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Wrapping up another 83-win season: Cubs fans deserve better · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Then they ultimately be Craig Council's value. Then maybe he
0:04
Speaker 1: can talk about things in a way that would be
0:07
Speaker 1: harder for David Ross.
0:15
Speaker 2: Welcome into North Side Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast.
0:20
Speaker 2: I'm Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney, where your
0:23
Speaker 2: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. The season
0:27
Speaker 2: is over and the Cubs have finished with eighty three wins,
0:31
Speaker 2: the same as last year. It's not a game or
0:34
Speaker 2: so short. They're quite a bit short of the playoffs,
0:39
Speaker 2: but same record, similar team, right, had different issues, but
0:47
Speaker 2: just a you know, one of those seasons where it
0:50
Speaker 2: like the feel of the season kind of felt the same, right, Like,
0:54
Speaker 2: it felt like they were completely out of it. They
0:57
Speaker 2: made a push, not as hard of a push as
0:59
Speaker 2: last year, but they kind of duped us into thinking
1:04
Speaker 2: they were getting back into it and then kind of
1:06
Speaker 2: fell apart there again and ended up kind of where
1:09
Speaker 2: you and I expected, Right. I expected more wins because
1:13
Speaker 2: I thought they'd be in it at the deadline, But
1:15
Speaker 2: this is kind of like the talent level we saw
1:18
Speaker 2: as far as wins entering the season. Yeah, there's some
1:22
Speaker 2: good stories, some bad stories, but eighty three wins season
1:26
Speaker 2: isn't good enough.
1:29
Speaker 1: If only we could have done one of those athletic
1:32
Speaker 1: fly on the wall stories with David Ross. I would
1:36
Speaker 1: love to know what he is thinking. He's been mentioned
1:41
Speaker 1: as a candidate for the Reds job. I'd imagine what
1:45
Speaker 1: happened this year in Chicago's would probably help or at
1:49
Speaker 1: least not hurt his candidacy if he does elect to
1:54
Speaker 1: manage again, Because you know, I think everyone in baseball understood.
2:01
Speaker 3: Why the Cubs hired Craig Council. I think his resume
2:05
Speaker 3: speaks for itself.
2:07
Speaker 1: He's extremely accomplished, experienced, even keeled, but it made no
2:14
Speaker 1: difference to the bottom line, which is just crazy to
2:20
Speaker 1: think after all that, after everything the Cubs went through
2:23
Speaker 1: this just the length of the season. You're right, they
2:25
Speaker 1: didn't like push quite as hard, and they didn't, you know, collapse.
2:31
Speaker 1: It was at more of a softer collapse, more of
2:33
Speaker 1: a fade. But to wind up in the exact same
2:37
Speaker 1: place is just hilarious. And I think there is a
2:41
Speaker 1: level of you kind of get what you pay for.
2:45
Speaker 1: I think I thought the Cubs might win like eighty
2:48
Speaker 1: four games or something like that.
2:50
Speaker 3: I did and finished like a game out of the playoffs.
2:54
Speaker 1: Again, I didn't see these other teams in the National
2:57
Speaker 1: League kind of taking off the way they did. But
3:01
Speaker 1: I mean to have the Brewers just totally boat race
3:05
Speaker 1: the National League Central did not see their dominance to
3:10
Speaker 1: that degree. I thought they would have come back a
3:12
Speaker 1: little bit. I thought maybe the Reds would have taken
3:16
Speaker 1: a step forward, or maybe the Pirates.
3:18
Speaker 3: Of Skeens would have had one of those surprise seasons.
3:21
Speaker 3: Or I know you've always been down on the Cardinals.
3:23
Speaker 3: You're not a Saint Louis.
3:25
Speaker 1: Guy, But I didn't write them off as quickly as
3:27
Speaker 1: I probably should have.
3:28
Speaker 3: And you look at this team, this roster.
3:34
Speaker 1: Just not a whole lot of imagination or excitement, right, I.
3:40
Speaker 2: Think, especially at the end what you said right there, excitement.
