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Transcript

Who has something to prove down the stretch? · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It sounds alarmist to be like in May and June
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: saying this can really fight him.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: But it did.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Welcome into North Side Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: I'm Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney, where your
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, the Cubs
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: are still dreaming on the playoff run. You had a
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: nice article talking about that, all the all the things
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: they're talking about that they seem realistic, but also you
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: know they're not gonna They're still a shot, so they're
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: they're going to preach playoffs and winning on a day
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: to day basis. I thought the series in LA was solid.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: You went to a three. You take that. Obviously the
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: last game, uh didn't go as expected or as hoped. Uh,
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: but you know it's still like our last podcast. I
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: don't understand, Like the second they went down five to two.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: I was watching in that game and I was like,
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: I guarantee Wis is going into that dugout and that
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: offense is saying we got you because they're so confident
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: on the on the road, and five runs wasn't enough
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: to win that game. Oddly enough, that that offense just
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: looks completely different on the road. But we don't need
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: to talk about you know, miracles, miracle runs or the
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: chances of the playoffs. We know it's sub five percent,
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: if not lower than that in reality. But these next
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: few weeks matter, right, Like we want to there are
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: things we want to see over the next few weeks, players, performances.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: I'm sure Council has a lot of things he wants
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: to see, right. I think one thing that is important,
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: and we've gotten some solid news on this is Justin Steel.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: If if for nothing else, like him getting it back
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: on the mound and pitching again is good for everyone
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: to kind of see like, Okay, this is very even
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: if they're out of it. Right, if he pitches and
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: they're out of it, like that shows even more like
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: there's nothing wrong here, right, You're you're out in LA.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: You're you're out in Colorado now, but you were out
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: in LA. What like, uh, let us know what what's
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: the latest with Justin Steele right now?
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, as Counsel would say, this is literally a
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: day to day situation.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: But Steele's had a lot of good days.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: And to use a council phrase, he's kind of stacking
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: good days on top of one another. And he threw
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: a bullpen on Wednesday at Dodgers Stadium and is scheduled
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: to throw another bullpen this weekend at Course Field. And
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: it's kind of implicit that you know he's feeling good
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: if he's throwing bullpen sessions. But Steel made it sound like,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: you know, he's kind of symptom.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Free at this point.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: And now that information is data a little somewhat if
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: we're going on the day to day.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Framework here, but.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Certainly he's advancing, he's making progress, and he is one
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: of those names that I think we'd circle on the
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: roster for what do you need to see over these
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: last two plus weeks.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: And we've alluded to it earlier. This is someone who is.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: In the middle of that arbitration cycle. He's got a
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: long way to go once they reach his free agency.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: It's like him a long time to reach the major leagues.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: We're not quite sure if or how the two sides
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: could come together on a long term deal, but certainly,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: like if you want that to happen, you kind of
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: have to pitch in September. In my mind, now, there's
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: always exceptions and whatever but I think it would go
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: a long way for him to pitch again this season.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: It's been a fantastic season on his part. He's really
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: it's fun to watch. He's really grown as kind of
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: a presence around this team, a reason to watch, and like, yeah,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: the percentage is not zero, right, I mean, like if
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: he does come back, like the Cubs could make it
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: a little interesting here with you know, their schedule, the
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: way they have been playing, And I realize it's kind
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: of absurd to walk up to people like Dansby Swanson
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: or an Eco Horner and be like do you think
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: you can really make the takoffs? But you know, when you're
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: around these guys for literally years, and you know how
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: they think, Like this is a very like analytical group,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: right of like they're not oblivious to any of this stuff.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: They can there's an eye test for them of like.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: How they're they're playing and things like that, and you know,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I think it was also way to just explain to
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: our readers and reinforce this idea of like how they've
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: gone about this season, right, Like they didn't go in
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: the tank when things were not looking very good at
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: various points during the season. That they've kind of kept
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: at it and there are no no parades or rings
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: for that, But I do think it's a way to
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: kind of understand this team and try to envision what
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: it's going to look like under council moving forward.
