CHGO Cubs Related: All-Stars Kyle Tucker, PCA Keep Cubs Ahead in Division

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On this postgame edition of CHGO Cubs Related, Corey and Brendan discuss All-Star performances from Kyle Tucker and PCA, Shota Imanaga’s elite command at Wrigley, Cade Horton’s best career start, Matt Boyd’s All-Star case, Matt Shaw’s progress, and the Cubs’ surprising league-best bullpen. Plus, as the Chicago Cubs sweep the Cleveland Guardians, are they destined to win their division?

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#Cubs #ChicagoCubs #FlyTheW #VibeWithUs

On tonight’s edition of the CHGO Cubs related podcast, the Cubs sweep the Cleveland Guardians. They have a four-game lead in the NL Central. Two of their outfielders are starting the All-Star game, and the vibes are high on tonight’s episode of the CHDO Cubs related podcast. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] This is the CHGO Cubs related podcast. My name is Corey. I am joined as always by Brendan and we are coming to you live. It is almost the 4th of July and as our little header showed, we got some early fireworks from the Chicago Cubs. They sweep the Cleveland Guardians. a Matt Shaw walk-off, a one to nothing finale and extras to win it. And Brendan, I’m feeling good. The Brewers lost, the leads back up to four. We have a ton to discuss, but I am going to start by asking you a question that I already put out on social media. Have the Cubs ever won three straight games from a team from Cleveland and the last one coming in extra innings? You know, I’m trying to think. Was it a one-run game, too? Hold on. Let me let me just adjust. Let me just adjust real quick. Oh, did that Does that say World World Series? Oh, World Series champions, I think. They must hate playing us, dude. Like, I feel bad for him, you know? Like, if I were I’m like leading the charge, but like I feel like and we deserve to be, but we’re like really annoying about that. Like, and I love it. We’re awful people. And I will be 80 years old be doing the same exact thing, you know? Um, all right folks, welcome in. We got a good bit of you joining here live on the YouTube chat. We appreciate you. If you’re listening later on the 4th of July on your podcast feeds or over the weekend, we appreciate that. Happy to spend uh your holiday weekend with you, our holiday weekend with you. Uh we have plenty to talk about. The Cubs sweep the Cleveland Guardians. Obviously, since you and I last spoke, Brendan, uh they dropped two of three in Houston. uh just the full picture, but the Brewers losing again to the Mets on Thursday. The division lead is back up to four. We have Kade Horton’s best start of his career uh here against Cleveland. Matt Shaw situational hitting with the walk-off off of one of the best, you know, closers in baseball, no less. Right. We got Matthew Boyd doing his thing again. Phenomenal to start this series. We’ll have Brendan take a look at Shodda, his second start back. Kind of what we’re seeing there. How Craig and Tommy are managing him. Kyle Tucker, Pete Cor Armstrong starting the All-Star game. Loaded. Loaded. You’re running out of breath. Playing against lefties. Like stuff is happening. Brendan, I know. I know. This past week has been a series of highs and lows. We were staring one game up in the division with Milwaukee playing well. All of a sudden, you blink, you get showed it back. You get Cade Horton throwing seven Indians. They’re four games up, Corey, just like that. And they’re able to sustain some of these, you know, slumps, some of these valleys, if you will, with one facet of their roster performing. And this week for me, it was timely base running. I know they had those mishaps in second game, but good base running. It’s consolidating top end of the uh lineup with run production and the bullpen continues to impress. Yeah, it’s been interesting especially how this team has kind of ebbed and flowed where you have those periods where it’s like the offense is driving the ship like that’s it. And you know this series was very much like the pitching just incredible work. Uh, you know, Shota was great, obviously, uh, a few home runs, but other than that, no damage, and he’s shorter starts until he works his way back. But just phenomenal from Matthew Boyd and Kate Horton in this series, which is again, as you say, like just sort of the natural flow and back and forth of the baseball season. Really, they they still need starters at the deadline. Of course, it’s very important, but just very funny. Like for our last episode, it was like it’s dire. they you know like if they don’t get a pitcher tomorrow the earth is going to consume itself and you know here Matthew Boyd Kate Horton go out there they go deep into the game you get length out of them and your bullpen continues to just do exceptional work one of the other things and you know I think specifics that we’ll get into as the show goes on we we we have talked about the bullpen especially as we head into the the deadline here uh we’ve talked about him before but Gasolina dude looking good man like That’s it’s how do we you know we’ll talk about it. We’ll talk about it later. But just like a a preview, we got to talk about Daniel Palencia. I I was telling everybody like when I was there at the game uh his first save of this series, he hit 101. Everybody you can hear the murmur and the and then the 102 came next and it was like like from 40,000 people like all at once. It was great. I love it. I absolutely love it. I mean what a development he has been. We’ll talk about it though. lot to talk about Valencia to start like I I tweeted this but like incredible atmosphere at Wrigley Field like it’s always a great atmosphere but I feel like something with them coming back on this home stand almost a holiday weekend it’s been hot really hot in Chicago like the energy was like lifted you’re starting to feel that vibe of like oh it’s summer in Chicago beautiful Wrigleyfield and this team is legit and like you can in my opinion you can kind of feel that in the crowd if that makes sense. I don’t know if it comes across on TV or anything like that. I think no I mean you’re listening to Pat Hughes he’s talking about oh my gosh the atmosphere Wrigley Field you know the quintessential Pat Hughes calls to the to the atmosphere environment you can tell. So it’s not just like on the TV broadcast you can hear it on the radio broadcast. It’s tangible. You got the guys taking boat rides on their off days. They’re loving Chicago summer. Yes. Uh, it does look like Kyle Tucker is, you know, figuring out how great Chicago is. Chicago is the best summer city in the world. Undeniably the world. Kyle, you know, if you’re taking notes, I I did uh as part of I got like a giveaway, you know, you get to pick a couple giveaways as a season ticket holder if you you know, the gate giveaways if you can’t get there early. And I got that the replica throwback jersey. It’s too big on me, but it’s still cool. But they also gave like these little like trading cards. So, this guy’s joining us tonight. Got a little put him in the center of his get it framed, you know, put it under my pillow when I go to bed at night. I haven’t seen you this happy about a Cubs player since John Lester. I love Tucker, dude. I have to like chill a little bit cuz like you can fall in love. It’s okay. It’s not I can’t fall in love if he’s if he’s going to leave and and it’s up to Tom, you know, and I wish we didn’t have to, but like I got to protect my heart, Brendan. You know, John Lester was here for several years. Like, you got to go where the heart goes. Let’s let’s start with that, though. I know uh Cody and and Luke and the boys talked about this uh last night uh after the news broke, but you know, for our sake, you know, we’re only on here once a week. Um absolutely incredible, Brendan, that the Chicago Cubs have