Latest / Foul Territory / MLB Nightmare Scenarios Spookiness Meter + Cubs Offseason Checklist

Transcript

MLB Nightmare Scenarios Spookiness Meter + Cubs Offseason Checklist · Foul Territory

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: We have to do a halloween segment pick your poison
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: is here for halloween scaries the game goes like this
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: we mention a halloween scary in baseball and then you
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: rank the scenario or point system the scenario we're not
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: ranking it but just one to ten how scary It is.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Ready to play?
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: One being the worst. One being the best. I mean,
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: not scary. And ten being.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: One is not scary. Ten is like, I am shaking
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: in my boots.
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: It's like Todd's tongue. The scariest thing we can say.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: Oh, we're doing this? Your face looks like a thumb.
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: Take your hat off.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: I'm fine. It actually looks like a butt cheek.
• 0:45
  Speaker 5: If you just hold it on the one side, like
• 0:47
  Speaker 5: it just looks... Oh, well, now I'm not in the
• 0:49
  Speaker 5: split screen, so it doesn't look.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: Stop. I need you.
• 0:53
  Speaker 6: I look like Mega Man. I need you to get
• 0:55
  Speaker 6: hair back on your head. That's what I need. Let's
• 0:59
  Speaker 6: do it. You look like sloth from the Goonies, man.
• 1:02
  Speaker 6: That's who you look like.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Hey, you guys.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: Hey, you guys. That's you. That's who you should be
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: for Halloween.
• 1:11
  Speaker 5: That's what we need. That's what we need. We need
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: a sponsorship to grow hair back on my head. Working
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: on it.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Working on it. Always working on it.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: Number one.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Nice and simple to start.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: The season not starting until May or later. You scared
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: about that or not? You're at a 10, Toddfather? You
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: think it won't start until May or later and you're
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: scared about it?
• 1:34
  Speaker 6: That's my biggest scary right there. I am very scared
• 1:39
  Speaker 6: about this one, for sure.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Scared enough to.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: You're scared it's going to happen or you're scared if
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: it happens?
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: I'm scared that it's going to happen yes.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Okay one i'm at a one.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Wow i'm not worried about hot start we're on one
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: side and the other i like it okay you're not
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: worried about it because you don't think it's.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Going to happen kratz that's your thing okay.
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: I don't want it to happen i don't want it
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: to happen but i don't think it's going to happen
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: i think people understand where the game's at and i
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: think they're going to.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Make good decisions if it does happen are you scared.
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: No, then I'm not scared because then we're going to
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: be better from it at the end. So I don't know.
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: Maybe I'm too positive. Maybe I'm too positive of a person.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: That's good. That's good. That's better.
• 2:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: We like that. Yeah.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Next up the best player in our sport. Shohei Otani
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: doesn't pitch next season. He's supposed to, but is there
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: any scare meter that something changes? I'll even extend it
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: to not even just doesn't pitch, but like something happens
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: kind of early on in the season and, You kind
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: of get what we just got, right? A diminished Otani,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: and then an Otani that didn't end up pitching on
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: the biggest stage.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Scary or no?
• 2:57
  Speaker 6: No, because he's a great hitter. It's hard to do anyway.
• 3:04
  Speaker 6: That's why you don't see it really ever. So I
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: go three on this one.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: I would say I'm at a five.
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: I would love it if Shohei was not just the
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: face but also the voice of baseball.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: We don't see much from him.
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: I would be much more scared if he was always
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: out there, frontward facing, growing the game, and there's a
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: chance of him missing a significant amount of time. But
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: he doesn't say anything, so what we get from him
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: is what's on the field. So I would say more
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: like a five, five.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Or six on that.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, next up.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: We'll stay in that neck of the country. The new
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: angels group doesn't make big changes. I'm going to chime
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: in on this one too, and say a one Todd father,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: they're definitely going to make changes and you can't, you,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: you're entering the biggest layup.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Of all time.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Artie Moreno is an all time bad owner in sports.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Like he, he had no idea how to run a franchise,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: especially by the end of this thing, but really for
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the entire tenure, it was a, it was a hot,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: hot mess for a team.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: That can very quickly become, a powerhouse in my mind.
• 4:15
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: I said it.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: They've got the market. They've got the fan base. They
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: got the ballparks, easy to recruit players. Like it's, it's
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: going to take a minute, but are you with me?
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: Me? I, yeah, I, I agree. I agree. It's time.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: It's time for sure.
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: I think there's so much low hanging fruit from talking
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: to different people in the organization about what they can change. Like,
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: we're not even talking about like, Oh, you got to dip,
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: $ 10 million into this or something. You're just talking about
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: adding a fourth coach in AAA. You're talking about adding
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: a third coach in AA so that these guys that
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: are coming up to the big leagues know how to
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: play in the big leagues and not just go, oh,
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: we're going to skip all these levels and go right
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: to the big leagues.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: And then they get to the big leagues and they're like, wait, what?
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: We're supposed to do what?
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Certain data and tech that they don't have.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: There's so much. A weight room that wasn't a tent
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: just got changed.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: It's going to take five seconds. They're going to be like,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: can we get one of these air conditioning? They're going
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: to be like, can we get one of these? Every
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: other team has 10. They're going to be like, yeah,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: get 20. It's going to change so fast.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Next up.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: We're doing some easy ones here. Raise new stadium falls
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: through scary meter. Anyone scared that eventually something happens.
• 5:30
  Speaker 7: You are crats.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: You're scared that it's going to fall through again.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Oh, no, no, no. I'm not scared.
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: It's going to fall through because it's a new ownership.
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: I thought the question was, if it falls through, does
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: that make me scared? Yes, it makes me scared. If
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: it would fall through, I would be scared because of
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: the fact that what's happened in this city, I know
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: it's new ownerships, but what's happened in this city is
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: they haven't catered to the city to grow this fan base.
