Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / The MVP case for Pete Crow-Armstrong plus more Cubs news and notes

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The MVP case for Pete Crow-Armstrong plus more Cubs news and notes · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Saadam Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. The Cubs
0:17
Speaker 1: have taken the first two against the Saint Louis Cardinals,
0:20
Speaker 1: and in doing that, Alex Bregman has been red hot
0:28
Speaker 1: seven hits in these first two games of the Cardinals series.
0:32
Speaker 2: Uh, he was, he was hot before the break.
0:36
Speaker 1: We wondered that, I think you wrote about it, asked
0:38
Speaker 1: him about it is the is the break coming at
0:41
Speaker 1: a bad time for him? And he hadn't been terrible,
0:46
Speaker 1: but it did look like coming out of the break
0:49
Speaker 1: that oh Man, like he's not in the same rhythm,
0:52
Speaker 1: but he seems to have found something and he's back
0:56
Speaker 1: on track and looking. He had an opposite field home
0:59
Speaker 1: run the day on Monday, which is not something he does.
1:04
Speaker 1: So it's not he's not getting the results the way
1:07
Speaker 1: he would probably want them to come because he's a
1:11
Speaker 1: like he feels like he's at his best when he's
1:13
Speaker 1: pulling the ball in the air. But I also think
1:15
Speaker 1: like something good is happening with him and he's feeling
1:20
Speaker 1: right at the plate. This the Cubs have to hope
1:24
Speaker 1: this is the start of something big for Alex Brakman, right.
1:30
Speaker 3: Exactly. He's using the whole field at Bush Stadium. He
1:34
Speaker 3: was using Dansby Swanson's bat, which is bigger and heavier.
1:37
Speaker 3: He choked up a bit. And what really struck me
1:40
Speaker 3: was listening to him late Monday night. You know, the
1:45
Speaker 3: camera's on him, a bunch of microphones around him, and
1:47
Speaker 3: he's kind of rattling off, you know how he talks
1:50
Speaker 3: when he just kind of makes lots of declarative statements
1:53
Speaker 3: like just you know, and then he'll kind of you
1:58
Speaker 3: do more overall at the end. But just like grabbed
2:02
Speaker 3: Dansby's bat, joked up a bit, put my hands back,
2:05
Speaker 3: and it was just like listening to him, like, you know,
2:08
Speaker 3: it sounded like someone who had just like picked up
2:11
Speaker 3: a bat for the first time, or it was like
2:13
Speaker 3: like it just it just struck me out. Someone who
2:15
Speaker 3: could sign multiple nine figure contracts, get two World Series wings,
2:20
Speaker 3: be you know whatever, it is one hundred something games
2:22
Speaker 3: into the season and still like searching for it, which
2:25
Speaker 3: I think is partially the way Bregman is wired, and
2:29
Speaker 3: also just the nature of hitting and how hard it is,
2:33
Speaker 3: you know, Danzby Swanson made the point that sports nowadays
2:36
Speaker 3: have just evolved so fast that you have to evolve
2:41
Speaker 3: to keep up. Because my point to him was, like,
2:44
Speaker 3: you know, I'd imagine Steph Curry's had the same like
2:46
Speaker 3: jump shot since like third grade. You know, maybe he
2:49
Speaker 3: put it a little higher, you know, as he got older,
2:51
Speaker 3: but like there's a way to you know, execute a
2:55
Speaker 3: jump shot, whereas you know, pretty universal way, a consensus
3:00
Speaker 3: way to do that, and Bregman has been just searching
3:04
Speaker 3: for it. Just to kind of mess with Craig Counsel.
3:08
Speaker 3: I asked him, you know, every time Bregman has a
3:10
Speaker 3: big game, like people wondering because he's turning the corner
3:13
Speaker 3: and he's just like, yeah, that's like the Pete question,
3:16
Speaker 3: Like when he would get all the Pete Crow Armstrong,
3:19
Speaker 3: can you break down his swing mechanics for me? Last year?
