25 Things About 25 Cubs

By Bob Romashko

Just some trivia about everyone on the Cubs active roster as of this morning:

  1. Kevin Gregg - Since his blowup against Houston on May 16, Gregg has posted a 1.78 ERA in 25.1 innings, allowing only 24 baserunners over that span.
  2. Angel Guzman - Guzman is actually the hardest thrower on the Cubs roster, by average fastball velocity.
  3. Rich Harden - Harden’s 16 home runs allowed this season ties his career high. The last time he allowed 16 was in 2004, when he pitched 189.2 innings.
  4. Aaron Heilman - Fangraphs says Heilman has been worth .1 wins above replacement this season. The Cubs traded Garrett Olson (-.1 WAR) and Ronny Cedeno (-.2 WAR) for him.
  5. Ted Lilly - The Cubs’ only All-Star in 2009 has in the past been traded for Jeff Weaver, Jeremy Bonderman and Bobby Kielty.
  6. Carlos Marmol - Marmol has walked nine batters per nine innings pitched. Among all 377 major league pitchers with 20 or more innings pitched, that’s the second-worst number in the league.
  7. Sean Marshall - Marshall’s twin brother Brian is a former Red Sox prospect.
  8. Jeff Samardzija - Samardzija’s father Sam played semi-pro hockey, so there’s still hope that Shark branches out to a third sport.
  9. Jeff Stevens - Stevens is the first player the Cubs received for Mark DeRosa to make the majors, which means that Cubs fans can no longer say the Cubs didn’t get anything that helps their major league team for him.
  10. Randy Wells - Among Cubs players with any significant number of innings pitched, Wells’s slider has been the best pitch on the team.
  11. Carlos Zambrano - Whether or not Phil Rogers wants to waive him, by FIP, this is Zambrano’s best season since 2005.
  12. Koyie Hill - After his accident with a table saw in 2007, Hill plans to have two fingers removed when he’s done playing baseball, they hurt so much.
  13. Jeff Baker - Baker is the only baseball player ever to have been born in Bad Kissagen, West Germany.
  14. Andres Blanco - Blanco was named after a Venezuelan poet, Andres Eloy Blanco.
  15. Mike Fontenot - Should probably be in AAA working on his swing with Bobby Scales on the big club for a couple of weeks.
  16. Jake Fox - Was Rich Hill’s teammate at the University of Michigan. Bonus trivia: this is the only time I will ever, ever link to MGoBlue here.
  17. Micah Hoffpauir - Is, in fact, not closely related to Jarrett Hoffpauir of the Cardinals.
  18. Derrek Lee - His father, Leon Lee, scouted and signed Hee-Seop Choi, who was then traded by the Cubs to acquire DLee.
  19. Aramis Ramirez - Is the only Aramis ever to play in the majors. Furthermore, nobody named Porthos or Athos has ever played in the majors, so we can safely say he is the best player ever named after one of the Three Musketeers.
  20. Ryan Theriot - Has been, by some measures, the most valuable position player on the Cubs this season.
  21. Milton Bradley - Now leads Cubs regulars in OBP, at .372.
  22. Kosuke Fukudome - Is scheduled to work with his former hitting coach from Japan when the Cubs move on to Philadelphia next week.
  23. Sam Fuld - Has a remarkably extensive Wikipedia page for a guy with seven major league hits.
  24. Reed Johnson - Since returning from the disabled list, Johnson is 2-11 and has not taken a walk.
  25. Alfonso Soriano - Had one of the more unusual paths to the majors I can remember.

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