Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the latest storylines in Cubs and MLB?
This hour is brought to you by Menards.
Say big money at Menards. Line drive, right field, coming hard by Jason. Can't get him. He cuts by him. Glanville's going to get at least three.
He might circle him.
He might circle him. Boots waving him on. Boots waving him on. It's an inside the park home run. Doug Glanville. An inside the parker, and the Phillies lead it 2-9.
Oh, it's so nice to hear a Harry Callas call. Doug Glanville's inside the park home run.
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Chapter 2: How have injuries impacted the Cubs' season so far?
A great way to introduce Doug Glanville, Major League Baseball analyst for ESPN, co-host of the Starkville podcast. He's an Emmy winning writer and he has a sub stack. Welcome to Glanville. It can be found at DougGlanville.substack.com. And Doug just celebrated his one year anniversary. He's a professor at UConn and I am proud to call him a former colleague.
Doug, thank you so much for joining us today.
It's great to be on. And how are you doing? Everybody's well in Chicago?
We are good. Yeah. In fact, I think we've gotten to our first April in many years, Doug, since maybe you and I did baseball night in Chicago together, where the Sox and the Cubs after April are both still in good positions.
They are. They are.
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Chapter 3: What is Doug Glanville's perspective on the Cubs' trade deadline strategy?
They absolutely are. And it's a lot of fun. I think Chicago is going to have a big battle talking about the Crosstown series as they keep changing the name, of course, every year. But I love that rivalry. It's always been a lot of fun.
One can only hope, Doug. I'm really curious as to your thoughts, because as we get into the month of May, we've got teams out here who have either already fired their managers or are maybe looking to fire their manager.
When you talk about what's going on in the National League East, what do you make of the early movement, especially with your old team, the Phillies, getting rid of their manager, a guy who led them to a World Series?
I mean, this is the day we're in in baseball 2026. I mean, there's just no time with teams that have put so much in terms of resources into these teams. They've expected to win today or yesterday in the Phillies case. And there's no question that once the investment structure of these teams that are built on
you know, elaborate front offices that are very engaged in the day to day, the algorithms, the math, the analytics, the expectations very high to get off to a good start and to show signs that you're going to win a World Series. And the thing about the affiliates that's interesting is Rob Thompson was there in replacing Joe Girardi, which had a similar flavor a few years ago.
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Chapter 4: How does the rivalry between the Cubs and White Sox shape the season?
Girardi started off slowly as the Phillies manager, and Dave Dombrowski said, goodbye, that's it, we're making a move. So they're not afraid to pull the trigger and make changes early on. Same thing in Boston, of course, with Alex Cora, who signed a long-term contract And they felt that the results weren't there.
So more and more of the front office have this influence certainly to make decisions and feel confident that they can put a lot of different personalities in place and still win ballgames. And it's made the managers a little bit more expendable. I'd probably say a lot more expendable in today's game.
Well, and Doug, I feel like also Marshall and I were talking about this. And one of the things I really appreciate about the work you do, being a professor at UConn, for example, or whether you're on with Starkville or on your sub stack is looking at baseball sociologically, looking at the bigger picture. And even with the Phillies.
Nepotism is present here when you consider Don Mattingly's son is the GM under Dave Demorowski. And now Mattingly is part of that managerial discussion that you talk about named interim. You know, what do you think about just the prevalence of the nepotism in baseball?
Maybe we don't talk about it as much because it's more of an understood part of the culture than we do in, say, football, where it's become an element of dissonance.
Well, you know, baseball certainly has that traditional sensibility around, you know, I guess historically to say fathers and sons, but it's like there's a family component.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of managerial changes in MLB?
And Mattingly and Mattingly certainly have that long legacy of being close. And, you know, I've gotten to know Don a little bit just from it being the Yankees spring training at 05 and over the years. And he's definitely someone who's qualified, but when you make these type of decisions, you have to look who's closest to you.
And I think managing is very tough today, not only because of the data and the amount of influence, whether it's social media or the amount of people in the analytics department, but it's also the fact that the closeness of your staff you're going to hire people on your staff or they may bring in somebody that you have to work with that can replace you. I mean, you see this all the time, right?
