As December dawns, Major League Baseball holds its collective breath. Next week at the Winter Meetings, rumors will fly, and both players and money will change hands. Trades will come to completion, and free-agent negotiations will advance rapidly.
For now, however, the frontier is quiet, and so baseball fans everywhere are left to the pleasant reflection that so enriches the experience of this game during its off-season. With just one month left in this, the most momentous (not to say tumultuous) decade in Chicago Cubs history, I chose to focus my remembrance upon the good times. Specifically, I have selected the 25 best individual seasons had by Cubs since 2000.
I chose not only eight starting position players and five starters, but also a full complement of relievers and bench players. Crucially, it should be noted that role players were selected from among players who amassed fewer than 400 plate appearances in the given season, so that only true bench players were eligible for the honor.
Catcher: Geovany Soto, 2008
This choice was a no-brainer, at least on the surface, and most fans probably wouldn't even say it was close.
It was, though. Despite a .285/.364/.504 line to go along with 23 home runs and Rookie of the Year honors, Soto lacked mobility behind the plate, and on the bases. Meanwhile, Michael Barrett posted the following line in 2006: .307/.368/.517. He clubbed 16 homers and had a higher OPS than Soto.
Barrett, however, got hurt in August of that year, and played only 107 games. He had 145 fewer plate appearances than Soto. All things considered, it has to be Soto, but the margin is slim.
First Base: Derrek Lee, 2005
No slim margins here. Lee smashed 46 round-trippers, won the batting title, led the league in OPS and notched 15 steals. He won the Gold Glove for the second of three times in his career. He had the second-most homers and the most doubles in the league, contributing to the best slugging percentage in the National League.
If one were desperate for a contender for Lee, Fred McGriff makes a compelling case in a partial season, after being traded to Chicago in July 2001. He had 12 homers in 49 games that year, posting a .942 OPS and reinforcing the offense down the stretch. Unfortunately, the Cubs' pitching staff faltered badly in August and September, and the team fell out of contention. Don't blame Crime Dog. Lee, however, is still the runaway winner.
Second Base: Mark Bellhorn, 2002
This was one of the closest races I examined. In 2008, Mark DeRosa posted a .285/.376/.481 line, hitting 21 homers and providing value as a versatile defender. It's hard to argue with those factors, but Bellhorn does it successfully for a few reasons.
First, he played on a miserable offensive team, which hurt his ability to drive in runs. RBI is never a consideration in my book anyway, but it helps to explain DeRosa's 87-56 advantage in that statistic.
Second, Bellhorn played better defense at second than did DeRosa. Although DeRosa had better numbers when moved over to third base and to the outfield, for the purposes of evaluating second basemen, Bellhorn wins.
Third, and simplest, Bellhorn was simply better. He had 27 home runs, six more than DeRosa. He hit from both sides of the plate, a fact well remembered by those who saw him homer from each side in one inning of a game against Milwaukee that year. Finally, his final line reads .258/.374/.512, a notch better than DeRosa in all but the first metric.
Third Base: Aramis Ramirez, 2004
Ramirez has been all-around great since the Cubs swapped for him in mid-2003. The following year, however, may have been his finest work. With a .318/.373/.578 line and 36 home runs, Ramirez helped the Cubs stay in contention after injury (and later a super-slump) derailed Sammy Sosa's season and career.
The 36 bombs established a new Cubs record for third basemen, a mark he would break just two years later. His overall numbers, however, suggest 2004 was an even better season than that 2006 campaign.
Shortstop: Ricky Gutierrez, 2000
If Bellhorn's tussle with DeRosa for second base supremacy wasn't the fiercest, then this one is. As Bellhorn did, Gutierrez edges out a 2008 Cub. This time, the loser is Ryan Theriot.
Though Theriot played slightly better defense and stole more bases in 2008 than did Gutierrez in 2000, Gutierrez wins on the strength of his superior power and otherwise similar skill set. Gutierrez socked 11 homers in 2000, ten more than Theriot eight years later.
Their final lines read thus: .276/.375/.401 for Gutierrez, versus .307/.387/.359 for Theriot. Anecdotally, though somewhat lacking for range, Gutierrez started and turned double plays with surpassing quickness, and ran the bases with aggressive intelligence. Those kinds of tie-breakers make him the difficult but correct choice.
Left Field: Moises Alou, 2004
Along with Ramirez, Alou helped to mitigate the precipitous declines of Sosa and Corey Patterson in 2004. The fact that Chicago choked away its chance to win the NL Wild Card during the last week of that season should not cloud our memory of the explosive offense Jim Hendry assembled that season, led by five players (Alou, Ramirez, Sosa, Lee and Patterson) with between 39 and 24 home runs.
Still, Alou wins this one by far less than it might seem. His stellar offensive skills (.293/.361/.557, with 39 homers in 2004) were often negated somewhat by miserable left-field glove work. Here enters Matt Murton, who in 2006 played phenomenal defense at that position, while also providing slightly above-average offense. If his '06 line of .297/.365/.444 were just a tick better across the board, or if he had augmented it with more than 13 home runs, he would scrape by Alou.
Center Field: Corey Patterson/Kenny Lofton, 2003
It might seem like cheating, but the position has been so unproductive for Chicago over the last 20 years that I have little choice. Patterson, who went down with a torn knee ligament on July 6, compiled a .298/.329/.511 line in 83 games. He also had 13 home runs and 16 steals.
