Projecting the OPENING DAY ROSTER for the Chicago Cubs

0:00We update all the latest roster battles as we project the opening day roster. Go Cubs. You are locked on Cubs. Your daily Chicago Cubs podcasts, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. You are locked on Cubs part of the locked on podcast network. Now the number one sports podcast network. We are your team every day. I'm Matt cozy. I'm a lifelong fan taking my passion into a discussion with you on all things Cubs. This episode is brought to you by MLB the show 26 visit MLB the show.com slash locked on and use code locked on to unlock a pack for use in diamond dynasty pre order now available March 17th on PlayStation five Xbox and Nintendo switch rated E for everyone. And with me today is one of my best friends in the whole wide world.

1:01He was a group. It's been in my wedding. Please welcome Matt polite is Matt. Matt really appreciate you having me on excited. Then we finally get it in an opportunity to do this. We'll see what kind of report card I get from Sam after the episode. So yes, we will wait for. Yeah, we all wait for that grade to come in at some point on. Tuesday and I didn't tell anybody that that besides my wife Kira that you were the guest co host. So I could see several people being really surprised Sam. My dad, I don't know if you told your mom yet, Matt. Okay, okay, today's show we're going to get in a little bit. We'll reminisce later. Matt is my first show partner ever. We did a cub show in middle school as far as I know we were the first Cubs podcast,

2:02even though we were putting the show on a CD. We also interviewed Juan Pierre, but interview is in quotes. So we'll get to all that later. There's a lot going on with the Cubs right now as we are only 23 days until opening days. We are publishing here on Tuesday, March 3rd. And we're going to go through position group by position group to project. Who are the 26th going to be to open with the Cubs? I really feel against the nationals on the 26th of this month. First, Matt, your first impressions of spring training and just the overall roster after they really had a nice off season following their first playoff appearance in a while. Yeah, I think the really, I don't think are a whole lot of spots that are kind of up for grabs right now on the roster. I think things are fairly stable aside from a few spots.

3:05I think they made some key acquisitions obviously where they needed to. But look into the season with some of those entirely improvements that they did. And we're going to go position by position here on the show. This will take us most of the time, Matt. And I wanted to start with the outfield DH group. This is a group that's clearly well solidified with HAP, PCA and SEA. But then you have three newcomers after them. And we'll get to those by Astero's Conforto and Carlson is what I'm projecting. But what is your current feeling on, you know, you have happened, SEA entering their final possible final years as Cubs and then Pete, the rising star. Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely expecting and hoping for PCA to pick up where he left off last year and build on last year.

4:06Really exciting season, especially the first half. Obviously a little bit of a, you know, kind of a tail off there towards a second half. But one of the most exciting players in baseball right now, fan favorite, sounds like he's really enjoying being a cub. So I hope to, I hope we see another great season for him or at least, he's able to extend some of that production throughout the entirety of the season instead of, you know, just the first, the first few months. Yeah, yeah, I hope so. And about a week ago, the Cubside Michael Conforto, who was a former minor league teammates with another one of my groups, been Matt Knows, Kevin Kazmarski. That's right. I didn't even know you'd speak about that. I saw Kaz the other day and he was, he was pretty jacked up that, that Conforto's now on the Cubs. I had Conforto in the last spot after he got signed, even before playing a spring game.

5:07And then last week, Matt Tyler Austin got hurt. And so now there's really two open spots. And so before we break down the infield, let's stay with this outfield group, because I have now Conforto and Carlson making the team. A couple of reasons for that. One, I just like the established veteran resume for Conforto. I think he has the leg up here regardless. And Dylan Carlson, so far in spring, the one time hot prospect with the Cardinals to play a little bit with the Rays, the Orioles. He is seven for 13 with five walks this spring. I want to ask you about a bump by Astero's later too. But I guess your thoughts on this last spot, the Conforto's signing, and maybe the really the last roster battle, which seems to be in the outfield. What do you think? So it's interesting, before the show, I did kind of my own research and laid out what I thought my 26 would be.

