Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Extension Week continues for Cubs and Nico Hoerner

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Extension Week continues for Cubs and Nico Hoerner · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory File Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: sah Dam Sharma with my partner Patrick Moody. We are
0:12
Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, it
0:17
Speaker 1: was an ugly day at Wrigley Field, but an ugly
0:23
Speaker 1: loss as well some disgusting Chicago weather along with some
0:29
Speaker 1: bad play on the field. But the Cubs front office
0:33
Speaker 1: delivers some good news for Cubs fans and they extend.
0:38
Speaker 1: We talked about it before. At the end of our
0:42
Speaker 1: last episode, we'll say, well, are they going to extend
0:45
Speaker 1: anyone else beyond Peter Armstrong?
0:47
Speaker 2: Is Nico next? And he was.
0:49
Speaker 1: I don't think we fully expected it as much as
0:52
Speaker 1: the PCA one. It seemed like it was going to
0:55
Speaker 1: be harder for them to get this done as we record.
0:58
Speaker 1: We don't have the exact number, but it is Pete Crow,
1:02
Speaker 1: Armstrong or Nico Horner extended for six more years. Huge,
1:09
Speaker 1: huge move for the Cubs, who are doing kind of
1:13
Speaker 1: what they didn't do in the you know, the previous cores,
1:18
Speaker 1: if you want to say, and have like a group
1:22
Speaker 1: of players that they can really trust and Nico is
1:26
Speaker 1: prime among them.
1:28
Speaker 2: Kind of the.
1:29
Speaker 1: Heart and soul of the team in a way, elite
1:33
Speaker 1: defender and maybe one of the more underappreciated players in baseball,
1:38
Speaker 1: but certainly appreciated with the Cubs.
1:43
Speaker 3: And Nico is someone who sort of bridges that gap,
1:48
Speaker 3: who debuted during the end of the Joe Madden era
1:51
Speaker 3: and spent a lot of time around those players, and
1:55
Speaker 3: I think he learned a lot, both good and bad
2:00
Speaker 3: sort of from that group and how the organization had
2:05
Speaker 3: to pivot and rebuild and has become just an absolute
2:13
Speaker 3: fan favorite, cornerstone type player, which is hard to do
2:17
Speaker 3: when you don't hit twenty thirty home runs a year,
2:22
Speaker 3: but he has carved out a very unique, indispensable role
2:27
Speaker 3: on this team.
2:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was interesting. In pregame, Craig Council even said
2:35
Speaker 1: he believes there's more improving to do for Nico, almost suggesting,
2:39
Speaker 1: like I think he was suggesting, there's more power in there,
2:42
Speaker 1: power potential in there. I found that interesting. I'm not
2:46
Speaker 1: sure if personally I would want Nico Horner to try.
2:52
Speaker 1: Craig Council would argue that nobody's trying to hit home runs,
2:56
Speaker 1: but if it naturally comes, if there's more power in
2:59
Speaker 1: the great but I think you just want Nico to
3:02
Speaker 1: be Nico and you'll take that because he was, you know,
3:07
Speaker 1: by various metrics, he was the most valuable second basement
3:11
Speaker 1: in baseball last year. Just a you know, incredible player.
3:18
Speaker 1: I've said this a few times on the podcast, but
3:21
Speaker 1: it's gonna be hard to forget the end of the
3:25
Speaker 1: season last year after that loss. Talking to Nico, it
3:31
Speaker 1: wasn't just me, but multiple reporters. We just were like, Okay,
3:34
Speaker 1: I don't have many more questions for this guy, because
3:36
Speaker 1: he is so upset right now, Like he's taking this
3:39
Speaker 1: loss really hard, and he's clearly doesn't like losing. That
3:44
Speaker 1: type of intensity is something you know you can almost
3:49
Speaker 1: I guess admire is the word. He's very intense, very dedicated,
3:54
Speaker 1: cares about winning his first real playoff experience, and uh
4:01
Speaker 1: uh uh Patrick, here, I just saw your text my
4:06
Speaker 1: dog is eating right next to me. She's she's a
4:09
Speaker 1: loud eater. I apologize, just cleaning that up.
