Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Pete Crow-Armstrong is built for this
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
- 0:08Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
- 0:12Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. Today we
- 0:16Speaker 1: are joined by Assistant GM of the Cubs, Jared Banner.
- 0:20Speaker 1: Jared got his start we're a decade ago, with the
- 0:24Speaker 1: Red Sox. He was with the Mets as a player
- 0:29Speaker 1: director of player development from twenty eighteen until he joined
- 0:33Speaker 1: the Cubs in December of twenty twenty, and then last
- 0:37Speaker 1: year he was promoted to I believe it was an
- 0:40Speaker 1: end of twenty three he was promoted to assistant GM.
- 0:44Speaker 1: And he's had his hands on farm the farm, he's
- 0:48Speaker 1: helped with pro scouting, He's had, you know, help in
- 0:51Speaker 1: a lot of areas. Obviously an assistant GM, he's impacting
- 0:54Speaker 1: the entire organization. Jared, welcome, Thanks so much for joining us,
- 0:59Speaker 1: and you're giving us your time.
- 1:01Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
- 1:04Speaker 1: Obviously, the story for the Cubs beyond just a great start.
- 1:10Speaker 1: Al Tucker being the MVP caliber, it's it's Peter Armstrong
- 1:13Speaker 1: being an MVP caliber player right now.
- 1:15Speaker 3: Just I mean, every single time I watch him play
- 1:19Speaker 3: I'm I'm impressed by it.
- 1:20Speaker 1: He's gotten to a level and I think we all
- 1:24Speaker 1: thought was possible.
- 1:26Speaker 3: I'm not sure if we realized it would actually happen.
- 1:28Speaker 1: It was like the ninety ninth percentile outcome is happening
- 1:32Speaker 1: right before us.
- 1:33Speaker 3: Right now.
- 1:35Speaker 1: What what is your reaction to this PCA mania and
- 1:40Speaker 1: how do you believe he kind of found this next
- 1:43Speaker 1: level of performance.
- 1:46Speaker 4: I think my reaction is pretty similar to yours, which
- 1:48Speaker 4: is this is a lot of fun. Want to watch
- 1:51Speaker 4: Pete put a lot of hard work in over the years,
- 1:54Speaker 4: great young man, obviously an extremely talented ball player, and
- 1:59Speaker 4: those two things have collided a little bit here and
- 2:04Speaker 4: he's playing really well.
- 2:07Speaker 5: Part of the reason why we wanted to have you on,
- 2:08Speaker 5: Jared is I don't know if anyone in the organization
- 2:11Speaker 5: has kind of a longer or more varied history with
- 2:13Speaker 5: Pete than you.
- 2:15Speaker 6: Twenty twenty was a weird draft.
- 2:18Speaker 5: I know you're on the player development side, but can
- 2:20Speaker 5: you take us back to that moment of like what
- 2:23Speaker 5: were you hearing in terms of the player and the
- 2:25Speaker 5: person that was coming into your organization at that time.
- 2:28Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a strange time, just because a lot
- 2:31Speaker 4: of the high school seasons had been cut short a bit,
- 2:35Speaker 4: but nonetheless our amateur staff in New York really liked Pete.
- 2:40Speaker 4: The person I think back to a lot is the
- 2:42Speaker 4: scouting director at the time, Mark Tramuda. He's a scouting
- 2:44Speaker 4: director for the Blue Jays now. He really really loved
- 2:48Speaker 4: Pete as a player, just the ability to defend and
- 2:52Speaker 4: hit the ball, hit for power, things of that nature.
- 2:54Speaker 2: And they were.
- 2:55Speaker 4: Really excited to get him, and we were really excited
- 2:58Speaker 4: to have him in our development system. The thing that
- 3:00Speaker 4: stands out to me actually, he didn't get a chance
- 3:03Speaker 4: to really play that summer at all because of COVID,
- 3:06Speaker 4: So I didn't actually get to see him play until
- 3:09Speaker 4: that September October.
- 3:10Speaker 2: In instructional League. And even though I.
