Latest / Foul Territory / Ken Rosenthal on Blue Jays injury nightmare, Contreras threat, Hoerner deal + Sahadev Sharma talks Cubs

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Ken Rosenthal on Blue Jays injury nightmare, Contreras threat, Hoerner deal + Sahadev Sharma talks Cubs · Foul Territory

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Here's Ken Rosenthal the Inside Scoop with you, and it's
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the FT senior insider who was on FS one last
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: night in studio talking about the Blue Jays Dodgers series,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: among other topics. So let's start there, Ken, what were
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: your observations from one game out of one point sixty two,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: but how it tells the story of the recent run
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: for the Dodgers and the Blue Jays to start the season.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: The thing that I took away from this game was
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Max Scherzer and Max schers are coming out of the
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: game after two innings with a right forearm issue. It
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: never sounds good when you hear the word forum, but
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: John Schneider, the Blue Jays managers, said after the game
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: that they don't expect this to be anything serious. We'll
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: see and the reason why this is so significant obviously
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: not just for Scherzer, who is in the middle or
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: the end of his Hall of Fame career, but from
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: the Blue Jays perspective, they already have five starting pitchers
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: on the injured list, Brios Bieber, Ya Savage and if
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: you want to count Boden Francis, which you showed, he's
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: out for the year. So they cannot afford to lose anymore.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: And if she's a missus any length of time where
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: it's not the same picture for a two period of time,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: cannot go four or five innings. It's not a great situation.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: So that's what I'm anxious to see kind of out
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: of this game. Otherwise, the game itself, I mean, fourteen
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: to one seven Dodgers had two hits or more home
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: runs all over the place. It wasn't much of a game.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: People on Twitter were saying, Oh, how much more can
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: we talk about Game seven? Is there any more of
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: a great story to be able to cover this? Like,
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: I want fans to understand how amazing Game seven was,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: because we would be talking about Game six had Game
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: seven not been so amazing. So can you put to
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: rest those people who are like, oh, let's get over
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: it and tell them that it was awesome.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: It was awesome. And there are people who also tell
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: us not to write about show so much. We hear
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: it all kinds of ways. Whatever we write one way
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: or the other, we're kind of getting it. So that's
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: the nature of the world today. But let's just talk
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: about Game seven.
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: Why not?
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Because it was one of the great world series games,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: if not the greatest World series game in history. And
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: if you go back and replay it, as many fans
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: have and many writers have and other people, you see
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: just how unusual and how great that game was. So
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: for people who are tired of it, go read something else.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I can tell you. In the Athletic. We have plenty
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: of stories every day. If you don't want to read
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: about one particular topic, you can read about another. If
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: you hate Ken Rosenthal, you got a zillion other writers
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: to read, so please say it.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: Don't hate Ken Rosenthal, okay, because Ken Rosenthal does a
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: great job, and he's my friend, he's right.
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: Next to me.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: But speaking of somebody that isn't friends with somebody? Can
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: you take us through the whole womb Wilson contraras saga
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: with the Brewers, and my question through the whole thing.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Once we get through the whole saga of hit my
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: pitches and stuff. If a player says I'm gonna take
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: one of those guys out publicly and then does it,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: isn't there a suspension possibly looming for something like that?
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: A malicious slide into second I'm not.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Even sure saying it is that kosher with MLB. I'm
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: not sure they wanted to hear anything like that coming
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: from a player. Now, the history for people who might
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: not be familiar, and actually I was not aware that
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: it was twenty four times he has been hit by
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: a pitch by Milwaukee Brewers' pitchers. Now part of that,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: of course, is because he's been playing in the division
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: for so long, so there's a greater frequency. And that said,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: twenty four is twenty four, and you can understand why
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Wilson Contreras would be upset. But yet you saw the
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Brewers quotes from yellowch and Woodruff, and they basically thought
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: it was kind of an act. It was basically him
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: trying to fire up his team. Maybe a little bit
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: of both. I don't know that. We'll Contreras was pretending
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: to be angry about this. It seemed like he was
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: legitimately angry. And what was also interesting here is the
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: pitch that hit him maybe didn't hit him at all.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: So it's one of those baseball things. I don't expect
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: there to be carryover, and if there is, then obviously
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: the league will have to act. And frankly, the Red
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Sox need to win games. They need to not worry
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: about this kind of thing again in the moment, I
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: get it with Wilson Contreras, and I even understand what
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: he said after the game, But they've got to win games.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: They cannot carry this over until tonight and the next
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: day and have this become the story of the series
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: when the story for the Red Sox is their record
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: right now, which is not good.
