Kap & J. Hood

7/23 7 AM: Connor McKnight

Hour 1: Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer spoke to the media yesterday and from the sounds of it he's looking a 2025. Has Hoyer thrown in the towel this season? Do you trust Jed to lead the future of the Cubs? The Cubs are 49-53, will they make or miss the playoffs? ESPN White Sox Pre & Post game host Connor McKnight joined Kap & J. Hood with the latest updates on the White Sox.

Duration:: 45m
Broadcast on:: 23 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

(crunching) - Chicago. - This is your morning routine. - Listen to respect my name. - Cap and G hood. - That's right, that's right, we're bad. - Uh-uh. - Watch the show on Twitch. Follow ESPN 1000 Chicago. - Stream the show on the ESPN Chicago app. And on in there. - 100.3 HD2. And on ESPN 1000 Chicago. Now, no, no, no. David Kaplan and Jonathan Hood. - Good morning everyone. - Bring 'em out, bring 'em out. Woo! ♪ Bring 'em out, bring 'em out ♪ ♪ Bring 'em out, bring 'em out ♪ ♪ Bring 'em out, bring 'em out ♪ ♪ Bring 'em out, bring 'em out ♪ ♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪ - Oh. Welcome in to the Cap and G hood morning show. On ESPN 1000, and we're streaming on the ESPN Chicago app. With David Kaplan, Jonathan Hood with you. We've got Shay, we've got Jay Moore, we got you. We're at three hour ride on this Tuesday morning with open phone lines for you. 3-1-2-3-2-3-7-7-6 is our telephone number. And Cap, we were waiting to find out what the president of operations for the Chicago Cubs, Jed Hoyer had to say to the press before the game. We were wondering what he was gonna say. Listen, you wake up this morning, the Cubs with a victory against Milwaukee. They're 49 and 53. They are nine games behind in the central three and a half games behind in the wildcard because Cincinnati won yesterday. And again, I feel like what we're talking about with the Cubs lately is like what we talked about last year. In that, the Cubs are not in first place, the Cubs are not a real contender, and they're just trying to survive between now and the trade deadline and try to determine who they are. And I feel like at 49 and 53, we know who they are. We've been waiting for a run like we saw in April, early in the season cap. And it just hasn't come. But Jed had a lot of things to say yesterday. - He did. He said a lot about how he doesn't wanna be the story because there's discussion about his security with one year left on his contract and about adding on for this year as opposed to an eye on the future. He talked about the health of the organization, which I actually have told you this many times. I think they're in a fairly healthy spot long term because they have a top three farm system. But I still don't see a superstar down there. Like when they first got here with Theo, you knew Chris Bryant was gonna be a star. Rizzo had emerged as a star. Baez had started to emerge. Addison Russell started to emerge. Schwarber started to emerge. Like you had a lot of guys that you thought were gonna be really good baseball players. I have no idea if Owen Casey down in the minors is gonna be good. I don't know if he's gonna be a star. They don't have a star on their major league team, which I find offensive. How you, I don't, I would just like to know a couple of things. How the hell do you spend $227.6 million? Not have one star. There is not a star on that team of the position players. Justin Steele's a beast. Please explain to me how you spend that much money and for the second straight year you enter a season without a closer. And don't you dare tell me. I don't mean you. I mean you people at 1060 West Addison, that Adbert Alzilai was your closer and he got hurt. 'Cause he's not good enough. So if you true, Jen said yesterday you heard him. I'm actually surprised we're in this position. I did not think we'd be in this position. You entered the season without a legitimate closer, without a great bullpen. To his credit he keeps tinkering and I have the numbers here of what this bullpen has been over the last 21 games, a 1-1-3 ERA over 72 innings, 70 strikeouts, 20 walks, two homers, 18 inherited runners, none have scored. That's number one in baseball. Great, you have 18 blown saves. If you saved half of them, your dead-ass team would be adding on 'cause you'd be right there for first. So it infuriates me that I invest my heart, invest my time, I'm a Cubs fan, I'm a die-hard in addition to what we do for a living. And it just frosted me that you short-circuited that team. Last year you didn't add on when you kept everyone together. If you truly didn't think you were gonna get there, then you should have resisted the noise and traded Ballinger and whoever else. You didn't. Say you half-assed it, you fell a game short. Now this year, again, the definition of insanity, Jonathan, is watching the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Kisses me off. - Some thoughts from Jad Hora yesterday meeting the press. - Yeah, well I was gonna say I think the next seven games, you know, obviously it mattered. Certainly we saw what can happen last year. So you sort of never, firmly put your feet, you know, a plant your feet, you know, you have to be able to be nimble. But I think where we are right now, I would say that, you