Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / The negativity is surrounding the Cubs right now

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The negativity is surrounding the Cubs right now · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into North Side Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast.
0:09
Speaker 1: I'm Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are
0:12
Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. If
0:17
Speaker 1: anyone thought coming up to Canada eating some poutine whatever, Hell,
0:26
Speaker 1: I don't know.
0:29
Speaker 2: I hope you're enjoying Canada more than yeah, it is not.
0:34
Speaker 1: It has not helped the Cubs to go to another country.
0:38
Speaker 1: The offense still lost. I have no clue how to
0:43
Speaker 1: explain what's happened here in simple terms, Well, in simple
0:48
Speaker 1: terms that you could just say it's baseball, but I
0:52
Speaker 1: I don't know, like, this is this offense has disappeared
0:55
Speaker 1: yet again, you can't just I don't think there's an
1:00
Speaker 1: easy explanation as far as well, this is what the
1:03
Speaker 1: Cubs do. You added one of the best players in baseball,
1:07
Speaker 1: and still here we are in the midst of a funk.
1:10
Speaker 3: Ah.
1:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is this is getting rough to watch, and
1:14
Speaker 1: it's getting it's feeling eerily similar to years past where
1:18
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, it's gonna it'll end, it's gonna be fine,
1:22
Speaker 1: and you just kind of wait for that moment.
1:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think in our coverage and on our show here,
1:30
Speaker 2: we try to be reasonable, We try to be measured.
1:33
Speaker 2: We try not to overreact or ride the roller coaster,
1:38
Speaker 2: as you know many players like to say over the years,
1:42
Speaker 2: but there are also times where you have to sound
1:46
Speaker 2: the alarm bells, and I think it is now, it
1:51
Speaker 2: is now time to do that. That we have we
1:53
Speaker 2: have seen enough, there's enough information, there's enough history. Frankly
2:00
Speaker 2: kind of lingering in the back of everyone's heads that
2:05
Speaker 2: this level of performance is unacceptable and that the negativity
2:10
Speaker 2: is really kind of enveloping this team right now. Before
2:15
Speaker 2: we get into that, I'm just curious, like, what is
2:18
Speaker 2: kind of the atmosphere or the mood in the club's
2:22
Speaker 2: clubhouse in Toronto. I know they're not necessarily going to
2:26
Speaker 2: panic the way that others on the outside might, but
2:31
Speaker 2: it also seems like just watching them play, seeing the
2:33
Speaker 2: moments of frustration, listen to some of their answers, reading
2:37
Speaker 2: your stories, that like it is seeping in now that
2:39
Speaker 2: they like they ya, this has gone wrong.
2:42
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, PCA didn't have a lot to say. You know,
2:47
Speaker 1: he struck out in a big moment basis loaded two outs.
2:51
Speaker 1: I believe it was the seventh inning, they're down four
2:53
Speaker 1: to one. That's where, like you know, the first two
2:57
Speaker 1: three months of the season, he was coming ruin those moments.
3:01
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't even want to act like he
3:04
Speaker 1: he's he had a bad July. July was his best
3:06
Speaker 1: month offensively. So you know he's been coming through in
3:11
Speaker 1: those moments more often than not any and he hasn't
3:14
Speaker 1: in the last you know, ten days. And it was
3:20
Speaker 1: I wouldn't describe him as I would. You know, you've
3:23
Speaker 1: seen him in those moments. He's not the most he's
3:25
Speaker 1: not going to elaborate, he's not going to he's pretty grumpy.
3:30
Speaker 1: And that was PCA council. It was pretty you know, straightforward.
3:37
Speaker 1: We're not gonna we're not gonna pout. We can't, you know,
3:40
Speaker 1: we just gotta. He knows this offense is good and
3:43
Speaker 1: it'll hit. That's kind of been his matra during these
3:46
Speaker 1: past ten days and he's sticking to it. There's no
3:49
Speaker 1: woe is me, I believe was a quote, and he's right.
