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Three things to watch in June, a potential make-or-break month for the Cubs · 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: Sadiv Sharma with my partner Patrick Moodey. We are your
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. It is June.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: The Cubs started off May, I believe eight and no
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Red Hot, seemingly destined to, you know, just be a
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: dominant force all season long. It didn't work out that way.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: The rest of me was pretty tough. I think they
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: won like five more.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Games the rest of the month.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: It didn't go well, and they just wrapped up a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: road trip, you know, against division foes, mid tier division foes,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I would I would argue, and then maybe the Cubs
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: are currently mid tier as well, because they went three
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: and four.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: And right now they're pitching is a mess.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Ben Brown's a stud, but their pitching is rough, and
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: maybe maybe it's getting healthier, maybe it's getting better, and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: you just kind of have to look forward, I think,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: is what the Cubs have to do and say, Okay,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: June is what we have ahead of us, and it
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't look nearly as daunting as probably any other month.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: What can they do going forward? I guess should be
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: their focus.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm surprised. I thought you were going to go
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: tarps off for this episode after your stay in Saint Louis,
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: you know, pleasantly surprised it's not the case. Yeah, I
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: was curious leaving that road trip, Like, what was the
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: latest on Edward Cabrera and Matthew Boyd, like and expect
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: to see them early June or more towards the end
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: of June.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: What was your take?
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Cabrera sounds like he's coming back soon. That was
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: everything that I got from them. At You Boyd council
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: kind of left it. He said after the game on
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Sunday that Boyd is coming back to Chicago. Now, we
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: didn't get clarity on if that means he's going to
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: be rejoining the rotation. Originally the plan was two rehab starts.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: He only threw sixty three pitches and with Iowa on Sunday,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: So my guess is they stick with the original plan.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I could be wrong on that, but get him up
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: to like seventy five eighty and then he's perfectly ready
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: to go deeper into a game. So I would think
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: he's got another you know, ten days, maybe a little
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: bit less. While Will Cabrera could be joining the team
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: this weekend. They I mean Jordan Wicks, you know, I
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: feel like he's made some changes, He's put in some work.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: He hasn't gotten He hasn't gotten to a point where
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: you can trust him to make a start regularly, let
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: alone spot starts. Right now, He's he's not really giving
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: them a chance to win or keeping them in games. Uh,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: So you gotta get if Cabrera is ready to go,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I think you gotta you gotta get get him out
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: there and try and find some stability in this rotation
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: because it is quickly becoming not a question mark, a
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: big weakness for this team right now.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: It's sagary. I'm just looking at Baseball Reference right now,
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: and you know it's their tables are are great, very
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: they put things in such stark terms here just looking
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: at you know this, Uh, starting five of Shoda's zero
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: war is the highest war amongst the five starting pitchers listed. Tyne, Ray, Cabrera,
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: and Boyd all on the negative side of the ledger
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: between zero point three and zero point six. So obviously
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Cabra and Broyd can't just come back and flip a
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: switch like they need to get right fast and I
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: do think you're right, like this month will be very telling. Obviously,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: that trip to Corsfield is never easy, even if the
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Rockies are usually not very good. You have home and
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: homes with both the Rockies and the Giants, two struggling teams,
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: a trip to New York see the Mets, will see
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: where they are towards the end of the month, and
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: to go up to Milwaukee for three games towards the
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: end of June. There really curious to see, like are
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: the Cubs in striking distance at that point. If they are,
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: it probably means that they're pitching has sort of normalized
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: or stabilized. But if they're in a position where they're
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: like where they get swept again, then I think your
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: focus is going to be kind of more on the
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: wild card. And that's probably a best case scenario. We're
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: talking about them getting swept at the end of June
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: and they're pitching hasn't gotten back to the place where
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: they expected it to.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Be this year.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they really It feels like this next show to start,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: which will be the third game of this athletic series,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: I believe if I'm doing counting out right.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: It's a big one.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Three starts in a row where he just doesn't look right,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: where he's giving up too many long balls. Eight long
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: balls in over the last three starts. He you know,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: he's a home run guy, he's gonna give up home runs,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: but multi home run starts in each of the last three.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: That's a huge Like he went from looking like your
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: ace to to look a huge question mark. It just
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: it really changes how you look at things. If showeda
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: is not right now, now you're just you know, what,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: what do you have going on here? It's just a
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: it's they came in with so much optimism for the
