Monday, April 06, 2009

The Ex-Cub Tracker

It started several years ago with the question: Which would be better, a team of ex-Cubs or a team of ex-Expos? It turned out to be a pretty simple answer, because the ex-Expos included Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Andres Gallaraga and just a ton of other talent. The ex-Cubs had, geez, I don't even remember, probably Mark Clark and Mark Guthrie and Kevin Orie, schlubs like that.

But of that parlor game was born an idea: The Ex-Cub Tracker. Whatever happened to all those guys we let get away? That trade a couple years ago, where we gave up promising talent for an aging veteran, did those kids ever develop into anything?

Gratuitious photo of one-time Cub Rich Garces.

I loosely started keeping track of the ex-Cubs in 2006. Players kept the juvenile nicknames they'd been assigned during their sucking days (Moises Alou was called Moises A-Loser, Juan Cruz became Juan Crap, etc.). The spreadsheet was sloppy, filled with poor typing and lazy abbreviations. As well it should: this idea almost certainly started while drinking. In honor of that, the sheet is still incomplete, amatuerish and only partially researched.

This year since I was curious and had the time, I decided to get back into the Tracker. I tried to look up how guys became Cubs (draft vs. trade vs. free agent signing) and how they left, to see if the general manager had any idea about the guy's relative talent.

Before we get to the full sheet, here's an update on the 18 guys who left the organization between last year's Opening Day and this year's:

Neither one of these guys is an ex-Cub, but we were talking about this photo earlier today and damn do I love this pic of Pedro.

Eric Patterson, Matt Murton, Michael Wuerst, Sean Gallagher: shipped to Oakland to get Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin. (Murton ended up in Denver. Maybe he got lost?)

Speaking of Gaudin: gone. Cubs released him yesterday.

Bobby "Call Me Robert" Howry: caught on with the Giants.

Kerry Wood: signed with the Indians.

Mark DeRosa: traded to Indians to keep Wood company.

Ronny Cedeno: sent to Seattle to get Notre Dame alum Aaron Heilman. (By the way, in that deal was a guy named Garrett Olson, whom* the Cubs had acquired 10 days earlier. This makes Olson the patron saint of the Ex-Cub Tracker, along with fellow long-timer Jody Gerut.)

Casey McGahee: never heard of him, but apparently the Brewers got him off waivers.

Jon Leiber: I won't be an active Leiber Believer this year, because no one picked up Jon after his injury. I salute an excellent career for this native Iowan.

Felix Pie and Rich Hill: traded to Baltimore in separate deals.

Hey, it's Guapo again ... Damn he got fat.

Henry Blanco: Hank White landed with the Padres. Guess he can catch Mark Prior there.....

sorry, I've stopped laughing now. Continuing on....

Jason Marquis: traded to Rockies.

Scott Error: traded to Philadelphia.

Daryll Ward and Jose Ceda: MIA. could be out of baseball.

Click here to view the Ex-Cub Tracker (opens in new window). The data are* sorted by this year's team. You can also view by player name using Tools, then "sort by". The second tab lists the details of two multi-player trades, the Harden deal and the Nomah deal.

Enjoy!


* -- Occasional proper grammar use is at the sole discretion of the blog proprietor.

2 comments:

Scott Mortimer said...

El Guapo! Perhaps replacing that autograph with this one? http://www.morthas.com/cards/WebGuapoBall001.jpg I'm skeptical yours real. :) (And BTW - I wouldn't get tired of that UNC pic either. Anymore?)

mpf004 said...

can't believe you didn't comment on the Petey pic.

I do have that Guapo autograph. It does not show how fat he got over the years, hence the pic I picked.

cheerleader getting stiffarmed by a costumed ram...awesomeness redefined.