- 3:13Speaker 4: Had heard about him and his name, you know, had
- 3:18Speaker 4: talent attached to it, it wasn't until I actually saw
- 3:21Speaker 4: him play that was really like, whoa this kid?
- 3:23Speaker 2: He has a chance to be special.
- 3:25Speaker 3: Well, like you said, he didn't get a lot.
- 3:27Speaker 1: He didn't get much any playing time early with the
- 3:30Speaker 1: Mets because the next year he had the shoulder injury.
- 3:35Speaker 1: I mean, is twenty one was wiped out. Is there
- 3:38Speaker 1: any chance you guys get him if he's healthy, if
- 3:41Speaker 1: he's playing, do you think you guys even have a
- 3:43Speaker 1: shot at trading for PCA.
- 3:45Speaker 4: It's hard to imagine, but sometimes players can get out
- 3:49Speaker 4: of side, out of mind when they get hurt a
- 3:52Speaker 4: little bit. Obviously they hadn't seen him play much, but
- 3:55Speaker 4: it's hard to speak to what they were thinking at
- 3:59Speaker 4: the time because I know they really liked PCA as well.
- 4:03Speaker 4: I think it probably had a little bit more to
- 4:05Speaker 4: do with they were in first place at the time.
- 4:07Speaker 4: They really needed an infielder. They wanted Hobby Bias, who
- 4:10Speaker 4: was a great player in his own right, and they
- 4:13Speaker 4: chose to, you know, take a chance and make that deal.
- 4:16Speaker 1: I got a quick follow up on that, Jared. What
- 4:19Speaker 1: was the discussion like for you guys as far as
- 4:22Speaker 1: him having that shoulder? Did you guys have any doubts
- 4:26Speaker 1: in your mind, like the recovery process or or just
- 4:31Speaker 1: you know, you hadn't seen him really play much outside
- 4:34Speaker 1: of what the you said the instructionals, and then as
- 4:38Speaker 1: an amateur, what what gave you the confidence or was
- 4:41Speaker 1: it just worth the risk because you knew the high
- 4:43Speaker 1: upside there.
- 4:45Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say we had a lot of questions
- 4:48Speaker 4: and rightfully, so we hadn't seen him play in a while.
- 4:50Speaker 4: You know, who knows the status of the shoulder at
- 4:53Speaker 4: the time. But ultimately we decided there was so much
- 4:56Speaker 4: talent there there was it was worth the risk.
- 4:59Speaker 5: Jared, you're in the the office now as we record.
- 5:02Speaker 5: Can you explain what the.
- 5:04Speaker 6: Mood was like?
- 5:06Speaker 5: Uh, you know, for you, Jed, that inner circle that
- 5:10Speaker 5: was working on that trade deadline of knowing kind of
- 5:14Speaker 5: had to sell, but also understanding it would be unpopular
- 5:17Speaker 5: and that some of these players such as Pete, you know,
- 5:20Speaker 5: even if they're great, we're going to take a long
- 5:22Speaker 5: time to get there. Can you take us our listeners
- 5:24Speaker 5: back to that moment what it was like on the
- 5:27Speaker 5: water cooler?
- 5:28Speaker 2: Yeah, that was that was an active deadline.
- 5:29Speaker 4: We actually convene in our draft room during the trade
- 5:34Speaker 4: deadline normally, and we had a lot of different players
- 5:37Speaker 4: that we were talking about with KB and Rizzo and
- 5:41Speaker 4: a lot of guys that have done a lot for
- 5:43Speaker 4: the organization.
- 5:44Speaker 2: So it wasn't easy, wasn't cut and dry.
- 5:47Speaker 4: I think Jed did a did a really great job
- 5:50Speaker 4: of not only managing multiple transactions or potential transactions at
- 5:55Speaker 4: one time, but also handling the stress of moving club
- 6:01Speaker 4: icons that we were moving, and the pressure of making
- 6:04Speaker 4: sure you get something worthwhile back in return. I think
- 6:08Speaker 4: that Jed did a great job, especially in this particular deal.
