Inside Jed’s Quiet Plan For A Run-Prevention Cubs

Boring offseasons reveal what a team really stands for—and ours is spelling out a clear identity. We lay out why the Cubs are doubling down on run prevention, stacking veteran relievers with complementary shapes, and trusting elite defense to turn tight innings into quiet scoreboards. Instead of chasing a headline, we’re building a bullpen that can segment games, shield young starters from third-time-through exposure, and thrive under pressure because the group culture is strong enough to bounce back after rough nights.

We dig into Dansby Swanson’s value beyond the box score: pre-pitch positioning, first-step reads, and real-time communication that shifts entire innings. Then we pivot to the bats. This lineup won’t bully you with tape-measure shots; it will bleed you with disciplined at-bats, zone control, and situational hitting. If Michael Busch, Seiya Suzuki, Ian Happ, Matt Shaw, and PCA keep strikeouts down and stack quality plate appearances, manufacturing offense becomes the sustainable path in a league obsessed with velocity and spin.

There’s risk, and we own it. The plan assumes veterans don’t backslide while the kids level up. That means protecting Cade Horton’s workload now so he’s nasty in October, and giving PCA and Shaw defined reps to grow without asking them to carry the room. Layer in ownership constraints and a cloudy 2027 CBA horizon, and the strategy makes more sense: flexible spending, targeted arms, and a style of play that travels in September.

If you want a blueprint instead of a splash, this conversation is for you. Tap play, ride along with our resolutions for beating Milwaukee, keeping the rotation healthy, and sharpening offensive identity, then tell us where you stand. Subscribe, share with a fellow Cubs fan, and drop a quick five-star review so more fans can find the show.

Thanks for tuning in!

- Carl & Mahoney

Chapters

• 0:00 Solo Host, Sponsor Shoutouts, Setup
• 8:10 The Case For Trusting Jed’s Quiet Offseason
• 15:30 Bullpen Culture As A Competitive Edge
• 24:20 Dansby’s Leadership And Intangibles
• 31:40 2026 Roster Rules And Ownership Constraints
• 41:20 Building The 2026 Cubs Identity
• 52:30 Manufacturing Offense Over Muscle
• 1:03:10 Defense, Lineup Texture, And PCA/Shaw
• 1:13:20 Youth Must Rise, Veterans Can’t Regress

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

And we are clear. Good morning, good afternoon, and evening Chicago Cubs fans. Welcome back to the Monday morning Cub Show. It's your host, Carl, with a solo. Monday, January 5th. Mahoney's out of town on business. Big deal for Mahoney. So just round of applause quickly. I'm not putting in the round, but just clap and say congratulations to Mahoney. Follow him. Just big stuff for business. We meant to do the show on Sunday. Somebody, me, got a ticket to the Bears game last second to go sit in the 400s. So we didn't record the show yesterday. It's solo. We're not going to spend the whole time explaining solos. We do every now and then do these to accommodate schedules. Most importantly, welcome back, my friends. In what is arguably the most boring and predictably boring off season of my lifetime as a Chicago Cubs fan. Because I you can say through like 2010 until Theo came in charge, like, sure, we were stupidly optimistic every single offseason. That's what happens when you get a Soriano, when you get Derek Lee. That's what happens. Uh, you know, when you get a Ted Lilly and you want a Ted Lilly and you grow up with that expectation, and now we're in this postmodern hellscape financed by the Ricketts family, where your offseason is Phil Maton highlights, and you will eat your Phil Maton highlights and you will like it. Or you will go to bed, my friends. You will face punishment. You will sit in the timeout chair if you don't appreciate Jacob Webb's advanced stat cast metrics. And that's what it means to be a Chicago Cubs fan. Right now we just have to deal with it and trust that these guys are smarter than we are. There's your opening theme for today's show. Just maybe, I suppose, because we'll really we have no control. Unless you want to protest, then I'm all ears. If you want to protest, I have poster boards. I have the I have the magic marker. I'll make the fucking signs. I'll do the marches. We'll go stand up by the Harry Carey statue. I'll do it first thing in the morning. Just lob insults at guys coming in from the Toyota lot down Waveland. That's a little bush league. But you guys understand what I'm saying is that we really don't have that much control. Uh so I guess the theme is let's just trust for right now on January 5th. Guys making the decisions are slightly smarter than we are. Now, this is a loaded show. We're gonna do this one. Why do I do this? I don't know. But let's just keep it under 43 minutes. Uh last week, some pressure from uh Mrs. Carl to run errands. Today, no pressure. We're just gonna see if this is a step in my professional development. As I'm gonna sit here and ask for steps in professional development later in the show from Matt Shaw, from Kate Horton, from our front office in the strategic pitching lab standpoint of keeping starting pitchers healthy. I'm gonna make some asks of people on the professional development side. So let's make an ask of myself. Can I keep it tight? Can I? That's a question. Here's an answer. Thirsty Vicaro is sponsoring today's show. Shout out to a Mexican-style soda that's all bite no rattle with the signature spicy finish, my friends. Three bold flavors that enables the Monday morning cub show to exist. With some news coming for 2026, my friends. You know, right? With some news, are we going to two shows a week permanently for the Cubs season? Will I be doing interviews with people? Will we add an interview element on a Friday morning? You know, would it be smarter to do it Thursday night? I don't I don't know. I know that Thirsty Vicaro empowers me to make Cubs content, which is why I would just say sentimentally, if you guys get a chance, check them out. You know, checks clear here. Don't worry about keeping the lights on. I had a septic issue today, outflow pipe. You know, I was in London a couple weeks ago. Come back, nine grand in expenses. Septic, we got we got well drilling, holes piping, you name it. All right, out of pocket, cash. Now, I'm not saying get the thirsty Vacaro so I can pay for the home improvements. That's not the relationship I have with Thirsty Vacaro. They're the title sponsor of the Monday Morning Cub Show. Um, you know, and not make I'm telling you, it's a delicious beverage. That's the point of this. That home repairs notwithstanding. You know, I offered the guys today, the septic guys are out today, putting in new pipe and uh putting in a new outflow pipe. You know, if I seem jittery, it's the 17 cups of coffee I had while sitting outside. Out of respect, you know, I'm not watching these guys over their shoulder, but I go, Can I get you guys a beverage? And they said, We're fine, we got a thermos of coffee. I said, Well, can I inter can you guys would you guys be interested in thirst of Acaro? They said, never heard of it. Never heard of it. Chad and Andy, G and L Cetic out of St. Charles. A couple Thirst of Acaro's for these guys. We're sitting around, you know, is it a lunch break? No, it's first thing in the morning, but it was a four-hour job. They did take a break, and they should, obviously, they should, you know, fair price, reasonable, great service. But my point is we sat around and had a thirst of a carol, and as I'm telling this story, I realize how the hell am I supposed to keep this baby, this bird in the air for 43 minutes, and I'm over here talking about Chad and Andy sitting down and having a thirst of a carol, but that's the point, my friends. Chad had a mango habanero. Andy had the chili lime. I had the watermelon jalapeno. We didn't share and we weren't passing around. I'm not doing that with the septic guys, and it's not because they're septic guys, it's because out of respect, I'm not saying go ahead and have a sip of the watermelon jalapeno. No, my friends. And we are gonna talk Bears Packers later in the show. I have some observations of the day at Soldier Field. Had a great time in the season tickets. Uh, my buddy season tickets, I should say. His dad, 44 years season ticket holder. We're gonna get to that, but Thirsty Vicarol, buy it on Amazon. Three bold flavors. You'll love each and every one. It's a unique thing to put in the fridge. Pairs nicely with alcohol, if that's how you want to have it. Also pairs nicely with takeout food. Also, stands alone. You know, my friends, we call that dynamic fucking range. That's like having a girlfriend you can take to Vegas. She saves in her 401k. Uh, you know, a little bit of a bad girl, you know, when necessary. What I'm saying is it's a well-rounded beverage, multi-purpose. And some people are gonna think I hit the fast forward button on this episode. You know, is this at a 1.25? I can't even imagine how fast it sounds at 2x. My point though is check out, there's Davig Harrow. This is the Monday morning cub show. I want to thank everybody who's left a review. Keeps us going, keeps the lights on, keeps us fucking moving. 92 wins last season in our first official standalone season. Right? First season post Barcelona. Cubs are 92 and 70. Uh, bears win the NFC North. You know, what is that? Karma. That's good luck. That's everything for me. That's huge for me. You know, that's just great stuff for me. That's great stuff for you. 92 and 70. Building blocks into 2026.

