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Cubs Mailbag: Justin Steele, trade deadline and more · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into North Side Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast.
0:09
Speaker 1: I'm Sahade Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are
0:12
Speaker 1: your club's beat writers over at the Athletic h Patrick.
0:17
Speaker 1: Let's do a mailbag episode today. You're you're out in La.
0:21
Speaker 1: The first question is gonna handle the immediate news that
0:24
Speaker 1: we have from La. I gotta say, I'm gonna sidetrack
0:29
Speaker 1: us for a quick moment here. But what's the weather
0:32
Speaker 1: like in La?
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Speaker 2: Or like is it?
0:34
Speaker 1: Is it pretty nice? And Sonny out there?
0:36
Speaker 3: It's about seventy five in Sonny?
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Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, we have our first like I've seen the sun.
0:43
Speaker 1: I've went and took the dogs for a walk and
0:46
Speaker 1: I was overdressed in a hoodie, like not even like
0:49
Speaker 1: a coat, a hoodie, and I felt warm. So you
0:52
Speaker 1: guys are missing the first or maybe not the first,
0:55
Speaker 1: the first sunny, nice day in a while. We'll see
0:59
Speaker 1: how long it lasts and if it if it if
1:00
Speaker 1: it's there for when when it comes back come back
1:04
Speaker 1: to town, or or if it's disgusting cloudy and rainy again.
1:08
Speaker 3: Uh? Where was We're going to Dodger Stadium and not
1:11
Speaker 3: packing a winter jacket and gloves going to a game
1:15
Speaker 3: in April. So h we'll take that.
1:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Patrick, I was gonna ask you about
1:23
Speaker 1: Justin Steele. But here's the first question. How bad is
1:27
Speaker 1: the Justin Steel injury? Do you think the Cubs have
1:29
Speaker 1: the starting pitching depth?
1:31
Speaker 2: That's as death. I should have edited that death.
1:34
Speaker 1: Can Matthew Boyd's success success continue long term? That's from
1:38
Speaker 1: Ken Mantell.
1:40
Speaker 2: Well.
1:40
Speaker 3: Ken, the update was not very optimistic on Friday at
1:45
Speaker 3: Dodger Stadium. We are recording on Saturday morning. H this
1:50
Speaker 3: is kind of been a place where Justin Steele is
1:54
Speaker 3: seeking additional opinion or opinions, essentially taking a couple different
2:04
Speaker 3: interpretations of his most recent MRI, which happened Thursday. Look,
2:12
Speaker 3: we don't know what happens next, Craig Council stress, no
2:19
Speaker 3: decisions have been made, and that Justin is waiting to
2:23
Speaker 3: gather all of the information from kind of a variety
2:28
Speaker 3: of experts. But look, going to seek out more opinions
2:34
Speaker 3: doesn't sound great. Like I'm not a doctor. We don't
2:38
Speaker 3: want to speculate, but I think the Cubs have to
2:43
Speaker 3: be reassessing what their team could look like without Justin
2:48
Speaker 3: Steele for a chuck of this season at least. So
2:54
Speaker 3: it's the same injury he had last September. He came
2:58
Speaker 3: back in just under three weeks, and I guess theoretically
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Speaker 3: there could be a path to where, you know, some
3:08
Speaker 3: sort of rest, treatment, strengthening helps him get through it.
3:12
Speaker 3: But this has happened multiple times and that is concerning,
3:17
Speaker 3: so no doubt it will test the starting pitching depth.
3:20
Speaker 3: Matthew Boyd looked very good Friday night at Dodger Stadium.
