Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Three things to watch in April | North Side Territory

Transcript

Three things to watch in April | North Side Territory · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Sahadev Charma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. After six games,
0:18
Speaker 1: the Cubs are three and three. Don't want to take
0:22
Speaker 1: too much away from any of that, obviously, but we
0:26
Speaker 1: can always look at some trends, see what we're you know,
0:31
Speaker 1: take like, have some small takeaways from what we're seeing
0:35
Speaker 1: and seeing, try and understand what we may be seeing
0:38
Speaker 1: going forward for April. I think one thing that stood
0:44
Speaker 1: out to me early on is the starting pitching has
0:47
Speaker 1: been really solid, outside of what like an inning from
0:52
Speaker 1: from Matthew Boyd where he looked a little off and
0:55
Speaker 1: then a pitch from Shoda after two bloop singles that
1:02
Speaker 1: you know, actually Joey Weimer made a pretty good swing
1:06
Speaker 1: on on a decent pitch that probably showed a wanted
1:09
Speaker 1: in a slightly different location, but wasn't an awful pitch.
1:13
Speaker 1: A lot of swing and miss from this rotation early on,
1:16
Speaker 1: which I wasn't expecting. Matthew Boyd was brilliant once again.
1:22
Speaker 1: I mean I thought he was brilliant through three innings
1:24
Speaker 1: in his first start obviously fell apart in that fourth inning.
1:27
Speaker 1: But the second start, let's let's get the caveats that
1:31
Speaker 1: they're playing bad teams to start the season out. It's early,
1:34
Speaker 1: but a ton of swing and miss from Matthew Boyd
1:37
Speaker 1: early on. What was Craig Counsel saying about him? What
1:40
Speaker 1: was how's Matthew Boyd feeling? What were the takeaways from that?
1:44
Speaker 1: And kind of what what can we what can we
1:48
Speaker 1: take from that and say like this is real going forward?
1:52
Speaker 1: If anything?
1:52
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I think how to frame it? I
1:55
Speaker 2: thought this was interesting Council mentioned in spring training and
1:58
Speaker 2: I brought it up again on Wednesday. Losing track of
2:04
Speaker 2: days here, but just this idea that the first three
2:07
Speaker 2: weeks of the season are really delicate point for starting pitchers.
2:12
Speaker 2: That is what Council has learned through experience. It has
2:16
Speaker 2: informed a lot of his decisions. And he said it's
2:21
Speaker 2: not about this particular group, it's just his years in
2:25
Speaker 2: baseball obviously managing the Brewers. If you can get guys
2:29
Speaker 2: past that, not that it means that you're in the clear,
2:31
Speaker 2: but they're just you know, the ramp up, the scheduling,
2:37
Speaker 2: just the general flow of the season, and I think
2:39
Speaker 2: there were some questions, at least from our end on
2:42
Speaker 2: Matthew Boyd of like, you know, World Baseball Classic, what
2:45
Speaker 2: does that mean? He had such a unbelievable year last
2:50
Speaker 2: year that I think exceeded all external expectations. It's like,
2:54
Speaker 2: how would he bounce back? And yes, he had a
2:59
Speaker 2: blip on opening Day, but he started the game awesome.
3:04
Speaker 2: He looked great yesterday and I thought you'd appreciate he
3:08
Speaker 2: was dressed like a Chicago Bears offensive lineman, not going
3:11
Speaker 2: long sleeves on thirty something degree day.
3:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw that. That's having a kid playing high
3:23
Speaker 1: school baseball and having to sit through this weather the
3:26
Speaker 1: past the past week. I don't know how they do that.
3:32
Speaker 1: Certainly I don't recommend it, but that was impressive. Look,
3:36
Speaker 1: his fastball looks as good as it ever has. He's
3:41
Speaker 1: getting a lot of swinging miss I was. I don't
3:43
Speaker 1: know what he finished with yesterday as far as whiffs,
3:48
Speaker 1: just pure swing and miss, but he was at twenty
3:52
Speaker 1: last I looked, and that's what he had in the
3:54
Speaker 1: first game two. He's never done that in his Cub's career.