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: rotation and almost instantly it's just kind of gone awry here.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: And and I think this trip, would you know, it
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: showed like they were quickly behind in games or they
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: quickly coughed up leads in games like they you know,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: they showed a game on Friday the you know Jordan
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Wicks both starts, they just like either it was losing
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: a lead almost immediately or just down immediately and not
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: feeling like you had a chance or feeling like you
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: had to crawl back in it and struggling to do that.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: So it's it's I mean, we know that you you
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: should know that starting pitching is the name of the game,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and if it's an issue, you know it can be
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: a long season. So they have to write the ship here.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: I think it's a much bigger issue than anything going
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: on with the offense.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, without a doubt, and I think the Cubs
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: recognize that as well. I still probably wouldn't hold out
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: hope for some huge external addition this month, but we'll
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: pass the halfway point of the season. I think you'll
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: be in New York around that time, so it's not
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: early anymore, and the trade deadline is later than normal
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: by several days. But still, I think you can start
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: to see like the likelihood of something that will tick
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: up just a little bit, just the closer we get.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: That's not really how the Cubs normally operate, that's not
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: Jet Hoyer's style, but I think you can at least
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: see that the desperation, that urgency from the Cubs is
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: going to be or should be obvious.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, Patrick, Let's let's talk a little bit about the offense.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: There were some signs at times over the last week
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: on this road trip, especially towards the end, and I
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: think for me, the biggest sign was Pete. Pete grew armstrong.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Let's let's make this now. It's time for our daily
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Dingers segment, presented by Van Duel. There it is, I'm
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: doing that again, hitting the open again. You know, I'll
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: figure this out eventually.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Pete.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Uh, Pete had a great Saturday.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: It felt like it was coming. Uh it was. It was.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: It was interesting.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: He kinda he had those hard line drives in Pittsburgh
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: and then kind of had some struggles where where he
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: had a couple of games where he was striking out
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: a little bit more again and.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: It's like, ah, did this did all that good work?
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Like go to hell?
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Was it one of those situations where he wasn't getting
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the results and now he's pressing and and it leads
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: to some poor results. It talking to him, It was
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: more just like those were some bad matchups and and yeah,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: he was frustrated with it, but he still felt good
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: at the plate. And then Saturday was he ended Friday
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: with like a rocket double and and by Saturday he
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: was he was playing.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: That was one of his better.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Games we've seen with a just a great home run
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: that kind of quieted the tarps off crowd and and uh,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: uh you know just I believe a double and two singles.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: It was a great PCA game, and uh, you know,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: it seems like he was kind of back in that
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: mode of potentially having a chance to carry this offense
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: because we know he can do that when he's at
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: his best.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's what everyone's kind of waiting for
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: in June, like will Pete rise to that level that
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: we saw last year that pushed him into the All
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: Star Game And for a time at the MVP conversation,
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, our first block was mostly about
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: kind of pitching in the month ahead, and I think
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: these next two hitters will be talking about our huge
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: piece of that of like hit a three run homer
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: and changed the game that way. Like I think sometimes weeks.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Fixed.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: All right, we briefly lost Patrick there, but but you
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: was basically saying, uh, I think you were.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: Saying the same thing. Whatever.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Pete is the guy. Like, if there's
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: someone that can carry this offense, it is Pete. Uh,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: and they need him to be that guy right now.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: The offense just has not been consistent enough. And I
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: think what and Council kind of said this, he did
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: not kind of he straight up said this over the weekend.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: This has been a season where so far we're two
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: months in where it's either seven or eight guys are
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: all clicking or seven or eight guys are all slumping.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: That first month, everyone was hitting but Michael Bush. This
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: last month it's been like nobody's hitting but Michael Bush.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: And you need you don't need.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: You almost prefer like three or four guys going, and
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: then another three or four guys going, and that's how
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the offense kind of stays consistent. You don't want this
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: huge and this team avoided swings last year.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: They didn't win more than five in a row.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: They didn't lose more than five in a row, and
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: that didn't happen till the very end of the season.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: The longer losing streak they I don't think like they
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: didn't get swept until very late in the season. They
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: didn't lose five in a row till very late in
