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The Names to Know as the Cubs Try to Fix Their Catching Situation · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: They're trying to upgrade that position significantly. Can they pull
0:03
Speaker 1: it off is going to be the question, and I
0:05
Speaker 1: think it's probably what we focus on. Welcome into North
0:13
Speaker 1: Side Territory, Foul Territory Networks, Cubs Podcast. I'm Sahade Sharma.
0:18
Speaker 1: Back with me from the Jersey Shore is Patrick Mooney.
0:22
Speaker 1: We are your Cubs beat writers at the Athletic. Patrick,
0:26
Speaker 1: tell us about all the Jim tanning and laundry you did.
0:30
Speaker 2: There was copious amounts of that. I would say I
0:34
Speaker 2: made a wise decision. I deleted the Twitter app off
0:37
Speaker 2: my phone.
0:37
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
0:40
Speaker 2: The rest of it was pretty standard, you know of
0:42
Speaker 2: like bringing a book to the beach but not reading
0:45
Speaker 2: like a single page of it, and then like you know,
0:49
Speaker 2: having a little too much to drink here and there.
0:51
Speaker 2: You know, pretty standard stuff, but very much refreshed ready
0:56
Speaker 2: to We were texting the other day. It's cover Cubs playoff,
1:01
Speaker 2: push question mark or maybe just like get revved up
1:05
Speaker 2: for another September collapse, like whatever happened, We're going to
1:08
Speaker 2: be be here for you. But I'm backing for Cleveland
1:12
Speaker 2: tomorrow morning.
1:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, you get to go to Cleveland, which is their
1:15
Speaker 1: final their final games this month against a team with
1:21
Speaker 1: currently winning record, and then it's and then I believe
1:24
Speaker 1: it's like eighteen straight against sub five hundred teams. So
1:29
Speaker 1: this is I think I said this in May or
1:33
Speaker 1: was it June, whatever month that was where they had
1:34
Speaker 1: that long stretch of like teams around five hundred. They
1:38
Speaker 1: have it again again. Yeah, more day weekend, right, yeah,
1:43
Speaker 1: and they screwed it up, right, they didn't perform. I
1:47
Speaker 1: think this is a better team right now. I think
1:49
Speaker 1: they're playing better. I think they didn't play well this
1:52
Speaker 1: weekend against the White Sox and they still won because
1:55
Speaker 1: that's how bad the White Sox are. They got a
1:57
Speaker 1: terrible star from jameson Tyn. It didn't matter. Saya Suzuki
2:01
Speaker 1: probably had two of his worst games that he's had
2:03
Speaker 1: in a while. Didn't matter. He's your best offensive guy
2:06
Speaker 1: right now, didn't matter that they want. They're getting production
2:09
Speaker 1: from the bottom of the lineup. We'll talk about the
2:12
Speaker 1: catcher spot. But Miguel Amaya is playing well right now.
2:16
Speaker 1: That's huge. Pete Kor Armstrong, which I've talked about, we've
2:20
Speaker 1: talked about for a couple of weeks now looks like
2:22
Speaker 1: a different player. That's huge and Dansby Swanson's producing, you
2:26
Speaker 1: don't have to, I thought. Craig Council said something really
2:29
Speaker 1: interesting the other day. He said, the last hot streak
2:32
Speaker 1: kind of was like it was like one guy, Ian
2:34
Speaker 1: Happ was carrying them for like a week or ten days.
2:38
Speaker 1: This is like a different guy every day, And I
2:40
Speaker 1: think that's really important because they have the pitching the
2:43
Speaker 1: bullpen stabilized, and now the offense looks more complete. I
2:50
Speaker 1: said this to reporters the other day. I'm not bought in.
2:52
Speaker 1: I'm not saying they're making the playoffs. I think they're
2:55
Speaker 1: gonna end up just outside though, which is what I
2:58
Speaker 1: think you and I said, like, I think they're good
3:01
Speaker 1: enough to make a little run here. They're gonna make
3:03
Speaker 1: it interesting. We're gonna be They're gonna keep us interested
3:07
Speaker 1: in this. I think they're gonna fall short. I think
3:09
Speaker 1: they screwed up already. The mistakes were made in the past.
