← Dan Bernstein Unfiltered
Dan Bernstein Unfiltered
Off The Ivy: A Chicago Cubs Podcast: CHICAGO CUBS OPENING DAY IS TOMORROW! PERFECT TIME FOR PCA'S EXTENSION
00:37:28
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- [00:01]
A
The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports right now. The NBA is heating up, March Madness is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I can follow the teams I care about, get real time, scores, breaking news and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment.
- [00:33]
B
Off the Ivy, a Chicago Cubs podcast with Dan Bernstein, Matt Abatacoa and cody delmendo on 312 sports.
- [00:45]
C
You want a Cubs podcast on 312 sports? You have one. And very excited to be here. Proud to be here for the very first episode of of off the Ivy, a Chicago Cubs podcast. I'm Dan Bernstein. That man is Cody Delmendo. Matt Abaticola obviously will be a part of this as well. He remains on vacation. So we are getting you started today. Are you excited? This is gonna be fun.
- [01:11]
B
This is really exciting. I can't believe Matt decided to go across the world and miss out on this, honestly.
- [01:18]
C
Hey, man, you know, if your family, if you got a family vacation planned, you take the family vacation. Not judging. No worries. Can't wait for Mat. His experience as a Cubs reporter, his experience as a lifelong Cubs fan to everything we're doing. And really as much as my question was are you excited about doing this pod? Are you excited about the fact that the season starts tomorrow and not just any season because it's been a while. It's been. And I can't believe it's the 10 year anniversary of that parade and walking around with that trophy, or as Rob Manfred would call it, a piece of metal. But just the fact that it's, it's been some time since there has been a consensus that the Cubs are definitely good and maybe great.
- [02:10]
B
Yeah, this is for me the most expectations or the biggest, highest expectations for this franchise since 2016. It's. There's plenty of reasons why it shouldn't have been 10 years. But we're here and, and I think Jed Hoyer has done a great job. If you go all the way back to the trade deadline of 2021 where he traded Anthony Rizzo, Chris Bryant, Javier Baez, a bunch of relievers and just completely stripped it down. And I remember going back to that time period that, you know, a lot, a lot of people were mad and I think rightfully so in some aspects. But to see where the franchises come from that day to now. In many ways Jed Hoyer deserves a lot of credit. Even though there are a lot of things that I've disagreed with the, the path to get here. There's, there's also a lot of credit he deserves and we'll, we're going to talk about some guys that, that have, that are the reason for that in this show. But it's, I don't want to say it's similar to the rebuild that Theo Epstein did. You know, 15 years, it's not close to that at all. But, but if there was like a poor man's version of it, perhaps this was it.
- [03:28]
C
I just, I don't think any GM can anticipate Covid and what that did and what that did to be like a Black Swan event is not something one can anticipate. And there were a couple things that soured me in the, the end of the era of the Epstein team era and not just that they didn't win another World Series but I didn't like the Udarvish trade the way it went down and we can reexamine it and you can look at whatever they got, you know the magic beans or lottery scratch off tickets they got back for that. But some of the clear sell off stuff was painful. I did not like the non tendering of Schwarber and like okay, here's Jock Peterson. We can easily replace this three true outcome left handed bad and that's just not a big deal. And unfortunately Schwaber is going to be a fringe hall of Famer when all is said and done and you let him go that easily. But however it's worked, however they have, they have figured some things out. They're here and the Craig Counsel move was as bold a managerial move as you're ever going to see. Maybe since Joe Madden, since all of a sudden Joe Madden had the out in his contract and like all right, we're going to go grab him. And I thought the logic was similar. This is really it now in a lot of ways. Here you go, Jed. Here you go, Craig. You want players, you got players. You want stuff around the fringes, fine. You want Alex Bregman, you want to have. And now with pca, he's not going into this season anything on his mind. He is free and easy right now. This guy is a cub until he's 30. So you sign that paper and you're. And now, now just go tighten up your game and go be a star.
- [05:19]
B
Yeah, I mean what I think it's he'll technically be a cup through 31.
- [05:24]
C
Sorry. Okay.
