Why Craig Counsell’s Anger Might Be Good News For The Cubs

Something feels different with the Chicago Cubs right now, and it isn’t a single box score. It’s the heat. When Craig Counsell looks genuinely furious after a loss, when the frustration is visible and specific, it tells me the wins and losses are starting to matter in a sharper way again and that’s a big deal heading into the All-Star break and the MLB trade deadline.

We talk through the Orioles series, the temptation to blame umpires, and why that’s a dead end when you score two runs. Then we get into what I actually care about: urgency, buy-in, and the hard truth that a lot of major league players become emotionally numb over time. I break down why a manager showing “breaking points” can be healthy, how clubhouse culture changes when losses sting, and why the edge isn’t always found in the cleanest spreadsheet comparison.

From there, we look forward: what Jed Hoyer needs to do to upgrade the bullpen and add proven arms, what the Cubs should aim for in the final series before the break, and how we should be thinking about trade packages and real roster costs. I also get into a Cubs broadcast rant, what the best broadcasters have always done for fans, and why that matters more than people admit.

If you’re watching this season closely and trying to figure out whether the Cubs are building toward something real, hit play. Subscribe, share the show with a Cubs fan, and leave a rating or review so more people can find us.

Thanks for tuning in! 

- Carl & Mahoney

Transcript

Trade Deadline Pressure Builds

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Good morning, good afternoon, and evening Chicago Cubs fans, and welcome back to the Monday Morning Cubs Show. Today is Friday, July 10th. It is your host, Carl. This is our second episode of the week. I'll say it off the top. You know, if you want to leave a review on Spotify or Apple, it certainly helps. Beggars won't be choosers. That's why I'm not gonna get mad about the fact we lost game three against the Orioles this week. Alright, so just a little level set here. This is a solo show. It's Friday. Hopefully, you have a great weekend lined up. This is our last series of the first half. And then we get breathing room, all of us. Every maniac, uh, everybody but PCA, which I think is unbelievably necessary if we have any aspirations of putting a dent in October baseball. This is a huge all-star break coming up. Now, obviously, that gets into the trade deadline, and that's where a lot of our attention's focused right now. It's just in that total improvement process. We just want to get better. I want better bullpen arms. I want more proven arms. I want guys that throw harder. I want guys at the deadline. I want to be moving chips around. And so pressure's on Jed Hoyer. Absolutely guaranteed the team has played itself back into that position where the fan base has an expectation. We should improve ourselves. So just start there. The team we have now should be it should be better in the second half. That's the expectation. So, do we want to do nuts and bolts first on Baltimore

Sponsor Shoutout And PCA Spotlight

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Orioles? How about this? Let's just say thank you to Thirst of Carroll for sponsoring the Monday Morning Cub show. A Mexican-style soda with the signature spicy finish. That's all bite, no rattle. 100% organic agave with less than 100 calories in a 16-ounce can. Someone do the math on that ratio. That's insane. What per how much percentage organic agave can you go? And then how many calories do you need to spend to get there? Thursday Carol has that equation figured out, my friends. The question is if you figured out how to put it in your Amazon cart, ship it to your front door. It's not hard. It's not hard. It's spelled exactly how it sounds. Thirsty Be Carol, three bold flavors. Mahoney and I have a vigilante segment we're going to debut next week, but I'll just, you know, I'll say right now, Pete Carl Armstrong is spicy watermelon. Pete Carl Armstrong is so much better and different and unique than anything you've ever seen before in a Cubs uniform. I'm out of ways to explain him. I said recently, and by recently, I mean last year, I said I the thing about Pete is you just don't know how good he can be. So it's hard to talk about because his ceiling is like we're at that point where you go, is this like a Ken Griffey Jr. career? Is he gonna be Mike Trout 85 wins above replacement in his first whatever 10 full seasons? You know, are you gonna see just an absolutely absurd ascension from Pete Carr Armstrong was some of the dialogue we had before he slumped second half? And obviously get killed for that one. You know, that's one Cardinals fans, Brewers fans, people don't like me, love coming back to. Hey, remember when you said this about Pete? Now someone posted the graphic today. Through their first 400 games, PC is identical to Barry fucking bonds. Barry who did I just say? I said Barry Bonds. All right. You know how often you get to bring up Barry Bonds in a player comparison? Never ever you don't even do it. Have you ever heard someone talk? Have you ever heard a former player in Barry Bonds' generation talk about Barry? The greatest so good you don't even talk about other people being good. So good you don't even talk, you don't even there isn't even a debate. I don't even know if I used Barry Bonds in the initial comparison for PCA. What I'm saying is if you look at through their first 400 or 396 games, whatever MLB network posted, they're like identical. Slugging, home runs, fucking you name it. A Barry had a better eye, he had a higher on-base percentage and thus a higher adjusted OPS. If you guys want me to get into the nuts and bolts of that, I will. I will go that far. But total total value, war, base, all that bullshit. Same fucking player, guys. Now I'm getting worked up. So that's the guy works on the all-star break. Thank goodness. And thank goodness he signed that extension so he doesn't have to go into the all-star break and put on a dog and pony show. What I mean by that is like you don't have to try be a tryhard. Now he'll always be a tryhard. He is a try-hard guy. That's why he's awesome, actually. That's part of the sauce. You know, you gotta put a little fucking mayo in it. I know you don't like mayo, but you want that texture, you want it creamy, give me the mayo. That's what I'm saying with PCA as far as being, you know, a try-hard. I say it again, I'm gonna do it again. A little bit of a dog and pony player, which I like. I like that. But he's the perfect guy that's in the all-star game. Again, I'm coming back to this because I want to emphasize this point. We were so bad in the second half last year, and we spent so much time bitching. Michael Bush should have been an all-star. Remember when Michael Bush came out and hit a great first week after that all-star game? We're like, see, Michael Bush is underrated. You know, we were all excited for Matt Boy. Just the the list goes on. Kyle Tucker was an all-star. You know. Played like I mean, played the most lifeless baseball you've ever seen in the month of August. How much is that real? I don't know. I just don't like throwing things like the 162 in the routine in the all-star game. This is a chance where guy, you know, you throw you throw off routines, it's hard to recover. So fine. PCA goes. The rest of us stay and watch. That's wonderful. I'll be getting a thin crust. All right.

