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The Cubs missed their opportunity against the Brewers · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Well, come into Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: I'm Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. The
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Cubs took three of five from the Brewers. Normally, that's
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: you know, you look at that, you win a series.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Everyone's happy. You move on to the next task at hand.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I would say, this is the first time I've seen
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Craig Council probably you know, in the entire year plus
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: nearly two years that we've covered him kind of disappointed
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: after a series win or not just you know, saying
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: you know, we'll take We'll take the wins and move
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: on to the next series. He kind of made it
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: seem like it was a missed opportunity, he said. I
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: described the series as we kind of held serve. We
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: probably needed a little more. We win three out of five.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: That it's three wins, but today's stings a bit. Getting
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: today's game obviously would have been a big one. They
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: played a better game than us. That is from after
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: game five of that five game set that they lost,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: they won the middle three. Aw I just think, you know,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I get where he's coming from our buddy. Jesse Rodgers
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: tweeted before the game, like seven feels very different than
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: five games. Bag. I know it's a I don't know why,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: but I agree. I like, I'm not sure if it
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: has like it it's a game swing it attered.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And also it's almost like a whole nother week
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: coming off the calendar when there's only you know, a
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: handful of those.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Left. I think, like.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Eye test, why it was just crazy how how many
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: swings we had within that. We obviously the the doubleheaders,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: the rain, the weather all unusual, but like just how
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: dead the team looked on Monday. You various injury news,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: other stuff we'll get into later. And then to win
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: two games in one day, and like you have jameson
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: tie on come back, you get sparks from different players,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: whether it was you know, Castro or Casey. And then yeah,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: to not finish the job, like you know, Council talks
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: a lot about, you know, the group has earned this position,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: the position that they're in, and that was one where
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: they put themselves in a position to do some damage
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: and really kind of reframe this closing stretch. And you know,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: if you're the Brewers that's kind of all you really
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: needed to do was just to like avoid total disaster
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: and like give the Cubs a ton of energy and momentum,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: and you know, they just could just kind of scratch
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: off five more games and get closer to their ultimate goal,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: where the Cubs that increasingly are looking like a wildcard team.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know what, the Cubs aren't a bad team.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I don't think they're the Brewers are that much better
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: than them, if they're better than them at all. They've
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: gotten really hot, and they've played really well, and the
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Cubs match them whenever they play. They play even games.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: That Monday game was obviously not you know, it didn't
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: look like it was an even match matchup, and then
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the next four looked very much like these are two
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: teams that can battle each other and match each other
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: stuff for step the Cubs. I think sometimes we lose
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: focus of what the Cubs are and like how good
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: they are because right now the offense is not playing well.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: I don't care about those three wins. I don't think
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: they played that well in those three wins. Frankly, like,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: especially on Wednesday, they got they got one clutch hit
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: on Wednesday, and the offense didn't do much else on Wednesday.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: They were lucky to win that game because the Brewers
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: hit the ball on the line regularly Wednesday night and
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: didn't get any good luck. And you know, these things
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: have a way of evening themselves out, Like the Cubs
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: mashed the ball all over the place in Toronto at times,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: even in Saint Louis in some of those games that
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: they lost, and they didn't win some of those games,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: and they probably didn't deserve to win Wednesday's game, and
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: they did. But Thursday and Wednesday, the offense looked pretty
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: listless to me. Tuesday, there were moments, but you know,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: some of it was It's not like they were They're
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: not crushing the ball like they were. All that said,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: this is this team has so many other positives that
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: I think we sometimes overlooked because of how poorly the
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: offense is played. They're really good defensively. The starting pitching
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: has been the best in baseball for nearly two months now.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: They have really good, high leverage relievers. They are a
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: good base running team. They're a really good base running team.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: They make a ton of contact, they put the ball
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: in play. They're fundamentally sound. They do all the little things,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: just like the Brewers do. They have a little bit
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: more power than the Brewers, so you in theory, you
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: would think that they they could, they should be the
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: better offense. They just haven't been slugging as much. Wrigley
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: has been maddening. Yet again, that's no excuse. You got
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: to win the games that are put in front of
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: you because both teams are playing under the same circumstances,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: same weather. But it does factor into like some of
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: this power output, like the power dip we've seen lately,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: A couple home runs stolen. Not really on Thursday. Thursday
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: was just a flat performance. I didn't like the way
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: they looked. We could talk a little bit about We're
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: going to talk a little bit about lineup construction. I
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: understand there's a lot of fans frustrated. I get it.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: I get it. I also think there's some reasoning behind it.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: We can talk about that in a little bit, uh,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I think we can. Why Why don't we get to
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: our player spotlight real quick, our our draftings player spotlight
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: and talk a little bit about Owen Casey Patrick? All right, Patrick,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Owen Casey DK player spotlight. He's been a nice spark.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: That line drive home run was was impressive. The bass
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: hit good defense too. I really really like the defense.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I want to say he has four hits. If I'm
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: remembering correctly, is that right? Does he have four hits?
