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Cubs officials showing sense of urgency with roster · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Sadiv Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic. Patrick. The Cubs
0:16
Speaker 1: just wrapped up a pretty tough West Coast trip three
0:19
Speaker 1: and three. I think I think pretty much anyone that
0:22
Speaker 1: pays attention to what's going on in the league and
0:26
Speaker 1: how difficult it is to go out West, how difficult
0:28
Speaker 1: those teams are where it is in the season, all
0:31
Speaker 1: that stuff, you'll take that. You'll take that. Three and three.
0:36
Speaker 1: They were they perfect, No like were there are their concerns? Sure,
0:42
Speaker 1: some things popped up. I think they're worth watching. I
0:46
Speaker 1: think the first thing that kind of jumped out to me,
0:48
Speaker 1: obviously was the moves that they made which happened. Was
0:53
Speaker 1: did those happen first day, right before San Diego or
0:57
Speaker 1: was it the second Tuesday?
0:59
Speaker 2: The days are sort of blending together for me for
1:02
Speaker 2: taking a red eye flight home, But Tuesday, I think
1:06
Speaker 2: Tuesday sounds right.
1:07
Speaker 1: Right, And you're right. I think we talked about it
1:11
Speaker 1: how we kind of expected Bullpen moves right like it
1:14
Speaker 1: kind of knew Bolten moves were coming. That was Monday night.
1:17
Speaker 1: When that when all the when all yes, it was
1:19
Speaker 1: Monday night in San Diego. Eli Morgan got forced in action,
1:23
Speaker 1: did not look like he was feeling too great, So
1:27
Speaker 1: we knew those were coming. We kind of expected stuff.
1:30
Speaker 1: But it's it's the match Shaw demotion. I think that.
1:34
Speaker 1: I don't think it was fully on our radar. It's
1:36
Speaker 1: not shocking, but I think it. You know, there's a lot,
1:43
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on there. What was the feel
1:46
Speaker 1: in San Diego and what did you gather about this move?
1:52
Speaker 2: Just to reframe it, I think going back to spring training,
1:55
Speaker 2: we talked about the idea of like, hey, Matchell might
1:59
Speaker 2: wind up in Iowa, you know, if if he does
2:02
Speaker 2: make the plane to Tokyo. But I did not expect
2:08
Speaker 2: it in the middle of April. I thought there would
2:13
Speaker 2: be more runway, especially when the team is largely playing well,
2:18
Speaker 2: the offense is functioning at a pretty high level, and
2:23
Speaker 2: that Shaw's defense did prove to be passable, not spectacular,
2:28
Speaker 2: but not as glaring an issue as you know, maybe
2:34
Speaker 2: you had thought given his lack of experience there. But
2:38
Speaker 2: Craig Council said, in his experience, seventy play appearances is
2:42
Speaker 2: usually a pretty good barometer in these cases, and Shaw
2:46
Speaker 2: was right around sixty eight. The at bats, in Council's eyes,
2:52
Speaker 2: were a struggle not nearly competitive enough, and that this
2:58
Speaker 2: was a move to get more production out of the position,
3:03
Speaker 2: and you know, with where the Cubs are, they did
3:08
Speaker 2: not hesitate. I think I think you were getting some
3:13
Speaker 2: texts about how Shaw looked at Dodger Stadium. And I'm
3:19
Speaker 2: not sure exactly when counsel and present team president Jed
3:23
Speaker 2: Hoyer started talking about it, but definitely during that Dodger
3:27
Speaker 2: series was if it was not the initial kind of travelon,
3:33
Speaker 2: those talks really picked up then and Shaw traveled to
3:37
Speaker 2: San Diego, was there, you know, for the first game
3:43
Speaker 2: and then that Tuesday. I think we're gonna kind of
3:48
Speaker 2: hear echoes of this throughout the season, and we will
3:50
Speaker 2: get into that more throughout this episode. But that was
3:55
Speaker 2: a move made with a definite sense of urgency.
4:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean yes, I got some texts during
4:04
Speaker 1: the weekend about Shaw. Initially I got texts about the piece,
4:09
Speaker 1: Like I wrote some notes and one of them was
4:12
Speaker 1: about Shaw's mechanics, And it was not me criticizing the mechanics.
4:17
Speaker 1: It was trying to understand how he got these odd
4:20
Speaker 1: mechanics right, odd mechanics can work. We've seen We've seen it.
4:25
Speaker 1: We see it all the time. Players have weird tics
4:28
Speaker 1: they have they developed. I mean Craig Council had a
4:32
Speaker 1: random batting stance, right, Like, these things can work, you can.
4:36
Speaker 1: You would not teach it to anybody. They end up working, right.
4:41
Speaker 1: I do scot some texts for people saying like, I'm
4:45
Speaker 1: glad you asked about that, because like scouts like wondering, like,
4:47
Speaker 1: I don't know how you end up in that position.
4:50
Speaker 1: I don't know how he's gonna hit U. He doesn't
4:52
Speaker 1: seem ready to hit. And these are guys that like
4:55
Speaker 1: him as a prospect. So I think something happened long
5:00
Speaker 1: the way where he must have gotten more dramatic over
5:02
Speaker 1: the over the years. I also believe, you know, he
5:08
Speaker 1: was developing some like poor habits when it came to
5:11
Speaker 1: what he was swinging at and like how he was
5:14
Speaker 1: attacking pitchers. It just seemed like he wasn't himself. And
5:19
Speaker 1: you know, like you said that, there's a sense of
5:22
Speaker 1: urgency here and they have they have veterans that can
5:25
Speaker 1: perform at the level, if not better than what Shaw
5:28
Speaker 1: was performing it, so may as well try and get
5:31
Speaker 1: more production. John Birdie is a good bench bat that
5:34
Speaker 1: can take a you know, can eat some at bats
5:37
Speaker 1: and give you quality at bats and play good defense.
5:40
Speaker 1: Gauge workman, you know you're going to get a good
5:42
Speaker 1: level of defense. Why not give him some run? To
5:46
Speaker 1: give him some at bats. We'll see what they do
5:48
Speaker 1: with Vidala Bruhan. How much he hasn't gotten at bat
5:53
Speaker 1: right yet? Right? I did? I didn't miss something? I don't.
5:56
Speaker 1: I don't remember him. No, he didn't. He hasn't gotten
5:58
Speaker 1: in a game yet unless I miss I think, Uh,
6:02
Speaker 1: he never got any run really in in Tampa Bay
6:06
Speaker 1: uh or or really much in Miami. So who knows.
6:09
Speaker 1: If they give him a shot the way Matt Murvis
6:12
Speaker 1: is performing, I think Cubs fans may want to see
6:15
Speaker 1: some return on investment there.
6:18
Speaker 2: We're not going to do a Matt Murvos episode. That
6:21
Speaker 2: would be me just taking off these headphones and walking away.
6:27
Speaker 1: I think that would be fair. We won't get we won't.
6:30
Speaker 1: We won't go down that route.
6:32
Speaker 2: Good good for good for good for him. Uh, it
6:34
Speaker 2: just it did not work in Chicago. And whatever he
6:36
Speaker 2: does from here, I don't think that's like some sort
6:38
Speaker 2: of on the Cubs.
6:41
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, he just wasn't going to get
6:43
Speaker 1: that playing time. And and look at what Matt Michael
6:46
Speaker 1: Bush is doing anyways, I think ultimately like it. See,
6:51
Speaker 1: you know, I'd be surprised if this is like a
6:56
Speaker 1: months long emotion, right, unless he struggles, unless he's it's
7:00
Speaker 1: something mental where he struggles at triple A, I'd be
7:03
Speaker 1: surprised if that happens. Maybe they're gonna make some some
7:07
Speaker 1: more adjustments, maybe they make more tweaks, and that requires
7:11
Speaker 1: a longer stay. But it was the sense that you got, like,
7:15
Speaker 1: did like this to be a quick quick thing?
7:19
Speaker 2: Well yeah, they said that, but they always say that.
