Dansby Swanson and Seiya Suzuki homer in Chicago Cubs Win | CHGO Cubs Podcast

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hey Chicago what do you say it's the chgo Cubs postgame Show podcast and your Chicago Cubs drum roll please are over the 500 Mark 95 win over the Pirates another big offensive night for the Cubs who saw it coming not me Cubs are over 500 for the first time since May 28th when they were 28 27 78 games that we said since they've been over 500 yes and they have now scored 27 runs 78 days in the last two games 78 games 78 games what was your favorite part of the last 78 games friends we made along the way yeah and all the disappointment was given at the same time uh Shane newbanks says hash Vibe with us best way to enjoy the CHD experience is to subscribe to the CHD Sports YouTube page or check us out on Roku now we're on the Roku channel right there on the actual Channel all you have to do is search chgo sports Luke stuck Cody delmendo Ryan Herrera Kevin Wells running the ones and twos tonight and as you see Mr delmendo for the first time in what I can this is probably two months has to no I've done a few the beer bat chug the Blue Moon beer bat chug is back folks I didn't no I totally have done a couple not on shows that I've paid attention to you were here it's definitely pre-all-star break like I said not show that paid ATT I'd say give it two months you can go back and find them he he did one with when I was on the show one time you were on and I wasn't here though yeah it was one show I don't remember because it was banned it was banned until they got to either 500 or won a series or was it both what it was it was banned until they got I think they they they went four and two the last week go going into the All-Star break and I said that I would bring them back going into the second half and then they started second half like bad right and so I didn't do any and then they had a good week in which I you know I said or it then became I'm only going to do them for Series wins Series wins and then it became 500 yeah yeah and now to your point I did forget to do one after the tiger Series win yeah um and then I forgot to record a video of myself doing it on Sunday or or I guess it would have been Saturday but I was also very intoxicated on Saturday night you got to do two tonight then right oh yeah no this team still ain't worth two in one in one show and he has to ride his bike home in the rain true someone's gonna be driving me home if this rain don't stop for real like the bike the bike has stayed here for an entire weekend before because yeah so someone's going to at least drive me to Lake up the socks are you live in Lake View and so do you one of you are going to be driving me to Lake View all I know is it's not gonna be me anyway so here it is for those of you who who have forgotten how this works when the beer touches Cody's lips the stopwatch begins anything what was the number we had 10.25 is it 10.25 and under is a quality chug I believe that is what the the Twitter account has stated uh so we'll see it's been a while regardless for since you've had a lot of practice so you find the the the that Twitter account soon the last time they tweeted out your times run then we could figure out how long it's been yeah they they probably closed the account by now no it's still there it's still there it's still there so that's how this works go ahead and place your Wagers if you decide to play along at home go ahead and tweet the video quality chug shout out to Joey SP off great Jo I swear this team needs to be good like 90 plus win good so we can do that more often like just so I can watch that it's a great video d w su's calling uh 9.9 yeah send us your send us your predictions or send us a video of you doing it yourself with a timer on if you think you can beat delmendo on the Blue Moon beer bat chug okay dedication please dedication we'll give it Miguel Amaya because I swear he's just Samy soci now you know he's doing things that even Wilson contras didn't do with the bat right now so you know I'm not being petty but I'm just stating the facts they haven't let Sammy back but this is the next best thing there you go people are saying people are saying so yeah I'll give it to miguela there it goes go Kevin you got the stop got the stopwatch right here we go there we go and it's underway ELO so far is looking like he's been doing these all season long we all know that's not true he's already at 7 seconds can he get it down before 10.25 he's not going to make the quality chug but I'll say 1115 I'll give that a quality chug because of the the layoff that's like being on injured reserve for a while yeah that's you you were on the 60-day iil and now you just came back and you got two hits it's definitely happened in lot last month I'm just gonna be someone will research that this definitely happened sometime very nicely done good job good to have it back it's just nice to win one you know like this is the form that I am in they are two and 0 since I said the season was over maybe I maybe in a week we can all give me credit for saying the season was over so they ignited an eight game winning streak um but whatever man three what is that three St straight no four straight Series wins right Blue Jays Tigers Mar Marlins Pirates and now Pirates four straight series one but finally a sweep is there for the taking again got to take advantage of I just want to know where's where's this offense been all season uh where has this been where is Danby seya and Amaya like where I I feel like se he hasn't he hasn't carried the offense like he did at points in like August September last year I think he's generally been good consistently good except for obviously some stretches but yeah Dansby is someone that I mean his like we we talked about like miguela Maya struggles for so long I think going into today his like his slugging percentages WRC plus was above dansby's I'm pretty sure on the year after Amaya's last 31 game stretch so that wouldn't surprise me yeah so Danby is someone that they've needed to get going for a while he's he's he's been hitting the ball better the results are starting to come a little bit more this uh especially in August I think he's hitting like 270 which isn't you know Amazing by any means but it's it's h better than where he'd been uh but then like we talked about I know PCA didn't have the best day but he's been someone that's really helped lengthen out the lineup Amaya two for four tonight two rbi's he's helped Linn out the lineup ha whether he's was hitting fifth for a while or leading off I feel like he's also been pretty consistently good except for like I think May was pretty bad for him um so yeah you you have a couple guys that you feel like have been consistently good but not