4:14
Speaker 3: Instead of you know, the comments section. I was like,
4:17
Speaker 3: seems seems like a lot there, just not nodding along
4:22
Speaker 3: to your expert analysis.
4:25
Speaker 1: She's a very uh, she's she's a very aggressive chewer. Apparently,
4:32
Speaker 1: I apologize for the I'm right next to the dog ball. Sorry,
4:38
Speaker 1: I didn't expect her to go eat she they usually
4:40
Speaker 1: want to go out right when the show starts, and
4:42
Speaker 1: now she's decided she wants to eat right as the
4:44
Speaker 1: show starts as well. So I apologize for the loud
4:48
Speaker 1: dog chewing. Uh yeah, huge, like just a like a
4:55
Speaker 1: team leader, a guy that you know when you talk
4:58
Speaker 1: about culture, I think Nico horn Is is.
5:01
Speaker 2: A huge part of that.
5:03
Speaker 1: She's done, She's coming to say hi, sorry, yeah, yeah,
5:12
Speaker 1: go on. No.
5:17
Speaker 3: I mean it was as a funny scene the morning
5:20
Speaker 3: of opening day, actually not funny at all. It's kind
5:24
Speaker 3: of frustrating in hindsight. But Nico was asked indirectly about
5:32
Speaker 3: contract stuff, and you know, he praised Pete crow Armstrong effusively.
5:40
Speaker 3: He didn't directly say whether or not he would cut
5:43
Speaker 3: off negotiations if there was a cutoff date. Obviously he
5:48
Speaker 3: had signed a deal right around opening day twenty twenty three.
5:52
Speaker 3: I think we all know the example of you know,
5:55
Speaker 3: Ian Happ His contract came out I want to say
5:59
Speaker 3: mid April, after he was pretty clear about like that's done.
6:04
Speaker 3: We didn't get there, and then all of a sudden.
6:07
Speaker 3: That news popped roughly ten days later. I forget the
6:12
Speaker 3: exact timeline, but it was clearly after opening day into
6:16
Speaker 3: the season, and I think we thought Nico's love for
6:24
Speaker 3: Chicago and the Cubs would like keep that possibility. Jed
6:29
Speaker 3: Hoyer has been pretty clear about how much he values Nico,
6:32
Speaker 3: so has Craig Counsel as sort of this model teammate,
6:38
Speaker 3: an excellent worker and just kind of that Jim Rat
6:44
Speaker 3: mentality that this club has that's a direct reflection of
6:47
Speaker 3: Nico's attitude. But yeah, he was close. He already did
6:52
Speaker 3: one extension, which you know he worked for him. But
6:58
Speaker 3: you know, he could have been I believe it agent
7:00
Speaker 3: this past off season, or he could have been a
7:02
Speaker 3: free agent after this season, and he would have been
7:06
Speaker 3: in one of the top names on a pretty underwhelming list.
7:12
Speaker 3: And you know, sometimes a guy signs a first extension
7:16
Speaker 3: and is kind of chasing once up, like chasing that
7:20
Speaker 3: for a while. I think you kind of saw that
7:21
Speaker 3: with with Anthony Rizzo, which we understand why he won
7:26
Speaker 3: the security like he got he was the guy, right,
7:31
Speaker 3: I mean, he threw out the first bitch. You know,
7:35
Speaker 3: he is a Cubs ambassador Chicago legend for life, but
7:40
Speaker 3: clearly by the end there when it came back around
7:43
Speaker 3: for another sension, he was the one who told Jed
7:46
Speaker 3: like no flight out, No I'm cutting off the go.
