Cubs White Sox Series Preview With A Pitching Reality Check

Dansby Swanson goes down and the whole Cubs machine suddenly feels less flexible. That’s where we start today, because losing two to the Cardinals is annoying, but losing the shortstop who anchors preparation, positioning, and pitcher confidence can change the shape of the next month. We talk through the real ripple effects: Nico Hoerner sliding to short, Pedro Ramirez taking on more responsibility, and Craig Counsell losing the lineup and rest-day “sauce” that helps a good team stay fresh and win series after series. 

We also sort the weekend honestly. Joshua Baez doing something no one in MLB history has done is the kind of baseball chaos you almost have to respect, even when it hurts. But then we get into the stuff that decides October: starting pitching choices, Edward Cabrera’s struggles, and why the front office still has to evaluate upside instead of only reading the box score. From there we project where Kevin Gausman, Shota Imanaga, Matt Boyd, and especially Clay Holmes fit, including why the cold-weather version of Holmes could be a nightmare if the Cubs manage his workload the right way. 

Then we pivot to a real Cubs vs White Sox preview built on identity and matchups. We break down how the White Sox build their lineup, why certain hitters live with swing and miss to get to damage, and how isolated power helps you spot the danger pockets fast. We also call out the names you need to know before first pitch, including Chase Meidroth, Murakami, Miguel Vargas, Colson Montgomery, and Randall Grichuk’s lefty-crushing profile, plus how Chicago’s outfield defense plays at Wrigley. 

If you’re watching the series, this is the roadmap, plus a reminder: respect the opponent, but don’t forget the Cubs are better across the field when they play their game. Subscribe, share the show with a Cubs fan, and leave us a review on Spotify or Apple so more maniacs find the Monday Morning Cub Show.

Thanks for tuning in! 

- Carl & Mahoney

Transcript

Monday Setup And The Week Ahead

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Good morning, good afternoon, and evening Chicago Cubs fans, and welcome back to the Monday morning Cub Show. Today is Monday, August 17th. It is your host, Carl, and this is a solo episode. Even though it's Monday morning, typically solo episodes are reserved for Friday to get a little bit weird. We've done that the last couple weeks. Some scheduling conflicts. Important to remember, guys, baseball is just a game. Family comes first. Mahoney's my number one for a reason. So just some scheduling conflicts. Sunday night, Monday morning. If we go Monday morning, you know, Nanny's late. You know, something like that. Somebody's got COVID, strep throat. You know, now we're talking HIPAA violations. What we should be talking about is the Chicago Cubs. Because we got a whole bunch of stuff to get into. Tonight we play the Chicago White Sox. I've prepared some good talking points. I think so about the Chicago White Sox to help us understand this next couple games because they're a good team. They made trade updates. They have a pesky lineup. And the thing about the White Sox is they have a very clear identity of who they are, which allows them to play somewhat consistent baseball. They're 6'3-1 in the second half in their series as a whole. They're coming off a sweep from the Tigers. Uh, there's some bad baseball stretched in the in the middle of the chunk for the Chicago White Sox, but as a whole in the second half, it's a good team. They're coming to Wrigley Field. So obviously, easy enough to say home game, not a home game. Certainly not a road game. It's a different game. So we got three of those. We're off Thursday. Then we're going to travel to the Mariners. We talked a little bit last week about how, based on the fact the Mariners are sellers, I think we should get a good turnout for that. But we're off Thursday, so we're going to come back and do another Monday morning cub show on Thursday, talk about the Mariners recover from the White Sox. So this is very much about the White Sox. But to get to the White Sox, we're going to have to talk a little bit about the car uh Cardinals. And with that, I've got some baller strike. Because I I mean, the honest with you guys, I we got a Monday show here. We're prepared. This should be tight. This is segment heavy. Um, you know, I start going down the path, start talking about the Korean War, you know, guys disrespecting the you know, the great generation. We start talking about the Ardennes Forest, you know, World War I. That's where we start to lose ourselves. We're not going to do that. There is a little bit of history, though, we're going to talk about like crazy history we witnessed. But first, we're not talking about anything. Dare you to fast forward. Dare you. I honestly

