Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Kyle Tucker’s status and what we’ve learned about the Cubs

Transcript

Kyle Tucker’s status and what we’ve learned about the Cubs · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into North Side Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast.
0:09
Speaker 1: I'm Sahade Scharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are
0:12
Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. A
0:18
Speaker 1: nice weekend for the Cubs after a tough Friday. The
0:22
Speaker 1: offense finally showed up final game of the homestand it
0:26
Speaker 1: wasn't It wasn't a great offensive homestand but Wrigley is
0:29
Speaker 1: once again playing like twenty twenty four Wrigley. I would
0:35
Speaker 1: assume that's going to shift as we we we started
0:39
Speaker 1: June here, but you know, I assumed that last year.
0:42
Speaker 1: So I don't know what's going on. But the difference
0:46
Speaker 1: right now is the Cubs are winning these games more
0:48
Speaker 1: often than not. They're grinding out, they're beating bad teams.
0:52
Speaker 1: But yesterday they kind of Sunday they kind of avoided disaster,
0:57
Speaker 1: would you say with there was some there was some uh,
1:03
Speaker 1: scared Cubs fans and I'm sure scared executives when when yeah,
1:09
Speaker 1: the game in the fourth inning? Was it that after
1:12
Speaker 1: the fourth inning on Sunday's win.
1:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Kyle Tucker actually gets caught stealing for the
1:19
Speaker 2: first time this season in the in the first inning, Uh,
1:23
Speaker 2: sprains a finger and also his helmet pops off and
1:28
Speaker 2: flips over and he scrapes his face on the dirt
1:32
Speaker 2: has cut across the bridge of his nose. But yeah,
1:37
Speaker 2: by the fifth inning, all of a sudden, it's you know,
1:39
Speaker 2: this announcement of Vidal Bruhan has entered the game and
1:43
Speaker 2: right field it's like, oh, okay, it's like the Cubs
1:46
Speaker 2: have a lead, but it's still early. Uh, you know,
1:51
Speaker 2: and you're trying to win a series. It's not like
1:54
Speaker 2: garbage time where you can rest your starters. Uh, and
1:59
Speaker 2: you have the old armbells definitely went off, And yes,
2:02
Speaker 2: Craig Counsel was optimistic. Kyle Tucker, who I don't know,
2:09
Speaker 2: never has really shown any emotion in our limited interactions
2:13
Speaker 2: with him, did not seem all that concerned. X rays
2:18
Speaker 2: were negative.
2:19
Speaker 1: But.
2:21
Speaker 2: You know, with these injuries, it's gonna take a couple
2:24
Speaker 2: of days for the swelling to subside and for Tucker
2:27
Speaker 2: to kind of test the hand strength not just in
2:29
Speaker 2: gripping the bat but also throwing the ball from the outfield.
2:36
Speaker 2: It's kind of a you know, delicate area there when
2:39
Speaker 2: you when you're dealing with a star baseball player, So
2:45
Speaker 2: I think Cubs will see how he presents in DC.
2:48
Speaker 2: Monday's off day helps. But look, we know the Cubs
2:53
Speaker 2: are always deliberate with stuff like this. They're not gonna
2:57
Speaker 2: want to shut down and MVP type performer for ten
3:04
Speaker 2: days if they don't have to. So we're just gonna
3:11
Speaker 2: have to wait and see. So it's certainly not the
3:13
Speaker 2: worst case scenario, but not really great news either.
3:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Cubs, this kind of comes at a good
3:22
Speaker 1: time in the sense that it comes before an off day.
3:27
Speaker 1: That's that's probably the best thing you can say about that,
3:30
Speaker 1: I believe. Is it twenty three games in twenty four days?
3:34
Speaker 1: Do I have that right that they're about to embark
3:36
Speaker 1: on Yeah.
3:38
Speaker 2: I think it's also even like twenty six and twenty seven.
3:41
Speaker 3: Maybe I think that is six and twenty seven, because
3:44
Speaker 3: Council was asked about that Sunday pregame and acknowledge that,
3:50
Speaker 3: you know, they've really pushed their everyday players pretty hard
3:56
Speaker 3: thus far.
3:56
Speaker 2: Now the schedule has just kind of fallen that way,
4:00
Speaker 2: and that's kind of the nature of the group that
4:02
Speaker 2: they have. But yes, he's already looking for spots to
4:06
Speaker 2: rest some of the regulars. So you know, Tucker probably
4:11
Speaker 2: would have gotten a blow here at some point, But
4:15
Speaker 2: this is obviously not the circumstances that they were envisioned
4:19
Speaker 2: when they were, you know, formulating those plans.
4:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you don't you'd want to give him
4:25
Speaker 1: an off day in the middle of this, right? Well yeah, yeah,
4:31
Speaker 1: but at my you know, I guess we wouldn't be
4:34
Speaker 1: surprised and it wouldn't be a huge concern if he
4:40
Speaker 1: didn't play Tuesday. It could be I'm not saying it
4:44
Speaker 1: wouldn't be an issue or it's not a sign of
4:46
Speaker 1: bad things. I'm just saying it would make a lot
4:49
Speaker 1: of sense for them to give him that day as well.
4:53
Speaker 1: They did the same with Kindie and Half checking how
4:55
Speaker 1: long he needed to be out? Is this denial thing?
4:59
Speaker 1: Is this a Is this a quick couple of days?
5:01
Speaker 1: Can he can he get through this? Uh, we'll, we'll,
5:04
Speaker 1: We'll have more information on Tuesday. I'm sure as long
5:08
Speaker 1: as there's nothing deeper wrong with the finger, even if
5:11
Speaker 1: it's a minimum stint, you're avoiding. Disaster is what you
5:14
Speaker 1: want to avoid. You don't want him to miss months.
5:17
Speaker 1: Last year he had a mysterious what was it foot ankle.
5:22
Speaker 1: What Uh it was a shin. It was a shin.
5:27
Speaker 1: You're right, and it was. It took them forever to
5:31
Speaker 1: diagnose that. You don't want something like that where this
5:35
Speaker 1: is minor. He's gonna miss two games. Oh, it's lingering.
5:39
Speaker 1: We're gonna put him on an iyel stint. It'll be minimum. Uh. Oh,
5:44
Speaker 1: it's not healing the way we wanted to. You don't
5:48
Speaker 1: that's what you want to avoid. That's what you know.
5:51
Speaker 1: I I don't we have We have no indication that
5:54
Speaker 1: that is what will happen. It's just he's such a
5:58
Speaker 1: big deal, so important that you just don't want anything
6:05
Speaker 1: worse happening to a guy like him. You know, putting
6:09
Speaker 1: says Suzuki in right field is a great option to have,
6:12
Speaker 1: calling noises by a stereos up if that's what they
6:14
Speaker 1: do to be d H great option to have. You're
6:19
Speaker 1: still losing Kyle Tucker. So you just don't want him
6:23
Speaker 1: to be gone for any extended period of time because really,
6:27
Speaker 1: especially because this, like we just said, twenty six games
6:29
Speaker 1: in twenty seven days, you need your best players out there.
6:33
Speaker 1: They're going to need a rest during that time, but
6:35
Speaker 1: they also need to be out there as much as possible,
6:37
Speaker 1: and the schedule gets a little tougher.
6:40
Speaker 2: Yeah. Chandler Rome, our colleague at the Athletic and on
6:44
Speaker 2: the Foul Territory Network, just wrote about the Astros and
6:48
Speaker 2: mentioned Tucker's injury last year and that I think, you know,
6:53
Speaker 2: reading his story in his coverage overall, you get the
6:56
Speaker 2: sense that there are questions about how the Astros handle
7:01
Speaker 2: some of these medical situations. And I know Cubs fans,
7:04
Speaker 2: at least kind of going off social media always kind
7:07
Speaker 2: of roll their eyes with whatever the Cubs put out there. Yeah,
7:12
Speaker 2: I will say that during my time covering the team,
7:15
Speaker 2: I have not heard a lot of grumbling about the
7:18
Speaker 2: medical staff. You know, I think they're just generally conservative, cautious, deliberate, collaborative,
7:26
Speaker 2: whatever word you want to use, Like you don't want
7:30
Speaker 2: to rush into any decisions about Kyle Tucker. Clearly his
7:35
Speaker 2: season is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, you know,
7:40
Speaker 2: kind of what happens here. I think you watched this
7:43
Speaker 2: Cubs team play and you're like, all right, this is
7:45
Speaker 2: different than the past two years when they've gotten hot
7:49
Speaker 2: for you know, a month, six weeks and looked like
7:51
Speaker 2: a really good team. And then collapse. Like he is
7:55
Speaker 2: kind of the fail safe here. He is supposed to
7:57
Speaker 2: stop that from happening. So if you lose him, particularly
8:01
Speaker 2: like you said at the time, with the schedule, it's
8:05
Speaker 2: there aren't many easy spots between here and the All
8:08
Speaker 2: Star break, and they've built the cushion. They took care
8:11
Speaker 2: of business, they did what they had to do. But
8:15
Speaker 2: you know, if you remove Tucker for an extended period,
8:20
Speaker 2: the team just looks different. And now we're not saying
8:22
Speaker 2: that's going to happen, but with any of these medical situations,
8:26
Speaker 2: like how does it usually work? Like the player down
8:29
Speaker 2: plays it, almost always the team, understandably is never going
8:35
Speaker 2: to say this could be the worst case scenario, and
8:37
Speaker 2: oftentimes they just don't know. They just kind of have
8:40
Speaker 2: the initial preliminary sense of, Okay, this is what happening.