3:22
Speaker 3: And he got very tired of that one. So let's
3:24
Speaker 3: just enjoy this good game. And he had a very
3:27
Speaker 3: nice game on Tuesday as well. He finally got his
3:31
Speaker 3: ops back up above seven hundred this week, and to
3:36
Speaker 3: your point, side, like he hadn't totally like cratered, like
3:39
Speaker 3: if you're looking at his ops, it's just been in
3:41
Speaker 3: this like six seventy to six ninety for such a
3:43
Speaker 3: long time. Obviously the power just disappeared for way too long.
3:49
Speaker 3: But I think the larger point would be, like, if
3:52
Speaker 3: he gets going one, they're probably gonna eat it because
3:55
Speaker 3: Pete may not, you know, just be an MVP every
3:59
Speaker 3: single night. But also like if he rounds into form,
4:03
Speaker 3: take some pressure off other guys and you can just
4:07
Speaker 3: see this lineup one through nine operating differently.
4:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't need to ask Greg Counsel to break
4:14
Speaker 1: down Alex Bregman swing. Alex Bregman will break it down
4:18
Speaker 1: for you. Yes, exactly, like in plenty of detail. He's
4:22
Speaker 1: happy to do that. He's one of those players that
4:29
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes I worry about, like guys tweaking their
4:32
Speaker 1: swings or working on things too much. And there was
4:35
Speaker 1: a point this season where it's like does he need
4:37
Speaker 1: to step away from this? And it's like, you know what,
4:40
Speaker 1: He's done it for so long, this is his method,
4:44
Speaker 1: this is how he does things. Probably should just trust
4:49
Speaker 1: that this is going to work out for him, Like
4:51
Speaker 1: he knows what he's doing.
4:54
Speaker 2: Let him.
4:54
Speaker 1: Let him go about business how he knows how to
4:57
Speaker 1: and like I read some of the descript of the
5:00
Speaker 1: swing changes that he currently made, and it's like it
5:04
Speaker 1: it does seem like a little out there at times,
5:06
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, this is more extreme than what I
5:10
Speaker 1: felt like. I talked to him about a month or
5:12
Speaker 1: so ago, when I believe it was in Saint Louis.
5:15
Speaker 1: The last time I talked to him about his swing
5:18
Speaker 1: in like pretty you know, pretty deep detail and.
5:23
Speaker 2: And you know a lot of times a player talking.
5:27
Speaker 1: Like that, you'd be like, oh man, this this guy's
5:29
Speaker 1: in his own head. He's overthinking things. I don't think
5:33
Speaker 1: that's the case with Bregmant Like it's just how he
5:35
Speaker 1: works and this is what he does. And yeah, it
5:38
Speaker 1: could sound like overthinking for some people, but he's done
5:42
Speaker 1: it for so long and it's worked for so long.
5:44
Speaker 2: Why mess with why mess with it? Why?
5:47
Speaker 1: Why why doubt him? I guess is what I'd say.
5:52
Speaker 1: He's done a great job throughout his career and and
5:57
Speaker 1: he kind of knows, like he gets it these stretches
6:01
Speaker 1: in his career where like he's so hot that it
6:07
Speaker 1: completely turns a season around, Like go look at his history,
6:10
Speaker 1: this is this cold stretch, if you want to call
6:12
Speaker 1: it that, it's lasted longer than it usually does. But
6:15
Speaker 1: when he gets hot, it's it is a torrid level
6:19
Speaker 1: of performance.
6:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not like the Cubs were out on a
6:23
Speaker 3: limb in that in terms of their evaluation of Alex Bragmant.
6:26
Speaker 3: I mean, he was a number two draft pick Team USA.
6:31
Speaker 3: Guy on. You know, multiple teams All Star World Series champion,
6:42
Speaker 3: been to the playoffs, I think almost every year and
6:45
Speaker 3: with two different team organizations. Yeah, I think it might
6:50
Speaker 3: have been one very early in his career. You said
6:54
Speaker 3: him might have missed one, but I believe they sailed
6:57
Speaker 3: a winning season. But either way, like the track of
7:01
Speaker 3: record is so long that you have to trust it.