7:48
Speaker 3: He didn't just tell Jed. I think he said it
7:50
Speaker 3: on like a zoom media. So I think this, we
7:58
Speaker 3: don't know the terms, but we almost don't need to
8:00
Speaker 3: know the terms because we know Nico a Stanford graduate,
8:06
Speaker 3: he's a the union rep now for the team. Like,
8:09
Speaker 3: he's extremely intelligent. He loves baseball, so he's constantly studying it.
8:22
Speaker 3: You know, he knows, he knows his war, he knows
8:26
Speaker 3: his value, he knows what he has here, so it's
8:28
Speaker 3: not like he uh is flying blind here or making
8:34
Speaker 3: uninformed decision. And then from the cup side, it's like,
8:38
Speaker 3: look like you're a big market team, this is what
8:40
Speaker 3: you're supposed to supposed to do. Like he's in that right,
8:43
Speaker 3: right age range, and look, the Cubs aren't doing this
8:47
Speaker 3: deal whatever it is, exactly unless they think they're getting
8:51
Speaker 3: surplus value out of it. Like there's not a whole
8:53
Speaker 3: lot of sentimentality here. I think both with him and Pete,
8:59
Speaker 3: maybe they bent model a little bit, but they certainly
9:03
Speaker 3: wouldn't break it.
9:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's he'll be twenty nine in like a month
9:08
Speaker 1: or so, a month and a half. I think, you know,
9:13
Speaker 1: he's in that age range that makes sense. He's got
9:15
Speaker 1: a skill set that doesn't degrade too quickly.
9:20
Speaker 2: I feel like.
9:23
Speaker 1: Either him or Jed after the first extension, suggested we'd
9:29
Speaker 1: like to do this again. Hopefully this is only the
9:32
Speaker 1: first of multiple Maybe they.
9:34
Speaker 3: Both, but Jed explicitly said like almost like first of
9:37
Speaker 3: many or first of multiples, and I'm assuming Nico said
9:41
Speaker 3: something similar of like I want to spend my whole
9:43
Speaker 3: career here.
9:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this isn't you know?
9:46
Speaker 1: This is a player that they've always admired and wanted
9:49
Speaker 1: to keep around. It's just about like coming together and
9:52
Speaker 1: being able to do that. Obviously, this this breaks after
9:59
Speaker 1: a rough after a rough game. Let's take a quick
10:04
Speaker 1: break and then come back and talk a little bit
10:07
Speaker 1: about Opening Day. I think I think the Nico news
10:11
Speaker 1: does quells some complaints, but obviously not a pretty game.
10:16
Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break.
10:17
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11:20
Speaker 1: Patrick A weird day, Wrigley maybe typical weather day if
11:26
Speaker 1: you live in this city or the area. I do
11:29
Speaker 1: think sometimes people that don't live here don't fully appreciate,
11:35
Speaker 1: like how odd the weather patterns can be, especially when
11:38
Speaker 1: you're close to the lake. But we got to the ballpark,
11:43
Speaker 1: the sun was peeking out, the wind was not blowing hard,
11:48
Speaker 1: but it was kind of the if you looked at
11:49
Speaker 1: the flags, maybe a little bit out to center field.
11:52
Speaker 2: My first pitch, it was just like a.
11:56
Speaker 1: Strong wind in from left field and it didn't seem
12:02
Speaker 1: like it was going to be an offensive forward day.
12:06
Speaker 1: And the first few innings, Matthew Boyd looked like that
12:13
Speaker 1: all star version of himself, like seven strikeouts, one run
12:17
Speaker 1: aloud on a pretty good pitch, a home run that
12:20
Speaker 1: was well struck, but it was a change up down
12:22
Speaker 1: and in that Joey Weimer went and got he looked
12:26
Speaker 1: like Boyd looked great through three innings. Like to take
12:29
Speaker 1: people into the writing process. I'd started writing, and I'd
12:33
Speaker 1: like kind of talked about how Pete Kor Armstrong, like
12:36
Speaker 1: Matthew Boyd overshadowed Pete or Armstrong with like a brilliant
12:40
Speaker 1: start type thing like that was going to be like
12:42
Speaker 1: the story. And then I had to completely get rid
12:46
Speaker 1: of all that because he just fell apart the fourth inning.
