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Maybe the Cubs should’ve gotten another pitcher at the trade deadline · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory, Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast. I'm
0:08
Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:11
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic. Patrick, we have
0:16
Speaker 1: a cubby occurrence to kick off the week. Michael Siroco
0:22
Speaker 1: is supposed to did make his first start as a Cub.
0:25
Speaker 1: Lasted just two innings, exits with a shoulder issue, shoulder strain.
0:33
Speaker 1: It's you know, we weren't sure it was this the
0:36
Speaker 1: like it was kind of interesting in the press box.
0:38
Speaker 1: Is this a plan? Are they going Ben Brown? Like
0:41
Speaker 1: this is a two in like this he truly is
0:43
Speaker 1: leaning into outgetter.
0:44
Speaker 2: Huh.
0:45
Speaker 1: He went basically one time through the lineup. He looked
0:48
Speaker 1: pretty good, you know, even though he was still sitting
0:50
Speaker 1: down as far as the velocity goes, he was down
0:53
Speaker 1: about three miles per hour from his you know, kind of.
0:56
Speaker 3: Peak of the season.
0:59
Speaker 1: So obviously that's not the case. Exited with a shoulder injury.
1:03
Speaker 1: The news isn't awful. He doesn't. At least initial news
1:08
Speaker 1: isn't awful.
1:09
Speaker 3: They had the MRI.
1:12
Speaker 1: Mild to moderate strain I believe was the terminology used.
1:16
Speaker 1: But shut down for seven to ten days and then
1:21
Speaker 1: they'll go from there. So they're hoping that going from
1:24
Speaker 1: there means Okay, he throws and he's pain free. We've
1:27
Speaker 1: gone through these things before. Well let's talk about that
1:30
Speaker 1: in seven to ten days when he's throwing again. But
1:32
Speaker 1: right now, you know, the optics of this, they are
1:37
Speaker 1: brutal when they knew, we all knew that his velocity
1:41
Speaker 1: was found, long injury history, desperate for starting pitching, and
1:47
Speaker 1: the one starting pitching acquisition they get goes down after
1:51
Speaker 1: two innings.
1:52
Speaker 3: Just just a bad look.
1:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think everyone maybe didn't see this coming,
2:00
Speaker 4: but saw the potential for this going sideways. Maybe not
2:04
Speaker 4: as quickly as it did, but our understanding. You know,
2:10
Speaker 4: when we floated his name before the All Star break,
2:13
Speaker 4: was with the idea like, hey, this could be a
2:15
Speaker 4: nice complimentary piece to the pitching staff. Maybe he's a
2:20
Speaker 4: spot starter a couple turns through rotation. His stuff could
2:23
Speaker 4: play nicely out of the bullpen. The Cubs are good with,
2:28
Speaker 4: you know, these flexible, versatile pieces for a pitching staff.
2:32
Speaker 4: But when that five PM deadline rolled around and there
2:37
Speaker 4: was no like buzzer beater deal coming in for another
2:41
Speaker 4: innings eater for you know, an accomplished starting pitcher. I mean,
2:47
Speaker 4: the Cubs left themselves open here for second guessing, and
2:52
Speaker 4: we understand that you know, McKenzie Gore or Joe Ryan
2:55
Speaker 4: were not traded, and maybe those prices were not only exorbitant,
3:00
Speaker 4: what would have damaged this year's chances to win when
3:04
Speaker 4: you if we're talking about trading off a major league roster,
3:07
Speaker 4: but to not get a Charlie Morton, one of those
3:11
Speaker 4: type of guys, it was. It was surprising and not
3:15
Speaker 4: even critical. It's just like, if you've been following this
3:17
Speaker 4: team and trying to think along with the front office
3:19
Speaker 4: and understand where they're coming from, you were expecting that
3:23
Speaker 4: other guy.
3:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally get the argument of, you know, now
3:30
Speaker 1: understanding what the cost was like not getting one of
3:33
Speaker 1: those controllable guys was It makes sense. I get it.
3:37
Speaker 1: It was going to cost you from your major league roster.
