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Cubs president Jed Hoyer visits North Side Territory ahead of the trade deadline · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:08
Speaker 1: Sadeve Charma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, we have
0:16
Speaker 1: a special guest today. It is team president Jed Hoyer.
0:20
Speaker 1: Let's get right to it with Jed. Jed, thanks so
0:24
Speaker 1: much for joining us. Appreciate you jumping on the show.
0:27
Speaker 1: Looks like you're at the offices.
0:29
Speaker 2: Is that right you're Yeah, it's meeting week, so.
0:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're here a lot fun times.
0:36
Speaker 1: We're we're not going to dive into the draft. I
0:39
Speaker 1: think you know what the topic, Djuur is. Uh, it's July.
0:44
Speaker 1: Your team is in the thick of it, obviously one
0:47
Speaker 1: of the best records in baseball. Looks like you're headed
0:51
Speaker 1: towards buying this summer, which is exciting to have a
0:55
Speaker 1: clear direction. Uh, can you kind of give us as
0:59
Speaker 1: we had to the All Star break? We know like
1:03
Speaker 1: the draft does kind of slow things down. But where
1:06
Speaker 1: is where? Where do you feel everything is right now
1:08
Speaker 1: as far as the trade market. Do you feel like
1:12
Speaker 1: anything could get done during the All Star break? And
1:15
Speaker 1: where do you kind of see not not only your team,
1:18
Speaker 1: but the market in general, and how you expect things
1:21
Speaker 1: to move this this July.
1:23
Speaker 4: All right, let me unpack the seven questions you ask you.
1:29
Speaker 4: So I guess to start with so typically, I guess
1:33
Speaker 4: not typically, because we've only done this for I guess
1:36
Speaker 4: a handful of years. But there's always a lot of conversations,
1:40
Speaker 4: you know, kind of this week, people will talk about
1:42
Speaker 4: the draft, talk about their teams or whatever, and then
1:45
Speaker 4: it kind of quiets down as we get sort of
1:48
Speaker 4: into the draft, and then really the minute the draft
1:51
Speaker 4: is over, now the trade conversations really pick up. I
1:56
Speaker 4: spent the last couple of days of the of the
1:58
Speaker 4: All Star break last year in Cooper's town with one
2:00
Speaker 4: of my sons, and you know, my my phone is
2:03
Speaker 4: ringing off the hook, and I was like, you know,
2:05
Speaker 4: I thought, maybe we get a couple of days off
2:07
Speaker 4: here after the after the draft, and I just think
2:10
Speaker 4: people now kind of jump right in right into it.
2:13
Speaker 4: So I think it'll it'll become active here for probably
2:17
Speaker 4: after the draft. There's a lot of conversations going on,
2:20
Speaker 4: but feels more exploratory.
2:24
Speaker 3: Than about to get things done.
2:27
Speaker 4: In general, I guess to sort of educate the listeners
2:30
Speaker 4: you know, the way the way it usually works is
2:33
Speaker 4: like people are always say they're willing to move early,
2:37
Speaker 4: but then normally the early price is really exorbitant, and
2:41
Speaker 4: therefore you end up kind of moving into closer to
2:44
Speaker 4: the deadline.
2:44
Speaker 3: Is usually how it works.
2:46
Speaker 4: So my expectation is that the deals will get done
2:49
Speaker 4: in a handful of days before July thirty first, But
2:52
Speaker 4: it doesn't mean you don't try to make deals and
2:55
Speaker 4: try to be active in advance. And then, as for
2:59
Speaker 4: where we are, think that you know, the team has
3:02
Speaker 4: played really well so far, a lot of really great
3:05
Speaker 4: individual performances, and I think as a as a group,
3:09
Speaker 4: it's been really impressive. I think there's obviously areas to add.
3:13
Speaker 4: In any year, I think there's areas to add, you know,
3:16
Speaker 4: trying to create more depth, trying to sort of fire
3:19
Speaker 4: proof your team, so to speak, by insurance on certain areas.
