CHGO Cubs Related: Which Chicago Cubs Are STANDOUTS So Far in Spring Training?

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1:02you'll be ready for whatever life tosses your way. It's the right time to feel less stressed and more certain. That's a better way to money. Let's get started at nm.com. The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This is the CHIO Cubs related podcast. My name is Corey. I'm joined as always by Brendan. We are coming to you on Thursday. It is March 5th and Brendan three weeks. And we will, well, some of us will be a beautiful, historic, wriggly field, hoping the temperature is above 50 degrees. Happy birthday, Kyle. Shorber. Big birthday today. Kyle Shorber, right, Corey? Yep. And I guess happy birthday to you as well. Thanks. Yeah, just saying. You know, you're a real team player for talking to me on your birthday. Well, I always like to do the bit from the office where Michael Scott calls Jan and it's like, oh, happy birthday. I thought we had the same birthday like, but with Shorber. And I think it's a happy birthday to you as well. Thanks. Yeah, just saying. You know, you're a real team player for talking to me on your birthday.

2:03Well, I always like to do the bit from the office where Michael Scott calls Jan. But with Shorber, you know, yeah. Like I thought everybody knew it was a joint thing. Oh, no, everybody only knows Kyle. Well, you're aging gracefully. That all set. So congratulations. Great. Thanks. Anyway, what I'm happy about Brendan on my birthday is to talk about a Cubs team that feels relevant. And yeah, poised for hopefully a big year. I think it's been a couple of years. I think it's been a couple of years. World baseball classic kicking off really an earnest out of the. I think there's been a couple of pool play games, but out of the exhibition games and really getting going. I think on Friday was just looking at the Cubs. Social media team posting some glamour shots. Of the fellas as they head out for their respective countries. I'm tonight's episode. We'll talk all things Cubs spring training. Guys who look great. Guys who look not so great. We'll talk to you guys in a bit. And we'll talk to you guys later.

3:03You know, the council and the media have been talking about as we head here and you know, really just continuing to get ready for the regular season and looking ahead to a big 2026. We're just a lighter start, Brendan to, to kick things off. World baseball classic you and I have talked about being there in person at Dodger Stadium. Several. Separate iterations ago. Yes, together. How fun it was. How exciting it was. That was like peak. Havi Elmago, by as doing his thing and taking several nations by storm, as it were. But like as this gets going, obviously, I think I can figure out your hierarchy of rooting interests to a degree. But I wrote down just two hypothetical scenarios, let's say we're in the final game. And we get say a Suzuki for team Japan, Matthew Boyd for the United States. And Matthew Boyd's going to be treated like a starter, but for the sake of the fun here. Let's say the game is on the line.

4:05What are you rooting for to happen? Man. Um, I'm rooting for Sayah. Okay. I'm rooting for Sayah. It's always more fun to have me here. But you have to realize that it's always more fun to have the player. The hitter, you know, take the stage like that, in my opinion. Plus, I need say it a hit 40 home runs this year. I need all the good energy. Say it can get going into the season. And I also feel like we've seen with Matthew Boyd. I'll have a very diplomatic answer. That's right. Yeah, he'll be fine. He's no worse. Sayah just got me. I hit my pitch. Just say it's such a good hitter. Okay. I have another one for you. And I think I know the answer. But I tried to make this one a little harder. Game on the line. Alex Breggman. Daniel Polencia. How does it play out? Uh, the I don't want you off. Okay. That's what I thought you would say. Yeah. I said PCA. You'd say. I knew if I. You'd defer to the younger.

5:05Reliever. Who needs you? You know, we say. I got. I knew I couldn't. PCA in any of those. Yeah. Well done. Well done. I. Yeah. My answers are the same. That that would be an electric moment for Daniel. I hope he gets. Well, you know, Alex Breggman or not. I hope he gets some of those opportunities to get some big outs for his country. Like you know that he would. Really feel that. So. He looks good to the spring. He looks like physically. Like. I don't know matured. Like he looks like he's in phenomenal shape. We've heard he's a phenomenal shape. Everyone's in great shape. He's. It's a little bit different than you do. But he is particular. Looks pretty good. Well, and it's an interesting spot for him in his career. Coming into the year kind of being handed this position. I know going into last year, like you know, there were some thoughts about him and even as the season got underway. Like who was actually close. You know, is Ryan Pressedley for a while? Then Brad Keller. Then he's in the mix. is my job. Like my job is to come in and finish games for this team. We saw it last year,

6:08but I'm the guy with the entrance. The lights go out. Gasolina turns on. Like it's, it's got to be in an exciting, maybe nerve wracking, but you know, exciting time for him as a young player to be coming into this year knowing this is my spot. This team has big aspirations and they're going to look to me to hopefully have the ball in some of those huge moments. And he got those huge moments to towards the back stretch of the season coming back from that shoulder injury. He was put in some difficult situations. Grant and not the closing role, the ninth inning, but fifth inning, sixth inning, seventh inning that correct put him in as a fireman reliever. And he performed really well. The Vila was great in that late September run post injury. I'm excited to see Daniel take the next step. Maybe we see more splitters and hopefully we see that stable season long health that we need from someone of his stature. Yeah, that would certainly work for me. Getting back to general spring training stuff, I think as we sit here today,

7:08the Cubs are six and seven if the record of your team in spring training is is your kind of thing. It's not mine. Are we at this place in the standings? I couldn't tell you. I have absolutely no idea. I've seen a little bit of spring training what, you know, limited there is available to watch. I have seen some of that. So, you know, you know, you know, one day they'll get their own network. They can put them on TV or yeah, one day we can hope. We can know. Anyway, without getting further into that, I did just want to talk generally like I was listening to the Colin Ray post interview. He's had a nice spring actually. And what I liked about it is that he was talking about how, and it pairs with something we saw with Craig Council. And, you know, he, you know, supposedly got angry and yelled a little bit during a base running grill.

