Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / The vibes around the Cubs after a wild comeback and a much-needed sweep

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The vibes around the Cubs after a wild comeback and a much-needed sweep · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's put them in this bund where it feels where
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: we're talking about they have to sweep. Counsel can say
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: you win every series, you feel good about things. Sure,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Welcome into north Side Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I'm Sahad Sharma with Patrick Mooney. We are your Cubs
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: beat writers at the Athletic Patrick, we finally saw a sweep.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I was in Pittsburgh. I started that series off by
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: asking council whether they need to start sweeping teams, and
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: he's like, sid of, we just need to take it
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: one game at a time. He's like, I'm just focusing
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: on today. All right, I got you, I got youa
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: but they.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: As that game.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, that was one of the wildest games because
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I think most people were checked out by inning five.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: The first couple innings.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: We're pretty pretty exciting in the sense that you score
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: three runs off Paul skeins and two innings you're like,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: you're feeling good about your right, the Cubs must have
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: been feeling good.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Kyle Hendricks didn't have it.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: The Pirates got to him again, and and that looked,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: that looked ugly at one point, and that that comeback
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: one of the more exciting ones I've covered, one of
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: the more unexpected turn of events that I've seen in
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: you know, over a decade of covering Cubs baseball.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Fans should be excited the Cubs certainly, where in Christian
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Bethancourt gets gets a lot of love from from everyone,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: and deservedly so. He's he's been insanely good in like
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: thirty or so played appearances. I think less than that
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: maybe for the Cubs.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was a class I was thinking of, you,
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: you know, a classic beat writer.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: It's like getaway day. You've got a flight out after
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: the game.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Schemes, they've already won two games, but you have to
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: kind of watch for the sweep because that's obviously what
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: they needed to do there. And then to have like
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: a football score put up, you know, Skeens get you know,
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: getting some runs off schemes. Kyle Hendricks either not pitching
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: well and that didn't get great defense behind him. Either
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: you think they'd kind of pack it in or just
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: you know, this offense has been such a disappointment overall
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: this year. And then to see them with the big hits,
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: the two out hits, the sustained rally.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: It really was kind of John dropping.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: I'm curiously walking into the clubhouse after that game.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: What was what was the mood like, what was the vibe? Like?
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it was all you know, smiles and giggles.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Every everybody was was quite happy and unsurprised. Unsurprisingly, Counsel.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Someone joked I saw on Twitter there there was a
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: video of Council and they're like, he's smiling. Yes, so Counsel, Yes,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: he was happy. I mean, you don't you don't seen
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: many games like that. They were down ten to three
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: going into the seventh inning and a guy that they
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: picked up off Waivers was the hero. Had seven rbi,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: six of them coming, you know, two each in inning seven,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: eight and nine, including the go ahead two RBI single.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's a fun game.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: And unlike the guys like I'm not sure if anyone's
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: heard him speak or or read any of his quotes,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: but he's he's a fun quote.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: He's a good.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Dude, like seemingly a good dude, A great quote there
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: about like somebody was chirping at him and telling him
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: he stinks. He's like and in his head, he's like
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: you can't stink now, and like I have to prove
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: him wrong that I don't think.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: This burg is one of those places when it's empty
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: you can kind of hear people yell oh yeah Field,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: and especially that day looking in the stands, you know,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: oh yeah, you can more exaggerate that of fact.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: It's and it's to the point where you know, how
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the press box is there, it's pretty high up, but
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: it's all also like right next to fans in a sense,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: and like the windows are always open there and and
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I could hear like things being said, Uh, you can
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: like hear conversations.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: It's crazy, that's you know.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: And I understand why fans aren't going to that team's games.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I'm not that's not a rip of the fans there.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: It's just like when it's empty like that, and it's
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: it's just it's crazy how much you can hear. And
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: it clearly got to Bethan Court and he was able
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: to come through. But I mean, yes, the vibes are
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: good right now. And I was looking some things up Patrick.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: I know, look, you play bad teams, you need to
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: get good results. Like that's that's how it should be.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: We we've been talking about this stretch of games for
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: a while. August is supposed to be easy for them,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: easy quote unquote, but so was it.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Was it June.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: June was supposed to be easy as well. They didn't
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: take advantage of it. They're taking advantage of it now.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: They have the second best offense by way to runs
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: great at plus in August for the this month. They
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: came into this series against the Pirates ready to face
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Mitch Keller, Jared Jones fall skeins, that's a series that
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: you look at, I don't care that it's the Pirates
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: that's tough. You look at that, you're like, this team
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: could they could score like five runs combined or something
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: or less, and they scored forty one runs. They knocked
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: out that. The starters for the Pirates pitch to combine
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: thirteen innings. Right, Keller and Jones went four each. They're
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: putting up much better at bats, they look better.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: They're they're able to cover for.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Esa paratus not looking great at the play. Michael Bush
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: is in like a mini slump. He's slightly below average
