Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / No Opening Day overreactions and more from the Tokyo Dome

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No Opening Day overreactions and more from the Tokyo Dome · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome into North Side Territory foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Sad Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the over at the Athletic. Patrick,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: it was an opening day sneaker for the Cubs four
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to one loss. Not not the best, not the cleanest
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: played game. Uh, you know, defending champs. Tough team. You
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: don't want to take too much away from it, but
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: it was a it was a pretty great atmosphere, fun experience.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: One more uh, which would be when what is that
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Wednesday morning for you?
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Uh? What did what was your vantish point of it? What?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: What did you guys?
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure how much you got to see as
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: far as the atmosphere, maybe the pregame ceremonies, anything like that.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: How much did did the fans get to witness?
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Well?
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: I have I have a lot of questions.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: I think this episode will be a lot of me
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: firing questions that you first, like, is your new title
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: going to be Tokyo bureau Chi Tokyo Senior Correspondent?
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: What?
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: Uh?
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: What do you?
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: What's your future at the Athletic in the foul Territory Network,
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: looking like after several days in Japan.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I'm I'm fully acclimated to the time change.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Of course, I'm leaving in twenty four hours, so perfect timing.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: H But but yeah, I kind of wish I was
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: staying for another week and could explore more and and
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: have my wits fully about me while doing so. But
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: it's been an amazing experience, and it's, uh, you know,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I can I can understand why they they establish a
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: presence in Japan. Teams do because the the fan base
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: is incredibly passionate about the game, and and like obviously
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: it's it's instilled in people at a young age. How
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: you know, the I don't know if you want to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: say the importance of baseball or whatever it is. There's
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a passion here and it's it's fun to see and
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: it reminds me of being a kid again in some way,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: just the way they're so they enjoy the sport so much.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Maybe maybe we just take it for granted back home.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It's just a different type of fandom here, and so
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: maybe maybe I'm just appreciating it in a different way.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: I'm blending a couple of things together here. I think
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: you and Fabian had written an explainer for The Athletic
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: and The New York Times I think said like they
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: sold like ten thousand, over more than ten thousand tickets
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: to the workout day, like yeah, yeah, an hour or
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: something like that, like.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I noticed like a line out the like line
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: down the stairs, like obviously we enter through a different way.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: And I noticed that was my first day at the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Tokyo Dome and I noticed this long line. I was like, what, like,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: maybe that's for the store or something like that. They're
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: trying to get Otani gear or whatever it may be.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: But no, it was to get into the workout and
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: it was over. They had they sold tickets. It was
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: about like fifteen dollars, you know, two thousand and yen.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I want to say, and and it you know, it
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: was the lower bowl was pretty packed. And I'll say
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: this Yesterday's so that would be Tuesday night in Japan,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: right Tuesday night in Japan.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: The atmosphere was wild.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: In pregame, it was they started filing in the second
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the door is open. It's so it's it's ninety five
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: percent Dodgers fans. It just is that's just the reality.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: And what's wild to me, is the sheer number of
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Otani jerseys. Like when you go to a ballpark around
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the US, there are plenty of jerseys, right, but what
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: would you say, like fifty percent of the people wear
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: a jersey, Maybe less than fifty percent. I'd say eighty
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: percent of people are wearing a jersey, and ninety percent
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: of those people are wearing Otani jerseys.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Are the other ten percent?