unknown: 7:09

Right?

SPEAKER_00: 7:10

Chicago Bears, NFC North champions. Now, we don't have to get too specific, but the rest of the sports teams I do cheer for are doing well. And with that, I'd like to just say quickly, again, thank you to people who've left the five-star review, and I hope you guys are doing well as we start the new year. The last segment of today's show, should say second to last segment of today's show. Just some New Year's resolutions for the 2026 Cubs. You know, just a couple, like nothing too hard-hitting here. Nothing too like serious. Also, though, like nothing too goofy. Like, we we actually are we're keeping it tight here. Like, I'm not we're not just like saying shit to say shit when we get to our New Year's resolutions. I think they're pretty serious. I think they're I think they're pretty dialed in, is what I should say. Um again, thank you to Thirsty with Carroll. All right, let's just do a quick free agency update. I said this would be a boring offseason, you know, delivery. I I mean on demand. Ask and deliver. What are we looking at this offseason? What do you think Jed's gonna do? Not do shit, short up the bullpen, bring in some veterans, a lot of guys that have nine lives, you know, bring in some projects that want to be Chicago Cubs that are probably taking slightly less money to go down the Brad Keller path of need to revitalize the career. That guy went out and got 22 million this offseason. That's very attractive to guys that have confidence in their stuff, that have good stuff, that can't find a suitor for multiple years or at the price that they want. And that's basically where Jed has spent the bulk of his time this offseason. However many weeks it's been seven. You know, so what do we have to show for it?$30 million to five relievers, and then another buck and what is that, a buck and a quarter, 1.25 to the righty, Tyler Austin. Okay. So it's slightly over$30 million for six players, which is at five million about on average. What is that? Five million in change per player added so far free agency. I would guess that's about as low as anybody in Major League Baseball that has added uh at least four players in the offseason. That has to be as low as anybody. Now, part of that though is because it is targeted specifically around one position group in the bullpen. The other part of that is we're intentionally bargain hunting, right? So like Phil Maton probably could have gotten a lot more money for one year, but two years at 7.25 million, I believe. So if he's one year, could have he could he have he gotten nine or ten, and do we need to spend so much time on Phil Mayton? Not necessarily as much as I'm just trying to frame this as the Chicago Cup. What is Jed doing? And when I talk about we have to trust that he's smart, he's brought in five veteran relievers at about$30 million, all of which I have a reason to like on paper and in practice. And all of these guys are going to contribute to what I've talked extensively about in this show, which is bullpen culture, which stands alone from all other position groups. Could you have catching culture? There's two catchers on the team. Do you have infield culture? Huh? Outfit? Do you have like culture with power hit? Where's the cult? Where's subgroup culture? Starting pitchers are individuals, they don't give a fuck about each other, other than are you a good time to sit next to in the dugout? Do you have insights to share? But from the standpoint of let's go for a jog together, are you out of your fucking mind? Sorry for my language. From the standpoint of maybe go get some wings together, I don't even know if starting pitchers hang out. I think that is, as a comparison, one of the unique things about Maddox Glavin Smoltz, that those guys actually did hang out. They played golf together, they were close friends, and not by circumstance as much as that they enjoyed each other's company, applying that to the Chicago Cubs and talking about our starting pitching staff, and generally, generally Major League Baseball as a whole in today's era, starting pitching very individualistic position and thus individuals. So, from a subgroup standpoint, when you look at the bullpen, it's more of this collection of misfit toys. It's the offensive linemen, it's the overlooked guys, it's more of the rah-rah camaraderie. Now, not with everybody. Certainly, as major league pitchers, these guys are individuals in their own right and not necessarily the isolationists you are afforded as a starting pitcher. And you also don't have nearly as much control, and it's just part of the hierarchy and the ultimate, you know, stew, I guess you could say, subjectively, of what makes a clubhouse a clubhouse. The Bowpen ergo, in my long-winded route here, is really the only subgroup in a baseball team in which you can have impactful culture. You can target guys that bond and build, not necessarily being friends. I don't give a fuck if they go fishing. What I'm talking about is what's the tone when you're down there in the sixth inning? When the rookie is getting warmed up, when somebody who got their shit rocked and blows the game, is it a clubhouse culture that the next time they're in the bullpen, is that guy sitting alone? Not does that guy feel alone? Or, you know, what it what is that? And how much does that matter? And it's easy to write that shit off and say, who gives a fuck? I care about the spin rate. But before you even touch analytics and we talk about results, I also like to talk about what's in between a player's ears and how a player feels about themselves, what their preparation is. All that shit that goes into when you get on the mound, can you execute? When you get in the batter's box, are you in a situation to perform either under pressure or against a very talented, you know, opposing arm, etc.? But from the standpoint of Bullpen, this is one of the very few areas where you can subjectively through culture impact the team in ways that are very difficult to quantify, that still evade metrics. And I'm going to throw Bullpen culture right at the top of the list. In the same emphasis that I have with Dansby Swanson's defensive instinct and his preparation for opposing teams to thus shift other guys around and tell infield, hey, move deeper into the hole towards first base, or encourage outfielders back into the gap, etc. And to the extent that Dansby Swanson can communicate that across the field, process this information, do it seamlessly within a 30-second pitch clock window, is fucking crazy. And, in essence, stands alone. His instincts, you know, are arguably as good as anybody's in baseball's first step is as good as anybody. There's a lot of little subjective things, okay, and then the guy gets to lead by example by being your shortstop. So when you see Pete Crow Armstrong play confidently, I'm not saying it's because Danzu Swanson's holding his fucking hand, but he certainly creates that environment that makes it easier for a guy like PCA to come in. I think the same thing applies for Ian Hap. That makes it easy for a guy like Say to come over from Japan. That makes it easy for a guy like Matt Shaw to come up and play confidently at third base towards the end of the season and grow throughout the end of the season. You know, Dansby Swanson certainly sets the tone. He carries a lions share of the uh public disapproval when things are going poorly. Now, obviously you hit 190 with runners in scoring position. You're gonna point the finger right back at you, Dansby, making$28 million a year. But this is a good st this is like a good swing point here to say, Dansby, while I'm going on this esoteric tangent of bullpen culture and Dansby's culture in these like things that definitely add up in the bottom line that nobody has a spreadsheet on yet. The rah-rah speech, you know. And if if you want to discredit what I'm saying, be careful because there's a lot of people that put a whole lot of weight behind one speech Jason Hayward gave one time. When I'm making the argument of we're talking about consistent daily leadership from Dan Smith Swanson, not to say Jason Hayward did it, but if you're gonna isolate, well, he gave a speech. I'm telling you every fucking day Dancing Swanson's willing to give that speech or leading in an exemplary way that it that is worthy of speech giving. So that's just my overall outlook when we talk about 30 million on five relievers and a what 1.25 above a million to a guy in the bench, six players, not$32 million spent. Alright, so it's boring. We anticipated this. Take a deep breath. Everybody, myself included, myself included. Because where I want to take this is we talk about 27 coming up, some of the harsh realities, and it we'll just play this game for a second. You know, it's like New Year's Eve, I'm over at my buddy's house, we're playing a board game, we sit down, you gotta read the rules before you play any game. I don't know what it was called. Outsmarted, apples to apples, cranberries, what was it called? Uno, whatever the game is, it comes with