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Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm

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Speaker 1: Sadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your

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

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Speaker 1: remain red hot. Really seven series wins in a row.

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Speaker 1: They you know, they've just played twenty one games against

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Speaker 1: teams under five hundred. Coming into it, we talked about this,

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Speaker 1: this is a time to kind of clean up, try

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Speaker 1: and you know, build a bigger lead, try and get

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Speaker 1: x games over five hundred, whatever it may be. Fourteen

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Speaker 1: and seven would have been like a nice base Okay,

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Speaker 1: this is a good stretch of games. You've in theory

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Speaker 1: you win every series. In that scenario, you could have

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Speaker 1: handled like one sweep, one series loss. They didn't lose

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Speaker 1: a series, and they went sixteen and five with two

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Speaker 1: sweeps in there of arguably the two worst teams in

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Speaker 1: baseball and the White Sox and the Rockies. If you

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Speaker 1: want to point to a week record for or a

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Speaker 1: week schedule and an inflated record, I mean, that's your prerogative,

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Speaker 1: but this is what you're supposed to do. You got

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Speaker 1: to play the schedule in front of you and the

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Speaker 1: Cubs did really well during this stretch of play.

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Speaker 2: May it be wrong to down play this or dismiss

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Speaker 2: it just because they're playing some bad teams. I don't

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Speaker 2: think the Nationals are like a terrible team by any means.

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Speaker 3: They have some real nice pieces.

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Speaker 2: And look the last couple of years, we've seen this

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Speaker 2: where the Cubs, you know, lose the series in Miami.

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Speaker 2: I think they might have lost the series in DC

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Speaker 2: a couple of years ago, and it was still early,

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Speaker 2: like there was a ton of time left and they

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Speaker 2: were already kind of like that could really come back

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Speaker 2: to haunt us, and it did. And we've seen how,

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Speaker 2: you know, close the margins are when you're trying to

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Speaker 2: make the playoffs. Now, back then they were more trying

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Speaker 2: to like sneak in as an extra wild card.

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Speaker 3: This division, they are controlling it. And also they kind.

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Speaker 2: Of had to play at this clip when you look

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Speaker 2: at the Cardinals, after doing like nothing all off season,

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Speaker 2: are playing really well.

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Speaker 3: The Brewers looked like, oh, here it is.

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Speaker 2: This is the year the Brewers are finally gonna sort

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Speaker 2: of recede. And maybe they do in the end, but

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Speaker 2: they're a nice team. I think we both think the

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Speaker 2: Reds have a lot of nice pieces. Hasn't figured it

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Speaker 2: out yet. So the goal is it's something I said there,

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Speaker 2: but they got read, all right, But this is what

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Speaker 2: you have to do, Like this is what the twenty

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Speaker 2: sixteen Cubs did. Teams that win their divisions, they clean

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Speaker 2: up against the teams they're supposed to beat. And I

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Speaker 2: know we'll get into this later, but it's also been

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Speaker 2: a nice time to sort of figure out the pieces

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Speaker 2: you have and let certain units, something of the bullpen,

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Speaker 2: kind of stabilize and really get things to a good

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Speaker 2: place for what will be two very difficult series here

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Speaker 2: coming up.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's remember the years twenty three, especially the bullpen

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Speaker 1: would get overused by this. They're doing things in games,

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Speaker 1: so I mean Wednesday's a good example of look they're not.

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Speaker 1: It's a two nothing game, one nothing game, whatever it

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Speaker 1: was at the time. Matthew Boyd was pitching really well.

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Speaker 1: The offense just wasn't getting it done against Mackenzie Gore

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Speaker 1: and you end up not using any of your best

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Speaker 1: relievers in a two nothing lost. That's how you kind

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Speaker 1: of want it to be sometimes if you're going to

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Speaker 1: lose the game, Hey, you don't want to lose games,

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Speaker 1: but you don't want the use up your best relievers.

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Speaker 4: You got a.

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Speaker 1: Really good outing for Matthew Boyd. The starting staff, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: We've talked, We talked about this last episode. We're going

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Speaker 1: to continue talking about it. They need to add to

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Speaker 1: the starting staff.

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Speaker 4: But they they did.

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Speaker 1: They have really good pieces, like a nice foundation for

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Speaker 1: really good staff.

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Speaker 4: So it's not like it isn't.

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Speaker 1: As if this this staff is devoid of talent. Jamison

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Speaker 1: Tyne has been great, probably one of the lesser talked

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Speaker 1: about stories of this season because it's just so quietly consistent,

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Speaker 1: the way he goes out there, stabilizing force in the rotation,

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Speaker 1: a really great clubhouse guy and leader among that staff.