Orioles Loss And Umpire Noise

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Now, I do want to talk for a second just about the Baltimore Oriol series. In particular, a couple things. I know people are mad, mad umpires. Can't believe he called Nico out. And then if he doesn't call Nico out, then Nico's safe, then Nico scores, and it's a tight game, and then and then this, and then that. And if my grandma had balls, she'd be my grandpa, guys. I mean, don't be one of those fans who say, if this, then that I mean, they we lost, we scored two runs. Yeah, we have fucking hosts. Now, Craig was mad after the game. Craig, Craig has been a little cranky. Craig's been fired up. And if you listen to the show, you know we talked about that long before a month ago, in in great detail about how Craig Counsel went out of his way to get ejected in Colorado. The crew chiefs do not nope. Craig, we gotta get you back on the duck out here because they had a rookie home plate umpire, and Craig would not let it be. Craig was like out Craig Craig would have died on that field before they ejected him. So they ran his ass. Now, I made a big deal about that because that's so atypical to Craig Council. One of the things we talked about in the preseason show is Craig doesn't get ejected. Do you think the Chicago media is getting to him this year? The pressure, the circumstance leaving Milwaukee, Pat Murphy running it down his throat. Will we see a breaking point with Craig Council? Will we see the ejection count climb? We talked about this in March. It's there. You know, if I had a producer or was more organized, I'd pull the clip right now. I'm not pulling the clip. I'm asking you guys to believe me, or go look for yourselves if you don't. But that conversation happened. You know, and it was around Craig Council, the pressure mounting. Will he get ejected more? Will he get more fired up? Will you see more signs of life from this guy? And we actually saw no signs of life from this guy throughout May. That was frustrating, and then it just broke, just absolutely broke in June. The guy just fucking broke. And I loved it. And I said, this could be it. We could have a turnaround on our hands here, folks. And you see it again in these sparks. Where let me take a step back and be further clear. Craig Council, as any presence that's

