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

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Speaker 1: I'm Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are

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Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, the

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Speaker 1: Cubs have played one game in Japan.

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Speaker 2: They have another game to play.

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Speaker 1: Well, by the time people are listening to this, they'll

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Speaker 1: have played two games in Japan and what they're doing here,

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Speaker 1: what they've done here is important to the organization, right

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Speaker 1: like I think bands may not fully realize how important

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Speaker 1: this is for the Cubs, right they are. Two of

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Speaker 1: their best players are Japanese players. Saya Suzuki is before

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Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker showed up, he was their best offensive talent

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Speaker 1: and showed him. Minaga had a brilliant rookie season. You

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Speaker 1: could argue he's COEs of the staff, justin Steele, if

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Speaker 1: not DAC's the opening day starter, just like two of

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Speaker 1: their most important players. If the Cubs are going to

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Speaker 1: go anywhere this year, they need both those players to

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Speaker 1: play at a high level. Right, and this is part

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Speaker 1: of a plan. You know, this isn't random that the

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Speaker 1: Cubs stumbled upon Seya Suzuki and showed him. Monaga they

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Speaker 1: are trying to build a winning team for the first

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Speaker 1: time since the core of the World Championship team was

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Speaker 1: traded away, and they're looking for advantages. They're looking for

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Speaker 1: ways to get be great again. And one area that

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Speaker 1: Jed Hoyer identified was going to Japan a lot more

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Speaker 1: talent coming out than maybe a decade and a half ago,

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Speaker 1: and trying to establish a presence there be a player

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Speaker 1: in Japan, and they're starting to do that.

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Speaker 2: It seems like they've made rail headway.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you had this great idea.

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Speaker 4: We always sung to our editors about, you know, what

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Speaker 4: are kind of the bigger swings we want to take.

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Speaker 3: What are projects we can work on.

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Speaker 4: What are you know, anchor type stories around big events

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Speaker 4: like Opening Day? And you nailed it of like how

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Speaker 4: the Cubs became this destination And honestly, I feel like

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Speaker 4: we've covered these guys really well and like we know

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Speaker 4: kind of the long term trends of the organization. I

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Speaker 4: was still surprised as we reported this out just how

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Speaker 4: much of a focus it was and how much effort

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Speaker 4: and how much respect the Cubs have gained internationally. This

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Speaker 4: is not just the Cubs like puffing their chest out

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Speaker 4: about some kind of like small time spur of the

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Speaker 4: moment thing like No, this was.

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Speaker 3: You know, THEOGED transition. Uh, you know, a.

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Speaker 4: Twenty twenty one trade deadline pivot, you know, a post

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Speaker 4: COVID opportunity like all of these. I just didn't realize

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Speaker 4: how interconnected everything was for this organizational push.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know the Cubs. The Cubs aren't gonna

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Speaker 1: be the number one team in Japan. They're not gonna

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Speaker 1: They just can't be the Dodgers. The Dodgers are the Dodgers,

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Speaker 1: you know, they're They're elite at everything, and the presence

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Speaker 1: of established in Japan goes back, you know, decades, and

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Speaker 1: you know Hideo Nomo chose the Dodgers. They have the

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Speaker 1: geographical advantage, they have you know, they have the winning advantage,

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Speaker 1: they have the historical advantage. Like so many things go

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Speaker 1: in the dodgers favor. But the Cubs can be number two.

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Speaker 1: And that is is kind of a surprise when you

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Speaker 1: consider everything that geography and weather is a huge factor.

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Speaker 2: It just is.

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Speaker 1: It is Seattle, San Francisco, the Angels, these teams should

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Speaker 1: have more of an advantage than the Cup. But right

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Speaker 1: now it seems like the Cubs are kind of in

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Speaker 1: a cluster with teams like Texas. Right the New York

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Speaker 1: teams are players, They're not like they're they're always in

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Speaker 1: the in the discussion outside of like Senga, they're They're

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Speaker 1: not usually the team that gets the player. But the

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Speaker 1: Cubs are right there and they're fighting for number two. Uh.

