Cubs fans are ridiculous for blaming Craig Counsell for the team's playoff woes

Starting Matthew Boyd on short rest in Game 1 was a decision that almost immediately backfired on the Chicago Cubs and manager Craig Counsell. Shota Imanaga, a top-5 finisher in NL Cy Young voting just last season, fared little better in Game 2 and now, the NLDS swings back to Wrigley Field for (at least) one more game with the Cubs trailing in the best-of-five series two games to none.

And with the team's World Series dreams hanging by the thinnest of threads, fans took advantage of Tuesday's scheduled off-day to lay waste to Counsell and his decision-making in the playoffs, but, most notably, how he's deployed his starting pitchers.

There's at least some merit to the Boyd argument. The guy has already piled up a workload he hasn't shouldered in the better part of a decade and his second-half starts were loaded with warning bells and red flags. But, even so, starting your top arm in Game 1 isn't all that controversial in and of itself. Yes, Colin Rea closed the year on one of the hottest stretches of his career, but the same crowd that's been all over Counsell since Boyd's first-inning implosion Saturday would have been insatiably calling for blood if he'd gone with Rea and things went off the rails.

But the Imanaga crowd? Give me a break. You're not going to keep pushing deeper into the postseason without the left-hander executing pitches and providing quality innings. You're just not. Counsell had to trust that he'd hit his spots and, when he didn't, be able to limit the damage. Imanaga faltered and, yes, the Cubs paid the price.

Craig Counsell, Cubs need more swing-and-miss arms in the rotation

If you're looking for somewhere to aim your anger and frustration, direct it to either ownership, the front office or fate itself. Since Justin Steele went down early in the year with a season-ending injury, the Cubs have needed to shore up the top of the rotation. They didn't do that and, for a brief while, were saved by rookie Cade Horton's emergence as a power arm and Rookie of the Year candidate.

When he also hit the IL, the front office's inability or unwillingness to go all-in at the deadline came full-circle, leaving Counsell with a rotation that, even on paper, failed to measure up to any of the other NL playoff teams. It would have taken a stroke of genius, luck or some of both for the Chicago skipper to make all the right calls and somehow keep coming up with wins given his mix of starters - and even then, with the offense setting records as one of the worst postseason performers of all-time, who's to say it would have even mattered anyway?

This is a team that, plain and simple, was built to make the playoffs in 2025 - not win a World Series. The organization accepted the motif 'just get in - and anything could happen'. Sure, anything could happen - and that includes being overmatched on the mound with a starting rotation loaded with mid-to-back end starters instead of swing-and-miss front-end arms.