Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / The X-factors that explain the Cubs right now

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The X-factors that explain the Cubs right now · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm sad
0:09
Speaker 1: Ive Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. The Cubs
0:16
Speaker 1: have lost three of four. They're playing really good teams
0:20
Speaker 1: right now. That they just lost on Monday night to
0:24
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Phillies, who were scuffling. They came into that
0:28
Speaker 1: game losers of five in a row, I believe, and
0:31
Speaker 1: nine of ten, a really good team that is struggling
0:36
Speaker 1: my lead defeated the Cubs by a run in extra innings.
0:41
Speaker 1: The Cubs right now, it's really I mean, if you
0:44
Speaker 1: want to point to a culprit, it's the offense. The
0:46
Speaker 1: offense isn't delivering regularly. It was bound to happen where
0:51
Speaker 1: they just couldn't put up six runs per game every
0:55
Speaker 1: single time out. It wasn't it wasn't realistic to keep
0:58
Speaker 1: up that pace. Even their win on Saturday, I don't
1:02
Speaker 1: think they had a runner in scoring position. They hit
1:05
Speaker 1: a bunch of home runs, but not a single runner
1:08
Speaker 1: in scoring position. Friday, Sunday and Monday, I believe it
1:13
Speaker 1: was one for eight each night with runners in scoring
1:16
Speaker 1: position and and Sunday and Monday. Just not a lot
1:19
Speaker 1: of hits, four and five hits. They're they're just not
1:22
Speaker 1: doing a lot on offense right now. But they're facing
1:24
Speaker 1: pictures like Jack Flaherty, Derek Scouogble, Zach Wheeler. These are
1:29
Speaker 1: not These are not like okay pitchers, especially Schooble and Wheeler.
1:33
Speaker 1: We're talking about you're in year out now, cy young candidates.
1:38
Speaker 2: Well you're in Philly. I'm curious what kind of the
1:41
Speaker 2: mood was walking in after losing a series to the
1:44
Speaker 2: American League's best team and then to have an extra
1:49
Speaker 2: inning loss that really was kind of a coin flip.
1:53
Speaker 2: It's not like they played bad or anything like that.
1:56
Speaker 2: It was certainly a winnable game. What is the we
2:00
Speaker 2: knew they weren't gonna liken't necessarily win one hundred plus
2:05
Speaker 2: games or just keep playing at this ferocious pace, Like,
2:09
Speaker 2: are we starting to see them maybe come back towards
2:13
Speaker 2: their normal level or this kind of the inevitle thing
2:15
Speaker 2: that happens to every team every season.
2:18
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's the latter. At you know,
2:21
Speaker 1: maybe we're seeing the start of something bad and what
2:26
Speaker 1: you we have no clue We don't know that, right
2:29
Speaker 1: You and I just don't know that it happened last
2:32
Speaker 1: year where it just they went in the tailspin. They
2:35
Speaker 1: seemed like a good team. I think there's enough evidence
2:38
Speaker 1: right now and enough talent for us to feel pretty
2:40
Speaker 1: good that, hey, this team's not going to completely collapse.
2:44
Speaker 1: Certainly not. I'd be surprised, barring injury, that this offense
2:49
Speaker 1: would completely collapse. I know you got to hit good
2:54
Speaker 1: pitching to win in the playoffs, but I just I
2:56
Speaker 1: wouldn't panic too much just yet. And there's obviously no
3:02
Speaker 1: no panic in that clubhouse. I nobody seemed that uh,
3:07
Speaker 1: you know, overwrought by what happened. Uh, you know they
3:11
Speaker 1: these these are tough losses, they're competitive games. They're playing
3:16
Speaker 1: good teams. Uh. Look, the Phillies aren't playing well right now.
3:20
Speaker 1: I don't think their offense is really struggling. But when
3:22
Speaker 1: you have Zach Wheeler on the mound, you have a
3:24
Speaker 1: chance to win. And they they bunted the Cubs to
3:27
Speaker 1: death and the eleventh inning, Uh, there there wasn't there,
3:31
Speaker 1: There's nothing. There was no glaring issue that stood out
3:36
Speaker 1: to me, and and and the team kind of knows.
3:38
Speaker 1: Greig council knows that this is It's a long season.