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: Well, I hate to continue the story, but I do
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: have a question. So it turned you mentioned he's been
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: hit twenty four times by the Brewers and his career
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: six times, specifically by Brandon Woodruff. As someone who only
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: hit ten guys in his career, I can't imagine hitting
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: the same player six times, and he's been hit one
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: hundred and thirty one times in his career. So I
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: guess the overarching question here is why do we think
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: that this even became a thing in the first place.
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: Do you think it has something to do with how
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: you pitch Wilson Contraras's because it is a pattern. He
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: does get hit a lot just in general. Is it
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: throwing in and then it just became something or do
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: you think that that maybe there's a little bit maybe
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: more maliciousness, Maybe not this time, but in the past
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: at times things got heated, you know, a lah Ronald
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: Lacuna Junior and the Marlins.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: We're for a little bit there. Which one do you
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: think is more likely?
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Trevor, It's probably a little bit of both. And that's
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: a guess on my part. And I don't have a
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: scouting report in front of me on how to pitch
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Wilson Contreras. But like most hitters, you want to crowd
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: him and that's probably the best way to approach him.
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: He's a good hitter.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: And the other part of it is he is kind
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: of a fiery guy, the kind of guy you love
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: to have on your team, and if he's not on
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: your team, you don't love them as much. But I'm
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: not sure what is going on exactly there, And I
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: would guess speculate probably a little bit of both of
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: what you said. Yes, they're trying to pitch him that way,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: and yes, maybe at times they have gone in because
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: they wanted to go in and tick him off.
• 6:20
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• 7:20
  Speaker 3: Now, you wrote an article about Nico Horner's contract extension,
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: not contract contract extension and kind of historic I forget
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: exact words that you used. Kind of historic or a
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: landmark extension on whose side, the team side, or the
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: player side.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: The player side.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: And here's a guy who has hit thirty six career
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: home runs thirty six. Cal Rowley had almost twice that
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: accounting post season last year alone. And yet Nico Horner
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: got a one hundred and forty one million dollar contract
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: because of all of the other things he does, and
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: because also we are able to measure some of what
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: he does in better ways than before. Defensively, base running,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: these things all have numbers assigned to them now and
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: there is a greater appreciation and understanding of what players
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: like Nico Horner can bring. And the other part of
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: his thing is his makeup, which is extraordinary and danceby
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Swanson talks about it in the article and I'm curious
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: what you guys think of this. He said that there
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: are very few players who are totally devoted to their
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: craft and trying to get better on an individual basis,
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: and also totally devoted to their team. Obviously, guys are
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: not necessarily selfish, but very few guys pour it all
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: in both buckets, and he does. And the Cubs recognize that.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: They recognize that he plays an up the middle position,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: and if he had gone to free agency, teams would
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: have looked at him some teams as a shortstop and
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: that would have increased his value. So he had a
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: lot of things working in his favor in this negotiation.
