The Cubs Are Built To Win Every Day

26-12, first place, and Wrigley feels like a problem for everybody again. We’re still early in the season, but the way the 2026 Chicago Cubs are winning is the real headline: professional at-bats up and down the order, no easy outs, smart defense, and a team that looks locked in pitch to pitch. Carl breaks down why this roster feels different than a normal hot streak, and why the Reds sweep is a perfect snapshot of talent versus clean baseball. 

Then we get into the question every Cubs fan is asking: can the pitching hold up? Matt Boyd’s meniscus injury forces real rotation conversations, and we talk through the risk that lower-half issues can create for a pitcher’s arm. We also take a hard stance against rushing into May trade panic. The MLB trade deadline is still weeks away, sellers have not declared themselves, and Jed Hoyer needs time to let the market form, even if this team screams “buyer.” 

The mailbag drives a big chunk of the show: lineup construction, whether Pete Crow-Armstrong can climb the order, what Seiya Suzuki’s return changes, and how the bench actually works when you’re trying to win every day. We also dig into Ben Brown’s emergence, why his mindset looks flipped, and why Craig Counsell’s next move with his role should protect the growth. Plus, yes, we end with a little Thirsty Vaquero flavor and a Craig Counsell drink debate. 

If you’re enjoying the ride, help us keep growing: subscribe, share the show with a Cubs fan, and leave a five-star review on Spotify or Apple. What’s the one move you want the Cubs to make before October?

Thanks for tuning in! 

- Carl & Mahoney

Transcript

Welcome And Why It Feels Different

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Good morning, good afternoon, and evening, Chicago Cubs fans, and welcome back to the Monday morning Cub Show. It is Thursday, May 7th. It is your host, Carl. It is a solo show. So for you guys keeping track, at home we do two episodes a week now. Mondays with Mahoney. Thursday, Friday when if so and so in interviews. We got a lot of stuff going on, the Sterk family. Just be honest with you. The solo shows work for me. And hopefully they're working for you guys from the standpoint of giving you insight to help you watch this team. Because they're sensational, right? Like we'll give we got a lot to get into 26 and 12, first place, just swept the Reds, 15 in a row at home against, you know, at Wrigley, I should say 20 and 4 over the last 24. So many good things to say about this team. And I can comfortably say, you know, without the 2016 World Series, obviously, it's impossible to compare anything to a World Series championship with the Cubs. However, this team is not far behind from the standpoint of I love everything about them. I love everything about the 2026 Cubs. We're going to get into what makes this team special. I have a great mailbag from you guys. Most of the interest is in our pitching staff, which makes a lot of sense. Makes a lot of sense when you look up and down the lineup and you don't see one regular player in the Cubs batting lineup with an OPS plus under 100. Literally every single guy, Michael, the 13th guy, Michael Conforto. No, anybody who takes regular playing time with the Chicago Cubs has been at least above average this year, which is never happened in the history of Major League Baseball. Let me repeat myself. May 7th. And I'm talking about in the history of Major League Baseball positively about the Chicago Cubs. We're so lucky. I just gotta set the tone, have to theme for the show. So unbelievably grateful that for the next however long we're gonna be on this ride for, every day is gonna be important. Every day matters, all these games stack up. So wow. This sweep against the Rets. If you're a 162, if you're a maniac, if you're a diehard. So do you ever get me pizzas like this? Ever? I'm not comfortable sitting down and going, we're awesome, we're the best, we're here's the moves we're making, because you're always working towards that. And right now it's a we're 20 and 4 over our last 24. We start the season six and eight. We are now 26 and 12. So I gotta warm up here, guys. It's a it's a Friday show recorded on a Thursday night, feeling extremely lucky, and that's because of Thirsty Vaquero. A Mexican-style soda with a signature spicy finish. That's all bite no rattle. I'm gonna have a mango muerte right now. And it is unbelievably crisp finish. I posted a lineup review today, had a Thirsty Vaquero with lunch, had a bad piece of pizza, was encouraging people go get some Thirsty Vaquero, throw it in the car on Amazon because it'll make a bad pizza good. Now, I don't want to turn this into a personal thing, I think it's crazy. Someone called me an alcoholic for drinking a Mexican-style soda with a signature spicy finish that's all bite no rail. There is no alcohol in Thirst of a Carol. Now you can add it if you want. I didn't with my pizza. You can. I did all weekend long. And listen, I'll do the shows till I die. You know, we got big plants coming. I I have big plants coming with this show. I'll be here forever. I'm just asking you guys to do me a quick favor. Go to Amazon, check out Thirsty Vicero, throw it in the cart. You haven't had it before, it's unbelievable. If you have tried it, you're a regular customer. There's no in-between here. The people who have had it love it. The people who haven't had it are just waiting to love it. So shout out to these guys. One of my closest buddies behind it. Can't thank him enough for backing me, putting some juice behind the Monday Morning Cub show. We're 26 and 12. We're in first place. A week ago, the Cincinnati Reds were in first place. They're like six games out. Their season's over. No, I'm teasing, obviously. Shout out Reds fans. Good fans. Historic club and franchise. You know, in a more fitting setting, I would love to talk about the history of the Cincinnati Reds as the first professional baseball team ever, 1876. We're not going to do that though, because that was 150 years ago. Right? I'm not going back 150 years. I'm going to, I'm not even going to I'm going to go back 150 minutes and just say that was a complete ass kicking today. That was an unbelievable top to bottom, start to finish. We said at the start of the week, I'd like to go three and four. I'm not going to expect a sweep off stomach two and two because we played so well recently. The Reds are talented. I can't stress that enough. Up and down the roster, talented guys. I said they're not great baseball players, though. And a perfect example of that would be Tyler Stevenson, the catcher. Today, I believe in the fourth inning. Base is loaded, ground ball to third base. Cabrian Hayes steps on third, throws home. Okay, so let me set the stage again. Base is loaded. Ground ball to the third baseman, steps on third, force out, out, throws home. Tyler Stevenson thought it was a force play at home play. If you want to understand the Cincinnati Reds, that's the perfect situation. Tyler Stevenson's 6'4, 230, looks unbelievable in a baseball uniform, has all the power you could possibly want from a catcher, all the tools, everything. Except for brains. I mean, talk about rocks in your head. And that's just the way I size up that Cincinnati Reds lineup. Now let's use that complete opposite comparison to the Chicago Cubs. And up and down the lineup. Yeah, we've obviously we have talented players. Most of them are first-round draft picks from college. Alex Bregman, Dansby Swanson, Nico Horner, Michael Bush, Ian Hap, Matt Shaw. These are first-round college draft picks that make up our roster. The difference is they're ball players. That is what jumped out to me in this red series. Because again, you look at the Reds, they're so much talent. The starting pitching staff, they they maybe one day will be awesome if they develop, etc. But just a great contrast between the Cubs and the Reds in the series is how much more clean, professional, organized, uh in pitch to pitch the Cubs play. Locked in, focused. Such an unbelievable one through nine. And then the benches, like, you know, I was going through the roster looking at the last. I'm like, I could get rid of Nicki Lopez. You know, we're gonna get into some roster management stuff when I get into the mailbag. Like I like Nicki Lopez. Plays third base, plays shortstop, plays second base. He can sit for 10 days and then go out and play average at three infield positions. You know, can handle the bat well enough for a late bunt, shit like that. So if we have to replace somebody in this lineup, like it's there's one guy, that's it, where you could say maybe, and Nikki Lopez is a friend of mine, like legit personal night. I like Nikki Lopez. I think he is a perfect place as the last guy on the roster. And this isn't going to be a whole show about Nikki Lopez. I'm trying to draw the contrast and explain just how deep and balanced the Cubs are. Like, you can't really make an argument for anybody to be doing anything differently than exactly what we've gotten from this team since they started six and eight. Now, I should reel us in for a second because are we the team that started six and eight, or are we the team that went 20 and 4 over the next 24? We're closer to the team that went 20 and 4. Just so we're clear though, 20 and 4 over 24 is like on that's a 135 win pace. That's 