Cubs Heat Check: 6-6 + Pirates Preview

Six and six can feel like nothing, until you realize it’s two games away from a totally different season. I’m coming off an off day with a notebook full of numbers, a head full of lineup questions, and one big reason to breathe easier: Seiya Suzuki is back. That one change adds real fear to the middle of the order, pushes everyone into better roles, and gives the Chicago Cubs a much cleaner path to consistent offense as the schedule settles in.

We also get practical about the Pittsburgh Pirates coming to Wrigley Field for three straight 1:20 starts. I walk through expectations for winning a series without falling into the “we have to sweep” trap, then zoom out to the bigger conversation Cubs fans are having everywhere: do we need to trade for starting pitching right now? With rotation injuries, uncertain timelines, and too many unknowns in both the majors and the minors, I lay out why an early April pitching trade is usually the wrong move and what information we still need before the front office should even pick up the phone.

From there it turns into a celebration of what’s actually working. Nico Horner’s start is absurd in the best way, and it makes his extension look like a masterclass in roster building. I also hit a few under-discussed “signs of life,” from slumping bats that should normalize to the catching battle, and I finish with a blunt message for anyone using Ian Happ as a punching bag without appreciating the value he brings.

If you ride with this team all summer, subscribe so you don’t miss the Monday recap, share the show with a Cubs fan who lives in the group chat, and leave a five-star review to help us keep building the community.

Thanks for tuning in! 

- Carl & Mahoney

Transcript

Welcome And Show Setup

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Good morning, good afternoon, and evening, Chicago Cubs fans, and welcome back to the Monday Morning Cub Show. It is your host, Carl. Today is Thursday-ish, April 9th. This is technically the Friday special edition show of the Monday Morning Cub Show. You know, we're two shows a week now. So this is technically the Friday show that's going out on Thursday for the Monday Morning Cub Show. I'd like to welcome everybody back. This is a solo show. Um, as about 50%, I think, of the Friday shows are gonna be me solo. So we'll alternate, I guess. I'm I'm I'm going as I go. You know what I mean? Uh want to welcome everybody back to the show. Obviously, it is a good starting point. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for being a maniac. Thank you for being a part of this community that Mahoney and I are building, and thank you for being just a great Cubs fan. Thank you. I can't I can't say thank you enough to the people that have turned out to the Monday Morning Cub Show. I cannot profoundly express the gratitude I have for maniacs enough. So the best that I can do is just give you a good, insightful show here that catches us up on what's going on with the Cubs at six and six through the first 12 games. Like we have an off day today. It was a good opportunity to go through some numbers, get my hands wrapped around some storylines for you guys, you know, just kind of where are we at on some big picture stuff? Like, should we trade for a starting pitcher? If we do, who should we trade? Right? Like where are we at with uh, you know, the rest of that rotation? You know, where are we at with the batting order now that through 12 games we can we can actually start to take a look at some statistics, you know, not to say somebody's good or bad, but just from an idea of like how are they performing right now? Like how have the first 12 games gone for the team? I think that's a really good thing to look at today. Uh, and obviously we'll take a look at the pirates. So probably one of the first things we do is take a look at the pirates, maybe a little heat check roundup to start. But first, obviously, if we're gonna talk heat check, I'm gonna talk a Mexican-style soda with a signature spicy finish. That's all bite and all rattle. We're doing heat checks. I want to say thank you to Thirsty Vaquero and encourage maniacs to check them out on Amazon. Throw a case in the in the cart, treat yourself to a round of sausage. No, to a round of thirsty vaquero, to a non-alcoholic Mexican-style soda that comes in three bold flavors with organic agave. And I that's a big deal because I don't know other drinks that have organic anything, much less agave. It's such an exotic thing to say that's in your beverage. Like, what do you? I have agave in this and it's organic. And it's 90 calories a can, not even 20 grams of sugar. You're gonna taste it. It'll be like the first time you ever had a cherry coke. Can I say cola? Can I say another brand's name in an ad read? Probably not. But it'll remind you of the first time you tasted a kitty cocktail, you know, or like a strawberry daiquiri, whatever. Pina colada, sex on the beach. You know, the first time you have you go, holy fuck, this is uh what is this? A marguer? This is good. Remember that moment, you're gonna have it with Thirsty with Carol. Thirsty with Carol on Amazon, throw it in the cart. Uh, there is no morning Monday morning cup show without him. So Thirsty with Carol on Amazon. All right, let's get some spicy takes going. Uh, provided you guys are gonna support Thirsty with Carol. And the first thing I have is like, I actually feel good, right? So, like, take a step back. I should say this. I've prepared nine talking points for today's show. We're gonna do a heat check, we're gonna welcome the pirates of town, talk a little bit about Saya, uh, preview the the Pirates series. I should have said a little bit more in depth, talk a little bit about Nico Horner's start to the year. You know, what's the trade situation look like? A lot of people are talking about that. We should trade for a starting pitcher. So we'll get to that. But first, we're six and six. Series loss to the nationals, series win against the Angels, series loss to the Guardians, series win against a race. And so expectations from here, this up and down, lose a series, win a series, lose a series, win a series. You know, of the four teams we've played, we lost a series to by far the worst team, and we took a series from I'll say by far the best team. Eh, Rays versus Guardians. I'll let you guys decide that one. Who wins the seven-game series against those two teams right now? The Rays are probably a better team in any event. We'll just say it is we had a chance to get swept on the road. We're four and six, we're mad, right? We're not happy at all after Monday night, I should say Monday afternoon in Tampa. And then the team comes back, we play our two best baseball games back-to-back nights. Javier Assad and Colin Ray are six and seventh starting pitcher, pick us up off the floor, carry us back to Chicago for an off day today. Like if you can't, if you can't rally yourself around these last two games and say, let's just be positive going to this Pittsburgh series. Can we get two out of three? A lot of people want to sweep. They just because we're you we're better on paper. So you're just gonna say we should sweep the Pirates. You know, I'm totally happy winning series. Two out of three, two out of three, two out of three. You know, I'll never get mad that we didn't sweep. Unless I guess it's the third game we blow a six-run lead or something. It's right on our fingertips. But I'm just trying, um, this is just a thought exercise to get us going as we go into the weekend with the Cubs. We don't have to sweep the Pirates just because we're at home. We won two games in a row. We don't have, we don't have to win every fucking game, guys. We just have to play consistent, solid baseball. I don't like blowing leads. I don't like when veteran ballpen guys don't look prepared. You know, I hate when the offense just cannot perform back-to-back nights. Like you're gonna get shut out in Major League Baseball. You're gonna look like shit. There's gonna be those nights just like, man, bats are ice cold tonight. But when you see it two, three, four games in a row, then that becomes more of a problem, right? I don't we're we haven't really crossed that threshold. There were a couple games I want to say so far through the first 12. Maybe back to back against the Guardians I looked at, and so we suck. Would we win that one game one-nothing? You know, bats go go cold in the doubleheader. So, not to get in a rabbit hole on the schedule here. It's just a heat check, just a quick six and six heat check. Do we feel good about being six and six? You know, if we were six and four and then drop two, you know, I'd probably have a different bite to my tone, I suppose. You'd probably be a little bit more, man. I'm really mad we didn't win that series against the Rays. But this is the nature of the game is like I watch 162, I'm in on it. So I'm comfortable taking a step back and going, thank God we won those two games against the Rays to close out. We look good, we look crisp. I feel great. And you should too. You really should. You know, the series lost to the nationals. All right, we win that series, it's completely different, right? Seven and five, that's what the Pirates record is. So, um, and all of this to say, right, like we do welcome the Pirates weekend, but more importantly, we welcome Say Suzuki back to the lineup Friday, right? Should be DHing, would be my suspicion, especially with a lower body injury like that. Me hobbling around, just put him three, just let him hit three, you know, or four if if you're more comfortable with having Bregman hit