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Cubs mailbag: Countdown to Opening Day · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast. I'm Sahad,
0:10
Speaker 1: a starmer. With my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:13
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. It is
0:17
Speaker 1: everyone's favorite type of episode, mailbag episode where the fans
0:21
Speaker 1: get to sound off, uh not. You know, it's optimism time, right,
0:25
Speaker 1: So spring training is often so not a lot of
0:29
Speaker 1: anger or frustration. We're past the Alex Bregman sadness, I think,
0:35
Speaker 1: and and just kind of looking for the positives from
0:38
Speaker 1: the fans and and you know the best time of
0:40
Speaker 1: the year for that. So let's get to it. This one,
0:44
Speaker 1: I guess isn't super positive since, yeah, what is the plan.
0:51
Speaker 2: What Craik Counsel would call the injury rabbit hole?
0:54
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, what is the plan for second and third base?
0:57
Speaker 1: If Nico and Shaw are unavailable for the Japan series?
1:01
Speaker 1: So I'll give you a quick update on what we know.
1:04
Speaker 1: So Nico looks really good. Nico. We've seen him throw
1:08
Speaker 1: a ton, saw him doing long toss today. I've talked
1:12
Speaker 1: to him quite a bit. He feels good, not gonna
1:17
Speaker 1: push anything, not going to try and like, you know,
1:20
Speaker 1: make it make it to Japan, just to make it
1:23
Speaker 1: to Japan. But like I was saying last episode, they
1:26
Speaker 1: may not have to put him on the IL because
1:29
Speaker 1: there's this little bit of a loophole where you can
1:30
Speaker 1: just have your thirty one guys that you bring and
1:34
Speaker 1: then activate twenty six of them and nobody needs to
1:37
Speaker 1: be sent down. Nobody needs to be put on the IL,
1:41
Speaker 1: So he could be part of that five man group
1:43
Speaker 1: if you want to avoid nil stint. But it sounds
1:47
Speaker 1: like everything's on track, no setbacks there. Japan is not
1:51
Speaker 1: the goal. It doesn't sound like Arizona is, which is
1:54
Speaker 1: where they open the US portion of the season. Right
1:59
Speaker 1: with Shaw, it's you know, it sounds I would think
2:05
Speaker 1: they want to get him in games, right. He is
2:07
Speaker 1: doing a lot of he's through for the first time.
2:11
Speaker 1: When I say through for the first time, I mean
2:13
Speaker 1: he took grounders and through to bases on Monday. He
2:17
Speaker 1: took Tuesday off and the plan is Wednesday. More of that.
2:21
Speaker 1: I saw him like fielding and all that on on
2:27
Speaker 1: one of the fields Tuesday. He likes to hit in
2:31
Speaker 1: the cage. That's where he does his cage like his hitting.
2:34
Speaker 1: So we haven't seen him out there but that's not abnormal.
2:37
Speaker 1: That's kind of what he likes to do, is what
2:40
Speaker 1: I was told, Like whether he was healthy, like one
2:42
Speaker 1: hundred percent or not, Like that's what he'd be doing.
2:46
Speaker 3: Isn't he a little bit young to be dictating his
2:48
Speaker 3: routine with that?
2:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, Kyle Tucker, I get it, Kyle Tucker. His routine
2:54
Speaker 2: is so simple. You're never going to see him. Yeah,
2:57
Speaker 2: he's like one of the best hitters in the game.
3:01
Speaker 1: Right, And well that's the thing. It's not he's not
3:04
Speaker 1: going to ducate that. But no, But I mean you're
3:06
Speaker 1: you're you're not wrong in that, Like this isn't remember
3:10
Speaker 1: I think it was last year Hap was hurt, right,
3:13
Speaker 1: had the hamstring and and he barely played any games,
3:17
Speaker 1: and we're like, well, he's not going to have the
3:18
Speaker 1: runway to get it to start the season. Is he
3:21
Speaker 1: starting the season on the il? And we were like
3:23
Speaker 1: bandying this about, like wondering, how's he how's he going
3:26
Speaker 1: to have enough time? Well, he's a veteran. He doesn't need,
3:30
Speaker 1: you know, two weeks of games. He just needs to
3:33
Speaker 1: make sure he's healthy, get out there and go play.
