Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / A look to the future with MLB.com's Jordan Bastian

Transcript

A look to the future with MLB.com's Jordan Bastian · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Right, like fans are gonna start dreaming again. So that's
0:03
Speaker 1: just how I feel like these past four weeks in
0:06
Speaker 1: general have been welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks
0:14
Speaker 1: Cubs Podcast. I'm Sahadev Sharma. Patrick Mooney is on vacation
0:19
Speaker 1: this week, so we have a special guest. Patrick had
0:24
Speaker 1: Jesse Rogers on. I believe that was last week or
0:26
Speaker 1: two weeks ago. So we're going polar oposites here where
0:30
Speaker 1: we're as as Jesse, let everyone know, I'm spin Rate
0:34
Speaker 1: and with me today is stat Cast, MLB dot COM's
0:38
Speaker 1: Cubs beat reporter Jordan Bastion. Jordan, thank you for joining
0:43
Speaker 1: the show. I believe you you are an occasional listener,
0:47
Speaker 1: so you're familiar with Patrick's and my my shenanigans. I
0:53
Speaker 1: guess I don't know what that is where we're not
0:55
Speaker 1: too too wild here. We stick to Cubs most of
0:58
Speaker 1: the time, but thanks, thanks for joining, thanks for listening
1:01
Speaker 1: on occasion, and we can talk about this up and
1:05
Speaker 1: down Cubs team that has started to tease the fans
1:09
Speaker 1: and let them think that maybe they're getting back into it,
1:13
Speaker 1: but but they're not. They're not getting back into this thing.
1:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me on.
1:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, after listening to that episode, I thought, yeah,
1:21
Speaker 3: you need to balance it out. I think we're going
1:23
Speaker 3: expected stats only in this episode.
1:27
Speaker 2: Uh you know, I'm.
1:28
Speaker 3: Gonna ask us say via stat cast every sentence. I
1:32
Speaker 3: got my speller hat on, so I'm ready to go.
1:34
Speaker 1: Yeah.
1:35
Speaker 3: You know, this team has been it's for the last
1:38
Speaker 3: couple of weeks, it's been. You've seen those flashes of
1:41
Speaker 3: a team that that looks like a team that should
1:44
Speaker 3: be in the playoff race. You know, they they've going
1:47
Speaker 3: back to July fourth, I think they've won.
1:50
Speaker 2: I think they've gone sixteen and twelve.
1:52
Speaker 3: I mean, that's not great, but it's it's been much
1:55
Speaker 3: improved compared to what we saw across May and June.
1:58
Speaker 3: They have these these couple game stretches where the offense
2:03
Speaker 3: looks like what we kind of envisioned it would be,
2:07
Speaker 3: you know, not a top of the league offense, but
2:09
Speaker 3: a deep one through nine, above average across the board offense.
2:13
Speaker 3: I think that's what we all expected going into this year,
2:16
Speaker 3: and just certain parts of that lineup bottomed out. And
2:20
Speaker 3: I think yesterday was another example of you saw a
2:23
Speaker 3: pitcher that they hadn't seen, and he was facing hitters
2:28
Speaker 3: that you know with that knowledge, and he leaned on
2:30
Speaker 3: a change up more than he had all year, and
2:33
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, the rack the whiffs were stacking
2:36
Speaker 3: up at a rate we haven't seen since like June
2:39
Speaker 3: for this Cubs team. And no one wants to hear
2:41
Speaker 3: the word June right now in relations to the Cubs offense.
2:44
Speaker 3: But for one day, that's what it was against the
2:48
Speaker 3: Twins and Festa.
2:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this is a slightly different team than
2:53
Speaker 1: the one we have been watching. I would be more
2:55
Speaker 1: optimistic in general about this team. I think they're uh,
3:01
Speaker 1: they're not going to bottom out. Is is how I
3:05
Speaker 1: look at these final two months. So this is this
3:06
Speaker 1: is gonna be typical. They're they're going to tease. I
3:09
Speaker 1: just don't think. I think they dug themselves too big
3:11
Speaker 1: of a hole. One thing, I know, we we have
3:14
Speaker 1: a kind of a plan of what we're going to
3:15
Speaker 1: talk about here. One thing I just want to touch
3:17
Speaker 1: on a reason why they're different, of course, is esak Paratus.
3:20
Speaker 1: I think fans this this is typical for fans that
3:23
Speaker 1: they they see it like the first week of a player.
