Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 382 | How Heartbreaking was the Cubs Trade Deadline? (with Ian Happ)

Episode Date: August 25, 2021

Host of the Compound (and player for the Cubs) Ian Happ joined Jomboy & Jake to break down the Cubs 2021 Trade Deadline, learning left field, and which pitchers make him want to stop switch-hitting. Get 20% off + free shipping with the code 'TALKIN' at https://manscaped.com  Go to https://getroman.com/jomboy now to get $15 off your first month Presented by DraftKings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Trevor Plouf is out. We're bringing in a new host Ian Hap. Do do do do do do music music music. What's going on everybody? Welcome to talking baseball live from Lincoln Park in Chicago Sitting in the shade. I share me like this. I feel rude. I feel really what's happening. I mean I get just holding myself and we're with Ian Hap left field right now. Left field right now. Great to be here. Yeah left fielder now. Left field extraordinary. Left field right now. Trying. Yeah. Jake, how are you?

I'm good. I was excited. I normally introduced the guest, so the whole episode's fucked, for lack of a better term. I was going to say, face of the Cubs, face of John Boy Media, face of Chicago, in half. See, that's a better introduction. I appreciate that. That's why I do that. The Trevor's not here.

He's usually here. He sucks. He's soft. How you doing, dude? I'm great. Yeah. I'm sad that Trevor didn't make it. He was RV trip.

The boys were doing it. and he makes it two days. What are we doing? He's, he should see him on the RVs. He's like new trev. He's like, he's got some habits he brings out. He's like, you know, just on the RV, just on this trip. And then, back to Family Man now. Yeah, he changed. Yeah. He's doing all right. He's good. Yeah. Yeah. It's hot out there. Is this, is this, you come here a lot?

Lincoln Park? Does people find you here? No. What, what days do you run here in the morning? Yeah, it's a great area. Lincoln Park Zoo not far from here. Free zoo. Drove past that. One of only a few free zoos in the country. To me, that translates to sad animals. Okay.

Little Chicago pick-me-up on the zone. Big parks and rec budget here. Big parks and wreck budget. Yeah, they care about the green space. You can see this much green space in the middle of the city, very nice. Not a central park, but a lot of green space. Man, how about it? We drove to a completely wrong park.

You did. How about that? Because this is like a famous park. Yeah. I actually sent you the pin for, I believe, that field. Yes. Yesterday. Somehow you, somehow.

Yeah, no, but this was the park. This was the park that we all looked at yesterday. I don't know how we got to the other park. Correct. And then. But the baseball field layout like looks similar. So when I saw where we were, I was like, these are the fields that I saw. Okay.

Because when you sent, when I called you and you said, we're at Waveland, I said, Wavelin is literally the street that Riggly's on. Yeah. So I was like, that can't be correct. What's the, you know, we're super famous now. Yes. You're walking through the streets of Chicago. Or you walk, you know, you're in the park. I'm in the park.

How many, you know, are you giving a couple? Wow, very interesting and cool point, Jake. But first, I got to tell you about manscaped. What's manscape? Is that the awesome company that's set me to Milwaukee so I could have, like, the best time in my life? Yeah, that's manscape. Let me tell you a little bit more about manscape, because it is that company that sent us to Milwaukee to have the best time of our lives.

They sponsored the content that we were doing there on the field while we watched the field get landscaped. Oh, I shave my downstairs with them, too. That is correct. First off, the new performance package 4.0 includes the new lawnmower 4.0. This trimmer is insane. Dare I say the goat of ball trimmers? Yeah, I said it. It gets down there.

