1st Place Cubs + The Official 2026 White Sox Scouting Report

A five-game cold streak can make even a first-place team feel like it’s falling apart, so we start with something Cubs fans actually need: a mindset that survives variance. Carl uses a blackjack analogy to explain why you can play “the right way” and still lose for a week, why that’s baked into Major League Baseball, and how to spot the difference between real warning signs and normal turbulence in mid-May.

From there, we get specific without getting hysterical. We talk about the Cubs’ recent offensive drought, why slicing stats by tiny date ranges can melt your brain, and why context matters when you’re running into elite pitching. We also zoom out to schedule fatigue, strength of schedule, and why a long home stretch changes the daily grind more than fans realize. On the pitching side, we hit Ben Brown’s upside and the case for patience with his workload, plus a blunt mailbag answer on whether this rotation is built to survive October as-is.

Then it’s Crosstown Classic time. We debate whether Cubs vs White Sox is a real rivalry, share the personal Chicago roots that make it feel real, and roll into a detailed White Sox scouting report: probable starters, matchup edges, and lineup notes you can use while you watch. We close with rapid-fire mailbag questions on Alex Bregman’s contract value, Ian Happ’s future, and a clear explanation of pronation vs supination and why modern velocity trends change pitch shapes and injury risk.

If you’re fired up for the weekend, hit play, share this with your group chat, and please subscribe and leave a five-star review so more Cubs fans can find the show.

Thanks for tuning in! 