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: But he is a player as well.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: So now the next three players that are going to
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: be available in the market that are kind of in
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: his ILK. You mentioned in your article Jazz Chisholm, who
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: hit thirty home runs, the home runs that you talked about,
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: thirty stolen bases, and Boba Schett, while he plays a
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: different position, kind of in that ILK. Will they use
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: this contract because they're in free agency? Would they use
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: this contract? Or is this contract because it wasn't in
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: the free agent market teams are going to or teams
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: are going to say, well, you know that was just
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: a one off case. Or do you feel like the
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: players will be able to use this contract that Nico got.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: They're different kinds of players, and they're more offensively oriented,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: both of those guys, especially actually, I would say especially
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: both they're offensive players. Kashett is not a great defender,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: and Jazz is I would say, a good defender, not
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: an elite defender like Nico Horner is. So when I
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: ref them in the story. What I was talking about
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: was the weakness of the free agent market that is upcoming,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: and those two guys are going to be perhaps the
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: best two hitters available, not just the best two infielders,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: the best two hitters overall. And that's if Boba Schett
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: opts out of his deal with the Mets, and this
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: is your one of potential three. So ultimately, I would
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: expect that in their minds, they're thinking as free agents,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: not just negotiating with one team. They're gonna beat one
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: hundred and forty one. Certainly, Bobashett beat it on an
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: AAV basis in a big way. Niko Horner's AAV is
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: twenty three point five. Bobashett is something like forty two.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: He might not get forty two over six years. He might,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: I don't know, but he's going to be looking for
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: a bigger deal and Jazz. It depends on what he does.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: He has talked about going fifty to fifty that's going
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: to be difficult. Obviously, forty forty that'll be difficult too.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: If he does another thirty thirty, that's a pretty good player, right,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: So he's going to do well, and in an open
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: market situation, probably beat Horner as well.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: One of the things you mentioned was in the article
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: you mentioned the largest contracts the Cubs have given out
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: Jason Hayward, Dansby Swanson, PCA, and now Nico Horner, all
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: defensive while still very good offensive players, all defensive specialists.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Is this because the Cubs see a value in not
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: just the defense obviously, but the fact that they can
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: pay less for defense because other teams are paying more
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: for offense and saying eh on the defense.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: I would say both, and yes, they value defense, and
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: the Hayward deal was the first of these deals to
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: show that kind of value. Jason Hayward, even at the time,
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: was not thought of as really an offensive force. He
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: was one of the first players that was valued because
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: of his all around game and he received a great
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: contract at the time for that. And since then, yes,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: they've continued what Jed Hoyer, their president Baseball Operations, closed
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: their connective tissue in emphasizing defense as a quality they desired.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Now at the same time, yes, defense costs less than
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: offense does. And I don't know that, oh, I don't
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: know that that is an overt motivation on their part,
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: but certainly is the team that is not spent big
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: in free agency. That could be part of it.
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: Ken In the off season when Bregman was signed, there
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: was rumblings around that the Rickets historically have tried to
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: standard that luxury tax I. Believe the agreed upon av
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: for Bregman at that time was put them like one
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: million dollars under the first and they weren't going to
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: go over. So a guy being floated, possibly being moved
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: in the last year of his contract was Nico Horner.
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: That obviously is not the case now with this deal.
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: You know, you talked about it in your piece about
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: the Ledger and how these things kind of lay out.
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: How does now do this deal slot in moving forward
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: to keep them in because they're pretty tight when they
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: come to their salary. How does that now play out
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: with Horner, assuming that the CBA continues somewhat close to
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: what it is now.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Right before Bregman Trevor, their commitments beyond this season were
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: minuscule at the level of the Cleveland Guardians, which was
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: to say, minimal commitments all around. It was something like,
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: I don't know, twenty seven million for next year. It's
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: since gone up, but they still have financial flexibility and
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: they're going to need it because they still have a
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: number of potential free agents. Now it's a group that
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: not all of those players will be resigned. Tyne and
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Boyd from the pitching side, Saya Suzuki, Ian Haf from
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: the offensive side, Carson Kelly. There's some other players as
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: well who are free agents, a number of their relievers.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to sign them all, but they should
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: be in great shape going forward from a financial perspective,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: from a luxury tax perspective, if that system continues, I
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: don't see that being a problem for them. And as
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: I pointed out in the story, one of the reasons
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: they could sign these guys, and one of the reasons
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: they've been more aggressive was they had to sign somebody
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: because they had no long term commitments for the most part.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: So these are steps in the right direction, yes, but
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: steps that were somewhat necessary as well.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Much more information in the story, so we encourage you
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: to check it out. It's in Kenzole's section if you
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: search for him in The Athletic, or you can find
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: it on their MLB homepage. Ken good stuff. Thank you,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: talk to you later in the week.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: Thanks guys.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Yes, it is North Side territory, Saidav Sharman. Also, you
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: can catch all of his articles in the Athletic covering
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: the Cubs. So we had to make an emergency batphone
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: call to Ya Sahadev. Since the Cubs have been suffering
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: some starting pitching injuries that do.
