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Cubs mailbag: The postseason rotation, Kyle Tucker plans and more · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome into North Side Territory File Territory Networks Cubs Podcast.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I'm Saadeve Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic. Patrick, we
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: have another mail bag episode. Unsurprisingly, the fans are always
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: willing to send in their questions. Always appreciate your willingness
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: to interact with us and ask us questions and try
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and get answers to whatever is going on in Cubs Land.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: It's not too angsty right now.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I think two wins in Atlanta really ease some stress.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: You know, this team, I thought, I think I said
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: it last episode. I have to give them some credit
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: because I was down on them after Monday's loss and
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: they bounce back well. And they've done that all season long.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: There are moments where we've seen like this is it,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: this is the long losing streak or something, and I
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: honestly thought there was a chance they could get sweat
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to Atlanta, and they were able to avoid that obviously
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and win the series against two really good pitchers.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Let's kick this off.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: First question already thinking playoffs here, which you should be
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Jordan Zickert, do you think Kate could be the game,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: one starter and a potential wildcard season.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: That's Kate Horton. Of course, what do you think, Patrick,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: why not?
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: I guess I don't have any concrete information in terms
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: of where the Cubs are leaning. Council had said there
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: is a point where you have to kind of start
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: to lock that in, and I think we're sort of
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: nearing it. I would say that would be mid September,
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: maybe on next week's road trip, maybe get a little
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: more clarity on that. I think the big thing is
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: that you would trust Kate Horton in that situation, which
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: is amazing to think considering how slow his ramp up
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: was in spring training and how cautious the Cubs have
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: been with him, how last year was largely a wasted
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: season developmentally. I think what has been answered is that
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: like he's great at Wrigley Field, if you look at
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: kind of assuming they're hosting the padres there, we'll see
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: how that shakes out. And also I think they know
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: his background and how he's handled himself as a rookie
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: that they don't think the moment would speed up on him,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: and he is kind of checking all those boxes in
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: terms of getting better as the season progress progresses, applying
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: what he's learned. So I think the best way the
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: answer is like certainly in play, and they would not
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: have any hesitation in terms of the weight of that assignment.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: And we'll see how things shake out here. What do
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: you think, sotif.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think you can rule it out?
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Is how Yeah?
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: If i'd put him as the leader, I think I
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: would go Shoda. I think that's how i'd go, just
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the way things are playing out right now, I understand.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And and maybe that's just me leaning towards like I
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: don't want to put a rookie in Game one, and
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: maybe that's a bad thought process. Just go with the
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: guy that's pitching the best. And I think it's hard
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: to argue that Kate Horton's Like there, what's the argument
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: against saying that Kate Horton's pitching the best right now
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: among this staff. I mean, he's arguably pitching the best
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: among any pitcher in baseball right now. I guess the
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: argument would be he hasn't gone six seven innings consistently.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: I think I would dismiss that if I like, so,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm right now, what I'm doing is convincing myself
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: that Kate Horton's probably the right choice. I think I
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: would still go with Shoda and just go with I know,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: and I think Council specifically told you guys on the road,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: like splitting up the lefties is not something he need
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: to do.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: He called it irrelevant when I brought that idea up,
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: because in the back of my head, I remember Cubs
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: people saying this more of a regular season thing. But
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: when they had Cole Hamil's, John Lester, Jose Kintana, was
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: there another lefty in that twenty eighteen twenty nineteen range,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: but it just felt like it was like a lot
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: when you bunch those all together, it felt that opposing
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: lineups could get a little more comfortable. So I wasn't, Yeah,
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: I totally wasn't pulling it out of thin air, you know,
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: with the Hamil's Katona Lester. But Council very much disagreed.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: So that that's why I thought maybe he'd be a
