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Speaker 1: Right, like fans are gonna start dreaming again. So that's

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Speaker 1: just how I feel like these past four weeks in

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Speaker 1: general have been welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks

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Speaker 1: Cubs Podcast. I'm Sahadev Sharma. Patrick Mooney is on vacation

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Speaker 1: this week, so we have a special guest. Patrick had

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Speaker 1: Jesse Rogers on. I believe that was last week or

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Speaker 1: two weeks ago. So we're going polar oposites here where

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Speaker 1: we're as as Jesse, let everyone know, I'm spin Rate

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Speaker 1: and with me today is stat Cast, MLB dot COM's

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Speaker 1: Cubs beat reporter Jordan Bastion. Jordan, thank you for joining

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Speaker 1: the show. I believe you you are an occasional listener,

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Speaker 1: so you're familiar with Patrick's and my my shenanigans. I

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Speaker 1: guess I don't know what that is where we're not

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Speaker 1: too too wild here. We stick to Cubs most of

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Speaker 1: the time, but thanks, thanks for joining, thanks for listening

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Speaker 1: on occasion, and we can talk about this up and

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Speaker 1: down Cubs team that has started to tease the fans

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Speaker 1: and let them think that maybe they're getting back into it,

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Speaker 1: but but they're not. They're not getting back into this thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me on.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, after listening to that episode, I thought, yeah,

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Speaker 3: you need to balance it out. I think we're going

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Speaker 3: expected stats only in this episode.

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Speaker 2: Uh you know, I'm.

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Speaker 3: Gonna ask us say via stat cast every sentence. I

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Speaker 3: got my speller hat on, so I'm ready to go.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: You know, this team has been it's for the last

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Speaker 3: couple of weeks, it's been. You've seen those flashes of

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Speaker 3: a team that that looks like a team that should

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Speaker 3: be in the playoff race. You know, they they've going

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Speaker 3: back to July fourth, I think they've won.

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Speaker 2: I think they've gone sixteen and twelve.

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Speaker 3: I mean, that's not great, but it's it's been much

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Speaker 3: improved compared to what we saw across May and June.

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Speaker 3: They have these these couple game stretches where the offense

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Speaker 3: looks like what we kind of envisioned it would be,

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Speaker 3: you know, not a top of the league offense, but

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Speaker 3: a deep one through nine, above average across the board offense.

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Speaker 3: I think that's what we all expected going into this year,

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Speaker 3: and just certain parts of that lineup bottomed out. And

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Speaker 3: I think yesterday was another example of you saw a

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Speaker 3: pitcher that they hadn't seen, and he was facing hitters

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Speaker 3: that you know with that knowledge, and he leaned on

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Speaker 3: a change up more than he had all year, and

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Speaker 3: all of a sudden, the rack the whiffs were stacking

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Speaker 3: up at a rate we haven't seen since like June

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Speaker 3: for this Cubs team. And no one wants to hear

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Speaker 3: the word June right now in relations to the Cubs offense.

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Speaker 3: But for one day, that's what it was against the

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Speaker 3: Twins and Festa.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this is a slightly different team than

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Speaker 1: the one we have been watching. I would be more

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Speaker 1: optimistic in general about this team. I think they're uh,

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Speaker 1: they're not going to bottom out. Is is how I

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Speaker 1: look at these final two months. So this is this

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Speaker 1: is gonna be typical. They're they're going to tease. I

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Speaker 1: just don't think. I think they dug themselves too big

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Speaker 1: of a hole. One thing, I know, we we have

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Speaker 1: a kind of a plan of what we're going to

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Speaker 1: talk about here. One thing I just want to touch

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Speaker 1: on a reason why they're different, of course, is esak Paratus.

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Speaker 1: I think fans this this is typical for fans that

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Speaker 1: they they see it like the first week of a player.

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Speaker 1: Jamber Candelario last year, first week he was a stud,

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Speaker 1: right and then got hurt. Uh, never really played well

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Speaker 1: again for the Cubs. And and it's like a below

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Speaker 1: average bat this season, right, Like that's so the initial uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, what you initially see can sometimes be what

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Speaker 1: fans think the player is. Jamer or Estak Paratus has

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Speaker 1: been above average every month this season, every month except

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Speaker 1: for August so far. When I talk about above average,

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Speaker 1: I mean offensively. His worst month was July, where he

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Speaker 1: had a one o two way to runs great at

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Speaker 1: plus and had a three forty on base percentage. Like

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Speaker 1: that's he had an eighteen walk right right in July.