3:12
Speaker 1: But I think if you're if you're the type of
3:15
Speaker 1: fan that's still watching, there should be some optimism and
3:18
Speaker 1: you should feel good about some of the direction that
3:22
Speaker 1: this is going. Plenty of reasons to be upset. I'm
3:24
Speaker 1: not saying it like they're you know, all your all
3:27
Speaker 1: your worries a gone fans. I'm just saying there's it
3:30
Speaker 1: feels a little bit better right now, present and and
3:32
Speaker 1: even like the near term future.
3:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think some of this was what we had
3:41
Speaker 2: talked about. Like Cubs have to take care of business,
3:43
Speaker 2: right and like they have started stack some series wins.
3:48
Speaker 2: You've seen the Reds and Pirates pull back a little bit,
3:54
Speaker 2: so like they don't have to chase quite as many teams.
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Speaker 2: I think that's important. When we've seen the Diamondbacks and
4:01
Speaker 2: Padres sort of take off a little bit, and I
4:04
Speaker 2: think that's gonna make it harder. Yeah, but you have
4:09
Speaker 2: the Braves coming back down to Earth a bit, and
4:12
Speaker 2: the Mets, Like I don't think anyone think it's the
4:15
Speaker 2: Mets are like a great team, right, like you know
4:17
Speaker 2: you should. Yeah, this is the scenario on which it
4:21
Speaker 2: could happen. Is happening. Now it's up to them to
4:25
Speaker 2: like go out, you know, they get swept in Cleveland
4:28
Speaker 2: and then it's kind of back to you know, our
4:31
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five series. But I don't know, a game
4:35
Speaker 2: under five hundred. You get over that, you start to
4:38
Speaker 2: continue to shrink that wild card deficit then like, yeah,
4:41
Speaker 2: we're gonna be back on like game coverage, and that's
4:44
Speaker 2: what you know. I'm curious how if like what was
4:47
Speaker 2: the atmosphere like post Pedro Fest on the weekend.
4:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Council is the type that just isn't
4:58
Speaker 1: going to give you like, yeah, we're hot right now.
5:01
Speaker 1: He's happy that they're playing better, but it's just like
5:04
Speaker 1: stack wins. That's all he's saying. He's like, we got there.
5:07
Speaker 1: It's what he I think what he was saying two
5:09
Speaker 1: weeks ago. There's no margin for error here. Just keep
5:11
Speaker 1: stacking wins. They're doing what they need to do and
5:14
Speaker 1: stacking wins making it interesting. Uh he I think he
5:18
Speaker 1: even used that phrase. He's like, let's make these last
5:20
Speaker 1: seven weeks interesting and fun something like that.
5:23
Speaker 2: Uh.
5:24
Speaker 1: And and they can right like they're they're good enough
5:28
Speaker 1: to do that. I'm I didn't think this would happen,
5:33
Speaker 1: but I it feels very different to me watching uh
5:37
Speaker 1: Esoch Paratus in the lineup rather than Christopher Morrell. I
5:41
Speaker 1: was a Morrell fan. I believed in the expected stats.
5:45
Speaker 1: Well you know what results are better than expected stats.
5:48
Speaker 1: So uh, he's after what like five or six games
5:52
Speaker 1: of looking a little uncomfortable, He admitted to us, I
5:55
Speaker 1: don't think you were there. I think this was last week.
5:58
Speaker 1: He hit one through the wind, and he admitted to us, Yeah, yeah,
6:03
Speaker 1: I was. I was pressing. I was trying to do
6:05
Speaker 1: too much. I was trying to impress my new teammates.
6:08
Speaker 1: And that happens. That's normal. I think you'd rather a
6:11
Speaker 1: slow start and a hot final seven weeks than you know,
6:14
Speaker 1: a hot start and then cools off and does nothing
6:17
Speaker 1: the rest of the way. And Council has hammered this
6:21
Speaker 1: to us. He doesn't think it's paradis as much as
6:24
Speaker 1: the bottom of the lineup, like I was talking up before,
6:26
Speaker 1: and he's right. I think he's right. Like when you
6:28
Speaker 1: have nine guys instead of one guy, it really changed.