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: for the month. They're able to cover for that because
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: others are stepping up and guys like Beth and Court
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: guys like Miguel Amaya, Pete Carol Armstrong. He's having one
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: of the best months in the game and just as
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: terrorizing pitchers when on the like that that game on Monday,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: you could see the pictures the second he got on.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: They were uncomfortable. They didn't they they had to think
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: about him, and they had especially with yes Moni Grendal
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: behind the plate, they had no chance. They like, he's
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: a menuce out there and he messes with pictures. I
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: asked him about it, and he was like, I don't
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: think of it exactly like that, you know, like.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Screwing with the picture.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: But it's like, yeah, I do like to know that,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: you know, it does feel good that I, you know,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: can impact the game that way and kind of getting
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: their heads.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: And PCA is obviously his own man and not going
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: to make Hobby bias comparisons all the time, but it
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: PNC Park was where Hobby had that crazy play where
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: he broke the pirate's brain of like you know that
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: ball was running towards first ran back and just like,
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm not doing a good job describing it.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: But if you're listening to this podcast, you've probably seen
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: it before. And PCA just has that ability to cause
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: and make the other team put pressure on the other
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: team and make them uncomfortable. And that is really what
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: had been missing as a whole for like months at
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: a time. Right, it just seemed like the opposing pitching
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: staff just found their lanes. They had their plan of attack,
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: they could they had a lot of margin for air,
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: they didn't have to worry that much about damage. And
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: now when you see a lineup rolling like this, I
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: don't know if you can say, like what could have been?
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: Like where has this been for a while? And I
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: also don't think you can like overestimate it and like
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: start anointing guys for next season. I do think it's
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: part of the evaluations, part of what you had mentioned, Sade,
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: and you would kind of ask Jed and how Jed
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: had said, you know, these after the trade deadline, these
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: final two months will be big, just to like make
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: sure this group wasn't like the worst offensive collection in
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: baseball this side of the White Sox. And you have
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: seen some signs of life.
• 8:06
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• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's I mean and it continues right like They
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: They have six more against sub five hundred teams, so
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: DC than Pirates before Yankees come to town. And it's
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: not like the Yankees they like a lot of this
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: is when do you catch the team?
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Nationals are probably playing better than their record says.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: They just called up their top prospect and Dylan Cruz.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Uh So, maybe this is a bad time to get
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the Nationals, but it's definitely a good time to get
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the Pirates, who the second you get to their bullpen,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the offense gets ultra confident, And it could be a
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: good time to get the Yankees. They're not playing their best.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Like April and May was a terrible time to play
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the Yankees. Right now is maybe a good time to
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: play the Yankees. We'll see, We'll see what happens this weekend.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Uh have they like some of these Some of these
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: numbers are just kind of insane, like Beth and Court's numbers.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Look, when when we get like.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: These short views of players, it totally distorts who they are.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Like you look at his career numbers and you're like,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: how is the guy we're watching have those career numbers?
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Because every single time he comes to the plate, he
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: rushes the ball, he hit that ball, that he hit
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: through the infield, was hit at one hundred and.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Five to nine one hundred and five point nine.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Miles per hour, and I think his home run was
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: higher than that, like one oh six something. So I
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: mean the guy hits the ball hard every single time.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: This this quote, I don't know. I just love this
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: quote from from council. It's from Andy Haynes, uh and
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: it's so simple. But I think we like we overlook it.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I know we as as media do this. We we
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: get we we we watch two months of baseball and
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: make grand conclusions. That's partly our job. We're supposed to
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: make conclusions. Fans do it after two games. But this
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: is a quote for Andy Haynes that Council said the
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: other day, it takes a long time to have a
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: good season, and it takes a long time to have
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: a bad season. He was talking about Migulmaya, and I
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: think it holds true for everyone.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: It holds true for every player and all the teams.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Like you cannot.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: We want to judge them off little snippets of the season,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: and part of it is fair, I think, but ultimately
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: they have another twenty eight games of baseball to show
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: us what they can do.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: We talked about this before, you wrote a little bit
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: about it.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I have a snippet of it in a piece coming
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: up for Friday morning. But Craig Council's teams always play
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: well down the stretch. He came back in eighteen from
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: five games down. He came back I think seven. I
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: think it was seven or seven and a half games
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: back in eighteen, five games back in nineteen. Last season
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: it was like seventeen and eleven, seventeen and nine in
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: August and September.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: They just play well down the stretch.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Whether that's good enough or not, it is going to
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: be determined by how Atlanta and the Mets and other
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: teams play. The Cubs don't have that. They screwed up
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: to the point where they don't have their destiny in
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: their hands, right, They don't control things. But I think
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: there's something to Council knows how to get his team,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: build his team up and get them ready to play
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: in August and September.