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: It's just the kind of people that you saw it
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: from the TV viewership. So, no, I don't think it's
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: going to fall through, even though I don't know the
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: ownership at all. But it would be a big time
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: 10 if it would fall through how scared I would be.
• 6:12
  Speaker 7: Hi, Max the Bald Eagle from Marathon here. We asked
• 6:15
  Speaker 7: people if they could do an impression of me. Have
• 6:18
  Speaker 7: a listen. You can save up to a dollar a
• 6:31
  Speaker 7: gallon with the Marathon Rewards app. That last one was
• 6:35
  Speaker 7: pretty good.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Marathon, where fun runs on full. Available at participating Marathon locations.
• 6:40
  Speaker 7: Terms and conditions apply. See MarathonRewards.com for details.
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: I think we're fine with that one. Okay.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I'm going to jump ahead to one to get Todd's
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: thoughts here. The Mets will met again next season, Todd.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, Mets fans are like, can we cap something
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: else because the payroll thing ain't working?
• 7:02
  Speaker 6: I hope not because I, listen, I had a good
• 7:04
  Speaker 6: time with the Mets, but Yeah, that's like an 8,
• 7:07
  Speaker 6: 8 or 9.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: Something always happens. You know what I mean?
• 7:12
  Speaker 6: It's just part of what goes on there, I guess.
• 7:17
  Speaker 6: And I hope it doesn't happen because it's good for
• 7:20
  Speaker 6: baseball that the Mets are doing well, in my opinion.
• 7:23
  Speaker 6: In the Northeast, I would love to see both New
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: York teams doing awesome.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: So here's the saying that it won't happen, but usually
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: something does.
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: I would say a 2, and this is going to
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: be an un- Mets fans are going to be like, whoa,
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: Eric really likes the Mets? This is going to be
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: the unpopular part of my comment. I really like David Stearns.
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: Hasn't worked out. And I think what he does is
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: build processes. Look, he's getting a ring from the Brewers
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: because they felt like he was part of this build
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: that they're doing. I think if you trust David Stearns
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: as much as it's hard to trust him right now
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: as a Mets fan, I think... I think the Mets
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: will not met.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Can I ask a quick aside, just because I don't
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: think we have it anywhere else in the show.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Does that part bother you at all?
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Like the way they put the public statement out, he's
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: going to be involved in one or two things. You
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: guys were talking the other day about how it's weird
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: with former players or of a team showing up to
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the other team's postseason games.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: You think that's normal or you think it's weird, Kratz?
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: I think it's fake. I think it was a fake news.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: I think somebody trolled us.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Oh, was that a fake tweet?
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: I think it was fake news.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: We didn't post about it, but I saw something. Yeah,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: that went viral.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: It was a fake.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: I would say you decline it.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: Oh, it was fake.
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: There were some things about the parade. Some of us
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: ex-players were like, there's some players that we played with
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: that are at the parade. And the Brewers reached out
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: to some guys, and it was like, I didn't win
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: a World Series. Why do I need to be at
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: the parade? Like, it's not spiting the organization. It's just a– like,
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: that was theirs. It's kind of like players always talk
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: about going into the locker room. If you feel comfortable
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: in someone else's locker room, I feel like you were
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: doing the locker room different when you were there. Like,
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: I see the locker room, and I'm kind of like, hey, guys,
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: what's up?
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: Okay, I'm out.
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: Like, it just– This is their moment, not X players moments.
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: So no, I think it was a fake post, but
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: I also think David Stearns would be like, thanks. I
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: know you guys mean a lot to me.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: I'll decline.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: I'm going to, I'm going to finish with one that
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: I think is interesting. It's a good thought exercise because
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: I think the narrative changes a little bit right now.
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Todd father, when Tarek school landed with the Dodgers at
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: the trade deadline, the whole world freaked out.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: We freaked out too. Like what? They got the best picture.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: We didn't say, Otto, this is done, but it definitely
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: was stacking in their favor, and that's not a free
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: agent signing that.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: To trade. Well, Dodgers still got dusted by the brewers.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: So the question is your scary meter for if school
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: signs back with the Dodgers, because I think there was
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: a time where people would be freaking.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Out about that. And now they're like, cool, you can
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: have Kyle Tucker. You can have Edwin Diaz. You can
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: have Google. You got dusted by the Brewers, baby. I
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: ain't scared. Right.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I think there was a time period at the trade
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: deadline where people would be like, I'm at a 10.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: I think they're auto going to win again. They're going
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: to just sweep through the postseason.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: They did.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: They just went on the other end of it in
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the CS. So scary meter for that.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's like a seven. That's like a seven for
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: me because. Really that high?
• 10:38
  Speaker 6: I feel like people love it over there, man. I
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: think they do. And I think Scoble had a good time.
• 10:44
  Speaker 6: I'm not saying that's where he will go. I'm sure
• 10:45
  Speaker 6: he's going to get a lot of different offers from
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: different teams, but I feel like the Dodgers are going
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: to be the highest one, and I feel like he
• 10:51
  Speaker 6: can't say he's not going to– not can't, but I
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: feel like he's not going to say no to that
• 10:55
  Speaker 6: just because of the rapport that he got over there
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: and how, you know, there's– I think that's the best
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: team to have the best opportunity to get a World
• 11:04
  Speaker 6: Series with besides the Brewers, and I think that's.
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: What he's looking for right now in his career.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: I'm going to go with a two.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: A two?
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Well, no, and also I want to make sure this
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: is important delineation here. The question isn't about likelihood that
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: he signs there, but if he does sign there, would
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: the industry be freaking out? Like they've been freaking out
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: about anything. I mean the industry– not even the industry.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Social media was like, oh, they got Tanner Scott. Okay,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Tanner Scott was not a factor in that World Series
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: title a couple years ago.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: And guess what? The Dodgers were a hair many times away.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: From losing to the Blue Jays. the Brewers just destroyed
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the league. Like this was a different year. So I'm
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: just saying, I don't think people are scared anymore about
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: what they're doing.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: It's two.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: No, it's two.
