Chicago Cubs drop series to Cardinals + Carter Hawkins needs to go

Chicago Cubs drop series to Cardinals + Carter Hawkins needs to go

Another series loss for the Chicago Cubs, but it’s time to start having deeper conversations about how this organization is run. 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 Sam Olber, I’m Matt Cozy. Sam and I are lifelong fans taking our passion into a discussion with you on all things Cubs. Today’s episode is presented by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner. Wow. Visit the FanDuel app today. Start planning your futures bets now. On the show, we talk about the Northwest Herald article about us. Preview a special guest for our next episode. uh hot and cold over the last 10 days. Carter Hawkins needs to be released and we start with Cubs Cardinals. Cubs lose two out of three to the Cardinals over the weekend. They’re now 67 and 50 on the year. Six games out. That’s two series worth of games of the NL Central. They do remain in the top spot in the wild card, but that that lead is dwindling. San Diego only a game and a half over the Padres’s. Forget it. uh for the top spot. Cardinals won in a blowout Friday. Cubs won in a blowout Saturday and the Cardinals with a close win Sunday. Sam, there’s a lot from this series as the Cubs continue to underwhelm. Yeah, I’m going to uh I’m going to open with something different. We can get to the We’ll get to the series in one sec. Um I just want to say this. Look, um, in 2023, things got off the rails early and the and the comment was, “Oh, well, we dug ourselves too big of a hole and then we retired in September.” It’s just long periods of not good baseball. Uh, last year 21 and 34 stretch, too big of a hole, etc. This year hasn’t been that in terms of the record, but we are now going on two and a half months, 55 games of mediocre baseball, uh, not two and a half, but about two months, 28 and 27. And, you know, I thought a lot about this over the weekend because if you put me, and I’m only using me as an example because our listeners know me. If you put me in a in a high up spot in the front office or in a manager spot in the front office, I wouldn’t do very well. Why? Because I’m too reactive, right? I’m too day-to-day. You you you can’t operate like that in baseball or in professional sports with with those type of of athletes. But I was taught at a young age too much of of anything is not good. And there’s another side of the spectrum, the exact opposite of me. And this organization is too much of that. It’s too let’s just get him tomorrow. It’s too next man up. It’s too Oh well, it’s too well we just got to hit. Hawkins who you’re going to talk about later. Hoyer and Carter and Council. They’re all the same type of personality. You need different personalities. You need different perspectives. You need guys in there to challenge each other. So somebody that’s more like me can say at the end of June, “Hey, these Brewers are coming and they’re coming fast. We need to do something because it doesn’t matter how well we’ve played. We’ve got to find a way to hold them off.” Hey Jed, since you hired counsel from the Brewers, they’re 16 games better than we are. Something is wrong here. And don’t tell me that this doesn’t work. There was a guy by the name of, you might have heard of him, his name is Phil Jackson. Um, he’s got 11 reasons why he did what he did. Especially with the Lakers, he used to call out guys in the media like Kobe all the time. Challenge guys, right? He he he knew how to manage personalities. Yeah, he had great players. This organization to me, Matt, it’s too Stan Pat. It’s too much of the same thing. Sit on your hands, wait for things to change, hope that they change, outperform expectations. Talk about the 2032 season. It’s it’s absolutely ridiculous and it’s just not good enough. And says Sam, what what would you do differently? Call byos up. Call somebody up. Maybe just say something in the media. Hey, we’re we need to be better than this. Kyle Tucker. Kyle knows he needs to be better. This is unacceptable. Do something to try and spark this team. I’m sorry. Go ahead. Let’s talk about this fun series. No, please don’t apologize. And and one idea I have that I shared with you uh in person with you on Saturday night at at a local establishment as we hung out uh uh and they won actually during a hangout session. I would call up Owen Casey in his home country of Canada on Tuesday against the Blue Jays. I feel like that’s appropriate pressure. Uh that that’s a pressure cooker right there. But that’s something that I would do. I feel like that that that’s needed right now. urgency, right? Well, don’t tell that to some of the broadcasters. So, listen. Well, there is a lot from this series, but I must start with Pete Crow Armstrong. Yeah. Okay. And this kid is two for his last 30. Now, it would be one thing if he just made a bunch of outs like that, 28 of them in this last stretch, and and he was ice cold. Uh but but I I just feel like right now it’s a little more than that. Y and and and he his body language, his reactions after all these outs, it’s very up and down, mostly down. He’s hard on himself. Sure. you you hope that council or someone else in the dugout is is trying to to talk him through that, help him out. Uh but but did did Craig Counsel send not one but two messages to PCA on Sunday, Sam? This