Brewers Scouting Report + David Peterson Trade Breakdown

The Cubs finally feel fun again, and the timing could not be more intense: three games in Milwaukee against a Brewers team that plays ruthless, disciplined baseball and runs out the kind of pitching that can erase your best plans by the second inning. We’re coming off a 10 and 4 stretch, the offense is cooking, and the fan base is right back on that knife edge between realism and belief. That’s exactly where a good season lives. 

We talk through why this Brewers series matters so much, starting with what has actually changed for Chicago. Pete Crow Armstrong has turned the leadoff spot into gasoline, getting on base, creating pressure and looking more and more like a real superstar. At the same time, the Cubs rotation is in crisis: Justin Steele is not coming back, the injuries keep stacking, and the front office cannot afford to wish its way to innings. That context is why the David Peterson trade is worth a deeper look, including advanced pitching metrics like FIP, the role of ground balls, and why moving from the Mets defense to an elite Cubs defense could change his results fast. 

Then we pivot to the opponent and the problem: Milwaukee wins without homers, scores a ton of runs anyway, and prevents runs with pitching, strikeouts and clean execution. We dig into what makes Pat Murphy’s group a machine, why Jacob Mizorowski’s triple digit fastball changes how you have to approach at bats, and what the Cubs must do to survive this weekend. If you like smart Cubs talk with real edge, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Thanks for tuning in! 

- Carl & Mahoney

Transcript

Cubs Heat Check And Solo Setup

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Good morning, good afternoon, and evening Chicago Cubs fans, and welcome back to the Monday Morning Cubs Show. Today is Friday, June 26th. The Chicago Cubs are playing the Milwaukee Brewers this weekend. We are red hot. We are rolling. I had plenty to talk about. Uh, just a couple things up front. We promised this would be Mahoney and me. I fucked up. I totally fucked up. I'm in deep on a project right now. The specifics can just be briefly summary. 60 source video hours compressed into a 10-part, 10-minute uh mini-series for very large company that my buddy owns. Uh blah blah fucking blah. But I'm in it. That's my point. I gotta give you some context when I say I'm it, I'm in it. And and I'm so in it. I hope our front office is in it. You know what I mean? And there's people listening to it. You got stuff you're doing, you're in it. Whether you're a parent, you're fucking, you know, just started dating some girl you like. Uh, you know, you want to make enough money to buy cub season tickets, and you're just dead set focused on making that money and getting up and making those sales calls. That's called being in it, folks. And so I'm lucky to be in it. I love being in it. And I just want to apologize off the top because the show is out later. It doesn't have Mahoney. We're gonna miss some of that fun, lively banter that keeps me rolling and positive. Uh, so I'm gonna do my best. I have a ton of information to get into about the Milwaukee Brewers, but first I think it's important. We start with the fact that like there is no confusion whether we feel good or bad about the Cubs going to the Brewer Series. Like, that's the good thing. We feel great. 10 and 4 over our last 14. We salvaged that 22-game stretch against teams under 500. We salvaged it by playing great baseball down the stretch and just slugging the shit out of the ball. Right today, right now, we feel great. Another reason we

Why Momentum Matters Right Now

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feel great is because this show is brought to us by Thursday if you care all Mexican style soda with the signature spicy finish. If you fast forward through this ad read, the Cubs are gonna get swept. If you fast forward through the ad read, now am I even reading the ad or am I speaking from the heart? I'm speaking from the heart. You better fucking believe this is coming from the heart. A Mexican-style soda with the signature spicy finish, that's all bite and all rattle. Today's the last day, Amazon Prime. You know, don't hold me liable for that statement either. I hardly use Amazon, it's a big weakness in my life, but I know all you guys do. I know it's the most popular delivery mechanism. Okay. Thirsty McCarrow got me to download the Amazon app. How about that? Not Jeff Bezos, okay? Not same-day shipping, it's a Mexican-style soda with a signature spicy finish. It's a beverage of the summer, it's the reason the cubs are rolling. And I'll be honest with you guys, I'm putting it on the watermelon jalapago. So check them out. One of my closest buddies is behind that company. All right, and it is exploded. They're in every grocery store in Texas. The the strategy behind how these guys are gonna run this. It's these guys are so fucking smart. Uh, and obviously, if you're smart, you gotta get you gotta have a great brever. I can't talk. If you're gonna be that smart, you better have a great beverage. Just such a long ad read. That's that's from the heart, though, like I said. Check them out, Thirst of a Carroll. Okay, just a couple things here, guys. We're playing the Brewers. I want to give you as much as I can about the Brewers. Um, but we gotta earn that. Yeah, we got we gotta earn the right to sit here and talk about Pat Murphy and the machine that is in Milwaukee Brewers, and they are very good. They are extremely good. So I think maybe actually that's an appropriate starting point before I get into these six, seven topics about the Cubs that are important. David Peterson trade, you know, injury news and stuff. But like just try and right now in this moment, before this brewer series starts, enjoy the fact that Cubs 10 and 4 last 14 at a time, no starting pitching, at a time everybody's out, people bitching up a storm. I ain't happy on six seventy, don't worry, we'll regress to the meeting. Now, I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll you know, 20 runs in two games. If if you're gonna start talking about we're back, those are that's two good games. So just temper and hold everything close to your heart. We had the best record in April in Major League Baseball, we had the worst record in May in Major League Baseball, and we have the best record in June in Major League Baseball. Now I'm splicing that up a little bit because it's actually from June 10th to June this, and it's actually May 5th to June that, and it's actually but in three phases of the season that you can slice into like relatively good serving proportions, right? We're not talking about a bad cut tavern style pizza. I'm talking about just like a nice pie graph here, and one part of the pie says the Cubs are the best team of Major League Baseball, then the next part of the pie says they're the worst team of Major League Baseball, and then the next piece says they're the best team of Major League Baseball. So let's just establish that if your emotions have been thrown completely off over the last three months, I'm with you. Let's just establish that if this team has taken you as far to the brink as possible by breaking you before the all-star break, I'm with you. And then finally, let me caveat that by saying every maniac listening to this is with you. That's the point of the community. You know, if we're going to this brewer series, this brewer series it could not mean more. It just couldn't. So just coming in hot, that's all we wanted. When we were so bad, the piece of the pie where we were the worst team in Major League Baseball, all we wanted, when we looked at the schedule, Mahoney and I guess we're 22 games out before we play the Brewers. The next 22 games are against teams all under 500 at the time of recording. If we can catch some momentum going into the Brewers series, maybe we can recapture it. Maybe. So the fact here on Friday, guys, we're sitting going in it tonight going, maybe, maybe. Really, actually, maybe. Um what a blessing. What a blessing the 2026 Cubs have given us a get. So uh, you know, from the perspective of just being negative and shitty and fucking we're Craig. Ugh. You know, no, I still have a little bit of that. I'm just saying, guys, it's we're just this this is exactly what you want, you know. Now the Brewers are very good. So is Pete Carl Armstrong. So is Pete Carl Armstrong since we put him in the layoff spot. So is Pete Carl Armstrong basically since you could easily say, you know, I don't like talking about other guys, you know, you learn your lesson, but like telling that White Size fan to suck his dick, we lose nine in a row, he gets hit in the leadoff spot and just explodes. I I want to say, let's see, 23 game. Is it 23 or 24 games in a row where he has gotten on base for a guy where we always said the on base thing because of the swing and miss, because of the want for power, because of the reluctance to put the ball on the ground, you know, fastest guy in Major League Baseball refuses to put the ball on the ground unless it's a bunt. That's one of the craziest things I've ever seen. The combination of that uh defies all logic that has built the foundation of baseball player development. Just makes absolutely no sense, and I love everything about it. After Thursday's win, I believe he has a 14-game hit streak. I'll update it. Let's say it's not 20, it was 23 a couple weeks ago. No, it's 23 a couple games ago. He's a he's a few games away from 30. Let's say that 27, 28 games in a row, Pete Crow Armstrong's on base. And so is he just this fun, lovable guy? He's a fucking bona fide superstar. And it's so important to remember we go into Brewer Series, this is big shit. We're 10 and 4 over the last 14. That's big shit. We have an opportunity to continue to string momentum along so that maybe just maybe at that trade W W W, right? You start to see some big splashes. That's that's kind of where the most optimistic version of myself without being a complete moron exists. Right? The complete moron's like, we need to do this, this, this, this, this, so that when we get to October, it's like, I'm gonna slow it down here for a second, guys. I'm gonna ask you to join me and just say we have the opportunity to build enough momentum for that trade deadline to be significant enough for us to reestablish great playoff expectations.

