Monday Morning Cubs Show
A show every Monday morning about the Chicago Cubs from Carl and Mahoney.
Monday Morning Cubs Show
Setting Expectations For A Very Weird Cubs Winter
Expect a strange winter on the North Side. We unpack why the Cubs’ path runs through pitching, controlled contracts, and a defense-first identity while the 2027 labor storm gathers on the horizon. With only Dansby Swanson guaranteed through that window and uncertainty around caps, floors, and tax dynamics, Jed and Carter look far more likely to trade for a top-three starter than drop half a billion on a right fielder. That’s not timid; it’s portfolio management in a volatile market.
We break down the fork in the road at DH and right field—Seiya Suzuki plus low-cost internal options like Moisés Ballesteros and Owen Caissie versus a megadeal that would throttle flexibility for a decade. Then we tilt to the rubber, where one dependable arm with control can stabilize Justin Steele, Cade Horton, and Jamison Taillon, and where the bullpen can be rebuilt with proven Cubs magic: one-year reclamations that turn stalled arms into multi-year paydays. Pair that with a team Gold Glove defense and you’re preventing runs at an elite level before spending a dime on slug.
Player arcs matter. Matt Shaw looks primed for a leap. Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson, and Ian Happ feel bankable. Michael Busch needs either real reps versus lefties or a no-doubt right-handed partner who mashes them—clarity now, not in August. PCA’s glove is already special; modest gains in swing decisions unlock real value. We also tackle the Shota Imanaga qualifying-offer clock and why process there could echo in future international recruiting.
Stick around as we riff on Wrigley hosting football, the Bears’ late-game surge with Caleb Williams, and five sharp differences between London and Chicago—from spotless pub bathrooms and tap-to-pay culture to architecture that feels like walking through a film set. Subscribe, drop a five-star review on Spotify or Apple, and share this one with a Cubs fan who loves smart roster talk. What’s your move: trade for a controllable starter or pay for power in right?
Thanks for tuning in!
- Carl & Mahoney
And we're clear. Good morning, good afternoon, and evening, Chicago Cubs fans. Welcome back to the Monday morning cub show. Today is Monday, November 17th. It is Carl. I am joined by Mahoney. And as always, it is very good to see you, my friend.
SPEAKER_01:Carl, the pleasure's all mine. I love seeing you back on stateside and just doing the Monday morning cub show as is. It's a thing of beauty. I'm really glad you got to, you know, get some world traveling in. And now we can get back down to business, baby. Welcome home.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you, my friend. And it's not a travel podcast. We are going to talk a little bit of London versus Chicago towards the end of the show. We're going to talk a little bit about the Chicago Bears. This is not, you know, red line radio necessarily, but we do have some good stuff around the city. Obviously, it's good to be back, though. I was in London for six, seven days celebrating Mrs. Carl. She's had a great year at work, big program, a lot of promotion stuff going on behind the scenes in the family. And she's been wanting to go to London for a long time. So we're gonna we're gonna get to the difference, in my opinion, between London and Chicago. But while I'm in London, obviously the only thing I'm thinking about is this Cubs offseason, and it's try it's kind of driving me wild. So I'm happy it's you're back in the captain's chair with me for this episode.
SPEAKER_01:No, it feels good, it feels right, and yeah, now is the time. There were some GM meetings that took place, some comments. You know, there's some news to catch up on. So, you know, we got a little bit you have to rock through. I don't know what that means. Let's just keep it moving, baby.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, do you have a theme for this week's show? Can I ask you to set a theme?
SPEAKER_01:I guess you know, the theme is kind of in that preparation of the the strangeness. So we're gonna stick with kind of what you had been alluding to where lockouts come and that sort of thing. So get ready for kind of an off-kilter off season. And I I think that that's gonna be the kind of theme of the show is you know, we'll see what happens here. Lockouts coming, and we want to set the expectations accordingly. So I think it's more of like an expectation setter, Carl, if you will. Uh a thematic expectation setting.
SPEAKER_00:Thematic. Yeah, I think the thematic here, it's like weird, and that's being nice. Where in the back of my head, I think we're due for a very frustrating offseason. I think this will be as mad as anyone's ever been after coming off 92 wins. We're gonna lose Kyle Tucker. Payroll's at like 140 now, you know, which is about 120 million less than what the Chicago Cubs should be spending, notwithstanding luxury tax considerations. But I mean, it'd be nice to say it's gonna be a weird offseason, right? Jed's out talking about we're gonna get some starting pitching. That's obviously a focus. There's some fan graph rankings to talk to. But the first and foremost, before we get any of this, thank you to Thirsty Vaquero for sponsoring today's episode, a signature spicy finish, a Mexican style soda. It's all bite, it's no rattle. Mahoney, you were texting me while I was in London with like a long-winded thought about how much you love Thirsty Vaquero.
SPEAKER_01:I I love Thirsty Vaquero. The all bite, no rattle aspect really came through when I was trying to do some of my own concoctions, right? And I had a certain spirit, non-alcoholic spirit, in fact, but had a little 10 milligrams of THC, you know, no big deal there. And I realized like I mixed it with Thirsty Vaquero, and it was a good drink, but it that flavor profile was a little bit too overpowering because honest to God, Thirsty Vaquero, it stands on its own. The taste in Thirsty Vaquero really is like, yeah, mix it with stuff, but make sure you're mixing it with like, yeah, the mescal that's something like nice and light that actually goes with it because the flavor profiles that I tried to mix, it didn't go over, and I realized that that was the problem. Thirsty Vaquero has that punch, has that bang, and really it's just absolutely delicious. I couldn't be more thrilled to be partnered up with them throughout this offseason, Carl.
SPEAKER_00:It's a thing of beauty, especially, especially holidays coming around. When you say Thirsty Vaquero stands alone, you want to throw a little something extra special in the cooler. You know, Grandpa could be over. He could be a non-alcoholic guy at this stage in his career, but you want to give him a robust flavor profile. At the same time, he could have the young cousins around the house, Thanksgiving, Thirsty Vacero bombs, those will hit a little bit, little vodka, a little bit of the watermelon or the mango. You mix and match as you see fit, but the biggest takeaway from this, Mahoney, is that Thirsty Vacero on its own stands alone as a delicious beverage.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, dude. Grandpa's tongue is going to be tickled, he's going to be feeling a part of the party, and it really does just stand alone. It's absolutely delicious. And um, you know, I can't wait to see what they do in the future with some of their flavor concoctions.
SPEAKER_00:Because they can really partner up. You said THC, you said we talk about booze if they want to go a health route. I mean, there's so many different things you can do. We want to just encourage what I was thinking for sure. So, just quick encouragement for the audience: if you like the Monday Morning Cub show, you want to continue to see it expand, which is what we're going to do into the 2026 season. Thirsty Vicaro is a lead partner for us. You can go to Amazon, they ship all over. I dare you to see if they don't ship to your house. Reasonable pricing, three bold flavor profiles, get it to your front door, get it before the holidays, get yourself some Thirsty Vicaro. And while we're on the subject of call to actions, I just ask, you guys are with us, throw us a five-star. If it's on Spotify, if it's on Apple, I don't think you have to leave a written review on Apple anymore, but it just means a lot as we're expanding the show, getting partners. I'm not trying to take this down to the local casino and be running fucking parlay cards down your guys' throats. We're not doing that. Save your money. We're looking for smart strategic partners. And then watching the five-star come in on the Spotify and the Apple just helps so much, Mahoney.