12:49
Speaker 1: His velo drops, his fastball is just not located well
12:53
Speaker 1: and he gave up.
12:55
Speaker 2: I think he ended up giving up four runs.
12:59
Speaker 1: No, he ended up giving five five of those runs
13:01
Speaker 1: of the six that they scored. Cubs lose ten to four.
13:05
Speaker 1: It was a very forgettable opening day game wise. You know,
13:10
Speaker 1: if you're if you're able to celebrate the Nico Horner
13:14
Speaker 1: extension and then go home and watch Illinois advance like
13:17
Speaker 1: I did, you're you're able to quickly put that, uh
13:20
Speaker 1: that that game behind you.
13:22
Speaker 3: There you go.
13:22
Speaker 1: Hopefully people understand it's just one game, but I think
13:25
Speaker 1: it's worth talking about as well, since it is opening day.
13:28
Speaker 1: It's all about over analysis early on, right.
13:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean definitely like that morning it was like
13:36
Speaker 3: bright and sunny, didn't need a coat, kind of an
13:40
Speaker 3: unbelievable day. And then clearly, uh, it shifted to what
13:45
Speaker 3: we'll probably have for the most part through like I
13:49
Speaker 3: don't know, June June second, I don't know, just throw
13:53
Speaker 3: throwing a date the date out there when we stopped
13:56
Speaker 3: bringing winter coats and just just in case. I think
14:02
Speaker 3: the windows were open in the press box very briefly
14:05
Speaker 3: and then they were closed back up you know at
14:09
Speaker 3: game time or around game time. And yeah, hard to
14:14
Speaker 3: get to fired up about one game. Always nice to
14:20
Speaker 3: be back at Regally Fields a ton of energy. The
14:27
Speaker 3: players obviously mentioned that I think they can feel the
14:32
Speaker 3: expectations this year. It is different from a coverage perspective
14:40
Speaker 3: of like, okay, like they still have to go out
14:45
Speaker 3: and prove it, but it's less of this like, oh
14:49
Speaker 3: can they do it, or sort of like kind of
14:52
Speaker 3: the the moral victory sort of seasons you know, we
14:57
Speaker 3: were looking at not that long ago, like this team
15:04
Speaker 3: should win the division. If it doesn't, it will be
15:09
Speaker 3: a failure. And if this team doesn't make the playoffs,
15:13
Speaker 3: like this will be one of those seasons where like
15:17
Speaker 3: the what went wrong you know, three thousand words story
15:21
Speaker 3: on the athletic that will have to drop, you know,
15:22
Speaker 3: the day after the season. Like this, the expectations have returned,
15:29
Speaker 3: and I think it will be fun to see kind
15:33
Speaker 3: of how this plays out. And then we'll get into
15:36
Speaker 3: the this in the next section. But as I was
15:40
Speaker 3: kind of riffing here, it just made me think, like,
15:42
Speaker 3: you know, there were questions about all these like upcoming
15:46
Speaker 3: free agents and stuff like that, and I just don't
15:48
Speaker 3: quite get it because this group hasn't won anything except
15:54
Speaker 3: for you know, a wild card and a playoff round,
15:58
Speaker 3: like this is not the last dance here, Like, this
16:01
Speaker 3: group has to go out and win and prove it
16:05
Speaker 3: and and I think they have a lot of the
16:08
Speaker 3: right pieces. Clearly, this is not a group that overreacts
16:14
Speaker 3: or overanalyzes one game. But uh, it'll be it'd be
16:22
Speaker 3: fascinating to see where the Nationals end up in September
16:25
Speaker 3: and and where the where the Cubs do.
16:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I I honestly thought I was when when I
16:32
Speaker 1: realized to what the weather was going to be, Like
16:34
Speaker 1: I thought it was going to be a low scoring
16:36
Speaker 1: game and that fans were going to be frustrated because
16:39
Speaker 1: Kate Cavali is one of those guys that people don't
16:43
Speaker 1: really know that much about, but his stuff has popped
16:46
Speaker 1: like it went when he returned from injury last year
16:49
Speaker 1: and he looked like a different picture. It's like, oh,
16:51
Speaker 1: this could be one of those surprise guys. By when
16:54
Speaker 1: when we look at July and we're like, oh, yeah,
16:56
Speaker 1: the Cubs got shut down by Kate Cavali. That makes sense,
16:59
Speaker 1: but right now you don't expect it. That's not how
17:01
Speaker 1: they lost, so it's a completely different loss.
17:05
Speaker 2: You know, they need to bounce.
17:06
Speaker 1: Back obviously Saturday and Sunday. You want to see them
17:08
Speaker 1: beat up on the Nationals and Angels to start the season. Weird,
17:14
Speaker 1: weird start to the season. You really hope this is
17:17
Speaker 1: just a blip and not a trend for Matthew Boyd
17:20
Speaker 1: all those things. I think the something that's going to
17:23
Speaker 1: stick with me because it's just so Alex Bregman. You know,
17:28
Speaker 1: we talked to him for like two minutes after the game.
17:29
Speaker 1: It was a real quick like two questions, didn't have
17:32
Speaker 1: a lot There's not a lot of analysis to be
17:35
Speaker 1: done after one game. What are you supposed to ask
17:37
Speaker 1: this guy about, Like, how do you move on from
17:39
Speaker 1: an opening day loss? He said, said, we you know,
17:45
Speaker 1: talking about all the runners. They were four for nineteen
17:48
Speaker 1: with runners in scoring position. I know fans will largely
17:51
Speaker 1: look at that as a negative thing for me, Like
17:53
Speaker 1: you do that, you get nineteen runners in scoring position
17:56
Speaker 1: pretty consistently, You're going to score a lot of runs
17:58
Speaker 1: over the course of a season. Going to do that
18:00
Speaker 1: with his offense. It's one game, so there's nothing to
18:04
Speaker 1: like take much away from it yet. But when talking
18:06
Speaker 1: about that, Bregman said, like off the top of his head,
18:10
Speaker 1: he's like, we had some He's like hap by Moyses Carson.
18:15
Speaker 1: They all hit the ball really hard in the air
18:18
Speaker 1: a couple of times. You know, they each hit the
18:20
Speaker 1: ball hard in the air. He remembered exactly who had
18:23
Speaker 1: one hundred mph ex velocity ball in the air that
18:26
Speaker 1: got caught. Like, those are the three guys. They've each
18:29
Speaker 1: hit the ball in the air one hundred plus ex velocity.
18:32
Speaker 1: They all got caught. I saw stat this sporting that
18:37
Speaker 1: ian HAPs one. You know, it would have been a
18:39
Speaker 1: meaningless home run, but the wind impacted it by like
18:42
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty feet, just an insane amount, Like
18:47
Speaker 1: I've never seen that before. I think it was some
18:49
Speaker 1: sort of record or I don't know if that's I
18:52
Speaker 1: don't know if that's a record whatever, you know, like
18:54
Speaker 1: data wise, Like I don't think we've ever seen something
18:56
Speaker 1: like that.
18:57
Speaker 2: But when he hit that, I was like, oh, that's
18:58
Speaker 2: way gone.
