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The Cubs are in the market for more pitching · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:13
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. The Cubs
0:18
Speaker 1: are dealing with a lot of injuries here and the
0:23
Speaker 1: pitching staff has taken some hits. We've we've talked about it.
0:26
Speaker 1: Kate Horton obviously down for the season. Matthew Boyd, I
0:30
Speaker 1: think we we're getting a rehab start sometime this week
0:35
Speaker 1: and then he will start the Philly Series in Chicago,
0:40
Speaker 1: so that's early next week some point. I'm not sure
0:43
Speaker 1: where neither of us are out in Philly, so I
0:46
Speaker 1: don't know if he specified which game of the Philly series,
0:50
Speaker 1: but yeah, he'll he'll be.
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Speaker 2: I tend to doubt it, given how closely count holds.
0:59
Speaker 2: That's type of information. That's what he said the other
1:02
Speaker 2: day at Wrigley Field. There are no there are no tbds.
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Speaker 2: I just don't feel the need to announce everything for
1:09
Speaker 2: MLB dot Com right, A great, great moment.
1:12
Speaker 1: In Craig, So with all with that in mind, I mean,
1:17
Speaker 1: the bullpen's taking multiple hits. With all that in mind,
1:23
Speaker 1: you have to consider the Cubs are considering signing Lucas Giolito,
1:29
Speaker 1: it makes sense. There are pluses to doing so, and
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Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's a laundry list of negatives
1:36
Speaker 1: of signing a guy on what is it. It's April fifteenth,
1:39
Speaker 1: as we record. There's huge risk in signing a guy
1:43
Speaker 1: like that, but there's also huge risk in the fact
1:47
Speaker 1: that if there's another injury, suddenly you're wondering, Man, it'd
1:49
Speaker 1: be nice to have that depth.
1:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, people are naturally curious about this, and you and
1:56
Speaker 2: I and our colleagues at the Athletic and Rosenhal Dennis Lynn,
1:59
Speaker 2: I've been kind of asking around about this, and the
2:03
Speaker 2: Cubs and Padres are two teams that have are eyeing Gilito.
2:09
Speaker 2: I don't know if they're the only two teams but
2:12
Speaker 2: they're too pitching needy teams that have been kind of
2:19
Speaker 2: in the conversation here. No doubt there's a lot of
2:25
Speaker 2: risk in signing him, but as these injuries begin to
2:28
Speaker 2: pile up, I think there's, you know, a feeling within
2:31
Speaker 2: the Cubs like if you don't sign him and then
2:34
Speaker 2: someone else gets injured, you're gonna be wishing you at
2:37
Speaker 2: least had that extra body in your organization.
2:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there's the like, here's some of the
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Speaker 1: negatives that I see. His strikeout rate was below twenty
2:53
Speaker 1: percent last year. He's got a long hit injury history himself.
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Speaker 1: It is like I said, it's April fifteenth, he's I
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Speaker 1: think he told what was Robert Redford? He told Rob
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Speaker 1: Bradford he's having seventy five pitch side sessions. I believe
3:12
Speaker 1: he said that's that's great, but it's not pitching in games.
3:17
Speaker 1: It's not high it's not high level competition. So he's
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Speaker 1: going to need some starts in the minors and things
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Speaker 1: like that. We have a long history of this now,
3:26
Speaker 1: like what like a decade ish now of teams signing
3:30
Speaker 1: pitchers late, just because free agency tends to drag late
3:34
Speaker 1: into spring training. Pitchers that miss spring training don't seem
3:38
Speaker 1: to do great. Blake Snell, who's as consistent as they come,
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Speaker 1: had a really rough stretch after not signing, after taking
3:46
Speaker 1: a little while to sign. So there are great pitchers
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Speaker 1: that just struggle. And Giolito had good results. I want
3:54
Speaker 1: to say it was like one hundred and forty ish
3:55
Speaker 1: innings with three one hundred and forty five innings with
3:59
Speaker 1: a three forty one ERA. But like I said that
4:01
Speaker 1: the peripherals were a little scary, there's risk, but I
4:08
Speaker 1: think this is what happens. These are the things you
4:10
Speaker 1: have to consider when the injuries pile up like this.
4:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Cubs certainly like to highlight their ability to
4:21
Speaker 2: keep pictures healthy and game plan for pictures and get
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Speaker 2: them in their pitch lab. Like, yeah, I don't disagree
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Speaker 2: with any of the reservations about signing g Alito, but
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Speaker 2: you know, it's it's only money, right and if you
4:40
Speaker 2: know you can't if you struggle to develop pictures from
4:47
Speaker 2: within and forty percent of your open day rotations on
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Speaker 2: the aisle, and you know your two of your main
4:57
Speaker 2: leverage relievers around the injured list as well. I just think,
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Speaker 2: like this is just very early to be putting that
5:03
Speaker 2: much kind of pressure on your pitching staff and to
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Speaker 2: have your depth already compromised to this point. I guess
5:13
Speaker 2: we can get out of sort of our opinion mode here.
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Speaker 2: It's like, I think this is the debate that's kind
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Speaker 2: of going on within the Cubs. I'm sure the Padres
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Speaker 2: and other teams. I know Atlanta was a team that
5:24
Speaker 2: was mentioned kind of in spring training as their injuries
5:27
Speaker 2: started to accumulate. And I think garner standing is it's
5:31
Speaker 2: not like Cubs are super aggressive or extremely desperate here,
5:37
Speaker 2: but they're definitely doing their due diligence. Giulito is obviously
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Speaker 2: familiar with Chicago after his time with the White Sox.
5:49
Speaker 2: He's from the same high school that Pek Armstrong went to.
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Speaker 2: They weren't I don't think they were ever teammates. They're
5:57
Speaker 2: definitely kind of different segments of that program history, but
6:04
Speaker 2: I didn't have a pretty good relationship. They're represented by
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Speaker 2: the same agency CIA out in southern California, and you know,
6:15
Speaker 2: at a certain point, if he wants to pitch in
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Speaker 2: the majors again, he's probably gonna have to make a
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Speaker 2: decision here, right And the Coups probably can't wait all
6:26
Speaker 2: the way until the trade deadline if they keep getting
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Speaker 2: injured like this. And I think that's something Jed Hoyer
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Speaker 2: mentioned the other day at Regley Field of like we're
6:39
Speaker 2: always looking, you have to always be looking, and he
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Speaker 2: pointed to like Giulido is the name that's going to
6:45
Speaker 2: draw the most attention, understandably, but they made that minor
6:51
Speaker 2: deal for Drew Pomeranz last April when he had that
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Speaker 2: upward mobility clause. Tyson Miller was another small deal with
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Speaker 2: the Mariners. That might have been the year before, but
7:07
Speaker 2: whatever year it was. I mean, Tess Miller was a
7:08
Speaker 2: very good reliever for the Cubs, and I think they're
7:11
Speaker 2: sort of looking at it holistically of you know, maybe
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Speaker 2: you could do something. It's not just thinking, oh, Gilido
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Speaker 2: can make maybe seventeen starts for us, Like you'll be like,
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Speaker 2: what sort of elements can they bring the pitching staff
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Speaker 2: and let council figure out the out getting later.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. One thing for me that my concern is with
7:38
Speaker 1: the current rotation. I love Hobby aer Asade. I think
7:43
Speaker 1: he's done it. Like every single time he comes in
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Speaker 1: and fills in, he steps up. I do worry about
7:50
Speaker 1: hobbyer Asad long, long term staying in the rotation. I
7:53
Speaker 1: know we're coming off maybe I'm coming off that last start.
7:58
Speaker 1: I'm a little biased, but he just doesn't miss bats
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Speaker 1: at even like an average rate, and it just it
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Speaker 1: gets more and more concerning. He's not missing bats at
8:09
Speaker 1: all in his ten innings this season, that very small
8:13
Speaker 1: sample size. He didn't miss bats much in thirty seven
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Speaker 1: innings last year. Overall, his strikeout rate for his career
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Speaker 1: is nineteen point one percent. I mean, you have to
8:26
Speaker 1: have a really good ground ball rate or just always
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Speaker 1: miss barrels. I do think he has shown something over
8:35
Speaker 1: the course of his career that it's like, Okay, maybe
8:39
Speaker 1: I shouldn't focus on this that much, but then there
8:41
Speaker 1: are going to be outings I think, like the last one.
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Speaker 1: I think that's what it is. It's the best case
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Speaker 1: scenario of guys like this. I think are like Kyle Hendricks,
8:51
Speaker 1: and even Kyle Hendricks would have the occasional blow up outing.
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Speaker 1: I don't I think it'd be very unfair to compare
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Speaker 1: Javier Asad to Kyle Hendricks, because Kyle Hendricks is very
9:01
Speaker 1: rare type of picture to be able to do what
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Speaker 1: he did in the era that he was doing it.