- [05:25]
B
But yeah, no, they, they have the way these contracts of their highest paid players are set up. I mean this is a, this should be a good five year window of like real, you want to call it World series contending or NL, NLCS contending. Whatever. The Cubs are entering 2026 as a at least a top three team in the National League in my opinion. And it should be that way even after this year based off who are the core pieces of this team.
- [05:58]
C
Let me look at just a brief scan of what the predictions are by machines and by people I trust. Here's what the computers say. Pakota has the Cubs essentially running away with the central. Pakota from Baseball Prospectus has the Cubs at 90.1 wins and 71.9 losses. So 90 and 72. And the next closest team is Milwaukee at 82 and 80. And this obviously can change, but this is what their computer spat out at fan graphs. The Cubs with only a one game advantage, 84 and 78 over interestingly Pittsburgh at 83 and 79. Yeah, that surprised me a little bit. And, and then Joe Sheehan himself who you heard on DBU. Joe Sheehan thinks the Cubs are the second best team in baseball and has them pegged for 95 wins. I don't know if this tracks with, with any of your feelings here. I don't. I'm not good at the prediction business. I do my, my DBU picks brought to you by my bookie and of some varying degrees of success. But look like I say, they're, they're clearly really good.
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B
Yeah, 95 wins for this team. I think if they get there then they'll have some guys exceed expectations that maybe were not for sure on right now. Maybe Matt Shaw is a four win player this year.
- [07:29]
C
I'll take the under on that right now.
- [07:32]
B
You know, whether Moises by Steros, whatever his role pans out to be. But if his bat is what the Cubs believe and what I believe, yeah, I could see them getting to 95 wins. To me the biggest question for this team in terms of you want to talk about a win total of 90 or more? 90. 90 or 91 sounds about right for me. But if they get to 95 then that means some of their young players exceeded expectations. Edward Cabrera put together another really good season after his breakout year last year at the Marlins.
- [08:05]
C
Right.
- [08:05]
B
Kate Horton is your ace. You know, like they're going to need some of those things to happen and I think there, there is reason for pushback on some of those things that I said and we're going to watch it play out. And so that's. I think, I think 95 is, is really optimistic and I'm an optimistic person. But I think realistically 90 to 92, same as last year for me. It's hard to think that this team's going to be even better than last year or significantly better than last year when you replace Kyle Tucker with Alex Bregman. And I have questions about Alex Bregman's offense at Wrigley Field going into the year. So we'll see. But if, if they are in that 95 to 100 win area, then there is, there are guys that really stuck out this year that maybe a lot of us had concerns or questions about.
- [08:57]
C
I am not generally an optimistic person. I wouldn't.
- [09:00]
B
You don't say.
- [09:03]
C
I wouldn't say I necessarily would default to that. But I also look at health and the ability for their depth to weather inevitable injuries. My God, did you see what happened with the Braves already?
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B
Yeah.
- [09:16]
C
Have their teams hard again. What is going on there? It's, it's, it's insane like that, that happens to teams and maybe the Cubs got their, their injury. You know, they, they sort of like I'm trying to, you know, the fact that Suzuki's already hurt in the wbc, it doesn't bother me all that much because then I'm not sitting around all year waiting, you know, someone's gonna get hurt. Someone's gonna get hurt. They got that out of the way.
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B
Yeah.
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C
It's like my, my great grandmother had this thing where. And I don't know, this is some family thing or from the old country where when, if they bought a new car, the first thing she would do is spit on it. She would always spit on a brand new car on the lot right before they, they paid the money. They drive it off. She'd spit on it and my, my dad would do that too. Wow. And I said why?
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B
Yeah.
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C
And he said because if, because something bad is going to happen, you might. He said, may, May the. May this be the worst thing that happens. It was like an old wives tale. Just it's inevitable. It's inevitable in your journeys. Something bad is going to happen. So let it, let me do it. Yeah, that makes sense.
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B
Yeah. So say Suzuki, you know.
- [10:27]
C
Yeah.
- [10:28]
B
Gets hurt.
- [10:28]
C
That's like spitting on the car. You know, it's not badly hurt. Or like my mom said when Jason got his driver's license, may your first car accident be not so terrible.