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: In the first round of Right to Losen.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, But also they're like, maybe maybe if the Cubs
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: start acting like the Cubs and then and get you know,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: more talent, that allows it to be more than just
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: this is for the future, right, But that allows it
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: to be more than just like, Okay, I can if
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I if I maneuver things right like now you have
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: the talent and the actual AMMO to go out there
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: and put a full six months together. I think that's
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: that will be the difference maker, right, That's what it
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: was supposed to be all along, Like he goes from
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Milwaukee to Chicago. There's a reason for that. Now they
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: need to leverage that. There's still a month of baseball
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: to play. You know, it's easy to be optimistic after
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the games have just played. I don't want to get
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: too carried away. It was fun to watch this series
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and to watch yesterday's game, just because you don't get
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: to cover games like a ten to three comeback where
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: they win fourteen to ten and have a guy like
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Christian Bethencourt have that moment. Was kind of kind of
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: nice when you're released from the Marlins and then you
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: have that moment and you're feeling good about yourself. It's
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: just a nice little moment, if nothing else.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: Two Newsy items I wanted to ask you about Wednesday's game.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: Kyle Hendricks did not finish the second inning. Obviously the
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: bullpen had to carry the load that day. What do
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: you got on Drew Smiley as well as Jorge Lopez.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Smiley is a Cub. He cleared waivers. He's uh,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: he's he's a Cub for the rest of the season.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: That like so that that can take a life of
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: its own when when those reports come out, because a
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: lot of guys get put on waivers. Now, it would
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: have looked bad in my opinion, if he got claimed,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: it would have looked bad.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: For the Cubs.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: It would have that's a dumping money and a team
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: that's not out of the race, Uh, losing a guy
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: that was impacting their team in a positive manner right
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: like he was helping their team. They're still clinging to hope,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: they're fighting for it. That would have looked bad on
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the outside, and I think it. I don't think it
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: would have sat well with players in the clubhouse, No way.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: I just can't imagine. Like I know how Nerris was
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: well like, but Drew Smiley, man, this guy wanted to
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: come back, but when they were stinking, he he he
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: loves this place, he loves the coaches. Good guy. Yeah
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: that I don't think that would have gone over well. Uh,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Jorge Lopez, Yeah, something like he's he's got a growing injury.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: H apparently occurred Monday night. You knew something was up
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: when he didn't pitch on Wednesday. Uh, it made no
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: sense to pitch Porter Hodge thirty six pitches After the game,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: council did say that his bullpen was short.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Uh. He I asked him.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: I was like, did you consider I was like, you
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: went to your high leverage guys, like it got to
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: ten to five and you went to your high leverage
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: guys that did you have a feeling like you were
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: you were in this still and he's like that's all
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: I had left. I was like, gotcha okay. Uh, And
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: that's part of the reason why he didn't pull like
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: you want to, like, yeah, pulling Hendrix earlier. Like if
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: you watch that game, you probably had a feeling like
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: pretty early on, ooh, Kyle Hendricks is walking guys, he's
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: getting hit, Like, I don't know if he has him.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: It's hard to pull a guy earlier than one and
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: two thirds. But like when you watch him, it probably
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: was like, hmm, do you pull him up? But I
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: just I think he was trying to get more innings
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: because of the bullpens short So with Lopez obviously, like
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I don't think you can gloss over this like that
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: that would be significant, Like it's growing injury. He's been
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: utterly dominant, essentially their co closer with Porter Dodge. Right now,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: it seems up in the air like they're going to
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: evaluate this.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Day to day whether he's ready to go Friday.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: I don't think that that's happening, but I think they're
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: gonna say, like, okay, let's see Saturday. Maybe can they
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: push Saturday. I think that depends on how they go
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: on Friday. Can they push to Sunday? Again, that depends
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: on how things go on Saturday. So like this is
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: I think through the weekend we're going to be monitoring this.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Is he on the al or not?
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Then the question is who steps up?
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Is it Daniel Palentia who hasn't looked great since coming up?
