Final month begins for Chicago Cubs + Carlos Santana and Aaron Civale join roster

Final month begins for Chicago Cubs + Carlos Santana and Aaron Civale join roster

The final month of the season is here. Let’s recap Cubs Rockies first and so many roster moves. You are Locked on Cubs. Your daily Chicago Cubs podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. You are Locked On Cubs, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Alongside Samber, I’m Matt Cozy. Sam and I are lifelong fans taking our passion into discussion with you on all things Cubs. Today’s episode is presented by FanDuel. Football season is here. Visit the FanDuel app today and start planning your futures bets. Now, so much to get to on this Monday’s show. Mondays are typically like that. Only a few more Mondays of the regular season. Appreciate everybody joining us today. audio and video. And the Cubs won the first two games of the series against the Rockies. Had a chance at the sweep Sunday after Ian Hap hit a game-tying three-run homer, but Daniel Palencia gave up the winning run in the ninth as the Rockies scratched out the final game. Sam, first thoughts on on this series. unfortunately just exactly how you would think it would go based on how this team has played for a while. You you you felt like they’d have one offensive explosion and then you felt like they would have two battles and and and probably one of them wasn’t going to go your way. I mean, that’s just that’s just been the pattern um for this team. I didn’t think they did enough offensively. I know they scored 11 on Friday. That was great. Four on Saturday, did not meet my goal of scoring five in each game. And then, you know, Hap had a huge weekend. You know, kudos to him. He hits the three-run homer to kind of mask what was a real subpar offensive effort on Sunday. Um, you know, I wasn’t pleased. I wasn’t pleased with the wi with the weekend. I I know that sounds a little bit harsh, but, you know, you sweep this this Anaheim team and you think, man, I mean, you’re set. We were talking about it. Eight out of 10. Now we’re set up. Maybe they go six and three, seven and two on the trip, whatever it is. And and you could I mean you you lost four of the last six swept in San Fran. Um Valencia is starting to show some real uh uh signs. Real concerning signs. Yeah. And and you know, we’ll talk about Boyd. I’m not as I’m not there with him, but it’s just Good. Good for you. It’s just um Matt, it just kind of feels No, it’s embarrassing. A five and four trip, is it not? Embar. I wouldn’t say embarrassing. I Right. That’s the poor word. Disappointing. I would just say that it’s just kind of status quo. Untimely. Just status quo. Right now, this is just a team. They’re going to win a couple. They’re going to lose a couple. And right now, right now, it’s just very hard to see them putting together a a long run in October with the evidence that we have over the last couple of months. Yeah, this series will not quell my excitement for the final 25 games for the month of September for Craigtember, as they used to say up north. And you know, as as I woke up Sunday morning, I I am starting to get more excited for for for Tuesday, September 30th, Wednesday, October 1st, when when the Cubs will sweep the Padres’s. And uh Wow, you’re all over the place early where that series will will be. Who who knows? But uh the totality of the trip is really what I’m looking at. This nineame pocket. I I I wasn’t banking on the sweep because Kors is such a weird part. Granted, Palencia twice on the trip. Once to salvage a series, once to sweep a series, couldn’t get them to the 10th. Uh and I and I think it is time to uh shuffle things up a little bit there. Not not major, but uh whereas Brad Keller has been he’s been a top five player on the team the entire year. Oh. Uh, so I think it’s time for him against the just against the Braves. Okay, you get the ninth, Palencia gets somewhere earlier. Um, and and there was positives. There was positives from this series. There was positives from the trip, namely Kyle Tucker, who finished the trip with a 438 batting average. We could beautiful get into that. But but Matthew Boyd Sunday, Sam, the Cubs have seemingly their number one against the worst team in baseball. Yeah. And they lost the series. Boyd now with three starts in a row of five runs or more. And I think my my question is this. After throwing sparingly the last several years, could Boyd be hitting a wall with the with almost 160 frames to his name? Yeah. And I think that’s going to be the big question. And I I talked about this uh solo on Tuesday uh cuz I kind of I talked about it like okay, he had a bad didn’t have a great start against Milwaukee, then he didn’t have a good start against the Giants. Now he didn’t have a good start against the Rockies. And so it it seems fair, but if you if you watch the game, there wasn’t a whole lot. It was a lot of chorus field type stuff because of the bigness of the park. Yeah. Just a lot of a lot of bloops. And I I I just didn’t think I don’t think he looks like a pitcher that’s fatigued. I Okay. I I think he’s a pitcher that that that has gotten some bad results now. Um if you know, if this continues, then it doesn’t matter how he looks. It’s about results. Uh but I just you know, I watched the game. I