rules. You want to play the game, here are the rules. Now, you guys suppose you bypass the rules, you could that but you're not playing the game, it's difficult, it'd be difficult for a lot of people to play the game. So, with the same kind of thought process in mind, if we're gonna play a game, and that game is build the Chicago Cubs 26 roster, or talk about it, or be uh, you know, in a hypothetical realm around the roster, we have let's put rule we have to put rules in place. Otherwise, the conversation's chaotic and pointless. Bring back Kyle Tucker. My fucking cheeks pale. And I gotta watch those F words that did not make it on the resolutions. But like, we're bit this is what I'm saying. It's January 5th, buddy,$32 million, six players, not even. Almost all of which are bullpen guys, you know, and then the other guys have flyer to hit left-handed pitching if Michael Bush can't. Fine. But the rules are in place here. We are not a market maker, we are not a needle mover or market maker. We are not signing high-end free agent contracts, just will not happen. Period. End of story. Even when they waive Danzby Swanson in front of us, we can just say he was the fourth most expensive shortstop in that year. Was it even the first or second in his class or third? There are three shortstops that got more money than him. Carlos Correa, Trey Turner, Zander Bogart's. Dancy Swanson was the bargain hunt of that year at$177 million. As much as I just got on my knees, and what did I do? I blew him because that's what I do with Danz B. Swanson. Proverbial. Say with me. Proverbially, I can't get that one. That one's tough. If you got that one, shout out you. If you see me out, just come up, drop a proverbially on me. And you'll instant respect. I'm not, you know, don't wag a tip jar in my face, but I do have a lot of respect for people who could pronounce that word. And I'm using it within the context of giving Danzby Swanson a healthy blowjob. And that's from the standpoint of saying that's what I've done, and that's what I will continue to do as a fan of the Cubs, as somebody who knows what I hold out to be a lot more than the average person about baseball. I gravitate towards me, Dansby Swanson. And in all of this, I'm still saying he was a bargain for his class of free agent shortstops. And that's the guy the Cubs convention's coming around, 16th, 17th, 18th. And that's the guy Cubs internally are like, well, we pay a lot of money, so we're not afraid to spend money. Look at Dan's V. Swanson. Yeah, okay, pal. After three other teams unloaded. So just context here, guys. Context here. And the context is important as a swing transition point to say Danzby Swanson is one of only two players that's on the books for 27. Everybody else has it club option, mutual option, club option. You know, free agency status, or your Pete Crow Armstrong, you're under team control, your Matt Shaw under team control, Kate Horton under team control, Justin Steele under team control. You're under team control, or the only per only free agent contracts you're paying are Danz V. Swanson and Phil Maton in 2027 for a total of$32 million. Which is exactly almost identical to how much money that we've spent this offseason thus far. Now, the reason this is important is because there will be a lockout in 2027. I will be stunned if they play 162 games, and they are should, I should say, they should be in a position to tackle finally salary cap or salary floor or some sort of salary controls in place. Now, the players won't budge on that and they'll argue and they'll fight. And the new collective bargaining agreement will take a lot of time. And the reason this is important is we've talked extensively about how much the Ricketts family finances on a day-to-day off of operating revenue. So if I say the Cubs are going to miss games, even if they miss 10 games, say they miss 10 games, say they play 150 game schedule, say they miss 12 games, say six of those are, you know, say just half of those are home games. I think conservatively the gate, the Cubs gate on a home game, if I have my numbers correctly, is somewhere around$7 million. Every game the Cubs miss at home, I think is somewhere, and I'm talking about operating revenue. I'm not talking about TV. I'm talking about just concession, ticket, and surrounding revenues, etc. What is it, six million? Throw in split the pot. Do you think that's really going to charity? No. What do we? I mean, maybe sure. Throw in the rooftops. Yeah, goodbye, Tommy. So these are the conversations we're just having generally as we talk about this offseason. One of the reasons why we were able to label as so predictably boring. It's like, well, we know this lockout's coming. We know how sensitive the Rickets are to cash. Here's how much they stand to lose per game. You know, all indications point to there being a work stoppage. So as we look at 27, all right, we've got Phil Maton and Danzby Swanson on the books. That's an easy, that's an easy one to understand. Nico Horner, no. Ian Hap, no. Say a no, maybe. We gotta check. Let me double check. Let me double check. Say it. In the meantime, just use this as an opportunity to draw some context. We've taught I mean I hate that this the point of the show is not every week I come in here and take a fucking victory lap. I told you so. I told you Kate Horton would be awesome. That did feel good. You know. I told you this offseason would be a you know. Am I saying snooze fest too much? No, I'm saying you know too much. But point remains. This show does not exist for purposes of me coming in here on a weekly basis. Told you guys so this offseason would suck. We can be sharper. You can use the offseason to at least, I mean, get smarter emotionally. And I think, in a sense, I have enjoyed the last couple weeks and will enjoy the next couple weeks from the mindset of narrative and storytelling, and this is how I kind of see the story of the 2026 Cubs coming together. This is how I see the group coming together. This is an actual official segment, the story of the 2026 Cubs. This isn't in any like you know, ranking what I think the priorities are. But if I was telling a story about the 2026 Cubs right now, how do I envision them? How do I see this shaping up? What are some things that jump out to me as we say a ball club's identity? Which is what hey, that's team sport. You get an identity, you get a competitive advantage through identity if executed appropriately, and there's a whole slew of identities to pick from, especially in baseball. So the 2026 Cubs, the story I would tell, this is a team run prevention first, which is a fancy way of combining pitching and defense, which already was good last year. It already was good, but still good enough in the second half, I should say. But if you had to improve, if I gave you 30 million bucks and said improve the Cubs for next year, I the smartest thing I would say is go right to the bullpen and get a different mix. You know, we've got some elite stuff from what's that big fella's name from North Carolina, from the Boonies, Hunter Harvey. Big arm from him. We have a soft poo tossing lefty and Hobie Milner. We added a really funky and I should say effective under the radar righty and Jacob Webb. We added a guy who throws 90 miles an hour, but with like the most swing and miss breaking stuff in Phil Maton. You know, you gotta take your, I suppose you gotta take your, you know, your wins where you can get them. I'm nervous to like overreact that I think this is huge. That I think like the bullpen culture stuff, adding veterans, being sensible up about the guys we're bringing in, not just because they've got big stuff, but bringing in a mix of guys that have different effective usage points so that the pressure doesn't have to fall on the rest of the guys that are in the bullpen already. They can just continue to go out and execute and do their shit. You know, I'd like to see Porter Hodge healthy. Um we just go down the list. Like just go just go down the list of guys on the Cubs depth chart. And I think when I consider the bullpen editions, it's like, okay, well, I think I think these guys add depth across the board. I think they take innings from starting pitching. I think we have more value towards the bottom of our bullpen. I like the opportunity to match guys up. I like multiple lefties in the bullpen again for another year. I like bringing Tielbar back. You know, that's the other big move. It's that's good shit. And they didn't bring everybody back from last year, which was a successful year from a bullpen standpoint, in my opinion. Not a dominant year, but above average. And when you talk about bullpen, you just you want, I mean, at the very minimum, you obviously you want to be above average. Um, so just collecting ourselves and talking about the 2026 Cubs here, guys, run prevention as a whole, the bullpen editions speak to me. Let's be more intentional with our starting pitching. And let's be a little bit deeper in the in the pitching staff and be a little bit more realistic about the fact that, you know, we probably aren't gonna see more than 15 to 20 percent of our starting pitchers, of our starts, go three times through the order. I would guess it's around 15%, maybe even 10. 