3:35
Speaker 1: That's not going to be the like they want to
3:37
Speaker 1: make sure he has a little bit of a runway
3:39
Speaker 1: Matt Shaw. So right now we're looking at a Japan
3:44
Speaker 1: series that may not have Matt Shaw. Nico Horner. I
3:50
Speaker 1: don't think that's the end of the world. It's two
3:52
Speaker 1: games you need. You want to win all the games
3:55
Speaker 1: you can. You gotta take it seriously, right, But everyone's
3:58
Speaker 1: kind of in this spot. The Dodgers are already talking
4:01
Speaker 1: about all these relievers that they have to kind of
4:04
Speaker 1: slow play that have nixed and bruises and all these things.
4:09
Speaker 1: Michael kopec I think Evan Phillips, those guys may not
4:13
Speaker 1: be playing in Japan. Right, So you don't want to,
4:18
Speaker 1: like Council loves to say this, right, you don't want
4:20
Speaker 1: to rush someone to get them ready for opening day,
4:24
Speaker 1: especially this year we wented so much earlier and then
4:27
Speaker 1: you lose them for three months of the season because
4:30
Speaker 1: they came back too soon. Yes, it is important because
4:33
Speaker 1: they're regular season games. Every game counts, but you're not
4:37
Speaker 1: going to rush someone to be there just for that
4:41
Speaker 1: early opening day.
4:43
Speaker 3: I thought the answer was going to be that they're
4:45
Speaker 3: going to clone John Birdie to play both positions. In money,
4:50
Speaker 3: because Baseball Operations has sort of run out resources.
4:54
Speaker 2: But that's interesting. I would imagine Bertie would be in
4:59
Speaker 2: that mix. Nick I mean Nicky Lopez making this team.
5:05
Speaker 1: So I think right now we're talking about forty man
5:09
Speaker 1: spots too. Yeah, I think Vidal Bruhan, Gauge Workman, and
5:17
Speaker 1: John Birdie probably have a leg up on Nicki Lopez,
5:20
Speaker 1: right That would That's kind of what I've gathered. I
5:26
Speaker 1: wouldn't rule out Nicki Lopez just because he is a veteran,
5:30
Speaker 1: But I don't know if he's going to be someone
5:34
Speaker 1: that you have to add to the forty man in
5:37
Speaker 1: order to not lose him. I don't know that yet,
5:40
Speaker 1: and the others are all already on the forty man.
5:45
Speaker 1: I would say, uh, you know, I'd say, like Birdie
5:49
Speaker 1: gets one of those spots and then the other goes.
5:53
Speaker 1: I think the other is a battle between Workmen and Bruhan. Bruhan, Uh,
5:58
Speaker 1: you know, more speed can add more to like a
6:02
Speaker 1: little more versatile as far as he can play some
6:04
Speaker 1: outfield spots, but they're trying to get Workmen too, different spots.
6:07
Speaker 1: He can. They played him in the right field the
6:09
Speaker 1: other day. Uh, he's a really good defender at third base.
6:12
Speaker 1: Can play a little shortstop and he he has been
6:16
Speaker 1: hitting in spring. I'm not going to take too much
6:19
Speaker 1: away from it. Breuhan hit a home run on Tuesday.
6:22
Speaker 1: I'm not going to take too much away from it.
6:24
Speaker 1: But I think you kind of have to evaluate everything
6:27
Speaker 1: when it is like this competition right between everyone, Like
6:31
Speaker 1: what you have to evaluate? You have to evaluate it
6:34
Speaker 1: on something. So how do you how do you decide
6:38
Speaker 1: what what it is you're breaking down? But I just
6:43
Speaker 1: think like you can't. You can't say it's you know,
6:46
Speaker 1: we're going off last year or or anything like that
6:48
Speaker 1: when it's when it's these like twenty twenty fifth, twenty
6:51
Speaker 1: six people on the roster and workmen is a rule
6:55
Speaker 1: five pick. If they like him enough, do they want
6:59
Speaker 1: like are they going to keep him around all season?