3:44
Speaker 2: It wasn't like there were moments and it was largely
3:47
Speaker 2: PCA and you could say showeda as far as excitement goes, right,
3:54
Speaker 2: And I don't want that to come across as there
3:57
Speaker 2: aren't good players like say A Suzuki and Ian App
4:00
Speaker 2: had very good seasons, right like you, you can't like
4:05
Speaker 2: I I believe they're good players. Are they super exciting
4:09
Speaker 2: to follow? Like either as a writer or as a fan, like, no,
4:15
Speaker 2: they're not super exciting in that sense. Pca is and
4:21
Speaker 2: Shoda has this personality that allows it to be exciting.
4:25
Speaker 2: So so there are some aspects, but it's not. It
4:29
Speaker 2: just wasn't that exciting of a season. Of course, when
4:32
Speaker 2: when you fall short and for much of the season
4:35
Speaker 2: fans aren't expecting the playoffs in ten games below the
4:39
Speaker 2: Brewers that you know, the Cardinals probably outperformed or like
4:44
Speaker 2: their win loss record, it tells a better story than
4:48
Speaker 2: how they actually performed. I think that's that's an organization
4:52
Speaker 2: that for once Cubs. Cubs fans can probably feel good
4:56
Speaker 2: right now that they're like in a better in a
4:59
Speaker 2: better place, and the Cardinals they're kind of at a
5:01
Speaker 2: crossroads and I don't know what's going on, what's what's
5:04
Speaker 2: gonna happen or where where they're gonna end up. Because
5:07
Speaker 2: that's that's an interesting, interesting situation. But it's not like
5:11
Speaker 2: all as well with the Cubs. It's not a perfect situation.
5:15
Speaker 2: I will say, Patrick, Saturday, it was Saturday. Yeah, Saturday
5:20
Speaker 2: was a great moment for the fans and for a
5:24
Speaker 2: person and player that deserved that moment. You know, like
5:28
Speaker 2: I Kyle hendricks Uh, We've covered a lot of players
5:32
Speaker 2: over the years. I don't know off the top of
5:35
Speaker 2: my head who i'd have above him as like easy
5:38
Speaker 2: to talk to, willing to talk to in good and
5:41
Speaker 2: bad times. Just a very normal and human person, like
5:48
Speaker 2: very like down to earth, never talking down to you
5:52
Speaker 2: because you're not a big leaguer or don't don't play
5:54
Speaker 2: the game, whatever it may be. Like, never felt any
5:57
Speaker 2: of that with him. Very just like deserved it, like
6:01
Speaker 2: very deserving of that moment. And how he got there
6:05
Speaker 2: was you know, I think we both thought he wasn't
6:09
Speaker 2: going to get this moment because he was going to
6:10
Speaker 2: be gone. Yeah, and it kind of played out in
6:14
Speaker 2: a way that it worked out for him, right, All
6:17
Speaker 2: the injuries worked out for him in a way, because
6:20
Speaker 2: he would probably would have been gone, Like if there
6:22
Speaker 2: was a roster of squeeze and they have like yeah
6:25
Speaker 2: and they had those guys healthy, he would have been
6:29
Speaker 2: like ninth or tenth on the depth chart and without options.
6:32
Speaker 2: So maybe the il um for an extended period of time. Whatever,
6:35
Speaker 2: you know, what happened happened, and Saturday was was great.
6:40
Speaker 2: You know, he he was throwing eighty seven miles per hour.
6:45
Speaker 2: He was getting soft contact. The wind was blowing in,
6:48
Speaker 2: so every bit of hard contact that he had stayed
6:51
Speaker 2: in the ballpark, and I loved that. You could kind
6:56
Speaker 2: of telegraph the moment, at least I could, maybe because
6:59
Speaker 2: I know him and Tommy so well. I figured Tommy
7:03
Speaker 2: was going to go out there, and I knew Counsel
7:06
Speaker 2: wasn't going to let him go much longer. He had
7:10
Speaker 2: the bullpen warming up. I was like, he council gets it,
7:13
Speaker 2: Counsels to let him go out for the eighth and
7:15
Speaker 2: let him come off the field and get his moment.
