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Game 1 Wild Card Recap + Game 2 Preview · Monday Morning Cubs Show

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Action and good morning, good afternoon, and evening, Chicago Cubs fans, and welcome back to the Monday Morning Cubs Show, special edition Wednesday, September 30th, game one recap into a game two preview.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's your host, Carl.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is a solo uh this this is a playoff episode.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you're familiar with what we've done over the last couple of years, I should I shouldn't say last couple of years, but just last year in particular, post-game recap into next game preview, day of.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we played tonight at 9 o'clock, just a really disappointing game one.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: So the purpose of today's show is to get some stuff off our chest so we can at least have a chance to enjoy a playoff game tonight.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because right now, mentally cooked, last night mentally cooked, extremely difficult performance to reconcile for a number of reasons.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So just want to say welcome back to the show.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, thanks for tuning in.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: We'll fire these out as many, as many times as the Cubs you know deserve them.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it's winner go home.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: We win, we gotta win tonight.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Back up against the wall.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just gutless performance.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get into that, we'll get it off our chest, we'll talk about game two.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we learned a lot about the Padres, some of the stuff we were dead on balls accurate about, some stuff just wildly wrong about.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Wildly wrong.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Matt Boyd starting, did not see coming.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you listen to the show, you've heard me say for months we're out of our mind if Matt Boyd started game one of the playoffs series.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: That happened last night.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: That happened.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna talk about it.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get it off our chest.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you, though, we have to be constructive.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: We have to take the fact that Matt Boyd was poopy pants from the start and we'll spin it, we'll be positive.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: The reason we're gonna do that is because the show is brought to us by Thirsty Vaquero, Mexican-style soda with a signature spicy finish.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I swear on my life, if you fast forward, the season's already over.
• 1:54
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• 1:55
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• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's so many options in play.
• 2:04
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• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's all bite, no rattle.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people listening to this that have had it are nodding along.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: They're going, thank God Carl introduced me to this.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and then there's people who haven't had it that are going, stop pushing product, dude.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Stop pushing product.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta sit through nine innings of Peacock Baseball where all they're doing is just cramming commercial products down our throat.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I can't come to the Monday morning cub show after losing 8-0 and getting one goddamn hit and being told about Thirst of Acaro.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, contraire, my friends, the only reason we're here is because of them.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if the product isn't good enough, if the beverage isn't delicious enough, you know, if the circumstances should be, the combination of both, slam dunk.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Go get some thirst of a carol.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Go to Amazon, 12 ounce, 16 ounce.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: How are we feeling?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Not great, Bob.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty terrible.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get it off our chest.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Gutless effort across the board.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Baller strike, I blame leadership.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's a strike.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people are saying Jed Hoyer, absolute embarrassing job to spend$248 million this season and then have Matt Boyd start game one.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like we spent$35 million on Alex Bregman.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: We pumped him full of steroids when his eye got broke.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's on he's on some performance enhancers.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Optical infusion.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we have Matt Boyd pitch him.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a problem.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's not Matt Boyd's fault that he's pitching game one.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: I blame leadership, baller strike, I blame the lineup.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: One hit, Michael King's good.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad we touched on what you could see from him because it was basically that glove side sharp, his breaking stuff sharp.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: His first pitch, second pitch, strike stuff sinkers over the plate very sharp.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: If he gets ahead, the ball darts just remarkably late action to both sides of the plate.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, elite, you know, top 1% when it comes to pitching to both sides of the plate.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you had tip your tap.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not at the point where I'm starting to reconcile anything.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still mad.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm mad at the lineup.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: You just looked gutless.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: As the game went on, there was no fight.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So as soon as we went down, first pitch of the game, it was like puppy dog, we're down, we're out.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we need daddy to come home and rub our belly.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: No, we're Major League Baseball players.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: We bounce back, Michael King at our lunch.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happens when you give a guy like him a crooked lead early in a big situation.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's in a position to just feast and be aggressive and run the ball down your throat.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're that sharp and aggressive and you're in the strike zone with that much movement early, I mean, we just see terrible swings.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: In a contrast, too, for a guy with a remarkable ground ball rate, the weak pop-up contact.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, like Manny Machado should not be catching weak pop-ups from left-handed hitters in foul territory, especially against a guy like Michael King, who's just pounding down, down so much sinking action.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: So when you see us popping out, is we're all over the place.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's being uncomfortable.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: When you're making outs that are completely opposite to the pitcher's game plan, that's that's brutal.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a lineup that scored.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: I want I want to say that's a lineup that scored.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: We we I believe we scored nine runs in five of our last six games, including a shutout.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Multiple games just scored two, three runs.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, number one offense in baseball, sure, whatever.