Cubs (Imanaga) vs Brewers (Ashby): 10/6/25, 8:08pm

[We Got The Whole 9]

2 hours ago, Banks-Williams said:

Craig Counsel should be fired.  His decisions to pitch Boyd on game 1 with 3 days rest and to pitch Imanaga on game 2 with inoperative breaking balls have both been disasters.  These decisions will likely cost the franchise the NLDS.  Any one with any measurable degree of good judgement and attention skills knew the outcomes here.   

As I said before, a fully-rested Assad is better than a 3-day rested Boyd any day of the week and twice on Sundays.  With respect to Imanaga, his recent outings have all been terrible.  The media has been talking about it excessively, but even then Counsel still couldn’t see that there is something wrong with Imanaga.  The NDLS is NOT the time to experiment or assess your players.  Imanaga or Soroka should have been cut from the roster, not Assad.

The NLDS starting pitching rotation should have been Assad - Boyd - Rea - Taillion - Brown.  This way, the Brew would never see the same starter twice, and everyone would have been fully rested.  Counsel could even have given Brown game 2.

And Counsel never should have been playing the same position players thoughout July and August.  The men got too tired in the summer heat; it cost them first place.  Durocher made the same mistake in ‘69.  Counsel was too focused on himself, dying his hair and giving legions of meaningless interviews.

God please stop. Who would you have rather had them play? Their bench is disgusting.

Edited October 7, 2025 by We Got The Whole 9

[Derwood]

I went to sleep after the 6th. Seems like a wise choice. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

4 hours ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

And they used Sotos leftover money to sign Fried and trade for Bellinger. Cubs roster on the other hand is sort of a jack of all trades and a master of none.

Soto made 31m in 2024. Tucker made 16. The quantity and quality of USEFUL pieces you can get with those dollar amounts is vastly different. 

 

 

[Sosa21MVP]

5 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

God shut up. Who would you have rather had them play? Their bench is disgusting.

I thought they did a decent job of giving various players days off. Willi Castro was subbing in almost every day for somebody, or so it seemed.

[Brian707]

Counsell being fired might have been the dumbest take I've read in these game threads and thats really saying something.

Carry on. Its not looking good but its not over yet. Take care of business at home and maybe the Brewers horsefeathers the bed in a game 5

Edited October 7, 2025 by Brian707

[CubUgly]

12 minutes ago, Derwood said:

I went to sleep after the 6th. Seems like a wise choice. 

I went to sleep right after the 3-run bomb to make it 7-3.  It seemed obvious to me we were not going to string together a rally against the hard throwing kid that taunted us after his first inning.  And it was absolutely no surprise what happened to Shota, it's the same thing he's been doing for the 6 outings or more before this one.

I mean it's unfortunate the two hits before the first homer were jam shot bloopers, but he also gave up 2 home runs and that was absolutely predictable.

What else would you have done is always the refrain.   I suggested here yesterday a bullpen game -our pen was all rested we have tomorrow off, and the pen has certainly fared better of late than Shota. I thought Shota would have fared better game 3 in the colder - pitcher friendly weather or Wrigley tomorrow.  Alas, Palencia throws a tomato over the plate 0-2 so maybe that would not have worked either but I never for a minute felt comfortable with Shota starting this game. 

[Geographyhater8888]

20 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Soto made 31m in 2024. Tucker made 16. The quantity and quality of USEFUL pieces you can get with those dollar amounts is vastly different. 

 

 

I chose the wrong wording there. Point is the Cubs will be without an elite middle of the order bat when Tucker walks and they’ll do little to replace Tuckers value with a combination of impact players like the Yankees. Instead of signing a true TOR starter like Fried they opted to strike money ball gold with Boyd and catch lightning in a bottle.

Edited October 7, 2025 by Geographyhater8888

[gflore34]

28 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

I chose the wrong wording there. Point is the Cubs will be without an elite middle of the order bat when Tucker walks and they’ll do little to replace Tuckers value with a combination of impact players like the Yankees. Instead of signing a true TOR starter like Fried they opted to strike money ball gold with Boyd and catch lightning in a bottle.

King or Cease are true TOR starters types, I think one of them will be a Cub.

[Connor McConnor]

1 hour ago, Jason Ross said:

I'm just as frustrated as anyone. I stayed up past midnight to record our NSBB live reaction, a game that felt over by the 5th - I'm quite upset that the Cubs are pissing away my late nights with bad losses to the Brewers. But Counsell doesn't deserve to be canned because he picked one of the bad options in a pool of bad options.