3:23
Speaker 4: But I do think in our situation this year, you know,
3:25
Speaker 4: the position playing group has been really terrific, both offensively
3:30
Speaker 4: and defensively. I think are starting pitching is hung in
3:33
Speaker 4: there well in the absence of steel and assad and
3:36
Speaker 4: then showed it for two months. But certainly that's an
3:39
Speaker 4: area that we'll be in discussions on and then I
3:41
Speaker 4: think like every team, every team needs, you know, additional relievers.
3:46
Speaker 4: I don't think there's a team out there that feels
3:47
Speaker 4: like okay, Bullpens completely said, I think everyone will be
3:51
Speaker 4: in that market.
3:51
Speaker 3: So that's really my expectation.
3:54
Speaker 4: But yeah, certainly it'll be a very active month, both
3:56
Speaker 4: with the draft and obviously the deadline.
4:00
Speaker 5: I mean, Jed, after selling at the twenty twenty one
4:02
Speaker 5: trade deadline, you memorily memorably said no reason to go halfway?
4:06
Speaker 5: Does the same logic sort of apply here in a
4:11
Speaker 5: different way because you've always been someone who you always
4:15
Speaker 5: pick a lane. Yeah, and I was just wondering, how
4:18
Speaker 5: how does that apply here.
4:19
Speaker 4: That's a good question. It's certainly going to be buyers
4:22
Speaker 4: and we're going to try to improve the team.
4:25
Speaker 3: Thing.
4:25
Speaker 4: It's hard to say now, I don't know, you know
4:28
Speaker 4: what's going to percent itself. Obviously, you want to do
4:31
Speaker 4: good deals, the you know, deals that you feel like,
4:34
Speaker 4: you know makes sense for the organization this year and
4:36
Speaker 4: long term. You never want to take for granted where
4:40
Speaker 4: you are right now. I mean, I think that's ultimately
4:42
Speaker 4: the one thing that we know is where we are
4:45
Speaker 4: but also you know you can't just you can't buy
4:48
Speaker 4: with with no restrictions and they say we're gonna do whatever,
4:51
Speaker 4: because you know that that can be really damaging. So
4:54
Speaker 4: I think the biggest thing right now is sort of
4:56
Speaker 4: pushing our staff is be creative and come up with
4:58
Speaker 4: a lot of different ideas.
4:59
Speaker 3: You know, this is it's gonna be.
5:01
Speaker 4: An interesting market. I think it'll sort itself out over
5:04
Speaker 4: the next few weeks. But there's not a ton of
5:07
Speaker 4: obvious sellers right now. That might change, you know, you know,
5:11
Speaker 4: as some teams realize it's not there, the odds aren't
5:14
Speaker 4: great for them, but it may be a year we
5:17
Speaker 4: have to be a little bit more creative because I
5:18
Speaker 4: do think the new playoff system and I do think
5:20
Speaker 4: that the way the American League get set up this
5:22
Speaker 4: year could lead itself to fewer sellers, and therefore maybe
5:26
Speaker 4: you have to be creative and how you put a
5:29
Speaker 4: deal together.
5:30
Speaker 1: You're touching on it there, Jed. But there's there's a
5:33
Speaker 1: few teams that feel like they're they're going to wait
5:36
Speaker 1: to see where they where they sit, and they have
5:39
Speaker 1: really interesting players Arizona, Kansas City, Boston even I think
5:43
Speaker 1: any of those teams have players that you, guys would
5:47
Speaker 1: likely be interested in. How do you kind of balance
5:50
Speaker 1: the the idea of, Okay, maybe you want to be
5:53
Speaker 1: aggressive and ad, but then also be patient and say,
5:56
Speaker 1: what if these teams start selling and we've made an
5:59
Speaker 1: aggressive move and now we don't have the assets to
6:01
Speaker 1: go get a player that you may seem as see
6:04
Speaker 1: is really desirable.
6:06
Speaker 3: That's a great question, and that's what you have to prioritize.
6:08
Speaker 4: And I'd say most of the conversations I've had this
6:10
Speaker 4: week with teams have been sort of what you described,
6:14
Speaker 4: where teams acknowledge their position but realize, like, hey, we
6:18
Speaker 4: got I don't know how many games exactly we have left,
6:20
Speaker 4: but we call it twenty games left roughly, maybe a
6:23
Speaker 4: little bit more before the deadline. I'm going to wait
6:25
Speaker 4: and see where we stand in the last couple of days.
