The 47 Best Players from the 1998 Chicago Cubs - #43 Tony Fossas

43. Tony Fossas
Tony Fossas had a fascinating career. His time with the Cubs was less fascinating, but this is a man who pitched until he was 41-years-old. Even more fascinating is that he didn't make his major league debut until he was 31.

Think about that. This man spent a decade in the minor leagues, realizing that his time for a callup had probably already passed. He bounced around to many organizations, including the Cubs in 1985, but never made the show. But he kept showing up. Kept throwing strikes, and the Rangers gave him a goodwill callup during the 1988 season. They didn't even bother resigning him after the year, but he'd bounce around from organization to organization again, only this time, he found himself on major league rosters as a lefty specialist, a role that didn't even exist during his years in the minor leagues. That's incredible.

And a career that incredible must also have some pretty incredible highlights. I'm glad you asked, because I sure have a doozy for you.

That's not him that messes up and fields a fair ball while waiting in the bullpen, but he is the guy who shows up over his right shoulder to show his disdain for his teammate. That's a veteran move right there.

As for his run with the Cubs, I was going to say his most exciting contribution was pitching both ends of a doubleheader against the New York Mets. He pitched an inning in the early game, and then 1/3 of an inning in the second game, both without giving up an earned run. The key word there is earned, as in the second game, he came in with the bases loaded with two outs. He allowed all three inherited runners to score, turning a one-run defecit into a four-run hole. But, none of those runs were earned.

Overall, he pitched just four innings for the Cubs and gave up four runs in that time before the Cubs released him. After that, he caught on with Texas where he pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings for the Rangers. This was enough for the Yankees to sign him as a 41-year-old in 1999. He pitched in five games for the Yankees, totaling a single inning in those appearances while giving up four runs for a 36.00 ERA.

Tony Fossas was an OG LOOGY. He literally started his career during a time where that wasn't a thing, hung around the minors for ten years and let it become a thing, and then filled that role for a ten-year major league career. Sometimes, he was great in that role, other times he was acceptable, and at the end, he was a tad bit brutal. But you look at a career like his, and you can't help but have a little hope for the future. It's not too late to live your dream, and Tony Fossas is living proof of that.

In case you missed it:
Introduction
#47 - Matt Karchner
#46 - Jose Nieves
#45 - Rodney Myers
#44 - Justin Speier

The 47 Best Players from the 1998 Chicago Cubs - #44 Justin Speier

44. Justin Speier
Justin Speier was selected in the 55th round in the 1995 MLB Draft. Even if you only took his contributions to the 1998 Cubs, which was one appearance for an inning and a third, you'd have to be impressed with the outcome. But Speier went on to pitch for another 11 years for various teams after 1998, which may make him the greatest 55th round draft pick in history.

And his contributions for that 1998 team did not end with that single appearance where he gave up two runs. He was also packaged in a deal with Kevin Orie and Todd Noel for Steve Hoff, and most importantly, Felix Heredia who would go on to solidify the bullpen for the Cubs at the end of the season.

He was more of a middling reliever playing for the Marlins, Braves, Indians, and Rockies before heading north of the border to the Toronto Blue Jays. There, he switched to a strict maple syrup diet and had the best years of his career. He then signed a free agent with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim where the maple syrup carried him to one more good year. But the LA lifestyle got to him, he switched to an avocado diet, and his ERA doubled for his final two seasons in the majors.

Would you care for some Justin Speier highlights? Because I am about to blow your socks off with some Justin Speier highlights.


Wait, you didn't want highlights from his wedding? Oh...I did not expect that reaction. But if you watched the video, he seemed like such a happy guy. I couldn't find out whether they are still married, but I sure hope they are. Anyway, to please the people who want highlights of him on a field, here you go:


Oh, you actually want to see him playing in a game? Fine, here goes my last video with him striking out Minnesota Twins great, Jason Kubel, with a sick pitch.


The internet has WAY too many videos these days. But seriously, I think Justin Speier has the worst collection of highlight videos of any player with 12 years of MLB experience. The only other worthwhile video was him yelling at Mike Scioscia. But it was an impressive career nonetheless, and it all started with his experience with the 1998 Chicago Cubs.

