Diary of a Chicago Sports Fan

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               All Cubs team 1965-2016 Part 2:  Pitchers

While the Cubs young position players grabbed most of the headlines in their championship season, their starting staff was outstanding and their bullpen proved to be good enough. The starting rotation was good enough to place two starters in this revised All Cubs team, and Kyle Hendricks, the guy who should have been the game 7 winner of the 2016 World Series could be here in a year or so. So, here we go with the 1965-2016 revised All Cubs team pitchers.

Starters:

Fergie Jenkins: From 1967-72 Fergie won 20 or more games. He also completed 20 or more games in those seasons, topping out with 30 CG in 1971. In three of those seasons, he pitched more than 300 innings. The term, “workhorse” seems inadequate to describe him. That's the longest period of sustained excellence I've seen from a Cubs starter.

Greg Maddux: From 1988-1992 Maddux won between 15-20 games a year. After Greg won 20 games with an ERA of 2.18, the Cubs let him go to the Atlanta Braves. It's moves like that that kept the Cubs championship free for 108 years. Greg came back late in is career and put up a couple of nice seasons. The thing Maddux and Jenkins had in common was great control and durability. 

Jon Lester: Lester is the most significant free agent signing in Cubs history. After being deceptively effective while going 11-12 in 2015, Lester came back with a 19-5 record in 2016. Lester was 3-1 in the 2016 post season. While Lester will no doubt miss Grandpa Ross as his personal catcher, I think he'll be okay going forward.

Jake Arrieta: In what will no doubt go down as one of Theo Epstein's best, if not the best deal, the Cubs picked up Arrieta and Pedro Strop for Scott Feldman and Tony Clevenger. Jake has had one nice season, one Hall of Fame type season and would very good season for the Cubs. Arrieta went 18-8 with an ERA of 3.10 in 2016 and it was a regression to the mean. In 2015 Jake was 22-6 with an ERA of 1.77. If Jake matches 2016, the Cubs will be happy. If he wins two more World Series games in 2017 like he did in 2016 they'll be ecstatic.

Bill Hands: In what might be considered an upset, I'm going with Hands over other possibilities such as Kerry Wood, Carlos Zambrano and Rick Reushel. From 1968-60 Hands won 16-20-18 games. He also completed 18-12-14 games during that same stretch. Some guys like their players flamboyant, I like my guys to be low key workers. Hands fills that bill.

Relievers

Bruce Sutter: Before Bruce was sent to the Cardinals for Leon “between the wickets” Durham, Ken Reitz and Ty Waller he put together five excellent seasons out of the Cubs pen.

Lee Smith: Lee put in eight good season as the Cubs closer. In comparing Lee's stats with Bruce Sutter's, Lee had more longevity, but Sutter had the more impressive stats. I ultimately flip flopped on this and made Sutter my top pick.

There's my staff for the Cubs from 1965 on, how does it compare to yours?

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