3:39
Speaker 1: Teams weren't budging, they were, you know, doing the stare
3:42
Speaker 1: down thinking the other the buyers would budge. It sounds
3:47
Speaker 1: like Boston was in a similar situation, really tried to
3:51
Speaker 1: pry some of these guys away and the cost was
3:53
Speaker 1: major league talent. And they have a better farm system
3:56
Speaker 1: than the Cubs do, and they still weren't gonna, you know,
4:00
Speaker 1: just take prospects.
4:02
Speaker 3: Uh.
4:03
Speaker 1: I agree, you'd you'd have liked to have seen one
4:06
Speaker 1: more depth arm. I think they saw Soroka as the
4:10
Speaker 1: depth arm and and had a sod and tie on
4:13
Speaker 1: coming back and and thought that was that was the
4:16
Speaker 1: depth they could do. And and I you know, uh
4:20
Speaker 1: Jed Hoyer did speak on Tuesday, and and he did
4:25
Speaker 1: he took.
4:25
Speaker 3: The blame for it.
4:27
Speaker 1: He he didn't he didn't try and make too many excuses.
4:31
Speaker 1: His his ultimate point was they saw upside with Soroka.
4:36
Speaker 1: They thought of the costs of everyone else, they liked
4:40
Speaker 1: him the most. They thought it was worth the risk
4:45
Speaker 1: considering the upside. They were making an upside play instead
4:49
Speaker 1: of going with a safe bet with like a So
4:51
Speaker 1: you know, you could say Adrian Hauser has a much
4:54
Speaker 1: lower ceiling and a safer floor because especially due to
5:00
Speaker 1: the injury, the injury history, and Soroka has those peripherals,
5:05
Speaker 1: peripherals that make you say, hmm, maybe he could give
5:08
Speaker 1: you five really good innings, six really good innings every
5:12
Speaker 1: fifth day. And I think that's kind of the way
5:15
Speaker 1: they looked at it and they made the bet. Sometimes
5:19
Speaker 1: that pays off, sometimes it doesn't. I think you can't
5:21
Speaker 1: compare it to Matthew Boyd because Matthew Boyd was trending
5:24
Speaker 1: in the right direction and really healthy. He'd gone through
5:28
Speaker 1: all the major injuries and he had shown he was
5:31
Speaker 1: healthy for a significant period of time or a decent
5:35
Speaker 1: period of time, and then they were betting on that
5:38
Speaker 1: continuing trajectory.
5:41
Speaker 3: If the velocity.
5:43
Speaker 1: Drop hadn't have happened and this came out of nowhere,
5:46
Speaker 1: really came out of nowhere, and you're saying, well, he
5:48
Speaker 1: has a long history of injuries. I would have been like, look,
5:52
Speaker 1: it's fine, he was trending in the right direction. This
5:55
Speaker 1: because he wasn't trending in the right direction, that makes
5:57
Speaker 1: it a little harder to just be like, eh, shrug
5:59
Speaker 1: it off, say this is what happens. There's always risk,
6:02
Speaker 1: especially when you require a picture you could get nothing
6:05
Speaker 1: from them. That's something that THEO used to say, you
6:07
Speaker 1: have to look go into any acquisition of like we
6:09
Speaker 1: just paid this amount of money and we may get nothing.
6:12
Speaker 1: You don't know if an injury is going to happen immediately,
6:16
Speaker 1: and it kind of just happened.
6:19
Speaker 4: That's a good a good off forgotten theoism. I like
6:22
Speaker 4: that one. That is good because the reality is they
6:25
Speaker 4: may wind up with nothing after not getting that additional starter,
6:30
Speaker 4: or even they essentially ruled out those kind of top
6:34
Speaker 4: shelf closers right of, like that was not worth the
6:38
Speaker 4: prospect capital in their mind. And now it's an even
6:42
Speaker 4: greater sense of like, all right, you have all these
6:46
Speaker 4: prospects at Triple A. You have lots of kind of
6:49
Speaker 4: like depth arm, change of scenery types. It's just hard
6:53
Speaker 4: to imagine there wasn't one more deal out there again
7:00
Speaker 4: because you you know how this front office thinks. They're
7:02
Speaker 4: constantly worried about what could go wrong, and every team
7:05
Speaker 4: emphasizes pitching death. But I think the Cubs have very
7:09
Speaker 4: much kind of put the money, put their money where
7:10
Speaker 4: their mouth is, of you know, signing a Colin Ray,
7:13
Speaker 4: of you know, overhauling their systems to where they have
7:18
Speaker 4: like a lot of death. But do you have a
7:19
Speaker 4: guy you trust to face the Brewers in the middle
7:23
Speaker 4: of August, you know, during that five five game series
7:26
Speaker 4: over over four days. And so that's the one where
7:30
Speaker 4: I thought eventually we'd be having this conversation. I think
7:33
Speaker 4: it would be after two winnings from Soroka.
7:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will say Ben Brown looked really good, and
7:39
Speaker 1: I almost wonder like having him just have to go
7:43
Speaker 1: out there without having to think about, you know, preparing
7:46
Speaker 1: for a start, or being told like, hey, be ready,
7:49
Speaker 1: you're coming in after the first inning, any of that stuff.
7:52
Speaker 1: None of that was in his head. He was just like,
7:53
Speaker 1: I got to warm up quickly and go out there
7:55
Speaker 1: and pitch. I wonder how much of that helps him,
7:58
Speaker 1: how much he he's a thinker out there and an
8:02
Speaker 1: overthinker at times. I feel like he can one mistake
8:07
Speaker 1: he starts overthinking that he needs to just get out
8:10
Speaker 1: of his own head and go and pitch. Because he's
8:11
Speaker 1: got so much talent, obviously he's going to be a
8:16
Speaker 1: part of this. ASSAD starts where we're Asad started Wednesday, and.
8:24
Speaker 3: I think they're kind of like massaging things. Now.
8:26
Speaker 1: We have an off day Thursday and off day Monday.
8:29
Speaker 1: We're seeing show to start on normal rest on Sunday
8:33
Speaker 1: in Saint Louis, So they're not scrambling for that fifth
8:38
Speaker 1: starter right now. I think they're gonna work with what
8:41
Speaker 1: they have, take advantage of the off days, but Asad
8:44
Speaker 1: will eventually be an option. Ty On has one start
8:48
Speaker 1: and on Friday, and then we'll kind of see where
8:51
Speaker 1: he goes from there. It could be back, could give
8:55
Speaker 1: him another start. I think they're leaning another start so
8:58
Speaker 1: that there are options that in semi trusted options when
9:02
Speaker 1: when guys are coming off injuries, I just don't want
9:04
Speaker 1: to say they're trusted yet, Like showed a coming off injury.
9:07
Speaker 1: You wanted to see him go out there and perform
9:09
Speaker 1: in a major league game. He did brilliant right away.
9:12
Speaker 3: But.
9:14
Speaker 1: Just don't know, so you ty One is a workhorse,
9:17
Speaker 1: trustworthy and as far as inning, Zeter and stuff like that,
9:21
Speaker 1: so as long as he's healthy and goes out there,
9:24
Speaker 1: you're going to feel comfortable with him as part of
9:26
Speaker 1: the rotation going forward. And Asad's great depth piece. So
9:30
Speaker 1: they have these guys, just kind of thought they were
9:33
Speaker 1: going to add one more. And I think if there's
9:37
Speaker 1: a criticism, if you don't want to criticize, like, hey,
9:41
Speaker 1: this is the market, they didn't they shouldn't have done this,
9:44
Speaker 1: that or the other, I think the criticism is this
9:47
Speaker 1: for me at least, it's look, they have these great
9:51
Speaker 1: top prospects they have a really good top of the farm,
9:56
Speaker 1: but once you get past like five six seven in
9:59
Speaker 1: their in their prospect system.
10:02
Speaker 3: There's a drop off and there's some guys that have upsided.
10:05
Speaker 1: I'm not saying none of these guys are gonna pan out,
10:08
Speaker 1: but they don't have like this middle this middle ground
10:11
Speaker 1: that gets you the Merrill Kelly's, that gets you the
10:13
Speaker 1: Charlie Morton's. They just didn't they don't have enough of those.
10:17
Speaker 1: I think the system needs to isn't. I'm not saying
10:21
Speaker 1: it's a bad system. It's just one of those things
10:23
Speaker 1: that can cost you at times like this. I don't
10:25
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if they lined up well with the Diamondbacks,
10:27
Speaker 1: to be honest, I think that may have been an issue.
