Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / After 15 straight wins at Wrigley Field, how will the Cubs reassemble their pitching staff?

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After 15 straight wins at Wrigley Field, how will the Cubs reassemble their pitching staff? · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast. I'm
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, some dummy
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: on this podcast was saying that this team isn't that exciting.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Apparently they just kind of win in a whole hum fashion.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: There's nothing that exciting about this team. I said that,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I can't remember my exact wording. I think my point
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: was boring. I was thinking, did I use the word boring,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: because if I did.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: You circle, you circled the word boring. At least have
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: to go check the tame. I mean, winning is never boring.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I think I tried to make that point, but like
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: they were doing it in a fashion that was just
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: like a ho hum. There was no like superstar like
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: huge story. As far as an individual, it felt like.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Then they rattle off three straight walk off victories at
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Wrigley as we record their winners of nine straight. This
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: is not even their longest winning streak and we are
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: on May eighth. Just absolutely remarkable. Fifteen straight wins. I Wrigly,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: we have not witnessed a loss. Irig I think since
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the Pirates game, after which Craig Council said something like
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: it's going to turn remember, and I think the Marquee
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: put that out on Twitter, and then the comments on
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: that go back and look at that whatever that was
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: April whatever, The comments were funny when you you know,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: look at it in full context a month and a
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: half later or whatever it's been. I mean, it's remarkable
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: that it's been that long since we've seen a loss
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: at Wrigley. But as we say all that, a lot
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: of good things happening on the field, and the hits
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: just keep coming for this team with the injuries we got.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: I believe I'm losing track of days, But it was
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Wednesday that Matthew Boyd had a freak injury. It's not
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the worst case scenario. It's a miniscus. They had a
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: partial whatever it was. He had surgery for the meniscus.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: It's a not It sounds like it's the best case
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: scenario for these types of surgeries, and it's they're right
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: now saying six weeks. I just don't like. We'll see
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: when he's back, we'll see how he pitches. But right
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: now they are without Matthew Boyd. For over a month.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Just another huge injury to this pitching staff.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess, if you want to spin a positive,
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: maybe they'll have some fresh arms towards the end of
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: the season and into October. But you got to get
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: there first. And this has been an unbelievable run of performance,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: an unreal stretch of injuries, and the fact that they're
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: not just treading water, that they're beginning to really separate
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: themselves in a surprisingly competitive division is just amazing. And
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: you know, I guess maybe well focusing on Boyd at
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: the start here. I know, whenever injuries happen, everyone wants
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: to know, like what happened why?
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: And you know, I don't know.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: If it was suspicious, but people are always kind of curious, like, well,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: what's really going on when when it's not something that
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: happens that you see in a game. And you know,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: we did not get a chance to talk to Matthew
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: Boyd yet. I'd imagine that would probably happen next weekend
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: when the Cubs are at the White Sox. But the
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: way Craig Council explained it, it was Matthew Boyd hanging
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: out at home, kind of playing with his kids, just
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: the kind of getting up and down off the ground.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: He felt something. The Mr I revealed the this is issue.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: I want to say, like within twenty four hours the
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: surgery was done. Like if we're kind of going off
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: this this timeline here, and counsel's point was, this is
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: not as abnormal as you would think, Like guy's thirty
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: five years old, he's been playing for a long time,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: and that sometimes these things happen that on you know,
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: non contact plays or kind of like incidents that don't
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: would not appear to be that acute or stressful, but
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: it was in there. He felt it, and you know,
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: you just got to hope that six weeks is in
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: accurate projection. We all know we've seen enough setbacks recently
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: that it's hard to like bank on that, but just
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: a credit to this group of rolling with it just
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: feels like every couple of days it's just like another
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: announcements like oh yeah, like this guy's down, this guy's down,
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: this guy's down, and they keep winning.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: It like it it just seems to be coming in bunches,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: like you said, And when when Daniel Palencia didn't come
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: out for the save on Wednesday, I think we all
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: kind of looked at each other in the press box.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: It's like, is he just doing like is he just
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: being extra careful here or are we going to have
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: another injury to talk about? Like what is happening? Because
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: that immediately, I think we all just assumed injury and
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: then it's like we started thinking about it. It's like, well,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: I guess it makes sense he's being careful with them
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: no backs backs and then we hear that he was
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: dry humped twice on Monday and then came in on Tuesday.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: It makes sense, you gotta be careful. But I mean
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: they're at a point where there's so many injuries. It's like,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: how are you winning some of these games? That Wednesday game,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Corbyn Martin just couldn't get an out and they still
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: managed to.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Pull that game off.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: At some point like this random like they're a good team,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: they're playing really well, but at some point they're going
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: to hit hit a rough patch. And I think you
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: said it kind of early on in this segment. Building bank,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: kind of banking these wins. Building this lead early is
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: almost a safeguard against against what's going to come, because
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: these injuries are going to catch up with them. It's
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: there it's just not possible to first of all, this
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: play at this level. They're nineteen and three, they're on
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: a nineteen and three run. I think they were six
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: and eight and they've gone nineteen and three since then.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: That type of performance just you cannot keep that up.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: It's just not it's not possible. Then nobody does that
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: for a full season. So they're gonna hit a rough patch.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: There are gonna be moments where we're like, how, what's wrong?