- 6:12Speaker 5: And what were you kind of telling Jed, obviously because
- 6:14Speaker 5: you had the background that others probably didn't. What was
- 6:17Speaker 5: your feedback that you had given him and the rest
- 6:20Speaker 5: of the group.
- 6:21Speaker 4: Just it was a really really hard working kid, very
- 6:23Speaker 4: talented kid. I became very comfortable with the talent during
- 6:29Speaker 4: that instruction league, being able to see him run down
- 6:31Speaker 4: fly balls and being being able to see him base run.
- 6:34Speaker 4: I remember seeing him hit a home run at one
- 6:36Speaker 4: O seven at the time, and I was like, wow,
- 6:39Speaker 4: that's special. Most guys that run and defend like that
- 6:41Speaker 4: can't hit the ball that hard. So I just gave
- 6:44Speaker 4: him the information that I had. But it was really
- 6:48Speaker 4: ultimately Jude's choice to pull the trigger on the deal.
- 6:51Speaker 4: And you know, it looks it looks good so far.
- 6:55Speaker 1: Did you see him struggle with the emotional aspect of
- 7:00Speaker 1: this or was he able to kind of, I guess,
- 7:02Speaker 1: disassociate from that aspect because, like Patrick said, this was
- 7:06Speaker 1: the World Series team. I mean, he built something that
- 7:09Speaker 1: everyone thought was pretty special in Chicago, and it was
- 7:11Speaker 1: the right move, but it was it had to be.
- 7:13Speaker 1: It was the right baseball move, but it had to
- 7:15Speaker 1: be hard. As emotional aspect of it all, Yeah, I
- 7:19Speaker 1: think it was.
- 7:20Speaker 4: It was certainly hard. I'm sure it was was harder
- 7:22Speaker 4: for for Jed than it was for me. For example,
- 7:24Speaker 4: I wasn't here for a lot of those a lot
- 7:27Speaker 4: of those glory years. But it definitely took a took
- 7:29Speaker 4: a toll on on Jed having to handle the media
- 7:33Speaker 4: and the fans and talk to the players and a
- 7:36Speaker 4: lot of emotions at the time. But like everything else,
- 7:39Speaker 4: he did what was best for the organization over the
- 7:43Speaker 4: long term.
- 7:44Speaker 1: Jarrey, We're going to take a real quick break here
- 7:47Speaker 1: and then and then we'll be right back with a
- 7:49Speaker 1: few more questions.
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- 8:24Speaker 1: When we were in Milwaukee, Jared Pete actually brought you up.
- 8:29Speaker 3: He said. He was talking about his time with the Mets.
- 8:32Speaker 1: He said, first day, I think I overslept for my
- 8:35Speaker 1: COVID test. That was like the best blessing in disguise.
- 8:39Speaker 1: We obviously talked about it, and I think we got
- 8:41Speaker 1: to know each other kind of from the job. Everybody
- 8:45Speaker 1: all the way back to the Mets felt pretty free,
- 8:47Speaker 1: but especially here, the people have just given me the
- 8:50Speaker 1: green light to be myself and kind of without question.
- 8:52Speaker 1: I'm grateful for that because it's probably a different story
- 8:55Speaker 1: if I'm getting hell back, but never once, and I'm
- 8:57Speaker 1: super grateful for that.
- 8:59Speaker 3: So, you know, Pete has been allowed to be himself.
- 9:03Speaker 1: I think that's you know, people love that about Pete,
- 9:06Speaker 1: his seeing his emotion on the field. I'm curious what
- 9:09Speaker 1: what was your recollection of that interaction and kind of
- 9:14Speaker 1: you you know, how did how did it go from
- 9:16Speaker 1: your end?
- 9:17Speaker 4: I have the same the same memory we have. You know,
- 9:20Speaker 4: it's the first day of instruction league. We have maybe
- 9:22Speaker 4: fifty or sixty players in. Then I remember we get
- 9:25Speaker 4: towards the end of COVID testing, Hey, has everyone done?