7:23
Speaker 1: Right right, that's fair.
7:26
Speaker 2: It. I mean it was explicit of from counsel and
7:31
Speaker 2: where of we think Matt Shaw is our third baseman.
7:35
Speaker 2: We want Matt Shaw to be Arthur baseman. You know,
7:40
Speaker 2: we expect him back here soon. We want to bring
7:43
Speaker 2: him back here soon.
7:44
Speaker 1: But like.
7:46
Speaker 2: He had his chance and he did not capitalize.
7:48
Speaker 1: And so.
7:50
Speaker 2: Maybe he does make some of those tweaks because it
7:54
Speaker 2: part of this certainly was to exhale, but part of
7:58
Speaker 2: it too was just how it kind of looked, and
8:02
Speaker 2: Hoyer made the point of, like, what made Matt Shaw
8:06
Speaker 2: a great hitting prospect was his ability to do damage,
8:11
Speaker 2: the exit velocities, just driving the ball, And what the
8:16
Speaker 2: Cubs saw was a young hitter who was kind of
8:21
Speaker 2: in survival mode and it was just sort of looking
8:23
Speaker 2: to make contact and you know, not strike out, not
8:29
Speaker 2: look overmatched, and ultimately that's kind of what the numbers showed.
8:33
Speaker 2: I think he was able to draw walks, which you know,
8:37
Speaker 2: kind of boosted his numbers and does show something. And
8:41
Speaker 2: I think everyone who's dealt with him thinks he's a
8:43
Speaker 2: very intelligent player, you know, a self made player who
8:49
Speaker 2: we're guessing is taking this in stride. We don't know.
8:53
Speaker 2: He was not in the clubhouse when it opened on Tuesday,
8:56
Speaker 2: but his reputation is this kind of baseball Jim Ratt.
9:02
Speaker 2: But you know, the game is all about timing and opportunity,
9:09
Speaker 2: and he didn't take advantage this time. Now, maybe someone
9:15
Speaker 2: gets injured, you know, maybe the offense goes into tailspin.
9:19
Speaker 2: Like I don't know how much he can prove at
9:22
Speaker 2: the Triple A level, just given kind of the level
9:25
Speaker 2: of in quality of competition there at this point, Like
9:30
Speaker 2: I do think force feeding him at bats at the
9:34
Speaker 2: major leagues is probably the best thing for his development ultimately.
9:38
Speaker 2: But that's that would not be a good thing for
9:41
Speaker 2: the under pressure twenty twenty five Cubs at all. Yeah.
9:44
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And I mean this wouldn't be the first time
9:48
Speaker 1: someone's sent down and comes back up and thrives. Right,
9:52
Speaker 1: there's plenty of Cubs Hobby, Kyle Sharber, Anthony Rizzo, Kyle
9:57
Speaker 1: Tucker was sent down with that, I believe multiple times.
10:02
Speaker 1: And we'll talk. Let's take a quick break, but under
10:06
Speaker 1: pressure Cubs front office is the theme of these moves, right,
10:11
Speaker 1: Let's dig into that after this break. Top Fither.
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11:16
Speaker 1: All right. Patrick Mattshaw was not the only move. Nate
11:20
Speaker 1: Pearson was sent down, Eli Morgan was sent to the
11:24
Speaker 1: l Daniel Palencia called up, and Luke Little called up.
11:29
Speaker 1: Yeah we can. I mean Luke Little did not look
11:32
Speaker 1: good and is uh whatever. However many it was a
11:36
Speaker 1: two outs that he was able to record.
11:38
Speaker 2: Uh.
11:40
Speaker 1: He was really struggled to throw strikes, couldn't get any chase.
11:45
Speaker 1: It's a good lineup, but that's I mean, you gotta
11:47
Speaker 1: be more competitive than that. I thought Daniel Polentcia was
11:50
Speaker 1: pretty good. He made one mistake, you could say to
11:57
Speaker 1: he kind of hung a slider to uh. One of
12:00
Speaker 1: the best players in the game in Manny Machado. Uh.