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Speaker 1: They I think a big reason that they're here other

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Speaker 1: than like Jed Hoyer pushing this and making sure that

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Speaker 1: they have a ground game out here with multiple UH

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Speaker 1: front office members being very active.

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Speaker 2: Is you Darvish played for the Cubs?

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Speaker 4: You?

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Speaker 1: Darvish loved his time with the Cubs. He loved the city.

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Speaker 1: He loves the city. He loved he loved the coaching staff.

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Speaker 1: He you know, he had some great times here. As

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Speaker 1: far as performance on the map, Like his first year

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Speaker 1: was awful, it was it could have turned into a disaster, right,

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Speaker 1: that it didn't I think meant a lot to Darvish,

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Speaker 1: like they he uh.

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Speaker 2: They didn't. Those things can turn sour so quickly.

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Speaker 1: You know, things you pay a lot of money, and

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Speaker 1: especially that moment where we didn't know what was going on,

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Speaker 1: he didn't know what.

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Speaker 2: Was going on.

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Speaker 1: There were people what is is this a mental thing

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Speaker 1: his elbow and and I don't.

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Speaker 2: Think that ever happened.

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Speaker 1: There was There wasn't that interaction between Darvish and anyone

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Speaker 1: with the Cubs, right, People weren't questioning him directly.

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Speaker 3: It was a rod on Sunday Night baseball.

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Speaker 1: But sure, yes, yeah, that was a moment that could

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Speaker 1: have tipped things right. It could have veered, veered off

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Speaker 1: course and gotten ugly. It never did, and it and

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Speaker 1: it turned into like a pretty great marriage. Because of COVID,

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Speaker 1: because of needing to cut money, they had to trade

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Speaker 1: him at a point probably when Jed would have preferred,

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Speaker 1: if he was going to trade him, he would have

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Speaker 1: preferred to have waited right and built that value back

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Speaker 1: up at least have more of a market than one team.

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Speaker 1: But Darvish is like a godfather among Japanese players, especially pitchers.

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Speaker 1: They respect him, they look up to him, and he

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Speaker 1: has nothing but good things to say about this organization.

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Speaker 4: I mean, just an amazingly gracious individual, very introspective.

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Speaker 3: I still.

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Speaker 4: I'm still surprised when I you know, when we write

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Speaker 4: this stuff of how yeah he was bad his first year.

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Speaker 4: There were questions of like the diagnosis took a while

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Speaker 4: to get to there was a rod when he did pitch,

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Speaker 4: he wasn't that good. You know, he was viewed as

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Speaker 4: this like holding back a team that somehow won ninety

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Speaker 4: five games in twenty eighteen. It gets in the middle

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Speaker 4: of a pandemic, and yet he's still is this great

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Speaker 4: ambassador for the Cubs, and that having a reputation, a

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Speaker 4: good reputation amongst those NPB players is priceless. And Darvish

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Speaker 4: is you know, arguably going to be one of the

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Speaker 4: most like important Cubs figures of However, you want to

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Speaker 4: kind of bracket you know, may since two thousand, however,

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Speaker 4: you want to look at the long span of the Cubs,

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Speaker 4: we'll see how this kind of unfolds. But in working

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Speaker 4: on the story with you, man, like I was struck by,

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Speaker 4: how like, how few teams really are seriously in on

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Speaker 4: these players and how many are coming. This is not

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Speaker 4: you know, Darvish coming out. Roughly around the time THEO

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Speaker 4: arrives in Chicago, they made a bid for Tanaka, not

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Speaker 4: surprisingly signs of the Yankees. They roll that money over

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Speaker 4: to sign John Lester. They get a meeting with show

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Speaker 4: Hey as a as a you know, an international free

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Speaker 4: agent under the whatever whatever CBA term was used back

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Speaker 4: then with a seriously capped bonus. But it's more of

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Speaker 4: these kind of one off things, and that the Cubs

