Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Sizing up the Cubs with one-third of the season completed

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Sizing up the Cubs with one-third of the season completed · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Sahade Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. It is
0:17
Speaker 1: the day after Memorial Day when we're recording this. The
0:20
Speaker 1: Cubs are twelve games over five hundred, which I had
0:24
Speaker 1: to triple check this first time. There have been twelve
0:29
Speaker 1: games over five hundred before June since twenty sixteen. Obviously,
0:35
Speaker 1: that's a year Cubs fans love to talk about and
0:38
Speaker 1: remember fondly. The Cubs themselves obviously love that season, the
0:43
Speaker 1: World Series winning team. You know, I don't we don't
0:47
Speaker 1: need to start twenty sixteen comparisons, but obviously it's a
0:51
Speaker 1: great start to the season. This team feels very real.
0:56
Speaker 1: It feels like there are you know, there are things
0:59
Speaker 1: that we can back one in these first two months
1:01
Speaker 1: and say not surprised by that. That's the you know,
1:05
Speaker 1: I'm surprised by this, and I think it can keep up?
1:09
Speaker 1: Can they keep this up? You know, various things going on.
1:12
Speaker 1: I do wonder what the what we believe is real
1:18
Speaker 1: and not I think is probably most important right now.
1:22
Speaker 1: And then what do they need to do. How do
1:24
Speaker 1: they keep this going? What are the moves that need
1:27
Speaker 1: to be made to make this team a legit World
1:31
Speaker 1: Series contender? Which I don't think is a ridiculous thought
1:34
Speaker 1: right now, right when you're twelve games over five hundred,
1:36
Speaker 1: arguably a top five team in baseball, definitely a top
1:40
Speaker 1: ten team in baseball. That's what you need to be
1:42
Speaker 1: thinking about World Series. How do they win a World Series?
1:46
Speaker 1: They have some of the ingredients that make them a
1:48
Speaker 1: team that we can talk about that.
1:50
Speaker 2: With no doubt.
1:52
Speaker 3: You have to play the season in front of you,
1:55
Speaker 3: and you can't sit there and be like, oh, well,
1:58
Speaker 3: they haven't played good teams yet. It's like no, they
2:01
Speaker 3: had the hardest month in baseball, front loaded at the
2:05
Speaker 3: beginning of their schedule.
2:08
Speaker 2: They went toe to toe with the National League West.
2:14
Speaker 3: They've seen the Mets, They've seen the Phillies. You know,
2:20
Speaker 3: no one can look at this easier stretch and be like, oh, well,
2:23
Speaker 3: they're only playing the Rockies.
2:24
Speaker 2: Like, this is what you have to do, This is
2:25
Speaker 2: what good teams do.
2:27
Speaker 3: You were always more optimistic about the offense, and it
2:32
Speaker 3: is coming in waves. They're winning in different ways. Different
2:36
Speaker 3: guys are getting hot for weeks at a time. We've
2:41
Speaker 3: gone almost three minutes without mentioning Pete Crow Armstrong, which
2:45
Speaker 3: may be a new recent record for this show. But
2:50
Speaker 3: like it's we want to, oh, are they going to
2:53
Speaker 3: have a star? And it's like they've had multiple guys
2:56
Speaker 3: performing like stars. And I think you nailed it in
2:59
Speaker 3: your story on the Athletic of like this is a
3:01
Speaker 3: dangerous team and it's going to be.
3:03
Speaker 2: A fun summer in Wrigleyville. That's kind of the bottom
3:06
Speaker 2: line right now.
3:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, And Pek Armstrong is the most fun aspect about
3:11
Speaker 1: this team. I don't think there's any debate about that.