12:03
Speaker 1: Like that was pitching back to back. I believe right,
12:06
Speaker 1: he pitched back to back and he and he was
12:09
Speaker 1: still throwing like triple digits, and that was a big
12:12
Speaker 1: concern last year. Can you handle throwing back to back?
12:15
Speaker 1: I I think I think that's I'd be encouraged if
12:19
Speaker 1: I if I were a fan, if I'm on that
12:21
Speaker 1: coaching staff like Sulensia did, like I thought that looked
12:26
Speaker 1: that was encouraging. I. Outside of that, you know, like, listen,
12:31
Speaker 1: they the bullpen had to I said this earlier in
12:34
Speaker 1: the week. I didn't feel like I was being too
12:38
Speaker 1: aggressive when I said, like, you know, they need to
12:41
Speaker 1: be aggressive. They need to they need to make moves
12:44
Speaker 1: like this is what we were told when they built
12:47
Speaker 1: this depth with the bullpen going into the coming into
12:51
Speaker 1: the season, that they are not going to sit and
12:54
Speaker 1: wait for everything to kind of work itself out. If
12:57
Speaker 1: things aren't working, you gotta make changes because why else
13:01
Speaker 1: have what there's no other reason to add all these
13:03
Speaker 1: pieces and tell us the problem last year was a
13:07
Speaker 1: lack of depth, and then you're not going to use it.
13:10
Speaker 1: They're using it. At least it may not be perfect,
13:13
Speaker 1: but at least they're using it. And and I do
13:15
Speaker 1: see signs of the bullpen kind of smoothing out in
13:19
Speaker 1: different ways. But it's I think fans should be encouraged,
13:23
Speaker 1: if by nothing else the sense of urgency that the
13:26
Speaker 1: front office is showing.
13:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Craig Council, narrative killer downplayed that idea
13:33
Speaker 2: when I asked him about that very idea, and I
13:37
Speaker 2: get what he was saying, that these are all individual
13:40
Speaker 2: situations like Seawright not not producing enough. Eli Morgan gets hurt,
13:49
Speaker 2: they need a picture, and you know Nate Pearson had
13:53
Speaker 2: been struggling. But look, we all know some of the
13:57
Speaker 2: pressure points here. We also know the strategy that you
14:01
Speaker 2: just outline, s how have Like what's the point of
14:05
Speaker 2: collecting all these options if you're not going to press
14:08
Speaker 2: these buttons? And that doesn't mean they're going to, you know,
14:14
Speaker 2: have a quick hook, short leash every single time. But
14:20
Speaker 2: I don't know. It seemed just different, like middle of
14:24
Speaker 2: April with the Cubs in first place, and not just that,
14:30
Speaker 2: but like playing pretty well in terms of the eye test,
14:34
Speaker 2: not just you know, run differential, running up the points
14:39
Speaker 2: against like a Dodger's position player, but like no or
14:42
Speaker 2: like doing it against bad teams, like this has been
14:46
Speaker 2: a pretty impressive body of work. And to flip on
14:53
Speaker 2: Matt Shaw that quickly, even though long term, you still
14:56
Speaker 2: believe in him, and to you know, on a lesser extent,
15:00
Speaker 2: apply the same logic to Nate Pearson, you know, lesser
15:05
Speaker 2: meaning like you know, maybe you're not as invested as
15:09
Speaker 2: a first round pick, but like they put a lot
15:12
Speaker 2: of effort into Nate Pearson, they identified him. I mean,
15:15
Speaker 2: their history with him, as we've talked about, goes all
15:16
Speaker 2: the way back to his draft year, Like this is
15:20
Speaker 2: a guy they believe in. And you know, Counsel and
15:26
Speaker 2: Hoyer both like raved about how he looked in spring
15:30
Speaker 2: training that Jed Base said, like he might have looked
15:33
Speaker 2: like our best reliever when they got on the plane
15:36
Speaker 2: to Japan, and for whatever reason, whether it was the
15:40
Speaker 2: schedule or a bad habit, bad matchup, whatever, it just
15:46
Speaker 2: did not carry over. And again they said the same
15:49
Speaker 2: thing of he just needs to work on stuff out
15:54
Speaker 2: of the spotlight and sort of on his own pace,
15:56
Speaker 2: and that certainly makes sense. He could come back and
16:01
Speaker 2: be very good. He was good after the trade last summer.