three and you want to go righty righty. You know how how we do the batting order, I don't as long as Say is in it and in the middle of it. You know, I don't want to overreact to Michael Bush's start. I don't want to overreact to the first 12 games, but it's an obvious fact that Say Suzuki is our most potent, powerful, threatening right-handed hitter. How do you what's the difference between him and Nico Horner? Nico Horner gives you better at bats, right? Nico Horner's arguably one of the best line drive hitters in the world right now. But say it will put the fear of God in an opposing pitcher relative to Nico Horner. I still don't think the league looks at Nico as like a dangerous player. I still think the league's like, we'll just challenge him with velocity. You know, you can get that guy. I think guys will get say it, they're like, don't make a mistake to him because he will send that baby down 10 more right up to Milwaukee. You know what I mean? Like, he will hit one of those Sammy Sosa home runs if you leave it over the plate. And not having that in the lineup uh versus having that lineup is a huge difference. It's just such a huge difference. It it has a world of difference on those hitting in front of him, those hitting behind him. It is a world of difference when you when you were gonna take our arguably our best right-handed hitter. I mean, people are gonna say Nico's a better hitter than Seya. It just depends on what your preference is. Say's got more pop, you know, Nico has more consistency, Nico never strikes out. You know, like I said again, just go back. Say it, slugging percentage, extra base hits, fear, you know, don't make a mistake to this guy. It just moves people down in the lineup, too. So, you know, I I can't put enough stock in like if we had to lose one one guy, one bat, one bat from the lineup, uh, the one I would not want to lose is Say Suzuki's. But now I come back to Nico Horner. That's how good he's been through his first 12 games. We're gonna talk about Nico's season so far. But the fact that I'm even putting like you're having this conversation about is it say is it who's the best right-handed hitter on the Cubs right now? Like, or I should say when Saya gets back in the lineup, who would be you who would you say is the number one right-handed hitter on the Cubs? It's easy to go Nico here. It's easy, and I'm not trying to turn this into a Nico versus Saya thing. What I'm trying to do is prop up say and say, I don't think people understand how important it is to the lineup, to the opposition, if Saya is or is not in the lineup. You know, it just creates a whole bunch of options for us. Do we need to hit PCA four or shitty at four? You know, is Swanee too high in the order? Is Carson Kelly too high in the order? Carson Kelly's should not be hitting fourth or fifth. You know, like Seiya's return helps move every shuffle everybody back. And he's back. And this is I can't circle this enough. So this is such a big deal. So welcome back, say. I'm glad it wasn't a bigger injury. I am very hesitant about the injury issues with the Cubs right now because losing our number one and our number two starting pitcher. You know, it's not even mid-April. Yeah. And to open the season with our three-itter on the IL, like just not just not great, Bob. You know, I'm just kind of like sit here, like waiting for the next waiting for the next bad thing to happen, right? So, like, nope, not a bad thing. Actually, say is coming back to just be very excited, key did it on this. It should be awesome. And the fact that we're six and six and have played like shit, now we're getting him back. Like, what does that smell like? It smells like momentum. Like, not short, not long ago, I should say, getting the Kate Horton news, right off the Map Boyd news. Um, I don't think it's much worse. So just take this as a huge win here that we get saying back in the middle of lineup. All right, and with that, we welcome the Pirates to town. All these games this weekend are 120, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So that's a huge advantage to the Cubs. We're sleeping in our own bed, uh, you know, getting up in the morning and taking a nice leisurely commute in the Wrigley field, that beautiful parking lot where you cross the street from Waveland. You know, just very relaxing, peaceful. Get your coffee. Meanwhile, you know, the Pirates are staying at the four seasons or staying at the Ritz-Carleton. Some of those guys are out on the town right now having a fucking dinner, you know, excited they get to play day baseball at Wrigley, still early in the season, 7-5. Young team, young core, new manager. This is a great opportunity for these guys not to be too focused. So this is a great opportunity for the Cubs just run it down their fucking throats on Friday, beat them up on Saturday, and just take that series right away. These 120, and I'll get the weather on Friday, cold, 46 degrees. So if you're the to me, Friday is like such a clutch tomorrow, today, what uh what time is this is going on on Thursday night? So the Friday 120 game against the Pirates, we don't have to blow their doors off, but they should never be in the game. Like, I don't want to see them on the board. You know, I want to take an early lead against Carmen Majinski, who's big righty pitching for the Pirates. Majinski, what a great name. But I I want to control the pace of this Friday game. Everything about it. 120 start. Paul Skeines isn't pitching this week. Um, you know, a lot of hoopla around Connor Griffin, a lot of excitement. They're seven and five. Maybe things are gonna be different this year. So it's just like everything kind of sets up where I'm like, man, we should just this Friday game, like the Pirates should just get raced off the field. You know, it would be nice to sweep these guys too. I just have to go back. Like, I'm not I'm never gonna come in and say we need to sweep somebody. Unless I guess it's the Rockies last year. You know, there's there's I guess there's times the what the White Sox over the last two years would be a team you just absolutely want to sweep. But even then, it's like, how can I expect to sweep? It's Major League Baseball. These guys are so good. Everybody's so good. The worst player in Major League Baseball is so good at baseball, I can't even explain it to you. Is so profoundly good. If you ask, ask a big ligger, it's one of my favorite things to ask a big leaguer. Meet a big ligger. This goes for anybody on the show. Anyone listening to the show right now. You go to Cubs Convention, you're in an elevator, you see Michael Bush getting a cup of coffee. Here's a great question to ask a big leaguer. Who's the worst guy you've ever played against in the big leagues? They will not name a player ever, ever. You will not get a major league baseball player to name another major league baseball player under the context of like they're not good. They I'm surprised. Is there anybody you've ever played with or against you're like surprised they're in the big leagues? No, what it's fucking big leagues. What do you mean somebody's like accidentally up here? No, dude. Do you know how good you have to be to get to triple A? Do you know how good you have to be to like wear a double-A uniform? Now you're just filtering out like the top 1% of that, the top 1% of this, you know, whatever it is, 5%. So just a long-winded way as it goes back to like our expectations with shit. Because that's probably one of the most helpful things, I suppose, from an insight standpoint, I can provide you guys like how a big leaguer feels about it. How do how do the players feel about it? Like, should you sweep this team? Are they bad? They're like, no, it's a fucking it's the big leagues. Like, we just have to worry about this pitch, this moment, you know. That's how they look at it. So I'm just giving you this context. As the Pirates are coming in, we got three 120s in a row, won two games in a row, off date today, 46 fucking degrees tomorrow, and sunny at Wrigley Field, no IV on the wall. Just one of those bleak, shitty days at Wrigley Field. And the Pirates are coming in with juice, they're coming in feeling good about themselves. Connor Griffin just got a bag of money. Paul Skeens is, you know, positioning himself for a huge bag of money, whether it's from the Pirates or somebody else. The culture around that is like the tides have turned. That's what that's what a Pittsburgh Pirate feels like. Like Jake Mangum, who came over from the Rays in a trade this offseason, a Mississippi State standout, one of the great players in the history of the SEC, is an outfielder for the Pirates. He was like a fourth outfielder with the Rays last year, made his big league debut. And now he's this is just a classic example. I'm just telling you about Jake because this is how I picture and view the Pirates. He gets traded from the Rays to the Pirates, gets playing time, gets opportunities, is now part of this, you know, core, these young, inexperienced, uh, you know, guys that are building careers and names for themselves. They feel good. They have no, they're not walking around going, we're the pirates of last year, last decade, haven't been to the playoffs since Jake Arrietta fucking ran it down, ran it down our throats 11 years ago. You know, whatever that is. Right? Like they had they have a little pep in their step, which actually, in my opinion, works against them. That would work against them. Like, welcome to Chicago. You got a day off Thursday. What are you gonna do? We're gonna go to the Barcelona office, we're gonna get a big dinner, go walk around Westloop, you know, take in the