Best of Chicago: Part 4 – Cubs

Part four of this five-part series was easily the most difficult. The Chicago Cubs were by far the hardest organization to compare teams from the entire 140-year life of the franchise. There are teams from over 100 years ago that dominated the league, won the World Series or not, and then there’s teams over the past 108 seasons who have been great, but haven’t won the big one.

The Cubs have had their fair share of bad teams, but from 1906 to today they have had some pretty fine ones that should be recognized. You’ll be surprised who’s left off this list.

Number four: 1984 Cubs

After only winning 71 games in 1983, the Cubs traded for starting pitcher Scott Sanderson in an effort to improve the team’s rotation. After going 12-8 through April, the front office thought it should continue to bolster the staff to pull away from the Mets and Phillies.

The Cubs traded for a pair of 5.00+ ERA guys – Dennis Eckersly and Rick Sutcliffe – in late May and early June. After “The Sandberg Game”, the Cubs maintained on the same path, being 42-34 at the end of June, with the Phillies tied for the division and the Mets not far behind. The team was looking to build off some momentum to carry them the rest of the way.

Well, it did. In his 20 starts with the Cubs, Sutcliffe threw to a 2.69 ERA including 9.3 K/9 and a 1.078 WHIP. In his 150 innings of work with the Cubs, Sutcliffe would prove to be the unanimous Cy Young winner for the National League.

In Eckersly’s 24 starts with the team, he recorded a 3.03 ERA and a 1.173 WHIP. For the bad trades the Cubs are known for, these two seemed to be overlooked in the “good department” for the organization.

The Cubs tallied 54 wins in the second half to finish the regular season 96-65 and a first-place finish in the NL East by six and a half games. The North Siders were set to play the NL West winner San Diego. Unfortunately, the Cubs fell to the Padres 3-2 in the NLCS and were knocked out of the playoffs.

In addition to having the Cy Young winner in Sutcliffe, Ryne Sandberg was awarded the NL’s MVP at season’s end after slashing .314/.367/.520 with 19 home runs, 200 hits, and 32 stolen bases.

Leon Durham replaced Bill Buckner pretty well hitting 23 home runs and 96 runs batted in with a .369 on-base percentage. On the rubber, Sanderson recorded a 2.70 FIP while Lee Smith had 33 saves in 101 innings of work.

Number three: 1907 Cubs

We’re already 77 years apart.

You could be thinking: “How is the first of two Cubs’ World Series teams number three on your list?” Well, like I alluded to in the opening, it’s down near impossible to compare teams with as much history as this organization does. The game changes every couple decades. I essentially chose teams based on players’ numbers. Lots of room for hate and criticism, I know. It’s tight among these final three teams.

Winning the NL pennant the season prior, the 1907 squad cruised to another pennant after winning 107 games and winning the league by 17. With an average of 27.1, the team won its first World Series championship when a sweep ended Detroit’s season.

Player/manager Franck Chance led the team offensively slashing .293/.395/.361 with a .756 OPS and 35 stolen bases. Catcher Johnny Kling had a .342 on-base percentage with 24 extra base hits. Harry Steinfeldt led the team with 613 plate appearances, 144 hits, and 70 runs batted in. Johnny Evers and Joe Tinker stole a combined 66 bases.

The pitching staff was dominant. Seven pitchers started at least 13 games with the worst FIP of them all being 2.97. Orval Overall threw 268.1 innings with a 1.006 WHIP. Mordecai Brown had a .944 WHIP with a 1.97 FIP. Carl Lundgren and Jack Pfiester had an ERA+ of 213 and 216, respectively.

Also got to give these team props for being the first of the back-to-back World Series champions, which the Cubs became the first organization to accomplish that when the 1908 squad repeated as champs.

Number two: 2008 Cubs

Desert Island: Sports Edition. If I had to choose any sports team’s individual season to watch as the only thing for the rest of my life, I would choose the 2008 Cubs. What a fun team the entire season, despite the ending. And the hatred I had for the next several years.