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B
Yeah.
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C
She didn't say don't get into an accident. She didn't say like may you never drive safe. She literally said may your first accident be not so terrible.
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B
I guess that's one way to look at it.
- [10:51]
C
Right. And that's, that's, that's, that's my mentality on this. So it's all right. So they got their little injury out of the way with Suzuki probably be fine.
- [10:58]
B
Yeah. I think, well, he's going to start the year on the injured list, but I also don't think it's going to be long. I think may, based off when it retroactively goes in, this is probably one thing you'll be better than me.
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C
But they could back date it, right? Yeah.
- [11:14]
B
What I was going to say is you're going to be better at the whole like roster maneuvering and stuff. I think, I think, don't presume. I'm just going to assume that you will be better at that than me. I am always like, I feel like in the last four years I have gradually gotten better at understanding how the roster maneuvering fully works. There's things I'm learning about it every year. It's, it's so confusing. But the point is, is based off what Craig Counsel said about say Suzuki and how they're treating it, the fact that he hasn't stopped doing baseball activities since he came back from Japan. Right. It has me feeling hopeful that this is a one or two week thing.
- [11:53]
C
I don't necessarily like any of the right field options right now.
- [11:59]
B
I really like join the club with most fans.
- [12:03]
C
So as we run them down, I don't know, is death an option here?
- [12:08]
B
Well, I don't think it's the worst in baseball, so I don't think death is an option or it needs to be an option. But listen, this is going to be an opportunity for Matt Shaw in my opinion. Um, I, I will be, I would be shocked if he doesn't get some full run here. But Dylan Carlson had a great spring. He's a switch hitter and he could be one of those guys that this would be a reliever. But maybe he's kind of like the version, the hit, the, the position player version of Brad Keller this year. Like maybe he could.
- [12:45]
C
That would be awesome.
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B
Right? That would, that's, that's, that's a, that's found money. That's an extreme, that's not really realistic. But I'm just using it as an ex example. You know, this guy was once a highly, not only a highly Touted prospect with the Cardinals, but also had success at the major league level the last couple years. Hasn't been there. Change of scenery with an organization that's winning. He's not coming into camp with expectations to be a core piece of the team. Could this be something for him to revive his career? And if he's in right field tomorrow, I won't be surprised if that happens either. And then you got Michael Conforto, who outside of last year could be an outlier year with the Dodgers, was objectively awful. But before last year he was a really good hitter and he definitely will serve the power he'll bring, the power that you're losing with Saya right now. But again, he's coming off a really bad year. Will he get back to some form of what the league is used to seeing from him? We'll see. But I, to me, they should go with Matt Shaw first because he's a first round pick. He is the young guy. He's. He is a guy who in the second half last year showed to be, you know, a promising piece and he was way better at third base than anyone expected him defensively. So I guess the question is tough.
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C
Yeah.
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B
Right. Especially at Wrigley.
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C
Yeah, it's tough anywhere just because of that throw. You have to make sure.
- [14:12]
B
So there's a lot of moving parts with this and I think there's. You have every right to have concerns and question about this without say out.
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C
Well, the, the thing about Shaw is if you're going to play a guy, you're talking major league outfield. It would not be unreasonable to just put him in left and say if it, if the, if it hits you in the face, it's a double. If it goes over your head, it's a double. That happens in right field, it's a triple. Yeah. There's so many. And that 90ft makes a big difference aggregately over time.
- [14:49]
B
So are you saying to put Happ and right.
- [14:51]
C
I'm just saying it's not unreasonable to ask Ian Hap if there's some serious issues out there. I know you got a gold Glover and left. You don't want to change two when you only have to change one. But right field is hard and important.
- [15:07]
B
The hardest position to play defensively. Wrigley Field, no doubt.
- [15:10]
C
Hardest. Yeah. Yeah, it probably is. And you know, we haven't even brought up and I haven't looked at this. This is something that I should do in the next couple days for, for off the Ivy is look up long term weather forecasts because I'm fixated on the weirdness of Wrigley and the wind patterns. So I, what I'm going to do is see, I check the weather every day for fishing purposes. So I'm, I am actually more knowledgeable about wind patterns and temperature, more about like lake temperature and all that. But Wrigley is two parks.
