Cubs All Decade Team

[daske17]

So with the end of decade frenzy, a lot of media outlets are printing their "all decade" teams for various sports. I'm actually take my first steps into analyzing metrics and really understanding their value (one of my many New Year's resolutions), but I thought it would be a good thought provoker to determine the Cubs All Decade Team. Basically, I'm trying to fill out a 25-man roster using a player only once.

 

For example, while Kerry Wood had some pretty good years as a starter, I chose his 2003 year as representative. This is actually taking longer than I thought, but wanted to get the ball rolling with my all-decade starting rotation.

 

2003 Mark Prior: 18-6, 2.43 ERA, 211.1 IP, 178 ERA+, 1.103 WHIP

2008 Ryan Dempster: 17-6, 2.96 ERA, 206.2 IP, 155 ERA+, 1.21 WHIP

2002 Matt Clement: 12-11, 3.60 ERA, 205 IP, 112 ERA+, 1.205 WHIP

2003 Kerry Wood: 14-11, 3.20 ERA, 211 IP, 135 ERA+, 1.194 WHIP

2004 Carlos Zambrano: 16-8, 2.75 ERA, 209.2 IP, 160 ERA+, 1.216 WHIP

 

And there were a couple obvious choices for position players: 2001 Sammy Sosa (RF) and 2005 Derrek Lee (1B).

 

Feel free to add on!

[jersey cubs fan]

Bellhorn's 2002 at 2B

Ramirez's 2004 or 2005 at 3B

 

Not sure if it would be a Barrett year or Soto's rookie year at C

 

CF is tough, with hardly anybody having a good full season out there, although it might be 2009's Fukudome.

 

Either Alou's 2004 or Soriano's 2007 in LF.

[CubbieBum]

DeRosa's 2008 (.857 OPS, 21 HR's, 87 RBI, 103 R) is probably the best 2b performance.

 

3B A-Ram's 2004 (.951 OPS, 36 HR's, 103 RBI, 99 R) or 2006 (.912 OPS, 38 HR's, 119 RBI, 93 R) .

 

CF could be Jim Edmonds (.937 OPS) but he only played 85 games so I don't think it is fair to do that. After that it is probably the Patterson's 2004 season.

 

LF is Alou's 2004 (.919 OPS, 39 HR's, 106 RBI, 106 R)

 

C is easily Soto's 2008

 

SS is Theriot's 2008???

[jersey cubs fan]

2B and CF are both tough. Bellhorn and DeRosa stand out at 2B, but in both of their standout years they only had about 300 PA at 2B (and Bellhorn seriously outperformed him).

[OleMissCub]

FWIW, DeRosa was better defensively at 2nd in his year as opposed to Bellhorn's.

[SouthSideRyan]

No brainers are Lee '05 and Sosa '01.

 

I assume you're including bench/bullpen in which case you have to have Hollandsworth '04, Ward '07, Fontenot '08, Marmol '07, Farnsworth '01, Gooz '09

[UMFan83]

Here is my decade team if you are not looking at individual years and just the decade as a whole

 

C: Barrett

1B: Lee

2B: DeRosa

SS: Theriot (Possible consideration for Ricky Gutierrez)

3B: Ramirez

LF: Alou

CF: Patterson is the only one that played significant time there, but I can't pick him so Fukudome

RF: Sosa

 

SP: Zambrano, Wood, Prior, Lilly, Dempster

SU: Marmol

CL: Borowski

Manager: Lou Piniella

 

I didn't really think more than 2 minutes on this so there will probably be disagreements.

[daske17]

DeRosa's 2008 (.857 OPS, 21 HR's, 87 RBI, 103 R) is probably the best 2b performance.

 

3B A-Ram's 2004 (.951 OPS, 36 HR's, 103 RBI, 99 R) or 2006 (.912 OPS, 38 HR's, 119 RBI, 93 R) .

 

CF could be Jim Edmonds (.937 OPS) but he only played 85 games so I don't think it is fair to do that. After that it is probably the Patterson's 2004 season.

 

LF is Alou's 2004 (.919 OPS, 39 HR's, 106 RBI, 106 R)

 

C is easily Soto's 2008

 

SS is Theriot's 2008???

 

SS actually leans towards 2000 Ricky Gutierrez (.775 OPS, 11 HR, 73 R), which really notes the range of bad SS the Cubs have had during an era of offensively minded shortshops.

