Phillies Recap + Mets Pitching Scouting Report

The Cubs are 9-9 and the mood swings are already doing midseason numbers. I’m solo today, trying to keep it tight, and I start with the thing that actually keeps you sane over 162 games: stop living and dying on every pitch and start measuring the season by series. The Phillies set gives us the perfect example, from an ugly start to a loud offensive response that reminds us what this lineup can look like when the at-bats stack.

Then we get into the headline: Shota Imanaga. I walk through the contract and qualifying-offer weirdness and why it might have lit a real chip on his shoulder. The early returns are nasty: command, strikeouts, and the kind of presence that changes how you talk about rotation injuries and trade deadline urgency. From there, Nico Hoerner’s leadoff run becomes the engine for everything, and we talk about what’s working when the Cubs face different types of left-handed pitching.

The back half is a full Cubs vs Mets preview at Wrigley Field: three day games, weather and wind, and a Mets team dragging an eight-game losing streak into Chicago. I break down the Mets pitching matchups, where the Cubs have an edge, and the roster question that won’t go away: what do we do with Michael Busch against lefties, and how fast should Moises Ballesteros earn more reps?

Subscribe so you don’t miss the 100th episode, share this with a Cubs fan who needs a reset, and leave a quick review so the show keeps growing.

Thanks for tuning in! 

- Carl & Mahoney

Transcript

Welcome And Schedule Reset

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Good morning, good afternoon, and evening, Chicago Cubs fans, and welcome back to the Monday morning cub show. Today is actually Thursday, April 16th. This is uh an off-day Monday morning cub show for the Friday episode. Now that we're doing two shows a week, it is your host, Carl. Hopefully, I'm making this clear enough. It's gonna take some time to get used to two shows a week. That's the schedule we're doing. No Mahoney this time around, no guests this time around. As I said last week, we're gonna try and do, I think, a guest every other week. So this is back-to-back solos, meaning thus, therefore, I owe you guys a guest. We'll get to that. In programming notes, I suppose. Now that I have your attention, if you want to leave a review, go ahead. You know, it does help with sponsors. I do keep track of the stuff. I appreciate those of you that have gotten an Apple Podcast and Spotify and have left reviews. As we consider our expansion into video, so that's just off the top, as we consider it. Um, no commitments, don't like doing that with this. It's much more fun just kind of winging it and just playing it by ear and seeing where things go. Um, do I say um too much in these solo shows? When I go back and do the the listen and the sound check, it sounds like it. So here's just like a vulnerable piece of authenticity. If you hear an um, it's because I'm gathering my thoughts. It's not a purpose. I'm trying to be a professional here. Speak from my chest. That's from the Alex Cohn interview. Speak from your chest. I don't think I can do that. I gotta shoot from the hip. You know? I don't think I could speak. You can't speak from the chest and shoot from the hip, can you? If you're listening and you can, shout out you. Me? I'm fast and loose, baby. All right. It's Thursday, it's April 16th. The Chicago Cubs are 9-9. Offense has exploded. This is a solo show where we will briefly recap the uh Phillies series, and we will probably more in-depth talk about the Mets and their starting pitching. And we're gonna do that because I've I've done a lot of homework on that starting pitching for the Mets. And naturally, I feel very comfortable about them losing eight in a row coming into the series. We're gonna get into that. You know, some stuff to look for this weekend while watching the Mets. I think that's a valuable use of our time. We'll recap some of the stuff from the Phillies. I do have a mailbag. There's been some questions that pop up on Twitter. I flag them, I put them in my pocket, I say next time I'm gonna sit in the room alone, I will address these questions. To the best of my ability. That's the commitment I'm giving to you guys today. I'm gonna do my best to speak directly into the microphone. I'll try and I'll try and do it from the chest. Make this a more pleasurable experience. You know, is that something we want? I don't know. You know, like I've said before, we'll hammer home again as many times as I have to, so that it's just a real comfortable tenant of a solo show. We're figuring it out as we go. You know? Take that for what it is, apply it to your own life. Just figure it out. You know, for crying out loud. Just figure it out. We say that all the time in college. I think that's the number one thing you'd say in college. I was in a fraternity, judge me. What do you think? I was of course. Of course I was in a fraternity. Now I joined that fraternity after I walked on the baseball team. That's a hell of a story. Long one, not telling it now. Certainly not getting into that slice of personal history, it's just a fun time of life. Sure, I'll pledge you a house. You lunatic. Yes. The answer to that question is yes. But my point is that there's a window there where I think the number one quick retort response, I don't know. I don't know what the classification is for it. But boy, did I say the phrase figure it out quite a bit. Whether you were a pledge, whether you were a freshman pitcher that couldn't control a running game, figure it out. Figure it out. Strike, figure it out. For are you f for fucks, figure it out. Are you kidding me? Well, I mean, that's because we're gonna have to run extra if you don't figure it out. All right, that's enough about me. More about you, more about the Chicago Cubs. Before, of course, we do any of this. I'm gonna talk about the Phillies recap. There's some takeaways. You know, don't get too excited. Where we write about a lot of things on the Monday morning cub show. Yes. Will I make a time commitment? A lot of people have been listening to the show so far, going, when's he gonna do it? I'm gonna do it now. We're gonna try and keep it under an hour. If I go over an hour, I think that starts to mean I'm a loser. I think so. You know? Like, I don't have better things to do off day. I do actually. I have to spray the property. Weed control, my friends. You know, you live this close within the midst of mother nature, a lot of spores get out here, a lot of a lot of stuff sprouting from the ground. Uh, you don't account for when you're in the suburbs. I grew up in Oakland. You know, there's a natural part of just that experience where you're not you're not dealing with some of the stuff that's coming on the ground here. Where am I now? Unincorporated King County, in the middle of a forest preserve, surrounded by nature. How tall are these oaks? Is there an app for that? We're gonna get to the Cubs. We're gonna get we're gonna get out of nature, we're gonna get to the Chicago Cubs, we're gonna talk about the Philly series. But first, guys, I just took a package here. If I seem out of breath, it's because I just hit pause, had to go to the door, collect myself, picked up a full throttle 24-pack of Thirsty for Carol Mexican style soda with the signature spicy finish. That is, say it with me. If you're with me, say it with me. I'll bite, no rattle. I don't care if someone else is in the car. I don't care if you're walking down the street right now, listen us with your headphones. I'm gonna do it again. It's a Mexican-style soda with a signature spicy finish, that is, I'll bite, no rattle. Just call it an all bite, no rattle. That's what it is. Three bold flavors. Which one is my favorite? That's a tough call. You pick for yourself. Alright? That's the nice thing about three flavors. There's enough there for choice and variety. At the same time, can you go wrong? No. Quality control through the roof. Is it the salt? Chili lime. Salted chili lime. Am I saying that right? I'm too busy drinking it. Boy, is that one good. And they all serve their purpose. You won't believe it until you get it. On Amazon in the cart. Prime member, I don't give a shit. Do that on your own time. Take that up with your old lady. Is it worth the money? Do you really order enough? You know. I hope so. Use it, don't use it. I'll say this. Everybody knows what Amazon is. Spell it out. Thirsty Vaquero. Vaquero with a Q. You know. Authentic Spanish stuff there. The texture on the can, elite, especially that