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Speaker 1: Missing bats is just so important when you when you're
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Speaker 1: at such a low rate. I do have some concern.
9:13
Speaker 1: I think it's sad. Sometimes the stuff will the stuff
9:16
Speaker 1: flashed a little bit better in that first game. Maybe
9:19
Speaker 1: there's a chance that the bat missing will pop a
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Speaker 1: little higher, will get a little higher, But right now
9:27
Speaker 1: we haven't seen it, and that's my concern with him,
9:31
Speaker 1: and let's take a break. I want to talk a
9:34
Speaker 1: little bit about the bullpen and the injuries piling up
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Speaker 1: there and how that actually impacts the rotation as well
9:42
Speaker 1: in some ways.
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10:46
Speaker 1: So what I meant to say there, Patrick is the
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Speaker 1: the injuries of the rotation are impacting the bullpen, because
10:53
Speaker 1: Colin Ray should be in the bullpen right now, and
10:57
Speaker 1: you know, Javirosade's obviously called up for the miners, and
11:01
Speaker 1: so you have that, you have your down one guy
11:03
Speaker 1: in Colin Ray out of the bullpen. And then who
11:07
Speaker 1: I mean, props to Colin Ray. He's been so good
11:11
Speaker 1: since the cub signed him, just really filled a huge
11:15
Speaker 1: need year after year, it seems like for this team Hunt.
11:21
Speaker 1: So last time I recorded, I think Mayton was already
11:24
Speaker 1: on the shelf. And then on Friday, Saturday, who knows,
11:30
Speaker 1: someday last weekend. Maybe it was Sunday.
11:33
Speaker 2: I think Sunday. Yeah, Because I'm curious to hear this.
11:36
Speaker 2: What what was your takeaway from the Hunter Harvey injury update.
11:41
Speaker 1: You know it is triceps strain. What do they call it? Exactly?
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Speaker 1: Tricep strain. I think in most cases you'd be like Okay,
11:52
Speaker 1: that's a little concerning, but I'm not going to freak out.
11:55
Speaker 1: It's Hunter Harvey. If you paid attention to what like
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Speaker 1: when they signed him, this was an upside signing with
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Speaker 1: risk because of injuries. I went and like, as I
12:06
Speaker 1: was writing my story, I went to go look at
12:08
Speaker 1: his injury history. It Like I knew it was long,
12:13
Speaker 1: but it is every possible injury that lap, shoulder, elbow,
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Speaker 1: four arm, triceps, like something. There was something like pronator
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Speaker 1: or something like that. I was like, I haven't even heard,
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Speaker 1: like I know what like that is, Like I know
12:29
Speaker 1: what is what? I haven't seen that as an injury.
12:32
Speaker 1: He's had it all. You know, he had Tommy John
12:36
Speaker 1: when he was a prospect, I believe over a decade ago.
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Speaker 1: So this is a long history of injury. Like I
12:45
Speaker 1: was kind of going through his logs and it's like
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Speaker 1: he's rehabbing, Oh, he feels something here. He's had triceps before.
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Speaker 1: Triceps once put him on the sixty day il So
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Speaker 1: and Craig. They they asked him, you know, is this
13:02
Speaker 1: kind with his injury history? Are you just being careful here?
13:05
Speaker 1: And he's like, yeah, that like you have to be
13:07
Speaker 1: concerned with because of the injury history and we're trying
13:12
Speaker 1: to get ahead of it. But I don't think I
13:15
Speaker 1: don't think you can just say like, oh, yeah, this
13:18
Speaker 1: will be fine. I don't think you can dismiss this.
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Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's out for the season. I'm not
13:24
Speaker 1: making any assumptions about that. But I'm all certainly not
13:26
Speaker 1: saying making any assumptions that this is going to be
13:29
Speaker 1: a quick stay on the IL. I think it's just
13:32
Speaker 1: you have to kind of understand his history and know
13:37
Speaker 1: that this could be an issue for them.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's you know, the ten year reunion tour for
13:45
Speaker 2: the twenty sixteen World Series team, and I'm getting a
13:51
Speaker 2: little bit of flashbacks when I'm kind of looking at
13:55
Speaker 2: this pipeline of homegrown pitching. Obviously they were able to
14:02
Speaker 2: win in twenty sixteen without, you know, relying on homegrown arms.
