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What the Cubs are trying to accomplish at the trade deadline · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:08
Speaker 1: Sahade Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic. Patrick. We got
0:15
Speaker 1: a lot of trade talk to talk about, but before
0:18
Speaker 1: we get to trade talk, I want to introduce something
0:21
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0:25
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0:32
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0:35
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0:39
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0:42
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Speaker 1: might win. We're picking one winner from the top scores
1:00
Speaker 1: at random. Deadline is July thirteenth at eleven to fifty
1:03
Speaker 1: nine pm Eastern, so get in their play, win and
1:06
Speaker 1: brag sounds like a fun giveaway. Patrick, we got Trey talk,
1:12
Speaker 1: we got we had Jed on earlier this week. You
1:16
Speaker 1: and I have been doing a lot of digging, a
1:18
Speaker 1: lot of reporting, trying to find out what's going on.
1:23
Speaker 1: You know, Jed wasn't hiding the ball. They're going to
1:26
Speaker 1: be buyers. They they want to improve this game. I
1:29
Speaker 1: think we've known that from the start they got off
1:32
Speaker 1: to and now it's time to identify some names. I
1:35
Speaker 1: think we got where we are. We're on Friday, All
1:39
Speaker 1: Star break, the draft ends Monday. I think we may
1:42
Speaker 1: start hearing really, you know, like things may start picking
1:46
Speaker 1: up after that. I think Jed expects it to. Jed
1:49
Speaker 1: told us his phone just went crazy right after the draft, right.
1:54
Speaker 1: I think he expected like a little bit of a lull,
1:56
Speaker 1: but it just like this is how it is now.
1:58
Speaker 1: So you know, let's uh starting pitching is the focus.
2:04
Speaker 1: That's that's what we've been We've been hearing a lot
2:06
Speaker 1: of names. We've been talking to a lot of people,
2:08
Speaker 1: and and we just wrote a piece about this, and
2:10
Speaker 1: and there's there's a lot of names out there, maybe
2:14
Speaker 1: not you know, justin Erlander or you know, in the
2:19
Speaker 1: past with the passtraight Garrett Crochet wasn't traded at last deadline,
2:23
Speaker 1: but he was a huge name. I'm not sure if
2:25
Speaker 1: that guy's getting moved, but there are some interesting names
2:27
Speaker 1: out there.
2:29
Speaker 2: Yeah.
2:30
Speaker 3: As as we've been thinking about this, it reminded me
2:33
Speaker 3: just how few like really Ace Calber pitchers are out there.
2:40
Speaker 3: I mean, you do the Aces project at the Athletic
2:42
Speaker 3: every year, and hearing Jed talk about Justin Verlander in
2:47
Speaker 3: that time period, there there's are many guys out there.
2:53
Speaker 3: The position has been diminished to a certain extent. But
3:00
Speaker 3: everything we're hearing is like Cubs think there are multiple
3:03
Speaker 3: ways that they can get better. And this is not
3:05
Speaker 3: some sort of like lowering expectations. It's like there's certain
3:10
Speaker 3: specific areas that they are targeting and they plan to
3:15
Speaker 3: be aggressive on. And I think you've seen like an
3:21
Speaker 3: environment in which it should be like relatively easy for
3:25
Speaker 3: a guy to come in, whether it's a change of
3:27
Speaker 3: scenery guy, whether it's a younger guy with some years
3:30
Speaker 3: of club control, or if it's more of that veteran
3:33
Speaker 3: rental guy.
3:34
Speaker 2: And you know, the Cubs.
3:38
Speaker 3: Kind of amazingly are you very near the All Star
3:41
Speaker 3: break with not a single pitch thrown? By Javi Asod
3:47
Speaker 3: Justin Steele getting shut down in April and showed ay
3:51
Speaker 3: Minaga missing almost.
3:52
Speaker 2: Two months with his injury.
3:56
Speaker 3: And so this is a team we saw it in Minnesota.
4:00
Speaker 3: They're pretty quiet for two nights, they come back and
4:03
Speaker 3: just kind of, you know, roll the twins. And I
4:08
Speaker 3: think that's been one of the most impressive parts about
4:10
Speaker 3: this first half of how the the down periods that
4:14
Speaker 3: we've seen in prior years just have not been there
4:17
Speaker 3: at all. It's been, you know, a consistent consistency focus,
4:21
Speaker 3: high level performance across multiple phases of the game.