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Speaker 1: If that's your worst month, you'll take it like he's

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Speaker 1: He's incredibly consistent. This is a minor slump adjusting to

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Speaker 1: a new city. He's My guess is he's fine. That's

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Speaker 1: just a quick aside. I just wanted to I saw

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Speaker 1: people panicking last night, like what's wrong with this guy?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: This strikeouts I think are a little up for him.

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Speaker 3: This I mean he actually has had. If you've watched

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Speaker 3: the bats, there's been some really good at bats in

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Speaker 3: there that just have resulted in either a strikeout or

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Speaker 3: or a ball in play, but you've seen I know

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Speaker 3: we pointed to it that night. But he had a

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Speaker 3: twelve pitch at bat ended in a strikeout the other night,

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Speaker 3: and you don't you can't draw a direct line.

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Speaker 2: But there was a five run inning that happened after that.

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Speaker 2: I mean there is.

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Speaker 3: So we have seen little moments of those grinding at bats,

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Speaker 3: which is what you want from a good hitter when

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Speaker 3: you're in a result slump. You want the bats to

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Speaker 3: still be impacting in some way or to have a

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Speaker 3: competitive at bat.

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Speaker 2: We've seen competitive atvats. We just haven't seen the results yet.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, I would not be concerned about him. He is

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Speaker 1: pretty consistent. This is a third year in a row

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Speaker 1: where he's performed at a high level offensively. If you

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Speaker 1: want to look at bad luck numbers like the last

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Speaker 1: two months and including July in the start of August,

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Speaker 1: like the babep numbers are just ridiculous, ridiculously low, like

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Speaker 1: sub one thirty numbers with the Babe, He's gonna be fine.

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Speaker 2: And it's regularly so hot of the pole power doesn't

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Speaker 2: play in regularly.

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Speaker 1: Well, one player who is turning it around. And when

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Speaker 1: we talk about small sample, this small sample is pretty impressive.

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Speaker 1: Peek row Armstrong is starting to look like a completely

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Speaker 1: different hitter at the plate. I started to notice it

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Speaker 1: so at the end of the right before the break,

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Speaker 1: he had that two homer game, and I actually didn't

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Speaker 1: love those homers. They the results, you'll take them, right,

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Speaker 1: But the pitches he swung it are the types of

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Speaker 1: pitches you don't want. He was swinging it and getting

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Speaker 1: bad results on before. He was chasing too much, and

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Speaker 1: he chased a couple of breaking balls down, got them out,

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Speaker 1: you know, hit them out like he had good results

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Speaker 1: on pitches he probably should have swung it. And then

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Speaker 1: you know, coming out of the break, he looked like

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Speaker 1: the same guy, chasing way too much. I think he

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Speaker 1: went on an oh for twenty one stretch there like

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Speaker 1: it was bad, and he was chasing still in Kansas City.

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Speaker 1: The second he got to Kansas City. That even that

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Speaker 1: first game, I was like, ooh, this looks like a

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Speaker 1: different guy. He started to get some results in Kansas City.

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Speaker 1: First couple games of Cincinnati, line drives all over the place,

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Speaker 1: didn't get results. But he's not chasing as much. He's

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Speaker 1: making more hard contact, so he's this is a three

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Speaker 1: six nine ten games sample now including Monday night, he

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Speaker 1: has an eight point eight strikeout ray. He has a

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Speaker 1: one forty eight way to runs creative plus. You know

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Speaker 1: you want to see more walks. I think he has

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Speaker 1: one walk in that stretch. It's okay. He probably needs

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Speaker 1: to start walking more. And I think you were there

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Speaker 1: on Saturday when Dustin Kelly kind of talked about like

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Speaker 1: he's not going to be seeking out walks, but but

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Speaker 1: there's a way that they'll come if he starts doing

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Speaker 1: some damage.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I think it's the old adage that walks for a hitter,

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Speaker 3: especially of his kind of profile, are going to be

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Speaker 3: the byproduct of just good pitch selection and good at baths.

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Speaker 2: You don't, I don't.