7:03
Speaker 3: The Cubs don't really have a choice other than to
7:06
Speaker 3: roll keep rolling them out there. And I actually think
7:09
Speaker 3: it's reasonable to think that he will wind up in
7:12
Speaker 3: a decent place. I know people kind of tired of
7:18
Speaker 3: hearing about that, but once you see the results, I
7:21
Speaker 3: want to say, he's had like seven multi hit games
7:26
Speaker 3: in July, and obviously there was a break in the
7:29
Speaker 3: middle of the month, hitting those two home runs in
7:33
Speaker 3: the last two games before the All Star break. One
7:36
Speaker 3: in that series coming out of the break. Really nice
7:41
Speaker 3: performance thus far in Saint Louis. And yeah, I mean
7:47
Speaker 3: we've talked about how you know, everything starts over at
7:50
Speaker 3: zero in the playoffs. Anyways, he hasn't been like a
7:58
Speaker 3: zero either. Like his war is pretty good because of
8:02
Speaker 3: the defense and because he gets on base, and you know,
8:06
Speaker 3: he has fit in really well in this clubhouse. So
8:11
Speaker 3: I'd be pretty optimistic about how the rest of his
8:15
Speaker 3: season is going to go. Yeah.
8:18
Speaker 1: Same if you know, if you were like gonna bet
8:22
Speaker 1: the over under on like an ops of like eight
8:25
Speaker 1: hundred or whatever the rest of the way, I'd take
8:27
Speaker 1: the over.
8:28
Speaker 2: You know, like it.
8:29
Speaker 1: I think he's going to he's going to be a
8:32
Speaker 1: force in this lineup going forward, assuming help. Let's take
8:36
Speaker 1: a quick break and come back and talk about another
8:39
Speaker 1: force in this lineup in his MVP case.
8:42
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9:46
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, it's Pete Crow Armstrong is having an
9:50
Speaker 1: MVP level season, MVP caliber season. Let's let's let's talk
9:57
Speaker 1: about him and also preview that Yankees series coming up
10:02
Speaker 1: this weekend. Let's make this our Fox one segment. Okay, yeah,
10:14
Speaker 1: so the numbers on Pete Patrick. I was looking up
10:18
Speaker 1: some stuff I need to like. So the I love
10:20
Speaker 1: the the stat cast pages, the Baseball Savant pages, you
10:26
Speaker 1: know with the red bars, the red and blue bars.
10:28
Speaker 1: So I think I saw this on Twitter, but I'm
10:31
Speaker 1: looking at it now. It's all red at the top.
10:34
Speaker 2: Right.
10:34
Speaker 1: They have the batting run value, the base running value,
10:37
Speaker 1: and the fielding run value. And he's, you know, the
10:40
Speaker 1: one hundredth percentile in fielding run value. So nobody's better
10:43
Speaker 1: than him on defense according to this ninety eight percentile
10:47
Speaker 1: in batting run value and ninety six then base running
10:50
Speaker 1: like truly elite and all three facets of the game
10:54
Speaker 1: that you can kind of consider on offense. Just just
10:59
Speaker 1: an exceptional talent right now, and someone that you know, obviously,
11:04
Speaker 1: with show Hey, a lot of questions about show Hay
11:07
Speaker 1: right now and and his health. Here's a guy that
11:12
Speaker 1: you know has a real chance to win MVP.
