execute. You
26:19
Speaker 1: get a guy like Kyle Tucker, things start to fall
26:21
Speaker 1: in line. They have a few other guys that have
26:24
Speaker 1: done this. It's just when you have to add a
26:26
Speaker 1: superstar and you have a player turn into a superstar,
26:29
Speaker 1: and now say Suzuki becomes the third best bat or
26:34
Speaker 1: you know, whatever you want to wherever you want to
26:35
Speaker 1: rank them. He went from he needed to carry the
26:39
Speaker 1: offense and be the star of the offense to maybe
26:41
Speaker 1: the third best bat in the lineup. And that's that's
26:45
Speaker 1: when you have this scary offense that can do anything,
26:50
Speaker 1: score in a multitude of ways. And and you know
26:54
Speaker 1: when even when they're slumping, find ways to kind of
26:57
Speaker 1: grind through and win games. It's it's certainly been entertaining
27:02
Speaker 1: to watch and and this is I'm not sure we'll
27:06
Speaker 1: see if it lasts all season long, but even twenty sixteen,
27:10
Speaker 1: it was pitching in defense, the offense was good, especially
27:14
Speaker 1: those first that first month and a half when they
27:16
Speaker 1: got off to that insane start. We'll see how long
27:19
Speaker 1: this can last. But it hasn't even been great weather
27:22
Speaker 1: at Wrigley yet. I think hopefully that's coming. I don't
27:27
Speaker 1: know if, but good weather exists anymore, but I believe
27:31
Speaker 1: it's coming. So we'll see, we'll see what this offense
27:34
Speaker 1: looks like, because right now they're just kind of I mean,
27:38
Speaker 1: they're they're good at home, but the numbers are much
27:41
Speaker 1: lower at home. They're they're good as far as how
27:45
Speaker 1: how they're performing at Wrigley compared to everyone else at Wrigley,
27:49
Speaker 1: But it's just it's kind of crazy how this is
27:52
Speaker 1: kind of happening again. But it's not the summer yet,
27:54
Speaker 1: so I'm not going to assume it's going to be
27:56
Speaker 1: a weird year again at Wrigley. All right, Matt Shaw,
28:02
Speaker 1: this is this is an interesting one. It looks like
28:05
Speaker 1: Matt Shaw is ready to stay now. Did the twenty
28:07
Speaker 1: four games he spent to triple A impact his long
28:10
Speaker 1: term service time at all? Yeah, he doesn't. The Cubs
28:13
Speaker 1: don't get that prospect promotion incentive if he wins Rookie
28:18
Speaker 1: of the Year or gets MVP votes. You know, I
28:21
Speaker 1: MVP votes aren't isn't happening. But if he stays like
28:25
Speaker 1: how he's performing right now, I wouldn't be shocked by
28:27
Speaker 1: him sneaking into the Rookie of the Year conversation, and
28:30
Speaker 1: even winning it, especially when you're on a winning team
28:32
Speaker 1: and on the Chicago Cups. That's how you you know,
28:35
Speaker 1: you get your name out there. And I wouldn't be surprised.
28:37
Speaker 1: So now they they could lose that. I don't know
28:40
Speaker 1: all the there's there's some other rules though where if
28:43
Speaker 1: he finishes somewhere he gets he gets that service time though,
28:47
Speaker 1: right they like there's something about winning an award where
28:52
Speaker 1: you where you don't lose that year of service time.
28:56
Speaker 1: But they have gained a year of service time potentially here.
29:00
Speaker 2: Leave, yeah, I mean what I got here is major
29:06
Speaker 2: league season consists of one hundred eighty seven days. This
29:10
Speaker 2: is from melb dot com. A players deemed to have
29:12
Speaker 2: reached one year of major league service upon accruing one
29:16
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy two days in a given year. Obviously
29:20
Speaker 2: twenty four games, he's roughly a month in Iowa. He
29:24
Speaker 2: would not reach one seventy two, so you would be
29:28
Speaker 2: looking at him Cubs almost having seven full seasons of
29:36
Speaker 2: control over him. Also, like we'll see once the CBA
29:42
Speaker 2: expires after the twenty twenty sixth season, Like are they
29:44
Speaker 2: going to play in twenty twenty seven? Then twenty twenty
29:49
Speaker 2: eight like, what what is the landscape going to look like?