Pete Crow Armstrong Turns Superstar

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Playoff expectations that fade drastically, obviously, Kate workout for the season, but Justin Steele's not going to return, which is something we had teased about as like, well, that's a there's your biggest trade deadline pickup ever. Is Justin Steele will be healthy? He'll be pitching six, seven innings by the time the trade deadline rolls around. So that's completely ruled out, which is very much in line with what Mahoney and I had talked about. Where the front office, if you're making trade considerations and you're assuming guys on the aisle are going to come back and be impactful, I think that's negligent reasoning. And so that takes us to David Peterson, who is the who is the guy we traded for, right? So we traded for David Peterson, who's a left-handed pitcher. I believe he went to Duke, 6'4, 220, profiles exactly as like your big classic, traditional left-handed starting pitcher in the big leagues. It's not electric, you know, it isn't wipeout stuff. Um, those are unicorns, the lefties who have that wipeout stuff. Chris Sale, Garrett Crochet, complete unicorns. That's why there's so few of them. Uh David Pierce is more your traditional guy. Pitch in the righties, pitch up, cutter, sinker, move it, you know, dip it, pronate it. Um, not gonna overwhelm you. Very much wants to use the team behind him to play. Okay. He has a horrible ERA. If you've paid any attention to Cubs Twitter, you know David Peterson has horrible baseline statistics this year. Okay. That's just a fact. And it's an easy fact to then allow negativity to creep into your head. So this is what my job is to do is to just kind of coach you out of that. David Peterson currently has the lowest FIP field independent pitching FIP, an extremely advanced metric. It's so deep on the advanced metrics with pitchers, you only go to it when it's like you really need to make a case for something. And you really need to make a case for David Peterson right now, and that's when you go look at FIP because it's just such a phenomenal metric at saying how talented is your execution, or how effective, I should say, is the execution of your stuff. It's a metric that it values strikeouts, uh, you know, it it fucking hates home runs. It basically calculates if there was no defense, what would your it's not ERA, what would Joy Joyce Burr be? And anything really under four is like you're an above-average effective starting pitcher in the big leagues. He's around 3.9-ish. Most of our guys are in the 4.8s, most of our guys are 4-6, 4-8. So I don't want to turn this into a FIP conversation. I want to point out that one of the deepest, most intensive metrics related to says a lot of positive things about David Peterson. Now, you can take that and then look at the Mets' defense. They have the worst infield defense in Major League Baseball. It's not even close. David Peterson leads Major League Baseball in ground balls for base hits. And the Cubs are second in the National League, second in Major League Baseball behind the Dodgers in defensive run saved, which is primarily considered the most comprehensive defensive metric. One, two, three, whatever. They're one of the best. The Mets are one of the worst. They're near the bottom of defensive run saved. So you're taking a guy who has horrible numbers, who executes his pitches under the pretext. He's got to, he's put the put the ball in play, let the defense do their work. That's a very common tenet in baseball. So pitching coaches say that shit all the time. Put the ball in play. You've heard me talk about we just have the batting practice guy go out and pitch. Because if you go watch batting practice, you'll see hitters that fly balls, and fly balls are outs. If you go and watch batting practice, you'll see guys roll, you'll see a guy roll over batting practice. It happens. That's an out, right? That's the tenet of like let the defense work. For example, just go watch batting practice. Guys make outs all the time. Why are you fucking around? Does that make sense? Does that have any bearing to you guys? Because what I'm trying to establish here is that David Peterson is gonna come out pound strikes. I shouldn't say pound strikes, he does have a higher walk rate. But the transition of him going from playing with the Mets defense behind him to then turning around and being like, is that P. Crow Armstrong in center field and Dan'sby Swanson at shortstop and Nico Horner at fucking second? You know, Michael Bush was developed as a second baseman, third baseman in the Dodgers system because they had uh Freddie Freeman. So when we traded for him, he was an infielder that moved to first base and has just gotten like every week he takes the field, he's a better he's he's a better defender. You know, do you guys want me to tell you how good Ian Happ is in left field? I know a lot of you don't want to hear that, but my point is with David Peterson coming to the Cubs, I think it's fucking awesome. I think if you're on the side where you're mad we gave up Cole Mathis, I would just briefly say the prospect we gave up to the Mets was a second rounder, 22 years old, in high A. This is a classic Jed Hoyer pick in Cole Mathis. You know, people are I wouldn't say bum, but they're like, I thought we would give up less. Like David Peterson's not good. He's got a six-something ERA. David Peterson's better than the numbers suggest. I would say Cole Mathis is worse than what a second-rounder 22-year-old in high A brings. He, for his age and level, I don't fucking care about A-ball players and high A players, but we got to talk about this guy because we traded him for Cole Mathis, or we trade him for David Peterson. His name's Cole Mathis, and people complain about it. So just a little opportunity here to talk about trading prospects for uh we don't have starting pitching. We we don't have anyone. You know, I know Matt Boyd's back, but like Cabrera IL, Ben Brown neck injury, that's gonna be vague. A neck