3:14
Speaker 1: What he did over the weekend was incredibly fun in Cincinnati,
3:19
Speaker 1: was it? I was? I had a baseball tournament all weekend,
3:23
Speaker 1: so I I I'm losing track of the days, but
3:26
Speaker 1: I believe it was Friday that he had the two
3:28
Speaker 1: homer game, correct, right, Yeah? Yeah? And I mean that
3:33
Speaker 1: type of stuff is I mean, I I literally it
3:36
Speaker 1: was the first thing I told my son after the game,
3:38
Speaker 1: because these are the things that you know, parents tell
3:41
Speaker 1: their kids like about like PCAs that type of player,
3:45
Speaker 1: Like he's already become my son's favorite player. My assumption
3:49
Speaker 1: is that's true across you know, the city and maybe
3:53
Speaker 1: the country with with Hubs fans, kids have fallen in
3:57
Speaker 1: love with this guy. He's very easy to like. He
4:00
Speaker 1: is a superstar now. I think, you know, I want
4:04
Speaker 1: to hesitate before saying things like that. I want to
4:07
Speaker 1: give it time. But I think it's happened. It's happened
4:09
Speaker 1: very quickly. We watched him just turn flip a switch
4:13
Speaker 1: and become this star I and I and he has
4:18
Speaker 1: me believing where usually I want to say, like, let's
4:20
Speaker 1: see a full season. I think he can compete for
4:23
Speaker 1: an MVP all season long. I you know, I'm sure
4:26
Speaker 1: he'll hit a slump. I'm sure there will be a
4:28
Speaker 1: down moment, but he's kind of shown us that. You know,
4:32
Speaker 1: those moments, he doesn't let them get in his head.
4:34
Speaker 1: You know, they may frustrate him in the moment. You know, Monday,
4:39
Speaker 1: he hit a ball that should have been a home run,
4:40
Speaker 1: the wind knocked it down. He was clearly frustrated, but
4:44
Speaker 1: he moves on. He's he's going to I'm sure he'll
4:46
Speaker 1: have a good game soon enough. Yet again, and that's
4:50
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of what you want to see a
4:52
Speaker 1: young player do.
4:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's not like this was a guy who
4:56
Speaker 3: was sort of under scouted or overlooked on the prospect rankings,
5:01
Speaker 3: like he's a first rounder a Team USA mainstay.
5:05
Speaker 2: Grew up in southern California that you know, kind of
5:08
Speaker 2: warm weather.
5:10
Speaker 3: HOTBD Harvard Westlake, which is a factory for big time
5:16
Speaker 3: future major league players.
5:18
Speaker 2: So I just didn't see the timeline happening this, Like,
5:24
Speaker 2: this is the player I thought like he could be.
5:25
Speaker 3: He could have a season like this before he reaches
5:28
Speaker 3: free agency. But being there in the middle of April
5:31
Speaker 3: at Dodger Stadium when his numbers, you know, were.
5:35
Speaker 2: Offensively, we're kind of in the tank.
5:37
Speaker 3: We had the contract extension stuff leak out. Did not
5:45
Speaker 3: see this, like you said, a flip that was just
5:49
Speaker 3: turned on, a switch that was turned on all of
5:53
Speaker 3: a sudden, and it just totally changes the complexion of
5:56
Speaker 3: this season and what you think could be possible for
5:59
Speaker 3: this team.
6:00
Speaker 4: Yeah.
6:01
Speaker 1: And and with Pete, of course, is Kyle Tucker. I
6:05
Speaker 1: think Tucker is almost getting overlooked now after such a
6:08
Speaker 1: hot start. At times, I hope not, but maybe maybe
6:11
Speaker 1: it's just because Pete is, you know, such a gravitational force.
6:15
Speaker 1: He has earned all those headlines. But Tucker, I mean Monday,
6:20
Speaker 1: I think is a really nice example of you know,
6:23
Speaker 1: you don't need to be slugging home runs. He hit
6:26
Speaker 1: a sack fly, he had a single up the middle,
6:29
Speaker 1: drove in two runs in a you know, three to
6:32
Speaker 1: one victory where the winds blowing in and the offense
6:34
Speaker 1: wasn't doing as much as it normally does. And that's
6:37
Speaker 1: going to happen, especially in October. If they continue to
6:43
Speaker 1: play like this and may postseason, they will be facing
6:46
Speaker 1: good pitching, not not. You know, it was the Rockies.