• 5:34
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• 6:38
  Speaker 3: I don't want to derail us here, but something in
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: your article stood out to me because like I just
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: I knew this, but like seeing the records in May
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: and June just like kind of reinforce this idea of
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: like if they just somehow put together three more wins
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: between those two months, it would be having a completely
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: different conversation right now. And that's how wild baseball can
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: be sometimes. And I know the feeling among Cubs fans
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: is like this is a missed opportunity. All that stuff
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: is fair. I think it just and I've said this before,
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: but we need to keep reinforcing that they're not that
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: far off. They're they're like they're definitely they're within the
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: margin of error. That what we keep saying, and what
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: I think is important is you don't want to be
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: that type of team though they need to. They need
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: to have goals for a higher level, right where that
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: this margin of error doesn't impact them as much, but
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: it's just it needs to it when when people are frustrated,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: like how did the Cubs compete? They're not that far off.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: They need to make the right decisions and do those things.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: But what we're talking about here, I think is important too,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: right like justin Steele showing that he can finish the
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: season healthy. I think this is this is smaller. I
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: don't know if how much he's going to impact the future,
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: just because it's he's been so up and down during
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: his Cub's career. But I'd like to see what Hayden
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: was Nesky has these final few weeks. Yeah, he's pitching
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: in Iowa. I don't know what the latest is on him.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: I believe he pitched like three or four days ago
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: in Iowa. I don't know if the expectation is like
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: we'll just see how he goes. I'm not sure if
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: there were any updates on the road.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Like they wanted to give him.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: They're not stretching him out to start, but to try
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: to get to pitch multiple innings, And the last update
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: was like things are going in the right direction, and
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm sure we'll get a better sense of
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: that this weekend in Corsefield. But I'm with you, he's
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: got it. He's there's something there. He has one, some
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: sort of like it factor. I don't know, just his
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: his energy, his stuff, his drive.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: I would say, like I think he really wants this.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: And you see the flashes and you're like, oh wow,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Like that's interesting, that's different. And you know, does he
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: come back to just sort of audition for next year?
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Does he come back and have a chance to like
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: impact meaningful games in the playoff?
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Right, we'll see yeah.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: No, And like I if you're talking about the latter,
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: it's like, okay, who who do you want up to
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: help the team right now? Trey Wing Genter or Hayden
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Wisnsky right, like the one And that's not like Wing
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: get there obviously has stuff and it could I would
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: never like these types of relievers like Wing entered would
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: not surprise me if he has like puts together a
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: really good season, figures things out. It happens all the
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: time with relievers. But weis Nesky is under control with
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: this team. He's he's a young guy that they invested
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: in by trading, Uh, you know, a quality reliever for
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: him or someone that was a quality reliever before his injuries.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: With Scott e FROs. They they there's a chance that
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: you know, Wisnesky is an impactful part of either this
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: bullpen or rotation as early as next season. Right, he
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: was supposed to be earlier than that this season. But
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: it feels like there's something. I agree with all the
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: positives O there, but it feels like he just needs
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: to get over some hump here. I don't know if
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: it's a mental thing, but it's something he just needs
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: to show us that here are four relief outings in
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: a row where I'm not giving up a home run,
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: where I'm not giving up a critical walk, something like that. Right,
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: you just want to see some sustained success from him,
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: even if it's the end of season, whether it's meaningless
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: games or not. I'd like to see a nice run
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: from him at the end. Here one other guy who
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: pitched Wednesday or Thursday night in Iowa. I know he's
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: a free agent. I know he may not be back.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: I think it matters to see Jorge Lopez healthy for
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: the front office to kind of make a decision on
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: do we want to invest in this. I think he's
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: so comfortable in Chicago, and that was a big factor, right,
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: Darren Holmes, Craig Council both have history with him. He's
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: looked so dominant when he's healthy. Out of this bullpen.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: There are pieces starting to come together, like Nate Pearson
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: and Porter Hodge that make you feel like, Okay, and
