The Attrition War, Cubs
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Cubs.
Please note that I am trying to refrain from drawing any conclusions or making any comparisons, guessing at causes or relationships, or doing anything but presenting straight data. When the series is finished, I’ll have a summary post where I talk about those things.
In every organization so far there have been are several cases where those stats seem to ignore something important. I’m going at attempt to address those in the summary post, as well as methodology and thoughts on future research directions.
The Cubs had 37 pitchers who appeared at least once on a Baseball America Top Ten prospect list between 1995-2004.
Of those, pitchers who injured their elbow and required surgery: 6(Christiansen, Chiasson, Gonzalez, Hagerty, Norton, Wood)
Of those, pitchers who injured their shoulders and required surgery: 3 (Blasko, Christiansen, Guzman)
(generally, I’m looking for major surgeries that require ~1y off)
Readers are, as always, encouraged to to add/correct information here in the comments or by email. Citations are particularly welcome.
Detailed data:
Terry Adams, 3/1996
Reached the majors in 1995, left for the Dodgers in 2000.
Francis Beltran, 6/2003
Traded (?) to Montreal in 2004.
Chadd Blasko, 7/2004
Shoulder surgery, date unknown.
Bobby Brownlie, 6/2004
Pitching in the minors.
Ben Christiansen, 5/2000, 4/2001, 8/2002
Shoulder surgery in May 2001 for a “frayed” rotator cuff. Ligament replacement surgery in July of 2002.
Scott Chiasson, 9/2002
“reconstructive” elbow surgery in July 2002.
Juan Cruz, 2/2001, 2/2002
Traded to the Braves in March 2004.
Scott Downs, 9/2000
Traded to the Expos in July 2000 for Rondell White.
Courtney Duncan, 7/1998
Cubs didn’t bring him back in December 2002.
Kyle Farnsworth, 10/1997, 2/1999
Traded to the Tigers in February 2005.
Jon Garland, 4/1998
Pitching in the majors.
Chris Gissell, 5/1997, 5/1998, 3/1999
Moved to the Colorado organization in 2003.
Jeremi Gonzalez, 4/1997
Elbow surgery in August 1998 (no replacement, though, and did not miss a year). Ligament replacement surgery in his elbow in June of 1999. Knee surgery in February 2001 cost him a year. Signed to a minor league deal by the Rangers in December 2001.
Angel Guzman, 2/2003, 1/2004
Shoulder surgery in July 2003 to repair his labrum.
Luke Hagerty, 7/2003
Ligament replacement surgery in April 2003. Selected by the Orioles in December 2004 (later returned).
Justin Jones, 2/2004
Traded to the Twins in July 2004 as part of the Nomar Garciaparra/Orlando Cabrera deal.
Kyle Lohse, 6/1999
Traded to the Twins in May 1999 as part of the Rick Aguilera deal.
Brian McNichol, 9/1999
Unknown, ended up with Colorado. Seemingly missed a ton of time after leaving the cubs.
Javier Martinez, 7/1995
Selected by the Athletics in the Rule 5 draft in December 1997 (and sold to the Pirates immediately).
Mike Meyers, 7/2000
Joined the Mets organization for 2004.
Todd Noel, 9/1997, 2/1998
Traded to the Marlins in 1999?
Phillip Norton, 8/1999
Ligament replacement surgery in January 2002. Traded to the Reds in August 2003.
Jayson Peterson, 5/1995
Traded to the Reds in March 1997.
Ruben Quevedo, 4/2000
Traded to the Brewers in July 2001.
Mark Prior, 1/2002
Pitching in the majors.
Steve Rain, 8/1997
Signed with the Royals in January 2001.
Jason Ryan, 8/1995, 6/1996
Traded to the Cubs in May 1999 as part of the Rick Aguilera deal.
Jae-kuk Ryu, 10/2004
Pitching in the minors.
Andy Sisco, 3/2003, 4/2004
Picked by the Royals in the Rule 5 draft in December 2004.
Brian Stephenson, 10/1995, 7/1996
Traded to the Dodgers in December 1999.
Amaury Telemaco, 2/1995, 4/1996
Picked off waivers by the Diamondbacks in May 1998.
Derek Wallace, 4/1995
Traded to the Royals in April 1995 for Brian McRae.
Wade Walker, 8/1996
Unknown. May have disappeared entirely after making that top ten list.
John Webb, 9/2001
Claimed off waivers by the Devil Rays in February 2004.
Todd Wellemeyer, 10/2003
Pitching in the majors.
Kerry Wood, 2/1996, 1/1997, 1/1998
Ligament replcaement surgery, missed the 1999 season.
Carlos Zambrano, 3/2000, 5/2001, 6/2002
Pitching in the majors.
Comments
4 Responses to “The Attrition War, Cubs”
Great work Derek!
Jae-kuk Ryu, 10/2004
Pitching in the minors.
Haha, I remember when this guy stirred up quite a bit of controversy. Thought I recognized that name…
Beltran was also involved in the Nomar/Cabrera deal.
Also, he’s done for the year – he had TJ surgery in March 2005.
Also, a couple minor errors – Bobby Brownie is Bobby BrownLie and Jason Ryan was sent to the Twins in the Aguilera deal, not the Cubbies.