SPEAKER_01:It does, Carl. And you know, we used to not be called to action guys. And looking back, I don't know why the hell we weren't because the maniacs love us. We love the maniacs. All we had to do was ask. And you know what? We're going to continue to do so. And like you said, it helps the show, it helps get us more visibility, and it helps us really just improve this product that we can bring to you on a weekly basis every Monday morning, twice in the playoffs.
SPEAKER_00:It is uncomfortable to ask. You know, you you you ask people, you say, you know, show up and support us, but really in the back of your head, it's like I want to do a good job for people first before I'm asking for favors. I want people to know that we're in it, quality, consistency, deliverability. Then it makes it a little bit easier to show up and say, hey, you know, appreciate you guys. We're putting in, uh, which is a good reminder, Stirk Family Farms is 20% off for all Monday morning clubs listeners. All you have to use is promo code MMCS. I repeat StirkFamilyFarms.com. Winner is coming. Get some beef tallow for your hands. Get yourself some Wagyu eye cream for under the eyes, or get that special person in your life, a little gift and say, Hey, I'm thinking about you. You mean a lot to me. Here's a little boutique. We're going long on the call to actions here, but that is Stirk Family Farms 20% off Monday morning cub show. Get the nourishment that your skin needs. Um, okay, we have to talk quickly. Get your orders in before the holidays, folks. Carl, talk quickly. Let's roll. So the one thing I thought the most important starting point, or I guess the most important talking point before we really get into the show, we have that thing looming. It's coming next year. It has big impact on offseason Mahoney.
SPEAKER_01:What is it? So it's the lockout, Carl. And that's really why I wanted to get into first and foremost of why it's going to be a weird off-season, not just for the Cubs, but across the league. And that is the impending lockout that is coming in 2026-27.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, going into 27. So we have one more year under this collective bargaining agreement between owners and players union for them to play another season. Then they're going to sit down. It sounds like there's going to be an all-out war. This has to do with salary kip, also has to do with salary floor. Are players getting paid too much? Owners are just so unbelievably selfish. So the winner, a year from now, all the talk is going to be about whether or not players are going to go on strike. My anticipation is there will be a strike, that there will be a limited amount of games. I don't think we're going to get a full 162 in 2027. I think looking ahead, there's so much contention and so much uh, we'll just say angst from both sides, which kind of shapes up for this 2026 offseason. Yes, it's going to be weird for the Cubs for a number of reasons. It's going to be weird for a lot of people, but that lockout is coming. And the only player on the Cubs roster right now that is guaranteed a spot on the 2027 team, not including arbitration and minimum deals. Obviously, Matt Shaw falls under that category, Pete Carmstrong. But the only veterans signed on the 2027 team, there's just one, it's Danzby Swanson. The payroll for 2027 right now is like 40 million dollars. So where we're at right now, where we're trying to go, there is this big hurdle. And I think the Cubs are going to take a back seat to a lot of the bigger market clubs when it comes to dealing with the risk of the uncertainty. They don't know what's going to be happening in 2027. We're a risk-averse team. Correct me if I'm wrong. I just see Jed and Carter and Tom and Crane backing away and being like, I'm not really, we're not really sure there's too much instability, and we're trying to set ourselves up for 2050.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and that can you blame them in that regard? Because if you only have a Dansby Swanson, right, under contract going into that season, how can you shape a team in a vision with any sense of long term besides the folks that you already have, you know, under your club control? And I can't see any team making huge splashes per se, but we know how the Cubs operate specifically. You have dove quite a bit into the Ricketts family structure, the debt consolidate, you know, the debt that they've taken on, and how they actually can't have cash at hand, why Ricketts maybe should sell the team or a small percentage. And that's why the Cubs are in a more precarious situation than maybe the other big market teams that can operate right now, regardless of a lockout or a strike. And that's kind of my takeaway, and that's what I've taken really with some of the things and points that you have made along the way, and just the writing that's on the wall.
SPEAKER_00:There's three players in the Cubs in particular, and I haven't heard anybody talk about this. So just like a little nugget that's kind of bothered me is that we're really in a great position to extend a Pete Carl Armstrong, a Matt Shaw to Michael Bush, and to get these guys on the books for five, six years, buy out some arbitration, you know, whatever that A V is, you're probably gonna overpay for PCA, but you could probably underpay for Matt Shaw and you probably get a market deal for Michael Bush. And I think with where the lockout looms, we would be insane to even talk about getting extensions with these players because on the player side, there's risk and uncertainty. We we just don't know if there is gonna be a salary cap or floor, which dictates how much spending there is, and that's a completely different, long-winded conversation about the you know economics and the ethics of how we pay players and how much the owners make and financial transparency. What my point is this is that there's three players right now in the Cubs that in the Theo era, I'm like, extend these guys for the next six, seven years, take the arbitration off, lock Michael Bush into being a guy who gets 500 plate appearances a year, lock Pete Carmstrong into 160 games at center field, lock in Matt Shaw. Like those are three guys I think should it's not even a conversation at this point.
SPEAKER_01:Right, that sucks because I'm like thinking in my head, like, well, then that goes back to my point that you could kind of shape a team around what you know you're gonna have, and you know, obviously, but yeah, very interesting, and that's what they're not gonna do. So it's like I don't want to waste too much energy on that either.
SPEAKER_00:So it's a weird situation, it's really weird, bizarre, and we should as Cubs fans, we've lived through an era where we spend at the top of the market with Dio winning the World Series, kind of not being able to figure out how to retain that core, and then living in financial mediocrity. And really, the only big positive that's been propped up over the last five years is look, we spent all this money on Danzby Swanson. So other players are coming back a bit, or uh fans are coming back and say, What about other players? Can we spend more money on it? Does it have to be the guy who hits 247 with 22 homers, you know, and plays the game the right way? Like, can we can we overpay for a Kyle Schwarber? Can we overpay for you know a Kyle Tucker? Obviously, not we won't do that. So, what was interesting that came out of the I guess the owners' meetings and the GM meetings, not the winner meetings, which are in three weeks, but the first batch in Vegas, and it sounded like Jed came out and was he said, obviously, the biggest area for us to improve is our starting pitching. I just want to get your take. Do you do you believe that? Do you agree with that if he says it's our biggest area?
SPEAKER_01:I I agree that that's what they're gonna do. I do believe that that's gonna be the focus. Carter Hawkins kind of echoed what Jed had mentioned as well. And but do I agree when you lose a guy like Kyle Tucker, is that the priority, right? How much are you going to uh you know really bolster the starting pitching staff when you're not gonna spend a ton of money? Um, we'll get into who's available and whatnot here in a minute, but yeah, my takeaway is like I I don't know how you're gonna like really improve the team when we're gonna need to score runs. And are they gonna get like bad on ball guys to replace Kyle Tucker? Is it gonna be that combination of uh you know Suzuki and Mo Baller and what have you? So yeah, I agree with what they said because I think that that's what they're going to do, and they're kind of setting the expectations too. Like, look, we're not gonna get some superstar like Kyle Tucker this offseason, so don't really look for that.