6:32
Speaker 1: You don't have a black hole in the lineup. You
6:33
Speaker 1: can't do that anymore. With the d H. You cannot
6:36
Speaker 1: have a black hole in the lineup. It's it's really
6:40
Speaker 1: hard to win games and consistently and put up a
6:43
Speaker 1: consistent offense. They've they've looked much better offensively. They had
6:47
Speaker 1: that one stinker on Monday against the Twins. Other than that,
6:52
Speaker 1: they looked they look like a different team. Offensively, and
6:55
Speaker 1: I would say that that guy that was pitching for
6:57
Speaker 1: the Twins festa. I talked to it a bunch of
7:00
Speaker 1: different people over the past week and just said like,
7:03
Speaker 1: first of all, like he was throwing stuff they were
7:05
Speaker 1: not expecting. It was not in the scout and report
7:07
Speaker 1: him throwing that many change ups. And second of all,
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Speaker 1: like I didn't realize this. I completely missed it. I'm
7:12
Speaker 1: pretty good with prospects. I had no clues the top
7:14
Speaker 1: one under prospect he's a legit pitcher. I just thought
7:16
Speaker 1: it was some random dude. I saw a six c R,
7:18
Speaker 1: saw the name I've never heard about, and I was like,
7:21
Speaker 1: why are the Cubs getting smoked by this dude? But
7:23
Speaker 1: then I talked to some Twins people and they're like, no, no, no,
7:25
Speaker 1: he's legit. Like they didn't get they didn't get fooled
7:28
Speaker 1: by some dude. You know they can't pitch.
7:31
Speaker 2: So grew up with my first cousin in New Jersey.
7:36
Speaker 2: Oh for really, I've already sent all the info to
7:39
Speaker 2: Dan Hayes. I'm waiting for Maybe he already wrote the
7:41
Speaker 2: big feature. I haven't seen it yet. He was that
7:43
Speaker 2: kind of a late bloomer. I had a huge gross
7:47
Speaker 2: spurt later in whatever, later in childhood, later in teenage years,
7:53
Speaker 2: to where all of a sudden, you know, he was
7:55
Speaker 2: like grew like six inches in a couple of months
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Speaker 2: almost roughly, like that was kind of and then just
8:02
Speaker 2: had this athleticism and aptitude for it. And you know,
8:08
Speaker 2: coming out of northern New Jersey, I think he had
8:11
Speaker 2: maybe one offer, like a D three type offer, and
8:15
Speaker 2: then he kind of had this gross burd and then
8:17
Speaker 2: wound up locally. I believe that seat in the hall.
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Speaker 2: So it's play a real nice kid from my that's
8:25
Speaker 2: my cousin's scouting report. When I saw this.
8:28
Speaker 1: Nice okay, well Patrick, I wrote for Sunday Morning about
8:34
Speaker 1: the catching situation. Listen, I don't want to gloss over
8:38
Speaker 1: with Miguelmayah has done. He has put in the work,
8:40
Speaker 1: He's gotten better. I don't think what he can do
8:46
Speaker 1: over the next two months is going to unless he
8:49
Speaker 1: turns into like this superstar and looks like a completely
8:53
Speaker 1: different player. I don't expect him to be the be
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Speaker 1: the starting catcher next year. Be there their number one
9:01
Speaker 1: option to be the starting catch It sounds like the goal,
9:05
Speaker 1: the number one goal this winter will be upgrading the
9:08
Speaker 1: catching position, and I think they're gonna try and swing
9:11
Speaker 1: for the fences and try and get a big upgrade.
9:14
Speaker 1: I also think that's really hard to do. But I've
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Speaker 1: confirmed through my reporting that they tried hard for Logan Ohappy,
9:21
Speaker 1: who is a good catcher with the Angels twenty four.
9:25
Speaker 1: I believe, you know, about ten percent above league average,
9:29
Speaker 1: offensively good defender. I hear good things about him, makeup wise,
9:36
Speaker 1: from my understanding, they didn't come close to even tempting
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Speaker 1: the Angels, one non Cubs source, non Angels source told me.
