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Why the Cubs and Pete Crow-Armstrong tabled contract talks · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:08
Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. It was
0:16
Speaker 1: a rough first night for the Cubs in San Diego.
0:20
Speaker 1: The bullpen once again is causing issues and giving fans heartburn.
0:27
Speaker 1: We will get to that in a moment. There was
0:30
Speaker 1: some news out of l A. Obviously, the bad news
0:34
Speaker 1: was justin Steel, which we covered last podcast. Yes, there
0:37
Speaker 1: was some there was some good I don't know, good vibes,
0:40
Speaker 1: good good like chatter. You know, nothing fully came of it,
0:45
Speaker 1: but you know p C A and and the Cubs
0:48
Speaker 1: did have extension talks. They they have tabled it for now.
0:54
Speaker 1: You know, this isn't something that's coming out of the blue.
0:56
Speaker 1: We kind of touched on this in the spring. I
0:59
Speaker 1: talked about about it. My understanding was this there was
1:04
Speaker 1: a good chance that this would happen, and it did.
1:08
Speaker 1: That that there's no extension isn't a huge shock. I
1:13
Speaker 1: do think like, uh, the Cubs are the Cubs want
1:17
Speaker 1: to get something, would love to get something done with
1:19
Speaker 1: their young talent, and they see PC a as a
1:23
Speaker 1: as a big piece of their future. That's that's obvious
1:26
Speaker 1: by the way they've treated him, the way they when
1:28
Speaker 1: they called them up, how I like, they didn't even
1:31
Speaker 1: consider looking for help in the outfield. Uh. He's he's
1:35
Speaker 1: a part of their future, their president and their future.
1:38
Speaker 2: Uh.
1:40
Speaker 1: I I'm also not surprised that he wants to bet
1:42
Speaker 1: on himself, right. Uh, this is the We've we've talked
1:46
Speaker 1: to him enough. It's it's only been like a year
1:48
Speaker 1: that we've been around him consistently. Right.
1:51
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:51
Speaker 1: But the more you talk to them, the more it's
1:53
Speaker 1: very obvious that it's not cockiness. But this guy is super,
1:57
Speaker 1: super confident in his abilities. Uh. And you watch him
2:01
Speaker 1: enough and you kind of understand why.
2:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt.
2:04
Speaker 2: And you were way out in front of this side
2:07
Speaker 2: of way back in Mesa. I think both sides knew
2:13
Speaker 2: this was probably a long shot, but it was an
2:17
Speaker 2: idea worth exploring, even if the probability was low, because
2:21
Speaker 2: you never know what could happen, and it also could
2:24
Speaker 2: lay the groundwork for something in the future. Pete explicitly
2:31
Speaker 2: told us that he wants to do a long term
2:35
Speaker 2: deal and that Carter Hawkins and Jed Hoyer are aware
2:38
Speaker 2: of that, but still I think there's a belief on
2:45
Speaker 2: Pete's side that there is more offense in there. We've
2:51
Speaker 2: seen it in flashes, have not seen it consistently, and
2:56
Speaker 2: I do think it is a question of, like, can
3:00
Speaker 2: he be even just a league average hitter, because if so,
3:05
Speaker 2: the entire package is like a star.
3:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if.
3:10
Speaker 2: He doesn't really hit, you know, his worst case scenario
3:14
Speaker 2: is still probably playing ten years in the big leagues,
3:17
Speaker 2: and that's a way to get to X whatever you know,
3:21
Speaker 2: kind of number the Cubs had presented. So both sides
3:23
Speaker 2: exchanged proposals and insisted I think genuinely that there were
3:32
Speaker 2: no hard feelings, no disappointments, that they appreciated the back
3:37
Speaker 2: and forth, how the process was handled, the communication throughout.
3:42
Speaker 2: So all of those signs make me think, you know,
3:47
Speaker 2: tabling talks is not the same as cutting it off forever.