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: Game two started. He's not thinking that way. And then
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: the other his other point, I think we've mentioned this before,
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: was the result of Game one dictates everything, and so
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: that game there is really no Game three starter if
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: you've lost Game one, that it's all hands on deck,
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: your best pitcher's pitch. And I think I need to
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: remind myself too, because I was looking up Jake Arieta's
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: run in twenty fifteen, like, yes, the game one starter
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: might pitch four and one third innings, like if you're
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: looking at it as two times through the lineup ish, Yeah,
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: that just the way these bullpens and pitching staffs are
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: managed so much more aggressively. Now. It's not like you're
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: gonna be expecting him to go out there after the
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: seventh inning stretch.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think talking through this now.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: So if you're thinking Game two may turn out to
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: be a must win, I think you would want a
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: lefty and al righty starter available in that game, maybe right, maybe,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Like maybe splitting the lefties isn't important, but having a
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: lefty and a righty to go long maybe important. So
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: you have Boyd and Kate Horton available. I'm just kind
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: of spitballing here, trying to think things. These are not
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: things that I've heard from Tommy Hotteby or Craig Counsel yet,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Like these are things that I kind of just going
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: off how how they do things. I'm trying to think
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: through it, and if you count everything out starting now,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: which I think is too early to do, but I
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: think Kate Horton lines up as too game two and
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: showeda lines up as game one. Our friend Megan Montemorro
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: was counting it out in the in the press box
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: the other day in Atlanta, and that's what she saw.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know if we're too early on that. I
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: agree with you.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Maybe let's wake wait a couple of days, but I
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: think you can count it out and that's why it's
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: lined up right now.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: The counsel did acknowledge this is Labor Day weekend in Denver,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: that you can sort of script it out and there's
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: a way that it could just flow like that into
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: a playoff series, but that they you can't count the
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: days out and assume that automatically. Going to Ben is
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: kind of the wiggle room that he left there.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: We could be talking about clinching in a week and
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: that that changes how everything. Then they have another week
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: to set everything up. So uh, okay, more pitching questions.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Are there any plans to get Boyd and Horton some
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: extra rest? I'm surprised the Cubs are moving Aside to
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: the pen rather than going six man during their upcoming
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: ten game stretch. Uh, here's here's my like. Look, Yes,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: they're going to get all these guys extra rest. I
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: think I don't know if there's I haven't heard the
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: exact plans, And maybe that's a good question to ask
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: in in pregame today or this weekend. H I think
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I think you have to get these guys extra rest.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Maybe the extra rest is simply you're going to clinch
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: in a week or hopefully clinch in a week, and
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: that's a way to get rest. And then you start
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: lining things up and give guys extra rest. Uh, they
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: have Sabali in there, they have a sad in there.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: They're they're gonna have sorocas soon, who had a really
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: good outing on Thursday.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Am I missing someone that can go long?
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Ben Brown is still up with the team, right.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: So there are people that can go long.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: You can shorten the start, so I think there are
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: options there.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems like that's been the plan. I mean
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: you pointed this out last year with Counsel that his
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: plan is always to give starters extra ress. That you
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: look at what he has done in Milwaukee, not even
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: in a context of September and preparing for the playoffs. Like,
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: his default is almost always towards giving guys extra rest.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: So it'll be kind of shocking if they did not
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: build that in here very soon.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, let's do our DraftKings player spotlight. Okay,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: today's spotlight is Matthew Boyd. Matthew Boyd obviously one of
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the better starters in this rotation. I think there's been
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: some questions as to how he's been pitching, right, Like,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: is he going into the playoffs on a high note.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's the case, right, He's not pitching
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: at his best. I think that'd be unfair to suggest.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: In fact, since August eighth, his August eighth start, he's