know, moves only for 24, I think, unless things change over the next week, I think we probably won't do a lot of moves that only help us, you know, for this year. If moves help us, you know, in 25 and beyond, I think we're still exceptionally well positioned. I think that's what our focus will be, but like just helping in 24, I think that probably won't be our focus unless things change dramatically. - So we asked the question yesterday, whether or not you buy, sell, or stand pat. Well, that certainly didn't sound like buy. Didn't quite sound like sell. You know what it sounded like? It sounded like the rippling of the white flag. That's what it sounded like. - Yes. - That's what it sounded like. And by the way, that's the last thing a fan wants to hear is that when you're waving the white flag, yeah, unless there's something spectacular is gonna happen, we're just gonna be who we are. That's good enough. Another year of a non-play-off scenario. Let me just tell you something, Cap. Just think about the years that we saw the Cubs in the playoffs. Even going back to when you were a kid in '69 to '84, to the lucky team of Zimmer, for the boys of Zimmer in '89, to what you saw in the late '90s, to the run to the championship for the Cubs. Every one of those teams had a difference maker or multiple stars on it. - Correct. - Just think about it. Think about all the teams that you saw that were contenders, that were in the playoffs. Every one of them had a difference maker or star. What about this ball club? - Nothing. - But it's got the most payroll that you've ever seen, that you've ever seen that's trying to contend. We've seen higher payrolls from the Cubs, yes. We have seen them, right? Slightly. - Slightly. - But I guess the overarching point I'm trying to make is is that when you spend that kind of money, it's not about the amount of money you spend. Who are you spending it on? Like I like, I like Shoda. Who doesn't like Shoda Imanaga? - Good player. - Who doesn't like Suzuki as far as the future, the steel guys like that. But again, when you have a lineup and you outlined it yesterday, I wanna just bring it back to what you said yesterday. You know, five through nine, the Cubs don't scare anybody. Nobody. One through five, okay, look out now. But even those guys have slumped. But when you look at the lineup, just from the numbers standpoint, five through nine, you're like, oh, that's the easy walk in the park. Just think about it. But that's what you're spending your money on. That kind of offense were five through nine in that lineup almost on a daily basis. Ah, there's be Swanson's in there, no problem. You have to play master bony, no problem. That's what you have. But yet, it's the worst catching situation that I can remember with the Cubs, quite frankly. - You're starting. - So. - You are starting a third baseman in Miles master bony who wouldn't start on any serious team in baseball. - That's correct. - Nobody. You wanna have him as a depth piece and he comes in on the ninth, whatever. He's your starting third baseman a lot. I mean, come on. You look at the Braves and look at the Dodgers. Those are serious teams. The Dodgers are gonna come at you with Otani, Mookie Betts and Freddy Freeman. - Oh, yeah. Every night. - Every night. Guess what? We're gonna come at you with Niko Horner. He's okay, nice player. He's okay. Michael Bush, nice player. - Yeah. - And Suzuki. I don't see a Freddy Freeman. I don't see a Shohei Otani or a Mookie Betts. Okay, they're at a different level. They defer to a bunch of money, so it skews their payroll. But they're the best. I get it. Okay, how about the Atlanta Braves? Matt Olson, Aussie albies, Austin Riley. I mean, Akuna, Ozuna, Arcea. I mean, come on, man. Sean Murphy. - Yeah, you take a deep breath if you're the opposition, right? You're in the other dugout like, okay, there's just no let up. We got a pitch to him now. We got a pitch to him now. When you see the Chicago Cubs coming, and this is no shot at Talkman, but that's a guy that's not gonna kill you. Dansby Swanson, Master Boney, Amaya, Pete Crow Armstrong. That's the whole problem, Cap. Again, the positive that you just laid out, and I saw the same thing from Campka as well on Twitter, of how the bullpen has turned the corner here. - They haven't had enough credit for that. - Starters have always been pretty solid, but you can't win in this league, man, hitting like that. Man, you scratched out three runs and you beat the Brewers, the first place team yesterday, but you're not the net Yoast Royals. Well, you're gonna button sacrifice your way to wins. You're not that. And especially with that payroll, you can't win games two to one every night. - So let me ask you a question. If you're Tom Ricketts and the season ends and you're not in the playoffs and you don't add on, and you call Jeddon Carter in for their meeting. Okay, guys, what's the plan here? How is this getting fixed? 