- 9:29Speaker 2: We get everyone in? Anyone have COVID?
- 9:31Speaker 4: Like, well, yeah, we got everyone in, but there's one
- 9:33Speaker 4: person mis saying okay, you know who's that, Peter Armstrong.
- 9:36Speaker 2: I'm like what.
- 9:38Speaker 4: So we sent someone back over to a hotel where
- 9:42Speaker 4: you know, we were calling the Morgan and the answer.
- 9:44Speaker 2: Someone eventually like banged on his.
- 9:46Speaker 4: Door and you know, you know how it is when
- 9:49Speaker 4: you're younger, you can sleep all through the morning. He
- 9:54Speaker 4: definitely overslept it and it was the first day he's
- 9:57Speaker 4: a you know, just basically coming out of high school.
- 9:59Speaker 4: It wasn't a huge thing, but I do remember telling him, hey,
- 10:02Speaker 4: you know, this can't happen anymore. So, but yeah, pizza
- 10:07Speaker 4: pizza unique personality, and I think as an organization are
- 10:13Speaker 4: our player development staff did a great job letting him
- 10:15Speaker 4: be himself. He plays the game with an edge. He's
- 10:18Speaker 4: a competitor, he gets he gets excited about things, and
- 10:23Speaker 4: he should and and we're all we're all happy to
- 10:27Speaker 4: watch him and he's fun to watch.
- 10:30Speaker 6: Jared.
- 10:30Speaker 5: We've we've had conversations over the years, and one thing
- 10:33Speaker 5: that stuck out to me was kind of as you
- 10:36Speaker 5: were overseeing the farm system, you stress this idea of
- 10:39Speaker 5: like there were kind of three main themes in player development.
- 10:43Speaker 5: One's having a growth mindset, who's being great teammates.
- 10:46Speaker 6: And three is being evidence based.
- 10:48Speaker 5: And I was curious just how, looking back on it,
- 10:52Speaker 5: did Pete's development sort of reflect those ideas? Can you
- 10:55Speaker 5: put that in a context of obviously he's a super
- 10:58Speaker 5: talented guy since he was whatever years old on Team USA,
- 11:01Speaker 5: but it takes sort of a village to get guys
- 11:04Speaker 5: this level. How do you reflect on that period and
- 11:08Speaker 5: kind of the broader ideas that were going on at
- 11:10Speaker 5: that time.
- 11:11Speaker 4: So I think Pete has a great growth mindset, and
- 11:14Speaker 4: I think the best evidence of that is when he
- 11:17Speaker 4: got to US, he was open to changing his swing. Now,
- 11:22Speaker 4: this is before he even played a game for US.
- 11:25Speaker 4: He was working with Rachel Folden and Stephen Polakov down
- 11:28Speaker 4: in Arizona, and he made some pretty significant changes to
- 11:31Speaker 4: a swing, which is not something most players are willing
- 11:34Speaker 4: to do prior to failing. You know, they've had so
- 11:37Speaker 4: much success their whole life doing things a certain way,
- 11:40Speaker 4: and they need to make sure oftentimes that it doesn't
- 11:43Speaker 4: work anymore first before doing anything, and I think Pete
- 11:45Speaker 4: was so hungry to grow and get better that he
- 11:49Speaker 4: made some changes early on. I think they they bared
- 11:52Speaker 4: a lot of fruit once he got to Myrtle.
