Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / What we’re hearing about the Cubs’ downward spiral: lineup issues, pitching plans, trade deadline

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What we’re hearing about the Cubs’ downward spiral: lineup issues, pitching plans, trade deadline · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Sahadiv Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, I am
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: just over here at my house, sitting in my discomfort.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I think all Cubs fans are sitting in some discomfort.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Certainly Craig Council is as this team starts a game.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I think you had it in your story, a stretch
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of twenty two games against below five hundred teams at
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: least entering the month, and they're zero and two two
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: one run losses to very winnable games and they're not
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: coming up with the big hit. They get it. I
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: think you and I both agree. Long term issue for
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: this team is still starting pitching. Really believe the offense
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: is going to get going, but they're in a stretch
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: right now that could cost them to the division. Like
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: when we look back at the season, we could say,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: you know what, this team's pitching just wasn't good enough,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: but it was the offense that's sunk for a month
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and and sunk the season. It's stunk for a month
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: and it sunk the season.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: I should say. That's what we could look back and say.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Obviously, the season isn't written, the story of the season
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: isn't written yet. But I feel like a bit of
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: a broken record season wise. I feel like we end
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: up saying these things a lot, so you know, coming
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: up with explanations can be difficult. But sitting in discomfort
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: is what they're doing, and I think Council's ultimate point was,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: what do you suppose like you got kind of got
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: to stick with your guys and go get after it,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and things have to turn because sometimes there aren't buttons
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: to push.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sitting in discomfort probably wasn't what the marketing wizards
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Wrigleyville had in mind when they were trying to come
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: up with plans to celebrate the franchises one hundred and
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: fiftieth anniversary or the ten year reunion of the twenty
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: sixteen World Series team. But hey, here we are. Council's
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: point was exactly what you just said. He's used that
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: phrase sitting in discomfort at least two homestands. I think
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: it was a previous one. It's kind of like a
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: go to phrase now. On Wednesday, it was in response
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: to Jesse Rodgers kind of pointed out, you know, say
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: there's four players hitting below two hundred with runners in
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: scoring position. I forget the exact stats, and just how
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: you know unusual that is, like if they were hitting,
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: say over three hundred, you'd expect that to change. Like
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: just that just these things sort of even out. That
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: was the point of the back and forth. And yeah,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: I mean sitting in discomfort means he's you just have
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: to kind of watch these players you've invested in and
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: just hope for the law of averages to start evening
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: back out again. And so yes, Dansby Swanson may get
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: pinch hit for here or there. Council did not.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Rule out the idea.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Of a mental reset, and we got a day off.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: I think it was the last homestand and you know,
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: you see him when Pedro Ramirez came up. You see
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Council using a better bench for key moment there. But
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: he didn't pinch hit for Swanson on Wednesday night in
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: another key moment. And so basically the idea is that
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: when you use first round picks on guys, when you
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: use valuable trade chips on guys, when you give them
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: big contract extensions, when you target them and Cove it
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: after them as free agents. You have to let it
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: play out and that you know, eventually some of these
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: over thirty players are going to decline if they have,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: if that hasn't already begun. And we don't know who's
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: gonna be good amongst these young players, but probably one
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: or two of them will be pretty ok with a
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: long haul. You just don't know when that sort of
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: switches over. But it's not happening now. Like, yeah, I
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: think they're gonna you'd watch some of these young guys
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: play every day. You probably get sick of watching them too.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, job.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I mean it's not like he. I know, people feel
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: like he's not giving them a chance. Kevin Olkontra got
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: two games in a row against lefties. He didn't really
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: do much. I think Petri Ramirez showed a little bit
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: when he started, and then he didn't do much on
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Wednesday night. I mean, but that's baseball. That does a
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, you shouldn't play like one game a handful
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: of games doesn't tell you the whole story. But you know,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: you have to figure out, Like what you're saying is
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: it's on them to figure out, like the coaching staff
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: and the front office to figure out are these guys.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: On the down swing? And do we play the kids?
