The 1975 Cubs - Lean Years in Wrigley
by Arch Stanton on Mon Jun 07, 2010 5:55 pm
Ten years ago, the Chicago Cubs completed the ultimate dream season, going from 69-93 to 100-62 and World Series champions. Happy days, it seemed, were indeed here again.
It was not to be. 1966 saw the Cubs barely miss the playoffs. 1967 saw them fall back to a losing record. The subsequent years have resulted in more of the same: more losses, more of the eternal struggle to maintain their revenue stream, more of what fans saw in the 40s and 50s. Original GM Nick Porcaro almost walked away from the team, but was persuaded to stay by Official Selig Puppet Matt Rectenwald. The question in front of us is...what kind of hand does Nick have to play in 1975? Can the Cubs return to their (brief) glory day(s)? Read on.
The GM
Seven owners are listed on the OOTP Managers page as having run their team for the entire history of the league: Porcaro, Rectenwald, Lyons ( :cry: ), Lynchy, LEE,,,,,, Chris "I'm The Original Chris" Wilson, and Chris "NO, I AM!" Ramsey. Of those seven, Nick has the worst record (1003-1103). However, only three of them have a World Series flag flying, and Nick is obviously in that group, so I think most of us would say :gimme: to a title and some bad seasons on either side of it.
Nick is smart, nice, writes great stuff when motivated, and manages to take pictures of teenage girls without giving off any creepy vibes. Who can dislike that?
The Offseason
The Cubs signed
Lou Brock (who is not Lou Brock anymore),
Jose Cardenal (who is not even what Lou Brock is
now), and...
Koichi Tabuchi. The first two don't matter, but the third one is interesting. Tabuchi is a Japanese import who hits about two doubles a month, but that's because he's busy trying to 8-iron a ball into the bleachers. His batting average is going to be bad, but if he can hit 30 HR a year, you can make a case that there's some value in that. In fact, the Cubs have become obsessed with catchers. They had five in Spring Training, and then signed two in March while claiming another one off waivers. I'm not sure what you can do with eight catchers, except for having seven people around to second guess the pitch calling of the starter. But I digress.
Offense
Bill Madlock is Tony Torchia without the Rectehacking, a base-hitting, standing-on-first-base-taking-off-his-batting-glove-while-smiling machine of a hitter. The front office hates to think to the future, however, because Madlock is obsessed with winning and money, and the Cubs are in short supply of both. Even a rich arbitration contract isn't going to make Madlock happy. He wants to get
paid. Let's not dwell on that...I believe Nick is now taking pictures of bottles of cheap vodka and sending them to Fake Madlock in order to express his misery.
Cliff Johnson is another interesting story. He is one of the best representatives of the Three True Outcomes we have in this league; in fact, last year he led the NL in both HR and K. Add in 85 walks and double digit HBP totals, and you have a 40 homer guy with a .373 career OBP. In case you're not completely sold on him, he's perfectly happy with a decent salary and he's quite popular with the fans. (He can also play catcher, which means they have nine. Is this the new Billy Beane strategy?)
Ollie Brown, who looks like he just smelled a fart,
is a step below Madlock and Johnson. He's also hitting home runs (59 in the last two seasons), but his overall offense production is only slightly above average. The rest of the offense is not as impressive.
Superjew has added value to the team by being sent home when lefties are pitching, and 1st round pick
Denny Walling should add some batting average (albeit relatively empty from an OPS standpoint).
Having said that, there are three more players who deserve mentioning, even if it's only in the Ripley's Believe It Or Not category.
Roger Freed mauled AAA pitching for two and a half years before the Cubs called him up, and he appears to be well-suited to a decent career as a corner OF/DH/pinch hitter.
Davey Johnson has the most consistent career I think I've ever seen in this game. Last - and least -
Dusty Baker is my least favorite person in the history of baseball. You can keep your racists and your adulterers and your cheaters. Give me Dusty.
Pitching
The rotation is bad. I didn't want to say it, but any credibility I might have in this piece would be dashed if I tried to pretend that the Cubs' starting pitchers were somehow a viable group. They're not.
Vida Blue is the ace. His career ERA+ is 99.
ops:
Ken Forsch and
Claude Osteen have identical 4/8/8 ratings, and both are heavily dependent on the defense behind them to keep them in games. Last year, Forsch had a BABIP of .340; Osteen's was .320. That's bad. After that, it gets worse, so let's stop there.
The closer is
Dave Tomlin, who again has those 4/8/8 ratings. In his case, however, he has received good defense and helps himself out by holding runners well and fielding his position like a shortstop. If the 9th inning defense holds up, he'll have a great career; if not, he'll still be solid. The rest of the bullpen is a mess.
Rawly Eastwick should be effective, but the rest of them are best left to their anonymity. My vote -
since I obviously know what I'm doing - would be to add an arm (or two or three) when the Great Mass of Humanity hits the waiver wire after the first sim. They'll be needed in the 6th and 7th innings if the Cubs want to carry any leads to Eastwick and Tomlin.
Defense
Unspectacular. Johnson and
Tito Fuentes are excellent middle infielders, but neither one can hit. Madlock is currently split between 2B and 3B, and he's underqualified for both. The outfield defense is solid, with great work in CF and Brown's cannon arm (16 assists last year) in RF. The problem with this defense is that Chicago really needs elite fielding to protect Forsch, Osteen, and Tomlin, and they don't have it. If the pitching staff was more strikeout-heavy, there wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, there are going to be lots of plays to be made, and these guys are going to not be able to make all the grabs they need.
Outlook
Full disclosure: I've been a Cubs fan all my life. I have a Cubs tattoo above my left ankle. Even though I'm writing about an imaginary Cubs team, I still hate to say that they're not very good. There
are some good pieces here. I like the reclamation projects (Epstein), the great human interest stories (Freed), and the owner trying to pull it all together. I want to say that the Cubs are going to surprise people, that they might nip at the heels of the insanely ridiculous Phillies for a while before settling for a wildcard berth.
But I just don't see it. Nick, we're glad you stayed, and we hope you stick around for years to come, but 1975 probably isn't going to make you feel any better than 1974 did.
74-88, 5th in the NL East.