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The Cubs Keep Finding Ways to Lose... · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: They need to start performing against the lesser teams. There
0:03
Speaker 1: is a chance to get back over five hundred and
0:06
Speaker 1: then start playing good baseball. Welcome into Northside Territory Foul
0:15
Speaker 1: Territories Cubs Podcast. I'm Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney.
0:20
Speaker 1: We're your Cubs beat writers for the Athletic and the
0:23
Speaker 1: hosts of this podcast.
0:25
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening. Patrick.
0:28
Speaker 1: It's a full on panic mode if it wasn't already.
0:32
Speaker 1: Four Cubs fans and three of four lost three of
0:36
Speaker 1: four to the Brewers after losing two in a rain
0:40
Speaker 1: shortened series in Saint Louis. The two chief rivals one
0:45
Speaker 1: win in six games. Right, So that's that's not going
0:51
Speaker 1: to cut it, not for the fans, not for the standings,
0:54
Speaker 1: not not for any not for anyone paying attention. Because
0:57
Speaker 1: this is the first time they're below five hundred since
1:00
Speaker 1: they were one and two three games into the season.
1:05
Speaker 1: So yeah, this is this is what fans have to hope,
1:09
Speaker 1: what the Cubs have to hope is a low point,
1:12
Speaker 1: but it can obviously get worse.
1:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wouldn't frame this as like a fan thing
1:18
Speaker 3: or a fans overreacting thing like this has been two
1:21
Speaker 3: underwhelming months in every phase of the game except for
1:25
Speaker 3: starting pitching. Obviously there's been individual moments and certain bright spots,
1:29
Speaker 3: but this has gone on long enough. I know your
1:32
Speaker 3: dividing line is kind of that weekend in Boston, right,
1:35
Speaker 3: like they win the first game at Fenway, Yeah, and
1:38
Speaker 3: then they get what like blown out that was like
1:40
Speaker 3: a football score, right, seventeen nothing? Okay, So from that
1:44
Speaker 3: point on, this is over a month plus where you've
1:47
Speaker 3: got one of the worst offenses in baseball. I think
1:51
Speaker 3: it depends on which day you said it, but it's
1:54
Speaker 3: been over a month of oh yeah, you know, oney,
1:58
Speaker 3: seven to thirty and whatever, you know, offensive category you're
2:01
Speaker 3: looking at. We've harped on the defense for a while.
2:05
Speaker 3: It's not as good as advertised. The bullpen has reorganized
2:10
Speaker 3: a bit, but still in the aggregate, I think it's
2:13
Speaker 3: fifteen losses and eleven blown saves thus far, and even
2:21
Speaker 3: little things like base running just running into outs left
2:25
Speaker 3: and right, and you take all that together, like, there's
2:29
Speaker 3: no denying this has been a bad stretch and we're
2:35
Speaker 3: talking about basically half the season.
2:40
Speaker 4: And I remember last year, you know, you know.
2:42
Speaker 3: Front office person kind of explained to me that this
2:45
Speaker 3: way in terms of thing about the season, Like, you know,
2:47
Speaker 3: every game's.
2:47
Speaker 4: Kind of like a coin float.
2:48
Speaker 3: You don't really you know, unless it's like a last
2:50
Speaker 3: week the season and you're in Atlanta and you're rightfielder
2:55
Speaker 3: loses the ball in the lights, you don't have to
2:56
Speaker 3: like over act. But you know, five games still, that's
3:00
Speaker 3: of like whatever, ten games is little more. But I
3:02
Speaker 3: mean now we're talking about, you know, roughly a thirty
3:05
Speaker 3: game stretch where the Cubs have won like one out
3:09
Speaker 3: of every three games. I mean, just losing series after
3:11
Speaker 3: series like that's it's adding up.
3:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, And there were signs before that Boston series, right,
3:18
Speaker 1: Like that's just where I remember last feeling like, oh
3:23
Speaker 1: this this is a good team. They're not playing perfectly,
3:27
Speaker 1: but they're banged up and there's excuses to make and
3:30
Speaker 1: they're still winning. That's the sign of a good team, right,
3:34
Speaker 1: And it's just collapsed since then, Like that Houston series
3:37
Speaker 1: I remember watching and being like, man, they're barely scraping
3:41
Speaker 1: these wins out, like this is I mean, this is
3:44
Speaker 1: kind of smoking mirrors. And then that that first Boston game,
3:47
Speaker 1: I was kind of like, Okay, maybe they're turning something on.
3:50
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe they just got some mojo. Maybe this is
3:52
Speaker 1: a good team. Uh, It's it's hard to say that now.
3:55
Speaker 1: And I get like the way they've played these last
4:01
Speaker 1: two games, especially not bad games in the like if
4:05
Speaker 1: you're watching them over the course of a season, and
4:08
Speaker 1: it's just like two games for a winning team. That like,
4:13
Speaker 1: those those aren't the red flags, right, the last two
4:15
Speaker 1: Because sure Shoda has a bad game, yeah, Tyson Miller,
4:20
Speaker 1: Tyson Miller gives up a home run, Mark Leider has
4:24
Speaker 1: a has a blip inning where there's like soft contact
4:28
Speaker 1: gets through. Those those two aren't the issue, right, It's
4:32
Speaker 1: what we've seen up to that, leading up to that,
4:35
Speaker 1: and then you cap it off with these two losses.
4:38
Speaker 2: Right, it's just.
4:39
Speaker 1: More, it's more. It's those aren't ugly losses or brutal losses.