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Speaker 3: I don't think he's the type of player you go

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Speaker 3: up there and say, hey, I want you to draw walks.

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Speaker 2: You don't want Peecrow Armston hunting for walks.

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Speaker 3: You want him hunting for doubles and triples and or

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Speaker 3: getting on base and turning a single into a double

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Speaker 3: with a stolen base. But the walks are going to

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Speaker 3: be that he's starting to learn to recognize the pitches

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Speaker 3: that he has been chasing. And I think what he's

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Speaker 3: talked about too, is he's starting to see some pitchers

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Speaker 3: more than once. He's starting to get those mental reps

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Speaker 3: so he can know what a guy's going to in

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Speaker 3: what situation, or just what the shape of his breaking

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Speaker 3: ball looks like. That's going to be valuable as he

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Speaker 3: continues to learn. And I think if you actually I

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Speaker 3: was looking at his fifteen game rolling on Fangrafts Jesse

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Speaker 3: and Mooney, you can tune out right now, but I

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Speaker 3: think if you actually go back to late June, you

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Speaker 3: can steadily see that swinging strike rate just in full decline,

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Speaker 3: so that part of it has started has been in

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Speaker 3: decline for a good month plus. And yeah, I think

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Speaker 3: he started some drills with Dustin Kelly really focusing on

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Speaker 3: almost overemphasizing the weight distribution over his back leg to

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Speaker 3: really stay back when he was hitting. I think you

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Speaker 3: wrote he had conversations with Nick Madrigal about just his

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Speaker 3: style of doing that and how he tried to incorporate

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Speaker 3: a little bit of that mindset where you almost feel

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Speaker 3: like you're off balance or leaning back too far, but

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Speaker 3: it's actually just forcing you to not get out front.

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Speaker 3: And we've seen a lot of pulled balls into the

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Speaker 3: right field corner, which as soon as he puts a

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Speaker 3: ball into the right field corner, that's a double, you know,

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Speaker 3: for a guy with his speed. So I think we're

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Speaker 3: seeing really really improved swing decisions. We're seeing him just

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Speaker 3: on time more lately because of some of the drill work.

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Speaker 2: He's been doing.

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Speaker 3: And I mean, gotta remember, this guy broke into the

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Speaker 3: big leagues at what twenty one, he's yeah, twenty two

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Speaker 3: right now. The expectations are so high for him, and

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Speaker 3: you know, a player's peak is I think we've learned

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Speaker 3: it's not necessarily twenty seven anymore. Maybe it's skews a

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Speaker 3: little younger than that, but I mean, this guy still

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Speaker 3: has multiple seasons until he's peak. Major league Pete Crow Armstrong,

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Speaker 3: it's hard to learn and develop in the big league level,

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Speaker 3: and I think, you know, you hear a lot of

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Speaker 3: people say that, but it's true. And you've got two

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Speaker 3: examples this year of Petrol Armstrong and Miguel Amaya, who

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Speaker 3: they've made.

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Speaker 2: Stance implementation changes.

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Speaker 3: That is the type of stuff that you would tell

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Speaker 3: a minor leaguer to do in the minor leagues, and

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Speaker 3: they're going, no, we need you to do this in

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Speaker 3: the major leagues, try it out for a couple of days,

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Speaker 3: and let's work from there. You know, that's developing at

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Speaker 3: the major league level, and you know, I think we've

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Speaker 3: seen tons of positive signs lately.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and so much of when you talk about how

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Speaker 1: it feels like he's almost leaning too far back or

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Speaker 1: too much on his back leg, like, so much of

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Speaker 1: it is like these mental cues and the feel can

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Speaker 1: be different than what's actually happening, right, and you just

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Speaker 1: have to like, what's where are you comfortable with things?