SPEAKER_00:So I would break it down and I agree with you wholeheartedly, and take it one step further and say the question we have is DH and right field, and the option is Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki, which then costs us north of 60 million dollars, or is it Say Suzuki, Moballer, Owen Casey, maybe somebody from the scrap heat pile, and then that puts you somewhere around 25 million. So that extra 35 million dollar surplus. Now I agree, hey, Kyle Tucker, it we're a way better team with him, he makes everybody better, and I wish the Cubs were a team with the cash to spend it. But just being realistic, we're playing in the sandbox where the Cubs aren't cutting blank checks, and it doesn't seem like that'll be happening any offseason soon. So then it becomes kind of an easier question for Jed Hoyer and Carter in my mind to say, yeah, I'd rather have Saya play right field, roll biosteros out of the gate at$800,000. He could be what I think is awesome. I've said it on this show forever that I think but Biosteros is awesome. But from a roster construction standpoint in the offseason, like now you have to put your money where your mouth is. And if you're saying we're not gonna sign Kyle Tucker, all right, well, then what's our option in right field? Well, we have Say Suzuki's already under contract. We've got two rookies between Owen Casey and Moises Biosteros that can take the DH and the right field bats if Say Suzuki needs a day off, etc. So now you're looking at it's like that's pretty cheap between Biosteros and Owen Casey. That's like not even two million dollars to spend. And again, just compare that to the fact that Kyle Tucker is looking at you know 10 years and$500 million. So then this just goes back to where Jed said obviously our need is pitching staff. And if you just look quickly at the starting pitching, you know, Justin Steele's coming back from injury, Cade Horton didn't finish his first full season after the inning count. Matt Boyd just pitched 156 something innings, the most innings he's pitched, I think maybe ever in his career. So he was taking some risks here that next year these guys are going to be as good or better with Taon at the end. I don't know what's going on with Javier Asad, Colin Ray, Jordan Wicks. None of these guys now we're getting towards the end are really moving the needle. I like Jameis and Tayon, but it's kind of easy to understand why Jedden Carter would say, like, obviously, if you look at a roster, where we can improve based on the type of club we are is definitely in the pitching step, definitely in starting pitching. That's what I believe sincerely, even though it's kind of crazy because you're watching Kyle Tucker walk out the front door.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it it is crazy because of that situation, but then you look at we don't know, Shota's likely we don't know exactly what's going to happen there with that qualifying offer. Um yeah, it makes sense. Like steel, it will he'll be limited to start the season, and there's it just makes a lot of sense to bolster the starting lineup and the bullpen arms aspect. Like, I think that they've done a pretty good job in that in the past, so I trust them there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think it's if you look at where they're at bullpen right now, it's terrible. It's like Daniel Poncia, Portland Hodge, and then it just falls off a cliff. Sounds like Keller's gonna be looking to take a starting pitcher deal somewhere in the$340 million dollar range, obviously, well priced out of the Cubs. But a great selling point for the Cubs this offseason is go look at what Keller gets to do now in the market, go look at what Pomerancy guys for sure.
SPEAKER_01:And that is an attractive thing for players, you know, that are kind of fluttering, if you will, in their careers.
SPEAKER_00:You know, which then alternatively, when we talk about offseason free agent pitching, let's just stay quickly on there's two big names with Dylan Sees, Framber Vale does. Uh, you've seen more connection between Dylan Sees and the Cubs, and he's projected to be like a six-year,$29 million a year guy, so almost$180 million. You know, whether I do or don't love that, I think it's way outside the Cubs price range. I think when we're talking about adding quality started pitching, to me, primarily through trade, primarily through trade for somebody who has not hit free agent yet. Joe Ryan from the Tunes pops up. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, that that would make sense. I didn't realize that that was the market that Cease was looking to command. Um, I'd love to see Dylan Cease in a Cubs uniform again, but it's uh it's not looking likely. And then I like you said, we're not going to be spending that kind of dough long term, so that's out of the question then.
SPEAKER_00:And it's not like one of these guys is a John Lester changed the culture. John Lester is a change the culture player. You talk about the free agent starting pitchers out there, covering it. Nothing against Frambervale does. Heavy ball, you know, he's good postseason success, tough guy to hit, all that shit. But like there isn't any real justification when you bump it up against the lockout risk, the fact we don't have nearly as much cash as we thought we did. So I think you're gonna see a trade because we've got these players that are knocking on the door. Jonathan Long, Kevin Alcantara, uh Rojas, maybe he'll be a great double-A, triple A shortstop next year. There's certainly players there, Jackson Wiggins. Right. We had we've accumulated a farm system there where I think we can make a trade. If we do, I do think that's where we would get the starting pitching upgrade. I think Jed and Carter are hard at work right now um to find that trade piece. And I bet that trade piece has one or two years of team control or something. So that's where I see the improvement coming. I think we're gonna see a loss of a double A, triple A, some sort of package.
SPEAKER_01:Not as much as we would have in the season, though. Is that a good take there? Right, we wouldn't be giving up nearly as much for Joe Ryan while we were in the midst of a race. So it's a it's a better market for those types of players.
SPEAKER_00:I think in all respects, I'd rather trade before season than in season. I I almost said the F-word, I hate in season trades. I love a December trade. It was so nice coming into season with Kyle Tucker.
SPEAKER_01:Like learning about him beforehand, I'm like, oh, this guy is that really good of a hit, or that he was like, yeah, I like going in kind of loaded, right? And we know what we gave up already, and we can revisit another trade deadline, you know, when we need to. But yeah, give me the off-season trades, baby.
SPEAKER_00:We're gonna talk a little bit about the show to qualifying offer because Tuesday 18th, tomorrow is kind of when the the deadline is for that. I have a wish list for off-season with Mahoney. We do have a grab bag, we're gonna get to the London trip here, Chicago Bears, etc. But I do want to do a little segment called here's what we know for 2026. Right? Here's what we know.
SPEAKER_01:Here's what we know, here's what we can go off of.
SPEAKER_00:Right? We didn't win the division this year, so we're in the offseason going in 2026. I don't give a shit what the Brewers do. They trade Freddie Pralted, Jacob Mizarowski, you know, can lose his virginity. There's a bunch of big things that can happen in the offseason for the Brewers. I we're still the team that finished in second place. So what we know at the time of this winner, at the time of recording, going into GM meetings, etc., is that we have to get better than the Milwaukee Brewers. We have to improve ourselves enough. And right now we're looking at a team, maybe 84 or 85 wins, assuming no major injuries. But what we do know, the defense is elite, and that shit travels. The our defense is so fucking good, Mahoney.
SPEAKER_01:Dude, yeah, and that F-bomb was deserving team gold glove. Congratulations to the Chicago Cubs for winning the team gold glove here in the offseason awards. Um, it's just it is so good, and that's something that you really like to hang your hat on. And your case, you're scally.