7:18
Speaker 2: And Tommy going out there, them hugging him, hugging all
7:24
Speaker 2: his infielders like that was. It was really special. It
7:26
Speaker 2: felt nice, and it was like in this season that
7:29
Speaker 2: we just talked about for whatever five ten minutes, about
7:32
Speaker 2: how disappointing it was. I was glad fans got that.
7:35
Speaker 2: I was glad Hendricks got that. Obviously it'd be better
7:38
Speaker 2: if he was walking off the field in the playoff game. Yeah,
7:41
Speaker 2: that didn't happen, So like this was the next best thing.
7:44
Speaker 2: He deserved that moment, How to me deserve that moment?
7:48
Speaker 2: It was? It was fun, It was nice to be
7:50
Speaker 2: be there for that and experience it for a guy
7:53
Speaker 2: that you know covered his entire career and he certainly
7:58
Speaker 2: was worthy of that moment. We get it.
8:00
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9:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, to echo what you said, I think he's an
9:03
Speaker 1: all time guy who never changed after becoming rich and famous.
9:09
Speaker 1: I honestly can't remember a single time where Kyle veered
9:15
Speaker 1: off of like who he.
9:17
Speaker 3: Is as just like a decent human being.
9:20
Speaker 1: Also, adding to your point of like there's also someone
9:24
Speaker 1: who has an Ivy League degree and never came off
9:28
Speaker 1: as condescen. Not just the you know, I got ten
9:33
Speaker 1: years in the big leagues, you know what was the
9:35
Speaker 1: last time you played. Just the intelligence in a way
9:39
Speaker 1: that was very understated, or more very I would say,
9:46
Speaker 1: emotional intelligence of just having you know certain people's skills
9:49
Speaker 1: and just like a baseline of like common decency. And
9:54
Speaker 1: I think lots of young pitchers have noticed that. And
9:57
Speaker 1: if this is it for Kyle in Chicago, I think
10:02
Speaker 1: the Cubs are losing one. Just that like institutional memory,
10:05
Speaker 1: like that he played in the World Series for the
10:08
Speaker 1: Cubs and that was something that other players gravitated towards.
10:17
Speaker 3: Just also just like the know how of like.
10:21
Speaker 1: Pitchers who wanted to know like Okay, what are you seeing,
10:23
Speaker 1: how do you read swings?
10:24
Speaker 2: How would you attack this guy.
10:26
Speaker 1: Like the conversations, the ongoing conversations he would have I
10:31
Speaker 1: thought were extremely valuable and could be something that kind
10:35
Speaker 1: of carries on wherever he winds up next year.
10:39
Speaker 2: But I don't know.
10:41
Speaker 1: Walking through that clubhouse yesterday after the game, the end
10:43
Speaker 1: of the season, outside of Kyle, there's just not a
10:48
Speaker 1: whole lot of like.
10:50
Speaker 3: What we had seen in previous seasons, right or leading
10:54
Speaker 3: up to previous trade.
10:55
Speaker 1: Deadlines, of just that weight of like, oh, like the
10:58
Speaker 1: windows closing end of an era. All these emotions like
11:02
Speaker 1: these are just like a team that was designed to
11:06
Speaker 1: win eighty three games, won eighty three games and had
11:10
Speaker 1: been eliminated from playoff contention a week earlier, and it
11:15
Speaker 1: was just sort of like playing out the string.
11:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, the lack of emotion, I think is a theme
11:24
Speaker 2: we can probably carry through into the off season. I
11:29
Speaker 2: don't like the way teams are built now, the way
11:33
Speaker 2: the thought processes, and like when fans talk about this,
11:38
Speaker 2: you know, and I get sometimes you have to remove
11:40
Speaker 2: emotion when making these decisions. But fans, fans want excitement,
11:45
Speaker 2: fans want to be entertained, and they deserve those things, right,
11:48
Speaker 2: That's what the sport is for. That's what all sports
11:50
Speaker 2: are for. So when they demand Juan Soto, and you
11:57
Speaker 2: and I are so quickly dismiss it because we know
11:59
Speaker 2: how this is on office works, yeah, and ownership and ownership.