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Speaker 1: And when I was talking to Pete, a big thing

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Speaker 1: that stood out to me is like he's getting a

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Speaker 1: lot of it right and that can sometimes be overwhelming,

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Speaker 1: but well, what he's he's he's really good. It seems

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Speaker 1: to be like filtering out what he needs and just

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Speaker 1: taking He's like he's like, there's not there's there's only

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Speaker 1: so many ways to do this right, Like everyone has

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Speaker 1: different paths to success, but there's only so many ways

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Speaker 1: that things can work out. There's you can't have like

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Speaker 1: there's not like thousands of different things. So he's like

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Speaker 1: trying to pick the things that that work for him,

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Speaker 1: like he is something that stood out to him was

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Speaker 1: in spring training in the cage, like Dansby noticed he

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Speaker 1: was doing too many things, and he was like, hey,

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Speaker 1: just focus on the finish. Focus on the finish of

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Speaker 1: your swing. And everything in the mindset is everything up

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Speaker 1: the middle, hard up the middle. And and that's something

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Speaker 1: that he's he's just kept that and then like talkman

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Speaker 1: gives him a little bits of advice, Cody Beundry, he

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Speaker 1: has all these veterans or really smart ball players just

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Speaker 1: giving him little tidbits along the way. Uh. And the

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Speaker 1: reason they're doing that is because they see them men's talent, right,

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Speaker 1: Like this guy's an elite defender in centerfield. We can

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Speaker 1: we can hem and haw about what happened on Saturday

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Speaker 1: and listen, that was a bad play. It shouldn't have happened.

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Speaker 1: The Cubs should have won that game. But he's he's

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Speaker 1: still learning, Like you said, he's twenty two.

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Speaker 3: One thing I like too is and Creg Council has

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Speaker 3: used this example of that. It reminds him of Carlos

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Speaker 3: Gomez when he first got to Milwaukee and he said,

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Speaker 3: the one of the differences there and what I think

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Speaker 3: what you're talking about all the advice that Pete's getting.

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Speaker 3: All the advice that Pete Carl Armstrong is getting from

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Speaker 3: the staff, from his teammates is how do we maximize

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Speaker 3: your strengths and turn you into the best version of you.

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Speaker 3: What creug Council has said happened to Carlos Gomez was

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Speaker 3: he was a similarly speed based type hitter, and back

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Speaker 3: in the day, it was, here's what we want you

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Speaker 3: to do because you are that type of player. And

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Speaker 3: they would almost they would force hitters to be someone

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Speaker 3: who they weren't, and it took him a long time.

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Speaker 3: You know, hey, get the ball on the ground, you know,

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Speaker 3: move the runner over like you're you're the you're the

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Speaker 3: fast slap hitter type guy. With Pete, it's like, no,

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Speaker 3: you have a dynamic skill set if we can maximize it,

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Speaker 3: So let's focus on getting getting that out of you.

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Speaker 2: But if you look at.

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Speaker 3: Gomas's his kind of career track record is first five

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Speaker 3: years I was looking at this up he was seventy.

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Speaker 2: Three ops plus a well below up average.

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Speaker 3: His ground ball rate was really high, and then you

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Speaker 3: could see when he got to Milwaukee there was less

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Speaker 3: emphasis on ground balls. He's getting the ball on the

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Speaker 3: air more. All of a sudden, that on base is

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Speaker 3: ticking up and ticking up, and suddenly he's getting MVP

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Speaker 3: votes and there's a two time All Star because he

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Speaker 3: got his ops plus into the one twenty range. And

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Speaker 3: I think, like, if you can get Pete crow Armstrong

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Speaker 3: to that ninety five to one twenty range one twenty

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Speaker 3: being like, this dude will get MVP votes because of

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Speaker 3: the skills. Like it's it's like we talk about Danzby Swanson.

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Speaker 3: If you can just be a league average or slightly

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Speaker 3: a bug league average offensive player, that's superstar level, you know,

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Speaker 3: So I think when you're talking about the all round games,

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Speaker 3: I just thought that was an interesting example council is

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Speaker 3: leaned on of you know, this is a normal career

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Speaker 3: trajectory for a young player, and in Pete's case, this

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Speaker 3: is let's emphasize your strengths, not make you do things

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Speaker 3: that don't spit who you are as a player.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and and I glossed over it. I said, the

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Speaker 1: eight point eight strikeout, eight point eight percent strikeout right

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Speaker 1: over the last ten games. I don't think he's going

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Speaker 1: to be like a twelve percent strikeout guy, but right

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Speaker 1: now he's like twenty three point six.

