Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / The Cubs at the halfway point: Big expectations for what’s next

Transcript

The Cubs at the halfway point: Big expectations for what’s next · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Network's 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. We are
0:16
Speaker 1: eighty one games into the season, eighty one games down
0:20
Speaker 1: and the Cubs are fifteen games over five hundred. We
0:25
Speaker 1: talked to some people about eighty one games down and
0:28
Speaker 1: you know, it's no surprise everyone's pleased with the first half.
0:34
Speaker 1: Craig Council gave us his thoughts on the first half.
0:38
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sure he loved the sort of arbitrary number question.
0:42
Speaker 2: You know, I'm sure I can just already picture him
0:44
Speaker 2: sort of like grimacing and like pursing his lips and
0:48
Speaker 2: shrugging that.
0:49
Speaker 1: He wanted to be sure that this would only be
0:52
Speaker 1: done once. We weren't going to go over the first
0:55
Speaker 1: half multiple times. You know, he that there were promises made.
1:01
Speaker 1: We'll see if promises are kept. We can't tell others
1:08
Speaker 1: what to ask. The All Star break will be another
1:11
Speaker 1: point in time where he has to assess the first
1:14
Speaker 1: half of the season. So Greig Council will not get
1:17
Speaker 1: out of it that easily. I'm sure there will be
1:19
Speaker 1: more questions asked about the first half of the season.
1:23
Speaker 3: It was a great first half. Forty eight and thirty three.
1:27
Speaker 1: Last time we talked Patrick, they had just come off
1:32
Speaker 1: a really tough loss. You know, maybe there were I
1:36
Speaker 1: don't know if it was their worst loss of the season,
1:38
Speaker 1: but it was a down moment in the season, and
1:42
Speaker 1: and council kind of talked about that. At one point,
1:47
Speaker 1: I believe it was Thursday morning. He said, look, if
1:50
Speaker 1: that's our lowest point of the season, we're gonna have
1:53
Speaker 1: a great year.
1:55
Speaker 3: And he's absolutely right.
1:57
Speaker 1: We you know, we we live in by the game
2:02
Speaker 1: by game aspect of baseball and that and that's going
2:06
Speaker 1: to make you go crazy if.
2:07
Speaker 3: You do that. It's it.
2:09
Speaker 1: It's the old John Lackey saying, you guys treated like
2:12
Speaker 1: it's one hundred and sixty two seasons. Uh, And you
2:16
Speaker 1: know that's you got to put it in perspective. The
2:18
Speaker 1: Cubs have been great this year. They've they've answered every
2:22
Speaker 1: down moment in this first half. I think, you know,
2:26
Speaker 1: this first half is kind of summed up in these
2:29
Speaker 1: last two games in the sense that anytime there were
2:32
Speaker 1: there was a rough patch, the Cubs were able to
2:34
Speaker 1: punch back.
2:35
Speaker 3: They did not. They have not yet allowed any any
2:40
Speaker 3: down moments to lead to uh more than that.
2:45
Speaker 1: Essentially, it hasn't been down weeks. It hasn't been There
2:49
Speaker 1: hasn't been a down month just yet. Even when things
2:52
Speaker 1: aren't going perfectly, or something seems like some aspect of
2:55
Speaker 1: the team seems like it's it's struggling, another aspect pulls,
2:59
Speaker 1: pulls team up, or that that unit steps up and
3:04
Speaker 1: writes the ship.
3:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the Cubs would have absolutely taken this
3:09
Speaker 2: in Mesa if you told them maybe forty eight and
3:12
Speaker 2: thirty three towards the end of June in first place,
3:18
Speaker 2: while getting like minimal to limited to non existent contributions
3:23
Speaker 2: from key members of their starting rotation. And I'm talking
3:28
Speaker 2: obviously about not Sashota but Justin Steele and Javi or Asad.
3:32
Speaker 2: How they've whethered that has been very impressive, particularly when
3:38
Speaker 2: they went through it was longer than a moment. There
3:40
Speaker 2: was sort of a cycle there when the bullpen looked
3:43
Speaker 2: like it was going to be in shambles again. And
3:46
Speaker 2: even when you're a voice of reason, which I think
3:49
Speaker 2: we sort of give the Cubs to benefit of the
3:51
Speaker 2: doubt on this it's also like you still have to
3:53
Speaker 2: go out and do it again and fix it again,
3:56
Speaker 2: and they have with I mean again and going back
4:00
Speaker 2: to Mesa to have like Chris Flexen, Drew Pomeranz, Daniel Palencia,
4:06
Speaker 2: Brad Keller being like major forces out of the bullpen.
4:12
Speaker 2: You know, did not see that exactly coming, though broadly speaking,
4:16
Speaker 2: we know that the Cubs are kind of good at
4:18
Speaker 2: plucking these guys off the scrap heap and putting them
4:21
Speaker 2: in positions to succeed. And then yeah, I'm curious kind
4:25
Speaker 2: of your kind of takeaway, your snapshot of the Cardinals
4:29
Speaker 2: when you look at a division that has been we
4:31
Speaker 2: talked about it with Katie Wu earlier this week of
4:36
Speaker 2: you know, you have four teams in this division that
4:38
Speaker 2: are either in a playoff position if the season ended today,
4:41
Speaker 2: or within striking distance of a wild card. Four winning
4:47
Speaker 2: records out of five teams. I think that has been
4:52
Speaker 2: a surprise as well, and I think it'll it'll make
4:54
Speaker 2: the second half a lot more interesting because I just
4:56
Speaker 2: don't think the Cubs can sort of like go on
4:59
Speaker 2: cruise control or sort of you know, go halfway at
5:02
Speaker 2: the trade deadline. Like it's hard to see, like the Brewers, Cardinals,
5:06
Speaker 2: and Red's all just like falling off a cliff in
5:10
Speaker 2: July and August.
5:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I like maybe the Reds are the
5:14
Speaker 1: most terrifying of the group. Like with this young kid
5:18
Speaker 1: coming up now, Chase Burns, There's there's a lot of
5:21
Speaker 1: talent in this and NOL Central as far as young pitching.
5:23
Speaker 1: Right now, we get there's guys that are coming up
5:27
Speaker 1: that are just dominating right away, and and that's, uh,
5:30
Speaker 1: you know, that's got to be a little scary for
5:34
Speaker 1: for the competition. When you see Chase Burns comes up
5:36
Speaker 1: and he just like strikes out six Yankees right away.
5:39
Speaker 3: That's that's that's impressive. Uh.
5:41
Speaker 1: And the stuff that Miserski's doing, uh with the with
5:45
Speaker 1: the Brewers is impressive. So there's a lot of talent
5:47
Speaker 1: in this division. Saint Louis, Look, they had the first
5:51
Speaker 1: two games, their offense showed up. They they looked really good.
5:54
Speaker 1: It was one good game of good pitching, uh, and
5:57
Speaker 1: then and they just haven't like I don't think here's
6:02
Speaker 1: they've been remarkably healthy.
6:04
Speaker 3: I didn't like Katie. I think Katie told us this.
6:07
Speaker 1: They they haven't had a pitching injury like that. That's
6:12
Speaker 1: in this day and age, that's insane. I don't you know,
6:15
Speaker 1: sometimes you have these random one off seasons. I'd be
6:19
Speaker 1: surprised if that lasts all season long. How do you like?
6:22
Speaker 1: How does that happen? And I don't even think that
6:25
Speaker 1: their pitching is that great. It's fine, but there's nobody
6:29
Speaker 1: that like Sonny Gray's a good pitcher. The Cubs missed
6:31
Speaker 1: him other than that, like, these guys can be hit,
6:34
Speaker 1: like Eric Fetty doesn't strike anyone out, and look what
6:39
Speaker 1: happened to him. The cut Like a team that puts
6:41
Speaker 1: the ball in playing and can hit for power.
6:43
Speaker 3: Did exactly that.
6:46
Speaker 1: You know, the Cubs probably were one hit away from Thursday.
6:50
Speaker 3: Being a blowout.
6:52
Speaker 1: They they're pitching, you know, I think you know, we've
6:56
Speaker 1: talked about this a lot, but the bullpend deserves so
6:59
Speaker 1: much credit.
7:00
Speaker 3: The Cubs are a pete grow armstrong.
7:03
Speaker 1: You know, brain cramp away from taking three or four
7:06
Speaker 1: of the card from the Cardinals. They had a bad
7:08
Speaker 1: first game and then that starting pitcher is no longer
7:13
Speaker 1: in the majors that started that game, and now they
7:17
Speaker 1: responded so well. The bullpen through fifteen shutout innings after
7:23
Speaker 1: a weekend at home that easily could have gotten in
7:26
Speaker 1: your head because of the wind, and then they didn't
7:29
Speaker 1: give up any runs. Matthew Boyd we were talking about
7:33
Speaker 1: this in the press box. Patrick is he an all Star.
7:37
Speaker 1: He's up there and innings pitched, he's up there in eer.
7:42
Speaker 1: He has like he's been a key to this season
7:47
Speaker 1: not falling apart. He's their stopper. And then you get
7:51
Speaker 1: showed to back and he pitches like that on a
7:54
Speaker 1: pitch count. Probably like he even said he didn't feel
7:58
Speaker 1: like he was one hundred percent there with all his
8:00
Speaker 1: he still getting feel for everything.
8:02
Speaker 3: I you know, there's.
8:05
Speaker 1: As as pessimistic as you could have gotten on Tuesday night.
8:09
Speaker 3: It feels like you could easily be.
8:11
Speaker 1: As optimistic after after the final two games of that series.
8:18
Speaker 1: One hundred percent agree with you. They cannot let up.
8:21
Speaker 1: Nothing is going to be easy. They're not running there
8:24
Speaker 1: in anything can happen. But I don't think they're running
8:28
Speaker 1: away with this division. And and they have to add
8:32
Speaker 1: I think this next we're in like four week constant
8:38
Speaker 1: monitoring our texts mode of like checking in with people
8:42
Speaker 1: and seeing if there's anything new. We know they're on
8:47
Speaker 1: the phone gauging the trade market. Whether anything can happen quickly,
8:52
Speaker 1: I'd be surprised. But they are going to be aggressive
8:56
Speaker 1: and they have to add a starting pitcher and then
8:59
Speaker 1: what else? Stay at I guess you'll see how the
9:01
Speaker 1: market plays out, but and how the team plays like
9:05
Speaker 1: what who?