3:27
Speaker 1: Jamber Candelario last year, first week he was a stud,
3:30
Speaker 1: right and then got hurt. Uh, never really played well
3:34
Speaker 1: again for the Cubs. And and it's like a below
3:36
Speaker 1: average bat this season, right, Like that's so the initial uh,
3:41
Speaker 1: you know, what you initially see can sometimes be what
3:44
Speaker 1: fans think the player is. Jamer or Estak Paratus has
3:48
Speaker 1: been above average every month this season, every month except
3:52
Speaker 1: for August so far. When I talk about above average,
3:54
Speaker 1: I mean offensively. His worst month was July, where he
3:57
Speaker 1: had a one o two way to runs great at
3:59
Speaker 1: plus and had a three forty on base percentage. Like
4:02
Speaker 1: that's he had an eighteen walk right right in July.
4:06
Speaker 1: If that's your worst month, you'll take it like he's
4:08
Speaker 1: He's incredibly consistent. This is a minor slump adjusting to
4:13
Speaker 1: a new city. He's My guess is he's fine. That's
4:16
Speaker 1: just a quick aside. I just wanted to I saw
4:18
Speaker 1: people panicking last night, like what's wrong with this guy?
4:22
Speaker 2: Yeah?
4:22
Speaker 1: This strikeouts I think are a little up for him.
4:25
Speaker 3: This I mean he actually has had. If you've watched
4:28
Speaker 3: the bats, there's been some really good at bats in
4:30
Speaker 3: there that just have resulted in either a strikeout or
4:35
Speaker 3: or a ball in play, but you've seen I know
4:38
Speaker 3: we pointed to it that night. But he had a
4:39
Speaker 3: twelve pitch at bat ended in a strikeout the other night,
4:44
Speaker 3: and you don't you can't draw a direct line.
4:47
Speaker 2: But there was a five run inning that happened after that.
4:50
Speaker 2: I mean there is.
4:51
Speaker 3: So we have seen little moments of those grinding at bats,
4:54
Speaker 3: which is what you want from a good hitter when
4:56
Speaker 3: you're in a result slump. You want the bats to
5:01
Speaker 3: still be impacting in some way or to have a
5:04
Speaker 3: competitive at bat.
5:05
Speaker 2: We've seen competitive atvats. We just haven't seen the results yet.
5:08
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I would not be concerned about him. He is
5:13
Speaker 1: pretty consistent. This is a third year in a row
5:16
Speaker 1: where he's performed at a high level offensively. If you
5:20
Speaker 1: want to look at bad luck numbers like the last
5:22
Speaker 1: two months and including July in the start of August,
5:25
Speaker 1: like the babep numbers are just ridiculous, ridiculously low, like
5:28
Speaker 1: sub one thirty numbers with the Babe, He's gonna be fine.
5:33
Speaker 2: And it's regularly so hot of the pole power doesn't
5:37
Speaker 2: play in regularly.
5:41
Speaker 1: Well, one player who is turning it around. And when
5:44
Speaker 1: we talk about small sample, this small sample is pretty impressive.
5:50
Speaker 1: Peek row Armstrong is starting to look like a completely
5:53
Speaker 1: different hitter at the plate. I started to notice it
5:57
Speaker 1: so at the end of the right before the break,
6:01
Speaker 1: he had that two homer game, and I actually didn't
6:04
Speaker 1: love those homers. They the results, you'll take them, right,
6:08
Speaker 1: But the pitches he swung it are the types of
6:12
Speaker 1: pitches you don't want. He was swinging it and getting
6:15
Speaker 1: bad results on before. He was chasing too much, and
6:18
Speaker 1: he chased a couple of breaking balls down, got them out,
6:21
Speaker 1: you know, hit them out like he had good results
6:23
Speaker 1: on pitches he probably should have swung it. And then
6:27
Speaker 1: you know, coming out of the break, he looked like
6:29
Speaker 1: the same guy, chasing way too much. I think he
6:32
Speaker 1: went on an oh for twenty one stretch there like
6:35
Speaker 1: it was bad, and he was chasing still in Kansas City.
6:40
Speaker 1: The second he got to Kansas City. That even that
6:42
Speaker 1: first game, I was like, ooh, this looks like a
6:44
Speaker 1: different guy. He started to get some results in Kansas City.
6:47
Speaker 1: First couple games of Cincinnati, line drives all over the place,
6:50
Speaker 1: didn't get results. But he's not chasing as much. He's
6:53
Speaker 1: making more hard contact, so he's this is a three
6:58
Speaker 1: six nine ten games sample now including Monday night, he
7:03
Speaker 1: has an eight point eight strikeout ray. He has a
7:06
Speaker 1: one forty eight way to runs creative plus. You know
7:09
Speaker 1: you want to see more walks. I think he has
7:11
Speaker 1: one walk in that stretch. It's okay. He probably needs
7:16
Speaker 1: to start walking more. And I think you were there
7:18
Speaker 1: on Saturday when Dustin Kelly kind of talked about like
7:21
Speaker 1: he's not going to be seeking out walks, but but
7:24
Speaker 1: there's a way that they'll come if he starts doing
7:27
Speaker 1: some damage.
