Athletics Recap + Giants Preview + Slug% 101

A single insane ninth inning can make you feel like the Cubs are turning a corner, and five minutes later you’re right back to asking what’s broken. That’s the push and pull we’re sitting with after the Athletics series: a needed win, a shaky foundation, and a weekend set at Wrigley Field against a Giants team that’s somehow playing even worse lately. With a big chunk of remaining games coming against under-.500 opponents, the next few weeks aren’t just a schedule break, they’re a decision point for how we should judge this roster. 

We also get specific about what fans argue over every day but rarely define clearly: slugging percentage. I walk through the simple math, the real-life meaning, and the benchmarks that separate “fine” from “weak” from “unplayable” for everyday MLB hitters. Then we put names on it, starting with Alex Bregman’s early-season slug and what it implies when you’re paid like a centerpiece and hitting in the middle of the order. The 2016 Cubs come up as context not for nostalgia, but to show how much lineup damage used to exist and how rare it feels right now. 

From there it’s the rest of the state of the team: Shota Imanaga’s sudden crash, a bullpen that feels faceless, PCA’s potential spark, Michael Busch’s heater, and why I’m setting a June rule to focus more on position players than pitching. We also address the uncomfortable chatter about Craig Counsell and what it even means to “blame the manager” in modern baseball, before closing with a Giants preview including what makes Robbie Ray difficult and why this series needs to go the Cubs’ way. If this helped you see the Cubs with clearer eyes, subscribe, share the show, and leave a review.

Thanks for tuning in! 

- Carl & Mahoney

Transcript

Welcome And Weekend Game Plan

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Good morning, good afternoon, and evening Chicago Cubs fans, and welcome back to the Monday morning Cub Show. Today is Friday, June 5th, our second show of the week. It is your host, Carl. This is a quick solo show. I say quick because we have a 120 series against the Giants that starts today. Just a few items on the agenda, recap athletics. I want to talk about Alex Bregman and slugging percentage. In particular, I put together a nice little exercise looking back at 2016. I think it's important that we have a better grasp of what slug percentage is, and just using that to judge, criticize players. You know, I have an outline here, guys. I have an outline. We are going to talk about Alex Bregman. We're going to recap a couple things about the athletics. I have a new rule for this year, at least this month, the month of June in 2026 for all Cubs fans. Some chatter online about Figer and Craig Council. What would that look like? Is that on the table? You know, we got to preview the Giants. Just a little bit, just enough so that you're familiar or you have some site, some sort of idea, a sense of what to expect this weekend as we kick off another three-game series against a team that comes to Wrigley Field with a sub-500 record. Now, will we lose it? So we're we're just gonna start off the top with the athletics recap.

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SPEAKER_00 1:26

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Athletics Recap And Walk-Off Relief

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it is a nice win Thursday, right? We gotta just like that. After all the bullshit, we gotta just say, at least acknowledge it was nice to walk off, uh, you know, to score a boatload in the ninth. Even though it was, I know, look lucky, fortunate, very fortunate in some situations there. Two and all walking guys, putting people on base. Yeah, I don't even know what the hell is going on with the athletics bullpen. I don't really care. I just know that we somehow came back and won a game that we never do, ever. A game that we seemingly lose. We we lost it at game two, was we had elite. Just fucking blew it, gave it up. You know, game one, off and off day where the bats have been chilly, coming out and scoring one run against a rookie where you know you're getting fastball slider. You just the scouting report's like fastball slider, fastball should be over the plate, slider's hard, jump on the sky. Like that's what you do to rookies, you just jump on them. Can't do it. So, you know, big lead, big lead Saturday, or I shouldn't say game two. What am I talking about? Saturday. Why do I do that? Because my brain is tied in Saturday, game two. That's a college baseball fig. I apologize. I'm not editing that out. I don't have a big post-production team. The post-production team is me. Can't expect me to be flagging stuff and pulling stats at the same time. Um where were we? Game game two of that series against the athletics. Just blowing up, just blowing a lead. Just blowing it. You know? And we l we lost that series just with sensational flavor. Now the fact we came back and we won on Thursday kind of saves me from being able to make a point that we lost. We I thought we were gonna get swept in all three phases. Phase one, lineup doesn't show up. Phase two, bullpen fucking blows it. Phase three, starting pitching, absolute trash. But we come back, we win Thursday. So now do we build off this momentum? We have 19 games left against teams that are under 500. So this is basically a fork in the road, not just for the show, but just for you as a Cubs fan, for anybody follow. Like, where are you gonna take this emotionally as we go into weekend 120 against the Giants? A situation where throughout this season, and I would just say historically, we like this. It's June, it's early June. Playing the playing a team that's with 13, something getting they're bad. Make no doubt about it. That they're a bad baseball team. Uh and their manager's a joke. So where do we want to take it? Is kind of how you're coming out of this athletic series. And really it's up to you how much do you want to take that ninth inning win? How much do you how much is that going to influence you relative to the fact that when the Cubs are not on two 10-game win streaks, they're 13 and 29. They're 16 games below 500 when not in a 10-game win streak. When not in a 10-game win streak, they are the worst team at baseball. I just think it's interesting. Some other notes on the athletic series. Show

