Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / This Cubs season feels over

Transcript

This Cubs season feels over · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: That group as a whole simply has not been good enough.
0:04
Speaker 1: And that's why this weekend in Colorado.
0:07
Speaker 2: Leaving there, I was like, Okay, this is over.
0:12
Speaker 3: Into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast. I'm Sahadev
0:17
Speaker 3: Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney, where your Cubs beat
0:20
Speaker 3: writers over at the Athletic and Patrick Cubs fans can
0:25
Speaker 3: be happy for the Bears, who are the only team
0:28
Speaker 3: possible to be more disappointing for them, bring them more
0:32
Speaker 3: disappointment than angst. Thankfully the Bears did that for all
0:37
Speaker 3: fans to ignore what was a terrible weekend in Colorado
0:41
Speaker 3: for the Cubs. They can complain about the offensive line instead. Yeah,
0:48
Speaker 3: you know, losing two three those first two games in Colorado,
0:52
Speaker 3: it was kind of I think I went into the
0:53
Speaker 3: weekend saying, no excuses, have to sweep, and they just
0:59
Speaker 3: they didn't get the I've done the first two pretty
1:02
Speaker 3: gut punch losses there to start the series to salvage one,
1:07
Speaker 3: isn't you know? That isn't something to celebrate. After that weekend,
1:11
Speaker 3: you can pretty much say season over unless they go
1:15
Speaker 3: on a nice little fourteen game winning streak here or
1:17
Speaker 3: something like that.
1:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the Cubs have lost the nerds.
1:23
Speaker 1: I mean waking up Sunday morning in Denver and going
1:25
Speaker 1: on to Fangrafts and seeing just zero percent even though
1:30
Speaker 1: they were not.
1:30
Speaker 2: Mathematically eliminated yet.
1:33
Speaker 1: I think they were boosted to zero point one percent
1:37
Speaker 1: after that win. But yeah, look, I mean almost any
1:41
Speaker 1: other time of year, in any other context, three and
1:45
Speaker 1: three road trip through Dodger Stadium and course Field is
1:49
Speaker 1: pretty good.
1:49
Speaker 2: It's what you would probably take.
1:51
Speaker 1: And this team needs sweeps that those two back to
1:59
Speaker 1: back losses just could not happen against a last place team.
2:03
Speaker 2: And I know Coursefield is a different place to play.
2:08
Speaker 1: You know, a two run three and lead is not
2:10
Speaker 1: really safe at any time. But for me, it was
2:14
Speaker 1: just kind of what this team has kind of been
2:19
Speaker 1: lacking all year, right of just like can they come
2:21
Speaker 1: through in the highest leverage moments. You know, their Bullpendt
2:24
Speaker 1: has done a really good job for months, but it
2:27
Speaker 1: hasn't quite been good enough. Overall, the offense showed a
2:32
Speaker 1: lot of signs of life at Dodger Stadium in a
2:37
Speaker 1: course field. You can point to some really nice individual
2:41
Speaker 1: improvements or in season turnarounds, but like the entire body
2:44
Speaker 1: of work has not been good enough. Kyle Hendricks looked
2:49
Speaker 1: like the professor yesterday had a very nice performance at coursefield.
2:54
Speaker 1: But I mean he was just standing at his locker
2:56
Speaker 1: and was just like, I'm honestly thankful they kept giving
2:59
Speaker 1: me opportunity. It's like he knew, like said, he basically said,
3:03
Speaker 1: you know, every second of every day, I was thinking of.
3:06
Speaker 2: Like, you know, kind I turn this around, what are
3:07
Speaker 2: we're working on?