Thirsty Vaccaro And The 12 Ounce

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dare you. There's no show without Thirsty Vicaro, which is important because they just launched the 12-ounce can. Now, the 12-ounce can't in the works for a while. They've won it's it's in the pipeline. But when a big supplier comes to you and says, Listen, I can move. How many 12-ounce cans do you think? Millions, guys. Like, like, I mean, as many 12-ounce cans as can be moved. Now, the fact that I'm just the first, maybe the only specific Thirsty Vitcarol only sponsored piece of content on the internet should matter to you guys because we're going to sit down, we're going to have a great show. You're going to have you're going to have whether we play well and not against the White Sox, and I think we will. I think we'll play well. You should know a lot more about that team, how we match up. And a fun little statistical thing I've pulled out. You're going to learn more, and we're going to be on time. You better fucking believe it, pal. There's an F-word lizard king. Uh, but we don't do any of this stuff without Thirsty Vacaro. 12 ounce in store now on Amazon. We've teased it a little bit, throw it in the cooler, reach for it. Pears well, you know, and especially if you want to get heavy-handed with alcohol and you want to really just kind of mix it up and have some different cocktails. People have asked, I'll say the watermelon pears. You know, if you if you want to, if you like a mezcale, if you like a tequila. If you had to give me one choice, I would say something smoky of the agave family tree. If you said mango muerte, I would say, what do you have in the liquor cabinet, baby? Anything plays with that stuff. Anything. Literally. Go ahead and try me. Somebody came back one day, they go peppermint schnapps. I said, go right ahead. And when you're done with the peppermint schnapps, you're going to be putting it on the list this year for the holiday season. It's going to be going in a punch bowl. Why? So good. And then obviously Lamon Ladron. A classic, a staple. Something you're going to want. PCA, our watermelon of the week. There's just no question about it. Again. There's no team without this guy. Pops is 28th Homer on Sunday. You know, whatever they put, anytime they pull up the Cubs this year and they go, you know, you're online, they're taking a dump. It's Marquee Network. They're getting into the statistics. You know, Mark DeRose is on MLB Network. You know, he had a big big night last night. He had a couple bottles of wine. They're good stuff. He gets up in the morning. He's limited on talking points. He's going to get to the Cubs. He's going to say a couple things, profound things. They're the number one team in baseball. He's going to say that. He's going to say they're top five offense in baseball. Right. Now, maybe if he did some more homework, he's digging into say Suzuki's isolated power in the second half, but it's Darosa. It was a big night last night. What was it? Sunday night, prime rib at the local steakhouse. This is a Delco guy. He sits down with the steak knife. He's finishing, what is it? 24 ounces, 28 ounces? It's the King Cut Prime. So Derosa's limited on talking points. He's going to get up. He's just going to start talking in the aggregate about how good the Chicago Cubs are. How good the defense is. How this is a team if we can get to starting pitching. He's going to say all this stuff that is as general, as obvious, and basic as it gets. And the reason that stuff's basic and obvious is because Peter Carl Armstrong is our center fielder and our leadoff hitter. All right. So do we get that off our chest? You know, because when I do the ball or strike, pitch clock, PCIBP thing, we've teed that up now. Who's our mango muerte of the week? Who's our wildcat? Who's our weirdo? Who's the guy you just want more of once you have a taste? It's Clay Holmes. Go back and listen to the Friday show. We talked a lot about Clay Holmes' importance. So, not to say, hey, I got in front of that. I've I've could give one flying shit. I've been in front of so much stuff. I it doesn't matter at this point. I know I have that trust with you guys. What I'm trying to do is point out things in anticipation of them happening. So you're not cut it. I don't need you guys sitting around watching Clay Holmes pitch against the Cardinals and go, I can't believe how good this guy is. We were prepped for that. We said if he's healthy, he's coming back from a broken leg. The best version of this guy is absolutely filthy. He profiles extremely well in front of our defense. That's Clay Holmes. He's our mango morte of the week. You know, and Lamon Ladron, we're gonna get to Suzuki here, guys. It's just like you forget how good it is. You just forget. Go to Thirsty Vicaro, get Amazon, get that stuff shipped. If you if you fast forward through it, there's good Cubs content in there. If you fast forward through ad reads, you're also just somebody who obviously, you know, and there's nothing I can do about it. I'm not calling you selfish because we have stuff on our plate. You know, I could skip through the ad read, I could make this a cupcake show, I could take the show off, guys. We could, and I'm not saying that to be selfish. I'm saying we got a big pile of work here. This a big week. Now, why would I never even consider not doing the show? Because we're a great team that's headed to the playoffs. We have phenomenal storylines. We play wonderful baseball. We also have the White Sox coming to town tonight. Coming to town, in town, coming up, up, up Clark Street? How do the White Do you think the White Sox take a team bus? How does that work? Do they just show up individually? They get Uber, Chase Medrith. Is he just gonna walk down Clark Street? You know, did did Rangel did Randall Gritch ride his Huffy? What does he have? Hopefully not one of those electric bikes. Those things are dangerous. You guys get on those things? Wear a helmet. That's all I gotta say. And I'm not saying that as a guy who wears a lot of helmets. I'm not saying that as a guy who historically strap it on, you know it's bright orange. People go, why the orange helmet? I mean, buddy, I'm weaving in and out of traffic. Are you kidding me? I need to be I need maximum visibility. It's a completely different story. That's a Friday episode stuff. This is Monday. This is tight. This is tight. And again, brought to you by Thirsty F. Carroll. You don't believe me? We're just jumping into it right now here, guys. This is really good stuff. And I mean it like really, really, really good stuff here. Um ball or strike here.

