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The Cubs should be putting out a much better product · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: And he fell off a cliff, and if they hoped
0:02
Speaker 1: that it would happen, it wouldn't happen this year. But
0:04
Speaker 1: it's happened, and now it's it's a major issue. Welcome
0:13
Speaker 1: into North Side Territory, your Cubs podcast with the Foel
0:17
Speaker 1: Territory Network. I'm Sahadev Sharma with my co host Patrick Mooney,
0:21
Speaker 1: where the Cubs beat writers at the Athletic. Thank you
0:24
Speaker 1: for listening, Patrick. Cubs finally got a win against the
0:29
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Reds after a really rough weekend in Cincinnati. Just
0:34
Speaker 1: I mean, that was they needed to come away with that.
0:37
Speaker 1: But it's not even one of those wins where you
0:39
Speaker 1: can like feel like I'm not sure how many fans
0:41
Speaker 1: feel good. You know, when you like lose two of
0:44
Speaker 1: three and you win the last one, sometimes fans fans
0:47
Speaker 1: feel kind of good.
0:48
Speaker 2: This was losers of three of four.
0:50
Speaker 1: I highly doubt anyone's celebrating any Cubs fans are celebrating
0:54
Speaker 1: after that victory.
0:55
Speaker 2: But I'm gonna start with the positive.
0:57
Speaker 1: There's there's a big positive here because after two rough starts,
1:01
Speaker 1: showed him Managa looked really good on Sunday. And that's
1:06
Speaker 1: that says something because The Reds have been red hot
1:10
Speaker 1: offensively since about like the middle of May, if not
1:14
Speaker 1: a little before that. They're the second best offense by
1:17
Speaker 1: certain metrics in baseball. Uh, just playing good baseball offensively.
1:23
Speaker 2: Uh. And Shoda looked.
1:24
Speaker 1: Good, he he Uh, you know, he got the flyouts,
1:28
Speaker 1: he kept them off balanced. They never really mounted a
1:31
Speaker 1: threat until the seventh inning. Uh.
1:34
Speaker 2: And and he.
1:35
Speaker 1: He was able to wriggle out of that jam with
1:37
Speaker 1: help from his defense and Mark Leider finishing off the
1:41
Speaker 1: finishing off inning. But that's they needed that. They needed
1:44
Speaker 1: that win. They needed that performance from Shoda and uh
1:48
Speaker 1: and that's, you know, a nice way to end what
1:52
Speaker 1: was a dreadful week that frankly, they were lucky to
1:55
Speaker 1: get the three wins that they did.
1:58
Speaker 3: I mean, as great as Shoda has been, he has
2:03
Speaker 3: not been able to cover up everything else. I Mean,
2:06
Speaker 3: I'm not a big math guy, but I think they're
2:10
Speaker 3: ten and two in Shoda games and twenty two and
2:13
Speaker 3: thirty two when he does not pitch, I mean ten
2:17
Speaker 3: games under five hundred and it's still like early mid June. Like,
2:24
Speaker 3: I mean, this guy's come up huge. I think we
2:27
Speaker 3: both circled this start as a hitters, ballpark, ad day
2:30
Speaker 3: to hit, you know, interesting offense, a team that likes
2:35
Speaker 3: to run wild, and for Shoda to do that today,
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Speaker 3: I think just reinforces that. You know, this is a
2:42
Speaker 3: guy who could start an All Star Game, a guy
2:45
Speaker 3: who will get cy Young votes. And I don't know
2:47
Speaker 3: if he pitches, like at a decent level the rest
2:50
Speaker 3: of the way, like someone who might be in an
2:52
Speaker 3: MVP conversation, if the rest of the team can kind
2:55
Speaker 3: of catch up to where he's been. You know, the
3:01
Speaker 3: idea that struck me this weekend was just like, shouldn't
3:07
Speaker 3: the Cubs be better by now? Like at this point
3:10
Speaker 3: in a rebuild, a retool, whatever you want to call it, Like,
3:17
Speaker 3: you know, playing poorly in the division. You know, I
3:21
Speaker 3: think it's like eight or nine under thus far against
3:24
Speaker 3: divisional opponents. Something like that, you know, bringing up a
3:31
Speaker 3: David Body like years after he was kind of sent
3:34
Speaker 3: to Iowa in exile, Like, shouldn't Christopher Morel have a
3:37
Speaker 3: position by now? It seems like we've gone through this
3:41
Speaker 3: with say Azuki, says Azuki for a while. Now. Obviously
3:44
Speaker 3: he's hitting well at this moment, but like, is he
3:47
Speaker 3: really going to sustain it? And have that All Star
3:49
Speaker 3: MVY caliber year that the Cubs think he has within him.
