Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / The Cubs have to deal with some glaring issues

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The Cubs have to deal with some glaring issues · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Network's Cubs podcast. I'm
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: The Cubs are in Atlanta.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: They have did not look good in Game one and
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: they have more injuries to deal with. Closer Daniel Palencia
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: is headed to the injured list. We saw it happen Sunday,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: pretty brutal loss to the Washington Nationals. Heading into that
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: ninth inning up three to one, and from the get go,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Politsiya didn't look right and by the time he exited
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: with a shoulder issue, the Cubs are down six to
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: three and he just yeah, he was kind of down
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: on the ground in pain. But this doesn't seem The
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: initial read is they're going to give it a couple
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: of days, kind of you know, do the normal, like
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: you know what's it called. These works with the trainers
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: and and he has all the work done on his
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: shoulder and they'll kind of see where it is after
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: the off day on Friday. So when asked is this
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: a season ending thing, councle was pretty honest, just that
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know. We have to see where we are
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: on Friday. So that's neither And it wasn't like an
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know, like I'm getting a feeling that he's not.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Positive about this. It was literal.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: It felt like a legit, like we just got to
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: see where he is after treatment for a few days.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's that's interesting to hear because honestly, reading
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: the coverage while in Chicago and you're on the ground
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: in Atlanta and just kind of putting two and two
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: together using a little, you know, history as our guide.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: To me, this look sounded or it looked kind of
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: like a season ending type thing. Obviously not a doctor,
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: that's just sort of how these things usually go. But
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: that is interesting to hear that maybe with that treatment maybe.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: Things go a certain way that it's not.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: Obviously we don't know how long the season will go
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: when you factor in playoffs, and maybe that's it. But
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: what had you been seeing from Palencia, like before that
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: moment where obviously you know he's hurt, he had been
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: kind of he had been trending in kind of the
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: wrong direction for a while.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he didn't. I mean, he just wasn't as effective.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: But I think sometimes with him it's just about location
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: of the fastball. If you compare Saturdays outing to Sundays,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I don't think the stuff was degraded as much as
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: where he was locating the fastball. At least the pitch
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: to Josh Bell was very clearly like, that's not where
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: he wants his fastball.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: He doesn't.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, his fastball is always in the upper third
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: or above of the zone.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: If he's gonna miss, he's gonna miss way up.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure if he was trying to get down
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: and in on on Josh Pell there, but that's we
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: don't really see Daniel Palencia pitch like that with this fastball.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: So that's why that one was.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: That seemed odd, like I mean, he clearly was off
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: with his command, but that's not something that's way that
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: you are shocked to see with Plancy when he's not right,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: he's a little bit off with his command and we're
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: not seeing it. I guess the thing is we're not
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: seeing it, you know, come out with a bunch of walks.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: I think that's what we used to see with before
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Daniel Polancia has started getting locked in and looked like
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the pitcher that he was now is now Saturday looked
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: like the good version of Palencia. I kind of felt like, oh, okay,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: turning a corner here, but you're right, it was like a.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Five plus e RA in August.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: E RA isn't always the best indicator for reliever, but
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: you could kind of see like he wasn't getting the
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: job done.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: The out weren't as crisp.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: They weren't as dominant though not the one, two, three
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: innings that would have been getting used to with him.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: And frankly, like it kind of looked like it, you know,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: is he like it wasn't like he was removed from
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: the closer role. He was still the closer, but he
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: was being used in different roles. I mean, he came
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: in on Saturday with a two to one deficit. That
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: was that was an interesting way to be used. Uh,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: he hadn't been pitched in three days, but still that's
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: it's not like five days off, So it was it
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: was interesting to see Counsel was even trying, you know,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: starting to you know, I don't know if counsel was
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: thinking about how to handle the nights differently, but maybe
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: it was just like all hands on deck type thing.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know what was going on, but there were
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: changes happening as far as his usage was going, and
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: he I think down the road when the previous road
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: tript that you were on, he explained it and like,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I just needed my best reliever in that moment, or
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: it was still a big moment because he came in
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: in a couple of tai games in the top of
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the ninth and I think those are Look, I think
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: it makes sense to use your best reliever in that
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: situation if you feel he's your best reliever. But traditionally
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: on the road in the ninth inning in a tie game,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: you don't use your closer, right, That's that's kind of
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: the old school thought process.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah, who's who's going to be the save getter? Now?