3:52
Speaker 1: You can't. If you're sitting there sulking in a dwelling
3:55
Speaker 1: on it, then what's the point Danzy? I think is
3:59
Speaker 1: usually the best in these moments he gives a pretty
4:04
Speaker 1: you know, he expounds well and he and he's pretty honest,
4:07
Speaker 1: and he said yeah. I asked him, you know, is
4:10
Speaker 1: there any chance anybody's tight up there? Like you guys
4:13
Speaker 1: don't hit for a week and then and then does
4:16
Speaker 1: that happen? Is that real or is that something we
4:18
Speaker 1: project onto you guys? He's like, no, it's kind of
4:22
Speaker 1: human nature. You see guys struggling, you want to step up,
4:26
Speaker 1: and maybe that makes you a little like that you
4:28
Speaker 1: put pressure on yourself. I also ask like, is there
4:32
Speaker 1: anything you can do, like, you know, is there like
4:36
Speaker 1: do you do team meeting or do you do the opposite?
4:38
Speaker 1: Do you forget about baseball? Do you go off and
4:41
Speaker 1: like enjoy Toronto tomorrow? Like what is it? And he's like,
4:44
Speaker 1: we do all those things. He's like, we we have
4:46
Speaker 1: a meeting every before, like there's a hitters meeting before
4:49
Speaker 1: every series, and we talk and we we're good about that.
4:53
Speaker 1: We're we're a team that talks a lot. And he's like,
4:57
Speaker 1: and we also are close. He's like, that's what The
4:59
Speaker 1: play rides are full, the bus rides get team dinners.
5:03
Speaker 1: He's like, maybe we need to He's like, maybe you're right,
5:05
Speaker 1: maybe we need to switch it up, maybe we need
5:07
Speaker 1: to push a different button. But he's like, but it's
5:10
Speaker 1: not like I think sometimes people will like project their
5:15
Speaker 1: anger onto this team, onto their team that they're rooting
5:18
Speaker 1: for when they're not going well and say they don't care,
5:20
Speaker 1: they're not trying. None of that is true. We know that, right, Like,
5:25
Speaker 1: we know that they care. We know that they're trying.
5:28
Speaker 1: They're not executing, they're not getting the job done. That's
5:31
Speaker 1: the bottom line.
5:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought last night that clip of Kyle Tucker
5:38
Speaker 2: just flinging his helmet into the dugout was like a
5:43
Speaker 2: like an eye opening sequence there of like when even
5:48
Speaker 2: he is feeling it and expressing it in that way,
5:52
Speaker 2: it was it was kind of I mean, shocking is
5:55
Speaker 2: too strong a word, which is very surprising after knowing
6:00
Speaker 2: his reputation in Houston, seeing how he handled everything his first,
6:07
Speaker 2: you know, introduction to the Cubs, his first few months
6:10
Speaker 2: in Chicago. He's kind of the classic guy to just
6:14
Speaker 2: kind of drop his helmet, take off his batting glove.
6:17
Speaker 2: Just kind of very very smooth player, a very calm,
6:21
Speaker 2: even keel player. And when he does that like that,
6:25
Speaker 2: to me symbolized a lot of what's going on with
6:29
Speaker 2: his team, and I think a lot of the angst
6:33
Speaker 2: and angers, not even just with this team, it's just
6:36
Speaker 2: kind of an organization thing. And it's also a you know,
6:41
Speaker 2: several year sort of window here of thoughts creep back
6:46
Speaker 2: into people's heads of how the team faded the last
6:49
Speaker 2: couple of years, the missed opportunities after the twenty sixteen
6:53
Speaker 2: World Series, just like all of it for a brand
6:58
Speaker 2: like the Cubs and a CEA like Chicago just gets magnified.
7:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, it stood out to us too, and we didn't
7:05
Speaker 1: see it, or at least we didn't notice it live,
7:09
Speaker 1: but then there was that video. And what we did
7:12
Speaker 1: notice was when I say we, I mean the reporters
7:16
Speaker 1: out in Toronto, we did see Tucker hitting on the
7:21
Speaker 1: field before the game, which he doesn't do. That's not
7:26
Speaker 1: something that happens very often. So they're trying different things.
7:30
Speaker 1: I mean, he's trying. It's not like he's just sticking
7:33
Speaker 1: with the tried and true methods. He's trying to figure
7:36
Speaker 1: it out. So he's putting in some work. But yeah,
7:39
Speaker 1: that that was an interesting scene. You don't see that
7:43
Speaker 1: with him so frustration, I mean, and it's valid. He
7:47
Speaker 1: didn't have good at bats yesterday, good results, you know,
7:53
Speaker 1: I do, I don't. I do wonder if these like
8:00
Speaker 1: with him specifically, like it is it pressing? Is it
8:04
Speaker 1: is it? Is it the finger? Like if it's the finger,
8:08
Speaker 1: then you got to figure out what to do about that.
