Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Cubs news and notes: Craig Counsell calls out MLB’s “bizarre” Shohei Ohtani rule

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Cubs news and notes: Craig Counsell calls out MLB’s “bizarre” Shohei Ohtani rule · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Sahadev 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 won seven games in a row. Their longest win
0:22
Speaker 1: streak last season was five, so they've already topped that.
0:28
Speaker 1: They are having just a great homestand so far, they
0:32
Speaker 1: beat up on the Phillies in Philadelphia, swept the Mets
0:36
Speaker 1: at home, and now have taken the first of two
0:40
Speaker 1: first two of four against the Phillies. These NLA East
0:45
Speaker 1: teams are reeling pretty rough start for both the Phillies
0:50
Speaker 1: and the Mets, but the Cubs are taking advantage. I
0:53
Speaker 1: don't even think they're clicking on all cylinders in various areas,
0:57
Speaker 1: but injuries piling up, it doesn't seem to be a
0:59
Speaker 1: fect acting them. Show HEO, Show Heyo, Tony, we'll get
1:05
Speaker 1: you next seme showda in Managa is pitching? Dare I
1:12
Speaker 1: say better than twenty twenty four? I asked, I wondered
1:16
Speaker 1: a couple episodes ago. Can I'm not sure if he
1:19
Speaker 1: can if he can match twenty twenty four, but he's
1:21
Speaker 1: pitching really well.
1:24
Speaker 2: He looks better right now.
1:26
Speaker 1: He didn't have the strikeouts this last game, but one
1:29
Speaker 1: run in seven innings.
1:30
Speaker 2: Just he's awesome right now.
1:32
Speaker 1: All the props to him for getting himself right over
1:36
Speaker 1: the offseason and having this much needed start of the
1:39
Speaker 1: season with Kate Horton now for the season and Matthew
1:43
Speaker 1: Boyd is returning today as we record Wednesday night. So
1:47
Speaker 1: I mean, just a great, great stretch of play from
1:50
Speaker 1: the Cubs with a Showda stepping up big time as well.
1:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really hard to isolate one thing because Counsel,
2:00
Speaker 3: as we've discussed, is using his entire roster.
2:04
Speaker 2: Uh.
2:05
Speaker 3: Several pitchers have stepped up in the wake of all
2:09
Speaker 3: these injuries to the staff. The lineup, you know, as
2:14
Speaker 3: you've alluded to, so how they have like the power
2:18
Speaker 3: maybe isn't quite there. There are certain hitters who have
2:20
Speaker 3: not just kind of come out of the gates and produced,
2:24
Speaker 3: but overall they're really just putting a ton of pressure.
2:30
Speaker 2: On the opponent. Uh.
2:33
Speaker 3: And these opponents the to have the Mets and Phillies
2:37
Speaker 3: back to back like this, the two big market teams
2:41
Speaker 3: with enormous payrolls, you know, East Coast franchises with rabid
2:46
Speaker 3: fan bases that you usually travel pretty well. I mean
2:50
Speaker 3: to have like two sort of like hot seat managers
2:57
Speaker 3: roll into Wrigley back to back in April. I don't
3:02
Speaker 3: know if Ed hardigg or it has some sort of
3:04
Speaker 3: you know, historian has a can check on that for us,
3:08
Speaker 3: but it's got to be pretty rare. And you know,
3:11
Speaker 3: the Mets keep losing. The Phillies, you know, are are
3:17
Speaker 3: saying all the right things they got, you know, Kyle Schwarber,
3:21
Speaker 3: but that is a team that is aging and you
3:27
Speaker 3: know has sort of run it back for a while now,
3:29
Speaker 3: that core has been together a long time, and you know,
3:32
Speaker 3: you talk about the metaphor Jed Hoyri, is us just
3:35
Speaker 3: that cliff that's out there? Do you want to kind
3:37
Speaker 3: of run all the way to the end or do
3:39
Speaker 3: you want to kind of embrace yourself and you know,
3:42
Speaker 3: start to pivot. And I think that context matters for
3:47
Speaker 3: the Cubs when you look at the broader landscape of
3:50
Speaker 3: the National League and kind of what you have to
3:53
Speaker 3: do early when you're uh, you know, a contender is
3:58
Speaker 3: you just have to sort of avoid the disaster scenario
4:03
Speaker 3: at the front end of the season and I also
4:06
Speaker 3: think it just illustrates how well constructed the Cubs are
4:11
Speaker 3: sort of the you don't have to like every decision
4:13
Speaker 3: they make. You don't have to you know, love every
4:17
Speaker 3: in game decision or you know, lineup preference, whatever it is.