18:59
Speaker 1: And then it lands well short of the of the
19:03
Speaker 1: warning track. Just you know, that's the type of day
19:05
Speaker 1: it was. But also, how do the Nats get all
19:08
Speaker 1: those their home runs? I mean, the Wimer one was shocking,
19:12
Speaker 1: the other two were going to going to right, and
19:16
Speaker 1: the way the wind was blowing, I guess you wouldn't
19:18
Speaker 1: be shocked by it as much. But still not a
19:22
Speaker 1: great day for Cubs pitching. I'm not gonna I agree
19:27
Speaker 1: with what you said. You know, like if this is
19:28
Speaker 1: a trend, then you know, really disappointing and and they've
19:33
Speaker 1: failed on multiple fronts. But let's uh, you know, I
19:38
Speaker 1: think you do have a good point about what they've won.
19:41
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about this core and and
19:45
Speaker 1: what Jed Hoyer is kind of built here and what
19:48
Speaker 1: expectations are now, AJ.
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20:37
Speaker 1: Now, Patrick, This has all kind of happened in succession
20:43
Speaker 1: where it seemed like a year and you know, let's
20:46
Speaker 1: say sixteen months ago, Jed Hoyer in his front office
20:50
Speaker 1: make a trade that is not the type of trade
20:52
Speaker 1: you see this front office making.
20:54
Speaker 2: I wouldn't expect them to make many.
20:56
Speaker 1: Trades like that where they give up a lot of
20:59
Speaker 1: value for one year of a player. Granted a very
21:02
Speaker 1: special offensive player in Kyle Tucker, but that felt like,
21:07
Speaker 1: our jobs are.
21:08
Speaker 2: On the line. We have to win.
21:10
Speaker 1: Let's go get this guy to help put us bring it.
21:14
Speaker 1: Take an eighty three win team and get it over,
21:17
Speaker 1: put it over the hump and make the playoffs.
21:19
Speaker 2: They go and do that.
21:21
Speaker 1: By mid season, Jed Hoyer has a contract extension and
21:25
Speaker 1: suddenly a lot of things feel different. Right, They sign
21:31
Speaker 1: a big bat, big big name player and Alex Bregman.
21:34
Speaker 1: They make that trade for Edward Cabrera extension extension. This
21:39
Speaker 1: team hasn't done anything yet and maybe that's why they're
21:42
Speaker 1: able to sign these extensions. Maybe that you know, if
21:47
Speaker 1: you try to sign the core in twenty fifteen instead
21:51
Speaker 1: of twenty seventeen.
21:55
Speaker 2: It's a different situation. I don't know.
21:58
Speaker 1: But if you think that's their hope, right, that that's
22:03
Speaker 1: Jed's hope, that he's signing them early before they win
22:07
Speaker 1: a World Series or two. That's that's what he's got
22:09
Speaker 1: to hope. But you're right, like they this is a
22:12
Speaker 1: team that still hasn't done it. They've made it to
22:17
Speaker 1: the NLDS, not even an.
22:20
Speaker 3: Even close to doing it.
22:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right.
22:22
Speaker 1: So so it's not this isn't like a highly decorated
22:26
Speaker 1: group of players. That's not to say, like I disagree
22:29
Speaker 1: with what they're doing. I think you have to take
22:31
Speaker 1: chances like that. You have to do it before they
22:34
Speaker 1: do it. You have to make these moves before they
22:36
Speaker 1: actually get it done. And they've set themselves up to
22:39
Speaker 1: have something where where you can have some sustained success
22:44
Speaker 1: and and solid players.
22:46
Speaker 2: To build around.
22:48
Speaker 1: Uh, but I feel like now they got to deliver.
22:50
Speaker 1: Now they got to perform on the field, and and
22:53
Speaker 1: uh they're high expectations and you can see if you.