3:52
Speaker 2: And I guess time is on their side too, right,
3:54
Speaker 2: He's under club control through twenty thirty, so I'm sure
3:57
Speaker 2: this won't be like the last time we talk about this.
4:02
Speaker 1: Right exactly? He uh, he obviously had a great, great
4:06
Speaker 1: last two games. It's it's interesting, how you know, we're
4:09
Speaker 1: so early in the season still, and and people, you
4:13
Speaker 1: look at it, it's such a it's such a bad
4:15
Speaker 1: idea to look at stats. I do it, we all
4:17
Speaker 1: do it. But he his numbers were bad three days
4:21
Speaker 1: ago and now they're great, you know, like he's he's
4:25
Speaker 1: like a top fifteen player in war uh and has
4:28
Speaker 1: like above average offensive numbers. Uh. And that was just
4:32
Speaker 1: two great games offensively. And and that's what that's what
4:36
Speaker 1: happens early in the season. So we can't you can't
4:38
Speaker 1: say he's a no bad all defense guy like you said,
4:42
Speaker 1: he's he's searching for that consistency, which is why probably
4:47
Speaker 1: the exchange of the numbers whatever, like whatever area they
4:50
Speaker 1: how far we don't know how far apart they were,
4:53
Speaker 1: but I think we've we've we can kind of see
4:59
Speaker 1: like the comps, right, and the Cubs probably see him
5:02
Speaker 1: in like or would like to get an Ezekiel Tovar
5:06
Speaker 1: type extension, right, who is who is kind of seen
5:09
Speaker 1: as like a plus plus defender with average to slightly
5:14
Speaker 1: below offense. Right, And sure Pete Armstrong would love the
5:18
Speaker 1: Corbyn Carroll deal. My guess is the Cubs don't see
5:22
Speaker 1: him as that offensive type of player like Corbyn Carroll
5:25
Speaker 1: is an MVP candidate and has put up MVPC like
5:29
Speaker 1: caliber seasons. Michael Harris had like a monster rookie campaign
5:36
Speaker 1: with Atlanta. Those are the types of if he can
5:39
Speaker 1: have that type of offensive impact, I mean, it's game changing, right,
5:44
Speaker 1: He's a game changing force and he's worth whatever the
5:47
Speaker 1: extension would be. Then if it's even close to Corbyn Carroll,
5:52
Speaker 1: Michael Harris range, those are the probably what he's aiming for.
5:56
Speaker 1: And I think that's those are good cops. I think
5:58
Speaker 1: that's the range that you're looking at. Tovar to Michael
6:01
Speaker 1: Harris to Corbyn Carroll, Like that's that's kind of a
6:05
Speaker 1: pretty big range. And then you start talking about free
6:08
Speaker 1: like you're eating like most of these deals eat up
6:12
Speaker 1: all the R bears. And then you start talking about
6:14
Speaker 1: how many options you can tack on to get a
6:17
Speaker 1: free agent year or two, and that's that that probably
6:21
Speaker 1: usually is the biggest sticking point in these deals.
6:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you from Pete side, you know they're
6:31
Speaker 2: not going to want to go that far out into
6:35
Speaker 2: the free agent years or really any player or agency.
6:42
Speaker 3: Would have that Outlook.
6:44
Speaker 2: Now I'm in San Diego at the moment and talking
6:49
Speaker 2: to a couple of people out here, they're still sort
6:51
Speaker 2: of blown away at Jackson Merrill's deal. How that is
6:57
Speaker 2: kind of like the new example of team friendly deal.
7:02
Speaker 2: And obviously Jackson Merrill had a way better season than
7:06
Speaker 2: Pete crow Armstrong did last year. His offensive upside is proven.
