Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Where will the Cubs be in the standings a month from now?

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote and Yahoo Sports MLB insider Russ Dorsey wondered where the Cubs will sit in the standings a month from now.

Rahimi Harrison Grody. Oh, sorry, but... Watch your profanity. You said pop of the mind. No, no. You know what? You've got to let it flow. Our poor producer, Ray, spilled his coffee.

So, thanks for christening our studio over here. No, no. It's okay. Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043, the score. And watch your profanity also may have come up again, which, which, uh, that inspired the famous Russ Dorsey line invite you to somebody's private.

Watch your profamity. Yeah, that was said. Yes. Yes. Did you see Abner your rebate last night? I did see Abner. Give the old DX chop to the Carlin's bitch. Yeah. I'm sorry.

Pat Murphy was not happy. Pat is his boss and I understand why he has to keep a button-up operation. But I keep the opposite of a button-up operation and I thought he had funny points. Yeah, it's. I'm it's not okay because you put somebody's health at risk because the likelihood that you get thrown at the next day is very high. And everybody would understand. I think from that aspect, it's selfish because you're not the dude that's going to get thrown at. It's going to be Jackson Churio or Christian Yelich that has to wear William Contreras.

And that's not fair to your teammates. Eye for an eye. Throw William and see what happens. I'm not saying. I'm not saying that's okay. I'm just saying that's what usually happens and that's unfair as a team. It was also wild. We were just talking about this, Russ and I during the break.

It was on May 6th, Russ? It was May 6th. Russ and I were doing the afternoon show filling in for Stiegel and Holmes. Yeah, it wasn't that long ago. The Cubs were riding so high that we were doing the Russ Dorsey game, which was Grody, I'm going to name teams. You stop me when there's a team better than the Cubs. Right, and there was only two. Dodgers and Yankees, right?

At the time. That was it. Oh, your World Series pick? And the Braves. Yes. My very unique and creative. Guys that legit was my World Series picked this year.

Why wouldn't you just pick the Dodgers and Yankees every year in this era? Because sometimes the Yankees are not fail-safe. But they're about as fail-safe. They're fail-s safer than other teams in the American League. But yeah, that was, that's sad. Yes, and this was the music that we used. Oh, my God. What is this song?

This is the, do you want to be a millionaire? Oh, yeah, yeah. Who wants to be a billionaire? That's right. That's what it was. Oh, phone a friend and all that. Yeah, all that. The pressure's on.

Are you ready for this? The Cubs are trying to phone a friend right now. Oh, my God. Who would you phone? Yordan Alvarez? I'm obsessed. Sorry. You are obsessing.

I thought he's really good. Can I ask a question? Because any time I hear people like, hey, trade for Yordaun Alvarez. Couple things. You have to have a, it takes two to tango when it comes to trades. Number two. You think you would be the only team in Major League Baseball that want Yordaun Alvarez, one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball?

number three. To be fair, Kyle Tucker was up for grabs. Yes, I do think. I only think the Cubs would be interested. Yes, Russ. That's what I think you will think sometimes. Only the Cubs are in 12. You're John Alvarez for Moises by Esterole.

Straight up. I'll throw in Mets Shaw. I'll say. Matt Shaw. Is that good enough? Is that good enough? Okay. Let's do this.

I would like to say Shaw plus name whatever Kevin Alcantra. Jordan Wicks. Yes, like people put together packages like that And I'm like, I promise you that doesn't get it done. If it took your best prospect to get Edward Cabrera, you think Shaw plus pick a prospect is going to get you, Yordon Alvarez?

Jackson Wiggins, the pitcher. Is that the name, right? Wiggins, Jackson Wiggins. So you think somebody's going to trade for an injured pitcher who hasn't made his debut yet for Yuron Albrein. I see, this is what people do. But you know what, here's a flip side. As much as we, as much as we like to hold on to certain prospects

or try to trade them. I always think of the prospects that are, oh, you can't trade that guy. That guy's untradable and blah, blah, blah. And it's always, you know, I think all comes to mind. I'm trying to think of who it was. He's been DFA'd here twice for Austin Jackson.

Michael. Michael was like untradable in the Texas Rangers organization. He was a cub and a white sock. And DFAD each time for Austin Jackson. I'm not even making it off. It's a trivia question because he was the Cubs starting third. basement in the year 2015 before he was holding the place for KB and once he got his service time, he was out of there.

But the point is like the guy you think is untradable. You know, there's no way. Part of the reason you think that is because he's been kept in the minor leagues for a reason. And it is to keep his value up because the unknown plus that prospect is worth more in a package of some sort of deal like this. You can't do that as much now. But I still think about that. I just, we sometimes like to put very.

value on prospects because you see them and you can find their names on a prospect list. And sometimes when it comes to how other teams see those prospects, they are not the same, right? Like you would like to assume that a team looks at, let's say, Kevin Alcantra and says, oh, this is a valuable piece. They might not, though. They might see a guy that was hitting 240 at AAA. Well, yes, 15 homers, but struck out almost 40% of the time in the month of April. So you never know.

