Monday Morning Cubs Show
A show every Monday morning about the Chicago Cubs from Carl and Mahoney.
Monday Morning Cubs Show
Cubs Lose Crosstown Classic + Heavy Brewers Mailbag
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Two 10-game win streaks can make you feel invincible. A 2-6 skid can make you question everything. We’re sitting right in that uncomfortable middle ground where the Chicago Cubs are still in first place, but the cracks are showing, and fans are (fairly) loud about it. We talk through the Crosstown Classic fallout, the Atlanta frustration, and why a single late homer can swing the mood of an entire week.
Our big question is simple: are we actually panicking, or just finally seeing the flaws that winning hid? We go ball or strike on the “panic button,” debate whether burnout is real, and then zero in on what matters most with the Milwaukee Brewers coming to Wrigley. Shota Imanaga has to set a tone, Ben Brown’s matchup has real theater, and Eddie Cabrera needs a step forward, because the Cubs can’t afford short starts with this bullpen.
Then we hit the mailbag: runners in scoring position, whether Craig Counsell should mix up the top of the lineup, what to do with Pete Crow-Armstrong’s spot in the order, and why “spark” changes don’t always fix the underlying problem. We also get blunt about bullpen trust, Phil Maton’s missing breaking ball, the lack of homegrown power arms, and how injuries are pushing the front office toward trade deadline moves that might come earlier than anyone wants.
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Thanks for tuning in!
- Carl & Mahoney
Welcome And Crosstown Fallout
SPEAKER_00And we're clear. Good morning, good afternoon, and evening, Chicago Cubs fans, and welcome back to the Monday morning Cub Show. Today is technically we're recording this on Sunday night, but it is Monday, May 18th. That's the official date of the show. It's your host, Carl. I am happy to announce that I am joined by my good pal Mahoney. Great to see you, my friend. I'm sorry the Cubs are two and six over our last date.
SPEAKER_01Carl, it's still great to see you, regardless of the Cubs record over the past week and so. Um, yeah, you know, a little bit of a stinker today, however, just a good getaway game against Chris Sale. I'll take that against the Braves, against the White Sox, whatever. Good series. Still feel pretty good about this ball club.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's gonna be a big challenge for the show. People are mad. I suppose last week we were really like enjoying the two 10-game win streaks in a very celebratory mood on an off-day Monday, going into Atlanta, kind of excited because the Braves are such a good team in the National League. You know, lose those first two against Young pitching, scratch out a 2-0 win against Chris L. I'm not gonna say there's momentum, but like you win a 2-0 game against Chris L. You feel pretty good, you hang a ton of runs Friday against the White Sox, and then they have that guy we talked a lot on the solo show about Davis Martin. He was sensational on Saturday, shut us down into a game that we had to win on Sunday, and it was just a huge, awesome game. Like, I want to be mad, we're gonna we're gonna address stuff with pitching, but start there, it's a great series. Whether people I know we lost, but that was Chicago baseball at its finest.
SPEAKER_01It was happy to see at the time of the series starting with both teams being 500. I think now the White Sox are back there, but just two competitive baseball teams, one with a young makeup, looking to make some noise, like their manager, it seems, like playing for him, like playing for each other, which I think is important. So that was cool to see from the south side. And I mean, I'm not trying to like you know fluff them up too much, but good for them. I mean, good for them to get a nice little walk-off against the Chicago Cubs. As horrible as that may sound, I'm not like distraught and destroyed about it. Like, yeah, dad razz me a little bit harder today, but like I still I still feel really good about the way that they played the series, if that means anything.
Why Fans Are Mad Now
SPEAKER_00Because we're both Cubs fans whose fathers are Southside diehard White Sox fans. Yeah, tough for them, tough, like it blows. I don't know if I go as far as to say, like, good for the White Sox. I think we lost in ways that were described appropriately on the solo show Friday in the Scounter report. Ton of swing and miss, guys will beat you with a long ball, you know, young, hard players, they play together, they like each other. I thought we hit the nail on the starting pitching stuff. It's a shitty series. We probably win if we play the White Sox, you know, 20 times, we probably win 13 games. That's how I feel about it. Just that sucks. Now we'll get into some stuff later, ball or strike, and in the mailbag. I am mad. There's stuff like I am mad at the organization. I am mad about a couple things. I'll take some pitching stuff we've spun positively in the last few weeks. I'm probably gonna get mad about it. Because I am sick and tired of the fucking like we just don't have talented guys come up through the system. Uh, that's it. We'll save that argument for now.
SPEAKER_01No, it's it you're absolutely right. I'm sorry, Carl, to cut you off there, but when I was listening to what you had to say and last week, especially, and I do agree with some of the maniacs where it's like you guys aren't really pointing out some of the flaws, even with the winning team, because it was easy coming off those stretches. However, you know, you take a look at what we were getting by with, and and I want to let me say that again. We were getting by with just meal piece pitching, the the one man up, the next man up mentality only can go so far over the course of a 162 season. And I think now that those there's flaws that are exposed and will be exposed moving forward, and I think that that's why you're probably a little mad about seeing the lack of development.
Thirsty Vaquero And Comedy Draft
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, the lack of the development is you know, I'm trying to think of guys that have come up into the system that are really talented, and Daniel Palencia is one of them. You know, but I've almost started talking about Ben Brown way too early in the show. We traded for him too. But let's spend a second here. Obviously, you know, we're gonna get into the brewer series this week. We got Baller Strike, Mailbag. There'll be opportunities for us to get mad, but there's no opportunity to get mad about anything without Thirsty McErl. There's no opportunity. No, no, a Mexican-style soda with the signature spicy finish that's all bite, no rattle, and the official title sponsor of the Monday morning cup show. I can't say enough good things about had it going big time at a four-year-old birthday party yesterday. It was very popular with the older women in the crowd, and then some of the dads got into it, and you're splashing the tequila into it. So just a big weekend for Thirsty Vaquero here.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, you can even let the kids take a sip at those parties. Like, Dad, can I take a sip? Oh no, it's a beer, son. Stay away. You're not gonna like this stuff. You're allergic. Thirsty Vaquero, here you go. Still has a mature flavor profile, yeah. But I bet you the kids would probably like it.
