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

[UMFan83]

Cubs fans/media are incredibly whiny right now,  Not even really talking about here, mostly twitter and radio. Calling Counsel a colossal failure, Tucker a bust that they dont even want to resign (when 2 months ago they were saying the Ricketts would be cheapasses if they didnt offer him $500m).  Not just random twitter users, radio guys, beat guys all questioning everything assuming that they know better than the guys doing it for a living.  I'm not saying that we might not have an outside perspective that has merit, but in general Craig knows what he's doing.  1908 laid out a perfectly reasonable argument for why Shaw didn't play today.  

Bottom line is we came into today 6 games out in the Central and 6.5 games up in the WC.  Division was super unlikely, the WC is super attainable barring historic collapse.  How do you prevent collapse?  By keeping guys fresh.  I'm not saying I love the job Craig is doing necessarily (especially being pantsed by the small market team he was stolen from despite IMO a superior roster) but like this is the kind of stuff we hired Craig for.  To prevent what happened in 2023.  Now we're in the position where only a collapse worse than 2023 would keep us out of the playoffs, so lets maybe let the man do his job.

[Bertz]

9 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Cubs fans/media are incredibly whiny right now,  Not even really talking about here, mostly twitter and radio. Calling Counsel a colossal failure, Tucker a bust that they dont even want to resign (when 2 months ago they were saying the Ricketts would be cheapasses if they didnt offer him $500m).  Not just random twitter users, radio guys, beat guys all questioning everything assuming that they know better than the guys doing it for a living.  I'm not saying that we might not have an outside perspective that has merit, but in general Craig knows what he's doing.  1908 laid out a perfectly reasonable argument for why Shaw didn't play today.  

Bottom line is we came into today 6 games out in the Central and 6.5 games up in the WC.  Division was super unlikely, the WC is super attainable barring historic collapse.  How do you prevent collapse?  By keeping guys fresh.  I'm not saying I love the job Craig is doing necessarily (especially being pantsed by the small market team he was stolen from despite IMO a superior roster) but like this is the kind of stuff we hired Craig for.  To prevent what happened in 2023.  Now we're in the position where only a collapse worse than 2023 would keep us out of the playoffs, so lets maybe let the man do his job.

I have disliked this fanbase for a while but the gleeful knives out for Tucker over the past week+ has been disgusting even by the usual standards.

[Stratos]

5 hours ago, Derwood said:

Seiya:

Pre-ASB: .263/.319/.547. 25 HR, 77 RBI
Post-ASB: .188/.320/.277  2 HR, 9 RBI

Tucker:

Pre-ASB: .280/.384/.499 17 HR, 45 RBI
Post-ASB: .182/.333/.239  1 HR, 6 RBI
 

Play Caissie every game.

I'd even consider bringing up Mo again and just IL'ing Tucker, maybe retroactive to whatever.

[Irrelevant Dude]

2 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Play Caissie every game.

I'd even consider bringing up Mo again and just IL'ing Tucker, maybe retroactive to whatever.

Considering Tucker played today, that would be retroactive to tomorrow.

[Hot Sauce]

2 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

Cubs fans/media are incredibly whiny right now,  Not even really talking about here, mostly twitter and radio. Calling Counsel a colossal failure, Tucker a bust that they dont even want to resign (when 2 months ago they were saying the Ricketts would be cheapasses if they didnt offer him $500m).  Not just random twitter users, radio guys, beat guys all questioning everything assuming that they know better than the guys doing it for a living.  I'm not saying that we might not have an outside perspective that has merit, but in general Craig knows what he's doing.  1908 laid out a perfectly reasonable argument for why Shaw didn't play today.  

Bottom line is we came into today 6 games out in the Central and 6.5 games up in the WC.  Division was super unlikely, the WC is super attainable barring historic collapse.  How do you prevent collapse?  By keeping guys fresh.  I'm not saying I love the job Craig is doing necessarily (especially being pantsed by the small market team he was stolen from despite IMO a superior roster) but like this is the kind of stuff we hired Craig for.  To prevent what happened in 2023.  Now we're in the position where only a collapse worse than 2023 would keep us out of the playoffs, so lets maybe let the man do his job.