8:11
Speaker 1: You discuss a ten dayil I don't know. I don't
8:14
Speaker 1: know with him, like I thought he was coming out
8:17
Speaker 1: of it, maybe at some point in Saint Louis, not
8:20
Speaker 1: that long ago, just a few days ago. Maybe yesterday
8:23
Speaker 1: was just a bad day and we're overreacting to that.
8:26
Speaker 1: But I'd like to you really want to see like
8:29
Speaker 1: a stretch of him getting like, you know, a week
8:33
Speaker 1: of just hitting the ball hard, whether the results come
8:35
Speaker 1: or not, like line drives and fly balls hit hard
8:39
Speaker 1: for a week and then you'll start to feel good.
8:44
Speaker 1: And right now we're just not seeing that with him.
8:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, And obviously it goes without saying that Kyle Tucker's
8:52
Speaker 2: going to be a free agent at the end of
8:53
Speaker 2: this year, and there's been no signs or hopes that
8:57
Speaker 2: the Cubs are going to extend him, and that there's
8:59
Speaker 2: like real doubts about the organization's willingness or appetite to
9:04
Speaker 2: extend him long term, and this year the Cubs did
9:10
Speaker 2: not go all in, but there's a lot of was
9:14
Speaker 2: a lot of urgency to it. And when your best
9:17
Speaker 2: player goes really really quiet at a time when your
9:23
Speaker 2: rival up north just gets crazy hot, like it's going
9:27
Speaker 2: to be an issue. And you know it's not just
9:32
Speaker 2: Tucker either, just a lot a lot of quiet at bats.
9:38
Speaker 2: You know, Saya Suzuki has been a very good player
9:41
Speaker 2: on some very forgettable Cubs teams. That's kind of been
9:46
Speaker 2: and we have not seen that. We have not seen
9:48
Speaker 2: him in October. We have not seen like a wired
9:51
Speaker 2: to wire kind of dominant season. And there's time still
9:56
Speaker 2: for him to get back to who he was earlier
9:58
Speaker 2: this year. Certainly he has the talent for it. But
10:02
Speaker 2: I think that's the question mark. We always knew Pete
10:06
Speaker 2: crow Armstrong like probably wasn't gonna have like a fifty
10:08
Speaker 2: to fifty season or whatever. So I think some of
10:11
Speaker 2: that that's the one where like he's played so over
10:14
Speaker 2: his head. I feel like like his production has gone
10:17
Speaker 2: so far beyond what the Cubs could realistically hoped. I
10:20
Speaker 2: think it's hard to get too worked up about that,
10:25
Speaker 2: but it's like, yeah, it's it's Dansby, it's Seen Half,
10:29
Speaker 2: it's you know, Michael Bush has had a really nice year,
10:32
Speaker 2: but all of a sudden, you know, he he's slumping
10:35
Speaker 2: a bit. And when you add all that together, it's
10:37
Speaker 2: just like this team needs that because I still feel
10:41
Speaker 2: like the bottom could really fall out still with pitching.
10:45
Speaker 2: I know the pitching has been better like recently, but
10:47
Speaker 2: pitching just always seems so fragile. That this team is
10:51
Speaker 2: supposed to have this great foundation of position players and
10:54
Speaker 2: it just has not shown up recently.
10:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, there were more moments where I thought like each
11:01
Speaker 1: guy was kind of like coming out of it. Like
11:03
Speaker 1: I said Tucker, I thought he had some hard hit
11:05
Speaker 1: balls in Saint Louis, Like they were both singles, I believe,
11:08
Speaker 1: but I was just like, okay, that's a good sign.
11:10
Speaker 1: They were line drives. Michael Bush had that monster game
11:14
Speaker 1: in Saint Louis. I believe it was. Yeah, the Saturday
11:17
Speaker 1: in Saint Louis, say I had the final game of
11:20
Speaker 1: the home stand, and you just thought, ah, here it
11:23
Speaker 1: is okay, one of these guys is gonna get going,
11:25
Speaker 1: and it just hasn't. It hasn't carried over to the
11:28
Speaker 1: next day. All right, Patrick, let's take a quick break
11:31
Speaker 1: and talk a little bit more about what's going on here.
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12:36
Speaker 1: Uh, Patrick, I was just we didn't really specifically talk
12:40
Speaker 1: about yesterday's game. That's a Tuesday's game yet, but it
12:45
Speaker 1: is kind of like I was talking to some of
12:48
Speaker 1: the Toronto Beat writers, like Jose Barrios hasn't been that
12:51
Speaker 1: great lately, kind of just you know, an OK pitcher.
