March 31, 2025 • 36 mins
The Cubs split their series with the Diamondbacks, but it sure doesn’t feel like a win. After leading 6-2 with just six outs to go on Sunday, the bullpen imploded, and the Cubs fell 10-6 in a brutal collapse. We break down the entire weekend, analyze what went wrong in the finale, and look ahead to the upcoming series against the A’s. Plus, we discuss potential bullpen fixes, roster tweaks, and much more. Don’t miss this one! Subscribe: / @dingersachicagocubsfanpodc824 Talk #Cubs baseball on our facebook group: / 188995809182063 @dingercubs is presented by OnTapSportsNet.com, your go-to source for Cubs news, analysis, and updates. Follow us on social media: @Diingercubs | @OnTapSportsNet Panelists: @dingercubs | @baseball_buj | @wycoffjd23 | Follow us on Twitter: @dingercubs Follow us on Instagram: @dingercubs TikTok: @dingercubs Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/dingercubs
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to the Dingers Podcast, presented to you by
t Schorts Network with your host Mitch, Jeff and kevis'
great to talk to the Cubs.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
All I need is a bet.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Y'all looking over the Wow.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Yah, I ain't believe under estimate the.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Swingers Dingers podcast is on the air. I'm your host, Mitch.
I'm here with Jeff and Kevin. Wait, I have it
going on in the background. Can you hear that? I'll
turn that off. Nah. We're starting out just kind of
how the Cub season is starting out, uh with this episode? Well, Hey,
(00:46):
how are you guys tonight?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
He is good?
Speaker 5 (00:50):
Yeah, Yeah, I'm great. Atl tired, but you know, let's
be expected. I get up at the crack of dawn.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, are you Mitch? Ah, I'm doing all right. But
it's like we're already here and we're six games in
and we already have to do an episode where we're
complaining about the bullpen, Like we're already at the point
(01:19):
of frustration and that that's kind of where I'm at
right now, is just kind of frustrated because I'll be
honest with you, when the Cubs were up six to two,
like I almost like I cashed it in. I was like,
I like it. Walked away from the TV, I was like,
all right, like, hey, it's it's close to six o'clock,
(01:41):
to see what my wife's making for dinner. Go in
the kitchen like kind of just like. And then I
come back in the bases of a load and they're
giving the game away. I was like, oh man, we're
why what are we doing? And That's where I'm at
that that we're already to this point of frustration.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
And felt the same way.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
It was getting towards six and I'm since I had
a outpatient received drat quit taking my blood thender so
I gotta give myself shots twice a day, and six
pm and six am is when it happens. So I
went upstairs to get myself a shot when we're up supper.
By the time I got back downstairs, it was ten
to six. Some What the fuck just happens?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
How are you?
Speaker 6 (02:22):
Kevin?
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
It's a busy time of the year. We got all
the kids sports all happening at the same time. Enjoyed
my last free weekend of no soccer until middle of June.
Maybe depends on tournaments could go later. We'll know, we'll
know when we get there. But it was a good weekend.
I saw my sister from Colorado. She had a wedding shower,
but got to see her outside of that, which was fun.
(02:49):
Got to have some wonderful Barntown brunch food and beverages.
Enjoyed that quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, I'm kind of I think we're just starting travel baseball,
getting into the tournament season, and so we have our
first travel baseball game on Thursday night, so my son's
playing in that. So we'll be in the thick of it,
just like Kevin, of traveling and getting all over for baseball.
(03:18):
Busy baseball season coming up. I looked at my month
of June, and it's like every weekend and every Tuesday,
Thursday and sometimes like four games in a week. It's like, oh,
this is gonna be a busy time. A lot of ball,
a lot of baseball to be played. But man, let's
get back to the Cubs. Cubs are two and four
currently after their two losses in Japan, they come back
(03:43):
and they split with the d Backs. It's one that
you feel like, you feel like if you would have
told me at the beginning of this series, we would
have walked away with a split. We'd been like, hey,
we'll take a split. But then if you knew how
we took a split and that we had one game
basically in the bag and we decided to just give
(04:05):
it away, that's where this hurts a little bit more.
And it's gonna be like, I mean to keep a
tallly of how many games we give away, they're like
just three, like just losses, just like that we should
have won. There were losses this year. To see how
many towards the end of the season, as we're fighting
for a playoff spot, that it's gonna come back to
(04:27):
hurt us because this is gonna be one where we're
gonna remember. This is one that I know we're gonna
look back on and like, hey, that one game that
we didn't make the playoff, missed at the playoffs, Remember that,
like Game five of the year, Game six of the year.
Do you remember that when we lost that Arizona when
the bullpen just pissed it down their leg and they'll we're.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
At I really thought after Tucker's home run that we
gave ourselves some breathing room, the.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Right true to think you need to think yep, yeah,
because was it eight to two? Is that like one.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Point four run lead would be safe? But little did
we know.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, let's let's start here tonight. We're gonna go are
our three goods and we'll go two bats just because
I don't want to like get into the weeds of
all the bats, because we we could we could do that.
Let's talk about the first the three goods so far
the season that we've noticed with the Cubs. Uh, let's
(05:35):
start with you, Kevin. What are your three goods? You
want me to do? All three or one around the horn?
Shoot all three?
Speaker 5 (05:43):
All right?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
My number one good We asked for it last year.
We got it this year. Kyle Tucker.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
It's kind of a big deal. Yes, he has a
lot of fun to watch. He's smashing the ball. Well,
he's coming up in that spot in the lineup when
he's got runners ahead them and he's not letting the
moment get away from him, putting the ball in play.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
He's done. Yeah, I'm loving it.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
I'm just loving We're six games in, he's got two
homers and he had a little bit of a slow start,
Like I'm loving it.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Just taking off so that's he's my number one.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
My number two is my guy, Miguel Amayah, just just
picking up from last year, taking that catcher's position and
running with it. He uh, you know, the catcher was
a problem position, especially early in the season, and he's
just he's just taking it.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
He's running running away with it. He's got the pitchers doing.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
What they're supposed to do. Man, it's the bullpen, but
everything else is going well. My number three is Showda
just picking up kind of where he left off. He's
had a couple of rough spots, he's pitched around it
and then he's still cruised.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
What was it is that Saturday?
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Yeah, he went ninety one pitches. They kind of spread
like he went a little farther than I expected. I
thought it was an inning or two before that. I
told one of my sons, is, like, he's coming out
after this inning, and he still popped out there and
got three more outs. It was wonderful to see.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Those are my sweet Those are your three, Jeffrey, what's
your three goods?
Speaker 6 (07:13):
Well?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
To expand on tevins, Miguelmayah, he I believe has five
hits this year, and four of them are doubles.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So that's great, and I think we might have a
viable third up and coming third baseman, somebody to Billy
Plant over there at the hot corner, which is something
that we haven't really had.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
Even when we had Chris Bryant. I didn't really ever
think he was a great third baseman, but it was
what it was.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
And then also the Coubbies pinstripes still look good.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, they do. They do look good, Jeff. That's nice.