7:15
Speaker 2: But it just goes to show you, like the numbers
7:19
Speaker 2: and years can go to places that are kind of crazy. Right,
7:23
Speaker 2: even if that's a team friendly deal, it's still a
7:25
Speaker 2: guy who you know, at the start of last season
7:28
Speaker 2: was like learning a new position, was totally unproven. But
7:32
Speaker 2: this is how much teams value that young talent. And
7:35
Speaker 2: that's why I think you'll keep seeing the Cubs try
7:39
Speaker 2: to do this. I think we would guess Matt Shaw
7:44
Speaker 2: would be on this sort of radar as well, not
7:48
Speaker 2: saying anything has happened yet or anything will happen, but
7:51
Speaker 2: like that's their job to kick around these ideas. And
7:57
Speaker 2: you know, from Pete's perspective, it was going to be
8:01
Speaker 2: a thing that popped up. There was our initial story,
8:06
Speaker 2: there was his reaction the next day at Dodger Stadium.
8:09
Speaker 2: Then it's just like kind of over until the next
8:12
Speaker 2: offseason or if there is some sort of fundamental change
8:18
Speaker 2: in how both sides look at this. So it's definitely
8:21
Speaker 2: not the We've covered these dramatic talks before, right, I'm
8:26
Speaker 2: thinking about Anthony Rizzo. Yeah, in twenty twenty one, we've had,
8:32
Speaker 2: you know, pictures when the Cubs were in cell mode there,
8:37
Speaker 2: whether it was like Matt Garza, Jeff Samarga, things like that,
8:42
Speaker 2: where Okay, is this new regime gonna kind of extend
8:47
Speaker 2: these guys or flip them? Like, that's not part of
8:50
Speaker 2: the equation here. The Cubs have no plans to sell
8:53
Speaker 2: and Pete is nowhere close to free agency. So I
8:57
Speaker 2: think it's just an interesting site both into how the
9:02
Speaker 2: Cubs front office is looking at things and also, like
9:05
Speaker 2: you said, Sahat, of Pete's confidence, which he said, you know,
9:12
Speaker 2: whether I get offered again or whether you know, they
9:15
Speaker 2: never offered me anything, like my belief in myself will
9:18
Speaker 2: never change. Like he is just a fundamentally confident dude.
9:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, and just purely talking about his play. I mean,
9:28
Speaker 1: I felt like these past two days maybe not this good,
9:33
Speaker 1: but I felt like they were coming. He was not
9:35
Speaker 1: had bad at bats, He's not chasing and looking lost
9:38
Speaker 1: at the plate. There was, you know, not a ton,
9:41
Speaker 1: but a pretty solid amount of bad luck happening with
9:45
Speaker 1: him too, especially like early in the season, and then
9:49
Speaker 1: one of the Dodgers games. I'm not sure if it
9:50
Speaker 1: was Saturday. Yeah, I'm pretty sure was Saturday. I just
9:54
Speaker 1: remember him hitting a rocket, it being caught and him
9:59
Speaker 1: just kind of being like you can tell by his face,
10:01
Speaker 1: like it was just like, really, is this going to
10:03
Speaker 1: keep happening to me? Uh So, I think it was
10:05
Speaker 1: probably a relief for him to have that game on Sunday,
10:09
Speaker 1: just have a couple, you know, just you know, it
10:13
Speaker 1: was two home runs, right, Yeah, it was two home
10:15
Speaker 1: runs and yeah, so, I mean just a great overall
10:19
Speaker 1: game and and follow it up with Monday that that
10:23
Speaker 1: has to feel good to finally have some you know,
10:25
Speaker 1: both send over the fence and and some fall get
10:28
Speaker 1: past defenders, whatever it may be. Because he he is
10:33
Speaker 1: just a truly impactful player. I mean, we haven't really
10:37
Speaker 1: seen someone like this for the Cups. You could compare
10:40
Speaker 1: him to Hobby, but it's a I think it's different
10:43
Speaker 1: when it's a center fielder. It's it's he's a he's
10:47
Speaker 1: a really fun player to watch. Patrick. Let's let's take
10:50
Speaker 1: a quick break and we can talk a little bit
10:53
Speaker 1: about the bullpen too.