4:27
Speaker 4: Yeah.
4:27
Speaker 1: They You know, it's interesting too to watch this team
4:33
Speaker 1: and try and analyze it on a game to game
4:36
Speaker 1: basis because it's just a foolish way to go about things,
4:39
Speaker 1: and it can it can you know, drive you crazy. Look,
4:45
Speaker 1: I wasn't there at those games. You were there in Minnesota.
4:47
Speaker 1: I don't know what the vibes were at the clubhouse.
4:49
Speaker 1: My assumption is they were fine. They weren't panicking, they
4:52
Speaker 1: weren't freaking out. They don't you know, those weren't great games.
4:58
Speaker 1: If you watch them, it was you know, if those
5:00
Speaker 1: are your two game if you're watching a snapshot and
5:03
Speaker 1: that's the two games you have of the Cubs. You're
5:05
Speaker 1: not thinking very highly of that team, you know what
5:07
Speaker 1: I mean. But that's not how this game works. Like
5:11
Speaker 1: I think, what defines them and repeatedly defines them are
5:14
Speaker 1: games like Thursday and and they repeatedly show what they
5:17
Speaker 1: can do. They need to get better, they need they
5:20
Speaker 1: need more pitching, they need more depth on the bench.
5:24
Speaker 1: We know that. I think you know what Jed said.
5:27
Speaker 1: With Jed, what we've known is that there aren't clear
5:32
Speaker 1: sellers just yet, not that many. But there are a couple,
5:36
Speaker 1: right Like what Colorado Rockies are going to move some
5:40
Speaker 1: guys I don't like. There's I highly doubt the Cubs
5:42
Speaker 1: are just like obsessing over multiple guys in the Rockies.
5:45
Speaker 1: There may be a reliever there that's interesting reliever or two,
5:49
Speaker 1: but there's there's just non a lot of names to
5:52
Speaker 1: pick from there. The Miami Marlins, we've been talking about
5:57
Speaker 1: them since the spring Patrick really yeah, yeah, like it's
6:02
Speaker 1: the winter, yeah, because of Lizardo about them. It's it's
6:07
Speaker 1: been a while. Look, Sandy al Contra is having a
6:12
Speaker 1: very rough season. I don't know if he'll find that
6:15
Speaker 1: cy young form, but he's not gonna come cheap either way.
6:20
Speaker 1: I just don't believe that he'll come cheap. I also
6:24
Speaker 1: believe that there are teams, including the Cubs, that probably
6:27
Speaker 1: see him and see things that they can say, like, hey,
6:30
Speaker 1: we can get this guy back to what he was
6:33
Speaker 1: with this, that and the other. How long that takes,
6:36
Speaker 1: how hard that is? That's that's the internal debate. I
6:40
Speaker 1: think Edward Cabrera would be a great ad. I think
6:45
Speaker 1: that's the guy that if I like, you know, when
6:48
Speaker 1: there are some other home run swings. I don't think
6:52
Speaker 1: Mackenzie Gore is getting traded. I just don't. I heard
6:56
Speaker 1: the name mentioned to me and and what the way
6:59
Speaker 1: it was mentioned was everyone's going to everyone's going to
7:02
Speaker 1: be on him if that happens. But I don't think
7:05
Speaker 1: that's happening. Uh So, But I think Cabrera maybe up
7:09
Speaker 1: there as far as I don't think he's a household name,
7:13
Speaker 1: but he's kind of figured some things out. The price
7:15
Speaker 1: is what I wonder about him. And then the Pittsburgh
7:18
Speaker 1: Pirates are interesting, just like I think they have to
7:21
Speaker 1: kind of find a way to rebuild on the pot.
7:25
Speaker 1: They're constantly rebuilding, it feels like, but I think they
7:27
Speaker 1: have to find a way to get some value, and
7:31
Speaker 1: I don't think they can eliminate teams like in the
7:33
Speaker 1: division and say we can't sell to the Cubs. Maybe
7:38
Speaker 1: I don't think they'll be stubborn about that, but maybe
7:41
Speaker 1: there's a little extra cost involved, But I don't I
7:43
Speaker 1: don't think they're going to It's not like Cardinals and Cubs.
7:47
Speaker 2: That's funny.
7:48
Speaker 3: I had that exact same conversation of sort of working
7:52
Speaker 3: through the sellers and just comparing the Pirates to say
7:58
Speaker 3: the Brewers. Like my gut feeling is that the brewer's
8:03
Speaker 3: owner would like, never let a trade go through that.