6:49
Speaker 1: Any pitcher can have a good day. This I think
6:52
Speaker 1: this kid is actually a legit prospect. It had a
6:55
Speaker 1: good game against the Cubs and benefited from the the weather.
7:01
Speaker 1: But you know, you need to win games like that too,
7:04
Speaker 1: and it's something that council has hammered all season long.
7:07
Speaker 1: In the spring. That's why they have been aggressive with
7:11
Speaker 1: their base running. That's why they've emphasized base running, kind
7:15
Speaker 1: of making regular camp be an excuse. You gotta find
7:17
Speaker 1: ways to win around Wrigley, and they haven't. They haven't
7:21
Speaker 1: allowed it to get in their heads, they haven't allowed
7:24
Speaker 1: it to sink their early portion of their season, They've
7:28
Speaker 1: done a really good job of winning games in different ways.
7:33
Speaker 1: There's I mean, Tucker does the little things yesterday offensively,
7:37
Speaker 1: the defense has is so good, and I expected it
7:41
Speaker 1: to be, But then there are aspects of it that
7:43
Speaker 1: I am even surprised by, particularly match off coming coming
7:48
Speaker 1: up and doing what he's doing. This is you talk
7:53
Speaker 1: about a switch being flipped that that trip to Iowa
7:57
Speaker 1: sure seemingly did wonders for it.
8:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, at that point, I believe Tyrone still
8:04
Speaker 3: had a perfect game going, and you saw Tyron react
8:07
Speaker 3: on the mound raise his arms like, oh, is that
8:09
Speaker 3: going to be the play? Mostly just because the Rockies
8:12
Speaker 3: are so terrible. I'm sure they're going to get no
8:14
Speaker 3: hit a couple of times this year. Obviously, the perfect
8:18
Speaker 3: game no hitter went away short very shortly thereafter.
8:21
Speaker 2: But if he can stabilize that.
8:25
Speaker 3: Position, which is one of the league wide, one of
8:28
Speaker 3: the most underperforming kind of position groups in the sport.
8:34
Speaker 3: You're not asking him to be like Brooks Robinson or
8:39
Speaker 3: Alex Bregman or Chris Bryant MVP level over there, just
8:42
Speaker 3: to be passable offensively, to make the routine plays and
8:49
Speaker 3: maybe an occasional spectacular play on defense as you're eight
8:55
Speaker 3: to nine hitter, whatever it winds up kind of being
8:57
Speaker 3: over the long.
8:58
Speaker 2: Course of the season.
8:58
Speaker 3: The Cubs can take that because they're getting contributions from
9:02
Speaker 3: all over. I mean, we haven't gotten into something you've
9:04
Speaker 3: written about at lengths to how they have like Carson
9:07
Speaker 3: Kelly being like Barry Bonds, Dansby Swanson is on pace
9:13
Speaker 3: for like thirty homer, ninety RBI, one hundred runs score,
9:17
Speaker 3: twenty stolen base type season while playing gold Club defense
9:22
Speaker 3: at one of the most important positions on the field.
9:26
Speaker 3: And even as guys struggle, we don't really have that
9:31
Speaker 3: much to talk about in terms of their performances because
9:35
Speaker 3: the offense as a whole has functioned so well. And
9:39
Speaker 3: I think Kyle Turner, sorry Kyle Tucker to me, sort
9:43
Speaker 3: of turns the page on this era of Cubs baseball
9:46
Speaker 3: where it was the disappointment post twenty sixteen, our offense
9:52
Speaker 3: broke trying to find that piece to kind of bring
9:55
Speaker 3: it all together, and then just this next phase of
10:01
Speaker 3: guys like Ian Hap, Nico Horner or Dancy Swanson kind
10:04
Speaker 3: of needing just someone to carry the load a little
10:07
Speaker 3: bit so that their like real talents can sort of
10:11
Speaker 3: play to in full and I think Kyle Tucker, even
10:16
Speaker 3: if it's only for one season, is that sort of
10:19
Speaker 3: galvanizing force, you know, working alongside Pach to really change
10:25
Speaker 3: the entire complexion of this year real quickly.