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Speaker 4: Matthew Boyd just been amazing. What is signing fantastic?

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Speaker 1: Just a brilliant signing there. It kind of was one

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Speaker 1: of those things like if he's healthy, he's going to

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Speaker 1: be good. But the healthy part was such a big thing.

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Speaker 1: And this this stretch is really look at. We'll see

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Speaker 1: how good the bullpen is. They're not this good because

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Speaker 1: people like Brad Keller, Drew Pomerantz, Chris Flexen, there's someone

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Speaker 1: else that they just haven't given up tailed Fieldbar. They

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Speaker 1: haven't given up a run in like a month. Any

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Speaker 1: of those guys, that's not going to happen. That's not

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Speaker 1: going to They're not Chris Flexen and Drew Pomerance aren't

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Speaker 1: gonna have zero e ra as. But they're clearly very

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Speaker 1: good relievers right now. All these guys are really effective.

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Speaker 1: The Cubs went from having all these questions about lefties

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Speaker 1: to two really good lefties in their bullpen right now.

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Speaker 1: And remember this is all without Porter Hodge. Porter Hodge,

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Speaker 1: who we thought entering the season like this is probably

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Speaker 1: their best reliever, and he's been on the injured list

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Speaker 1: during this for the majority of this stretch of play.

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Speaker 1: They've they've really stabilized. They didn't even bring up Daniel Palencia.

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Speaker 1: The group is stabilized. It looks it looks like a

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Speaker 1: really solid group with a ton of depth, so much

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Speaker 1: depth that they're able to DFA Tyson Miller. I think,

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Speaker 1: I think Jed Hoyer, the organization as a whole, I

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Speaker 1: think Craig Council gave them some love a couple uh

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Speaker 1: maybe last week when when they were in town and

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Speaker 1: we were asking questions. The whole organization deserves some love

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Speaker 1: for their their pitching infrastructure.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look at we're at the first full

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Speaker 2: weekend of June, past the Memorial Day marker, and the

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Speaker 2: Cubs have the best record in the National League, a

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Speaker 2: plus one hundred and six run differential, a five game

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Speaker 2: lead in a division that's been better than we've anticipated.

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Speaker 2: Like all of the indicators are strong, and there are

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Speaker 2: obvious question marks. Well, we'll talk about the rotation like

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Speaker 2: every week until the season's over, Like that is just

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Speaker 2: one of those areas that you never quite feel like

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Speaker 2: you have enough. But all the other stuff, like you

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Speaker 2: kind of have to, you know, judge this against your

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Speaker 2: expectations coming into the year. You have to judge it

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Speaker 2: against kind of the rest of the playing field that

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Speaker 2: you're competing against.

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Speaker 3: And this has been.

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Speaker 2: Just a fantastic start and what you know, I think,

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Speaker 2: by all accounts, is just one of those special type

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Speaker 2: of seasons. I mean, that's just kind of you can

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Speaker 2: feel the momentum at Wrigley I think you had that

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Speaker 2: Wrigley Field is rocking headline. Like a couple weeks in,

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Speaker 2: we've written about kind of the vibes in the clubhouse,

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Speaker 2: the chemistry, the camaraderie, I think that is winning obviously helps,

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Speaker 2: but that's a big.

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Speaker 3: Part of it.

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Speaker 2: And then to your point of organization, like they're supposed

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Speaker 2: to be good now, like this rebuild really sort of

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Speaker 2: started what was the end of twenty nineteen of behind

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Speaker 2: the scenes kind of overhauling baseball operations, scouting, player development,

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Speaker 2: you know, major league manager and coaching staff like you

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Speaker 2: a couple down seasons, you collect draft picks so that

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Speaker 2: you can have a Cad Horton come in and help

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Speaker 2: your rotation, or you know, to have Matt Shaw as

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Speaker 2: an everyday third basement, which again, like you said, is

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Speaker 2: a reflection of player development, because he looked in survival mode,

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Speaker 2: he looked defensive. He did not look that comfortable when

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Speaker 2: he was sent down in the middle of April, and

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Speaker 2: now he's back and really thriving as a nice two

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Speaker 2: way player at the one spot where they needed a

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Speaker 2: guy like that step forward.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, real quickly.

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Speaker 1: You talked about Matt Shaw there, and it made I

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Speaker 1: think part of I'm going to write about Matt Shaw

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Speaker 1: and just how this how the lineup is kind of

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Speaker 1: complete with him there, and and what what that means

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Speaker 1: to me is, uh, no one has to know you

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Speaker 1: don't need one or two players to carry the offense.