3:08
Speaker 1: Like he's very you know, given shout outs to the
3:11
Speaker 1: coaching staff or sticking with him, and you know, we
3:15
Speaker 1: all love Kyle's two great dudes to deal with. Enormously
3:20
Speaker 1: impactful picture in franchise history, but like someone probably should
3:25
Speaker 1: have come and taken his job right in terms of
3:27
Speaker 1: you was coming up, and so it was just all
3:31
Speaker 1: of those things coming together. Counsel politely deferred all questions
3:39
Speaker 1: about kind of what does this mean, and the way
3:44
Speaker 1: I presented it to him was, and you know, this
3:47
Speaker 1: a hot it Like there's a lot of really good
3:50
Speaker 1: dudes in that clubhouse, guys who really love baseball, which
3:55
Speaker 1: isn't always the case with people who are really really
3:59
Speaker 1: good at baseball.
4:00
Speaker 2: Like I think.
4:01
Speaker 1: The the consistency, the habits, the routines, the.
4:11
Speaker 2: Just all of it.
4:12
Speaker 1: All those dynamics I think have been positives, and players
4:16
Speaker 1: who are very thoughtful explain that to us, and then
4:19
Speaker 1: they also acknowledge it hasn't been good enough. It's not
4:22
Speaker 1: up to their standards, it's not up to anyone's expectations.
4:25
Speaker 1: And Counsel said, they're right. I would agree with that,
4:28
Speaker 1: and that's kind of where he left it, saying, I
4:31
Speaker 1: don't want to send the message that we're done when
4:33
Speaker 1: we're not done yet.
4:35
Speaker 2: But that's kind of what's coming next.
4:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, I assume that happens at some point this weekend.
4:43
Speaker 3: I'm not sure, like you know, I haven't don't have
4:47
Speaker 3: like their magic number, their elimination number, off the top
4:50
Speaker 3: of my head. It just hasn't been, you know, top
4:54
Speaker 3: of mind. So I'm not sure where that stands. But
4:57
Speaker 3: you know, it's it's it's approaching the they're five games
5:01
Speaker 3: out and you need to pass two teams essentially past them,
5:05
Speaker 3: not just tie them. So figuring that out, you know there,
5:10
Speaker 3: it could happen sometime this week during this Homestand you
5:12
Speaker 3: mentioned Kyle Hendricks, we could also see his final start
5:15
Speaker 3: at Wrigley Field, and it comes uniform this home stand
5:18
Speaker 3: as well. When you talk about like there's some positive signs,
5:24
Speaker 3: there's some good things. Absolutely, I think about that the
5:29
Speaker 3: Porter Hodge blown save on Saturday, and I think about
5:33
Speaker 3: the randomness of baseball and how that check swing wasn't
5:36
Speaker 3: called strike three, and then that leads to them losing.
5:40
Speaker 3: And all you want as a front office, as a team,
5:44
Speaker 3: as when you're building a team, you want those moments
5:48
Speaker 3: to not mean so much exactly that, like that shouldn't
5:53
Speaker 3: be how your season is, you know, make or break.
5:57
Speaker 3: The randomness of baseball should not make or break your season. Right.
6:01
Speaker 3: If that's what's happening, your team just isn't good enough, right,
6:05
Speaker 3: Like it could break your way and all the things
6:09
Speaker 3: could go well and you could win ninety two games,
6:12
Speaker 3: right and now, but those flaws are still there and
6:15
Speaker 3: that's how you get this false sense of security. And
6:18
Speaker 3: the right move then is to be more aggressive and
6:21
Speaker 3: add to that team and say, like, I don't want
6:23
Speaker 3: to leave anything up to chance. We won ninety two games.
6:26
Speaker 3: I don't want to leave anything up to chance. Let's
6:27
Speaker 3: add more. The right thing to do now is like
6:30
Speaker 3: we're not getting those bounces. We need to add more
6:33
Speaker 3: to find a sense of security, to clean up those,
6:38
Speaker 3: to make sure that margin error is smaller and we
6:40
Speaker 3: don't have to rely on so much going our way
6:43
Speaker 3: because one moment like that just I mean, fans are
6:48
Speaker 3: going to point to it because it's memorable, but you
6:51
Speaker 3: know there are moments that go your way too that
6:54
Speaker 3: you kind of overlook because it's like, oh, you got
6:56
Speaker 3: that win.
6:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll say, Like, you know, Hodge was a name
7:01
Speaker 1: that you had heard and had mentioned for a while,
7:05
Speaker 1: so he was like certainly on the radar, but was
7:10
Speaker 1: not someone that the Cubs had kind of like spotlight,
7:13
Speaker 1: like oh yeah, like this is our guy, which does
7:16
Speaker 1: make me wonder a little bit about their dot kind
7:19
Speaker 1: of self evaluation of their own organization.
7:22
Speaker 2: But I mean, Hodge had's like a five era at
7:28
Speaker 2: double A last year.
7:29
Speaker 1: He was a thirteenth round pick out of a high
7:32
Speaker 1: school in Utah.
7:34
Speaker 2: In twenty nineteen.
7:35
Speaker 1: Amazing, like success story this year, like what he has
7:40
Speaker 1: done from being basically an afterthought in spring training to
7:43
Speaker 1: being maybe their best reliever right now, someone who's extremely trusted,
7:50
Speaker 1: but also like with your season on the line, like
7:54
Speaker 1: should he be pitching in that ninth inning, Like, shouldn't
7:56
Speaker 1: there be someone else there as kind of a backstop
7:59
Speaker 1: to where maybe he's pitching in the eighth inning or
8:02
Speaker 1: the seventh inning, whatever it is. I just think that
8:06
Speaker 1: things like that shows just how it hasn't been their year.
8:09
Speaker 1: They needed a ton of things to go right. A
8:12
Speaker 1: lot of things have and we can get.
8:14
Speaker 2: Into that.
8:16
Speaker 1: Some it is impossible to miss, you know, pe Crow
8:19
Speaker 1: Armstrong running around everywhere. If you look at a lot
8:24
Speaker 1: of their core players, they've had pretty good to great seasons,
8:29
Speaker 1: but it just has not sequentially lined up in a
8:32
Speaker 1: way that helped them avoid that two month stretch or
8:36
Speaker 1: where they are really just hitting their stride here in September.
8:42
Speaker 1: And so yeah, it's nice that they have good vibes
8:47
Speaker 1: in the clubhouse and that they care about their craft,
8:51
Speaker 1: and I mean that sincerely like they do. I mean,
8:54
Speaker 1: you've talked to these guys for years to hot of
8:56
Speaker 1: and jameson Tyn Danby Swanson Ian haf Nika Horner, you
9:02
Speaker 1: can go down the line. There's lots of guys in
9:04
Speaker 1: there who are really serious and thoughtful about their profession
9:10
Speaker 1: and want to win. But like that group as a
9:13
Speaker 1: whole simply has not been good enough, and that's why
9:18
Speaker 1: you know, I think this weekend in Colorado.
9:20
Speaker 2: Leaving there, I was like, okay, this is over.
9:24
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10:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I agree. I mean it's a good group
10:32
Speaker 3: of guys, hard working group of guys. They expect more
10:36
Speaker 3: from themselves and I think that's and fans want more.
10:39
Speaker 3: I think that's what you come away from. I think
10:42
Speaker 3: if you want to be optimistic about the future, right,
10:47
Speaker 3: if that's if you choose to look more on the
10:49
Speaker 3: positive side, you can say May in June some of
10:53
Speaker 3: those some of those issues have been corrected, right, and
10:57
Speaker 3: we've touched on it, right, like Porter Hodge has emerged,
11:00
Speaker 3: that've acquired Nate Pearson, the two guys that look like
11:03
Speaker 3: they could be part of the future. Right, the bullpen
11:06
Speaker 3: is better from there. From then the question is can
11:08
Speaker 3: you make sure it's better in April of twenty twenty
11:11
Speaker 3: five and feel good about it and have some depth
11:14
Speaker 3: there when inevitable issues arise? Right, That's one area. The
11:19
Speaker 3: two big things in my opinion that can't be overlooked
11:22
Speaker 3: that are very different from May and June are Dansby
11:26
Speaker 3: Swanson isn't cooked. That's like that was something that I
11:30
Speaker 3: think you could look at and say, is this a
11:33
Speaker 3: thirty something year old player on the downswing and it's
11:37
Speaker 3: happening quickly? Or is this just a guy going through
11:41
Speaker 3: a really rough patch. Yeah, maybe maybe pushing through an
11:44
Speaker 3: injury that he shouldn't. I think it's it turns out
11:49
Speaker 3: it looks like it's the latter. He can still hit.