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: He has four hits. Three of them I would get say, like, oh,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: that there's that crazy exit velocity we were talking about.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: There's a like that's that's an impressive he looks impressive.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: And then you know one blue pit and you take
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: that he's making more contact than than he was in
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: the minors. You know when he was coming up. He's
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: closed some of those whole in his game. I had
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: a nice chat with Andy Haynes assistant hitting coordinators that
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: I can't keep track of all the titles now. They've
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: had so many different hitting coordinators and they shift roles.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: I think he's just a minor league hitting coordinator. But
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Haynes's former MLB hitting coach been with the ORG before
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: he's back. This season. They were trd with Casey to
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: focus on chase and in zone swing and miss, and
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: they've made major adjustments. He improved every month in both
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: those categories over the course of the season. Very minor
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: tweaks mechanically, it was mostly for according to Casey, was
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: mostly a mental thing, and he's done a great job
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: embracing a challenge and as he repeats triple A, not
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: just trying to Okay, I know I can hit this level.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I'm going to just dominate and force their hand. No,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: there are changes you need to make to get to
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: get up to the big leagues and to thrive in
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the big leagues.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: I know it's hard to appreciate in the moment sometimes,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: particularly when the Cups are struggling offensively, but if you
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: looked at the guys who've given them jolts, really it's
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: been these younger hitters who've maybe they weren't drafted by
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: the Cubs, but they spent a lot of developmental time
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: in the Cub system and obviously Casey, Matshaw, Picrow Armstrong,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: and I think it's interesting how they've like worked in
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: season with guys to make changes and get them to
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: better place, even at the major league level.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: If you go back to what Pete did. Obviously Shaw
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: had to go back.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: To the minors first, but obviously he has been, you know,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: doing stuff at the major league level.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: It's not like they're just kind of rolling these guys
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: out there and crossing their fingers.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: And I think to do that, I think it's easy,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: like in the winter in Arizona, you know, when you
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: know no one's striking out, there's no results.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: To be like, oh yeah, my swing field is great.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: But to do what they did with Casey, to really
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: circle that one thing. You had a great piece on
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: this in the athletic of like, Okay, these are the
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: areas that have to get better, like if he's going
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: to not just survive, but excel at the major league level,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Like it's a very obvious areas to improve, and I
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: think it shows kind of an alignment, you know, from
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: top to bottom here that.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Is not always obvious.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: And then you have a player like Casey, you have
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: experienced people not just Andy Haynes, but a bunch of
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: coordinators and also like you know, the right questions to ask,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: you know, the right people to talk to.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: I would highly recommend checking out that story.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you. I mean Casey is fascinating just because
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: you know he's a plowed prospect, And yeah, I appreciate
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: player development, like making like you know, prospects are a gamble.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: The Cubs have done a little bit better job at
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: bring it at preparing these guys for the highest level.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: It seems like they have good systems in place to
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: kind of Okay, they're they're seeing, Okay, this is the issue.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: How do we correct it? Okay, let's let's come up
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: with a plan and then they implement it and execute
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: and and players usually embrace it. It just seems different
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: than than it used to be at times, and and
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: and uh, like you said, more collaborative and and just
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: more effective. There have so many good examples lately. Uh,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: you want the system to be better. Uh, they need
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: to improve in certain areas, but I think they're doing
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of things right and and ow in case
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: he is just another good example of that. Okay, now
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: let's turn it over to a lot of rizzo for
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: our North side turn pick.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: Thanks guys.
