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Cubs mailbag: Who’s to blame if this season keeps slipping away? · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Sahadem Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:13
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic and Patrick, it
0:17
Speaker 1: is time for a mailbag episode. Let's get right to it.
0:23
Speaker 1: We got Chase Riddle here to start it off. If
0:28
Speaker 1: the Cubs become sellers, looking more likely, sadly, who would
0:32
Speaker 1: be available? Okay, I'm gonna start this off by saying, Chase, look,
0:36
Speaker 1: I get it. They stink right now. I'm not gonna
0:40
Speaker 1: like sugarcoat it. They're not playing well. They're they're five
0:43
Speaker 1: and eighteen. They were geez, what were they? They were
0:48
Speaker 1: twenty seven and twelve, right, fifteen games over five hundred,
0:53
Speaker 1: looking like they were going to be not only division
0:57
Speaker 1: winning team, but like one of the best teams in baseball.
1:00
Speaker 1: And they sink right now. There's still two games over
1:03
Speaker 1: five hundred. There are five Wait, how many playoff spots
1:08
Speaker 1: are there? There's six playoff spots. There are six playoff spots.
1:16
Speaker 1: They they're in the thick of it. As far as
1:20
Speaker 1: the race, in contention, do you have a strong feeling
1:26
Speaker 1: right now that they can win a Series or win
1:28
Speaker 1: the World Series. Probably not, but the things change quickly,
1:32
Speaker 1: that's the first thing. So I wouldn't say it's looking
1:35
Speaker 1: more likely. Maybe it's more likely than it was a
1:38
Speaker 1: month ago. Sure, it's still very unlikely. I think that
1:45
Speaker 1: My quick answer to this question is go look at
1:47
Speaker 1: who the pending free agents are, and that's who you
1:50
Speaker 1: can I think it's more complicated than that, right Patrick
1:53
Speaker 1: this year, Yeah.
1:55
Speaker 2: I still think that would be a very unlikely outcome
1:59
Speaker 2: for the Cubs to concede and sort of acknowledge that
2:03
Speaker 2: this team was poorly constructed. I guess I would look
2:11
Speaker 2: at happened in happens, say a Suzuki, as guys who
2:15
Speaker 2: have no trade clauses but would.
2:19
Speaker 1: Maybe want to get out.
2:20
Speaker 2: From under a potential qualifying offer, although that potential draft
2:26
Speaker 2: pick would have value for the Cubs, and obviously the
2:29
Speaker 2: return would have to exceed that. I mean, guys like
2:33
Speaker 2: showed a tie on like if they're not if they're
2:37
Speaker 2: pitching well, the Cubs are staying in the race, and
2:40
Speaker 2: if they're pitching poorly, like who would want them as
2:43
Speaker 2: sort of or would be willing to pay a lot
2:46
Speaker 2: for them to sort of fill out the back of
2:48
Speaker 2: their rotation. I think at this point we probably spent
2:53
Speaker 2: ah too much time on the possibility. I think, like,
2:56
Speaker 2: get back to us in a month and then maybe
3:00
Speaker 2: will be pounding the table, you know, kind of saying
3:02
Speaker 2: they should or explaining what they're thinking. But right now,
3:05
Speaker 2: you know, they're not thinking about degrees of buying, like
3:09
Speaker 2: their focuses on basically getting better, winning the next game
3:13
Speaker 2: and trying to create some sort of recapture, some sort
3:17
Speaker 2: of sense of momentum.
3:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, they they have to think about the present right now,
3:22
Speaker 1: I think. And then I just don't think selling is
3:25
Speaker 1: as much on the table, so that they got to
3:27
Speaker 1: get better and figure that out, of course, and we
3:31
Speaker 1: got plenty of questions on that too. Tyler Dershel so
3:38
Speaker 1: he he kind of sent to like a screenshots there.
3:42
Speaker 1: There was a before we get to Tyler's question, there
3:45
Speaker 1: was a question in a part of it that said,
3:48
Speaker 1: is Tyler Dershall just made up? Is he someone when
3:51
Speaker 1: you guys run out of questions, you guys just insert
3:54
Speaker 1: the question that you want asked and made up this name. No,
3:58
Speaker 1: Tyler is a real person, or at least I think
4:00
Speaker 1: he is, and he sends in questions he must have
4:06
Speaker 1: alerts for us or something, because he has he has
4:08
Speaker 1: questions up there regularly the moment we have a mailbag episode.