11:52
Speaker 3: Is he a superstar on offense? No, he's not. He
11:56
Speaker 3: is what they thought he is, and that's and that's good.
11:58
Speaker 3: That's a good player, and they need him. They can't
12:00
Speaker 3: have him be that May June guy. Right. And then
12:05
Speaker 3: the biggest thing you touched on is PCA. I mean
12:07
Speaker 3: the guy, like, you have to be excited about him
12:11
Speaker 3: if you're a Cubs fan. I don't know how you
12:12
Speaker 3: can watch him and not be excited. There are some
12:14
Speaker 3: things that happen that you're like, oh, okay, I don't
12:17
Speaker 3: know how that happens or why that's happening. But the
12:22
Speaker 3: good outweighs the weird stuff that happens every once in
12:25
Speaker 3: a while by so much. And he's worth I believe
12:29
Speaker 3: two and a half wins. This season, and he was terrible.
12:34
Speaker 3: He was terrible for two months, offensively just abysmal. And
12:39
Speaker 3: to get up to two and a half wins, he's
12:41
Speaker 3: going to be pushing three wins. And that's kind of
12:43
Speaker 3: like when you talk about as his floor right now,
12:48
Speaker 3: the way he plays like, it's really exciting to watch him.
12:53
Speaker 3: He and develop. I think you like, there's a lot
12:58
Speaker 3: of things to remember and watching him, you got to
13:02
Speaker 3: give some credit to the coaching staff being patient and
13:05
Speaker 3: continuing to work with him and unlocking that helping him
13:11
Speaker 3: unlock his best self at the big at the highest level.
13:14
Speaker 3: He deserves ninety percent of the credit all whenever I
13:17
Speaker 3: talk about this stuff, it's always the players that deserve
13:19
Speaker 3: majority of the credit, right, but coaches deserve something there.
13:23
Speaker 3: And also just like general patients with young guys, they like,
13:28
Speaker 3: you may not see it right away and it may
13:30
Speaker 3: look incredibly ugly. And it did to the point where
13:35
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't know what is going on,
13:37
Speaker 3: and if this guy's going to swing in every slider
13:40
Speaker 3: that almost hits his toes, it's not going to work.
13:43
Speaker 3: It can never work that way. And it clicked really
13:46
Speaker 3: quickly to the point where right before that Kansas City Series.
13:50
Speaker 3: I remember talking to like other beat writers and being like,
13:53
Speaker 3: is this guy gonna stop swinging at every sliders his way?
13:58
Speaker 3: Because if he doesn't, he won't develop. He's just going
14:01
Speaker 3: to be a defensive replacement center fielder. And it clicked,
14:05
Speaker 3: you know, literally the day that I was probably having
14:08
Speaker 3: that conversation, and that's that's impressive. That's really impressive to see.
14:12
Speaker 3: And it's just a reminder for all of us that like, Okay,
14:15
Speaker 3: it can look really ugly, but they're twenty one, twenty two.
14:18
Speaker 3: Remember that. And I think Michael Bush is a huge
14:22
Speaker 3: win for this front office and the team in general.
14:25
Speaker 3: Nice player in the sense that he's gone through like
14:30
Speaker 3: he has looked lost at times and then he comes
14:32
Speaker 3: back and has really nice series or really nice road trip.