- 11:53Speaker 1: Beach Jared along. I mean, PCA is obviously the star
- 11:59Speaker 1: of the young kids. It's right now as far as
- 12:01Speaker 1: how well he's performing, But it's not like this team
- 12:04Speaker 1: is short on youth. It's a really nice mix of
- 12:07Speaker 1: veterans and kids, and we're starting to see kind of
- 12:10Speaker 1: this youth movement. PCA obviously came up last year and
- 12:13Speaker 1: this first full season seems like a you know, MVP
- 12:18Speaker 1: caliber performance. But Matt Shaw came up right away, struggled
- 12:22Speaker 1: back down, back up, and it immediately looks like what
- 12:26Speaker 1: the work you put in is impacted. And Mois's biasteris
- 12:29Speaker 1: with a quick cup of coffee. I'm sure he'll be
- 12:31Speaker 1: back at some point. And Kate Horton, you know, I
- 12:35Speaker 1: feel like those are the types of starts you need
- 12:38Speaker 1: from a kid. When a huge piece goes down in
- 12:40Speaker 1: the rotation, he's done what you've asked of him. How
- 12:43Speaker 1: important has how gratifying has it been for you to
- 12:47Speaker 1: watch young kids come up and impact a playoff caliber team,
- 12:51Speaker 1: and can you kind of give some insight into the
- 12:54Speaker 1: player development aspect of I think each of these guys
- 12:57Speaker 1: has a little bit of a story. Kate and Matt
- 13:00Speaker 1: Shaw in particular. I think what we saw from Kate
- 13:03Speaker 1: last year, what we saw from Matt the first you know,
- 13:06Speaker 1: a few weeks of the season, these are these are
- 13:08Speaker 1: good player development stories.
- 13:11Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 13:12Speaker 4: I think the thing that stands out is going into
- 13:14Speaker 4: this year, we felt as though our our our youth,
- 13:19Speaker 4: our players, our prospects were at a level now where
- 13:22Speaker 4: they could help us at the major league level if
- 13:24Speaker 4: something happened like the Caid's the moist Face Shaw. We
- 13:28Speaker 4: felt like and even more so, I'll Kantara Casey, all
- 13:30Speaker 4: those guys that are down that we've been telling you
- 13:33Speaker 4: about for for many years, they're finally ready to actually
- 13:36Speaker 4: come up and help if needed. And I think it's
- 13:37Speaker 4: already shown itself a bit with show to going down
- 13:40Speaker 4: and Kate having to come up and step up.
- 13:43Speaker 2: Same thing with Moistace. Whe have had to go on
- 13:44Speaker 2: the IL.
- 13:45Speaker 4: We haven't necessarily had those prospects ready to do that
- 13:50Speaker 4: in years past. So I think that's what a makes
- 13:53Speaker 4: this year a little bit a little bit different, like
- 13:55Speaker 4: like you're saying the youth that they're starting to grow
- 14:00Speaker 4: into actual major league players, which is really fun to watch.
- 14:04Speaker 4: To go into the specifics of each guy, I think
- 14:07Speaker 4: to start with Shaw, it's plain to see him coming
- 14:11Speaker 4: back to the big leagues. He's he's shortened his leg
- 14:13Speaker 4: kick right, So what that tells me is that he
- 14:17Speaker 4: felt like he needed to have a little bit of
- 14:19Speaker 4: a simpler stride in order to get on time for
- 14:21Speaker 4: the fastball, which is something that you know he struggled
- 14:24Speaker 4: a little bit with in his first round up here.
- 14:29Speaker 4: So I think that's an example of a player just
- 14:34Speaker 4: coming up, getting a taste of it, going down, knowing
- 14:36Speaker 4: he needs to work on something, making an adjustment, and
- 14:39Speaker 4: then coming back. And that's what we love to see.
- 14:40Speaker 4: Development is not linear generally, they're ups and downs to it.
- 14:44Speaker 4: Obviously Pete dealt with the same thing and then ultimately,
- 14:49Speaker 4: you know, it all bears fruit at the end. So again,
- 14:52Speaker 4: we're excited about the whole group and excited about the
- 14:54Speaker 4: season so far.
- 14:56Speaker 5: Just one more on pe Jared, I remember you and
- 15:00Speaker 5: I trying to make our way through the crowds at
- 15:02Speaker 5: Dodger Stadium in April, and Pete had just had that
- 15:04Speaker 5: big game, you know, blowing the kiss to his parents.
- 15:09Speaker 5: I didn't foresee the hot streak that was kind of coming.
- 15:12Speaker 5: But do you do you think this is going to
- 15:15Speaker 5: change Pete or how do you think he's going to
- 15:17Speaker 5: handle what.
