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Cubs mailbag: What happened to this offense? · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory File Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:08
Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma, your Cubs beat writer. Over at the Athletic.
0:12
Speaker 1: Patrick Mooney is off. He is on vacation at the
0:16
Speaker 1: Jersey Shore. Much needed time off for Patrick. He gets
0:20
Speaker 1: to miss out on all the hand ringing from Cubs
0:23
Speaker 1: fans going on right now because here I am in
0:27
Speaker 1: Saint Louis. The Cubs just lost a five to nothing
0:30
Speaker 1: game to the Cardinals. The offense is in a rut
0:35
Speaker 1: that you know, if you've watched this Cubs team over
0:38
Speaker 1: the years, you have seen things like this. This is
0:43
Speaker 1: a familiar, familiar issue where the offense looks like it's amazing,
0:48
Speaker 1: and it was. It was the best offense, arguably the
0:51
Speaker 1: best offense in baseball for a few months there, and
0:54
Speaker 1: it has hit a rut right now. I think what
0:58
Speaker 1: happened on Friday night was kind of indicative of what's
1:03
Speaker 1: happened a lot in the past two months. The Cubs
1:06
Speaker 1: put runners on this. This actually hasn't been happening a
1:10
Speaker 1: lot in August. If you look back on Monday and
1:13
Speaker 1: Tuesday against Cincinnati, they they weren't putting up much of
1:16
Speaker 1: a threat at all offensively, it was just a quick outs,
1:21
Speaker 1: not much action on the basis. That wasn't the case tonight.
1:26
Speaker 1: Friday Night, the Cubs were zero for nine with runners
1:30
Speaker 1: in scoring position. Craig Council talked after the game about
1:35
Speaker 1: how it kind of felt like it, you know, they
1:37
Speaker 1: should have scored some runs and that came. They certainly
1:40
Speaker 1: shouldn't have been shut out. Carson Kelly hit two rockets
1:44
Speaker 1: with runners in scoring position. I believe it was a
1:48
Speaker 1: second inning, and Dansby Swanson had hit a hard line
1:52
Speaker 1: drive to write field with runners in scoring position. Kyle
1:56
Speaker 1: Tucker hit a line drive with runners in scoring position,
2:00
Speaker 1: and maybe the fifth inning. There was a lot of
2:03
Speaker 1: it there. There were eight falls hit at one hundred
2:06
Speaker 1: miles per hour by the Cubs. Only two of those
2:08
Speaker 1: fell for hits. It was one of those games, and
2:12
Speaker 1: you know, if you have one or two of those,
2:17
Speaker 1: you know in every couple of weeks, I think fans
2:21
Speaker 1: can shrug their shoulders and say, look, this offense is
2:25
Speaker 1: is great. We know what they can do, and you
2:28
Speaker 1: move on. When it starts to happen every other game
2:33
Speaker 1: or or multiple times a week, four multiple weeks in
2:37
Speaker 1: a row, That's when you get the hand ringing. That's
2:40
Speaker 1: when you get the justified criticism that wondering why is
2:44
Speaker 1: this happening for such long stretches? Why is this happening again?
2:49
Speaker 1: So let's get to it. Here's this is a mail
2:51
Speaker 1: bag episode. I'm going to get right to the first question.
2:53
Speaker 1: It is obviously about the offense. There were a lot
2:55
Speaker 1: of questions like this got a lot of questions as
2:58
Speaker 1: the game was going on and of course once the
3:01
Speaker 1: game ended. Why is it when the Cubs offense goes
3:03
Speaker 1: cold every year? It's the entire team at once instead
3:06
Speaker 1: of a select few. It's a broken record every year.
3:08
Speaker 1: This is Tyler Dershall, regular on the podcast. Look, Tyler,
3:14
Speaker 1: I don't have an answer for that. Why does this
3:18
Speaker 1: happen every year? I think the simple answer is it
3:21
Speaker 1: happens to every team where there are cold stretches. This
3:25
Speaker 1: has not been like net last year. I know it
3:29
Speaker 1: feels like it's just this awful stretch of baseball. It
3:34
Speaker 1: really hasn't been that long. I shouldn't say it hasn't
3:39
Speaker 1: been that long. It hasn't been that bad. Let me
3:41
Speaker 1: go through just run scored where they ranked a month
3:45
Speaker 1: by month? This year April first, May tied for second,
3:51
Speaker 1: June fifteenth, middle of the pack, not terrible. You want
3:55
Speaker 1: to be better July eleventh, and then you know that
4:00
Speaker 1: none of that is awful, None of that it should
4:03
Speaker 1: lead to just tanking as far as the standings go.