8:44
Speaker 2: Is happening. We present the information as best we can
8:50
Speaker 2: kind of what we know, and then it just takes time,
8:53
Speaker 2: you know, to see how this, how the swelling goes down,
8:57
Speaker 2: see how he feels then, and kind of, you know,
9:00
Speaker 2: I don't know if he'll be further testing or what,
9:03
Speaker 2: but he's going to have to test it himself, just
9:05
Speaker 2: like see how he feels and make a determination on
9:09
Speaker 2: whether or not he can play or when he can
9:11
Speaker 2: play again.
9:12
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, likely we'll get more information Tuesday, and maybe
9:16
Speaker 1: maybe not even the final information bit of information that
9:20
Speaker 1: we need. But let's look back on that good may
9:25
Speaker 1: that the Cubs had right after this break Patrick.
9:28
Speaker 4: If you're a card collector or you'd like to get
9:31
Speaker 4: into card collecting, may I suggest Arena Club and slab packs,
9:35
Speaker 4: which means that you can rip the packs digitally and
9:37
Speaker 4: of course get the card that you want. It's also
9:40
Speaker 4: the most trusted name in the game, and I would
9:43
Speaker 4: rather rip packs these days on my phone than sit
9:46
Speaker 4: next to you and have you grabbing one of my
9:49
Speaker 4: physical packs if I was grabbing one.
9:51
Speaker 5: Yeah, you don't need me grabbing your packs because last
9:54
Speaker 5: time you grabbed one it ended up like this card.
9:57
Speaker 5: So let's not have that. And that's why Arena Club
9:59
Speaker 5: is great. They send u to you in these fancy
10:02
Speaker 5: protectors like the Scout Brown cards that we have here,
10:05
Speaker 5: and they'll come safe. They're already graded poor. You could
10:08
Speaker 5: do like I do and just leave my cards in
10:09
Speaker 5: the showroom and never actually see them physically. Yeah, but
10:12
Speaker 5: they're safe, protected and if I want to sell them.
10:14
Speaker 1: I can't buy sell trade.
10:16
Speaker 4: They offer full transparency, showing every card in the slab
10:19
Speaker 4: pack with the likelihood of pulling each one, so you
10:21
Speaker 4: know exactly what's available before you buy. Get twenty percent
10:25
Speaker 4: off your first slab pack or card purchase by going
10:27
Speaker 4: to arenaclub dot com, slash foul and use code foul.
10:32
Speaker 1: Patrick May was a good month for the Cubs. I
10:35
Speaker 1: believe it was eighteen and nine, correct, and they just
10:40
Speaker 1: had an eighteen game stretch against pretty bad teams and
10:43
Speaker 1: went fourteen and four. I think I said with the
10:47
Speaker 1: with the National Series that's coming up, and they look
10:50
Speaker 1: like a pretty solid team. They have some good players offensively,
10:54
Speaker 1: they're not a they're not a pushover. I'll say that.
10:59
Speaker 1: We know you would have taken fourteen and seven, so
11:01
Speaker 1: they can get swept by the Nationals and you still
11:04
Speaker 1: you obviously don't feel good because of the order of
11:06
Speaker 1: thinking the way things went. But they're fifteen games over
11:09
Speaker 1: five hundred. They've taken care of business against the bad teams.
11:13
Speaker 1: They've been winning series. They they're not when they're not
11:18
Speaker 1: playing their best baseball or not clicking on all cylinders.
11:22
Speaker 1: They still are finding ways to win. That's the sign
11:25
Speaker 1: of a good team. That's what you cannot be playing
11:29
Speaker 1: elite baseball for one hundred and sixty two games. There
11:32
Speaker 1: were stretches this season where they've looked pretty great, and
11:36
Speaker 1: there are stretches where they've been winning, and I'm just like,
11:38
Speaker 1: they're fine. They look fine, but they're winning games and
11:41
Speaker 1: that's all that matters.
11:44
Speaker 2: No doubt. There's a lot to like. I think it's
11:48
Speaker 2: impressive doing it while Showda and Monaga missed almost the
11:52
Speaker 2: entire month, and that Justin Steele is already missing the
11:58
Speaker 2: rest of the season. Even something like Javier Asade we'll
12:03
Speaker 2: get to this in kind of the next segment, but
12:05
Speaker 2: he would have been a really nice piece to have
12:08
Speaker 2: right now. And you know, this division is not a pushover,
12:14
Speaker 2: Like it's not. It's not the best division in baseball.
