Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Cubs news and notes: Justin Steele’s setback

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Cubs news and notes: Justin Steele’s setback · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome into North Side Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast.
0:10
Speaker 1: I'm Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are
0:13
Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. Cubs
0:18
Speaker 1: first homestand is in the books and their first I
0:23
Speaker 1: guess injury of the regular season, you know, has popped up.
0:28
Speaker 1: Dustin Steele heads to the injured list with left elbow tendonitis.
0:34
Speaker 1: It's a same similar injury that he had at the
0:40
Speaker 1: end of last season. And you know, if you want
0:43
Speaker 1: to be optimistic about it, that one was the season
0:47
Speaker 1: was lost at that point, right They're pretty much out
0:50
Speaker 1: of playoff contention, and he came back in seventeen days. Remember,
0:56
Speaker 1: fans were up in arms. How can you do this?
0:58
Speaker 1: It was the point of having Justin's pitch, right. Uh.
1:03
Speaker 1: I don't know if they had a point now that
1:05
Speaker 1: he's hurt again, But I don't think it's all connected.
1:09
Speaker 1: It's it's just, uh, you know, the early word is
1:14
Speaker 1: super precautionary, all that stuff, all the positive stuff you
1:19
Speaker 1: want to hear after an injury. I do feel that
1:23
Speaker 1: Craig Council is pretty blunt about these things. If he's concerned.
1:27
Speaker 1: You will let you know he's concerned. But MRI Thursday.
1:33
Speaker 1: That's we're recording on a Thursday. The MRI is happening
1:36
Speaker 1: at some point today. That I think is the big step.
1:39
Speaker 1: Getting news on that will will make things a little
1:43
Speaker 1: easier to swallow if it is legitimately just tendonitis all
1:48
Speaker 1: and and nothing to be overly concerned about.
1:52
Speaker 2: Yeah.
1:52
Speaker 3: I have a couple different thoughts. I mean, you were
1:55
Speaker 3: there at really Field, so you can speak.
1:57
Speaker 4: You already did begin to speak to sort of the
2:01
Speaker 4: atmospherics of how this was announced. I think Cubs fans
2:04
Speaker 4: know that there's almost always the downplaying of the injury,
2:10
Speaker 4: like it's almost always precautionary.
2:15
Speaker 3: Still, over the last couple.
2:16
Speaker 4: Of years has had these sort of relatively smaller issues
2:22
Speaker 4: that he's been able to deal with and come back
2:25
Speaker 4: relatively quickly. But it is just sort of frustrating because
2:29
Speaker 4: this is a guy who you said his goal is
2:32
Speaker 4: making thirty plus starts, and if you want to be
2:37
Speaker 4: that true top of the rotation pitcher, I guess is
2:41
Speaker 4: a kind of an ACES project type thing.
2:42
Speaker 3: You have to be out there for those thirty plus.
2:47
Speaker 4: So, as a seasoned observers, as you were kind of
2:51
Speaker 4: processing this information and reading everyone's sort of body language
2:55
Speaker 4: and tone and the history.
2:58
Speaker 3: You know, what should the panic level be for Cubs fans?
3:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to any Any major judgment I have
3:09
Speaker 1: is I want to see what this MRI says.
3:11
Speaker 2: If that comes back clean.
3:12
Speaker 1: There's like right now, I reading everything, body language, the
3:17
Speaker 1: way people were talking.
3:19
Speaker 2: If anything.
3:20
Speaker 1: Justin Steele seemed annoyed that he had to go on
3:22
Speaker 1: the IKA. You know, that's that's the way I I.
3:27
Speaker 1: We could have been misinterpreting him, but he didn't seem
3:29
Speaker 1: thrilled to be going on the IL. He came in,
3:32
Speaker 1: So this happened on a Wednesday. The announcement happened on
3:35
Speaker 1: a Wednesday. He came in on Tuesday. After a brilliant
3:38
Speaker 1: start on Monday, seven innings, not probably definitely his best
3:42
Speaker 1: start of the season. Looked like Justin Steele, the Justin
3:47
Speaker 1: Steele with grown accustomed to over the over the last
3:49
Speaker 1: few years, and he came in on Tuesday wanting treatment, saying,
3:55
Speaker 1: you know, he didn't it felt you know, going back
4:01
Speaker 1: like listening to the sound, it kind of he kind
4:03
Speaker 1: of made it seem like it was normal. In between
4:05
Speaker 1: start aches and pains, but he did specify some pain
4:10
Speaker 1: and that's why they said, Okay, no we're not we're
4:13
Speaker 1: not doing this treatment and you go in five days. Again,
4:17
Speaker 1: let's let's be extra cautious. He kept saying they decided
4:22
Speaker 1: to put me on the I L. He said that twice.
