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It's time for the burning question
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that has taken over America.
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Do the Chicago Cubs have the best infield
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in the National League in 2026?
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Luke, I'm here to tell you that they do.
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Now, look, we were having this topic around the office
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because, you know, Luis Arias is now in the San Francisco
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giant sprint and Donovan gets traded to the Mariners.
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You see Boba Shet now in New York.
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A lot of different moving pieces here.
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So we were asking ourselves a question.
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Man, maybe the Cubs don't have the biggest star power
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in the infield across the National League,
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but I think that they have the best pound for pound player
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for player go around the horn,
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including catcher infield in the National League.
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There are six teams that we think qualify for that list.
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Number one, I have the Chicago Cubs.
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Number two, I have the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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Number three, the Metz.
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Number four, the Phillies.
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Number five, the Braves.
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And number six, the Giants.
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And we're going to get into it a little bit more,
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but Justin, I think we have the best one now
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with Breggman in the fold, best infield in the National League.
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Now, I know we're going to dig into this a little bit more,
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but I think we all can agree hands down unanimously,
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Yes, it's a that they do.
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Yes, you're talking about gold glimmers all around the diamond.
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Michael Boyce, we feel like could be a gold glimmer at some point.
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So I think that defensively, it's not even a conversation.
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No, obviously, it's not just defense.
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There's also offense, right?
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So we got to kind of talk about the offensive part of this as well.
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But I think defensively, there is no question in anybody's mind.
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I would think even the experts out there there, you know,
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tweet the passons of the world defensively.
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As Chicago Cubs had the best infield in all the baseball.
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What don't they have?
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Let's play devil's advocate.
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What don't they have?
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They don't have the most powerful infield in the National League.
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They're just not going to hit a ton of home runs because not
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he goes not Bush is going to give you some home runs.
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But is he going to give you more than a Freddie Freeman?
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Combined with Mookie Bettson, how else do you want to fill that out?
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He's not going to they're not going to hit more home runs than the Padres are on the infield.
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They also don't have right now a super star on the infield.
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Other teams do have superstars in the infield.
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But is the sum of those four guys better than the superstar potential?
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It's like the zips projections that we were talking about
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I like that the Cubs have a bunch of good pitchers, but they may not have a superstar
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just yet in the rotation.
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But is for really, really good, better than a couple of superstars with some, I don't
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know about that third guy or that fourth guy.
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That's the question I think we're asking.
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That's why I'm leaning into I just think for each player.
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Yeah, maybe they don't have so like if you look at it, right?
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Like the Metts have let's go wins above replacement.
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Just stick with that.
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Francisco Lendor 6.3 like great.
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Trade Turner 6.7 Matt Olson 4.7 close to a five Cubs don't really have a player like
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And if you look at the Dodgers, even Mookie Bettson at down year 3.4, but you go around
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the diamond with the Cubs, all of their guys are over 3.0 war outside of catcher, which
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is still Carson Kelly, a 2.6, no slouch right there.
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And if you just add up all the collective war across these six teams, the Cubs come out
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on top at 17.9 right behind it.
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Philly's combined infield 17.1 met 16.6 Dodgers 15.5 braves 13.4 giant 13.1.
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It isn't just about the war step, but that gives you an idea of how complimentary and how
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solid the Cubs infield is across the board.
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Just in the one that I'm looking at that I'm interested in is the Atlanta braves though,
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not necessarily at the top of the list right now, but Austin Riley healthy season next
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year Matt Olson still in the mix, Hans Young, Hans Young Kim now in the fold and off
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of course Drake Baldwin and catcher, they're kind of an interesting, are they a bounce
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Well, Kim's already heard.
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Well, Kim's already heard for right now.
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But when you move into the season, they're one of the interesting bounce backs.
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But if you go across the diamond, it doesn't really get much better than the Cubs.
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I think I think Luke, you put it perfectly where it's like, we may not have the superstar
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in our infield yet, but like we don't have any weak links either.
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You know what I'm saying?
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Like we really across the board, we're solid at every single spot.
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And you know, I throw a couple wild cards in there, the fact of like, you know, you
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talk about cars in Kelly, we got a guy named Miguel Maya as well that, you know, wild
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What's going to happen?
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You got Matt Shaw as well.
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So all these different things, I feel like we're probably the most deep infield collectively.
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And I mean, as War says, we are the top rated infield with that stat and I just feel like
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there's also more to go.
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Michael Bush, is it what Michael Bush was last year?
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I think Michael Bush is still like this.
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So man, it's guys are women.
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We said in the Giants conversation, like if you're talking Matt Chapman versus Braggman,
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I think Braggman's a better player.
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But it's, it's a good conversation.
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It's a good conversation.
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That short, Willie Adamus is better than Dan's B Swanson because of the home run potential
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and stuff like that.
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I just, I guess it depends on how much you value power and a lot of teams right now really
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The Cubs have shown the one thing they value almost as much as anything right now is they've
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been trying to build this team towards a championship team is defense.
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I don't believe that built, I love a good defense, but I'd rather have four guys that hit
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40 home runs, but, but, but I don't know that anybody has that.
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So I'm willing to go out on a limb and say the Cubs have the best infield in the nationally.
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Do I think it's close?
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There are good infields around Major League Baseball and in the nationally, but I think there's
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a real solid argument and I don't think it's crazy to say going into the season that Cubs
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could have the best.
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The infield that's going to mash next year and to what you're saying I want all these
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guys to hit some bombs is probably going to be the match, right?
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They got Lindor, Francisco Alvarez behind the plate.
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Marcus Simeon will see, I think he still might have a year or two good left in him, Boba
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Shatt and then of course Jorge Planco is going to play first base guy.
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You got a huge offensive season last year.
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But again, when you talk about Jorge Planco at first base and Boba Shatt at third base,
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I don't like those defensive options as much as I do with the Cubs with the Phillies.
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The other one that's intriguing is Trey Turner, obviously, we all know who Bryce Harper
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You know, the, the second baseman, Stott had a really good year last year and real Muto
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They have Alc Bomb there right now, but they love Aiden Miller coming up from their system
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So maybe he's a guy that kind of leaps their infield up into the mix a little bit more.
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But again, stability, what you're going to get on a day to day basis, all these guys play
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They're all going to at least give you above league average offense, but again, above
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way league average defense, all the guys in the infield go give you a three plus war.
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I'm going with the Cubs, stick with Cubs.
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One more thing I'll add.
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The only place we don't have power is Nico Horner, and it is everything else right.
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So I mean, we Michael Bush is a powerful dude who is not, I don't think reached the ceiling
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There has to be sponsor for you.
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Say what you want about his contract.
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Yeah, there's 25 home runs.
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You know, I mean, maybe that's where he's at.
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I don't know how really is going to play to his power, right?
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But either way, we have power in the infield, just not at second base, but we have a really
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good second baseman there.
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This has been very scientific.
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There has been no humorism.
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There's been no favor.
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It's not a month away from spring training, but the stats back in all the CS the zips
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back it up, the Cubs have the best infield in the national us.
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The best infield in the national's soul that's back.
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This heads back the zips back it up.
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The Cubs have the best infield in the national needs.
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The best infield in the national'sID.