9:06
Speaker 3: Who steps up? Who? Who looks good? Do they need
9:09
Speaker 3: to go? Get? Like?
9:11
Speaker 1: I don't know if a third basement is available, but
9:14
Speaker 1: you know that that's that's a that's an option there, Patrick.
9:19
Speaker 1: Before we continue, let's let's take a quick break first.
9:21
Speaker 1: I want to I want to say something. We have
9:23
Speaker 1: a a shop now, Patrick, Northside Territory Shop dot com.
9:31
Speaker 1: You can get all sorts of stuff T shirts, obviously, pullovers, hats,
9:37
Speaker 1: coffee mugs.
9:39
Speaker 3: I'm seeing toats, I'm seeing.
9:41
Speaker 1: Uh, backpacks, notebooks, all sorts of fun stuff. If you're
9:47
Speaker 1: interested in it, check it out Northside Territory Shop dot com.
9:51
Speaker 3: You can be a do we do we have a.
9:54
Speaker 1: Nickname for for our fans at north Side Territory heads uh, Northside.
9:59
Speaker 2: Territory Sickos or something.
10:01
Speaker 3: Like Sickos north Side Sickos. Yes, I think.
10:05
Speaker 2: That that winner hat would come in handy in the
10:08
Speaker 2: Wrigleyfield press box like in June. Yes, when you still
10:12
Speaker 2: need to pack a second coat because you never know
10:15
Speaker 2: what the weather's gonna be. A lot of options there.
10:20
Speaker 3: All right, north side Sickos. Check that out.
10:22
Speaker 1: We're going to take a break and we'll uh, we'll
10:25
Speaker 1: be right back with some more cubstock.
10:27
Speaker 4: People like this last time, so we're gonna do it again.
10:30
Speaker 4: Read one of the fantastic unique creative recipes dishes on
10:36
Speaker 4: Hello Fresh Creamy Alfredo, truffle cabit, tappy pasta, have.
10:42
Speaker 5: A toppy maybe, but I'll just go with the Indian
10:44
Speaker 5: inspired chicken paired with turmeric rice.
10:46
Speaker 3: That sounds awesome.
10:48
Speaker 5: Everything about this is delicious. Fresh comes in a little bag,
10:51
Speaker 5: and I like to cook, so I like to chop
10:53
Speaker 5: up the ingredients. I like to throw stuff in the pan,
10:56
Speaker 5: mix it up. It makes me feel like I'm doing
10:58
Speaker 5: something Scott and they always come out amazing.
11:01
Speaker 4: Yes, you can be a star at home with America's
11:03
Speaker 4: number one meal kid. Make your summer enjoyable and delicious
11:06
Speaker 4: by signing up for Hello Fresh at HelloFresh dot com,
11:08
Speaker 4: slash ft ten FM and get ten three meals with
11:11
Speaker 4: a free item for life. That's Hello Fresh dot Com
11:14
Speaker 4: slash ft one zero FM for ten free meals and
11:17
Speaker 4: a free item in every box. One per box with
11:20
Speaker 4: an active subscription. Free meals are applied as a discount
11:22
Speaker 4: on the first box new subscribers only. Varies by a plant.
11:27
Speaker 3: Patrick. Kyle Tucker had a good series.
11:30
Speaker 1: He is at a one fifty six way to run screate,
11:33
Speaker 1: a plus two eighty seven batting average, three ninety five
11:36
Speaker 1: on base percentage, slugging like crazy, sixteen homers. It was
11:41
Speaker 1: good to see him hit for power, hit that home run.
11:44
Speaker 1: I think there was a little slight concern whether the
11:48
Speaker 1: power was, you know, coming consistently after the finger injury.
11:54
Speaker 1: It's just good to see him getting hits and being consistent.
11:58
Speaker 1: He's the type of player that know every team wants
12:01
Speaker 1: needs in their lineup. And and we we we chatted
12:06
Speaker 1: with him briefly. Uh at uh, well it was it
12:09
Speaker 1: was actually quite a while in Saint Louis. Look, this
12:13
Speaker 1: isn't groundbreaking stuff. Kyle Tucker isn't gonna tell us I'm
12:19
Speaker 1: resigning with the Cubs or I'm going to go to
12:21
Speaker 1: the highest bidder in the offseason. He's just not gonna
12:24
Speaker 1: say that stuff.
12:25
Speaker 3: But he did.
12:26
Speaker 1: He did talk to us and there was some free
12:28
Speaker 1: agency talk. He said, he said once, if something happens,
12:33
Speaker 1: we'll know, So there we go.