'Cause I'm not extending their contracts. I can promise you that. They haven't earned it. This isn't about nice guy he is. It isn't about eloquent he is. Guess what? This is a results-based business and you have failed. This is Chicago Freakin' Illinois, one of the top four markets in sports. New York, Boston, Philly, Chicago. And guess what? You don't have a star. You spent a fortune in money. Please explain to me how you're fixing this thing. You got over 80 million coming off the books. How are you fixing this thing? Because if we're sitting here next year going, "Well, we're just another year away." No! No! You are paid to win championships and to contend for them. You are doing neither. You are a middling Kansas city, small market, Minneapolis, Detroit style club. And that's offensive. - There's no question about that. It's not about it. I would just ask, since the Cubs are just gonna stand still, based on what Jed said yesterday, Cap, it sounds like the Cubs are gonna stand still. So then, what are you gonna do in the off season? Because now you're going back to, what, 2018, 2019, in which, well, we like our core. We're not gonna make any changes. What changes are core? Well, I'm just saying. I'm just saying, if you're gonna stand Pat, you're not gonna buy, you're not gonna sell. That means you like the players that you have. Those guys still under contract. They're still professionals. But then you're waiting for a breakthrough that's not there. You're starting pitching is good enough. Yeah, you gotta do something with your bullpen again, next season, no doubt. You still need a real closer. Where are you getting one? I'm just saying. Like, when you stand still and you wave the white flag, then what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? That's the question I have for you. I don't know how that question gets answered satisfactorily to Mr. Ricketts, to Tom. There you go, Nick. How do you answer that question? Well, here's our plan and here's how we're gonna fix it. Why should I believe that that team is gonna be that much better next year? That's- Give me a reason. That's it. That's what I mean. If you're not going to pair back, like some teams would do. Some teams would take a step back to take two steps forward the following year. There was a guy out there as a closer who was available. His name is Josh Hader. He pitched for counsel. Now, unless Craig told Jed, no, I don't want him. He's not good enough. You're cheaped out. Because I'm looking at his numbers, he started slow. And now, he's got a 0.98 whip. He's three and five with 20 saves. You think he might have been a better decision than Hector Neris or Adbert Alzali. Your damn right he would have been. So I want someone to tell me if we have our quote unquote exit meetings at the end of the year, I gave you $230 million. Please explain to me how you are going to take 80 million in available money. I pulled up their payroll for this year. Coming off the books, 16, five to Kyle Hendricks. He earned it. It was a long-term deal, okay? Drew Smiley, 10 and a half. That's offensive. That guy gets that much money. He was fine last night. He did a nice job. 10 and a half million? Come on. That's 27 million. You got nine from Neris coming off. That's 36 million. You got five and a half from David Bodie. That's 41 and a half million. 2.7 on wisdom. That's 44 million. Two million from Talkman. That's 46 million. You got five more million coming up the books that you had to give Hayward this year as his buyout 'cause the insane contract wasn't enough. And then you got money coming off. Alzali mixed to one. Now, Monte makes 1.9 retained payroll. Seven million, Trey Mancini. Six million, Jan Goames. 3.2 for Tucker freaking Barnhart. I mean, what the? That's 80 million bucks, man. Off the books, right? Yeah. So explain to me, Jed, you're Tom. You're Jed. Explain to me, I'm Tom Ricketts. How is this getting fixed? Because I am not going to go through another year where we don't play at the level we're supposed to play at. You know, you're gonna fill those slots with the same type of ancillary players you just laid out there, right? The backups. You're gonna fill those slots with trying to figure out like the next Talkman that can fill in and you'd be a fourth outfielder for your fifth outfielder for you. Or they'll re-sign them. Maybe, yeah, possibly. I'm just saying, like, those are, with that money, you got to fill the bill and the roster. The next David Bodie, two catchers. Like, that's what it is, but here's the thing. None of that money is going towards like this big fish and free agency. That money will be used to be able to fill out the rest of the roster. Think about it. You're gonna spend that money, like, you're 80 off the books, but you're gonna spend another how much to be able to fill out the rest of the roster. If we had a press card for it. You understand my question? Like, like, how do you fill out the rest? It's gonna be scrap, you guys, second shelf guys. All right, we got our core, but we need to fill out the rest of the roster. - Okay, so explain to me why you wouldn't be, okay, let me say this. If I was the owner of the team, I would have a press conference. Once the trade deadline passed and we did nothing, and it was evident we weren't going to the playoffs. I'm barring getting into a run. How would I handle that press conference? I'll tell you how I'd handle the press conference. - Yeah. - Get the press together. I'm gonna talk. What we watched this year is unacceptable. We gave Jed Hoyer a lot of money. We believe in him, we're giving him his final year or firing him, whatever I would do. But I'm saying what I think they're gonna do. It is unacceptable to this great fan base that this team played as poorly as it did. So this off season, we will leave no stone unturned to fix this roster. Whatever the cost is, we are going to be aggressive. And if that doesn't work out, Jed is in the final year of his deal. Again, the family likes him, he's a really good guy, but this is about the win business, not the friend business. If we do not see significant improvement in this team, I will not hesitate to make changes. Sweeping changes, period. Because I've watched enough. We are not gonna rebuild again. We have been lousy for a while. And this city does not deserve that from this massive fan base that jams our ballpark. We had 120,000 over the weekend. 