- Carl & Mahoney

Transcript

Welcome And The Heavy Agenda

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Good morning, good afternoon, and evening, Chicago Cubs fans, and welcome back to the Monday morning Cub Show. Today is Friday, May 15th. This is episode number two of the week. I think it's like 107 total overall. Ballpark it. Ish. It's your host, Carl. Uh, this is a solo show with a heavy agenda. This is arguably the heaviest agenda and most detailed outline I may have ever organized in my life for a show. Why? Why do I care so much? This team is so good. And we have the Crosstown Classic this weekend. Obviously, a lot to enjoy. Also, a little bit of panic in the streets with Cubs fans. So I have some motivation here to address some storylines. Most importantly, though, I just want to say good morning to you guys, to the maniacs. It's a tight turnaround. You know, Thursday night into a big Friday night game. These are tight, these are tight windows here. This one means a lot because the White Sox are actually playing surprisingly good baseball. You know. So as I'm going through the Scounter report, I'm thinking, I could do, I could put this, I could put the Friday show out Thursday evening, maybe late-ish, but I gotta sleep on some of this, some of these notes here and make sure I have my bases down. I'm here to tell you right now, I do, and and I'm confident that the agenda I will now introduce as a brief table of contents will satisfy all of our needs as Cubs fans, as maniacs, is people who just want more. You know? Like just give me more content. I'm over here watching the compound, the zoom-ins on these things. Post Cubs game, right after Colt Wright in studio with Colt Wright. Boom, Dakota Meeks. Dakota Meeks at 4X. Uh, this isn't, we're not here to criticize the compound. I like Ian App, he's a good ball player. He's actually been the only one who the advanced metrics say has been very good. While we have been, quote unquote, according to Cubs fandom, very bad. We are gonna talk about that. Here's the agenda. I'm long in the tooth to open things up. You'll have to excuse me. I'm getting the vocal cords ready. It's I don't know what it is. The mucus is a little thicker than normal. So if you hear me, I don't have a cough button here, guys. It's a one-made show. All right. You if you hear me complaining at somebody, that's a make that's somebody I'm making up in my head because I'm hallucinating, because I'm high on life, because the Chicago Cubs are so good right now. Ha. People were down bad. I'll pick you up. But first, it introduce the table of contents, Carl. You know, people got jobs to do. We got a first pitch at 640. I don't have I don't have time for the soliloquies. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna, number one, we're gonna go through overall state of mind that I think is, I don't want to say it's like this is how you should feel. Uh, and it's not, you know, like a lot of it is obviously how I feel too. It's trying to like find the best practice of how we should feel. And I I think I have a good analogy for that. I'm so fucking long without just read the table of contents. But we're gonna overall the big picture storylines, notable stuff, high level. Two, I got a little bit of baller strike for a Brave Series recap. Just a touch of baller strike there, and that's to get me going for number three, which is a classic pre the Crosstown Classic preview. Okay, now if I stumble over my words here, you know, it's be it's I you know I'm gonna get to it. I'm gonna get to it. I have a dry mouth. Where do you think that one's going? Number three, Crosstown Classic four starting pitching matchups for the Crosstown Classic with an emphasis on you guys understanding what the White Sox do. Now, I love talking starting pitching, right? So for this episode, we're gonna be a little bit lighter on the Chicago Cubs starting pitching. Obviously, I'm gonna touch on just about everybody. But for purposes of good starting pitching conversation, that's number four. Then we're gonna go through the White Sox lineup. And this is just that's for like morons or idiots or just like fun facts and nuggets as you guys are watching the game. Um, I kind of have like a a color commenter, like a Ron Coomer. I was listening to Coom Dog on 6-7 this morning. Absolutely love that man's opinion. And you should too. Like, I know it's cheeky and easy to kind of tease coom dog because it's coomdog, but when he gives a baseball opinion, like more often than not, that's like absolutely right from a dugout kind of attitude. There's there's he is such a classic baseball guy, a little buttoned up on air, should be. He's a coom dog, right? Let's it eat on the golf course. Heard great coom dog stories, nothing scandalous, just supposed to be a great guy to hang out with. Not saying he gets after it and crushes beers like Roanick. Now we're getting long in the tooth, but we are gonna go through a White Side lineup card, and I'm gonna tap into my coom dog for that one. I do have a mailbag from you guys. That's rapid fire. I'm not gonna pitch clock myself. Like I said, this is a one-man show. If you hear me talking, if you hear me talking to somebody again, the drug that I'm on right now is the Chicago Cubs are in first place and just beat Chris Sale to nothing to avoid getting swept, going into a crosstown classic against a competitive White Sox team, which we will get into. And maybe if there's some extra time, if I'm dialed, if we're flowing, you know, I we can close with some sausage on the Monday Morning Cup Show. And by that I just mean authentic observations, you know, from the butcher's room where they're grinding meat. They stick they s the sausage. Which I happen to I love a sausage. I want I don't care what's in. Any most not any sausage that'd be crazy to say any sausage, most sausages. I'm sure there's sausages out the no thank you. But for the most part. What do you want me to say? Lie to you guys to start the weekend before a cross town classic? If we have time though, and I don't forget, there's a couple things related, maybe I should explain at some point. You know, to behind the scenes of the show and all that stuff. So we'll see. I'm a fluid guy. We'll see how this goes. Speaking of fluids, let's talk about my number one fluid on the all-time Mount Rushmore of my fluids. I'll talk about the other three later, but right now, number one, thirsty va caro, baby. A Mexican-style soda with a signature spicy finish. That's all bite, no rattle. That I know plenty of you have gotten, have supported, has become part of what I would say a nice little routine here, boys. Pre-game Cubs game, thirsty Vicaro's. Are you kidding me? And as I said, the dry mouth, you're gonna get a listen to this, baby. You know what the sound of that is? That's 100% organic agave exploding. That's a 16-ounce serving, mango muerte habanero. I just popped the top on 10:13 a.m. here, Friday morning, never too early for a Mexican-style soda with a signature spicy finish. That's all bite, no rallice. Now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna have a sip of this. Because, as I said, something, I don't know if it's the humidity, I don't know if it's the air pressure. I'm not a weather guy, and that's one of those things you can't pretend to be. And that was a good first sip of Thirsty McCarrow, my friends. There's the finish. It's in the back of your throat, it's in the front of your throat. There's a whole party everywhere for your taste buds. If you're into stuff like this, if you're into bold flavors, we have three of them: Mango Muerte, Lamogatron, watermelon, jalapeno. Come feast, my friends. Serve it. If you lack confidence, I promise you, serve it. If that's something, social gatherings, you have anxiety, you got invited to something. I don't want to go to my fucking sister-in-law's brunch. I don't want to have to go meet a bunch of these people. Is there some way I could just introduce a product and then get the fuck out of the people? Oh my god, what is this? You know, my buddy Carl, a man who sits in his three seasons room, talks into the void, and absolutely loves the Chicago Cubs and their brand of 2026 baseball. He recommended this Mexican style soda that has a signature spray finish. I'm dying here. I'm dying because I'm speaking from the heart. You know what I'm saying? I'm dying because I'm speaking from the heart. I love a Thirsty Vacaro, and I will be enjoying a mango morte throughout the duration of today's show. And that's a very important thing as we talk about being fluid, loving fluids. Go on Amazon, throw it in the cart. I like a variety pack, you know, and then pick your favorite. Okay. Thirsty Vicaro. The proud sponsor of the following agenda: one overall state of mind, two, brave series recap via baller strike, three, clock crosstown classic preview, four, started pitching matchups, five, white socks lineup cards, six mailbag, seven, maybe if there's time, some sausage, or I could do it later with Mohoney. But just some stuff. Okay, that was me reading off an outline sheet. That was me staying on top of the agenda. And that's that's how that's how we have a good show. That's how we kick this weekend off. That's how we come after the White Sox and we just fucking bury them. It starts now with the preparation. Okay. So let's get into it. Our overall state of mind. Now, there's six sub little stories here. And the first thing I would just like to point out, and this is something that's been on my mind recently that I've been meaning to explain in some sort of basic, simple analogy about the winning and the losing aspect of Major League Baseball. The best analogy I want to offer up to start the show is because I'm going to Vegas, I think in a week or two. My father-in-law, 70th, retired Chicago firefighter. There's a crew, you know. I think there's another, a bunch of other retired Chicago firefighters that will be on this trip. Um, so if you guys don't hear from me afterwards, is because you know, like honestly, I would imagine this is gonna get pretty fucking flu. Speaking of fluid, there's gonna be a lot of fluids. This is gonna be loot, this is gonna be there's gonna be, I mean, my way that sounded that sounded really fucking gay. Me a bunch of retired firefighters. I meant drinking heavily, pool side, heavily. These guys, these guys go extremely hard. And I like to think I can keep up most of the time, depending on my you know, mood and state of mind and overall fucking willingness and want to get a taste. Uh, and I would say this is the type of environment, you know, you have to bring your A game here, folks. This is Major League Baseball. Hanging out in Vegas, and the other unique thing is that my not to get fucking personal here, but my father-in-law joined the fire academy. Get this shit. He was like 38 years old when he joined the fire academy, which is notable for another uh for a number of significant reasons. This is not on the fucking agenda at all, in the least bit. Sorry if you're listening to this um father-in-law, but he's it's notable for a number of reasons, worthy of me using this Vegas analogy for the Chicago Cubs, is that he's like 15 years older than his buddies from the fire academy. And so even my he's 70, he's a 55-year-old, he's in his 50s. I know he's turning 70, but the the crew, he is every bit of 55, and as a 39-year-old guy for some of the older guys, and you know there's they that's a that's a fucking age you do some damage in Las Vegas. So we're all going out there, obviously, gonna be ripping it up. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm obviously gonna sit down at a blackjack table. I'm gonna be fucking, I'm gonna watch the F-words Lizard King, I promise you. You know, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be absolutely loaded first, second, or third night. I'm me sitting down at the blackjack table with more money than I should probably sit down with, and I'm gonna have to play that game. Okay. And I know just here, let's just start with this real this relatable factor. While I'm in Las Vegas, we sit down at the blackjack table. I would imagine most of the audiences had this experience of sitting at a blackjack table, is somewhat familiar with this game. If you're not, you should fast forward like four minutes, I would guess. But when I think about the 2026 hubs and watching them, I honestly feel like I'm waking up every day with like a 19 or a 20. I'm not even talking about what the dealer has. I'm just 1920, meaning I'm not hitting nut. Let's go. Done. 1920. Now, there's some days, obviously, road trip west coast. Maybe I feel like I'm I have 17, a soft 17. Paul Schemes is on the mound. It's hard 17. But generally, what I'm talking about is just that confidence. When you're playing blackjack, dealer gives you two cars, you're sitting on, you're looking at 20. Now you have this automatic instinctual expectation that like I'm probably gonna fucking win here. Right? Like, you have obviously have solid odds, and that's kind of the emotional state I I am in with this team getting up every today. Now, yesterday against Chris Sale, that we had like ace four against uh like 20, and we had to do some work there, and we ended up getting a 21. Where like we had to do some work. That's obviously one of those situations where you're like the odds here are not in our favor at all. Okay, but and I know this is a very cliche analogy, but if you don't mind, I'm gonna continue very briefly because it applies in the same way, like you can sit down and just lose in blackjack in unbelievable ways. Like, dealer pulls seven cards, ace, ace, three, four, and he's doing the math way faster than you can count, and you're trying to keep up, and he can do that like five times in a row, and you can just be but completely befuddled in how this happened, but it happens because it's just part of the fucking game, and that's when I look at how do we go five games scoring five ruts? That's what we've done our last five games. We're one and four, and I know people want me to hit the panic button. There's gonna be a timer plays, it's mid-May. I'm gonna offer up what I understand to be it's the game. You're gonna lose, you know, and sometimes you just lose because Jacob DeGrom, who's gonna be a future Hall of Famer despite like he could have the least amount of innings. What of the last I get I don't know, I gotta look at Sandy Colfax, you know. I got I gotta look at some old timers, but it's up there. I mean, I'll get I I'll absolutely guarantee he's got the least amount of games started of anybody who's gonna make the Hall of Fame in their first ballot, he'll do it. He's got the best stuff since Pedro Martinez, uh, but also the same body control on the mound of like a Roger Clemens or a Kurt Schilling, which is insane. But we don't need to go down this rabbit hole. The point is we run into Jacob deGrom. Like sometimes you just boom, blackjack, over, done. It's just done. You can't even win. What are you supposed to do when Jacob de Grom's dialed and he's that good? Right? So can you get mad about that? Like, yes, you're obviously going to. The thing is you shouldn't because you're supposed to play another hit, right? And that's again just how I feel about the 2026 Cups. But there's also times where you're like, you've got to be, you have got to be F-word. You have to be kidding me. No, there's times when you like stand up from the table and think you're like, no way. There's times you just you lose so bad now, you're just staring for one of the cocktail waitresses. You know, you're like, we can smoke in here. Yes, I will take a pack of the Marlboro's. You know, the cocktail waitress is hot, so you should be taking the light, you shouldn't be smoking any cigarettes, mind you. You know, but if you are, you should be reaching for a Marlboro light. I'm not saying a fuck this ain't a tobacco endorsement. No, like a lighter cigarette. I'm saying if you don't, you're in the casino, you're gonna get the Marlboro Reds, you're gonna get the heavy hitters, you know. You're a lunatic if you're getting new ports, but I also want to hang out with you. Does that make sense? You're a lunatic, but yeah, I want to be your friend if you're getting the new ports, but you're sitting at the casino and now you're mad, and now you're doing something you don't normally do, and now you're flustered because this cocktail waitress actually you typically don't like you know, you typically don't like them at all, but there's something about the moment, the situation, you know, the height of the slot machines around you where this lady really catches your attention. This is a good looking babe, you know. So you're gonna take the Marlborough Reds, you're actually gonna double the size of your bet. And do you remember that Jack and Coke I asked for five minutes ago? Could you just get another one before that one even comes out, just so we have a good steady stream? And I promise you, I'm gonna be taking care of you as you what do you what do you how much what chip do you put on her plate? I didn't hey, I don't what are the denominations? Do you give her a 25? Is that 25? You know, you want to set the tone. I don't know. She's working on the floor. We're talking about a casino I'm at. This ain't the fucking fountain blue here, folks. I apologize. But my point is that you can get mad sometimes, and that's the overall state of mind. This will be a five-hour show if I if I keep doing this. I'm sorry. You know, I'm so excited for the Crosstown Classic, and I know people are very mad about going one and four in the last five. And be before I want to come in here and talk just about how off the offense has been, I can explain it away very simply. What I'm trying to say is there's times to get mad, and there's times you just lose because that's how the game works. You're just gonna lose. Like, what do you what do you do? You just lose. There's nothing you can do about it. It's in the rules of the game. That when Jacob deGrom, when a first ballot and Hall of Famer gets dialed in like that, you are good luck, pal. Good luck, you know. That said, we did find a way to win a Chris Sale game. Where like you pull it out of your butt cheeks. You know, and then there's times when Jack Leiter, uh, you know, who I love his dad, had great coffee with his dad. Let me put this in the I'm writing this down. Post show notes. Al Leiter, personal story, Omaha 2021 coffee, one hour story time. Reviewed my mechanics. I've probably already told that story, so that's why I'm