4:08
Speaker 1: This was those first four months last year, ninth and
4:13
Speaker 1: then twenty sixth, then twenty seventh, then seventeenth. Then in
4:17
Speaker 1: August they were third. I didn't look up September. I
4:20
Speaker 1: think they were pretty solid offensively in September. The bottom
4:23
Speaker 1: line is they were awful offensively for May and June
4:28
Speaker 1: last year, just to you know, just completely lost one
4:32
Speaker 1: of the worst offenses in baseball. The past two months
4:35
Speaker 1: that have been middling, just outside the top ten. Really,
4:40
Speaker 1: it hasn't been that bad August and so far it's
4:42
Speaker 1: been pretty bad. I didn't I'm not going to bother
4:45
Speaker 1: looking it up because it's one week, but it's it
4:50
Speaker 1: hasn't been acceptable, I think, is the general answer you
4:57
Speaker 1: have for August. There's no way you can justify how
5:03
Speaker 1: bad it's been outside of just saying it's a small sample.
5:07
Speaker 1: We talked to Jed Hoyer earlier this week, and you know,
5:13
Speaker 1: obviously he's not gonna be in panic mode. He's not
5:16
Speaker 1: going to talk about how how they're never pulling themselves
5:19
Speaker 1: out of this. But he did point out that they
5:23
Speaker 1: were probably playing over their heads with runners situationally with
5:26
Speaker 1: runners in scoring position. The first two months and then
5:31
Speaker 1: last eight nine weeks they've struggled, and he thinks it's
5:34
Speaker 1: going to even out. Here are some of the numbers
5:37
Speaker 1: pre free June fourth, So through June third, they had
5:43
Speaker 1: a one forty four way to runs graded plus. That's
5:45
Speaker 1: second second in baseball with runners in scoring position. Three
5:49
Speaker 1: p thirty nine, Babbit, that's tied for first during that stretch.
5:53
Speaker 1: So they were a little bit lucky there. That's what
5:55
Speaker 1: Jed means by playing over their heads post June fourth.
5:59
Speaker 1: So June fourth through Thursday's game, I didn't have it
6:02
Speaker 1: or Wednesday's game, so it didn't have an updated the
6:05
Speaker 1: over nine, So it's worse than this eighty five way
6:08
Speaker 1: to runs great plus that's twenty eighth in baseball during
6:10
Speaker 1: that span. Two point fifty four, Babe, that's twenty ninth.
6:15
Speaker 1: So look there, the ground ball rate has gone up
6:18
Speaker 1: a little bit with the runners in the scoring position.
6:20
Speaker 1: The hard contact has actually gone up so the ground
6:23
Speaker 1: ball rate obviously bad. You don't want that to go up.
6:26
Speaker 1: The the hard hit rate has gone up during this stretch.
6:30
Speaker 1: It's a little bit of bad luck. It's a lot
6:32
Speaker 1: of bad luck. But there was a lot of good
6:34
Speaker 1: luck at first. Here's the thing. So pre June fourth,
6:38
Speaker 1: just all overall on offense, it was one twenty way
6:42
Speaker 1: to run great plus. That's third in baseball. Post June fourth,
6:45
Speaker 1: one oh seven way to runs grade plus, seventh in baseball.
6:49
Speaker 1: So that's I mean, that's randomness of baseball. That's the
6:54
Speaker 1: frustration of baseball. Look, I know, I know when when
6:59
Speaker 1: teams are in the stretches, it absolutely feels like it's
7:04
Speaker 1: the worst thing happening, that the team can't hit and
7:08
Speaker 1: that they won't get out of it. They even got
7:11
Speaker 1: out of it last year. They got better and they
7:15
Speaker 1: turned it around. I think this is the biggest thing
7:18
Speaker 1: I come away from all of this is so from
7:22
Speaker 1: June and July, they're twenty seven and twenty three, I
7:28
Speaker 1: believe is Yes, the combined June July record twenty seven
7:31
Speaker 1: and twenty three. It's you know, it's not amazing, it's
7:35
Speaker 1: not terrible. Twenty one and twenty four that's what they
7:39
Speaker 1: were in May June last year when the offense collapsed
7:41
Speaker 1: twenty one and thirty four. That's thirteen games under, four
7:45
Speaker 1: games over in June July. Here's here's the real big
7:50
Speaker 1: issue that this is why the panic is set in
7:54
Speaker 1: for fans. The Milwaukee Brewers are on their greatest stretch ever.