Swanson Injury Versus Cardinals Loss

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Yeah, people are gonna be confused. Why am I starting off with this one? But ball or strike, the Dansby Swanson injury is a bigger deal than losing the Cardinals series. If you're gonna be mad about something after the weekend, ball or strike, you should be more mad about Dansby Swanson's injury than you should about you should be about losing the Cardinals series. Now that's a strike. However, that's a slider on the outside corner, and that's a good slider, and it's early in the count. I may have caught you off guard there. So let me walk you through this. And I could catch an umpire off guard to some people that's a ball. Some people are gonna say Edward Kabr is terrible. We have pitching issues, depth issues, his sod's gone. But here's where the Swanny thing now people will say Swannee injury, not a big deal. Medical's not confirmed yet to how what extent he's out. And let's just mitigate the let's just mitigate the Swanny's out thing right away. Nico Horner can go play shortstop. Pedro Ramirez is is a very good infielder as we've seen and can barrel the ball against lefties and rigdies. We like him. We like him quite a bit. Um, we've done a phenomenal job when I say we, Craig Council, and when I say Craig Council, I I don't even know who gets the credit here. Probably Craig front office, somebody, the veterans committee. But Horner's played short. Like Swan's gotten days off. You know, Bregman's had his legs rested almost significantly. Uh, you look around the diamond, guys have had opportunities to take breaks. Now, Nico Horner doesn't want to take breaks, and he actually enjoys the competitive uh, let's just say, elevation, the elevated competitive environment of we lost Ansby Swanson. Nico, you have to go play shorts up now. Believe it or not, that that is something that actually Nico, I'm not gonna say enjoys, but he will rise to that occasion. The competitive side of him very much says, I can go do that. I want to go do that. I'm the type of player who is capable of doing that. Other guys would be like, fuck off. I'm on an extension, I play second, I'm good at second. When does he come back? Sure, I'll go do it for a little bit. But if my numbers start dropping, I'm gonna be mad at you guys for making views. There's plenty of pussies across Major League Baseball who would carry that sentiment. My point nice Lady Nico Horner in this conversation is saying he's not one of them. So there's all your reasons you say this is a ball. Who gives a fuck? Swanny's out. He hits mine. Who cares? Is Matt Shaw coming back? Do we have eyes on him? How unfortunate we trade Rojas. Someone goes, we don't need Rojas. Swanee, left oblique, out. Now Rojas would never play at the big leagues or even remotely come in in this situation. I mean, he'll play in the big leagues, he'll be he'll be good for the Mets, probably. Right? Karma. We have PCA, sure Rojas turns into an everyday player. I'm just honing in on right now and trying to say, is it a bigger deal we lose Swanee or is it a bigger deal that we lost that series? Now, the reason that I'm calling it a striker, guys, and the reason I'm gonna go above and say I understand Swanee's competitive and can go over there. I understand Pedro Mirris, and in the long run, we get a good look at Pedro Miris down the stretch so that we have a better idea once playoffs start, right? I mean, there's some silver lining, sir, we can wrap our arms around. But here's where I come back, I go, foo, this losing Swanee. I have my knee-jerk reaction. That's not good. Uh, you guys know where I stand on that. You know where I stand on the leadership and him being a presence for the pitchers and being a guy who can move other people around the diamond. You know where I come from with his preparation that he's seen the starting pitcher four or five times the morning before he goes, he even shows up to the ballpark. That he's so in tune with the opposing team and what their tendencies are, and not just what their tendencies are generally, but what their tendencies are even in the count, ahead in the count, behind in the count, first pitch of the count. You start building out that again, get the flow chart on the on the fucking table here, guys. And it's a big flow chart. And Danzig Swanson's gonna go through that flow chart for each player on each team, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You guys get so mad at the strikeouts, the amount of runs that guy has saved, the just the presence of mind that guy brings to the team. Now, that's why it's a strike and it's a slider, and it's a little bit outside. Some of you guys are going, I don't like this at all. I don't give a fuck Swanie's out. I don't like the fact that he's and this is where it's like you don't have to trust me. You don't, not on this. If you watch the Cubs every day and you don't have the value or appreciation for Swannee and you still listen to the show and you're a maniac, then I guess, yeah, it's my fault. I should have communicated it better. But here's why, ultimately, finally, on the topic of losing to the Cardinals this weekend or losing Danby Swanson, which is the more notable loss for the weekend. Watch the way the guys in the dugout responded to that. Uh, Craig looks a little nervous here, guys. Now, whether you like him or not, I'm willing to bet Craig knows more than almost all of us listening, participating in this about Major League Baseball. Specifically this cup scene. Even if you know the most, you can I mean you could be Rain Man, God bless you. It's like Craig, uh, Craig's gotta get opinion. Maybe. You know, shit for brains at some moments when convenient. I don't know. I'm using him as an example, and he certainly took the news hard. Uh I'm using the teammates as an example, you know, the guys that play with him every day, which certainly would carry a closer opinion than the guys who watch him and complain about him every day. Maybe. You know? Maybe I'm not saying that's the primary number one sole and only reason, but it certainly is a guiding light in my understanding. Alright, so maybe Horner can go play shortstop, but certainly doesn't look like Craig Council feels pretty fucking good about that in the long run. So that's where I come back and go, okay, fine. We lose the series of the Cardinals. Uh very much more interested in this Dan's B. Swanson situation. How much can we put Nico Horner out of position? How good is Pedro Ramirez right now because we've been able to put him into convenient positions without too much pressure? Does that change? Probably not. I mean, lots of way that kid plays. You know, but where can it hurt us? All right, if he's out for three, four weeks on the stretch, he's he's say he's ginger, say he's tender. Fuck it. Say he's on 15 straight games. I don't give a shit. How many left until we play? 12 more until we have four more series until we play the Brewers four games in a row. We have four more series. We are on the road to what? Against Seattle? I'm not doing my best of pieces together. Who else do we play? Cincinnati? The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Chicago White Sox. Why am I even thinking twice about this? There's your 12 games. Alright, so now we play these 12. We have an off-day sandwich in there. But then if it's Bregman every day at third base, and it's Paige Ramirez every day at second base, and it's Nico Horner every day at shortstop. Now, aren't we agreeing that Craig is starting to lose the thing that makes his sauce and the Jeefs in the work for the 2026 Cubs? Is the flexibility? Who's DH'ing today? This guy gets a day off, legs rest. It kind of all comes together. At least that's how it has been since we've bounced out of that May stretch. Once we kind of figured out exactly where the pieces go. So there's your hesitancy around the Danzby Swanson stuff, guys. Even if you're sitting here going, fine, good. Some of you guys listening to Spent asking this guy to be in AAA. And even if it's not, even if I'm being redundant at the sake of being redundant, I'm now passing the torch to you guys as Bannerman, as we're all in this together, right? Aren't we in this together? Then next time you get that text message, your Uncle Gary is sitting around going, fuck Swanson, we don't need him. You better speak up. You better tell him, hey, I'm not saying you're right or wrong, Uncle Gary. I'm gonna ask you this. Why did Craig Council take the news so hard? Why did it look like Alex, like Alex Bregman was like really like in the postgame? He's just thinking extra fucking hard about it. And if they'll those guys' opinions matter. That's why Uncle Gary, I'm gonna defer to those guys. They look to seem like we absolutely need Swanee down the stretch. And this is where I back up and I back you up and I say, hey, I won't be there when you're in this conversation with Uncle Gary, but you keep having it because we absolutely do need Danceby down the stretch. That's a fact. That's a strike. So you know, will I go as far as to ask you to, you know, appeal to a higher power, whatever guides your life? No, this it's baseball. You know, save that shit for what matters, right? Save that shit for the important stuff. Ball or strike.

Baez Makes Wild MLB History

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I can rationalize uh a Cardinals series loss, and that's a strike. I can rationalize that. Couple big things out of this. Um you know, let's stay high level though. I can rationalize it because we did get a chance to witness Major League history on Saturday. That's crazy. In the history of Major League Baseball, am I wrong in this? If I'm wrong, I'm a monkey's uncle. In the history of Major League Baseball, no player is homered in their first three plate appearances. No one ever. No one. You're telling me that that Fernando Tati Sr. homered two grand hit two grand slams in the same inning before one player. Think of how many major league debuts there have been, by the way. As position players, would it, would it, how many? I think there's like 26,000 major league baseball players in history. How half of those are what pitchers? You know, what 47, 48% are pitchers. So what per what percentage of guys who've been how many guys have been called up swinging a bat? You're telling me the fork to 14,791st guy is the first guy in NLB history. Joshua Bias, big motherfucker. Look great. Look great. You know, Matt Boyd didn't. Uh so there's just like a good moment as a maniac. I'm a lunatic for the Cubs, but I do have an affinity for the game of baseball that just rises a little bit higher than the I love the Cubs. Um I absolutely do love the Cubs, but I love baseball. I love Brother Rice baseball. I love the University of Illinois baseball and following college baseball. I like minor league baseball. I like talking about prospects. I like watching this little league world series stuff going on. I mean, I'll watch I'll I'll watch the women's college world series without missing a fucking beat here, folks. Love the game, love, absolutely love everything about the game. Just a tick of but just a tick more than I do love the Chicago Cubs uh and the in Ripley Field and the pinstripes and all that stuff, which is it to be arrogant, esoteric, or you know, some divine cocksucker here. I'm trying to put uh you know things in context. So when Joshua Baez comes in on a Saturday in a baby blues against Matthew Boyd, and what I'm perceiving to be is like Cubs keep the momentum rolling, and he drops three bombies. Are you kidding me? That oppo piece, and now I'm gonna sound like just a complete loser, like I'm Eric Burns. But that's the excitement of like, are you are you Fing me? Are you F and the Are you dry Fing the B, you know, my B cheeks, the S out of my B cheeks right now? Is the S completely effed out of my B cheeks right now with with what happened on Saturday? So if you're gonna lose that game, you're gonna lose the game. I can rationalize that. All right.