120,000 to watch you lose two or three to a crappy Arizona team. Enough. Put your freaking foot down and go, that's it, period. I'm not gonna watch it. I wanna hear somebody talk like the owner of the Golden State Warriors. We're about winning championships, period. I don't care what the rules are. I don't care what the restrictions are. That's our job, figure it out. Or I'll find someone who will. - 3-1-2-3-3-2-E-S-P-N, 3-3-2-3-7-7-6 is our telephone number. There are several questions on the table, but number one, do you trust Jed Hoyer to lead the future of the Chicago Cubs? Well, if you miss Jed, we'll play it for you again, but we're talking about the Cubs. Cubs defeat Milwaukee yesterday by a score of 3-1, but the point is, is that you're getting closer and closer to the deadline, and it seems like you could hear in the distance the rippling, the sound effect of the white flag in the distance for the Chicago Cubs team. Cap and Jay Hood, weekday warning, 7-10. - This is Cap and Jay Hood. They be in the traffic commute, so you don't have to. - I say, no, say again, say something. Oh! - On ESPN Chicago. - It's a Cap and Jay Hood Morning Show. On ESPN 1,000, and we are streaming on the ESPN Chicago app. Here's hoping that you're gonna have a great Tuesday. Right here on ESPN 1,000. Cap, how long has Jed Hoyer been in the job since Theo left? - Well, Theo left right after the pandemic. I think it was fall of 20 with Theo left. - Okay. I think that anytime that you're underachieving as an organization, because the bottom line, especially in the big market, is to be able to win a championship. If you feel like you're far away from a championship, now one of these lucky things where you just happen to strike you at the right time like Arizona, and win a championship that way, Texas Rangers spent enough money to embody themselves, a World Series championship. - Cap, if you're far away, if you are Jed Hoyer, you have to worry about whether or not you're going to be around. Seriously, I don't care that he was part of the championship team. Times have changed. Tom Ricketts has put out enough money for you to be able to at least contend. I can't say that he put out enough money to be able to win a World Series. But what I would say if I was a Cup fan is, I just wanna be in the mix, and then you never know what's gonna happen. And I just think that when you spend as much money as the Cubs have, and you are usually in last place, you're a non-play-off team, I'm not sure that Jed has the stomach to be able to lead the future for the Chicago Cubs. When he talks about 2025 and turning the page, I thought he was pretty mature. We came in the building talking about this this morning, Cap, like I wouldn't have said that in Open Mike. With my back against the wall at Wrigley Field. I don't know if I would have said that. He pretty much said, you know, we'll see what happens. He's disappointed in the way the ball club's playing, but you can have a resurgence. We've been waiting for it. But what you just told everybody, the press and the fans like, yeah, we're good. We're done here. We're not adding on, and we're not selling off any parts. So what are you? How are you defining Cubs baseball that way? That guys, he's gonna be leading the future of the Chicago Cubs. What have you done lately? Not much. So that's why I said to you that I looked at it and went, okay, if I'm the owner and I sit my guy down and I say, Jed, I appreciate everything you've done. You got one year left on your deal. How are you fixing this? How are you fixing it? Are they gonna sign one Soto? Why would one Soto leave New York? He loves it there. It's not as though you can outbid the Yankees by a billion dollars. Okay, if the Yankees offer him 400 and you go to 410, he's gonna go, I'll stay in New York. Where are you getting a star from? They believe it's on the roster. And I would say to Jed, I think you are what you are. You got Jeff Blousard in the dance week Swanson deal. You kind of did because the thought was, dance be Swanson's no longer gonna be with the Atlanta Braves, a class organization. Then what's wrong with dance be Swanson? Right? Well, I guess you could hide in that lineup of hairy, chested sluggers and just be a good glove man. Look, here's the thing. I'm not bashing dance be Swanson because these are all professionals, Cap. They all have something that they can bring to the table. Pete Crow Armstrong's fast. Mya can be able to call a game. Dance be Swanson is a dandy little glove man. Talkman has made some big catches in the