So the thing with the Cubs, I'm going to ask you guys a question because you guys ask me a question. I'm going to ask y'all a question. It's May 27th. June 27th, where are the Chicago Cubs? That was the date I predicted they would catch the White Sox in the standings, that the two would be even. But I can't really... Oh, the socks would catch the Cubs. Correct. But I can't confidently say that because the socks have a brutal June schedule. It is pretty rough. But I think they're still probably... theory if this mercifully ends.

The problem is two games could separate one through three in the central. I think they're still in the playoff picture, believe it or not. But it's really a good and legit, difficult question again, because of the skittishness, the bipolarism of the Cubs this year, where they can have the two 10-game winning streaks and now a 10-game losing streak. So how do you predict what their next streak is going to be? For the sake of the question, I will say, yes, the Cubs are still going to be at that point, seven to ten games over 500 and in the playoff picture and in the division race still.

Okay. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, even if you're third in the Central, you're still in the playoffs. So I feel confident about that. These are the Cubs opponents. So they got the last one, or today and tomorrow against Pittsburgh, and they have St. Louis for three, been playing really well. They have the A's that have been playing well for their division in the AAL-West.

Then they have the San Francisco Giants have not been playing well, the Rockies, who haven't been playing well, then they have the Giants again in San Francisco, then the Rockies again at Wrigley. So that might be your two-week reprieve where like you got to get fat again and you have some opponents to do it. Then you have Toronto, the New York Mets, Milwaukee, in Milwaukee, and then three against the San Diego Padres. If there was ever a time to get yourself going again, it would be the month of June. I also thought that they'd get themselves right against the Houston Astros. That's the other thing, growth, about this whole thing. The White Sox took two or three. All right.

Sox were playing really well going into that series. Then the Brewers swept you. Great starting pitching, and they had been playing really well. And then the Astros come in with a fourth worst record in the American League. They were 11 games under 500. Fourth worst record in a bad American League, too. Yeah. And not a fundamentally sound team or any of that.

You're not Alvarez. And injured. It was her. Was her. But that's the other point. And injured. Altuve is on the injured list. Correa's out for the year.

Yeah. And they came in here and swept you. And then they threw no hitter. They were the get right. They got the Cubs to get right series. They were the Astros Get Right series. The Cubs were. Disturbing.

So yeah, I ask you guys that because I look at the month of June and there are some opponents on there. Now, we thought the Cubs would play better and they haven't. maybe they play better against those opponents like the Giants and the Rockies that you get for two different series back-to-back weeks. Giants look pretty good. The Mets. The Mets.

The Mets. They had against the socks, I will say. But they're not that good. But they're not good. And they were at home. No, but. But yeah, yeah. And so it's hard because it's the season.

It's hard to figure out because they're in such a good division, too. I don't think that's why the Giants are bad. I think the Giants are bad because they're a bad, poorly constructed baseball team. I thought they were going to be good. I don't think they're, and their manager. has never managed and their president of baseball operations has never president and i think he kind gets to slit pass because he's a hall of him i don't understand how they go from uh andrew friedman to this or far hans i mean r ron don't have a ton of success even but like you go from farhan to

like but far hans he did enough to help the dodgers create the juggerna there were a lot there are other things to that. But I, they've added, they've added a lot of players in the last couple of years, right? Financially. You look at their payroll, like Willie Adams, Raphael Devers. They just gave Matt Chapman. It's a big market team.

I like, I liked the Matt Chapman signing. I'm cool with them being aggressive, but none of their moves have worked. They've been booing in San Fran, man. And right, right? The one three World Series title. These titles in six years. Exactly, Leila. They know what good baseball looks like

and what San Francisco is playing is not good baseball. But the game is so different now compared to them. Like that's what makes us hard. And again, you have the juggernaut down south on the 5 in L.A. who lets everybody know that if you're available, they're going to get you. Yeah, they'll get, by the way, they'll get Yorda and all for us. 7.08 says, come on everyone. You're talking like it's the end of the season.

There's over 100 games left. I realize that. But, like, at some point. you, these aren't just today issues. These are issues that have lingered now. If you don't want to look at your credit card balance, it's not my business, but I look at mine.

I look at every game as if it is a game that is of consequence. Not the most consequence, but when you see patterns, we would be naive and in denial to not acknowledge them. That's it. This is, as the other text are said, four and 20 or 14. Yeah, that's a big stretch.