Cabrera, Assad, And Rotation Stakes

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And then we show up and we what do we do Sunday? Somebody back me up with what we do on Sunday. We lay eggs in an Edward Cabrera start where he he absolutely doesn't belong. So ball or strike here, Edward Cabrera blows, and that's a strike. Now, now Javier Assad getting optioned again is a complete mess. Now that I don't know if that's a strike. Unfair, maybe. And we've talked about the concept of fairness down the stretch in baseball. That's not fair. Well, let's be honest then. Because this is usually where like that's not fair. Like, now we gotta be honest, and we'll tell me about what's fair and not fair. Because I hate when people that's not fair. But in a sense, okay, Asad's pitch well. Cabrera hasn't injured hurt comeback since his first 11 innings with the Cubs. He's been a fucking bum. Seven something ERA. Now, if you pay attention, and the people that I follow are talking about stuff like this, but velocity increases. We like that over the course of a season, and Cabrera's done that since he's come back. We also like the tunneling, which is a way to say the repeatability, the way to say the changeup looks like the fastball, which looks like the curved ball in the slider. Like it all looks the same. It's starting to kind of follow a consistent arm angle and release point. All right, now if you're into watching a pitcher in a short window of time and trying to apply that performance over a future, say intermediate amount of time, that's the type of shit you unfortunately have to look at as opposed to, well, he gave up four hits and five in. Like that's it, that's the box score stuff's helpful to a certain extent. But if we're evaluating the guy and saying, where does this guy fit down the stretch? Edward Cabrera certainly earned the right to get that opportunity on Sunday to say, here's what I Where I'm at right now. Now, what followed after that is a good example of why I don't trust that guy, and I don't personally need to see another ending of him pitching. But this is where we go back to the Clay Holmes conversation we had on Friday, where we talked extensively and kind of weirdly, to be honest with you. When I listen back, I'm like, I don't know if that Bobby Witt analogy is making sense here. But the concept I used in the draft, the concept I talked about Clay Holmes when he's injured, is a similar concept that applies to Edward Cabrera. And notably, why the fuck's that guy pitching on Sunday when we know he hasn't been good? And why is Craig willing to be like, I don't know if he has pitched his last innings this year when most of the fan base is going, give me a sod. Most people are going, hasn't a sod earned it. Now, here's why. Like him or hate him, I don't care for him. Cabrera's profile is such that can shut a lineup down when it matters most. And I do not think he's in the conversation for playoffs. When you talk about trade for Kevin Gossman and you see what Clay Holmes looks like the day before, you kind of have the bar set for what the one-two punch looks like. Now I could be ahead of myself, but that in my mind is what those trades represented at the trade deadline. And we have seen enough from both guys. Two egg or one egg from each, so two total eggs, but also the high end of these guys. And that high end is very interesting in what profiles to me down the stretch. Now, Matt Boyd lays a fucking egg on Saturday. I'll let you have words, but just shits his pants, you know, and isn't good. Now is Matt Boyd not good? No. He just wasn't good on he just wasn't good on Saturday. Now there's a number of things. You guys want to dig into humidity, you know, where the wind pattern is. Aaron Waters show. You know, it had his lunch served to him by a guy who did the first thing that ever happened in MLB history, which spans about somewhere around 150 years, right? Is this the 150th year anniversary? Am I missing something? So we can lose that game Saturday. It's the Sunday you come back to Eddie Cabrera and you go, the guys earned it a little bit coming off the aisle. And I shouldn't say earned it like he's gone out and dominated the minor league scratches. When I say earned it, it's like, listen, he's put in the timer effort to get himself healthy. We did trade Owen Casey for this guy. And gone to your head, David Peterson has pitched well and looks good as a Cub. In a must-win game circumstance is we're getting down the stretch of the season. Should it be a situation where we are vying for the division? You know, which is hard to swallow if you drop two at home against the Carcos. The Cubs have to know where Edward Cabrera fits in the mix. Now, Jameson Tayan, easy decision to make. There's just no way. And the reason there's no way for that guy is trade deadline is coming up. We are going to acquire people. You know, Peterson has looked good. Now, if Peterson shits his pants worse than Jamison, maybe that doesn't happen. What I'm saying is it was an easy move for them to say to Jamison, go on, see it later. Cabrera isn't much further away from that. Well, I'm trying to rationalize where people go, This guy sucks, he's a bum, he should never pitch again. Because I'm trying to put you in the position of the front office where they're going, we want to make sure that this guy cannot be effective this year at the big league level. There's probably too much head trash going on. He's probably trying to work, he's he's probably just trying to implement so many fucking changes, much less comeback healthy. So I don't know if it's different pitch grips, and this is a challenge. Like he's coming from again, the Marlins, they don't their their pitching development relative to the Cubs is so different where we're hands-on and informative and we're trying to change stuff and work on stuff, and we got the data. The Marlins are like, just don't honestly just show up on time and don't do too many drugs. I'm not even trying to be disrespectful towards Jose. I'm not even trying to be disrespectful towards anybody who fucking love that guy. What I'm being, what I'm literally saying about the Marlins is they have such weak player control systems and their player development's trash, and by the time you get to the Marlins, they're just like, whatever you want to do, you do it. You play with your flair, your style. It's been like that forever. It has. So when you get a guy who comes from that environment and he comes into the Cubs and he's trying to make these adjustments, and he's hurt, and he's not good, and he's all this shit, he's doing the best. I mean, I I'll guarantee he's trying as hard as he can. Here's the fact of the matter, though, is it's not very good. So where you get annoyed is you go, well, we option the sod for this. Now, the question that'll ultimately come down to this, and we'll boil this back to pitching. We have Clay Holmes and Kevin Gossman, we have Shodi Imanaga and Matt Boyd, but all four of those guys blocked have earned starts in September. We also agree Kevin Gossman, Clay Holmes probably are pitching one two of a playoff series if they're healthy. We then agree that Matt Boyd is probably going to pitch game three. So, like, as far as playoff starting pitching, we're not real, there isn't really that much, not sure. I'll guarantee Edward Cabrera, not a factor in that. Here's the question, though. If Shoda's a four, who's their five? Peterson. Right? Now, what if Cabrera comes out on Sunday and pitches well in the you know what I he didn't? But this is why he gets the chance. If he pitches well, then it kind of creates an opportunity. Now we have these three guys for two spots between Shoda and Cabrera and Peterson. Peterson's been electric in the second half. I shouldn't say electric because he's not electric stuffed, but he's been good. He's been good. So wrap your head around it. Shoda's been good enough. Peterson's been good. We haven't seen Cabrera in the second half. That's why Cabrera gets a start on Sunday. That's why Asad gets options, because we know what Asad looks like. We know that in the comparison between Asad, Shoda, and Peterson, Asad's a third man out. Cabrera can pitch his um him pitch himself above those two guys. If he came back and looked good, and I think that's why your council's in this balancing act of, I don't know what to say about the situation. I don't know if he gets another start. Because that's where the front off, that's where the data analytics and they're gonna have to really dig into the performance from Cabrera to say, is there enough there that warrants us further pursuing the fact that he might be better than Peterson's been in the second half? That if we had to go back to the five-man etc, or this six-man bullshit with him, is this somebody who rises above Shodi Imanaga for the second half of September? I think those are the questions with Cabrera. So baller strike, he fucking blows absolutely the sod option thing. Is that a mess? That's a strike. Those are both strikes. So, you know, or baller strike, we gave up 19 runs the last two games. That's a strike too. So baller strike, Clay Holmes looked great. That's a strike.