9:46
Speaker 1: Two sources outside of the Cubs org outside of the
9:49
Speaker 1: Angels orgs told me they didn't believe the Cubs had
9:52
Speaker 1: what it would take to get Ohapi to tempt them.
9:57
Speaker 1: I think the Cubs disagree with that. I think the
9:59
Speaker 1: Cubs believe they have what it takes. But you know,
10:03
Speaker 1: teams often like their prospects a lot more than maybe
10:05
Speaker 1: other teams do. Other teams have said they appreciate the
10:12
Speaker 1: creativity that the Cubs are showing. They think they're showing
10:15
Speaker 1: a little bit more creativity than they thought they were
10:17
Speaker 1: capable of. And I think we kind of agree with
10:20
Speaker 1: how they handled the deadline and it sounds like there's
10:25
Speaker 1: going to be competition. There are other teams interesting in
10:28
Speaker 1: catching big shocker, right right right, I think catching is
10:32
Speaker 1: really hard to find. What I do know is if
10:35
Speaker 1: they go to the prospect route, there are quite a few
10:37
Speaker 1: that are like at triple A and are blocked. There's
10:40
Speaker 1: I believe it's Drake Baldwin with the Braves, Dalton Rushing
10:45
Speaker 1: with the Dodgers, Samuel Bassallo, who is I believe only
10:50
Speaker 1: a double A in like nineteen or twenty with the Orioles.
10:54
Speaker 1: One guy I didn't mention, and that's because I got
10:57
Speaker 1: a lot of pushback that saying that he can't catch,
10:59
Speaker 1: so I didn't mentioned him. I got some text today
11:01
Speaker 1: saying maybe maybe I should have is Harry Ford with Seattle. Uh.
11:06
Speaker 1: But those texts that I got were not from Cubs people,
11:09
Speaker 1: so I'm not My understanding.
11:10
Speaker 2: Is the Cubs.
11:11
Speaker 1: Ah, he I wouldn't. I don't feel so bad for
11:15
Speaker 1: not putting him on the list. I guess I should say,
11:18
Speaker 1: but Basalo is going to be really hard to get.
11:21
Speaker 1: Rushing all through those guys are going to be really
11:23
Speaker 1: hard to get. I know they're all blocked, but that's
11:25
Speaker 1: the reality of where prospects and how they clutch them are,
11:30
Speaker 1: but they can get creative that they there's there are
11:34
Speaker 1: ways to do this, but it's going to be a
11:36
Speaker 1: thread the needle type thing.
11:38
Speaker 2: I mean, reading your piece of hot It, it was an
11:41
Speaker 2: awesomely detailed story that you I would expect you to
11:45
Speaker 2: file like on day one or two of the GM meetings,
11:48
Speaker 2: like it really crystallized like what the Cubs are going
11:53
Speaker 2: to be targeting here very soon. I think it's interesting,
12:00
Speaker 2: you know, whenever you mentioned Oil's prospect, there's that kind
12:03
Speaker 2: of head like, but they're not the type that's going
12:04
Speaker 2: to back up the truck for really to give up
12:10
Speaker 2: any of their you know, precious most precious prospects. I
12:17
Speaker 2: thought it was interesting as well that this idea that
12:19
Speaker 2: Miguel and Maia is pretty much best case scenario, like
12:22
Speaker 2: a good backup next year, which is not like shocking,
12:25
Speaker 2: but definitely not what we thought when he made a
12:29
Speaker 2: really nice kind of debut season h last year. And
12:36
Speaker 2: you're right, I think we've been I don't of hard
12:39
Speaker 2: on Jed, but we've been repeatedly calling them out for
12:42
Speaker 2: being not the most like creative front office and in
12:46
Speaker 2: trading for Michael Bush and trading for parades, Like they've
12:49
Speaker 2: definitely shown a level of creativity that I had not
12:55
Speaker 2: anticipated would had been a pretty kind of paint by
12:57
Speaker 2: numbers operation. So I will not rule that out. I
13:01
Speaker 2: think it's it's nice to not have that third base
13:05
Speaker 2: question hanging over you for a couple of years of
13:08
Speaker 2: like we've said this earlier, of like trying to do
13:11
Speaker 2: a Bregmant deal with Boris, or you know, crossing your
13:15
Speaker 2: fingers on some of these young players when you know
13:19
Speaker 2: next year is clearly a playoff or else type of
13:22
Speaker 2: year for this front office, as you wrote in the
13:26
Speaker 2: mail bag and addressed on our show earlier. So the
13:32
Speaker 2: catting Oakland, if I'm not Langeleiers, am I pronouncing that right?