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: The Cubs of one two series in a row. Ohen
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: Casey's four hits helped the cause, so I think they
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: keep it rolling against the Angels. I have them taking
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: two of three in Anaheim. I got it at minus
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: one forty to win the series on DraftKings Sportsbooks, So
• 11:15
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• 11:17
  Speaker 5: Zahat Evan. Patrick back to you.
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• 12:02
  Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, we had some news come out. I
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: believe that was Wednesday night. Our buddy Jesse Rogers, so
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: so kind of him to drop this news in the
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: middle of the game and make us all scramble and
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: confirm and and and get on top of it. But
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker was playing with a hairline fracture in his hand.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, let's just you know, he fractured his hand.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I guess is the simplest way of saying it. There
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: was you know, I think the way it went is
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: essentially so. So we did confirm this. Craig Council said
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: it afterwards after the game. Yes, this, this has happened.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker spoke before Thursday's game. Everyone has talked about it.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Everyone makes it seem like it's healed now. So what
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: happened was there was a slide on June first, head first,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I want to say it was the first inning of
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: a game against the Cincinnati Reds. Had first slide, felt
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: like he jammed his finger. Played a couple more innings
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: came out of that game, day off the next day,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: I believe, and then he didn't start the next two games.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: In the second of those games he pinch hit late.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: And then he's been playing pretty much ever since. Had
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: a great June. About two weeks after the initial checking
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: of it, they found so there were X rays. Initially
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: they didn't find anything. Two weeks later, it was still
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: bothering him. They checked it out again. They found a
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: hairline fracture. I guess where the ring finger and pinky
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: meat is. Are the specifics that Jesse had, you know
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: for me it you know, I wish they would have
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: told us. I wish they would have said anything. He
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: was playing through it. This is a this is this
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: was a guy that chose to play through it. I
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: assume when you're not put on the eye, it's up
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: to the player whether they want to disclose these things.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: You know, you can't. You can't betray the player's confidence.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: He wanted to play, He was playing really well. There
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: was no it didn't seem like there was a reason
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: to sit him. And they say it's healing, and that
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: it healed. So those are that Those are the things
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: we know, and so we have to assume they're true
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: and then and then go from there. He's been playing
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: terribly since July. I don't think there's any denying that.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: The numbers bear that out. He had two days off
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: three games. I don't know if it changes anything. I
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: don't know what's gonna come of how he's playing. But
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: you know, there's the whole saga and everything just seems
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: very I don't want to say it's just the Cubs
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: that do this, but it feels very cubs like. It
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: just feels like a cubby occurrence. And you know, I
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: don't know what else to take from it.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: There's lots of gray areas with injuries. I think we've
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: all kind of learned that over the years of someone hurt,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: someone injured, banged up, whatever sort of term you want
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: to use. You know, I don't think this was like
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: handled great, just when you look at the result.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: Or the outcome here, like I think.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: They were making decisions in real time, and yeah, things
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: were kind of rolling there in June, but you know,
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: it seems a little convenient to now say that there
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: was a fracture there. And it's you know, frustrating when we,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: meaning a media group, were constantly asking you know, the manager,
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: the team president, the player.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: Like are you hurt? Are you banged up? Like?
