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Speaker 1: And lining up one phase of the game only to

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Speaker 1: have another one glow up. Very much on brand for

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Speaker 1: this team. Welcome to North Side Territory, the Chicago Cubs

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Speaker 1: podcast on the Foul Territory Network. I am Patrick Mooney

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Speaker 1: and this is a special emergency episode after the worst

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Speaker 1: loss of the season so far. Now I am flying

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Speaker 1: solo here because my co host and Kyliet the Athletic

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Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma, I had to scramble into rewrite mode after

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Speaker 1: Monday Night's devastating seven to six loss to the San

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Speaker 1: Francisco Giants at Wrigley Field. That is only one game

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Speaker 1: of one sixty two. It's a long season. If you've

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Speaker 1: been paying attention, listening to any of the sound bites

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Speaker 1: out of the clubhouse or the interview room, or reading

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Speaker 1: our quotes in the Athletic Craig Council, Jed Hoyer, the players,

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Speaker 1: they're all saying the same thing. Long season, a lot

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Speaker 1: of time to turn things around, and they're right. They're

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Speaker 1: certainly not wrong. But this game embodied so much of

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Speaker 1: what has gone wrong so far. Now let's work backwards

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Speaker 1: from Hector Nerris and his blown save in the ninth inning.

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Speaker 1: It was a weird yet predictable sequence with the catcher's

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Speaker 1: interference by Miguel Maya, a nears walk, and then finally

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Speaker 1: the three run homer from Tyro Estrada that landed in

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Speaker 1: the leftfield bleachers. The Cubs are definitely feeling the heat

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Speaker 1: wave that has blanketed Chicago. I mean, the booze that

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Speaker 1: echoed out through the friendly confines were about as as

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Speaker 1: you're gonna get on a Monday night in the middle

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Speaker 1: of June. And honestly, sitting up in the press box

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Speaker 1: before that Estrada bat, a colleague turned to me and said,

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Speaker 1: they're gonna blow this right, or jokingly said something like

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Speaker 1: there's no way they could blow this right. And I

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Speaker 1: think just about any Cubs fan who's been following along

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Speaker 1: this season it could not have been surprised by just

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Speaker 1: a gut punch loss that really left this team reeling.

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Speaker 1: They're now season high five games under five hundred, and

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Speaker 1: this one's done because the Cubs finally got a few

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Speaker 1: big hits and they rallied back and they created just

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Speaker 1: a little bit of a breathing room for a bullpen

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Speaker 1: that has been under duress really all season long. So

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Speaker 1: now let's here from Cubs manager Craig Council. You know,

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Speaker 1: who's finding out what life is like without the all

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Speaker 1: star closers he had in Milwaukee. You'll hear some hot

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Speaker 1: of his voice in the Wrigally interviewed your room, asking

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Speaker 1: about Naris and the closer situation moving forward.

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Speaker 2: We you know, we had an error on we had

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Speaker 2: the catcher's interference. We'll walk and you know, frankly, it's

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Speaker 2: a fly ball. You know it's the wrong night to

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Speaker 2: give up fly balls, and that's three runs. So you know,

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think if you've really asked me to

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Speaker 2: valued hector performance, the walk is is the only is

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Speaker 2: the only bad at bat.

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Speaker 3: I'm assuming when you say that, it's not a consideration.

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Speaker 3: You're moving from saving situations right now.

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Speaker 2: Look, we got a bullpen. We gotta find guys to

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Speaker 2: get outs, and Hector has been a guy that's been

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Speaker 2: reliable for us, So I wouldn't anticipate doing that. I mean,

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Speaker 2: we're gonna, you know, always examine every best way to

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Speaker 2: get twenty seven outs every I'm gonna.

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Speaker 1: Have to be a part of that now. Early hours earlier,

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Speaker 1: Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer met with the

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Speaker 1: media in the home dugout, which is something he normally

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Speaker 1: does just about every home stand in good times and bad.

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Speaker 1: And Hoyer, to his credit, might be the most accessible

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Speaker 1: sports executive in the city of Chicago. And Hoyer talked

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Speaker 1: about showing up to work every day, you know, hoping

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Speaker 1: this is gonna be the game that turns things around,

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Speaker 1: sticking with the process, you know, expecting good things to happen.

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Speaker 1: And the Cubs did get a few breaks, and they

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Speaker 1: got home runs from Michael Bush and he and half,

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Speaker 1: but his team has been just out of sync for

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Speaker 1: a while now, and the roster overall is just kind

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Speaker 1: of disjointed and lining up one phase of the game,

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Speaker 1: I need to have another one blow up was just

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Speaker 1: very much on brand for this team. I mean, Ners

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Speaker 1: simply has to say that game. The bullpen overall has

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Speaker 1: to be better. You still can't expect them to be perfect.

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Speaker 1: And there's going to be a cost when every pitch

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Speaker 1: or seemingly every pitch is high stress. And that's on

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Speaker 1: an offense that Hoyer still believes in. This group is

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Speaker 1: largely his hand pick group, kind of the core that

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Speaker 1: he assembled to move forward, move out of that twenty

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Speaker 1: sixteen zone and if you listen to him, hear it

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Speaker 1: from himself and this is how he diagnoses the situation.

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Speaker 1: At this moment, this group.