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: given up at least two earned runs in every start,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: which just hasn't been like Matthew Boyd. I will say this,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: he has not gone under five innings since May May
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: twenty third.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: It's that one.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: It's that bad outing against the Reds. That's the last
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: time he didn't and that wasn't even a bad outing.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: What happened was he kind of like had it was
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: just an extended first inning where he gave up four runs,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: but it was like it started. There were some hard
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: hits in that game, but it started with bad luck,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: like a hit batter and some bloops and then it
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: just got out of pan and then and then he
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: gave up some hard hits and it was like a
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: thirty five pitch first inning, but he was able to
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: go for innings. It was almost a win after that
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: first inning. But I don't need to make excuses for him.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: He's been brilliant for the majority of the season. I
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: do think I have had some minor concerns about him lately,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: but I do think Washington start was really nice.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: I thought that was a good start.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: That was I think that was Sunday, so that game
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: maybe it was Saturday. Either way, Yeah, either way, whatever
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: day was, it was a loss. But so he kind
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: of got overlooked, but certainly he's been He's been really,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: really good and really impressive bright light for this team
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: as far as the rotation goes, Yeah, it.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: Feels like, I mean we just did this that he's
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: a little bit overlooked, Like as we're talking about playoff
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: rotation stuff like Kate Horton showed him a NAGA and
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Boyd is the only one amongst that group that has
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: major league postseason experience, and he performed at a very
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: high level for the Guardians last October. I think we've
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: all been sort of waiting for that dip from Boyd,
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: like just because he hasn't pitched a full season since
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: twenty nineteen, and for him to be this deep into
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: September and be the anchor of this rotation is extremely impressive.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: It's hard to imagine where the Cubs would be without
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Boyd given what happened to Justin Steele so early in
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: the season, the injuries to tie On and Imnaga, some
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: pitchers who did not step forward for whatever reason. He's
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: the one who's who's carried this team in a lot
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: of ways. And I mean, going building off our previous question, Yeah,
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: maybe you give him a little bit of everyone's handing
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: out resets here. Maybe we give Matthew Boyd a little
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: bit of a reset. He knows what it takes to
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: pitch in October. He's, you know, a tremendous teammate, one
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: of the nicest people you'll ever encounter in the baseball industry,
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: enormously respected in there, and has brought we talk about
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: a team that's been consistent, that hasn't had the long
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: losing streak. Like he's a big part of that, not
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: just with his performance, but also just his demeanor and positivity.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: It's really been invaluable.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a you know, he's had probably
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: since the end of July two or three, maybe three
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: or four starts to say.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Like that's it's not good or those are bad starts.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Let's say outside of that, like he's it's been like
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: half and half, which is which is odd considering how
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: well he had been pitching for the first three plus months.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: So I think Friday will be a nice indicator. Can
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: he put together two really strong starts. It's a solid
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Tampa Bay team, not a great one, but they've played
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: They've been pretty up and down this season, but moments
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: where where they look really really strong. All right, let's
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• 13:33
  Speaker 4: Thanks the hotev for my pick this week. I'm looking
• 13:35
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  Speaker 4: win it all is at plus four seventy five on
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  Speaker 4: I'd win. I'll put one hundred dollars on the NL
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  Speaker 4: Central to win a title at plus four seventy five.
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  Speaker 4: It's the hot even Patrick back to you, guys.
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• 14:55
  Speaker 1: All right, we've we have a lot of questions like
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: this one coming from our buddy Tyler.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Let me get it up there.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: With continued struggles of many players, Suzuki, Castro Bush, why
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: are the Cubs so against ever playing guys like Biasterios
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Casey even when matchups makes sense? Look, okay, so I
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: think here's the pocus. First of all, it would be
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: mostly Suzuki that you'd be sitting right of that group
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: to play any of those guys and he and I
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: think the argument could be made that, Look, Tucker's been out,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: why is Castro playing over?