12:36
Speaker 2: So uh yeah, I mean he uh, he is hard
12:43
Speaker 2: to find in that clubhouse. This is not uh complaining
12:49
Speaker 2: as much as just sort of describing his presence around
12:54
Speaker 2: the team of like he's very engaged with his teammates
12:58
Speaker 2: and kind of in tune with the of the day
13:02
Speaker 2: to day over one sixty two, very well liked by teammates,
13:07
Speaker 2: but not someone who is around his locker a lot
13:10
Speaker 2: while the clubhouse is open to the media, So it
13:14
Speaker 2: becomes kind of you know, when you get him, it's
13:17
Speaker 2: a headline and you know, yeah, I mean there's no
13:24
Speaker 2: reason to think he's about to sign an extension with
13:28
Speaker 2: the Cubs, right, I mean, we're we're approaching the fourth
13:30
Speaker 2: of July. Here, he's so close to free agency. Cubs
13:36
Speaker 2: have never done something to the level that he would
13:42
Speaker 2: expect to sign at. So you know, I think this
13:46
Speaker 2: has worked out. You know, I think it's more worthwhile
13:51
Speaker 2: to just look at what he's brought thus far, and
13:53
Speaker 2: I think you've really seen like this is kind of
13:56
Speaker 2: when you're on the whiteboard or if we're writing out
13:59
Speaker 2: the stories at the winter meetings of why they're going
14:01
Speaker 2: after this guy, it is to get that star level player,
14:05
Speaker 2: and he has been that, and you've seen it in
14:08
Speaker 2: a lot of different ways. I think what their longest
14:10
Speaker 2: losing streak is three games after two seasons where they
14:13
Speaker 2: just had weeks, maybe even months of like kind of
14:19
Speaker 2: downward spiral. And that's not all Kyle Tucker. It's not
14:22
Speaker 2: how the game works. But I'd imagine that it helps
14:28
Speaker 2: pekrow armstrong playing next to a guy like that or
14:32
Speaker 2: hitting behind a guy like that. Clearly, say a Suzuki
14:35
Speaker 2: has acknowledged that he's learned from watching Tucker, and it's
14:39
Speaker 2: been more decisive and aggressive, and it's kind of moved
14:43
Speaker 2: on from at bats easier just by watching Tucker. And
14:48
Speaker 2: he's a nice all around player that is as advertised,
14:51
Speaker 2: you know, like I don't. He's not a gold glove
14:55
Speaker 2: defender like a Jason Hayward out in right field, but
14:58
Speaker 2: he's pretty good, you know when you say. And he's
15:00
Speaker 2: a solid runner on a team that has really pushed
15:04
Speaker 2: the envelope in terms of stealing bases and taking extra
15:08
Speaker 2: bases and putting pressure on the other team and then
15:11
Speaker 2: circling back to kind of where I started on this
15:14
Speaker 2: of like, he's pretty laid back guy, seems unbothered by
15:20
Speaker 2: all of this stuff, like the free agency, the new team,
15:25
Speaker 2: bigger market, all of that. He seems pretty unaffected.
15:32
Speaker 3: Yeah.
15:32
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think when he goes through little mini slumps
15:37
Speaker 1: or whatever you want to call him, I can see
15:39
Speaker 1: some pretty I really like. Social media is not the
15:43
Speaker 1: best gauge of what the masses are thinking, I think,
15:46
Speaker 1: but you can see some wild stuff like is he
15:49
Speaker 1: worth this huge contract? Is he really as good as
15:53
Speaker 1: as he's hyped up to be. So he's worth according
15:56
Speaker 1: to Fangrafts, three point six WAR this season if you
15:59
Speaker 1: play up the season, if he plays, if he's healthy,
16:02
Speaker 1: if he does the exact same thing in the second half,
16:05
Speaker 1: he'll be seven point two WAR. There were six guys
16:09
Speaker 1: last year with a higher WAR than seven point two,
16:12
Speaker 1: So I mean he's everything he's been advertising more. It'd
16:17
Speaker 1: be his best season ever by war.
16:20
Speaker 3: So he is.
16:22
Speaker 1: He's worth the bunny, whether it comes pay it or not.
16:26
Speaker 1: You know that we can We've talked about that plenty.
16:29
Speaker 1: I think our feelings are known, not expecting them to
16:32
Speaker 1: go out there and do it. Weirder things have happened.
16:36
Speaker 1: They were super aggressive to go get him. Maybe things shift,
16:39
Speaker 1: maybe philosophies shift. You know, Kyle Tucker is valuable beyond
16:46
Speaker 1: what he does on the field. In my opinion, I
16:49
Speaker 1: think there's something to having a star in the lineup.
16:52
Speaker 1: I don't love things that you can't measure. It can
16:57
Speaker 1: be frustrating as someone that likes to look at the number.
17:00
Speaker 1: But it's hard to say that he doesn't impact the
17:04
Speaker 1: team beyond just what he does. I think Saya Suzuki
17:08
Speaker 1: is a better player this year because of Kyle Tucker
17:13
Speaker 1: being in the lineup, says, Suzuki's offense isn't by the number,
17:17
Speaker 1: is that much better. What's different about him this year
17:21
Speaker 1: is he is a power hitter. This year he is
17:24
Speaker 1: hitting the crap out of the ball and it's going
17:26
Speaker 1: over the fence a lot more often. He has Like
17:31
Speaker 1: the number I like to look at for power is ISO.
17:35
Speaker 1: It's two seventy eight. Like that's it's basically slugging minus
17:39
Speaker 1: batting average. It's it's as simple as you know. He's
17:42
Speaker 1: this is the percentage of extra base hits you're getting.
17:45
Speaker 1: That's seventy eight points higher than his career high. He's
17:50
Speaker 1: already mashed his career high in home runs. Saya Suzuki
17:54
Speaker 1: is having a monster power season and he is just
17:57
Speaker 1: like a menace in the middle of that order. App
18:00
Speaker 1: is starting to look really good. This offense is really good.
