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Speaker 1: Welcome into North Side Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm sad Av Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We

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Speaker 1: are your Cubs beat writers, the athletic Patrick. The Cubs

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Speaker 1: are six and four. They have handed the Padres their

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Speaker 1: first loss of the season. It was the home opener.

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Speaker 1: It was not a beautiful day Wrigly, but it felt energetic.

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Speaker 1: It felt a place with packed I believe it was

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Speaker 1: over forty thousand Wrigley Field.

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Speaker 2: We haven't gotten.

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Speaker 1: Those beautiful sunny days at Wrigley just yet. We of

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Speaker 1: course will eventually. This weekend doesn't appear to be one

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Speaker 1: of those. It still nice to be back at Wrigley.

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Speaker 1: I think it was a fun listening to Greig Council

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Speaker 1: describe some of these you guys experiencing Wrigilely for the

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Speaker 1: first time, getting lost, walking around in towels and acci

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Speaker 1: heading for the thinking you're heading for the showers and

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Speaker 1: heading towards the elevators, things like that. Ultimately, I think

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Speaker 1: the story is from Game one at Wrigley. He showed

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Speaker 1: him Monaga and showed a did I've been saying, shoot,

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Speaker 1: Craig Council has been saying repeating, twenty twenty four is

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Speaker 1: going to be really hard. H three starts in, he

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Speaker 1: looks like he's primed to do that. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if he will. You know, I think I wrote, like,

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Speaker 1: nine games in nine starts into last season, he had

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Speaker 1: a sub one ERA. Right now, three starts, he's got

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Speaker 1: a sub one ERA if he's if he's doing that

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Speaker 1: again nine starts in, like I just got to hand

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Speaker 1: it to him. It'll be like my my issues with

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Speaker 1: the Brewers over the past six years, constantly doubting them.

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Speaker 1: I have no doubt that showed him. Anaga is a

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Speaker 1: really good picture. If he's this top five, top ten

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Speaker 1: type pitcher in the league consistently, First of all, props

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Speaker 1: to him, like what an amazing pitcher, but also props

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Speaker 1: to the front office forgetting this guy on clearly his

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Speaker 1: deal of a deal.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he's faced what the Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Padres in

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Speaker 3: his three starts.

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Speaker 4: And has been obviously a little.

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Speaker 3: Abbreviated start due to the timing of the Tokyo series,

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Speaker 3: but still really hard to you know, pitch under pressure

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Speaker 3: at home like that, and that guy he just keeps delivering.

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Speaker 3: He is still very fun to watch, which I know

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Speaker 3: that's not really like a metric or something you can quantify,

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Speaker 3: but just his his vibes, his style, his sense of

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Speaker 3: humor and sense of the moment are all just really

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Speaker 3: really fun to watch, really fun to kind of absorb

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Speaker 3: one of the few kind of you know, appointment television

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Speaker 3: type starters in baseball. And yeah, if he's anywhere, because

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Speaker 3: he was last year, maybe even a little better, it's

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Speaker 3: hard to see this Cup season like coming apart.

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Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, I liked.

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Speaker 1: Our buddy Jesse Rogers going going a little nerdy with

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Speaker 1: his questions yesterday to show to asking him about his

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Speaker 1: pitch usage, and Shoda should have used his sweeper a

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Speaker 1: little bit more. Wasn't like a crazy amount, right it was,

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Speaker 1: I want to say, twelve sweepers yesterday or Friday, and

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Speaker 1: I think, you know.

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Speaker 2: His answer was pretty three.

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Speaker 1: I liked his answer that you know, this is the

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Speaker 1: best league in sports, or you know, in baseball, this

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Speaker 1: is the highest level. I got to keep trying to adjust.

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Speaker 1: I got to keep seeing what I can do to

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Speaker 1: get better. He's not he and that's something that council

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Speaker 1: kind of pointed out last year, like this guy's I

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Speaker 1: know he's a rookie last year, but he's a veteran.

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Speaker 1: He's a baseball veteran. He he's smart, he knows how

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Speaker 1: to adjust in game, he knows how to adjust over

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Speaker 1: the course of a season. And he's and and clearly

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Speaker 1: he's he's doing it already and for his career. He's

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Speaker 1: face like you said, he faced three really tough teams.

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Speaker 1: He can't just be the same pitcher all the time.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes you can, I guess, right, like some sometimes maybe

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Speaker 1: maybe he just could get away with it.

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Speaker 2: But he doesn't. He doesn't seem satisfied with that.