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: And there's kind of like hints of everyone's dealing with
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: stuff and you know, things like that, and it just
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: seems like for me, like Kyle Tucker had it pretty
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: good in Chicago of just like he had he was
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: on his own routine, he was rarely at his lockers.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: Who's not bothered by the media and then like all
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: of a sudden, like this week with the biggest series
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: of the year, like it all just kind of came
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: crashing down, like the booze from the crowd, more questions
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: about his performance just because you know, we're not the
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: type start to overreact to like two zero for four games,
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: but like just the the numbers had just piled up there,
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: just all those ground balls, and then you saw it
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: on the field how he was processing it and he
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: was not handling it.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: The way he normally does.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: And then you know, counsel finally, you know, kind of
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: came around to this idea of a reset a benching,
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: which we've all seen as worked before.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: In the past.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: And you know, I go back to when he slid
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: into that base in the beginning of June. I think
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: my headline was something like, Cubs are hopeful Kyle Tucker's
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: avoided like a season changing injury.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: And I know.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: There are some people who read that as if like
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: we were being alarmist or you know, click baity or overreacting.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: It's like, no, there are certain players that are that
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: important and are only there for a very short amount
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: of time that something like that happens. You cannot downplay it,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: you cannot ignore it. And then just knowing the type
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: of injury, like I think we've said before, like they
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: don't play soccer, so like if your hand is messed up,
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: that's kind of important for hitting when you're one of
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: the best hitters in the game.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: And like it didn't happen.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Immediately, he played through it, he was productive, and look
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: like there's every reason in the world to think that,
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: like Kyle Tucker will get through this. Like I have
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: a lot more confidence in him figuring it out than
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Owen Casey learning the entire league like in two weeks.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: But until that happens, you know, there's gonna be a
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: lot of pressure on him.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: And I think it just it all spiraled here and.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: It just shows you how important and sometimes fragile the
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: mental side of the game is. I do think that's
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: a big part of this here, just it kind of
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: just kind of got away from everyone.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think you can deny that, you know,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: I hate to play. You know, aren't your psychologist or whatever,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: But it's it's hard to imagine that there's not a
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: huge mental impact here. And as things continued to spiral
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: as far as his performance. He you know, he it's
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: hard to believe that there wasn't like a overthinking of
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: things or pressing or whatever you want to call it,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: that the mental aspect of it impacted the way he's
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: performing now. And now he's trying everything to try and
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: get back to the player we know he can be.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I want to say that both Cody Bellinger and Niko
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Horner played through significant injuries last year and maybe even
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: like cracks of bones in the hand. I cannot remember
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: the exact moments or how it happened, but I believe
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: both of them did. We knew it and didn't make
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: big deals out of it. We just didn't like they
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: told us, and we moved on. This is what you do.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: They're playing through it. They took a couple of days off. Well,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: they want to play. They don't want to go on
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: the eye out. They can play. They can play at
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: a certain level that we need them to. Okay, and
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: you just did, okay, your ballplayer, You're going to play
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: through it. They chose not to handle that this way,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: letting us know that there was a crack, and now
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: it just feels like it's become a bigger deal than
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: probably it needed to be and tie it all in
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: with how good he was, how much he's struggling now,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: how important he is, the fact that he's a free
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: agent to be. All these things matter, and they all
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: impact the way we attack the story and how it's
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: presented and how fans react. Fans wouldn't be booing him
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: if he hadn't upset a certain standard. They may not
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: be booing him if they knew how he was playing
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: through a pretty you know, a break in the hand,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: a broken hand, or whatever you want to call it.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Everybody wants to handle these things differently,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and this is how they chose to handle it. I
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: think it just looks bad, but you know, it's out
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: there now. We'll see if he can. Let's talk about
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: some lineup decisions. Kyle Tucker was back in the lineup.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break. I want to talk a
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: little bit about him and who wasn't in the lineup
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: and just have Greig Counsel is going to handle it all.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Ft, fam, When you're playing games, you kind of have
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: some stress anxiety.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: Teammates need somebody something to help. Now it's at your
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: fingertips with.
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: Rula, that's right, telehealth has been a huge help for
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: millions of people, but it can be time consuming and
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: expensive to find the right therapist. RULA is on a
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: mission to make this process smoother and make sure you
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: go to ruler dot com slash file for more details.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: They take most major insurance plans and the average copay
• 21:34
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• 21:42
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• 21:45
  Speaker 4: toward improved mental health and overall well being. Head on
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: over to rula dot com slash file to get started today.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: After you sign up, they ask you where you heard
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: about them. Please say that FT sent you there to support.
