Chicago Cubs
84-71, 3rd NL East, 9 GB
1972 Outlook: The Cubs took a major step back in 1971 after finishing in 2nd place with 90+ wins for 2 consecutive seasons. The offensive core of the team was still really young but man, that pitching... it was bad, even for a team that played in Wrigley. .500 seemed about right.
1972 In Review: In spite of being outscored this year, the Cubs ran a surprisingly good bullpen corps and a lot of clutch to being within a shot of the NL East for most of the year. As of July 1, they were just 1/2 game behind the Pirates with a 40-27 record. They fell off that month to a 15-16 record (yes, in July! With the All-Star Break!) and sent Jason Workman packing, indicating they were out of the race. Still, they weren't terrible, finishing 30-28 from August 1 on.
1973 Outlook: It's really hard to draw a bead on this team. Antonio Lopez and Jeremy Taylor are in their prime and make a great 1-2 punch, but the pitching is really, really bad: Chicago finished dead last in the NL in runs allowed. It feels like they can only go so far with the "win every game 6-5" strategy.
Pitching
Bill Lucas
POS No. 23
LR, 6'3" 190 lbs.
Born 1937-09-14 in Farragut, TN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CHC MLB 12 17 0 4.42 38 38 7 266.2 292 141 131 114 155
1971 CHC MLB 8 15 0 5.17 31 31 4 196.2 216 129 113 94 104
1972 CHC MLB 17 10 0 3.84 34 34 10 250.1 241 114 107 107 112
Bill Lucas rebounded last season from 2 straight years of ERAs over 4. Things were still high but this at least was within the realm of Wrigley Field acceptability. Lucas is 35 now and so will likely never achieve the heights he got to in 1969, when he went 23-13, 3.27. Lucas throws five pitches for strikes and throws hard, hitting the mid-90s on the radar gun, but none of his pitches are super hard to locate. He's kind of not got the greatest control either and Wrigley will make you pay for the tiniest of mistakes, so he's allowed 30+ HRs in each of the 4 full seasons he's been with the club. In 1972, that was 30 even, "good" for 4th worst in the league.
Lucas' best ability, then, is availability. He's willing to come in every 4 days and do what he can to help the team. With the sluggers on this club, that's usually enough.
Scott Coffey
LHP No. 14
LL, 6'1" 190 lbs.
Born 1942-07-12 in San Jose, CA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 TAC AAA 7 6 0 4.08 14 14 8 108.0 115 56 49 27 65
1970 CHC MLB 8 7 0 3.80 22 19 6 139.2 132 61 59 53 93
1971 TAC AAA 2 7 0 4.57 17 17 2 114.0 115 65 58 48 63
1971 CHC MLB 7 5 0 3.99 16 16 4 112.2 111 53 50 36 76
1972 CHC MLB 13 10 0 3.68 34 33 5 244.1 246 105 100 80 152
If Lucas was the staff workhorse, then Scott Coffey, I guess, was the staff ace, at least of the rotation. After several years of being not quite good enough to play in the big leagues for a full season, Coffey finally got a chance to show what he can do from Opening Day to October and he made the most of it. Sporting a hard fastball that hits the low to mid 90s on the gun and a nice slider, Coffey struck out an above average number of guys per 9 innings while keeping hitters from getting on too terribly much via the bases on balls. He did allow 27 HRs but what do you expect? Overall though Coffey gets groundballs, which is a pretty decent way to pitch in Chicago.
Coffey lacks super great stamina; even if the Cubs didn't have Jesse Kelly finishing games for them, it's unlikely that Coffey would get too far above 10 CGs. As you'd expect from a guy who's come back from being written off by his original club (the Detroit Tigers, who drafted him in 1964) and now has to battle for everything, Coffey has a good work ethic and does the little things well.
Javy Obregon
RHP No. 85
RR, 6'0" 200 lbs.