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: When I'm sure counsel is giving definitive, absolute.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah statements about how he was going to use
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: this Yeah. Absolutely, he named a ninth inning guy, an
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: eighth inning guy, and a seventh any guy. Uh, it's
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: out getters. How do you piece together twenty seven outs? Patrick,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: That's that's the that's the answer. I think if you
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: pushed counsel uh to say who is your best reliever,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't have to think too hard. And he'd say
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Brad Keller.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: And then you know, I think he really trusts Andrew Kittridge.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure if the fan base does. I can't
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: get a good read on what fans think. I think
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: he's been really good and he's had.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Like there was one.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: First of all, when you blow a one run lead
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: in the low scoring game, that's the type of stuff
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: like unless it's happening.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Every other outing. Uh.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: That for me, that's on the offense, like you build
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: a bigger lead. Stopped doing this year, Bullpen, but he
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: did it. I think early on he had a really
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: bad outing Kiddridge. But other than that, his his numbers
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: are great with the Cubs above thirty percent strikeout rate,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: like three percent walk rate, just awesome.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: I like him.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I like his demeanor. I like his uh, his ability
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: to handle big moments. It doesn't seem like he's overthinking
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: situations out there. Those two guys I think are your righties,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: and then and then field Bar has been a stud
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and from the left side, and Pomerance has really bounced
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: back nicely. I think, you know, you piece together later
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: innings with those guys and what the question may be.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: And I think Council kind of looks at it this way,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: is it's not who gets the ninth it's who's going
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: to get those outs that Daniel Polentcy was getting, whether
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: they were in the ninth inning or not, Like who
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: gets those outs?
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Now?
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: There are three more outs that you're gonna have to
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: get from a trusted reliever.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Who is that?
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Is it Porter Hodge who looked really good over the
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: weekend and Friday was his best outing. I'm not there
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: of trusting him yet again, but he's gonna get more
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: opportunities now, is it? Soroka? Michael Soroka who has had
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: two lives and we'll pitch in Iowa on Wednesday and
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: is both Soroka in Council says velocity is back to
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: what it was, you know, a couple months ago. If
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: that's the case in short burst, we know this guy
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: can do really well in that. So I think those
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: are two names as far as not currently fully on
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: the radar that you would say like, hey, uh, those
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: guys have a chance to step up. And you know,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I think Taylor Rogers is another one of those results
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: aren't there, but peripherals are fine. Veteran guy, can he
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: have a strong final three weeks. Those are those are
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: some names. I'm probably missing an obvious right handed reliever
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: in the bullpen right now that but they're there are
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: guys that just need to step up and get those
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: outs that Daniel Blentzi got basically like a sixth and
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: seventh inning type guy I need to needs to step
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: up and be more trustworthy.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: I think we're gonna.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: See Ethan Roberts go back down soon because of James otaion.
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: And then we're gonna by the way, Ethan Roberts was
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: called up for Daniel Bledze. People didn't realize that. And
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: then and you'll see, uh, is Ben Brown part of
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: this mix still? You know, he hasn't gained earned a
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: lot of trust right now. So if there are guys
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: that can step up, my eyes are on Hodge and Soroka.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: When Soroka comes back.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Soroka, Kittridge, if they can get find
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: some spots for Rogers. I mean, this was part of
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: the deadline strategy, right, the calculation, the sort of hedging,
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: and we all focused on the starting pitcher because that's
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: what the Cubs.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Were focused on.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: And I know this, it's imperfect in terms of trying
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: to project how like a reliever of all positions is.
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: Going to perform over two months in shorter bursts.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: But we saw the Padres have made you know, high
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: octane reliever as a priority for October, and it would
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: be kind of fascinating to see the Cubs and Padres
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: matchup for a number of reasons. But that's where I think,
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: you know, you look at in the it was kind
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: of rolling there, but I think if you look at
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: it was Baseball reference page, you see the track record,
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: Like we thought they would have been more aggressive on
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: getting another established closer type. I think he just went
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: on the el. But you know, Kyle finnegan a Galacias
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: in Atlanta. Again, this was something that we're not really
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: second guessing.