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Over 162.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Last couple weeks, I don't know.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Baller strike, I blame the lineup, that's a strike.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Baller strike, I blame Matt Boyd.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's a strike.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not his fault that he shouldn't be pitching that game.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And do we need to rehash this as we get this off our chest?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Was it not fairly obvious if you just pull up the splits and you see what San Diego's done the last 20 games?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're 17 and 3 over the last 20.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to go to MIT Sloan's School of Business or whatever the fucking sports conference is, you know, where they harvest front office executives, you know, kids that could be writing code, well, not anymore with artificial intelligence, but like, you know, kids that would be successful in any discipline of life, they choose professional baseball to get behind the laptop to make these decisions.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Years, hundreds of thousands of dollars on education.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: People who could be working in in medicine, who could be improving health outcomes for the general public, are instead in spreadsheets figuring out where to hit the fucking shortstop.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't need a fraction of that training to take one look at the San Diego Powers and go, not a lefty.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Not a lefty.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why would we start a lefty?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Why would we start a lefty?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's the only thing we can't do because then it opens up the door for now much now.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's a real lineup.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about one, two Machado on in the three-hole with a 660 OPS.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: He destroyed us last night.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: We can't game plan around the worst version of Manny Machado.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: He hasn't played two fucking good games in a row all season long.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he he looked every bit of the first ballot Hall of Famer last night.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And how much of that is just like, are we making it as easy as possible on Manny Machado and the San Diego Padres?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Xander Bogartz is below average.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to give him a chance to be good, I would suggest throwing Matt Boyd over already.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last what, five weeks, their OBP against left-handed pitching.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, their OBP against righties is sensational.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's like 350, but against the lefties, it's it's over 400.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what are we doing?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: That you don't need to like Craig Council played 15 years in Major League Baseball, has one of the highest fielding percentages of any infielder with more than a thousand innings under his belt.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I repeat, like one of the all-time great fundamental, foundational organization, however you want to describe it.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like you draft a guy, what's he, like a fifth rounder?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: You hope he turns into something.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: 15 fucking years.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need 15 years in the big leagues to look at the Padres and go, not a lefty.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to host a podcast.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do, you're in customer service going to work today.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I could be talking to a blue-collar guy right now who's going hanging some fucking drywall.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Good for you.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's wet out there.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you don't you don't need any experience in baseball.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: You don't, you could just, you don't need a peacock subscription.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to watch 162.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: You need to have two fucking brain cells to rub together to go maybe not a lefty game one.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's more of an emergency thing.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, you know?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I gotta get that off my.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't blame Matt Boyd.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's in that situation, but I do blame him that you're in the situation.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just fucking 90 three hitters in the game over.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's a strike.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that goes back to the next baller strike.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta be kidding me, Matt.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: But if that's a strike, you gotta be kidding me.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Matt Boyd is taking them on there.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's a strike.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care if we're playing the San Diego Padres or the St.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Francis fighting fucking Saints out in Joliet.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: That is a strike Matt Boyd should not be pitching game one of a playoff series against Saint whoever.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Don't care.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: So baller striker in big trouble.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's a strike.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm almost done getting shit off my chest.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: We here's a perfect example of the frustration.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because we got a game to play tonight.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: We win tonight.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's an elimination game.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Bang.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're back.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Game three.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta win tonight.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get to Nick Pavetta versus Kevin Gossman.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get to how worse the Padres should look tonight against a right-handed pitcher.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be miffed if they look better.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: We can't look worse.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Baller strike, we're in big trouble.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Here's basically the it's it's symbiotic of just my distrust in our front office and the lack of human element in our decision making, where we have guys running the ship that don't understand that these baseball players are regular fucking guys.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna give you a perfect example.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Just how we manage the pitchers is atrocious.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, the bullpen is up one year, down the next, up one year, awful the next.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we have so much volatility.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: The guys in charge of this shit.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a perfect example.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Javier Assad got option to AAA, what, five times this year?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Javier Asad pitched successfully.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Every time he's gotten the ball, I should say, is an aggregate in the hole.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: You'd look at Javier Assad's cruiser cup, you go, like when he gets the ball, like when he rises to the occasion, almost to the point where it's been a joke on Cubs Twitter of the ass man needs more opportunities.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And like that's our number one.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he always rises to the occasion.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, but because of his contract status, the Cubs get to option him back and forth to AAA.