The worst individual Cubs seasons of all-time

[rocket]

According to Jim Baker, these are the 3 worst Cubs seasons of all-time:

 

Corey Patterson, CF, 2005 (.215/.254/.348, 13 HR, 34 RBI in 451 at-bats): If we avoid playing "blame it on the shortstop" here, Ronny Cedeno's 2006 season gets a pass in favor of what Patterson did the year before. Patterson hit .215, supplemented by only 20 unintentional walks in 481 plate appearances. He did show flashes of power, but nothing like the output of his previous two seasons. This performance pretty much ended talk of his being a future star.

 

Shawn Estes, P, 2003 (8-11, 5.73 ERA, 152.1 IP, 182 H, 83 BB, 102 SO): The good news for Cubs fans is that most pitchers who've had the team's worst seasons have pitched limited innings. Estes is the exception, so he gets the nomination here. Estes failed to make it through the fifth inning nine times in 28 starts and averaged a walk every other inning. Opponents had a .387 OBP against him, the worst figure of the past half-century among Cubs pitchers with at least 100 innings.

 

Ruben Quevedo, P, 2000 (3-10, 7.47 ERA, 88 IP, 96 H, 21 HR, 54 BB): He pitched only 88 innings, but it's hard to ignore the results. Although a few good starts were in the mix, there were also those with lines that looked like this: 6.2 9 7 5 5 2; 1.1 4 4 4 5 2; 3.2 10 9 9 1 6; 2 4 6 4 5 3. Quevedo also pitched six games in relief and left only one of them unscathed. His relief ERA was 31.91. His home run rate of 2.15/9 IP is the seventh-worst in the National League in the past 50 years.

 

Interesting, but there's gotta be even worse than that from the dark periods of 1909-now. I just can't believe the 3 worst Cubs seasons have all happened within the past 8 years.

 

Here's his article where he breaks down the worst seasons for each team:

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=baker/080820

[David]

I remember being excited about Ruben Quevedo.

[daske17]

Say what you will about Shawn Estes, he pitched a gem against the Reds when it really counted.

[bukie]

Say what you will about Shawn Estes, he pitched a gem against the Reds when it really counted.

 

Say what you will about Shawn Estes, he pitched like garbage the rest of the year, when it also really counted.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Say what you will about Shawn Estes, he pitched a gem against the Reds when it really counted.

 

Say what you will about Shawn Estes, he pitched like garbage the rest of the year, when it also really counted.

how can you say with a straight face that 27 starts are more important than 1?

[OleMissCub]

Some pretty dreadful ones:

 

Bobby Mattick, 1940: 128 games, 441 AB's, .218/.250/.252, 40 OPS+

 

Sheriff Blake, 1925: 10-18, 4.86 ERA

 

Warren Hacker, 1956: 3-13, 4.66 ERA

[kjfoster 1553]

Former Cub makes the list as a Brewer:

 

Glendon Rusch, P, 2003 (1-12, 6.43 ERA, 123.1 IP, 171 H, .331 average allowed): Rusch always has been an enigmatic pitcher: He can get torched with the best of them, but he's perfectly capable of tossing the occasional gem. Of course, that could describe just about any journeyman hurler of long standing. In 2003, little went right when Rusch got the ball in his locker. He posted a 7.36 ERA in 19 starting assignments. (His ERA was a much-more-civilized 2.35 in 23 innings of relief work.) The Brewers won just four of his starts.

[SouthSideRyan]

Micah Bowie's limited playing time was way worse than Quevedo's.

[Elrhino]

If we're going to factor salary bang per buck into the equation, Todd Hundley's 2001 with his 67 OPS+ in 246 ABs would have been serious contender for a spot on the list.

[flyseye]

Mick Kelleher, 1976

[Elrhino]

I just can't believe the 3 worst Cubs seasons have all happened within the past 8 years.

 

While it's a certainty the Cubs have had plenty of horrible players during it's history, I'm not so certain they ever had a manager who had such an unwavering affinity for bad players as the one during the time frame in question.

[burnt out cubbie fan]

You're talking about the same Cubs that went a century without winning a world series right?

[Derwood]

if you go combined season totals, Anthony Young's year between the Mets and Cubs is pretty godawful

[UK1679666180]

if you go combined season totals, Anthony Young's year between the Mets and Cubs is pretty godawful

 

He was a decent pitcher with awful W/L totals.

[ConstableRabbit]

Instead, we'll have you select the worst individual player seasons for each ballclub. We're giving you three candidates for each team and want you to choose the worst season for each franchise from the past 50 years. We scoured the records beginning in 1959 and came up with what we believe are three viable candidates for each team.

That would explain a lot.

[erik316wttn]

Say what you will about Shawn Estes, he pitched a gem against the Reds when it really counted.

 

Blind squirrel and acorn, my friend.

[ConstableRabbit]

Say what you will about Shawn Estes, he pitched a gem against the Reds when it really counted.

 

Blind squirrel and acorn, my friend.

At least squirrels have a sense of smell.

 

That game in '03 was more like getting into a fight in Vegas and getting pushed onto a slot machine lever that already had a credit and winning $1,000,000.