4:23
Speaker 3: But for the most part, the Cubs as an organization
4:27
Speaker 3: are on the same page. They spent more money, which
4:30
Speaker 3: is why this lineup looks deeper and why there is,
4:36
Speaker 3: you know, a layer of depth to the pitching staff.
4:42
Speaker 3: And yeah, there are no there are no questions about
4:45
Speaker 3: Jed Hoyer's job security. Obviously, Craig Council signed the biggest
4:50
Speaker 3: deal for a manager ever. He's not going anywhere. And
4:54
Speaker 3: you know, right now, you see it really feel there's
4:58
Speaker 3: over thirty thousand people there, like a legit crowd kind
5:02
Speaker 3: of rising to its feet in the middle of an
5:04
Speaker 3: April game, like things are things are going well right now?
5:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, you talk about that cliff, He's he's avoiding a
5:11
Speaker 1: potential cliff by you know, extending Nico Horner, by you know,
5:16
Speaker 1: giving giving Peak or arms Strong that big deal Peak
5:20
Speaker 1: Armstrung has not hit yet.
5:22
Speaker 2: We'll see, like.
5:23
Speaker 1: They're there are three main guys power guys that have
5:26
Speaker 1: not hit. Michael Bush says Suzuki and Peak or armstrung,
5:29
Speaker 1: they have not hit like at all. I think they
5:31
Speaker 1: have combined two home runs. I would say, getting one
5:35
Speaker 1: last night finally looking you know a little bit better
5:40
Speaker 1: at the plate for Sayah on Tuesday night. But Nico
5:45
Speaker 1: like looks like an MVP candidate right now. I don't
5:48
Speaker 1: know how long he can keep this up. He hit
5:51
Speaker 1: his fourth home run last night. Let me look at
5:54
Speaker 1: his numbers, so seven seven nine, the previous three c's
6:00
Speaker 1: total home runs seven seven and nine.
6:02
Speaker 2: I think he came into the year with thirty six total.
6:07
Speaker 1: I don't know what type of player he is going
6:12
Speaker 1: to be this season. Like I know the baseline is
6:14
Speaker 1: what he has been like, and that's damn good player.
6:18
Speaker 1: But this level of performance that he's at right now,
6:22
Speaker 1: the full like, that's like everything that he's doing right now.
6:27
Speaker 1: I was trying to think, like look up comps like
6:30
Speaker 1: not striking out, taking walks, hitting for power, playing elite defense,
6:33
Speaker 1: stealing bases. The only person I could find that's that
6:38
Speaker 1: plays at like this level is like Jose Ramirez h.
6:43
Speaker 1: So that's you know, an MVP candidate aboard someone that's
6:47
Speaker 1: like always in the MVP talk and and you know,
6:50
Speaker 1: like consistently called one of the more underrated players in
6:53
Speaker 1: the game.
6:54
Speaker 2: And I think you could.
6:55
Speaker 3: You know, he's always in the MVP talk, but he's
6:58
Speaker 3: always being called underrated, and I do Nico's.
7:00
Speaker 2: Kind of in that spot now. But yeah, y'all get it.
7:03
Speaker 2: He's a good player. Yeah, yes, I I'm forty.
7:07
Speaker 4: Yeah.
7:08
Speaker 1: We've been hearing about it so much lately that I wonder.
7:10
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, let's we got to not overrate him. Like,
7:14
Speaker 1: but he's been awesome and there's no doubt about it. Uh,
7:18
Speaker 1: this is kind of what you need when others.
7:20
Speaker 2: Aren't playing well.
