Cubs guide to the World Baseball Classic

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1:00do you want to find a stress-free way to buy your next car? Start at CarMax and shop your way. If you want to browse with confidence, get pre-qualified online with no impact on your credit score and shop cars within your budget. For luxury cars, the family rides. CarMax has options for almost every price range, including more than 25,000 cars priced under $25,000. So, hey, want to get started? Just head to CarMax.com for details and get pre-qualified today. Wanna drive? CarMax. Welcome into Northside Territory Filed Territory Network's Cubs podcast. I'm Zadev Sharmer with my partner, Patrick Mooney. We are your Cubs beatwriters over at the athletic Patrick. We are going to talk about three WBC members on the Cubs on Team USA. This is, we were talking about before we recorded,

2:02considered somewhere talking about this team is like one of the best collection of talents, USA talents we've seen on a baseball field. Obviously an impressive group. Two of the Cubs are stars already. One is a little quieter, but still earned his spot on the roster in Matthew Boyd, the PCA and Alex Breggman. Obviously big names. Breggman, the big signing of the off season. Before we get to this, wanna talk about Fox One. All of our world baseball classic coverage is brought to you by our friends at Fox One. Sorry about that. All of our coverage is brought to you by our friends at Fox One, which is live. Stream all your Fox favorites together in one place, including all WBC games over the next few weeks. And after that, the best MLB action, all season long. From the WBC through the World Series to the World Cup to NASCAR and IndyCar

3:03with Fox One, you get it all live. Start with your seven day free trial today, offers our subject to change, download Fox One today and stream the world baseball classic live. March six to 14th, go to Fox One.com for complete terms and conditions. Fox One streaming now. You can go watch the team USA starting this Friday on Fox One, they play Brazil. Game against Great Britain on Saturday and then Monday and Tuesday, team Mexico and Italy, I saw a team Italy today take on the Cubs. It was a solid group of talent, I gotta say. Like that's not like a weak group of talent. Like there's a lot of talent on team Italy. I think their only weakness is probably their pitching. You can probably say that about a lot of the WBC teams, but I like we talked to Vinnie Pascotino

4:04and he was talking about all the young players. There's a lot of young players, Jack Caglianone, the White Sox prospect Sam and Tnachi. I'll learn his name when he's good. Kyle Teal on that team too. Kyle Teal, another White Sox player. There's a few guys, our old buddy, Miles, Master Roni was there, John Birdy, but like some legit talent, some talent and good defense. Like I was surprised at how talented that team looks. But back to the Cubs, Alex Bergman left for, he didn't leave the Arizona just yet. He was out in Scottsdale playing San Francisco. I think today our buddy Jesse Rogers was out there, but he will leave for Houston, I believe soon. I can't keep track of where they go. Like they go, but like various places.

5:04I think they're leaving for Houston soon. And he is, you know, one of the faces of Team USA, he homered again today. I think he homered in his final Cubs spring training game and then homered in one of these warm up games against San Francisco. Just a huge addition to the Cubs and just feels like, I know we said this as being around camp, I think you got the feeling, I get the feeling, like there's a different feeling right now. There's a different vibe, they were hopeful last year, but there was a nervous energy. I think because of the fact that if they didn't win, it felt like if they didn't make the playoffs, it felt like they were going to be consequences. This year there's said it's a more relaxed nature and I'd say a very confident group of players that believe, you know, they can do something special

6:04and I think a huge piece of that is Alex Bergman. Yeah, I think it's a sign of where the Cubs are. I mean, going back to 2023, I don't think they had anyone on Team USA and this is like probably a better version and he's one of the leaders of that team and he spoke the other day in Mesa and I believe he's been on Team USA like five times before and I think they've won gold every time, except for, I think he's on a collegiate national team with Danzby Swanson and that was more like playing exhibitions and not quite the same level of international competition he described those as friendlies in any event. You're exactly right of, you know, just, he loomed over that camp last year. I think you rolled in right after he signed with the Red Sox but I had the like 10 days of Breggman Watch