Most sports fans are whiny idiots. Social media just makes it more noticeable.

One of my biggest sports fan pet peeves are the fans that lock in on one specific player in the NFL draft and when their team doesn’t take him they lose their minds.

People just suck in general. 

[Stratos]

26 minutes ago, Hot Sauce said:

Most sports fans are whiny idiots. Social media just makes it more noticeable.

One of my biggest sports fan pet peeves are the fans that lock in on one specific player in the NFL draft and when their team doesn’t take him they lose their minds.

People just suck in general. 

The internet is therapy for people to mouth off and express their frustrations lol.

[CubUgly]

13 hours ago, Wilson A2000 said:

At what point does Tucker start hurting his contract value?

It's a legit question Wilson.  I think you have seen his agent try to get out in front if it is emphasizing the pinkie injury but at this point I think most perceive the issues to be beyond that now and mostly mental.  I think Nico played through a more physically limiting injury last year and while his production did suffer a bit it was not near to this extent in length or severity. 

Unless he breaks out of this somehow and finishes strong, I can't see him getting near what he would have two months ago, but I could still see someone like the Dodgers paying him very well on the hopes this is a blip. 

[Papa Cub]

20 hours ago, mul21 said:

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.

Well stated - I’m not posting this because hindsight being that they lost. Counsell is notorious for sitting guys or pinch hitting guys who are the hottest hitters. I do not understand his thought process with that. Also, why Busch as lead off? He’s insisting on making him a lead off hitter. He has his moments, but a guy like Hoerner would be more ideal. Again, just my thoughts on the roster calls from that guy. 🤷‍♂️🤔

[BigSlick]

9 hours ago, Bertz said:

I have disliked this fanbase for a while but the gleeful knives out for Tucker over the past week+ has been disgusting even by the usual standards.

It’s odd to me the focus from the fan base on Tucker’s poor performance when Suzuki, Busch and PCA have been as bad or worse over the last few months 

Edited August 22, 2025 by BigSlick

[Geographyhater8888]

13 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

It’s odd to me the focus from the fan base on Tucker’s poor performance when Suzuki, Busch and PCA have been as bad or worse over the last few months 

Correct. Did people forget how Suzuki lead the league in RBIs and both were on pace for 40 homers + a 40/40 season from PCA 5 weeks ago?
 

It’s like having Brian Lahair and Frank Schwindel falling off a cliff after their hot starts. 3 bats at the top of the order who are borderline replacement level. WTF happened?

Edited August 22, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[Geographyhater8888]

15 hours ago, squally1313 said:

Simply put, Owen Caissie is the backup outfielder. Putting up a .690 OPS in his first 18 PAs doesn’t change that fact. 

Responding to your post from yesterday, what do the expected stats say about Suzukis projected power numbers? I can forgive bad BABIP luck as long as he’s making hard contact. The lack of pop even outside of wrigley and ugly at bats are still a theme.

Edited August 22, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[Rcal10]

20 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

Responding to your post from yesterday, what do the expected stats say about Suzukis projected power numbers? I can forgive bad BABIP luck as long as he’s making hard contact. The lack of pop even outside of wrigley and ugly at bats are still a theme.

I know you asked someone else, but if you look at Suzuki’s career numbers you will see he is pretty steady. He does go into prolonged slumps but eventually comes out of it.
Suzuki’s career line is 475 slug, 820 OPS and  129 OPS+. He is pretty close to those figures this year. I would expect him to end right around that area. 

