Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / For Cubs president Jed Hoyer, the offseason agenda is clear: Add a ton of pitching, catch up to Brewers

Transcript

For Cubs president Jed Hoyer, the offseason agenda is clear: Add a ton of pitching, catch up to Brewers · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside territory file territory networks, Cubs podcast. I'm
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner, Patrick Mooney. We are your
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the athletic Patrick. We recently
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: got back from Jed Hoyer's end of season press conference. And, uh,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I think there was one theme all along and it was, uh,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I think it's all connected that whatever theme, like it
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: kind of branched off of it, it was mostly connected
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: to pitching.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Uh, the Cubs that Jed didn't mince.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: His words that that's what the focus of this off
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: season is going to be about. Uh, I know fans
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: were frustrated by the offense at the end of the season.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I think some fans think they need some sort of
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: new approach. It was as well rounded as an offense
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: as you can find in baseball. I'm not sure what
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: more they can do to upgrade the offense. They are
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: going to lose two key players in all likelihood. We
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: can't say that for sure. Uh, say Suzuki and Ian
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: half are free agents, but by, uh, so many metrics,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: the offense and the defense were elite. The pitching, which
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: is what I wrote about, and it was 27th in
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: war by other metrics like velocity, worst velocity in baseball.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Stuff Plus had them at like 27th, like all these
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: different metrics you want to look at. It just wasn't
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: good enough. And Jed Hoyer acknowledged that. And I think
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: We will see, hopefully we will see the Cubs act
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: on that. Whether they make the right decisions is another question.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: It was interesting just how, you know, these group settings,
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: you know, this sort of like TV show for marquee,
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: sometimes things can go off the rails, but I thought
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: it was pretty sustained on point questioning in terms of
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: just to, get his thoughts on the pitching and it wasn't,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: it's not like gotcha stuff here. I mean, everyone saw, um,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: this pitching crisis. If you want to just kind of
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: look at how the injury front, the drafting and development front,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: the off season acquisition standpoint, um, the bullpen, the rotations,
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: I mean, to your point side of it, it's like
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: almost every question, um, tied back to pitching on some level,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: the Brewers, you know, however, however you wanted to kind
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: of frame it. And while there weren't many specifics, I mean,
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: he declined to comment on the coaching staff saying they're
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: kind of just beginning their exit meetings. I think a
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: lot of the stuff that they want to do will
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: be sort of invisible to the public eye. We're talking
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: about really behind the scenes stuff or even stuff that
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: isn't tangible per se, but where's the money going? It's
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: going to go towards pitching. Where's their energy and efforts
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: going to be directed all towards pitching.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: I was looking at the numbers.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: This is not arbitration eligible or pre-arb guys, but it's like,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: it's like nearly a hundred million guaranteed next year. to
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: position players and like 8 million guaranteed to pitchers. It's
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: like Mayton and I'm missing someone else. Uh, someone very,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: you know, someone else. It's, it's like two pitchers there.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: There are, there are options. There are arbitration, all that stuff. It'll,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: it'll be more than that. It'll, but it's going to
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: be like 120 million to, to hear, to your position
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: players when you add an arb and then like, and
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: like 15 mil to your pitchers. It's, it's not much,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: even if you go like add in the arm guys, uh.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: This is, I.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Don't think this is a drastic philosophical shift in a sense,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: but it will take some sort of philosophy change. And
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I think that it, I mean, I don't, I don't
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: think it's anything crazy. It's, it's pretty obvious what I
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: mentioned before. The Cubs don't have velocity. The Cubs don't
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: have swing and miss. I, I tried to, I mean,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: I thought that was going to be addressed in the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: off season. I think they tried to address that. Maton
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: struck out a lot of guys. Hunter Harvey is a
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: stuff guy. Edward Cabrera is a stuff guy.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: It didn't work.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Cade Horton and Justin Steele never pitched or, you know,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Cade Horton made two starts and Justin Steele never pitched
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: this year. Ben Brown is a stuff guy. Didn't pitch
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: enough this year due to injury. So I don't want to, Yes,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: injuries are a factor, but where's the rest of it?