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Speaker 2: Right now you're seeing the best version of him.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like twenty three point six for the season,

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Speaker 1: and like after what he did last year, it was

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Speaker 1: what nineteen played appearance is not enough to really make

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Speaker 1: grand conclusions, but still like that's that's solid. Like his

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Speaker 1: babeb is way too low for his speed. He's this

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Speaker 1: is this is fine. I know the results aren't fully

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Speaker 1: there for the full season, but this, like I think

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Speaker 1: Cubs fans now that we've kind of seen like this

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Speaker 1: stretch of like, oh wait, he can make adjustments, he

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Speaker 1: can look good at the plate. I was getting to

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Speaker 1: the point where I was like, oh, these chases on

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Speaker 1: these sliders in are just like that's unbearable to watch,

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Speaker 1: Like you have to adjust, and he did so I

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Speaker 1: think there's reason to be optimistic for fans. I think

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Speaker 1: obviously the speed's there. You have elite speed, top three,

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Speaker 1: top five in the game speed. It's like Bobby wit,

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Speaker 1: Ellie De la Cruz and Peeker Armstrong right like these

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Speaker 1: this is an elite talent that you know, if he

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Speaker 1: starts to look like you said, ninety five one hundred

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Speaker 1: way to runs great A plus that is a great

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Speaker 1: player with his defense in center field. It's it's starting

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Speaker 1: to build some optimism. I think, you know, you don't

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Speaker 1: want to get overwhelmed or overthink things for twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 1: but twenty twenty five like this, Suddenly it changes the

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Speaker 1: trajectory of things and you feel a little bit more comfortable,

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Speaker 1: and you start talking about depth, and you know all

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Speaker 1: the options you have and what what Cody Bellinger is

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Speaker 1: going to do as far as opting in, opting out,

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Speaker 1: and you have different you have. You have a lot

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Speaker 1: of options right now and part of that and we

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Speaker 1: can shift here they like Council addressed this yesterday. But

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Speaker 1: they three guys move up from Double A to Triple A,

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Speaker 1: Matt Shaw, Kevin al contra Uh and James Trianto's. That's

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Speaker 1: six top one hundred guys at Triple A, you know,

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Speaker 1: including Kate Horton who has hurt. But you know, five

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Speaker 1: position players. Moyses Biasteris, Owen Casey already there, Owen Casey's

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Speaker 1: been there all season long. Moyses Biasterius is twenty years old.

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Speaker 1: Like they have a loaded Triple A team, a bunch

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Speaker 1: of position players on the cusp of coming up to

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Speaker 1: the big leagues. You already have PCA and Matt Bush.

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Speaker 1: Matt Bush, Michael Bush at the big league. There's a

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Speaker 1: lot of young talent here, and not everyone's going to hit,

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Speaker 1: not everyone's going to become a CUB, not everyone's going

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Speaker 1: to impact this team as a cub. But it is

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Speaker 1: a good thing to see them get to Triple A,

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Speaker 1: to see them develop, to see them on the cusp

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Speaker 1: of the big leagues and finally feeling good about the system.

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Speaker 1: As far as it's it's almost I remember in fourteen

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Speaker 1: people would be like, who cares about these these prospects? Right?

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Speaker 1: Because they're they're these intangible concepts. They're starting to become

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Speaker 1: tangible now and it's something fans can really grasp a

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Speaker 1: hold of.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's one thing I've really liked since i've been

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Speaker 3: so I came over to this beat in nineteen and

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Speaker 3: maybe you can speak to what the development was like

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Speaker 3: before that.

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Speaker 2: I know you can.

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Speaker 3: But one thing I've really liked of this sort of

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Speaker 3: new player development regime is the they're not timid to

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Speaker 3: push guys that are young up the ladder, especially on

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Speaker 3: the position player side.

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Speaker 2: Before you would look at their age and think like, oh,

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Speaker 2: they're ready for that level.

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Speaker 3: I've really liked how fast they pushed Owen Casey up

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Speaker 3: the level. You know, they drafted Shaw and he said,

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Speaker 3: I want to be pushed. I want to be in

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Speaker 3: the big leagues. And one of the reasons he liked

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Speaker 3: at the Cubs where the team that drafted him is

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Speaker 3: he was confident they would do it.

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Speaker 2: They've backed that up and his performance has dictated it.

