Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / With offense/defense clicking, Cubs have everything except their bullpen in order for playoffs

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With offense/defense clicking, Cubs have everything except their bullpen in order for playoffs · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Filed Territory Network's Cubs podcast. I'm
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner, Patrick Mooney. We are your
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at The Athletic. And Patrick, the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Cubs take two of three from Atlanta. Their playoff hopes
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: are pretty safe right now. No panic as of yet
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: for right now as far as making the playoffs. And,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: you know, those odds are pretty damn high, 99% and above.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Not that that eases the tension for the stressed out fans,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: but yeah, it's looking good.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: And I think.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: We can all say right now that along with that
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: feeling safe, Pete Crow Armstrong winning MVP is feeling safe.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine how you can vote for Shohei Otani
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: right now. He put on another show. It feels like
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I'm saying that Pete Crow Armstrong puts on a show
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: at Wrigley Field I've said that multiple times, this homestand,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I think. And it's just a great, just another great performance.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: You were there last night. Tell us how it felt.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, we've gotten used to it, I guess, but
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: it still is kind of amazing. And what he did
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: with the, like, two different types of pitches, like, completely
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: opposite ends of the spectrum.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Like, he's just proving to be so talented. like just
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: the generational talent right now.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: The moment I liked was he struck out at the
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: end of this awesome night and he was visibly pissed off.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: And they had like a six run lead. His base
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: is loaded in the eighth. Like he had already, you know,
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: eclipsed Billy Williams franchise record for home runs by a
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: left-handed hitter in a single season. He also tripled through,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: through a walk in there. as well and I thought
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: it just showed how dialed in he's been almost every
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: pitch for months now and just how how he is
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: not satisfied at all with the season I was joking
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: with a colleague this happened in Baltimore in July I
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: think he became you know he reached 2020 and that
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: was like a cool marker that I believe put him
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: in a Ryan Sandberg Sammy Sosa category of doing it
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: for multiples or back-to-back, whatever it was, all these crazy
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: PCA stats kind of blend together. But he said something like,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: I'm going to leave the ballpark tonight and go back
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: to the hotel. I'm going to be thinking about that strikeout.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: He said something like that. And he was not chapped
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: by the time we got into the clubhouse, but I
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: just thought it was revealing and shows how motivated he is,
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: just how dialed in he's been. And, you know, I
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: have no idea where the Cubs would be this season
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: without Pete, but they should have the best player on
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: the field for every postseason game they play. And that
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: postseason berth is looking pretty close to a lock. I
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: think if we had recorded late Tuesday night versus Thursday morning,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: the tone would be different, but that's just how big
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: these games are there's the scoreboard component uh of watching.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: These games yeah we'll get we'll get to that bullpen
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: soon uh and maybe that's why pete's frustrated when he
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: strikes out because this offense needs to know they can't
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: they can't let up they just need to blow teams
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: out or put as many runs as possible out there
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: so a year or so ago a year and a
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: half ago i think i was saying um look, if
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Pete hits, uh, you know, if he's an league average hitter, he's,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: he's a really good player. If he's a one 20
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: way to runs creative, plus he's an MVP candidate. He's
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: at one 59. He's not like he's like, so he
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: could be significantly worse on offense and would say, Hey, he's,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: he's competing for the MVP. He is one of the
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: best offensive players in baseball. Uh, that's how good he is. Um,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: this is the best offense in baseball. You got, look,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: we can, we'll get to the bullpen and Jed Hoyer
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: and the front office. They haven't built a good bullpen
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: this year. It's, it's hard to, it's, it can be
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: a frustrating thing. They built a hell of an offense.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Alex Bregman has proven to be exactly.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: What they wanted, if not more.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: His defense is awesome this season and, and he is,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: He is clicking at the right time offensively. They have
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: two of the best players right now, position players in
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: baseball when it comes to Pete and the way Bregman
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: is playing right now. There's no easy out, really, in
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the offense. Craig Council can play matchups. We know how
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: good the defense is. That was obvious to start the season.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: It was obvious last season. So this is an obvious strength,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: and this offense has become– a powerhouse, and just, like,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's any doubt how good they are.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Offense can be fickle. Offense can be weird in the
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: postseason when you're facing the best of the best pitching. But, like,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I think this offense can carry them to special places.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Next segment, we'll talk about the weakness, but I think
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: you look at so much of this team, and you're like, wow,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: they've built a really strong team here, defensively, offensively.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: I was chatting with a Cubs person the other day
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: in the clubhouse, and this individual mentioned how Bregman has