SPEAKER_00One thing that struck me this weekend with all the thirsty vaquero I was enjoying is just how much flavor profiles all over the mouth. The front of the mouth, back of the mouth, throat, every place where it tastes but exists, you're gonna get it in the mouth. Thirsty Vacaro, we'd like to we like to ship it to you on Amazon too. So just go to Amazon, Thirsty Vacaro, get a sampler platter, figure out which one you like the most.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, please do. It is it is very much a party in the mouth. It even tickles the hangy ball, Carl. It gets the hangy ball going, it gets that, you know, i in the game, if you will. But yeah, Thirsty Vacero, phenomenal stuff. It is the reason that we're bringing you guys a Monday morning cub show, not only on Monday mornings, but Thursday night or Friday as well, with Carl bringing the heat.
SPEAKER_00And I'm enjoying one right now. I'm having a mango muerte like I did on front for the solo. It's just so good. And I know I'm not quoting old school here once it hits your lips. I had that question on Twitter, so let's just warm up here for a second, Mahoney. Do you have a choice between, and now people don't know what I'm talking about, but over the weekend I'd I'd asked people pick a comedy between old school and wedding crashers?
SPEAKER_01I did, Carl. I actually I answered your poll. I also then responded in uh a tweet in kind, and it was wedding crashers for me. I don't think wedding crashers exists without an old school, but let me take you there. My experience at the theater, the Crestwood Theater, whatever it was at the time, a Marcus AMC, the Crestwood Theater. I was with my cousin, my buddy BJ, my buddy DA, my buddy Ragai, and we had never laughed louder together in almost in an obnoxious manner. We were laughing at the little things, and that's that movie always holds you know a place in my heart in the feeling of when I saw it, and like what it how it brought me so much joy in the moment of seeing it, and then probably have watched that more times after than I have old school. So that was where I came in.
SPEAKER_00I think you're right on that. Wedding crashers has gotten more replays on old school. Old school was there first, though. Old school is the first one to just break the wall down into and that's my style of humor. People love Step Brothers. I if I had to that's so far outside the old school Wedding Crashers discussion for me. I would say super bad, so far outside. 40-year-old version classic comedies from that era to me are so far outside the scope. It really is to me old school or wedding crashers. Gun to my head, I'm probably taking wedding crashers. I'm probably, but man, old school really laid the foundation. And as we're talking about this in the you know, be between old school and wedding crashers, you know, one thought that comes to my mind is again, guys, go get the Thirsty McAro on Amazon. Three bold flavors, all bite and all rattles, ship right to your front door.
SPEAKER_01It's almost too easy. So um, the reason a vigilante vigilante variety pack, ladies and folks.
SPEAKER_00Is that the official? Like, I gotta talk to Blake about this. That's no, that's a fact.
SPEAKER_01This is this is off their website. So, yeah, Carl, I'm not going uh you know off the cuff on this one, but it's a vigilante variety pack. You can have four cans, 16 ounces each, every flavor, one package. Give it give it a shot, gang.
SPEAKER_00Two and six over our last eight. Nobody's been good this past week, except Carson Kelly was pretty good. Some guys were pretty good. So I guess like ball or strike, we're hitting the panic button.
SPEAKER_01Uh ball uh slightly outside, and like slightly outside ball for me. I'm not panicking. I know how good the team is. I like the way that they've played, you know, collectively over, and by collectively, I mean the the lineup in most of the pitching, right? So when I say I like how they've played over the past six games, glad we got one in Atlanta, and I like the way they played today, came back, didn't give up, and I like the way they played the other day. Well, I'm not hitting the panic button, my point, ball.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Okay, so I'm not hitting the panic button. I'm really disappointed that when we go down to Atlanta, J.R. Richie, that guy, he looked good, and I think the other guy was Grant Holmes, were the two young pitchers. I'm disappointed that the offense is anemic. We needed to step up a little bit those three games. It's anemic on Saturday. But like you see good pitching matchups, you're on the road. So I'm just reasoning my way through like, am I hitting the panic button? Do I want to be mad? There are people who are very mad about this that are lit maniacs that are listening, because I understand when you see a game, a team win two, go on two 10-game winning streaks, you don't expect them to then turn around and go two and six over eight, just kind of not look that great. But I then have to come back and say it is major league baseball, and you're gonna run into these stretches where you don't look that great.
SPEAKER_01You do, Carl, and ball or strike. Do you think it could have been just slight burnout from the boys? And excuse me, that was a question. Were the Cubs burned out by the winning streak, you know, into a road trip? And that that's what we're seeing.
SPEAKER_00Also, you you did ask a question again there, but again, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, two-parter mess up.
SPEAKER_00I think it's a ball on the burnout. I think what you're seeing is, you know, like Teon's given up so many home runs, he's just not even competitive on Saturday, you know. Like Colin Ray wasn't supposed to be in the rotation. You're starting to see some of the effects of, you know, we do have the depth. I I still feel confident that over the next four weeks we can kind of battle our way through with this rotation, and guys still have to improve. Eddie Cabrera has to improve big time. Uh, so I'm gonna say ball to burnout, and I'm gonna say more strike to circumstances of like clunker starting pitching, just clunker, you know, and then you have these these games where like today we should have scored way more runs, we should have just scored way more runs. So I don't, I don't the the offense is great, the lineup is great, these players are great, and then you have a couple games, you look like shit in Atlanta, and we leave so many runners in scoring position today, it gets frustrating, it gets annoying. So then I have to come back and say I still do trust and like this team, and that's where we're starting the show is with that overall mindset of are we hitting the panic button? Are we mad? You know, obviously just a little disappointed. And what I'll go back to is the Conforto home run today, sensational. Tying it up since it's like down big, down late, no quitting this team, score a run in the 10th, you know, and then you just you give up a fucking three-run homer, you'll lose the series. If we win that series, we come back, we're we're all right, we're three and three this week.
SPEAKER_01Oh, we're yucking it up a little bit harder for sure. Yeah, I didn't have to like say congratulations to my dad and my nieces and stuff.
SPEAKER_00I hope that resonates with maniacs, it's just how the razor margins in which our emotions are at stake here. And so it's our job now to kind of reel everybody in from yeah, I'm pissed we lost back-to-back series this week, two and four this week, two and six over our last eight, yada yada yada. However, on Monday night we host the Brewers, we have a one and a half game lead. So, like ballers, strike, that's way more important.