3:41
Speaker 1: There are ups and downs. You have to I think
3:45
Speaker 1: the biggest thing is they took care of business in May, yes,
3:49
Speaker 1: which kind of allows for something like this. You don't
3:51
Speaker 1: want it. You want to just keep winning series and
3:53
Speaker 1: you want them to build their their division, lead to
3:57
Speaker 1: double digits and and cruise into the play That's what
4:00
Speaker 1: everyone prefers. But the reality of one hundred and sixty
4:03
Speaker 1: two game season is there are moments like this. The
4:06
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen Cubs went five and fifteen. I believe before
4:09
Speaker 1: the the All Star breaks something like that. There's just
4:13
Speaker 1: there are moments like this in every season, good or bad.
4:17
Speaker 1: You want you want to minimize the damage. And I
4:22
Speaker 1: think that's how they're kind of looking at it. Not
4:24
Speaker 1: that they're expecting bad things, but if bad moments come,
4:28
Speaker 1: they have the right people in the clubhouse to kind
4:31
Speaker 1: of overcome these things and not let it kind of linger.
4:35
Speaker 1: And they beyond that, which they probably had the right
4:38
Speaker 1: people in the clubhouse last year, they also have the
4:40
Speaker 1: talent on the field to kind of avoid these long stretches.
4:45
Speaker 2: I feel like you were saying this last year, and
4:47
Speaker 2: it was a point while taken of, all you really
4:53
Speaker 2: need is just one super hot stretch and then if
4:56
Speaker 2: you're just sort of an average team for the other
4:58
Speaker 2: five months, that can carry you into the playoffs. That's
5:01
Speaker 2: not like the goal. You want to be as consistent
5:03
Speaker 2: as possible in all phases of the game. You want
5:06
Speaker 2: to put yourself in the best possible position for October.
5:11
Speaker 2: You want to be healthy, you want to have everything
5:15
Speaker 2: you know firing on all at the most important times
5:18
Speaker 2: of the year. But yeah, there's just very few teams
5:24
Speaker 2: that can just boat race through a season, and they
5:28
Speaker 2: have given themselves a margin for error. I think they're
5:32
Speaker 2: going to be pushed though by this division. Like to
5:36
Speaker 2: have four teams over five hundred at this point, you know,
5:41
Speaker 2: it just seems kind of either overperforming or figuring out
5:46
Speaker 2: a different type of way to win. And thinking of
5:48
Speaker 2: the Brewers in that scenarios, never kind of count them out,
5:52
Speaker 2: the Reds going on a nice little winning streak here
5:56
Speaker 2: to get above five hundred, and the Cardinals not really
6:00
Speaker 2: going away even though they seem to try really hard
6:03
Speaker 2: to just disappear this past offseason. So it will be
6:07
Speaker 2: interesting to see kind of how council handles this next
6:13
Speaker 2: stage of the season to see which young players kind
6:20
Speaker 2: of figure it out or keep learning and you know
6:24
Speaker 2: who gets hot. I think that's been you know, a
6:27
Speaker 2: big point of emphasis with this offense, where it didn't
6:31
Speaker 2: have to be just one guy. Guys could go on
6:34
Speaker 2: really you know, some really cold streaks, multiple guys can
6:38
Speaker 2: and they were still able to keep winning series. And
6:42
Speaker 2: we'll just have to see how they were spinning out
6:44
Speaker 2: not hitting the panic button quite yet. But if they
6:47
Speaker 2: get swept in Philly, we can start right those stories,
6:51
Speaker 2: having those sorts of episodes.
6:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, baseball, baseball's all the time. There are
6:58
Speaker 1: things that happen. They get some balls really hard the
7:02
Speaker 1: past few days that things happened, and and you know,
7:06
Speaker 1: right at people they they it's not like they're having
7:09
Speaker 1: these awful at bats. You can look back at the
7:11
Speaker 1: Dansby Swanson at bat and the eleventh inning and complain about that.
7:14
Speaker 1: I look, I get fans. They are going to be
7:16
Speaker 1: frustrated by that. There's a man on third less than
7:19
Speaker 1: two outs and you want to score that insurance run
7:22
Speaker 1: and maybe we're talking about a win instead of instead
7:26
Speaker 1: of they're the Phillies aren't bunting in that situation as
7:30
Speaker 1: much they're they're probably treating that inning very differently, and
7:33
Speaker 1: the Cubs are probably treating it very differently if they
7:35
Speaker 1: have a two run lead instead of a one run lead.
