With all the pictures going around showing the transformations from the beginning of the decade (2010) and the end of the decade (2019), I thought it would be fun to take a look at the Chicago Cubs of 2010 and compare them to the 2019 team. Here is how the Cubs opening day 2010 lineup looked.
The lineup isn’t as bad as one may have expected. There were several very good players, especially Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez. Then there were some solid MLB players, like Ryan Theriot and Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Zambrano. Geovany Soto was recently playing in the bigs.
Coincidently, this game was the MLB debut of current Cubs right fielder, Jason Heyward.
2010 was Theriot’s last in Chicago, being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers after posting a .284/.320/.327 slash line. He might go down as one of the most overrated Cubs players of all-time. Not only was he a below-average offensive player, but his defense was also just adequate (at best). Then there was his baserunning, which was comically bad. So comically bad that a new stat was created just for him – TOOTBLAN.
What is TOOTBLAN? Well… it stands for Thrown Out On The Basepath Like A Nincompoop. It’s hilarious how much Theriot was adored in Chicago after being such a normal player who was prone to making idiotic mistakes on the basepaths.
Kosuke Fukudome wasn’t as bad as you remember him to be. While a Cub, he averaged a .263/.370/.402 slash line. Sure it wasn’t what we “expected” but he was much better than we remembered. If the Cubs were getting a .771 OPS from Heyward, we would all be more content.
This also goes for Alfonso Soriano. Sure, he never had the 40/40 season Cubs fans expected, or hell, even a 30/30 season (or even a 20/20 season). Sure, he had that issue with jumping whenever he would make a catch in LF (which is just comical thinking back now). But he did post an .812 OPS with the Cubs, belted 181 homers while he was here (seven seasons) and owned the third-highest fWAR for NL left fielders during that time.
But that 2010 Cubs team was an absolute failure. Finishing the season at 73-89 and eventually seeing Lou Pinella get canned and the Mike Quade begin.
Here is the rest of the 2010 Cubs roster:
- Starlin Castro
- Tyler Colvin
- Xavier Nady
- Koyie Hill
- Jeff Baker
- Blake DeWitt
- Darwin Barney
- Micah Hoffpauir
- Chad Tracy
- Sam Fuld
- Brad Snyder
- Wellington Castillo
- Bobby Scales
It is insane to me, with hindsight, that the Cubs were expected to win in 2019. Sure, they had enough talent to compete, but guys like Mark Zagunis and David Bote getting starts. Albert Almora being one of the worst players in baseball in 2019. Then knowing how bad Ben Zobrist started the season – this team certainly had some roster issues.
Yes, I know Zagunis didn’t spend much time on the big league roster and Kyle Schwarber would eventually win most of the opportunities (as well as have his best season as a pro). Almora was mostly replaced by shifting Heyward over and then not missed at all once Nicholas Castellanos was picked up.
There were the Addison Russell issues that left the club short-handed at the beginning of the season as well.
But damn was this a short club from the jump. This doesn’t include the poorly constructed bullpen either. One could only wonder if the Cubs were allowed to spend more money in the offseason. I would still take the Cubs 2019 roster of the 2010 season. Even if it was just am 84-78 club.