27 losses in 26 weeks of professional baseball. So we we just want to set our expectations because what could happen at some point as we get to the mailbag with the pitching staff, as I'll explain, what could happen is the pitching staff is good enough right now. You know, we obviously we're gonna have to make trades. I've said before we're gonna make the biggest trade deadline move since a roll this champion, and I would bet that we make bigger splash than that instead of just the closer. I wouldn't be surprised if we went closer, setup man, big time starting pitcher, and then maybe like a flyer on another starting pitcher. I wouldn't be surprised if we just got absolutely bananas, diversified our portfolio at the trade deadline, and went out and just sprayed it, just got as much as possible. That's very much going to happen. We have to survive, etc. I say survive. We're playing such good baseball. We just can't have the pitching staff completely give it away over the next couple weeks, which is probably not gonna happen, right? Like, I'm not saying that is a risk. This is, but if there is just one risk, or if this is one area we'd target and we'd say, how can this go south? And what do we want to avoid? It's just a matter of getting enough outs from our starting pitchers, and specifically Colin Ray. You know, I I think Javier Asad, if he's gonna be the five now, because burying the the lead here, Carl, is Matt Boyd news something meniscus, his left knee, which is the leg he pushes off of on the mound, not the leg he lands on, it's his it's his push leg, and that can really mess with your shoulder, which is uh how deep do I want to get on this? If I'm throwing something, uh, you know, I'm throwing a pitch. If I don't have the space in my lower half, the legs, where I know I can push and land, the stress will end up traveling up your body. It will end up in the shoulder, it'll end up in an elbow, it'll end up in your forearm or something. It the stress and pressure of pitching through a lower half injury has an extremely high correlation to arm injuries because you have to put the stress pressure somewhere it ends up on your arm. So, from a preventative standpoint, the knee's fucked up with Matt Boyd. That's a you have to be overly precautious on that. Get the knee as healthy as possible. Maybe it's something he could pitch through a couple starts. If this happened in September, would he go on the IL? Is this something he'd have a procedure for before the playoffs? You know, I would say no. I'd say this is probably something he battles through later in the season. Right now, it's like, we'll take the six weeks. Which then gives us the opportunity to play a little game we like, which is man, Matt Boyd comes back in six weeks. It's basically gonna be like going to the trade deadline and we acquired Matt Boyd. That's that's kind of how I'm spending this positively. The other positive realization is that while Matt Boyd this year has gotten uh the most swing and miss, has has racked up the most whiffs out of the starting pitching staff, he he has also posted the highest ERA, which early in the season, how much do I care about ERA? Not really that much, but if we're just gonna make a comp we're just having a conversation here about Matt Boyd. And he has been notably behind Shoda in Eddie. So while he was our opening day starter, do you want to look at this over the next six weeks? We you know, we lost one A or one B, however you compare Cade Horton with Matt Boyd. The reality is Shoda is six of his eight starts, and I don't think he's given up a run. You know, Eddie Cabrera's been awesome. He looks like he's getting better. Jamison Tayan has been a top 15 pitcher in baseball over the last three seasons. Top 15 pitcher in major league baseball. You know. So there's 30 guys walking around right now that are number ones on Major League staffs. There's 30 opening day starters. How many guys that are starting pitchers in Major League Baseball make$20 plus million dollars a year? Jamison's not one of them. I mean, you could categorize this however casually you want to, but I can promise you, without me telling you, James and Tan's been a top 15 pitcher over the last three years in Major League Baseball. There ain't no way in hell you would have predicted that. There's not a metric in your mind where you'd be like, I bet you Jameson's on the list. But if you look at the numbers, he's there. And at some point, as Cubs fans, like, we should start to give this guy a little bit more trust. I know there's people listening that trust him and love him. There's people that are listening that are also kind of like, oh, whatever, it's Jameson Taeon. He's fine. The reality is he's much better than fine. He's been extremely consistent and he's been dominant at Wrigley Field. Now, him with Shota with Eddie Cabrera, that's a solid one through three. It's not great, you know, it's not a leap, it's not a top 10 one through three. But if you're telling me that's our one through three right now, with this aircraft carrier veteran lurking in the in the be in the in the background, Colin Ray. If you told me one through three, just show to Eddie J-Mo the way they're throwing the pill right now. Matt Boyd's got to go six weeks on the aisle to clear this knee up so his arm doesn't blow out in in August or September. You know, this is we gotta do it then. Then we gotta do it. And we've laid the foundation on this show to say it is still way too early to be making trades. I saw someone joke around, like we should get Trevor Bauer. Trevor Bauer posted the highest ERA, the fucking Japanese league last year. He's he's pitching in the Atlantic seven innings in the Atlantic League, seven inning doubleheaders. No, thank you. Fuck that guy. And people like him. He's got great stuff, he's got an online presence, whatever. Fuck Trevor Bauer. I hate that guy. I don't want him anywhere near this clubhouse. Could you imagine him walking into a clubhouse with Nico and Dansby and Bregman? Those guys are just bullshitting. Vibes are immaculate. Ian Hap, quiet leader in the clubhouse. You know, PCA filling in the cracks with his personality. Say Suzuki, one of the most lovable, fucking kind teammates of Major League Baseball. You know, you got just all-time veteran status with Carson Kelly behind the plate, emerging leader in Miguel Omaya, understated presence in Michael Bush. And you're telling me we're just gonna like throw Trevor Bauer into this mix? He couldn't fit any worse in that clubhouse. Now, maybe there's a clubhouse in Major League Baseball that fits his very loud brash personality. He challenges the guy next to him, the coaching staff, the fucking hot dog vendor he's got something to say to. I'm just using Trevor Bauer as an example here to say pump the brakes on. We need to add this guy, we need to bring this guy. Are you mad we didn't sign Lucas Giolito when he was available? I'm not mad about anything right now. I'm not mad Matt Boyd's injured. I'm over the fact that Cade Horton's out. I'm trying to relish in Ben Brown's emergence. I'm trying to find the good that Javier Sad can go out and compete when we need him, and we're good. We pay him a million bucks a year, whatever, two million bucks a year. You know, I'm excited to see Colin Ray get the most out of this year on his contract at this stage in his career, playing by far on the best team he's ever been on. At least with the best position players, I should say. So those are the positive ways I'm looking at the Matt Boyd thing. Because the reality is it fucking blows. That with just another guy, another pitcher. How many? How many? At this point, it's crazy. Tay Orton's by far the best pitcher in the organization out for the season. Obviously, the lingering stuff with Boyd blows. The bullpen has been decimated. You know, we've we've used what 19 pitchers this year. I think we've used 10 guys so far. It's May 7th, and we've already used 10 pitchers this season that have completed at least one inning in triple A, Iowa. If you can see the look on my face as I'm explaining this, no, we've used 10 pitchers that were in AAA. It's May 7th. It's not, it's not mid-July. There would be an argument to make it going into the trade deadline. We've used 10 guys from Iowa. We gotta get more major league pitchers. It's May 7th. This really could go down as one of the most bizarre, insane, beautiful seasons I've ever witnessed. Because what's what brings me back to why the Cubs have been so good over these last 24 games is how deep and consistent the lineup is. So you could have three guys play the worst fucking game of their life same night, doesn't matter. We don't have anybody who swings like an asshole. We don't have anybody on the roster that doesn't have at least an average feel for a major league strike zone. Everybody plays their part almost perfectly. So a good example would be Pete Crow Armstrong. So I'll just start teasing some of the stuff in the mailbag. And one of the questions that I got was Do you think Pete Crow Armstrong can move back up in the lineup? Do you see that happening this year the way it's set up, or is he naturally just going to fit into the eight-nine spot throughout the season? What would it take for him to, you know, he hit cleanup most of last year? The obvious answer to that is Pete Carl Armstrong would have to get red hot where it would