Clay Holmes And October Fit

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The Friday episode, very proud to have stand behind a lot of the conversation that we put out about Clay Holmes. Mostly from the standpoint of forget the clunker, please believe me, the high end of this guy fits very well with the defense. The high end of this guy is somebody that October is going to be very difficult to hit. Now look at the version of Clay Holmes that pitched very well against the Cardinals. And I just want you to do this for me for a second. It's it's two months from now. The temperature is dropped somewhere around 30 degrees, okay, 25 to 30 degrees. Uh the bats are a little bit tighter. Uh you know, the the seams are are a little bit tighter on the ball. There's a little bit more dancing, right? Because the humidity, clay home stuff doesn't bite to the arm side as much as it does when it's a little cold and that ball's a little tighter. Now the expense of that is the glove side slider, that breaking shit sweeper, and lose a little bit of that. But the real nasty sinker stuff that breaks the bats, that's where that's where that's where clay's headed with October. And I love it. So we just healthy, just healthy. And the healthy side of that is really just supported by the bullpen one and by the fact that we don't want to put ourselves in a position where, hey, this start fucking matters. We catch the division, we catch the division. We put ourselves these next 12 games in a situation where those four against the brewers are very important, then good for us. Then good, then good for the process. Where the process starts to break down for me is do we stress Clay Holmes into taking on more than he can physically before the real meat and potatoes matter? So that we don't get the best version of this guy? I hope that's not the case. I don't think it will be. I think he's smart enough knowing he's gonna be a free agent after this year. He just got healthy, he just threw a good start. I would imagine we're taking baby steps, and that makes me feel good. So let's just keep it rolling. I'm gonna do, I'm just pitch clocking me. The last couple baller strikes have been quick. So, like PCA for MVP baller strike, obviously, we're still strike. That's cock high, right down the middle, 3-0. I'm just calling a strike no matter what. Made some sensational arguments, I think, in the last Monday show, just about the defense where Pete's Pete's the number one defender in baseball. Shohe's arguably a top 10 starting pitcher in baseball. Pete's the number one position player at all eight positions. How many people is that? Hundreds. Shohe's, you know, what do we got? There's 150 starting pitchers on any depth chart on any given day in baseball. Shohe's lucky to be one of those 150 in his career. This year he's one of those 150 a little bit more than half the season.

PCA MVP Case And Suzuki Surge

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And he's, I don't, what is he, 10 out of 150? 12. You know, gun to your head, you had to pick a guy for the next whatever, two months. He's very good when he's healthy. You know, imagine just having that conversation about Pete. Pete DH's all the time. He's just not healthy enough to play center. No, I'm going. Pete plays center every single day, 162 games a year. He's the best center fielder. How good is he at center? He's better, he's better at center field than all third, like how many position players are there that take the field every day? The answer is 240. So Pete's one out of 240. Shohay's fucking 13 out of 150, maybe. Argument close. Pete Crow Armstrong. Pitch clock MVP too. This important stuff here, guys, because we talked about the supporting cast, and I'm gonna get to this White Sox preview. I'm excited to do that. But like I was all high and mighty on Alex Bregman on Friday. Something I would just hone in on too. Suzuki in the second half. He was top 20 in a in a really unique stat I loved, which was OPS first half, OPS second half, the difference, and then the difference ranked. OPS first half. So I think for say it was like 125, which is good. 129. Second half, I think he was 156. So if it was one, so it's 27. There's the difference. He's a plus 27 on first half, second half. And that's plus 20. That's top 20 in Major League Baseball. I thought number two is Nico Horner on the list. Number two was Nico Horner, number four was Bregman, something like that. We had a couple great players who've just really surged here. So it's just baller strike is Suzuki underrated. That's a strike, obviously. You know. So Thunder, just big time thunder. And it's support in Thunder, it's consistent. Um, when we talk about Pete being good enough to win a series, put a team on his back, win games, etc. You know, we also ask that knowing Pete's gonna have a clunker, knowing it's not gonna be perfect every single game, that we gotta have the type of cast behind him that allows Pete to play an 0 for four game, and it's okay. Pete's never gonna lose the confidence to be that type of player because he's got a supporting cast behind him that's prepared, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Don't make me spend a lot of time on a point. And where Suzuki fits into that mix is he's just been red hot. Now you could point back and you could go, well, he's red hot, he's hitting behind PCA. And I'll say, fine. That's fine. Jeff Ken is in the hall of fame because he hit in front of him behind Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds is excommunicated. Fine. So if you're gonna tell, well, let's just do the Jeff Kent thing. But Suzuki is a good player and he's been good and he continues to play well in the second half. You know, we're gonna that's me knocking on fake wood. Listen, if I had a real wood desk, you guys would know about it. I'm not gonna lie. It's fake wood, it's from Amazon. It was a pain in the ass to build. There ain't nothing fucking nice about this desk, other than the fact that, you know, it ain't completely falling apart. But that, my friends, is the sound of please, for the love of God, Suzuki, stay healthy. Because he's just been so sensational. And it's just the overall implications of what we've talked about, particularly last Friday's episode, with the value of having the supporting cast. I'm talking about Marissa Tome and my cousin Vidny. I'm talking about El Pacino and Godfather 1. I'm talking about De Niro and Godfather 2 when they're doing flashbacks. You know, I'm talking about got Joe Pesci and good guys who just take it to the next level and do what? Really allow Ray Leota to have the groundbreaking career performance probably doesn't exist without a guy like Pesci. Now, in the meantime, is Pesci is funny without Marissa Tome and my cousin Vinny. And I'll do this all damn day long. You know, Marlon Brando's great in the godfather. Now, did he win by supporting actor? Who is the main actor? Maybe Michael Corleone's not the supporting actor. Maybe I should be sitting here talking about James Conner, Robert Redford. Right? But what I will say is this. Uh, you know, not Robert Redford. Who's the fucking Redford? Never mind it. We're not doing that. That's a Friday show thing. What I'm trying to stay on point is this is we do have that supporting cast. And Suzuki's emblematic of it. And really the steps in the second half. I implore you guys, go look at second half splits. I start talking numbers, I'm gonna lose your interest. But that's a bit that's a big deal. Here's our last one for us internally before we turn it over to Cubs White Sox. It's

