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00:00we just started our show super annoyed okay obviously because the cubs have lost 10 in a
00:06row yes they have and i don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that the entire
00:10lineup acts
00:11like the same person like usually on a team of veterans somebody's in there breaking up a slump
00:17because theirs doesn't last as long as somebody else's and you know people are different and when
00:22there's nine of them hitting you tend to think that somebody would break through but that's not
00:27been the case and then poor jordan wicks got out there and unfortunately uncorked five runs in the
00:33first inning got better after that but it hasn't been ideal no not ideal at all it's so interesting
00:38that you ask that layla because i was thinking about it after the game yesterday like you think
00:43of the offensive profiles of a lot of guys in that cubs lineup and outside of pca and dansby that
00:52is
00:52you know big swing and miss you know when you you know they have power but like there's some
00:58swing and miss that comes with that when you talk about bregman you talk about nico you talk about
01:02michael bush for the most part like they're those guys offensive profiles aren't necessarily conducive
01:11to long offensive slumps you know especially nico yeah right because that's a guy that almost has this
01:20slump proof offensive approach and i feel like this is the first time in a really really long time
01:26we've seen even him go through a long stretch where offensively it's just not there um and i i don't
01:34know
01:34how they get out of it without just getting out of it if that makes sense right it seems it's
01:39a very
01:39unsatisfying answer but it's like i don't know what they can do outside of starting to hit it's the most
01:48to baseball answer that can be given hey man we're gonna get out of it and at some point
01:53nobody knows what that point is like you're just gonna hear that for a while then maybe you've
01:57answered my question yeah and that is what i've been asking and i don't expect necessarily a great
02:02answer is it chronic is it is should we be talking about offensive players the cubs should add except
02:08instead of starting pitchers oh you know what i mean that i hear you like it's somebody that need to
02:14be replaced and the cubs i just don't know if that solves their problem and i don't like there's
02:24no trade that you're gonna make on may 27th to bring somebody in because one no team is gonna trade
02:31you somebody worth value to plug in the middle of your lineup on may 27th i think the shooter shoot
02:37i
02:37think the other part is usually i know what usually happens when you have a long stretch
02:44offensively like this and it usually leads to somebody getting fired and it's usually the
02:49hitting coach in baseball and it's not it's never usually the hitting coach's problem i don't know if
02:56that's gonna happen i don't think that's gonna happen with the cubs because i think when you hear
03:00everything that they say internally whether it's jed hoyer whether it's craig council it's hey the
03:09guys in the lineup have to swing the bats like we expect them to and i think at the end
03:13of the day
03:13like they have guys in that lineup that they expected way more out of not a little bit like a
03:19lot more
03:20and so until those guys start swinging the bat we're just gonna be looking at each other like
03:25oh one run five six hits yeah and that's what it's been they're averaging 2.5 runs a game
03:32since may 9th that's not some small sample size and you know up until that point i was reminding
03:39our audience of this the the cubs had had um 10 comeback wins where it felt like if they were
03:46down
03:46three to one or some sort of man like they were going to come back and overcome it they also
03:50had
03:50four or five walk-off wins things were really good things were really potent things now you
03:55feel unstoppable two two runs we talked about the one run i mean they were down one to nothing and
04:01what the fifth inning on monday and it felt like i had to ask the question i'm like i can't
04:07even get
04:07out of this right now and the other part of this is it's i get it players are always going
04:13to say
04:13you're going to find water find its level you're going to play to the back of your baseball card but
04:18what it doesn't measure measure is your back of the baseball card when a team is struggling and
04:24doesn't have a good bullpen and you've already gotten the lead or there there's so many variables
04:29to how those hits come and weighted runs create a plus does a good job with trying to at least
04:35identify that part of it but that part of it is not happening right now for this team
04:42runners in scoring position numbers nico was out of his mind last year with hits with runners in
04:46scoring position he was also in a different spot of the lineup and partially because you had a
04:51certified bopper batting cleanup in kyle tucker i think the because the the runners in scoring
04:57position numbers are ugly i think the one thing with hitting with runners in scoring position
05:04it's always a how do i describe it it's not necessarily something that you can quantify from
05:11year to year like you could see a team that's the best at doing it one year and then next
05:16year
05:17they are horrible at it like there's no necessarily rhyme or reason for it all the time it's like one
05:22run ball game right like one run it's that's exactly it and so when i look at this cubs team
05:27it's kind of
05:28uh everything that can go wrong has gone wrong offensively and i think the thing that i'm i would be
05:34concerned about if i'm them you are in this stretch where you're not getting anything offensively