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: This needs to be addressed, and it either needs to
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: come in the form of more strikeouts, or if you're
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: going to lean on this defense, there needs to be
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: a lot more ground ball action happening. The Cubs, I
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: looked this up, I believe they were 12th by the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: end of the season. That didn't happen until David Peterson
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: and Clay Holmes were added. before the trade deadline, they
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: were 20th in ground ball. Like that, that should not
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: be the case. Uh, it's nighttime when we're recording. So
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: that means scout gets a, gets full reign of the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: house in the neighborhood. So she's not happy with what's
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: going on in my front yard, but, uh, but, but
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's, that like has to be addressed. And
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I think, um, whether that's a talent evaluation, uh, Look,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: they don't have a ton.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Of pro scouts.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I think we know this is a model-based org. I
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: don't know how this works exactly, but the model is telling... Obviously,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the model is going to say, hey, the value is
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: here because, yeah, the value is going to be in
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: the guys that don't have stuff and don't... And they've
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: done a solid enough job identifying some undervalued guys. I
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: think it's time to pay up for stuff or identify...
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: something that's being undervalued that gets you strikeouts and ground balls.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know how that works exactly, but I think,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: and we, we talked about this last off season, Patrick. Um,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and I think either I asked one of us asked
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: or Jesse asked, like, does something need to be done
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: as far as how you value this stuff? Like something
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: like the, the market is telling you one thing and
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: you guys aren't spending for this stuff. Um, So whether
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: it's trades, whether it's money, whatever it is, I think
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: they have to go out and get stuff and swing
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: and miss. Just better overall quality of pitching.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: I don't think.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: This takes too much overthinking here, which is sometimes you're
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: trying to game the system, right? But they're not the Rays.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: They're not the Guardians. They're not the Brewers. They should
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: just go out and pay for it.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: They don't have to get so cute all the time.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: Although this is kind of the Dylan Cease question, right,
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: of Cubs liked him last offseason. I think most teams do.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: And then when they found out what the price range
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: would be, they were like, all right, we're out. They're
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: going to look at alternatives. And I think the payroll
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: questions were– Reduced significantly for a number of reasons. One,
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: the Cubs are expected to finish north of the CBT.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: They did add in-season. They did raise the payroll. Still
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: not top of the scale, but it's better than it
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: had been in recent years. And also, obviously, this looming
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: lockout and what emerges from the CBA, I think you
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: just can't. pin down exactly not that Jed Hoyer is
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: going to talk about peril anyways, but it's harder to
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: pin down some of those financial questions and like the
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: entire economic system, uh, could be in, in peril. Having
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: said that Hoyer did not rule out, uh, making deals, uh,
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: before December 1st. Uh, remember they signed Marcus Stroman and
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: that buzzer beater deal. There were, uh, actually a lot
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: of significant contracts executed before the owners implemented the last
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: lockout after 21 hitting into 22. But otherwise there, I
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: got this kind of flashback of like, what year is
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: this of just kind of asking all the pitching questions
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: and the, where are the young arms? Where is this pipeline? Like,
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: it really is just so similar to that previous era.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: There's not a World Series trophy to distract you from it,
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: but I think in broad strokes, Jed even agreed with
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: this premise of you have a very good core of
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: position players. Your pitching is good enough at the major
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: league level. You can game plan well. You can add
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: at the deadline. You can turn to where obviously those
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: war numbers you mentioned were not good, but like you
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: can kind of MacGyver your way through a season on
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: the pitching side. but just not good enough in the postseason,
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: and it just forces you to constantly kind of mortgage prospects,
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: overspend for sixth and seventh inning, relievers. And it just
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: kind of puts you on the defensive in a way
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: that it just sort of kind of remarkably similar here.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: We'll see if they can figure it out this time,
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: but it's just a lot of the same questions.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, they, they gave up prospects for pitching.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: You know, I think it's fine to give up Brett Bateman.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: He had a really nice run with the blue Jays
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: at the end of the season and When you have
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: someone like Pete Grohr-Armstrong manning center field and some depth
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: in the outfield prospects, I think that's okay. Jefferson Rojas
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: had a great final two months with the Mets in
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the Mets minor league system. We'll see if he pans out.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: We'll see if that's a reverse Pete Grohr-Armstrong trade. But
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: you needed Clay Holmes. You needed Kevin Gossman. You needed
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: guys like Tyrone Taylor. Look, getting a supplemental piece and
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: paying up for it and Tyrone Taylor is fine.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: They just.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: keep paying for pitching at the deadline and it just
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: it's it's something that it's not a one-time thing this
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: is every single time they've been competing they don't have
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: enough pitching um it's it's or they're spending all of
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: their financial resources on it it's one or the other
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: they just have never consistently developed pitching you know jed
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: mentioned it i mentioned it yes some guys got hurt
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: there needs to be more there needs to be a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: pipeline They've been talking about it for years. It has
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: not happened. It just hasn't been good enough. On the
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: other side of things, they're competing with a team directly
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: that has been good enough. You mentioned spending. You mentioned
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: all this other stuff. Let's take a quick break.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: I want to touch on the Brewers aspect of this.