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: I guess Casey wasn't up al Contra.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Or Biasteris for the last game, But that was Chris
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Sale pitching, So I guess that's the answer there. He
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: could have played against Spencer Streider, he didn't. I get
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: the argument. I think Council leans veterans are going to perform.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: They will perform eventually. I think he's been right a
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: lot of the time. There was a question, you know what,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I'll let you address this, Patrick. There was another question
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: that I think it touches on this, and I want
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: to touch on that as well.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: But that's the basic answer.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: I think he trusts his veterans to perform, and he
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: wants to get them the run up to perform because
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: they're going to be the ones that he needs now.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Like the run up to the playoffs and in the playoffs.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I just think asking Biasteros and Casey to figure
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: everything out in the next like ten days and be
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: ready for the playoffs is just not realistic. You look
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: at where the Cubs are right now. This is not
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: a rebuilding situation anymore. They're not just handing at bats
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: out to guys from Iowa. And this is a smaller part,
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: but I think Staro's Casey, there's still questions about their defense,
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: and that's been a big council thing as well. Of
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: just like Peeko, Armstrong got way more runway as a
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: rookie because he brought high level defense, Bryce Terrange and Milwaukee, Like,
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: this is kind of a central thing for council of
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: giving guys runways who can play d And you know,
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: there's probably going to be a time where you give
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Casey that runway. I guess that's one of our future
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: questions later in the show as well. I just don't
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: think that time is right now. Yeah.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: The other question someone has or point they wanted to make,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: was that for every example of a rookie struggling, there
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: are many examples of a rookie coming up and tearing
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: it up for a month before the league adjusts.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: This is from Chris Pisser. Really.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Look, he even said even Junior Lake has a run
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: like that. I hear you, and I think by giving
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: the example of Junior Lake, which was over a decade ago,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I look, I can't think of anyone off the top
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: of my head, outside of elite prospects that have come
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: up and torn it torn it up right away. Now.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: The difference between when Chris Bryant and Wilson Contreras and
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: all those guys came up, The difference between the pitching
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: then and now so different. The way bullpens are used
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: very different. There's like you and I wrote about this
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Patrick about how that core was dismantled because of the
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: way they were attacked by pitching. The game changed during
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: that era as far as pitchers, how they attacked hitters,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: and they exposed the flaws of that core.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: That was one of whatever a.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Half dozen key reasons why that core didn't become what
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: everyone thought it could be.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: And that's probably unfair. We could get into that some
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: other day. But you know, they accomplished a.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Lot of great things, but we cannot ignore how good
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: pitching is now and and how how they use pitching.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: It's not just the starters. It's starter goes five and
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: then there's four guys coming out of the bullpen that
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: throw ninety nine and have nasty breaking balls.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: It's just very different now.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: It's really hard for rookies to settle in and find
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: their place. We see it all the time now, and
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the Cubs have multiple examples. So, yes, maybe one of
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: those three guys gets hot. I just don't think that's
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: that's a very different It's a very different game there.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: There are very few examples of that nowadays, and it's
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: just as likely that Suzuki gets hot again or that
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Willie Castro can give your team some big hits, because
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: just because we've seen a month and a half of
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: bad WILLI Castro doesn't mean that that's who he is
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: as a player. And that's not going to allay the
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: frustrations of guys like Tyler and I believe Chris who
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: asked that question. I get it. I get fan frustration,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: and I'm not diminishing it. I'm just trying to explain
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: the thought process of Greig Counsel.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Here. Uh, here's a here's a downer.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Assuming Kyle Kyle Tucker walks this winter, how all the
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Cubs fill that spot in the lineup. There were a
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: lot of questions like, this is Casey the automatic villain?
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Is h do they go after Kyle Schwarber? Is there
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: a trade to be made? Here's I think this is
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the answer. Here, here's my answer. It's going to be
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: someone someone like Casey, probably Casey. This is assuming let's
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: let's take Kyle Tucker out of the out of the equation, right,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: That's what the question is saying, Uh, it's going to
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: be that.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: That's my thought Casey.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: With they go into like February March, assuming it's Casey,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: and then they try and find an Alex Bregman type
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: situation where they're opportunistic. Whoever that is, I don't have
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: the free agent list in front of me, maybe there's
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: a trade to be had, uh, I mean.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Know it would be looking for a bat, I guess right,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: just looking for any positional bat. And then however, you
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: fit the pieces and you fit the pieces in uh
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: and if they don't find that, you find you try
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and find like a trustworthy veteran outfielder who could also
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: serve as the fourth outfielder, and then you your plan
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: is Casey's getting you know, four out of six starts
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: a week something like that. Five out of six starts
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: a week. That's how I look at it. That's just
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: my general assumption. What and I'll say this, if they
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: go that route, my hope would be that the Cubs
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: pursue pitching and that's their focus in the office's really
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: upgrade the pitching. Find a stud starter, so it's not
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: like you're just not spending money. I don't know if
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: they will. After last offseason, I think you and I