18:02
Speaker 1: Pete or Armstrong, it's probably a superstar because he didn't
18:07
Speaker 1: have to overthink things and this lineup is so good.
18:10
Speaker 1: He was able to settle in after rough first two
18:12
Speaker 1: weeks and and he just turned it on and.
18:15
Speaker 3: He is who he is now.
18:17
Speaker 1: You can say like bad series are when he doesn't
18:21
Speaker 1: like dominate the series and hit a bunch of home runs,
18:24
Speaker 1: Like he had a mistake, a couple of bad you know,
18:28
Speaker 1: decision to bunt, a mistake in the outfield, and he
18:31
Speaker 1: still had a pretty good series. Like he scored a
18:34
Speaker 1: huge run because he's a menace on the baits Pats
18:37
Speaker 1: and with his speed. Probably because Wilson Contraras made a
18:42
Speaker 1: wrong decision there to throw He shouldn't he should not
18:45
Speaker 1: thrown that ball a second. You just let you just
18:48
Speaker 1: let the guys steal the base and make sure Pete
18:50
Speaker 1: doesn't score. But that's besides the point. Patrick, I kind
18:54
Speaker 1: of want to talk a little bit about Wilson. Let's
18:57
Speaker 1: let's take one more break and then let's talk Wilson.
19:01
Speaker 4: Ftfan, did you know that Quel has sold over five
19:04
Speaker 4: hundred million meals around the world and now it is
19:07
Speaker 4: your turn to try it?
19:09
Speaker 3: Well, all right, I drink it.
19:11
Speaker 5: Things come Scott so I can discuss huele on how
19:13
Speaker 5: I love it. I had some for breakfast this morning.
19:15
Speaker 5: I like to drink it post workout because of the
19:17
Speaker 5: protein included in it. It always tastes delicious, whether it's strawberry, banana, chocolate, vanilla,
19:22
Speaker 5: whatever the flavor is, it tastes like a dessert. Honestly,
19:25
Speaker 5: it should not taste as good as it does.
19:27
Speaker 4: I agree. New customers get fifteen percent off plus a
19:31
Speaker 4: free gift at heuel dot com when you use the
19:34
Speaker 4: FT code that is foul Foul at fuel dot com
19:38
Speaker 4: slash fowl. Don't miss out. Try Quel today for a
19:42
Speaker 4: perfectly balanced meal. If you miss a meal, if you're
19:45
Speaker 4: looking for a little protein boost, you just saw me
19:47
Speaker 4: drinking the black edition. Ready to drink. There's the vanilla flavor.
19:51
Speaker 4: I love what the chocolate brings to the table. It's
19:54
Speaker 4: really damn good, So give it a shot. Ft fan
19:57
Speaker 4: fifteen percent off plus a free gift for new customers
20:00
Speaker 4: with the code foul.
20:04
Speaker 3: Oh.
20:04
Speaker 1: Patrick Wilson Contreras, he's so fun as far as entertainment
20:11
Speaker 1: it is, you know, I'll say this, So this is
20:15
Speaker 1: what happened. Daniel Palencia is in a great you know,
20:20
Speaker 1: great job.
20:21
Speaker 3: By Daniel Palencia.
20:22
Speaker 1: By the way, this season, in Thursday's game, Daniel Palencia
20:27
Speaker 1: gives up I believe a leadoff double. Contreras comes up
20:32
Speaker 1: and it gets hit on a one two pitch.
20:37
Speaker 3: And it was hard.
20:38
Speaker 1: It was a nearly one hundred and one mile per
20:40
Speaker 1: hour fastball and it was close to his head and
20:42
Speaker 1: he got hit on the hand kind of like diving away,
20:45
Speaker 1: like going to the ground. As he was going to
20:47
Speaker 1: the ground, he got clipped on the hand, barely clipped him. Still,
20:51
Speaker 1: it's a it's a ball up and in this is
20:53
Speaker 1: a guy that's broken bones because of a hit by pitch.
20:59
Speaker 1: It's it's his ivelihood and there's one hundred and one
21:01
Speaker 1: mile per hour projectile coming at your head. And this
21:05
Speaker 1: is a passionate dude, and he was not pleased with
21:08
Speaker 1: Daniel Palencia basically told him throw strikes in his demonstrative way.
21:13
Speaker 1: Polentia is like looking at him like, huh, you know.
21:18
Speaker 1: And I got to give credit for Palencia for locking
21:21
Speaker 1: in at that moment and not allowing that to get
21:23
Speaker 1: in his head. And then he struck out the next
21:24
Speaker 1: three batters, strikes out the final guy kind of does
21:28
Speaker 1: a celebration, turns in the direction of the Cardinals and
21:31
Speaker 1: Wilson and continues his celebration, and Wilson had words, the
21:36
Speaker 1: bench is clear, nothing happens.
21:38
Speaker 3: I don't think that was anything.
21:40
Speaker 1: I think that's Wilson Contrari's you know, he's a fiery dude,
21:45
Speaker 1: and he was ticked at the moment. Afterwards, he apologized.
21:49
Speaker 1: He said that was a bad look on my part.
21:51
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have done that. And he explained why he
21:54
Speaker 1: was heated. It was kind of what I said, he's
21:56
Speaker 1: gotten hit before, it's hurt him, and and like it
22:00
Speaker 1: was just the heat of the moment thing. And Palencia
22:03
Speaker 1: said the same thing as the heat of the moment,
22:04
Speaker 1: I'm not going to hit Why would he hit a guy?