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Speaker 3: James Toronto's who I think kind of flies under the

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Speaker 3: radar a little bit just because of some of the

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Speaker 3: other prospect names. He's been pushed and has answered the

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Speaker 3: bell and moved up quickly and showing an incredible propensity

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Speaker 3: for just not striking out and getting on base. And

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Speaker 3: so I think that's been really impressive, and these guys

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Speaker 3: have backed it up. And yeah, I think when you

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Speaker 3: start when you hear Jed Hoyer say at the trade deadline, like, yeah,

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Speaker 3: this year hasn't called the way that the Cubs have

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Speaker 3: wanted it to go, but they still feel they're in

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Speaker 3: a good organizational place foundation wise for the next two years.

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Speaker 3: It's it's because of this, It's because you have this

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Speaker 3: layer coming and it's not necessarily plug and play guys. Oh,

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Speaker 3: these are all gonna be superstars and you plug them in.

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Speaker 3: And that's what top one hundred means. It's you fill

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Speaker 3: out a major league team with veteran major league players

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Speaker 3: and if something happens, you have this layer underneath that

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Speaker 3: you can trust and step in and fill in in spots,

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Speaker 3: and you know, maybe you pick one spot up Pete

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Speaker 3: crow Armstrong to say, you're gonna be the guy who's

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Speaker 3: in the big leagues developing this year.

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Speaker 2: We're not gonna We're not gonna run the whole farm

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Speaker 2: system up.

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Speaker 3: And you're waiting for these guys to be baking down

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Speaker 3: in the minor leagues and when it's time, they're called

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Speaker 3: up and you can kind of trust like they're ready

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Speaker 3: for this. And I think pushing them is a big

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Speaker 3: part of that in terms of kind of aggressively moving

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Speaker 3: them up that ladder.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and fans are gonna wonder where do they play,

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Speaker 1: where do they fit on the roster.

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Speaker 2: It's a good problem if you ask.

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Speaker 1: If you're asking, I mean, it's the same that there

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Speaker 1: was a too many shortstops joke we used to have

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Speaker 1: back when it was Starlin Castro and and Addison Russell

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Speaker 1: and Javier Baiaz and Glaber Torres. These things have a

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Speaker 1: way of working them out themselves out. You don't want

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Speaker 1: to overthink these things. It's it's good to have a

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Speaker 1: lot of talents.

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Speaker 2: Right now, a lot of too many. What do you do?

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Speaker 1: Right? So they'll they'll they it's how they utilize that talent, right, Like,

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Speaker 1: how can they maximize Uh? I hate to talk about

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Speaker 1: them like they're not people, but how do you maximize

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Speaker 1: your assets? Right? That's that's how they think of it.

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Speaker 1: And and you know, whether it's trading guys, whether it's

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Speaker 1: playing guys in different positions, or whatever it may be.

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Speaker 1: Uh Matt Shaw, Uh yeah, is he is? He probably

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Speaker 1: best at second base? Probably yeah, But Nico Horner is

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Speaker 1: locked in there right now. Does that mean that you

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Speaker 1: don't consider, uh, you don't consider outside the box ideas

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Speaker 1: in the offseason. I think you have to. This team

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Speaker 1: didn't win enough this year. They haven't won enough this year,

404
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Speaker 1: so you consider whatever you can to find ways to

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Speaker 1: improve the team. And and h Jed was clear he

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Speaker 1: doesn't want to shake things up just for the sake

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Speaker 1: of making changes. But but I think at the deadline

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Speaker 1: we saw that. I think Patrick and I were both

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Speaker 1: a little surprised that they were able to pull off

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Speaker 1: the es Ocparatists trade. Uh, So they're willing to be creative,

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Speaker 1: like they've they've done some creative things, but getting Michael

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Speaker 1: Bush was creative. Getting Paradis was creative also.

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Speaker 3: I think the other important one is when you look

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Speaker 3: at Jed Yer's track record of just making the move

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Speaker 3: that he thinks is best for the team. Despite the

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Speaker 3: like Christopher Morrell's fan favorite, you could think like, oh man,

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Speaker 3: we can't trade that guy, Like, well, the marketing team

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Speaker 3: react if we trade Christopher Morel or the core in

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Speaker 3: twenty one? Oh man, you know it's getting rid of

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Speaker 3: the whole core, Like that's how are fans going to react?

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Speaker 3: I think he's made moves that have kind of stunned us,

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Speaker 3: but stunned us in sort of the fan haat way.