12:58
Speaker 1: He didn't have a good game, He didn't do anything
13:00
Speaker 1: special and he held them scoreless. He you know, I
13:04
Speaker 1: think the Cubs drew seven or eight walks by the
13:07
Speaker 1: end of the day. They only had four hits all singles,
13:13
Speaker 1: but they were oh for nine? Was it oh for
13:17
Speaker 1: nine with the runners in scoring position or do they
13:19
Speaker 1: get one hit? It was one for nine, left ten
13:23
Speaker 1: men on, yeah, and seven walks four hits, Like you can't.
13:30
Speaker 1: How do you draw seven walks and score one run?
13:33
Speaker 1: Like this offense should be doing so much better. Uh,
13:38
Speaker 1: that's that's the type of thing where they were beating
13:42
Speaker 1: like what they did on Saturday against Saint Louis are
13:45
Speaker 1: the types of things they just do. They'd been doing
13:48
Speaker 1: earlier in the season against average pitchers average and below,
13:51
Speaker 1: they really do well. It was the top of the
13:54
Speaker 1: top pitching that they would, you know, have okay to
13:59
Speaker 1: below average games against. And that's normal. It's completely normal, apparently,
14:04
Speaker 1: except if hear the Milwaukee Brewers, who have kicked Paul
14:09
Speaker 1: Skeinses but twice at American Family Field. What that team
14:14
Speaker 1: is I think, I don't want to spin this and
14:19
Speaker 1: act like there's no reason to be upset, but what
14:25
Speaker 1: that team has done is making everything worse for the Cubs.
14:29
Speaker 1: What the Brewers are doing is making this seem so
14:33
Speaker 1: much worse the Cubs that here is the good news.
14:36
Speaker 1: The Cubs are the top I think they're tied with
14:39
Speaker 1: the Padres. End up winning last night. They did, so
14:43
Speaker 1: they're tied top the well technically by percentage points. They're
14:50
Speaker 1: in first place in the Wildcard. The Cubs are, but
14:53
Speaker 1: the Padres and Dodgers are tied for first place in
14:55
Speaker 1: the West, and then the Cubs are three and a
14:59
Speaker 1: ha half games ahead of the Mets for the final
15:01
Speaker 1: spot in the wildcard and five and a half games
15:05
Speaker 1: ahead of the Reds to be out of the wildcard.
15:09
Speaker 1: That's not you know, that's that's a pretty good spot
15:12
Speaker 1: to be in all things considered. But they have, like
15:19
Speaker 1: you it's I go back to what Jed said, one
15:22
Speaker 1: other here's one other positive. They're not so we talk
15:27
Speaker 1: about pressing, we talk about looking bad. I don't think
15:32
Speaker 1: they are because they're swinging at the right pitches. I
15:35
Speaker 1: like a lot. What we've seen in the past is
15:38
Speaker 1: they get way out of sync and they just like chase, chase, chase,
15:42
Speaker 1: and like the numbers bear it out. I remember looking
15:46
Speaker 1: last year they were just like this team chases way
15:50
Speaker 1: too much. And then they organized the strike zone and
15:52
Speaker 1: they started hitting later in the season. They're not chasing.
15:56
Speaker 1: They're one of the best teams when it comes to
15:58
Speaker 1: swinging at pitches in the zone, and they don't. And
16:00
Speaker 1: it's not like they just they're one of those non
16:03
Speaker 1: swinging teams that takes a lot of strikes too. They
16:06
Speaker 1: are aggressive in the zone and they are and they
16:10
Speaker 1: leave those pitches that are bad. And like, there are
16:14
Speaker 1: so many examples lately where you see these center cut
16:17
Speaker 1: fastballs just sitting down the middle of the zone and
16:21
Speaker 1: they miss them. And it's been Kyle Tucker, it's been
16:23
Speaker 1: Pete raw Armstrong. It's where what is happening? Like? That's
16:28
Speaker 1: that's the that's the confusing part. But I go back
16:31
Speaker 1: to what Jed said about, you know, when you're in
16:34
Speaker 1: these slumps, you don't know when they end. You don't
16:37
Speaker 1: know when they begin. I think that's the unsettling feeling
16:40
Speaker 1: about it because we went through this last year where
16:43
Speaker 1: they kept saying, you know, we're gonna hit, We're gonna hit,
16:46
Speaker 1: and it lasted. It'll just be you know, it's only
16:49
Speaker 1: been two weeks. It's only been four weeks, and then
16:53
Speaker 1: it was two months. So you just I don't know
16:57
Speaker 1: when this is gonna end. I believe it will, but
17:01
Speaker 1: each day that passes, I have to shrug my shoulders
17:03
Speaker 1: and say, okay, like you can't put it past them.