10:29
Speaker 1: Since he's come back, match Shaw has a one sixty
10:33
Speaker 1: nine way to runs greater. Plus he's striking out just
10:36
Speaker 1: seventeen point two percent of the time, walking ten point
10:38
Speaker 1: three percent. I mean it's it's one, two, three, four,
10:42
Speaker 1: seven games. But he hasn't had a stretch like that
10:45
Speaker 1: yet in the big leagues. And he goes down, makes
10:48
Speaker 1: some changes, has five doubles. My gut, I haven't. I'm
10:52
Speaker 1: going to guess this. Do you think that the third
10:56
Speaker 1: basement in between the demotion of Shaw had five doubles combined?
11:01
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Like I can't. I don't think
11:04
Speaker 1: they did during that whatever it was month plus that
11:08
Speaker 1: he was in the minors. So he looks like a
11:10
Speaker 1: different player. The defense, I mean, it looks exceptional. So
11:15
Speaker 1: they got to be happy about that. Let's take a
11:16
Speaker 1: quick break and talk about maybe, you know, some of
11:20
Speaker 1: the concerns or just like issues that we see popping
11:23
Speaker 1: up and if they can rectify it internally or.
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12:28
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, the starting rotation has lost to three starters.
12:33
Speaker 1: If you want to count Javier Asad. I believe Asad
12:36
Speaker 1: is throwing on Wednesday or no, no, no, he's he was
12:40
Speaker 1: throwing Monday when I asked counsel about it, and that
12:43
Speaker 1: was the first time he is going to throw. So
12:47
Speaker 1: he's a ways away. Basically, you know, we don't need
12:51
Speaker 1: to you know, include him right now until we get
12:54
Speaker 1: some you know, throwing off the mound. Updates showed him
12:57
Speaker 1: Anaga is throwing off a mound Wednesday. That's still weeks away.
13:01
Speaker 1: That's still weeks away, assuming no setbacks, assuming everything goes
13:05
Speaker 1: goes right there. It's justin steels out for the season.
13:08
Speaker 1: We know that that the starting pitching is fine. It's
13:12
Speaker 1: not terrible, it's not exceptional. Matthew Boyd has been brilliant.
13:17
Speaker 1: Had a really bad first inning over the weekend, and
13:20
Speaker 1: we saw the Cub's offense fail him out. He was
13:23
Speaker 1: able to give them, you know, four innings, which I
13:26
Speaker 1: thought was kind of impressive after that awful first inning.
13:29
Speaker 1: Yet Colin Ray similar like just a bad weekend as
13:32
Speaker 1: far as starting pitching went, which means I mean, Jamison
13:35
Speaker 1: Tyne's outing was pretty impressive, and he's been he's had
13:39
Speaker 1: issues with the long ball but he's kind of been
13:42
Speaker 1: the most consistent state after that disastrous first start. Very stable,
13:47
Speaker 1: very stable, very consistent, out there, can eat innings, strike thrower,
13:53
Speaker 1: doesn't walk a lot of guys. He's he's kind of
13:57
Speaker 1: the guy that you can did you look to It's like, okay,
14:00
Speaker 1: you kind of know what you're gonna get as long
14:02
Speaker 1: as you know. I think the long ball stuff can
14:05
Speaker 1: be a little weird. Sometimes you'd like to hope that's
14:07
Speaker 1: a blip for him, and then Matthew Boyd you feel
14:10
Speaker 1: good about Ben Brown's becoming a little bit of a
14:12
Speaker 1: question mark. He's having these rough first innings sometimes he
14:16
Speaker 1: has these bouts with walks. I think councils said it
14:18
Speaker 1: really well. I heard him. I think it was on
14:20
Speaker 1: Marquee basically say it's it's like the or maybe it
14:24
Speaker 1: was Monday when we were talking to him. He said
14:27
Speaker 1: like basically, it's like it's like a rough first inning
14:30
Speaker 1: where he's not competing with guys with walks, and then
14:34
Speaker 1: he gets to the third time through the lineup and
14:35
Speaker 1: he's not able to handle that. I think that's a
14:38
Speaker 1: kind way of saying maybe that third pitch that he
14:40
Speaker 1: doesn't have or doesn't use is starting to become an issue.
