Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Daniel Palencia’s huge WBC moment and more Cubs pitching notes

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Daniel Palencia’s huge WBC moment and more Cubs pitching notes · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, there was
0:18
Speaker 1: a fun WBC final, pretty entertaining. We talked briefly about
0:23
Speaker 1: it the other day. But obviously Bryce Harper with that
0:28
Speaker 1: huge home run. Venezuela comes back, takes the lead in
0:32
Speaker 1: the top of the ninth and I think it was
0:35
Speaker 1: the top of the ninth, right, And then our guy
0:38
Speaker 1: Daniel Polentsi is out there for the save. He he
0:43
Speaker 1: mowed him down one, two, three, and I don't think
0:46
Speaker 1: I think he however many innings he pitched, he didn't
0:50
Speaker 1: allow a hit. He allowed what five innings? And was
0:55
Speaker 1: it one? No hits, one walk? Just pretty nap stuff
1:00
Speaker 1: from Daniel Palencia. You were, you were, You're out in camp.
1:05
Speaker 1: Uh what's the buzz about Daniel Palencia? And and I guess, uh,
1:10
Speaker 1: how how did the Cubs handle him being used like
1:13
Speaker 1: That's There's there's two things here. Great to see him
1:16
Speaker 1: out on that stage looking like a dominant closer. The
1:19
Speaker 1: other thing is, uh, he's getting used like a dominant
1:23
Speaker 1: closer like it's the postseason when it's actually like, you know,
1:30
Speaker 1: mid March.
1:32
Speaker 2: Well, let's go back to that that night. I didn't
1:35
Speaker 2: it didn't really fit into my story, but it was
1:38
Speaker 2: kind of cool, you know, with the time differences between
1:41
Speaker 2: Arizona and Florida. The Cubs have a Cactus League game
1:44
Speaker 2: that's sort of in the middle of play. While that
1:49
Speaker 2: game's about to wrap up, so uh, we speak with
1:54
Speaker 2: showed him and as you know, this late game sequence
1:58
Speaker 2: is playing out, so you have like you know, showed
2:02
Speaker 2: a going back into the clubhouse and media people and
2:06
Speaker 2: Cubs pr kind of like either watching it on their
2:09
Speaker 2: phone or people are going back into the clubhouse to
2:11
Speaker 2: watch saw there was a kind of an office in
2:14
Speaker 2: the clubhouse that through a window you could watch the game.
2:18
Speaker 2: So I kind of saw the last out very creepily
2:21
Speaker 2: walked walking through a window that it goes into like
2:26
Speaker 2: a storage area or you know whatever in the clubhouse.
2:30
Speaker 2: And so a great moment for Danny P. That was
2:36
Speaker 2: kind of the name that was buzzing about Sloan Park
2:39
Speaker 2: the other night, just Cubs people, how about Danny P.
2:42
Speaker 2: Look at Danny P and you know, as you know,
2:47
Speaker 2: a really nice story, just this kind of raw starting
2:52
Speaker 2: pitching prospect they acquire in the Ephan trade at the
2:57
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one deadline. And I know you had heard this,
3:01
Speaker 2: and you help me with some of these stories of
3:03
Speaker 2: just how Polentsia really kind of needed to mature understandably,
3:11
Speaker 2: and that he had to figure out how to get
3:13
Speaker 2: his body ready to be a viable major league reliever,
3:18
Speaker 2: and also not to take it so personally like if
3:20
Speaker 2: he was optioned out or you know, didn't make a
3:23
Speaker 2: club out of spring training, and I mean that moment
3:26
Speaker 2: for a team. Venezuela was a year to the day
3:29
Speaker 2: of when the Cubs optioned him officially with Iowa and
3:32
Speaker 2: he did not make the Tokyo Series roster, he didn't
3:37
Speaker 2: make the domestic opening day roster, and I was out
3:41
Speaker 2: there in San Diego. There's a little bit of a
3:43
Speaker 2: shake up last April and they brought him up. I
3:46
Speaker 2: believe that was the day they sent Matt Shaw back
3:49
Speaker 2: to Iowa to work on his swing. And so for
3:53
Speaker 2: him to kind of unleash you know, his fastball, his
3:58
Speaker 2: emotions while also uh really controlling the game and his
4:03
Speaker 2: emotions was impressive to watch. I think it left no
4:07
Speaker 2: doubt who the club's closer should be. I was referencing
4:11
Speaker 2: your story earlier in camp of just how stunned reporters
4:15
Speaker 2: were when Craig Council confirmed that he would be the
4:18
Speaker 2: closer or the save getter, you know, on opening day,
4:23
Speaker 2: and he definitely showed why. And that is one part
4:28
Speaker 2: of the story, and the other part is, like, dude,
4:32
Speaker 2: that's a lot of work, a lot of high intensity
4:37
Speaker 2: pitching for the middle of March.
4:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I love the like I love the WBC.
4:47
Speaker 1: I think it's fun. Maybe I just like, I mean,
4:50
Speaker 1: I just like base like competitive baseball. So maybe it
4:54
Speaker 1: just like gets our fix in before the season actually starts.
4:57
Speaker 1: Maybe it's as simple as that. Like I've said on
5:01
Speaker 1: this podcast and talk to other people about it, seems
5:05
Speaker 1: like players are starting to care a lot more and
5:07
Speaker 1: that makes it more fun. And Polencia is a passionate
5:11
Speaker 1: dude out there who who you know, gets into the moment.
5:15
Speaker 1: I mean, remember he had that moment with the Yeah,
5:19
Speaker 1: it was last season with Wilson Contreras. Y. You know,
5:23
Speaker 1: he can so he can kind of like it can
5:27
Speaker 1: agitate people because he's emotional. That's what happens emotional players
5:30
Speaker 1: will like it'll rub people the wrong way during the game,
5:33
Speaker 1: So it's it has, you know, the capability of bringing
5:37
Speaker 1: out like a little bit of drama in that sense.
5:39
Speaker 1: And then obviously like he's trying to get the final
5:42
Speaker 1: three outs in close games, so there's always drama involved,
5:46
Speaker 1: whether it's him blowing a game against the Nationals, you know,
5:50
Speaker 1: and then like falling over in pain, think huge outs
5:54
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Like he's he's a fun guy to watch,
5:57
Speaker 1: a good story. Like you said, like came in to
6:00
Speaker 1: camp last year, different body, different mentality. I really appreciated
6:06
Speaker 1: the mental aspect with him, where he was talking about
6:10
Speaker 1: how he just really struggled with the bad moments and
6:14
Speaker 1: he really struggled with he was coming into games with
6:20
Speaker 1: like a negative mindset, thinking of what could go wrong.
6:23
Speaker 1: And you can't do that in base You can't do
6:24
Speaker 1: that in any walk of life, but especially in baseball,
6:28
Speaker 1: especially as a reliever. Like these are just bad ways
6:31
Speaker 1: to go about business. But yes, his health and it's
6:37
Speaker 1: gonna be interesting. I'm curious to see, like do they
6:40
Speaker 1: really limit how much they use him over the next
6:43
Speaker 1: seven days, you know, is it like a like just
6:47
Speaker 1: get him one more tune up before the season, like
6:50
Speaker 1: I like, have they even hinted at that maybe, I
6:54
Speaker 1: guess we'll just have to wait and see. But you know,
6:57
Speaker 1: it shouldn't be like something like that's the reason, like
7:01
Speaker 1: if whatever happened like that, Like we can't just right
7:04
Speaker 1: now say like this is a huge red flag. It's
7:08
Speaker 1: not a red flag yet, but it also is something
7:11
Speaker 1: like not ideal. You don't you know, you don't want
7:14
Speaker 1: the guys like, you know, revving it up max at
7:18
Speaker 1: this point. It's a little worrisome. But also like this,
7:21
Speaker 1: like you said, you got option around this time. This
7:23
Speaker 1: was around when Japan started, so they kind of like
7:26
Speaker 1: it was a weird ramp up last year for the
7:28
Speaker 1: relievers and and the Cubs did admit that that threw
7:32
Speaker 1: some guys off though, like because you ramp it up
7:36
Speaker 1: and then you have like this week in between games
7:39
Speaker 1: again and it's like how do we get back on schedule.
7:42
Speaker 1: It was a little different last year because they didn't
7:44
Speaker 1: have any days off once the season started. They had
7:49
Speaker 1: like a four game I believe it was a four
7:51
Speaker 1: game set to start Arizona and they yeah, and they
7:55
Speaker 1: didn't have days off that through I know, like at
7:59
Speaker 1: the time. I remember fan and saying like this is
8:01
Speaker 1: excuse making, but that type of stuff will throw off
8:04
Speaker 1: a bullpen because you had this weird ramp up. You
8:06
Speaker 1: had these two games, a week off and then four games.
8:11
Speaker 1: It just like threw off how the pitchers were going
8:14
Speaker 1: to how you're ramping these pictures up, especially the bullpen.