Imanaga’s Crash And Team Freefall

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to Ivanaga is the 2026 Cubs. That's it. It's just cruising, baby. Cruising. First what? First eight weeks of the year? No. Seven weeks of the season, best seven weeks of your life. Just cruising. And then all of a sudden, it seems like we shouldn't be playing Major League Baseball. Like we should be in the Northwoods League, the college league, the Woodbat League, you know, where like your buddy who plays at Iowa but doesn't really play because he's actually not that good, but he walked on. He goes and he plays a summer in the Northwoods League. And that's where that's where we should be set. That's where we should be sending some of the players on the coast. Not to AAA, Iowa. No, we should be sending them to Waterloo, Iowa to go play for the Bucks if that team's still around. If not, up to Battle Creek, Michigan. You know, Madison, Wisconsin's too nice for most of these bums. Duluth, Minnesota, good luck. Good luck. Go break the Joey Bonadana stolen base record. Who will be on the show at some point this summer, which is just a complete aside to say that unbelievably disappointing performance from Shoda Imanaga. Where, like, I again, I don't know if his stuff plays in the Northwoods league right now. I don't know. I I just don't know if he should be in Major League Baseball based on how hard the athletics hit him. And the crazy thing about it is that he was sensational to start the year for multiple starts in a row. And it wasn't weak stuff. He's punching eight, nine, ten. Like Showday's out there pitching top of the zone, making people swing and miss over the top of stuff on the bottom of the zone. Like, I don't understand it all at all. Because if you're gonna tell is it wear and tear? Is he tipping a pitch? He's got to be tipping. There has to be something that is so obvious uh or so objectively like disadvantaged that is that's come to light. Maybe he's pitching with a blister. I don't know. You know, I have I I cannot make sense of how you go from being so dominant. It's not like he's walking guys. I'm just talking about the ball getting shit on. The average exit velocity, just the amount of home, sheer home runs this guy's given up in his last four starts compared to the first nine of the season, where he looked like the $22.5 million okay zer chip on the shoulder. So where the wheels completely fall off the train with him, you know, it's not like he like starts to regress slowly. It's like one day he looks like the number four from Lincoln Way East. One day he looks like that, he just shouldn't be on the team at all. Give me the uniform back, go home, appreciate you coming out today, Shoda. You are you're fucking terrible right now. And so I can't make sense of it, but to sit here and like just do that to Shoda when like quite literally that exact story can be applied to this entire baseball team. The everything I just said about Shoda Imanaga applies to this collective club, organization, the front office, the hot dog, but how many times I got to do this? Anyone who works there, the fuck have we been doing for the last four weeks? What has been going on? So when we complain about Shoda, just say, just understand that like the complaints about those are the ex these are the exact complaints. You whatever you want to say about Shoda, you can use it about the entire ball club and everybody who works for him. Um

Bullpen Identity And Development Anger

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another thing I have on the note from the athletics series, I don't I don't think I know anybody at the bullpen. Like I know the names, I got the jersey cards, I've seen the stats and stuff. I have no basis of expectation. They bring it to the thing. Here comes Thornton. It's like, I have no I can tell I can't tell you one thing I know about these guys, and I hate that. Like I just this is where I I don't want to complain too much because I feel like that's a futile exercise at this point, you know. Big walk-off. We got some momentum, we're playing the Giants, they suck. Like we can we can take advantage of the situation at the same time. Can someone just tell me why we have no talented arms? Like, why is every guy where is 97 plus? Because all I see from other teams is 97 plus, from guys I'll never hear or see about again. We'll be we'll be playing we'll be playing the fucking Blue Jays. And they'll just be like, oh, and here's 27-year-old Jerry Carpenter making his major league debut. Uh Jerry pitched at Toledo for two seasons before Tommy John surgery, then did a year at Central Michigan, and the Blue Jays found him in the 18th round chip. And he's up to 98. I that's on every fucking major league team except the Cubs. That Jerry Carpenter guy just made up is on every Major League team in spades. I can't remember the last time we played a team and they brought somebody out of the bullpen who wasn't if he wasn't pumping ched, and I mean big premium cheddar, the type of stuff you have to go to uh Italy to get. You know what I mean? Like just the real nice stuff off the big block, the Ched. Okay? If you're not pumping that, then you have a wipe out something. You have one of those two things is MLB relievers. I I look at our bullpen and I'm like, I've mmm something's off about our development and like the quote unquote the dudes that come up to our pig leagues are pussies, they are losers. We need our bet our our better pitching infrastructure with the minor leagues, a bunch of losers, a bunch of guys on iPads. I want to talk to you about your spin rate and why I think your cutter was pr particularly sharp this evening. Some of the things we'd like to adjust. That's what I think our minor league development pitching looks like when all I see is just bad body slop coming up from the minor leagues. You know? And Jordan Wicks, don't even get me start on that guy. Do not even get me started on how we develop Jordan Wicks. Fucking putting him in the big. You gotta be out of your mind to let that guy pitch in the big leagues right now. You gotta be out the anybody could stand there and watch, just throw a bullpen. Let me see 30 force in fastball down the way. Do that four out of five times. Which is for a big league starting pitcher that doesn't throw harder than 93 miles an hour, should be uh, you know, would be like would be like walking into fucking waffle house and asking for a cup of coffee. I mean, it'd be about as routine as routine gets, my friend, as far as that lady turning around and giving you a pipe and hot cup of Joe. You think that's hard? Four out of five down and away? Jordan Witch couldn't throw two out of five down and away. And if he did, I think it would be an accident. And why the fuck am I talking about him? I don't need I don't know. Because my