4:24
Speaker 1: I believe so it was. It wasn't something where I
4:28
Speaker 1: don't know. It didn't sound like he had like any
4:30
Speaker 1: contentious argument about it. But I don't think he was
4:34
Speaker 1: thrilled about it. You know, these guys want to play,
4:37
Speaker 1: they don't want to go on the I l IF.
4:39
Speaker 1: They like to be known as guys that pushed through
4:42
Speaker 1: these things. I think it seemed to me that counsel
4:47
Speaker 1: was just like, we're not messing with this. We're going
4:50
Speaker 1: to get him feeling good and out there again. Here's
4:55
Speaker 1: where I would pause on optimism. We have heard this before, right,
5:03
Speaker 1: We've heard this with so many guys. Last year, we
5:07
Speaker 1: heard like, we're hoping for a minimum stint and then
5:12
Speaker 1: the pain's not going away. Whether it was Ben Brown,
5:16
Speaker 1: whether it was yet the Almonte, there's at least one
5:20
Speaker 1: or two others. Granted he's had this before and it's
5:23
Speaker 1: been minimum stays right the yeah forearm in twenty three,
5:27
Speaker 1: I want to say, an elbow last year. These you know,
5:32
Speaker 1: you could say those are red flags, or you could say, hey,
5:35
Speaker 1: these are the bumps and bruises that happened during the
5:37
Speaker 1: course of a season, and he'll be fine. So it
5:42
Speaker 1: depends on how you like to react to these things.
5:45
Speaker 2: Right, Well, I.
5:47
Speaker 5: Guess if this news had popped maybe in the second
5:50
Speaker 5: inning of his start in Sacramento, you know, after a
5:53
Speaker 5: couple not very good starts, and you know, the athletics
5:57
Speaker 5: seem to be on him, and then to his credit,
6:00
Speaker 5: he right of the ship and like you said, just
6:04
Speaker 5: had an awesome start his last time out.
6:07
Speaker 4: I think that timing was surprising. But otherwise, what are
6:13
Speaker 4: the Cubs do for now? Is there a next man up?
6:17
Speaker 4: Do they kind of just manage the rotation to where
6:20
Speaker 4: they skip his turn?
6:22
Speaker 2: What do you hear? Patrick?
6:24
Speaker 1: You know how for forthcoming the council is about his
6:27
Speaker 1: plans for the future. He loves tolge every scenario that
6:31
Speaker 1: they're considering exactly. Someone asked a question about tentative plans.
6:39
Speaker 1: He's like, yes, we have tentative plans, and guy left.
6:44
Speaker 1: So I followed up with that, but do like when
6:49
Speaker 1: you look at tentative plans, like, so they have four
6:54
Speaker 1: off days over the next two weeks.
6:56
Speaker 2: I believe, I believe that's correct.
7:00
Speaker 1: It's a lot of off days to have, so they
7:03
Speaker 1: they have some wiggle room here. And and my question
7:06
Speaker 1: was essentially like, when you look at those tentative plans,
7:08
Speaker 1: is it you are you if it's a minimum stay, are.
7:11
Speaker 2: You just covering one start?
7:13
Speaker 1: And he basically said, like, tentatively yes, So that's like
7:16
Speaker 1: Sunday or Monday ish, depending on how they want to
7:19
Speaker 1: do things. How the bullpen goes Uh. He was not
7:22
Speaker 1: giving any hints. The initial move is Ethan Roberts for
7:28
Speaker 1: Justin Steele. Obviously Ethan Roberts is a reliever. I think
7:33
Speaker 1: maybe you'll you'll hear more information over the weekend. Let's
7:36
Speaker 1: see how first two games go. Uh, you know, I
7:42
Speaker 1: think that will tell us a lot. I think it's
7:48
Speaker 1: seems like to me, Colin Ray makes sense. But if
7:51
Speaker 1: the bullpen gets just completely you know, overused on Friday
7:55
Speaker 1: and Saturday, do you have to call up Jordan Wicks,
7:58
Speaker 1: right and so say that happens. I don't think that's
8:03
Speaker 1: like an awful thing to happen either, Right, But Jordan
8:06
Speaker 1: Wicks I believe, is scheduled to start tonight Thursday night
8:11
Speaker 1: with Iowa.
