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Anthony Rizzo is back where he belongs · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into North Side Territory FIUL Territory Networks Cubs Podcast.
0:09
Speaker 1: I'm Zahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are
0:12
Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. It
0:16
Speaker 1: was kind of a news packed week, I guess out
0:20
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta, and you know, the final big bit
0:23
Speaker 1: of news happened with the announcement that Anthony Rizzo has
0:30
Speaker 1: retired and retired as a Cub with a little nice
0:34
Speaker 1: send off coming on Saturday.
0:36
Speaker 2: Obviously a fan favorite.
0:39
Speaker 1: Just you know, kind of looked at as one of
0:43
Speaker 1: the leaders of that championship corps, definitely one of the
0:49
Speaker 1: biggest personalities in that group and just like a hugely
0:53
Speaker 1: impactful player on and off, I mean player on the field,
0:57
Speaker 1: in person, off the field. In the city of chicag Iago,
1:01
Speaker 1: it should be a fun day on Saturday. I think
1:03
Speaker 1: it's going to be a beautiful weekend in Chicago. I'm
1:05
Speaker 1: still in Atlanta as we record, but I believe it
1:09
Speaker 1: was a nice week and it should be a beautiful weekend.
1:12
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a fun atmosphere this weekend.
1:15
Speaker 3: No no, I mean easily one of the most popular
1:18
Speaker 3: Chicago athletes of our lifetimes, I would say, And just
1:23
Speaker 3: even you know, white Sox fans could recognize Anthony Rizzo's
1:31
Speaker 3: brilliance on the field, his impact off the field, just
1:35
Speaker 3: kind of the vibes he would project as someone who
1:40
Speaker 3: was a leader in a very kind of unconventional way,
1:45
Speaker 3: just so confident, a little goofy, very competitive at the
1:52
Speaker 3: same time. And yeah, his work at Lori's Children's Hospital,
1:57
Speaker 3: with millions of dollars he helped rays.
2:03
Speaker 2: Just you know, I've called.
2:05
Speaker 3: Him, you know, mister Cub two point zero, just because
2:07
Speaker 3: he was someone who understood his responsibilities. He was thrown
2:11
Speaker 3: into a new city, getting traded from San Diego after
2:17
Speaker 3: very disappointing major league debut, and when you look back
2:22
Speaker 3: on that time, the Cubs needed, like certain players to
2:25
Speaker 3: hit and grow up in Chicago, and Anthony Rizzo absolutely did.
2:32
Speaker 3: And it's very fitting that he is coming back to
2:35
Speaker 3: Chicago and sounds like it will be a pretty regular
2:38
Speaker 3: presence or a semi regular presence around the team at
2:41
Speaker 3: Wrigley Field spring training.
2:44
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe broadcast.
2:46
Speaker 3: Both, like who knows. I'm sure it's kind of pick
2:49
Speaker 3: your own schedule for those ambassador roles. But the fact
2:52
Speaker 3: that he's in the fold in an official capacity is
2:56
Speaker 3: a good thing for the Cubs.
2:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we'll see how much around this year. Obviously,
3:01
Speaker 1: he'll likely be around at some point during spring training
3:03
Speaker 1: next year. It would be fun if he's around for
3:08
Speaker 1: the playoffs a little bit. I think the Cups and
3:12
Speaker 1: the fans would certainly enjoy that. You know what, this
3:17
Speaker 1: is funny. I'm not sure if I've told you this,
3:19
Speaker 1: but one of my favorite pieces that you've ever written
3:22
Speaker 1: was before you were at the athletic and it was
3:26
Speaker 1: the piece about him kind of being challenged after was
3:30
Speaker 1: it the twelve season? The thirteen season by Mike Borzello
3:34
Speaker 1: kind of telling him like how good do you want
3:36
Speaker 1: to be at this game? Essentially, and then Rizzo making
3:40
Speaker 1: those changes to and becoming.
3:44
Speaker 2: You know, a really good hitter.
3:46
Speaker 4: He was.
3:47
Speaker 1: A council was talking about this yesterday, how in an
3:50
Speaker 1: era where there were you know, it was three true
3:53
Speaker 1: outcome like kind of became like no big deal with
3:56
Speaker 1: the strikeout, Like he was opposite he did not strike
3:59
Speaker 1: out much. That wasn't the case before those changes, Like
4:02
Speaker 1: he was a strikeout guy. He struck out a lot,
4:04
Speaker 1: and it was supposed to be like this guy strikes
4:06
Speaker 1: out in his power. He changed who he was. I
4:09
Speaker 1: think that's like when you were able to do that.