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B
Yeah.
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C
Wrigley is a wind in park and a wind out park. That is entirely different. And what happens with generalized wind patterns over the next six months is going to have a huge effect on the Cubs. Yeah. That's just a fact.
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B
Especially at home. Yeah. And.
- [16:02]
C
Well, that's. Yes, that's what I'm saying.
- [16:03]
B
Right. Just state the obvious. I will say this and it's, it's weird, but the last few seasons, we'll just say the last two seasons the wind has blown in a ton at Wrigley Field. That's why Kyle Tucker's numbers on the road last year were so much better than at home in terms of power. I think he only hit seven homers at Wrigley left. And he hit most of what he ended up hitting like what, 21, 22 homer. So he hit the rest on the road. Cody Bellinger had the same thing. That's why I wasn't really surprised that he went to Yankee Stadium and played in their Mickey Mouse ballpark with the short porch and hit almost 30 homers because the win factor wasn't a thing there.
- [16:39]
C
I was surprised.
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B
You were.
- [16:40]
C
I thought that his deterioration curve predicted less success in New York. That's just a fact. I, I play. I lost a bet where I thought I made a bet that Michael Bush would have a higher war than Cody Bellinger last year just because I'm a big believer in Michael Bush and I just. And maybe the wind had something to do with that as well. But I'm not going to blame it on that. So I ended up losing that bet. I was pretty sure that people were under appreciating Michael Bush and in some ways overestimating Cody Bellinger at this stage of his career. But he proved me wrong. So meanwhile we should mention too, Carlson was also a first round pick.
- [17:23]
B
Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like there's, there, there is upside with that play and he's a, I believe he was a minor league signing just like Brad Keller. If you go back to the point I was making earlier, it's just one of those. His situation, it's, it's different from a position player can compared to a reliever. Last year Brad Keller showed out in the spring training well enough to make the team and that's what Dylan Carlson has done this year. The problem is is if say A Suzuki didn't get hurt, I'm not, I'm not sure how the Cubs would have implemented him in so this has turned into an opportunity for him Potentially he's got 12 weeks to kind of force Craig Counsel to have to play him because based off production. So to me it is an opportunity for him but I don't have the numbers in front of me. But I believe last year his, he was a reverse splits guy I think or maybe you just hit better from the left side than he did the right side. But again because he's a switch hitter I think it gives an opportunity for him and Shaw to at least platoon and wherever they play Shaw in the outfield in this, during this time period without say, I don't really care. To me it's getting Shaw in the lineup because you need to find out is he going to replace Nico Horner after 2026. Probably don't resign him and you know like probably he is a guy that you have to, you have to learn more about and I think he, he took strides last year, terrible first half outside of defense with the batt. He was terrible second half again ops over.800 in second half and so you need to see that carry over this year from an offensive perspective the defense at least that third base was awesome. Can he be a utility Ben's over type this year? I guess we'll learn some guys can do it, some guys can't.
- [19:17]
C
Well look the defense that, that's the thing about the right field injury to say it say is no great shakes defensively either and probably a net negative defensively but that ends up being a bit of a drop because Kyle Tucker was a B level defender probably slightly above average on balance and I don't again I'm not looking at UZR150 in front of me right now and I want to say yeah and I want to say this too that we're going to use a lot of metrics here on off the Ivy but I'm, I'm not in our discussions. I'm going to do my best to not be just completely at the, at the behest of numbers. Numbers, numbers that if I need to check on something all the time and if I got them in front of me if there's a case I'm going to make, I'm going to use it but it's not necessarily. I don't want to get too bogged down talking baseball with necessarily having to cross check every thought I have over time. Obviously, I want to be right about stuff, and I want everything measured, and we're going to get all that. But I just think, for the purposes of discussion, I don't want to say, well, actually, I'm wrong about this one, and I have to go back and check this now because I think we can. We can get derailed here. But for the point being, this is a great defensive team, and it's why having a glaring hole right now in right field bothers me. I don't want all of the care that's been put into this defense undone by right field problems.
