The 47 Best Players from the 1998 Chicago Cubs - #13 Brant Brown

13. Brant Brown
Brant Brown was selected by the Cubs in the third round of the 1992 MLB draft. After tearing it up for a couple years, Brown was the Cubs second best prospect in 1994, just behind Brooks Kieschnick. He followed it up with two disappointing years before crushing it in Iowa and making his major league debut in June of 1996. He was great in limited time in 1996 but still spent the majority of 1997 in Iowa while not making much of an impact when he was in the big leagues. If he could spend the majority of year in the major leagues in 1998, it would be a huge victory for Brown.

He did MUCH more than that.

At the beginning of the year, it looked as though he would just spend time as a fourth or fifth outfielder, getting the occasional start when guys needed a rest. But one man's misfortune was Brown's lucky day as Lance Johnson suffered an injury early on that would cost him nearly half the season, and Brown was there to fill in as the starting center fielder.

And he filled his role well. He hit incredibly well. At the end of April, he was hitting .357/.419/.607. Although he didn't quite keep up that pace, he was still hitting incredibly well. On June 12, he hit three home runs against the Philadelphia Phillies with Mark Portugal getting abused for two of those home runs. Even an injury that cost him most of July didn't stop him as he came back and continued to hit well.

In August Lance Johnson retook his job as the starting center fielder and Glenallen Hill had joined the team and hurting baseballs like no other so Brown found it more difficult to find consistent starts, even going a ten day stretch in August between starts. But even playing sparingly down the stretch, he still ended the year with a .291/.348/.501 line in 124 games that season.

Now it was a little odd that Brown would be able to spend the majority of his time in center field since most of his time in the minor leagues was at first base. The Cubs had Mark Grace at first, so they turned Brown into an outfielder, even using him as a defensive replacement in left when he wasn't patrolling center field. They did this despite him not actually being a good fielder in the outfield.

Now, even I can admit that Glenallen Hill and Henry Rodriguez are not your ideal defensive players, but Brant Brown committed seven errors which is an incredibly high number for an outfielder, especially since he wasn't even a full-time starter. Oh well, it's not like any of those errors will be costly.

And that brings us to September 23rd. Both the Cubs and Mets were tied at 88-70 for the wildcard spot, while the Giants were in third at 85-72. Although the Giants would win that day, the Mets lost to the Astros, and the Cubs had a chance to take a lead over the Mets and effectively bury the Giants by winning. Everything started out great as the Cubs used a bunch of walks and a balk to put up two runs in the second, added another in the third, and the Cubs used Sammy Sosa's 65th and 66th home runs in the fifth and sixth inning to take a 7-0 lead. Today was a good day to be a Cubs fan.

But then the Brewers mounted their comeback. It started when the Brewers got hit after hit to put up four runs before the Cubs took out Steve Trachsel and put in Matt Karchner to end the rally. In the eighth, the Brewers finally got to Karchner with a walk, hit-by-pitch, and single which cut the lead to 7-5 going into the ninth. No big deal, the Cubs had Rod Beck to come in and close this game down for the team.

Now Rod Beck was a heart attack for Cubs fans throughout the entire season. He made every game exciting, and this one was no different. Although he got the first out, he then gave up a single and a double before walking Jeromy Burnitz to load the bases. But in classic Rod Beck form, he got Marquis Grissom to pop out to third for the second out. All that was left was Geoff Jenkins. Luckily, Beck induced a fly ball to left field to end the...

Aw, fudge.

I talked earlier about how Orlando Merced's game-winning home run was my favorite game of the season. Well, the Brant Brown game may have been my least favorite game of the season. I remember watching the end of it in my kitchen and just being dumbstruck at what happened. The Cubs did find a way to bounce back and ended up making the playoffs, but they lost all faith in Brant Brown who saw his reduced role turn into a nearly nonexistent one as he had just a single pinch hit at bat in the playoffs.

And even though that is by far my most vivid memory of Brown, I still remember him fondly. He came out of nowhere and hit the ball really well. And let's face it, no child gives a shit about defensive performance; it's all about the hitting, baby. Brant Brown did that part really well in 1998, and he even provided value to the Cubs for future seasons.

After the 1998 season concluded, the Cubs flipped Brown to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Jon Lieber who would provide four very good years of pitching, including a fourth place finish for the Cy Young Award in 2001. Meanwhile, Brown would spend one year with the Pirates before being traded to the Marlins who traded him halfway through the season back to the Cubs, but 2000 would be his last season in the major leagues. He is still in baseball today as he went on to coach in the minor leagues and is currently on the Los Angeles Dodgers staff.