12. What is that? That's a reality, folks. So going out and adding a collective of veteran relievers, which again going into the bullpen culture, which is just gonna be important because that's a huge asset as you go into 162, not having to rely on Kate Horton. It'd be nice to see him throw 200 innings. I would love to be at Cooper's Town for his induction 20 fucking years from now. All right? Let's keep him healthy first and let's use him effectively and let's get him rolling in October. You know, if we're gonna tell a story about him specifically, it's I want to see Kate Horton pitch healthy in October. I think he's a terminator. I think he's out to murder people. So just bring him along slowly. Don't beat his shit up in June just because we failed a bunch of other people keeping him healthy. You know, which is kind of outside the scope of the point of the segment, which is the story of the 2026 Cubs, and I'm going back. One run prevention, two manufactured offense. Michael Bush is good. Michael Bush will not carry lineup. Say Suzuki's good, say Suzuki will not carry lineup. Most of that can be said about everybody in our lineup. So that kind of all adds up to what I'd say is manufactured offense, timely hitting, good quality at bats. You know, can we be I suppose we should be top 10 in baseball in strikeout rate? And I'd like to see that be attacked with intentionality. I'd like to see batting average attacked with intentionality. I'd like to see us get away from batted ball results, oh shucks, gee whiz, and have more strategic cat mouth shit against a pitcher. So what if you so what so what if you hit it 66 miles an hour off the knob of the end, like the knob of the barrel or whatever? If done intentionally, to the other side of the field with the runner out second base and less than two outs, well, now we're in business, folks. Right? I suppose, is that too specific of an example? When I talk about the mindset of manufactured offense, right? Pete Crow Armstrong would be an outlier in the lineup of that free swinging, go rip the cover off the ball. And he may go down a path of more strike zone discipline this year. You could see him get some, there could be another mental hurdle he has to clear as a player, as you saw emerge in the second half. Does that carry into the this season? We shall see. But for the most part, our approach generally as a lineup is very uh consistent, demanding. Ian Happ is a demanding hitter. He wants the ball in a specific place. He knows the strike zone inside and out. Just class, all class from that guy. How many career plate appearances from him? At least 5,000. No doubt. So, same thing can go for say a Suzuki. You know, he gets rung up a lot. I think he kind of gets fucked. Strike zone challenges would just benefit him more than anybody else in the Cubs lineup. Michael Bush is very particular about his strike zone. Nico Horner, very particular about his strike zone, also particular about swinging and missing. You should say the same thing about Matt Shaw. And you just kind of look at that lineup, just very particular hitters, but not explosive. Not guys that are going to strike fear into an opposing pitcher. Just consistent quality professional hitters. And as I if I'd had to just quickly, if someone said briefly, how would I describe the Cubs lineup? I'd just say it's a man, it's manufacturing. It's stringing together two, three of these things in a row. It's not Earl Weaver three run homer ball. Which maybe warrants an extended conversation, not now if I want to keep this at 43 minutes. But I think that's the appropriate response to where modern pitching has evolved, which is something we've talked about historically on this show, of the lack of intentionality behind direction and aim and accuracy and where am I throwing this pitch to a profound emphasis on how hard am I throwing it? What's the spin rate? How hard is this? Where does this grade in velocity without considering deception, repeatability? You know, the the factors in when you present a pitch that make it difficult for a hitter to pick up on. There are things other than velocity. And like I said, again, deception, repeatability, and repeatability meaning can you throw it to the same location? Repeatability meaning, and are you throwing your pitches from the same hand position? Are you giving shit away? There's there's plenty of things that have generally and collectively lost emphasis, particularly in the last 10 years. Since we started like 3D tracking pitchers, you know, hooking them up to machines and shit. And it's made its way to the big leagues, and that's just because ultimately these guys are more difficult right now, batting average against, slogging percentage against. Collectively, it's harder if the emphasis is on 100 in plus breaking stuff. Where before, historically, you know, not to be like old baseball head, it just it that just isn't how it was. The bullpen was made of guys that had 10 years of service time that are all failed starting pitcher. Every bullpen guy in the 90s is a failed starting pitcher, save for the exception of a handful. Now you're seeing completely different career trajectories from how guys are being used as pitchers. And there's a longer discussion point there. My point for now, though, is that the counter to where things have evolved from a lineup, in my opinion, would be in the discipline and the quality and knowing the strike zone and working the strike zone collectively as a team and not being a team that strikes out a lot. And then if we take it one step further, like the Nico Hornerism, the emphasis on line drives, which is selfless, really, because you don't get paid to hit line drives in today's game. You get paid to hit home runs. But if you have this team that is playing to its strengths, irrespective of what the next contract looks like, I think that's kind of where you get the what the 2026 Cubs look like. And ultimately, how would I describe that lineup? Manufacturing. So one is run prevention, two is a manufactured lineup. Now, most of those guys that we've talked about in our lineup turn around and play elite defense. I think the Cubs have the best team defense in the National League. I think I'd be very comfortable arguing that. I think they're the weakest links in the Cubs defense. Now that could get exposed next year if, say, Suzuki's forced to play 140 games in right field. If what we understand to be true about who Owen Casey is, and Mo Baller DHing, then you would have to fill in, say, Suzuki and right field. That's kind of the only weak point. Everybody else, you just Dansby elite, Shaw elite, Michael Bush elite, came up as a second baseman, just soft hands. Nico elite, Ian Hap, as good of a left fielder uh of his generation, Pico Armstrong, you know, fan base up in arms. This guy doesn't win platinum glove. Up in arms. That's how good he is defensively. And we got catch and throw guys. So we're just telling the story here, guys. 26 cubs. I'm looking ahead. I'm just saying run prevention, elite defense, manufacturing of manufacturing offense, which I think has less of a tendency to slump, although it did slump hard in the second half. But I think there's some adjustments here. I think we're a step further. If what I think is true about Matt Shaw, if Moises Biasteros is the guy I understand him to be, if Kyle Tucker was playing hurt, if Pico Armstrong was just slumping, then I can turn around and say, like, all right, I can I can kind of fill in these gaps without Kyle Tucker. The question is, how much did those guys need Kyle Tucker in the first half to have good first halves? We look at the collective of the 25 season, and there's things that stand out. I think it was like a top five offense. Most of that damage was done in the first four months. How much did Say Suzuki benefit from the Kyle Tucker relationship and then just apply that to everybody else? Michael Bush, PCA, etc. Stat heads would say it doesn't matter. Baseball guys would say it matters a lot. I think the truth is somewhere in between. And with that in mind, I think Jet is kind of making a bold ask, but forced by the fact that we aren't going to spend at the top. We aren't, we can't. I mean, we could end up getting Bregman. I think it is unrealistic at this stage. And then when I say at this stage, I don't mean at this stage in the offseason. I mean at this stage in the Ricketts ownership. I think it's unrealistic. Be nice, be great, right? If and if that means we don't end up, I tease this all last week, but maybe we don't trade Nico Horner and you get Bregman and you move. Like, I don't know. Maybe there's some world out there where you get all your cake, you eat it too, everybody's happy. Kumbaya, everybody gets 450 plate appearances, you know, everybody's awesome. World Series champs. Go home. Don't even watch the games. Congratulations. Throw