3:26
Speaker 3: I believe he's put up zeros in like sixteen out
3:29
Speaker 3: of seventeen innings so far as a Cub. He had
3:33
Speaker 3: in one rough inning against the Dodgers, which happens, and
3:37
Speaker 3: it just happened to be, you know, the mistake pitch
3:40
Speaker 3: wound up being a three run homer. Tommy and then
3:45
Speaker 3: is like the greatest player of all time when he
3:47
Speaker 3: plays the club rec recency bias. But and Boyd gave
3:54
Speaker 3: a really good answer Friday night. Jordan bast and our
3:58
Speaker 3: buddy asked him about kind of whether this you know,
4:02
Speaker 3: they don't know exactly what's going to happen with Steel,
4:04
Speaker 3: but they can kind of put two and two together
4:06
Speaker 3: and know that they're going to have to, you know,
4:10
Speaker 3: pick up some of the slack here. And you know,
4:12
Speaker 3: Boyd said, Justin Steel's kind of a one of one pitcher,
4:15
Speaker 3: like there's no replacing him right away. But there's depth
4:20
Speaker 3: in this rotation. There's experience, there's young talent, you know,
4:26
Speaker 3: kind of on the horizon there at Triple A. So
4:29
Speaker 3: no doubt this will be just an enormous test for
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Speaker 3: you know, an organization with playoffs or bust pressure right now.
4:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, I mean when it comes to Justin Steele,
4:40
Speaker 1: we we kind of we struck an optimistic tone because
4:43
Speaker 1: that's what the Cubs were telling us. But I think
4:46
Speaker 1: we both agreed, like Thursday's the biggest day, that the
4:50
Speaker 1: MRI is is what matters, and now we have the
4:52
Speaker 1: results of that, and I wouldn't strike as optimistic of
4:56
Speaker 1: a tone when you're getting a second opinion. Rarely is
4:59
Speaker 1: that a great, great sign. But we'll see that, you know,
5:02
Speaker 1: things happen and decisions can still be made. Well, we'll
5:05
Speaker 1: see where this goes. I think Matthew Boyd has been
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Speaker 1: everything you could hope for and more through three starts.
5:13
Speaker 1: I got a text from someone with another club last
5:15
Speaker 1: night watching.
5:16
Speaker 2: The game, saying Matthew Boyd looks nasty.
5:19
Speaker 1: I didn't catch the entire game. I saw I saw
5:24
Speaker 1: like the last his last two innings, so I saw
5:27
Speaker 1: the home run and I was just like kind of
5:29
Speaker 1: baffled that Tommy had been continues to do what he does.
5:35
Speaker 1: But you know that's you know, these former Cardinals, these Cardinals,
5:41
Speaker 1: they tend to do that. I don't know, like when
5:44
Speaker 1: you talk about do they have the starting pitcheon dep look,
5:48
Speaker 1: I like Ben Brown, We're gonna see how he does
5:50
Speaker 1: Saturday night. He needs to bounce back. He needs to
5:53
Speaker 1: have a much better outing than he did against the Padres.
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Speaker 1: Otherwise you start talking about, you know, or he can
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Speaker 1: make starts for this team, right, like if he's gonna
6:03
Speaker 1: if he has anything similar to the Padres outing, those
6:06
Speaker 1: those are the types of outings that really hurt you.
6:09
Speaker 1: So you can't have those types of outings consistently. Javier
6:13
Speaker 1: asad is is, I think what was the news He's
6:16
Speaker 1: gonna make an Iowa start on Tuesday?
6:18
Speaker 2: Is that right? Yes?
6:19
Speaker 3: Yes, so Creep being very close to getting back into
6:23
Speaker 3: the rotation picture.
6:25
Speaker 2: Right, so you have him.
6:27
Speaker 1: My guess is you know Jordan Wicks is not on
6:29
Speaker 1: the slate for Iowa. He's probably pitching Sunday for the Cubs.
6:36
Speaker 2: You know, I don't want to.
6:38
Speaker 1: Say that with absolute certainty, but I think that's a
6:40
Speaker 1: like when you don't see him on the Iowa scheduled,
6:42
Speaker 1: they're at least holding him for that possibly yea reserves.
6:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Speaker 1: So so those are the two main guys. When you
6:49
Speaker 1: talk about depth. After that, it's like Chris flexen Caate
6:54
Speaker 1: Horton is not ready. We're probably there are probably questions.
6:57
Speaker 1: I didn't think that we're about Kate Horton.
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Speaker 2: You can't do that.
7:01
Speaker 1: You cannot rush your top pitching prospect. He looks really good.
7:05
Speaker 2: Again.