10:54
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Speaker 3: Uh.
11:57
Speaker 1: So Monday night, say diego, the Cubs earn a nice battle.
12:03
Speaker 1: They're they're they're up three one right, they've gotten to
12:06
Speaker 1: Dylan ces Padrey's bullpen is not easy. We know that.
12:10
Speaker 1: We've seen we saw it when when the Padres were
12:13
Speaker 1: in town. They're a good team, they're talented team.
12:16
Speaker 2: Uh.
12:17
Speaker 1: I like the bullpen was just shorthanded once again. After
12:21
Speaker 1: Sunday was kind of a short start by Colin Ray,
12:24
Speaker 1: which was expected. Uh, he used a council, used all
12:28
Speaker 1: his best relievers. I don't know what his plan was,
12:33
Speaker 1: but watching the game, my thought was he would have
12:36
Speaker 1: preferred obviously wanted ty Own to get through that sixth
12:40
Speaker 1: inning and and then ideally you'd like Keller to have
12:45
Speaker 1: a quick inning and then get the seventh too. That
12:48
Speaker 1: was my guess of what he wanted. And when that
12:51
Speaker 1: pop up dropped, everything kind of went to hell. And
12:54
Speaker 1: that's like, because I don't think he wanted uh Nate
12:59
Speaker 1: Pier sitting in that situation. He just kind of had to.
13:03
Speaker 1: Uh and and Nate Pearson did not look good, gave
13:07
Speaker 1: up what was it, five earned runs? Uh, maybe it
13:12
Speaker 1: was just three either either way, he didn't. He got
13:17
Speaker 1: one out, two hits, three walks, no strikeouts. It was
13:22
Speaker 1: a terrible outing. And then Eli Morgan comes in struggles
13:26
Speaker 1: as well, apparently ends up exiting with an elbow issue
13:32
Speaker 1: that he's been dealing with. Uh, maybe give some clarity there,
13:37
Speaker 1: but it was it was a bad It was a
13:38
Speaker 1: bad outing by the bullpen. I phrased what I say
13:43
Speaker 1: at the bottom there intentionally comes. Bullpen depth remains a concern.
13:47
Speaker 1: I don't think the bullpen as a whole is like
13:49
Speaker 1: there's not It's not like there's no answers. I thought
13:52
Speaker 1: Brad Keller pitted really well. I know he gave up
13:54
Speaker 1: the tying run. I thought he looked great, he touched
13:58
Speaker 1: one hundred. What he's I think he's a legit bullpen arm.
14:03
Speaker 1: I think Ryan Presley looks so much better. I think
14:04
Speaker 1: Porter Hodge is legit, and I think Julian Merriweather is
14:08
Speaker 1: starting to strain things out, and it looks like you
14:10
Speaker 1: have like four ish guys that you trust. Right beyond that,
14:14
Speaker 1: maybe Ethan Roberts is knocking on the door. There's some
14:17
Speaker 1: good bullpen arms, but it's these when you're trailing or tied.
14:20
Speaker 1: When you or when your high leverage guys are are down,
14:26
Speaker 1: that's when you start to have a concern like Nate
14:28
Speaker 1: Pearson was unusable yesterday.
14:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, And going back to how you let this off,
14:34
Speaker 2: tye Own indicated that he had been feeling under the
14:37
Speaker 2: weather in recent days, so he knew he wasn't gonna
14:40
Speaker 2: get you know, pushed.
14:42
Speaker 3: To the limit today.
14:44
Speaker 2: And there is this you know, kind of cascading effect
14:47
Speaker 2: when you have you know, Justin Steele's hurt. So you
14:52
Speaker 2: got go to Colin Ray who does a great job
14:54
Speaker 2: but is not like fully stretched out or a guy
14:57
Speaker 2: you want to go through thes lineup like three or
15:01
Speaker 2: four times, right, So you have to make choices.
15:06
Speaker 3: I'm with you. Presley has looked a.