 

As for C, it's a virtual tie between Soto's 2008 and Barrett's 2006. OPS, OBP, and other hitting stats are within points of each other. The only thing in Barrett's corner is a higher AVG: .307 v. .285

[UMFan83]

Anti decade team

 

c - hundley

1b - mcgriff (decent decade for 1b)

2b - deshields (obviously there were worse but we gave h 2b spot to start year and he was beyond awful)

ss - neifi

3b - Lenny Harris

lf - hollandsworth

cf - patterson

rf - bradley

 

sp - estes

rp - too many (can you decide between Alfonseca, Hereida, Veres, Rush, Ohman, Wellemeyer, Remlinger, Hawkins, even year Farns, and Fassero?)

cl - gregg

Edited December 31, 2009 by UMFan83

[jersey cubs fan]

Anti decade team

 

cf - patterson

rf - bradley

 

Buford for CF.

 

And Burnitz was probably worse than Bradley, while 2008 Fukudome was also worse.

[daske17]

Anti decade team

 

cl - gregg

 

Gregg and Rick Aguilera are actually much closer than I anticipated.

[UMFan83]

Anti decade team

 

cl - gregg

 

Gregg and Rick Aguilera are actually much closer than I anticipated.

 

I almost put Aggy there, but the pain of Gregg is fresh in my mind.

 

And Buford is a good choice given that Patterson gave the Cubs an above average half season (2003), an average season (2004) and 2 awful seasons (2002 and 2005), but when Patterson was bad, he was just awful.

 

As for RF, I hear ya on Burnitz, but Bradley just left a bad taste in your mouth when you remember his season on the team. Worse than Burnitz even or 08 Fukudome or 07 Jones.

[Guest]

Anti decade team

 

cf - patterson

rf - bradley

 

Buford for CF.

 

And Burnitz was probably worse than Bradley, while 2008 Fukudome was also worse.

 

Jacque Jones made people mad in RF for at least one of his years here. Remember those 15 foot throws directed at home plate?

[Post Count Padder]

Jon Lieber's 2001 was pretty good.

[ELCABALLO45]

Aaron Miles would have to be on the all anit team...

 

.466 thats all im going to say

[fromthestretch]

It's impossible to find a bench player from the Cubs during the decade that's worthy of putting on this team as a SS in a backup capacity. Theriot (2008) and Gutierrez (2000 and 2001) had decent seasons as starters, but there really wasn't anyone who served capably as a backup SS. If you go with the Cubs strategy of keeping 12 pitchers on the roster, here's what I've come up with:

 

C - Soto (2008): .285/.364/.504

1B - Lee (2005): .335/.418/.662

2B - Bellhorn (2002): .258/.374/.512

3B - Ramirez (2004): .318/.373/.578

SS - Gutierrez (2000): .276/.375/.401

LF - Alou (2004): .293/.361/.557

CF - Edmonds (2008): .256/.369/.568

RF - Sosa (2001): .328/.437/.737

 

UT - DeRosa (2008): .285/.376/.481

C - Blanco (2008): .292/.325/.392

1B/LF - Ward (2007): .327/.436/.527

OF - Johnson (2008): .303/.358/.420

2B/3B - Fontenot (2008): .305/.395/.514

 

SP - Prior (2003): 18-6, 2.43 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 10.4 K/9

SP - Zambrano (2004): 16-8, 2.75 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 8.1 K/9

SP - Wood (2003): 14-11, 3.20 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 11.3 K/9

SP - Lilly (2009): 12-9, 3.10 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 7.7 K/9

SP - Dempster (2008): 17-6, 2.96 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 8.1 K/9

 

RP - Borowski (2003): 2-2, 33 SV, 2.63 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 8/7 K/9

RP - Marmol (2007): 5-1, 1 SV, 1.43 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 12.5 K/9

RP - Farnsworth (2001): 4-6, 2 SV, 2.74 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 11.7 K/9

RP - Van Poppel (2001): 4-1, 0 SV, 2.52 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 10.8 K/9

RP - Fassero (2001): 4-4, 12 SV, 3.42 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 9.7 K/9

RP - Guzman (2009): 3-3, 1 SV, 2.95 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 6.9 K/9

RP/SP - Rusch (2004): 6-2, 2 SV, 3.47 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 6.2 K/9

 

Bellhorn and DeRosa are interchangeable if you prefer one over the other as a starter at 2B. You could easily put Hollandsworth (2004) in Ward's spot or Merker (also 2004) in Fassero's spot. Rusch gives you someone who can relieve or spot start (Marshall would also be acceptable in this role).