3:55
Speaker 3: And I think it's just, you know, a lot of
3:58
Speaker 3: the thoughts around the Cubs, even the optimistic ones, are
4:02
Speaker 3: not exactly affirmative, right. It's like, well, it's a long
4:05
Speaker 3: season and they play in a you know, weak division,
4:09
Speaker 3: and you know, eventually these make belief stats should turn around,
4:13
Speaker 3: you know, that's what they're you know, the numbers are
4:15
Speaker 3: telling us like it just has not been a good
4:20
Speaker 3: product or very entertaining product recently. And I think, you know,
4:26
Speaker 3: for as much as Craig Council on the front end
4:28
Speaker 3: kind of buffered the Cubs when those injuries happened, like
4:32
Speaker 3: it's showing a lot of other issues now when you
4:35
Speaker 3: change the manager, and like that kind of speaks to
4:39
Speaker 3: just overall player development, scouting and systems in baseball operations
4:44
Speaker 3: and where's the LA day of the cruise O. The
4:46
Speaker 3: Paul scheme's coming to, you know, ride to the rescue here,
4:50
Speaker 3: and it it just kind of reinforces I think a
4:53
Speaker 3: lot of the questions we had going into this year,
4:55
Speaker 3: and that essentially Shoda is doing what Marcus Stroman did
5:00
Speaker 3: in the first half of last year. More or less.
5:02
Speaker 3: I mean, hopefully show to stays healthy and we'll probably
5:05
Speaker 3: give you more consistent performance the rest of the way.
5:10
Speaker 3: And it's not as bad. They're not ten games under
5:13
Speaker 3: the way they were right around this time last year.
5:16
Speaker 3: But man, it's been Uh. I didn't think these conversations
5:20
Speaker 3: will be happening so quickly this year, particularly after a
5:23
Speaker 3: strong April. Yeah.
5:25
Speaker 1: No, I mean you're absolutely right about like difficulty of
5:29
Speaker 1: watching this team, the sloppiness. There are times when I mean,
5:34
Speaker 1: they lost a bunch of close games recently.
5:36
Speaker 2: Right, It's not like they're getting their butts kicked.
5:38
Speaker 1: Regularly, right, but the way they lose is just like
5:44
Speaker 1: it just leaves you shaking your head and like some
5:46
Speaker 1: of these things are just unacceptable things happening.
5:48
Speaker 2: Like justin Steel pitched so well on Friday.
5:53
Speaker 1: You have to win that game when your pitcher plays
5:55
Speaker 1: like that, and the way they lost, the reason they
5:58
Speaker 1: lost it, like a strike strike three that should have
6:01
Speaker 1: been stopped by Miguel Amayah, that has to be stopped.
6:04
Speaker 1: Ellie data Cruz was picked off Listen. Michael Bush has
6:06
Speaker 1: looked a lot better at the plate. He's looked a
6:08
Speaker 1: lot better defensively in my opinion, he made a bad
6:11
Speaker 1: throw against a guy that you know you have to
6:14
Speaker 1: kind of almost rush the throw, but you also have
6:16
Speaker 1: to be perfect with that throw when Ellie Dylan Cruz
6:19
Speaker 1: is running. So I mean, you can't make these types
6:21
Speaker 1: of mistakes. The Maya one is just unacceptable in my opinion.
6:26
Speaker 1: The way the catchers have played, I saw some signs
6:30
Speaker 1: of life offensively this week. Wasn't just not just the
6:33
Speaker 1: hits that they got, but they at bats in general
6:37
Speaker 1: finally felt like they've they looked like they weren't just
6:41
Speaker 1: giving away at bats. Jan Gomes had a few at
6:45
Speaker 1: bats there was like, oh, okay, signs of life here.
6:48
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel as empty of an at bat anymore.
6:52
Speaker 1: But that still just feels like this is inevitable. You
6:56
Speaker 1: have to upgrade at catcher. It just feels like that
7:00
Speaker 1: has to happen, has to happen. I wrote about it
7:04
Speaker 1: last week and the response was like, yes, but they
7:08
Speaker 1: can't wait until the deadline. That's what a lot of
7:11
Speaker 1: a lot of people are saying. And I understand that reaction.
7:14
Speaker 1: When you watch what you're watching like it's bad offensively
7:17
Speaker 1: and defensively, what are you supposed to do? How are
7:20
Speaker 1: you supposed to watch that, watch that, watch that I'm
7:24
Speaker 1: saying watch for some reason. Uh, But what what I like?
7:29
Speaker 1: There's catcher is a hard position to fill.
7:32
Speaker 3: Right yeah, particularly mid season.
7:34
Speaker 2: Right yeah.
7:35
Speaker 1: And I don't know if there was like this fit
7:38
Speaker 1: in free agency. H fans are obviously going to go
7:41
Speaker 1: back to Wilson Contreras. Listen that we've talked about that
7:44
Speaker 1: at nauseum, Like there's there's a reason they moved on
7:47
Speaker 1: from him. He is an offensive force, but he's not here,
7:51
Speaker 1: and they just that wasn't an option in their minds
7:53
Speaker 1: outside of a you know, one year deal. It just
7:57
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna happen. And that wasn't something Wilson was going
7:59
Speaker 1: to take here a one year deal. So it's important
8:02
Speaker 1: to move on from Wilson Contreras. But how do you
8:07
Speaker 1: like why didn't they address it better? Because it's really
8:10
Speaker 1: hard to address You need to either develop a guy,
8:13
Speaker 1: or you need to nail a trade or or find
8:15
Speaker 1: the right veteran. Jan Gomes was that veteran, and then
8:18
Speaker 1: he fell off a cliff, and he fell off a cliff,
8:20
Speaker 1: and they hoped that it would happen.