saving it for the end. But Jack Leiter goes four and two-thirds innings, puts nine runners on base. All five innings that he pitched with that he didn't make it out of the fifth, he still put a runner in at least one runner in scoring position in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, nine guys on base. Now we don't score any runs. So obviously, what is that? Bad luck not being clutch in in mid-May against the heated rivalry of the rangers, not clutch, didn't come up big at Globe Life Field. No. No, I don't think that's the case. I think that's a stretcher reach, and this is what I'm trying to do is I say the overall state of mind. You know, but now, okay, let's get mad. I can't believe we did this if we want to get mad about something. Let's just be briefly mad that we saw like 53 pitches in the remaining 14 outs of the game, which is uh slightly over uh like through what is that 3.6 pitch. That's less than four. Is it less than four? No, it's on the dot four. That's fit that's four pitches per plate appearances for the rest of the game against a mediocre bullpen. So that's frustrating, but again, that's also part of the game. So that's just the longest-winded overall way for me to try and calm people down because people are freaking out. What are we gonna do about this? Is Colin Ray cooked? You know? Obviously, let's get to the bad. You know, the offense is just awful. There's filters on fangraphs where you can customize team stats by date. I mean, you can really customize it to anything. My recommendation is that if you haven't done this for the Chicago Cubs within the past week, don't start now. I did, it's not worth it. It's like going to see a horror movie that's just like so unbeliev unbelievably bad. I don't know, like bad or combinated or something. How about a just a bad movie? You're like, you don't want, don't do that, don't waste your time. I'll tell you how it goes. It's awful. We're dead last in everything. So that's the bad part. And we've if you've sat and you've watched it. Now the Rangers series, I can whatever. Okay, fine. So Texas Rangers. I don't the Braves thing's a just slightly different. Obviously, National League, you know, top of the standings, measuring stick. It's only three games in mid may, guys. You know, so that's the first thing. But then within that, there's there's different layers, you know, of like why do we want like you get shut out by Jacob McGraw when that happens, but that Grant Holmes guy from the Atlanta Braves, we should have banged him around at the same time. That J.R. Richie kid, so quick, just recap note here, he was electric. You know. That guy was very good. We did have a couple opportunities, though. You know, I thought. But we also saw like great Chris Sales awesome, J.R. Richie pitched really well, deGrom. You know, I would have liked to see his hammer jack lighter, etc. But like that guys are just not ooh, funk. Except for Ian Hab. The advanced metrics that Ian Hab had a good week. He's a two for 12, but has taken a number of walks and has scored a number of runs. Leads the team in, I believe, both walks and runs for like the last week and the last year, uh last month. So if you want to be bad at let I'll sit here and rag offensive, you want me to. I'm saying I I I don't know if I can. I don't know if I can in good faith as a baseball guy sit down and bitch about five runs in five games when I can logically make sense of it. So I I don't then some people are gonna come back and be like, you're being too easy on these guys. Or the game is hard enough. I don't need to be fucking hard on these guys. You know, we got a game tonight against a competitive Chicago White Sox team that I'm excited to preview with some interesting starting pitching matchups, by the way. Uh, you know, and a good manager, and I think a good collective team attitude, the chip on their shoulder. You know, that's more interesting to me. I can't wait to talk about that. Uh, in the meantime, I will acknowledge, obviously, as we did on Monday, you know, that we we lost a series to the Rangers. We're off on Monday, optimistic. You know, I thought we would get to game one, that Grant Holmes kid. Undersized ready, just pitched backwards a ton, you know. So that that was that was a guy. Now I'm surprised though, because I'm surprised with myself that I didn't anticipate him to be funky. He was funkier than I anticipated. When I when I looked at his profile, I should have done a better job at digging into what his pitch usage is ahead and behind in the count. That's on me. Because what I what you would see is somebody who pitches backwards and has pitched backwards in the limited data that's available on him. You know, he did spend 10 years in the minor leagues. That's a guy who pitched game one for the Atlanta Braves. Uh, and you know, and shoved it up our ass. So that that I why do I do this? Why do I start with the negative stuff? Because to me, I'm super positive about this team, but I just feel compelled, like it's a shirpa. Like I'm like I'm no, not even that. I'm a I'm a sucker, is what I am. Because what I should be doing is speaking directly to the people that are enjoying the season, despite the last five games being complete dog shit. You know, Shodi Ibanaga, he gets a beef. That's a big subline. Shodi Ibanaga gets a beef. What does that mean? I don't he gets a beef. He gets an Italian beef loaded, dipped. How does he like it? Extra wet and juicy. I'm sure. Who doesn't? Have yourself a thirsty because my opportunity is just take a deep breath, have a sip. If this was a two-man show, you wouldn't even know I'm about to pound this Mago Morte. But this is a one-man, like I've said, I'm gonna say it again. If you hear me talking to somebody over my shoulder, it literally, if you hear me addressing a third party, you hear me telling someone to turn the mic down or something. That is that person does not exist. Okay, it is a hallucination from the euphoria that the 2026 Cubs have delivered for weeks now. Insert Mango Morte. You know, Shona would love this shit. He gets a beef. Um, we are lucky we won that Chris Sale game. 2-0. I know, like, it's easy to go back and look at the stands, but we're, you know, we're one, whatever. This will be a win. And say the Cubs win, you know, it's uh not unrealistic to say they could win nine more games. But that game that would have started at all, whatever. No, this game last night against Chris Sale, man, is he good. He's so good. He's historically one of the greatest competitors uh, you know, of my generation. And what I mean by that is he personally, now he'll talk to the media, whatever. And obviously, I know the joke about cutting up the jerseys, and this is relevant because you know what a pitcher to face before the crosstown classic, because there's just great opportunities there to reminisce so many great moments as a White Sock. And obviously, if you want to like criticize Rick Hahn, the fact in hindsight now that Chris L, who won a Cy Young in 2024, uh, if he doesn't dive off the mound last year, mid-June, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Mets, chasing a complete game shutout, division rival Juan Soto's at the plate. Um, he hits a ball at the middle, and Chris L dives off the mound to make a play and cracks his rib, and he's out for like six six, seven weeks. So he only threw like 125 innings last year. He was awesome before he broke his ribs, he was awesome after he broke his ribs, and there's a very good argument that he could have won back-to-back Cy Young's uh if he stayed completely healthy. You know, who knows? Because the Braves obviously were disappointing last year. And it's hard, maybe like when A-Rod won the MVP, what was that? Oh, three, four or something with the Rangers. I think they won like 70-something games. You know, but my point is Chris Sale is not just like obviously good, he's so good. He's no, he's like a top five pitcher in the world. You know, and he's at home, opportunity to get a sweep. And when I say competitor, what I mean is Chris Sale just wants he wants to embarrass the hitters. If a if it was a basketball player, he would just want to like throw down in your fucking face. Like, remember when Russell Westbrook was just dunking on everybody? Was that 10 years ago? No, like obviously Kobe dominant. No, I'm saying like somebody just coming in the paint with authority, full speed ahead, and just throwing it down in your face, and then looking into the cameras. But what does what is that called? See, now I'm talking to a third person that's called posterizing someone, you moron. Okay, in football, like just truck sticking someone. On either side of football, folks. You get jacked up, give me the Randy Moss clip. I'm not gonna, I'm not playing the clip. ESPN will have this podcast shut down in a second. But you know the clip I'm talking about. When everybody's on stand they go, you got jacked up. You know, you got five guys all on the mic all at the same time. A little awkward at first when they were realized, but then they got in sync, I thought, over the over the years of the segment. But the first time they rolled the segment out, they could not say you got jacked up in time or rhythm together. That's probably just because they're fucking athletes, former football coaches, but you got jacked up, right? Like those big plays, uh, or like the bus, Jerome Bettis. There's a throwback. Marshawn Lynch, not eat Marshawn Lynch instinctually trucked you, so I don't want to go down that road. I think Jerome Bettis, obviously, why am I overlooking the fact Walter Payton sought it out, wanted the trucks that run you over. I've never watched them. Did I have any memory? It's that it it would that would be so disingenuous to say that I remember. Obviously, I I mean what I'm sitting on my dad's lap, age two, watching Walter Payton. You know, can I can I say I watch that's a good sports argument that I think a roundtable discussion of reasonable men should figure out is how old or what what is the qualifications for you to say I watched him play in reference to a legendary athlete where you don't have any conscious memories of that point in your life. Now, whatever point that is, you know, for you, I don't know. I think my first memory is being the tying my shoe age three or something. I mean, I have like maybe met maybe that like the first like thing sequence of events I can remember is being taught how to tie my shoes and going through that process. So, like, far be it for me, I mean, whatever, okay. I wasn't I was one year old. One. How do you do that? One year, I was one year old, one I was one. Years? Year? One is how old I was. That's the age. Hallucinating again. I swear it's because the cubs are good. I told you, I wake up every day like I'm sitting on 20. You know, obviously, again, sometimes the dealer, how the fuck did you just pull a jack layer at me? How did you do that? How? You know, and then anyways, I feel good is my point. And my question is if I'm one and I'm sitting on my dad's lap and the bears are on, am I allowed to say I watched Walter Baden play? Anyways, he tried to run motherfuckers over, and that's what Chris Sale tries to do to you on the mound. And I need to get back on topic because we're lucky we won that game, and that's very unfair for me to to Ben Brown not bringing his name up. That's on purpose. People want me to talk about Ben Brown. I will win Craig. No, I'm T Ben Brown is doing exactly what I want him to do. I'm almost nervous to talk about him. Baseball instinct guy in me. I'd rather take the thank goodness. Maybe it's because we lost four in a row. If we had won four in a row in that fifth game beating Chris, I'd probably come in here and I'm like, that's what you get for you know Ben not trusting Ben Brown. But I I turned on that game last night, losing four in a row, knowing I'm sitting down to do with this crosstown classic, knowing I'm gonna go through my White Tech Scott report, thinking to myself, if I have to do this five in a row going into this series, most of this episode is gonna be talking people off a cliff, including myself. Including myself. How do you lose with 10 in a row, lose five in a row? I mean, I know to start the season, we won and lost, won and lost, and alternated back and forth for like the first two weeks. I think we were, you know, whatever, six and six, six and six and seven, just seesaw. But we can't go seesaw, kind wins, kind of losses in a row. No, that's honestly that is serious. That is, you know, I don't make self-harm jokes. I lost one of my close friends to, you know, I'm I'm not I don't go like when I say it makes me like it makes me want to punch a wall when I say self-harm. You know, that's a general, it's not good for my mental health. I won't, I loot no sleep, no sleep, no sleep. All Mango Muertes. You know, that's a dark place to go to if you're gonna win, if you're gonna give me 10 wins more than 10 losses in a row, I can't do the 10 losses in a row. Cannot, will not, won't, won't do it. Give me the C-SAR, give me a quicker back and forth, is what I'm saying. All right. That's where the lucky here were okay. Thank goodness we got it just stopped at four. And I've said it will be very difficult for the Chicago Cubs to have a losing streak of greater than three games. It got to four. It took some great pitching performances, some dud stuff from offensively, though. I have to admit this. Ian Hav's been the only one who's been productive. Guys have been so bad you can't even address it. Guys have been. I talk about the OPS a lot as a weighted metric that is 100. And the degree you are above or below 100 is a representation of what percentile you are relative to the average major leaguer, which a 95 means you're 5% worse than average major league. There's two different statistics, they both kind of measure the same thing, meaning they're both they're both attempting to quantify the same type of measurement. They just use different inputs and some different, you know. I don't what do I look like? What who am I Matt fucking here? You know, with the chalkboard? And am I are you out of your mind? I don't know. I'm doing the best I can to explain the fact that these metrics exist that people rely on them to make decisions in major league baseball, both agents and fucking front office people. It's these are things, all right. And I'm trying to do this in a way where like the dumbest guy in the room could be like that kind of makes sense to me. All right, I know there's much smarter people listening to this that are like, no shit, dude. No shit. I have a login, I pay the$15 a month for fangrafts. I got it. All right, but no man left behind. That's the Monday morning cup show fucking mentality. So I get that's a bad F word. That's a bad F word. Some of them are worthwhile. That one I want back. My point is this. If you look, I told you don't look. If you look, what is that? That's like two no, I'm not even gonna say it. No, that's there, there's stuff on the internet historically. I'm 39. If you grew up, there's websites, there's videos, there's a bunch of them. I'm not even gonna say them, but there you know there's classics of videos where like you don't want to watch this. You've downloaded on maps or anyways. You're like, oh my god, like oh my god. That's the exact that's if you can relate to that. You should don't watch this, dude. It's messed up. Whatever's messed up to you, okay. Some people like it, some people like different stuff. So we'll just generally, this is how you pill everybody. Just whatever to you is something where you go, that's I'm not watching, that's messed up. But you would watch it anyways. You'd still watch it. Now there's something so messed up, obviously. Hey, get your stop. That's this you're get out of here. Not even funny, don't even joke about that. Nope, nothing, no need, don't even make those jokes. Stupid jokes, awful, sick twisted shit. I'm talking about you know, funny shit when you're a kid, you're like, this is gross, you're like, oh, the fuck is that? You know, why did you why didn't you show me that video? That's what I'm saying. If you look at the Cubs numbers over the last five five games. Okay, now let's flip a coin. Not actually, though. All right, not actually. I'm just saying on the other side of the coin, don't flip it because it may end up on this side again. I'm just saying on the other side of that is if you go 10 games, over half the lineup has been a 120 OPS plus. Over the last five games, some guys are like minus 100. I don't even know how you get to that. Moises by us over 16 with a 41% strikeout rate. You know, they've they're making quick adjustments to him, throwing high fastballs. So, you know. Am I unfair to Ben Brown? That's the question. That's how we got here. Am I unfair to Ben Brown for not just absolutely celebrating that he's looked awesome as a starter? No, I'm not unfair to Ben Brown. Uh, you know, just keep doing it. If I was his manager, I wouldn't say a fucking word to him other than when you pitch next. I would ask him how you feel. I would give him the coldest and most distant emotion, not because I don't like him, but because I don't want him under any set of circumstances to ever get the impression that he should feel secure. I need this guy, maximum emergency. I this guy's waiting for the phone call any day to tell him grandpa's just passed. He wanted me to tell you to pitch inside. My grandfather used to tell me that. It's funny to think about that. Because it if he did have something to say to me in his dying breath, he would say, pitch inside. You know. But that's how Ben, that's the sense of urgency. Ben Brown take them out every like this will be the last game grandpa ever gets to watch you pitch. And he taught you how to hold a curveball, Ben. And he's he's a ventilator tube. His last conscious moments is this fifth inning right here. I need you to throw strikes. You walk this guy, Grandpa, that could be what kills grandpa. That's the urgency I would need I need Ben Brown pitching with. And if you're a credit counsel, the way you you contain or you develop or you maintain that urgency is with an extremely distant cold big league relationship. Super professional, super not no hey buddy, no hey pal, no how was breakfast, stern and informative and direct questions only. How's your arm? Good. Hey, just a heads up uh for Philadelphia. And then like Ben Brown might be thinking, like, am I about to get invited to dinner with Craig or is he gonna like are we gonna play golf at Philly cricket?