8:12
Speaker 2: So who knows who?
8:13
Speaker 1: Well, I guess we'll see that tonight today will tell
8:15
Speaker 1: us a lot about their tentative plans. Right, if Jordan
8:18
Speaker 1: Wicks starts tonight, then I don't know who you could
8:25
Speaker 1: even call up. I don't think you're not making a
8:28
Speaker 1: forty man move for this unless this is unless they
8:32
Speaker 1: get bad news on steel, right, So I think that
8:37
Speaker 1: that that tells us that that should tell us a
8:40
Speaker 1: lot what what happens tonight with Wicks and what happens
8:45
Speaker 1: with the MRI will probably give us, you know, a
8:49
Speaker 1: decent amount of information on how they want to handle everything.
8:54
Speaker 2: Patrick.
8:55
Speaker 1: Before we talk more about this and get to other things,
8:57
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10:03
Speaker 2: Patrick.
10:04
Speaker 1: I don't know if the cold impacted justin Steel. He
10:07
Speaker 1: wondered if that impacted him. He was apparently he was
10:11
Speaker 1: like kind of talking about it during the game on Monday.
10:15
Speaker 1: You know, it's just the cold, Like what's going on.
10:18
Speaker 1: My velocity's down. But but he said he was fine
10:21
Speaker 1: and pushed through it and delivered his best start of
10:24
Speaker 1: the season. I think that's like, if we if we
10:28
Speaker 1: ignore the injury for right now and just talk about
10:31
Speaker 1: that how good he looked like. That was a nice
10:34
Speaker 1: little you know, that was nice to see in the
10:37
Speaker 1: sense that I think we saw this last year. I
10:40
Speaker 1: think people people were acting like he'd never had like
10:42
Speaker 1: this home run blip and I and I felt like
10:45
Speaker 1: I was like, I feel like there was this home
10:47
Speaker 1: run blip exactly last year. And yes, it happened right
10:51
Speaker 1: when he came back from the hamstring injury. He had
10:55
Speaker 1: like these three starts where he gave up more home
10:57
Speaker 1: runs than he ever does, and then he became justin steel.
11:00
Speaker 1: So that was a good side obviously, the elbows the
11:03
Speaker 1: bad outcome, and well as as far as filling these starts,
11:11
Speaker 1: we touched on that. I also think it's huge how
11:14
Speaker 1: everyone else looks right. Yeah, if like showdow Managa had
11:18
Speaker 1: a bad start on Wednesday, and we can talk about
11:20
Speaker 1: this the week that was, but you know, the week
11:24
Speaker 1: that was, there was a lot of good starting pitching.
11:28
Speaker 1: Showdo Minaga is still a top ten pitcher by Baseball
11:31
Speaker 1: Reference war in the NL, Matthew Boyd is a top
11:34
Speaker 1: five pitcher by war according to Baseball Reference. Jamison Tyne
11:39
Speaker 1: had an awful first start against the Diamondbacks and since
11:43
Speaker 1: then has been as looks like what you'd love to
11:47
Speaker 1: see a third starter on a playoff team look like.
11:49
Speaker 1: Frankly like, he's better at missing bats now, he feels
11:54
Speaker 1: good on the mound. I talked to him about his
11:56
Speaker 1: delivery and everything. He feels like the best he's felt
11:59
Speaker 1: since he's been in the Cubs uniform. So if you
12:02
Speaker 1: want to take some positives away, you know that they
12:07
Speaker 1: can weather this storm. If it's not months long absence, right,
12:11
Speaker 1: you want just to steel back. I want to make
12:13
Speaker 1: that clear. I'm not saying like, oh, it's fine, No,
12:16
Speaker 1: you want as many good starting pitchers as possible. Yeah,
12:20
Speaker 1: but they can possibly weather the storm. I think the
12:25
Speaker 1: bigger question is like the talent they're facing right, Like there,
12:29
Speaker 1: it's not if you're going to have an injury, you
12:31
Speaker 1: almost would have liked it to happen in May when
12:33
Speaker 1: the competition is weaker.
12:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think this offense gonna is going
12:40
Speaker 4: to have to keep putting tons of runs on the board.