In case you missed it:
Introduction
#47 - Matt Karchner
#46 - Jose Nieves
#45 - Rodney Myers

The 47 Best Players from the 1998 Chicago Cubs - #45 Rodney Myers

45.Rodney Myers
Every time somebody brings up Rodney Myers, I just assume that they are talking about Randy Myers, who was the Cubs closer in the mid-90s. Unfortunately for Rodney, he did have quite the career that Randy had, but they did both have runs in the bullpen for the Cubs.

1998 was Myers's third season with the team, but he spent the majority of the year in the minor leagues. In July, in an effort to shore up the bullpen (I might say that phrase 25 times throughout this series), they called up Myers. He immediately showed that he is the ultimate team player. With the Cubs up 9-3 against the Expos, Myers promptly gave up a single, followed by a home run. He managed to get an out, but not without two more runners reaching base. How is that being a team player? It set up Rod Beck to get his 28th save of the season when Myers was forced to exit the game. That's good lookin' out.

That put Myers ERA in a hole at a nice even 54.00. And that ERA would never dip below 6.17, and he would end the year at an even 7.00. Still, he managed to last the rest of the season, helped partially by rosters expanding in September. He pitched five games in September, and the Cubs would go on to lose all five of those contests, including a game where he gave up two runs in a one-run loss, and gave up four runs in a two-run loss. When absolutely every game mattered to the Cubs down the stretch, this man was black death.

But rewinding on his story makes it far more impressive. At the University of Wisconsin, he was a feared hitter who also pitched a little. Honestly, he may have been the worst college pitcher to ever get drafted. In three seasons, his best, and let me reiterate, BEST, ERA was 9.00. And it's not like he only pitched a couple innings. he pitched 16, 38, and 34 innings respectively in his three college seasons and just kept getting hammered. But he threw in the mid-90s, which was like throwing 100 these days, so he got drafted in the 12th round by the Royals. He defied all the odds by appearing in 167 games.

He would actually go on to have his best professional year the following season for the Cubs when he threw over 60 relief innings and had a respectable 4.38 ERA. The Cubs then used that good season by trading him to the Padres for Gary Matthews Jr. He pitched for the Padres and Dodgers after that before heading to Japan for a partial season and concluding his career in independent baseball. But considering he might be one of the worst college pitchers ever, it's an incredibly impressive career.

In case you missed it:
Introduction
#47 - Matt Karchner
#46 - Jose Nieves

The 47 Best Players from the 1998 Chicago Cubs - #46 Jose Nieves

46. Jose Nieves
I remember Nieves as a player, but I'd be lying if I said I remembered his contributions to that 1998 team. With just two plate appearances and two innings at shortstop, his contributions on the field were about as minimal as you can find. He did have a sacrifice hit in one of those two times up at the plate, so I definitely appreciate his hard work.

But even though he ranks last on this list, he had a nice career that only started in 1998. He played a couple more years for the Cubs before playing two more with the Angels. He also had minor league stints for the Yankees, Cardinals, and Padres.

Really, I'm not sure if Nieves ever had more fun playing baseball than when he washed out of the major league system and went down to Mexico. In 2005, he tore up the Mexican League with a slash line of .358/.408/.579. Had he done that in 1998, he would have ranked 13th in the MLB, ahead of such Nieves wannabes as Jeff Bagwell, Manny Ramirez, and Ken Griffey Jr.

He then went on to become a minor league manager for the Dayton Dragons. The fans were so excited by the hire that they sold out every game. This is incredibly rare in minor league baseball and just shows the star power that Nieves carried by being a member of the 1998 Chicago Cubs.

In case you missed it:
Introduction
#47 - Matt Karchner

The 47 Best Players from the 1998 Chicago Cubs - #47 Matt Karchner

47. Matt Karchner
Matt Karchner is one of those guys that is unfairly hated by Cubs fans. He is a man that had good years in two out of his first three seasons, mostly based off smoke and mirrors rather than discernible skills, but hey, results are results, and he had fairly good results. This was enough for him to start getting save opportunities in his third year. And that made him good enough to be named the White Sox closer in 1998.