7:27
Speaker 2: Yeah.
7:28
Speaker 3: I think it's the old adage that walks for a hitter,
7:31
Speaker 3: especially of his kind of profile, are going to be
7:34
Speaker 3: the byproduct of just good pitch selection and good at baths.
7:39
Speaker 2: You don't, I don't.
7:40
Speaker 3: I don't think he's the type of player you go
7:42
Speaker 3: up there and say, hey, I want you to draw walks.
7:45
Speaker 2: You don't want Peecrow Armston hunting for walks.
7:48
Speaker 3: You want him hunting for doubles and triples and or
7:52
Speaker 3: getting on base and turning a single into a double
7:55
Speaker 3: with a stolen base. But the walks are going to
7:58
Speaker 3: be that he's starting to learn to recognize the pitches
8:03
Speaker 3: that he has been chasing. And I think what he's
8:07
Speaker 3: talked about too, is he's starting to see some pitchers
8:09
Speaker 3: more than once. He's starting to get those mental reps
8:12
Speaker 3: so he can know what a guy's going to in
8:14
Speaker 3: what situation, or just what the shape of his breaking
8:17
Speaker 3: ball looks like. That's going to be valuable as he
8:19
Speaker 3: continues to learn. And I think if you actually I
8:22
Speaker 3: was looking at his fifteen game rolling on Fangrafts Jesse
8:26
Speaker 3: and Mooney, you can tune out right now, but I
8:30
Speaker 3: think if you actually go back to late June, you
8:33
Speaker 3: can steadily see that swinging strike rate just in full decline,
8:38
Speaker 3: so that part of it has started has been in
8:41
Speaker 3: decline for a good month plus. And yeah, I think
8:45
Speaker 3: he started some drills with Dustin Kelly really focusing on
8:50
Speaker 3: almost overemphasizing the weight distribution over his back leg to
8:55
Speaker 3: really stay back when he was hitting. I think you
8:58
Speaker 3: wrote he had conversations with Nick Madrigal about just his
9:02
Speaker 3: style of doing that and how he tried to incorporate
9:06
Speaker 3: a little bit of that mindset where you almost feel
9:09
Speaker 3: like you're off balance or leaning back too far, but
9:13
Speaker 3: it's actually just forcing you to not get out front.
9:16
Speaker 3: And we've seen a lot of pulled balls into the
9:19
Speaker 3: right field corner, which as soon as he puts a
9:21
Speaker 3: ball into the right field corner, that's a double, you know,
9:25
Speaker 3: for a guy with his speed. So I think we're
9:27
Speaker 3: seeing really really improved swing decisions. We're seeing him just
9:31
Speaker 3: on time more lately because of some of the drill work.
9:34
Speaker 2: He's been doing.
9:36
Speaker 3: And I mean, gotta remember, this guy broke into the
9:38
Speaker 3: big leagues at what twenty one, he's yeah, twenty two
9:41
Speaker 3: right now. The expectations are so high for him, and
9:45
Speaker 3: you know, a player's peak is I think we've learned
9:47
Speaker 3: it's not necessarily twenty seven anymore. Maybe it's skews a
9:50
Speaker 3: little younger than that, but I mean, this guy still
9:53
Speaker 3: has multiple seasons until he's peak. Major league Pete Crow Armstrong,
9:59
Speaker 3: it's hard to learn and develop in the big league level,
10:03
Speaker 3: and I think, you know, you hear a lot of
10:04
Speaker 3: people say that, but it's true. And you've got two
10:07
Speaker 3: examples this year of Petrol Armstrong and Miguel Amaya, who
10:13
Speaker 3: they've made.
10:15
Speaker 2: Stance implementation changes.
10:18
Speaker 3: That is the type of stuff that you would tell
10:20
Speaker 3: a minor leaguer to do in the minor leagues, and
10:22
Speaker 3: they're going, no, we need you to do this in
10:24
Speaker 3: the major leagues, try it out for a couple of days,
10:27
Speaker 3: and let's work from there. You know, that's developing at
10:30
Speaker 3: the major league level, and you know, I think we've
10:33
Speaker 3: seen tons of positive signs lately.
10:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so much of when you talk about how
10:39
Speaker 1: it feels like he's almost leaning too far back or
10:42
Speaker 1: too much on his back leg, like, so much of
10:45
Speaker 1: it is like these mental cues and the feel can
10:48
Speaker 1: be different than what's actually happening, right, and you just
10:51
Speaker 1: have to like, what's where are you comfortable with things?
10:54
Speaker 1: And when I was talking to Pete, a big thing
10:56
Speaker 1: that stood out to me is like he's getting a
10:59
Speaker 1: lot of it right and that can sometimes be overwhelming,
11:02
Speaker 1: but well, what he's he's he's really good. It seems
11:05
Speaker 1: to be like filtering out what he needs and just
11:08
Speaker 1: taking He's like he's like, there's not there's there's only
11:12
Speaker 1: so many ways to do this right, Like everyone has
11:15
Speaker 1: different paths to success, but there's only so many ways
11:18
Speaker 1: that things can work out. There's you can't have like
11:21
Speaker 1: there's not like thousands of different things. So he's like
11:24
Speaker 1: trying to pick the things that that work for him,
11:26
Speaker 1: like he is something that stood out to him was
11:29
Speaker 1: in spring training in the cage, like Dansby noticed he
11:32
Speaker 1: was doing too many things, and he was like, hey,
11:35
Speaker 1: just focus on the finish. Focus on the finish of
11:38
Speaker 1: your swing. And everything in the mindset is everything up
11:41
Speaker 1: the middle, hard up the middle. And and that's something
11:44
Speaker 1: that he's he's just kept that and then like talkman
11:47
Speaker 1: gives him a little bits of advice, Cody Beundry, he
11:49
Speaker 1: has all these veterans or really smart ball players just
11:52
Speaker 1: giving him little tidbits along the way. Uh. And the
11:56
Speaker 1: reason they're doing that is because they see them men's talent, right,
11:59
Speaker 1: Like this guy's an elite defender in centerfield. We can
12:01
Speaker 1: we can hem and haw about what happened on Saturday
12:04
Speaker 1: and listen, that was a bad play. It shouldn't have happened.
12:09
Speaker 1: The Cubs should have won that game. But he's he's
12:12
Speaker 1: still learning, Like you said, he's twenty two.
12:15
Speaker 3: One thing I like too is and Creg Council has
12:18
Speaker 3: used this example of that. It reminds him of Carlos
12:21
Speaker 3: Gomez when he first got to Milwaukee and he said,
12:25
Speaker 3: the one of the differences there and what I think
12:28
Speaker 3: what you're talking about all the advice that Pete's getting.
12:32
Speaker 3: All the advice that Pete Carl Armstrong is getting from
12:35
Speaker 3: the staff, from his teammates is how do we maximize
12:38
Speaker 3: your strengths and turn you into the best version of you.
12:42
Speaker 3: What creug Council has said happened to Carlos Gomez was
12:45
Speaker 3: he was a similarly speed based type hitter, and back
12:50
Speaker 3: in the day, it was, here's what we want you
12:53
Speaker 3: to do because you are that type of player. And
12:56
Speaker 3: they would almost they would force hitters to be someone
12:59
Speaker 3: who they weren't, and it took him a long time.
13:02
Speaker 3: You know, hey, get the ball on the ground, you know,
13:04
Speaker 3: move the runner over like you're you're the you're the
13:07
Speaker 3: fast slap hitter type guy. With Pete, it's like, no,
13:10
Speaker 3: you have a dynamic skill set if we can maximize it,
13:15
Speaker 3: So let's focus on getting getting that out of you.
13:17
Speaker 2: But if you look at.
13:17
Speaker 3: Gomas's his kind of career track record is first five
13:22
Speaker 3: years I was looking at this up he was seventy.
13:23
Speaker 2: Three ops plus a well below up average.
13:26
Speaker 3: His ground ball rate was really high, and then you
13:29
Speaker 3: could see when he got to Milwaukee there was less
13:32
Speaker 3: emphasis on ground balls. He's getting the ball on the
13:34
Speaker 3: air more. All of a sudden, that on base is
13:36
Speaker 3: ticking up and ticking up, and suddenly he's getting MVP
13:39
Speaker 3: votes and there's a two time All Star because he
13:41
Speaker 3: got his ops plus into the one twenty range. And
13:45
Speaker 3: I think, like, if you can get Pete crow Armstrong
13:48
Speaker 3: to that ninety five to one twenty range one twenty
13:51
Speaker 3: being like, this dude will get MVP votes because of
13:54
Speaker 3: the skills. Like it's it's like we talk about Danzby Swanson.