SPEAKER_01Strike Carl, and I'm gonna tell you why. And to me, the season starts tomorrow. The seas or for the listeners, the season starts today, today, this Monday. And it is because I would be way more pissed if we had dropped two series in a row to division rivals, right? The Brewers, Cardinals kind of playing well. I don't even want to start thinking about them playing well, but I am, and I'd be a lot more salty if we had just a shit stretch again against the Brewers and Pirates, and and then here we are. So it's like, did we get it out of our system? And I don't know if if that's the right thing to say, but if I'm gonna have a bad streak or a bad week, I'd want it to be then than this coming week and the week that follows.
SPEAKER_00I think that's fair.
SPEAKER_01With the Cardinals and the Brewers knocking on the door, then NL Central is still hands down the best league, regardless. I mean, in regards to records across the league. I think the American League has like a couple teams over 500, and our whole division does, at least it did the last I had looked at the standings. That said, I'd be a lot more salty if we had just dropped shit and then we're now looking again at second place, third place, or whatever, and we had to figure that out and hope that the boys pick it up from there.
SPEAKER_00So I can take this week being shitty, and I can take two and six over the last eight, and I'm not going to overreact and get mad right now. But I will acknowledge that this week is huge and that we can kind of just say, all right, you guys earn the right to lay a couple clunkers. If there's a team that can lose, you know, a crosstown classic like that, it would be the team that has had the second hottest start since the 2016 World Series champions. Like this of this of this millennium, it's the best Cubs team in like 25 years, second best team start. So that stuff to me is more important, has earned enough weight and trust where at this moment in time, I'm not gonna say I'm mad at the club, I'm pissed off, all this stuff. We do have a big series come up against the Brewers, and this is a good opportunity for us to kind of get into some of the things that have been an issue, some of the things that need to change, some of the problems that we have. You know, do we want to sit here and say, hey, great May, though? Like Michael Conforto has been awesome in May. Michael Bush has been awesome in May. He was terrible in he was absolutely terrible in April. Ian Hap has been good in May. Miguel Amaya has been good. You know, Pete Crow Armstrong has a 113 weighted run created plus in May, which is if he did that over the course of a season, he'd be an eight-win above replacement player. You can look at these guys individually, find a bunch of bright spots. There's also a bunch of shitty spots. Dansby Swanson's been absolute trash in May. I mean, downright terrible. Nico Horner was brutal this week. He's been a shell of himself over the last couple weeks. And so is that the league adjusting to him? Is it just him not being as hot as he was to start the season? You know, there's a lot of reasons for this. It's major league baseball. But I'm just trying to put a bow on the fact that we're disappointed with the way they played, not willing to sit here and get mad and all pissed off, more focused on the games that are in front of us, with this slight understanding that we are hanging on by a thread with our pitching staff. Uh, in the lineup has been inconsistent. We're looking to get into a groove here.
SPEAKER_01Yep. The word it's concerned you know, a little more concerned had an individual to divisional play than I am angry or mad at the way things have been going. So I think that you just put that perfectly well with the bow.
Brewers Series Plan Starts With Starters
SPEAKER_00So let's get into some of this mailbag because I think that we have this great mailbag. I think it's I think this episode is very important to speak specifically to the stuff that's on Maniac's minds. And so I know you and I both have it pulled up. So we'll just trade a couple, a couple different, you know, some of these questions are really good. So we'll start here. This is from Tingus Pingus. Tingus Pingus asks, What's the number one thing that needs to get better if we want to win this series versus the Brewers?
SPEAKER_01The number one thing that has to get better is the overall pitching.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, started pitching.
SPEAKER_01I mean, starting pitching, which is the one thing that I haven't had to talk about really all year until now. And I mean, rule number 76, no excuses, play like a champion. We need our starters to show up every single day this week against the Brewers, based off especially with who they're going to be throwing against us.
SPEAKER_00And I think we actually have a pretty good matchup. So game one is Shota Imanaga versus Brandon Sprout. Um, Shod is just like top uh in top form, as good as as good as you could possibly ask. Game two should be awesome. Ben Brown versus Jacob Mizarowski, and then game three, Eddie Cabrera uh versus Kyle Harrison, who's you know been very, very good since coming over in the Caleb Durbin trade from the Red Sox. So that game three, you know, we need a lot from Eddie Cabrera. We need him to step up. He gives up way too much hard hit. Game two should be like awesome theater, and then hopefully we get this game one with Shodi Imanaga. But when I say number one thing that needs to get better is like we need to be able to have of these next three games, like our starting pitchers all need, you know, Ben Brown's different because he's he's probably only on a five inning pitch max, but I definitely just need quality starting pitching from the brewers so that our offense can you know not feel pressed.
SPEAKER_01And if they're not feeling pressed when you know, in swing happy mode and what have you, like that's where working deep counts against this brewer staff is gonna pay off dividends. As far as I, you know, from what I've seen, you know, I Mizorowski looks a lot better than I thought he would this year. And I like in terms of control, because we've pointed out in the past, get ahead of the count, he'll be all over the place early in the games, and then when he's locked in, it's gonna be very tough for us to catch up, regardless if it's the second or third time in the lineup. So don't be swing happy, get back to that approach. Guys on base, this brewer's rotation is solid as always, you know, and it's just one of those things that the numbers just come together. I don't, you know, I don't have it in front of me, but that they just look good, and that's where my concern comes from, Carl.
SPEAKER_00Well, they play they just play solid baseball, and you know, they don't blow you out, they play tight games, they don't get blown out, you know, they do all that shit right. They're just super fundamental. They play hard for Pat Murphy, they don't get down on themselves, they don't press. They're competitive for a very good reason. It's made up of a bunch of competitive individuals. So we right now are playing bad baseball, and that's a that's when you don't want to be playing the Brewers, is when you're coming off a two and six stretch, you kind of, you know, you're a little funky, and the Brewers don't really, you know, they have their foot down on the gas from the start of a game. So what helps neutralize the fact the Cubs haven't played great baseball right now? What will help more than anything is Showday Ivanaga starting that first game on Monday with three or four scoreless and letting the lineup go through and try and get a lead and try and get a crooked number and try and get their you know get their spirits back underneath them. We had the lead today, we just we just chalked it up, we weren't good enough. But showed it Showdays pitching as our one tomorrow, so just focus in on that game. Would really love to see Shota come out and set a tone for us and see if we could hang a crooked number.
