2003 Chicago Cubs

One of the most heartbreaking teams in baseball history, the 2003 Chicago Cubs were supposed to be the team that broke the Billy Goat curse. Unfortunately (for Chicago and my middle school classmates on the Chicago bandwagon), the Cubs ended up adding to the C-U-R-S-E legend. As a Showdown team, the 2003 Cubs are heavy on the pitching and light on the on-base percentage. It almost pushed them to a World Series showdown with the Yankees, but the Bartman incident (followed by the Gonzalez error and an epic bullpen collapse) doomed the team in Game 6, before they blew a lead in Game 7 as well.

Without further ado, one of the most heartbreaking baseball teams in history:



Order: The Cubs were not a team that relied on hitting to win games. There's only one player with an on-base above 8, and he cannot hit more than a double on his chart. Slammin' Sammy Sosa is the clear jewel of their line-up, with a comparable card to his original showdown card, with an OB 8 and HR at 15 (instead of 14). Moises Alou is worse than I remembered him being (I would've expected something closer to his 94 Expos card). Kenny Lofton and Aramis Ramirez were extremely necessary pick-ups for this team, and really helped them get into and as far in the Postseason as the team did. Corey Patterson could be really deadly against low control pitchers. Overall, a pretty pedestrian line-up.

Rotation: The real strength of this team. Everyone remembers the amazing potential and talent of their 1-2 punch: Mark Prior and Kerry Wood. Two of baseball's ultimate "what if" talents, Wood and Prior seemed destined to win a multitude of Cy Youngs and bring a World Series (if not a plethora of titles) to Chicago. Unfortunately, injuries hampered both of their careers, including utterly destroying Mark Prior. Their #3 starter Carlos Zambrano ended up having the best career of the bunch, and was actually just as effective during the 2003 season. Prior-Wood-Zambrano give the Cubs a three headed, tier 2 monster in the rotation. Fourth starter Matt Clement is solid, but not spectacular, although he also provides an important IP 7 arm. Ironically one of the most durable rotations in Showdown thus far, the 2003 Cubs will pitch a ton of innings at a high level... At least as cards, this Dusty Baker approach won't run their arms into the ground.

Bullpen: Not the most lights-out or impressive bullpen in the game, but solid enough. Alfonseca should not give up too many charts, and the Farnsworth and Remlinger's charts are both non-advancing outs at 11, which will help mitigate damage their 3 controls may cause. Borowski was the most forgotten of these relievers in my memory, but I think he's their best guy. Overall, it's a group of Tier 3 pitchers who will make you nervous to use, but hopefully can hold their own. Honestly, I see lots of managers sending out Prior, Wood, and Zambrano for an 8th inning, then just hoping to get a good enough ninth out of these guys.