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: It's two because the fact that if you don't get Scooble,
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: they'll get somebody else. Like, Hey, we're out on Scooble.
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: All right, Michael King, what's going on? Hey, we're out
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: of Michael King. Hey, Freddie P we saw what you did.
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: We got a little extra enhancement. We got a little
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: extra jelly for your bread.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but my point is I don't think that people
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: are scared of the Dodgers right now.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: That's my point.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Shouldn't be.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: They shouldn't have made me score. I agree. The Blue
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Jays had them. The Padres the year before had them.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: They didn't.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: They didn't beat them. But the point was I felt
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: like the conversation often was like, oh, nobody has a chance.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: How many why even play out the seasons did we
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: get after Kyle Tucker signed?
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: Tired.
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: Tired narrative that was pushed by non-players. In my opinion,
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: it was a tired narrative. Are they a good team?
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: But to say, oh man, we got no chance. Well, yeah,
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: you'd have no chance because you're not taking that bat.
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: It is definitely a narrative that is not said by players.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: They should have been like, Kyle Tucker signed it all.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: That's going to block.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Jose de Paula, Josue de Paula from coming up sooner.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: He would have been better than KT. I know Tucker
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: was good in the playoffs. Whatever. I can go all day.
• 13:07
  Speaker 7: All right.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: We can do it here.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: I forgot to ask for personal nightmares. So Todd father,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: you're up.
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: Well, my personal nightmare is when I got, I got
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: tricked at second base, the hidden ball trick. I mean,
• 13:19
  Speaker 6: this gets played out all the time and it is
• 13:22
  Speaker 6: an absolute nightmare for.
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: Me knowing who I am. And I'm always alert.
• 13:25
  Speaker 6: Knowing who, I thought there was time out there, and
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: I explained to him that didn't work. But that nightmare
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: keeps on rolling month in and month out. That is
• 13:34
  Speaker 6: my ultimate nightmare of all time because I have some
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: of the kids I train and some of the teams
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: I have.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: They're like, hey, coach, did that really happen?
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: I'm like, God almighty, another one bites the dust.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: So there's my nightmare. Happy Halloween. Hey, coach.
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: Hey, player, why don't you give me 10 push-ups so
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: you don't forget that when you're out.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: On the field?
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: That's an all-time nightmare for me.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: Everybody makes mistakes. You did it just on a national stage, bro.
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you, you don't make it again once you
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: get one of those, right? You think about it every time.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but that shouldn't ever happen in your career, ever. Well, good.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: I'm glad we can laugh about that.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: You have a big shoulder. You can handle it.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Exactly, he does. Big, big, broad shoulders. I have two
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: for me. One, I know will make Todd giggle.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: My number one nightmare is that everyone will start saying nightmare,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: which is how Kratz is.
• 14:30
  Speaker 7: I love.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: It.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: That's a nightmare.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: That's a nightmare.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: And then my other one is that I'm told always,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: and I know I've been dunking on this, bottom three
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: team in homers can't win, can't win the World Series.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: It's mathematically impossible. It's a nightmare. Oops. Now it's a dream.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: Okay, I like the route you went there. And Nightmare?
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Because I was worried. I was like, well, we can't
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: bet on the Brewers, right? We're told that they can't win.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: They don't have enough pop.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: And I was drinking the Kool-Aid, Kratz. I'm like, yeah.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: I'm like, can you win like this? And everyone's like, no,
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: you can't.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: No, you can't.
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: My question was, can you win like that? How are
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: they going to win like that? How are they going
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: to do it? Oh, by hitting the ball to the
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: opposite field. It's not like they had zero homers and
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: they're just trying to pull hook balls. for snap hook
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: grounders to third.
• 15:24
  Speaker 7: No.
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: That's not how they did it. They did it their
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: way and they dominated. Not like, I keep asking the
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: same question. Are other teams going to mimic this? The
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: actual way that they did, the way that they hit?
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: And they wouldn't if it was like, oh, they got
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: by on the skin of their teeth. No, they got
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: by by just absolutely dominating everybody throughout the season and
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: the postseason.
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: Okay, Kratzy, here we are again, man. How many times
• 15:53
  Speaker 6: do we have to tell people to get the best
• 15:55
  Speaker 6: tickets in the house? Where do we got to go?
• 15:57
  Speaker 6: We got to go to SeatGeek. It's been worth it
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: so many times, so many years. The green light will
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: let you know when it is time to go and
• 16:06
  Speaker 6: the best seats available. The red will let you know
• 16:08
  Speaker 6: if it's not the best. Kratzy, tell them how easy
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: it is.
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: Todd, I know it's easy, but I'm looking for the
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: deals because that's what I do. Even so much, like
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: we're getting such a good deal, I want you to
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: come across the river and And we'll go to a
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: Sixers game together. I don't know where to sit in
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: the stadium, but it'll let me know that it's a
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: perfect view because I'm not a big NBA fan, but
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: I got to go see the Sixers play with LeBron
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: and the boys.
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: And of course, I have a code for you all.
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: You can use code TERRITORY10 for 10% off your next
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: set of tickets at SeatGeek. That's 10% of all tickets
• 16:41
  Speaker 6: with promo code TERRITORY10. Make sure you click the link
• 16:44
  Speaker 6: in the description to download the app and have the
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: code automatically added to your account so you can use
• 16:49
  Speaker 6: it later.
• 16:51
  Speaker 7: All righty.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: Time to talk Cubbies.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Northside Territory host and the athletic Sahadev Sharma joining us
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Good to see you. Happy offseason. So what's the.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Plan here for the Cubs? And does it hurt a
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: little bit to watch what just happened?
• 17:09
  Speaker 8: You know, the Brewers have dominated them for so long now.