6:28
Speaker 4: I think that's a very common refrain.
6:30
Speaker 3: Right now.
6:31
Speaker 4: You know there's a very small handful of teams in
6:34
Speaker 4: the obvious selling lane, and then there's a bunch of
6:36
Speaker 4: teams in that lane, and I think that that's going
6:38
Speaker 4: to be what really determines how the deadline feels.
6:42
Speaker 3: And so you're totally right, like jumping at a deal early.
6:46
Speaker 3: You know, you may look.
6:46
Speaker 4: Back and say, oh, man, if I had known this
6:48
Speaker 4: team was going to end up selling, I would have
6:50
Speaker 4: positioned differently.
6:51
Speaker 3: So I think that's going to be a real balance
6:53
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Speaker 5: Jenn I spent a lot of time trying to think
7:58
Speaker 5: of a different Kyle Tucker question because you're so scripted
8:02
Speaker 5: in your no comments, But like, how does he change
8:06
Speaker 5: his calculus at the trade deadline? You obviously want to
8:09
Speaker 5: maximize this year just in case maybe his replacement could
8:13
Speaker 5: be an Eyebell right now, or maybe you have to
8:16
Speaker 5: like budget forty fifty million dollars for him for the
8:20
Speaker 5: next decade annually and you need a lot of young,
8:24
Speaker 5: cheap talent to surround him with. Like how do you
8:27
Speaker 5: it's not about one player at any deadline, but what's
8:30
Speaker 5: kind of the internal debate just around that idea?
8:33
Speaker 4: Well, I think that kind of goes back to what
8:35
Speaker 4: I said before, like what we know the most about
8:37
Speaker 4: is where we are right now.
8:38
Speaker 3: I think that you know, certainly you're you're always.
8:41
Speaker 4: Trying to balance those things, but you know, what's in
8:42
Speaker 4: front of us is really important, and obviously he's had
8:46
Speaker 4: a huge impact on our offense. I think you know,
8:50
Speaker 4: he's been terrific certainly, you know, having him on base
8:52
Speaker 4: all the time, and you know, watching the quality of
8:55
Speaker 4: his bats and I think has really had a huge impact.
8:57
Speaker 4: And he's just a great all player. I think that's
9:01
Speaker 4: really benefited us in so many ways. And so you know, clearly,
9:05
Speaker 4: you know, this has been a really impressive position playing
9:08
Speaker 4: group so far, and he and he's sort of he's
9:11
Speaker 4: a big part of that, and obviously that's going to
9:13
Speaker 4: factor into our calculusm Jack, You've You've talked to us
9:16
Speaker 4: a lot about how you kind of you look at
9:19
Speaker 4: these moments, these deadline opportunities as moments to you know,
9:23
Speaker 4: actually make a move.
9:25
Speaker 1: Sometimes teams just don't seem as motivated and you kind
9:28
Speaker 1: of enjoy the fact that there's a deadline here. How
9:33
Speaker 1: like how rare and fleeting are these opportunities to improve
9:36
Speaker 1: your team and find motivated teams to work with.
9:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was talking to another team president the other
9:44
Speaker 4: day and he sort of said that, like, a, Hey, listen,
9:46
Speaker 4: this is the one time I know you've got you
9:49
Speaker 4: had twenty nine teams that are going to other teams
9:51
Speaker 4: that are going to be you know, looking to do deals,
9:54
Speaker 4: and you know sometimes you know, other times of the.
9:56
Speaker 3: Year you know, you don't have it, you don't you
9:59
Speaker 3: don't know you have everyone's attention.
10:00
Speaker 4: I guess this is the best way to say it, right,
10:02
Speaker 4: And I think this time of year people get themselves
10:05
Speaker 4: into into deal making mode, and you know, sometimes those
10:07
Speaker 4: are deals that are clearly like, you know, either a
10:10
Speaker 4: rental or a buy.
10:11
Speaker 3: Now for this team.