sights and sounds of a big city early in the season. Guys love coming to Chicago, love having big meals. It's great. They're probably right now is the time of recording this. I would imagine there's a big group of Pittsburgh Pirates that are sitting around a fucking dinner table right now, you know, looking at a wine list, ordering the calamari, you know, did I say that right? Getting the tomahawks out. And it's perfect because like Dansby Swanson's at home doing mobility work. You know, he just put his kids down for the night. He's gonna go sit on the couch, probably watch some shitty reality television show with his wife, and have some, you know, fucking mushroom-infused kombucha and do some light stretch work because that's who he is. You know, Nico Horner is is probably sending a 10 through a wall right now, if you know what I mean. Like he's probably banging it out. He's he's uh he's got a lot of testosterone, he's gonna take it out. And I trust him that he's a man who makes great decisions on off days, right? I think that's kind of the point I'm trying to go with the Cubs. You know, say is coming back, say he's probably been in bed for three fucking hours at the time I record this. So that's this is a long-winded preview, but I'm just trying to give you guys some expectations as we go into the weekend. That's the point of these Friday shows. Sit down, look at the matchups. You know, Majinski versus Imanaga, game one. I really like what we've seen from Shodah through the first two starts. I think he's made a couple mistakes, he's gotten hammered on them. Like the mistakes he has made have been paid for. So, like, are there a couple starts where he makes mistakes that just don't get cashed in immediately? You know, and and the other thing, the Pirates starting pitching is gonna have better stuff than the guys we sent out, save for Eddie Cabrera game two. You know, we've got Imanaga, Eddie Cabrera, then Jameson's gonna pitch game three. You know, so J-Mo versus Bubba Chandler game three. Bubba Chandler's got way better stuff than J-Mo. But J-Mo's unhidtable at Wrigley Field. Uh the Saturday game, very excited to see Eddie Cabrera take them out. Now that we've seen 11 scoreless to start his career, looks great, feels good. But more importantly, the top two guys have been taken out of the club's rotation due to injuries. So now by default, Eddie Cabrera is basically our number one right now. And that's what he wants. That's how you get paid. That that's how that's how you're like end up one day, you know, on the on the fucking six-year 180 million dollar extension or something. What did Ranger Swarez get? You know, Eddie Kabrera's looking around, get a sniff of like what a healthy starting pitcher gets in Major League Baseball. He could be as locked in as anybody. I'm excited for that matchup because last time we faced Braxton Ashcraft last year uh was in a big game in September and he shoved it down our throat. So I want to get this guy, I want to get this guy early. I want this guy to have a bad taste playing at Wrigley Field. Same thing goes for Majinski. He pitched well at Wrigley Field last year. I fucking hated it. So gotta watch my F-words, but I'm trying to communicate just the importance of just putting a beating on these guys early while they have a pep in their step, while it is early April. We don't see Paul Skeens, even though he's had the worst season of any pirate starter. So, you know, we're long on the tooth here, guys. This is this is what happens when I sit here and I solo cub shows. I just get deeper than I want to. So I'm working through my outline. I'm like, why am I talking so much about this? But I suppose in this exercise, it's because it's important. It's important. If it wasn't important, I I I wouldn't put it on the list in the first place. So just just trust where this is headed because I feel very confident about who the 2026 Cubs are. Um, I feel better than I did at this time last week. I feel bet what was the Monday show this week was Cubs Look Flat. Me and CB sat around just just fucking torched. You know, we don't like correct counsel, we're upset about this, we want to see more of that. You know, whatever the whatever the fucking complaints are. Right? And there's there's plenty. If you if you want to be the guy who complains, go right ahead. There's gonna be some moments later in the show here. I'll I'll uh key in on a couple things people love complaining about. Um, but I'm sincerely, this isn't bitter shtick because I'm trying to sell you a t-shirt or get you to bet a fucking parlay, you know, or like show up to a bar in Wrigley, you know, get a bucket of Miller's. We're awesome, we're the best, right? Like, I'm not I'm not pounding a drum because I'm fucking some mascot pounding a drum. I'm being serious when I tell you guys the difference in these last two wins against the Rays, substantial to how I feel about the Cubs. Because, in a sense, you are backed in this corner at four and six through your first ten. And like, you can't you gotta play better. I mean, whether you lose on Tuesday and Wednesday or win on Tuesday and Wednesday, you just have to play better than you did on Monday, and you have to play better than you did against the Guardians. And we we have to actually start playing some good baseball at some point because we haven't really seen it at all. And so to have those last two games really click, come together, um, is ex is exactly why I feel as good as I do. Now, the problem with that is if we lost those two games against the Rays, we were four and eight. Would it be the other way? And the answer is yes. If we were four and eight and I was doing this show, I would be livid. You there would be no laughing. There would be, I'd be I would just be so mad with the team Craig Council rolls out from Spring Church. Now, the problem with this is it's just a two-game swing. You know, four and six can be six and six, you can be four and eight, right? Like, luckily we're six and six. So that's just a good exercise for you to think about in your own head. As we get in this pirate series, what if we lost those last two games? And specifically, how angry would you be towards the 2026 Cubs? Now compare that anger to how eager I am to watch them play on Friday. Like, we if we lost those two games against the Rays, I might even cross a line and say I would exp we gotta sweep the we got to win, we gotta get those three games back. So it's hard in the aggregate, you think about 162. How much does one game matter, right? Like, eh, you know, you drop one, pick it up tomorrow. Okay, what how much does two games matter? What about three in a row? What about four in a row? Like at some point it does have to matter. At some point you do it. Have to say, all right, I want to win and I don't want to lose. And that impacts the way you interact with winning and losing. Um, you know, specifically as I'm talking about, the difference between a four and eight and a six and six, and the impact it would have on my mentals, and I know many people listening to this, is substantial, and I know we can minimize it and say, well, it's just two games, but those two games are big. Those that's a huge swing, and it's gonna be big down the stretch when we're looking at playoff positioning. I'll guarantee you'll go look through the schedule and be like, oh, it would have been nice if we could have won that game. All this shit matters at the end of the season, and this is my long-winded way to come all the way back around and say, Don't tell me now that I'm getting too upset, that I'm caring too much. Don't tell your buddies in the group chat it's not a big deal. We play tomorrow. Like, the point is when we go out, we should play good baseball, competitive baseball, clean baseball. That's the goal. If you do that enough, you will win way more than you lose, right? That's just that's just as simple as I can make watching baseball over 162 games. Like the best that you can do is just play clean baseball, and then obviously, you know, you want your breaks. And do that enough, you're gonna get your wins. There's obviously times you lose too. So as we talk about good clean baseball on a consistent basis, though, there is one player on the Cubs that embodies that as well as anybody I can remember wearing this uniform. I'd have to go back to Rizzo. I I mean I'd have to go back to Rizzo to find somebody just every day you know what you're gonna get. And that's Nico Horner. This extension. I mean, Jed Hoyer, I can't I can't blow him hard enough. I honestly was so wrong and stupid and dumb to call the Nico Horner extension an overpay, even though by definition, you know, I said 19 million, it came out to be 23 and a half. By definition, then it's an overpay, in my opinion. Because they said I'd pay him 19 million. He got 23 and a half a season. You know, that's a lot of change. Uh, what is that 20%? I was off by 20%. So yeah, I guess it technically, and I'm a moron. I'm a moron for not seeing the bigger picture in the value. 