13:36
Speaker 2: I mean that seems like a guy that you kind
13:38
Speaker 2: of alluded of, Like Oakland is that type of team
13:42
Speaker 2: that may have to move a guy like that and
13:46
Speaker 2: would want to like replenish their system. I do wonder,
13:50
Speaker 2: like what the cost would be for a guy who's
13:54
Speaker 2: not like a huge difference maker, right, I think that's
13:58
Speaker 2: going to be the question. And you know, Carson Kelly
14:02
Speaker 2: for sure seems like a guy who would make a
14:06
Speaker 2: lot of sense, and that they'll probably overpay a million
14:10
Speaker 2: per year and an extra year or two whether it's him.
14:15
Speaker 2: Did Danny Jansen's name come up at all during this?
14:18
Speaker 1: Was that I didn't hear that. I didn't and I
14:21
Speaker 1: didn't double check his Let me look up his stats,
14:25
Speaker 1: because I don't know. I know he dropped off pretty
14:28
Speaker 1: pretty hard there for a while, But did he bounce back?
14:30
Speaker 1: I mean, he's he's in the average slightly above average
14:33
Speaker 1: catcher this year. He's doing well with Boston in six games.
14:39
Speaker 1: I think he would I would, I would put him
14:41
Speaker 1: on that list. Sure, I think he makes sense. He's
14:43
Speaker 1: what thirty, he'll be thirty in it was his birthday.
14:48
Speaker 1: He'll be thirty in April, So yeah, makes sense that,
14:51
Speaker 1: you know, can you get him for a two or
14:53
Speaker 1: three year deal? Like what type of deals did catchers
14:55
Speaker 1: that aren't stars take? Now? Two year deals? Mostly right?
14:59
Speaker 1: Most of them don't get like four or five year
15:00
Speaker 1: deals unless you're JP Real, Muto or even I guess Wilson, Wilson,
15:05
Speaker 1: And Wilson's a bat right like Wilson, he's he's an
15:09
Speaker 1: impactful bat. Uh. And we don't even rehash Wilson.
15:16
Speaker 2: I just think it's gonna be. It's like, I'm curious
15:18
Speaker 2: to see what the reaction will be to your piece.
15:21
Speaker 2: And just this idea as it kind of sinks into uh,
15:24
Speaker 2: kind of the cups dialogue of is that really what
15:28
Speaker 2: they're gonna hang their hat on? This idea of not
15:31
Speaker 2: being bottom five at any position is not exactly like
15:36
Speaker 2: makes you want to run through a brick wall or
15:38
Speaker 2: sign up for season tickets, but like there's certainly a
15:42
Speaker 2: lot of logic to it, and this has been a layered,
15:45
Speaker 2: multi year process, Like it's still you know, do you
15:50
Speaker 2: then like go bigger in the rotation? Maybe not like
15:53
Speaker 2: the absolute biggest name on the market, but you know,
15:56
Speaker 2: the main interesting names just below that. I think we
16:00
Speaker 2: both agree Ja's not going to suddenly start handing out
16:03
Speaker 2: three year deals to no name relievers. That's just not
16:07
Speaker 2: dial So you kind of gotta go. You gotta exhaust
16:13
Speaker 2: every possibility. And who knows, like Angels had so much turnover,
16:17
Speaker 2: Like isn't their GM in like the last year of
16:21
Speaker 2: his deal, like not saying he's about to get fired?
16:23
Speaker 2: But I mean you never know at that place, right,
16:27
Speaker 2: and someone else could walk in and be like, why
16:30
Speaker 2: are we holding onto this guy when we can get
16:32
Speaker 2: a haul, Like, I think that's right. There's a lot
16:34
Speaker 2: of things that can shake out between now and November,
16:37
Speaker 2: and that will probably give us some more clarity as well.