7:01
Speaker 1: I don't know, but like you know, you have to
7:03
Speaker 1: fit that. That's a that that's another decision that maybe
7:06
Speaker 1: they can kick to us portion of opening Day.
7:09
Speaker 2: I mean, it's gonna be pretty uh.
7:11
Speaker 3: I know, the Dodgers pictures are always injured, so whatever,
7:14
Speaker 3: but it's gonna be it's gonna be pretty dramatic if
7:18
Speaker 3: if that is the case, if there's no Nico and
7:21
Speaker 3: even though Matt Shaw is unproven, he's still like a
7:23
Speaker 3: prospect name and kind of represents something going against you know,
7:28
Speaker 3: this all time epic lineup.
7:34
Speaker 2: Well, well, we'll see when you get.
7:35
Speaker 1: There side right right, Yeah, exactly, you know what, And
7:40
Speaker 1: this is another prospect that is opening some eyes in
7:44
Speaker 1: spring training. Don't want to go overboard again in spring training.
7:48
Speaker 1: All Contra is a legit prospect. Though, what do you
7:51
Speaker 1: see as best worst case scenario for Kevin o'contra this season?
7:55
Speaker 1: That is from sports. I couldn't put his his handle
7:57
Speaker 1: on there because it was not appropriate for me to
7:59
Speaker 1: put So that's it.
8:02
Speaker 2: Do you have a rigorous editing process?
8:05
Speaker 1: Yeah? So, uh best? And you know, here's what I
8:11
Speaker 1: would say, like and and the council was asked about Contre.
8:16
Speaker 1: He's been asked about al Contra quite a few times
8:19
Speaker 1: since I got here, because he's he's looked good in games.
8:24
Speaker 1: He's I think Jesse Rogers asked Mike Schuldt, the Padres manager,
8:29
Speaker 1: about Contra because he hit that opposite field home run
8:33
Speaker 1: with ease on Monday. And and you know when when
8:37
Speaker 1: people do stuff like that, I don't care what time
8:39
Speaker 1: of year it is, you know when you're twenty two
8:42
Speaker 1: or whatever. He is it people talk about it, right.
8:46
Speaker 1: He's a good defender, he's big, he's got a little
8:48
Speaker 1: bit room to grow still as far as putting a muscle,
8:52
Speaker 1: and he has this easy power in this insane upside. Uh,
8:57
Speaker 1: he's an intriguing talent. Counsel was asked about today like
9:00
Speaker 1: what is like does he need to play every day?
9:05
Speaker 1: And he I liked his answer. He basically said, if
9:08
Speaker 1: he has one hundred and fifty played appearances this year,
9:10
Speaker 1: that's not good for his development. But does he need
9:13
Speaker 1: to play every day all year? That probably not so
9:17
Speaker 1: Essentially his answer is he's going to be playing every
9:20
Speaker 1: day at Triple A at some point this season, and
9:23
Speaker 1: he's also going to be up at some point this season,
9:25
Speaker 1: and he in all likelihood when he's up, he's like
9:28
Speaker 1: the backup outfielder, probably backup center fielder and things like that.
9:33
Speaker 1: So he's going to help this team in some fashion
9:38
Speaker 1: or be a part of this team in some fashion
9:40
Speaker 1: at some point this season. But he needs to play regularly,
9:44
Speaker 1: and that the best shot for that is Triple A.
9:47
Speaker 1: We'll see when he comes up. It could be to
9:49
Speaker 1: the start the season. I wouldn't completely rule it out.
9:52
Speaker 1: I'd be a little surprised because it seems like they're
9:55
Speaker 1: trying to get Bruhn as the backup centerfielder as well.