7:21
Speaker 1: You need someone like Biastero's Matt Shaw, guys like Confordo
7:26
Speaker 1: Ian happ is playing well. Uh, you need those guys
7:30
Speaker 1: to make sure like you cannot all like last year
7:32
Speaker 1: when they were hot offensively, it was like everyone but
7:36
Speaker 1: Dansby was hitting. It was like eight guys in the
7:39
Speaker 1: lineup were raking. That is not sustainable this where you
7:45
Speaker 1: have four or five guys. What needs to happen whenever
7:49
Speaker 1: those guys start to cool off is those other guys
7:52
Speaker 1: that we're talking about that I was that Trio Bush
7:55
Speaker 1: PCA say they need to get going a little bit,
7:58
Speaker 1: and and I don't think anyone's panicking about them. Like
8:02
Speaker 1: Bush's numbers are pretty rough right now, but I would
8:05
Speaker 1: still say, like, don't don't freak out about their numbers
8:09
Speaker 1: just yet. Like all three of those guys, I expect
8:12
Speaker 1: to get going at some point, And like I before
8:17
Speaker 1: we take a break, I just have to bring this
8:19
Speaker 1: up because we talk about it so much.
8:21
Speaker 2: Patrick, my son.
8:23
Speaker 1: Last night, asked me, He's like, do you think Pete
8:27
Speaker 1: Rore Armstrong is that guy that we saw in the
8:30
Speaker 1: first half or that guy that we saw in the
8:33
Speaker 1: second half and what we was seen so far this season?
8:36
Speaker 2: Like who is he?
8:38
Speaker 1: And I was like, Sawyer, that's a great question, because
8:41
Speaker 1: I think he's both those guys. Like I've been saying this,
8:44
Speaker 1: like I think like maybe Pete h Armstrong is just
8:47
Speaker 1: this super mercurial player that is going to have wild swings.
8:52
Speaker 1: I think he's going to get really hot, but I
8:54
Speaker 1: also think he's going to have really cold stretches, and
8:57
Speaker 1: maturity for him is shrinking those stretches, making them either
9:01
Speaker 1: not as bad or not as long, or both both
9:04
Speaker 1: of those things. Right, you don't want it to extend
9:07
Speaker 1: for months and you don't want it to be like
9:10
Speaker 1: unplayable offensively, but he's so good defensively that you have
9:13
Speaker 1: to play him so that, like I just like I
9:16
Speaker 1: thought it was a good question for a teenage that's great,
9:20
Speaker 1: and it's something that we kind of hammer on here
9:22
Speaker 1: that I've been saying, Like I've been wondering that I
9:24
Speaker 1: was wondering in an off season what is he like,
9:26
Speaker 1: what are we going to see this year?
9:28
Speaker 2: Early on?
9:28
Speaker 1: We're seeing a pretty rough performance. I think he's battling
9:31
Speaker 1: through and not you know, having some good at bats
9:33
Speaker 1: at times. It's not like non competitive at bats. So
9:38
Speaker 1: that's all to say, Like, I think it's really good.
9:40
Speaker 1: How not everyone is playing well right now and you're
9:44
Speaker 1: winning seven in a row, Like that's setting up to
9:48
Speaker 1: be a pretty nice, you know start to the season.
9:50
Speaker 1: When when you say that, like there's still a room
9:53
Speaker 1: to grow.
9:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, we don't know exactly what he is
9:57
Speaker 3: or who he's going to be, but we know what
10:00
Speaker 3: he doesn't have to be right now, and he doesn't
10:04
Speaker 3: have to carry the offense. He doesn't have to be
10:06
Speaker 3: like the cleanup hitter. He doesn't have to be playing
10:11
Speaker 3: at a ridiculous pace for the Cubs to be a
10:14
Speaker 3: viable team. Like there is a lot of pressure taken
10:18
Speaker 3: off of him by the addition of Bregman, the development
10:23
Speaker 3: of some of these other players around him, such as Nico,
10:29
Speaker 3: and you know Pete doesn't get pinched hit for it
10:32
Speaker 3: because he's so good on defense. But just in in general,
10:36
Speaker 3: there are just a lot at the moment, there are
10:38
Speaker 3: a lot more options, different buttons that Council can push
10:43
Speaker 3: that were not truly available in previous seasons.
10:47
Speaker 2: All right, let's take a quick break.
10:48
Speaker 1: There's there's a button that Dave Roberts can push and
10:52
Speaker 1: and Craig Council can't. That has drawn some frustration, I
10:58
Speaker 1: guess from the manager. I I wasn't there for it,
11:00
Speaker 1: so I'm curious what would happen. I We'll get you
11:03
Speaker 1: to break this down for its Patrick.
