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Cubs give Matt Shaw another chance to show he belongs · 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: Sad Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. The Cubs
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: three out in Miami. We will get to the rough
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: loss on Monday. Cubs fans, Uh, you know, I think
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: most of them understand these things happen, but we we'll
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: talk about it and and get to some bullpen issues
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: that that popped up. First of all, let's get to
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Matt Shaw returning Matt Shaw. We we we had, we
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: knew this was coming at some point. This this this
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: road trip felt like the right time. As he got hot. Uh,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: we talked to people over the weekend and kind of
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: got an indication that, okay, this was They were kind
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of waiting for something to happen here with with him, get.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: His mechanics a little ironed out, yes.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Getting his confidence back, feeling good at the plate, swinging
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: at the right pitches, hitting the ball hard. They wanted
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: to see all that. But he's done that at tripa A.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: But it's so so Merely seeing that wasn't enough for them.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: They wanted to see some changes. They saw those changes
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: and here he is. He's back in the big leagues.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Nice next night too, two for four. I thought that
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: double especially was you know, that's kind of what we
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: were sold on Matt Shaw being. And I thought it
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: was a you know, it's a good sign. It's a
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: good sign for how deep this lineup can be.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: It's also a good time to rejoin this lineup. I mean,
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: facing the Marlins, I mean, people love hitting in Cincinnati,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: the next stop on this road trip. I think the
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: degree of difficulty was something that you know, we knew
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: going into the season it would be there for him.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: But you know, Dodgers padres, you know, top relievers, you know,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: top of the rotation starters like that, things sped up
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: on Matt Shaw. And I'm curious to how toy of, like,
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: in the course of your reporting, what was kind of
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: the I don't know, power struggle or the dynamics here
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: of Like, Matt Shaw's a self made player. He progressed
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: very quickly. He's an intelligent player, you know. I know
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: at Maryland they had a pretty progressive hitting system where
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: he was talking all about, for lack of a better term,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: like the biomechanics of his swing, like just like a
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: real kind of like Jim Rat and then it got
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: up here and you asked him, like, what happened to
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: your swing? And he was like, I don't really know
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: just how pronounced it was, and it sounded like the
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Cubs sort of were like like, you know, sure you
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: need a breather, but you need to do X, Y
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: and Z.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, people when when players succeed, when players
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: have consistent success, it's kind of hard to get them
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: to change. And and you know, in general, the philosophies
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: of most organizations and the Cubs at least as far
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: as the people I've talked to in player development is
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: you know, they're not going to force change when someone
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: is succeeding if it's unconventional way to success, which Mattshaw swing,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: We've all seen it is a little unconventional.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: You know a lot of parts of it.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: The leg kick is the one that people really notice,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: right The setup is a little odd that the closed
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: off and like the turn to front foot, and it's
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: it's an interesting setup.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: But the leg kick is the one that.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Even before I asked them about it at Cubs convention,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: because I had some scouts asking me about it, and
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: and some people questioning, like, is this going to be
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: an issue? Is this going to like it's a pretty
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: pronounced leg kick. You can get away with it. It
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: can work. There are players that succeed and thrive. But
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: there were a lot of moving parts and sometimes you
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: have to get to the highest level before those holes,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I guess, are exposed. And the Cubs felt that, look,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: to get back up here, you need to show us
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: you could make this change. You know, I feel like
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I feel like Shaw probably felt like, hey, I've succeeded
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: with this. I even't talked to Matt Shaw about this directly,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: so I don't want to put words in his mouth.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: My understanding was he, you know, it was a process.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: He needed to.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Feel comfortable with this new leg kick. And it's I mean,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the video shows it. It's not an elimination of the
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: leg kick. But he was bending his knee and getting
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: it almost into his stomach and now it's just a
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: leg lift. Let's call it. You know, the knee doesn't
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: bend as much, it's not as dramatic. And it was
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: less about results and more about seeing this change because,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: like I said, they knew he'd get results at Triple
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: A They were not worried about Matt Shaw suddenly not
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: being able to hit in the miners. That was not
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: a concern for them. They didn't think suddenly he was lost. Yeah,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: confidence and all those things are important. I don't think
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: it was some dramatic loss of confidence here for the kid.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: But the timing was not right. But hitting is all
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: about timing. We can talk about all these different things.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Everyone has different mechanics, everyone has different ways to find