make it where it would be stupid to not hit him cleanup. You know, if or when we get there, I don't know. And I'm interested to see, would counsel move the lineup around this year if other guys are getting hot, or is he gonna settle into this? Like, is Nico just gonna lead off the rest of the season? I would say yes. Is Moisen Spyesteros probably gonna hit two against most right-handed pitching? Probably. Is Alex Bregnan the three hitter? Probably. You start locking into like this is probably where these guys are gonna be um, you know, over the full 162. I can't see Danzby Swanson climbing out of the 789. You know, if Michael Bush is in the lineup, he's got to hit in the top six. If Say is in the lineup, he's got to hit in the top six. So, really what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna come back to Ian Hap. If Hap's slugging, because he is, I don't want to say the best strike zone discipline on the team, but it's up there. He strikes out a lot. He does take a ton of walks. Um, and I shouldn't even say he strikes out a lot. I mean, he he major league average, maybe a tick below, maybe maybe a tick above. You know, it's not like it's a huge problem with that. The thing is, he has just such great plate discipline, and there's guys on base in front of him consistently. So he's not like a true four-hitter, but Breckman's also not a true three-hitter. So it's a very weird lineup to me, because it's it's not traditional, it's not predictable. It's just veterans that are coming together at the right time in their careers. All these guys, this is like the best Ian Happ will ever play baseball. This is Nico Horner is in his absolute fucking prime. You know, Danzby Swanson is hanging out, hit has the prime in him. Bregman probably not. His prime is probably. But the general uh you know, attitude I should say about the lineup is just how deep and balanced that, like, even if, you know, a couple guys are shitty, you you are getting such high quality day after day after day, pitch after pitch, and guys don't quit on their bets. We don't have bad attitudes, you know, and we have almost no selfishness at all. There's times with Pete, but I talked through this before where you see him take these big swings and misses, and he can look really bad. And almost always there's gonna be nobody on base and two outs in an inning. And it's him trying to drive the ball, it's him looking for an extra base hit. That's really like the only thing I can think of when you watch this Cubs team and you can identify like, oh, that kind of looks selfish. And I'm here to say it. Isn't selfish behavior. It's actually smart and strategic baseball to try and get an extra base hit to outs nobody on. So, you know, I'm just working through some of the notes that I took while I was watching the Red Series. What makes me proud about this team? What makes me excited about this team? But it's much easier to kind of target, like, all right, here's kind of what we need to be focused on. Here's areas of improvement. Here's stuff on, you know, I wouldn't use the word nervous. And the reason I'd go back to that is there's so many veterans. We're not relying on anybody who doesn't know exactly what they're here to do. There's no guessing game about what somebody's capable of at this point. We're just rolling. Rolling, rolling, rolling. So hopefully, as I would I would imagine, 99% of the people listen feel it. You feel this is a different season. And it's happening right now. Now the question is, where does it go from here? Are we, like I said, going back, the team that started 6-8, or are we the team that went 24 over its next 24? Which of those two teams is the 2026 Cubs? And the biggest thing I would point to is since Seiya Suzuki got back in the lineup, the Cubs are, I want to say 19 and 6. Was it been 25 games? Because he moves people down. So if Seiya hits five and Bush hits six, then Swane, Swanee's hitting seven. Then Pete's hitting eight. Everybody just gets bumped down a little bit when Saya comes in. Which, you know, some people will make an argument. It doesn't matter about the batting order. What does matter is say is in it. What does matter is that say his comeback is healthy, is driving pitches, and is completely changing the way opposing teams pitch the lineup. So you have that power right-handed presence hitting four or five. It just changes that dynamic, makes the offense more potent. Does he get enough credit? Is he underrated? Here's a great debate we had earlier this week. Um, I'll pull this up from the DMs. There's a big argument between a couple of Cubs fans in a group chat I got involved in. It was about if you could extend Hap or Suzuki, who would you extend? If you could just pick one of these guys, they're going to be a cub for the next three years. You know, then further assume, and this hypothetical, that the extension would be the same. Like how much would it cost for Seiya for three years? What about Hap? Seiya's clearly a better bat. Uh, you know, Hap is clearly a more rounded player and significantly more durable, just way better defensively. But left field's, you know, not nearly a premium position compared to right field. If you if you had your choice and you said, I want it's not like Ian Habs got four gold gloves in a row from right field where he's hosing motherfuckers left and right. He is just the best left fielder. So between those two, that's that's a that's a very difficult decision to make. And I would say that's your own personal choice. I picked HAP. I said if it's three years,$25 million each, if you had to, or$20, whatever, I think it would be$25. I think it would be$23,$25, you know,$22, something like that. Be more than what he's getting paid now, which is 2021. Uh wouldn't be crazy. Say it's$15, 16 a year right now. So just saying between these two guys, just curious, give me some feedback on Twitter. I have hap on this just because I think it's harder to replace the stuff Ian Hap does extremely well. But say Suzuki's a great bat. Fortunately for us, they're both on the team this year. You know, and and I would be shocked to see any extent. There's no reason to be doing extensions for guys in their 30s on May 7th. Just make that clear now. Um, and that kind of lines up similarly with what I was talking about, the trade deadline. So just so much action in the mailbag and so much interest, generally speaking, for maniacs about the trade deadline and blah, blah, blah, obviously. And so I don't want to go down this rabbit hole again because I spent a lot of time on this, like two, three weeks ago. We're just talking about how much time has to play out so that a team knows these are the minor leaguers that are super valuable for us that we can trade. These are guys that have cracked into the top 100 this year, like a Pedro Ramirez in AAA, Iowa. You know, you want to see Ethan Conrad, who we drafted in the first round out of Wake Forest last year. You want to see is he a top hundred guy and how high in that top hundred? And there's a lot we have to do in just getting our hands wrapped around these prospects. And the opposite of that, there's a lot more tape that has to take place for us to take a look and see these are the guys that we want. These are the guys that are performing well or that would perform better in our pitch lab in this lineup, pitching in front of this defense. And so you got to give the front office time to be able to make these moves, to get the information, to have the minor leaders put up the tape. You got to have other teams fall out of contention so that they become sellers. Because now with expanded playoffs, people aren't sellers in May. You know, old school baseball, one wildcard team beef beef before multiple wildcard rounds. You knew who sellers were this time of year. You knew the sellers were in mid-April. But it's just a little bit different now. Who is a seller? Who who is? I can tell you who a buyer is right now. It's the Chicago Cubs will be the biggest buyer at the trade deadline this year. I will be shocked if they are not. I want to repeat this. The Chicago Cubs will be the biggest buyer at the trade deadline this year. I was just I would just push back and say, guys, we're far away from the trade deadline. We got to play May, we got to play June. We have we're three months, we're almost three full months. So where does that leave us? That leaves us in a situation where we need the lineup to stay consistent at least for a little bit while the starting pitch and settles into the fact Matt Boyd's gonna be out for the next six weeks officially. Um, I would I would like for the lineup to stay hot enough while the bullpen continues to figure itself out. You know, Phil Maeton, I loved, loved the signing. I've enjoyed his career. I think he's got great swing and miss breaking stuff. Would love to see him get into form. And when he does, it's like we we have a guy we could bring in the seventh inning with runners on second and third and one out, and the odds will be in our favor that run doesn't score. That's who Phil Maaton is. We haven't even come close to seeing that. You know, in the same respect, Hobie Milner's been good out of the bullpen. He he's been reliable and consistent. Council's gone to him like 18 times so far in 38 games. I think that's crazy. But you know, you're throwing 86 from a sub slot. I don't think that arm gets