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Speaker 1: Uh. I've I've been impressed these three starts in for

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Speaker 1: for him. Uh something else have been impressed with with

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Speaker 1: the team.

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Speaker 2: It's just uh.

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Speaker 1: They they said it over the offseason about the base running, right,

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Speaker 1: we gotta be a better base running team.

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Speaker 2: We've got to higher.

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Speaker 1: They focus that on their on their coaching staff. You

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Speaker 1: can say all these things. They they focused on it

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Speaker 1: in spring training. You can do all these things and

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Speaker 1: then it just kind of disappears or fades away, or

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Speaker 1: nobody remembers it or nobody notices it. Their base running

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Speaker 1: has changed multiple games already early in this season, council,

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Speaker 1: like you could see, like, how how often do you

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Speaker 1: see like a delighted Craig Couch Very rarely, very right, right,

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Speaker 1: And he he seems delighted by this. And he pointed

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Speaker 1: out to us after Friday's game, at least six runs

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Speaker 1: scored because they've stolen and out on the bases. And

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Speaker 1: he's right, it's at least six runs. It's changed games

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Speaker 1: for them. They're they're winning games. And he's right, it's

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Speaker 1: not gonna happen every single time, but they're winning games

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Speaker 1: right now because they they're aggressive with their base running.

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Speaker 1: They're not giving away outs or they're not just like

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Speaker 1: assuming outs either.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I really think this lineup one through nine just presents differently.

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Speaker 3: You have Ian Happ established as this leadoff guy, a

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Speaker 3: role that maybe he was a little bit hesitant to

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Speaker 3: take on earlier in his career.

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Speaker 4: Like Kyle Tucker, we've talked about this before. You're seeing

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Speaker 4: it that he just adds different dimensions plural to this team.

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Speaker 4: And some of it is just.

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Speaker 3: Grinding out walks, sometimes just being aggressive and just you know,

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Speaker 3: nailing a pitch pitch one, but it is creating traffic

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Speaker 3: on the basis putting pressure on the team, on the

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Speaker 3: opposing team we think of, I mean, Council acknowledge yesterday,

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Speaker 3: he thinks, say it benefits from.

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Speaker 4: Seeing Kyle Tucker.

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Speaker 3: That what have we as good as say it has

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Speaker 3: been over the years, he hasn't quite put it together

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Speaker 3: the way everyone thought. And part of it, I think

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Speaker 3: is there are times when he can be too disciplined

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Speaker 3: or a little bit passive in the at bats, and

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Speaker 3: I think that is maybe starting as he've been to

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Speaker 3: his game. And we talked about this earlier as well,

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Speaker 3: like there is some really plus to elite speed towards

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Speaker 3: the bottom half of that lineup when you're talking about

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Speaker 3: Nico Pca, Matt Shaw, and then the catching position not

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Speaker 3: being like the worst catching group in the majors. You

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Speaker 3: add it all up and you can see a team

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Speaker 3: that can win at Wrigley Field when the elements are

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Speaker 3: against the hitters.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I was thinking about this on my

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Speaker 1: drive home. They stole that run right by, say it

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Speaker 1: getting to second base and then followed up by an error,

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Speaker 1: And it's just like little things right like did are

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Speaker 1: the Padres a bad team?

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Speaker 4: Now?

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Speaker 1: Are the Cubs this amazing team? But sometimes baseball just

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Speaker 1: kind of flips on like one little play for sure,

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Speaker 1: And how many times were those plays going against the

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Speaker 1: Cubs over the past two years where they couldn't win

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Speaker 1: fifty to fifty moments And that's the difference between eighty

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Speaker 1: three and eighty six wins or whatever it may be.

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Speaker 1: It like they like, this is how you win those

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Speaker 1: fifty to fifty moments.

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Speaker 2: And and you talk about margin ferererr. Sometimes when you're not.

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Speaker 1: The Dodgers or the Padres, you have to you have

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Speaker 1: to focus on these things, right, Like, you don't have

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Speaker 1: this star laden team. You added a star in Kyle Tucker.

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Speaker 1: You have a ton of talent. Jed Hoyer spoke before

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Speaker 1: Friday's game and was clear that he believes is a

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Speaker 1: better team on paper and on the field than last year.

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Speaker 1: But I don't think it's a team that projects to

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Speaker 1: win ninety plus games. And when when you're when you're good,

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Speaker 1: but not with maybe lacking in some areas, being able

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Speaker 1: to being able to do the little things, find an

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Speaker 1: edge here or there, and they focused on edge and

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Speaker 1: now it seems like it is a legitimate edge for them.