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Escape the shrubs and weeds this summer and shine with Manscape. Get in a car with all your. your bros and go shave your down below's manscaped Okay, Jake, can you tell me that thing that you were talking about before? You're walking through the streets of Chicago, or you walk,

you know, you're in the park. I'm in the park. How many, you know, are you given a couple? As you can see, no one's recognized me. Right. So, not that much. It's, you know, it's big city, people are doing stuff. Once in a while, once in a while. I'm also a very normal looking

person. You do look pretty normal. It's not like when you're looking at like the Yankees outfield or Anthony Rizzo or Jason Hayward, you're like, those are massive humans that must do sports. What do you do? Yeah. But for me, it's like he's just a normal guy. Yeah. How we'll do some baseball stuff and then we'll talk about all these balls in our hands. Let's jump into it, dude.

What's going on with the Cubbies? Because we obviously know they were kind of the talking point. at the trade deadline for, I don't want to say unfortunate reasons, but kind of. Like, yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, a lot of guys that were the face of the town for a while, they're gone. So, like, tell us all about that. I mean, is it when it's happening? Are you guys just kind of in a shell trying not to show emotion? Like, how does that all play out? Yeah, I think we, maybe it might have been nine guys that we traded. That might be a record. I don't know what the record is, but that might to Bennett. And so it happened pretty quick. The first couple trades, Jock was early,

Tepara was a little bit before the deadline, Chafin was a little bit before the deadline, and then it got the deadline day, it was sad. It was a sad day. Because Riz got traded the day before the deadline, right before we were going to fly. His whole family was there. That was waterworks, like waterworks. You guys are benefiting from that. Congratulations. He's a great person. And then the next day was Hobby and K.B. And so that was like kind of all right, now everybody's gone. And it was kind of, we were in D.C. And it was looking around and going, that's, that's it. And for myself and the guys that have been there for a long time. And then some of the coaching staff that had been there through the

complete rebuild, like the build. up. It was just a really like somber day about memories thinking back to like I was hitting off the tea with our hitting coach who was my hitting coordinator in 15 and been there since 12 I believe and we were I was like man when I debuted like I hit in between like I remember getting and being up there in between Riz and KB and being like this is pretty cool like it's pretty special and like I'm I'm like crying, like hitting baseball. It's like off the tee.

Like, what's going on? But like, that was a relationship. When you play with guys for five, six years, like, those are relationships you build. There's a lot of bus rides and planes. Oh, man. Yeah. A lot of team dinners, a lot of, you know, a lot of wins together. A lot of memories, you know, celebrating.

And especially because it happened in D.C. And we won game five there. That was like our big playoff series win when I was there with those guys. So like that spot was kind of, it was emotional. But now, you know, we have. good group of guys. A lot of guys who were getting a chance to prove themselves with the last month and a half and kind of make a name for themselves and earn a job for this year next year. And it's exciting. It's a different time, but it took some adjusting. But we're just trying to

play and learn and do the best we can. Can I ask you to grade the goodbye hugs, just rapid fire? Just go KB? Like, is A plus hug? KB, KB. Yeah, no. Kee. KBB plus. It was a, he was, I kind of caught him right as he was finding out, so there was a lot going on.

Okay. So B plus. Wow, Rizzo. Rizzo A plus. Yeah. A plus. Havi? Havi was a,

he came in really late after everything had already happened. B plus. Okay. B plus, similar. Jock? I mean, he's only there for half a year. But he was an awesome guy. But he was an awesome guy.

Awesome guy. Jock's hug? I'm trying to remember that specifically. It happened so early. It was really a shock. It was actually, I didn't even get to say about him because it was an all-star break. They were in, so a bunch of the guys vacationed together on the all-star break. And so they were in wherever they were. And he actually flew directly to Atlanta, so I didn't get to say goodbye. I was on the plane going to Arizona to start the second half.

woke up, Jack was traded. Tuffy. What's your normal hug technique? Are you, do you try to get the, do you try to get the diagonal? I like, see a bigger guy? Are you just going low? See, I like the diagonal. Right. But the, uh, the bigger guys, it's tough because you feel, you're telling me. You can, you can feel real small when that guy's on like wrapping his arms over you. You just wrap around Yeah, so I like to like kind of, I like to do like the pat the side. Like I'm not that much shorter than you like give me a hug and then let me because when you when you wrap it under, it's demoralizing. Yeah. There you go pats on the head. Yeah. Yeah. There was a clip of Kimberl going

to the White Sox clubhouse and before he walks in the door, he just says, I've never seen this one before. Like I've never been on this side of the clubhouse before. Is there any curiosity for you? Like are you texting these guys and be like, hey, what's? Yeah. It's the home clubhouse like there. Yeah. What's different? Hey, before we go on and Jake says anything more stupid, we got to talk to you about Roman.