watermelon sangria. The lime more of a smooth finish. The print. Buddy, I'll go an hour on the Thirsty Vaquero product if I have to. Make myself crystal clear. It is a refreshing and delightful beverage. As I say that, the sun is pouring in. What does that say to me? Time to grab one. Now you want to pair that with a boozy your choice, go right ahead. I like the crystal clear stuff. You know, a nice tequila, a nice little vodka. Does it play well with bourbon? Sure, knock your socks off. I mean, if you're willing to mix bourbon with it, you probably want it anyway. So what are you gonna say? No? Get out of here with that. Guys drinking bourbon. Um, which is fine. I like bourbon too. I'm more that's that's that's not what we're talking about, but you asked, I'll answer. That's more of a you know, specific on the calendar for me. Like mid-October is when that baby starts coming out. If you see me drinking bourbon in the summertime, um, you know, it better be after hours and there's a breeze in the air, someone's someone's smoking a cigar. Otherwise, uh, you know, boy, am I having a lousy day. Something bad happened. Why am I drinking bourbon in the summertime? That's a question for another day. Meantime, Thirsty B. Carol on Amazon. Right, this is so I'll talk about what I want to talk about. And I appreciate you guys for showing up again. I'm not, this is not a call to action if you do got if you guys do have a chance. God, the preliminaries I'm making you go through to get to the cub stuff this week. What do you want me to say? Let me do a fake interview. We've got Anthony Rizzo on the show. Hey, Anthony, it's uh obvious from the Lovable Reunion podcast. You seem like a psychopath. Yeah, Carl, what's up? Glad to be here. Hope you still have the ball I threw you in June of 21. I do. Sitting by side, Anthony, thank you for asking about that. How's your old lady? True story about Anthony Rizzo. Quick, we will get to the Phillies recap. I got my hands on his registry, wedding registry, him and Emily, who I know well enough. Well enough. Like, you know, what do you know what me say here? Name drop, story drop. I know them both. Well enough, obviously. Uh my hands on the wedding registry. I couldn't wasn't invite couldn't go to the wedding. That's a sandbag and fucking commentary. Didn't get invited, you son of a bitch. But knew these guys well enough. Sent him an apple apple slicer and a spatula for the game. Spatula? So Anthony said in the note for you to clean up after yourself. The apple slicer was for Emily. And I said for post-game snacks. I hear Anthony likes his apple slice. Now that's a home run. I saw him at spring training. This is months later after they got what a year later? No. They got married in a December. Saw him at spring training. Now there's a warm welcome. How's the fucking apple slicer, pal? You son of a bitch. How'd you know to send that? Now, I don't think it was on, I don't know if it was or wasn't on the wedding registry. Now we're getting long in the tooth here. Um, just the type of just a wonderful character that Anthony Rizzo is. And I'm almost regrettable that I brought up the fact that baller striked whether or not the reunion podcast would be offered, uh, awkward. If anything, it's a tremendous piece of insight into obviously now the further you get away from it, the more meaningful and significant 2016 becomes. Thus, that we've lived through it. No wonder Bears fate we don't stop talking about the 85 Bears. It was the best. That's how I'll be with the 2016 Cubs if we get led through decades of mediocrity, borderline humility um, you know, humiliation in all facets of game, except for mostly linebacker play. You know, sink your teeth into that for about a decade or so. Otherwise, you know, it's been tough sledding. No wonder you talk about 85. That's where we're gonna be at with 2016. Now, is this 2026 team special? Let's gear it up. Let's get into it. All right, I did a ton of homework on the New York Mets. I'll get you prep for this weekend, at least for the purposes of don't be betting based on the shit I have to say. All right, obviously, I'm biased towards the Cubs. Everything I say is gonna be biased towards because I'm viewing it an optimistic lens, optimistic lens. Now, if I want to be negative, I'll be a little bit more overboard. In the meantime, the balance should be even. But don't be so don't be spending money based on what we talk about. Let's just keep this fun. There's a bunch of shit we'll get into Mets with the start at pitching, just how atrocious they've been lately. Ugh. But first, just some stuff with the Philly series. Now, who's excited about Shoda Imanaga? Raise your hand. Put your hand down. You're driving a car, Christ's sake, you're gonna crash. Buckle up, my friend, though. Shodi Imanaga is out, how good, outstanding. Now, one thing we flagged early with this debacle of the contract situation that I will briefly recap is is there a chip on his shoulder? Now, the situation was there was an option to be exercised by the Cubs at the end of the season on Shodi Imanaga that the Cubs turned down. Huh. The Cubs did not exercise the option. All right. Therefore, the uh Cubs to get out of the contract had to offer him a qualifying offer, I believe. I shouldn't say that. The Cubs got greedy, did they? They made him a qualifying offer, which is$22.5 million, which is part of the MLB contract process. And I believe they made this qualifying offer. They didn't have to. If they didn't, he would just be a free agent, I believe. But they made the qualifying offer because if he turns down the qualifying offer, you get a draft pick. I don't think they wanted him to accept it. Maybe they did. It's easy to say yes, we did. But if he if Shoda Ibanaga this offseason turned down the qualifying offer, the Cubs would have gotten a draft pick. Either in the second, third, fifth round, something like that. I mean, high enough. Right? I suppose. You're Jed Hoyer, you're a riverboat gambler. No, you probably thought Shoda wouldn't take it. You thought that he probably would rather be a free agent now before the I guess people say there's a lockout coming. I don't think so. That's a different story. Maybe there's a bunch of incentives there where Shoda, you know, would want to be a free agent, would want more than one-year deal. Anyway, this is a long recap of the contract situation, but what's born out of it is that Shoda, surprisingly, I guess to a lot of people, myself included, when I say surprisingly, I'm obviously surprised, but many people who do this cover this for their full-time jobs. You know, that guy's just sitting here talking in the void like me. Although I am sponsored by Thirston Vicero. Technically, this is a professional podcast, you know. Technically. I'm surprised. Hey, if the Cubs didn't want him in the first place, kind of greedy to, you know, offer him the qualifying offer instead of just clearing. Now you have 22 and a half million on the books. Did they want him now in retrospect? He looks great out of the gate. But we said from the start on the Monday Morning Cubs show, we are now introducing the opportunity to put a chip on a shoulder who a guy atypically doesn't look like he'd have a chip on his shoulder. So you see him so far, he's dominant. 24 strikeouts, 17 innings against six hits, I believe. Couple of those have been three run homers, where I think is this the bulk of his damage. But right now he looks as good as he's ever looked as a cub. Nine strikeouts, 11 strikeouts, just really sitting guys down in order with command. The fastball, secondary stuff, it's crisp. Velocity's there, looks healthy. The bounce back from a guy who, you know, not even ready, couldn't even compete when it mattered most last year. Hurt, banged up, get it. Huge workload, way different workload compared to Japan. I believe in Japan you pitch once a week. Now you do more in that week. Throw more bullpens, I suppose. You know, who cares about the nuance between Japanese and American professional baseball? All right. What we're talking about is Shoda Ibanaga looking fantastic. And how much of this do we attribute to? Obviously healthy, but I'm always looking for the nuance and the subjective, the narrative, the little thing that isn't on the back of the baseball card. And for whatever reason, I'm looking at Shoda this season and have since this contract dispute came out and said, well, a little chip on the shoulder here for a guy who probably hasn't had a chip on his shoulder, is what I'm saying. Which is a great booster. It's like Mario Kart. You get the little, is it a