Steele Out And Rotation In Crisis

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issue, that's gonna just be vague. I'll guarantee you three months or now we're sitting around being like, what is what is happening with the Ben Brown neck thing? You know, so the starting pitching stuff Colin Ray takes the ball tonight against Jacob Mizerowski. So just take that for what it is, particularly when we're establishing the fact a need we have a need. Okay, so who are you gonna trade for? We've done this a thousand times on this show. It's June. The sellers, identified size, and the Mets will be sellers. We got David Pearson. Who'd he play for? The Mets. I know you want Logan Webb, I know you want Tarek Scuble, I know you want the world. It's fucking June. So we had to give up Cole Mathis, which lines perfectly with the prospect talk we've had. You need prospects putting up good tape. If the Cubs were serious about advancing Cole Mathis in the system, there is no way he would be in high eight this level. He's played South Bend last year. He opened the season in South Bend this year. He's a second rounder with advanced strike zone discipline for his age. He's an average hitter. He could turn into like a an average to maybe marginally above average major league player if he slugs and he doesn't lose any of his speed because he's already slow as shit. 22 years old, he ain't getting any faster. So to be as bad of a runner as he is, he needs to hit the ball really fucking hard. Does that make sense? Okay, that's a lot of if this and that. We're talking about don't give a shit because right now we don't have any starting pitching. David Peterson will come in. He can make starts. Cole Mathis can't. See you later, Cole. Uh now that is a little bit mean towards Cole, but like that's how you guys should be thinking about where the Cubs are at right now. I would not have had to say this about Cole Matthews or Cole Mathis. You know, whatever. Three years ago, you know, two years ago, fall fell apart in June. There's there's we're hanging on to every prospect we can because we just worry, we don't know who's gonna be what. The organization absolutely has shifted its attitude towards uh with respect to prospects. We need we need the prospects we could trade. If we put Cole Mathis in double A and he's hitting 230, and you're accepting it as an organization because he can go through the adjustment phase at double A, you're inherently tanking his trade value. You leave him in high A, he's just mashing shit. Then you're in the market and you're going, we got this guy in high A. The reason he's not in double A, you make up some bullshit excuse. We've got a log jam of corner infielders. It's easier for him to get reps at high A. Hey, where are you at double A with your corner infield situation? So then that's an easy thing to pick apart, right? The Mets corner infield situation in their farm system uh is not good, has not been good. You know, there's a number of reasons for that. Brett Beatty, Mark Vientos, uh fucking Pete Pete Alonzo being on that team forever. So it has this carryback effect. You can go back for a couple of years, you know, you're making top draft pits like, well, we have Alonzo, so let's look at outfielders, shit like that. So it's just a natural fit. This is a long thing on Cole Mathis and David Pearson, but you could apply a lot of this stuff to a in the future seasons when we're talking about trade deadlines and stuff. This all of this stuff applies. This isn't natural, or I mean, this isn't just inherent to the 2026 season. This is ever-present stuff until they change the way prospects. Um one, two, we should be making more trades this season. So that's what if if we have Cole Mathis and Hay like that, so that we can trade him, I would imagine Jed's got a whole stable of ponies and a big old strategy on exactly how he can market his prospects to the best of his ability when it comes time to get more starting pitching. Because I do think that's coming. So that's where I stand on David Pearson. Excited to see him take them out as a cub. I think even though Shota's a soft tossing lefty, even though everybody in our rotation is soft tossing, I do think Peterson does give us this alternate look, is a big lefty who pitches with what's called angle. Showta does not pitch with angle. Angle means the ball is coming

David Peterson Trade And The Metrics

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down on a slant, on a diagonal. Think of the hypotenuse on a on a 90-degree right triangle. Okay. That slant coming down. The steeper your hypothetical, the steeper that angle is, the diagonal approach of the baseball, right? The steeper that is, the smaller the ball looks to the hitter, the harder it is to pick up. It's a very hard thing to execute because you have to have size, and then you also just have to have really repeatable mechanics to throw with what's called thrown with angle. You know, some guys have it naturally, other guys just feck themselves into it. Justin Verlander, phenomenal angle. And where angle really pops is on fastballs down and away that freeze hitters. But when you see a hitter, you're like, how'd you not swing it? That it's in the strike zone. I'm not saying border the strike zone close pitch. I'm saying that solid down and away, two-strike fastball that a hitter takes, and you're sitting there going, How the hell did he just take it? It's because the pitch is coming in with good angle, good enough angle where it's too deceptive, and you're just you're caught up. It's it's just harder to pick up. It's harder to see the ball. And David Peterson has that, which can mask uh some other flaws in velocity, location, etc. So excited to see what he turns into. Most importantly, just please be healthy. Like people, if you're listening to this and you can throw at least 85 miles an hour and you're healthy, you are on my radar to join this Cubs team, and I am not fucking joking. Do you understand what I'm saying? That's what I talk about when I say we're in need. That's what I talk about when I say the starting rotation is in crisis. Okay. Now, on the subject of crisis, that transitions us into the next big thing with the Chicago Cubs, and that's Dansby Swanson. And I don't know what to make of the fact that he's like the greatest player in baseball history over the last week. It's great. You know, I defend Dansby a lot. I talk a lot about the subjective with him, and then I I usually caveat or defend poor performance by saying it's inherent to his play that he is awful and he is awesome, and he is rarely in between those two things. Now, why? It's just timing mechanism. He has so many little gears to his swing and and swing thoughts. If he was a golfer, he'd be the guy who's on the range. He's VJ Sig 10 hours after the round, blisters on the hands, won't go home, doesn't care. You going out tonight? No, get a game tomorrow. I said the entire his entire life revolves around his performance as a baseball player. He is the craziest person on that team. Maybe Alex Bregman, but those are, I mean, complete lunatics, not main edge, lunatics, clinically diagnosed lunatics, severe, uh, severe issues. I I can't say that if I know Dan's B is a nice guy, raise him. I love him. Just be honest with yourself, Dansby, though. You are a psychopath and a weirdo about the game of baseball.

unknown 21:59

Okay.