4:44
Speaker 1: They're just more losses at the end of a long
4:47
Speaker 1: stretch of poor play. Uh not the I shouldn't say
4:51
Speaker 1: the end of a long stretch of poor play. This
4:54
Speaker 1: stretch of poor play could continue for months on end.
4:56
Speaker 1: Uh who knows.
4:59
Speaker 2: Uh.
5:00
Speaker 4: But but there are as a marquee commercial.
5:04
Speaker 1: This. I'm not sure if you mentioned this in the
5:08
Speaker 1: in your list of what's been ugly, But how about
5:11
Speaker 1: the captures and not just what they do offensively, but
5:15
Speaker 1: their complete inability to control the running game, uh, to
5:20
Speaker 1: block pitches. What was Miguel Amaya doing today behind the
5:23
Speaker 1: plate That was like they're costing you runs and games.
5:31
Speaker 3: Tagging Joe Madden, Yeah, you know, tagging is a skill
5:35
Speaker 3: and hobby made us realize that. I realize these are
5:37
Speaker 3: bang bang plays, but like you gotta get it down.
5:41
Speaker 3: It was in Saint Louis right, like it all kind
5:44
Speaker 3: of blends together, but it has not been a strength
5:47
Speaker 3: at all.
5:47
Speaker 1: No, So when that type of stuff, when there's just
5:52
Speaker 1: so many little things they can't do right now, and
5:54
Speaker 1: I I don't know if we address this, but I
5:58
Speaker 1: don't think like trading for Elias Diaz or Danny Jansen is.
6:02
Speaker 2: Like this fix al for the catchers.
6:05
Speaker 1: First of all, Elias das like he's a thirty something
6:08
Speaker 1: year old catcher that is having like his best stretch
6:12
Speaker 1: offensively with a bunch of peripherals that suggest it won't last.
6:16
Speaker 1: If you're telling me you can get him for like
6:19
Speaker 1: a backup price, backup catcher price, I'd say absolutely, because
6:23
Speaker 1: he's got a cannon. He knows how to catch. He's
6:25
Speaker 1: a good backup catcher. If you have a legit starter,
6:28
Speaker 1: it's really hard to go out and get a starter.
6:31
Speaker 1: I don't know if you want to go up go
6:32
Speaker 1: pay up for Danny Jansen either when he's having like
6:35
Speaker 1: an insane stretch that he isn't that he hasn't shown
6:40
Speaker 1: is who he really is, right, And like it's just
6:43
Speaker 1: I don't like people want to go trade for a catcher,
6:46
Speaker 1: And I'm just like, is this these names that you're
6:49
Speaker 1: bringing up, I'm not sure if I trust that the
6:52
Speaker 1: cost is going to be worth what they provide. Danny
6:56
Speaker 1: Jansen's under control for more beyond this season, so I
6:59
Speaker 1: if you project him to be a good catcher all around,
7:03
Speaker 1: that maybe that makes sense. But like this Elias Das
7:07
Speaker 1: talked to me doesn't make sense. Sorry, I went on
7:09
Speaker 1: a tangent because I'm thinking about that.
7:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but the catchers are an issue.
7:15
Speaker 1: Like I was watching today and I was like, there,
7:18
Speaker 1: this is not one game where they're costing you bases
7:21
Speaker 1: and costing you runs because they cannot control the running game.
7:25
Speaker 1: Maybe that's on the pitchers too, but I like it
7:28
Speaker 1: seems like it's on the catchers to me like the yeah,
7:32
Speaker 1: just watching watching the games, especially the today, like two
7:36
Speaker 1: balls got by Miguelmaia that can't and that's been happening
7:39
Speaker 1: too much. Just stuff like that, like you gotta gotta
7:43
Speaker 1: clean this stuff up, it really can't happen.
7:47
Speaker 3: I think that's that's the takeaway here of just you know,
7:51
Speaker 3: the little details things that do fall underneath a manager
7:56
Speaker 3: and coaching staff's perview, and as it's happening in Milwaukee
8:01
Speaker 3: added this you know kind of ironic or awkward dynamic.
8:05
Speaker 4: I mean it's getaway.
8:07
Speaker 3: Dan Milwaukee councils still getting booed every time he goes
8:11
Speaker 3: out there, like it's super entertaining and you know he
8:14
Speaker 3: gets a kick out of it. But it's just, you know,
8:18
Speaker 3: it's hard to just you know, kind of taking that
8:22
Speaker 3: face value and say, hey, it's it's a long season.
8:25
Speaker 3: You know, we're you know, these things will balance, you know,
8:28
Speaker 3: balance itself out. That's kind of the clubhouse talking points.
8:32
Speaker 3: When I was stuck in a lot of traffic driving
8:35
Speaker 3: back from Milwaukee to Chicago, so I had a lot
8:39
Speaker 3: of time to think about this, and I was kind
8:40
Speaker 3: of running it back, like like how many good months
8:44
Speaker 3: have the Cubs had since basically Wriggly reopened in like
8:50
Speaker 3: June twenty twenty one ish, and you know, they had
8:53
Speaker 3: that no hitter combined no hitter out at Dodger Stadium,
8:56
Speaker 3: Like they immediately collapsed that July.
9:00
Speaker 4: The rest of the.
9:00
Speaker 3: Season is tank mode. I mean, twenty twenty two is
9:04
Speaker 3: a total write off coming out.
9:07
Speaker 4: Of a lockout, I believe. I mean they were buried.
9:11
Speaker 3: In two or three weeks into the season, and last
9:14
Speaker 3: year was basically July and August. I mean April was
9:20
Speaker 3: like basically they didn't get buried, so that was kind
9:23
Speaker 3: of a win.