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Look, if multiple of them are on a down swing,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: then your season isn't going to go the way you
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: want it to. You can't rely on all young players.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it works out, but I mean, I understand right now.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think we're starting to see some of
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: these guys get out of it or start to hit.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Dansby's the one that I watch, and I'm just like,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: when I should caution everyone when I say this. We
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: see it every year where it's like, when is this
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: going to end? How bad is this? Any turn? And
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: he gets hot and he ends up where he normally
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: does right now, where it's just it's just hard when
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: when they're in the middle of it. And I think
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: what I take away from when Counsole says, sitting in
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: your disc sit in this discomfort. The people that have
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: the hardest time with that are the fans. You know it,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: I understand why I'm not saying you need to be patient.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: And look, it is one hundred and sixty two game
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: season and they have to handle it. The fans have
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: to handle it the way they want, like and swinging
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: with like riding these emotional roller coasters is part of
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the experience, and when things aren't going right, you want
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: to see either someone screaming and yelling and feeling the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: same way you do, or or you just want to
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: see change. But I understand where Council's coming from. Like
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: baseball is, like it is a maddening sport where when
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: things go bad, sometimes the best thing to do is
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: kind of stick with your guys and say, I know
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: what these guys can do, and they're in a bad
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: moment right now, I need to get them out. With
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Dansby in particular, I think you have Pedro Ramirez, you
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: have eventually Matt Shaw coming back. Does it make sense
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: to sit in for a little bit and play Nico
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: it's short? Does that mean a series? Look, I know
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: you're gonna get a certain level of defense with Dansby
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Swanson out there. I wouldn't be like terrified by the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: drop off with either shar or Pedro Ramirez getting a
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: little bit more playing time. I'm not saying bench Dansby
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Swanson and just go with the new starter. I'm saying
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: give him the mental reset. Like my concern right now
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: with him is he was chasing like crazy the slider.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: He stopped chasing the slider. I've seen him swing through
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: like three or four strikes, like some of them over
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the heart of the plate, just to end in the bat.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: It's like, okay, so you're seeing the ball better, but
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: now you just can't hit it.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Like I don't know if that's a mental thing, if
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: it's a mechanical thing. What's going on?
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: But yeah, he's the one that uh I look at Bregman,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I look at Hap. I think Hap has already gotten hot.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: U Pca is getting hot. Michael Bush has just had
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: a really good may. Nico's a concern. But Nico did
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: have a couple of line drives recently, and that like
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: gives you a little bit like, Okay, maybe he'll turn
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: say I had that home run like Dansby.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: I just don't know what to expect right now.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: And if it's anyone that kind of needs to sit
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and get a breather, and maybe it's him, But I
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: also understand what Counsel's saying, and like that is not
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: what fans want to hear, and like talking heads are
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: gonna scream and yell and say you got to make
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: things happen, and and I get that I just don't
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: know what like that, Like he's they've tried different lineups,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: They've called up kids. Uh they like guys have been
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: inserted into the lineup briefly. I know, maybe you just
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: want a long run for Kevin ol'contra or Peter Ramirez.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I just don't think that's the answer, uh to to
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the issues right now. They paid these plays, these these
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: guys need to perform. This isn't a rebuilding team. This
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: is a win now team. Go go get those clutch hits.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Some of that is right, Like when Jesse talks about that,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: I think you tweeted, what was it, four of the worst,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Like I don't know the exact number, where like I
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: know two of the like worst ten hitters, I believe,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: and four in like the bottom fifty or something like that.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Like that's that's that's rough, and that is like that
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: that shouldn't last. Like some of these things are maddening too,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: where you're like Saya was inches away from tying the
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: game up on Tuesday, Bregman was inches away from tying
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the game up on on Wednesday. But those bounces, so
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: it's a culmination of bounces not going your way. But
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Council also said it. This isn't they're not playing well enough.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: It's not bad luck that you've gone five and eighteen.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: That's they're not They're not doing what needs to be
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: done to win. And that's the bottom line, whether it's
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: starting pitching some day, bullpen blew it yesterday, offense not
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: getting enough big hits. What do they have like seven
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: extra base hits on Wednesday? When that happens, like, you
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: win that game. That's a game you absolutely have to
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: win if you get two runs allowed by your starting
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: pitcher at almost six innings. It's just that that's the
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: type of stuff where it's like, Okay, this is just now.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Nothing's just going right either.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this downward spiral is really exposed a lot of
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: these organization wide issues, like you know, the Cubs don't
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: don't want to pay for number one starters in free
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: agency or in trade, and there aren't that many out
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: there to be fair. And you see how film Aton's pitching,
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: and you get why they think reliever performances are way
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: too volatile. That's not a wise area to spend your money.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: It's like, okay, well these are their guys, these are
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: their hitters that they've you know, I think I looked
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: at last lights Knight's lineup. Five of the first six
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: names have full no trade clauses, and among that six,
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: they've invested roughly eight hundred million dollars between contract extensions
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: and free agent deals. Like say, it can't go a
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: month in between home runs, Alex Bragman, can't be a