like we're going to carry this offense good and that's why you saw so long where the offense was not doing well uh but now it feels like those guys at the bottom of the order have picked it up themselves and and that's why you're seeing the offense just look overall better in a healthier spot because you have mostly one through nine except for you know some guys have bad days some guys are still uh have maybe have their slumps but it feels like one through nine any guy can or has been been doing it has been getting it done for this team for a while normally I play Captain buzz kill it today it's uh James colto in the chat who says we've been over this once the games don't matter peeps start raking well I would I'll give some credit to Dansby and the fact that he's been a lot better since July and or it go back to at least the the All-Star break so it hasn't just been like these two games and I know there's mixed there's some ofers in there that are mixed in there and there's probably some bad strikeouts in there whatever but he has been better over the last I think you can you know by the end of this week you could you can say a full two months so almost two months I would say he's at least been what I need him to be and I need Dan B Swanson to be a League average hitter while he provides his Elite defense that's that is what the Cubs need that's what I said in the first half of the season that's why I gave him you know a I think I gave him an F for the first half when we did the allstar break like great like he was that bad at offensively and I said I believe when we did that show I said if he can do anything close to what he did the LA like that last week before the allstar break because you know they swept the Orioles and then took they split with the Cardinals and they played well that week and you were kind of like oh wow finally this team looks like what we thought we would see um you know and Dansby was a big part of the offense that week and you I feel like since that week at least his offense overall has been at least right around League average uh and you'd have to look those numbers up but I I'm I'm willing to bet that he's at least a League average hitter since then yeah so so Godfather says everybody gets an a Godfather I literally just said that I gave him an F for the first half of the Year Godfather what do you want me to say brother what do you want me to say man so dansby's day today one for two uh two walks obviously the home run three rbi's two runs uh with today mixed in just looking at just his August numbers he's hitting 270 with a 769 Ops I we know Dansby is not going to be this other worldly hitter like he he was brought in to be a go glove defensive Short Stop who you know you would expect to be at least over League average like you look at WRC plus like a 108 to 110 it's like okay you could deal with that because he has he is such a good defensive Short Stop uh so those are solid numbers for him for a month it's only a month right it's the month of August August is obviously not even over yet uh so it's not like this has like saved his season I think it has still been a disappointing season for him offensively but this is a solid extended stretch of baseball where yeah he may have his offers in there but it feels like he's been more consistently hitting the ball and and again just as far as lengthening up lengthening the lineup he's been hitting seventh a lot lineup so having him there and hitting the ball well that helps everyone ahead of him too and everyone behind him obviously Miguel Amaya has been blistering hot uh he is six for nine in this series the first two games with six RBI two runs scored seya kind of lost in the shuffle because Amaya has been so good and dansby's had the great couple of nights six for 10 three RBI scored five runs in just two games again it's just a lot of guys who you hoped were going to take The Next Step all season and you're seeing what a difference it can make if a couple of them make that next step in just a small sample size of two games yeah and I know a lot of fans will probably look at it it's like oh you're the you haven't been playing good teams well while that I think is true it also would look bad if they weren't doing this against Bad teams too so I think you have to find some sort of balance and also the Pirates you know the Pirates were ahead of the Cubs for a large part of the season in division they had had a 10- game losing streak here in the second half of the year that has put them you know towards the bottom of the division now and you know there to me they're still a decent team in terms of at least being competitive so what they've been able to do especially off tonight's starter Jared Jones who I think is really good and before he got hurt uh you know going into July he you know he had already pitched against the Cubs earlier this year and he pitched really well against them so that's someone you feel like is going to pretty TCH fors for long to come everyone talks about but Jared Jones ain't bad either so you know I give them I give the Cubs offense tonight some credit for scoring early or at least maybe they didn't score in the first inning but they scored you know the first five innings and they had that five run inning when they were down two to nothing behind seya and Dansby scor or hitting those homers like you always say Luke you know team when you hit the long ball like that that's when it feels like the Cubs win games because they hit the long ball you know and this team just hasn't consistently been able to do that enough this year and that's probably that's why they're only one game above 500 so um at in general though it's just you are seeing what Ryan said you know all across the lineup you know Nico had a huge uh I think it I think it was ruled a double but it he ended up at third base because they threw home in that same inning uh that drove in whoever I think it was parades and that parades he would would have been out at home if if uh if Davis catches the ball yeah but uh you know I've been very critical of of Nico this year too and I would say in the second half of the Season he's at least been better offensively it's still the overall season numbers still aren't where I want them to be but um you know I'll give him some credit for the second half of the Season he's he's been a lot better offensively but he's been great on the base paths I think that's where the Cubs are really doing a lot better is their manufactur more runs because they're stealing a lot of bases and they're playing more like a Craig consel team Craig consell did this all the time with his team in milwauke I mean they steal a lot of bases and they've been great on the base paths and P Armstrong and Nico and belly have really you're right the the slug in