That hasn't changed in a really long time. They still
look good. Even when they play road in, they're in,
they're blues. The pin stripes still look good in Japan.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Uh. My three goods are number one, danceby Swanson. Danceby
Swats' is the hitting the ball. And if we can
get the version of Dansby that was in Atlanta and
early with the Cubs the first year he's putting the
(08:21):
ball in play, looks like he's he's healthy. You know,
you'll get a gold glove out there at shortstop from
from Danceby. And so if he can get his back
coming along like that will be huge to LinkedIn out
our lineup and just provide a little bit more fear
in for the picture with this lineup, where last year
a lot of times you're like, okay, this the pitcher
(08:43):
doesn't fear this lineup. There's no spot in this lineup
that they fear. Now they have Kyle Tucker that is
definitely a fearful spot, like you're gonna have to pitch
around him. Like I mean, I felt like for the
Cubs and for us, every time Suarez like was in
on dex circle, We're like, oh crap, Like here's an
other dinger that we're in serve off to it and so.
(09:04):
But having Dance be there of like just lengthening the
lineup or where you're like, Okay, we might have to
bring in a righty or whatever out of the bullpen.
We can't maybe go to our crafty lefty. Like it's
just those things, Like I'm really pleased with what I'm seeing.
How Dance by number two is base running. The Cub's
(09:25):
base running is gonna be one of the best in
the league this year. When you look at this lineup
and from one all the way down to eight, you
have athletic dudes that are fast. You have Ian Hap
he can run the base as well. You have Kyl
Tucker can run the bas as well, Sayah can run
the basis well, then you get down to what I
(09:48):
call oh I love. The best part of our lineup
is Nico Horner, PCA and Matt Shaw bing bang boom.
If those guys can work and get themselves on base consistently,
it's gonna be trouble on the base pass. You saw
Matt Shaw score from first now twice on hits that
(10:09):
we're kind of in the gap, but not like deep
in the gap that we had automatic score from first
where he is scoring from first base. You have Pca,
who who stole a couple bases, just creates chaos on
the bass pass. Nico Horner is gonna steal you some
bases like you have guys that if we can get
guys on singles up the middle, are gonna be extra
(10:32):
bases because these guys are gonna take them. And so
that makes me super amped with this offense. Is we
don't have to be perfect, we don't have to be amazing,
because we're gonna work ourselves into being really good base
running team that's gonna steal some runs. It's gonna get
us some runs and win us some ballgames. And so
that makes me feel really confident. Is just our base running.
(10:54):
And then the last is just Kyle Houcker, Like that's
that's my good Like we've wanted in a let's start
and we finally have an A list star on our team.
And what he's gonna do is when when we're when
we're struggling with the rest of the offense, he's gonna
help sustain that offense a little bit longer when we're
(11:16):
going through those struggles in where other people are hitting,
where Sayah goes to a stretch where he doesn't hit, like,
you'll have Cal Tucker that will be able to step
in and provide that offense if you go where Ian
Hap has this usually struggles at the beginning of the season.
He isn't this year, but like Cal Tucker can kind
of carry the load for a while just because like
(11:39):
his swing is so sweet, like he doesn't try to
do too much ever with it, And I mean his
tank that he hit yesterday, like doesn't a half swing
and he just unloaded on It's like that is a
beautiful left handed swing. So it's those are my goods,
Those are my goods. All right, Let's get to the bads. Kevin,
(12:04):
what's your bads? All right? He said, two? Right, two?
All right?
Speaker 4 (12:09):
My first one and I think I think it was Saturday.
During Saturday's game, after Saya's first at bat, I told
my son who was watching it, I said, I want
them to just tell him to swing at the first
pitch every single at bat for a while, because they
were grooving meatballs down the pipe and he wasn't even
he wasn't even offering at any of them. And he
(12:32):
so he was starting every at bat all one and
and it was so hard to watch. And then he
was getting he was getting some edge calls against him,
which tends to be kind of a thing that happens
to him. But even the even boog And and JD
were saying, Saya does his best when he's aggressive at
the plate, and yet he wasn't.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
He was passive.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
He had a couple of hits on Sunday, which was
great to see because it was rough, rough to start
the season. So one of my bads is got to
get sayd of his Like, I know, he plays the
patient game. He's really good at it. Do like two
solid weeks of swinging at every pitch, every first pitch,
just just get it out there.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
But you saw last year when he when he got
super aggressive in like it's July or August, like he
went on a tear there. Like every time he he
gets aggressive and he takes ownership of the zone and
doesn't leave it up to the umpires to screw him
on borderline pitch, Like that's when he's more successful. We
(13:29):
need to see, say Alec get back to that. And
he was jacked for hitting his home run like he
was like, so hopefully he can take it with him
to Sacramento tonight and get a home run with with
I'm calling them the homeless team because literally they are
homeless and they're what is it calling what was it
(13:54):
called when you take over house? Uh, squatting. They're squatting.
They're squatting and Sacramento right now until they can like nope,
this is ours. I called him today.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
I called him the Sacramento Triple. A's good, there you go.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
But yeah, so that was my first one and my
second one besides the bullpen. It was actually just in Steel.
He's off to attle, bit of a rocky start, a
lot of caveats, only two starts, only nine innings. It's
been kind of rough, a lot of home runs, but
he has faced the Dodgers, and that Diamondbacks lineup is
(14:37):
gonna be a problem for most teams they faced this year,
same time, all those caveats there, he just hasn't looked
super comfortable. You know. He usually has a little bit
of that swagger when he's on the mound doing his thing,
and he kind of looked almost like he's still in
spring training.
Speaker 6 (14:51):
Mode a little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, I'll give a shout to Everett here Aser as
American League team. So so ever, who are you cheering
for tonight? There be the covies, there be the covees, Jeffrey,
what's what's your the badsh.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
Well, the bullpen, for one thing, we always seem to
start slow, and that facet of the team always slow starters,
and then they turn it on and become one of
the best bowl bullpens in the majors. And then we
sell them off at the trade deadline for pieces of whatever.
(15:34):
Sometimes end tables, cash considerations, fill the vending machine in
the locker room.
Speaker 6 (15:39):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
And then also.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
With Kevin said, some of say is aggressiveness at the
plate needs to be picked up a little bit. Sometimes
it drives me nuts when you're watching a game and
you see one coming right down the middle and they
they watch it. These guys are professional ballplayer. You can't
see that coming out of his hand and realize is
right down Broadway and you need to tattoo it into
(16:04):
the gap.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Come on, well, uh, my bads are James and Tyne.
That was bad outing, just just a bad outing. He
they were feasting on him like that ball looked like
a beach ball to them because everything they were barreling
(16:25):
up and putting.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
It out there.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
So like, Tyne needs to be better. If he's gonna
be our number three star that we're gonna lean on,
he needs to be better and not even giving us
a chance in that game from the get go like that,
that's that's tough. And like like Scott says, uh Jamo
(16:49):
always start sucks or stinks in the spring. He does.
He is a kind of slower starter.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
It's her good buddy, Scott miwa.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, but we we need better out of him. We
need uh better pitching. And I don't want to say
it's from the cold weather because we're in Arizona and
there were I think indoors for the night that he
pitched like they have. He has to be better. And
I don't know if maybe he just needs more work
to get his arm built up. I don't know, but
(17:19):
he his ball looked flat, it didn't have much movement,
and he was leaving things up and got absolutely hammered.
