The NL Division Series between the Cubs and Brewers gets started today, with Matthew Boyd facing Freddy Peralta in the Game 1 pitching matchup. Here are the full 26-man rosters for both teams in the clash of NL Central rivals…
Cubs catchers: Moises Ballesteros, Carson Kelly, Reese McGuire
Infielders: Michael Busch, Nico Hoerner, Matt Shaw, Dansby Swanson, Justin Turner
Outfielders: Kevin Alcantara, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Kyle Tucker
Utilityman: Willi Castro
Left-handed pitchers: Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga, Drew Pomeranz, Caleb Thielbar
Right-handed pitchers: Aaron Civale, Ben Brown, Brad Keller, Andrew Kittredge, Daniel Palencia, Colin Rea, Michael Soroka, Jameson Taillon
Brewers catchers: William Contreras, Danny Jansen
Infielders: Jake Bauers, Caleb Durbin, Andruw Monasterio, Joey Ortiz, Brice Turang, Andrew Vaughn
Outfielders: Jackson Chourio, Isaac Collins, Sal Frelick, Brandon Lockridge, Blake Perkins, Christian Yelich
Left-handed pitchers: Aaron Ashby, Robert Gasser, Jared Koenig, Jose Quintana
Right-handed pitchers: Grant Anderson, Nick Mears, Trevor Megill, Jacob Misiorowski, Freddy Peralta, Chad Patrick, Quinn Priester, Abner Uribe
The Cubs are going with almost the exact roster of 14 position players and 12 pitchers that were used in their wild card series victory over the Padres, except Brown will take the place of left-hander Taylor Rogers. Manager Craig Counsell told MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian and other reporters that Chicago opted for Brown over Rogers and Javier Assad due to Brown’s strikeout ability, and on how Brown projects to match up against the Brewers. This leaves Pomeranz and Thielbar as the only left-handed relievers to be mixed and matched against Milwaukee’s left-handed bats.
The Brew Crew’s first roster of the postseason doesn’t contain too many surprises, as there was already an expectation that the team would use Misiorowski and Gasser as a pair of intriguing rookies out of the bullpen. Milwaukee is also deploying an alignment of 14 position players and 12 pitchers, but one position player that didn’t make the cut was Rhys Hoskins. This is also not a shock given how Hoskins has been essentially supplanted by Vaughn as the first-choice option at first base. A thumb sprain and a bone bruise cost Hoskins over two months of the season, and after returning from the injured list in September, Hoskins received only sparing playing time.
A pair of prominent injured pitchers weren’t included on either team’s NLDS roster. Counsell said Cade Horton won’t be involved in the series even as an injury replacement, which isn’t surprising since Horton (who is recovering from a rib fracture) wouldn’t be eligible to be activated from the 15-day IL until Game 5. Brewers manager Pat Murphy told Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and other reporters yesterday that Brandon Woodruff might still be available to pitch later in the postseason if the Crew advances deeper into October, but the veteran right’s lat strain will keep him out of the Division Series.
Here we go boyz
Let’s go Brewers. That left a bad taste in my mouth, but the alternative would have made me vomit.
Alright time to hunker down and beat the Brewers! I expect a good series may the best team win!
Heck of a year for Horton. Hope he can get in there at some point.
Lifelong Cub fan from Michigan here but, it would be great to see the Brewers win it all.
This is the kind of sportsmanship I like. Someone who likes to see others win for a change. As a brewers fan, even despite the rivalry, I was okay with the cubs winning in 2016, because honestly I just want to see as many different teams as possible win during my lifetime. I like seeing new teams win.
Same here. An Upper Michigan Cub fan since 1970.
But my dad used to pick up Brewers games & Tigers games at night in the car sitting outside the house.
That’s awesome. I’m in the Metro Detroit area and would always watch Cub games on WGN.
For a large part of the season–though not all of it–the Brewers showed an almost unprecedented ability to string together hits to create multiple-run rallies multiple times a game. It wasn’t just BABIP luck; it was a team-wide philosophy of swinging for contact, and effective contact, being successfully executed. The key now will be: Can the Cubs pitchers prevent that?
Alan
For most of the season you that denied the Cubs would even make the post-season. Time to acknowledge are four really strong teams left in the NL list-season and any one of those four teams could win it all. The Cubs are in the mix without Justin Steele and without Cade Horton. I think the Brewers and Dodgers are the favorites both by the narrowest of margins – maybe a 52% chance each of winning their respective divisional series.
How did you come up with 52%. Ridiculous to just throw a number out with no basis.
Trashing me is really important to you, isn’t it? For my part, I’m more interested in the game.
Alan
Trashing you? Nah, you have never been rude or unpleasant. Just solidly disagreeing. Nothing against you.
There have been lots of good moves by Cubs that people ignore. Like keeping Nico Hoerner rather than going with both Shaw and Paredes. Nico is awesome. Or acquiring Carson Kelly for peanuts.