Born 1939-11-25 in Cabaiguan, CUB
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 TAC AAA 0 1 0 5.40 1 1 0 6.2 10 5 4 2 2
1970 CHC MLB 4 3 0 4.04 15 9 1 62.1 64 30 28 32 23
1971 TAC AAA 5 1 0 1.74 8 8 4 67.0 49 18 13 21 33
1971 CHC MLB 5 9 0 5.66 22 19 0 130.1 155 86 82 51 58
1972 CHC MLB 16 8 0 3.90 32 32 7 221.1 214 100 96 79 114
In his 4th season with the team, the Cuban defector Javy "El Conde" Obregon finally had the kind of season the team expected him to have. Obregon is a relatively soft tosser who won games in 1972 by getting the defense involved. You'd think this would mean he played his best when John Timonen was out there but really the height of his season was when he went a combined 6-2 in August and September with a 2.35 and 3.48 ERA. Somehow Obregon allowed only as many HRs at home (13) as on the road and even pitched better in Wrigley (3.58 to 4.20), which made him practically unstoppable (7-2, compared to 9-6 away from home). Note to self: start this man at home whenever possible.
Obregon is a smart guy both in the baseball sense and in the actual sense; he built his own boat to take him across the gulf into the United States. He's also not a big stamina guy but like Coffey he doesn't really need to be. This rotation is old but I don't know, they don't look like they're going to break down in 1973 at least.
Jose Torres
RHP No. 7
RR, 6'1" 193 lbs.
Born 1947-10-04 in Hinesville, GA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 COL AAA 11 10 0 3.32 31 31 6 219.0 185 95 81 67 230
1971 CHR AAA 16 3 0 1.69 22 22 14 180.1 121 40 34 59 150
1972 CHC MLB 9 14 0 4.77 32 29 6 205.1 195 111 109 97 150
Much was expected out of Torres after a 16-3, 1.69 campaign in AAA Charleston. Perhaps expectations should have been tempered; the Cubs were able to select Torres, after all, in the Rule V draft. Yes, Pittsburgh is chockablock with pitching but those are... nice numbers and the peripherals back them up.
As it turns out, there was reason to worry. While Torres did spend the entire team on the Cubs' roster, he finished 8th in the NL in losses, 4th in HRs allowed, and his 4.77 ERA was the worst in baseball among all qualifying starters, 30 points worse than #2 (Cincinnati's Joe Hagan had a 4.48). Torres gets outs swinging with a 5-pitch mix, and he does deliver a good deal of ground balls, but as implied by the HR total he was guilty of trying to throw his way out of trouble at times. While this served him well in AAA, you just can't do that in the major leagues.
Torres is a hard worker and smart and if anyone can figure out those issues, it's him. If so, it'd be nice for the Cubbies to not have literally the worst starter in the game in their rotation.
Jesse Kelly
LHP No. 9
LL, 5'11" 193 lbs.
Born 1937-10-15 in Philadelphia, PA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 NYY MLB 9 5 26 3.01 66 0 0 98.2 95 45 33 20 91
1971 NYY MLB 8 7 12 4.89 48 0 0 68.0 75 38 37 10 50
1972 CHC MLB 8 5 28 2.75 69 0 0 111.0 99 35 34 31 85
The Yankees wrote Kelly off after a disastrous 1971 season but he didn't write back. Traded to the Cubs in January in exchange for CF Ryan Johnston, Kelly said "haha no" to Wrigley's reputation as a pitcher-killer and posted his best ERA since his 9-8, 2.02, 21 save campaign in 1968. Kelly did blow 7 saves in 35 chances, which is still a good ratio. Also good: 40 shutdowns vs 10 meltdowns. One cause for alarm, I suppose, is the fact that he threw his best ball in the first half of the season, with ERAs of 0.00 in April (5 games, 6 IP), 2.78 in May, and 0.82 in June. From July onward Kelly didn't have an ERA under 3.29 in any month.
Kelly's pitches occasionally hit the low 90s but he moves them about well; last year saw a small uptick in his K rate from 6.6 to 6.9. Historically he induces a lot of grounders but that wasn't so much the case last year. That's probably a trend to want to reverse. He's one of the first pitchers to show up to practice in spring training and in pregames, which is saying a lot given the hard-working demeanor of this staff.
Kelly turned 35 a couple days ago but looks like he could keep this up for another 5 years.
Freddy Uscanga
LHP No. 31
LL, 5'11" 182 lbs.