Counsell’s Blowup Signals A Shift

SPEAKER_00 7:55

represent himself to you as either a player, a manager, manager of the Brewers, manager of the Cubs, 670 interviews, marquee network post-game, pregame, spring training sound bites. I mean, what I'm trying to say is in any way, shape, or form you have ever interacted with Craig Counsel as a baseball person, there's no way that guy gets mad about losing a getaway day game to the Baltimore Royals after winning the first two in the series. That guy puts a cold dead serial killer look on his face and he's like, well, we played a good series, and now we just have to get ready. You know, disappointed. Obviously, you want to get that sweep, you know, but it's Major League Baseball. You know, it's hard to beat a team three times in a row here. It rarely happens. You know, if you go and you pull the numbers, you know, what does it happen? Does somebody here know? What is it, 5% of the time? You know, I mean, that's how Craig did Craig just demeans you then with the statistics. Then just make sure of course how could I be we won two, we won the first two against Baltimore. So that's basically what I'm saying is that's baseline what you would expect from Craig. He's got his hat off in the postgame. Have you guys seen this clip? Rubbing his hair. I mean, just so utterly frustrated with the interpretation and application of the MLB rule book. So mad. Now, there is part of him that's also mad just because there's a new generation of umpires. There's a lot of umpires in the game here that did not umpire when Craig played. Now he doesn't like that. Fresh faces and all this shit, where he's a senior statesman, where before you get done playing, you start managing, there's this huge continuity of relationships with managers. So I do think part of it is he is frustrated with the application of the rules as his experience allows him to be. You know, 30 fucking years in the big leagues. So he wants to get mad. He's like, How the fuck are you calling this guy? Like, that's you're insane. You're insane. But where is the the fact that Craig is showing these breaking points or whatever? You know, I'm willing to take it one step further and be like, this season mat, this matters. Obviously, it matters a lot to him. He's a professional. But we talk a lot on this show about the concept of caring more than the average in your position at Major League Baseball. And how that is a sub you can get a substantial benefit across that league at every single position when you have guys that are bought in emotionally to that, like this matters winning and losing. Now it's hard when you're getting paid a lot of money. It's hard when you're subject to public scrutiny, it's hard when people are fucking, I didn't hit my parlay and you suck. So then you're like, all right, fuck you, dude. Don't go to the game. You know, like it changes the way you interact with that thing you do, and then it becomes this thing you do for a living, and not this sport you played as a kid that you were so good at, and you and it helped pay for college, and you got interest from scouts to help mom pay off the fucking house, and all those great motivating stuff in the early stages of a ball player's career. You know, and like uh extremely long-winded, but uh the general ethos of this is that over time that erodes itself, and that's when you really become a professional. That's really being a day-to-day, everyday big leggers. Like, you don't give a fucking boomy, don't boom me. You know, one over four, went five for five. Doesn't matter. I just like numb to this experience. Uh again, so mechanically trained into this process, it's so rote. I've lost my identity. That's really kind of how this goes for a lot of these major league players because at the highest level of this game, they're all awesome. They're the I'm I'm telling you, the difference between like the absolute fucking very best and major league average, well, I guess in this case, you know, Bobby Witt, maybe that's not a good comparison. Maybe what I'm trying to say is the difference between good and a guy you wouldn't put on your fantasy team is so small and minimal and marginal. You know, where you see it, you're like, over three weeks this guy hit two more doubles. But I mean, like just the amount of parody I'm trying to drive at that we as general public, we don't see it. We'll we'll say this guy's way better. He hit 44 doubles last year. That guy only hit 36. You know, we say stuff like that. What the guys within the game would go, they're fucking both really good players. Idiot. Okay, hit the the you're telling me the guy with 36 doubles isn't good, he's awesome. It's just the other guy at 44 this year, and you know what? Next year it could be the other way around, and they're very much like that. They're like seasoned gamblers, they're like guys that have won a big fucking jackpot, and they're like, doesn't matter, I'm gonna lose it tomorrow. I could lose it tomorrow. They're emotionless, they're numb. So this is my long-winded way of coming back to what Craig Council's breaking points and his emotional connection and and attachment point to this season in particular, where you're seeing sides of him you haven't seen. You know, and that's just what we see. So then what is it? What is that clubhouse culture like? And so if we've been through this substantial adversity, and now we've kind of kicked it into gear, where like these are the boys are the boys are he's pissed. He's fucking pissed. Why? Because Nico got robbed, dude. Where historically Craig comes into this game, he's been worn, he's been eroded, he doesn't give a shit. He's played on whatever, seven different teams in every single capacity. You know, he catches so much shit from the general public, rightfully so. I mean, if you're gonna get paid eight million a year, etc. But we're trying to make it what the takeaway I have from this Orioles series is when I see a team who loses uh against the St. Louis Carls at home, just uh dusted brutally, then immediately after off day, go take those first two games of the series. And Craig's still mad on getaway day. He's not sitting there being like, well, I have all-star break coming up. He's like livid. Now we have a ball club, folks. Now we are together. Now we're in it on a level that's way different than the smirk on your face. We got to get on a chartered play. I'm staying in the fourth season Cincinnati. That doesn't exist, whatever it is. Probably a fucking Marriott to be on, you know, Marriott Bonvoy or something. Which no offense, that's a nice, nice piece of property there. Wherever they're staying in Cincinnati, my point is that like it's easy for him to turn a page historically. When you see him angry and angst, like let's read more into it for a second here. That's where my tip I'm re I'm much more tapped into, like, damn, they this is a this is a huge turn, not turning point, but attachment point for me as a fan. More than like, do you see David Peterson get shelled? Like, yeah, it's David Pearson. He's over the plate with 90 fucking three. That's the point. He's gonna get shelled. He puts the ball in play. You know, he he if he doesn't, he walks people, then he's pitching behind in the count. Then then it's 15-0. Now you're down two touchdowns in the third inning, friends. Okay so like, yes, I saw that. I'm I'm aware that David Peterson got absolutely you know, whatever. I shouldn't say it like that. What I should what I should say more generally is that like I know our bullpen is borderline inexcusable. Alright? However you want to do it, they're just gonna come back and say injuries, it's hard to put a bullpen together, bullpen change every year, you know, we'll get whatever bullshit. They want to stand behind because that's what they do. They stand behind bullshit instead of just saying whiff down film. You know, that's the nature of the game. Like, I didn't know that. Like, I'm not in here fucking talking to myself about this game, mother. So, my my general takeaway again, I want to put a ball on this Orioles because as we get into Cincinnati, these are just the last three games of the first half. We know that we have an opportunity to just take care of business and just win a series. It's as simple as that. And I hope that we have that veteran club that is obviously we have the veteran club, but I hope we're smart enough at this point in the season to say this is an opportunity for us to take steps forward. It's also an opportunity for us to take a step backward. Air go. We should have a higher sense of urgency, and that higher sense of urgency is that exact thing I'm trying to tap into is a talking point, is an attachment point for you as a fan. Of buddy, you you talk OBP all you want. You can talk to me all you want about FIP and ratios and adjusted metrics left and right. If you told me I got a guy who's