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: Like Ryan Terio jerseys, D Cubs ones we see whenever.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: I don't think I've seen anything other than like like
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: a Saya Suzuki, Ichiro Yamamoto. They don't have any Roki Sasaki,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: not MLB ones because he just was added to the
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: forty man right, so you can't so they couldn't weren't
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: able to sell those. I did notice some NPB jerseys
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: I believe was Saya's number fifty one because there were
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: a lot of Suzuki fifty one, but that's also Ichiro's number.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I don't think there'd be that many Itchiro jerseys at
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: at a game that say a Azuki's playing in I
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: could be completely wrong. Maybe he's just that popular and
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: there's that many InChI Road jerseys, but it's.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Kind of great.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: It's it's just different how how many people wear the
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: jerseys they have these So they had like Tokyo series
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: towels sitting on everybody's chair like seat when they came in.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: But they also had these wristbands that are controlled somewhere.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know how they're controlled, but they they light
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: up and as so the lights go out and like
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: all these Pikachu's come out onto the field and there's
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: basically a light show in the stands from the wristbands
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: everybody's wearing because these lights are like blinking and going
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: off like during the anthems, like during the US national anthem,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: and they're like blinking red, white, and blue.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: It was it was cool.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: They were blinking like all game. It was very very
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: festive atmosphere. The Pikachu's were wild, man, there were like
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: ten of them out there on the field.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: It was just it was an interesting dynamic.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Otani is in like I've never seen anything like that.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: There was a string of like eight commercials in pregame
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: in a row, all different things all Otani, like cab
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: rides that have taken like I'll see like four different
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Otani commercials on my drive it's like everything that you've
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: heard about how his face is plastered all over the place.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: It's not an exaggeration. You cannot turn your head.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: At one point, there's the Shibuya Crossing. Have you heard
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: about this, Like the it's basically like Times Square from Tokyo,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: and there's this new balance set up that they have
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: this like seventh floor exhibition kind of dedicated to show Hey,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: And as you approach it, you start hearing show he
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Otani's voice. So not only have you seen his face
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: all over the place, and it's on the giant like
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Times Square billboards and stuff like that, the video boards,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: then you start hearing his voice in the background, so
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: it's he's everywhere. And and you know, Jed Jed Hoyer
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: had a nice quote in pre game about like he's,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, he deserves it. He's a unicorn. He's he's
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: he's a great pitcher, he's one of the best offense,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: he's the best offensive talent in the game, and he's
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: a marketing genius.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Like he's he's figured it all out.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: He and his and the people around him, like it's
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: it's pretty amazing, Like how like we we we know it.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: It's not it's like it's he's popular in America, right,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: but it's just like exponentially bigger here.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: It's it's really it's wild to watch.
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I was wondering too, like what what was sort
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: of the clubhouse access like? And I'm asking just of
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: what's your interactions been like with Cubs players, both like
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: leading up to first pitch and then also coming off,
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: you know, a pretty sloppy loss on day one?
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, you know, like access has been pretty good,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: like not not to the point where I would be frustrated.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I guess would be you know, like we've had stuff
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: like that where it can get difficult. We're lucky we
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: we cover the Cubs, not the Dodgers. I noticed yesterday
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: in pregame there was a pretty long line to get into,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: uh into the Dodgers clubhouse. That that wasn't the case
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: for us. You know, there's just not as much interest.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I'm curious. I don't know if Otani went into the pressroom.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: The press room is like it's not full on Wrigley
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Dungeons style, but it's uh, it's it's not yeah, yeah,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: and it's really uncomfortable, Like it's like as far as
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: it's it's hot, it's it just doesn't you don't want
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: to be in there, Like it's there's there's certain parts
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: of of I've noticed, Like there's certain parts of the
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: hotel that I'm in, which is beautiful, really nice hotel.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: There's certain parts of like I guess the Tokyo domes
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: old in general, but there's certain parts that are just
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: like it's like have I been transported to the nineteen fifties?
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Like everything's like up to date, and then you walk
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: somewhere and you're like, what what is this? That that
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: very much is how how it feels in the bottels
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: of the Tokyo Dome.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: I shouldn't be surprised.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: It's it's a pretty old ballpark and and you know,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure how much they.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Do to upgrade it.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: The clubhouse that the Cubs are in now is actually
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: pretty nice. You know, it's not it's not regally field nice,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: but it's, uh, it's certainly a quality.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Quality clubhouse.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: And yeah, the pregame, it's it's kind of like it
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: feels like the playoffs, you know, like how.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: How they have everything set up?
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: And and honestly, like there was that there is that
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: type of buzz as well.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: I mean it looked like and Jed mentioned it on
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: the Marquee broadcast like two hours before first pitch.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Seems like everyone's in their seats I saw.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: I don't know who posted it on social media, but
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: just the amount of reporters kind of on the field
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: during VP. And it also looks like, at least from TV,
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: so there's a ton of foul territory for you guys
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: to just kind of wander and wait to see whoever
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: you needed to get.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Sorry you broke up there for a quick second, you said,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: right before you said, we wander around?
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: What was that?