two starting outfielders in this All-Star game coming up in Atlanta. One of them, your 23-year-old breakout star who is taking over baseball PCA chance every game you go to ringing out every time he comes up. And he has taken it to that level that he is starting the All-Star game. And the other one is Kyle Tucker, the superstar you traded for who like, and I will bang this drum. Like I will make if it is the last thing I ever do, Brendan, everyone in this city will understand how good and valuable Kyle Tucker is. Even if you already think you know, I don’t think you appreciate it enough. No, his numbers are absolutely absurd. If you want to create a player in like, you know, MLG the show, you want someone that’s fast. You want someone that hits the ball a lot. You want someone that hits the ball far. You want someone that feels well. Every single metric, every single trait you see from Tucker is exactly what you want. His base running value, you saw it. He saw his 21st base against Cleveland. His base running overall values in the 95th percentile. You talk about chase rate, only five guys have better chase rates than Kyle Tucker in the league right now. You talk about contact rate, he’s in the 80th percentile of contact rate, you talk about power, you talk about everything, 90th percentile, 90th percentile. Baseball Savon Page is all red now from a total package uh portfolio, if you will. He is one of the most valuable players we have had. It is reminiscent of KB, you know, back in the golden era. But quite frankly, in terms of a comfortable at bat, what Tucker provides that we have not seen from a slugger, maybe since Rizzo, maybe even way back then to the Moist Saloo, Sammy Sosa days, Dererick Lees, is the combination of power, speed, and discipline all across the board. Tucker is one of those unique unicorn players. So, he has the power and the speed to best in the National League. I see. Okay. Uh I have a a Kyle Tucker couple stats that I already tweeted out. Sorry to keep reading my own tweets, but I like the thoughts. That’s why I put them out there. Uh before I get to that though, uh this is the second time I’ve done this in like the last month. Uh and I do need to remind you all that this show uh is driven by Toyota. Let’s go places and bet 365. Whatever the moment, it’s never ordinary. Use code cho 365 at sign up. Brendon and I was so jacked up to start this show that I forgot to thank our wonderful sponsors. Uh so that’s on me, but we’ll continue to do that. Um here’s a couple things from Kyle Tucker to put things in context what he’s doing. Now, this was before the game on uh Thursday night, but I don’t think this should really affect those things that much. Uh here is where he ranks Brendan in some of these stats relative to all qualified hitters in Major League Baseball and then where those numbers would rank for his career. Now keep in mind his best overall season in a lot of these metrics is last year the shortened one. So do with that what you will, right? He put up those numbers but it wasn’t a full season in 374 played appearances to be specific. So just keep that in mind. So, which number by the way? WRC Plus. He is fifth in all of Major League Baseball. That would be his number now. 155. Again, coming into tonight’s game. I apologize for not updating it. That would be the second best of his entire career. 393 weighted on base average. That is the sixth best in Major League Baseball, the second best in Kyle Tucker’s career. 923 OPS, sixth best in Major League Baseball, second in Kyle Tucker’s career. 290 average, 22nd in baseball, second best of Kyle Tucker’s career, and a walk per strikeout rate a bit north of one. That is fifth in all of baseball, and that would be tied for the first. That’s the key one right there. In his entire career. Now, wait before you go, Brendan. I do just want to add the only reason I include batting average there is it’s not my favorite stat, but it’s one of those things that even as you see him slug and all the stuff you’re watching him do and looking at how high he ranks in these overall offensive output numbers, he’s also one of the top 25 hitters in batting average. Why do you not like batting average? Good. I love batting average. Get out of here. I was like a 500 hitter back in the day. You know what I meant? It’s not like an all-encompassing thing, but I’m saying even pick whatever stat you want. Listen, there’s nothing like those threes. Okay. So good. So good. He’s almost hitting 300. Brendan, I understand. Well, that’s the point I’m making is you don’t see hitters do exactly what Tucker’s doing. There’s always a sacrifice. Some guys who have longer swings, faster swings, they accept more whiffs. But for Tucker, despite having that power, he doesn’t whiff. And for some guys like Pete, who’s hyperaggressive, Jav Bayz, hyperag aggressive. Even Rizzo back in the day, despite some of the power numbers he showed, had a chase rate that was about league average. Tucker is taking the best features of all your Cubs hitters, your favorite hitters over the past 30 years. every single best trait of your favorite hitter and he’s encompassing that in his play. Now, I understand we had the whole Houston Astros thing to Cam Smith thing. I do feel like we’re underelling how good he has been. Like Tucker legitimately, I do want to cement this in, you know, fans brains. He is the most projectable Cubs slugger we have seen in our lifetimes. Yeah. qu and that’s not being hyperbolic. He is the most projectable because of the contact, because of the chase, and because of the power. So when I look at Tucker and I see him on this team in a World Series contention year, quite frankly, I don’t care who we trade. Now you can talk about it, etc., etc., but we’re almost underelling just how good this guy has been. That’s also why I wanted to read how his numbers rank in his career. Not only has he been like as advertised, he’s been great. He’s literally putting up the best season of his career on a war on a war pace. He’s on pace to blow like almost not double but like close his best season. Totally as advertised. This is the type of move big organizations make and it’s on Tom to put his big boy pants on and write the check because and we’ll hit our second first ad break here. Pairing that with your 23-year-old superstar center fielder has blossomed into the starting center fielder for the National League Allstars and it’s deserved like and so that should embolden them to pay Kyle. I’m really happy for those two guys. I see it in the chat too. Like I don’t know if we’ll belabor it too much. We’ll see what happens when they finalize the rosters. Uh there’s the position players, you know, the the players I think vote, the coaches vote, however that happens. Um, but yeah, there’s a a few other Cubs like I I think they ought to be in the mix at least as like subs if guys get hurt. The entire Suzuki say Suzuki has 74 RBI’s. Brendan, he’s almost at his career high. Matthew Boyd sub three erra. Like I think the Cubs have some other contenders here. Brad Keller. I mean, you’re naming all the big stats. Batting average, RBI’s. No, I’m joking. Oh, man. Get out of here. I quit. All right, let’s hit let’s hit our first ad break here. We’ll come back uh and we’ll continue talking about your first place Chicago Cubs. Okay. Hey baseball fans, if you’re thinking about upgrading your drive this season, Toyota’s 2025 lineup is definitely worth a look. There’s the RAV 4s. Versatile, reliable, always ready for a little adventure. Summer starts here right now. From adventures to weekend escapes, our versatile lineup is ready to ride with amazing deals to match. Visit your local dealer. Find yours today. You can check them out and the full lineup at toyota.com or stop by your local dealer Chicago land Toyota dealership today. Toyota, let’s go places and go to all chgo.com for the latest information on how