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Cubs news and notes halfway through spring training · 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 Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are
0:13
Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic and Patrick,
0:17
Speaker 1: once again we have switch spots. You are back in
0:20
Speaker 1: the Midwest in Chicago. I am back in Arizona. I'm
0:25
Speaker 1: not complaining happy to be here.
0:28
Speaker 2: Because man, it's the weather nice.
0:32
Speaker 1: I think while you were here kind of wrapping things
0:36
Speaker 1: up on your end, I don't know if you'd call
0:39
Speaker 1: it news what you want to call it, but you know,
0:42
Speaker 1: Justin Steele posted some a video of himself and then
0:48
Speaker 1: what was the wording he used?
0:49
Speaker 2: He said he was a full go or got the
0:51
Speaker 2: all all clear?
0:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, fully cleared, all go, no restrictions. I think there
0:57
Speaker 3: were two separate videos. There may be others out there,
1:01
Speaker 3: but it definitely caused a stir.
1:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely got some reaction.
1:07
Speaker 1: I think while you were out here you got some
1:09
Speaker 1: clarity because you know, look, we've been covering players for
1:15
Speaker 1: a long time. You can't always just take a quote
1:19
Speaker 1: from what they say, especially if it's posted on social
1:21
Speaker 1: media without any context. I think it's important to know,
1:24
Speaker 1: like what's really going on here? We know Justin Steel
1:28
Speaker 1: isn't going to be ready for opening day. I think
1:31
Speaker 1: the questions are when, what's the timeline? Is it changing now?
1:35
Speaker 1: And what about the sixty day injured list? Is that
1:40
Speaker 1: something that is still a possibility. I think these are
1:45
Speaker 1: things that I think you've you dug into a little bit.
1:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I understand where Justin's coming from that
1:51
Speaker 3: he is obviously super excited to keep making progress and
1:57
Speaker 3: this is a devastating injury that he experienced last April,
2:03
Speaker 3: and there's a lot of uncertainty coming back from these
2:08
Speaker 3: elbow surgeries. Even though you know you get the best
2:11
Speaker 3: doctors in the world and you know they do this
2:14
Speaker 3: stuff all the time, it's still your career and pitching
2:18
Speaker 3: is such like a fragile endeavor that you know he
2:23
Speaker 3: wanted to celebrate and so essentially doctor Keith Meister, who
2:29
Speaker 3: has his own orthopedic practice in Texas, he's a ranger's
2:33
Speaker 3: head physician. You know, there's a handful of you know,
2:36
Speaker 3: noted surgeons who do these over and over, and he
2:41
Speaker 3: was in Arizona checking in on a bunch of his patients,
2:44
Speaker 3: and for Steel, he got this all clear which effectively
2:50
Speaker 3: means that one he no longer has these regularly scheduled
2:54
Speaker 3: appointments with Meister, and two he can start throwing his
2:59
Speaker 3: curve again, because otherwise, I mean, you were down there
3:03
Speaker 3: earlier when spring training was starting. You know, Steele included
3:06
Speaker 3: his videos like he was in throwing thirty forty pitch
3:10
Speaker 3: bullpens already, So this was, you know, not like a breakthrough.
3:19
Speaker 3: This was kind of on the calendar already, but you know,
3:24
Speaker 3: a nice a nice milestone for him. When you're going
3:28
Speaker 3: through it, it's kind of it can be a lonely experience.
3:32
Speaker 3: It's very isolating. You're sort of part of the team,
3:35
Speaker 3: but not really.
3:37
Speaker 2: And so.
3:40
Speaker 3: At this point though the timeline didn't change, I think
3:43
Speaker 3: that's why the videos it was like, oh and you know,
3:45
Speaker 3: people started picking it up. He's still targeting May slash
3:50
Speaker 3: June ish. The Cubs have not made a decision yet
3:54
Speaker 3: on the sixty day IL because they don't have to.
3:58
Speaker 3: I think they're going to have roughly three weeks, which
4:03
Speaker 3: will give them a lot more information. They'll get some
4:07
Speaker 3: clarity on other airs with the roster, like do they
4:09
Speaker 3: need that roster spot, but like without any setbacks he's
4:15
Speaker 3: probably right around that borderline of sixty days anyways. And
4:20
Speaker 3: I think it's important to remember that, like Steal Creik
4:24
Speaker 3: Council said, it like things are going really well, like
4:27
Speaker 3: they're very encouraged, that does not mean things are going
4:32
Speaker 3: to go at that same pace or velocity for the
4:36
Speaker 3: entire length of this rehab process. And so it would
4:39
Speaker 3: be normal if at some point not saying this is happening.
