Is It WORLD SERIES or BUST like 2016? | Cubs Baseball Podcast

Is It WORLD SERIES or BUST like 2016? | Cubs Baseball Podcast

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and welcome to the Cubs baseball channel. Hope you are doing great today and enjoying your holiday or wherever you might be hanging out. Thank you for being here. Cubs miss out on Dylan CE. He got a monster contract with Toronto and it tells me something that I want to get into today. Are the Cubs committed to winning the World Series? Are they all in or is this a sign that maybe they’re not? We’re going to talk about that. Some young Cubs receive MLB pre-arbitration pool money and they deserve it. Pretty cool. And our favorite Thanksgiving memories or maybe we’ll talk a little bit about what you’re most thankful for as far as the Cubs go. All of that right here on the Cubs baseball channel. Hit Avenue D, the QR code. Join MC Nation. We’ve got some hats. We got some swag to give away. So, let’s get this thing started. Look at my my shirt. Love that shirt. Love the bear. Even got the plaque in my house. Know a lot of you guys do, too. All right, you guys ready? You ready for a little show? You ready for some baseball talk? Let’s go. [Music] [Applause] [Music] What is up everybody? Welcome to the Cubs baseball channel. Mick Gillespie here. Great to talk to you on this Thanksgiving. Don’t let me get off the show without telling you some things that I’m thankful for. Well, one thing that I’m not thankful for is Dylan CE signing with Toronto. Right. disappointed about this because I felt like the Cubs were going to be in the mix for Dylan CE and when it all came to fruition, uh, he ends up getting a mega deal from Toronto, right? It’s the tune of 7 years, $210 million, right? Uh, pending a physical reported first by Jeff Pass of ESPN. He’s one of the best in the business. He was with the Padres’s. This was a Cubs prospect that the Cubs, I think, foolishly traded to the White Socks for Jose Canana. I never was a fan of that trade. I still am not a fan of that trade, but you know what? Maybe now, you know, he would have been gone anyway. I don’t know if they’d have paid him that, but this was the best pitching prospect that the Cubs had to like had in their system since Prior Wood, but he never got to the big leagues with the Cubs. And then you know now Kate Horton’s that guy. I think that the next guy that came along that could have been in your organization for years to come, right? So he gets this deal. Um he wasn’t I don’t think his very best last year with uh with the Padres’s, but he’s got great velocity. You know, the VO’s there. Um, he’s also someone that you look at and you go, “Okay, this guy’s going to be around for a long time.” And he’s been really healthy, you know, and and the other thing about it is that pitching’s a premium. Starting pitching is a premium. Guys that can go out there and stay healthy and that are fireballers are guys who you want to have on your team. And you know, as I think about the Cubs now, um, I’m going, okay, where are the Cubs going to go? They go with his teammate Michael King. Ranger Suarez is another guy. He actually, I think, somebody that could help the team a lot. Maybe they trade for Sandy Alcantara. We talked about that though uh, here recently. If if the Marlins traded Alcantara, then the they’d be so far under the salary the the the where the league wants you to be minimally that they’d have to go out and spend a bunch of money, but he’d be worth it, right? Edwin Cabrera, another guy on that team, maybe you potentially trade. I don’t know. One of these guys coming over from Japan, you know, could be I feel like the Cubs need someone else in their rotation. I just like I five right now, but you you just keep building because you never know how many you’re going to need. But this got me thinking, right? Like I I started to say Cubs and Blue Jays were in an identical spot coming into this past season. Front offices, hot seat, teams that had not really made a run. I don’t want to say underachievers, but they weren’t teams that had really done a whole lot. And the Blue Jays and the Cubs both tried to be really aggressive in the off season. Of course, the Cubs made the deal to get Kyle Tucker. They gave up a first round pick to do it and some other guys, another all-star. And the Blue Jays, you know, they went out and made deals. There was a sense of urgency here for both and the Blue Jays ended up getting to the World Series and were ahead in the late innings. I call the business innings of uh game seven that could have won a World Series and they blew it. But they played a it was a valent effort and now you know you look at it and you go they’re all in, right? They’re going to do what they have to do to get that next game, right? It kind of like uh I look at them and think they could potentially be the Kansas City Royals. Remember the Royals lost that dramatic game seven, I think it was game seven to the Giants and then they came back the next year and they won the World Series 2015. So 2014 they lost, 2015 they