the fucking prey tomorrow. You know, maybe there's a world where all that shit exists. Um, but but at this stage, I'm saying I think that's unrealistic. And talking about the board games and putting the rules together, like here's a rule for purposes of talking about the Cubs, the 26 Cubs. I think a rule is, or I should say, a given, a fact, an inarguable constraint to the conversation, a fundamental condition to understanding the sandbox in which we're playing in, is to say Jed Hoyer is asking all the young guys to take a step forward without any of the older guys taking a step back. We're expecting Michael Bush at 140 weighted run created plus is gonna be, you know, maybe he's 130, he's probably get a little bit better, right? That's kind of the projection we have internally, it seems like that we are like looking at Nico Horner as like, well, you were a five-something win player last year, you we you should be a five-something this year, maybe a six-ish. You know, Danzby Swanson, you were bad last year. With runners in a scoring position, we expect you, we want you to get better, you know, but we're not even considering the fact, what if he gets worse? You know, that's one of the scarier things, I should just say, but it's part of the 26 story right now that we our older guys can't get worse, the younger guys have to get better. Like, you know, Pete Pete Cromstrong has to improve over a collective season. He cannot slump to the extent that he did in the second half, is what I'm trying to say. Matt Shaw, whether he is a 522 slug or not, you can't be a 320 slug for the first 50 games of the year. You can't do that. So we're making these assumptions, okay. Whether it's 522 slug, it's a 460 slug, whatever it is, it's not 320, and it's consistent. And we want that from Matt Shaw, and we want that from PCA. In the meantime, we're gonna want Ian Happy regress, even if people say impossible. Okay, be more consistent. We're just asking guys to like take step forward from years in which you can say from a lot of guys, everybody was taking steps forward, save for Danzby Swanson. He had a below average season by his standards last year. Say Suzuki hit the ball as hard as he's hit it as a cub. Go down the list. Obviously, Michael Bush, breakout season, Nico Horner, best season of his career. So that's kind of a funky thing as we're talking about the 26 cubs. It's like you know, nobody say the R word, regression. Don't say that. That's do not say that. And in conjunction with that, we're gonna ask our old guys stave off time. While simultaneously asking our young guys to advance time, hold time for the older guys, fight it off another season inhap, give me another gold glove year. While asking Shaw, biosteros, PCA, accelerate your time development, etc. Does that make sense? Is that too esoteric, philosophical, etc.? That's part of the story, though. And that's what Jed is asking. And he's basically having his hand forced by Tom Ricketts and the Ricketts family cash situation. I say cash, that was that was the most Chicago thing out of a cash situation. Why did I do that? Why do I talk like that? Why? I have faced criticism before in that I embellish, manipulate, and downright fraudulently create a Chicago accent. As if this is a choice. As if I could live like this intentionally every day. Take comfort in knowing I travel anywhere outside Chicago metropolitan area. The first thing I hear anytime I interact with somebody not familiar with how people where I'm from sound is unyielding bewilderment. I mean, downright to the fact that you'd think I'm speaking differently. They're just why? What sound is that? Is that on purpose? No, I'm making it up for impressions. My wife loves it. It's a great bit. If I could execute a bit like that, I wouldn't be doing Monday morning cubshow right now, I'm being honest with you guys. I'd be out executing bits. I'd be on a beach somewhere, warm, drinking a thirsty Bacero, leaving a five-star review for this podcast, which you can do right now on Spotify. You can do it on Apple. It's way easier than you think if you haven't done it yet. I'm not asking you to fill out an insurance application. After a bad tornado, no, my friend. I'm not asking you to go to an open enrollment meeting at work and pay attention. I'm not asking you to fix the dryer belt. It's broken. Air dry it. I can't. It's my good blouse. I have a big meeting this week. Go fix the fucking air dryer. I'm not making big ass. I'm telling you, it's not that difficult, guys. No heavy machinery required, not even a power drill. You can just go leave five stars. And that's what I'd be doing on a warm beach right now if I could execute the bit necessary behind the dialect in which I do this fucking show. So cut me some slack. You know? Which one is it gonna be? Are you gonna value the authenticity or criticize its its development? And maybe I shouldn't have just said that. Maybe I'll edit. I'm not editing that out. Fuck that. I'm just telling you guys is how I feel. You know. That's how I feel. I'm allowed to feel ways. Nobody regress. Okay, here's another thing on the list. You know, I don't think we're gonna spend any more money in the offseason. I think we're pretty much set. And if we do, it's gonna be at the trade deadline. It's gonna be very specific. I think we have a roster right now that is basically gonna demand everyday playtime. I think you can add a little bit depth. I think it's kind of a waste of money to spend any more than what we did on Tyler Austin. I don't like the idea of like veteran platoon guys going into spring training. It just is not a good situation. We can add those guys later, give the farm system an opportunity, which kind of just goes into my last point is I'm telling the 26th story. It's this farm system development season. We're gonna see what we have from Biosteros. Oh, in Casey's gonna get his opportunity. Obviously, Cade Horton will see Jackson Wiggins. Guys will have their opportunity in the bullpen. If Amaya's healthy, we'll see what you know what's working there. You know, there's kind of like no doubt that like Matt, Shaw, and PCA are gonna get 600 plate appearances this year from where we stand right now. And ultimately where this takes me is I hope it's the last season in the post-COVID chapter of the Rickets family ownership. Let me tell the story of the Rickets owning the Cubs. There will be a chapter post-COVID, COVID losses. I hope this is the last year where we are like cruising under luxury tax, avoiding spending money, going into like the 27th season, I suppose our hands are tied because of the lockout. So this is like a two-year outlook, I suppose. But I hope this is our lat, we're in the final stages, I should say. Maybe not the last season. Predictably next year will should be. But I hope we're just in the final stages of this post-COVID chapter, meaning the era where the Ricketts family is has to follow cash towards the servicing of the debt and cannot overspend on payroll, cannot take the excess of riches that they get off of operating revenue, that that cash actually has to go to an obligation. And that obligation is the debt that allows them to own the cobs. And I hope we're just, I just, I don't know the finances. We'll never know it. You won't, nobody will ever know the extent, you know, except for the people that work there, probably sworn by non-disclosure agreements to like not even think about it outside work property, you know, or else they're gonna send Tom Cruise to your house. He's gonna fucking murder you. Don't even think about the financials. Sorry, Tom. Ricketts and Cruz. I'm sorry, both of you guys. I was I I violated my NDA. I was taking a dump this morning. I was thinking about our cash flow situation. You can't do that if you work for the Cubs. That's how locked down secretive they are about the financials. What I will say is that I hope we're at the end of the chapter where we look back and like, well, they didn't have they weren't spending as much money as they could have on its surface, and that's because they were spending more money behind the scenes on stuff. That was ultimately outside their control, and now you sound like a broken record because we talk about this every week. I'm just saying the 26th story. This I hope this is, and I hope Craig Council is good enough. I hope these windows of the players are good enough so that we can improve from next year. I mean, 92 wins, sure, 90 wins is the floor, I suppose. I'm more interested in the ceiling. And if our starting pitching is healthy and developed to the extent that it is, I it's not unreasonable to say like a lot of those guys improve, and our bullpen takes a step forward. So, with that, just a couple New Year's resolutions. I'd like to beat Milwaukee this year. I'd like to beat Milwaukee this year. I don't just mean in one game, I mean in the division. That's the number one New Year's resolution. Finish ahead of Milwaukee in the standings, means you probably win the division next year, right? That's just a good way to frame it. Compete, beat