4:43
Speaker 3: But maybe he you know, doesn't bounce back quite as quickly,
4:48
Speaker 3: and maybe he does need to like take a couple
4:50
Speaker 3: extra days here here or there, whatever the case, mean.
4:56
Speaker 2: You know, something bad happened.
4:58
Speaker 3: It's just these things are not always as linear as
5:03
Speaker 3: you want them to. But the last thing I would
5:06
Speaker 3: say is just that they're thinking about October. With all
5:10
Speaker 3: of this that, you know, Steal, there's always that sort
5:14
Speaker 3: of tension between the player and the team of the
5:16
Speaker 3: player always wants to get back, you know, as quick
5:18
Speaker 3: as possible, and the team, you know, it has to
5:20
Speaker 3: be the one to be a little more deliberate or
5:23
Speaker 3: patient at least in a lot of cases. But this one,
5:27
Speaker 3: they're talking points are pretty similar in terms of, you know,
5:30
Speaker 3: Steele wants to be at his best and the most
5:34
Speaker 3: important moments, and the Cubs will sort of have to
5:37
Speaker 3: manage backwards from that in a sense.
5:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean having Justin Steel as kind of this
5:46
Speaker 1: this guy that can join your rotation, you know, May
5:50
Speaker 1: or June, whatever it may be. I think it kind
5:54
Speaker 1: of is ideal being able to slow play this. And
5:57
Speaker 1: you wrote about it how they were short. This front
6:01
Speaker 1: office felt they were short with Justin Steele and Kate
6:03
Speaker 1: Horton hurt in the postseason. They felt like they were
6:07
Speaker 1: exposed in that way. Edward Cabrera is here to kind
6:11
Speaker 1: of be more. I don't want to call him a
6:14
Speaker 1: stable arm since he's not someone that has a Christine
6:17
Speaker 1: history of help, but another weapon in that rotation that
6:22
Speaker 1: has a chance to be a front front line starter.
6:27
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to. I think it's important to
6:32
Speaker 1: remember how good Justin Steele can be when he's right.
6:36
Speaker 1: He's you know, he seemed like he was kind of
6:38
Speaker 1: coming into his own and becoming this incredibly consistent pitcher
6:43
Speaker 1: his first four starts before the injury. It weren't great
6:47
Speaker 1: last year. They but you know, I haven't asked him
6:52
Speaker 1: about this, and maybe I should. Maybe he wasn't fully
6:57
Speaker 1: right all season long and never could really find himself.
7:01
Speaker 1: It could also have just been like it's four starts
7:03
Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter, and it was just like trying
7:06
Speaker 1: to find his rhythm.
7:07
Speaker 2: And then the injury popped up.
7:09
Speaker 3: And he pitched in Japan, right, so he would have
7:13
Speaker 3: started whatever that you were there mid mid March and
7:17
Speaker 3: then coming down to.
7:17
Speaker 2: Arizona and then right in the rear season.
7:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so, and I think he was giving up
7:24
Speaker 1: home runs. There were a lot of things that people
7:26
Speaker 1: were like, this doesn't seem like Justin Steele. I just
7:30
Speaker 1: think that the reality of like the potential, I should say,
7:35
Speaker 1: of a of a Justin Steele, like a twenty twenty
7:39
Speaker 1: four version of Justin Steele that's really twenty twenty three,
7:45
Speaker 1: I guess, was a breakout season that's very enticing like that,
7:50
Speaker 1: like seeing imagining him kind of rounding into form in
7:54
Speaker 1: the middle of the summer has to be incredibly exciting
8:00
Speaker 1: for the Cubs front office, for the coaching staff. But
8:03
Speaker 1: also they know that don't rush it because you want
8:08
Speaker 1: to have him ready for October and and really you know,
8:13
Speaker 1: humming uh in theory that could that could look really good, uh,
8:18
Speaker 1: And they could have you know a lot to choose from,
8:23
Speaker 1: and and Craig Council will have some tough choices, which
8:26
Speaker 1: I think they they love to have those.
8:30
Speaker 2: It is March. It is like you you can slow
8:33
Speaker 2: play it.
8:33
Speaker 1: Uh.
8:34
Speaker 2: He's not in games yet, He's not he's not performing. Uh.
8:38
Speaker 1: One thing we can we can talk about guys that
8:42
Speaker 1: are in in there in the uh, you know, getting
8:46
Speaker 1: after it on the mound.
