The Cubs Chronicle

When the Cubs acquired Mark Grudzielanek before the 2003 season, along with Eric Karros, in exchange for Todd Hundley, I thought the Cubs had received an OK backup to Bobby Hill for one season, while getting rid of the two years left on Hundley’s contract. Then the speculation began during spring training 2003 that Hill, after getting off to a poor start in the spring, would not be the starter after all.

I wrote on March 16, 2003:

Hill wasn’t great with the Cubs last year (86+ in 59 games), but he had a .382 OBP% at Iowa last year, and a .396 OBP% at Double-A West Tennessee the year before. Plus, he’s 25 years old this year. It’s time for him to play. 37 under-performing at-bats in spring training shouldn’t change that.

Hill continued to struggle, and the talk began in earnest that Hill wouldn’t even make the team. I wrote on March 24, 2003: “The main alternative–Mark Grudzielanek–has battled sprained ankles all spring and thus only has 11 at-bats (he’s 1 for 11).” By the end of the day March 24, Bobby Hill was sick, and Grudzielanek started his third straight game of the spring.

In the March 26 morning papers, it was reported that the Cubs would send Hill to Iowa. Grudzielanek would be the starter, and also take Hill’s presumed job as leadoff hitter. I was not happy:

I really hope [Jim] Hendry is just being nice with that “Grudzielanek is a pretty good hitter career-wise” comment. Grudzielanek has had only one season in which he’s posted a league average OPS and that was four years ago. His career OPS is 6.5% below league average. Not terrible for a middle infielder, especially if you make him your back-up, but certainly not “pretty good."With Grudzielanek hitting leadoff and Alex Gonzalez hitting second, Baseball Prospectus projects the two hitters setting the table for Sosa, Alou, and Choi this year to have on-base-percentages of .292 and .304, respectively. Ouch.

Though I thought Hill would be back up soon.

I had reason to prefer the hope of Hill rather than the sureness of Grudzielanek. Grudzielanek’s EqA the previous three seasons had been .255, .251, and an unequivocally subpar .241 the previous season, 2002. He had only had an above average EqA twice in his career, the last time being in 1999 with the Dodgers. Additionally, he was not more than an average defensive player, mostly due to range issues.

As you know, Grudzielanek went on to play much of the year at second for the Cubs, and quite well. He finished with a .275 EqA, and was about the 7th best offensive second baseman in the NL in 2003. While not great, that performance was certainly more than expected.

Then during this past offseason, the Cubs had Todd Walker fall into their laps, setting up a good platoon situation (though Grudzielanek’s injury during the first-half of the season, and Dusty Baker’s lineup construction in the second half has prevented employment of the platoon). Even then, though, I openly speculated whether Brendan Harris might be the better platoon partner with Walker. Grudzielanek, however, has gone on to post another respectable EqA this year, .266, so far.

Grudzielanek was never, and will never be, a great player, or even a really good one. But he has done much more than I thought he would as a Cub. He has played respectable major league baseball.

Bobby Hill? A decent year at Iowa (.288/.365/.424) helped the Cubs turn him into Aramis Ramirez. Nice. This year, Hill – now 26 years old – has hit .267/.349/.335 for Pittsburgh in a part-time role, good for just a .237 EqA, making Cubs fans appreciate Grudzielanek that much more.