Why Winning Stops Feeling Personal

SPEAKER_00 16:40

got a 330 OBP and a 345 OBP, 330 wakes up every day wanting to win and hates losing, hates losing. I'm taking 330. I'm taking the guy who hates to lose the baseball game. And when you go up and down the lineup, are there obvious contenders of people who hate I mean, you know that Rizzo hated losing. Hated, I can't say that word enough. Lester, lackey. Objectively bona fide losing will get those guys to react negatively, flip tables, yell, scream, get mad, overreact. Okay, now I'm not saying the manifestation and violent behavior is my threshold for like that me. That's what I want on my players. I want you coming in and flipping the table. No, what I'm talking about is I want a guy who wakes up bothered by the fact they lost the night before. Who that will then that impacts that just just they're just dialed, they're like, fuck, I hate losing. I hate it, I hate losing, I hate it. So who has that? And when we haven't seen, we didn't never seen any of that shit from Craig. The concept of like, doesn't it bother you you lost Craig? So now we we're actually starting to see that from Craig Council. Not to say it didn't exist before, not to say it's not, whatever. The fact that it's on display publicly means that it has absolutely manifested itself in that locker room where the wins are mattering more, the losses are mattering more. That's my takeaway from this Oriol series. That you can see that you can taste and feel just how much these guys are fucking in it from a win-loss perspective, which I cannot emphasize enough. To get a team in Major League Baseball that care like that is so difficult. You may think it's easy. Those guys are soft emotionally. I can't let me stress this. Our favorite players, most of those guys are pussies. Most of those guys can't handle a simple backhanded compliment. Most of those guys take things extremely personally. Uh, and that's my personal experience, like firsthand personal experience. That it's it's they're kind it's kind of difficult. Like, what would be the word? Diva-ish? Like, ooh, I didn't know that you needed, I didn't know you needed that fucking Greek Himalayan salt or whatever. Like, I ooh, I didn't, ooh, I didn't know this Uber wasn't good enough. Or like, oh, I didn't know. There's so many little fucking manifestations in the in the kit in these characters, uh, major league baseball players. You that I'm trying to say to you, as a maniac, as a Cubs fan, like, yeah, obviously put these guys on a pedestal. They're great ball players, they play the sport I love. It's the ballet, the dance is beautiful, the music is fucking beautiful. I'll sit and watch it every single night. It's an unbelievable show. That's why it's called The Show. They are putting on a show. But they're essentially characters in a play. I mean, they're they're they're playing positions. I I can't, I don't want to take this too esoteric, but uh really the big driving point as we wrap up the first homestead is like I I'm trying to emphasize most of these guys are emotionally eroded from the winning and the losing through the minor league system, through the arbitration process, through being let down by teams that don't extend them. I mean, each guy's got their own individual story, but the game breaks it at some point, even if you're at the highest level, where you start to show up and you just start to go, okay, well, I mean, this is what I do for a living and I get paid well to do it. You know, whatever. It's cool I get to play for the Cubs because it's at Reg Late. And that's why when fans are like, I don't understand why I wouldn't take less money, go win a bunch of championships. I mean, would you believe me if I told you many of these guys at the other day don't really give a fuck at all in the least bit? Like a World Series would be nice. But like the idea that like many multiple, a majority, I would say a small, if if almost non-existent fractional amount of major league players in the offseason would list winning a World Series as like a top three. What would you like to get out of this year? Most of those guys are like a healthy season where I can play full season. Because most of these guys are walking around, they don't know how good I am because my shoulders sore. That's what I'm saying. When I'm the the soft mentality a lot of these guys have, and just trying to reinterpret that back into some takeaways from what we have as we're getting into the second half. I actually I think we have that type of team that that does actually really give a fuck. Joe Madden got those going a lot, but he had a great supporting cast for it. And that that goes back to like, why did why was Theo so hellbent on getting Luster? Why was he so hellbent on David Ross? You know, and it's just a perfect example of anecdote, even though it's 10 years ago. Buddy, you want to go look in the margins, go read Moneyball, sure. 330, 345 OBP. You know, guy hit 25 homers, the other guy hit 31 homers. You're gonna go get into an argument and say the guy hit 25 homers is a worse baseball player than the guy who hit 31 homers, and that's where the statistical conversations exist. One number greater than other, ergo, therefore, I will now draw a black and white conclusion. Okay, so like you can do that, go right ahead. That that's totally part. Of the the game and the way it's set up to be interacted with. However, if you're in the margins and you care about winning and losing, the biggest gap other than slugging percentage and strikeout rate from your pitches staff are the guys that just they've let they hate losing. They hate it. They're like, We're not we're not losing today. It's