05:40you're lucky lately if you can score two runs and now your pitching staff that had pitched
05:49pretty well over the first we'll call it six weeks of the season and maybe pitching above what they
05:56actually were starting to come back to earth a little bit at a point where you really can't afford
06:01that because you're not scoring runs and now you have a another situation on your hands so it is not
06:07um
06:08it's not great right now and i can understand why craig's kind of like scratching his head
06:12and i think the other thing and cubs fans can tell me if i'm wrong in the text line um
06:18i think the one
06:19thing that doesn't make it satisfying is you talk about a lot of the players having a similar kind of
06:25offensive profile they also have a similar way of responding to how they've played it's very even
06:32keeled uh and their manager very even keeled even when things are going good and usually when especially
06:39when you have a 10 game losing streak you want somebody to be fired up and like give somebody
06:44the kick in the pants that you know light a fire all the sports cliches that we like to say
06:49uh that's
06:50just not them and so i don't know if doing that would necessarily change anything i think they feel like
06:57doing it the way they have eventually it has to turn but nobody wants to hear that when you've
07:03lost 10 straight because it's not an answer yeah it's you're you're leaving it up to chance and
07:09time you're hoping answer and frankly time is the answer for all of us in some way shape or form
07:13and that's why when we were talking about this earlier ross carson kelly talked to mark and bruce
07:20levine on saturday and discussed like the perilous nature of a of a game of inches in baseball where
07:26you're inches away from a home run or a foul ball and while i get that players still have to
07:31have
07:31defined approaches to fastballs players still have to have hitting approaches your hitter should have
07:36to have approaches carson kelly got two hits yesterday i don't necessarily know that he's
07:40falling into my category of you don't have an approach but it just makes me wonder when he says it
07:47what what our team approaches and do do the individuals define their approaches enough to matter in
07:53cases like these ian haff talked about it a little bit but he's a veteran who's been at this a
07:57long
07:57time and he's had different managers i do think the one thing with them because i've thought about
08:01that too while watching them is they are a team that usually goes up there with a plan like they're
08:07not just up there free swinging no you see teams that are just up there all right field three but
08:13that's yes but that's just his offense profile defined approach for center field would be a really
08:19good thing right now i just don't think i think there are a lot of issues in that lineup so
08:23we got
08:24to go one at a time and for me that's the you you know what he is i think when
08:30it comes to like
08:31nico ian haff bregman michael bush like those guys are up there trying to see as many pitches as
08:36possible they usually have a decent walk rate when they're going good that's not a team that doesn't
08:41have an offensive plan when you're going to the plate so usually with teams like that they don't
08:46have the issues that the cubs are having i do just think like earlier in the season
08:53everybody was hitting except michael bush now michael bush is the only guy hitting and nobody else is
08:58and so i think they have gotten caught in this storm if you want to call it that where everybody's
09:05kind
09:05of trying to swing their way out of this thing now and there is some pressure building because you go
09:11from being the best team in the national league central one of the best teams in all of major league
09:15baseball to now you are in the cellar in l central in 14 days three games over 500 all of
09:22a sudden too
09:22if you care about those kinds of things 29 and 26 with the l10 that has has occurred outside of
09:28the
09:28lineup i hate asking this question but because he was a first round pick but is that gonna do it
09:34for
09:34jordan wicks like is he like done because he can't he's not good in relief had a horrible start last
09:42night and maybe he was amped up and maybe it's not fair but is that it i don't i don't
09:49think it can
09:49be it with all the injuries the cubs have had you know what i mean it's probably not it as
09:54long as
09:55matthew boyd isn't in the starting rotation yeah i think as long as they have as many injuries they
09:59have to their pitching he's gonna at least get an opportunity because you don't have somebody else
10:05i guess i guess they just did scrape the bottom it feels like every guy that they've brought up
10:10from iowa has either gotten dfa'd or gotten hurt so like you kind of need somebody to throw the
10:16baseball yeah yeah i mean he did give him four and a third hey that means something he did you
10:22know
10:22he wore it that was 80 pitches second time through the order was a little different yeah hey second
10:28third and fourth i don't think he gave up zero runs in those innings hey gross did you say that
10:33the cubs won the division at some point i did this was last year and it's my greatest score sin
10:38i
10:38have had many score sins through the years um and i've gone to confession for all them but there was
10:43a point last year russ before the brewers had their 12 game winning streak or whatever it was in june
10:49it was in june last year and the cubs were just cruising looking like they did during their 10 game
10:54winning streaks this year yeah and i said i said that's it the cubs won the division appreciate
10:58yeah i can nice try brewers it's all over yes i did and i've been i there's there's two or
11:04three