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Speaker 1: Look at how much I half struggled when he first

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Speaker 1: came back from the IL, and then look at how

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Speaker 1: he looks the past few games. He looks like a

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Speaker 1: different player. He can carry this team for for a

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Speaker 1: week or two if need be, but he doesn't have

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Speaker 1: to do it for six months. Kyle Tucker can have

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Speaker 1: a slump like he did and get back like kind

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Speaker 1: of you know.

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Speaker 4: Whatever was going on.

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Speaker 1: He can be on the shelf for three games to

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Speaker 1: what however long he was out for, and and then

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Speaker 1: come back and and impact the game significantly.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 4: It's it's a really deep talented lineup. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And and actually, let's let's touch on that real quick.

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Speaker 1: Let's let's get to our arena club player spotlight. Patrick Patrick.

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Speaker 1: The player we're gonna spotlight as someone we probably should

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Speaker 1: have been talking about a little bit more and we haven't.

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Speaker 1: We probably take him for granted. Nico Horner. Nico Horner

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Speaker 1: is had a you know, he didn't have a down

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Speaker 1: year last year because by the end of the season

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Speaker 1: his numbers look like they always do, but he was

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Speaker 1: playing hurt for the majority of that year. He didn't

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Speaker 1: look like himself at times. And one thing that I

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Speaker 1: think we all noticed was he wasn't getting that big

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Speaker 1: hit like he normally does, and this year that's absolutely

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Speaker 1: not the case. Get this, he's hitting four thirteen with

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Speaker 1: runners in scoring position his I mean, that's I believe

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Speaker 1: I just saw that was fifth in baseball. That's fifth

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Speaker 1: in baseball. That's actually fourth, tied with Freddie Freeman. He's

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Speaker 1: behind Will Smith, Aaron Judge, Jacob Wilson, who's a really

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Speaker 1: talented rookie with that let and tied with Freddy Freeman.

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Speaker 1: He has I think I saw a lot of people

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Speaker 1: saw this on the Marquee Bought broadcast. He's currently tied

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Speaker 1: for the most hits in baseball with runners in scoring

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Speaker 1: position right behind him his PCA and Sayas and Zuki. So,

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Speaker 1: I mean, just incredible what he's doing. And that's not

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Speaker 1: even that doesn't even talk about how he you know,

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Speaker 1: his defense and how valuable he is there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm glad we have him in this

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Speaker 2: segment because I feel like he's someone we need to

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Speaker 2: write about soon, someone we.

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Speaker 3: Have not talked about.

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Speaker 2: As much just because there have been so many good

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Speaker 2: things happening around this season. But part of it is

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Speaker 2: you need players to hit those top end projections, and

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Speaker 2: that was something that when the Cubs looked at these

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Speaker 2: last couple of years of like twenty twenty three was

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Speaker 2: a nice surprising surge, in part because Nico had a

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Speaker 2: five point five WAR season per Baseball Reference, and now

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Speaker 2: last year he had a good season, but three point

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Speaker 2: seven WAR, and a lot of it is kind of

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Speaker 2: tied up, you know, as you say, in defense, sort

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Speaker 2: of base running, and when he's not getting that big

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Speaker 2: hit and having that impact offensively, the Cubs feel it.

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Speaker 2: And now it just feels like he's the perfect complimentary

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Speaker 2: player for this group. Watching him and Dansby, we probably

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Speaker 2: take it for granted. It's just like ground ball hit

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Speaker 2: to the middle of the field, double play, and that's

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Speaker 2: something that frustrates, you know, coaches and managers and pitchers

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Speaker 2: when those things don't get turned. But the Cubs just

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Speaker 2: make it look easy because of their up the middle combination,

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Speaker 2: and really, I think you see Niko. I think we

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Speaker 2: said it at the time, Nico would have been like

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Speaker 2: that perfect hitter for the post twenty sixteen Cubs. Like

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Speaker 2: seventeen eighteen, he got off his parents couch in twenty

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Speaker 2: nineteen and made a cameo appearance, But like absolutely has

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Speaker 2: those battball contact skills.

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Speaker 3: That was a missing element.

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Speaker 2: In those post championship years though, as THEO said, our

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Speaker 2: offense broke. You need different types of hitters, and Nico

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Speaker 2: is absolutely delivering in some really clutch moments for what

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Speaker 2: might be the Nation League's best team.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he is an elite defender. Whether you're using the

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Speaker 1: eye test, whether you're looking at the advanced numbers by DRS,

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Speaker 1: he's third in baseball all positions. Wow outs above average,

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Speaker 1: he's tied for ninth in all positions. So it's not

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Speaker 1: it's not just it's it's advanced metrics, it's the eye test,

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Speaker 1: it's talking to people around the league. Elite defender, really

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Speaker 1: fun run, fun player in that sense, but tremendously underrated.