7:06
Speaker 1: I got someone reached out to me, not within the ORG, saying, hey,
7:09
Speaker 1: kid Orton looks really good. If you can, you know,
7:11
Speaker 1: if you can limit the walks. This guy. The fastball
7:15
Speaker 1: is completely different than last year. So he's healthy. He's
7:19
Speaker 1: The mechanical adjustments they made, which I think were just like,
7:22
Speaker 1: more lean into your athleticism was the key. Those seemed
7:26
Speaker 1: to be paying immediate dividends. Whether he can hold that
7:29
Speaker 1: velocity for deep into games. I don't know whether he
7:33
Speaker 1: impacts this team as a starter or a Leaver this year,
7:36
Speaker 1: we'll see it's.
7:38
Speaker 2: Not happening in April or May.
7:40
Speaker 1: They want him to make starts, they want him to
7:44
Speaker 1: be healthy, and then you know, we'll see where they
7:46
Speaker 1: are in the middle of the summer and then maybe
7:49
Speaker 1: late in the summer h and perhaps he does make
7:52
Speaker 1: his debut. But I think those those are the names
7:54
Speaker 1: everyone wants to talk about. Someone mentioned Brandon Burdzell. Bertzell
7:57
Speaker 1: has a pretty significant shoulder injury that occurred early in spring.
8:01
Speaker 2: He's he hasn't pitched yet, so I would take him
8:04
Speaker 2: off your radar.
8:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, until he's healthy again, which we don't have any
8:09
Speaker 1: update on that.
8:10
Speaker 2: So, speaking of.
8:12
Speaker 1: Pitching, John Rose asked, how early is too early to
8:18
Speaker 1: trade for pitching? Preller jumps aj Preller, who's the who's
8:21
Speaker 1: the president of baseball ops for the Padres. He jumps
8:24
Speaker 1: the trade market early with some success. Yeah, how early
8:30
Speaker 1: is too early? Listen, you can try. You can try
8:33
Speaker 1: and make trades. Now it's really hard to make significant
8:38
Speaker 1: trades now. I know Preller made the Louis Sarriah's trade.
8:43
Speaker 1: What was that in early May? Yeah, like you can,
8:48
Speaker 1: you can try and make these types of moves. I
8:51
Speaker 1: don't know if that's the Cubs front office. M they
8:56
Speaker 1: maybe they shift their thinking because we didn't think they're
9:00
Speaker 1: was making the type of Kyle Tucker trade that they made,
9:04
Speaker 1: or sticking in the Bregman.
9:07
Speaker 2: Negotiations as long as they did.
9:10
Speaker 1: Any of that, right, like some of this stuff. But
9:13
Speaker 1: they're they're not. They're not acting exactly as they had
9:18
Speaker 1: at the start of this Jed Hoyer Carter Hawkins regime. Right,
9:21
Speaker 1: So they're acting a little bit differently because they understand
9:24
Speaker 1: the pressure is on to win in twenty twenty five.
9:27
Speaker 1: It's just really hard to jump to market, right you
9:29
Speaker 1: need Let's say everyone's talking about Sandy el Contra. Listen,
9:33
Speaker 1: I don't think the Cubs are gonna be a little
9:34
Speaker 1: straight for Sandy al Contra because he has this amazing
9:38
Speaker 1: contract and everybody that wants pitching is gonna want him, right.
9:43
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be really hard for the Cubs
9:45
Speaker 1: to acquire him. To acquire him now would require a
9:49
Speaker 1: massive overpay. That's how you get these types of deals
9:52
Speaker 1: done this early in the offseason. So, I you know,
9:56
Speaker 1: I understand the question, and I think it's valid, especially
9:59
Speaker 1: with the Justice Steel injury. I just don't know how
10:04
Speaker 1: realistic it is to see that happen. Preller is a
10:07
Speaker 1: rare case Preller. Also, you have to understand that he
10:11
Speaker 1: has this. First of all, he's like the old school
10:14
Speaker 1: gunslinger mentality that doesn't exist much anymore. Right, it's like
10:18
Speaker 1: him Debrowski or the rare, rare ones nowadays THEO used
10:23
Speaker 1: to be like that. He's not leading a front office anymore.