PCA Buzz And Bush’s Hot Streak

SPEAKER_00 13:33

point is I don't know anyone in the bullpen, and that doesn't matter because here's the other note from the athletic series PCA could be back. PCA could be back. Radar says likely, but it's been spotty lately. PCA could be back. There's like a 57% chance he's back. And when I say back, I mean two home runs in the series. I mean with a walk-off winner, with some attitude, losing the ball in the lights and coming back and winning. I think I think we're at that point in the year where PCA goes on his little tour here. So in the meantime, Michael Bush has been on the tour. Nobody knows though, because Michael Bush doesn't say anything to anybody ever. I don't know what the guy even sounds like. I don't care to find out. I don't give a fuck other than his ability to play first base and hit major league pitching. That's where I'm at with this team. Because I it's nothing against Mike. I like Michael Bush. I'm just saying the relationship we're gonna have to have. It's like uh, you know, if you've ever if you've ever had casual relations with a stripper, you know, like you you gotta be able to draw the line with yourself emotionally and personally, where you're going, I know that I know how real I'm gonna let this get for me. And I'm not talking about going into the strip club, you know, and folding up the ones and doing the paper train. I'm talking about like you have a relationship with a girl who like at night she goes to a club and she dances for other men. You know, like if you've ever been in that situation, and I'm not saying I have, I'm just speaking from personal experience where I may have been. And like you gotta keep it in your head where it's like this is not real, it's not real. I can't care. Like, I I let trust this is this is so much. This is awesome. When we're around, when it's good, it's great. It's awesome. This up, but it's not fucking real, and that's how I feel about Michael Bush. And just generally the Cubs lineup. Like, I can't, I'm not gonna care too when it's good, it's great, you know. But like the greatness is not gonna wash away the fact that you're rubbing that fucking hooch up some truck driver's face for much less than you should be charging. You know, it's not gonna wash away the fact that we score one run against the athletics rookie uh, you know, who has like no idea where it's going. One run, that guy. It's not real. Like I know Michael Bush is uh Michael Bush, uh Michael Bush is awesome. Am I gonna go buy a Michael Bush jersey? No. Am I gonna ask this fucking stripper to settle down with me? Absolutely not. I'm just gonna enjoy it while it lasts. You know, knowing that these wheels, they're probably gonna fall off. Um, and I don't know why I'm using Michael Bush for the for the stripper analogy that I have in my head right now. But the point is that he's been on fire lately, and it's just a matter of like how much do you want that to change your expectation where you're like, all right, now I want him hitting three. So over the last couple games, we've seen him hit seven against left-handed pitching. Is that something we're committed to? Because then just commit to it for crying out loud. Like the fact that when we see lefties, we are at a significant disadvantage is crazy to me when you're telling me we're a big market team with a big front office, with smart people who know how to spend money, and we can't hit lefties. Your high school team can hit lefties. Every fucking college team in America smashes left-handed pitching. Every team hits lefties. Unless who? Unless you're Danny Holson. Why did I just pull a 2010 Virginia guy from that? Unless you're who? Drew Palmer. You gotta be a very, very good college lefty. Most college lefties just get fucking hammered. And why is it? Because hitting lefties is inherently easier when 75% of your players are right-handed hitters. For whatever reason, the Chicago, we can't hit. We we just can't do it. We can't do it. We can't hit lefties. That's not a note on the athletics, and that's actually that that note on Michael Bush went three minutes longer than I'd like. So I'm just gonna do this one quick.

June Rule: Focus On Hitters

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Last thing from the athletic series guy, one rule for June. I want to limit how much we talk about the pitching from now on. I want to spend most of the time talking about the offense, talking about our position players. This is like anytime self-help stuff. They go, just focus on your strengths. What are you good at? What are you guys really good at? We'll get to the weaknesses later. Let's talk about your strengths, okay? I'm not trying to play fucking therapist here for everybody, but I'm saying, like, if you looked at the team, the strengths would be the day-to-day players. The course is obviously not our starting pitching. It's obviously not a faceless, nameless bullpen. And they could perform however well. Just give them a couple weeks. I don't want to talk about them. I'd rather just watch them. My evaluation, my intentionality as I watch his team, uh, or I mean it's like to talk about this team on the Monday morning cub show is gonna be mostly for June, it's gonna be mostly on the position players. That's a rule. That's a fucking rule, baby. I don't just say that lightly. I'm not gonna sit here and talk about, now, is Ben Brown an ace. That's a talking point, you know. We'll see. Is Ben Brown a legitimate starter? That's a talking point. When Matt Boyd comes back, that'll be a talking point. But like if you think I'm gonna woe is me, Eddie Cabrera sucks, you know, I'm gonna suck it up and take it like a man for the month of June. I'm just gonna grind this month out. I'm just gonna take it up. I'm just gonna, well, I guess that's taking up the ass, but I'm just gonna that's not grinding it. That's new. I don't want to take it up the ass from Colin Ray, but like I don't have a choice for the month of June but to let that bearded man just fucking treat me however you want, do whatever you have to do, pitch however you have to pitch, just get me through June so we can get into July where we can upgrade the pitching. Because it can't, it just cannot happen. We've seen Pedro Marez, you've seen Kevin El Cantara. Can you there's just nothing we have right now that anybody wants in any material fashion that would allow us to upgrade the pitching staff in a capacity that aligns with our goals for October. That didn't start until July. And just the shit they brought up from Triple A while we're on topic, Kevin El Cantera. Somebody put a needle in that guy. It's it's not worth it right now. I said I'd be quick on this. The rule for June is we're gonna limit how much we talk about the pitch, and we're also gonna limit the tangents when I get angry in the middle of a solo show. We're gonna limit those. Like I almost went down the Kevin El Cantara path. I'm gonna leave the Jaguar alone. It's time as as I work through this, I should just leave the Jaguar alone.

