Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / How the Cubs are using their entire roster to stay on track

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How the Cubs are using their entire roster to stay on track · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. The Cubs
0:17
Speaker 1: swept the reeling Mets. That is a mess of a
0:21
Speaker 1: team right now. Just a kind of a brutal loss
0:25
Speaker 1: for them on Sunday, but you know, kind of one
0:29
Speaker 1: of those like you look back on a season and
0:32
Speaker 1: say like there are some wins that they that got
0:36
Speaker 1: stolen from you, and then some some losses that you
0:40
Speaker 1: stole away from the other team. And this was probably
0:43
Speaker 1: a game where you looked at it it's like that's
0:45
Speaker 1: going to be a frustrating loss. They had their opportunities
0:48
Speaker 1: to score some runs, and they came up in the
0:50
Speaker 1: biggest moment and finally got a run across in the
0:53
Speaker 1: ninth confordo x met PCA scoring the winning run at
0:58
Speaker 1: you know, former met as far as in their system.
1:03
Speaker 1: So there's you know, the Mets are struggling franchise right now.
1:08
Speaker 1: I can't imagine being a Met fan and dealing with
1:11
Speaker 1: that eleven losses in a row, But for the Cubs,
1:14
Speaker 1: that's five in a row looking much more like the
1:19
Speaker 1: team we expected them to look like. There's actually a
1:21
Speaker 1: lot of things and we won't talk about this episode,
1:24
Speaker 1: but a lot of things that aren't looking good, and
1:26
Speaker 1: they're still winning games. I don't know if you want
1:28
Speaker 1: to take that as a positive or what in the
1:30
Speaker 1: sense that, like, I don't expect all those offensive players
1:33
Speaker 1: to continue to struggle going forward. But what I wanted
1:37
Speaker 1: to start with, what we wanted to start with here
1:40
Speaker 1: is the starting pitching is it looks great right now.
1:47
Speaker 1: And that's with two huge injuries, one for the season
1:51
Speaker 1: in Kate Horton and Matthew Boyd, who's expected to return
1:55
Speaker 1: on Wednesday. Javiy Rossad had a terrible start against the
1:59
Speaker 1: philadel Phillies a week ago and bounces back with just
2:04
Speaker 1: I mean some of his best stuff and some like
2:08
Speaker 1: just a really impressive start and going I believe he
2:11
Speaker 1: went five and two thirds doing that, Like getting into
2:17
Speaker 1: the sixth inning for these guys, these starts is huge
2:19
Speaker 1: right now with all these injuries to the bullpen, and
2:23
Speaker 1: and I like these guys have all stepped up Asad,
2:28
Speaker 1: Colin Ray the back of the rotation and how In
2:31
Speaker 1: Jameson Tye own like that this is a group that
2:34
Speaker 1: they need to step up right now with these injuries,
2:36
Speaker 1: and they have.
2:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is totally fair and reasonable to sort of
2:42
Speaker 2: point the finger at the Cubs pitching group and wonder
2:45
Speaker 2: if they could have done anything differently in light of
2:49
Speaker 2: all of these pitching injuries. But at the same time,
2:51
Speaker 2: you have to give them credit for their problem solving
2:56
Speaker 2: abilities as well as, uh, the planning that went into
3:02
Speaker 2: all of this depth that they've assembled. Obviously, having good
3:07
Speaker 2: defense helps, and but they do seem to have a
3:11
Speaker 2: pretty strong game planning system. I mean that this has
3:14
Speaker 2: been in place for a long time, and you know,
3:18
Speaker 2: part of this episode we'll talk about kind of the
3:20
Speaker 2: Craig Council effect throughout the roster. But I think there's
3:24
Speaker 2: just been a good tone around this team. You I
3:30
Speaker 2: think the Mets really brought that out, Uh, you know,
3:33
Speaker 2: the stark contrast between the two and you know, you
3:36
Speaker 2: can just it's a new year, right, but when your
3:41
Speaker 2: previous year ends in just like an epic collapse, like
3:46
Speaker 2: that's just part of kind of the fabric of the
3:49
Speaker 2: next season. And you know, I believe their manager is
3:55
Speaker 2: a lame duck. They have, you know, rather impetuous owner.