9:59
Speaker 1: You know, there's different ways to go about this. You
10:01
Speaker 1: may not need a backup center fielder right away. You
10:03
Speaker 1: could get away with you know, if if for some
10:06
Speaker 1: if something happens to PCA in the middle of a game,
10:09
Speaker 1: you can always put half there to get by and
10:12
Speaker 1: then and then kind of uh and then call up
10:15
Speaker 1: all contra as soon as possible or or whatever that
10:18
Speaker 1: you need to do. Right there's there are other forty
10:21
Speaker 1: man or non forty man guys that have been invited,
10:23
Speaker 1: like Greg Allen, Travis Jankowski, that they may want to
10:28
Speaker 1: add to the forty man Well, we'll see what they
10:30
Speaker 1: do and how they handle that. But I don't know
10:33
Speaker 1: if there's a best or way worst case. I think
10:35
Speaker 1: the worst case scenario is like injury or not playing
10:39
Speaker 1: well at Triple A or not, or not getting up
10:42
Speaker 1: to the big leagues, or just being stuck on the
10:44
Speaker 1: bench for too long and not developing. Like those are
10:47
Speaker 1: the bad scenarios. You want to know the best case
10:49
Speaker 1: scenario for Kevin ol Kantra and I've been saying this
10:52
Speaker 1: pretty much since they traded for him, because this is
10:54
Speaker 1: what I hear from scouts is like a forty home
10:56
Speaker 1: run center fielder that's one of the best, like that stuff.
11:00
Speaker 1: That is the best case scenario. It's very unlikely he
11:03
Speaker 1: reaches that ceiling, right, Like, that's what raw talents are.
11:06
Speaker 1: But he's starting, it's starting to come together. So yes,
11:10
Speaker 1: they still have like this excitement for him, and he's
11:13
Speaker 1: kind of showing you like flashes of it. So he's
11:16
Speaker 1: an exciting talent. I'm not predicting that he you know,
11:20
Speaker 1: it all comes together for that, but the more he
11:22
Speaker 1: shows me, the more I'm like, huh, maybe he can
11:25
Speaker 1: be like this upside guy. I'll add this, Patrick, I
11:29
Speaker 1: don't want to end it on a negative note, but
11:31
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot. Yeah, Yeah, we've talked a lot
11:34
Speaker 1: about the budget and re signing Kyle Tucker. The more
11:39
Speaker 1: you and I talk to people around the game, the
11:42
Speaker 1: more it seems like that's just not going to happen, right,
11:45
Speaker 1: like unless something changes with the way they behave And
11:48
Speaker 1: I'm talking about like you know, the business side that
11:52
Speaker 1: like it doesn't make sense. You're not spending forty forty
11:55
Speaker 1: five million dollars a year to on one player when
11:58
Speaker 1: when your budget is two hundred ten two hundred and
12:01
Speaker 1: fifteen million, right, that's not that that's just a poor
12:05
Speaker 1: allocation of resources. So makes it harder to trade someone
12:09
Speaker 1: like Kevin o' contra when you kind of have to
12:10
Speaker 1: look to the future as well and kind of say,
12:12
Speaker 1: like who fills that spot? So Kevin oil contra could
12:14
Speaker 1: be the starting right fielder in twenty twenty six, and
12:18
Speaker 1: it may not be the way what fans want to hear,
12:21
Speaker 1: but if he's good, maybe it's not like the worst
12:24
Speaker 1: thing in the world. I think you should be frustrated by,
12:28
Speaker 1: you know, a two ten to fifteen budget, but that
12:31
Speaker 1: that that's that's a topic that we've hammered and will
12:33
Speaker 1: continue to.
12:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a whole another episode.
12:36
Speaker 3: I would say the worst case scenario would probably be
12:40
Speaker 3: I don't know, Brendan Davis, right, right, Mario, those you
12:44
Speaker 3: mentioned injuries like stuff like that. If you just miss
12:48
Speaker 3: huge chunks of development time and bird of forty man
12:51
Speaker 3: year without getting any like practical on field experience, that's
12:57
Speaker 3: it's a bad outcome. And I think a realistic best
13:03
Speaker 3: case beyond him, like.