the offense hasn't been there from NCO but when he's on I mean he's looking to steal and he hasn't been thrown out a lot and that helps with two outs and that's where I think the biggest jump has been offensively yeah we will talk about the home runs and stuff coming up here in just a second and that impacts the Cubs offense and we we've mentioned it before and we'll also talk about the report from Jeff passon with the late the very first update on the Juan stto sweep stakes and where your Chicago Cubs May fall in that but first we're going to tell you about some of our sponsors when I'm buying tickets for anything I'm using game time game time has a new feature called Game Time picks that makes getting tickets for your favorite Live Events even easier game time picks filters out the fluff to show you only incred R deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets right now tonight while we were watching the game Ryan was getting his tickets ready looking for the best deals on Kao who doesn't love some good EDM you know what I'm saying you're a huge EDM guy Kevin Kevin Wells running the ones and twos he was on Smashing Pumpkins in Green Day in Milwaukee they were so good well I saw them in Chicago they're so good went back to back went back yeah they were you went Wrigley then you went Milwaukee of course I use game time and of course you went game time yeah I know some people went to Creed timley Park Creed use game time obviously they they definitely use game time remember when you used to sing Creed on this podcast anyways uh do it every day if you guys want me to not yet let's see if they sweep tomorrow then that would be the difference uh when they sweep we sing Creed we've seen we've seen our buddy Corey uh out on social media getting very excited that Pearl Jams in town very excited he's been going out and buying the pop up store shirts and merch he's ready to go you know where he's getting his tickets game time you better believe it uh if you're going to any of our friday10 clubs that are left in the season game time's the place to do it you can check out the seat view you buy the panoramic view from your seat in the app before you buy the ticket lowest price guarantee event cancellation protection job loss protection the lowest price thing they'll credit you 110% of the difference game times ticket coverage your purchase is covered with the most flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry take the guess workk out of buying tickets with Game Time download the game time app create an account and use the code chgo for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account redeem with the code spell it out for me chgo $20 off download game time today what time is it game time by the way we got all the Bears tailgate coming up what you do is you buy the package for the tailgates and you maybe you don't go to all the games but the ones where you see the best deals right before the game on Game Time Boom that's where you get your best deals I paid $50 to see Green Day in Smashing Pumpkins in Milwaukee per ticket day day of I was driving up there and they dropped at 50 that's there's no better deal Ser game Shout Out game time stay off the escalator uh yeah yeah yeah tell that to brags stairs uh that was funny man dang it Luke uh speaking of escalators you don't use escalators while you're on prize picks uh prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports unlike other apps on prize pick it's just you against the numbers all you do is pick more or less on two to six player sta objections and watch the winnings roll in get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks Community today all right sign up today and get $50 instant instantly when you play five s again $50 instant instantly when you just play $5 if you sign up today you don't need to win to receive the $50 bonus you can be as dumb as I am and and get that $50 bonus back right there's to be a prop on there uh bear season starts soon right Caleb Williams passing yard just to throw one passing yard against the Titans or I think it's the entire month of September actually it'll get you one win on price picks every week in September so yes the entire month of September it's an easy win exactly it's an easy an easy win that's part of your your entry um just throw it in there right um you know there's so many things you can do on price picks moving forward because college football starts Thursday the NFL's coming back you still have baseball you know so I it's a perfect time to get on Ben Chase here in Chicago and you still got you know if you're like me and really like to put anything Angel Reese rebounds in there a little WNBA action too she's been on a tear she had like multiple 20 rebound games since they got back from like since the NBA WNBA started back up since the Olympics ended so plenty of fun things you can do on price piix alog together uh download the price piix app today and use code Cho get $50 instantly when you play $5 that's code chgo on priz piix and get $50 instantly when you play $5 you don't need to win to receive the $50 bonus folks it's guaranteed it's guaranteed that's such a great deal man $50 just put five bucks free cash basically oh man oh yeah prize pick run your game brother brothers that was ad lied the brother part was ad the whole Hogan add-on was was definitely add If Only They added the brother part brother that was totally by the way we should have known that the Cubs were going to win tonight because I saw on the live YouTube chat which is the best way to enjoy what we do that Becky got her toes done today so that that's good luck right there but awesome Dan B Swanson provided the power for tonight's game on his birthday presented by the Illinois pork producers Savor the flavor Savor the gains and celebrate any occasion by enjoying the best pork produced by Illinois Pig Farmers back-to-back games with a homer Dansby two for five seven RBI four run scor two homers and three walks in these first two games of the series it leads us to a couple of things one I want to know if you think this has to do with Dansby finally getting healthy or is it just he's just couple of good games here well first off can you mom's birthday I thought it was excuse me it's Mom's birthday don't let the facts get in the way of a good happy birthday uh what is her name Nancy Nancy I believe happy birthday Nance uh when the Cubs hit two or more homers in a game they are 30 and S when they hit at least one home run this is unbelievable 56 and 32 and when they score four or more runs they are 55 and 17 what does it mean like I've been saying hit home runs that's the way you score runs in baseball today everybody says what what about old school Station to Station that's great on days when the wind's blowing in got