Born 1945-08-10 in Blanchard, LA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 OAK MLB 4 3 6 2.97 27 0 0 33.1 29 18 11 19 21
1970 CHC MLB 4 2 8 4.74 35 0 0 43.2 45 24 23 33 35
1971 CHC MLB 5 8 13 4.09 61 0 0 92.1 93 47 42 51 72
1972 CHC MLB 2 4 2 4.47 45 0 0 54.1 60 27 27 30 35
It's about time we admitted that, 2 1/2 years into the Freddy Uscanga experiment, he's just not a fit for Chicago. Acquired from the A's for Alex Vallejo (a steep price but hey, we got him back!), Uscanga's not been very good at all since he came over at all. The scouting poop on him is that he's got a great change and cut fastball; the reality has been that he doesn't locate either pitch all that well and last year he didn't even generate that many swings and misses. Weirdly enough for a guy who's been pretty bad and who's played in Wrigley, HRs have not been an issue for him: he's allowed a pretty-normal 16 in his 190.1 career innings for the Cubs.
Uscanga did hold lefties to a lower average than righties, but we're still talking .259 vs .300. The Cubs finished the season with him as their lefty specialist and it's really hard to see them doing much more with him going forward; a trade or even a release of the 27 year old seems more likely.
Suk-min Moon
RHP No. 20
SR, 5'9" 196 lbs.
Born 1935-11-05 in Gunpo, KOR
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CHW MLB 2 3 3 3.48 37 0 0 49.0 51 21 19 18 41
1970 CHC MLB 0 0 0 1.03 7 0 0 8.2 5 1 1 2 9
1971 CHC MLB 4 3 2 2.33 51 0 0 73.1 59 21 19 34 54
1972 CHC MLB 4 6 1 3.22 44 0 0 58.2 54 21 21 19 46
Like Uscanga, Moon is an AL transplant, haviing been acquired from the White Sox in Decembrer of 1970 for minor league 3B Mike Perry (who looks like he's about to be "former minor league 3B Mike Perry" as he hit .162 in AAA at age 28 but I digress). Unlike Uscanga, Moon has been pretty good for Chicago. A two-time All-Star and former closer for the Twins, at 36 Moon throws the same arsenal as Uscanga does - a change-up and a cutter - that he does put over the plate for strikes. He was a touch worse this year after being lights-out in 1971, which gave young reggae artist Eddy Grant (0-0, 0.64 in 11 appearances) a shot to take over the setup job this September and perhaps beyond.
Moon should still be good and solid, if not lights-out like he was at times in the 60s. He's never started a game in the majors and that will not start now, no matter how desperate Chicago gets: he just doesn't have the right kind of stuff for it.
Infield
Greg Darrow
C No. 33
RR, 5'10" 205 lbs.
Born 1943-12-09 in Shreveport, LA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CHC MLB .329 128 480 66 158 23 2 12 71 26 31 0
1971 CHC MLB .256 130 507 42 130 32 0 13 75 23 71 0
1972 CHC MLB .247 122 433 43 107 13 4 6 43 27 46 0
In spite of playing a position that involves getting balls knocked around your person on a daily basis, Greg Darrow's rarely been hurt in the major leagues. We raise this to quell rumors that he was playing hurt last year: no, he just wasn't all that good, at least in comparison to seasons past. Darrow's average fell 9 points from an already-disappointing .256 the year before in spite of cutting his strikeout rate down to a level that was closer to what it was in 1970. Maybe the .329 was flukey then; in order to get back to that level, it's surely the case that he needs to be a low-strikeout guy again. His gap power just completely flew the coop; I guess in fairness doubles especially were down league-wide but that's still a place where he's got to get better.
Darrow still made the All-Star trip for his 3rd straight season. He's a plus defender behind the plate who - and you might not think it, considering his slow Louisiana drawl - enhances his skills with a deep knowledge of the game and opposing hitters. He also managed to throw out 37.9% of would-be basestealers good for 3rd in the NL. He won the Gold Glove in 1971 and is the favorite to repeat. Darrow is slow and won't steal. He has a grand total of 0 steal attempts in his major league career. In spite of making so much contact, Darrow has a reputation for using his big body to break up double plays.
Darrow is 28 and in the prime of his career. His numbers were pretty respectable for a catcher last year. Cubs fans would like more.
John Kohut
C No. 41
LR, 5'10" 202 lbs.