22:06
Speaker 1: Why would he want the time run coming on with
22:08
Speaker 1: no oubts like that's insane. But still it's one hundred
22:11
Speaker 1: and one miles per hour near your head. So it
22:14
Speaker 1: was For me, it was like, I get it, passion,
22:18
Speaker 1: heat of the moment type stuff.
22:20
Speaker 3: Move on.
22:21
Speaker 1: This isn't like retaliation isn't going to come next week,
22:24
Speaker 1: when the next weekend, when the Cardinals are in town,
22:27
Speaker 1: I don't think so.
22:28
Speaker 3: Maybe there will be something will happen.
22:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, something something fun will happen. I don't think that
22:33
Speaker 1: needs to be retalled. Maybe I should put it that way.
22:35
Speaker 1: I don't think that's something that's like, now we're mad
22:38
Speaker 1: at each other because that was unacceptable behavior.
22:42
Speaker 3: It's just it's baseball, but really entertaining.
22:46
Speaker 1: Way to end it, because it had been kind of
22:47
Speaker 1: a whole hum three nothing game.
22:50
Speaker 3: No.
22:50
Speaker 2: I mean, Wilson brings that unpredictability factor that you just
22:55
Speaker 2: never sort of know. And I think if you're a
22:58
Speaker 2: fan of his team, you shaded it more. If he
23:01
Speaker 2: plays on your favorites team, your favorite team's longest historic rival, yeah,
23:07
Speaker 2: that's going to get under your skin as well. I
23:11
Speaker 2: enjoy it because I feel like the game needs more
23:15
Speaker 2: of that. That everything is so process oriented and data
23:19
Speaker 2: driven and influenced by numbers. Just the dispassionate way front
23:25
Speaker 2: offices view teams, even how managers make decisions that I
23:29
Speaker 2: don't know. I mean, we didn't cover baseball in the seventies,
23:32
Speaker 2: but I'd imagine there were a lot more, you know,
23:35
Speaker 2: guys that sort of had a lot less patience and
23:40
Speaker 2: you know, quicker tempers and so that they're just I
23:46
Speaker 2: think fewer guys with Wilson's sort of disposition left in
23:50
Speaker 2: the game. You see it before the games, everyone dapping
23:53
Speaker 2: each other.
23:53
Speaker 1: Up and chatting, you know, yeah, I mean you saw
23:57
Speaker 1: when they were like when the bench is cleared, most
24:00
Speaker 1: to the guys I came up to each other and
24:01
Speaker 1: we're like smacking each other's butts and chilled, chill.
24:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.
24:05
Speaker 2: So uh, you know, I I would lean back to
24:10
Speaker 2: what you know, Katie wou had told us earlier this
24:12
Speaker 2: week of how how impressed she's been with the way
24:15
Speaker 2: that Wilson handled the position change and a you know,
24:20
Speaker 2: directional shift in Saint Louis. He's still really really good player,
24:27
Speaker 2: you know, very good hitter. But yeah, there are probably
24:32
Speaker 2: elements of Wilson, you know that can great on on
24:37
Speaker 2: people and that kind of make you scratch your head
24:40
Speaker 2: of like why are you reacting like this? But I
24:43
Speaker 2: don't know if he had gotten in plenty of his head,
24:45
Speaker 2: it would have been like a genius sort of move.
24:47
Speaker 2: I don't think it was that calculating by any means,
24:50
Speaker 2: but this is this is how he gets to this point.
24:53
Speaker 2: Like Wilson was never handed anything. He grinded for a
24:59
Speaker 2: long time in the minors. He was not kind of
25:05
Speaker 2: on scholarship, so to say. He he went out and
25:10
Speaker 2: took that job in Chicago and made himself a big
25:12
Speaker 2: part of the World Series team in Cubs franchise history.
25:17
Speaker 2: And then you know that by choosing the Cardinals, the
25:21
Speaker 2: relationship is just going to change for that next part
25:24
Speaker 2: of your career playing career.
25:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean you're absolutely right like it. And
25:30
Speaker 1: Plenty even said, like why would I want to hit him?
25:32
Speaker 1: Like I respect for the way he he like got
25:36
Speaker 1: up here, what he's doing, Like he's a great representative
25:39
Speaker 1: of Venezuelan baseball and they're both Venezuelan. Uh, you know, Polentcia,
25:45
Speaker 1: there's I don't think there's any doubt in anybody's mind
25:48
Speaker 1: that Polentcy wasn't trying to hit him, Like, but he
25:51
Speaker 1: does like to go in. He does like to go in,
25:53
Speaker 1: and he's not afraid to and and I think, like
25:56
Speaker 1: everything you said about Wilson is right and and like
25:59
Speaker 1: all like he is a passionate dude who worked his
26:02
Speaker 1: butt off to get to where he is. He's a
26:04
Speaker 1: good player, really good player. You gotta you know, he's
26:08
Speaker 1: kind of in a Cardinals clubhouse that may not have
26:13
Speaker 1: the most like personalities. He kind of adds some fire
26:17
Speaker 1: to that group, and you gotta respect that. I just
26:21
Speaker 1: have to point out how good Polentia has been. He's
26:24
Speaker 1: you know, I give a lot of love to you.