to have it got to have a mixture of everything but the balance of the game has gone to home runs and the Cubs don't hit enough of them it's the easiest way to put runs up I mean like yeah they don't have a lot of Home Run hitters okay if you strike out twice if you hit a home run I feel so so much more Justified about how I said that yes the bullpen hasn't been good but this offense can't score runs every show that we said in May and June I think we all said that we all did but many people in the YouTube chat yelled at us for not for not [ __ ] on the bullpen more and I think and I feel like we great it is a problem they don't have a closer I think we acknowledged that it was a problem but also like how many games did the Cubs lose two to one or three to one or three to2 or something like that too many one run games yes like it's it's yeah it's always come down to the offense because like when the offense was just consistently struggling for so long your starting pitching either had to be perfect or your Bullpen had to be perfect or both like what was the stat you gave Luke scoring four or more 55 and 17 55 and 17 four runs it's not like there's needing to score seven four runs and they're 55 and that difficult so yeah it always did come down to the offense and so again when we talking Dansby is the pork power player of the game like he's been doing really well in August and I we said seya too obviously SE homered as well um I was actually looking at like his month toon stats and like he was doing really well before he got hurt in April came back about a month later struggled in may like about two-thirds of May uh June was a pretty good month for him 850 Ops July I can't do the math quickly in my head but it's an over 900 Ops and then August it's over 900 again he's he's he has a 134 WRC plus which right now is 19th in b baseball among qualified hitters like he is SE Suzuki has been a really good hitter for this whole year basically except for a few weeks stretch there in May maybe beginning of June so whether it's seya Andor Dansby Andor Miguel Maya Andor Ian half like the the more guy like I think when we looked at it when the offense was doing so bad and even like Craig counil acknowledged it Jed Hoyer acknowledged it like it felt like a lot of the guys were just struggling at the exact same time like it felt like you may had one guy that was hitting well and everyone else was cold for like May and June basically now you have a lot of a bunch of guys a bunch more guys who are actually hitting the ball well at the same time feels like you got at least half your lineup if not more hitting the ball well at the same time then you see why the offense has been better in the last month and a half two months yeah I mean there's no question about it I mean if you had to give the offense a grade for the season it wouldn't be a passing grade no matter what individual stats you have for some guys that look pretty good team if you put it together and you put the lineup out there and say what was this offense and I don't care what I believe that they were slightly fooled by were they sixth in baseball and run scored last year yep Jed talked about it in the season wrapup and he talked about it again you know early in the spring training it's like okay also Craig Council said just because something happened the year before doesn't mean it's going to happen this year and I think they got a little bit fooled about the makeup of the offense yeah I think so they made a little too much faith based on how well they did last year um I also don't think like when like hitting the panic button in May and June obviously it was too long of a stretch for them to be as bad as they were but I didn't think they were the 28th like like the third worst offense in baseball which they were for a good chunk of the Season like I think this is looks more like what we've we've expected out of the offense this year the issue is that it was just so long where they were a lot worse than this that that they put they put themselves into a big hole I think it's it's a i and there's no way you can measure that things would go different with this but I mean I'm not alone in this when I say that just when this team had injuries or when this team didn't have some of their key guys that were out because they were hurt or also struggling is like they were not aggressive with trying to fix that you and I won't even just mention prospects but like I don't know Luis Ras got traded in what may you know like I'm and I don't know if he would have changed anything and I'm not even saying that I wanted them to get him but like I'm just saying that when you talk about the two bad months this team was on offense you I think we can all sit here and confidently say that they they put all their chips in on the guys who started on opening day and they weren't going to be a aggessive with any of their top prospects and the and and that's fine if it works out next year and we and those guys come up and they you know the development is there or whatever great or if they you know whatever situation you're in fine whatever I guess we can let it pass but when you go into a year like this when you have expectations to be a playoff team and your projection win total is 83 to 85 games and your core pieces aren't performing well like ad Dansby like Bellinger even though he's been fine but also not slugging like they paid him to basically and you know her has had a he hasn't been nearly as good as the last two years let alone last year like when when pieces when pieces part of your quote unquote core of this team aren't performing and you aren't doing anything to try and jumpstart the offense then like it it's just kind of telling to me that you really just didn't try didn't plan on trying any harder than you had to to try and get things going during that that time period and all I'm saying because I have all offseason to [ __ ] and complain about it some more is that you got to make this team a a you have to get them up to 90 win projection in for 2025 that's what they have to do and I don't know how they're going to do it at this point they have a lot of a lot of things to talk about and and and try and figure out and And Trades that need to be made to be completely honest and we'll see s yeah we want sod like it's there's there's there's a lot of things work to do there's a lot of work to do a slugger gets you five more wins Yeah well yeah worldly hit like I mean even having even having a closer and like and that's that's even another thing too like I know we all sat here and were okay with the fact that they went with Alay and and I've said this too many times at this point but like the fact that they didn't really have a backup plan Hector neris was your backup plan like I don't know man I