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Talking about arbitration: The Cubs and Kyle Tucker haven’t made a deal · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: You know, as unlikely as an extension is, you still
0:03
Speaker 1: don't want to have a sour relationship to start this
0:07
Speaker 1: thing off. Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast.
0:18
Speaker 1: I'm Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney, where your
0:22
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, we have arb.
0:29
Speaker 1: The arm day has come and gone. As always, the
0:33
Speaker 1: Cubs get us that news in such a timely manner,
0:39
Speaker 1: but we can news. You know, we had some agreements.
0:45
Speaker 1: The news is Kyle Tucker and the Cubs cannot meet
0:49
Speaker 1: in the middle. Fifteen million is what the Cubs have
0:53
Speaker 1: set their number at. Seventeen point five million is what
0:56
Speaker 1: Tucker's representatives have set their number at. This isn't a
1:00
Speaker 1: disaster or anything like that. This isn't the worst case scenario.
1:05
Speaker 1: It's I think it's that it looks bad optically. It's
1:10
Speaker 1: just a mess, like you don't want this and I
1:12
Speaker 1: don't like you know this stuff Like in all in
1:15
Speaker 1: the great things, this probably won't matter. But you know,
1:18
Speaker 1: the Cubs fans are already irritated because post Tucker they
1:23
Speaker 1: haven't done much except for shed salary. I'm using air
1:28
Speaker 1: quotes for those not watching Woody Bellinger. But you can't
1:34
Speaker 1: like these. It just feels like tripping over your own foot,
1:37
Speaker 1: like it's what they seem to do this really well.
1:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this doesn't impact any sort of like
1:48
Speaker 2: long term deal because I don't think there's any expectation
1:51
Speaker 2: that they were going to do that, you know what
1:53
Speaker 2: I mean. This is not like, oh, this buys the
1:55
Speaker 2: more time to figure out long term deal. No, Like
1:59
Speaker 2: both sides have pretty clear expectation that he will become
2:03
Speaker 2: a free agent after this upcoming season and that's fine.
2:08
Speaker 2: And look, I mean, Kyle Tucker's had a great career.
2:12
Speaker 2: He hasn't had a single at bat for the Cubs
2:15
Speaker 2: and so it's a it's an awkward headline for the Cubs.
2:23
Speaker 2: If anything, I think is more just symptomatic of how
2:28
Speaker 2: the team is run, you know, with a very analytical
2:33
Speaker 2: bottom line approach, which is what a lot of teams do.
2:36
Speaker 2: And I will I would say for context, and like
2:41
Speaker 2: this may be where like your fans totally zone out
2:45
Speaker 2: and I get it.
2:47
Speaker 3: There is.
2:49
Speaker 2: A strong push from Major League Baseball's Central office, their
2:54
Speaker 2: labor relations department to get all thirty teams on the
2:58
Speaker 2: same page that it is a very like uniform approach.
3:04
Speaker 2: There is this idea that you know, any one settlement
3:10
Speaker 2: can impact many future agreements as reference points. But like
3:18
Speaker 2: Cubs fans don't really want to get into the weeds
3:20
Speaker 2: on all that, right, it's just like figure it out.
3:25
Speaker 2: Maybe they will before a hearing. I mean, historically the
3:31
Speaker 2: Cubs have become like many clubs. Again, this is a
3:35
Speaker 2: kind of a global strategy from MLB of this idea
3:38
Speaker 2: of file and trial that if you don't hit a
3:40
Speaker 2: number before this deadline going to a hearing. Now, Kyle
3:45
Speaker 2: Tuckler is clearly exceptional, so I would imagine that.
3:53
Speaker 3: There is some wiggle room there for him in both sides.
3:57
Speaker 2: But also like you would think they would have gotten
4:01
Speaker 2: to that point before we all had these headlines of
4:06
Speaker 2: you know, Tucker Cubs failed to reach agreement or you know,
4:10
Speaker 2: Cubs Tucker moving towards arbitration hearing.
4:13
Speaker 3: Like, you know, it's certainly.