7:38
Speaker 1: So we just don't know what happens, and it's absolutely
7:42
Speaker 1: fair to be frustrated by that if you're a fan.
7:44
Speaker 1: I just I don't think there's any reason to be
7:47
Speaker 1: that worried about the offense especially. I mean, I think
7:52
Speaker 1: the Scoobal outing is actually one of those where it's
7:55
Speaker 1: like they made the right you know, they weren't embarrassed
7:58
Speaker 1: by Scoobl. They they swung at the right pitches, they
8:01
Speaker 1: drove the right pitches. One little base running mistake came
8:05
Speaker 1: back and bit them. Council kind of talked about it.
8:07
Speaker 1: He's like, he's like, when you're aggressive on the basis there,
8:10
Speaker 1: it won't always work. Sometimes there are going to be
8:13
Speaker 1: mistakes made, There are going to be times where the
8:15
Speaker 1: guy's out. That's it. You're taking a risk. That's just
8:19
Speaker 1: like aggression leads to risks and that, and and sometimes
8:23
Speaker 1: they don't. They don't pay off. So you can't always
8:27
Speaker 1: assume that these things lead to victory. You can hope that,
8:31
Speaker 1: you know, more times than not it has for this
8:33
Speaker 1: team early on. So so we'll see if you're right. Well,
8:37
Speaker 1: we'll see if this leads to kind of a stretch
8:41
Speaker 1: here where things aren't going well. And I think it's
8:46
Speaker 1: important to kind of stay levelheaded even in those moments
8:49
Speaker 1: fans will panic. I understand it's inevitable to feel like
8:53
Speaker 1: the sky's falling when things aren't going well. Ultimately, you
8:58
Speaker 1: just want to kind of stabilize and weather the hard moments.
9:04
Speaker 1: And actually, let's take a quick break and talk about
9:06
Speaker 1: how they have actually weathered some pretty difficult moments here
9:11
Speaker 1: in the first two months.
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10:13
Speaker 1: Patrick. The Cubs have been getting some pretty great start
10:17
Speaker 1: pitch starting pitching, despite the fact that Justin steels out
10:19
Speaker 1: for the season, showed him anaga. Uh pitched last night
10:24
Speaker 1: in Arizona. I believe it was two innings for strikeouts,
10:28
Speaker 1: is what I saw. Uh. That that's you know, well,
10:31
Speaker 1: we'll get a report from Craig Counsel on how he feels.
10:34
Speaker 1: I think that's all that matters. Those numbers are kind
10:37
Speaker 1: of irrelevant. That that he that he pitched the two
10:40
Speaker 1: innings is the important part. Uh, He's probably not that
10:45
Speaker 1: far off barring any setbacks. That that's great news. They
10:50
Speaker 1: need showed him ANAGA back. We know we've talked about this.
10:53
Speaker 1: They need to add at the deadline. Uh. But I
10:57
Speaker 1: mean Matthew Boyd has been everything that could have hoped
11:00
Speaker 1: for and more. Uh. He didn't I I don't think
11:04
Speaker 1: he didn't strike out a guy yesterday. But he pitched
11:07
Speaker 1: six innings. He gave He basically relied on his defense
11:12
Speaker 1: a lot. They were very aggressive the Phillies. There were
11:15
Speaker 1: a lot of like two three pitch at bats. I
11:18
Speaker 1: think the only long at bats were the two walks
11:20
Speaker 1: he issued to Kyle Schwarber, who worked who worked long
11:24
Speaker 1: at bats like Kyle Schwarber does. Uh. And he's right now,
11:28
Speaker 1: what happened to that guy? Yeah, right now, he's the
11:32
Speaker 1: only guy you don't you don't want to kind of
11:34
Speaker 1: mess with in that lineup with Fryce Harper down. Nobody's
11:38
Speaker 1: that hot in that lineup. So it makes sense, don't
11:40
Speaker 1: don't give him, don't let him do the damage. And
11:43
Speaker 1: and he kind of tried to force other guys to
11:46
Speaker 1: and and they didn't do that much against him. Uh.
11:50
Speaker 1: Two runs, one unearned because of an Aaron pickoff throw
11:54
Speaker 1: by Boyd, but I mean sub three e r A.
11:59
Speaker 1: He looks like an All star. This guy has been
12:02
Speaker 1: just a huge addition to a team that desperately needs
12:06
Speaker 1: starting pitching right now with two key guys, they're two
12:08
Speaker 1: best starters out and it feels like they this should
12:13
Speaker 1: have been a moment that sunk them and it didn't happen.