Didn't even give us a chance. And I'm one that
I firmly believe, like the magic number four, When the
Cubs score four runs, we win a lot of baseball games.
And that night, the offense didn't score four, and he
(17:40):
didn't give us a chance because he was giving up.
Why he would he give up six? As I was
though it's a lot.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
I think it was six. It's a number.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It's not great like that. That's where he has to
be better.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
The other is the bullpen.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
The bullpen is is here's where. Here's where we're at
so far with the bullpen. The bullpen's era is at
an eight point three four era. The whip is two
point twenty nine. We have a sixteen point one based
on ball percentage. We have twenty two walks in twenty
(18:19):
innings out of the bullpen in an average exit velocity
at ninety two point two off of our bullpen, like
cakes like it's not great and in I think I
(18:39):
saw a.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
Tweet to.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Let me see if I can find it quick.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
It was.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
The average where oh here we go. So between those
three relievers that pitched yesterday, do you know how much
we're paying THEMTAL, I don't know. Between those three pictures,
We're only paying them five million dollars HM for three pictures. Okay,
(19:16):
that's it. We've got the bargain pricing bullpen, so we
get what we pay. We get what we paid for
they're pitching like they're combined worth five million dollars gross
and so like, I don't like to be on the like,
(19:40):
especially now that we're into the season. I'm sick of
too many Cubs fans and too many Cubs podcasters that
keep on harping about the money not spent from Bellinger. Like,
I get that that was an issue, but I'm not
gonna once the season start, keep circling back to that.
(20:02):
I feel like that doesn't help us at all. Like
we're in it now.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
We either like.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
This is who we have. We're not going to do
anything about it, especially now in April. They're not going
to make any real trades or pick anybody up this late,
although David Robertson's still out there available. But I don't
like to like keep going back to that, like, oh,
we could have spent money Rickets, Ricketts, rickets is. Although
it could be true, I don't like to do that personally,
(20:31):
just because it's like no, like I want in the battle.
This is my team. We got to get better. These
guys have to get better, they have to perform. And
the thing is, like Eli Morgan, he's been successful in
his past. The Indians did really well with him, so
then it's like, okay, I've seen so many Cubs bullpen
arms leave Cubs and go other places and be successful.
(20:54):
Then I need to point the figure at the Cub's
infrastructure of pitching and maybe it's their fault they don't
know how to develop pitching because Eli Morgan did great
with it the well, not the Indians, the Guardians, sorry
the Guardians. And now he's come to the Cubs and
you can't get anybody out like I don't know the
(21:14):
common denominators there is the Cubs give it time and
he looked good.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Did you see that first batter that he faced. I
think he threw like a couple just wipe out changeups
just to start out that first batter. I think he
got him out.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
I don't remember anybody like it was Bitchwell in Japan
against the Dodgers, he had an inning or two over
there be pitched well. I think he had three strikeouts
in that game.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Well, that's what I didn't understand. Were they trying to
save Colin Ray? Is it Raya or Ray Ray? Were
they trying to save him for tonight to potentially piggyback
off of Ben Brown?
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I think so. And I think Merriweather. I think there's
something with Merriweather. And you have to remember, like a
Sade is hurt, Brazier is hurt, who would probably be
leaning on a lot of those guys, And so with
if Meriweather is hurt, I don't know. He was up
throwing a couple of times in the two previous games.
(22:17):
He was up throwing. So I don't know, but the
bullpen has to be better. I do not trust Pearson
at all, Like Nate Pearson, like that dude cannot throw
strikes and he throws hard, yeah, but he's oh it's
(22:40):
a struggle or it's like just difficult to watch that
dude get on the mound.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Yeah, I totally agree he was.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
He was a rough watch. Really, the only guy that's
out of the bullpen that's pitched great is Porterhidge. So far,
he's struggled in his first two batters in Uh what
night was it? Sat right, but then got three outs
right in row bing, bang, boom, and we were back
in there and then but Ryan Presley made it interesting.
(23:14):
He hasn't looked sharp. So we're here already, guys, we're
already frustrated with our bullpen. It took us six games.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
We haven't had a week of baseball yet. Let's just
calm down a little bit.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
H all down. We're giving away games, just giving him away.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Jeff not calming down at all. We're walking too many
of their batters. We're not throwing competitive strikes balls every time.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
Come on, Never in the history of somebody's saying calm down,
has anyone ever calmed down?
Speaker 4 (23:46):
You calmed down, Jeffrey.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
Man.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
So let's move it on. The Cubs are taking on
the homeless Sacramento Triple A's tonight. Uh it is who's
on the bump for the Cubs. It it's Brown versus
Joey Estes. So I don't know much about the A's.
(24:15):
I do know they are much better than they were
last year, and so a lot of a lot of
pundits are picking them to get a wild card spot
or win the West. So I don't know. As can
surprise you, they do have a couple of mashers on
on their team that hit the ball really really hard.
(24:37):
So yeah, it's I'm not saying it's gonna be like Rooker.
Rookers one is the DH like he he mashes the ball.
Probably Cash try to pitch around him. So they're a
good ball ball club. So I don't want to just
like it's easy wins are. April is just we talked
about last week when I was.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
Had that episode, It's.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Gonna be a tough April and we just gotta survive.
So that's where it's like, and we give away a
game that was should have won when we know that
we have this tough schedule coming up. That makes that
one hurt even more because then it's like, Okay, now
when we're playing the A's against a less less our team,
we need to even win these games even more so,
(25:24):
But who is sick of these nine o'clock games? Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 6 (25:31):
I was telling DVR shit.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I was telling my students. I was like, I went
from watching a game at five o'clock in the morning
to now watching a game at nine o'clock and probably
like it'll end at like midnight. Can I, for the
love of god, just get a one to twenty game please?
Like I need like or like a seven o'clock game,
(25:55):
like it was nice on Saturday, but then it was
a horrible game or no, that was the game they won.
Ah Sunday early, Yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 6 (26:05):
I agree.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
I even waited until Saturday to re up my marquee
because I was like, I'm not watching Thursday or Friday's games.
I'm going to bed so I can get up in
the morning.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Whoever schedules the games, I'm sure next year's schedules already
panned out. But if we could play like start the season,
like let's say like Tampa or Miami.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yeah, let's go East coast while we're while we're waiting
for Chicago to warm up and be more like summer so.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
We don't have full fridge in Chicago games, that'd be great.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
It has made it a lot better that we've we've struggled.
But I have a student who's a huge Yankee fan,
and so I've I've been tuning into quite a bit
of Yankee games and watching them absolutely destroy the Brewers
with the torpedo bats. I'm a huge supporter of torpedo
(26:56):
bats as long as it's tagging runs. Really poor pitching
that the Brewers have. I think the Brewers have very
porchy and nestor Cuttaz is not the North Nest the Yankees.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
You bring it up.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
And when I saw that twenty to nine score, I'm like, cribes,
the Brewers must not have any pitching this year. And
then the article came out about the new torpedo bats,
I'm like, are they corked two or what?
Speaker 6 (27:24):
Jesus right?
Speaker 4 (27:26):
The thing is they've been in the league for a
couple of years back have few players using them on
the Cubs?