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: Here was more of.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: Our reporting around the deadline showed that they were kind
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: of in on these guys, They were interested and ultimately
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: pulled back. I think this will be certainly an innings
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: puzzle test for council when we look ahead here. Of
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: it's gonna be all hands on deck in a three
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: game series, so I think that's another way to think
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: about it too. Of I don't know it would ty
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: Own be pitching out of the bullpenk and he get
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: you six outs or you know, they do have good
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: starting pitching, which is, you know important. I don't think
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: they're going to be scrambling, you know, the first times,
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: first two times through the order. But whether or not
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: it was Palencia, I think we all sort of sensed
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: a regression was coming. I mean, Pam Rans steel Bar,
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, these guys have given you more than I
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: think you could have reasonably hoped for, and now they
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: just got to go figure it out.
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: They have time, but they need to find some.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Solutions real quick before we take a break.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I know some people raise their eyebrows at us, suggesting
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: that they should get someone like Ryso Iglesias, or that
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Iglesius was on the radar one run in his last
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: nineteen innings eighteen strikeouts.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: To two walks.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Just I mean, he a veteran that kind of turned
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: it on and like you know that, like these guys
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: like the era may not look pretty, you know, on
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: July twenty.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Fifth or whatever, but he's a veteran with a.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Track record that had good peripherals and the stuff wasn't awful,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: so it was a good guy to take a risk
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: on him. They obviously didn't get a deal done for him.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I mean they went and gotten two veterans. One looks
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: like he's working out. Taylor Rogers actually has better peripherals
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: than he did before joining the Cubs, but the results
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: aren't there. So they did get veterans, they didn't get
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: a dominant closer. They didn't get an established closer or
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: someone that could be like co closer as much. Maybe
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: you could argue Kittridge can be that guy, but you know,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Keller is probably the first in line.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: To take over.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: But that's the value in going to get veterans because
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: you don't know, Just don't don't overthink that a couple
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: bad months, a guy that has a track record, take
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: a risk on him. That's kind of what the deadline
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: is for when it comes to relievers. All right, let's
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: take a quick break and talk about some other injuries
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: and potential return.
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• 14:03
  Speaker 1: There were there's a couple more injuries obviously to the lineup.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: We've been talking a lot about Pete grow Armstrong and
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: I don't think Pete was this.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: This happened after our last podcast of last week, So
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the Pete news is new. Tucker is still working his
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: way back. Still hasn't played since we last recorded. That
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: happened Tuesday, right he exited the game. Yeah, yeah, so
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: it's been a week.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Look, these things are I don't want.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: To take it like a Look, there's some of the
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: blame goes on the cups for not placing these guys
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: on the i L. But the player is involved. The
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: player has to agree to these things. A player can
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: push for it. I think he's fine, and I think
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: he's coming back Tuesday or Wednesday. Were recording on a Tuesday,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: I'd be surprised if he's not back in the lineup
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: unless there's a step back. Because basically in pregame, uh,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: we all watched him run around in the outfield. Uh,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: you know, he was doing everything at near one hundred percent.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: It sounded uh.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Council said he all everything checked out, he was he
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: was you know, not just running straight lines, but running arcs.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: And all those things.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: And UH seemed to be fine and close to going
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: all out on everything.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: So I think he's fine.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: I understand the frustration of the fan base though, because
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, three extra days, like if they had,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: say they had put him on the I L on
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Thursday and been able to backdate it to or on
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Friday or Saturday and been able to backdate it to Wednesday,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: you know, he'd be back by the weekend or back
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: after the weekend.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe is it worth getting four extra
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: games out of him?
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: I guess it's the question three or four of you know, okay, okay?
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: Then it is like when it's Kyle Tucker, I have
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: him for one year, a couple of weeks left. I
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: get the frustration, but I feel like sometimes every injury
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: gets lumped in together and there are certain people who
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: are exceptions, and Kyle Tucker, to me is when I
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: get it, Like it's it's not like a fun story
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: for us to come to ask every single day, like
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: before asking counsel before the game, and then after.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: The game, you know, how you check, how's he going
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: to present it tomorrow? Are you ruling this in?
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: Are you ruling this out? But I mean he better
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: be in the lineup.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, Yeah, I don't. Yeah.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: I think if this drags out and he doesn't play
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: this series, then it's a bad decision.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: But I I I agree with you.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: If it's if it's today, if it's Wednesday, then fine whatever.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Wednesday is Chris Sales.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: So that'd be a weird game for him to because
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: first BacT, but you'd like it to be today. And
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: I don't have a big issue with it because I
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: think the player also has to say and and I'm
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: sure he doesn't want.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: To go on the I l uh. He probably feels
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: like it.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: The longer he's out, the more he'll get out of rhythm.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Probably feels good at the plate. Why screwed things up?