• 21:56
  Speaker 7: The show, but also worry about yourself here at rulea
• 21:59
  Speaker 7: dot com r u l a dot com slash f
• 22:03
  Speaker 7: o u L and take the first step towards better
• 22:05
  Speaker 7: mental health today. You deserve quality care from someone who cares.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: All Right, Patrick, Kyle Tucker back in the lineup Thursday,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: didn't look any different. Two groundouts, I want to say,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: a soft lineout and a pop out. Essentially, I think
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: his first at bat, his first played appearance, fell behind
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: O two and drew a walk. It was it was
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: a very nice Kyle Tucker played appearance. But if those
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: are the wins we're taking, it's just not it doesn't
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: look right. It doesn't is nothing is clicked yet. It
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: could be one swing. I asked him about that, and
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: I think that's a lot of baseball. Sometimes it's one swing.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: It's one moment and you're like, ah, there it is, Okay,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: I'm back. I'm not saying he won't find it back.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: He won't find it. He just hasn't yet. But there
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: were there was a lot of fan angst on Thursday especially,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: and I think, you know, I get why fans were upset.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Matt Shaw wasn't in the lineup and Owen Casey wasn't
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: in the lineup. Here's here's my take on the Owen
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Casey part. Right now, you have ten players that you
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: can argue deserve starting time or are starting caliber position players,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: and eight spots to play them. Kyle Tucker sat for
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: three straight games. You're not sitting peek row Armstrong for
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Owen Casey. You're not sitting Ian Hap right now. Ian
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Happ had a good game on Thursday. You shouldn't sit
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: him against aariighty for own Casey. So the options are
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker again for a fourth straight game, or Saya Suzuki,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: who had just had a really good game the night before.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: I think it was time to play Kyle Tucker. I
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: think he felt like he was like, Okay, I've worked
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: on some things. I want to get back in there.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I want to play. You listen to that. It's okay
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: to give Owen Casey a day off. I think it's fine.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I think he's going to play on occasion. I think
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: they're going to find playing time for him. He's not
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: an everyday player right now. Matt Shaw, you want to
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: scream and yell about that and be upset. It's a
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: big game. I kind of understand the frustration, but again,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Willie Castro had a huge series as well. I just
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to be up up in arms about
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: these things. I think Matt Shaw is a really good
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: player and he probably should be playing regularly. But everybody's
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: been getting days off this whole week. They have fourteen
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: games and thirteen days. There's just you need to find
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: days off for guys. And I don't think it's a
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: day off for owing Casey, he's not part of the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: starting lineup. It was three two days off for Kyle Tucker,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: That's what it was, and he was back in the lineup.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: It was a day off for Matt Shaw like everyone
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: else got this week. So for me, I just struggle
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: to be screaming and yelling about lineup decisions when you
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: have ten starter quality players.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: I just think you are so committed to Kyle Tucker
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: for this year that you just have to keep running
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: him out there. And maybe by disclosing the injury stuff,
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: it takes some of the heat off. And I guess
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: so it'll be pretty chill in Anaheim, i'd imagine this weekend.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: But at least when whenever he's sitting at really field.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Now there's like a little more context around it. And
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: like if you think you're a playoff team and I
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: are gonna be playing in multiple playoff rounds, Like what
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: hitter has a better track record than this guy on
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: your roster? Like you think, like you know, the Padres
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: bullpen is going to be scared of Owen Casey, You
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: know what I mean. It's just like when you're thinking
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: about matchups, when you're thinking about like the most dangerous
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: version of this lineup.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: It has to have Kyle Tucker.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: In there, and you know, getting worked up about Matt Shaw,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Like it wasn't that long ago everyone was pining for
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Auhanio Suarez and that we're kind of talking about a
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: number nine rookie hitter here, Like if your team isn't
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: good enough to work around that, Like, don't get so
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: fired up.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: About it, you know what I mean.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: It's just like, and I think there's something too of
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: what you're saying, Like this stretch of the schedule, this
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: point in the season, I mean, I think you know,
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: you can also play Devil's advocate, Like maybe this offense
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: has been sagging a bit because it's just been run down.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: They've been running out the same players over and over