star? I don't know. That's bold. I know it's at least a mushroom capsule, maybe a three-bagger. It's a boost. It is a boost. How long will it last? That's why I'm saying I don't know if it's a single shot or a three-bagger. Is it a star? Maybe that depends on the guy and how he's using it. But a chip on a shoulder goes a long way for these guys. Guys that don't encounter adversity, really, especially for Shoda, who is successful immediately into his big league career, immediately throughout Japan, national hero for, you know, for by many standards. National hero. You know, from a country that really loves their heroes, too. I mean, this guy beloved guy in Japan. And of course, if you follow the Cubs even close enough to get a taste of this guy's personality, it makes sense. What just a wonderful, charismatic individual. Big smiles. Have we seen a chip on the shoulder? Now, obviously, most, if not everybody in Major League Baseball has a competitive psychopath gene. I can attest to this personally, have witnessed it firsthand. I'm gonna go back to that Anthony Rizzo interview with Chris Bryant. I'm not splicing it in here. I don't have the time to be downloading that shit. You know, now let's cut to Anthony Rizzo. No, he's basically talking about how him and Chris Bryant were at the All-Star game, and Harold Reynolds went up to Anthony Rizzo and just kind of was like, what's up, dog? And then saw KB and was like, yo, no, what KB, what's up, homie? You know, something paid Chris Bryant a ton of love. And Rizzo was like, you know, at the time we had almost identical numbers. You know, you're a lunatic, buddy. That's how a lot of these guys are. They know their numbers, they know your numbers. They're measuring, measuring the respect you're getting from the MLB network guy, uh, on the basis of your numbers in context of how much respect he's giving to your teammate. And I got problems, and you got problems. I mean, the difference is these guys can hit fastballs, but you think they're not fucked up, buddy. That's a question for you. Another fake interview question. Rizzo, are you honestly like this all the time? Answer, uh yeah, great question, Carl. I am all the time. Can't turn it off. I'm a psychopath. Go to dolphins. Thank you. All right, I'm gonna ask you to leave now. This is my show. You psychopaths. That's how most of these guys are. And I'm bringing it back to Shoda to say, does Shoda ever have that? Do you have you seen it? I think most of the time we've attributed his success to he's got funk in his stuff. You know, he's repeatable, he's consistent, he's deceptive, he can pitch to the top of the zone, you know, his secondary works off each other, none of which is elite necessarily, but it is all repeatable. His action so repeatable, he's very consistent, pitches right, he's inside, does stuff atypical, a lot of confidence. So if injured and not crisp or compensating in the delivery to throw a pitch or modify a delivery in even the smallest respect where he can't repeat all pitches, then you have a problem. Then you're tipping. I bet that would be the issue with him. I'm not in a dugout. I would guess it was a tip issue. Obvious thing, shoulder something, opening up here, flying open, you know, getting a good look, hand around the ball and breaking shit. I don't know. Digging for a split. I don't know. I'm not in the dugout. I'm offering up what could lead to him being to 24 strikeout, 17 innings against six hits in his first couple starts this season. Holy Toledo is what you should be saying. Not out loud, don't. Someone will be, what are you talking about? You're saying I'm just thinking about Choteam and I got a start to the season. And the question I have is how much of this can we attribute to what if he's just out there chip gonna prove it, shove it up our A-holes, watch the language, not putting an E next to this one in the in the catalog. You know what I'm saying? You go to polo episode, it's got an E next to it that stands for explicit. That means Daddy was a bad boy. Means I gotta watch my language, be more appropriate. There could be children in the car, you could be driving a Costco right now, it could be Sunday afternoon. Getting ready to see David Peterson barf on the mound at Wrigley Field. We're gonna get to him. Anyways, I'll reel it in with Shoda. This is why I shouldn't make time commitments because as I'm doing this, I'm having a blast. I'm real, I'm taking this one for a test drive. The Shoda Imanaga burst, whether or not it is chip on his shoulder, attribute or not, we'll never know because I don't think he'll show that side of him. I think deep down he was offended. I think deep down he's what how wherever there's some part of him that is through that process of them not picking up the contract, and then was their funny business with the qualifying offer, fine, I'll take it, and I'll prove to you guys you're morons, and then I'll go get a big bag of money that we won't spend on them. Anyways, the reason we made a big deal early about Cade Horton and Matthew Boyd about we don't need don't stop talking about we need to make a trade right away, ball or strike, ball. We do not need to make a trade right now. We didn't know obviously what's the extent while we learned Kate Horton's out for the season. R.I.P. to his elbow. He will come up in a stat comparison later. He'll still be useful to the show. God bless that man. Hope he does well. Hopefully, in the recovery. Throw some weight on those legs, buddy. Get some of that hip drive going. You know, give Al Lighter a call. That guy's got a big set of butt cheeks. Get him in the gym. That's an old school out lighter's a guy. If you had pitching coaches from like the 90s or whatever, they would bring up out lighter all the time. So maybe one person listed this can relate to this. Worked with somebody, know somebody in Pro Bowl. Used to talk about Lighter's lower back, you know, and hamstrings. My point is, like to see Cade Horton throw some weight on, but he's out for the season, obviously. Matt Boyd injured. Don't know to what extent, right? They say four to six weeks, which is like no man's land. Pitchers, uh, you know, you're out for the season, you're out ten days. You got a bad hammy, you turned your ankle, you know, cut your fingernails too close. What do you mean, six weeks? Who's out six weeks? What'd you do? What do you do to be out six weeks? That's a good question. Oblique? That would make sense with our organization's history. Somebody gets hurt. The cubs could just say oblique, it's the same thing. Hockey, upper body injury, cubs oblique. Sure. Oblique. Mm-hmm. I mean, what else is there to injure if you're a cub? Historically speaking, one out of two injuries is an oblique. Now that's something to get on one of these odds markets. Next injury cubs will be an oblique. Minus 160. Don't bet. Save your money. All right. We're gonna get to the Met series. But just in context of us overreacting to injuries early, we don't know. A we don't know how hurt these guys are. Well, it turns out Cade Horton's out for the year. We don't know what's going on with Matt Boy. But then the other thing is just be patient. Let's see what we have. Show to Imanaga. He looks great. Now I'm not saying we don't add at the trade deadline. I'm just with respect to the urgency to replace those top two guys. My argument is just wait a little bit to make a move. A little bit. A long bit. As long as we have to, until there's leverage, until we know what prospects we have, etc. But show the pitching really well helps. And that just takes a everybody take a deep breath. It's great. He looks great. Especially against lefties. Hey, we could see the Phillies in the playoffs. Even if it's just three innings. I don't know. Four? Am I being greedy? That's good stuff. That's really encouraging stuff. And how about this? I should have done this. Fucking take the plane off, pal. Been sitting on the runway here, like, oh hair, I'm on the tarmac. What is this, Spirit Airlines? Been waiting for liftoff, should I have said off the top? This is the problem with the solo show. Mahoney immediately would have said, Carl, we gotta talk about what would he say? I love that man. God bless that man. He would say, We need to talk about the fact that, you know, doom and gloom on Monday, hell yeah. And the offense erupts. So there's the first thing in the Phillies recap. I got caught in the show to rabbit hole here, guys. That's gonna happen. The most important thing is that at a point, we had lost three of our last four, and now we've won three of our last four. And losing the Pirates