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12:08
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick show Hayes, There's there's been some controversy
12:11
Speaker 1: with show Heyo Tani to start this season. There was
12:14
Speaker 1: there was some complaints about how much time he gets
12:17
Speaker 1: to warm up. Uh, you know, he needs extra time
12:21
Speaker 1: to warm up because he's also hitting so it's a
12:23
Speaker 1: complicated process. You got to give him at that extra
12:26
Speaker 1: time and out of the blue, like the Cubs aren't
12:31
Speaker 1: even playing the Dodgers until this weekend, like this is
12:35
Speaker 1: you know, multiple games before the Dodgers or their opponent,
12:39
Speaker 1: and Craig Council had show he o Tani thoughts, can
12:43
Speaker 1: you explain this situation to me? Because I was kind
12:46
Speaker 1: of thrown off by it just reading it online when
12:49
Speaker 1: and reading the stories on it.
12:51
Speaker 3: I will do my best here. I guess it does
12:57
Speaker 3: kind of show how kind of stories pop. In twenty
13:03
Speaker 3: twenty six, so to reset Council in the Wrigley Field
13:08
Speaker 3: interview room before Monday's game, towards the end of a
13:12
Speaker 3: briefing that lasted ten to twelve minutes somewhere in that
13:16
Speaker 3: range given the amount of injuries the Cubs have experienced,
13:23
Speaker 3: Counsel was asked like, how do you understand why the
13:32
Speaker 3: rosters are capped at thirteen pictures? And the person asking
13:40
Speaker 3: this question sort of just kept talking and said, you know,
13:44
Speaker 3: I don't really understand it, and Counsel did one of
13:47
Speaker 3: his kind of like exhale pauses, you know, and just
13:56
Speaker 3: that I don't understand it either, and so he Council
14:00
Speaker 3: measures his words carefully and you'll sometimes pause and then
14:04
Speaker 3: keep talking. So I can't do a great job of it.
14:07
Speaker 3: But here was like the quote. I've never understood it either.
14:13
Speaker 3: It's an offensive rule essentially, it's a rule to help
14:17
Speaker 3: offense more than anything, if you ask me. And then
14:21
Speaker 3: there's one team that's allowed to carry basically one of
14:25
Speaker 3: both and he gets special consideration, which is probably the
14:30
Speaker 3: most bizarre rule for one team. And so like it
14:36
Speaker 3: was just kind of like you could tell like Council
14:42
Speaker 3: was not sure if he wanted to go there, and
14:46
Speaker 3: it popped into his head and just sort of threw
14:48
Speaker 3: it out there. And so this gets picked up. Uh,
14:55
Speaker 3: you know, we write about it as a you know,
15:00
Speaker 3: just kind of a news story because you know, we
15:04
Speaker 3: sort of have a show Hey Otani rule. It's not
15:06
Speaker 3: explicit or official, but it's like you got to write
15:09
Speaker 3: about this guy's the most interesting athletes ever and he,
15:14
Speaker 3: you know, is not super open with the media, so
15:18
Speaker 3: there is a lot of kind of writing around Show Hey,
15:22
Speaker 3: and so this gets out there. Then Dave Roberts has
15:26
Speaker 3: asked about it. I believe the Dodgers were in Denver
15:28
Speaker 3: and it was like, is you believe that was this
15:31
Speaker 3: postgame session and so you know, the Dodgers do have
15:38
Speaker 3: this advantage of essentially being able to carry fourteen pitchers
15:43
Speaker 3: and now you know any other team could do this too, right,
15:48
Speaker 3: But yeah, there is only one show, hey Otani, And
15:54
Speaker 3: so it was super random. It's not like there this
15:58
Speaker 3: was like a new rules change. It's not like it
16:01
Speaker 3: was the start of a new season with kind of
16:05
Speaker 3: a different framework that things were working on. Like you said,
16:11
Speaker 3: the Cubs aren't going to Dodger Stadium until this weekend.
16:19
Speaker 2: And so.
16:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was just Craig Council went viral. And I
16:24
Speaker 3: gotta say he has been He has been pretty entertaining
16:28
Speaker 3: this year. I think you and I both appreciate Craig's
16:31
Speaker 3: willingness to engage and he does sort of enjoy the
16:35
Speaker 3: back and forth. And he definitely understands his role of
16:39
Speaker 3: like explaining things to fans, and he' views the media
16:43
Speaker 3: as a conduit to let the audience know like what
16:48
Speaker 3: the club is thinking, you know, how you can better
16:52
Speaker 3: understand players, you know, personalities. But yeah, this was this
16:58
Speaker 3: was out of the blue. Yeah, a lot of a
17:00
Speaker 3: lot of people read it, and a lot of people
17:02
Speaker 3: started talking about it.