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah, I expect what home runs on a horner then?
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Right, Maybe that's why he was trying to swing for
the fences.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
This has been an axe handled torpedo bat mashup.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, and I want to pump the brakes. I know
the Cardinals are three and zero right now, but they
played the Twins, and the Twins played the White Sox
today and got smoked so the Twins are just that
bad when you're getting beat bad by the White Sox.
The White Sox are hot. They have almost reaching of
(28:07):
their window total from last year already in the first week.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Didn't Joey Gal will get cut by the White Sox.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
No, he asked for a release because he's gonna come
back as a picture.
Speaker 6 (28:16):
Now, okay, at what age?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I like that? Oh?
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Okay, he's pulling up beakful Jordan in his own sport though,
like he touched in high school and he could throw gas, so.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I can see it.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
Why not whatever?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
All right, Well, that does it for our episode. But Jeff,
Jeff has a story he's gonna tell us because it's
a great story.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
So this this Friday, I ruptured my Colonasky Cherry.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
So I'm at that age where it's time to start
looking for that stuff.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
We're at that stuff. Fat freak fans.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Don't describe it that way.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Rupture, we say first popped whatever, not rupture.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Calling off away.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
I'm sitting in the waiting room from to come and
get me to take me back there to get prepped,
and I'm reading this are Iowa magazine and I get
to my favorite part where they have recipes, which this
magazine is deemed for a much older demographic, but I
enjoy reading it because people write in about the days
of your in my home state, and you're old.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
Yeah, I'm getting there.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
So I'm reading some of the recipes.
Speaker 6 (29:36):
I'm like, hey, I nudged my hand. I'm like, hey,
do you think you could make this? And she looked
at it, she was yeah, I could do that.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
So I started to try to tear the page out,
but I thought I'm gonna wreck this magazine.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
So I just took the whole magazine and I shoved it.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Yes, okay, why didn't you do what any normal person
would do, is you grab your phone and you take
a picture of the page, and then you have the recipe,
so like, you don't need to try to rip the
page out. Listen, I was technology, Here's what was on
my mind. You weren't thinking clearly it was gonna be
(30:12):
shoved up your wrack, right.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
Well, I just put this in my bag and I
stole the whole magazine. On the car ride home, I
pulled it out and I tore the recipes out and
I put the recipes in the back seat, and uh,
my aunt goes I can't believe you still a whole magazine.
She goes, when you get done reading that, you give
it back to me.
Speaker 6 (30:32):
I'm gonna return it, which she will do.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
So she made me the dessert that I wanted, and
then she also, thank god we didn't just take a
picture of what I wanted, because she saw something she
thought was interesting and she made it. I shared some
of those with Kevin, and Kevin thought that were really good.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
They're delicious. Yeah, well, what else you went out to
eat too?
Speaker 6 (30:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (30:52):
So I hadn't had anything to eat for like forty
five hours, Like I had twelve yellow cups.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
And forty five hours, that's what I had.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
So we went to this Mexican restaurant next door to
a Culver's because my aunt is Catholic and it was Friday.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
So she got some fish chacos.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
So they had the water glasses were these giant red
ones that reminded me of the Pizza Hut cups, which
pop never tasted better than in the plastic red Coca
Cola cups. So I was finished with it, I said, hey,
I'm gonna throw the siice on the floor and I'm
gonna put this cup in your purse and I'm gonna
steal it.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
She nor not.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
So the waiter comes by. He goes, who do you
like more water? I'm like, yeah, that'd be great. So
he brings me another glass. So I'm like, now I
got two. I'm like, we're stealing too.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Wait, I these could I get?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I'll be thinking, like, I just keep it out. You're
not stealing cups?
Speaker 5 (31:49):
She ordered me a half a dozen of these cups
from Amazon that were delivered to my door on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
So you steal in the cups?
Speaker 6 (31:58):
Huh?
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Did you end up stealing the cups?
Speaker 4 (32:00):
No?
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Like she kept looking at me, like the guy's standing
there because he's.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Counting the glasses that are on this table.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I'm like, can see that?
Speaker 6 (32:07):
Or the bulls of salsa that I've emptied things?
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Wait, so you went through a cold oscopy and the
first thing you threw down was a bunch of salsa.
Speaker 5 (32:22):
Mexican food refried means spicy, you name it.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
I figured what better way to pack it?
Speaker 6 (32:30):
Full?
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Got a raw rectum and that thrown like, well, they
show something up there, so it's all clean to how
I'm ready to like go out in my watch?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Ever, this came from a hospital. Yeah, Mary Creeley Medical Stars.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Uh. I like it.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Jeff, does anybody else want to look at the Iowa
Iowa and the comments?
Speaker 3 (33:01):
I mean, it's fribery in March twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
It's the new one if you want to look at it,
So just make a dentist apployment because I'm sure you'll
see it there if you're in Iowa.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Every every doctor's office has our Iowa. And what kind
of what bird is on the front.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
I imagine it's.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Like the eastern Iowa goldfinch, because I think that's got
a little bit of red in it, and I see
some yellow and black.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
I told you, yeah, I'm gonna start I'm gonna start burning.
I mean, I'm getting older.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
I got some binoculars I don't use, so I figured
i'd dust them off and go stare at shit in trees.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
It's birding or submarines, Jeff, you got you got your choice.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
I'm also really getting to like World War two documentaries
and uh, smoking meat, So you know you hit that plateau.
It's burning, it's documentaries, it's slow cooking meat.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
That's your life. Now, that's what it's like, you know, uh,
all right, who cubs. Cubs need to take one tonight
got Ben Brown, which I'm I'm I'm super jack that
he got the fifth star spot. He's gonna shove tonight.
I'm really interested to see how his change up works.
(34:20):
He has a nasty curveball, a little bit of a
slider and a fastball, and he's been working in kind
of like a third pitch that change up. So really
be watching how he uses that tonight and how he
can get some swinging missus because he needs to develop
another pitch if he wants to be a starter. But
I am really high on Ben Brow. I know he's
outing in Japan. Wasn't great, but he did make showing
(34:41):
look absolutely silly and one at bat on a couple
curveballs or sliders kind of at his feet. So Ben
Brown's gonna shove tonight.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
We're gonna get a dub.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Matt Shaw is gonna Is he starting tonight? Oh close,
stud tab have we seen the.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Want gonna be him or workman?
Speaker 6 (35:01):
Right?
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Well, a birdie seaw yep Shaw is gonna start. I'm
gonna call it my bold prediction for tonight. Matt Shaw
is gonna get another home run and Bush is gonna
have a big night tonight.
Speaker 5 (35:21):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Bush is gonna get off the schnei because he's been
kind of scuffled when I think to start start, we
haven't seen a long ball out of Bush. So I'm
gonna call Michael Bush getting a long ball tonight. He'd
be my Dingerick.
Speaker 6 (35:37):
What now we're doing that?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
No, but I'm not bringing that back. Everett says, Cubs
win tonight seven six. I don't like runs, and I
don't really care for a really close game tonight, Everett.
I would rather like a seven to two, seven to
three game. So let's not do the prediction of seven
(36:00):
because I just feel like that's gonna be where the bullpen.