4:16
Speaker 2: An interesting way to you know, promote your annual fan
4:22
Speaker 2: convention next weekend to get your Cubs Cubs tickets now,
4:26
Speaker 2: but before we like bury them, you know, one phone
4:29
Speaker 2: call over the weekend or next week, or they get
4:33
Speaker 2: into town it could get resolved. In years past, it
4:39
Speaker 2: felt like the deadline was a little bit floating to
4:41
Speaker 2: where I think one time we talked to Ian happ
4:44
Speaker 2: like a commission agreement and then like an hour later,
4:47
Speaker 2: you know, cubs ean have reach agreement. So I wouldn't
4:50
Speaker 2: get too worked up about it. It's just it's just odd.
4:53
Speaker 2: It's peculiar.
4:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I was just thinking about this. He must
4:58
Speaker 1: how Tucker must not have been this super two guy
5:01
Speaker 1: or something, and Blad Junior must have been a super
5:03
Speaker 1: two guy because Blad Junior is all the way up
5:05
Speaker 1: at twenty eight and Kyle Tucker's only in the fifteen
5:10
Speaker 1: to seventeen million, Like that seems significantly, Like just in general,
5:16
Speaker 1: that's a steal. Like whatever they settle at, whatever they
5:18
Speaker 1: side him at, that's a steal for his production. So
5:21
Speaker 1: this is some of this stuff is just kind of silly.
5:24
Speaker 1: But you know, they are kind of counting every penny
5:29
Speaker 1: in a sense, right, Like they like two and a
5:31
Speaker 1: half million matters in a sense one million matters. And
5:35
Speaker 1: I think that's what irritates fans as well. They're like, really,
5:39
Speaker 1: like this is going to cost like some reliever that
5:43
Speaker 1: probably gets dfaide in the middle of the season. That's
5:46
Speaker 1: what they're arguing over right now. So again it comes
5:51
Speaker 1: down and might.
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Speaker 2: Not the difference, might even be smaller because presumably Tucker's
5:58
Speaker 2: camp goes high and the club side goes low.
6:03
Speaker 1: So I wouldn't even this could be half a million,
6:06
Speaker 1: could be it.
6:06
Speaker 2: Could be a smaller, smaller spread. That is just kind
6:10
Speaker 2: of a guess more than hard information. But yeah, when
6:16
Speaker 2: you're talking about kind of the intricacies of the MLB's
6:19
Speaker 2: universal arbitration policy and like, you know, different comps, like,
6:24
Speaker 2: it's not it's not great, but it's not the end
6:27
Speaker 2: of the.
6:27
Speaker 1: World either, Yeah, yeah, yeah, And this type of stuff,
6:30
Speaker 1: I mean it makes my eyes glaze over. So I
6:33
Speaker 1: can't imagine fans that care much about it. So just
6:38
Speaker 1: get it done, right, That's that's the bottom line. You know,
6:42
Speaker 1: they got they got deals done with everyone else, justin
6:44
Speaker 1: Steel obviously the biggest name of the deals that they
6:49
Speaker 1: got Pierson and Eli Morgan as well. We're done. Surprisingly,
6:53
Speaker 1: Eli Morgan took like that. That news did not come
6:56
Speaker 1: out till very late. I was like, what is what
6:58
Speaker 1: is happening with Eli Morgan? It's he really like fighting
7:01
Speaker 1: over the comes battling with Eli Morgan here. I think
7:04
Speaker 1: the news just didn't bleak out. Uh so, so at least,
7:09
Speaker 1: you know, no extension. We've talked about steel. No extension
7:12
Speaker 1: with Steel. Who knows if if that's on the table
7:15
Speaker 1: or discussions will happen over the next month or so.
7:19
Speaker 1: Uh but but yeah, other than that, like that's the
7:23
Speaker 1: That was the news last night, and it it felt
7:26
Speaker 1: like immediately it went negative town, you know what I mean,
7:30
Speaker 1: Like the second I saw that on I think you
7:34
Speaker 1: you you'd given me a little bit of a heads
7:36
Speaker 1: up there, and and then I saw it publicly from
7:38
Speaker 1: our friend Jesse Rogers, and it's just was like, oh,
7:42
Speaker 1: here we go, here we go. Uh so, so we'll see,
7:46
Speaker 1: we'll see if it's like it's not gonna lead to
7:48
Speaker 1: bad blood. I think that's the that's the important thing
7:51
Speaker 1: that Cubs fans need to kind of understand, even if
7:55
Speaker 1: they are upset, uh this isn't something where you need
7:59
Speaker 1: to freak out and be like, well, now the relationship
8:02
Speaker 1: is already ruined, which I don't. I'm not getting that sense.
