Bruce Levine talks Cubs' injuries, White Sox's 4-6 start

0:00Bruce Levine, it's great to talk some baseball, score baseball insider, covering the Cubs and White Sox for more than 30 years. Bruce Levine is a news breaker inside the clubhouse co-host alongside our own David Ha. Inside the clubhouse, Saturday mornings 9-11, award-winning show, not yet, but, you know, close. Bruce Levine, that's a really good question, Bruce. See, Bruce has the first hard question. With Mullin Ha, on 104-3, the score. Mullin Ha, it is Chicago's 104-3, the score always a delight to talk to our guy. Bruce Levine, and he joins us now on the plumber's 9-1-1 hotline plumbing emergency call 1-8-3-3-plus-9-1-1. The local 130 plumbers get the job done right, the first time, Bruce.

1:01Good morning. How you doing? Good morning, guys. Is the Cubs hitting slump bad luck, or what would you say to a team that has a hard hit rate of over 46% and has as low as slug as there is in Major League Baseball from that context? Is that bad luck, or are we just watching a mini version after 10 games? I'd say start getting on base. Every team has bad luck. This may be an extended version of it, but that's baseball. Every team has bad luck, Bruce. The best hitters aren't necessarily hitting, from Breggman to Swanson to Bush by a sterile, they're not hitting. And that's a big problem. Four hits yesterday. We could talk about the pitching and the injuries are bleak. I do think it starts with the lack of offense in the first 10 games. Well, you're right. It's lack of offense, but again, if you're hitting the ball hard, in this day and age with

2:02all the metrics that we have, they can measure out what exactly you're doing and whether it's some bad luck involved with you're not hitting the ball. Look, old-school guys like your comment would say, just get on base, score some runs, and we don't want to hear about your bad luck. And I think for the most part, I would agree with that because that's baseball, that's sports. You just can't make excuses for not getting it done. It just doesn't work. I guess the news isn't good on Cade Horton. We're hearing that he's heading down to Texas to see a specialist. According to ESPN.com, Jesse Rogers reported. The MRI wasn't good. He wasn't clean, and he's heading to Texas Cade Horton for another opinion. Yeah. So, Dr. Meister down there is usually the specialist, and he might be the guy that he's going to go see.

3:03Look, I don't think they thought it was good from the beginning in Horton's expression and the way he reacted told you everything you needed to know about what he was dealing with. You know, if they say they didn't take any images yet up until yesterday, I'm not quite sure about that. You know, I don't think X-ray would give you the type of images you want to see, you want to see an MRI. But nonetheless, we're going to find out if this is something that's going to be season long or a couple of months probably really soon, and it's unfortunate. We hope the Cubs have enough depth in their pitching staff to get this thing straight now. We're going to find out with how you're sad, being called up and going tonight and boyed being on the IEL from, we got about until the 17th of April until he's eligible to come

4:04off. So, we'll see how that shakes out. And we're hearing that that is not as serious that it's a left bicep issue that he was having during recovery. I got to tell you, Bruce, I mean, you're two starts into the season. I know he was in the WBC. I know the background, but you're two starts into the season and you need to take a couple of weeks because your bicep is bad. That is not for a guy who has had health issues in the past, finally had a clean year last year and had a great year at his age, something like this happening. It just bodes poorly for the year. There's no other way of looking at it. Yeah, I don't look at the biceps, you know, they have to have a reason. Everybody goes on the IEL. There's always a designation as to what it is.

5:05In this case, I think it's kind of a dead arm. I mean, we've seen pictures go through this. It sounds much better. Well, every year, if you let me explain it, I mean, every year at the beginning of the year in spring training, guys go through a period where they're throwing the ball hard. You know, all of a sudden the arm just needs to take a break and then it comes back stronger. I'm sure they're hoping this is the case because the way they're talking about it is and the way he talked about it was is that he doesn't, he wasn't able to recover quickly enough in the start between the time between his starts. And that is, that's difficult to look at during the regular season. If you would have heard it in spring training or they want to mention it at all, you would have taken a few extra days in between starts and come back. They don't have that luxury with the Cubs right now.

6:06They can't wait. They need every picture that they have and everybody has to follow a function. So that's why you see him on the IEL. But all indications are he is going to be coming back off the IEL in a couple of weeks. We'll see how that goes. With an offense struggling, the opening day starter on the injured list indefinitely but maybe the next two weeks and the ace of the staff facing potential bad news and season ending prognosis. Tell me that I'm not to tell me I shouldn't readjust my expectations for this season because I'm ready to adjust my expectations for this season. I don't know that they can win 95 games given the way that they've started the first 10. As much of a rash overreaction is that may seem, Bruce, tell me that the Cubs have a plan here for what seems like a wheels just string of bad news.

