Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
5 On It & Craig Counsell talks Seiya Suzuki's return (Hour 3)
10 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This hour is brought to you by Cars for Kids.
I got five. It's time for Five on It. Rahimi Harrison-Roney. Bring you five topics on their minds today. On 104.3 The Score.
I got five on it. Number one. We are broadcasting live from Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas today until Cubs Radio at 1245. and Saturday from 11 to 1245. Circa will have special food and beverage deals for the golf tournament with every angle of the tournament being shown at Stadium Swim on these giant screens. It's awesome. Here's question number one.
The Cubs host the Pirates at Wrigley Field this weekend for the first time this season and have the fortune of not having to face Pittsburgh ace Paul Skeens. Does that make this a must-sweep series for the Northsiders?
Okay, I don't think we're at the point yet where it's got to be a must sweep. But I do want you to win the series. Win the series. Keep that same energy. I know the Pirates were a sexy pick by a lot of people to, like, come up. As I like to call it, it was a hipster pick. Like Anthony Kastrovitz of MLB is out here saying the Pirates are going to win the Central. He said that a few weeks ago.
I don't think that's going to happen. I think it's a non-Cubs team. It's going to be Milwaukee because that's life, and we have to deal with it. But in the meantime, there's a lot you can do here when it comes to building on the series you had against Tampa, building on the performances we saw in the doubleheader on Sunday against the Guardians. Shota Imanaga, I'm looking at you.
So I don't need you to take three out of three, but I need you to take two out of three and continue with the offense. Like you said, Mark, a little station-to-station baseball never hurt nobody. Crooked number inning for you, not just a one. Put up a two, a three, or a four in an inning, and I'll be a happy girl.
Understanding. Understanding. where the Cubs are in the standings, and there's a team directly in front of you that you can affect by winning three in a row, it would be nice to get a sweep, but we are nowhere near must-sweep territory. The goal is simple. Win the game. Win the series.
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Chapter 2: What are the Cubs' expectations for the upcoming series against the Pirates?
If you win three games in a row, you do...
sweep a series but if you went two out of three that's pretty good that projects out to winning 108 games in a season and most teams don't do that it's very rare when that happens that is uh you know what what's the Dodgers number for Pocota wasn't it 104 and a half or something and it was like a wildly high outrageous number you just went even higher than that
Yeah, still not even. So that's my point, though. Just win series after series. You'd like to get a few sweeps in there. So if they swept them, and without Paul Skeens, let's be honest, this is as good a chance as they'll have to sweep the Pirates because you don't see Paul Skeens. Although, they did hit very well against Paul Skeens a season ago. They did. The Cubs did. You're right about that.
That being said, look at it this way. If the Cubs offense can just play to the back of their baseball cards, they should be able to take two out of three.
Man, evergreen statement, but you know, the variance is the deal here.
As Joe Maddon used to say, two out of three ain't bad, which was a meatloaf song. So as we would get onto the plane, Joe would high-five everybody and say that meatloaf, two out of three ain't bad. But guess what else is cool and what the Cubs are going to need, I think, this year if they do want to win the division and finally overtake the Milwaukee Brewers.
They're going to need ā I could go for a couple of eight-game winning streaks. You know what I'm saying? Like a couple of those. Just two? Yeah. They don't go out of stuff. That ain't bad either.
The way you just dialed that up, Mark. Yeah. Eight-gamer. Not five. Not six. You went full snowman on these ones.
Why don't you just go Milwaukee, 21?
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Chapter 3: How will Seiya Suzuki's return impact the Cubs' lineup?
It's a fill in the blank. When we come in for Monday's show, we'll be discussing blank winning it all at the Masters.
Okay. I know it's not the sexiest answer. That's good.
I want to hear some answers that not everyone's thinking of.