4:02
Speaker 2: It is a very heavily involved owner, and you know,
4:06
Speaker 2: a team president who had a great reputation for what
4:11
Speaker 2: he built in Milwaukee. But it hasn't had that surprise
4:15
Speaker 2: season in year one and it hasn't worked out since
4:19
Speaker 2: with just an enormous payroll, and when you're in a
4:23
Speaker 2: big market, these things are magnified. Momentum positive or negative
4:29
Speaker 2: momentum can just really accelerate out of proportion, and that
4:37
Speaker 2: has not happened with the Cubs. I don't think that
4:40
Speaker 2: will happen with the Cubs. I think it's just part
4:42
Speaker 2: of kind of the fundamentals behind this team. And it
4:45
Speaker 2: starts with, you know, but still fairly robust starting pitching depth,
4:52
Speaker 2: not like perfect by any means. You know, we could
4:58
Speaker 2: go to Wrigley this week and they're another injury announced
5:01
Speaker 2: and then we're scrambling another type of thing. But like
5:04
Speaker 2: if Boyd's back, if Justin Steele's on track, like guys
5:10
Speaker 2: stay healthy, just that just gives you a chance to
5:16
Speaker 2: maybe you're not ripping off an eleven game winning streak,
5:18
Speaker 2: but it prevents like the eleven game losing streak that
5:22
Speaker 2: it almost takes you out of it. In April, which is.
5:25
Speaker 1: Easy to say, Yeah, it's such a I mean, I
5:30
Speaker 1: want to talk about eventually how this team is constructed,
5:33
Speaker 1: like the lineup and everything. I think it's important to
5:36
Speaker 1: talk about that because we're seeing like a full team
5:40
Speaker 1: be used right now, like a full roster, I should say.
5:43
Speaker 1: And I think I'm bringing that up right now because
5:47
Speaker 1: when I look at the Mets, I'm just like, this
5:50
Speaker 1: was constructed so oddly. I understand what like they were
5:53
Speaker 1: trying to do over the course of the offseason, but
5:56
Speaker 1: it was just like it was like they were trying
5:58
Speaker 1: to force things and they just created a poorly constructed roster,
6:02
Speaker 1: and now it's kind of falling apart on them so quickly.
6:07
Speaker 1: I am curious to see what happens on Wednesday. I
6:10
Speaker 1: guess he doesn't have to make the decision on Wednesday.
6:13
Speaker 1: Craig Council doesn't need to make the decision of who
6:16
Speaker 1: is out of the rotation. Maybe he does in one sense,
6:19
Speaker 1: as in who's available in the bullpen, but it is
6:24
Speaker 1: going to be interesting to see what his decision is.
6:27
Speaker 1: I don't between its. I think it has to be
6:31
Speaker 1: between Assad and Ray, and I think Ray's pitching so
6:36
Speaker 1: well that you don't push him out of the rotation yet.
6:40
Speaker 1: And Assad did have the blow up outing, probably the
6:44
Speaker 1: one of the worst, if not the worst outing of
6:46
Speaker 1: his career in Philly, But that bounce back just shows
6:50
Speaker 1: how resilient is how talented he is. And you know,
6:54
Speaker 1: I thought that some of the best stuff that he's
6:56
Speaker 1: had this season. Do you move him to the bullpen
7:01
Speaker 1: right now? Is he the best person to be moved
7:06
Speaker 1: to the bullpen? I guess because I doubt you move
7:08
Speaker 1: him down. You have so many lefties right now that
7:13
Speaker 1: I think you need to you need to consider moving
7:16
Speaker 1: Aside to the bullpen? Is he the guy that I think?
7:20
Speaker 1: It's an interesting decision, And these are the types of
7:22
Speaker 1: decisions these like, it's better than who has to close
7:26
Speaker 1: because all my guys are injured? This is this is
7:28
Speaker 1: one of those good decisions that Craig console has to
7:32
Speaker 1: try and figure out. But I think it is interesting.
7:34
Speaker 1: It is a good debate what do you do and
7:37
Speaker 1: who do you move out? And I don't think it's
7:40
Speaker 1: an easy choice, at least not for me right now.
7:43
Speaker 1: When I you know, at first glance, is this is
7:47
Speaker 1: it a sod Or Ray? I think it's moving Asade
7:50
Speaker 1: to the bullpens. That's my initial gut feel. He has
7:54
Speaker 1: two days to decide, I guess, and like I said,
7:57
Speaker 1: maybe he doesn't have to decide right away.
8:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's it's crazy. The other day I
8:02
Speaker 2: looked it up. It was something like, I think the
8:04
Speaker 2: Cubs had approximately like twenty five pitchers on their forty
8:09
Speaker 2: man roster, and like ten were on the major league
8:11
Speaker 2: injured list and Gavin Hallowell was on the minor league
8:15
Speaker 2: injured list. Like, they're just running out of bodies and
8:19
Speaker 2: they need guys like a Side and Ray to you know,
8:24
Speaker 2: kind of just do their jobs. And they both have
8:28
Speaker 2: been very much unsung players. They're not very flashy, but
8:36
Speaker 2: they have certainly carved out, you know, a very important
8:39
Speaker 2: role on a playoff contender.