8:12And I just like the vibe coming out of of this spring running. We've talked about it before. Like we talked about it with Jared last week. Like every, you know, hope springs eternal. Everybody's always hopeful. They had a successful year last year. Everybody's excited about Alex Regman. So I don't always expect them to say different things, but it does feel like there is an edge to this group and that there is at least a overarching sentiment of cool to make the playoffs. We were happy to do that, but we have bigger goals here. And there are things we can get better at. And like listening to Colin Ray talk about, he mentioned that they were, he felt they were more focused this spring on little details. And he talked about, it's not so much an attitude of we have to beat Milwaukee, a singular focus on Milwaukee, but that we just need to be the best version of our selves to get to that next level. The little details, the things in the seventh, eighth, ninth inning that really decide the game. We've talked about this a lot. The things on the margins. I've used this sort of cross sport example of like the loose balls in basketball, like being the

9:18team that's always doing those little things and winning those little battles. So I like hearing that. And even pairing it with like Craig Council, supposedly getting a little hot at them, you know, missing some of the things in a base running drill. And the quote, you know, from Bruce Levine that Craig gave was quote, some guys will be on the team, even if they get doubled up in games here, others won't make the team. I liked the sort of like direct like this stuff matters, you know, type of type of language. But I like hearing this stuff. That's what spring is for to work on this stuff. And I like that there's kind of an attitude of like we need to be better at the finer details. We are not satisfied just coming off, you know, resting on having made the playoffs. It feels like there is a hunger for more and to be better than they were last year. That's a theme. I'm picking up during the spring training, all the conversations we've heard with media members seems to point exactly at that. It's a healthy sense of urgency that you always have in spring. But with this specific

10:21group, it seems a little bit heightened and much of it because of that October run because of that taste of that wild car series victory. And it's the attention to detail on the base running that stuck out to you. It's the attention to detail for me when I watch what guys are working on in addition. The band name mechanical changes that we've seen Pete show in the first few games. Matt Shaw's changes danceby swansons changes Alex Breggman talking about the fine fine fine minutiae of batting. The theme is a healthy sense of urgency on the granular details and they're willing to discuss it with the media, which is exciting and fun. Some superstars, they don't want to talk about those fine details and as fans were wondering, Hey, why are you so good? Hey, what are you working on? This group is more expressive in that. And as a result of their expression and the healthy sense of urgency, I feel like me as a fan, like I'm dialed in too. Like I feel like this

11:22group has the best chance to do something special since 2016, 2017. Yeah, I agree with you there. And to finish, you know, again, the rest of the show we'll talk about, you know, showed us struggles in his last start. We'll talk about tion continuing to struggle in the spring. We'll talk about guys like Alex Breggman, who is homering every day. He steps on a baseball field. So that's exciting. Yeah. What we're seeing from PCA, et cetera. But I want to finish, you know, just sort of on the attitude and and talking about Craig Council. And this is going to be our new segment, the original take brought to you by Hooters, chair on your favorite team from any of the 11 Chicago land Hooters locations or check them out at original hooters.com. So I just want to finish on the the Craig base running stuff. And I want to tie that in. I feel like for his time here, we've seen a lot of people want him to yell more. They want him to get ejected more off. They called him unless they make fun of him sitting on camera in the post game. And I saw this,

12:23this point discussed in a discord. And I forget, you know, the proper credit of who brought it up. But I like the way that they framed it in that when something like this happens, it's even getting reported like, hey, Craig got hot at the guys during, you know, a base running thing. It seemed like a real thing. That type of stuff is more effective when it feels surprising or less commonplace because it really dials home. We have reached a point that this is not acceptable. And I say it all the time when we're on this. I do. I can tie because I say it all the time when we're on the shows that like if the marquee cameras when they're running are catching the Craig council constantly in the dugout yelling and throwing stuff. And he's getting ejected from every other game to me. That is not a sign that he cares. That is a sign of dysfunction. That is a sign that stuff is leaking out of the clubhouse and into the dugout

13:25and onto the field. You have to trust that like the players are held accountable. We don't need to see it as fans. So to me, when we get this report and spring training and Craig is talking about it, that feels like it carries more weight to me. Like when it is not a commonplace thing. And I, I'm sure plenty of players love playing for a guy like Lupinella or some of these more like typically hotheaded as we think of managers. But if you're yelling all the time, how do you get the point across of what really is unacceptable or not something that will be tolerated, etc. And I think we have to trust that behind closed doors, Craig has a pretty good handle on his players and what their expectations are, whatever. And so to me, it's better if we only see these glimpses every now and again, one, it means that hopefully the team isn't making brazen, open mistakes all the time that he needs to get so mad. But it also, it carries more weight

14:25when you see it when it's not something that is going on all the time at every little thing, if that makes sense. And I think it's an authentic reaction. I don't think Craig is unauthentically trying to yell just because he wants to show emotion where he does. And I think this is who he is. And it's why he's gained the respect of players for years, both as a player and as a manager. So this is who Craig is. If you watch him closely in the dugouts during the games, he is on. Yeah, you talk about emotion. He can't sit down. He's pacing the dugout. You know, Milwaukee made fun of them because when I forgot who the reliever was when a home run was given up, the bat goes flying. He's on the phone already calling the bullpen. So you know, they take fun of him for that. But Craig has always been this very quick guy to react just in subtle ways. And he pays attention to the fine details. And he waste no time. Yeah. So I like hearing that and hopefully, hey, like whatever was going on there, they get cleaned up