4:12
Speaker 1: I always appreciate seeing the guys that get up to
4:15
Speaker 1: the bigs realize, oh, oh, I have this flaw, I
4:19
Speaker 1: have this hole that's being exposed by these pictures. Whatever
4:22
Speaker 1: it is, I need to make some drastic changes. And
4:25
Speaker 1: they were pretty drastic. I mean, I didn't take a
4:28
Speaker 1: scout to notice the difference between Anthony Rizzo whatever twenty
4:32
Speaker 1: twelve and twenty fourteen that there were some pretty big
4:35
Speaker 1: differences there. And obviously he became this hugely impactful player,
4:40
Speaker 1: not maybe not MVP caliber type, but you know, all
4:43
Speaker 1: star guy with down ballot votes for MVP, one of
4:46
Speaker 1: the better first basement of that generation, probably overshadowed by
4:50
Speaker 1: guys like Freddy Freeman. I'm probably missing someone else that
4:52
Speaker 1: he was overshadowed by. But just to you know, obviously,
4:57
Speaker 1: Key Cog some really great moments too. Like I can
5:01
Speaker 1: list off some really fun moments that you and I
5:04
Speaker 1: witnessed live or washed on TV. I'll tell you my
5:10
Speaker 1: personal Anthony Rizzo's story after Geez Game four of the
5:17
Speaker 1: NLCS in twenty seventeen against the Nationals. Maybe it was
5:20
Speaker 1: Game three, whatever it was, it was Steven Strasberg pitched,
5:24
Speaker 1: and I asked him in a big group, like, what's it,
5:28
Speaker 1: what's it like trying to hit that change up? And
5:30
Speaker 1: he kind of gave me a look and he's like,
5:32
Speaker 1: it's probably like you trying to hit at sluggers.
5:37
Speaker 2: That's what I can hit. Anthony.
5:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll give you like four I pas and you.
5:47
Speaker 2: Know exactly, but I mean so many.
5:51
Speaker 1: I mean, there was another big moment in that series,
5:53
Speaker 1: right to respect me bloop single that he hit to
5:57
Speaker 1: walk off the Nats. I mean, I still love the
6:02
Speaker 1: first full capacity Wrigley Field game after the you know,
6:08
Speaker 1: after Covid and hitting that huge home run and like
6:12
Speaker 1: a thirteen pitch at bat and the crowd was just
6:15
Speaker 1: the Cubs were still in it at that point in
6:17
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one itself felt like they had a chance
6:20
Speaker 1: and and and like the energy in the stadium was
6:24
Speaker 1: really cool in the ballpark, and of course, you know,
6:28
Speaker 1: winning the World Series, challenging the Reds to a fight
6:31
Speaker 1: back before the Cubs were relevant. Some fun Rizzo moments. Oh,
6:37
Speaker 1: the tarp catches are always fun too. Those are cool.
6:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it really was the full package of
6:48
Speaker 3: you know, you can say maybe Paul Goldschmidt has had
6:53
Speaker 3: a better career. By the numbers, Freddy Freeman I think
6:57
Speaker 3: is he's probably like a Hall of Famer, right, I mean,
7:01
Speaker 3: he's he's like probably a notch above Rizzo just because
7:06
Speaker 3: he had that kind of he's had that second act
7:09
Speaker 3: with with the Dodgers. But otherwise, you know, would Anthony
7:16
Speaker 3: Risseau trade his career with anyone else, I don't know
7:21
Speaker 3: when you consider the fact that he's a cancer survivor,
7:27
Speaker 3: coming up in the Red Sox organization and the relationships
7:30
Speaker 3: he made there and how things came full circle, whether
7:33
Speaker 3: it's the executives who you traded him and traded for him,
7:38
Speaker 3: or you know, meeting someone like John Lester your very
7:42
Speaker 3: early in his career, being an inspiration and then reuniting
7:45
Speaker 3: in Chicago, his friendship with David Ross, and like you're saying,
7:50
Speaker 3: all these things just kind of blend together. Whether it's
7:53
Speaker 3: him wearing his uniform on the plane to d C
7:58
Speaker 3: when they had that makeup game. You know, no one
8:01
Speaker 3: wanted to travel. I think it was something absurd like
8:03
Speaker 3: forty games in thirty nine days he wears his uniform.