you can join the thousands of choards in our community. I was in that discord today. It is hot. Corey Cup sweep in Cleveland playing well allstar nods. So go to allc.com for the latest info and you can join them today. And nobody likes being hot, sweaty, and sticky. You toss, you turn, you stick to the couch, it’s miserable. But stepping into cool, crisp air conditioning, that is heaven. Summer is coming fast. Is your AC ready? Four seasons heating, air conditioning, plumbing, and electric has kept Chicagoland cool for over 50 years. Remember last summer, 114 degrees heat index at O’Hare, Chicago’s hottest year ever. Remember last week? You know, you got guys passing out on the Wrigley Field Mound. Very hot. Do not get stuck with weak AC when the new heat wave hits. You can sweat the Cubs game, but you should not sweat in your own home. With no extra charge for nights, weekends, or holidays, you can trust Four Seasons Expert Text to get the job done right. Schedule your $50 off tuneup today with a one-year no breakdown guarantee. Call 8664 seasonasons or visit fourseasonheating.net. Visit fourseason heatingcooling.com for all their special offers and money savings coupons. That’s four seasons heatingcooling.com. All right, Brendan, nicely done. Um, back with you here. I I do, you know, we are obviously live after the game on Thursday night, so we’re going to talk about a ton of stuff, not just uh the Thursday night game, but I do want to, you know, we’re riding the high vibes of a walk-off. I do want to give major shout out. Like, that was quality stuff from Matt Shaw. Like, obviously, a lot has been made about his offense. He’s adjusting. He’s growing. It’s been all over the place in terms of, you know, the stuff going on for him at the plate. He’s been phenomenal at third base. Uh, I mean, just that that game last night, I mean, had to be what, three plays that were just really, really nice plays. The type of plays like you have to be fine to the detail. A little bobble, a little slow, everything. You’re not getting that out. And they were huge outs, especially in these close games. But that’s just a really good piece of hitting, Brendon. Michael Bush gets him over. Uh, and a really good piece of hitting from Matt Shaw in a tough spot against a tough pitcher uh to hit that ball to the outfield and get the run in and get the W. It’ll be interesting how they manage Shaw over the next three weeks in terms of their expectations for his offense, whether or not they want to go out and get a offensive boost in the form of a trade or if they’re comfortable with the defense, then they use some of those resources to shore up, let’s say, the bullpen, shore up the starting rotation staff. But what I’m looking for Shaw, I don’t know what you’re looking for, the the constant changes he’s made is noticeable in neither a good or bad way. So I’m watching the game last week. I’m looking at this toe tap. So he’s using this new toe tap that he wasn’t showing, at least from when I went back on Baseball Zant until June 24th. And so that’s one change. and is layering on these changes that previously he made, including a more upright stance, uh, uh, tapering back his leg stride, and I’m not seeing like the immediate results that I thought I was going to see. Now, when he came back from TripleA after his demotion, you saw it for a little bit. You and I were talking about it. I’m like, “Oh, you know, this is this is good.” more balls driven to the right field in Miami, but it didn’t last. And so, let me show one example. I’ll throw it back to you before uh we continue this uh conversation. If you look at just exit VO and you compare Matt Shaw’s exit VO to PCAS and in this graph you can see from top to bottom is exit VO miles per hour. From left to right is April to July. Matt Shaw is significantly lower than PC. That’s obvious, right? PCA is your MVP, right? But PCA’s average exit VLOO is league average. It’s not as if PCA is smoking the ball either, but he does it at an elevated plane. But you can see really the gap in between those two. And Shaw’s exit VO is actually almost the worst in the big leagues right now. And it’s been the worst. But but if you look at the last week and a half, see that trend upwards? See that little trend upwards? That’s the hottest, relatively hottest, the best stretch he’s shown in his career so far. And you’re kind of seeing it in the last couple games. You’re seeing it even uh in in the game in which he had the walk-off sackfly. It’s starting to look a little bit like maybe he is finding some comfort. He’s talked about this, but at the my final thought with Shaw is it’s still it doesn’t feel like it’s locked in yet and it still feels like he’s searching for it even though he has had some good signs recently. Yeah. And we’ve talked about it. It’s going to be something to keep an eye on. Obviously, they’re connected to third baseman. We can all read the rumors. What’s true, what’s not true, we don’t know. Uh, and of course, you know, internally, I don’t know if there was something they wanted to see like, okay, we’re we’re letting it ride. He’s our third baseman for the rest of or just like the Yeah, like Yeah, just in general like I it’s hard to know. That’s a front office decision if they, you know, are are really happy with the glove and they feel like they are going to wait on the bat, if they feel like making a trade and, you know, change them. I’m not sure. We really don’t know. Can we read the rumors? Yeah, we have three weeks. So, three weeks until the deadline starts to really like, you know, heat up. What do you like, would you be comfortable, let’s say Shaw goes on a tear, okay, he hits over 300, hits five home runs between now and the end of July. Are you comfortable not upgrading or is that’s still too small of a sample for you to be comfortable with? Man, it’s tough, dude. I I think you know honestly like the real issue here is uh that you know obviously like there you know we’ve seen Bush a little bit more against lefties recently um you know and we’ll see if there’s growth there. Obviously that takes time for both him and PCA. The issue is like and we talked about this even like coming into the season like there’s a lot of set spots on this team. There’s not a lot of like positional flexibility. Uh like you know you think about to to speak of the 2016 Chicago Cubs, right? uh who won the World Series against winning three straight games in a row as a reminder like that team you know Joe Madden was putting guys everywhere right like you had catchers in the outfield Chris Bryant was playing the outfield in the outfield Ben Zus was playing nine positions every night right like right Travis Wood is playing left field everybody’s doing everything this team isn’t like really like that you have some versatile guys right like you can move Nico around if you wanted to but Kyle Tucker’s playing every Sei is playing every day. Ian Hap, Danby, Nico, your catchers are your catchers. Michael Bush is going to be in there more often than not. It only leaves a couple of spots to upgrade if you need to. And that’s third base and in theory somebody platooning with Michael Bush, which I don’t really think they need to be doing. Michael Bush has been fantastic. So, that’s the question. If they want to upgrade on offense, I think you can upgrade the bench. Uh but I mean you can upgrade the entire upgrade the bench by putting you and me on the bench but yeah um but yeah so I don’t know. We’ll see. Uh but either way fantastic defense from Matt Shaw and a really nice played appearance tonight. We’ve seen enough guys you know that everybody yells every time Dansby or somebody else doesn’t come through with you know the runner on third and you know that situation. Really nice job by Matt Shaw. They needed it and he got the job done on a night where no one was able to push runs across. Both teams wasted some chances. Cleveland