8:22
Speaker 2: It wouldn't happen.
8:23
Speaker 1: This year, but it's happened and now it's it's a
8:26
Speaker 1: major issue costing them games. Council said something to the
8:31
Speaker 1: effect of, you can't have you can't have like a
8:34
Speaker 1: basically basically like a dead spot in the lineup like that.
8:38
Speaker 1: It makes it really hard to sustain rallies when you
8:40
Speaker 1: have it. Like the offense has to improve. He's you know,
8:44
Speaker 1: he wasn't as critical as the defense. On the defense,
8:47
Speaker 1: I feel like the defense is glaringly bad with them
8:50
Speaker 1: right now. At the other they need to do other
8:53
Speaker 1: things to control the running game, but you can't let
8:54
Speaker 1: that many balls get by you. It just can't happen
8:58
Speaker 1: in critical situations with men on bay trying to end
9:01
Speaker 1: innings for your for your pitcher. Ultimately, like what you said,
9:06
Speaker 1: you know, this should have been further along. Is that
9:08
Speaker 1: an indictment on Jed Hoyer. Yeah, I think you can
9:11
Speaker 1: make make those claims now. But it's June, so he's
9:15
Speaker 1: not gonna be Yeah, he's not gonna be fired mid season, right.
9:18
Speaker 1: I think fans are like, he's done. We could be
9:20
Speaker 1: talking like the Reds just the Cubs just snapped a
9:24
Speaker 1: seven game winning serie for the Reds. If the Cubs
9:27
Speaker 1: do that, they'll be four games over five hundred because
9:31
Speaker 1: counting today's win, if they were a rattle off another
9:33
Speaker 1: six wins, you know, it's it's I'm not saying they're
9:37
Speaker 1: gonna do that.
9:38
Speaker 2: I don't get the feeling that will the.
9:40
Speaker 3: Problem though, Like they haven't won consecutive series in like
9:43
Speaker 3: two months, right, so it's like, you know, our good
9:45
Speaker 3: friend Anny McCullough, I think on the Athletic has said, like,
9:49
Speaker 3: you just kind of need and even Jet Hoyer said it,
9:51
Speaker 3: you need like a baseline competency of winning more games
9:55
Speaker 3: than you lose. Like that's kind of a you know,
9:57
Speaker 3: first criteria of like taking a teams seriously. And I
10:01
Speaker 3: think to your defensive point in Sunday's game, I mean,
10:04
Speaker 3: obviously Ian Happ makes a great throw to get a
10:07
Speaker 3: guy at second base and help out his pitcher, and
10:09
Speaker 3: Dansby Swanson made a lot of really nice plays that
10:14
Speaker 3: just like add up over the course of games, and
10:16
Speaker 3: the Cubs have not done that consistently enough. That's kind
10:20
Speaker 3: of what they were built around. And even the one
10:24
Speaker 3: game in the series they win, you know, they jump
10:26
Speaker 3: out to a four to nothing lead and it still
10:28
Speaker 3: is tight all the way till the end and they're
10:32
Speaker 3: you know, using lighter junior and there so obviously there's
10:34
Speaker 3: a day off tomorrow whatever. It's not like that big
10:37
Speaker 3: a deal, but just not having any sort of ability
10:41
Speaker 3: to like get separation and you know kind of if
10:46
Speaker 3: this was the beginning of a series of like okay,
10:48
Speaker 3: like your starter get pitches into seventh inning and is awesome,
10:52
Speaker 3: and then you can just kind of like get through
10:54
Speaker 3: those two games, then you know, next two innings and
10:57
Speaker 3: then you can really kind of go for the throat
11:00
Speaker 3: in the next two games. And like it just hasn't
11:02
Speaker 3: been It's just been a kind of a slog really
11:06
Speaker 3: for you know, weeks, if not months.
11:09
Speaker 1: I think the broadcast said something about like they had
11:11
Speaker 1: and they when they had that four nothing lead, Yeah, yeah,
11:15
Speaker 1: what were they saying? They hadn't had a lead like
11:17
Speaker 1: that in like over a week.
11:19
Speaker 3: I think they said, like May twenty eighth, that caught
11:22
Speaker 3: my year as well. It was like a lead of
11:25
Speaker 3: that magnitude and it was like four nothing. Yeah, I thought,
11:31
Speaker 3: at least and Beth Moens and JD did a nice job.
11:33
Speaker 3: I had that on as well today and it did
11:37
Speaker 3: it did jump out at me. Because it does feel
11:39
Speaker 3: like every game we're covering, it's kind of like almost
11:44
Speaker 3: a jump ball until till the end, and finally you think,
11:49
Speaker 3: look it's it's getaway day. I think the Reds have
11:52
Speaker 3: a day off tomorrow. They've won first three games of
11:55
Speaker 3: the series. If you're up for nothing, just like put
11:58
Speaker 3: the team away and the Cubs did not, And that
12:04
Speaker 3: to me is just one of those other things that
12:09
Speaker 3: I know internally has to be frustrating.