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: Crouchy, just because the website says the tickets are sold
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: out doesn't mean you can't go see the Brewers in Milwaukee,
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: see the Dodgers in L.A., see the Rays in Tampa Bay.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: You can go to SeatGeek and find the best seat available.
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: Pick wherever you want to sit and buy one.
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: There's no bad seats in Milwaukee because the stadium is
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: right on top of the field. It feels like you're
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: in the grass. L.A., just don't get a seat near
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: the speakers. But you can find out where the best
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: seats in each stadium are on SeatGeek. And of course
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: I have a code for you guys. You can use
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: code TERRITORY10 for 10% off your next set of tickets
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: at SeatGeek. That's 10% off any tickets with promo code TERRITORY10.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: Make sure you click the link in the description to
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: download the app and have the code automatically added to
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: your account so you can use it later.
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: And you know what? If your team's not in the playoffs,
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: it's no big deal. Because SeatGeek's got you for tickets
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: for NFL, for concerts, anything that you want.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, uh, yet again, we're, we're going to
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: be talking about the Milwaukee Brewers. Uh, they will be
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: playing in the NLDS against the San Diego Padres, not
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: facing the Cubs. Let's, let's make this our Fox one
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: on deck segment. Uh, yet again, it's chasing the Brewers, uh,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Jed Hoyer was asked about the Brewers. It's not, it's
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: not a surprise. He didn't have like some, you know,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: grand answer. It's not like he was saying like, this
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: is what we need to do. This is why they're
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: better than us. I think we know why they're better
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: than them. You know, we don't need this. We don't
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: know the secret sauce between behind what they're doing, but
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: what they do is they, they, they develop pitching. It's
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: what we talked about before. They do a really good
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: job developing pitching. They do a really good job acquiring pitching.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: It's not just developing pitching. When they make trades, they
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: can't sign a lot of their players. They can't extend
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: their players. And they trade for, they make trades. Not
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: all of them hit, but they make so many trades.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: They make so many moves. They hit on enough. They
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: know what they're doing. They know what they're looking for.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Really well-run organization over there. I think the Cubs have
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: gotten better. But the gap has only grown, it seems like.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: It's kind of remarkable how it's worked out.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: I'm really looking forward to this Brewers-Padres series. I think
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: we'll have some good Cubs angles to it. Like if
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: the Padres just roll in there and either just knock
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: out the Brewers and then all of a sudden it's like, well,
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: their stuff doesn't work in the playoffs. Or if they like...