Born 1939-09-17 in Miami, FL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CIN MLB .247 46 146 14 36 5 1 3 20 7 35 0
1971 TAC AAA .233 16 43 4 10 2 0 2 4 7 6 0
1971 CHC MLB .133 19 60 3 8 3 0 1 6 9 6 0
1972 CHC MLB .224 47 152 12 34 11 0 0 15 12 36 0
Kohut is a good foil for Darrow: he hits from the opposite side, in the past he's been a veteran to Darrow's youth (although Darrow's no longer a young buck, really). You normally want your backup catcher to be a good defender but in Chicago's case the starter is a good to great defender so that's not really so much of an issue. Chicago would nevertheless prefer that Kohut improve upon the 31.6% CS rate from last year.
Kohut's 33 but was trapped in the minor leagues prior to expansion. He first broke out in Cincinnati and then was acquired from the... whatever Cincinnati's nickname is (oh right, the Queen City, which I don't remember because it makes no sense) for since-retired backup OF Mark Tooley. If we're being honest, he's maybe a bit too complacent for what he is, and 1971 was a good example of how he can sometimes get frustrated with himself and get into a prolonged slump, but as long as he performs even to the meager extent he did in '72, he'll be fine for another couple years.
Antonio Lopez
1B No. 10
LL, 6'3" 200 lbs.
Born 1945-11-16 in San Francisco de Macorís, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CHC MLB .302 159 632 104 191 32 5 29 114 82 82 0
1971 CHC MLB .312 161 631 105 197 34 2 42 125 67 92 0
1972 CHC MLB .290 152 576 79 167 28 2 27 68 81 95 2
Whatever else happens in Chicago, you can count on Antonio Lopez to produce. Lopez, who I believe I nicknamed "Walrus Gunboat" because I took over the league at about the time "Come Together" was released as a single by the Beatles, has made 4 All-Star trips in 5 years, somehow getting snubbed in 1971, a year where he led the NL in hits. His production slipped this year as it did throughout the league but a closer look indicates that Lopez is the same old guy he's always been. Which, he's 26: he doesn't need to be called "old" in any context.
Lopez is not fast - his 5th-best doubles mark was a result of lots and lots of line drives. With the offense down around the league, it's probably the case that Lopez pressed a bit too much in RBI situations: he hit only .219 with runners in scoring position and his RBIs almost halved. A return to run normalcy will likely help push that back up. He did set a career high in strikeouts and that mark has been increasing over the years. There's a solid chance that he'll go into his 30s as more of a low-average slugger than the top-of-the-line #3 hitter that he currently is unless he stops that trend. Lopez also doesn't field particularly well: he can reach up for high throws but that's about it.
I spent the last paragraph sort of slamming the guy but the truth is, Lopez can be a key member of this team for long enough that future fans won't know where his nickname is from.
Juan Perez
2B No. 6
LR, 6'2" 198 lbs.
Born 1938-06-04 in La Victoria, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CHC MLB .262 88 340 42 89 12 0 9 43 24 60 1
1971 CHC MLB .248 67 202 20 50 4 1 6 27 22 30 0
1972 CHC MLB .286 122 454 66 130 16 3 26 72 45 66 3
One huge component of the Cubs' bounce-back season was that Juan Perez managed to stay healthy - at least relatively healthy - for the first time in 3 years. While it's true that he sprained his knee in spring training and didn't play for the first time until May 2nd, the 122 games he did get into was his highest total since the 149 he had in 1968 (in the interests of not making that sound too incredible, he did play in 121 games in '69). And being in the lineup, he was as good as he's ever been as a hitter, matching his career high in HRs (he also hit 26 in 1962) and even making the All-Star game for the first time in 6 years.
It's probably too much to ask for Perez to avoid injuries like this for another season. Defensively, he's actually really, really good out there - it's a little amazing that he's never won a Gold Glove. I would even consider switching him over to short, 34 years of age and everything, if it weren't for the fact that he's so injury-prone. Perez is slow but has good instincts on the basepaths. He also loves to lean into the plate and get hit by pitches - he had 9 HBPs last year - and while I'd love to tell him to knock that off, I do not have a way of doing so short of editing his ratings, which I am not going to do.
If Perez stays healthy again, which is one huge if, a 7th All-Star Game is not out of the question. He has the power and clutch abilities of a corner outfielder.
Rich Potter
2B/LF No. 55
RR, 5'12" 184 lbs.