outfield. But again, it's more than just that. It's gotta be more than one tool. It's gotta be more than two tools if you're trying to really contend. Make sense? It does, but explain to me how no one's able to do that. How is Jed going to fix this thing? Because if I'm the owner, you know, like Sean sends a tweet. Ricketts is just another version of Ryan's door. As long as the money and profits come in, that's all he cares about. That's not true. That's a stupid tweet, Sean. Yeah, that's actually not true. They're spending $227.6 million. They, oh, a manager's available? Here's another 40 million. Make them the highest paid manager in the game. What Sean does not know and far be it to me just to defend the Cubs. Well, what I'm saying is that Sean Ricketts is actually closer to you than what you know. He's a fan too. He just has money, right? He's a businessman, sure. But he's a fan too, he's a fan first. Now Jerry, the other way, that's a different story. Jerry's businessman first. He loves baseball, but Tom's a fan. And again, first, do I think they could spend more? Absolutely. The fact that you rebuilt twice in a 10-year span, that falls at Tom's feet. And I think that's ridiculous. For you, Mr. Jed Hoyer yesterday with the press. Yeah, well, I was going to say I think the next seven games, obviously it mattered. Certainly we saw what can happen last year. So you sort of never formally put your feet, a plant your feet. You know, you have to be able to be nimble. But I think where we are right now, I would say that, you know, moves only for 24, I think in less things, in less things change over the next week, I think we probably won't do a lot of moves that only help us. You know, for this year, if moves help us, you know, in 25 and beyond, I think we're still exceptionally well positioned. I think that's what our focus will be. But like, just helping in 24, I think that probably won't be our focus unless things change dramatically. So that was a statement yesterday. And what does change dramatically mean? So if you swept the brewers, and then you get a day off, and then you swept the royals, the trade deadlines here, next week from today. Yeah. OK, let's assume you won seven in a row. I think you're in Cincinnati next week. If you won seven in a row, now all of a sudden, you're going to push your chips in the middle. No. No. Shea said yesterday that maybe the narrative would be different if the Cubs would have won the series against Arizona. You didn't say that, Shea. Yeah, if they would have swept them. Well, if they would have swept them, definitely. But even if they just win that series, I think there'd be a little bit of a different narrative, especially coming off of a win last night against Milwaukee. One game. That's how bad organizations stay bad. Well, bad organizations also stay bad by half-assed buying when they shouldn't like they did a year ago, or by not going into the tax when you have a team you can win with like they did this year. You keep talking about their eighth and payroll. Oh, you said they have a team they can win with? Did they not? In the preseason, they had opportunities to go in the tax. We thought this was a team that could win the division. They declined. They took themselves out of multiple free-- And thank God they didn't sign that. They didn't sign that in Jordan Montgomery, who both have had bad years. I'm just making the point to you. They aren't in the tax. You keep re-mentioning top 10 and payroll. Well, they're the only top 10 team in payroll that's not in the luxury tax. They're the only one. They're-- 23 of the 227.6, whatever it is, is being spent on players who aren't here, or buying out declined options from Cody Bellinger. But explain to me who they were buying. They were never going to get Juan Soto. I don't want that Chapman. Pass. 31-year-old third baseman. I didn't know there was only two guys of free agency. No. I'm asking. Who was out there? Who could they have had in the 2024 free agent class that they didn't get? They were never going to get Otani. Thank God they got Imonaga and not Yamamoto, who's now on the 60-day DL. Just quickly, Matt Chapman, if we're going to keep dumping on him, 3.8 win player. If you had him on the team, you might be in the wild card. He's Matt Chapman was not putting you in the wild card. OK. 3.8 wins. Well, when you ask, almost on behalf of the front office, who would you sign, then you get what you deserve, Cap. How about you? Like, you get you and Cup fans get what you deserve. If you're saying, well, we weren't going to spend for Soto, and of course, to the average fan, is I don't care how much it spends. I want to see my team win. He wasn't a free agent. What I'm just saying, a Juan Soto like player, a difference maker like that. What I'm saying is, is that if you say, well, we're not going to spend money on this, and we didn't need these extra players and free agency, then you get what you deserve. You get what you get. You get a team that's flat, offensively. Now, I will agree with you. They could have definitely signed Josh Hader 100%. He got 19 million a year. I think he got a five-year deal. Could have easily signed him. You got Cody Ballinger. Yeah. You didn't need more started pitching. Again, I had no interest in Matt Chapman. None. Yamamoto's