wasted some really good chances. Matt Shaw, the guy to finally break through and do it. Good for him. Nice to see. And we’ll we’ll keep an eye on things. Um, all right. Let’s transition here. Let’s talk let’s talk Kate Horton. Brennan, I want to talk about Kate Horton. That was the best start of his major league career. Uh, and just a a really fantastic outing for him. Um, and good to see obviously, you know, as we’re heading to this deadline, I think for most people, a starting pitcher is their top at the top of their list. If you’re in the YouTube chat right now, drop in the YouTube chat, like if you had to rank your priorities, a bat, a starting pitcher, a relief pitcher, and you could only get one. I would imagine the tea leaves are telling us that Jed is like swinging for the fences here, right? That’s what like JP, you know, John Marose is saying, all these other things. Uh, but drop in the chat if you could only upgrade one spot of this team, what would you want it to be? Whether it’s a big addition or a small addition, pick one of the three and let us know. For me, it’s still a starting pitcher, but what getting Shota back and seeing him look like himself obviously needs to go deeper into games, but looking really good. Uh, and I’ll let you dig in on some of that. Matthew Boyd continuing to do his thing. And then a start like this from Kate Horton on Thursday night. Seven innings, five hits, no runs, two walks, five strikeouts. Just an excellent start for Kate Horton. A shame he can’t get the win. Uh obviously gets a no decision in this one. Um but just a phenomenal start from Kate Horton. And I think as we head to the deadline, like the thing with the starting pitcher, I had uh Diehard, one of our, you know, YouTube regulars, Gary Ross, ask on Twitter the other day like what do you think? Is there any concern with like Matthew Boyd, you know, coming off the injury, not throwing that many innings last year and you know, similar to Kate Horton? And I think like candidly the answer is like kind of we’ll see. They may have an internal number where they’re like at this point we really got to like shut this down. This is based on, you know, years of looking at these guys and these workloads and things like that. But they’re, you know, everybody’s a unique case and you never really know. You got to monitor like how do the guys feel after starts? how does their VO look, you know, to start games, going through games, uh, you know, as they go, you know, back-to-back outings, things like that. It’s it’s not something where, you know, they haven’t given us this number. Sometimes it exists, but it’s not as though we’re sitting here going like, “Oh, okay. When he gets to, you know, 100 innings, that’s it. That’s the number. That’s what we really don’t know. So, I think you ride it as long as you can. you pay attention to the signs and you know make sure you’re keeping these guys healthy. But that also goes into the conversation that these guys were excellent in this series and they you know Matthew Boyd especially has been excellent. I think he deserves to be an all-star with the way that he’s performed. But there is that variable there of like are they going to run out of gas and is that something that Jed needs to prepare for? And you know I think especially given the rest of the rotation the answer is yes. And my number one at the deadline would be a starting pitcher. Matthew Boyd, career-high innings. Kate Horn has 81 innings between Triple A and the big leagues right now. Regardless of the internal belief if they can get to September, the reality is they have not done it. So that unknown there is a big unknown. If you have a team solidified offensively with say a Suzuki, Kyle Tucker, PCA’s emergence, and a consistent performance across the board from the rest of the roster, you want to capitalize on that projection. Your offense right now is stably projected to produce. So to match that, the best way to ensure you don’t risk some type of elongated funk or some small sample variation is to shore up as best as possible your pitching staff. So of course you want to see Kate Horn continue to pitch well. The hope is he doesn’t just throw 100 innings, but 125. Now the reports are those innings limits are no longer there. That’s been an internal re-evaluation from the Cubs pitching infrastructure. Those bearings have been removed. Still though, he has not shown it. So despite the intention for them to push forward, they still have to do it. Tyion, he’s going to hit his innings limit max career-wise at this pace. Show Imanaga, he had the hamstring injury, but this will be his first full year going hopefully into October. not just ending at the end of partial but yeah I know what you mean right so there’s unknowns there and as best as or as good as that 2016 roster was offensively it was the starting pitching staff that really solidified and shrunk that random nonsense once you got into the playoffs and my hope is we’re able to do that again yeah uh all right we’re going to hit our second hand break here when we come back though we’ll dive more into uh what we saw off from Kate Horton and Shoda in these uh last two games to see what they were doing, what was working. Uh and we’ll let the pitch doctor take us into the lab a little bit. But we’re going to hit our second ad break here. We’ll be back to talk more about again your first place Chicago codes. What is Sunnyside? Is your home for judgment free cannabis shopping? 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Get $350 discount when you use promo code CA Shield. That’s right, 350 off with code cho. Restrictions do apply. Visit empiretoday.com/cgo for full details. All right, Brendan, back with you here. Let me ask you something. I was thinking about this, too. Like, is there part of you like does it I know we’re like we we came on the air right after this game, like, etc., etc. Did it dawn on you at all? Like, we just watched the Cubs win a one to nothing game started by Kate Horton, won by Matt Shaw. You know, sometimes I got I got to slap myself in the face to realize that. And you have after Pete Crow Armstrong was named the starting center fielder in the Allar game. Yeah. With pallet Tucker in right field. Yeah. It’s it’s weird how baseball even just thinking about these guys that we’ve been reading about in the pipeline and watching come through the system. Like there’s been a few of these games honestly this year, but like that’s cool, man. Like that’s just cool. Sometimes you got to savor those victories, too. And that’s what I’m trying to realize for myself as I watch, you know, this new era compared to 2016, 2017. And it ended so abruptly, right? So I always told myself, you know, in the dark days in 2020, 2021, once we get back to this point, I am no longer going to be looking forth, you know, a year, two years from, I’m going to enjoy those day-to-day games, those small little moments, because baseball is so so stupid. You know, I always say this. You look at the Yankees right now, they are getting smoked. They’re now in second place. You look at the Mets, they’re going through a funk. Baseball is so fickle. Atlanta’s like 10 games below 500. You just never know. So, I’m going to embrace watching K Tucker put up these numbers. PCA starting in center field and whatever ends up being in the offseason, save it for the offseason. Yeah. I mean, you know, unless you want to, you know, sign them, you know, mind uh over these games, but yeah, like otherwise that’s like mostly true. Trying to project, you know, some confidence over here, right? Exactly. Yeah. Don’t show them a text. Yeah. Right. Um, all right. Let’s dive into some of the specifics of what we saw from Kate Horton and Shota. I don’t know if there’s one you want to start with. I think I think with Shota, you know, the interesting thing is just uh, you know, what are we seeing as he’s