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: kind of destroy this Padres team that had crushed the Cubs.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: That would be another kind of cubby subplot there. I
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: thought it was interesting that Jed pointed out certain payroll
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: disparities and imbalances between the two leagues. And now I
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: think we come from a place of like, Jed is
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: very available, which I think helps his cause in the
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: long run. Like I think compared to other Chicago sports executives,
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: he is very chatty. I mean, you see some of
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: these executives, you know, rarely surface and rarely talk. And
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: I think it all kind of depends on your perspective
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: here of like, if you're angry, that's totally fine. You're
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: not going to want to hear anything Jed has to say.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: If you're, curious or if you're kind of uh willing
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: to give the cubs the benefit of the doubt i
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: think some of what he said was resonating i think
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: a lot of people are probably kind of on the
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: fence of just not really sure what to make of
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: say these 162 game samples and then these 27 hour
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: samples in the wild card round and i think two
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: of jet's points was yes the payroll disparity is an
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: advantage in the central But if you look at the
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: rest of the National League, Cubs don't really stand out
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: in that regard. They're in basically the same neighborhood as
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: the Padres and the Braves. Not close to the Phillies.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: Not close to the Dodgers. Not close to the Mets,
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: who spectacularly flamed.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Out this year.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: The Giants... were a mess this year, and they are
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: kind of a peer franchise to the Cubs. So I
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: don't think it's worthless that they made the playoffs back-to-back
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: years without winning the World Series. I just think that's
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: fundamentally kind of untrue. If you were at Wrigley Field
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: during last year's playoffs, if you enjoyed watching this team
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: this year, They played an entertaining brand of baseball for
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: most of six months. Like that's not nothing. But like comparing,
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: you know, having better records than every AL team, except
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: for the Rays and Yankees. I don't think that really
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: does that much for you either. If you're a Cubs
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: fan paying these prices and investing like your time and energy.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: And I also think internally there has, with this business
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: baseball tension happening, never goes away. And, you know, I
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: I'd imagine that's true for all 30 clubs, but we've
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: seen how much Wrigleyville has been built up. And that, yeah,
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: I think there, it's kind of natural to be like, well,
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: why do we, if you're on the business side of
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: why do we, spend so much more money than Brewers
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: and finish 14 games behind them. Then if you're on
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: the baseball side, it's natural to wonder like, like there's
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: 40,000 people here on a Tuesday night. How come our
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: payroll is nowhere close to the Phillies, Mets, Dodgers, et cetera.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: So that the Brewers just like bring that out. Like
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: when they're this good, you know, we haven't even mentioned,
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: you know, hiring Craig council way that has made a
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: dent in the division. Uh, the previous core, that 2016 group,
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, the brewers really slammed that window shut on them.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: And so, uh, that's why this, this rivalry is not
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: going away. And I think we can, you know, make
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: a promise that we won't, uh, underestimate the brewers whenever
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: baseball returns in 2027.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: I think I've, uh, I said multiple times on this
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: show that I'm not never doing that again. For multiple years,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: I did that. And that stopped a few years ago. That's,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: that's not going to happen ever again. They know what
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: they're doing.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: They have.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: So, you know, there's two ways to look at this.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: It's like, well, the Cubs are competing with the best
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: team in baseball two years in a row. It's the
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: best team in baseball. So of course they're going to
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: finish behind them. They're consistently far and away. The Cubs
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: could have won. 100 games on the dot, and they
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: would have still finished in second place. It's hard to
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: say that's a bad season. They weren't good enough this season.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Either. They are short in a major area.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Pitching is the name of the game, and the Cubs
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: have not figured it out yet.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: They've made a lot of different changes.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Maybe they were on the verge of being really good
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: at it with Craig Breso, and he moved on. He
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: got a president. offer and you're going to leave when,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: especially for it to be to go run the Red Sox,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: who knows how things would have gone. If he would
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: have stayed, maybe they would have stagnated. Maybe they would
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: have continued, continued on an upward trajectory. We'll see that
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: they've made changes yet again. You know, I think they'll
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: continue to evolve. I don't know if that leads to
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: anything good yet.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Like we, we need to see results.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: And I think the biggest problem, I shouldn't say the
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: biggest problem, the biggest frustration for fans is they just don't, like,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: the Cubs could be doing well at the lower levels
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: right now with pitching. You know, maybe there's some, like,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: there's some growth happening. And who cares for fans? Like,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: fans don't care about that. Like, I understand it. I
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: appreciate it. It's fun for me to learn about and
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: dig into. But fans just don't care until you're a
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: major leaguer. Like, impact the major league team, and they've
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: not done enough.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: They are light years.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: It feels like they're light years behind the Brewers in
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: that area. The Brewers just do something better than the
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Cubs there. They're up and down throughout the organization. They're
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: really well run, and the Cubs haven't caught up. The
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: bottom line is it's at the major league level. Now,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: to be fair, that whole process took years for the
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Brewers as well. I remember when they were getting better,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: it was like, yeah, but are their prospects that good?