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: singles hitter.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Nico.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: I don't expect him to go all the way back
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: to that MVP level he was at the start of
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: the season, but you know, he's got to be better.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: I think I think Pete, I think Pete is sort
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: of figuring things out. You know, he's had so many
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: wild swings within this uh you know, erratic season for
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: the team as a whole. I think you can expect
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: good things from from him, and he's shown he could
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: carry an offense. But you know, a lot of this team,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: you know, when we talked about those young players, Yes,
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: sometimes you get like a five season that just sort
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: of like comes out of nowhere in terms of the
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: magnitude of it. With these veteran players, it's more of
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: your kind of betting on the floor that they'll just
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: wind up in a pretty good place in the end,
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: and like, you know, Alex Bregman's been an MVP level performer.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: You know, he wanted to.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Get back there.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: That was part of the pitch and sort of the
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: baseball conversations they had in the off season obviously not
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: there yet, and it is just, uh, just so bizarre
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: to see how you know, Wrigley was rocking during that
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: fifteen to oh run and last night, you know, Jesse
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: Rodgers and I sit next to each other. You know,
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: we kind of observed how early quiet it was in
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: the tenth inning, like, okay, the Cubs are gonna rally
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: down one like there was it was flat, and as
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: soon as Bregman flied out to end the game, you
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: did hear some booze. It wasn't like deafening. The crowd
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: had obviously, you know, thinned out by that point. You know,
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: it's a Wednesday night in June, but the customers are
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: registering their dissatisfaction and your counsel is acknowledging this product
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: has not been good enough. And even you know, a
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: steady group of players within the clubhouse has sort of
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: changed the tone a little bit. You know, they're not
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: gonna all of a sudden start flipping over tables while
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: the METEA is in there. But Jamison ty Own calls
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: it a wake up call.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: Alex Bregman says, we have to be better in everything,
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: and it starts with me Ian Hap acknowledging that when
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: the group as a whole is struggling, you know, everyone
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: starts feeling it. You know, it's a tough spot. Everyone
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: wants to be the guy, everyone wants to do something
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: to help. But pressure, ply more. Pressure doesn't always work
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: in baseball.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it absolutely doesn't. It's not always.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: You know, this is not a group that flips tables.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: This is not a group that screens and yells, so
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: they can't be fake about it. Maybe they do need
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: a different personality at times, but I think it's just
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: get bottom line is they got to perform, uh and
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: and you know, and that's.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: That's how baseball works.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: You get the hits, you get the big hit, and
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: then and then nobody is questioning the demeanor of the team.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Just just go out and get the job done. Let's
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: let's take a quick break and then talk a little
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: bit about pitching and the updates, their health updates there
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: and then whether this team is still buying at the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: deadline or what the plan is at the deadline.
• 14:50
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• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, Patrick, you were at the ballpark the last two days.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: What's the latest son Edward Cabrera and Matthew Boyd.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: Was hesitant to say it because these things have a
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: way of surprising us, but heading into this series, the
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: expectation was that Cabrera would be activated to start this
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: weekend against the Giants. Matthew Boyd was ticketed for a
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: second and final rehab start with Iowa this weekend, the
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: idea being that he would be activated presumably the following
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: weekend in San Francisco. That's just me doing the math
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: in my head. I'm just trying to but that Javier
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: A sad believe Wednesday, through one inning he was shortened
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: up with the idea that in case something happens, councils
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: sort of said it rather cryptically. I took that to
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: me and just as innings coverage, because it's not like
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: these guys will be activated off the injured list and
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: you know they're a one hundred and twenty pitches or
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: start taking on complete games like they will probably be
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: on a bit of a tapered workload. And that's assuming
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: everything goes well, which given the pitching injuries this year,
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: I guess we probably shouldn't assume anything. But look, if
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Cabrera and Boyd are back in relatively short order, that
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: will help stabilize things. But at the same time, like
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: neither one has been great this year. They haven't really
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: lived up to expectations. There's a lot of reasons for that.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: There's still a lot of time for their body of
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: work to look a whole lot different. But they got
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: to get back out there on the mountain and pitching
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: again and contributing.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I mean Cabrera needs to kind of step it
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: up here when when he comes back, if he's fully healthy,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: ready to go. I know they've been working on some
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: things with his delivery to Like people were talking about
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: his armslop being down and that affecting things it all.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: You know, it's not a it's not as simple as
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: like move your arm up. It's a it's a mechanical
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: issue that starts with his lower half and and they're
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: they're they've been working on it and we'll see if
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: that's corrected because the stuff just doesn't look the same
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: when he was out there, and Matthew Boyd needs to
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: obviously be better. Uh, this isn't a health related thing,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: but tonight's start. I believe it's tonight, right SHOWDA starts
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Thursday night against Oakland, not Oakland, the Athletics. Uh. And
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: it's just a huge start. They have some power hitters.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I think the wind's gonna be blowing out right now.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: It's a nice day out. Could be a tough day