14:35
Speaker 3: He looked pretty rough on the homestand if if I'm
14:38
Speaker 3: remembering correctly, had a great road trip.
14:40
Speaker 4: You know.
14:41
Speaker 3: So like it's there's little victories. That's not going to
14:47
Speaker 3: satisfy fans, right, they need wins in the win column
14:51
Speaker 3: and playoff appearances. And I think that the front the
14:56
Speaker 3: front office, if they they know that they know this
15:00
Speaker 3: is not like no more small victories, no more Hey,
15:03
Speaker 3: Matt Shaw's crushing the ball at Triple A. Not good
15:05
Speaker 3: enough right now? You know, like none of that like
15:08
Speaker 3: that's great, Like it's really good. It's good that you
15:10
Speaker 3: have a deep farm system and that guys are knocking
15:12
Speaker 3: on the door at Triple A, but you got to
15:15
Speaker 3: make the playoffs. And that's that's kind of where things
15:18
Speaker 3: sit right now. Where twenty twenty four it's like, Okay,
15:22
Speaker 3: this wasn't supposed to be a developmental year, but you
15:25
Speaker 3: had some positive things, and now twenty twenty five, like
15:28
Speaker 3: there's a ton of pressure as we head into this offseason.
15:31
Speaker 3: There's a lot of pressure to get everything right because
15:34
Speaker 3: it's going to cost jobs if it doesn't go well.
15:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I'm kind of looking at this like
15:47
Speaker 1: David Ross's issues weren't like, oh he didn't know how
15:51
Speaker 1: to collaborate with the coaching staff or that he was
15:53
Speaker 1: he was a little more emotional, but he was very patient.
15:58
Speaker 3: You know.
15:58
Speaker 2: His strengths were those kind of saw factors.
16:01
Speaker 1: And I think most people would have assumed I had
16:04
Speaker 1: this conversation with someone kind of coming off the Dodgers
16:08
Speaker 1: Stadium trip of like do you think more of this
16:11
Speaker 1: stuff would have been cleaned up, like Saya getting thrown
16:14
Speaker 1: out at third base in the ninth inning of what
16:19
Speaker 1: I think at that point was a two run game
16:22
Speaker 1: against a pitcher who had like walked three guys winning
16:28
Speaker 1: of just the I know the base running has gotten
16:31
Speaker 1: better over the course of the year, and there's an
16:32
Speaker 1: element of taking chances.
16:33
Speaker 2: There's always risk, but winning more one more on games,
16:38
Speaker 2: fewer blown saves, just the I think I mean this
16:44
Speaker 2: as a compiment.
16:44
Speaker 1: A lot of the things that Council is good at
16:46
Speaker 1: is what Ross was good at, and that there is
16:48
Speaker 1: a lot there is a lot of more accomplishment and
16:52
Speaker 1: experience and sort of there's a depth to counsel, no doubt,
16:59
Speaker 1: like a I'm not trying to rip counsel. It just
17:07
Speaker 1: seems like a lot of this is more continuity of
17:10
Speaker 1: kind of these moral victories or smaller developments, whatever you
17:15
Speaker 1: want to call it. And and yeah, the Matt Shaws,
17:17
Speaker 1: like I think most fans and most media or at
17:23
Speaker 1: least they should be kind of like over this sort
17:27
Speaker 1: of shell game of like you know, outside of PCA,
17:32
Speaker 1: there has been a whole lot of like homegrown and
17:35
Speaker 1: you know, Porter Hodge, but like on the position player side,
17:38
Speaker 1: or I don't know, there hasn't been that wow factor
17:41
Speaker 1: to me of like people coming and taking Kyle Hendrick's jobs,
17:45
Speaker 1: whether it's or you know, Jordan Wick's like being healthy
17:48
Speaker 1: and just having a great season, or Kate Horton coming
17:50
Speaker 1: up and being this wild X factor.