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: that to get to their best self. But if your
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: timing is off, and if you're late on pitches, which
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: he was a lot of times, you're going to drive
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the ball into the ground. And he just wasn't hitting
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: the ball as hard as he used to. He wasn't
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: driving the ball like he used to in the miners.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: And you know, one game doesn't tell us everything, but
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: it looks different and certainly the mechanics are different.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: So he's bought in.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: The Cubs kind of sold it as, Hey, this is
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: how you get back up to the major show us.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: You can make this change, bring it into games, and
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: this is how you get back up. And you know,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: they kept their word as he made the changes they
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: needed to see.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: We are recording on May twentieth. I think that gives
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: him about two months before the trade deadline stuff will
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: really start to heat up. Obviously there's still time after that,
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: but I think you'd, I guess you have to be
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: looking at this window of just pile up at bats
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: for Matt Shaw, see how he feels, gets comfortable at
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: this level, gets some confidence against you know, some lesser
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: competition than the Dodgers and padres A relievers. This is
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: the outcome they wanted all along to have him as
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: the everyday third baseman. I think he was hitting ninth
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: and in Japan, was he hitting like fifth on opening Day? Yeah,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: very much of a lowered expectations here of okay, go
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: go hit against the Marlins as our nine hitter versus
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: being middle of the order guy against the defending World
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Series champs at the Tokyo Dome. But you know, we
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: wrote about this a couple of weeks ago. There aren't
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: many good third basement out there, so even if you're
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: hell bent on adding a third baseman, it's gonna be
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: hard to pull off. And we saw it Monday night
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: in Miami. Like there are some several pitching staff issues
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: looming that may have gone to the top of that
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: priority list, even over third base. Yeah.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, You've said it multiple times now, but I think
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: it's worth emphasizing and also not making excuse of, but
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: pointing out that he started his career against the best
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: of the best. The NL is stacked the NL, go
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: look at the standings. They are the best teams in baseball.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: The talent is this, this is cyclical, but all the
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: talent has I shouldn't say all, but a lot of
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the tal especially since Aaron Judge is in the American League,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: but the best teams, A lot of the best talent
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: is in the NL right now, and the Cubs faced
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: almost all of that to begin their season. Now, Matt
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Shaw to succeed in the majors to be a very good, uh,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: you know, an All Star caliber player, which is kind
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: of the you know, the hope for him to become,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: he's gonna have to succeed. He's gonna have to have
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: moments where he you know, you don't always succeed against
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: those guys, but you have to be able to hold
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: your own and and and perform against the best, especially
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: come October. But to start your career off that way
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: can be hard. That's I mean, that's a daunting task.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: It took a little out of him. He's made the changes.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Now he gets his softer landing, build that, build that
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: MLB confidence up, and then go, let's see how he
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: does his second round against you know, the better teams
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: in the big leagues. I'm curious to see kind of
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the development of Shaw that because we're going to see.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: You know, does it tell us a ton what he
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: does against the weaker teams. I think it tells us
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: that he can handle the major leagues at least to
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: a certain degree. But you know, you want to be challenged,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: you want to face the best, and eventually I think
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: he'll he'll get there. He is a good hitter. And
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: if they truly believe that this timing mechanism was was
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: the main culprit, and if that's all it is, I
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: think I'm curious to see how he does. I think
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: he can. I think he can be, if not an
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: above average offensive third baseman, just average. One of the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: numbers I looked up, they were twenty ninth since he
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: since he left. It was just like the catching and
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: center field before Pete gar Armstrong. They were twenty ninth
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: after he left. I didn't even bother looking overall for
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: the season, I was just curious it was bad. It
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: was he had a sick I want to say, way
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: to runs, greade A plus something like that for the team.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: This was after Vidal Brujan's like two for three night
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: or whatever it was the other day. It was like
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: thirty five way to runs great A plus with bad defense,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: just not just not a good not a good performance
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: from third basement.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: You touched on it.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Their Patrick, some some bullpen questions, some pitching questions that
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the Cubs are going to be facing are facing. Let's
• 10:28
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• 11:35
  Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, bullpen issues will always get the hand
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: ringing from fans. Understandable. You know, that was a tough
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: loss on Monday. That's you know, and the Cubs haven't