I I will say as a backup plan I didn't would not have expected going into the year that it was as nerve-wracking as it ended up being when nerys became the like had to step in yeah like wouldn't he was coming off a couple of really good Seasons with the Astros right like I would have expected that like had adbert not been able to had he U you know his season gone the way he had I I thought maybe Hector can can step in and at least fill in maybe if it's more of a committee whatever but like would have expected it to go better than it actually did I I I can't say I would have foreseen this coming with adbert like I will agree definitely with one thing Cody was alluding to a couple minutes ago was just I do believe the Cubs have been a little slow to react a few times whether that is in trades whether that is in free agency or whether that is in just dealing with the guys on the own team when something's not wor maybe you just want to call it patience that's okay but I think they've been overly patient with some things and yes they've probably been overly patient with some prospects but if you're counting on prospects just remember look at PCA it doesn't happen right away and it you may get a whole season of guys going through that same process again next year one thing you can count on shop Ray Chevrolet and secure the right new Chevy and price for you that's because their new car clearance event is going on all month long and you can shop their huge selection of new Chevy models now at new low prices visit our partner this August few days left at their location on Route 12 in Fox Lake or at Ray chevrolet.com as one of the top selling Chevy dealers in the midwest you're always able to shop one of the Chicagoland area's largest Chevy inventories right now get 0% financing make zero payments until 2025 put zero doll down and find zero hidden fees all on the new Chevrolet models or cruise into August your own way and Shop over 125 of their vehicles that are currently priced under 20 grand and if you've heard of Ray Chevrolet then you certainly know about the Ray Price promise that's their guarantee to make your next vehicle more affordable than ever with no price changing no add-ons no hidden fees ever that means the incredible prices we're talking about right here on the chgo Cubs podcast you can expect to see the very same prices when you shop Ray Chevy in store or online shop the new car clearance event all month long by visiting Ray Chevrolet in Fox Lake or Ray chevrolet.com they've been serving the community since 1963 together let's drive I gotta tell you guys about Fogo we've been partner with FCO for a while we always talk about him we have set decorations and all around the office from FCO um and I need to tell you about FCO get fitted out in the best sports gear around hoodies shoes signs bobbleheads and everything in between I do think the MH schwarmer bobblehead is still on folo I think in I think we I think it is and I think we should get it for the set just because imagine the vibe you could have with a new Chevy from Ray Chevy and the schwarmer bobblehead super glued to the dash of that car yeah Vibes wearing your overalls from folco yeah wearing your overalls um you'll never lose a day in your life the rest of the the rest of the days you wanted to define the word Riz there it is yes absolutely but yeah are you going to any basketball games hockey games baseball games football games coming up show off your love with Team branded friendship bracelets whether it is jackets Beach wear or even overalls they're something for fans for almost every occasion again I mentioned the set decorations folco has donated a few awesome pieces for our sets so go show them some love check out foco.com or click the link in the description below for all non pre-sale items use the promo code cho10 for 10% off again that's foco.com or click at the link in the description below um we haven't talked about Justin steel but that was weird in the third inning when yeah whatever the sticky stuff was I thought he was getting the game when we were reading the ads I was scrolling the Twitter machine and Council like they asked Council about it and apparently had rosin on his non- pitching hand and just asked him to clean it off okay and right hand he say said after that just no big deal after that so it looked like Jones had the same thing they didn't he was Marquee pandum him a couple times drying off his arm I don't know how hot it was in Pittsburgh but from Justin Steel's arms and it was really they were really soaked that could have been why yeah and we know like the rosin sweat mixture obviously gets a little tackier so maybe that affected it if he was sweating a lot and had a little rosin on the certainly what it looked like did we have a super chat that we missed earlier in the show as well I think we have one super chat from BT gold BT gold 342 says don't worry Luke I'm never closing that Twitter account down no matter how much the Cubs lose referring to this is this must be Cody chug the the the Twitter account yeah the thanks for the 499 put that in the sto fund you know how about BT gold just uh puts in the chat when the last time Cody's bebat was just so we can confirm he TW he did I'm on the I'm looking at the account now just cuz he did tweet at us um and he said this was on August 10th cross town sweep quality chug new season record Cody got an 8.79 second roughly chug tonight I think that's the one that I did for my apartment gotcha potentially yeah um no yeah but steel that mean that whole thing was weird and obviously like he came back out so whatever um it was wild though if it felt like it wasn't his best best today I I thought he was thrown out of the game because he left the field I didn't know he was coming back just going to wash his hand off the way he walked off the field in his facial expression and we had the audio turned down a little bit too so we know what was going on no but yeah I don't obviously I don't think it was his best five innings um but he did you know he gave up those two runs in the bottom of the first um and felt like he was able to settle down start getting obviously the Pirates out keep them off the board the rest of the time he was in there um and then you know that fourth and fifth inning the Cubs give him a n uh give him nine runs so he gets through five with a 9-2 lead uh I think that help obviously helps a pitcher you give him you give him some runs some run support give him a little cushion I know jamus and tyion talks about that a lot when when they do score uh a good amount of runs for him give him a little bit of cushion he feels like he can attack a little more he doesn't have to be like uh uh careful with his pitches on like a two1 counter a 3-1 count he feels like he can attack a little