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Speaker 1: I think we've talked about that, even when we did

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Speaker 1: the All quarter century team. I just feel like he's undervalued.

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Speaker 1: I think we watch him so much and it's like, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this guy saves runs every day. I'd really like to

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Speaker 1: watch him in the postseason because I wonder if that

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Speaker 1: that like clutch gene translates in October, it'll be fun

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Speaker 1: to see see what happens there. All right, Patrick, let's

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Speaker 1: open our arena clubs flab pack. See what player we got,

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Speaker 1: what card we got obviously hoping for Peak arm Strong.

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Speaker 1: Let's get Peak Armstrong. Let's see what is it? Okay,

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Speaker 1: it's it's Jack Centurio. Cubs fans, the the nice thing

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Speaker 1: about arena club is is you can trade this, can

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Speaker 1: trade his card and and go get your h Go

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Speaker 1: get your Peak for Armstrong or Nico Horner or or

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Speaker 1: Matt Shaw signed rookie card, whatever you want. Uh there

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Speaker 1: there are ways to to get that done. Trade for uh,

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Speaker 1: your your favorite player, your favorite card.

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Speaker 4: Uh.

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Speaker 1: But Jack Centurio, I think Cubs fans, you're gonna you're

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Speaker 1: gonna be seeing a.

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Speaker 4: Lot of him. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The Brewers are back, like we mentioned before, they're they're

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Speaker 1: back in this.

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Speaker 4: They're not going anywhere.

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Speaker 1: Uh So you're you're gonna have to get used to seeing,

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Speaker 1: uh seeing Jackson Curio and and uh whatever frustrations he

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Speaker 1: may bring, because he's he's an incredibly talented player on

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Speaker 1: a team that's trying to make some noise.

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Speaker 4: And then el Central.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and and when you think about pe Crow Armstrong,

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Speaker 2: you know why the Cubs, you know, wanted to lock

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Speaker 2: him up before his breakout season. The Brewers, under different circumstances,

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Speaker 2: were able to do that with Trio. That's why Cubs

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Speaker 2: fans are going to see him for a long time,

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Speaker 2: eight year, eighty two million dollar deal before his first

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Speaker 2: at bat in the majors. The agreement it could be

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Speaker 2: worth one hundred and thirty million over ten seasons. And

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Speaker 2: that's part of why the Brewers are so annoying to

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Speaker 2: Cubs fans and Cubs personnel is that they do seem

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Speaker 2: to think ahead. They're able to identify young talent, put

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Speaker 2: him in the right positions and.

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Speaker 3: Kind of keep that roster churn going.

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Speaker 2: We've seen the Brewers sort of change their identity over

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Speaker 2: the years. They've become way more athletic and defensive oriented,

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Speaker 2: and obviously Jackson.

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Speaker 3: Is just a huge part of that.

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Speaker 2: As Milwaukee, as much as Cubs fans wanted to burry them,

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Speaker 2: they got off to a bad start here. We are

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Speaker 2: heading into the weekend thirty four and twenty nine, five

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Speaker 2: and a half games out, and the playoffs on Baseball

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Speaker 2: Reference have that forty four point five percent, which is

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Speaker 2: pretty good considering how dire it looked for them very

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Speaker 2: early in the season.

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Speaker 1: Patrick, I was a big card collector as a kid,

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Speaker 1: and I feel like this slab packs here Arena club

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Speaker 1: kind of mixes the old school with the new generation

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Speaker 1: and technology. You kind of get that childhood vibe of

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Speaker 1: opening a pack, but it's it's in front of you

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Speaker 1: on your computer. You can also have them send the

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Speaker 1: card to you when you get this. When you open

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Speaker 1: a slab pack right now, you can get twenty percent

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Speaker 1: off your first lab pack or card purchase by going

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Speaker 1: to a arenaclub dot com slash foul and use the

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Speaker 1: code foul. Again, that's arenaclub dot com. Slash foul and

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Speaker 1: use the code foul. All right, Patrick, That's not what

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Speaker 1: I wanted to do. Uh all right, Patrick?

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Speaker 2: Uh?

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Speaker 1: Three against the Tigers best record in baseball. I believe

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Speaker 1: that's still true. Just a remarkable season for them so far,

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Speaker 1: our buddy Scott Harris having you know, I thought they

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Speaker 1: were going to take a like kind of step back

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Speaker 1: this season after that amazing run that they had into

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Speaker 1: the postseason last year, that kind of shocking run into

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Speaker 1: the postseason, and now and now here they are the

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Speaker 1: best team in baseball with the I guess, inarguably.

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Speaker 4: The best pitcher in baseball.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what the debate would be because Derek

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Speaker 1: Scoble looks like he's about to win. You know, we're

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Speaker 1: in early June still, but he's the heavy favorite to win.