4:15
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna pause this real quick and get Patrick
4:18
Speaker 1: back on the on the feed here. Oh thanks, all right,
4:22
Speaker 1: Patrick is back. Okay. So his point with Tyler's point
4:27
Speaker 1: with this question he had to like screen grabs and
4:30
Speaker 1: it was just basically I think it was from like
4:32
Speaker 1: twenty three or something, and the point was like this
4:35
Speaker 1: team has repeatedly done this like sinking for month months
4:40
Speaker 1: of offense. And I believe was it twenty three or
4:44
Speaker 1: twenty four? I think it was twenty four, wasn't in
4:47
Speaker 1: twenty four when Jamison when we were standing there talking
4:50
Speaker 1: to jameson toyn and he was like, it started as
4:52
Speaker 1: a week, it started, it went to like two weeks
4:54
Speaker 1: and now it's been like two months where we've struggled.
4:58
Speaker 1: That's it. You don't want that to happen again, obviously,
5:02
Speaker 1: you don't want to extend more than it has already.
5:06
Speaker 1: And his question is is this an organizational issue or
5:08
Speaker 1: did the Cubs simply invest in the wrong players or
5:11
Speaker 1: is it both. I don't want to say they've invested
5:15
Speaker 1: in the wrong players. I think they have good players
5:20
Speaker 1: the position. Player wise, These types of questions are really
5:24
Speaker 1: hard to analyze that the worst at the at the
5:27
Speaker 1: nider of things, what feels like the nader things, because
5:30
Speaker 1: there's just no way to like say, like, I think
5:33
Speaker 1: these players, these are the right players when when they're
5:36
Speaker 1: performing like this, like here's what I'll say in twenty four.
5:44
Speaker 1: Twenty four convinced me you need a superstar in the
5:48
Speaker 1: middle of the lineup to kind of stabilize things. They
5:51
Speaker 1: went and got that superstar. It didn't really stabilize things.
5:56
Speaker 1: You could argue that it was because of injury whatever.
6:00
Speaker 1: I just don't know how many of those players are
6:01
Speaker 1: out there anymore, Like how many Like it's like Aaron Judge,
6:07
Speaker 1: Shoho Tani and then a couple others. But even those
6:11
Speaker 1: couple others like that like bounces back and forth. Who
6:15
Speaker 1: that is either due to injury and effectiveness or or
6:21
Speaker 1: you know, like it's a young player that was developed.
6:25
Speaker 1: Maybe you can throw Jose Ramirez in that group just
6:28
Speaker 1: because he's so consistent. So I don't know what the
6:34
Speaker 1: answer is anymore. Like you either have to have like
6:36
Speaker 1: a show hey or a judge, and even those teams
6:40
Speaker 1: go like read or follow up on those teams, they
6:43
Speaker 1: do go in slumps. And I don't know if it's
6:45
Speaker 1: month long's offensive lulls, but I do like we have
6:49
Speaker 1: a slack channel, Patrick, with all the reporters in there,
6:52
Speaker 1: and I'll see like Fabian or Katie talking about the
6:55
Speaker 1: struggles of so and so and and the where is
6:58
Speaker 1: where did this Dodgers offense? And you see similar things
7:02
Speaker 1: with the Yankees. Why are the Yankees in a funk?
7:05
Speaker 1: So it goes, it goes through it like it's it is.
7:10
Speaker 1: It is an issue with every team. I do think
7:13
Speaker 1: there's some organizational issue and that has to we can
7:16
Speaker 1: We'll get to that later. But your thoughts here, Patrick, Yeah,
7:22
Speaker 1: I think.
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Speaker 2: It's a little bit of both. I wouldn't make any
7:26
Speaker 2: definitive statements about either one. I think this stretch has
7:32
Speaker 2: opened the door for some of these questions about the
7:37
Speaker 2: organization's process, like where's the pitching, Why has an international
7:45
Speaker 2: sort of produced at you know, the rate that you
7:51
Speaker 2: would hope, the Craig Council factor, how Jed Hoyers putting
8:00
Speaker 2: together the team, like all of this stuff. It's fair
8:04
Speaker 2: game in a way that it really wasn't only a
8:07
Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago, which makes you think that it
8:09
Speaker 2: could turn again. And I think just underlines that it
8:13
Speaker 2: really is on the players right now. I don't think
8:17
Speaker 2: as the Cubs were making these moves, there was a
8:20
Speaker 2: lot of sort of pushback from us, included of like
8:24
Speaker 2: like Bregnant's on the decline, or you know, just sit
8:29
Speaker 2: out that huge shortstop class and don't sign dance be
8:32
Speaker 2: like you know, Pek Armstrong is one of the most
8:36
Speaker 2: exciting and marketable players in baseball. I think you want
8:39
Speaker 2: him on your team. So I think this is a
8:44
Speaker 2: question that we will be digging into for one of
8:48
Speaker 2: those like four thousand word stories if the season goes
8:51
Speaker 2: off the rail. But we're not quite there yet.
8:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. And just quickly, on that shortstop class,
9:00
Speaker 1: I don't know who you'd want out of that short
9:02
Speaker 1: stop class right now. They're out. They're all have issues
9:05
Speaker 1: of varying degrees. So it just to you know, this
9:09
Speaker 1: is the risk with free agency, big money, free agency.
9:11
Speaker 1: It's the reality of it. All right, Let's take a
9:13
Speaker 1: quick break and get back to more questions.
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10:18
Speaker 1: Okay, let's get to another question here. This one is
10:21
Speaker 1: from Joe Madden's Glasses. Should the Cubs consider sitting Dansby
10:26
Speaker 1: for a week and going with Nico and Shaw up
10:28
Speaker 1: the middle. Would the defensive drop off be that bad
10:32
Speaker 1: with Shaw won't be back? What's the what's the latest
10:35
Speaker 1: update on Shaw Patrick So.
10:39
Speaker 2: Craig Counsel said he wants Shaw to play regularly, meaning
10:46
Speaker 2: like stacking up five to six games in a row,
10:52
Speaker 2: not just because of the layoff from his injury. He's
10:56
Speaker 2: did not get many chances to play in May because
11:01
Speaker 2: of the pitching matchups and the way those series unfolded.
11:07
Speaker 2: So I wouldn't expect him back until next week at
11:13
Speaker 2: the earliest. I would assume during that trip to Course
11:18
Speaker 2: Field and the Bay Area, assuming the Cubs aren't planning
11:23
Speaker 2: on just stashing him in Iowa and making him play
11:25
Speaker 2: every day, to that sense, But I would think that,
11:29
Speaker 2: you know, he's proven himself to where he would be,
11:32
Speaker 2: you know, kind of an automatic ad once he's gotten
11:35
Speaker 2: enough reps Saint Dansby for a week. I think that
11:40
Speaker 2: seems a little extended. It was just based on what
11:44
Speaker 2: Council said the other day at Wrigley Field, but giving
11:50
Speaker 2: him a few days off, he said, you have to
11:53
Speaker 2: consider all of those ideas, and I think the defensive
11:58
Speaker 2: drop off over four months, you know, could be considerable.
12:02
Speaker 2: Like all those double plays that you just kind of
12:04
Speaker 2: assume are going to be turned. That doesn't think snowball,
12:08
Speaker 2: but as a temporary reprieve for Dansby, who's clearly going
12:14
Speaker 2: through it right now, that's certainly on the table.
12:17
Speaker 1: Yeah. I completely agree. Pedro, Ramirez and match are solid
12:21
Speaker 1: to above average defenders at either second base or third
12:26
Speaker 1: base if you want to put them there and get
12:29
Speaker 1: them some time. You know, I don't think Bragman needs
12:32
Speaker 1: to sit right now. I think it's important to remember
12:36
Speaker 1: that whatever six, seven, eight months ago, whenever it was now,
12:41
Speaker 1: I guess longer than that. Cheez It's it's June nine
12:45
Speaker 1: months ago. Let's say we were talking about the reason
12:48
Speaker 1: the Cubs got past the San Diego Padres is because
12:51
Speaker 1: Dansby Swanson's an elite defender at shortstop. Is he this
12:57
Speaker 1: amazing offensive player? I don't think who's ever built as
13:01
Speaker 1: that above average offensive player with some power. He's not
13:05
Speaker 1: that right now. Offensively, he's still an elite defender and
13:10
Speaker 1: he helps the Steam wins games. I completely agree with you.
13:14
Speaker 1: I think we're getting close, if not past the point
13:17
Speaker 1: or at the point of like sit him for a
13:19
Speaker 1: couple of days, you know. I don't really know what's
13:22
Speaker 1: going on there and how to fix it. That's their job.