16:40
Speaker 1: Yes, I think that's absolutely a factor what's going on
16:43
Speaker 1: with the Angels. So you never know what's going on
16:45
Speaker 1: with the Angels. It's a ownership is odd there, and
16:51
Speaker 1: you just don't know if if they're going to have
16:54
Speaker 1: the same front office or if the front office is
16:56
Speaker 1: kind of being forced to shift gears. Dude, does Jed
17:00
Speaker 1: make it interesting enough and essentially overpay in prospect capital,
17:05
Speaker 1: I'd be surprised by that, Like I think he it's
17:08
Speaker 1: I think I mean, think about like fifteen and sixteen.
17:12
Speaker 1: They they loved having that like that chunk of Triple
17:18
Speaker 1: A guys right, Like they were able like once every
17:21
Speaker 1: couple of months, they were able to call up and
17:23
Speaker 1: impact talent. And and you know, like I the guys
17:29
Speaker 1: that they've had on the bench or that they've had
17:31
Speaker 1: to call up to to kind of make spot starts
17:34
Speaker 1: for two weeks, they're perfectly fine, right, but they're not
17:37
Speaker 1: they're not great players or they're not high end talents.
17:42
Speaker 1: So and sometimes you don't need that. Sometimes you just
17:45
Speaker 1: need a quality bench player. But you know, if if
17:49
Speaker 1: Esak Paraitis gets banged up or Nico Horner gets banged up,
17:52
Speaker 1: calling upon Matt Shaw instead of Miles Master Bony is
17:54
Speaker 1: going to be a big thing for them next year.
17:57
Speaker 1: You know, Like if any outfielder gets hurt and they
17:59
Speaker 1: can call Kevin Contra or Owen casey up. You know
18:02
Speaker 1: if they need a bat, they just need some lefty slugging.
18:05
Speaker 1: They're like, you know what, we need a spark. Owen
18:06
Speaker 1: Case is right there, right, He's gonna be on the
18:08
Speaker 1: forty man, Like I'll Contra in Case. He will be
18:11
Speaker 1: on the forty man unless something weird happens. The other
18:14
Speaker 1: guys won't be to start the season, but that doesn't
18:17
Speaker 1: mean they won't be by May or June or July.
18:20
Speaker 1: So yeah, I don't I don't think it's a I
18:23
Speaker 1: don't think it's like, I'm curious to see how aggressive
18:27
Speaker 1: Jed will be. I know he was very aggressive at
18:29
Speaker 1: the deadline. How much is he willing to give up?
18:32
Speaker 1: Does it matter? Does it resonate with the Angels or
18:35
Speaker 1: is there some other team that he has to go
18:36
Speaker 1: in a different direction? There are different ways they can
18:39
Speaker 1: figure this out. I think the White Sox play a
18:42
Speaker 1: factor here. They have arguably the best trade chip in baseball.
18:46
Speaker 1: So the problem when we're going to talk about like
18:49
Speaker 1: we keep talking about this, but it's really hard to
18:52
Speaker 1: pry catchers away unless you have this impact talent. That's
18:56
Speaker 1: something that someone said to me. They're like the Cups.
18:59
Speaker 1: When when the person that told me the Cubs don't
19:00
Speaker 1: have what it takes to entice them, they what they
19:02
Speaker 1: said was like, you need major league impact talent to
19:05
Speaker 1: do that. Like, are they going to trade Justin Steele?