8:08
Speaker 3: You're right, the tarpcatch, diving into the stands, all these
8:11
Speaker 3: amazing defensive plays. How close he would get on those
8:14
Speaker 3: bunt plays.
8:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, actually yeah, like.
8:18
Speaker 3: Just like fearless. And then obviously he's a classic left
8:24
Speaker 3: handed hitter. I think back to I remember you talked
8:28
Speaker 3: to Joey Vado a long time ago as Rizzo was
8:30
Speaker 3: kind of on the ascent, and him talking about Rizzo's approach,
8:36
Speaker 3: and you had this weird mix where yes, there were
8:40
Speaker 3: times when Rizzo would kind of seek things out. He
8:44
Speaker 3: did make changes, but he didn't really broadcast it. Like
8:51
Speaker 3: he was very much about this pitch. I'm going to
8:53
Speaker 3: beat you on this pitch, whether it's Clayton Kershaw or
8:57
Speaker 3: someone else. He wanted the moment and he adjusted in
9:02
Speaker 3: the moment. And you know, the leadership question of like
9:08
Speaker 3: I still still can't believe it how him and Hobby
9:12
Speaker 3: would just mess with each other on pop ups during
9:14
Speaker 3: the twenty sixteen playoffs, just like screaming at each other
9:18
Speaker 3: this pre and like he helped deflate a lot of
9:22
Speaker 3: that pressure along with you, Joe Madden and some others.
9:25
Speaker 3: But it's just like not traditional not conventional sort of leader,
9:30
Speaker 3: but like the perfect personality for that moment.
9:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you need all sorts in the clubhouse, right.
9:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.
9:37
Speaker 1: There was the quiet one who rarely but when he
9:41
Speaker 1: spoke up it was important. In Jason Hayward, ben Zoebrist,
9:44
Speaker 1: who just you know, easy to like follow and respect
9:48
Speaker 1: and look up to. And Rizzo was more like, let's
9:50
Speaker 1: keep it loose. This is how I loosen up the clubhouse.
9:53
Speaker 1: And you know, Ross had his way of going. Everybody
9:55
Speaker 1: has it differently, right, everyone does it differently. I think
9:58
Speaker 1: that that was kind of something that stood out with
10:00
Speaker 1: that clubhouse. They had all those different types of personalities.
10:05
Speaker 1: It was It was certainly fun to cover, and it
10:07
Speaker 1: was different. You know, the peak of Cubs baseball, and
10:11
Speaker 1: he'll he'll go down or he has gone down as
10:15
Speaker 1: as one of the greatest ever to wear a Cub's uniform,
10:18
Speaker 1: or at least one of the most beloved to wear
10:22
Speaker 1: a Cub's uniform. I'm curious how they'll memorialize him in
10:26
Speaker 1: the future. We still don't have like a twenty sixteen
10:31
Speaker 1: rail big memorial anywhere in that ballpark, so I'm curious
10:39
Speaker 1: to see what they do down the line. If it's
10:41
Speaker 1: going to be for Rizzo or the whole team in general,
10:44
Speaker 1: what they'll do, because it feels like you kind of
10:46
Speaker 1: have to. But maybe maybe that's coming next year. I
10:48
Speaker 1: guess it's ten years next year, so it's crazy.
10:51
Speaker 2: See.
10:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, we'll take a quick break and come
10:55
Speaker 1: back and talk about the latest injury, or not even
10:59
Speaker 1: the latest injury, whatever, the latest decision on an injury.
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12:05
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, The Cubs decided to put Kyle Tucker
12:10
Speaker 1: on the injured list. This they, you know, obviously going
12:14
Speaker 1: to frustrate the fan base. They waited a long time
12:17
Speaker 1: to do it. It happened Tuesday, right pretty much right
12:20
Speaker 1: after we recorded on Tuesday.
12:23
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I noticed the timing.
12:28
Speaker 1: So you know, look, I think the first thing, a
12:33
Speaker 1: lot of this we discussed, like how this isn't just like.
12:36
Speaker 2: A Cubs decision.
12:38
Speaker 1: I think what happened was they felt pretty good that
12:41
Speaker 1: like I think it, Council kind of felt like the
12:44
Speaker 1: five to six day mark is when you start to
12:45
Speaker 1: push it.