15:08
Speaker 2: Lot better, and his track record makes me think he'll
15:12
Speaker 2: be more or less fine.
15:15
Speaker 3: Like I don't think it's going to be.
15:19
Speaker 2: You know, automatic every single time out or without any
15:23
Speaker 2: sort of angst from Cubs fans on social media. But
15:28
Speaker 2: if he's good, if Hodge is good, if Merriweather stays healthy,
15:32
Speaker 2: you can sort start to see the formula. I think
15:38
Speaker 2: we'll see how the rotation steps up in the wake
15:42
Speaker 2: of Steels season ending injury that always plays a factor.
15:47
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think we're looking at at least one
15:52
Speaker 2: roster move for Eli Morgan and then it sort of
15:56
Speaker 2: becomes how many buttons do they want to press at once?
16:02
Speaker 2: I mean we're around twenty ish games, you know, by
16:07
Speaker 2: the time they get home for Friday's homestand that would
16:09
Speaker 2: be a time to reset as well. Uh. And that's
16:15
Speaker 2: something you know, we'll be asking counsel about because you know,
16:19
Speaker 2: something he said last year kind of echoes in the
16:23
Speaker 2: back of my head of like, you know, you know,
16:25
Speaker 2: the answers are rarely at triple A, right, like, meaning
16:30
Speaker 2: guys are at triple A for a reason, So like
16:33
Speaker 2: kind of going to MI I LB dot com and
16:36
Speaker 2: scanning the stats and thinking, oh wow, like that guy
16:39
Speaker 2: can get out.
16:39
Speaker 3: Fernando Tatis Junior doesn't always work that way.
16:44
Speaker 2: But we haven't even mentioned Ethan Roberts yet. I mean
16:47
Speaker 2: we mentioned him the other day, but he's looked pretty
16:51
Speaker 2: good and has kind of begun to approach that circle
16:57
Speaker 2: of trust there.
16:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know what's going on with Nate Pearson.
17:02
Speaker 1: Like I was going to tell you what his issues
17:05
Speaker 1: were going to be this year, I would have said
17:07
Speaker 1: he's going to give up too many home runs. He
17:08
Speaker 1: gives up he can't miss like when he like, he
17:12
Speaker 1: gets a lot of swings and misses, but when they
17:13
Speaker 1: make contact, it's hard. That's not what's happening. He's not
17:17
Speaker 1: His hard contact is down, his home run per fly
17:20
Speaker 1: ball rate is down. He's walking a ton of guys
17:23
Speaker 1: and not striking anyone out. I don't know what is happening.
17:27
Speaker 1: I haven't dug into if it's like, you know, like
17:31
Speaker 1: if there's something up with his pitches, if he's using
17:33
Speaker 1: different pitches. I haven't even really looked at it, just
17:35
Speaker 1: because it's been so bad. It's like he like, I
17:38
Speaker 1: think he needs a reset. That would be my thought process.
17:41
Speaker 1: Go to Triple A, work on whatever it is you
17:43
Speaker 1: need to work on, and like he has the type
17:46
Speaker 1: of stuff and ability that he could he could come
17:48
Speaker 1: back and be a great reliever. There's I don't doubt that.
17:52
Speaker 1: We see it all the time. I just don't think
17:54
Speaker 1: you can afford to wait much longer, not at the
17:57
Speaker 1: major league level, especially when you have depth, You have
18:00
Speaker 1: guys on the forty man roster, and you have a
18:01
Speaker 1: guy that you can move off the forty man roster
18:03
Speaker 1: and not to the sixty day and in steel right,
18:07
Speaker 1: and they're gonna start getting healthier. Like I think Brazier
18:10
Speaker 1: is pretty far away the way it sounds like he's
18:12
Speaker 1: just not progressing the way they want him to. Tyson
18:16
Speaker 1: Miller isn't like on the verge of coming back, but
18:19
Speaker 1: I think at least he's he's on, you know, he's progressing.
