Cub fans love you.

Well, I, I would actually say that I don't, I feel like Cubs fans really focus on Shota's bad outings, that, you know, his body of work over almost three full seasons in the majors has been really impressive.

Uh, you know, he posts, uh, you know, he's been...

He's performed at an all-star level.

He just did not have it on Sunday afternoon i- in Seattle, and, you know, Counsell looks at this bullpen.

He's got a bunch of long relievers there.

Uh, he basically said as soon as Ian Happ hit that home run, he started thinking, like, if Shota doesn't, you know, pick it up here, we're gonna make a change, and- You know, his vilo was down a little bit.

Has he been worth every penny, even though his numbers wouldn't say, ooh, all-star MVP type of numbers? Has he been worth it based on the fact that this team is where they are?

Yes

... take their strengths for granted.

So when I see the Giants [laughs] roll into Wrigley and put up 18 runs and, um, you know, I, I from afar sort of admire what the Giants are trying to do.

Like, so many front offices are, are cautious or they'll just say, "We're just gonna kinda, like, punt on, like, four to five years and check in later." Like, I actually like how they've kinda gone for it.

It hasn't quite worked out yet, and maybe some of those deals won't look great, uh, over the long term.

But I think kinda zigging while everyone else is zagging is, is, like, interesting.

And you know, you're right.

But, like, there's this misconception because he's having fun playing baseball and talking to everybody and laughing and smiling, that he doesn't care.

Maybe it's just a microcosm of our society where people have, um, the avenue a- and the venue to be, to be cruel to, to players.

I mean, Pico Armstrong said, you know, he had an incident on the South Side of Chicago recently.

It was kind of around the beginning of this slide actually, where he, you know, snapped at a female fan and said something inexcusable, but was not really representative of, like, who he is sort of, like, around young fans, around, you know, people who work for the club behind the scenes.

Um, his dealings with reporters are not really like that.

But, you know, he made it sound like this had been building, that he had just been hearing stuff over and over again.

And, you know, that just, like, came out and he got fined by Major League Baseball.

And so, like, I don't think any of that, you know, helps.

But, like, there's this misconception because he's having fun playing baseball, and talking to everybody, and laughing and smiling, that he doesn't care.

But in the more likely mathematical outcome, they're pretty content to patch holes and say, "Let's just get there and see what happens." Like, is, is that a fair assessment of how you think Jed Hoyer is looking at the trade deadline this year?

Yeah, that's how I interpreted it.

I don't think there's any other way to.

I mean, there's not, uh, a track record here of, of, uh, a Dave Dombrowski type, uh, who just says, you know, "Who cares about the future? Let's go for it now." Obviously, Theo Epstein working with Jed Hoyer did that in 2016 when they traded for Aroldis Chapman, but that was a century and counting championship drought.

Uh, their team was awesome.

You know, the entire franchise felt that weight, and they had more than earned it, and Chapman was that finishing piece, the if not now, when.

Uh, I don't-- [chuckles] the Cubs are a different organization now.

What's been the big difference? What do you think has changed for Pete Crow-Armstrong since last year?

What's the real Cubs? What, what, what are they? Are they the team that whoops off 10 in a row? Are they the team that loses 10 in a row? I- is their best yet to come, or because of these injuries, is their worst yet to come? What, what are the real Cubs?

Yeah, I mean, that is the question.

I would say it depends if you're a gla- glass half full, glass half empty type.

Like, is there a scenario in which Matthew Boyd, Edward Cabrera, uh, you know, maybe Justin Steele, like they're healthy and fresh towards the end of the year, and they go out and have a big trade deadline.

Historically, Jed Hoyer, that's not really his MO.

He'll do lots of things.

He'll be decisive.

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Do you th- How, how much do you feel like Bregman could kind of help kind of that growth of maturity, of understanding separating offense from defense, defense from offense, and just kind of, you know, him being a veteran presence in that clubhouse?

Yeah, Kevin, I mean, you know as well as anyone, like, how hard it is to play center field and how hard it is to find guys who can man that position.

I mean, the Cubs reallyYou, after Dexter Fowler went to St. Louis, uh, it'd been kind of a revolving door there.

They had guys who, you know, would, they could trust for spurts or, like, they kinda had open auditions.

And, you know, with Pete, their models love him.

Like, they're, they think he will bring a ton of surplus value.

That's why they did the deal.

[laughs]

Yeah

... of if he loses a little bit of oomph on that fastball, if he gets a little predictable.

I think from Shota's side, they can say that he had a, a, you know, a, a lower half injury that may have disrupted his rhythm, didn't quite get all the way back there.

And, and this was just really his first time dealing with this at the Major League level, that he had been so good at staying ahead of hitters, that he kept winning that cat and mouse game.

It just caught up to him at the absolute worst time.

Like, if he had that bad month in April, maybe the Cubs would've picked that up, that, that three-year commitment.

Because I do think we go through this all the time, of teams say, "Man, you can never have enough pitching," and then they get to the trade da- deadline and it's like, "Wow, those prices are way too expensive to go get a controllable starting pitcher." That just didn't make sense.

Nope.

What does this, what does this version of Kyle Tucker look like? Somebody that got rushed back after an injury? Does it look like the struggling Kyle Tucker that was pre-injury? And is there hope that he can be the aircraft carrier that they brought him in to be, and he was for two-thirds, three-quarters of the season?

Yeah, no doubt.

I mean, he was that, that guy.

Um, it's hard to see the Cubs making the playoffs without him, or maybe they squeak in, but just all the momentum that was created in the first half, uh, really was a huge product of his production, his presence, his sense of calm, the example he set i- in the batter's box, uh, his all-around play, and we just have not seen that here, uh, really for a couple months now.

Uh, in part to- due to whatever happened with his hand, whether it was a subconscious thing or not, uh, of just kinda messing with his mechanics or just something was slightly off.

And then with the calf here, you know, he's been a DH.

I, I don't think there's any expectation that he's going to play the field, uh, this series.

[chuckles]