10:29
Speaker 1: But just saying overall, to get some of these guys,
10:32
Speaker 1: you need different pieces that they had enough to get Soroca.
10:37
Speaker 3: So you know, that's the bet they made.
10:39
Speaker 1: Maybe that would have been the similar cost to get
10:41
Speaker 1: Houser or to get Morton whatever that they chose Soroka.
10:45
Speaker 1: And right now it's a like a like, like Jed
10:49
Speaker 1: said it, maybe it may have been a bad bet,
10:52
Speaker 1: and that's on him.
10:54
Speaker 4: No, I mean, that's a great point that I think
10:56
Speaker 4: we haven't really hammered yet the way that we should have.
11:00
Speaker 4: Maybe the system just isn't that good. Like I don't
11:04
Speaker 4: know if there's a Cubs prospect has ever been under
11:06
Speaker 4: hyped or undervalued. I mean, like, you know, the baseball
11:11
Speaker 4: industry told us something here. I mean, Charlie Morton looked
11:15
Speaker 4: really good his first start against the Phillies for the Tigers.
11:20
Speaker 4: And what it cost a six foot seven left handed
11:23
Speaker 4: reliever in a ball an eleventh round pick last year
11:28
Speaker 4: Micah Ashman, I mean, look really really good numbers. I
11:32
Speaker 4: mean as a pure reliever. Obviously there's size, there's left
11:36
Speaker 4: handedness there interesting, but Cubs don't have someone like that
11:42
Speaker 4: out there or like they're not willing to give up
11:44
Speaker 4: that guy. Like to me, I think, you know, you
11:48
Speaker 4: you move those pitching prospects, Like even if they're good
11:52
Speaker 4: and sticking the majors, the reality shows are probably gonna
11:56
Speaker 4: spend what like two years on the injured list, like
11:59
Speaker 4: we're covering from Tommy John. I mean, like I'm just
12:01
Speaker 4: looking at like DJ Hurs is really interesting prospect. He
12:04
Speaker 4: pitched you know, fairly well, very well at times for
12:09
Speaker 4: the Nationals, but you know, he's on the shelf. I
12:13
Speaker 4: just don't. I think the risk sometimes is just holding
12:18
Speaker 4: on to these guys too long. Obviously, there, we don't
12:22
Speaker 4: have all the information here. We're not pretending to be experts,
12:26
Speaker 4: but I think it's fair to raise these questions if
12:28
Speaker 4: you've followed this developmental path of what the Cubs have
12:31
Speaker 4: been building and just knowing the numbers game of like
12:34
Speaker 4: you only got tony six players in the majors at
12:36
Speaker 4: the time, only thirteen pitchers, Like there wasn't someone in
12:41
Speaker 4: South Bend or Myrtle Beach or a complex league whatever
12:46
Speaker 4: to get you some more major league help right now.
12:51
Speaker 4: And I think it segues into our next segment here,
12:54
Speaker 4: just kind of the future and how Jed Hoyer views
12:56
Speaker 4: things and how Cubs chairman Tom Rickett looks looks at
12:59
Speaker 4: things too.
13:00
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13:02
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14:05
Speaker 1: Patrick, we talked about Jed Hoyer's extension last week. I
14:10
Speaker 1: don't think it came as a stock, but you know it.
14:16
Speaker 1: Timing made sense. A little before the deadline, a little
14:19
Speaker 1: bit of security, go and make those moves. Tom Ricketts spoke,
14:24
Speaker 1: I believe on Friday so a week ago at Wrigley field,
14:28
Speaker 1: you were there, What what did he have to say
14:32
Speaker 1: about the Jed Hoyer extension and you know, giving that
14:35
Speaker 1: vote of confidence more than just a vote of confidence,
14:38
Speaker 1: giving him the you know, a.
14:39
Speaker 3: Few more years to continue to run this team.
14:43
Speaker 4: Well, it was interesting. We don't know how many years.
14:46
Speaker 4: That is a departure from previous organizational kind of procedure.
14:53
Speaker 4: When I asked, he said, we're not talking about terms.