You know, that's not, 4 and 16 over the last 20 is more indicative of what you're seeing. That's not a small sample. Also, I'm not a big half-faith person. You know how people be like, have faith in Jed. I don't do that. Like, people make decisions. The decisions are what they are.

We talk about the decisions. I don't have faith in any one individual. Also, I just don't even know how many good teams there are in major league baseball this year. Do we want to play the game? That's the way that game. Start the music. How many good teams are there? The problem is baseball doesn't know how many good teams there are in baseball,

and that's what makes the trade deadline even more confusing. Rattle off some names and we'll just go yes or no. MLB.com slash standing. 827. All right. The Atlanta Braves is the first name. Very good baseball team. Yes.

That would be a yes. That's one. The Washington Nationals. I don't necessarily think the Nats are a baseball team. Their economy is based on Joey Weamer. They've played well. They've played well. And surprisingly, the best offensive major league baseball.

I don't know how that's happening. And James Wood is the dude and C.J. Abrams has been playing great. I don't necessarily think they're good. These last three are, actually this one I think is one of the best ones. The Philadelphia Phillies. Oh, man. Are they good? They've been playing a lot better.

They've been playing a lot better under Donnie baseball. I'm going to say, yes, I do think the Phillies are good baseball team. Okay, I'm going to bounce around a little bit here. I'm going to get out of the east here because Miami and the Mets, they're not great. Maybe Miami. I think the Marlins are a good baseball team. They do this every seven years. People don't like saying it, but they're a good baseball team.

How good? Like better than the Cubs good? They're going to be in the playoffs. When we get to September, the Marlins are going to be in the conversation. They have two of the best offensive players in Major League Baseball in Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards. They are a good baseball team. Otto Lopez is batting 3.30.

He lured Major League Baseball in hits and batting average. He's batting 3.30. The Marlins are a good team. All right. The St. Louis Cardinals. 29 and 24. second place in the central of the National League. Three and a half games back.

They've lost three in a row right now. I feel like you can't put the Cardinals in there because they're playing with some found money of sorts. I mean, we're about to be in June, and they're, yes. Okay. How about the Arizona Diamondbacks? I don't know. 30 and 24? No.

We talk about San Francisco, no. Colorado. No. San Diego and the Dodgers. So here's the thing with the Padres. I know what their record is. If you look at their lineup. 31 and 23.

They have like five dudes hidden below 200. Fernando Tatis Jr. still doesn't have a homer. Mani Machado's hit under, still. He did a whole YouTube video about this. And TikTok. Manny Machado's hitting under 200. Jackson Merrill's hitting under 200. I just, I don't know how the Padres are winning games, but they are.

Gavin Cheats. Having a great teaching. I know we got a break, but really quick. I'm just going to go through some in the American League. Yankees. Yes. Toronto. No, not right now.

And obviously, Baltimore and Boston. No, and no. Okay, here, Cleveland. Yes. Are the Cleveland Guardians good? I think Cleveland's a good team. Minnesota, KC, Detroit, blah, right? And then, God, the West is ridiculous.

Do you realize that every team in the West right now is under 500? Exactly. Athletic, Seattle, Texas, Houston, and the Angels. Any of those teams good? The best of those, to me right now is the A's. Maybe. A's are to the American League as the Marlins are to the National League. For the love of God.

Get him out of there. He doesn't deserve this. We said like seven teams. Yeah. Yeah, so that keeps hope alive for everybody, including the Chicago Cubs. That is the moral of the story. You know who you didn't mention? The White Sox.

He didn't say to the White Sox. Are the White Sox good? You know, the White Sox question is, and I really understand we have to break. Are they what they are right now? And that is a, what is their exact record right? The White Sox are 27 and 27. Are they better than that? Are they a 500 team or are they 10 games over 500 teams?

They are exactly what their record is. They think they're about 500 by the time of season. Probably. Okay. Okay. Yeah. You guys look at that. I don't think it's like that's a really good season.

Oh, it's tremendous. It's a really good season if they finish 500. Look at the month of June and that will be the truth. I know they got the Yankees in there. It's not just sad. For the Socos. Not just that. Like they play the Yankees and they play the Dodgers and Braves at home.

Like it's at their home, not at the not at the Dodgers and Braves home. But it's, it's bad. It's a bear. It's a bear for any team, not just the White Sox. Bears. Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison, and Grotie, it is time to observe an anniversary. And Ross was there. What? Yes. In the meantime, we want to remind you this Saturday, join the score, White Eagle Auto Body and Oswego.

Gabe Ramirez will broadcast live from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. White Eagle Auto Body won the score big for your business contest. Brought to you by People's Bank. That is Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with Gabe Ramirez at White Eagle Auto Body and Oswego. The anniversary of something where Russ was there. Next.