12:13
Speaker 1: All Right, So you're talking about putting teams away. Past
12:17
Speaker 1: two days, twenty one hits, one two, eight of them
12:21
Speaker 1: extra base hits. Right, So that's solid. You'd think you'd
12:27
Speaker 1: score more than seven runs, right, You'd think those are
12:31
Speaker 1: like pretty good offensive performances combined three for twenty nine
12:37
Speaker 1: with runners in scoring position, three for twenty nine over
12:41
Speaker 1: two games. They had twenty nine opportunities and got three hits.
12:46
Speaker 1: And that is if you feel like the Cubs offense
12:49
Speaker 1: is doing nothing lately, that's not fully true. They are
12:55
Speaker 1: playing much better than they had over the past, Like
12:59
Speaker 1: since Game two of Milwaukee series the Dolphins is much better.
13:03
Speaker 1: It's much better than it had been for about a month.
13:06
Speaker 1: It was a month. But what's happening. What hasn't changed,
13:10
Speaker 1: Like they're hitting, but what hasn't changed is they cannot
13:13
Speaker 1: hit with runners in scoring position. There's been some moments
13:16
Speaker 1: of bad luck, probably like three or four hits where
13:19
Speaker 1: you could say, like I mean three or four you know,
13:21
Speaker 1: balls and play that you could have said like, ah,
13:23
Speaker 1: that falls it everything like that's the exhale moment. And
13:26
Speaker 1: they got a little bit of that in the first
13:28
Speaker 1: inning today with Hap, Like they needed that to happen, right,
13:32
Speaker 1: They needed that exhale moment where finally something fell. But
13:36
Speaker 1: it's not just that, right, Like you can't just point
13:39
Speaker 1: to bad luck. But there's a little bit of the
13:43
Speaker 1: when you see them start to hit that I think
13:46
Speaker 1: is a little bit of when you're watching like the nerds,
13:50
Speaker 1: if you want to go to the nerds and the
13:51
Speaker 1: numbers people, like they're saying that in all likelihood and
13:57
Speaker 1: Council said this, we're going to hit with unners in
14:00
Speaker 1: scoring position. It will come right and and it just
14:03
Speaker 1: hasn't happened much since a hot start, like a probably
14:07
Speaker 1: over their head start with runners in scoring position, but
14:11
Speaker 1: you just need like it just has not happened at all,
14:13
Speaker 1: and now they're starting to hit, but not still not
14:16
Speaker 1: with runners in scoring position. It's abysmal and it's killing
14:19
Speaker 1: them along with all the other things we're saying. Right,
14:22
Speaker 1: if you can turn this one thing around, if the
14:24
Speaker 1: offense gets going, then you know what you address, right,
14:27
Speaker 1: you know what, like you need to tighten up the defense,
14:30
Speaker 1: get help in the bullpen, things like that. But you
14:33
Speaker 1: it almost becomes pointless if the things that you thought
14:35
Speaker 1: were good aren't good.
14:37
Speaker 2: Right, And and we're.
14:38
Speaker 1: At a and we've talked about it enough that the
14:39
Speaker 1: offense has just not been good. Uh So, like they
14:43
Speaker 1: need to fully turn this corner. You're seeing signs of it.
14:46
Speaker 1: But like at least Nancy Swanson's hitting again, right, Like
14:49
Speaker 1: Michael Bush has put up some good numbers, Say Suzuki
14:53
Speaker 1: after today's game, after Sunday's game is at a one
14:56
Speaker 1: twenty one, twenty seven way to run scrade a plus,
14:59
Speaker 1: which would be a career high. So like he's starting
15:02
Speaker 1: to come around. Dodged, you know, dodged a major injury
15:05
Speaker 1: there with him just a whatever. It was probably like
15:08
Speaker 1: a contusion or sore after getting hit by a stray baseball.
15:13
Speaker 1: We'll see what's going on with Nico. But yeah, this like,
15:18
Speaker 1: it's that's I don't know if that's a positive. If
15:22
Speaker 1: you want to take it as a positive, you can.
15:24
Speaker 1: If you want to take it as a negative, I
15:25
Speaker 1: understand too. I'm of the I always believe that uh,
15:29
Speaker 1: hitting with runners in scoring position vacillates and isn't like
15:33
Speaker 1: a like it's really hard to to consistently be really
15:37
Speaker 1: bad or really good depending on what your offensive numbers are.
15:40
Speaker 1: I just don't know anymore if I trust if this
15:43
Speaker 1: offense can be good in general.
15:46
Speaker 3: So that's what I was going to ask you, But
15:47
Speaker 3: this is we're recording on June ninth's to trade deadlines
15:51
Speaker 3: July thirtieth, Like, what's it going to take to like
15:55
Speaker 3: really convince you, Like if you're you know, sitting there
16:00
Speaker 3: in the conference room with Jed, like, oh, we got
16:03
Speaker 3: it figured out now after you know what will have
16:06
Speaker 3: been an easy stretch in June and that you've seen,
16:12
Speaker 3: I feel like you've seen a lot of this group
16:15
Speaker 3: by this point and seeing how it totally collapsed last September.