6:14But they would start the season with, and positionally, we align exactly. I really like the Conforto signing. Actually, I tweeted, or I don't even know what you call it anymore, but yeah, social media posted. I posted, I would say the social media, formally known as Twitter. I sent a post to Sam and said, well, if they're signing Conforto, we could expect a Brian Roberts signing any day now, and unfortunately they respond. Before it seemed to be one of those guys that was always kind of loosely associated with the Cubs. And I do think despite having a very down year last year, as well as the year before, wasn't so great either, I could definitely see him returning to form this year and being a really good lefty bat for the Cubs. Likewise, as far as Dylan Carlson, he's had a couple down seasons, but if you look back to 2021, I look this up, he had a war over three. So we could see some kind of return to form there, a good switch hitting bat

7:16in the outfield, he could play all three spots. I think I could really give the Cubs a big boost, give him some good depth in the outfield. Likewise, as far as Conforto goes, and I didn't listen to your show with Joe the other day, where he mentioned the possibility that Conforto could maybe play first base on occasion. I think that's another really good idea between him and possibly Mowballer, spelling bush at first a couple times. I really like the tandem of Conforto and Carlson rounding out the outfield there. Well, yeah, that's well said. And I appreciate you showing up more than prepared, which isn't a surprise to me in the slightest, of course. And funny anecdote about tweening that Sam and he didn't respond. Yeah, the Tyler Austin injury to me was unfortunate, but I think here out of the gate they're going to be okay. The one thing I would say about Conforto possibly playing first is like,

8:19they should do that this week then, like in a real game. I mean, there's of course all the work they could be doing off to the side, and I'm sure they are if they're trying to test drive it. But I wouldn't even wait around. Like, I know there's more than three weeks to the year, and Bush is more, more than the first baseman every day. You know, it hopefully will be for many, many years for this franchise. But yeah, try these things out. You know, I wouldn't mess around too much. And we'll see if Bias Starros maybe gets a shot over there too. But, Matt, I really think, especially if the National Star to Right Hand or of course, but I think Mo Baller's the opening day D.H. How about you? I'm definitely with you there. Obviously, the sample size last year was fairly small. But I think there's a lot of promise there. I'm glad that he kind of got his, whatever the issues were, as far as actually getting the spring training sorted out. I saw that he was in the line of again today.

9:20Had a really nice knock. The opposite way to let feel against the reds, I believe it was. So really, really hoping for him to kind of lock down that D.H. spot, especially versus Rides. Not quite sure what the options might be versus lefties. You may see Sean that spot. But I definitely think Mo Baller's going to get the nod for the time being. And we'll see what he can do there. We continue to project the opening day roster. Next. I am absolutely thrilled to be talking about our sponsor. MLB, the show 26, the greatest gaming baseball is back with its newest installment. Baseball fans are going to have a hard time pulling themselves away from the game. How exciting is it going to be to play franchise mode as the Cubs? All the Cubs players, and you can be at the helm. You can be the manager of that team and all these great in-game features

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12:28or tap the link in this episode description. We're opening, projecting the opening day roster, and there is a lot of gold in the infield Matt, Breggman, Swatson, Horner, Bush, and Shaw. Shaw's still in the infield category, really just for convenience of the graphic I made to spread out the names, but it's pretty wild as we start with him and just more of the battle, playing time stuff. Shaw was a literal finalist for the Gold Glove III, and now he's going to play right field for most of the year, I think. Yeah, it's interesting. Obviously, the glove is there. It's been there. It's the biggest part of his game, the bat, I think was always a kind of a question mark for me, was not super high on him from the hitting side of things. Towards the second half of the last year, he was one of the only guys on the team that was hot for a while,

13:29so that was huge for them. But it's not every day that he gets a replace, essentially, Gold Glove III basement, with another Gold Glove III basement, and the defense all the way around in the infield is obviously a strong suit of this roster. Yeah, it really is. And I'm excited to have Bush start against lefties. Speaking of that, I do think Shaw will get a good amount of opportunity, either a DH or right field against lefties, as you mentioned earlier. I really hope they could line up Horner with Swanson and Breggman for the next few years. Horner is at the top of my list to get an extension, and most of that is urgency I'll admit. I think Pete's a great candidate, yeah, but he's under team control through 2030. I just feel like when I think about and my best friend,

14:33Matt Politis, grooms in my wedding is joining me today. I even think about us growing up, and you're still playing baseball, which is amazing. I just feel like Nico Horner is your player. Yeah, he's definitely a dying green, kind of a high contact guy, looks to put the ball in play, that kind of type of offense is really not something that's valued kind of as much in the modern day game. They were just countless times last year where the Cubs needed a solid single the other way, and he shot one through the fourth free hole. You're absolutely right. I would love to see the Cubs assign him to an extension. Not just the hitting obviously, but the defense has been huge, and there definitely is more of a sense of urgency there with him reaching free agency sooner, and someone like BCA, a couple years away, still under team control.