8:18
Speaker 1: So maybe maybe it isn't as bad as we think,
8:22
Speaker 1: but we'll see. Well, you know, I don't think there's
8:26
Speaker 1: any panic alarms being set off, just kind of like
8:29
Speaker 1: this is this is what you have to deal with
8:31
Speaker 1: the type situation.
8:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good, good question. It was. So that
8:36
Speaker 2: game was Tuesday night Wednesday morning, and talking to council,
8:42
Speaker 2: it was more kind of replaying that than laying out scheduling.
8:46
Speaker 2: The plan was. The assumption was, you know, the WBC
8:51
Speaker 2: players will be flying back Wednesday. Thursday is an off
8:54
Speaker 2: day in Arizona for the club. Then it's a Friday
8:57
Speaker 2: night game, so you'd kind of have the weekend. There's
9:02
Speaker 2: two exhibitions against the Yankees, and you're right, there is
9:04
Speaker 2: you know, a lot more off day flexibility there at
9:07
Speaker 2: the end of March in Chicago, and so I believe
9:11
Speaker 2: on the Fox broadcast. You know, they had gotten into
9:15
Speaker 2: a little bit of how certain teams had reached out
9:18
Speaker 2: to both clubs about, uh, you know usage, you know,
9:25
Speaker 2: with relief in regards to relievers, and you know in
9:29
Speaker 2: which situations. And so I just asked counsel to explain
9:33
Speaker 2: sort of the back and forth between the Cubs and Venezuela,
9:36
Speaker 2: and he said, the usage is more than anybody would
9:40
Speaker 2: like at this time of year, but the moment was
9:43
Speaker 2: also a moment that you want someone to experience. So
9:47
Speaker 2: if it was going to be usage that we weren't
9:49
Speaker 2: comfortable with, we wanted to make sure the moment that
9:53
Speaker 2: every player should get to experience. So I took that
9:57
Speaker 2: to mean, you know, a safe situation, it's pitching back
10:00
Speaker 2: to back, that's pitching three times in four days. Mark
10:09
Speaker 2: de Rosa said quote honoring the Padres in terms of
10:13
Speaker 2: explaining why Mason Miller wasn't used in the tie game
10:19
Speaker 2: in the ninth inning for Team USA. So it's all valid,
10:25
Speaker 2: you know, these are all valid points of what's the
10:29
Speaker 2: kind of ramp down ramp up going to be. But
10:34
Speaker 2: I still think you kind of have to let players perform.
10:40
Speaker 2: I think the potential benefit of that moment and just
10:45
Speaker 2: the kind of priceless nature of it something that will
10:49
Speaker 2: stay with Daniel Palencia. For rest outweighs the injury risk,
10:55
Speaker 2: it's you know, I mean, we'll see when we show
10:57
Speaker 2: up Friday, you know what the updates are and what
11:00
Speaker 2: Polentia says, and you know, but just something that he
11:05
Speaker 2: had worked really hard for and meant so much to
11:11
Speaker 2: his country. To be the guy on the mound, you know,
11:15
Speaker 2: in the middle of the field. To get mobbed like
11:17
Speaker 2: that by your teammates is something that rarely comes along,
11:22
Speaker 2: and he certainly just maximized that opportunity and really showed
11:28
Speaker 2: why you have to trust him. In October, I mean
11:31
Speaker 2: getting show, hey, o Tani have to pop up and
11:35
Speaker 2: in an elimination game like it's it's not hard to
11:39
Speaker 2: sort of wonder what it would look like at Dodger Stadium.
11:43
Speaker 1: In Yeah, I think I know, I in my head
11:49
Speaker 1: when I think about the trade, like dominant closer, that's
11:53
Speaker 1: that right now. We're months away from really knowing what
11:57
Speaker 1: the Cubs would need, But that's kind of where your
11:59
Speaker 1: head goes. Maybe we're wrong, Maybe it's bullpen depth and
12:05
Speaker 1: you know, whatever, whatever need pops up and dominant closer
12:08
Speaker 1: is already there because we just we don't realize, we
12:12
Speaker 1: haven't fully seen that Daniel Plenti is about to take
12:15
Speaker 1: that step up and become a top ten reliever. I
12:18
Speaker 1: don't know, relievers are weird. Baseball's a weird game when
12:23
Speaker 1: it comes to bullpens, so you always feel a little
12:28
Speaker 1: uncomfortable predicting something like that. But he's had big moments,
12:32
Speaker 1: He's he's struggled in them at times, and he's dominated
12:37
Speaker 1: in them. So he's he's had all those feelings. He's
12:40
Speaker 1: gone through the emotions in whether it's the WBC or
12:43
Speaker 1: the playoffs, he's experienced a lot of it, like these
12:46
Speaker 1: really high pressure moments. He wasn't a closer in the postseason,
12:50
Speaker 1: but he was. He was put out there in huge
12:53
Speaker 1: moments and he failed. I believe he gave up a
12:58
Speaker 1: three run homer in a game was still maybe catchable.