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Speaker 1: Another Cy Young kind of emerging as a picture of

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Speaker 1: a generation right now, and the Cubs have to face

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Speaker 1: him Friday.

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Speaker 4: Quite the test to kick off this series.

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Speaker 1: They did just split a series with the White Sox,

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Speaker 1: so maybe they're not invincible, but that doesn't mean this

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Speaker 1: won't be easy.

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Speaker 4: I mean this will be easy. It's going to be.

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Speaker 1: A tough series for the Cubs, and it kicks off

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Speaker 1: a really hard stretch of a ton currently a ton

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Speaker 1: of winning teams that they're going to be playing after

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Speaker 1: this easier stretch, and they cleaned up on it.

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Speaker 4: That's why it was such a big deal.

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Speaker 1: Now you got, you know, really tough teams starting with

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Speaker 1: Detroit and then Philly.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: And I don't think you need to overreact one way

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Speaker 2: or the other, like if they win to series or

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Speaker 2: if they lose five of six here, but I do

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Speaker 2: think it's valuable information. I go back to the West

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Speaker 2: Coast trip in April, and you didn't quite know what

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Speaker 2: the Cubs had. They were still kind of figuring things

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Speaker 2: out and and I think this will give them a

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Speaker 2: ton of good information.

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Speaker 3: On their bullpen. I think it'll be fun to see

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Speaker 3: p Crow Armstrong and Jave Baias on the same field. Obviously,

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Speaker 3: that'll be an obvious storyline.

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Speaker 2: And our buddy John Greenberg and The Athletic had a

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Speaker 2: good column that posted Friday just on the relationship between

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Speaker 2: Cubs President Jed Hoyer and his Detroit counterpart Scott Harris, who.

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Speaker 3: Uh, you know, really.

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Speaker 2: Made a mark in Chicago's front office as kind of

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Speaker 2: the the young whiz kid who like was available around

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Speaker 2: the clock whatever Jed and THEO needed, had really strong

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Speaker 2: relationships in the clubhouse, in the front office, and learned

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Speaker 2: a lot by working at Wrigley Field, earned his World

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Speaker 2: Series ring, and is now has really kind of merged

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Speaker 2: what was some really nice players that the previous regime had,

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Speaker 2: you know, acquired, but it didn't quite fit together. And

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Speaker 2: now you have our buddy Cody for the Athletic as well.

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Speaker 2: It's done a really nice job of kind of explaining

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Speaker 2: what the Tigers do and it's you know, kind of

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Speaker 2: some old school ideas and also very new school substitution patterns,

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Speaker 2: whether it's uh, you know, the pitching chaos they unleashed

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Speaker 2: last October heavy on the platoon matchups, really trying to

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Speaker 2: maximize each roster spot and take advantage of matchups. So

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Speaker 2: I think in that sense too, I think inning and

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Speaker 2: inning it'll be fun to watch and see how that unfolds.

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Speaker 1: That when when you talk about that, playing the matchups

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Speaker 1: and things like that, they they have a really good

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Speaker 1: offense and I'm looking at their these like their players,

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Speaker 1: all of them are above average offensively.

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Speaker 4: There's no like pure superstar. Maybe Riley Green's bordering on.

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Speaker 1: That, uh, but but they don't have this like dominant

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Speaker 1: MVP force like Kyle Tucker or Pete Grew Armstrong, but

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Speaker 1: they all it's just an incredibly deep lineup and and

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Speaker 1: it it's almost like it's I don't think it's as

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Speaker 1: random as that that twenty twenty one Giants team that

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Speaker 1: Scott Harris was GM of, that that team played matchups

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Speaker 1: like every single game, and it was constantly a chess match,

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Speaker 1: and it was, uh, it was really tough to arguably

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Speaker 1: impossible to rep replicate because of the human element. I

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Speaker 1: remember talking to some people about this. You have to

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Speaker 1: have buy in to make that work. They they got

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Speaker 1: that and it was working. It was working. And if

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Speaker 1: one thing, one platoon doesn't work, suddenly someone gets upset

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Speaker 1: and it's like I should be playing against lefties. Uh

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Speaker 1: and and and it throws off the whole whole rhythm

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Speaker 1: of it. But this is I don't think that's purely

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Speaker 1: what they're doing on offense with the Tigers, but they're

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Speaker 1: certainly a J. Hinch is a good manager and knows

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Speaker 1: what he's doing with that stuff.

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Speaker 4: Uh.

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Speaker 1: Scott Harris has put I mean, you got to give

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Speaker 1: him credit. He's put together a solid team here. And

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Speaker 1: I think the pitching is is you know Schooble and

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Speaker 1: the pitching and uh, this is this is a really

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Speaker 1: talented team. I did not I did not see this coming.