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: to pitch, tough night to pitch. It doesn't matter. He's
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: got to he's got to perform. He's gotta like settle
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: things down. And if he's giving up home runs, they
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: have to be solo shots. He cannot be hitting people,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: walking people, any of that to put men on base.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Patrick.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: You also had something in one of your stories that
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: you know, the Cubs are, you know, making calls. The
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Cubs are looking for ways to improve this team.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: I go back and forth.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: I don't know what kind of deadline it's gonna be.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: But we got what is it, June June something, right,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: It's it's June June fourth. Yeah, so you got two
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: months before the deadline. Things can change. We've seen that
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: in one month, how quickly things can change. So maybe
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: they get hot again and then they're at the top
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: of the division. But right now, you know, I just
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: don't know what type of deadline it would be.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: I don't think they know either, and I think you
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: would have gotten different answers if you had asked that
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: question at various points in the season. The way it
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: was explained to me was these are just sort of
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: preliminary calls, standard due diligence. Jed Hoyer is chatty by nature,
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: and he's has relationships built over about a quarter century
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: in professional baseball, so he's plugged in. He enjoys that
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: part of the job. His staff is constantly scouring the
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: market for potential upgrades that could take different forms, you know,
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: less glamorous forms, you know. Over the next several weeks
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: as they kind of churned through some of their pitching
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: options and see if they're upgrades out there, but my
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: takeaway was like, there's not some earth shattering move out
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: there right now, and that if the Cubs don't play better,
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: there probably won't be period. I think when when the
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: Cubs were in first place and absolutely rolling, that looked
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: like the type of team that could convince this front
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: office to pay the exorbitant price to acquire someone like Schooble,
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: maybe Freddie Peralta, who's obviously a notch below but still
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: really good and would probably be the cubs number one starter.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: I would guess.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: Now they're kind of in survival mode, like they're gonna
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: have to sort of, you know, tread water for a bid.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: They're gonna have to bank some series wins. I mean,
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: I think they're seven and one in their last eight series.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: They're gonna go.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: At least a month between series wins. I mean we're
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: talking about basically that started at the end of the
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: second ten game winning streak, like just kind of a
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: such a weirdly disjointed season. But yeah, they have some
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: work to do, you know, if they want to convince
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: you know, the bosses to further invest in this season.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: And I think that's their default setting. Like, don't get
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: me wrong, Like I I think the Cubs will, especially
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: with this extra wild card. I think the Cubs are
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: going to hang around. I think the offense is going
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: to pick up. I think the pitching will get a
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: little better.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Like it.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: I don't think it can be this bad for the
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: next four months, but hey, look I've been wrong before.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, let's send this on like a slightly
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: bit of a positive note.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: This you want, like a normal season is.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Like this in the sense that there are ups and downs,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: and sometimes there are moments in time where you think
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: this team has zero chance. I will say that the
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Toronto Blue Jays at this time last year, all their
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: fans were saying that this team has zero chance. Absolutely,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: and it was kind of the right analysis at the time.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: But that's how baseball works. It gets weird and things
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: shift quickly, and a team can get hot. Alex Bregman,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: if you go look at it the history outside of
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: last season, he's cold to start this season, and then
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I think people have been saying, like, well, Bregman, it
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: looks like he's on the downswing. Maybe he's getting old,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: maybe he's not that good. And then you know, June
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: and July gets hot. So there's other guys you can
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: point to and like they're gonna get hot. The offense
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: is probably gonna be fine right now, Like fans are
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: going to disagree with that strongly, and I understand why,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: but I think that's gonna turn. You have to hope
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: that the healthy pitching staff will stabilize things slightly. They
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: have to get on the world. Now, that's the bottom line.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, we can go all the way back to
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three when We talked about that one six
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: or seven game road trip. I think it was Washington
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: and another bad team.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: It cannot remember the road trip, but they went like
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: one in five in like a Miami maybe was it Miami? Yeah?
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: They Miami and DC maybe yes, yeah, And they were
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: both bad teams. They needed to beat them. They didn't
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: come up with the big hits. Then it was like
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: the type of stuff that just is like, and they
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: missed the playoffs by game you know, you got it.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: You can't.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: This is this is extended. This isn't even like a
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: couple bad series. This has gone on way too long.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: So flip the switch. Whatever they need to do. It
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: needs to change, but we'll see if that can start
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Thursday night. It has to start as soon as possible
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: because this is when you when you make the changes,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: or this is when you can go on the run
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: like this, this competition isn't good enough to sink your season.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: All right, that's it for this episode.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: We'll be back with a mailbag episode, making sure to
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: answer all your questions because there are plenty of frustrated fans.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Right now, let's wrap this up. This is Northside Territory.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Make sure to rate review subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic, where Patrick and I are
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: on top of all things Cubs. Thanks so much for listening. Everyone,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: take care.