Why do the Cubs Suck at Developing Position Players?

The inimitable Tuffy Rhodes

Pop quiz, hot shot: name a position player that came up through the Cubs' minor league system and went on to become a superstar.

For the sake of this discussion, let's leave Geovany Soto out of it. He had a great rookie year, but it's too early to tell if we can really rank him up there in superstar land—especially with the numbers he's putting up right now.

With the draft going down this week, here's what the Tribune had to say about the Cubs' farms system's ability to produce good position players:

Geovany Soto had a breakthrough season last year, earning National League Rookie of the Year honors, but has regressed in '09. Micah Hoffpauir is contributing in a limited role, while Jake Fox, recently called up after tearing up the Pacific Coast League, can't find his way into the Cubs' lineup. Ryan Theriot has been consistent at short but lacks the dominant offensive numbers to make him an impact player. At this point, it appears that the top position player drafted by the Cubs in the last decade was an obscure catcher selected in the 38th round of the 2002 draft. That catcher turned out to be Randy Wells, now one of the most dominating rookie pitchers in the National League.Those names are kind of a stretch since Wells isn't "proven" by any means, and neither is Fox or Hoffpauir.

I'm looking for superstars, not just contributors or everyday players. So let's take a look at what the Cubs have done in the past and see how bad they've really been.

The Candidates
We can't go back more than 30 years because I wasn't alive and going that far back bores me. So we'll start off at an arbitrary point of my own choosing: the Shawon Dunston era. He'll be our Jesus and our discussion will be limited exclusively to AD (Año Domini or After Dunston).

Was Dunston a superstar? In Chicago he certainly was, but a career .269 hitter (.296 OBP) with two All-Star appearances and no gold gloves (blame the Wizard of Oz for that) does not a superstar make.

I started by listing some recognizable names that came up through the Cubs system like Dwight Smith (fail), Damon Berryhill, Rich Amaral, Dave Martinez, Doug Dascenzo, Mark Grace, Joe Girardi, Doug Glanville, Eric Hinske, and Brendan Harris.

The only guy out of that bunch that deserves to be highlighted is Mark Grace. Not only because I have a man crush on the dude's swing, but because his numbers warrant it:


Gracey also won four gold gloves and was an All Star three times.

But what about Joe Girardi and Ryne Sandberg? Well, Joe was all right and a great fixture in Chicago, but he wasn't a superstar. And as for Ryno, he was actually drafted by the Phillies and got traded to the Cubs with Larry Bowa for Ivan DeJesus. So that's a no go.

Mark Grace...that's it.

Well, maybe there are some guys in the minor leagues that might develop into superstars.

Potential Candidates

The first name you'll hear in this argument is Josh Vitters, as you can see from this Tribune article that calls him "the 3rd basemen of the future." He's also been ranked as the Cubs top prospect by Baseball America. How's the 19-year old doing?



He's absolutely killing the ball right now, the only thing that's worrisome is his BB/K ratio. That's not very many walks, although the scouts are saying that's because he's not missing any balls right now. If the pitchers throw a strike, he's nailing it. But what about all those strikeouts then?

Then we have OF Tyler Colvin, the top pick of the 2007 draft. I think I've said all I need to say about him. Suffice to say I don't think he'll amount to superstar material.

The only other guy I would mention is Tony Thomas, I guy I started following right after he was drafted in 2007. At the time I saw him as a #1 or #2 hitter: he could hit, draw a walk, and had some speed. Lately his power seems to be coming around and he isn't walking as much. Still, he's about the most exciting thing going in the system in terms of position players besides Vitters:


This is what passes for "exciting" these days

Why the Cubs Suck

A friend of mine keeps trying to lay the blame on "The Cubs" or "Cubs management." But personnel has changed over the years so you can't really blame a specific group of people.

Can you blame Jim Hendry? He's been with the cubs since 1995 and was in a real position of leadership since 2001. Is this just a case of bad luck or a bad philosophy of developing/drafting players?

I think it comes down to philosophy. What's the Cubs' philosophy when it comes to drafting and developing players? Is there one? The Rangers pitchers are all about eliminating pitch counts and getting them to throw more. The A's have always been about plate discipline. The Braves are about producing studs—plain and simple.

The Cubs don't really have a direction. They're slowly creeping into the realm of the Yankees and Red Sox—large-market teams with too much money for their own good. Not enough of attention is being paid to the farm system, which was once so highly touted until those prospects flamed out (Hee Seop Choi, Corey Patterson, Bobby Hill, etc.).

They need some soul. Some direction. Some unified idea of what they want to do with position players to help them get better and become productive in the big leagues. Once they lay down a sensible plan, then they'll be able to give this another shot.

Until then I'll keep waiting for Josh Vitters and Tony Thomas to bring a little respectability to the farm.