• 14:57
  Speaker 7: Not look good, Matthew Boyd butch better news. This came
• 15:01
  Speaker 7: out of nowhere for us at least. Uh But apparently
• 15:05
  Speaker 7: he's been dealing with some soreness for a little bit,
• 15:07
  Speaker 7: and it's the type of thing where you know there's
• 15:10
  Speaker 7: always soreness after a start, but this was lingering a
• 15:13
  Speaker 7: little longer. The team basically told boy look, let's not
• 15:18
  Speaker 7: push this, Let's just take two weeks, have everything calm down.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: He's going to continue throwing. He's not. It's not like
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: they should. They're shutting him down. Sounds like everyone is
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: just saying like he's back in two weeks. I think
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: that's much better news.
• 15:33
  Speaker 7: Even when I talk to people like on background, they're
• 15:35
  Speaker 7: they're pretty clear that this is this is a minor thing.
• 15:38
  Speaker 7: So unless something weird happens, which you know does happen
• 15:42
  Speaker 7: in baseball with injuries, unless there's a setback here, they're
• 15:46
  Speaker 7: fine with Boyd.
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: It's two weeks without him. They they have been.
• 15:50
  Speaker 7: Planning for this, They've been talking about it all spring
• 15:52
  Speaker 7: as far as pitching depth, pitching depth, pitching depth. That
• 15:55
  Speaker 7: they have to go this early to kind of dip
• 15:59
  Speaker 7: into that pitching depth obviously not ideal.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, Matthew Chris Saile Boyd is what he looked
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: like in his first two starts. I get at the era.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Wasn't there could part of this? Did anybody ask him?
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Could part have have been the fact that he was
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: racking up so many strikeouts? I mean, I think it
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: was seventeen strikeouts and nine innings to start the seasons.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: And it's I'm not saying that strikeouts hurt your arm.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: It's how you go after those strikeouts, especially you're gonna
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: bring up the acronym WBC. Oh no, that could have
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: been something with that.
• 16:37
  Speaker 7: Yeah, he said it was the He said he felt
• 16:40
  Speaker 7: like he could have been the cold exacerbated by the cold,
• 16:43
  Speaker 7: the pitch, this weather. You know, I've lived in the
• 16:45
  Speaker 7: Midwest my entire life. I should be used to this.
• 16:47
  Speaker 7: It's it's been insane, but yoyoing back and forth seventy
• 16:52
  Speaker 7: five one day and then literally.
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: Twelve hours later, it's thirty degrees.
• 16:56
  Speaker 7: And that's happened multiple times to the Cubs, both in
• 17:00
  Speaker 7: Cago and Cleveland. They're in Tampa now in a dome,
• 17:02
  Speaker 7: so at least they have some steadiness there. But he
• 17:04
  Speaker 7: did say some of the cold was there. When I
• 17:06
  Speaker 7: asked him about the jump in strikeouts, Look the stuff,
• 17:09
  Speaker 7: like the metrics of the stuff didn't change, the velocity
• 17:12
  Speaker 7: hasn't had like a huge jump. Those are some of
• 17:15
  Speaker 7: the warning signs. I would say, You're right, WBC is
• 17:18
  Speaker 7: always an issue and always concern I hesitate without knowing
• 17:23
  Speaker 7: for sure. It's just hard to like pinpoint that when
• 17:26
  Speaker 7: when talking to him about the jump in strikeouts, he
• 17:28
  Speaker 7: felt like he was locating his fastball really well at
• 17:30
  Speaker 7: the top of the zone, something he hasn't always done
• 17:33
  Speaker 7: and frankly hasn't tried to do, and something that he
• 17:37
  Speaker 7: felt he was doing really well and was leading to
• 17:40
  Speaker 7: a ton of swinging miss Like I said, these guys
• 17:41
  Speaker 7: are he Both he and Council were adamant that this
• 17:46
  Speaker 7: was a minor situation. So I think they're just I
• 17:50
  Speaker 7: think on the outside looking in, you just have to
• 17:52
  Speaker 7: hope that's true. I don't think Council's pretty careful about
• 17:56
  Speaker 7: how he phrases things. It's not like he's he's been
• 17:59
  Speaker 7: over the top up babistic about Kate Horton. He was
• 18:02
  Speaker 7: pretty out of it. Uh, you know, this is a
• 18:05
  Speaker 7: minor thing. He'll be back in two weeks.