16:19
Speaker 3: I think I mentioned this earlier on a separate episode
16:22
Speaker 3: of Like, you know we were there last year, you
16:24
Speaker 3: know we learned a lot from that. We came out
16:26
Speaker 3: better from that. It's like, no, it collapsed at the end.
16:29
Speaker 3: Like there's not a whole lot to draw from last
16:32
Speaker 3: year other than yeah, look, it's a long season. You
16:35
Speaker 3: just got to keep playing. And I understand that, but
16:37
Speaker 3: like this is still the group that just had an
16:41
Speaker 3: epic fail at the end of last year, and so
16:45
Speaker 3: it's not like you can think like, oh, well, the
16:51
Speaker 3: Cubs will just be healthy too write like like something
16:53
Speaker 3: else is gonna happen. I think, you know Nico's hand fracture, Like,
16:58
Speaker 3: is this be another like hamstring tightness thing where it's
17:01
Speaker 3: like asking about it every single day and it's like, oh,
17:04
Speaker 3: I think it's getting close. We're going to see and
17:06
Speaker 3: then all of a sudden, you know, they go, uh, well,
17:10
Speaker 3: was it like six games playing shorthanded? Well, Nigo was
17:13
Speaker 3: dealing with the hamstring titaness, Like I think that to
17:17
Speaker 3: me was another thing of just kind of an eye
17:19
Speaker 3: roll moment of like I feel like we've seen this
17:22
Speaker 3: movie before, you know, like like you know, say is oblique,
17:28
Speaker 3: but it's not an oblique And then you know Nico
17:30
Speaker 3: has little something should be good to go once things subside,
17:34
Speaker 3: but we're not quite there yet. And we'll think about
17:36
Speaker 3: the ten dayil it's just like figure it out. And
17:40
Speaker 3: to me, we talked about this earlier. This is a
17:44
Speaker 3: team not meant were built to sell. So that means
17:48
Speaker 3: you add. And I think the fact that these questions
17:53
Speaker 3: are being asked of like what is the direction here?
17:55
Speaker 3: What are the cubs? What do they want to be?
17:57
Speaker 3: Means you go big no matter what. And now big
18:01
Speaker 3: could mean to me like several moves. And you know,
18:06
Speaker 3: but whether it's a guy like Peter Alonzo of a
18:12
Speaker 3: catcher who raises that area another reliever to give counsel,
18:17
Speaker 3: like you know, kind of reshaping the bottom of your roster,
18:23
Speaker 3: maybe that's some guys internally who forced the issue or
18:27
Speaker 3: like nice role players like that to me wouldn't cost
18:32
Speaker 3: that much in the grand scheme of things, and it
18:35
Speaker 3: would not probably behoove them, you know, so high on
18:39
Speaker 3: some low a guys that you know, prospect nerds were
18:42
Speaker 3: talking about and like where are all these guys gonna play?
18:46
Speaker 2: Like?
18:46
Speaker 3: And that I think is part of it too, is
18:48
Speaker 3: if cups feel a little a little bit stuck, you know,
18:53
Speaker 3: like of just this what we've talked about before, of
18:56
Speaker 3: like they're not that star anchoring everything, and so you
18:59
Speaker 3: have these good two way players who like, no one's
19:05
Speaker 3: really carrying you through these stretches.
19:07
Speaker 1: Here, And I think, what if say the next few
19:11
Speaker 1: weeks go well, right, the offense turned and they start
19:15
Speaker 1: winning some games, and like you see, like some.
19:17
Speaker 2: Of the issues are still there, but they're.
19:19
Speaker 1: Winning enough, and they get to a few games over
19:22
Speaker 1: five hundred whatever it is, you know, but they look better.
19:27
Speaker 1: I think what you said there about like them talking
19:30
Speaker 1: in the office, what they need to do, what they
19:32
Speaker 1: need to accept is this is okay, we're we're getting better,
19:36
Speaker 1: We're we're winning games. Right if this happens over the
19:39
Speaker 1: next three weeks, and they need to find a way
19:42
Speaker 1: to get a star back, like they need to be
19:45
Speaker 1: aggressive with it. Whether that's I mean right now Toronto
19:50
Speaker 1: and everybody's talking about Toronto and Vlad Junior, right people
19:53
Speaker 1: are talking about People would talk about Alex Bregman, who's
19:57
Speaker 1: a free agent at the end of the year. Pete
19:59
Speaker 1: Alonzo also agent at the end of the year. I
20:01
Speaker 1: would say Houston and Toronto aren't really in full cell mode.
20:06
Speaker 2: They'd have to.
20:06
Speaker 1: Really fall off a cliff to go into cell mode.
20:10
Speaker 1: And that's different story. They're they're almost certainly already read
20:14
Speaker 1: like thinking about who they're trading and what they can get.
20:18
Speaker 1: But Toronto really has to Like, if you're a Cubs fan,
20:21
Speaker 1: you probably want to see Toronto collapse. I don't think
20:24
Speaker 1: Cubs fans are talking about Blad Junior and guess what,
20:27
Speaker 1: Toronto's two games under five hundred the Cups.