12:04
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, I shouldn't exclude them, of course. It's
12:08
Speaker 2: just like it feels a little I don't know, I
12:13
Speaker 2: just don't feel like that. It's I guess it simply put,
12:17
Speaker 2: it's unfair to the fans, but it just feels like
12:20
Speaker 2: a very cold process, and it's like, that's not financially efficient,
12:25
Speaker 2: hence we can't do it, and that like can you
12:30
Speaker 2: imagine THEO behaving in that manner? It like Dave Dombrowski
12:37
Speaker 2: doesn't behave in that manner. And the Phillies are going
12:40
Speaker 2: to their third straight playoffs. If they fall off a cliff,
12:45
Speaker 2: they fall off a cliff, right, But the Cubs maybe
12:48
Speaker 2: fell off a cliff or came close to it, right,
12:51
Speaker 2: And and they gave their fans three straight NLCS appearances
12:55
Speaker 2: in a World Series. Right. I think fans enjoyed that.
13:00
Speaker 2: Fans enjoyed, you know you, Darvish may not have led
13:05
Speaker 2: to like a ton of playoff success, but they enjoyed
13:08
Speaker 2: him at his best right, So when you pay for
13:11
Speaker 2: stars and get star performance, you are you're providing your
13:15
Speaker 2: fans with something like even if they're not winning ninety
13:19
Speaker 2: five one hundred games, and those teams were winning ninety
13:21
Speaker 2: five games, remember, like the disappointing twenty eighteen season was
13:25
Speaker 2: ninety five wins. Now eighty three wins is the norm,
13:29
Speaker 2: and there's barely like this, like this is unacceptable behavior
13:33
Speaker 2: outside of council finally saying it right. Council said it,
13:36
Speaker 2: and then the players echoed it, and a you know,
13:40
Speaker 2: lad someone did. But it's it's become a very cold
13:44
Speaker 2: process of team building and I'm not sure if it's hard.
13:49
Speaker 2: I don't know how fan I understand how fans struggled
13:52
Speaker 2: to get enthusiastic about it.
13:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean just walking around Wrigley yesterday, I kind
13:58
Speaker 1: of took a lap before going into the park, and
14:02
Speaker 1: you know, you see the DraftKings sports book and all
14:06
Speaker 1: these signs, you know with arrows like come back here,
14:10
Speaker 1: you know, NFL Sundays and like if you ever like
14:14
Speaker 1: board at work, like just google like the hotel rates
14:18
Speaker 1: at Hotel Zachary for like a weekend series at Wrigley
14:21
Speaker 1: or even Thanksgiving week coming up like off the charts prices,
14:28
Speaker 1: and it just doesn't always feel like the Cubs keep
14:34
Speaker 1: the main thing the main thing. I wouldn't say the
14:38
Speaker 1: Cubs are cheap. I wouldn't say the Cubs are necessarily
14:41
Speaker 1: like under funded, Like you're around the luxury tax threshold,
14:46
Speaker 1: you should be able to put together a good baseball team.
14:49
Speaker 2: But like.
14:51
Speaker 3: The sense of like the Cubs going all.
14:53
Speaker 1: Out or demanding greatness or like you know, giving their
14:59
Speaker 1: fans an amazing product, not quite there.
15:03
Speaker 3: Rigby Field is still the star of the show.
15:05
Speaker 1: I mean, they drew over two point nine million fans
15:10
Speaker 1: this year. I mean, the place looks great. It's a
15:13
Speaker 1: probably not a better place to spend you know, a
15:16
Speaker 1: Friday afternoon in Chicago, And but it just leads to
15:21
Speaker 1: the sense of like it almost doesn't really matter what
15:24
Speaker 1: they put out there. Obviously they're not the White Sox,
15:27
Speaker 1: so they're not going to get hammered in that way.