this is a Cubs player who was an MVP candidate until two weeks ago. Alex Cohen keeps saying he should win the MVP. I don’t know why, but he does. Uh, and that’s fine. That’s his prerogative. But did he Craig Councel send two messages to Pete on Sunday? One, by not challenging the pickoff at second, and two, pinch hitting for him in the ninth. I feel like there’s a real inflection point with him right now. Um, no, I I’m not going to give council that type of credit. Okay. Uh, I don’t think he sends messages. I think I think he just played the percentages with Pete. The percentages were down. Um yeah, I was talking about this with my dad uh on the way home today while the game was going on. I just don’t feel as strongly upset about Pete’s struggles. You know, you asked me before the All-Star break, who needs to who needs to stay the same for this thing to go? And I said Pete because it just his his his production just felt the the flimsiest uh wi with how it was going. And I just I actually made a joke last week. I said, “Hey, if he goes 0 for his next 30, he’s still having a good year.” I didn’t didn’t want to foresee that happening. Yeah. But yeah, it’s it’s it’s it’s hurting the team right now. Um it shows you that outperforming expectations for 6 months isn’t an actual thing. guys are gonna come back down to earth. But I just can’t have a conversation about Pete until we get a conversation and just keep pounding the table about the right fielder because that’s the guy who’s supposed to be masking this. I expect Pete to go through slumps. He’s a 23-year-old kid who has no history of success offensively at the big league level. Um I expect Michael Bush to go through slumps. I know Seiya Suzuki is gonna go through slumps. Kyle Tucker having one home run in the last 35 games or whatever it is is completely wrecked this offense. It’s wrecked it, Matt. It’s wrecked it. And And he’s going to ask for $500 million. Enough already. Yes. No, there’s no way. It’s going to start with a four, maybe a three. Well, right now it should start with a 150,000. How’s that? Because Well, that’s below the the below the uh the salary minimum. I mean, he has one home run in 30 plus games. He’s supposed to be the guy that keeps you above water when everybody else is struggling. So, yes, I hear you on Pete. It’s been bad. It’s really bad. I think his base running has been atrocious. Well, it was it’s been invisible for the most part and then when he tries things, it’s it’s been wrong. But but I’m just he’s not on the top of my list because of his age and his lack of experience. Uh the the guy that’s at the top of my list is number 30. Well, let’s keep going over this offense and there there’s their absolute slide. Uh we go over the rest of this series and then why Carter Hawkins must be fired this fall. We get into those three things right after this. Shout out to the Everydayers. You can become a Lockdown Cubs Everydayer by joining us every episode throughout the week. Sam, I know you’ve backdating the Cubs uh results to the Tiger series. I’m just going to do it. Uh since June 19th, that that second game of the what ended up being a two gamer uh because of the rain outs against the Brewers. They’re 22 and 21 since June 19th. Uh 10 and 11 since the break. Since last Friday against Baltimore, now nine games. The Cubs have only scored 29 runs. And since the break, they’re only 23rd in baseball and run scoring. That’ll turn around. Uh so so this is definitely backed up by by how Tucker is playing certainly others in that group and uh they’ve they’ve for now for for two months have been an average club. Uh if you look under the hood it is mostly due to offense. I’m sure they’ve ebbed and flowed in in the rotation uh certainly in the bullpen uh especially uh coming uh coming out of the break, but uh you know the the offense is is broken and um it it’s it’s too bad because one one of the bigger stories right now on the positive end is offensively with Matt Shaw. Yeah, it’s been amazing and it it hasn’t mattered. It’s been amazing. Um, what else from this series? That’s how you deal with adversity, by the way. Yeah. No, it’s a good point. I I thought Imanaga, you know, the two out hit to Walker was tough in the seventh and then a really uh and then a and then a bad pitch to Gorman to score the go-ahead run for the Cards. What else from What else from this series? Nothing. I I you just keep hammering home the same points, right? It’s, hey, hey, Seiya, Bush, Pete, and Tucker, you need your stars to hit. Well, three of those four dudes weren’t stars coming into the year. They were only stars because they had really good first three months. Yeah, it was that that period of the season, right? Yeah. Tucker, you know, it just it’s just it just is what it is. Dansby’s hitting, Nico’s hitting for the most part. Um, you know, uh, Keller looked good. Uh, Ray had a nice outing. Um, you know, Boyd pitched better than what his line was Friday, but it’s just it’s offensively, man. And it’s just it’s just completely unbelievable that for the third straight year, we just sit here and wait and see what happens. And I just I’m sorry. I can’t when my head hits that pillow in about, you know, 20 minutes. Um, wow. I I what it’s going to be thinking about is just you went and got a guy from their team and and and he it it it’s made a reverse difference and and you know, they