7:04it felt like it might have been a little more or a little less but they wanted him bad and they means people in uniform, people in khakis and polos like this was the guy. He was the finishing piece and when they didn't land him it's stung and it did create this vibe at the beginning of camp obviously they overcame it and preparing for Japan was a totally different thing as well but now going back to Mesa, you know, this was one of my big takeaways is kind of the story I filed on the plane flying from Phoenix to a hair just like, you know, what a difference a year makes. You know, it was Jed Hoyer in his front office on the hot seat. It was, there was a lot of skepticism or a fair amount of skepticism I think, you know, from fans and, you know, media types of, where's the Craig council magic?

8:04What's the difference, you know, and certainly didn't, the Brewers have not slowed down since he left but you saw his imprint on the team last year and I think it's just like, this group showed it's good enough and that was, we'll get into p-curorm strong kind of the next segment but the development that you need to see it happened and it, it didn't happen all at once but the body of work was very solid to the point where Breggman wanted to come here and I think you see how his personality really matches up with this group, he's focused, he's serious, he's driven, he loves just talking ball and that's kind of what this group is about. I think the transition has been pretty seamless in that regard like he lives pretty close to the Cubs Complex there in Mesa. You see with Team USA, like it's a very small world

9:08for these elite American-born baseball players. They see each other over and over again, whether it stands be playing with Breggman. I believe Michael Conforto was part of that group at one point to just kind of, you can see the chemistry of this team and how it's going to work and I think we can say that now because they won 90 plus games last year. If they had 178 and we're saying, oh, the vibes are great, people will be rolling their eyes. I mean, this is not, he's not here to be John Lester and kind of pick up a last place team by the collar and like drag them towards the playoffs. Like it was, you know, this group of position players needed that one piece. They're one elite position player away as one Cubs first and told me the other day. Like this has always been the guy and to have him here,

10:08everything just looks a lot more complete. And, you know, I'm sure you've had this experience as part of our job in spring training, is just walking the grounds back and forth from one field to the other and seeing who you bump into. And, or in the clubhouse, you know, players have more time and, you know, kind of when the record is rough, you can sort of, you know, pick their brains a little bit. And I think with Breggman there, you just get the sense of, you know, whether it's kind of like, look, our team's pretty good or like, you know, they think they think they can compete with the Dodgers. I think they're going to be, they expect to be. I mean, we talked about Justin Steele last episode. I've been talking about games in October and November. Like, there's just a lot more credibility there when they talk like that and sort of think through how this season might unfold. Yeah, you know, I think some fans struggle with that. There are some fans that don't see it, I guess. Don't see like, how is this team better?

11:12They lost Tucker and brought in a player that's, you know, offensively, maybe not as impactful. I think the full package, he could be a little bit more impactful and then you improved in other areas. And it's just young. There's a lot of youth on this team and I think they're going to take a little bit of a step forward and compete against the best of the best. And right now, that's very clearly the Dodgers. We'll see, we'll see how far that goes. That's a, there's a long way to go before we really get to that point. But you're right that this group believes in themselves. Bregman is a big reason why him arriving. Texting privacy policy in terms of conditions posted at TextingTerms.us. Texting roles you for occurring on a media text marketing that's just message areas may apply or play stopped out is at ISSA online for details. Tired of the nine to five grind, looking for something different that's flexible, fulfilling and pays well, how do you like to get paid to work out? Now you can, with ISSA, the global leader in personal fitness certification.