12:46
Speaker 2: It's like you have to have a decision by then.
12:48
Speaker 1: And and I think they felt pretty good after Monday
12:52
Speaker 1: they did according to everything everyone I talked to, they
12:54
Speaker 1: felt good. They thought, come in Tuesday, everything will be
12:57
Speaker 1: all good. Council and Tucker both said it just didn't
13:02
Speaker 1: go as well as they had hoped. On Tuesday, when
13:05
Speaker 1: he came out to the ballpark and did early work,
13:08
Speaker 1: Tucker said, even when it wasn't feeling as good. It
13:12
Speaker 1: would loosen up as he did work, as the blood
13:16
Speaker 1: kind of started flowing through it.
13:18
Speaker 2: He said, on Tuesday it tightened up more. So.
13:22
Speaker 1: The intense work on Monday obviously must have had some
13:26
Speaker 1: impact and led to Tuesday feeling off while he was working.
13:34
Speaker 2: Neither of them described it as a setback.
13:36
Speaker 1: It never felt worse than it did that initial when
13:40
Speaker 1: the initial injury happened, or however you want to describe it.
13:43
Speaker 2: And it sounds like what this is now.
13:47
Speaker 1: I liked the way council described it, which instead of
13:51
Speaker 1: treating it, it's kind of like just or instead of
13:54
Speaker 1: testing it, it's now treating it. So no more testing
13:58
Speaker 1: it for a couple of days, Let him get treated,
14:01
Speaker 1: kind of rest and then get after it and maybe
14:04
Speaker 1: this weekend, maybe a couple days later, and he's eligible
14:07
Speaker 1: to come back. I believe Pittsburgh is where they're headed
14:11
Speaker 1: on Monday, so uh, maybe he'll come back on Tuesday.
14:16
Speaker 1: That's when that's when he's eligible. It sounds all signs
14:19
Speaker 1: point to that happening. I'm not ready to sound alarm belts.
14:24
Speaker 1: You just never know with the muscle injuries, but it
14:28
Speaker 1: does seem like this is just like, Okay, let's just
14:30
Speaker 1: get these ten days knocked out.
14:33
Speaker 2: Yeah.
14:34
Speaker 3: I can't do another segment on like injury protocols, especially
14:38
Speaker 3: since it h and return to play practices. I'm more
14:43
Speaker 3: just curious, like for our listeners, I mean, you were
14:46
Speaker 3: there in Atlanta, or you are in Atlanta as a recording,
14:49
Speaker 3: you spoke with Tucker like he's a really hard guy
14:53
Speaker 3: to read. They're gray areas with some of these injuries,
14:57
Speaker 3: Like what was were his takeaways? What was his meter?
15:00
Speaker 3: How did he sound, particularly coming off that mental reset
15:04
Speaker 3: and looking pretty good at the plate, and then this.
15:07
Speaker 2: Happens, Yeah, he basically said. So.
15:12
Speaker 1: First of all, I accidentally made him laugh by uh
15:17
Speaker 1: by uh. We started the interview and instead of hitting record,
15:20
Speaker 1: I hit play, I absent mindedly hit play, and everyone
15:24
Speaker 1: like kind of turned and looked at me. And I'm
15:27
Speaker 1: like shuffling and trying and bumbling and trying to stop it.
15:31
Speaker 1: And then I was like a party foul, sorry about that,
15:33
Speaker 1: And he was kind of like giggling at it, and
15:35
Speaker 1: I was.
15:36
Speaker 4: We were all afterwards, we were all like, was he smiling?
15:39
Speaker 4: Like we haven't seen that very often? So obviously he's
15:44
Speaker 4: not like it too. Down in the dumpy.
15:47
Speaker 1: It seemed like his normal self, which is you know,
15:50
Speaker 1: very you know, matter of fact, not a ton of
15:54
Speaker 1: emotion either way.
15:56
Speaker 2: Did not seem concerned about this.
15:59
Speaker 1: I had asked him about you know, you just you
16:03
Speaker 1: had that long stretch of for play and then just
16:05
Speaker 1: gotten back in a rhythm. Is this tough to deal
16:09
Speaker 1: with now? And he's like, I don't really link the two. Uh,
16:13
Speaker 1: you know, I expect to just be back in there
16:15
Speaker 1: and then back and you know what I was.
16:18
Speaker 2: I was feeling good at the plate, he said.