22:58
Speaker 3: Look around the diamond like Michael Bush, very underrated player,
23:04
Speaker 3: might have been their best hitter by the end of
23:06
Speaker 3: last season. Under long term control, Nico six more years,
23:14
Speaker 3: Dansby Swanson midway through, I mean a huge contract, I
23:18
Speaker 3: guess a little more than are approaching the midpoint of
23:22
Speaker 3: a one hundred and seventy seven, and then Bregman won
23:25
Speaker 3: seventy five at third base, Pete up the middle. I mean,
23:28
Speaker 3: you've got right there, five strong two way players who
23:35
Speaker 3: you bring different attributes, but share this passion for their
23:43
Speaker 3: craft that they love talking ball, they love just hanging
23:50
Speaker 3: around the cage and kind of the you know, our
23:57
Speaker 3: inference with some of this. It does feel a little
24:00
Speaker 3: like they saw what happened after the Cubs won the
24:04
Speaker 3: World Series, and you know, there were elements of complacency,
24:10
Speaker 3: you know, that World Series hangover that I think people
24:13
Speaker 3: even acknowledged around that time, and that this group is
24:20
Speaker 3: not as good as that group, Like they have not
24:23
Speaker 3: come close to that, But it does it does seem
24:25
Speaker 3: like there was a few lessons learned from that post
24:31
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen window in terms of trying to lock up
24:37
Speaker 3: some of those players. So you're not approaching as steep
24:41
Speaker 3: a cliff and I think there are some refreshing elements
24:49
Speaker 3: to this group, or at least they're just very much
24:52
Speaker 3: the same way that Joe Mann was like perfect for
24:54
Speaker 3: those young players to take pressure off Greg Council's you know,
25:00
Speaker 3: frequency is very similar to like this core group they've established.
25:06
Speaker 3: Now obviously you have to fill out a dynamic pitching
25:10
Speaker 3: staff and and keep guys healthy. You know you're gonna
25:14
Speaker 3: need you know, whether it's most basterios will see what
25:18
Speaker 3: happens with Matt Shaw. Jefferson Rojas opened a lot of
25:22
Speaker 3: eyes in spring training. I think you picked mcgilimaya to
25:27
Speaker 3: make the All Star team this year, like more more
25:31
Speaker 3: that was great. That was a great, great prediction. I
25:33
Speaker 3: mean I think like you need surprises, you need guys
25:36
Speaker 3: to step forward. You have to keep adding, but like
25:41
Speaker 3: to have those names kind of on your on the
25:44
Speaker 3: deck when you're looking or the names on the white
25:48
Speaker 3: board however you're kind of planning it out. It does
25:51
Speaker 3: bring a lot of stability and certainty.
25:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, and one thing I think that Jed beyond beyond
25:59
Speaker 1: like the lack of contract extensions and understanding like how
26:03
Speaker 1: do we how do we keep a group together?
26:05
Speaker 2: Learning from that.
26:07
Speaker 1: One thing I know when talking to him over the
26:11
Speaker 1: years that he cannot get out of his mind for
26:14
Speaker 1: that twenty sixteen group or the best years of that
26:17
Speaker 1: group was defense.
26:19
Speaker 2: Defense.
26:20
Speaker 1: Defense, Like when they were at their best, they were
26:22
Speaker 1: healthy and had the best defense out on the field.
26:26
Speaker 1: You look at who he's invested in, Dansby Swanson, Nico Horner,
26:31
Speaker 1: Pete Crow Armstrong, Alex Bregman. There's one thing all each
26:37
Speaker 1: of them do, and that's played great to elite defense.
26:42
Speaker 1: He's investing in that. He's putting his money where his
26:44
Speaker 1: mouth is there because he's why did they invest in
26:48
Speaker 1: Dansby Swanson of that all those that were all those
26:51
Speaker 1: shortstops available that winter, because he's the one they believed
26:57
Speaker 1: it could stick a short stop the longest. I think
27:00
Speaker 1: if I look back, they're right, they're already right. Like
27:04
Speaker 1: I think a lot of those guys have either moved
27:06
Speaker 1: up or if they're there, they're just not very good defensively. Uh, Pete,
27:12
Speaker 1: they love his defense. Just play him and he'll figure
27:15
Speaker 1: it out, right. That was kind of the mantra when
27:16
Speaker 1: he first came up. Just play him, we know he
27:18
Speaker 1: can handle the defense. Nico obviously established himself and Brakman
27:22
Speaker 1: they wanted like they wanted them a year ago. So yeah,
27:28
Speaker 1: so just like a great he had a philosophy. He
27:34
Speaker 1: has a philosophy of what the base needs to be
27:37
Speaker 1: to win, and he's he's put this team together.
