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Mind the Gap
2005-08-29 13:51
by Derek Smart

The broadcast of Saturday's game was on Fox, and when the Cubs are having their images sent out to a national audience via a national network, one can nearly always count on various painful subjects being broached - the "curse", Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS ("the Cubs were five outs away from a World Series"), the existence of Jose Macias - but this time they trotted out one of the truly standard warhorses of the genre: the number of third baseman who have played for the Cubs since Ron Santo left.

The first thing that bothers me is that with the emergence of Aramis Ramirez, it seems that this subject has played out. He's easily the best third baseman to play for the team since Santo, and has a legitimate shot to be an All-Star for years to come. Even if the Cubs wind up losing him due to financial factors after next year, I think a case can be made that the matter has been resolved.

Of course, that's not the way Fox saw it, and since Ramirez is currently on the DL, and Nomar was newly christened as the latest to play the position in the post-Santo era on Friday, in the minds of those fine gents, this was cause to bring the beast back out for another turn around the park.

Item #2 sticking in my craw is the question of whether the numbers they present are as bad as they seem. In other words, while the Cubs have had a lot of men manning the hot corner since Number 10 held down the job, is this period of flux unique during the time in question?

Naturally, I had to take a look, so for your enjoyment, here's a short list of the teams who have had the most different players at a particular position since the beginning of the 1974 season. I've left out pitchers and outfielders for obvious reasons, and DHs have been excluded as well, since it's a position often used to give position players with big bats a partial day off. These numbers are good through this weekend's play.

TEAMPOSITION# OF UNIQUE PLAYERS
Oakland1B116
San Diego1B112
San Diego3B108
Montreal/Washington1B107
Cubs3B103

So not only do the Cubs not have the most different players at an infield position since '74, they don't even have the most different players at third base. Oakland has the single position title - and interesting that it would be at first base where they've had men like McGuire and Giambi in recent years - but the overall title goes to the Padres who have fielded a total of 220 different players at their infield corners over the last 31+ seasons.

I understand why they keep harping on the Santo Gap, not only was he a Hall of Fame calibre player, but he was there nearly every day for most of his 14 seasons in blue, and these other teams on the list don't have a similar player whose shoes they've trying to fill since then.

Still, while I recognize Santo's contribution to Cub history, now that the team can finally say they have someone at the hot corner who is potentially worthy of sharing in his legacy, I would hope broadcasters could stop talking about this former wasteland and get back to telling us how we're cosmically screwed.

Comments
2005-08-29 16:21:22
1.   Jacob L
As a Dodger fan, we're subjected to the same song and dance visa viz the other Ron (Cey, coincidentally one of Cubs' 103 post-Santo 3rd basemen). I have no idea how many actual players manned the hot corner in LA between Cey and Beltre. I think there's been 5 this year. The point is not so much the number as the parade of truly undistinguished players at the position. Jeff Hamilton. German Rivera. Mike Blowers. Bill Madlock (semi-retired version, also played for the Cubs). For the Cubs, Keith Moreland comes to mind, but he was probably pretty good by comparison to the guys I don't remember.
2005-08-29 21:15:30
2.   Patrick85
Hollandsworth traded to the Braves for two low-level pitching prospects, one of whom is 25 and a converted outfielder. Their names are Todd Blackford and Angelo Burrows. Just posting here in case anyone hadn't heard yet.
2005-08-30 06:32:38
3.   Anya
Thank you! I was totally wondering the same thing about how bad 103 players in 30+ years is, but there was no way I was ever going to look it up on my own. So thanks for satisfying my curiosity while allowing me to remain lazy!

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