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Chapter 1: What are the latest MLB storylines discussed by Russ Dorsey?
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Russell Dorsey, National MLB Insider for Yahoo Sports. Oh, he's fine. He doesn't need the attention. Russell will be fine. You're probably right.
We're going to have a conversation about some mediums when he gets in here. I tell you that.
Host of the Relay with Russ Dorsey podcast.
Jacob Mizorowski is now must-see TV in Major League Baseball. And I think the thing to me when watching him on a nightly basis, he's gone from novelty of, oh, he throws 103 miles an hour to in a year's time. It's very short. is now one of the best pitchers in the world.
Insider and analyst for MLB Network and Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV.
I think adding some veteran starting pitching, a guy in their rotation that doesn't have to be a frontline starter, but a guy that's a serviceable veteran pitcher who has experience to help take some of that pressure off of some of the young guys in that rotation so that it can really make a serious push for the Elsons.
Russell Dorsey. I'm Russell. On 104.3, The Score. The Score.
It is time for Russ Dorsey's weekly appearance.
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Chapter 2: How is Justin Steele's health impacting the Cubs' season?
You know him from being on Yahoo Sports, MLB Network, Friday Night Baseball for Apple TV, and the Relay with Russ Dorsey podcast, available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And you guys have merch now?
Merch is out. Shout out to our partners, BSN Sports. If you would like Russ Dorsey Relay with Russ Dorsey merch, the link is in every one of my socials, Twitter, X, Instagram, the Relay with Russ Dorsey podcast Instagram account, the whole shebang. If you want hoodies, sweatshirts, T-shirts, they got even they even got I saw on the website there's flip flops.
I'm good on that.
Relay with Russ Dorsey flip-flops.
Toe stay in. But you told me you were going to send me that link personally. Did I not send it? You didn't send it. That's okay.
We were mid-segment and I got caught up. But I'm sending it right now.
Okay, so while Russ does that, let me give you the rundown.
But I am listening.
Let me give you the list of topics we want to discuss. Okay. Cubs-wise, Pete Crow Armstrong because he's on a heater. Yes. Cubs starters for the Brewer Series because this doubleheader does complicate some things on Wednesday that is happening. And then also, Jed Hoyer who spoke this morning on our morning show. Now, we were in our pre-show meeting. We briefly addressed the stirring five on it.
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Chapter 3: What is the outlook for Cubs starters against the Brewers?
I'm going to start with the most concerning stuff first.
Okay.
This was Jed Hoyer this morning on Mully and Haw talking about whether or not we're going to see Justin Steele this year.
Still unclear. I mean, I think what we really want is positive news that he's.
he's healthy and that he's you know can work his way back and um i think that's that's kind of where we are you know whether or not he can help us at the end of the season or not i think is unclear i think it's probably unrealistic to think that he's going to be fully stretched out at any point so um if he does help us i think it's going to be a shorter burst but you know
Now, looking at Justin's career and then obviously looking at next year, I think we really want the really good version of Justin Steele. I think that's something that we need to avoid that we feel as a team, for sure. It's been a long time since we had him on the mound, and so ending any positive news is great, but I think expecting... starts this year is unrealistic.
We have to hope they can, you know, potentially come back, um, at the end of the year and help us, um, and improve health and improve health going into the off season so that we know, um, we've got, you know, a really good picture for next year.
Uh, your face, your face, like we called it the bleak meter on five on it. Where do you sit with it?
Sheesh. That was a very honest Jed Hoyer, right? Like when, especially when you talk, when you hear executives talk about injuries, they usually try to heads of, Oh, we'll see. And that's a guy that has seen a setback, has seen Justin Steele, um, try to fight back from the original injury.
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Chapter 4: How does the Cubs' pitching strategy affect their playoff chances?
You don't win. He was definitely saying, hey, man, we can't expect that. Oh, we're definitely going to have Justin Steele, which I think is fair. And I think that's fair to say to Justin Steele. That's a lot of pressure to put on Justin Seale. Like, hey, man, we need you to back. And so maybe that happened the first time of Justin's like, I got to get back. I got to get back. I got to get back.
That's how you got.
Right. And so now you say, you know what? Take your time. And whenever you come back, you come back. We're not going to put the pressure on you. Like, you have to be back by August 1st.
Some of this naturally gets retconned, kind of like our last segment we were talking about, like the current actions make the previous actions make sense. I feel like there's some of this in Justin Steele. I'm also going back to maybe he's also just a slower healer.
Maybe. And that happens. And that's a thing.
He missed 34 games in 2024 with that hamstring strain. He missed another 15 with elbow tendonitis that year. So I kind of wonder if that, like, there are some people who just their bodies don't heal as quickly. And there's no, this is not like a victim blaming situation. There's no rhyme or reason to that. I'm not a doctor. But I think you guys, we all know that.
Like, we joke about TO and the hyperbaric chamber and all this stuff.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of Shota Imanaga's pitching decisions?
But there are some people who just heal slower. Like, there's nothing you can do. Because God knows, if there was something to do, I'm pretty sure he would be doing it.
Yes. And I think for guys, especially for Justin, when you're out, an entire season, you are so adamant of like, I gotta get back. I gotta get it back. I gotta get it back. And you want to perform. And when you're seeing guys go down week after week, he's probably like, man, I definitely need to come back. They need me. And then you have the setback. And so I think
It's one of those things, Layla, where sometimes you hear coaches or executives say, we have to protect the guy from himself. Yeah. Because guys get in that position like, no, I have to be back by this point. And they have the timeline in their head already. And it's like, don't do that to yourself. You're healthy when you're healthy.