been good, but you're right. Starting pitching was a strength. I'm telling you, man, do not let this team end up missing the wild card by four games and watch Matt Chapman be a five-win player. Do not let that happen, because I will stand here and rail about it. I'll be furious. I said all off, see, I never told you Matt Chapman was God. I never said I'd pay him 10 years and $300 million, but I said I'd find a way to get him on this team, because right now you have Morrell who can't play third. And Matt Chapman's a 3.8 win player. You're 3 1/2 out. Oh, figure out that, Matt. Yeah. Yeah, again, he gets a lot of his war from his defense. Offensively, he's hitting 232 with 13 home runs and a 723 OPS. He's not the difference between you and the playoffs. He'd fit right in here. He'd be great defensively at a position where you badly need a glove. OK, and if he's playing there, you're taking the 18 home runs Morrell has more than this guy by the way, off the team or out of the lineup. That's just a fact. He's not the difference between you going to the playoffs, Matt Chapman at age 32 or whatever he is. Yeah, pass. This is not a good enough team. Jen has not constructed a good enough team. And when you enter a season without a legitimate closure, again, but think you have a chance to go to the playoffs, shame on you. And your team can't hit. Is that is that part of the equation or not agree? Well, and then what are you going to do about that? I mean, you can tell me about pitching and because it's all part of it, Cap. But we cannot turn a blind eye to a ball club that can't hit five through nine. It's a problem agree and the situational hitting is not good. It's not good enough to make you. I mean, people can break down the numbers. But the number I care about is the wins and the losses and where do you are in the wild card? That should be the emphasis. Everyone breaks down all the numbers and crunches all the numbers and all this other stuff. But I think too, the average fan, like me, I care about whether or not the team's winning or losing. And it's not looking good. So do you trust Jed Hoyer to lead the future of the Cubs? I mentioned there's two things along with this Cubs thing. That's one, do you trust Jed Hoyer to lead the future of the Cubs? But that's something else that we're not talking about regarding this Cubs team and the dynamic of the Cubs team. We'll get it to that, tell me up next. Along with David Kaplan, Jonathan Hood with you, Captain J. Hood, weekday morning, seven to 10. Here's to Dave's headline, headline with Captain J. Hood. Cubs open their series all over the brewers with a W, three to one at Wrigley, Javier Assad battled through six walks, a lot of traffic on the bases. But the bullpen had to cover five and two thirds innings of one run ball for the win. Game two of the series tonight, first pitch, 7 0 5, Jamison Tione on the ball. White Sox couldn't finish the job last night, despite leading three, two in the ninth. John Brevia was one out, one strike away. Blue to save for the Sox. They were walked off by the Rangers in the 10th inning for their eighth executive loss. They are now 27 and 75 on the season. For those keeping score, for 102 games, the record setting 1960 New York Mets led the worst record ever with just one game worse at 26 and 76. White Sox also halted Johann Mancata's rehab with anticipated soreness. According to Pedro Grafault, despite him being medically clear to play and going eight for 15 in his five rehab appearance. I got those same soreness. I got the same soreness as a White Sox fan. My ass has been sore the entire time watching this ball club. Anticipated soreness. You knew it was coming. Oh, yeah. We all did. Team USA got a narrow victory over Germany and their final Olympic prep game, 92.88, LeBron James. He never ages, scores the final 11 points of the game for the Americans to notch the victory. J-board. [MUSIC PLAYING] You're capping J-hood, I'm back. We are back, baby. We are back. We are back. Yeah. What? All Chicago's home for sports. ESPN Chicago. The Cubs ranked sixth in runs last year. They're 24th this year. We're talking about them here on the cap and J-hood morning show. Here on ESPN 1,000 and streaming on the ESPN Chicago app. Cap, there's two things that's on the table with the Cubs. Yes, they did defeat the Brewers. As much as the Brewers actually beat themselves yesterday, I'm not sure I have bases loaded. You wear out a sod by making them exert himself. He's not the same pitcher he was when he first started the season, as you well know, coming off the injury. He's not the same guys. He got an ERA, went around six over the last four or five stars. Yeah, he has not been great. Is this what? I mean, he's just not what he was at the beginning. Correct. But at the same time, the Brewers-- It's like an all-star the first month. The Brewers beat themselves yesterday because you got the bases loaded twice and couldn't score. And they were sloppy defensively. Yeah. Sloppy, which there are one of the better defense teams in baseball. So they did not have a good night last night. Again, all credit in the world to the Cubs. Their bullpen has been magnificent for a month. Yep. The last month, they're the number one bullpen at almost every metric. Awesome. Where was that at