29:52
Speaker 2: Not to be super alarmist, but at the moment, it
29:58
Speaker 2: does look like it's going to be six plus close
30:01
Speaker 2: to seven rather than just straight six and hitting free agency.
30:06
Speaker 2: I guess. Also, I don't have any information about this,
30:12
Speaker 2: but speculatively, I don't know if he plays like this,
30:16
Speaker 2: how well they like him or how much they like him.
30:20
Speaker 2: I should say, like a contracts extension at some point
30:24
Speaker 2: isn't like totally out of the question either, so that
30:29
Speaker 2: would certainly impact it. And he's playing like a guy
30:32
Speaker 2: who looks like he'll be at Wrigley Field for a
30:35
Speaker 2: long time, which I think is ultimately everyone's big takeaway here.
30:40
Speaker 1: So I'm seeing something here that says, if you finished
30:43
Speaker 1: top two in Rookie of the Year voting, you are
30:47
Speaker 1: awarded a full year of service time. So that's that's
30:50
Speaker 1: how he doesn't that's the only way that happens. So
30:53
Speaker 1: the Cubs don't get the bonus draft pick. Then if
30:55
Speaker 1: this happens for him as well, I think he just
30:59
Speaker 1: deserves love for how how good he looks too. We
31:03
Speaker 1: can't ignore how he looks like a different player. Uh,
31:07
Speaker 1: the Cubs deserve some love for recognizing that he needed
31:10
Speaker 1: to go back down. I think this is you know,
31:13
Speaker 1: this is a there's probably some Craig Council impact here
31:17
Speaker 1: where where he understands, hey, uh, some changes need to
31:21
Speaker 1: be made. Let's have a conversation with the guy and
31:23
Speaker 1: get them get them right. And he failed, and he said,
31:27
Speaker 1: failure is probably the best teacher. Failure can be good
31:30
Speaker 1: for these guys. Uh, And it's and it's helped the
31:34
Speaker 1: organization the player a lot of credit here because they
31:37
Speaker 1: identified what was wrong. They didn't, yes, they desperately needed
31:41
Speaker 1: a third basement, but they didn't try and force the situation.
31:44
Speaker 1: They fixed it. And it looks like they may have
31:46
Speaker 1: found a solution to what how many weeks ago? It
31:50
Speaker 1: wasn't that long ago that you and I were having
31:51
Speaker 1: conversations like, how do they fix this major issue? This
31:55
Speaker 1: is a pretty big flaw on the team. Now you're
31:59
Speaker 1: now the quot uestion is just purely ad pitching. Ad pitching.
32:04
Speaker 1: He's got a one on one way to runs great
32:05
Speaker 1: at plus he's been great since. And the defense. I'm
32:09
Speaker 1: just kind of blown away at how good the defense is.
32:12
Speaker 1: So you know, we'll see how long the offense lasts.
32:15
Speaker 1: He's gonna hit a slump they all do. Uh, but
32:19
Speaker 1: but he looks like he's a major league hitter. So
32:23
Speaker 1: props to him. Props to the organization for helping him
32:26
Speaker 1: get right and for him buying in and coming back
32:30
Speaker 1: and impacting this club in the middle of a race
32:34
Speaker 1: here as they head into a summer. That's you know, critical,
32:37
Speaker 1: all right, Patrick, that is a mailbag episode. Thanks so
32:40
Speaker 1: much for everyone for sending in your questions. We always
32:43
Speaker 1: appreciate it. We'll we like doing these episodes and you
32:47
Speaker 1: guys help us do them and make it easy. Thanks
32:50
Speaker 1: so much for listening. This is Northside Territory. Make sure
32:52
Speaker 1: to rate, review, subscribe, Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Subscribe
32:56
Speaker 1: to The Athletic where Patrick and I are on top
32:58
Speaker 1: of all things Cubs. Thanks so much for listening to everyone.
33:01
Speaker 1: Take care