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Now that puts you in head spaces where you can fail miserably, and that also puts you in head spaces where you can grind yourself into these incredibly hot streets where the foot is down on time. Now, the problem though is that Dansby's walking around right now going, okay, I have my foot down, the hands are back, the hip is loaded. It is very much a thought-provoking swing. Okay. So other guys, not so much. Yes, P. Carl Armstrong, he's gonna be like, I'm honestly, I'm trying to get my hands back and drive it. You know, Dansby's gonna take in this setup. You know, when I get into the box, I like to put my right foot here. Now, what do I make of the fact? I I can't I can't even render judgment on whether or not it bothers me that he's horrendous for 80, 90 games, 100 games the whole season. Now he's awesome. Okay, fine. Lead the team in RBIs. I don't give a fuck. Go go right ahead. But like having lived through the experience of watching it, it makes it very difficult for someone to say Danzby Swanson's great because he leads the Cubs in RBI. Does that make sense? The f the balance of you're bad all the time, now you're awesome. Do I want you four for four today, or would you mind going one for four, four games in a row? That one, maybe we got runners in scoring position. You know, beggars can't be choosers. I know he hits ninth, but we do pay him 27 million dollars. We do talk about his offense all the time. He does end up with the OPS around 102, 103, 98, 97. You know, he's always in that conversation of like he's good enough offensively, he's spectacular defensively, he's a great leader, he's the exact presence you want in the clubhouse, blah, blah, blah. But that OPS was like 68. No, he was he's all he was he's been awful. He was the worst qualified hitter uh wearing a cub's uniform through mid-June since 1890. Indy, Indy, Indy, Indy, Indy, Indy, Indy, Indy, Indy, Indy, Indy. 130 years, you have to go back a hundred and thirty years ago, they didn't have electricity in in m 1% of American households in 1896 had electricity. I I can't even fathom how many bad players have come between Dansby Swanson in 1876. And you're telling me at one point this season he was the worst. So that's where my head's at. I like him, I trust him. And when we talk about the Brewers, like there's a guy who I think, okay, we have tough pitching matchups this weekend. If somebody can get to Mizorowski in our lineup, like Dan'sby Swanson's closer to the top, he's geared for fastballs, you know. So it's just if you guys know how I should feel about Danzby Swanson, by all means, share it. But it's just take the I want him to have 15 RBIs in three games, guys. I want him to be the best uh player in the world. Of course, we all want that. You know, what's the reality? Like being in a relationship with a girl is just absolutely fucking insane. But then, like, you know, you guys go on a trip, you guys go to Mexico, it's great sex, she's awesome, she's fucking the coolest person in the world. Then you get back to real life, you know, and it's hell on fucking wheels, and she's bitching about her job, and she always talks about her boss and this guy she works with who's just weird, and you and it's just I don't want to listen to any of this. And lady, you gotta stop fucking smoking Marlboro lights, you know. At some point, you gotta give up that hat.

Prospect Value And Deadline Reality

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You know, there's just things you don't like, but then you go to Mexico, you know, you know, then you're you're sitting in a strip club in New Orleans with this lady and you're thinking to yourself, maybe this is the one. So that's that's where I'm at with with Danzby Swanson. You know, it's it's some days you look at this guy and you're like, can you get your shit together? And then other days you look at him and you're like, I can't imagine anyone else playing shortstop for this team. So take that for what it is. I could use help on that. I definitely could use help, otherwise, offense just looks alive, looks good, you know, it's fresh. I kind of like what we're doing with this lineup here. I every now and then when I poke into these lineup previews and I say, What's that? Can Fordo's hitting two, which then just kind of stabilizes the rest of these guys. And Maya, hey, you're gonna be hitting seven or eight. That's just a fact. You know, Pedro Ramirez, a guy who's getting some time in the lineup, to the extent you can give him a little bit of consistency. Hey, if you if you are starting, you're gonna be hitting seven, Danzi's baked into nine, Horner's been in that sixth spot for a while, Bragman in the four, PCA in the lead, Bush in the three. So when we get in that platoon situation where it's like, hey, we're facing a righty who's awful against lefties, can Ford us get in that second spot? You know, so like it would be nice to see him just continue and just make this a great season for him. So you can go in a free agency next year, get a couple years, you know, do the best you can to salvage, you know, the fact you turned down a hundred million dollars from the Mets. That that's where Conforto has to be mentally right now. That, like, hey, you finally have a taste to get back what was yours to the best that you can, right? He's still not, he's not ever gonna get as much money as the Mets offered him. But that personal inherent motivation of Conforto, not to get specific about him, it this is more of a broader thing about the lineup. Um, that that Craig is maneuvering, you know, um his way into consist had maneuvered his way into what I think is some consistency. Now that we've gotten out a little bit of a hot streak here, the offense is potent. So going into this Brewer series, I would expect nearly identical line of construction. Yeah, I don't think you'll see anything kind of I think I think that's kind of where hmm where we've settled and I enjoy it because we've played well, right? Like whether there is a direct connection or not, the lineup today, say it's the same nine guys, just reshuffling and reorganizing. Is that why we scored 10 runs in back to back? Is that why we sweat the Mets? Because we have lineup consistency, because that is that it I don't think so. Like directly, I don't think that's the direct correlation. Where I think the benefit is, is now we're going into Mizorowski. There's consistency last night, these guys going to bed, getting up in the morning, preparing themselves for the game. There's consistency going into Saturday, there's consistency going into Sunday. That's kind of how I view where the where the offense has been successful with the fact that Craig is rolling out what is generally a very similar lineup, and that's been a hot thing for us to figure out. We're just Bregman fit in a lineup. And I don't even know if he's he's a cleanup hitter. He's not a cleanup hitter. He is not a cleanup hitter, but he's hitting cleanup for us. That's what we've come up with. We'll just keep it rolling, baby. But the offense is hot, and you know, that's great right now as I record this. Here's the problem, and we're just gonna start talking about the Milwaukee Brewers because the season's come up. So congratulations to the Cubs. 10-4 over our last 14. You've you've captured or recaptured um what would we call it? The passion, passion never goes away. The interest, I'm always interested. But what has this last little stretch done for me? I think it's rebuilt the hope. You know, of course I'm interested. Of course I'm passionate, of course they lose you get pissed, of course you're just like, there's no avoiding any of this as a Cubs fan. But where you can really plug and play throughout Cubs seasons is that hope, the hope. You know, and it has been a struggle because we had so much of it for an extended period of time, and then the Cubs dangled hope in front of us 2020, 21. Then they fucking rip it away from us. Talis, we're going through a rebuild, rebuilds quick. Here's some more hope. Craig counsel, here's some more hope. We almost went to the playoffs with David Ross, we're only gonna be better, you know. And then the hope comes, it leaves. And it's there last year in spades and it leaves, and it's there at the start of the season, and it's completely gone in May, where you it you just felt stupid that we were. I'm walking around April being like, huh, they're gonna win a hundred games. Are you watching this team? Hope disappears. Now it's back. Now it's back,