Milwaukee. Resolution number two. I mean, I don't why am I doing this? You just write this down. Is there a quiz on this later? PowerPoint. You know, what are your resolution? What's a more dynamic segment? I'm not printing this out into like a fucking infographic for Instagram. This is just for conversational purposes of what I think is important. What I think a resolution would be. So I I guess I guess what's your resolution as you're driving a car? You know, as you're working on a spreadsheet, what's your resolution for yourself or the Chicago Cubs? My number one, beat Milwaukee. Number two, healthy starting pitching. No season ending shit. No. Like, no Tommy John. You know, a hamstring coming off the mound, feeling a bunt. You know, what are you gonna do? Early May, humidity's funky. I got it. You're a big guy, Jameson. You know, shoddy footwork. No one's expecting you to be healthy. But but what I'm saying is I can't have a season ending. I can't have career altering. This take this group we have, and we have what I think to be a deep, solid group. Justin Steele, Matt Boyd, Cade Horton. Do I have to name everybody? Jameson Tayan, Javier Assad, Colin Ray, maybe Jackson Wiggins. You know, there's somebody I missed. I don't know. Show to Imanaga, 22.5 million. We have a lot of starting pitchers that have had success in a Cubs uniform. I'd like them to be healthy. If they are not good in 26, I want it to be because they're not good. I don't want it to be because you're like, well, maybe his shoulder's messed up. You know, maybe he's got a blister on his hand. Just give me health. Give me health. Okay, number three, Ian. This is just a New Year's resolution. Ian have either be consistently above average or the fan base come around on him. One of those two things. He has months where he hits 450, then he has months where he hits 150. I'm just saying, can we get a balance and just say, just have a month where you hit 280 back to back to back to back to back? In October. I think that's fair. That's doesn't need to be explained any further. Just targeting happen saying it would just make my my from my perspective as somebody who is basically working customer service. You know, that's kind of the way I look at it. During Cubs games, I'm working customer service. You got complaints, bring them to me. Right? People are unhappy. Or people sometimes people are happy. Love the way the team looks today. You got it. I'm here. You know, I'm fucking here. That said, from the state from a customer standpoint perspective, I will say one of the most complained about things we have in our department here is eat hap. So it'd be nice, it'd just be nice. Just like I'm sure the Ford people, you know, when they were bringing the Taurus back in early 2000s, were like, be great, just I hope the Taurus has a good year. And it did for a long time. Or maybe the Explorer, the Ford Explorer is a better, you know, talking point. What was the Axle off balance in the in the 90s? That's a why do I do this? Do I tell all it was something about some I think it was a Ford Explorer, maybe it was a Mercury Mountaineer, maybe it was a Jeep Cherokee, one of the SUVs in the late 90s, which was it it was causing so many fatal accidents, but they did the calculation on how much it would cost to bring the cars back to the plant and do an overall recall, and how much does it cost to settle a fucking wrongful death lawsuit because your manufactured car is responsible for deaths. They added the two up, and it was way cheaper to just pay out wrongful death lawsuits, so they didn't fix the cars, a bunch of people died because of it. Okay. Now that's a that's that customer service level. I think this is where I was taking it. And you're probably going in the next year or your Ford, you're like, I hope we get that axle balanced because we can't do the another year of paying out wrongful death lawsuits. Don't blame me. I'm not the soulless corporation. I'm just telling you the story of what happened. But as it applies to Ian Hap, you know, working customer service here. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, be great if we could get that the season balance with him. He his axle is a little off-kiltered. You know what I mean? Like he's susceptible to some high-end collisions, which obviously people that's a bad situation. We gotta get that recalled and fixed. That's where I stand on Ian Hap. That's that was that one was a reach. I'll give myself credit in the moment. That was a reach. Ford? Never mind. Moving on. New Year's resolution number four. This is a combo. Michael Bush handles lefties or Tyler Austin smashes them. I'm fine with either. Either Bush is good and effective. Not as good against righties. We're not asking that, but just effective against lefties, or Tyler Austin dominates lefties. Out of the gate in spring training. Ben Ligging's chops to get back in the big league. Six years in Japan. Gonna go prove himself right after being a failed Yankee prospect with a massive chip on his shoulder. Who does not say yes to that? That sounds great. He's coming into spring training, mashing lefties, which then kind of lights a fire, I suppose, for Michael Bush. In either event, one of the two, or both. Or both. Um, next resolution. I gotta do a better job promoting this. Stirk Family Farms, 20% off. Promo code MMCS. This is my wife's skincare company. I've collaborated with her on. She has backed the content, the social media presence. The the skincare company is a, I'm telling you, it is elite skincare. It is all handmade, small batch, miracle bomb for hand, face, eye cream, wagyu, beef tallow. All this stuff has been in the works for years. This lady is a cosmetic prodigy. We also have stuff for pets, palm bomb. You know, your dog's out, the salt dries the palms out. I'm just telling you, I have to do New Year's resolution for me 26. Promote Stirk Family Farms more intelligently on the show. And I'm trying to tell you guys it's 20% off. Promo code MMCS at checkout. We ship it, hand deliver it if close enough. And it's really, I mean, just a it's so good. And if you don't believe me, you could have a gift coming up for the old lady. You want to get something nice for your mom, girlfriend, sister, a sign of appreciation for a woman in your life who has a high opinion about skincare, somebody who you know's her shit. I don't expect you to. I hardly would expect you to. But somebody who has an opinion, I'll guarantee you satisfaction. I'll guarantee you come out looking great. Stirkfamilyfarms.com, promo code MMCS, 20% off, guys. That's a New Year's resolution for me. Do a better job promoting MMS promoting the MMCS promo code. Stirkfamilyfarms.com. Lip bomb, baby. Now's the season. Take care of those lips. Big, juicy, big, juicy lips. Um, all right, number seven, enhance relationship with Craig Council. That's from a distance. I just want to feel better about him as Cubs manager. Kind of a funny story. I was supposed to golf with him last year. I don't like telling these behind the stuff. I don't like publicizing what I perceive to be is private information. What I perceive to be is, however, I think this is kind of funny because the ship sells. I was he's I shouldn't say he's not guarded. He's just got he's got a couple friends in Chicago, and I'm connected with a couple of the friends, and it's just a small world type ship. And he's trying to get out and play his big golf, or he's trying to get out and play golf, he's trying to play golf, he wants to play golf in this golf course. I'm buddies with a couple of guys that are there, just happens to be in the same realm of you know, he need he wants to get out on an off day, and I get a call. Not a call, I'm having lunch with one of the guys, and he's going, Oh, by the way, I had I'm setting up this tea time. Do you want in on this? I go, Yeah, absolutely. He's like, All right, probably be sometime in August. I said, Okay, great. So, like a couple weeks go by, and I'm sitting in my garage, motherfucking Craig Council, after a couple bullpen decisions, and then the next day I went off on them, and then the next day, and then it kind of became I was giving him the business pretty hard last year for some period of time. And so the point of all of that is to say the tea time did we didn't play golf. I could have not said shit at all last year about Craig Council. I could have been overly positive and been like, he's the best, he's awesome, I love what he's doing, even though we suck right now, we're slumping. And that leads to us hanging out, having lunch, how the chicken tenders craig. Hey, would you get there? I had you at well, I had you at four. Did you get up and down there? You know, that it there's a reality where that exists, and that exists if I keep my mouth shut. Uh fact. There's a relation, there's some relationship there. But I've done this long enough now where I'm thinking to myself, I don't give a fuck. I don't. And I don't mean that to like as this as a false source of empowerment of like, I don't, I'm bad bitch city. Nope. Actually, it