hurt. So that's a bright side. You know, we've bitched about the bullpen, but there's been so many bright sides out of the, you know, it's sex Palencia is not, and I don't know if this is world baseball classic. I don't know if it's mechanics, talked so much about his mechanics last year, flying open towards the first base side, the stress that puts on your shoulder. He has cleaned it up a little bit, but when your max effort 102 in March for Venezuela, um, you know, does that impact your your overall health, you know, when we get to this point in the season? Now he's back on the rock, he's back. I'm just nervous about him now that it's out there that like he's a guy that could have to take time. He's not 100% ready to go. Makes uh makes me a little nervous, but just re-emphasize what I said about you'll see it close, we will see a closer at the trade deadline unless Palencia kicks it into Daniel Palencia gear that he can get into. And now I'm starting to, I'm just I just have questions if that's something we want to rely on. Probably not. If we're gonna be serious about winning our division, if we're gonna be serious about competing for the one seed in the National League, competing against the Dodgers in the playoffs, having to beat the Padres again in the NLDS, is that something we have to do? Now you start picturing those scenarios, and the Daniel Palencia we have right now, and the back end of the bullpen that we have right now, uh, a lot of questions. Bright side, that's not for five more months. We have five months to figure this out. We have got all the resources at our fingertips. So it's just a function of getting some of these veterans healthy, getting them rolling where they're competing and performing at the level that we can expect from them. And that should stabilize everything else that goes on in the pitching staff. And I I want to spin this positively and say, here's the bright side is we can get there. We've been good with again, what is it, 10 guys from AAA Iowa have competed for the Chicago Cubs already? That's that that that to me is a 12 and 26 team, not 26 and 12. So more credit. It's not just council, it's it's the clubhouse vibes, it's the culture we talked about that that's been established in the bullpen that Jed intentionally sought out to build. There's so many things that go into it that allow a guy like Rollison to come up and get outs. Um, you know, or just fill in the blank how many we can talk a lot about Ben Brown. You know, I would I would love to talk about Ben Brown more extensively. This is a guy I've hated for years and have said he needs some trauma or some urgent circumstances that are far outside his control that have to completely wake him up, shock his system into transforming himself into a very aggressive pitcher. Now, adding the two-seam fastball this year obviously helps because you can be more aggressive in the zone when you have different looks than just forcing breaking ball. So now we have a two-seamer that's running hard in on righties. But we also have not just the confidence to do it, it's the circumstance that you're the only person we can rely on in the situation right now, Ben. And I honestly think the game between a pitcher's ears is the most significant mental challenge that's played on the baseball field. Is how that guy feels about himself. When he gets up in the morning, when he's throwing his warm-up pitches in the bullpen, you know, jogging into the field. How does he feel is he coming into that game to dominate? Is he coming into that game confidently? Like I am a big leaguer, I have great stuff, I'm about to execute these pitches. This is what I get paid to do. And I think Ben Brown, for an extremely long time, up until this season, has been jogging and nervous. I hope I have the breaking ball today. I didn't have that in the ballpen. You know, I didn't, I, you know, I had bad French toes this morning. So hopefully I don't have a tummy ache when I get to the field. Just shit like that. It's just a guy who's like, wow, I can't believe there's 38,000 at Wrigley on a Thursday afternoon. You know, he's always struck me as somebody who has not lived up to the moment that his talent has afforded him. And so what gets someone to be like, fuck it, fuck it. And people listen to us right now. I you've gone through this in your life in some capacity, whether it's, you know, with personal relationships, whether it's with your career, your health and fitness is a is a good example. Where people are like, Yeah, I'm hell, I think I'm healthy. And so what you go to the doctor's office, you step on the scale, he goes, 238. You know, holy, I'm that big. Or you get that look in the mirror, you see the one picture from New Year's Eve, you're like, I let myself go so bad. And then there's something that clicks that says, What? I'm gonna do meal prep this week. I'm gonna start going to the gym. I'm gonna go for I'm gonna go for what at some point there's an urgency that kicks in where it's like, I gotta, I gotta take care of this shit. Now we're using health and fitness. It could be the same thing with career or education. Maybe it's again something personal, relationship, where you're like, I have to change the way I'm going about this. I'm responsible for this. And it's hard to do that at the major league level. You're good enough to be in the big leagues. You throw 100 miles an hour at Ben Brown. So, how does that mental switch get flipped where now you are confident, now you are somebody who wants the ball, who's willing to be aggressive in the strike zone, who's not afraid of a challenge. And it takes circumstances, it takes a wake-up moment. And for Ben Brown to have that wake-up moment was like, hey, all these veteran relievers we signed, they're either hurt or they're pitching like shit right now. Oh, and by the way, Kate Horton, your peer, who's way fucking better than you, he's out for the season. You know, the guy who started opening day, I'm sure you'd like to be an opening day starter. He's off at he's on and off the IL though. So we we're we're gonna have a hard time counting on Matt Boy, Ben. Can you step up now? Or are you gonna be the guy who got this opportunity again with the Chicago Cubs and shit all down his leg? Because if that's the case, then I can write your career for you right now. And whether Ben Brown had that exact moment or this exact conversation in his head, you know, um, or it or it could be a general combination of adding the two seam with the circumstances of the bullpen being so thin, and you're just thrust into this, and the time is now or it is never. That's what I've seen from Ben Brown. It is now or it is never, and he decided the time is now. The challenge from here is Craig Counsel continuing to develop him in whatever role is right for Ben Brown. And so, one of the questions in the mailbag we have here, and I'm sorry, I gotta do it better, I had to do a better job of calling out the names. You know, who's this one from? A lot of good questions here. I'll get the name. I'm sorry, I will give you credit for this. But the the question was, is Ben Brown gonna be starting now? Is or are we gonna move Ben Brown to the rotation? You know, is he getting the ball tomorrow, Friday? I haven't seen that announced yet. You know, moving him to the starting rotation would be an interesting flex because he's had success where he's at. And based on everything I just explained about the mental side of this, I would have some hesitancy about moving him into the rotation, but ultimately, like, I'm just doing a show here, guys. We're just talking cubs. I'm not Craig Counsel. I don't know him that intimately. You know, I can only speculate. What I will say is that the decision Craig makes for Ben should be in the best interest of Ben still and not in the best interest of the team, which is a nuance. So let me explain this again. The decision Craig makes on how he starts to use Ben Brown, is it gonna be any differently? Are we gonna put him in the rotation? Are we gonna give a more regular, predictable work out of the bullpen? Where it's your eighth inning guy now. Do we see him try and close the game? I don't again, it's the watch more of Palencia um in the coming week to have a better idea of like where he's at. But ultimately, whatever Craig Council, however, he deploys Ben at this stage, I would encourage him to make a decision that primarily focuses on what is best for Ben Brown this season and into the future of his career. His stuff is that good, he's that electric. And some people might say, hey, that's selfish, you have to do what's in the best interest of the team. Which then I will now spin back and argue against you and say the best interest of a baseball team is when each guy is working on their own shit and you can have this selfish focus and you're treated like you uh, you know, you're the priority focus. Take care of your shit. You know, everybody's got their responsibilities. A great baseball team is made up of guys that are individually committed to their responsibilities. What would make me nervous is if Credit Council said, fuck, we lost Matt Boyd. I don't know if I like Assad starting. I want more swing and miss. I'd like to keep Assad as a swing man out of the bullpen. Ben Brown's looked good. He's earned it, it's his time. Let's see if we can go get five innings from him. Like that