won and they and they did the things that they had to do to put themselves over the top. Uh it feels like the Blue Jays are doing that. Do you feel like the Cubs are all in? So I started thinking about like where the Cubs were after 201 and and 15. First off, the energy around the team when the Cubs when the Cubs got Joe Madden was enormous. And then Madden gets there and he’s like, I don’t care how young we are. We’re not we’re not we’re not losing anymore. We’re not here to lose. We’re going to win. Then they get John Lester to sign. And then all of a sudden they had the prospects coming up, the Chris Bryants, the Jav Bayz’s. What did they do? 2015, remember Schwarbs had the big postseason and I hope the Cubs bring him home. I just do. No secret here where I’m at on that one. So that off season, you know, you’re like, what did the Cubs do to to get themselves in position to to try to win the World Series? And that’s when I was like, okay, I I want to I want to remember what the Cubs did. So going into that 2016 season, they go out, they sign Jason Hayward to eightyear, $184 million contract. got him from the Cardinals. That turned out to be a dud, but at the beginning of it, and I mean, they don’t win the World Series without his famous speech, right? They go out and they spend $56 million for four years of Ben Zberist. Brilliant move there. This was the guy that was the World Series uh MVP for the Cubs. He was a one of one of the Royals that won the World Series the year before. He was fantastic. They get John Lackey, two years, $32 million. is another Cardinal. You’re talking about a guy that kind of had like uh a little bit of this winners mentality. Had won a World Series in the past. Was a star pitcher kind of in the the twilight of his career, but knew how to get it done. Laid down the hey, we’re going to do it the right way thing. Remember Dexter Fowler? It looked like he was going to go to Baltimore. Instead, he signed that one-year $13 million deal with the Cubs to play center field. Trevor Cahill, he was a reliever. uh Jason Mott who was a a reliever. Both of those guys got one year 4 million plus um outfielder Chris Denorphia. I thought he was always like a good piece. Uh but but they went out and I mean you talk about the the pieces that they added the Zobberist and at the time Hayward was was a huge free agent signing and John Lackey and Dexter Fowler like they went and added the things that they needed to add to win and you could tell that they had that that mentality the momentum to be World Series champs. You know I I don’t know that they have that vibe right now. You know, it just feels like they get outbid for the guys who could come in and make an impact. It feels like they they want to kind of stay out of the deep end of the pool. And I get that. I mean, I’m I understand. I mean, when you when you pay Jason Hayward that much money for that little production, you get a little bit of snake bit. But at the same time, I mean, Toronto’s telling you right now, hey, we went out and signed Vlad Guerrero Jr., huge contract. is going to be here for a long time. By the way, the guy balled out in the in the playoffs. Then on top of that, you swing over and you go and and now add Dylan CE to to the pitching that you already had. This feels like Toronto setting themselves up to uh not just contend, but to maybe win it all. And how do the Cubs get to that point? Are they there? you know, they’re not going to have Kyle Tucker back most likely, you know, so you’re going to have to find other ways to produce. And how do you fill that void? Well, it’d be great to have Kyle Schwarber. It’d be great to have Alex Bregman. You could do that. Probably still not spend as much as you’d spend on Tucker. And you get two guys that could help you. I don’t know. We’ll see. But I want to see this franchise do the things that it needs to do to take what they did last year and and that was game five loss to Milwaukee to go to the National League Championship Series and push to win it all because I’m looking at Toronto and that’s exactly what they’re doing. All right, some Cubs that got paid and I love to see this, man. I love to see these guys that deserve to make some extra money makes some extra money, right? And the Cubs had some bonus pool earnings uh that have now been told to us and you’re looking at it and you’re like, “Okay, okay.” Uh Pete Crow Armstrong uh first full season in the big leagues ended up with uh what uh over a million dollars in bonuses $1.2 million plus in bonuses. Good for him. First Cub with 30 home runs, 30 stolen bases, 30 doubles. Uh Sammy Sosa was the the the uh the guy that that we knew for the home runs and the stolen bases. Pete Armstrong was was a speed burner and I think that he could have really even done more damage. Uh but he also won a gold glove and he’s one of I think the the best defenders in baseball, right? Um he I I didn’t think about this. He he finished ninth in MVP voting. So, not too bad for a guy. And then he got rewarded. Now, Kate Horton got robbed for the rookie of the year. I thought he