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the season until I think it was after they'd clinched.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: So it was like, it's a very similar group of
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: players that suddenly has become very volatile as a unit.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: That may just be the randomness of baseball, that could
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: that could be all it is, but Pete, I think
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: does symbolize that he is a volatile player, like you know,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: whether you want to say, like performance wise, emotionally, whatever
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: it is this guy, you know, but when he's locked in,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: it's it's pretty pretty damn fun to watch, in my opinion.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: You had a great story up on The Athletic recently
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: about his sort of emotional equilibrium or you know, his
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: mindset at this point. What were your takeaways from spending
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: some time with him in Saint Louis.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, and this is a group of hitters
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: that can be hard on themselves, and they're they're all pets.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Petz one of them. Like he's got to try and
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: find some more fun in the game and and maybe
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: not overthink things and.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Be so hard on himself.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: We've talked so much about him being emotional, h the
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: good and the bad, and and he like, he's not
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: throwing bats and helmets at least publicly as much as
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: we've seen it we've seen in the past. So he's
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: he's trying to control those emotions. But I think he's
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: struggling to have fun despite you know, playing a kid's game.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: And I think he kind of he said that the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: other days, like I just got to act like a
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: kid out there, have fun with my friends, just play baseball.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: I think he did that on Saturday. He started to
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: look a little bit better, a little bit, you know,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: like he was easing up a little bit of these
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: He's got a new celebration there, putting his hands behind
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: his back. He says, that's that's it's all about. Just
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: like I'm laying back and relaxing. I got to remind
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: myself that. So, uh, we'll see if it leads to
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: anything more consistent as far as his production.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Patrick, Let's let's just wrap up this FanDuel segment.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 14:22
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• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, another bat that the Cubs absolutely need to come around.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Alex Bregman is hitting. He's hitting around three. He hit
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: just below three hundred.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: I think for.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: May's he's not bad right now, but I don't think
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: he's where he wants to be. And I think everyone
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: agrees with this. This is not something like that isn't obvious.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: But he's not hitting for enough power. He needs to
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: hit for more power. If Alex Bregman, you know, if
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: you're going to pay a guy as much money as
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: you're paying Alex Bregman, he can't just be a singles hitter.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: You don't. You don't pay for that. You pay for power.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: And he's not a forty home run guy, but he
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: needs to be in the twenty five to thirty range.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll plug another one of your stories. Your conversation
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: with Alex Bragman was super detailed and very insightful, and
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: to me, one of my takeaways was like, this guy
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: is obsessed with his craft and he still is constantly
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: trying to figure it out, and that he's been really
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: good for a really long time, but he always almost
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: always starts slow, even though he is this baseball Jim Ratt.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: I just found that sort of fascinating, like just how
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: hard it is at that level, and you know, the
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: cat and mouse game, the constant adjustments are part of it,
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: even for the guys who get paid a ton of money.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's I mean, he's very knowledgeable. He obviously knows
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: what he wants to do to get right. There's no
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: there's never seems to be any equivocation when talking to
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Alex Bregman. He knows what he needs to do. Uh,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: he knows what isn't wrong, he knows what is wrong.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: He's very detailed in his process and and like very
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: like very confident in how he needs to go about business.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: He knew he the second we brought it, Like I
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: kind of tried to start it off with like a
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: little bit of positivity and saying like, seems like you're
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: better than the last time we chat when he was
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: a mess and he just couldn't get a hit and
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: was grounding out all the time.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: He's like yeah, and it was very calm.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, better, you know, hitting the ball in the air
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: a lot a lot more work to be done. So
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: so when I when he said that, that was like
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: my opening because I like that was the point of
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: my conversation, Like I knew what I wanted to talk
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: to him about.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: And I was like, I assume you're talking about the
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: lack of power, And.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I went to bat speed because there's been some stuff
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: written about that. That's what's obvious when you look at
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the data. But that's why you talk to the players,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: because it's more than the data. And he thinks bad
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: speed is just not important for him and it's all
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: about his mechanics.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: And he went into details about that.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: I thought it was fascinating because I barely had to
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: ask ask about those details. He just went into it
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and got super deep. It was a great It was
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: a great you know, like five whatever, five to eight
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: minutes of chatting with him, and he's just really interesting
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: when he wants to get into those details, and he