14:10
Speaker 2: And obviously the Cubs had a flash with Horton. They
14:17
Speaker 2: expect justin steel back Javier Asad has been valuable, and
14:21
Speaker 2: there are different ways to win. But when you see
14:24
Speaker 2: these injuries, you kind of look at that next man
14:27
Speaker 2: up and the depth chart and it's getting really thin,
14:32
Speaker 2: really fast. You know, maybe Luke little starts throwing strikes,
14:40
Speaker 2: figures it out, even just for a brief period of time.
14:44
Speaker 2: Maybe he doesn't. We'll see if anyone else steps forward.
14:48
Speaker 2: But yeah, even Ethan Roberts getting a very cubby occurrence. Yeah,
14:53
Speaker 2: type of injury there. Read Jordan Bastian's summary on cubs
14:57
Speaker 2: dot Com, like a metal vent falling while he was
15:01
Speaker 2: working out and went to grab it so it didn't
15:04
Speaker 2: hit his leg, and then it lacerates his finger. Obviously
15:10
Speaker 2: brutal timing for him as an up and down guy
15:12
Speaker 2: trying to prove himself. Really bad timing just given the
15:16
Speaker 2: state of the pitching staff in general. And yeah, just
15:22
Speaker 2: kind of when it rains, it pours, and we'll see
15:25
Speaker 2: if you know, they get can weather it and get
15:30
Speaker 2: back on track or like you know, the middle of April,
15:35
Speaker 2: like they got like almost roughly ninety percent of the
15:39
Speaker 2: season still to go and then they hoped to be
15:41
Speaker 2: you know, winning multiple playoff rounds, like they got to
15:46
Speaker 2: get this in order or do guys just have to
15:47
Speaker 2: step up?
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Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean so I think what they what fans
15:53
Speaker 1: need to hope with the Cubs need to hope is
15:55
Speaker 1: that the Mayton and uh and Boyd and are what
16:01
Speaker 1: they say, minimal stints. They're back when there when when
16:06
Speaker 1: they say they're back, you're I feel so awful for
16:10
Speaker 1: Ethan Roberts just because he looked like it, okay, maybe
16:15
Speaker 1: maybe he can help out of the bullpen, and this
16:17
Speaker 1: was this is the opportunity. You have two major guys injured,
16:20
Speaker 1: and it's like that's a bummer, random fluke injury. Keep
16:25
Speaker 1: him out of there. I do think Ryan Rolinson looks
16:28
Speaker 1: like he has you know, quote unquote major league stuff,
16:32
Speaker 1: Like the stuff is there, you know, I'm pretty sure
16:36
Speaker 1: he had a decent outing yesterday Tuesday night when he
16:41
Speaker 1: came out of the bullpen. Yeah, one one inning of work,
16:46
Speaker 1: no strikeouts or anything like that, but one scoreless inning
16:49
Speaker 1: and a blowout. You'd like to see some of these
16:52
Speaker 1: guys step up. I think one thing Council said on
16:56
Speaker 1: Sunday is essentially that bullpen's evolve. I listed up. I
17:01
Speaker 1: didn't even realize how different the opening day bullpen was
17:06
Speaker 1: the bullpen that they brought to Japan. Like it it
17:11
Speaker 1: was not. It was not a great bullpen as far
17:16
Speaker 1: as what you expected to see or what you saw,
17:22
Speaker 1: you know, when when the team was at its best,
17:24
Speaker 1: Eli Morgan almost forgot about Eli Morgan. Obviously, injuries sidelined him.
17:31
Speaker 1: Tyson Miller rarely struggled last year, Ryan Presley, we know
17:34
Speaker 1: about that, Nate Pearson, Julian Merriweather. Like, these are guys
17:38
Speaker 1: that have all had flashes, right, did I say? Ryan Presley,
17:41
Speaker 1: Ryan Brasier, Porter Hodge struggled last year? Like there's nobody
17:46
Speaker 1: on this list. Caleb thielbar is the only guy that
17:50
Speaker 1: like really impacted the team in a really positive way
17:53
Speaker 1: out of the bullpen that was on the opening day roster.
17:57
Speaker 1: So that happened the year before to the bullpen really
18:02
Speaker 1: changed and and I think council kind of embraces this.
18:06
Speaker 1: He's like it's almost like if you if your bullpen's
18:11
Speaker 1: the same guys in April as it is in September,
18:14
Speaker 1: that's a surprise, and sometimes it's not a great thing.