13:07
Speaker 2: Joining the forty forty club.
13:09
Speaker 1: Or something like that would be.
13:12
Speaker 3: Kind of what happened to Pete crowl Armstrong last year
13:15
Speaker 3: of like coming up and kind.
13:16
Speaker 2: Of earning a little more and figuring things out.
13:19
Speaker 3: And I just bring that up because if PCA does say, like,
13:25
Speaker 3: I don't know, run into a wall or whatever, and
13:28
Speaker 3: I think of that because that's what Jed was asked about,
13:31
Speaker 3: say at Dhing and this outfield crown. He's like, look,
13:35
Speaker 3: you know, I stared at the whiteboard in twenty sixteen,
13:38
Speaker 3: how are we going to fit all these outfielders together?
13:40
Speaker 3: And then it was like what Game three or four
13:43
Speaker 3: when Schwarber and dex Street Collider collided, so like things
13:49
Speaker 3: can change fast and something that does happen like he's
13:54
Speaker 3: next man up, right, Like he's like the center fielder
13:59
Speaker 3: of the moment, right, that would get that sort.
14:01
Speaker 1: Of yeah, And I'm and I'm reading this question again
14:05
Speaker 1: and it says best case scenario for this season. So
14:08
Speaker 1: I when I said what I said that you can't
14:11
Speaker 1: take it. That's not that's not for this season, like
14:14
Speaker 1: best case, I think you're right, like him, it would
14:17
Speaker 1: be unfortunate, right, like but him getting every day burned
14:19
Speaker 1: in the big leagues and being an average offensive player
14:22
Speaker 1: and showing that he's a plus plus defend or maybe
14:24
Speaker 1: not plus plus, but a plus defender. Yeah, yeah, I
14:29
Speaker 1: think that is that's a really nice, maybe best case
14:32
Speaker 1: scenario for this season for Kevin o'contra personally getting very
14:37
Speaker 1: regular playing time and showing he belongs in the big
14:39
Speaker 1: leagues both offensively and defensively, and and frankly, like on
14:43
Speaker 1: the basis too, he's a fast dude. So yeah, I
14:47
Speaker 1: you know, you don't want to think about injuries and
14:49
Speaker 1: stuff like that, but he's a talented kid and we're
14:51
Speaker 1: starting to see it, and you know, I'm glad he's
14:53
Speaker 1: a good he's he's he's a fascinating character and fun
14:57
Speaker 1: and entertaining. So you know, let's see where that goes.
15:00
Speaker 1: I'm not sure to burn this year.
15:02
Speaker 2: An average.
15:04
Speaker 3: Offensive center fielder probably has a ten year career in
15:08
Speaker 3: the big leagues and makes like one hundred million dollars, right,
15:10
Speaker 3: I mean, like just in terms of like how you've
15:12
Speaker 3: written this, it's like how rare those guys are, and
15:16
Speaker 3: if the Cubs maybe have two of them, that's could
15:20
Speaker 3: be impressive.
15:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, all right, here's here's a negative town for you. Uh,
15:28
Speaker 1: too early to speculate on what Tom Ricketts would be
15:31
Speaker 1: looking for in replacement for Jed Hoyer. That's from please
15:34
Speaker 1: talk to me one. I don't think it's too early,
15:38
Speaker 1: because Jed is on the final year of his deal
15:42
Speaker 1: and he has to win. And if they don't make
15:45
Speaker 1: the playoffs, we're good. We're in all likelihood we're going
15:49
Speaker 1: to be talking about another you know, team president GM,
15:53
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, whatever, you know, someone
15:55
Speaker 1: running a new head of baseball operations. What what is
16:00
Speaker 1: Tom going to look for? Someone that is willing to
16:03
Speaker 1: survive on the budget that he hands out that you know,
16:08
Speaker 1: the fourteenth highest payroll in baseball despite having the third
16:11
Speaker 1: biggest market, and and what like how much revenue the
16:16
Speaker 1: third highest revenue in baseball for the top five revenue
16:20
Speaker 1: and a and a fifteen, you know, in a mid
16:22
Speaker 1: market budget. That's that's what he wants. That's there's a
16:25
Speaker 1: reason he's brought up the Arizona Diamondbacks and and they're
16:28
Speaker 1: run before. There's a reason he talks about how money
16:31
Speaker 1: isn't the only isn't the most important thing? You know,
16:36
Speaker 1: Prospects build via prospects. Look, I don't think what Jet,
16:41
Speaker 1: like Jed is doing what he wants, what Tom wants?