8:07
Speaker 1: And that's probably the most important thing, because you know,
8:11
Speaker 1: as unlikely as an extension is, you still don't want
8:14
Speaker 1: to have a sour relationship to start this start this
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Speaker 1: thing off.
8:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's not like if the Cubs give Tucker
8:22
Speaker 2: a bump now, he's going to give them a discount later.
8:25
Speaker 2: Like they're all grown ups here. Ultimately, Kyle Tucker Or's
8:32
Speaker 2: impression of the Cubs will be shaped by his teammates
8:36
Speaker 2: as coaches, his manager, the fans, the city, and ultimately
8:41
Speaker 2: what the Cubs offer or do not offer to him
8:45
Speaker 2: after this upcoming season.
8:47
Speaker 3: Like that will be where the decision is made.
8:52
Speaker 2: The Cubs just kind of have to wear it for
8:54
Speaker 2: a couple of news cycles and it will be interesting
8:57
Speaker 2: to see. Like Tucker, I believe, is scheduled to come
9:01
Speaker 2: in for Cubs convention.
9:04
Speaker 3: You'd assume that he'll do some sort of media availability there. Uh.
9:10
Speaker 3: Jed Hoyer always does multiple availabilities at these Cubs conventions, So.
9:16
Speaker 2: There's soon gonna be more arbitration hearing questions by the
9:20
Speaker 2: time we get to that point. Uh, stay tuned, because
9:25
Speaker 2: that would that would be a nice another nice uh
9:28
Speaker 2: you know, kind of cuve your currence there to unveil this,
9:32
Speaker 2: you know, superstar player who's been a little bit off
9:36
Speaker 2: the radar because the Astros have had so many good players.
9:39
Speaker 2: Now he's supposed to be the man, and we're talking
9:42
Speaker 2: about arbitration.
9:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, talking about arbitration. Uh uh, that that would be
9:50
Speaker 1: That would be hilarious if I mean, it's not gonna push,
9:54
Speaker 1: it's not gonna push the Sammy Sosa headline, but to
9:57
Speaker 1: have that as a you know, secondary headline and after
10:00
Speaker 1: Sammy Sosa soa cup, that just be so cub Especially
10:06
Speaker 1: this era of Cubs. It's like, come on, man, like
10:08
Speaker 1: let's just let's let's move on from this stuff. Uh.
10:13
Speaker 1: Obviously Tucker is the big name on the field, big
10:16
Speaker 1: acquisition on the field that's supposed to impact this team.
10:20
Speaker 1: I wrote a little bit about Tyler Zambro, a new hire.
10:26
Speaker 1: He got a pretty I know fans, you know, they
10:30
Speaker 1: don't know all the titles and all that stuff and
10:32
Speaker 1: may not care, but getting a special assistant title right
10:34
Speaker 1: out of the gate is pretty significant. Special assistants often
10:41
Speaker 1: have free reign to kind of do what whatever their
10:44
Speaker 1: their specific skill set allows them to write, like what
10:48
Speaker 1: are you best at?
10:49
Speaker 3: Go?
10:49
Speaker 1: Go do all these things. It's it's because you don't
10:53
Speaker 1: want to give a specific title like that, like player,
10:56
Speaker 1: you know X of player development or whatever like that,
11:00
Speaker 1: because this person is doing it, has their hands in
11:02
Speaker 1: all sorts of different departments, and that's that's what Zombro's
11:07
Speaker 1: doing it. You know, I don't know how much of
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Speaker 1: an impact he's going to have. I don't want to
11:16
Speaker 1: kind of blow this up before he's even been there
11:19
Speaker 1: for you know, a few like he's just got here.
11:22
Speaker 1: But when you talk to him and you listen to him,
11:26
Speaker 1: which I've done a couple of times now, and you
11:29
Speaker 1: hear from other people. This is a thirty year old
11:32
Speaker 1: former player, very young guy, but very intelligent. Went to
11:37
Speaker 1: George Mason, was pre med. I don't know you're you're
11:41
Speaker 1: an East coast guy. Have you heard of Governor's School.