15:30
Speaker 1: I think they have actually a lot of competence and
15:34
Speaker 1: experience throughout the organization that kind of keeps things on
15:39
Speaker 1: track to where they can create this either illusion of
15:43
Speaker 1: contention or stretches of contention. But clearly they need more
15:48
Speaker 1: and I think then they ultimately be Craig Council's value
15:54
Speaker 1: that maybe he can talk about things in a way
15:58
Speaker 1: that would be harder for David Ross as someone who
16:02
Speaker 1: had less experience.
16:05
Speaker 3: You know, obviously played.
16:07
Speaker 1: For different teams, but no sort of management experience outside
16:12
Speaker 1: of the Cubs. And when you see what the Brewers
16:17
Speaker 1: have done, you've hammered this point sadev of like it's
16:22
Speaker 1: not a one man show. Like they do a lot
16:23
Speaker 1: of things really really well, and they almost never ever
16:26
Speaker 1: talk about it, so like, what what's the secret sauce?
16:30
Speaker 1: And you know, Counsel have used it as his responsibility
16:33
Speaker 1: to help them make these decisions, not that he has
16:37
Speaker 1: the final call, but that you know, he's gonna be
16:42
Speaker 1: pushing a lot of buttons in the Ringleyville office building
16:46
Speaker 1: this winter.
16:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he he said it is his job, right,
16:51
Speaker 2: Like he said, I wouldn't be doing my job if
16:53
Speaker 2: I don't like point these things out, And he wouldn't
16:56
Speaker 2: come out and say what the issues are. He's not
17:00
Speaker 2: gonna tell us. He's going to keep that in house.
17:03
Speaker 2: But he definitely saw things that need to be changed
17:08
Speaker 2: this year. How drastic that is, I don't think it's
17:13
Speaker 2: like insanely like, here are wholesale changes that need to
17:18
Speaker 2: be made, but there are things that aren't being run
17:21
Speaker 2: as well as he thinks they should be. I think
17:25
Speaker 2: we'll start to hear about it over the coming days
17:28
Speaker 2: and weeks. What changes he's pushing uh and has already
17:33
Speaker 2: you know, is already making. It's it's Monday as we
17:36
Speaker 2: record this, and you know, it's typical that there's a well,
17:40
Speaker 2: I know that they were having exit interviews with the
17:43
Speaker 2: players in Philadelphia right that was getting done and then
17:48
Speaker 2: and I was glad to actually see that because I
17:50
Speaker 2: was talking to someone about that and I was like,
17:52
Speaker 2: it's it's interesting because far too often like they push off,
17:55
Speaker 2: push that off, and then it's like the last day
17:57
Speaker 2: of the season and the players are like, I'm go
18:00
Speaker 2: into kant Kun on Monday. We were eliminated two weeks ago,
18:05
Speaker 2: and I booked it with my family like I'm not
18:08
Speaker 2: you know, I'm not sticking around for an exit interview,
18:11
Speaker 2: and and good, yeah, they should enjoy their free time
18:13
Speaker 2: with their family. But like you try and do that
18:16
Speaker 2: over zoom, it doesn't work as well. You know that
18:19
Speaker 2: exit interviews are important. You need honesty and you need
18:21
Speaker 2: openness and you need to be able to, you know,
18:24
Speaker 2: engage with that person face to face, and like whether
18:27
Speaker 2: it's the players or coaches, Like there's really good feedback
18:29
Speaker 2: that happens there and things. You can think one thing
18:34
Speaker 2: going into a meeting and like it'll shift the way
18:38
Speaker 2: the front office and manager will behave towards a situation,
18:41
Speaker 2: right that it can completely shift thinking. So these are
18:44
Speaker 2: essential things. And definitely changes are happening, and uh, there's
18:50
Speaker 2: going to be more. I think it's going to be
18:52
Speaker 2: a different for an office. It's going to be you know,
18:55
Speaker 2: I don't know how drastic the coaching staff will change,
18:59
Speaker 2: but there's going to be new faces around it.
19:01
Speaker 6: There.