9:24
Speaker 4: And so yeah, they had a good April here ended
9:26
Speaker 4: a bad May. Like what are they kind of leaning
9:30
Speaker 4: on here?
9:31
Speaker 3: And I think the starting pitching has just been excellent
9:35
Speaker 3: and that's probably the if you could pick one thing
9:37
Speaker 3: to go right, it would be that, right. I mean,
9:40
Speaker 3: so you can hang your head on that. I think
9:42
Speaker 3: that is sustainable and we'll keep them competitive.
9:46
Speaker 4: And there are.
9:47
Speaker 3: Still these kind of bigger picture things that I do
9:50
Speaker 3: work in their favor. Council's track record, a front office
9:54
Speaker 3: that's going to be aggressive, you know, a business operations
9:58
Speaker 3: ownership group that really wants me games on marquee, three
10:02
Speaker 3: million at Wrigley, all that stuff, the extra revenue from
10:06
Speaker 3: you know, getting the wild card spot, whatever it is,
10:09
Speaker 3: like that's in place, the schedule get easier, maybe they're
10:12
Speaker 3: getting healthier.
10:14
Speaker 4: Weird things happen in baseball.
10:15
Speaker 3: But like right now, like saying that after every single
10:19
Speaker 3: loss or like every other podcast, like it just gets old.
10:22
Speaker 4: Like they got to start winning games, period.
10:25
Speaker 1: So I mean, if you want to be like really
10:27
Speaker 1: anal about this and conservative with how you look at it,
10:31
Speaker 1: they've only had two months since that stretch where they're
10:34
Speaker 1: five or more games over five hundred last August and
10:37
Speaker 1: this April.
10:38
Speaker 2: That's it.
10:40
Speaker 1: They were fifteen and eleven, fourteen eleven, June July last
10:43
Speaker 1: year fourteen eleven, fifteen and eleven.
10:46
Speaker 2: So those aren't bad months. Those those are prime.
10:49
Speaker 1: But those aren't you know, like two really good months
10:54
Speaker 1: so far, one for David Ross and one for Craig Council.
10:58
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm not I'm not going to criticize
11:02
Speaker 1: great Council. Like great Counsel knows what he's doing. He
11:05
Speaker 1: needs to be patient, he knows that. But there's also
11:08
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you were there for today's game
11:13
Speaker 1: and this move is. I think it's part of that
11:17
Speaker 1: sense of urgency, right, this is how you balance not panicking. Well,
11:22
Speaker 1: we're not We're gonna be patient, We're not going to panic.
11:24
Speaker 1: But there's also a sense of urgency and some of
11:27
Speaker 1: the stuff we've been talking about, sloppiness on defense, sloppiness
11:31
Speaker 1: on the basis you'd like to hope that Pete grow
11:37
Speaker 1: Armstrong can He's not going to be a bureal right,
11:40
Speaker 1: he can't be, but you'd like to hope he can
11:43
Speaker 1: provide some of those things and maybe even just a
11:47
Speaker 1: little bit of a spark. Like the guy's got a swagger, right,
11:50
Speaker 1: I'm sure you saw the highlights of him getting thrown
11:53
Speaker 1: behind twice and then hitting a home run like maybe
11:57
Speaker 1: his first game back in the miners got back. I
12:00
Speaker 1: don't know if it was exactly that, but what what
12:03
Speaker 1: Like that's the type of stuff that like, you know,
12:06
Speaker 1: it's hard to ignore and it's really fun to watch
12:10
Speaker 1: and pumps up your teammates and probably pisses off the
12:13
Speaker 1: opposition quite a bit. And uh, you know, those guys
12:18
Speaker 1: can can provide something. And I'm not saying that's why
12:22
Speaker 1: they brought him up, just like because he's got a swagger,
12:25
Speaker 1: but it's it's a combination of it all, and you
12:27
Speaker 1: have to hope that like he's that he can bring
12:29
Speaker 1: that swag and provide some sort of spark.
12:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, I gotta admit I'm not.
12:35
Speaker 3: I was not really familiar with the Blake Perkins catalog,
12:40
Speaker 3: but he was making some unreal catches on Wednesday night
12:46
Speaker 3: and I asked Counselor. I was just like, hey, you
12:50
Speaker 3: see him make a play like that? We thinking of PCA,
12:52
Speaker 3: And he sort of like rolled his eyes at me,
12:54
Speaker 3: and I realized it was not like.
12:56
Speaker 4: The most there's more just you.
12:58
Speaker 3: Sometimes you see something, you think of something, and you're
13:00
Speaker 3: curiously what I have to say, and if I'm piecing
13:04
Speaker 3: it together right. I think they had already informed PCA
13:08
Speaker 3: he was coming up before Wednesday night's game even happened,
13:12
Speaker 3: but obviously there was a lot leading up to that,
13:15
Speaker 3: and this does feel like a moment. I mean, at
13:17
Speaker 3: the beginning of this road trip, counsel had said when
13:20
Speaker 3: I asked specifically about the Owen Casey and Brennan Davis
13:23
Speaker 3: bucket of hitters, like, no, you know, the answer is
13:27
Speaker 3: rarely the next guy, And I think to beet Sea
13:30
Speaker 3: his credit he already kind of graduated, you know, to
13:33
Speaker 3: a notch above those guys, you know, and this is
13:36
Speaker 3: not like, oh, he's going to fix the offense the
13:38
Speaker 3: way that people may have looked at Brennan's hot streak
13:42
Speaker 3: or Owen Casey's you know, kind of left handed potential.
13:48
Speaker 3: But if you can you Counsel talks about whatever puzzle
13:52
Speaker 3: he's thinking of, and this is a run prevention.