14:55
Speaker 4: And then I suggested we'll maybe lining him up with
14:59
Speaker 4: Craig Council, which would be four three more years. Said
15:03
Speaker 4: nothing that complicated, So yeah, we don't know when when
15:08
Speaker 4: this deal runs out, which you know, theo Epstein got
15:13
Speaker 4: two five year deals. They that was right in the
15:15
Speaker 4: press release. That did not require any sort of digging.
15:18
Speaker 4: Same with Jed Hoyer when he was promoted from general
15:20
Speaker 4: manager she present the baseball operations, it was a five
15:23
Speaker 4: year term. So well, see it was just a very
15:30
Speaker 4: interesting timing. I mean that week was we've been covering
15:36
Speaker 4: this team for a long time, obviously, like twenty sixteen
15:40
Speaker 4: was a sustained run of just like that playoff was,
15:43
Speaker 4: you know, working every day for however many days in
15:46
Speaker 4: a row. The set off at twenty one just huge.
15:50
Speaker 4: There's been plenty of like huge stories, but I don't
15:53
Speaker 4: know if we've had a week quite like last week
15:56
Speaker 4: where you have the extension announced, the death of Ryan Sandberg,
16:01
Speaker 4: a huge series in Milwaukee, the trade deadline, the build up,
16:07
Speaker 4: and then also kind of an underwhelming finale, and then
16:12
Speaker 4: this Wriggley All Star announcement, the long awaited twenty twenty
16:19
Speaker 4: seven All Star announcements. Like having all these things come together.
16:24
Speaker 4: I had trouble thinking of like a more diversified, busy
16:29
Speaker 4: sort of Newsy week to have like five or six
16:31
Speaker 4: different topics all colliding at once.
16:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, it was. It was hectic. I forgot some
16:37
Speaker 3: of it.
16:37
Speaker 1: I got there, I wasn't there Friday, and then I
16:40
Speaker 1: came Saturday and I was like, jeez, Patrick did, like
16:44
Speaker 1: how many different stories did he have? And that was
16:48
Speaker 1: just from Friday. So it was a it was a
16:51
Speaker 1: hectic week, absolutely, And it's I think the Jed, you know,
16:57
Speaker 1: the Ricketts just kind of talking about this in the
17:00
Speaker 1: sense of like being so vague about how long he's there.
17:05
Speaker 1: I wonder how much I wonder if it's just as
17:08
Speaker 1: simple as we're not going to go through this again,
17:11
Speaker 1: where you guys are asking these questions, whether it's two
17:14
Speaker 1: years from now, four years from now, whatever it is,
17:17
Speaker 1: we're not doing this, you know, but it's going to
17:20
Speaker 1: get leaked.
17:21
Speaker 3: It's not like I've net. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong,
17:25
Speaker 3: but I just I find.
17:26
Speaker 1: It hard to believe that at some point like we
17:30
Speaker 1: won't know that it's a lame duck here for Jed Hoyer.
17:35
Speaker 1: But or maybe this is just a new trend with
17:37
Speaker 1: the cubs of white Sox like behavior of being opaque
17:41
Speaker 1: with executives years. Yeah, I think both Jed and Tom
17:50
Speaker 1: I wasn't there for the Tom Ray Kids press conference.
17:53
Speaker 1: I think Jed seems very secure and confident that this
17:59
Speaker 1: this was and impacting his decision making at the deadline.
18:04
Speaker 1: I never really expected it to. But you know, when
18:10
Speaker 1: you have the deadline that you did, I think people
18:12
Speaker 1: the questions immediately come and people start to wonder. Tom
18:17
Speaker 1: Rickets seemed like he kind of took the I didn't
18:20
Speaker 1: expect him to be like, well, that was a terrible
18:22
Speaker 1: deadline and now I regret the extension. But he was
18:27
Speaker 1: just backing Jed up and saying what we've said already
18:31
Speaker 1: about like, hey, sometimes these things don't line up.
18:33
Speaker 3: It's not like he didn't try.
18:35
Speaker 4: No, And I think this underscores that Jed runs the
18:38
Speaker 4: team the way ownership wants, and that's by saying that
18:44
Speaker 4: it's not an implicit criticism or saying that they have
18:48
Speaker 4: a lack of imagination. Like no, this is pretty much
18:50
Speaker 4: the vision that they laid out of. We're going to
18:52
Speaker 4: be conservative largely, we're going to invest in young talent.