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Okay, back to the show. Is there any curiosity for you? Like, are you texting these guys and be like, hey, what's the home clubhouse like there? Yeah. What's different? Yeah, there's a lot of curiosity. I think especially New York's one, that you've heard a ton of stuff about their home clubhouse and the food. So big on asking Riz questions about that.

But yeah, the home clubhouse is, and then, like, how like different hitting coaches, different analytics, different R&D, like how the front office is involved, like all that stuff is pretty interesting from someone who's only been in one organization. So here in different perspectives is, is cool. Has there been like one nugget that stood out that you were like, ooh, kind of changed a little something in you? Like analytics or hitting coach or just kind of like? I've heard about a few different places just like, and this isn't specific to the guys that got traded, but just, like, we felt like there was a lot of pressure at times, like for our group, especially at the end, to perform and kind of keep everything together.

And I think just different organizations and teams, like how much the top down, it's like, we got to win. Like, we need to win. And so I think that's just like players just want to go out and play. And, like, we understand over the course of 162 that you have to have fun and stay. even and that's the good teams that we've had did that like that's 17 and 18 and like those teams joe madden was great at it like he was unbelievable at making sure that one day didn't carry into the next uh and i think that's like the when you start to hear about like we got we got to do it we got to win it's like yeah take it easy it's long season i think last last not sad question but i know this is one of jimmy's favorite you imagine i mean nine guys not

the group text messages. Oh, yeah. Yeah. How does that go down? We have a couple good ones. We have one. There was a poker game. So we have one group text with all the guys who played in the poker game that still goes.

But it is, so like the team group text, like, guys are getting removed. Yeah. And that's a sad thing to see. When that guy's name gets whacked off the list, you're like, whoo. At one point we did count we had of the 26 man opening day roster. We had 10 guys still with the team. Who's the most active in the team group chat? Like, is it mostly, like, you know, BP times and the daily schedule?

And then is there one guy just, you know, sending memes and emojis? Yeah. That group text, I guess the team group text with, like, BP times the schedule, like Jay Hay, Jay is really good at, like, some motivational, some positivity. Jay Hay's great at that. But the other group text, like the poker game group text, Peterson, Jack Peterson's whole area. So, like, he's in there being very funny.

Mike Napoli is fantastic as well. So our quality issue, he's assuring our quality. So what rest of the year, you know, we opened it up with, you know, you're playing left field now. Correct. You've always been a versatile guy. I mean, is it goals the rest of the year? Obviously, anytime you come up to the dish, you're trying to hit.

That's every hitter's goal. But, I mean, can you even say, like, if you wanted to work on something, defensively at another position. Do you think that would be an open discussion? Or for you, is it still, I'm going to show up every day, give the best I've got, go from there? Yeah, you just try to, I think that's really important, especially what I've learned pretty quick in times like this,

where you're at, like, never been out of a race in August, right? And so you have to take it one day at a time because as a team sport, you're always so focused on playoffs and then, like, hey, we're going to be here until November. And so if you look at like when you're 60 days out or 45 days out, you're like, who it's going to be a long 45 days, you'll get away from you pretty quick. So you have to really be one day at a time and focusing on having those good at bats that day or what you're going to do defensively that day.