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: had many of those that they open the season with
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: a few. That one in that Sunday in Arizona stands
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: out as arguably the worst loss of the season. I
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: can't think of a worse one off the top of
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: my head. This one was pretty bad. They came back,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: the offense looked, you know, really resilient. Miguel Amaya with
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: a great night. You got to give him a ton
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: of props. It seems like he's coming up with a
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: big hit every time he's in the lineup. And then I.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Thought the bullpen usage was interesting.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Immediately I saw Presley come out in a one run game,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, he's going to Presley in a
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: one run game. He trusts him enough to do that,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: and Presley delivered. Presley looks a lot better. He's getting
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: more strikeouts. He's not done, he's not where they need
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: him to be. But I thought it was a good
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: step forward. Pomme Erance, what a revelation. Just a great,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: great story. Just looks great, consistently getting out limiting damage.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Just looks really good. They have two trustworthy lefties. Theelbar
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: came in as well. Brent Brown, what a weird start,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: by the way, I don't want to derail this, but
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: immediately gives up two home runs, then retires like what
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: was it like nine to twelve in a row, and
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: then and then has another blow up inning.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Just such a weird start.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: No walks, a ton of strikeouts, and just a ton
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: of hard contact when he did when they did make contact,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: very odd outing. But you know, we can talk about
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: that another day. But that's just so close to being
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: just a great outing, and then it all falls apart,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: and you know, if maybe one one inning or a
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: few more outs for him, and we're talking about a
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: different game, I mean we probably are. Ultimately, what happens
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: is Polentcia comes in for the safe.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: I was.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: I was curious about it immediately. You know, fans were
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: on for my read on social media. Where is Porter Hodge? Well,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Palency blows it. It looked like how close was that
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: to a dominant one.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Two three inning? Too very close?
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Okay, he blows it, hangs a slider,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: walks the next guy RBI. I believe it was rule
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: to double or was it rule to triple? Either way,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: game winning hit to end the game there and Plenty
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: blows it. We learned Hodges to the aisle with an oblique,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: So that's a little worrisome. I'm not super concerned about Palencia.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: I don't think he's the closer for sure going forward,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: And maybe it's closer by committee, maybe someone else. But
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: but you know, there's a lot going on here and
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and one of your arguably one of your best relievers
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: hadn't been performing his best and maybe this had something
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: to do with it, Porter hodgere go into the aisle.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: That's a blow to this team.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: Might be time for an updated version of your bullpen
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: power rankings here, because Juw Palmer has like we're definitely
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: going to get into it this season of just kind
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: of his journey. It's kind of crazy, you know, how
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: far off the grid he had been and then to
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: come in and you know, pitch multiple innings, be a
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: super reliable bullpen arm and sort of like turn back
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: the clock. So when he was this really interesting pitcher,
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: whether it was you know, a first rounder, a guy
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: who Craig Council deployed very effectively in Milwaukee, or guy
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: who got a really big contract kind of before some
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: of those. I feel like that was one of the
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: first like reliever contracts that like really kind of went
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: big and like went multi year, pretty far into the future.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: That's how talented he is. But it's kind of like
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: whack them all with this bullpen. You kind of think,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: you know, one thing is resolved, and something else pops up.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: I know, I was just looking at Porter Hodge's you know,
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: Baseball reference page, and he actually has like a negative
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: war and a five RA But that's basically off of
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: two innings that I think he's like no earned in
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: like seventeen of twenty one appearances. I think of the
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: eleven or twelve runs he gave up, like nine were
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: in two separate outings combined just going off field. I
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: don't know, I'm about you, but whenever he comes in
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: the game, I don't really think, like, oh man, I'm
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: gonna have to scramble and rewrite everything the way it
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: kind of got there with Presley for a while. And
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: I don't know, I wouldn't write off Presley because the
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: Cubs can't afford to like he's you know, going to
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: keep getting opportunities as he should. Because I don't really
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: know who else they turned to. I'm assuming Gavin Howell
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: would be the guy coming up, just because he's been
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: so good, but I don't I don't don't have any
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: inside information. Yeah, but I mean Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz,
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: Gavin Howell, like not three names we were talking about
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: in Mesa as like you know, circle of trust. But
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: we'll see where this goes.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I don't even want to assume that
