Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Transition: Cubs have a 1st-base conundrum

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

Marshall Harris and Mark Grote welcomed on Matt Spiegel and Laurence Holmes for the daily transition segment.

Mr. Grota. Grota. Am I saying that right? Grota. That's good. I got to say it with anger too. To growl. Yeah, I don't know why.

Grota. Grota. Grota. Grota. I can tell you about your time. Nine, nine. That's it, Marshall. Show's over. Grotow.

Enjoyed work with you, man. Grotow. We're going to do this tomorrow. You say it like we're leaving each other's side for a long period of time. You just never know. Also, if you get lonely, just hit me up. I'll be like, hey, let's meet the coffee shop. We live, what, four blocks from each out, three blocks?

That's true. That's true. Wrapping up Rahimi Harrison Grotie. And yes, Marshall and I will be right back here with you tomorrow morning, 10 a.m. Sharp. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to our great guests today, including Ian Hap, Julia Poe, and Russ Dorsey, who just exited the Score Studios. Thank you to our excellent producers, as always.

TSA, Ray Diaz, and the Butte. Tyler Bueberbaugh, our video producers, Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, and Max Curtis. them for the work that they do and I am happy and proud, proud to bring in the show that will be on all afternoon today here on the score at a Spiegel and Holmes gentlemen, how are ye? We are delightful. The question is, how are you after your first Circa visit? Oh, I am doing great.

It was, it was lovely. It was lights, camera action, I would say. You wore the song and the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, The beach or the poolside circle wear as prescribed. I was told that I had to. Yeah, it was green. You dealt some blackjack as well? Yes.

Glad I was not poolside for any of that. Yeah, that sounds awful. We're glad you had a good time. We lived vicariously through you. We just heard about your arrival and your experience with everything. All of your first. Yeah, yeah. I mean, just to be greeted by somebody who was waiting for us,

Our driver was there with us at the luggage pickup and takes us to what we thought was just going to be a simple ride. And it was the longest of limousines. So that was just a beautiful start to the trip. We thought it was an SUV. It was an SUV that stretched. Oh, yeah. Stretch limo. Yeah.

Was that our guy Tommy? Dion. It was Dion. It was Dion. All Dion's got stories. Oh, I didn't really know. He had stories. Yeah.

Dion's got stories. God's got stories. Got to ask Dion. Next time you see Dion asked Dion about the people that he's driven around Vegas. Oh, man, all these, like, older dudes who just ended up in Vegas and are living their life, I asked every driver I had in a cab, in an Uber, or anything. I remember I asked one dude, like, so how'd you end up here? He's a musician, and he ended up moving out there, and, like, he got hired because he owned pianos.

So, like, all the casinos would be like, well, you own a piano. Why don't you bring it over, then you can play in the bar over here. It's like everybody's got a wacky-ass story of how they ended up living in Vegas, I think. Could you live in Vegas? No. Lawrence? Outside of it, yes. Okay.

I don't think so, man. Because I had friends who did this, that, you know, my guy Dave Ross, saucy Dave Ross, not the former Cubs manager, Dave Ross. And my guy Tyler, who's now on ESPN doing, they had to live out there. And I'm like, how do you make this work? Because I could see how it could very easily go off the rails. Oh, yeah. And so my guy, Tyler, was like, oh, I did that. I did that for two months.

Is that all it took to get out of his system? For two months. And, you know, sauce is a little bit older. So he was like, no, I just, I went to Henderson. Like, I went outside of it. Very nice part of town. Yeah, Henderson is very, very nice. But I definitely could not do whether,

it's downtown or the strip, I couldn't do that as like a lifestyle. No, I knew a dude who lived out there and the way that he managed it was he became a cocaine addict. Okay. Yeah, that'll help. Different approach. That's one way to do it. And he made it work in that way out there for a couple of years until it really did not work.

I could do Summerlin. Summerlin's beautiful. Yeah. That's absolutely beautiful. That's like hiking. Yeah. It's more of a natural route if you want to say that. You can do that, but you got a, and Tyler's, hey, it ended up working out.