18:23
Speaker 1: And then asad that could eventually return to the rotation,
18:26
Speaker 1: you have you have guys that can kind of help
18:28
Speaker 1: you move things around, and then you have like all
18:31
Speaker 1: these guys in the minors. Have they done it yet? No,
18:35
Speaker 1: not really, but they just added Tom Crossgrove lefty. Right,
18:39
Speaker 1: you have Luke Little, another lefty, Jack Neelye, Daniel Palencia,
18:44
Speaker 1: Jordan Wicks had a really good multi inning. I don't
18:46
Speaker 1: know what they see him his role as, but he's
18:48
Speaker 1: probably depth for the rotation. Right. You don't want to
18:51
Speaker 1: push him to the bullbenches. Yet you have Keegan Thompson
18:54
Speaker 1: and Brooks Krisky, two guys that aren't on the forty
18:57
Speaker 1: man that are been dominant in the minor leagues. Part
19:01
Speaker 1: of what we were told in spring training in the
19:04
Speaker 1: off season is they needed to be aggressive with these things, right,
19:08
Speaker 1: they need to. They like they can't allow they The
19:12
Speaker 1: whole problem last year was they didn't provide Greig Council
19:15
Speaker 1: with depth. That's what Jed Hoyer told us over and
19:17
Speaker 1: over again. Right, we didn't provide them with depth, so
19:19
Speaker 1: when things got bad, we didn't have the moves to make.
19:22
Speaker 1: They've been hit with some injuries, right, but they still
19:26
Speaker 1: have some depth here. They have pieces that you can
19:28
Speaker 1: call upon and say, look, this guy's not getting the
19:30
Speaker 1: job done. He has options, let's send him down. You know,
19:35
Speaker 1: I think they need to be aggressive with these moves
19:38
Speaker 1: and start moving things around, not because the bullpen is
19:42
Speaker 1: in shambles, but because they have pieces that you can
19:46
Speaker 1: kind of shift around and do this with and you
19:49
Speaker 1: don't want to. I don't know if you could say
19:53
Speaker 1: this is a game that that was truly lost like
19:56
Speaker 1: that that they had this game wrapped up. It's not
20:00
Speaker 1: like the Diamondbacks game. Yeah, everyone lead against a really
20:03
Speaker 1: talented team, like even the good bullpen arms could have
20:06
Speaker 1: could have blown it. It wasn't. It was too early
20:10
Speaker 1: to say this is like a wrapped up game, but
20:12
Speaker 1: it's it's still a loss that at one point looked
20:15
Speaker 1: like it was. It went from a competitive game to
20:17
Speaker 1: not competitive right pretty quickly. Uh So you don't want
20:23
Speaker 1: that to happen. You want to stay in tighter games
20:27
Speaker 1: or be the team that's blowing and blowing the opposition
20:30
Speaker 1: out right. So, uh, I don't know what the answers are.
20:33
Speaker 1: We will you know, some people are going to be
20:35
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast, and the moves are going to
20:37
Speaker 1: be made. There's there's certainly one move coming, right, it
20:43
Speaker 1: was pretty obvious that Eli Morgan's headed to Bayel is
20:46
Speaker 1: that the.
20:48
Speaker 3: That would be my full expectation. There wasn't.
20:53
Speaker 2: It was a pretty brief post game back and forth
20:56
Speaker 2: with council, but kind of at the end, you know,
20:59
Speaker 2: you anticipate, you know, a roster move and he said, yes,
21:05
Speaker 2: I should have clarified whether it was plural, But there
21:10
Speaker 2: was just.
21:13
Speaker 3: So many like it was a kind of like bullpen.
21:14
Speaker 2: Whack a mole, right of like, Okay, which guy are
21:17
Speaker 2: we talking about here? Which guy people angry at on
21:22
Speaker 2: social media? But you know, I also think this goes
21:27
Speaker 2: back to the defense has to be air tight, you know,
21:31
Speaker 2: I mean, stuff happens, and also I know that lost
21:37
Speaker 2: to the Diamondbacks that eighth run eighth inning really stung.