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Speaker 3: But when you're looking at roster construction, he's unafraid when

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Speaker 3: that move is there, to pull that trigger. And so

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Speaker 3: I think, you know, I think that gives some I

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Speaker 3: don't know if you want to say hope, but maybe

427
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Speaker 3: just optimism that the way this season went, you know,

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Speaker 3: hopefully this front office will be unafraid to make something

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Speaker 3: drastic to to not necessarily shake things up, but reimagine

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Speaker 3: what the core and what the lineup needs to look like,

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Speaker 3: because you want to have feeder lanes to get the

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Speaker 3: prospects up, but you also need to make a market

433
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Speaker 3: improvement over over this lineup when there's, to your point,

434
00:23:01,119 --> 00:23:02,879
Speaker 3: over and over and over and over, when there's not

435
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:04,239
Speaker 3: a superstar.

436
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:08,800
Speaker 2: Anchoring the level of floor that you can expect.

437
00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:11,800
Speaker 1: The next question fans are going to have is when

438
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:13,600
Speaker 1: when did these guys get up to the big leagues.

439
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:15,480
Speaker 1: I think you know only one of them is on

440
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,800
Speaker 1: the forty man that's Kevin al contra H. He's probably

441
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:22,720
Speaker 1: arguably the furthest away from getting to the big leagues.

442
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:27,000
Speaker 1: He also plays a position that he plays Pete Armstrong's position,

443
00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:30,800
Speaker 1: and he's frankly really good at center field. Early on,

444
00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:32,520
Speaker 1: when they first acquired him, people were like, he's going

445
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:34,919
Speaker 1: to go out of the position. He is, He's not.

446
00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:38,880
Speaker 1: He has these long limbs, he takes these long strides

447
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:42,000
Speaker 1: and he can handle center. He's faster than he's he's

448
00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: stayed faster and more limber, limber than people expected so far,

449
00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:48,560
Speaker 1: and he's he's a plus center fielder according to all reports.

450
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:51,480
Speaker 1: I get That's that's a great another great problem to have.

451
00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:55,119
Speaker 1: I think the closest if if they're not getting in

452
00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,919
Speaker 1: contention that the person that makes the most sense his

453
00:23:57,920 --> 00:23:59,720
Speaker 1: own case, he needs to be added to the forty

454
00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:02,600
Speaker 1: man After the season. You can stick him at d eh.

455
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:04,959
Speaker 1: You can give him some time in right field if

456
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:07,680
Speaker 1: you want. You know, there's ways you can find time

457
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:12,679
Speaker 1: for him in the final month if things, you know,

458
00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:15,639
Speaker 1: go continue to trend the way they're trending right now,

459
00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:18,440
Speaker 1: which is they're on the outside looking at if they

460
00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 1: get it, if they get into this race, if somehow

461
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:24,720
Speaker 1: they're a game or two back and it's September, right, yeah,

462
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:27,240
Speaker 1: then I think you throw everything out the window about

463
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:30,640
Speaker 1: forty man stuff. Who can help the team? Right that?

464
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 1: That like the thinking has to shift. I look, I

465
00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:37,240
Speaker 1: we've talked to Jed long enough. Like he's competitive. He's

466
00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 1: not gonna be overthinking forty man moves. If you're if

467
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:43,680
Speaker 1: you're in the race, right like, he's gonna consider that stuff.

468
00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:45,440
Speaker 1: If they're out of it, if it's still five games

469
00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:48,960
Speaker 1: or whatever, six games out, yeah, September first, he's he's

470
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:51,760
Speaker 1: not gonna be like I'm calling up Matt Shaw unless

471
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:53,800
Speaker 1: they decide like, hey, let's give him a cup of

472
00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:56,720
Speaker 1: coffee this year and and then bring him up to

473
00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 1: start next year in the whole Rookie of the Year stuff,

474
00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:01,560
Speaker 1: and you know, like you can give him like they

475
00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:03,639
Speaker 1: did with Pca last year. But again last year they

476
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:07,439
Speaker 1: were competing. I do think that if they get in

477
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:10,200
Speaker 1: this race, then it's just like who helps the team,

478
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:14,639
Speaker 1: and then I would consider any of those guys except

479
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:18,199
Speaker 1: for probably a Contra and probably Treanto's, but shaw by

480
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:22,000
Speaker 1: Stairs in Casey would all all be considered.