13:03
Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact score to the to the Brewers.
13:05
Speaker 1: But then he had some really big moments against both
13:08
Speaker 1: the Brewers and the and the Padres. Obviously this this
13:13
Speaker 1: WBC was dominant. Uh So he's on the precipice, it
13:17
Speaker 1: seems like, and this seems like we could be like
13:21
Speaker 1: watching the emergence of a dominant closer. If that's the case.
13:25
Speaker 1: I did have one person tell me, you know, when
13:29
Speaker 1: when writing about you know what you said about Council
13:31
Speaker 1: said he's he's the closer, and how surprising that was.
13:34
Speaker 1: I had one person tell me, like, I know, it's
13:36
Speaker 1: you know, cliche, but he does look insane right now,
13:39
Speaker 1: like body wise and then stuff wise he looks great.
13:42
Speaker 1: It's the type of thing it's like, do you try
13:43
Speaker 1: and get him cheap and like extend to extend the guy.
13:47
Speaker 1: That's just someone throwing that out there. That's not that's
13:50
Speaker 1: that's not like a front That was not a front
13:53
Speaker 1: office guy saying that we're gonna do this. It was
13:57
Speaker 1: it was someone observing him that felt like this, this
14:02
Speaker 1: is what it looks like when it's about to, you know,
14:05
Speaker 1: get really good. Can he keep on that trajectory, we'll see.
14:09
Speaker 1: But he is an exciting reliever that this is kind
14:13
Speaker 1: of like the dream you want. You want a bullpen
14:15
Speaker 1: full of these guys. If you can develop a more
14:18
Speaker 1: Daniel Palencia as you'll take that as a huge win.
14:22
Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break and talk more pitching. I
14:26
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14:30
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15:37
Speaker 1: All Right, Patrick Pitching Pitching Pitching the Cubs spent a
15:42
Speaker 1: lot of their winter saying that that was their focus.
15:47
Speaker 1: There's been good and bad results in the spring. You
15:50
Speaker 1: don't want to take too much away from it, but
15:52
Speaker 1: there's one. Let's start with the bad and it's it's
15:55
Speaker 1: gotten to the point where where we have to talk
16:00
Speaker 1: about the results because Jamison Tyne is even talking about
16:03
Speaker 1: the results, and and like the way Counsel has always explained,
16:08
Speaker 1: it is like you want the good results obviously, but
16:10
Speaker 1: do do you freak out about the bad results? You
16:13
Speaker 1: try not to, but this is so I think the
16:17
Speaker 1: way it's gone with Tyne is three bad outings. It's
16:21
Speaker 1: spring training, a really solid good start for Team Canada,
16:27
Speaker 1: and then enough like a terrible outing back in camp
16:33
Speaker 1: for the Cubs.
16:34
Speaker 2: Uh.
16:36
Speaker 1: He spoke afterwards, tell us I guess like we can
16:41
Speaker 1: read the words of what he said, but what was
16:44
Speaker 1: your what what were you gathering from that moment? Because
16:48
Speaker 1: he admitted like he did like at a certain point,
16:50
Speaker 1: like you know he wants to get better results.
16:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know Tyne very well. I can. I think
17:00
Speaker 2: most fans who've watched his press conferences after it starts
17:05
Speaker 2: actually get a very good view of like who he
17:08
Speaker 2: is as a person like and I think that's a
17:15
Speaker 2: good strategy on his part. I think his like accountability,
17:18
Speaker 2: his honesty, his thoughtfulness, like is part of why he
17:23
Speaker 2: has this excellent clubhouse reputation. I remember when the Cups
17:28
Speaker 2: signed him, I had someone from the Pirates and the Yankees,
17:32
Speaker 2: you know, who had dealt with him at his two
17:34
Speaker 2: prior stops. But like, this guy's makeup is off the charts.
17:39
Speaker 2: And you know, so as we're talking to him the
17:43
Speaker 2: other day, like I just kind of towards the end,
17:46
Speaker 2: I was just like, you know, you're an established pitcher,
17:49
Speaker 2: Like you could just say, like, dude, it's spring training.