19:02
Speaker 2: There almost always is. I don't really remember a year
19:05
Speaker 2: when it wasn't like at least one small change. But
19:10
Speaker 2: I'm that's I think of all the things that are
19:15
Speaker 2: going to happen this winter, I think counsels impact and
19:18
Speaker 2: his desire to make change. I'm curious what what that
19:23
Speaker 2: will actually be. We didn't really get to see it
19:25
Speaker 2: last year because he was hired. It was like this
19:28
Speaker 2: month that we're entering is pretty critical to making a
19:32
Speaker 2: lot of these moves, right, Yeah, I mean what was
19:36
Speaker 2: it rough November six like that, so we're talking about
19:40
Speaker 2: a really long gap. Yeah, so it's a month of
19:44
Speaker 2: stuff that you make moves like David Ross had already
19:47
Speaker 2: like two coaches, you know, he was making he was
19:51
Speaker 2: in the process of hiring more people. So like there's
19:55
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff that's going to happen over these
19:57
Speaker 2: next four weeks and then obviously November or in December
20:00
Speaker 2: a huge for team building. Yeah, it's it's going to
20:05
Speaker 2: be really fascinating and his impact is going to be
20:08
Speaker 2: I'm you know, I'm very curious to you know, eager
20:12
Speaker 2: to pick his brain and understand how he attacks an offseason.
20:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he's such a like measured person, it's hard
20:22
Speaker 3: for me to imagine him just like blowing out almost
20:25
Speaker 3: the entire coaching staff.
20:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, and even like signing off on that. But clearly
20:35
Speaker 1: he wasn't happy. Like he's kind of the reality check
20:40
Speaker 1: for an organization that you know, at times kind of
20:45
Speaker 1: puffs its chest out or has you know, a TV
20:49
Speaker 1: on network that really like pumps up you know, the
20:53
Speaker 1: prospects or the process and like it just you know,
20:57
Speaker 1: we did not see a lot of like anger about
21:01
Speaker 1: this season, right.
21:03
Speaker 3: Of just like this is unacceptable, Like, no, it was.
21:07
Speaker 1: They were kind of in playoff contention, you know into September,
21:11
Speaker 1: they played.
21:11
Speaker 3: Some meaningful games.
21:13
Speaker 1: You have a lot of veteran players in that clubhouse
21:17
Speaker 1: who are steady, which is good, you know, who have
21:22
Speaker 1: extremely developed routines, which is good. But it just there
21:26
Speaker 1: was just clearly something missing. And you know, we're not
21:31
Speaker 1: going to go down the like theo versus Madden role,
21:35
Speaker 1: you know, managing millennials for dummies or saying they're missing
21:40
Speaker 1: edge urgency, but like clearly like something's off. And you
21:47
Speaker 1: know when we talked about like energy and just that bounce,
21:53
Speaker 1: Cody Bunger just didn't provide it this year. And it
21:57
Speaker 1: was just not like all his fault there were injuries.
22:01
Speaker 1: It's not like he showed up with a different attitude
22:04
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But it's just like certain seasons
22:06
Speaker 1: where a team just like catches fire. And they had
22:10
Speaker 1: that moment with Bellinger last summer where it just seemed
22:13
Speaker 1: like I think Jets said this if it seemed like
22:16
Speaker 1: every time they needed a two out clutch hit, like
22:21
Speaker 1: he knocked the run in and Bellinger met with the
22:27
Speaker 1: media after Sunday's game and once again said he has
22:31
Speaker 1: not made a decision yet on his opt in or
22:35
Speaker 1: opt out clause in his contract. He acknowledged it's a
22:39
Speaker 1: harder decision than last year, when it was just obvious
22:42
Speaker 1: that he was gone.
22:43
Speaker 3: And I think players in that clubhouse are curious, Like
22:49
Speaker 3: I don't think they know.
22:52
Speaker 1: I'd imagine Bellinger will take some time here, and obviously
22:59
Speaker 1: Scott Boris heavily influence that decision. But you know that's
23:05
Speaker 1: gonna be a really big domino to fall shortly after
23:08
Speaker 1: the World Series of as we're trying to think through,
23:11
Speaker 1: like what can the Cubs do? What will the Cubs do?