11:47
Speaker 1: It's a high school. It's like a STEM high school.
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Speaker 1: I think it may be well known in that.
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Speaker 2: Area South Carolina. Governor's School for Science and Mathematics.
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Speaker 1: Okay, South Carolina. Okay, he's he's in DC. Now, I
12:01
Speaker 1: think I may have gotten it in my head that
12:02
Speaker 1: he's that it was in the DC area. Maybe it
12:05
Speaker 1: is something. Okay, so it's yeah. He So he's you know, intelligent, dude.
12:10
Speaker 1: He kind of said, like science, physics, all these things
12:13
Speaker 1: are just like in his brain constantly. That's how his
12:16
Speaker 1: brain works, and in today's game, that's how pitching works. Right,
12:23
Speaker 1: Like I know old school scouts don't always love to
12:27
Speaker 1: hear this stuff, but that's so important in today's game
12:31
Speaker 1: in pitching, in pitching development. And while while he needs
12:36
Speaker 1: he's he has high goals, right. He wants to be
12:39
Speaker 1: a team president, he wants to be a GM something
12:42
Speaker 1: like that. He wants to run baseball ops someday for
12:45
Speaker 1: some team.
12:46
Speaker 2: So yeah, I thought that was interesting that he kind
12:48
Speaker 2: of put that out there right away in his first
12:52
Speaker 2: sort of like introduction to Cups fans.
12:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, he he's. He definitely isn't shy about what his
13:01
Speaker 1: goals are. He doesn't. He doesn't come across as like
13:07
Speaker 1: full of himself. Though It's not like he came across
13:09
Speaker 1: as like this is what I'm like. He understands he
13:12
Speaker 1: has a lot of work to do. He's like to
13:13
Speaker 1: do that a I need a lot more experience in
13:16
Speaker 1: different areas and be's like, like everyone expects me to
13:20
Speaker 1: be impacting this team in player development, I better delivered,
13:23
Speaker 1: Like I better I better do a good job of that.
13:27
Speaker 1: But it's not just player development that he like he's
13:29
Speaker 1: right now is focus his acquisitions because it's the off season.
13:32
Speaker 1: He is doing it like he's doing deep dives. Not
13:36
Speaker 1: only are the guys that they've acquired or come close
13:39
Speaker 1: to acquiring, but anyone that could even be a potential acquisition.
13:43
Speaker 1: And I'm talking about from Jesus Bozardo, big names like that,
13:48
Speaker 1: to like the Ben Heller signing that you know, these
13:53
Speaker 1: minor league non roster invites that you're talking about, he
13:55
Speaker 1: is doing deep dives on them. He has plans, you know,
14:00
Speaker 1: proposals for everyone. Here's how we maximize this guy. We
14:04
Speaker 1: can dump this pitch, add this pitch, do this. You
14:08
Speaker 1: know he's doing this. If he does this, he'll be better.
14:12
Speaker 1: So that's a lot of what he's doing right now.
14:16
Speaker 1: But there was something that kind of triggered a conversation
14:20
Speaker 1: I had with Justin Stone when he was first hired.
14:23
Speaker 1: But he talked about how we like, we can't like
14:28
Speaker 1: it's not cookie cutter, right. We have to understand how
14:30
Speaker 1: their bodies work, what's their injury history, what you know,
14:33
Speaker 1: what what does a guy do best as far as
14:38
Speaker 1: how he moves? How Like he said something about the
14:41
Speaker 1: force he impacts on the ball. I just think like
14:44
Speaker 1: these things get so nerdy and and in the weeds
14:47
Speaker 1: with how how they like what they're looking at. But
14:52
Speaker 1: it's it's fascinating how you have to really look at
14:55
Speaker 1: how the body moves. Right, Remember how years ago when
14:58
Speaker 1: Justin Stone was first hired, I kind of went through
15:02
Speaker 1: the like a mo yeah. Yeah. So it's like it
15:08
Speaker 1: starts with you know, he's like measuring how far my
15:11
Speaker 1: shoulders can move, like how far I can move my arm,
15:14
Speaker 1: so like you understand the body movement type. And then
15:17
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, now we know. Once you do all
15:21
Speaker 1: those things, it's like, well we want Like there was
15:23
Speaker 1: something where he said like actually he's like, oh, your
15:25
Speaker 1: shoulders are really flexible. He's like that actually can work
15:29
Speaker 1: against you in certain ways. And it's like you need
15:31
Speaker 1: to like if if you were playing baseball and you're
15:35
Speaker 1: a hitter, would need to you know, strengthen this area
15:38
Speaker 1: and tighten up this area. Things like that. It's fascinating
15:41
Speaker 1: how how like you learn how a body moves. It's like, okay,
15:45
Speaker 1: with pitching, it's almost like we know how the body moves. Okay.