• 17:13
  Speaker 8: You know, they've been playing catch up and failing to
• 17:16
  Speaker 8: catch up for multiple years now. To see them finally
• 17:20
  Speaker 8: finish it off. I'm sure it stings. I don't think
• 17:23
  Speaker 8: this front office, I don't think this coaching staff, this
• 17:26
  Speaker 8: team enjoys seeing the Brewers continually have success. I think
• 17:30
  Speaker 8: it is a sticking point. It is a point of
• 17:33
  Speaker 8: contention with some of the people in the front office.
• 17:35
  Speaker 8: They get frustrated hearing about how they're playing catch up.
• 17:38
  Speaker 8: I don't know if anything changes as far as them
• 17:40
  Speaker 8: actually winning the World Series. The Cubs have to focus
• 17:42
  Speaker 8: on themselves and they.
• 17:43
  Speaker 7: Have a lot of work to do.
• 17:45
  Speaker 8: They're pretty much their entire rotation is going to be
• 17:48
  Speaker 8: are going to be free agents. And they have to
• 17:52
  Speaker 8: in the rotation, frankly, just wasn't good enough. Even, you know,
• 17:55
  Speaker 8: when those guys were healthy and out there, pitching was
• 17:59
  Speaker 8: a point of contention, was a sore point for this
• 18:01
  Speaker 8: team all season long, whether it was injuries or ineffectiveness.
• 18:05
  Speaker 7: And that's their focus. They got to get better there.
• 18:07
  Speaker 8: They got to they got to find ways to be
• 18:09
  Speaker 8: a better team on the mound. I think they have
• 18:12
  Speaker 8: a solid base for a solid bullpen right now. They
• 18:16
  Speaker 8: just don't have enough pitching, starting pitching, and it's just
• 18:19
  Speaker 8: going to be so much of their offseason. They lose
• 18:23
  Speaker 8: their corner outfielders or their corner outfielders are heading to
• 18:25
  Speaker 8: free agency. I don't know how you spend to keep
• 18:29
  Speaker 8: either one of those guys and also rebuild your starting staff.
• 18:32
  Speaker 8: So there, maybe they take a little hit on offense
• 18:34
  Speaker 8: and they get better pitching wise. And that leads to
• 18:37
  Speaker 8: a better season. We'll see, but they have work to do.
• 18:40
  Speaker 8: This is, this is not going to be an off
• 18:43
  Speaker 8: season of sitting on their hands.
• 18:44
  Speaker 7: That's for sure.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: Before we get to the moves and how they're going
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: to make those moves, you, one of the things you said,
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: you know, they're looking at the brewers and going, Ooh,
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: you know, they're A little bit far behind. Is that
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: because of the Cubs' resistance to change? Is it stubbornness?
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: Is it a failure by the decision makers that put
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: them in this situation? The Cubs won 89 games. Let's
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: not talk about them like they're the Rockies, okay?
• 19:12
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: I don't think it's a stubbornness to change.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: I think.
• 19:18
  Speaker 7: The Brewers, first of all, we should put the Brewers
• 19:20
  Speaker 7: in perspective. It's not like the Brewers are.
• 19:22
  Speaker 8: Just better than the Cubs when it comes to organization,
• 19:25
  Speaker 8: top to bottom. The Brewers are the model organization right now.
• 19:29
  Speaker 8: I think it's hard to argue that any team is
• 19:32
  Speaker 8: better than them in any singular area. And overall, as
• 19:36
  Speaker 8: an organization, they just do so many things really well.
• 19:39
  Speaker 8: Here is the biggest difference. It is pitching development for
• 19:43
  Speaker 8: the Brewers. The Brewers can trade away Freddie Peralta. They
• 19:46
  Speaker 8: can trade away Corbin Burns. You can make the argument
• 19:49
  Speaker 8: that those, that those trades, like they weren't even hugely
• 19:52
  Speaker 8: impactful as far as the return that the brewers got.
• 19:55
  Speaker 7: And they still got better as a team. The Cubs
• 19:58
  Speaker 7: can't do that. The Cubs, the Cubs.
• 20:00
  Speaker 8: Haven't done that. They think about their one big trade last,
• 20:03
  Speaker 8: last winter. They, they traded for Edward Cabrera He had
• 20:09
  Speaker 8: a really poor season when it comes to both when
• 20:11
  Speaker 8: he was healthy and just he was injured a lot.
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: That was hugely impactful in a negative way for the Cubs.
• 20:17
  Speaker 8: Like one huge move just sunk them. While the Brewers
• 20:21
  Speaker 8: make all these different.
• 20:22
  Speaker 7: Moves, make all these, they export so much high-end talent
• 20:26
  Speaker 7: and they don't skip a beat. It's remarkable.
• 20:28
  Speaker 8: So I don't think the Cubs are afraid of change.
• 20:31
  Speaker 8: They're constantly trying to figure things out. They are making
• 20:34
  Speaker 8: significant changes and they continue to with their pitching development.
• 20:38
  Speaker 8: Tyler Zombrow was hired, I want to say, two years ago,
• 20:41
  Speaker 8: two off seasons ago. Last offseason, he got a lot
• 20:45
  Speaker 8: more say in things. And I think they took like
• 20:48
  Speaker 8: a very mini step forward when it comes to their
• 20:51
  Speaker 8: minor leagues, like double A and below the Cubs would
• 20:53
  Speaker 8: argue was much better. Obviously, what we saw at the
• 20:56
  Speaker 8: major league level wasn't good enough. And in AAA, there
• 20:59
  Speaker 8: were some issues. I think they're continuing to make changes.
• 21:02
  Speaker 8: They're making hires. They're really focusing on pitching development at
• 21:08
  Speaker 8: all levels. I think they they've tried to make changes.
• 21:12
  Speaker 8: I think when they hired Craig Breslow, what is that now?
• 21:15
  Speaker 8: Seven years ago, that was the first step of making
• 21:18
  Speaker 8: big changes. And Breslow left. And it was almost like
• 21:21
  Speaker 8: I don't want to make that. I don't like making
• 21:23
  Speaker 8: a one to one comparison here where it was like
• 21:25
  Speaker 8: Breslow left.