The Cubs were a team that was absolutely desperate for relief help. So the Cubs ignored the flaws. They ignored that in the middle of June, Karchner had an ERA of 2.84, but in less than six weeks, that ERA had ballooned to 5.15, because those stats are for losers, especially when a player has saves, and Karchner had 11 of them. So on July 29th, just before the trade deadline, the Cubs made their move and traded a minor league pitcher for Matt Karchner.

And that minor league pitcher is why Karchner is so hated by Cubs fans. Because that minor league pitcher ended up pitching in the major leagues, making an All-Star game and even finishing sixth in Cy Young voting in 2005. But outside of that, Jon Garland really wasn't anything special. Still, Cubs fans blamed Matt Karchner for every success that the White Sox found with Garland.

And that brings us to the second reason Cubs fans unfairly hated Karchner. He wasn't good at pitching. Now, nobody should have been surprised by this. I was 13-years-old when the Cubs acquired Karchner, and even I remember thinking that he sucked, so it was a bit surprising that the Cubs didn't notice the same thing. Karchner continued to pitch just about as well as he did for the White Sox. In fact, he even improved a little. For the White Sox, he had a sky high 5.15 ERA, but for the Cubs, he had a miniscule 5.14 ERA. PROGRESS!

It wasn't all bad, for a ten-day stretch in August, he pitched seven straight scoreless innings. After each appearance, Orel Hersheiser was sweating more and more as Karchner bared down on his record, but it was not to be as he gave up a home run to Delino DeShields in a game the Cubs would end up losing in extra innings.

Although he did not pitch in the playoffs, Karchner did manage to pitch 1/3 of an inning in game 163 to make the playoffs and did not allow a run.

After that, he managed another smoke and mirrors season where he had a 2.50 ERA with a 6.13 FIP in limited action for the Cubs. But the smoke and mirrors ended in 2000 when he put up a 6.14 ERA. He would be done pitching professionally at any level after that season.

As I stated, Matt Karchner is unfairly hated by Cubs fans. The fact that he was good enough to not only pitch in the major leagues, but succeed at times, is incredible. It's not fair to judge him on the magic not always being there, because he was never great by major league standards to begin with. In the intro, I compared these Cubs players to dogs in the sense that all dogs are the best dogs. Karchner is the foster dog that chews up shoes, barks at everything, and kind of smells. He can't help it; it's who he is. What I'm trying to say is it's unfair to hate Karchner for things beyond his control. I hope this article helps dissipate the hate...

...but yeah, I still kind of hate Matt Karchner.

Previous Posts:
Introduction

The 47 Best Players from the 1998 Chicago Cubs - Introduction

The 1998 Chicago Cubs are my favorite baseball team ever. In fact, they may be my favorite team ever in any sport. With this being the 20th anniversary of that team, I am going to do the biggest and best salute that I can and rank all 47 players that played for that team from worst to best.

Now, best does not mean most valuable, as then I could just give you a WARP list and call it a day. Instead, think of best as someone calling their dog the best. All dogs are the best dogs, and all of these guys are the best too, from #1 all the way to #47. So think of this best list as based more on the joy they provide rather than discernible value.

I'm going to warn you in advance. Glenallen Hill is going to be way higher than any reasonable person could expect (like, so high that you will scream obscenities at your computer screen when you see it). Also, relievers are going to be ranked fairly low, but to be fair, the Cubs relievers weren't the most exciting group outside of a hard-living closer.

But this is just a preview article. I can't give away all the good stuff quite yet. Just know that this team was special. Nobody expected anything out of them, and this was before it was cool to go to Cubs games, so the stadium was usually only half full. The team lost the most beloved announcer in history less than two months before the start of the season. Oh, and they had an outfielder go from good to the man who helped save baseball with home runs and an injectious, wait, did I say injectious? I meant infectious personality.

But yeah, this team was awesome. The list starts tomorrow with a reliever the Cubs acquired right before the deadline. As a hint, I doubt that reliever had to get new housing after the trade.