not even if you know a great competitor in your life. You have a buddy who's great at you, you just know a lot of people listening to like I'm a great competitor. I'll fuck no, you're not. There are great competitors and in our peer group, people who are above and beyond when it comes to can competitive nature. And it and at the highest level of competitive nature is deeply negative. You will never hear someone at the top of their prof uh sport craft talk about, you know, I'm just so my dad was such a great influence on my life. You know? That's that's it, that's not how that works. At the very top of the craft are the guys that are like I knew I I knew I had to prove every single person wrong. I knew that no one ever believed in me. You know, I never had a chance growing up. No one ever came and watched me play. You know, I had to walk to practice and back. Blah blah fucking blah. At the highest end of competitive nature are these deep dark places and these uh insane egos. And the fact that like the fact that like we built up the one world series we have, literally the the the the complete premise of that was to load that clubhouse with competitive assholes who hated losing, and then bring up this remarkable talent so they could be influenced and shaped by these guys. And it very much happened. You know, so as we're back here at 2026. I know Ian Happ's logging percentage this year is 430. Last year is 420, but he's hitting 216 this year. You know, his on base is 323, his strikeout rate is is way up. He's striking out, he's got 120 strikeouts through, you know, that's his strikeout rates way too high. Bob, this and that. You know, have that conversation. That's a that's the now we're in the numbers. What I'm trying to emphasize again for the last time is just that want and that will of like, you fucking hate losing. You hate losing. And that's been that challenge. And I pointed Ian at because he's been here for 10 years, he's numbed everything. Does he care about winning and losing? When you hear him at 6'7, you're like, man, I don't know. Yeah, he is saying we're gonna regress to the meeting. But then you see Craig Council flip out, you know, about an Ian, about a Nico Horner Solomon base. And it's like, if I'm seeing that from Craig, it's probably in it's it, it is probably taking a life of its own in the clubhouse. If Craig's showing it to me, then I'm gonna see it from then it's absolutely within Ian Hap. You know, it's probably never gonna be in Michael Bush. That that's what happens when you get brought up with the Dodgers, think you're gonna be a Dodger, get traded to the Cubs, change positions, go through all this shit in just to make $750,000 when you're 30 years old, which is a lot of money. I understand that. And then you look over and Pete Carmstrong's sitting next to you, he's making $20 million. It's just tough. There's tough things in that each individual has to deal with in that clubhouse that can make it difficult to get a group of guys together and say, I care about winning and losing. All right, I care about winning and losing. Your bi-weekly paycheck is 30 times what I take home. And it's my fault that I didn't pick a throw from the dirt. You know, that is a real that's real shit, guys. It's no different than your fraternity, your group of friends hang out, your fucking work relationships. It's just a group of it's a group of people trying to accomplish a goal. And people have different goal incentives, and people are paid more than others, and people are rewarded more than others, and people get more benefits than others, and but some people do more of the work, you know, and it's this and this is such an esoteric Friday episode, but this is essentially what it should be if I'm gonna sit down here and get into the mic deep on how I feel about this team and in particular, what makes it different, or what do I think is unique about it? And so where we're at again is that I just I can't emphasize enough how mundane and routine most of these guys go about their shit. Not just I'm just saying the everyday big league player, and how one of the significant uh you know margins you can find, or I should say you can grow, is is having a ball club that is really dialed into like the to responding to a loss. So like you have a bad game the night before, it's okay. How much is that carry over? Do you have a team that just it rolls right off their back, or do you have a team that gets stuck in it? And so we've seen both sides of that with the Cubs this year. And I'm just trying to really sink my teeth into this because I want to come back and point to this stretch and say, this is where you saw it really take shape, where they came together, where it was they came out of May, they played good ball to close out June, they got themselves the momentum we needed to finish the first half so that we could save the pitching staff at the trade deadline. I mean, isn't that part of the story we're trying to tell? Isn't the story we want to say is to look back and say whatever happens in the playoffs? We like, I want to see the improvement, I want to see it grow and get better. I don't want a peak in a valley, I don't want to go through last year where it's how how can you be that uncompetitive for so long in the second half? How I'll I'll never understand that still, you know, and it's because when you say winning and losing, does it matter? Does it does it matter to Kyle Tucker? Get fucking bent. Get bent, pal. And some guys just don't care. So that was that's that's long been a issue I've held close to me about how much does Craig care and how much is Craig just a baseball lifer. And then if if Craig is gonna take the position that like it's okay, we'll get him tomorrow, or like, don't don't hang your heads on this one, guys, or you know, sometimes shit happens, then it's harder for Danzby Swanson to have an impact and be a guy who wants to win every day. Then it's harder for Pete Carl Armstrong to come up and develop the mindset that it's not okay to lose. It's just not. Go lose somewhere else, buddy. You should be here to win baseball games, period. End of story. That's it. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, the only thing I give a fuck about is the winning. I mean, I don't care who wears it. Let me be clear. I you could go, we'll all go wear the uniform. If it means we win, great. Have your grandpa suit up and go play third base. If he's better than Alex Bregman, I'll take him. You know, I as far as the players are concerned, the players are the players. You come, you go, you leave, whatever. Somebody's taking the field in the Chicago Cubs uniform. Uh, and I want them to win. That's the most important thing to us as fans. And so I have long felt a disconnect with that between Craig Counsel, you know, and I do have just a minute here reserved for the broadcast, but it just when you see Craig Manager like this, the you son of a bitch, where is it that it bothers you? Where is it that this is that this is not okay? And so if you think I'm overreacting or reading too much into mannerisms and body language and press conferences and stuff, by all means you could say that. But I have watched I'd be surprised if anybody listening to this has watched this stuff as close as I have for the last 10, 12 years, I would guess. Maybe. And then in that case, you probably have just as bad a problem as I do, you know. I'd be surprised if you disagree with me. That's how obvious I think it is about that evolution of Craig and then the Cubs leadership position. And I just think that the team the team's built to respond to that. And and we've many times I've talked on Redline Radio, on Barcelona Baseball, on any whatever whenever I've talked about the Cubs, I've always picked out there's here's a player that will drive the success or the failure of the team. This year we were very serious about Danzby Swanson. Whereas like if he's above average this year, we'd be fucking awesome. You know, or like Ian Hap's another good guy where it's like, you know, when Ian Hap plays well, the Cubs record is, you know, whatever. In Cubs wins, he's hitting like 350 in his career. In Cubs losses, he's hitting like 190. That's drastic. It's basically like if Ian Hap is playing well, the Cubs are gonna win a baseball game. You know, so you can like pinpoint, this is long, you can pinpoint these like players, these moments, etc. To say this is they go as we go, etc. blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. For the for 2026, like, I think it's Craig. I think that's so crazy to get my way into this this corner with the manager this late in the season. But when I say like we go, we goes, Craig goes now. That's what I think. I think we're gonna rip through Cincinnati. I think him, I think him letting the big dog eat, getting all mad. I just I think it gives I think it gives the players like it's uh, yeah, get pissed off. It's all right. It's okay to play Chippy, which is we just haven't had we don't have that. We haven't had that. We didn't have it last year. We missed it in spades this year. Even when we were on those winning streaks earlier, we were coming back and winning games. It was a lot of gee whiz, off shucks, now a lot of bulldogs, you know, a lot of shots cutting into the dugout, guys smiling, laughing, cracking jokes, you know, splitting seeds. Stuff it's just like I, you know, I don't I hate that. I just hate it. I hate you're losing, you know, you're losing on national television to the San Francisco Giants at home. You shouldn't be, you should play better. So that's really that's really what I that's really just what I have to close out the Oriol series as we get as we get into Reds for the last series of the first half. You know, and I know I'm a honey and I have a little bit jam-packed like first half recap mailbag show. But I like these Friday episodes because it gives me an opportunity to really just sink my teeth into something that um, you know, it's like I want to talk about as long as I think I need I need to talk about until I've made my point expressly clear into what I think is unique um viewpoint or perspective of the the story that is this cub season. And why why I think this chapter is, you know, yeah, I'm would love if they swept Orioles. I'd love if they never lost a series, blah blah blah blah blah. Like that, okay. Obviously, shut up now. Shit happens, you don't play well. Okay, so the fact that now we're in a spot where like we're we're publicly outraged, you know, that that's a turning point, folks. That is this this definitely marks this is like the end of one that's like I don't know if it's the end of one chapter or the start of another, or if it's its own chapter altogether, but it definitely started when Craig got tossed in Colorado when he was seeing this thing slip through his fingertips. And and there has been a switch that has flipped, and the urgency is sensational now. And I and I think that having that all-star break and lining up perfectly, we come out first series at home against the Tigers. Hopefully, Javi has a chance to play. Haven't looked at his IL status in a minute here, but you know, I will be bird dogging that over the next couple weeks. So uh eyes peeled on that. Other thing, just quickly here, guys. I have I have a couple oak trees that are getting cut down right now. Shout out to

