Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Trade deadline reset: How the Cubs are positioned out of the All-Star break

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Trade deadline reset: How the Cubs are positioned out of the All-Star break · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory File Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Saadiv Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, the All
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Star break is over. It is hazy, smoky and odd
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: outside right now. If you're in the Chicago Land area.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: We'll see what that means for the game at Wrigley
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Field tonight.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: I think there. I don't think we're.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Going to get any postponement or anything like that. It
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: is supposed to start clearing up in the evening. I
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: believe in the Chicago Land area, but it is some
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: odd It is odd out there. I know where I
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: live in Evanston. It smells smoky. Different parts of the suburbs.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's as bad, but it smells and
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: looks awful and not the best weather to be playing
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: baseball in or being outside.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Some apocalyptic stuff. Yeah, we'll see hopefully things get get
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: a little better as a weekend progress.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: It's a weird way.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: To be kicking off the twenty sixteen teams reunion tour weekend,
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: but yeah, I think there are forecast looks relatively promising
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: at least compared to just how bad it's been, like
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: worst air quality in the world.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: We talked to John Lester last episode, so we didn't
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: really get to talk. We didn't dive into kind of
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: how that break it, like how they ended before the break,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and one of the things we talked about was, hey,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: a four and two road trip would be kind of
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: great considering all the injuries that, you know, we'd have
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: to give a lot of credit to Counsel and his
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: coaching staff and how they've kind of guided this group
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: through through through.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: A difficult moment.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: But they're the stars, so they pull that off. They
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: did a really good job the team four and two
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: before the break on the road against some you know,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: lower quality opponents as far as their record goes now
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: two teams of six game homestand two teams that they're
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: hoping fall out of the race because they'd love to
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: trade with these guys Minnesota, Detroit, they're both. The ale
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: is a mess as far as if you want to trade,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: good luck finding a team outside of like Kansas City
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and the Angels. And I don't think Kansas City really
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: has much to sell or wants to sell a lot,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: but it's.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: A weird weird year.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: The wildcard makes it extra odd, the multiple wildcards obviously,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: And I don't like if you had to, you know,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: if you were betting right now in Detroit Minnesota selling,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I don't think either of them are Detroit, especially they've
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: gotten hot after being so bad for an extended period
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: of time. They they are in a win now mode, right,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: so all the more reason to avoid selling. But the
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Cubs are buyers. They're firmly in that bystand What type
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: of buyers is probably the only question, And what kind
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: of pitchers can they get because we know that's what
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: they're focused on pitching.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Very interesting to see like how the Cubs perform out
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: of the break, not only to improve their own chances
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: and further motivate the front office, but yeah, maybe knock
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: out a team or two. You know, you're looking at
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: the Twins, which as an altered ownership structure. Now they
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: brought in minority investors within the pole At family, They
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: changed rearranged the leadership at the top, and you know,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: reading Dan Hayes's coverage in The Athletic, like there's definitely
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: a different voice in there now, sort of like pushing
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: them to be competitive and like give their fans or
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: reason to watch, and that's one of those variables. It's
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: usually not quite as out in the open as it
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: is there. But the owners, like ownership is a big
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: factor at the deadline for almost every team. I'd be
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: curious to see how the Tigers perform, because I I
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if they win their division.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: I mean, they they have a lot of talent. On paper,
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: they have the picture that you know every team would
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: theoretically want.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: But you know, you and I both asked.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: Jed versions of this question at Wrigley Fields a couple
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: of weeks ago, of like, you're probably going to be
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: in second place at.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Best at the trade deadline.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Now, even since then, they've shaved that deficit a bit.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: I mean, to get it to five behind the Brewers
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: in the middle of July, I think is significant. And then,
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: as Jed says, you look at how your team is playing.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: You have to know your own team's personnel and then
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: some of the underlying metrics, and in all those regards,
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: I think the Cubs have been pretty impressive. Like that's
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: not being a homer, it's not making excuses, But I
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: mean this pitching staff has been devastated by injuries, and
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: you see all these different guys stepping up. We'll see
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: if Bregman can kind of carry that momentum into the
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: last couple months of the season. They're not the twenty
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: sixteen team I know, and they had those ten game
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: winning streaks. People got a little giddy, but that's kind
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: of an impossible standard.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: To live up to. They have a really solid team.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Maybe the we wrote the other day maybe the best
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: player in baseball not named show Hey Otani an awesome defense,
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: and I think the hope is that all of this
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: adversity has built up some resiliency that will pay off
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: down the stretch.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting. I don't want to just base it
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: off a couple mail bag questions or comments that I see,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: But there are a lot of fans that are like,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: what's the point of being aggressive at the deadline, or
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: just don't seem to understand how A there aren't that
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: many great teams and b that the Cubs are pretty good.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: They you know, like I understand that the injuries make
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: it a little more complicated as far as how you
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: view this team. But they they've they've weathered the pretty
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: big storm will see how healthy they get over the
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: next few days and weeks, and then what type of
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: moves they make to really supplement this roster, because obviously
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: there are moves to be made. Le let's take a
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: quick break and then talk about like how they may
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: treat this deadline and some of the I guess that
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: continue this discussion of how it There may not be
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: exactly what they're looking for available, but Greig Council may
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: not care the way he looks at pitching.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Camp.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: I've been looking for the best deals for the All
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: Star Game tickets in Philly. Where are you going to
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: get some tickets from?