SPEAKER_00:I am wearing a scally cap from London. I'm just feel I'm still feeling a little a little cheeky, mate. Um, we we know okay, so like the defense doesn't slump, right? Like that's it, that's a really huge thing to hang your hat on going in. If you pair that with starting pitching improvements and bullpen improvements, you know, now you're talking about a team that's already elite when it can came to preventing runs. You know, second half, our team ERA, starting pitching ERA, I believe, was top three in major league baseball. So like it looks like we can get a continuation of that going into 2026 without really having to commit that much more payroll. We're already elite when it comes to defense. Now we know that Matt Shaw will improve. What we saw from him in the second half is the player the Cubs bought into. Yeah, and I think that can that improvement train continues. Do you disagree with me about Matt Shaw or do you think he's gonna continue to improve?
SPEAKER_01:I do believe he'll continue to improve because what we saw in the second half kind of I mean it alluded to that, but also just what I saw in the first half, you know, scary, and then you see him actually being the ball player that he is. So I I could I have a feeling that he's gonna take that into the season and beyond.
SPEAKER_00:So these are just ranked in like where I have the most certainty, and I think that's the thing I'm starting with most certain is that Mad Shaw will continue to improve when I look at 2026. Okay, here's my second most certain statement. Nico Happen Dansby will not get worse.
SPEAKER_01:No, they won't. Those guys are just too they're just too zoned in, too professional. I mean, those are just the dudes that you could just you know send home to mother when you're dating somebody because it's like literally like these are the guys that are gonna be the gentlemen that show up, they're gonna be dressed accordingly, and like they're gonna be polite, nodding, and that's the type of guy that you want, and they're not gonna ever step back off of that until they're basically, I think that their careers are over.
SPEAKER_00:Classic pros, just classic pros. So I can I'm not saying that they're all gonna improve. Like Matt Shaw, number one, Matt Shaw's gonna get better. Matt Shaw's gonna be five and a half, six win above replacement player next year. He's just gonna light the freaking league on fire. He's one of the best defensive third basemen. The bat caught no slick, dude. You know, 530 slug in the second half with a ton of head trauma. Not really sure if he belongs. Are we gonna trade him? Are we going to the playoffs? I hit nine. Like, I think it's easy to say the number one thing I'm most confident about match will drastically continue to improve full year under his belt.
SPEAKER_01:That will be that will be uh just a lovely thing to see.
SPEAKER_00:And then the second thing, right? Again, just recapping this, I can count on Nico Dansby and Ian Hap to be just as good as they were this year. Like Hap had a good season, I think he has another good season. Dansby Swanson will not play worse than he did this year. In Ian Hap is like literally the most stable and consistent player. Now, not saying this is enough to win a World Series, I'm just saying, what do we know going into 2026? Mad Shaw should improve. These three guys won't get worse. Now we're talking about four of the nine position players in the lineup already that I feel pretty fucking good about.
SPEAKER_01:Carl, if we were right in proofs, that's a given.
SPEAKER_00:This is basically geometry proof. We're proving stuff. I think Michael Bush gets better.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think Michael's seeing more, he's gonna get more exposure against some lefty bat, you know, lefty pitching. So get him. He's gonna be, I think, that everyday guy first. I don't think they're gonna be moving him around as much. And I he has been, you know, quietly one of our MVPs, you know, the last four months of the year.
SPEAKER_00:And the one thing that kind of this is why it's three, like I want to put this higher because I think Michael Bush will continue to improve. And he's young finish top 20 MVP votes. He's under 30. I'll take that. That's young in my eyes. This was his second full season. They still won't let him hit lefties. The only reason I have this third, I would have it higher. It's a little bit lower is because I think there could still be this mental thing this off season. Is Michael Bush gonna spend a lot of time this offseason working on hitting left-handed pitching? Is this a question going into spring training? They're gonna let him see lefties, let him see lefties early. If he struggles early in the season, do we start to bench Bush? You know, do we go out and sign another right-handed hitter that plays first base, like a Justin Turner, that can kind of become a black hole at times? Like, we do have to figure out if we're gonna let Michael Bush hit against lefties full time, if we're gonna support that, ask him to develop that skill set, or we need to go out and get it, you know, as we'll talk about in our wish list here. But let me pull myself back out of this Michael Bush hole. I have it third on my list of what I know about the 2026 season, is that Bush will be better in 2026 than he was in 2025.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'll take that, Carl. I'll take that one to the bank.
SPEAKER_00:And then the last one, so that's five of our nine position players. Here's our next one. And like these are certainties. This is the last one I'm willing to put out there is that I do think PCA will be a better baseball player in 26 than he was in 25 from start to finish the entire season. He had big flashes in 2025, but I think the collective 2026 should be a better season.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, defensively, he can't get a whole lot better. However, there were a few different hiccups throughout the year and decision making. He's gonna be more mature behind the plate. I think he's gonna also get a little bit more patient, you know, as his career continues. So PCA, his bat is gonna be what we're gonna be looking for to improve, and you're confident that he will.
SPEAKER_00:Which then just leaves us the right field DH in the catcher position. In catcher, we've got Miguel Amaya coming back healthy off Carson Kelly having a career year. So like I feel good at catcher, and then really you just go back to right field DH and you say Say is Yuki, Moises by Asteros, Owen Casey, and those are the question marks. Like, I I know people are mad at Jed Hoyer for saying obviously starting pitching is something we need to improve. But if you put just position players on one side and the pitching staff on the other, to me, it's like I feel pretty solid about the core we have positionally, it's the pitchers where we can really improve ourselves or really add depth or stability or enhance the bullpen and make ourselves elite the same way we're elite defensively.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and you know what? Just you'd mentioned Miguel and Maya. I feel like losing him was a much greater impact than we realized, you know, leading down the stretch there. And having him back healthy is going to be huge for that catching unit and our offense in general. So that's another thing that we kind of need to look at is losing Miguel O'Maya and getting him back healthy, and what's that gonna look like in bolstering the offense without a Kyle Tucker in it? So that's kind of good stuff. And uh, congrats about PCA, team USA selection, center field. Big deal.
SPEAKER_00:That's a big deal. I don't think the problem I have is like him. It's gonna be I'm excited for him and congratulations. Distraction? Little distraction, one, two, little injury risks. Don't like how hard he plays that early in the season. Um, you know, obviously wearing the red, white, and blue. Can't take that away from him. Stars and stripes, baby. These colors don't fucking run.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he's been wearing that jersey since he was 16, I think.
SPEAKER_00:You know, what if they bench him? What if he's a defensive replacement? What if they what if he doesn't really get as much playing time because they like Corbin Carroll and I mean he's gonna play, folks.
SPEAKER_01:I'm just yeah, you're not we're gonna get worried about the psyche. There's a big yeah, big strikeout to to lose to Japan. Like how what's that gonna do? How's he gonna bring that into spring training? I think he'll be all right, but we'll we'll talk about that a little bit more as we move forward to the word world baseball classic.