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: While we figure out whether or not Hunter Harvey's going to come back from the IL, if Phil Mayton's worth his shit, do I have to go down the list?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we while we solve all of the problems that our front office puts into place, we just go, Javier Asad, you go to Iowa, now you come back to Wrigley, and then you have success, and then you go back to Iowa, and then you you have success there, and then we bring you back to Wrigley and you pitch us out of a jam, and then we the first fucking thing we do is put you in an Uber Black and send your ass back to Des Moines, Iowa.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because we can.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because we can.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's the nature of professional baseball, the service time, the whole hierarchy of how these contracts are fucking managed.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Got it.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: But then to turn around and tell me he's the first right-handed pitcher to take the mound in a playoff series of the same season where we've done we've almost half a dozen times, we're out of options with him.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's it we've we abused his status as a major league baseball player for years.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the first situation where you go, we have to go to the bullpen, that's the guy we go to.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a problem in a number of areas you want to look at it.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's a problem.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's a problem.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: The front office, we don't have a that's the number one righty Craig Council can go to.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Was he advised into going into Javier Assad?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're gonna say Javier Assad's there in the to take over for Matt Boyd to give us a chance to stay in this game, how in good faith could you tell me he spends half the season in Iowa?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So is it just he's hot right now, or we don't have anyone else, and then we're down five in the fourth inning, and we go to we go to our number one left-handed pitcher.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: So is he available tonight?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: We use Ryan Rawlison.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Who's making these decisions?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't we I get I'm not saying pitch shoda.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm saying if you're gonna put yourself in a situation in the offseason where you're gonna fumble his qualifying offer, he's gonna give you 175 innings and 175 strikeouts in a sub-4 ERA.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's not even in the conversation.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: The resources wasted on that shoda contract, then he's not even in the he's not even in the conversation.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to a league minimum guy that's on the shuttle bus to Iowa.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta be fucking kidding me.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's some rich old shit to me.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I gotta watch the language.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why I'm happy I didn't record last night.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I would have been with the Lizard King.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: You put the pitch clock away, you know, or put the counter away.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I I would I'd still be doing the show if I recorded it last night.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's how mad I was.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as I say this, I have to check to make sure I'm even recording this one because man, that would be some shit if I was just talking into the void.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: We are recording this, thank goodness.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So there's the stuff off our chest.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're about halfway through the show here, guys.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just getting it off my chest because that's disgusting.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the bright side as we transition into game two.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Does it matter if we get one hit?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what most people are saying online last night is I'm bitching about cred council.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: People, who cares?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Our lineup stinks.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like our lineup laid an egg.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: You can't say our lineup stinks, it leads baseball and like every metric, what whatever metric you measure, our one through nine, you know, is is good enough to be let down by the fact that they one hit, one infield hit against Michael King.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that's frustrating.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: But the bright side is throughout this season we've proved to be, you know, schizophrenic, Dr.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Jekyll, Mr.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Hyde, you know, wind blows out, wind blows in, two completely different teams.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: So what team shows up tonight?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's the bright spot.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Another bright spot, can't look any worse.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Another bright spot.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Every time we look as bad as possible throughout this year, uh, throughout this season, the next time we take the field, we do bounce back.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Except for the two 10-game losing streets.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the last two series of the year.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So technically not all the time.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: But it's happening.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: So there's your like, there's a little bit of a silver lining.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, as I'm talking through this, what I'm thinking about is if if we're incompetent enough to do what we did last night with the first three pictures we use in this series, does it matter?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what's the explanation on that?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or or is it so bad that you're like, well, you're due for such a bad one every now and then.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: We got it out of our system.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's it, there's a spin zone.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because what I'm trying to reconcile is just how pathetic that was.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And as I'm looking at, I'm like, okay, we gotta talk about game two here.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Nick Pivetta's going.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Nick Pivetta's got really good stuff.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Top of the zone, bottom of the zone.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: They've brought him along slowly but surely so that when he came back on the mound in September, he's 100%.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna see Nick Pivetta 100% of him for at least five innings.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be difficult.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna throw 96 at the top of the zone.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna look like it's rising.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna throw extremely sharp breaking balls.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's gonna spin a little sweeper in there when it's 1-0.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's predictable, but it's very good.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's the problem with Pavetta.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's very hard to hit, strikes a ton of people out.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it's been awesome in San Diego the last two years.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's been out most of this season with an elbow injury.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, was pitching at the top of the rotation in April out for the season, comes back in September, has been lights out his last four starts.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Last time he took the mound, I believe was September 24th against the Dodgers.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I may not have the date right.