SPEAKER_00 39:33

He's like, uh, Philadelphia. He's like, yeah. He's like, uh make sure you spend some time with Tommy Hodby on Friday morning, because I want you to make I want it I want to make sure you got that scotter report.

Schedule Context And Why It Matters

Baller Strike Reactions And Patience

Is Cubs White Sox A Rivalry

White Sox Starters And Pitch Matchups

White Sox Lineup Notes And Weak Spots

Mailbag Bregman Ben Brown Playoffs

SPEAKER_01 39:48

You know, or something like and where it would be like, oh, what a letdown. It's just the most blanket reminder for me to do the scotter report. So no, I'm not unfair to Ben Brown. The reason I don't celebrate Ben Brown is just down that path. I think he's super talented. I'm excited about his first couple starts, excited to see where this goes. And my mentality towards Ben Brown is just like very excited to see him pitch again, but like definitely not worth getting into an argument with one of your friends over just certainly not worth gambling on. Goodness gracious, I would not spend money on a Ben Brown, no matter what the circumstance was. But I really like what I see, and I think it's definitely good enough to like keep it rolling, and there's you know, we'll get to the mailbag. I have a mailbag and there's a Ben Brown thing, but that's gonna be a pitch clock. This is over listen, I'm gonna do I'm gonna talk about the White Sox series. I have a baller strike about the Braves series, specific things, specific players. A lot of this is high-level mentality stuff. Am I unfair to Ben Brown? No, no, scheduling notes, tough schedule lately. Three items here. One tough schedule, strength of schedule. Cubs had the second hardest strength of schedule so far in Major League Baseball and projected to have the fourth hard of this hardest schedule to close the season. A lot of that is because we haven't played like any division games. Uh, we'll play the Bruce for the first time. We just have division games we haven't played yet. Everybody in the division's over 500. Fact check that. Someone? See, there's the hallucination because the fields are good. I told you it would happen. Um, that's why our strength of schedule for the looking ahead, which I don't really know if I care so much about projected strength of schedule until like unless you want to talk about in September, I guess, August, second half. That's more more important though is it is to reflect first half on the games played of your strength of the schedule. It's much easier to say the games we've played have been this hard because they're teams we played are fucking good. You know, it's much easier argument to make in base with than the teams we're about to play. You know, because who knows in July, I guess, suppose, you know, the Reds wheels could, you know, completely fall off. But at the time we played the Cincinnati Reds, and I'm just using them as an example, they took the field, they were 20 and 14, they were competing for first place. You know, now they're 23 and 20, whatever. We got them at a time, they were good. That's my point here. Our strength schedule has been sensational, and we've responded to the challenge appropriately with a 636 win percentage. You know, so to have the hardest measured, one of the hardest measured schedules through the first, you know, whatever, 25% of the season. And have one of the best records in baseball in that time span. Do you understand what I'm talking about on that graph spectrum here? Because that's where the Cubs have lived. And so when you look at the schedule, that's like a that's a retroactive way to feel about this team. Okay, and they've done that not a lot of off days. Monday, I think, was the first off. They had 13 games in 14 days. Okay, so that's just like a little bit of respect, and then proactively looking ahead. We're home for 10 straight days. Ian Hap talked about it on the compound. Can't wait for a 10-day home stretch, two home series, Brewers, and an interleague against the Astros. You know, so we have the Inter League against the White Sox guys are staying at their homes. That's important. Seriously. If you give a shit about this team, you watch them 162. You know, this is something, it's not on a baseball card how many nights he slept in bed, you know, at his own home. It's it's not on the baseball, like a guy like Danzby Swanson who doesn't want to be away from his family. I like him at home a lot. You know, Jameson Tan's another good example of this. So don't make me get long winded about the scheduling notes here, guys. We are second in RPI, by the way. I don't even I didn't even know that existed until I was researching this show. Somebody's out there publishing fucking RPIs. Sure, whatever. I mean. At this point, we're measuring spin rates on fastballs, heartbeats on outfielders. You know, I know what the third base coach had for lunch. They got they got a they got a guy sniffing his farts, just trying to get a read. You know, this guy could be queasy, could be trying to get off the field. Uh I'm being serious though, when I say I found an RPI statistic. What's notable comes our second in RPI. I guess that matters. That's a statistic. Fifth and expected win percentage, the old Pythagorean, which, if you know that one, you know it. If you don't, I'm certainly not going to explain it right now. My point is very good so far throughout the season. Obviously, heavily favored by two big 10-game win streaks, but those things happened. We're coming off, we're coming off some losses that I have stomached that I had to sit through. I had to sit through five runs in five games. I've just had to sit through so much bad baseball. This Chris Sale game has allowed me to have a better look. I'm not freaking out. It's because it's not the end of the world. But God, there's a razor thin margin. I'll acknowledge it, guys. Someone's saying he's being too positive. He's not complaining enough about the pitching staff. I'll let you guys do that for me in the mailbag. Tapish? It's a Friday. We gotta play the White Sox. Uh baller strike beating Chris Sale 2-0 is the win of the year so far. Strike. I mean, have I s have I have I not made that unbelievably clear? That's a strike. So sponsored by Thursday Carroll. Okay. Next baller strike. Ben Brown is a secret weapon. That's actually that's a ball. One. He is a weapon of mass destruction that could explode at any time. I don't think it's a secret either that he throws a hundred with a plus breaking ball. Maybe the secret is that he's added a sinker, and maybe it's maybe something the league is just figuring out now is that he's being aggressive. But there's there's no he's not in the way that you would traditionally call a secret weapon, which actually substory is the nickname of the former third base coach uh for the Angels when Joe Madden managed the Angels. And he was big leaguer, played for the Oakland Athletics for the Athletics, won a World Series championship with Tony Louisa. I'm talking about a guy named Mike Gallegos, and he might have won a ring with the 97 Marlons just from like, I don't know if he broke camp with them that year. But he was with the Yankees, he started for the Yankees at third or utility guy, I should say. Mike Gallegos, and his nickname. Now, the reason I know this is because Mike Gallegos and I played golf and had dinner together. Now, this is a fucking name drop, but my buddy is a member at Black Sheep, which is a country club uh in the greater Chicagoland area, in one of the only uh club, private clubs you can play golf at on Mondays. I think the other one's Babo Link. I'm trying to think what the other one is. There's two really nice clubs. Now, there might be other places that are open. You know, I don't I don't know. But I'm saying like like places where you could host a big league club, and my buddy is a member at one a place that's all that's open on Mondays. The Angels are playing a Monday night game, or they're playing a Tuesday, they're off Monday, but they traveled to Chicago, so they're off on Monday. This is what happens. And Joe Madden got the golf bug during COVID. I'm not joking. Got the golf bug during COVID, uh, during lockdown. And then I'm seriously not joking. So this is in Joe Madden's COVID bug window. He wants to play golf, and the bullpen catcher for the the bullpen catcher for the angels, or no, the hitting coach for the angels, is a guy named Jeremy Reed who played for the White Sox. His little brother's the bullpen catcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and like best friends with one of my closest tier one inner circle friends in adulthood. Is that a connection? So one of my buddies, he hangs out with the Arizona Diamondbacks backup catcher. All they play golf all the time. They go to Vegas, they do all this shit together. So the Angels come in town, and he tells his brother, who's the hitting coach, if you guys are trying to play golf, here's my buddy, Smitty. Is the guy everybody knows everybody knows Smitty. My buddy Smith. And this from Sprint, this ain't Smitty Barcelow, who I love dearly. Uh, I'm talking about Smitty. Everybody knows Smitty from the 217. Everybody knows Smitty. And so, God bless Smitty. Toughest fucking guy, one of the absolute best guys I know. His but his buddy's the bowpen catcher. His brothers, his a long story, his brother's a hidden coach for the Angels. Angels aren't town. Joe Madden's a manager. Joe Madden's has this thing where he makes the coaches do activities when they travel, and it used to be riding bikes. I'm not joking. When they would go on road trips or it would be hiking, you know, or they'd go fishing. He he always has shit set up for his assistance. And so I know this because I've freaking hung out with these guys and had dinner with them. No joke. Had dinner with Gallegos and Dex. This is great name-dropping stuff here. That's that's kind of that is kind of is this fucking relevant because all I said is is Ben Brown a secret weapon, and then that made me think of Mike Gallegos. And now I'm sitting here talking about Joe Madden and the Angels. But that's bucketless stuff here, guys. Spent the day, played golf with him. And I'm not joking when I tell you that this day, and be in being out there, and my buddy connecting these dots, and that was him saying this back, and just how absolutely ridiculous this is. But I I spent an entire day start to finish with the secret weapon and listen to this guy just sit there and just tell story after story after story in the big league experience and him criticizing certain players and pitchers and him praising others, which is very rare that you get to see that type of aspect. And it usually would have to come from a coaching or a manager perspective. And so, anyways, that just triggered. I'm sorry to go so off topic. I just got so triggered there, but in a positive way, by reading back, is Ben Brown a secret weapon? That's a ball. Shout out to the original secret weapon, uh, one of the all-time great baseball guys. And if I was making a broader point there and I kind of got off the rails there and lost my train of thought, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. You know, is that the hallucinations? Tag a soundcheck. Is that what I mean? You know, baller strike, we need to trade for someone right now. That's a ball. Settle down. We got 10-game homestand coming up. Baller strike, Colin Ray's fading. Ball Colin Ray's not fading. Now, Colin Ray's not that good. Maybe that's a strike. Colin Ray's stuff is below major league average. Strike down the middle. Some of the most below average stuff. Yeah, everything is like just slightly below average. Everything. But here's the thing is he throws everything. You know, it's like you have seven things that are okay. Dude, that's like going out in Chicago. It's just a Chicago six. He's just the classic. I can't believe I didn't write that down ahead of time. Now that I'm talking through this, Kyle Ray is your classic Chicago Six. Would you? Yes, absolutely. Do you want to? Yes. Do you really want to? Uh-huh. Yeah, I mean, I will. If I if I will, you know, this is a one or no. This is binary. Yes, I will. I would. Would. Chicago Six? Yes. Would. Um, not right. I'm married, happily married. I'm saying this is how I feel about Colin Ray. But it's like a Colin Ray. And when I invite him to Thanksgiving, you know, my uncle Timmy's absolutely not. No fucking shot. No, wait. Are you out of your mind? You're a Chicago sex coming to Thanksgiving. Or