10:28
Speaker 1: And the other thing is is he has this like
10:31
Speaker 1: insane trust in his ability to restock his farm system
10:34
Speaker 1: that very few other orgs have that trust, especially these.
10:41
Speaker 2: Especially the more data.
10:42
Speaker 1: Driven front offices. Right, they're not going to pay overpay,
10:46
Speaker 1: like he just seems to not care, or he just
10:48
Speaker 1: is so confident in his evaluation that he's like, I'm
10:51
Speaker 1: not giving up that much. You think I'm giving up
10:52
Speaker 1: a lot, I'm not right. And he'll give guys up
10:55
Speaker 1: that have more name recognition than they do actual value
10:59
Speaker 1: in the end.
10:59
Speaker 2: But you know, like.
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Speaker 1: There's he's he's done a remarkable job of restocking that
11:04
Speaker 1: farm system consistently. It's not an awesome farm system, but
11:07
Speaker 1: it's also not completely barren.
11:11
Speaker 2: Yeah.
11:11
Speaker 3: The only thing I would say though, is that that
11:14
Speaker 3: parade ase trade kind of came out of nowhere. They
11:19
Speaker 3: are operating under a lot more pressure to make the
11:23
Speaker 3: playoffs this year. I do think you have to let
11:27
Speaker 3: a couple of things play out a little bit though,
11:30
Speaker 3: of like who is Ben Brown is? It's not healthy?
11:37
Speaker 3: Did Wicks turn a quarter? Because part of it, too
11:40
Speaker 3: is like you don't really know what you're gonna need
11:42
Speaker 3: exactly in July, and I think everyone can kind of
11:45
Speaker 3: circle that bullpen and be like, yeah, you're gonna have
11:48
Speaker 3: to upgrade there, and so maybe you want to let
11:53
Speaker 3: things play out a little bit.
11:55
Speaker 2: You know, you don't have.
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Speaker 3: An infinite number of prospects, and you know, money and
12:02
Speaker 3: roster spots, like how do you want to prioritize.
12:06
Speaker 2: John?
12:07
Speaker 3: It is interesting that John mentioned Preller because Jed Hoyer
12:10
Speaker 3: mentioned Preller when at the Cactus League media day when
12:16
Speaker 3: this is kind of right after the pregnant stuff, and
12:19
Speaker 3: the topic came up of like how much are you
12:24
Speaker 3: leaving in reserve for the trade headline, Jed's like, there's
12:26
Speaker 3: no war chest. But what he did he did go
12:29
Speaker 3: out of his way to praise aj Preller for how
12:33
Speaker 3: you have to think about the season and how you
12:37
Speaker 3: have to be aggressive and to me, that was interesting
12:42
Speaker 3: because I don't think a j. Preller is always the
12:45
Speaker 3: executive that you maybe people point to, because you know,
12:49
Speaker 3: for years there is like what are they doing? They
12:51
Speaker 3: seem to be kind of cycling through lots of different
12:54
Speaker 3: philosophies and talent, and you know, there's ownership instability now.
12:59
Speaker 3: But I think what Preler did last year of just
13:04
Speaker 3: totally kind of like reshaping a team that had to
13:09
Speaker 3: cut payroll and had to trade Lon Soto, you know,
13:14
Speaker 3: building up an awesome bullpen, getting like that right hitter
13:17
Speaker 3: to put in the middle of the lineup, and jumping
13:19
Speaker 3: out early. I think I'm not expecting like a trade,
13:24
Speaker 3: you know, by Memorial Day, but I do think the
13:28
Speaker 3: Cubs are gonna be way more aggressive than we've seen
13:31
Speaker 3: in recent years.
13:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I agree on that.
13:34
Speaker 1: Once it hits like mid June, I wouldn't be surprised
13:37
Speaker 1: if they start being aggressive and trying like that would
13:41
Speaker 1: be early, right, like yeah, yeah, yeah, And like you
13:45
Speaker 1: if you're talking about late June, I wouldn't be shocked
13:48
Speaker 1: if they're trying to be aggressive and get a couple
13:50
Speaker 1: extra starts out of a starter or you know, more
13:52
Speaker 1: innings out of a reliever. That's the value, right, Like,
13:55
Speaker 1: that's how you look at it. You're getting more value
13:57
Speaker 1: out of the guy you can get them for an
13:58
Speaker 1: extra two weeks or if it's a starter, a couple
14:01
Speaker 1: extra starts here and there like that, that's the huge
14:04
Speaker 1: That's what kind of swings deals. And you're willing to
14:06
Speaker 1: pay a little bit more and maybe include a prospect
14:10
Speaker 1: that you're you'd rather not.