This is not directed at you. For the most part I don’t find you way more reasonable then many. But I just don’t understand the fanbase who watches the Cubs yearly and yet every time players go into a funk act like the guy sucks. Baseball happens every year. Every year guys look great for a time, average for a time and completely sucky for a time. IMO the Cubs have done an amazing job starting above water during the suck fest.  But the only way they can win the WS is if some guys start performing back to the level of their career norms and they stay healthy. If they do that, IMO, they have a good chance of winning in the playoffs. If the guys going bad, continue to struggle the rest of the year or they bench Tucker and Suzuki and play Cassie and Ballesteros they have no chance at winning. Those guys who have been here all year, brought them to the dance. Now they have to dance with them. 

[Geographyhater8888]

34 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I know you asked someone else, but if you look at Suzuki’s career numbers you will see he is pretty steady. He does go into prolonged slumps but eventually comes out of it.
Suzuki’s career line is 475 slug, 820 OPS and  129 OPS+. He is pretty close to those figures this year. I would expect him to end right around that area. 

This is not directed at you. For the most part I don’t find you way more reasonable than many. But I just don’t understand the fanbase who watches the Cubs yearly and yet every time players go into a funk act like the guy sucks. Baseball happens every year. Every year guys look great for a time, average for a time and completely sucky for a time. IMO the Cubs have done an amazing job starting above water during the suck fest.  But the only way they can win the WS is if some guys start performing back to the level of their career norms and they stay healthy. If they do that, IMO, they have a good chance of winning in the playoffs. If the guys going bad, continue to struggle the rest of the year or they bench Tucker and Suzuki and play Cassie and Ballesteros they have no chance at winning. Those guys who have been here all year, brought them to the dance. Now they have to dance with them. 

I have more faith in Suzuki bouncing back than PCA and even Tucker considering the uncertainty with his finger injury no matter how far fetched that sounds and any denial on his part that he’s fully recovered. You don’t see top 10 sluggers in contract years cliff dive for such a sustained amount of time without a serious underlying issue. Hopefully it’s mechanic and mental and he’ll bounce back back to the guy we traded for.

PCA shattered his pre season projections and seems to be regressing back into a solid hitter with GG defense and capable of stealing 40 bases. Still an all star caliber player in a slump but I have some serious doubts that first half pop will ever come back with his plate approach. That’s ok, but people are still chasing the dragon of his first half success.

The crux of it all is Tucker was brought in to carry the offense through a slump and because Busch PCA and Seiya aren’t the type of guys to carry a lineup people have raised their bar of expectations because they were all on pace for breakout years beyond what anyone predicted and we all forgot these guys aren’t mid-high 800 OPS guys despite trending that way, they waited until after the break to hit a wall.

either way this is the worst 30 game stretch of his career I believe. 

Edited August 22, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[Brian707]

Yeah, PCA, Suzuki, Busch, Swanson,etc have all been in slumps but the narrative is centered towards Tucker. Wonder if this is PTR, Hoyer, and the rest of the Cubs brass pushing this to soften the blow when they don't resign him?

Not to be a conspiracy nut- but I don't trust these guys.

[Geographyhater8888]

2 minutes ago, Brian707 said:

Yeah, PCA, Suzuki, Busch, Swanson,etc have all been in slumps but the narrative is centered towards Tucker. Wonder if this is PTR, Hoyer, and the rest of the Cubs brass pushing this to soften the blow when they don't resign him?

Not to be a conspiracy nut- but I don't trust these guys.

That’s always been Swanson. He’ll go through long stretches of slumps and go on a couple 2-3 week tears a year. He’s not the big middle of the order bat like the others we rely on like Tucker who hasn’t carried an offense through a slump. The consequence of this visible and similar to last May. 

[Bertz]

14 minutes ago, Brian707 said:

Yeah, PCA, Suzuki, Busch, Swanson,etc have all been in slumps but the narrative is centered towards Tucker. Wonder if this is PTR, Hoyer, and the rest of the Cubs brass pushing this to soften the blow when they don't resign him?

Not to be a conspiracy nut- but I don't trust these guys.

I mean look how Swanson has been treated even with the bag already in hand.