3:57
Speaker 1: He until these first two starts it's the most he's
4:01
Speaker 1: had in in games since like twenty nineteen. These are
4:06
Speaker 1: the you know, these are the types of trends that
4:10
Speaker 1: you say, like, oh, that's that's interesting, and like you said, like,
4:14
Speaker 1: is it just like the WBC stuff, you don't You're
4:19
Speaker 1: you're going to have a little concern about the WBC.
4:23
Speaker 1: There were a lot of guys who had if he
4:25
Speaker 1: starts to the season that participated in WBC. I don't
4:30
Speaker 1: know if that's connected. I really don't. I don't want
4:33
Speaker 1: to take too much away from that because it feels
4:36
Speaker 1: like cherry picking. But it is something to watch and
4:41
Speaker 1: you always want to see, like, how's this guy doing?
4:43
Speaker 1: How Like maybe that takes a little longer too. Maybe
4:46
Speaker 1: that's what councils talking. I mean, I think in general
4:48
Speaker 1: he's talking about the first three weeks, but also with
4:50
Speaker 1: the WBC guy, I don't think you want to just
4:53
Speaker 1: assume that it's clear sailing just because he's looked good
4:57
Speaker 1: through two starts, but certainly liked that. He actually did
5:02
Speaker 1: start that fourth inning off a little bumpy quick walk
5:06
Speaker 1: to netto. I think he fell behind Trout three to
5:09
Speaker 1: zero and then fought back and got him swinging it
5:14
Speaker 1: was a strong start, and like, overall, these pitchers look
5:18
Speaker 1: good and they just look ready to go. If this
5:23
Speaker 1: could be a strength for this team to start the season,
5:26
Speaker 1: that would be huge. Obviously, I don't think I'm breaking
5:31
Speaker 1: news there, but but but but a starting staff that
5:37
Speaker 1: can kind of lead the way and isn't purely you know,
5:42
Speaker 1: isn't as reliant on its defense. It's great to have
5:45
Speaker 1: that defense. They have an elite defense, and it's almost
5:49
Speaker 1: like if you can get swing and miss and also
5:51
Speaker 1: put the ball on the ground. That's why I like
5:52
Speaker 1: Edward Cabrera so much because he does both and and
5:56
Speaker 1: I mean he was dealing the other day. They have
6:00
Speaker 1: these guys that can kind of do both. Boy tie
6:03
Speaker 1: on their their flyball show to their their flyball guys. Uh.
6:08
Speaker 1: But rely on your defense, maybe rely on Wrigley Field
6:12
Speaker 1: sometimes too, uh and and just trust that the wind
6:17
Speaker 1: will take care of you and and attack hitters. I
6:20
Speaker 1: think early on we saw some of that too.
6:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got one turn through the rotation plus and
6:28
Speaker 2: I think it's hard to see this season like bottoming
6:33
Speaker 2: out if this, if they get something resembling this for
6:37
Speaker 2: most of the season. I mean, Kate Horton and Cabrera
6:40
Speaker 2: looked like the real deal, Like they're, you know, as
6:43
Speaker 2: good as the hype Shoda, like you said, one pitch
6:47
Speaker 2: away from you know, a nice outing and everyone saying,
6:51
Speaker 2: you know, Showda's back. You know, Tyn proving that spring
6:57
Speaker 2: training stats don't matter. You see how they're incorporating Colin
7:03
Speaker 2: Ray and Ben Brown. If you get Justin Steele off
7:09
Speaker 2: the sixty day ile, assuming Javier Asad just continues to
7:15
Speaker 2: be stretched out at Iowa, if Jackson Wiggins takes that
7:18
Speaker 2: next step in development, you're looking at sort of ten
7:21
Speaker 2: major league caliber starting pitchers potentially. Now, a lot will
7:26
Speaker 2: happen between now and then, but when you have that
7:31
Speaker 2: sort of volume of potential starters, like your season is
7:36
Speaker 2: going to stay on track. And that's why I think
7:39
Speaker 2: in April you're looking at, you know, who can stay healthy?