• 21:26
  Speaker 7: Things took a step back. But maybe they lost.
• 21:28
  Speaker 8: Kind of like that guiding light that like, OK, someone
• 21:31
  Speaker 8: that was just going to take charge and say, this
• 21:34
  Speaker 8: is what we're doing and this is how we do it.
• 21:37
  Speaker 8: I think maybe they got that powerful voice back with Zombrow.
• 21:41
  Speaker 8: But until they get results, it just doesn't like it's
• 21:44
  Speaker 8: really just talk. And it's and it's just, you know,
• 21:47
  Speaker 8: this intangible thing that fans just don't want to hear about.
• 21:51
  Speaker 7: They want results at the major league level. And you're right.
• 21:54
  Speaker 7: They won eight, nine games. They made the playoffs. They
• 21:56
  Speaker 7: weren't some awful team.
• 21:57
  Speaker 8: This is not a rebuild, but there's a lot of
• 21:59
  Speaker 8: work to do because of the impending free agents.
• 22:03
  Speaker 7: Uh, and, and the end of the season just left a.
• 22:06
  Speaker 8: Sour taste in everyone's mouth and you just don't know, uh, where,
• 22:11
  Speaker 8: you know, how quickly can they, uh, you know, rebuild
• 22:15
  Speaker 8: this in the sense that when you have so many
• 22:17
  Speaker 8: pending free agents, is it, is.
• 22:19
  Speaker 7: That a good thing in one sense?
• 22:21
  Speaker 8: Maybe you're kind of working with a blank slate here
• 22:24
  Speaker 8: and you get to kind of build what you want. Uh,
• 22:26
  Speaker 8: but it's a lot of work to do, especially with
• 22:28
  Speaker 8: a lockout coming.
• 22:31
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I want to talk a little bit about the,
• 22:33
  Speaker 6: you're talking about taking a step back about results. Can you,
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: you talked a lot about pitching just before. Can you
• 22:38
  Speaker 6: give me a couple of hitters that, you know, you
• 22:41
  Speaker 6: wrote in your article there that need to basically step up.
• 22:44
  Speaker 6: It's step up or shut up time moving forward here
• 22:47
  Speaker 6: during this 2027-28 season coming up.
• 22:51
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 22:51
  Speaker 8: You know, look, Nico Horner, I haven't been around many
• 22:55
  Speaker 8: players who work as hard as him, who like have
• 22:58
  Speaker 8: the right attitude and mentality.
• 23:01
  Speaker 7: Nico doesn't like failure.
• 23:02
  Speaker 8: And I don't think if I, if I asked him
• 23:04
  Speaker 8: right now, how did he feel about his season? He
• 23:07
  Speaker 8: would say it wasn't up to what his expectations, you know,
• 23:10
  Speaker 8: he was about like, you know, if we look at
• 23:12
  Speaker 8: OPS plus, I think it was about like 15% below
• 23:15
  Speaker 8: league average. that's not good enough for Nico. Nico is,
• 23:19
  Speaker 8: Nico is not a power hitter. He's not going to
• 23:21
  Speaker 8: take a lot of walks. He is, he is really
• 23:23
  Speaker 8: dependent on the ball in play. And sometimes that can
• 23:26
  Speaker 8: lead to down seasons because the randomness of the game
• 23:30
  Speaker 8: bites him. I don't, I, you know, it's not like
• 23:33
  Speaker 8: anything under the hood was way off. He wasn't pulling
• 23:36
  Speaker 8: the ball more. He wasn't going away.
• 23:38
  Speaker 7: From the player.
• 23:39
  Speaker 8: He was, I think this was an aberration season for
• 23:41
  Speaker 8: him offensively. I think he's a slightly above average player.
• 23:44
  Speaker 8: offensive player, but he's a unique talent in the sense
• 23:47
  Speaker 8: that he's going to put the ball in play.
• 23:48
  Speaker 7: He's not going to strike out.
• 23:50
  Speaker 8: And the Cubs, any team, every team needs someone like
• 23:53
  Speaker 8: that because you can't just be all swing and miss
• 23:56
  Speaker 8: in power.
• 23:56
  Speaker 7: You can't have the same type of hitter in the
• 23:59
  Speaker 7: lineup up and down.
• 24:00
  Speaker 8: I think the World Series team kind of ran into
• 24:03
  Speaker 8: this issue when Dexter Fowler and Ben Zobrist were gone.
• 24:07
  Speaker 8: They didn't have that type of player and they were
• 24:08
  Speaker 8: searching for someone like that.
• 24:11
  Speaker 7: Without spending money on it. And it just didn't, it
• 24:14
  Speaker 7: didn't work.
• 24:14
  Speaker 8: And this offense that was loaded with talent on paper
• 24:18
  Speaker 8: was just deeply flawed because there was a way to
• 24:20
  Speaker 8: attack them all in the same way. You need different
• 24:23
  Speaker 8: types of hitters and Nico Horner is valuable in that sense.
• 24:26
  Speaker 8: The other guy I'd point to, and it, and it,
• 24:28
  Speaker 8: maybe it's unfair because it wasn't a terrible season, but
• 24:31
  Speaker 8: Michael Bush was seen as this breakout performer, this guy that,
• 24:36
  Speaker 8: Who was dominant in the postseason in 2025 and look like, OK,
• 24:40
  Speaker 8: not only did he have a great regular season, but
• 24:42
  Speaker 8: this is a star in the making of what's going
• 24:44
  Speaker 8: to be one of the best first baseman baseball. He
• 24:46
  Speaker 8: earned time against lefties. He didn't stink against lefties. It's
• 24:50
  Speaker 8: not like, OK, played more against lefties. And that's the answer.
• 24:52
  Speaker 7: That's why he was bad.
• 24:53
  Speaker 8: He struggled against righties, and when I say struggled, he
• 24:56
  Speaker 8: just didn't dominate righties like he did in the previous season.