Nico Hoerner is nothing more than a poor man’s Brice Turang. Both are former 1st round picks both play 2B both are GG at the keystone and both wear #2 BUT Turang is way way way better just my opinion
I agree that Brice Turang is an awesome player, but no one was talking about trading him. some pundits suggested trading Hoerner to open up 2B for Shaw with Paredes at 3B. Keeping Hoerner was the right call.
Brown over Assad? That’s a piss poor, stupid decision. It will come back to haunt the Cubs.
I don’t necessarily think Assad is a playoff level pitcher, but Ben Brown?? He’s a gopher ball waiting to happen.
Hopefully it won’t come to having to use Brown unless the Cubs have blown it wide open with up by four runs or more.
There were a couple of roster decisions that seemed curious to me. Soroka over Assad for one. Assad is absolutely deserving of a spot and was well rested while Soroka has been mostly lame. I had no problem losing Rogers. Brown’s only here because he’s been really good against the Brewers. Smart? Ehh we’ll see I guess. Civale is already out for awhile to bail out Boyd and Soroka. The staff needs someone to go long innings to let the long guys they picked get some rest. Not really sure why Alcantara is there as he provides nothing over what another P would have especially after the game 1 beat down. And don’t say he can play CF, Who cares? If something happens to PCA they could have just subbed him in next game if they had to. Still it’s only 1 game and it doesn’t matter if it was 1-0 or 9-2 it’s still the same. Is he really going to pitch Shota in game 2? That could be brutal.
If he starts Imanaga, it’s over. They won’t have Horton or Taillon but with 18 K’s and only one earned run given up in his last two starts, Rea should start Game 2. A rested BP can relieve him early if need be.. I totally agree he should’ve used the Alcantara spot on a pitcher.
Here we go: The fiercely anti-Cubs Ron Darling just referred to the Brewers’ pitching as “sublime” in the pre-game on TBS. That’s probably the first time that word has ever been used in a sports broadcast, but Darling is just getting started.
Howard Cosell probably used it a time or two.
Hoskins not on roster, a bit of a surprise but maybe not considering bauers has stepped it up as backup 1B
With Chourio almost certainly going down, I bet Hoskins is looked at to take the spot.
Does Hoskins play the OF? umm no
The Brewers have literally a million outfielders. They need a thump in the lineup if Chourio misses more than adding an OF.
You can bet that Brett Taylor will be whining about the Brewers'”BABIP luck” and “voodoo” before long, if he isn’t already. It is remarkable how little that unctuous man knows about baseball.
Stupid to start Boyd on short rest! He’s already pitched more innings this year than last 2 combined. Why not start Civale, hope for 4 and even if you lose you are set up with the rotation on normal or extra rest? Our manager is not worth 8 million a year. Can we get a refund and get Ross back?
“We will have a roster. Thank you.”
Just one game. Rather to lose 9-2 than 2-1 in bottom of 9th.
Typical brewers, Punch and Judy hitters while cubs both runs via homers.
It’s feast or famine.
If shota pitches against crew on Monday, lookin good for cubbies to turn things around because iminaga throws nothing but home run balls and crew doesn’t hit homers.
Imanaga had a 6.51 era in september
But ye lookin good lol
And didn’t darling not say cubs should come out next game ticked off? Ultimate stupidity.
Was hoping he could rest Boyd & put Assad in game 1 as a gamble(what do you have to lose in a game 1 on the road?), then Boyd game 2, well-rested, then so-on.
OOPS! Thought Assad was on the playoff roster—my bad.
Today’s game was a kind of distillation of all that is right with the Brewers and wrong with the Cubs (and, it should be said, most other teams). The Cubs hit 3 home runs and the Brewers hit none–and the Brewers won the game by 6. They did it by stringing together hits to create multi-run innings; they capitalized on the superb bat-to-ball skills of their hitters. They played *baseball* while the Cubs played Home Run Derby.
What the Cubs need to do this off-season, at least, is complement their free swingers with a few players like those on the Brewers. Yes, the no-trade contracts on the Cubs make that a challenge, but in fact there are more openings on the roster than there might appear to be at first glance, and letting the helpless Tucker go opens one more spot.
The Cubs don’t have strategists and scouts in their organization who are comparable to those of the Brewers, but maybe they can get some. Or maybe, as all of us should, they can learn from their betters.
No need to be discouraged: the Cubs accomplished about as much as they could this season. They had some very good moments. After Wednesday’s game, they will have cheated the long off-season to come out of 10 days, which is no small matter to those of us who count it down. And, they know what they need to do.
The poet Auden wrote, “O teach us to outgrow our madness.” He wasn’t a baseball fan, but if he were and if he were still with us, he would have addressed that line to Jed Hoyer. Hoyer has a new contract. Can he outgrow his madness? You’ll see.
Cubs are missing a starter and don’t have much in the way of a closer. Brewers 3-1
The lack of hitting is the real problem, though. If Tucker had been anything like what we were led to expect, he could have helped with that.