14:44
Speaker 1: That's me interpreting things of what Council's getting at. But
14:48
Speaker 1: the walks can't happen. I think that's the primary thing.
14:51
Speaker 1: That's the thing that he can definitely fix, Like he
14:53
Speaker 1: has to fix that he cannot walk the first two
14:56
Speaker 1: batters of a game, because if you're gonna have third
14:58
Speaker 1: time through the order issues, you're just not to get
15:00
Speaker 1: through a game very often. Get you give your team
15:02
Speaker 1: en up innings.
15:04
Speaker 3: I mean calling back to the twenty sixteen reference that
15:07
Speaker 3: you made earlier. Like part of it is we're not
15:11
Speaker 3: being haters when we point out some of this stuff,
15:13
Speaker 3: like this is how the team thinks.
15:15
Speaker 2: Like when you have a team.
15:16
Speaker 3: That's this good, that has like great individual performances, has
15:22
Speaker 3: what seems to be a really good, you know, vibe
15:25
Speaker 3: in the clubhouse, like strong consistent, upbeat energy all the time,
15:30
Speaker 3: you have to think about what's going to go wrong
15:32
Speaker 3: and you have to have really high standards.
15:35
Speaker 2: And so.
15:37
Speaker 3: As we continue to cover this, we're going to look
15:40
Speaker 3: for these spots because that's exactly what the front office does,
15:43
Speaker 3: That's exactly what the coaching staff does. You're always trying
15:46
Speaker 3: to figure things out and you know, I do think
15:49
Speaker 3: Ben Brown, if the Cubs had any sort of pitching
15:55
Speaker 3: depth at the moment, probably would have been back in Iowa.
15:58
Speaker 2: Maybe it would have been a bullpen fix.
15:59
Speaker 3: Like it's just not happening consistently enough, and it's glaring
16:04
Speaker 3: because all these other things are going right.
16:07
Speaker 2: I'm with you on tie On.
16:09
Speaker 3: You can just kind of assuming he's healthy, pencil him
16:12
Speaker 3: in for those kind of thirty plus starts a really nice, solid,
16:16
Speaker 3: dependable season. I've been really impressed with Matthew Boyd because
16:22
Speaker 3: I think the health is something. I know he's really
16:24
Speaker 3: confident and should be. As long as the ball's in
16:27
Speaker 3: his hands, he's going to get good results. But he
16:32
Speaker 3: just hasn't done that full season, I think since twenty nineteen.
16:37
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a pretty big gap, and I think
16:38
Speaker 3: that's something you can You're going to have to kind
16:41
Speaker 3: of build into the second half of making sure that
16:44
Speaker 3: guy can be the pitcher he was for Cleveland last.
16:51
Speaker 2: October.
16:52
Speaker 3: And yeah, it is amazing that, you know, Justin Steele
16:57
Speaker 3: going down so early in the season with a real,
17:02
Speaker 3: like career altering type of injury potentially to have the
17:07
Speaker 3: Cubs rolling in first place while getting you know, so
17:11
Speaker 3: little from him to have you know, showed.
17:15
Speaker 2: A sidelined to this extent. Uh, It's it's kind of amazing,
17:20
Speaker 2: like how they've done it.
17:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's important to get showed to back
17:27
Speaker 1: and see what he can, like get a few starts
17:28
Speaker 1: under your belt before, like you know, before July or
17:32
Speaker 1: middle of July, so you have a good feeling about
17:35
Speaker 1: what's going on there, Like how aggressive, how many starting
17:38
Speaker 1: I mean, it's hard to get the starting pitchers. It
17:41
Speaker 1: really is at the deadline, I think. But I the
17:44
Speaker 1: more I kind of see things, the more I watch
17:46
Speaker 1: this team, I feel like starting pitching it vascillates. I think,
17:51
Speaker 1: week to week, what do you need more starting pitching bullpen?