• 24:59
  Speaker 8: The biggest thing that was down was the power. You
• 25:02
  Speaker 8: got to get power from first base, right? It's fine
• 25:05
  Speaker 8: if Nico Horner doesn't hit for power, but Michael Bush
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: has to hit for power. He was like a 35-homer guy,
• 25:10
  Speaker 8: went to I want to say 20-ish homers. I feel
• 25:15
  Speaker 8: like criticizing him is– it's like makes it seem like
• 25:18
  Speaker 8: he had this awful season. He didn't, but you just
• 25:21
  Speaker 8: want more from him. And, and I think he, he knows,
• 25:23
  Speaker 8: I had talked to him near the end of the season.
• 25:26
  Speaker 8: He wanted to take more chances. He wasn't swinging as
• 25:29
  Speaker 8: much in two Oh, and three, one counts. I think
• 25:31
  Speaker 8: it may be as simple as that.
• 25:34
  Speaker 7: I shouldn't say it is as simple as that.
• 25:35
  Speaker 8: I think one changing that being a little bit more
• 25:38
  Speaker 8: aggressive in hitters counts could be one step towards, you know, taking,
• 25:43
  Speaker 8: getting back to that 20, 25, 20, 25 version of,
• 25:46
  Speaker 8: I think ultimately you have to wonder, is that 2025
• 25:49
  Speaker 8: version real? Is that him or is that the outlier season?
• 25:53
  Speaker 8: And last season was more him. And that's not a
• 25:56
  Speaker 8: bad player. It's just if you're going to lose, say,
• 25:58
  Speaker 8: a Suzuki, you need 35 homers for Michael Bush because
• 26:02
  Speaker 8: it's going to be hard to find that by trade
• 26:04
  Speaker 8: or free agency.
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, most definitely.
• 26:08
  Speaker 6: You did an article about free agents about, how the Cubs,
• 26:13
  Speaker 6: they're going to have, you want them to push forward here.
• 26:16
  Speaker 6: You don't want them sitting out. Can you dive deep
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: into that a little bit? Because there's going to be
• 26:20
  Speaker 6: some teams that are like, well, the lockout's coming up.
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: I don't want anything part of it.
• 26:25
  Speaker 6: But you think right now for the Cubs, their action
• 26:28
  Speaker 6: should be getting after, you know, moving forward these next
• 26:31
  Speaker 6: 30 some odd days, you know?
• 26:34
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I think the simple comparison is, you know, the
• 26:38
  Speaker 8: lockout lasts whatever that was four years ago now, five
• 26:40
  Speaker 8: years ago, I guess. that right before that, there was
• 26:45
  Speaker 8: a frenzy of free agent signings. The Cubs weren't in
• 26:47
  Speaker 8: contention fully then. That was still, they were in the
• 26:50
  Speaker 8: middle of a rebuild. That was after the 21 season
• 26:53
  Speaker 8: when they sold off everyone, I believe. And they signed
• 26:58
  Speaker 8: Marcus Stroman to a three-year deal. But right before that frenzy,
• 27:01
  Speaker 8: there was, I think, Robbie Ray signed, Kevin Gossman signed,
• 27:04
  Speaker 8: I think Max Scherzer, if I'm remembering correctly, signed. So
• 27:08
  Speaker 8: they expect, Jed Hoyer and the front office kind of
• 27:11
  Speaker 8: expects it to be Kind of similar to that where
• 27:13
  Speaker 8: there's going to be a frenzy right before, you know,
• 27:16
  Speaker 8: midnight on December 1st.
• 27:19
  Speaker 7: I think they have to.
• 27:19
  Speaker 8: I don't think I mean, if you don't get at
• 27:23
  Speaker 8: least two starters before the lockout hits, that's a really
• 27:27
  Speaker 8: uncomfortable situation where there's going to be another frenzy right
• 27:31
  Speaker 8: after the lockout ends. you want to feel a little
• 27:33
  Speaker 8: bit better about where your pitching staff is. Now, do
• 27:36
  Speaker 8: they have to go and sign guys? I don't think so.
• 27:39
  Speaker 8: You know, I think Cubs fans, uh, would love it
• 27:42
  Speaker 8: if they just went and spent the money to get
• 27:44
  Speaker 8: Derek Scooble.
• 27:45
  Speaker 7: Uh, I don't know if that's the direction they're going
• 27:47
  Speaker 7: to go. I think, uh, there is mutual interest there. Ultimately.
• 27:51
  Speaker 8: I think the money is just not, I think the
• 27:53
  Speaker 8: Mets and the Dodgers end up, you know, bidding against
• 27:56
  Speaker 8: each other.
• 27:56
  Speaker 7: That's the most likely outcome, right?
• 27:58
  Speaker 8: That's what I think most people expect. Uh, You know,
• 28:02
  Speaker 8: you could go after Freddy Peralta. You could bring back
• 28:04
  Speaker 8: David Peterson. You could bring back Clay Holmes. Shota Imanaga
• 28:09
  Speaker 8: had a quietly good season. I think those four, you
• 28:15
  Speaker 8: can pair them up in, like, twos and twos. What
• 28:19
  Speaker 8: are you looking for? Strikeouts and fly balls or ground
• 28:21
  Speaker 8: balls and maybe fewer strikeouts?
• 28:23
  Speaker 7: You'd love to marry the strikeouts and the ground balls.
• 28:26
  Speaker 8: That doesn't always come together like that, and that's why
• 28:28
  Speaker 8: that costs so much. I think you may have to–
• 28:32
  Speaker 8: what they ultimately want, it's like what I was talking
• 28:34
  Speaker 8: about with the lineup. You want a little bit of
• 28:36
  Speaker 8: diversity in the rotation as well. You can't have all
• 28:39
  Speaker 8: fly ball pitchers in this lineup that are high strikeout
• 28:43
  Speaker 8: because Wrigley Field played for like two, two and a
• 28:46
  Speaker 8: half months like a hitter's paradise this year. Now, you
• 28:50
  Speaker 8: can't predict what Wrigley Field's going to play like. The
• 28:52
  Speaker 8: year before and two years prior to this, it played
• 28:55
  Speaker 8: like a pitcher's park and fly ball pitchers did pretty
• 28:58
  Speaker 8: well when the wind was blowing in. But if the
• 29:00
  Speaker 8: wind is blowing out for two, three months, that's not good.