Bregman Under The Microscope

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Now, here's the guy I won't leave alone. LX Bregman. Alright, who's uh self-proclaimed one of my all-time favorites and somebody I think you know, be careful what you wish for, Carl. So excited to watch him play in a Cubs uniform. And not to say I'm not, not to say he sucks, not to say anything. I'll just report on the facts. That's all I can do right now. I'm gonna present some information to you guys. And then and then we're gonna talk about slugging percentage. Because I feel like slugging percentage is much more important than the casual average person understands. We're just gonna talk casually about it, right? You can apply this, you'll have this information for the rest of your life. How's that sound? Alex Bregman was two for 12 in the athletic series. Um he DH'd in a game, which which then meant Pedro Miros played third, which then meant instead of us having a good designated hitter, we have a guy with a 355 slug right now. And we're gonna talk about that. This slug. Because I didn't I didn't expect I did not expect his homer total this year to start with a three. I would just say if you've gone to my head 24 homers, and please don't put a fucking gun in my head again while we're talking baseball. Put that shit away. I don't like guns. But I would say Alex Bregman mid-20s would be if he's healthy and playing well, because he's not a home run hitter. Right? Like he not when I say prolific, he can hit a home run. We've seen him hit home runs. Um but like when you're slugging in that 360 range, we have to have a conversation. Because if you're gonna DH and you're gonna take time away from other guys, and you're gonna you're gonna you're an autofill 2 3 4 in the lineup. And you're gonna roll up to the plate with a 360 slug, then we need to have a conversation about slug and percentage. All right. So, like, it's on the baseball card. Everybody knows bad average. Obviously, uh, OBP is is pretty simple to figure out. Slug is it's honestly just one step further. Okay, so we'll just start. So many people listening to this know what it is because you're diehards, and obviously, so just bear with me for a second because some people don't, and I don't think it's fair to just gloss through and roll through stuff. Uh, you know, when there's someone who could just pick up on this right away. So let's help these, let's help everybody just help each other out for a second. So slugging

Slugging Percentage Explained Simply

SPEAKER_00 22:36

percentage is total bases divided by at bats. Batting average is hits divided by at bats. You know, you got whatever, you got 200 hits and you got 500 at bats, you got a 400 batting average. I mean, it's very easy to keep track of that because how many hits? Very easy. So slugging percentage is a step further. It's like, well, all hits are different. So a single is worth one total base. A double is worth, you guessed it, two total bases, triple three homer four. And we're gonna count up how many total bases you've hit throughout the year. So it's just a more detailed total basis, is just a more detailed, gross total relative to your hit number. So, like hits and total bases kind of work hand in hand. You can look at those two things and kind of get a sense. Now, to get to slugging percentage, you take these total bases. So, for instance, if I go one for four with a home run, I have four total bases on the day. My slugging percentage in four at bats is a thousand. If I go one for four, I have one total base. My slugging percentage is the same as my batting percent, batting average, which is two fifty. Okay? I feel like this makes sense. We're working off our total bases. Now, the important thing to remember with total bases and slugging percentage is that it's very easy to just instantly go to home runs because like slugger, home run, because of the colloquial, I don't know if I'm saying that correctly, uh, you know, relation between slugger and homer. When really it's like doubles. I mean, it's a lot of it, you could hit you a ton of double. A guy could have a great slugging percentage, can carry a higher slugging percentage because he's a gap to gapper, because he runs the base, you know, he's a runs the base extra hard, etc. You know, Corbin Carroll's a good example of that. Where like, I don't know if Corbin Carroll's ever gonna hit 40 homers, the outfielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks, but he should always slug over 500. And that's be that's because of his capacity for triples, the park he plays in, the doubles, obviously. You know, he could just get to second and third so easily. So this this is introductory stuff as we talk about slugging. So what it means is, you know, like what we're working towards is that is now let's apply this. The average MLB player slugs around 400, you know, a little bit over, probably probably like 405. You would say based on skills and traits, because some guys are slower and some guys are faster, and some guys play different positions. That based on, you know, so it's like what's your average MLB? Well, it depends on the position. Like a catcher, you're okay. The average slug for a catcher is gonna be lower. The average slug for a right fielder is probably closer to 420. For a first baseman, 420. For a shortstop, probably closer to 390, 400. You know, for a third baseman, it's probably closer to 415. So I'm just trying to give you some, so that's why I say like the average slug. And the reason we're doing this, we're gonna go back, we're gonna talk about Alex Bregman specifically. Uh, and then you can apply this slugging percentage stuff in the future as people talk about it or they bring up the players, you know, like, or I mean, as they come up to play to the plate during the game and they show the statistics, and you're like, oh, I understand what the I have a better concept of this slug. That's kind of what I have in mind for this segment. So the standard range is around 400, 420. Okay, and we're gonna talk about the 2016 team. Obviously,