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: You mentioned you wrote an article recently in the in
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: the The Athletic about Pete co ro Armstrong PCA and
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: an increase in in bat speed, something that usually and
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: we just had you know, Sarah's on talking about how
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: it's usually a good thing, but PA said maybe in
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: this case.
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: It might not be. So what what did PCA say?
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: And I hate to bring it up once again?
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: You know he mentioned possibly being late, but do we
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: think that the increase in this bat speed could be
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: linked to playing really high pressure baseball out of the
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: gate in the WBC.
• 18:45
  Speaker 7: So talking to both him and their hitting coach, Dustin Kelly,
• 18:49
  Speaker 7: this this happens with Pete. I think his I think
• 18:53
  Speaker 7: his bat speed was way up early last year and
• 18:55
  Speaker 7: then it kind of tapered down and when he was
• 18:57
  Speaker 7: at his hottest, it wasn't It's not like it was slow,
• 19:00
  Speaker 7: but it wasn't.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: At its at its peak. The bat speed.
• 19:03
  Speaker 7: He says he's doing it to catch up. He feels
• 19:05
  Speaker 7: like that's what's happening. He doesn't have it. It's not
• 19:08
  Speaker 7: like he trained for this. A lot of guys will say, oh,
• 19:11
  Speaker 7: I trained for more bat speed. That's this is not
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: intentional as far as Peak's concerned. It is something that
• 19:17
  Speaker 7: kind of goes in cycles with him. I've seen charts
• 19:21
  Speaker 7: that kind of show his bat speed over the course
• 19:23
  Speaker 7: of last season, and and it was very much like
• 19:26
  Speaker 7: up and down, and like Dustin Kelly told me, it was.
• 19:29
  Speaker 7: It's not something that he needs, like peak bat speed
• 19:33
  Speaker 7: to be at his best. His timing needs to be right.
• 19:36
  Speaker 7: He needs to he wants to hit the ball in
• 19:39
  Speaker 7: the air up the middle. Right right now, he's pulling
• 19:42
  Speaker 7: the ball on the ground. When he's at his best.
• 19:44
  Speaker 7: He he says his goal is up the middle. But
• 19:46
  Speaker 7: when he's at his best, he's pulling the ball in
• 19:48
  Speaker 7: the air. And he even he admitted he said, yes,
• 19:50
  Speaker 7: when I'm locked in, that just tends to be what happens.
• 19:53
  Speaker 7: It's not his goal, but it's what happens. And yeah,
• 19:55
  Speaker 7: like that's kind of like Craig Council jokes about it. Oh,
• 19:58
  Speaker 7: while breaking news it's good to pull the.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: Ball hard in the air.
• 20:02
  Speaker 7: Yeah, that's it's like something that you don't try to
• 20:05
  Speaker 7: do that, but when you're kind of locked in, it's
• 20:07
  Speaker 7: you know, it's Alex Bregman. The Cubs were one of
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: the best teams in baseball last year pulling the ball
• 20:12
  Speaker 7: in the air, and they add someone like Bregman who
• 20:15
  Speaker 7: does it is a specialist at it. So when Pete's right,
• 20:19
  Speaker 7: that's what he's doing. I don't think he hit a
• 20:21
  Speaker 7: ball like four hundred something feet to dead center in
• 20:25
  Speaker 7: Cleveland that got caught, But other than that, I'm not
• 20:28
  Speaker 7: seeing that hard line drive pull it. And just you know,
• 20:32
  Speaker 7: Yank went out of the park. He said he kind
• 20:34
  Speaker 7: of felt like this at the start of the WBC
• 20:37
  Speaker 7: and then and then we saw what happened towards the
• 20:39
  Speaker 7: end of the WBC with his production. And I need
• 20:44
  Speaker 7: to remind fans just how bad he was at the
• 20:46
  Speaker 7: start of last season. For about two weeks, it's like,
• 20:49
  Speaker 7: is this guy ever gonna hit type thing? Is he
• 20:51
  Speaker 7: just a defensive specialist? And then he went off in
• 20:54
  Speaker 7: LA and kind of never looked back until the final
• 20:58
  Speaker 7: month and a half or so of the season, when
• 20:59
  Speaker 7: he struck and he may just be that type of
• 21:02
  Speaker 7: player where there's these high highs low lows. Obviously he'd
• 21:05
  Speaker 7: prefer more consistency. I would not be surprised if it
• 21:10
  Speaker 7: just comes out of nowhere where all of a sudden,
• 21:13
  Speaker 7: Pete has, you know, a few rockets that he pulls
• 21:16
  Speaker 7: in the air and and.