SPEAKER_00:I think the more important thing you want to acknowledge is just congratulations for the selection. Exactly. Team looks really stacked. I'm excited about that. Hey, speaking of selection, the Cubs have a decision to make, and not Cubs decision, but they showed a Yimanaga. So let's just transition into just some quick Shota update talk here. He has until tomorrow to accept the qualifying offer. This was a bulk of the show we did last week in London, which is just the point. They've really fucked this Shota thing up so bad. Not extending him three years for$57 million, then Shoda turns down his option, which is two years$30 million, and now the Cubs counter with their qualifying offer, which is one year$22.5 million. And then they're basically hoping Shoda turns this down, goes to free agency, they get an extra draft pick. Or now I'm hearing rumblings that there's maybe an opportunity the Cubs do another deal with Shoda once he becomes a free agent and he goes to other teams and finds out that his value isn't as high as he originally thought, in order for him to. Do that though, he'd have to turn down the qualifying offer. So I guess this segment's just called Show to Watch, my friend. What's biggest on your mind when it comes to Showda?
SPEAKER_01:Well, first and foremost was the deadline. I don't know if you mentioned that last week, I might have missed it, but knowing that that's tomorrow, at least we're gonna have some news in terms of direction of the next steps. And you're saying it backfired a little bit the fact that they went back and forth, they've tried to play, you know, dice roll it a little bit with Shota's team and not extending him or whatever, and then having him turn that down, and it puts him in an interesting position, but then does that force his hand to really see what his value is? And do they know his value more than Shota's you know agency does, I guess. So that's what we're gonna find out, right? And that that might be not for another three months after his decision tomorrow. So we'll either know Shota's not a cub or he's a cub, or he's gonna be a free agent for the next few months, and then we'll see how it shakes out.
SPEAKER_00:Then I can't help but wonder if I'm overreacting to the reaction this will have to other Japanese players the cubs may be courting. And this to me sounds like not an ideal situation for Shota even. To me, this has become uh problematic on a personal level where they turned out three or 37 million.
SPEAKER_01:Like he could be a little bit confused by how business is done, you know, on the Cubs side of things. And yeah, what does that look like for you know? I was gonna throw a Japanese name out there, but there's no point in doing that. Somebody who's looking like, yeah, that's just come up and coming and is a potential superstar, you know, and they see this type of news. It's not, it really is, it could be impactful uh on the mind of some of future stars that we'd be looking to court.
SPEAKER_00:And I'm look, I'm still waiting for the reports to come in. My understanding is we got two big Japanese hitters and a big Japanese pitcher on the market, or maybe it's two pitchers and a hitter. I know there's three Japanese players that are on the market, and my understanding is if you are now whether they are, they are. The Cubs are not necessarily negotiating in bad faith, but if you're Shoda, I think it's totally fair to get a little whiff of bad faith from the Cubs, or a little whiff of this isn't how I thought it would go. And to me, that's just enough for then other Japanese players to be like, Oh, that team will mess with you, that team won't honor their commitments, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, honor huge in Japan. So that's it's not nothing, Carl. You're on to something here. You've been there, you're huge in Osaka.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. Hey, let's do a little wish list here. I put down three, I asked you to make a wish list of three things you'd like. You know, I hear three offseason things I wouldn't I wouldn't hate to see. Do you want to go first? Is this just a little you know all or strike? You got three things, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but that's a strike, Carl. I wrote them down last night, and the first foremost off the top of my head, more bullpen. And I don't know who I'm never gonna guess on who they're gonna be adding throughout the offseason because I'd be just throwing darts, but um, I want to see a bolstered bullpen. My next wait list. Wait, we're trading, we're gonna trade. I don't want to be at once. Cool, yeah. No, I want more bullpen, Carl. Sent back Kitteridge for you know another bag of cash. It was like they the Orioles won't him to us for a little bit. Uh, you know, Keller's gone. Uh we got Palencia, and we're gonna need to see more arms fill up here in this offseason.
SPEAKER_00:I want more bullpen, and I hope that Jed and Carter are doing a fantastic job of saying you come, you pitch for us for a year, two years, your career is gonna rebound, your career is gonna skyrocket. I think you can get a ton of depth and you can get good prices for pitchers on one-year, two-year deals. You can do your team, you can do your mutual option, and you just probably just here's a picture of Brad Keller who's gonna go get himself three years and 35, 40 million dollars in the opportunity to start again after his career did not go the way he wanted it to. But you got to buy into being in the Chicago Cubs bullpen the same way Keller did. And I think that attraction in the ability of the Cubs to develop guys that are already 28, 29, 30 years old that have failures under their belt to say, look at Keller, come back here. So I think you're gonna get your wish, and I think it's gonna turn out to be one of those strengths of being a Cubs fan in the long run that Jed and Carter are building is this reclamation, come get your career earnings back. All you have to do is spend one or two years with the Chicago Cubs. Look at Matt Boyd.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, it's it is like we said earlier in the sone here. It's a selling point, and I would I would run the gamble if I was a starting pitcher or a bullpen, whatever, trying to revive my career and looking at the dollars that these guys are making.
SPEAKER_00:So, my first wish, it's very similar to yours. I wanted to say one good starting pitcher, at least like a Joe Ryan, somebody that pitches, you know, clearly ahead of Jamison Taeon, somebody that like is net like that could can go right next to Cade Horton, where there isn't pressure on Justin Seal being available, you know, the last week of March or something to come back. Like, we do need one really good starting pitcher. Now, I doubt that we get it on the free agency market. I would expect it via trade. However, we get it, though, is way less important than the fact that we do get it.
SPEAKER_01:It's funny that that starting pitcher is Joe Ryan that I wish for, since that we'd wanted him, you know, in that trade deadline where you know it was McKenzie Gore, Joe Ryan, what's going to happen, nothing did. And ever since then, Joe Ryan's the guy that I've wanted in pinstripes on the north side. I want him bad. So I really that's my wish based on you know, a sub-wish under your wish, if that's allowed. Okay. What do you want to be him specific to? I want a right-handed hitter coming off the bench.
SPEAKER_00:We're not too far away on this for my wish list. So that's a huge one. I think that one's so underrated because we had so many right-handed hitters off the bench last year. John Birdie, Justin Turner. Do I want to throw in a vital Bruges on that? He hit switch. He sucked. You know, we had some real shit come off the bench last year. A solid bench player would be awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Solid right, solid, solid bench player, add some depth that can actually strike some fear to opponents and confuse the management when you know situations allow.
SPEAKER_00:I think in conjunction with that, and the other reason why I want a righty so bad is I need to put the noise in my head if like what do we do with Michael Bush if he can't hit lefties? Like, this is gonna be a thing. I'd rather just get a solid righty that like mashes left-handed pitching, and then we can use Michael Bush as like a bench guy later or something. Or I know everyone's just comfortable to say, like, let Michael Bush, let Michael Bush just play against left-handed hitters. Like, I don't think people are are like aware of the fact that Michael Bush is 28 years old. He's got 1,240 career played appearances at the major league level, and then total on like across all seasons. He has almost 4,000 career played appearances since turning 18 years old, all of which have been documented. If the Cubs want to go into the season and be like, he doesn't hit lefties. I trust whatever decision the front office, the analytics, the guys in spring training, the coaching states everybody's making about him. Like, but we just need to make that decision. He either goes against lefties and can try and develop this year, or we don't at all. We have it right to come off the bench for him, and we just do better than having it be Justin Turner.
SPEAKER_01:Agreed. The data's there. They probably know I am one of those dudes that's like, I just give him a shot at lefties. What if he could just start running into some and and and I'd rather have a strong right-handed bat that's guaranteed? So when we're that question doesn't really matter as much.