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Speaker 4: reorganized in like a major way to kind of create

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Speaker 4: this sphere of influence kind of plant like a W

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Speaker 4: flag there and be like we're going to post up

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Speaker 4: and just have boots on the ground and have not

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Speaker 4: just like the face to face credibility, but also like

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Speaker 4: kind of the database of knowledge to know like, oh wait,

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Speaker 4: show does working on a slider and it's getting better,

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Speaker 4: or this is this is how we think his game

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Speaker 4: could translate, in part because scouting and player development and

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Speaker 4: the pitching infrastructure are aligned a lot tighter now, Like

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Speaker 4: to even land just one really good player takes kind

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Speaker 4: of like from the top all the way down to

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Speaker 4: like make it happen, just like that scout on the ground.

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Speaker 4: Like there's a lot of layers to this, and the

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Speaker 4: Cubs are really well positioned for an other reason than

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Speaker 4: the Dodgers can't sign everyone right.

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Speaker 1: Right exactly, I want to ask you about some of

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Speaker 1: their ability to pitch these guys. Let's take a real

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Speaker 1: quick break and come back and talk some more on this.

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Speaker 5: Ft fam Arena Club is the modern way to collect

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Speaker 5: cards or buy or sell, or trade or even grade.

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Speaker 5: And we're highlighting slab packs because this is the new

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Speaker 5: way to rip open a pack and get a really

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Speaker 5: good card. AJ Also, if you're not into the card,

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Speaker 5: like I know you pulled a Bob Gibson card recently,

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Speaker 5: you can get an offer of ninety percent of the

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Speaker 5: estimated value and just accept it on the spot and

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Speaker 5: give it right back and maybe try again with another

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Speaker 5: slab pack.

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Speaker 6: I ain't getting rid of my Bob Gibson autographed card.

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Speaker 6: Bob Gibson ain't card signing cards anytime soon, so I'm

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Speaker 6: keeping this one. It gets graded for you. There's no mess.

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Speaker 6: The only thing I wish they had bubblegum. Can they

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Speaker 6: virtually send me some bubble gumps? Cut Other than that,

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Speaker 6: it's awesome. You can buy sell cards, they grate them

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Speaker 6: instantly for you, and physically you can also get the

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Speaker 6: cards if you want them.

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Speaker 3: So I'm all for this.

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Speaker 6: This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, those cards are in your showroom in the app,

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Speaker 5: and then of course you can get the card physically

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Speaker 5: sent to you, So right now you can get twenty

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Speaker 5: percent off your first slab pack or card purchase by

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Speaker 5: club dot com slash foul code foul for twenty percent

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Speaker 5: off your first purchase.

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Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, You you spoke to an agent who

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Speaker 1: is pretty prominent among Japanese players, right say, Szuki's agent

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Speaker 1: Joel Wolfe Toys Azuki's agent, you Darbage, his agent, Roki Suzaki, Yamamoto,

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Speaker 1: Yamamoto obviously, I mean those are the biggest names outside

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Speaker 1: of Shoeotani in Japanese baseball right now. He was pretty

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Speaker 1: clear when you spoke to him about how how much

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Speaker 1: the Cubs have invested here and how good they've kind

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Speaker 1: of turned this into like a real organizational strength.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you can't just pop out of nowhere and expect

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Speaker 4: to sign a player like this is why the same

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Speaker 4: small handful of teams seem to get the meetings with

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Speaker 4: the best players, like the finalists outside of a Toronto

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Speaker 4: Blue Jays popping up for Roki like it's very rare,

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Speaker 4: and even Roki's process, if you read Ken Rosenthal's piece

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Speaker 4: in The Athletic, what's kind of different with DNS Wu

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Speaker 4: this jab Ees Colossus marketing company kind of being involved

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Speaker 4: in that process as well.

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Speaker 3: But you know, really you're looking at.

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Speaker 4: There's the Dodgers kind of above everyone else, and then

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Speaker 4: the Cubs are kind of right there with the Padres.