7:44
Speaker 2: How are they piecing this together? And you know, thus
7:46
Speaker 2: far they're on the right track.
7:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see where it heads. And obviously don't want
7:56
Speaker 1: to take too much away. It's just a weird first
7:58
Speaker 1: six games as well, just whether wise. I think there
8:00
Speaker 1: was one nice day, one really nice day. I think
8:04
Speaker 1: it was Sunday. I could be wrong, Maybe it was Saturday. No,
8:08
Speaker 1: it was Monday, whatever, it doesn't matter. I'm losing track of.
8:13
Speaker 2: Monday night was amazing, Wednesday afternoon was brutal.
8:17
Speaker 1: Yes, very very wriggly.
8:19
Speaker 2: It was a very wriggly experience overall.
8:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like we've had just days like that already at
8:27
Speaker 1: Wrigley Field, where you show up and it's one type
8:30
Speaker 1: of day and by the time it's first pitch, it's another. Uh.
8:35
Speaker 1: That's that's life in Chicago, that's life in the Midwest.
8:37
Speaker 1: So it can't really complain about it. Just have to
8:40
Speaker 1: work around it and see see how they I mean,
8:43
Speaker 1: that's part of what Craig Council has preached since, uh,
8:46
Speaker 1: since the start of last season. I think his first
8:48
Speaker 1: year he was kind of a little surprised at how
8:50
Speaker 1: drastic the weather patterns, the weather pattern changes are in
8:55
Speaker 1: this city. But it's it's just reality, and you can't
8:57
Speaker 1: really there's no uh, there's no like, oh no, what
9:00
Speaker 1: do you do about it? You just play? You play
9:03
Speaker 1: and get you accept that this is your reality, embrace
9:06
Speaker 1: it and move on. Let's take a quick break. I
9:09
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about the right field situation,
9:11
Speaker 1: and we can also talk about some like mini trends
9:14
Speaker 1: that I'm seeing. AJ.
9:16
Speaker 3: This episode is brought to you by our friends at
9:20
Speaker 3: Fox one. Fox one is where you can watch AJ
9:22
Speaker 3: Pierzinski and I get this email every week now AJ
9:26
Speaker 3: that says what to watch this week on Fox One.
9:28
Speaker 3: They give you the weekly watch list, and now that
9:30
Speaker 3: is going to be full of Saturday MLB games with
9:34
Speaker 3: a little bit of you, a little bit of Ken
9:36
Speaker 3: Rosenthal and your friends.
9:38
Speaker 4: Absolutely that starts next Saturday, Skuy. You can watch all
9:41
Speaker 4: the games on the Fox one app. You can watch
9:44
Speaker 4: college basketball, you can watch college football, you can watch
9:47
Speaker 4: they have indiecar, they have Nascar, and they have great shows.
9:50
Speaker 4: Fox one is the app that really does have it all.
9:53
Speaker 3: Start your seven day free trial today. Offers are subject
9:56
Speaker 3: to change. Go to Fox one for complete terms and condition.
10:00
Speaker 3: Box one streaming.
10:02
Speaker 1: Now, all right, Patrick, right field situation. We have Seya
10:09
Speaker 1: Suzuki on the injured list, headed out for rehab assignment
10:13
Speaker 1: and Matt Shaw, I mean Matt Shaw had some interesting
10:18
Speaker 1: plays in the spring training had a rough one. I
10:22
Speaker 1: believe that was Tuesday night, and I think it kind
10:25
Speaker 1: of if I'm remembering correctly, that's the one that led
10:28
Speaker 1: to the rally for the Angels, and the only runs
10:31
Speaker 1: of the game kind of set them up for their
10:34
Speaker 1: scoring situation. I don't even know. I don't know if
10:38
Speaker 1: you guys had a chance to talk to him. I
10:41
Speaker 1: don't know what happened on that play, Like watching it,
10:43
Speaker 1: I can't tell, Like it was a bad route, and
10:46
Speaker 1: then it's like did he lose it in the lights?