1.2 war through 12 games, B-War. He's on pace for 16 wins above replacement. Like, how far back would I have to go to find somebody with 16 wins above replacement? Like Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb? Like, is that how far back I have to go? Let's pull up Ty Cobb real quick. I hate telling you guys, I'm pulling something up. I'd rather note off the top of my head. Ty Cobb's highest career, uh, highest season, 11 wins above replacement. Arguably the best center fielder of all time. People say that. People say, you know, Honus Wagner, there's another guy who just completely outclasses competition. His best season was 11 and a half wins above replacement. Through 12 games, Nico's out pace for 16 and a half. Now, obviously, we're not saying Nico Horner is going to have 16.5 war at the end of the year. We're talking about the start to the season, and specifically, how good does this extension look now? Hitting 333 with a 453 OBP as the Cubs are transitioning him into regular leadoff duties against right-handed pitching, even though he's got a career OPS plus in 94 against right-handed pitching. We talked about this on the Monday show. Nico should just be the everyday leadoff hitter. I think that consistency in a veteran clubhouse like the Cubs just goes such a long way. Wouldn't you want to give these guys the predictability? You know, there's so many established players. Like, wouldn't you just want a guy, wouldn't you want Bragman coming in and know he's hitting three? Or wouldn't you want Swanee going to bed at night knowing he's going to hit seven tomorrow? Do you think he wants to be showing up to the clubhouse and thumbing through the fucking card to see where he's at today for that day? No. Not at all. So just going back to like the important, if Nico Warner is the leadoff hitter, I'm not saying he's gonna have a 450 OBP all season long, but I will say that he can walk more than he strikes out, which he's not pace for. I will say that his strikeout rate should stay around 10-11% because he doesn't strike out. You know, maybe he's got more barrels than he would over, you know, as a percentage. Maybe he he's hitting the ball harder than he will over the course of a season. We saw a home run the other night, a lot of doubles so far from him, you know, a slugging percentage, 550 right now. A 550 slug. He hasn't broken 400 since 22. So 23, 24, 25. He was his slug was all under 400. You could you could probably argue that like he's the most the ratio between his wins above replacement and his slugging percentage um is is probably the starkest difference, I would guess, in all of Major League Baseball. He's probably the best player in the world who can carry a slug under 400. And he's been way better this year. 550? Do I have that right? Seven extra base hits in 12 games. Like that's basically just the key with Nico's. Like, can he pick up a couple extra bags? And and not for nothing. Five stolen bases against zero caught stealing. And we talked about this early in the season in our preview show is how many stolen bases will he have? This is before the extension. But the the big motive there is like, you know, it's prime time for Nico Horner in his career to be swiping backs. Like, it this is now is the time to be on the move. Now, when we originally brought it up, it was a way to get paid in free agency. But now that he has been paid, you can make the same argument and say, like, guys, fucking free. You're getting$23.5 million. Like, you don't have to worry about getting caught stealing. Take that back. Play loose and free. And I think what we're seeing from Nico, like, this is the reward you get as an organization when you reward one of your homegrown guys. Like, he's gonna play his ass off for that$23.5 million. You're gonna get the most prepared professional out of Nico Horner. It's not like he got$23.5 million. It's like, all right, fuck these guys. Finally, I got paid. Finally, I'm gonna be that big ass house. Like, no, I think he's like satisfied that he now has standing in a big league clubhouse as a higher, one of the higher paid guys on a major market team. I think that's got to be so satisfying. I think he's the exact type of guy that wants to honor the organization for making that commitment to him, for not having making him go through free agency and answer a ton of fucking questions from the Chicago media. He got a sweetheart deal going on here because it's a basically what I interpret to be I mean, he could be an MVP this year. He could be could he finished 19th last year. Say he finishes 10th this year, then you can start calling him an MVP candidate. You know, and maybe he goes down that path. He's he's an MVP candidate this year, and then maybe this ends up being a bargain, you know, like the Cubs are like, man, this guy's worth 30 million. We're only paying him 23 and a half. He'd have to hit 330 to go down that path, I should say. He he would have to contend for the batting title, he'd have to carry an OBP around the 400, 390-ish, right? Like if he's gonna hit 330, then his OBP is probably 390, 400, I would guess. And if we do all of that, right, then I think it's easy to say Jed Hoyer, incredible extension. I mean, the run this guy's on. The Pete Crow Armstrong extension. We don't never have to talk about arbitration with this guy. Alex Bregman on a deferred deal. Uh, trading Owen Casey for Eddie Cabrera. Like, that looks like it's just an unbelievable sharp move. Uh, Cam Smith does look good, but he did drive Cam Smith and turn around and trade him for Kyle Tucker. And then when we got Kyle Tucker in the door, you could see the difference it makes to have a superstar, which then allows Jed to go back to Tom Rickets in the offseason and be like, we need more of Kyle Tucker presence. We need more money. And what happened was the Cubs started deferring money for the first time ever on these contracts. And I can argue that if they don't trade for Kyle Tucker, we're not deferring money. If we don't draft Cam Smith, make the deal for Kyle Tucker, there's no way the Cubs are deferring money on Bregman, on PCA, or on Nico Horner. You can make an argument that not one of those three deals gets done without the trade for Kyle Tucker. You can make that argument because they're deferring money in the deals, which then allows the Cubs to go above and beyond and their commitments. Does that make sense? Because I'm just I'm I'm sitting in my office right now, just fucking staring at the wall, talking to myself about this. And I think it makes plenty of sense to me. But I did just describe an environment which does make me sound like a crazy person, which is why I'm asking the maniacs. You know, many of you who are crazier than I am, does that argument make sense? That Jed warrior trading for Kyle Tucker kind of sets off this sequence of events of you could say realization with the Ricketts family, the realization that we do need to spend the money. Maybe it creates urgency within the organization where like maybe the cash isn't on hand to the extent that they'd want to make these commitments, especially going into a potential lockout in 27 when the Cubs rely so much on operating revenue. Yeah, I mean, I I shouldn't say obviously so many teams do, but year to year the Cubs do more than any team manage themselves year to year based on the prior year's operating revenue, which we saw from COVID when they take fucking losses. We went into teardown season. And all of this is stemming off the fact this entire conversation off the fact that Nico Horner's had an elite start to the season through 12 games, and it makes that extension look really good. It makes me feel really good about Jed Hoyer and the direction he's taking this organization after all these years of just having to kind of sift through the bullshit. 21, 22, 23, starts getting cooking a little bit, 24 bringing in counsel. That's a big move for Jed. Getting an extension from Tom Ricketts, you know. But really, if we're gonna circle something, it's like having the balls to trade your first round draft pick who hasn't like played a game. Like, did he even wear a South Bend Cubs uniform? Did Cam Smith play a game for the Cubs? For anybody in the Cubs organization? Did he even work out for the Cubs? We just trade him to Kyle Tucker for Kyle Tucker right away. So I really want you guys to to sink, uh maybe not sink your teeth, but like embrace Jed as an elite, an elite team builder. And if you don't want to, that's fine. Take my word for it. The shit he inherited when Theo left in the middle of the night, uh, you know, it's just a complete disaster. And it's just my way to circle in 30,000 feet above this and say this Nico Horner extension is just chef's kiss. It's just absolutely fucking chef's kiss. And these but these might be more F-words than I've dropped in a long time, especially on a solo show. But consider it a sign of how comfortable I am right now. And I just feel great. Just feel great watching Nico Horner play baseball. Can't say enough good things about him. Now, the question a lot of maniacs have is do we need to trade for a starting pitcher? Right? Like Nico, yeah, for sure, Nico Horner's great. You know, there's five guys in the everyday lineup that have been well below average this season. And Nico Horner's awesome. We got a number of guys that kind of suck balls. They should turn it around, though, right? They're position players. Yeah, Alex Breckman's not gonna be below average this year. Daisy Swanson can't possibly be this bad. Michael Bush can't possibly have a 440 OPS all season long. Those guys will turn it around, right? That's easy when you look at the position players. They struggle early. No one's saying we need to trade for a, you know, no one's saying ridiculous shit. But when we go to the pitching staff, right, because we lost our one and two. The biggest question about the future within this season is what's going on with the starter. We need to trade for a starter. We need to go get starting pitching. We need to go get it, you know. We've we've used seven starters in 12 games. You can make an argument the one thing we don't need right now is more starting pitching based on the fact that we just have Colin Ray and Javier Arsad just coming right up, boom, taking