We were up seven to one. I'm just picturing this
game in my head. We're up seven to one. They
bring in Nate Pierson again, he walks the bases loaded,
and then we're bringing in THEO bar. He might get
us one or two outs. Now we have two outs
and bases loaded, and then he gives up like a double.
(36:21):
So I'm just like playing this in my head. So
stay away from the seven to six games. We're gonna
go with like a seven to one win for the
Cups tonight. How about it? Who says no, all right?
That does it for this episode, Thanks for listening, and
go Cubs.
You're listening to the Dingers Podcast, presented to you by
t Schorts Network with your host Mitch, Jeff and kevis'
great to talk to the Cubs.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
All I need is a bet.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Y'all looking over the Wow.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Yah, I ain't believe under estimate the.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Swingers Dingers podcast is on the air. I'm your host, Mitch.
I'm here with Jeff and Kevin. Wait, I have it
going on in the background. Can you hear that? I'll
turn that off. Nah. We're starting out just kind of
how the Cub season is starting out, uh with this episode? Well, Hey,
(00:46):
how are you guys tonight?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
He is good?
Speaker 5 (00:50):
Yeah, Yeah, I'm great. Atl tired, but you know, let's
be expected. I get up at the crack of dawn.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, are you Mitch? Ah, I'm doing all right. But
it's like we're already here and we're six games in
and we already have to do an episode where we're
complaining about the bullpen, Like we're already at the point
(01:19):
of frustration and that that's kind of where I'm at
right now, is just kind of frustrated because I'll be
honest with you, when the Cubs were up six to two,
like I almost like I cashed it in. I was like,
I like it. Walked away from the TV, I was like,
all right, like, hey, it's it's close to six o'clock,
(01:41):
to see what my wife's making for dinner. Go in
the kitchen like kind of just like. And then I
come back in the bases of a load and they're
giving the game away. I was like, oh man, we're
why what are we doing? And That's where I'm at
that that we're already to this point of frustration.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
And felt the same way.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
It was getting towards six and I'm since I had
a outpatient received drat quit taking my blood thender so
I gotta give myself shots twice a day, and six
pm and six am is when it happens. So I
went upstairs to get myself a shot when we're up supper.
By the time I got back downstairs, it was ten
to six. Some What the fuck just happens?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
How are you?
Speaker 6 (02:22):
Kevin?
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
It's a busy time of the year. We got all
the kids sports all happening at the same time. Enjoyed
my last free weekend of no soccer until middle of June.
Maybe depends on tournaments could go later. We'll know, we'll
know when we get there. But it was a good weekend.
I saw my sister from Colorado. She had a wedding shower,
but got to see her outside of that, which was fun.
(02:49):
Got to have some wonderful Barntown brunch food and beverages.
Enjoyed that quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, I'm kind of I think we're just starting travel baseball,
getting into the tournament season, and so we have our
first travel baseball game on Thursday night, so my son's
playing in that. So we'll be in the thick of it,
just like Kevin, of traveling and getting all over for baseball.
(03:18):
Busy baseball season coming up. I looked at my month
of June, and it's like every weekend and every Tuesday,
Thursday and sometimes like four games in a week. It's like, oh,
this is gonna be a busy time. A lot of ball,
a lot of baseball to be played. But man, let's
get back to the Cubs. Cubs are two and four
currently after their two losses in Japan, they come back
(03:43):
and they split with the d Backs. It's one that
you feel like, you feel like if you would have
told me at the beginning of this series, we would
have walked away with a split. We'd been like, hey,
we'll take a split. But then if you knew how
we took a split and that we had one game
basically in the bag and we decided to just give
(04:05):
it away, that's where this hurts a little bit more.
And it's gonna be like, I mean to keep a
tallly of how many games we give away, they're like
just three, like just losses, just like that we should
have won. There were losses this year. To see how
many towards the end of the season, as we're fighting
for a playoff spot, that it's gonna come back to
(04:27):
hurt us because this is gonna be one where we're
gonna remember. This is one that I know we're gonna
look back on and like, hey, that one game that
we didn't make the playoff, missed at the playoffs, Remember that,
like Game five of the year, Game six of the year.
Do you remember that when we lost that Arizona when
the bullpen just pissed it down their leg and they'll we're.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
At I really thought after Tucker's home run that we
gave ourselves some breathing room, the.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Right true to think you need to think yep, yeah,
because was it eight to two? Is that like one.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Point four run lead would be safe? But little did
we know.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, let's let's start here tonight. We're gonna go are
our three goods and we'll go two bats just because
I don't want to like get into the weeds of
all the bats, because we we could we could do that.
Let's talk about the first the three goods so far
the season that we've noticed with the Cubs. Uh, let's
(05:35):
start with you, Kevin. What are your three goods? You
want me to do? All three or one around the horn?
Shoot all three?
Speaker 5 (05:43):
All right?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
My number one good We asked for it last year.
We got it this year. Kyle Tucker.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
It's kind of a big deal. Yes, he has a
lot of fun to watch. He's smashing the ball. Well,
he's coming up in that spot in the lineup when
he's got runners ahead them and he's not letting the
moment get away from him, putting the ball in play.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
He's done. Yeah, I'm loving it.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
I'm just loving We're six games in, he's got two
homers and he had a little bit of a slow start,
Like I'm loving it.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Just taking off so that's he's my number one.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
My number two is my guy, Miguel Amayah, just just
picking up from last year, taking that catcher's position and
running with it. He uh, you know, the catcher was
a problem position, especially early in the season, and he's
just he's just taking it.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
He's running running away with it. He's got the pitchers doing.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
What they're supposed to do. Man, it's the bullpen, but
everything else is going well. My number three is Showda
just picking up kind of where he left off. He's
had a couple of rough spots, he's pitched around it
and then he's still cruised.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
What was it is that Saturday?
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Yeah, he went ninety one pitches. They kind of spread
like he went a little farther than I expected. I
thought it was an inning or two before that. I
told one of my sons, is, like, he's coming out
after this inning, and he still popped out there and
got three more outs. It was wonderful to see.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Those are my sweet Those are your three, Jeffrey, what's
your three goods?
Speaker 6 (07:13):
Well?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
To expand on tevins, Miguelmayah, he I believe has five
hits this year, and four of them are doubles.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So that's great, and I think we might have a
viable third up and coming third baseman, somebody to Billy
Plant over there at the hot corner, which is something
that we haven't really had.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
Even when we had Chris Bryant. I didn't really ever
think he was a great third baseman, but it was
what it was.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
And then also the Coubbies pinstripes still look good.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, they do. They do look good, Jeff. That's nice.
That hasn't changed in a really long time. They still
look good. Even when they play road in, they're in,
they're blues. The pin stripes still look good in Japan.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Uh. My three goods are number one, danceby Swanson. Danceby
Swats' is the hitting the ball. And if we can
get the version of Dansby that was in Atlanta and
early with the Cubs the first year he's putting the
(08:21):
ball in play, looks like he's he's healthy. You know,
you'll get a gold glove out there at shortstop from
from Danceby. And so if he can get his back
coming along like that will be huge to LinkedIn out
our lineup and just provide a little bit more fear
in for the picture with this lineup, where last year
a lot of times you're like, okay, this the pitcher
(08:43):
doesn't fear this lineup. There's no spot in this lineup
that they fear. Now they have Kyle Tucker that is
definitely a fearful spot, like you're gonna have to pitch
around him. Like I mean, I felt like for the
Cubs and for us, every time Suarez like was in
on dex circle, We're like, oh crap, Like here's an
other dinger that we're in serve off to it and so.