12:18
Speaker 2: But when you look at the other teams, I don't
12:20
Speaker 2: know how much is sustainable with each individual club, but
12:25
Speaker 2: even the Pirates, they got some really good pitchers that
12:29
Speaker 2: if you get them on any given series it could
12:33
Speaker 2: be uncomfortable. And that the Cardinals, I don't know what's
12:38
Speaker 2: going on there, haven't seen them much, but like to
12:42
Speaker 2: not do really anything all off season and to be
12:45
Speaker 2: playing like this, yeah some of that old or the
12:48
Speaker 2: Cardinals Devil Magic, what's back? And yeah, the Brewers, you know,
12:55
Speaker 2: they always always seem to find a way, and even
12:58
Speaker 2: like the Reads have a lot of nice pieces, Like
13:01
Speaker 2: I would not write them off, like I don't think
13:04
Speaker 2: they're a team that's gonna win like multiple playoff rounds,
13:06
Speaker 2: but definitely kind of a tough out with with talent,
13:11
Speaker 2: with a Hall of Fame, a future Hall of Fame manager,
13:15
Speaker 2: and so you know, the Cubs had to bank wins
13:19
Speaker 2: during this time because you know, we saw it on Sunday,
13:23
Speaker 2: just like on any given pitch, on any given play,
13:28
Speaker 2: there could be just a season altering moment. You don't
13:31
Speaker 2: know who it's going to happen to, you don't know
13:32
Speaker 2: what it's going to be, or you know, kind of
13:34
Speaker 2: the full ramifications of it. But really it's crazy to
13:40
Speaker 2: think of kind of when you left Japan, you know,
13:42
Speaker 2: and the Cubs had lost their first two games of
13:45
Speaker 2: the season and did not look all that good to
13:49
Speaker 2: be at the beginning of the June. Beginning of June,
13:52
Speaker 2: the Cubs fifteen games over, did not see it happening
13:58
Speaker 2: like this fast.
14:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, you touched on a couple of things there, the
14:03
Speaker 1: resiliency to not really skip a beat losing you know,
14:08
Speaker 1: a first justin Steel for the season and then showed
14:11
Speaker 1: him and now I got for an extended period of time.
14:14
Speaker 1: Those are the types of injuries that sink seasons. And
14:19
Speaker 1: they've you know, it's not like they're starting pitching has
14:21
Speaker 1: been dominant. But this this week, this homestand the starting
14:26
Speaker 1: pitching was really good. The bullpen has turned around, and
14:30
Speaker 1: I was shocked by what I found. The other day.
14:33
Speaker 1: I was I was gonna write something else, but Craig
14:36
Speaker 1: Council talked a lot about the bullpen. I was like,
14:38
Speaker 1: there's enough that he said that I think that I
14:40
Speaker 1: think it's worth doing a review of the bullpen again.
14:44
Speaker 1: And then so I wanted to look at the numbers.
14:45
Speaker 1: I'm like, theyved pitching well. Number one ERA since April nineteen.
14:50
Speaker 1: I believe April eighteenth was that crazy game against the Diamondbacks,
14:56
Speaker 1: and then since then, since then, and that cludes I
15:01
Speaker 1: believe the e r A this was before yesterday's game
15:04
Speaker 1: was at two forty four e r A. And then
15:07
Speaker 1: that includes that Ryan Presley blow up, which was you know,
15:10
Speaker 1: no outs in eight runs. That's so they're really figured
15:16
Speaker 1: things out with that bullpen. You have to give them credit,
15:20
Speaker 1: you know. Craig Counsel was talking about the other day.
15:23
Speaker 1: I think it was one of your questions. Perhaps he
15:27
Speaker 1: talked about, you know, you get a lot of credit
15:29
Speaker 1: to the kind of the pitching infrastructure. They've done a
15:31
Speaker 1: good job. I don't know if if the Cubs get
15:36
Speaker 1: a lot of credit for that around the league, I
15:38
Speaker 1: don't believe. You know, they're they're well known for that,
15:41
Speaker 1: but there was a little gap there for a couple
15:43
Speaker 1: of years. But they do a good job of finding relievers.