Tyler met a woman. They got married. They just had a baby. Really? So it ended up work. And then they left. They left Las Vegas. We're good.

Yeah. But it is, it's a challenge. Every day. The routine that we were getting into, like I could get used to that a little bit longer, but there is a maximum point that it, oh, sleepy Marshall, and I understand. But, yeah, like hanging out at that casino, I mean, no, at stadium swim in the, what do you call it, the little room that we're, the cabana. The cabana room that we were in and the, the, the constant service of whatever you'd like. Yes.

We can make that happen. It's all available at every time of day. It's all right, right. It never closes. And you got to ask for the room on the other side. Yes. That's key too. Did that.

Did that both times. Right. You get, you were told, urged to not take the poolside rooms, basically, because they're very loud. So you guys, I meant to text and, uh, and suggest, but I'm sure you would have had a million things. You guys didn't get to whether Ian Hap would want to play first base at all. Would you think? Because whether he'd want to be the fourth or fifth option in first base. Next man up. Yeah, this is, I mean, this is like, this is the kind of, is the kind of, in the weeds stuff that interests few. The reason why it interests me. It should interest people, actually. I thought about it, but I was like, that's ridiculous. He's a gold glove left-fieler.

I know, but he used to play. And it's left field. What's more important? Is left-field or first base more important in the eighth and ninth inning of a close game? I say first base. You're probably right because you just want to get the freaking three-outs. And if something goes wrong there. More plays.

I mean, it's been a long time since he played there. So maybe it's a non-starter. I'm just curious. So it's not Carson Kelly. Well, it is Carson Kelly, but then it's Carson Kelly, but then he was gone. I don't think it's Moises by Astero's. And I don't know if it should be a bad show. But it is Matt Shaw.

Matt Shaw's got a footwork problem and he's also right-handed. Like that's an issue. Yeah. He's also never picked up a first base glove until this year. One of the things we did talk about is looking at the depth chart in center field to say PCA gets hurt. Like Matt Shaw was listed as next up. And I was like, is that real or am I just looking at a website where that's the thing? Conforto.

Conforto played out there a little bit in the spring. Sayas played out there in the past. Yes, he has. But, yeah, I don't know. Maybe they just put Matt Shaw as a backup everywhere. It seems for a team that is really told you how much they care about defense, that there's some shakiness there on defense if the guys that aren't playing every day. In the backup spots.

Yeah, and that's important. And Bregman hasn't been as good defensively yet as you will hope that he will be. And we know how good Matt Shaw was as a third baseman for the Chicago Cubs. But of course. Yeah, that's a whole thing. It's a struggling to get the ball. It's early, guys. It is early.

It keeps coming back to that, doesn't it? 60 games. 60? Yeah. I mean, I go 54. Okay, so. Two months, Memorial Day. Like, it's tough to get there.

What are we allowed to be worried about that? Like, that's why I struggle with. Like, yeah. I'm not going to tell you not to worry. I think you can always be worried about the manager's decisions. And you can always be worried about the relievers that are put in certain situations. And no, the lineup is fair. Look, I told you.

I believe Moises Bios Stiros is their best hit. I feel like he's going to be their best hitter, period, in point playing. Do you think by the end of the season, he is their best better than Nico Horner? Right now he's their OPS leader. I think he's already their best leader. We've got their best slugger who also hits leadoff and also plays second base coming up on the show today. Yeah, Nico Horner is going to join us at 2.30, so we are looking forward to having a conversation with him. Best slugger.

There's a lot of stuff that we got to get done today. Like, we were looking at it like, man, there's a lot that we need. have to throw into the pie, including Ben's vision, which will be at 3 o'clock today. But Nico's going to join us at 2.30. When we return, we are going to talk about what happened last night. And it was not pretty. There is a lot of stuff that went on with Javier Assad that wasn't great. And him wearing it.

He was wearing it last night. So all of that is coming up after Taney's Open, which you know is must-listen radio. It's next. You're on the score.