- [20:44]
B
Yeah, well, and I think you mentioned earlier the getting, say, his injury out of the way now being beneficial. Well, they have an easy schedule to start. I mean, they open against the Nationals tomorrow. The Nationals. And I think the Nationals are going to be bottom three in baseball this year.
- [21:00]
C
They're not Rockies bad, right?
- [21:01]
B
Yeah, it's hard to be Rockies bad.
- [21:03]
C
Bad.
- [21:04]
B
Right. But they. They're kind of in a. Like, they're rebuilding, but they shouldn't be rebuilding because they started rebuilding like, six years ago in it. And they are an example of how rebuilds don't always go well. I mean, they got a lot of talent in that Juan Soto trade, James Wood and C.J. abrams, and here they are, like, nowhere. You know what I mean? So they. They got a new gm.
- [21:28]
C
Well, I. I think Mike Rizzo did a lot of things well. I. It. To me, they failed in developing.
- [21:33]
B
Yeah. That they got Dylan anything.
- [21:36]
C
They got talent, and they just. I don't think. I think Mike Rizzo. It probably just was enough time after a while. Love the guy, but it was, you know, he. He. He did everything that seemed to make sense, and things just died on the vine, unfortunately.
- [21:52]
B
Yeah. So they open against the Nationals, and then they play the Angels. This the first two series of the year. They go on the road to Cleveland and Tampa Bay. I mean, Cleveland's a competitive team. Tampa Bay will always be competitive, even though it doesn't make sense. They're the brewers of the American League.
- [22:07]
C
Yeah. But Cleveland usually will play over projections.
- [22:11]
B
Yeah. So those. These first two series, you know, that. I think it. It sets the Cubs up in a very nice situation to where they can kind of experiment with how they want to do right field and still be able to win games at the same time, which, at the end of the day, that's all that matters. Here early on, I think that if, if this team's going to win a division in 2026, they, they got to continue to have good starts like they, like they did last year. And the big key will be holding on and, you know, getting past the brewers.
- [22:44]
C
Finally. Let's look at this at the PCA contract now that we have the details. And I kept waiting, thinking, what's the catch? What's the catch? It, my, my, my instinct looking at this is it is a very team friendly arrangement.
- [23:02]
B
Oh yeah, it is what, six years, 115 million and it starts in 2027 this year. I, I don't know exactly how much money he's making, but it's less than 5 million, which is just ridiculous when you, when you think about it. But yeah, I mean, well, you got him through age 31 and he's, he's the face of the franchise now this. And they did something that I think fans have wanted from a, for a long time for, for. You want to call him homegrown or not? I'll call him homegrown because when I traded for him like he had, he was drafted the year before and he spent most of it hurt with the Mets.
- [23:38]
C
Yeah, it was a child. Yeah.
- [23:40]
B
And he, and he started in, I remember when he was in low A at Myrtle Beach. So he, to me, he is a homegrown player for the Cubs based off where he started in the minors with them. But this, it was a long time coming for fans like me who have, you know, watched other teams get these kind of extensions done with some other teams, homegrown players. And you sit here wondering, like, why, why, why couldn't we do that? With certain guys, in hindsight, it was smart that they didn't do that with certain dudes. Javier Bias, for example. But at the same time is this, to me, this, this extension just, it sets PCA up to one day, if all things go right with his career. There could be a statue of him outside Wrigley Field.
- [24:24]
C
One. There we go. Let's talk statues.
- [24:27]
B
There it is. I am as big of a believer in this guy as any Cubs fan because hit the bare minimum bit, Dan, is that he will give you the best defense up the middle in center field in all of baseball outside of Sedan Rafaela for the Red Sox, he's going to be the best center fielder defensively and then he is one of the fastest players in baseball as well. So if he does find a way to get on base, he's going to steal 30 to 40 bags a year. Maybe even more than that, depending on how his season's going. Right. So at the bare minimum, this guy, if he's a league average bat a league average hitter, 100 WRC plus to go with that, he could still be four wins above replacement. So if he does hit 125 WRC.
- [25:18]
C
Yeah. Then you're talking to five and a half win players.