The Chicago Bears Took Their 7th Round Pick (Jav)on a Wims

The Chicago Bears concluded their 2018 NFL Draft by adding size at the wide receiver position with Georgia pass catcher, Javon Wims. Now, it's the seventh round, so it's tough to get super excited about guys at this point. Below is how he tested at the combine.

Well, he certainly did test, but unless you get your rocks off seeing 81st percentile in weight, it's tough to get too amped up about this. Also, his arm length is shockingly short for a man that tall. T-Rex is not the animal I want my receiver to be built like, but again, it's the seventh round so you get what you get.

By searching YouTube, I found out that he has two nicknames in "Juice" and "Jump Ball," but he clearly prefers Juice as that is what he refers to himself as on Twitter.

Did I find anything else interesting about Wims? His tenth best comp according to his testing numbers was Mo Brown, a really tremendous Iowa Wide Receiver. How did his pro career go? Well, let's not worry about that.

Conclusion
Javon Wims is a football player.

Kylie Fitts Is the Chicago Bears Lottery Ticket

In the sixth round of the 2018 NFL Draft, the Chicago Bears took a high-risk, high-reward prospect in Utah edge rusher, Kylie Fitts. Considering it was the sixth round, it was a great time to take a chance on a guy, because it certainly won't be the end of the world if the guy even makes the roster. The reason he is risky is that he has some serious durability issues. Due to this, he never was really able to find his groove on a football field. He's raw, but the dude is an athlete, and I would 100% classify this guy as a physical freak.

Do you like speed? Do you like strength? Do you like ridiculous quickness on top of that? Yeah, Kylie Fitts has got it all going physically. Still, because of injuries, his best year was in 2015 when he had 41 tackles with seven sacks. That is a really good year for a sophomore, but because of injuries, he never improved on it. So I went to the 2017 tape and checked out his game against West Virginia to see if he had the ability to turn his athleticism into actual football skills.

You can definitely see his strength on tape as he is able to move linemen that get in his way, but he didn't really show the moves to take advantage of a guy back-pedaling on him.

As for highlights? Well, there really wasn't anything of note. You could see the athleticism as he moved well and showed explosiveness on certain occasions, but it never turned into anything in regards to production.

Conclusion
Kylie Fitts has the greatest chance of any Bears draft pick to never see the field in Chicago. That being said, with his athletic traits, his potential is through the roof. There are already reports that he was tearing it up at minicamp, and this doesn't surprise me at all. If he can just stay healthy, he's probably athletic enough to at least become a situational pass rusher. If he can take advantage of health and refine his technique, he could be one of the great steals of this draft. In the sixth round, you really couldn't ask for any more than that.

Can Bilal Nichols Equal a Dime for the Chicago Bears?

The Chicago Bears were a team last year that was bad on offense and not very good on defense, but they weren't very bad either. The team invested heavily in the offense during free agency and continued that with two of their first three picks. After that, the focus was clearly defense. They had already added two linebackers in the first four rounds, so in round five, they added some beef by drafting Delaware Defensive Tackle, Bilal Nichols.

Since there isn't a whole lot of tape of Delaware, I went to the tale of the tape to see how Bilal Nichols performed at the combine. When I looked up the numbers, one thing was clear: Nichols tore it up.

Maybe the most important thing is that Broad Jump number as that shows the explosiveness that he possesses as an athlete. Nichols is not a big player for defensive tackle, but with that explosion, he could be very valuable rushing the passer from the interior.

Luckily, and incredibly surprising, Bilal Nichols has game tape on YouTube. Not only that, it's against a legitimate opponent with his performance against Virginia Tech.

Although Nichols is a good athlete, he doesn't really have any pass rushing moves. It was mostly just push and hope for the best. Occasionally, he would just fall back and spy the quarterback. Part of this may have been that he was playing out of position as a nose tackle the majority of the time which is not a role I see him fulfilling at the next level.

Although he wasn't lighting it up with highlight reel plays, the positive was that he seemed to show good hustle throughout the game and seems to have a good motor on him. On this play, that motor paid off.