starts, you know. But there is an argument to be made, like there's urgency because it's a good team. We've spent money, right? We spent money at Bregman, reinvested PCA, Nico, Danzi gets paid a lot of money, Heck gets paid a lot of money. It's a big payroll. So, like, do we want to spend any time at all in this season figuring out what we have? Shouldn't we know what we have? That's a fair argument, but I think if you specifically look at the Cubs pitching staff right now and you look at the guys that are actually making starts for the Cubs, you can just turn around and say, like, we we still don't know what we need right now. I think a trade right now would be insane. I mean, I should have started with that. You're out of your mind. You have completely lost it, which I like. You know, that's fair. You're a maniac, but you you've lost your shit if it's early April and you're sitting here and saying the Cubs need to make a trade for starting pitching. Yeah, we definitely don't need to. And again, I'll just circle back, as evidenced by the fact that our six and our seven on the road, you know, while we're playing bad, but we're four and six come out and just fucking look great. Like Color Ray does his job. Javier Sad does its job. Now, I'm not saying roll into a playoff series with these guys, just hear me out for a second. It's April. Let these guys pitch a little bit, it's cold, shitty, right? They're strike throwers. I'm gonna like all of a sudden just making ridiculous trade proposals. Because I and another thing, too, is we don't know what we have in the miners right now. We just brought in a new draft class last year. Like, those guys have to play and put tape out there so that we can sell them if we were gonna make a trade. Like, you definitely you want to have tape on your guys. You know, there's there's some circumstances, I suppose, like you know, Rojas has some trade value without playing the season right now. Looked fine, and you know, was looked great, I should say, at opportunities given to him. Jefferson Rojas, our shortstop prospect. Like, maybe maybe he but like no one's trading for a fucking shortstop right now in April. Like, no one's trading for a shortstop prospect because every team wants to see their guys, they want to see their prospects play and they want to figure out who they need to be trading for, and that takes time. So it's just like I don't have you have we ever seen big trades in April? You know, and like when do when does the first big trade drop in an MLB season? Usually you need minor league tape to do it because you're not really sure exactly what you're working with, you know, on the buy side and on the sell side. Another good reason why, like, we're not necessarily like I'm not Jonesing, I should have said this name off the top too. Jackson Wiggins, I don't know what's going on with them. They scratched him from his Friday start. There's some speculation that Jackson Wiggins would be in Chicago this weekend, but there wasn't an update from 10 hours ago when this was originally reported. So we're still kind of in limbo. Like, don't know if it's an injury, don't know if it's him getting called up to the big leagues, don't know if it's just him, you know, bumping a start because they want to take care of him because we lost our one and two, and they want to make sure that he's you know in a position to come up in May, maybe. You know, I don't know. I think the most important thing is like do you remember Jackson Wiggins? I don't know what our plan is with him, and I I don't know specifically this weekend, and then to the broader scheme of like the next six to eight weeks, and I don't know what the top two injuries with Cade and Boyd do to the Cubs' internal timeline. If they're saying we need to brush Jackson up now, we need him now, we want to see if he can do it now. You know, there's plenty of ways to take this, but the fact that there's all of this uncertainty around it would then further exemplify a reason to be patient about a trade because we just I don't know. So, how crazy would it be if I can't even tell you what a reasonable expectation is for Jackson Wiggins in the first half for this Cubs team? Not with our top two starters out. I can't I couldn't even I don't know, I have no idea. I don't know if they're gonna say Ben Brown will go be the sixth, Jackson Wiggins, you take Ben Brown's spot in the rotation, or I mean the bullpen, which I it would be crazy to do that, but I don't know. I don't, I'm not in fucking Jed's office talking about this stuff. So, Jed, if you're listening, you want to tip me off, you have my email, obviously, send it to me, let me know what we're doing. But the the reason we're talking about this is in the context of should the Cubs trade for a starting pitcher right now? Should they? And if you can answer what's going on with Jackson Wiggins, go right ahead. Here's a couple other questions that I have. I don't know how good Shoda is gonna be this year. I don't have I I'm gonna need multiple starts from Shoda to have some kind of indication of like, oh, this is 2020, is this 2024 Shoda or is this second half 25 Shoda? And that's all health. That's purely just a function of how fresh his shoulder is. And if it's fresh, then like doesn't that change doesn't that change wouldn't that change your trade strategy of how much you're willing to part with if showda's fucking rolling? Or how hurt is Matt Boyd? Four or six weeks? Okay, he's back mid-mid-May, he's making starts. It's June. I forgot he's on the IL, right? Like, we're gonna he it's it's a trade deadline. Matt Boyd's made, you know, 17 starts for the Cubs, pitched to a 3.170 RA. He's awesome, right? Like, but right now, Matt Boyd's out. Matt Boyd's not pitching. We need to replace Matt Boyd. Now, I'm not saying we don't have to replace Matt Boyd. This is where it gets confusing when you do solo shows. What I'm trying to say is I don't know how hurt Matthew Boyd is. Four weeks from I'll have a significantly better idea of what urgency we'd have around Matt Boyd. Do we actually have to replace him? Is is is this a bigger deal than we thought? Another consideration, can Assad regularly start in the five spot? And that's just a function of can he give you six and three earned? Can he go pitch six innings, which is the definite the quality start, which is just kind of the expectation you have around? I would even say six innings. Can he get you five? Five and a third, sixteen outs. I don't need six innings. I'll take sixteen outs from Javier Asad. Now, this is a blanket general thing. There's people listening to saying, of course, Javier Asad can. All he needs is the chance. Well, he has the chance. Lucky for you. And I believe he can. I do like his stuff. I like his competitiveness. I like his pitchability. I like the fact that he's just a bulldog on a mount. I'll la Mark Burley of just like ball back right back into my delivery. Challenging you, too. He'll challenge you 3-1 and rarely get to 3-1 relative to other guys with his stuff. Like he's in the zone, mixing it, challenging you, which is not what you see from a lot of you. Like, you don't, it's not, hmm. I wish Ben Brown and Hav and Javier Asad could give Ben Brown his mentals. We would have we'd have Paul Skeens 2.0. I'm not joking when I say that. Javier Assad's mentals are so good and elite and locked in. And he's confident and he's a bulldog, and he wants to beat people, and he wants to assert himself and dominate you with a mix, just a mix. It all looks the same. A little cut, a little sweep, a little slide, a little change, slow curve, tight curve, four seam upstairs, cut or away, like you just name it. This guy's got it. And the reason we're deep on a side right now, just relative to understanding, can he start in the five spot regularly? Like, there's gonna be a clunker out there for sure. But like, can he give you enough quality, which then reduces that urgency to say, like, well, we have five starters right now. You know, he's solid. We're not trying to replace him from the rotation. If he can be a guy you're not actively trying to replace because he's been good enough. I'm not saying start a playoff series tomorrow. I'm not saying like throw a sod out there game one against the fucking Dodgers. I'm just talking about like it's mid-80, early mid-April right now. And people are saying we should trade for a starting pitcher because we lost Kate Horton. We lost Matthew Boyd. And I'm just giving you guys considerations. A, we don't know what's going on with the Meyer League system yet. We don't we don't even know what prospects we could trade, and many other teams don't really understand what their inventory looks like and how much they can get for somebody. You know, another consideration is their top prospect is a right-handed pitcher. Like the fucking number one prospect in the Cubs organization, right? Is it has to be Jackson Wiggins. I would, I would, I would be stunned. Who am I forgetting? It's Jackson Wiggins. He could he could be making starts, and I would be surprised by this, but he could be making starts in two or three weeks, four weeks. I mean, it'd be silly to go trade for a fucking veteran starting pitcher while you have a guy who's like, oh, this guy could make some starts. No, he can't actually go to the bullpen because we just traded three prospects for fill in the blank. How many times have I heard people say, can we trade for Sandy Alcantara? I don't know, dude. I'm saying we don't even need to be making a trade. I'm far from my in a position to be talking about who we should be trying. I'm so I'm saying nobody. Some other considerations. Is Eddie