2016 Cubs As The Slug Standard

SPEAKER_00 25:59

this everybody's doing it this year, the tenure reunion. I might as well mix them into the fucking segment. So let's just keep it rolling. I I have it pretty easy as like I think 350 is a cutoff for being an everyday MLB player without a huge question mark. You know, like Billy Hamilton, I don't think he ever slugged over three. Like that, that would kind of be around what I'm talking about, where like you are just sensationally fast. You're the fastest guy in the world. Um, if you see anything in that 350 range, like Jason Hayward his first year at the Cubs, I think it was like 325. That was just as impossible to watch as anything. I think he had like eight homers. It's impossible it's impossibly bad to explain. 350's 350 is fucking low. But you gotta be real, I mean you gotta be really good at stuff. You're in that 350. So like Juan Pierre for his career was 361. Juan Pierre for career 361 for his the one year with the Cubs, I believe he set an MLB record for ground balls hit to a second baseman. He slugged 388. Let me repeat that. So Juan Pierre slug 388 in his one season with the Chicago Cubs. Again, in the aver the range of an average player is like 400 to 420. Pittsednik for his career, Scotty Pods for his career is a 379. So you say like is Scott Pitsennik a slugger? Like, absolutely not. Is Juan Pierre a slugger? Juan Pierre is like I am using Juan Pierre in this example because he's the antithesis of slugging, and Alex Spregman's worse than his career. And the career includes the years at the end and the years in the beginning where you can't slug shit because you're a rookie virgin and you're an old school veteran. Like, like it's not even the prime years. Juan Pierre and his prime. Juan Pierre and his prime is slugging 10 point 10 percentage points, 10, 10 percentage, 10 more. It was 10% more of a slugger than Alex Bregman is right now for the Chicago Cubs. And we're just talking about slugging percentage here, guys. I'm just talking about Alex, because if you're gonna hit in the middle of the order, I'm gonna look at your slug. So in 2016, just for reference, like the guys you hit in the middle of our order, both Anthony Rizzo and Chris Bryant posted slugging percentages over 540. Again, the average is is 400 to 420. And you can use like 20 if you want to, if you're interested, you can use 20 degree increments. So like the difference between 420 and 440, like the 44, that's good, right? 460, like that's that's very good. 480 is like, all right, fucking you you're now we're like tapping on the door for now. You're an all star, you're like in the all-star. Over 500, you are a slugger. You slug. You are feared by opposing pitchers, is a good way to think about it. So you see 540 from Rizzo, I think 550 from KB that year. That's that's a big freak. That's such a big number. You know, Babe Ruth in his career, I think, slug 690 or something. That's a good, that's a good one for you. For his career over 22 years, slug 690. So just going back to 2016, I think this is interesting. So just for context, again, Alex Bregman slugging 360, 355, 360, something like that. Jake Arietta in 2016 slugged 415 in 70 at bats. He was well above, he was major league average. He was a major league average hitter in 2016. So, like when you see the 380 to 400 slug, that's kind of weaker. That's what Nico's been in his crew. With Nico, you're always like, I want to see him over 400 because that means he's hitting doubles. If you're 360 to 380, you're objectively weak. You know, 360 to 380 is a weak slugger. And then just again, I'm adding as much context as I can give you guys. Mason win last year had the highest win above replacement total on fan graphs at three and a half, uh, with a slugging percentage below 380. He was at 363 last year, and he was worth three and a half wins. Now, if his slugging percentage climbs to 400, he's probably worth five. He's probably worth five and a half. You know, Steven Kwan, the left fielder from the Guardians, he slugs about 375 and he's worth about three wins a year. He doesn't play a premium position and plays left field. If he was a shortstop and put up his offensive numbers, he'd be worth six, six and a half wins. So I'm just trying to give as much context as I can because we're going to complain about slugging percentage, is something I've learned about this team. And I don't want to complain about it unless we're all on the same page. So if we just say, if we just say like for that 2016 team, let's just recall because not everything has to be on the end of the spectrum. I'm not saying like I expect Alex Bregman to slug 540 like Rizzo and Bryant. I'm more bringing that up to say, like, man, that was special. Holy fuck. That was really special. You know, that was anomalous to have two guys over 540 for the full season playing corner infield positions. Huh. We were so lucky. No, the context I would I would rather draw is like you don't need I'm not asking for 540s. I'm asking for two things. I don't need to see anybody under 380. And I would like to see most of you jabronies over 420. So, like, can we capture that range? And and if this is too boring for you guys because you ain't talking about the numbers, just one last piece of context on the 2016 team. We had seven players contribute to the team. We're no, we had six players contribute to the team outside of Rizzo and Ryan's, outside of them being 540. And we agree the average is between 4 and 420, depending on your position. The following players on that 2016 team slugged over 440, which is we talked about would put you in like the objectively very good range when you look at slugging percentage. Zobras, Soler, Fowler, Contreras, David Ross, Albert El Moro, who saw that one coming. So when we complain, like, and again, guys, I I hate the I'm not sitting here to complain, but I'm trying what I'm trying to do is TS up so that when we do complain, you know, when I say like, I really hate the fact that Michael Bush, even though he's on fire right now, is slugging 397 and playing a corner infield spot. You know, I absolutely hate the fact that Danzig Swanson's slugging 328, which is just like right on par with what Jason Hayward was giving us when he came over from the Braves. So Alex Bregman, 359. All these guys are all the except for Michael Bush, all these guys are below Juan Pierre's career. Just talk about just talk about slug. You know, Miguel O'Maya, 349, and I'm over here asking questions, is it Miguel Omaya's team? Fuck me. So here's where we get in the major league average. And in like the fact that PCA is at 414 while giving you the best defense in the world is when you say like the power speed combination. Like the fact that I've gone through this whole slugging percentage exercise so that when I get to PCA, he's slugged in 414.