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: again because they're they're their best players, because that's the
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: way the roster is set up.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: Like I I don't think the individual lineup decision is
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: where I would go. But at the same.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: Time, the coups have put themselves in the spot where
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: like everything is kind of open for second guessing, right.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, when you're off in struggles, everything gets questioned.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: I did see people first guessing it. That's fine, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: hotthand in there, I get it. I don't think it. Look,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Willie Castro had a really good series, like he I.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: Mean to it's just too great. Well a couple of
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: game so.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: You know you're not They already sat dance by Swanson.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: I think Nico got a start during the series. If
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember, I'm going off the top of
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: my head. I'm not looking at lineups right now. Pretty
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: sure Dance Bey sat one of the games. I can't
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: remember if Nico sat one of the games. But look,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: they've done a good job. Council has done a good
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: job of using what he now has a good bench.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: He went from having a bad bench to a good bench.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: You gotta try, and you have to try and get
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker back on track. You cannot just sit him
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: over and over and over again. I think there's some
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: people said just start him back on the road, give
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: him the rest of the Milwaukee series off, and start
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: them on Friday. I don't know. I just like I think,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: just play him just you have you need him. It
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: was he got three games off. Matt Shaw is a
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: really good player, and all the credit in the world
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: to him for turning things around and becoming this seemingly
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: very important cog in the lineup where fans are demanding
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: that he play every day and not miss a single game. Ultimately,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: I do wonder you know you you're trying to get
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: through the rest of this month or the rest of
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: the season. Uh, this is a tough stretch. There's a
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: lot of baseball being played right now. I know they're young.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: I know they just need to play sometimes. Uh that's
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: not That's not what I'm saying for own Casey especially,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: he's barely been up here. Uh he's He's had plenty
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: of time off, but it has Like I just think
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: him taking a day off is an big deal. I
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: understand the Shaw angst. I think you got to use
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: your players. There are plenty of players on this team
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: that are capable. They should have delivered. Like there were
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: moments where where they needed to hit Kyle Tucker Peaker
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Armstrong that both of them need to get going. Kyle
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Tucker in particular, Their offense isn't good enough right now.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Whether they have Matt Shaw on the lineup or own
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: case in the lineup or not, it's not playing well enough.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: And I think that's the biggest that is the headline
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: right now for this team. It's been far too long
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: of another slump. They are incredibly lucky that they have
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: good pitching and defense and all these That's the thing
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: that you can point to with this team. It's what
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: I started with. This team has a lot of positives.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: They're good in a lot of different ways, and that's
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: what allowed them to stay afloat right now. And they
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: are one of the better teams in baseball record wise,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: performance wise, all of it doesn't feel like that right now,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: but I promise you I saw we saw them win
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: games this week because they they were able to do
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: different things.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: And their pitching has been remarkable, best in baseball starting
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: pitching since the end of June. So uh And and
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: I really they're they've got to be exhausted right now.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: But those high leverage arms have put in some great
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: work of late. Uh. The key guys Kittridge, Keller, Palencia,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: theo bar Pomerance looks like he's found a second win.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: I was a little concerned there. And he's missing bats
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: again and and and looks looks really good. Brazier. Maybe
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: we'll see what happens this weekend with him. How like
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: if uh that there, they may need to make some
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: I wonder if they make some moves this weekend just
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: to get through the weekend. We'll we'll see about that,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: all right. Patrick, you're in l A for for three
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: and then you're you're out there for the West Coast.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: So we'll be talking about that soon, previewing that and
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: then and then heading to and then I guess wrapping
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: that up next week. Thanks for listening to everyone. H
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: where Patrick and Iron or on top of all things Cubs.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Thanks everyone,