15:31because Craig is right. Like ultimately in the spring, some of those little mistakes for some guys, they can get away with it. But for others, you know, it's really life or death at this point, as far as their ability to make the team not get sent down to the minors released, put through waivers. Oh, you talk about guys like Dylan Carlson or Justin Dean, I'm not sure who involved was in the drill, but those are guys that come to mind. Let's hit her ad breaker. Got a lot to talk about. And we'll continue this discussion. Okay, Xfinity, what if your Wi-Fi just worked? No buffering, no dropouts, no fighting for bandwidth. And what if the price stayed the same for five whole years? That's the Xfinity price, five year price guarantee. Imagine Wi-Fi that actually thinks ahead, a network's far enough to find a fixed problem before you even notice them. You're streaming the game in the living room. Someone's on a video call upstairs. Another person's gaming in the bedroom and somehow it just all works. Every device, every room, in perfect harmony for five whole years. Here's the best part, no annual contracts, no hidden fees, and Xfinity's best equipment is included because a lot can change in five years.

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18:38sewer and electric. All right, Brandon, back with you. I also like just watching the council interviews. You're a big like how everybody talks to the media guy. I find it really funny. The way he answers questions. I know sometimes I was thinking the same thing. People want more and they're like, oh gee, thanks for the insight. After a loss, I find it really funny. Like they're asking him about like the outfield or depth, they're asking him about the ABS system and like half the answers are like, yeah, I guess that's fine. There's something I just find so funny about his like dry. He's not indulgent to some of the questions at all. He's always, yeah, I mean, that's fine. Somebody asked him like talking about like the Dylan Carlson, like, you know, that group of like outfielders can fordo, etc. You know, would you consider this many or how many of me was like, yeah, like that's a normal number of outfielders to carriers. It's always Bruce. I feel bad for it. It is Bruce a lot.

19:43Yeah. And every time Bruce's like, oh, let me rephrase my question. There was one question and Bruce phrased as, are you concerned? And Craig goes, I mean, what benefit does there to be concerned and be worried? You know, like stuff, stuff like that. So it's hilarious. You've got to wash them in those fine detailed interviews by Craig. They'll get a good laugh. Yeah. All right. So you take your pick. You want to take a look at some of the big time pictures. We've seen Cabrera a few times, not giving up runs, Justin Steele cleared good to go, still on the delayed timeline. I don't think we have more on Kate Horton or we can touch on, you know, Tyrone Chota, some of those. Let's go with the bad news first, right? Okay. Do you care about any of that? I do not. It doesn't mean like you can't acknowledge it's happening. Like, okay, sure. Tyrone's getting hit in three starts. Not good. Chota got hit in his last start. Okay. Gave her three home runs. That's fine. I am concerned

20:48if there is an injury. I'm concerned if the stuff looks to be in the range of outliers. Both their stuff is fine. Showed his throwing, in fact, two miles per hour faster. It's drawing compliments from Craig Council. Tyrone's going to the World Baseball Classic to pitch in meaningful games with Canada. He's excited, right? Tyrone's always been a guy, too, to adjust. Am I concerned? No. It doesn't mean I'm not going to follow this as time goes on. Of course. But the amount of meaningfulness you can extract from a couple hot outdoor Arizona games is very little. Yeah. And you should accordingly adjust your expectations based on that. Yeah. I mean, look, like there's any number of things you can look at as not necessarily being an indicator of performance as far as the spring concern. We always talk about it. Like, you

21:48never know. Guys are going out there and, hey, I want to work the bottom of the zone today with my fastball. That's the exercise. There was one start. Like, we talk about it all the time. Like, eight years ago, luster through all changeups for the most part. Third of his pitches. You're trying to make the pitch work. I mean, even Justin Steele, when he was talking about, I think he tweeted this, like, you know, getting the clearance and all that other stuff. Like, you know, one of the last things he was doing was really getting that, like, all right, unleash your breaking ball, like, letter rip. Like, and so, you know, it's all a process. It's all a process. I think what I would say, Tione has been all over the place. But like, for the most part, like, I think we have a decent idea of who he is. He's working, you know, making adjustments and it doesn't really bother me. I mean, we've seen extreme results from him. He's ramping up. He's getting ready for the world baseball class. As you said, unless the stuff, the violos or his health, you know, or some clear mechanical thing is way off, it doesn't matter. It's just spring. And as far as showed us concerned, like his first two starts were pretty solid.

22:51He didn't give up any runs and his first two starts gives up three solo homeruns to the white socks. The only thing, like, I just always never really understand is the, like, extreme reaction to something that's happening in the spring. As far as showed us concerned, like, that was the concern. That was a pre-existing concern. I think where my issue comes in is, like, when you see people looking at the start the other day, as like a new argument, like, see, I knew they shouldn't have offered that qualifying offer. Like, look at this, you know, it's this again. It's going to be a terrible season. It's like that, that concern already existed. Like, he still has to prove coming back from the injury, working back from not being startable in the playoffs. Like, so we're still waiting to see the return on that, friend. And like, it's not going to be determined in the spring. His violos looking better. Canically, he looks good in those first two. He looked good. I just don't care about a spring training start. In a roundabout way, like, what I mean is,

23:57if you already had that concern going into the season, one spring training start is in confirming or denying that concern. It's about what happens once he actually takes the ball in the regular season. And like, for my money, like, especially now a few years into his time with the Cubs and where the rest of this rotation is, I have every expectation he's going to be fine, friend. And like, for what they need him to be, they're not asking him to be the ERA leader again. And like, be the the best pitcher on this staff. They just need him to be a useful starting pitcher in this rotation. It's really the same thing with James and Tyrone. And I just have every expectation that he's going to be able to do that. I don't care about what he's doing in the spring. Like you said, as long as the rest of this stuff looks good, it's about what happens in the regular season, not in Mesa. Yeah. As far as Shota goes, I mean, you really have to look at the stuff. The reason that he