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: I'm going straight out to Rife Field. If Harper and
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: Schwarber both joined the home run derby, I want to
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: be catching the hometown guys hitting them, So I'm going
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: out to the Rife Field kind of where I think
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: I could get the best chance of catching one of
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: those home runs.
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: Maybe in the second deck. You can go on the
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: app and you can look to see what your view
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: is going to be, because the boys are going to
• 7:59
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• 8:36
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Patrick Craig Council likes to say outgetters, that's what he's
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: looking for. I mean, we know the Cubs are looking
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: for pitching. There's no secret here. That's what they're going
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to be looking for over the next what is it
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: three ish weeks before we're we're at the deadline. What
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, what type of pitching can we expect and
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: what is the strategy that you expect to see over
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the coming weeks for this team?
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: A volume strategy. I think we've you know, our understanding
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: through our reporting there's gonna be a scarcity of starting
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: pitchers available.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: I don't think.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Thy kind of doubt Schoople is going to get traded anyways,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: putting that belief in the Tigers. But even if he
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: was available, just not really a jed type of move
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: at this point. I think the model would say, no,
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: the rental factor is a big deal to them.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: But I don't know.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: You look at you know, I got you Baseball Reference
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: pulled up right here, and you just look at some
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: of these valuable pictures that they've found to contribute out
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: of the bullbend. Like you know, Jacob Webb was a
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: it was a major league signing, but he was supposed
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: to sort of like pitch maybe the sixth inning or
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: keep games close when the Cubs were trailing. And you know,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: he has more saves than Daniel Palencia. Trent Thornton coming
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: off a big injury, you know, has three saves two
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: point four eight ERA a twenty nine innings. That was
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: a minor league deal. I Ryan Rollison bounced around a
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: bunch of different places this offseason and has really settled in.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: And you know, in Cincinnati, I spoke to him a
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: little bit and he was just saying, how big a
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: deal confidence is that? Like when he showed up in Arizona,
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: he said, it was about an hour meeting and it
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: was a pitching group sort of walking him through this
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: is what we think you're good at, this is where
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: we think you can improve, this is how we envision
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: using you. And you know, Rolson said, it's not just
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: the confidence you get from when you do the job.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: It's when you make a mistake, when you mess up,
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: and knowing that they still have your back and they'll
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: put you right back out there for the right you know,
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: pocket or whatever you want to call it. And that's
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: something Drew Pomeran's has stressed as well. And I think
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: some of these relievers you're going to try and just
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: get lucky with small sample sizes, or you might look
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: at the prices for you know, a number two or
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: three starter and say it makes more sense to load
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: up on the bullpen, knowing how important that is in
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: the playoffs.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Cubs fans are going to be frustrated
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: with that if they don't go out and get a starter,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: if they don't go out and get some impact arms.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: I think I think that's it's very likely that the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Cubs fans are going to end up screaming and yelling
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: if that doesn't happen.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: But.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: They have found they have done a good job of finding.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Just like you said, you named the guys that they've
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: done that they've found this year. And sometimes the biggest
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: names you talked about a small sample. Sometimes the biggest
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: names don't perform in that small sample, especially relief pitching.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Unless look, yeah, if they can go get like Mason Miller,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: or if the padres are selling and then they move