481
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:25,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and fans also got to remember it's

482
00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:28,880
Speaker 3: much different in September these days too, with the limitations

483
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:32,240
Speaker 3: on how many players you can call up, Like almost

484
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:34,920
Speaker 3: the days of the September call up were almost kind

485
00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:38,000
Speaker 3: of gone. It's like a by gone era just in

486
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:40,640
Speaker 3: terms of like, oh, this kid will get a September

487
00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:42,679
Speaker 3: call up, let's take a look at him. That's just

488
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 3: the roster rules don't really allow for that as much

489
00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:49,879
Speaker 3: as it used to. I think we saw Canario was

490
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:51,680
Speaker 3: one of those where it was like he was up,

491
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:55,399
Speaker 3: but then he was optioned or he was delayed brought up.

492
00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 3: I don't remember the exact order, but it was like

493
00:25:57,720 --> 00:25:59,399
Speaker 3: because of the rules, they had to kind of be

494
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:01,919
Speaker 3: a little different with how they took a look at

495
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:04,600
Speaker 3: him down the stretch. So but yeah, I kind of

496
00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:05,159
Speaker 3: agree with you.

497
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:10,560
Speaker 4: I think if somehow they can chip a win off

498
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:15,080
Speaker 4: the deficit every week and pull back into the race

499
00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:18,440
Speaker 4: over the last seven weeks, yeah, you got to start

500
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:19,520
Speaker 4: considering that stuff.

501
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 3: But I agree also that I think Owen Casey has

502
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:27,600
Speaker 3: kind of made the most sense for the longest now.

503
00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:31,679
Speaker 3: Bellinger needing to stick into the DH role kind of

504
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:35,840
Speaker 3: hampers the flexibility of the roster at the moment. Once

505
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,600
Speaker 3: he can play the field, then Craig Council has the

506
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:43,280
Speaker 3: more ability to rotate guys in and out of DH,

507
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:45,720
Speaker 3: and so if you eventually get to that place, Owen

508
00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:48,359
Speaker 3: Casey would be a nice addition into that rotation.

509
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:51,359
Speaker 2: I think he's the one that makes the most sense.

510
00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:55,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see what happens over these final seven weeks.

511
00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 1: I think Monday's loss puts puts a damper on hopes

512
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,040
Speaker 1: of getting back into the right now. But you could

513
00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 1: say that like every week if they win these Yeah,

514
00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:06,960
Speaker 1: if they win, if they win this series against Minnesota,

515
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:08,880
Speaker 1: they have two against the White Sox, and then it's

516
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 1: like and then you have then the hope gets back

517
00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:15,040
Speaker 1: up right, like fans are gonna start dreaming again. So

518
00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:18,480
Speaker 1: that's just how I feel like. These past four weeks

519
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:22,040
Speaker 1: in general have been up and down nature of this team.

520
00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:25,720
Speaker 1: That's it's hard to find consistency. But I think that's

521
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:30,360
Speaker 1: why they are where they are. Uh So, Jordan, thanks

522
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:35,160
Speaker 1: so much for joining me on this episode. Uh sorry,

523
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 1: I lost track of what I was saying because I'm

524
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 1: thinking about what I need to do. I'll have my

525
00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:42,879
Speaker 1: editors cut this out, Jordan, Jordan, thanks so much for

526
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:44,960
Speaker 1: joining me. Jordan, you can find his work at MLB

527
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 1: dot com. Jordan Bastion, Cubs Beat Reporter, appreciate you nerding

528
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:53,240
Speaker 1: out with me, giving Jesse and Patrick are run for

529
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:56,960
Speaker 1: their money, making sure that we don't only have meatballs

530
00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:01,880
Speaker 1: on this show. Balance, bear and balance, That's what we are.

531
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:05,600
Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory. Thanks so much for listening. Make

532
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 1: sure to rate, review and subscribe. Rate. Make sure to

533
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:10,399
Speaker 1: read Jordan's work at MLB dot com. Make sure to

534
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 1: read mine and Patrick's work and subscribe to the Athletic.

535
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:16,200
Speaker 1: We appreciate you all listening. Thanks everyone, Take care,