could say it’s baseball, they could say it’s like it I mean, come on, Matt. You you you you have a much more mild personality than I do. You have much more of a Craig Kle personality. That’s a pretty bad look, isn’t it? Yeah, it is. I mean, they’re they’re they’re breaking records, having the greatest stretch ever, and you’re I it’s just the whole thing. Well, and it’s it’s constant. How many big win streaks have they had? Four. And and at the same time, you just do the same thing. And I got to tell you, you know, we talked about this a little bit over a couple of burgers on Saturday night, literally. Um, you know, this Padres’s team’s better than the Cubs. Um and and it feels like it feels like right they’re they’re they’re they’re shooting for the top wild card spot. Yeah. And and I think to beat them in a in a series because the Cubs are going to make the playoffs, by the way. People are they’re going to make the playoffs. They’re I’ll say it again. They’re going to um because of the the weakness of the third spot. I mean, the Mets of, you know, the Mets, the Reds, the the Cardinals, the Giants. Yeah, they’re going to make it. Mhm. But I don’t like their chances going into San Diego at all. Going into San Diego. No. So, they got to hold them off. They got to start winning some games. They got to be at Wrigley. I think we can’t keep complaining about the Brewers until the Cubs win some games and put together. They’ve had they’ve had one good stretch since since early to mid June. That was that 5-1 home stand against Cleveland and the Cardinals. They’re five and five, by the way, now this year against the uh Cardinals. Well, I’m past the point of of checking the Brewer scores. Well, I’m checking it as a baseball fan just seeing like what’s happening here, right? Like, are they going to rattle? Are they going to get to 107? That That’s all. It’s like what’s happening? That’s all luck, right? Uh this would just wait and see what happens. You know, this would be a move to combat waiting and seeing what happens when you send a runner. Oo. I’ve never been a fan of stealing O. Yeah. Uh even in high school ball, uh it was too bad that John Birdie got thrown out in the ninth. O to her. Yeah, I would have loved I was safe, but you league baseball, that sort of thing is the wrong usage of replay, but it’s still to go on that% I was I was uncertain. First of all, the up missed the call. It’s not He didn’t call him out because he came off the bag. He thought he called He thought he got him out and he didn’t. Yeah, he beat him. The ball beat him. Yeah. Um, I just love in that spot using Nico’s contact ability. I would have loved to see birdie not worry about stealing the bag and just tell Nico, “Hey, just put this ball in play.” Uh, I would have loved to see it, especially 1021, but we don’t play that type of baseball. We did uh the other day against the Reds, Justin Turner got a huge hit, little hit and run 3-2, but we don’t believe in that type of baseball. We just wait and see. Uh, Imanaga’s start was encouraging from a VO perspective, pitch usage. Uh, I don’t know if he even hit a wall at the end. It was just a bad pitch or two. I think now he’s looked good two times in a row and then some. Uh, Colin Ray on a hot night Saturday, encouraging Matthew Boyd was hit around a bit on Friday in a in a shutout loss. Uh the Imanaga stuff is encouraging right at this point. I think so. I thought he pitched really well because he probably tipped against the socks. I think so. I I I think we’re maybe getting some intel on that. I think so. You could read between the lines on that. Yeah, he looked really good. He looked really good tonight. I mean, three runs, you you should be able to should be able to win that baseball game. I The biggest positive story right now is Matt Shaw and Kate Horton. Those two guys. Um, yeah, Shaw’s hitting 333 since the break. It’s been awesome. I I actually had like thought he was going to get a hit in the ninth. I I was first of all surprised they kept Romero in. And I thought he was going to get I genuinely thought he was going to get a hit. I really did. All right, let’s talk about Carter Hawkins. He had a a wildly inappropriate quote to Jesse Rogers of ESPN last week. And uh if you look at the similarities between Council Hoyer and Hawkins, uh I do think the latter needs to go this off season. We’re going to explain why right after this. Carter Hawkins was hired as general manager in October of 2021. hired by Jed Hoyer as Cubs general manager and his big line all these years, especially at the many Cub conventions, has been solving for wins. And uh talking to Jesse Rogers of ESPN last week, he said this quote, this is regards to the trade deadline. Quote, “It’s hard when you see other teams you’re competing with get really good players, but those aren’t decisions you’re making in the moment. their decisions you’re making over the course of the week and month. It takes some discipline, especially in a moment when you see things moving that way, but we were able to stick to our approach and felt really good about the additions we were able to make. Teams are trying to find that guy that can lock down the eighth or ninth inning, but that also cost a lot. That cost a lot of future wins. We have a responsibility of the 2025 Cubs and also the 2032 Cubs. Oh, I missed I I thought I missed it. That’s not always