(09:04):
But having Dance be there of like just lengthening the
lineup or where you're like, Okay, we might have to
bring in a righty or whatever out of the bullpen.
We can't maybe go to our crafty lefty. Like it's
just those things, Like I'm really pleased with what I'm seeing.
How Dance by number two is base running. The Cub's
(09:25):
base running is gonna be one of the best in
the league this year. When you look at this lineup
and from one all the way down to eight, you
have athletic dudes that are fast. You have Ian Hap
he can run the base as well. You have Kyl
Tucker can run the bas as well, Sayah can run
the basis well, then you get down to what I
(09:48):
call oh I love. The best part of our lineup
is Nico Horner, PCA and Matt Shaw bing bang boom.
If those guys can work and get themselves on base consistently,
it's gonna be trouble on the base pass. You saw
Matt Shaw score from first now twice on hits that
(10:09):
we're kind of in the gap, but not like deep
in the gap that we had automatic score from first
where he is scoring from first base. You have Pca,
who who stole a couple bases, just creates chaos on
the bass pass. Nico Horner is gonna steal you some
bases like you have guys that if we can get
guys on singles up the middle, are gonna be extra
(10:32):
bases because these guys are gonna take them. And so
that makes me super amped with this offense. Is we
don't have to be perfect, we don't have to be amazing,
because we're gonna work ourselves into being really good base
running team that's gonna steal some runs. It's gonna get
us some runs and win us some ballgames. And so
that makes me feel really confident. Is just our base running.
(10:54):
And then the last is just Kyle Houcker, Like that's
that's my good Like we've wanted in a let's start
and we finally have an A list star on our team.
And what he's gonna do is when when we're when
we're struggling with the rest of the offense, he's gonna
help sustain that offense a little bit longer when we're
(11:16):
going through those struggles in where other people are hitting,
where Sayah goes to a stretch where he doesn't hit, like,
you'll have Cal Tucker that will be able to step
in and provide that offense if you go where Ian
Hap has this usually struggles at the beginning of the season.
He isn't this year, but like Cal Tucker can kind
of carry the load for a while just because like
(11:39):
his swing is so sweet, like he doesn't try to
do too much ever with it, And I mean his
tank that he hit yesterday, like doesn't a half swing
and he just unloaded on It's like that is a
beautiful left handed swing. So it's those are my goods,
Those are my goods. All right, Let's get to the bads. Kevin,
(12:04):
what's your bads? All right? He said, two? Right, two?
All right?
Speaker 4 (12:09):
My first one and I think I think it was Saturday.
During Saturday's game, after Saya's first at bat, I told
my son who was watching it, I said, I want
them to just tell him to swing at the first
pitch every single at bat for a while, because they
were grooving meatballs down the pipe and he wasn't even
he wasn't even offering at any of them. And he
(12:32):
so he was starting every at bat all one and
and it was so hard to watch. And then he
was getting he was getting some edge calls against him,
which tends to be kind of a thing that happens
to him. But even the even boog And and JD
were saying, Saya does his best when he's aggressive at
the plate, and yet he wasn't.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
He was passive.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
He had a couple of hits on Sunday, which was
great to see because it was rough, rough to start
the season. So one of my bads is got to
get sayd of his Like, I know, he plays the
patient game. He's really good at it. Do like two
solid weeks of swinging at every pitch, every first pitch,
just just get it out there.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
But you saw last year when he when he got
super aggressive in like it's July or August, like he
went on a tear there. Like every time he he
gets aggressive and he takes ownership of the zone and
doesn't leave it up to the umpires to screw him
on borderline pitch, Like that's when he's more successful. We
(13:29):
need to see, say Alec get back to that. And
he was jacked for hitting his home run like he
was like, so hopefully he can take it with him
to Sacramento tonight and get a home run with with
I'm calling them the homeless team because literally they are
homeless and they're what is it calling what was it
(13:54):
called when you take over house? Uh, squatting. They're squatting.
They're squatting and Sacramento right now until they can like nope,
this is ours. I called him today.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
I called him the Sacramento Triple. A's good, there you go.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
But yeah, so that was my first one and my
second one besides the bullpen. It was actually just in Steel.
He's off to attle, bit of a rocky start, a
lot of caveats, only two starts, only nine innings. It's
been kind of rough, a lot of home runs, but
he has faced the Dodgers, and that Diamondbacks lineup is
(14:37):
gonna be a problem for most teams they faced this year,
same time, all those caveats there, he just hasn't looked
super comfortable. You know. He usually has a little bit
of that swagger when he's on the mound doing his thing,
and he kind of looked almost like he's still in
spring training.
Speaker 6 (14:51):
Mode a little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, I'll give a shout to Everett here Aser as
American League team. So so ever, who are you cheering
for tonight? There be the covies, there be the covees, Jeffrey,
what's what's your the badsh.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
Well, the bullpen, for one thing, we always seem to
start slow, and that facet of the team always slow starters,
and then they turn it on and become one of
the best bowl bullpens in the majors. And then we
sell them off at the trade deadline for pieces of whatever.
(15:34):
Sometimes end tables, cash considerations, fill the vending machine in
the locker room.
Speaker 6 (15:39):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
And then also.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
With Kevin said, some of say is aggressiveness at the
plate needs to be picked up a little bit. Sometimes
it drives me nuts when you're watching a game and
you see one coming right down the middle and they
they watch it. These guys are professional ballplayer. You can't
see that coming out of his hand and realize is
right down Broadway and you need to tattoo it into
(16:04):
the gap.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Come on, well, uh, my bads are James and Tyne.
That was bad outing, just just a bad outing. He
they were feasting on him like that ball looked like
a beach ball to them because everything they were barreling
(16:25):
up and putting.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
It out there.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
So like, Tyne needs to be better. If he's gonna
be our number three star that we're gonna lean on,
he needs to be better and not even giving us
a chance in that game from the get go like that,
that's that's tough. And like like Scott says, uh Jamo
(16:49):
always start sucks or stinks in the spring. He does.
He is a kind of slower starter.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
It's her good buddy, Scott miwa.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, but we we need better out of him. We
need uh better pitching. And I don't want to say
it's from the cold weather because we're in Arizona and
there were I think indoors for the night that he
pitched like they have. He has to be better. And
I don't know if maybe he just needs more work
to get his arm built up. I don't know, but
(17:19):
he his ball looked flat, it didn't have much movement,
and he was leaving things up and got absolutely hammered.
Didn't even give us a chance. And I'm one that
I firmly believe, like the magic number four, When the
Cubs score four runs, we win a lot of baseball games.
And that night, the offense didn't score four, and he
(17:40):
didn't give us a chance because he was giving up.