8:43
Speaker 1: All right, let's let's take a quick break, and when
8:46
Speaker 1: we come back, let's let's talk a little bit about
8:48
Speaker 1: that bullpen. Let's quickly hear from a sponsor. All right, everyone,
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10:21
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, let's talk a little bit about the
10:24
Speaker 1: bullpen here. Let me make sure to unmute you, which
10:28
Speaker 1: I always forget to do. Let's talk a little bit
10:32
Speaker 1: about the bullpen. The bullpen obviously there are we haven't
10:42
Speaker 1: recorded since the latest injury, have we. Daniel Palencia to
10:46
Speaker 1: the IL, I mean, just you gotta be kidding me
10:50
Speaker 1: with this stuff. When I got that text, I was like,
10:53
Speaker 1: are you this This has to be a joke at
10:56
Speaker 1: this point. So now you have your top three arm
11:00
Speaker 1: down in top three projected relief arms, especially righties down Palencia, Hunter, Harvey,
11:09
Speaker 1: Film Mayton. Let's give I'll give quick updates on that.
11:12
Speaker 1: So Mayton threw a bullpen on Saturday. It went well.
11:19
Speaker 1: Next step, I believe is a live BP sometime this week.
11:26
Speaker 1: The council didn't say whether that would be like the
11:29
Speaker 1: last step before getting back to the big leagues, or
11:31
Speaker 1: whether they'd make a decision on whether he needs some
11:34
Speaker 1: outings in the minors or if he can come back
11:37
Speaker 1: to the bullpen after that live BP. We'll see what
11:40
Speaker 1: happens whenever that happens this week. I assume it'll happen
11:43
Speaker 1: on the early part of the week because that bullpen
11:47
Speaker 1: was on Saturday, so maybe two three days after that
11:51
Speaker 1: Hunter Harvey, it's going slowly. They like, there's no setback
11:55
Speaker 1: as of yet, there's no imaging to happen as of yet.
11:59
Speaker 1: But he's still feeling something in that tricep. Is that right, Yeah,
12:05
Speaker 1: Boyd is bicep. He is Harvey is tricep. He's still
12:08
Speaker 1: feeling something. It's progressing, but slowly. They are waiting until
12:12
Speaker 1: there's nothing there before they have him start throwing again.
12:16
Speaker 1: And then my guess is it's like a build back
12:19
Speaker 1: up go at, a rehab assignment. Remember he's only a
12:21
Speaker 1: one inning guy, so it's not like building up a
12:24
Speaker 1: starting pitcher. It won't take you know, a full month
12:27
Speaker 1: to get him built back up. But still this is
12:30
Speaker 1: gonna be a slow process and we'll see, we'll see.
12:32
Speaker 1: Like I think we have to be very clear of
12:35
Speaker 1: like this guy is a long injury history. Palencia. It's
12:40
Speaker 1: you know, we say this a lot, or we hear
12:43
Speaker 1: this a lot. They don't sound like overly concerned right now.
12:48
Speaker 1: I don't love lat injuries in general. What's weird about
12:52
Speaker 1: this is like he felt it throwing on Wednesday in Philly,
12:58
Speaker 1: came and through on Thursday in Chicago, then threw a
13:03
Speaker 1: bullpen on Friday and felt great during the bullpen, but
13:07
Speaker 1: then felt it while conditioning. That's really odd to me,
13:11
Speaker 1: and that tells me like it is minor if you're
13:14
Speaker 1: not feeling it during a bullpen and a bullpen feels
13:17
Speaker 1: great and you're throwing ninety five ninety six in a
13:19
Speaker 1: bullpen and we know, like obviously he throws harder than that,
13:22
Speaker 1: but I think in bullpens you don't go like max
13:26
Speaker 1: max effort all the time, and the adrenaline of being
13:29
Speaker 1: in a closing situation I'm sure helps him a little odd,
13:33
Speaker 1: a little odd. I don't know what that means. I'm
13:37
Speaker 1: not at the point where I like, I'm gonna wait
13:40
Speaker 1: till like the first couple updates before I say like, eh,
13:44
Speaker 1: Like with Harvey, it like feels pretty clear like this is.
13:47
Speaker 1: Let's just see where this goes, because I don't want
13:49
Speaker 1: to say this guy's gonna be back Mayton. It seemed
13:51
Speaker 1: like a minimal thing. It still appears that way. Let's
13:56
Speaker 1: see where this goes. With Palencia, it just don't love
13:59
Speaker 1: last and anything with the back. It sounds like he
14:03
Speaker 1: was saying it was more like lower back. I think
14:05
Speaker 1: it was listed as No. Oblique. Was it listed as
14:08
Speaker 1: lat or a bleak? Now I'm forgetting uh I.
14:11
Speaker 2: Thought it was oblak?
14:12
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, Yeah.
14:14
Speaker 2: Injuries have blended together.
14:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, like neither is good, Lat is worse oblique. I
14:22
Speaker 1: think you're right. I think it was oblique. Sorry for
14:25
Speaker 1: the misinformation.
14:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a strained left oblique retroactive to April fourteenth.
14:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, I mean the bullpen has banged up. I thought,
14:37
Speaker 1: like we talked about Haavi or Asad stepping up. Caleb
14:40
Speaker 1: Thelbar was awesome this weekend. Riley Martin looks really good.
