Cubs (Rolison/Wicks) vs Brewers (Woodruff): 6/28/26, 1:10pm

[Bertz]

I wonder if the team considers piggybacking Shota and Assad tomorrow.

The bullpen is shredded:

- Webb has worked 4/5, he's definitely down tomorrow and honestly you'd probably try to avoid him Tuesday as well

- Wilson is obviously down

- Rolison only threw 23 pitches, but over two innings plus he warmed up in last night's game

- Roberts has worked 3/4 so he's down

- Ferguson has worked two in a row so you'd like to stay away from him

- Wicks didn't work that hard today, but as a career SP how confident are we feeling about him working back-to-backs right now?

- Thielbar and Thornton are fine

Meanwhile Boyd and Rea are lined up to go Tuesday/Wednesday no sweat, and there's an off day Thursday to let you line up the rotation a little bit.

[Zilla 24]

Are you serious with this? Please stop. Please stop watching baseball. Honestly. It’s past you by kid. 

5 hours ago, ILMindState said:

No business winning this series 

[Jason Ross]

5 hours ago, Bertz said:

I wonder if the team considers piggybacking Shota and Assad tomorrow.

The bullpen is shredded:

- Webb has worked 4/5, he's definitely down tomorrow and honestly you'd probably try to avoid him Tuesday as well

- Wilson is obviously down

- Rolison only threw 23 pitches, but over two innings plus he warmed up in last night's game

- Roberts has worked 3/4 so he's down

- Ferguson has worked two in a row so you'd like to stay away from him

- Wicks didn't work that hard today, but as a career SP how confident are we feeling about him working back-to-backs right now?

- Thielbar and Thornton are fine

Meanwhile Boyd and Rea are lined up to go Tuesday/Wednesday no sweat, and there's an off day Thursday to let you line up the rotation a little bit.

I'd guess at least someone heads to Iowa to get a fresh arm in. Or that Wilson, despite the four innings, gets the DFA for one. So either Roberts heads to Iowa (which I wouldn't be shocked to see, Counsel seemed beyond frustrated yesterday with that) or Wilson is a short term Cub.

[Geographyhater8888]

46-38 is beyond fine when you account for Palecias 2 IL stints, Boyd missing 2 months and Horton only throwing 8 total innings, and those are only the key injuries. 
What will the future hold without Brown, Cabrera and the Iowa cubs bullpen is anyone’s guess. 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Geographyhater8888

[Geographyhater8888]

12 hours ago, ILMindState said:

No business winning this series 

 

How does it feel, horsefeathers?

Edited 6 hours ago by Geographyhater8888

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, Jason Ross said:

I'd guess at least someone heads to Iowa to get a fresh arm in. Or that Wilson, despite the four innings, gets the DFA for one. So either Roberts heads to Iowa (which I wouldn't be shocked to see, Counsel seemed beyond frustrated yesterday with that) or Wilson is a short term Cub.

I would guess Ethan goes back down for a fresh arm. It also is possible Wicks goes back down. I do like the idea of Assad piggybacking today. With the off day Thursday, either he or Shota would be fine going on Saturday. The rest of the week would go Rea & Boyd for SD. Peterson starts against St.L Friday then come back with Shota and Assad in whatever order they decide. Wilson looked good yesterday. Don’t want to lose him after one game when it is just as easy to send Ethan or Jordon down and no risk losing anyone. 

Edited 6 hours ago by Rcal10

[Jason Ross]

7 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I would guess Ethan goes back down for a fresh arm. It also is possible Wicks goes back down. I do like the idea of Assad piggybacking today. With the off day Thursday, either he or Shota would be fine going on Saturday. The rest of the week would go Rea & Boyd for SD. Peterson starts against St.L Friday then come back with Shota and Assad in whatever order they decide. Wilson looked good yesterday. Don’t want to lose him after one game when it is just as easy to send Ethan or Jordon down and no risk losing anyone. 

I'd guess it's Roberts off the top of my head if they send someone down. Counsel looked straight-up done with Roberts and he's been terrible so far. He's not striking anyone out, he's got an xFIP well over 5.00: I cannot imagine he's in a good spot in the pecking order. 

With that said, the Cubs are kind of in a weird place with their 40-man RP options as many of them have recently been sent down and it might be a struggle to call up the correct guy. It may necessitate a DFA and Wilson probably isn't immune to that. 

He's got history with Craig in Milwaukee and really his only success in his entire career came out of the pen in 2023. I wrote up an article last night on Wilson, but the long and short of it is that in his four innings last night he pitched similarly to 2023: lots of strikes, lots of fastball/cutter/sinkers, low-whiff but capable. I have a feeling he's going to stick around for a little while, but there's a reason he was DFA'd and I don't think the Cubs are in any way married to him after four innings.