11:04texts a day then pat murphy clipped that up and abner uribe basically in the brewers clubhouse
11:11i got a rebate yeah yes i did do that russ and you have to say abner because juan is
11:17a totally
11:18different ball game you know what my defense is this year though russ everybody picked the cubs to win
11:22the division this year that's like that that's why i think when i was on with uh lawrence last
11:28week we would always anytime you talk about the nl central there's always this well the cubs are
11:33still the most talented team i don't think you can say that anymore i remember that conversation i
11:38was like how to stop saying how would i answer that like you're right like you're right you can
11:42talk about the no-name brewers as all shucks uh pat murphy does as layla would say i do call
11:47him
11:48all shucks pat murphy when he said that we didn't know their names get out of here we know who
11:53bryce
11:53terang is now okay you think i don't know christian yelich is you think that i wasn't watching orlando
11:58arcia pinch hit yesterday for the twain william contraris please get out of here with that mess
12:04all shucks pat murphy go on get pat i don't want to hear it yes 815 please search and find
12:10the date
12:10that growth said that i think we know it didn't i assign you guys to do that of all people
12:16i'm the one
12:16who asked our producers hey when did i make that stupid prediction last year you keep guiltily
12:21talking about it it was june was it 8th it was see i thought it was may but i guess
12:27it was no it was
12:28definitely june i'm glad to hear i had a little bit of discipline and restraint and i didn't do it
12:32oh you had the decency to hold off until june to say it you said that before memorial day that's
12:38why
12:38after after june one you kind of get whatever i felt like i was in the clear you're right after
12:43memorial day we're all in the clear june 18th was the date 18th 18th there it is that is around
12:50the
12:51time that the brewers got red hot and never texters actually offering to search the odyssey app to find
12:57the date just so they could stick it in my face it's beautiful cubs are 4 and 16 in the
13:02past 26 oh
13:04he says yeah it's it's not good this is more than just the 10 game losing streak i mean that's
13:10it this
13:10is not just about that and that's why we're talking about this that's why we're talking about
13:15this with the i think proper amount of urgency yeah like this is not this is something that we
13:21knew this lineup was capable of and i'm mad about it i guess i'll say it like it's one five
13:30also says
13:31also it just always makes me mad about kyle shorber because he makes all of this damn thing make sense
13:37i'm sorry i did not mean to make you spit out your coffee i was gonna do a spit take
13:40there but
13:40it's just yeah tell me what it like it just that every he would make the entire thing make sense
13:47that can't be the only fix though it was an obvious it ages like five years every year though that's
13:53it
13:53like i for every hour you spend i know i do that thing where i'm like guys we have to
13:57but i know there
13:58are guys in this lineup that are supposed to hit but no superstars every major leaguer is supposed to hit
14:05no superstars well they thought they thought that they had the right lineup to score runs you got
14:11the run prevention and maybe they do do well that's it is it chronic we don't know nobody knows
14:18here's the issue is that number one alex bregman had a half of a good season last year and you
14:22know
14:23that it was the first half you knew you were taking a little bit of a risk i don't give
14:26him
14:27the injury because he was putting together a really a really good season if he didn't injure his
14:31hamstring did i think that it was going to linger like this the next year no you're also midway
14:37through a dansby swanson contract where i don't know that i can expect him to bat over 225 in a
14:42season yeah he's the new alfonso soriano always three years left on his contract always here but
14:48you know what i'm saying like there's that piece of it so those are your two money guys that's your
14:51money team as i like to say pca you're still trying to figure out who he is as a hitter
14:55and i am not
14:56ready to just accept that that's who he's gonna be this this strikeout heavy like you can't you
15:02can't just say well this is who he is as a hitter and then just hope he makes contact on
15:06some like i
15:07don't think it's that simple with him i think when you've committed to somebody you're saying yes you
15:12are hoping that they continue to improve as a player but i think when you look at this lineup
15:17holistically you build it knowing what he is today on may 27th or whenever the season started
15:23and then you go from there because him playing him having this offensive profile is fine if the
15:32lineup the way you built it does what they're supposed to do so they're just not doing that
15:36well say suzuki also don't forget that he led the league in rbi at the all-star break
15:44and that's not happening now either his numbers with scoring position were great in the first half
15:50and he had production in the lineup and i feel like he was his best self and that's also been
15:55a point of contention is just what he is supposed to be to this team yeah over three last night
16:02by a sterile's over four i was gonna say moises by a sterile's is really fighting it that's that's
16:07a wild card for me that was the guy that was supposed to they said he is going to be
16:12our kyle tucker
16:13replacement slump against right-handed hitters moises by a sterile's was going to be their kyle
16:18tucker replacement we'll talk about well can we come back to that after the break oh yeah we can
16:23it's yeah
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