10:13
Speaker 4: But like that was kind of what I did last
10:15
Speaker 4: year with Paratus with Morell, was that it felt like
10:18
Speaker 4: a deal. You know, we didn't have very high playoff
10:20
Speaker 4: odds last year at that time because of how we
10:21
Speaker 4: played early the year. We played great the last three months,
10:24
Speaker 4: but ultimately it wasn't enough. But you know, that was
10:28
Speaker 4: sort of a good example of a deal that was
10:31
Speaker 4: it was like, hey, this is an active time. I
10:34
Speaker 4: started talking to Tampa actually right around this time of year,
10:37
Speaker 4: and we ended up doing that deal towards the end,
10:39
Speaker 4: and that was a good example. I don't think for
10:40
Speaker 4: either team that wasn't a typical deadline trade, right, you know,
10:45
Speaker 4: neither team was had very high playoff odds, but it
10:49
Speaker 4: made sense for both sides to do it. So I
10:51
Speaker 4: do think that it's a time for activity, and I
10:54
Speaker 4: think that a lot of teams want to sort of
10:57
Speaker 4: honest say, take advantage of that, but they want to
10:59
Speaker 4: be part of that that action, and people get really
11:02
Speaker 4: creative this time of year, and I think that's a
11:03
Speaker 4: great thing.
11:05
Speaker 5: Hey jed to what extent does like what could go
11:09
Speaker 5: wrong enter your thought process here? Like you're a pretty
11:14
Speaker 5: optimistic guy, but you're realist because you've been in the
11:17
Speaker 5: game for so long. Like, how does that enter the
11:21
Speaker 5: equation here of like planning for potentially three months.
11:25
Speaker 3: After this no question? I think that, you know, I
11:29
Speaker 3: kind of I said it earlier.
11:30
Speaker 4: I think when you think about roster, you know, you
11:33
Speaker 4: think about you got to play you know, you know,
11:36
Speaker 4: two months of baseball after the deadline and you don't
11:39
Speaker 4: have August waiver trades anymore, so you do have to
11:42
Speaker 4: think about, you know, what your roster looks like, what
11:45
Speaker 4: could go wrong.
11:46
Speaker 3: I think that's a big part of the job.
11:47
Speaker 4: You know, Counsel and I talk about that all the time,
11:50
Speaker 4: that that is a big part of the job, is
11:52
Speaker 4: trying to.
11:53
Speaker 3: See around corners and trying to you know, it's.
11:57
Speaker 4: Not a great way to go through life thinking about
11:59
Speaker 4: what can go wrong, you know, but at the same time,
12:02
Speaker 4: you have to think about like you know, these two injuries,
12:05
Speaker 4: you know, what would we do in this situation? Because
12:07
Speaker 4: that is the nature of baseball, and it doesn't the
12:11
Speaker 4: best case scenario doesn't often happen. So I do think
12:14
Speaker 4: that's a big part of my job. I think it's
12:17
Speaker 4: a big part of Craig's job as well, thinking through you know,
12:21
Speaker 4: if this goes wrong or that goes wrong, how do
12:23
Speaker 4: we handle it?
12:23
Speaker 3: Because that's the job.
12:26
Speaker 1: So much of this pitching staff has been built with
12:30
Speaker 1: undervalued players, whether it's pretty much the majority of the
12:35
Speaker 1: bullpen has you know, picked up in various ways, and
12:39
Speaker 1: then they're dominating and then Matthew Boyd's an All Star.
12:42
Speaker 1: I don't think many people expected this type of performance
12:46
Speaker 1: for him, but clearly you guys have some trust in
12:49
Speaker 1: the pitching infrastructure, whether it's Tommy and Casey or the
12:53
Speaker 1: addition of Tyler's ambro or even others behind the scenes.
12:57
Speaker 1: I know you're not going to get into names of
12:59
Speaker 1: players you're pursuing, but are there.
13:03
Speaker 3: I guess this is a two part question. Can you
13:05
Speaker 3: do that?
13:05
Speaker 1: Can you think of it in the same way, where
13:07
Speaker 1: can you say, like we see something we like this
13:10
Speaker 1: guy may not have the ra or the results exactly
13:13
Speaker 1: that we want, but we think we can do something.
13:16
Speaker 3: Is that?