It's not exactly some great highlight as the center does enough on 99% of plays, but good on Nichols for continuing to work and finding his way to the quarterback.

Conclusion
Nichols is a good athlete with a good motor and not much for moves. Since he went to a smaller school, it may be likely that he didn't get the best coaching so maybe the Bears can tap into that potential. Also, the Bears will almost definitely shy away from lining him up as a nose guard which should give him more of an opportunity to be a playmaker. Right now, I don't see him as anything more than defensive line depth, but he could carve out a larger role down the line.

Joel Iyiegbuniwe - Chicago Bears Select a Linebacker More Into Telling Than Spelling

The Bears first three picks were all fairly well known players and made scouting them rather easy. After that, the Bears went slightly more obscure in their choices. I'm not a snobby guy who thinks that brand names are always better, so that is why I am excited to tackle the second half of the Bears draft, starting with Western Kentucky Linebacker, Joel Iyiegbuniwe. Unfortunately, I'll be tackling it without video, so let's get weird with this one.

Athletically, Iyiegbuniwe is fairly average.
He had a very good 40-yard dash, but outside of that, he was middle of the pack in just about every category that was measured at the combine, unless you're one of those people who really loves linebacker hand size, in which case, there are two categories that he shined in at the combine.

Iyiegbuniwe was a tackling machine during his Junior season as he racked up 117 tackles, and although he only had two sacks, he did put up 11.5 tackles for loss. He was a Conference USA first-team defensive selection at linebacker.

The Bears did put up a one minute highlight video of Iyiegbuniwe, and their video department either left some to be desired or this guy really doesn't have many impressive plays. I'm going to bet on the former as NFL Network did name him the Bears sneaky good draft pick.

Conclusion
So what to make of Joel Iyiegbuniwe? He's a good but not great athlete who made a lot of tackles for Western Kentucky last year. He was able to make some plays in the backfield but does not have any bonafides as a pass rusher. After drafting Roquan Smith, the Bears need more help on the outside than they do at inside linebacker, although Iyiegbuniwe is likely to start off as a backup at either position. If he's a special teams contributor and plays competent at linebacker in limited time, it will be considered a success. If he can bloom into an average starter down the line, then that would be fantastic. I know it isn't sexy, but getting competent depth is a huge upgrade for a Bears defense that has been the shits for years. Most importantly, I can now spell Iyiegbuniwe without looking it up. 

Anthony Miller - Bringin' Down Home Memphis Cookin' to The Windy City

After selecting James Daniels in the second round, it appeared the Bears were done for day two as they did not have a third round pick. But the Bears saw a guy falling that they liked, and they made a move to go get him. Trading their first of two fourth-round picks as well as a 2019 second-round pic, they were able to help give Mitch Trubisky another dangerous weapon by taking Anthony Miller, wide receiver out of Memphis with the 51st pick in the draft. My initial thought when I heard they took Anthony Miller was a slight bit of disappointment, but that was based more off of a huge crush I had on Oklahoma State wide receiver, James Washington, who reminded me of Steve Smith. But to be totally honest, I didn't know shit about Anthony Miller. So let's find out about him together by taking a look at his game against UCLA.

Before even showing any plays, the thing that really stood out to me is how much Memphis must have loved Anthony Miller, because they lined him up all over the field to find ways to get the ball in his hand. He'd be out wide, in the slot, in motion for a jet sweep, even lined up as a fullback, it was clear that Memphis valued getting him the ball.
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The next thing to talk about is the dude can catch which is probably the most essential feature in becoming a successful wide receiver. Still, he made some very impressive catches in this game.

Here, he goes full extension to make the diving catch. He does a great job of tracking the football, as he originally breaks in on his route, but has to fade to the outside to give him a chance at the football. He takes the only angle that gives him a chance to make a play.

on top of having great hands, he also knows how to create separation.

Here, he does a quick stutter move to the inside before breaking his route outside the corner, which gives him enough separation to track the ball and catch it for an easy touchdown.

Memphis clearly loved Miller. In the fourth quarter when they needed a first down to avoid giving it back to a Josh Rosen-led team that had already put up 45 points, there was only one guy that they would consider going to.