just doesn't really matter at all. At all, in the least bit, from the perspective of following the team, covering the team, talking about the team. The most important thing is the conversation around the team from the perspective of a guy on the outside. Sitting on the outside, watching the games just like everybody else. No press pass, no access. I don't, we're not friends, I don't, no clubhouse drama, no podcasts, uh hosts, no nothing, nothing. Nothing. Just fucking watching Marquee Network, listening to Boo Gramble on, catching 670 in the car like you guys, reading the athletic, valuing Project Mooney. That's the perspective in which I take on this endeavor of Monday morning cub show and future Cubs content. Not Muchachos, not buddies. Don't and not to say that's a bad thing. Hey, it would be nice to go play golf with Craig Council. Prevailed don't take it personally if I get mad at you and your bullpen usage. But I don't think you can have both. And I'm bringing this up as a New Year's resolution to say I would like to have a better relationship from the outside with Craig. When I look at him on TV, I want to say, I like this guy. I that's somebody I want to be. Not to say that that drives my uh, you know, ultimate opinion of him. This is somebody I want to hang out with. What ultimately drives my opinion of him is the quality of baseball played under his leadership. Now, sub sub subservient to that, secondary to that, I suppose I would like to like him more. I would like to, you know, that's my guy. Murphy, I like. Joe Bannon, I loved. I mean, for a long time, till the end, wheels fell off a little bit. Maybe it's the opposite with Craig. The wheels will fall on, the wheels will get turned on a little bit. And I did play golf with Joe Man one time, and it was lovely, by the way. That's a great story. He let it rip. It's like a group of 20 of us. Ah, fuck, who cares? The angels were in town. It was afterwards. I knew the bullpen catcher threw one of my close friends. He's like, Do you want to go play out? You can we we'll be on the bus together. You can hang out with Joe for a little bit, and then he's gonna go play golf, and you'll get put up at a foursome, and we'll have lunch together. I'm like, oh, sick. And then I get there, surprise, just kidding, you're actually gonna play and ride with Joe. It was a gift from one of my buddies. It's a great day with Joe. That was a great day. He can hit it a little bit, and now we're just telling stories to tell stories. That doesn't mean anything other than I liked my time with Joe Mann, and what you see is what you get. All right, observation, last one here, resolution, lose weight. That goes for everybody watching this, listening to this. I mean, everybody, just shave a couple. Don't you don't have to overhaul it. But just everybody just feel a little bit healthier this year. You know, say no to a couple things you normally say yes to, say yes to a couple things you normally say no to. Does that make sense? I think at the end of that equation, you'll find yourself on the other side just feeling a little bit better. And if you stack that on top of each other, one day you might wake up and feel good. Think of that. How sick would that be? Just get up one day, you're just getting up. People get up, you feel you feel good? How you doing? Good and mean it. When people go, How you doing, Gary? You see, I'm doing great, Gene. And you can mean it one day at a time, though, baby. All right. Uh we're gonna close the show by saying obviously thank you for tuning in. I went to the Bears game yesterday. That's why the show's a little late, and that's why we don't have Mahoney because we You're gonna do your show on Sunday. Yada yada yada. Couple observations about the Bears game. One. All right, Soldier Field blows, and we need to get to Arlington. And I don't mean we need to get to Arlington. Oh fuck. We're way over 43 minutes. Oh, Toledo. Whatever. I've enjoyed this discussion. Hopefully you got something out of it. I did. I did. What is it? The solitude that goes behind creating a show. I love sitting down and putting together the notes. Cannot say that enough. Uh we're in the final note, though. Way longer. 43 minutes, my cheeks. What am I doing? Who do I think I am? Yeah, you'd think Thirsty Bacaro is cutting a check for airtime. They're not. It's on a per show basis, not a per minute, per word basis, dude. Right? Septic guys were out first thing on Monday morning after I'm downtown till 10. Took the Metro. And that's the thing. You take the Metro to the Bears game. You implicitly are like, I have to get loaded. I took the train. I got dropped off at the train station in the morning at 8:30. Come down, come downtown Chicago, cup of coffee, good breakfast sandwich, walk up and down the lake. You know, good mental atmosphere. And then you get to the tailgate, and it's just this lurking, like, well, you took the Metro, so you know, how often do you take the Metro? And I haven't encountered that like internal dialogue that just lets you take the fucking restrictor plate off the governor, or what is it? The governor off the restrictor plate? The red dragon? Give it a little more juice. The last time, or really the notable situation where the red dragon gets juice, and I'm not saying me specifically, collectively for our society, is open bars, weddings, open bar. It's open bar. Take the train. You know, you got a hotel. Like those those little excuses as to you should get after it. And that's why the Bears should play at noon every game. There should be a moratorium on afternoon Bears games. Expect this late in the season. 3 30 coming out of their sundown. Nope. No, no, no. Nope. Not doing that, preferably. Not doing that parking lot at night. No, thank you. Even though I took the train. I gotta walk across the loop. And by the way, the kit the taxi guys outside Soldier Field, if you're still with me, this is the Monday morning Cubs show. We are talking little Bears. Lions, Soldier Field observations. Bears will be playing the Packers Saturday, 7 p.m. If that's news to you, you know, I get I'm in that business, baby. We're breaking news. Bears vs. Packers, 7 p.m. Saturday night. In all seriousness, if you're just a Cubs fan, you turn to turn off. We're gonna talk a little bit about the Bears here's observations about Soldier Field. I'm not trying to we're not pivoting fandoms here. We're not turning this into a dual purpose show. This is a Cubs show, but I did go to a Bears game yesterday. I will fucking talk about at the end of the show. That's what I'm doing right now, folks. So with that, I'm trying to be consciously respectful and grateful and thankful outwardly to Cubs fans that have tuned in and let me talk into the void about where we're at as a team in the offseason and hopefully try and reframe expectations. So at least you're just not maybe not as negative and have some ideas in your head about the story of the 2026 Cubs and add to it as you see fit. But I'm just giving you a couple big that's kind of how I see the team shaping up. And I actually do think ultimately at the end of the day, the team should be at least as good as it was last year, even without Kyle Tucker. And that largely has to do with how bad he was the last two months of the season, lined up with how bad everybody else was at the wrong time. I think ultimately over the course of the season. So that's where we're at with the Cubs right now. Maybe some news next next week. Probably not going to the convention. Probably not the week going to the I would be stunned if they did anything or spent any money. We're in convention mode, which means tenure reunion mode, which means, you know, it'll be an easy show. I'll tell you that the Monday after the convention, it'll be easy to sit around and talk about your favorite players or whatever the fuck that segment looks like. But right now, as we're graduating out of Cubs conversation today, I have just a couple things for the Bears. Okay. Now that we're in the safe space for the Bears, we need to get to Arlington Heights. I'll go to Gary, Indiana right now. I don't care where we're going, it cannot be Soldier Field. I cannot not, you cannot do that. You cannot put the Bears' hands in Soldier Field year after year without any upgrade to that place. I mean, sure, what do you want me to say? Rag on the parking, rag on the bathroom situation. It's all true. There are some good things. Sightline, incredible. Surrounding area, insane. Once you get there, sick to be on the museum campus. Sound like a Calibro. Coming up the 18th Street Bridge, gorgeous views, sight lines. Everybody, there's not a bad seat in that house. I don't care if you're section 427 last row. I repeat, there is not a bad seat in Soldier Field. Problem is there's only 57,000 of them. Problem is, place is a logistical nightmare. And the problem is we actually have a great coach and a quarterback to build around and all this shit. And we can easily put 100,000 Bears fans in and have a sick experience, and it should be the building