It’s All About the Money recently set about a laudable and informative quest to lay out at what every organization’s team would look like if it was composed entirely of homegrown talent. It is well worth ten minutes of your time perusing, and it’s fascinating just how good the Marlins could have been if they simply had kept everybody.
The venture is also notable for just how ugly such a theoretical Chicago Cubs team would look:
Starting Pitchers
• Andrew Cashner
• Jon Garland
• Kyle Lohse
• Ricky Nolasco
• Jeff Samardzija
Bullpen
• Al Alburquerque
• Jerry Blevins
• Scott Downs
• Rich Hill
• Carlos Marmol
• Sean Marshall
• James Russell
Catchers
• Jose Molina
• Geovany Soto
Infielders
• Darwin Barney
• Starlin Castro
• Ronny Cedeno
• Josh Donaldson
• Hak-Ju Lee
• Josh Vitters
Outfielders
• Tony Campana
• Tyler Colvin
• Sam Fuld
• Brett Jackson
• Junior Lake
Yo. The rotation might be kinda, sorta passable, and the infield might not be awful. But the rest? Yikes. It’s a testament to how poorly the Cubs drafted/developed/signed international talent over the past 15 years, and it might be one of the worst rosters in It’s All About the Money’s experiment. Indeed, here’s IAATM’s comment on the Cubs:
Now this is a bad team. There’s some young talent in Cashner and Castro (and, possibly, Vitters, Jackson, and Lake) … but these Cubs would be in the running for the first pick of the draft, with its average rotation appearing to be its greatest strength. This makes Theo Epstein’s slash-and-burn rebuild seem all the more necessary.
Sounds about right. Comfort yourself by checking out the Red Sox’s roster.
I look forward to someone (us?) duplicating this exercise, at least for the Cubs, in about 10 years. I’d like to think it will tell a different story, even if not all of those pieces will still be with the Cubs at the time. Remember: baking your own good talent is as much about using them on your team in the big leagues as it is about wielding them as trade pieces over the years.