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: And if he's healthy, he's healthy. I think that's the
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: thing that sometimes fans like, don't they They want to
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: be proactive and say give him time. If the player
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't agree to it, it's a real It just leads
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: to a mess. And it's not just on the team,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: uh you. The player has to be convinced, and I
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: don't know what's going on. If they were pushing him
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: to go on the I l or if they were
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: just letting him take the lead.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: But a lot of this.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Is player driven at times. With PCA, I think this
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: is good news. Uh, you know, he missed it. He
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: missed When did that happen? That happened Friday? So he's
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: missed that Saturday? Right, was it Saturday?
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yes, yes, yes, you're right, it was Saturday.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: So he only missed one full game and then was
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: back out there dhing Monday, and according to council, no structural.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Damage and that's the big thing. He's fine.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: He said he could go out there and play center field,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: but there was essentially they just wanted to give him
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: an extra day, if not of one less moment of
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: like apparently it hurts. There is some pain when he's
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: slowing down, so he's like, okay, less less of that happening,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: and then less less you know, sliding, jumping, diving potential
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: for that happening. If he just has a d H day,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: not a great day at the plate for him. But
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: but he's back and and he's healthy, and you hope,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: hope he that what he showed on Friday, I believe
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: is what you want to kind of carry over. And
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: even Saturday he ripped a nice double, didn't he So
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: it looked like he was quote unquote back. So you
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: hope that that carries over and that the knee is
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: not something that lingers, or that these couple of days
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: off aren't something that gets in his head and screws
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: up his timing or anything like that. Those I mean,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: that's if they're not playing well. If they're not playing
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: this team's not very good offensively, They're you know, an
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: average team offensively.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: If that, if they're.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Not playing well, it's just a problem for this team.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you have more, but we can
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: take a break and get back and talk about the offense.
• 19:34
  Speaker 7: Time for your weekly Arena Club segment where we see
• 19:37
  Speaker 7: what AJ pulls from a slab pack and we go
• 19:42
  Speaker 7: pull Emerald pack this week. AJ looking for something big.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Always, I'm always looking for the big thing. Next big thing's.
• 19:50
  Speaker 7: Got big money, big money, baby way, We've got a
• 19:54
  Speaker 7: Dave Winfield card from nineteen seventy four, seventy four tops
• 19:58
  Speaker 7: card from this Emerald pack. Estimated value three hundred bucks.
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: You could sell it back for two seventy sold sold.
• 20:07
  Speaker 7: I feel like you are into more of the current players.
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: Would that be accurate?
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Like in my showroom, m I have a Robin you out,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: I have a Griffy rookie car. Oh that's true. So
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: I mean I have some older vintageer players. Bob Gibson.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you have Gibson.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: So I know I disagree Scott, but Dave Winfield for
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: that amount of money back, I'm reselling it.
• 20:26
  Speaker 7: And if you want to get your own pack or
• 20:28
  Speaker 7: new card, you can get twenty percent off your first
• 20:30
  Speaker 7: slab pack or card purchase at arenaclub dot com.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Slash foul Patrick.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: I don't get annoyed very often watching this team, just
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: because you know, we're journalists and we just we do
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: what we do. And I was in a good mood
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: yesterday because I was during that game. It was the
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: first half of the Bears, so I was in a
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: good mood watching the Bears, keeping an eye on the
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Cubs game. So yeah, but that offense had me annoyed,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Like that was one of the worst showings I've seen
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: from the offense. It wasn't just the performance, it was
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: the fact that they were going up against an era
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: with a five plus I mean a pitcher with a
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: five plus Era, who they were seeing for the second
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: time in five days, who has a strikeout rate below
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: twenty percent, and for five innings there was nothing. There
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: was one base hit, a single by Willie Castro, and
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: it was just nothing like they were putting up no offense.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: It was.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: It was a hard watch and it was quick at
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: bats just didn't look like a lot of times you
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: watch this. I watched this and I see, Okay, they're
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: putting up good at bats. The luck isn't going their way.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: That's a good at bat. They're not cashing. It's just
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: they're not just getting the bait. They're just not getting
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the big hit. No, it wasn't that. It was just
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: not very competitive. I think there was one inning where
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: they load of the bases with two outs and Pete
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: swung it a pitch out of the zone and grounded
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: out to end the threat, and that was that was
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: kind of it. There was another inning with a threat
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: and they scored one run. But uh, yes, not like
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: in for the first time in a while, like everybody
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: kind of admitted Council was I mean, Council said it's
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: not it hasn't been good. But he's always said he
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: trusted it'll pick up and he trust. He's like, we
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: have good players, but we need to be better. But
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: he pointed out he was like, there was no offense.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: He was asked a question about showed him NAGA and
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: transitioned into there was no offense nothing, There were no threats,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: nothing happened. Uh, And someone asked, anything you're seeing that's
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: a problem with the ad bets. He's like, yeah, outs.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: I mean, the Cubs are in a weird spot, like
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: when you kind of just lay everything out here. Of
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: all right, they need to get Tucker and PCA back
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: rolling after they resets, and that appeared to be happening,
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: and then they both get it injured. I was on
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: that road trip where it was, you know, Tucker and
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: PCA both looked back that was a pre pa reset
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: in Anaheim. But okay, they sweep the Angels, then they
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: get swept by the Giants, and then you hope Colorado
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: would maybe kind of spark something.