8:48
Speaker 2: It's spring training. Not all of it is perfect. Uh.
8:51
Speaker 1: Jameson Ties had three starts and and they have not
8:57
Speaker 1: been good. Before we get it too, jameson time just
9:00
Speaker 1: left for Team Canada. World Baseball Classic. All of our coverage,
9:06
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9:09
Speaker 1: by our friends at Fox one, which is live stream
9:12
Speaker 1: all your Fox favorites together in one place, including all
9:16
Speaker 1: WBC games over the next few weeks, and after that
9:19
Speaker 1: the best MLB action all season long. You can start
9:25
Speaker 1: your seven day free trial at foxwe dot com. World
9:29
Speaker 1: Baseball Classic Live March fourth to seventeenth.
9:34
Speaker 2: Patrick.
9:35
Speaker 1: We asked Greg Goeusel about this, just because one start
9:40
Speaker 1: you don't care, like even two starts, it just doesn't matter.
9:45
Speaker 1: He's been giving up a lot of home runs. And
9:47
Speaker 1: he had a stretch of games where he gave up
9:49
Speaker 1: home runs last season. I think if you look at
9:54
Speaker 1: his body of work last season, it was a really
9:57
Speaker 1: strong season, and he was their best starter in the post.
10:00
Speaker 2: He's the most consistent starting on the postseason.
10:03
Speaker 1: Really seemed to find something down the stretch even with
10:07
Speaker 1: the injury. Uh, he came back and he just looked
10:10
Speaker 1: he looked good. But I think it's a fair question
10:14
Speaker 1: when when it's this bad and you're just kind of wondering, like,
10:18
Speaker 1: at what point do you care? I think that's it's
10:20
Speaker 1: as simple as that. When when does it matter? And
10:23
Speaker 1: and counsel said, look, look he's not he's not pitching
10:26
Speaker 1: well like it's not like he's like he's working on stuff. Yeah,
10:31
Speaker 1: he didn't dismiss it and say like this is pointless
10:33
Speaker 1: to talk about. But he also wasn't like I'm in
10:36
Speaker 1: freak out mode because there's nothing to be concerned.
10:40
Speaker 2: About just yet.
10:41
Speaker 1: It's is he healthy, Yes, Okay, he's got to work
10:45
Speaker 1: on stuff and get better and figure things out. Now
10:47
Speaker 1: he needs to be further along because he's got to
10:49
Speaker 1: go play in the WB Uh. But I don't think
10:53
Speaker 1: when when he's out there on March second and pitching poorly.
10:57
Speaker 1: That's not something that you need to be over concerned with.
11:01
Speaker 1: It's something you keep your eye on, see how it progresses. Uh,
11:04
Speaker 1: we just talked about the potential of depth here. We'll
11:07
Speaker 1: see what more happens with this team. But it's not June,
11:12
Speaker 1: it's not September. It is March second, or we're recording
11:17
Speaker 1: on March thirty. Pitched on March second. It's a thing
11:21
Speaker 1: to watch, it's not a thing to worry about because
11:24
Speaker 1: he can work through these things. Like if there's one
11:27
Speaker 1: thing we know that Jamison Town will do, he's he'll
11:29
Speaker 1: identify what's wrong, he'll work with his pitching coaches.
11:32
Speaker 2: He'll he'll work on it and get it right.
11:34
Speaker 1: Like whether it you know, whether it's fixed in time
11:37
Speaker 1: for the season, we'll see, but we know he'll put
11:40
Speaker 1: the work in.
11:43
Speaker 3: The season is too long to be doing this the
11:45
Speaker 3: first week of March, Like, I just can't, Like there's
11:50
Speaker 3: not you know, showed him in Naga, another pitcher we're
11:53
Speaker 3: mentioning in this WBC segment because I asked him the
11:58
Speaker 3: other day through his interpreter. Early now that the WBC
12:02
Speaker 3: is creeping forward and you know, the team Japan has assembled,
12:08
Speaker 3: this part of you maybe missing it a little more,
12:12
Speaker 3: And he said, well, it wasn't entirely my decision. And
12:17
Speaker 3: you know, I think he he gets a lot of
12:20
Speaker 3: counsel from, you know, different people, and I'm sure his
12:27
Speaker 3: I'm guessing his employer and his agency were probably on
12:30
Speaker 3: the same page with this one. And you know, it
12:32
Speaker 3: just makes the most sense for him, you know, when
12:35
Speaker 3: he's on a one year qualifying offer to you know,
12:38
Speaker 3: be with his team, when he's had this you know,
12:42
Speaker 3: you know, sweeping off season program to try to get
12:44
Speaker 3: back to where he was, you know.