13:56
Speaker 4: Move.
13:57
Speaker 3: He won't say, is not going to play a nine
14:00
Speaker 3: innings every single game, but he's.
14:03
Speaker 4: Going to very prominently be in the mix here.
14:06
Speaker 3: Like this was not a you know, I realized that,
14:09
Speaker 3: as count Council pointed out, like the Luis Vasquez spot
14:14
Speaker 3: was sort of non existent, like if they weren't using him,
14:17
Speaker 3: like why was he there?
14:19
Speaker 4: So PC it gives you a little more of that.
14:21
Speaker 3: But if he if Counsel is already thinking of Bellinger
14:27
Speaker 3: playing more first and Bellinger playing more right, that means
14:29
Speaker 3: someone else will be playing last at those positions. Obviously,
14:33
Speaker 3: So we were talking about this before we started recording. What
14:37
Speaker 3: does this mean for Michael Bush, What does this mean
14:40
Speaker 3: for say A Suzuki. I think we both think Mike
14:44
Speaker 3: Talkman has been one of if not the best hitter
14:46
Speaker 3: on the team this year. I guess christoher Morel is
14:51
Speaker 3: not really like a DH anymore. But there are a
14:56
Speaker 3: lot of moving pieces here, which council acknowledged. And he said,
14:59
Speaker 3: it'll be uh fun for the fans and fun for
15:01
Speaker 3: you guys, and so I said fun. The second guess
15:05
Speaker 3: the manager he said, exactly. So that's this is the
15:08
Speaker 3: this is the point where he's at where he's like,
15:10
Speaker 3: I'm gonna start pushing some of these buttons more and
15:14
Speaker 3: not just kind of rolling out whatever kind of everyday
15:19
Speaker 3: core group we may have assumed going into this year.
15:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he and he's tried to do what he
15:26
Speaker 1: can with what he has. Right like he's he started
15:30
Speaker 1: to play Patrick Wisdom more. And you know what, like
15:33
Speaker 1: Patrick Wisdom, I don't know if he's hit like one
15:36
Speaker 1: of his patented many slumps or or what's going on.
15:39
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say many slumps, but you know, he when
15:42
Speaker 1: he slumps, he slumps hard. But like he he had
15:46
Speaker 1: a pitch to hit today in the ninth and missed it.
15:49
Speaker 1: And I feel like that's happened more often than it
15:52
Speaker 1: did when you know, early on in the season, and
15:56
Speaker 1: it kind of looks like, ah, this is he's not
15:57
Speaker 1: swinging and missing in tough but okay, this is this
16:01
Speaker 1: is that Patrick Wisdom not not locked in fully stretch.
16:06
Speaker 1: So you know, he's tried to incorporate different players. I
16:09
Speaker 1: think it makes sense to you know, find Michael Bush
16:14
Speaker 1: the very good matchups, right, Like I think, sayah, you know,
16:20
Speaker 1: you'd like to think today is a nice confidence booster.
16:26
Speaker 1: Maybe this gets some of these guys going, like I
16:29
Speaker 1: don't know how many times I could say it, but
16:32
Speaker 1: what was going on with Morell, Like yesterday was like
16:35
Speaker 1: so what day was that? Wednesday was the one where
16:38
Speaker 1: I was just like is this really happening? Like just
16:41
Speaker 1: like I don't know how, Like I don't know how,
16:44
Speaker 1: you don't hang your head. But the fact that he
16:47
Speaker 1: had that line drive single and then the home run today,
16:50
Speaker 1: he still got the right approach, right, even after that
16:54
Speaker 1: three or four strikeout game on Monday.
16:56
Speaker 2: He took three walks on Tuesday, right, he didn't.
16:59
Speaker 1: He's not expanding his own He's not a complete mess,
17:04
Speaker 1: and today finally paid off. You'd like to think that
17:07
Speaker 1: carries forward, right, You'd like to think there's some signs
17:10
Speaker 1: with the offense, But.
17:13
Speaker 2: Like I said earlier in the week.
17:16
Speaker 1: It's gonna take more than one or two games of
17:19
Speaker 1: seeing it before you start to feel good about this
17:21
Speaker 1: offense again. Like, it's just it's been such a long
17:24
Speaker 1: stretch of poor play that you have to like the
17:28
Speaker 1: optimism has to come from clinging to any sign of positivity, right,
17:33
Speaker 1: you're just clinging to it and saying, Okay, maybe that's
17:36
Speaker 1: a side, but like it's it.
17:40
Speaker 2: Goes beyond that.
17:41
Speaker 4: Right.
17:41
Speaker 1: Even if the offense is doing well, it doesn't seem
17:44
Speaker 1: they're like they're putting together good enough games to win.
17:50
Speaker 1: Was it yesterday that councils or was that today? Council said,
17:53
Speaker 1: we're not they're also not yet. Sure you're not getting breaks, right,
17:57
Speaker 1: but you have to make your own breaks.
17:58
Speaker 2: You can't send right, he said that.
18:01
Speaker 1: And I get that you could point to some bad luck,
18:04
Speaker 1: right like Dansby Swanson barely missed a Grand Slam yesterday.
18:08
Speaker 1: All whatever whatever you want to point to, you can, right,
18:11
Speaker 1: there are some ways to point to it. But I
18:13
Speaker 1: think we've listed enough things that you point to and.
18:17
Speaker 2: Say, well, you can.
18:18
Speaker 1: You should be better at that, you should be better
18:20
Speaker 1: at holding runners on, you should have it, you should
18:22
Speaker 1: make more plays defensively, things like that need to be
18:27
Speaker 1: taken care of and need to can't that those can't
18:31
Speaker 1: be the reasons you lose.
18:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, some of the tone from this road trip did
18:37
Speaker 3: involve sort of like the moral victory stuff of like you.
18:42
Speaker 4: Know, battling against the Cardinals closer and.
18:44
Speaker 3: Will that carry over and new council will just be like,
18:48
Speaker 3: I don't know, we'll never know, like the hot hand theory,
18:51
Speaker 3: Like he's bringing.
18:52
Speaker 4: Up basketball references like.
18:55
Speaker 3: You'd like to think so, you'd like to hope so,
18:57
Speaker 3: but he's like in every sport, nobody knows about that,
19:01
Speaker 3: Like it's just something you kind of tell yourself.
19:04
Speaker 4: And and hope for.
19:06
Speaker 3: And I just think Stay is the one who counsel
19:10
Speaker 3: after Thursday's game flat out said like we desperately need
19:14
Speaker 3: him or we desperately need that production.
19:17
Speaker 4: Like he used the word desperately need or that phrasing.
19:22
Speaker 3: I should say, that's how he's in textualizing.
19:26
Speaker 2: Like I don't be offensive player when he's right, So.
19:30
Speaker 4: Like I don't feel a whole lot of heat on morel.
19:33
Speaker 3: I think they've been very supportive of him and really
19:37
Speaker 3: like what he's done, and they've been very impressed.
19:39
Speaker 4: I think overall, I think Bush is someone who you know,
19:47
Speaker 4: they said he'd be our regular first baseman, but I
19:50
Speaker 4: think they left a little bit of wiggle room of
19:52
Speaker 4: we'll kind of see how it goes.
19:53
Speaker 2: And I think absolutely.
19:55
Speaker 3: They're probably at that point where like you're saying, maybe
19:59
Speaker 3: let's get him some better matchup instead of just automatically
20:03
Speaker 3: putting his name in there.
20:07
Speaker 4: I'll say that he has.
20:08
Speaker 3: He has for sure, and like his overall numbers are
20:10
Speaker 3: are pretty solid about what you would have hoped for.
20:14
Speaker 3: But look, I mean it's say I say, is the
20:16
Speaker 3: one who, as you've written repeatedly, he's and what you know,
20:21
Speaker 3: someone like Ian Happ would say like he's probably our
20:24
Speaker 3: most talented hitter. That's how guys in the clubhouse view him,
20:27
Speaker 3: Like his physical skills and what the front office wants
20:33
Speaker 3: in a hitter Like that's say it right, Like the
20:37
Speaker 3: swing decisions, the plate discipline, the athleticism, the hard contact,
20:43
Speaker 3: all that stuff, it just hasn't carried through consistently enough
20:52
Speaker 3: to where like you know exactly what you're gonna get.
20:55
Speaker 3: And so he'sca coming in here and knowing that defense
21:02
Speaker 3: should not go into slumps. And also I think rewarding
21:06
Speaker 3: PCA for showing a lot of maturity. You know, I
21:09
Speaker 3: think we both wrote discussed how he didn't make a
21:15
Speaker 3: great impression last year, and we're not just talking about
21:18
Speaker 3: whatever being zero for eleven wherever it was. It was
21:21
Speaker 3: he was kind of jumpy out there. His defense was
21:25
Speaker 3: not flawless. Was he wanted so bad to make something
21:29
Speaker 3: happen that it just blew up too many times at
21:32
Speaker 3: the most important time of the year.
21:33
Speaker 4: And that he I think has really taken.
21:37
Speaker 3: That in stride and applied himself and worked with the
21:41
Speaker 3: coaches diligently, stuck with a plan over the offseason, and
21:48
Speaker 3: you know, his new boss, the manager is totally willing
21:53
Speaker 3: to ride out that offensive learning curve if he can
21:56
Speaker 3: get great defense. I mean, that's what I think Bryce
21:59
Speaker 3: Terrang did, Like he was just one of those guys
22:01
Speaker 3: he might have like a six hundred oh ps, but
22:03
Speaker 3: he's great on defense. And now the offense is coming
22:05
Speaker 3: and I think there are to me that announcement today
22:12
Speaker 3: and PCA just starting in center field and he saw
22:15
Speaker 3: him being lifted for a pinch hitter and say, oh,
22:16
Speaker 3: like how it might work. But I think it's a
22:19
Speaker 3: big moment not saying like you said that it's not
22:22
Speaker 3: a band aid, doesn't mean they're going to take off.
22:24
Speaker 3: But like this to me is an imprint of what
22:29
Speaker 3: council wants and how things, you know, how you can
22:34
Speaker 3: make some smaller improvements while waiting for guys to get
22:37
Speaker 3: going again.
22:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I absolutely agree with you.
22:41
Speaker 1: Like I was not there, so I can't pick up
22:43
Speaker 1: the tone of all the quotes that I read today.
22:46
Speaker 1: But he's I mean, Jed talked on Tuesday and told
22:51
Speaker 1: us like he's not gonna when he comes back up,
22:54
Speaker 1: He's not sitting a bunch like he's clearly going they're
22:57
Speaker 1: going to find ways to make this work.
23:00
Speaker 2: Uh.
23:00
Speaker 1: And and the guys that hit, the guys that perform
23:03
Speaker 1: are the ones that are going to get playing time.
23:07
Speaker 1: So so this is I don't think it's full on,
23:12
Speaker 1: like you're on notice type stuff, but like it needs
23:16
Speaker 1: to be like a semi wake up call or or
23:19
Speaker 1: put you know, get get it together type moments for
23:23
Speaker 1: say Azuki for Michael Bush, and I will say, Michael Bush,
23:26
Speaker 1: listen like he's just a rookie and he's doing.