bit more um so that probably plays into it but uh I do think again not the best Justin steel we've seen but the ability to kind of lock back in settle down keep them off the board the rest of the time he was out there you know it's it was a fine it was a fine outing form him it wasn't his best wasn't his worst obviously was got nine runs for him yeah it was good enough it was good enough to give them a a big lead that they didn't they didn't blow at the end of the game I think uh JD said it too like up two runs the thing with the rosin on the arm like fine tell him to wipe it off it was good he wasn't thrown out of the game or anything anything silly like that that wouldn't be if he was using sticky stuff he wouldn't openly slather it on his forearm his other forearm you would hide it in the glove or somewhere in the Hat or so you know what yeah you you wouldn't just roll pinear on your arms be like I hope they don't notice me going like this before every pitch right yeah I it the whole entire moment reminded me I I want to say it was last season with Max sherzer and he got thrown out of because he fous and he I remember him being very upset and that was the only difference about him like steel walking into the Dugout compared to sherzer because sherzer was I from my memory I believe he was arguing with the Umpire he went to wash his hands comes back and then there's more arguing and you know then he gets thrown out and so it's just like I don't know those part of it was he was yelling don't you know I'm from effing maou over and over finally the Umpire couldn't take it out Max sherzer is like at the Forefront of these conversations too with the players union and with because he's like the main guy sherzer is like one of those guys that call they call in when they're they're like hey we need someone to come in and we're negotiating rule he's at the Forefront of a lot of that so I think he felt as though hey I'm negotiating these rules what the hell like I you know I'm not cheating but maybe he was did he take his belt off right hand it to him is that yeah he did I'm pretty sure he did yeah Mad Max Man legend eyes creep me out uh his eyes are cool so Jeff passen has our first Juan stto sweep Stakes update that I can remember so far this season at the end of August let's go here we are already all well he knows that everybody's dreaming about soda you see him he's got a career high already 37 home runs he just turned 26 and he's going to be a free agent he's already turned down 15 years 440 million from the Nationals now he's sitting there with the Yankees I don't know how you're going to get him out of New York but passing says the Yankees and Mets the two favorites he also said Red Sox Dodgers Angels and drum roll [Music] please Cubs would have the money I mean that's obvious that part is just that like oh water is wet that's right that's right we know they've got the money the question is will they use that money we were just talking about top five players in baseball we were making a list and I was just like listen we know otani's won you know sto's won you know judge is won at least three of the top five players in baseball are all going to have been available in some way shape or form in the last five years will the Cubs get any of them and if you want to go back can say Bryce Harper's in that top five okay you have the best players in baseball the Chicago Cubs should be all in on one of those if not all of those guys at some point yeah don't forget too mukie Betts was available in a trade too mie Betts yeah I mean that matter Yelich when he was available yeah good point I I was saying to trade for stto two years ago and give up whatever you have to do to get him credit to you um I think they should they if they wanted to be the highest bidder for him they they should be right they they they have the financial flexibility they have been saving up yeah I mean they haven't been going over to luxury tax and could potentially get back down this season possibly they may try to maneuver it somehow and get underneath whatever um they got a lot of money coming off the books potentially more um you know depending on Ballinger um they they have the ability to do it and this is a guy that's like he's 25 he doesn't turn 26 to October so you're getting him you're getting him to start his age 26 Season he is already an otherworldly hitter who is on an easy Hall of Fame path like this should be a guy that if you're ever gonna give a massive contract like that too it's it's him you're ever GNA go over 500 million this is the guy this is the guy and especially considering his age right if he's 2930 maybe you're maybe you're thinking a little differently Kevin's pulling up his baseball Savant page it's like all red it's all red it's R and even his defense like it's not even like like he's not known for defense but like his defense out above average right well I'm just but if he is okay his outs above average is zero so he's not even like yeah he's an average outfielder but so yeah so like if you're ever going to do that guy he's not 29 he's not 30 going know going past that age like you're getting him for basically he's already been primed since he was 19 but basically the beginning of his athletic Prime like this is the guy that you should give be willing to give that contract to um not that I don't not that I expect the Cubs to do that I don't um I I don't sit here and say that they're going to be um they're absolutely going to be in on juano this off season I I I would have I'd probably have to to to see it before I believe it but uh me too it's just frustrating yeah I mean this is the guy like this is this is the kind of guy that Cubs as the third biggest Market um you know again a team with just a lot of financial flexibility moving forward forward it's the guy you you should want to give that M that big contract to and and it always runs Jed said it before like any contract of of of some magnitude is going to run risk right you may run a risk and and it may not work out for you but again if you're going to do it like you should be willing to do it for a guy like wo and the value probably won't be there at the end and you may have to be create you may have to throw 500 million in you may have to do something creative like defer just like Otani kind of showed people away and okay fine whatever I'm telling you give them part ownership of Hotel Zachary I don't care what it is right like give them the stands Donuts too I whatever how much does Juan stto mask in this Cubs lineup right now how how many of the mistakes and the discrepancies whatever adjective you want to use for how this team is how much do I don't think that Mayar I don't think that long man June happened if he's in this lineup I agree just just put they're 20 games