15:34That would be great. Obviously, there were all those kind of trade rumors that were playing out throughout the off season. I personally never, never really saw those as being too real. I think the Cubs would have been absolutely blown away, that maybe they would have considered it, but I mean, he's kind of a cornerstone piece right now, and I got to think the Cubs are looking for a way to lock him up for longer time. And finally, to round out the position player group, 13 of them, is the catching duo of Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya. Them, along with Reese McWire, shot out to him, allowed the Cubs to have one of the best catching combos at all of baseball. I'm not really sure how else to to put that. And it was encouraging to see Miguel Amaya start to break out last year, and then getting hurt not once but twice. Glad that that he's back, that he's healthy. I think I will keep track of how he does in the WBC, just to make sure he's doing well, he's staying healthy.

16:37The Cubs pictures are in good hands with these two. For sure, I think Carson Kelly was a very pleasant surprise last year. The bat was a big surprise. I think he does a phenomenal job handling the pitching staff. You're right, Amaya was kind of starting to break out there, unfortunately ran into some injury trouble. So fingers crossed, he can stay healthy. Obviously, I think Reese McWire did a solid job filling in last year. But this Cubs catching tandem is very strong and hoping they can pick up kind of right wherever they left off last year. I think the bullpen is going to be a longer convo, so I'll budget more time for that. Let me jump to the rotation mat because I think that's been a place that has been where most of our real estate has landed. At least while we've had episodes or in spring training shoot, this rotation was basically the whole episode on Monday this week already.

17:42Right now I'm projecting Boyd Horton, Cabrera, Shota, and Tyone, who was awful again on Monday and Sam solo Wednesday and then we'll be together Thursday, Friday. I saved that for him and also Sam and I are together. But what is your impression of the rotation right now, including steel coming back in May or June? Yeah, I mean that'll just be huge. I know you guys were kind of alluding to this in yesterday's show. It would be great if they can take their time with them. I think if the Cubs get off on the right foot, start the year off strong and maybe eases some of the pressure on getting him back sooner and then they can take their time get him strong and healthy and have him in place for the stretch run. But obviously I think that's very contingent on, you know, in Imanaga return to maybe that

18:442024 type form. We've obviously heard that his VLO is up this spring, which is great. But then there was more of the home run ball issue the other day against the light stops. So what show it is going to show up at the beginning of the season, I guess we'll find out. Which starter would you peg right now for March 26 against the Nets? If you had your own pick, who would you select? I think you got to go in that void. I think he's earned that after the year he had last year. Hopefully he can pick up right where he left off. Obviously the acquisition of Cabrero was huge and important. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see him in the playoffs with some of those injury issues, but he finished the year extremely strong. I think really got smelled as far as the rookie of the year goes. So there's a lot of promise at the top end of that rotation. And then beyond that, I think you got a lot of guys that could offer some depth there if things

19:46don't go well for Imanaga or even potentially Tyrone. You know, you have Javier Assad waiting in the wings. Probably a start here there from Colin Ray. Ben Brown, who's someone, and I definitely agree with what Sam was saying. I think he needs to prove himself. If I've saw more than a couple strong starts in Iowa, maybe I feel good about bringing him back. I know he's at another pitch to his arsenal this spring. I think it's a sinker. So we'll see. I feel really good about where the Cubs rotation is at. I think they can hold things down until steel comes back. And that'll be great. We moved to the last group, the bullpen and also do some reminiscit next. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandool. College basketball is nonstop big games tight spreads, momentum swings every single night from early tip-offs to late night west coast shootouts. There's always action on the board. And now Fandool is giving you a way to turn that energy

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22:56right here. Colin Ray, right now I've projected in the bullpen. We'll see about Javier Assad and Ben Brown Mad as you mentioned last segment. And then there's, in fee include Ray, there's seven locks, Palencia, Mayton, Milner, Field Bar, Harvey, Web and Ray. That's for a combination of resume, experience and really a lot of these guys they sign just this off season. So that leaves one open spot. I believe a projection we did about a month ago. I had Porter Hodge. He's been terrible in spring. I think his roster spot is not only in jeopardy, but his 40 man spot is too, because they need to add Conforto and Carlson and whoever else. Right now I've Gavin Hollowell on the last spot. I will read you his info here. Three innings, two hits, one run, no walks, eight of the nine outs. He's recorded so far in spring. Have been strikeouts, feelings on the bullpen and potentially

23:57the last spot. Yeah, this is, this is really the only spot where we deferred as far as our 26 man goes. And I guess the other thing I'll add different deferred deferred. Looking across the entire cup's roster, I think there's kind of a tactical element and a strategic element. And what I mean by that is, I think there's a number of folks you'd love to have on the roster, but they have options available or others don't. So I think there were a couple cases of that, especially for me, kind of on the offensive side of things. As far as that last bullpen spot goes, I actually chose a sod over Hollowell. I don't know Hollowell's kind of background too much. I think a sod actually might have some options left, so maybe it makes more sense for him to start the year in AAA. And as a starter, and get, you know, those endings under his belt before potentially coming back up and sliding into the rotation as needed. So, so you know, it's kind of