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: I do believe his last start of the season was against the Dodgers.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, whether that's one error in five, seven strikeouts, you know, it's a great, solid, strong performance.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Down the stretches, the Padres are chasing home field advantage in the wild card round.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And like Pivetta stepped up.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: They won all four of his starts in September.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: So he's taking them out with momentum.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Personal momentum, professional momentum, however you want to fucking slice it, he's comfortable.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're not.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's your scatter report.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're uncomfortable right now.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he's the perfect guy to follow Michael King.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because Michael King, again, arm side, glove side, sharp two seamers, sharp sinkers, you saw last night, and then really good breaking balls.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Not a lot down the middle.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly not a lot of flat stuff.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so Michael King's a little bit different.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's got extremely sharp stuff, but where I would say King is more horizontal across the strike zone, Pavetta tonight should be more vertical, should be at the top of the zone, the bottom of the zone.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Should be getting you when the swings and misses are over and underneath the ball.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, whereas Michael King can get you to reach, you know, I don't need to get too technical here.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is audio only, and get the whiteboard out and start, you know, start diagramming this shit, but it's gonna be a different but similar look.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so like if this was football as a defense that blitzes a lot, but like it's a different look.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, same general concept.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be aggressive, we're gonna put you on your heels.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's easy to come back and say, like, I need our starting pitcher to give us a chance here.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I need a scoreless first inning.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if they score one in the second, so be it.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: But like, can we get can we get a scoreless?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Can we give our lineup two chances at Nick Pivetta while the Padres have zero runs on the board?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's the first objective for tonight.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, if we don't get that, big trouble.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: But that's the first checkpoint.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: We get that, all right.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: We're in business.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we win a baseball game.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we could also come out and just hang 10, because that's the type of team we are.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm certainly not counting on it last night.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's a flip side, though.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Pete Carl Armstrong had that weird moment last night with the third base umpire, Bill Miller, on the check swing.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'm saying weird is like Pete basically showed up, Bill Miller, who's a fucking crew chief on a wild card team, you know, in a wild card round.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, obviously, this guy's been what, umping games for 35 years in Major League Baseball.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: You got Pete Carl Armstrong, who is gonna win the MVP, probably unanimously, showing him up on the check swing and Bills doesn't ring him.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Insane.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Insane.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Could not believe my eyes.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Pete Carl Armstrong did not get tossed last night in an 8-0 game.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the bounce back from that.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we've seen Pete.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Pete, you I mean, we've seen Pete do dumb shit.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I like I just my brain immediately goes to tell him about the trashy girl from the White Sox uh suck his dick.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Which is, you know, valid, obviously.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I I grew up, I probably know that girl.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um whatever.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying she deserved it, but like she's she's probably asking for it, if that makes sense.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so when Pete gets like Pete looks bad, you know, Pete bounces back.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: He he he doesn't he doesn't stew in uh in poor performance for very long, does he?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, not at all.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: So there's your flip side.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: The it's a humiliating loss, it's it's quite frankly a disgusting performance across the board.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you have Pete like in an embarrassing moment, which probably better if he does get tossed for your ego.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can't even get tossed there.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: You weren't you didn't even say enough, you couldn't even talk enough shit.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're doing a demonstration, you can't even argue balls and strikes.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine you can do a demonstration on a slow walk back to the dugout without getting tossed.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get tossed.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right, where's their silver lining here?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he could be sitting in the hotel right now, feeling his emotions, being like, I need to step up.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: I would imagine.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what are we even doing here talking about this?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Of course Pete's gonna, of course Pete's bouncing back tonight.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're just getting it off our chest.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's our scotting report.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Pete show up in the first inning, Kevin Gossman show up in the first inning.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I have no trust in anybody in any leadership capacity.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: The only people I trust one through nine through the lineup, I trust that they're gonna come back, play a better game tonight against Nick Pivetta.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: I trust that.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: I have to.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: I have to.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: I subscribe to Peacock, I'm gonna sit down, I'm gonna watch this.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have to trust our one through nine is gonna show up, do do better than one hit.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not impossible, but technically it would be almost impossible to do worse than that.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: It would be very difficult to do worse than we did last night.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: So there's Skyrim report number, let's look item number what, three on the Sky Report for today.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Would be hard to be worse than last night.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, with respect to leadership, this is why it matters because I've it's like we could get a lead.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I have we have no control.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: We can't even talk, we can't even talk confidently about what what could potentially happen with the pitching staff.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: We can't even be remotely strategic in any type of like, you know, uh we're getting ready, we're getting ready for game two.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: What do we expect tonight?