26:26
Speaker 1: Like Brad Keller and Drew Pomerantz, Polentia has now become
26:34
Speaker 1: and I think there was a debate and I think
26:36
Speaker 1: it's now you can just say, like he's the best reliever.
26:38
Speaker 1: That's who it is. He strikes out nearly thirty percent
26:41
Speaker 1: of batters. He has a whip of one in the
26:44
Speaker 1: era of one point eighty six. He's closing games, just
26:50
Speaker 1: bears down in the moment, like you said, I said
26:54
Speaker 1: it once he once he hit that guy. Once he
26:57
Speaker 1: hit Wilson, and Wilson was barking at him. I was like,
27:01
Speaker 1: is he going to get in his head? Is this
27:03
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen? Is it going to be like his
27:05
Speaker 1: first It was his first save opportunity of the season
27:07
Speaker 1: where one bad thing happened and it led to multiple
27:10
Speaker 1: other bad things happening and blowing the save so much
27:16
Speaker 1: credit for absolutely not letting anything get in his head.
27:19
Speaker 1: He just focused on the next hitter, the next pitch,
27:22
Speaker 1: and blew those guys away.
27:25
Speaker 3: Really good execution.
27:27
Speaker 1: I'm impressed by Daniel Palencia's transformation. I think there's a
27:30
Speaker 1: mental aspect here. If you would have talked to people
27:35
Speaker 1: around him and maybe even Daniel, can he mentally handle
27:39
Speaker 1: being a closer? After last year, I don't think many
27:42
Speaker 1: people would have said mentally, yes, he has the stuff,
27:46
Speaker 1: can he mentally do it? I don't know now, Like
27:51
Speaker 1: what a transformation for this guy, Like really impressive, just
27:54
Speaker 1: putting in the work to become, you know, this totally
27:59
Speaker 1: different type of pitcher on the mound who doesn't you know,
28:03
Speaker 1: just get himself, you know, get.
28:05
Speaker 3: Himself out of the game. Uh. It's really impressive work
28:10
Speaker 3: by him.
28:11
Speaker 1: This bullpen in general, you know, I just I keep
28:14
Speaker 1: thinking we need to give them the credit that they deserve.
28:17
Speaker 1: It's a really good bullpen and and Palencia, Wow, just
28:21
Speaker 1: lockdown closer. Uh, Like to the point where we haven't
28:26
Speaker 1: even mentioned that Porter Hodge is back with the team.
28:28
Speaker 3: I don't know what Porter Hodge is going to be,
28:31
Speaker 3: you know, just yet, but.
28:34
Speaker 1: He's he hasn't impacted them much this season, and it's
28:38
Speaker 1: not like some disaster that's this team is weathered a
28:42
Speaker 1: lot of like unexpected turns because they've gotten a lot
28:45
Speaker 1: of unexpected like unexpected you know, they've taken some hits
28:49
Speaker 1: and weathered it because they've gotten so many unexpected great performances.
28:55
Speaker 3: And Councils said it.
28:57
Speaker 1: That was part of what he said to like get
28:59
Speaker 1: back to what we say, start with you need surprises
29:02
Speaker 1: first half. I think you can kind of say like
29:05
Speaker 1: they've gotten a ton of surprises. Council said it, They've
29:08
Speaker 1: got We've gotten a ton of surprises.
29:10
Speaker 3: That's why we're here. Keep it up.
29:11
Speaker 1: Like now, these guys are part of the key part,
29:15
Speaker 1: you know, the key parts of this team.
29:17
Speaker 3: You could list them off.
29:19
Speaker 1: There's a lot of them, and I think Palencia is
29:21
Speaker 1: right up there with them as far as someone you
29:23
Speaker 1: weren't counting on and now he's just a rock in
29:26
Speaker 1: that bullpen.
29:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, not just surprises, but like extreme top end pleasantly
29:33
Speaker 2: surprising developments. Whether it's Palencia being this lockdown closer after
29:39
Speaker 2: the Cubs went through the Presley struggles and you know,
29:43
Speaker 2: Porter Hodge, you know, had his chance and got hurt.
29:48
Speaker 2: Peko Armstrong not just being like a pretty good offensive
29:52
Speaker 2: play hair, but just being an absolute game changing force.
29:56
Speaker 2: Like I think you could even go back like to
29:59
Speaker 2: or three weeks ago, and I think the Cubs probably
30:02
Speaker 2: would have been okay if those were his offensive numbers,
30:04
Speaker 2: the counting stats by the end of the year, right,
30:07
Speaker 2: Like we know Pete had seventeen homers, like that would
30:11
Speaker 2: be like, oh, that's he's probably on the right track,
30:13
Speaker 2: right like he being like you know, on the short
30:17
Speaker 2: list of MVP candidates, circling back again Matthew Boyd, it was,
30:25
Speaker 2: you know, can he stay healthy? You know, you think
30:29
Speaker 2: he'll deliver quality, maybe not quantity, so long as he's healthy.
