Cubs (Rea) vs Brewers (Priester): 7/29/25, 6:40pm

[Stratos]

Couldn't help but notice the Cubs pitching, hitting, and defense have all decided to sh*t the bed this series.

Also,  1 for 12 with RISP last night. 

[Geographyhater8888]

14 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Couldn't help but notice the Cubs pitching, hitting, and defense have all decided to sh*t the bed this series.

Also,  1 for 12 with RISP last night. 

The April-may offensive production wasn’t sustainable and neither was the May-June bullpen dominance, unfortunately, unless Seiya and PCAs 40 home runs pace picks back up of course.

Edited July 30, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[gflore34]

If Jed makes a trade for a bullpen arm and Hodge can get on track does that finally signal the end for Pressly? He's got to be close to being shown the door, no?

[Geographyhater8888]

9 hours ago, cubfansince77 said:

Very true and I think most sane posters on this board would agree with you. However, IF Hoyer can get one solid rotation piece and one solid bullpen piece that's a good start IMO. Gotta consider that Tallion, Assad and Hodge are all coming back in the next 2-3 weeks to add to whomever Hoyer acquires. Looking for a silver lining I guess. First thing's first: better win tomorrow. 

I think a lot of us took the Bullpen pitching out of their minds for granted. Now they can’t hold a deficit to save their lives and PCA and Seiya are no longer on a 42+ home run pace, the offense turning human just isn’t enough to overcome these roster holes without multiple upgrades.

[gflore34]

I don't expect any thing from Ballesteros, he'll be another automatic out.  Maybe, he was called up instead of say, Cassie, in hopes that he'll offer something because of prior experience?  

[Derwood]

My guess is that they called up Ballesteros because their plan for Amaya coming up had to happen a little sooner than they planned. As soon as Amaya is available, either Ballesteros or McGuire will go away

[gflore34]

6 minutes ago, Derwood said:

My guess is that they called up Ballesteros because their plan for Amaya coming up had to happen a little sooner than they planned. As soon as Amaya is available, either Ballesteros or McGuire will go away

Even tough they're facing Peralta today I sure hope he's in the line up.  I'd rather watch Ballesteros hit in the hopes that something good may happen.  Rather than Turner/Brujan/Berti take at bats in the knowledge the result will another useless out(s). 

[UMFan83]

The home/road splits are as a Brewer. Small sample size but damn

[Outshined_One]

2 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

Agreed. Or, if not traded, they are guys Cubs are discussing in trade(s). Ballasteros is fine since Suzuki can just play the OF. But if they are going with the best they have now in the minors I would think Cassie would be the guy. 🤷

Caissie might be the better prospect, but Ballesteros is probably the prospect most likely to help the Cubs *now*. Caissie is currently a thumper in AAA, but he's needed a fair amount of time with each promotion to adjust to the league, and he's also shown concerning enough K numbers that he probably will need at least a few months in the majors before he can be a positive at the plate. It also doesn't help that he's not a plus defender.

Ballesteros has his own issues, but he's more likely to be a positive contributor at the plate right now.

[Jason Ross]

35 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

I don't expect any thing from Ballesteros, he'll be another automatic out.  Maybe, he was called up instead of say, Cassie, in hopes that he'll offer something because of prior experience?  

There's a handful of reasons he's up instead of Caissie, but my guess is mostly that it's trade related. Not necessarily a specific trade, or an imminent one, but that the Cubs feel a few things:

1. The Cubs are of the understanding that they very well may trade Caissie. They probably don't want to trade Caissie mid-game on Wednesday, for example, and then have to pull him from the lineup. They want to win and losing a player mid-game from the Cubs versus Iowa is a very different concept.
2. Even if they don't trade Caissie, I think his first go in MLB will be tough. I expect a lot of strikeouts for a while. The Cubs probably would like to avoid that. Ballesteros has a lot of contact in his game and those usually translate quicker
3. They are less worried about trading Mo - either because they view him more as a catcher than a DH long term meaning he's higher on their internal lists, or just because teams aren't as interested. This plays into #1 - they won't be nearly as concerned about completing a trade mid-game and pulling him.

[gflore34]

5 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

The home/road splits are as a Brewer. Small sample size but damn

Vaughn is proven bad player there's no deny that, however, for whatever reason, he sees the ball well at American Family Field?

[Irrelevant Dude]

3 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

1. The Cubs are of the understanding that they very well may trade Caissie. They probably don't want to trade Caissie mid-game on Wednesday, for example, and then have to pull him from the lineup. They want to win and losing a player mid-game from the Cubs versus Iowa is a very different concept.