24:58struggled last year was related to physical abnormalities. We talked about it extensively. He had a hamstring injury. He came back. The release was different. The extension was shorter. The Velo dip. The release was higher. The spin rate on the splitter increased. The splitter velocity increased. He wasn't moving athletically as much as he did the previous year. Shota attributes this to weight gain that was intentional. He thought, I need to gain more weight because I lost weight previously. That coupled with the hamstring injury, Shota said, appear to have somewhat derailed his feel for pitching last year. So for folks to use last year as the continuation of regression from the previous year is misguided to me. To think, oh, Shota can't be great is misguided to me because correct counsel, not just a year ago,

26:02described Shota at some point as pitching like the ace of the staff. To me, that suggests your ceiling is pretty high. It's pretty great, actually. And when Shota was pitching like that, he was throwing 92, 93, 94 with the splitter that was faded with the sweeper that was sweeping. And so far what we've seen is those shapes look to have returned to that 2024 form. Will it sustain itself? We'll see. But he's expressing he's comfortable that the feel is back or seeing it in the pitch metrics. So am I thinking, okay, last year is more likely? No, because last year was in part due to stuff not looking good. And it's looking like it wasn't 2024. Yeah, I'm with you. I mean, and you know, again, look, like I think overall, my point would be like we've talked about a lot of these guys and what their ceiling can be, what their floor can be, what are some of the, you know, ways they can take that next step, what are some of the concerns that maybe you have

27:04to draw them back? Yeah. Those those all still exist for all these guys. I just wouldn't look at is spring training at all, but especially a single start. Of course, firm or deny any of those things. It's not it's not the right way to go about this. We we say this all the time. Like on this show, if spring training made a difference or carried over into the regular season, David Bowdie would be the best player in history of Major League Baseball. And it's no offense, you know, we like David Bowdie on this show, but that's not. It's not how it worked out. So not how it works out. And as far as showed it goes in a qualifying offer discourse that we've had, I expressed concern about bringing showed a back at times because I thought the physical athleticism was unpredictable. So I thought, okay, you're going to spend 22, 23 million dollars to bring showed a back. What is a likelihood that the VLO can return that he can get off the

28:08mound in an athletic way. And I said, well, if they're going to give off this qualifying offer, they have a reason to believe the athleticism is more likely to return. So when I talk about trends, what I'm following during spring on top of that list is what showed us athleticism looks like. And you can already check that box. Okay, the VLO is back. The stuff looks good. He looks he looks good. So that's a big, big takeaway, in my opinion, from the first week, because you're not happy, you don't have to squint in hope that any type of similarity to last year's stuff will change. It's not like that for him. Yeah, 100%. If we're looking at, you know, he's given up these homers, but his fastballs sitting at 90 miles an hour, like we're having a different conversation. Different discussion. Yeah. And the actual zone profile during that start, he didn't command well. So fastballs, too low in his own sweepers left off. The command was off, but the stuff was fine. Well, and the command is off. It's almost like what they go to spring training to dial in three

29:12weeks ahead of opening day. And for Shota, when the command was just a little bit off, and mostly on, he was still giving up home runs last year, because his stuff wasn't good. And hey, you know, like that whex act start, keep them solos. If you're going to do it, right? Like, you know, at least he does a good job with that in the general itself. Keep it that way. But but also, yeah, going back, like, you know, before we hit our second ad break, too, like these are two guys like that you don't you don't have to have the world of expectations for. And that doesn't mean that it's okay if they're staying or unusable or anything like that. But you've got other guys in this rotation that you're really looking to hit that ceiling and really potentially maybe push the the greatness that you can see from this rotation, not that it can't come from those two guys, knowing you're relying on it. And that's what the key is. Like you just need positive key contributors to this group. When we talked about it last week, like even going through Tyrone, and you know, some people roll their eyes

30:13at the quality starts, you know, five innings, fewer and runs, that type of thing. But if they're out there 25 to 30 times a year and making those starts and keeping what we hope is a solid offense in these games, that's all you're looking for. We can look at Cade Horton and Cabrera and Justin Steele when he comes back. And even Matthew Boyd, like he did in the first half last year, if we need a side young contender in this group, doesn't have to be everybody. Some of the guys can just play a role and be solid. The difference between a four inning star and a five any star is about 30 innings per year. That is the equivalent of giving innings to the Chris Flexins types, the equivalent of trying to bridge certain relievers so you can rest your bullpen. That does matter. Those extra innings do matter. And before I hit the next ad break, I view each starting picture as all use one of Jed Hoyer's analogies, a line in the water. If you listen to Jed, he always talks about lines in the water for acquisitions. The cops have eight

31:14lines, nine lines in the water. Some may bite, some may not bite. So I can see Shoda, if he has a sub three array, I'm not surprised. Yeah. As he tie you own, have a sub three point five year rake. Frankly, I'm not surprised as is the case for almost every starter in this top five top six scenario. I would not be surprised at all. Well, and I mentioned it last thing before you. You know, I know I'm saying this in jest because we just went on a thing about how the results don't matter. But because I mentioned him, you know, look, Colin Ray, eight and a third so far in the spring, two earned runs, one walk, 10 strikeouts. That's why is Alan Ray is a line in the water. But again, it's spring training and that doesn't matter. But he's been a solid player for the Cubs. And I liked the way he was talking about how they're more focused on the details. So there's that's Hollen Ray discourse for the day. There you go. Let's hit our second ad break, more talk about. Okay. When game day stopped by the office, the biggest thing to set out to me was