17:06
Speaker 1: You can't. You know, you never know in baseball, how
17:08
Speaker 1: long will this end? Will they cough up a huge
17:11
Speaker 1: wild card lead? They've already coughed up a huge division lead,
17:14
Speaker 1: and they're seven and a half games back. We don't
17:16
Speaker 1: even need to talk about the division. Right now, it's like,
17:18
Speaker 1: put the division to the side, and then maybe maybe
17:21
Speaker 1: if they get on a run and Milwaukee cools down,
17:24
Speaker 1: then we can start talking about the division again. But
17:26
Speaker 1: right now it's pointless.
17:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you had sent the text in one
17:32
Speaker 2: of our various texts changed about the theo quote of
17:36
Speaker 2: our offense broke somewhere along the lines or along the way,
17:40
Speaker 2: whatever that quote was, I believe from twenty eighteen when
17:43
Speaker 2: the Brewers caught up to them. And that's not a
17:47
Speaker 2: part of their daily hitting meetings or you know, pre
17:50
Speaker 2: series hitting meetings, but it's in the back of our minds,
17:54
Speaker 2: you know, the fans' minds. Organizationally, there's still enough people
17:59
Speaker 2: around who have remembered that. And I think there's no
18:03
Speaker 2: way to quantify this, but I think a place in
18:06
Speaker 2: like Milwaukee just plays with a different sort of freedom
18:11
Speaker 2: and that when things start rolling for them, or when
18:16
Speaker 2: things you know, kind of turned down, they can just
18:22
Speaker 2: keep moving. And I think there's just a different weight
18:26
Speaker 2: that teams like the Cubs play under. And that's not
18:30
Speaker 2: like an excuse or rationalization, it's not really provable, but
18:33
Speaker 2: I think you're kind of seeing that play out this year.
18:36
Speaker 2: And the Brewers. They make a lot of people just
18:39
Speaker 2: look bad of just you know, Quinn Priester, you know,
18:45
Speaker 2: a Pirate's first round pick, you know, bounces around to
18:47
Speaker 2: the Red Sox and all of a sudden, he's like
18:50
Speaker 2: lights out here, and there's just tons of you know,
18:54
Speaker 2: Andrew Vaughn, you know, the worst team of all time
18:57
Speaker 2: last year's White Sox, so he caldn't get it going
19:00
Speaker 2: on the South Side, and all of a sudden he
19:01
Speaker 2: shows up there and people are throwing his name around
19:04
Speaker 2: in the MVP discussion. I think small market teams or
19:10
Speaker 2: even median market teams that like do not succeed. I'm
19:14
Speaker 2: all point out the Pirates again, like how come the
19:18
Speaker 2: Brewers can do this on this payroll? Certainly in Chicago
19:21
Speaker 2: there's a sense of like why isn't why in the
19:29
Speaker 2: Cubs organization? Why is this organization spending you know, one
19:33
Speaker 2: hundred million more on payroll and they could be double
19:38
Speaker 2: digits games behind the Brewers by the end of August.
19:44
Speaker 2: You know, Craig council is, It's irrefutable. He is a
19:48
Speaker 2: good manager, Like he has the hardware, the experience, the
19:51
Speaker 2: record to prove that. But clearly he was just a
19:55
Speaker 2: piece of the machine there. He was not like the
19:57
Speaker 2: entire brains of the operations. It goes like that's multiple regimes,
20:03
Speaker 2: a lot of people, different departments, all working together. And
20:10
Speaker 2: so I think just the timing of this, you know,
20:17
Speaker 2: there are certain moments where it's okay to just like
20:19
Speaker 2: call it out and be like this is unacceptable, and
20:21
Speaker 2: I think this is kind of one of those periods.
20:24
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean it's going to define the season, but
20:27
Speaker 2: like we're not the types too after every blowout loss,
20:32
Speaker 2: like you know, rip everyone. But I think we've seen
20:36
Speaker 2: enough and like this has been kind of me long
20:40
Speaker 2: enough that it's fair to just call it out and
20:43
Speaker 2: be like they have to get a lot better, a
20:45
Speaker 2: lot fast, or else the season is going to be
20:47
Speaker 2: a massive disappointment.
20:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to talk about something you said with
20:52
Speaker 1: the Brewers and then we can kind of discuss what
20:56
Speaker 1: is there a solution here that's not just sticking with
21:00
Speaker 1: the norm. Uh, let's take a quick break and we'll
21:02
Speaker 1: be back.
21:03
Speaker 3: Hey, we love ripping slab packs on Arena club. I
21:05
Speaker 3: just ripped one in a ruby pack. Those are fancy
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Speaker 3: schmancy kip and I pulled a Matt Shaw twenty twenty
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Speaker 3: three Bowman Draft Aqua Lunar Creater Refractor card and I
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Speaker 3: guess what. Guess what? I got a little offer. You
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Speaker 3: get the instant offer right away. Okay, so they're offering
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Speaker 3: me one hundred and twenty one bucks, sell it back
21:25
Speaker 3: and then I can get a new slab pack.
21:27
Speaker 1: What do I do?
21:28
Speaker 5: I want to see this thing.
21:29
Speaker 1: Hold on, look at that.
21:31
Speaker 5: That's a beautiful card.
21:32
Speaker 1: You know what.
21:33
Speaker 5: I think that's a safe bet. I think it's gonna
21:36
Speaker 5: make you a little bit money. I think the more
21:38
Speaker 5: more big league time he gets, I'd almost take the deal,
21:41
Speaker 5: though I'm in it for the chase.
21:43
Speaker 1: I like opening more packs.
21:44
Speaker 5: I think that one hundred and twenty one can buy
21:46
Speaker 5: you a couple more slabs to open, and I think
21:49
Speaker 5: you keep chasing until you get someone you really like.
21:51
Speaker 1: But that's the best part about it for me. That's right.
21:53
Speaker 3: You can sell it back one hundred and twenty one
21:55
Speaker 3: bucks and then open up another slab pack. Use the
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Speaker 3: code foul to receive twenty percent off your first slab
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Speaker 3: pack orcard purchase at arenaclub dot com slash foul.
22:05
Speaker 1: I think the burghs and how they're built is a
22:10
Speaker 1: good lesson for fans, for all of us in the
22:15
Speaker 1: sense that we don't know anything, and that screaming and
22:22
Speaker 1: yelling about the decisions the team makes before you see
22:25
Speaker 1: how it plays out is probably a little foolish or
22:31
Speaker 1: you know, we just don't know how some of these
22:34
Speaker 1: things are gonna go. I don't think the Cubs could
22:39
Speaker 1: get away with playing someone like Isaac Collins on a
22:42
Speaker 1: regular basis. And the guy's been awesome. He's a rule
22:46
Speaker 1: he's a triple A Rule five draft pick. He's twenty
22:49
Speaker 1: eight years old and he's finally getting some real playing
22:52
Speaker 1: time and he's been amazing. I don't know if that
22:56
Speaker 1: kind of guy can get playing time in Chicago, Like,
23:00
Speaker 1: how do you even get to the point where you're
23:02
Speaker 1: allowing him to play outside of injuries? If the Cubs
23:07
Speaker 1: traded for Andrew Vaughn, what would the reaction be from us,
23:12
Speaker 1: from fans, from other media members like it. I don't
23:16
Speaker 1: think anybody would be like, oh, that that's a sharp move.
23:19
Speaker 1: They're thinking outside the box, and it would just, you know,
23:23
Speaker 1: it would be like, why are they going with this?
23:25
Speaker 1: These failed prospects, they never worked. There's there's just so
23:31
Speaker 1: many examples. I mean the team, the team traded their closer,
23:36
Speaker 1: their dominant closer in the off season, and now you
23:41
Speaker 1: know they they have I think I believe one of
23:44
Speaker 1: the pieces that got them their third baseman, uh Caleb Durban.
23:50
Speaker 1: Devin Williams is having an awful season, his first awful
23:54
Speaker 1: season and like pretty much forever, like those types of
23:59
Speaker 1: moves the Cubs, like, can they get away with and
24:02
Speaker 1: not be excoriated for it? I don't know. I don't
24:06
Speaker 1: think so, Like I know, I'll wed rip them if
24:08
Speaker 1: they're trading away good players, you know, just because their
24:14
Speaker 1: contracts are closed. They're probably gonna trade Freddy Peralta this winter.