17:52
Speaker 2: Next question, like why haven't you And it wasn't only
17:57
Speaker 2: my question that was just it was kind of just
17:59
Speaker 2: over over, But you know, he just had like the
18:04
Speaker 2: games telling me something that like, yes, it's this doesn't
18:08
Speaker 2: go in the back of my baseball card. And there
18:10
Speaker 2: was a time when spring training stats like weren't even uh,
18:14
Speaker 2: you know, available out there, but like you have to
18:19
Speaker 2: get good lineups out during the regular season, and like
18:23
Speaker 2: this is telling me, like my stuff isn't good enough
18:25
Speaker 2: right now. And so there are various theories about this.
18:30
Speaker 2: You know, he's someone who does like to tinker. You know,
18:33
Speaker 2: he is getting older. They've seen his stuff tick down
18:36
Speaker 2: a little bit. He likes to nerd out on this stuff. Anyways.
18:40
Speaker 2: You know Tommy Hottevey and his group, uh, you know,
18:42
Speaker 2: the various pitching coaches you know, always have ideas and
18:48
Speaker 2: kind of uh you know, metrics that they can you know,
18:52
Speaker 2: take and then try to interpret and come up with
18:56
Speaker 2: various plans for how to get X, Y or Z,
18:59
Speaker 2: you know, incrementally better. And you know, I think everyone
19:04
Speaker 2: agrees that maybe they've tinkered a bit too much and
19:09
Speaker 2: maybe have to streamline. Now, you know, tyn acknowledge that
19:13
Speaker 2: there's a mental side to this too, Like when these
19:17
Speaker 2: bad outings accumulate, it's hard to totally get out of
19:23
Speaker 2: your head when you're on the mound. So there's mental aspect.
19:27
Speaker 2: There's some you know, mechanical adjustments they'd like to make.
19:35
Speaker 2: Council said. The good part is he should have two
19:40
Speaker 2: more starts in Arizona to kind of get this right.
19:44
Speaker 2: He's projected to be on the back end of this
19:48
Speaker 2: rotation schedule wise. So yeah, like, I don't you know,
19:54
Speaker 2: no one likes writing about spring training results like you
19:59
Speaker 2: you know, you can look full that way, and you
20:02
Speaker 2: know these games don't really matter, and also like his
20:08
Speaker 2: job status isn't really in question when you know you're
20:11
Speaker 2: you have a big contract, and as Counsel pointed out,
20:16
Speaker 2: you know, like five months ago, uh, this guy started
20:19
Speaker 2: two huge games for the Cups and performed extremely well.
20:24
Speaker 2: And his track record overall is just very solid and dependable.
20:29
Speaker 2: He's a reliable you know person and a reliable picture.
20:33
Speaker 2: So like you can overreact, but when he breaks it
20:38
Speaker 2: down with that much like you know, perspective and honesty
20:45
Speaker 2: and you know, a degree of uncertainty, like you gotta
20:49
Speaker 2: write it, you gotta talk about it because it's it's
20:51
Speaker 2: interesting to hear jeally picture kind of process through this.
20:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, no. I think once he acknowledges it, it's
20:59
Speaker 1: definitely something thing like we have to acknowledge, and I
21:03
Speaker 1: think we all have like we've kind of touched on it,
21:06
Speaker 1: because it's not like he's giving up like dinks and dunks,
21:10
Speaker 1: like they're hitting rockets off of him like consistently right now,
21:16
Speaker 1: And like I think part of it is you touched
21:19
Speaker 1: on it there, like he's kind of getting in his
21:21
Speaker 1: own head a little bit and trying almost trying to
21:23
Speaker 1: be too fine. He's probably thinking about things on the
21:26
Speaker 1: mountain that he shouldn't be thinking about. I think, I think,
21:31
Speaker 1: what you look, this all could mean nothing. This all
21:34
Speaker 1: could be like, Okay, he locks in on whatever, whenever
21:37
Speaker 1: his first start is, April, whatever, first whatever it may be,
21:41
Speaker 1: he's locked in and he's ready to go and gives them,
21:44
Speaker 1: you know, five great innings. I think he would like this.
21:49
Speaker 1: I think the Cubs would like this. I think all
21:51
Speaker 1: the fans that are on edge about it, and actually
21:54
Speaker 1: your story, I don't. I don't read a ton of comments,
21:59
Speaker 1: but like the first few that I read, everyone's like,
22:02
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about this, And I was shocked. I
22:06
Speaker 1: was completely shocked that the commenters weren't like, get rid
22:09
Speaker 1: of him, call Ben Brown up or something, already ready
22:14
Speaker 1: to kick him out of the rotation. No, they were
22:16
Speaker 1: all like they they were all very level headed about
22:20
Speaker 1: the ones that I read, you know, like I said,
22:22
Speaker 1: three or four, and I think that's probably the right
22:27
Speaker 1: way to go about it right now, is just like, Okay,
22:29
Speaker 1: let's see what he does in the regular season. You want.