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: been a big presence for Crow Armstrong's development, that Pete
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: gets all the credit. A lot of people have helped him, though,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: along the way, and Pete always gives those guys shout-outs.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: And with Bregman, I think you're seeing how much of
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: a difference maker he is compared to remember this time
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: last year, it was Ken Kyle Tucker, get it going again. And,
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: you know, is he, he went off to Tampa or
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: wherever to work on, uh, you know, work with his,
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: his cat. Um, well, I was trying to remember what the,
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: to get, to get right. And it was like, Oh, like, well,
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: he drew a walk. Is he kind of getting back
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: into it? It's like, I mean, Bregman has been locked
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: in here, uh, for months, you know, credit to his, Relentlessness,
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: his obsession with his craft, and there's kind of a
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: funny moment. Bregman is really available. He's very pleasant to
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: talk to. He's obviously an intelligent player, but there are
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: times where when the camera's on, he's sort of like rote.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: He answers all the questions in kind of a monotone,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: and he thinks about it, but he kind of works
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: within certain parameters, and then kind of as it was
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: wrapping up, Carl Armstrong walks by towards his locker and
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Bregman said something like, Pete's on cycle watch as soon
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: as he wakes up in the morning. And, you know, Bregman,
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: we were on cycle watch for Bregman, you know, kind
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: of getting that story ready just in case he fell
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: a single shy of that. But I mean, if there
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: wasn't this PCA MVP campaign, we'd be talking about Bregman
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: a whole lot more.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: It, I mean, this is why I think it's always
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: important to be patient with, with players, especially established players.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I think even you and I both got a little like, okay,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: this has gone on a little too long. Maybe this
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: isn't going to be, you know, you can't, it's hard
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: to say a signing is a bust in the first year.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: It was like, okay, maybe he'll step up in the
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: final months and be okay and help them in the playoffs.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: And that's kind of how it looked.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: And this is just a remarkable turnaround to the point
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: where you're a top 10 player by war in all
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: of baseball. Just really impressed with this offense. You know,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: we talk a lot about offense and how it goes
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: up and down.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: We've talked about it a lot over the past three,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: four years.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: They've had solid offenses, really good offenses, but they disappear
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: for long chunks.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: So this offense did disappear for like a month, you know,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: and I think I think that just goes.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: To show that that's how it is. Every team, every
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: good offense is going to go away for a little bit.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: It just happens. It's really hard to have six straight months,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: seven straight months of awesome offense. But you hope this.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Team can kind of ride this wave of offense and
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: go deep.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: I think that's what fans are hoping for.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Fans are hoping to not see anyone step out of
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: that bullpen, I think. So let's take a quick break
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and talk about what we're seeing there.
• 9:14
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• 9:17
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• 9:20
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• 9:22
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• 9:25
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• 9:27
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• 9:29
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• 9:32
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• 9:33
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• 9:35
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• 9:37
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• 9:40
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• 9:44
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• 9:45
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• 9:49
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• 9:51
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• 9:53
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• 9:56
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• 10:00
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• 10:07
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• 10:13
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• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Patrick.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: The bullpen, it's just no matter who steps out there,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I don't think anyone feels comfortable. I got to give
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Ryan Rolison some props.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: He's been really solid all year.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Uh, and he, he was a little shaky at the
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: end there and put some men on, but you know,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: it's a blowout. I think Zephyr John is looking a
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: lot better. I know he gave up that double that
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: led to some runs scoring for, for that went on Rolison's, uh, ledger.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: But I think those two guys are, you feel kind
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: of a lot better about them than you had before.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Palencia has taken a step. You only got one out.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Uh, what was that Thursday had a dominant outing before that,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: that was probably his best outing, uh, since he's been back. Um, so,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: so there's some semblance of hope there. Jacob Webb is,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: is not right. There's something wrong. Uh, the stuff is there.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: It's a execution and possibly confidence. Um, since that blown
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: save that walk off by Randy or Rosarena, it has
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: just been a house of horrors for him. Um, you
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: feel bad cause you know how great he was for months, uh,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: how hard he works. He seems like he's, you know,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: like a workhorse. He was not expected to be this
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: big of a, you know, to have such an important role.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: That's why I kind of liked him in that seventh
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: inning role, which is where he was when he cost
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the Cubs a game on Wednesday, right?