12:43
Speaker 4: Because we're just talking off air. The starting pitching the
12:48
Speaker 4: Cubs will be facing coming up, was it Yamamoto Rokie
12:53
Speaker 4: Glass Now cease.
12:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I believe, that's what it is to
12:58
Speaker 1: start the road trip.
13:00
Speaker 4: And as we know, I mean, Dodger Stadium is just
13:03
Speaker 4: a tough place to play. It's got this crazy energy,
13:06
Speaker 4: not just you know, this fantastic collection of talent that
13:10
Speaker 4: they have, but just.
13:12
Speaker 3: The way they kind.
13:14
Speaker 4: Of set the tone there and can kind of dictate
13:16
Speaker 4: the terms. Is just a really difficult place to play.
13:21
Speaker 4: It feels like we were just there. I mean I
13:22
Speaker 4: was there in September with the Cubs and that was
13:25
Speaker 4: a I think it was a Tommy Edmond show.
13:29
Speaker 3: It was show.
13:29
Speaker 4: Hey, it was say, getting thrown out at third base
13:35
Speaker 4: part of a road trip that then went to Course Field,
13:38
Speaker 4: which was kind of another nail.
13:43
Speaker 3: In the season.
13:44
Speaker 4: So yeah, I think Matthew Boyd that has looked awesome.
13:50
Speaker 4: Obviously he won't have like a zero ear a the
13:52
Speaker 4: whole season. I'm more concerned, Like he hasn't pitched a
13:55
Speaker 4: full season though since twenty nineteen, right, so how was
13:59
Speaker 4: he going to whether it?
14:01
Speaker 3: I don't know. Ben Brown hasn't looked great. Maybe he will.
14:07
Speaker 4: I mean everyone gets you know, kind of a grace
14:09
Speaker 4: period and some and some runway.
14:11
Speaker 3: I think every one time a SHOWDA and.
14:13
Speaker 4: Tie on, and so yeah, this will be a time
14:15
Speaker 4: to see how their pitching depth shows up, because you
14:19
Speaker 4: know there's gonna be there's gonna be some games on
14:22
Speaker 4: this road trip that get out of hand or where
14:26
Speaker 4: you know, the starters talked out early.
14:27
Speaker 3: The bullpen's going to have to do a lot.
14:30
Speaker 4: And so to me, I was, I was, I know,
14:33
Speaker 4: you've always been really optimistic about this offense. I was
14:37
Speaker 4: probably a little more skeptical. I was very impressed, Like
14:40
Speaker 4: this was like miserable hitting conditions. I believe John stein Miller,
14:47
Speaker 4: the cups pr director, he had it in the notes.
14:49
Speaker 3: He mentioned it to us of how it.
14:51
Speaker 4: Was actually colder at first pitch at Wrigley than it
14:55
Speaker 4: was for the puck drop at the Winter Classic on New.
14:58
Speaker 3: Year's Eve, which gives you a sense of what it
15:01
Speaker 3: was like.
15:02
Speaker 4: It's just like we're we're up in the press box
15:05
Speaker 4: and you know, the windows are closed and depending on
15:08
Speaker 4: where you're sitting in there, like it's not that comfortable,
15:11
Speaker 4: just like sitting in an enclosed case up there, playing
15:15
Speaker 4: outside in the elements. And this offense I think has
15:18
Speaker 4: really covered for uh, you know, some bullpen blips, some
15:25
Speaker 4: shaky starting pitching outings, and we all know like offense
15:32
Speaker 4: comes and goes. But I saw a lot there that
15:37
Speaker 4: Like I was like, oh, this.
15:37
Speaker 3: Is what's the hot if talking about? Like there are
15:40
Speaker 3: a lot of more elements than just Kyle Tucker to
15:42
Speaker 3: this group.
15:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I I like this offense. I've stated that
15:47
Speaker 1: for a while now. I think it's pretty good. I
15:50
Speaker 1: think it's pretty deep. I will say that like days
15:55
Speaker 1: like Wednesday happened. That's that's baseball. It's not it's not
15:59
Speaker 1: that the world. I feel like Tyler. They've hit Tyler
16:02
Speaker 1: Maylee before, but Tyler Maylee like once every three starts
16:06
Speaker 1: against the Cubs like looks like an ace for some reason.