14:45
Speaker 1: I don't know how long that's gonna last. Corbyn Martin
14:47
Speaker 1: got an inning. I'd like to see the VLO jump
14:50
Speaker 1: a little bit more, but it was a pretty clean inning. So,
14:54
Speaker 1: you know, guys are gonna get opportunities. We're gonna see
14:57
Speaker 1: new names. This is the start of that. Essentially, they
15:02
Speaker 1: were starting to see these names. Corbyn Martin, Riley Martin
15:04
Speaker 1: probably prime among the guys that one has stepped up
15:09
Speaker 1: in Riley and one that we can kind of expect
15:13
Speaker 1: or need they need to step up in Corbyn Martin.
15:17
Speaker 2: So Corbyn Martin was one of those names the Cubs
15:22
Speaker 2: had targeted in free agency for a minor league deal,
15:25
Speaker 2: the sort of you know, air quotes next Brad Keller slash.
15:31
Speaker 1: You're not getting the next Barrett Keller.
15:34
Speaker 2: No, no, I'm trying. I don't know. Wasn't a minor
15:39
Speaker 2: league deal. But there's a long list of guys who've
15:41
Speaker 2: gotten paid off of pitching well for the Cubs, off
15:44
Speaker 2: of you know, low risk, uh, you know, low dollar deals.
15:50
Speaker 2: And it was somewhat humorous council before Saturday's game. When
15:56
Speaker 2: Martin was called up, he said something like, well, this
16:00
Speaker 2: is need based and we have a lot of needs.
16:03
Speaker 2: It was sort of the softball question, like, hey, what
16:05
Speaker 2: are you seeing from Corbyn Martin. He's like, he hasn't
16:09
Speaker 2: pitched a lot, and that meaning I think he pitched
16:12
Speaker 2: maybe once, went on the ail with backspasms and then
16:17
Speaker 2: got a really short sort of ramp up in game
16:21
Speaker 2: with Iowa, and frankly, I think the Cubs would have
16:24
Speaker 2: liked to have seen more before making this move, not
16:29
Speaker 2: just like you know, Seymour, but just to have him
16:32
Speaker 2: get into like a little bit more of a rhythm
16:34
Speaker 2: of the season than being dropped into the Riggyfield bullpen.
16:38
Speaker 2: But we'll see he'll he'll have an opportunity. I think
16:42
Speaker 2: that's the silver lining to all this stuff. And I
16:45
Speaker 2: was kind of curious, I know you had mentioned him
16:47
Speaker 2: in your piece, like for our listeners, like who is
16:51
Speaker 2: Riley Martin. He's kind of an out of nowhere guy
16:53
Speaker 2: who's quickly gained counsel's trust. It seems. Yeah.
16:58
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a kid that was going to
17:00
Speaker 1: go to you know, he was going to go to
17:04
Speaker 1: school and like get a Like his focus wasn't on baseball.
17:08
Speaker 1: It was just like getting his education. He didn't think
17:10
Speaker 1: this was going to happen, and when he got drafted,
17:13
Speaker 1: he decided to give it a shot. He's got a nasty,
17:17
Speaker 1: breaking ball, He's got a lively fastball coming from the
17:21
Speaker 1: left side. His biggest issue was throwing strikes. I don't
17:26
Speaker 1: know if he's walked anyone yet. Obviously that's a pretty
17:30
Speaker 1: big deal right now, Like just pound the zone, let
17:33
Speaker 1: your stuff play and see what happens. I think that's
17:38
Speaker 1: that's the best you can hope for. And right now,
17:41
Speaker 1: like he hasn't had like this huge moment yet where
17:45
Speaker 1: he's had to face like the heart of an order
17:48
Speaker 1: of key lefties in with a one run lead, but
17:53
Speaker 1: he has he has pitched well in general and either
17:58
Speaker 1: held a small lead or kept it close or held
18:02
Speaker 1: a small, you know, a close deficit. He's building his
18:08
Speaker 1: way up into in that trust tree. I guess Corbyn
18:13
Speaker 1: Martin was someone that I had heard solid things about
18:16
Speaker 1: coming into camp and didn't quite like light him up
18:21
Speaker 1: with the consistency that they hoped Like there were days
18:24
Speaker 1: when he was sitting ninety five and he was getting
18:28
Speaker 1: hit a little harder, and then there was there was
18:30
Speaker 1: there were games where he was sitting ninety seven and
18:33
Speaker 1: was like, oh, that's what they were hoping for. So
18:36
Speaker 1: he flashes it. We'll see, we'll see with him. I'm
18:39
Speaker 1: kind of impressed with Riley Martin, to be honest, Like
18:42
Speaker 1: he's got good stuff. It's all about strikes with him,
18:45
Speaker 1: Like I think the stuff is there.
18:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the Cubs should get some credit here,
18:55
Speaker 2: a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. Like
18:57
Speaker 2: every year they seem to find one or two of
19:01
Speaker 2: these guys recently, even when the team wasn't performing that well,
19:08
Speaker 2: like you'd see a couple of guys step up. It's just,
19:10
Speaker 2: again the nature of bullpens, you count on certain guys
19:14
Speaker 2: some of them are gonna get injured or underperform, and
19:18
Speaker 2: then there'd be some guys that you know, we're not
19:21
Speaker 2: talking about in spring training, and all of a sudden
19:23
Speaker 2: they have a couple of good outings and opening develops
19:29
Speaker 2: and they take advantage of that opportunity. You know, I
19:34
Speaker 2: don't know how totally sustainable that this would be over
19:38
Speaker 2: the next like five plus months, certainly not really in October,
19:42
Speaker 2: but they have enough to like stay afloat see who
19:46
Speaker 2: gets healthy. And I think clearly we think they're gonna
19:49
Speaker 2: keep doing the kind of like waiver claim roster churn,
19:56
Speaker 2: and then clearly like the deadline, I think you know
20:01
Speaker 2: you're probably going to see them really try to find
20:05
Speaker 2: those guys who you know their their war maybe isn't
20:11
Speaker 2: like super high over the course of the season, but
20:13
Speaker 2: there's an understanding that you can really maximize the value
20:16
Speaker 2: of those high leverage relievers in the postseason. And yeah,
20:19
Speaker 2: it would be kind of go time for them at
20:20
Speaker 2: that point.
20:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think like a big key
20:25
Speaker 1: will be if Mayton comes back healthy. I know Cubs
20:28
Speaker 1: fans haven't seen the best version of Mayton. If if
20:31
Speaker 1: that knee was really keeping him from getting into his delivery.
20:34
Speaker 1: Like that's majority of the issue there. If he's if
20:36
Speaker 1: he's healthy and can and can just pitch like he
20:39
Speaker 1: used to. Uh, just get that velocity back up to
20:42
Speaker 1: ninety instead of eighty seven. Little things like that make
20:46
Speaker 1: a big difference for pitchers like Mayton, if he's if
20:51
Speaker 1: he's back, that that is one big piece back in
20:54
Speaker 1: that bullpen that's taken too many hits lately, and I
20:58
Speaker 1: think it starts to settle things down. Okay, let's take
21:00
Speaker 1: a quick break, and I want to talk about the
21:04
Speaker 1: bench and some interactions, some fun interactions with Craig Counsel.
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22:13
Speaker 1: People are up in arms about Craig Council pinch hitting
22:17
Speaker 1: for Moys's biasteros when a lefty comes in the game.
22:20
Speaker 1: How are you supposed to develop this kid if you
22:22
Speaker 1: don't let him hit against lefties. I get the basic
22:26
Speaker 1: premise there, But here's the ultimate the issue, or here's
22:33
Speaker 1: the ultimate point of what Craig Council is doing. He
22:36
Speaker 1: has a deep bench finally, and he's using it. Go
22:39
Speaker 1: use those players, get them integrated into the lineup, into
22:43
Speaker 1: the game, make sure that they feel comfortable with getting
22:46
Speaker 1: at bats. Mike Confordo's been hitting, Matt Shaw has been hitting,
22:50
Speaker 1: Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya have been hitting. When whoever's
22:54
Speaker 1: on the bench. You have this deep, useful bench and
22:58
Speaker 1: it's producing. But we had a fun moment with it.
23:03
Speaker 1: I think Craig Council kind of got grilled about this
23:07
Speaker 1: pinch hitting for Moyses Biasteros in in pregame and well,
23:12
Speaker 1: you were there, why didn't you tell us what happened here? Oh,
23:17
Speaker 1: I've still muted you restart. I got a good use
23:21
Speaker 1: of this.
23:21
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say grilled is probably too strong a word,
23:24
Speaker 2: but it was definitely a very I don't know if
23:28
Speaker 2: this is the word Countsellian interaction of you know, a
23:33
Speaker 2: reporter brings up the idea from Friday's game, which is
23:36
Speaker 2: a win of Moist by a Stereos hits a three
23:40
Speaker 2: run homer, and then later in the game is pulled
23:46
Speaker 2: Formatshaw to face Sean Manaia, who you know it is
23:54
Speaker 2: kind of on the latter edge of his career. He's
23:57
Speaker 2: been struggling. He's more of a long reliever now. He'd
24:00
Speaker 2: been a terrific starter at different points in the season,
24:02
Speaker 2: but his angle where he's coming from is extremely difficult
24:09
Speaker 2: for Moisus, and I think Moisus would say the exact
24:13
Speaker 2: same thing. So it kind of became this back and forth,
24:16
Speaker 2: and it's funny counsel. You can tell when he's annoyed,
24:20
Speaker 2: sometimes he's very clipped, or if he's somewhat frustrated. It's
24:26
Speaker 2: kind of the one sentence answer and then just let's
24:29
Speaker 2: the awkward silence just kind of hang there. We're at
24:33
Speaker 2: the dugout that at this point is just kind of
24:34
Speaker 2: in the dugout space. But this one where he's more
24:38
Speaker 2: just like really explained his thought process with a little
24:42
Speaker 2: bit of an edge, which is always just fun to
24:46
Speaker 2: listen to. This was not a hard decision for Craig.