should have been rookie of the year. Ended up second place. Um had that 2.67 erra. Was dynamite. I mean, absolutely dynamite with a one an 8-1 record and a 103 RA after the All-Star break. But, um, you know, they kind of limited his um innings. you know, they didn’t want him to get hurt. He got hurt anyway. Still a fantastic season and um you know, someone that we’re all looking at right now and going, “Hey, you know, we we feel like he’s going to be a huge part of this team moving forward.” And and he got rewarded um $858,000 of a bonus rewarded, right? So his base salary was like 580,000 and then and then he added to that. So good for him, man. Doing it, going out there, earning it and getting paid for it. Um if if the if the Cubs would have had him in the postseason, I really do believe that they would have beat Milwaukee. I think they were one pitcher short of of doing that. And you know, Michael Bush was another guy who uh earned a bunch of extra money. He was 16th in MVP voting and earned a bonus of $483,000 on top of his $780,000 contract. So, you know, all of those guys, you know, um, Hollywood Pete, Kate Horton, and Michael Bush, um, paid, earned it, and, um, really awesome to see those guys make the money. I mean, I know these guys get paid a ton, but not when you’re you’re a rookie. You know, you get the signing bonus at the beginning, and then you got to wait until you get that first big offer, right? Or, you know, the your arbitration, you know, depending on how you play. Well, it’s Thanksgiving and I want to say I’m thankful for all of you guys that hang out here and watch the channel. You know, it’s it really is uh great to get up and talk Cubs baseball with you guys. I try to do a show every day. It’s been so much fun though going through it. I mean, we’ve we’ve done, you know, two years together. I’ve got ideas and things I want to do on the channel moving forward. And you know, I’ve I’ve kind of had this vision, but I think the biggest thing is just the community that we’ve created. So, thank you guys for that and for being here and um means a lot to me. Now, as far as the Cubs go, things that I’m thankful for from last year, right? First off, the way that Hollywood Pete plays, man, that guy, the fire and the passion that he brings to the team is so awesome. I mean, absolutely love it. Love, love that. He turned out to be better than I thought and I thought he was going to be pretty darn good. So, I’m I’m thankful for for that. I was thankful to see Kate Horton step up and um and and be the guy that I thought he was going to be. And that is the best young pitcher that the Cubs have had since Carrie Wood and Mark Prior. And and I’ve been a Cubs fan a long long long long long long time, you know, and and we we’ve just been dying for this. And and and we talked about Dylan CE earlier on the show. you know, that trade m it was just not a good trade and you’re giving up the future and and and and it was like we didn’t do it this time. We we stuck with the guys and we got something out of it and I and I really really liked him. The Chicago Blues, man, I’ve got my hat on right here. Those uniforms were sweet. I love this hat. Like it’s even like a real It’s like a you know, like a game hat. It’s so cool. I’m I’m one of these guys that loves the Cubs regular home jerseys. You know, the road ones have changed over the years. I like them, but the home ones, the pinstripes, the Cubs regular Cubs hats, best hat out there. But I do think that it’s cool to do other stuff, too. You know, I like the Fridays and and the Wrigleyville look and and the and the Chicago Blues and a and a and the old Cub Bear with a guitar. Very cool stuff from the Cubs front office. They do a fantastic job with the marketing and um just super fun, right? And and I think that Wrigley Field has the best giveaways in uh Major League Baseball. So, shout out to those guys. And um you know, and that’s it, man. And I and and I’m honestly just excited about getting to the next season. So, thank you for being here. like, subscribe, thumbs up, be a part of our channel on a daily basis. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. You know, we’re closing in on uh 2026, which is crazy to think about, but I want you to enjoy the day and we’ll talk to you guys again soon. And uh again, from the bottom of my heart, have a great Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Go [Music]

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This Episode:
– Cubs Miss Out on Dylan Cease…
– Do You Feel Like They Are “All IN?”
– Young Cubs Receive Bonuses From MLB Pre-Arbitration Pool

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Mick Gillispie has covered the Chicago Cubs since 2007 and has been a fan of the team since the 1984 season. He has broadcasted spring training games or been heard on Cubs.com, MLB.com, 670 The Score, WGN, CSN-Chicago and Marquee Sports Network. He is an award winning play-by-play voice for the Tennessee Smokies Cubs Double-A Affiliate. He has also hosted many forums over the years at Cubs Convention including Down on The Farm