24:19
Speaker 1: So it's just like, look, I'm not saying that the
24:22
Speaker 1: Cubs should act that way. It's just a really interesting way.
24:27
Speaker 1: It's like these are the types of things that you say,
24:28
Speaker 1: like you can't do that, Like what are you doing?
24:31
Speaker 1: They'd let Willia Thomas walk. Oh, Willia Thomas is the
24:34
Speaker 1: heart and soul of that team. He gets so many
24:36
Speaker 1: clutch hits. He's an average player now and it got
24:40
Speaker 1: paid and he's just an average player. Like that's just
24:43
Speaker 1: that's a sign of an incredibly well run organization. And
24:47
Speaker 1: maybe this is the bottom line, Patrick A. I think
24:50
Speaker 1: you can do some of these things that it's a
24:52
Speaker 1: little harder to do with the scrutiny of the media
24:54
Speaker 1: and the fans in a bigger market, so you can
24:56
Speaker 1: kind of go under the radar and do these things.
24:59
Speaker 1: The second thing is by this point that front office
25:04
Speaker 1: has earned the benefit of the doubt they like. I
25:08
Speaker 1: don't know if if, like every Cubs fan would would
25:13
Speaker 1: be fine with it, if the Cubs were churning things
25:15
Speaker 1: out like like the Brewers were and getting every so
25:18
Speaker 1: many things right, but there'd be less of an outcry
25:22
Speaker 1: maybe if if they were behaving in this manner, but
25:25
Speaker 1: they were getting things right so often the Cubs get
25:29
Speaker 1: things right every now and then, like Matthew Boyd's a
25:31
Speaker 1: hell of a signing that that wasn't a celebrated signing,
25:34
Speaker 1: and that's a hell of an edition. Brad Keller is
25:36
Speaker 1: a great nri. You know, there are some good stories here,
25:41
Speaker 1: but right now it doesn't feel like there there are
25:44
Speaker 1: many good things happening, you know. So it just it
25:49
Speaker 1: just struck me when I wanted to look up where
25:51
Speaker 1: Isaac Collins was from, like, are you kidding me? Triple
25:54
Speaker 1: A rule five draft pick. That's insane.
25:58
Speaker 2: I love the Mizz because if the Mizz was in
26:00
Speaker 2: the Cubs farm system, like if he had two good
26:03
Speaker 2: starts at Myrtle Beach, people would want to put like
26:05
Speaker 2: a stadia a statue outside Wrigley Field for the guy,
26:09
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, like he goes under the
26:11
Speaker 2: radar and just you know, becomes an All Star under
26:16
Speaker 2: very unusual circumstances. But you know, I don't it's this
26:22
Speaker 2: moment to me. I think there's a lot of a
26:25
Speaker 2: lot of layers to it. I think it starts with
26:28
Speaker 2: just like Kyle Tucker isn't in a slump because the
26:33
Speaker 2: Cubs aren't spending beyond the luxury tax threshold. But I
26:36
Speaker 2: think just the overall tenor of this season began with
26:41
Speaker 2: the Alex Bregman sweepstakes. I realized Matt Shaw has been
26:46
Speaker 2: really good. We've talked about it, you know, on our
26:48
Speaker 2: on our prior episode, But just this idea of the
26:54
Speaker 2: Cubs not quite going all the way in and flexing
27:00
Speaker 2: their spending power the way that they had previously, the
27:05
Speaker 2: way that other teams do. I think this front office
27:11
Speaker 2: is very systematic, very organized, very rational, but clearly at
27:17
Speaker 2: this trade deadline, it seems like they went a little
27:23
Speaker 2: too far in that direction. This might have been the
27:25
Speaker 2: time to color outside the lines a little bit. They
27:30
Speaker 2: did not. I also think we talked about it before,
27:33
Speaker 2: but this trade deadline exposed some of the gaps in
27:35
Speaker 2: the farm system. Like we hear about how great the
27:38
Speaker 2: farm system is, how healthy the organization is, and I
27:41
Speaker 2: don't know if the rest of the baseball industry really
27:44
Speaker 2: viewed it that way, Like not just the Cub's kind
27:48
Speaker 2: of insistence upon protecting their future, but also other teams
27:52
Speaker 2: being like, eh, not really moving the needle for them.