- [25:20]
B
Yeah. You know, it's so the, yeah, that's.
- [25:22]
C
That gets MVP votes and.
- [25:24]
B
Yeah.
- [25:25]
C
And just the highlights.
- [25:26]
B
Yes, that to go with that. Yeah. Like the fact that he has a personality that gravitates to, to, to Chicago sports fans. I know White Sox fans want to hate the guy, but deep down I know that they, they, they kind of like him.
- [25:39]
C
Well, you, you have to. I mean. Well, it's, it's funny because when, you know, I had the White Sox in the back of my mind when you were talking of some of these on the come contracts, when you look at the Tim Anderson contract and Eloy Jimenez contract and Luis Robert contract, there's like, oh, look at this.
- [25:57]
B
Yo Mankato, look at this.
- [25:59]
C
And the, but yeah, it's for the, the odds of all of them being bad are just, it's just incredibly bad luck. Yeah, it's not all bad Scouting. Some of it is, is bad development, some of it. I don't know what goes into it, but that was very unlikely to have everything like that go wrong for them. But I just think the statement it makes from the team, from the, from the ownership on down to say we get it, we see it, we see. We see what you're seeing. We don't want this to go either. This is too valuable to us, this, this whole thing. I think it says that there, that there is that kind of commitment. Let me read you a paragraph here that I absolutely love about PCA that is written by Michael Bauman of fangraphs. He said, I once wrote that the young Fernando Tatis Jr. Made a lot of mistakes on the field, not from a lack of concentration or effort. He played like he was testing the boundaries of the sport, as if he believed limits were for other people. Pete Crow Armstrong plays that way too. And when a player like that falls into your lap, you do whatever it takes to keep him around. That's cool to think about it that way, but man's got to draw more walks.
- [27:19]
B
I agree. I said everything about the statue and everything, but that doesn't mean that he still doesn't have things to improve on. What gives me excitement is, I don't know if you Realize this, but Today he turned 24. He's 24 years old.
- [27:33]
C
Happy birthday.
- [27:34]
B
And he was a 30. 30 player last year.
- [27:37]
C
Yeah.
- [27:37]
B
You know what I mean? And yeah, he struggled for two months at the end of the year. Right. He had some nice playoff moments. He had some big hits against the Padres and I think even in the Brewer series, he had some, you know, he added some big hits. But the point is, is that when you talk about a ceiling for, for a guy like him, it. To me, if there's anyone who's going to challenge Shohei Ohtani for MVP in the National League, it's Pete Cormstrong because he is so toolsy. He can do it all except pitch.
- [28:09]
C
It reminds me of during, during the Mike Trout peak when the moment he walks on the field, he begins accruing wins above replacement.
- [28:19]
B
Yeah.
- [28:20]
C
You know your baseline of war, when you're that good a defender and that good a baserunner, those things don't slump and you start looking at how value is accrued and you're just so far ahead of the game when we haven't even started talking about hitting yet and you're already that much more valuable than a replacement player like that. That's how the numbers add up for great players.
- [28:47]
B
Yeah.
- [28:47]
C
And that's what he's got that we haven't seen around here in a long time. And the fact that center field also allows you to be that isolated in your athleticism and you can really see it happen. We heard Joe Sheehan a couple days ago on dbu compare him to Devon White.
- [29:08]
B
Wow. Okay.
- [29:10]
C
Devon White was a predator out there.
- [29:12]
B
Yeah.
- [29:13]
C
That was like watching, you know, a wide receiver. You know, the way he would move, the angles that he would take, the speed at which he would. He would, you know, gear up when, when going after something. And what did Theo always calls it? And this is part of Albert Almora's problem. He called making the play at the farthest edges of your range. Can you, when you are running as fast as you can, make those little glove adjustments to secure the catch, then pop up and throw to the right base? You know that little things like that that PCA can do that is just like that gives you chills sometimes.
- [29:56]
B
I think this is from Statcast Baseball Savant last year, 19 five star catches. And if you don't know what that means, I believe it's a probability catch. Probability of what, 0 to 5% or something?
- [30:11]
C
I think that's right. Yes.