all just sounds we're we just got to a point where we got, come, we're I'm comfortable. I'm finally comfortable watching Ben Brown compete. I would be of the mindset we should continue that development. It's a long-winded answer to a short question, but the number one thing people are asking in the mailbag, we have what are we doing to start at pitching? Are we trading? We're not trading for anybody right now. Are there is there somebody we could sign that could come in and be better than Javier Assad? Um, I think that's a tall order. I don't know. I can tell I'll tell you right now his name's not Trevor Bauer. Fuck that guy. But as far as the focus on the pitching staff, the fact that we've been 20 and 4 with largely just this mix over the last week, we've been red hot with these guys. Now I'm just asking, don't go 4 and 20 over a 24-game stretch because the started pitching completely falls apart. I haven't seen an indication of that. If Eddie Cabrera was struggling and Shoda wasn't immaculate, this is the best Shoda's ever looked. You know, if Jamison was on the aisle or his stuff was slowing down and he looked, he looks sharp, he's sharper. Then you're nervous because the wheels, you find these reasons for the wheels to fall off. On paper, you could look at the Cubs and say the wheels should be falling off this pitching set. We haven't seen anything to suggest that yet. Yet. Over the next three months in the trade going into the trade deadline, we're probably gonna run into a stretch. We're gonna you're gonna get some clunkers. But so far at this point, I I just thoroughly enjoy how competitive we've been. And I think these guys are all enjoying the fact that they're rising to their own certain challenges, you know. In let's just use Jameson as an example, like he knows his reputation, he knows he's underrated, he knows people don't look at him as some shutdown starting pitcher. He when he takes the mound, he's he's as professional as it gets, staying within himself, executing his shit pitch to pitch, not trying to be overwhelmed. And just using him in as an example of like we should be more confident in what we have right now than panic. And my sense is there's panic in the fan base because of the starting pitching, because the bullpen isn't filled with names that you love and trust right now. And so I would just encourage let those guys fail before we start hitting the panic button. Because my understanding is right now these guys are rising to the occasion in the challenge of having the best defense in Major League Baseball behind you playing in front of one of the best home field crowds in professional sports in the world. In the world, all sports. Guys are rising to the occasion. We are playing our dicks off. So when Jamison gets the ball next time, I think he's elevated in the fact that Boyd's out, Cade's out. People are asking about the trade that line, people want more. It's my ball, it's my game. I'm out here to dominate. I'm gonna take one step forward because we got other guys that can't go out and compete. And that, my friends, is good fucking sports. That's competing, that's wanting it. You know, that's not being satisfied because you get$15 million a year, Jamison, to go make 30 starts. And, you know, if you post a 3.970 RA, it's an oh great job. Now I think he's out to pitch and dominate and be as good as he can. And I'm just using his and him as an example because you could say the same thing about Shoda, you could say the same thing about Colin Ray. You know, we've seen great stuff from Eddie Cabrera. That changeup is unbelievably filthy. There's a lot of good stuff, and this is me just taking a shitty situation on paper and giving you as much positive spin. Because here's the real bad news I haven't addressed. We are thin, we can't take another injury to the pitching staff. I'm asking you guys not to hit a panic button because we want to let these guys continue to play and they've been great, you know? So it it does feel a little, you know, cheap to sit here and go, we need more, we need more, we need more right now. When like these guys have earned it, they go out and compete. Go out, go out and make it your spot so that when that trade deadline rolls around, the need isn't there. And I think we have guys on this roster that are owning this journey, that are all bought into the storyline. They know you're a pitcher on the Cubs. You know, you just got called up from Iowa, just took the bus, whatever. You know, your buddy drove you in town, Lizard King dropped you off. You know, hey, there's an opportunity here for me to execute my pitches. In the same respect, you'll also get DFA'd. Corbin Martin blows a save game three against the Reds. DFA'd 20 fucking minutes later. Which I like from the front office because we don't have time. You know, there is that entire urgency across the organization. If you're a pitcher, you're going to get an opportunity. Um, but that also means the other way. You don't take advantage of the opportunity. We're gonna, we're just gonna keep moving, guys. We just got shuttle buses going between Iowa and Wrigley, and somebody or multiple guys will completely rise out of this occasion and become significantly better through the circumstances that have been created for him. Whereas you're in triple A, Phil Maiton's pitching well, Hunter Harvey's not hurt, Jacob Webb's been effective, even though it has been effective, basically pitching the complete opposite of where Bullpen's been. You know, Palencia isn't just healthy, he's in fuego, he's taking the next step into the tier one closer category. We don't have guys from AAA seeing a future for themselves at Wrigley Field, or it's a harder vision to execute. You know, it's a harder thing to buy into. Right now, we have guys you take if you take the field in Des Moines for the Triple A Cubs, it has to be in every pitcher's mind that, like, hey, you're you could get called up tomorrow. You're just a couple, you're just a couple more good performances. Well, you're just you're just finding that slider consistently away from being in the big league clubhouse every single day, making 750 grand a year, staying in the four seasons, flying first class, you know, uh charter jets, you know, five five-star everything. That's a crazy spin zone to how thin our pitching staff has been at the major league level. But culturally and organizationally, what we've gotten out of this is a sense of opportunity for our guys in AAA that did not exist in spring training, opportunity to see different looks. And like I said, some some guys will rise from this. And and I will, again, I'll point right back to Ben Brown and say, look at what these circumstances have done for this guy. Where at the start of the season, it was, I can't believe he's still on the roster. You know, we still got to put up with this guy, and he has completely taken advantage of the opportunity in front of him. So look at the rest of the pitching staff and and be optimistic towards other guys taking more steps. That's my overall philosophy about the state of the 2026 Cubs pitching staff as it stands right now, Thursday, May 7th, after sweeping the Cincinnati Reds. You know, after going on and we're still on a winning street. I mean, we if we what do we win the next one? If we win two more games, we'll have two 10-game winning streaks before Mother's Day. Before May 10th. No, I'll guarantee that's never been done before in Major League Baseball history. Ever. No. Two 10-game win streaks before May 10th? Yeah. That's special. That's special. And I understand how that then influences the want or the need to say we got to go to the trade deadline, we have to be aggressive, we can't waste this opportunity. Um, you know, and again, I agree, I agree with that so much that I'm saying. The Cubs are gonna have the biggest trade deadline this year in Major League Baseball. All the teams. The Cubs will have the biggest return at the trade deadline this year. That's not for 12 weeks. So what do we do between now and then? You cheer for your guys. We support the boys we have, and we're gonna we're gonna have to limp through it a little bit. But at the same time, you're gonna get a gem from Hobby or Asad. You're gonna get Colin Ray's gonna go out and give you quality starts, and you're gonna be like, wait a second. Now, the difference is I caveat all of this. There's a profound difference between pursuing your 162 and going into October. All this shit I'm saying, we got enough for the 162, we'll be okay. Let's be patient, let's see who emerges, who's gonna take advantage of the circumstances. Now, if the playoffs were if this was if this was mid-July, we have a much different tone about this. No, I I love Jamison Teon. I think he's fucking awesome. I told you. Last three seasons he's been a top 15 starter in all of Major League Baseball. Yeah, I'm okay if he just pitches game four in an NLCS and like that's it. I'm totally cool if we give him like the John Wacky treatment. You know, like we that we definitely need horses for an October run. You know, and like we'll show to beat Chris for an entire season, that remains to be seen. Right now, he's awesome. You know, last year we didn't want to see him anywhere near the Milwaukee Brewers. Right now, talking, I want I want Show to pitch against the 27 Yankees. Right now, you know, Eddie Cabrera, that's a