Kosuke Fukudome made his presence known on Opening Day against Milwaukee when he blasted a three-run home run to right center to tie the game in the ninth…but unfortunately, the team would lose in extra innings. This game is basically the definition of the 2008 season.

The Cubs flew threw the first-half of the schedule with the best record in baseball. They clinched their second straight division title against the Cardinals, and closed the 2008 regular season with 97 wins, the most in baseball.

Signing Fukudome would prove to be the biggest move of the off-season as they entered 2008 with Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Alfonso Soriano. On the pitching staff was Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster, with Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol controlling the back end of the bullpen.

Needing some help for the rotation, the Cubs traded for Rich Harden in July. We’ll ignore that we traded Josh Donaldson, but that’s okay. In Harden’s masterful 12 starts with the Cubs, he posted a 1.71 ERA with 11.3 K/9 and a .972 WHIP.

Heading into the playoffs, the Cubs faced the NL West champ Los Angeles Dodgers (since the wild card came from the NL Central). The Manny-Wood Dodgers swept the Cubs, and the most electrifying Cubs’ team season in the past decade or two was over.

Dempster posted a 2.96 ERA and finished sixth in Cy Young voting. The bullpen had its bright spots with Wood saving 34 games, and Marmol threw 87.1 innings and struck out 114 hitters. Jeff Samardzija came in late in the season, having 26 appearances with a 3.06 FIP.

Offensively, Geovany Soto won the NL Rookie of the Year after a .285/.364/.505 slash line and 60 extra base hits. Soriano led the team with 29 home runs, while Ryan Theriot snagged 22 bases. One of the surprising contributors was Jim Edmonds, who signed as a free agent in May. In 85 games, Edmonds had an OPS of .937 with 38 of his 64 hits being for extra bases.

This team was having the best time of their lives out there in 2008, and it made us fans really have fun watching, too.

Number one: 1906 Cubs

Yeah, sorry…no 1908 squad. But, this team won 116 games, which is tied for the most in MLB history and is also part of the best winning percentage in baseball history in the modern-era at .763.

Highly regarded as one of the best baseball teams ever despite not winning the World Series, this squad was virtually the same as the next year, but a lot better.

The Cubs won the NL pennant by 20 (!) games, which you’re like: “Dayyyuummmm the next team wasn’t good.” Then you remember they won 116 games, and 116 minus 20 is 96. That’s how many games the New York Giants won.

In all, the team scored 704 runs and only surrendered 381. It was Frank Chance’s first season as player/manager. Just as the 1907 year, this team consisted of future Hall of Famers Chance, Evers, Tinker, and Brown.

The Cubs won at least 15 games against each of the National League opponents, including 15-7-1 against the Giants. The team turned 100 double plays, and the infamous “Tinker to Evers to Chance” became a thing.

Chance stole 57 bases and had an OPS of .849. Steinfeldt and Jimmy Sheckerd led the team with 27 doubles. All eight primary starters had at least 107 hits, while seven of the eight crossed the plate at least 65 times.

The entire pitching staff’s combined ERA+ was 151 with the worst ERA of pitchers who started at least 14 game was 2.21 by Lundgren. Brown threw 277.1 innings pitched and had a .934 WHIP and a 1.04 ERA and completed 27 of his 32 starts. Pfiester threw 250.2 innings and led the team with 153 strikeouts.

It really, really sucks this team is 110 years old and nobody reading this could even fathom how this team won 116 games and lost 36. Obviously the 1906 and 1907 Cubs are completely different than the 1984 and 2008 Cubs because it was a completely different game then. But, you can’t argue that the 1906 squad did more than take of business and every single player on that team was spectacular.

This was an extraordinary exercise and hurt my head thinking about how I rank these teams because of the different eras. But, it was extremely fun. I’m sure plenty of you would put the 1908 team on here, 1998 instead of ’84, or even this past season’s team.

What do you guys and gals think?

Tomorrow I conclude the five-part series with the four best teams in White Sox history. Are ya ready?