13:16
Speaker 1: Can you do that mid season as much? Can you
13:18
Speaker 1: have that same thinking and are there profiles or characteristics
13:22
Speaker 1: that you can kind of point to that you say
13:24
Speaker 1: like this is what we're looking for.
13:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you can.
13:28
Speaker 4: I mean I think that for rental, it maybe a
13:30
Speaker 4: little bit harder than it would be with someone you're
13:33
Speaker 4: going to control. You realize you have, you know, a
13:36
Speaker 4: year and a half or two and a half years
13:38
Speaker 4: to make some of those changes and.
13:40
Speaker 3: Recoup that value. I do agree with you, like getting.
13:42
Speaker 4: A guy for if you're getting a reliever that's going
13:45
Speaker 4: to make fifteen to fifteen to eighteen appearances, somewhat hard
13:50
Speaker 4: sometimes to make significant changes. But I mean, I know
13:54
Speaker 4: what the Braves did in twenty twenty one was brilliant.
13:57
Speaker 5: You know.
13:57
Speaker 4: They whether it's Josh Peterson wasn't having a good year,
14:00
Speaker 4: Eddie Rosario wasn't having a good year, so Layer wasn't having.
14:04
Speaker 3: A good year.
14:05
Speaker 4: But those players had track records and then they basically
14:07
Speaker 4: bought on the you know, the idea that they would
14:10
Speaker 4: you know, the regression to the mean, and they did,
14:12
Speaker 4: and I think that was really effective. And I do
14:15
Speaker 4: think there's a tendency at the deadline to like who's
14:18
Speaker 4: the who's hot right now, who's playing really well, and
14:21
Speaker 4: it it is definitely comforting to to get that guy
14:24
Speaker 4: who's doing that. But at the same time, like there's
14:27
Speaker 4: also a really good argument that like sometimes like you know, listen,
14:29
Speaker 4: like this guy's a good player, he has a good
14:31
Speaker 4: track record, and he you know, he's having a down year.
14:34
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's just a matter of time until he plays well.
14:37
Speaker 4: So we have both those discussions both on like this
14:40
Speaker 4: guy is a better player than this but also I
14:43
Speaker 4: mean I'm talking to our pitching guys all the time
14:45
Speaker 4: about you know, different guys like you know, adding a
14:49
Speaker 4: pitch or you know.
14:50
Speaker 3: A delivery adjustment.
14:51
Speaker 4: I do think on the pitching side, I think that's
14:54
Speaker 4: a little bit more prevalent than on the hitting side.
14:57
Speaker 4: And I would also, like you said, you talk about
14:59
Speaker 4: our our pitching and our pitching infrastructure has been really good,
15:02
Speaker 4: Like I would also make note that our eight defenders
15:06
Speaker 4: are really good too, you know, And I think that
15:10
Speaker 4: that is a significant part of our pitching value honestly,
15:13
Speaker 4: is that we play really good defense. We have a
15:15
Speaker 4: lot of really good defenders, we make plays, and I
15:17
Speaker 4: think that you know, that is that.
15:20
Speaker 3: Is a part of our pitching infrastructure in a way
15:22
Speaker 3: as well.
15:24
Speaker 5: Cole Hammil's would be another good one too, if you
15:26
Speaker 5: guys just betting on the track record.
15:28
Speaker 4: There well, and you know, honestly, like the Cole Hamil's deal,
15:35
Speaker 4: I mean I learned a lesson on Justin Verlander the
15:38
Speaker 4: year before, you know, where you know, he was available
15:41
Speaker 4: in trade. His stuff was down. He didn't look good
15:43
Speaker 4: with Detroit. You whenever a player of that age has
15:48
Speaker 4: declining stuff, it's hard to you know. And then he
15:51
Speaker 4: went to Houston and immediately his stuff ticked up. And
15:54
Speaker 4: that's when it's like trying to balance.
15:57
Speaker 3: The what is injury? What his age? What is I'm
16:01
Speaker 3: frustrated in this bad situation right now? And so the.
16:06
Speaker 4: Next year with Cole Hamil's, we sort of didn't overthink it.