14:13
Speaker 2: In those situations.
14:14
Speaker 1: There's there's other names other than Sanduel Contra too. I
14:17
Speaker 1: think you know you should pay attention to what the
14:21
Speaker 1: Twins and the Asters are doing. There's there's a couple
14:23
Speaker 1: of teams in the Cub's division. I just don't see
14:25
Speaker 1: them trading with any of those teams. But when it
14:28
Speaker 1: comes to like Pablo Lopez or franber Valdez, if those
14:32
Speaker 1: guys become available, the Cubs should be they better be interested,
14:36
Speaker 1: right and along with any reliever that may hit the market.
14:40
Speaker 1: And here's a reliever question from w Collins. It's almost
14:45
Speaker 1: mid April, but will they make decisions to option D,
14:50
Speaker 1: fade the bullpen, and call up arms from Iowa after
14:53
Speaker 1: or before the end of the month. How patient do
14:56
Speaker 1: you think they'll be? What do you think Patrick, I
15:00
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I have a great feel on.
15:01
Speaker 3: This yet, no now to do. I think, you know,
15:06
Speaker 3: you have a couple guys who are working their way
15:10
Speaker 3: back from injuries, and Tyson Miller and Ryan Brazier that
15:16
Speaker 3: would eventually force some decisions. I know everyone's going to
15:23
Speaker 3: think about that eight run eighth inning against the Diamondbacks
15:26
Speaker 3: like that's kind of the biggest moment. But I also
15:32
Speaker 3: don't feel like the bullpen has been a total disaster either.
15:38
Speaker 3: I think you have to let some of this play out.
15:42
Speaker 3: We'll see who kind of forces the organization's hand, whether
15:48
Speaker 3: it's in Iowa or guys just pitching out of the
15:52
Speaker 3: major league bullpen. I just feel like injuries are just
15:58
Speaker 3: going to happen, right Like was you know you show
16:00
Speaker 3: about the ballpark would dancing? Oh yeah, so and so's
16:03
Speaker 3: you know, elbow has been barking for a while, or
16:04
Speaker 3: oh yeah, shoulder, it's been nagging him for a while.
16:07
Speaker 3: Like this stuff sort of works itself out, and I
16:13
Speaker 3: still it gets old. I feel like we've said this
16:16
Speaker 3: for a couple of years now. The Cubs usually figure
16:19
Speaker 3: out the bullpen, and they have a manager who manages
16:26
Speaker 3: for the entire one sixty two that has preservation in mind.
16:34
Speaker 3: Having said that, we'll see, I mean Dodger Stadium and
16:37
Speaker 3: Peco Park, like this West Coast trip, like it could
16:39
Speaker 3: get pretty ugly and maybe they make some changes. But
16:43
Speaker 3: like you know, on a Saturday morning, you know, in
16:45
Speaker 3: a hotel room in Pasadena, it's very easy to take
16:48
Speaker 3: like kind of a detached view. We'll see, like how
16:51
Speaker 3: they respond to like you know, sellout crowd on the
16:54
Speaker 3: West Coast one run game, you know, stuff like that.
16:58
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the Iowa roster. You know who's gotten
17:04
Speaker 1: off to a really good start is Brooks Chrisky. I
17:06
Speaker 1: don't know much about him righty thirty one years old,
17:12
Speaker 1: Like no walks, eleven strikeouts and like six innings, so
17:15
Speaker 1: that's you know, I have no idea how he looks.
17:17
Speaker 1: Keegan Thompson has got off to a great start. Nine strikeouts,
17:22
Speaker 1: one walk in three and two thirds yet no runs allowed.