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13:14or Google Play. That's KRA KEN. Not investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss and is offered to US customers excluding New York and Maine through Payward Interactive Incorporate. If you regal Disclosure's at Kraken.com, slash regal slash Disclosure's, terms and conditions apply. Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter? Right. And the best part, they accept Discover. Accept Discover. In a little place like this, I don't think so, Jennifer. Oh yeah, huh. Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby, get with the times. Right, so we shouldn't get the parachute pants. These are making a comeback. I think. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen Report. I think Pete Khrom's strong as another huge reason why. And you talk about being on Team USA forever. I think it was USA baseball. I'm not sure who put out the picture. That was awesome. From age 12 up, it's Pete Khrom's strong pictures

14:15of Pete in Team USA gear. I got to say that age 12 photo cracked me up. But any 12-year-old kid like him is going to look a little goofy, I guess. Don't need to look at old pictures of myself, that's for sure. But it's kind of remarkable. Someone once told me they're like, hey, come down about a choir, Pete Khrom's strong. This is not some like revel. They didn't unearth some prospect. This guy's been on everybody's radar since he was a preteen. Like this guy was getting like, he was annoyed by the hype. They pulled some like rabbit out of a hat by trading, have your eyes. And it's like, no, that was a mistake by the Mets. Like, don't give up this future star. So he's always been on the radar. He's always been a big name.

15:17And obviously, we want to see what the season holds. Consistency is probably the biggest thing for him. How he attains that, we'll see. If he can get it, there are a lot of little things he can improve upon. And some big things, of course, too, offensively. But just to, like, if he is good to great, you feel really good about where the Cubs are at. Because there's a lot of players that you kind of know what you're going to get, or feel like you know what you're going to get. With him, it's like first half, second half, which player is he? And then what player can he be? Yeah, I talked to Pete the other day. The athletic, we're kind of working on a story. It's kind of a bunch of different team USA players. I'm not sure where we're actually at on that.

16:18But part of it was this idea of how players were texting each other after watching the men's gold medal ice hot game victory. And just how this feeling of like we're next, let's go get it. And Pete felt like those communications sort of help build bonds and maybe fast forward a little bit because it's such a heightened accelerated environment. And he just rattled off like five or six players, who either like I played with before on Team USA, or like Gunnar Henderson. And I think Bobby with, I was going to say I bet Bobby with. And just how he met Logan Webb at some sort of gold glove event. And he's met Roman Anthony and talked with him. And he said that's been one of the best parts of being a part of the USA baseball for this long.

17:20He's made lots of meaningful connections and relationships. And fascinating to see how much he plays, how well he plays. I think we all remember what Javi Baez did in the 2017 WBC was coming off just that unbelievable performance in the World Series. And it felt like just a continuation of that of the tag plays, the slides, the Javi being Javi stuff was going viral again. And I think if you're the Cubs, you probably hate having your pitchers in it, but I think you want Pete in something like this. And again, what a difference from the last time this event was staged until now, we'll see if Pete is the primary centerfielder, I think Bucston is the other one. I believe Corbin Carroll is injured or not available.

18:22But look, if you have your team as the starting third basement and main centerfielder for maybe the best team USA ever assembled in baseball competition, you're in pretty good shape. And it was noticeable when the Cubs were not even really in those conversations, much less placing core players onto the field. Yeah, no, it does feel like it's a big deal. It feels like it matters. I, as someone with a team like travel baseball and all that stuff can be a little overwhelming and a little nutty, and we know all the negatives about AU and travel and all that stuff. But I will say some of this stuff is kind of cool that Pete has known some of these guys forever, because they're on the elite travel circuits and things like that. And they just know each other and they grow up and compete

19:22against each other. And now they're at the highest level. They get to play at this event together and then compete in the big leagues against each other. It's, it feels kind of cool. And like hearing their stories and hearing the background of it all, certainly fun moments. I don't, I don't think a year ago at this time, many of us would have predicted Matthew Boyd being there. Like Pete is a pretty quick rise. He's, this is an impressive rise for him. But Matthew Boyd I think is probably one of the bigger surprises as far as a guy that, you know, I think the Cubs were criticized for going cheap to sign a guy and betting on upside. And look, I think that criticism probably came from both you and me and like it was probably, it was fair in context, but also the kind of head home run. You need guys like this. You need to find guys that you feel are undervalued,