24:51
Speaker 2: That's what he said. This is a team. The Cubs
24:55
Speaker 2: are trying to win games. This is how the team
24:58
Speaker 2: is built. Everyone understand that we're going to try to
25:01
Speaker 2: play the best matchups. I think context wiseh you look
25:10
Speaker 2: at it, there's left handed relievers or left handed pitching
25:14
Speaker 2: in general is so hard to find that there's not
25:16
Speaker 2: like a lot of it in the minors or like
25:20
Speaker 2: good left handed pitching gets moved quickly and gets to
25:23
Speaker 2: the major leagues or you know, so it's not like
25:25
Speaker 2: there's like a ton of opportunities for Biasteros to sort
25:29
Speaker 2: of work on that, and maybe at some point his
25:33
Speaker 2: long term development will take precedent or maybe he'll show
25:39
Speaker 2: something that they will give him more of those opportunities.
25:42
Speaker 2: But like right now, as currently constituted, the Cubs have
25:45
Speaker 2: this flexibility. When you sign Alex Bregman, it puts Shaw
25:51
Speaker 2: into this super utility role. I know, Cubs fans, you
25:56
Speaker 2: probably rolled their eyes when they signed confordo thinking back
26:01
Speaker 2: to kind of like Eric Hosmer, Trey Mancini, even you know,
26:05
Speaker 2: Justin Turner wasn't quite what they hoped for of just
26:09
Speaker 2: those kind of you know, declining veterans available kind of
26:16
Speaker 2: on the cheap. But Couldford was a really nice everyday
26:21
Speaker 2: player for the Mets, and like the Dodgers of all
26:24
Speaker 2: teams thought he was worth seventeen million dollars last year
26:27
Speaker 2: when they were trying to defend a World Series title
26:29
Speaker 2: like their baseball industry has valued him very highly over
26:32
Speaker 2: the course of his career, and so Miguel Amaya being
26:36
Speaker 2: healthy and having two starting caliber catchers as well as
26:43
Speaker 2: you know Bisteros as kind of the third emergency option.
26:47
Speaker 2: And even there's a very council line as well of
26:51
Speaker 2: He's like, I know Scott Kingry doesn't play a lot,
26:55
Speaker 2: but just his presence allows Craig to be more aggressive,
26:58
Speaker 2: like he just knows he has kind of a backup
27:00
Speaker 2: plan or an emergency option at multiple positions. Then he
27:04
Speaker 2: did a council chuckle. I was like, I don't know
27:07
Speaker 2: how that makes Kingery feel. He's probably not too happy
27:09
Speaker 2: about it, but it really helps us. And then so
27:13
Speaker 2: there was a lot of Biaso's talk pregame to kind
27:20
Speaker 2: of I think what I felt was kind of an
27:22
Speaker 2: unusual degree, like I just kind of gave up. I
27:25
Speaker 2: had some other questions. It just counselor just ran long,
27:28
Speaker 2: and I was just like done. But then you know,
27:31
Speaker 2: it's if I remember the detail details right, Like a
27:33
Speaker 2: one to one game, sixth inning Saturday, Biasaros gets pulled
27:39
Speaker 2: Carson Kelly. First pitch, he ces just hammers it out
27:43
Speaker 2: into the left field bleachers for a three run homer.
27:45
Speaker 2: And I'm in the press box and I hear I
27:49
Speaker 2: think it was our buddy Eugene McIntosh. He's like, council
27:51
Speaker 2: looked up here. And then someone else said said the
27:54
Speaker 2: same kind of confirming, and I asked someone else, say,
27:56
Speaker 2: did he really look up here? I was kind of
27:57
Speaker 2: looking out in the bleachers. I've got to look right
28:01
Speaker 2: down to the dugout and so go. I ask counsel postgame,
28:05
Speaker 2: and he wouldn't confirm that he did. I think the
28:12
Speaker 2: best you would have gotten from him was maybe a maybe,
28:15
Speaker 2: But I think there were enough eyewitnesses and knowing counts
28:20
Speaker 2: a little bit. Not that he was, you know, gloating
28:23
Speaker 2: by any means, but I think he gets a kick
28:25
Speaker 2: out of the interactions, like if you're prepared, you have questions.
28:29
Speaker 2: He actually does sort of enjoy the back and forth.