- 15:18Speaker 6: Is sort of coming here?
- 15:19Speaker 5: Like He's been a well known player for a long time,
- 15:23Speaker 5: but he seems to be in this kind of different stratosphere.
- 15:26Speaker 6: Now, how does one navigate?
- 15:28Speaker 5: How do you think he'll he'll handle it.
- 15:31Speaker 4: He's built for this, Honestly. I think if anyone's prepared
- 15:35Speaker 4: for it, he is. I think he's always believed in himself.
- 15:38Speaker 4: I think he's always known that this is the type
- 15:40Speaker 4: of player he would be, and it's just the rest
- 15:42Speaker 4: of us that are just catching up now.
- 15:45Speaker 6: It's a good way to put it.
- 15:46Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been It's been really fun to cover this
- 15:49Speaker 1: team the first two months now. Jared, thanks so much
- 15:54Speaker 1: for joining us. You know, we wish you all the
- 15:56Speaker 1: luck the rest of this way. I'm sure we'll run
- 15:58Speaker 1: into each other plenty of times on the road. Thanks
- 16:01Speaker 1: for your time, man, Take it easy, appreciate it, Take
- 16:05Speaker 1: care all right, Patrick, We got we got three with
- 16:12Speaker 1: the Reds. We'll have a Trent Rosecrantz later this week
- 16:16Speaker 1: to preview that with the Cubs. Uh, PCA is the story, right,
- 16:20Speaker 1: I mean this is you know we we will talk
- 16:23Speaker 1: about Kyle Tucker, we talk about the pitching staff, the bullpen.
- 16:28Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 16:29Speaker 1: I think the fact that PCA has become this Uh,
- 16:32Speaker 1: you know what, let's let's take a quick break and
- 16:35Speaker 1: touch base on on just what what PCA has become here.
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- 17:41Speaker 1: Patrick pca Is has become like the face of this
- 17:46Speaker 1: team suddenly, you know, we kun Tucker is just not
- 17:52Speaker 1: like he's just so good and just so like a
- 17:55Speaker 1: metronome like performance.
- 17:58Speaker 3: But he's not also like this.
- 17:59Speaker 1: Huge headline quote, as as good of a player as
- 18:04Speaker 1: he's a good dude, he's not. It's not like if
- 18:07Speaker 1: you find him and talk to him, it's not like
- 18:09Speaker 1: he'll say get away from me or anything like that.
- 18:11Speaker 3: It's just, uh, Pa has this.
- 18:15Speaker 1: Aura already around him, and he's got a great personality.
- 18:19Speaker 3: He's he's good with us. Even when when I was talking.
- 18:21Speaker 1: About part of that interview in Milwaukee was I asked
- 18:25Speaker 1: him about you know, is this going to get annoying
- 18:28Speaker 1: for you? You know, we just keep coming to your
- 18:31Speaker 1: to your locker afterwards, and he likes. I mean, it's
- 18:34Speaker 1: not like he wants the spotlight as much. He's not
- 18:37Speaker 1: like seeking it out. It's more like he doesn't. We
- 18:40Speaker 1: don't annoy him, Like he doesn't mind talking about this
- 18:42Speaker 1: stuff as long as he gets to get his work
- 18:44Speaker 1: in and play baseball, which I kind of love the
- 18:47Speaker 1: way he talks about baseball too. He still has that
- 18:49Speaker 1: childlike love of the game. He seems fine with it.
- 18:54Speaker 1: That's why I'd like your question there at the end
- 18:56Speaker 1: of Jared is like, how is he going to handle this?
- 18:58Speaker 1: I think Jared's right, He's built for this. He seems
- 19:00Speaker 1: he's not making any missteps here.
- 19:03Speaker 5: Yeah, I kind of out of central casting, you know,
- 19:06Speaker 5: in terms of you know, parents who have extensive credits
- 19:11Speaker 5: in Hollywood. He's not annoyed yet, but I will get
- 19:18Speaker 5: I will give him credit for he was very introspective
- 19:22Speaker 5: last year, you know, like I think even going back
- 19:25Speaker 5: to I think you might have talked to him. Was
- 19:27Speaker 5: it during the lockout year when there was kind of
- 19:29Speaker 5: a prospect camp and like very engaging, like very thoughtful.