Do We Need Palencia Back

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just a quick baller strike. We need Palencia. Now that's a ball because we don't need him, but it's very much buddy. I want that to be a strike. That's a ball. I want it to be a strike. I want to roll back the clock when that was a strike. That's a strike. Fuck it. Strike. I want him. We need him. I'll be literally, I'll be, I'll be a literal. I'll be literally literal about this. We don't need him. No, we need bats and balls, is what we need. You know, we need the lights to be on at night when we play a night team. That's when you get in the category. What do you need? What do I need? I mean, I need I need the I'll feel lined, somewhat straight. You know, the grass cut, but I want that. You know, I don't know if I need that. I need bases. I need bases, I need bats, I need balls. I need four umpires. I need four umpires. You know, you guys can take the review. It would be nice. It would be nice. Baller strike. It would be nice to have ABS. That's a strike. Do I need it? No. Baller strike. It would be nice to have the review system in play always, no matter what. Do I need it? No. But it is a strike. We do need the umpires. I need the uniforms, I need the bats, the balls of players, helmets. How's that a need? Have you seen some of these guys throw? That's a need. That's a fucking need. Catching gear, that's a need. Palencia? That's close. That's close. I need PCA. You know what I mean? I need Bregman to stay hot. That's what I need. I need Gossman to really embrace this opportunity. I need Clay Holmes to use this as a chance to get paid big time in free agency. Prove the world, hey, I am a starting pitcher. Not just a setup man. With some good years under his belt. Major question marks anytime you ask me to do more than throw fuck at 30 pitches. No. Now do I need Palencia? Now let's do this. Do we want to win a World Series? Yes, I need Palencia. Give him to me. Dami Mas Gasolina. Like, burn it to the ground. Give me that guy. Give me the blowtorch. Give me the fireworks. I need Palencia. Where is he? He's in the minor leagues right now. He's getting roughed up. And he's walking dudes. I think he's drilling guys. So we're going to have to be patient on that. We're going to have to be patient. And how do we earn the patience? We get the bats going, baby. We get the bats going. Now let's talk

White Sox Starter Luis Castillo Story

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about the bats in specific. I'm going to talk about the White Sox. We are playing them. I can't find much information about their starting pitching this weekend other than Castillo's pitch of the night. And I will say briefly, I love that dude. I absolutely love Castillo. Couple reasons. I like a two-seam change-up guy. I like a guy who throws change-ups behind in the count 3-1-3-2 with confidence. You know, I like a guy who pitches inside. I like a guy who throws his fastball 70% of the time when he's in a groove. I like a guy who only needs two runs to throw nine innings and win a baseball game. I just like an old school competitor. Okay, and then on a personal note, I got to interview him one time with Jake, and he doesn't speak English, but he had so much respect for Jake, and they know each other. It's a small community. And he was like, I would love to do interview Jake. Uh in which was translated as like Megusta interview, or like uh T uh fucking Tango. No, I have interview. What does he want? I want Kiro, Kiro interview, Kiro interview, calling Arieta. No, he I mean, like those guys, all those guys got a little bit of English, but like here's the problem. You speak one bit of English to one reporter, now you're getting a bunch of questions in English, and it's like I don't want to listen to that shit. I don't give a fuck. That's not my job. And if I could take advantage of that situation and I was in the big leagues, you know, gun to my head, and I could just look at him and say, fuck it, Noables, but Noables Ingles, I'm probably going noables in Glaze. But we had it out. We go, we had an interview request out for him. I was like, I think it'd be funny to interview him. And Jay Swan, he doesn't really speak English, like he's one of these guys that speaks English, but like I don't think he speaks English on camera. So I'm going, perfect, we'll get the translator. So the four of us sat down and did a fully translated interview with Luis Castillo uh about how much he likes competing, and it's it's quite literally is one of my favorite moments. Why? Because the guy took the time to get his fucking translator out and sat there and listened to me ask him about sequencing double changeups when he's down 3-1 on the count. And the big takeaway from that is there's some really nice people in this game. There's some really there's some really cool guys who are going, yeah, that'd be fun to do an interview, even though I don't speak English. I mean, he speaks enough English, we could probably sit down and have a beer and a laugh, and after like 15 minutes, one of us would have to get up and leave. Probably me. Uh, but you know, to bring the translator on the road, that's a big deal. He's pitching tonight for the White Sox. So there's just like a little personal nugget about the guy. Obviously, I want to bash his face in. I thought it was a sensational trade by the White Sox. I I mean, personally, I I'm I'm biased towards Castillo because I have a personal one memory, two. I do have a personal connection. I like the way he pitches. I think it's awesome. I think he's a guy who is deep into games. I think you could see him get into that 115 pitch count in September, not really think twice about it. And I don't think he gives a fuck, is my point. You know, there's a lot of guys who are going, I don't like that pitch count. I think it's like fucking, what is it? I don't know. I don't know, I don't know what 115 is, it's Spanish, but I know he's sitting there going, mas, mas, mas, which is Spanish for more. So I like him. I don't know who's pitching game two or three for the White Sox. They won't list it, but we did do our research on their homework, and I did make this point. What's interesting about the White Sox is you know, we're gonna spend the time on the lineup, and it's unique to have an identity as a baseball team. Now, when I say it's unique, it's I shouldn't say unique, it's important. It's important to go play 162 with a similar identity. And Steve Stone had this comment, it's a clip that was going viral because Steve Stone was criticizing Steve Kwan Steve Kwan, the left fielder from the Indians, from the Guardians. And so he hit whatever, 280 last year, 285. Now he's back, his averages up this year, you know, that he hit 260 last year. Kwan, who usually hits well over 300, dipped well under 300 this year. And Steve Stone's criticizing Kwan and saying the reason he's he's below average here is because he's trying to add, when I say below average, usually he's hitting below 300 last year, and that he's above 300 this year, is that Kwan's taking the power out of his game and saying, I'm gonna let the power come to me, I'm not chasing power. And usually, now, while Steve Stone is criticizing Steve Kwan, go ahead and take a wild guess what happens. Obviously, Steve Kwan hits a fucking home run right in the middle of Steve Stone's speech. I think it was his second or third home run of the year. It was poetic, it was beautiful, it was just a great moment, shoe in the mouth. But here's the thing about Stone Pony, he's absolutely right. I don't give a shit that Steve Kwan hit a second home run of the season while he's going on this tangent. The tangent is important. The tangent applies to the White Sox, and I think the tangent about the White Sox, or in specific Steve Kwan,