Not just that, but is it really fair to have a guy make his MLB debut with the trade deadline hanging over his head, knowing that he may be headed to another team in 24-48 hours?  One way or another, it makes sense to get through the trade deadline and then decide how to proceed from there.

[Rcal10]

5 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

There's a handful of reasons he's up instead of Caissie, but my guess is mostly that it's trade related. Not necessarily a specific trade, or an imminent one, but that the Cubs feel a few things:

1. The Cubs are of the understanding that they very well may trade Caissie. They probably don't want to trade Caissie mid-game on Wednesday, for example, and then have to pull him from the lineup. They want to win and losing a player mid-game from the Cubs versus Iowa is a very different concept.
2. Even if they don't trade Caissie, I think his first go in MLB will be tough. I expect a lot of strikeouts for a while. The Cubs probably would like to avoid that. Ballesteros has a lot of contact in his game and those usually translate quicker
3. They are less worried about trading Mo - either because they view him more as a catcher than a DH long term meaning he's higher on their internal lists, or just because teams aren't as interested. This plays into #1 - they won't be nearly as concerned about completing a trade mid-game and pulling him.

I agree with this. I think there is a trade to be made with Cassie’s name in it. All Jed has to do is make it happen. And as you said, he doesn’t want to make it happen if Cassie is in a game. He still might not do a trade with Cassie. But I have a feeling he could, right now, if he wanted too. 

[UMFan83]

20 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Vaughn is proven bad player there's no deny that, however, for whatever reason, he sees the ball well at American Family Field?

He was 6-12 with a 1.500 OPS in his only career series in Milwaukee before the trade so maybe?

What's wild is that even with this ridiculous 15 game stretch he still has a -1.2 bWAR for the season.  He was one of the worst players in baseball this season with the White Sox and now he's playing out of his mind.

[gflore34]

9 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

He was 6-12 with a 1.500 OPS in his only career series in Milwaukee before the trade so maybe?

What's wild is that even with this ridiculous 15 game stretch he still has a -1.2 bWAR for the season.  He was one of the worst players in baseball this season with the White Sox and now he's playing out of his mind.

There's no doubt, regardless of what uniform Vaughn is wearing, he's a bad player, doesn't mean he's incapable of short bursts of effectiveness.  Just like Flexen turned into the pumpkin that he is, so will Vaughn.

[sweetpeteman]

In his fifteen games Vaughn's played, he's put up a line of:

.383

.453

.617

1.070

and that... oh wait, that's Dan Vogelbach's first fifteen games as a Brewer. 

Vaughn's is:

.378

.467

.757

1.223

 

 

ah crap, that's Rowdy Tellez's first 15 games

 

 

Vaughn is just the newest random fat guy that has a hot streak starting as a Brewer. 

 

 

[ILMindState]

51 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

The home/road splits are as a Brewer. Small sample size but damn

Brewers: "This box is the strike zone, don't swing at the ball if it's outside of that"

[gflore34]

2 minutes ago, sweetpeteman said:

In his fifteen games Vaughn's played, he's put up a line of:

.383

.453

.617

1.070

and that... oh wait, that's Dan Vogelbach's first fifteen games as a Brewer. 

Vaughn's is:

.378

.467

.757

1.223

 

 

ah crap, that's Rowdy Tellez's first 15 games

 

 

Vaughn is just the newest random fat guy that has a hot streak starting as a Brewer. 

 

 

Hold on there with all that data, according to Brewers fluff piece #1000000000 he's not having a hot streak and will not regress to who he is.

[BigSlick]

Oh you sweet summer children, OF COURSE Andrew Vaughn will continue to hit like peak Ryan Braun until the end of the season. Have no illusions otherwise.

[gflore34]

1 minute ago, BigSlick said:

Oh you sweet summer children, OF COURSE Andrew Vaughn will continue to hit like peak Ryan Braun until the end of the season. Have no illusions otherwise.

Yes, of course he will, he's a Brewer and just putting on the uniform adds 50 points to his OPS+.  Whereas, if he was a Cub, subtract 50 points for putting on the uniform.

[Stratos]

4 hours ago, Derwood said:

My guess is that they called up Ballesteros because their plan for Amaya coming up had to happen a little sooner than they planned. As soon as Amaya is available, either Ballesteros or McGuire will go away

Ballesteros is a better pure hitter plus has had his feet wet already.  In a short stint he probably has to make fewer adjustments than Caissie who has a long swing and is a K-machine.

And it's not like Ballesteros isn't also hitting well in Iowa.   Plus has lots of experience DH'ing

Edited July 30, 2025 by Stratos