Born 1943-03-18 in Chicago, IL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 OAK MLB .222 70 284 26 63 9 1 0 17 17 19 3
1971 OAK MLB .320 14 25 3 8 0 1 0 2 0 3 0
1971 CHC MLB .314 46 105 12 33 3 3 1 13 5 9 1
1972 CHC MLB .171 47 111 7 19 2 2 0 12 6 13 0
I imagine Rich Potter must have thought he'd be playing a lot more in the Windy City after the Cubs purchased him from the A's in June of 1971, but with Perez actually being healthy he didn't need to. It should also be noted that the slap-hitting Potter, who was the A's All-Star representative in 1969 as he hit .297 that season, had a poor season at the plate when he did fill in for Perez in April and during the times when assorted aches and pains kept the incumbent out of the lineup.
Potter got the "Lucky" nickname when he was in college but never is it more apt than it is now: he gets to play in his hometown for his childhood team, a team that has as solid a chance as anybody to contend next year, and he even gets to play for them a fair bit. Potter's a guy who would play for these Cubbies for free if he could. Surely he'll bounce back.
Sean Gabel
3B/1B No. 3
RR, 6'2" 201 lbs.
Born 1944-05-11 in Palmer, MA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CHC MLB .324 149 641 98 208 29 15 0 67 37 40 30
1971 CHC MLB .290 144 601 80 174 26 10 0 46 19 61 30
1972 CHC MLB .280 148 626 71 175 30 4 2 38 19 60 28
I know this changes with the outfield but at least infield-wise this team got very, very lucky with injuries in 1972. Gabel, it should be noted, rarely misses time, but that, too, is at least partly lucky. In his 5 years in the majors he's never played fewer than 144 games. This year, he led the league in hits in spite of hitting only .280 - leading the league in at-bats will do that - and also appeared towards the top in PAs (667, 3rd), doubles (3rd), steals (3rd), and average (8th). Gabel is hurt when it comes to All-Star chances by not having that requisite power that a third baseman is supposed to have - his 2 HRs actually doubled his all-time total and were the first 2 bombs he's hit since his 2nd year in the majors, 1969 - and naysayers will say that this was the worst season of his career. It's... still a pretty great season.
Gabel has won Gold Gloves every season since 1971 and looks like the odds-on favorite to make this 5 in a row. There are guys who can cover more ground than he can but few who have softer hands and none who have a stronger arm. As implied by the steals, Gabel has plus-plus speed and will exploit that on the bases. He can sometimes be a bit reckless in trying to score from second on a single. He's easy-going and shows up early to practice as much to jaw with his friends on the team as to take in extra BP, although he does a lot of the latter as well.
Gabel's in the prime of his career and should also see a decent bounce-back, assuming offense is back to semi-normalcy in 1973.
Charles Bradley
SS/1B No. 2
RR, 6'1" 194 lbs.
Born 1948-11-11 in Gainesville, FL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CHC MLB .324 149 641 98 208 29 15 0 67 37 40 30
1971 CHC MLB .290 144 601 80 174 26 10 0 46 19 61 30
1972 CHC MLB .280 148 626 71 175 30 4 2 38 19 60 28
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1971 STC A .289 21 90 7 26 1 3 1 8 5 24 1
1971 MIA A .246 52 175 24 43 5 1 2 13 23 33 8
1971 MID AA .125 4 16 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 6 0
1972 ROC AAA .286 30 105 17 30 5 1 7 20 13 19 1
1972 BAL MLB .308 43 107 14 33 4 0 2 12 9 13 2
1972 CHC MLB .221 41 136 15 30 0 0 5 18 14 27 1
So I enjoy keeping the fiction that this OOTP world is actually the real world but I also enjoy breaking the fourth wall so here goes: this is a name I added. Bradley was a blues/soul singer who had a run in the 60s and 70s but got a bunch of popularity in the early 2010s with a cover he did of Black Sabbath's song "Changes":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi49...DaptoneRecords
For whatever reason, Wikipedia doesn't list this even though it's a huge, huge part of why anybody knows who he is (and also, Ozzy is lowkey one hell of a songwriter). He was featured in a documentary about the SXSW music festival in Austin. Shortly after the album with "Changes" on it, he canceled a Canadian tour due to illness; he died of stomach cancer in 2017.