What A Cubs Broadcast Should Be

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Martinez Tree services. Jose's out, he's got some big fucking equipment. This is interesting because Jose's truck, it says Jose, it's it's Jose Martinez Tree Service and Wrestling. I said wrestling wrestling. Like you go wrestling, like the sport wrestling, like professional wrestling, yes. He sets up the ring. He works with local wrestling pro I can't believe he cuts trees and he does wrestling promotional services. So uh should you need either one, you know, and you're out this you're out this way. I'm just looking at these guys cutting these fucking trees down. I should probably go outside and make sure. Actually, may when I say make sure, I should just probably be out there to go. Looks pretty cool. Chainsaw is gigantic. So um, all right, so big weekend for the Cubs, is it? Yeah, we need to win the series. We need we need to win the series. Um, the last thing I just had quickly on the broadcast, you know, I've complained about Boog, and I like Alex Cone a lot, and I am willing to have a guy who cares and gets into it. Because that's how I get into it. You know, it's like a it's a vehicle. You're there to drive me along. It's the show, buddy. Put it on. Put it on. Boog does not put on the show. Boog is just like, if if Boog is just hitting play on a playlist, you know, Alex Hone's handcrafting in real time, song transitions, reading the room, having a good time. I think that's important. I'd rather have a younger guy who gives a fuck. Alright, Len Casper wasn't that good when he started, and do some just read up a little bit. Just I'm not I'm not gonna give the history lesson. But I mean, long before Harry Carey. Just do some digging on not not just Cubs broadcasters, Chicago baseball broadcasting in general. And then just get a taste of it. It will not take long for you to go to Chat GPT and ask for a basic summary. It will not take long for you to go to the Wikipedia page of the Chicago Cubs and just read up a little bit on who their history who their broadcasters are. And if you just take literally five fucking minutes of your life to form your own opinion about the significance of that position, then apply it and say, is Boog meet any of these criteria? Fundamentally, the the number one thing a Chicago Cubs broadcaster has to do is to be able to move away from bad quickly and embrace the good amazingly. That is the number one thing you have to do if you're calling Cubs games. I'm gonna repeat it. You have to move on from the bad immediately. Okay? I'm not saying ignore it, but you just you take your pain and your beating and you move on right away. Which reminds me, guys, that's a tough six inning there for Terry Mulhound, is the Pittsburgh Pirates put another crooked number on the scoreboard, which reminds me, guys, crooked numbers. Cracker Jack is back this year with another sweepstakes draw. I mean, like that's historically it. You're just in and out of bad moments. Like you just get it out of the way and you try and figure out a way to have some fun with it. You try and find the lightness in the ballpark. You try and bring it out. However, when those good moments happen, you have to leave the audience connected to you. You have to put them in a position where they're sitting in the front row with you. They're in the booth. They want to hug you and high-five you. When they see you, they want to say, Oh my god, can you believe where they want to act like they're your best friend? They they you have to feel connected. It's the fundamentally the number one thing Cubs broadcasters have done. Go back to when they started broadcasting games on WGN radio in the 1920s. I believe it was 25. Certainly by 29, everybody had a radio at home. And when did they start broadcasting it on TV? 1948, I think is when WGN did start doing it full-time, super station in 78. But he had every single one of these checkpoints, you'll go in and you'll find a charismatic broadcaster who loves the Chicago Cubs and protects the audience, protects the audience in all respects. The experience is so geared in towards the Cubs fan perspective. And so when I complain about Boog, I'm complaining about it on a level where it's like, you really want to sit down and talk about why I think he fails. Because I'm not talking about, well, I'm bored in this game, I'm talking about like institutional failure from the fact that the position you hold uh demands a certain level of performance. Because that's what you're doing, you're performing, and I don't like it. So I just had I don't like it at all. When Casper was significantly better, okay. Stone Pony is so much better, and JD just sits there and suffers. His sense of humor is a leap. So that's where I come back. When I took say Alex, Alex Cohen Chuck's boxes. He makes it a he makes it a significantly more positive experience when things are going well and when things are not going well. That dude kicks it to JD so fucking fast, so easily, so naturally. And JD has the perfect tone for all for shitty, where for when shitty stuff happens. And why does JD have that tone? Because he lived his fucking career as a major league, as an average left-handed starting pitcher in the major leagues. With a career of giving up long home runs and bad starts. And even though he's had good starts too. So you just had that weathered season, everything that I talked about, that sentiment about, you know, dude, do you think at the end of Jim DeShea's career career he gave a fuck about winning and losing? Absolutely not. Give me the paycheck. I'm here. I locate a fastball. Now that manifests itself into just an outstanding personality that Alex Cohen drives into great at the best times, I feel like. You know, where Boog is like, he Boog's like, I'll talk to you, but you're not, you're not A-Rod. That's what I get from Boog. So, you know, I don't say that necessarily to influence anybody. I could it you like whatever you gotta like. I don't give a fuck. I'm more saying that is like be careful when you come talk shit to me about my opinion about Boog. Just be careful. And in the layers to which I'm formulating opinions about that guy, and uh most of if not everything around this baseball team is coming from places, buddy. There's it's it's so stacked and deep. I I am embarrassed to admit it because it just peels the curtain back on how much of a fucking psychopath I am about this stuff. But you better believe when I say Boog Skiabi falls short of the basic standards and thresholds that Chicago Cubs fans deserve from their broadcaster, then I mean it with every fiber of my being. And I will now entertain that argument again. So if you're gonna do that, knock your socks