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: Just at least on TV, it looks like there's a
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: ton of just foul territory at the Tokyo Dome, and
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: so that, like the photo I saw, was just huge
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: packs of media basically from like one dugout to another
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: kind of a semi circle, which does have that sort
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: of playoff feel too of just kind of you know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: everyone waiting around, uh, kind of for the big moment.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: Look it looks like a scene.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it absolutely was. And like when you see
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: it from AFAR, like I remember, I went up again,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: just much more media for the Dodgers side and and
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: when I went up and like watching the Dodgers work out,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: it was just so much more packed on their side.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: They're on the third base side, and it was like,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: you know, packed to the gills.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: It was. It was pretty packed for our side too.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: That not saying like people aren't there to see the Cubs,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: but it's just it's it's it is.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is a different level. Uh.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Pat, Before we start talking about the game, let's let's
• 11:45
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• 12:51
  Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, Yeah, as far as the game goes,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I don't know, like it wasn't like from the Cubs
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: point of view, it just it wasn't that entertaining.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: I thought Showda pitched fine.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Four walks for him is a career high. You could
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: argue that he got squeezed. I think he did get
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: squeezed in a couple pitches.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: That happens. That's part of the game.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: You know, if we broke down every pitch, I'm pretty
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: sure the first pitch of the game was a ball
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: that was called a strike to Otani. You know, we
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: can we could pick apart every every little thing. But
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: he he pitched fine. It just wasn't like vintage Shoda
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: at the start of last year, and you know, it
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: just didn't it didn't seem to like the Cubs didn't
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: seem the offense was not anything special.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Ben Brown.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Ben Brown I thought was the most interesting because it
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: was like one moment, you're like, whoa, this is nasty,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: and then he the next moment, he's walking Andy Pie
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: before show show Hey steps to the play. I think
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: that was kind of the point in the game when
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: he walked him and it's Cubs are clinging to one
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Oho lead and he walks in before show Hey. In
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: my head, I'm like, okay, I made a note. I'm like,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: this is like, let's see what happens after this, but
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: this could be the moment of the game.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: I think Council said it in your story of like
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: you can't give a team like the Dodgers too many
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: extra chances and.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: Whether it's that walk, Bertie's throwing error, no real big
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: hits on the Cubs side, like a very blah game
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: that sort of.
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: I'm sure if you were there it was different, but
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: like watching in like the early morning darkness. Also being
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: coffee was not like totally enthrawing. I do think, you know,
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: Shohay is just like, no one can really match that,
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: and I think in Minaga, I'll give him credit for,
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: you know, a tough assignment on a big stage too,
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: you know, escape unscathed, I think is really impressive, especially
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: considering he's probably not going to be exactly as good
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: as he was last year. And I'm just curious how
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: much the Cubs can absorb any sort of downtick from him.
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: And that's where Ben Brown is going to be a
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: huge part of this team. And I'm curious your thoughts, like,
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: is this a sign that he's got like an inside
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: track to be the number five starter or is that
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: just how this fell?
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: Like what was your read from Tokyo?
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's not, honestly, Like count isn't tipping his hand
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: their council like they they like Ben Brown. We know
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: this right, Ben Brown is going to be in the
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: rotation at some point. When you talk to people in
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the organization, and I've done this a lot over the
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: past month. Let's say where I'm just talking to people
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: and they ask me what do you think about the team?
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I give my thoughts, and eventually what it comes down to,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, what I see as my biggest concern
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: is where is your bat misser at the front of
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: the rotation. I like this team. I like I think
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the I know the offense stunk yesterday. It was one game, though,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a good offense. By
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: the way, Yamamoto was nasty. Yeah, he threw ninety seven
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: miles per hour or more or harder fifteen times. He
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: did that thirty five times. Last year he had a
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: splitter sitting ninety three. Like just nasty stuff like that.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: It's one of the that my guess is that's gonna
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: be one of the better pitching performances starting pitchers they
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: face this year. We'll see how good Roki is tonight
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Japan time, tonight tomorrow morning for all of you, whenever
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: you hear this, it'll probably be later than that, whatever
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: it is. Uh yeah, you know, I I think when
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: when I say that to them, when I say you're
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: missing your bat misser, Uh, you know, maybe you can
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: get that at the trade deadline. A lot of people respond,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: it'd be nice if Ben Brown turns into that guy.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: You know, they kind of see him as the guy
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: that could emerge as this pure stuff monster in their rotation.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Uh you know, maybe he doesn't move to the front
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: of the rotation this year. But I think they believe
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: he has that upside, and you know, when when you
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: see him locked in, he certainly does. There were momently
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: he struck out Otani on some pretty nasty pitches. He
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: has the ability he can walk on Andy pahes On
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: on five pitches, you know, like things like that, Like
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: some of the walks are acceptable.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: You can't do that.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: You know, you have to attack these guys. But yeah,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm curious to see. So today it'll be justin Steel.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: My guess is Colin Ray backs him up. So I
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: don't think we're getting a hand tip just yet. Let's
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: see what happens in game two. Uh, That's that's how
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at it. Like this next week is going
