Dexter Fowler illustrated retrospective.

Well, you knew Dexter Fowler was gonna go somewhere, and of all places he ends up with the Cardinals.
It's always shocking - remember seeing Mark DeRosa in red?
It smarts.
(Well, there was Ryan Theriot too, but whatever.)
But with Fowler, I have nothing but warm feelings for the guy even though he went to the dark side.
Last season could not have worked out better, and the Cubs wouldn't have won the World Series without him.
So lets start out with that illustration, when at the very last minute he rejected the Oriole's offer and showed up at the Cubs' camp, and we were all overjoyed.


Here's one from end of July last year. Remember how he sustained some pretty great numbers in the 2nd half of 2015.


My first illustration of Fowler was when he was on the Rockies in '13, and had a rough day vs Jeff Samardzija.


This is from his really hot start to last year: (April 17th) 36 at bats, 15 hits, 6 of 'em for extra bases, and 9 RBIs from the lead-off spot. Among the starters, Fowler's 1.275 OPS leads the team by a mile.


And as last year went along, Fowler's value to the team just really stood out.


But this last illustration is the one.
When Joe Maddon has a saying for you, you know you've made the big time.
"You go we go" is what Joe said to Fowler, and damned if it wasn't true.


So, for sure gonna miss him not just for his performance, but also... what a great guy.
HAHAHAHA!
That's so easy to write right now.
Just wait til the bottom of the first on April 3rd, in St. Louis, when he comes up to bat as a Cardinal.

But now, look at the Cubs.
Rizzo, Baez, Bryant, Russell, Schwarber, Contreras, Almora... we'll have at least a couple more years of what may turn out to be the greatest core of Cubs ever.
And there are more incredible kids on the way.
The experience is so... the opposite of a lifetime of being a Cub Fan.
Because surely, more greatness awaits.

Comments

[Donna]

I stopped at a BP station to fill up my car today and the cashier commented on my Cubs sweatshirt. We then had a 5 minute discussion about Fowler. He point out that when Heyward came to the Cubs, the Cardinal fans were so pissed and angry with him. But when it was announced that Fowler was going to the Cardinals, the Cubs fans overwhelmingly wished him well and said how fond of him they will always be. How's that for a difference in cultures?

[Bud]

I have a new neighbor. He's from Peoria, IL and he's a Cardinals fan. I played golf with him today and he was telling me how Dexter Fowler is going to dramatically improve the Cards and "put them in contention".

They liked our CF / Leadoff guy better than the one they had.

It got me thinking, in this era of stat-junkies, how about a new statistic? We'll call it the WWHH factor. WWHH stands for "Wish We Had Him". And a player's WWHH factor is the % of the other 29 teams that would trade their guy at a given position for our guy.

If 29 of 29 teams would trade their first baseman for Rizzo, his WWHH factor would be a perfect 100.0%. If only 6 of 29 teams would have traded their CF for the Cards now-displaced Randal Grichuk his WWHH factor would be 6/29 or 20.7%.

Just reading through your list of our likely 2017 position players has me convinced that the WWHH factor for our ENTIRE team probably averages north of 90%.

And taken as a whole, which team owners wouldn't trade their ENTIRE team, lock stock and barrel for the ENTIRE Cubs organization?

Could you imagine saying that with a straight face during the Sam Zell / Jim Hendry / Milton Bradley era not that long ago?

Just pinch me...

[Cire Ddot Nekliw]

Donna nailed it. Cub fans wish Dexter well. Except the 19 times we play the Cards. I feel like Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein. I WILL NOT BE ANGRY. I get it, more years more money and on a contender, but geez. Anyway, so Schwarber is our new leadoff guy. Discuss amongst yourselves....

[Rich Beckman]

Great observation!

[Rich Beckman]

I'm sad to see Dexter go, but we've always known he would.

I wish him a great career on a team that never quite wins the division (or the wildcard game).

Your retrospectives are always such great reminders of the tremendous body of work you compiled here.

The Chicago Cubs are the reigning World Series Champions.

[Tim@Cubby Blue]

I LOVE THIS STORY!!!

[Tim@Cubby Blue]

It's a whole new world, Bud.
But as a personal favor to me, lets please not come up with anything new that has MATH!!!