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Speaker 4: The Rangers once again due to Darvish, have a big

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Speaker 4: presence over there, and then the Giants and Mariners haven't

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Speaker 4: quite fully maximized maybe those geographic, whether type historical advantages.

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Speaker 4: The New York team's always involved in, like the posting

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Speaker 4: process on the player, but maybe not as you know,

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Speaker 4: fully engaged day to day. The Red Sox have pulled

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Speaker 4: back to our understanding.

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Speaker 3: After that.

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Speaker 4: I mean, you're talking about probably what like more than

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Speaker 4: two thirds of the league not really engaged in.

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Speaker 3: This in a meaningful way.

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Speaker 4: And I think Joel's made that point of like, you

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Speaker 4: can't not put in the work ahead of time and

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Speaker 4: then expect to have someone like Roki take you seriously.

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Speaker 4: And I mean beyond Wasserman, there's a small group of

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Speaker 4: agencies that handle these players and kind of relationships matter here,

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Speaker 4: and I think it's interesting how they've handled Sea over

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Speaker 4: the years. We don't have all of the details, but

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Speaker 4: Joel was very effusive in his praise of how discreet

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Speaker 4: the Cubs have been, how responsive they've been, how flexible

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Speaker 4: they've been, that as Saya's kind of needs have changed

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Speaker 4: over the years, as they've made asks for help with

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Speaker 4: his kind of support staff.

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Speaker 3: He praised Jen and Carter by name.

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Speaker 4: And then you have these people behind the scenes like

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Speaker 4: now Masimoto, a longtime Cubs employee who's from Japan, probably.

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Speaker 3: One of the most valuable and.

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Speaker 4: Least placeable people in the organization, someone who just has

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Speaker 4: this great history with Darvish, with people over there, you

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Speaker 4: can even go to Tommy Hottave. Just his style really works,

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Speaker 4: particularly Japanese players, Like he stresses creativity, a very individualized approach.

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Speaker 4: That's what Jarvish had told us last season as well,

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Speaker 4: of like the Cubs don't have a cookie cutter operation

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Speaker 4: on the pitching side. There are a couple other names

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Speaker 4: we mentioned in that story, whether of just making things

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Speaker 4: run off the field, of like housing, nutrition, whatever pops up,

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Speaker 4: you know. Joel agreed with Jed's assessment from the winter meetings,

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Speaker 4: like the public sees these press conferences in the contract

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Speaker 4: terms and think, oh wow, or if there's kind of

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Speaker 4: one dispute it's you know, club versus player, but a

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Speaker 4: lot of it is like, hey, how's he feeling, Like

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Speaker 4: what's what's hurting or like what's going on off with

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Speaker 4: like a lot of kind of mundane, ongoing conversations, just

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Speaker 4: over and over. That's really what the job is, and

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Speaker 4: that they're both in collaboration. You're trying to put the

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Speaker 4: player in a position to succeed, and the Cubs have

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Speaker 4: largely done that with Japanese players.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and and part of the reason it could pay

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Speaker 1: off so big. You kind of touched on this. There's

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Speaker 1: it was like a slow trickle before. Right, it was

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Speaker 1: one every few years of a solid to great player

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Speaker 1: coming Stateside. Uh, pretty much since Saya arrived, It's it's

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Speaker 1: it's been a lot more players, multiple if not one,

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Speaker 1: every off season, multiple players every off season. Saya could

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Speaker 1: I Senga showed him, Anaga Yamamoto. Uh, these are all

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Speaker 1: recent in naw Roki Sasakia, all recent siinees and and

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Speaker 1: we have have just this Like I saw one of

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Speaker 1: them the other day, Kazuma Okamoto, third infielder for the Giants. Right,

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Speaker 1: he had a couple hits, wells truck balls. Craig Council

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Speaker 1: was asked about him. Craig Council is well aware of

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Speaker 1: who this player is and was effusive in his praise