come back? Obviously, just a couple starts here. They’re keeping it short, monitoring the pitch count. You know, the ball was leaving the park uh, last night, but limiting the damage. And if you’re going to give up homers, you want to do it with nobody on base. And you know, look, the Cubs won the game. So that’s that’s always the key. You know, if you you don’t have your best stuff or you make a few mistakes, keep the team in the game. And that’s what Shota did. But what are you seeing from Shota? And then we can get to Kate Horton, too. So Sha’s first start back from the IIL, fast ball was too low. So he lives on top of his own, right? Low release point. Fast ball has some natural carry on it. That’s how he gets his whiffs. So in the second start against Cleveland, I’m looking at, okay, where is that fastball command? So if we look at it, those red fast balls, see how they’re living the top of the zone right there? There’s a huge cluster top right of red fast balls. That’s where you want show to live. Now you look at that splitter, right? Second question is, where is the splitter located? Where are those uh teal splitters located? a little bit up but still a lot towards the bottom end of that black part of the zone but still it’s a little bit up in some of those pitches you see heavy in those were hit for home runs but the majority Cory were actually pretty good I thought he looked significantly better against Cleveland than he did in his first start now if you were to overlay his similar graph from the first start those red forcing fast balls those splitters more crunched in the middle of the zone. He just was not locating a top the zone. Also though, different lineups. So, you’re seeing, you know, a lot of splitters here in his first start back uh from the IIL who’s actually throwing more sweepers, right? So, different lineup, different strategy. this lineup specifically tailored to his strengths because he was able to actually show his splitter that he uses as his dominant pitch type whereas in the first start had a reliance on pitch types he typically doesn’t throw as frequent as that splitter. Overall couldn’t be happier honestly from show start back just given what we need from him and he’s showing it. Yeah, it’s it’s obviously nice to have him back you know and I appreciate you know them taking their time with him. I I am quite looking forward to the point that he is like unleashed uh and we get to kind of Well, I think we’re going to see it soon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I I meant that seriously. Like I I’m glad they’re taking their time with him. Like they’re they’re managing it. And you know, it’s one of the luxuries that the way this bullpen has performed affords you, you know, like you’re able to feel comfortable taking him out and turning the ball over in the sixth inning. And you feel comfortable with these guys. Um, you know, a little bit of a roller coaster sometimes with some of these guys, but they’re getting the job done, man. And that 89 combo of Brad Keller to Daniel Plencia has just been lights out. So, really good to have Showa back. I think he looks good. And I think, you know, most importantly, Brendan, like, and and you talked about this, like when you come back from an injury like that, especially a guy only going into his second year in Major League Baseball, you just want him to look the same and just look like himself. And I think we’ve seen that from Shoto. Of course, he’s got to get, you know, he’ll want to get back to the 100 pitch mark. He’ll want to be pitching into the eighth inning, etc. But really nice to have him back and I think he looks like himself. That was the other thing, Brendan, too, like in this series, like it’s not something I I would have to look I I I would wonder aloud if this has happened all season. Uh but two two starters in this series getting through seven innings, I mean, how nice was that? Yeah, anecdotally, it’s got to be the first one, right? And coming from Kate Horn has to be right coming from Kate Horn too just to touch on Kate Boyd. Matthew Boyd was going short you know for the majority of you know the earlier in the season right just striking out too many guys because too many pitches. I mean and he’s quite frankly just emulating what Justin Steel provided from a production standpoint last year. So that’s been phenomenal. Yeah. Yeah. Let’s talk about Kate Horton. Yeah. So, I mean, Cade, he’s a fascinating case because what he’s doing to produce value is not what I would have expected. He’s not walking many guys. His walk per nine’s under three. He’s not striking out that many guys. His K9’s around seven, but his contact rate and his whiff rate is actually slightly better than league average. So, that’s a great sign. the the fast ball. Watch these starts and you guys can tell me, you know, what you see, but when he misses his fast ball command, it’s down in the zone. And you know, that’s fine. He’s getting a lot of ground balls, but in a way, it’s almost like, is that sustainable for Cade? And this was his best start from a production standpoint for sure tonight, but there’s still times where he’s just hammering the zone. just hammering the zone with those fast balls and he’s getting weak contact. But part of me wonders, okay, is this like the current developmental, you know, switch that he needs to make to really own in on that fast ball command to hit his spots? And when that does happen, and when I and I say when because I’m confident it will, then will the whiff start to come and his strikeout start to come as well because everything else is progressing at a faster than expected pace for me. the the change up he’s making Jose Ramirez flail on multiple change ups Wednesday night you’re seeing the sweeper look exactly like what was advertised and the fast ball with the velocity being 95 96 97 carrying deeper in the game I did not expect that to be so stable this fast so the next step for me frankly is just consistent fast ball command I want to see that but at the same time. I don’t know how fair I am with that command. I don’t know if it’s an intentional like deliberate effort to go a little bit more middle in, but I don’t know if I don’t think it is. In a way, I see some one last I see some like some some harmonization with how Ben Brown was throwing where they’re just hammering the hell out of this strike zone. Just fast ball, fast ball, fast ball. And for Ben Brown, that ultimately led to some poor production. I’m not saying that’s going to happen with Kate Horton, but I do wonder if this been like a philosophical switch for the Cubs and just just hammering Nexo. Yeah. And I mean I it was Cliff Floyd I think it was Cliff Floyd or Boog on the broadcast tonight, but I think it was Cliff Floyd talking about um ju just that like you know two strike pitches where you’re catching too much of the plate like don’t throw that one again. But I think they they elaborated and I I think the answer to kind of what you’re thinking aloud is like I think it’s just getting comfortable, right? like getting comfortable in the big leagues and if you know guys are hitting you that’s you know preferred to missing the zone and trying to be too fine uh you know with what you’re doing there and and hitting the spots and things you know and that’ll come in time but you know for Cade it’s really exciting to see the way that he has been called up and grown. I think it’s a huge it’s a huge development dramatically. Like is is he gonna be in a spot where he’s pitching one of these playoff games? Like probably not. I I don’t think he has the bullets in the arm. I I but again I I don’t know what they’re planning to do with him. Who knows? Uh but for him to get called up, you know, he he didn’t spend a ton of time in the minors like in his whole career. Uh you know, obviously he dealt with some injuries in his career. for him to come and he’s had