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: How do they fix it?
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: What?
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: You know, there's gonna be many questions like that, and
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: people would be question if the team is good enough,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: because that's just what happens over the course of one
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty two. But this stretch is just just
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: the type of thing that sets you up for success,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: to allow you to kind of get through those tough moments.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break and we'll talk about maybe
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: I guess the options and what the Cubs are setting
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: up for here, because it's gonna be a little you know,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: like I said, there may be a rough patch coming up.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: We'll see how they handle it.
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• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Patrick after Thursdays when we got word that Ben Brown
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: is starting Friday evening in Texas, when we talked to
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Craig Council on on Thursday pregame, you know he did
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: not say that Javier Asad or maybe that was Wednesday
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: when when we first got word of the injury. He
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: didn't immediately say Asad was starting, kind of said like
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: he'll be a part of things, and then ask more
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: about Ben Brown. On Thursday, he was pretty clear that
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: he'll be a big part of this and that they
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: are going to have to consider different using him in
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: a different way. He's only had one one like, his
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: last outing was one inning. He's kind of stretched out.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I don't see this as like I'm assuming the reporters
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: out in Texas will get more clarity. We'll see how
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: forthcoming Council is. He kind of like takes it game
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: by game. When when you have injuries like this, I
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: wouldn't automatically say Ben Brown's in the rotation. I wouldn't
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: automatically say Ben Brown is a starter.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I just don't know how Craig Council is going to
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: work this. He is going to be stretched out though
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: he's throwing more than he pitches. I'm assuming tonight and
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: this is the start of a process, but I think
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: you have two guys that you kind of need to
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: stretch out and lean on in him in a sad
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and tonight is probably going to be looked at more
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: as a bullpen outing bullpen game.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: I should say, yeah.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: I mean, we all know how Council operates, always wants
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: to kind of defer, and he you know, look, he's
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: had a lot of success with this method. He's got
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: a lot of buy in from his pitchers. I'm with you.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: I don't want to get too carried away with the
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: Ben Brown starting experiment, Like it took a long time
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: for him to like get to this point and maybe
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: he's in a place where it doesn't matter when or
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: where he pitches, but he had really found his kind
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: of groove in that sort of you know, multi inning
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: bullpen roll, which is extremely valuable and also difficult to
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: execute in and you know, his confidence, you know, physically,
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: you know, he's gotten bigger in terms of kind of
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: pitch arsenal. He's improved, Like you know, he's We've said,
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: we've talked about this before. He has all the makings
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: of that frontline starter if everything goes right. But I
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: think Counsel and his staff are pretty aware of, you know,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: kind of how fragile some of this has been, and
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: like the stops and starts that we've seen in his career,
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: and he certainly, you know, has earned this opportunity and
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: maybe he runs with it. I mean, that's kind of
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: how the Brewers broke in Brandon Woodriff and Corbyn Burns
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: over the years. That's something that Brown had actually done
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: research on kind of before Counsel even managed a game
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: at really, and you know, learning that you have to
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: roll with some of when you get optioned or when
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: you get hurt, you know, when you're squeezed out of
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: the rotation. And you know what I thought was interesting.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: You had a good update within your Matthew Boyd news
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: story of like, okay, well who else is out there?
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: And like two names that popped out in your story.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: You start with Jackson Wiggins and then Kyle Wright. What
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: do you got on those two guys?
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Jackson Wiggins, I heard he was up to ninety
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: six in his bullpens, which is good, right, Like he's said,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: that's you're not going full out in a bullpen. The
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: adrenaline isn't really you know, flowing in those in those situations.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: And this is a guy that you know, you would
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: hope is sitting ninety seven ninety eight in games so
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: ninety six in a bullpen. That's kind of what we
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: heard about Daniel Palancio. And when he threw his bullpen before,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: like he went out of the eye l it was like, oh,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: a great bullpen. He was throwing ninety six barely trying. Uh,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: and then he goes on the ail.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: But Wiggins, obviously the the elbow hasn't pitched in a while.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: I think it was like early April. I need to
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: go check his game logs, but he hasn't pitched in
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: a game in a while. Has a live BP session?