SPEAKER_01And that's ball or strike. So it's a ball or strike. This is a bad week for the Cubs offense to be slumping going into the Milwaukee series. Is this a mailbag? No, sorry, I just threw a ball or strike at you. It's a bad week of us to be slumping and not seeing pitch as well going into divisional play, especially against Milwaukee.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, Mahoney, I think that's a strike, right?
SPEAKER_01I just framed the question around your your existing context of everything that you had already said. So I'm like, so you're telling me it's a strike if, and that makes sense, and I'm with you on that. Um, there's a guy like Logan Henderson is a type of dude that I feel like the Cubs hate seeing weird delivery, weird timing. And then, you know, like does that mess with the approach at all?
Lineup Tweaks And RISP Myths
SPEAKER_00No, I mean, they're they're sleeping in their own beds tonight and they're going to the ballpark tomorrow, getting ready to play Milwaukee. Haven't seen them this year, first game of the year against Milwaukee. I these guys have already forgotten about the fact that they lost today, right? You know, I'm I'm more interested in like here's another one from Tincus Pingas with runners and scoring position. You know, Saya and Hap are just absolutely awful. Uh PCA and Kelly have been much better. So then the question is from Tinkus Pingas not saying say or hap are bad players. Should council mix up the lineup just a little bit if you have that great of a discrepancy discrepancy with runners and scoring position? I have a strong answer to this. I Interested in your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01I had mentioned something regarding runners in scoring position a couple weeks ago, where you're winning the ball games where the runners are scoring, right? And the fact that they're even in scoring position is telling me that they're a good baseball team. Guys just aren't executing at that exact moment in time. And our boy on Marquee, Luke, uh, Lucas, Luke, whatever. He's just a he's a savant with the statistics. Lance and stuff. Lance, Luke. Did I say Luke? All right. Lance, he had mentioned almost the same thing. You're winning ball games when the runners in scoring position are coming in. And it's not something that's very visible. It's an easy thing to look at when you're losing. So, but I I did look that the Cubs are, I think, last in the league with Risp in certain situations.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't think I don't think it is something Craig Council should consider when making the lineup is a discrepancy between runners on runners and scoring position. I do think that's just more of a nuance there, and it's kind of like you know, it's circumstantial. Some guys have great years with it, some guys have bad years with it. Now, I do think it takes time throughout the season where if a guy is consistent, like last year you could tell Dan's being runners and scoring position, and it just was like complete kryptonite because it had been so long, so much throughout the course of the season. But if we're just gonna pull a small sample size like this and say happen say uh, and also consider guys get pitched differently with runners in scoring position, this is opening up a huge conversation here, I should say, for a solo show. But like you do get pitched differently when there's a runner on second in two outs than when there's a runner on second and one out or no outs, and when the bases are up D. So there's a lot of different considerations, but as it pertains to Tingis Pingas's question here, I'm not I'm not changing up the batting order if I'm counsel just based on runners and scoring position. Now, here's another one from two T's. Is there justification to switch up three, four, five hitters based on performance? He says again, runners and scoring position failure seems systemic. Wonder if we move around the hitters, we might see different results. I again changing an order is one thing because you want to get a spark. But if the primary reason for changing the order is runners and scoring position, I'm just gonna have to come back and say I don't think that's enough.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, not likely what he's looking at. And almost to a two-fold answer with a little bit of a follow-up on the Tingus Pingus, and then talking about you know the latest, I think council had already made his adjustments with the lineup earlier on in the year, moving PCA down, Dansby down. That adjustment's been made. When it's gonna be a 3-4-5 thing or a four-five-six, whichever it was, that is I could see happening within with a matchup, you know, perspective for council. But no, he's not gonna do it based on runners and scoring position because he's gonna be the type of dude that gives the answer, like it doesn't matter, guys around scoring for position, you know. So that's not gonna move the needle in that regard.
SPEAKER_00No, and we're gonna stay on the lineup stuff here because this is from Matthew D. Foxhoven. He says this may be a stretch. Matthew D. Foxhoven says this may be a stretch, but thoughts on batting PCA fourth or fifth, that's where he was at his best last year. And it seems like he's a guy that wants to be in the big moments and thrives there. So not sure he gets fired up in the eighth spot. So that's an interesting question. And we've talked about PCA moving up in the lineup. To me, that would mean Hap would have to go down to like six or seven if you want to put PCA four, which at some point I would like to see PCA earn that. I think that would add tremendous depth. But PCA had so much struggle swing and miss, and we're like slowly building him up through his like next wave of adjustment. So I'm a little hesitant to move him up in the lineup, but like mid-July and August, I would hope as his team gets better throughout the course of the year. I think if we're serious about winning a World Series, at least winning the division, then I think PCA has to perform at a rate where we have to move him up in the lineup. I think is kind of where I'm looking at it.
SPEAKER_01It would have to warrant him being in that spot over the course of the next few months, like you had just put. And moving him up to think that like his juices are gonna get flowing again or something. I don't think that's what you do to get something out of a player like him. And maybe that was the problem. He was trying too hard in those spots, and I don't know, but I feel like keep it as is right now, and if the performance over an extended period of time dictates that he should be that person and not thrust him in it to get it out of him, that's what you need to do, and I think that's what they're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00Now imagine this though, just staying on Matthew D. Fox Oven's question here. A perfect situation is PCA gets hot and then plays himself into the cleanup role because his power's there. Now I'm just gonna give you a general lineup against right-handed pitching, would be Horner one, two Bush, three Bregman, some questions about that, whatever. We'll get that later. But then four PCA, five Saya, six can be Canfordo or Biasteros, seven hap. That's a one through seven right there. That's an that's a crazy good one through seven. So dangerous. And it's a little bit flip-flop by saying if PCA earns his way out of the eight spot into the four where he can hit, then you get to move everybody down a little bit. Now we're talking about Carson Kelly, Dansby Swanson hitting eight, nine. You know, now we're talking about having just like a really deep one through seven. And maybe that's a better spot for Hap, which is unfair because Hap's been great this year. Hap's on pace for his best for a career season. So it's just a question, is he a is he a big league cleanup hitter if we're gonna go into the playoffs? You know, we've seen it where PCAs absolutely can be a big league cleanup hitter. Like, is he in hap? I don't know. I don't know. And I don't I don't even know if this is good, if this is good debate. It's just, you know, we're talking about making changes to the lineup. And I would just like to say, I don't know how you can change leadoff. I think Nico has to hit leadoff. I I it seems like Alex Bregman will hit three regardless. I don't I don't see anybody in the lineup, I don't see council moving Bregman out of three. So I a lot of the mailbags about the pitching and stuff, we're starting with the lineup. In most people's questions, can we sh can we change the lineup around? Should we move guys around? You know, here's another one from Michael Bush's burner account, ball or strike. Confordo should start every day against right-handed pitching. You know, I think that's a ball, but I understand people love he's been awesome against righties over the last you know month, over the season, etc. So it is a ball, but he is getting more playing time. He's taking advantage of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I only say ball based on like I like the role that he's in, spot starts and coming in pitch handy in big moments and capitalizing on those moments. So that's something I wouldn't want to change right now. Like, do I want to see Michael Confurno as an everyday player and have the baseball card, you know, water finding its level? Not particularly. I like what he's doing, feeling good about himself, showing up to the ball like you know, the clubhouse every single day, knowing that he could get a moment and he has been. So let's keep it as is.