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Speaker 2: I think that's a big deal.

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Speaker 4: No doubt. And I think one of the things.

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Speaker 3: That's one of the things that stands out about Kyle

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Speaker 3: Tucker is a guy who can be a thirty thirties threat.

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Speaker 3: I don't know if he'll steal thirty bases again this year,

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Speaker 3: but it's part of the overall package. And you know,

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Speaker 3: we're already sensing this sort of we're out in the

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Speaker 3: field reporting when we're checking the comment sections.

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Speaker 4: Of our stories or when we're scrolling.

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Speaker 2: On X.

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Speaker 3: Extending Tucker or not is going to be a huge story.

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Speaker 3: And Jed was asked about this before the home opener.

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Speaker 3: I think he wants to keep a running counter on

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Speaker 3: his no comments to that question. And we can see

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Speaker 3: where we're at by the end of the year. Certainly

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Speaker 3: there is very little expectation that Tucker or almost any

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Speaker 3: player in his position would sign an extension at this point.

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Speaker 3: We'll see what happens with Vlatimeric, Garero Junior and the

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Speaker 3: Blue Jays.

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Speaker 4: That's certainly a different one as.

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Speaker 3: A homegrown player who was born in Canada and has

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Speaker 3: had a very long history with the Blue Jays and

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Speaker 3: like in kind of a baseline of extension talks to

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Speaker 3: work from. If he signs there, that's you know, a

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Speaker 3: huge for agent off the board next winter.

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Speaker 4: But what Jed said is accurate.

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Speaker 3: This is the start of Kyle Tucker figuring out what

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Speaker 3: Rigley Field is all about. He said it was an

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Speaker 3: awesome atmosphere yesterday. He heard the chance, the interactions, seeing

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Speaker 3: the crowd running out to right field. So so far,

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Speaker 3: so good, And then I think you just worry about

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Speaker 3: the future later when you're a team that was pretty

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Speaker 3: good and you bring in this superstar talent.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it'll be fascinating to see what happens there.

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Speaker 1: I you know, these these comps, it's interesting, like a

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Speaker 1: Jan Soto or or a Vlad junior deal, Like what

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Speaker 1: what do teams value the most?

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Speaker 4: Right?

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Speaker 1: Like, Vlad's going to be entering his age twenty seven

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Speaker 1: season next year. I believe Wan Soto is entering this

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Speaker 1: is his twenty age twenty sixth season. Kyle Tucker will

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Speaker 1: be entering his age twenty nine season.

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Speaker 2: Am I right on that?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he'll be entering his age twenty nine season. But

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Speaker 1: they're clear, like when you compare the players to like

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Speaker 1: Vlad and Soto, where's their value offense? They're not elite

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Speaker 1: base runners, they're not le defenders, speed, isn't really part

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Speaker 1: of their game. Like what we're talking about great offensive talents.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to diminish their value, but that's where

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Speaker 1: it comes. It's it's at the plate, right, like really

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Speaker 1: really well, look really.

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Speaker 2: Good all around at the plate.

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Speaker 1: Tucker's that he's he's really great all around at the plate.

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Speaker 1: Maybe a slight step below those guys right when you

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Speaker 1: when you talk about pure offense, pure at the plate production,

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Speaker 1: probably at Lad's level, maybe a step below Sodo, who's

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Speaker 1: probably in like the judge Otani range, uh and and

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Speaker 1: you're and you, but you're talking about a great defender

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Speaker 1: and a great base runner too, and then he's two

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Speaker 1: years older. That's that's why I think it's an interesting

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Speaker 1: test case. How do teams treat this. It's like a

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Speaker 1: lot of what we see nowadays is that that drops

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Speaker 1: your money, your value a lot on the open market.

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Speaker 1: But Tucker is kind of this It's gonna be a

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Speaker 1: really interesting test case. I'm not sure the last time

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Speaker 1: we've seen this level of offensive talent, you know, all

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Speaker 1: around talent, I should say, hit the open market, and

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Speaker 1: at this age, it's been kind of you know, maybe

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Speaker 1: I'm maybe I'm just misremembering and there's something really recent.

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Speaker 1: But we've hit this new stratosphere of contract as well.

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Speaker 1: Uh So it just it's gonna be interesting to see,

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Speaker 1: like the guy like all pushing thirty, really talented, obviously

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Speaker 1: deserving of a big payday, but what does that payday

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Speaker 1: look like?