15:49
Speaker 1: It's it's not always like let's correct these things. It's
15:53
Speaker 1: because your body moves like this, you're able to throw
15:56
Speaker 1: these types of pitches, or you're able to do X,
15:58
Speaker 1: Y and Z with a pitch. Let's lean into that. Uh.
16:02
Speaker 1: Something that I that stood out to me is and
16:06
Speaker 1: I love this because it's so easy to jump on
16:10
Speaker 1: the latest trend. Right when when the Astros started throwing
16:14
Speaker 1: four seamers more, and and this was what the tenant
16:18
Speaker 1: it's been like ten years now, right, it was it
16:22
Speaker 1: was weird to the game, right, throwing four seams up
16:25
Speaker 1: in the zone was like, that's gonna get hammered. You
16:28
Speaker 1: can't do that. And it worked, right, And so everyone
16:32
Speaker 1: said in the public sphere was like, okay, jump all
16:35
Speaker 1: the two seamers, throw four steamers up in the zone.
16:37
Speaker 1: That's it. That's how you succeed. That's not the answer.
16:41
Speaker 1: Everyone's different and not. And then and then we started
16:45
Speaker 1: chasing spin and spin rate and and spin efficiency you
16:49
Speaker 1: know what, like.
16:50
Speaker 3: Your nickname from our voyages, Yeah.
16:54
Speaker 1: And like that stuff. That stuff doesn't always work. Like
16:56
Speaker 1: someone chasing a zamber was on me at a he
16:59
Speaker 1: had a pitcher who was chasing spin rate, chasing spin,
17:03
Speaker 1: chasing spin and he's like you don't need to have
17:06
Speaker 1: this perfectly efficient spinning four seamer with your arsenal. He's like,
17:11
Speaker 1: just go with the eighty percent efficiency because you're throwing
17:15
Speaker 1: off your your release point by doing this. So just
17:21
Speaker 1: go back to the eighty percent and you have a
17:23
Speaker 1: seam shifted wake two seamer. We have this, like your
17:26
Speaker 1: fastball will cut at eighty percent. Like, just go like
17:29
Speaker 1: and we'll add this slider whatever it is, and now
17:32
Speaker 1: you have a complete arsenal and you're a better pitcher
17:36
Speaker 1: with a less efficient fastball. So in theory that these
17:39
Speaker 1: people like people chase these things that you don't need to,
17:43
Speaker 1: it's build out the arsenal who are you as a
17:45
Speaker 1: pitcher and understanding that. I think that's fascinating. Don't go
17:49
Speaker 1: too far with something that, oh, we discovered this new
17:52
Speaker 1: fancy thing I have to chase that. That's not always
17:56
Speaker 1: how it works. Work with the individual, figure out what's
17:59
Speaker 1: best for them, what works best for them, and build
18:01
Speaker 1: a arsenal around that. I think that's really fascinating.
18:05
Speaker 2: Circle back to kind of where you started this of
18:08
Speaker 2: him being a special assistant. I was interested in how
18:11
Speaker 2: he has the academic background. He pitched in the minors
18:14
Speaker 2: for the Rays correct and had his own practice that
18:19
Speaker 2: was a drive line like facility, working with various pictures.
18:26
Speaker 2: I was curious how this came together because when you
18:31
Speaker 2: and I wrote about the cuts in scouting and reduction
18:36
Speaker 2: in staff, which seemed severe and even beyond certain industry standards,
18:43
Speaker 2: the Cubs stress that we are still creating spaces for
18:48
Speaker 2: new talent in emerging areas. Where does Zambro fit into
18:52
Speaker 2: that overall picture?