[BKHoo]

Here are the Cubs’ records by month in 2026 (through June 28):

Month	Record
March	2–3
April	17–9
May	13–16
June (through June 28)	14–10

That adds up to their current overall record of 46–38.

[Rcal10]

31 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

I'd guess it's Roberts off the top of my head if they send someone down. Counsel looked straight-up done with Roberts and he's been terrible so far. He's not striking anyone out, he's got an xFIP well over 5.00: I cannot imagine he's in a good spot in the pecking order. 

With that said, the Cubs are kind of in a weird place with their 40-man RP options as many of them have recently been sent down and it might be a struggle to call up the correct guy. It may necessitate a DFA and Wilson probably isn't immune to that. 

He's got history with Craig in Milwaukee and really his only success in his entire career came out of the pen in 2023. I wrote up an article last night on Wilson, but the long and short of it is that in his four innings last night he pitched similarly to 2023: lots of strikes, lots of fastball/cutter/sinkers, low-whiff but capable. I have a feeling he's going to stick around for a little while, but there's a reason he was DFA'd and I don't think the Cubs are in any way married to him after four innings.

I agree. But sending Roberts or even Wicks back down kicks the can down the road a little before having to make a decision. Wilson might not stick. But they don’t have to make that decision today. 

[Jason Ross]

8 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I agree. But sending Roberts or even Wicks back down kicks the can down the road a little before having to make a decision. Wilson might not stick. But they don’t have to make that decision today. 

Correct. But they've recently been calling guys up and down, and with the rules they can't keep recalling the same players unless an injury occurs. There's a pause. It may cause the club to need to DFA someone to add someone else. I don't have every one of those tracked off my head. As well, Iowa has been churning through relievers, no guarantee any specific guy isn't also down because of use over the weekend. The Iowa Cubs had Christian Bethancourt pitch yesterday, for example. That's the Cubs depth catcher. 

I don't think it's their first plan. But it may be a requirement regardless. Wilson has a negative career fWAR so it's not a particularly difficult choice if they are forced to make it. 

[Rcal10]

8 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Correct. But they've recently been calling guys up and down, and with the rules they can't keep recalling the same players unless an injury occurs. There's a pause. It may cause the club to need to DFA someone to add someone else. I don't have every one of those tracked off my head. As well, Iowa has been churning through relievers, no guarantee any specific guy isn't also down because of use over the weekend. The Iowa Cubs had Christian Bethancourt pitch yesterday, for example. That's the Cubs depth catcher. 

I don't think it's their first plan. But it may be a requirement regardless. Wilson has a negative career fWAR so it's not a particularly difficult choice if they are forced to make it. 

True. To be honest, they have gone through so many relief arms I am not even sure what the preferred pen would be assuming everyone was healthy(except Harvey-who will never be healthy). 

[Geographyhater8888]

14 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

True. To be honest, they have gone through so many relief arms I am not even sure what the preferred pen would be assuming everyone was healthy(except Harvey-who will never be healthy). 

It rarely seems to play out how it was drawn up in the offseason. Braiser, Hodge and Pressley were replaced by Palencia, Keller, Pomeranz and Theilbar last year and outside of Webb, Palencia, Milner and Theilbar, it’s more musical chairs. Rollison, Thornton even a couple weeks of Riley Martin have become the latest darts that have stuck.

Albeit, there’s a ton of margin for error as long as you can minimize home runs behind that defense.

Edited 4 hours ago by Geographyhater8888

[ILMindState]

4 hours ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

 

How does it feel, horsefeathers?

11 hours ago, Zilla 24 said:

Are you serious with this? Please stop. Please stop watching baseball. Honestly. It’s past you by kid. 

We went up against their top 3 starting Rea, a newly traded for Peterson, and a bullpen game that Wicks had to close. It was not a favorable match up at all. So no kid, I will not stop watching baseball. 

Edited 1 hour ago by ILMindState

[sneakypower]

the few years before the Brewers were an objectively good team they were always pulling out such stupid bs wins with all these anonymous pitching retreads so i'm particularly enjoying the shoe being on the other foot the last couple days

[Geographyhater8888]

1 hour ago, ILMindState said:

We went up against their top 3 starting Rea, a newly traded for Peterson, and a bullpen game that Wicks had to close. It was not a favorable match up at all. So no kid, I will not stop watching baseball. 

Not to mention they had a day off on Thursday at home while the Cubs had to play 4 games in 3 days before flying into Milwaukee at 2 AM on Friday. 

Edited 15 minutes ago by Geographyhater8888