was watching the game today and I it didn’t it just didn’t feel like a guy that wasn’t in control. just felt like maybe it’s a little bit more instead of fatigue, maybe it’s just a little bit of regression in terms of, you know, bad ated ball stuff. I I just I didn’t feel like he looked bad to me. Um I disagree. He’s inefficient. He’s not as sharp with the breaking stuff. Yeah. And uh they need to get back to the lab this week at Wrigley. How many pitches did he throw today? Threw 90 plus in six innings. I mean, that’s not horrible. Um, right. But yeah, I mean, I’ll tell you what drove me crazy. All right. In in I’m trying to remember what inning it was. I have it right in front of me. It was I think it was the fourth. It was a man on third, two outs, 02. I want to say it was RC at the plate. And he throws a the he throws a pitch exactly where Kelly wanted it. Up and in. Right on the corner. O2 in the in the big or Yeah. Right. right where Magguire wanted it in the biggest park in baseball and he gets guess what he gets exactly what he wanted weak contact and it falls why do you want that O2 why do you want the ball in play 02 I never understood that method of pitching it’s mystifying if it’s 02 and there’s a man on third with two outs and you’re playing in Chorus Field where when the ball’s in play it’s a disaster why are you throwing then then maybe there was a mistake taking that pitch is it’s got to be an unhitable pitch. 02, it just has to be. And and and to and to for the Cubs to strike out at that park 12 times and nine times against a guy Gordon whose erra shrunk to a, you know, an abominable 6.07 today. That’s not a good enough offensive performance. It’s just all around not good enough. Well, even with the half home run, is nine runs in 18 straight innings good enough? Yeah. I mean, and it’s not even it’s not even just the runs. It’s just the process. You you right. The point the the the the way they’re getting to that result. For sure. You can’t you can’t strike out nine times a field against a guy with an ERA o over six. I I’m I was shocked. It sounds like you are as well. I No, that’s the problem. That’s the problem. If this was shocking, we’d be in a much better place. Right. They’ve they’ve they’ve showed their true colors at times. Yes. Uh whereas this perhaps wasn’t as big of a surprise despite my optimism. And the Tucker resurgence does give me optimism offensively. Uh 14 of 32 on the trip. Yes. a handful of extra base hits. Nice to see from the Cubar player. It’s been awesome. It was a road trip. I’m sure, you know, obviously Kyle Tucker wants to win, but I I I don’t know if there’s how many more athletes that’ll have a more relaxing uh uh trip tonight than than Kyle Tucker and probably a really good night’s sleep uh when he gets home to feel like he’s himself again. It’s got to be great. It’s great to see. All right, let’s begin to preview the final 25 down the stretch of September here. 25 games left, including three with the Braves. We’ll preview next segment as well. And also a updated look at the wild card standings right after this. This episode is brought to you by Upside. Hey Lockdown Cubs fans, are you still paying full price for gas? Stop leaving money behind. Get real cash back every time you fill up with the free Upside app. Simply download the free upside app in the App Store or Google Play right now and start earning cash at the pump today. 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Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Uh if you missed it, there was a pretty big trade uh in the NFL. Uh Micah Parsons goes to the rival Green Bay Packers, making them now the favorites on FanDuel to win the NFC Norris division, as Chris Burman used to say, uh at plus 170. Your Chicago Bears dead last at plus 600. So, are you ready to play? Download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanuel.com to get started. That’s fuel.com to place your first $5 bet. Shout out to the everydayers. And you can become a locked on Cubs every day by joining us every episode throughout the week. And make sure you’re subscribed to Locked on Cubs. That way you don’t miss any of the great Cubs content we’ve got for you. That includes the Cubs post with Joe George live after the final out of every game. Coming up later in the show, the Cubs added two veteran players on Sunday. They will presumably be added uh funny enough as the September callups uh on on Monday. Uh lot of roster discussion to be had uh left in this show. We start here with the wildcard standings. Sam Cubs are in the first spot. Two games up on the Padres’s, five up on the Mets. It was going to take a 19 and9 finish over the final 28 to get to 95 wins. They start two and one. Now there’s only 25 games remaining. Six game home stand to start the final 25 of September with three against the Braves, three against the Nationals. And uh before I ask you about the Craig Council factor, what is that exactly? Well, well, that’s that let well let’s let’s stay there then. What what are you talking about the Craig Council? Well, that’s that’s the Craig Council factor down the stretch, you know, with the Brewers. They they they meaning uh the Brewers uh fan base, media, uh perhaps even the Brewers themselves would always deem the last month Craig Timber. And you know, we haven’t