unknown 33:22

Huh.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Now that number starts to climb. Uh, you know, the Cubs success should be directly correlated with that. But by Asteros, 407, Suzuki 403, that's right around the major league average. Now, how about this one? Ian Hap 491. By far, in a way, the highest slugging percentage on the team with anybody who gets regular playing time. By far the most hated player in Cubs Twitter right now. Maybe Dan Sweet. People have hated Hap forever, though. 491 slug. So just remember all the shit we've talked about with the slugging percentage stuff. Is we're talking about the and how important slug is because ultimately we love to come to the statistic OPS. But I just have historically felt like yeah, I know it people know what slugging percentage is. But if I say, hey, Joey's fucking slugging 445 and Johnny over there slugging 410, I don't think people are are like very fluid in making the the connection of the difference in the same capacity if I said Joey over here is hitting 310 and Bobby's hitting 275. Well, 275 is still a good number. Damn, that 310 is good. And that's what I'm trying to say. It's like when you see a slug when you see a guy get in the box and they go, he's slugging 470, like you should your eyes should perk up because like this guy can do damage to major league pitching. You know, of course, yeah, he gets on base, he works the counts and all that stuff, but like who does the fucking damage? Who does the damage in the Cubs lineup? And we don't we don't have any of these sledgehammers, you know. We at least from what we've seen performance-wise. Like it's in the results, right? Like, I know Carter Hawkins and Jed are gonna sit down and be like, well, we can't really look at the results necessarily as much as we want to talk about, you know, the individual. All you guys can fucking blow me. I'll just sit here and look at the results. The results say this slug 366, 397, 357, 328, 359, just the amount of shit I just read off in the starting lineup from guys that get everyday playing time that starts with a 350, 360, 350, 320. Enough. Enough. So, like, if if driving the ball isn't gonna be a critical component to our organizational philosophy, then why then don't even fucking talk about the Dodgers payroll. I don't give a shit how much I pay Shohei out time. We can't drive the ball. Pay whoever you want to pay. You know, are the Dodgers ruining baseball? You know, like, yeah, that's why the Cubs, that's why the Cubs have a 340 fucking slug. You know, that's why that that's why it's like, you know, I'm not saying it's in I'm not saying it's embarrassing. But it's certainly an area where we can improve. Pond, and when I say we're paying Al Spreadman $35 million to hit third, and he's driving the ball similar to Juan Pierre when we'd settle for like, just give me David Ross. Not it. I mean, I'm asking you, don't be Jampierre. I'm not asking you to be Albert Pools. I'm saying don't be Juan Pierre. And and furthermore, if the best you could do is David Ross, that's actually probably gonna be good enough at the end of the day. As much as I hate to say that out loud for $35 million a year and you to displace this is the other thing I got added to on Twitter, and I don't want to, I said I don't want to complain. But the the ultimate issue, if Alex Bergman's gonna come out here and slug 359, okay. Let me just now add the ultimate context of this conversation. Last year in the second half, Matt Shaw led the Chicago Cubs with a 522 slug, 18 points below Anthony Rizzo's in 2016 that I just got on my hand, just got on my hands and knees and face fucked. Okay. Matt Shaw last year, 522. We pay him $775,000 a year, and he finished top three in the National League Gold Glove Award for third baseman, despite spending a month in the middle of the year in AAA, Iowa. Came back for the second half, turned it on. We gave $35 million to a guy to replace him, and you're telling me he's slugging three. Can we? And obviously, this is rhetorical. Or I should say the answer is no. Can we send Alex Bregman down to Iowa? If we did that to Matt Shaw last year, can we do it to Bregman this year? Do you Bregman Bregman would retire from baseball if we try to send him to AAA, Iowa? So there's my long-winded thing on slug. I think it's a more precise way to, if you want to complain about something, I think it's a very precise way to complain about the players in this lineup because they're they're gonna come back and they're gonna be like, well, we actually put together good at bats. And what they're gonna talk about is working counts and taking pitches. And what they're ultimately working to is the reason why you take pitches and you work a count is so you can get into a situation to what? Say it with me, let's do it slowly, drive the fucking baseball. So if you're gonna sit here and say we're taking good at bats and we have good approaches and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I'm gonna come back and look at how often are we driving the baseball? And the answer is not that often. So the retort to that, that, or the counterpunch to that, that well, actually, even though we're not driving the ball that often, we've had good at bats and good plate appearances. Uh, it just it does, it's backwards. It doesn't work to me. Like, you drive the ball, then you would be driving the fucking ball if you were having good plate appearances. Don't don't tell me it's bad luck 62 games into the season. Don't tell me guys there's don't tell me guys are slugging under Juan Pierre's career fucking number because that's the way the game works. Through 62 games, Craig. Like, no, the reason they're slugging under 400 is because they're not executing. And that could be a function of a number of things, whether it's preparation, whether it's mechanics, but I'll fucking guarantee you at the bottom of that list is bad luck. So fuck off with that.