Why Peterson Fits Cubs Defense

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my friends. Three games in Milwaukee. Does that feel good? Because what I have to say now feels bad. The Brewers are awesome. They are the baseball team I just wish I could watch every single day right now. That is such a good team. Uniquely, they're almost dead last in Major League Baseball and home runs. They're third in runs scored. They have the best ERA in the National League. They lead the National League in strikeouts. You know, some Brewers fans will bitch that they have pitching injuries. What they're really saying is Quinn Priester's out for the season. He pitched 160 innings last year. Otherwise, they're missing about 200 innings right now from last year. With Quinn Priester, it's about 350. That's that's what's on the IL with the Brewers. Now, that may mean nothing to you without context. The Chicago Cubs have 660 innings on the injured list right now. They have almost almost double the amount of innings on the injured list. And Brewers has to say, our pitching's thin. You know, what's his name? Jared Coning's on the aisle. Fuck that guy. I didn't pitch 70 innings last year. Jacob Mizorowski's taking the ball on Friday. Tonight. Jacob Mizorowski is the best pitcher in baseball. Jacob Mizorowski is probably the most dominant pitcher I have watched since uh Jake Arietta's stretch to 2015. But that's that's a stretch. You go, that's the that's the the stretch. That's the greatest stretch of all time. Now let's talk about like career stuff, because that's what I think Mizorowski's kind of like pointed towards. He looks like Randy Johnson when Johnson went to the Diamondbacks and took steroids. I mean, people will never want to talk about that, but like when he went down to Arizona and he got on that regime where he could throw 280 innings a year. No one was doing steroids, then there just were no injuries. Um that that level of like, and maybe you're too young to remember this, but what would happen is you'd get up in the morning and you'd turn out Sports Center, and they would do 15 minutes on last night's Major League Baseball games. And of those 15 minutes, they'd show three of the minutes would just be Randy Johnson punching out 17, giving up one hit, diamondbacks win 1-0. And it was like that every single time the big unit took the ball. Jacob Mizerowski's on that level with like better stuff. He throws 105, throws 103. He can't grow a beard. He uh has a size 18 shoes. He's gonna get bigger at that point. Like, I don't know if he's hit puberty. What I do know is he pumps fastballs every time he takes them out. He has significantly more confidence. It's it's like a sophomore in high school called up to varsity, who's like, I can't believe I'm on the varsity team. Oh my god, I'm on the varsity team. And then you go into the playoffs and he's the number one pitcher. And then by the time that guy's a senior, every scout in the area is showing up. Everybody's talking about have