Why he would he give up six? As I was
though it's a lot.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
I think it was six. It's a number.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It's not great like that. That's where he has to
be better.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
The other is the bullpen.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
The bullpen is is here's where. Here's where we're at
so far with the bullpen. The bullpen's era is at
an eight point three four era. The whip is two
point twenty nine. We have a sixteen point one based
on ball percentage. We have twenty two walks in twenty
(18:19):
innings out of the bullpen in an average exit velocity
at ninety two point two off of our bullpen, like
cakes like it's not great and in I think I
(18:39):
saw a.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
Tweet to.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Let me see if I can find it quick.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
It was.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
The average where oh here we go. So between those
three relievers that pitched yesterday, do you know how much
we're paying THEMTAL, I don't know. Between those three pictures,
We're only paying them five million dollars HM for three pictures. Okay,
(19:16):
that's it. We've got the bargain pricing bullpen, so we
get what we pay. We get what we paid for
they're pitching like they're combined worth five million dollars gross
and so like, I don't like to be on the like,
(19:40):
especially now that we're into the season. I'm sick of
too many Cubs fans and too many Cubs podcasters that
keep on harping about the money not spent from Bellinger. Like,
I get that that was an issue, but I'm not
gonna once the season start, keep circling back to that.
(20:02):
I feel like that doesn't help us at all. Like
we're in it now.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
We either like.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
This is who we have. We're not going to do
anything about it, especially now in April. They're not going
to make any real trades or pick anybody up this late,
although David Robertson's still out there available. But I don't
like to like keep going back to that, like, oh,
we could have spent money Rickets, Ricketts, rickets is. Although
it could be true, I don't like to do that personally,
(20:31):
just because it's like no, like I want in the battle.
This is my team. We got to get better. These
guys have to get better, they have to perform. And
the thing is, like Eli Morgan, he's been successful in
his past. The Indians did really well with him, so
then it's like, okay, I've seen so many Cubs bullpen
arms leave Cubs and go other places and be successful.
(20:54):
Then I need to point the figure at the Cub's
infrastructure of pitching and maybe it's their fault they don't
know how to develop pitching because Eli Morgan did great
with it the well, not the Indians, the Guardians, sorry
the Guardians. And now he's come to the Cubs and
you can't get anybody out like I don't know the
(21:14):
common denominators there is the Cubs give it time and
he looked good.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Did you see that first batter that he faced. I
think he threw like a couple just wipe out changeups
just to start out that first batter. I think he
got him out.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
I don't remember anybody like it was Bitchwell in Japan
against the Dodgers, he had an inning or two over
there be pitched well. I think he had three strikeouts
in that game.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Well, that's what I didn't understand. Were they trying to
save Colin Ray? Is it Raya or Ray Ray? Were
they trying to save him for tonight to potentially piggyback
off of Ben Brown?
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I think so. And I think Merriweather. I think there's
something with Merriweather. And you have to remember, like a
Sade is hurt, Brazier is hurt, who would probably be
leaning on a lot of those guys, And so with
if Meriweather is hurt, I don't know. He was up
throwing a couple of times in the two previous games.
(22:17):
He was up throwing. So I don't know, but the
bullpen has to be better. I do not trust Pearson
at all, Like Nate Pearson, like that dude cannot throw
strikes and he throws hard, yeah, but he's oh it's
(22:40):
a struggle or it's like just difficult to watch that
dude get on the mound.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Yeah, I totally agree he was.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
He was a rough watch. Really, the only guy that's
out of the bullpen that's pitched great is Porterhidge. So far,
he's struggled in his first two batters in Uh what
night was it? Sat right, but then got three outs
right in row bing, bang, boom, and we were back
in there and then but Ryan Presley made it interesting.
(23:14):
He hasn't looked sharp. So we're here already, guys, we're
already frustrated with our bullpen. It took us six games.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
We haven't had a week of baseball yet. Let's just
calm down a little bit.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
H all down. We're giving away games, just giving him away.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Jeff not calming down at all. We're walking too many
of their batters. We're not throwing competitive strikes balls every time.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
Come on, Never in the history of somebody's saying calm down,
has anyone ever calmed down?
Speaker 4 (23:46):
You calmed down, Jeffrey.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
Man.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
So let's move it on. The Cubs are taking on
the homeless Sacramento Triple A's tonight. Uh it is who's
on the bump for the Cubs. It it's Brown versus
Joey Estes. So I don't know much about the A's.
(24:15):
I do know they are much better than they were
last year, and so a lot of a lot of
pundits are picking them to get a wild card spot
or win the West. So I don't know. As can
surprise you, they do have a couple of mashers on
on their team that hit the ball really really hard.
(24:37):
So yeah, it's I'm not saying it's gonna be like Rooker.
Rookers one is the DH like he he mashes the ball.
Probably Cash try to pitch around him. So they're a
good ball ball club. So I don't want to just
like it's easy wins are. April is just we talked
about last week when I was.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
Had that episode, It's.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Gonna be a tough April and we just gotta survive.
So that's where it's like, and we give away a
game that was should have won when we know that
we have this tough schedule coming up. That makes that
one hurt even more because then it's like, Okay, now
when we're playing the A's against a less less our team,
we need to even win these games even more so,
(25:24):
But who is sick of these nine o'clock games? Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 6 (25:31):
I was telling DVR shit.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I was telling my students. I was like, I went
from watching a game at five o'clock in the morning
to now watching a game at nine o'clock and probably
like it'll end at like midnight. Can I, for the
love of god, just get a one to twenty game please?
Like I need like or like a seven o'clock game,
(25:55):
like it was nice on Saturday, but then it was
a horrible game or no, that was the game they won.
Ah Sunday early, Yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 6 (26:05):
I agree.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
I even waited until Saturday to re up my marquee
because I was like, I'm not watching Thursday or Friday's games.
I'm going to bed so I can get up in
the morning.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Whoever schedules the games, I'm sure next year's schedules already
panned out. But if we could play like start the season,
like let's say like Tampa or Miami.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yeah, let's go East coast while we're while we're waiting
for Chicago to warm up and be more like summer so.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
We don't have full fridge in Chicago games, that'd be great.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
It has made it a lot better that we've we've struggled.
But I have a student who's a huge Yankee fan,
and so I've I've been tuning into quite a bit
of Yankee games and watching them absolutely destroy the Brewers
with the torpedo bats. I'm a huge supporter of torpedo
(26:56):
bats as long as it's tagging runs. Really poor pitching
that the Brewers have. I think the Brewers have very
porchy and nestor Cuttaz is not the North Nest the Yankees.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
You bring it up.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
And when I saw that twenty to nine score, I'm like, cribes,
the Brewers must not have any pitching this year. And
then the article came out about the new torpedo bats,
I'm like, are they corked two or what?
Speaker 6 (27:24):
Jesus right?
Speaker 4 (27:26):
The thing is they've been in the league for a
couple of years back have few players using them on
the Cubs?
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah, I expect what home runs on a horner then?
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Right, Maybe that's why he was trying to swing for
the fences.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
This has been an axe handled torpedo bat mashup.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, and I want to pump the brakes. I know
the Cardinals are three and zero right now, but they
played the Twins, and the Twins played the White Sox
today and got smoked so the Twins are just that
bad when you're getting beat bad by the White Sox.