17:53
Speaker 2: And so now I was like, oh, hey, look Cam
17:55
Speaker 2: Smith got drafted recently. Now he's in the Double A playoffs.
17:58
Speaker 1: Like it's just kind of like all right, you know,
18:02
Speaker 1: like let's you know, get back to us, like when
18:06
Speaker 1: they're at really Field independant Race. And that's maybe my
18:10
Speaker 1: just kind of being over some of the hype around
18:13
Speaker 1: this Cup system, you know, like it's kind of been
18:16
Speaker 1: years of this and it's like, you know, still haven't
18:19
Speaker 1: seen Owen Casey and just kind of all of that together.
18:25
Speaker 1: I think you're absolutely right of just an enormous amount
18:29
Speaker 1: of pressure on this front office to deliver this offseason,
18:34
Speaker 1: and I think that can go to a lot of
18:36
Speaker 1: different ways. But I would be shocked if they didn't
18:40
Speaker 1: report to Mason next year with a new established starting
18:43
Speaker 1: pitcher in that rotation.
18:46
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:46
Speaker 3: I mean I've been hammering that, I feel like, basically
18:50
Speaker 3: since around the trade deadline, because people started talking about
18:54
Speaker 3: how just trade jameson Taian and go get another starter. Yeah, yeah,
18:58
Speaker 3: And my thought was, like, all these guys are injured,
19:01
Speaker 3: all the young guys are injured, and you want to
19:02
Speaker 3: trade thee one of the guys that's like locked into
19:05
Speaker 3: the rotation for the next few years when you probably
19:09
Speaker 3: need someone else on top of him. Like, you don't
19:12
Speaker 3: just go replacing these guys. It just it doesn't. It
19:15
Speaker 3: doesn't work that way, and they need more established talent. Absolutely,
19:22
Speaker 3: I think it's great to have a good system, like
19:25
Speaker 3: it's it's really important. The fact that they that the
19:29
Speaker 3: system dropped off so quickly during the winning seasons of fifteen,
19:34
Speaker 3: sixteen seventeen has led to a lot of the issues
19:38
Speaker 3: we're seeing now, right, But it's it doesn't It can't
19:43
Speaker 3: paper over the major league team, right, It's not like
19:47
Speaker 3: an excuse to like, well, we have this good system,
19:50
Speaker 3: so we can take our lumps at the at the
19:52
Speaker 3: big league level. You can get away with that for
19:54
Speaker 3: a year or two, probably not anymore. Really with the Cubs,
19:57
Speaker 3: you shouldn't be able to get away with that for
19:59
Speaker 3: a year or two. Now. It's just like, yeah, great,
20:04
Speaker 3: keep having you need to have a good system. Absolutely,
20:07
Speaker 3: you need to win at the highest level, and that's
20:09
Speaker 3: so I think it's important that you bring up Cam Smith.
20:13
Speaker 3: I think it's really important that they hit on these
20:15
Speaker 3: draft picks because they cannot be drafting in the top ten.
20:19
Speaker 3: They need to stop drafting in the top fifteen for
20:21
Speaker 3: like you know, they need to be and they need
20:24
Speaker 3: to continue to hit on draft picks and they need
20:27
Speaker 3: to find diamonds in the rough because the excuses of like, well,
20:32
Speaker 3: we're not drafting in the top ten, won't it won't
20:34
Speaker 3: fly right, Like, oh, well, we need to trade these
20:36
Speaker 3: core players to be able to get talent. Okay, maybe
20:39
Speaker 3: once in a while, right, maybe once in a while,
20:41
Speaker 3: you're trading someone that has two years left and you're
20:46
Speaker 3: filling up your farm system, like the Dodgers are able
20:49
Speaker 3: to do that every once in a while, Like good
20:51
Speaker 3: teams do that too. It's because you're trading from an
20:54
Speaker 3: area of depth and you're winning ninety plus games a
20:57
Speaker 3: year anyway, so it's like, let's move this guy, get
20:59
Speaker 3: some low away guys, and then in three years they'll
21:02
Speaker 3: be helping us and and continue to win ninety games.