25:02just what direction do the Cubs want to go? Do they want to start the year with maybe a six man type rotation? And maybe a sod is that six man? Maybe Ray is that six man? Sure. Or are they okay, kind of giving that spot up? You know, is someone like Hollowell keeping a sod down in AAA so we can, we can start along with like, you know, Brown? Well, and I've been, I've been open to Brown and short relief too, but I think him starting the year in Des Moines as a starter does make sense for the health of the organization. I have two more names. One is on the 40 man, one's a non-Roster guy, Jack Neely, five strikeouts and two winnings so far, Colin Snyder, zeros across with four strike outs and two winnings as well. The former Mariner, he's an NRI guy, and they'd have to add him to the 40 man, but we'll see what happens with that. All right, we feel good about the roster, makes sense. This team's projected in many places for 88 plus wins and, and, you know, as we

26:06inch closer to the year, you know, it gets more and more real with the day, each passing day. I seem to remember, I have good opening day memories. I seem to remember maybe one that we watched together, but, you know, usually the schools in session, do you have, like, not necessarily with me? Do you have an opening day memory, just in general, at all, of any other years as a Cubs fan? I guess not, not specifically. I mean, I can't say, you know, 2016, which by the way, I told this to people constantly about the Bears this past season. The Bears this past season kind of felt like the 2015 Cubs took a big leap forward, you know, despite the fact that the season ended, you know, early-ish in the playoffs, you left the season kind of feeling good and feel like they're going to build on it for next year.

27:07I just remember feeling in 2016, opening day, you know, after the Cubs obviously lost to the Mets, it's like, all right, they're going to, you know, we're expecting big things this year. So I remember when they started the year, actually in California, I guess the angels were right now. Obviously, you know, a couple of games into the season, when in Troy we have that unfortunate collision in Arizona. But I guess, I guess just that season kind of sticks out in my mind, obviously, for, you know, more reasons than one, just feeling, you know, really excited about the team right at the beginning of the year. Yeah, it's really pulled a pull. They were the best team. And they crushed them that night. And I want to say they crushed the Mets maybe on an opening day or the pirates or maybe they both in our childhoods. I could, I kind of like want something like that this year. But more importantly, I would like to just for them to take advantage of the first six games against two clearly inferior opponents. As middle schoolers, we did a show on the Cubs

28:17and all the baseball aptly called the Matt and Matt show. We did a bunch of shows. We put them on CDs. Basically, just our moms and dads listened, although I did play our one peer interview for most of my family on Christmas one year. And then I think we did like one show in high school. Then the first podcast I ever had six years ago, you were on. We kind of reminisced there as well. What do you remember about the Matt and Matt show? Because we were ahead of our time. I think I don't know if this will be on like the podcasting Wikipedia page. I think we invented podcasting. I'm not aware of anyone doing doing this kind of thing before we did. So I don't know, I just remember I have fond memories of that time. Two very big Cubs fans like ourselves just coming up with a way to express our fandom and the one peer interview in particular

29:25was very, very fun. And it took some very technically advanced techniques for the time. I mean, this is like Windows XP before all these fancy recording applications. We had to do some some interesting things to make all that that happened, which is pretty funny. And I actually I looked for the mic that we used to use and I couldn't find it. I think it's on my parents' house. I wanted to hold it up right now and show you, but I don't have a way to make it. Well, I could visualize it right now. It was like a stick mic, right? It was like a little little stick, yeah. It was narrow and it got the job done. And yeah, the one one peer interview must have been on Cubs.com or something. And we were able to with the, you know, feeder of the mind able to frame our questions and then feed his answers to the local media. I don't I decided for time's sake. I didn't I don't have that audio. I do have this short clip. Hello, and welcome back to another edition of the Matt and Matt show. I'm Matthew Pilates here with my partner, Matt Cosie. And it's been a long time, Matt, since we've last done a show. What do you

30:26have to say? Well, yeah, it has been. That's why we're reuniting right now. So, Matt, thank you so much for being with me today. Thank you so much for having me. It was a lot of fun and really enjoyed it and hope we can do it again sometime soon. Thanks for tuning in today to Lockdown Cubs. Make sure to stay with us all through spring trading, leading up to opening day and make sure you subscribe and follow Lockdown Cubs. You get all the latest episodes for those of you on video. We send you to the first ever 24 seven national Lockdown podcast network YouTube channel. And on audio, make sure your second listen is Lockdown Fantasy Baseball as you get your fantasy rosters ready for the seasons for Matt Pilates. I'm Matt Cosie. This is Lockdown Cubs.