In the past 5-6 years, the Chicago Cubs have had high expectations for several prospects.
At the beginning of the 03' season we had 5 young "can't miss" pitchers. They were Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Carlos Zambrano, Juan Cruz, and Angel Guzman.
Carlos Zambrano is the only one to reach his potential at the big league level.
Wood and Prior have been plauged by injuries and are in different roles. Wood is competing for a spot as the Cubs closer. Prior is still a starter but competing for a spot in the San Diego Padres rotation.
Juan Cruz is now a dominate set up reliever in the Arizona Diamondbacks bull pen.
Angel Guzman is also fighting injuries like Wood and Prior. He is likely to be in the Cubs minor leagues until he manages to stay healthy.
The Cubs have also had hot hitting prospects, espically in the outfield. Cory Patterson, Jason Dubois, David Kelton, Matt Murton, Felix Pie, and also infielders such has, Ronny Cedeno, Bobby Hill, Hee Seop-Choi, and Julio Zuleta.
Jason Dubois was given a chance in '05 and it was a disaster. He was later traded to the Cleveland Indians and then released after a year.
Cory Patterson was finally traded after flailing at everything possible to the Orioles.
Kelton was a slugger with no position. He played 3B, 1B, RF, and LF but no position was a fit. He was later released.
In 2004 the Chicago Cubs recieved Matt Murton from the Boston Red Sox in the Nomar Garciparra Deal. He is the most successful of the mentioned players, but still finds himself with out regular playing time.
He is battling for a 4th outfielders position. He is a possibility in a trade.
Juio Zuleta was a slugging right handed hitter who after years in the minors left for Japan and became a star with regular playing time.
Ronny Cedeno is fighting for a spot as a utility player on the Cubs roster. He is a slick fielding infielder trying to be turned outfielder. He has tore up the minor leagues in hitting and also winter ball. In the majors he hasn't been able to find regular playing time and has struggled at the plate.
At one time second baseman Bobby Hill, and first baseman Hee Seop-Choi were the "future" of the Chicago Cubs.
At one point they were almost traded to Montreal for RF Vladamier Gurerro and 2B Jose Vidro. The trade fell through thankfully for the Expos.
Bobby Hill was a switch hitting lead off hitter with great defense and a short compact swing. He struggled in 03' spring training and lost the job to Mark Grudzalenik.
During the trading deadline he was traded to Pittisburg for Aramis Rameriz. He has been a utility player ever since.
Hee Seop-Choi was a left handed slugger who could slugg 40+ homers. He got a chance in 03' and after a collision with Kerry Wood he suffered a concusion and never regained regular playing time in Chicago.
At the end of the season he was traded to Florida for Derek Lee. Choi was so popular that Cub fans booed Lee because it sent Choi away.
The question from me is why do all of these prospects never turn out for the Cubs. Is it too much hype, too much pressure playing in Chicago, or is it simply that we way over rate these players?
Now the Cubs have new prospects and time will tell how they do. Their names are: Geovoney Soto, Felix Pie, Ryan Theroit, Fike Fontenot, Kevin Hart, Jeff Samardzija, and Billy Petrick.
9 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Jeff Spencer about 1 year ago
What is the hype on these players relative to all other teams prospects? Is the success/failure rate for the Cubs that much less than the league norm? Those questions would have to be researched and answered to examine the issue. You titled the column with the question, but did not do the work to answer it. As a Cubs fan, I, too, wonder about the hype. Is it media driven just because Hendry or a Cubs scout say they like a guy or his chances? Or, are the Cubs brass planting these glowing stories?
As a realist and long time baseball fan, I tend to research the prospects to see how they rate individually and as a group against the other MLB teams. When you discover that a prospect touted locally, is not even on the national radar rankings wise, that informs you that someone is blowing smoke.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Nice grammatical error in the title of this article. It's "their", not "there".
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Josh Durdin about 1 year ago
Mark Grudzielanek...
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Oh my gawd, have you ever heard of spell check?!?!? There (their???) are numerous spelling errors which are quite distracting and take away from the content of the article.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
You figure they might get lucky once in a while
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Wow, proofread your own articles, dude. Your site loses tons of credibility when there are 4 mis-spellings in one sentence (like the last one), with others sprinkled throughout the article.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
What f***ing school did u graduate from the University of the Retarded Sports fan learn how to spell or dont write any more article what a dumb@$$
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Derek Bolender about 1 year ago
Every team has "can't miss" prospects that turn into duds, not just the cubs. You are just an eternal cubs pessimist. Look through the past 10 years worth of amateur drafts. You won't even recognize 75% of the first round picks.
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Josh Keener about 1 year ago
Every team overrates prospects. It is part of the game. If the Cubs would not have overrated Bobby Hill, we wouldn't have got Aramis. If not for the overrating of Choi, no D Lee. As for Murton, he was hyped pre-chicago. Murton still could pan out, just no opp. for him right now. Wood and Prior certainly were not overrated. They both showed they have the talent that they were suppose to have. Just because guys get hurt doesnt make them overrated prospects. Also, just because guys like Guzman and Cruz change roles, doesnt make them overrated. But, bottom line is every club overrates their prospects. If Hendry said that he didnt feel Murton and Cedeno had a whole lot of potential, their trade value would be deminished.
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