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Wednesday night.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Um, and like we, I didn't even bring up, we've
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: gotten more news since then. No, Shelby Miller's not an
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: option this season. He's been shut down, not because of
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a setback or anything. It's just, he pitched a lot
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: already that it would, it was expecting a lot for
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: him to come help this team. I don't know if
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: there's reinforcements beyond that. I thought Edward Cabrera looked pretty
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: good until he didn't. And maybe that just goes to show,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: like use them for one plus no more than that.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I, I think it's not good if
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: you're still talking about, like, what are the answers? Who
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: can we go to? How do things... How does this
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: kind of stabilize when there's, what, 11 games, 10 games left?
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: That's not... Maybe less than that. Nine games?
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: I think we got nine.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, nine.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: So that's not... Like, it's just not good. You can't
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: feel confident about it. I'm not saying it won't work.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Playoffs get weird. You can use players differently and everything changes.
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: But.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: They can't feel good about things right now.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: No, and I guess the one way to look at
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: it would be just how the playoffs are a different
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: game when you're not in conservation mode as much. We'll
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: get into Shodim and Og in the next segment, but
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: getting more out of the starting pitchers would be helpful. Um,
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: obviously council is not going to like push his starters
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: to 110 pitches in the playoffs, but if you could
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: just kind of have your starters manage the game better,
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: work a little deeper, uh, simplify some of those decisions, um,
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: that would, uh, certainly help things. Uh, I'm curious to
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: see if, you know, a David Peterson, um, who, who,
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: and I guess the other starter who does not make, uh,
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: a best of three rotation, um, how they're utilized. Um,
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: it's not like you sort of have like, Oh, you
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: haven't enrolled as Chapman. Like, Oh yeah, now we can
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: just sort of unleash him. Like, I don't think we really,
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: you have anyone who you feel great about like four
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: or five out saves. And, I'm with you with Edward Cabrera.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: This is an interesting idea. I don't think he's going
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: to be Roki Suzuki, but that was kind of a
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: way to make him feel better about this opportunity and
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: maybe look at it a little differently. I don't see
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: a playoff game in which the Cubs ask him to
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: cover parts of three different innings. He was one pitch
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: away from a really nice outing, but this is also
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: a bottom line business and the playoff within the playoffs,
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: the margin for error is just so small. You have
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: to be locked in, but he, you know, if they're
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: able to clinch a spot and, you know, we'll see
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: about the home field advantage. If there's a way to
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: sort of just get some of these guys going, that's
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: what this final stretch will be about. And I think
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: with Palencia, it's like you've seen him, kind of flipped
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: the switch before. As recently as last September into the playoffs,
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: coming off the injured list, he looked so good in
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: the World Baseball Classic, closing it out for Venezuela against
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: Team USA. I mean, getting Otani out in some big moments.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: I think you feel... relatively speaking, I think you probably
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: feel pretty good about Palencia. And then just with Webb,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: you know, I think he was riding that, that scoreless
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: streak and looks so good. And I think part of
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: it was aggression. I think part of it, you know,
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: might may have dented his confidence a little bit too.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: It's not like, I don't think it's as, uh, I
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: don't think there are like no answers right now. It
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: felt like that when Palencia was a mess. Um, And
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: you just didn't know where to go because Zephyr John
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: hasn't been as dominant as he, you know, looked with
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the Angels, which, you know, like we've had people bring
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: up to us like, how much high leverage has this
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: guy pitched before?