16:06
Speaker 2: But to me, it just felt like, Okay, if you're
16:10
Speaker 2: willing to do this this early when things are going well,
16:15
Speaker 2: it'll be fascinating to see what they do when things
16:18
Speaker 2: inevitably turn at some point.
16:20
Speaker 1: Right right, if they hit the skids, Yeah, they're certainly
16:24
Speaker 1: going to you know, pull whatever lever they can.
16:27
Speaker 2: Ye.
16:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I I do think they were encouraging
16:32
Speaker 1: signs for the bullpen over the last week. I think
16:36
Speaker 1: we saw I think we saw Ryan Presley turn a corner.
16:40
Speaker 1: He's throwing harder, he is throwing strikes. He looks like
16:45
Speaker 1: a much better pitcher. He looks like what you know,
16:48
Speaker 1: you trade it for, and you wrote about that. I
16:55
Speaker 1: think it's huge that they have identified some pieces here.
16:59
Speaker 1: Right There's Presley looks like himself. Porter Hodge is a
17:05
Speaker 1: pretty damn good reliever, like one of the better ones
17:09
Speaker 1: in the game, I would assume, And and Julian Merriweather
17:14
Speaker 1: is starting to, you know, find his form again. He's
17:17
Speaker 1: healthy and he looks like himself. You know, I think
17:20
Speaker 1: that's I don't think this is like, I think you
17:25
Speaker 1: can see a pathway to where the bullpen is in
17:28
Speaker 1: a concern. Right it is into a major concern. The
17:33
Speaker 1: what you want is these close games where you're down right,
17:38
Speaker 1: you have down the relievers you use when you're down right.
17:43
Speaker 1: You don't want to go to Porter Hodge and Ryan
17:45
Speaker 1: Presley and those guys in those situations. Right, I saw
17:48
Speaker 1: some people, you know. I don't know if this is
17:51
Speaker 1: super prevalent or if people aren't super aware, if I'm
17:54
Speaker 1: just seeing these random tweets, But there are people wondering,
17:57
Speaker 1: why aren't why is in Porter Hodge in that situation?
17:59
Speaker 1: Why if the if the Padres can go back to
18:02
Speaker 1: back with their relievers, why can't the Cubs. That's not
18:04
Speaker 1: the issue. The issue is when you're down, you do
18:08
Speaker 1: not use your best relievers. And no manager does this.
18:11
Speaker 1: No manager not, and especially not in April. It's not
18:15
Speaker 1: a Craig Council thing. It's not like an advanced stats
18:18
Speaker 1: thing or anything like that. It's just like like every
18:22
Speaker 1: manager says, you have your down relievers when you're even
18:24
Speaker 1: if it's a close game, yes you want to keep
18:26
Speaker 1: it close, but you're not gonna use Porter Hodge. You're
18:28
Speaker 1: not gonna use Ryan Presley, You're not gonna use Julian Merriweather.
18:32
Speaker 1: They're unless you're just out of relievers, right. He didn't
18:34
Speaker 1: even want to use Ethan Roberts that one night. Uh No,
18:38
Speaker 1: that was yeah, that was that was when.
18:41
Speaker 2: Hey, yeah you had to come in to clean up littles.
18:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't think he wanted to use him.
18:47
Speaker 1: I mean, there's that's why Luke little Face did Fernando tatists.