the start, A, and B, I know teams go through phases. They struggle here. They're good there. Everybody does. But guess what? When you broke camp and didn't have a closer, shame on you. The guys in the bullpen did a great job. Really, really, really nice job. And I thought, start with Drew, coming into a jam and getting himself out of that jam or getting us out of that jam was really big. And the guys just did a heck of a job. And we had a bunch of good innings. Mark Leiter's throwing the ball really, really well. Hector's doing a nice job. So it's been the bullpen tonight was the theme for me. It just did not enough strikes, clearly. He really struggled to me with the slider. He didn't have a slider tonight. And then I eventually lost his fastball a little bit, especially in the third inning. In the end, he made some big pitches. He goes down 3-0 and he comes back. And we got out of that inning. Ended up being a really big moment. There was several big moments, third, fourth inning for that we prevented runs from scoring and still look up. But they got no runs. So too many walks for sure, but we survived it. Tonight, he was in a really big spot. And he's been in more big spots lately. And he's pitching really well. So he's been on a heck of a run. And look, he threw two innings on Saturday. He comes back and throws an inning and 2/3 tonight. That's huge for us. The owl has taken an app, Otis picked up his 10th win last night. Yes. Otis the owl is 10 and 5 now. You play 10 and 5 baseball every 15. You're going a long way. You're going to the playoffs. Yeah? Where's that been the last few months? That 10 and 5 baseball. It's only started since I brought Otis into this. That's exactly right. Fray. That's exactly right. There you have it. I'll cap the other side that I want to talk to you about is Craig Council. Craig Council did not come here to be able to have a middling team. Agreed. He's one with less. Now, when I say less, I'm saying that nothing against Christian Yellich, nothing against Adamus. They've got good players. They've been walking, right? They do. But he won with those players, that smaller market, and that smaller payroll. From Craig Council's standpoint, he's got to be looking around saying, wait a minute now. I finally got probably his dream job, being with Chicago. Major market. Dream job. Finally, you've got here. And this is how we start. I want you to think about it from his standpoint. This is kind of like what Billy Donovan's going through right now with the Bulls. Billy Donovan is a top shelf coach. Right. And he has two heroes. This is it? He's dealing with this. Feeling like he's in Orlando someplace, or as far as market size. I want you to think about Council. Whatever you think of Craig Council, at this point in time, just understand that Council's going through the same issues that Ross did last year with the roster construction, and Ross got fired for it. I'm not trying to push Council out the door. I'm just saying that if you feel like Craig Council's a top five manager, then you should give him a roster to match his prowess or his potential. Agreed. That's all I'm saying. Agree 1,000% with you. I don't understand how you could spend that much money and granted some of it's being spent. The guys who are no longer here. But I don't understand how you could commit that type of payroll and have this lousy a baseball team. Jay Moore, the Chicago Cubs, to me, the equivalent of having a hoopty, a car with awesome rims, and white wall tires. And it looks great, but it sounds like crap when it comes down the street. Like an absolute hoopty, a car that's like, man, I love your tires and the way they spend and all that. That's what the Cubs have. But that car doesn't run very well. That's what the Cubs are. Yeah. And again-- Jay Moore, you've got a car like that, I'm sure. You've had one. Yeah, my first car. Yeah. Wait a minute, great rims, and then it doesn't run well. It has a bad body on it. But again, my question is, how does it get better? How does it get better? Are we waiting until 2026? And maybe some of the prospects will be here? Maybe it's 2027. What is this, Oakland? Well, what I do is I've got a new car. We need a new car there, too. You understand what he means? We need to buy a couple Rolls Royce in the off season. I'm just saying is, is that if you hold your car too long, it'll look like the 18-19 Cubs saying you can't keep-- you've got to be able to change that dynamic cap. It's not good enough. You have to add on to be able to find stars and difference makers. Who's feared in that Cubs lineup? Conor McKnight, next on Cap and Jay Hood. Follow Chicago's home for sports on Twitter at ESPN1000. Cap and Jay Hood are back on ESPN Chicago, Chicago's home for sports. Captain Jay Hood on ESPN1000 and streaming on the ESPN Chicago app, now time to talk to Conor McKnight. And Conor's brought to you by him. That would be Access Community Health Network at every age through every stage. Access Community Health Network is your family's medical home. And Connor is on for the Car X Tire and Auto Hub. Rattle, rattle, thunder, batter, boom, boom, boom, boom. [MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning, Connor. We hope. Good morning, fellas. We're coming up on the trade deadline. It's an exciting time