28:31
Speaker 2: Watching it on TV is not really the representative of
28:36
Speaker 2: how it can be when the cameras are off, and
28:41
Speaker 2: like he really does like to engage. He actually does
28:44
Speaker 2: understand the whole fan part, like why we ask certain
28:47
Speaker 2: questions or trying and explain it to a broader audience,
28:49
Speaker 2: Like he gets that. But as soon as that happened,
28:53
Speaker 2: I was like, I got to write this, Like I
28:54
Speaker 2: just I thought it was funny. If you know, it
28:57
Speaker 2: worked out in that way and for him to sort
29:00
Speaker 2: of look up like that, you know, chef's kiss to
29:04
Speaker 2: Craig for basically writing my story that day, because if
29:09
Speaker 2: he didn't to look up, I'd be like, you know,
29:11
Speaker 2: but that just that details sort of made it to me.
29:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, just on the issue in general. So first of all,
29:17
Speaker 1: I understand why fans look when someone is hot and hitting,
29:21
Speaker 1: you want them to play as much as possible. And
29:24
Speaker 1: the argument would be, well, we don't know if he
29:27
Speaker 1: can hit left handed hitting because he's not getting the
29:29
Speaker 1: opportunity or left handed pitching. He's not getting the opportunity.
29:33
Speaker 1: He's gotten the opportunity in the minor leagues and he
29:35
Speaker 1: has struggled mightily. Does that mean forever he will struggle
29:39
Speaker 1: hitting lefties. No, that that's not what that means. But
29:43
Speaker 1: right now, when you have this deep bench, and not
29:46
Speaker 1: only a deep bench, but you can counter with confordo
29:50
Speaker 1: go back to the lefty when they bring in another
29:52
Speaker 1: righty like that's that's just a huge advantage. And then
29:57
Speaker 1: the one, the one argument that I can unders stand,
30:00
Speaker 1: and I thought Craig explained this perfectly. Well, you're winning big,
30:07
Speaker 1: why not give isn't that the time to give? By
30:10
Speaker 1: Asteros that opportunity. First thing I would say that Craig
30:14
Speaker 1: didn't mention, which I doubt he'd say, Like this bullpen
30:18
Speaker 1: right now, I would not trust with a four run lead.
30:21
Speaker 1: With a six run lead, you cannot trust it yet.
30:23
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that. We just talked about how well
30:26
Speaker 1: they performed. They were performing well, but they are banged up.
30:29
Speaker 1: I would not trust it just yet. I would not
30:31
Speaker 1: assume you need to continue to tack on. You need
30:33
Speaker 1: to lean on the offense. That's one. But then he
30:36
Speaker 1: pointed out it was like it was Manayah right that
30:39
Speaker 1: came in, so he knew he was going through the
30:42
Speaker 1: order at least one time, so he was going to
30:45
Speaker 1: get two bites at the apple and it worked like
30:48
Speaker 1: Shaw's first at bat didn't go well, second one did,
30:53
Speaker 1: So there was something like he there was a very
30:57
Speaker 1: specific reason. He even said maybe if it was like
30:59
Speaker 1: an normal lefty reliever that I thought was gonna go,
31:02
Speaker 1: you know, three batters or whatever, that's a different situation.
31:06
Speaker 1: But this was not that situation. Close game obviously you
31:11
Speaker 1: pinch hit like you did with Carson Kelly. Uh. I
31:15
Speaker 1: just think there's that like it it makes sense baseball wise,
31:21
Speaker 1: and we have been dying to see a competent bench
31:25
Speaker 1: and him deploy it properly. He is nailing it. He's
31:29
Speaker 1: doing what he is supposed to do, and none of
31:32
Speaker 1: this works. So he looks like a fool. If the
31:34
Speaker 1: players don't perform, right, the players have to perform, then
31:38
Speaker 1: the manager looks like a genius. Players don't perform, managers
31:41
Speaker 1: a fool.
31:41
Speaker 2: Right.
31:42
Speaker 1: That's that's just how this stuff works. The players are performing,
31:46
Speaker 1: they're hitting. Everyone's happy when they win. Like perform, and
31:50
Speaker 1: you make your manager look good and that that's as
31:53
Speaker 1: simple as that. And and it's I don't think he's
31:56
Speaker 1: doing anything that is just like like out of the
32:02
Speaker 1: box or crazy or like that unique. He's just using
32:05
Speaker 1: a deep bench that's been built really well. I'm not
32:08
Speaker 1: sure Michael Conforto is eventually gonna have some bad luck
32:10
Speaker 1: right now, like for the past, if you want to
32:13
Speaker 1: just look at the underlying numbers, he's had a lot
32:15
Speaker 1: of bad luck over the past couple of years. I
32:17
Speaker 1: think he's getting some of that good luck, you know,
32:20
Speaker 1: he's getting some of it returned. The ball is falling.