20:23bring them in and maximize the talent or hope their best years are ahead of them. I will never forget talking to Matthew Boyd last spring and how confident he was that he was on the verge of a special season. You know, it was said, if not probably for the end of that season, you know, there were some hiccups at the end, but it was like he did not have very down, very many down moments outside of, you know, starting on short rest and a rough outing against the brewers. I think it was a, you know, a highlight real type season for Matthew Boyd and now it's paid off. And you know, like Paul Schienz and Tarek Schooble are the headliners, but Matthew Boyd is, you know, he's no slouch. Yeah, it's, I got to look up the exact dates, but you know, he was, I may have been ranked like number two in the R.A. at some point in August.

21:24Like he was a legit siding award contender. I think everyone was kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop a little bit. So I probably wasn't as much hype. And I'm sure it was a little annoying to Matt after a while to keep getting the questions of like, are you hitting a wall? I think it's more just mentally, I think he felt it of kind of, you know, someone who really carried the team and to his credit really got a stuff together for the post season. I mean, just kind of set aside that one outing Milwaukee when, you know, the defense that propped him up all year and had a had a bad inning and pitching on short rest. But otherwise really, you know, delivered in the playoffs and, you know, we'll see. I don't have a hard time thinking everything goes as smoothly as it did last year, but I think it comes or way better equipped to manage some of that and goes back to what we've talked about earlier

22:25on this show of, you can kind of go up and down the rotation and kind of circle the question marks that are, you know, fairly obvious. But, you know, void, just kind of right pitcher, right time of just who's really thoughtful player, just like absurdly nice. I think everyone who comes in contact with him, but also a great competitor who wants the ball, wants to win. And I think, you know, you mentioned some of those, you know, ACEs who are in the tournament, but sort of on restrictions or kind of, you know, tapping in and out fairly quickly, you know, when I ask, boy, like if this guy gets one start, you know, if this guy gets two, where does that leave you? And it sounded like, you know, they're in communication,

23:25you know, Andy Pettit marked a rose on Team USA and Craig Council and taught me how to view on the other side of like, I think he made it sound like, he's just going to keep stretching out and building up for opening day with Team USA and like see how far that goes. And I'm sure Cup's officials will be holding their breath every time he throws a pitch in the WBC. Yeah, you said it before, but like, you know, you don't worry as much with the position players. They need their playing time. If they're ready to play nine innings, go play nine innings, but you do hold your breath. You do get a little stressed by the pitchers. I, you know, they got a pitch. They got to get built up. They got to go out there. I think the one thing you can say is like, well, he's not going max effort. If it's a spring training game and he's going to be the competitive juices are going to be flowing. So I understand any concerns.

24:26These guys like to compete. These guys like like these things. They like representing their country. It means a lot to them. So I understand it. I totally get the concerns. I'm in general. This Cup's pitching staff with Matthew Boyd. I think you look at it and you're like, man, if this goes, if these guys have good seasons, there, there's some guys like we know what their best is now. All of them, every single one. That's a really strong, not one through five, but one through six. And then you start wondering about others and you hope that there's more beyond that. It's a deep group, a talented group, and it's a ton of potential. Boyd is right there. If not at the front, near it. Potential, we were talking about this in the press box. I don't know if he's an opening day starter. Craig Council is not going to tell us just yet. He likes to hold his cards close to the best on that one.

25:26But I think he's in the discussion for it. So, you know, great honor for him. I'm happy that he gets to go out there and pitch for his country and we'll see what type of season he has. You hope it has no negative impact. And really, we won't know if he does have a poor season, if it had anything to do with it, but just saying, you know, let's hope it's a building block to a strong season rather than anything else. All right, that's it for Northside Territory tonight. Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel and subscribe to the Athletic. We're Patrick and I on top of all things, Cubs. We'll be back at it next week with more from Cubs Camp and more on the Cubs. And more WBC talk, hopefully. We will talk to you all soon. Thanks for listening, everyone. Take care.

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