16:09
Speaker 4: You know, he was struggling and we went and got
16:11
Speaker 4: him and the like felt like literally the minute he
16:13
Speaker 4: put our uniform on that year, he was dominant. And
16:17
Speaker 4: so I do think that's a little bit of the
16:19
Speaker 4: human factor sometimes and you could go pretty poor making
16:23
Speaker 4: that bed over and over, you know, But I do
16:27
Speaker 4: think there's times that that that that can make sense
16:30
Speaker 4: with a veteran guy with that kind of track record,
16:32
Speaker 4: And certainly, like I said, Cole came in and immediately,
16:35
Speaker 4: you know, pitch fantastically down the stretch.
16:38
Speaker 6: Hey, let's do a little player spotlight thanks to Arena Club.
16:41
Speaker 6: AJ give me a player this season that you think
16:44
Speaker 6: is underrated and you might want to try and grab
16:46
Speaker 6: his card.
16:46
Speaker 3: James would.
16:47
Speaker 2: I don't know that he's underrated, but Washington National's superstar
16:50
Speaker 2: in the making and the first slab pack I ever
16:52
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16:55
Speaker 2: is only going to.
16:55
Speaker 3: Go up and up and up. And I'm not going
16:57
Speaker 3: to sell it Kwie yet.
16:58
Speaker 5: Scott.
16:58
Speaker 2: I'm gonna hold on too, because after he continues to
17:01
Speaker 2: hit big homers and put up the stats make All
17:03
Speaker 2: Star teams, it's going to get more expensive for someone
17:06
Speaker 2: to buy.
17:06
Speaker 3: For me, this is his.
17:07
Speaker 6: First full season in the majors. Keep that in mind.
17:10
Speaker 6: I think he's underrated. He's on a Nationals team that's
17:12
Speaker 6: man putting enough attention.
17:14
Speaker 3: He might underrated.
17:16
Speaker 2: When he makes the All Star team this year, They're
17:18
Speaker 2: not going to be underrated.
17:19
Speaker 3: That helps.
17:19
Speaker 6: He's been intentionally walked four times in a game. Anyway,
17:22
Speaker 6: if you want to try and find a wood rookie card,
17:24
Speaker 6: go check out slab packs on Arena Club and right
17:27
Speaker 6: now you can get twenty percent off your first slab pack.
17:29
Speaker 6: Or if you just want to go with a card purchase,
17:31
Speaker 6: go to Arena club dot com slash foul, use code foul.
17:35
Speaker 6: If you buy, sell, trade, collect, go for it.
17:39
Speaker 1: We're a council, obviously a unique mind has his favorite
17:45
Speaker 1: saying of these pictures are just out getters. It pushes
17:49
Speaker 1: us not to think of roles. How would you explain
17:53
Speaker 1: his role and outlook on acquisitions? And he kind of does.
17:57
Speaker 1: He play like kind of a devil's advocate role sometimes
17:59
Speaker 1: in there room.
18:01
Speaker 4: I think that's his personality in a good way. He's
18:03
Speaker 4: always pushing us on different things. But now he's a
18:06
Speaker 4: he's a significant voice. I mean, we're constantly talking to
18:09
Speaker 4: him about about what we're doing. I think he takes
18:12
Speaker 4: a real interest in it, you know, Like I'd say,
18:16
Speaker 4: every other day when I walk in his office, he's like, yeah, here's.
18:18
Speaker 3: My idea of the day, and he throws it at.
18:20
Speaker 4: Me and and they're they're good ideas, they're they're like,
18:24
Speaker 4: he thinks very much along the lines of a front
18:27
Speaker 4: office person a lot of times.
18:29
Speaker 3: And so I think I've said this before, like other
18:32
Speaker 3: managers I've had.