12:17
Speaker 2: Exactly. And you me, our colleague John Greenberg at The
12:21
Speaker 2: Athletic have all kind of written about this in the
12:23
Speaker 2: last couple of days of just the professionalism, the reliability,
12:30
Speaker 2: particularly with Matthew Boyd. You can include Jamis and Tyne
12:34
Speaker 2: in that one. Just fantastic resources to younger teammates, very
12:43
Speaker 2: willing to learn and engage, and they really want to
12:48
Speaker 2: get better. I loved Boyd's quote in your story of like,
12:53
Speaker 2: yeah we need showdun steal, like be nice to have them,
12:56
Speaker 2: but that has nothing to do with my job. I
12:58
Speaker 2: thought that was a great, great way and he's so friendly,
13:02
Speaker 2: Like it probably reads a little different than the way he.
13:04
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he was so kind.
13:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, but the way it reason it is like I
13:09
Speaker 2: don't care about that job to do, which he's right.
13:12
Speaker 2: It was just like a different sort of vantage point
13:16
Speaker 2: on it, and I think we both agreed the only
13:19
Speaker 2: question with him was health. Like his stuff was really good.
13:23
Speaker 2: It's I've been really impressed with how he has held up.
13:26
Speaker 2: I still think it's something that can't be ignored when
13:29
Speaker 2: they make plans at the trade deadline, but certainly one
13:34
Speaker 2: of the most valuable players on this team. And I
13:38
Speaker 2: was kind of shocked. There's a comment to my story
13:41
Speaker 2: the other day. I put that Ben Brown has a
13:44
Speaker 2: negative war, which Baseball Reference has him on that and
13:47
Speaker 2: someone pointed out that somehow Ben Brown and Matthew Boyd
13:52
Speaker 2: both have a one point four war on fangrafts. That
13:54
Speaker 2: does not make any sense to me. How like the
14:00
Speaker 2: teams most consistent starting pitcher could be as valuable as
14:03
Speaker 2: a as a guy who has been very good in stretches,
14:05
Speaker 2: but who the manager also said we need better frankly,
14:08
Speaker 2: so that might Yeah, my brain can't kind of wrap
14:11
Speaker 2: around that. Maybe I shouldn't even bother not picking on
14:15
Speaker 2: Ben Brown as much as just like there are certain
14:18
Speaker 2: things pictures do that I think don't show up maybe
14:21
Speaker 2: in war and just for him giving them length over
14:25
Speaker 2: and over and over again and keeping his team in
14:28
Speaker 2: the game over and over again, particularly under these circumstances,
14:33
Speaker 2: extremely impressive.
14:35
Speaker 1: Just quickly that like a war in fangraphs can be
14:41
Speaker 1: weird for pictures because it's it's it's judged off walks
14:45
Speaker 1: and strikeouts really heavily, and he's awesome at that. So
14:49
Speaker 1: that's why if you look at his runs allowed per nine,
14:52
Speaker 1: War's not he's not good. He's a negative. He's negative
14:57
Speaker 1: in fangraphs as well. So it's it's just very different
15:01
Speaker 1: and and it doesn't really show how good the team
15:07
Speaker 1: can be or the player is results wise. So so
15:13
Speaker 1: I don't know, Uh, I don't think that's the best
15:16
Speaker 1: way to judge Ben Brown, is what I'd say. I
15:19
Speaker 1: I I tend to look at war fangrafts wise for
15:22
Speaker 1: position players pitchers, but but I mean Ben Brown has
15:26
Speaker 1: great peripherals and and and I think part of what, uh,
15:30
Speaker 1: part of what you're getting at is, Look, they have
15:33
Speaker 1: guys like Matthew Boyd and Jameson Tyne who kind of
15:36
Speaker 1: lead by example and and they are they are great
15:41
Speaker 1: resources for people like Ben Brown and Kate Horton. Uh,
15:45
Speaker 1: they they they lean on these guys. And I was
15:49
Speaker 1: talking to Tyane about it in times like look Ben
15:51
Speaker 1: Brown's a really sharp guy. I learned things from him.
15:54
Speaker 1: He's he he knows things about pitching that that are
15:57
Speaker 1: useful for for me. I think that's I think that's fascinating.