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: He gets on a hot streak.
• 21:19
  Speaker 7: I kind of feel that way about a few of
• 21:21
  Speaker 7: these guys on offense who are just it seems like
• 21:24
  Speaker 7: searching for it. And that's that's a part of this
• 21:27
  Speaker 7: team that I think has to step up after what.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: We just talked about. With all those injuries.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: Nobody will ever be able to put a number on
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: this other than how they do with the guy in
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: the lineup.
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: And how they do with the guy out of the lineup.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: Seya Suzuki, when he is on this team, had one
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: of the better offenses in the first half. He had
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: I think seventy nine or eighty RBIs at the All
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: Star Game or at the All Star break in the
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: game that he didn't get to go to.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: Be Nuns.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: To me, I'm not sure why, but either way, when
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: he rejoins the line line up, don't you feel like
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: some of this, like some of these guys who aren't
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: driving the ball don't feel like they have to drive
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: the ball because he is that RBI guy, or with
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: Regman coming in, is say you're gonna play a different
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: role in this lineup once he's back. I think Friday,
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: he's coming back, and I'm not mistaken that's expectation.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: Two more games.
• 22:20
  Speaker 7: I think two more games in Knoxville and then come
• 22:22
  Speaker 7: back for the weekend in at Wrigley.
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: Uh yeah.
• 22:26
  Speaker 7: I think he's a huge part of this offense and
• 22:29
  Speaker 7: just you know, a huge power source for this offense.
• 22:32
  Speaker 7: I believe it was thirty two homers last year. Uh yeah,
• 22:36
  Speaker 7: they don't. They haven't had a lot of slug. It's
• 22:39
  Speaker 7: come here and there. Ian Hap has some slug so
• 22:41
  Speaker 7: far early in the season, but guys just aren't. There's
• 22:44
  Speaker 7: no consistent extra base hits with men on base right now.
• 22:48
  Speaker 7: They don't have those big hits. I think some of
• 22:50
  Speaker 7: it is just like whether it's says Suzuki relieving some
• 22:53
  Speaker 7: stress or just someone coming up with a big clutch hit.
• 22:58
  Speaker 7: They've had some hits. I had some, you know, they've
• 23:01
  Speaker 7: driven to runs. It's not like the offense has been
• 23:03
  Speaker 7: completely missing, but it's one of those games. They need
• 23:06
  Speaker 7: one of those games where they're down six to four
• 23:08
  Speaker 7: in the seventh and someone hits a three er run
• 23:10
  Speaker 7: shot and it's like, there's that big hit. We know
• 23:12
  Speaker 7: how to come back and win, we know how to
• 23:14
  Speaker 7: put up runs. I think they need a moment like that.
• 23:17
  Speaker 7: Saya doing it would be ideal, and I do think
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: they're they're absolutely missing his bat. It makes them a
• 23:23
  Speaker 7: much more potent lineup, a deeper lineup. I think Carson
• 23:27
  Speaker 7: Kelly's rarely quality player. Right now, he's batting clean up
• 23:32
  Speaker 7: pretty consistently.
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: I don't think.
• 23:34
  Speaker 7: That's the ideal way you should build out this lineup
• 23:38
  Speaker 7: when everybody's healthy. That's not to say he's not a
• 23:41
  Speaker 7: quality offensive player. I think he's been pretty good and
• 23:43
  Speaker 7: he doesn't look that bad at the plate right now.