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: it's Hollowell because Brazier may be ready.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: I just don't know where he That's a good point.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I don't want to and and by the
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: time people are listening to this that we may have
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: the answer to that. So I'm not one hundred percent
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: sure what direction they will go, but I think colliwell.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Was my initial feel, and then I remembered Brazier. Look.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: I really like the way Craig Council uses brad Keller.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: I think he's kind of do it all reliever, and
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: those are really important to have. I think he needs
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: to be the closer until Porter Hodge is back or
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: or Ryan Presley. Looks like unless you're super confident in
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: until unless you're super confident in Presley, brad Keller has
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the best stuff. He does not get barreled up. He
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: does not walk guys. I like Daniel Plenty a lot,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: and I think he deserves a lot of credit for
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: the work he put in in the off season, both
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: physically and mentally.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: He's talked about it. He got to a better place mentally.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I really liked I watched, you know, our colleagues talk
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: to him after the game last night. I like the
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: way he responded. He was not all beating himself up.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: That's important he was saying, this is baseball. I think
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: this is I know some fans may want to see more.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: I hope fans understand why a reliever has to treat
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: it like that. I hope they understand that because you cannot,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: you cannot beat yourself up. Baseball does that to you enough,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: and then you need to go out there, especially as
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: a reliever.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: Forget it. Just go out there.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: And I don't know if that walk, if that hanging
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: slider to the double led to the walk, I don't know.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like he was all over the place. He
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: was just missing with some pitches, So I don't know
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: if that was, you know, one thing happening and it
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: led to another, but you really, you know, I don't know.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: And I don't know if Kyle Tucker could have caught
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: that ball. I saw some people talking about that.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: I had a feeling when watching it live, like, oh,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: could he have caught that?
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: I don't know if he could have it, and you know,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: we can't. It's hard to know these things for sure.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: It's these things happen.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: Though.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: The Cubs have stolen some games from other teams, good
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: teams Arizona, La Good teams lose to bad teams. I
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: think I believe the Dodgers just got swept by the Angels.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: Yes, I mean how many balls did the White Sox
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: mess up over the week. It was just like every
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: time he looked up, the White Sox are messing something up. Yeah,
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: like you kinda give and take here.
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: The Cubs didn't blow that game as much as it
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: was just you know they You know, these things happen
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: in baseball. What you don't want is like it to
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: be the start of something. What you don't want is
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: for these injuries to just derail things. Losing Porter Hodge
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: is a blow. I say that again. I don't have
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: details on how bad this oblique is. You hope with
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: pitching it's I think a little different than hitting, but
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: you hope it's like Ian Happs obliquehere. It's just like
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: you know what go on the ie L. We're not
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: gonna mess with this. You're feeling something, you're on the
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: eye L. It also is it's risky. Yeah, we saw,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: we saw Javi Asad, we saw you know, these things
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: don't always work out that way. But but you have
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: to hope that it's it's it's the shortest possible oblique
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: stint you could get because you just don't want to
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: lose guys like Porter Hodge and and this is why
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: you keeped up. This is why when people were saying,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: just get rid of Ryan Presley.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: You don't.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: This is why you know, when when Tyson Miller was
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: struggling in in in camp and people were like, you
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: have to get rid of him, and you can't. You
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: can't keep him around, Like we don't know Tyson Miller
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: had a set back, he's not ready to come back.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying, like, you just need all the depth
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: you can get. You just need it.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: And this is why counsel loves options. This is why
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: a council loves to keep depth. They don't like to
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: mess around with that stuff. You don't know who's gonna
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: get hurt, who's gonna be ineffective. You said that at
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the beginning of this segment, like Brad Keller, Cavin halliwell,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: who's the other name, Drew Pomerantz, Like we didn't what
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: this is gonna be, like a trustworthy group of relievers.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know, Like you don't know what to expect
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: with Bullpens And I just think I say it all
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: the time, it just gets proven over and over again.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying I can predict it, but the point
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: is nobody can, so don't we just shouldn't make assumptions.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: No doubt. I think we'll kind of get to this
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: in our next segment, but just this idea of like
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: things are starting to add up here. So if you're
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: watching this as a fan and trying to contextualize this season,
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: like this is where things can go a little sideways.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: Has gone sideways in recent seasons, doesn't mean it will.