seen that yet since council has dawned the Cubs uniform. We have a chance to this this month with the Cubs being in a prime playoff position. They entered Sunday literally with a 99.8% chance to make the playoffs. But but what in what ways can Craig Councel have more of a an imprint on this team down the stretch of the season? Because because this is why he he’s in there is to to win the 90 plus, to win the 95 plus, to lead him to the playoffs. Do you see anything that he could do to solidify their position as a as a postseason team? Well, they’re going to make the playoffs, so I’d like to see it more be Craig Tober than Craig Timber. Um, if we’re going to use that. Um, well, we could put that in the recycling, but um, I don’t know. My guess would be, you know, the only thing that I could pull out of of of the bag here would be that Craig is so cerebral, so practical when it comes to like arms and stuff that maybe our arms would be fresher than others in September in order to perform well. But as we’re seeing with the Cubs closer, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Um, so I don’t surprised that they they went back to Palencia today. I don’t know. You know, I mean, I I I think I think Palencia is their closer, right? You know, I but I think Keller is their best reliever, you know. So, yeah, it’s a good way to put it. I don’t know. I don’t know. the Porter Hodgej thing is, you know, we we’ll have to discuss that at a different time. But I get off track. Look, the answer is no. I don’t know if there’s much like he is what he is at this point as a manager. He’s a fine manager. Um I don’t expect this team to go on some magical run because of him if that’s what you’re asking. Right. Well, there are certainly things that I would like to see the Cubs take advantage of this month. And really, it’s the schedule uh place where council has no control over. Certainly, he could he could help with matchups and things like that. But really starting with the Labor Day game, Sam, the final checkpoint of the year, I do feel like they have to take advantage of this. This is a a Braves team. Uh right now the projected starters are Ray Strider, Imanaga Wentz, Horton, Elder. This is a Braves lineup that still has Aunia, Olsen, Harris, Baldwin, Ozuna, Alb’s, and Murphy. Uh a bullpen, you know, with eras beginning with a zero for the month of August with a a Forsome there, a Glaciius, Bummer, Johnson, and Kinley all had eras that started with a zero the last month. Uh but those three starters, Strider, Wentz, and Elder, have given up a ton of contact, a lot of runs for most of the year, but especially the past month, and would really like to see the Cubs take advantage of this, you know, despite some star power the Braves still have, try to punch down. You know, they’re they’re a team that’s just playing to the back of the baseball card right now. They’re finishing up the season. they could play a little bit of spoiler, especially uh you know against these these teams that that are projected to make the postseason, but I I just hope that this week especially they can make some hay and and do what they’re supposed to do and that starts Monday. Yeah, I mean it’s a six game home stand. You’d love to see him win five out of six. Um there isn’t anything there isn’t one series the rest of the year that sticks out that goes well they’re probably probably don’t have it not going to win that series you know um so you’d like to see him take advantage of it. They’re just you’re just not seeing a really highlevel brand of baseball right now. Um, and so it’s just it’s it’s hard to separate that from the schedule. But yeah, look, I’ll say it like this. The best thing I could say, Matthew, is this. The Cubs, the Cubs in July and August and June really went from a team in my opinion that was, hey, this could be the best team in baseball to all right, now their best chance is to just get really hot and play well at the right time. And so guess what? The right time isn’t now. So if they if they kind of keep just chugging along here, win the series they’re supposed to win, you just hope that it flips at the right time, which would be starting When’s the first wild card game? You said the 30th. Yeah, Tuesday the 30th. There’s that buffer day. Monday, no games, you know. So starting Tuesday the 30th. That’s when it all you want it all to come together. So that’s the case. Like right now, like, you know, we haven’t talked about it yet. I mean, Pico Armstrong’s season is plummeting here. Yeah, it has been. It’s plummeted. And this is a guy, you know, people could laugh at me all they want and say how wrong I was. He was firmly an MVP candidate two months ago. Yeah. But his season has plummeted and they’re not. One of the reasons they had a real chance is because he was that and and Tucker was that and Seya was what he was doing. So, you just at this point, I know it sounds really weird, but I my goal is for them to just keep trucking along, winning games that they’re supposed to. It may not be pretty, and then in a few weeks, you know, see if it all could come together. That’s their best chance. Well, when you know what I I I had a similar thought in terms of getting hot at the right time as I was mowing the lawn Sunday. Yeah. What point in the calendar is that? Is that entering just the final