Brewers (Priester) vs Cubs (Imanaga): 8/21/25, 1:20pm

[Brandon Glick]

I know it's not on anyone's mind right now, but the Cubs end this month with a nine-game road trip on the West Coast. Another win today could offer some nice momentum ahead of that stretch...

[Tryptamine]

Cubs need to finish off a really great series with a win today. The division is still most likely over even with a win, but it would be really good for team morale to finish off this series on a 4-1 note. 

[ILMindState]

Tuck is back

 

Edited August 21, 2025 by ILMindState

[ILMindState]

9 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Cubs need to finish off a really great series with a win today. The division is still most likely over even with a win, but it would be really good for team morale to finish off this series on a 4-1 note. 

A win today puts the Cubs at basically 4 games back because they win the tie breaker.  4 games back with 4 weeks to go is not impossible. Just keep winning and see what happens.

[Derwood]

Don’t love sitting Shaw when his confidence is so high. 

[Hot Sauce]

Just now, Derwood said:

Don’t love sitting Shaw when his confidence is so high. 

A rest day won’t affect his confidence.

[squally1313]

I kept seeing Priester as 11-2 with a 3.48 ERA and vaguely remembering his top prospect status and I just assumed he was a stud but metrically he's pretty mediocre. Bad at strikeouts, gives up hard contact, big beneficiary of good infield defense. Should be a winnable game. 

[CubUgly]

1 minute ago, squally1313 said:

I kept seeing Priester as 11-2 with a 3.48 ERA and vaguely remembering his top prospect status and I just assumed he was a stud but metrically he's pretty mediocre. Bad at strikeouts, gives up hard contact, big beneficiary of good infield defense. Should be a winnable game. 

He's another one of those Brewers who has been producing well above what was expected of him and part of why they have been so hot for so long.   He has been very mediocre in the majors prior to his stint with Milwaukee this year. 

[Geographyhater8888]

No Shaw. Is Priester a sinker baller?

[mul21]

23 minutes ago, ILMindState said:

Tuck is back

 

What are we doing here?  Did they fix his swing and timing in two off days and suddenly his hand isn't hurting anymore? And we're benching the guy who almost single handedly won the game for them last night on top of it?  This team is baffling.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

12 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

No Shaw. Is Priester a sinker baller?

Yep.  Interestingly, a lot of sinker heavy guys have heavy platoon splits so it's hard to tell if Shaw is simply the RHH they want to replace for a lefty or if they think he's a poor match for that profile.  Priester has had basically no platoon split this year, so that's a data point in one direction.

[UMFan83]

1 hour ago, Brandon Glick said:

I know it's not on anyone's mind right now, but the Cubs end this month with a nine-game road trip on the West Coast. Another win today could offer some nice momentum ahead of that stretch...

I remember in April when we played a ton of west coast games feeling relieved that we wouldn't have to go to the West Coast against until late August.  Wow that came up quickly

[BigbadB]

Blown away that this is the lineup they came up with for getaway day and a chance to take 4 out of 5 from the team they are looking up at. Where is the reward for a job well done where you maybe even consider moving a guy up in the lineup (batting McGuire 9th doesn't qualify) for performing so well? But hell nah, sit the bench kid, we got veterans that need to make some big outs.

[Jason Ross]

1 hour ago, Derwood said:

Don’t love sitting Shaw when his confidence is so high. 

I believe he has done pretty poorly against RHP sinkers. Priester is a sinker merchant. Probably a good rest day for him all things considered. 

[squally1313]

I mean, we were all complaining about how the lack of a bench in the first half made all the starters exhausted and led to the slump like a week ago right?

[Soul]

Priester didn’t make it out of camp this year.  His performance has been shaky up until the Brewers snatched him out of the Red Sox minor leagues this spring.  Now he’s great.  So he’s another case where the Brewers apparently know more about players than the teams they play for.  Getting sick of this crap from these guys.

[ILMindState]

6 minutes ago, Soul said:

Priester didn’t make it out of camp this year.  His performance has been shaky up until the Brewers snatched him out of the Red Sox minor leagues this spring.  Now he’s great.  So he’s another case where the Brewers apparently know more about players than the teams they play for.  Getting sick of this crap from these guys.

I still refuse to believe the Brewers are the best team in baseball.  This 3 game slide has to be the start of a hard regression. RIGHT!?!??! RIGHT!?!?!

[CubUgly]

9 minutes ago, ILMindState said:

I still refuse to believe the Brewers are the best team in baseball.  This 3 game slide has to be the start of a hard regression. RIGHT!?!??! RIGHT!?!?!

I agree I don't think they are.  But organizationally they seem to have a knack for getting the most out of what they have.  Like Sharma was saying the other day, if the Cubs had picked up Vaughn and Collins off the scrap heap our fans would have been screaming about dumpster diving.   

[Donzo]

Tired pen. I guess Pomeranz closes today.

[squally1313]

2 minutes ago, Donzo said:

Tired pen. I guess Pomeranz closes today.

Was thinking Kittredge but probably depends on how the matchups stack up. Brown if things go sideways, probably going to have to have Brasier for an inning, ideally to work through the largely worthless bottom half of their lineup

[Donzo]

2 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

Was thinking Kittredge but probably depends on how the matchups stack up. 

They' look like the 8-9 inning guys. Like you said matchups will probably determine the order.

[Hot Sauce]

6 minutes ago, Donzo said:

Tired pen. I guess Pomeranz closes today.

Shota goes 7. Offense puts up 12. Brown gets the final 6 outs. Cubs win 12-2. NSBB happy.

[Jason Ross]

One reason that Shaw is sitting for Castro - Castro hits LH and Priester, a heavy sinker-usage arm, struggles against LHH. Which makes sense, sinkers are good against same-side hitters. Priester has a 3.58 xFIP against RHH and a 4.08 xFIP against LHH, with a reduction on his GB% by 10%. 

[Dfan25]

Looks like Counsell is  prioritizing small sample results over Priester ‘s splits by starting Suzuki over Cassie .

[Bertz]

40 minutes ago, Donzo said:

Tired pen. I guess Pomeranz closes today.

Yeah Brasier is the only guy you'd assume is fully fresh (Brown too, though I suspect he is going to start Friday or Saturday unless things go sideways today), and even that's pending how warm he got in the 9th last night.  I'm hoping for a blowout one way or the other.