Dansby Swanson Hot Streak Whiplash

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you seen this kid? Have you heard about that kid from Evergreen Park? Have you seen him? Did you go see that kid from Mount Carmel? Have you heard up? Have you heard about Brady Cunningham at Brother Rice? Who actually is like a national top prospect from the south side of Chicago? But my my general point about Mizorowski is that in his development at the major league level, all the greatness you've witnessed from this guy is raw. It's not polished, it's not it's not even confident. He's confused. And you couldn't ask for a better guy to develop him and lead him than Pat Murphy because Pat Murphy is, in my estimation, the number one leader of men in Major League Baseball. Now, is he the smartest in-game coach? Probably not by any stretch. You know, is he uh the most experienced man? Not even by a mile, coach at Arizona State forever. He's a gamer, he's a lifer. Uh, I have close personal friends that are close personal friends with Murph. So I don't know him. I was gonna interview him like two years ago in person at the Bo Jackson Dome. If you guys are familiar with that, get there's very strong connections through the Southside of Pat Murphy through the baseball community. And I just bring that up just because uh secondhand, I don't know him primarily. You know, third hand would be the interviews, post-game press conferences, you know, the shit you pick up on Twitter. Maybe that's a fourth hand source. Secondhand source, you know, guys that don't have dinner, play golf, all this shit. The stories about this Pat Murphy motherfucker, I want to play for him. I want to I want to train myself, get back on the mount, get a contract, and just do everything I can to go play for Pat Murphy. Now we're getting ready for the series. They're 20 games over 500. Their payroll is almost half of ours. We took their like the most successful manager in their organization. You know what I mean? Like, just take all of this with a grain of salt because I I want to talk positively about the Brewers because they've earned it. I'm not doing this because I I am not a Cubs fan. God, I can't even believe I'm making this qualification. But you know, as I'm saying these nice things about the Brewers, don't use it to feel bad about the Cubs. It's just a reality, you know. Mizerowski, sensational. Pat Murphy is a leader of men. His those guys they play so well, they run the bases perfectly. They execute baseball plays perfectly, sacrifice bunts, hitting runs, bunt defense, you fucking name it, hitting the cutoff man, positioning, outfielder. The whole thing is just the machine, the machine they've put together of just high quality baseball players. And the high quality can be it's better explained, it's high IQ. Naturally high IQ. Anybody who watches any other sport knows what I'm talking about. The basketball player who's just a little bit slow but knows where the open spacing is on the floor. Okay. The football player, the receiver, the guy hasn't the guy's lost 10 steps. How the fuck is he still open? He knows where the spots are. He just knows where to be. Why is it the tape? It's everything. It's everything in the inherent uh you know, athleticism, or I should say, aptitude, the athletic aptitude off the charts. And so you talk about baseball players, it's a little bit different because you have to be anticipating if it's here, I need to be here, if it's there, I need to be there. And through your life of that level of anticipation, pitch to pitch. Okay, so I'll be more specific of what I'm talking about. In the field when you're playing defense, a lot, a lot of players on every pitch expect the ball to be hit to them. One, two, they want it. They when Pete Carr, I'm strong in center field. Every single time a pitch is delivered, he's in his head, like, I'm about to make the best play of my life. And there are there are many people, uh, many players in Major League Baseball with that mentality. Okay. Now, on the highest end of that would be a guy like Derek Cheater. That would be the highest end. And that's an ego type thing of I want to make the play. Now don't fucking come back at me and tell me Derrick Cheater is a terrible shortstop by the metrics. I know that. I'm trying to draw a distinction here about what I'm saying from the perspective of anticipation when you're in the field, I want that pitch. Because the other example I'm going to draw on the other side of the spectrum is remember Starlin Castro eating sunflower seeds and tree. He didn't give a fuck. Starlin Castro wanted to get back into the dugout. Starlin Castro did not want the ball hit his way. He didn't, he says, I'll play shortstop because I'm a shortstop. Whatever, I play the shortstop. That's the other end of the spectrum where you're just so completely talented that you never got to the point where you had to anticipate a play because you want to play well. You're just a fucking awesome hitter, dude. You're just a tremendously talented person. That's the broader concept of anticipation in the field. Now, when you have that level of anticipation, pitch to pitch, and you're like that since you were, you know, in junior high, you're like that since you're playing little league. And and now you're a whatever, you're 28 years old, you're in the major league baseball. Do you think that anticipation went away? Sense of like, I need to be here, I'm gonna make this play. Now, the Brewers have all of that anticipation across the field, that level of interest, except I would just then further apply it to the fundamentals. They're anticipating the correct play. Where I would say Pete Crow Armstrong's in the field, being like, I'm going off the wall, I'm gonna catch this thing, I'm gonna be diving in a warning track. You're not gonna believe the play I'm about to make. I'm gonna hose that motherfucker at third base. You better not try and

Lineup Consistency And Craig Counsell

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tag on me, which is great anticipation. That's he's the best. That combined with his athleticism allows him to have the best jump like ever recorded from any outfielder that allows him to get the balls nobody else can get to because it's it's in his head before the play even happens. So long-winded thing, but just take that and apply it to the Brewers as a whole as a team. Like, that's how that unit, when I call it a machine, um, there's they're utterly disciplined. It goes back to Murphy, it goes back to the fundamentals, it goes back to the identity of a team when they have their first team meeting spring training. He probably looks at those guys and says, Nobody is counting on you. We are the smallest market team in baseball. And I'll guarantee you the only way we are gonna win games and prove people wrong is if we follow the letter of the law. And the letter of the law says we are gonna fucking do things the right way and play fundamental baseball. And I think that's been the identity, and that has been rammed down these guys' throats. Can we do that with the Cubs? It's way harder when you got $35 million at third base, $27 million at shortstop, $23 million at second base, $20 million in center field, $20 million in left field. It's very hard to then take all of that and build this collective up of like we're in it together, right, guys? So that's why you go and say, well, if we're gonna do $35 million, it's gonna go to a guy like Bregman who doesn't divide. We're gonna give it to a guy like Swanson, who brings people together. We're gonna give it to a guy like Nico, who is a relentless lunatic in his individual preparation, is what just a complete psychopath, and the same can be said about Ian Hap. It's it's just a harder thing. Now, some of that's very esoteric, and I apologize if that didn't stick with some of you maniacs. I'm sorry if you if you played baseball, then stuff I just said should make a lot of sense to you. If you're just a baseball fan or or you don't have that like day-to-day experience of being a player and wanting to feel a certain way about yourself or the team, etc., um, then I can understand if that's a little if that's a little hazy, but that's how you answer the question of how does a team who's almost dead last in home runs in at a time when this league is entirely predicated on the home run, how are they one of the best offenses in baseball? Now they're fifth and steals. You know, they don't strike out a ton, they create pressure. And then what's really interesting to me is the amount of saves. Now you have to rack up wins to have saves, so it's kind of like a they have a lot of saves, but 25 or their 49 wins uh were the were converted in save situations, which is what a game that's three runs or less. So I don't I don't necessarily see the Brewers like we went to the Met, we beat the shit out of the Mets in that doubleheader, right? I I don't necessarily see the Brewers as a team where you're like, well, they're gonna fucking bang us around today. I think they're a team where it's like good luck getting on the board. Good luck. Pitcher strike out an extremely our pitchers have extremely high strikeout rates. Our defense is meticulous, much less excellent. And the offense does not beat itself. We've seen games with the Cugs. What do you mean zero runs, three hits, 11 strikeouts? Those are so few and far between for the Brewers. Now, the trade-off there obviously is like they don't have punch, and that'll come to play at some point, right? I'm old enough to remember the athletics in the money ball era, just rolling through regular seasons, very difficult to beat in a series, hard place to play. You just just a just a weird machine. Uh go back to that word again. Whoever they bring, it's gonna work. Whoever he is, it just clicks, it just works. Now, I don't think the Oakland Athletics did jack shit ever in the postseason. I'm not sitting here trying to talk shit about the Brewers. What we're doing is talking about the Brewers from the perspective we're about to play on this weekend and and go right ahead and play that brand of baseball over 162. That playoff scenario is very difficult for a team like that. It's it's because of pitching matchups because teams roll out one, two, threes. You know, like right in the middle of the season, Mizorowski can catch you know a Rockies number four. You know, you can you can get Mizorowski against average major league starting pitchers, and then what's the balance there? Fucking big time towards Mizorowski and the Brewers. You know, Saturday, Kyle Harrison's pitching. They traded for him from Caleb Durbin, the Red Sox, just an awful move. Caleb Durbin was a pest. Kyle Harrison is a problem. Lefty, 8-1, 2.5 yard eight. Three, three, three, three, three, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great. Who I thought was injured for the rest of his life and career. I hate seeing that guy on the mound. I could kill he's just an imposing, formidable, intimidating, four-seam fastball heavy, tough motherfucker. And I talked about pitching with angle before. That'll be a full display Sunday from Brandon Woodruff. It's extremely hard to hit his four-seam fastball because he can pitch with angle and then he can throw it at the top of the zone where it looks like a fucking meatball, but it's not anywhere near uh your hitting zone. So you're gonna take a hack at it. The reason you're gonna swing at that is because the pitches with angle are very difficult to see. So when you see that big flash come out of his hand, you think it's a mistake, it's actually eight inches elevated above the strike zone, and you don't stand a chance. So that's Brandon Woodruff, and he's on Sunday. Who's pitching for the Cubs? Who gives a fuck? We need to score seven runs in two of these games to win. Like, that's how I feel. Somehow, someway, you know, is it can we get we've done it before? Can we get to Mizorowski? Can we just jump on fastballs? You have to abandon this is where I'm saying against a guy like Mizorowski, sure, you want to go in there and try and work a count, you're fucked. Because he's he's gonna pump 103 for strike one now like over the plate. I'm not saying 10 103 is impossible to hit. But it's significantly harder to hit with two strikes. 103 with two strikes is is not possible.