16:44
Speaker 1: You know, uh, is there someone better? Maybe? But like
16:51
Speaker 1: now you're like if you're here's the thing that like
16:54
Speaker 1: people that want that? Like that means you're tearing down
16:57
Speaker 1: the front office right, Like a lot of changes are
16:59
Speaker 1: coming and you're talking about changing you know, processes and
17:04
Speaker 1: and you know various departments. Who who's loyal to Jet
17:07
Speaker 1: in the front office? Right? How many how many people
17:10
Speaker 1: do you lose? How many departments need to be kind
17:12
Speaker 1: of uh redone you're you're talking about, like, this isn't
17:16
Speaker 1: like a okay, new new uh new head of baseball operations.
17:20
Speaker 1: Now now the bank is open and we're spending big.
17:23
Speaker 1: That's not changing. Like that is not changing unless they
17:27
Speaker 1: change have a change in philosophy. And it has nothing
17:29
Speaker 1: to do with Jet. It has nothing to do with
17:31
Speaker 1: who's in charge of baseball operations. So uh, it's you know,
17:37
Speaker 1: I don't know who that person is that you're talking about,
17:41
Speaker 1: but it would it would have to be you know,
17:43
Speaker 1: uh it for it to be a lot better. I
17:46
Speaker 1: don't know, you'd have to find someone really creative and
17:49
Speaker 1: someone that knows how to whatever the secrets are that
17:52
Speaker 1: the Dodgers and the Rays and the Guardians and the
17:55
Speaker 1: Brewers have, you know, all those behind the scenes stuff.
17:58
Speaker 1: If if they if there's some one that can do
18:00
Speaker 1: it better, That's that's what you're talking about. And I
18:04
Speaker 1: don't know is that what fans care about? The fans like,
18:07
Speaker 1: are are they really interested in that? Or do they
18:08
Speaker 1: just want more spending?
18:12
Speaker 3: I mean, look, Tom has the guy who's running the
18:15
Speaker 3: team exactly the way he wants except you know, he
18:18
Speaker 3: would have been twenty twenty three, wanted another win over
18:22
Speaker 3: whatever the Marlins or Diamondbacks that would have snuck them
18:25
Speaker 3: into the playoffs. He's making the rational decisions that ownership
18:33
Speaker 3: wants in free agency. He's avoiding the mega deals, he's
18:37
Speaker 3: avoiding the extreme long term contracts. The farm system is
18:42
Speaker 3: well regarded, the pitching development program has been overhauled. Look,
18:49
Speaker 3: I mean Jed Huyer's out for four making the playoffs
18:52
Speaker 3: as the cub's president base operations, so like, yeah, like
18:56
Speaker 3: it's not too early because they ownership did not extend him.
19:00
Speaker 2: And you can see it in some of Jet's reactions.
19:04
Speaker 3: Is you can hear it in his voice his comments
19:07
Speaker 3: about you know, how he worked within constraints, and those
19:11
Speaker 3: constraints don't just disappear if.
19:13
Speaker 2: You change the top of it.
19:15
Speaker 3: And you know, Tom Ricketts, when I spoke with my
19:17
Speaker 3: Cupski that just said we're strongly aligned. We talk every
19:20
Speaker 3: day like this is kind of the operation that they want.
19:25
Speaker 2: So for me, it's and.