13:58
Speaker 3: If you can just be a league average or slightly
14:02
Speaker 3: a bug league average offensive player, that's superstar level, you know,
14:07
Speaker 3: So I think when you're talking about the all round games,
14:09
Speaker 3: I just thought that was an interesting example council is
14:11
Speaker 3: leaned on of you know, this is a normal career
14:15
Speaker 3: trajectory for a young player, and in Pete's case, this
14:18
Speaker 3: is let's emphasize your strengths, not make you do things
14:21
Speaker 3: that don't spit who you are as a player.
14:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and I glossed over it. I said, the
14:27
Speaker 1: eight point eight strikeout, eight point eight percent strikeout right
14:30
Speaker 1: over the last ten games. I don't think he's going
14:32
Speaker 1: to be like a twelve percent strikeout guy, but right
14:35
Speaker 1: now he's like twenty three point six.
14:37
Speaker 2: Right now you're seeing the best version of him.
14:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like twenty three point six for the season,
14:43
Speaker 1: and like after what he did last year, it was
14:45
Speaker 1: what nineteen played appearance is not enough to really make
14:48
Speaker 1: grand conclusions, but still like that's that's solid. Like his
14:52
Speaker 1: babeb is way too low for his speed. He's this
14:56
Speaker 1: is this is fine. I know the results aren't fully
14:59
Speaker 1: there for the full season, but this, like I think
15:02
Speaker 1: Cubs fans now that we've kind of seen like this
15:04
Speaker 1: stretch of like, oh wait, he can make adjustments, he
15:07
Speaker 1: can look good at the plate. I was getting to
15:11
Speaker 1: the point where I was like, oh, these chases on
15:13
Speaker 1: these sliders in are just like that's unbearable to watch,
15:17
Speaker 1: Like you have to adjust, and he did so I
15:20
Speaker 1: think there's reason to be optimistic for fans. I think
15:23
Speaker 1: obviously the speed's there. You have elite speed, top three,
15:27
Speaker 1: top five in the game speed. It's like Bobby wit,
15:30
Speaker 1: Ellie De la Cruz and Peeker Armstrong right like these
15:33
Speaker 1: this is an elite talent that you know, if he
15:38
Speaker 1: starts to look like you said, ninety five one hundred
15:41
Speaker 1: way to runs great A plus that is a great
15:44
Speaker 1: player with his defense in center field. It's it's starting
15:48
Speaker 1: to build some optimism. I think, you know, you don't
15:53
Speaker 1: want to get overwhelmed or overthink things for twenty twenty four,
15:56
Speaker 1: but twenty twenty five like this, Suddenly it changes the
16:00
Speaker 1: trajectory of things and you feel a little bit more comfortable,
16:03
Speaker 1: and you start talking about depth, and you know all
16:05
Speaker 1: the options you have and what what Cody Bellinger is
16:09
Speaker 1: going to do as far as opting in, opting out,
16:12
Speaker 1: and you have different you have. You have a lot
16:14
Speaker 1: of options right now and part of that and we
16:17
Speaker 1: can shift here they like Council addressed this yesterday. But
16:22
Speaker 1: they three guys move up from Double A to Triple A,
16:26
Speaker 1: Matt Shaw, Kevin al contra Uh and James Trianto's. That's
16:31
Speaker 1: six top one hundred guys at Triple A, you know,
16:35
Speaker 1: including Kate Horton who has hurt. But you know, five
16:38
Speaker 1: position players. Moyses Biasteris, Owen Casey already there, Owen Casey's
16:43
Speaker 1: been there all season long. Moyses Biasterius is twenty years old.
16:48
Speaker 1: Like they have a loaded Triple A team, a bunch
16:52
Speaker 1: of position players on the cusp of coming up to
16:54
Speaker 1: the big leagues. You already have PCA and Matt Bush.
16:57
Speaker 1: Matt Bush, Michael Bush at the big league. There's a
17:01
Speaker 1: lot of young talent here, and not everyone's going to hit,
17:04
Speaker 1: not everyone's going to become a CUB, not everyone's going
17:08
Speaker 1: to impact this team as a cub. But it is
17:12
Speaker 1: a good thing to see them get to Triple A,
17:15
Speaker 1: to see them develop, to see them on the cusp
17:18
Speaker 1: of the big leagues and finally feeling good about the system.
17:24
Speaker 1: As far as it's it's almost I remember in fourteen
17:29
Speaker 1: people would be like, who cares about these these prospects? Right?
17:33
Speaker 1: Because they're they're these intangible concepts. They're starting to become
17:36
Speaker 1: tangible now and it's something fans can really grasp a
17:40
Speaker 1: hold of.
17:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's one thing I've really liked since i've been
17:46
Speaker 3: so I came over to this beat in nineteen and
17:49
Speaker 3: maybe you can speak to what the development was like
17:52
Speaker 3: before that.
17:53
Speaker 2: I know you can.
17:55
Speaker 3: But one thing I've really liked of this sort of
17:58
Speaker 3: new player development regime is the they're not timid to
18:04
Speaker 3: push guys that are young up the ladder, especially on
18:07
Speaker 3: the position player side.
18:10
Speaker 2: Before you would look at their age and think like, oh,
18:12
Speaker 2: they're ready for that level.
18:13
Speaker 3: I've really liked how fast they pushed Owen Casey up
18:18
Speaker 3: the level. You know, they drafted Shaw and he said,
18:22
Speaker 3: I want to be pushed. I want to be in
18:24
Speaker 3: the big leagues. And one of the reasons he liked
18:27
Speaker 3: at the Cubs where the team that drafted him is
18:29
Speaker 3: he was confident they would do it.
18:30
Speaker 2: They've backed that up and his performance has dictated it.
18:34
Speaker 3: James Toronto's who I think kind of flies under the
18:36
Speaker 3: radar a little bit just because of some of the
18:38
Speaker 3: other prospect names. He's been pushed and has answered the
18:42
Speaker 3: bell and moved up quickly and showing an incredible propensity
18:46
Speaker 3: for just not striking out and getting on base. And
18:49
Speaker 3: so I think that's been really impressive, and these guys
18:52
Speaker 3: have backed it up. And yeah, I think when you
18:54
Speaker 3: start when you hear Jed Hoyer say at the trade deadline, like, yeah,
18:58
Speaker 3: this year hasn't called the way that the Cubs have
19:01
Speaker 3: wanted it to go, but they still feel they're in
19:04
Speaker 3: a good organizational place foundation wise for the next two years.
19:08
Speaker 3: It's it's because of this, It's because you have this
19:11
Speaker 3: layer coming and it's not necessarily plug and play guys. Oh,
19:15
Speaker 3: these are all gonna be superstars and you plug them in.
19:17
Speaker 3: And that's what top one hundred means. It's you fill
19:20
Speaker 3: out a major league team with veteran major league players
19:25
Speaker 3: and if something happens, you have this layer underneath that
19:29
Speaker 3: you can trust and step in and fill in in spots,
19:32
Speaker 3: and you know, maybe you pick one spot up Pete
19:35
Speaker 3: crow Armstrong to say, you're gonna be the guy who's
19:37
Speaker 3: in the big leagues developing this year.
19:39
Speaker 2: We're not gonna We're not gonna run the whole farm
19:41
Speaker 2: system up.
19:42
Speaker 3: And you're waiting for these guys to be baking down
19:45
Speaker 3: in the minor leagues and when it's time, they're called
19:48
Speaker 3: up and you can kind of trust like they're ready
19:51
Speaker 3: for this. And I think pushing them is a big
19:53
Speaker 3: part of that in terms of kind of aggressively moving
19:56
Speaker 3: them up that ladder.
19:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, and fans are gonna wonder where do they play,
20:00
Speaker 1: where do they fit on the roster.
20:02
Speaker 2: It's a good problem if you ask.
20:05
Speaker 1: If you're asking, I mean, it's the same that there
20:06
Speaker 1: was a too many shortstops joke we used to have
20:10
Speaker 1: back when it was Starlin Castro and and Addison Russell
20:14
Speaker 1: and Javier Baiaz and Glaber Torres. These things have a
20:19
Speaker 1: way of working them out themselves out. You don't want
20:22
Speaker 1: to overthink these things. It's it's good to have a
20:25
Speaker 1: lot of talents.
20:27
Speaker 2: Right now, a lot of too many. What do you do?
20:29
Speaker 1: Right? So they'll they'll they it's how they utilize that talent, right, Like,
20:34
Speaker 1: how can they maximize Uh? I hate to talk about
20:38
Speaker 1: them like they're not people, but how do you maximize
20:40
Speaker 1: your assets? Right? That's that's how they think of it.
20:44
Speaker 1: And and you know, whether it's trading guys, whether it's
20:47
Speaker 1: playing guys in different positions, or whatever it may be.