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: more a hone. Yeah, those are guys that you know,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: kind of like know are going to perform. They're going
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: to do really well and there's no doubt of the
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: impact that they can provide. But a lot of these guys,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: it's like you gotta trust your scouts and trust your
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: pitching coaches. This guy's on the up. This guy, we
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: trust that this guy's going to do really well. Andrew
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Kittridge last year was was maybe not like the biggest
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: addition at the deadline for any team. I think he
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: had just like a couple bad outings that he still
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: had a three thirty two ERA with the Cubs and
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: it was really like one or two bad outings that
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: even had at that high he was pretty dominant with them,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: striking guys out, not walking anyone, putting the ball on
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the ground. Kind of a perfect addition for that team,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: and and did a lot of great work in the
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: playoffs for them. I think he was pretty important piece.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: And the big names, I mean, it's just like free agency,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: whether it's Phil Aton or any of these other big
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: names that were signed over the winter. Keller, Brad Keller,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: who's now looks like he's out for the season, so
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: it you can't just assume that it's a big names.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: But I do think they need to add a picture
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: a starting pitcher. Prices and availability may limit that, but
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: they have the ability to be aggressive in a sense
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: if a guy's under contract beyond this season.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's I think that's an important point because
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: they don't want to totally put a damper on expectations
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: or like rule out something big, because I think you
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: could talk yourself into the picture who's under club controil
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: control or if there's a rental starter that's not schoolable,
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: but you feel like you could kind of maximize whatever
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: eleven starts and you know, two or three playoff starts,
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: like that's super valuable. I think they'd be open to it.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: Important to remember how much work they did on that
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: reliever market last offseason, particularly with the Mets selling. I
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: mean they were they made an offer to Devin Williams.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: I know it hasn't been a great.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: Season in New York.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: Luke Weaver's pitched really well, and that was a guy
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: they were on as well, And I think if you're
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: David Stearns, you got to move those pieces now and
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: get something back and you know, try again with a
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: different group of reliefs. I think you had mentioned this
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: offare as well. I think Brooks Raley. Yeah, some in
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: the CUB, a former CUB who they've done work on before,
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: so they should have a lot of material kind of
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: already in house. And then it becomes that matter of
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: talking to what's left of your scouting department, your your
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: analytics group and your major league instructors, your outgetter manager
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: and being like, Okay, how how can we maximize this
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: player's talents? And I think they've shown they kind of
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: have an act for that.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: And when you bring up the Mets, they do have
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: starters available too, that could make sense. I mean, Freddy
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Peralta is not pitching as well as we've seen him pitch,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: depending on how much he costs though, I mean this
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: is this gets back to it. It's two two and
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: a half months of a guy. What's to say he
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: can't lock it in and have a great two and
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: a half months. If they see something and believe believe
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: that they can do something, then then that's uh, you know,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: then that's really valuable for them. He has the potential
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: to be really impactful, right has a He has a
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: chance to be a really starter. And then Clay Holmes
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: is making a rehab start soon too, and he could
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: be an impactful addition if especially in front of this defense.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: I think you had a guy that puts the ball
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: on the ground a lot, has a relationship with some
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: of the guys in the ORG. That could be a
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: valuable edition. Let's take a quick break and then when
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: we come back, we can talk about the status of
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: some of the guys that are injured for the Cubs.