15:47
Speaker 1: Brad Keller, Uh, the development of Palencia just there's a
15:52
Speaker 1: lot of little things that you have to like. And
15:54
Speaker 1: in May, if you want, when was was no he
15:57
Speaker 1: was he was sent down in April. Matt Trow was
15:59
Speaker 1: said down in April, but he comes back in May. Yes, yes,
16:03
Speaker 1: he's like a completely different player. There's we criticized the
16:07
Speaker 1: Cubs with the for different things, for different reasons. Things
16:10
Speaker 1: that they've done over the years. I feel like they've
16:13
Speaker 1: made some strides here in different ways. You see with
16:19
Speaker 1: last year Miguel Amayah making reil strides developmentally, Pete Crow,
16:23
Speaker 1: Armstrong making rail changes, making real strides, and now Matt
16:27
Speaker 1: Shaw like they were real changes. It's like this isn't
16:30
Speaker 1: just like go down and get hot. The specific things
16:34
Speaker 1: that this guy is working on comes back and those
16:38
Speaker 1: changes work. That is, to me is the sign of
16:41
Speaker 1: at least an improving organization. Something is going right. They're
16:44
Speaker 1: doing things well in some fashion. You have to give
16:48
Speaker 1: them some credit. There.
16:50
Speaker 2: We went more than sixteen minutes without mentioning Pete Crow Armstrong,
16:54
Speaker 2: which is amazing. But yeah, there's some like there is,
17:00
Speaker 2: I guess within any baseball season, just so much stuff
17:03
Speaker 2: happens all the time. You know, as Craig Counsel would say,
17:05
Speaker 2: there are just so many results thrown in your face
17:08
Speaker 2: and how you handle it, and like, yeah, this this month,
17:12
Speaker 2: you know, we could look back as kind of you know,
17:14
Speaker 2: the turning point for Peak or Armstrong. I guess it
17:17
Speaker 2: technically happened in you know, late April when they were
17:22
Speaker 2: mid to late April, when they were on the West coast.
17:25
Speaker 2: But you know, even within that road trip and I
17:28
Speaker 2: know we're going back to April here, but you had
17:30
Speaker 2: Peak or Armstrong hitting those two home runs at Dodger stadium,
17:34
Speaker 2: blowing a kiss to his parents behind home plate, digging
17:37
Speaker 2: his way out of that slump. They go to San Diego,
17:41
Speaker 2: Matt Shaw is sent out back to Iowa, and Cubs say,
17:49
Speaker 2: you know, we envisioned Mattshaw as our everyday third basement.
17:51
Speaker 2: He'll be back soon. That's that's usually what they say,
17:54
Speaker 2: unless a player does something so egregious that they're trying
17:57
Speaker 2: to said a message. Oh yeah, we expect Mattchaw. This
17:59
Speaker 2: will be good for HI, you know, and look at
18:01
Speaker 2: all these other players we sent out who had successful careers,
18:04
Speaker 2: but you never know. And to your point, which I
18:08
Speaker 2: think is spot on, that there are a lot of
18:11
Speaker 2: good things happening organizationally. That is, you know, decisions that
18:16
Speaker 2: were made a long time ago are kind of coming
18:20
Speaker 2: to fruition here. And that's why you see the energy
18:23
Speaker 2: restored at Wrigley Field, these these huge crowds, this sort
18:27
Speaker 2: of sense that the Cubs are not really out of
18:32
Speaker 2: any game, that the comebacks could strike the I mean,
18:37
Speaker 2: just saying two months of the season, how many sort
18:38
Speaker 2: of like instant classic games we've had or just like
18:42
Speaker 2: last minute rewrites we've had to do because of the
18:45
Speaker 2: team's resiliency that you mentioned.
18:48
Speaker 1: Patrick, There's one concern that I have for this team,
18:53
Speaker 1: and I think it's I think it kind of focuses
18:55
Speaker 1: everything that when it comes to July and the trade deadline,
18:59
Speaker 1: I think this is the focus. Let's talk about that.
19:03
Speaker 1: Right after a quick break.
19:04
Speaker 4: The weather is warming up, and with that being said,
19:07
Speaker 4: you need to check out what Rowback is bringing to
19:10
Speaker 4: the table. If you're a golfer especially and you're looking
19:12
Speaker 4: for golf shirts that just have the perfect style and
19:15
Speaker 4: also are soft. They're lightweight and perfect for the summertime,
19:19
Speaker 4: Rowback is the spot. Of course, FT's hooking you up
19:22
Speaker 4: with a code for twenty percent off at rowback dot com.
19:26
Speaker 4: That's f O U L on R H O B
19:28
Speaker 4: A c K dot com for twenty percent off all shorts, hoodies,
19:32
Speaker 4: polos and more.
19:36
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, that that one issue that I'm talking
19:41
Speaker 1: about is the starting rotation. I was thinking about this
19:45
Speaker 1: over the weekend and we've talked a lot about the bullpen,
19:48
Speaker 1: and you know every team gets bullpen arms. At the deadline,
19:52
Speaker 1: You're you're always looking for help, whether whatever it may be.