This is a great example of Memphis putting Miller in different positions in order to utilize his abilities. His versatility will be one of his most valuable assets. Another valuable asset is the way he adjusts to a ball thrown behind him with a defender coming to clean his clock. He manages to make the catch and avoid the big hit; it was a win-win for Miller.

He's also good after the catch.

This is something that you would expect to see on somebody's high school highlight tape. He bobbles the ball, slips, nearly falls down, but then bounces out of two tackles, turns the corner on a defender and speeds right by him before happily high-stepping out of bounds. This is a great play, and yes, UCLA's defense was super awful.

Finally, let's see him combine a great catch with a great run after the catch.

Catching that ball behind him is very impressive, and again, he is able to keep his balance and allow himself to create after the catch. He breaks a tackle, jukes another guy, and then uses his speed to turn the corner down the sideline. He is very good at football stuff.

Conclusion
At the beginning of this post, I mentioned my disappointment with the Bears not taking James Washington. After watching the tape on Miller, a lot of what I loved about James Washington I can see in Anthony Miller. He tracks the ball well and can make plays after the catch. I also think he complements Allen Robinson very well in the passing attack. With Matt Nagy being very creative with how he gets players the ball, Miller could be used in a variety of formations and cause a lot of damage. I am starting to get very excited about the Bears 2018 season, and that terrifies me. I'm not going to jinx it yet, there's still quite a few draft picks to look at.

James Daniels - The Bears Finally Drafted an Iowa Hawkeye for Me

The Chicago Bears made me a very happy man when they selected a man who shares my alma mater, the University of Iowa, when they took James Daniels, an offensive lineman for the Hawkeyes. I say offensive lineman, because although he exclusively played center in college, there are already rumors of a move to guard for Daniels. Since offensive linemen don't get love from the tape community, let's watch the tape for Akrum Wadley and keep an eye on Daniels. If you can't figure out which one he is, he's the guy snapping the ball, so that should help.

James Daniels is not your typical Iowa offensive lineman who makes up for a lack of physical ability with great technique. He has incredible athleticism for an offensive lineman and proved it at the combine when he set the bar in both the 3-cone drill and the 20 yard shuttle.

But he's still an Iowa offensive lineman which means he has been well trained on the tricks of the trade in offensive line play. Although he isn't a big guy (by offensive line standards), he has very good technique and knows how to use leverage to his advantage.

Here, Daniels gets under the defensive tackle and can basically move him wherever he wants at that point. He just keeps driving him out of the way, even when his running back is 15 yards down field.

Daniels also shows excellent technique in pass blocking as well.

Here he is pass blocking but still shows enough aggression to push his defender on the far side of the right tackle. After that, the defender runs into a double team and his best option is to flop to the ground to avoid the abuse.

On this play, the Ohio State defender gets the better of Daniels off the snap, but this may be Daniels's most impressive play.

Even with the defender getting underneath him and pushing him back, Daniels is able to use his hips to anchor himself and stop the momentum.

Here, Daniels responsibility is to help the guard with the defensive tackle, but his awareness is what shines on this play.

While helping his guard out, he notices an Ohio State linebacker coming on a delayed blitz so he breaks off and stops the guy's momentum to give the quarterback a pocket to throw the ball.

Here is some more excellent pass blocking from Daniels

You just have to feel bad for the Ohio State defender. All of his buddies are charging up field and trying to get to the quarterback. Meanwhile, he's just stuck at the line of scrimmage, trying to dip, dive, and dodge his way past Daniels, but it's no use.

Conclusion
Overall, there's a ton to like here. I would prefer for him to stay at center due to his weight, but I'm not doubting that he can hang in there against most defensive tackles. Also, he is going to be a monster when he pulls because of the way he can move in space. There is also the fact that he is only 20 years old so putting on some extra poundage isn't that hard to imagine. There were a lot of people who had Daniels as their top center in the draft and behind only Quenton Nelson for interior offensive linemen. Considering the Bears were able to nab him as the third center off the board is great value. Even without my totally biased Iowa glasses on, this is a great pick that should help solidify the interior of the Bears offensive line.