23:30
Speaker 2: Well and he and he and he hit.
23:32
Speaker 1: A rough patch and I was looking at some numbers.
23:34
Speaker 1: You know what his issue is he swings and misses
23:37
Speaker 1: a lot in the zone. Like, so that's something that
23:39
Speaker 1: you know, is that is that going to be a
23:41
Speaker 1: permanent thing for him or is this just like him
23:44
Speaker 1: not not like recognizing pitches well enough or or what
23:48
Speaker 1: is it? Like So it's not like he's chasing or
23:50
Speaker 1: like has these ugly at bats all the time. So
23:54
Speaker 1: I like, I'm not I'm not thinking that Michael Bush
23:58
Speaker 1: is just like this is a on collapse because the
24:01
Speaker 1: last the last week or so of games, it's like, Okay,
24:04
Speaker 1: I'm seeing something where it's not complete lack of production.
24:07
Speaker 1: So uh, yeah, get everyone needs to perform. They have
24:14
Speaker 1: they have players now that can by bringing up pc A,
24:19
Speaker 1: like you said, Luis Vasquez wasn't playing, PCA is gonna play.
24:22
Speaker 1: So this this push is playing time and kind of
24:25
Speaker 1: gets everyone, uh hopefully aware that like I'm not guaranteed
24:30
Speaker 1: a starting spot, I need to perform.
24:32
Speaker 2: Uh.
24:32
Speaker 1: And frankly, that's how it should be. Like when when
24:36
Speaker 1: you're perform playing like this, you can't just say like, well, yes,
24:40
Speaker 1: I get the patients and I agree with that these
24:42
Speaker 1: are our guys, and and this is how we're going
24:45
Speaker 1: to win due to these guys, but also need to
24:48
Speaker 1: let people know that, hey, there's.
24:50
Speaker 2: There's other guys too that that that we could call upon.
24:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think Michael Bush is the topic
24:57
Speaker 3: of conversation here just because PCA will inevitably into some
25:00
Speaker 3: portion right playing time. But you're absolutely right, like Dansby
25:06
Speaker 3: Swanson needs to produce more offensively. Cody Bounder has not
25:13
Speaker 3: bottomed out this year, and he hit home run tonight
25:15
Speaker 3: and still he still does some great things with the bat,
25:23
Speaker 3: but he hasn't like produced at that all star MVP
25:28
Speaker 3: level where he can carry a team. I think there's
25:31
Speaker 3: a little more in there as well. I mean, they're
25:34
Speaker 3: paying him whatever, thirty million dollars this year, like you
25:37
Speaker 3: want more me and hat. Maybe he's at the beginning
25:43
Speaker 3: of one of his kind of hot streaks, but they
25:46
Speaker 3: need more from him.
25:47
Speaker 4: It's just like up and down here.
25:51
Speaker 3: There are so many areas where they flat out just
25:55
Speaker 3: need more production.
25:57
Speaker 1: So here's the next month of games, right, It's it's
26:02
Speaker 1: Cincinnati White Sox, Cincinnati, Tampa Bay, Saint Louis, San Francisco Mets,
26:08
Speaker 1: San Francisco, Milwaukee to end June. So of the teams there.
26:14
Speaker 1: You have Saint Louis, Milwaukee, and I think San Francisco
26:18
Speaker 1: playing well, and then the rest like half and half.
26:22
Speaker 1: But you have a stretch of almost two weeks of
26:26
Speaker 1: teams that aren't playing that great. I don't think Tampa
26:29
Speaker 1: Bay is playing great unless something's changed. So we know
26:34
Speaker 1: the White Socks are terrible and Cincinnati's not playing well.
26:36
Speaker 1: But what Cincinnati is doing well is like the opposite
26:39
Speaker 1: of what was expected. Their offense stinks and their pitching
26:41
Speaker 1: is good. So in that situation, we have Ashcroft, Ashcroft,
26:49
Speaker 1: Green Lodolo this weekend.
26:51
Speaker 2: That's who the Cubs face. Listen.
26:54
Speaker 1: I mean it doesn't matter, right, Colin Ray did enough
26:57
Speaker 1: to win a game today. So I'm not ripping Colin Ray.
27:01
Speaker 1: I'm just saying he's just like your run of the
27:04
Speaker 1: mill fourth or fifth starter on a winning team.
27:06
Speaker 2: You should you should be able.
27:08
Speaker 1: To score runs on him if you are a good offense,
27:10
Speaker 1: which right now, this obviously is not.
27:13
Speaker 2: So it's going to be a tough tough for them
27:15
Speaker 2: to score. But they need to.
27:17
Speaker 1: They like they need to start performing against the lesser teams.
27:21
Speaker 1: Right this is a chance to kind of gain some confidence.
27:25
Speaker 1: There's a chance to uh get back over five hundred,
27:29
Speaker 1: maybe put a little distance between five hundred again and
27:32
Speaker 1: get like start to say like, oh, okay, we are
27:35
Speaker 1: a good team. We're beating up on the bad ones.
27:37
Speaker 1: Now we let's get healthy, let's get into rhythm, and
27:41
Speaker 1: then by the end of the month or by San
27:43
Speaker 1: Francisco or Saint Louis time, whatever it may be, start playing.
27:48
Speaker 2: Good baseball again. That that's kind of how you have
27:51
Speaker 2: to look at these next two weeks.