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: I was told. I was told it was this Friday.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: So today we're we're recording on Friday, it'll be today.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: We'll see if that happens today, if it's this weekend.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: But he's apparently he's fine. They're they're feeling good about him.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: And he's on you know, the way back on the
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: mend and and hopefully back in game action. And you know,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: my assumption is like, don't assume that he's on his
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: way to the big leagues just yet. He's he's this
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: is this is gonna be a process. They want to
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: keep him healthy. But right now we see like they're
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: the avoided disaster. It seems like, because when you hear
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: these things about elbow a guy shut down, like it
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: goes from like, Oh, he's fine, We're just we're just
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: being careful to.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Like he's actually down for the season. That's not the case.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: We didn't tell you.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: We didn't tell you. Yeah, yeah, the whole year.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, at this point, that's not the case. It seems
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: like he's on the men. Kyle Wright, who has had
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: a great season in the past, veteran guy that they
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: were hopeful could help mid season. I was told last
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Friday he threw four innings. I think it's kind of
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: like out in Arizona, was up to ninety six, was
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: looking good, was scheduled to head to Iowa and start
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: a rehab, like a legit rehab assignment, and get after
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: it reported shoulder discomfort. I think it's the same capsule
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: injury again, shoulder capsule injury, and it's a setback. It
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: sounds like it's I don't know how significant, but it's
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: a setback, and he I just you know, I don't
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: know where that stands at the moment. I think I
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: saw a transaction in the minor league transactions that he
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: was shifted to the sixty day I l I don't
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: know how any of that, you know, really matters with
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: minor league guyel stints and stuff like that, but it
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't sound good for him, and that that's a bummer
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: because it was someone that they were like.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Hey, they were being really careful with him.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: They were really making sure that, you know, let's let's
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: get everything right because there were I think multiple issues
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: going on with him. Yeah, he was recovering from shoulder surgery.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I think he had like a lower body injury. So
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: there were a lot of little things that they were
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: working on. And it's unfortunate because it's a guy with
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: talent and they thought they had him in a good
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: place and sometimes these guys, it's just hard to keep
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: pictures healthy.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll get into this more over and over again
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: as we get closer to the trade trade deadline. May
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: we'll do, you know, kind of a dedicated show to
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: the that soon, I guess, just to let our listeners know,
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: like internally, the Cubs don't have any sort of belief
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: that the trade market is moving right now or that
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: that things are speeding up because so many big market
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: teams with playoff expectations have floundered thus far that they
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: have to look internally for a while, and that they'll
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: continue working the waiver wires, the you know players with
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: upward mobility clauses, the kind of fringe triple A guys
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: like they don't foresee a trade of significance developing anywhere
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: anytime soon.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that that stuff's really hard to pull off.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: You say they need to be aggressive, they need to
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: get this done now. It's just not how it works.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: It doesn't doesn't happen at this time of year. I mean,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't say it doesn't happen. It's very rare this
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: time of year, and it's just not unlikely to happen.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: They're they're going to it's.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Going to be lower level moves like we saw, Like
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: is it Tyler Ferguson reliever that they picked up. This
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: is a smaller move, you know, you hope you catch
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: lightning in a bottle with some bullpen arms. Maybe there's
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: a starter on the waiver wire. There was a veteran
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: and I'm blanking on who it was, Chris Paddock, I
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: believe was let go. But I mean, these guys are struggling.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: There's a reason they're let go. Everyone needs pitching right now, so.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't expect a big move until July, and early
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: July is even early, so if they can get something
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: done in early July, that's a win.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: All right. Let's take a quick break.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: And come back in talk about someone that is stepping
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: up big time and making sure that you know they
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: keep winning.
• 18:09
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  Speaker 2: All right, Patrick, Showta Inmenaga? Is I lost? Patrick there
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: for a moment. Le I'm going to pause this. All right,
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  Speaker 2: Patrick's back. What was I saying? Okay?