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: to be really interesting. What we have we have essentially,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: I think they have a game Friday. Nobody's playing in that,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: not anybody on this trip, like non smokies. Yeah yeah,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: and then you know, I think you start to see
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: guys trickle back in like Saturday, Sunday, Monday, maybe maybe
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: even Saturday. It's limited, depending on how everyone's feeling. Uh,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: it's it, But like, how do you ramp guys? Back
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: up like that, Like it's going to be really cute.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Like how you handle the pitching, Like the offense, I'm
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: not worried about as far as you know, just get
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: your body back to normal US time, you'll be fine, right,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: But pitching you got to stay in some sort of rhythm.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Like there's like Colin Ray did. We didn't talk about
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: this because I think we'd already recorded our podcast, But
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Colin Raid didn't travel with the team.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: That's interesting.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: He came separately because he wanted to get more innings
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: and he wanted to have a normal five inning outing
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: and he did in Arizona in a minor league game.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: And and that like he needed that, like he needed
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: to have some sense of normalcy as far as his
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: ramp up UH and and he he got here and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: I assume he'll pitch uh in Wednesday's game. And and
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: like this is like how they get ready for the opener,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: like the US opener.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: They have a lot of different openers.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: The US opener in Arizona, which is opening Day for
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: everyone else. Then they have they open up in Sacramento.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: That'll be the first Sacramento game, and then they have
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: their home opener. There's gonna be a lot of a
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: lot of like moments, you know, openers for this team.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: We'll see how they handle it all and how the
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: pitching handles it. I don't think it's easy, but it's
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: part of it's the reality of their situation.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I guess you don't want to do
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: overreactions off of one game. We could probably wait for
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: two games. But yeah, it's kind of funny the you know,
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: Kyle Tucker, you know spring training is meaningless, but waited
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: a long time to get a hit.
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: Kind of a quiet The offense is a whole very quiet. Yeah,
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: Matt Shaw was sort of there. You know, Nico's absence
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: was certainly noticed. Felt a second base.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: Ah, I think should have had to come out after four.
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: I mean at that point that was like would have
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: been pushing it so that one. I don't think that's
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: really a discussion point. And then like you said with Brown,
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: if I remember correctly, I mean he had show hey
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: at O two in that at bat like it's I know,
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: it's hard to put away like the best hitter on
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: the planet, but it is one of those games. It
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: wasn't that far off. But yeah, without Mookie, without Freddie Freeman.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: Like the Cubs, you know, certainly had their chances, but
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: just a very very quiet opening day halfway across the world.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I you know, if if I, if I
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: know the fans, their biggest concern is going to be
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the offense after last season, right I I'm not as
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: concerned about the offense because I rarely do believe Wrigley
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: stifled how good this offense was, and I think it's
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: actually better. Like Miguel Amaya won't be as bad as
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: he was the first three months. I don't think Dansby
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Swanson will be as bad. I peek Her Armstrong has
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: figured some things out. Matt Shaw's a rookie, but go
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: back and look how third base performed offensively last year.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: It didn't matter if you were a rookie or not
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: last year, Like he Mattshraw can be below average, and
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: as long as he's not atrocious offensively, he'll be better
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: than what the prodution they got last year for much
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: of the season at third base. So they like there
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: were just a lot of bad performances, especially early on,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: that I don't expect to be as.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Much of an issue.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: And in the Kyle Tucker stuff, look it it gets
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: in your as a fan, as a media member, whatever
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: it is.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: Can I say that, I'm like, it's not in my
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: head right now, and I'm not paying attention no.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Like I have, Like it's hard to ignore it, like
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: I always say, ignore spring training stats. But then he
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: had one hit and then he did have a nice,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: well struck line drive. Yeah, you just want to see
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: like some quality contact. You want to see some things
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: happen like that. There were a couple There wasn't a
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: lot of hard contact, but there there was a decent amount.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: It was enough to make me think, like, Okay, they're
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: not completely lost again. You're facing a really good pitching staff,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: a really good team. That's what this first month is
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: gonna be.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: Like, yeah, we'll get into that.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: I'm sure, yeah, because it is pretty It is going
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: to be a gauntlet for a team that looked like
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: it's hard for any teams to match up against the Dodgers, right,
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: like if you.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: Put the lineups on paper on opening Day. I think
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: the way the Cubs are built to like they're constructed
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: around like kind of boring stuff like depth and competence
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: and versatility and game planning, like that's never gonna blow
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: you away in one game, and maybe it doesn't work
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: in a short playoff series like they they'd love to
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: find out if it does. But you know, the strength
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: of this team are guys who are not in Japan, right,
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Like it's some of those one hundred prospects who didn't
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: make the trip, some of the interesting pictures they developed,
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: you know, whatever they do with Ben Brown, you know,
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: it's it's stuff like that that just doesn't really move
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: the needle on opening day or for one game. It's
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: over one sixty two.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Right, and we could be having a completely different conversation
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: when we're wrapping up Game two and looking forward to
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: everything else. Here's because this is why they used all
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: their bullpen their best bullpen arms. The Dodgers did. The
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Cubs didn't use their best bullpen arms, right. Porter Hodge
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: wasn't used, Ryan Presley wasn't used, and they rookie Sasaki
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: as good as he could be. There's going to be
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of emotions. You know, how does he handle that?