guy who can pitch in October. These are conversations we're gonna have as the season progresses. Right now, it wouldn't make any sense to get into this rabbit hole, other than to just point out when I'm saying the pitching staff should be good. We should be okay. We should be okay, we should be able to figure this out, provided we don't take any other more substantial injuries to starting rotation, you know, before I smash a panic button. But when I say that, I'm not talking about NLCS. I'm not talking about the I'm not talking about making a deep October run, you know, with caught with Colin Ray getting a ball against a Dodger. That's just not what we mean at all. What we mean is we have enough in conjunction with our lineup, with the defense, with the base running, with the, you know, with council's strategy. I'm not I'm not gonna blow Craig Council right now, but he's obviously done a masterful job with this clubhouse and getting these guys rolling, getting the right mix of veterans that are just all fucking business every single day. It's incredible. It's just incredible. You have all that good stuff, all that good juju working. Makes it way easier over 162 or however many are remaining here. 126 to say, we'll grind it out. We'll we'll grind it out for the next couple weeks. You know, will we make a trade sooner than the trade deadline? Depends on how these guys perform. Would you see it in May? Absolutely not. Would you see it in June? I'd be shocked. June is moving month for prospects. That's when you're gonna see new updated rate. This guy's top 100, this guy's top 100. And the reason you want to be patient for that, I mean, the Cubs could end up. If this Pedro Ramirez guy turns out to crack into the top 100, you can now build uh a trade package that involves a guy that was not even remotely close to our future plans at all and won't ever be a part of these future plans with the Cubs. They just can't on a contract basis. You know, we got a third baseman, a short step, a second basement, and then Matt Shaw backing up all those guys, and they're under contract for the next four years. At least. So, you know, and I we went long on that last week. So I could just be rehashing some stuff here, but just let some time play out as is my emphasis. Enjoy how good this team has been in having sat through so many seasons 162 as a complete diehard. You know, this is obviously it's so enjoyable. Not just that we're good, not just to win exciting games and walk off fashion, but it's the way they take the field, it's the makeup of the players, it's the personal identification you have with your baseball team. That's what makes the sport so much different than the others, because you're playing and you're competing every single day. And so then as a fan, you have these more deeper personal attachments because you're watching, we're committed to watching these guys compete, to living through the season with them. And so if I'm willing to move my entire schedule around to make sure, hey, I want to I want to be following this game, I want to be talking about this game, I want to be putting a show out, I want to build this community around the Cubs, all this shit. Yeah, I want, you want, you want to, we all want to win. We're fans, we want our team to fucking rock and roll, of course. But there's something deeper there with baseball where it's like the next step further is where you personally identify those are your guys. This is these are our boys out there playing their asses off every fucking day, taking extra bases, hitting the cutoff, man, you know, turning the double play when they need the double play. Just it just seems like everything that they every single day they take the field just seems we're focused, you know, we have no assholes on this team. So it's just enjoyable on so many levels. Of course, the winning, of course, the winning's great, but it's it's the winning in conjunction with the fact that these guys are such lovable players individually, and then the aggregate of the team, it's just I love doing these lineup previews, love sitting out and talking about the club, you know, and I'm again the word I'll go back to is just grateful as a baseball fan. You sit through, you watch eighty, you can watch an 84 and 78 team, and you'd want to jump off a cliff 25 times a season, you know, just pulling at your heartstrings. Right now, it's the time of this recording, May 7th. It's just as much fun as I've ever had watching a baseball team, you know. So now that the challenge will be balancing that how much fun am I having this regular season? And then, well, is this season is it a failure or is it a success if we don't go this far in the playoffs? Buddy, the fact I care this much on May 7th, overwhelming success. Overwhelming success for a baseball season. If you're gonna give me something that I give a shit about day after day, week after week, throughout the dog days of summer, um, you know, it certainly makes my life a whole lot better. I know people listen to this. Uh, maniacs, we're all in the boats, we're all rowing the boat on this one here. So the reason, and I should say the genesis of why I'm getting as deep and sentimental about this is because I just want to try and emphasize you know, patience and enjoy their good teammates, a good lineup. The pitching staff is gonna have to go through some evolution here, and there's gonna be games where you're feeling uncomfortable because we will be met out overmatched with stuff. That's just the way the starting pitching staff is rolling. Like, there's gonna be times Colin Ray is on the mound, and opposite him is gonna be you know, is gonna be like a Paul Skeens, or like when Hunter Green comes back, or like you're just know there's gonna be these games where it's like fuck, we got 93 little cut, we're going up against a guy blazing 99, 100, and that's where I push back and say, we have great, we have a great lineup, balance deep. They make every starting pitcher work, they make their plays defensively, you know. We're a very tough team to beat. And as I said in the season preview, it's a team that will have a very hard time losing more than three games in a row, but should be able to comfortably get into these stretches where they win four to six games in a row, where you see that consistently, four in a row, five in a row, drop two, four in a row. That's the type of makeup that this team has and the resiliency. You know, you lose it, you lose a series to the Pirates at home, and you just break out right after that. Um, you win the emotional game Friday night against the Dodgers, then we drop those next two, and we're like, Wow, we thought I thought we had that. I thought we were rolling. And then we come right back with just a great series win against the Padres, and we turn that into a whole new wave of momentum, you know. And remind me, how many how many games did Cade Horton pitch in that stretch? The answer is zero. You know, our best pitcher, gone, bullpen, decimated, and we still find a way to rattle this shit off. So if you can't find reasons to be patient with respect to we need to figure out the roster, we need to make these moves, we need to get these guys in. Um, you know, I would say at the time it's misplaced. I could do the show next week, I could come back and say, uh oh, we got but we're big trouble. We're we're in big trouble. I don't think that's the case. I haven't seen anything to suggest that's the case, but it's baseball, anything can happen. So um, I've kind of amalgamalated the mailbag. So uh let's see, see here. I'll just run through some some of the ones I've missed, or if there's stuff I haven't, you know, gotten into. I know a lot of these solo shows I'll get in specific about you know what a pitcher does or more tactical stuff that makes players stand out. This has been much more of a thematic show about really just enjoying the makeup of this team and what makes it different, relevant to what other Cubs teams we've seen, and why I have a tremendous amount of confidence, despite setbacks to the starting pitching, that we can continue to play good baseball, that we will be in a situation at the trade deadline where we can unload to get major upgrades with the 100% focus of getting those upgrades for an October run. That's what the trade deadline is for. The trade deadline is not so that we can shore up the rotation because we lost Matt Boyd and Kate Horton before Mother's Day. That that's not how player acquisition uh general generally works. So we've we've dipped down to triple A. We've had success so far. Is it something I want to bank on going in October? Absolutely not, but have we seen enough where it's like, okay, yeah. You know, Baller Strike Carson Kelly is the Cubs unsung hero during the stretch. This is from Sean CD. This is a great maniac, Sean. I appreciate you. I'm gonna I'm gonna say ball. It's not Carson Kelly, but the the question here is unsung hero. So maybe I could say strike. The problem with that is our backup catcher has like a 380 OVP. Miguel Amaya could be the best backup catcher in Major League Baseball. Is probably is. I'm trying to think. No, the Blue Jays when they had Alejandro Kirk and Danny Jansen, that was a very good tandem. Weak defensively. No, I I I would I don't know if I'd say Carson Kelly's an unsung hero. He's he's certainly underrated. Now, what what is that