Bruce Levine breaks down losses for the Cubs & White Sox

0:00good morning bruce how were you good morning guys can the plumbers emergency guys help you with the cubs bullpen and all while who can get the milwaukey fastest the plumbers are you because you need to provide some levity crack counts of could use a laugh wasn't doing much laughing last night bruce that one left a mark it nothing is funny when your bullpen is not getting the job done and the uh... cubs bullpen no matter who it is right now other than irons of vali is uh... not getting the job done it's it's hard to watch uh... and a lot of people are reporting the finger uh... you know i'd counsel at the front office they didn't do enough uh... look zephyr jane was a uh... a dynamite closer and back and picture for the angels they made the move to get him he hasn't been a close to do we was before i mean he's just you know guy that had thirty three percent uh... strike out rate is now in the ill-wenties and it's just

1:02not getting it done there that they lack the power arm at the end of the game that you need for swing and miss anybody will tell you that right now if you if you get to the end of the game and you get big hitters like milwaukey had last night you gotta be able to strike people out and and the cubs they do not have that right now bruce you mentioned the name irons of all he was excellent last night but do you believe he could be a guy that this team can lean on the rest of the way well he's been a bridge guy mostly jerry and and bridge guy usually means uh... mop up time one way or the other he comes in late in the game when you're when you're leading and you're starting picture goes out or you're you're trailing by two or three runs and you're hoping to get back into a game uh... after four or five minutes and he comes in and throws two or three he he's been terrific i mean you know he here's the guy that used to be in

2:03a high quality starter in the major leagues with the guardians of back in the day and he's been bouncing around the last few years was with the white saxophone series with the cubs last year back with the cubs this year after stint elsewhere you know again the the term outgitter's right now crack house that doesn't have any people are writing stories and talking about shall be miller got as a pitched in over a year who's at uh... triple a rehabbing uh... uh... time a john surgeries getting people out when when you start looking at uh... desperate moves and that's saying miller at his best isn't really good he always has been when you start looking uh... beyond reality of what's going to help you right now uh... it's it's a troubling thought in and certainly the the cubs are in that mode right now it's not beyond reality this is the reality you're facing these are desperate times bruce jake of web made history for for futility essentially for giving up

3:05two-out home runs uh... but since he's first got to do that since they started keeping track of saves so i get it i know what you're saying but she'll be more to what don't keep don't keep track of those anymore shall be miller just in steel Edward cabrera all three of those guys may be in play before the end of the season it's September ninth the cubs are you know they they have some days off but they're not so worth it to forget about the brewers they need to get position themselves to maybe stay to get the first playoff spot in the wildcard spot and then to have a bullpen that you can maybe trust in these high-level situations in that series so if those guys can help you have to you have to mention those possibilities so that out of in their last twenty games are eight and twelve in ten of those games they lost they had a lead

4:06okay those are the numbers that are they're really hurt the idea the idea is they can't hold on to leaves and that they've they've had some outstanding starting pitching even peter since born a third yesterday or four and two thirds whatever it was for the third yes was good enough okay because thorton came on and and got out of that inning was unlike the week before where peter sent was in the exact same mode exact same meaning and credit counsel couldn't get him through the fifth and that game blew up so i don't know if you look at you can't look at counsel because he's got the guys who he's got on that roster if all of your in hawkins decided bring up some of the guys from the minor leaves and and they decide to put them in there and and hope beyond hope that they can help you know i'm all for it i don't i don't think you want to continue to repeat uh... failure but at this point of the year

5:08there's a very little that you can do other than switch some guys around you want to put civali like jared said in a higher leverage situation uh... not a strikeout picture you want to bring him in the eighth or ninth inning save him for that you can do that but uh... honestly uh... the couple don't look anything like uh... the team that were uh... you know three weeks ago and we've seen it all year let me ask you question though let me ask you question let me fall that up because i don't understand we're saying about counsel and this does sound like nitpicking but after last night everything's fair game you we kind of give him a pass away he handles the fifth inning i believe like he goes to the mound it's like the fifth inning is a magical in the eye of kiddie the he is managerial uh... manual would be called the fifteenth out because he always takes starters out after four and two thirds last night it was after four and a third there was a walk there was a single eighty three pitches for david peterson

6:09was the bullpen really the way to go in that situation bruise do you think that sometimes this bullpen problem is exacerbated by going to the pen a little too early uh... it's who it's who's coming up and it's and it's what they see as far as his velocity location like i said the week before david he left them in in the fifth inning and he got torched okay they lost the game right then and there's so is he is he reacting to the past is he dealing with uh... the present of what he's going to try to do to get out of those jams i think you know great counsel is uh... not standing baseball man but he's human you know there's human responses teams losing right he doesn't feel good about uh... his bullpen right now but he's a positive thinker he doesn't think if i bring this guy in he's gonna give up more runs

7:10you can't think that way baseball you have to think hey i've we've had this guy in this position before he's done okay i mean right right now you know you have to think about going back to Daniel polencia late in the game whether he's been successful or not he does have a power on he can't strike people out you need swing and miss in the late innings bruce last night we heard it from jake of web just about how he's he's frustrated with his not just last night but also other outing his last two previous outings before that i mean how do you have confidence in a guy like that and i should say how does correct counsel have keep confidence in a guy like that when the issues and numbers show you something different well you know he he went to almost two months jared without giving up a run he was one of the best relievers not just for the cops but in the game uh... you know going over a stretch of twenty four innings over almost seven weeks and not giving up a run so you know he goes from that to what he is right now and and now he's coming back