Reds Series Preview And Trade Targets

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off. All right, we're going to play the Cincinnati Reds. Here's how that works. They're not a very good baseball team. It's hot. They don't want they want that all-star break. We want an all-star break. It's two teams who cannot wait for the first half to be over. This is a clear-cut situation. There's no hidden tricks behind this. Cubs should take two out of three. We should have at least one game where we score nine runs this weekend. We'll probably have a clunker in there. It is what it is at this point. This is a solo show. We talked almost no statistics this week. I pulled the outline, went through it, just said, you know what? I don't really like this. Like, how much do you want me to talk about David Peterson? David Peterson is a soft tossing lefty in a world that does not value soft tossing lefties. However, he is healthy, and that is better than anything we have in the system because we've burnt through every other option. So we're on option 56 now. His name is David Peterson. So if you want to complain about him, knock your socks off. That would be like complaining about the movie selection on a frontier flight from Indianapolis to fucking Little Rock, Arkansas. You know, you don't like the selection. They should have more movies that fit within the time frame of the flight duration. You know, it'd be nice if they carried Seinfeld season three. I mean, just shut the fuck up already, pal. You know, it's David Peterson. You're flying to Little Rock, you gotta go see your cousin. It's not a big deal, dude. You'll be back in no time. The trade deadline's coming. David Peterson will be the answer to a trivia question uh much much sooner than you realize. So just don't make a big deal about that. Just be happy, Jed made a move in June to find healthy starting pitching, even if it's He did it. You know. Um, I I guess I'll briefly just mention this so people, you know, see you can't you can't argue I didn't do homework or whatever. Suzuki's hot again. You know, that's great. Shodi Ibanaga versus Hunter Green this weekend. You know, good We What do you want to know? Hunter Green should be way better than he is. All right, he's one of the most talented guys on the planet. Makes tons of mistakes. Shodi Ivanaga's got a big chip on his shoulder. He's thrown the ball well recently. It's almost impossible to predict how that game could go. If there was a pie chart, every piece of the pie is an equal size on that. There's 37 pieces of pie on that chart. So, you know, do I want to bitch about the offense scoring 20 runs one game, one run next game, 50 runs the next game? You know, how much of it is just baseball being baseball? Whatever. I don't know. We gotta compartmentalize it. You know, I I almost just said the word brewers and started going into statings talking to all this stuff. I just like if we were deep into the second half last year with a seventh game lead. So I'm not doing this shit now. We have the trade deadline coming, we have to finish this red series, we have to have the bats be a little bit of hot, then we gotta go into all-star break, rest, regroup, regather. No PCA is gonna get some sting from being on the platform in the spotlight. You know, and then it's just a matter of if we if we want to trade Matt Shaw for that front-end starting pitcher. Do we want to do that? And that's totally gonna be a question for if we trade Matt Shaw, then we have to go spend more on starting pitching and free agency. So that's a dang that's a dangerous, that's a dangerous place to go. And I'm excited to go there in our next show with Mahoney and talk specifically about here's our trade packages we have coming up, or here's you know, here's here's what this here's what we'd have to give up to get this type of guy. That's the type of conversation I'm looking for next Monday. For now though, again, I just want to emphasize them the that marginal stuff about winning and losing, and that's kind of where it really gets to me and has gotten to me this year watching this team is you're like they should care more. And what I'm just the number one takeaway is that I what I have seen specifically the last couple weeks, and then what really hammered that mail, that's a fucking saying, is Craig's reaction to losing to Baltimore yesterday. Where that's the final aha, you know, like that's when you find you're like ah, you just piece the story together. It's like six cents at the end when you find out that like Bruce Wills has been dead the whole time. Spoiler alert. Yes, Bruce Wills has been dead the whole time, you know. Aha, no shit. So, like, this is the moment where Bruce Wills, where this is the we've we turned the corner then. You didn't know that? That's when we turned the corner, and it was late June, early July. And I'm gonna give this

Final Takeaways And Sign Off

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one to Craig. I'm gonna give this happy positive outlook to Craig, and hopefully it doesn't completely ruin and destroy me before this all-star break comes. All right, guys, it's somebody morning cub show. Thanks for letting me get deep in Sotero kind of Friday morning with you guys. You know, everyone have a safe weekend. We'll be back on Monday with Mahoney, and uh, and in the meantime, go cubs.