because of his personality? He's understated, he's you know, quiet guy we don't know a lot about, similar to Michael Bush. But there's been so many other guys that have just been on fire in the stretch. Like Peter Armstrong's been awesome in his last 25 games. Uh, you know, say Suzuki obviously since coming back has completely shifted the lineup. So, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go ball on that one, Sean. But you know how much you know how much I respect and appreciate you. This one's from Conte Betts. Do you think uh say it in Conforto Platoon? Or is that crazy? Conte Betts asses. Conte is a great defensive midfielder, by the way. Supposed to be one of the coolest fucking soccer players of all time. Um, I'm not platooning say Suzuki for Conforto. You know, I I liked Conforto against uh against Rhett Lauder from the Reds in that matchup just because he's so fastball dominant. And if Conforto knows the heater's coming and he can start his timing early, you know, one thing I'd say that has been awesome about Conforto, other than the fact that I wanted him dead a month ago, is that he has found his timing to slug without regular playing time. Where last year, when the Dodgers brought him in, they were trying to get him more playing. He had really struggled, and he was getting more playing time in and was in a situation where they were open to relying on him more, and he just completely shit the bed and he looked terrible to start the season. So this really is the first time in Michael Conforto's life where he's had to embrace you're a bench player, pal. You are a bench player. You turn down$100 million from the Mets before COVID, then you hurt your shoulder doing a fucking wakeboard, wakeboarding, surfing, something something in the offseason, and Scott Boris is out trying to get you a$150 million contract. You know, you're an Orange County wakeboarding, blow your shoulder out. So that kicks off this, you know, crazy fall from Michael Conforto. And then to get an opportunity with the Cubs to look as bad as he did to start the season and now flourishing in what should be limited time. Like when you have a great matchup, it's a right-handed pitcher who's up in the zone a little bit, maybe doesn't have elite command. That's a great spot for Michael Conforto. Because if you make a mistake over the plate, he does have the ability to hurt you big time over the plate. That said, Sei Suzuki is Sei Suzuki. We're not gonna platoon. The question is specifically about platooning. I think Conforto's earned the right to get more playing time and should get a couple more, you know, regular looks, I would guess. In the coming weeks, Craig's gonna really start, I would imagine, to give more consistent rest. We've seen it like you're starting to see it now. So there's opportunities there with Conforto, but I'm not going into the platoon situation with him as much as I kind of like that late bat off the bench. Obviously, it's easy to say that recent recency bias with him hitting a fucking walk-off. I gotta watch the F-words second half of the show, pick it up on those, but um I enjoy Conforto. I don't think Conforto has played his way into regular starts against right-handed pitching, but I think we will see more starts from Conforto against right-handed pitching, if that makes sense. So this one's from 158. Threadmat full metal. I saw some of these Twitter names. This is so hard to read some of these Twitter names. Um and basically here's just like a list of prospects that we could trade. Top 10 prospects we could trade at the trade deadline. And the one thing I would just point out, because I'm gonna read all these prospects off. Moises by Estheros is listed one, number one on the list of like, here's a prospect. Now, obviously, we're not trading Moises Biasteros, but as we just generally talk about the top ten, I think we've said enough, and there's there's we're at a good point, and like the trade deadline isn't for you know months. The top 10 right now, as respect to who we would be moving for a trade. You know, I'm not necessarily interested in that as much as I'd be more interested in saying, are there minor leaguers that could play at the big league level on this team right now? Or are there young guys in the organization that can come in and make an impact on this team? And so on this list, like Jackson Wiggins, he has to get healthy, and it probably won't be until the second half now. You know, other guys on this list, Jefferson Rojas, shortstop. No, I mean, you're not the guys, you we're not gonna see any middle infielders get called up unless there's multiple severe injuries. Um, Kevin Alcantera, we talked a lot about him the last episode in conjunction with Pedro Ramirez, our last Friday episode. And again, just with it with him, you know, it's just impossible with middle infielders. And it and I should just say generally, it's gonna be hard for any of these young guys to come in and make an impact. There just isn't room. Like I encourage you guys to just look at the active roster, focus on position players, and tell me where you think there's room. Because here's the four bench guys Miguel Alamaya, Matt Shaw, Michael Conforto, and Nicki Lopez. And I know a lot of people's knee jerk is gonna say, well, Nikki Lopez, and I would just go back to what I said earlier in the show. It is extremely difficult to find a major league baseball player that can sit on the bench for two weeks and then go play shortstop, and you don't lose like that much in the field. Now, obviously, you lose in the box. I mean, the Nikki Lopez is a hitter, contact hitter, doesn't hit for power, etc. But we're just talking about you need a guy who just can like roll around with the team, not play at all until emergency situation. We have to bring you in. And like counsel is gonna feel so comfortable with Nikki Lopez, tenure vet, you know, just just does everything the right way, even though he's like not playing at all. So, where would you replace that? You know, like some people would make the argument, well, Them, why would not just bring up Pedro Ramirez or not just bring up somebody from AAA who could be better? Those guys, you're not gonna play. What are you gonna tell me he's gonna play once every 10 games? I'll tell you what Pedro Ramirez will do once every 10 games at the Major League level. O for four three strikeouts. And then sit him for 10 more and then bring him out for the 10th game after that. 0 for 4 three strikeouts. It doesn't make any sense. That's the basis of Nikki Lopez. Then my challenge to you is would you be comfortable getting rid of an infielder from our four bench players? Then that leaves Matt Shaw as the only infielder. I hate that. I hate that. So that's going to be a really interesting discussion point, I think, as this season progresses. Why we talk so much about Michael Bush against left-handed pitching. Because of the four bench spots, we don't have that righty bat that can come in and play first base and mash lefties. Like that's still a little bit of a weakness in the lineup that we don't have, you know, a 460 plus slug at first base against left-handed pitching. We should be able to find that. Most major league teams run that out there. And we just it's tough right now. It's a long answer to a short question. I'll do two more. This is we're going a little bit longer than I anticipated. We got dinner sitting on the stove here. Um, you know, I'm sorry, as I'm I'm just read, I'm just reading. I could have done a better job preparing this, so I had them I had the questions ready to go, but I asked on Twitter and they just keep coming in as we're doing this. So here's a question. Do I trade Shaw for a good starting pitcher? No, no. Dan Vega, this isn't a burner account. He's a nice guy. So picture you're standing next to the Stanley Cup. It's a very common Twitter picture for Chicago sports fans. Get your picture with the cup. Looks like this is from 2013. That was a good team, Dan. Would I trade Shaw for a good starting pitcher? No. No, man. Matt Shaw is a unicorn. He's gonna be our best player at some point, two years from now. No. I wouldn't I wouldn't trade Matt Shaw for Matt Shaw. I no. Matt Shaw stays on the team. But I'm again, I'm I'm looking at this mailbag. I would encourage you guys if you follow me on Twitter. You will see of the whatever there's 50 something replies here, an overwhelming majority. Who should we trade for? Would you trade for Joe Ryan? What prospects can we trade? Oh, here we are. Ryan Powers. Thank you, Ryan. Ryan Powers is the one who'd ask Ben Brown, should he be a starter now? He goes on to say, I wouldn't mess with his mojo. And that's exactly what we addressed. We nailed that. I wouldn't mess with his mojo either. Ryan goes on to ask, is PCA going to be better on offense overall this year? And I wonder if he's asking in conjunction with last year. Last year, obviously, special year, 30-30 guy. Well, you may not see 30 homers from Pete. You'll see 30 stolen bases. The thing that's surprising with Pete so far this year is that he only has four doubles. He has four homers, but only four doubles is surprising because why? He's the fastest fucking guy in Major League Baseball. So that's, I don't want to read too much into his hitting philosophy, etc. He he obviously is trying to drive the ball, and he's obviously willing to