16:09
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like it's just when you have it's
16:11
Speaker 1: it's part of being a familiar pitcher, right, Like there
16:14
Speaker 1: are these guys that pitch in the NL Central and
16:16
Speaker 1: every single time we see them so much, it's like,
16:18
Speaker 1: what this guy doesn't have any doesn't do anything that
16:22
Speaker 1: like blows you away. I'm pretty sure he may have
16:24
Speaker 1: made his big league debut against the Cubs or one
16:27
Speaker 1: of his first starts was against the Cubs. I remember
16:29
Speaker 1: being like, who is this guy? The first time that
16:32
Speaker 1: you pitch against them, he's carving them up and it
16:34
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to have anything special, but hey, that's that's
16:38
Speaker 1: sometimes just pitching.
16:39
Speaker 2: That's just how it works. Uh uh.
16:42
Speaker 1: One one one quick note I wanted to make about
16:45
Speaker 1: the pitching. The starting pitching council was clear he doesn't
16:49
Speaker 1: want to push guys, so like, don't look for like
16:51
Speaker 1: he likes extra day's rests. I I think I did
16:55
Speaker 1: the math and of the eleven games, if again, if
16:58
Speaker 1: it's a minimum stint of the eleven games, it would
17:02
Speaker 1: be four would be on four days rest, which is
17:06
Speaker 1: normal rest. But again, council likes to keep these things
17:10
Speaker 1: like he likes to if he can get it five
17:12
Speaker 1: days rest, so only four of them would be on
17:14
Speaker 1: four days rest.
17:15
Speaker 2: So maybe he's fine with that.
17:17
Speaker 1: And he did seem to indicate, like I said, like
17:19
Speaker 1: when I asked only one if you can keep it
17:22
Speaker 1: to a minimum, it's one start that you have to cover,
17:25
Speaker 1: seemed to acknowledge that that was the case. So you know,
17:29
Speaker 1: we'll see where he goes with that. But yes, the
17:33
Speaker 1: offense I think looks great. Let's talk a little bit
17:38
Speaker 1: more about that. One more quick break right here, Patrick Kratz.
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Speaker 1: Patrick, the offense looks great. I'm trying to quickly look
18:51
Speaker 1: up like just how they're they're.
18:53
Speaker 2: Doing and.
18:55
Speaker 1: Like by war and we know Kyle Tucker's a stud
18:59
Speaker 1: this season. He's he's one of the leaders in all
19:02
Speaker 1: of baseball. It's basically him and Corbyn Carroll. It looks like,
19:07
Speaker 1: like says, Suzuki has shaken off a little bit of
19:10
Speaker 1: a slow start pretty quickly, and he he is, he
19:16
Speaker 1: looks like it's he looks like the player that they
19:20
Speaker 1: kind of wanted him to become, right, Like Counsel has
19:24
Speaker 1: talked about this. What kind of player can say is
19:28
Speaker 1: Azuki be yes, he's been very good, but they haven't
19:32
Speaker 1: been shy about saying like we almost expect a little
19:35
Speaker 1: bit more right, like a little bit more consistency.
19:38
Speaker 2: And it looks like he's getting there.
19:39
Speaker 1: It looks like this is obviously it's not even a
19:43
Speaker 1: month into the season, but you know we've seen stretches
19:46
Speaker 1: like this. Of course, can he keep this up for
19:48
Speaker 1: a whole season?
19:48
Speaker 2: Him?
19:48
Speaker 1: And if he does, him and Kyle Tucker are one
19:52
Speaker 1: of the better one two punches in baseball right, and
19:56
Speaker 1: it just kind.
19:56
Speaker 2: Of makes everything.
19:57
Speaker 1: I was actually texting earlier with the a scout for
20:00
Speaker 1: another team, and he's just like, it's just so interesting
20:03
Speaker 1: to watch.
20:05
Speaker 2: He's like, it's not a one man.
20:06
Speaker 1: Sport, but when you have a superstar in the lineup,
20:10
Speaker 1: it sure does make things look a lot better.
20:13
Speaker 2: It just it's just different. And they have they have
20:16
Speaker 2: that guy.
20:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt.
20:18
Speaker 4: I mean when I wrote that the other day was
20:21
Speaker 4: not to downplay Kyle Tucker, because obviously we've written a
20:25
Speaker 4: lot and will continue to write a lot about how
20:27
Speaker 4: awesome he is at baseball, and I thought part of
20:30
Speaker 4: that quote was interesting just because he does not carry
20:36
Speaker 4: himself like a superstar in the sense of like it's
20:40
Speaker 4: not all about him, like he does not.