SPEAKER_00And with how well he's playing, some people are questioning, you know, Moises by Asteros. How come he's not playing today? So here's from Coach Zach Allen, offensive line coach at Oklahoma. Where Southwest Oklahoma State Bulldogs, offensive line coach. He's asking, how do we get mobile baller more consistent A Bs? He's their best homegrown bat to ball prospect in a long time. The only way out of a slump is to give him the opportunity to adjust back. With Conforto Hot and Shaw needing A Bs as well, a consistent pathway seems unlikely. With Conforto Hot, it is hard to get Moballer A Bs. But this is the way the big leagues work, my friend.
SPEAKER_01And he's young, I have to put it that way. I think it's just the nature of the beast.
SPEAKER_00The strikeout rate's high, guys are pitching him up. They made an immediate adjustment to mobile or challenge him upstairs with fastballs if he swings a missile. He's he's swinging through those. It is difficult because you would like to see him get those everyday B's. But it's difficult for him individually. For the club, I don't think it's difficult. And I do think he's a guy who can get off the bench and jump out of it easily. There's nowhere for him to go, though. If he goes to AAA, he'll hit 400. There's nowhere for he is a big league hitter, so it's just a matter of getting him playing time. And the question obviously revolves around, it says it in here with Conforto hot. There's the answer. With Conforto hot, Moballers limit, you know, until Conforto's not hot, you have to play the hand.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you play the hand that you're dealt at the time it's dealt. And as Carl had alluded to, Mobal is not going to improve at the triple-A level. So he's got to stick around and when he gets his at-bats, capitalize.
Bullpen Trust Issues Get Real
SPEAKER_00Now, I think for the Brewer series this week, it's going to be tough to score a bunch of runs. You know, I if we if we score five runs in a game, it's going to be great. So this is where we come back to the pitching staff. You know, like as far as the lineup is concerned, they've done well enough this year. I'm not too I'm not overly, you know, we can add pieces that are going to be great, you know, if and I shouldn't say if when that happens. But really, the mindset shifts to the mound. I think that's where a lot of people are just rattled. So I'm gonna ask you. What what guy do you like to see come out of the bullpen right now?
SPEAKER_01Fuck, dude. I mean, besides Palencia, uh only because we'd be in closing situations aside from today. The uh who's that guy with like the super long sweeper?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, are you talking about the lefty Holby Milner?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I got him confused with the other sidearm guy who had gotten shipped. And I'm like, wait, I thought that dude was legit. And now I'm thinking of Milner, and it's like his reach goes further to first base, you know, measurably from the mound. I think there's one other person in baseball, and it's absurd how far he is off the mound from throwing that ball.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and Craig just loves using him, and he's been durable and reliable, you know. I I that's that's okay, I suppose. Jacob Webb has had a good May, you know, but something that I thought was going to be for sure a strength, this interchangeable piece. And I've I've talked about how I like the fact that we've used so many different relievers because it gives so many guys an opportunity to get on the big league mound, and then that helps you throughout the year because you want to get back on that big league mound, etc. It's great early year experience. But then the the flip side of this is like you know, we should have a better bullpen, we should just have a better bullpen. We should have a better bullpen. I don't know how to say this. We could look back on it in July and say, whatever, we're top 10 in this, and it can turn out in the long run to be fine. But right now, in this moment, you know, Sunday night, May 17th, damn, I wish we had a better bullpen right now.
SPEAKER_01And like one of my baller strikes was uh something along the lines of like council's trusted relievers. And like, is there anybody that we can like truly trust in situations right now, you know, and uh in a mid-relief game, you know, or a long relief game, and they need to come in and snub a starter. Like, that's where the problems lie. I feel like we were just really getting along for a good month there, and now this is where it's gonna be dicey because it still doesn't look good with injuries and everything.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I can point my finger right at Phil Maaton, who should be much better for getting a two-year multi-million dollar deal to come to the Cubs and don't love seeing him in games right now.
SPEAKER_01Don't love seeing that guy.
SPEAKER_00No command of the breaking ball, not doing anything that he's done in his career, looks absolutely terrible, brutal. That's disappointing. Now, how do you get that back? I I don't know what his issue is. I don't know if it's an injury thing. I don't know if he tried something new in the offseason. Because the problem with Phil Maiton, this is a specific question here. I'll get it from somebody asked. Um, the problem with Phil Mayton is so much of his success comes from his ability to command an elite breaking ball. And so, like, it's not there, he's not commanding it, and the breaking ball's not elite. So, what is that? Is that an injury thing? Is it a mechanic thing? Is it a timing thing? Is it an early in the season thing and he just hasn't found his groove? Is it he's nervous because he's got a big contract to come pitch at the I it should not be that because he's pitched forever, but there's there's a thousand ways to slice it. The effect the effective reason that he's not having success is just a complete lack of the thing that has made him successful, which is this elite fucking breaking ball.
SPEAKER_01So uh that's a problem with Mateum, and it seems to be very observable from a casual fan standpoint. Like, that's just the dude that I don't love seeing at all in the game.