19:56
Speaker 1: I think I think a veteran at the back would
19:59
Speaker 1: be you swold for them, especially a bat misser. Although
20:02
Speaker 1: Brian Presley looked great on Sunday, no clue that is
20:06
Speaker 1: the Brian Presley we see see going forward. If it is,
20:09
Speaker 1: then this bullpen is really good. But I think it's
20:15
Speaker 1: number one with the bullet is starting rotation. You have
20:19
Speaker 1: to upgrade the starting rotation, whether it's getting a trusted
20:24
Speaker 1: number three, whether it's getting an ace, whatever it is.
20:29
Speaker 1: There there are little things that are happening that you know.
20:32
Speaker 1: I think it was we can talk about what happened
20:35
Speaker 1: with Ben Brown. I think when when we got that
20:38
Speaker 1: text early Friday morning, we usually get a heads up
20:43
Speaker 1: on the rotation. I was. I was a little surprised.
20:45
Speaker 1: I was like, how come we don't it so, yeah, yeah,
20:49
Speaker 1: we don't know who's starting today. Uh, And we got
20:52
Speaker 1: we got the rotation Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Saturday was TBD.
20:56
Speaker 1: That was Ben Brown spot and that was I mean,
21:00
Speaker 1: it made sense. He's really he'd really struggled two outings,
21:04
Speaker 1: just not giving his team a chance. I believe it
21:08
Speaker 1: was like out before the fourth inning ended in both
21:12
Speaker 1: in both games, and just not not acceptable type outings.
21:17
Speaker 1: And then he goes out there for an opener, Drew Promerence,
21:21
Speaker 1: you're just talking about the bullpen revelation for this team
21:25
Speaker 1: just unbelievably good. Uh goes the first inning and then
21:30
Speaker 1: Ben Brown looks dominant that that's the best I've seen
21:33
Speaker 1: Ben Brown. I believe it was nine strikeouts, one walk
21:36
Speaker 1: over six innings. You do that here, Yeah, then we're
21:41
Speaker 1: not We're not as concerned about the rotation if he's
21:44
Speaker 1: gonna do that regularly. But that was that was impressive.
21:48
Speaker 1: And it also I also just appreciate and fans say
21:53
Speaker 1: this a lot, and sometimes I like, just don't just
21:56
Speaker 1: try something different, just do something differently. Now, that doesn't
22:01
Speaker 1: mean get rid of Ben Brown. That doesn't mean you
22:04
Speaker 1: have to. Maybe it's changing up the routine. Maybe it's
22:07
Speaker 1: changing up the mindset because something wasn't working for him
22:10
Speaker 1: in the first inning and this this worked for him.
22:13
Speaker 1: I don't know if they do it for good. We
22:15
Speaker 1: got another TVD that's Colin ray Spot who's had two
22:18
Speaker 1: rough outings. That's that I think is a different scenario.
22:22
Speaker 1: It may not always make sense to go with the opener,
22:25
Speaker 1: but in this situation, it worked flawlessly. It was it
22:29
Speaker 1: looked like a stroke of genius. Rightly.
22:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think you know, Craig Counsel always looks
22:37
Speaker 2: at this stuff as as a puzzle, right of whether
22:39
Speaker 2: it's solving for wins or you know, the outgetter label
22:45
Speaker 2: he puts on all of those guys. How connected each
22:49
Speaker 2: part of the pitching staff is, h You're right at
22:54
Speaker 2: the moment, I think the Cubs do feel pretty good
22:56
Speaker 2: about their bullpen depth. You know, that doesn't mean they
22:59
Speaker 2: won't go out and and add and try to improve
23:02
Speaker 2: that area of the club. But you know, showed him
23:06
Speaker 2: anaga this week. It is he was scheduled to leave
23:10
Speaker 2: for Arizona on Sunday and then kind of begin the
23:14
Speaker 2: progression this week of a live VP, uh some sort
23:18
Speaker 2: of I don't know if it be a simulated game
23:21
Speaker 2: or what. I don't even know if they're playing in
23:23
Speaker 2: the in Arizona at this moment, but obviously they're gonna
23:26
Speaker 2: start okay. So he's gonna have multiple rehab outings and
23:32
Speaker 2: counsels that it doesn't really matter where as much as
23:35
Speaker 2: he just kind of gets that under his belt and
23:36
Speaker 2: you know, has enough days on the calendar to feel
23:40
Speaker 2: good enough that he is able to go out there
23:43
Speaker 2: and be himself. But you know, even if Shoda comes
23:48
Speaker 2: back later in June and everything's fine, there's a lot
23:53
Speaker 2: of question marks. And as good as Matthew Boyd has been,
23:55
Speaker 2: he has not had a full, healthy major league season
23:59
Speaker 2: since only nineteen. I think obviously there's gonna be some regression.