The Cubs acquired Bradley for LF Jason Workman, which now that I look at it looks like less of a "rebuild" trade and more of a lateral position-for-position move, although it also made the Cubs a lot younger: Workman is 12 years older than Bradley (and also has a far larger history of success). As much as anything else, this move was a sign that the Cubs' choice to move Jeremy Taylor to right field will be permanent. He didn't hit super well after coming over but it was still miles better than what Timonen did.
Bradley's a solid defender, not a Gold Glove quality guy but in 1972 he took at-bats away from two Gold Glovers, which is a sign that he's good enough. Scouts insist that the 5 HRs we saw in 136 at-bats is for real. His average speed means he'll probably always be a bottom-of-the-order hitter.
The Cubs will need for him to hit more like he did in Baltimore than he did in Chicago to consider him a mutli-season starter at short. Even somewhere in the middle would be a level they'd be more than happy with.
John Timonen
SS/2B No. 37
RR, 6'1" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-12-19 in St. Petersburg, FL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HOU MLB .190 99 263 24 50 8 1 5 17 23 82 0
1971 CHC MLB .189 36 90 11 17 4 1 1 5 2 16 1
1972 CHC MLB .136 51 103 8 14 8 0 1 7 10 28 0
Timonen's name is synonymous with Mario Mendoza's in this league. I guess a more apt comparison given the era might be Ray Oyler. Timonen has always been a top-flight fielder, managing to start enough games over the years to earn 5 Gold Gloves, but he also has a lifetime .181 batting average. Perhaps a .200 average is even too high a bar for comparison to this man. The rationale with the Cubs this past year was that if they put Jeremy Taylor in right, surely a .190-hitting Timonen could still save enough runs with the glove to make up for the bad bat. Instead, Timonen hit .136 and forced Chicago to trade for a new starter - it was either that or move Taylor back, and that seems like going too far.
It's hard not to like Timonen, who makes himself available at press conferences. He hasn't really been in Chicago for long enough to become a fan favorite but he's absolutely the kind of guy who could. I feel like it's really, really unlikely he'll be around for too much longer; the man literally hits like a pitcher.
Outfield
Chance Cooper
OF/SS No. 26
LR, 6'1" 189 lbs.
Born 1947-08-18 in Chatham, NJ
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 SA AA .324 14 37 14 12 3 1 1 9 22 4 3
1970 TAC AAA .259 62 205 46 53 8 2 8 28 55 32 9
1970 CHC MLB .255 71 216 49 55 9 2 14 30 69 69 5
1971 TAC AAA .239 24 67 12 16 2 0 2 7 26 8 2
1971 CHC MLB .248 59 153 24 38 2 1 8 22 31 35 3
1972 WIC AAA .280 73 271 55 76 10 4 27 64 47 63 5
1972 CHC MLB .202 61 193 29 39 4 2 10 26 34 37 5
Cooper is no stranger to the Cubs and the 27 HRs he hit in AAA Wichita in the first half of 1972 told them that it was time to move on from Jason Workman and just hand over the keys to left field to this guy. What happened, unfortunately for everyone, was that after a hot July .280 with 5 HRs and 16 RBIs in 50 at-bats - Cooper hit .175 the rest of the way and then missed the last 2 weeks of the season with a separated shoulder. He's a man who loves to look at a lot of pitches every at-bat but in order to rebound he'll probably have to start swinging at more of them earlier in the count, although truth be told the scouts are much more sanguine about his eye than they are about his power.
Cooper played 119 innings at shortstop in AAA this year and demonstrated that he is not a guy who's ever going to play there in the major leagues except as a late-inning replacement. He's got good speed but it doesn't really translate into range in the outfield either; it's clear that the corners are where he's destined to play in his time to come. Cooper is a very hard worker who sees baseball as a career. He's sacrified 3 times for the Cubs in his career, although none last season - why he'd ever do this, I have no idea except that he's good at it.
Pencil Cooper into the starting LF job for 1973 although it's not totally beyond the realm of possibilities that someone has a hot spring and knocks him into a 4th OFer role. What's clear is that he'll break camp with the team and stay there this year.
Aurelio Rodriguez
UT No. 30
RR, 5'11" 188 lbs.