8:00
Speaker 1: That's not hyperbole. They just had their greatest sixty game
8:04
Speaker 1: run in team history. They're on a forty six and
8:08
Speaker 1: sixteen run. They were twenty four and twenty seven. I
8:14
Speaker 1: want to say I had this up earlier. I don't
8:17
Speaker 1: have it up right now, but twenty four and twenty seven,
8:19
Speaker 1: I want to say, and now they have seventy one wins.
8:23
Speaker 1: They're just they're they're on an insane run right now
8:27
Speaker 1: and they're five games up. I'm not sure if you
8:29
Speaker 1: saw the game Friday night, just I mean, they're winning
8:33
Speaker 1: in every way possible, and it's like if things are
8:37
Speaker 1: going wrong, if you want to say, things are just
8:39
Speaker 1: going wrong for the Cubs in different ways, and they
8:42
Speaker 1: can't you know, really nothing nothing is bouncing their way.
8:47
Speaker 1: Everything is bouncing the Brewer's way. Everything they Kodai Singa
8:53
Speaker 1: made an error. Next next batter hits a two run homer,
8:58
Speaker 1: the Mets seem to have gotten the game, the game
9:02
Speaker 1: tying hit runner thrown out at home to end the game.
9:07
Speaker 1: Just they're just everything's happening that everything good is happening
9:12
Speaker 1: for the Brewers right now. Look, I don't like when
9:15
Speaker 1: you have a stretch like this. It's often enough to
9:18
Speaker 1: win a division or make the playoffs. So I'm not
9:22
Speaker 1: gonna sit here and tell you that the Cubs are
9:25
Speaker 1: going to catch them, because the Brewers are eventually going
9:27
Speaker 1: to cool off. This is the type of run that
9:29
Speaker 1: you go on that wins you a division, So they
9:32
Speaker 1: very well may be securing the division right now. I
9:36
Speaker 1: think the Cubs are going to turn things around. I
9:38
Speaker 1: think the Cubs are going to make the playoffs. I
9:42
Speaker 1: also just don't know what's going to happen with this division.
9:45
Speaker 1: The Brewers have really gone on a run, the type
9:49
Speaker 1: of run that you have to respect and the type
9:52
Speaker 1: of run that you need to win a division. The
9:55
Speaker 1: Cubs are fighting for the second best record in baseball
9:59
Speaker 1: right now. Unfortunately, they're in the same division as the
10:02
Speaker 1: best team in baseball that's having just an insane run.
10:08
Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break and then I'll come back
10:10
Speaker 1: with some more of your questions. Kratz.
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11:09
Speaker 1: Go for it all right, Uh, there's but I think
11:17
Speaker 1: I could talk about the offense and those issues. Uh
11:20
Speaker 1: for this entire episode. Uh, this this question isn't exactly
11:25
Speaker 1: about the offense. What effect do you think the lack
11:28
Speaker 1: of movement at the deadline has had on the team overall?
11:32
Speaker 1: It seems like the team is grinding and expecting some reinforcements.
11:36
Speaker 1: This is from Lord of Thunder Look. I cannot. I
11:40
Speaker 1: can't answer that question with any you know, certainty. I
11:44
Speaker 1: have not noticed. I no one has said anything to
11:47
Speaker 1: me on or off the record that like, we're really
11:49
Speaker 1: disappointed that Jedler didn't go out and get the player X,
11:54
Speaker 1: Y or Z. Here's the thing, it's not they needed
11:59
Speaker 1: to go get more starting pitching at the deadline. They didn't.
12:02
Speaker 1: That's not what's hurt them. Since the deadline hit. They've
12:05
Speaker 1: pitched brilliantly. They've pitched really well lately, and you have
12:09
Speaker 1: to give them credit for that, you know, I don't
12:13
Speaker 1: think you can. It's hard to know what type of
12:18
Speaker 1: impact these things have because I can't jump in their heads,
12:21
Speaker 1: and nobody's said anything about it, so it's hard to
12:23
Speaker 1: know for sure. I will say that the Brewers didn't
12:27
Speaker 1: make any moves, nothing significant, But maybe those teams kind
12:30
Speaker 1: of maybe that team kind of expects that. Maybe that's
12:33
Speaker 1: kind of what they know, that's what they've experienced. So
12:36
Speaker 1: maybe there's no letdown factor there. Boston didn't do anything.