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Speaker 3: Has kind of failed to produce for the last forty

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Speaker 3: six games. We had a really good offense last year,

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Speaker 3: We had a really good offensive April. Since then, we

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Speaker 3: have not hit period. And you know, no one player

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Speaker 3: is going to change that. We have to this collective

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Speaker 3: group has to figure this out. And like that doesn't

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Speaker 3: mean there won't be additions, but you know, the answers

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Speaker 3: have to come from from within. And I said, there's

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Speaker 3: no reason to believe this this group suddenly for we

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Speaker 3: got out of hit, but certainly it's been a longer,

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Speaker 3: longer downs bell than expected. I think everyone goes to

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Speaker 3: up Sinnadras season. This is a much longer, longer, longer

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Speaker 3: trough than we ever expected, and we have to get

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Speaker 3: out of it. You can't keep digging this hole, and

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Speaker 3: we can't keep the pressure we're putting on our pitching

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Speaker 3: staff and our bullpen at night in night out. I mean,

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Speaker 3: every every game seems to be you know, up one down,

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Speaker 3: one tide, you know, going into seven seventh dinning. This

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Speaker 3: is not you can't you can't. You can't win enough

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Speaker 3: that way. You just can't.

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Speaker 1: Look, You're not gonna suddenly believe in the offense just

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Speaker 1: because the Cubs scored six runs in a loss. I

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Speaker 1: mean Logan web is lined up to start Tuesday night

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Speaker 1: opposite Justin Steele, So that may very well be another

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Speaker 1: low scoring repeat of the same game we've watched over

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Speaker 1: and over and over again this season. So let's assume

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Speaker 1: the offense will be a priority upgrade this summer. Now,

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Speaker 1: how the Cubs perform over the next several weeks is vital.

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Speaker 1: It goes to how much prospect capital Hoyer is willing

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Speaker 1: to give up to supplement this largely underperforming group. It

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Speaker 1: also goes to how much money ownership is willing to

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Speaker 1: kick in to improve the team for a playoff push

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Speaker 1: and possibly push them over the luxury tax threshold. But

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Speaker 1: a catcher's interference and the ninth inning is a subtle

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Speaker 1: reminder of another area where the Cubs are among the

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Speaker 1: worst in baseball, and Nears is miscast as a closer.

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Speaker 1: He's a great dude in the clubhouse. He signed up

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Speaker 1: to be that veteran mentor to work as a setup guy.

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Speaker 1: In the seventh and eighth innings. I mean to be durable,

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Speaker 1: available and reliable and offer his significant World Series postseason

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Speaker 1: experience on some the hugest stages and biggest markets in

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Speaker 1: the game. He's mostly been what the Cubs hope for.

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Speaker 1: He's just not a lockdown ninth inning guy at this

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Speaker 1: stage of his career, not if you want to be

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Speaker 1: considered a serious October contender. So Hoyer's got a lot

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Speaker 1: of things to do between now and July thirtieth. But

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Speaker 1: even if he desperately wanted to do it deal, like tomorrow,

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Speaker 1: is a trade store even open yet? I asked him

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Speaker 1: that question and got an answer that cups fans probably.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to hear a different times like you explain.

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Speaker 1: I like, even if you desperately want to make a trade,

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Speaker 1: but tomorrow and the trades you are just is it open?

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Speaker 1: Can you explain the factors and.

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Speaker 2: They take play?

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Speaker 3: It's still two things. I think a lot of teams

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Speaker 3: are not willing to make deals yet, you know, anythink,

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Speaker 3: especially when you look at the standings and throw a wildcard,

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Speaker 3: there's a lot of teams right around us. You know,

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Speaker 3: there's like you can look at that. You look at

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Speaker 3: the standings, to today, there's just a lot of teams

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Speaker 3: that are that are really close to a wildcard spot

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Speaker 3: or or you know, so that I think has changed it.

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Speaker 3: There's this fewer sellers. There's a lot of teams at

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Speaker 3: this point, always at this point that like it's not

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Speaker 3: going to make that decision yet. There's a few teams,

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Speaker 3: but there's not Manty and most teams was not willing

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Speaker 3: to make that decision today because there's a message to

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Speaker 3: the fans. You know, we're selling on June seventeenth. So

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Speaker 3: those are two factors. And the third factor is simply

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Speaker 3: like the teams that usually want to make trade right now,

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Speaker 3: they are willing to do it if you pay a

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Speaker 3: massive premium, which let's face it, most people say it's

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Speaker 3: so hard to do that. Yeah, you're doing something that's rational.

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Speaker 3: So asoul as they trademarks not open, it's just incredibly

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Speaker 3: difficult to make those kind of transactions on June and seventeenth.

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Speaker 1: And that those are some of the fact Teresa. The

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Speaker 1: Cubs are thirty four and thirty nine and in last

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Speaker 1: place in their division. They're already trailing the Brewers by

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Speaker 1: eight and a half games. A Brewers team, if you

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Speaker 1: hadn't noticed, let counsel walk and trade it away aside

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Speaker 1: on an award winner and still just keeps unrolling. They

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Speaker 1: have already lost or are losing season series tiebreakers to

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Speaker 1: wild card hopefuls that they're going to be going against

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Speaker 1: the rest of the season. I mean, this gut punch

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Speaker 1: loss is the one you look back on in October.

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Speaker 1: If the Cubs again missed the playoffs by one game,

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Speaker 1: and that for an organization that really rip the band

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Speaker 1: aid off at the twenty twenty one trade deadline, that

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Speaker 1: would be an absolute organizational failure. So thank you all

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Speaker 1: for listening. Thank you to the behind the scenes crew

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Speaker 1: at the Foul Territory Network. I'm honestly not sure when

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Speaker 1: or if they sleep, but they hustle around the clock

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Speaker 1: to produce shows for you guys, which is very much appreciated.

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Speaker 1: We'll get some hot of going back here again soon.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back with regular episodes and new guests later

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Speaker 1: this week. Please rate, review, subscribe all that good stuff

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Speaker 1: and we'll be back at you soon. Take care,