series at home last time I did a solo show was encouraged because we had the 120s in a row, was encouraged by the fact that we were seeing the back end of their starting pitching, that we had some momentum coming out of Tampa. I thought that we looked good. All right, let's go, let's play at home. Now let's let's made Carmen Majinski look like Bob Feller. You know, that's not good. Nothing against Majinski. I'm sure he's a nice guy. You know, maybe he's not. I don't particularly care. But the Pirates really had our launch, and I was extremely disappointed with what their bullpen looks like. I shouldn't say disappointed. Um there's a good um for you. Gathering thoughts, gathering thoughts, gathering thoughts. Their bullpen was lousy. Thoughts completed. Their bullpen was lousy. There's that's what I have to say about their bullpen. Bring the Pittsburgh Pirates on at any point in time, high-leverage situations. Not impressed at all. 93, what is this, the Big Ten? Barf City. A lot of bad mechanics. Come back anytime in June. You're welcome. That's how I feel about the Pirates bullpen. Now, we laid eggs, then we got our butts kicked on Monday night. That was that's just tough. The Phillies under have been underachieving the start of the year too, notably. However, we got our butts kicked. Javier Assad gets slapped around game one. There's the most important part of the recap. Javier Assad, oh Kyle Schwarber, make it pay. Third inning hits the second homer of the series. Just a real tough taste in your mouth to open the series. All the more reason to say, just wow, great stuff from Craig Council and the boys. No. Because we shit on Craig right when it's bad. So then pump him up for two in a row on the road. You know, when I'm ready, just barf all over myself. Have lost three of our last four. Well, then we win the next two, and then you can say have won three of our last four, correct? With blowouts, offense is ripe. So, yes, when we look ahead of the Mets, there's momentum. I think it's really important to just context. I say this all the time. Maybe I should emphasize this more, maybe at the beginning of the show when I have your attention better. So I'll take a deep breath for a second. I'm gonna have a sip of coffee. When I come back from the sip of coffee, I'm gonna say something that's very important to me as it comes to following baseball. That's good coffee. I'm not editing this out either. Apologize. Someone's gonna say this low production value. You better believe it. You better believe it, sister. Okay, it is low production value. That was a good sip of coffee. Now we're ready to rock and roll because what I'm trying to tell you guys is when we're watching baseball, we care about the series. Of course, we want to win each game, but we have to accept the fact that we're gonna win and lose games. It happens. It's happened. The losses are gonna happen. There's also gonna be the games you win where you're like, can't believe we won that game. Ergo, it becomes difficult to measure yourself on a game-to-game basis, which is why I highly encourage us, you, me, all maniacs, to view the sport in the context of this series. You lose game one, it's okay, it's like paper, scissors, rock. It's okay. You throw rock, you feel good about it. Fucking, you know, your little brother's got paper. Deal with it. Then throw too much rock. He saw it. Now what are you gonna do? Throw rock again, probably. I guess. I don't know. But is it over? Is what I'm saying. Is it over? No. No. And if you throw rock again and he's there with paper and you lose game two, whatever, come back and win game, still rock it, put play it out. Go to game three, do the best you can, start that baby up, and then just track the whole fucking season, my friend. But what you want to do is stack up as many series as you can. That's as important as it can get, and that makes it a better viewing experience, in my opinion, is you're following it from all right, we're in Philadelphia after an extremely disappointing weekend at home against Pittsburgh. And so you get to see the team for three games and you get to, you know, buy into the storylines of Philadelphia and learn more about their starting pitching and you know, all that shit. Christopher Sanchez, the difference between him and Jesus Lazardo. And that stuff will matter because we're gonna get to the point at some point in the season where we're talking about playoff matchups and you know, when we're anticipating how we're gonna play, and so now we actually know who these guys are, we can measure ourselves against what has happened. Anyways, buy into the storylines and enjoy the fact that you know we have some really cool series coming up, is what I should also say. As I'm recapping the Phillies. This is one of them. I was excited to see the Phillies, and I'm very impressed and enjoyed, particularly how late do I have to go in the show to talk about Nico Horner? All right, let's wrap it up, pal. Nico Horner, elite in the leadoff spot, made this ardent, glad we were right about it. Sets the tone, also there when we turn it over and there's guys in scoring position with two outs. Also, gives you the best quality at bats that we have on the team right now. With the amount of line drive, hard hit, doesn't strike out, runs the bases well, such a dynamic player. So we'll go through a couple things. He's on pace for like 136 RBIs right now. He's on pace for 55 doubles. He's on pace for 38 homers. No, he's not on pace for 38 homers, 54 stolen bases, 60 doubles, I should say. I'm sorry. 110 runs scored, 210 hits. He's on pace for 14 wins above replacement. This is second baseman. Obviously, just signed him 23.5 million dollar extension. Now the stat line's interesting, a 410 OBP. Will it stay that hot? You know, obviously. I think what it's easier to say, I know he won't hit under 280 right now. It would take, it would take, yeah, I mean, it would take a nagging, lingering, it would take a stubbed finger, it would take something that was not serious enough for him to go on the aisle. He could play every day, but like he could, he was at 85%, could not hit line drives. It would take some really not saying knock on wood, I won't. Not gonna mess with the audio, but you're knocking on wood for me. Now I'm not encouraging, I'm saying what would it take for Nico Horner to hit less than 280? Because for him to extend a slump, you know, his approach is so solid, the mechanics are tight, he hammers mistakes. And there really is, he's got so much tape. What at 4,000 plus plate appearances in his career? What are you gonna say? What hasn't he seen? He's a true book hitter, hits it where it's pitched. Now, you're seeing more power pop, so to say. You know, the 60 doubles. That is a byproduct of obviously having great speed, but it's also him putting the ball in the gap, hitting the ball down the line. So just been absolutely remarkable. And as we talk collectively about the Cubs lineup, I mean, the fact that Nico Horner as the leadoff, we when he early in the season he was hitting five, that was confusing. We said that, you said that. I we all said it. It's weird Nico Horner would hit five. Now, maybe it was too obvious because it's such a meatball thing to say Nico Horner should hit leadoff. The fact has been sensational as a leadoff hitter, right? It's not like my dad hit this guy. I don't give a shit if he's right or lefty, just fuck hit a fucking leadoff. Whose dad is that? My dad, somebody's dead, some listen, that is my father. You know, I mean, it's like, you know, you got fucking Horner over here, you know. What's he hitting? 