17:26
Speaker 1: You know, Like those are two guys. Neither of them
17:28
Speaker 1: are on the forty man. When it comes to the
17:29
Speaker 1: forty man, Ethan Roberts is already up.
17:32
Speaker 2: He was looking great.
17:33
Speaker 1: At Iowa and he's looked I don't know how he
17:35
Speaker 1: looked exactly yesterday. But he you know, he still hasn't
17:40
Speaker 1: allowed anything since he's come up. Maybe he can help
17:42
Speaker 1: this team. Jack Neely's down there, Luke Little's down there,
17:47
Speaker 1: Daniel Palencia, all of them are on the forty man.
17:50
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, like all all those guys
17:52
Speaker 1: I just mentioned have stuffed, they still haven't locked it
17:55
Speaker 1: in and fully shown us that they can be great.
17:58
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean they can't be. Like we've talk about
18:00
Speaker 1: this all the time, relievers, it suddenly clicks, they come
18:03
Speaker 1: up like this is how it was with Porter Hodge.
18:05
Speaker 2: Amazing stuff.
18:07
Speaker 1: If he and the miners kind of locked it in
18:11
Speaker 1: last year, went on a run in the miners and
18:13
Speaker 1: then comes up and then now he's your best reliever arguably.
18:17
Speaker 1: So I'm not ruling any of those guys out that
18:20
Speaker 1: I just mentioned, the guys that are on the forty man.
18:22
Speaker 1: That I mentioned the guys that aren't on the forty man.
18:24
Speaker 1: We'll see, if you know, if you get desperate, you
18:26
Speaker 1: may have to call some of.
18:27
Speaker 2: These guys up. If they look good enough, if something.
18:29
Speaker 1: Clicked with someone, if they've made some change that we're
18:32
Speaker 1: not fully aware of, or if someone's just like in.
18:35
Speaker 2: Locked in, right, Like that's sometimes what it is. This
18:38
Speaker 2: guy's just locked in. We got to call him up, right, we.
18:41
Speaker 1: Need help and this guy can get out. I don't
18:45
Speaker 1: get the sense that they're like ready to DFA guys.
18:48
Speaker 1: Because I agree with you, I kind of want to
18:51
Speaker 1: see Ryan Presley out there again his last doubting.
18:54
Speaker 2: He didn't walk anyone. I think that's a good sign.
18:57
Speaker 1: He didn't give up like all these barrels and he
18:59
Speaker 1: wasn't getting like they weren't rocketing around. He's not missing.
19:02
Speaker 1: That's I don't know what's up with that. He's just
19:04
Speaker 1: not like I don't know if that's just an incredibly
19:07
Speaker 1: small sample and it's because the walks were just piling
19:11
Speaker 1: up and they decided not to swing at all. But
19:14
Speaker 1: if he starts pounding the zone and getting ahead of guys,
19:16
Speaker 1: I think that changes the conversation. I don't want to
19:19
Speaker 1: give up on him just yet. As much as I
19:21
Speaker 1: think Porter Hodge is probably the best that the best
19:24
Speaker 1: reliever in this bullpen, I don't know if that means
19:26
Speaker 1: he should be closer or not, because we'll see how
19:29
Speaker 1: counsel uses him. I just think there's you know, Presley
19:35
Speaker 1: looked so much better than Hector and Nerris. So that's
19:38
Speaker 1: why I don't want to just say like I think
19:40
Speaker 1: sometimes you want to compare to what your most recent
19:44
Speaker 1: example of like disaster was, and Nerris.
19:47
Speaker 2: Was just not good enough last year.
19:49
Speaker 1: Presley doesn't look like that. He doesn't look like his
19:53
Speaker 1: dominant self. But we'll see, we'll see where he is.
19:55
Speaker 1: I don't think the bullpen is an outright disaster, but
19:59
Speaker 1: there have been an up games. There have been two
20:01
Speaker 1: games and some close calls that I understand the concern,
20:04
Speaker 1: and you have to keep an eye on it. And
20:07
Speaker 1: if you need to like kind of pull the trigger
20:09
Speaker 1: on something.
20:09
Speaker 2: Then do it. You know you got to do it.
20:12
Speaker 1: Eli Morgan had that one bad outing and the rest
20:14
Speaker 1: of his outings have been fine.