Brewers Identity Built On Execution

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103 with 0-0 still extremely difficult, but not nearly as hard with two strikes. So that's the that's where my head's at with Mizarowski. Um, I don't have any capacity to go through any individual players on the brewers. Because my sky report on them is they're all faceless, nameless cocksuckers. And I say that with total respect in the baseball community. If you've been in a dugout, you know what I mean. That guy. A good leadoff hitter on another team, Pasky, wears the arm guard, stands on top of the plate, plays a great left field, runs the bases hard. Just a real cocksucker, that guy. Why? Top tough to get out, tough to deal with. You know, give me the guy with the big swing. Give me the guy who can't sniff a changeup. Give me the guy who's in the box where the mentality is, don't make a mistake. Fine. I'd much rather have that guy. That's a much more predictable matchup in many situations, then so this is what he does with two strikes. You know, he is mostly looking back up the box. Um, because of that though, he does have the ability to keep his hands inside the ball. So if you are going in, it has to be in hard. I don't expect him to chase too much away. And he's adept with breaking balls. So if you are throwing that breaking ball and you're trying to get swing and miss, I would I would start it out or third. I would not be starting it. I would I would not be starting it so that it ends inside the zone. You know, those are the type of conversations you have. Those are book hitters. That's what's called the book. What do they do? They hit by the book, by the book. So Milwaukee, you're just classic book hitters. Um, some punching duty, you know. I think that Self Relic, I said I wouldn't go into specific players, but there's a couple guys that kind of ride that fringe between being a book hitter and being a punch and Judy. You know, a punch and Judy is like you don't strike out. Punch and Judy, but you don't you're not hitting home runs. So like Nico Horner, when he first got in the league, was a little bit of a punch and Judy as he was developing into a book hitter, Nico Horner. You know, and when he's hot, he's like, buy the book, buy the book. Does that make sense when we talk about the Brewers offense? So not necessarily imposing. So it's not like Colin Ray or I'm nervous about who you know, our arms getting run out the door. What typically happens with the Brewers is they get two or three against your starter by the sixth inning, which is technically a quality start. You know, three runs and six innings. Like you can make quality starts against the Brewers and lose three to one five times in a row. That they're they're collective, we say defense pitching, the run prevention system, the machine, the focus, and the energy these guys show up to play with, the energy, I would say. I mean, how many times we watch the Cubs this season? We're like, this is a lifeless group of hacks. I that doesn't happen with the Brewers. Like, you see them play hard one day, that's just how they play. Period. End of story. So any notion of like we're bigger, better, stronger, faster, all that stuff, you know, like this isn't football, unfortunately. Because if it was, we would fucking run it down their throats. You know, we would have the big hog mollies in the trenches, we would have the the pass rushing defensive ends, we'd have the nose tackles that just blow the play up. Fundamentally, we have so many more resources, we're so much deeper, we've all we have everything you could possibly want. The problem is we're playing baseball, you know, which which ultimately just comes down to the individuals and how the individual approaches the game and how good the individual is, and how the individual deals with failure, how prepared they are, and you need the nine individuals that you are you are playing on that particular day to be working together as a fucking group. And the fact that the Brewers have like no injuries, none. Lockbridge is the only position player that's been hurt for them. So then you have continuity. What I'm trying to do is give you reasons why they're 20 games over 500, right? Because at one point in the season we were at the same level, and hopefully I've established the fact we are the type of team compared to them that can fall into the rut that we fell into. That's what happens when you lose Kate Horton. That's what happens when you lose Matt Boyd. That's what happens when the offense falls apart when the starting pitching goes to the aisle. Tyson uses we lost all that ground for that piece of pie and May. We're the worst team in Major League Baseball. We're out of it now. Offense is back. And as far as as far as the matchup with the Brewers goes, I understand all the issues with our starting pitching as much as anybody. I know our bullpen's faceless. I know Craig Council overmanages almost all the time. And all the stuff. I have it baked in. Got it. If we're winning or losing ball games right now, it's because of our offense. If we're winning or losing ball games against the Milwaukee Brewers, it's gonna be because our lineup was able to hang numbers in the first six innings alongside the Milwaukee Brewers. Because they're good for what? You know, they're good, they're gonna get their three, they're gonna be pet, they're gonna have the runners in scoring position, they're gonna get guys on base, they don't put themselves out, they don't take shitty swings, no one's switching, no one's popping out with the fucking bases loaded and one out. It's just not it's just not in that DNA. So what does it demand from us? I would say on one end, well, we would it would be great if Colin Ray wanted to throw seven scoreless, you know, that puts us in a position to win. Where most cases you're going Colin Ray's seven scoreless, guaranteed win. Uh for the like that would put us in a position, but really, I mean, it's just gonna come down to that lineup. And can we continue to build off the momentum we got from the Mets? We saw bad started pitching against the Mets. We're gonna see the through this will be the best started pitching series we get all year long. You know, and that I should that obviously depends a lot on Brandon Woodruff, but that's just the general mentality as we kick off this weekend, guys. And so hopefully this has been informative. Hopefully, I've been able to give some insights to help you watch whatever whatever you enjoy about the show. You know, it's just me here solo, taking a break from this project, about to jump back into it. Excited for the brewer series tonight, you know, World Cup next week. The dog days of summer aren't here yet, but they're around the corner. Stay positive. We got fourth of July coming up. You get a chance, check out Thirsty with Carol. And if you guys like the show, if I'm saying stuff that you don't hear elsewhere, if I'm saying stuff that's like, oh, wait a second, that's good shit. You know, that's all I want to do. I just want to take the fucking stuff that's in my head when I watch this team, give it to other people. And and you guys go give it to other people, and then it that's it. I don't if you've if you have followed me enough, you know I don't give one flying