Born 1947-12-28 in Cananea, MEX
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 WAT S A .375 19 64 12 24 4 0 4 15 15 6 0
1970 WPB A .294 50 201 31 59 9 5 1 23 28 21 11
1970 JAX AA .218 23 87 9 19 2 1 2 9 10 13 3
1971 REN A .354 23 82 20 29 5 1 2 16 16 13 5
1971 JAX AA .206 107 393 42 81 10 2 8 39 46 69 4
1971 WIC AAA .229 12 35 6 8 0 0 0 3 8 6 0
1972 WIC AAA .290 111 404 62 117 19 0 13 47 47 71 6
1972 CHC MLB .298 16 47 7 14 0 1 1 6 2 10 2
My rule of thumb when I decide to name a player after someone who actually played in the major leagues is that they have to have a completely different role/player type than they did in real life. Bert Blyleven is a shortstop, Reggie Jackson is a scrappy middle infielder, and so on. Rodriguez isn't about to be anyone's choice for best defensive third baseman of the 70s but for all I know he'll be similar iffy as a hitter so I guess we'll see.
Rodriguez is waaay below the standards I set for including guys in these write-ups but he did do well in the final couple weeks of the season filling in for Cooper and has a great chance of winning left field in spring training. I'm not sure how well the average will hold up given his lack of bat control but hey, weirder things have happened and "Chi Chi" did hit .290 through 2 levels last season. He has middling power and most of what Cooper has over him is Cooper's great pitch recognition. He'll play pretty much any position in the field you ask him to, save catcher, but isn't super great at any of them. He's a real jack of all trades.
Alex Vallejo
CF/RF No. 12
LL, 5'11" 183 lbs.
Born 1943-06-28 in Caracas, VEN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 OAK MLB .295 50 200 21 59 9 0 1 21 16 21 8
1970 CHC MLB .333 28 96 17 32 4 3 3 17 8 8 0
1971 OAK MLB .301 66 249 40 75 9 1 5 23 27 25 10
1972 CHC MLB .315 88 349 46 110 17 8 8 33 35 36 9
Few players are more frustrating to report on than Alex "Wako" Vallejo (the wako is an animal spirit in Venezuelan folklore; the game gave him the nickname "Godzilla" but that's not really appropriate for a South American). He's by all accounts a great teammate, a hitting force, and an outstanding fielder, but it's that last bit that makes it hard to know what to expect from him. Simply put, Vallejo has a bit of the Pete Reiser Disease: he goes all-out in everything he does and that means he'll miss time. Last year he lost a month to a sprained knee he suffered at the end of May and then was shut down for the year in mid-September with back tightness. In between were lots and lots and lots of day-to-day hurts, some of which kept him out of the lineup, some of which hindered his ability to play.
If he could somehow avoid running into walls in 1973, Vallejo could legitimately contend for the batting title. He's got good but not world-class speed and that will prevent him from ever being a Gold Glove candidate in center, no matter how hard he tries, but the man has an absolute cannon for an arm - 8 baserunner kills in center last year - and would probably be a yearly winner in right (again, assuming he'd stay healthy, which is assuming too much - these are all hypotheticals). If teams named captains, they would name Vallejo, and if they named co-captains it would be Vallejo twice.
Fingers crossed he stays healthy this coming year and has just one season in which he demonstrates exactly what he's capable of.
Mike Schurke
OF No. 24
SR, 5'10" 192 lbs.
Born 1947-06-14 in Aurora, IL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 OAK MLB .290 138 521 52 151 26 5 7 50 38 38 13
1971 CHC MLB .368 10 38 6 14 4 0 0 4 2 2 1
1971 OAK MLB .280 54 189 19 53 9 2 1 21 13 23 3
1972 WIC AAA .216 34 111 16 24 6 0 0 7 11 6 3
1972 CHC MLB .209 39 110 18 23 4 2 2 12 9 11 1
As a .290 hitter as he was with Oakland in 1970, Schurke is a guy whom you can just about excuse for all the things he doesn't do. As a .209 hitter, all the deltas become much more prominent. Even though he played center for the A's in '70 and '71 as well as during Vallejo's first absence in 1972, Schurke just doesn't have the range you need from the position. He hit a pretty empty .290 and his average was just as empty this past year, too. Schurke has above average speed but often gets bad leads and tries to steal anyway: the year he stole 13 bases, it took him 26 attempts to get there. One key to his hitting as well as he did in '70 was that he rarely struck out. His K rate has been up in the past 2 seasons, making him a not-great option to hit and run with.