SPEAKER_00:And then the other thing, too, it just goes back to like you know, would you would you want to watch a guy struggle through it and then not figure it out?
SPEAKER_01:Like no, that sucks more.
SPEAKER_00:Like sucks more than that's not what I want to see. If we're in August and it's like, man, he's hitting one eight. We can't. This guy's a black hole against, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, get in front of it now.
SPEAKER_00:That's a big decision to make. I want to get to this grab bag, but let's just rifle through our last offseason wish list. Similar to you, I have I want a backup guy on the bench with a history of steroid abuse. Like, I want a guy who's cut corners in his career, I want some veteran who's like 30-something years old. Maybe he has one last push in him. He's not afraid to put the needle in his ass. Like, because we might just need that edge, and that's just something at the top of my head. Um, and then I'll give you my last one, and then I'll get your last one. I don't want Carter Hawkins. This is an off-season wish list. I don't want Carter Hawkins to have one media appearance, not on 670, not on Marquee Network. I don't want him having coffee with Bruce Levine. I don't want to hear one word or see one quote attributed to Carter Hawkins.
SPEAKER_01:That's the that's the thing that I brought up earlier in the episode. I was actually kind of salty when I saw his name attributed to the quote that I was reading when he was, you know, just reiterating what Jed was saying, essentially, the starting pitching and whatnot. But I was like, damn it, what's Carter Hawkins doing in front of a microphone? Shouldn't. Nope. That's not what we want at all. And last thing regarding the media, my last wish, I just want Craig to work on the media skills a little bit more.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I don't, you know, work on it a little bit more. Be yourself, but just work on it. So that's my that's my wish list for this offseason.
SPEAKER_00:Just he's too stiff at times when like levity would be nicer. He's too like he expects everyone to be as smart as he is, or I maybe he's just doing some self-reflecting, like, hey, next time I get in front of the microphone, I'll just be a little more affable. That's all you have to do. So which I this actually is a good transition point to the final segment of today's show. Grab bag, just an off-season grab bag. We could sit here and name free agents, we could talk about winter meetings, speculate, but I do like a solid grab bag to finish the show. You know, just touches on some personal stuff. So we'll start with the biggest one. You're an iPad guy, people don't know this about Mahoney. Mahoney is one of the most biggest iPad users you're ever going to meet in your life, and you're upgrading to the Model 8. Have I heard? No, excuse me.
SPEAKER_01:I'm upgrading from an eight to the latest 11. And the reason being, my son had a MIDI. So my son has an iPad MIDI. My daughter has one of my old iPad 8s. I was on an iPad 8. My son took a broom to his iPad Mini accidentally. He wasn't throwing a temper tantrum. He was playing a little bit. Screen breaks right then and there, bam, daddy's upgrading. It's time. So I'm just happy.
SPEAKER_00:I'm just happy as a clam. Is it a screen crack or full break? Is it like a little crack? Is it a crack that disturbs you, or is it just take away the swipe? Is it where the metal is starting to jagging out and it's a done. Pixels, lines, rainbow colors, zero.
SPEAKER_01:Like the display light is shining, but there's absolutely nothing you could do on that bad boy. So it worked out. Early Christmas present for old Mahomes over here.
SPEAKER_00:Do you guys track early Christmas presents in the house with kids? Kids say, Hey, Dad, I want this, hey Dad, I want that. You go, hey, wait till Christmas. They go, early Christmas present, and you forget about it. Is that is that a tough thing to manage?
SPEAKER_01:It isn't for me right now. I the tough thing for me is just getting my kids too much shit all the time anyway. So now it's almost reversed. Now I can just say, hey, you can't get anything until Christmas. But their birthdays are also in December. So I've been buying them way too many toys. We go to Target, I'm in the section. All right, you can get something for five dollars and it's fucking 30. You know, this happens to me weekly and and way too often. Spoiling, and like ever since I've been the primary, just their the house is filling up with everything that they don't need. And that said, my new excuse to them excuse, I I'm the one, look who's wearing the shoes here. I'm the I'm supposed to be the parent, and the kids have been dictating the pace. I just realized. Yeah. Anyway, now I'm saying no, you can't get any toys until Christmas. Well, it's a lot of things. Yeah, it is. And you want to know what's funny? Hand up. This was an early Christmas present from my mom. I asked my mom to get me the iPad, and she did. So thank you, mom.
SPEAKER_00:Same day. Shout out, shout outy. Uh, we know she's listening, and we love you very much. Thank you for tuning in. Also, shout out to my mom, hasn't missed an episode in nine fucking years. You know, lady originally bankrolled red line radio. She's a diehard.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, so okay, speaking of which, speaking of stuff we like, love our moms. Do you like football at Wrigley Field? There's football at Wrigley Field, Northwestern versus Michigan. I went last year when Illinois played Northwestern. You know, I've been every time Illinois plays at Wrigley, watch it on TV, just in general. Like I can do a concert. Do you like the football at Wrigley Field? Is it get you?
SPEAKER_01:I do, you know, when it's once once or twice a year. I think Wrigley is the venue that is, you know, just magical enough where you can basically host any type of event, and it's going to bring, you know, a lot to the people that are going to travel there. So that's what I enjoy because it's going to expose, you know, Michigan fans. I don't know if that was their first time playing, but that sort of sentiment where it's going to bring other outsiders in to see the beauty of Wrigley, whether it's a concert, a football game, you know, they had played football games, I think, back in the early night, you know, 1930s there for quite a while. But it was weird the first time I did see a the field set up when I think they had to kick it in one direction before the renovations. Like they couldn't actually fit a football field in Wrigley when Northwestern first played there against Illinois. Somehow like Game Day was there for the first time. Do you know what I'm talking about? So they can only have like one direction they could go in, but that's that's changed, so I think it's much better product for the you know fans viewing on the field and at home.
SPEAKER_00:I want to say it was late October, early November 2010 that you're talking about. Michael LaShore ran for about 200 yards and three touchdowns against Northwestern, ran it down their throats, but they could only go, I believe, southwards, or maybe that was west, maybe it was east, one of the directions. One field goal post.
SPEAKER_01:If my memory serves me correctly, that could be wrong.
SPEAKER_00:I just I think one field goal post is correct. I swear I wouldn't mind a bowl game. I was caught off guard with a new member in the one bowl game, maybe the first bowl game of the year or something, and then the bowl rates it goes to basically Northwestern Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin. Dude, I thought you said bowl like the Chicago Bulls playing at Wrigley.
SPEAKER_01:Bowl game, football, obviously. I'm like, oh man, lighting it up in Wrigley. Yeah, that that's out of the picture.
SPEAKER_00:That's where my mind though. It's not 11 a.m. on Monday. I haven't had anything to drink. I can guarantee you my honey has it. I'm just I don't know where that no no Chicago Bowls. I'm talking about a festive game.