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Speaker 1: of this player. Right, I'm sure he's on the Cubs radar.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure Council is well aware that he's on the

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Speaker 1: Cubs radar. We'll see what when he's posted. When he

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Speaker 1: comes stateside, it's not far away. He's going to be

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Speaker 1: playing in the big League enough. There's another there's a

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Speaker 1: and like it. I think Okamoto is is I'm using

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Speaker 1: air quotes. He's he's a third baseman. He actually played

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Speaker 1: first base against the Cubs. There's another one who's a

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Speaker 1: third basement in quotes Munataka Murakami, twenty five year old

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Speaker 1: left hander slugger can hit some swing and miss right.

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Speaker 1: But like these guys are coming, these like they're both

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Speaker 1: gonna get paid, They're both gonna be highly sought after.

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Speaker 2: Uh.

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Speaker 1: And then there's just like this list of pitchers right

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Speaker 1: there are like we know that pitchers have al like

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Speaker 1: have always been like what people seek from Japan, what

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Speaker 1: the teams have sought in Japan. And there's another wave

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Speaker 1: of them coming, a handful of four or five. Then

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Speaker 1: what I found really interesting Patrick. And we know this, right,

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Speaker 1: We know this because we see it happen in the signings.

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Speaker 2: But there are guys.

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Speaker 1: That either like for some reason fell off a forty

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Speaker 1: man couldn't stick with a team. Saw saw this guy

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Speaker 1: pitch against the Cub's other day, Foster Griffin, a lefty

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Speaker 1: that kind of fell off the a forty man with

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Speaker 1: the Blue Jays. Now he's pitching, well he could. Is

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Speaker 1: he gonna be like this Ace? I don't know if

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Speaker 1: that's what they see in him. But but like we've

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Speaker 1: seen guys go to Korea, go to Japan and reinvent themselves,

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Speaker 1: get better, kind of figure some things out, come back

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Speaker 1: and have solid careers.

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Speaker 2: I think something.

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Speaker 1: Fans sometimes fall in love with the Shodos and the

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Speaker 1: Yamamotos and the.

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Speaker 2: Suzaki's, right, Like that's easy.

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Speaker 1: I get why, Like those are the stars, but you

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Speaker 1: need other types of players to fill in the gaps

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Speaker 1: with your team. And it sounds like the guy like

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Speaker 1: this guy like Carter Stewart, who is a top top

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Speaker 1: draft pick at one point, dealt with injuries, never signed,

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Speaker 1: He's come to Japan and now he's re establishing himself

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Speaker 1: and the Cubs are it's not just Japan, right, the

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Speaker 1: Cubs are trying to establish themselves as a player in

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Speaker 1: the Asian market, and I think, you know, we've spent

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Speaker 1: so much time over the past month two months talking

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Speaker 1: about the budget.

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Speaker 2: This is kind of a way to circumvent that in

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Speaker 2: a way. Right, You're not.

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Speaker 1: Like Saya s Azuki, if he's a free agent, he's

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Speaker 1: making like what did Santander make? A lot more than

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Speaker 1: what sayas Azuki's making? Right, twenty million plus twenty five million?

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Speaker 1: Says Azuki's like he's a bargain for what he produces?

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Speaker 1: Should im Analga is a steal? Right? So we you know,

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Speaker 1: you can complain about the budget, and I think it's

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Speaker 1: fair too, but this is this is a path that

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Speaker 1: the Cubs can take where they don't have to worry

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Speaker 1: as much about the budget and maybe get a ton

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Speaker 1: of excess value in these players compared to what they're

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Speaker 1: playing paying them.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, as an organization, you have to be like,

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Speaker 4: what are we good at? And you know, the Cubs

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Speaker 4: generally don't draft select at the top of the draft

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Speaker 4: because they're not losing one hundred games. They're not going

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Speaker 4: to the top of the free agent market to sign

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Speaker 4: the absolute best players. They don't have a three hundred

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Speaker 4: million dollar payroll, but like they do certain things well

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Speaker 4: on the pitching infrastructure fructure side, on the player recruiting side,

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Speaker 4: and that this Asian market they think is about to explode,

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Speaker 4: and whether it's KBO or NPB, there's going to be

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Speaker 4: a lot of opportunities here. Whether it's you know, Foster Griffin,

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Speaker 4: I think was more bottom of the first round, but

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Speaker 4: he's certainly put himself back on the radar. Carter Stewart

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Speaker 4: had this, you know, kind of dispute with the Braves.