12:40
Speaker 1: Boston is probably comparable to the Cubs. There's no letdown there.
12:44
Speaker 1: That team's been playing well. I just think the offensive
12:47
Speaker 1: is in a rut. I do not think this is
12:49
Speaker 1: some mental game due to the lack of action at
12:55
Speaker 1: the deadline. In fact, at the deadline they added two
12:59
Speaker 1: good relievers, Andrew Kittridge Taylor Rogers. They're they're good, they're
13:04
Speaker 1: good relievers, they're well liked in the clubhouse. And then
13:07
Speaker 1: if you want to talk about the offense, Willie castro
13:10
Speaker 1: Is is a great addition. He can play every position
13:14
Speaker 1: pretty much, and he's a great energy guy. Like he's
13:18
Speaker 1: like well liked in the clubhouse, you can see it
13:21
Speaker 1: on the field. Uh there's that's the type of guy
13:24
Speaker 1: that can energize the group. So I get the question,
13:29
Speaker 1: and I won't dismiss it. I don't think it's something
13:32
Speaker 1: that isn't real. I do think that's happened in the
13:36
Speaker 1: past with with teams. I don't think that's the case here.
13:40
Speaker 1: I I just think the offense is in a rut
13:43
Speaker 1: and it and it. You know, basically, the stars need
13:47
Speaker 1: to play. I think that's I didn't bring that up
13:48
Speaker 1: in the last segment, but Michael Bush is struggling. Michael
13:52
Speaker 1: Bush doesn't look good at the plate. Kyle Tucker hasn't
13:56
Speaker 1: hit for power for over a month now. It's been
14:00
Speaker 1: a long time since he's hit for power consistently. Has
14:03
Speaker 1: one home run since July first. That's not that's not
14:07
Speaker 1: going to cut it for him. You need him to
14:08
Speaker 1: hit the ball hard in the air and into the
14:11
Speaker 1: seats on occasion. He's not finding gaps. Uh, that's that's
14:15
Speaker 1: a big deal. Pete's in a little bit of a slump.
14:17
Speaker 3: Pete.
14:18
Speaker 1: Pete's been actually really good. He was really good in July.
14:21
Speaker 1: He's hit the skids the past week now. It's it's
14:26
Speaker 1: a lot of strikeouts. I think, you know, you can
14:28
Speaker 1: kind of see like not as many. I don't think
14:31
Speaker 1: he's struck out Friday night. I don't have my box
14:34
Speaker 1: score in front of me, So that's I mean, if
14:38
Speaker 1: you want to take a little bit of happiness from something, yeah,
14:42
Speaker 1: he went over for but no strikeouts, So I guess
14:45
Speaker 1: you can you can take that and and maybe hope
14:48
Speaker 1: that that leads to better things for Pete Sey Suzuki
14:53
Speaker 1: has been hitting the ball hard the past couple of games,
14:55
Speaker 1: and that's a good side. He was struggling for a
14:57
Speaker 1: couple of weeks there after a few games out and
15:00
Speaker 1: a couple of good games out of the break, and
15:02
Speaker 1: then struggled basically that Sunday when they faced Garrett Crochet
15:09
Speaker 1: and on. He was struggling until Wednesday and had some
15:13
Speaker 1: obviously some big hits. Those four guys are the guys
15:17
Speaker 1: that you need to perform. If they don't perform, then
15:21
Speaker 1: then none of it really matters. We can you know,
15:24
Speaker 1: you can complain about others or say they need to
15:26
Speaker 1: step up those If all four of those guys are
15:30
Speaker 1: struggling at once, you get what's happened at the beginning
15:33
Speaker 1: of August here, which is, you know, it's a three
15:37
Speaker 1: and four stretch I believe to start the month of August.
15:41
Speaker 1: But the offense just isn't there. They've had like one
15:44
Speaker 1: good game this month one week into the month. So
15:47
Speaker 1: I'm not going to overreact to the It's really the hitters.
15:50
Speaker 1: It's really the hitting with scoring position. Like I discussed
15:53
Speaker 1: last segment, I think that's it's just such a huge
15:57
Speaker 1: aspect of this of it all. And know if you don't,
16:01
Speaker 1: if you don't hit with runners in scoring position, feels
16:04
Speaker 1: like the end of the world. It really does. So I,
16:07
Speaker 1: you know, I we've been through these ups and downs before.