18:53
Speaker 1: Right? So this does One person I talked to around
18:58
Speaker 1: the league outside of the organization, when I asked it
19:01
Speaker 1: was like his Zambre legit, like was He's like, look,
19:04
Speaker 1: he's and this is a scout, right, so he's going
19:06
Speaker 1: to tend to lean against like these data people. But
19:09
Speaker 1: he's like everything I've heard and learned about him is
19:12
Speaker 1: he's legit. He can impact that organ a positive fashion.
19:14
Speaker 1: He's like, this is this is kind of leaning into
19:17
Speaker 1: that reduction of scouts though it is, it's going with this.
19:23
Speaker 1: It's towards the trends that they're you know, they're not
19:25
Speaker 1: It's not like some they're not suddenly zagging away from
19:28
Speaker 1: what we wrote, right. But from what I understand, Zambra
19:34
Speaker 1: was pretty highly pursuit. But the reason he chose the
19:39
Speaker 1: Cubs is because Jed was very aggressive. So Zambro has
19:44
Speaker 1: a has a history with Andrew Bassett, who was ahead
19:48
Speaker 1: of pro scouting. I'm not sure if we even know
19:51
Speaker 1: what his title is anymore because of all the changes
19:55
Speaker 1: with Bassett is you know lieutenants now right right, and
20:03
Speaker 1: and Zambro has a history with him, has done like
20:06
Speaker 1: some work with the Cubs. I think he's done random
20:09
Speaker 1: work with teams over the years, just kind of helping
20:11
Speaker 1: on pitchers and giving information. And he's done that in
20:15
Speaker 1: the past with the Cubs, and so they had this relationship.
20:19
Speaker 1: They were giving the willingness to kind of give him
20:21
Speaker 1: this all encompassing role. I think really intrigued Sambro. As
20:25
Speaker 1: we said, like's his ultimate goal is to be at
20:28
Speaker 1: the top of a baseball ops someday. And yeah, I
20:33
Speaker 1: think that attracted him to the Cubs. Jed was intrigued
20:37
Speaker 1: by his intelligence, his background, kind of the need for
20:41
Speaker 1: another baseball mind, pitching mind. They lost Craig Breslow about
20:47
Speaker 1: a year a little over a year ago. Now they're
20:49
Speaker 1: very happy with Ryan O'to. Zambro was emphasized that what
20:55
Speaker 1: Breslo and Otaro have kind of built in the pitching infrastructure.
20:58
Speaker 1: Gives him a lot to work with. It's not like
20:59
Speaker 1: he's from a clean slate and building from the ground up.
21:04
Speaker 1: It's kind of like what they're they're head of PD
21:09
Speaker 1: who came from Houston. Who's now Jesus, my brain is
21:12
Speaker 1: not working. Canceler said, like, they're not coming over here
21:18
Speaker 1: and like we have to reinvent the wheel. They're they're
21:22
Speaker 1: just expanding on what's already been built. This is, this
21:24
Speaker 1: is according to them. I don't want to.
21:27
Speaker 2: Whenever someone says we're not reinventing the wheel, they're totally reinventing.
21:31
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to act like the Cubs
21:34
Speaker 1: have it all figured out. I think that's why I
21:36
Speaker 1: wrote what I did at the end. The Cubs are
21:38
Speaker 1: an eighty three win team. They have a lot of
21:41
Speaker 1: good prospects.
21:42
Speaker 2: Uh.
21:43
Speaker 1: There are some people that still feel like, hey, where
21:46
Speaker 1: do they stand out? What is their advantage? Competitive advantage?
21:51
Speaker 1: But Zambro had nothing but good things to say about
21:53
Speaker 1: this organization. What stood out to him was their ability
21:57
Speaker 1: to collaborate between departments. Right, so he's he's helping with
22:03
Speaker 1: strength and conditioning. He's communicating with strength and conditioning to
22:06
Speaker 1: what we were talking about, like how your body moves. Okay,
22:08
Speaker 1: like let's let's strengthen this area to make sure you
22:11
Speaker 1: can move like this or really lean into this part
22:14
Speaker 1: of your you know body. Just like he's he's able
22:18
Speaker 1: to work with in every department. And I think that
22:21
Speaker 1: intrigued him, that he kind of has that latitude to
22:24
Speaker 1: work all over the place. And and Jed was intrigued
22:27
Speaker 1: by him, and and it was very aggressive with with
22:31
Speaker 1: his pursuit and it's made for you know, I guess
22:35
Speaker 1: a convenient marriage. Uh, And well, I'm just intrigued by it.