• 23:46
  Speaker 7: It's just that that you want, say Suzuki right there.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: All right, we've talked to rotation injuries, but we cannot
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: talk to rotate, talk about the rotation and not talk
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: about Edward Cabrera and the way that he has started
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: is that start because other organizations, somebody goes to the Rays,
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: Oh they unlocked this new thing. Somebody goes to Dodgers, ooh,
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: they unlocked this new thing. Is there something that Edward
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: Cabrera is doing differently now with the Cubs in his
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: first two starts where I think he's gone eleven or
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: twelve innings and only given up two hits. If Confordo
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: had caught that one, I don't know where we would
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: have been had he caught that one. But is there
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: something new that he's doing that can be sustained throughout
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: the entire year for this team?
• 24:28
  Speaker 7: So with them, when I talked to the pitching coaches
• 24:32
  Speaker 7: or anyone in the front office, they weren't trying to
• 24:35
  Speaker 7: reinvent Edward Cabrera. They weren't trying to change him completely.
• 24:39
  Speaker 7: There's two things I would say that. First of all,
• 24:41
  Speaker 7: they really focus on his health. How do we keep
• 24:43
  Speaker 7: this guy healthy? What are the things we can do
• 24:45
  Speaker 7: to maintain his health?
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: That's key?
• 24:48
  Speaker 7: Obviously with what we talked about already, they want to
• 24:51
  Speaker 7: keep him healthy. It's imperative that they do now it's
• 24:53
  Speaker 7: all the more important that they do. So the second
• 24:56
  Speaker 7: thing is last year he went more sink heavy when
• 25:00
  Speaker 7: he between his fastballs. He was going sinker over four
• 25:03
  Speaker 7: seam He prefers using his four seamer. The problem with
• 25:06
  Speaker 7: that initially is he loses more command of that pitch
• 25:10
  Speaker 7: that can lead to more walks. But he believes, and
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: I think the Cubs do as well, that it pairs
• 25:16
  Speaker 7: better with both his change up, which is super unique
• 25:19
  Speaker 7: and very hard. It pairs better with the change up
• 25:22
  Speaker 7: and his breaking balls kind of throws it to a
• 25:26
  Speaker 7: more distinct area that's going to be up in the
• 25:28
  Speaker 7: zone or above the zone, while the sinker is going
• 25:31
  Speaker 7: to look more like the change up, and with that
• 25:34
  Speaker 7: smaller velo difference, I think both he and the staff
• 25:39
  Speaker 7: kind of want it to be use the four seam
• 25:41
  Speaker 7: more than the sinker, and he's admitted flat out that
• 25:45
  Speaker 7: he feels more comfortable throwing it. Does that mean we're
• 25:48
  Speaker 7: going to see him jump in walks again? I think
• 25:50
  Speaker 7: that's the only concern you have with that.
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: There. He was great.
• 25:54
  Speaker 7: He's been great in these first two starts. The first
• 25:56
  Speaker 7: start not a lot of walks. I think maybe one
• 25:59
  Speaker 7: second one a lot more walks, and that would be
• 26:02
  Speaker 7: the concern is the is the walk.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: Rate going to jump?
• 26:05
  Speaker 7: Because I think they solved some of those issues by
• 26:08
  Speaker 7: using the sinker last year in Miami, but he wants
• 26:11
  Speaker 7: to use the four team. He thinks he'll have his
• 26:13
  Speaker 7: stuff play up more. And I totally get the logic
• 26:17
  Speaker 7: about that. It's just are we going to see a
• 26:19
  Speaker 7: twelve percent walk rate again? Which is kind of what's
• 26:23
  Speaker 7: held him back from, Like, here's this stud with all
• 26:25
  Speaker 7: this amazing stuff, But can he really harness it and
• 26:29
  Speaker 7: command it? It's two starts, so I don't want to
• 26:32
  Speaker 7: say like he can't do that, but that would be
• 26:36
  Speaker 7: the thing to watch the four seam usage and the
• 26:38
  Speaker 7: jump in that and then and does that lead to
• 26:41
  Speaker 7: more walks? Or can he command it and just unlock this?