some bad starts, but like you see it in a start like this, like he’s learning. He’s actively getting better. And I I was just looking at some of the quotes from him postgame and you know, he said, “Success breeds confidence.” He’s got that attitude, you know. He does. Yeah, he does. Um I mean, and look, I respect anybody. You don’t see it a lot in 2025 anymore, but rocking the straight like 1998 stone cold Steve Austin goatee. Goatee only. like you know now we’re talking um but just really good to see this development and but getting to what he said success breeds confidence like these are big starts and and and that’s kind of what I mean about like the you know being able to have that like Jacob Deg Grom like command like not everybody can do that but even if you’re going to get there like takes time you got to learn how to pitch in these big environments you know you’re going from minor league baseball now you know 42,000 fans standing up every time there’s two strikes, you know, or the the base is loaded, 3-2 count, stuff like that. Big hitters like Jos Ramirez, you know, this Cleveland lineup isn’t great, but it’s got some good hitters in it. Uh, and I think it’s a big step for him, and I think, you know, the the fine details will come. Uh but to see him bounce back from some rough starts and start to kind of put things together, you see some of this start to click, it it may not be the mo it’s not the most important development for the Cubs in 2025. That would be your center fielder who is going to get MVP votes and is starting the All-Star game. Uh PCA, uh if you’re not familiar with him, I saw it in our YouTube chat. I know you guys saw it on the game, but it was spelled out on the chests of some of our younger friends in the bleachers uh at beautiful historic Wrigley Field tonight. That name is Pete Crow Armstrong. Okay. Uh that is the most significant development you’re going to get from the Chicago Cubs in 2025. But seeing Cade come up make those starts every fifth day, Brendan with consistency and right taking strides even if it hasn’t been better start to start. You can see stuff getting better from him. Absolutely. When he came up, it’s a huge development and a great great start on Thursday. And you know, we say this all the time, man. Like they needed it. Matthew Boyd has the guy, as you said, that filled the Justin Steel gap. Just a massive where this team would be without Matthew Boyd stepping up, it’s a different conversation. Um, but Kate Horton tonight, like offense wasn’t doing anything. offense was out of gas like and for him to go blow forblow there and get the job done and keep Cleveland at zero again for seven innings like the Cubs you know have had so much time with very few off days that one on Monday was their first in a couple weeks. Uh Brad Keller, Daniel Palencia back-to-back nights shutting games down so important for him to go deep in this game on Thursday night. Uh and really exciting to watch him continue to develop here. So, we’re going to take our third ad break here. Uh, when we come back, uh, if we I feel like we talked about a ton, but if we forgot anything, drop it in the chat. I know at least one thing we got to talk about Daniel Pencia. So, Oh, we will. We will. Yes. When we come back. Uh, but we’re going to take our third and final ad break here and then we’ll be back again. Have I mentioned that we’ll be back to talk about your first place, Chicago? Okay, summer travel season is here. If you’re like me, packing always turns into overpacking. Toiletry bag exploding. Simplify your routine with Manda. The Manda 4 in-1 acidified cleansing bar is a game changer. Shampoo, face wash, body wash, and deodorant all in one bar. It saves space in your bag and keeps you fresh from head to toe. But I what I really love is Mando’s whole body deodorant stick is safe to use anywhere. Pits, thighs, belly button, even your private most personal areas. No other deodorant goes this far and it works. Seriously, man does clinical proven to control odor better than a shower with soap alone. My favorite scent is the clover woods clean, fresh, not overpowering, and yeah, I made a part of my daily routine. 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What’s going to happen in July and August and September? Can PCA sustain all this, right? But the reality is these guys make changes and nothing about a computer is going to project that. And in reality, when you start looking at these projections, they all suck because these guys are humans and because they go through these unpredict unpredictable changes. Yeah, 100%. But, you know, just thinking too about like, you know, that Houston series happened obviously, you know, a massive narrative driven thing. I like I I really I I feel like I left a lot of money on the table. Like so obvious Cam Smith was going to hit those homers. I should have I’m not, you know, I’m not always a big gambler, but like I should have tried to cash in on that. It was literally the most obvious thing I’ve ever seen just so everybody could talk about it, right? Um but you know, division league shrunk, Milwaukeee’s winning these games, like etc, etc. And you know, pulling back a little bit here, like after that series with Milwaukee and the Mets, uh the Cardinals went have gone like a million straight innings without scoring. And I don’t know if they did on uh Thursday or if they played because I don’t really care about the St. Louis Cardinals, but uh they went three, you know, three games I think against the Pirates without scoring a run. It was phenomenal. Um so the division lead is back up to four on the Brewers, five and a half on the Cardinals, seven the Reds, and you know, the Pittsburgh Pirates are where they are. uh PCA, Kyle Tucker, Allstars, Matthew Boyd, like what a massive W for Jed Hoyer. Like so much been made about Jed Hoyer. Obviously, he’s in a contract year. Like big W on that one. I mean, that’s looking like one of the best free agent signings all off season. Matthew Boyd has been absolutely spectacular. You get production from these young guys like, you know, I I was sitting there at these these last couple games and just taking it all in. Like I said, the crowd has been electric. Uh, but you just, you know, it sort of like slowly comes over you like this team is legit. This team is legit. They’re in a good position. There’s all these rumors about how like they’re going to go for it at the deadline. Like Jed has what he needs to be bold at the deadline. You know, that’s the stuff you’re reading. We’ll see what happens. But good good moment. Things can change on a dime the other way or get even better hopefully. But in this moment right now after watching a Matt Shaw walk off on a night that Kate Horton started uh feeling pretty good. Five got to feel pretty good. There’s 75 games left. Now in one sense that’s a lot of games but in the other sense they’ve gotten through half the season performing well and did so when the first six weeks were really tough. They put themselves in a position where they are financially flexible. But we’re talking $25 million below that first tier of luxury tax. They can spend above that first tier to get the guys if they want, but they are so flexible to make the moves they want to make. Do you think that Jed is sitting there now going, “Well, well, well. You all yelled at me for having that money under the luxury tax and guess who gets to use it to make a first place team better.” Now, listen, we got to see results, right? You can have your process. you can execute or not execute it. Right now, he’s executed. So, of course, he deserves some credit for it. Yeah. And one last peel back and then we’ll get to Daniel Palencia. I promise. He deserves the time. Uh just with everything else, a reminder, and I I feel like this is a good reminder, too, especially when they scuffle or if people like to, oh, you know, it’s been