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Speaker 1: I'm a little surprised by it. But it's it's there's

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of good things happening here. Uh and

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Speaker 1: and you know what, some of their top draft picks

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Speaker 1: are finally living up.

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Speaker 3: You need that.

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Speaker 1: It looked like they had a couple of bus or

398
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Speaker 1: or injury prone guys and now Casey Mais and Spencer

399
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Speaker 1: Torkleson are both key key pieces to their success. I

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Speaker 1: what you said at the start, I think is important

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Speaker 1: for Cubs fans to remember they're going to start losing

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Speaker 1: some series.

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Speaker 4: There's going to be a stretch of struggles.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Do you want them to go sixteen and five in

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Speaker 1: their next twenty one again, yes that Cubs fans want that,

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Speaker 1: and it would be amazing if they could pull that off.

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Speaker 1: If they're hovering, if June is a month where they're

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Speaker 1: just a game or two above five hundred or hovering

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Speaker 1: around five hundred for the month, I think you'll take that.

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Speaker 1: Looking at what this is, what was it twenty six

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Speaker 1: and twenty seven. That's insane. If that's right, that's twenty

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Speaker 1: six and twenty seven days. I think that's right. That's

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Speaker 1: a lot of baseball. It's really good teams. I think

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Speaker 1: currently the only under five hundred team that they play

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Speaker 1: in that.

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Speaker 4: Stretch is Pittsburgh.

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Speaker 1: It's just a they're going to probably face Paul Schemes

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Speaker 1: in that series. Just an incredibly tough run. But it

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Speaker 1: also preps you for October. I'm not saying, uh, this

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Speaker 1: is any I'm not saying anything other than it's they're

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Speaker 1: they're playing some tough teams. Uh, they they have to

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Speaker 1: they have to perform. Well, you don't want them to

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Speaker 1: get their buttskicked every other game. But I think it's

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Speaker 1: a nice test and it's and they they got they're

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Speaker 1: they're getting healthy. We mentioned Porter Hodge, he's he should

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Speaker 1: be coming back soonish. I think he just threw a

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Speaker 1: bullpen showed in Managa.

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Speaker 4: Uh is he threw what a live BP the other day?

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Speaker 1: And so now when when you get there that now

431
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Speaker 1: we're talking about game action stuff, rehab action rail rehab games.

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Speaker 1: I don't think these guys assuming no setbacks, These guys

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Speaker 1: aren't too far off. Those are two key pieces of

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Speaker 1: the team. You get them back during this stretch, gets

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Speaker 1: keep getting healthy. This this team, uh, this team you

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Speaker 1: know looks looks imposing. I think this is a nice

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Speaker 1: test in June for them, and it will also get

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Speaker 1: had more information as to what you know, what exactly

439
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:04,639
Speaker 1: do we need? Is it more than what we thought,

440
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:07,040
Speaker 1: like little the little things like we mentioned last episode

441
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:09,920
Speaker 1: about like do they need to get a righty bench back?

442
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 1: Things like that, like you get more information on that

443
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:14,080
Speaker 1: against really good teams.

444
00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, just as these days fall off the calendar, you know,

445
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:20,760
Speaker 2: stuff is going to happen, and so if you're in

446
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:25,239
Speaker 2: Jed's position, say, okay, who's healthy By the time we

447
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:27,560
Speaker 2: get to the beginning of July.

448
00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:32,280
Speaker 3: You know, I'm just looking. The Brewers have won nine

449
00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 3: of their last ten games.

450
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 2: The Cardinals had that surge to get back, you know,

451
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:43,960
Speaker 2: nicely above five hundred, and yet both of those clubs

452
00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:47,919
Speaker 2: are five at least five games out of first place.

453
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 3: So like the Cubs have maybe withstood.

454
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:57,200
Speaker 2: You know, the the hot streak from their division rivals

455
00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:02,800
Speaker 2: and that they can probably afford to lose, you know,

456
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:05,040
Speaker 2: a couple series here, now that that's what they're setting

457
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:08,000
Speaker 2: out to do. But they've just they just built the

458
00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:12,840
Speaker 2: cushion that they have not had over the previous couple years.

459
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:19,520
Speaker 2: And so they'll they'll be tested, they'll gain more insight,

460
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:24,800
Speaker 2: see who's healthy who's not. I think obviously Showeda's return

461
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:27,239
Speaker 2: will be one of those dates we circle on the

462
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:32,399
Speaker 2: calendar to make sure he has no setbacks and to see,

463
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 2: you know, just how he feels coming back out there,

464
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:39,159
Speaker 2: because he had said he had never really dealt with

465
00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:39,960
Speaker 2: something like this before.