22:40
Speaker 1: I think he's clearly intelligent. I want to know it's good.
22:46
Speaker 2: It's good too, because like this last phase of the
22:49
Speaker 2: off season is largely going to be about pitching and
22:52
Speaker 2: pitching air quotes, finding value on the margins and you know,
22:56
Speaker 2: consolidation of war and you know optionality and out getters,
23:02
Speaker 2: as Craig Counsel would say, So like, like we talked
23:05
Speaker 2: about earlier, there's a lot of like pitchers out there,
23:11
Speaker 2: and not all of them are probably gonna be super
23:13
Speaker 2: happy with how this is going.
23:14
Speaker 3: To turn out. And that is very much a.
23:17
Speaker 2: Jet and Carter type of strategy of kind of waiting
23:22
Speaker 2: it out right, you know, maybe getting you know, getting
23:25
Speaker 2: some unexpected value or different players at different price points.
23:30
Speaker 1: We'll see what like. Look, the Cubs have been pretty
23:33
Speaker 1: good at that in general over the past five years, right,
23:37
Speaker 1: They've been pretty solid at finding that value. Last year
23:41
Speaker 1: obviously didn't work out. The year before that it was
23:44
Speaker 1: hit or miss, but they did do a good job
23:47
Speaker 1: over the course of the season. Last year, they didn't
23:49
Speaker 1: do a good job to start the season, right, but
23:51
Speaker 1: then they found guys like Tyson Miller and Nate Pearson
23:54
Speaker 1: to help them near the end of the year. They're
23:57
Speaker 1: able to figure these things out on the fly. You'd
23:59
Speaker 1: prefer you don't have awful aprils at maze, right. I
24:02
Speaker 1: think that's the goal here right now, make sure to
24:06
Speaker 1: find that value. Will Like, nobody knows who Ben Heller is,
24:10
Speaker 1: right will we know who he is by mid season.
24:12
Speaker 1: It is the guy that they just picked up from Texas,
24:15
Speaker 1: Matt Feste, who has worked I didn't mention this. So
24:21
Speaker 1: he was at Zamber was at tread Athletics, which is
24:24
Speaker 1: huge now and I've talked to some people around baseball
24:28
Speaker 1: they believe it, like some people are like I think
24:31
Speaker 1: they may be better than drive Line. They have more
24:34
Speaker 1: success stories. There's a lot of names. I was looking
24:38
Speaker 1: at these guys. I sometimes like relievers are so easy
24:41
Speaker 1: to go under your radar and you completely miss on
24:44
Speaker 1: this guy like Colin Snyder with Seattle last year. Go
24:48
Speaker 1: look at his previous seasons and then the season he
24:51
Speaker 1: just had and you're just like, that is an out
24:53
Speaker 1: of the blue reliever, Like what is this guy doing?
24:57
Speaker 1: And he's a tread guy. He worked with Zambro, Like,
24:59
Speaker 1: there's a lot of guys that Sober is already working
25:01
Speaker 1: with other picks like all the like a bunch of
25:03
Speaker 1: pictures in spring training, not spring training, but in Arizona
25:08
Speaker 1: and trying to get them to be their best selves
25:10
Speaker 1: this season. So we'll see what type of impact. Is
25:12
Speaker 1: it an immediate impact, is it a long term impact?
25:15
Speaker 1: Is is it both? Well, I'm very curious to see
25:18
Speaker 1: how that works out. I think maybe the immediate thing
25:21
Speaker 1: we may see are are like some impact with the relievers, right,
25:24
Speaker 1: Like that's that they're they're good at that. Can they
25:27
Speaker 1: kind of stand out now? Can they can they be
25:30
Speaker 1: something that? Can it be something that you know, there's
25:33
Speaker 1: multiple guys coming up and down every year, and and
25:36
Speaker 1: relievers are you know, short bursts of success. So this
25:40
Speaker 1: may not be like ten years of a reliever dominating,
25:43
Speaker 1: but you get three months of success that's April, right, Yeah,
25:48
Speaker 1: Star a council kind of like, you know, yeah, so
25:55
Speaker 1: we'll we'll see, you know, I'm not I'm not all
25:58
Speaker 1: in on saying like it. This is the difference maker.