22:31
Speaker 1: But my point, what I was getting leading up to
22:34
Speaker 1: is like I think everyone would like to see one
22:37
Speaker 1: good start leading into the leading into the regular season,
22:41
Speaker 1: like probably most of all is most important for Tywne's
22:45
Speaker 1: mental Just like, okay, there it is, exhale, I'm fine.
22:49
Speaker 1: The mechanics stuff that I was working on there it is.
22:52
Speaker 1: I feel right, everything is feeling better. Let's move on
22:56
Speaker 1: and just lock it in for the regular season. Because
22:58
Speaker 1: you know, he's super professional. You know he's going to
23:00
Speaker 1: go about business. You know, he's it sounded like he
23:06
Speaker 1: wasn't like it sounds like he's working on stuff, and
23:09
Speaker 1: he wasn't like blaming anyone because he is someone that
23:12
Speaker 1: is always working on stuff, but he's like he's trying
23:15
Speaker 1: to get to a place and isn't in that place
23:17
Speaker 1: fully where he's fully comfortable with whatever he's working on.
23:20
Speaker 1: So you know, well, I'm not at the like this
23:25
Speaker 1: is a disaster point because it's still spring training, but
23:29
Speaker 1: it is. It's certainly on the radar, and you're gonna
23:32
Speaker 1: be watching him closely until until he goes out there
23:35
Speaker 1: and gives you five. Jameson TI own solid innings.
23:39
Speaker 2: When you mentioned the comment section, I got to give
23:41
Speaker 2: a shout out to my buddy Paul who once told
23:44
Speaker 2: me that the mooney. I never read a single word
23:48
Speaker 2: that you write, but I always read the comment section
23:51
Speaker 2: every single day just to see people ripping on you.
23:54
Speaker 2: And so that is what true, true friendship is about.
23:58
Speaker 2: And you know, I think the the the overreactions in
24:04
Speaker 2: spring training. You know, I have a hard time, you know,
24:09
Speaker 2: kind of getting fired up about, you know, some of
24:13
Speaker 2: these games. I love spring training. I love covering. It
24:17
Speaker 2: is ideal for us. It's great place to talk to
24:21
Speaker 2: people and kind of like just think about stories and
24:24
Speaker 2: develop these storylines and contacts and what have you. But
24:29
Speaker 2: this has been an unusually kind of like game focused
24:36
Speaker 2: spring training. Just when you have showed in Monaga, yeah,
24:40
Speaker 2: coming back and saying, okay, well, what are the kind
24:44
Speaker 2: of first impressions of his off season program, you have
24:49
Speaker 2: Matthew Boyd going back and forth to Team USA and
24:54
Speaker 2: Cubs camp, Kate Horton coming off just an awesome rookie
25:00
Speaker 2: season that went beyond the limits of I think what
25:03
Speaker 2: most reasonable people would have expected at this time last year.
25:07
Speaker 2: He looked awesome the other night. And then you have
25:11
Speaker 2: Edward Cabrera as this you know, pitcher of the Cubs
25:15
Speaker 2: had coveted for a very long time coming over in
25:18
Speaker 2: at trade from the Marlins, and like how is he
25:20
Speaker 2: gonna respond? What's the fine line between helping him improve
25:26
Speaker 2: and tinkering too much? And Cabrera on Wednesday had a
25:33
Speaker 2: bad outing. Uh he you know, did not care at
25:38
Speaker 2: all in the best way possible, Like he just sort
25:40
Speaker 2: of shrugged it off. And you know, I'm struck by.
25:45
Speaker 2: He definitely has has a presence. He's kind of been
25:47
Speaker 2: like an interesting guy just the way he he seems
25:55
Speaker 2: very engaging, you know, just like even speaking Spanish. I
26:00
Speaker 2: mentioned this before, like making direct eye contact, like you know,
26:03
Speaker 2: listening to the questions in English, like just just a
26:09
Speaker 2: really interesting like I'm fascinating to see like how this
26:12
Speaker 2: plays out as a guy who you know. I know.
26:16
Speaker 2: Marlin Stadium whatever it's called now a lone deepot Park
26:20
Speaker 2: was rocking for Daniel Polenci and Team Venezuela.