21:04
Speaker 3: That's how that's the ideal scenario. They're not there yet.
21:07
Speaker 3: And it's you know, like I see a lot of
21:12
Speaker 3: people talking about and we've talked about this so much,
21:15
Speaker 3: but like is it time, Like should Jed Hoyer be
21:17
Speaker 3: on the hot seat? Like he is on the hot seat,
21:20
Speaker 3: but he's not. He's not. He's not going anywhere this winter.
21:24
Speaker 3: This winter. It's just unless something weird happens and the
21:28
Speaker 3: Craig Council of Front Offices becomes available.
21:32
Speaker 2: Uh.
21:33
Speaker 3: I just I don't see that happening. Even then, I
21:36
Speaker 3: don't know, Like, I think it's really important to remember
21:39
Speaker 3: that Jed Hoyer is doing what Tom Rickets wants as
21:43
Speaker 3: far as the budget goes, like he's working within his budget.
21:46
Speaker 3: He's not. He's he's doing what what he kind of
21:50
Speaker 3: wants him to do. So we'll see where this goes.
21:54
Speaker 3: I I you know, I think these last two weeks
21:57
Speaker 3: do matter in a sense. Uh, because like there are
22:00
Speaker 3: players that I think, like pretty much all the guys
22:03
Speaker 3: that we mentioned, the young ones we want to see
22:06
Speaker 3: and then uh there's isn't there someone coming? Oh no, no,
22:11
Speaker 3: there's no one. There's no more young guys really coming
22:13
Speaker 3: back outside of Wenski, right.
22:15
Speaker 1: Uh, it was an Eski I think may have one more,
22:20
Speaker 1: at least one more. I will reh have appearance, but
22:22
Speaker 1: expectation is he will pitch again the Cup of the
22:25
Speaker 1: season uh or A Lopez expect to be activated day
22:30
Speaker 1: he's eligible.
22:31
Speaker 2: I believe that might be Wednesday.
22:35
Speaker 1: We should get Justin Steele start uh here this week
22:38
Speaker 1: at Wrigley Field. I'd imagine maybe Wednesday Thursday. I'll probably
22:45
Speaker 1: put that in pencil. But that's kind of what they
22:47
Speaker 1: had been looking at. I don't know Cody Bellinger, what
22:53
Speaker 1: will his final final numbers look like. I don't Bob Nightingale,
23:01
Speaker 1: our buddy, he's the best.
23:03
Speaker 2: He may be right.
23:04
Speaker 1: I think I believe he wrote his notes column that
23:07
Speaker 1: you know Bellinger fully expects to be back with Cubs
23:11
Speaker 1: next year. That would not shock me, as you know,
23:14
Speaker 1: banking thirty million dollars as your annual salary in a
23:19
Speaker 1: place that's very comfortable, coming off like a good but
23:21
Speaker 1: not great year, for sure, that could make sense. But
23:26
Speaker 1: in talking to Bellinger, in talking to Scott Boris last
23:30
Speaker 1: week in Dodger Stadium, it still sounded like something they were.
23:35
Speaker 2: Still going to dig in on that it was not yet.
23:39
Speaker 1: At that stage where it was obvious, and I think
23:42
Speaker 1: part of it is, you know howard the field has
23:47
Speaker 1: played this year, is that kind of part of a
23:51
Speaker 1: narrative to sell two teams of Hey, look like if
23:54
Speaker 1: this guy was in a different park home park all year,
23:57
Speaker 1: it would look a lot better, and like this would
23:58
Speaker 1: have been a really easy decision and to opt out.