26:01
Speaker 1: And they they've hired the most brilliant find ever. I
26:06
Speaker 1: just I was just intrigued and as an impressive round game.
26:10
Speaker 1: Yeah enough people around the game had positive things to
26:13
Speaker 1: say that it seemed worthwhile and and he's an outside
26:18
Speaker 1: the box thinker that has some success behind them as
26:21
Speaker 1: far as working with guys, and he's a former player,
26:24
Speaker 1: so like he earns that respect from the guys he
26:26
Speaker 1: works with. They like working with him. Something that he
26:29
Speaker 1: said that I didn't really get a chance to write
26:31
Speaker 1: because it was like we went in so many different directions,
26:34
Speaker 1: was his one of his big priorities is keeping these
26:37
Speaker 1: guys healthy. And I think like players love hearing that
26:40
Speaker 1: so much. It's like so much of it is just
26:42
Speaker 1: like maximize everything, throw as hard as you can and
26:44
Speaker 1: then help isn't like the number one priority. He's like,
26:47
Speaker 1: my goal is to make sure they stay healthy. He's
26:49
Speaker 1: worked with like two times, Tommy John guys like coul
26:51
Speaker 1: Reagan's and like wants to make sure he stays healthy.
26:54
Speaker 1: Reagan's is now an all star, you know, cy young
26:57
Speaker 1: type pitcher, and he's and he's he looks healthier and
27:01
Speaker 1: seems like maybe he's like he found figured some things out.
27:06
Speaker 1: Who knows is that an advantage he can bring? I
27:09
Speaker 1: don't know, Like these are the types of things like
27:11
Speaker 1: we need to watch and pay attention to it and
27:13
Speaker 1: see what direction they go with pitching, both at the
27:16
Speaker 1: major league level and in the minors with player development.
27:19
Speaker 1: Zambro could impact that. So we'll see. We'll see if
27:21
Speaker 1: it's a if it's just a non story in the end,
27:24
Speaker 1: or or if he's the real deal, or you know,
27:27
Speaker 1: if the organization can work with him, and you know,
27:30
Speaker 1: if they can work, if he can take this organization
27:32
Speaker 1: to another level, because I think that they really need
27:35
Speaker 1: that because right now when we talk to people around
27:38
Speaker 1: the game, you hear like, this is what the Cubs
27:41
Speaker 1: are doing that's standing out. We don't, right, we don't
27:43
Speaker 1: hear that.
27:45
Speaker 3: It's It's definitely a good read.
27:47
Speaker 2: Check it out on the Athletic in large part because
27:51
Speaker 2: Zambro does tie together a lot of different themes and
27:55
Speaker 2: ideas that.
27:56
Speaker 3: Are kind of running around the organization now at a.
27:59
Speaker 2: Very critical time for this front office, so definitely definitely worthwhile.
28:06
Speaker 2: We'll give you a lot at insight as the Cubs,
28:10
Speaker 2: you know, move closer towards spring training here and finish
28:13
Speaker 2: out the off season.
28:15
Speaker 1: Yep, all right, thanks so much for listening to everyone.
28:18
Speaker 1: This is North Side Territory. Make sure to rate and review,
28:21
Speaker 1: subscribe on whatever platform it is, and please subscribe on
28:24
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel. You can see our beautiful faces on
28:26
Speaker 1: there twice a week in the off season, and we'll
28:30
Speaker 1: we'll be ramping up to three times a week soon. Huh.
28:32
Speaker 1: That's that's coming up soon, I guess. Thanks so much
28:35
Speaker 1: for listening. We'll be back next week. Cubs Convention next Friday.
28:40
Speaker 1: Oh the excitement you can hear.
28:42
Speaker 3: It in your voice.
28:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, I am so thrilled. But do come say hello
28:50
Speaker 1: if if you if you are a Cubs convention, we'd
28:52
Speaker 1: love to say hi. We'll we'll have a couple episodes
28:55
Speaker 1: out before Cubs convention. Thanks so much for listening to everyone.
28:57
Speaker 1: Take care
29:01
Speaker 3: You literally a pillows