347? Yeah, okay, sure. Yeah, like that, yeah, hit him six. Yeah, that makes sense. How about you hit him leadoff because he's your best hitter? That would be something I would say. And many of your fathers, many people listening to this have that same sentiment. That's too obvious. Someone goes, he's got a 94 OPS plus adjusted against right-handed pitching career. Okay, seeing the ball real well this year, saw it well last year, continues to get better. Maybe you want to give that guy more opportunities. And on the subject of Nico Horner, you gotta love the fact that when Alex Bregman was signed, he was asked, does this, you know, lead to you getting more days of rest throughout the season, long season? You know, would you welcome that? You've played a lot of games in your career, you know, you play a lot of games per season. You know, are you interested? Will you benefit from that? Is that something you say? I don't want any rest. I want to play every single day because I get better every day I play. So that's why I want to play every single day. And at no point do I want to get rest. I never want to sit on the bench because I'm only getting better the more I play. Oh shit. 410 LBP, five something slug. What is it? Mid-April. Well, if he's gonna, but I'm not saying he's gonna improve from this, but this obviously the mentality of the guy we're talking about. Going back to these guys just being weirdo lunatic competitors. Dude, do you want to break? No. I must play every day. What is that? An ego thing? I don't know. No, he could just be serious about the craft. I don't know. But he ain't coming out, he looks fucking great. So shout out to him carrying the load. Now, with that, that allows us to just make some general observations about the offense because Nico's carrying the way. I think Bregman's looked good. You know, collectively, what we saw against Hazy Lazardo in game three is like the high end of what our offense can do. 12 hits against him specifically, who is a good strikeout pitcher. You know, he's a big strikeout hunter. I think he dominated the Dodgers last year in the playoffs as a guy who can get a lot of swing and miss. Is a guy we wanted to get in a trade, but he had bad medicals. You know, he's just he's a very talented lefty, and we just put so many good pro at bats together, you know, limited strikeouts, ton of balls in play. Just hit the shit all over the all over, and we're we run the bases well, and maybe not necessarily have anyone who jumps out as one huge threat. Now, the reason that's important is because despite the offense kind of erupting in the last couple days, I believe, would we score over 25 runs in the series? You know. So, like, when you narrow it down, you're like, well, there are some disappointing starts to the season for the Cubs. So it's it's not just that, yeah, it's great that Nico Horner has been awesome for the Cubs, no doubt about it. But it's even more important because you know, there's guys that have struggled tremendously. Uh, you know, in specific Michael Bush, is how you're hitting 148. It's tough. We've made a big deal about the fact that, like, is he gonna hit every day against lefties? Yes, he is. How much does that have to do with Tyler Oster and Austin blowing his knee out? That's the guy, the veteran we signed for 1.25 million, righty bat, big righty bat, former Yankee prospect. Played Asian ball, Japanese Korean ball? Played Asian ball, Japanese or Korea. And had put up tremendous slug numbers, particularly against lefties. So that was the solution. Uh-oh, knees busted. Yes, of course, Michael Bush can play every day against lefties. No, he can't. I said this. I didn't want to be negative in the offseason. It's too far in the game. If you didn't do it last year, there's a reason. If we had to sit through Justin Turner more on him later, there's a reason why. So bad. Bad. Same reason why Matt Shaw is taking grounders at first base as soon as that news broke. Same reason why Carson Kelly has a well-lubricated first baseman's glove. Michael Bush, not cut out for right. Sorry. My I'll do it. Fuck it. Sorry. You know, I don't have right. It's not this isn't 670 the score. We're gonna get a phone call from somebody in the communications department for the Cubs. And if we did, below me. I don't like this opinion. Michael Bush, not fit to face lefties. If he is, we gotta hit him lower in the order, which at that point, if we're gonna hit him low enough in the order, you gotta say, we need to get a righty who can hit lefties and play first base. I mean, Jimmy Christmas, is that the hardest thing in the world? Are you kidding me? There are people listening to this right now. Guys, listen, you know somebody. Your uncle can hit fucking lefties better than Michael Bush. I'm not joking. There's a kid, the big 10 right now, who can. There's a the cleanup hitter from Bradley's about our bad against left-handed pitching. That's not mean against Michael Bush. It's just okay, we're not gonna have you do it. Now we're gonna make you do it. Now we're gonna hit you fifth. Ugh. Don't like that. That's lineup consideration. Now we've been good despite the bad. P. Carl Armstrong, room to grow, obviously. Gotta see more pop from him. If he's gonna be a low OBP guy, he's gotta be a high slow guy. That's the trade-off. You made the trade-off, Pete. It's the path of, let's say, you're at a fork in the road. You know, who's heard this? The beat, the beaten path is for the beaten man. The beaten man in this situation is high OBP. Hit the ball on the ground. Let it out. That's beaten. You know, the beaten path is for the beaten man. Now, if we're at a fork in the road and one path is beaten and the other one a little less trailblazed, you know Pete's gonna take the one that requires more conquering, and that is the higher slug. And that's where Pete Crow Armstrong is. As a player, as an approach, wants higher slug, wants home runs. Well, you have to go get them, Pete. That's kind of the you know, don't look at me, don't throw your bat. So just lineup considerations. We will get better. We should get better. There's room to get better. We played great. Love and Maya, love our catching situation right now. Stay healthy, please. Bregman seems to be just really rubbing off on people. Love that. Without being a big rah-rah, fiery guy. Level headed. We got so many of these. Which maybe it's more my bias, and I have to do a better job of just saying, like, obviously, I want more rah-rah fire personality. Obviously, I'm gonna gravitate towards better sound bites. You're not gonna get it from Craig, Dansby Swanson, low-key Bragman, low-key, hap, low-key, all these guys, low-key up and down the lineup. We don't have a soundbite. P. Crow, Armstrong's your soundbite. Enjoy him. That's what makes him more valuable to me. We got so many quiet, convicted veterans. So just lineup considerations. You know, Shaw looks great. I think Shaw looks like he could be great. He looks like he could. He's just close. We got to keep giving him playing time. His confidence grows. That's really it. Just him. Dodgey whiz. He's such a nice little boy. He'd like a Thirsty McCarroll for sure. Oh, you bitcha. You know. So wind up considerations coming out of Philadelphia, going into the Mets. I feel great against non-elite left-handed pitching. Like if you're an elite lefty, Christopher Sanchez, that's a tough matchup. 6'6, Lanky lefty with the changeup. Everything's down, everything's hard, everything's in. Okay, that's tough for anybody. That's why he's elite. That's why led Major League Baseball in starting pitcher wins above replacement last year. That's a guy who pitched game one against the Phillies. That's why we ate our lunch. Him against Javier Assad. That's just a hilarious matchup. Tail of the tape. Put those two boxers side by side. Here's Javier Asad. Is that big heavy 6'1? What is that? A real generous 230 on the back of the card? Big man. Big man. All right. You would be too if you had Javier Assad's fucking what is it? Sauce? Swag? Chain. That's a guy who knows his way around a fucking Keats and Era buffet. Alright. That's a guy not afraid to reach in the cooler for a sixth beer. No, I said 11th beer, 12th, 13th. He's not fucking driving. He's got a pitch tomorrow. All right. That's Javier Asad. Love that guy. All right. Matchup against Christopher Sanchez, big boy. Big boy. Elite. One of the better pitchers in Major League Baseball right now on the planet. That's a tough matchup. So when I look at the lineup, am I considering I don't think our lineup is that against Christopher Sanchez. I think that's more on the high side of like, well, that guy's one of the best pitchers in the world right now. I like our lineup when I'm thinking about it more against obviously Jesus Lazardo. Slight bias there is that we were so good against Jesus Lazardo. So it's easy to make that comparison. What's you know, more difficult is to say, all right, Jesus Lazardo probably didn't pitch as well as he could, but I think generally speaking, when I see left-handed pitching as we will in game three against the Mets, I like the way, like that's generally how I see our lineup kind of coming together. You know, we don't have a bunch of slutters, but we do have, man, tough quality of bat after a bat after a bat. And that's why it's easy for me to circle Michael Bush and be like, damn, weak link in the chain. Why do we always have to have a weak link in the chain? Bush against lefties. That's tough. You know, it's tough. Anything else do I have on the Phillies? This will be quick. No, it won't. How do