18:59
Speaker 4: We're going to build around that. We're gonna be really
19:01
Speaker 4: targeted in kind of the bigger deals that they do.
19:07
Speaker 4: You know, mortgaging the farm system is not something that
19:11
Speaker 4: Ricketts wants to see. And also I think within the
19:15
Speaker 4: front office looking at their payroll which is relatively large,
19:20
Speaker 4: but like relatively small when compared to the Mets and Dodgers.
19:24
Speaker 4: You know, it depends on whether you look inward at
19:26
Speaker 4: the division and compare it that way, or if you
19:28
Speaker 4: look across baseball you know, it's not it doesn't really
19:33
Speaker 4: blow you away. So you need that stockpile, you need
19:37
Speaker 4: that pipeline of prospects coming up, those low cost, cheap labor.
19:45
Speaker 4: That is what great teams are often built around and
19:49
Speaker 4: then supplemented with the right pieces. So like I'm sure
19:53
Speaker 4: as they're talking with ownership of it would take this
19:57
Speaker 4: to get player X. Those were non starters and you know,
20:03
Speaker 4: I will say we talked about this earlier. You know,
20:07
Speaker 4: Jed is not someone who is going to act like
20:13
Speaker 4: a j preller at the deadline. Anyways, even if his
20:16
Speaker 4: contract was still unresolved, I think he'd feel pretty good
20:21
Speaker 4: about where things are. And also, you know, he kind
20:26
Speaker 4: of has to live with, you know, the fallout one
20:29
Speaker 4: way or the other. And I'd imagine he's pretty comfortable
20:34
Speaker 4: with that of just seeing how the rest of the
20:37
Speaker 4: season plays out and having those pieces to you know,
20:42
Speaker 4: maybe revisit some of these trade talks and you know,
20:46
Speaker 4: maybe things do work out, maybe tie on a sad
20:51
Speaker 4: out getters all of it works and you can kind
20:54
Speaker 4: of have it, have it both ways. But yeah, like
20:56
Speaker 4: right now, this week, I'm sure there's a lot of
21:00
Speaker 4: there's a at least a degree of second guessing. It's
21:02
Speaker 4: almost impossible not to do that job and wonder like,
21:06
Speaker 4: could we have pushed in a little more.
21:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's a I think that's natural and
21:14
Speaker 1: and it when when the team is struggling, comes out
21:18
Speaker 1: of the gate that you have all these second guessing questions,
21:21
Speaker 1: did this did the is the team down because they
21:24
Speaker 1: didn't make the big move?
21:26
Speaker 4: Uh?
21:27
Speaker 3: You know what?
21:28
Speaker 1: Or is it going to cost them more than just
21:31
Speaker 1: a couple of games? All these different questions. It's easy
21:34
Speaker 1: to second guess.
21:35
Speaker 3: Uh.
21:36
Speaker 1: And and I'm not saying I'm not doing it. I
21:39
Speaker 1: wondered it at the time. I immediately wondered like should
21:41
Speaker 1: they have added more?
21:43
Speaker 3: Uh?
21:43
Speaker 1: But yeah, that that's just not Jed's attitude. I think
21:46
Speaker 1: we're going to have to talk about a lot about
21:49
Speaker 1: the farm system. I think I don't want to say
21:53
Speaker 1: it's critical, it's always its Every off season is critical.
21:56
Speaker 3: But I think the farm system and how they.
21:58
Speaker 1: Attack, how they use their money this winter is going
22:02
Speaker 1: to be interesting.
22:04
Speaker 3: You you wrote an interesting uh.
22:06
Speaker 1: You you focused a little bit on this on your
22:08
Speaker 1: jet Extension piece and we talked about it in the
22:10
Speaker 1: last podcast. But Uh, they're getting into the Japanese market
22:14
Speaker 1: and kind of getting a foothold there is important. And
22:18
Speaker 1: I think we're past the trade deadline, we're kind of
22:21
Speaker 1: at a point where teams are going to be scouting
22:23
Speaker 1: the Japanese league a little bit more than MPB a
22:25
Speaker 1: little bit more. Now that's probably gonna be another topic
22:28
Speaker 1: again this offseason for us when it comes to the Cubs,
22:32
Speaker 1: what what do they do in that market? Is there
22:35
Speaker 1: you talked about like the money that they can spend.