18:19
Speaker 1: So they need they're gonna need guys now there their
18:21
Speaker 1: hands are forced. They're gonna need guys to step up. Uh,
18:25
Speaker 1: maybe guys that we had never heard of. Riley Martin
18:28
Speaker 1: obviously someone that wasn't, you know, screaming on our radars,
18:33
Speaker 1: but his his stuff is what put got him on
18:36
Speaker 1: the forty man roster in the off season. Uh, he's
18:40
Speaker 1: been solid so far, so not can't take anything away
18:44
Speaker 1: from this yet, these aren't large enough samples. He hasn't
18:47
Speaker 1: worked enough high leverage moments. But you need moments like that,
18:50
Speaker 1: you need you need guys like him or who else
18:54
Speaker 1: who people we may not even be fully aware of
18:57
Speaker 1: right now to step up. And maybe there's a rand
19:00
Speaker 1: acquisition coming like Pomerance and Tyson Miller. But yeah, it's
19:07
Speaker 1: not going to be the guys that you expected. It's
19:10
Speaker 1: not always the guys that you expect when you're putting
19:12
Speaker 1: a bullpend together.
19:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this just really highlights how the Cubs
19:20
Speaker 2: need showed it in Minaga to be more like an
19:23
Speaker 2: All Star than the guy they avoided last October. Edward
19:27
Speaker 2: Cabrera is going to be a fascinating pitcher to watch.
19:31
Speaker 2: I think everyone loves his stuff. He has seems to
19:35
Speaker 2: have like a really nice presence about him in the clubhouse.
19:39
Speaker 2: But he just hasn't done that wire to wire season
19:43
Speaker 2: with a ton of volume yet. And then hits some
19:48
Speaker 2: three run homers, right, I mean, Carson Kelly, you know
19:51
Speaker 2: puts it together, you know, puts that game out of reach,
19:55
Speaker 2: like every wind doesn't have to be a three to
19:58
Speaker 2: two you know what I mean, Like, yeah, you get
20:02
Speaker 2: good starting pitching like this offense. It invested a ton
20:06
Speaker 2: in this offense in terms of nine figure contracts, first
20:10
Speaker 2: round picks, trade chips, like let's see if this can
20:15
Speaker 2: be you know, an offense that scores north of eight
20:18
Speaker 2: hundred runs.
20:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Take some pressure off
20:24
Speaker 1: off these guys have the offense carry them. I will
20:28
Speaker 1: say it. You know you need to see Edward Cabrera
20:31
Speaker 1: lower those walks. I know it's been an issue in
20:34
Speaker 1: the past. It's a little you know, these are again.
20:39
Speaker 1: I don't want to take too much away from a
20:40
Speaker 1: handful of starts. I will say the way showeda looks
20:45
Speaker 1: this is. This is quietly looking like twenty twenty four.
20:50
Speaker 1: If he didn't have that one bad inning or that
20:52
Speaker 1: one I guess one pitch, Yeah, it was one pitch
20:55
Speaker 1: after a couple of blue pits. You know, he would
21:00
Speaker 1: be much more aware of how awesome he's been. But
21:03
Speaker 1: he's he's striking guys out, he's not walking guys. He
21:07
Speaker 1: looks like that twenty twenty four version. I don't know
21:09
Speaker 1: if he can put together a whole season of the
21:11
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four version again. But he looks really impactful
21:15
Speaker 1: right now, and that's that's huge for them. You need
21:18
Speaker 1: Edward Cabrera to kind of stabilize. He's been good. He's
21:21
Speaker 1: obviously been limiting the runs. You don't like, those walks
21:25
Speaker 1: are gonna kill him if he continues to walk guys
21:27
Speaker 1: at the rate that he's been at. But yeah, I
21:30
Speaker 1: think there's You're right, like, it's like starting pitching. Those
21:34
Speaker 1: guys need to step up. And often, just like we've
21:37
Speaker 1: seen some flashes lately of this offense, it's like, Okay,
21:40
Speaker 1: that's like a couple of those games in Tampa. Even
21:45
Speaker 1: here in Philly, there's moments where they look really impactful
21:51
Speaker 1: and it's like, Okay, this is the group that can
21:53
Speaker 1: carry them. They're gonna need that. I think there's no
21:56
Speaker 1: doubt about it. All right, Patrick, let's wrap this up
22:00
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Speaker 1: where Patrick and ire on top of all things Cubs.
22:09
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. Everyone. Take care