13:27
Speaker 1: It's whatever their try right now, is it working or
13:30
Speaker 1: the results aren't getting there. I do know there's a
13:33
Speaker 1: ton of work being put in. I've heard that some
13:36
Speaker 1: of the work it looks good in the cage and
13:38
Speaker 1: they're struggling to kind of translate that onto the field.
13:41
Speaker 1: And like I said last episode, he's not chasing anymore.
13:46
Speaker 1: I don't know what. Like he stopped chasing, that should
13:51
Speaker 1: fix part of the issue. He's still not hitting, So
13:55
Speaker 1: it's only a couple of games really where he hasn't
13:57
Speaker 1: been chasing. But you know, it's hard to watch sometimes
14:00
Speaker 1: when these guys are in the depth of struggles. So
14:04
Speaker 1: you'd like to see him turn a corner at some point.
14:07
Speaker 1: And if not, I guess you know, sitting for a
14:09
Speaker 1: couple of games makes absolute sense. Justin Devorek, Why does
14:15
Speaker 1: this organization continue to get beat by the Brewers in
14:18
Speaker 1: every category from the big league team farm system to analytics, drafting, development, yeah, everything, international,
14:32
Speaker 1: whatever you want to point to. They are outclassed by
14:37
Speaker 1: the Brewers to a degree that is extremely frustrating to
14:42
Speaker 1: fans and people with the organization. Here's my quick, quick
14:48
Speaker 1: ish answer, Patrick David Stearns was hired in twenty fifteen.
14:52
Speaker 1: That's this generation of brewers that were watching. They didn't
14:56
Speaker 1: make the playoffs till twenty eighteen, and I would say
15:00
Speaker 1: they weren't a well oiled machine until right after the pandemic,
15:04
Speaker 1: like twenty Maybe it would have happened in twenty in
15:07
Speaker 1: a full season, but twenty one was because I remember
15:11
Speaker 1: those early like this team's good and they're pesky and annoying,
15:15
Speaker 1: But it was not because of the farm system they had,
15:18
Speaker 1: not like I remember thinking like, eh, do they have
15:20
Speaker 1: any really good prospects or anything like they like, they
15:24
Speaker 1: just had some good players at the major league level,
15:26
Speaker 1: and they had some unique ideas and ways to kind
15:28
Speaker 1: of fit pieces together that that, like you know, a
15:32
Speaker 1: small market team was taking advantage of. It took a
15:36
Speaker 1: while to build everything up. I would say the Cubs
15:40
Speaker 1: are probably at the point where it should be happening.
15:43
Speaker 1: But if you want to say, like where they've been
15:45
Speaker 1: a model driven organization, it's only been about three years.
15:49
Speaker 1: They need to be better. I'm not making excuses for them.
15:52
Speaker 1: I'm saying this current iteration where they're like leaning on
15:57
Speaker 1: the model and and the way the Brewers do the
16:00
Speaker 1: way the Guardians do things, the way the Rays do things.
16:04
Speaker 1: Remember when we were doing that story about the model,
16:06
Speaker 1: one of the pushbacks we got is like, do you
16:08
Speaker 1: really think do the Cubs really think they can be
16:12
Speaker 1: as efficient as teams that lean on the model, like
16:14
Speaker 1: the Brewers and the Guardians in the Rays. Do you
16:17
Speaker 1: think that? Like, because we like it took them years
16:20
Speaker 1: to build that model out and make it so good
16:24
Speaker 1: for them, like that everything works so well, it takes
16:28
Speaker 1: a while to build out, and it was a process,
16:32
Speaker 1: I know, like international was the last thing that they
16:34
Speaker 1: kind of overhauled, I think over the last year plus.