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Can the Cubs can't let him settle in. I think
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: that's the big thing. Make him work, make him throw
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: a lot of pitches, try to get to different arms,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: in their bullpen. I'd be surprised if Dave Roberts is
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: going to be aggressive and start throwing guys on back
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: to backs right like is Tanner Scott used, like, like,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: my guess is your best relievers are out. I don't
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: know enough about their bullpen to say who else is
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: nasty right now? But he used Blake trying and he
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: used he used Tanner Scott like he may not have
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: like his best guys ready to go. I know the
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: council isn't planning on unless he has to or unless
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: I don't have all the pitch counts up in front
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: of me. But unless someone through like seven pitches, don't
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: expect don't expect these guys to I mean, Tanner Scott
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: threw only ten pitches. You know, everybody, The lowest pitchcount
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: for the Cubs was twenty one Eli Morgan, So you know, like, exhu, wow,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at these pitch counts and they did not
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: make these relievers work Band eleven, Casparius twelve, trine In
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: sixteen ten or Scott ten.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Woo.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that was not a great great job by
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Cubs up offense to see pitches. Yeah, we'll see what happens.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: We'll see how Dave Roberts wants to be. Like, I
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: don't care if you threw ten pitches or not. Like
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: it's early. If you're gonna go back to back, that's
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: pretty aggressive. My point is you can't let Rokie Susaki
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: settle in. You can't let him get confidence out there.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Make him work, try and get him out of the
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: game or get him rattled early, and that's your best
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: chance to make everyone forget about an ugly opening day.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Knock Rokie Susaki around or knock him out of the
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: game early, show that that offense can be what you know,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: live up to its potential, and be an annoyance for
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: the rest of the league. I think that that has
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: to be what happens. It doesn't have to happen. They
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: can go too and still make the playoffs. This isn't
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: the end of the world. I'm just saying just to
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: ease fan uh, ease fence frustrations and stress and concern.
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think if if they get a split
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: and they come home healthy, I think they would have
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: signed up for that. If they're owing to and healthy
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: or get to domestic opening day healthy, they probably would
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: have taken that two Uh, and ultimately to your point,
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: I think it's gonna this will be judged by how
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: they come out of it more than those two games.
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: It's such a small percentage of the of the regular
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: season that you know, you know, winning the battle or
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: winning the war here like that's kind of a gonna
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: be a big point of emphasis.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: And all of these.
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: Decisions that they make and how they try to ramp
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: it back up again after kind of once in a
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: lifetime experience.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: And uh, you know, all the fun of it is
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: is overanalyzing and overreacting the game one. You know, it's
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: all like we we overreact to opening day rosters, what
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: happens in spring training, and then you have to overreact
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: to opening Day. But the reality is it's one game
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: out of one sixty two. You don't want to you
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: don't want to stack up too many losses in April,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: March or April. But still you don't want to overreact
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: to it either. So we'll see how they bounce back,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: not only in the second game against the Dodgers, but
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: in general. Plenty of baseball left that we can react to.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: We'll get back to it soon enough. We'll have a
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: couple more episodes this week. Thanks so much for listening
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: to everyone. We appreciate it. It's North Side territory, foul
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: territory in our works Cubs podcast. Make sure to review
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: and subscribe. Subscribe to the YouTube channel and subscribe to
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: The Athletic where Patrick and I are on top of
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: all things Cubs.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Thanks everyone, Take is there anyone lived