And for me, you know, outfield is kind of the spot where I've found myself most comfortable now. I went back in infield this year and it was a little quick. A little close. A little quick in there after being out for a couple years. Last time I played like consistently it was 18 and so coming back I was like these boys are a little close yeah yeah everybody take it easy martini shift the left field fans different than centerfield fans versus right like a

little bit a little bit in Wrigley yeah so the bleachers you guys should definitely go see the bleachers today left field tends to be especially in the corner like more season ticket holders As you get closer to center, it's your more the party crew. Like left center to center is the party crew. Right center continues the party crew. And then again, once you get to right, it's more season ticket holder. So I think the rowdiest section you're going to find is probably right center is probably the rowdiest.

And then you'll have like some sections of left as you get like really close to the field that can be a little rowdy. But yeah, it is a little bit different as you go across. With Havi and Rizzo gone, I don't know how many more times you play the Reds. Amir Garrett's going to need someone to yell at and yell with again? Do you feel like you might pick up, you know, that role? Or where do you think is going to be Garrett's new yell? You know, I try to stay away from that. I did, I clipped him one time.

And it was, I think after something that happens to a teammate, like, those feel good. Ooh. He's in a stance. He's looking for the team. balls. I mean, he's in like hunt. Yeah.

Yeah. We're on his time now. But I don't know who, I don't think, I think when like the teams are competing for the division, it gets a lot more intense from the pitcher perspective, yeah. Hot. You're lost in the squirrel. Yeah, you got really into the world. Well, I was worried for BBD because, you know, that's the closest he would ever,

the squirrel took one more step towards you. you were walking the other side. It's fair. That squirrel looked like you was on the home. Are you allergic to squirrels? Not a rodent guy. Yeah. It's fair.

Yeah. You have mice in the office sometimes. He doesn't like it. This has been a big mice in the office week. Glad we're not going to. You should make a new show, mice in the office. Yeah. Mice in the office.

What's on, do you, what do you prefer when you're in the office? I mean, do, you know, is it, what lights you up the most? Is it when someone just yells something silly? Is it when someone just yells something silly? Is it when someone, you know, I guess being mean if you're a real sick-o, is it? Well, that was really dumb, Jake. Let me break up that dumbness with a little ad.

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just yell something silly? Is it when someone's, I guess, being mean if you're a real sicko? Is it, I love you on the compound? Like, what do you love those? What do you like hearing the most in the outfit? Because we can actually spark some of that today. Yeah. I, you know, I think we have great fans and when they're, you know, especially when you stink and they're encouraging you, I appreciate that. Like, I think the real Chicago fans that, like, are 95% of them are the ones that like even though you stink because you're wearing that uniform I like you but I do I love a good compound shout out I get a lot of parsee rum yeah I say rum we get a lot of those which is great yeah big and the coffee too people are like hey love your coffee I'm I'm into that I like when

people care what if they shout out I mean I don't know if you have a dog but what if they shout like they shout out your dog name some people try to go real like real like Personal. I didn't feel like that. You know, so some people are like, hey, I know your girlfriend. Or like, I went to school with your girlfriend. That's weird. Yeah.

You know that. Yeah. Stop. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We heard, I think it was Aaron Hicks.

Someone said they were yelling his dog game out. He was like, that's, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some people, some people with the little personal comments, you're like, I don't know about that. How many dogs do you think are named after you?

Is happer? Happer? I hope there's one or two out there. Not as many as there are Rizzo's. I'll tell you that. Yeah. That's a good dog name. That's a great dog name. Riz.

Yeah. Riz. Bia? Bia. Bia. It would be hobby. Hobby. Hobby.

Or Elmago, maybe with Amago. That's a good puppy name. Yeah. I got one dog name. I forget, that's all I know. Got hit in his car. Yeah. It was, like, hurt, and he, like, got it back of life.

It's like the sausage risk. Is it. Is it named Johnboy? Yeah. John boy? John boy. John dog. Jam dog, that'd be good.