Cabrera a bona fide top of the rotation guy? Looks like it threw two starts. But that's a consideration you have as the Cubs if you want to trade for a starting pitcher because you lost your one and your two. Next consideration up is Eddie Cabrera good enough to slide. And I think Eddie Cabrera wants to, he wants the opportunity for sure. For sure he can be that guy. Which then again just changed it just changes your perspective. And then obviously Jamison's health. You know, if Jameson Tan's got arm shoulder issues, or you know, we can only count on him for like 22, 23 starts, then that changes your urgency. That absolutely changes things. But if he's solid, he's rolling, there's no reason. Again, this is such a long-winded deep way for me to say, like, I'm not interested in trading for a starting pitcher. And that's just generally how I feel about the rotation. You know, like we have, I wouldn't call them question marks, just like I like to see things play out a little bit. How can I say this concisely? I'd like to see just what Shota has. I want to see what the swing and misses. I want to give Matthew Boyd some time uh to like monitor, see like how serious is the injury. You know, is it four weeks or is it six weeks? That's a big fucking difference. You know, I'm excited to see Javier Assad compete and him more than Colin Ray. Because his sad has like a whole career in front of him. Where like Ray is this, he's living out the fourth quarter of his career as a as a big league starter. So, you know, and again, obviously Eddie C, J Mo, plenty of considerations with our starting rotation, and all of those considerations kind of dictate who we would want to get, what that looks like, you know, what our prospect capital has to be to make the move. And I just that's weeks, if not months, away. So just be realistic. Now, if and when we do trade, we will make trades this year for sure. Just generally speaking, who who do we like is names in the organization? And this is more, this talking point is far less to do about names we like versus names we don't like, names I don't want to see go. And I I have to beat this over people's heads, but stop including Matt Shaw in your trade speculation. Stop telling your buddies we can trade Shaw. Stop being this guy online, being like, what if we trade Shaw now that say his back? I feel like people want Shaw just because you don't like Shaw or just because people don't like Shaw, just whatever the situation is. Get that shit out of your head. He's a ball player, he's a fucking ball player on a league minimum. That Jed Hoyer drafted in the first round. One of Jed Hoyers, probably favorite player he's ever drafted. I I would guess because all Mad Shaw does is care about baseball. He has about nothing else but baseball. I suppose Jesus in the Catholic Church and his friends within it. Sure. That's the argument. Okay. This guy gets up in the morning and just fucking watches baseball and reads about baseball and cares about baseball and watches his swing and watches the rest of the league and talks to his friends in the league, and it's just the only thing he cares about is baseball. And you would think that would be the case for all of these guys. And I would argue it is it is almost the complete opposite for major leaders. You'll run into guys that love Nico loves the game, Dansby loves the game, Bregman loves the game. We are lucky that we have assembled as fans a lineup of guys filled with people who love the game. Does hap love the game? Hap loves golf. I'm not shitting on Ian Hap. I'm gonna get to him in a second. Does he love the game? He probably does. Does he love it as much as Nico or Dansby? No. Just get that out of here right now. Get that shit out of here. Does PCA love the game? I would argue PCA likes dominating people. That he's an athlete and a competitor, and he just wants to win and be the best at shit. And I think if he was, you know, grew up with his you know pair of hockey skates, he'd be he'd be playing in the NHL. I think if he grew if he was a soccer player, he'd be in the EPL. Like he's just an athlete. He just whatever. He's just turns out he plays baseball, is the way I kind of see him. You know, and he's obviously dynamic and he's a thrill to watch on the field, but I'm bringing this up in context of like Mad Shaw has a different level of love for the sport, and that is the shit that over a career is gonna deliver numbers, value, results. He is so driven to get the most out of his shit, and we would be complete morons to part with him before he even comes close to realizing his potential. So he's playing his third fucking different position in as many years. He's playing shortstop. We draft him, now you're over at third base. Now you're at third base in the big leagues, now you're in right field. Now you're in right field, say is back. So where are you gonna play? Where are you gonna be on the field regularly? We'll figure it out with Matt Shaw. I just in context of trades, just get that name, get that name off your lips. We're also Jackson Wiggins. We would just be trading Jackson Wiggins for like a starting. That would be insane. That would be insane. You know, a name I wrote down that I actually do like is Jefferson Rojas, who I brought up already. And that just like there's no alignment with where he will break into the big leagues and be a good player, an effective player, I should say, in Danzby Swanson's career. Because Dancy Swanson's got four more years, including this season on his contract. Jefferson Rojas, like any young player, is gonna need five to six hundred plate appearances to get acclimated to major league pitching, where you can like make an assessment about okay, this is kind of the hitter we see. You know, there's a lot of experience that guy has to acquire at the MLB level. With the way Swanee's contract lines up and Rojas's development, it just I can't picture a world where we need him. Because if something did happen to Swanee, right? Like blows his, you know, I don't injury something, you know, retires, doesn't want to play anymore or something, whatever. Unlikely. Nico would just go from second to short. You know, we have our our backup shortstop, like we have one of the best shortstops in the national league. He just plays second base for us. So that's and he's here for five years. So, like, you know, that fifth year would they move Nico? Probably be a little too old and out of place at that point. But then if you look at the rest of the Cubs org, it's like Bregman's still on the deal, PCA's still on a deal, Nico Horner's still on a deal, Bush will probably still be here, Shaw's probably still gonna be here. You know, Kate, you start going on, you're like, is there a world where we would just bring up a rookie shortstop? Do you know how good you'd have to be? Jefferson Rojas would have to be a top, like how Addison Russell was like a top 10 prospect. That's the last time I can remember, just an extremely young guy getting shortstop duties. And then out of necessity, Javi got shortstop duties because Addison Russell um couldn't cut it, right? Like he just wasn't the guy. So then Javi becomes the next young shortstop. But like even then, I want people to remember this. Like, we didn't bring up Javi and say, like, you're the shortstop now. Like he was a utility guy roaming around, and it's not until Addison Russell is off the team that we have the need and the urgency for Javi to play the position full time. And my point in all of this is saying I can't see the Cubs going back to a young shortstop dynamic under Jed Ware's leadership, especially after you part ways with Dan Zwanson, which comes back to Jefferson Rojas and saying that's definitely the biggest, like the easiest trade chip I have based on position and organizational need alone. So, like, keep your eye on this guy. You want this guy to be fucking roasting the ball to start. You want we want Jefferson Rojas uh through like the first 60 games of the season to be far and away the best player on the Iowa Cubs. Like, we want it to be so good that people are like, what about this guy? This guy looks like he'd be a great cub, then trade him, then trade his ass. You know, that's how that works. Not Moises by Asteros at all. Definitely not Moises Biasteros. We do not want to trade Moises by Estheros. I hope you guys have enjoyed his presence. I think his bat's gonna heat up. He's gonna hit some more line drives soon, but he's still effective. Like he's the fact he's been effective in his first 12 games as a DH has been uh really impressive. And he looked good in Tampa. Say that specifically. Like, looked shaky some parts, very confident in the box. It would be insane for us to trade this guy. I think he has such a high upside offense. I can't even say I would you would think I'm crazy if I told you what I thought his upside would be offensively. I think he hit 325 in the big leagues in the modern game, the modern game. I think he could get out of bed tomorrow, hit 325, hit 30 homers at some point, not this year, but he's a 30 double, 30 homer guy. He's he's every bit of that. He's a 80 to 90 walk a season guy. He's a 180 hit a season guy. Like we're we're talking, we're talking about a profound force from the left side of the plate that has a full package and is not a big strikeout guy relative to uh the power and production numbers he can post. And it's gonna take time for him to get there. I just want to remind people Matt Shaw had a 522 slug in the second half, which led the Chicago Cubs last year. But in the first half, he was so bad we had to set we had to send him down to triple A. So that's just some context. The