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35:20We see a few times pitched on Wednesday. And this is going to be our segment sponsored by game day men's health, better father, better husband, better man. Go to game day men's health. Visit game day CHGO.com to find locations closest to you. And we're taking a look in the game day men's health pipeline. And I want to talk about Cabrera. What you've seen from Cabrera, again, spring training, but how have you enjoyed the experience so far? I will tell you, we knew this coming in, but it's a very enjoyable experience. Probably the first time in my life, like when I used to work, like doing video for my early games or whatever, like part of the job was, you know, this is early track. Was being the manager, correct? No. I was only ever a bench coach in the Dominican summer league, but that's a story for another time. The

36:22tracking the Velo and inputting the pitches on a pitch box, right? And like with Cabrera, it's fascinating because you can't just do it. A lot of pitchers, you can just look at the Velo. You know the pitcher. Oh, it's 93 fastball. That's 84, change up, 80 slider, 75 curveball, whatever it is. Like Cabrera is one of those pitchers where it's like, I have no idea. There's eight things coming in at 95 miles an hour. I don't know what it is. Yeah. With him, he's so unique. And he's been feeling questions about the change up. Is it a change up? What is this? And he doesn't really assign any intentionality to it. It's just what he throws. I'm looking for really what is going to compliment the change up. So the change up and his breaking pitch are his two features, the curveball, the change up. What I'm looking for is, okay, what about the fastball? Is it going to be a four seamer? Is it going to be a sinker? 2023. It was a four seamer. That four

37:30seamer led to a high walk rate. 2024. He said, okay, I'm going to throw more sinkers. That sinker led him to be inside the strikes on more often. So you subtract four seamers. You put more sinkers in. You throw more strikes. Your walk rate goes down. Your ERA gets better. At the same time, his fastball run value, even though he walked fewer guys, was in the fourth percentile. Not good. So 96% of pitchers had more value against a fastball. Okay. So my question is, well, do we go out and see him change the usage of the four seamer or a sinker? Can we monitor that in spring training? Is there going to be a trend as opening day starts? Here's what do you look like in his last start? So he threw in this chart, 29% four seam fastballs. How does that compare to last year? Last year, he threw 13% four seam fastballs. So this is over two times more than

38:34what you typically see. It's more fastballs against both varieties as well as against lefties. See, that sinker in the very bottom? That sinker was the least used pitch. He threw four sinkers in 45 pitches. How does that compare to last year? Last year, he threw a sinker 20% of the time. So he'd led with a change up four seam curveball. I'm curious to see if this continues on as we get close to opening day. Maybe this is just him testing the waters. Maybe he didn't like the feel for it. We don't know. But it's those early points that I'm dialing in on to see if they continue. Yeah. I mean, I think especially in his regular season starts, it's one of the more interesting things. Anytime a team makes such a significant trade, brings in a guy that has such potential, just seeing if they play around with anything, like seeing if anything is different, how are they deciding to utilize him and his repertoire? I think that's going to be a very fun

39:37thing to track. It's always fun. You dream on the ceiling of someone like this. But I think especially when anytime someone is new in an organization, especially a pitcher like this, it's always very fascinating to see if there's anything that jumps out right away. Like, oh, the Cubs clearly think differently than the Marlins did here, because this is not exactly how he was going about things. And maybe it's not that stark. But we don't know. Like if I had a guess, I would probably guess he would want to throw more four seams. Think about the ways change up moves and the way sinker moves. The movement separation between those two pitches isn't quite as far as a four seam fastball. It's just a matter of him hitting this strike zone more often than the four seam fastball. If you can do that, then I think that's the push to go to. Just a matter of he can feel it. If he can't feel without four seams and walk more guys, then you have to accept that sacrifice and having your sinker look like your change up.

40:40It'll also be interesting too. I mean, not that like sometimes this doesn't affect guys, but especially like early in the year, like this is going to be pretty much like his first time playing in front of a home crowd that is like Rigglyfield. You know, maybe a few more notches on that fastball. Maybe a little erratic to start, but or maybe not. Maybe the adrenaline, 40,000 plus, Riggly, faithful chanting his name for the first time. Now he's throwing 104 and he's painting on the corners like it's nobody's business. Listen, we can dream. These things can work both ways. It doesn't have to rattle guys. Some guys, it might, it's like a, you know, yeah, it feeds them. That's right. I'm a more like serious note there. I think this, oh, he's not going to throw a hundred and a four. I thought you'd be as serious. I'm more serious note. This year, and even last year, I will say the way I'm viewing players and rosters more than ever is based on ceilings and accepting like wide ranges. Like in the past,

41:43I was so like my expectations were so driven by like what I thought was the most likely scenario if that makes sense. And now based on how I've seen pitching develop over the years, how hitters have come out of the woodworks and changed things, like I am more in tune with ceilings and how to achieve that than I am. It's just like, oh, you know, fan graphs things tie you into 4.3 ERA pitcher. Like, oh, fan graphs things Edward Cabrera's, you know, a four ERA pitcher. Like intuitively, that makes sense because that's how projections work. But like the way we've watched baseball, we would be I think disappointed if that were the case. And I think there's justification in that disappointment because we recognize the ceilings actually more achievable than maybe like 2005 and we were watching teams like this. Yeah, and you've talked about it a lot too. Like, you know, sometimes chasing those extreme outcomes, you know, believing that players have that ability and

42:45maybe you don't get there a decent number of the time, but sometimes the only way to know if you can reach that sort of extreme ceiling is to try things or give guys those opportunities. Give guys those opportunities. Find the right coaches to help them achieve that. Find the right guys who have a good likelihood of achieving that. Also, having a base. That's why Alex Breggman was such a quality signing in our view because you're talking about a guy who's 90% tell chase with contacts, all the metrics. And so if you can couple those safety pieces in Breggman and Danzby Sponsan and Niko Horner and allow someone like P Crow Armstrong to grow and adjust or Matt Shaw grow and adjust and try different positions, then you can really get that high ceiling outcome. And the risk isn't as large if you didn't have those safety nets and those stable veterans.