12:46
Speaker 2: Get it.
12:46
Speaker 3: But like, yeah, his velocity was up good one outing,
12:52
Speaker 3: gave a bunch of home runs. The next like show
12:54
Speaker 3: to him and Aga is going to give up home runs.
12:56
Speaker 2: And so.
12:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, the discourse kind of surprised me, Like if if
13:02
Speaker 3: they were pitching awesome, would we be mentioning it, Like,
13:06
Speaker 3: I don't know, it just seems it seems kind of
13:08
Speaker 3: early for me, Like I don't know if they could
13:11
Speaker 3: have three bats starts at the beginning of the season,
13:14
Speaker 3: Like obviously we'd mentioned that, but like, you know, it's
13:20
Speaker 3: hard to get fired up over the Cactus League. I
13:22
Speaker 3: think Jed Hoyer says it every year pretty much every like,
13:26
Speaker 3: you know, season opening media session, that was spring training
13:30
Speaker 3: in September are the two worst times to evaluate players.
13:36
Speaker 3: And that you know, did Kyle Tucker get one hit
13:40
Speaker 3: in spring training last year?
13:41
Speaker 2: Was something like he had a.
13:43
Speaker 3: Real long time. Then he was awesome, uh, you know
13:48
Speaker 3: in the first half, and then was great in the
13:51
Speaker 3: second half. And so like, I I get it, like
13:55
Speaker 3: this is you know, there's only so much we have
13:58
Speaker 3: to go on here, but you're right, Like, I mean,
14:01
Speaker 3: Tyne was awesome in the playoffs last year. I think
14:04
Speaker 3: he showed a lot because he's always been this sort
14:07
Speaker 3: of like solid mid to a pitcher, and I think
14:09
Speaker 3: for him to pitch the way he did in October
14:13
Speaker 3: was very impressive. And yeah, like you know, showda Counsel
14:17
Speaker 3: made the point like even in Shoda's All Star season,
14:22
Speaker 3: he gave up a lot of homers, Like you know,
14:24
Speaker 3: y aren't perfect pitchers out there. That's kind of his
14:27
Speaker 3: you know, his weakness even when he's rolling.
14:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just not you know, showed him Minaga giving
14:34
Speaker 1: up home runs and they were all solo home runs,
14:36
Speaker 1: so you know, good for him, Like I'm not like
14:39
Speaker 1: he's going to give up home runs, he probably is
14:41
Speaker 1: going to be, you know, among like, if he's healthy
14:45
Speaker 1: and pitches a ton of innings, he's going to be
14:46
Speaker 1: among the top of the league when it comes home runs.
14:49
Speaker 2: Would be my guy.
14:50
Speaker 1: He may also be one of the best pitchers in
14:52
Speaker 1: the game that even despite doing that, because he doesn't
14:56
Speaker 1: walk a lot of guys. And as long as that's
14:58
Speaker 1: all he's doing, giving up the occasional solo home run,
15:01
Speaker 1: you'll you can handle it. Like you know, they always
15:05
Speaker 1: say solo home runs won't kill you. That's that's how
15:09
Speaker 1: how these guys look at it. They're not gonna dwell
15:11
Speaker 1: on it. They'll move on quickly. You don't want to
15:16
Speaker 1: you don't want to overreact to the negative stuff, but
15:18
Speaker 1: buy in, all in on anything good. Saya Azuki hit
15:21
Speaker 1: a second deck home run in a WBC warm up game,
15:25
Speaker 1: so that means he's he's ready.
15:28
Speaker 2: Uh, you know, he's ready to go.
15:30
Speaker 1: I'm sure he's gonna have a thirty home run season
15:32
Speaker 1: based solely on that one guy that I don't you know,
15:38
Speaker 1: like he's he's someone that I think gets a lot
15:40
Speaker 1: of you know, a lot of people talk about Saya
15:44
Speaker 1: Azuki's kind of breakout.
15:47
Speaker 2: I don't know what.
15:47
Speaker 1: It was a step up in power and he's he's
15:50
Speaker 1: been pretty good all three However many seasons he's been
15:56
Speaker 1: with the Cubs is a four?
15:57
Speaker 2: Uh, this is year five?
15:59
Speaker 3: Right?
15:59
Speaker 2: It was a five year deal, yeah, because it is
16:01
Speaker 2: right after the the new CBA was ratified.