20:30
Speaker 3: So maybe every team does that fans, but like, yeah,
20:35
Speaker 3: like one players out there's like that's our guy. You know,
20:38
Speaker 3: there aren't you know, maybe a dozen other teams seriously
20:41
Speaker 3: in on that and you know, weighing the exact same scenario.
20:45
Speaker 3: And obviously there are certain teams that really make internet
20:48
Speaker 3: names pop on the online differently.
20:52
Speaker 1: You're right, right, right, and like Cubs Blad Junior, Like
20:55
Speaker 1: those are two names that like you look them together
20:58
Speaker 1: and like it's like here here from the clicks. But
21:03
Speaker 1: I mean, I do think if if Toronto falls further
21:07
Speaker 1: out of the race, that that makes a lot of sense.
21:10
Speaker 1: It's just a team that makes it like that they
21:12
Speaker 1: have things that the Cubs could really use. The Cubs
21:14
Speaker 1: just have to start winning for it to really for
21:16
Speaker 1: them to be aggressive in that fashion. Uh yeah, I
21:20
Speaker 1: mean I think I think the big bat needs to
21:24
Speaker 1: be a priority. I think upgrading defense needs to be
21:27
Speaker 1: a priority. Like that's that's ultimately it to me. Like
21:30
Speaker 1: when you talk about like what are we watching here?
21:33
Speaker 1: What are we seeing? And I see these types of
21:35
Speaker 1: plays like they.
21:37
Speaker 2: Don't have that.
21:39
Speaker 1: You can't do that, you can't make mistakes like when
21:42
Speaker 1: Like it's demoralizing for a team that's struggling when you
21:47
Speaker 1: don't do when you don't make basic plays right, when
21:50
Speaker 1: you don't when you think you're out of an inning,
21:52
Speaker 1: when you think you have a runner picked off, when
21:54
Speaker 1: you think you know you're you're finally gonna win a game,
21:58
Speaker 1: you know you're itching is really rolling, and you think
22:01
Speaker 1: you have these close wins but just can't get the
22:05
Speaker 1: job done. I mean, little things just aren't happening often
22:09
Speaker 1: enough for them. They're not going their way, they're not
22:12
Speaker 1: making what was a council that said, like you kind
22:16
Speaker 1: of have to make it happen, Yeah, like make your.
22:18
Speaker 3: Own breaks when you're in right this.
22:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like the continually the breaks have gone the
22:24
Speaker 1: other way and they're they're making mistakes leading to that.
22:29
Speaker 4: I did just want to clarify on Vlad Junior our
22:32
Speaker 4: boy Bob Nightingale had reported the Cubs have privately discussed
22:38
Speaker 4: the possibility of trying to acquire Grea at the tread
22:40
Speaker 4: And I would not doubt Bob's reporting at all. He
22:44
Speaker 4: is excellent at his job, he meets have, his range
22:49
Speaker 4: of sources is amazing at.
22:51
Speaker 3: Every level of the game. It was just more of
22:53
Speaker 3: a you know, I think you and I can feel
22:56
Speaker 3: this of like there are certain names that just like
23:00
Speaker 3: build momentum of like oh like, and I think Pete
23:03
Speaker 3: Alonso falls in that category as well, Lad Junior. But
23:07
Speaker 3: like you said, there's a lot of things that happen,
23:11
Speaker 3: have to happen that those teams have to decide on,
23:14
Speaker 3: and you know, the Cubs do have to play a
23:17
Speaker 3: lot better. Like just because we see it, we don't
23:21
Speaker 3: foresee a cell scenario doesn't mean that, you know, Jen
23:25
Speaker 3: Carter are going to go a whole out of the
23:28
Speaker 3: trade deadline, even though I think would make a lot
23:32
Speaker 3: of sense to do that. We're both kind of long
23:37
Speaker 3: term preservation to put a playoff I don't have to
23:42
Speaker 3: do playoff flags anymore. Whatever you know, like like you know,
23:46
Speaker 3: a banner or whatever, just some sort of thing on
23:49
Speaker 3: the Baseball Reference page that says this team made the
23:51
Speaker 3: playoffs this year. It's a big deal, Like it's a marker.
23:55
Speaker 3: We're approaching three years since that massive sell off. I mean,
24:00
Speaker 3: his team missed the playoffs by one game last year,
24:05
Speaker 3: and it just feels too much like a lot of
24:10
Speaker 3: last year, except with worse defense and even more curious
24:16
Speaker 3: base running, even with some awesome starting pitching, And like,
24:23
Speaker 3: I don't know how much you can count on all
24:27
Speaker 3: of that to continue, meaning showed to Assad and I
24:32
Speaker 3: clearly you can't count on that with Ben Brown because
24:34
Speaker 3: of the innings limit that they have, you know, kind
24:36
Speaker 3: of implicitly acknowledged, like this is not a guy that's
24:39
Speaker 3: going to go throw whatever, one hundred and seventy innings,
24:43
Speaker 3: Like they're going to have to manage that big time.