- [30:13]
B
I'm not like the biggest like stat cast nerd, but once I learned what that stat meant in to see PCA just blow past everyone in the league like he, he compiled more than what some teams compiled total.
- [30:29]
C
That's amazing, right? That I actually didn't know that.
- [30:32]
B
To me, that is a. The, the biggest thing I can use to describe his defense without just pointing out the fact that he led baseball and outs above average and defensive run saved. You know, the, the. The ability to just go wherever in, in in center field and have the ability to at least have a chance to make the catch with some of the things that he did last year. It's. It's truly something that I at the very least, if you're still concerned or have questions about PCA as a player, do not take for granted the kind of defender he is. It's truly special.
- [31:17]
C
Before we finish up, opening day is tomorrow. I want to mention that 312 Sports is going to be at the Cubby bear starting around 9:00 clock up until game time. That we're going to be there with the drive with Tingle and Janda and Tim Virgin. The 312 sports is going to take everything over the Cubby Berry. Just come hang out. We're giving away things they're giving away. We've got Cubs tickets, concert tickets to Sticks in Santana and Black Crows. Every half an hour we're going to have giveaways there. We got some 312 sports swag, so definitely come and grab some of that. We'll also be on. We're not going to be. We're going to do after the game tomorrow. Right. We're going to do our episode of off. The Ivy is going to be a quick react to what we saw, what we're taking in and maybe we'll get some more moments we can add to opening day memories. You know, you're only like 22 years old, so 34. I don't know.
- [32:12]
B
I like to feel like I'm 22 sometimes.
- [32:14]
C
Well, I just. My, my opening day memories are a little different. Especially, you know, home openers. What. What stands out to you as a Cub fan?
- [32:21]
B
I mean, I think anyone in my age group, so a millennial. It's. It's so Cub. But. And I say that because it ended in a loss.
- [32:31]
C
Let me. Oh no. So it wasn't the Fukudome three run home.
- [32:34]
B
Yes. Oh, it is. It is. Yes. That is my favorite opening day moment.
- [32:38]
C
I and all the idiots in the
- [32:40]
B
racist headbands going, I was What? That was 2008. So I was a junior or senior in high school. Yeah, I was. So is April 2008. Yeah, I was a. I think I was a senior. Yeah. Or no, I was. It was a. I was a junior because.
- [32:58]
C
Yeah.
- [32:58]
B
Yeah, junior in high school. Yeah, I remember that. Times were different, but that moment, it's. It's something that I always think about. I love when I'm on social media and I'm scrolling and we're close around this time period and it just comes up on my timeline because it's just. There's something about it. Even though the Cubs lost that game, that was one of the coolest opening day moments. And yeah, it wasn't even just that moment. It was that his game. He had like six RBIs in that game.
- [33:28]
C
Well, I remember Corey Patterson having seven RBIs in an opener. I remember obviously the tuffy roads, three home runs that, that went off and I covered. April 1, 1996 was my second year at the score and I was covering that game. The home opener. Opening day 96, Cubs and Padres. It was freezing. I don't even think it hit 40 degrees. And Mark Grace ended up winning it with a walk off hit. And it was the very first game for a then 40 year old Pat Hughes. Wow. As the voice of the Cubs. Wow.
- [34:13]
B
Yeah, that's. That's one for you.
- [34:16]
C
I mean, I remember that I was. And I was like, it's cold in here now. I got to go and I got to sit here and I'm freezing and trying to make sure I was in.
- [34:23]
B
Can you believe it's going to be 70 degrees tomorrow?
- [34:27]
C
Yes, I believe anything right now because the weather is completely up beyond all recognition.
- [34:32]
B
I just don't remember the last time it was 70 degrees on opening day at Wrigley Field. It's like part of the culture in a way at this point. Like the amount of opening day games at Wrigley where it's cloudy, gloomy or overcast and everyone is wearing a beanie and like layered up. But it's opening day and we're just putting all that to the side because baseball is back tomorrow. We get to do that. While also like just. We could wear shorts to Wrigley tomorrow.