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Like he's a mystery, right.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Like typical, like that prototypical guy that dominates Triple A
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: comes up, just doesn't quite have it, just doesn't quite.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Do what needs to be done. I'll give Kegan Thompson
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: some credit.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Whenever he's come up, He's he's performed pretty well this season,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: so maybe he's the guy that steps up. Julian Merriweather
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: is on the il if fans miss that he was down.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: His velocity was down like two or three ticks on Sunday,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: it's like almost like four and a half ticks from
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: last year. His velocity is down Sunday's outing. It's right
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: knee tendonitis. Obviously that that's his driving foot, right like
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: his back foot pitching and back leg. Uh so, uh yeah,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: that that's going to impact you. It's something that's on
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: and off. You would hope that he could help the team,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: could have helped the team after what he did last season,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: but this is this is relievers. There's a reason he
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: was available on the waiver wire before last season, and
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: there's there's a reason you can't just say, like, well,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: our bullpen's fixed, we got pitcher one, two and three,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: because by the end of the season, pitcher one, two
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: and three could you know, be defade or be injured
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: or just be ineffective.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: That's the reality of bullpens.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: So you better not assume you have anything, which is
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: why you know, like, yeah, the Cubs need to continue
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: like they they need to continue to fortify this area, right,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: they need to find ways. Council is great at that,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: but they don't have a lot of time to figure
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: this out. You really have to hope that this Lopez
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: injury is not something is not an actual injury and
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: it's just you know, like something minor.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and we don't mean to sound like meat heads
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: when it's like did you just sweep? Like that's just
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: kind of how the math plays out.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a situation they put themselves in.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: Like, but I say that because like one of Council's
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: things is like, and you brought this to my attention
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: a while ago, of like sometimes you have to know
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: how to lose, right, and if you are constantly using
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: your high leverage guys, and that that's what happens when
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: you're winning. Joe Madden would always make that point, you know,
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: like when you get on one of those stretches, you're
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: gonna lean on your best relievers.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: But when guys go down, when you have.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: To sweep series, when you're starting, pitching isn't locked in
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: or maybe you know, the offense has obviously performed well
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: here recently, but if they go back to those quiet
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: nights as council has repeatedly said, then all of a
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: sudden it gets hard. And I will say their playoff
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: odds are almost the inverse of what it was last
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: September when they were just about ninety and now they're
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: I think the last I saw was almost seven percent.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: So like crazy things will happen over this stretch here. Obviously,
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: the Braves are playing well, and even though they've had injuries,
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: they were a team that on paper, I think everyone
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: expected to win ninety plus games and make the playoffs.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: So it's I don't get this feeling. I think they're
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: totally playing out of their minds or above their heads.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: And they have closed some ground in terms of passing
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: some teams, and that's important as well. Obviously, the head
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: to head tiebreakers do not go in their favor here,
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: and I do think too watching the Pirates this week,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: part of the missed opportunity to me, feels like the
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: Pirates clearly didn't take that step forward this year, even
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: with schemes brilliance and with a pitcher like that or
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: really any picture, it's hard to bank on like six
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: plus years in terms of that club control window. Right,
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: So when he's dominating, you got to capitalize. And the
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: Reds certainly have like interesting players and you know Football
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: Park where their offense plays up, and they've been a
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: tough matchup for the Cubs recently, but they have not
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: taken that step forward that they had sort of planned on.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: And the Cardinals they did their patchwork veterans starting pitcher thing,
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: and it has not been an overwhelming success. And some
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: of those star players that they are built around have
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: been either injured or.
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: Ineffective or some combination of both.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: And obviously they took Council away from Milwaukee and the
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Brewers traded Corbyn Burns and so like to see them
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: in this spot.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: It is certainly a disappointment.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: And like you said, they have, you know a little
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: over a month to change their fortunes and just keep
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: playing all the way until the final out of Game
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: one sixty two. But I think this series in Pittsburgh
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: encapsulated just kind of a just a weird season overall.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, it's been. It's been an odd one.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: It's that, like you.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: You know, you can always go back to different things.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Last year it was that Washington and Miami series on
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: the road. This season, you know, May June, it's gonna
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: be just that. I will go back to jameson Tyne
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: in Milwaukee kind of saying, like, you know, it started
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: off as like a bad week, and then it just
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: kept getting like can it just kept stacking up and up,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: and like more and more bad series happened, and it's
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: like how they went from like this is gonna turn
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: to what is happening? And they were just like kind
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: of perplexed it, like why aren't we winning more?