20:52
Speaker 1: Uh Matt Shaw, Uh yeah, is he is? He probably
20:55
Speaker 1: best at second base? Probably yeah, But Nico Horner is
20:58
Speaker 1: locked in there right now. Does that mean that you
21:00
Speaker 1: don't consider, uh, you don't consider outside the box ideas
21:04
Speaker 1: in the offseason. I think you have to. This team
21:07
Speaker 1: didn't win enough this year. They haven't won enough this year,
21:10
Speaker 1: so you consider whatever you can to find ways to
21:13
Speaker 1: improve the team. And and h Jed was clear he
21:17
Speaker 1: doesn't want to shake things up just for the sake
21:20
Speaker 1: of making changes. But but I think at the deadline
21:23
Speaker 1: we saw that. I think Patrick and I were both
21:26
Speaker 1: a little surprised that they were able to pull off
21:28
Speaker 1: the es Ocparatists trade. Uh, So they're willing to be creative,
21:33
Speaker 1: like they've they've done some creative things, but getting Michael
21:35
Speaker 1: Bush was creative. Getting Paradis was creative also.
21:40
Speaker 3: I think the other important one is when you look
21:43
Speaker 3: at Jed Yer's track record of just making the move
21:49
Speaker 3: that he thinks is best for the team. Despite the
21:53
Speaker 3: like Christopher Morrell's fan favorite, you could think like, oh man,
21:57
Speaker 3: we can't trade that guy, Like, well, the marketing team
22:00
Speaker 3: react if we trade Christopher Morel or the core in
22:03
Speaker 3: twenty one? Oh man, you know it's getting rid of
22:06
Speaker 3: the whole core, Like that's how are fans going to react?
22:10
Speaker 3: I think he's made moves that have kind of stunned us,
22:14
Speaker 3: but stunned us in sort of the fan haat way.
22:19
Speaker 3: But when you're looking at roster construction, he's unafraid when
22:22
Speaker 3: that move is there, to pull that trigger. And so
22:25
Speaker 3: I think, you know, I think that gives some I
22:28
Speaker 3: don't know if you want to say hope, but maybe
22:31
Speaker 3: just optimism that the way this season went, you know,
22:35
Speaker 3: hopefully this front office will be unafraid to make something
22:40
Speaker 3: drastic to to not necessarily shake things up, but reimagine
22:45
Speaker 3: what the core and what the lineup needs to look like,
22:49
Speaker 3: because you want to have feeder lanes to get the
22:53
Speaker 3: prospects up, but you also need to make a market
22:56
Speaker 3: improvement over over this lineup when there's, to your point,
23:01
Speaker 3: over and over and over and over, when there's not
23:02
Speaker 3: a superstar.
23:04
Speaker 2: Anchoring the level of floor that you can expect.
23:10
Speaker 1: The next question fans are going to have is when
23:11
Speaker 1: when did these guys get up to the big leagues.
23:13
Speaker 1: I think you know only one of them is on
23:15
Speaker 1: the forty man that's Kevin al contra H. He's probably
23:19
Speaker 1: arguably the furthest away from getting to the big leagues.
23:23
Speaker 1: He also plays a position that he plays Pete Armstrong's position,
23:27
Speaker 1: and he's frankly really good at center field. Early on,
23:30
Speaker 1: when they first acquired him, people were like, he's going
23:32
Speaker 1: to go out of the position. He is, He's not.
23:35
Speaker 1: He has these long limbs, he takes these long strides
23:38
Speaker 1: and he can handle center. He's faster than he's he's
23:42
Speaker 1: stayed faster and more limber, limber than people expected so far,
23:45
Speaker 1: and he's he's a plus center fielder according to all reports.
23:48
Speaker 1: I get That's that's a great another great problem to have.
23:52
Speaker 1: I think the closest if if they're not getting in
23:55
Speaker 1: contention that the person that makes the most sense his
23:57
Speaker 1: own case, he needs to be added to the forty
23:59
Speaker 1: man After the season. You can stick him at d eh.
24:02
Speaker 1: You can give him some time in right field if
24:04
Speaker 1: you want. You know, there's ways you can find time
24:08
Speaker 1: for him in the final month if things, you know,
24:12
Speaker 1: go continue to trend the way they're trending right now,
24:15
Speaker 1: which is they're on the outside looking at if they
24:18
Speaker 1: get it, if they get into this race, if somehow
24:20
Speaker 1: they're a game or two back and it's September, right, yeah,
24:24
Speaker 1: then I think you throw everything out the window about
24:27
Speaker 1: forty man stuff. Who can help the team? Right that?
24:30
Speaker 1: That like the thinking has to shift. I look, I
24:34
Speaker 1: we've talked to Jed long enough. Like he's competitive. He's
24:37
Speaker 1: not gonna be overthinking forty man moves. If you're if
24:40
Speaker 1: you're in the race, right like, he's gonna consider that stuff.