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: And it's not much.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: And now he's finally in a playoff race and pitching
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: in Chicago. And I don't know how much of that
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: is what's going on with him. I just think he's
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: a young, volatile reliever who has nasty stuff that is
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: still fully trying to, like, get super confident out there.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: I think in the long run, it could be a
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: really interesting look. This is, I'm not going to derail this, uh, this, uh,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: conversation right now, but, uh, the Cubs have gotten a
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: headstart on their 2027 bullpen.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Uh, if there's a season, if we're.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Playing baseball because they have Zephyr, John Shelby Miller and
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Daniel Palencia, Hey, there's a start there for once.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: We start playing in the parade.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Right. Uh, They got ahead of the game for once
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: and aren't going to have to completely rebuild the bullpen.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's going to ease any fans'
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: tensions right now, though.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: So, we'll see.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I do agree. I think there's something to be
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: said for... Let's see how the starters do, how deep
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: they can go, what starters get moved into that. And
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: I kind of want to see more of Edward Cabrera
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: in just like a short burst.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: I thought he looked... I was... I was interested in that.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: I was like, Oh, okay. This doesn't look like a
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: complete mess.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: I was a little worried that it was going to
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: be like, he's like, I don't, he's really frustrating to
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: watch as a starter.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: He was this season.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: It reminded me of you Darvish when he was first signed,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: really frustrating, nibbling a lot nasty stuff, but it just
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: was like, Oh my God, these games are going to
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: be four hours because he's nibbling and and it's either walk,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: home run, or strikeout.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Tyler Chatwood was the extreme end of that.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: But we watched some rough baseball that 2018, the start
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: of 2018, I believe, season.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: No, 19 was it? Whatever. I'm losing track.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: I think that was the year they somehow won 95 games,
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: even though so much of their pitching moves sort of
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: blew up on them. I think there are some parallels
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: to this year, too, of just kind of the resourcefulness of,
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: figure things out on the fly and being aggressive at
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: the trade deadline.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: So Cabrera had been frustrating for me to like, I
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: just remember being like, Oh man, here we go again.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: A walk along at bat. They can't finish a guy off.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Just reminded me of like Darvish who wasn't right that
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: season fully. And obviously had a great rest of his
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: career with the Cubs.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about Shota Imanaga and what his role may be.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Let's take a quick break first.
• 19:00
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• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Patrick should have a Naga has gone six innings in
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: each of his last three starts, uh, allowed two or
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: fewer runs. Uh, this last one against Atlanta, eight strikeouts,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: I think no walks.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Um, correct. Yeah.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, that that's, uh, one of his best starts
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: this season, I would say, if not his best start, uh, he's,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: he's clicking at the right time. Uh, I, you know,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: a few starts ago, I was ready to say like,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: you can't start this guy and, and, I think I did. Basically,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: it wasn't really considering him as a part of the
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: rotation for the postseason and wondering what his role exactly
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: would be.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: I think Craig.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Council felt strongly that fans and media were overreacting to
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: his performance, his home run issues, acting poorly. like as
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: if ignoring the good and just we were focused too
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: much on the negative and the poor performance of late.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: Maybe he was right.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: It seems like Shota Imanaga has got his confidence back
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: and he's getting the results.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: No doubt. I think part of it is like Shota
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: has these great starts, but Pete seems to do something
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: ridiculous almost every night and that it gets over shadowed, um,
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: you know, looking at, you know, the, the run he's
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: been on, you know, I was there in Seattle and
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: that was rough when they, uh, you know, they pulled
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: them after I think two plus, and then he had
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: a rough outing and, you know, there are those starts
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: where the ball's just flying at Wrigley. I mean, we
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: can do a whole nother weather episode, uh, at some
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: point of just how Wrigley has played, uh, differently this year. Um,
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: but you got to give, show to credit, like that
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: Atlanta lineup is legit. I mean, they are, um, a
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: serious world series contender. I mean, I think that's kind
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: of been the case for almost every year that we've
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: been following baseball, but going back to like our childhood,