32:23
Speaker 1: It's not that he's hitting the ball softly. He's hitting
32:25
Speaker 1: the ball hard still, but some of these numbers, you know,
32:28
Speaker 1: they're they're gonna go down. But he's been productive and
32:31
Speaker 1: he's hitting the ball hard and he's putting up good
32:33
Speaker 1: at bats. After a really weak start where his timing
32:36
Speaker 1: was way off and striking out too much, he looks
32:38
Speaker 1: so much better. Great bench piece Shaw, We know what
32:42
Speaker 1: his potential is. He's taking to a bench roll really well.
32:46
Speaker 1: It's a good bench use it. Like this is a
32:49
Speaker 1: deep team and they're gonna need their offense to perform
32:52
Speaker 1: really well. You know, like wins like Sunday are good
32:55
Speaker 1: at like the two to one wins that those are
32:58
Speaker 1: tough to come by. You score double digits are close
33:01
Speaker 1: to it. That's really nice. If your offense is going
33:04
Speaker 1: to carry you, that's what you need. And if you
33:05
Speaker 1: have a deep one, great all the better. Like just
33:08
Speaker 1: lean into this, Okay.
33:12
Speaker 2: Let Bias Steros develop. They now he earned it, but
33:18
Speaker 2: they've given him a really nice opportunity here. I mean,
33:20
Speaker 2: he's twenty two years old, he doesn't necessarily have a
33:23
Speaker 2: true defensive position at this moment, and they tabbed him
33:27
Speaker 2: to replace in large part Kyle Tucker and All Star
33:32
Speaker 2: outfielder who what is he like that highest paid major
33:37
Speaker 2: League baseball player on an annual basis at this moment,
33:39
Speaker 2: I saw that. You know, that's how what the baseball
33:43
Speaker 2: industry thinks of Kyle Tucker and the Cubs think that
33:46
Speaker 2: Biasteros can play a huge role in approximating some of
33:51
Speaker 2: that left handed presence on a team that expects to
33:57
Speaker 2: play deep into October. Like he's been handled an amazing opportunity.
34:04
Speaker 2: So like, yeah, sometimes he gets pinched hit for Okay,
34:09
Speaker 2: I don't think that's a huge deal. And counsel talks
34:13
Speaker 2: about bias Terris' instincts that you know, he's someone who's
34:17
Speaker 2: comfortable in talking in hitters meetings with a very veteran
34:22
Speaker 2: group of players that has a you know, rather high
34:25
Speaker 2: baseball IQ. So he gets it. All of these players
34:32
Speaker 2: get it. They're thinking along with the manager like they're
34:35
Speaker 2: in tune with the rhythms of the game. I mean,
34:37
Speaker 2: he and happ laid it out the other day of okay,
34:42
Speaker 2: you do that, but you got Confordo coming off the
34:45
Speaker 2: bench in case they go to you know, Luke Weaver
34:48
Speaker 2: or Devin Williams, like they they see these situations before
34:54
Speaker 2: they happen and you know, it certainly speaks to how
34:58
Speaker 2: this team is built and how it's kind of run
35:01
Speaker 2: internally in the clubhouse.
35:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think things are going well in that department.
35:07
Speaker 1: You've got to keep riding it while you can, you know,
35:11
Speaker 1: play play the matchups, build your lead, or use it
35:15
Speaker 1: to come back, whatever it is. But it council is
35:18
Speaker 1: pushing the right buttons right now. I think, uh, complaining
35:22
Speaker 1: about it would be you know, it's like you said,
35:26
Speaker 1: he'll get his chance to develop at some point if needed,
35:29
Speaker 1: if he proves it, if he forces it. Michael Bush,
35:32
Speaker 1: it took him a while before he started playing every
35:34
Speaker 1: day against lefties. Obviously that's a different topic. He's struggling
35:37
Speaker 1: right now. But uh that that's a separate discussion. Uh,
35:41
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen overnight for these guys. And you can
35:45
Speaker 1: point to Kyle Schwarber, like he struggled against lefties for
35:49
Speaker 1: a long time and and and eventually he figured it out,
35:52
Speaker 1: but it took him a long time to get there.
35:55
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's there's a you have to prioritize winning over development.
36:01
Speaker 1: We saw it be a gold glove center fielder like
36:04
Speaker 1: p yes, yes, right, like that, Like that's a good
36:06
Speaker 1: way to hit against lefties is be awesome in centerfield. Yes, absolutely,
36:10
Speaker 1: that's uh. That is something that that helps you in
36:14
Speaker 1: that department. You play lead defense. You're gonna get out there.
36:17
Speaker 1: All right. That's it for this episode. Thanks so much
36:20
Speaker 1: for listening to everyone. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe,
36:22
Speaker 1: subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic,
36:25
Speaker 1: where Patrick and I are on top of all things cubs.
36:28
Speaker 1: We'll be back with more episodes later this week. Thanks everyone,
36:31
Speaker 1: Take care you