24:47
Speaker 3: And you know, you see a sad always battles, keeps
24:53
Speaker 3: his team in the game. But you know, if he's
24:58
Speaker 3: not pitching like an All star, just becomes harder. And
25:04
Speaker 3: you know, I think we both believe in Shoedo. We've
25:06
Speaker 3: done a lot of reporting on like kind of what's
25:09
Speaker 3: ahead and why they're confident. Love watching him work on
25:13
Speaker 3: the mound, like great presence, but you know, this is
25:19
Speaker 3: the hardest league in the world, as they say, and
25:21
Speaker 3: like to think that he's just going to cruise over
25:24
Speaker 3: the next several months is just not realistic. So there
25:27
Speaker 3: are just so many other areas where they got to
25:29
Speaker 3: pick it up.
25:30
Speaker 2: Yep.
25:31
Speaker 1: I was about to say that they need to pick
25:33
Speaker 1: him up because he's going to go through down moments,
25:35
Speaker 1: so it's time for them to step up. All that
25:38
Speaker 1: said Patrick, there, they've been playing bad baseball. They don't
25:41
Speaker 1: look good. Nobody's impressed by watching them yesterday that there
25:46
Speaker 1: was a screen grabs of them falling into last place.
25:49
Speaker 1: Right if he took a screen grab now of the
25:51
Speaker 1: standings there in second place, it's it's so stupid. How
25:55
Speaker 1: the elctril it's kind of like lighting up right now.
25:58
Speaker 1: It's going to change data to day. So watching the standings,
26:01
Speaker 1: I think I read our Kobe writers, our friends on
26:06
Speaker 1: the beat, Maddie Lee and Megan Montimura are out in
26:09
Speaker 1: Cincinnati and they one of someone must have asked Dansby
26:14
Speaker 1: Swanson whether he's looking at the standings and his response was,
26:18
Speaker 1: it's June and that's that's it. So like, don't we
26:21
Speaker 1: shouldn't be looking at the standings, especially when it's bunched
26:25
Speaker 1: up like this, four teams behind the Brewers within a
26:28
Speaker 1: half game of each other, it's kind of ridiculous, all
26:30
Speaker 1: of them under five hundred uh. And the Cubs are,
26:34
Speaker 1: I guess technically in a wildcard spot right now. They
26:36
Speaker 1: had their tied with with multiple teams for that final
26:39
Speaker 1: wildcard spot.
26:40
Speaker 3: That's just like that's a hard thing of just like
26:44
Speaker 3: especially since like last year, David Ross already played that
26:47
Speaker 3: card of hey, Dansby, like, what were the Braves like
26:50
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty one? Oh man, we were this record?
26:53
Speaker 3: And then hey, Yahn, what were the Nationals like in
26:56
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen. I'm not making fun of Ross, like you
26:58
Speaker 3: gotta do what you gotta do. I think it was
26:59
Speaker 3: like good like reorganizer, and there was a lot more
27:02
Speaker 3: pressure on the trade deadline at that point. But it's
27:05
Speaker 3: just like, you know, these games all count the same,
27:08
Speaker 3: right that think that's something else that Danzi would say,
27:10
Speaker 3: and that council has been pretty real about you know,
27:14
Speaker 3: this team has you know, decreased its Martin Fererr and
27:18
Speaker 3: that you know it's not the season is not written yet,
27:22
Speaker 3: but there's certainly gonna be a lot more urgency and
27:26
Speaker 3: they have very little snow cushion. And I also think
27:30
Speaker 3: given the division they play in, it just infuriates Cups
27:35
Speaker 3: fans rightfully, so of just like you haven't put any
27:38
Speaker 3: of these teams away yet, Like the Brewers let their
27:42
Speaker 3: manager walk and trade a side young winner and they're
27:44
Speaker 3: still waxing you guys like, I don't know, I get
27:48
Speaker 3: in the clubhouse, Dans. We have the process a certain way,
27:50
Speaker 3: counsel process the season his own way. I think we
27:54
Speaker 3: both agree that good things can happen, and you know
27:58
Speaker 3: that their playoff are still significant. But it just, like
28:04
Speaker 3: I said, watching the same thing with a different manager
28:07
Speaker 3: does not really reflect well on the Cubs organization as
28:10
Speaker 3: a whole.
28:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, what they really need to do is get going
28:13
Speaker 1: now and not make it feel like, oh, we got
28:16
Speaker 1: to get in the hot streak on July fourth.
28:19
Speaker 2: You know, can't it can't be that again. You can't.
28:22
Speaker 1: You can't be searching for a hot streak into July
28:25
Speaker 1: to try and justify buying or aggressively going after players
28:30
Speaker 1: to upgrade the team. It's just it has to happen
28:35
Speaker 1: very soon. And you know, you look at chunks of
28:38
Speaker 1: the season and this is one that as it approached,
28:42
Speaker 1: I kind of looked at the schedule and we circled
28:45
Speaker 1: it and said, here it is, here's opportunity.
28:48
Speaker 2: This is nine games in. Is that right?