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: This is an improved group. There are some different you know,
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: characters here, but like you can absorb, you know, an
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: injury here or there. But this is kind of coming
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: to a point where, you know, I think we will
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: see what the Cubs are made of.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Patrick, let's take a break and get to that.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: I just want to say, before Arena Club, if you
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: were trying to very actively buy sell trade, it was
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: very complicated and used a lot of mail that was unnecessary.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know I even know how to do it,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: But I'm glad we have Arena Club now because it's
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: a one stop shop for everything card related.
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: It is and right now you can get twenty percent
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: off your first slab pack or your first card purchase
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: by going to Arena club dot com slash foul use
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: code fo u L. If you're a collector, you've got
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: to check out Arena Club. Go get after it.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: All, right, Patrick, you said the injuries are piling up.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: They are in half on the al showed him and
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: now on the ile Justin Steele lost for the season,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Porter Hodge on the il, those are all key key players.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Only one is lost for the season. We should we
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: should make that clear. This isn't utter disaster. There are
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: teams going through this. This is part of UH. You
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: need to be a resilient group to get through a season.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Very few good teams, you know, just have zero injuries.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: That's that's a that's called luck is what that is.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: If you have that, it's not a repeatable skill. So
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: it's not something when when teams notice that we were
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: very lucky with injuries one year, that's probably not going
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: to happen this year. The teams are aware of these things. Ah,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: it sounds like Ian Happ is coming back. Maybe by
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the time people are listening to this, Ian Happ will
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: have been activated. I think that's huge for this team.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I wrote about how he's underrated. I think he's incredibly
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: valuable to this lineup if he just continues to be
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: who he is. He doesn't need to do much more
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: than what he was doing. Just get on base for
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: all these guys and take the pressure off everyone else.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: I think Pek Armstrong has been amazing at the top,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: but Pek Armstrong has been amazing full stop. Yeah, so
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I think Ian Happ kind of fits that role as
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: leadoff guy. I know people want to keep keep PCA
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: up there. I think I think it makes sense to
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: let him. Maybe maybe the lineup looks different in general,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: but I think Hap makes a lot of sense at
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the top.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: I think what people really want is for the Cubs
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: to clone Pekk Armstrong so there's just be nine of
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: them in the lineup and playing every single position. Or
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: maybe I don't know, can he can he close like
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: you know, hit him on that track. He's got a
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: pretty good arm, but yeah, just that effect of yeah,
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: he's awesome in the leadoff spot, but you know, Sayah
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: is no longer your DH, and there's kind of some
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: some trade off there. I mean, I'm interested to see
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: kind of what happens with this pitching staff. I believe
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: Counsel told reporters in Miami that they're looking at quote
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: well into June for showda in Monaga's potential return. This
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: is something you know, he doesn't have a whole lot
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: of experience with. We know the Cubs are very cautious
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: in these matters, and I think, yeah, when you have
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: Shoda and Justin Steele down, it's just gets thin. And
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: you know, Ben Brown has great talent and has shown flashes.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: But I mean, if the Cubs were anywhere close to
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: full strength, I think we'd probably be asking, like is
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: his spot in the rotation in Jeopardy? Has he already
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: lost his job? Could he be a really interesting reliever?
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: Like could he do what Drew Pomerance did or what
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: Brad Keller does? Like, I don't know, that would probably
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: be interesting. I don't really think that can be on
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: the at all, Like you need him stretched out and
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: then you know, Hodge, you know, it's crazy how this
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: guy in spring training the year prior, no one was
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: talking about at all, he pops and becomes this really
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: nice piece of your team, and then you know, this
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: year it's kind of talked about it's like, oh, it's
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: a given. Porter Hodge is just a lockdown reliever and
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: he does not have a long track record, and if
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: he's not healthy, now that's that's a huge loss for
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: you know, a manager and a coaching staff that is
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: pretty good at game planning and navigating the opposing lineup,
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: but you still need those pieces that can go out
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: and get you the outs.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when it comes to show to so I just
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: quickly looked at it. So he's been out for three weeks,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: but what we're generally told is that I shouldn't say
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: he's been out for three weeks.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Sorry.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: What I meant to say is they expect him to
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: start throwing off a mound at the end of this week,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: So that would be about three weeks after he went
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: on the il. That what we're generally told is the
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: amount of time between like you're out and mound time
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: and then getting ramp back up. It's like, that's the
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: that's the time it takes to get ramp back up.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: So it'll be about three weeks, three ish weeks. And
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: if they're being assuming no setbacks, assuming no setbacks, and
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: if they're being cautious, let's say three and a half