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I expect them to play the game at nine o'clock.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think the bases will be 90 feet apart.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: They'll play at Petco.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: I have so little I can expect.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, are we is the bus even gonna show up on time?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's how surprised I am when I see Javier Arasad coming into Ryan Rawlison.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Just like one, two, whamey, knocking me out.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: What the fuck are we doing?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: After we start Matt Boyd.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Are we just picking names out of a hat?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: That at least would be systematic.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: That at least is like Okay, well I can at least I can understand how we got to the sequence of pictures we used.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: We were picking out of the hat.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: We were throwing darts.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: We asked a child.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we rolled eight-sided die.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: What did we do?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we hired a kid from MIT to make a randomizer in Excel.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, we flipped a coin.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Carter Hawkins is such a pussy, should have no influence over the roster at all, ever.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Not not at all.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Fuck you.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're getting mad.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to get mad.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: I want to stay positive about game two.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's nice that we have a playoff game.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: I am disappointed in how we performed.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: I am disappointed in how we took the field.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm disappointed in matchups.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Ugh.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Disappointed in how we executed pitches.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm disappointed we didn't show any fight at all.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: So nice thing is, you know, it's a three-game series.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Although that's bullshit.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: These three-game series are just ridiculous.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very much in favor of shrinking the season by at least eight games, moving the playoffs up, and turning the first round into a true five cards, uh, five-game series, and then NLDS should be seven games then.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then just go seven games and treat the postseason like its own season and not some gimmick that's just propped up and streamed on a phone.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just bullshit.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's my perspective.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Is here I'm gonna put another 162 season under my belt.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna host a podcast about the Cubs, I'm gonna follow the season of the narratives.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: And here's an here's a newer feeling I haven't had.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's just how cheap Major League Baseball is.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: There used to be a sense of pride to this whole process.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: You go through the season, you get to the playoffs, it's a big fucking deal.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: That lasted for 24 hours.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're in elimination mode.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, now it's like I don't even remember the 210 game win uh losing streets.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't remember anything from this the season.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the trauma from last night.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I remember being just vehemently disappointed for all nine innings.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: All every each inning disgusted, progressively more disgusted as the game went on, which is yeah, that's hard to do when you do nine innings to just like keep every inning step up into more disgusting territory.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, usually there's at least a peak.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, no, each inning a new low.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: New low.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: How bad do you feel in the sixth?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Here comes the seventh.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: And don't worry, there's gonna be an eight and a nine.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can you can you can feel worse, it's possible.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Surely we'll surely we'll scratch together a run here to get some of them.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Nope, everyone goes home a fucking loser last night.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: So Leno, get it out of your system.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Get it out of your system.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Get it out of your system.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's the message.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now we play Nick Pivetta tonight, he's very good.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing you can do about it.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Go hand your drywall.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what are you a dental assistant, clean those fucking teeth?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: There is nothing you can do.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Scalpel, hand the scalpel.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: 50cc.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Get the 50cc.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Just do your job.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Check the check the boxes today.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: And and hopefully the Cubs do their job tonight.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully Kevin Gossman does his job tonight.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the last part.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the difference in what I would expect from Gossman versus Matt Boyd.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: I would imagine Gossman is pitching in reverse tonight.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: I would imagine a lot of first pitch splitters.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: I would imagine he's going to be throwing his splitter for a strike early in the count.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's going to do that right away.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: So the second pitch of the game should be a splitter.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: First pitch of the game should be a fastball mounted away for a strike.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: The second pitch of the game, third pitch, fourth, fifth pitch of the game, we should just be seeing so many splitters from Kevin Gossman tonight.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we should see him crowding these right-handed hitters who were just basically walked up to the plate last night, red carpet, with a photographer in a PR person trailing them, I'm trying to paint a picture of they basically sent a fucking limousine to the dugout for each hitter so they could be as comfortable as possible when they got to the plate.