over with him in the lineup put whatever he did on whatever put whatever he did on any singular day a lot of wins what he hits third or fourth in the Yankees lineup behind judge put him in Morel spot for the first three and a half months and as a morel supporter as a guy who who defended Morel just considering he didn't perform this year if you put Juan stto just even the results that he did this he's done on all those days that Morel hit fourth for the first three and a half months of the season the Cubs probably have at least 10 more wins so uh yeah I mean I'm not ready to talk about this all off SE we're only responding to the passing article now I could talk about it every day but I see everybody saying it's not going to happen I agree with you it's not going to happen but I will again it's not okay that it's not it's not okay it's not okay that I'm sitting here and I'm rolling my eyes and I'm just like pip dream and I know it's a pipe dream because what passon said is correct the Cubs have the money and I I will give credit where credit is due Godfather you have for two and a half years every single [ __ ] day you've come in here and you've said rickets is cheap this and that blah blah blah this blah blah blah that we don't spend money this and that two year two and a half years ago the there were all kinds of problems with this team organizationally all right you you took a leap you've taken steady leaps the last couple years and now you're giving you have provided the fans what I believe is one of the most disappointing seasons of my adult life it ranks probably just a little bit higher than the 2019 Cubs okay again my adult life I turned 18 in 2009 it's a higher than I was say it's a higher than 04 I mean 04 had high expectations and I I don't know if it ranks higher than that but you can put this season and those two seasons that we just referenced as probably is at least in this Century the two of the most disappointing Seasons because 2019 had expectations to at least make the playoffs and 2004 had like World Series expectations and they didn't even make nobody called up to the broadcast Booth yet to compl so that's good my my point to bring this back around is that you're entering an offseason where like not only does JED have to do something to I I guess justify Tom and the rest of whoever is caring about the Cubs ownership the the the product on the team whoever in ownership cares about the team whoever he has to find a way to justify getting not only a contract extension but he also has to put this team in the playoffs he just hasn't we and and he's done good things like I always like I have said many times as much as I've [ __ ] on him he has done good things to put the organization in a better spot than when we first sat here two and a half years ago now is the time to to open the the the pocketbook and spend some money I said that last offseason but the free agent Market wasn't nearly as good this offseason the free agent Market is very very fruitful is whether it's SoDo or not they should be they should be spending big money this off season whether it's Corbin Burns or Max freed or Juan stto Anthony Santander whoever it is this organization should be spending massive amounts of money because they have it because they're charging $16 beers because they're freaking M they charge one of the most expensive experiences in baseball all right so again two and a half years ago I get it you're trying to rebuild from the bottom end fix your farm system try to build like try to get some young players that you can you know help build a nucleus and then then go get the star we've sat here for months and said that this team doesn't have a star you know so I'm not saying I'm not saying it's Juan sto or bus but I am saying that they there is absolutely no excuse to not one go over the luxury tax and two to go get go hang out at the top of the free agent Market this offseason absolutely no excuse eat like a big dog one last thing I want to say about the sto thing and that is yes the Cub should do it and yes we don't think it's going to happen we're not teasing anybody in live chat or anybody that's listening to the podcast or watching on Roku or any the live YouTube any of that if you want to have an impact on this the way to do it is you know everybody's like stop going to the games that's been the cry for year stop going to the games you're never gonna get an entire fan base to stop going to the games you have to be the white sock but on September 6th at the Takeover godamn you could all show up with a sign truth that said we want SoDo and you could chant it every time he came up and if 500 people 500 people's not that many if 500 people in the bleachers maybe we should make 500 signs and hand them out to people as they're going in we want SoDo and every time he comes up you chant it that's the type of you're almost shaming the franchise into feeling like they better be a part of this because if they don't this is the type of stuff that's going to start happening at games it's not dis it's not disrespect to the players on the field this guy's one of the he's a generational type player we want so hold up the signs every time he comes up you're going to do it for Rizzo M people are going to cheer for Rizzo why not do it for SoDo every time he comes up to bat it's just again it's it's just all about like you set your own standard in 2016 all right and that and before that before they won they spent money that off season right you sign Jason Hayward the most the most coveted uh position player on the market that that offseason going into 2016 you sign Ben over you signed John Lackey right and the offseason before that you signed John Lester like you knew that you had developed some young players within your system you had guys coming right you had some things you know brewing in internally and you you are in this position now like is as disappointing as this season has been it's not like I feel like the team is way behind they're going to win somewhere between 80 to 85 games games and probably miss the playoffs because they don't own a tiebreaker and so like that would be two years of just being right in the middle but you still have you organizationally you still are pretty healthy you need to do things to put yourself over the top so I look forward to doing this rant at least 10 more times once a month in the off seon one last thing about Juan s because I I also have one last thing about one okay I just don't want I got one more thing about SoDo I don't want this to go overlooked he is quite literally the most perfect hitter that you can sculpt into a baseball player he's incredible dud he's above average in every single batting thing that you can calculate scientifically in baseball he's he's Elite in 90% of them he's the