8:14from and injured arm we got nailed on the arm a week ago and he's been pitching with a swollen arm he's not used that excuse the cops are not using that excuse but nonetheless it's not getting done so i think we can talk about it over and over again and we are because it seems to be happening every single night unfortunately right now well there's a new there's a new division okay the cops are no longer in the central division of the national league for the next two and a half weeks they're not there anymore what their division is bill of alfayette sandy a go and arizona though that's the division the cops are in they have to win that division now okay they're half a game which really doesn't mean anything it's it's the lost calm right now uh... that's what they have to accomplish try to win their new division the wild card division and be on top there to have those three home games that's the new goal

9:17that's a great way to look at a Bruce and meanwhile the socks have their own issues because they have a two game lead in the a l central and they're still looking at the wild card spot themselves because don't look now but the blue jays are lurking and the rangers not far behind they have to pay attention to all those comers and now it gets even tougher because the ace of the staff did not look like himself last night shan burq inning in a third eight hits seven earned runs two walks frustration everywhere and he showed it postgame when you were there bruce let's listen to shan burq after the socks lost Tuesday night and mostly location tonight yeah miss spots pictures what do you test that to have what led to not be able to locate your pictures uh... i don't know i'll show you that interest behind some guys even was a head of guys just not looking good pictures with the zone differences frustration and you're last week took a big step forward and

10:21then come out you're best up tonight yeah i mean i think more just with the position of work teams and we're at coming out of stretch more than you know like myself feel like a built off anything i think just can't run away game like that today down the stretches frustrated bruce he's very accommodating typically he sounded frustrated as he should be what did you take away from the shan burq outing last night well myself and other people continue to ask him the same question and he would he continue to get more frustrated went on for another forty five seconds or so and uh... you know again very great guy stands there like a pro after his worst outing maybe of his career and uh... took the same questions over and over again i don't know i mean he seemed really lost after this you know he came back before he had it had a better outing last time out it's uh... it's a problem for the white socks and that's why

11:22you know i was on the midday show with the layla and mark yesterday and i'd mentioned that jim bowden of the mlb network and had said on his sunday show that he doesn't think the white socks are going to make the playoffs at all not not as the winner of the central not as the wild card he looked at the uh... cleveland team he looked at the schedule in the three games the white socks play there next week and uh... you know that type of thing you know frustrates chicago fans to hear but the reality of uh... who's gonna get all the outs right now it's very difficult to see you know without burq pitching like he did for most of the year uh... frustrating to look at the uh... the sex rotation ago how are they going to pull the magic out tonight you know will the wizard be there with the wand at the end getting those out that was friday bruce that was magic one night friday i don't know where they're going to find the magic now

12:23well bruce i mean yeah go go go ahead you finish go finish i'm just saying look uh... the season goes all the way to the end of the year and what you're watching right now is means that are mostly a below five hundred that the white socks are going to play the rest of the year here some for cleveland they don't know they're supposed to lose uh... it's preordained here that the white socks have a softer schedule they're going to uh... if they win just half their games they should be okay it still looks like that but you know what two games uh... ahead of cleveland three in the last column you know with sixteen or seventeen left does it does it look quite like it did over the weekend well did david always tells me bruce not to kick a guy while he's down but it's hard every single night when you're watching the white socks and not look at mooney and try to figure out

13:24when he's going to bust out of this slump and striking out four times last night listen it's becoming a problem in that middle of the order and it's just hard to watch because you you at some point you're hoping that he breaks out of this there's a tenancy baseball jordan and i'm glad you brought that up it's a really good questions there there's there's a tenancy baseball and and counsel and and about both do it that if a guy is swapping you leave him in the spot he's in no matter what and we've seen it with the cubs we've seen it with the white socks you know a guy that are something stay in the two spots stay in the five spot they they don't move them around whether it's perceived punishment if they move them down in the order or not or somebody else is hotter and you move them up that's a conventional way to go about it but you don't see right now mooney shouldn't be bad in second at this point right should be down in the order and

14:26someone with a with a hotter bad should be up there you know bad in second right now he is i talked to an executive during uh... batting practice and i said look it's only a couple rounds of batting practice but he's hitting pop ups here he he's not hitting the ball hard do you think that the injury that he had to his hamstring back you know three months ago is still impacting his lower half and part of his swing uh... the executive said you know we don't know he did agree said lucky does look lost right now but this is a professional player whether he's a rookie in major league baseball or not which he is he's a seasoned player it's played seven games a seven years in in professional baseball so trying to work his way out of it it's frustrating to watch right now it's it's even frustrating more so for him first we got a minute left but i got to ask about this the socks are struggling for starting pitching consistency

15:27drew thorp has pitched nine times in the minors on his injury rehab and last night he pitched five scoreless innings struck out for walked one one hit sixty eight pitches forty two strikes for the charlotte nights is his next start in a socks uniform it could be i mean there are looking for guys to get out right in you know what if if if i tell you he can throw for innings and give up one run the zet sound good enough to you right now yes i know that's where we're at in baseball right now it's give me the four best innings you got keep us in the game our bullpen which is one of the best bullpen's in baseball the white socks for sure will get the rest on and let's move on from there but nobody said that guys no one said it's going to be easy for either team the delightful thing is that with a couple weeks left in the season uh... both teams are looking like boy off teams and we we haven't been able to

16:29say that very often in the last uh... hundred and twenty years thank you mr. sunshine will talk to you tomorrow see bruce i guys have a great day bruce lavine are scores baseball insider telling us that to keep smiling always puts a smile on my face this morning is not the morning that i think that you feel good about that statement you feel a little bit shaky about it