19:26
Speaker 3: If you're talking about those things like you know this
19:29
Speaker 3: like they've hired guys from the Brewers, from the Guardians,
19:34
Speaker 3: from the Dodgers, Like they've brought in those kind of elements, uh,
19:41
Speaker 3: to get it to a place where maybe there's some
19:45
Speaker 3: whatever secret sauce or a different way of doing things.
19:48
Speaker 3: But you know, to me, I think I agree with
19:55
Speaker 3: Jed to an extent of like, you know, the front
19:57
Speaker 3: office should view this as more of an opportunity than
20:02
Speaker 3: than a risk or more reward than than downside because
20:07
Speaker 3: and they got a pretty good team. They play in
20:09
Speaker 3: a bad division. There's an extra wild card. I have
20:14
Speaker 3: a hard time seeing this season like going totally off
20:17
Speaker 3: the rails, where like they lose ninety games, right.
20:20
Speaker 1: Like I say, just get way late by injuries, right, that's.
20:24
Speaker 3: Or like every young player falls on his face. Yea
20:28
Speaker 3: third at first, and I guess that, yeah, like some
20:34
Speaker 3: that could happen, but in terms of like a you know,
20:39
Speaker 3: just where they're selling at the deadline, they're totally out
20:42
Speaker 3: of it. Like I just have a hard time wrapping
20:45
Speaker 3: my brain around that. So I would think that, look,
20:49
Speaker 3: they need to survive a tough starts in the season,
20:53
Speaker 3: UH need to bank some wins, and then like they'll
20:57
Speaker 3: figure out what they need. They'll have to make the
21:00
Speaker 3: appeal to ownership to get some more money to go
21:03
Speaker 3: get players, and then you just like start moving pieces
21:06
Speaker 3: from the farm.
21:07
Speaker 2: And get in impact players skate to October.
21:09
Speaker 3: That's It's kind of how I see this year unfolding
21:13
Speaker 3: in very broad strokes.
21:15
Speaker 1: Right, all right, let's end it on a fun one.
21:18
Speaker 1: Cole Winterland wants to know what are the best and
21:21
Speaker 1: worst parts of covering spring training. I'll let you kick
21:23
Speaker 1: that off, Patrick.
21:25
Speaker 3: I would say, really, the only downside is being away
21:28
Speaker 3: from home for so long, Like that is tough, although
21:31
Speaker 3: we're kind of spoiled now where we can break it
21:33
Speaker 3: up into much smaller right segments. But otherwise, like, man,
21:37
Speaker 3: this is a great assignment. Like I personally like the mornings,
21:43
Speaker 3: the set schedules, every Almost everyone you want to talk
21:46
Speaker 3: to is there, and it's a lot of casual conversations
21:50
Speaker 3: are bumping into people really almost no complaints about I
21:56
Speaker 3: mean the weather Arizona, I guess, yeah, was spring training
22:01
Speaker 3: in Florida probably has more downside.
22:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, Phoenix is very compact. Right.
22:06
Speaker 1: If if I'm if I'm gonna nitpick, it's it's driving
22:08
Speaker 1: to like Surprise or good Year. You know, that's that's
22:12
Speaker 1: the stuff. Like it's nitpicking. It's sitting in traffic and
22:15
Speaker 1: going to crappy road games that you know, if we
22:19
Speaker 1: covered in Florida would be a joke, right like that.
22:22
Speaker 1: They they drive so much further than us, So it's nitpicking.
22:24
Speaker 1: I love the food here, uh you know, like you see,
22:28
Speaker 1: there's a lot of other beat writers that I you know,
22:30
Speaker 1: go out to dinner with, go out with. That's always fun. Uh.
22:35
Speaker 1: The best part for me is you touched on it.