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: I don't want to We've done this before where I've
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: seen young guys and then the next season it goes
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: to hell with them. But those are two guys that
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: look really interesting. Right now. You have a veteran like
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: Lopez that that you feel good about. You're talking about
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: pieces for a bullpen that you can kind of trust
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: entering April instead of June or July waiting to figure
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: things out. So I think it's worth seeing how he
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: does down the stretch, and it gives the front office
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: a little more information, like, Okay, maybe we try and
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: knock out a one or two year deal. What's he
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: what's he looking for? We try and knock out a
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: deal before November? Right, maybe they can do that.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I I go back to what you were saying about
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the month to month records, like we would talk about
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: that in real.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Time on this show when we'd write about it.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: As it was happening, of like this could really come
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: back to haunt them, and.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: It sounds.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Alarmist, you know, to be like in May and June saying,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: you know, this could really bite them, but it did
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: last year and you are seeing.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: It this year. And that, to me is yet another
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: reminder of needing.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: More like established talent, like dudes you can count on.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: And that goes to kind of the overall pitching out
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: look that you just mentioned, and I definitely think the rotation.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Is an area where you can upgrade.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, Jordan Wicks did not have a good start
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: the end Dodger Stadium. That happens, I mean that's a
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: you're facing, you know, Hall of famers at the top
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: of the lineup in their ballpark. You know, it's kind
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: of flying there this week. But if you look at
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: his season as a whole, it's been a disappointment. There
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: were injuries, two different injuries, two different types of injuries.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: You know, looking at he said one start where he
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: finished six innings. Everything else is below that, only ten
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: outings at the major league level. And this is not
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: all about Jordan Wicks. It's just this idea of like
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: how do you stop some of those losing streaks, or
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: how do you kind of minimize those down periods, or
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: how do you kind of like steal a game and
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: just kind of change the momentum. And you know, I
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: think Cubs have asked a lot of their pitching staff
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: one because the offense, for whatever reason, what ever conspiracy
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: theory we want to go with on Brayleyfield, the offense
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: is kind of coming gone here and there. The bullpen,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: they don't want to just hand out multi year deals
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: to establish guys, which we largely understand that logic, but
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: then you kind of get into the rotation and like
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: hoping a lot of these young pitchers step forward, and
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: some of them have, i mean showed to it's not
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: necessarily young, but he's a rookie.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: He's been awesome, and the SATs had a good season.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: But I think it's just like you bring in a
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: dude who can kind of just change how the rotation
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: functions of just like spreading some of the responsibility, taking
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: some of the pressure off, carrying some more innings, which
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: helps your bullpen and you know, maybe get you a
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: couple more games where the offense you know, doesn't have
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: to score eight runs. Just things like that.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: I think that.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: I think individually, you know, certainly a picture like Wix,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: who again the first round pick. He looked really good
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: last year injuries happened, should have a bright future in
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: front of him. It's just more of that whole group
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: that the Cups have of like depth and interesting guys.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Like for me, I would go get a guy you
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: can put towards the front of rotation and just knock
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: everyone down and towards like where you feel pretty good about,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: like your eighth or ninth starter in Triple A Iowa
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: when you open the season next year in Japan.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's that makes a lot of sense.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: I think I've been kind of preaching that since like
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: mid season. Part of the reason I said that is
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: because I my concern was a sod like it looked
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: like he hit a wall. I got to give him credit.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: He's he's bounced back. It's like he hit he did
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: hit a wall, and then he got Yeah, he got
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: over it. He's you know, he's not a dominant starter.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: He's a really good mid back rotation guy on a
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: winning team. I think that's what you want. You want
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: guys that can give you innings, that can keep you
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: in games. For the most part, he does that. You
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: want to see him kind of lock in that command
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: and not walk as many guys. But it's just like
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: he's he's kind of turned a corner after I was like, oh,