16:20
Speaker 1: But but he expects to continue to feel good at
16:23
Speaker 1: the plate, so.
16:25
Speaker 2: He's not concerned about that. I get, you know, it's
16:28
Speaker 2: the type of.
16:29
Speaker 1: Thing where I guess we'll see he's not expecting, you know,
16:31
Speaker 1: to indeed at bats and the miners anything like that.
16:35
Speaker 1: He has been swinging, he has been throwing. It's only
16:39
Speaker 1: running that impacts the injuries. So I think, you know,
16:47
Speaker 1: I don't want to.
16:47
Speaker 2: Assume that he's just going to come out there and
16:49
Speaker 2: be the.
16:50
Speaker 1: Guy that we saw on the road in La and
16:53
Speaker 1: Sandy or wherever they wear San Francisco and all that.
16:57
Speaker 1: But you know, obviously they need him, they need him
17:01
Speaker 1: to be that guy. Or close to it, Otherwise it's
17:04
Speaker 1: gonna be a mess. I'll say this about the offense
17:06
Speaker 1: in general. I was probably as down as I've been
17:11
Speaker 1: when we last recorded. Uh, they didn't light up the
17:14
Speaker 1: world the past two games, but I appreciated the bounce
17:18
Speaker 1: back in the fight. They showed constant, consistent pressure on
17:23
Speaker 1: Tuesday and then the big breakthrough hit later in the game,
17:26
Speaker 1: and and they got to Chris Sale after a terrible
17:29
Speaker 1: first time through the order. Just I mean, it's Grisale,
17:34
Speaker 1: and he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. When
17:36
Speaker 1: when he's right, and he was dominating them, and they
17:39
Speaker 1: made adjustments and scored three runs off of him, That's
17:42
Speaker 1: that's a win. That's that's a good and that's a
17:45
Speaker 1: win in as far as facing Grissale, and it's a
17:47
Speaker 1: win in the win column. They got the win. I
17:51
Speaker 1: have to give them credit for bouncing back.
17:53
Speaker 2: I did. I was down on that offense.
17:55
Speaker 1: I did not like that performance on Monday, and they
17:58
Speaker 1: did bounce back, So so give them credit for that.
18:02
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:02
Speaker 3: And I think Tucker we've talked about him a lot
18:07
Speaker 3: after just kind of months of assuming he's gonna be
18:12
Speaker 3: the Cub's best hitter, one of the best hityers in baseball,
18:14
Speaker 3: a guy who could command whatever five hundred million dollars
18:19
Speaker 3: ish on the open market. It's just time for him
18:23
Speaker 3: to be healthy and hit.
18:25
Speaker 2: Yes, like we can't.
18:28
Speaker 3: Some of this feels like around the team, like just
18:31
Speaker 3: filling space of like oh, like where's he at mentally
18:34
Speaker 3: and like will this carry over? Or is this a
18:37
Speaker 3: good sign?
18:37
Speaker 2: It's like, this guy's one of.
18:38
Speaker 3: The best players in baseball. Just just be that when
18:42
Speaker 3: it counts, and that will make things a lot easier.
18:45
Speaker 2: On the cups.
18:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, he should have about two weeks to ramp up
18:49
Speaker 1: before the playoffs, and then you want them rolling and
18:52
Speaker 1: feeling good at least feeling good even if they're not
18:55
Speaker 1: like fully clicking.
18:56
Speaker 2: You just don't know.
18:56
Speaker 1: When it's gonna click, and you'd like it to happen
18:59
Speaker 1: in October, don't I guess.
19:01
Speaker 2: Don't waste it all now.
19:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, let's take a quick break and then
19:07
Speaker 1: talk about some front office reremblings.
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Speaker 2: Dig in.
20:11
Speaker 1: Patrick Carter Hawkins is among a decent list of candidates
20:19
Speaker 1: for the Head of Baseball Ops with the Washington Nationals.
20:23
Speaker 2: That job opened up a couple of months ago.
20:26
Speaker 1: They fired Mike Rizzo, who's been there for what seemed
20:31
Speaker 1: like a really long time, and they fired Davey Martinez
20:35
Speaker 1: as well, their manager. Rizzo obviously built that twenty nineteen
20:40
Speaker 1: World Series team. He is known for like his scouting prowess,
20:48
Speaker 1: really highly respected guy in the business. And Carter is
20:54
Speaker 1: kind of the opposite in the sense of this is
20:58
Speaker 1: not someone that you're going to see out behind home
21:01
Speaker 1: plate scouting.