Cool. All right, we're going to play some games, so go check out that. With balls. I was, and this question is not about you. How about how? What, are you golfing at all? Because I played, I played the other weekend, 83. It's not a big deal.

It's pretty tight. I was pretty tight for 18 holes. I saw the hat. I like the hat that you were rocking. Which hat was I rocking? I think it was a John Boy. And I was like, I think it was that one. Yeah.

I was like, I might have to mix one in. We got a new, we started doing some more basic logos, a little more chic. But what are, you're into fashion. You're a chic guy. I'm a fashionable guy. That's what people say. Yeah. What else?

What's life off the field? Are we watching anything good? We're golfing. We're golfing. We're playing. We're cooking. Yeah. Netflix?

Yeah. I'm into Blacklist right now. I didn't watch Blacklist ever, and now I'm into it. Yeah. finishing that. I like to, long shows on Netflix that have like three, four, five seasons. Amazing for during the, during the year. Because you go on the road, travel and fall asleep to one of them. You watch the same episode seven times because you never meet it through.

Right. Big into that, yeah. Okay. Did you lose a show, buddy? You know, one of these guys that got moved? Like, did you have someone? Like, you guys, that's a big thing. You're like halfway through a season together.

No. No. No. No. I wish I could tell you how great the Yankees are. Tell me all the compliments that Rizzo told you about the Yankees. Here we go. Yeah, he said a lot of good things about the Yankees.

I mean, he is made to be, if he's not a cub, he's made to be a Yankee, right? Yeah. They love him there. He's a natural-born leader. He's got family in the area. He's a big market. He can handle the media. He's a big market player that enjoys that.

And he loves the city. Like he's a big, big city guy. And he, like him in New York, just from a living and city standpoint, is absolutely perfect. And I think that he'll do a good job. I think that's a team where they, especially they just really want to win. And with that payroll and with every, they run out every year. Like they want to win baseball games badly. And so he's a guy that will take that pressure and kind of spend there.

He's done it. He'll be able to alleviate some of that. And he's the best leader I've ever been around as far as an everyday player. He's the perfect example of how to play every day in the big league. Awesome. Love it. That was nice. One last final baseball question.

Final baseball question. Grossest pitcher on the Brewers. We were just there. We got to bump elbows with some of those guys. There's so many gross guys right now. If you go just pitch or you have relievers and bullpen. Yeah, I mean, haters are a tough A-B for a. anybody, but I have, from a starting standpoint, I think, for like seven innings, like Burns is

throwing 95 mile an hour cutters with a 93 mile an hour change up going the other way. Does a sick part of you ever want to stand in lefty against Hader and just be like, what, like how hard, how much harder is this? I actually, I've honestly seen our lefties have more success. Oh, really? And I thought to myself, maybe. Have you ever done? I've never done.

When are you going to do that? I've done in the big leagues. September. I've thought about it against... Long September. I've thought about it against a few guys. Kirshaw is one of them. Okay. Because he, when he's, that inside lane is very challenging for a righty.

Suter. I thought, I was really struggled against Suter for a long time. Thought about it against him. And, yeah, Haters won. Haters would be terrifying because he's like basically stepping at you. But I've seen like Riz and Jay Hay both clip him. Shorb might have got him once. Like, some really good at bats from lefties against him where that angle righty is tough. Dude, get one.

He's throwing a million. Get a little right on right. Gary. I think it would be like playing the infield. Like, I'd go in there and one guy would throw a curb on. Like, oh, my God, how do you guys do this? Nope. Because I take, once in a while, when a lefties starting, the lefty BP thrower will throw.

And, like, I take my first round lefty. I'm like, this is ridiculous. Like, what am I doing? All right, thanks, ma'am. Appreciate it. We're going to go play some, a dumb little game. It's going to be on John Boy, Jake, TV. So go tune into that afterwards.

I'm already sweating, so I can't wait to try to throwing around. I have a nice sweat going. That was talking baseball. See ya.