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Speaker 2: You know? And obviously it's a huge test case for

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Speaker 2: the Cubs as well. Uh and and we'll we'll see

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Speaker 2: where that goes.

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Speaker 3: We've been over that and we'll be discussing that a

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Speaker 3: lot over the coming months.

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Speaker 4: We love the Jed no comment counter. We needed a graphic.

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Speaker 2: Yeah ding yeah, time we ask again.

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Speaker 4: Uh.

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Speaker 1: Outside of I mean there's a lot of positives. There

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Speaker 1: are six or four team I feel like they're coming together.

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Speaker 1: I feel like, oh and two start is a distant memory.

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Speaker 1: What lingers in your mind is that Sunday loss against

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Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks and maybe just the shakiness of Ryan Presley

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Speaker 1: in general. Craig Council did not dismiss a question about

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Speaker 1: Ryan Presley after a win. After he got you could

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Speaker 1: say he got it out the save. He didn't act

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Speaker 1: like it was a non story or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: Ryan Presley was struggling to put batters away. He did

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Speaker 1: not get ahead of batters very often. He was consistently

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Speaker 1: running a high pitch count. I want to say he

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Speaker 1: ended the day with the save, but it was a

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Speaker 1: nail bider type save, base hit away from tying the game,

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Speaker 1: and it took thirty three pitches. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: you can have a closer controversy without a blown save.

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Speaker 1: But but I'm starting to feel, like, you know, I

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Speaker 1: don't like jumping like down these like I don't like

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Speaker 1: doing this so early on in someone in the season.

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Speaker 1: But I think the difference between Porter Hodge and Ryan

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Speaker 1: Presley currently is obvious to me and obvious to anyone watching.

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Speaker 1: I think Presley could settle down. But is this something

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Speaker 1: that we need to continue to talk about, Like, at minimum,

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Speaker 1: it's something we need to continue to monitor, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it just it just.

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Speaker 4: Can't be ignored.

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Speaker 3: And I still think Ryan Presley will get a lot

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Speaker 3: of big outs for the Cubs.

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Speaker 4: But already you can start to wonder, like what.

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Speaker 3: Is the next step of this, or at what point.

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Speaker 4: Is it going to be where all of.

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Speaker 3: A sudden, maybe Porter Hodge gets the ninth in one day,

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Speaker 3: or like there's a certain matchup where they sort of

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Speaker 3: flip them.

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Speaker 4: And maybe it's not as dramatic as like.

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Speaker 3: A pronouncement of that Porter Hodge is now our closer,

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Speaker 3: but it does seem like there's been, you know, to

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Speaker 3: use the managerial terminology of like certain pockets that it's

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Speaker 3: just wound up where Porter Hodge has kind of taken

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Speaker 3: on the heart of the other team's lineup. Yesterday was

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Speaker 3: a little different and a little and you can see

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Speaker 3: the issue, right I didn't I don't know if anyone

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Speaker 3: got up in the bullpen yesterday, but like you can

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Speaker 3: see like that's going like as the as your closers

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Speaker 3: go throwing thirty plus pitches and you just don't know

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Speaker 3: how it's going to break out. You have to be prepared, right,

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Speaker 3: like if you have to go to the next guy,

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Speaker 3: if you think it's going to go extra innings, and

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Speaker 3: like that sort of stuff is not there's not really

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Speaker 3: a you know, a category at MLB dot com for

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Speaker 3: that on the staff board, but like that stuff adds up,

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Speaker 3: and you know that the pitching coaches and the manager

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Speaker 3: in the front office are you know, concerned about.

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Speaker 4: Stuff like that too. So maybe.

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Speaker 3: Yesterday, you know, he finds something or you know, maybe

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Speaker 3: I was gonna say it would be nice if they

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Speaker 3: had like a little bit of a breather here, right

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Speaker 3: of like like the Marlins coming in for a four

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Speaker 3: game series like that is not happening.

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Speaker 4: Maybe like in May, there'll be more of a down

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Speaker 4: shift here.

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Speaker 3: But it's just you know, you can already see it,

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Speaker 3: like the Rangers come in with the huge offense after this, Uh,

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Speaker 3: Dodger Stadium is not gonna be an easy place to

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Speaker 3: close the game.

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Speaker 4: And then they go to Petco Park in San Diego.

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Speaker 4: So it's definitely you know, Presley had a good year

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Speaker 4: last year, right like he wound up in a good spot.