21:42
Speaker 2: But part of that game was also Kyle Tucker hitting
21:45
Speaker 2: a three run homer, right, So like they're gonna have
21:47
Speaker 2: to hit their way out of some of this. You
21:49
Speaker 2: have to make plays on defense. And I think this
21:54
Speaker 2: topic is sort of evergreen because the stress on the rotation,
21:58
Speaker 2: like you're going to see it in the bullpen and
22:01
Speaker 2: all of these things are interconnected. I mean, isn't that
22:05
Speaker 2: kind of what Council has said since he got here
22:08
Speaker 2: and what we had seen in Milwaukee of like all
22:10
Speaker 2: these pieces are interconnected, Like it's a team down It's
22:13
Speaker 2: almost like a whole separate team down there in the bullpen,
22:16
Speaker 2: and like almost everything any pitcher does can impact the
22:20
Speaker 2: entire group, and they gotta gotta figure it out.
22:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you can't just because guys are down. You
22:30
Speaker 1: can't like completely fall apart in a game, right. It
22:34
Speaker 1: like that you need some depth here and you need
22:37
Speaker 1: guys to step up. So I'm curious to see what
22:39
Speaker 1: the moves are. Obviously it's not just on the bullpen
22:43
Speaker 1: like you said, like you're gonna need to spread some
22:45
Speaker 1: games out. A three to one game, like if you're
22:47
Speaker 1: if the bullpen is a concern. If the weaker part
22:49
Speaker 1: of the bullpen is concerned, you have to like then
22:52
Speaker 1: other parts of the offense need to or other parts
22:54
Speaker 1: of the team need to step up. It's not always fair,
22:56
Speaker 1: it doesn't sound fair, but like that's just how you
22:59
Speaker 1: cover up pieces. Sometimes other areas have to step up.
23:03
Speaker 1: That's they have to address these weaknesses. But as they
23:06
Speaker 1: look to, you just don't want to lose too many
23:07
Speaker 1: games because of it. It's it's sunk them two years
23:10
Speaker 1: in a row. You lose too many games early, you
23:14
Speaker 1: lose winnable games. Cubs fans don't want to hear it again,
23:18
Speaker 1: Like they just don't want to see it. They don't
23:20
Speaker 1: want to hear it again. So I understand the frustration.
23:23
Speaker 1: Hopefully this is rectified because it is. It is the
23:27
Speaker 1: most frustrating topic to talk about. Bullpen. Bullpens, bullpen's falling apart,
23:32
Speaker 1: bullpen's blowing leads.
23:35
Speaker 3: Well, you know, when the bullpen's good, we never talk
23:37
Speaker 3: about them.
23:37
Speaker 1: Yeah right, it's just like whatever, that's it's just supposed
23:41
Speaker 1: to be expected. It's the same thing with runners in
23:43
Speaker 1: scoring position. Yeah, they're good with runners in scoring position,
23:47
Speaker 1: and everyone's like, yeah, the offense is good. Well, no,
23:49
Speaker 1: they're they're you know, they're hitting with those runners on,
23:52
Speaker 1: and it's going to slump at some point. You can't
23:54
Speaker 1: hit like an insane manner every single game like that.
24:00
Speaker 1: All right, okay, Patrick, we'll be back after the padres
24:04
Speaker 1: Or season series is wrapped up with another episode, wrapping
24:09
Speaker 1: the West Coast trip up and starting another tough set
24:13
Speaker 1: of games at home. Thanks so much for listening to everyone.
24:17
Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast. Make
24:21
Speaker 1: sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
24:24
Speaker 1: and subscribe to Patrick and I work at the Athletic
24:27
Speaker 1: where we are on top of all things Cubs. Thanks
24:30
Speaker 1: so much for listening to everyone. Take care
25:00
Speaker 2: The Red