maybe you are. Maybe, maybe that's not. Maybe that's too mean. That's a bad joke. Okay, that's a bad that could have offended some people, and I apologize. You know, I like to think I'm a little more old school. This is a little more dugout talk here. Just the boys bullshitting here. You know, about some of the fucking creatures in the stands. You know? Don't be offended. Don't just don't be offended. We're just having a good time. We're just bullshitting. Oh, Colin Ray is fading. Strike. Colin Ray's not that good. It's fine. He's not fading. He is who he is. Alright, last one. Ballers baller strike. Based on these series losses, we should be more aggressive and start looking at trade market. Now, how did I write this twice? Ball again. Get a new picture in here. Fucking walking the bases loaded. Give me some good material. Ball, ball, ball, ball, ball. Now, does someone want to hear me go technical on my show to Humanaga's been sensational? Do I need to do that right now? I need to talk about how crisp as fastball is? No. The big point is, thank God he accepted that qualifying offer. Whatever was going on behind the scenes. I'm not 30 for 30. I don't do documentaries. I don't have I'm not talking to guy have the story from Jed Hoyer. What's the deal with Shoda? How the f how did that happen? Did we botch that? Did you is this was this planned for him to turn it down and then for us to turn it down and him to turn it down? And then him to take a qualifying offer? I mean the saga for him to sp still be wearing a club's uniform. Um you know, with the contract stuff is so bizarre. And in light of it, you know, you're sitting there going, maybe, hopefully, this is a chip on the shoulder. You know, because my interpretation is not a good experience from the outside looking in. Not a good off-season experience for Show to Even I got. Team turns down your extension, then you turn down your right to the subsequent extension, and then get triggered into like the fucking you know, process of like having to get an offer, a qualifying offer, so you could go to free agency, but then you end up accepting the qualifying offer. That's crazy. So that could go either way. That could piss somebody off. That could really be, you know, it and I wish the sincerity in which I say the following can cannot be emphasized enough. It would shock you. These words are very intentional. Okay? I know I'm just sitting here rolling, baby. Alright? I'm getting ready for a gross town classy preview. But let me be clear, these words are intentionally chosen when I say the following, which is brought to you by I'm gonna do I have to have a sympathy. I'm brought to you by Thursday. These words are on purpose. It would shock almost all of you. Some exceptions, I say almost. But shock. And that's it would shock you. What? Mo almost all of you. How sensitive a large percentage of major league baseball players are sensitive. Just and when I say sensitive is an umbrella term for taking things personally. Doesn't mean soft or weak or anything. I mean in tune emotionally and take things personally, had the capability of feeling slighted for no reason. I mean, there's so many great little examples of that from players you've watched over the years that you've loved, of people of like you took you were mad about what why were you mad about that? Here's a good one. John Lester was very mad, you know, mad, sensitive, sensitive, not mad, sensitive to the fact that Jake Arietta was so good in 2015 that he started the one and done game and Lester sat the bench that game. So sensitive was like sensitive about not that like because it wasn't even a decision, obviously Jake was that much better. But like, how do you how did you it that hurt that like hurt him? I mean like that it like hurt his feelings. You don't have to believe that. You know, it fucking got he would and you know what he would he's the kind of guy who'd be like that's not true. Yes, it is, yes it is, yes it is, dude. Hundred percent when I talk about sensitivities and stuff, uh in major league baseball players and say would shock you because you probably pro athlete, buddy, rich as fuck, buddy, staying at the four seasons, chartered hotel, and obviously there's a bit there's an element of being big league and carrying yourself as a big leaguer and being sweet, you know, and having cool walk-up music, being in the being a cool guy and all stuff. But what what comes with going into building that character and that bravado for a lot of these baseball players is fragility? I mean it. And the only reason uh you know, you know, Shoni Managa could have easily taken this the other way. Like this could have gone sideways where it's just like fuck these guys, I hate these guys, or it could be like I have obviously something to prove because I wasn't good enough to get so how how much do I want to go down like a show to technical hole? Would I much rather just say he's with for as good as he is right now, and then you start looking behind him with Eddie Cabrera, who I think some adjustments, you know, he's working through. I don't know. So many people, some people are speculating pre-injury. Tan, you know, can't Kyle Ray's Kyle Ray. Well look at Ben now. Ben Brown is emerging. Now, what if Ben Brown continues to emerge in four weeks from now, he's pitching into the sixth inning and continues his stretch of being extremely difficult to score against. You know, like it kind of changes the way you think about your urgency behind the trade deadline, which is why something I've consistently preached here is patience. This is long in the tooth show here, guys. I've enjoyed it. We're gonna we're gonna go quick here. I'm gonna actually just pitch clock the rest of this outline here, but I did spend the time to do my homework, so we are gonna get through this. Watch this masterclass here. Uh, we are playing the crosstown classic. All right, we're one hour into the show. We're one hour into the show, and I'm just getting the crosstown classic. The reason is, and I've realized this for Friday shows, is I have to have stuff that can still make sense on Saturday and Sunday morning. All right. So if I if everything is about this guy's hitting this number and that number, I it's a little bit more difficult to digest later. So that's a small taste of sausage. This is an intentional decision here um to go big picture. My problem I didn't think I'd do an hour, or how often do I say that? But once you get going and and you're starting to think about the different nuances and the stuff I really like, I didn't know Colin Ray was a Chicago Six until we did this episode. Now, obviously, you can understand why I'd want to take that one for a test drive because once you realize it in real time, you're like, wait a second, I never thought about it like that. So as we get into the Crosstown classic intro, all on my mind, baller's like, is this a rivalry? To me, yes. I think that's a personal question. I think you can answer that. I don't think that some people will say no, it's not a rivalry. There's other rivalries. No, it's insignificant, no, it's insignificant to Cubs fans. Obviously, White Sox fans, it matters more to them. That's 100% true, and that makes 100% sense. There's a smaller market team on the south side of Chicago, appealing to the south side of Chicago. People from the south side are not that way because of the White Sox. People from the south side of Chicago are that way, and the White Sox are a certain brand because of these people. These people would be these people without the White Sox. I'm talking creatures, and I don't just mean the Bridgeport guys or the Gage Park guys or McKinley Park guys, you know. I'm I'm not just I'm not just talking about Canaryville. Be careful. You know, they'll throw a fucking brick off your head. I'm not joking. At least that's how that's that those has it changed? Did something happen with COVID? Is it Brandon? I what happened? Did Lori Lightfoot they cheat her? Is Brand is Brandon Johnson made Canaryville safe for a regular that's disrespectful to people from that neighborhood, because that's an old classic one. But my just general point is those people are those people because that's who they are. Uh, they're amazing people. And I'm from Oaklawn, which is the first or second suburb, depending on where you cross, uh, you know, in from Chicago. Depend depending, you know, it put it on the it put I'm from Oaklawn, which is part of the Southside Irish Catholic community, etc. Very heavy white sox contingency. For me, this is a slam dunk strike. Yes, it is a rivalry. However, I don't get I like the White Sox. I grew up a White Sox fan. My dad's a fucking diehard White Sox fan, and without, you know, it's too long in a tooth here again. I became a Cubs fan after my oldest brother got diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, and my parents got involved with Ron Santo's charity in through several years had built up enough of goodwill throughout the charity so that Ron had personally invited, you know, through my was told my mom's like, hey, next time you're at a game, bring the kids up to the booth. Because my mom was actively involved and worked and contributed to his charity once my brother had gotten diagnosed with the disease age 10. So now it's years later. I don't know, what are we 15? He's my brother's 15 now or something. You know, and he might have been casually saying, I don't know, he might add a couple fucking drinks. He might, I don't know the circumstances, but he did tell my mother. Next time the kids are at a game, have them come by the booth, you know, they and take a picture or something. So sure as shit, like, you know, three months later, we're at a Cubs game. And, you know, my brother's like, hey, want to go see Ron. And like we had, and he like signed something at the he'd like gave to like gave it map to him, was like, just give this to the security guard or whatever. So like I vividly remember being at the time, what nine years old? In the booth with Ron Sand. While he's calling, he's hey, why don't you have a seat? I'm gonna call this inning. And he's calling the game with Pat, you know, and Sammy Sosa's in right field. And at the time, I grew up a white, I was my dad had seasoned tickets to the White Sox. My brother became a Cubsman when he got diagnosed with diabetes because Ron Santo's a legend, and it's a very serious disease, and it's it completely changes your life. And so you're 10 years old, you get diabetes. Ron Santo's a man, he's a here hero in Chicago, also one of the greatest third baseman of all time, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So there's dual influences there. My mom grew up a Cubs fan, long story. No, long story. No, so I have dual influences. There's a family of five. I was the fifth. There's two white sox fans, there's two Cubs fans. I was originally a White Sox fan, age nine or ten, I went Cubs without the fucking geographical presence of mind to realize the broad reach of uh White Sox hatred towards Cubs. I didn't know you're a kid, buddy. I didn't know somebody, I wouldn't know how like I didn't know how to get to my grandma's house in Orleans. I thought that was magic. Going from Oaklaw to Orlando Park when I was 10 years old. How the fuck does David in the car and know exactly every turn to make? Been here for like we've been in the car for like 30 minutes. That was magical to me. You think I have the presence of mind to understand the geographical boundaries of like, oh, if you're a White Sox fan, that or if you're a Cubs fan, that means everybody in this part of Chicago is gonna hate your fucking guts. And just so we're clear, you live in the exact middle of it. Smack dab. Smack dab. No, I mean like you uh like I don't want to get political, but there's perfectly good examples of where one party just does not exist, either at the local or state, at some level. Let's just hopefully just think locally here. Think about your local library, you know. You know, nothing too impactful. The people raising the fees on the fucking renewals. You know, it's once I'm there's something there. You know, like what I'm generally saying is I'm I am from it, and my first baseball memory is going to game one of the 1993 ALCS. With my dad and having great seats, and he took me and my two brothers in earliest baseball memory is him being disgusted that Dan Pasqua, barely hitting over 200, was playing first base while Frank Thomas DH'd in the ALCS. Doc Karkovis