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: so that if everything goes right, I'm guessing the earliest.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: When he says well into June, I think he's he
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: basically means not the first week in June.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: That's all like, you know.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: He's being nebulous for a reason. He's giving himself time
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: and he's saying it could be the middle of June,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: it could be late June, and that's that's the you
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: know what we're what we're hoping for as far as
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the Cubs are concerned. So I would guess the earliest
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: is like June thirteenth, that's about three weeks from this Friday.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: And that's my guess as the earliest. That's everything goes
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: right and they and they feel like we're not pushing anything,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: I don't think. I think it'll be later than that,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: And I think that's that's okay. You don't want to
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: go crazy with this. We just talked about it, Patrick,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: But they're in the midst of a weaker schedule. You
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: have to try and get healthy. Here use this time
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: stat if you look. Fans are gonna be upset that
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: if they don't win every single one of these games,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: and that I get it.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: You want to beat up on this team.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: These teams get twenty thirty games over five hundred and
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: run away with the division.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, that would be.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Ideal, but but what you need in the year little
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: banged up, get through this, go fourteen and seven. Like
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: you said, of those twenty one games, you do that,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: I think you're okay. I think you're fine. You want better,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: you want to run away, you want to be a
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: great team. They are banged up at the moment, not
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: not decimated, but banged up. Get through it, get healthy.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: All these guys hope they come back and they're performing
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: at their best. But this is a kind of a
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: grind it out point of the season, and they're lucky
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: that it's a weak point as far as the schedule goes.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think sometimes we look at this like,
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: you know, it should be like a nineteen fifties high
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: school football coach and like, you know, maximum effort, all out,
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: every single you know pitch, and it's like, obviously they're
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: trying their best their professionals, but there are certain points
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: of the season where you, like you say, you have
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: to grind it out, you have to ride it out,
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: you have to kind of let things happen. You have
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: to give certain guys rest, You have to let certain
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: guys develop and figure it out, such as Matt Shaw.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: Sometimes the payoff is Pete Crow Armstrong And you know,
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: I think at this point we touched the on it earlier.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: There is a lot of information for the trade deadline,
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: like they need arms big time, and maybe maybe match
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: off flops and a deal for a third baseman sort
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: of falls into their laps. I kind of doubt shall
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: will be as bad as he was at the start
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: of the season, And like we've written about, there aren't
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: that many great options out there, So you hope Shoda
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: can be you know, your game one starter. I mean,
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: fingers crossed that Matthew Boyd stays healthy. You know, he
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: obviously had a shortened season last year coming off with
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: Tommy John the year prior. He says he feels great.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: He says, when the ball's in my hand, like I'm
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: in control, like I know what to do. Feel great.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: Hopefully that continues. It's hard to see like them being
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: able to absorb another like established starter going down. That's
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: where things could get really sort of dicey. But you know,
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: that's the job. That's what Craig Council is good at
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: That's what this organization has built up over the years,
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: this infrastructure, the depth, figure it out.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, trade deadline, We're we're gonna be focused on that
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: trade deadline.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: I think that's that's right now.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Gonna it's going to start to It's not gonna start
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: to heat up, but the talk amongst media and fans
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: is going to like when these when these injuries happen,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: it's like who are the targets? And because of the
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: wild cards expanded wild cards just not as many sellers.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: But but you know, there are bad teams out there.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Obviously they're playing one right now.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Colorado. We'll see what Washington does. We'll see who I
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: was just looking.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Colorado has a decent reliever who's striking out like thirty
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: percent of the guys that he faces. Walk some guys,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: but you know who I don't know. We'll see who
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: these guys are, who these relievers that they target are.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: My guess is they get multiple relievers. Yeah, and they
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: try for one starter.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: You know, I just don't think.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: You you you use those assets for position players right now.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: But we'll see what what it looks like.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: In what we're near the end of May, so let's
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: say a month and a half is when things will
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: really get going. Remember the draft screws things up as
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: well as far as talks, and that's around the All
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Star break.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: I believe this year.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, we'll be back with two more episodes
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: later this week. Thanks so much for listening to everyone.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: This is north Shore, north Shore, north Side Territory. Make
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: and subscribe to the Athletic for Patrick and I are
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: on top of all things, cubs. Thanks so much for
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: listening to everyone.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: Take the word anything
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: I will medd