22:39
Speaker 1: That's a way to get impact, better talent and not
22:42
Speaker 1: spend as much money. Perhaps potentially we'll see who's available.
22:46
Speaker 1: We'll we'll have a better understanding of that in a
22:48
Speaker 1: couple of months. But I think that's something we got
22:50
Speaker 1: to I think for me, I almost forgot about that.
22:52
Speaker 1: We spent so much time on that early in the
22:55
Speaker 1: spring and the opening of the season, and then you
22:59
Speaker 1: bring that back up, it's like, oh, yeah, that's such
23:01
Speaker 1: a huge part of what they do in the off season.
23:04
Speaker 1: So again, that's a way to maybe get some value.
23:08
Speaker 1: I think trading prospects is another way that they may
23:10
Speaker 1: have to improve this team in the offseason. But obviously
23:14
Speaker 1: we got plenty more to talk about as far as
23:16
Speaker 1: the season, so we don't want to dive into that
23:18
Speaker 1: just yet. Let's quickly talk about the All Star Game
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Speaker 1: All Right, Patrick, the the other thing that Tom the
24:26
Speaker 1: main reason Tom Ray gets was there was to talk about.
24:31
Speaker 3: The All Star Game.
24:34
Speaker 1: Nineteen ninety was the last time the All Star Game
24:38
Speaker 1: was a regally good timing as far as that season
24:43
Speaker 1: for Ryan Samberg and the Cubs. Like Ryan Samberg was
24:47
Speaker 1: having an amazing season. It was an MVP caliber season,
24:51
Speaker 1: forty home runs, he won the I mean this kind
24:56
Speaker 1: of is fitting for the current version of Wrigley Fields.
24:59
Speaker 1: He won the home run Derby with three home runs
25:01
Speaker 1: because the wind was blowing in that night. I just
25:06
Speaker 1: kind of love love that thinking about that right now,
25:08
Speaker 1: because of how the ballpark has been playing of late.
25:14
Speaker 1: I mean, they've put in a lot of work to
25:16
Speaker 1: make sure they get the All Star Game back.
25:19
Speaker 3: They've worked with the city, they've worked with the league,
25:21
Speaker 3: and you know it's.
25:24
Speaker 1: Going to I don't want to look at it in
25:27
Speaker 1: the media sense, because then it won't be as exciting.
25:30
Speaker 1: I'll look at it through my son's eyes and say,
25:33
Speaker 1: this is really cool for the city and a very
25:36
Speaker 1: exciting moment for the Cups.
25:39
Speaker 4: No doubt. I mean, we started the show with a
25:41
Speaker 4: kubby occurrence. I do think this is a bit of
25:44
Speaker 4: a cubby occurrence as well as when they have this,
25:47
Speaker 4: they finally get to the announcement and people are willing
25:51
Speaker 4: to talk about it, and Rob Manford's in the home
25:53
Speaker 4: dugout asking questions about, well, what's the contingency plan if
25:57
Speaker 4: the lockout goes super long after twenty twenty six, and
26:01
Speaker 4: his contingency plan is to have a season, and so
26:07
Speaker 4: he also points to his track record, which, to be fair,
26:13
Speaker 4: there has not been that megalong work stoppage lockout under
26:19
Speaker 4: his tenure, and that includes his time as lead negotiator.
26:24
Speaker 4: Obviously he got this job because of his experience as
26:29
Speaker 4: a labor attorney. But it just underscored I think what
26:33
Speaker 4: a lot of fans feel, what a lot of people
26:36
Speaker 4: within the game feel that you know this is going
26:39
Speaker 4: to be a really protracted battle between the union and owners,
26:46
Speaker 4: that this push for a salary cap, like we'll see
26:49
Speaker 4: how serious management is about trying to get that, which
26:56
Speaker 4: has historically been a non starter from the union side.