17:54
Speaker 1: I think you have to add a starter, though I'm
17:57
Speaker 1: not sure what's going to change over the next month
18:01
Speaker 1: and a half month, you know, two months that will
18:04
Speaker 1: change my opinion on that. I guess if Ben Brown
18:07
Speaker 1: just locks it down and Kate Horton looked great, that's
18:10
Speaker 1: that's I guess what could change. But Uh, and we
18:13
Speaker 1: should give Kate Horton credits. He's done very well for
18:16
Speaker 1: you know, a kid coming up and making spots starts
18:19
Speaker 1: for shoot him, and now he's going down. I think
18:21
Speaker 1: I think the bullpen is looking a lot better. Look
18:23
Speaker 1: they're they're they're there are issues with the injuries. Porter
18:28
Speaker 1: Hodge being hurt is a problem for them. They need
18:31
Speaker 1: him back, They need him at his best self to
18:33
Speaker 1: really feel good about the bullpen. I gotta give Daniel
18:36
Speaker 1: Palenti a ton of credit. Yeah, he goes out there
18:39
Speaker 1: and blows that save in his first opportunity and then
18:42
Speaker 1: locks down the next three opportunities he gets. Uh, he's growing.
18:46
Speaker 1: I think he threw one one hundred and two miles
18:48
Speaker 1: per hour the other day. He's pumped up out there.
18:50
Speaker 1: He's embracing the moment, you know, striking guys out, keeping
18:54
Speaker 1: them off the bases. You know, a ton of credit
18:57
Speaker 1: to him for doing what he's doing and going out
19:01
Speaker 1: there and turning his career around because he keeps he's
19:03
Speaker 1: brought it up again. He wasn't having fun last year.
19:06
Speaker 1: He was he was going out there overthinking every moment
19:09
Speaker 1: and it hurt. It hurt his ability to perform. And
19:14
Speaker 1: another guy that I you know, I appreciate when the
19:18
Speaker 1: Cubs go out and get guys and and you know,
19:21
Speaker 1: I understand that anyone can surprise. But what Drew Palmer
19:25
Speaker 1: answers to it, it is just mind boggling. It's not
19:28
Speaker 1: like there's sometimes I get it, like I always. I'm
19:31
Speaker 1: the one that preaches this all the time. You never
19:33
Speaker 1: know where it's coming from. But to do what he's
19:36
Speaker 1: doing and to look so good when you haven't pitched
19:39
Speaker 1: in the big leagues for so long, it's it's a
19:42
Speaker 1: little it's it's almost like comical. How how well he's doing. Patrick.
19:46
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you chat about that. Let's take a
19:48
Speaker 1: quick another break, real quickly, and then then we'll talk
19:51
Speaker 1: more about the bullkbed Kratz.
19:53
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19:58
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20:02
Speaker 4: So we're saving in the wallet and we're making our
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20:55
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, go ahead, give your thoughts on the bullpen,
20:58
Speaker 1: and then we're where it's kind of standing right.
20:59
Speaker 3: Now yesterday or Monday watching Drew Palmeran's just warm up.
21:04
Speaker 2: Like I know, hitter ish is a word that scouts
21:08
Speaker 2: use for for hitters.
21:09
Speaker 3: I don't know if picture ish is is a word,
21:12
Speaker 3: but just I don't know his size, you know, coming
21:15
Speaker 3: from the left side, just how easy it comes out,
21:18
Speaker 3: just kind of the way he kinda.
21:23
Speaker 2: Just goes out there and competes. It's it's impressive.
21:27
Speaker 3: And when you just look at how the journey he's
21:30
Speaker 3: taken to get here, how highly regarded he was, as
21:35
Speaker 3: you know, as a first round pick, as as a prospect,
21:40
Speaker 3: as one of those kind of ahead of the curve,
21:44
Speaker 3: you know, hybrid pictures, uh, you know, getting the big
21:46
Speaker 3: contract as kind of a you know, reliever, not established closer,
21:52
Speaker 3: but could do different things. He already had the Milwaukee
21:56
Speaker 3: council kind of magic dust what they did up there.