466
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 3: Obviously it's not.

467
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:43,800
Speaker 2: An arm injury, but just you know, you see show

468
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:49,720
Speaker 2: to how he pitches, how really any effective pitcher performs.

469
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 2: It's you have to use kind of the lower half.

470
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:56,400
Speaker 2: It's rhythm, it's timing, it's feel, and you know, this

471
00:27:56,480 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 2: is kind of the first time where you know, showed

472
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:04,000
Speaker 2: a uh hasn't been that rock for the team. You know,

473
00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:06,440
Speaker 2: he showed up. We had no idea what he's gonna expect.

474
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:08,720
Speaker 2: Then he was just like awesome from the jump. He

475
00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:11,160
Speaker 2: just kind of assumed he's gonna be like an All

476
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:15,680
Speaker 2: star Cy Young caliber pitcher, and he very well could

477
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 2: end up there by the end of the year about

478
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:21,239
Speaker 2: what we you know, expected, But they've done a good

479
00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:25,600
Speaker 2: nice job of weathering that, and we'll just see what

480
00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:28,639
Speaker 2: else goes wrong and how they have to go fix that.

481
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:30,840
Speaker 3: But certainly they've shown a lot of resilience here.

482
00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,840
Speaker 1: Let's take one more quick break and then and then

483
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:36,200
Speaker 1: wrap up the show.

484
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 5: Patrick By, Now you know about Arena club By sell

485
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:41,880
Speaker 5: trade open up slab packs to get a card that

486
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 5: you don't think you could get usually, but the grails

487
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:46,960
Speaker 5: will tell you that. For example, there's an Aaron Judge

488
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,360
Speaker 5: Rookie card in this week's slab packs, So make sure

489
00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:51,280
Speaker 5: you check those out.

490
00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:52,720
Speaker 3: No doubts, those are what you want.

491
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:56,640
Speaker 6: The Grails Arn Judge Grail is awesome, graded traded if

492
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:59,080
Speaker 6: you want, tell you how much it's worth, whatever you

493
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 6: want to do. And I'm a big Michael Jordan Fanily

494
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 6: my twenty three shirt on there's a Michael Jordan graile

495
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:04,720
Speaker 6: in there that I'm looking forward to.

496
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,160
Speaker 5: Try to get twenty percent off your first lab pack

497
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:10,280
Speaker 5: or card purchase at arenaclub dot com. Slash foul use

498
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 5: code foul.

499
00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:13,479
Speaker 4: Patrick.

500
00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:16,200
Speaker 1: I just talking about show day and I just wanted

501
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:20,800
Speaker 1: to give some love to Kate Horton, who has not

502
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:25,040
Speaker 1: lost a game since coming Like they have not lost

503
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 1: any of the games he's pitched in. I don't think, right, Yeah, yeah,

504
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: that's remarkable to to lose your best pitcher, your best starter,

505
00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 1: and not collapse. This is after losing Justin Steele. I

506
00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:44,840
Speaker 1: think I think Kate Horton deserves a ton of credit.

507
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:47,280
Speaker 4: He's he He pitched.

508
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:51,520
Speaker 1: Through this, this soft landing, you could say, learned a

509
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:55,800
Speaker 1: lot about himself, started using more of his arsenal.

510
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:56,479
Speaker 4: Uh.

511
00:29:56,720 --> 00:30:00,960
Speaker 1: He looks legit, he looks really good. Believe I just

512
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 1: thought there was a scoring change for his last start.

513
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:07,720
Speaker 1: So it was only one earned run. So I mean

514
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:13,520
Speaker 1: he's he's been brilliant. I think Cubs fans should you know,

515
00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 1: PCA gets a ton of headlines. Matt Shaw's looked really good,

516
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:21,080
Speaker 1: Michael Bush is a great young player. Add Kate Horton

517
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:23,920
Speaker 1: to the list. As far as I'm concerned, he looks.

518
00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:27,200
Speaker 1: He deserves a ton of credit. And I think there's

519
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 1: a lot of young talent. Didn't mention it, but Ben

520
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:34,600
Speaker 1: Brown gets to start today against Schooble, So there's another

521
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:36,480
Speaker 1: young guy that did he.

522
00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:37,960
Speaker 4: Take a step forward? Let's see.

523
00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:40,680
Speaker 1: I think this is this is a big start. You know,

524
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 1: he's not going up against Schooble, so to say, he's

525
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,840
Speaker 1: facing the Tigers lineup, but it's a big start. You know,

526
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:50,440
Speaker 1: Scooble may shut down the Cubs offense. But however, however

527
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:53,840
Speaker 1: Brown does well, you know, just a little bit more

528
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:56,760
Speaker 1: as to like, how desperately do they need another starter

529
00:30:56,840 --> 00:30:58,240
Speaker 1: and what level starter do they need?