- 19:35Speaker 5: Obviously a lot of the questions now are like why
- 19:37Speaker 5: are you so awesome? And how awesome is it being
- 19:39Speaker 5: this awesome? But like he he engaged on you know,
- 19:43Speaker 5: when he was sort of struggling and what was like
- 19:45Speaker 5: being traded for Hobby Baiaz and you know he was
- 19:49Speaker 5: he was a minor leaguer with a mess, but that's
- 19:51Speaker 5: still like, you know, part of the New York market.
- 19:56Speaker 6: I think he gets it. And yeah, certainly.
- 20:01Speaker 5: You know, another difference too between Tucker and kro Armstrong
- 20:04Speaker 5: is like, no one knows what's gonna happen with Tucker,
- 20:06Speaker 5: but Pete is definitely someone you can build around, you
- 20:10Speaker 5: can market year over year.
- 20:11Speaker 6: There's going to be a history there.
- 20:13Speaker 5: I mean it starts with his dad, you know, being
- 20:16Speaker 5: a Cubs fan in Naperville and having a whole nother
- 20:19Speaker 5: layer to this, you know, Pete, you know, basically being told,
- 20:26Speaker 5: you know, in the early THEO Jed era, like all right,
- 20:29Speaker 5: you gotta you gotta hop on now, I don't want
- 20:31Speaker 5: a bandwagon fan. And Ken Rosenthal wrote about that. We
- 20:34Speaker 5: had written about, you know how this is a kid
- 20:36Speaker 5: who grew up with Anthony Rizzo Sports Illustrated World series
- 20:40Speaker 5: framed cover in his house. So really just an amazing
- 20:46Speaker 5: story and really great to hear from Jared as someone
- 20:50Speaker 5: who you know, behind the scenes has watched Pete and
- 20:55Speaker 5: does have a you know, good relationship with him, a
- 20:58Speaker 5: long standing relationship.
- 21:00Speaker 6: It's the Armstrong Crawl Armstrong family.
- 21:03Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 21:03Speaker 1: Absolutely, it was kind of Jared to join us. I've
- 21:07Speaker 1: been really enjoying this pc A story. Uh, It's it's
- 21:10Speaker 1: kind of you you know, when something kind of wild
- 21:14Speaker 1: is happening in front of you, right, Sometimes you'll see
- 21:16Speaker 1: it and you're like, whoa are we watching?
- 21:18Speaker 3: Is this happening? Are we watching this? Star be born?
- 21:21Speaker 3: And I think, you know, he needs.
- 21:22Speaker 1: He needs to continue to do it, but it feels
- 21:25Speaker 1: like this is happening and it's kind of a you know,
- 21:28Speaker 1: we're going to continue to write about it because he's
- 21:30Speaker 1: the story and it's really fun.
- 21:31Speaker 3: We're going to continue to talk about it.
- 21:33Speaker 1: He's easy to get behind in the sense like this,
- 21:37Speaker 1: he's he plays the game in a really exciting way.
- 21:40Speaker 1: He's easy to talk to, and he's and he's fun
- 21:42Speaker 1: on and off the field, like these are the This
- 21:44Speaker 1: is what kind of baseball should be. They they they
- 21:47Speaker 1: should market players like this. So it's it's nice to
- 21:49Speaker 1: have someone like that. We'll be back tomorrow with with
- 21:54Speaker 1: another episode, and then again next week three against the Reds.
- 21:59Speaker 1: We'll preview that one coming up. Thanks so much for
- 22:02Speaker 1: listening everyone. This is North Side Territory. Make sure to
- 22:04Speaker 1: rate review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe
- 22:07Speaker 1: to The Athletic where we are on top of all
- 22:10Speaker 1: things cubs. Thanks everyone taking