last time we had a guy just crack in as a rookie like this, and it's Matt Shaw. You guys hate. I know there's some people who hate how much I like Shaw, and that's okay. Just hang with me. I'm comfortable enough in my acumen to let let my like I know enough of what I'm talking about to stand here confidently and say, I like Matt Shaw. And if you don't like him, we can have that out. I have no problem having that out with somebody. Now, as it pertains to Biasteros, Belly looks way better through his first, and I'm calling him Belly. I don't know why it's Biasteros, but just I'm calling him Belly to just deal with it. Belly looks better through his first 12 than Matt by a mile, by a mile looks better than Shaw did last year to start the year. But then on my point in this is saying, look where Shaw ended the year. You know, he was so good down the stretch for the Cubs. He was so good in the second half for the Cubs. I'm like, I think Biasteros is gonna follow the same trajectory. I think he's just be better, and I think it's gonna happen sooner. And that's why if I hear anybody say anything about trade Moises Biasteros, I'm gonna, I'm gonna I almost threatened to. Almost, I almost just said I was gonna cut your throat. I would never cut your throat. I let your listener to the show. That would be insane. Man, murders, podcast, audience member. Insane. I would never harm a maniac. I love you guys. However, if you do suggest that we should trade Moises Biasteros, I could go off the fucking rails. You could send me down a deep spiral. You could do that to me. And all you'd have to do is say we should trade Moises Biasteros for a bag of balls. So last thing on the trade stuff, this has been a long segment, but people keep talking about we gotta trade, we gotta trade, we gotta trade. I just want to come back to this. Hopefully, we have some emerging prospects from the 2025 draft. Like that would be the biggest argument to being patient when it comes to like we should true, we should, we should fucking trade for we should trade for Nolan Ryan and Joe Ryan. I would just push back, say, guys, we have uh what a dozen plus draft picks that could be awesome. Obviously, Ethan Conrad, first rounder, wake for us, like we expect that guy to be awesome. But like, okay, go to like Justin Steele, fifth rounder, big signing bonus, but like there's guys in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh round. And if we're gonna be in this trade deadline mode where we're like trying to win a pennant, the idea of having the patience is see who from who from the 2025 draft class was really good this offseason, really prepared themselves. Is there a big velocity jump? Is there a toolsy jump that you know like stands out significantly? Where scouts in Minor League Baseball are talking about it. Is there something that we drafted that turns out to be way better than we thought it was on the day of the draft? Now, my friends, we have what's called trade capital. That's a prospect. That's somebody you can then unload. It's a nice like, yeah, see how good this guy is, and you wait a little bit to figure out who those guys are that you're moving. So that ultimately will dictate who we end up, who ends up on the chopping block for the Chicago Cubs this season, right? So that's just a comprehensive look at like our needs, fill in our needs right now. And I'm I'm comfortable in this space, just 12 games, kind of hard to look at stats. You know what it's kind of hard through 12 games, but if we are going to do it the next talking point, there's some signs of life here. Six and six, we're six and six. But if I told you Bush, Swanee, Bregman, PCA, and Moises by Esteros have all been below average by the metric of uh adjusted base plus slugging, OPS plus. I repeat our two-hitter, our three-hitter, our four-hitter, our six and our seven-hitter have all been below average. So who's been above average? That's a good question. Nico Horner. You know, Ian Epp's been above average. By metric of OPS Plus. Um, you know, we had we have Carson Kelly and Miguel Omaya have both been, you know, south through the first 12 games. But if I say signs of life, like here's five guys. All right, at the end of the year, do you think Bush, Swannee, Bregman, PC, and Biasteros are all going to be below average? I mean, one of the five might be. Two of the five would be. That's that that's going to take a lot. That would take a lot. And the idea that three of those five is impossible to me. It's impossible for me to think three of these five names, Michael Bush, Dans B. Swanson, Alex Bregman, Petro Armstrong, and Moises Biasteros, three of those five guys to have below average offensive years, I'm calling that impossible. You know, the likelihood is that one guy has like a 92 OPS plus everybody else is at least at 100. And I'm bringing this up because through 12 games, these five guys have seriously underperformed. Michael Bush has a 441 OPS. He's slugging 180. That's obviously not going to be the case for Bush this year. At least obviously he's gonna have a fine campaign. At the very least, a fine campaign. So when I say signs of life, it's like six and six. We've played some shitty baseball, day off, coming home, three one twenties in a row against the pirates. Sign of life. We're six and six with five of our nine guys. Bad. Bad. You've been bad. Alex Brennan, you've been bad. You're not worth 35 million right now. You will be. I know you're gonna play great. I know these guys are gonna play great. You know Swanee's got a hot stretch coming. He always does every April. So I think the easier way to say is like we could easily be four and eight. You look five of your nine guys trash, what? So, no reason, no reason to panic just because more than half the land at presenter perform through the first eight percent of the year. All right, don't be hitting the panic button. In fact, we have called this talking point a sign of life. It's actually a positive that these guys have because they are gonna be good. And when they do turn it around, I would imagine the team is gonna be rolling, rolling, baby, as Mahoney would say. Another sign of life, Michael Conforto. I'm gonna allow you to win me over. I've said repeatedly on lineup previews, I hate your guts. I think you're the worst Major League Baseball player I've ever seen. Um, you know, leave Chicago, never come back. Um, you know, big time MILF. I've said a lot of shit about Michael Conforto. However, last couple games, timing's there. Like foot's down, looks way different against a four seam, way different against a heater. And if this is then all right, fine, I'll take a fourth outfield or some pop strikeout concern, sure. You know, are you Chris Coughlin? No. But could be a lot worse. So is that a sign of life? Am I overreacting to a couple good games from Conforto? Is he swing and miss? Is he shitty? These these are the questions I have for you guys. And then the last little sign of life, I just love this catching battle. Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya duking it out. Emmaya slug it a little bit harder. Carson Kelly with a little bit higher batting average. Both guys just fucking want it, just grinding, right? Like they just they just want they want to each guy wants to catch every game. Maybe Carson Kelly's comfortable taking a day off every like fit. Carson Kelly wants to be the it's his, he wants it to be his team. And Miguel Amaya doesn't know how to play on a team without it being his team. So just keep this is gonna be fun. I'm not bringing this up competitive or pick one guy or the other. One guy says they're both solid, they're both very different uh catchers and game callers, and um the winner of this will be well deserved. The guy who starts game one in a playoff series will have earned it, and we will be a better organization for it, provided they both stay healthy. That's that's really it. Um, I get you know, love a mile, love all the intangibles, just need him to stay healthy. So last thing on the docket here, this has gone long. I thought, fuck, I thought I'd sit down hour. Ah shit. I'm sorry. I thought this would be 35 minutes in and out. I wrote this outline for 35 minutes. I need to get help on that. I need a timing person. I need someone to help me manage my expectations for the shit I write down, and then how long is it gonna take to come out of my mouth? Because every fucking time I do this, I'm like, you know what? This will be good. 30, 35, quick in and out. It's an hour into the show and I'm about to dress effect, shut up about Ian Hap. People don't want to hear this. I'm sorry. That's the function of the show is for me to share stuff that people need to hear about the Cubs that I think is important based on my perception of how the team is playing and what people are saying online about them. And when I say what people online are saying about them, I mean from a national perspective, I mean from an internal Cubs fan perspective, I mean from a media. There's a bunch of little things that come underneath that. But the overarching principle is what are people saying about the Cubs? How are they playing? What are people saying about them? That's the drive, those are the two big factors in what I'm trying to communicate to you guys in this show. Why do I do this shit in the first place? Why do we start Red Line Radio? Uh, you know, what why would I spend 13 years of my life following this team as closely under the premise of publishing what I think about them? You know, like what's the why would I do that? Because I'm deeply passionate about improving or enhancing your experience watching baseball, specifically