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: seems willing to do that with us.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: He I think this conversation was Friday. On Saturday, I
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: don't know.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: I didn't see a clear view of that ball, but
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: we didn't have It's not like they have these giant
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: screens at Bush Stadium for us to really see. I
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: didn't think the podcast zoomed in very well. I don't
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: know if you guys could see at home any better.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: It did not look it did not look like there
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: was a clear angle for me. But maybe there was
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: something obvious that showed that that was a foul ball.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: But he launched that one.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: And then he hit a very obvious home run on Sunday.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Maybe this is the beginning of something. I will say.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: The part of Alex Pregnant that I hadn't experienced was
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the extreme confidence, and he was just like like near
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the end of that conversation, he's like, it'll come and
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: I and basically I will dominate I. I'm they're they're
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: going to fear me soon enough. That was basically his point.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: I thought, I like that. I like when guys are
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: just like h you know, not stand offish, arrogant, not arrogant,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: but just like super confident and and you know saying
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be awesome and it's happening very soon.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: Well I'm sure he said that in a matter of
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: fact tone, right, It's just it's just how he talks.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: And I think you can in those interactions you can
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: sort of understand how he approaches teammates and like he
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: loves these baseball conversations. It's an ongoing dialogue with coaches,
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: the manager, his teammates. I think we've gotten a sense
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: of those intangibles. You know, when he's sitting there with
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: Pete in full uniform after one of those rough games
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: against the Brewers, you understand that he's going to stay
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: on it, and he has this great demeanor for one
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: hundred sixty two you're saying it's gonna turn the cream
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: rise to the top. You just need to see it though, right,
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: just hits like that's still where what this what the
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: game is about, and that what the Cubs are paying
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: him for, and that's what everyone expects. So that's why
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: I think June will be telling that like is he
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: kind of get that nice foundation numbers wise underneath him,
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: or is this something like he's still chasing around the
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: fourth of July as a trade deadline approaches and then
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: it becomes like, you know, throw the numbers out the
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: window or just getting ready for the playoffs. Like, well,
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: that'll be interesting to see because I feel like Bregman's
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: confidence and his experience, he hasn't had a lot of
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: that whole like first year in Chicago, big contract, Like
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: he's kind of been viewed as this villain he's played.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: In Boston.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: And he fits so well with this group that there,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: it seems like it's been a pretty steamless adjustment like
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: off the field culturally, but he's still obviously figuring it
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: out from the hitting perspective.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the last thing Cubs fans would want
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: to see right now is Wrigly turning into uh, you know,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: cold weather Wriggly for this homestand you don't need it
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: to be howling out, but you just don't want the
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: wind blowing in and then crushing these guys confidence.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Who some of the guys like.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Pete and Bragman who may be turning the corner and
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: starting to hit for more power.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Uh you just hope that wriggly.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Plays uh just normal, just just like you don't want
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: it to crush your starting pitchers with twenty mile per
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: hour wind out but also just don't just don't kill
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: the knockdown all the balls that maybe Bragman or Pete
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: or whoever Michael Bush may be able to hit out
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: of the park this this week because they do need
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: some uh some. I don't good luck, good good fortune
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: with the with the wriglely weather.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: It just has been.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: It's it's been far too long, far too often that
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: it plays like a you know, a big part.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Uh So maybe maybe that well, the weather.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Seems okay right now, doesn't seem like it's the heart
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: of summer blowing out. But I don't think it's windy
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: that windy tonight. But I think we're getting some rain
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: this weekend. Who knows what the wind will.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Will be like.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Uh, I know that the bats certainly want want some
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: help in that regard.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, no, this will be interesting to see just
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: how how it comes respond. It's it's really kind of
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: mind boggling, you know, kind of the tone of our
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: earlier shows in April and uh early May and now
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: they're sort of a little above the break even point,
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: and like now is the time to start banking some
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: winds in case they're or when there are more injuries
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: and one guy start scuffling, like you need to kind
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: of keep your head above water, and we'll see if
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: they can do that here.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a good month to try and get
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: in a hot streak. It's a prime opportunity and they
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: got to take advantage. All right, Patrick, we'll be back
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: with more this week. Thanks so much for listening to everyone.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: where Patrick and I an type of all things Cubs.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Appreciate you watching and listening.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Everyone. Take care