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.
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.
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.
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.
Hoskins not on roster, a bit of a surprise but maybe not considering bauers has stepped it up as backup 1B
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.