White Sox Identity And Approach

SPEAKER_00 43:30

Stone Pony is in a position to give this argument about Kwan because he's comfortable in the fact that the White Sox have such a great identity. It's easy for him to sit in the chair, and I mean this, it is easy for him to point at Kwan and go, Kwan's having a better year this year offensively because he's turning into his identity and accepting it. And when guys get away from who they are as baseball players, is when you start to see really, really things turn bad. And his point with Kwan was you're not a power hitter. And when guys see themselves as one hit, one way. Than who they really are is when they really underperform. And so it's not just about, hey, you're not a power hitter, don't hit for power. It applies across all offensive approaches. And so when I look at the White Sax, I go, I like their identity. I like that they have guys who, if you hit for power, you try to hit for power. And if you're somebody who doesn't hit for power, you put the fucking ball in play. You use the full, you use the whole field. And if you're really bad at that, you're somebody who doesn't strike out that much. And they very much have these different identities across their players that when you look at the lineup, you go, okay, they have a couple guys who are willing to swing and miss to drive the ball. Okay, then they have a couple guys who've got really good splits this year that could be dangerous. They have a couple guys who are sensational in the outfield between Tristan Peters and Bretton Doyle. I mean, just really, really good outfielders. Right. And then they have a couple of young players that like Braden Montgomery is super interesting. Obviously, Colson Montgomery is super interesting, but those are for two different reasons. You know? So as we get into it specifically,

Isolated Power Explained For Matchups

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what I would lot lock onto is there's a statistic called isolated power. And I've talked about this statistic before, and just hang with me here, guys, because this one's important. But it's your slugging percentage minus your batting average. And what it is is a representation of what percentages of your total bases are derived from extra base hits. Now, in the history of Major League Baseball, I believe there are two guys who've retired with career isolated powers over 300. And again, what we're doing is we're taking our slugging percentage and we're subtracting our batting average. And when we subtract our batting average, what we're doing is we're removing the percentage of hit. What we're the best that we're trying to do is we're removing the single, and not just the single, but the first base of even the extra base hits, which is kind of nuanced here. But what we're trying to do is get a measure of what percentage of your total bases come after first base. Does that make sense? Because major league average is like around 130-ish. That's major league average. About 13% of a baseball player's bases are accumulated after they touch first base. I think that's fair. Now, when you look at the Cubs this year, some interesting stuff. Pete Crow Armstrong's around 260, about 26%, about twice as good as a major league, major league average. Which which puts him squarely next to in the history of baseball, Mickey Mannell had that high. So how good Pete Crow Armstrong is this year, and we're gonna again re-emphasize this. What percentage of your total bases come after you touch first base? Pete Crow Armstrong is here kind of right in line with where Mickey Mann is. Now you're thinking to yourself, this is a great statistic. This is a great statistic to measure true raw power. Kyle Schwarber, huge fucking ISO, right? Most of his bases come after he touches first base. Very seldom does he hit a single. Very seldom does he hit a double. If he's hitting the ball, it's going over the fence, right? So that's like every time he hits the ball, there's three, three, three bases that are past first base. Okay. So when you look at the White Sox lineup, they have a number of guys who have what I call great ice, uh, not not what I call, I mean objectively truly great isolated power players. And I and I mean truly great. So Miguel Vargas. Miguel Vargas is on the list. Isolated power 252. Murakami, isolated power 308. Now, when we talk about isolated power, there's a trade-off. A lot of this is swing and miss. But then that goes back to the identity. I don't have a problem if you're swing and miss, if with that swing and miss comes isolated power. I don't have a problem if you're swing and miss, if the swing and miss is part of the game plan. I have a problem with swing and miss when there is no fucking game plan. When the swing and miss comes when we're asking you to be able to hit the ball the other way. Guy like Mirakami, never gonna be asked to hit the ball the other way. Vargas is in the box, three hitter for the White Sox, two absolutely shit on baseballs. So that's what you get from these guys. Now, then obviously, that approach does not change if I'm a pitcher, like based on who the pitcher is. Kevin Gossman's a two-pitch pitcher. Vargas does not change his approach. Mirakami's not changing his approach. Okay, Colson Montgomery's another guy on the list. Colson Montgomery's isolated power 219. Now the Cubs, we've got 257. I think Bregman in the second half is up there pretty high. But for but as a season as a whole, uh, let's see, we have we have we have Pete Crom strong at 257, Suzuki's at 214, you know, Swanee's nice up there at 189, Conforto 223. We have a bunch of guys sitting around major league average. Bregman's a little bit over Major League Average, Ian Hap at 196, well over Major League Average. You know, that that's a great correspondence with why the strikeout rate is so high. Now, some people come back and go there's a little identity crisis with Ian Hap when he does that, when he when he is that much swing and miss. And I think that's a I think that's a fair place to live if you feel that way about Ian Hap. But what I'm what I'm trying to do is go back to the White Sox lineup and say, here's kind of what you can expect to