27:53
Speaker 1: I think entering last weekend, I was concerned because of
27:57
Speaker 1: the way they were playing and the sum that Saint
28:00
Speaker 1: Louis was a bad team, which coming into that point
28:03
Speaker 1: they just weren't playing poorly. They were playing good baseball
28:05
Speaker 1: and it and the Cubs hit this it went from
28:09
Speaker 1: like concerning too bad right, like this is now officially
28:13
Speaker 1: like this has gotten to a point where it's like,
28:15
Speaker 1: what are they a good team type coundress Yeah, right
28:20
Speaker 1: right exactly, and now it's like not not only bad team, alert,
28:24
Speaker 1: it's like you you don't get through these two weeks
28:28
Speaker 1: at least feeling slightly more confident about things you're talking about,
28:31
Speaker 1: like falling back to a point where it's like, hey,
28:35
Speaker 1: you've written it, You've written this plenty, but like, this
28:38
Speaker 1: isn't this, This isn't a season where they sell and
28:41
Speaker 1: they really don't have a lot to sell anyways, They
28:43
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of guys on expiring deals. But
28:47
Speaker 1: you get to a point where you're like, are they
28:49
Speaker 1: even close to this race that they're going to get
28:52
Speaker 1: to that danger point that they were at last year?
28:54
Speaker 1: And listen, they were able to climb out of it,
28:56
Speaker 1: but you don't want to be in that spot.
28:58
Speaker 2: You cannot.
28:58
Speaker 1: Like we saw how they ran out gas because David
29:01
Speaker 1: Ross had to manage pedal to the medal for three months.
29:04
Speaker 2: That's insane. You can't do that.
29:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean this was. I think we're probably about
29:10
Speaker 4: another week or two.
29:13
Speaker 3: Out from when the Cups fell the ten games under
29:16
Speaker 3: five hundred last year. I think that was like in
29:19
Speaker 3: that June eight nine ten range leaving uh Angel.
29:25
Speaker 4: Stadium whatever they call the Angel Stadium.
29:27
Speaker 2: Yes, I think you're right decently against San Francisco, right.
29:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, they can't let you pal Hendricks flirted with a
29:34
Speaker 4: no hitter. We had a good Stroman start.
29:38
Speaker 3: Stroman popped off about his contract. He was still called
29:44
Speaker 3: Twitter back then, but Anyways, at that time, the kind
29:48
Speaker 3: of historical examples that they summoned were from Dansby Swanson,
29:54
Speaker 3: who was on that twenty.
29:55
Speaker 4: One Braves team that was maybe a game over five hundred.
29:58
Speaker 3: When they acquired Doc Peterson to begin Jed's great selloff
30:05
Speaker 3: of twenty twenty one.
30:06
Speaker 4: John Gomes was on a Nationals.
30:10
Speaker 3: Team that was maybe like nineteen and thirty one, like
30:16
Speaker 3: something absurd early in the season. They obviously with great
30:20
Speaker 3: starting pitching. We've talked about Joe Men's first year here
30:24
Speaker 3: in twenty fifteen that was kind of a five hundred
30:26
Speaker 3: bubble type team that caught fire.
30:31
Speaker 4: Eventually. Even last year's Diamondbacks they were.
30:36
Speaker 3: They were like, ohh right, I want to say, like
30:39
Speaker 3: in August or late July, like they were on a
30:43
Speaker 3: really bad skid.
30:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, they definitely. It felt like they were out of
30:47
Speaker 1: it at one point last year.
30:49
Speaker 3: Definitely, and then obviously they win what like six of
30:52
Speaker 3: seven against the Cubs in September. The obviously stabilized before that.
30:56
Speaker 3: But like, this is such a long season. I do
31:00
Speaker 3: think everything is built into this season to finish.
31:06
Speaker 4: The race, to complete the marathon, and there's a lot
31:10
Speaker 4: of honor in that.
31:11
Speaker 3: You usually get rewarded by playing hard and engaged all
31:15
Speaker 3: the way through the end. This is not a daunting division,
31:23
Speaker 3: but yes, this needs to get fixed quick. I hadn't
31:27
Speaker 3: even thought of the kind of burning through all your
31:30
Speaker 3: energy just to kind of get back to five hundred
31:33
Speaker 3: a little above get in that you know, second or
31:37
Speaker 3: third wildcard spot, and then oh wait, we still have
31:40
Speaker 3: like three more games, three more weeks of games left,
31:42
Speaker 3: Like what I mean, that's kind of what happened last year.
31:45
Speaker 3: So you know, you need to play well here. And
31:49
Speaker 3: I think by the time the Kinds go back to
31:52
Speaker 3: Milwaukee that's a June twenty eighth, the end of this
31:56
Speaker 3: coming month here, we will certainly have known a lot
32:01
Speaker 3: or learned a lot more about this group, and we'll
32:03
Speaker 3: have seen them in some favorable matchups.
32:07
Speaker 4: I mean, those seven games against the Giants.
32:09
Speaker 3: Is it going to be like those seven games they
32:11
Speaker 3: played against the Diamondbacks last September? Like, are these two
32:15
Speaker 3: teams that kind of like can't sell and need to
32:20
Speaker 3: show results this year and kind of battle all the
32:22
Speaker 3: way to the end, and like, is this going to be.
32:25
Speaker 4: Another eighty four eighty three win type of toss up
32:28
Speaker 4: to you? Like this month coming month will go a long.
32:31
Speaker 3: Ways to determining just kind of how edgy things are
32:35
Speaker 3: going to be.
32:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be interesting.
32:39
Speaker 1: I mean they like San Francisco can't sell, the Cubs
32:42
Speaker 1: can't sell, like these teams can't.