block into a new chapter as the Chicago Bears. And it should be in the northern suburbs of Chicago. That's where it should be. It should be in the Arlington Heights racetrack. There shouldn't be any fucking second guessing this at this point. The Chicago Park District has had its time. The era in which they benefit and profit off of the Chicago Bears is gone. It's just that's not what Soldier Field has come to be. They didn't maintain it and they will not maintain it to the extent that it needs to be an NFL facility. And having gone there, we'll say comfortably 20 Bears games over the last six years. Is that fair? 25 Bears games in the last seven years. How many Bears games? And I'm struggling to think of a fluid experience that didn't involve me mooching off somebody with one of my buddy skyboxes. That didn't involve me literally having club access or something. Yeah, United Club's great if you're one of a couple thousand people, and if you're with people that have like corporate expense accounts that are just fucking slinging drinks, sure. United Club's sick for the 6,000 people that get to enjoy it, and then the select few within that that aren't paying for a damn thing along the way. Alright. Other than that, it blows. If we're being serious, and so that was just a reinforced, even though last night, beautiful game, great comeback from the Bears. The big, obviously hot topic thing. And I think people that hang on to the idea of like the Chicago Bears, they play in Chicago, that is weak sauce, baby. That's so weak sauce. What is that? Give me hit me with some San Marzano. Give me some good shit. Don't be bringing these arguments that it's called the Chicago Bears. They have to be the Chicago Bears. Fucking blow me. And arm yourself with this response to those around you that suggest otherwise. Blow me. No. Said who? How many examples are there? Of teams that exist outside. That's just the dumbest thing I've ever heard. We're talking about a stadium that can best serve fans that exist in Arlington. That I'm telling you that exists not at Sultan Field, exists in Arlington Nights. Unless they're gonna overhaul, and they won't. You know, we had a chance for the Star Wars Museum, right down the street. Talk about a hell of a day, combo that, baby. Little weekend getaway, Star Wars on a Saturday, Bears Game Sunday. I mean, the foot traffic, the economic development alone. My goodness. It won't exist. We need the facility. Take it to Arlington Heights. Okay, that's one. Two, the Bears fans, as a general observation, are the best representation of the city of Chicago. Like, we should just take the all the aldermen everywhere. Each alderman should be represent the best, the biggest Bears fan should just be the Alderman. That's how we should do elections. Or whoever knows the most Bears trivia, or whoever's attended the most Bears games. We should do a point scoring system, and then we should come up with a list of people that have the highest point total, and those should be the elected officials within Chicago and Cook County. Those are the people that I want to be represented by democratically. Those that's the leadership in Chicago. And it's all going overlooked because it's not organized, it's not unionized. And I'm honestly inspired. You go hang out in a parking lot with Bears fans, and you're like, this, this, when we argue with outsiders, this is why. When I fucking tell people you know a shit about Chicago, I was at the airport. This is kind of a bad story about me, but whatever, I don't give a shit. I'm going through security, and these two guys at the end, older gentlemen, maybe late 40s, and I'm I have TSA pre check. I pay for it, I'm ahead of schedule, you know, whatever. Uh my wife does it, so whatever, she renews it. But I have TSA pre-check, and I'm in the line. And business guys, real estate, what are they, private equity? There's something casually dressed, but sensibly in luxury brands. You know what I'm talking about? Like those are gym shoes. Those gym shoes cost$600. Shit like that. You know, it's just a gray sweater. Gray sweater's two grand. Cashmere. And they had in small talk, we're like, oh, congratulations, another trip to Chicago. Didn't get shot, and they high-fived each other. I'm standing next to this guy. What do you think? I did option A, did I say something? Option B, I didn't say anything. Option A. I said something quietly, passively. I said, excuse me, gentlemen. And they got out of the way. I said, No, I just want your attention. That joke about violence in Chicago is of such poor taste, you should be embarrassed. That's it. Simple. Didn't call a guy cocksucker, motherfucker, nothing. In the look, the guy said, I've lived in the Chicago suburbs for longer than you've been alive. He said something to that effect. And I I thought to myself, I said, 'cause I said, that's awesome, dude. Then you should probably know a little bit better. That's really unfair. What you that's really unfair what you just said about my hometown. Why did I do that? Guys, I can't keep my mouth shut, I suppose. Because I like trolling. You know, this guy's got a good life. Probably owns a couple houses, golf clubs. And I'm not I'm not the TSA guy, I'm not shitting. No, I'm not giving that I'm giving this guy this guy's a hard time. This is more of sport for me. And the only reason I bring all this up is I now am legitimately losing my mind thinking about this Bears Packers game. What I'm saying is that's a shitty representation of Chicago. Those guys, this guy's fucking, I've lived here. Fuck you, buddy. Bears fans. You walk the parking lot, you go to Soldier Field, the people who want to be there, the people who give a shit about Chicago. When we talk about Chicago, when we defend our reputation, when we say we are a great city, when I get inspired to look at two schmucks at an airport and go, hey, that's not fair to the city of Chicago. I'm doing it for 60,000 loud, proud Bears fans on their feet, putting up with traffic and the congestional nightmare that is going to a Bears game. I'm putting I'm I that's I'm thinking about the guy in the Nacho Libre mask, shirtless, ready to jump out of the 400 levels to block a fucking kick that's going on. I mean, he there's there's 28,000 people that could get to that kick before this guy, but he he's gonna block it. I'm thinking about that guy. And that's kind of that inspiration that I had yesterday, just sitting at the Bears Lions game, second row 400 level, such good company, so many fun people. The Lions fans were great, everybody was just great. The atmosphere was great, and this is just my long-winded, appreciative way to say I don't think there's a better representation of our defining values that you hold defensible or indefensible, I should say, that you will go to whatever extent to defend. I think they're on display best at Bears Games. Okay. That said, Packers in town Saturday. This this should be if I know Ben Johnson the way I know Ben Johnson, this should be three touchdown blowouts blowout in favor of the Chicago Bears. I think the defense gets home. I think we were holding back a little bit, and I do think Jalen Johnson's hurt. I don't know if people are talking about that. This is a Cub show. We don't have to get specific about the Bears, you know, depth chart, injury, practice reserves. Where's Tyreek Stevenson? You know, now I'm just saying shit. I don't know. He could be where is he, Chick-fil-A? I don't know. Are they open Mondays or closed Sundays? This is the Monday morning Cub Show. I like the Bears huge Saturday. Hopefully, when we cut this show on Sunday with Mahoney, we're coming out of a huge Bears victory. We're feeling great. Maybe there's some Cubs news to talk about. But in the meantime, everybody take care of themselves. This is that time of the year you can just be selfish and focus on you. You just put a whole month plus into holidays, being around people, in-laws, take care of this, show up here, flu season, which is upon us, by the way. But my point is take some time, be selfish, take care of yourself. You know, don't be embarrassed to go back to the gym. Don't be don't be embarrassed to try and have a better 26 than you did 25, right? I'm right there with you. We're all going to be in this together. And I do think at the end of the day, I do like the direction in which the Cubs are going. I trust Jed. I like our young players. It's a good balance and mix. I do wish we were spending more in the offseason. We were a market maker and not necessarily responding to stuff, but there's there's a longer discussion here, and we're going to have it on the Monday morning club show. In the meantime, please subscribe so you know when the shows are live. And if you get a chance, drop five stars. Minimal call to action. Thirsty Vicaro, Stirk Family Farms, five stars. You know, and don't be late for work, I suppose. In the meantime, guys, I love you. Thank you very much for tuning in, and we'll see you next week on the Monday morning cubs show, uh, Go Cubs. And bear it up. Fuck the Packers.