19:08
Speaker 1: You're Logan hoppy. No, they're not going to do that, right,
19:12
Speaker 1: But but are the could the could the White Sox
19:15
Speaker 1: trade Gary Crochet and convince the Dodgers to include Dalton
19:19
Speaker 1: Rushing And then if they have Dalton Rushing and Edgar Carrow,
19:24
Speaker 1: do Chris Getz and Jed Hoyer start talking? Because yes,
19:28
Speaker 1: is it is it tough to pull off a Cub
19:29
Speaker 1: Socks trade? Yeah, but we know it's not impossible. Also,
19:33
Speaker 1: there's like Chris Getz just needs good players. He needs
19:36
Speaker 1: good position players. The Cubs have a lot of good
19:39
Speaker 1: position players they do in the minors, like they have
19:42
Speaker 1: like five or six six top one hundred position players arguably,
19:48
Speaker 1: so you know, maybe maybe it's not six anymore with
19:51
Speaker 1: PCA up whatever, It doesn't matter the uh, the reality
19:56
Speaker 1: is that they have they have talent. I think that
19:58
Speaker 1: would be I think the White Sox kind of a
20:00
Speaker 1: wild card here, because when you have that guy in Crochet,
20:03
Speaker 1: that's how you go and get the catching prospect. But
20:05
Speaker 1: they have a catching prospect, right, so if they can't
20:09
Speaker 1: so if they so, if they get a catching prospect,
20:12
Speaker 1: now they have two, and then they can go fill
20:15
Speaker 1: center field or second base or whatever it may be
20:18
Speaker 1: by flipping that guy. Right, It would take creativity. Again,
20:22
Speaker 1: it threading the needle. But I think it's going to
20:26
Speaker 1: take some of that to make this happen ultimately. I
20:29
Speaker 1: think I think if we were betting on this, I
20:32
Speaker 1: think it's it's what you and I what you were
20:35
Speaker 1: just talking about. It's that it's that Danny Jansen, Carson
20:40
Speaker 1: Kelly or that guy. And again, if you're not twenty ninth,
20:43
Speaker 1: if you're fifteenth in catcher production, suddenly it just feels
20:47
Speaker 1: different and it looks better. I agree with you, fans
20:50
Speaker 1: should have a star to root for clubs haven't shown
20:53
Speaker 1: us that they're going to do that. So I'm gonna
20:55
Speaker 1: I like, like I've said, until I see it, I
20:58
Speaker 1: won't believe it, you know, Like I've said it for
21:02
Speaker 1: a while, like I think they should go get a star.
21:04
Speaker 1: Until I see it, you know, I'm just going to
21:06
Speaker 1: write what I what I can report, and what I know, Like,
21:11
Speaker 1: I don't think that's the direction they'll go. They could
21:14
Speaker 1: prove me wrong. They did. I guess they half heartedly
21:16
Speaker 1: pursued show hey, and we didn't expect that. They didn't
21:19
Speaker 1: come away with them. So again whatever that means.
21:24
Speaker 2: Dark Horse mystery team. Yeah, no, I think I think
21:32
Speaker 2: it'll be really fascinating to you. Addressed this earlier last
21:36
Speaker 2: week as well, of how much money do they have
21:41
Speaker 2: to play with, Like is Bellinger back is nearest back,
21:45
Speaker 2: Like all of a sudden, if those guys are back
21:49
Speaker 2: out on the market, that's a lot of money kind
21:51
Speaker 2: of coming back into baseball operations. Also some needs that
21:56
Speaker 2: they'll have to fill as well, and so I do.