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Speaker 4: He was like a top ten pick out of high

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Speaker 4: school and he took a very unusual path. And I

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Speaker 4: think both those guys are probably gonna make themselves a

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Speaker 4: lot of money, whether it's with the Cubs or somewhere else.

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Speaker 4: Like these guys are firmly on the major league gradar,

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Speaker 4: like they have not disappeared at all. And then obviously

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Speaker 4: you have these Japanese players who are seeing the Cubs

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Speaker 4: up close and Showeda and Saya are two more exceptional ambassadors.

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Speaker 4: As these guys and their representatives make you know, enormous

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Speaker 4: decisions about their futures.

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Speaker 1: Right and this isn't like unheard of, right as far

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Speaker 1: as players going American players going to Japan or Korea

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Speaker 1: and coming back at Colin Ray. And I know Colin

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Speaker 1: Ray is in a sexy name, but he's a productive player.

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Speaker 1: He produces innings, he gets out, he's an out getter.

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Speaker 1: Miles and michaelis is another name I'm blanking now, but

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Speaker 1: there's someone that's Meryl Kelly.

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Speaker 2: Was Meryl Kelly?

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Speaker 4: I mean Pierce Johnson's had a nice little career after

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Speaker 4: coming back. You know, there's definitely examples that people can

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Speaker 4: can point to. I mean, Chris Martin, he came back

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Speaker 4: to Yes, like, there's more than a handful here of

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Speaker 4: you know, and I think part of it is we

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Speaker 4: mentioned the story, I mean pitch data, right, here's a

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Speaker 4: lot of validation. The competition over there is strong. And

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Speaker 4: then these international events like the WBC, like that has

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Speaker 4: been a huge catalyst for both players kind of wanting

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Speaker 4: more in teams, being able to kind of hair a

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Speaker 4: little more closely and taking a little bit of the guesswork.

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Speaker 1: Out right, I mean I'm going off memory here, and

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Speaker 1: and like a recent conversation with Jed Hoyer, but something

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Speaker 1: that stood out to them. I believe was showed him

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Speaker 1: and August starting the WBC. Was it the semi final

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Speaker 1: or the final?

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Speaker 2: It was.

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Speaker 1: It was the final and and he he uh, he

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Speaker 1: was coming off injury. And and the fact that they

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Speaker 1: like they started him ah and and had that trust

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Speaker 1: in him that he could handle that moment coming off injury,

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Speaker 1: that they were they believed he would perform and he did.

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Speaker 1: I think spoke to the Cubs as well, like that

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Speaker 1: was like some intangible factor that they saw as well, and.

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Speaker 2: Then he delivered right.

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Speaker 1: Like so we we've like we've talked a lot about

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Speaker 1: this about Shoda this this week, handling the moment and

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Speaker 1: the pressure.

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Speaker 2: His teammates are like, this guy doesn't feel pressure. What

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Speaker 2: are you talking about?

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Speaker 1: Like like they're almost like have you watched him play?

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Speaker 1: Like he's faced so much in his career as far

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Speaker 1: as pressure, and he ever, it never seems to phase

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Speaker 1: him and like it you can be amped up or whatever,

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Speaker 1: but he seems to handle those moments really well. And

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Speaker 1: you know, being able to play in the WBC I

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Speaker 1: think is important for scouting, like seeing the scouting side

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Speaker 1: seeing those guys how they handle those moments because they

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Speaker 1: do matter to the players.