I mean it's unbelievable the guy has no he has no just turned 26 turned 26 in October okay he has no the only thing that he does that is slightly closer to the average Mark than any other hit is his whiff percentage he's still in the 65th percentile everything else is 95 and above yeah it is you got to be in on him this season you got to be in on him this season he's got a 185 WRC plus that's second in baseball only behind his teammate Aaron judge who's at 225 uh that's amazing numbers uh Cody's got me fired up looking at his career uh his lowest ever WRC plus is 143 which I mentioned Suzukis which leads the Cubs among their you know guys that have hit a certain amount of play appearance Suzuki is 134 which means wano's Worst season is still 9% better than uh s thing you couldn't stomach I could 13 pass mentions the Dodgers I could not stomach it I might have to just stop watching the game we'll be hiring a new co-host serious like if if the Dodgers had Otani and stto no Freeman And Betts Freeman and bets I mean come on now bets and Jackson Ferris for yeah and oh and Z hope too he's gonna make us uh now related to stto and why I mean again the Cubs have the money but it's gonna it's G to take a lot of money in my opinion to lure him away from New York anyway specifically the Yankees a because Aaron judge is right there and you just stated the numbers and the short porch is is a is is a it's a benefit for him you know he could have a beard here grow beard he ever maybe he's into beards we don't know I'm just saying 20 now he's turning 26 you want the facial I'm just saying that he's in a very very ideal he's in a very very ideal situation if he cares about winning he's already won a World Series with the Nationals but if he cares about winning in New York one of the bigger markets in baseball and sports whatever like we as fans just have to acknowledge that like that situation is no one's going to be able to beat that like there's no maybe the Dodgers if that were to actually be serious but that's it like it's GNA take money yeah it it really will come down to if the Cubs somehow some way got SoDo it would just come down to money well and again that's why I say like I don't expect them to to do that I'd lean towards they wouldn't do that just based on what he's going a command on the market what's the offer he turned down from the Nationals like 15 years 445 years 440 445 440 million so yeah so I I don't expect because he's gonna get more than that I don't know if it'll be 15 years I don't know what the year wise but as far as like total value it's gonna be more than that um I don't right now I don't see Jed as the you know president of baseball operations going and giving that contract to him as I said earlier I'll believe it when I see it um so I'm not sitting here saying that I expect that to happen or I think that's going to happen like it just if looking at it for me it should be someone the Cub should be in because you're that good yeah well with the money they save on uh Drew Smiley if he gets picked up on waivers that's all money that can get put right into the fun Tucker barnhart's contracts off the book HRI potentially Bing I mean like I said finally done paying Hayward yet are we done paying Hayward now theyve that's over oh that's over now okay bod's off the books after this year too bod off the books like I said I don't have any hope for SoDo but you to me you have to be you have to be players at the top of the free agent marker this offseason you just have to there's no excuse absolutely none and and if and if they and if they aren't a you better win and B I'm gonna turn into Godfather if you don't win oh man I'm quitting the show if that happens just read the two Homer stat to Jed I mean that that's all you need to look at and and I and I read the record yeah he know he knows he he's said about the slugging and hitting homers like he's not he that guy might hit he knows he has to go out and do it you know and he also knows he has to win next year so yeah like and I don't want to be like ridiculously over-the-top negative about this organization like I just it's more fun to be a fan of the Cubs or sports or whatever if you're optimistic I know that sets you up for massive amounts of pain down the road but it's just more fun to be optimistic but I just don't want to come into this into 2025 with just no real excitement about the team that and that that's what I mean like I I just I feel like if they don't have a big off season this winter that we're going to be sitting here in April we're be like ah or in March during spring training and saying oh well if this guy does this and if that guy does this and you know like a lot of hope I don't want to do hope again man I've given it a pass the last couple years because like I said you had to you're trying to build some things internally but you're the Cubs and you've built some things internally actually really impressively all right now be the big Market team that you are and and get a star player put your team over the top do what you did like when you signed John Lester and when you signed Jason Hayward and Ben Zas be a big dog yeah eat with the big dogs let let the big dog eat that's all I'm saying all right Cubs Go for the sweep tomorrow it's an early early game in Pittsburgh so we will be back here prior to noon right watching the game what is it 1135 11:35 start so it could be like a 2 be like a two o'clock postgame show so you know if you're hanging out at work or you still got some free time on your hands join us for the live show otherwise wait for the podcast later that's okay too and Ru HRI prediction Kyle Hendrick if you only pitch him four and a half Innings outd du Paul I don't think you can do four and a half Innings get him out after four I'm telling you get him out after four actually it's not get him out four it's just have the have the next guy ready at the top of the fifth and if he gets a guy on Hendrick is out it's not that difficult yeah SK is hitable n homered on him yeah he did ni does kind of own didn't he know hit them for the Cubs for like six Innings on my birthday don't remind me he did but that that not this Cub's team this team's one game over 500 the offense is playing a lot better than the last time they played the fire or last time that SK faced you never know they got to to Jared Jones and Mitch Keller and they are they are it feels like they're starting to limit skin a little bit too and his strikeout numbers have gone down here in the second half of the season so hopefully only pitches like one inning thanks for checking out the chto Cubs podcast Cubs win big N9 to five it's back to back they're over the 500 Mark and they go for the sweep tomorrow until then thanks for watching andly The [Music] W we all sitting like the mayor