I do this to myself? I got a ham sandwich and an ice cold Thursday Carol. It's an off day waiting for me. I talked about what I wanted to talk about. As respect to the Phillies. Nico, Shoda, lineup considerations. Look at this. Lefties and the difference between Lazardo and Sanchez. I explained that, I thought. Lazardo pitches more foresame top of the zone, elevates, tries to get you to chase at the top of the zone. Sanchez is trying to get you to swing and miss below the zone, is the easiest way for me to say that. And Sanchez has elite, uh not maybe not tunneling, but the forcing works off that change remarkably well because he's pitching with angle and conviction. So everything is working down. It's just the change is working more down, more off speed, more arm side run. Very difficult pitch, if sequenced, you know, off that forcing. Very difficult for righties. And it'll throw it to lefties. So balls on that guy. Last thing, Biasteros just want to see more of him more consistently. Take the training wheels off. I think we all want to see more of him. I can understand against lefties if he's not going to be in the lineup. You know, so then it's just a matter of like how good is Shaw because DH is going to be obviously Saya, they want. But it's like, if do we have a first, so then it's like Biasteros or Bush. Because if Shaw can play first, then Saya can go to right and Biasteros can DH. Let me slow down here. We're talking about left-handed pitching. And it's basically right now Bush for Biasteros or Bush for Carson Kelly. Who would you rather see? I don't, I don't know. I'd probably Biasteros just because I want it. I think he's one of our better, I think he's one of our best hitters. And I think he's only going to get better with reps. May look like crap at first. But at least give him a chance, see how good he can be, because he could be really good. Ooh, would hate to, but at the same time, if Carson Kelly's going to hit left as well. And the solution there is the same Michael Bush out at first. So either Shaw can come in and play first base, Carson Kelly can play first base. You know, Carson Kelly can DH. Say it can play right. Shaw can play first. You know, Shaw at first, say it right. That's a you know, is that worse than Shaw and right? Carson Kelly at first? Are we just am I just talking to talk right now? Am I just asking you guys to entertain this little triangle here? We face some left-handed pitching. Just questions I have. What's a better setup? As it stands against righties, which is, you know, what is that? Three out of four starts in Major League Baseball are started by righties. Someone get that stat. I'm not a stat boy. I'm a ball player. Get your fucking stats out of here, kid. Um Righty, you know, I think Biasteros should hit two for the foreseeable future against righties. I think he can be great. I think he can be sensational. I think the sooner we just lock into that, you know, which is awesome. I think he'll fit the raw. If you do, I think if you say we we want you to hit two, I think he'll give you two hair production. I'm not joking. I love that guy. I love him. I love him. I've watched so much of this game for so long. I'm not just saying I'm the Cubs fan. You know how many seasons I've I've watched so much fucking baseball in my life, my friends. All right. I'm telling you, it move my needle moves when Moises Bianasteros is in the box. It's just got it. Just sensational presence. So against right-handed pitching, I say let the big dog eat. And if he wants it, and if we're gonna do left, right, left, right, then so be it. One Nico Horner, two Moises Banesteros, three uh Alex Bregman. Now, the sooner Pete Crow Armstrong or Michael Bush want to hit cleanup in this scenario, wide open for one of those guys. Right now it's Ian Hap. But like a geared up PCA, a geared up Michael Bush against right-handed pitching should technically be hitting cleanup. That's kind of the sad thing about the slow start. He'll come around, allegedly. Five is gonna be say Suzuki. Six, technically, should be Ian Hap, but for purposes of this, is Michael Bush against a righty. Seven. Do you want to go Danz V. Swanson? Eight, Peter Armstrong, nine Matchark. Now that is way better than the 2015 lineup. And slightly worse than the 2016, obviously. Nothing. That's very hard to beat that lineup. But that's way better than the 2015 lineup. Alright, let's get to the Mets. I'll be here all fucking day. Sorry, language. Language. Thursday Vitcarrol. Get some Amazon. Alright, Mets overall series, just stuff here. Three games, 120, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You should know that. If you're listening to this, you obviously know that. We have three day games. Last time we said these day games matter because it's an advantage. We lost two of them. So is it an advantage? Is it? You like to think so because Luis Roberts coming back to town. He's got some of them Latin boys all fired up. He's telling Lindor, I got a place for you, man. He's gonna take them down to Pilson. Street tacos. What are we doing in Pilson with Lindor and Luis Robert? Are they going in northwest Indiana? Some of those clubs Yon and Cotty used to get bottle service at? Was it three buy three bottles of Sky Vodka? Get get free hour with a couple hookers. What is that, Northwest Indiana where they're building up air stadium? I think they run promos like that. Do not quote me on this. But I think there's something there. Luis Robert and Lindore taking some of the boys out, maybe getting goofy. That's where the 120 can creep in. I also know the Mets are just on an eight-game losing streak. So, like, if that's not sad, you know, I don't know how those guys respond to it. Do they give a fuck? Is Juan Soto traveling with the team? I don't believe so. I believe Juan Soto's on the 10-day IL. Should I have done my homework on that? I don't give a shit. Friday, warm 76. You know, some breezy. Saturday, showers early, cooler. Sunday, 50. Mostly sunny and cool. I wish my honey was here for the weather report. But wind is gonna be blowing in on Friday, south-southeast. And wind will be howling out to Leftfield on Saturday at 21 miles an hour. Do it this as you guys see fit. I'm just giving you the background. I have it in my notes. Talk about the weather. Why? I don't know. When I made the outline, I thought the weather would be a fluid talking point. Now that I'm doing it, I'm realizing kind of getting stuck on this. Not a meteorologist, not very good at talking about weather. But whatever. Little warm on Friday, you know, chilly and shitty on Saturday, chilly and sunny on Sunday. So if you're going to the game, fucking bundle up. I guess if you're going to the game, you're not getting your weather from me. It's ridiculous. Um what's not ridiculous is we have a huge advantage here. Do we want to get a sweep? Expectations for this, I guess. I'll get to the pitching matchups. I mean, Jesus Louise. Don't take his name in vain, Mike. What I would like to talk about for a second briefly is the Chicago Cubs starting pitching. We have tremendous holes in our bullpen. We have Eddie Cabrera, Jameson Teon, and Javier Asad bounce back Sunday, which I like. So immediate advantage with Cabrera. It'll be great to see Teon, who's typically very good day games at Wrigley, especially on a Saturday, and then Javier Asad game three. So there's your Cubs pitchers. We have a huge advantage game one. Huge. Mets recently, obviously trash, have lost eight in a row. Very few players on their team are playing well right now. Got to take advantage of the fact that they're kind of shitty veteran clubhouse right now. Some dissent, some discord, uh disorder, uh, dissent. That's enough. Plenty. Last eight games that they've all lost, they've scored 12 runs. They've given up 44. Okay. That is a someone's better at math than me. That's a minus 32 run differential in their last eight, 12 runs against 44. All eight losses. Just horrific. Two to the diamondbacks, two uh three to the A's, three to the Dodgers. Not a West Coast trip either, my friends. Wasn't like they were just bussing up and down Route 5 or whatever that it is. I'm not gonna say anything me about California. Lovely this time of year. But it's it's not that. I don't want to hear that. Travel accommodations for a Steve Cohen team weren't up to snuff. They're in California, they're eating fresh fish, all right? Halibut. Off the fucking coast. What is it, farm to table? Seed your mouth. Fresh. That's what they're traveling like in California. Nevertheless, eight losses in a row gets you. Don't give a shit