No, because you already know when I say that who it's going to be. If it's not Rory going back to back, Scotty Shuffler is probably still the dude, right? So perhaps it is Scotty Shuffler. I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to be so lame and consistent and predictable in my pick. But I don't know that Rory repeats, so I feel like Scottie Scheffler is just the ā He's the betting favorite.
He's the one who comes to mind first, right? And typically when you're doing this, that's the person who is the most accurate. So, you know, gut reaction, I know he was considered the favorite, you know, betting-wise before we started the tournament. But it's Scottie Scheffler for me just because it's Scottie Scheffler for me.
It's Rory for me because he's the champ until proven otherwise. And last I checked, he was at the top of the leaderboard. So, yeah. I'm going to go ahead and roll with Rory McIlroy, who is five under as it stands right now. Scheffler is at one under through nine holes. Although I can tell you in just a moment, he's now at two under through ten holes.
All right. Nice little day. Just to counter Rory a little bit, and I would love it if Rory won it. We all love Rory McIlroy. There have only been four guys that have won back-to-back Masters. So history is against Rory McIlroy. The guy that I'm going to go with. was the enemy last year, the guy that nobody wanted to see win. And that was the lovely Justin Rose. What a lovely man.
What a classy guy. But he was the one that was in the playoff last year with, oh my goodness, and Leila just pointed out to me that he's top of the leaderboard. Justin Rose was in the playoff last year with Rory McIlroy and the world. Did you say Destin William William Rose? I should have. I would like to see.
Greg, somebody rip a piece of paper.
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Chapter 4: What roster moves did the Cubs announce recently?
Alex Bregman will play third.
Okay, sounding normal.
And bat third.
Okay.
And Ian Happ back into the lineup and batting cleanup, playing left field. Okay. And... Batting fifth is Seiya Suzuki. I'll tell you about that. And playing right field.
All right.
Batting sixth and playing center field is Pete Crow Armstrong.
Sixth. Okay.
He had been seventh? Only against lefties had he been that low. Okay. He'd been batting a little bit of cleanup. Yeah.
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Chapter 5: Who will play center field for the Cubs if Pete Crow-Armstrong is unavailable?
In DH, Moises Ballesteros.
Okay.
And batting ninth and playing shortstop is Dansby Swanson. So Matt Shaw is the odd man out in lineup number one when the Cubs offense at full strength. Interesting to me that Pete Carl Armstrong is batting sixth. I don't hate it at first glance because... This is really what this is all about, lengthening your lineup.
And to understand that Moises Ballesteros and Carson Kelly are in the lower third, and Dansby Swanson's in the nine hole, and, you know, he's got some speed to him. I don't hate this lineup. This is the lineup that we thought we were getting, you know, opening day if everybody's healthy.
Well, and for me, you're right. It's lengthening the lineup. That's why I felt like Nico was so crucial to all of this. I will maintain that until I am told or shown otherwise. And in the meantime, just in case you're wondering, we are coming to you ahead of the Cubs and Pirates game. They are back home today at Wrigley to take on those Pirates. Pre-game coverage is coming up next at 1245.
First pitch is at 120 in crystal clear. FM quality on 104.3 The Score and the Northwestern Medicine Cubs radio network. So let's listen to Craig Council because the Cubs had a lot of roster moves today. Say is activated. Dylan Carlson is released. Phil Maton was put on the injured list. So here's Craig Council.
Activated Saya from the injured list, designated Dylan Carlson for assignment, and placed Phil Maton on the injured list and recalled Ethan Roberts. How long has the late-time thing been going on? I think it's kind of just gradually gotten a little bit worse. Obviously, he was pitching with it. But we saw, you know, a real ā I think we saw real effects to it in his last outing in Tampa.
The velocity was down. And it was just a case of just not being able to, you know, sit into his back leg and drive off the mound. And it clearly affected him. So ā You know, we need to get rid of that. And he's dealt with this issue in the past. And so we just need to get that out of there and get him kind of back to normal.
Will he grow at all or will this be like he stops throwing dirt?
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