10:49
Speaker 1: Did he just? Was he deaking the guy? Is that
10:51
Speaker 1: why he has had his glove up? Like there was
10:53
Speaker 1: a lot going on there where. I'm like, I don't
10:55
Speaker 1: know him his play well enough in right field yet
10:58
Speaker 1: to know what's what that was. It wasn't pretty. It's
11:02
Speaker 1: also windy, like we just talked about weird at Wrigley. Uh,
11:07
Speaker 1: but they're throwing him out there pretty much daily in
11:11
Speaker 1: right field, and I don't know if it's if it's
11:15
Speaker 1: working yet or not.
11:17
Speaker 4: Uh.
11:17
Speaker 1: They seem to be willing to embrace it because they
11:19
Speaker 1: know what he can do in his upside, so they're
11:22
Speaker 1: they're trying to give him a shot there. Oh sorry,
11:28
Speaker 1: I have you muted? Restart there, Go ahead.
11:32
Speaker 2: It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds. This month
11:36
Speaker 2: of Seya Suzuki on Friday is scheduled to be there
11:41
Speaker 2: for double A Knoxville's season opener. Craig Council said it
11:47
Speaker 2: could be in the range of three to seven days,
11:52
Speaker 2: which would put him maybe you'll see him in Tampa,
11:57
Speaker 2: sad and maybe they push it back back to the
12:01
Speaker 2: following weekend, our next weekend at Wrigley Field. We just
12:06
Speaker 2: don't know yet. It's going to be kind of up
12:08
Speaker 2: to say. I mean, technically he could have been already.
12:11
Speaker 2: He's already eligible to come off the injured list, and
12:15
Speaker 2: you know, say say it was not exactly like a
12:20
Speaker 2: gold Glove defender out in right field. He had those
12:24
Speaker 2: weird misses kind of on routine drops, but otherwise, you know,
12:28
Speaker 2: he came out of Japan with a pretty good reputation
12:31
Speaker 2: for being a defender. And maybe we didn't see it
12:36
Speaker 2: all the time, but you know, the potential was there,
12:40
Speaker 2: and you know clearly he's more experienced than matt Shaw.
12:44
Speaker 2: And I think this'd be an interesting one of like,
12:48
Speaker 2: I get it. I have no doubt that after seeing
12:51
Speaker 2: what matt Shaw did in third base, I think if
12:53
Speaker 2: you give him the time out there, he could be
12:54
Speaker 2: a capable defender. He's probably already passable. He's athletic, and
13:01
Speaker 2: he has a type of work ethic. It's just that
13:05
Speaker 2: this isn't a rebuilding team that's kind of holding auditions
13:08
Speaker 2: and letting you learn on the job to that extent,
13:11
Speaker 2: Like obviously Craig Counsel is very patient and Jed Hoyer's
13:15
Speaker 2: front office believes in young talent. They believe in Matt Shaw.
13:18
Speaker 2: But there's gonna be some some awkwardness out there, and
13:23
Speaker 2: I don't you know, the Cubs certainly have a lot
13:26
Speaker 2: of confidence in Shaw. They knew going in that Wrigley
13:32
Speaker 2: in late March early April is a tough place to
13:36
Speaker 2: play defense and right field just a lot of conditions
13:40
Speaker 2: and unpredictable elements going on. So I don't can he
13:47
Speaker 2: seize this job and answer all of the questions? Like
13:51
Speaker 2: probably not, but I think getting say a back will
13:56
Speaker 2: be big for this lineup. And then you know, we're
14:03
Speaker 2: we look at those corner outfield spots really kind of
14:06
Speaker 2: question marks beyond this season with Saya and any and
14:11
Speaker 2: Half both schedules become free agents, and so that's kind
14:16
Speaker 2: of a spot. This infield is set through what like
14:19
Speaker 2: twenty twenty nine, maybe yeah, with guys signed through twenty
14:23
Speaker 2: thirty two. Same with Peter Armstrong. He is going to
14:26
Speaker 2: be the everyday center fielder until at least the end
14:30
Speaker 2: of twenty thirty two, you know, assuming he stays healthy. So, like,
14:34
Speaker 2: right field is just kind of one of those, you know,
14:38
Speaker 2: question mark spots. And even that's like kind of relative,
14:41
Speaker 2: you know, like you know, most teams would like to
14:45
Speaker 2: have the Cubs kind of continuity and stability within their lineup,
14:49
Speaker 2: but you know that's the one position that is kind
14:53
Speaker 2: of unresolved.
14:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a you know, I do find it interesting
14:57
Speaker 1: that they just have thrown him out there without hesitation
15:02
Speaker 1: for the most part. I think he's of the six games,
15:05
Speaker 1: he's gotten five starts, maybe four in right field. Uh,
15:10
Speaker 1: he's he's playing there regularly with with sayah hurt in
15:15
Speaker 1: these conditions. That's that's putting a lot of trust in him,
15:18
Speaker 1: And that's that's putting that's that's saying, Hey, we we
15:22
Speaker 1: trust A that this won't hurt us too badly, and
15:26
Speaker 1: and B like we need him to learn, like these
15:28
Speaker 1: are the conditions he needs to learn. And frankly like, yeah,
15:32
Speaker 1: have him experience the worst conditions of Wrigley. Uh, it
15:36
Speaker 1: is it's hard to play right field there. The the
15:40
Speaker 1: sun can be odd, the wind of course is always difficult.
15:44
Speaker 1: It's a it's a tight corner there with little foul
15:48
Speaker 1: territory to work with, uh in a you know a
15:51
Speaker 1: padded wall, uh that you're running into, so it and
15:56
Speaker 1: then of course the ivy and the brick wall behind it.
15:59
Speaker 1: So there's there's a lot to deal with in Wrigley
16:02
Speaker 1: and right field. It's not easy for Matt Shaw. I
16:07
Speaker 1: do wonder what they see for the future there because
16:11
Speaker 1: are they trying to kind of see what they have
16:15
Speaker 1: for him in a corner outfield spot, because you're right,
16:18
Speaker 1: they do have two openings there that's like the only
16:21
Speaker 1: places people can play. He's not converting the catcher, so
16:26
Speaker 1: so like that this this team's kind of locked in
16:29
Speaker 1: in the infield, so he's got to figure something out
16:33
Speaker 1: if he has a real everyday future with this team.
16:37
Speaker 1: I don't think it's been a disaster. I think you
16:39
Speaker 1: want to say it's a zuki back for multiple reasons,
16:42
Speaker 1: and that's one of them. You just want some stability there.
16:45
Speaker 1: But he's an impactful player on offense too, So yeah,
16:50
Speaker 1: I'm curious to see what if this is an experiment
16:53
Speaker 1: or it's just like no, this is this is his future.
16:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's made for starts and five appearances in right
17:02
Speaker 2: field out of the six games thus far. And the
17:06
Speaker 2: council alluded to this during on Wednesday, just how as
17:12
Speaker 2: a manager kind of the tougher parts at the beginning
17:15
Speaker 2: this season is like figuring out the personnel and like
17:18
Speaker 2: giving some of your bench guys opportunities. And obviously this
17:22
Speaker 2: is a team that's not super platoon reliant, he said, Shaw.
17:32
Speaker 2: You know, I'm mixing up. I forget which day he
17:37
Speaker 2: said this, but you know, he just alluded to, you know,
17:39
Speaker 2: Shaw is just gonna have to be ready to play
17:42
Speaker 2: right field, to play for space, to fill in on
17:47
Speaker 2: the infield. And I'm assuming eventually injuries will happen and
17:51
Speaker 2: some of this self, some of this stuff will sort
17:54
Speaker 2: it itself out. But I'm with you. I thought, I'm
18:00
Speaker 2: just curious kind of Confordo and Carlson, know, how exactly
18:05
Speaker 2: are they going to fit in here? And obviously they're
18:09
Speaker 2: you know, you saw Miguel Amaya at DH. You buy
18:13
Speaker 2: a steris at DH. So like it's even in those
18:16
Speaker 2: spots where maybe you could give Confordo a shot and
18:21
Speaker 2: you know they I don't know. I'm kind of kind
18:25
Speaker 2: of rambling here because we just haven't seen a lot.