20:15
Speaker 2: They haven't been high leveraged. So I don't know. I
20:17
Speaker 2: don't know how.
20:18
Speaker 1: Good he is or what his role is. But if
20:21
Speaker 1: he I think the other thing is sometimes you just
20:23
Speaker 1: need uh. I think we talked about this before, but
20:26
Speaker 1: blowouts help right either in either direction. Just save your bullpen,
20:30
Speaker 1: don't use don't use your best guys. That helps keep
20:33
Speaker 1: them healthy and fresh, and and then you don't have
20:36
Speaker 1: to worry as much about blowing leads because got fresh
20:39
Speaker 1: guys and your best guys available more often potential help
20:43
Speaker 1: in the bullpen? Right did David Robertson retire? How is
20:48
Speaker 1: one of baseball's best relievers last year still on the sign?
20:51
Speaker 2: Look, he wanted a lot of money. He want he
20:54
Speaker 2: wanted to.
20:55
Speaker 1: You know, over ten million dollars from what I heard,
20:58
Speaker 1: pretty significant. Ask is it worth it for him? Listen
21:03
Speaker 1: the way he was pitching, he's pretty pretty impressive. You
21:07
Speaker 1: get to this point in the season now you start
21:09
Speaker 1: asking questions, how's it? How long is it gonna take
21:12
Speaker 1: him to build up? If he rushes to build up,
21:15
Speaker 1: is he going to be effective all season?
21:17
Speaker 2: Like? Is that gonna work? How much does he want
21:19
Speaker 2: right now?
21:20
Speaker 1: No one's going to give him fourteen million now right
21:22
Speaker 1: because it's going to take him weeks to build up
21:24
Speaker 1: and be ready. He may say he's ready to go,
21:27
Speaker 1: or it just needs a couple tune up games.
21:30
Speaker 2: That's so risky.
21:32
Speaker 1: We've seen it so much now with these late signings
21:35
Speaker 1: with pitchers, even the ones that sign late in the spring.
21:38
Speaker 1: This is you know, weeks into the season. It's just
21:40
Speaker 1: a it's a big it's a big risk at this point.
21:43
Speaker 1: I as far as I know, he's not retired. He's
21:45
Speaker 1: out there. He wants to pitch. But the reason he's
21:48
Speaker 1: out there is because he was asking for a lot
21:50
Speaker 1: and nobody met his demands. I'm not saying he's not
21:53
Speaker 1: worth it. I'm just saying nobody met his demands. I
21:57
Speaker 1: don't know what he's asking for now. I don't know
21:58
Speaker 1: what he's willing to take now. I just think it's
22:03
Speaker 1: a pretty big risk that you need to You need
22:06
Speaker 1: to be on the stame page with him as far
22:07
Speaker 1: as the build up goes, and have to be willing
22:09
Speaker 1: to be patient. And then that comes.
22:11
Speaker 2: Down to money again. Right, It's like, well, you're not
22:13
Speaker 2: going to help us till June.
22:15
Speaker 1: Then we're only paying u X amount for that many
22:18
Speaker 1: months of baseball and we don't.
22:20
Speaker 2: Know how good you'll be.
22:20
Speaker 1: It's just I struggle to see how they're going to
22:24
Speaker 1: agree on it unless he changes his asking price.
22:27
Speaker 3: He's also someone who can afford to be very choosy
22:31
Speaker 3: that you know, with his his family, he can kind
22:37
Speaker 3: of dictate the terms here of how kind of how
22:42
Speaker 3: and where he wants to pitch. And you know, everyone
22:49
Speaker 3: needs pitching help all the time we had a trade
22:54
Speaker 3: deadline question earlier, Like at the trade deadline, every contending
22:59
Speaker 3: team is going to look to upgrade. It's it's bullpen,
23:04
Speaker 3: and so maybe the demand will kind of shift at
23:09
Speaker 3: that point, and then yes, you would be talking about
23:11
Speaker 3: more of a pro rated thing for David Robertson, but
23:16
Speaker 3: certainly something to keep an eye on with. Yeah, I
23:19
Speaker 3: mean unless something has changed very recently. I mean he
23:24
Speaker 3: was out there. I believe he still represents himself that
23:28
Speaker 3: he's serving as his own agent. So he has been,
23:31
Speaker 3: you know, in communication with the market and just hasn't
23:35
Speaker 3: found the right price, the right fit yet.