week of the year or would it be a little before that? It’s a great question because I’d like to see them go five and one that last week at Wrigley or even just the last series. I’d like to see him win Saturday, Sunday. That’s an awesome question. And that’s only two games. There’s It’s an awesome question and there’s no answer to it. There there’s two It’s not It’s not There’s two perspectives of it. There’s two perspectives of it. everything is so dayto day, week to week in this sport. Do you want to just wait till as late as possible or do you do you believe in the trend of the Cubs in late March, April and May were awesome and so if they and and and July July, June, July, August, they haven’t been. So would it be just nice to just have a massive month of September because the odds are that’s going to carry into October? I’d probably lean there. Yeah, I would. I would, too. Or I would just take a traditionalist approach of of when you would open up the newspaper, look at the standings, hey, what have they done the last 10? Yeah. So, with the 10 games to go, uh, you know, where are they at when they enter enter the the wild card series on on the 30th of of September? But, uh, yeah, I mean, that that prospect to me is something, uh, where I go, oh, I’m excited to see how that unfolds and and what kind of team this is as the, uh, the last 25 games progresses, for sure. All right. I was surprised that the Cubs were active on Sunday, the the last day you could add players from outside the organization. Carlos Santana and Aaron Savale are going to be Cubs on on Monday when rosters expand. We get you those details next. 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That’s code locked on MLB for $50 in lineups after your first $5 play. prize picks. It’s good to be right. And we also for another week here on the show want to bring your attention to the locked podcast network survey. This is your chance to tell Lockdown what you like, what you don’t, and answer question about answer questions about ads. Go to lockdownpodcast.com/servey to get started. Everyone who completes a survey will be entered for a chance to win one of 10 $100 Amazon gift cards. Again, that’s lockdownpodcast.com/servey. You can also find the link in this episode description. On Sunday, the Cubs reportedly, well, with Aaron Savali, it’s official, and then reportedly with Carlos Santana brought these two veterans into their team. We’ll talk about that as well as other roster moves, roster crunches, roster projections. Uh on Monday with September call-ups, we thought the Cubs would call up prospects, minor leaguers, but uh it does seem like one way or another it’s going to be these two veterans that are actually going to be the callups in Santana and Savale. would start with Santana, Sam, who is a curious fit on a roster that already has Michael Bush, Justin Turner. Uh Santana does hit from both sides. Uh 39year-old veteran, slashed only 225, 316, 333 this year with the Guardians. He has been better this year against righties than lefties. Uh also plays pretty well still uh defensively at first base. just last year, uh, he was pretty good. Hit 23 homers in 150 games with the Twinkies. And maybe the postseason is a factor here, a main one, because in six of his 16 years, he has appeared in the postseason. Sam, please help me make sense of this move. Um he so so I I I looked at it a little bit differently than you did. Okay. Um I think it’s it’s a tough one for sure. Shout out to Bobby Redell, our friend. Um one of the voices of of the Purdue Boiler Makers basketball team. He called this like a week ago or whatever he got three days ago. He he loved the fit. Um, I see the fit. I see the fit in this regard. In his career, he has an over 800 ops versus lefties. Okay. And he’s a much better dependable glove at first than Turner would be. So, it gives you a little bit of flexibility there. Um, you know, so let’s say hypothetically, it kind of demotes Turner to a pinch hitter only. Now, he’s a pinch hitter only in a certain shot. And then once he pinched hits, then Santana takes over for him and you feel you feel more dependable there. That sounds right. Um he he’s historically got a really good eye at the plate. It is it’s just a lot. So So it basically means, you know, you’re so much better than this year. Well, we’re about to do a projection, so we’re going to answer my questions. Yeah. It’s just it’s just kind of a lot with all the players. Uh Yeah. Right. Right. I don’t know where everybody fits, but but him in a vacuum, you know, guy with postseason experience, World Series experience. Um, he’s been around the block, that’s for sure. Yeah. So, I I I I think that it’s it’s a weird one. I It’s a weird one, but but I see it and I’m interested to see how he’s used. I think it’s a little bit more defensive than than anything else. That’s my That’s my gut. I could see at least initially. So Bush starts, the lefty comes in, Turner pinch hits, then Santana finishes the game at first. Something like that. Yeah. But what could get interesting here is if Santana just passes Turner that that’s and in the playoffs, uh, Turner is just the vibes guy in the dugout. He’s he’s like a coach and Santana makes the roster and Turner doesn’t. And then you have room for maybe an Alcantra or something like that instead