28:51
Speaker 1: Nine games in and they're four and five, nine games
28:54
Speaker 1: into a twenty five game stretch against all teams under
28:57
Speaker 1: five hundred. They're all still on five hundred. All those
29:01
Speaker 1: teams that they're going to be facing, their hovering around
29:03
Speaker 1: five hundred for the most part. But they're they're four
29:07
Speaker 1: and five, and frankly, they are damn lucky. They're four
29:10
Speaker 1: and five that stretch like they lucky. Yeah, the White Sox,
29:17
Speaker 1: being as terrible as the White Sox are, uh, they
29:21
Speaker 1: eked out two wins against them, and they probably.
29:25
Speaker 2: Should have lost at least one of those. They didn't.
29:27
Speaker 1: We don't need to go with probably because you could
29:29
Speaker 1: say maybe they probably should have won some game here
29:31
Speaker 1: and there that they lost.
29:32
Speaker 2: But whatever, they're four and five.
29:34
Speaker 1: They don't look good getting to four and five, and
29:38
Speaker 1: it has to turn otherwise we're going to be talking
29:41
Speaker 1: about a long It's going to be a long summer.
29:43
Speaker 1: And you know what, they go to Tampa Bay and
29:46
Speaker 1: then they come home, right, and it's.
29:50
Speaker 3: Cardinals.
29:51
Speaker 1: Yep, Cardinals in San Francisco, I believe, is that right, Cardinals?
29:56
Speaker 3: It's a lot of you know Cardinals San Francisco.
30:00
Speaker 2: That's right.
30:01
Speaker 3: Just this stretch here are all teams, you know, a
30:05
Speaker 3: trip to San Francisco. Who was at the end of
30:07
Speaker 3: the month. I may have missed a series in there,
30:09
Speaker 3: but you can not just like helping your own cause
30:14
Speaker 3: it's also like, you know, these sweep the Mets. You
30:19
Speaker 3: know they're you know, they're coming off a London trip.
30:22
Speaker 3: They're already kind of on the bubble. Like if you know,
30:25
Speaker 3: Cubs take it to them, like all of a sudden,
30:27
Speaker 3: maybe that trade of Pete a Lonzo is a little
30:30
Speaker 3: more likely, or like we saw there's a lot more
30:35
Speaker 3: time left in the season, but we saw the Diamondbacks
30:37
Speaker 3: to the Cubs last September, and so like, if the
30:40
Speaker 3: Cubs have seven games I want to say against the
30:43
Speaker 3: Giants within like a ten day period, two week period,
30:47
Speaker 3: I mean something like that. I mean, you can really
30:50
Speaker 3: change the trajectory of their season as well and really
30:54
Speaker 3: force them to scramble or you're the one who's going
30:57
Speaker 3: to be trying to play catch up the rest of
30:59
Speaker 3: the way.
31:01
Speaker 1: So three in Tampa starting Tuesday. Tampa has the twenty
31:06
Speaker 1: fourth ranked pitching staff by e RA. I believe the
31:10
Speaker 1: bullpen is worse than the starting staff. I'm not really
31:13
Speaker 1: up to date on what's going on with Tampa, but
31:16
Speaker 1: I can tell you that they're just not that good
31:19
Speaker 1: right now pitching wise. A team that normally is pretty
31:22
Speaker 1: pretty dominant pitching wise is struggling. It's got like, like
31:27
Speaker 1: I said, I feel like the offense is on the cusp.
31:30
Speaker 1: They have to they have to, you know, turn that
31:33
Speaker 1: corner there. They need to do it. So that's that's
31:36
Speaker 1: what's happening this week. A subpar team. They're heading to Tampa.
31:41
Speaker 1: They need to get going. They need to build their
31:42
Speaker 1: confidence and start winning some games more regularly. No more
31:46
Speaker 1: close losses. You know, like these these ninth inning rallies
31:49
Speaker 1: are going to drive Twitter Cubs fans in more insane
31:53
Speaker 1: than they already are. I feel bad for those people
31:56
Speaker 1: having to scream and yell on on Twitter and and
32:00
Speaker 1: and into the void. But that's that's what sports does
32:04
Speaker 1: to you. That's what this Cubs team is doing to them.
32:07
Speaker 1: So we will be back with another podcast early next
32:12
Speaker 1: week or early this week, and then we'll preview, hopefully
32:17
Speaker 1: preview the Saint Louis series with the guests.
32:20
Speaker 2: We'll see how the week goes.
32:21
Speaker 1: And my travel at these night games in Tampa Bay
32:26
Speaker 1: are going to screw up travel and when we can record,
32:29
Speaker 1: but we'll make it work and and and fit everything in.
32:33
Speaker 2: But thanks for listening.
32:35
Speaker 1: This is north Side Territory Foul Territories Cubs podcast. Make
32:39
Speaker 1: sure to read my and Patrick work Patrick's work over
32:43
Speaker 1: at the Athletic Review.
32:46
Speaker 2: Subscribe to all that stuff you do for podcasts.
32:48
Speaker 1: Whatever it is you guys do, please do that in
32:50
Speaker 1: a positive fashion if you will.
32:53
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. Hopefully we're talking to you about better
32:57
Speaker 2: Cubs things. Next time we're we're with you. Take care,