The Craig Counsell Firing Question

SPEAKER_00 39:25

In the meantime, some people have been talking about whether or not we should fire Craig Council. Here's the best way I would explain. I woke up to a group chat the other day and said, today would be a great day to fire Craig Council, and if it happened, I wouldn't mind it one bit. Now I wouldn't say it's a great day to fire anybody. I don't know about that. I know the Brewers have eaten our fucking lunch every single day since we hired that guy. I know he's getting the biggest contract in the history of Major League Baseball. I know we have been no better than we were with David Ross managing a much worse roster. And I furthermore don't put any credence into the fact that other teams didn't try and hire David Ross since he left. Whatever. There haven't been that many openings. And look at how bad Tony Vitello's been with the Giants. Like I give a fuck about other teams' hiring process and who they're interested in. Like it has any bearing on their cape capacity or capability to lead the Chicago Cubs. Because what the fucking Rockies think of somebody or the or the Baltimore Orioles, I don't all none of that shit matters. None of that shit matters. You know, what matters is that we have a $200 plus million dollar payroll that looks lifeless and gutless. We are being outplayed by players with significantly less experience, which in this sport just doesn't naturally happen. Like, of course, that happens in the NFL. Guys come in, they're young, they're explosive, they're playmakers, they're just right away you can step on the field, you can change your game. Major League Baseball is driven by the practical fucking experience of taking your at bats and licking your wounds and going through it. And when you look at our lineup, we have all these guys in or near the prime or just on the outs, or just on that cusp of prime, finishing the prime of their career, and so many of these guys. And they're all just so fucking shitty right now. And I mean shitty. So who do you it's like, yeah, okay, it's not easy to blame the manager. A lot of decisions are made by computers, but I'll tell you this they're playing for Craig. Now the question is like, is it Craig's fault? I don't know. I don't, I don't know. Would they play harder for another guy? Would they play better for another guy? The answer to that question is I don't know either. But I'm more enticed, right? I'm like interested in like maybe they would play harder because what from I've seen what from Craig through two and a half years now is like they don't they're fuck. That second half last year, inexcusable, absolutely inexcusable. And if they make the playoffs this year, they will have the worst record through 62 games of any Chicago Cubs team to make the playoffs. So I think it would be fair to say history is working against them to make the postseason. But the postseason has changed and evolved since you know baseball has started keeping the record. So there weren't six teams in the playoffs in 1969, otherwise the Cubs would have made it, et cetera. Shit like that. So I don't know how to look at this. I know this. If if someone did have the balls, I don't expect it to happen. I would say it's highly unlikely. I would find it to be remarkably atypical, and it would just really be a shitty situation because I was so personally, I was celebrating that we got Craig Council. I was super excited to watch him. I was like, this guy's gonna be great. We're gonna do all the buttons. Nope. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. So two and a half years later, I'm at the point. I would be numb. We fired him, I would just be like, whatever. I would be numb. I wouldn't say good riddance. I wouldn't say you earn that firing. I would be a little surprised because we're paying him so much money, and most of the surprise would come from Tom Ricketts' reluctance to just like dump that cash into something that he's gonna get zero return on. Like, that doesn't sound like Tom Ricketts to me. Sounds like we're gonna sit through this Craig Council contract. Sounds like we have no choice in the say. However, all that to work back to, if it did happen, don't expect an ounce of tears from me. In the