32:44
Speaker 2: Like they're just that that that would like. And then
32:47
Speaker 2: Mets probably, Oh, the Mets are mess right, like they're
32:51
Speaker 2: a disaster.
32:54
Speaker 1: It's yeah. I mean, I think ultimately the positive spin
33:01
Speaker 1: the way to. You don't want to put it all
33:04
Speaker 1: on a set of games, right because because weird things
33:07
Speaker 1: happen in baseball. I was just looking Arizona was under
33:09
Speaker 1: five hundred in the middle of August.
33:11
Speaker 4: Wow, so it made it to the World Series.
33:14
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Yeah, so so weird things happen.
33:17
Speaker 1: Uh, guys get hot, different players emerge, you pick up
33:21
Speaker 1: who they pick up.
33:22
Speaker 2: They picked up a.
33:23
Speaker 1: Reliever off like a DFA like Ryan Thompson, I want
33:26
Speaker 1: to say, and he's he was huge for them. Like
33:29
Speaker 1: you know, random stuff happens, and and and you can
33:32
Speaker 1: change a unit of your team. Uh that you know,
33:37
Speaker 1: different different players can impact a club differently over the
33:40
Speaker 1: course of three months. Uh, if if you get a
33:43
Speaker 1: little luck involved, right, like Eddie Rosario was huge for
33:46
Speaker 1: the for Atlanta in their World Series run. Jack Peterson
33:49
Speaker 1: right like stuff like that. Those aren't superstar names, but
33:53
Speaker 1: weird things happen. Runs happen. But what I'm getting is
33:58
Speaker 1: two weeks you'd really like this, then play good baseball here.
34:01
Speaker 1: This needs to turn if you want to cling to
34:04
Speaker 1: the positive. There were some tiny signs of the offense,
34:07
Speaker 1: and you know what this team has, It has good
34:10
Speaker 1: starting pitching. You know, you hope that was just a
34:13
Speaker 1: blip for Showda.
34:14
Speaker 2: That's likely.
34:16
Speaker 1: I mean, with the way he showed, with what he
34:18
Speaker 1: show has shown so far, it was probably just a
34:22
Speaker 1: blip against a team that's got a little swagger right now,
34:25
Speaker 1: the Brews. Again, I think I said this after their
34:28
Speaker 1: first game, but they just look that's a good team.
34:32
Speaker 2: That's a like a I don't.
34:35
Speaker 1: Know, like I guess they're hitting for power now, they
34:38
Speaker 1: have speed, and they have defense. The only thing they
34:41
Speaker 1: don't really have that's intimidating at least is their starting pitching.
34:46
Speaker 1: It's not like super intimidating, So maybe that's what will
34:50
Speaker 1: ultimately be what like leads to them cooling off. But
34:54
Speaker 1: that like their defense and offense and the way they
34:57
Speaker 1: run the bases. That's a it's just a frustra it's
34:59
Speaker 1: a tough team to face, right, especially when you're the
35:02
Speaker 1: Cubs and you can't hold a single base runner. But
35:05
Speaker 1: that's a that's another story. So yeah, we'll we'll, we'll
35:10
Speaker 1: get back at this and next week, well we'll have
35:13
Speaker 1: a little it's not going to be enough information, but
35:17
Speaker 1: series with the Reds. If that goes poorly, uh, that's
35:20
Speaker 1: when you start to say, like, hey, what's happening this season?
35:25
Speaker 1: Because you can't write them off in June. But certainly
35:29
Speaker 1: it certainly can feel like it's it's the wheels are
35:33
Speaker 1: falling off, you know, it was it was around June
35:37
Speaker 1: last year, right, that's what you said. Yeah, June last
35:39
Speaker 1: year is whenever I was. You were out in h
35:43
Speaker 1: in the West Coast, and I was I was off
35:45
Speaker 1: that the that stretch of play, so I didn't experience
35:49
Speaker 1: it firsthand like you did.
35:51
Speaker 4: But I think it was ten games and like it's
35:53
Speaker 4: one of those things where you begin at ten.
35:56
Speaker 3: I think it was a ten game road trip in
35:58
Speaker 3: San Diego and you have all these ideas and they
36:00
Speaker 3: were like kind of a round five or game or
36:02
Speaker 3: two under and you have these ideas and then like
36:06
Speaker 3: they lose back in all of a sudden, it's like,
36:08
Speaker 3: oh wait, this story is shifting in front of you.
36:12
Speaker 4: Like whatever feature.
36:13
Speaker 3: Ideas you had, you have to just kind of toss
36:16
Speaker 3: those to the side and focus on what's going on
36:19
Speaker 3: right in front of you. And I think that's what
36:22
Speaker 3: I've really enjoyed about this podcast, the ability to process
36:29
Speaker 3: our thoughts in real time here.
36:31
Speaker 4: And yeah, we'll be back at it early next week.
36:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, so make sure to keep listening, subscribe, rate, review,
36:39
Speaker 1: all that good stuff that you do on your wherever
36:42
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, and we'll be writing all weekend
36:45
Speaker 1: and then the rest of the season.
36:47
Speaker 2: That is.
36:48
Speaker 1: It may not be a big series in the sense
36:50
Speaker 1: like the Reds aren't a good team, but it is
36:52
Speaker 1: a big series for the Cubs, So we're gonna have
36:55
Speaker 1: to dig in and see how these next three games go.
36:58
Speaker 2: We'll come back at.
37:00
Speaker 1: You on Monday, the off day, and go from there.
37:04
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. Make sure to read our
37:07
Speaker 1: work at the Athletic. I'm sad at Charmouth. That's Patrick Mooney.
37:10
Speaker 1: This is North Side Territory.
37:12
Speaker 2: Take care