Appreciate all you do and your reasoned responses.  It's not easy being a Cub fan, and it's even worse if you can't just do something else when the outcome becomes obvious (which happens all too often).   Having to drill down for a few hours after being subjected to yet another crappy Cubs performance has to be tough. Shaky pitching, and inadequate offense when it matters has been the downfall up to this point.    We all know baseball is dumb and weird which is what makes it fun.  Win game 3 and............. oh FFS who am I kidding????

[Geographyhater8888]

22 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

King or Cease are true TOR starters types, I think one of them will be a Cub.

It’ll most likely be a reclamation project. Don’t rule out Trevor Bauer. 

[Jason Ross]

5 minutes ago, Connor McConnor said:

Appreciate all you do and your reasoned responses.  It's not easy being a Cub fan, and it's even worse if you can't just do something else when the outcome becomes obvious (which happens all too often).   Having to drill down for a few hours after being subjected to yet another crappy Cubs performance has to be tough. Shaky pitching, and inadequate offense when it matters has been the downfall up to this point.    We all know baseball is dumb and weird which is what makes it fun.  Win game 3 and............. oh FFS who am I kidding????

Listen, if the Cubs are going to do something, I think Game 3 and Game 4 right now are the Brewers underbelly. They probably have to go with Priester and Quintana in these games. And for all of the flaws we can find with Boyd and Shota and the like, these two have flaws. Priester gets crunched by lefties and his cutter is atrocious right now. And Quintana is even worse against RHH. They're incredibly flawed and exploitable. 

But it's an uphill battle. And the thoughts of "this is cooked" have crept in. A win tomorrow night and you can start to see a narrow path forward.

[CubUgly]

2 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Listen, if the Cubs are going to do something, I think Game 3 and Game 4 right now are the Brewers underbelly. They probably have to go with Priester and Quintana in these games. And for all of the flaws we can find with Boyd and Shota and the like, these two have flaws. Priester gets crunched by lefties and his cutter is atrocious right now. And Quintana is even worse against RHH. They're incredibly flawed and exploitable. 

But it's an uphill battle. And the thoughts of "this is cooked" have crept in. A win tomorrow night and you can start to see a narrow path forward.

Doesn't it seem like the Brewers are loose and having fun and the Cubs are tight and stressed?  I mean from jump!  The contrast of the in game interviews with Murphy and CC illustrate that perfectly.  Does that matter?  I don't know, but sure seems like it.   When you say the thoughts have crept in.....this is part of it I do believe. 

[Max Power]

16 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

It’ll most likely be a reclamation project. Don’t rule out Trevor Bauer. 

I’ll rule him out.

[gflore34]

15 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

It’ll most likely be a reclamation project. Don’t rule out Trevor Bauer. 

+ Astros' reliever, who while effective in 25, has metrics strongly suggesting a downturn in performance.

[Geographyhater8888]

Just now, Max Power said:

I’ll rule him out.

I Was being hyperbolic.

[Jason Ross]

7 minutes ago, CubUgly said:

Doesn't it seem like the Brewers are loose and having fun and the Cubs are tight and stressed?  I mean from jump!  The contrast of the in game interviews with Murphy and CC illustrate that perfectly.  Does that matter?  I don't know, but sure seems like it.   When you say the thoughts have crept in.....this is part of it I do believe. 

I think they only look that way because they're winning. The Cubs looked plenty loose on Thursday when they beat San Diego. And they looked plenty loose in the top of the first inning of both games. They celebrated home runs, and were fine. I wouldn't read much into how they interview though, that's a difference in personality - Murphy is just like that, as is Craig. 

But when you're down on the scoreboard, and you know your season is ending sooner than you'd like (unless something changes) than you get tight. Winning begets looseness and losing begets tightness. 

[gflore34]

7 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

I think they only look that way because they're winning. The Cubs looked plenty loose on Thursday when they beat San Diego. And they looked plenty loose in the top of the first inning of both games. They celebrated home runs, and were fine. I wouldn't read much into how they interview though, that's a difference in personality - Murphy is just like that, as is Craig. 

But when you're down on the scoreboard, and you know your season is ending sooner than you'd like (unless something changes) than you get tight. Winning begets looseness and losing begets tightness. 

A scoreless top of the first in game 3 would be a great start.  Something, anything, positive could snowball and have a big effect.