It feels mean to put all this on him, as Schurke does try to eke the most out of meager talent. If he was just a little bit better as an offensive guy he'd be known as a hustle guy who ignites the team with his positive attitude. It's hard to ignite a team by grounding out hard to short.
Jeremy Taylor
SS/RF No. 19
RR, 5'10" 190 lbs.
Born 1944-08-14 in Miami, FL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CHC MLB .235 156 614 96 144 18 11 27 89 64 157 12
1971 CHC MLB .268 145 537 82 144 13 16 29 85 51 99 9
1972 CHC MLB .246 145 561 84 138 19 5 35 100 46 99 16
The move from short to right is almost certainly permanent: Taylor was baaad at the 6 last year - a -12.1 ZR in 79 games - and there were worries that the bad press was beginning to affect his play. Indeed, as of August 1 the normally slug-happy Taylor had just 18 HRs following a 2 HR July. He got on a big HR tear in September and October to finish with an NL-high 35 of them along with 100 RBIs; he was the only man in the National League to hit the century mark in ribbies in '72. Will that be enough for him to win MVP honors this year? It's too soon to tell.
In the outfield, Taylor's weaknesses as a shortstop are mostly masked and he looks like if anything a plus defender with a great arm. The outfield also allows him to get away from a less-than-great first step and utilize his good speed. 1972 was the first time in Taylor's 4 year career that he failed to reach double digits in triples, although he was back into double-digit steals again after getting only 9 (in 15 attempts) in '71. He's a quiet guy who lets the natural leaders on the team do their thing while he simply drives everyone home.
Taylor's in the prime of his career at 28. He's got 143 HRs so far in his career, which began relatively late for a superstar: he wasn't a full-time starter until age 24. As such he might top out at "only" 400 HRs. For the time being, figure him to be one of the great cleanup men in the game for the next 5 years at least.
Steve Fenney
OF No. 35
RR, 5'11" 199 lbs.
Born 1941-02-16 in Citrus Park, FL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HOU MLB .296 67 98 13 29 4 2 1 12 10 8 3
1970 CHC MLB .077 4 13 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
1971 CHC MLB .269 43 78 10 21 1 0 2 5 8 11 1
1972 CHC MLB .234 82 197 26 46 6 2 4 13 16 20 4
Penciled in as the Cubs' PH vs. LHP and 4th outfielder going into the season, Fenney wound up doing a lot more of the latter and for that reason a bit less of the former. Results were mixed. A .234 average in 1972 terms is roughly average but Fenney combined it with not a lot of power and a .298 OBP. These are adequate marks for centerfield, maybe, but Fenney played a lot more corner, for a while trying to be a platoon partner with the struggling Chance Cooper in left, and the above won't cut it in the corners.
Fenney's got solid speed for a man entering his 30s and defends the corners well. In that respect he's probably a better bet for the Cubs as a 4th or 5th outfielder than one of the prospects the Cubs have at the positions. Even at that, though, should the need arise for a replacement because of a long-term injury, you have to think that the team will go with someone like the 25 year old Sammy Hagar (.317/9/33 in AAA Wichita) or the 24 year old Terry Pratchett (.251/7/31 between 2 levels).
Steve Casio
PH/OF No. 4
LL, 5'12" 201 lbs.
Born 1937-04-03 in Xalapa, MEX
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 TAC AAA .292 81 185 28 54 7 2 4 28 19 26 0
1970 CHC MLB .250 13 12 1 3 0 0 0 1 2 3 0
1971 CHC MLB .297 106 145 27 43 7 0 6 20 19 32 0
1972 CHC MLB .248 96 133 17 33 3 0 4 14 10 20 0
Sportswriters call Casio the Watchman because of his reliability as a pinch-hitter. Just kidding, it's because of his last name. Boy, sportswriters are dumb, right? Casio's average slipped last year and he kind of wasn't what you'd call reliable, mixing in solid months with a 3-21 June and a 1-16 August. Sometimes this happens to pinch-hitters.
At 35, Casio is unlikely to do a lot else other than pinch-hit. He started only 15 games last season and that number might be high compared with what he'll get in '73. 100% a guy who only got the opportunity to play in the major leagues due to expansion, Casio's a good teammate and a fun guy to have in the clubhouse.