16:38
Speaker 1: So like, if you want to give them that benefit
16:41
Speaker 1: of the doubt that they could even get it to
16:43
Speaker 1: that point, it's still you know, kind of it should
16:46
Speaker 1: be just the beginning of that where where things you
16:49
Speaker 1: start to see the fruits of the labor. But I
16:51
Speaker 1: don't really want to assume that they did it all right,
16:55
Speaker 1: Like we don't know until we see any results, So
16:58
Speaker 1: we can't give them the bend the doubt until they
17:01
Speaker 1: get the results. So why why does this Like the
17:05
Speaker 1: Brewers are just better at it they're better than everyone
17:08
Speaker 1: in it. I don't want to just say it's on
17:11
Speaker 1: the Cubs, but the Cubs also have, you know, one
17:13
Speaker 1: hundred million plus on their payroll, and that they need
17:17
Speaker 1: they had they finally leaned into that, and the Brewers
17:20
Speaker 1: are still still beating them. So you know, I just
17:25
Speaker 1: don't like, I don't have a why to that, why
17:27
Speaker 1: the Brewers are so good. I think if you could
17:29
Speaker 1: figure out why they're so good, you'd steal their ideas
17:34
Speaker 1: and run with it. It's just you don't see it
17:36
Speaker 1: proliferating across the game. I will say the Brewers are
17:39
Speaker 1: one of those teams that are really quiet, really hard
17:42
Speaker 1: to get info from them, really hard to get any
17:44
Speaker 1: of the secret sauce that they're really good at keeping
17:47
Speaker 1: people quiet there. It's amazing. I find it remarkable, and
17:51
Speaker 1: believe me, Justin and I I want to find out.
17:53
Speaker 1: We all want to find out because that's our jobs
17:55
Speaker 1: as reporters. We're curious about this stuff. It's hard to
17:58
Speaker 1: figure out exactly what they're doing it. But they are
18:00
Speaker 1: a step above.
18:03
Speaker 2: There's only one category I care about, like your record
18:07
Speaker 2: at the major league level, and like I don't really
18:12
Speaker 2: care if the Brewers have a better R and D department.
18:15
Speaker 1: I think there are different.
18:16
Speaker 2: Ways to build a World Series winner, And I think
18:20
Speaker 2: it's less about the Brewers and more about the Cubs
18:23
Speaker 2: having to lean into their strengths. Like, yeah, they spend
18:28
Speaker 2: one hundred million more this year, should they be spending
18:31
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty million more than the Brewers?
18:32
Speaker 1: I don't know.
18:33
Speaker 2: Maybe, Like as long as you you'll kind of pick
18:38
Speaker 2: the right players, you know, as long as you're kind of,
18:42
Speaker 2: you know, trusting your convictions, I think that to me
18:49
Speaker 2: is what matters. And the Brewers have been this great
18:52
Speaker 2: foil for the Cubs, and you know, hiring counsel Away
18:56
Speaker 2: added a whole nother like level to this. You're right,
19:02
Speaker 2: we don't really know clearly it wasn't all council. And
19:08
Speaker 2: they've won in so many different ways, Like they've really,
19:13
Speaker 2: like you were saying kind of that whatever pre post pandemic,
19:16
Speaker 2: they really flipped their style of play as well, like
19:21
Speaker 2: they've become it of it, and they've obviously replenished their
19:25
Speaker 2: pitching in an unbelievable way.
19:27
Speaker 1: Like I think if there's.
19:30
Speaker 2: One thing you could point to with the Cubs for
19:32
Speaker 2: as long as we've been covering this team is just
19:34
Speaker 2: like being able to develop your own pitching is such
19:39
Speaker 2: a huge deal. It opens up all sorts of avenues
19:43
Speaker 2: with trades, It creates more space in your budget, creates
19:48
Speaker 2: you know, opportunity for kind of some of those out
19:52
Speaker 2: of nowhere seasons, and you know that That to me
19:55
Speaker 2: is what I've just distill it down to, just like
19:57
Speaker 2: the Cubs not not really having that like solid identity.
20:02
Speaker 2: I think they've they made a lot of gains in
20:04
Speaker 2: that area, and also just not being able to match
20:07
Speaker 2: the Brewers pitching.
20:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the pitching is is the key there. Obviously,
20:13
Speaker 1: health has bitten the Cubs this season, but it bites
20:16
Speaker 1: the Brewers and they're able to overcome in various ways.