16:06
Speaker 3: So five year deal for that five year deal for.
16:09
Speaker 1: Saya, expectations are high for him. I feel like someone
16:13
Speaker 1: that barely gets coverage.
16:14
Speaker 2: And I do this too.
16:15
Speaker 1: I sometimes forget when listing off the impact players on
16:19
Speaker 1: this offense. Michael Bush is just, you know, going about business.
16:27
Speaker 1: He's going You wrote about how he's going to be
16:29
Speaker 1: playing every day now. He he just doesn't get talked enough.
16:35
Speaker 1: It talked about enough. He's someone that you know, there
16:39
Speaker 1: was a little online discourse about it. Is he a
16:41
Speaker 1: top ten first baseman in the league? Look way to
16:46
Speaker 1: runs great at plus? Is the stat I like he
16:47
Speaker 1: was second best among first basement last year. You want
16:50
Speaker 1: to Dingham for not playing against lefties.
16:52
Speaker 2: I get it.
16:54
Speaker 1: He's he's got to overcome that challenge, the challenge before
16:57
Speaker 1: that he's placed. He's faced plenty of challenges over his
17:01
Speaker 1: short Cubs career. It's a can he play first base?
17:04
Speaker 1: I think quickly answered whether he could do that. Athletic
17:08
Speaker 1: looks really good at the position. First year, struggled a
17:12
Speaker 1: little bit at Wrigley Field, a lot of lefties do.
17:16
Speaker 1: Last year, he crushed it at wrigley Field. He was
17:20
Speaker 1: he had the best, really among the regulars. He had
17:25
Speaker 1: the best numbers among like lefties. Alrighty's great season at
17:30
Speaker 1: wrigley Field. Great season overall. Faced performed in the playoffs
17:36
Speaker 1: first time in the postseason. Delivered four home runs, eleven
17:40
Speaker 1: to twenty eight ops in eight games. Just dominated. And
17:45
Speaker 1: now this is the next challenge that he faces, you know,
17:48
Speaker 1: playing it got to overcome facing lefties, starting against lefties.
17:54
Speaker 2: I don't I don't think he's going to be overwhelmed
17:56
Speaker 2: by this moment.
17:58
Speaker 1: He's not this boisterous personality we've seen it first base before.
18:01
Speaker 1: He's got an imposing figure like we've seen it first
18:03
Speaker 1: base before. Derek Lee, Anthony Rizzo, Mark Race, some big names,
18:09
Speaker 1: much loved Cubs as far as the fan base is concerned.
18:13
Speaker 2: He may not be like the quote of the year.
18:16
Speaker 2: He may not be this hulking figure in the box.
18:20
Speaker 1: He's been really good and one of the best for
18:22
Speaker 1: his basemen as far as the numbers go the past
18:25
Speaker 1: couple of years. And I get the need that he
18:28
Speaker 1: needs to prove it one more thing. I wouldn't I
18:32
Speaker 1: wouldn't doubt that he can.
18:36
Speaker 2: No.
18:36
Speaker 3: And Craig Counsel when I ask him about Bush the
18:39
Speaker 3: other day, and Council will just pull out good quick
18:44
Speaker 3: anecdotes here and there. Sometimes you don't even expect it.
18:48
Speaker 3: And Bush was batting at Sloan Park and he was
18:51
Speaker 3: standing next to Alex Bregman, and so Bush's numbers are
18:55
Speaker 3: up on the board last year and it's like thirty
18:57
Speaker 3: four homers, a sixty six ops, and Bregman sort of
19:02
Speaker 3: gave Counsel a look like, wow, you know, pretty good.
19:07
Speaker 3: And that did not include he had four home runs
19:10
Speaker 3: in the playoffs, and it did not have the context
19:14
Speaker 3: of how, you know, he had to sit against certain
19:16
Speaker 3: left handed pitchers, and you know, I think he was
19:19
Speaker 3: maybe I think he accumulated the seventh most played appearances
19:23
Speaker 3: on the team something like that, So like it was
19:25
Speaker 3: a healthy role, but not you know, full or the
19:30
Speaker 3: full role that obviously Bush would prefer. And you know,
19:35
Speaker 3: this is his chance. He's still got to go earn it.
19:40
Speaker 3: You know. I think I wrote he's a good hitter
19:42
Speaker 3: and a bad self promoter, and I will I will
19:46
Speaker 3: give MLB.
19:47
Speaker 2: I think it's LB network.