or if you want to keep three catchers for some reason if Amaya comes back healthy. But but right now uh yeah I see it like okay BCH to Turner to Santana all on the same line of the of the lineup right. Uh or the next lefty the Cubs face which I believe is is Tuesday. Well, yeah. Does Santana start? Well, and that’s so that’s the one other point I wanted to make. Um, the Willie Castro uh trade has not worked out. Um, or not even. So, not even defensively, you think? Yeah. And I just don’t think they like like it just had he just doesn’t he’s just not hitting. So, is he not a lock then for the playoffs? Yeah. I don’t know. Um, okay. It’s just it’s just not working out. And so now maybe that this is another alternative option to that because if this guy’s Oh, interesting man. real playoff at bats, we got a problem. I mean, he makes Jamer Candelario look like a Mickey Manel. Okay. You know, the 1956 triple crown award winner. Mickey Manel. I believe he had 356 that year with 52 home runs and 130 driven in. Um, and that’s what what Candelario looks like compared to to to to Willie Castro. Yeah, he’s he’s uh made virtually no impact besides that throw, that assist from right field. Uh, great 10 days ago. Uh, the Cubs also picked up Aaron Savale on Sunday. This is a uh also a curious fit considering Aaron Savali has not pitched not made one appearance in the regular season out of the bullpen. 89 innings for the Brewers and White Socks this year. Savali has a five.26 ERA. Just his last two starts, he’s allowed nine runs on nine hits and nine and two/3 innings, five walks, nine strikeouts. He does have three career postseason innings combined with the Guardians and 22 Brewers last year. That the Savali one really seems like a depth move. I don’t see why he would make a playoff roster as a starter reliever, at least not not right now. Um and and this one this one was even more not troubling would be an exaggeration, but this one was more puzzling for me. because they already have depth. Well, what’s up with Sroka? Sarroka is supposed to throw, I believe, to live hitters on Tuesday. So, he’s still weeks away. Well, but a couple weeks, that’s not a lot. I the reason why this is weird and and and you say like a lot is because okay Porter Hodgej comes up Sunday, Jordan Wixs gets sent out. They might swap Haj out on Monday for a fresh arm as they should. That’s independent of the callups as they should. Also independent of S Santana and Savale I think is Owen Casey. I think Casey gets swapped Monday for Kevin Alcantra who’s already on the 40 man. I got a headache. And Casey goes back down. He plays every day. And Alcantra is that outfield insurance in addition to Castro. Alcantra’s had a great August. Uh 284, 364, 489, four homers, six doubles. Maybe he’ll bring up Glenn Allen Hill. But this is this is a definitely a a roster crunch because you know you maybe even you you have two or three guys at least on the pitching side that still might get squeezed out because Tyion’s coming back. Sroa is coming back in theory. Brazier might come back in theory. So So Savale I don’t think is going to make it to the end of this month and uh we’ll see what happens with Santana. Can I throw one quick theory with Savali? And I’m not going to throw out my projection that I built about 10 minutes before the show cuz this is uh there’s just a lot going on here. Maybe a little revenge factor. It didn’t end well between Aaron Savali and the Brewers, you know. So Oh, yeah. He whined about getting moved to the pen. Yeah. So maybe maybe he’ll have a little extra motivation in in the DS against those guys. Wow. Okay. So you have him on the playoff team. Interesting. Uh all right. So quick correction. Manel hit 353 in 1956. But let’s see what the Cubs do on Monday. I I think there’s uh more moves to come and Santana and Savali will have to be added. Uh they could be added just as the 27th and 28th guys, but Haj might be swapped out, Casey might be swapped out. Could there be a surprise move as well, but one surprise for me would be if if something happens with Turner? But you’ve made it this far. I would be I would be almost shocked at this point if something happened with him. All right. Anything else? No, it was a fun show uh after a disappointing Sunday afternoon. That’s I’m glad it was fun. This is Locked On Cubs, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. For the second listen, check out the allnew College Football Kickoff Show. It’s another big moment for this network. College football fans, Locked On and Fire TV present College Football Kickoff, your ultimate college football weekly preview. Drake Tol of Locked on Big 12 leads the convo alongside twotime AP coach of the year Gary Patterson, former college star Jesse Holly, and Locked On’s local experts. The college football preview only Locked On can do. Catch college football kickoff every Thursday throughout the season only on Fire TV. We’ll be back after Cubs Braves on Monday. He’s Sam. I’m Matt Cozy. This is Locked on Cub. Shout out to Matt Cozy and Sam Olber, host of my favorite podcast, Locked on Cubs.

Key takeaways from the Cubs/Rockies series, previewing the final 25 games, the Craig Counsell factor, and more. Plus: How do Carlos Santana and Aaron Civale fit on the roster?

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