16:12
Speaker 1: You just have to hope that they nip it in
16:14
Speaker 1: the bud soon and the offense gets going because it
16:16
Speaker 1: has to be Kyle Tucker, it has to be Michael Bush,
16:18
Speaker 1: it has to be those guys Pete r. Armstrong, that
16:21
Speaker 1: they have to start hitting all right. Next question is
16:25
Speaker 1: from a lease, what do you think is more likely
16:29
Speaker 1: to do two DFAs or Ben Brown and Kate Horton
16:33
Speaker 1: sent down to make room for a sudden tie on.
16:37
Speaker 1: So so I need to make sure that I couldn't
16:40
Speaker 1: fit it all in here. But at least understands that
16:43
Speaker 1: even the suggestion of sending Kate Horton sounds ridiculous. But
16:48
Speaker 1: I understand your point. A. You don't want to lose anyone.
16:51
Speaker 1: It's Craig Council mindset, don't you know, don't lose that
16:54
Speaker 1: depth and and B like I don't think the Cubs
17:00
Speaker 1: would rule out the idea of sending Kid Horton down.
17:03
Speaker 1: I don't want to. I don't think they're going to
17:06
Speaker 1: do that in time soon. But obviously, I mean, look
17:08
Speaker 1: at the way Greig Council is managing him. They're being
17:11
Speaker 1: very careful with his pitches, his innings, his workload. I
17:15
Speaker 1: should just say, because it's not pitches and innings, it's
17:17
Speaker 1: just how the body is reacting to everything. They measure
17:20
Speaker 1: everything nowadays, so you know it's it's it's everything that
17:25
Speaker 1: they're paying attention to. I don't know how it would work.
17:29
Speaker 1: I don't know how he would take it. I don't
17:32
Speaker 1: know how the Players Association would react to it. There's
17:36
Speaker 1: a lot of issues with sending a guy down when
17:38
Speaker 1: they're playing really well because there's service time concerns. So
17:43
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly the best way to to how
17:47
Speaker 1: these things are handled, because you do have to watch
17:51
Speaker 1: his workload. If I had to guess, tie On, the
17:58
Speaker 1: SOROCA injury does through a to things. But you could
18:03
Speaker 1: very easily have Ben Brown sent down for tie On
18:09
Speaker 1: and Asad could be optioned, a SOD could come up.
18:13
Speaker 1: Who did they I guess it would have to do
18:17
Speaker 1: with who who they called up. I'm blanking on who
18:20
Speaker 1: they called up for Soroca, let's know Nate Pearson, so
18:25
Speaker 1: you could option Nate Pearson. Uh, that that's probably it, right,
18:29
Speaker 1: It's an option Nate Pearson for whoever comes up first.
18:32
Speaker 1: And then if Soroka is not back because it was
18:35
Speaker 1: you know there, we'll see if it's a minimum stay.
18:40
Speaker 1: If it's a SOD, you can option him. You can
18:43
Speaker 1: option Ben Brown. I don't want to use the word options,
18:49
Speaker 1: but you have you have options here. I don't think
18:54
Speaker 1: you need to DFA anyone just yet. We'll see how
18:57
Speaker 1: how the rest of the bullpen arms go. But there
19:00
Speaker 1: there's enough good arms in there that I agree. I
19:02
Speaker 1: don't I think you'd want to send guys out. I
19:05
Speaker 1: don't think Horton's on that list right now, but I
19:07
Speaker 1: understand the idea, and you know, we'll see what happens
19:12
Speaker 1: how they try and handle his workload. Speaking of Ben Brown,
19:17
Speaker 1: it's now time for our Draft Kings player spotlight. All right.
19:26
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about Ben Brown because he takes
19:30
Speaker 1: a lot of heat. He has struggled, he has a
19:34
Speaker 1: six E R. He he hasn't lived up to his
19:39
Speaker 1: potential this season results wise, but he he's come in
19:47
Speaker 1: the last two times out he came in to start.
19:51
Speaker 1: He started against the White Sox. I believe that was
19:56
Speaker 1: that was after the loss too, that the loss they
20:00
Speaker 1: got blown out, right, I can I can double check that,
20:04
Speaker 1: but I believe it was Saturday when he pitched and
20:09
Speaker 1: and they you know, they had just gotten blown out.
20:13
Speaker 1: He pitched on Sunday, so it was it was to
20:16
Speaker 1: win that series. It was a nice they needed that
20:19
Speaker 1: from him for strikeouts five innings. I was impressed with
20:23
Speaker 1: what he did against the Reds. They obviously lost that game.