20:21
Speaker 1: Like the Cubs, it would be in such a different
20:24
Speaker 1: place right now if health hadn't bit them, Like we
20:27
Speaker 1: would be talking about this team very differently because you'd
20:30
Speaker 1: have I mean, like maybe we wouldn't know how good
20:34
Speaker 1: Ben Brown is as a starter, but you have Ben
20:36
Speaker 1: Brown developing into a young, controllable starter. Kate Horton if
20:41
Speaker 1: he didn't get hurt Justin Steele without a without a
20:45
Speaker 1: you know, setback, Jackson Wiggins if he wasn't hurt right
20:50
Speaker 1: now and taking forever to come back. You just look
20:54
Speaker 1: at this organization differently with healthy pitching. Right now, it's like, Okay,
21:00
Speaker 1: they have a young guy and Caleb Wing that they
21:02
Speaker 1: drafted last year, and that gives you some you know,
21:05
Speaker 1: like a glimmer of like, hey, maybe four years from
21:07
Speaker 1: now he'll pitch in a major league day. And I
21:11
Speaker 1: was like, why should you believe in that? Like I've
21:15
Speaker 1: probably talked about somebody else that's now off the radar
21:19
Speaker 1: because they get hurt, or they could become ineffective, or
21:22
Speaker 1: they hit double A and they can't perform, or they
21:25
Speaker 1: walk the ballpark, whatever, So there's no reason to believe
21:28
Speaker 1: in that until they prove prove us wrong. And the
21:31
Speaker 1: Brewers continually, uh, you know, proved Outers wrong by saying, like,
21:37
Speaker 1: look at what we're producing over and over again, so
21:40
Speaker 1: you know, the Cubs aren't at that level. And I
21:43
Speaker 1: think you're right. You make a good point, like don't
21:45
Speaker 1: try and be the Brewers, like what are your strengths,
21:48
Speaker 1: what can you maximize? What can you do well? I'm
21:52
Speaker 1: not sure if the Cubs have that identity right now.
21:56
Speaker 1: And then we got one from Blue line theology. Look,
22:01
Speaker 1: I included this because I think fans care about this,
22:05
Speaker 1: and I I think it matters in that sense. Where
22:09
Speaker 1: is Rizzo charging the Reds from twenty fourteen? Where's Steel
22:12
Speaker 1: blasting the dugout in Milwaukee? I'm glad we have even
22:15
Speaker 1: keeled players, but they're playing a game in front of
22:17
Speaker 1: fans and the lack of reaction emotions comes off as
22:20
Speaker 1: disinterested at best. Where is the fight? The Cubs didn't
22:26
Speaker 1: do anything in twenty fourteen. They stuck. It was the beginning,
22:31
Speaker 1: like the end of the season was the beginning. Does
22:35
Speaker 1: that matter to fans? Yeah, that's a great moment for
22:37
Speaker 1: you guys. It didn't matter. It didn't matter as far
22:41
Speaker 1: as wins and losses. Justin Steel blasting the dugout like
22:45
Speaker 1: they kept losing after that. It was like what this
22:50
Speaker 1: is is that's a release of emotion for those guys.
22:53
Speaker 1: It doesn't inspire anyone. Like nobody in that clubhouse was like,
22:57
Speaker 1: now we're gonna win. They were all like, oh okay,
23:00
Speaker 1: you got you blue some like it probably was because
23:03
Speaker 1: they weren't playing well or I mean, Rizzeou is a
23:05
Speaker 1: different personality. They don't like, they don't have that Rizzo
23:09
Speaker 1: personality with this group, He's a unique personality. It maybe
23:14
Speaker 1: they could use a different personality in this clubhouse. I
23:17
Speaker 1: don't think it changes anything as far as blowing off steam.
23:23
Speaker 1: If anything, they could have a guy like make cracking
23:26
Speaker 1: jokes in the clubhouse because they are pretty serious. I
23:31
Speaker 1: don't think screaming and yelling changes this stuff. But I
23:34
Speaker 1: will say this, it is cathartic for fans to see
23:38
Speaker 1: that and they there is fight in this team and
23:42
Speaker 1: they do care. Those are things that like it's very
23:46
Speaker 1: obvious to me when we're talking to the players, uh
23:50
Speaker 1: and and around them. But I think like suggesting that
23:54
Speaker 1: they need someone to scream and yell or is that
23:57
Speaker 1: that is performative and for the fans and all. So
24:00
Speaker 1: it just it needs to be natural. It can't be
24:02
Speaker 1: something where they're where they're doing that because they want
24:06
Speaker 1: to show look how much I care.
24:09
Speaker 2: I will say, I think we're getting close to that
24:12
Speaker 2: tipping point where maybe a player does pop off. Like
24:17
Speaker 2: I'm not guaranteeing that.
24:19
Speaker 1: I don't even know who would be in this group.
24:23
Speaker 1: Why thing I would make it even more noteworthy.
24:26
Speaker 2: Obviously, Pete would always be voted most likely in this
24:30
Speaker 2: character in this category. I think blue line theology does
24:38
Speaker 2: make a good point though that clearly something is off.