22:01
Speaker 2: Like, I get it. I didn't see him being this
22:06
Speaker 2: dominant in this circle of trust so soon, but not
22:10
Speaker 2: really shocked. We'll see if he can stay healthy.
22:14
Speaker 3: And I do think a trade deadline will be interesting,
22:16
Speaker 3: Like we'll see what the market will bear. Like I
22:19
Speaker 3: don't know how many goods, you know, the White Sox
22:22
Speaker 3: don't have Garrett Crochet and Eric Fetti anymore now that
22:25
Speaker 3: they were going to trade with Jed anyways. But I
22:29
Speaker 3: do think this pitching infrastructure, you look at it like,
22:33
Speaker 3: just get at least two more good arms and just
22:37
Speaker 3: figure out the rest later. Maybe there's an interesting sort
22:39
Speaker 3: of hybrid pitcher who can do a little bit of everything.
22:44
Speaker 3: Maybe it's just a lockdown leverage guy. Maybe there is,
22:48
Speaker 3: you know, kind of a starting pitcher we're not thinking
22:50
Speaker 3: of and maybe comes with multiple years and that makes
22:55
Speaker 3: sense for your long term plan as well, but yeah,
23:01
Speaker 3: I think that's where this season, if it goes off
23:03
Speaker 3: the rails, it'll be It'll be the pitching.
23:05
Speaker 2: And that's not really a groundbreaking statement. That's just usually
23:08
Speaker 2: how the game works.
23:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you certainly can't afford any more injuries.
23:15
Speaker 1: I think that's that's a big thing. Like they they
23:18
Speaker 1: they're they're at that like danger point with the starting
23:22
Speaker 1: pitching injuries because I believe I don't know what the
23:26
Speaker 1: outcome was, but Jordan Wicks left his start, his most
23:30
Speaker 1: recent minor league start early. I mean, you have Chris
23:33
Speaker 1: flex him, but now is he stretched out? Knta. Maida
23:37
Speaker 1: is not looking good in the minors right now, at
23:40
Speaker 1: least results wise. I'm not watching those outings. So you know,
23:45
Speaker 1: what is the depth It's hard to say. It's just
23:47
Speaker 1: hard to say what the depth is. The depth is
23:50
Speaker 1: right now, there's a real there's a reason they signed Maida,
23:55
Speaker 1: right they had to. They had to add that arm
23:59
Speaker 1: just because right now they just need arms for depth.
24:03
Speaker 1: You don't like they just you know, right now, the
24:06
Speaker 1: injuries are not devastating enough, not long term enough to
24:11
Speaker 1: be a major concern. They're just a sort of annoyance.
24:14
Speaker 1: Whether it's Miguel Amaya, Porter Hodge, even Ian Half, who
24:19
Speaker 1: has not looked right since coming back. I don't I'm
24:24
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that's more timing than a health thing. A
24:28
Speaker 1: lot of times, you know, it just takes a little while.
24:30
Speaker 1: Baseball's weird, position players at bat, it's just just weird
24:34
Speaker 1: like that. It just can take you ten days off
24:37
Speaker 1: and suddenly you're timing right when he looked like he
24:40
Speaker 1: was locking into it. Frustrating for him. So you just
24:44
Speaker 1: hope the injuries don't pile up. Well, we should get
24:46
Speaker 1: more info on a Maya on Tuesday that we're recording
24:51
Speaker 1: on a Tuesday, we should get more info on him.
24:53
Speaker 1: Hodge is basically in a holding pattern. Not great, that's yeah,
24:59
Speaker 1: not terrible news. Not you wanted to hear. Oh he's
25:03
Speaker 1: throwing it and he's pass He's he's you know, he's
25:06
Speaker 1: on the same plan Ian happens. It's harder to do
25:08
Speaker 1: that as a pitcher with these opleaques. They're they're really obnoxious.