The White Sox are hot. They have almost reaching of
(28:07):
their window total from last year already in the first week.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Didn't Joey Gal will get cut by the White Sox.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
No, he asked for a release because he's gonna come
back as a picture.
Speaker 6 (28:16):
Now, okay, at what age?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I like that? Oh?
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Okay, he's pulling up beakful Jordan in his own sport though,
like he touched in high school and he could throw gas, so.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I can see it.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
Why not whatever?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
All right, Well, that does it for our episode. But Jeff,
Jeff has a story he's gonna tell us because it's
a great story.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
So this this Friday, I ruptured my Colonasky Cherry.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
So I'm at that age where it's time to start
looking for that stuff.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
We're at that stuff. Fat freak fans.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Don't describe it that way.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Rupture, we say first popped whatever, not rupture.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Calling off away.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
I'm sitting in the waiting room from to come and
get me to take me back there to get prepped,
and I'm reading this are Iowa magazine and I get
to my favorite part where they have recipes, which this
magazine is deemed for a much older demographic, but I
enjoy reading it because people write in about the days
of your in my home state, and you're old.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
Yeah, I'm getting there.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
So I'm reading some of the recipes.
Speaker 6 (29:36):
I'm like, hey, I nudged my hand. I'm like, hey,
do you think you could make this? And she looked
at it, she was yeah, I could do that.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
So I started to try to tear the page out,
but I thought I'm gonna wreck this magazine.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
So I just took the whole magazine and I shoved it.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Yes, okay, why didn't you do what any normal person
would do, is you grab your phone and you take
a picture of the page, and then you have the recipe,
so like, you don't need to try to rip the
page out. Listen, I was technology, Here's what was on
my mind. You weren't thinking clearly it was gonna be
(30:12):
shoved up your wrack, right.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
Well, I just put this in my bag and I
stole the whole magazine. On the car ride home, I
pulled it out and I tore the recipes out and
I put the recipes in the back seat, and uh,
my aunt goes I can't believe you still a whole magazine.
She goes, when you get done reading that, you give
it back to me.
Speaker 6 (30:32):
I'm gonna return it, which she will do.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
So she made me the dessert that I wanted, and
then she also, thank god we didn't just take a
picture of what I wanted, because she saw something she
thought was interesting and she made it. I shared some
of those with Kevin, and Kevin thought that were really good.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
They're delicious. Yeah, well, what else you went out to
eat too?
Speaker 6 (30:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (30:52):
So I hadn't had anything to eat for like forty
five hours, Like I had twelve yellow cups.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
And forty five hours, that's what I had.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
So we went to this Mexican restaurant next door to
a Culver's because my aunt is Catholic and it was Friday.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
So she got some fish chacos.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
So they had the water glasses were these giant red
ones that reminded me of the Pizza Hut cups, which
pop never tasted better than in the plastic red Coca
Cola cups. So I was finished with it, I said, hey,
I'm gonna throw the siice on the floor and I'm
gonna put this cup in your purse and I'm gonna
steal it.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
She nor not.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
So the waiter comes by. He goes, who do you
like more water? I'm like, yeah, that'd be great. So
he brings me another glass. So I'm like, now I
got two. I'm like, we're stealing too.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Wait, I these could I get?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I'll be thinking, like, I just keep it out. You're
not stealing cups?
Speaker 5 (31:49):
She ordered me a half a dozen of these cups
from Amazon that were delivered to my door on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
So you steal in the cups?
Speaker 6 (31:58):
Huh?
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Did you end up stealing the cups?
Speaker 4 (32:00):
No?
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Like she kept looking at me, like the guy's standing
there because he's.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Counting the glasses that are on this table.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I'm like, can see that?
Speaker 6 (32:07):
Or the bulls of salsa that I've emptied things?
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Wait, so you went through a cold oscopy and the
first thing you threw down was a bunch of salsa.
Speaker 5 (32:22):
Mexican food refried means spicy, you name it.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
I figured what better way to pack it?
Speaker 6 (32:30):
Full?
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Got a raw rectum and that thrown like, well, they
show something up there, so it's all clean to how
I'm ready to like go out in my watch?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Ever, this came from a hospital. Yeah, Mary Creeley Medical Stars.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Uh. I like it.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Jeff, does anybody else want to look at the Iowa
Iowa and the comments?
Speaker 3 (33:01):
I mean, it's fribery in March twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
It's the new one if you want to look at it,
So just make a dentist apployment because I'm sure you'll
see it there if you're in Iowa.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Every every doctor's office has our Iowa. And what kind
of what bird is on the front.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
I imagine it's.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Like the eastern Iowa goldfinch, because I think that's got
a little bit of red in it, and I see
some yellow and black.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
I told you, yeah, I'm gonna start I'm gonna start burning.
I mean, I'm getting older.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
I got some binoculars I don't use, so I figured
i'd dust them off and go stare at shit in trees.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
It's birding or submarines, Jeff, you got you got your choice.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
I'm also really getting to like World War two documentaries
and uh, smoking meat, So you know you hit that plateau.
It's burning, it's documentaries, it's slow cooking meat.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
That's your life. Now, that's what it's like, you know, uh,
all right, who cubs. Cubs need to take one tonight
got Ben Brown, which I'm I'm I'm super jack that
he got the fifth star spot. He's gonna shove tonight.
I'm really interested to see how his change up works.
(34:20):
He has a nasty curveball, a little bit of a
slider and a fastball, and he's been working in kind
of like a third pitch that change up. So really
be watching how he uses that tonight and how he
can get some swinging missus because he needs to develop
another pitch if he wants to be a starter. But
I am really high on Ben Brow. I know he's
outing in Japan. Wasn't great, but he did make showing
(34:41):
look absolutely silly and one at bat on a couple
curveballs or sliders kind of at his feet. So Ben
Brown's gonna shove tonight.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
We're gonna get a dub.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Matt Shaw is gonna Is he starting tonight? Oh close,
stud tab have we seen the.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Want gonna be him or workman?
Speaker 6 (35:01):
Right?
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Well, a birdie seaw yep Shaw is gonna start. I'm
gonna call it my bold prediction for tonight. Matt Shaw
is gonna get another home run and Bush is gonna
have a big night tonight.
Speaker 5 (35:21):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Bush is gonna get off the schnei because he's been
kind of scuffled when I think to start start, we
haven't seen a long ball out of Bush. So I'm
gonna call Michael Bush getting a long ball tonight. He'd
be my Dingerick.
Speaker 6 (35:37):
What now we're doing that?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
No, but I'm not bringing that back. Everett says, Cubs
win tonight seven six. I don't like runs, and I
don't really care for a really close game tonight, Everett.
I would rather like a seven to two, seven to
three game. So let's not do the prediction of seven
(36:00):
because I just feel like that's gonna be where the bullpen.
We were up seven to one. I'm just picturing this
game in my head. We're up seven to one. They
bring in Nate Pierson again, he walks the bases loaded,
and then we're bringing in THEO bar. He might get
us one or two outs. Now we have two outs
and bases loaded, and then he gives up like a double.
(36:21):
So I'm just like playing this in my head. So
stay away from the seven to six games. We're gonna
go with like a seven to one win for the
Cups tonight. How about it? Who says no, all right?
That does it for this episode, Thanks for listening, and
go Cubs.
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