Key White Sox Bats And Cubs Plan

SPEAKER_00 49:20

see. Now, if we throw, let's see, I think it's Gossman tonight, or is it show to Iban Agat tonight? Gun to my head. I'm not editing this out. It's Iban Agat vs. Castillo. All right, so we have a lefty tonight going, so the White Sox are going to start Chase Meadrith, and he's gonna hit leadoff. I think that's totally fair. Now, Medrith's been one of the best players in baseball in the second half. You just have to tip your cat to how good he is. And if Pete Crow Armstrong wasn't playing in the city, people would be talking much more about Chase Medrith, 247 ISO in the second half, uh, 315 average, 404 OBP, 562 slug. That's the big question with Meadrith. The fact he's tapping into the extra base hit in the second half, you know, that makes him a really tough player because he is a he is a grinder, he is a classic White Sox asshole. You know, he's a guy who's just gonna outperform the body type, and he's a good player. You know, the fact that I personally don't want to share my opinion about him is uh is a testament to the fact that I think he's a good player and he's playing very good baseball. So as far as us matching up, going right into this guy who, as an identity, is being a great hitter. His identity is, I should say, somebody who can hit, who needs to add power to be a great hitter, who's very much doing that right now. So he's not a huge strikeout guy. You know, he's like what around a 16%. So he's very much below major league average when it comes to strikeout. That's who he is as his core. Now, if you see the strikeout rate fly through the roof, and with that he get the isolated power, that's when you start asking the question about the trade-off. But Midrit's a guy who's doing a lot of damage because he's evolved into a player who can do a lot of damage. All right, Murakami that's gonna hit behind him in the two-hole. Murakami's doing the damage because he's there to swing and miss. He doesn't give a fuck. He doesn't give a fuck about the strikeout. That's all part of the game plan. It's okay. He's there to hit home runs. Now, how they mix and match from there, Vargas should hit three. It should go Medrith one, Murakami two, Vargas three. I I'm comfortable with that in saying that definitively. You know, where I don't want to get too caught up in is you know, where do they slot in after that? I'll just say I like Colson. I like Colson. I like the player Colson Montgomery is. I think his slug is too low for having an isolated power for 220, and that's because he swings and miss. That's because he hits 219. That's because he's got a weak OBP, and that's because he's selling out to get his home runs, and that's totally fine. That evolution is going to meet itself at some point. I'm not worried about the future of fucking Colson Montgomery. What I'm saying is as he gets into tonight's box, wherever he hits in this lineup, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, you know, Shoda should eat his lunch. Shota absolutely should eat his lunch. The problem we have is that Randall Gritchick has a 290 isolated power and a 900 OPS in whatever, 70 games for the White Sax this year since they signed him as a free agent in May after he got released by the Yankees. See, he stepped up in really what is probably his last opportunity, I would imagine, in his career to make the most of it in an environment that allows it. What's the environment? Go fucking smash left-handed pitching. What's he done? Smash left-handed pitching. Who's going tonight? Left-handed pitching. So another good guy to talk about, Braden Montgomery. He came over in the trade from the White Sox or from the Red Sox for Garrett Crochet. He's a Texas AM guy. Typically, I don't like Texas AM players because they swing and miss too much. We're getting pretty particular here. But the unique thing about him, he's got a great split between his batting average and his OB and his OBP. I'm going to say his OBP is a cell 110 higher than his batting average. So the fact that like relatively young kid just called up, new environment, chasing a playoff in the disciplines there, you know, means the rest of that shit's going to follow. Let's just hope it follows in the fourth game because the next three are against the Chicago Cubs. That's what I'm thinking when I look at the lineup. You know, now Gossman and Clay Holmes are pitching games two and three for us. I would expect to have the significant advantage with both those guys against this lineup because there is so much swing and miss. Where Shoda could make mistakes as he lives over the plate. And if something's not crisp tonight, that's where we can make mistakes. So that's what I have on them. Again, Brenton Doyle is a trade that they got. I thought these are some really good moves the White Sox made at the trade deadline. He's a sensational outfielder. That means Tristan Peters can play left field against left-handed pitching. Ant Notchie can come off the bench. Or do you DH Ant Notchie, hit him late? Don't love that. Would rather DH Morikami. You know, there's a there's a couple questions here that are uh, you know, most of the answer revolves around the White Sox having really good outfield defense because they went and they got Brenton Doyle, who's got a weak bet. He's got a weak bat. You know, Tristan Peters ain't the strongest hitter either. But those are guys that really command the outfield. And so from a scouting points perspective, you know, I just think that's important because one of the things we have at Wrigley Field is a unique advantage that it's a difficult outfield to play. So that advantage a little bit mitigated by the fact the White Sox have very good outfielders.

Final Thoughts And Listener Requests

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So um we've been through the starting pitching a little bit. I would just ask you guys, you know, stay positive here. I didn't want to go three and three last week. I don't want to be sitting here in a situation with that Danzby Swanson. I wish Edward Cabrera wasn't a fucking bum. I wish we had a little bit more certainty based on the fact that we spent $250 million a year on a baseball team and we we're still a little questioned about what we're doing with our starting pitching. You know, I absolutely would like to see some you know bullets added to the to the bullpen. I would love to see Palency back. There's a whole bunch of stuff I'd love. You know, Brews are a good team. We've got 12 until they get to Wrigley Field. I would just encourage us, can we play good baseball until we get there? You know, can you guys have a good week for me? Can we huddle up on Friday and get weird again? Can we have a good three games against the Chicago White Sox? And can you take some of this information you've learned and use it to A increase your experience? You know, have a good time, watch the ballgame tonight, B, help your Cubs fans. C don't take shit from any of these White Sox fans. It's a good team, they have a good identity. What I failed to mention is that we are better than them at nearly every single position on paper, if not every single position. That in no way, shape, or form, did any positive thing I say about the White Sox should that distract you or detract you from how you ultimately feel about the Cubs. Because at the end of the day, we're a better team. We're just a better team. We got better start at pitching going, and hopefully that shows itself in the series victory, right? That's what we can ask for. Now, in the meantime, I'm gonna ask you guys this. If you guys do like the Chicago Cubs, check out the 12 ounce Thirsty Vaccarrows available on Amazon. You know, just check them out. Just go online, throw it in the cart, just at the very least, check it out. It's the easiest thing you could do to help support the show. But if you're gonna be in that mood, take it one step further, right? This is a super fan combo, leave a review on Spotify or Apple or drop a comment in the Spotify comment section. I'm there. I play patrol, Mahony's there. It's nice when we do the shows and then we see the bump to the ratings because it's obvious it's indicative of like I have the back end data, I know the listeners, so when I see that, it's a good correspondence of the fact. So all the new guys that are showing up, this is a big review-driven show. That's how we get on our soapbox and say it's a good fucking cup show. I think it's the highest-rated cup show online. I would like to get the five stars back on Spotify. Some cocksuckers that don't like me went on there and blah, blah, blah, this and that. I don't give a fuck. I'm coming for you, pal. We're 5-0 on Apple. That's because it's a solid community-based show. And that's because you guys, the maniacs, put the fucking fire in the engine that gets us up in the morning and makes us want to sit here and chop all. Now we got a couple hours before White Sox first pitch. I hope you guys use the opportunity to connect with some of your buddies, talk shit to your White Sox fans, you know, connect with the old man, whatever it is. Should be bigger than just a game. But at the end of the day, it is just a game. And that's why I'm asking for a review on Spotify. And if you guys get a chance, go to Thirsty Vacero. Get yourself a 12 ounce. This has been a tight, serious Monday morning cup show. We're gonna be back on Friday. We're gonna let our hair down. We're gonna get fucking weird. Um, but until then, we gotta go play some great baseball. Talk soon. Go cup.