Giants Preview And Robbie Ray Breakdown

SPEAKER_00 43:12

meantime, we do have a game today against against the Giants at 120. I just want to just say briefly, they're somehow worse than us right now over their last 10, which seems impossible, but they are worse than us. And this is why I was positive on Monday. Like the Giants are fucking terrible. And the manager, Tony Vitello, who used to manage at Tennessee, the university, and then uh before that, only college baseball. He's only done college baseball. And so Buster Posey, who's the president of the Giants, hired Tony Vitello. He's very handsome. He looks like a country music star, and he's supposed to be super cool. The problem is professional baseball is such a different beast. It is a beast, it is a machine. It chews you up and spits you out. It is the it is so much bigger, faster, slower. Stronger than college baseball. And why that is important as a manager is just from the standpoint of individually having relationships with guys. And like when you're in college, you're the guy. They fucking, you're you are a god. When you are the head coach of a college baseball program, the players on your team will would murder someone for Tony Vitello. Like that's how they feel about the college baseball coach has arguably oh way more geese than the college basketball coach within the players and the way that dynamic works. And I would say is more of a parental or more of a paternal authoritarian figure in a college athlete's life than the head football coach. The way the college baseball coach, just generally across college baseball, and maybe we'll get into this with the college world series and some of the coaching stuff, that's your God. That is the your dude. And that's the way Tony Vitello has been a coach and managed and led college baseball programs. So then when you get into like when you're the Giants, like when you get into the big leagues, like you're not the foot the fucking the managers just they want to see the lineup card and they don't want you to fuck with them. And they don't want you to do any Bush League stuff, and like you gotta be big league. You got you have to be not you gotta you can't say dumb stuff to the media. So all this guy does is say dumb shit to the media. You know, you can't like you can't just like pull playing time from a guy because you don't like the way he ran to third base. Like you yeah, you you can't in modern baseball, you can't. These guys are so sensitive, they're gonna shut down. And I think what you've seen from the Giants is a team that's like shut down around Tony Vitello. I think they're lifeless. I this is one of the rare opportunities where I'd say, like, I don't ask for this if there's ever been a time where like we should get three in a row at home. We should we should take it to the Giants this weekend. We should now Robbie Ray's pitching today, he's actually been pretty good. He's had one massive clunker start. So I'll just be clear. Everything he every he throws everything above where you expect it to be, which means you swing underneath him a lot and you pop the ball up and you swing underneath stuff, and he can challenge you with the fastball that you think is going to be in the strike zone, and it's fucking a foot and a half upstairs. So he has the ability to get you to chase stuff up that you normally would just look at from other pitchers, you wouldn't be enticed. But through the way of his delivery, okay, so he's over the top guy, and then his spin rate on his forcing fastball, and just the the general that combination of the spin right in the in the delivery just makes you think it's gonna be somewhere it's not. Uh so he's actually pretty that's like I wrote the I think actually I have some a lot of respect for Robbie Ray. He does have one really bad start, so you know that could be you're tipping something and the other team has something. Like when you just see it as bad. When I say quunker, I think he gave up nine earned in like three three innings or something. He's on the mound today for him. Otherwise, I would just say this about the Giants. I think that they have a great infield. Matt Chapman at third, William Damas at shortstop, Luisa Rise at second, who's hitting like 340 again. Go figure. Guys just a fucking machine in the box. Um, and then Rafi Devers who's playing first, and he's been average this season, but he still takes massive hacks, and he's somebody you respect, and he's somebody who can drive the ball. Like he can. I know he's whatever. We did the whole thing on slugging percentage. I do like that infield, and as much as I like the infield, I can objectively say I think the outfield that the Giants will play this weekend against the Cubs is one of the more impressively bad center field left field combinations that we should that we should see like take the field against the Cubs at all this year. And I'm not trying to be mean, it's just like Casey Schmidt, who I think will play left field, is like a career second baseman, third baseman, designated hitter type, is not not an outfield. I think Drew Gilbert should be in center field. And I I think Jung Hu Lee will play right. So, you know like nothing about like Caleb Killian is their closer. We we we gave Caleb Killian away for a bag of fucking baseballs. Like if we can't, if we can't take this series two out of three, I will show up on Monday. I will be disgusted with myself. I'll be absolutely disgusted with myself that I sat through and watched all three games and we didn't take the fucking series. And I'll take it one step further. You guys know I don't like doing this. When mine's seeing a sweep, we're at 48 minutes. I have a list of personal stuff I was gonna talk to you guys about. Oh,

Personal Update And Friday Show Promise

SPEAKER_00 48:30

you know, we'll just say this. I'm helping my buddy's got this big international company. I shouldn't say it like that. Sounds so lame. He is a big company, they're in uh 20 countries, I don't know, 200 locations. It's a big company. And it's my but my buddy started it and like 20 years ago, teenager, and it just continuously blew up. What'd you for call guys? Went to night school, you know, and just worked on this company. Now the thing is the thing is fucking huge. And so back in like March, right before the Cub season started, he was like, Hey, we're working on this long form video project. Would you be interested in like I don't know what you got going on this, but if you're interested, you want to sit down and take a crack and take a look at some of the stuff with us. We would love to have your opinion on it. So I'm like, Yeah, sure. I'll would love to. Would love to. Baseball season starting. Let me see what you guys have cooking. So this is back in like early March. So we just start talking from there and blah blah blah blah blah. So now I'm like actually we're w working on this project with them. Um I I wouldn't say it like maybe form formally kicked off a couple weeks ago. Um, but like formally, formally is is is in play in June. So that's a that's pretty fun for me and exciting for me because I you know like to stay busy. I love I'm I need to stay more busy, I need to do do more shit like that. And um the other thing is I missed a lineup, I missed a couple lineup previews. Um, but and I I got I get sucked into this stuff, and I'll be sitting, I'll be like editing video and all that stuff, and then the game will start, and I'll be sitting, it'll be like the third inning. So that just a personal apology for missing some stuff. I am had been put into I had sunk my teeth in this project a little bit harder than I anticipated. And um that's it with like the Cub stuff. I'm not going anywhere. The Monday Morning Cub show is still very much alive. We missed last Friday just out of the pure fact that I sat in a hotel room on Monday and motherfucked the Chicago Cubs or on Sunday night when I could have been hanging out with my father-in-law for a 70th birthday party and everything I needed. They say on that Monday show, carried over to the Friday show. But I didn't want you guys sitting around going, like, is he done with Friday shows just because the team sucks? His team could lose every game for the rest of the fucking year, and I am not abandoning the Friday show. That's a fact. We have 120 against the Giants. We should take this series this weekend. You know, and that's all I gotta say about it, guys.

Final Takeaways And Listener Requests

SPEAKER_00 50:57

Outros are my weakness. So just do me a favor and leave a review if you haven't. Shared the show with a Fred if you want to. We're talking ball, baby. Like you should have you should leave this show with a significantly better understanding of just the context around slug and what it means to slug and where those numbers are when we talk about slug. What's a good slug or what's average, what's shit, and what's downright flat out fucking unacceptable. And that's when you get into the dance v. Swanson range. So apply that knowledge, use it with your friends, uh, and hopefully it improves your viewing experience. I'll be back on Monday with Mahoney. In the meantime, please subscribe, leave review, and go get yourself some Thirsty Big Hair on Amazon. I highly recommend a Vigilante sampler platter. Until next time, God bless and go.