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you would you would have thought Matt Boyd, you would have thought Matt Boyd was throwing BP for the Padres last night in between pitches, asking guys where do you want it?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Machado, where do you want it?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Middle in?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: You got it, buddy.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Coming right up.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: That was that was effectively what it looked like last night.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: I would imagine Kevin Gossman, you know, whether it's on purpose, instinctually, you know, the balance of the sport, tonight I would imagine, I would hope, somebody of his sense ability would crowd and make the hitters uncomfortable.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you would do that by pitching backwards and throwing your fastball inside on these ready's the first time through the lineup.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that the second time through the lineup, maybe transition back into more of a natural fastball splitter combo.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then hopefully get to the third time through the lineup so those guys are truly flipping a coin where they're like, I've seen him twice.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: He worked me split, then fastball in, then he worked me fastball away and fastball up.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so like I don't know what I'm getting from Kevin Gossman third time through the lineup.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because heaven forbid we go to the bullpen.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like that's the challenge.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin Gossman has to get 18 outs tonight.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: So and we and we need the lineup to have some pulse sign of life.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: And to do that, we have to hope Nick Pavetta is over the plate early.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't hit.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: I can't.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: I can't.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: But if I could, I would look for something over the plate early, which you're probably not gonna get.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: All the more reason to be more aggressive because it can't get worse than one f one hit.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: One hit.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, maybe uh, you know, it's like maybe maybe look to swing about, maybe, maybe be aggressive, is what I'm trying to say.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe be aggressive because we kind of see what happens when you when you let the other team dictate to you.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I would imagine that can be a philosophical approach where the team just shows up tonight, bats are free and easy, can't get worse, elimination game.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's the best side of this.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the Monday morning cub show.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want to come back for a game three preview.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: I love doing this, I love talking ball with you guys.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we got some stuff right in the game one preview, we got some stuff wrong.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Ugh.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't the the I pride myself on having a good pulse of some of the foundational aspects of this fucking season.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta watch the F-word of this entire season.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: And to be wrong about who our game one starter is, ooh.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, guys.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's on me.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's on me.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I should I should have seen that coming.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: I led you guys astray, and we had to sit through that last night, and I've just I've been hating myself for it.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: So um, otherwise, you know, we're on schedule here.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're on schedule, and that's why I'm willing to predict Cubs' offense breaks out tonight.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: We do force a game three, we are back in the chair tomorrow morning, we are getting ready for an elimination game.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we do have Milwaukee on our mind.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get there, but we gotta play great baseball tonight.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that's gonna happen.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think it has to happen.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, otherwise, what's the point?
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, in the meantime, you know, you get a chance, review the show or check out Thirsty Vacaro.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: There isn't a gun to your head.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to, you know.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and I wish I could sit here and say, buy a Thirsty Vacero.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: They have a lot, scratch off game.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: You could be a millionaire.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's what a lot of that's what a lot of sponsorships are these days.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Engage with this commercial product, your life could be better.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna keep it simple.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: You might be thirsty.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: I have a beverage for you.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: All right, I don't know what your mortgage situation is.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know where the assets and liabilities line up.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: I can just say this you want a beverage, I got guys slinging beverages, Mexican style soda, signature spicy finish, a little bit of good vibe going into a playoff game, too.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you want a chance, check them out on Amazon.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um otherwise, I'll see you guys tonight, right?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you guys tonight.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be sitting through the misery, um, and we'll be we'll be more timely with the lineup preview.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: That one got stuck in the drafts yesterday, you know, wedding anniversary, eight years.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that matters.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: No offense to the Cubs losing eight-nothing last night.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: But like if I had to pick eight that matters, the eight years matter a lot more than you know, the eight-nothing.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: So then that gets stuck in the drafts.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: So is that like an apology for anybody who's waiting for that?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Not really, as much as it's more of an explanation.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, an apology, you'll get the apology.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: The apology is I'm sorry I didn't see Matt Boyd coming.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm sorry I didn't prepare you for that atrocity.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's on me.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, lineup preview left in the draft, also on me, but you know, but I have a good excuse for that one.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the Monday morning cover show.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Love you guys.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, I'll see you guys tomorrow morning.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, God bless.