is getting too much playing time that year. Seventh inning, we got punched. I'd say we, because I've see here we go. Now I'm telling the story. I'm telling the story from 1993 of my dad taking his young boys, what am I age seven, six, seven? My first base big league, major league, my first memory going to a baseball game is in 1993 Blue Jays versus White Sox, ALCS, and my dad making us leave after the bottom of the seventh because the I can't remember the name of the reliever, Danny something, came in and I he punched out the side of the last two, just like absolutely mowed down the White Sox bottom seven, four-run game. My dad looks at me and he's like, they got Pasqual hitting six. We're getting out of this is trash. Fucked it. He was so mad, just an angry. That's my first baseball memory. It was easy for me to make a switch to the Cubs, but I grew up with a deep appreciation for the White Sox in White Sox culture in the community. Everybody who's ever listened to me for years knows that. If you listen to Redline Radio, I know I love I absolutely love the White Sox uh culture, which made it very easy for me to prepare the following notes. Sean Burke will pitch tonight. Now, obviously, we know who Eddie Kaber is. The rest of this is from a White Sox perspective. So if you've made it this far, you might be interested in this. This applies for the weekend series against the White Sox. Sean Burke will pitch tonight for the White Sox. He went to Maryland. He's a two-pitch pitcher against left-handed hitters, but he has a bag of trick for righties, which means he's got two different approaches. If you're righty or lefty, which historically means correct counsel, we'll go righty, lefty, righty, lefty, starting with Nico Horner all the way down to nine. He's a completely average major league pitcher, which means he's good at baseball, but he's average, baby. That doesn't mean we're gonna win, we're gonna smash him like we talked about with blackjack. He's 17. He's the D you you can easily be you can easily, however, you could also screw that up. You get bust. That's a that's a good likelihoods are on the table, odds are in your favor. Saturday, we're gonna face Davis Martin. James and Taon's pitching against a guy named Davis Martin, who's a 14th rounder. Out of where? Off the top of my head. I can't remember. UNLV? See, why do I get excited like that? Davis Martin is an undersized right-handed pitcher uh who absolutely dominated in A-ball. So he's a 14th rounder. He's only like 6'1 or whatever. He went to Texas Tech. I should know that. I should know that. But he he pitched like 150 innings in single-a one year. It was unheard of, just dominated. And like 70% of his minor league innings are from that single A season. Because it was a 14th rounder, and he just here's go to the bottom level. He ends up to being very good and pit just dominating for that. So the next season you start high, he dominated, he did well. I shouldn't say dominate because I'm not that's the Chris Hale that's reserved for those guys, but he just boom, right? To just the very quick promotions. Um, and he's been sensational this year, so it's like he really has been very good with every promotion. Um now, obviously, there's 6350, it ain't tier. There's a four ERA last year, 20. I mean, he's 20. I'm not trying to blow this guy, but for a 14th rounder, uh, he leads the American League. Nope. He's I believe second in qualified in ERA starters at 1.62. You know, he he's got great peripherals. I think it's very interesting that almost 70% of his minor league innings across seven professional seasons are at the lowest level. I think that's something you should applaud and should be interesting. He's gonna be very competitive. He's with a mix, he's gonna be in control. The idea that like the runner's on first and second, someone got drilled, and then a four-pitch walk because he's rattled, and now he's gonna throw a treat, you know, and make a mistake over the heart of that that sequence of events probably will not happen with a guy of his caliber that's the guy pitching with his background, I should say, or his perspective, or his approach to pitching, uh, would that would be very atypical of him. You know, not saying he's good, the shit he throws is good, but just his general strategy and how he executes it. Means that like you you gotta hit him. And so so far, the you know, big leagues are getting used to this guy. So we'll see what the scatter report says. This is why you pay a ton of is the Cubs. You have a big front office and you pay all the money for the metrics, so you have good scatter reports. If we have a good scatter report on this guy, like I anticipate, I expect competitive at bats. He shouldn't be overpowering, which we handle fine. Three Colin Ray versus Eric Fetty. Uh, we gotta fucking wrap this show, buddy. Eric Fetty is like your one buddy who just changes sales jobs all the time. You know, like maybe there's some like where reason like Eric just changes all one time. He got laid off, was it his fault? Maybe, maybe not. It's kind of hard. Long story short, though. You know, he had to maybe start over a little bit, maybe had to go back to step one or something, but not a sales career is you know, it's good enough. Like he hits his quota, he keeps changing jobs though, he's always changing sales jobs, but he's like not a horrible salesperson, he's not a bad guy, he's a good dude, you know. He just isn't really that he's not that smart. You know, he tries really hard, he's willing to do anything, and because of that, the that combination allows him to hit his sales quota, but like you're not giving him an award at the end of the year, and he's not he doesn't get the parking spot, you know what I mean? Like he's that he's not customer of the month or something. You know, he didn't he didn't get the$250 gift card to Machianos, but he is employed, he is very much employed. Uh and and that's Eric Fetty. You know, he goes to Korea, he comes back, he's fine. They're gonna trade him. These he gets him one and a half million dollars. I'm not talking to any more than I have to about a six, he's a big guy. Six, what, six? So those are the starting pitchers we're gonna see. I think we have a good we have a good advantage uh, you know, tonight with uh with Eddie Cabrera versus Sean Berg. I do think we have an advantage. I think we have a great advantage Sunday. Callin Ray, I think, is I should say great advantage. Colin Ray's a better version of Eric Fetty. And I'm very I think Saturday should is just gonna be awesome. Cannot wait for a Saturday night game at the at I'm not going. I cannot wait to have that on the TV music blaring. Hey, around the horn, the White Sox catching situation is unique, so there we'll just go two. One one is pitching, two is catching, unique situation. Drew Romo, switch hitting catcher, who actually went to Jamison Tanz High School. They're 10 years apart, so certainly not friends, and he only has 40 plate appearances. But I I think it's hilarious to point out now. Obviously, this isn't the funny part. Cuero is the is the good is one of the good catching prospects that the white socks have. And they were with classic White Sox, we have too many prospects, we have so many good young players, you know. Meanwhile, Drew Romo is the current starting catcher, not not a guy anybody now. Am I being facetious when I say nobody's talked about, but it's just interesting how that works, White Sax fans. We have so much catching depth. All right. Well, Drew Romo will probably be in the starting lineup tonight for the White Sax. And I'll guarantee you, you motherfuckers weren't including him in that conversation. Now he's hilariously hitting 161 with a 580 slugging percentage, which would be 161. That's like the bat control of Kerry Wood. He hit it tick over that hit 171 for his career. But that's their catcher, Drew Romo. He's at 161. Carrywood at 171. Again, small sample size. You got it. It's mid-May, small sample size. But hilariously, Shohei Otani's career slug is 580, and that is exactly Drew Romo's slug. So it'd be like Carrywood bat control power value, Shohei Otani. If it was uh like NBA Jam, the rating bars, the fucking batting average would be at the bottom, and power would be at the top. I love guys like that. I need to figure out a name for those guys. We need a nickname for those guys, we need an inside joke. I don't know who what it is. You're a Romo. You're a real Romo. Is that too close to me calling you a homo? And then that could be offensive to people, and I don't want to offend people. I go, you're a Romo. Stop being a Romo. Is that too close to the line? I don't know this stuff, guys. Like I said, this is a one-man fucking show. You hear me talking to somebody, he ain't here. He ain't here. Uh, their first baseman, Munitake Markami, is basically a Japanese version of Adam Dunn. You should enjoy him. They're gonna fucking suck his dick on the broadcast because Jerry Reinsdorf gave him a big contract. He's hitting a lot of home runs. We like the Japanese exposure. Expect Taylor McGregor to have a sideline report. Somebody's got a sideline report on Shohei Otani, Shodimanaga, and Munataka Markami, and like how they go out to Arlington Heights together and shop at the Japanese grocery store. There's gonna be some shit. They walk through the Japanese gardens together, you know, at the University of Chicago. You know, they're great friends, they love Chicago, proud tradition, blah, blah, blah. Whatever. Big hitting first baseman, big swing and miss. Uh, I like him. This is a solid club. I'm just looking at you know, for Chase Me Drew. I don't like him, so I'll say that. I don't give a shit. Don't like him. Hate his jawline, hate his neck, hate just the way he looks at a baseball uniform, think he's a worse version of Gordon Beckham at the absolute peak of his career. You know, you rarely get me to say something negative like this. Don't like his style of play, don't think it's modern for the game enough, don't think he's fast, quick twitch enough to be anything like a Nico Horner to add value to an extreme level, dynamically turning singles into doubles in the long run. In the long run. I think his body's gonna age poorly. I just don't like him that much. I think he's uh, you know, just not somebody that I would enjoy watching every single day. I don't care if he's gritty and hits 280 and you know, doesn't punch and all that shit. I don't give a fuck if he's Mark Rudzilonic 2.0. I don't want Chase Midrith on my team. He plays second base for the White Sox. Starts every day. People wear Meatrith jerseys. Think of that. Five third base Miguel Vargas Vargas is a former top 100 prospect with the LA Dodgers. I think he was a rule five pick, could be mistaken there. But he is a former top like third, like 30 prospect for the Dodgers. He's like good body, 6'2, 230, plays all over the infield, but the guy he's a third baseman. He's like super underrated. Their third baseman, Miguel Vargas, is super underrated. Big mother. Did I say Cuban? You know he's huge. I shouldn't not I shouldn't say it like that. I shouldn't say I think I think huge is unfair. But if you think about the Chicago Cubs third baseman, Alex Bregman or Matt Shaw. Um was I calling him Michelle? He is cute. For purposes of comparison, he's cle he's close, he's a big body, he's closer to Ramos Ramirez. But big body, big body, though. You know, good just like good tail. No one talks about this guy now, I guess, because he plays for the White Sox. You know, good size, no speed. Short stops, Colson Montgomery, basically like a skinny Adam Dunn. You know, I don't want to be mean. I think he's a good young ball player, 24 years old, from the hometown of where they filmed a League of Their Own. So this is the Crosstown Classic preview, the official preview, your official guide to the Chicago White Sox. It's a solo episode. I'm telling you what I know about Colson Montgomery, and it starts with Hunningburg, Indiana, where Tom Hanks filmed one of the great baseball movies. Not the greatest. It's in my top ten. I uh I don't who cares about my I pitched so great. I've I pitched there. You should tell everyone about it. Shut the fuck up and keep it moving. Colson Montgomery, big swing and miss, shortstop, good looking athlete. Like, I'm excited to see him play. He's whatever. The swings and misses over changeups, you know, back foot slider, pitch him inside, fucking have him chase upstairs. You know, make a mistake