a while since they beat a team with a winning record, whatever. They’ve beaten teams with winning records. If that’s your jam to get upset about that, like whatever. uh lot of season left and what matters is getting to October and how they do in October. But I digress. Uh regardless, like of all these little things, they’ve done a lot right, Brendan, and they’ve done a lot better than other teams in baseball. And one of the things that will back that up for me is they currently have the second best record in the National League, trailing only the 55 win Dodgers. The Cubs have 52 wins and 35 losses. And they also have a better record than everybody in the American League except for the Detroit Tigers and they have the exact same record as the Houston Astros. So for whatever, you know, if you want to move the goalposts or whatever small lens you want to look through, uh, you know, when they lose the series against Houston, like half of Cubs Twitter is like they’re not actually good. They’re they’re fake. They can’t beat good teams because they split the first two games and what did they lose that last game by a couple runs. Like give me a break. Whatever. Right. Small fraction of the fan base. You’re amplifying a small fraction. Well, I’m not amplifying. I’m yelling at them. I know I’m I’m chiding them. I’ll let you I’ll let you have it. Regardless, the point is like Cubs have been really good and they have quite literally by any stretch been one of the best teams in Major League Baseball to this point. That’s cool. Absolutely. I mean, we’re see it’s very cool. And you we talked about in the offseason the Cubs front office survival is going to depend on whether or not they develop pitching this year. Whether their bullpen gambles pay off just in the same vein that has paid off for Milwaukee over the past few years. We’ve seen it in the chat. Chris Flexon, Drew Pomeran’s, you mentioned it. Brad Keller. Mhm. It’s a roaring success that the bullpen has performed so well and we’ve discussed this for months ad nauseium and you’re finally seeing the fruits of that labor pay significant dividends and generate meaningful wins for this team. One more thing, the Chicago Cubs also have the best run differential in Major League Baseball. That’s right. Not the National League, not the American League, Major League Baseball. Your Chicago Cubs. All right. So, speaking of the bullpen perhaps our last segment here for Thursday night, we talked about in the offseason, you just mentioned it. If you weren’t going to spend, and they did try, right? Like they tried to get Tanner Scott, uh, you know, didn’t work. He chose something else. Whatever. If you’re not going to load up the bullpen with just these established like lights out guys or do it via trade or spend, you have got to be winning on that margin and be better than other organizations at identifying, hey, this guy is a reclamation project. We’re going to figure out how to tweak it to get him back to where he was in his career or we’re going to bring up this young guy because we feel like he’s ready and we can put him into a role. you just mentioned it, but the Cubs are doing this in every every way. They’re bringing up young guys and getting them into high leverage roles. They’re bringing, you know, guys out of these, you know, Trackman style uh workouts and putting them in the bullpen, getting success. They’re turning old starters into guys that just don’t ever give up runs ever. Uh it it’s been phenomenal. So they have absolutely that was one of the key areas like if you’re going to take that strategy and that’s going to be your approach you got to be one of the top teams in the league at it and they have absolutely nailed that. I mean just incredible work thus far and you never know like guys break down you may you got to be prepared for that. Uh bullpens are fickle, very fickle, like month to month, week to week, daytoday fickle, but incredible work by the front office and this pitching infrastructure to get the production that they have out of this bullpen. And I think no better example of that than Daniel Palencia. And we will use Daniel Palencia as our taking the temp segment of the week. That of course is brought to you by our wonderful sponsor for fourseasonsheatingcooling.com. They are your trusted local experts air conditioning, plumbing, and electric. Visit fourseasons heatingcooling.com for all their special offers and money-saving coupons. That is four seasons heatingcooling.com. Brendan, I don’t know what to tell you, man. Like they put on gasolina at Wrigleyfield. He comes out there just I mean and you know look the song is quite literal just throwing gas but what a development Brendan I mean we sat here a couple months ago and I’ll ask you but I I want you to tell me like what Palencia is doing what stands out to you as the guy digging into all these pitching metrics but about a month ago couple months ago like when we were talking about the deadline I said almost verbatim like you’re going to need that guy game seven you know bases is loaded, two outs. Who is that guy you’re calling out of the bullpen to get that strike out to be that guy to put out the biggest fire, the highest leverage situation possible? And I didn’t think that they had that person. Is that person Daniel Palencia? He is absolutely one of those guys that could be that person. Now, there’s some growing steps he needs to take to get to that point. Is he there now? Potentially. you want to see a larger sample. The trait that stands out the most from Palencia that hitters don’t see is three-fold. The first is his height. He’s a shorter guy with a lower slot with a lot of extension. Okay, that’s trait number one. Number two is he throws 102 miles per hour. Okay, so you have a low slot guy with extension throwing 102. And then the third trait is he has a lot of actual run on his forcing. We’ve talked about cut ride for many of these Cubs pitchers, color, flexing and so on. It’s the opposite for Valencia. So he has about average carry, but he has a lot more run to go with that fast ball than most of the other Cubs pitchers. So what does that mean? Well, he has a low slot. Okay, average carry, but the carry plays up because of that low slot. That’s important at 102 with run. Then the difference this year versus last year, listen to Carsel talk about it. Listen to Daniel Palencia talk about it. Look at it with your eyes. He’s hammering his direct zone. So the misses are competitive. Even when he’s missing or not missing, he’s showing pitches on the black part of the zone. And even if he’s missing in the, you know, dead center of zone, it’s weak contact. So, you’re getting what you want. You’re getting competitive misses, but you’re also getting pitches where he’s not hitting his spots, generating weak contact or whiffs as well. Now, what is the next step that needs to happen? Well, we would like to get more whiffs. He has about a league average whiff rate for a closer, right? But he’s generating weak contact. I think it’s possible he gets more of those whiffs. And we’ve seen it throughout time. You talked about Emanuel Class. He has success with Cleveland despite having a slightly above average whiff rate now this year. Whiff rate 95th percentile for a closer and he’s generated improved that way. So I do think there’s parallels with Palencia and Class A. And I do think just that natural uniqueness he has could lend to some better than uh what we’ve seen so far from the results standpoint which is Yeah. Well and yeah better than the results. The results have been excellent. 