18:26
Speaker 2: I know, people like, what what are these guys doing here?
18:30
Speaker 2: But you know, something could happen this weekend and all
18:33
Speaker 2: of a sudden that becomes very apparent.
18:35
Speaker 1: But right now he has.
18:36
Speaker 2: Been kind of a Matt Mattshaw's guy's gotten the runway.
18:39
Speaker 1: I struggle. I hate taking too much away from the beginning,
18:43
Speaker 1: but Confordo's at baths just haven't been good. I feel
18:46
Speaker 1: like he started own two. Like every single at bats,
18:49
Speaker 1: it's like he's He's suddenly Ozero and two. And I
18:54
Speaker 1: don't know how many strikeouts he has, but there's a
18:56
Speaker 1: solid amount at least three that I can think of
18:59
Speaker 1: off the top of my head. He he hasn't had
19:03
Speaker 1: a good start to the season. I don't think Dylan
19:05
Speaker 1: Carlson has gotten into a game yet, pretty sure he hasn't.
19:08
Speaker 1: Scott Kingaree did as a pinch hitter. Like these guys
19:12
Speaker 1: are bench players, but Conforto's kind of expected to be
19:15
Speaker 1: the first one off the bench. His struggles early on.
19:19
Speaker 1: Probably don't want to take too much away from it.
19:22
Speaker 2: Looks like you have mean five strikeouts in seven plate appearances.
19:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I mean that's not that he's in a
19:29
Speaker 1: tough spot. Yeah yeah, that's just a bad way to
19:32
Speaker 1: start when you are fighting for playing time. That's like,
19:36
Speaker 1: that's the last thing you want to do, like not
19:38
Speaker 1: even putting the ball in play for someone who we
19:41
Speaker 1: know historically, especially recently, his problem has been like the
19:48
Speaker 1: ball isn't falling, Like he's been hitting the ball hard
19:50
Speaker 1: and he hasn't been getting results and now he's not
19:52
Speaker 1: making contact or he's I don't even know how much
19:55
Speaker 1: swing and missing there. I think there's been some takes.
19:57
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter, like the results are not there at
20:00
Speaker 1: all right now. So some quick things I just wanted
20:05
Speaker 1: to touch on because the offense I think they got
20:07
Speaker 1: shut out on Tuesday. Other than that, I feel like
20:11
Speaker 1: the offense has looked great. Uh and and like I
20:16
Speaker 1: don't even think it's fully like there yet. Pete hasn't
20:20
Speaker 1: hit for any power. And these are just some little
20:24
Speaker 1: things that have noticed Pet's Pete's bats beeed. You know,
20:27
Speaker 1: Sarah's pointed this out. I saw a tweet about it,
20:29
Speaker 1: and then Eno wrote about it. I'm gonna try and
20:31
Speaker 1: ask Pete about it. But his his bat speed is
20:34
Speaker 1: up like two and a half. I think it's measured
20:37
Speaker 1: in miles per hour. And and that I talked to
20:42
Speaker 1: someone briefly the other day during batting practice, like when, like,
20:47
Speaker 1: how how quickly can we take that as real? They're
20:51
Speaker 1: like maybe three series, maybe less, but they do go
20:56
Speaker 1: in trends. It can waiver over the course of the season.
20:59
Speaker 1: But that's that's a big deal. That that adds a
21:01
Speaker 1: lot of distance. This is a guy that hit you know,
21:06
Speaker 1: thirty one homers last year. If he can add to that,
21:11
Speaker 1: I mean, we know what he can do, we know
21:13
Speaker 1: what he's capable of. Just a little small trend, that's interesting.
21:19
Speaker 1: Nico Horner has three doubles, don't really see him getting
21:23
Speaker 1: a lot of extra base hits. That's a nice trend.