Mizorowski Woodruff And The Cubs Path

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fuck about uh you know, we're gonna be syndicated, marquees picking this up, uh, we're gonna be here. The fucking bell that's to blow me, you know, and nothing against people that like that stuff, or you know, have these ambitious uh notions about how fucking wonderful they are on TV or any of that stuff. This is an audio, audio, audio, audio, audio, audio for people who love the Chicago Cubs. That's it. That's it. And if you enjoy it, give it to somebody. If you enjoy it, you know, leave a review on Apple or Spotify or something. I've said it before, it does help with advertisers. Believe it or not, there is a portion of this that does pay some bills. So, like, if there's one small thing, a little review helps. That's really just about the only thing I'll ask for, other than you guys checking out Thirsty McCarroll. So uh, if you guys could do that, I promise you on Mondays and Fridays for our Cub season and on Mondays in the season, I will fucking do the absolute best I can to make the Chicago Cubs all I gotta say on that. Uh last thing, Mahoney's not here, but I figured it would just be nice for me to just color in some context on how much I enjoy doing this with Tim. And the short answer is he's such a close personal friend and has been for such a long time. But the deeper reason there is I just can't ask for a better person to represent what I believe to be run-of-the-mill average Cubs fan. Like, if you had to paint a picture of somebody that's like, yeah, I he loves the Cubs, he watches them. You know, is he sitting there going, I can't believe this OPS plus is this and that. No, the ballgame's on the background, and he's he's in the group text. Are we really are we really fucking losing to the Rockies? You gotta be kidding me. And he's sucked into it. And I wanted to work with Tim on a project for years before we did the Monday morning cub show. And when I worked at Barstall, he would he was at every every event, knew everybody was around, close with Danny Conrad. One of the guys has always been on my mind of like I the I love this guy, he's such a character, he's so fun, he's always in a good mood. And if he's not in a good mood, he's working himself into a good mood. He's just and and every time I get to see him and we do this show, and we pop up and it's Sunday night or Monday morning or whatever, it's it's a weight off my back that I get to do it with him. And I know you you guys know me way better than you know him because I've been doing this for 10 fucking years, but I wanted to share that at the end of the show with respect to how much I love that guy, and there's absolutely no Monday morning cub show without Mahoney going, I'm doing that with you. I'm fucking doing that with you. What do you want to do? I'm doing it. This guy's got sales career, kids, whike, they're on vacation, Dork County, kid for the whole fucking thing. Family, we're going to Disneyland, all that stuff. Hey, what time Sunday night? What time Sunday night? And it may sound like, well whatever, you guys are just sitting around bullshitting. He's one of your close friends. It's easy to do that, right? It's Sunday night. You gotta get up and go to work on Monday. You your fucking wife is telling you, are you making dinner for the kids? I gotta go run out and do shit. You know, can you put so-and-so down? Can you change this diaper? Can you pick, we gotta do this, this, this, and this every fucking Sunday. And so he was gonna be on the show today, brought all his recording equipment up to Door County, and I was working on this project, just missed communication text, just missed it. We were gonna do it last night or first thing this morning, and I fucked that up. And so I owed Tim an apology for bringing the equipment up to Door County, not being there for him. Um, but I also owe it to you guys to give you appropriate context on like exit Mahoney fits into this because he is it. He's he's it. He's go to Wrigley Vilt this guy. You're gonna have the absolute best time in your life. He's the most fun person to go to a Cubs game with. He'll make more friends in the bleachers than anybody listening to this. I'll guarantee it. He'll be buying beers for everybody in the first inning, and everybody will be buying him fucking beers from then on out. I I I cannot say enough good things about him, and I've thoroughly have enjoyed the progression of our conversations, and so that's just where I stand on on the Monday morning cup show format, you know, and from the standpoint of like get more guests or fucking you guys should do a live show or where's a merch training itself, like you know, merch we should obviously there should be a hat or a shirt or something. I I would guess I don't have that eye, but the broader thing is like it's just about me and my buddy, it's just a show with me and my buddy. One of us is a complete lunatic about the Cubs who's completely dedicated his life to the game in every single imaginable fucking respect you want to call it, and now carries the burden of the information in his head. The other guy is an extremely close personal friend who is here to help me extract this information to get stuff out and do it in a way that's fun for people and do it in a way that like sticks and lands, doesn't intimidate people. You get sit here and talk, but you want me to bring in the numbers, guy? The show will sound like shit. You didn't bring we just

Closing Thanks Mahoney And Calls To Action

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we're just gonna sit, we're just gonna sit here and I'm gonna take you guys through all the fucking ratios that live on the third page of baseball reference. Like just blow my brains out. You know what I mean? So a little bit long-winded here, I'm a homie, but you know, he probably deserved this a long time before me doing it now. But it but but I fucking screwed up today. I didn't have him on the show, I totally screwed that up, and um I I just want to make it clear to you guys how much I love working with him, and and that's it. So just I don't even what do I say now? Go follow him or whatever or show him. I mean, you guys are respectful, you guys do like him, but I don't think I've ever explained exactly how much and why I like him. So maybe one of those days we'll tell the story about how we originally met and some fucking war stories, you know. They're there. Until then, baseball, let's be competitive. Um, and I look forward to seeing you guys on Monday.