23:13
Speaker 1: I mean, if Bellinger's gone, it's a lot of money
23:17
Speaker 1: coming back to the Baseball operations budget. And if he stays,
23:21
Speaker 1: I think they're good with it. But it does create
23:25
Speaker 1: more of that sense of sort of running it back
23:29
Speaker 1: and adding a picture and changing things around around the
23:32
Speaker 1: margins and crossing your fingers with the bullpen.
23:35
Speaker 2: Right right, Yeah, No, I think so Jed Hoyer will
23:39
Speaker 2: talk on Tuesday. We'll obviously record a podcast soon after
23:43
Speaker 2: he speaks, and I think that's one of the pressing
23:47
Speaker 2: things on my mind, like how much does his decision
23:50
Speaker 2: impact the way they look at their off season, and yeah,
23:55
Speaker 2: that's you know, it's not a bad thing if he
23:58
Speaker 2: opts in. It just it keeps them from being as
24:04
Speaker 2: creative if we believe they can be super creative. It
24:08
Speaker 2: keeps them they lose flexibility and you know, and options
24:14
Speaker 2: to do things. I don't Again, I don't think it's
24:17
Speaker 2: a bad thing. I just I wonder what direction they
24:20
Speaker 2: go if if he opts in, if he opts out that,
24:25
Speaker 2: there's so many different things they could do because they
24:29
Speaker 2: have a center fielder they have, I mean, their outfield
24:32
Speaker 2: is pretty much set and they have a first basement.
24:34
Speaker 2: You don't have to worry about like, oh no, we
24:36
Speaker 2: don't have a DH like you figure that out. Yeah,
24:39
Speaker 2: you know, you can use so many different ways. There
24:41
Speaker 2: are so many different ways. Then you can do that
24:43
Speaker 2: if you want to put Saya there and find a
24:45
Speaker 2: right fielder whatever. That discussion we can have over the week,
24:48
Speaker 2: coming weeks. But yeah, tomorrow is going to be interesting
24:51
Speaker 2: with with Jed talking. We'll have another podcast for you
24:54
Speaker 2: guys soon after that. Jed Talking is always informative, but
24:58
Speaker 2: it's also ripe for over analyzation in my opinion, I think,
25:05
Speaker 2: you know and and I've probably like I've learned from
25:08
Speaker 2: it in the sense that I think what was I
25:12
Speaker 2: there was an off season reckoning that was supposed to happen,
25:15
Speaker 2: and they signed Daniel descalso.
25:20
Speaker 1: Yeah.
25:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe that wasn't the reckoning. That was the somewhere
25:25
Speaker 2: along the line the offense broke and to fix that
25:27
Speaker 2: they signed Daniel descalso.
25:29
Speaker 1: And then there was he mentioned the reckoning, which did
25:31
Speaker 1: eventually come It was it was a word I think
25:37
Speaker 1: THEO said and didn't think would be recycled constantly because
25:42
Speaker 1: it was, but it was so perfect and apt for
25:44
Speaker 1: the situation.
25:45
Speaker 5: Yeah.
25:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we have to be careful not to read
25:49
Speaker 2: into like it's so easy to read into everything and
25:52
Speaker 2: assume we know exactly what they're going to do. I wouldn't.
25:57
Speaker 2: I wouldn't do that. I think maybe even last year
26:00
Speaker 2: we assumed they were going to be pretty aggressive with
26:03
Speaker 2: their off season moves and they didn't do anything till
26:07
Speaker 2: like January fifteenth or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, so so definitely
26:11
Speaker 2: be careful. We will try and hold back and just
26:14
Speaker 2: like keep it to the facts. But we'll see what
26:17
Speaker 2: we find out on Tuesday, and we'll be back at
26:19
Speaker 2: it podcasting for all of you. Thanks so much for
26:22
Speaker 2: listening to Northside Territory. Make sure to subscribe, rate and review,
26:25
Speaker 2: Subscribe to the YouTube page. Subscribe to The Athletic where
26:29
Speaker 2: we will be on top of this cub's off season.
26:32
Speaker 2: It's going to be fascinating, that's for sure, so follow along.
26:35
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening. We appreciate all of you.
26:37
Speaker 2: Thanks to take care,