18:50
Speaker 1: He was just he's trying to get through that inning
18:53
Speaker 1: using his down relievers. So you know this is you
18:59
Speaker 1: want those guys to be a little cleaner. That's where
19:03
Speaker 1: you want to see some things step up, which is
19:05
Speaker 1: why I felt like Palencia was despite giving up a run,
19:12
Speaker 1: his progress, the way he looked, I think is a
19:15
Speaker 1: nice little step in the right direction. You have to
19:17
Speaker 1: feel good about that. Ethan Roberts, whatever he's become now,
19:22
Speaker 1: I think that's interesting. I did not expect him to
19:25
Speaker 1: earn trust this quickly, but I appreciate that counsel will
19:29
Speaker 1: do that. He'll see something he likes. He clearly sees
19:32
Speaker 1: things that he likes, and he's like, yep, I trust
19:33
Speaker 1: this guy now, or I'm going to push him and
19:37
Speaker 1: give him more, give him more things, right, Like that's
19:39
Speaker 1: kind of how he looks at it. Okay, you pass
19:41
Speaker 1: this test, what else can you do? Yeah? And he
19:44
Speaker 1: gives those people that opportunity and he seems pretty aggressive
19:47
Speaker 1: with it. So you know, this is this whole season,
19:51
Speaker 1: This whole summer is going to be about this front
19:54
Speaker 1: office and the way they behave and how they treat
19:58
Speaker 1: any situation that comes up that could be that could
20:00
Speaker 1: slightly derail things because a long, extended slump. I don't,
20:03
Speaker 1: I don't. It's a We've talked about this month and
20:06
Speaker 1: how difficult it is so much, and and it is,
20:10
Speaker 1: but you cannot let it sink you. You can not have
20:13
Speaker 1: extended poor play. You have to you have to hang
20:16
Speaker 1: around at minimum and get through this tough stretch and
20:19
Speaker 1: then and then really take advantage of the weaker parts
20:22
Speaker 1: of the schedule. And it just doesn't seem like this
20:24
Speaker 1: front office is going to be waiting for things to happen, right, No.
20:30
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're kind of the seventh or eighth
20:33
Speaker 2: reliever in that Cubs bullpend, like you have to be
20:37
Speaker 2: performing and that I think that's kind of the first
20:41
Speaker 2: step here of just cycling out those guys at the bottom,
20:45
Speaker 2: like if they're not getting the job done, like there
20:49
Speaker 2: are some of those arms at Triple A Iowa that
20:52
Speaker 2: they're at least intrigued by, and then maybe hmm, something
20:57
Speaker 2: does click and you have a guy to where you
21:02
Speaker 2: can stay competitive and give your offense a chance in
21:07
Speaker 2: those games where you are trailing. We know that Council
21:12
Speaker 2: is pretty conservative, that he's willing to sort of play
21:18
Speaker 2: the percentages on his relievers, so not constantly chased from behind,
21:24
Speaker 2: but that wanting to be in position to like win
21:27
Speaker 2: those games that you should win. And that's why I think,
21:31
Speaker 2: you know, Ryan Presley stood out during this road trip
21:34
Speaker 2: of you know, winning a series at Dodger Stadium, getting
21:39
Speaker 2: the win in that ten inning game at Peco Park.
21:44
Speaker 2: It's a pass fail job. And he is now four
21:47
Speaker 2: for four and safe chances he's won a game. The
21:53
Speaker 2: game that he's lost that was the Justin Turner air
21:57
Speaker 2: at first base, which would have been a play to
22:00
Speaker 2: get him out of it. Like, yes, the whip is
22:03
Speaker 2: not good. There were some rocky addings at the beginning,
22:07
Speaker 2: but you know, in talking to Tommy Hotteve, the pitching
22:10
Speaker 2: coach in San Diego, he just explained how even before
22:16
Speaker 2: the Cubs acquired Presleague, Presley and his group had identified,
22:20
Speaker 2: which we had written about, certain kind of mechanical adjustments
22:23
Speaker 2: that they wanted to clean up. I know, which sounds
22:27
Speaker 2: great in theory, but the issue with it, how to
22:30
Speaker 2: be said, is for any of these guys, that's a
22:32
Speaker 2: lot of stuff in the training room, the weight room,
22:34
Speaker 2: drill work on flat ground. Translating it to the mound
22:39
Speaker 2: in real time with like fifty thousand people at Dodger
22:44
Speaker 2: Stadium kind of breathing down your neck is different. And
22:47
Speaker 2: it took him a while, but to his credit, he
22:51
Speaker 2: limited the damage. Now he got bailed out by Dansby Swanson.