sacrifice some OVP and batting average to Slug. The thing that makes me hesitant is when I see slug, it's more than just home runs. Like Nico Horner, for instance, this year is his highest slug uh you know of his career, and it's he's driving the ball in the gap and getting to second base consistently. Slug is more than just home runs. So when I look at Pete Slug, yeah, of course, if he hits more home runs, that helps. But there is the part where it's line drive doubles, but he's not going down that path. He wants to be a home run hitter. So we're gonna have to live through some of these adjustments. If it does click, it will be very fast like it was last year. If it does get back to that, it'll be because the foot's down, the timing's there, and he gets red hot. The really unique thing about Pete is that even though he's hitting 246 on the year or whatever, like even though, you know, I think he just got over a hundred, he's like a 101 OPS plus, he's like 1% above major league average this year. Which, you know, if if that's all he was for the rest of his career, he's still worth$115 million. His defense is so much better than number two that you were getting past the point where you're making a comparison or you're even having the discussion about who's the best defender in Major League Baseball. The answer is Pete Crow Armstrong by a mile. So, you know, in a sense though, that does make it easy to talk about his offense because you know what you're getting from the defense. His his approach has looked good over the last month. It does look like he's making his adjustments, and we've talked about that. He has 500 plate appearances, the league makes their adjustment. You saw it in the second half last year, carried over a little bit, you know, the first half this year or the first couple weeks of the season. And so he's making his adjustments so that he can have his success because he's getting pitched differently. How differently? Well, you don't see him get pitched in very much. You see, they'll definitely expand away. And when he does chase, it's often because they've expanded the zone early in the count, and then they'll get him to swing over the top of breaking stuff with two strikes. So you're you're building up his aggressive tendency within the at-bat, working away, and then once you kind of get ahead or you have him where you want him, uh, we've been able to, I shouldn't say, opposing pitchers have been able to put him away by getting him to swing over stuff once he gets to two strikes. And so for that, it's just being more patient within the first couple pitches of the IP at while also being triggered to jump on a cookie over the middle of the plate. So it's like, I am ready to hit if it's over the plate, but I have to be smart enough now at this point. They're probably not going to challenge me over the plate early in the count because I've had so much success doing damage early in the count in my career. So you know he's going through the adjustment process. You know, you're seeing first pitch change ups or you're seeing first pitch get me over breaking balls, just so they can have that loopy, easy 0-1 strike, knowing that that's not anything Pete's looking for on the first pitch. Then you see the soft change away. You see you see the expansion um to go away, and then you see guys go towards the back foot, his left foot, throwing breaking stuff that's targeted, that's breaking towards his back foot, and that's why you swing over the ball. So the adjustment that you've seen with his approach or whatever is just adapting to that's kind of how the league has pitched him. Where last year they challenged him with so much velocity. Oh, is this a fucking weak center fielder, you know, light hitting center fielder? Challenge him, give him your heater. And like we see what Peter Armstrong. If you want to go fastball matchups against Peter Armstrong, he will get to you. He will absolutely get to you. So it has been fun to watch his evolution. It is crazy to think he could he could be getting he could be better. Will he be better this year than he was last year offensively? Is a tall order, but in the aggregate, he could absolutely get there. The most important thing though is what I said off the top. If he's a one if he's one to five percent better than Major League Average offensively, then we're getting way more than our money's worth. The$115 million contract extension looks like nothing. If he's gonna be above average offensively. All right, we'll do we'll do one more questionnaire. This has been a long solo show, but it's a great team. And it and it's very much deserving of all the praise that we can give them right now, with a focus that there's still a ton of baseball to be played. We got a great consistent lineup we can rely on, some challenges with the starting pitching staff on paper with the ballpen on paper. Um, so let's get one more good one and we'll we'll call this one, we'll call this one a good show. Last question from Luke Coleman. What's council's go-to drink? Last question. What is Craig Council's go-to drink? I would hope it's a thirsty big carol. I would hope he's drinking Mexican-style soda with a signature spicy finish. That's all bite, no rattle, 90 calories per serving with 100% organic agave. That's what I would hope from council. You know, is he that type of guy? I think he is. I think his number one go-to to this day, where is he a member at Sunset Ridge or something? Where does he live? He's going to the country club, he's getting, he's getting a Shirley Temple. He used to say kitty cocktail, but he got to the big leagues. Whereas he's playing with the Marlins. Jeff Conine heard him order a kitty cocktail, fucking roasted him for the entire season, ruined his rookie year because he heard Craig Council, you know, on a chartered flight, ask a flight attendant, would you mind getting me a kitty cocktail? Then he pivot started calling him Shirley Temples because Conine was riding his ass too hard. So when he said, What's his go-to drink? I think he squares up at the bar and he looks at bartender dead in the eyes and says, I would like a Shirley Temple. And could you go a little heavy-handed on the grenadine? Do you mind doubling up on the grenadine? That's what I think of Crack Council. Now, if we're talking about booze, I think he's like a he probably has like a glass of wine a week with his wife. Doesn't enjoy it, doesn't care what year it is, you know. I think he drinks whatever he's served, and I think he's gonna go, oh, this is good. Yeah, this is this is good. What is this? A white zincantel? I love this is awesome. This is good. That guy doesn't have that guy. The only opinion that guy has is what's the best matchup, whether it's a pitcher or a hitter. You talk about booze with this guy. Where do you go? Notre Dame? Yeah. Go to drink Sunday Church one. Then following it up with the Shirley Temple. That's what I have with Craig Council. Interested to see what you guys think about that. Also interested if you guys are gonna jump on the Thursday McCarrow bandwagon with me. Some Mexican style soda with a signature spicy finish. That, again, it's all bite, no rattle. And when you get the can in your hand, you'll feel the power. I mean, I don't want to, I don't want to get too deep or sentimental. You guys are this far along of the show. It's been a hell of a ride for me last couple of years. Making content, carrying the conversation with the Cubs, building the Monday morning cub show with Mahoney, you know, leaving Redline Radio to work on Barstool baseball, um, all the stuff behind the scenes with this. To turn around and be in a situation where the Cubs are rolling first place, momentum, title sponsor. We got so much fucking momentum here, boys. And if we want to take it one step further, since partnering with Thursday Vicaro, Bears beat the Packers in the playoffs, Illinois goes to a final four. It's the best Cubs team we've seen in 10 years, one of the best Cubs teams we've seen uh in the his in the history of the Chicago Cubs through 36 games. Or through through yeah, through 38 games. Brother Ice won a state, that's my high school. Brother Ice won a state championship in football for the first time since 1981. So why is that? It's Thirsty for Carroll, baby. It's Thirsty for Carol. Hey, thanks for tuning in, guys. If you guys get a chance, we appreciate a review. You know, five stars on Spotify or Apple certainly helps with sponsorships, helps us continue to grow the show, establish credibility, takes a very little bit of time on your end, adds up big time in the long run for us here at the Monday Morning Cub Show. I'm gonna be back on Monday morning with Mahoney with full breakdown from the weekend. I know this was a long show and redundant, repetitive in some points, but that's because there's so much emphasis that I want to have on just enjoy what we have in front of us. The trade deadline will come, Jed Hoyer will execute in the time being. We have plenty of guys that are gonna get opportunities that can take advantage of those opportunities, and it will be very delightful to see who rises to the occasion. Probably Ben Brown, if we're being dead honest. Honestly. Never thought I'd say that on that show. On this show, but we just got there. It's gonna be the year of Ben Brown. Uh, until next time, guys, we'll see you soon. Love you, go cup.