on the inner down third ball hammered into Miller Light section. You know, like don't that's on you. That's a guy, Colson Montgomery. He beat, that's he's good. So if he beats you, you know, whatever. You probably made a mistake, but it he doesn't miss him very often. Andrew Benatendi is their DH. He fucking blows. You know, so like I'm trying to the left field situation's a little fluid right now. Antonaki. Am I saying that right? I'm sorry, but I should respect this guy more. Um he's a south, he's Sal. He went to UN. Did he go to UNC? Why does this any of this matter? Because the college is the brand of baseball that that you play. Like I'm gonna I'm yeah, you went, yes, of course. He went to Coastal Carolina, not UNC. Uh that's chippy. That's that's a chippy player. That's their left fielder. That's all I gotta say about that. You you got a guy who plays a little left field, a little second base, a little bit of short stuff. Now, shallow he went to Sigurd Hurt Griffin. Sigurd Hurd Griffin is in Springfield for a long time. I'm almost done with this. But if I'm here, I'm gonna fucking say it. So I think that's a bad F word. But if I'm here, I'm gonna do it. For a long time, the answer to this trivia question, I think Ed Howard, who's a fail former, not failed, just a former top Cubs prospect, him or somebody else around this time. So whatever that is, 20 25 years I think the timeline is for 25 years, the answer to trivia question was who's the last high school baseball player, non-pitcher, position player, outfielder, infielder, catcher, last Illinois high school player, position player to get drafted in the first round. The answer to that forever. That never if for almost 30 years, no, not 30, 20 years? How long? I don't know. Two decades. The answer to that question was Jason Hayward. No, Jason Wirf. See Jason Wirf. The answer was Jason Hayward. How the fuck that guy's slipping in my mind. See ya, buddy. Jason, he didn't give the speech. Fuck off. Jason Wirth. Sacred heart. That's where Sam Antonaki is from. This is so detailed. He's the left, he's the left fielder for the White Sox right now. Uh Ben Attendee's DH. He's arguably the worst player in baseball. Tristan Peters in center field, extremely light-hitting center fielder. Not slugging his weight. And then Jared Kellanick, Wisconsin guy. Everybody knows this guy. Former Mets top prospect, former Mariner's top prospect, current Chicago White Sox reclamation project is in right field. And that's a great mix to watch because they have unique defining traits of limitations where the Cubs don't. Like a lot of guys in our lineup are like solid, like so solid at stuff. You know, like is he and App have the best power? No. Is he the fastest guy? No. But he's fast. He's fast enough. He's fucking got enough power. We really don't have glaring weaknesses. I'll go through this White Sox order. It's like Drew Ramos hitting 161. 580 slug, 161. I mean, there's huge weaknesses here. Markham's strikeout rate. Insane. Now that's why I say I give a lot of respect to Miguel Vargas. Like Medrith can't couldn't hit fucking. Like you give him a TPX, he's not going to hit a double. Like you could arm this guy with the ultimate technology from metal tech college technology from 2000, from 1997, when they were doing minus fives. And Chase Medrith will not be able to hit a home run. Weakness. Coles Montgomery, swing and miss, weakness. Tristan Peters. Can't literally cannot hit the ball out of the infield. Jared Kellanick, just a compl just a completely lack of all fundamentals. All of them. Name a fundamental. Can't do it. Name a fundamental. Hit the cutoff man on the glove side 95% of the time. Can't do it. Skip the ball to third base on the won't do it. You know? I mean, just like literally name a front name of fundamental. Bad lead ups. Got it. Bad reads on balls. Not knowing where all fielders are. Got it. Anything that's related to what you would call base running mistake. All the fundamentals that go into being a good base runner. None existent. And I'm just saying that's that's just being a base, that's just base running. Never mind, fucking even defense, offensive approach, general professional approach and preparation. So that's a White Sox right fielder. Now, scrappy team led by Will Venable, who we like. Uh, you know, I'm not gonna say quite a bit, but I think he's a good leader of men. Now we have the weekend mailbag. That's your White Sox roster lineup preview for this weekend series. And I think there's a distinct advantage for the Cubs. But I'm just trying to color in some stuff here that I don't know if Boog is gonna get to or JD. Uh okay, here are the questions. This is this is mailbag, and I promise to say your names. And if I we're so late in this episode, if I don't at this point do the mailbag, you guys may never send me a mailbag again. You can follow if you want to participate in mailbags. Or if you want to, I'm active during Cubs games. Oh, talking ball at Carl's Beef on Twitter. I don't love it either, alright? Twitter's a whatever. So if it were up to me, social media, whatever. I don't mind being bored. I don't I don't I was I was fine being bored as a kid. Alright? You know, but like we have it, fine, whatever. Fuck it. It's like having a couple, like, I don't know, it's like having Bud Light in the fridge, you know, like a hot day. It's like, do I wanna have? Do I need this butt light? Do I want this Bud Light? No. But it's fucking hot. That's how I kind of view Twitter. Like, do I love it? No. Do I want it? Yeah, like depending on the circumstance. And so one of those circumstances, like a hot day, cubs game. It's like open up the fridge, baby. What do we do? Even fucking I don't this is me talking possible about Bud Light, hot day. I get easy until the sun goes down. I don't know what that number is. And I'm not trying to name a number so that I sound like a tough guy, but like they just they would just go so easy. Why? Because it's a hot day. I'm out doing yard work, right? And and the reason I'm using uh I'm using Bud Light as a is a fucking example here, and not Thirst of Vicero is because I don't want to disrespect Thirst of Caro like that at all in the least bit. I'm everybody knows where I stand on domestic beer, historically speaking. And so just purposes of what a bad analogy. Twitter is but Twitter is Bud Light on a hot summer day. Absolutely, but there's certain no thank you. Do I want that? Sometimes Cubs games contribute to the mailbag. This is why the show goes so long because I'm over here talking about I'm over here comparing domestic cold ones and social media platforms when I should be talking about whether or not from Trench's Bears football. Trench's Bears Football has true honest thoughts on Alex Bregman and is he worth$35 million? What does his ceiling look like with the Cubs since he's getting older now? 32. I'm a little nervous about this contract. I just hope that the value of money, like I went to the pump the other day, it was$4.99. You know, I'm just paying it out the ass for a four-door fucking sedan, please, with an inline V6. No reason it should be$83 to fill that tank of gas. No reason, but it is. Why? Geopolitics. And what's my point? Relating to you guys on the fact that the price is going up, and that's just the way it is. And that's why, and sometimes you just take it up ass. Right? Sometimes you're a Romo. You're taking it, buddy. Sometimes. And we and with this pregnant thing, what I'm saying is, I think that's it. We're gonna look at that price tag, and it's just gonna be one of those things where you're like, that's the price of what? All that sh all that veteran leadership. 27 and a half to Dan's be. I'm nervous, yes. And then to say yes, I am a little nervous about him just physically breaking down. The thing that's guarding like anything where Should be actually nervous. We were like, Well, I don't know about pregnant. Like, I'm not saying I'm willing to say I I I don't know, maybe, but but by far in a way, the number one protection there is that he's just so prepared and he cares so much. So he's gonna do all the right things, meaning physically, nutrition, sleep, rest, fucking he's on top, buddy. He's on the top, like Justin Rose, PJ Championships going on. He's gonna be like that guy. You ever read about that guy's routine? Up at five, cup of tea. Y'all like to have block team, buck coffee. I is that that's such a bad Yo, Mike, what is that, Australian? He's a lad. He's up at 5 a.m. grinding his own coffee beans, you know, because that they're the you know, best amino acids or some shit. Like I don't know if Bregman's that weird, but he takes care of himself. So I'm not that worried, but I would like to acknowledge that there will be many times in the coming years where you go 35 million, he's just the perfect guy to be like, but is it an overpay? No, because I actually think he allows Craig Counsel to be a better manager and he makes the clubhouse easier for everybody to be in. And I don't think I think he's such a positive to everybody, and it's hard because this is a game of margins. So if you add a guy and he makes everybody better, like that's basically what you're trying to do to the clubhouse is add people who make each other better. That's called building a good baseball team. In Bregman's, you know, there's people who do it really well, he does it as good as anyone. There's as let me repeat, as good as anyone. Uh, next that's that's from Trenches Bears Football. Next one. Fuck an hour 30. Uh, from AK, I think this is Carnaselvis, a K AK's burner. When do we consider letting Ben Brown go deeper into games? This stuff is nasty, and as much as I love to hate on the guy, he's tough as nails right now. Um, I don't we let him go, he just like baby steps, fucking July, late June after Father's Day, you know? I I no, not anytime soon. Not in not anytime soon can he go more than five innings. Let me repeat myself. Not anytime soon. Late June. I if I see him pitching the six, I might not get mad about it. Uh question from Joe, Jojo 88 at Jojo 88. Do you think this rotation can survive in the playoffs as is absolutely not Jojo? Absolutely not Jojo. I repeat, absolutely not. We would get smoked uh in the playoffs. Now we could win a series, we could win two. They're like, is it good enough for the MLB playoffs? Where you're playing the best baseball teams who are at their absolute hot, like the hottest teams. Um, you know, especially if you as you advance in the that playoff format. Our playoff rotation would be mid at best. But good question, Jojo. I want to go to the trade deadline from be at beefloaf, at Mr. Delicious13 from Beefloaf from the 108. Fucking fat deal of sale guy. No, I'm just kidding, Beef. That's a joke. Fuck the meteors. Um, Bridgeport Pussy. No, I would just love to sit in the hot tub, just talk shit to Beefloaf right now. I love this guy. If you don't follow him, check him out at Mr. Delicious13. Everybody knows him as Beef Loaf. What scares you most about the young White Sox team in the upcoming three-game set? Yeah, I think they've got, I think that I think the Davis Martin matchup on Saturday makes, you know, a little puts a little bit more pressure on us, you know, tonight in Urgency Friday, to win the Friday game. Because I the Davis Martin, you know, he's hot right now. He's very hot right now. They've got a lot of confidence. I if we we so Friday, what scares me most is you know, I don't like that word scare. But like what I'm urgent about is the Friday win because I think if we lose tonight's game, or if the if the White Sox should win Friday, their momentum carried in the the way that you know Davis Martin pitches could could create that's a that then just a tough situation. Doesn't walk a lot of guys, very aggressive momentum. That place is gonna be rocking. You know, they said big deal. White socks are they say big deal white socks are good enough to for this to be a big deal. They're good enough, they're way overperforming expectations. That was a sip of Thursday McCarroll. So what just scares me is just that for the urges that goes in a fret. I just don't need another game three where we've lost the first two games of a series. And I don't give a fuck about the rivalry or people talking shit like White Sox fans talking shit to me. Although I'm prepared for it this weekend. Especially tonight. I'm gonna go on to my Twitter mentions be like, yeah, remember the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:59