23:38
Speaker 2: Yeah.
23:38
Speaker 1: And I wouldn't label the Cubs as like a favorite
23:41
Speaker 1: if he decides to come back, like if he you know,
23:43
Speaker 1: finds the landing spot. But I wouldn't also rule them out.
23:46
Speaker 1: I think they're logical spot for sure. He likes the
23:50
Speaker 1: coaching that he's familiar with, how to be, he likes him,
23:53
Speaker 1: they like him, so it would make sense. I just
23:57
Speaker 1: don't know if the price is right, and it's the
24:00
Speaker 1: ramp up the ramp up in the price of the
24:02
Speaker 1: two things that kind of stand out to me is like,
24:05
Speaker 1: how do you how do you agree on what the
24:07
Speaker 1: value is there. Patrick, I'm before we go, I just
24:12
Speaker 1: want to say, like, I'm really curious to see how
24:15
Speaker 1: the offense does the rest of the weekend. I don't know.
24:17
Speaker 1: Is it just Yamamoto's just awesome?
24:21
Speaker 2: Is that what it is like? Because this.
24:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's twice now that he's made this offense look,
24:27
Speaker 1: you know, just not very imposing, and it seems like
24:31
Speaker 1: the offense is good. Some of the stuff I wrote
24:34
Speaker 1: over the off day about the numbers, Listen, they're babbitt
24:39
Speaker 1: with runners in scoring position is really elevated. That's not
24:42
Speaker 1: gonna last. But there's underlying numbers that I like about
24:45
Speaker 1: this offense.
24:46
Speaker 2: Two things that.
24:46
Speaker 1: Don't slump for the patients and the base running. So
24:50
Speaker 1: if they're not purely hitting, you would like to think
24:52
Speaker 1: that they can manufacture some runs in different ways. Get
24:55
Speaker 1: on base and steal a bag here there, and play
24:58
Speaker 1: a little bit of small ball. The base running bit
25:01
Speaker 1: them yesterday, but you know, I think that's gonna Like
25:06
Speaker 1: Council even said early in the season when when the
25:08
Speaker 1: base running stood out, Listen, that's gonna lead to some
25:10
Speaker 1: outs on the bases, just the way we do things.
25:13
Speaker 1: But it's probably gonna win us more than it'll cost.
25:17
Speaker 2: Uh, So I'm just curious to.
25:19
Speaker 1: See how it goes to Susaki is has been better.
25:24
Speaker 1: I think they should be able to hit these guys
25:27
Speaker 1: like Sasaki if they can't. Yamamoto maybe on another level
25:30
Speaker 1: right now that maybe he's in the midst of like
25:32
Speaker 1: a Sayon campaign, because he's just completely baffled them for
25:35
Speaker 1: two starts so and he's been in general really good
25:40
Speaker 1: this season, So you know, that's what I'm kind of
25:44
Speaker 1: curious to see how they do because it's tough pitching
25:47
Speaker 1: these next to these next few games, and I shouldn't
25:49
Speaker 1: downplay Susaki is great, so you know, it's not like
25:53
Speaker 1: it'll be easy. They have nothing easy for the next
25:57
Speaker 1: few weeks.
25:57
Speaker 3: Now.
25:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, curious to see how that goes. Thanks
26:01
Speaker 1: so much for listening to everyone. We'll be back next week.
26:04
Speaker 1: Patrick is out there out in the West Coast all
26:07
Speaker 1: weekend and into next week, so we'll hear from you
26:10
Speaker 1: about the Dodgers and the Padres and everything else. Maybe
26:14
Speaker 1: we'll do another mailbag episode see what else we get
26:16
Speaker 1: from you guys. Thanks so much for listening to everyone.
26:18
Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Comes podcast. Make
26:22
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26:37
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26:40
Speaker 2: Take.
27:02
Speaker 1: Guys, do they a live
27:09
Speaker 3: Remed