In a season-saving move, Hendry acquired Lofton from the Pittsburgh Pirates less than three weeks later. Upon his arrival, Lofton promptly led Chicago into the post-season, providing .327/.381/.471 contribution as a lead-off man in 236 plate appearances. He also played good defense, helping fortify the team defense against the loss of defensive whiz Patterson.
For those unable or unwilling to abide the divided labor, Jim Edmonds (in 2008) and Juan Pierre (in '06) are unspectacular but acceptable alternatives. Neither played good defense, and they provided very different kinds of offensive value. It is not apples to apples, but I'd take Edmonds after the Patterson-Lofton tag team.
Right Field: Sammy Sosa, 2001
It may be that readers will want to throw out Sosa's seasons, in light of his steroid taint. Given that his successors have been so middling, however, doing so would leave us with too few decent options.
Instead, let's break down one of the great offensive seasons in baseball history. Sosa posted a .328/.437/.737 line, smacked 64 homers, drove in 160, walked 116 times and watched Barry Bonds overshadow him completely. Whether artificially inflated or not, though, Sosa's numbers in '01 are staggering.
For purists, I will select from among the chaff Jeromy Burnitz's 2005 as the second-best option. Burnitz managed just a .258/.322/.435 line, but had at least a little pop: he hit 24 home runs in his only Cubs campaign.
No. 1 Starter: Mark Prior, 2003
Prior's season, and later his career, nosedived into oblivion in the 2003 NLCS. Until then, however, he had put together one of the best pitching seasons throughout the league this decade. In 211 1/3 innings, he struck out 240 and walked only 50 batters. He won 18 games, including 10 during a second-half surge that saw him rack up 95 whiffs and just 16 walks in 82 2/3 innings in August and September. Over that span, he had an otherworldly 1.52 ERA.
No. 2 Starter: Kerry Wood, 2003
After Prior, Chicago quickly runs out of all-time ace performances. As second fiddle in the team's pair of 2003 aces, however, Wood had a remarkable season. He led the league with 266 punch-outs; Prior finished second. Though Wood didn't quite have Prior's control, he showed the best command of his career that season.
No. 3 Starter: Carlos Zambrano, 2004
After a successful but inconsistent 2002-03, Zambrano came into his own in '04, at the tender age of 23. Stepping into the void left by injuries to Prior and Wood, Big Z claimed his place as staff ace by going 16-8, with a 2.75 ERA. More importantly, he struck out 188, walked 81 and allowed 14 home runs in 209 2/3 innings. Like the offense, the starting rotation Hendry set forth for 2004—Wood, Prior, Zambrano, Greg Maddux and Matt Clement—faltered only when its supremely talented parts fell victim to injury.
No. 4 Starter: Matt Clement, 2004
This selection is an open rebellion against the win-loss-ERA framework of pitcher evaluation. In 2001, Jon Lieber went 20-6 for the Cubs. Yet, his peripheral numbers (5.7 strikeouts per nine innings, 25 home runs allowed, a 3.80 ERA and a .278 BAbip) suggest he got very lucky along the way.
Meanwhile, Clement went just 9-12 in 2004, and had an only slightly better 3.68 ERA. But Clement, a strikeout and ground-ball pitcher, pitched in front of a miserable defense, especially around the infield. He whiffed 190 batters in 181 innings, and had a very solid 2.47 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Those numbers put him squarely ahead of Lieber in my book.
No. 5 Starter: Ted Lilly, 2009
For the first three seasons of his current four-year contract, Lilly has rewarded Hendry's faith with three straight career years. This last campaign really marked his breakout: Lilly had 4.19 times as many strikeouts as walks, good for the fourth-best mark in the National League. He recorded a 3.11 ERA in 27 starts and 177 innings. Some metrics suggest he got at least a little bit lucky. If he continues to pound the strike zone, however, he could do all of this again in 2010, especially if he can stay healthy once he returns from shoulder surgery in late April.
Relief Ace: Kerry Wood, 2008
I did not distinguish between roles in selecting relief pitchers, and given that premise, some might argue for Carlos Marmol's 2007 as a better choice. Wood, however, wins because his command (84 strikeouts against 18 free passes in 66 1/3 innings, or a 4.67 ratio) made him more consistent.
Bullpen and Bench:
Rather than verbosely plod through the best of the rest, I will simply list them, along with basic stat lines for the season that qualified each player. As a parting thought, I leave this: looking over the winners, position-by-position, many came from the first half of the decade. The team, by contrast, made significant strides at the end of the decade. Perhaps, then, winning in Chicago is not so much about top-shelf talent as it is about depth. Hendry would be wise to keep that in mind this winter.
Marmol, 2007: 69 1/3 innings, 96 K, 35 BB, 3 HR, 1.10 WHIP
Marmol, 2008: 87 1/3 IP, 114 K, 41 BB, 10 HR, 0.93 WHIP
Tom Gordon, 2001: 45 1/3 IP, 67 K, 16 BB, 4 HR, 1.06 WHIP
Kyle Farnsworth, 2001: 82 IP, 107 K, 29 BB, 8 HR, 1.15 WHIP
Bob Howry, 2006: 76 2/3 IP, 71 K, 17 BB, 8 HR, 1.14 WHIP
LaTroy Hawkins, 2004: 82 IP, 69 K, 14 BB, 10 HR, 1.05 WHIP
Henry Blanco, 2006: .266/.304/.419, 6 HR, 43% CS
Daryle Ward, 2007: .327/.436/.527, 3 HR, 13 2B, 133 PA
Mike Fontenot, 2008: .305/.395/.514, 9 HR
Delino DeShields, 2001: .276/.380/.405, 12 SB
Reed Johnson, 2008: .303/.358/.420
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