8:06
Speaker 2: May help Craig Council in the short term. That's kind
8:09
Speaker 2: of my interpretation.
8:10
Speaker 3: Obviously, the Cubs and Cardinals, long time historic rivals, doesn't
8:17
Speaker 3: really happen, you know, I think the Reds would still
8:20
Speaker 3: be hard.
8:21
Speaker 2: I think it just seems a little more proximity.
8:23
Speaker 3: And obviously the Reds are like not out of it
8:26
Speaker 3: the way that the Pirates are. And then you get
8:28
Speaker 3: into okay, Pirates Cubs, it's it's obviously not the same
8:33
Speaker 3: as like Cubs, White Sox, Ben Cherrington and Jed Hoyer
8:38
Speaker 3: are longtime friends or colleagues with the Boston Red Sox.
8:44
Speaker 2: They you know, started their careers together.
8:48
Speaker 3: Not saying there's gonna be some sort of like friendly
8:51
Speaker 3: discount there, but I think they have a pretty good
8:54
Speaker 3: relationship to where they can go back and forth. You
8:58
Speaker 3: look at Pittsburgh issue recently, it's like, where are the
9:03
Speaker 3: Bats like developing some of that homegrown offensive talent and
9:08
Speaker 3: the Cubs have some close to major league ready pieces.
9:12
Speaker 3: So if it's there, I'd be interested to see. Like
9:18
Speaker 3: with David Bednar, you know, he's like a Pittsburgh guy,
9:20
Speaker 3: and I think there's some concern or there is at
9:24
Speaker 3: least a question.
9:24
Speaker 2: Of like would that.
9:28
Speaker 3: Be a harder player for them to deal just because
9:30
Speaker 3: of that hometown connection.
9:32
Speaker 2: I know that sounds.
9:33
Speaker 3: Weird, but when you get around the deadline, you don't
9:36
Speaker 3: always know, like which voices are gonna kind of.
9:38
Speaker 2: Be louder or louder than expected.
9:42
Speaker 3: So, you know, Marlins and Pirates were the two teams
9:45
Speaker 3: we kind of circled as okay, obvious sellers. There's kind
9:49
Speaker 3: of a baseline relationship there and some interesting pitching talent
9:52
Speaker 3: that you put some great defenders around them, You put
9:55
Speaker 3: them in Wrigley Fields environment, and maybe even better things happen.
10:04
Speaker 1: Patrick, I want to talk more pitching, uh and pitching
10:08
Speaker 1: potential names. But before we do that, I want to
10:11
Speaker 1: let's do our DraftKings player spotlight. All right, Patrick, we
10:16
Speaker 1: are going to talk about Colin Ray. This is a
10:19
Speaker 1: guy that could get pushed out of the rotation. Uh.
10:23
Speaker 1: It very likely does get pushed out of the rotation
10:26
Speaker 1: in the next in a couple the next couple of weeks.
10:29
Speaker 1: But you got to give him some love what he's done.
10:31
Speaker 1: He's got a sub for E. R. Ray. He looked
10:35
Speaker 1: pretty rough out there for a few starts. They were
10:38
Speaker 1: they were the start in Cincinnati. Two starts against Cincinnati,
10:41
Speaker 1: wasn't it? And then and then the start. You know,
10:44
Speaker 1: maybe we should give him a break. Maybe don't look
10:47
Speaker 1: at the numbers so much of the of the game
10:51
Speaker 1: against the Mariners. That was a tough one. He he
10:56
Speaker 1: struggled in that one. But man, these last few starts,
11:00
Speaker 1: he has kept them in games. He has given is
11:03
Speaker 1: saved the bullpen the last two starts, seven innings Thursday
11:07
Speaker 1: night to avoid the sweep against the Twins, six and
11:11
Speaker 1: two thirds against the Cardinals on July fourth. Just I mean,
11:17
Speaker 1: this is what you want when you lose pitchers, when
11:20
Speaker 1: you this is what they wanted when they signed him.
11:22
Speaker 1: He's the perfect depth signing and it you know, it
11:27
Speaker 1: just it looks really good when you sign a guy
11:29
Speaker 1: to say, like, here's the guy that's gonna fight for
11:32
Speaker 1: a fifth spot if he doesn't make it first injury.