popular in the moment, but it’s decisions we have to make. Close quote. Sam, I I walked off. I walked off when you when you said it. You talk. Yeah, I walked off. I can’t listen. I’m in a separate tab when I usually read to the I walked off. I walked off. Sam, we found the person that is hurting the organization. I think I I believe it’s Carter Hawkins. Um he he’s not the right influence on the president of baseball ops and Jed Hoyer. Yeah. So this is I’m going to let you take this because um this is what I this is what I opened with. You you can’t have three dudes. He needs to go. You you can’t have they’re the same. They’re basically the same person. You can’t have three dudes that that have the same type of personality running your organization. You have to have you have to have good creative conflict um to say to push each other a and I just that when I saw that quote oh it’s sickening and council is signed for three more years after this Hoyer for five in 2032 I’ll be 65 years old well exactly and and Carter Hawkins I don’t know what his status was did he get extended two weeks ago, too, because if he did, that’s a problem and he needs to go. Well, but here’s the thing. Seriously, he should go just for the quote alone. But here’s the thing. The quote’s bad. Who cares what happens in seven years? The quote’s bad. The timing of the quote. The tone deafness of the quote Yeah. illustrates to me that he doesn’t get it. And and you’re right because Jed would never say something like that. No, Jed is is is more practical than that. For him to say that publicly, you know, after the deadline while this team continues, you know, you know, in two weeks there’ll be 12 out. It’s well, it’s reprehensible. You know who who doesn’t like to see that quote? I’ll tell you who. Tom Rickettts, Dansby Swanson, Justin Steel, uh uh uh Nicoer P. What? As a player, why would you get any reassurance from the person running the team you play for, one of the people running your the team that you play for that references a season seven years into the future? Well, Anthony Rizzo confirmed that on his uh podcast with Johnny Emanzel where he was talking about, this was before the deadline, how deflating it was some years when the Cubs didn’t get guys that they thought they could and what a lift was when you were the best team and then you went out and got the best guy. He talked about that and and and and so imagine what he would think going, “Wait, we’re on pace to win 95 wins. We got a chance. Oh, they’re worried about seven years from now. Is there anybody currently on the team that’s even contracted to be on the team seven years from now? No. I I I mean it is um that quote summarizes everything I was talking about in the beginning and summarizes my problem with the organization. It’s not a bad organization by the way. It’s not a bad one. It’s just it’s just it’s just one that feels like it’s being held back by that type of personality, that type of philosophy, that type of perspective. Even as a fan, boy, I gotta tell you, worrying about the I I gotta tell you, that’s one of the worst quotes I’ve ever heard in all my years of watching professional sports. For an executive while your team is has a chance to win a championship after a failed trade deadline to come out and say it’s also about a team seven years from now, I I mean, he I really genuinely think he should apologize. Yeah, I I I don’t think that’s a that’s a that’s that’s a reach. Uh uh someone definitely needs to follow up uh in the scrum, whether that’s at Ridley next time or wherever Carter Hawkins speaks again. He sometimes he does a hit on on the score or 1000. Yeah, I don’t listen to those much. They’re not really, you know, it’s not like listening to Don Rickles or or Eddie Murphy or uh uh Sebastian Maniscalo or, you know, any of the great, you know, entertainers. It’s it’s not it’s not must listen radio. Also, if you really want to zoom in on some of these these cats in the miners, do we have to? What about Owen Casey says that he’s going to be some great player in seven years? Because Carter Hawkins inferring, oh well, Casey by Eststeros, all these dudes, they’re they’re going to be part of the next great Cubs team. Do you have a crystal do you have a crystal ball? I do. It’s why I have trouble hearing about value for for deals. their shows at the deadline, Sam, that that a trade was made. They’d go, “Oh, what’ we give up for? Who cares? Who cares what you gave up? You’re trying to win now.” Well, well, first of all, excuse me for yelling. I Well, I’ve been yelling. I And folks, by the way, we want to we want this to work, you know, but but but when you’re when you’re doing this, you got to call it like it is. Yeah. I’m thrilled the Cubs are still going to make the playoffs. I’ll celebrate when they clinch. Of course they will. You don’t think I’m gonna be sit past paced in front of the TV? Maybe I’ll do a watch long that three g one of those three game series be the biggest game I’ve ever covered in my life. I also think I got my notebook out Sam Sunday night tonight and I manually did research about Boyd, Imanaga, and Horton uh in regards to a certain stat of the Cubs offense. Backing up my premise of if those guys are on, they really could beat anybody. I I did that. Why? Because I believe that. Yeah, that I don’t know. I don’t know if they could beat anybody when Kyle Tucker