20:43
Speaker 3: He's polite, he.
20:46
Speaker 4: Is professional and is dealing with the media, but there's
20:48
Speaker 4: not a whole lot of like love of attention. It
20:51
Speaker 4: does not seem like he very much enjoys it. He's
20:57
Speaker 4: not just good at baseball either, like he seems to
21:00
Speaker 4: enjoy the process and likes talking about it with his teammates.
21:03
Speaker 4: Just that he's fit in, but there is a lot
21:06
Speaker 4: of other stuff going on there too. I mean, this
21:09
Speaker 4: is already had already happened, but Ian hap as leadoff hitter.
21:12
Speaker 4: That's something that for years we had written about, right
21:14
Speaker 4: of like who's it going to be? What are they
21:16
Speaker 4: going to do? You see that interplay between Sayah and Tucker,
21:22
Speaker 4: and you know, Counsel is not one to sort of
21:26
Speaker 4: like just give in to any sort of narrative, and
21:30
Speaker 4: he seems kind of skeptical about a lot of these
21:33
Speaker 4: types of ideas, but he full on said he'll Saya
21:38
Speaker 4: is learning from Tucker. Like that seems kind of like
21:41
Speaker 4: an easy sort of media narrative that Counsel would like
21:44
Speaker 4: shake his head at and be like, you know, there's
21:47
Speaker 4: only one player in the box at the time or
21:49
Speaker 4: something like that. But he's like, no, they're they're kind
21:52
Speaker 4: of feeding off each other, and I think, you know,
21:55
Speaker 4: this bench is better. Like if you look back at
21:59
Speaker 4: some of the guys that they've brought in or they've
22:02
Speaker 4: carried over the last couple of seasons as guys who
22:04
Speaker 4: either did not have enough major league experience and did
22:09
Speaker 4: not have the foundation to be like a great role player,
22:13
Speaker 4: or there are guys who maybe had had big success
22:15
Speaker 4: in the past but looked kind of cooked by the
22:19
Speaker 4: time they got to Chicago and that you see, you know,
22:24
Speaker 4: John Birdie's influence.
22:26
Speaker 3: Carson Kelly isn't really a true bench.
22:29
Speaker 4: Player, but him and Maya are exactly what you had
22:34
Speaker 4: written about last year in terms of like what they needed.
22:39
Speaker 4: And I mean this kind of goes into what you
22:43
Speaker 4: wrote about Sahadev, just the idea of you know, Matt
22:46
Speaker 4: Shaw kind of settling in and that you know, as
22:50
Speaker 4: Shaw and Pete Kurr Armstrong sort of adjust and continue learning.
22:55
Speaker 4: Here they have some pretty good coverage. Like even as
23:00
Speaker 4: as they are figuring things out, the Cubs can put seven, eight,
23:03
Speaker 4: ten runs on the board, whereas last year those growing
23:10
Speaker 4: pains were just so obvious and the lineup was really
23:16
Speaker 4: easy for the other team to sort of go through.
23:18
Speaker 4: That's not really really the case right now.
23:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, those right, they were so pronounced right the third
23:26
Speaker 1: base catcher, center field issues offensively were just like they were,
23:32
Speaker 1: you know, at times pretty unacceptable.
23:34
Speaker 4: Right.
23:34
Speaker 1: You can't like they just couldn't overcome that stuff. It
23:39
Speaker 1: feels like, sorry, my Alexa just randomly went off. So
23:43
Speaker 1: I'm very confused.
23:44
Speaker 2: I was like, someone's in my house, someone's talking a big.
23:47
Speaker 3: Fan Alexa big fan of the Shout Territory Network.
23:54
Speaker 1: So you know, and Peaker Armstrong isn't even hitting all
23:58
Speaker 1: that well, but he's doing it. He's doing a couple
24:01
Speaker 1: of things I think that allow him to impact even
24:04
Speaker 1: on offense. He's he's he's taking some walks, so he's
24:06
Speaker 1: getting on base on occasion. Uh and and that instantly
24:10
Speaker 1: when he's on base, he's he's incredibly valuable. So it's
24:13
Speaker 1: almost like you're not noticing that he's actually not hitting
24:18
Speaker 1: that much. And he and he's just not striking out
24:20
Speaker 1: a ton, which gives which if you're someone that watches
24:24
Speaker 1: that stuff, he if he's just putting the ball.