16:01
Speaker 1: They they they're constantly communicating, They're they're talking, They're they're
16:05
Speaker 1: passing on knowledge, which is kind of the point of
16:08
Speaker 1: John's piece. Uh. And and this is I think it's
16:12
Speaker 1: the strength of this team. And and Matthew Boyd kind
16:15
Speaker 1: of stepping up is is uh just that's that's something
16:19
Speaker 1: that I think Jed Hoyer in his front office can
16:21
Speaker 1: be proud of and you know, be puffy chested about
16:24
Speaker 1: if they if they choose to be.
16:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got to give Ben Brown this runway to
16:30
Speaker 2: see what you got, Like that makes sense. But if
16:32
Speaker 2: you do that, you need guys that can post every
16:36
Speaker 2: five or six days and give you length and give
16:38
Speaker 2: you quality, uh and give you something in the clubhouse.
16:42
Speaker 2: And you're right. What they've done in building out this
16:45
Speaker 2: rotation has been impressive. Jameson ty On kind of an
16:54
Speaker 2: under underrated guy, just like a solid, dependable guy you
16:57
Speaker 2: want on your team. Uh. It was one of those
17:01
Speaker 2: kind of upper middle class free agents, not a crazy
17:04
Speaker 2: contract and if he got heard, if he was bad,
17:07
Speaker 2: it wouldn't you know, crush your budget, it wouldn't help.
17:10
Speaker 2: But he's delivered outside of that, you know, first half
17:15
Speaker 2: of his first year, he's been very consistent, showed him
17:19
Speaker 2: a NAGA was undervalued and overlooked by most of the
17:24
Speaker 2: baseball industry. Even the Cubs weren't like jumping out there,
17:28
Speaker 2: you know, maybe to the extent they should have. Obviously
17:30
Speaker 2: they get credit for closing the deal, but even they
17:32
Speaker 2: were sort of like, here's why we think you could work.
17:35
Speaker 2: Here's why we're going to be kind of patient and
17:37
Speaker 2: kind of let it fall to us. And then Matthew
17:41
Speaker 2: Boyd here the Cubs shrewdly anticipated where the cost of
17:45
Speaker 2: pitching was going and wrapped up that two year, twenty
17:48
Speaker 2: nine million dollar deal toward the end of Thanksgiving weekend
17:54
Speaker 2: last year, before the Winter meetings even opened. And you know,
17:59
Speaker 2: I think it was a little surprising considering, you know,
18:03
Speaker 2: how long he had been out and how short at
18:09
Speaker 2: sample it was with Cleveland. I mean, he was great,
18:11
Speaker 2: and it was the playoffs, but there still were these,
18:14
Speaker 2: you know, bigger gaps, and they had the conviction to
18:16
Speaker 2: go out there, and they have the kind of infrastructure
18:22
Speaker 2: and game planning systems the defense, the offense to really
18:28
Speaker 2: help these guys maximize their pretension. I think we'll we'll
18:32
Speaker 2: be actual to see who they go get at the
18:33
Speaker 2: trade deadline, you know, particularly if there aren't as many
18:38
Speaker 2: sellers and if there aren't as many great options available,
18:41
Speaker 2: maybe they will have to get creative and maybe coach
18:46
Speaker 2: a guy up, or get a change of scenery type,
18:48
Speaker 2: you know, whatever it is. I think they'll be well positioned.
18:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, you touched on the defense there. Let's let's get
18:55
Speaker 1: to that. Take a quick break and talk about how
18:58
Speaker 1: good the defense has been.
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20:01
Speaker 1: Patrick matt Shaw was supposed to be a work in progress. Defensively.
20:08
Speaker 1: We were told, this guy can hit, but we don't
20:11
Speaker 1: know if he can play, if he has the arm
20:12
Speaker 1: for third if he has the ability to handle it.
20:16
Speaker 1: Just yet, the work he put in last year and
20:21
Speaker 1: through the off season and into this season, it clearly
20:25
Speaker 1: has paid off because he looks impressive at third base.
20:29
Speaker 1: He saved that game for them multiple times on Monday night.