21:26
Speaker 1: And like the biggest one for me is that Bregman's
21:29
Speaker 1: not getting as many results just yet. But he looks
21:33
Speaker 1: so good at the plate, Like we knew, he doesn't chase,
21:37
Speaker 1: he doesn't like do anything silly up there. He's incredibly
21:41
Speaker 1: patient and knows what to swing at. But he's not
21:44
Speaker 1: getting any luck and he's just hitting line drive after
21:47
Speaker 1: line drive. Those are three things that have kind of
21:51
Speaker 1: stood out to me that I'm going to be watching
21:53
Speaker 1: going forward because I think Bregman's having a really good
21:56
Speaker 1: start without the pure results just yet. I think he's
21:59
Speaker 1: got a couple overs and like, I don't think his
22:02
Speaker 1: numbers are bad, it's just I think they should be
22:05
Speaker 1: even better.
22:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, he hasn't looked great on defense, but
22:09
Speaker 2: I'm sure, yeah, yeah, that'll be even out. But no,
22:12
Speaker 2: I think going into this season, I think we're both
22:16
Speaker 2: pretty optimistic of like how do you replace Kyle Tucker?
22:21
Speaker 2: And we understood the reasoning behind why they brought in Bregman,
22:26
Speaker 2: a you know, free agent they had coveted for a
22:30
Speaker 2: long time. And I think you see Nico's value really popping,
22:37
Speaker 2: like why they fell in love with this player kind
22:41
Speaker 2: of what he brings, the different dimensions he creates for
22:46
Speaker 2: this offense pretty deep. I mean, we'll see how Biasteros
22:52
Speaker 2: and Shaw kind of continue to develop over the course
22:57
Speaker 2: of this season. But we have like two catchers who
23:02
Speaker 2: you you know, trust as two way players. It's pretty
23:07
Speaker 2: uh impressive, and I just think there is enough, they
23:13
Speaker 2: have enough answers. I think that yeah, that will show
23:15
Speaker 2: up board the course of the year. I mean he
23:17
Speaker 2: Ian happened a contract year, you know, putting some home runs.
23:20
Speaker 2: He's looks on the board early like that. I think
23:23
Speaker 2: that that matters. Get say back in the mix as well.
23:30
Speaker 2: And yeah, I mean, for as unpredictable as Rigly is,
23:34
Speaker 2: I thought the offense you know, showed up for for
23:37
Speaker 2: the most part. Uh, admittedly against two bad teams.
23:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Uh they do have some decent pitching. Jake Irvin,
23:47
Speaker 1: who's one of those guys that just like had like
23:50
Speaker 1: a complete like change in arsenal and stuff. Who knows
23:54
Speaker 1: if that's real, but he looked really good against the Cubs.
23:56
Speaker 1: And then uh, I think the Jose Soriano is a
24:01
Speaker 1: solid picture as well. I like him.
24:03
Speaker 2: Uh. Well, it's not going to be easy the rest
24:06
Speaker 2: of this month when you love the pitching, I mean Cleveland, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Phillies, Mets, Phillies, Dodgers, Padres.
24:14
Speaker 2: Like that's yeah, we'll see maybe the tone of our
24:17
Speaker 2: show will we will ship by the end of April.
24:20
Speaker 1: But yeaheah. One small other thing that I you mentioned
24:24
Speaker 1: the catchers. I was like, I have been hesitant about
24:28
Speaker 1: Carson Kelly just because he had such a good start
24:30
Speaker 1: to last year. He looks good. I'm like, I feel
24:34
Speaker 1: like cautiously optimistic. That's like, oh okay, I'm not saying
24:37
Speaker 1: repeat of April last year, but he looks like like
24:41
Speaker 1: this looks like keep these guys healthy because that's a
24:44
Speaker 1: really nice catching dude. Like you said, like they can
24:47
Speaker 1: do both both sides of the ball really well, that's important.
24:51
Speaker 1: All right, let's wrap this up. We'll have a let's
24:53
Speaker 1: try and get some mailbag questions in for h for
24:56
Speaker 1: another episode and get you guys interacting with us after
25:01
Speaker 1: the start of the season. Thanks so much for listening
25:02
Speaker 1: to everyone. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to
25:05
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick
25:08
Speaker 1: and I are on top of all things Cubs. Thanks everyone,
25:10
Speaker 1: Take care.