Hopefully, he’s doing good. On a positive note, he does look good in a uniform. I always wonder how some of these guys, who had such a small taste of MLB, look back on that time. I’m sure most of it is good. Personally, I’ve dreamed of just being able to walk out on a major league field…especially Wrigley. Ah well. I hope he loved every second of it.

I actually remember an interview with Don Baylor when he was high on Danny Young and thought he would be a key member of the bullpen, I guess that should have been a warning sign that the 2000 teams pitching staff was going to be really bad.

Young doesn’t really fit into the Farnsworth/Hundley mold. I do not remember this guy at all, but you gotta give him props for being such a low prospect and at least making it to the bigs. I understand the reason for including him, but com’on – say it with Colin & I: “Sample size”!

And if Danny Young can make this list, I surely hope Bobby Howry’s 2008 season can make it, too.

Dan

…Danny Young would probably pretty surprised to see his career profiled. For my part, I can only hope this paves the way for a profile of Steve Rain, who was about the only fun thing to happen to those miserable ’99 or 2000 Cubs teams…

I wouldn’t mind seeing Andy Pratt profiled and looking it up he threw less than 2 innings as a Cub. He was probably the wildest pitcher the Cubs have ever had in the last 20-30 years at least.

Interesting story.

…Plays like Jane!

     Who would fill that all time Cub team. How about Derrick May in left for starters.

Between the mid-80s and 1997, teams could keep drafting as long as they wanted. Most teams quit by about the 60th round but a handful of teams would keep going. With the draft-and-follow rule then in effect, I suppose that I can see the logic of taking flyers on a few extra guys. That being said, almost all of the players that were selected in those very late rounds never amounted to anything, with Mike Piazza (a 62nd round pick) being the famous exception. Moreover, the draft-and-follow picks from those rounds usually didn’t sign. For example, Tampa drafted until the 92nd round during the last year of the old system, and their 89th and 90th round picks both made the big leagues…but Willie Harris and Robby Hammock both waited to sign until they were drafted much higher, by other organizations, in following years.

Houston drafted between 80-100 players almost every season, which usually made them either the last or next-to-last team still drafting. For example, the 83rd round of the 1990 consisted of Danny Young and only Danny Young, so it’s not like all the GMs were still on the phone making picks. I imagine that, with only one team or two teams drafting, those last rounds didn’t take very long to conduct. Houston got nothing to show for that organizational philosophy – they did draft a few guys in those late rounds that eventually wound in the majors, such as Johnny Estrada and Jay Witasick, but they didn’t actually sign anyone that made the majors…except Danny Young.

Crikey. Al, I can hardly wait for your eight-part series on Tim Blackwell. Because if you devoted a headliner to Danny Friggin Young then…

It was almost the end of second grade for me and I had been a rabid Cubs fan since ’97. I remember the Japan series quite vividly, because my mom used to wake me up around six in the morning to watch the middle innings to the conclusion of the games.

Danny Young was on my immediate “bad” list. Why? Because when your bullpen holds down the fort so well, and some nobody comes in and blows it for you (with two outs, mind you) to someone like Benny Agbayani, SOMETHING’S not quite right. He proved to us in a few more of his appearances that he just wasn’t up to snuff, so he never pitched in the majors again after we sent him down.

I sorta feel bad for the guy. You gotta love his passion, sticking around that long (and OF COURSE the 2000 Cubs were the team to get him!), and finally when he makes it to the big time, he can’t prove himself. It really is a shame.

I look forward to the rest of your 2000 team names, since its a team I distinctly remember. Willie Greene and Ismael Valdez come to mind…

You are wasting your time ragging a guy that overachieved on every level and lived the dream while holding a very insignificant role in Cubs history.

The whole concept of someone making it to the show but maybe for one game or part of a season at most is intriguing to me. I’m blasting through baseball-reference through the random track and it’s amazing how many guys pop up who had one game or several games over the course of a week or two and then disappeared out of sight.

“Field of Dreams” gives us one example of one of those stories but think of all the other possibilities. There’s one guy, Frank Smykel, who played in 6 games, got 6 AB and hit .500, and then never played another game. What would he have had to hit to come back next season-.750?

I am really interested in researching these guys who were the fillers, experiments, favor for a friend, or just bad scouting call. What do you the rest of your life then? Do you brag about having been to the show and gloss over the details or do you pretend it never happened? Would you rather say, “Yeah, I played one game in the majors but wasn’t good enough to stick around” or “I just never was good enough to get beyond AAA ball.”

It’s hard to identify, at least for me, with someone like Aramis Ramirez or Albert or Jeter because they are in a different dimension. But i’m finding guys in the 1800s and early 1900 who could have been me if I were born then and have gotten a shot at it. Fast, little, scrappy guys that could get on base and steal bases and play aggressive, if not delicate, defense. It’s intriguing to think that back then any of us would have had a statistically significantly better opportunity to play in the show.

Hell, my uncle was drafted by the Phillies in the 30s and he was my size, Hit like Ted Williams though. Yankees bought his contract but hen he contracted a crippling form of athletes foot fungus and had to quit baseball almost overnight.