11:18
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think you look at show Hey as he's
11:23
Speaker 3: kind of the automatic incumbent front runner every single year. Obviously,
11:28
Speaker 3: what he's done is almost unprecedented and may never again
11:35
Speaker 3: be repeated. And I feel like Pete last year when
11:39
Speaker 3: he came on, it was like, you know, if this
11:42
Speaker 3: guy is a goalgloved defender in center and he hits
11:48
Speaker 3: home runs, like he's going to accumulate a ton of
11:51
Speaker 3: war and like he's going and play for a good
11:55
Speaker 3: contending team, like those guys get MVP votes, like they
11:59
Speaker 3: show up the ballot, like they just you know, kind
12:02
Speaker 3: of are accumulators in that way. And so that was
12:08
Speaker 3: kind of the I feel like, kind of a default
12:10
Speaker 3: with Pete, particularly after he signed that contract of like, okay,
12:13
Speaker 3: he is a foundational player here. When he plays well,
12:17
Speaker 3: he's you know, gonna be in that All Star MVP
12:21
Speaker 3: mix almost every year, and it feels like you kind
12:26
Speaker 3: of had to wait and see. Like Pete, he also
12:29
Speaker 3: didn't have a great start to the year offensively either,
12:32
Speaker 3: which seems like, you know, such a long time ago. Uh,
12:36
Speaker 3: and then to see the injuries that are happening with show. Hey,
12:42
Speaker 3: I think it's appropriate now to like this is a
12:45
Speaker 3: legitimate debate. Like I think it would have been silly
12:47
Speaker 3: or Homerish for us to like present that idea in
12:51
Speaker 3: May or probably even June. But at this point, you know,
12:55
Speaker 3: I'm just looking at the headline here in the athletic
12:58
Speaker 3: of sho Heeo Tani still facing uncertain pitching. Timeline says
13:02
Speaker 3: biceps is also an issue, and the Dodgers are not
13:06
Speaker 3: gonna have to push him because they want, you know,
13:09
Speaker 3: a three Pete. So like if I were them, I
13:12
Speaker 3: wouldn't stay away from the mountain. It seems like they
13:14
Speaker 3: always have, you know, too many pitchers. Any Anyways, during
13:18
Speaker 3: during the regular season, like you know, Pete has really
13:24
Speaker 3: you know, done it in spectacular fashion. You know, hearing
13:31
Speaker 3: you know, his the way hearing the chance even on
13:34
Speaker 3: the road, has been super entertaining. And I think like
13:40
Speaker 3: while the Cubs don't think he's going to perform at
13:43
Speaker 3: an MVP level every single game for the rest of
13:46
Speaker 3: the year, they do think it's it's pretty sustainable that
13:49
Speaker 3: you don't think he's gonna like totally creater in August
13:53
Speaker 3: and September.
13:54
Speaker 1: So last year, Patrick, I I think I wrote to
14:00
Speaker 1: the like we had to do or it was suggested
14:03
Speaker 1: to do like a twenty five year like it's twenty
14:06
Speaker 1: twenty five, twenty five years into the decade, like best
14:09
Speaker 1: team of the decade, like the Cubs best players twenty five, right,
14:16
Speaker 1: and I went out on a limb and took Pete
14:21
Speaker 1: as center fielder. Part of the reason I did that
14:23
Speaker 1: is because the history of center fielders just isn't that
14:26
Speaker 1: great for the Cubs like in the past. I think
14:29
Speaker 1: I even wrote a piece around the time that Pete
14:32
Speaker 1: was traded for about.
14:34
Speaker 2: Kind of like the history.
14:36
Speaker 1: Like remember there was talk back in the day before
14:39
Speaker 1: Ramis kind of took over a third, like the Cubs
14:41
Speaker 1: can't find a regular third baseman. I kind of compared
14:44
Speaker 1: it to that, like for center field, the Cubs couldn't
14:47
Speaker 1: find someone regularly, like Dexter Power held it down for
14:50
Speaker 1: what two years, Like Kenny Lofton was up there as
14:55
Speaker 1: far as accumulated war for twenty for the twenty twenties,
15:00
Speaker 1: Like that's how rough it was, Like Kenny loften played
15:02
Speaker 1: for them for like half a season.
15:04
Speaker 2: Yea. And now I like, I bring this.
15:08
Speaker 1: Up because all time all time, So going back to
15:12
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one, all time center fielders war accumulated, Peka
15:18
Speaker 1: Armastrong is ninth for the Cubs all time already, like
15:24
Speaker 1: you know, and he's going to like he like by
15:26
Speaker 1: the end of next year, he'll probably be like seventh
15:31
Speaker 1: and like he's he's at fourteen point six. That's not
15:34
Speaker 1: a crazy amount of war, but like it's two and
15:37
Speaker 1: a half seasons worth of games for him, Like it's
15:42
Speaker 1: just it's just remarkable what he's done.