20:26
Speaker 1: That was at the Andrew Kidtridge. I believe that was
20:28
Speaker 1: the Andrew Kittridge blew the game for them. But no,
20:34
Speaker 1: it wasn't. It was a different game either way. I'm
20:36
Speaker 1: mixing up my games. This is what happens when you
20:38
Speaker 1: watch too many games. You can't keep them all straight.
20:41
Speaker 1: But he pitched really well in relief of Soroka. That
20:45
Speaker 1: was the offense just didn't deliver. I believe Brazier gave
20:49
Speaker 1: up some gave up or run after some dinks and dunks.
20:52
Speaker 1: It wasn't. It wasn't on Ben Brown. Ben Brown's run
20:55
Speaker 1: that he gave up wasn't even that was kind of
21:00
Speaker 1: one of those Gift runs that probably shouldn't have scored.
21:04
Speaker 1: I think he deserves some credit. I think he deserves
21:07
Speaker 1: some love because this is a guy that's really, you know,
21:11
Speaker 1: just hasn't had the results this year and in the
21:15
Speaker 1: past two times out he's produced. I think what you
21:19
Speaker 1: may see from Ben Brown look first of all, the
21:22
Speaker 1: Cincinnati outing, I do wonder how much of it is
21:26
Speaker 1: he was just called upon at the last minute, Like
21:28
Speaker 1: he didn't know he was going to go out there
21:30
Speaker 1: at that point, and because of the injury he had
21:32
Speaker 1: to go out there. I do think sometimes Ben Brown
21:37
Speaker 1: can overthink things when he's on the mound again, Like
21:41
Speaker 1: I don't love try to jump into someone's head. But
21:44
Speaker 1: he's talked about how sometimes he needs to be better
21:48
Speaker 1: about the bad moment not leading to him unraveling. And
21:53
Speaker 1: I think, you know, maybe just being called upon without him,
21:58
Speaker 1: you know, having to think much about it, allowed him
22:01
Speaker 1: to just lock in and go out there and pitch. Ultimately,
22:04
Speaker 1: whether he's sent down or not, whenever Tyne comes back,
22:07
Speaker 1: when Asad comes back, I think he's going to be
22:11
Speaker 1: an important part of this bullpen in this team down
22:16
Speaker 1: the stretch. I think Ben Brown, maybe he's not a starter,
22:20
Speaker 1: but he's an incredibly important pitcher. I shouldn't say important,
22:25
Speaker 1: impactful pitcher, potentially impactful pitcher. So I'm curious to see
22:31
Speaker 1: what role he can hold. I think multi inning reliever
22:35
Speaker 1: could be really important. I just talked about Kate Horton
22:38
Speaker 1: and his innings and his trying to manage his workload.
22:43
Speaker 1: Ben Brown could be a big factor there in helping that.
22:46
Speaker 1: If you want to reduce, if you want to keep
22:49
Speaker 1: Kate Horton starts shorter, you can bring in Ben Brown
22:54
Speaker 1: to eat a couple of innings perhaps. I think that
22:56
Speaker 1: would be huge if he could actually do that. Yeah,
23:00
Speaker 1: I definitely believe he's going to be an impactful part
23:04
Speaker 1: of this team down the stretch, and in a role
23:07
Speaker 1: that's not so much as a starter, but you know,
23:10
Speaker 1: like Greig Council likes to say, out get her all right. Now,
23:14
Speaker 1: let's turn it over to producer Jeremy Meyer for our
23:17
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24:23
Speaker 1: Slash audio this question up here a very simple one
24:27
Speaker 1: from pill Hill wants to know why should I be
24:30
Speaker 1: optimistic about this team? Phil, Like I wrote this in
24:36
Speaker 1: my piece that's going to go up that that maybe
24:39
Speaker 1: you guys are already read. Uh, it's really hard to
24:44
Speaker 1: be optimistic when things aren't going right. It's very easy
24:49
Speaker 1: to believe the bad things will continue. It's just the
24:54
Speaker 1: general it's it's when when things don't go right, when
24:58
Speaker 1: when things have kind of slipped for an extended period
25:02
Speaker 1: of time, whether it be a week, two months, whatever
25:06
Speaker 1: it is, it can feel like it just won't end.
25:11
Speaker 1: I don't believe this is a bad team now. Is
25:16
Speaker 1: the offense going to get back to April and May?