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Speaker 3: It wasn't as good as he's been before he adjusted

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Speaker 3: to that different role setting up for hater. But like

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Speaker 3: you know, this is front and center when like the

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Speaker 3: doors closed and the cameras are off and they're trying

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Speaker 3: to figure out, okay, like what's next here, Like Presley

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Speaker 3: is is part of that conversation.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and just from our experience last year with Hector

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Speaker 1: and Aris, which I felt was more glaring, much more glaring,

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Speaker 1: because it there is it wasn't like a feel like

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Speaker 1: this guy can't close. It's like this guy can't come

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Speaker 1: in in any high leverage situations. I don't fully feel

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Speaker 1: that with Presley, like I think he can get to

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Speaker 1: like I feel like he's going to get to a

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Speaker 1: place where he can be a reliable reliever. It's about

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Speaker 1: closing the game and really leaning on him in those

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Speaker 1: biggest moments every every other day or whatever it may be.

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Speaker 1: But we're not going to get something where counsel is

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Speaker 1: openly saying I'm removing him from the closer role before

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Speaker 1: it happens. What we're gonna see is he's going to

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Speaker 1: keep him in that spot for however long he wants to.

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Speaker 1: And then we'll see, let's assume it's porter Hodge, porter

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Speaker 1: Hodge start getting that, and then and when we ask

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Speaker 1: questions about that, it'll just basically be like I'm you know,

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Speaker 1: this is how I'm going about things or whatever. You know,

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Speaker 1: it won't be like Porter Hodge is my closer. Ryan

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Speaker 1: Presley isn't. It's just not how it doesn't seem like

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Speaker 1: how he does it, or very many managers really sure, right,

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Speaker 1: you're just trying to like protect your guys and not

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Speaker 1: throw them under the bus, not to us, at least

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Speaker 1: not publicly. And they have those conversations and they decide

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Speaker 1: these things. Like you said, when the cameras are off,

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Speaker 1: they're talking about it and they figure it out and

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Speaker 1: and and I think that's how it's gonna be. I

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Speaker 1: don't think it's gonna be some big pronouncement to us

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Speaker 1: before it happens. We'll just see it happen. And maybe

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Speaker 1: maybe maybe right, maybe they're already talking about this, like

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Speaker 1: when do we make this change?

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Speaker 2: I don't know, Like I.

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Speaker 4: Mine was when it was more of like, okay, what's

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Speaker 4: going on? How do we get him? Yeah?

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Speaker 3: What?

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Speaker 2: Right?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: How do we address this?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, you're right, because it's not that's probably

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Speaker 1: what it is, Like what do we need to work

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Speaker 1: on something with him, dude? Or is this what are

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Speaker 1: we seeing? Like are the results not telling the full story?

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Speaker 4: Whatever? It may be?

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Speaker 2: Right, I'm sure you.

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Speaker 4: Have to get credit for the results too, write.

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Speaker 1: Like right if the game so yeah, yeah, and he

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Speaker 1: threw probably his best fastball of the game to end

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Speaker 1: the game. Yeah, you know, like so you know, maybe

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Speaker 1: maybe things are slowly coming to coming together for him.

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Speaker 1: We'll see he's not gonna get if there's a save

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Speaker 1: opportunity on Saturday. He's not getting that thirty three pitches

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Speaker 1: he's down today, is my guess. So so we'll see

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Speaker 1: when he pitches next, what happens, what sort of role

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Speaker 1: he holds throughout the season, if it shifts, or if

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Speaker 1: he can lock down this closers role. I think it's

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Speaker 1: gonna be a talking point for Cubs fans, at the

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Speaker 1: very least for a while. Patrick, we'll be back at

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Speaker 1: it next week. The Cubs continue on with the tough

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Speaker 1: stretch of games here. We'll see how they do against

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Speaker 1: the Padres, handling them their first loss. Looking like a

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Speaker 1: much better team than last year, although you know they

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Speaker 1: were probably around this record last year, but it is.

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Speaker 2: A tough schedule.

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Speaker 1: They look like a different team on the field for

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Speaker 1: the most part. Let's see if they can keep it

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Speaker 1: up and keep the optimism going in an overcast, cloudy,

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Speaker 1: brainy Wrigley Field. Thanks so much for listening everyone. This

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Speaker 1: is Northside Territory. Make sure to rate, review and subscribe.

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Speaker 1: Subscribe to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic

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Speaker 1: where Patrick and I are on top of all things Cubs.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to everyone.

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Speaker 2: Take the name any I read

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Speaker 4: The