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: And it didn't.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Really.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: You'd think facing just an awful Nationals team three day
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: games at Wrigley Field, you think the Nationals might be
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: a little tired after having three nights in Chicago.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: They they battled they won a series against the Cubs.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: But also you can't really like Panic because their playoff
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: positioning is pretty solid. I think you'd want a home
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: series at Wrigley for a number of reasons, including how
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: awesome the padres are at Peco. I mean, in April
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: it was electric. I could only imagine what would be
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: like for a playoff series. And then yeah, you you know,
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: you see a couple injuries here and there, and it
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: just becomes us like, you know, what other cards do
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: they have to play here? I mean, it's basically just
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: hoping that Pete and Sayah and Tucker start hitting home
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: runs again, because you're right, the world doesn't need another
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: Bears podcast.
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: But the Coves had a lot of you know, kind
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: of three and outs. There a lot of just dead.
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: Time for just these long stretches that make it less
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: than entertaining.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah it you know, I was talking to some of
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the other writers and look at the the rest of
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the league, not just the rest of the league, The
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: rest of MLB is a mass. Yeah that's I don't
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: I don't see a team that you're like, well, how
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: are they going to beat them?
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah? You can. You can point out all the flaws
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: that the Cubs have.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: And I can point to every other team and say
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: look at this, that and the other. There's a lot
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: of issues going around baseball. The Phillies looked like the
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: team to beat, and they lost their best pitcher and
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: one of their best all round position players and Trey Turner.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: So Turner may be back before the playoffs.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: But still, the point is everyone's dealing with a lot
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: of stuff, but specifically with the Cubs, none of it matters.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: None of it matters. Forget what the other teams are doing.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Nothing matters with the Cubs until the offense gets going.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: And it doesn't have to be April and May where
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: they were scoring six plus runs a game. But it
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: can't be what it has been. This is and you know,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: I like to preach patients. I like to say, let's
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: see where this is going. It's been long enough. We've
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: all been patient enough. And the fans that were worried
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: a month ago, look, if you want to get worried early,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: that's fine. I think it's a little it's a you know,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: sounding alarm belts too quickly, but the reality is it's
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: dragged out. It's to say, we've talked about this. We've
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: gotten some questions in our mail bag, like why does
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: this happen every year? I don't think anyone has those
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: answers because last year our answer was you get a
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: superstar and you don't and that carries you through these slumps.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Apparently that's not the answer. I don't know what the
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: answer is. But you know, teams go through slumps and
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: they can be weeks long and sometimes they can be
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: a full month. But this is going on far too
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: long of an offensive downtick with no consistency. I think
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: that's the biggest thing we said, Like you said, there's
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: flashes of it. There were flashes on that road trip,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: there was there were flashes.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: I really liked the.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Comeback against Atlanta a week ago Friday against the Nationals.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Great game. But other than that, you know, that's all
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: it is. That's all.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: It's been flashes other than then, and then it goes
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: back to a lot of what fans complained about in
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: like twenty three, and you know, even last year or
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: even years in bad seasons where it's like, oh, here's
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: a ten run game and then five games of one,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: two or three runs and.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: That's not going to be enough. It puts too much pressure.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: This is another thing.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: It puts pressure on the staff, not just the starters.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about relievers. You then have to use these
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: relievers too much. And this is what happened down the
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: stretch of twenty three. Too many close games. Bullpen got
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: worn down and it costs them. You don't want your
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: bullpen arms to get worn down. Brad Keller hasn't given
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: up a run since July, since before the All Star Break.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: You don't want him to get worn down. You don't
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: want Kiddridge to get worn down.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: So these are the things you need. You need the
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: offense to get going and win you some games.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not as concerned about the wins and losses yet
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: as I am, like, just get the offense going and
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: let's see these guys look a little bit better heading
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: into the playoffs.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: I agree you prefer home field against the Padres.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: I just think like it's much more important that these
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: guys get going in I see an offense that looks
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: close to what was early in the season, and then
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, now I trust that they can do
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: some make some noise, and do some damage.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: Haven't seen it in a little while.