17:04
Speaker 2: So two things, One Show Hey related. One not.
17:11
Speaker 1: Any team could assigned Show Hey and and gotten this advantage.
17:15
Speaker 2: You know that everyone. He was available to everyone.
17:17
Speaker 1: I understand the Dodgers have this insane advantage financially that
17:20
Speaker 1: some of you, but like you could have just blown
17:23
Speaker 1: him out of the water. Maybe it wouldn't mattered. I
17:26
Speaker 1: don't know, but Sho Heo Tani was available to everyone.
17:30
Speaker 2: I know.
17:31
Speaker 1: He's the rarest of rare and having this this rule
17:34
Speaker 1: was put in place for him. Essentially, It's it's not
17:38
Speaker 1: it's not just for him, but that's how it works
17:41
Speaker 1: out because he's he's a freak of nature that can
17:43
Speaker 1: do this very rare combination of pitching and hitting. I
17:48
Speaker 1: believe the Dodgers have a six man rotation, so it
17:51
Speaker 1: kind of negates the advantage in some sense.
17:55
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe not.
17:56
Speaker 1: I don't watch enough of the Dodgers to really see
17:58
Speaker 1: how much of the Here's the thing that I think
18:01
Speaker 1: is most connected to Craig Council when I don't think
18:05
Speaker 1: I fully understood the context until you just explained it
18:08
Speaker 1: right there. And the first thing I thought of is
18:11
Speaker 1: Craig Council loved the forty man rosters expanded in September.
18:15
Speaker 1: That was he was a master that we're seeing him
18:19
Speaker 1: finally have a good bench and how good he is
18:21
Speaker 1: at maneuvering those things. He was awesome at using a
18:25
Speaker 1: bigger bullpen when he had more pitchers in like the
18:29
Speaker 1: Cubs fans will remember those septembers where the Brewers chased
18:33
Speaker 1: down the Cubs one of them. The Cubs didn't even
18:35
Speaker 1: play poorly. I believe it was eighteen. The Cubs didn't
18:38
Speaker 1: even have a bad September. They had like an okay September,
18:42
Speaker 1: and the Brewers were just awesome, like just an awesome
18:46
Speaker 1: team that just like had an amazing month because Craig
18:50
Speaker 1: Council was a master at those forty man rosters. Now
18:54
Speaker 1: it's twenty eight instead of forty, right, you expanded to
19:00
Speaker 1: twenty eight, so it's completely different, completely different, and it
19:04
Speaker 1: can only be one.
19:05
Speaker 2: Extra pitcher, so you go fourteen and fourteen.
19:10
Speaker 1: Like, that's why he doesn't like the rule because it
19:13
Speaker 1: was a huge advantage for him. He knew how to
19:16
Speaker 1: really manipulate that and work it to his advantage. And
19:20
Speaker 1: now that's taken away. It was a you know, it's
19:25
Speaker 1: both the expansion of the rosters is gone, and the
19:28
Speaker 1: fact that you can't have like fourteen and twelve or
19:32
Speaker 1: you know, fifteen and eleven pitchers to position players on
19:36
Speaker 1: your roster. He can really, he can really manipulate that well.
19:41
Speaker 1: He's good at that. You give him a couple extra pitchers,
19:44
Speaker 1: he does a really good job with it. It doesn't even
19:46
Speaker 1: have to be the best of the best. He just
19:49
Speaker 1: seems to know how to maximize that talent when he
19:54
Speaker 1: has it. So I think that it's as simple as that.
19:56
Speaker 1: That's what I come away with it, Like it's just
19:59
Speaker 1: a first stration for him because he's like, I just
20:01
Speaker 1: lost this advantage that I had, and now another team
20:04
Speaker 1: that doesn't need any more advantages gets one.
20:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the idea of the offensive rule of
20:10
Speaker 3: like you force teams to get more creative and not
20:16
Speaker 3: just kind of you know, you have to work within
20:20
Speaker 3: these confines, and the idea maybe the pictures will wear
20:24
Speaker 3: down and you know, all of a sudden, you know,
20:27
Speaker 3: offense will you know, rise a little bit because of that.
20:32
Speaker 3: But yeah, there's not like a new rules package.
20:37
Speaker 2: Or anything like that.
20:38
Speaker 3: And you know, you got to give the cub's credit
20:41
Speaker 3: here for how they have worked within this system or
20:47
Speaker 3: under these circumstances, I should say, of like there's been
20:51
Speaker 3: a a ton of injuries, this has not become you know,
20:57
Speaker 3: a woe is me, a sense of dejection running through
21:01
Speaker 3: the team. It is really all about next man up,
21:07
Speaker 3: you know, what's the game plan tonight? And you know,
21:11
Speaker 3: it has been impressive, particularly because you know, we we
21:16
Speaker 3: catalog all these quotes from spring training of like you know, we, oh,
21:19
Speaker 3: we built up so much depth blah blah blah blah blah,
21:22
Speaker 3: and then all right, well, like let's see it. And
21:26
Speaker 3: there have been you know, plenty of guys who have
21:29
Speaker 3: stepped up. And you know, I'll probably get into this
21:32
Speaker 3: a little more, you know, when I'm at Dodger citing
21:34
Speaker 3: this weekend. But I do think I'm probably reading into
21:38
Speaker 3: it too much. But I do think there's an undercurrent
21:41
Speaker 3: here of you can see like the Cubs can now
21:47
Speaker 3: view themselves, can again view themselves closer to the Dodgers
21:51
Speaker 3: than they have in previous years. Like that is the
21:53
Speaker 3: confidence that they have in their organization. They're not going
21:59
Speaker 3: to you know, guarantee anything or predict that they're going
22:02
Speaker 3: to take down the Dodgers. But like They've built a coherent,
22:06
Speaker 3: competitive ball club that expects to win ninety plus games
22:12
Speaker 3: and put themselves in a strong position for October. And
22:17
Speaker 3: if you want to win the World Series, you're probably
22:21
Speaker 3: going to have to go through Dodger Stadium at some point.
22:25
Speaker 3: And that's why for for random April Monday, for you know,
22:30
Speaker 3: a series you know it's coming up basically around the
22:35
Speaker 3: one month mark of the season. We'll we'll take it,
22:39
Speaker 3: even though it kind of came out of left field.
22:41
Speaker 2: Absolutely. All right, let's take a quick break.
22:45
Speaker 1: I want to get some updates from you on the
22:48
Speaker 1: health of this team and if there's some optimism that
22:51
Speaker 1: they can have as we you know, head into final
22:55
Speaker 1: two games with the Phillies. Al Right, everyone, it is
23:05
Speaker 1: summertime here in Chicago, and you know what that means.
23:07
Speaker 1: Everyone wants to get out of the house. For me,
23:10
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go check out John mulaney Wrigley Field. You
23:13
Speaker 1: should check out tickets, see if you can get tickets
23:15
Speaker 1: to that. I like to take the kids to a
23:17
Speaker 1: Cubs game. Maybe I find knockoff another ballpark off our list.
23:22
Speaker 1: We've got quite a few on there to take down,
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24:23
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, let me unmute you because I'm going
24:27
Speaker 1: to forget to do that.
24:28
Speaker 2: There we go. All right, you are unmuted. You don't
24:31
Speaker 2: need to leave. There were a bunch of updates.
24:36
Speaker 1: I believe this this past Tuesday at Wrigley Field. The
24:43
Speaker 1: relief group needs some help, that's for sure. And it
24:49
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like it seemed like most of these were positive.
24:52
Speaker 2: What was it?
24:53
Speaker 1: Sometimes I read one thing and then I listened to
24:55
Speaker 1: it and I was like, yeah, that has a different feel.
24:59
Speaker 1: Tell let let us know, like what's a Let's let's
25:02
Speaker 1: start with Daniel Palencia.
25:03
Speaker 2: What's going on there?
25:05
Speaker 5: Yeah?
25:06
Speaker 3: And I can picture some of our listeners rolling their
25:08
Speaker 3: eyes when I say the Cubs are optimistic about a
25:11
Speaker 3: return to play timeline with an important player. But I'm
25:15
Speaker 3: just putting up on my phone here my notes. Uh
25:20
Speaker 3: So last Friday, Daniel plentcya, the initial read was a
25:24
Speaker 3: left oblique strain. We all know those injuries are sort.