the Chicago Cubs. Specifically. But on a general level, if I can help you watch the game of baseball, think about it differently, um, arm you with some insights or like the cat and mouse game between the you know the pitcher and the hitter, you know, or maybe it's just like general league stuff, and we talk about like trade strategy and shit. I want to give you some fucking info so when you roll into the group chat with your boys, you know, talk to your dad about the team. Uh, you know, you're in those work conversations, you go into the Cubs game. What do you think of the Cubs this year, Gary? You know, I want you, I want if you care, I want to help you know your shit to the extent that you can know it. And so that's that's that's really the theme, I should say, or the motivating reason uh behind the Monday morning cub show. You know, there's some other stuff, obviously, there. I love doing this with Mahoney. Um, and I love you guys. I love this community. I cannot say that enough. This has turned out to be so much cooler than I thought when we originally started the show. And I'm saying all of this to butter you guys up and pepper you for the fucking crescendo here. My final point in the show is that people need to shut up about Ian Hap. I'll I'll I'll give insights, I'll go through the numbers, I'll watch every game, I will, I will be here for you guys to the best of my ability, and the best that I can do this, I will ask in return that you take your head out of your butt cheeks when complaining about Ian Hap. Because he does everything except hit for batting average, like he gets on base higher than league average, uh, higher than a guy with his batting average typically does. Every year you can pencil in 30 doubles in 20 to what 23 homers every year while four straight gold gloves in left field, like the left fielder never wins back to back, much less four in a row. Let's show me a left fielder. I'm not joking. Somebody show me a left fielder, Barry Bonds. I think he was a left fielder. I mean, obviously he was a left fielder. I'm saying I think he would be the last National League left fielder to win three or more gold gloves in a row in left field. And he did it he did it before he went on steroids. He did 96, 97, and 98. You know, he had a big run when he was with when he was with Pittsburgh. I have to go back to Barry Bonds to be like, here's a left fielder in the AL. I think Alex Gordon did it with the Royals 10, 12 years ago. I mean, this is off the top of my head. If I'm missing somebody, go by all means. I'm going through that National League rapidly in my head. I'm saying it's gotta be Barry Bonds. Do people value how rare that is? Like, obviously, Ian Hap's doing something right here. Now, the reason people don't like him, I think it's usage. I think people don't like him is it's like I'd like you more if you hit six, I don't like you when you hit third. Or that he's the face from the 2000s from the world. Series the carryover, I should say, the carryover connection piece to the World Series core. Like that's a guy on our team that was closest with those guys, played the most with those guys. And there could there could be some lingering, you know, bias in Cubs fans' head where they're like, We wish you were better. You should have turned out better. Even though he's solid, like he's solid. Now he's not great, he's not a great player, but he is by all means a serviceable and solid major league player that is like severely overlooked by Cubs fans. And I cannot uh find the right words without being a complete asshole as far as my encouragement towards people to lay off Ian Hat. Like, there's no way for me to talk about this play. I think you are so out of your depth to be critical of Ian Hat based on all the stuff he does well. Like you can't bitch about the fact that his batting average isn't that high. You're sound like a moron in the process, and that's fine. Um and I think the fact that he is like the senior guy in the clubhouse without being demanding, like he wants to go play golf, he wants tea times on the road, he wants to be left alone, and he wants to show up and he wants to play fucking wants to play left field. He's not a demanding big personality. He could be his every right to make it hard for Swanee to come in, Bragman to come in, hard to kind of build a culture around him. Like he could be crustier, people love him, his teammates love him. The coaching staff loves him. Now, again, I don't want to see him hit third any more than you guys do. And the talking point with him is like, do you think he can get over four and a half B-War? Like, he's never had four and a half wins above replacement in a season. So like I'm not trying to give him the Anthony Rizzo treatment here where like, you know, over my dead body, you're gonna say a bad word about Ian Hap. I think it's just more like, hey, this guy's like pretty he's like pretty good. He's like pretty solid. He's like good. He's like a valuable baseball player. He's could be so much worse. It's been so much worse. He's significantly better than so many left fielders. So you know you guys don't have to you guys don't have to agree with everything I say. I mean, I'm coming from a standpoint of this guy has been consistent. You uh like to the extent you like know exactly what he's gonna do at the start of the year, what it's gonna look like at the end of the year, uh he's just extremely good defensively, he's a good base runner, he's a good teammate, he's a fucking smart baseball player, hits from both sides of the plate, got power from both sides of the plate, you know, knows the strike zone. Just like it just like what do you think is out there? I think it's a good like you think Kevin El Contara is better? Are you out of your fucking mind? Are you out of your are you just completely lost? You know, watch me eat that one. Watch watch eat and have go down with a hamstring and fucking Kevin El Contara come up win rookie of the year. That'd be great. I'd love to eat those words. As much as I'd love to do this show, I just love doing this show. So thanks for tuning in. This is the Monday morning cub show. It's been a loaded show, much more than I anticipated. Um, just to recap, we do have Pirates this weekend on 120s. Get a chance. Tickets on Saturday are pretty cheap. I saw a Ben Zobrist giveaway. Ben Zob, they're giving away Ben Zobers, they're giving away Ben Zobrist bobbleheads, not a not Ben Zobrist. Um Connor Griffin may it'll be cool to see Connor Griffin play against the Cubs. I hope he I hope he has a horrible experience. I hope Connor Griffin goes hitless in his Wrigley Field debut. Um, you know, I just hope we run it down their throats. Right? But realistically, from an expectation standpoint, they're six and six. Mahoney and I hit record Monday morning. I'd like to see the Cubs eight and seven, right? Obviously, nine and six is great, but I I mean, like, I really where I can get mad is if we're seven and eight instead of eight and seven. That's where you get mad. It's like we're seven, eight, it should be eight and seven. If we're nine and six, I'm clicking my heels, right? So that's where we're at, fellas. Paul Skeens isn't pitching us against us this weekend. All 120s. Say Suzuki's back in the lineup. You know, just be patient on what we're doing with the trade stuff. Don't feel like something has to happen right now. Let some shit play out. Now, when it does play out, it could turn out that like we're actually very urgent. We do need a starting pitcher. But I'm not going down that path until shit gets played out. Does that make sense? I hope so. I hope so. Um, in the meantime, if you guys get a chance, five stars on the show would mean a lot. You know, that helps. That helps the sponsors, it just helps promote the show, it helps marketing the show, it helps all that stuff. It's very hard to get a review, it's very hard to get somebody to go into, especially just podcasting, non-video, just going and just say, hey, I like the show. Thanks for doing the show. Boom. Um, that would be great. Other thing, check out Thirsty Vaquero, a Mexican-style soda with a signature spicy finish. And I have to say this because I do it every week. My wife and I have a skincare company, Sturg Family Farms. If you guys want anything skincare related, eye cream, hand cream, lip balm, face cream, you name it. You know, get something for your girlfriend, get something for your old lady, get something for yourself. You know, especially if you're getting you're starting to get you starting to get up there in your age, what are you, late 20s, early 30s? Yeah, you need to be moisturizing. You definitely need to be taking care of your eyes. Sturkfamilyfarms.com, 20% off everything. Promo code MMCS. I feel like that's pretty basic. Uh, it's really good shit. The business is it's going well enough that I can sit here and talk into a microphone for an hour and 15 alone and not have a fucking lick of guilt about it. So that's my that's that's my product endorsement. I'm sitting here talking into a microphone. Uh, that's how good the product is. Check it out, startfamilyfarms.com, promo code MMCS. Throw some thirsty vacero in the in the Amazon cart. And if you guys get a chance, I'm not a stickler, I don't ask, it's not a call to action, but if you guys do get a chance, obviously me and Mahoney very much appreciate a five-star review. We're gonna be back on Monday morning with the full Pirates series recap and some teaser stuff as we get into next week. Until then, I will see until then, I'll see you guys next time. Until then, I'll see you guys, I'll see you guys next time. God bless, go cups.