43:46It's a really healthy mix of high ceiling and high floor because the way this roster has been built by Jets for an office. Yeah, I like that. It's a good point. Yeah, let's let's keep rolling on the rotation here. Plenty more to talk about last 20 minutes or so. We just didn't get to talk about it because, you know, the news came. I think on Saturday after our show last Thursday. But yeah, I mean, really you guys have all heard this, but Justin Steele fully cleared for baseball activities. Tweeted on February 28th last bullet from his bullpen yesterday got cleared by Dr. Meister today, fully cleared for baseball activity. So still going to be on a, you know, somewhat delayed schedule. I don't think we are going to get, you know, an exact return date for a little while here, but all seems to be progressing exactly how you would want. And I think it's easy. It got easy to not forget about Justin Steele last year. But just about,

44:47I think like the, the magnitude of player that the Cubs were without, I think, was easy to lose sight of as they were bringing in other guys and whatever. Like this is, this is their guy. This was the ace of their rotation. This was the, the front line guy for this team. And I think it was easy at times last year to sort of lose sight of like, yeah, you know, everybody has injuries, but like this was a pretty significant one. And I think when you were looking at stuff like at certain points in the year, like he would have been one of those guys, where you would say, okay, like anybody but him can get hurt. And I feel like, okay, you know, maybe they can like move on from that. So nothing, I don't think insightful to offer here other than just to acknowledge that. And, you know, obviously that all progressing in the right way is really important for this team. And I look forward to him coming back whenever he does and sort of just slotting in there and

45:48being ready to go. And I loved hearing him, Brendan, talk about how it was the most important for him to be at his best toward the end of the year. That man wants to win playoff games. He wants to help this team succeed in big ways. And, you know, again, like players say the right stuff to the media all the time. They say they're wrong stuff to the media all the time. But hearing his focus on a day that really is a lot about him immediately shift to like, I don't care if I'm there for opening day. I want to be there in October in late October pitching for this team. It's just the type of stuff you love to hear. Right. You've seen teams all have the ability to wait and raster guys and ease their way back and showing Otani was what we're about to dodgers this whole thing. By the way, just sitting around and nothing. And then they're going to unleash him only in the playoffs and everybody else to deal with it. That's why I like the ceilings on top of my

46:49mind right now because you can see the rotation. If you want to think crazy, Shota returns a 24 form Kate Horton is every bit of that second half version as we saw last year Edward Cabrera takes the next step. And those are three guys right there. And if you can then couple those three with Matthew boy, just repeating last year and having Tyrone just repeat last year. Those are five guys. And then steel comes back. And then you have call and array waiting as depth or hobby aside, waiting as depth. Like this is why I start dreaming big. And I understand that's a rosy scenario. And one that's not likely to happen. You have to bet on health. But you have so many ways that starting pitching staff cannot just succeed, but frankly be one of the most productive groups in the league. Yeah. And I see our guy Edward in the chat. Is this like a

47:52six rehab start assignment in Iowa for steel? Excited to have him, but no rush. I'm not sure. I think your last point is the key one. There's no rush. Like they're going to let him get in a groove, feel good, check out fully before they decide to unleash that. So and that's, you know, again, the luxury of the depth that they built, you know, is that you don't feel like you are scrambling to find guys who are, you know, even loosely capable of fielding these starts or that, you know, you're leaving wins on the table, you know, potentially like you feel pretty good about the depth you have. So they'll take it easy with just and obviously they want him out there. When they feel like he's ready, they're going to want his ace like capabilities out there, you know, as soon as they can. But they're afforded, I think, especially early going in the season, the opportunity to take their time like when he feels good and when they when everybody involved is like, yeah, unleash it. We're good to go. Brendan, I was going to ask you, you know, we were talking about

48:54some of these ceiling things. What would you put the odds? Okay, we're in the playoffs. The Cubs are winning a series just like they did against San Diego. Complete game. I'm thrown out there. So Justin seal is on the mound. He's pitching to Moises by Astero's. Okay. And the last out is caught in right field by matcha. Wow. Now you talk about ceiling. That is the that is the very tip top ceiling. I got to get my ladder to even get to that point. Yeah. I'm here for it though. So like around 50%. I would say like 70% for sure. Yeah. That was another one. Um, it's zero percent for several reasons, but I did enjoy like they kept asking Craig council in the scrum. I think yesterday, like they kept asking him about, uh, by Astero's being successful on the ABS challenges. And like he was as close to saying I do not give as he could possibly get without being

49:58like undiplomatic. You know, you kind of have a little crack council attitude to yourself. Do you realize that about yourself? I'll take that. What's the word? I like to think of myself as like in another life I could have been manager of the year. Well, you had success as a manager. Did you say? Um, no, I did quite enjoy that. Okay. You know, did you see like what do you think about him? He's like, I don't care about the strike zone challenges. Like we're not, he said at one point, we're not going to be grading our pitch, our catchers on how successful they are with these challenges. It's not something we're getting me paying attention to. Yeah. I just love that. Like they're trying to get these quotes out of him. He's like, I don't care. You guys do whatever you want. Challenge it though. I don't care. I want to know like what point in the time they they interview. If it's like a morning thing and he's trying to get his day going and he's anxious or his half would have worked out to the game. I think I didn't look, but I think it was, you know, straight after the game. Yeah. So he's probably been up since like six in the morning. Let's go home. Yeah. They're, they're taking grounders early in the morning. He's out of there. Yeah. He's got the sunshine in his face for eight hours. Yeah. He's done.