11:34
Speaker 1: He's first man up, and he's you know, he's eaten innings.
11:38
Speaker 1: He's given you a chance to win. I think that
11:40
Speaker 1: that says a lot about the guy and what what
11:44
Speaker 1: his job is and him just doing it. I mean, the.
11:48
Speaker 3: Classic signing that happens in the middle of the winter
11:52
Speaker 3: when the Cubs maybe aren't super active or spending at
11:56
Speaker 3: the top of the market, as oh, like that's what
11:59
Speaker 3: we're going to you know what I mean. But he
12:03
Speaker 3: is not flashy, but he is a very determined, focused,
12:13
Speaker 3: experienced professional. Like all of those sort of steady, dependable
12:18
Speaker 3: adjectives apply here. I think him in council sort of
12:24
Speaker 3: communicate the same way. I'm just like they have that
12:27
Speaker 3: experience together in Milwaukee, both very like plain spoken, direct
12:33
Speaker 3: and you know, we had written about this that council
12:37
Speaker 3: basically sketched out the worst case scenario for him before
12:40
Speaker 3: he signed thinking like, hey, you don't want a guy
12:43
Speaker 3: signing expected, you know, being sold kind of the rosiest outlook,
12:48
Speaker 3: and then it doesn't happen.
12:49
Speaker 2: But if you go in knowing that there's.
12:51
Speaker 3: A decent chance you're going to be in the bullpen
12:55
Speaker 3: to start the year, that there probably be times when
12:58
Speaker 3: you have to go back and forth between the rotation
13:00
Speaker 3: and the bullpen, but that the club expects you to
13:04
Speaker 3: make a significant amount of starts over the course of
13:08
Speaker 3: the year, then it's kind of easier to adapt to
13:11
Speaker 3: those roles. And I think you've.
13:13
Speaker 2: Seen Ray do that extremely well. I think it's why.
13:19
Speaker 3: The Cubs signed sort of or sorry if they trade
13:21
Speaker 3: for a depth guy in July and you're kind of like, wait,
13:25
Speaker 3: who's this guy? Or like, wasn't he good a couple
13:27
Speaker 3: of years ago or whatever happened to him? Like they
13:31
Speaker 3: know what they're doing here. There are things that they
13:32
Speaker 3: look for, there are ways that they coach up their players,
13:36
Speaker 3: and then just they have as Jed said the other
13:38
Speaker 3: day on our show, here come, just have a great
13:41
Speaker 3: defense that makes everyone else look better.
13:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is I really respect Ray. Listening to him
13:49
Speaker 1: and getting to know him. This year is you know,
13:52
Speaker 1: It's easy to respect the guy thirty five year old
13:54
Speaker 1: who made some slight tweaks, you know, nothing crazy, but
13:57
Speaker 1: moved on the mound, moved on the rubber, did some
14:01
Speaker 1: things with the arm path and just feels better about
14:04
Speaker 1: the way he's pitching. Obviously had some rough outings, but
14:07
Speaker 1: he's exactly what you need when when you're kind of
14:12
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15:43
Speaker 1: Patrick. There are there are a lot of names to
15:46
Speaker 1: go through. I think that that we've kind of unearthed
15:49
Speaker 1: tiered that I think are fun and and should maybe
15:52
Speaker 1: aren't the most exciting names. Uh, but but there are
15:56
Speaker 1: some names that that I think internally the cut are
16:00
Speaker 1: are interested in and and intrigued by. One name that
16:06
Speaker 1: that I heard was two guys that are injured. Actually
16:10
Speaker 1: two names that I heard are guys that are injured,
16:13
Speaker 1: but the Cubs are monitoring their returns. They're both on
16:16
Speaker 1: re they're both out on rehab. Neither team are obvious
16:20
Speaker 1: sellers though, they're just not like the Texas Rangers and
16:23
Speaker 1: John Gray. You know, John Gray is someone we could
16:28
Speaker 1: we can go back to the Jed interview. Uh. He
16:31
Speaker 1: was the number three pick in that draft that Jed
16:34
Speaker 1: was talking about, marka Pell, Chris Bryant, and then John Gray,
16:37
Speaker 1: I believe is how that draft went. I think a
16:40
Speaker 1: lot of us assumed the Cubs maybe going after John
16:43
Speaker 1: Gray and that draft because the Cubs needed pitching so badly.