SPEAKER_00We don't have anybody in this organization that's thrown chat anywhere. I don't hear any names. I lurk, I look, I'm waiting to hear about somebody in tennis.
SPEAKER_01Some dude who's just 104 that like came out of nowhere. His arm is like his arm is just slinging.
SPEAKER_00Yep, not hearing about filthy splitters, or some guy's got this swing and miss change, and we got to promote him here. We can't wait to develop this pitch.
SPEAKER_01He developed this pitch.
SPEAKER_00Wait until you see it, it's changed everything. Now we do have a guy like that. His name's Riley Martin, the lefty's pitch. His breaking ball is so good. That's a guy that accelerated through the system because his curveball was so good, got to the big leagues, and then just had a little bit of injury problem back to triple A up and down on that shuttle bus situation. But dude, I'm talking about a guy who is ready to go to pharmacy school, went to Quincy, Illinois, D2. I think he spent all five years, used a COVID year. We're talking about a guy who threws 92. I'm saying, where are the guys at the where are the dogs that throw 97, 98? Why don't we have any of those guys in our organization? Drives me nuts.
SPEAKER_01What if we find out the oblique problem has been going down to single A for as long as we can remember? And there's just dudes that are throwing their obliques out left and right that should be gassers.
SPEAKER_00I would like to see just more velocity. I don't know how to have to start naming names.
SPEAKER_01No, you don't, because honestly, I feel like I see it all over the place across the league. And that's what you read about, that's what you hear about. Guys throwing insane speeds all the time, and it's not something that really comes through our development system ever.
SPEAKER_00No, I feel like we get the bad end of it. We get the injuries, you know, we get all this mod of the modern evolution of pitching where it's all this velocity and nasty breaking stuff, and oh, you're gonna get injuries. We just have the injuries, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Or guys that were trying to like, you know, rehab their entire like guys who are coming off two different Tommy Johns on both arms for whatever reason. Like, that's the type of dudes I feel like that we're getting in like a Matthew Boyd, Thornton, etc. Like guys who are like, you know, reshaping their image, where instead of dudes who are 20 years old, that is gonna make a massive impact, you know, in a year or two.
Injuries Force Trade Deadline Pressure
SPEAKER_00We need more talent, we need more velocity. I need more talent from our bullpen. I this is a good time for me to remind everyone Cade Horton's out for the season, Justin Steele out, Matt Boyd out. Those are the three best pitchers in the organization. You know, none of those guys are gonna have an impact anytime soon. That obviously blows. It makes it much harder on the bullpen, even though the bullpen's been terrible. It just makes it harder. So you have to accept that up front. We have to accept that. Now, everyone's asking when do we go to the trade deadline? It's gonna happen. I've said repeatedly, we're gonna have huge moves. You could see a move, I would say you could see a move like first week of June at this point. Because if Colin Ray and J-Mo are not uh if like J-Mo continues to get hammered, I'm stunned with how bad he's been. But if he just continues to get hammered, uh, you know, you could see one of those phantom IL stints around the time we make a trade for somebody in June. So we have to clench our butt cheeks. I guess that's the way I'm saying is like I've said repeatedly on the show it's way too early to make trades, and this is the problem the 2026 Cubs have right now is like it's a damn shame how early it is because we it's gonna be so hard to make a trade from for weeks.
SPEAKER_01And I mean that, but like I could see it happening, and then you have to give more probably than you'd want to closer than you would closer to the deadline. Like if you're trying to patch, yeah, you know, patch things together weeks in advance, probably gonna have to overpay a little bit, which is not something that you know we want to do.
SPEAKER_00And you could end up trading the wrong prospect because you haven't seen them enough, or you end up giving up somebody you know you really like. Here's a here's a good question from the Lizard King. Any perspective on J Mo's struggles with the long ball? I mean, his stuff isn't that sharp, and he uses the strike zone repeatedly, so his mistakes are just cookies over the middle of the plate. That's it. His mistakes are really big mistakes. Um, the second is a three-parter from Lizard King. Two, please educate the people on why Daniel throws the ninth and doesn't come back out for the tenth. Folks seem confused on the game, getting hot and cold, hot, and then watching his pitch load. That's just Daniel Plency is not pitching ninth and tenth. That's just it. Like it's just the ninth inning. He's just you're not you're not two innings. Maybe in October you'll see him throw two innings. No, he's just too fragile. These relief pitchery throws 102. You can't have him pitch multiple innings. Fair. That's a fair ball. Yeah. Now, if he was super durable and it was a different, you know, different pitcher. You know, there's plenty of arguments there to pitch two innings, have your best guy, but our best reliever at the situation is just a fragile, delicate guy. We have to make sure he can pitch this entire summer. So, and then his third question is are we done with Phil Maton? I mean, I'm not done with him because I know how good he can be. It's just I don't understand what his problem is. And is it he's a this is a situation, does going down to triple A make sense for him to work on that pitch where it's not affecting the big leagues? He has to go find his breaking ball. I don't know where he finds it or how he finds it. It's probably injury related, if I had to guess.
SPEAKER_01Those are situations where you get some work done at the at the triple A level. Go to Des Moines, say what's up to the Lizard King, work on your pitch, and then we can find out if you're hurt or not. Because I'd rather not find out at you know when he's operating at Wrigley.
SPEAKER_00Jam at Matt Jam Graham. Jam asks, do you do you trade Shaw now for an ace? And does it matter if it is a rental or not? By the way, I am a Shaw guy. You can't we can't trade Matt Shaw.
SPEAKER_01So there's your answer, folks. You can't trade Matt Shaw no matter what. I I don't think you do, and and and who are the aces that you would trade him for? That's I think what it comes down to.
SPEAKER_00I mean, Matt Shaw is way too valuable to me. He's just he has so many bright days in front of him. I understand it seems weird right now because he doesn't have consistent playing time, doesn't have his consistent position, but he's a ball player. If you give him up, you're you have to give him up for like here's a crazy scenario like Derek Scuble package. Derek Scuble's injured, and that's exactly what I was thinking.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I know he's heard he's got some you know elbow bodies in his elbow or whatever it is, removed surgery was successful. Um, it's like, how much did you value Glei Barres? Like, so you'd have to be like making that type of a big splash that would be that impactful to the team and organization as a whole to literally push us over the edge.