is one more homer than you and I do. Uh well, they they’re they’d have to beat someone one- nothing 2-1 3243, but fun fun. Um couple things just closing out to Hawkins. Well, I do think they could do it though. I do. Okay. I I think it might be delusional right now, but it’s not delusional. It’s not delusional. I want it to happen, too. Yeah. I I think that uh first of all, we do have a crystal ball and in 20 2032, I’m not sure Carter Hawkins is going to be the the general manager. Well, how do you know if there’s even going to be baseball in 2032? What if the sport goes away forever after this next season? Well, let’s let’s not say that. Well, I’m trying to be Yeah, I’m performing. Um that’s a bad thing. When Theo When Theo Epstein came in, what’s your opinion? When Theo Epstein came in in 200 uh uh for the 2012 season to run this, right, that was the first baseball season under him, right, to club to club this club. That was clearly in a rebuilding year or rebuilding time. He he had a three-year plan. He talked about three years, right? 12, 13, 14. He was very transparent. He was very transparent. The Cubs are out at the time. on pace to win like 93 94 games and our general manager is talking about seven years from now. It was mindboggling. I’ll never forget that. Too bad. I’ll never forget that. And and and I agree. If they if this season ends up let’s just put some facts or or not facts but support behind your your comment. If this season ends up with a oneanddone best of three wildcard loss, I do believe Carter Hawkins will be relieved of his duties unless he got extended with Jet. Uh over the weekend uh an article dropped on the show from the Northwest Herald. Shout out to Joe Aguilar who wrote the story. Uh Sam, we’re going to share a little bit about this. Amazing job by Joe. Um so what can we say about this? Well, first of all, the link to it is in this episode description. Would love if you checked it out. And yeah, it just uh it’s a little overwhelming um in a good way. Really appreciate the audience. This is now three times just in the last I don’t think it’s even been a month. Sam athletic survey seventh inning stretch by Chris Jacobs and now the Northwest Herald article that’s yeah Chris Jacobs you might see pretty soon really put the the the the the show into a it’s put the show into a new perspective and a in a a larger context for me and I do think the show has grown I mean obviously since July 5th 2022 but even just in the last four or five weeks and to had this article really telling our our origin story uh was really really cool and maybe we could have Joe on you know some point here too. Um but but what was your reaction when you when you read this? It’s very it was emotional for me. Yeah, I just thought it was really well written. Um, great writing and I really enjoyed it and and I I think about that stuff during times like these because, you know, we’re we’re very blessed to be able to cover this team and, you know, uh, uh, this is still greatest fan base on the planet. Yeah. Yeah. Crown Jewel franchise, right? Um, but it is it’s been Well, well, it is. Yeah, I know it is. I don’t care if they’re hitting 10 107 right now. They It is Well, I thought Joe tied Kyle Tucker in home runs since the end of uh Jude with with this article. It was a home run. It It was really well It was really well done and it speaks to you and I and our relationship and our chemistry and um Right. It’s a really good read and and and I’m glad that um I’m glad that things are going well and I just I I hope that um we can have a fun a fun close to this season. Yeah, one of the one of the larger reasons why this show has grown is is because of our friendship and uh really cool that the that the audience has has latched on to that uh as well. and we talked about athletic survey, seventh inning stretch, Northwest Herald article are on our next episode. We are scheduled to be joined by Chris Jacobs. Mhm. Shout out to Matt Cozy and Sam Olber, host of my favorite podcast, Locked on Cubs. Jacobs is going to join us for I think an entire episode. uh and he gave us that shout out last month and we’re going to learn more about him and he’s going to co-host with us for 30 minutes and that’s going to be uh that’s going to be really really cool. So looking forward to that. Sam, I know you’ve still been in touch with him and we have a lot of exciting things ahead this week and beyond. We’ll also preview Cubs Blue Jays. Uh oh. And uh we will not be giving our take on the kid umpire. This is part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day for your second listen. Check out the allnew locked on MLB game night every game every night all season long. Get local analysis on a national scale. Find MLB game night on the Locked on MLB channel on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast. He’s Sam Olber. I’m Matt Cozy. This locked on Cubs. Go Cubs.

The Cubs continue to underwhelm as they lose the series to the Cardinals, GM Carter Hawkins is a big problem for the organization, and much more. Here is the Northwest Herald article: https://www.shawlocal.com/sports/2025/08/09/how-two-suburban-guys-built-chicagos-favorite-cubs-podcast/

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-cubs/

Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More
🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/

#Cubs #ChicagoCubs