[SouthSideRyan]

Ronny Cedeno was a good backup SS in 2008. As was Ramon Martinez in '03.

[fromthestretch]

Ronny Cedeno was a good backup SS in 2008. As was Ramon Martinez in '03.

 

Fair enough. I was hoping for a little more offense, but that's probably setting the bar too high for a backup middle infielder.

[Exile on Waveland]

Until Grass, I thought Lilly was being unfairly overlooked. His 2009 was pretty great. And, having watched Matt Clement pitch, I would probably be inclined to take any of Lilly's three years over him.

[AlwaysaCub]

The Anti team:

 

C: Hundley

1b: Hee Sop Choi

2b: Jose "The Gremlin" Macias

SS: Ronny Cedeno

3b: Ron Coomer

LF: Jason "The Creature" Dubois

CF: CPat

RF: Jeromy Burnitz

 

SP: Sean Estes

SP: Wade Miller

SP: Jerome Williams

SP: Juan Mateo

Cl: Kevin Gregg

Rp: Jeff Fassero

Rp: Les Walrond

Rp: Aaron Heilmann

[jersey cubs fan]

The Anti team:

 

C: Hundley

1b: Hee Sop Choi

2b: Jose "The Gremlin" Macias

SS: Ronny Cedeno

3b: Ron Coomer

LF: Jason "The Creature" Dubois

CF: CPat

RF: Jeromy Burnitz

 

SP: Sean Estes

SP: Wade Miller

SP: Jerome Williams

SP: Juan Mateo

Cl: Kevin Gregg

Rp: Jeff Fassero

Rp: Les Walrond

Rp: Aaron Heilmann

 

Choi was good.

[CubColtPacer]

The Anti team:

 

C: Hundley

1b: Hee Sop Choi

2b: Jose "The Gremlin" Macias

SS: Ronny Cedeno

3b: Ron Coomer

LF: Jason "The Creature" Dubois

CF: CPat

RF: Jeromy Burnitz

 

SP: Sean Estes

SP: Wade Miller

SP: Jerome Williams

SP: Juan Mateo

Cl: Kevin Gregg

Rp: Jeff Fassero

Rp: Les Walrond

Rp: Aaron Heilmann

 

Choi was good.

 

1B is a tough position. If you limit it to 50 games started or above Choi would probably be the leading candidate (Karros would be right there as well but Choi had the bad few games in 2002 which probably breaks the tie). If you're willing to go lower than that then Mabry would be the top guy.

[bukie]

I don't see how CF on the all-decade team can't be 2008 Edmonds. Nobody else was particularly close.

 

Here's how I'd set up the 25-man roster:

 

C: 2006 Barrett

1B: 2005 Lee

2B: 2002 Bellhorn

3B: 2004 Ramirez

SS: 2004 Garciaparra

RF: 2001 Sosa

CF: 2008 Edmonds

LF: 2001 White

DH/Util/Bench: 2004 Alou, 2007 Soriano, 2000 Gutierrez, 2003 Patterson; 2008 DeRosa; 2008 Soto

 

SP: 2008 Harden

SP: 2003 Prior

SP: 2004 Zambrano

SP: 2008 Dempster

SP: 2009 Wells

RP: 2007 Marmol; 2001 Farnsworth; 2000 Tim Worrell; 2004 Hawkins (pre-closer); 2004 Mercker

CL: 2008 Wood

[daske17]

The Anti team:

 

C: Hundley

1b: Hee Sop Choi

2b: Jose "The Gremlin" Macias

SS: Ronny Cedeno

3b: Ron Coomer

LF: Jason "The Creature" Dubois

CF: CPat

RF: Jeromy Burnitz

 

SP: Sean Estes

SP: Wade Miller

SP: Jerome Williams

SP: Juan Mateo

Cl: Kevin Gregg

Rp: Jeff Fassero

Rp: Les Walrond

Rp: Aaron Heilmann

 

I see your Ron Coomer and raise you a Willie Greene.

[SouthSideRyan]

I don't see how CF on the all-decade team can't be 2008 Edmonds. Nobody else was particularly close.

 

I love Jimmy, but defense matters