While finishing up the book Wrigleyworld by Kevin Kaduk, I came to the realization that as a Cubs fan, there hasn't been a greater or worse year in our lifetime, than 2003. The team was 5 outs away from making to the World Series for the first time since 1945. And then it happened. But not Steve Bartman. Don't let people fool you. Steve Bartman was not the reason why the Cubs never made it to the World Series that year. It was something much more simpler than that. It was a bad play by Alex Gonzalez and bad managing by Dusty Baker. After reading the book, I decided to replay the 2003 season and see if I can have better results. And at first, I had zero plans to make a dynasty about it, but I was having so much fun playing out the season that I decided to start writing abou it. It's set up as a replay, with just a couple of tweaks. First off, during the 2003 season, Aramis Ramirez finished the season, along with Kenny Lofton, as a Chicago Cub. In my opinion, the only reason why the Cubs acquired Lofton in the trade with the Pirates is because of an injury to Corey Patterson in early July. Without that injury, I believe that Corey was having a good enough season that they would not have picked up Lofton. Ramirez, however is a different case. The entire 2003 season, the Cubs were looking to get some improvement from the 3B position. They started the season playing Mark Bellhorn at 3B, but in June they traded him to the Colorado Rockies for Jose Hernandez. They then flipped Hernandez to the Pirates, along with Bobby Hill, in exchange for Lofton and Ramirez. The Ramirez that came to the Cubs in that trade isn't quite the Ramirez he is now. At that time, he was a poor fielder at 3B and an average hitter with power. So, instead of trading Bellhorn for Hernandez and the Hernandez for Ramirez, I decided that I would just send Hill and Bellhorn to the Pirates for Ramirez only and play the season with Ramirez at 3B with the hope that Patterson stays healthy. I will not pursue any other trade opportunities, but if I get a trade offer, I will asses the offer at the time to see if it improves the team. But otherwise, the team will be as imported. And on paper, the team has some strong pitching, but offensively, it a bit sketchy. This is how the team is going to be constructed on opening day, barring any injury during spring training.

C: Damian Miller
1B: Hee Seop Choi
2B: Mark Grudzielanek
3B: Aramis Ramirez
SS: Alex Gonzalez
LF: Moises Alou
CF: Corey Patterson
RF: Sammy Sosa

Bench: Paul Bako, Eric Karros,Lenny Harris, Ramon Martinez, Troy O'Leary and Tom Goodwin

I put Eric Karros on the bench, but in all honesty, he will be a strict platoon with Hee Seop Choi for the foreseeable future. Choi doesn't hit lefties well and Karros isn't that great versus righties himself.

Pitching Wise, my rotation stacks up as this:

1. Mark Prior
2. Carlos Zambrano
3. Kerry Wood
4. Matt Clement
5. Shawn Estes

The rotation is solid 1-3, good at #4 and very mediocre at #5. I plan on trying to get the other 4 starters in as many starts as possible in an effort to use Estes only when I need. I do have Juan Cruz in the bullpen and can use him if Estes struggle to pitch well, but hopefully Cruz will stabilize the middle innings for me to be able to get to my closer, Joe Borowski with a lead. I'm not crazy about him being the closer, but I really truly have nothing else to offer except Cruz and Antonio Alfonseca. Ugh. Let's hope for some complete games. I can use 95 year-old Mike Remlinger to close some games, but quite frankly I'm worried he might break a hip if he enters too many games.


Alright, I think that's enough of a preview of the team. I plan on posting each series as it's own entry with a preview of the upcoming series. If I make the playoffs, I will change it to a post per a game recap with a preview of the following game.