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: both were like, they're going to spend that Bellinger money.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: And then when they didn't, and you know that led
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: to a lot of angst, obviously, but that's that would
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: be my thought for the early early predictions on the
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: off season.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: You're right on when I what I've been looking at
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: here is the list of free agents after the season.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: It is very much tilted towards pitching. Beyond Tucker. The
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: list of position players is sort of light. It'd be
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: the Cody Bellinger opting out, Alex Bregman opting out Maybe
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: you're in the mix with Scott Boris there on some
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: of those spring training last minute deals. I think I
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: do think they're going to be in on Tucker. I
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: think there's no question about that. That's a different thing
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: than saying that they're going to go to the nth
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: degree to bring him back. It's gonna be fascinating to
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: see how Kyle Tucker finishes this year, what sort of
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: position he is in in terms of commanding that next megadeal.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: I'm with you. I think Owen Casey, everyone who's frustrated
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: by Owen Casey's lack of at bats now are going
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: to be exhausted watching him trying to figure out how
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: to hit major league pitching and play every day next year.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: And that's just because that's happened to everyone. I think
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: he's got a bright future, but he's got a lot
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: of growing to do at the major league level and
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: it's probably going to be tough to watch at times.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: Outside of Tucker or pitching, I don't know how long
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: they're going to want to go on preeging contracts because
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: that CBA is up after twenty twenty six. I think
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: it's gonna be fascinating to see how they approach that.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: I mean, thus far, even years out, they've been very
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: cat just about not going beyond twenty twenty six with
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: almost all of their contracts except for a few very
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: notable exceptions. So yeah, I'm with you. I think you
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: put money into the pitching staff also to see, like
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: trade wise, where they're at after they really held on
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: to almost all of their big trade chips at the deadline.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: Will different opportunities present themselves this off season that maybe
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: we're not thinking about.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, all right, let's take a quick break and
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: wrap it up with a couple more quick questions.
• 24:37
  Speaker 6: We spend a lot of time on the road. We
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: are often concerned about our online security when you're logging
• 24:43
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• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Really so you should maybe.
• 24:46
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• 24:48
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• 24:52
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• 25:39
  Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, Let's get back to these questions. We
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: got a question from Blue Line Theology, who Who's my buddy?
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Now?
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: He started this with I believe that the question started.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I didn't include this on the screen, but I believe
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: it started with dearest Sahad. So oh wow, yeah, uh
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and and he he's talking about Kyle Tucker here and
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: the injuries. Are the Cubs unique because it feels like
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: they are in struggling to settle on a strategy for
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: injured players.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Look, we talked about this last episode. I do.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they're unique, because I just it's
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: it's really hard to follow the injury.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: I l issues of other teams.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: When I've talked to other other reporters about it, or
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: even someone like Megan who's covered the Phillies, they seem
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: to say, like, this doesn't this isn't super unique. I
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: do think we've gotten a couple. I think the Tucker
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: one is especially frustrating, and it's it's kind of like
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: the limit that's Look, I.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Think this is how it goes.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: This is how it goes. It's not a major injury.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: It's not a break, it's not a tear. It's not
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: something that this is an obvious il stint. The players
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: like either like I can play through this, or they're
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: they're saying, give me two more days, give me give
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: me two more days. I'm gonna be fine. I know
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: how my body heals. I can give you a seven.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: I can give you those seven days that we would
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: have otherwise lost.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: This is absolutely I know players that have been.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Put on the EL that say I didn't want to
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: go on the I L. I just they I just
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: decided not to have the fight. I was ready in
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: two days. I could have I could have gone, but
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: they didn't want they you know, I didn't feel like
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: having the back and forth with them, or or I
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: let them win that one. Uh So this is something
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: and it's not a fight. It's just a back and forth.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: They have to take the player's input. They can't just say,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: I mean sometimes they can just say you're going on
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: the I L like this is bad, like this, you know,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: but they have to have some medical evidence, I believe,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: and they have to have trainers on their side.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: So it is.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: It's a gray area. And I don't think the Cubs
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: are unique to this.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: We are all just.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Focused on them. It's just like bullpen usage. It's just
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: like slumps. Every team has these issues. Every team goes
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: through these slumps, and every team has these debates with
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: their players about is it time to.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Go on the IL or not.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: This one was a tough one because it was right
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: on that borderline council even said it like five six days.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: That's when you get to this weird situation. It's like
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: we got to make a decision here.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: I would also add that all injured players are not
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: treated the same that it does seem like pitchers have
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: different thresholds than position players in terms of how cautious
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: the organization is going to be. And then yeah, there
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: are some players like Kyle Tucker who are stars who
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: get a little more runway here to figure things out
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: and defer decisions until ultimately their hands are forced.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, last question from Dustin divorziek. If Carter Hawkins leeps
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: for the national jobs, who are some candidates to replace him?