24:42
Speaker 2: Until they fix it, we're going to keep theorizing and
24:47
Speaker 2: trying to come up with more interesting ways of saying
24:50
Speaker 2: it's just baseball. Be comes have lost a lot of
24:55
Speaker 2: the the benefit of the doubt right now, and you
25:01
Speaker 2: know it's hard. You know, Rize like he was very
25:05
Speaker 2: interesting character. He was a very like different kind of leader.
25:12
Speaker 2: Like he did it as kind of the class clown
25:15
Speaker 2: there and that you know, do you know his work,
25:18
Speaker 2: I mean it helped at the most, you know, the
25:21
Speaker 2: most important game in franchise history, no doubt. You know,
25:25
Speaker 2: Rizzo is a is a Chicago sports legend forever. But
25:32
Speaker 2: Rizzo's biggest thing was he posted every day and he
25:37
Speaker 2: produced like that is you know, why does he have
25:41
Speaker 2: a blue jacket? Is he in the Cubs Hall of Fame?
25:44
Speaker 2: I've lost track of that sort of I don't think,
25:46
Speaker 2: yeah thing, but when you look at it, you know
25:51
Speaker 2: one of those you know sort of mount what he
26:05
Speaker 2: just produced. You know, guys who you know have resumes
26:11
Speaker 2: you know similar Rizzo's guys are getting paid the same
26:13
Speaker 2: as or more than Rizzo. They just they just haven't
26:16
Speaker 2: come through in the clutch recently, and what we'll see
26:20
Speaker 2: if that changes or not.
26:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, someone there was another question where it was like
26:25
Speaker 1: does it get boring or like how frustrating is it
26:27
Speaker 1: for you guys to cover a team that doesn't show emotion.
26:31
Speaker 1: It doesn't bother me. It really doesn't like it. It
26:34
Speaker 1: like if they went off in the post game, that'd
26:36
Speaker 1: be interesting to me because I'd have a quote to
26:38
Speaker 1: throw out there and something to write about. I honestly
26:42
Speaker 1: don't think just going off it's all it is is
26:46
Speaker 1: a release of steam for that player who's frustrated and
26:49
Speaker 1: done with whatever is going on and just wants to
26:51
Speaker 1: release steam. I don't think it changes a dynamic in
26:54
Speaker 1: any way. These guys are working hard to try and
26:57
Speaker 1: figure out how to hit again and get on the
27:00
Speaker 1: winning track again. They weren't screaming and yelling when they
27:04
Speaker 1: were winning, outside of like being pumped up and excited.
27:07
Speaker 1: But I just don't But I understand it. I understand
27:12
Speaker 1: fans like seeing the emotion, but this isn't that group.
27:17
Speaker 1: So if, like, I don't think you should force those things,
27:23
Speaker 1: we'll see they can get back to winning. Patrick, because
27:25
Speaker 1: I know fans desperately need this to turn because this
27:28
Speaker 1: has been far too long and it's weird. I think
27:34
Speaker 1: I said this off the air, but it's like, why
27:35
Speaker 1: do we always end up like this? Like why like
27:38
Speaker 1: maybe this is just covering baseball, Like there's no such
27:41
Speaker 1: thing as like those twenty sixteen seasons are very rare.
27:45
Speaker 1: Like if we were doing this podcast in seventeen, we
27:47
Speaker 1: would have been similarly like what is wrong? Like what
27:50
Speaker 1: is going on with this team? And then they made
27:52
Speaker 1: it to the NLCS, right, so we'll see where this heads.
27:56
Speaker 1: I don't I'm not making any predictions of NLCS or
27:59
Speaker 1: anything like that. I'm just saying, who knows what direction
28:03
Speaker 1: this season goes, But the Cubs fans needed to turn
28:06
Speaker 1: because these questions are gonna get much more, you know,
28:10
Speaker 1: intense and heated and calling for people's heads at a
28:13
Speaker 1: certain point, which there were some questions like that. I
28:17
Speaker 1: just not there yet for us to fully dive into that.
28:21
Speaker 1: But maybe maybe it gets to that point. We'll see,
28:23
Speaker 1: all right. Thanks so much for listening to everyone, and
28:25
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your questions. We really do
28:27
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to
28:31
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel and subscribe to the Athletic, where Patrick
28:34
Speaker 1: and I are on top of all things Cubs. Thanks
28:36
Speaker 1: for listening, Thanks for watching. We appreciate it.
28:39
Speaker 4: Take care.
29:01
Speaker 1: Sad Today Live