15:45
Speaker 2: It kind of blows me away.
15:48
Speaker 1: So this this weekend, they have the Yankees coming into town,
15:53
Speaker 1: the primetime game on Saturday night. Fox will be showing
15:58
Speaker 1: Cubs Yankees. Look, Aaron Judge isn't isn't there, Cody Ballinger
16:04
Speaker 1: is hurt, but it's so it's Peak Armstrong's show, like
16:09
Speaker 1: this is he He's the star that they will be taught.
16:13
Speaker 1: Like my guess is Fox will be talking a lot
16:15
Speaker 1: of Peek Armstrong. They have I believe Max Freed going
16:21
Speaker 1: Saturday night. He'll also get to face I think, if
16:24
Speaker 1: we counted it out right, Garrett Cole on Sunday. But
16:27
Speaker 1: Saturday it's Max Freed Fellow Harvard Westlake. It feels like
16:34
Speaker 1: it's been a little while since I felt like Cubs
16:37
Speaker 1: Yankees was properly hyped, Like maybe it was last year.
16:41
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember when they played last year, but
16:44
Speaker 1: it didn't feel like this feels like I think the
16:47
Speaker 1: Yankees are in a weird spot, like they're they're going
16:50
Speaker 1: their offense is going through the struggles that the Cubs
16:53
Speaker 1: offense was a couple of months ago. Whenever that was
16:56
Speaker 1: what was that Maine to June for the Cubs. Uh,
16:59
Speaker 1: That's where like the Yankees, like everything that I read,
17:02
Speaker 1: it's like, Ohky, this offense is a mess, and with
17:04
Speaker 1: Judge and Bellinger out, it's it's going to continue to
17:07
Speaker 1: be a struggle. And I'm sure we'll see some trades
17:09
Speaker 1: from them. But it should be a fun weekend and
17:12
Speaker 1: a and a nice challenge for for Pek Armstrong, no doubt.
17:17
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm expecting a good amount of Yankees fans there.
17:21
Speaker 3: I feel like over the years, you know, you get
17:25
Speaker 3: people coming from New York to see Wrigley Fields. You know,
17:30
Speaker 3: it's still a bit of an occasion. I believe the
17:34
Speaker 3: Cubs were at Yankee Stadium last summer right before the
17:36
Speaker 3: All Star break, and I remember that's right talking to
17:39
Speaker 3: Kyle Tucker and Yankees fans, you know, saying are gott
17:42
Speaker 3: to come to the Bronx and stuff like that while
17:44
Speaker 3: we were doing our interview. The Yankees also have a
17:50
Speaker 3: nice Chicago residency. You know, a whole week with oh
17:55
Speaker 3: yeah series on the South side, and yeah, I mean
17:58
Speaker 3: it's possible the Cubs could be facing them at a
18:02
Speaker 3: pretty good time. I think the Cubs are kind of
18:08
Speaker 3: regathered them themselves here, they're looking, you know, pretty good.
18:12
Speaker 3: And then obviously the trade deadline is looming over all
18:16
Speaker 3: of this will be really fun to see if either
18:20
Speaker 3: team pulls off a big move by Saturday. So that
18:26
Speaker 3: helps out you know, you me and I'm assuming Ken
18:28
Speaker 3: Rosenthal will be in the dugout there as well. So yeah,
18:31
Speaker 3: that'll be good good for us if we get some
18:34
Speaker 3: some trade news, some you know, things actually happening rather
18:37
Speaker 3: than you know, reporting on deliberations and targets and things
18:41
Speaker 3: like that.
18:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a six fifteen games Saturday night or seven
18:47
Speaker 1: to fifteen Eastern, six to fifteen Central. MLB on Fox
18:51
Speaker 1: is streaming on Fox one. The Race to October starts now,
18:55
Speaker 1: and we have your front row seat to the wildest
18:58
Speaker 1: walk offs, lights out pitching, and clutch plays all season long.