25:27
Speaker 2: Of oh oh.
25:33
Speaker 1: Oh no, all right, Patrick is back, No need to panic,
25:38
Speaker 1: Let's get those updates. Patrick, What like you were on
25:41
Speaker 1: Daniel Palencia, I believe.
25:44
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, so there an MRI revealed a mild last
25:52
Speaker 3: strain and not the left oblique strain. That was sort
25:56
Speaker 3: of the initial outlook. Essentially at this point, Plenty's one
26:03
Speaker 3: week out from Uh he had thrown I believe a
26:06
Speaker 3: bullpen session or he had warmed up in Philadelphia and
26:12
Speaker 3: you know, didn't really feel it throwing, which was odd.
26:18
Speaker 3: But at this point, you know, Council's talking optimistically, like
26:22
Speaker 3: within two weeks he could be back on a major
26:25
Speaker 3: league mount which huge development, which is not really you
26:32
Speaker 3: know what I was thinking when they dropped that injury
26:37
Speaker 3: news kind of out.
26:39
Speaker 2: Of the blue.
26:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not how he usually doesn't give us stuff
26:46
Speaker 1: like that, the timeline like that.
26:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, So for him to go out of his way
26:51
Speaker 3: to say that, I'm gonna interpret that as a positive
26:56
Speaker 3: sign that the Cubs are indeed optimistic about it. Phil Mayton,
27:03
Speaker 3: before the rains came on Tuesday afternoon, got through a
27:09
Speaker 3: session of live batting practice. In terms of next steps,
27:14
Speaker 3: I think the decision will be whether or not he
27:18
Speaker 3: needs another live session.
27:21
Speaker 2: Also depends.
27:21
Speaker 3: I should add how he feels the day after, like
27:25
Speaker 3: if there's any sort of achiness or something pops up.
27:29
Speaker 3: But he said, you know, at this point he feels
27:33
Speaker 3: like he can go get major league hitters out. I
27:38
Speaker 3: thought it was interesting that this knee issue he had
27:42
Speaker 3: for most of the second half of last year, and
27:48
Speaker 3: like already this April he had been feeling the way
27:51
Speaker 3: he did last September, which is not encouraging at all.
27:56
Speaker 3: So he feels like they addressed it, and also they
27:59
Speaker 3: it kind of worked done a couple of things to
28:02
Speaker 3: try and help him, you know, manage this condition for
28:06
Speaker 3: what could be the rest of the season. Let's be honest,
28:11
Speaker 3: just in terms of maybe restructuring his pregame routine to
28:16
Speaker 3: just get the knee ready, and also the positioning of
28:19
Speaker 3: his back foot to sort of alleviate some pressure and
28:24
Speaker 3: maybe create a little bit of a smoother mechanical flow.
28:29
Speaker 2: Down the mound.
28:31
Speaker 3: I don't know when Hunter Harvey will be back, but
28:34
Speaker 3: he's been cleared to restart his throwing program on Friday,
28:39
Speaker 3: which is obviously only a first step, but that's an
28:42
Speaker 3: important step because they had been sort of waiting for
28:46
Speaker 3: the symptoms to disappear. And then we mentioned Matthew Boyd,
28:54
Speaker 3: you know, scheduled to start Wednesday night against the Phillies,
28:57
Speaker 3: and then this not really a positive one, but at
29:03
Speaker 3: least there's more clarity that Porter Hodge underwent major elbow
29:07
Speaker 3: surgery and he is looking at I believe it was
29:12
Speaker 3: twelve to fourteen months, So like, who knows, you know,
29:20
Speaker 3: you never know what's gonna happen when you go to
29:21
Speaker 3: the ballpark. There could be more injuries popping up. But
29:28
Speaker 3: like I walked away from that, I was like Okay,
29:31
Speaker 3: that's a lot of kind of incremental information that really.
29:38
Speaker 2: Did.