• 29:03
  Speaker 8: And it dings the confidence of the pitchers. I think
• 29:05
  Speaker 8: Shota Minaga actually had a good season. His confidence was
• 29:08
  Speaker 8: dinged at certain points because every fly ball at Wrigley
• 29:12
  Speaker 8: Field was just flying out. And now you can't win
• 29:14
  Speaker 8: every game 9-7. And you can't rely on a starting
• 29:19
  Speaker 8: pitcher giving up three-run homers regularly.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: That's hard.
• 29:23
  Speaker 8: So I do think they need to miss barrels. And
• 29:26
  Speaker 8: and get the ball on the ground more. I think
• 29:29
  Speaker 8: you'd like a couple of strikeout guys, though, in that rotation.
• 29:33
  Speaker 7: So, you need a good mix.
• 29:35
  Speaker 8: I think the biggest, when I bring up Freddie Peralta,
• 29:37
  Speaker 8: my biggest concern with him is are the strikeouts kind
• 29:40
  Speaker 8: of gone? Like, are they not what they used to
• 29:42
  Speaker 8: be or do, do pitching coaches and whoever have plans
• 29:47
  Speaker 8: to like kind of get them back? Cause as good
• 29:49
  Speaker 8: as he was with the raise, it's not like the
• 29:50
  Speaker 8: strikeouts shot back up to Freddie levels. What we thought
• 29:54
  Speaker 8: were Freddie levels. He, I'm not going to, I'm not
• 29:57
  Speaker 8: going to criticize what the Rays did. They did a
• 29:59
  Speaker 8: wonderful job with them, but it wasn't old school Freddie
• 30:01
  Speaker 8: where he's just blowing the ball by everyone and racking
• 30:04
  Speaker 8: up the strikeouts.
• 30:05
  Speaker 7: I just think the Cubs need those two things.
• 30:08
  Speaker 8: They need to add more strikeouts and they need to
• 30:10
  Speaker 8: add more ground balls to their starting rotation. And when
• 30:13
  Speaker 8: they had Peterson at homes, they had that. But the
• 30:17
  Speaker 8: strikeouts are a major issue and velocity and stuff in general,
• 30:21
  Speaker 8: just like it's down for this team. It, You compare
• 30:24
  Speaker 8: them to the best teams in baseball. It doesn't look
• 30:27
  Speaker 8: like this. The pitching staffs don't look like that. And
• 30:30
  Speaker 8: they know that they've addressed it as far as talking
• 30:32
  Speaker 8: about it.
• 30:33
  Speaker 7: They're well aware. How are they going to actually address
• 30:36
  Speaker 7: it with their acquisitions? We'll see.
• 30:39
  Speaker 8: I do think one thing that I don't think we've
• 30:42
  Speaker 8: written as much, but will be a big thing maybe
• 30:46
  Speaker 8: in the next month. And then post lockout is the
• 30:50
  Speaker 8: Cubs are going to make trades. I think they kind
• 30:52
  Speaker 8: of have to. Look at the way the Rays were built.
• 30:55
  Speaker 8: There's a lot of trades there. The Brewers make a
• 30:57
  Speaker 8: lot of trades. And I'm not saying that they need
• 30:59
  Speaker 8: to act like a small market team. They should still
• 31:00
  Speaker 8: spend money. But look for some trades here. Look for
• 31:04
  Speaker 8: them to target certain types and have a slightly different
• 31:09
  Speaker 8: philosophy because I think they have to. They understand they
• 31:11
  Speaker 8: kind of have to when it comes to pitching acquisitions.
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: One more on the pitching stuff.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: They got a lot of work to do. We get that.
• 31:19
  Speaker 5: Kate Horton and Justin Steele. Where are we at? What
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: is the organizational expectation of what they could be getting
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: out of them this year?
• 31:29
  Speaker 8: So with Justin Steele, the way they look at it
• 31:32
  Speaker 8: is like, can you are you entering the offseason expecting
• 31:36
  Speaker 8: to have a normal offseason, like a healthy how you
• 31:39
  Speaker 8: want to go about business, whether you were injured or not? Like,
• 31:42
  Speaker 8: how is it going to go? He's having a normal offseason.
• 31:46
  Speaker 7: That's the plan.
• 31:47
  Speaker 8: Barring any setbacks. He was nearing the point where he
• 31:52
  Speaker 8: could have gotten in games.
• 31:53
  Speaker 7: Maybe if he was basically a month ahead of.
• 32:01
  Speaker 8: Where he ended up being, he could have gotten into
• 32:04
  Speaker 8: games and into the playoffs. He did get into games
• 32:06
  Speaker 8: as far as the minor league season goes. I think
• 32:08
  Speaker 8: that was huge for them. He ended the season feeling
• 32:12
  Speaker 8: good physically, physically. He's going to have a normal offseason
• 32:15
  Speaker 8: and their expectation is, you know, he is going to
• 32:18
  Speaker 8: be ready for spring training whenever that is ready to go.
• 32:21
  Speaker 8: I think the biggest question with him is, OK, he
• 32:24
  Speaker 8: hasn't pitched in a big league game since what was it,
• 32:27
  Speaker 8: April or May of 2025?
• 32:30
  Speaker 7: How many innings can you give them next year?
• 32:32
  Speaker 8: That's the type of thing you evaluate as the season goes.