22:02
Speaker 2: If I was jed, I would try to move as
22:05
Speaker 2: many of these hard throwing reliever types or swingman types
22:09
Speaker 2: as you can, Like I would not be I think
22:12
Speaker 2: Hunter Biggie maybe awesome for a stretch with Tampa, but
22:15
Speaker 2: I after seeing so many Cubs injuries, after seeing so
22:20
Speaker 2: many pitching injury injuries within the baseball industry as a whole,
22:25
Speaker 2: I kind of go back to Theo's thought process when
22:29
Speaker 2: he first got here of drafting hitters. There was a
22:33
Speaker 2: little more stability there, and some of that was kind
22:35
Speaker 2: of rewriting history after the fact. But I do think, like,
22:40
Speaker 2: you know, if you're kind of hanging your hats on
22:43
Speaker 2: a lot of like twelfth round picks who throw super
22:48
Speaker 2: hard and have no like kind of prospect a degree
22:52
Speaker 2: to him like, I'm not not really feeling that I
22:55
Speaker 2: would try to like move some of that for some
22:59
Speaker 2: major league help. And I think, well, this is something
23:02
Speaker 2: that will be a recurring theme throughout the off season
23:04
Speaker 2: of like maybe's time for Jed to be a little
23:07
Speaker 2: more selffish or think more in terms of like now
23:13
Speaker 2: and self preservation. I know he would never put it
23:16
Speaker 2: this way. I think he very admirably has kind of
23:19
Speaker 2: worn it when ownership at payroll when he had to,
23:24
Speaker 2: when he let Schouburg go for nothing, which was clearly
23:27
Speaker 2: a financial decision that you darvish trade letting those twenty
23:34
Speaker 2: sixteen guys go. I mean, obviously Jed's pretty convicted, decisive person,
23:41
Speaker 2: but like, I wouldn't be worrying so much about like
23:45
Speaker 2: the twenty thirty one Cubs or like, you know, if
23:49
Speaker 2: some guy now at Tennessee might be awesome, you know,
23:54
Speaker 2: six seven years from now, Like it's it's been a
23:58
Speaker 2: long time, and the fact that you know, we are
24:03
Speaker 2: trying to talk ourselves into whether or not we should
24:06
Speaker 2: be covering these games as like playoff chase types, like
24:11
Speaker 2: it's I don't know it's gonna be, especially if they
24:14
Speaker 2: wind up again with like eighty three wins just outside
24:18
Speaker 2: the playoffs. Like this is. I love your piece. I
24:22
Speaker 2: think it's a great guide post for the offseason. I'm
24:25
Speaker 2: very curious to see how it plays.
24:31
Speaker 1: Yeah no, I yeah, fans want a superstar and I
24:34
Speaker 1: get it. I also think, like you should, if you're
24:39
Speaker 1: a Cubs fan, you should be excited that they are
24:43
Speaker 1: trying to upgrade this significantly, and that would problem. Yes, yeah, yeah,
24:50
Speaker 1: they're trying to upgrade that position significantly. It Can they
24:53
Speaker 1: pull it off is going to be the question, and
24:56
Speaker 1: I think it's probably what we focus on come the end.
24:59
Speaker 1: Of the season and whenever it ends, that's probably what
25:02
Speaker 1: you and I will be jumping on and trying to
25:04
Speaker 1: figure out. Uh. I think it's it's gonna be hugely important.
25:09
Speaker 1: I agree with a lot of what you said, but
25:10
Speaker 1: I think like they need they need depth in the bullpen,
25:12
Speaker 1: they need depth in the rotation, they need you know,
25:15
Speaker 1: depth in general. Right, But but Catcher just feels like
25:19
Speaker 1: it seems like it's going to be the focus. Uh.
25:22
Speaker 1: And and I think we will. We'll cover it a
25:24
Speaker 1: lot more in November. Uh, probably October two because but yeah,
25:33
Speaker 1: so we'll be back at this early in the week Patrick,
25:37
Speaker 1: You'll be in Cleveland. The Cubs will try and like
25:41
Speaker 1: you said, keep us writing about the games. Uh. We
25:43
Speaker 1: we had two weeks where it was like, oh, man,
25:45
Speaker 1: I guess it's a big picture from here on forward.
25:48
Speaker 1: So I actually wrote about a game this weekend. We'll
25:52
Speaker 1: see if if if you can do that in Cleveland
25:55
Speaker 1: or if it shifts back to big picture. Cleveland isn't
25:58
Speaker 1: playing so hot right now. They do have one of
26:02
Speaker 1: the best bullpens in the game, so it's gonna be
26:04
Speaker 1: tough to score off off them once the starter's out
26:08
Speaker 1: because their rotation is kind of weak right now, but
26:10
Speaker 1: we'll see how the Cubs do. It's an easy schedule
26:13
Speaker 1: the rest of the way or the rest of August.
26:15
Speaker 1: If they're going to get back into it. This is
26:17
Speaker 1: this is the time to become relevant and make this interesting.
26:22
Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review to North Side Territory.
26:26
Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe to The Athletic. We appreciate all
26:29
Speaker 1: of you listening, all of you reading it brings us
26:32
Speaker 1: so much joy. Thanks so much, and take care well.
26:37
Speaker 1: Thanks thanks for being back. Patrick, It's good to have
26:40
Speaker 1: you back. Take care of what