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: he's hit about one hundred innings and now he can't.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: It looks like he's laboring every single time he's out there.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: I think that's a big deal for them to see that.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: And if you can push him to where he's like
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: fighting for the fifth spot with Wicks and Ben Brown.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: I don't know what they do with west Neski. If
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: Kate Horton's ready to start the season or if it's
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: June July, whatever, he's ready to come up to the
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: big leagues. If you have a competition with all those
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: young guys, right Brandon bird Cell at Triple A, who
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: have heard really good things about like this guy's not
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: a superstar, but another depth starter. Uh, Like you you
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: want those guys to be fighting for that last spot,
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: and you have someone established to get you know it's
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: we we know it's Steel Tyn and in Monaga, assuming health,
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: assuming no weird trades happen in the winter, those three
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: are locked in, Right, You add a fourth guide that
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: you lock in whether you know, I think we you
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: and I are on the same page, like Corbyn Burns
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: isn't happening.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: I doubt it.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but there's not a lot of upside for us
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: to rule it out, you know, right game Yeah.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't want to say it's yeah, not one
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: hundred percent. I'm I'm not. That's not where my focus is.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: As far as I don't expect, it's not worth ruling
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: anything out because who knows how markets play out, and
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: this this front office will pounce if things if weird
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: things happen or unexpected uh area, or maybe they're just
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: laying in the weeds and and and they want to
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: pounce on someone specific, and that person could be Corpornburns.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: So I don't want to rule anything out, but it's
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: it's going to be like the tier below that in
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: my mind, but maybe you know, who knows Max Freed
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: could make sense. I think that's probably a tier too
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: high for them, but I don't. I don't want to
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: make assumptions. Well, we'll have a better idea when we
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: get to November. And then I've been thinking this for
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: once I started looking at the free agent lists, and
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: I've seen this type of season Walker Buehlers had. It
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: hasn't been great. He's not going to get this monster deal.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: He's going to need a one year bounce back. When
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: it's a one year deal, I don't care if it's
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: if he's asking for thirty million, which is not going
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: to be But you know, Jed doesn't care. It's a
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: one year deal, like that's perfect, Like that's it's just
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: like it's just like the first ballaner deal. And it's
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: the reason why Reese Hoskins was on our radar and
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: turning last off season, even though he ended up with Milwaukee,
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: that was a guy that we were like, let's pay
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: attention to this. He's gonna want a one year deal.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: I think Bueller makes a ton of sense. And it's
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: the exact type of player that you want to kind
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: of fill a rotation spot when you have four or
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: five young guys that you're not one hundred percent sure
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: can lock in a rotation spot, but you would like
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: to by July of next year, you know, but you
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: don't know right now in September. That's the name that
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: that I keep coming back to again. This is without
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: we haven't hit the offseason, so we don't know who
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: they're targeting just yet. But I think that's a guy
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: that makes a ton of sense. And I am going
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: to continue to say this no matter what happens over
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: the next three weeks. But I think they I think
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: they have to add some certainty to this rotation. I
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: think after we talked about like upgrade, getting one certain
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: upgrade on offense, that's my next spot of where like
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: if you come out of this offseason and you're relying
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: on all those young guys that we talked about to
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: lock in a rotation spot, I don't love the off season.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this is kind of what I wrote.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Our conversation was building towards, and it's a lot of
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: stuff that frankly, I think the Cubs are talking about
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: amongst themselves.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: Of like they have interesting young talent. They have.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Some system and systems in place that have surfaced, whether
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: it was surface different types of talent as well, of
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: like whether it's kind of cast off relievers.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Or pitchers through the draft or kind of some.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Homegrown relievers getting creative going out and getting a Tyson Miller.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: You mentioned Lopez, Like a lot of like good smart
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: things that don't.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Handcuff them anyway, even if it doesn't work out.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: But I think there's just this sense of like, after
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: a couple of years of this, you know, eighty three wins,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: maybe they wind up with eighty five this year, just
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: looking being just outside the playoff bracket and seeing some