25:19
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's realistic. I don't think it's
25:24
Speaker 1: what it has been of late. And I think the
25:28
Speaker 1: optimism for me laz in the fact that they haven't
25:34
Speaker 1: been that great with in situational situationally, they have not
25:40
Speaker 1: been that great lately. They were they were amazing for
25:44
Speaker 1: a couple of months there, and suddenly that's dropped off
25:48
Speaker 1: for a couple months now and they still are winning games.
25:52
Speaker 1: They're still above five hundred during that stretch, and they're
25:56
Speaker 1: fighting for the second best record in baseball. They're not
26:00
Speaker 1: completely out of the division. I know, five games is
26:03
Speaker 1: a lot. It feels like a lot. It's a big
26:05
Speaker 1: mountain to climb. I'm not sure if they're going to
26:07
Speaker 1: be able to pull that off. But things turn quickly
26:12
Speaker 1: in baseball. Every team, every team goes through these moments
26:17
Speaker 1: and it seems like nothing will go right and that
26:23
Speaker 1: they're just not good enough. I pay attention to a
26:27
Speaker 1: lot of other teams, and I hear other fan bases.
26:32
Speaker 1: Believe me, the Cubs fans are not the only ones
26:36
Speaker 1: reacting this way. The only ones that aren't reacting this
26:39
Speaker 1: way right now are the Brewers. They're on this insane
26:42
Speaker 1: run and they're just you know, it's one of these
26:47
Speaker 1: rare runs that you see in baseball. But the Phillies,
26:52
Speaker 1: the Mets, the Dodgers, the Padres, all of them have
26:56
Speaker 1: their flaws, all of them. Toronto is is played really
27:01
Speaker 1: well right now, but they're even them that they've hit
27:04
Speaker 1: the skids. I shouldn't say hit the kids. They're not
27:07
Speaker 1: at the same pace that they were. You know, two
27:10
Speaker 1: weeks ago. The Red Sox are hot right now. The
27:13
Speaker 1: Tigers have really struggled. There's something like panic among among
27:18
Speaker 1: Tigers fans and and and the media there really pressing
27:23
Speaker 1: Scott Harris for not adding at the deadline. Uh, the
27:26
Speaker 1: Cleveland Guardians were like a dozen games out and now
27:29
Speaker 1: there's just six games back. You know, there's there's always
27:34
Speaker 1: you can you can point to, like every team that's good,
27:37
Speaker 1: and they've had really rough stretches. What you've seen from
27:41
Speaker 1: the Cubs is it is they need to be better.
27:45
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm going to argue with any of that.
27:48
Speaker 1: I just think the the idea that you can't be
27:51
Speaker 1: optimistic anymore. Look, I get it like fans aren't going
27:55
Speaker 1: to want to hear the rational take all the time.
27:59
Speaker 1: I also think that fans should. You know, sometimes it's
28:04
Speaker 1: fun to live in the moment and ride the roller coaster.
28:08
Speaker 1: You guys are watching one hundred and sixty two games.
28:10
Speaker 1: You're very intense about this stuff, so you know, the
28:14
Speaker 1: emotions go up and down. It's pretty normal. I was
28:18
Speaker 1: a fan once. I think in this role as a reporter,
28:23
Speaker 1: I've learned how to take not take it game by game,
28:29
Speaker 1: and then really like react to each game as this
28:33
Speaker 1: huge event. They all matter. Obviously that the Cubs have
28:38
Speaker 1: fallen five games back. That's that's significant. That matters a lot.
28:43
Speaker 1: I just think they are in a playoff spot. They
28:48
Speaker 1: lead the wild card. You'd prefer to get that bye,
28:53
Speaker 1: doesn't you know? Right now? Obviously the season ended right now,
28:56
Speaker 1: they're not getting that by but they'd be the number
28:58
Speaker 1: one wildcard team and they'd be forced to reckon with
29:01
Speaker 1: They have two really good starting pitchers. They have an
29:04
Speaker 1: offense that I think most people believe is going to
29:08
Speaker 1: turn the corner. And that's the bottom line. I think, like,
29:13
Speaker 1: if you believe that Kyle Tucker is just going to
29:15
Speaker 1: be this for the rest of the season, if you
29:18
Speaker 1: think Pete g Armstrong slump, but won't you turn If
29:23
Speaker 1: that's if those are the things you believe, then then yeah,
29:26
Speaker 1: there's not reason to be optimistic. But I especially with Tucker,
29:31
Speaker 1: I just don't see this lasting much longer. He's starting
29:34
Speaker 1: to hit the ball hard. I think he's going to
29:37
Speaker 1: start to elevate the ball again. Once those things start
29:40
Speaker 1: to happen, I think that really clicks and it leaves
29:43
Speaker 1: and it takes pressure off everyone and the offense will
29:45
Speaker 1: start getting going again. I don't know if we'll see
29:47
Speaker 1: April and May type offense again. Stretches perhaps, but not
29:52
Speaker 1: months long. That that's really hard to pull off. As
29:55
Speaker 1: long as their top ten, top five in offense, which
29:59
Speaker 1: I I think they can very easily pull off. You'll
30:03
Speaker 1: take that, and then the pitching needs to be good enough.