27:40
Speaker 2: They need to go out and prove it.
27:42
Speaker 1: They need to do more than you know, finish second
27:45
Speaker 1: and then end up losing in the NLDS.
27:47
Speaker 2: To the team they finished second to. Uh.
27:50
Speaker 1: But there's a nice group here that I understand the
27:54
Speaker 1: basic philosophy of what you're building.
27:59
Speaker 3: Lookke some heat off of the front office. Uh it
28:05
Speaker 3: quiets is some of the talk about ownership in the
28:10
Speaker 3: business side, like where is all this revenue going? They
28:18
Speaker 3: trust this group of players, uh, in that they don't
28:24
Speaker 3: think their individual approaches will change after Pete gets a
28:30
Speaker 3: you know, generation generational amount of money or that Nico
28:36
Speaker 3: he gets a you know, far bigger contract than what
28:40
Speaker 3: he had signed for previously. So just to like it
28:46
Speaker 3: kind of you opening day for me, at least yesterday,
28:50
Speaker 3: there was less of that kind of like anxiety or
28:53
Speaker 3: uncertainty or like what like It's like you kind of
28:56
Speaker 3: know how this team is going to operate, Like you know,
28:58
Speaker 3: they could they could be what ever ten and fourteen
29:02
Speaker 3: in April at some point in April or whatever. However
29:06
Speaker 3: the schedule plays out. Don't think they're gonna panic. Don't
29:09
Speaker 3: think it's gonna be like you know, you know, jobs
29:13
Speaker 3: on the line, the way just just missing on Bregman,
29:20
Speaker 3: the hot Seat Talk, Tucker's one year in Chicago, the
29:25
Speaker 3: playoff drought. Uh, there was a lot there, and now
29:31
Speaker 3: you're you're staying in an organization that is just more stable,
29:38
Speaker 3: heading into a lockout and we don't know when baseball
29:41
Speaker 3: will come back again. That's a totally separate episode, but
29:44
Speaker 3: like at this moment, you can, as I'm working this show,
29:47
Speaker 3: I was like, oh wait, like what about the CBA.
29:50
Speaker 3: But that's not not the concern or the uh, you know,
29:53
Speaker 3: focus of this episode.
29:55
Speaker 1: No, and part of what they're doing maybe in anticipation
29:58
Speaker 1: of that that we need to understand more of that.
30:00
Speaker 1: It's hard to know exactly how it all works because
30:04
Speaker 1: but they have some stability at least going forward when
30:08
Speaker 1: it didn't exactly feel that way. But there's there's a
30:11
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of things that need to still
30:13
Speaker 1: go right. And obviously we have a long season head
30:17
Speaker 1: to break down and we'll start doing that. We have
30:21
Speaker 1: a Pete crow Armstrong press conference that we will break
30:25
Speaker 1: down in our next episode. And talk about Pete a
30:27
Speaker 1: little bit more. But plenty of games to talk about,
30:30
Speaker 1: plenty of Cubs baseball excited for the season. Hopefully it
30:34
Speaker 1: gets warmer out there. It won't be today, but eventually
30:38
Speaker 1: it will.
30:38
Speaker 2: Someday.
30:39
Speaker 1: Someday we'll have nice weather here in Chicago again. All right, everyone,
30:43
Speaker 1: thanks so much for listening. This is Northside Territory. To
30:45
Speaker 1: make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
30:48
Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are
30:50
Speaker 1: on top of all things Cubs. Thanks for listen.
30:52
Speaker 2: Everyone. Take it.
31:00
Speaker 6: They didn't name an't I know? Do they leve