24:04
Speaker 2: With Colin Ray, he's been, he'd been really good. I
24:08
Speaker 2: think he'll still be a valuable piece of the team.
24:11
Speaker 2: It's just, you know, he was kind of lights out
24:14
Speaker 2: there for a while. Jameson Tyne, it's just kind of
24:20
Speaker 2: the guy that's taken for granted, just a absolute, you know,
24:23
Speaker 2: class act leader in the clubhouse. And I think he
24:29
Speaker 2: has maybe nine quality starts in twelve outings something like that,
24:34
Speaker 2: but has really been kind of an anchor for this group.
24:39
Speaker 2: I think we both really like Kate Horton's potential, and
24:42
Speaker 2: you know, he's really, you know, kind of essential piece
24:44
Speaker 2: to the club at the moment. But not a lot
24:47
Speaker 2: of experience there in professional or even college baseball. So
24:53
Speaker 2: you're you're not you're not quite sure. As much as
24:56
Speaker 2: we said there's no innings cap this year, there's also
25:00
Speaker 2: not really a lot of you know, not much of
25:02
Speaker 2: a template to know, like you know, how he should
25:05
Speaker 2: feel or how he's going to get through all this.
25:07
Speaker 2: So you know they're every contending team is always looking
25:13
Speaker 2: for more pitching. Jed Hoyer particular, is someone who obsesses
25:16
Speaker 2: about this stuff and is constantly worried about these issues.
25:21
Speaker 2: So you know they're going to go go get one starter.
25:26
Speaker 2: I think that's just like there's I don't think there's
25:28
Speaker 2: any way around that.
25:31
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, getting showed in Managa back is huge. Whenever
25:36
Speaker 1: he comes back that it's just they really need that
25:40
Speaker 1: his presence and you know, top tier type starting pitching,
25:46
Speaker 1: caliber pitcher. You mentioned jameson time a year ago. This
25:52
Speaker 1: time we were talking about it, if they're going to
25:54
Speaker 1: trade him. I'm just trying to imagine him not being
25:59
Speaker 1: on this team and how rough it would be. Yes,
26:02
Speaker 1: you'd you'd you'd have added probably one more starter then,
26:07
Speaker 1: but for the money he's making and what he's producing,
26:10
Speaker 1: like you'd have you'd have had, maybe they'd have had
26:12
Speaker 1: to be more aggressive in the trade market. I don't know.
26:15
Speaker 1: I don't know how the off season goes, but if
26:17
Speaker 1: you don't have Jamison ty Own, this is a mess
26:19
Speaker 1: right now, and it just goes to show that it's
26:23
Speaker 1: not a fungible spot. It is not easy. There there's
26:27
Speaker 1: a huge difference between picking up a non roster invite
26:32
Speaker 1: relievers and turning them into really quality relievers and doing
26:37
Speaker 1: that for a starter. It is just almost impossible to find.
26:40
Speaker 1: Starting hitching so hard. Uh, there's that all teams want
26:44
Speaker 1: to go in with like eight nine viable starters because
26:47
Speaker 1: they know they're going to need them. And that's what's
26:50
Speaker 1: kind of what's happened this year for the Cubs already.
26:52
Speaker 1: And we're just in the beginning of June. So when
26:56
Speaker 1: when you talk about trading veteran starters, guys that if
27:00
Speaker 1: you you know that are under contract, you have to
27:02
Speaker 1: really think about that. So, I mean, they got lucky
27:05
Speaker 1: that they didn't trade Janis and ty On because he's
27:09
Speaker 1: he is such a steady presence. He goes out there,
27:12
Speaker 1: gives them six seven innings regularly, quality starts. Uh. He's
27:17
Speaker 1: really been a stable presence and he and he's a
27:19
Speaker 1: good dude off the off the field for that team. Uh,
27:22
Speaker 1: he's a guys like Ben Brown lean on someone like
27:25
Speaker 1: that and and talk through things with him when they're
27:29
Speaker 1: when they're you know it. So there's a mental toll
27:32
Speaker 1: of the game. But and Brown talked a little bit
27:33
Speaker 1: about the mental skills side of it and and how
27:36
Speaker 1: he really worked on that, Uh, in between starts and
27:40
Speaker 1: trying to get his mind right. This isn't easy for
27:43
Speaker 1: these guys, and uh, it's important to have people like
27:46
Speaker 1: James and ty On on your team. Uh. But yeah,
27:49
Speaker 1: there's they're not done there. They have to I don't
27:54
Speaker 1: know if you're gonna find it, you know, in the
27:55
Speaker 1: next two weeks month. I don't know if you're going
27:59