• 32:35
  Speaker 8: I don't think you can put a firm limit on that,
• 32:38
  Speaker 8: I think. there's been so much development and understanding of what, how,
• 32:42
  Speaker 8: how that stuff works now that you don't, you don't
• 32:45
  Speaker 8: just say like, he's only pitching X number of innings.
• 32:48
  Speaker 7: It's just like, how does the body react? How does
• 32:50
  Speaker 7: he look and what can we do? Kate Horton is
• 32:54
  Speaker 7: not going to be ready to begin the season.
• 32:56
  Speaker 8: He's had no setbacks. I think rehab's going really well.
• 32:59
  Speaker 8: They're happy with where he's at. I think their hope
• 33:03
  Speaker 8: is probably similar to what the optimistic hope was for
• 33:06
  Speaker 8: with Justin Steele. I think they had hoped he'd be
• 33:08
  Speaker 8: ready to give them big league innings this season. And
• 33:12
  Speaker 8: in like June, maybe that's a fair target date for
• 33:17
  Speaker 8: Kate Horton. They're not going to give out a target date.
• 33:20
  Speaker 8: I think until we get to spring training and kind
• 33:23
  Speaker 8: of see where everyone's at, how the off season went,
• 33:26
  Speaker 8: we won't really know much more about Kate Horton, but
• 33:28
  Speaker 8: I have heard that he, you know, he's on track
• 33:32
  Speaker 8: for a regular recovery.
• 33:34
  Speaker 7: There's no concerns. There's no setbacks.
• 33:37
  Speaker 8: And, and just personally watching Cade Horton and the way
• 33:40
  Speaker 8: he pitches, I think he like losing him for this
• 33:43
  Speaker 8: season was so huge. I just thought he was going
• 33:45
  Speaker 8: to break out. I thought he was brilliant, his rookie season.
• 33:49
  Speaker 8: And I thought there was another level. You guys know,
• 33:53
  Speaker 8: as former players, there's some, there's like this, The way
• 33:56
  Speaker 8: pitchers can carry themselves and the way they talk, like
• 33:58
  Speaker 8: I've been around so many of them for the past, whatever, 15,
• 34:01
  Speaker 8: 15 plus years.
• 34:03
  Speaker 7: And this guy just.
• 34:04
  Speaker 8: He has it at a young age, like the way
• 34:06
  Speaker 8: you want him talking about the game, about himself, about
• 34:09
  Speaker 8: the work he puts in. Then the way coaches talk
• 34:11
  Speaker 8: about him, he had all that stuff going and he
• 34:13
  Speaker 8: had the results in the stuff. To see him get
• 34:15
  Speaker 8: hurt was disappointing because I thought this was going to
• 34:18
  Speaker 8: be a huge season for him. He just has everything
• 34:21
  Speaker 8: that you're looking for. And when I say that, I
• 34:23
  Speaker 8: mean the measurables, the stuff that we see on the field,
• 34:26
  Speaker 8: and then that stuff that you just cannot quantify that
• 34:29
  Speaker 8: doesn't show up.
• 34:30
  Speaker 7: But when you talk to a guy, you're like, yeah, yeah,
• 34:31
  Speaker 7: this guy gets it. He knows what he's doing out there.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: And I'll conclude our conversation with this. We have many
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: excited Brewers fans watching the show lately. If you would
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: like to listen to Sharma and Mooney, gosh, about the Brewers,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: there are some recent episodes that I've caught, right, that
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: are kind of like, why can't the Cubs be like this?
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: And even the latest one they put out, again, with
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: a shout out to what the Brewers just did. So
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: they might not be listening to every episode all year,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: let's just be real, but they should especially tune in
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: to these because winning is also important. about rubbing it
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: in the face of your rivals.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: And I know even Trevor McGill did that.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: So I would like to conclude it that way with
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: a unique version of flogging Northside territory.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: If I think one time here, how was that?
• 35:19
  Speaker 8: Yeah, that happens at least, you know, once a week,
• 35:22
  Speaker 8: if not once an episode where we're complimenting the brewers.
• 35:25
  Speaker 8: And honestly, that's some of our most listened to episodes
• 35:29
  Speaker 8: are when we're like, Why can't the when we get questions,
• 35:31
  Speaker 8: why can't the Cubs catch the Brewers? Everyone wants to
• 35:34
  Speaker 8: understand it. And maybe there's Brewers fans listening. Like, let's
• 35:37
  Speaker 8: listen to these Cubs people, these Cubs reporters. Gosh, about
• 35:40
  Speaker 8: the Brewers.
• 35:41
  Speaker 7: I maybe four or five years ago, I would say like, ah,
• 35:44
  Speaker 7: the Brewers, they're not going to live up to expectations
• 35:47
  Speaker 7: this year or they can't repeat it. I've stopped no more.
• 35:50
  Speaker 7: Never again. The last few years, I've just said, I
• 35:54
  Speaker 7: don't know.
• 35:54
  Speaker 8: I don't know how they lose all these guys, but
• 35:56
  Speaker 8: they're going to be just as good, if not better.
• 35:59
  Speaker 7: And they do it year after year.
• 36:00
  Speaker 8: So whatever happens this year, if they trade away a
• 36:02
  Speaker 8: couple of key players, don't doubt that team. They have replacements.
• 36:07
  Speaker 8: They have ways of getting good. That is just, it
• 36:10
  Speaker 8: is so impressive to watch the way they do. They
• 36:12
  Speaker 8: go about things. You know, it's remarkable to see a
• 36:16
  Speaker 8: team continually lose high-end talent and not miss a beat.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: And they're not going anywhere. So that's the point. So
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: tune in.
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: It's hot.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: Good to catch up, man. And we'll catch you later
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: on this off season.
• 36:28
  Speaker 7: Take care. Thanks for having me.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: There it is. North side territory. So it's Sharma. It's
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: Mooney and it's Lester. Yeah.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: John Lester, a regular contributor. I'd love to hear what
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: he has to say at some point over the off
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: season about what the Brewers just did. So check it
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: out wherever you get your pods and on YouTube, of course.