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Speaker 2: Seeing them handle it well matters.

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Speaker 1: Seeing them handle they're pitching with the normal ball, they're

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Speaker 1: pitching against top dear competition, like all this stuff. It

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Speaker 1: helps them like break it down a little bit better.

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Speaker 1: So I think this is this you're right, like what

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Speaker 1: you started with. The more we dug into this, the

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Speaker 1: more I found it interesting in like a curious angle

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Speaker 1: like this is I like the way it was kind

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Speaker 1: of presented to us as like, hey, we're we were

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Speaker 1: searching for this new competitive we were searching for a

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Speaker 1: competitive advantage, and we're like, oh, it's right in front

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Speaker 1: of our face.

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Speaker 2: This is it. Like we have it.

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Speaker 1: We don't need to like reinvent the wheel. We just

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Speaker 1: need to scout aff an area and really invest in it.

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Speaker 2: You know. It's it's not about it's less about like

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Speaker 2: some data.

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Speaker 1: It's less about like some technological advancement or seam shifted

408
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Speaker 1: wake or like science stuff. It's just oh, there's another

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Speaker 1: country full of really good players, you know.

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Speaker 2: I just kind of like that.

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Speaker 1: It was a simple concept that it's like, let's take

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Speaker 1: advantage of this. Other teams aren't not as many teams.

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Speaker 1: It's a reduced competition when when you go from facing

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Speaker 1: twenty nine teams in free agency to six eight completely

415
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Speaker 1: changes the dynamic. It's worked out for the Cubs so far.

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Speaker 1: The two of the best players, and we'll see where

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Speaker 1: it goes. Obviously, they need to win games and really

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Speaker 1: like establish themselves as a as a consistent contender for

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Speaker 1: fans to care about any of this, But right now,

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Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a big step in the right direction.

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Speaker 2: Go ahead.

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Speaker 3: No, I would just say, like I learned a ton.

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Speaker 4: I think this is the type of story where like

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Speaker 4: you have some conversations, you get either a little more

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Speaker 4: material and you're like, Okay, this puts us as reporters

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00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 4: in a much better position to cover this team moving forward,

427
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Speaker 4: Like because it was we hear these things over the years, like, oh, well,

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Speaker 4: Jed's in Japan. I think it was like in September

429
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Speaker 4: twenty twenty three. I'm like, oh I was, you know,

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Speaker 4: I think they had a brutal loss against the Diamondbacks

431
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Speaker 4: and he was watching it like on a runway somewhere.

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Speaker 4: But like it starts to add up and you're like, okay, well,

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Speaker 4: not all these guys are kind of come over at once,

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Speaker 4: but some of these guys at least one I can

435
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Speaker 4: think of was very likely to be coming over next offseason.

436
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Speaker 4: And you kind of have this backstory. Whether you're a

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Speaker 4: reporter or fan, you can understand, like what are the

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Speaker 4: Cubs trying to do here? And like Japan and Asia

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Speaker 4: at large is a much larger piece than I think

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Speaker 4: I would have thought of at this time last year

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Speaker 4: when they made the Tokyo series announcement. Okay international event.

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Speaker 4: You know, maybe they can sell a sponsorship like you know,

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Speaker 4: on a wriggly door somewhere. It's like a Japanese company,

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Speaker 4: and it's like, no, this is an enormous baseball business,

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Speaker 4: forward looking initiative that is not going away at all.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely all right, thanks so much for listening to everyone.

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Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast. Make

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00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:27,639
Speaker 1: sure to rate, review and subscribe, Subscribe to the YouTube channel,

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00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are

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00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:32,639
Speaker 1: on top of all things Cubs. Thanks so much for

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Speaker 1: listening to everyone. We'll be back with wrap up of

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Speaker 1: the series in Tokyo soon enough, and then it will

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Speaker 1: be the US portion of the season creeping up on

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Speaker 1: US baseball is here. Thanks so much for listening to everyone,

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Speaker 1: take care, WoT ave they leave,