at the Major League Baseball of Calendar. We are post-all-star break. And I mean, this is it, right? Hook it up to your bank. This is what we live for. Where do you place Kauffman Stadium amongst the best stadiums you've seen? Ooh, OK. So I had always thought that Kauffman Stadium on television did not look great. And I will tell you that from what I've seen-- and I've not seen every ballpark yet-- it's the one that translates the word. It's really nice. It's a great little ballpark. It's got a cool arc to the grandstand behind home plate. The water feature is very, very cool. There's a ton of walking space out behind the concourse there in the outfield. And a little bit like guaranteed radio, though not the exact thing, because you do have to duck in and out of a couple of different blind spots. You can walk around the entire ballpark, almost the entire ballpark, and still keep an eye on the baseball game. And that's one of my favorite features about ballpark. I hate when you lose sight of the game itself. As you walk around for concessions or bathrooms or just to go seat to seat to visit some other people. The Texas ballpark is like that. They put a baseball field inside of a ball, and I have no idea where I'm going, whatever I'm in there. It's really weird. Coughton, nothing like that. It's a little quirky, too. A lot of pikes and power lines and stuff, running overhead in a broadcast area. I nearly knocked myself out two or three times. Always fun. Keeps the blood running. I really enjoyed it. I would say it's probably 9 or 8, something like that. So I want to ask you about the 10th inning last night. I understood walking Corey Sager. First of all, he's trying to unintentionally, intentionally walk Marcus Simi, and he gets himself out on a great, great play by Corey Lee to hang on to that foul tip. Now you've got two outs. OK, I'm all good with not pitching to Corey Sager. He's their best offensive player. Why would you walk the bases full? And now force a guy who's not an elite pitcher and Steven Wilson to have to be so fine that on 2-2, he comes across because he doesn't want to get the 3 and 2. Bam, ball game over. I thought that was a terrible decision. Yeah, I disagree. I think all the decisions that are left to you in the 10th after your offense strands 21, 21 batters and 12 strikeouts in those 21 batters from inning 5 to 10. You're left with bad decisions after your offense tanks you have to dry in the 10th inning anyway. There are no good choices. I'm with you. I'd probably just walk Sager and at least give Wilson one base to work with. But these are, again, all bad choices. You don't have an elite pitcher in your bullpen. Or if you do, you use him. That was Michael Copac for an inning and 2/3. And again, I think Langford's probably the guy you do want to target with Wilson, even if that puts a little extra pressure on him to not walk or run in. I get it, but at this point, you're out of good decisions. All you have are the bad ones. And I think Smith is a much better hitter than I think a lot of people realize at this point, especially with some of the pressures that have been put on this White Sox bullpen. I don't think it's egregious by any stretch. I think it is the best choice left to a series of bad choices. Connor, the Garrett Crochet story is the best White Sox story since blank. Oh, man, that's a really probably since really honestly, it's probably since the All-Star campaign of Luis Robert Jr. last year. Let's be real about it. I get that it has not been a good couple of seasons in the fall from 2021, has been precipitous and disappointing. But the fact that you identified Luis Robert Jr. as a-- I forget if he was 18 or 19 when they signed him. You signed him away from the St. Louis Cardinals who were at the time building what looked like an undistroyable, unthinkable minor league prospect pipeline and bringing those to bear in the NL Central. Like, let's not forget that. It was the White Sox and the Cardinals and most of the industry figured that while the White Sox had the pipeline to Cuba, that the Cardinals were going to be the team to bring the money to bear. And they weren't. Robert turned into what you thought he could turn into, despite the injury issues, which are real. But then he put it all together last season, or if not all of it, 90% of it, which made most of us think there's the next level to this guy. There's an MVP level player in Luis Robert. And I still believe that. I think that's a fantastic story and one that probably shouldn't go overlooked. But the unprecedented nature of crochet, right? The idea that out of a reliever you've gotten the third best pitcher in baseball by just about every other metric, it's a tremendous story. And I think it does overshadow Robert to a certain degree. But I do think Robert, like last year, is an incredible story, a 30/20 guy. I mean, that's meaningful. Connor, have a wonderful rest of your day. Get a good cup of coffee, some breakfast. And find a way to win a baseball game. Sounds like a plan. I promise the first two will do our best on the third. Well, all right. Have a good day, man. [MUSIC PLAYING] [INTERPOSING VOICES] [INTERPOSING VOICES] [MUSIC PLAYING] [INTERPOSING VOICES] [INTERPOSING VOICES] That's in two minutes on the Captain J. Hood Morning Show.