• 26:44
  Speaker 7: You know, beast of a pitcher?
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: All right?
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: If nothing changes between now and Friday, when the Cubs
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: come back home and play the Pirates and the flags
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: for people who haven't been to regularly, the flags fly
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: and everybody looks at him, and it's each team is
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: based on their their spot in the standings, and the
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: Cubs are currently at the bottom of the totem pole.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: Who are they most worried about at the top? Is
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: it the I can't believe how the undaunt what is
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: it undaunted or daunted daunting team in Milwaukee or is
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: it the Reds who have won four straight? Who are
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: they most worried about of the teams that are ahead
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: of them, which is everybody in the division right now.
• 27:25
  Speaker 7: I mean, if you ask them, they're going to say,
• 27:28
  Speaker 7: we're concerned with ourselves right that They're going to give
• 27:30
  Speaker 7: you that answer. Like I think you have to be
• 27:33
  Speaker 7: most worried about the Brewers. The Brewers keep winning. They
• 27:36
  Speaker 7: they're the team. They defending NL Central champs. They beat
• 27:40
  Speaker 7: the Cubs in the playoffs. They have the Cub's number
• 27:43
  Speaker 7: right now, and they have the NL Central's number. They
• 27:47
  Speaker 7: have just an impressively well run organization. They could trade
• 27:54
  Speaker 7: cy young candidates, they can lose MVP candidates. It seems
• 27:59
  Speaker 7: like they have a never ending group of players that
• 28:03
  Speaker 7: they can call upon. They seem to always if they
• 28:06
  Speaker 7: don't win a trade, they break even. They're really good
• 28:10
  Speaker 7: at pretty much everything you need to do to win
• 28:14
  Speaker 7: on a not huge budget.
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: It's very impressive.
• 28:19
  Speaker 7: We go through this in cycles in baseball. Who are
• 28:22
  Speaker 7: the darling small organizations? Cleveland, Tampa Bay. I think right
• 28:26
  Speaker 7: now they're the undisputed small organization that everyone looks to
• 28:31
  Speaker 7: and says, how are they doing that? And what can
• 28:33
  Speaker 7: we copy from them? Because it is remarkably impressive. I'm
• 28:37
  Speaker 7: I never write them off anymore.
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: I used to years.
• 28:40
  Speaker 7: Ago say I don't know if I look at look
• 28:42
  Speaker 7: at this team on paper, what's so impressive about them?
• 28:44
  Speaker 7: And then they just keep winning and winning and winning,
• 28:46
  Speaker 7: and they're doing it again to start the year. I
• 28:48
  Speaker 7: think you have to be worried about the Brewers, not
• 28:51
  Speaker 7: because of the start by the Cubs or the start
• 28:54
  Speaker 7: by the Brewers, just because of what they do year
• 28:56
  Speaker 7: in and year out. And yes, I like the rights
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: to the great manager, great team, a lot of pitching talent,
• 29:01
  Speaker 7: and even the Pirates are look like a solid team.
• 29:05
  Speaker 7: They got to have a lot of pitching to contend with.
• 29:07
  Speaker 7: So it is not going to be a cakewalk for
• 29:10
  Speaker 7: the Cubs. If anyone thought that they were deluding themselves,
• 29:14
  Speaker 7: this is a pretty solid division with a team and
• 29:17
  Speaker 7: the Brewers that is going to contend a year and
• 29:20
  Speaker 7: a year out, it seems like.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Brewers have become the Rays in terms of
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: owners being jealous of what they're doing. David Stern's gone,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Craig Council gone, Corbyn Burns traded, Freddie perraulta traded even
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: this year. Churio's heard there's a number of injuries already
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: piling up for them and it just doesn't really matter
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: right now they're contending, so it's impressive. I'm with you.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: So I had a good catching up man, appreciate the
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: time as always, and for everyone else. Much more information
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: on the cubs, of course, and as soon as that
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Kate Horton news comes out, you know they'll have a
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: new episode of north Side Territory Talks. Oh there it
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: is QR code on your screen. It's really big, so
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: you can't miss to get their YouTube channel and their
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: podcast platforms.
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: Thank you, Sad, Thanks guys. Stick here
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: M