21:04
Speaker 2: Is.
21:05
Speaker 1: He has helped revamp this cub's front office. He's had
21:08
Speaker 1: a lot on his plate and done a lot of
21:11
Speaker 1: things to you know, shape the front office. And and
21:17
Speaker 1: they are a model heavy team. They've they've pivoted away
21:21
Speaker 1: from in person scouting at h at the highest levels,
21:26
Speaker 1: I think it's ACL and below are the only places
21:30
Speaker 1: where they're they're doing in person scouting. It's a lot
21:33
Speaker 1: of video scouting, very model heavy with every department, whether
21:38
Speaker 1: it's international, amateur, or pro. At all those departments, including
21:42
Speaker 1: R and D have been shaped by Carter Hawkins, Like
21:46
Speaker 1: Jed hired him with that in mind, like this is
21:49
Speaker 1: your job.
21:50
Speaker 2: You are overseeing all.
21:52
Speaker 1: These changes and implementing these changes like what he's done
21:58
Speaker 1: or not. The Cubs are winning and now he's a
22:01
Speaker 1: candidate for a top gig.
22:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it seems like I wouldn't say mission accomplished,
22:09
Speaker 3: but he's, like you said, done what he was hired
22:12
Speaker 3: to do, which may make this a sort of natural
22:18
Speaker 3: transition point for someone who has that Cleveland background. I
22:28
Speaker 3: think his sensibilities were needed in that the Cubs are
22:37
Speaker 3: not spending like the Mets or Dodgers or Phillies, so
22:40
Speaker 3: that there had to be some discipline impose on this.
22:45
Speaker 3: That's not saying that's the way it should be, but
22:47
Speaker 3: just the way it is, the way this team functions.
22:51
Speaker 3: Carter brought a balance to it or a different perspective. Again,
22:57
Speaker 3: a lot of these decisions are not like universally popular.
23:01
Speaker 3: His twenty thirty two comment to ESPN certainly resonated and
23:07
Speaker 3: rankled the fan base and even kind of raised some
23:12
Speaker 3: eyebrows within the baseball industry. But like, I could see
23:17
Speaker 3: him interviewing very well because he is very like direct
23:21
Speaker 3: and straightforward, the telling Washington ownership, this is what you
23:26
Speaker 3: have to do, this is the landscape, this is where
23:29
Speaker 3: you're week if you want to compete in the National
23:31
Speaker 3: League East against the Phillies the Mets. I think everyone
23:36
Speaker 3: assumes the Braves will be back pretty soon. You're gonna
23:39
Speaker 3: have to do X, Y and Z, and these areas
23:43
Speaker 3: have to be revamped, and I'd imagine that's why you
23:49
Speaker 3: know he's in the mix here. I think the bigger
23:53
Speaker 3: questions are more of like what do the Nationals want
23:55
Speaker 3: to be? You know, when Mike Rizzo was kind of
23:58
Speaker 3: rolling there. You know, they were fortunate enough to have,
24:02
Speaker 3: you know, number one picks when Strasburg and Harper were available.
24:07
Speaker 3: But again, Rizzllo is a guy who I think drafted
24:10
Speaker 3: Shurezer in Arizona and then bet on him as a
24:14
Speaker 3: free agent and really built that team aggressively, and ownership
24:22
Speaker 3: was kind of willing to spend. I mean, they had
24:26
Speaker 3: a direct relationship with Scott Boris of placing guys there
24:30
Speaker 3: and you Boris guys in the draft, and they really
24:35
Speaker 3: were I'll never forget I mean, Dale Swaym's saying it
24:39
Speaker 3: was like men versus boys out there. I think it
24:41
Speaker 3: was maybe twenty twelve or twenty thirteen. And even when
24:47
Speaker 3: the Cubs and Nationals met up in the playoff two
24:49
Speaker 3: years later, they watched I think it was that serious.
24:52
Speaker 3: I gave him an absurd amount of home runs, and
24:55
Speaker 3: I think Schwarberg kind of watched it with the coach
24:57
Speaker 3: just sort of as a like, Wow, this is how
24:59
Speaker 3: far you things have come for the Cubs, And there
25:04
Speaker 3: are other names in the mix. I wouldn't say that
25:07
Speaker 3: it's like a guarantee that, you know, like Carter's the
25:09
Speaker 3: only guy or he will be the guy. But I
25:12
Speaker 3: think the candidate list and Carter's emergence shows at least
25:20
Speaker 3: part of what ownership is thinking and what they're looking for.
25:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there's no doubt that he's incredibly organized
25:28
Speaker 1: and has a very clear vision and stands by what
25:32
Speaker 1: he believes. You can dislike the twenty thirty two comment.
25:39
Speaker 1: I don't think if you approach Carter Hawkins and confront
25:43
Speaker 1: him about that right now, he'll back down and say
25:45
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I said the wrong thing. No, Like, Carter
25:49
Speaker 1: stands by what he says. He may rankle some people
25:55
Speaker 1: within the industry or fan base, whatever it may be,
26:00
Speaker 1: but he's not going to back down with what he believes. Like,
26:02
Speaker 1: he is very focused on the task at hand, and
26:06
Speaker 1: and I think you.
26:07
Speaker 2: Know that can be frustrating. I get it. I look
26:13
Speaker 2: you and I talked to a lot of Scouts.
26:14
Speaker 1: I think we we we have, we constantly talk to
26:18
Speaker 1: these people. I like Scouts. It was hard to write
26:22
Speaker 1: that piece about Scouts being let go? What was that
26:27
Speaker 1: like almost a year ago now, because you know they're
26:29
Speaker 1: they're people within the industry that we've talked to forever
26:33
Speaker 1: that you know, it felt like their jobs were being minimized.
26:38
Speaker 1: And that's there's just a different wave of viewpoints that
26:43
Speaker 1: have come into the game. And you cannot deny that
26:47
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of success behind some of these
26:50
Speaker 1: other ords and even with the Cubs. By running things
26:54
Speaker 1: this way, some may say they're leaning too far into
26:58
Speaker 1: that direction and going too heavy model heavy, but it's
27:02
Speaker 1: absolutely something that a lot of organizations do. Carter seems
27:06
Speaker 1: to be really good at it. And like I said,
27:09
Speaker 1: when you're when you're ultra focused and you're super organized,
27:13
Speaker 1: uh and listen, part of communicates well like there's he
27:17
Speaker 1: does that too. It's not like you you know where
27:20
Speaker 1: you stand? Yeah, very direct, Yeah, you know where you stand.
27:24
Speaker 1: There's no like mincing words. And that's that's important for
27:28
Speaker 1: a leader too. So he's got a lot of the
27:31
Speaker 1: characteristics that teams are going to look for ownership will
27:35
Speaker 1: owners are going to look for and listen, he was
27:37
Speaker 1: brought in to do a job and he's done it,
27:39
Speaker 1: like he's it's not finished. The job's not finished it
27:42
Speaker 1: like you said, maybe not quite mission accomplished. I think
27:45
Speaker 1: he wants to win a Royal series and he's not
27:47
Speaker 1: like itching to get out of here.
27:50
Speaker 2: Uh. But look, I'm not surprised that he's become a candidate.
27:55
Speaker 1: We kind of I think even when this opened up,
27:58
Speaker 1: maybe you and I, maybe it was and you and I.
28:00
Speaker 2: But I remember talking to someone about like I wonder.
28:02
Speaker 1: If Carter would be up for that gig, Like he
28:05
Speaker 1: does seem like someone that that is headed for that.
28:08
Speaker 1: If this happens, it'll be interesting to see what Jed
28:11
Speaker 1: does go outside the org again? Is it time to
28:16
Speaker 1: post someone from Milwaukee?
28:18
Speaker 2: Uh? Like what direction?
28:21
Speaker 1: I I guess they already did post someone from Milwaukee
28:24
Speaker 1: like Matt Arnold will go up aplectic if they keep
28:27
Speaker 1: taking you guys from him. But that would be my
28:32
Speaker 1: uh next question. But we'll we'll, we'll cross that bridge
28:35
Speaker 1: when we get there.
28:36
Speaker 2: I guess.
28:37
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, thanks it for this episode. Thanks for
28:40
Speaker 1: listening to everyone. We'll be back with a mail bag
28:44
Speaker 1: episode to wrap up the week.
28:45
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to everyone. This is Northside Territory.
28:48
Speaker 1: Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
28:51
Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic for Patrick and I are
28:53
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28:54
Speaker 2: Thanks everyone. Take the name a name like the