18:34
Speaker 4: Didn't really take a significant interest in the acquisition space,
18:37
Speaker 4: and he really does. And I really enjoy it because
18:40
Speaker 4: you know, he knows why we're doing things. He's pushing
18:42
Speaker 4: us to do certain things. And I think that way
18:44
Speaker 4: when you get the you trade for that player, you
18:47
Speaker 4: pick up that player, he's already invested. And that's happened
18:50
Speaker 4: a couple of times this year with guys like you know,
18:52
Speaker 4: the Palme Rans trans transaction for example, and you know,
18:56
Speaker 4: he's sort of we got him and he threw him
18:58
Speaker 4: right into the fire, you know. And I feel like
19:01
Speaker 4: that's easier to do when you're sort of in lockstep
19:03
Speaker 4: with the front office. You know why they're doing things,
19:05
Speaker 4: and you're able to you know, we got him and
19:07
Speaker 4: he put him. He put him to work right away,
19:09
Speaker 4: didn't didn't have any any hesitation.
19:12
Speaker 3: I think that's that's because he's part of the process.
19:16
Speaker 5: Generously. Peekrow Armstrong was a guy who acquired several years ago.
19:21
Speaker 5: I'm curious, can you explain to you know, fans, just
19:25
Speaker 5: like the growth you've seen in Pete behind the scenes,
19:30
Speaker 5: and maybe the moments that stand out in terms of
19:33
Speaker 5: him just kind of slowing the game down, but also
19:38
Speaker 5: handling this kind of sudden burst or next level of
19:41
Speaker 5: fame with I think a lot of grace.
19:43
Speaker 3: And humility he has.
19:46
Speaker 4: I mean, I've actually told him that a lot of times,
19:50
Speaker 4: how much I appreciate the way he treats people, because
19:53
Speaker 4: you know, you see after a game, we down on
19:56
Speaker 4: the field after a game, there's like tons of family around,
19:59
Speaker 4: and he's trying to have a moment with his parents
20:02
Speaker 4: or or family friends, whatever, And every single kid that's
20:05
Speaker 4: down there wants a picture, wants an autograph, like he's
20:08
Speaker 4: the guy. And he's just so patient and and and
20:12
Speaker 4: and takes every picture and signs every autograph. And it's
20:17
Speaker 4: really hard to do that, you know, and he does.
20:19
Speaker 3: It really well. He was certainly raised right. I think
20:23
Speaker 3: he was also good by his parents.
20:24
Speaker 4: I think he's the program he was in high school,
20:27
Speaker 4: you know, I think prepared him well.
20:29
Speaker 3: He's just he's a good human being. I think it
20:32
Speaker 3: shows up as for as a player. I mean.
20:37
Speaker 4: I expected all of this kind of minus the power,
20:40
Speaker 4: I guess It's the honest way of say it that
20:43
Speaker 4: I really thought he'd be one of the handful of
20:46
Speaker 4: very best defenders in baseball. I thought he'd be an
20:49
Speaker 4: elite based runner. I didn't think he'd have his kind
20:53
Speaker 4: of power.
20:54
Speaker 3: I was always pushing him to work on spunting more.
20:56
Speaker 3: You know, good thing he didn't listen, So, yeah, fouls
21:01
Speaker 3: it off the right.
21:03
Speaker 4: But but like, but I think that's what I would say,
21:07
Speaker 4: is like, you know, the shape of the player is
21:10
Speaker 4: the same as I expected, minus hitting balls off the scoreboard,
21:15
Speaker 4: you know, And that's the part that I've been really surprised.
21:17
Speaker 4: But like, these aren't wall scraper home runs. He's not like,
21:20
Speaker 4: you know, hitting balls in the basket with a wind
21:22
Speaker 4: blowing out. I mean, he's hitting balls that are way gone.
21:25
Speaker 4: And that's you know, again, like this game surprises you,
21:29
Speaker 4: which is kind of the fun part of the job,
21:31
Speaker 4: right that you know, it would have been impossible to
21:34
Speaker 4: predict that he would come into this kind of power,
21:35
Speaker 4: but he has, and you know, it's it's vaulted him
21:38
Speaker 4: from you know, really good player to a star and
21:42
Speaker 4: it's been fun to watch.
21:45
Speaker 1: Uh, this this question is probably hard to answer as
21:47
Speaker 1: far as the last five years, So I'm going to
21:49
Speaker 1: go with the do O years. And was there a
21:52
Speaker 1: move that either maybe maybe wasn't like about to be
21:56
Speaker 1: made or you thought was done, but something that was
21:58
Speaker 1: you know, discussed quite a bit that you think maybe
22:02
Speaker 1: it would have changed.