You lose your job and the bench coach comes right in. So a lot of people around you are qualified to run the team or seen as qualified from the front office standpoint. So you don't have that kind of certainty. So that's what happened, for example, with Joe Girardi. And all of a sudden, Rob Thompson's in there and you make moves that people literally on your bench to take your job.
So I think the positive part of the Mataly is that it is a close family, and there is a legacy that's actually a real positive one. A guy who hasn't gotten into the Hall of Fame, may never, and is definitely qualified. But we'll see.
Chapter 6: How does nepotism influence baseball management today?
The results are going to tell that story.
Former Cub Doug Glanville joining us here on Rahimi Harris and Grody. And Doug, I'm curious as to your impression of the way that the Cubs have started this season. They've had so many injuries, and now we know a setback for Justin Steele, Kate Horton out for the year undergoing surgery.
Do you feel like they have enough with what they have to make the same type of push without making some major additions at the trade deadline?
Right now, everybody's measuring up to the Dodgers. That's just the gold standard right now. And a lot of it involves depth, like how deep are they? And the Cubs, look, their offense is phenomenal right now. And I don't see it as something that's going to get weak. They have just a lot of talent in that lineup. They have some versatility.
I mean, Nico Horner really does stir that team up in so many different ways. And he's not necessarily a home run guy, but he's showing some pop this year a little bit more. But a lot of it is they catch the ball as well.
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Chapter 7: What adjustments must Pete Crow-Armstrong make this season?
And it's a good combination. They seem to be on all cylinders offensively. So for me, the question with the Cubs is like, are they going to get the arms they need? And all of that connects to the trade deadline. Are you willing or able to make the moves you need to make to add the pieces? Because even the mighty Dodgers had to make those moves. A couple of years ago, they had to get Flaherty.
They had really no starting rotation. They won two years ago because their bullpen carried them. And there were a lot of guys that didn't have household names like Ben Kasparis. And then now... If you move over to the Dodgers last year, you see a team that won because their starters literally became relievers in the postseason. Yamamoto might as well just relieve himself.
I mean, he pitched, then he started, then he came in, and then he closed. So, you know, you have to be adaptable.
Chapter 8: How does the proposed anti-tanking rule affect NBA teams?
And the Cubs, you know, for them to keep taking that next step, they have to come and make the moves they need to make at the trade deadline and then hope people just stay healthy.
Well, and Doug, that was something that we brought up in the first segment of our show was, are we too premature in wondering about the setback with Justin Steele, whose timeline was originally June, he had talked about for return, gets this month setback. Is it too early to say, how will this affect the trade deadline?
I mean, even you bring it up now in conversation when thinking out loud about it.
Well, in some ways, like, when you have the known information, it may be harder in some ways. The guy's like, well, he might be back. He could be back. You know, like, do I make this move? Because you're not necessarily making a move as the Cubs to say, let's just get in. You know, you're not the Mariners a couple years, like, let's just get in the playoffs and end this drought.
You're trying to win. And when you're trying to win, you're making decisions on, am I going to move people in my minor league system that have this huge upside for rental that may only get us to the wild card? So that's the calculus you have to make.
Now, if you have a guy who's out, and it's not saying that's ideal with Justin Steele or anybody, but the idea of someone who might be out, then you know that, OK, I need to add this front line starter. I just have to do it. And a lot of teams nowadays, it's pretty standard
that they're injured, pitchers are hurt, and that's just given, and they're coming back like the Yankees, Garrett Cole or whatever, that's like the best trade you can make. It's like, oh, by the way, I'm getting Garrett Cole. So that is ideal in some scenarios because you don't have to make the moves. You have to just get someone healthy. And Blake Snell is a good example.
So that's where the Cubs have to make that calculation. on making that decision on whether who's getting healthy, but also what are we going to give up for this immediacy and hope that it does more than just get you in.
Cubs had a 10-game winning streak, Doug, and yet they are not in first place in the division. In fact, every team in the National League Central is above .500. How seriously should Cubs fans be taking these other teams? We know about Milwaukee, but the Reds are far and away have been the best team in the division so far.
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