27:00
Speaker 4: Like that to me kind of dampened kind of the
27:06
Speaker 4: the way you frame that story, Like to me, like
27:09
Speaker 4: that's just kind of in the back of my head
27:11
Speaker 4: just listen to all this like, Okay, well, it'd be great,
27:13
Speaker 4: like if it happens, but no doubt. I mean it's
27:19
Speaker 4: it'll look awesome on TV, I think, having I mean,
27:23
Speaker 4: the neighborhood will be slammed, yeah, for something like that.
27:28
Speaker 4: And it'll also be interesting too, kind of building off
27:30
Speaker 4: what we talk about last magamute of like what the
27:33
Speaker 4: Cubs are going to look like in twenty twenty seven,
27:35
Speaker 4: because there's so many guys tied up through twenty twenty six,
27:39
Speaker 4: that's more than enough runway to see if any of
27:41
Speaker 4: these prospects really hit. And then obviously, you know, we'll
27:47
Speaker 4: see where where Kyle Tucker is playing at that point,
27:49
Speaker 4: probably not Chicago, but we don't we can save that
27:52
Speaker 4: for another show.
27:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean there's too many You're there's a
28:00
Speaker 1: lot of like stuff hanging over this both Like those
28:03
Speaker 1: two things I think is will there be a season?
28:06
Speaker 1: Will there be an All Star Game in twenty seven?
28:08
Speaker 1: And will Kyle Tucker still be with the Cubs, Like,
28:10
Speaker 1: will the Cubs still be this really good team? Uh,
28:14
Speaker 1: you know, headed for the playoffs and all these things.
28:17
Speaker 1: It'll be an interesting time for the Cubs. The twenty
28:21
Speaker 1: seven talk, it just feels like we've we've been talking
28:25
Speaker 1: about this for a while, and every single time you
28:28
Speaker 1: bring it up around baseball people, it's not like you
28:32
Speaker 1: get these positive vibes where it's like anyone saying like,
28:35
Speaker 1: at at minimum there's going to be a lockout, right,
28:38
Speaker 1: There's like everyone just assumes that the length is what's
28:43
Speaker 1: what's up for debate, whether you miss game, whether you
28:46
Speaker 1: lose games, whether I think everyone kind of assumes you're
28:49
Speaker 1: you're you know, it's going into spring training and you're
28:52
Speaker 1: gonna have to rearrange how things are done like they
28:55
Speaker 1: did in twenty twenty two.
28:57
Speaker 3: Correct.
28:57
Speaker 4: Uh, that just kind of three yeah.
29:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
29:01
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of almost like viewed as like, Okay,
29:05
Speaker 1: that's a win, because that's just kind of the assumption
29:08
Speaker 1: of where it is. I don't want to bring things
29:10
Speaker 1: down too much. I'm excited for that. I hope it happens,
29:13
Speaker 1: because you know, as much as my son loves baseball,
29:17
Speaker 1: his favorite thing to do is like, during the season,
29:19
Speaker 1: has watched the home run Derby.
29:21
Speaker 3: So I'd love to be able to take them to that.
29:23
Speaker 3: We'll see if it happens.
29:25
Speaker 1: I'm sure Cubs fans would be thrilled for the opportunity
29:29
Speaker 1: and to show off. Like you said, like Wrigley Bill
29:32
Speaker 1: and Wrigley Field is different now. It may not be
29:35
Speaker 1: the place where I go to get drinks and hang out.
29:40
Speaker 3: I think I'm too old for that. It's a little much.
29:44
Speaker 1: But it's a completely different place than nineteen ninety, the ballpark,
29:49
Speaker 1: the surrounding area. It'll be cool to show it's different
29:52
Speaker 1: than twenty sixteen, when the last time they really got
29:55
Speaker 1: a national audience to check out Wrigley Field regularly early
30:00
Speaker 1: with the spotlight on it.
30:02
Speaker 3: So, you know, I think it'll be fun.
30:04
Speaker 1: Hopefully we don't have any we don't need to worry
30:07
Speaker 1: about whether it happens or not. But we'll we'll see,
30:10
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens, all right, Patrick, thanks so much
30:14
Speaker 1: for listening to everyone.
30:14
Speaker 3: This is Northside Territory.
30:16
Speaker 1: Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
30:19
Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are.
30:21
Speaker 3: On top of all things Cubs. We'll be back with
30:23
Speaker 3: another episode soon. Thanks