1.74 RA 2.83 fib. So, you know, a little bit of a discrepancy there, but the fif is still good. You’d certainly take a 2.8 fib. 31 innings. Uh, really good stuff from Daniel. And I, you know, have said this before. I I we’ve talked about this, but I I I keep going back to that game in Miami that Craig went back to him after he blew the save and I think it was two days later that he came back for another close one. and showing that confidence in a young guy and also Daniel growing from that moment. Like I I really felt at the time like that was an important thing and to see him now he’s got that swagger about them. He’s screaming after the games like he is growing into like feeling like I am the closer of this team. I am ready to get these big outs. All right, a little bit to talk about. We’re we’re going to finish up on fast here uh and head to overtime. stick with us if you’re watching on YouTube uh and we will finish up the conversation and over like we we weren’t ready to be done. Uh but yeah, like I I I feel like that was a really, you know, to to quote the great Pat Hughes uh on tonight, you know, they’re celebrating the 100th uh anniversary of the first radio broadcast there for the Chicago Cubs. Like that felt like a turning point moment. Daniel Palency was already doing great. the stuff was already trending in that direction, but you we we’ve it just felt like a really good moment from Craig Council. Not that I I think anyone would have expected him to abandon Palencia there, but that was earlier in the year. There really wasn’t a set like, oh, he’s the closer, Brad Keller’s the closer. like it it was one of those moments not that long after, you know, the Presley blow up and and stuff like that against the Giants where that was still kind of up in the air and sticking with the young guy there and showing that belief in him. I I do feel like that was a really important moment for Daniel and he really grew from that and is now growing into that like, all right, I can hear the crowd making noise when I’m pumping 101 and 102. I’m making some of these guys look silly. I’m getting a lot of these big outs. And then Clark comes running out of the, you know, cage with his W flag. Like they keep they keep him in a cage over there. Is that what they do? Well, he I it it’s not a cage, but it’s like a utility closet in left field. I’ve seen the inside of it. There’s one of the one of the grounds crew workers uh who like is part of that. I I I wish I could remember the t I think he has a Tik Tok where he’s shown the inside of like when they wait for the W and then they they both run out there. It’s it’s Oh, is that true? Yeah. Okay. Well, the big piece of Palencia that gives me the most encouragement is a representation of the pitching infrastructure. You talked about being patient with Palencia, getting him in his stuff to the point where he’s closing games. They haven’t done this for guys with his profile. Remember Manny Rodriguez? You may not, right? Manny Rodriguez has some similarities to Daniel Palencia. The first is they don’t have that cut ride profile that other guys have. Manny Rodriguez with Tampa Bay, Cory, this year 2.1 RA. You know what it was last year? 2.2 RA. So those guys developed outside of the Cubs organization with a different infrastructure. The Cubs have had success with their infrastructure with a similar mold of pitchers and that’s that cut rod profile. Valencia is not that guy, right? So for me, when you have someone emerging as a bonafide closer with a completely different profile from what we’ve seen the Cubs have success with, that makes me believe, okay, this is a diverse growing pitching infrastructure that gets beyond their strengths. And that gives me a lot of encouragement going forward. That way, you know, we don’t lose out on the next Daniel Palencia. We don’t lose those Manny Rodriguezes from our organization that the Tampa Bay Rays start to develop. And that’s a great sign that we’re seeing Palencia grow into that picture. Yeah. And a good point from our friend Evoax 73 in the chat. Always appreciate you being here, sticking with us for these, you know, however long we end up rambling on for. Uh, another good trade from Jed Hoyer. They got Daniel Palencia, who I I at the time I’d have to go back and think of it, but I think like Dykeman was the bigger name in that trade or the one that like people probably centered on. Uh but for Andrew Chaffan. Uh so, you know, that one, you know, took a little bit of time, but that’s the thing like sometimes these things pay off. Going to be interesting at one point to relitigate the 21 2021 deadline. Uh just sitting here as one of those players has turned and now he’s starting the All-Star game at 23. you know, a long way to go in their Well, so is the other one too, you know, the other the other outfielder. I mean, truly amazing. Truly amazing. You know, this is Cubs related podcast and our mission is pretty much always to only talk about Chicago Cubs baseball for however long we’re on with you technically, right? Like talking about Jav Bayz is talking about Detroit Tigers baseball, but especially after they beat Cleveland, we’re talking about PCA. Unbelievable. one of those just like crazy occurrences that Pete’s first all-star game, he is going to start in center field opposite the man he was traded for. And like congratulations to Jav Bias. I will love that forever. Uh doing it at a third position moving from the infield to the outfield. Incredible. Good for him, man. Unbelievable. If anyone’s going to do that switch, it’s going to be Javi, right? Just I mean it’s spectacular. In 12 years, do you think Pete can start the Allstar game at shortstop? Mookie bets move to shortstop. Listen, he can play shortstop. I know he’s a lefty. I’m telling you right now, he can play short. I’ve seen I have no doubt. Yeah, I’ve seen lefties play shortstop at the high school level. They’re they’re, you know, they’re good. He can just do a little bit of a loop-de-loop turn. He’ll figure it out. He’ll just run the ball to first. He’s fine. He’s got it. Yeah. I mean, he’ll get there fast. Look, like for as much as it’s very cool to see Jav do this, I’m I’m very happy for him, especially like, you know, him and KB, like you don’t like watching these guys like struggle and put up bad numbers and everybody’s talking about what a terrible trade and wow, how far they’ve fallen. It’s great to see Javi do this. And the only thing that could make me happier is meeting him and the Detroit Tigers in the World Series and it all ending on Pete chasing down a ball in the massive alley in Detroit and robbing Jav Bayz of what would be a World Series winning hit only to land in Pete’s glove, securing the Cubs second World Series in the last 10. Does it have to happen like that? I can’t for you. Two T. I I barely survived. Guarantee the win. I barely survived the first one. Okay, come on. Just give me a sweep. All right, I think that’s what we have for you in this episode. Uh, whatever you were doing over this holiday weekend. Hopefully you have off of work. Uh, if you don’t, I’m sorry about that, but hopefully you can enjoy your weekend anyway. And let’s watch the Cubs take care of business against the St. Louis Cardinals. Once again, should be an electric atmosphere at Wrigleyfield. It always is, but you know, big crowds, everybody’s uh, you know, home from school or off of work for the Fourth of July. Two rivals, Cubs in first place. Should be a great atmosphere. Um, Brennon and I will be back with you next Thursday. We appreciate it. Once again, just wrapping everything up. The Cubs win one to nothing on Thursday night to complete a sweep of the Cleveland Guardians. The Cubs sitting now at 52 and 35, a four-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central. They are one of the best teams in baseball. They are sending two of their outfielders at minimum uh well to the All-Star game, but to start the All-Star game. Kyle Tucker is a Chicago Cub. He’s probably one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. Vibes are good. It’s a holiday weekend. Enjoy your weekend, everybody. We appreciate you being with us. And as always, go Cubs. [Music] [Applause] We all silly like the mayor.