24:26
Speaker 2: In play, he'll he'll do a lot.
24:28
Speaker 1: He can help the team eventually, right, you trust that
24:32
Speaker 1: good things will happen with him.
24:34
Speaker 2: It's not he's not chasing, he's not. It's not a big.
24:36
Speaker 1: Mess out there for him with with the Maya and Kelly,
24:41
Speaker 1: just completely different mix there, just completely different results than
24:44
Speaker 1: it was last year.
24:46
Speaker 2: Uh and and.
24:46
Speaker 1: Shaw I think it like he's not crushing the ball,
24:52
Speaker 1: but he has been a lot better since Japan. Yeah, yeah,
24:56
Speaker 1: the the bats are more competitive, they're more interesting there. Uh,
25:00
Speaker 1: there's more there. He seems more confident and comfortable. I
25:04
Speaker 1: don't know if he's gonna rake this year, right, but
25:07
Speaker 1: but he has time to kind of settle in and
25:10
Speaker 1: figure things out. Like like we've been talking about, this
25:13
Speaker 1: offense looks so different, uh, and so so much more
25:17
Speaker 1: consistent that that there's no pressure for him to just
25:22
Speaker 1: like he doesn't need to be the man and he's
25:24
Speaker 1: now that he's batting eighth. Uh, there's just not much
25:28
Speaker 1: to worry about. I I did hear some things about
25:33
Speaker 1: his stance early on, and and like, how is this
25:36
Speaker 1: guy gonna hit?
25:38
Speaker 2: I was, I was kind of curious about it.
25:40
Speaker 1: I wanted to hear how he how he got there
25:43
Speaker 1: and why he does that, because it's it is a
25:45
Speaker 1: unique stance, and unique stances are fun, right, Like, Uh,
25:49
Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like he's been doing this forever, and
25:52
Speaker 1: he's not even he's not even great about explaining like
25:57
Speaker 1: how he got there. He just he doesn't really, He's
26:00
Speaker 1: just like it was kind of evolved and like making adjustments.
26:04
Speaker 1: I think the most unique thing is is like that
26:07
Speaker 1: how closed off, Like how he's kind of like really
26:10
Speaker 1: compact and standing back in the box and his his
26:14
Speaker 1: front toe kind of points at the catcher.
26:17
Speaker 3: Uh.
26:18
Speaker 1: He says that keeps everything connected. Uh, and it's and
26:22
Speaker 1: he it also like reduces the load mechanism for him,
26:26
Speaker 1: he just can kind of go.
26:29
Speaker 2: It made me think, like.
26:31
Speaker 1: If you watch a Kyle Tucker's swing, it's it's unconventional.
26:35
Speaker 2: He drops the bat.
26:36
Speaker 1: A little bit like yeah, and and that's not you
26:40
Speaker 1: wouldn't teach anyone that, but it it works for Kyle Tucker. Obviously,
26:45
Speaker 1: we'll see if this works for Matchrow at the highest level.
26:48
Speaker 1: Right now, it is, he says that, like the leg
26:51
Speaker 1: kick is something that's supernatural for him. He's always kind
26:55
Speaker 1: of had that, I think for a long time. He says,
26:57
Speaker 1: he doesn't even realize how big it is sometimes, but
27:01
Speaker 1: it hasn't hurt him. It's a purely timing mechanism.
27:03
Speaker 2: And it's just.
27:06
Speaker 1: It's just something that you know, he's he uses and
27:10
Speaker 1: helps generate power a lot of it. A lot of
27:13
Speaker 1: these unconventional things, he says, kind of make him feel
27:16
Speaker 1: connected and close together, and it allows him to get
27:19
Speaker 1: off his best swing. I have heard from scouts that
27:24
Speaker 1: wonder if it'll it could cost him in the big leagues.
27:30
Speaker 1: I haven't seen him be like exceptionally late or off time.
27:34
Speaker 1: It's like he's actually had a little bit of bad luck.
27:37
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, he's hitting the ball, like
27:41
Speaker 1: what does Matt Shaw do? Like Matt Shaw is in
27:44
Speaker 1: the major leagues because he hits the ball hard, and
27:46
Speaker 1: he hits it in the air. He has a just
27:49
Speaker 1: I'm looking up, he has a two twelve babbit and
27:52
Speaker 1: he's you know, he hits the ball hard and in
27:54
Speaker 1: the air. He should things should be okay for him
27:58
Speaker 1: in the long run. I think as long as he
28:00
Speaker 1: doesn't panic and try and you know, and overthink things.
28:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, as long as annoying reporter so I'm constantly asked
28:06
Speaker 4: him about mechanics in his swing.
28:08
Speaker 3: But no, I mean, look, we I feel like the
28:13
Speaker 3: kind of two.
28:14
Speaker 4: Big ideas at the beginning of most seasons are like
28:18
Speaker 4: are you healthy? And it did you avoid a bad start?
28:21
Speaker 4: And you know, the Cups have been largely healthy. I
28:23
Speaker 4: still think kind of coming in and out of Japan
28:26
Speaker 4: the way this season started to if steel is a
28:30
Speaker 4: minimum stint, you probably feel pretty good about that. And
28:34
Speaker 4: then to be nine and six is good in any
28:38
Speaker 4: context starting a season, but against the toughest schedule in baseball,
28:46
Speaker 4: I think it, you know, to be scoring a ton
28:48
Speaker 4: of runs in just brutal hitting conditions to kind of
28:56
Speaker 4: begin to form an identity, whether it's the base running
28:59
Speaker 4: you had wrote about basically the second season of the series.
29:02
Speaker 4: It was apparent by then to avoid like total bullpen meltdowns.
29:09
Speaker 4: Obviously it's been uncomfortable, and there are certainly some missed
29:13
Speaker 4: opportunities thinking back to that, you know, eight run eighth
29:16
Speaker 4: inning against the Diamondbacks, but otherwise like pretty orderly, pretty organized,
29:23
Speaker 4: and you know, a one in five road trip to
29:26
Speaker 4: California would certainly change the perception, but that wouldn't be
29:32
Speaker 4: you know, season ending by any means. So we'll have
29:37
Speaker 4: a lot more information off These two series against you know,
29:40
Speaker 4: big time mental contenders should be fun to watch.
29:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I was about to say, you just don't
29:47
Speaker 1: want the disaster West Coast road trip, right like O
29:51
Speaker 1: to six, one and five avoid that. I think you'd
29:54
Speaker 1: even take two and four to be honest, like these
29:57
Speaker 1: are two two the best teams in baseball that they're
29:59
Speaker 1: going to be facing if they if they split or
30:02
Speaker 1: win this road trip, go above five hundred on this
30:05
Speaker 1: road trip, that's huge Like that that I think it'll
30:09
Speaker 1: for me. I'll start you know, it's the type of
30:13
Speaker 1: thing that happens. If that happens, you start to say, like, huh,
30:16
Speaker 1: how good is this team? How good can they be?
30:18
Speaker 1: Like how resilient are they? They just get bad news
30:21
Speaker 1: about justin Steel and they go out and do that. Right,
30:23
Speaker 1: Let's see, it hasn't happened yet there. So it's gonna
30:26
Speaker 1: be a really tough road trip. I just like, I
30:30
Speaker 1: think people need to keep that in perspective. It is
30:33
Speaker 1: not like the pitching that they're facing, the offenses that
30:35
Speaker 1: they're facing, nothing about this road trip is going to
30:38
Speaker 1: be easy.
30:40
Speaker 2: Just going to the West coast is hard in general.
30:44
Speaker 1: Like we said, like this, even if they were facing Colorado,
30:46
Speaker 1: it's just weird things happen out there. La and San
30:50
Speaker 1: diego to the best teams in baseball. So we'll see
30:53
Speaker 1: how they how they go. It's going what was it Yamamoto,
30:58
Speaker 1: Roki Sasaki and Tyler Glass now and then Dylan sees
31:03
Speaker 1: in the opener gets Padre. So all if that stays
31:06
Speaker 1: how it is, it's yeah, it's gonna be daunting task.
31:09
Speaker 2: We'll see how they handle it.
31:11
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, We'll be back with one final episode
31:14
Speaker 1: this week and then back next week. In the middle
31:17
Speaker 1: of that road trip, you'll be out there covering things
31:19
Speaker 1: for The Athletic. Thanks everyone for listening. This is Northside Territory.
31:23
Speaker 1: Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast.
31:26
Speaker 1: Please subscribe to the YouTube channel and subscribe to The Athletic,
31:29
Speaker 1: where Patrick and I are on top of all things Cubs.
31:32
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening everyone. Take anything by mid