https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs-history/page/4/?d=7News: Chicago Cubs Historyenhttps://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs-history/matt-murton-cubs-japanese-hits-record-red-haired-baseball-players/With so much buzz around Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto this offseason, the continued globalization of baseball has been obvious. Ohtani and Yamamoto, who came to MLB via Japan’s professional baseball league, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), are joined in free agency by Shōta Imanaga, w...515Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:33:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs-history/remember-some-cubs-the-slow-but-steady-steve-trachsel-r488/Before I get too far into this article, there is one confession I’d like to make. I am 28 years old. My earliest memories as a Cubs fan are something like Sammy Sosa hitting home runs, the 2003 playoff run, and then everything thereafter. However, in an effort to expand this series beyond “Remem...488Sat, 09 Dec 2023 13:10:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs-history/remember-some-cubs-before-darvish-and-suzuki-there-was-kosuke-r486/Kosuke Fukodome was a star for the Chunichi Dragons of the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) after being drafted by them in the first round of the 1998 NPB draft. He helped lead them to a championship in his rookie season and famously stopped another Japanese baseball icon, Hideki Matsui...486Mon, 04 Dec 2023 19:14:00 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs-history/carlos-zambrano-larger-than-life/The Cubs signed Carlos Zambrano out of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, on July 12, 1997. By his third year in pro ball, he was a reliever at Triple-A Iowa, leading to his highest prospect ranking of 68 by Baseball America. Zambrano debuted in August of 2001 and would become a fixture in the Cubs’ rot...468Sat, 02 Dec 2023 13:11:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs-history/remember-some-cubs-the-delightfully-resilient-chris-coghlan-r466/There are very few examples in baseball history that illustrate the whimsy of awards voting (particularly in the period before analytics was at the forefront of everyone’s minds) like Chris Coghlan's Rookie of the Year win in 2009. Despite posting less WAR (per FanGraphs) than multiple players,...466Sun, 26 Nov 2023 13:10:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs-history/remember-some-cubs-sweet-swinging-starlin-r442/Technically speaking, some lists, like this one from Fangraphs, dispute Starlin Castro’s ranking as the best prospect in the Cubs system at the time, though most prospect gurus agreed the teenage shortstop was the best they had (side note: take a look at the rest of that list. It’s depressing… a...442Sat, 25 Nov 2023 13:15:01 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs-history/remember-some-cubs-mark-derosa-r455/In many ways, Mark DeRosa was always the versatile athlete that he would come to be known for in his professional baseball playing career. He was both a baseball and football star while growing up in New Jersey–so much so that he would go on to start at both quarterback and shortstop for the Uni...455Sat, 18 Nov 2023 13:10:02 +0000https://northsidebaseball.com/news-rumors/chicago-cubs-history/remember-some-cubs-the-legend-of-carlos-pe%C3%B1a-r429/Now, that’s an unceremonious way to introduce Carlos Pena, he of 286 career home runs and two top-10 MVP finishes. He’s most certainly remembered more fondly for his tenure with the Tampa Bay [Devil] Rays, averaging 32 homers and 92 RBIs over five seasons. However, Peña would go on to sign a one...429Sat, 11 Nov 2023 13:12:01 +0000