Sometimes we see it the other way where teams do try to rush guys back and they get hurt again once they return. So I think you'd rather be on this side than the other of like, nah, we need this dude.
back like you want him to be a hundred percent healthy when he returns we also found out and it was on this station like there was a follow-up question regarding Tommy John surgery and why summer 12 months and summer 14 months and then it was then that either Jed or Carter I forget which one told us like during this show that it depends on the doctor
like the doctor and the way they do that particular surgery and how they want it to be rehabbed, that the surgeon himself or herself will decide what goes into a recovery time. And I wonder about that in all of this too.
Yes, I think one of the newest elements of recovery Elbow surgery. It was guys for a long time. You go see Dr. Elitrash out in L.A., have Tommy John surgery, 14, 18 months. And then guys started going to Dr. Keith Meister down in Texas where you some guys get the full Tommy John surgery. Some guys get full Tommy John with internal brace.
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Chapter 6: How is Pete Crow Armstrong performing recently?
Sometimes guys just get the internal brace surgery.
surgery uh and so that the the when you get the internal brace as opposed to the full tommy john surgery it's a shorter recovery time usually that one is 12 to 14 as opposed to full tommy john which is the 14 to 18 or like i remember having a conversation with scott feldman who's 65 i believe 6465 and he said that he used a hamstring ligament because he had so much that
that he was able to take it from there because he's ridiculously tall. And that, you know, can affect your recovery time and stuff like that too. It's cool that they share this stuff with us, but I do think sometimes we forget about it in these moments.
Bottom line is don't expect Justin Steele to walk out that tunnel this season. And that puts the Cubs in a very precarious situation because pitching is not something they have a whole lot of, whether it's at the major league level, as far as quality goes, or even at the minor league level, as far as quality or quantity goes.
Because that's the other thing when thinking about Justin Steele in the bullpen. Based off of how this year has gone for him, you're not throwing Justin Steele every other day. You're going to have to give him time to make sure he recovers from appearance to appearance.
So there are some things outside of getting him on a rehab assignment, seeing how he looks, the recovery portion of how does his body feel, after he throws and after he has these short bursts that you want him to have. Like there's a long road ahead before you see Justin Steele back on the mound. And I think Jed tried to share that this morning.
Okay, moving to a fun topic. This is better? Less bleak? Yeah, less bleak.
That was bleak. It is.
And you know what? Sadly, we haven't gotten a lot of information to back us off of it either. It felt bad. It looked bad.
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Chapter 7: What are the challenges facing the Cubs' bullpen this season?
how much of this is a streaky hitter and how much of this can be sustained for the rest of the season? The rest of the season sounds scary, saying it out loud, now that I've checked myself, but fair to ask.
Yeah, so I talked about it on the podcast this week. New episode of the Relay with Russ Dorsey dropped this morning. You can catch it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or subscribe to the YouTube channel. Actually, and subscribe to the YouTube channel, Relay with Russ Dorsey. And from the first game of the Cubs season to May 20th,
PCA was hitting around 230, five homers, 16 walks, 54 strikeouts, if I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure. Since May 22nd, He's hitting close to 400 with close to a 500 on base, slugging close to 800 with 11 homers in that span. The walks are up. The strikeouts are down.
The thing that I have seen from Pete Crow Armstrong over the last, we'll call it, six weeks is a guy that was able to take everything that had happened in the first half, including the altercation with the fan. There was a lot going on with PCA.
We refer to her now as Sox bride.
OK.
Yeah.
So Sox bride, the some of the defensive miscues that happened the week following that altercation where it's like, yo, where's PCA's head at? Like ball going under his glove, missing the ball and lights, things that we hadn't seen from him and was able to go through all of those different things. The pressure of you sign a new contract extension first month of the season.
And you're seeing a guy that is not only hitting the best we've ever... Like, this is a better version of PCA than we saw in the first half last year. Absolutely. Because this is a guy that has now been able to command the strike zone better than he has ever been able to do. He's hitting his pitches. You're getting to see all the different tools offensively.
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Chapter 8: What insights does Russ Dorsey provide about the state of the MLB?
Like a 49 average on balls and plays.
That's everything you're putting into play, isn't it?
Like half the time. If you make contact, half the time.
Half the time, it's a hit. It's a hit.
Yeah, that's, I mean, you know, fun. But yeah, you have to know it's not.
But when you're playing well, things go your way. Right. And so that part is unsustainable. Here's the biggest difference between last year and this year for me.
it's simply him and as you said the plate discipline and the chase rate but specifically against left-handed pitching because last year this man hit 188 that's sub 200 against left-handed pitching now his splits are nearly identical when it comes to batting average he actually has a higher on base percentage against lefties than he does against righties and if you're going to have an over 800 ops against lefties as pete crowe armstrong
Your ticket has already been written. When I think of the best hitters in baseball from the left side of the plate, I think of Shohei and Freddie Freeman and Juan Soto. And the thing that all those guys have is they all hit left-handed pitching. Like there is no, oh, we're going to bring in our left. No, it doesn't matter.
Like right-hander, left-hander, those guys are able to be consistent regardless of who's throwing the baseball. And so for PCA to take that step,
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