SPEAKER_01:That that would be amazing. And that that 2010 game you mentioned, funny enough, I think that's the first time I met your brother. He was having a party in the area, and I was with two, and we made our way there, just a quick aside. And that atmosphere was unbelievable, as it always is when there's something cool going on in Wrigley Field. So imagine a bowl game, like any type of bowl game, that would sell out, even though you know you see in some of those like off-tier bowl games, like not even a third of the place is packed at those bigger stadiums. Get it to Wrigley Field, you're gonna be making revenue there, it's guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00:Clark Street Bowl game. Clark Street Bowl game. Who says no? You've been invited. Hey, on the subject of football, just transitioning grab bag. Bears win yesterday, another game where you're just like this. I don't know if I've enjoyed any of these seven wins, but we have seven wins against three losses. And something that came up while we were talking about this, I didn't know how much you love Caleb Williams. Like you you love him the way you love Crab Council.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm all I mean, all in on Caleb. It's not even funny now. Uh, the the comebacks lately kind of have spoken for themselves in that regard, but then for my birthday, the kids gave me a Caleb Williams jersey. So there's no looking back. I haven't had a Bears jersey since Cutler. And I wrote because I had the jersey, I think that gives me a little bit of extra oomph in the defending, and I was a cutler guy sort of thing. But I think the body of work right now with Caleb is going to speak for itself in clutch time and just wearing that number yesterday for the you know, since I got the jersey, we're undefeated. And the way that he's been finishing and he's just got it, we start to put that a little bit together earlier on. We're we're rocking and rolling, and then the Bears have a legit offense. I know that one score games, you know, that I think we have the most wins in one score games, but we always lose those in the past. All those get lost, and the like every time it's been it doesn't bounce our way, and now it is, it's because we have our guy, and I'm riding with Caleb forever.
SPEAKER_00:You know, we lose that Ravens game, we could have won that game. We lose week one against the Vikings, we probably should have won that game. And I know it's easy to say we could have missed some of these field goals. We, you know, the we blocked the Raiders field goal. It's like seven and three. I'm like, maybe we're nine and one, and then maybe people can turn around and say, yeah, just as easily as nine and one, we could be three and seven. This is just the way it is, is the NFL. We haven't been in this situation, arguably forever, where we're just winning games luckily, or we're winning games down the stretch, we're down, then we come back and win. And we have what I said yesterday on Twitter, and I think it's fair. We have a buttload of momentum because heaven forbid that we come out, we play all four quarters. Heaven forbid that we come out, we don't drop passes, you know, Caleb's in rhythm from the very start. Like then you're looking at a team. I know we're seven and three. Then you're looking at a team, you could say, actually, that's a good, that's a very good team. I don't think we're much closer to being a very good team than we are to being a bad or very bad team.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, agree wholeheartedly. I'm very excited about the first place Bears on this Monday morning.
SPEAKER_00:Watch the Bears game in London. So last part of the grab bag, I just put a list together five biggest differences in my appearance in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01:I want to hear about this, please. Yeah, let's get into some London, Carl. I enjoyed watching from afar, but I know the maniacs want to hear a little bit about it too, as do I.
SPEAKER_00:Well, just had a blast. Love traveling abroad. You know, don't get to Europe as much as I'd like to. And when I do get to Europe, I prefer to be around other English-speaking people, mostly because that's just the way I like to try. I like to talk to people. I'm very chatty, I like to get the insight from locals. And obviously, nice thing about London, you show up, right? People love Americans there. This isn't on my list, but like cannot say that enough. People love Americans in London because obviously, just close kinship, you know. Relationship starts with us going to war, but when they needed us most, we had their back in 1917, 1918, I believe, and then obviously having their back in 1941, before then sending the convoys and the merchant ships and the airplanes and all the stuff we've done for them. But like that did not the World War II love for America exists just as strong as ever when you get there. They hear you say they start hearing you talk, like, oh, America, huh? America. That's correct. Just love it. All right. So here's the five biggest differences. I wrote these down between Chicago and London. Uh, the first bathrooms, all right. So I would just encourage you to listen to this. You've heard of Butch McGuire's, you're out on Division Street, you're somewhere in Chicago, you need to take a dump. All right. That is a nightmare scenario. Walking into a Chicago bar, having to take a dump, walking into a Chicago restaurant, and walking in basically anywhere in Chicago that isn't your house, you got to take a dump. Um, that can be problematic. Let me tell you something. Every bathroom in London was like it had just been clean five minutes before you walked in there.
SPEAKER_01:Do you have to put the like a dime or a uh no either you don't have to pay? Okay, certain parts of Europe you give like you you put a little coin in, and the bathrooms are just as pristine. But no, that's great to know, London, England, that you could just go drop one with anytime because you feel a little rumble in your stomach.
SPEAKER_00:You're like, I probably just gotta crank this shit up, especially if you're drinking the cascale, if you're out drinking the porters and the stouts and you got the beer shit, you just have it in your belly. You're like, I gotta squeeze one out here. You don't have to wait to go back to the hotel. Every single bub or pub, bar, restaurant, tourist attraction took a dump at the I'm sorry to do this, but the Churchill rooms. Oh my god, like it almost got to the point where I was like looking for a disgusting bathroom. It never happened. They are so they are so proper and take care of themselves. So that's the first thing. Second thing, the building, the buildings in London, the Burger King is in the most beautiful building you've ever seen. The Taco Bell, the every single building there, you're walking around being like, Who the fuck built this? When did we have the technology to do this? A Taco Bell from 1800? And they've got carved like busts of all, you know, like the head up or statues or bra, everything honoring and all over the place on these buildings in the corner of the building. Every building, the Royal London Opera House is literally just as nice as like the train station building, which is just as nice as Buckingham. Every single you're walking around just looking at these buildings. Now, Chicago's beautiful architecture. We've got some world class, some more modern stuff, a little bit of stuff from the Victorian era, the time post-Chicago fire, but before, you know, we'll say Prohibition era, where we were building some really nice buildings, Wrigley building certainly comes to mind. But for the most part, everything in London, I mean, you're just walking on the street. I can't believe how nice all of the shit here is, all the buildings. So that's two. That isn't anything too funny or interesting, but like you can't talk about London versus and people love Chicago architecture, but like your jaw is on the floor looking at every building, and I don't think any of them are higher than Kenneth, of course, but we have skyscrapers, they don't have skyscrapers, right?
SPEAKER_01:It makes you it puts you in like a movie, you know. You feel like you jump through a time portal in a way, but it's still even the newer stuff is very sharp looking over there, from what I've been told.
SPEAKER_00:I just have three last things here. Uh, number three, the p the pleasant, how pleasant people are, how pleasant you how pleasant everybody there is. I mean, sure, dry sense of humor fucking blow me. You guys don't have a dry sense, you guys don't have a tough nut. I could you can talk to anybody there, they are so nice, they're so willing to offer you directions to step aside to tell you where the queue is to take your picture. The people there could not be any more pleasant. I couldn't get my fucking bags checked in the first class without getting attitude from three different United Employees at O'Hare. Like, we could we couldn't do on the way out, people are like, fine, you know, just getting so much attitude. You land in London. Holy fuck, are these people mice?
SPEAKER_01:Is do you think that there is a relationship between the cleansliness of the bathrooms and the pleasantness of the people because their digestive tracks are just free and clear?
