Baseball Postmortem: Waiting Until Next Year On Both Sides of Town

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Oct 8, 2009 5:40PM

Last season, both our baseball teams reached the playoffs. This time around, both the Cubs and White Sox cleaned out their lockers. This was not unexpected for the Sox, but many truly thought this was going to be the Cubs' year. And yet fans on both sides of town are left to "wait until next year."

Cubs
With a 97-win season in '08 but an unexpectedly quick exit from the postseason, Cubs fans really thought their team might go all the way in '09. Another NL Central title was a lock, at the very least. Instead, the Cubs went 83-78, finishing in second in the NL Central and 8-1/2 games out of the wild card. As with many Cubs teams in contention through the years, injuries helped derail them. Only four times all season did Lou Piniella field his projected line-up. Aramis Ramirez missed nearly half the season with injuries, including a two-month stretch from May to July. Geovany Soto missed time due to injury and didn't produce when he was in the lineup. Alfonso Soriano also had a disappointing season, batting .241 with 20 homers and 55 RBI in return for his $17 million. The team's starting pitching was solid, with four of the five in the rotation sporting ERAs under 4.00. But that wasn't enough with a lineup that couldn't produce enough runs.

A number of roster moves will be looked at as possible causes for the Cubs collapse in '09. Kevin Gregg was added in a trade, which caused the Cubs to part ways with Kerry Wood. Gregg blew four saves after the All-Star Break and was a failure as their closer. During the off-season, the Cubs traded starting pitcher Jason Marquis and utility player Mark DeRosa; both are currently key parts of playoff teams. Perhaps the biggest issue for the Cubs in '09 was the misguided addition of Milton Bradley to the team. After numerous incidents throughout the season, an exasperated Jim Hendry finally sent him home 2 weeks before the season ended. While Bradley still has two years remaining on his contract, there's no way he'll be back. Priority number one for the Cubs' GM will be to try and trade him. If he cannot, expect a buyout.

MLB owners officially approved the Cubs sale to the Ricketts family on Tuesday, so it's a fresh start in many ways for the Cubs. The Tribune Company couldn't bring a World Series to the North Side during its tenure. Now Cubs fans will wonder about how quickly the Ricketts can do it.

White Sox
We expected 2009 to be a transition year for the Sox and that's about what it was. They bid adieu to veterans Jim Thome and Jose Contreras mid-season. A number of young players had the opportunity to make real contributions throughout the year. Chris Getz earned a spot in the lineup and, because of his incredibly rapid ascension to the big leagues, 2008 top draft choice Gordon Beckham has a shot at winning Rookie of the Year. While Alexei Ramirez backed up his amazing rookie season from a year ago, Carlos Quentin was unable to reproduce his break-out '08 season as injuries limited him to just 99 games. But his replacement was perhaps the Sox's biggest surprise.

Scott Podsednik, left without a team coming out of spring training, joined the South Siders after a rash of outfield injuries and ended up batting .304 as the team's primary lead-off man. On the other hand, the addition of Bartolo Colon was a horrible failure. Rushed back from an injury suffered last season, he made numerous trips to the DL and disappeared on a couple of occasions. Fortunately, he only cost the team $1 million. The Sox may have found a keeper, however, in another recycling bin find. Freddy Garcia pitched solidly for the club down the stretch and the team picked up his option for 2010 this week. Garcia could round out a rotation that includes Mark Buehrle, Jake Peavy, Gavin Floyd and John Danks. Buehrle provided what was most certainly the highlight of the White Sox's season, when on July 23 he pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays. However, he managed only two wins after that as the Sox, which climbed into a tie for first the same day of Buehrle's perfect game, faded badly down the stretch.

Of course, we thought that Kenny Williams biggest transactions were more investments in the future. After failing to land him in May, Williams traded for Padres ace Peavy before the trading deadline in July. Peavy was on the DL at the time and only made a few late season starts for the Sox. Were still not convinced Williams really wanted him, but the Sox landed Alex Rios and his $60 million contract from the Blue Jays off waivers in August. Williams sold it as a way to build for the future. With Thome gone and questions about whether Jermain Dye and Scott Podsednik will return, they do need bats and outfielders. Was Rios the best move? We'll have to wait to see, but his preview in '09 was underwhelming. What will Williams do during the off-season? Apparently his priority is to shop closer Bobby Jenks.