16:46
Speaker 1: You gotta have some pitching. I think they made the
16:49
Speaker 1: right choice. But that's one name and then another name
16:53
Speaker 1: I heard a lot about that they were really I
16:56
Speaker 1: think they're doing some pretty intense digging in on is
17:00
Speaker 1: Tanner how and this is it? You know, Red Sox aren't.
17:05
Speaker 1: We don't know, they're playing pretty well, but they also
17:08
Speaker 1: have you know, Breso wants to make it, you know,
17:11
Speaker 1: he I think he has decisions to make. He's trying
17:14
Speaker 1: to weigh like this season verse the future, and you
17:19
Speaker 1: know there there may be ways to like, uh, maybe
17:22
Speaker 1: they do a half in, half out thing that that
17:24
Speaker 1: we've seen teams do and and maybe they're primed to
17:27
Speaker 1: make moves like that. I think that. I think there's
17:30
Speaker 1: some with within the organization that, like Tanner, how.
17:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think what we've come to understand just how
17:37
Speaker 3: open minded they're going to be. You can't limit yourself
17:41
Speaker 3: to only like the obvious sellers are only the rental
17:47
Speaker 3: players from bad teams, or you know, you only want
17:52
Speaker 3: to deal you know, you're a ball prospects. I think
17:55
Speaker 3: the Cubs are gonna, you know, bring all ideas to
17:58
Speaker 3: the table. I mean Jen even said that's what he's
18:00
Speaker 3: told his staff, like be creative, come up with different ideas,
18:03
Speaker 3: like what do you got? And those are certainly two
18:09
Speaker 3: interesting names. I think what also struck me as we
18:13
Speaker 3: were kind of comparing notes is just how they're thinking
18:17
Speaker 3: beyond just twenty twenty five and like if this market
18:21
Speaker 3: is slow developing, if the talent level is lukewarm, if
18:26
Speaker 3: the biggest deal already happened between the Giants and Red Sox,
18:31
Speaker 3: like you have to think broader. And yeah, those guys
18:37
Speaker 3: who come with multiple years of club control. I feel
18:42
Speaker 3: like that's what every front office says every year when
18:44
Speaker 3: they're buying. But I think with this particular group, it
18:48
Speaker 3: makes a ton of sense just knowing the core group
18:51
Speaker 3: they have in place kind of through twenty twenty six,
18:54
Speaker 3: knowing how Carter and Jed operate now, which I think
18:57
Speaker 3: is a little different than how THEO and Jed uh
19:01
Speaker 3: operated Uh, And it clearly underlines I think the confidence
19:08
Speaker 3: that they feel, or that the likelihood of them being
19:12
Speaker 3: extended and being around for longer than just this season.
19:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think it's important to fans are not
19:22
Speaker 1: going to always be you know that they they won't
19:26
Speaker 1: always think that this what's what the names we mentioned
19:30
Speaker 1: are the most exciting, or that they're different make difference
19:34
Speaker 1: makers or things like that. You know, I don't know,
19:37
Speaker 1: that's just how it's going to be. They're they're they
19:39
Speaker 1: weren't excited about the Colin Ray signing. Uh, He's important. Uh,
19:44
Speaker 1: Jamison Tyne may not have moved the needle with certain fans,
19:49
Speaker 1: and he's when he's healthy and out there, he's one
19:51
Speaker 1: of the most consistent arms they have. Uh. You look
19:54
Speaker 1: at how the bullpen is built. It's not always the
19:57
Speaker 1: biggest names. So, uh, that's why I've tried to go
20:02
Speaker 1: into all of this with an open mind. When I
20:04
Speaker 1: hear names. Sometimes I hear a name and I'm like, really,
20:09
Speaker 1: that guy, I just didn't hadn't registered to me that
20:13
Speaker 1: that may even be a consideration. One of those names
20:15
Speaker 1: is Michael Soroka. I gotta be honest. When I heard
20:18
Speaker 1: that name, I almost dismissed it. I almost didn't even
20:21
Speaker 1: bother looking up his numbers. And I looked up his numbers.