19:48
Speaker 3: Do they do all those like top ten positions, like yeah,
19:51
Speaker 3: at each position, like they are genius for like dropping
19:55
Speaker 3: those because inevitably pissed someone off. He's like such a
19:59
Speaker 3: silly exer size. But it's like great content because inevitably,
20:05
Speaker 3: you know, fans get.
20:06
Speaker 2: Get riled up and annoyed.
20:08
Speaker 3: And you know, I don't know if there's ten first
20:10
Speaker 3: base and better, but I think clearly he cleared that
20:15
Speaker 3: bar of like everyday player for a first division team.
20:19
Speaker 3: I think that's kind of what you look for, right of,
20:22
Speaker 3: like can can you trust this guy? You know with
20:26
Speaker 3: six hundred played appearances Canny, I don't know what that was.
20:35
Speaker 3: I think that's a I should have unplugged the alexa
20:38
Speaker 3: or whatever that is there it maybe, but you know
20:42
Speaker 3: where I'm going with it.
20:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think you look at what Michael
20:47
Speaker 1: Bush did in the postseason. He has emerged as one
20:52
Speaker 1: of the guys that you'd say is has the potential
20:55
Speaker 1: to carry this offense, and not only that, like he
21:00
Speaker 1: is remarkably consistent. I don't I don't recall many down
21:04
Speaker 1: moments last year. Like when I say down moments, I
21:07
Speaker 1: mean like two three, one month long stretches of poor
21:12
Speaker 1: performance that's normal for majority of players, Like only the
21:17
Speaker 1: elite of the elite don't have like a two week,
21:22
Speaker 1: one month downstretch where it's like this guy's struggling, you know.
21:26
Speaker 2: They every player goes through that for the most.
21:29
Speaker 1: Part, pretty much like it's like Aaron Judge, Shoheo Tani
21:33
Speaker 1: and a couple others where you're not talking about those moments.
21:36
Speaker 2: I'm not putting Michael Bush at that level. I'm not, but.
21:41
Speaker 1: He was impressively consistent, and you know, he had a
21:46
Speaker 1: couple down moments maybe as a Cubs but not a
21:48
Speaker 1: Ton But this is a guy that I'm pretty impressed with.
21:52
Speaker 2: And I feel like it's kind of the beginning and
21:57
Speaker 2: there's more there.
21:58
Speaker 1: Maybe not more as far as like the numbers he
22:01
Speaker 1: put up were really impressive. Like I said, it's just
22:04
Speaker 1: like one final like you know, the topping to his
22:08
Speaker 1: h to his season, to his career, I guess, and
22:12
Speaker 1: and just like he feels like someone that's gonna you know,
22:15
Speaker 1: establish himself as a long time productive first basement.
22:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt.
22:22
Speaker 3: I think, you know, what a great trade with the Dodgers.
22:27
Speaker 3: I think he better established himself.
22:29
Speaker 2: You know, if some of these Dodgers prospects outfield.
22:32
Speaker 3: Are supposedly pretty good, I don't know how much play
22:35
Speaker 3: for the Dodgers, but yeah, a really shrewd trade by
22:42
Speaker 3: Jed Hoyer's front office there. And just really you're right,
22:47
Speaker 3: he's not physically imposing, but like that, he is that
22:52
Speaker 3: exact like college hitter that the Cubs loved drafting.
22:57
Speaker 2: Of.
22:57
Speaker 3: Just like the size, like a nice compact left handed swing,
23:04
Speaker 3: athletic enough to be a real nice first baseman defensively
23:10
Speaker 3: and just to really guy's kind of hit everywhere he's been.
23:16
Speaker 3: And so you know, this is a real, real nice
23:19
Speaker 3: piece to have for several years. And you know, it's
23:24
Speaker 3: it's been a while. It took a while to sort of,
23:27
Speaker 3: you know, replace Anthony Rizzo. He is not Anthony Rizzo,
23:33
Speaker 3: but like we just said, a really startedly above average
23:38
Speaker 3: two way player on a playoff team like period. And
23:41
Speaker 3: that's a good you know, top ten or not. That's
23:44
Speaker 3: pretty good.
23:45
Speaker 2: Yep.
23:46
Speaker 1: All right, let's wrap this up. This is Northside Territory.
23:49
Speaker 1: Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
23:53
Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic, where Patrick and are on
23:56
Speaker 1: top of all things Cubs. Thanks so much for listening everyone,
23:58
Speaker 1: Take care.
24:01
Speaker 3: Re don't.
24:04
Speaker 2: Agree an reve do they move