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: it's kind of amazing when you look at what the
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: Braves have done. And I mean, he absolutely, uh, handled them, uh,
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: Wednesday night and again I don't see him pitching into
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: the seventh inning in a playoff game but if you're
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: gonna have to win four playoff rounds to win a
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: World Series you certainly want Shota on that roster maybe
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: in the rotation I don't know is he is he
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: that game two starter I don't know I guess we'll
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: have to see kind of what the matchup is and
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: you know how they evaluate that but definitely back in
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: the circle of trust. And, you know, I kind of
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: go back and forth on this too. It's like, yes,
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: we overreact a bit, but the Cubs told us what
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: they thought of Shota last year when they didn't pitch
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: him in that elimination game. And then when they declined
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: that three-year option to lock him up. So they certainly
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: had reservations. And it's just, Shota arrived in Chicago under
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: kind of unusual circumstances, like this deal sort of fell
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: to the Cubs, and then they did the whole back
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: and forth in which he accepted the qualifying officer subsequent
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: to that. And on both counts, the Cubs are really
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: fortunate it's worked out in this way. I mean, you
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: look at this kind of mini era of Cubs baseball,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: Shota's been a huge part of kind of restoring the
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: competitive standards around here.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: I'm just like quickly looking at how the two teams,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: the Cubs are likely to face either the Padres or
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: the Phillies in that first round. The Phillies, like I
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: was thinking the Phillies would struggle like because their two
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: best players are lefties. They're actually slightly better offensively over
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: the course of the season versus lefties. That I'm not
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: sure what that really means. I didn't break it down
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: by month. I know Bryce Harper has been really hot lately.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: So if you're, talking about Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Maybe the focus is just neutralize those guys as best
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: you can for as many innings as you can. So
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: maybe Shota Managa makes sense in one of those first
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: two games against the Phillies. Padres struggle more against lefties
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: than righties. Again, that's over the course of a full season.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at these guys are going to break it
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: down much more granular than that and make their decisions.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: But like I said, this was not something I felt
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: was a discussion at Uh, he, it felt like, okay,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: you know, there was a one, two, three, maybe he
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: was three B. Uh, now it feels like you, you
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: got to put them in there. Um, yeah, I mean,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: it's Clay Holmes feels like the number one. Uh, I
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: still trust Gaussman in.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: A big game.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Um, and then, and then you kind of go from
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: there and show to, it's kind of like show diverse Boyd.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Like I, You know, I think I'd trust Boyd too,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: although he has looked shaky at times. But I feel
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: like he's someone that I can trust to step up
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: in the postseason. It's nice that they have options here.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: They're not like a dominant Jacob Mizorowski or, you know,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I guess Christopher Sanchez is even having some hiccups for
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: the Phillies lately. Zach Wheeler, I haven't paid attention enough
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: to Zach Wheeler. And Jesus Lizardo's out right now. It's
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: going to be an interesting playoff situation. I don't know
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: how these guys are going to perform.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: I really don't.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: But I feel like they have some nice veterans that
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: don't shy away from the moment. So that could work
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: out in their favor. Like we said, bullpen is just
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: going to be... I'm curious to see how creative Craig
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Council gets in the postseason because I don't think he's
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: just going to go cookie cutter because I don't think
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: he can. It didn't work out that way. There's no... So,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: so there's, so he's going to have to be creative
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: to make it work.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: We'll see where that ends up. Uh, we got one
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: more episode this week, right? Yeah. One more episode for,
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: of Northside territory this week. We'll be back.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Uh, the Cubs are heading to Cincinnati. Patrick is heading
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: to Cincinnati as well.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: And then what is it?
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Three against Miami. And then we wrap it up in Boston.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: So nine, yeah, nine games left. Uh, Feeling safe about
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: the playoffs. We'll see where they are with that number
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: one seed and how we're feeling. I think it's just
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: going to be bullpen updates. How are you feeling about
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: the bullpen every game? It's just like vibe check here.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: We'll see where that goes.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, everyone. This is Northside Territory. Make sure
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: to rate, review, subscribe. Subscribe to the YouTube channel and
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: subscribe to The Athletic. We're Patrick and I are on
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: top of all things Cubs. Thanks for listening and watching, everyone.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Take care.