[CubinNY]

We could have a Brewers WS champion and a Packers NFL Champion this year. My son tells me the Bucks are good too. What a world. 

[Jason Ross]

16 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

A scoreless top of the first in game 3 would be a great start.  Something, anything, positive could snowball and have a big effect.

Yeah it could. They need to get a lead and keep a lead. Right now it just feels inevitable that once they take a lead that they will immediately fall into a hole. 

[The_Achiever]

Nothing new here, I'm just mad about the Boyd decision for Game 1, which begat Shota for Game 2.  They clearly should have been saving Shota for Wrigley, the lakeside wind is the only thing possible that can keep the great Andrew Vaughn at bay.  

Most annoying successful season ever, it's been like a root canal since the ASB.  I hope Tucker likes NY (I'm pretty much fine not breaking the bank for him, I think this being the Cubs it would end up being a huge disaster).  

[mul21]

Counsell getting fired is just dumb but I really do question the decision making process that got them to Boyd on short rest and Imanaga in Milwaukee.  Feels like an opener and then some combo of Soroka/Civale/Brown may have been the best move for game one if they weren't going to roster Assad.  The inability to get out of the first inning without allowing them to score really switched the momentum/energy both games.

As Jason said, it's not over and the Brewers have some problems with the game 3 starter so there's a chance, but Peralta lurking for game 4 in another likely matchup with Boyd doesn't bode well for the Cubs.

[Rcal10]

26 minutes ago, mul21 said:

Counsell getting fired is just dumb but I really do question the decision making process that got them to Boyd on short rest and Imanaga in Milwaukee.  Feels like an opener and then some combo of Soroka/Civale/Brown may have been the best move for game one if they weren't going to roster Assad.  The inability to get out of the first inning without allowing them to score really switched the momentum/energy both games.

As Jason said, it's not over and the Brewers have some problems with the game 3 starter so there's a chance, but Peralta lurking for game 4 in another likely matchup with Boyd doesn't bode well for the Cubs.

I think if there is a game 4 it will be Quintana. I would think the Brewers would hold Peralta to game 5, hoping they can win without him in game 4 and have him ready to start the next series. I think that is why they went with a pen day yesterday.

Also, I didn’t want Boyd on short rest either. But I do understand the thought process. If he can give you 12 outs he then lines up for game 4, on normal rest at Wrigley. Boyd has been really good at Wrigley. If we are being honest, there were no really good options. Counsell picked one and it didn’t work. Same with game 2. I think Imanaga was the obvious choice. He pitched well against the Brewers this year and even with giving up a crazy amount of homers, but for his last start of the regular, did fine for 6 weeks leading up to the playoffs. Even with giving up homers his era was under 4. 

Edited October 7, 2025 by Rcal10

[Brian707]

1 hour ago, CubinNY said:

We could have a Brewers WS champion and a Packers NFL Champion this year. My son tells me the Bucks are good too. What a world. 

Dodgers will beat them pretty badly if they finish off the Cubs. Bucks window is closed and the Packers will not win anything with Jordan Love.

[CubUgly]

1 hour ago, Jason Ross said:

I think they only look that way because they're winning. The Cubs looked plenty loose on Thursday when they beat San Diego. And they looked plenty loose in the top of the first inning of both games. They celebrated home runs, and were fine. I wouldn't read much into how they interview though, that's a difference in personality - Murphy is just like that, as is Craig. 

But when you're down on the scoreboard, and you know your season is ending sooner than you'd like (unless something changes) than you get tight. Winning begets looseness and losing begets tightness. 

I don't know that I agree that the Cubs looked loose on Thursday, maybe when the game was over.  But I get what you are saying.   I just think the Brew Crew looked looser from game one first pitch, but you are probably right. 

[gflore34]

14 minutes ago, Brian707 said:

Dodgers will beat them pretty badly if they finish off the Cubs. Bucks window is closed and the Packers will not win anything with Jordan Love.

Yeah, for all their little engine that could vibes they really haven't a chance against the Dodgers.  Dodgers pitching, now that they have the luxury of moving Glasnow, Sasaki and Sheehan to their pen, is a very bad match up for them and probably all of baseball. 

horsefeathers think about that, Horton injury' not withstanding, Glasnow and Sasaki would quite probably be the Cubs games 1 and 2 starters vs. the Brewers.

Edited October 7, 2025 by gflore34