Remember the time you beat up. Remember the time you fucking Yeah, yeah, you fucking boner. Yeah, sick, dude.

Pronation Vs Supination Explained

Happ Discount Cardinals Moises Fix

Behind The Scenes Sausage And Guests

Five Star Review Push And Goodbye

SPEAKER_01 1:33:09

Is that why Portland fired you? I'll get those tonight. I'm ready for that. In the meantime, we got solid fucking baseball, you know, and like blow me, you know, like you know, you guys can like fucking you don't know the first fucking thing you're talking about. But go ahead and talk shit. I talk shit, so I have no problem when it happens. Well, I shouldn't say no problem. I mean, there's a handful of times some really fucked up stuff has happened way over the line, but you know, like when people when I don't like physically coming to your apartment in Roscoe Village, you know, while you're out of town to like take a picture and your wife is home with the dog, and it has not occurred to you that like, wait a second, this is this is this is a weird situation because there's somebody on a burner account sending me pictures in my apartment, and I'm lit I'm on the other side of the country right now. That's an awkward fucking thing, right? Okay, online harassment, you know. We got I we we people, shit's real. People are fucked up. I got stories. All right, I'm ready for it this weekend. Fucking lay it on me. That's what scares me most, beef loaf. You know, then I gotta then I have to fucking load my pistol. Dare you to come out to King County and take a fucking pick. They absolutely fucking dare you. Train dogs. My neighbor, my neighbor is okay. I honestly think I live next to a CIA safe house. A purely tactical expert. Black, I'm talking deep dark ops, special forces. Stuff you I mean, not even fucking classified, buddy. Doesn't even exist. Ghost, pure shadow, moves in the middle of the night. That's my neighbor. And he does handiwork if you guys need a reference. So retired, obviously, from the heavy stuff. Um, just a couple other mailbags. That's why I'm scared about beefloaf. Do I have to load my pistol tonight? At what point it's a joke, dude. Online harassment is real though, and don't bully other people. That is important. At what point, dude, this is from Zach Allen at coach. Alright, coach. At coach Allen? You throw coach if I think and I'm checking it out. This is legit. This guy's a coach. What is he coach? Coaches he doesn't coach baseball. Does he coach baseball? Coach Allen asked, what point do we yeah, this guy definitely coaches baseball. At what no offensive line? We got old line coaches asking the heavy shit. At what point did we change from being pro-nation heavy? Lester Hendrix, which means when you pour out a can of soda, you know, you pour out Coca-Cola because you're about to drink a thirsty vacero and you realize that the fucking big brand stuff's trash and bad for you, and you could instead have 90 fucking calories and 100% organic agave. You pour out your Coca-Cola. The action you would make to pour out the Coca-Cola is what's called is a supination of the shoulder when you turn it over to pour it out. Make sense. Just turn out, just pour a co right now. Just pour a coat. Which is turning your wrist to the left. Port side, mate! I think that's port. It should be left. Or is it right? What's the other side? Starboard? That's a mouthful. You're going down, you got starboard! Port, I got that's quick. Port starboard, I could two syllables in an emergency situation when it could be one. I feel like like we could have done that one better. I don't. That's again another rabbit hole. Just start racking them up, baby. Rabbit hole number 57 of the day. My general point though, uh, in just trying to explain Coach Allen, and I'd be clear here, pronation is pouring the coke out, that action of turning something over, or supination, which is a more modern uh thing. That's what Justin Steele, Matt Boyd, Kate Horton, their change ups move away from right-handed or to their glove side, which would be like a curveball or slider, breaks away from, you know. So that's a tip, that's a newer move for changeup. And those are typically for guys who can't pronate, and you do that because pronating requires a certain amount of flexibility or shoulder. It's difficult to be a pronate kind of action and achieve maximum velocity. You would be more supination is more friendly to higher velocities. So those two things are connected, and they are all connected to more injuries, but it's more about the pursuit of maximum velocity, and the supination is just a factor, the modern evolution of going from pronation, pouring your coke out to supination, which again that's like turning it over. I'm trying to think that's like bowling a fucking you know, I guess it's like bowling, I don't know. Throwing a curve. It's kind of like snapping your fingers. It's kind of that action when you're throwing. You know, which is different than pouring a coke out. Snapping your fingers kind of goes the other way. I don't know. I guess snap your fingers. You know, loud. Snap your fingers like a Romo. You know, give me some flair, give me some jazz hands here, baby. You know, Fawcy, Fawcy. That's a birdcage reference, one of my top top 10 movie all time. Uh, next question. Does that answer make sense, by the way, Coach Allen? As far as why is there why do we see more supination and a different type of changeup that has a different shape is because it's in line with the type of biomechanics that lead to greater velocity on your force-team fastball. So that just carries over to better ease and transition. So when you're tunneling pitches and you're trying to keep them within the same arm window, that like a supination action if you're throwing cutter in the first place, is actually learned to be beneficial. And so guys are just incorporating it. And is it have to do with injuries? Absolutely. Next question from Mags Do you think Ian Happ would take a hometown discount to resign with the Cubs once his contract's up? It I would say yes, but like it's that's low yet. Like more than anybody, but probably not. Nobody takes hometown discounts in baseball. Like nobody, there's no hometown, no, like, but I don't I don't know. I it I maybe is a good answer, is the best answer I could do for that. Just because he's he just seems like somebody doesn't want to have his life disrupted, move to a new town. Like, I just feel like he would hate to hire movers. Does that make sense? Like, I feel like it would come down to that where he'd be like, fuck. Do I really gotta call him Midwest moving and storage? No disrespect, fine company, great trucks. But I don't think he would, but I do think it's possible. Does that make sense? Like it's probably not gonna wait hometown, but they'll pay him what's fair because that's what the Cubs do. Next question from Grant Schuper. Thanks, Megs. Uh, at Margie Cakes. That's a great at. Uh this one's at G Shump from Grant Schuper. There's only two left. Are we worried if the Cardinals are for real? Five and two, blah, blah, blah. I'm only bringing this up just because we we're not talking about the division yet. I don't care about the division opponents. I'm not tracking, I'm not bot, I'm not, I don't care about any of that stuff right now. I care about and I'm not trying to be hard on. I'm just saying I was gonna start giving a shit about them. I a Father's Day is a good benchmark. I've used that before the show. I'm gonna use it again. That's a that's a checkpoint in the season. Around the US Open. I'll start giving a shit. I'll start I'll start taking right now. It's just Cubs, Cubs, Cubs. I just care about our series, our games, our momentum. Last thing, what does your son Moises Banasteros need to pull a grace and back a couple big ladies yet? Or would you say he's not slumping enough? I I Moises Bionesteros, does he need to go home with some big girls? And that's fine. I have before, that's okay. Trust me. Trust me. Nothing, literally nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, when I say nothing, I mean socially, people admonish some guys. I've talked about Chicago Sixes, buddy. I'll go, you probably go low, I'll go low. And I'm not even trying to be disrespectful, it was more authentic to who I am and who I am as a person. His you know, like w what the history book says. I'll go I'd but low, I just I'll show you low. I'll say it big, you know, which is why I'm comfortable on the topic. Was talking with Suckcliffe about Park Grace, and I am again now with Moises by Asteroids. Does he need to go big? You know, I actually I would like I think a couple big meals, some arepas. I've I just honestly think he needs to get a little fat. I'm not even joking. I want to see him get a little bit bigger. Um, he could be missing some home cooking. That's it. Everything else looks great, and he's still hitting the ball hard. He's fab he's fabulous. I love him. So there's your mailbag. This is such a long show. I'm I'm embarrassed to publish it, to be honest with you. I cannot believe that I just sat here. I've I thought I could read through an eight-page outline in no time. No, actually, it took took an hour and 45 minutes. But this show lives on the weekend and one of the most important baseball weekends of the year. And it's a very meaningful fucking weekend of baseball for Chicago baseball fans, for people obviously both sides. Very meaningful, fun. Get the group chats going. So just a super exciting weekend of good baseball in front of us. They're competitive, cubs are obviously very good. You know, the one I said at the start, if we have time, we don't have time, but the just a little piece of the sausage that I was gonna bring up. You know, these solo shows they turned out from necessity because I couldn't get guessed during the playoff run when Mahoney was busy with work and or else there'd be no shows. And the the worst case scenario is no show, is the missing playoff show, not doing a month because I couldn't get it. So it's like fucking suck it up and deal with it, dude. Just do just sit there and do the shh, just go through the box score or something. But then it had it happened. I cut, you know, and I was like, actually, I feel like I covered what I wanted to cover on the game uh thoroughly. And and then the other thing is on the back end it got received well, which I can track through data and performance. And then they did well again, and then it did, and so I on the back end the solo shows do uh what you know, like I'm not there's there is there is no drop off, uh, and sometimes uh a big bit bigger number. You know, I'm not sitting, but I'm just not all not I'm just this is sausage, right? This is stuff that's like it's a little uncomfortable, I'm a little uncomfortable talking about it. I'd rather have you just eat the show, you know, eat the sausage, listen to the show. But like if I have to talk about a pig's ass, you know, and a chicken's foot or whatever, so be it. And so this, I just just the Vlad, it's like dude, I I think it's a good exercise for me to prepare this stuff. I do want to do more interviews and stuff. That just interviewing and this is a little more piece of sausage, it just can be difficult with scheduling. And there's some personal stuff with a consulting business that I started uh years ago, not years ago, but when I left Barcelona, this I have a consulting creative consulting business. This is like the first time I've ever publicly talked about it. I'm only mentioning it to say I have a 1099 with a couple of friends and uh you know, whatever, like some companies on uh why am I so awkward? It's creative consulting, do 1099 outside work stuff, some retainers, some hourly stuff, and help people fucking make some decisions on like what they how they want to brand shit digitally, etc. And has been extremely busy uh from good fort for good luck, you know. Good fortune, good stuff has come up, good projects to work on, stuff to be very busy outside of baseball season. So when you see me do lineup reviews and I'm just in a fucking t-shirt hanging out in the backyard drinking a thirst of a carol, like I've been sitting at the home office doing my own little stuff for you know a little bit here and there, you know, keep my keep do it early in the morning, get to the blah blah fuck. Who gives a fuck? Who gives a fuck? But my point is with scheduling and stuff, like the guest stuff where it's like, hey, I can do it at eight, I can do it at the this, this, this, and this. And then it's not, and then if you're it's hard, it's we I tried to get a white sax guest, I had two guys, uh, yeah, and we don't name drop, I don't put put this publicly, but I had identified and reached out to two separate individuals. I had tried my best. I've obviously uh, you know, didn't get didn't get what I wanted on the scene, which is fine, but that happens when you're doing guys, so um, you know, and then when I historically speaking, doing this stuff, I gotta wrap the fucking show. But like he told you this is a sausage. Um, you know, story we were gonna have when it was we we had a this lady we worked with at Barcelona Peggy, she was I think she was at 1099, uh she's based in Arizona, maybe she was an employee. She worked as a booker. You could send this lady, I could send this lady fucking Michael Joy. Send me a list of names you want to interview for Red Line Radio. Now we didn't get everybody, you could be like, Yeah, yeah, I want to interview fucking Barack Obama, and she would like literally call, like she would email the White House and be like, hey, I'm reaching out on behalf of she would do she would book, she would go to the end of the earth to get you any name you would ask for. And at any point in time, this lady would have done anything for and it was literally her job. She would just be like, Hey, here's the email, here's the link, here's the time, you know, blah blah blah, here's you know, a list of stuff, you know, you should talk about, or here's not you should talk about, but like like if they have a book coming out, or like, you know, they're on tour, like a lot of that shit. Um, you know, and then like sometimes it'd be like, and just you know, they absolutely don't want to talk about this. So like that's rare, but in the meantime, the point is someone's we've to just like literally just serve you a buffet of opportunities to interview people and all this stuff. So it's just been an interesting evolution of the Monday morning club show to just say that when we have guests on, it usually comes from a place where I know that conversation is gonna be meaningful and good and serve a purpose. And even if that's my buddy who's in educational software sales that you've never even heard of, who doesn't maintain an online presence because he watches the Cubs 162 times a year and say diehard fan as long as he can remember. I want that guy's opinion. That's CB. Or I want, you know, a college buddy that taught me so much about how to watch opposing hitters. That's Jake. He's been on a couple times. He knows so much about opposing like weaknesses in hitters. He could tell you holes in a swing, how to beat somebody as well as anybody I've ever talked baseball with. I want to introduce you guys to him. So that takes time because it's like, what the fuck does he do for a living? He ain't working this shit. He's not credentialed, right? But I'll put him up against fucking anybody when it comes to that cat and mouse game between pitcher and hitter. And he's a diehard 162 Cubs fan. So that's just kind of my attitude towards guests. This is a little bit of the sausage, you know. I love that but going in, but having big head on is fucking awesome. Like, I like his perspective on a number of things, particularly going to Cubs games with Dan. You know, not to obviously big fucking presence and foul and like it's you know, obviously you get a lot of that. And then like the I'm just reflecting here, the Alex Cohen stuff or interview conversations outstanding because he and I have been buddies for like way longer than uh you know this what that's not like a convenience thing as much as like a familiarity, you know, unique. So whatever. It's all started to say like if you guys like the Friday shows, I appreciate it very much. You know, this one has been the s longest one, but this is the biggest weekend of the year, and I spent a lot of time preparing. I was gonna record the show last night, thought fuck it, I want to make sure I'm tight. And then not only am I not tight, I mean, I'm on my third mango more tight. And you guys can be too, you know, just go to Amazon, sampler platter of the cart, get the group chats going, talk shit to your buddies. And if you guys get a chance, subscribe to the show, would appreciate it. You know, if you enjoy it, please leave a five-star review because it's just the easiest way for me to help grow the show right now from your end on the maniac side. You know, helps me reach more Cubs fans, and I I think it can be purposeful from the perspective of watching baseball and talking about the game with people that also like the Cubs that you know and improve the quality of the dialogue with friends. Cause I think that's a place where baseball really lives in my life, is a place. For me and my friends to talk as we get older in a reason that brings us together in a group chat. The same way, kind of like fantasy football gets you going where the chat's humming, like baseball season starts. I have a couple of these threads that just they just go and it just fucking guys are just going. And I just want to like, those are the guys I have in mind with this. And so if I'm if I can help contribute to that group chat or give you some shit to think about, um, you know, that's my number one goal in mind. So just please consider a kind gesture. You know, a little five-star, help grow, honestly. It's the kind of karma we need to get another 10-game win streak rolling. So if you think about it like that, it's I mean, it just makes sense. So we'll be back on Monday, loading one with Mahoney. Until then, obviously, good luck this weekend to everybody. Stay safe out there. No fighting, no fighting in the bleachers, no rough housing. Uh, at the same time, though, I'm dead serious. Like, be safe. It's uh white states if you're going, those are tough ones. So our legacy is sweep. God bless. Go Cubs.