24:03
Speaker 1: Also looking at Bellinger, like if he was not on
24:05
Speaker 1: a team with PCA, he'd still be probably be a
24:08
Speaker 1: center fielder for maybe like two thirds eighty percent of
24:12
Speaker 1: the league right now, and he's he could still go
24:15
Speaker 1: back and do that for another team. So yeah, an
24:21
Speaker 1: insane two weeks to close the season, maybe it makes
24:26
Speaker 1: that decision a little easier, but still feels kind of
24:31
Speaker 1: like like a coin flip and also something I think
24:33
Speaker 1: the Cubs would kind of be fine with either way.
24:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's I think it's a fascinating decision
24:41
Speaker 3: that we're going to have to dig into more like
24:44
Speaker 3: for the reason you just said, like what how does
24:47
Speaker 3: it impact their offseason and how just how they construct
24:52
Speaker 3: their team. I agree with you, I think they'd be
24:55
Speaker 3: fine with it either way. It's it's not something that's
24:57
Speaker 3: stabilitating to them if he opts in and it's not
25:01
Speaker 3: like if he opts out, free up some money, there's
25:04
Speaker 3: a way to replace that, or you go young there,
25:08
Speaker 3: you know, you have all those positions that he can
25:11
Speaker 3: play filled in theory, right, yeah, I mean a good.
25:15
Speaker 1: Player, he'll probably be like a three war player next year.
25:17
Speaker 1: Thirty million dollars, like, yeah, probably opt out if he
25:21
Speaker 1: doesn't this fall, but yeah, it's a lot of money
25:24
Speaker 1: would come back to them as well. And then I
25:28
Speaker 1: do think they're going to be very open minded this offseason.
25:32
Speaker 1: Obviously we don't expect Juan Soto, but in terms of
25:35
Speaker 1: like grab a starter, kind of see what happens on
25:39
Speaker 1: the catching market, maybe build a little more certainty into
25:44
Speaker 1: the bullpen, get a true.
25:48
Speaker 2: Slugger to put into your lineup.
25:50
Speaker 1: Like, there's a lot of different ways, you know, we've
25:51
Speaker 1: seen them make surprising trades, Yeah, great us being example,
25:56
Speaker 1: the Michael Bush trade. Like, there's a lot of different
25:58
Speaker 1: ways they could go, and I that'll probably be exciting
26:03
Speaker 1: to them at some point, but it does get harder
26:08
Speaker 1: to kind of sell that after like another maybe eighty
26:12
Speaker 1: three ish win season, you know.
26:16
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, No, I think you're right there. There's they're
26:22
Speaker 3: they're going to be very active and there's going to
26:24
Speaker 3: be There's probably going to be a trade or two
26:26
Speaker 3: that we can't fully like see right now, kind of
26:28
Speaker 3: like not exactly like the Michael Bush straight, but just
26:32
Speaker 3: something that it wasn't on our radar or isn't on
26:34
Speaker 3: our radar, and it's like, oh, yeah, that makes a
26:36
Speaker 3: lot of sense and that can help this team a ton.
26:39
Speaker 2: Yeah.
26:40
Speaker 3: I fully expect stuff like that this winter. Patrick, it's
26:44
Speaker 3: too bad that we have to start talking about the
26:45
Speaker 3: winter already. That's what this season has devolved to.
26:49
Speaker 2: Uh.
26:50
Speaker 3: They they kept going up and down and and teasing fans,
26:54
Speaker 3: making them think that there was a run coming. But
26:56
Speaker 3: this this weekend in Colorado all but steal their fate.
27:00
Speaker 3: We will continue covering it and hammering on the off
27:03
Speaker 3: season and the big picture and seeing if this team
27:06
Speaker 3: can get back to the postseason in twenty twenty five.
27:10
Speaker 3: Thanks everyone for listening to Northside Territory. Make sure to rate,
27:13
Speaker 3: review and subscribe. Subscribe on the YouTube channel, and make
27:16
Speaker 3: sure to subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I
27:18
Speaker 3: will be covering this team. Thanks so much for listening
27:21
Speaker 3: to everyone. To take care