30:05
Speaker 1: I like this bullpen I still do. I know Andrew
30:09
Speaker 1: Kittchard Kittridge had that really bad outing. I like him.
30:14
Speaker 1: I think he's a big upgrade over Presley and gives
30:17
Speaker 1: you another It basically takes a pressure up Brad Keller
30:21
Speaker 1: to be that main righty setup guy. You have two
30:25
Speaker 1: good righty setup guys. Now you have three good lefty
30:28
Speaker 1: setup guys. And you know, we'll see how Palancia kind
30:33
Speaker 1: of goes. I have noticed that he's he's not as
30:37
Speaker 1: locked in as he was at his peak. That can
30:40
Speaker 1: change quickly as well. Bullpen arms, you just never know
30:43
Speaker 1: what's going to happen, all right, I know there's a
30:45
Speaker 1: lot of angst in Cubs world. Let's see what the
30:48
Speaker 1: rest of this weekend has in store. Look, this team
30:51
Speaker 1: has done a remarkable job bouncing back from bad moments.
30:56
Speaker 1: We were talking, I was talking from Saint Louis about
31:00
Speaker 1: a month and a half ago about it seemed like
31:03
Speaker 1: it was a low point and you know that team
31:06
Speaker 1: was collapsing. It felt like they were about to hit
31:09
Speaker 1: the skids, and then they won. They played two of
31:11
Speaker 1: their best games to end that four game set in
31:14
Speaker 1: Saint Louis. Saturday and Sunday are big. It feels like
31:17
Speaker 1: they need to, you know, kind of show some signs
31:21
Speaker 1: of life and get going. You don't want to follow
31:23
Speaker 1: any further behind the Brewers. You certainly want to make
31:27
Speaker 1: sure you're closer than you are now when that five
31:30
Speaker 1: games set starts, because that could look ugly a week
31:35
Speaker 1: from now, but we'll deal with that when we get there.
31:38
Speaker 1: I'd like to see some better offense, and I'm sure
31:42
Speaker 1: all of you do as well. I think it's going
31:46
Speaker 1: to turn. I wish on you went. I don't I
31:49
Speaker 1: thought Jed said that really well, you just never know
31:51
Speaker 1: when these things are going to turn. It could be tomorrow,
31:54
Speaker 1: it could be ten days from now. You just don't
31:57
Speaker 1: want it to be too late. That's that's the bottom line.
32:01
Speaker 1: I'll never forget in the Brewers Club visiting clubhouse when
32:05
Speaker 1: jameson Town kind of said that about last year's offense,
32:08
Speaker 1: is like we thought it was going to end after
32:10
Speaker 1: two weeks. Two weeks became two months. It just kind
32:13
Speaker 1: of lingered and extended and kept going. You don't want
32:16
Speaker 1: that to happen again. They have a winning record during
32:20
Speaker 1: this downturn, with the runners in the scoring position just
32:22
Speaker 1: three and four in August. It's a week in the month.
32:26
Speaker 1: We'll see how it goes. But they've been resilient. We'll
32:29
Speaker 1: see if they can get back on track. Saturday and Sunday.
32:32
Speaker 1: All right, Thanks so much for listening everyone. Patrick will
32:34
Speaker 1: be back next week. I will be in Toronto and
32:39
Speaker 1: enjoying Canada, so we will make sure to record from
32:43
Speaker 1: out there. Thanks so much for listening. This is Northside Territory,
32:46
Speaker 1: Foul Territory and File Territory Networks Cubs podcast. Make sure
32:50
Speaker 1: to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and
32:54
Speaker 1: subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are on
32:56
Speaker 1: top of all things cubs. Thanks for listening, everyone, to
32:59
Speaker 1: take he didn't know that