20:25
Speaker 1: This is a guy that I feel like, you know,
20:28
Speaker 1: you don't want to like. I don't know if if
20:31
Speaker 1: that's the biggest move they make, that that you should
20:35
Speaker 1: be excited. But if he's a secondary move, if he's
20:40
Speaker 1: the second starter ad it and and you're talking about,
20:44
Speaker 1: I don't know. I looked at those peripherals and I
20:46
Speaker 1: was like, what is happening here? This guy has really
20:49
Speaker 1: good peripherals. He puts the ball on the ground, and
20:52
Speaker 1: he's playing in front of a terrible defense. I you know,
20:56
Speaker 1: I'm not watching his starts. I'm not seeing everything that's
20:59
Speaker 1: going on there. Uh, he very well could just not
21:03
Speaker 1: be missing barrels. And it's just like, you know, they
21:07
Speaker 1: don't don't just look at the strikeouts and walks, but
21:11
Speaker 1: overall the numbers look good. The era looks terrible. But
21:15
Speaker 1: this is this is exactly what you have to when
21:17
Speaker 1: there's no obvious like we started this conversation, there's no
21:21
Speaker 1: obvious stud out there that's available, that's obviously available. The
21:26
Speaker 1: Nationals are going to move players, Like I'm not really
21:30
Speaker 1: sure what the value of having my Soroka on the
21:34
Speaker 1: Nationals for the rest of the season would be. He's
21:37
Speaker 1: a free agent at the end of the year. You know,
21:41
Speaker 1: this isn't like we can debate like whether they should
21:44
Speaker 1: trade McKenzie Gore or not. But there's a lot of
21:47
Speaker 1: reasons why they should keep mackenzie Gore. There's very few
21:50
Speaker 1: reasons to keep like Soraca, who's an ipending free agent.
21:55
Speaker 1: So like, this is a guy that is likely going
21:57
Speaker 1: to be moved or likely going to be available, and
22:01
Speaker 1: there are reasons to believe he's going to become a
22:04
Speaker 1: better picture. He was really good when healthy with the Braves,
22:07
Speaker 1: when he was at his best, good picture. Uh So,
22:11
Speaker 1: I like that type of stuff is is I wouldn't
22:14
Speaker 1: dismiss when you hear a name and you're just like, huh,
22:17
Speaker 1: wasn't like I DF eight or like, wasn't he not
22:20
Speaker 1: good with the White Sox last year? I mean, maybe
22:22
Speaker 1: the Cubs are just collecting ex White Sox. You know,
22:27
Speaker 1: that's just what he's gonna say.
22:28
Speaker 2: I mean, Chris Flexen and Brad Keller, like.
22:31
Speaker 3: It's not the worst theory of being like, Okay, maybe
22:34
Speaker 3: Scott Scott a little bit of stuff like we see
22:37
Speaker 3: this and that, and you can just.
22:40
Speaker 2: Get him out of.
22:42
Speaker 3: That what sock that crushing White Sox environment and some
22:46
Speaker 3: better players around him.
22:48
Speaker 2: Uh, you never know.
22:49
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm I think we're all assuming Washington's interim
22:52
Speaker 3: front office is going to do more than's just kind
22:54
Speaker 3: of like basic roster maintenance and administration and not fully
22:59
Speaker 3: entertain Mackenzie Gore trade proposals. But yeah, I'm with you, Like,
23:04
Speaker 3: this can't be the only move. It can't be like
23:08
Speaker 3: the the number one move. But like the Cubs have
23:13
Speaker 3: done a lot of the heavy lifting already, Like, you're
23:15
Speaker 3: not gonna find a better hitter than Kyle Tucker right now.
23:17
Speaker 3: You're not gonna find a more dynamic player than Pete
23:21
Speaker 3: crow Armstrong, you know for the most part, you know,
23:24
Speaker 3: and like you're not gonna find you know, better defenders really,
23:28
Speaker 3: like at second base, you're not gonna have, you know,
23:35
Speaker 3: many better catching setups. Once Miguel Maya is healthy, it's
23:38
Speaker 3: like three legitimate major league catchers at that point.
23:42
Speaker 2: And so.
23:44
Speaker 3: You can do if you look at the player pool
23:47
Speaker 3: of Okay, have a forty man roster, but you know,
23:50
Speaker 3: maybe they're like thirty guys you'd consider for October, Like
23:55
Speaker 3: you really want to strengthen up to where you kind
23:58
Speaker 3: of the bottom of your roster in the middle of
23:59
Speaker 3: your roster are a lot stronger and you have a
24:03
Speaker 3: lot more flexibility, which I think is kind of what
24:05
Speaker 3: we're leading into our kind of next segment here.
24:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, let's talk about bench stuff and what they
24:13
Speaker 1: may be thinking there. Let's take a quick break first.
24:16
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25:18
Speaker 1: All, right, Patrick, we've both heard some interesting things with
25:22
Speaker 1: regards to the bench. They need more depth, and I
25:26
Speaker 1: think you watch you know, I think we both kind
25:30
Speaker 1: of like this bench. Coming into the season. It is
25:33
Speaker 1: not It is not produced like we kind of expected.
25:39
Speaker 1: You just said the catching tandem's great. They upgraded their
25:42
Speaker 1: backup catcher. Great job, it's a it's a very good
25:45
Speaker 1: catching tandems. I wouldn't even call Carson Kelly a backup
25:49
Speaker 1: catcher because Miguel Amayah and him were the tandem. Now
25:52
Speaker 1: him and Reese McGuire or the tandem. And we'll see Miguelmyer,
25:57
Speaker 1: I think, is on pace to come back sometimes soon
26:00
Speaker 1: after the All Star break. We'll see what happens there.
26:03
Speaker 1: But you know, the dal Bruhan, John Berdie just not
26:10
Speaker 1: producing well enough, Bertie and Justin Turner. I think Justin
26:14
Speaker 1: Turner is the big one, right. I think we expected
26:16
Speaker 1: more from him and he's not fully there.
26:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, and this group of positioned players have been remarkably healthy,
26:28
Speaker 3: and obviously the Cubs hope that will continue. But hope,
26:33
Speaker 3: as we know, is not really a strategy. And so
26:37
Speaker 3: without that August Waiver's period, they have to think through
26:41
Speaker 3: what if this injury happens, what if this guy goes down,
26:44
Speaker 3: and how do they respond in August, September, in October.
26:50
Speaker 3: And I think one thing this is not picking on
26:54
Speaker 3: Kevin Alcntara at Iowa.
26:57
Speaker 2: It's a really nice prospect.
27:00
Speaker 3: Had a cup of coffee last year, I think in
27:03
Speaker 3: a different season or a different time of year. I
27:06
Speaker 3: think that was sort of the plan going into this year,
27:08
Speaker 3: like give him some run if Pete got injured. But
27:11
Speaker 3: like Pete has been so good and the team performed
27:15
Speaker 3: has at such a high level that like, we've also
27:20
Speaker 3: seen Matt Shaw trying to adjust a major league pitching
27:22
Speaker 3: and it hasn't been pretty every night, and so I
27:28
Speaker 3: think just thinking you can plug in Kevin and have
27:32
Speaker 3: him been everyday center fielder for the rest of a
27:35
Speaker 3: Pennant race, that's sort of unrealistic. And we just look
27:39
Speaker 3: back at what the THEO JED front offices did during
27:43
Speaker 3: these buying periods during that championship window, and they did
27:46
Speaker 3: it over and over and over again.
27:49
Speaker 2: The Austin Jackson types, Cameron Maybin.
27:52
Speaker 3: Like guys like that, just in case they have a
27:57
Speaker 3: ton of experience, they have a specific skill set. Like again,
28:03
Speaker 3: no one's thinking that you can just find another p
28:07
Speaker 3: Crow Armstrong. That happens, and hopefully he's he's so young
28:11
Speaker 3: and full of energy, uh, and he's a pretty strong dude.
28:16
Speaker 3: As you can see like that, he's fine. But there
28:20
Speaker 3: are just things like that that are on the to
28:23
Speaker 3: do list in.
28:24
Speaker 1: The live Yeah. Yeah, and and I think it's worth
28:27
Speaker 1: that you want to find someone that's versatile. Yeah, you know,
28:32
Speaker 1: it's it's hard to find a guy that can handle
28:35
Speaker 1: center regularly. That's not that that's super versatile. I'm not
28:38
Speaker 1: sure if that's the position they'll find for versatility, but
28:41
Speaker 1: there they are looking for versatility over over you know,
28:47
Speaker 1: the lefty masher they you know, Justin Turner in theory
28:52
Speaker 1: would be just the lefty masher. He's not. He's not
28:54
Speaker 1: doing that as expected, but as as was expected, I
28:59
Speaker 1: should say. But you know, I don't think they want
29:03
Speaker 1: to find like a Justin Turner replacement. It would be
29:07
Speaker 1: sure if the guy crushes lefties, it's a bonus. Like
29:10
Speaker 1: Willie krat Castro that you just saw in Minnesota, he
29:15
Speaker 1: can play various positions. He could possibly push Matt Shaw
29:20
Speaker 1: to the bench if that's what you wanted to do.