27:57
Speaker 2: And then it's what we talked about earlier, just until
28:00
Speaker 2: the Cubs like break through and get back to the
28:03
Speaker 2: playoffs and like Wrigley Field is rocking in October. I
28:07
Speaker 2: still think this his recent history lingers. You know, we're
28:11
Speaker 2: not talking about nineteen oh eight or you know, stuff
28:15
Speaker 2: that happened before we were born. It's just at this
28:18
Speaker 2: period of franchise history has been disappointing, and that people,
28:24
Speaker 2: you know, want to see more. They expect to see more,
28:28
Speaker 2: and you know, I'm sure Wriglily, there'll be forty thousand
28:33
Speaker 2: people at Wrigley this weekend, there'll be amazing atmosphere against
28:37
Speaker 2: the Brewers, but like they want the on field product
28:41
Speaker 2: to match that. And by and large, this year has
28:45
Speaker 2: gone very very well. We're not losing sight of that.
28:48
Speaker 2: It's just that at this moment you have to call
28:51
Speaker 2: it for what it is and you know, start to
28:55
Speaker 2: kind of, you know, push the panic button a little bit.
29:00
Speaker 2: You know, Dansby talks about different buttons to push, Like, Okay,
29:03
Speaker 2: you have this front office. This is they built this team,
29:07
Speaker 2: Like this is fully their system now from top to bottom.
29:10
Speaker 2: You have a guy who was given the biggest contract
29:15
Speaker 2: ever for a manager, and you know, push some buttons.
29:18
Speaker 2: Kyle Tucker, You you want to make five hundred million
29:20
Speaker 2: dollars in your next contract, like, go out and earn it.
29:24
Speaker 2: And the same with Pete co Armstrong. You want to
29:26
Speaker 2: be a Cub the rest of your life. Like put more,
29:29
Speaker 2: even more pressure on this front office. I mean, Sea
29:32
Speaker 2: Suzuki was signed to be part of the next great
29:34
Speaker 2: Cubs team, Like you know, those are just kind of
29:37
Speaker 2: the hitters. And I still, like I said earlier, I
29:41
Speaker 2: still want to see how the pitching holds up too.
29:42
Speaker 2: I think this this stretch is going to be really tough. Uh,
29:46
Speaker 2: you know, jave Asade, it was the classic. Hey, once
29:48
Speaker 2: our guys on the injury list get healthy, it'll be
29:50
Speaker 2: like another trade deadline addition. And then you see like,
29:53
Speaker 2: oh wait, he hasn't played all year in the majors.
29:56
Speaker 2: It's gonna take some time.
29:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, I agree with all of that. I
30:04
Speaker 1: you know this, this could just be a blip, you know,
30:07
Speaker 1: but right now it feels really rough. And and it's like,
30:12
Speaker 1: I think the big thing for me is like you
30:14
Speaker 1: see signs of it ending. You see a game like Saturday,
30:17
Speaker 1: you see a game like last Wednesday, and it and
30:19
Speaker 1: it doesn't carry over it there's no building on those
30:23
Speaker 1: games and and uh and and really turning the corner.
30:29
Speaker 1: I do still think it'll happen. I don't think this
30:32
Speaker 1: is like a full on collapse, but moments like this,
30:35
Speaker 1: it's it's hard to not feel kind of like, I
30:39
Speaker 1: don't know, this is a little worrisome. They certainly need
30:43
Speaker 1: to turn it around. We'll see, Uh, we're recording this
30:46
Speaker 1: on a Wednesday. We'll see if they can get back
30:49
Speaker 1: on track and and and win a couple of games
30:52
Speaker 1: in Canada and and come back home against a pirates
30:56
Speaker 1: team that they should be able to beat up on
31:00
Speaker 1: who knows, who knows if they can do that. I
31:01
Speaker 1: don't know what the weather will be like at Rikley
31:03
Speaker 1: this weekend either, but yeah, we'll see. We'll see maybe
31:08
Speaker 1: in a week from now, that they'll have had a great,
31:10
Speaker 1: you know, end to this road trip and and are
31:13
Speaker 1: looking and are playing well against Milwaukee and they beat
31:17
Speaker 1: up on Pittsburgh, and we'll be feeling completely different about things.
31:21
Speaker 1: We'll see. Thanks so much for listening to everyone. This
31:24
Speaker 1: is Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe
31:27
Speaker 1: to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic where
31:30
Speaker 1: Patrick and I are on top of all things Cubs.
31:32
Speaker 1: Thanks everyone, Take the go