30:34
Speaker 2: And he's really just across the board, been a great addition. Again,
30:40
Speaker 2: he's someone like Tucker has some intangible value. I mean
30:45
Speaker 2: we were told when he signed, this guy has fantastic makeup,
30:49
Speaker 2: one of the best dudes you'll ever encounter. And he
30:52
Speaker 2: is just like a shockingly positive friendly to the nth degree,
30:59
Speaker 2: like more than and you know, I think anyone could
31:01
Speaker 2: have reasonably expected if you hadn't a cross pathes him before,
31:05
Speaker 2: but a great resource to teammates pitchers. And then I
31:11
Speaker 2: think some of the more you know, moderate surprises or
31:14
Speaker 2: just you know, the things you need of like Carson
31:16
Speaker 2: Kelly having that you know, nice run as like Barry Bonds.
31:22
Speaker 2: You have Ian App's consistency. You know, Dansby's struggles with
31:28
Speaker 2: runners and scoring positions still haven't prevented him from being
31:32
Speaker 2: like kind of right where you'd want your shortstop to
31:34
Speaker 2: be a gold glover who can hit. You know, twenty
31:36
Speaker 2: something Homers drive in roughly eighty runs, Like that's a
31:42
Speaker 2: good piece. Jameson Tyne has been steady except for these
31:47
Speaker 2: last couple of outings that I think we anticipate that
31:50
Speaker 2: sort of smoothing out moving forward. So yeah, curious to see,
31:55
Speaker 2: like who steps forward in the second half. I think
31:57
Speaker 2: third base. I think adding a hitter still makes a
32:00
Speaker 2: lot of sense. I think kind of disclaimer for all listeners,
32:04
Speaker 2: like the tweets about cubs interested in picture X are
32:08
Speaker 2: almost always going to be true or inquiring about Picture
32:12
Speaker 2: X because that is their job. That doesn't mean the
32:15
Speaker 2: tweet has a full context, but Yeah, they are digging
32:18
Speaker 2: in on all of those names pretty much, anyone who
32:22
Speaker 2: is available or semi available or could be available, like
32:25
Speaker 2: they have.
32:26
Speaker 3: They have to check in on that and will continue
32:28
Speaker 3: to do so.
32:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're they're going to add a picture at some point.
32:32
Speaker 3: Uh.
32:33
Speaker 1: Yes, those rumors you hear. Yes, they're interested in that
32:35
Speaker 1: picture because they're interested in everyone, so so they they've
32:41
Speaker 1: they've been making a lot of calls, have been you know,
32:44
Speaker 1: the process has begun. Uh and and we will We'll
32:47
Speaker 1: see where it ends up. How big the name is
32:50
Speaker 1: and how impactful the picture is. I mean sometimes the
32:53
Speaker 1: biggest name isn't always the most impactful uh player at
32:56
Speaker 1: the deadline, so you know there's there's.
32:59
Speaker 3: Move to be made, they will make moves.
33:02
Speaker 1: I still think this response was impressive to me because
33:06
Speaker 1: I was just waiting for it had to come. A
33:09
Speaker 1: bad moment had to come, A long stretch has to come.
33:12
Speaker 1: I kept feeling that way. I was like, Okay, maybe
33:14
Speaker 1: it's here. Maybe maybe they're going to lose three or four,
33:17
Speaker 1: maybe they're just not going to look good for a
33:19
Speaker 1: little while. I didn't think it was the end or anything.
33:22
Speaker 1: I just felt it had to come and to respond
33:25
Speaker 1: like that was impressive to me. Maybe there will be
33:29
Speaker 1: another bad moment. I mean, there certainly will be another
33:31
Speaker 1: bad moment. We'll see how long it lasts. I think
33:33
Speaker 1: is a key and this weekend is not going to
33:36
Speaker 1: be easy. This Astros team is doing a really good
33:40
Speaker 1: job with their pitching. They have a lot of good pitching.
33:42
Speaker 1: The Cubs miss Hunter Brown, who is a stud who's
33:47
Speaker 1: merged as a stud, one of the best pitchers now
33:49
Speaker 1: in the game. I believe they get Framber Valdez and
33:53
Speaker 1: then on Sunday, so we'll see how they can handle him.
33:56
Speaker 1: But yeah, not going to be an easy series. This
33:59
Speaker 1: is a team. These are two good teams. They're both
34:02
Speaker 1: forty eight and thirty three. I think the Askers are
34:04
Speaker 1: playing really well right now, so it'll be a fun series.
34:07
Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker returns, Ryan Presley returns to Houston, so they'll
34:13
Speaker 1: take center stage there as far as media goes, and
34:16
Speaker 1: we'll see the type of receptions they get and how
34:19
Speaker 1: the Cubs do. It's just another test. It's not May
34:23
Speaker 1: is in the past, so I don't think they're going
34:26
Speaker 1: to have a stretch.
34:26
Speaker 3: Like that again.
34:28
Speaker 1: But weathering these situations, making sure the losing doesn't extend
34:35
Speaker 1: too long.
34:36
Speaker 3: Its kind of the key.
34:37
Speaker 1: We'll see how this weekend goes all right, everyone, thanks
34:39
Speaker 1: so much for listening. This is Northside Territory. Make sure
34:42
Speaker 1: to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and
34:44
Speaker 1: subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are on
34:47
Speaker 1: top of all things Cubs. Thanks so much for listening
34:50
Speaker 1: to everyone and.
35:00
Speaker 3: The lad
35:15
Speaker 2: They anyone le