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that's the thing.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: This has been going on for so long, like the
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: idea of bringing a superstar in, like Kyle Tucker hasn't
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: been a superstar for months several, I mean weeks, however,
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: wherever you want to set the kind of demarcation line, Uh,
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: you know, Saya Suzuki not hitting home runs. Pete's been
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: stuck on whatever it is, twenty seven to twenty eight
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: home runs for a while.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: I guess you got the one in Anaheim. But obviously
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: those you know.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: First to twenty five home runs, you know twenty I've
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: stolen bases under twenty four whatever those stats were that
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: kept popping up, Like, don't really hear those anymore. And
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: I guess the only they're two good things. You make
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: a great point. Ken Rosenthal wrote about this on The
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: Athletic the other day, like all these contenders are flawed,
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: Like this one hundred and sixty two game season is
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: just such a marathon. It's so brutal on players that
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: everyone's kind of dragging. The Dodgers don't look like the
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: greatest team of all time, Like I don't think they're
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: gonna win one hundred and twenty games or whatever, and
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: so from there, the Phillies banged up. Their best pitcher
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: is out and Wheeler, some of those posies the left
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: side of their infield. Basically yeah, Shell, So that, you know,
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: kind of relatively speaking, is a little encouraging. And then honestly,
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: like it's crazy, but this is how playoff baseball. It's
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: gonna come down to like one or two pitches and
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: then we'll just right you know, these kind of sweeping
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: things like you know, if if Pete or Tucker or
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: Saya just like nail that one pitch and that swings
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: the first game and then they win a series, or
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: if you know, they foul it straight back. You know,
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: during the regular season they talk about you might only
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: get one good pitch to hit per at bad I
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: don't I don't know how that translates against the best
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: team's best pitchers in the playoffs, but like that's kind
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: of the margins we're talking about here in a three
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: game series of like do you do you get the bounce,
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: does the ball land, does it get caught? Is it
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: a line drive right at someone or maybe you know,
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: a couple of inches the other way, Like it's kind
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: of it's gonna be razor thin here, and I think
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: that's why Counts loves to say the why, that's the
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: story we tell ourselves afterwards, Like that is very much
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: his thinking. But his frustration, his annoyance was obvious reading
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: the quotes, watching the videos online, like he knows, he
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: knows that this needs to get straightened out fast.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And I appreciate his patience with it.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: But I also appreciated the fact that he was annoyed because,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: like I said, I was watching this, I'm like, this
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: is bad offense, Like this is not good the way
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: they were performed.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying it is a bad offense.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: What I saw on Monday night was a bad performance,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: and I think everyone was annoyed by it, and it
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: was good to see that kind of reaction. Even Nico
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: had some pointed comments, and I appreciated it. I appreciated
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: hearing it, and I'm sure fans kind of liked it.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Maybe they want more screaming and yelling, but this is
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: this is how I think it teams should react.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: This is their now spot right.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: You don't want them screaming yelling if that's not how
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: they actually behave. But I appreciated, like a little bit
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: of realness with that and not like oh, it'll come,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: it'll come, it'll come.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe it will, but it's time to get going,
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: all right.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Well, two more in Atlanta and then a home series
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: against U I believe a raised team that's playing pretty well.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: We'll have a couple more episodes this week coming at you.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening everyone, This is north Side Territory.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: on top of all things cubs.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening everyone.
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: Take it.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: They don't long to live.
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: Reord