26:23
Speaker 1: But been there.
26:24
Speaker 2: It's usually usually a very quiet place, like even on
26:31
Speaker 2: opening day several years ago, Like it was exactly like
26:34
Speaker 2: when the Cubs were there and Ian happ I think it.
26:36
Speaker 1: Like hit too. Oh he had a home run on
26:39
Speaker 1: the first pitch, right, Yeah.
26:40
Speaker 2: Like even that was kind of like, you know, relatively
26:44
Speaker 2: muted for opening days up. I'm really just curious to see,
26:46
Speaker 2: like how aywharre Cabrera gets into the cold at Wrigley
26:49
Speaker 2: Field in March slash April and pitching for a team
26:53
Speaker 2: with uh, you know, huge expectations and a really bright
26:57
Speaker 2: spotlight upon it. I mean, I think it's been so far,
27:01
Speaker 2: so good in that respect, and then you know, teammates,
27:04
Speaker 2: you really like his personality. Certainly there's a lot to
27:11
Speaker 2: work with, but just like how it all plays out,
27:14
Speaker 2: I think it's gonna be one of the bigger, larger
27:16
Speaker 2: storylines of this season.
27:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very curious to see how he Yeah, how
27:22
Speaker 1: he looks in front of an elite defense which didn't
27:25
Speaker 1: play elite when he was on the mound in that
27:29
Speaker 1: terrible outing, right, and like that's one of those that's
27:34
Speaker 1: definitely one of those where I'm just like, I don't care.
27:37
Speaker 1: I'm not paying attention to that result. But then on
27:41
Speaker 1: the flip side, I did think, like when you get
27:44
Speaker 1: as many whips as as Shoda and Kate Horton did,
27:48
Speaker 1: the swing and miss stuff like the splitter is working
27:51
Speaker 1: for Shoda. The velocity was averaging ninety one ninety two
27:56
Speaker 1: into the game like he was touching ninety like like
28:00
Speaker 1: I know we were seeing him like averaging ninety three
28:04
Speaker 1: five or whatever early in spring, but that was shorter burst.
28:06
Speaker 1: If he can average ninety two something and hold that
28:11
Speaker 1: for five six innings, I think that is really important.
28:15
Speaker 1: And I think seeing what he did that last outing,
28:19
Speaker 1: I think that that is important. Like you want to
28:22
Speaker 1: continue to see him build his confidence. I don't think
28:25
Speaker 1: he's lacking in confidence. I think it's back and like
28:30
Speaker 1: you know, he's incredibly important. Kate Horton's obviously a big
28:36
Speaker 1: deal for this team, and I know Council we talked
28:42
Speaker 1: about this. Council doesn't want to, you know, put too
28:45
Speaker 1: much pressure on him and don't expect him to be
28:47
Speaker 1: better than last year. I kind of agree results wise,
28:52
Speaker 1: he said he wasn't sure. He didn't he wasn't sure
28:55
Speaker 1: if to expect more strikeouts. I think I disagree there
28:59
Speaker 1: on the over all number. Maybe Council is remembering the
29:03
Speaker 1: end of the season when the strikeouts did jump, But
29:05
Speaker 1: that's what I'm looking at. I think he can get
29:07
Speaker 1: be closer to like twenty three, twenty four, maybe twenty
29:10
Speaker 1: five percent strikeout rate instead of like the twenty that
29:13
Speaker 1: he was at overall, if he does that continues to
29:18
Speaker 1: keep the walks down. I mean you're talking about like
29:22
Speaker 1: between him and Shoda that's really important, like two great guys,
29:25
Speaker 1: and then Cabrera, Like I just I'm very curious to
29:29
Speaker 1: see how the rest of this rotation does. Like this
29:31
Speaker 1: rotation has the potential to be so much better than
29:34
Speaker 1: what we've seen in recent years, which has been like
29:36
Speaker 1: they've been really good numbers wise, But then like it
29:40
Speaker 1: just felt like, is this a dominant rotation? Is this
29:42
Speaker 1: a great rotation? It never felt that way. I have
29:46
Speaker 1: a couple guys in Cabrera and Horton, and then with
29:48
Speaker 1: Shoda kind of looking like he's bouncing back, you have
29:53
Speaker 1: some guys that you can say, huh, Okay, this is
29:55
Speaker 1: a really impressive front of the rotation. And we haven't
29:58
Speaker 1: even talked about Boyd but uh yeah, it results aren't
30:03
Speaker 1: even we haven't even talked about Justin Steele either.
30:06
Speaker 2: Yeah.
30:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, And and I like we can get into this
30:10
Speaker 1: maybe in another episode. But I think Ben Brown pished
30:13
Speaker 1: just one inning his last time out there, which I
30:19
Speaker 1: could have been wrong.
30:20
Speaker 2: I thought it was more than that.
30:23
Speaker 1: Was it? Okay? Then I looked at a but I
30:25
Speaker 1: looked at the box score and the game wasn't over then,
30:27
Speaker 1: so that ignore would I just say, I.
30:31
Speaker 2: Don't think that's right.
30:32
Speaker 1: I don't. I mean, okay, I think the big yeah.
30:35
Speaker 2: I mean that's another question too that I'll probably get
30:37
Speaker 2: into more of this this weekend, of like, at what point,
30:42
Speaker 2: if at all, do you shorten up Ben Brown or yeah,
30:45
Speaker 2: still that bullpen spot open. I think that that's track.
30:50
Speaker 2: There still kind of torn on that one, and it
30:55
Speaker 2: seems like they've really been trying to force the whole
30:59
Speaker 2: starting thing with Ben Brown, which understandably he wants to
31:03
Speaker 2: do and it makes sense to have depth. But all along,
31:08
Speaker 2: you know, he's had this stuff that looked like it
31:11
Speaker 2: would kind of fit a high leverage roll, and we
31:16
Speaker 2: you know, there are ways for him or Asad to
31:22
Speaker 2: be on the opening day roster, pitch out of the
31:25
Speaker 2: bullpen and multiple innings and keep him sort of stressed out.
31:28
Speaker 2: You can do that for April. You can't do it
31:30
Speaker 2: for obviously an entire season. But there are there are
31:37
Speaker 2: those decisions that are going to start coming down here
31:39
Speaker 2: in the next couple of days, and we'll get you know,
31:43
Speaker 2: a degree of clarity. I think the other main takeaway too,
31:46
Speaker 2: is that they haven't had a Braves type of situation
31:49
Speaker 2: where like I don't know how many stritapers they've lost,
31:52
Speaker 2: like three, two to three guys just out going out
31:56
Speaker 2: for surgeries that has not happened. Knock on wood. They've
31:59
Speaker 2: been remarkable healthy and we'll see how long that lasts.
32:03
Speaker 2: But if something does happen, at the moment, they're pretty
32:06
Speaker 2: well positioned to cover for some of those absences.
32:12
Speaker 1: So looking at the game log, he yester, that would
32:16
Speaker 1: be I don't know what date it is, Wednesday. He
32:18
Speaker 1: pitched one inning, twenty four pitches Ben Brown, So I
32:24
Speaker 1: don't know that's a that's that's it, like something that
32:29
Speaker 1: just caught my eye. Who knows if that means anything?
32:32
Speaker 2: Obviously missed that I missed that one. Then I stand corrected.
32:35
Speaker 2: That was no.
32:35
Speaker 1: No, I mean I think that that was that. That
32:38
Speaker 1: was you. You may have been like out interviewing Edward
32:41
Speaker 1: Cabrera at that way that I was.
32:44
Speaker 2: Actually I probably was underneath the center field concourse there
32:51
Speaker 2: talking to Cabrera and I got Miguel Amaya. Yeah, well
32:55
Speaker 2: so that would explain why I I the athletic or
33:00
Speaker 2: that's the error.
33:02
Speaker 1: I mean, just something that caught my eye and was like, huh,
33:06
Speaker 1: what are they doing here? And you know, maybe maybe
33:09
Speaker 1: he's we'll see. I don't want to speculate too much
33:13
Speaker 1: on what that means. I'm sure you can do some
33:15
Speaker 1: digging and figure out at least get a sense of
33:18
Speaker 1: what's happening there, and we'll see what his role is.
33:22
Speaker 1: I think the development of his sinker is interesting and
33:25
Speaker 1: could mean something for the rotation someday. But I you know, well,
33:30
Speaker 1: what's his best role right now? I think is all
33:32
Speaker 1: that matters. You have to kind of look at it
33:34
Speaker 1: through that lens like. Development isn't always a number one
33:39
Speaker 1: when you're trying to win. So we'll see what his
33:43
Speaker 1: role is. All right, that's it for right now. We'll
33:47
Speaker 1: be back with one more episode this week. Thanks so
33:50
Speaker 1: much for listening to everyone. This is Northside Territory. Make
33:52
Speaker 1: sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
33:56
Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I a
33:58
Speaker 1: on top of all things cups. Thanks everyone, Take care
34:02
Speaker 1: red agree Anady