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: We're better than this? And I think now they're showing
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: that they are better than that. Those two months the
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: records like they're not a nine below five hundred team,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: but that's gonna cost. Like it's put them in this
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: bund where it feels where we're talking about they have
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: to sweep council can say you win every series, you
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: feel good about things. Sure, yeah, but you're you're five
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: and a half games out of a playoff spot right now.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: So it's that they could end up with eighty five
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: eighty six wins and you could say, like that's about
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: where everyone projected them, if not better. Yeah, it's still
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: not the playoffs and that's the goal, you know, get
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: to the postseason. Well, I'm assuming that doesn't get them
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: to the playoffs. Maybe maybe weird things happen. Baseball's odd,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: I do think too, like justifiably, for a long time
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: we talked about the mediocrity of the National League, and
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: I realized there aren't these like one hundred win powerhouses
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: like kind of staring at us in the face.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: But like.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: The Diamondbacks reach of the World Series last year, the
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: Padres have always been this like interesting experiment. And they
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: brought in a new manager and they have some star
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: talent and they were able to like adjust on the fly.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: They added a lot obviously from Dylan cees uh to
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: Riah's the batting champ.
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: So they've they've pulled away.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: And I don't think it's like a total shock that,
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: like how those teams were built that they could do that.
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: You know, and we just haven't seen that from the
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: Cubs yet.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: I do think looking at this Nationals team, they remind
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: me of what Joe Madden liked to say.
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: Like they look a little like frisky, you know what
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: I mean.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: And they got dj Hurs the ex Cub prospect pitching
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: this weekend. They've got some really interesting returns from you know,
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: the Soto deal and some of the other moves they've
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: they've made here. They're team that has, obviously under Mike
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: Rizzo taking kind of more of an old school scouting approach,
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: and they've done it before. I mean, they built it
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: from almost nothing and turned it into World Series champions.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: I do think, like, you know, we can't expect the
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: Cubs just like walk in there and sweep just they're
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: under five hundred.
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: But I think it'd be an interesting.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: Test and kind of a way for us to think
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: about some of the frustrations. You know, I've noticed on
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: social media when things weren't going well of people like
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: and I think we've had some of these questions too,
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: of like you know, why isn't Council blowing up in
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: the dugout or in his press conferences?
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: Like why are these guys so flatline? A lot of
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: the times in the clubhouse like this is why?
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: Right, like to give yourself a chance to turn things
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: around and to not overreact, and you know that obviously
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: is a good way to go about things in general.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: It can just be hard to watch at times when
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: things aren't going well, and you know, maybe in the
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: end they'll be proven right here, they've at least given
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: themselves a chance to play meaningful games in September, which
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: is not the ultimate goal, as you say, but it's
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: also not nothing either.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I think two of three against the Nationals and you
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: feel good about a seven and two road trip.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, seven and two road trip. Uh, that's that's solid.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: And and you talk about the Nationals, they're they're getting
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: written about like this up and coming team that could
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: make some noise in free agency this this winter. We'll
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: we'll see if they actually do that and if they
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: actually are an up and coming team. Those things are
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: so hard to predict it, but uh, yeah, they're they're
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: not They're not a pushover right now.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: That's that's the credits to Davy Martinez too.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah know him that he really gets his guys to
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: play and believe. And you know, that was an example
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: we had used prior to twenty eighteen Nationals would looked
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: sort of buried there and that was very early in
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: the season. But that Davy Martinez is very much a
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: stay in the fight, you know. He he kind of
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: has some of Joe Madden's principles but also really a
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: different sort of edge as someone who played in the
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: majors forever, it seems, and and really I think communicate
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: with players and has a lot of credit credibility day
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: to day on the ground.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Absolutely won't be easy to beat them. And I'm interested
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: to see how Dylan Cruz does. He think he had
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: his first homer Wednesday against the Yankees. So just you
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: know that young players can always mess up a series
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: you call up, you have random young players come up.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: And he's not a random young player.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: He's a top three prospect in the game, so you
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: never know what will happen. This will not be an
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: easy series in my eyes. I said that about the
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Pirate series though too, with Keller and Jones and Sken's going.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: So we'll see what happens. The Cubs need to keep winning,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: winning series and sprinkling in some sweeps. Is it's kind
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: of a must going forward. We'll see if they keep
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: it rolling. We'll be back at you later this week
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: with one more podcast and then the home stand next
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: week as well.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: This is Northside Territory.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe, rate and review, subscribe to the
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel for us please and subscribe to The Athletic
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: where you can read Patrick and I work all season
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: long and into the off season of Cubs.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Thanks everyone for listening. Appreciate you. Take care