25:11
Speaker 1: So I agree with you this. If this thing goes
25:15
Speaker 1: off the rails, I I asked, I asked consol about
25:18
Speaker 1: the offense. If he you know, if he believes in it,
25:21
Speaker 1: if like he's at the point now where he's not
25:23
Speaker 1: worried about it. And you know, his answer was basically
25:26
Speaker 1: like last year. And I pointed this out to him,
25:29
Speaker 1: I think in Milwaukee, how like last year that the
25:32
Speaker 1: April numbers were propped up by insanely good numbers with
25:37
Speaker 1: runners in scoring position. That's not repeatable. Uh, this feels different,
25:42
Speaker 1: and he agrees, this feels different. This is you know,
25:45
Speaker 1: this is just good all around. And his point, I
25:48
Speaker 1: really like his point of like, you can overcome two
25:50
Speaker 1: week slumps of players, like players having two weeks slumps,
25:53
Speaker 1: that's not sinking the team. Dansby Swanson was awful for
25:56
Speaker 1: a while. You know, Ian Happy isn't isn't playing well
25:59
Speaker 1: right now now they're they're winning. Kyle Tucker wasn't great
26:02
Speaker 1: for a while, and that's when Peak Armstrom became a superstar.
26:06
Speaker 1: So you can handle all these things, you can. You
26:09
Speaker 1: don't want Miguel Amaya on the I l that catching
26:11
Speaker 1: due is so good, but they're overcoming it. It's the
26:15
Speaker 1: offense feels legit, but the pitching you just it's getting
26:20
Speaker 1: to the point for me where you don't want to
26:24
Speaker 1: waste this offense. You don't want to look back on
26:27
Speaker 1: the season and say, you know, if you lose, if
26:29
Speaker 1: you go out and get pitching and you lose in
26:31
Speaker 1: the NLCS or whatever, you go and make a run.
26:35
Speaker 1: I would would you don't want to happen to say
26:37
Speaker 1: like they didn't make They weren't aggressive at the deadline,
26:40
Speaker 1: they didn't go out and there was so it was
26:42
Speaker 1: obvious how good this offense was. It can do damage
26:45
Speaker 1: in October. Go make the moves to make things interesting.
26:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, clearly you're in Council's head.
26:52
Speaker 3: That's what I got from Yester from Monday's pregame session
26:55
Speaker 3: of it. I think you had said it last year
26:58
Speaker 3: and I said, all right, you got them.
27:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll keep trying. I'll try that inception, uh, work
27:07
Speaker 1: more often, see if it can work in our favor
27:10
Speaker 1: in any way. Uh, all right, Patrick. They took the
27:14
Speaker 1: first three with the Rockies, two more with the Rockies.
27:17
Speaker 1: We'll be back after that series and then the weekend
27:20
Speaker 1: home series against the Reds. I believe the Reds are pesky.
27:26
Speaker 1: They seem to no matter what the record is, be
27:29
Speaker 1: it thorn in the cub side. So we'll see how
27:31
Speaker 1: this weekend goes, how the rest of this Rocky series,
27:34
Speaker 1: it goes as well. You obviously want to sweep the Rockies,
27:38
Speaker 1: but also baseball is weird and you never know what happens,
27:42
Speaker 1: so you can't assume anything. We'll see how the pitching looks,
27:45
Speaker 1: how the if the offense can get going in a
27:47
Speaker 1: annoyingly windy in coming in Wrigley windy, especially for us,
27:52
Speaker 1: that's annoying with the windows open. Yeah, uh yeah, bring
27:58
Speaker 1: your coats to Wrigley Field everyone, Yeahlori, yeah, I think
28:03
Speaker 1: five degrees. Don't don't. Don't look at the weather and
28:06
Speaker 1: assume Wriggley Field is going to be beautiful. It's it's
28:10
Speaker 1: a little it's windy. It's actually rainy. I think this
28:13
Speaker 1: is this week too, so hopefully we get games in.
28:15
Speaker 1: Let's not I'm not going to drink it. No rain
28:17
Speaker 1: talk all right. Thanks for listening to everyone. Is Northside Territory.
28:21
Speaker 1: Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
28:25
Speaker 1: Subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are on
28:27
Speaker 1: top of all things Cubs. Thanks so much for listening
28:30
Speaker 1: to everyone,