- [35:00]
C
Shout out to CPS baseball parents too, to anybody who's been through a Chicago public school's high school baseball career as a parent. I don't know if you've got your like ice fishing plastic bubbles or your little shots of fireball that you got in your back pockets, but whatever it takes. It seems like the Cubs, Cubs fans are not going to need that but we will be with you once again after the game, after we have a result tomorrow. But welcome. And I know you hear this about podcasts before you tell me what you say. So you subscribe.
- [35:35]
B
Subscribe.
- [35:36]
C
Tell me all the things I'm supposed to say.
- [35:37]
B
You should subscribe. Leave us a 5 star rating if you're listening on the audio feed. A nice review. Only you can leave here.
- [35:47]
C
Also, don't punish Cody because you hate me. Seriously, like, don't punish this. This guy's worked his way to this point, and those are Bernstein sucks. Why would you say Bernstein let, you know, Judge it on its own merits. We're going into this thing to try to be, you know, this, this little, you know, one stop habitual listen. For you, the Cub fan, this, this dude is the kind of the heart and soul right now because all the hard work that he's put in to covering this team. Don't punish him because he's sitting next to me. Stupid bastards.
- [36:19]
B
Well, I just want to say too, though, that it's. I said this on DBU yesterday. It really is special to be able to sit here and just chop it up with you.
- [36:29]
C
Stop. It's gonna be fun. You're. No, this is. You're. You're the Cubs guy. Believe me, I'm. I'm. I'm here to drive it around a little bit, have some fun and maybe. Maybe be able to figure out some. Some fan graphs and some baseball reference and some stat cast and base as needed. But I'm. I'm so excited about this. Yeah, I really am.
- [36:47]
B
And I'm excited for Matt to come back because, yes, he covered the Cubs as a beat guy and. And obviously is. Is a fan like me as well. So Dan's gonna be our point guard. Me and Matt will be the guys on the. On the wing jacking up threes.
- [37:02]
C
That's right.
- [37:03]
B
And now I guess our. Our threes are me saying that PCA is the only guy competing with Shohei Ohtani for mvp and he could have a statue.
- [37:10]
C
Got a damn stat statue built for that, man. This man's out there with a hammer and a chisel working on a block of marble out there. I like it. All right, that's going to do it today.
- [37:21]
B
We're done. What? What, the YouTube channel as well?
- [37:24]
C
Yes, YouTube channel.
- [37:25]
B
Subscribe the YouTube channel off the Ivy. And if you're already subscribed, thank you for following along with me on this journey. We made it to this point, so go ahead, Dan.
- [37:35]
C
All right. That is off the Ivy. Make it a habit if you are a Cub and baseball f. I'm Dan Bernstein, that's Cody Delmendo and this is 312 sports off the ivy, a Chicago
- [37:51]
B
Cubs podcast with Dan Bernstein, Matt Abaticoa and Cody Delmendo on 312 Sports
- [38:00]
D
at Grocery Outlet, your extreme value headquarters, we're making it easy to serve up a feast while keeping your wallet happy, too. Right now through April 5th, delicious bone in spiral sliced ham is only 67 cents per pound with a minimum purchase of $50. Host Big On a budget with ham and all your favorite sides at Grocery Outlet. This deal is only available until April 5th while supplies last. Hurry to your local grocery outlet today. Restrictions apply. See store for details.
- [38:26]
B
Grocery Outlet Bargain Market I'm here on
- [38:30]
E
the job site with Dale, who's a framing contractor.
- [38:33]
C
Hey, good morning.
- [38:33]
E
Dale traded up to Geico Commercial Auto Insurance for all his business vehicles. We're here where he needs his most.
- [38:39]
C
Yep, they sure are.
- [38:40]
E
We make it easy for him to save on all his insurance needs all in one place with coverage that fits his business and bottom line. Oh, I shouldn't have looked down.
- [38:48]
C
It's all right.
- [38:49]
E
We're so far up here.
- [38:51]
C
Look at me. Take a deep breath.
- [38:52]
E
I'm good. So good.
- [38:54]
C
Get a commercial auto insurance quote today@geico.com and see how much you could save.
- [38:58]
B
It feels good to Geico.