SPEAKER_00:I don't know if the digestive tracts are free and clear, as much as I can just promise you that the culture and the society of being proper is the word of proper. It's proper to throw it's proper to pick up after yourself. There's no litter, it's just proper. Now, again, I'm in Kensington, I'm in Westminster, I'm in the heart of London. You know, I'm sure people say go out to a Crystal Palace game and get stabbed and then come back and tell me how pleasant the people are from London. Yeah, I stayed mostly north of the Thames River and in close proximity to it, so I'm sure I was getting the best that they have to offer, but I do think those two work in hand in hand the cleanliness of the pub or of the pub bathroom and like the pleasantry of the people, where it's like the culture in the society is just so proper. And now there's a bunch of different reasons for that. I think there's shame and I think there's reputation stuff on the table and the hierarchy of the aristocracy. But like for the most part, it's just really easy to go as a casual. The last two pub culture, you know, you can just go into the bar. There's no line at the bar, you're not allowed to stand at the bar. You can only order at the bar, tap to pay, no tip and no tabs. Whatever you pay for that round is what you just pay. So you just go up to the bar. Hey, I'd like to have two pints of this, and then they just give you the thing tap gone. So anybody who wants a drink, you can just walk right up to the bar and the bartender serving you. No one's waiting there to close out, no one's trying to calculate how much to tip. And as soon as you get the beers, Mahoney, you can go outside and smoke a cigarette with the beer. They don't if you can take the beer wit Westminster Abbey. They don't give a fuck where you take that beer. They there's no secure accountability for like you can't be drinking here or there. If you buy a beer at a pub, you could take that beer wherever you want. You own that beer.
SPEAKER_01:An untethered brewski, that's a thing of beauty. I'm also I'm over the and I'm not fighting myself in crowded bars, but the last thing I want to do is when I'm trying to close out a tab, is being shouldering, trying to get through. I gotta go. And especially even then getting a drink. The fact you just walk up and order, I don't know if I knew that. That's one of my favorite takeaways.
SPEAKER_00:It's if there's one thing I could bring back to Chicago, it would be no more tabs. Just like whatever you want, you buy, tap, pay, gone.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and you're doing the customer a favor too. No one's gonna be leaving their cards, you know, at the pub overnight. You're gonna be coming back looking for your debit and what have you because you left your tab open. You had to in here, you know, you're gonna get an automatic tip. That's not gonna happen there either, even if they did. But yeah, no, get rid of the rule.
SPEAKER_00:More responsible drinking, too, because you're with your partner, you're like, hey, let's do another round. You know, it's just a much more conscious decision than just standing at the bar and be like, hey, another round, hey, another round, another round. Yep. So that was my fourth thing, the pub culture. And hey, Chicago's got great bar culture. I don't want to trade our dives for anything, our taverns, I love it. I'm just saying these are differences in Chicago. You buy you take one step outside of beer, like outside of a bar with a beer in Chicago to secure Jay, you can't take this, you can't go anywhere with this, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. London, there's no oversight at all, just complete free-for-all pub culture. And then just my last thing it's a completely unnavigable town without GPS. So, whoever invented GPS, the only reason you can have a great time in that city right now is because you can pull out Google Maps. Otherwise, however, the Romans built this place, and then those after them, Norman the Cocker in 1066. I mean, the fact these people just literally couldn't figure out an easy way to structure a city, you don't believe it till you're there. I thought we just took a left here, take a right here, just walking in fucking circles. So, shout out to the obviously the the the big winner of the trip for me was GPS technology.
SPEAKER_01:No grid system there, it's not we're not looking at numbers on streets as often.
SPEAKER_00:Somebody talked shit to me because I was wearing a Chelsea hat on the tube. We went to a Chelsea game, and then we were coming back from the Chelsea game back to the hotel, just jumped on the tube, wasn't even thinking anything of it. And four guys came up to me and Mrs. Carl, and we're like, Oh, a couple fucking proper Chelsea fans. Oh no, you had some hooligans ready to get going. Dropped the hardest Chicago accent you've ever heard in your pal terrified. Hey, pal, I appreciate you coming over and say hi. We're fucking good here. Thanks, buddy. And they and it wasn't this look like we're not fucking with this guy from Streetwood. They knew they're not one of you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's not one of the gang.
SPEAKER_00:So they leave, they get off on the next stop. And then the lady sitting across from us was like, Hey, I was at the Chelsea game too. She opened up her bag and she her purse and her hat, her hat and her scarf were in her purse. So they take it off. Yeah, she's take it off when you leave the stadium because you never know who you're gonna run into in the transportation. You could just like you have no idea. And it was like four, and I mean, I would have been the smallest guy in this group of four guys. Oh man, yeah, never mind. What am I? Six one, two twenty. Yeah, these were big fucking guys, like so. I was like, Oh, I better, I can't say, hey, we're from America be nice. I was like, Yeah, thanks a lot, pal. We're we're just fucking fine, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'm glad that that situation calmed down, but it's a good point, though. If I'm ever at a match in the future, like get your gear off, especially from out of town. I don't know what the hell where I'm going, who's who and what's what. So yeah, get the gear off. It's that's what's nice in America. You can leave your shit on for the most part. Like, not and I'm not wearing like Cubs hats to socks games. I just don't do that because of whatever, but um, you know, you're basically fine here. There, it can be a problem.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they they they're insane. It would be like having 10 and nine NFL teams within like a 25-30 mile radius. Like these people hate each other. I saw Manchester United and Tottenham fans get into a fight in Chinatown just walking around the street, just started scuffling, not like throwing haymakers or anything, but like in each other's faces. Yeah, given the pussy. Yeah, I don't want to sound like a guy who just studied abroad and like it's not like we're moving to London or like you know, I'm counting down the days to go back. It was an amazing experience, it's a great place to go. It was something we had been wanting to do for a long time. But my parting thing is like red, white, and blue, stars and stripes, it's God's country for a reason. These colors don't run, set it before I'm gonna say it again. The fact we're sitting here talking about America's pastime, it's nice to go over there and experience the culture and the history. However, if your primary thought isn't just how lucky we are to live in this country, this country is fucking awesome. Love America, just love this place so much.
SPEAKER_01:Well, welcome back, Carl. And it's great to see you. I'm glad that the Trip went as smooth as possible. Um, yeah, shout out to the maniacs for the continued reviews. We're gonna be keeping an eye on those, yeah. And that's that's just a little bit of a shot call there.
SPEAKER_00:Five stars would help. I think if you want to have a good off season, a little bit of karma, throw five stars on Spotify. If you guys get a chance, you know, you want to check out StewartFamilyFarms.com for skin nourishing needs, 20% off promo code MMCS. But really, the title sponsored everything we're doing. Seriously, the throw, we're just gonna close with just a quick reminder all bite, no rattle, signature spicy finish from a Mexican-style soda you have not had until you tried. Promise. Fact.
SPEAKER_01:Till next time, folks.
SPEAKER_00:Be prepared for a weird offseason. Next time we talk, Show to Imanaga's qualifying offer will have been decided. He should be in free agency, and we should have more speculation about trade targets. Until next time, again, guys, five-star review goes a long way. And go follow Mahoney. Who doesn't the shows are way better when Mahoney's around.
SPEAKER_01:So I plan on being around as much as I can this offseason, maniac. So yeah, drop a follow at TBus.
SPEAKER_00:God bless, go cubs. We'll see you guys next Monday.