SPEAKER_00So that's the level of guy that you would need to, I think, trade Matt Shaw to for that value. And I'm coming back and saying, like, this is not gonna happen. Like, that would be crazy. It would have to be something so huge to trade Matt Shaw. And even then, I would hate it because it's a rental for Scoobyl before he goes to free agency. I would hate to give a I cannot say that enough. I'm a I know the question's coming from Jam says he goes, I'm a Matt Shaw guy, and you're talking to the Matt Sha, I am the Matt Shaw guy. I would I'm not saying he's completely untouchable though, the the trade would have to be for somebody like Scoobyl. It's just that simple to me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I I I think that makes perfect sense, and I hate just to agree in that regard, but it would literally have to be a super impactful move with other pieces in place. Like I see like you know, Wiggins and El Contera or whatever, them getting dealed with for a scuble type trade, but not a mat shaw.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That's it. And Jed loves Matt Shaw. Jed loves like there's a reason. Now it's not we're not gonna turn this into the Matt Shaw show, but you know I'll do this, so I could do that so easily. Um Shane asks with injuries starting to take a toll, can the bullpen survive until July? I don't know if the bullpen could survive the Milwaukee Brewers series.
SPEAKER_01That's the thing, that's the cause for concern. Great, great question. I don't know. I wish I had one for you. It's almost like I'm crossing my fingers, hoping things like turn around again so I could be like, hey man, look at this bullpen guy stepping up, and instead of being, you know, really clinching the butt cheeks, thinking that it's not gonna work out. And I'm not quite there yet, but you know, I don't have answers for it.
SPEAKER_00Well, they're look like Ben Brown, who's somebody in the bullpen that had success, is no longer down there. Now he's in the starting rotation.
SPEAKER_01That's the thing, and like he's only in the starting rotation for four innings or five max. And you can't, how do you change somebody going from a reliever to a starter? You really can't. It's a different approach, it's a different way they ramp up their arms and and so on, right, Carl? I mean, I'm just kind of like asking you.
SPEAKER_00Well, no, I think it's it's two part, you know, it's like Ben Brown's in the rotation now, so you know you're gonna lose a guy who's been effective in late innings for us. It's been called upon. So now we're bumping other people up of the bullpen up another spot, you know, as guys are going to the I. So we have we're thinning out the bullpen to strengthen the rotation with Ben Brown. I think Hobby or Assad got option, he just got bumped, yeah. So, like we're really taking it up the ass on both sides of the pitching staff. The starting pitching staff thinned out on the top end with the injuries, with Kate Horton and Matt Boyd, Justin Steele not coming back as soon as we would have liked. It's thinned out in the middle because Jamison Tan's pitching like complete shit. You know, Colin Ray has gotten his shit rocked, is what is it? He hasn't been that effective his last three starts.
SPEAKER_01No, and it's like good or bad inning with Colin Ray. And I feel really great sometimes, but go ahead.
SPEAKER_00And Eddie Cabrera's been hit really hard, similar to Jamison Tan. So it's like thinned out in the middle, and then at the very end of the rotation, now we're bringing in you know Ben Brown because Javier Asad's not there. So then when you go and you look at the bullpen, with all the shit that's happened to the starting pitch and staff, you can look at the bullpen and be like, well, it'd be nice if we had guys taking steps forward and great momentum from the bullpen. Hunter Harvey's on the IL, Daniel Palencia just got back, and he's not nearly what we had talked about in the opening of the season about being a tier one closer. Obviously, Phil Maeton sucks. You just keep going down the list, buddy.
SPEAKER_01It's like you asked me earlier, like, who do I like out of the bullpen? Like, I wanted to say Riley, thinking, but he's hurt, so it's like there's people that I I start to like and then they're gone, you know, or they just aren't panning out after coming back from injury, like Phil. It's all those types of things with me with the bullpen, and I'm kind of lost on it, but I appreciate you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're doing our best. APS, how much longer till Jed makes a move for bullpen arms and what top prospects should we feel comfortable saying goodbye to?
SPEAKER_01Mid-June.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean it. I wish it could be right now. I wish these pro I wish it was mid-June when we're encountering these problems. But the next couple weeks are gonna be really tough for this club, and thank goodness we have those two 10-game winning streaks under our belt because the time and urgency to play well is so heightened for mid-May, and we have like I have no confidence in my pitching right now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, those those streaks were huge. I read some tidbit, like we could pretty much go 500 for the rest of the season and likely make the playoffs, and I don't have anything to support that knowledge, but I read it, and that's the type of cushion that you need over the course when shit's gonna start hitting the fan, and we don't have answers for you know our bullpen collectively whatsoever.
SPEAKER_00We'll get answers, we'll have them. These are big games coming up, obviously, and I I don't feel great about you know, yeah, we're gonna come in and sweep the brewers. Like, we have big issues with the starting pitching matchups, our bullpen's thin, the lineup hasn't been great. You know, I talked a lot on Friday about that as far as this team's concerned, it's like playing blackjack, and like we have 19-20. Like right now, we're we're like ace four. We're playing, we're we gotta deal me some more cards. We've got to play this one out a little bit. I'm gonna have to get some luck. We're gonna get some things to go our way.
SPEAKER_01And this is almost why I'm kind of great, sadly grateful for the loss today. It did bring me back down to earth. Say we win that ball game, Carl, I'm coming in here yucking it up, telling the jokes, you know, just trying to be funny like I was last week. But now I am kind of like a lost puppy. And we're like, oh shit. Like, now we're gonna know over the next few weeks here what this team is really made of and what our division is made of. And that's the type of thing in baseball what could give you perspective and losing a crosstown series to the White Sox gave me today.
SPEAKER_00I'm with you. I uh you and I are swimming in the same uh pool of perspective, my friend.
SPEAKER_01My mind is a pretzel, too, folks. I've been trying, I was trying to wire a hallway light, you know, when you have to wrap the copper around the and ground the copper and get the black matched up, shutting the power off, shutting the power on. Never a fun thing. You know that the kids are screaming. You know me and Kate are telling each other to do one thing and then the other. It's a tough happens. It's a Sunday. If that's what happens on Sunday, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I there's it's a bit, it's you know, it's that time, it's that time of the year. You're doing shit, man. I just got a whole I got$350 worth of mulch delivered, you know. It's a great pile of mulch, it's a beautiful cedar color. It's just there's 14 hours worth of mulch in front of me. You know, there's two and a half full days of mulch.