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: How about their position players? Do they draft well? It
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: took a couple years. And now they're a machine in
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: every single area. I'm not saying that be patient, the
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Cubs will get there. That's not what I'm saying. I'm
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: just saying sometimes when you're making changes and you're building
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: something for the long term, it takes a little while
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: for every area to catch up. The Cubs, I feel like,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: have done a really good job with position players. They
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: have good prospects there. They seem to identify talent well there.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: They've signed the right guys. I feel like they've extended
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the right guys. They're not there yet with pitching. And
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I think at least we got an acknowledgement of that.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: It would be bad if they're saying like, hey, we're
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: on the right path. We've figured it out. That'd be worrisome.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: They're looking at, and Jed said something to the extent
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: of like, We need to dig into this and figure
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: out exactly, is it a stuff thing? Is it a
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: philosophical thing? Is it a staffing thing?
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: What is it? What's the problem? Here's the reality.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: They don't have much time to figure it out. They
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: have a winning, a World Series caliber core in the
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: position player group.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: They can't waste this. They wasted a season that.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Was historic for Pete Armstrong, historic defensively, and one of
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the best offenses in the game.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: They wasted it.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: And you can say that they fizzled out in the
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: playoffs because of the offense, but part of it is
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: they fizzled out over the course of the season because
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: they didn't have enough pitching to get them to 90-something wins,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: so they could have been the number one seed at
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: home games. Would have been tough to catch the Brewers,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: I get that, but they just didn't do enough.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Patrick, before we wrap up.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I want to say one thing about Fox and that
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: is that MLB on Fox streaming is MLB. MLB on
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Fox is streaming on Fox one. The post season is
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: here and we have your front row seat to the
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: wildest walk-offs lights out pitching and clutch plays all seat,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: all playoffs long stream, each NLDS and NLCS game. Then
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the 2026 world series live on Fox one at home
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: or on the go live or on demand. Never miss
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: a moment stream now. Start your Fox One three-day free
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: trial today at foxone.com. I promise I can read normally
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: at an adult level. I didn't know if you had
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: more to say, Patrick, or should I just wrap this up?
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: I just want to thank our listeners and readers. It
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: is a pleasure and a privilege to cover this team
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: and have such an engaged audience. audience across multiple platforms.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: I think even with the lockout, we're going to have
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: a super interesting off season. That was, I think another
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: takeaway that we'll get into more in coming episodes of like,
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: they have this base of talent. They have these huge
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: holes on the roster. They have to make moves. They
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: have a glaring need. They have some, what I would
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: imagine some difficult conversations going going on internally like we're
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: not gonna shut it off like it's going to be
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: i think a pretty fascinating off season this won't be
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: one of those where like you know jed and theo
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: showing up the gma's being or the winner means like
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: i don't even know what we're doing here like no
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: they got a lot of a lot of work to
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: do and a lot of uh options like they're not
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: not stuck.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Here yeah yeah i think it we'll see how how
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: active they are before the lockout but it didn't seem
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: like jed was opposed to that at all. So hopefully
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: there's some action before then and plenty afterwards, and hopefully
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: they're not doing nothing for a while, you know, when
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I say that, and the lockout isn't too long. All right,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: thanks so much, and I echo your sentiments about the
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: readers and listeners. Appreciate all of you. Thanks so much.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Subscribe to the YouTube channel and subscribe to The Athletic,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: where Patrick and I are on top of all things Cubs.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and watching, everyone.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Take care.