20:33
Speaker 1: And it's not just Monday night. There there have been
20:36
Speaker 1: games that I've watched him and really surprised at his
20:41
Speaker 1: ability to make certain plays. There was there was the
20:43
Speaker 1: double play. There was the you know, third to first
20:45
Speaker 1: double play that he pulled off, and then I believe
20:50
Speaker 1: that was the third I mean the the tenth inning
20:53
Speaker 1: when that happened, and and then he and then he
20:56
Speaker 1: pulled off the play to end that inning. That was
20:58
Speaker 1: just a tricky high that he handled so well. There
21:02
Speaker 1: were multiple other plays that he made on the evening
21:06
Speaker 1: that I you know, just simple plays, but just nice
21:09
Speaker 1: clean defense that when you see them, you're like, hey,
21:15
Speaker 1: that's a play that you know, someone with that little
21:18
Speaker 1: experience at third base may have had trouble you'd think
21:20
Speaker 1: would have trouble with. He just isn't having the type
21:23
Speaker 1: of trouble I expected him to have. And the arm issues,
21:26
Speaker 1: I'm not seeing any arm issues. He I asked him
21:29
Speaker 1: about it maybe ten days ago or so and kind
21:32
Speaker 1: of asked, you think that was overblown. He's like, yeah,
21:35
Speaker 1: you know, it was overblown. He's like, I'm not going
21:37
Speaker 1: to fight with with people saying that stuff though, you know,
21:39
Speaker 1: I just got to go out there and play and
21:41
Speaker 1: show them that they're wrong.
21:42
Speaker 2: And I mean the instincts, the athleticism have really kind
21:46
Speaker 2: of jumped off the screen here. I think it's a
21:51
Speaker 2: testament to his work ethic, all the stuff the Cubs
21:55
Speaker 2: officials said sort of behind the scenes, and I know
22:00
Speaker 2: we've already said this, but now it feels like cemented.
22:04
Speaker 2: As long as he's healthy, they don't need a third
22:07
Speaker 2: basement at the trade deadline. They may not need a
22:10
Speaker 2: third baseman for the next what like five to six
22:14
Speaker 2: years potentially, Like what he has done has earned their trust.
22:23
Speaker 2: What we heard about Counsel was he's willing to live
22:26
Speaker 2: with the offensive struggles, particularly with young players, if they
22:30
Speaker 2: can bring it every day on defense, and he certainly has,
22:36
Speaker 2: and you wrote about this the other day, like you're
22:38
Speaker 2: also seeing the offense really tick up to a point
22:42
Speaker 2: where as some more established veteran players sort of struggle,
22:47
Speaker 2: he's helped step in and kind of lift the team
22:53
Speaker 2: to get through these inevitable down moments that are just
22:56
Speaker 2: going to keep happening. So I was surprised with how
23:02
Speaker 2: early they gave him the hook in mid April. I
23:06
Speaker 2: did not see that coming. They they knew what they
23:10
Speaker 2: were doing. The swing, the stance noticeably different. And I'm
23:19
Speaker 2: sure you're supposed to separate the two parts of the game, right,
23:24
Speaker 2: but all that's got to help to right when you're
23:27
Speaker 2: hitting and you go back out on the field and
23:29
Speaker 2: just kind of let your natural abilities play. I think
23:33
Speaker 2: that's what we're seeing here with Matt Shaw.
23:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've said it, but I mean they deserve credit
23:39
Speaker 1: for this. They deserve credit for being aggressive with the
23:43
Speaker 1: demotion and being aggressive with what they wanted to see
23:48
Speaker 1: him work on him, buying in and trusting the process
23:53
Speaker 1: and and you know, trusting his abilities but also trusting
23:57
Speaker 1: that they had his best interests at heart. And and
24:01
Speaker 1: it's it's really paid off. You're right, I don't see
24:04
Speaker 1: any like First of all, there's no third basement to
24:06
Speaker 1: go get. I don't you know, imaginary third basement that
24:10
Speaker 1: can solve issues for other teams that's available, But I
24:16
Speaker 1: mean the Cubs have a good third basement now, yeah,
24:18
Speaker 1: I have. You know, we'll see what the future holds
24:22
Speaker 1: for him. I'm not you know, I'm not cementing him
24:24
Speaker 1: as a future All Star is yet, but he looks
24:27
Speaker 1: good and you know, whatever it's been what it's been
24:30
Speaker 1: less than a month, but since his return, he looks
24:34
Speaker 1: really capable. Eventually he's going to start driving the ball
24:38
Speaker 1: with authority too. I mean right now he's he's hitting
24:42
Speaker 1: a lot to right field, and I mean I like it.