It's just a dumb horsefeathers fanbase

[Rcal10]

4 minutes ago, Bertz said:

I mean look how Swanson has been treated even with the bag already in hand.

It's just a dumb horsefeathers fanbase

I don’t think it is a dumb fanbase. I think it is a fanbase. Since all are dumb I do not feel that has to be mentioned. It is what it is. All fanbase are filled with ideas that they know better than the manager and FO. I don’t find the Cubs fanbase being any dumber than any other. This is just what fans do. 

[squally1313]

1 hour ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

Responding to your post from yesterday, what do the expected stats say about Suzukis projected power numbers? I can forgive bad BABIP luck as long as he’s making hard contact. The lack of pop even outside of wrigley and ugly at bats are still a theme.

Assuming I did this right on Savant, here's what I have for Suzuki since 7/15 (which is essentially the ASB). Short answer: it looks really good. 

[Outshined_One]

8 hours ago, Hot Sauce said:

One of my biggest sports fan pet peeves are the fans that lock in on one specific player in the NFL draft and when their team doesn’t take him they lose their minds.

People just suck in general. 

I'll raise you the MLB Draft.  People around here are eminently reasonable and measured about their likes/dislikes each season, and TT sums things up so perfectly well each year with his annual post:

On 7/13/2025 at 6:37 PM, Transmogrified Tiger said:

Love this pick.  What’s his name?  What position does he play?

However, around the internet?  People lose their ever-loving minds every year when teams go underslot or take an unpopular pick.  2022 is a classic example, where the Cubs took Cade Horton and a good chunk of people were PO'd they didn't take Brooks Lee.  That one has worked out rather well so far!

[Geographyhater8888]

26 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

Assuming I did this right on Savant, here's what I have for Suzuki since 7/15 (which is essentially the ASB). Short answer: it looks really good. 

The Wrigley park factor plays a role here assuming it’s park neutral. Interesting. 

[Stratos]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

I mean look how Swanson has been treated even with the bag already in hand.

It's just a dumb horsefeathers fanbase

It's just the internet.  Why lots of players tend to stay off Twitter etc

[squally1313]

21 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

The Wrigley park factor plays a role here assuming it’s park neutral. Interesting. 

Yeah believe their expected stats are driven predominantly by exit velocity, launch angle, and then occasionally sprint speed, so takes the park factor out of it completely. 

[Jason Ross]

1 hour ago, Outshined_One said:

I'll raise you the MLB Draft.  People around here are eminently reasonable and measured about their likes/dislikes each season, and TT sums things up so perfectly well each year with his annual post:

However, around the internet?  People lose their ever-loving minds every year when teams go underslot or take an unpopular pick.  2022 is a classic example, where the Cubs took Cade Horton and a good chunk of people were PO'd they didn't take Brooks Lee.  That one has worked out rather well so far!

I liked Cade Horton in the 2022 draft. I did not like Brooks Lee. 

Spoiler

I liked Tommy Troy more than Matt Shaw in 2023

Shhhhhh,

 

[ILMindState]

2 hours ago, Brian707 said:

Yeah, PCA, Suzuki, Busch, Swanson,etc have all been in slumps but the narrative is centered towards Tucker. Wonder if this is PTR, Hoyer, and the rest of the Cubs brass pushing this to soften the blow when they don't resign him?

Not to be a conspiracy nut- but I don't trust these guys.

I don't get the Tucker hate, what did he do? Why is he getting boo'd and everyone shrugs their shoulders at everyone else who's in a slump. 

[Outshined_One]

16 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

I liked Cade Horton in the 2022 draft. I did not like Brooks Lee. 

  Reveal hidden contents

I liked Tommy Troy more than Matt Shaw in 2023

Shhhhhh,

 

Arjun Nimmala and Noble Meyer for me in 2023.  While the jury is at least still out on them, I also was vehemently anti-Jacob Wilson, so, well, yeah.

Shows what I know!