29:24
Speaker 1: I don't know if they'd want match Seaw on the
29:26
Speaker 1: bench for the entirety of the second half or if
29:29
Speaker 1: he would go to tripa A. But if he were
29:32
Speaker 1: on your bench. That's how you upgrade your bench too,
29:34
Speaker 1: because I mean Matt Shaw, Yes, I understand he's not
29:37
Speaker 1: producing offensively. He just he's really struggling offensively right now.
29:41
Speaker 1: He's a I think he'd be a quality bench bat
29:44
Speaker 1: because you could put him at second, you could put
29:45
Speaker 1: him at a third, could put him at short in
29:48
Speaker 1: a pinch, he could kind of play all over in
29:51
Speaker 1: the infield. And that's that's a quality bench bat. But
29:55
Speaker 1: those are like Rob Refsnyder is a name that I
29:58
Speaker 1: heard as well. Those are the types of names I
30:01
Speaker 1: think you can look around there's bench bats. What you're
30:05
Speaker 1: looking for it is kind of what you said at
30:07
Speaker 1: the center field. You're looking for someone that and they
30:11
Speaker 1: don't have this guy right now that if someone gets hurt,
30:14
Speaker 1: and not just Pete, anyone, if anyone gets hurt, who
30:17
Speaker 1: are you who are you putting there every day? And
30:20
Speaker 1: you know, if someone gets hurt for a month or two,
30:22
Speaker 1: what's what's your option? It's just it's the value of
30:26
Speaker 1: someone like Colin Ray in the rotation find that position
30:30
Speaker 1: player wise, I think is what they're looking for. What
30:33
Speaker 1: who can we find that either uh improves our off
30:38
Speaker 1: improves our starting lineup. The only spot you're improving is
30:41
Speaker 1: their base, right or and that in turn improves the bench,
30:45
Speaker 1: or just improve the bench. Someone that can play all over.
30:48
Speaker 1: He's gonna go here, there, wherever and give guys days
30:52
Speaker 1: off and also insurance for injuries. They're not easy to find,
30:55
Speaker 1: but that's that's that they are looking there.
30:58
Speaker 3: I mean, there could be a player they acquire and
31:01
Speaker 3: everyone's kind of like.
31:03
Speaker 2: Why they do that, Where's where does he fit? Where's
31:06
Speaker 2: he gonna play?
31:07
Speaker 3: And it is that looking around corners or whatever. Jed's
31:12
Speaker 3: quote was there of just like it's not a assuming
31:15
Speaker 3: the worst is not a great way to go through life,
31:17
Speaker 3: but that is their job and that you know this player,
31:23
Speaker 3: maybe two players, I don't know. However, whatever format it takes.
31:27
Speaker 3: I think that's part of this idea of like they
31:30
Speaker 3: get better in a lot of different ways. Ef It's
31:33
Speaker 3: not like the biggest name or the most obvious fit
31:36
Speaker 3: right at that moment. It's all about thinking through you
31:39
Speaker 3: know what could happen over multiple postseason rounds.
31:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, Bo was obsessive about it, Jedly thinking about it
31:49
Speaker 1: in that exactly, this is not this is not twenty sixteen.
31:52
Speaker 1: This team is not at that level. I wouldn't call
31:55
Speaker 1: them at that level, but I do believe it. That
31:59
Speaker 1: made it pretty clear that they think they have a
32:01
Speaker 1: chance here and next year to make some noise, and
32:05
Speaker 1: they are going to look at all different ways and
32:08
Speaker 1: how to improve the team and also secure the team
32:10
Speaker 1: in case of worst case scenarios. All right, Patrick, you
32:14
Speaker 1: are in New York. You will be on top of
32:16
Speaker 1: all things in that Yankees series before we hit the
32:20
Speaker 1: All Star break. We'll be back next week early next
32:23
Speaker 1: week to talk things over and see where they stand
32:25
Speaker 1: at the All Star break. Thanks for listening everyone. This
32:27
Speaker 1: is Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast. Make sure
32:31
Speaker 1: to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and
32:34
Speaker 1: subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are on
32:36
Speaker 1: top of all things Cubs. Thanks so much for listening
32:39
Speaker 1: to everyone,