SPEAKER_01When you text me or something, like if like doing yard work, I'm like, all right, but hey man, call me when you can. Like, no rush whatsoever, and I might hear from you the next day. And it's just like, dude.
SPEAKER_00So much, and I like it. I like being outside, I like I like the feeling, I like having a big piece of pride, I like all that work. It is a lot.
SPEAKER_01I have a question, actually, and I I I'm assuming this is like where you talk to your neighbors, but your house, it doesn't come with like a to-do manual, like when you bought it, like unless you had conversations with the seller, which typically doesn't happen in real estate dealings. So I'm like, what how do you know exactly what to do? Because I'd be like completely lost. I'm really bad at this stuff.
SPEAKER_00A lot of research, a lot of watching YouTube videos. My the my big aha moment was the not a big aha moment, but a big moment for me was the first couple months I was out here and I was bagging trimmings from you know lawn care and stuff, and I was putting them out in front of the house, and my neighbor came over and he was like, Hey, dude, what are you doing with these? No one's gonna pick it up.
SPEAKER_01Buying the stickers for the bags.
SPEAKER_00He's like, A, nobody's gonna pick this shit up. B, one of the reasons you would live in unincorporated King County, there's no fucking rules out here, dude. And I'm like trying to, I'm like, Oh, okay, yeah. Like, I've been what are you talking about? I have no idea what this guy means. He's like, just fucking burn that shit. I was like, burn it. He's like, What are you surprised? I'm like, I this it was so embarrassing for me and awkward.
SPEAKER_01We've been doing this for hundreds of years.
SPEAKER_00He's like, Yeah, do you know what a burn pit is? I was like, no. So he came over, he like you know, drew it out for me. This is what you do. This so I was so nervous to start a fire. I didn't then the whole start, how do you start a fire? How do you start a controlled fire? You don't use unleaded, you use diesel. I had to go through that experience, almost fucking blew my face off.
SPEAKER_01Two months later, I pull into your driveway, you have a flamethrower on your back, basically.
SPEAKER_00Cause some problems with that, put that tool away. So the long story, I guess the analogy I would make is uh the same way that you know the Cubs figure out the bullpen this year. You just do it, you just go out and you do it. Like it sucks to start, and it looks like shit, and it you know, and then over time you just figure it out. You know, you ask people how's this look? I don't know, dude. Guys, a lot of fucking work.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, you have to think Jad and the team are are scratching their heads as well as like sharpening their pencils, right? They have, I mean, that's that has to be the ever-present thing in their face to figure out and to be competitive going into the playoffs and if we want to make a deep run or not.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. I love the fact that Jed Warrior is the guy running this this club, and I think he's gonna do a great, great job with this trade deadline. You know, we do have problems to solve, but he's solving them right now. It's just the easiest way for me to put it. Like, if you know it, I know we all know it. The starting pitching is not enough. The bullpen needs help. We have guys to deal, you know.
SPEAKER_01So if I know about it, Jed's known about it. Like, it's no surprise, right? Top baseball minds in the league. Go, Carl.
SPEAKER_00It just blows that we have to wait because it just blows all this stuff is coming at once. It's it just fucking blows. The Justin Steele setback really hurts. It just hurts so bad. Not having Kate Horton the whole year blows. Matt Boyd missing time right now. Now you want to miss time. Fuck. It just all the circumstances come together at once. Now, the good thing is if we get through this, it should not be nearly as this should be as hard as it'll be all season for us. That includes starting the season six and eight. So the next couple weeks here, as we patch this shit together, this will be as hard as it should get for us until the playoffs.
SPEAKER_01We got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, slate against the Brewers off day Thursday, and then the Astros again this weekend. So that's what it's looking like for you maniacs and the Cubs fans out there.
SPEAKER_00And I think our pitching for this week matchups, while the starting pitching is weaker than it can be, I do think that the matchups that we have for this week are as good as they can be given what we have. So Imanaga going game one against Brandon Sprouts, awesome. Ben Brown getting the matchup against Mizorowski game two, that's great. Um, Eddie Cabrera, who had who has another gear to get to at home against Kyle Harrison, who's been awesome for the Brewers. Lefty, we we struggled that that game should be tight. And hopefully Eddie Cabrera steps up and he's he's pitches his balls off off Thursday. And then we have Taeon at home at 120. So if he's bad, like there's no place for him to get sharper than a 120 inner.
SPEAKER_01He wants to be a day game on Friday. That's where I want him to be as much as possible.
SPEAKER_00Into Colin Ray Saturday day game, into Shota Imanaga Sunday. So, like the Astros should have a very hard time against Show to Imanaga, which we'll get to in the Friday show. But for purposes of the Brewer series, I like I like our starting pitching matchups, even if I'm gonna say the starting pitching is just really, really questionable on paper.
SPEAKER_01What if one day it's like the seminal matchup, Ben Brown versus the Miz? Who's just the uh two Cy Young award collectors? God, I wish. But yeah, I'm fine with it too, Carl. I I really like the way that our boys are shaping up. We know that there's cause for concern. We've pointed those out. We're with everybody, and we get it, and I think that we'll address it moving forward as the organization from a Jed, you know, rock and roll move.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're coming, multiple moves are coming. This is the Monday morning cub show. You know, I I want to be more, I want I wish we could come in here more high, high octane gas after Crosstown, but I know it's not where we're at, two and six over our last eight. But I also don't want people freaking out, it's just a more of a realistic look at like here are some of the problems. But the the easiest way out of all this is just get those bats hot, just start scoring a ton of runs. I know that sounds crazy as a tall order this week against the brewers, but like you want to swing your way out of it.
SPEAKER_01Hey, first place cubs, folks. It could be a lot worse.
SPEAKER_00Well said, Mahoney. So if you guys enjoy the show, obviously leave a five-star review. If you guys have the time or the trouble, you know, on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back on Friday. Check out Thirsty Vicaro to all bite, no rattle Mexican style soda with a signature spicy finish, 100% organic agave delivered to your front door uh, you know, via Amazon. So we'll be back on Friday. Until then, guys, uh try and keep it together. Try and stay positive, right? We're in first place, as Mahoney said, things could be much worse. Um, you know, so just have a great week. Yeah, we'll have a great week. We'll be back on Friday.