24:43
Speaker 1: If they're out of it, if it's still five games
24:45
Speaker 1: or whatever, six games out, yeah, September first, he's he's
24:48
Speaker 1: not gonna be like I'm calling up Matt Shaw unless
24:51
Speaker 1: they decide like, hey, let's give him a cup of
24:53
Speaker 1: coffee this year and and then bring him up to
24:56
Speaker 1: start next year in the whole Rookie of the Year stuff,
24:59
Speaker 1: and you know, like you can give him like they
25:01
Speaker 1: did with Pca last year. But again last year they
25:03
Speaker 1: were competing. I do think that if they get in
25:07
Speaker 1: this race, then it's just like who helps the team,
25:10
Speaker 1: and then I would consider any of those guys except
25:14
Speaker 1: for probably a Contra and probably Treanto's, but shaw by
25:18
Speaker 1: Stairs in Casey would all all be considered.
25:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and fans also got to remember it's
25:25
Speaker 3: much different in September these days too, with the limitations
25:28
Speaker 3: on how many players you can call up, Like almost
25:32
Speaker 3: the days of the September call up were almost kind
25:34
Speaker 3: of gone. It's like a by gone era just in
25:38
Speaker 3: terms of like, oh, this kid will get a September
25:40
Speaker 3: call up, let's take a look at him. That's just
25:42
Speaker 3: the roster rules don't really allow for that as much
25:46
Speaker 3: as it used to. I think we saw Canario was
25:49
Speaker 3: one of those where it was like he was up,
25:51
Speaker 3: but then he was optioned or he was delayed brought up.
25:55
Speaker 3: I don't remember the exact order, but it was like
25:57
Speaker 3: because of the rules, they had to kind of be
25:59
Speaker 3: a little different with how they took a look at
26:02
Speaker 3: him down the stretch. So but yeah, I kind of
26:04
Speaker 3: agree with you.
26:05
Speaker 4: I think if somehow they can chip a win off
26:10
Speaker 4: the deficit every week and pull back into the race
26:15
Speaker 4: over the last seven weeks, yeah, you got to start
26:18
Speaker 4: considering that stuff.
26:19
Speaker 3: But I agree also that I think Owen Casey has
26:24
Speaker 3: kind of made the most sense for the longest now.
26:28
Speaker 3: Bellinger needing to stick into the DH role kind of
26:31
Speaker 3: hampers the flexibility of the roster at the moment. Once
26:35
Speaker 3: he can play the field, then Craig Council has the
26:38
Speaker 3: more ability to rotate guys in and out of DH,
26:43
Speaker 3: and so if you eventually get to that place, Owen
26:45
Speaker 3: Casey would be a nice addition into that rotation.
26:49
Speaker 2: I think he's the one that makes the most sense.
26:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see what happens over these final seven weeks.
26:55
Speaker 1: I think Monday's loss puts puts a damper on hopes
26:59
Speaker 1: of getting back into the right now. But you could
27:01
Speaker 1: say that like every week if they win these Yeah,
27:04
Speaker 1: if they win, if they win this series against Minnesota,
27:06
Speaker 1: they have two against the White Sox, and then it's
27:08
Speaker 1: like and then you have then the hope gets back
27:12
Speaker 1: up right, like fans are gonna start dreaming again. So
27:15
Speaker 1: that's just how I feel like. These past four weeks
27:18
Speaker 1: in general have been up and down nature of this team.
27:22
Speaker 1: That's it's hard to find consistency. But I think that's
27:25
Speaker 1: why they are where they are. Uh So, Jordan, thanks
27:30
Speaker 1: so much for joining me on this episode. Uh sorry,
27:35
Speaker 1: I lost track of what I was saying because I'm
27:36
Speaker 1: thinking about what I need to do. I'll have my
27:38
Speaker 1: editors cut this out, Jordan, Jordan, thanks so much for
27:43
Speaker 1: joining me. Jordan, you can find his work at MLB
27:45
Speaker 1: dot com. Jordan Bastion, Cubs Beat Reporter, appreciate you nerding
27:50
Speaker 1: out with me, giving Jesse and Patrick are run for
27:53
Speaker 1: their money, making sure that we don't only have meatballs
27:57
Speaker 1: on this show. Balance, bear and balance, That's what we are.
28:02
Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory. Thanks so much for listening. Make
28:05
Speaker 1: sure to rate, review and subscribe. Rate. Make sure to
28:08
Speaker 1: read Jordan's work at MLB dot com. Make sure to
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28:13
Speaker 1: We appreciate you all listening. Thanks everyone, Take care,