29:38
Speaker 3: I think helped the Cubs sort of organize things, including
29:43
Speaker 3: like if Mayton's a near term thing, if Polenty is
29:47
Speaker 3: not a long term thing. Just getting boy back will
29:52
Speaker 3: obviously have a help start kind of a cascading effect
29:56
Speaker 3: on the rest of the staff. It'll give them more options,
29:59
Speaker 3: and you know they're gonna need it facing Otani the hitter,
30:06
Speaker 3: and also like it's not gonna be an easy West
30:08
Speaker 3: Coast trip, like this has been a difficult opening schedule,
30:14
Speaker 3: it continues going to Dodger Stadium in San Diego. Those
30:17
Speaker 3: are I think they might be the two best teams
30:21
Speaker 3: in the National League at this moment if you're just
30:22
Speaker 3: looking purely at records. Obviously the Braves are back, the
30:27
Speaker 3: Cubs are rolling. But at least they'll have they should
30:32
Speaker 3: have a little bit more pitching on hand, though we
30:38
Speaker 3: all know how fleeting that is. And they're going to
30:42
Speaker 3: a place places that can expose your staff if you
30:48
Speaker 3: just don't have enough.
30:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, these next three ish weeks are pretty tough.
30:54
Speaker 1: After this Philly series, it's Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks are okay,
30:58
Speaker 1: I think to start the season, and Cincinnati's gotten off
31:01
Speaker 1: to a hot start. They're kind of like a weird
31:03
Speaker 1: hot start where it's like the underlying numbers don't love them,
31:07
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, Like I'm not gonna read too much into
31:09
Speaker 1: that early in the season. We'll see there they're playing well,
31:11
Speaker 1: they're they're winning games. Texas is solid, and then Atlanta,
31:14
Speaker 1: who's come out at the gates really strong. So that's
31:18
Speaker 1: a tough next three weeks. We thought maybe this upcoming
31:22
Speaker 1: stretch of Cleveland that you know, you know, this stretch
31:25
Speaker 1: that they just are wrapping up, would be tough. It
31:29
Speaker 1: wasn't as crazy as as it seemed. And obviously the
31:34
Speaker 1: Mets and Phillies are reeling.
31:36
Speaker 2: We'll see.
31:37
Speaker 1: This is a good shot for them to like go
31:39
Speaker 1: up against the NL's best. That's three or four of
31:42
Speaker 1: the NL's best between the Dodgers, Padres, Cincinnati, and Atlanta.
31:46
Speaker 1: Like that, those are the best teams right now in
31:48
Speaker 1: the n L, along with the Cubs and a couple
31:50
Speaker 1: of others. They're playing really well, good baseball. So we'll
31:53
Speaker 1: see how the Cubs come out of this. Dodgers are
31:56
Speaker 1: the class of baseball. We know that Padres are still
31:59
Speaker 1: a team, so it's going to be a really difficult
32:04
Speaker 1: road trip. We'll talk more about that. We got another
32:07
Speaker 1: episode this week and we'll discuss that. But some tough
32:10
Speaker 1: games coming up. They need good news with that bullpen
32:13
Speaker 1: that you can't rely on just the guys that they
32:16
Speaker 1: have right now. It's it's eventually it's going to be
32:19
Speaker 1: a little difficult. They've gotten through it so far, which
32:22
Speaker 1: is great. Sometimes you just need to weather the storm.
32:24
Speaker 1: They've done more than that with the seven games in
32:26
Speaker 1: a row, winning seven games in a row.
32:28
Speaker 2: So we'll see where they stand at this point next week.
32:32
Speaker 1: Really like it's going to be interesting how they do
32:35
Speaker 1: on this West coast trip. I'm curious to see how
32:38
Speaker 1: they handle it and how many of these relievers get
32:40
Speaker 1: back in the next you know, week, two weeks, whatever
32:43
Speaker 1: it may be, because I think that'll that'll be really
32:45
Speaker 1: important to this team. You cannot have too many more
32:49
Speaker 1: long term injuries. It would just you know, be difficult
32:52
Speaker 1: to get through.
32:53
Speaker 2: All right, Well, we'll we'll we'll get through.
32:58
Speaker 1: We'll get through this series with the Philly and then
33:01
Speaker 1: be back with another episode this week. Thanks so much
33:03
Speaker 1: for listening. This is Northside Territory. To make sure to
33:06
Speaker 1: rate review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe
33:10
Speaker 1: to The Athletic where Patrick and Iron top of all
33:12
Speaker 1: things Cubs.
33:13
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening. Everyone, Take care.