22:37
Speaker 1: You run into so many baseball people on the backfield, scouts,
22:41
Speaker 1: player development people, coaches that you don't get to see
22:44
Speaker 1: all the time. Uh, you know, prospects, whatever. You have
22:48
Speaker 1: much more laid back conversations. You lay the groundwork for
22:51
Speaker 1: the season. You know, Carter and Jed are like available
22:56
Speaker 1: a lot, and you see them a lot because you're
22:58
Speaker 1: just kind of like walking around the facility and you
23:00
Speaker 1: chat with them different Like it's just a much more
23:03
Speaker 1: casual setup and it sets everything up for the season,
23:06
Speaker 1: and you get a lot of information. Uh You talk
23:09
Speaker 1: to a lot of different people within the organization and
23:11
Speaker 1: outside the organization, and it's it's just a like it.
23:15
Speaker 1: I love it. I love like gathering information is my
23:17
Speaker 1: favorite part of this job. It's I like to joke,
23:20
Speaker 1: it's just like gossip, right, We're gossiping at all times,
23:22
Speaker 1: and I love gossip. So you want to tell me,
23:25
Speaker 1: you know, there's there's no such thing as too much
23:28
Speaker 1: information as far as I'm concerned, Like keep it coming.
23:31
Speaker 1: Uh So, yeah, I I really like spring training. I
23:35
Speaker 1: do miss my kids after, you know, after a little while.
23:38
Speaker 1: But we're not we like my I always said, my
23:41
Speaker 1: my limit is three weeks, and we don't do that
23:42
Speaker 1: anymore between you and I. So I love it. We
23:45
Speaker 1: have a nice setup. We're spoiled. Uh So, there's just
23:48
Speaker 1: not a lot to complain about it. This is a
23:51
Speaker 1: fun time of year. I do get antsy towards the end,
23:54
Speaker 1: and I just want the season to start and things
23:56
Speaker 1: to matter. So maybe there's another Nippick right there, like
24:00
Speaker 1: out there yet though, because it's still like gathering information
24:03
Speaker 1: and new stuff, like, you know, in two months, I'm
24:06
Speaker 1: gonna look back at some of the stuff I wrote
24:08
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I wrote about that, dude. But but
24:12
Speaker 1: we're you know, right now. It's fun and it's all
24:14
Speaker 1: new and everything. So you're just happy to be back
24:17
Speaker 1: at it. And frankly, the weather is awesome right now
24:20
Speaker 1: this year, so I won't I won't rub that. Yeah.
24:24
Speaker 1: Oh oh, I wore shorts today, first day of shorts, baby,
24:29
Speaker 1: so we'll keep that going. We got we got eighty
24:32
Speaker 1: five again on Wednesday, so so I'll make sure the
24:36
Speaker 1: day two of shorts, I'll stop talking about the weather.
24:40
Speaker 1: I know, I'm irritating far too many people, although I
24:42
Speaker 1: hear it's kind of nice in Chicago right now, at
24:44
Speaker 1: least compared to what it was.
24:45
Speaker 3: Yeah today, Yeah, well on Tuesday, Tuesday was nice. You
24:50
Speaker 3: kind of felt like spring was sort of coming and
24:53
Speaker 3: it was classic you would appreciated this of like it's
24:56
Speaker 3: still not like warm, but I just saw p boy
25:00
Speaker 3: like T shirt and shorts. Oh absolutely, like you know,
25:05
Speaker 3: I'm guessing, you know what I mean. People are watching
25:08
Speaker 3: the dog and like shorts and flip flops stuff like.
25:11
Speaker 1: That, and then that happens here and we're like bundled
25:13
Speaker 1: up and like what the hell is going on? Even
25:15
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter that we're from Chicago, we still complain
25:17
Speaker 1: if it's sixty here, like why is this? Why is
25:19
Speaker 1: it so cold? All right? Thanks? Thanks for all the questions. Guys.
25:24
Speaker 1: It's it's always fun to do those mail bags. We'll
25:27
Speaker 1: make sure do that again soon because we get so
25:29
Speaker 1: many good questions. Thanks so much for listening. Make sure
25:32
Speaker 1: to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast. Subscribe to
25:34
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic, where Patrick
25:37
Speaker 1: and I will be on top of all things cubs.
25:40
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to everyone. Take you know,
26:00
Speaker 1: my way
26:07
Speaker 3: Lived