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Showday Minaga has completely dominated early on this season. Looks
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  Speaker 1: a lot like the twenty twenty four version, But when
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: you dig into it, Patrick, it's a different version of
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: showdoy mi Managa, perhaps a better version. I was talking
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: to Tommy Hottevey about it. Showta Managa is known as
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: like a strike thrower. That's what he was in Japan.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: That's what he was his first couple of seasons here
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: with the Cubs. He's throwing, he's in the zone less
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: than almost any pitcher in baseball, and he's getting more
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: chase than pitcher in baseball.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: It's a it's a really.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Interesting plan that he and Tommy Hotteby came up with
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: in the off season and uh this spring training, and
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: basically Tommy told him, like try and walk.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Some guys in spring training.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: He told him this like how to be if you
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: know Tommy how Toby You know, he doesn't like walks.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: He prefers guys that don't walk. But his point was, look,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: showed you you walk like three or four percent to
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: the batters you face. You could double that and still
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: be below league average. And and he's he hasn't quite
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: doubled it, but it's up to like seven percent, which
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: is still great. And he's getting a ton of chase.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: They're really like chasing the splitter. And they've also come
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: up with a plan to combat if they start laying
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: off that pitch, because he's developed a sinker that he
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: trusts and then he feels comfortable with. And because there
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: they expect if they lay off the splitter and they
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: see something hard, they think it's the four seamer. Now
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: they're swinging at a sinker that they end up putting
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: on the ground because they can't barrel up.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Because they're thinking it.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: They're swinging at a four seamer a night. It's a plan.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: It's one of those plans that you like think of
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: on paper. It's like, oh, that sounds good, can it work?
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: It's working brilliantly right now, and he's got like a
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: twenty eight percent strikeout rate, one of the best pitchers
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: in baseball, like a two to two ere.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: This is just it. It's not a luxury.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: It's absolutely necessary at this point in time with everything
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: we've talked about with this rotation.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's hard to believe the guy that they would
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: not trust to throw a single pitch in that elimination
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: game in Milwaukee as now the guy who is carrying
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: the rotation in a lot of ways, And that was
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: a definitely check out that story on the athletic Tammy
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: ho Deave is really good at explaining concepts to reporters,
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: which I think you can see why he's good at
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: his job as a communicator with players, the manager, the
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: front office. Like you get a really good sense of
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: Tommy's personality. And you know, the Cups kind of lucked
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: out once again with Shoda of him kind of how
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: everything fell to the way that he's back in Chicago.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: I think we're not surprised that Shoda is constantly trying
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: to get better, that he is searching for ideas that
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: he's willing to experiment. But I still think you know
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: him being as good as, if not better than, twenty
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: twenty four would have been sort of unreasonable to expect.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: And he's he's kind of there right now.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I mean he's a little bit better in
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: some ways. I mean it's early. Things can change. I
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: like that he's got like a more varied arsenal that
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: he you know, he kind of trusts that. It's one
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: of those things. It works reverse, I think for some prospects.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Some prospects are it's like, hey, your stuff plays in
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the zone, like pound the zone. You're going to get
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: outs with it. It's almost reverse for showdo he's been
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: so he's been such a big deal for him to
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: not walk guys that it's like, it's okay, you can
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: walk a couple guys, because you're going to make up
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: for it by getting so much chase. Your splitter is
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: so nasty. They're going to continue to swing at it.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: And it's worked out brilliantly so far. It's impressive how
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: well it's been executing executed, and these things rarely work
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: to plan like this. But it's been fun to watch.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: And you know, he's last year was not fun to like.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: After twenty twenty four showed it is just such a
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: fun guy to watch on the mound and the way
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: he kind of soaks things in. He had a great
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: quote yesterday about Wrigley Field and in kind of the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: aura of it all and the way it makes him feel.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: He doesn't believe.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: He's not the type of thing, he said, He's not
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the type of person who believes in things he can't see,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: but there is something special about Wrigley Field that makes
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: him almost believe that stuff. So it's kind of it
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: was kind of a fun moment for him, listening to
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: him gush about Wrigley Field, but it's it's been really
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: fun to watch, incredibly important for this team.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: They had to Texas for three.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Atlanta, I think is a pretty big series, should be
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: a fun one, and then obviously the White Sox, but
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Atlanta is I mean, these are the two best teams
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: right now in baseball. It looks like record wise, I
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: think it's them and the Yankees are all tied for
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: best record in baseball.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: I could be wrong.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure what happened last night in games, so
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: maybe something's changed over but those are three of the
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: best teams record wise right now. So the Cubs and
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Braves should be a fun series. But yeah, I mean Shoda.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: They needed a big arm to step up. We were
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: wondering if they would be Edward Cabrera. Cabrera has been good,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: but SHOWDA has been dominant in one of the best
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: pitchers in baseball and they need that. All right, we'll
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: be back with another episode this week. We'll take some
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: of your questions. The mail bag is open, so always
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: send in those questions. Appreciate it. Thanks so much for
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: listening to everyone. This is Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: where Patrick and I are on top of all things Cubs.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to everyone.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: Take care.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: No I believed by the land.