what league you're in. Little league, big league, you know, JUCO. Bowling league. Eight, anything. I don't like losing once, personally. You know, I'm not talking about watching it. I'm saying personally. Eight in a row? That's tough. If you were sitting at a blackjack table, you lost eight hands in a row, you would get you would get up and you'd say, I'm getting my fucking ass kicked. Sorry, language. There's gonna be an E next to this one. Uh through however many games, 18. What is that? Through 12% of the season, the Mets are 27th in runs per game, they're 25th in home runs, they're 29th in on base at 286, which is slightly worse than Justin Turner last year for the Cubs, where his on-base percentage was 288, inspiring the wrath and ire of all of us. So the Mets are slightly worse right now as a team, as an overall team, uh than Justin Turner was for us last year, which means they suck right now. So 28th. There's 30 major league teams, by the way. So just don't get too confused. So when I say 28th, it means they're third to last. The Mets are 28th right now and slug at 331, which is almost identical to Cade Horton's career. Uh slug surrendered. Batters have a 330 slug against Cade Horton's career. He never gives up home runs. The Mets team this year is basically like their power their total power output is like if they were just only facing Cade Horton at his best. So obviously they don't hit the ball out of the ballpark that much. And then their 29th second last in OPS at 617, which is actually 14 points worse than Jason Hayward was in 2016. Legendary season, if you recall. He had a 631 OPS, no PS plus a 68 adjusted, so he's 32% worse than the league. Which is one of the worst full seasons, no injuries in modern baseball histories under the context of the free agent deal. Like pound for pound, dollar for dollar games played. Like he didn't hurt his knee. It wasn't like he had a bad wrist. He just, wow, is he bad? He was so bad. And so the Mets are like two to three percent worse than how bad Hayward was. That's how bad they are right now. I'm not saying they'll be that on Fridays. The big leagues, obviously, you know, Bo Besheck could turn around, Lindor could turn around. But like we talk about that's brutal. Are you kidding me? So pitching staff overall pretty average. They they benefit in the numbers from having a couple good guys at the top of the rotation who've performed well. I shouldn't say good guys. They have a couple good starts to the season behind Clay Holmes. We're not gonna see him, uh, and we're not gonna see McLean. So that's a good thing. Who's just filthy? We're not seeing that guy who's filthy. We are gonna see Freddie Peralta game two, but first game one, we're gonna see Code Senga. Did I get this right? I did. Kode Senga, who is got a great forcing fork ball combination, they work off each other. He doesn't give up a ton of hits, does give up walks, does have a lot of strikeouts, you know, some injury issues, whatever. If he's good, he's great. Now, this is a guy who doesn't really alter his approach based on what you do. He has his approach. So this is game one. We have Eddie Cabrera on the mound for the Chicago Cubs. Huge advantage to the Cubs coming to this. Obviously, with the Mets losing eight in a row. Off day, they're fucking around, they're putting around in Chicago right now. Don't make me do it. I'll do it. They're at the peninsula, it's an all-you-can-eat buffet. Guys are already segmented within that clubhouse. Some people are shopping on Michigan Avenue, walking up and down Rush Street, excited for the game tomorrow. A lot of ticket requests come in because Chicago's an easy place to travel to. People love seeing Wrigley Field, even though the ivy isn't grown in yet. So we got ticket requests, we got friends and family in the lobby. We got Bo Bichette's got his buddies from Canada that just came down. They're trying to get fucking wild on Rush Street later tonight. Bo Bachette wants to go out, but they got 120 games. I'm not bullshitting you guys. And these are guys that are coming in here crushing the deep dish, really putting a herd on it. Where? Well, if you're staying at the peninsula, you got a number of options. You go right up the street, rush to Lou Malnades. You want to take a right, you want to go to Pizza Uno. I'm not recommending these places. I'm saying this is at their disposal. They can do this. The Mets can do this if they want to. And I think they're the team that does. I don't think they're four seasons crowd. I think they're a peninsula crowd. And I think they are very excited to be doing some shopping. Try and get some, you know, nice off day in Chicago. You know, still make me do it. I'll be naughty. You know, this is a great opportunity for these guys to be out late tonight, is what I'm saying. And that, my friends, is why Idie Cabrera is going to feast tomorrow, I think. Hot, warm day, good for him. Probably still wearing sleeves. But advantage to us because Cody Singa, you know, I think this is a guy who's going to make his mistakes early in the season. Now, the problem is he's going to give you his best stuff. It's going to be hard. It's going to be a fastball over the plate. If the fork ball's rolling, he's got good command of it. You know, we can get in trouble. They're swing and miss, but their bullpen isn't deep. You know, they've been giving up so many runs. They have no confidence. This is a good opportunity in game one. Huge opportunity, I should say. And I like Cody Sangan, generally speaking, I think he fits well in the back end of a rotation because he can light you up. Six innings, you know, ten strikeout stuff. He definitely has that capability. He just needs the fork ball to really be rolling. Um, off of that, he hasn't thrown his curveball yet this year. Last year, I think he threw seven pitches. He does have a sweeper, you know, great. He does have a cutter, fine. You know, about 85% of what he throws is going to be hard-ish off his fastball, which includes the forkball. So it's like 35% fastball. Who gives a shit? Not like you're hitting. But like one out of three pitches, good forcing fastball. It's going to be up over the plate. You know, the fork ball's down. The cutter uniquely backs up. I think it's it's I think it's a unique pitch he throws to lefties in hard. But I think it backs up a little bit, meaning I think it works more like a fork ball. Works more down arm side, which is a weird thing. We don't need to get into the fucking spin rate here, guys. All right. I'm just saying I did my homework. And it should be a unique matchup for the Cubs, coming off of what we saw in Philadelphia. Way different than anything we saw there. You know, he is a unique guy. He's kind of like a more polished version of Ben Brown, is what I should say. You know. Which you guys are like, does that exist? It does. It does. He's he's a less talented, more polished version of Ben Brown. But it's similar to that up over the plate, forkball down. All right, then Freddie Peralta, we've seen him fastball change up a thousand times. We saw him six times last year, I think. You know, what do you want me to say about Freddie Peralta? That'll be interesting because Jamison Taeon has a kitchen sink. He's gonna be throwing a bunch of loopy shit at 120, cold game, you know. Like, obviously, advantage Freddie Peralta, but I do like Jamison Tayan at a home game. I think that's gonna be probably my most intriguing matchup of the weekend. I do like an underdog here. I do think Jamison Taon, it'd be cool to see him go pitch for pitch. You know, he pitches balls off after getting shelled early last timeout. So just I just like it. You know, I just I just like Jamison Taya in this situation. Uh, let's keep it moving. David Peterson's interesting guy pitching game three against Javier Asad. So slight advantage. Peterson just bait Javier Assad got shelled. He'll probably bounce back and be competitive again. Cold day. Peterson's kind of a pussy. Went to a Jesuit high school, St. Ignatius, Loyola style. Good for him. University Oregon. Became a big strikeout pitcher's junior year of college, rack up 140. I'm not reading this off a fucking baseball card, by the way, guys. This is all cold turkey. But becomes a big strikeout pitcher, goes in the first round. He's 6'6. He's got a nice mix, fastball up, sinker in, loves sinkers the lefties. Now he will change his approach based on who's in the box. Code Sango won't. You're gonna get the same mix: 35% this, 30% fork, 20% cut. Don't matter. Righty lefty, that's the mix. Ahead behind, he's got his approach. He doesn't