24:45
Speaker 1: I like what I'm seeing because he can drive the
24:47
Speaker 1: ball in that direction and hit it hard. But eventually
24:50
Speaker 1: we'll see him start pulling the ball more and pulling
24:52
Speaker 1: some home runs out. And I just I think it's
24:56
Speaker 1: a it's an impressive I mean, you give throughout the organization,
25:00
Speaker 1: it's a good draft pick. Yeah, it's good. It's good
25:04
Speaker 1: player development, and it's good just like you know, understanding
25:07
Speaker 1: the player their capabilities when the time's right to bring
25:10
Speaker 1: them up a lot of I mean, this is what
25:12
Speaker 1: you want to see from from an organization that's made
25:15
Speaker 1: a lot of promises about the changes they've made, and
25:18
Speaker 1: we're now we're seeing results on the things that they
25:22
Speaker 1: talked about. Beyond just like, hey, this is what we're doing.
25:26
Speaker 1: Now they're showing it to us. That's that's all you want.
25:29
Speaker 1: That's what fans clamor for clamor they don't care about
25:32
Speaker 1: hearing about the changes and all the work that you know,
25:36
Speaker 1: probably started after the twenty nineteen season, that they've been
25:40
Speaker 1: waiting for these results. It took a little longer than
25:43
Speaker 1: they wanted, but it seems like it's here, no doubt.
25:48
Speaker 2: I was just thinking the same thing. There are lots
25:50
Speaker 2: of hands in any player's development, and Shaw and some
25:57
Speaker 2: of these other homegrown players, they have bridge different sort
25:59
Speaker 2: of regimes or groups whatever however you want to kind
26:05
Speaker 2: of identify each period here. But he's certainly in line
26:09
Speaker 2: with you know, Nico Horner and Ian Happ of these
26:12
Speaker 2: college hitters coming out of the first round who you know,
26:17
Speaker 2: got up to the majors really quick and have that nice,
26:22
Speaker 2: you know, two way values, some nice balance to their game,
26:28
Speaker 2: like we'll match'll be an all star like who knows,
26:31
Speaker 2: but certainly like he's already a plus player, plus contributor
26:39
Speaker 2: for a first place team. And you know, in talking
26:43
Speaker 2: to him, he's, as you know, Sahadev, very mature, low key,
26:48
Speaker 2: kind of blends in. You know, I think that his
26:54
Speaker 2: first introduction to the show, the game itself like definitely
26:57
Speaker 2: sped up on him. And you know, I think Jed
26:59
Speaker 2: Hoyd described as kind of being in defensive mode there
27:03
Speaker 2: at the plate, But otherwise is that type of person
27:10
Speaker 2: I think you can can build around here and just
27:13
Speaker 2: kind of just a nice piece to have, you know,
27:17
Speaker 2: so long as all the other pieces kind of work
27:20
Speaker 2: around him.
27:22
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Patrick will see how they do the rest of
27:25
Speaker 1: this series. You know, still some good pitching that they're
27:28
Speaker 1: facing mick a Bell as a young kid that's really talented,
27:32
Speaker 1: highly thought of prospect. You'd like to see this offense
27:35
Speaker 1: get going against him though. I think, you know, it
27:38
Speaker 1: kind of kind of work a young player and see
27:41
Speaker 1: what they could do against him. Lozardo on Wednesday. You know,
27:45
Speaker 1: I know Lozardo has had a great season, but his
27:48
Speaker 1: last two starts have been rough. That you hope that
27:50
Speaker 1: the Cubs can continue that trend. That's what the Cubs
27:53
Speaker 1: are hoping, that's what the fans are hoping. We'll see
27:55
Speaker 1: where they are after three in Philly. We'll be back
27:58
Speaker 1: at it on Thursday, and then they have four against
28:01
Speaker 1: the Pirates, and look, the Pirates are an easy team
28:04
Speaker 1: in theory, but one of those games is Paul Schemes.
28:07
Speaker 1: So you just don't know, you don't know what you're
28:09
Speaker 1: gonna see, You don't know how this weekend's gonna go
28:11
Speaker 1: but we'll deal with that when when it comes. Right now,
28:14
Speaker 1: it's two more with the Phillies. We'll be back at
28:17
Speaker 1: it later this week. Thanks so much for listening to everyone.
28:19
Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review and subscribe.
28:22
Speaker 1: Subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic
28:25
Speaker 1: where Patrick and I are on top of all things cubs.
28:28
Speaker 1: Thanks everyone, Take
29:00
Speaker 4: Yeah