7:10Honestly, you have to be concerned about the rotation because if you're going to be out without hoarding for an extended period of time, it's going to be difficult. He was one of the best young pitchers in the game. There's no doubt about it. But I'm more concerned about the bullpen and not knowing what that it looks like right now. Pilency at the end looks really good. The other guys have had wonky outings. I think there's a chance for improvement. I think Hunter Harvey with a hundred mile an hour fastball has to be good. Look, they're missing color for last year. They're missing kitridge from last year. Guys that are heartthroars and guys that were getting the job done with color in particular from the very beginning and kitridge at the very end was probably their best picture along with color. So somebody has to replace those guys. These guys have some good resumes.

8:12We haven't seen the best of film may time yet. So they're going to have to step up in the bullpen. They're going to have to step up in the bullpen. That's kind of difficult because they're getting used and they're getting taxed or 10 games into the season. Certainly they're not buried anywhere, even though Milwaukee is off to its usual, well last year wasn't a good start because they had injuries, but Milwaukee is being Milwaukee right now. Yeah, the thing that is most disturbing and you asked the question about the power numbers, the fact the matter is Bruce that they've played 10 games and in five of them they've had five or fewer hits. If the offense isn't going to go, it's going to be hard to win games, especially if we're concerned about bullpen issues. Now you got starter issues show what it's ugly face. It's just a little bit disconcerting given the fact that they may seemingly can't put

9:18hits together. Well, you're right, Mike. And look, you're right, you're right on the numbers too. They're averaging five hits and 2.7 runs per game over the last six games. That's not going to win you a lot. Yesterday was the first time they ended up with back-to-back losses this year. It's been every other day when lost, when lost, when lost. So this is a team that's not buried. This is a team that has a lot of talent. But the things that you guys bring up, they're real. They're looking at really difficult situations. I think this team is going to hit. It has good hitters up and down the lineup. When Suzuki comes back on Friday, I think you're going to see a difference in the lineup because he's really their true number four hitter and they're certainly missing that. All right. It's something I net thought I wouldn't say for a while, but let's talk about the good news and the white socks. So Grant Taylor, two teams in town are four and six. I know.

10:18I know. Bruce Grant Taylor, 16 pitches last night. He was opening again. I don't know if that fits the mold of Mason Miller, the way Chris gets described as spring training, or this is the new way of Will Venable with trying to light a fire or just ignite some momentum here. But it seems to be working. How's it going over with the other starting pitchers in the clubhouse? Does it matter and what comes next? A couple of the veterans probably aren't thrilled about it. Fettie talked a little bit about it yesterday and he gave us one of those is what it is answers. But at the same time, they're professionals that get ready. They know when their inning is going to start, just like a regular start. It's something different to get used to. There's no doubt about it, but look, Fettie pitch really well yesterday. Yeah. The starting pitching has been outstanding since they came home. It really has been, they have done extraordinary well.

11:20Taylor, that is, I think we'll be talking all year about the mystery of Grant Taylor and whether or not they're going to push this forward to when he's actually starting games or closing games. You have $10 million in Dominguez at the end of the game as the closer, but what he's assimilating right now is the opener is the closer, and I asked Venable, I asked Taylor about it yesterday. They said, well, it's not the same, but you are facing the best hitters on the other team by opening. You're facing the top three at the end of the game when you're closing, if the lineup for the opposition isn't what it needs to be, the opposing manager can go to the bench and make it the most difficult lineup. There's a symmetry about that.

12:21Taylor responded to that by saying, yeah, I like the adrenaline rush that I get from opening because he was certainly a starting pitcher during his terrific college career at LSU. I think getting back around to will they extend his innings out? Will it just be this or will be two innings in the middle? It's going to be interesting to watch. I don't think for sure they know exactly what it's going to look like right now. How important is this start for Shane Smith, given the start he's had this season? Well, it is important, and if you believe in weather being on a pitcher's side, you're going to have a 35 degree day today, pitchers are the ones who usually benefit the most from cold weather. So you see if that's going to be a benefit, but he's got to throw the ball well. He's got to get into the 56 inning, you know, with giving up a couple runs or less.

13:24That's going to be the key for him today. We'll see how that goes, but you know, being your opening day starter and somebody you're counting on to give you a lot of innings, we haven't seen any of that so far. So today is an important start for you. Good stuff, Bruce. Thanks, Bruce. Great stuff. Have a great day.