19:02
Speaker 1: Follow every can't miss matchup as teams battle for a
19:05
Speaker 1: spot in the postseason. Then stream the twenty twenty six
19:08
Speaker 1: World Series live on Fox One at home or on
19:12
Speaker 1: the go, live or on demand. Never miss a moment
19:15
Speaker 1: stream now, Okay, Patrick, I believe there were some more
19:27
Speaker 1: updates as far as pictures go. What's the latest you're
19:33
Speaker 1: hearing on Ben Brown while you're on the road there.
19:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, just a quick one in Saint Louis that he
19:40
Speaker 3: Ben has been throwing in Arizona. Craig Council says that
19:47
Speaker 3: Brown's neck issue is now symptom free. You know, I
19:54
Speaker 3: wouldn't start like penciling him into your playoff rotation or
20:00
Speaker 3: anything like that, Like this is still going to be
20:01
Speaker 3: a slow build up.
20:04
Speaker 2: You know.
20:05
Speaker 3: Part of this time was thinking about his mechanics and
20:09
Speaker 3: how to reduce some of that stress on his body.
20:14
Speaker 3: You know, he felt it earlier in his career and
20:17
Speaker 3: that sort of wiped out, you know, huge chunk of
20:20
Speaker 3: another season when he comes back. And that's how they're like,
20:25
Speaker 3: they're expecting him to come back this year. I guess
20:27
Speaker 3: maybe that's probably the big idea here. Don't expect him
20:32
Speaker 3: to be used like a rolldist Chapman or like CC
20:37
Speaker 3: Sabathia when he got traded to the Brewers. Like this
20:40
Speaker 3: is going to be a carefully managed production, at least
20:44
Speaker 3: at the start. They want to keep his health in mind,
20:50
Speaker 3: their future in mind. It's also hard to have that
20:55
Speaker 3: type of layoff. And then I want to say, he
20:59
Speaker 3: got shut down in mid to late June. I believe
21:03
Speaker 3: you were in New York. I think said it. And
21:06
Speaker 3: so it's gonna be it's gonna be a it's gonna be,
21:10
Speaker 3: you know, a significant road back. But you know, they
21:15
Speaker 3: like the idea of having the option to plug him
21:20
Speaker 3: into their pitching staff, like building him up as a starter.
21:25
Speaker 3: I guess theoretically he could you know, be an opener
21:27
Speaker 3: for three innings at some point if they want to
21:30
Speaker 3: manage it that way. But like they're not gonna just
21:34
Speaker 3: kind of unleash him from the start. A similar thought
21:37
Speaker 3: to Justin Steele in terms of like they're gonna have
21:41
Speaker 3: to proceed with caution. The last we heard was first
21:46
Speaker 3: week of August to start kind of throwing off the
21:49
Speaker 3: mound with the idea of you know, building back up
21:54
Speaker 3: to hopefully contribute to the major league team. He's just
21:59
Speaker 3: in a different situation then Brown in that his last
22:03
Speaker 3: major league game was April of twenty twenty five. Whereas
22:06
Speaker 3: so like that just you know, the recovery process the
22:11
Speaker 3: build up process. That just makes everything more extensive for him.
22:16
Speaker 3: So yeah, these are kind of, you know, names to
22:20
Speaker 3: to keep in mind, you know, as we get you know,
22:26
Speaker 3: I'm not putting a timetable on it, but you know,
22:27
Speaker 3: as you get towards September, you know, October, like they
22:31
Speaker 3: could be viable options. I think it's just important to
22:34
Speaker 3: like temper your expectations and remember like these are not
22:39
Speaker 3: rental players who've been you know, performing all year and
22:43
Speaker 3: have long major league track records, like they are going
22:47
Speaker 3: to try and do this the best they can, the
22:49
Speaker 3: right way.
22:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, this season is incredibly important. The Cubs
22:54
Speaker 1: have a chance to do a lot in the postseason.