22:55
Speaker 2: You were there that night when he made that awesome tag,
22:57
Speaker 2: But otherwise it did not spil. And that's why there
23:03
Speaker 2: is an optimism that the Cubs can kind of shrink
23:06
Speaker 2: some of these downtimes that are coming, that the spirals
23:10
Speaker 2: don't have to last as long. They needed someone from
23:15
Speaker 2: opening day who could kind of control the moment and
23:18
Speaker 2: handle it, particularly given the difficulties in the schedule, and
23:25
Speaker 2: in that sense, I am totally jinxing Ryan Presley for
23:29
Speaker 2: this weekend at regular Field and we'll see how it looks.
23:33
Speaker 2: You know, when the Dodgers and the Phillies lineup behind them.
23:39
Speaker 2: But you know, if you can set aside the outings
23:44
Speaker 2: that are very magnified at the front end of the
23:46
Speaker 2: season and acknowledge what council said that you're hoping your
23:51
Speaker 2: reliever throws fifteen to twenty pitches at most, but one
23:55
Speaker 2: or two in every outing can really tilt it one
23:58
Speaker 2: way or the other. So no one's saying that he's
24:03
Speaker 2: going to be perfect. But if his stuff is roughly
24:09
Speaker 2: there the way it was last year, his experience and
24:12
Speaker 2: composure are, you know, beyond reproach. Maybe the Cubs have
24:20
Speaker 2: a guy in the ninth inning to where kind of
24:23
Speaker 2: the panic level can can lower a little bit. On
24:26
Speaker 2: social media every time Ryan Presley enters. Now, I'm a
24:31
Speaker 2: luxury of saying that because I won't be there on
24:34
Speaker 2: Friday writing on deadline the way you may be.
24:38
Speaker 1: But uh well, I would echo your thoughts. I agree.
24:44
Speaker 1: I think there's something there, and I think there's a
24:47
Speaker 1: reason for optimism. And you know, we'll see this weekend's
24:51
Speaker 1: gonna I've been saying this before every series. I feel
24:54
Speaker 1: like this weekend the series is going to be tough.
24:56
Speaker 1: It's it's Corbyn Burns, it's Zach Gallon, it's Merrill Kelly,
24:59
Speaker 1: good luck to offense, wind is howling out. I believe
25:03
Speaker 1: that that's what it is expected to be. On Friday,
25:06
Speaker 1: we'll see it's it's I think it's gonna be one
25:08
Speaker 1: of those typical Chicago weekends where one day it's doing
25:11
Speaker 1: one thing, the next day it's completely different. So we'll
25:14
Speaker 1: see what it looks like all weekend. But tomorrow is
25:16
Speaker 1: expected to be howling out. So it's Colin Ray, Corbyn Burns,
25:24
Speaker 1: who knows who what what happens on days like that.
25:28
Speaker 1: We we've seen days like that where it's howling out
25:30
Speaker 1: and it's a you know, three to one or something
25:33
Speaker 1: weird like that. No one gets it up in the air.
25:36
Speaker 1: It's a you know, this gauntlet has not stopped. So
25:39
Speaker 1: we'll we'll continue to see what they do. I think it.
25:44
Speaker 1: I'm curious to see how the bullpen kind of like
25:47
Speaker 1: continues to coalesce. I think that's that'll be the continued
25:50
Speaker 1: thing that we that'll be the thing that we continue
25:53
Speaker 1: to watch and frankly like, how this starting rotation continues
25:56
Speaker 1: to do and if they're going to make any changes,
25:59
Speaker 1: if they're going to sick with with Colin Ray or
26:02
Speaker 1: whatever it may be. You know, Justin Steele obviously out
26:06
Speaker 1: for the season, so we'll see if any if any
26:08
Speaker 1: shifts come this weekend or or next week, we'll be
26:12
Speaker 1: on top of it. Thanks so much for listening everyone.
26:14
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26:17
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26:23
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26:25
Speaker 1: to everyone. Take