give a shit who you are. Peterson, game three, is gonna mix it depending on, you know, sinker in. You're a lefty, you're gonna get sinkers in. P. Crow Armstrong sinkers in. So that could be a tougher matchup for a bush, as I'm pointing out. He'll throw it all. Sweeper, curve. I don't know if I like him. I think he's too fine. He walks too many people. He tries to get too many swing and miss. So that's a guy. I think game three, we got. I think we have a, even though Javier Rasad may come out as an underdog or may appear to be, I think we have a big advantage game three. I think we have a monster advantage in game one. I would rank we should, if I have to rank the likelihood one, three, two. But I like game two. I'm pulled into game two with Tayon versus Eddie Kabura. I'm excited to see how this shapes up. So those are my expectations. Mets lineup, meanwhile, they're cold. They had some weird stuff. Brandon Nemo, they traded. Apparently, he had some discontent. I can't, you know, I'm politically gotta figure out a word there. Discontent with Francisco Lindora, I think politically related. I think he I don't think he's he a Trump guy. Is he conservative? Most baseball players are most professional baseball players are conservative. Most American professional baseball players are conservative. So, you know, I that people, whatever. I'm comfortable with it. I don't okay, you know, we're just here talking baseball. That comes up because apparently there was some do-the-do. He gets shipped to he gets shipped out to Texas. They bring in Marcus Simeon, who's playing second base. And he ain't any good right now. Bobuchette's playing third base out of position. He ain't very good right now. Francisco Lindor's having a slow start to the year. You know, they didn't sign Pete Alonzo. I don't know what's going on with the Mets. They're really tailed on paper. And I'd be pumped to see their lineup. Very excited, very excited to see them in Wrigley Field. Great team, big payroll, all that stuff. It's awesome. Very excited to see the Mets. You know, we're playing much better right now in this present moment over the last, you know, whatever, couple games. We should be in a position to take advantage of the fact they're loop being down eight in a row with an off day in Chicago into three 120s. You know, I said this shit last week, it didn't come true, but why do I feel like that's just tough? I feel like that's a tough place to bounce. Don't you want to bounce back on like Miami? Eh, that's a tough one. 11. Get the Latin guys out. No. Where do you bounce back? So not Seattle. They got good pitching. Minnesota? Where do you bounce back? Where do you break a slump? These are my questions. This is the Monday morning cub show. Just a couple mailbags here while I'm loose, warm, ready to go. Just a couple mailbags. Carl, what do you think of Lucas Giolito in a Cubs uniform? I don't right now. We don't have urgency. This is mailbag segment brought to you by Thirsty Pacero. Three bald flavors, I'll bite an around. Um, Giolito, you know, no rush, guys, at all. We're fine. Columbray, fine. Guys are fine. We don't need to be bringing in this, that. Hey, welcome to the team. Here's your uniform. You know, go pitch in Iowa. Like, let's see what Jackson Wiggins does. Let's just everybody pump their fucking brakes. Uh next question. Kyle, what's your favorite Thursday Baccaro flavor? I think it's watermelon, but I'd like I'm a sucker for mango muerte in the morning. You know? And I'm about to go have a lime with the ham sandwich. It really just depends. The watermelon hits. Lord, does it hit? But in mango muerte with tequila, I think is the best combo. To be determined. Uh don't ask me sponsored questions like that. You know, I like Thirsty McCarrow's paying for a lot. They're not paying for a mailbag, are they? They are? Never mind. Great question. Go to Amazon and get yourself Thirsty McCarroll. I'm wearing the hat right now. Good merch. Great company. Great board of directors. Um okay. If we can trade right now for something versus or someone. Carl, who are we trading for? Dear Carl, huge fan. Your number one fan. Carl, I'm your number one fan. You're the best. Thanks for everything you do. You're always dead out balls accurate in your Cubs sakes. I'm such a smarter and better Cubs fan for having listened to your show. And I am a huge fan of Stirred Family Farms. Especially after using promo code MMCS for 20% off. All skincare products. Shipping. It was done timely. Lovely. Best of Scottie Puppin. Again, I'm your number one fan. I just had a quick question for my favorite Cub show that I have a five star subscription to on. Spotify and Apple, because I'm loyal to the cause. If we could trade right now for someone or something, who would we be trading for? It's a great question. Thank you for sending that in. Big fan, huh? Like that. Uh if we're gonna trade for someone or something, it's a right-handed bat that can just take Michael Bush out of the equation against lefties and give everybody a deep breath. So who is that? I'm not sure. We're gonna find out. We're gonna find out in short order. You know, we have plenty of time. We have plenty of time. But it is in that realm on the right side of the field. First base, is it a right fielder? It's a right-handed bat. Because aga against righties and like if Michael Bush is average, I shouldn't say if Michael Bush is Michael Bush against right-handed pitching, we don't need to solve for shit. It's just what do we do against lefties? I think I think we have a little bit more of a weakness against lefties than I'd like to see when we've got so much depth in the in the lineup. So we that's an easy thing to fix, though. Alright, we can do one more. One more mailbag. Alright. Summon through these ones. Um this is a good one. Okay, Carl, ball or strike, Dansby and Shaw will equally determine just how good this offense can be. And that that ultimately is a ball because I'm gonna point back to Pete Carl Armstrong. But there is a huge impact that you have because when you're expecting these guys to be, like in Dansby's case, average offensively, maybe a little bit below, maybe a little bit above. And Matt Shaw, there's the question mark. We don't really even know where to put him on the map. Because in my mind, it's like I think he could be great. Some projections would say slightly above average. But to that extent, when you're plotting these guys out in the field, you know you're gonna get great defense, you're gonna get great base running. You know the stuff that they can control, they're gonna do very well. So if we're in a situation where these guys are performing 15-20% above either average or expectation, which I think are both kind of the same thing. Like the expectation is be average. So if you're seeing like above average production from these guys, it's gonna be tenfold in the offensive output for the rest of the team because everybody else is so consistent. You know, I think you're I think you know exactly what you're gonna get from. Now, maybe Nico Horner's playing better than he will in the course of the season. But like Bragman in in line, we haven't really gotten say going yet, obviously coming back from injury. But like it's pretty easy if he's healthy, what you know what you're gonna get from him, just like we would hope and expect with Bush coming around on righties. I think for him to come around on righties, we're gonna take him out against lefties. Can't beat that enough. But to that extent, Dansby and Shaw are gonna get everyday playing time because of their defensive. You know, in Shaw's case, versatility, in Swanson's case, importance. He's so good at shortstop, shot. We need him out there in some capacity. You know, him healthy is better than Saya healthy. That's crazy to think about. Say's done nothing but play right field his career. Long winded, deep breath, land the plane, buddy. This is the Monday morning cub show. That's the mailbag segment. I'll be back on Monday with Mahoney for our 100th episode. You can celebrate by subscribing to the show. Appreciate you guys very much. Uh, this is an off day, you know, so do something productive. Cubs 120 tomorrow. I'll be out with the lineup preview. If you want to support the show, obviously go get yourself some Thirst of a Carol and treat yourself to 20% off Monday morning cub show promo MMCS sturdfamilyfarms.com for all your skincare needs. Treat a loved one. It's cub season. All right, we're nine and nine. Maybe we have some momentum. We're off today. We'll find out tomorrow. Uh until next time, I'll see you guys on Monday.