22:57
Speaker 1: I think they're We've seen how good they are offensively
23:01
Speaker 1: and defensively. If their pitching gets right, this is a
23:06
Speaker 1: team that can win it all like that, that's how
23:08
Speaker 1: good they are.
23:08
Speaker 2: There's no doubt about that.
23:11
Speaker 1: Whether they can execute it get healthy enough, I don't
23:14
Speaker 1: so I don't want to distract from twenty twenty six,
23:17
Speaker 1: but if they trade for a pitcher that's under control
23:21
Speaker 1: beyond this year, getting these guys healthy for twenty twenty
23:26
Speaker 1: seven matters, like Ben Brown, Justin Steele, a pitcher X
23:33
Speaker 1: that they trade for Edward Cabrera and eventually Kate Horton.
23:39
Speaker 1: Is a really exciting rotation that I don't think you'd
23:43
Speaker 1: have gone into a season recently that you felt that
23:47
Speaker 1: way about it. That's why this trade deadline so interesting
23:50
Speaker 1: to me. If they can pull this off, if they
23:51
Speaker 1: can be aggressive enough and get that starter and add
23:55
Speaker 1: to a chance to do some damage this year, but
23:59
Speaker 1: also like you did for next year, that's just haven't
24:03
Speaker 1: had that type of rotation in a long time. So
24:06
Speaker 1: we'll see what they can pull off. But yeah, I
24:09
Speaker 1: think Ben b the flash we saw from Ben Brown
24:12
Speaker 1: was like, what was it like tennis starts Maybe a
24:14
Speaker 1: little bit more than that utter dominance, Like that was
24:19
Speaker 1: high level stuff. We were talking about him as an
24:21
Speaker 1: All Star. We were talking, you know, if you keep
24:25
Speaker 1: that level of performance up, you're one of like the
24:27
Speaker 1: top ten pitchers in the game. It's hard to do
24:30
Speaker 1: that over the course of a season. So I don't
24:32
Speaker 1: want to just assume that he can do that over
24:34
Speaker 1: thirty starts. But Ben Brown's upside, We've always talked about
24:39
Speaker 1: his upside. He finally reached it. We saw him like, oh,
24:42
Speaker 1: this is what it looks like. So that's why I
24:44
Speaker 1: understand the excitement and why people like would love to
24:47
Speaker 1: see Ben Brown pitching six innings again. I'm not sure
24:50
Speaker 1: if what exactly we'll get, but he's still an important
24:53
Speaker 1: piece for this team in twenty twenty six and beyond.
24:57
Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting to see how how they
25:00
Speaker 1: use him. I'm curious to see how it all works out,
25:03
Speaker 1: because it it will be kind of weird if he
25:05
Speaker 1: can only go a couple of innings and he needs
25:08
Speaker 1: multiple days off. It's just I don't know how exactly
25:11
Speaker 1: that works. Craig Council will figure it out. I'm not
25:13
Speaker 1: gonna doubt Craig Counsel and how he handles his pitching staff.
25:17
Speaker 1: He'll he'll fit those out getters in however he has to.
25:21
Speaker 3: Uh.
25:21
Speaker 2: But this is obviously a big week.
25:22
Speaker 1: I'm very you know, I think everyone wants to see
25:25
Speaker 1: how aggressive the Cubs are and what they do. We'll
25:28
Speaker 1: we'll have one more episode maybe by the time we're
25:30
Speaker 1: talking that there's a deal done. But Cubs Yankees this weekend,
25:34
Speaker 1: two more against Saint Louis. Yeah, two more against Saint Louis,
25:38
Speaker 1: and then a big week in general. Trade deadline, Cubs, Yankees,
25:41
Speaker 1: Cubs Dodgers like it's gonna be a fun week. We'll see,
25:44
Speaker 1: we'll see where they're at. Thanks so much for listening everyone,
25:47
Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe,
25:50
Speaker 1: subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic
25:53
Speaker 1: where Patrick and Iron top of all things Cubs. Thanks everyone,
25:56
Speaker 1: Take care,