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: And what impact will his departure have on the twenty
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: thirty two Cubs? Just in the nice little they get
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: Harter there for his twenty thirty two comments that is,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: he's never gonna live that dewn.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: He is.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: He annoyed Cubs fans with that comment and they're not
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: going to let it go. I understand. I think the candidates, like,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I'll give you my two prime ones are Jared Banner
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: and Essen Bakari because their assistant GMS, right, that has
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: to be the obvious candidates internally the other candidate that's
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: kind of out of the box. But because I know
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: he'd like to run baseball ops departments someday, maybe too early,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: probably early, and doing this having him leap over people
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: would be Tyler's zambro. I think it's too early, and
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: I think you it can cause some front office dynamics
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: if you kind of leap over the guys that have
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: been there. I don't know for sure, but I'm just
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: saying like that's it's natural to like feel some things like, wait,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: I've been here, I've been doing things.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: I've been helping this team build this team to win.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Outside of that, I don't I can't name external candidates
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: off the top of my head. This is something that
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: if it comes to that, I think you and I
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: will start digging. It's kind of hard to name. I'm
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: not sure what direction Jed would want to go. Maybe
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: pitching again, Maybe pitching is a focus. Find another voice.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: I do think it's always good to find voices, external
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: voices and bring them in.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's a lot of ways they could
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: go by, Like they don't need a GM in title.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: Jed has a small inner circle and We're assuming most
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: of them will be around most, if not all, will
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: be around next season. And I think through Carter's work
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: behind the scenes, the Cubs have been brought up to
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: speed in certain areas that Jed wanted addressed. And you know,
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: some of this stuff is just title inflation, to be honest,
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: you like, there's a lot of you know, you know,
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: a GM now in baseball is what an assistant GM
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: used to be not that long ago. And so yeah,
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: we'll see how the Cubs staff up with a lockout coming.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: I think that's something to monitor. They've made a lot
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: of changes behind the scenes that we detailed last year
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: in terms of how they go about scouting. Now this
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: is a very model heavy team and so Carter was
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: brought in to bring that Cleveland perspective, that small market discipline.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: I think we've all seen that. So like, is that
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: just kind of part of the organization's DNA now and
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: do you have to replace that with something similar? Do
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: you want a different voice? And there's also to your
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: points side of like do you have to reward some
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: of your own people too, that if the Cubs make
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: the playoffs here, if if they go on a nice
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: run in October, Like there are people who have made
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: contributions that should be recognized as well. So a really
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: good question. It's just kind of a little too far
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: ahead for us to like get more concrete than that.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: But something will be covering for sure over the next
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: several weeks.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if Carter, I'm not even sure if we can
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: get much information before Carter actually leaves, Like that's one
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: of the swear. Yeah, it'd be hard to like even
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: even get anything concrete until the decision has been made.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: And we'll see, we'll see where that goes.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Uh, you know that, I think the process, you know,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: you'd want that to be done by the playoffs ish
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: uh sometime, you know not you don't want that dragging
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: it too deep into October. I'm trying to think usually
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: mid October is when these things are done. There are
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: cases where it drags onto the GM meetings and beyond.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: I think we've maybe even the giants.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: Of it, or yeah, the giants when Farham came on
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: and then Scott Harris came on. Yes, that like that
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: was a longer one. Yeah, so it could drag on.
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: We'll see, we'll see how quickly.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: They get this done and if if Carter is the choice.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening everyone. This is Northside Territory. We appreciate
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: you listening. We appreciate you sending in questions. Uh, make
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic, where Patrick and I are
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: on top of all things cubs. Thanks for listening to everyone.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: Take care,