22:03
Speaker 3: Those World Series years?
22:05
Speaker 1: That the World Series and in that time in either
22:08
Speaker 1: direction like either this would have extended it by years
22:12
Speaker 1: or this this could have blown things up. Was there
22:14
Speaker 1: a deal that never came together that you guys discussed the.
22:18
Speaker 4: One I just mentioned, I think would be a fair
22:21
Speaker 4: a fair one that, like you know, you had we
22:24
Speaker 4: traded for Verlander in seventeen, does that change things a
22:27
Speaker 4: little bit?
22:28
Speaker 3: You know, he was on the market again.
22:29
Speaker 4: I look back at the decision making process and I
22:33
Speaker 4: think the process was good. I think the logic was good,
22:35
Speaker 4: but like obviously we got it wrong. We should have
22:38
Speaker 4: been aggressive and we should have traded for him that year.
22:40
Speaker 4: And I think that's one that I think about sometimes,
22:44
Speaker 4: like how different things could be had that happened, you know,
22:49
Speaker 4: you know, flipping it around, Like I think about that
22:51
Speaker 4: like if you know, if Houston takes Chris Bryan and
22:54
Speaker 4: we take a Pell, I do think that that's you know,
22:57
Speaker 4: I do think with all of these different things, there's
23:01
Speaker 4: a sliding doors aspect of so many moves that you know,
23:05
Speaker 4: I think that yes, like had we gotten Berlin or
23:08
Speaker 4: maybe that would have extended things, for example, but obviously
23:11
Speaker 4: have we not drafted Chris, that might have short circuited
23:15
Speaker 4: the whole process. So yeah, that's probably one that I
23:19
Speaker 4: would I would think about.
23:22
Speaker 5: I know, you're not gonna do something just to do
23:25
Speaker 5: something or to make headlines, but like you say, this
23:28
Speaker 5: is a rare sort of opportunity. And you you've talked
23:33
Speaker 5: before about how you know, the best years in base
23:37
Speaker 5: you know, those those rings that you have are kind
23:39
Speaker 5: of you know, the they're the thing like if you're
23:44
Speaker 5: definitely buying. I guess the next threshold would be like
23:47
Speaker 5: can this team win a World Series? And I realized
23:50
Speaker 5: we're in the middle of July, but you know what
23:54
Speaker 5: it looks like, you like, what are the as this
23:56
Speaker 5: team kind of reached those indicators?
24:00
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess I would say this.
24:02
Speaker 4: I think we've we've played really well for quite a while.
24:05
Speaker 4: I do think though it's a long season. You sort
24:08
Speaker 4: of said, like my mindset is sort of going back
24:11
Speaker 4: to the previous questions, Okay, what things can go wrong?
24:14
Speaker 4: What things are we're trying to fix. But certainly, yeah,
24:17
Speaker 4: I think that we've we've we've show a position playing
24:20
Speaker 4: group has.
24:20
Speaker 3: Been really good. I do think that I.
24:24
Speaker 4: Think we've pitched well considering some of the injuries. But
24:27
Speaker 4: I do think that's an area that we need to
24:29
Speaker 4: continue to bolster. So yeah, I think there's areas we
24:33
Speaker 4: certainly need to upgrade. And it's just a long season.
24:36
Speaker 4: You know, you don't get it. You know there's no.
24:38
Speaker 3: Metal for halfway. You know you gotta you gotta keep going.
24:40
Speaker 3: And that that's probably how I look at it.
24:43
Speaker 1: Jed, thanks so much for joining us. Well we'll leave
24:45
Speaker 1: it there. Appreciate you giving us some of your time.
24:47
Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll be bugging you over the next month plenty.
24:51
Speaker 1: See it Wrigley and on the road and whatnot.
24:53
Speaker 3: I did this podcast so you wouldn't sorry.
24:58
Speaker 1: It was not a great beforehand. Sorry and fulfill that problems.
25:05
Speaker 5: Thank you.
25:08
Speaker 1: All right, Thanks so much for listening to everyone.
25:09
Speaker 3: This is Northside Territory.
25:10
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25:13
Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are
25:16
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25:18
Speaker 1: everyone