In case you missed it:
Introduction
#47 - Matt Karchner
#46 - Jose Nieves
#45 - Rodney Myers
#44 - Justin Speier
#43 - Tony Fossas
#42 - Kennie Steenstra
#41 - Chris Haney
#40 - Bob Patterson
#39 - Pedro Valdes
#38 - Derrick White
#37 - Ben Van Ryn
#36 - Terrell Lowery
#35 - Don Wengert
#34 - Kurt Miller
#33 - Jason Maxwell
#32 - Kevin Foster
#31 - Mike Morgan
#30 - Felix Heredia 
#29 - Jeff Blauser
#28 - Jason Hardtke
#27 - Dave Stevens
#26 - Manny Alexander
#25 - Marc Pisciotta
#24 - Kevin Orie
#23 - Sandy Martinez
#22 - Terry Adams
#21 - Matt Mieske
#20 - Amaury Telemaco
#19 - Tyler Houston
#18 - Geremi Gonzalez
#17 - Orlando Merced
#16 - Scott Servais
#15 - Mark Clark
#14 - Lance Johnson

Breaking Down the Chicago Bears Fourth Round Pick: West Virginia Linebacker - Nick Kwiatkoski

The NFL Draft has come and gone, and it appears that the Bears have a plan in place. Did I agree with that plan at every twist and turn? No, not really, but I also really enjoyed some of their moves so it all balances out. And they were active, and that definitely made for an exciting weekend. But what's done is done. The picks I like will obviously work out, and hopefully my genius fails me on the picks that I didn't like. So far, I have had the chance to break down:

First Round Pick: Leonard Floyd, Linebacker, Georgia
Second Round Pick: Cody Whitehair, Offensive Guard, Kansas State
Third Round Pick: Jonathan Bullard, Defensive Lineman, Florida

Today, we look at the Bears first fourth round pick, Nick Kwiatkoski, a linebacker out of West Virginia. Now with the Bears first three picks, it was plenty easy to find game tape to watch enough film to make strong evaluations. That changes in the fourth round, as Draft Breakdown only had one game of film to watch (which I should mention is still amazing that I can even get one ten-minute film of an entire game's worth of plays), so I'll be checking out his game against Kansas State to see what type of player the Bears were able to acquire.

Inside linebacker is an instinctual position without a whole lot of flash to it. It fills a role, but it's rarely a big play position. It's consistency that is the key. A worry may be how he performs in coverage, as he got caught looking into the backfield instead of sticking with the tight end on this play.

I mean, the bad news is obvious. He lost track of his man and gave up a 20-yard reception. The good news is that when he jammed him off the line of scrimmage, he pushed the tight end about five yards outside, so nice pop from Kwiatkoski.

Kwiatkoski did have three interceptions on the year, but it was not because of excellent coverage skills. He caught one off of a deflection, one when he jumped near the line of scrimmage and the quarterback just didn't throw the ball high enough, with his final one being the most impressive as he was sitting in zone coverage and made a nice break on the ball.

And that was about the only play that stood out in the least bit against Kansas State. It was definitely not his best game of the season, as there was virtually nothing to go off of on the film. So I decided to consult the highlight video to see if I could find out anything more about Kwiatkoski.

That power showed up again on run plays as he showed that he can fill a hole and stop a running back from getting any forward momentum with this hit.

That is a great job by him to explode through the tackle and wrap up to finish the job.

His athletic numbers are not only solid, but that is what you would expect from a fourth round pick, unless that fourth rounder was VERY raw. Kwiatkoski is not going to win with athleticism, he'll do it with instincts, which seems to be the case for just about every successful middle linebacker.

Even after the highlight video, it was tough to get too excited, but that's not Kwiatkoski's game. He's going to fill a role. The guy doesn't have exciting potential, but he's also not likely to kill you. He can be a solid middle linebacker. I know that's not sexy, but considering what the Bears were forced to trot out last year, depth was needed, even with their free agent signings. He'll start off as a backup inside linebacker, and he seems like a guy who can step up as a starter if needed. 

My Dog Punked Me On The Basketball Court

I decided to go to the local park and shoot some hoops the other day. I hadn't shot in a while, and my shot is usually pretty bad, but it was absolutely busted the first few times I threw the ball at the basket, as it literally looked like that was all I was trying to accomplish. Luckily, I had my dog there for moral support, as she loves me no matter how bad my skills are on the court.

But after a few shots, I started to get back to my old level (which is still very bad, but it at least looked like I was aiming at something). And although she was tired from chasing her ball earlier, she was still curious to watch me play on the court, and she even decided to step up and play some defense. At first, she was just crowding my space, so I couldn't jump forward on my shots. It was incredibly effective.

After that, she took it to another level. She started crying at me to give her more attention, because my friend, the basketball, was getting all of my sweet touch, at least that's what I thought. She got tired of playing defense shortly after that and decided to hang out under the hoop for rebounds. That is when she took it to her final level of intimidation.

I rose up to take a picture perfect three point shot and right as I was about to release the ball, my dog used all her might to bark as loud as she could. It came out of nowhere, and surprised the hell out of me, causing my shot to go about three feet to the left. I started laughing, because it was a good prank by my dog. I grabbed the ball, lined up to shoot, and went to fire when she barked at me again and completely threw off my shot. This was no longer a game to her as she was in my head and throwing off my entire game. She was out there punking me on the playground, and I was losing my rep as a true baller.

I did the only thing I could do at that point. I started working on dunks (layups), so I couldn't be taken out of my game. Still, the damage had been done. My dog punked me out on the basketball court, and she's not going to let me hear the end of it.

Now I just need to work on catching a frisbee in my mouth so I can have my revenge.