530
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:01,960
Speaker 2: It feels like every start is a big start for

531
00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:06,880
Speaker 2: Ben Brown of just like you know, him figuring out

532
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:15,520
Speaker 2: what works at this level. Uh, clearly the Cubs are

533
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:18,640
Speaker 2: going to be looking for more starting pitching. We'll see,

534
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:21,840
Speaker 2: like who gets healthy. I mean, to this point, the

535
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:26,080
Speaker 2: Cubs have not had that guy who's you know, knocked

536
00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:30,320
Speaker 2: him out of the rotation. But obviously when they made

537
00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:36,560
Speaker 2: this decision, you know, before the season started, of this

538
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 2: is the guy who has a high ceiling, like let's

539
00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:43,760
Speaker 2: kind of see what we got and maybe capture.

540
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:46,360
Speaker 3: You know, some of this talent. And it we've seen flashes,

541
00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:48,120
Speaker 3: no doubt, we get why.

542
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,920
Speaker 2: They see it. And you know, Ben is an intelligent guy.

543
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:56,240
Speaker 2: I think he really cares about his craft. He's he's

544
00:31:56,360 --> 00:31:59,960
Speaker 2: very thoughtful about how to go about it. I think

545
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:05,240
Speaker 2: he listens to some very well respected and knowledgeable veteran teammates.

546
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:07,920
Speaker 3: But you also have to put it.

547
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 2: Together at some point, and you know, give length, particularly

548
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 2: during this stretch. I think he said it was twenty

549
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:19,960
Speaker 2: six and twenty seven, Like can't be having like the

550
00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:22,080
Speaker 2: three year inning starts.

551
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 3: Or four inning non competitive starts.

552
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:29,400
Speaker 2: It's like, get some length, get into a rhythm, and

553
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:33,520
Speaker 2: you know they're gonna need more for him, just because

554
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:37,240
Speaker 2: like eventually Kate Horton's gonna get like lit up one start, right,

555
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 2: I mean, like not that he's been dominant, but like

556
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:40,560
Speaker 2: he's been able to man like there's gonna be a

557
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 2: start where he just doesn't have it, where he can't

558
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:45,479
Speaker 2: manage it, and he's gonna get knocked out early.

559
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 3: And then you know, we'll see how he responds. But

560
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:48,360
Speaker 3: just like.

561
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:53,320
Speaker 2: You know, to get this team, to keep this team rolling,

562
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:58,280
Speaker 2: you're gonna need just some measure of consistency from Ben

563
00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:05,160
Speaker 2: Brown because we don't know, you know, how long can

564
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:07,840
Speaker 2: Matthew Boyd do this? Think as long as he's healthy,

565
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 2: he's good. He's been great to this point. There is

566
00:33:11,960 --> 00:33:14,240
Speaker 2: just you know, we all can look it up on

567
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 2: Baseball Reference, like he has not pitched a full major

568
00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 2: league season in a while, and he's been pitching just

569
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 2: at this fantastic level.

570
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,719
Speaker 3: Like is he going to regress a little bit?

571
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 2: Jameson Tyne another guy that we probably haven't written about

572
00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:30,680
Speaker 2: enough or talked about enough, which is absolutely solid. And

573
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:34,840
Speaker 2: that rotation, and yeah, we'll see how Counsel rolls with

574
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 2: the openers as well. I think you are starting to

575
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 2: see some of that Milwaukee imprint on this team in

576
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 2: terms of how he goes about solving the puzzle each day.

577
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:50,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, this will be a nice test all around. Ulpen

578
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: started pitching everything everything. We'll get more information and more

579
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:57,040
Speaker 1: understanding of where they stand. Obviously, I think we all.

580
00:33:57,280 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone denies that this is a really

581
00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:03,360
Speaker 1: good offens. It feels like the bullpen has has settled

582
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:05,280
Speaker 1: in how good are they against really good teams?

583
00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:08,200
Speaker 4: And then the starting pitching? What holds are exposed here?

584
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:11,319
Speaker 1: We'll see it over the next few weeks and have

585
00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:12,480
Speaker 1: a lot more to talk about.

586
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:13,200
Speaker 4: All right, thanks so.

587
00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:16,399
Speaker 1: Much for listening to everyone. This is Northside Territory. Make

588
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:19,400
Speaker 1: sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,

589
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:21,600
Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are

590
00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:23,160
Speaker 1: on top of all things Cubs.

591
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:25,000
Speaker 4: Thanks for listening everyone. Take