51:02Well, and he's probably thinking half the same thing we are. He's like, I don't, these results don't mean anything to me. Right. Like the guys look fine. Some of them don't and we're talking to them about it. But yeah. Um, it is interesting. I mean, to your point earlier, like I don't have big expectations for it. And Craig was even talking like there's a good bit of work to go, but it is fun to see them like in addition to show up playing the outfield playing all over the place, like by a stereo, it's even getting an opportunity. Oh, absolutely. It is fun because that's kind of what you were saying. There's so many consistent stable, like kind of stuck in their position guys on this team, which is a good thing. But it also gives you the opportunity, like, hey, yeah, like let's see what these guys can do. They have an opportunity. It was also we talked about it last week, I think, too. Like, you know, you have a group of, a few guys who have had success at the MLB level, you know, competing for these outfield spots. So that's the other side of it. Some parts of this roster, you know, might seem like boring story line wise, like narrative wise that going into the year. But some of the other stuff is

52:05pretty fun. Absolutely. I think even the outfield competitions fun too. I'm dialed in on Dylan Carlson and jazz McCormick and Justin Dean and Conforto now, right? Like, I want to see how they do. Dylan Carlson, if you're interested, nine hits and 18 played appearances going into Thursday's game, McCormick, I think it was bad, you like, 260 and 25 played appearances, whatever it is. McCormick played a little bit of left field. So those are two guys who are having some success. We'll see some decisions made within the next three weeks. We'll see what happens to 40 man and on Justin Steele's point. Some folks are wondering, well, is he going to be put on the 60 day? And for those who don't know, the 60 days in Portland, because then you have 40 men flexibility. And they may just wait all the way up until the next three weeks to make that decision. And maybe they do field more outfielders than you and I think, similar to what they did with Vidal Bruhung last year, when I was shocked, he made the team because they were able to be

53:07flexible with the 40 man. He said in that interview, we're going to have four bench guys. That's what he said. So I don't know. You don't have to hold them to it. But yeah, and he sort of echoed what, you know, on that outfield competition, kind of what we said a week or two ago, where he just said, like, we have some really solid options there and we'll probably take it down at most teams do, but certainly the Cubs always wait until always. Usually we're not even getting the news at the deadline. It's a deadline for half these things. But yeah, they're going to wait as long as they can. They're going to get as much information as they can. There is, you know, other stuff to consider. There are certain escalators, you know, like in Dylan, excuse me, Carlson's contract. Some of the guys have options. Some don't. They would have to be released or put through waivers. So that plays a role. I mean, depending on how stark the difference is and you're feeling on which guys maybe would be best served to break camp with the team. But I like the group they have. I like the options they have. It's, you know, it's certainly intriguing. It doesn't always work. We've

54:09seen that plenty, but it's nice to have a crop of guys who have had that success. And, you know, you'd only be asking them to take a limited role. And maybe they can rekindle some of that past success. One last trend before we sign off here in the next eight minutes. I was interested in peak forearm strong first few games, specifically the first game. If you're watching, you look different. And he almost resembled what he looked like in 2024. The batting stance and the leg stride. If you're watching these games once a week, maybe once every 10 days, I'm not sure if the TV schedule is anymore. But look out at how Pete takes his at that. And specifically, you're looking for a hover on the toe on the front stride or you're looking for a toe tap. Okay. Thank you. Chloe, if you're putting this up here, Chloe, our wonderful producer. So in the first game on the left,

55:10you can see, you can see what these still images. Pete's more on the backside. The front leg is more stiff. What we're not showing here is the actual video, but that front foot becomes a hover on the right. This is the last game for the world baseball classic. He used more of a toe tap. This is what he used most of last season when he has success. You can see he's a little bit more tighter. The hands are closer to the neck, a little bit more crouch. He's actually like about to get out of his toe tap in this situation. So as these games progress, I'm wondering why he immediately scrapped that first game change. I'm like thinking to myself, oh, this is going to be a spring long experiment. And after one game, Pete's like, uh-uh, I'm done. And it points to Pete's consistent desire to improve and the fast adjustments. One game, he scrapped it, at least from

56:11what I can tell with the videos, one game. And so it just represents to me this potential for the Cubs to really adapt fast, evolve fast to the point where the ceilings you and I discuss become more realistic. I like to, you know, think in an alternate version that he tried the, you know, he tried that in the first in the first game and he looks over into the dugout and there's Breggman. No, knock it off. I don't like it. Dude, I would love to be a fly in the wall for those two. I'm sure like Breggman's nuggets and all the different hitting philosophies is absolutely going to wear off on Pete. How can it not? Well, and look, I mean, you know, he's had a couple of good like going from someone that we talked, you know, we talked about last year and Justin Turner, who was non-tender, you know, discarded and, you know, sort of joins that launch angle revolution. We're really one of the like premier guys in that regard. And now to Alex Breggman, different hitters, different careers, but in terms of I think the advice

57:17you would want young Pete to be getting, it's hard to think of a better couple guys and just perspectives in where their careers have gone, you know, Breggman Toppick, constantly successful winning early in his career, you know, and a guy like Turner, who had a different journey, but ultimately ends up in, you know, a high place. So, look, Pete is certainly, I think the most interesting thing about this team, his potential is. That's what really gets me excited about this roster, because that is the extreme that puts them in 95 plus win territory. And of course, you have to have that, that starting pitch and stabilize absolutely. But having Pete become a seven plus war player, I mean, he was on pace at one point last year for over nine wins at the end of June. And we are just floored with that possibility. It doesn't seem that far fetch. And I

