Chapter 1: What recent performance has Shota Imanaga demonstrated?
And the 2-2. Fastball strike three called. It looked like the batter was looking for something off speed. He crossed him up with old number one. Another strikeout for Shotok. He has struck out six of the last eight hitters. We're back with more Rahimi Harrison-Grody. Live from Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. On Chicago Sports Radio. 104.3 The Score.
That's right. That is courtesy of the Cubs Radio Network. That was Pat Hughes on the call. And we broadcast from Circa live through the Scores Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. When we have breaking news on the score, it is sponsored by the Illinois Department of Transportation. Speeding in a work zone is a no-win. Mind the signs. Avoid the fines.
Ray Diaz is our producer. Ray Ragle is here as our engineer. Our video team is Cody Westerlund. Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and Connor O'Donnell as we are live. Filling in for Steve Rosenblum today as well, broadcasting until 1245 from Las Vegas. You heard it there from Pat Hughes, Shota Imanaga, through six innings of no-hit baseball, through 100 pitches, nine strikeouts, only a single walk.
It was the nicest outing we had seen yet from a nice body of work that Shota Imanaga is putting together before the game. Jed Hoyer gave an update on the Cubs and it started with him talking about the injury to Cade Horton.
Yeah, no, he's going to have surgery with Dr. Meister. I don't think we're going to reveal the exact day, but he's going to travel there and have surgery. What type of surgery? Is it just the brace, or is he going to do both? I think they go in there and they figure it out. Yeah, best case from a recovery standpoint is just the brace, but that's always unclear.
If they go in and make repairs, then it'll... probably add three months or so to the recovery. I know it goes without saying, but just how much you feel for Cade in this situation. Yeah. No, I really do feel for him a lot. I mean, I think he'd done everything possible. I think we had done everything possible. I think we were unbelievably conservative with him.
He really, even since we drafted him and, and how hard he had, uh, he had worked, um, and how hard we had, uh, worked, uh, to get him to this point. He looked, he looked fantastic. And, these things happen, you know, as part of a baseball season. And I feel terrible for him.
I know he'll come back strong and good, but I'm just a little solace to him right now, given like the way he was throwing and the condition he was in. And I'm sure he's frustrated, but he'll be back and excellent.
Jack, can you go back to just that inexact science of the solid? You said you tried to take care of him last year. Do you look back at, Not that you did anything wrong, but how much do you examine? What can you do with a guy that you're trying to keep healthy and you can't limit him to 20 pitches a game? How do you examine it all?
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Chapter 2: What injury update did Jed Hoyer provide about Cade Horton?
They were like, we'd rather have four to five innings of great Cade Horton than stretch it to six or seven. They didn't operate from a place of desperation, and I'm good with that. I'm good with that decision, and this just goes to show no matter how cautious you are, these things happen with pitchers, specifically with pitchers.
Their arms more than likely are going to break down at some point, and you just hope that this is the one and only time for Kate Horton.
Well, and now the Cubs have to go about their business as if they're not going to have Cade Horton. You know, the hope is obviously he recovers from this and that he is back in the Cubs rotation a year from now or whenever he is back and pitching for the Cubs, which will be the slow buildup again.
So that's the part that gets me, is that you have this promising first-round draft pick who has had all of these injuries already. and now we sit here as we all hang out at Circus Sports, and we don't know if Cade Horton is a part of the Cubs' starting rotation in the future. That's the scary, sad facts about Cade Horton right now.
I'm glad you said again, because we all have shades of waiting for Justin Steele, which we are all still doing together as a society. So Jed Hoyer updated the timeline for Justin Steele. He was asked about it, and he was also asked about Jackson Wiggins appropriately.
I mean, I think with a bunch of those guys, Steele, Wicks, they're throwing live VPs. They're moving forward. And, you know, I think that we're excited to get those guys back at the right time, but also we're not going to rush them. And so it's just, you know, they're trending in the right direction, and hopefully this continues to trend that way.
Okay, so we didn't get a month. We didn't get a day. We didn't get a number. We did not get a time, date, place. You know, as we like to say when you book a date, none of those things occurred there.
Guys, go ahead, Mark. No, I was just going to say what we got is trends on trends on trends. And you know how trends work. They trend until they don't. That's what makes it a trend. Well, here's another trend.
Just open-ended stuff over here.
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Chapter 3: How does the Cubs organization handle pitcher injuries?
Well, here's what we know, speaking of trending, is that baseball overall is trending towards... starters going less innings and having guys who throw top-of-the-line heat and using those guys. I mean, look at the Dodgers and how they've been successful.
Yes, they do have very good starting pitchers, but when push comes to shove, we get to the playoffs, they're like, we'll throw our guy out there for three, four innings, and then we'll have five or six arms that just throw top-of-the-line stuff.
But the Dodgers... to then the starter who's going to three or four innings, he can also go all out. And I don't know. I seriously don't know what the effect is. Maybe there's not as much of an effect because you're not throwing as many pitches. You're not throwing as many innings.
I think there's a couple things here. Number one, the Cubs forever, starting pitching-wise, had guys who threw 90. They knew how to identify effective throwers of the lower velocity. I think there's a bit of an eye test.
When it comes to seeing starting pitchers who you know are max-efforting every single pitch, when we think of the term downhill thrower, there are guys who do throw a more effortless delivery at a higher velocity than others. That's sometimes hard to gauge, but I think that is part of their job. The other piece of this, too, is the Dodgers will rest guys.
The biggest question you have about the Dodgers starting pitching, for example, is Yoshinobu Yamamoto going to throw enough innings to... to qualify for the Cy Young. And what does that also say? That says that they don't pitch their guys every five days if they don't have to, or they don't throw them as many innings.
It's not necessarily an established standard operating procedure, but there are a couple of factors that you can take in. I feel like there are pitchers who look like they are laboring every single pitch, and I wonder how much that will factor in in some of the decisions you make when you're scouting.
And this is why I'm okay with the idea of a six-man rotation. And actually, if you have the arms and the depth... Which the Cubs don't right now. They don't right now. But if they do, I'm good with it. Two reasons.
One, it gives your guys more rest so that they can be more max-leaning, if you will, in terms of throwing the pitches that take the most effort and energy for shorter periods of time with an extra day of rest. But more importantly...
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Cade Horton's surgery on the Cubs' pitching staff?
And right now what you don't have is depth, which you had to begin the season.
Do you guys remember that time the Cubs were talking about a six-man rotation?
Yeah, that's what I mean. It felt so luxurious.
Do you remember those conversations where that was even a thought? That was only a few weeks ago. It was just a few weeks ago.
I don't think that they're... In a place where that still can't happen is my point. Especially, what better way to bring Justin Steele back and along when he's finally ready to pitch than to have him as part of a six-man rotation. I know a lot of people would say, well, wouldn't they just send Javier Assad back down?
if Boyd is good to go, but why if Assad pitches well between now and the time that Justin Steele is activated? Isn't that the perfect time, if all things are going well, to have the Cubs try the six-man rotation?
roster spot, right? That would be the only thing that might be preventing them from doing that. For example, Phil Maton, is there truly going to be just a 15-day injured list for Phil Maton? Do you have to devote more resources to the pen in a way that causes you to have to send Javier Asad, for example, and this is just a for instance, back down. That's what I think about.
So that may factor in, but this is a very hypothetical conversation. But If we're having it, then so are they.
Yeah, I think that's an ongoing conversation. They're the ones who brought it up. I just want to point that out. They're the ones who suggested the six-man rotation. And once you suggest it to the public, now the public gets to run with it, especially the media covering the Cubs.
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