• 17:14
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• 18:14
  Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, Like I said earlier in the show,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: we didn't get a chance to talk about some things,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: get some updates on some things when you were on
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the road, John Lester obviously had some good stories to tell,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: so we just kind of let him cook. What's the
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: status on on on injured guys? Where where are the
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Cubs with that? And who can we expect to get
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: back soon or maybe not? Soon.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll have a better idea when we go to
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: really Field this weekend. And obviously things can change over
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: the All Star break, but you know that last Sunday
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: in Cincinnati, I'd ask counsel for kind of a rundown
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: on several pictures of just like what is the snapshot
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: and obviously, well knowing the cub's luck, hopefully no one
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: had like a water skiing accident or something like that,
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: and there are always a chance for setbacks, but I
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: thought it was a fairly accurate gauge of like them
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: going into the break and what they were sort of
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: hoping for. In Baltimore, we had already heard, you know,
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: justin Steele first week of August to kind of ramp
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: up a throwing program off the mound near term. On again,
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: assuming everything stays on track, you know, Jameson Tye On
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: should be reinserted into the rotation. You know, during this
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: first home stand here out of the All Star break.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: Edward Cabrera is behind that, and you know it's been
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: hard to get kind of a firm timeline for him,
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: but the idea is that, you know, once he gets
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: back from the break is kind of start throwing off
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: a mound sort of, you know, lightly or testing things out,
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: with the idea of in late July ramping up a
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: throwing progression that would involve, you know, bullpen sessions, live
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: batting practice. Dana Palencia, the closer, was scheduled to go
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: to Arizona during the All Star break to work. You know,
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: the hope is to get him throwing bullpen sessions after
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: the All Star break. I asked counsel point blank, like
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: realistic to think Ben Brown will pitch again this year.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: He said yes, but coming back as a starter. He said,
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: I don't know if we have clarity on that. So
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: the hope there is he'd already started throwing the ploballs
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: and that you know, if he's asymptomatic a week after
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: the All Star break, you could start mapping out a
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: pretty good throwing program or sort of a normal progression.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: But you know, I put that within a story, and
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: I noticed some comments were like, you know, you're bearing
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: the lead here. I thought it was pretty obvious if
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: in late June you're shut down with a neck injury
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: that almost wiped out an entire season earlier, and you're
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: talking about having to revamp your mechanics to make sure
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: it doesn't happen again, plus just the normal, like there
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: isn't a flip you switch, like, oh, you're cleared, you're healthy,
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: you're a very good major league pitcher again, Like with
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: all of these guys, councils acknowledged like you saw it
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: with Matthew Boyd, like it takes a few outings to
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: get used to game speed again and having that same
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: feel and conviction. So all these players are going to
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: have to go through that process. And then the I
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: guess two more if Hoby Milner's original timeline stands, that
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: was sort of like you know, appendicitis basically a month
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: that would be have him coming back adjacent to the
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: trade deadline. And then Hunter Harvey like there is concern
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: that he may not pitch again this season, like they
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: have to acknowledge that possibility, And the way council explained
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: it was just like with his arm, they haven't quite
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: gotten a place where it's been totally asymptomatic, and that
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: they're just not quite sure how his recovery process would
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: work in terms of bouncing back.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: And being able to be a major league pitcher.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: But with the way the calendar works, they're sort of
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: just gonna try and push through.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: These are not very medical terms.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: It's not the most precise way to frame it, but
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: there are some gray areas here and that I guess
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: the bottom line takeaway for a guy that, as you know,
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: sid of, they thought could be one of those electric,
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: hard throwing throwers, hard throwing relievers in late game situations
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: is they're going to give it a shot, but they
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: know that he may just not come back this year.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Harvey would be a huge addition if healthy,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: but that's can't count. Yeah, that's the thing that's always
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: been the case with him. If healthy, he's an impactful arm.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: They rolled the dice. They knew what they were doing
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: when they signed him. They took a shot hoping they
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: could keep him healthy. That was the focus. It just
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: it didn't work out. I mean, there a lot of
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: this stuff. If like Justin Steele and Ben Brown return
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: to the bullpen, that's still valuable giving innings. I mean,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: council can take it just like innings anywhere. I think
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: that's the point. It's like, that's it's the kind of
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: the point of this episode is that just they'll they'll
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: take innings anywhere, especially if they're really quality innings. We
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: know Ben Brown can do that when he's right. Who
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: knows where Justin Steel will be at when when he's
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: ready to pitch in in big league games. As far
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: as the quality of this stuff, you know, how efficient
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: he can be getting out like it seems all but
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: ruled out that he's coming back as a starter this year,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: but you know he could build up to be multiple
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: innings in relief. Possibly. We'll see where he gets to,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: what point he gets to, how the rehab continues to
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: go for him. But most of these updates just feel
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: like the bullpen can get better. Can the starting rotation
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: get better? I think it's going to depend on you know,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: what type of Jameson Tyne you get back. And then
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: when Edward Cabrera gets back, that's a big one in
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: what he looks like when he returns, if he can
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: live up to a lot of you know, the hopes
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: and expectations that they had for him when when they
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: traded for him. All right, let's wrap this up. We'll
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: have one more episode this week. Thanks so much for
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: listening everyone. This is Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: subscribe to the YouTube channel and subscribe to The Athletic,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: where Patrick and Iron top of all things Cubs. Thanks
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: for listening, everyone, Take care,