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: of these dips throughout the season, which do happen to everyone.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: But I just think it's like, you know, Jed Hoyer
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: going into year five as president of Baseball operations, no
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: playoff wins for.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: The franchise since twenty seventeen, like it's.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Time to just build more certainty and upside into this operation.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: And you know, any team, like every team needs stuff
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: to go right, right. I mean it's not like, you know,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: you just roll out the baseballs, but like you've hammered
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: this point of like there are ways to like that
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: team that on paper looks like it's gonna win ninety,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: you have a high probability of going beyond ninety.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: And then there are.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: These sort of I don't know if they're half measures,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: but kind of like just being very very measured in
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: your approach and not overextending yourselves and leaving a lot
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: of optionality for the future. I think, you know, kind
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: of this season, this moment is really leading towards them
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: having to be more aggressive and kind of getting outside
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: their comfort zone.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I think when you have is it five guys
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: in the triple A lineup that are bordered either in
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: the top one hundred or borderline top one hundred prospects,
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: if you keep three to three or four of them,
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: now you're talking about having solid depth at minimum for
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: your for your major league team. Right at minimum. These
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: guys are like if there's an injury to outfield or
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: x and you can call upon Owen Casey or Kevin l.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: Contra instead of you know, this guy that's a four
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: A outfielder, you feel good about that, right or These
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: are the types of things you want. That's why twenty
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: twenty five is you want to look at it as like,
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: don't rely on these prospects as much as these prospects
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: are quality depth for them, and if they emerge, if
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: they push, you know, if they push force the issue,
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: that's what that's the ideal scenario that Jed Hoyer and
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: Carter Hopkins want. I think what both you and I
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: are saying is, so you want those guys to be
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: the depth you want them to be, the surprise additions,
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: and then you add the established talent, you add the
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: certainty this winter to create to make those guys the
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: surprise depth. If they're superstars, hey awesome. If there's like
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: you just you just created a great team. Now you're
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: talking about ninety five plus wins, right, you want to
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: create that floor of eighty eight to ninety two. That's
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: where you want to be. So then when surprise good
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: things happen, you're pushing to be one of the best
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: in Baseball, national League, whatever it is. And that's how
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: that's how the fifteen and sixteen it was different. Right.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: I don't want to compare it always to that because
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: the way you build and how it happens is different.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: But that's we I don't think we've talked about this
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: a lot, but THEO was obsessed with depth back then.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: He was obsessed with it, that's all he like because
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: he knew we had this really good team. He's like,
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: we cannot afford to have anything derail this. And it
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: nearly did in like day four of the season, right
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: with the Kyle Schuber injury. But because of that depth
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: that they created they didn't trade. You know, they didn't
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: trade this excess of talent that they had because it
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: turned out to be valuable to them, like Jorg Solaer
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: being an extra outfield or whatever turned out to be
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: really valuable, right, So stuff like that. So I wouldn't
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: rule out any sort of move. There are some guys
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: that are just locked in, but I think they We
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: saw it at the deadline, We saw it in the
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: Michael Bush trade a year or you know whatever, and
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: nine months ago. That's the type of creative creativity this
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: front office has to have and continue to have to
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: kind of push twenty twenty five to another level. All right, Patrick,
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: I think that wraps it up for today. We will
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: be back at it next week to start the homestand
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: we'll see if the Cubs are still in it by then.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: I think a sweep is necessary. I think we think
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: pretty much everyone agrees that there can't be many more
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: losses to for us keep talking about the playoffs. So
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: got to take care of business in Colorado not an
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: easy place to play, but this is a better team.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: The Cubs are a better team than Colorado. Got to
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: take care of business. There's no more excuses, right, now
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: Thanks so much for listening to Northside Territory. Make sure
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the Athletic. Patrick and
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: I are on top of the cubs for the rest
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: of this season and through.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: The off season.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: Thanks so much for listening. Everyone appreciate it.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Take care