Speaker 1: to find someone that's that that you'd want starting over
28:02
Speaker 1: Ben Brown or Kate Horton or Colin Ray. That's really
28:07
Speaker 1: hard to find. They do need to figure out a
28:10
Speaker 1: way to get more depth. Jordan Wicks just went down
28:13
Speaker 1: with I believe a hamstring. I don't know what they're
28:18
Speaker 1: starting pitching depth is right now. It's very thin, so
28:21
Speaker 1: that is a concern. You just want depth now, just
28:24
Speaker 1: to feel a little bit safe that if something happens,
28:27
Speaker 1: and then beyond that you're going to need They're going
28:30
Speaker 1: to have to be aggressive. I can't imagine that Jed
28:32
Speaker 1: Hoyer isn't very like maybe the most aggressive we've seen
28:36
Speaker 1: him be at a deadline. Him in charge because I mean,
28:40
Speaker 1: there haven't been many buying opportunities for him. Obviously twenty
28:45
Speaker 1: one is probably the most aggressive he's been as far
28:47
Speaker 1: as selling. But this is he's going to have. Like
28:52
Speaker 1: there's I don't think either of us have any doubt
28:54
Speaker 1: in our mind that this is going to be the
28:56
Speaker 1: focus for them and that it will get done. It's
28:59
Speaker 1: just a level of starting pitching that they get and
29:02
Speaker 1: how what type of like how big? Like how big
29:04
Speaker 1: is he going to go? Is he going to give
29:06
Speaker 1: up a ton of prospects to get someone that kind
29:09
Speaker 1: of changes things for their for this year? And when
29:12
Speaker 1: you consider, you know, to bring this full circle hole
29:15
Speaker 1: Tucker is a pre agent at the end of the year.
29:17
Speaker 1: You want to maximize this team. This offense is too
29:20
Speaker 1: good to not to not want to maximize it. It's
29:23
Speaker 1: a really talented, complete offense. Uh, go get that starting pitching.
29:27
Speaker 1: That's that's That's just how I feel like. I don't
29:30
Speaker 1: think there's it needs to be thought about too much
29:33
Speaker 1: or you don't want to overthink this, no doubt.
29:36
Speaker 2: I think you're watching to see which clubs fall out
29:39
Speaker 2: of and you can look at the AL East either
29:45
Speaker 2: the NL West, Like uh, I think we can safely
29:49
Speaker 2: x out the NL Central and the White Sox. And
29:54
Speaker 2: I don't know the Rockies have any starting pitchers. Uh,
29:57
Speaker 2: you know, obviously the Marlins, our team that the Cubs
30:01
Speaker 2: have had a ongoing dialogue with for a while. At
30:05
Speaker 2: the moment, you know, I'm told the Cubs aren't monitoring
30:08
Speaker 2: these minor league pitchers who have opt out clauses. In June,
30:15
Speaker 2: something could pop there. In terms of the bullpen, you know,
30:19
Speaker 2: Jorge Lopez was defaded by the Nationals. He's a guy
30:23
Speaker 2: who came to the Cubs last year and had a
30:25
Speaker 2: really nice run. The assumption is he will clear waivers.
30:30
Speaker 2: He's not a guy that the Cubs would hand a
30:34
Speaker 2: major league deal in the spot in the bullpen. That's
30:36
Speaker 2: how good they feel about their depth at Triple A Iowa.
30:39
Speaker 2: But those are the types of interim moves you can
30:43
Speaker 2: make before the sellers and buyers and opportunistic movers are
30:50
Speaker 2: fully defined. I mean, there's still we're gonna be talking
30:53
Speaker 2: of this for a while. There's still almost two full
30:55
Speaker 2: months until the final buzzer is going to sound, So
30:59
Speaker 2: a lot of teams will shake out one way or
31:02
Speaker 2: the other. But you know, until then, they're going to
31:05
Speaker 2: keep you know, making the the Chris Flex and Drew
31:10
Speaker 2: Pomeranz types moves to just get the club a little
31:13
Speaker 2: better and you know, buy a couple of smaller insurance policies.
31:20
Speaker 1: Patrick gets it. It's going to be a tough week,
31:23
Speaker 1: tough road trip for this team. They're going to start
31:26
Speaker 1: three in DC and then it just gets harder from
31:29
Speaker 1: there Detroit than Philly. This will not be an easy trip.
31:33
Speaker 1: We'll see how they come through it. We'll have two
31:35
Speaker 1: more episodes this week and be back at it next
31:37
Speaker 1: week as well when they're in Philly. Thanks so much
31:40
Speaker 1: for listening to everyone. This is Northside Territory. Make sure
31:42
Speaker 1: to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and
31:45
Speaker 1: subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick Canay are on top
31:48
Speaker 1: of all things Cubs. Thanks everyone, Dy