58:21understand how crazy that sounds. It doesn't seem far fetching can be like a seven eight nine win guy. I totally understand that it's crazy to think about, but the defense is so good. The 30 plus home run pop, he already accomplished the base run is naturally going to improve with more exposure. And I think just the athleticism, I think his ability to adjust fast, it makes me think that the ceiling is more achievable. And if not, you know, nine wins, absolutely a couple seasons of seven wins is on the table of no doubt. Sign me up for that. Well, and what we really need to, you know, that gets started, I think in earnest, potentially tomorrow, we need like the year long other fan bases hate to do. And that's just how it's going to be. We need to start the year long PCA in your face tour. It starts with the United States winning the World Baseball Classic led by Pete Crow Armstrong, similar to Havi in 2017. Sure. Where he is doing crazy stuff. He's the focal point

59:28of what is going on because he's doing crazy stuff. The hair is bleached, he's pointing fingers, robbing home runs. I want him hitting home runs, drawing maybe with people just he's the face of this. You love a good deal and story. Yeah, leads straight into the Cubs. They win the division. PCA puts it together like you're laying out. He's a nine win player. He wins the MVP. They win the World Series. Everybody that gets upset about as the brewers manager once referred to him as the kid with the blue hair. Well, the kid with the blue hair rules the world. That's that's the fantasy for this for this season, I think. You got a lot of fantasies that we're talking voices by Starrows, catching Justin steel. The Pete thing I think can really happen. I don't I you know, you never know. People tune in for the first time. They don't understand our sarcasm. I'm not expecting Moises by Astarrows to be catching playoff games. Okay. Thank you. Thank you

1:00:28for that clarifier. But you are expecting Pete to have blue hair and put up nine wins this year. Right. I don't know. I don't know if he brings the hair back. I don't really know, you know, how that all works, but I am very excited for him. I think, you know, as we talked about he's got a good like, you know, I some people don't like, you know, when he gets frustrated and throws the bat, whatever like who cares. When you listen to him, he sounds like a dude that understands like the potential that he has and like where he has it, where he is at this moment in his life and his career and like that desire to get there. And it doesn't always work, but there are a lot of young talented players that have some of this raw skills that he have that do not have that hit on their shoulders. And I think it's a lot harder to envision them getting there. We have like 50 seconds left. You may have to do the overtime thing when I say this. Spring training, C-A-She-O is in Arizona right now. So if you want to go meet up with all the folks

1:01:29as C-A-She-O, look at these guys. Wow. Look at them and beautiful sunny Arizona. Look at Bragg's having the time of his life. All these bears moves going on and he's at beautiful Sloan Park. We're going to be at pour over. I believe it's, I'm forgetting the name. We've got to put this stuff. I'm terrible with the names. But go to my Twitter app run underscore cubs or at C-A-She-O-Cubs. You can see all of us tomorrow. I'm going to be there for a Q&A happy hour from 7 to 10 p.m. I'll be joined by fellow C-A-She-O employee Lance Briggs, former athlete just like myself. We're going to call it my colleague Lance Briggs. That's right. It's going to be a fun time. And then you can buy the first overtime of all time, Corey. Go check it out. It's going to be a great time. It's perfect weather if you're in Arizona just coming out. That's it. Quick overtime here.

1:02:29But yeah, for all of our folks in the chat, I see the news that Tremade Endman's was released by the Chicago Bears. Wrong show, but our CHGO Bears crew is the best in the business. They will have you covered on that DJ Moore trade. You can always tune into the CHGO Bears crew. Knowing Briggs will take a break literally in between being at the Cubs game and getting to the Bears stuff. So you can always rely on those guys to cover that stuff in as great a detail as anybody else in the city. Brennan and I will be back with you next week. If you have the pleasure of being in Arizona this weekend and get to meet Dr. Brendan Miller. I mean, what a thrill. That would be for you. Sorry, I can't be there. But yeah, Brennan and I will be back with you next week talking all. No one invited you by the way. That's yes, we'll run with that. But just a couple weeks until opening day,

1:03:32the CHGO Cubs crew will have you covered all the way there. As always, any breaking news will happen with an emergency show. Otherwise, don't forget to tune into Luke, Joey, and Justin throughout the week. If you're in Mesa, enjoy the trip. Brennan and I will talk to you again next Thursday. And as always, go Cubs. Water usually wins. It rots wood and terrors docks apart. Unless you build with trecks, trecks marine grade decking is 100% submersible, built to resist rod and salt and fresh water. Water has met its match. Trecks decking. Visit trecks.com slash docks. You're juggling a lot, but you can still squeeze in a financial plan. With the Northwestern Mutual Financial Advisor as your partner, it's not only possible, it's personalized. So if you're tying the knot, closing on a house or welcoming a little one, you'll be ready for whatever life tosses your way.

1:04:33It's the right time to feel less stressed and more certain. That's a better way to money. Let's get started at nm.com. The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Exfinity Tech Support. How can I help? I can't get Jurassic Park back online without you. Oh, you just need Exfinity. Plug in your gateway and you're good. All set. Luckily, Exfinity has reliable, self-healing Wi-Fi that keeps you safe from threats. Wow. You can even boost speeds to your most important devices. Get reliable Wi-Fi at one price for five years, guaranteed. Exfinity. Imagine that. Watch Jurassic Park with Exfinity. Restrictions apply, select plans only.