2001 Chicago Cubs season

The 2001 Chicago Cubs season was the 130th season of the Chicago Cubs franchise, the 126th in the National League and the 86th at Wrigley Field. The Cubs finished third in the National League Central with a record of 88–74.

2001 Chicago Cubs
League	National League
Division	Central
Ballpark	Wrigley Field
City	Chicago
Record	88–74 (.543)
Divisional place	3rd
Owners	Tribune Company
General managers	Andy MacPhail
Managers	Don Baylor
Television	WCIU/Superstation WGN (Chip Caray, Joe Carter) FSN Chicago (Chip Caray, Dave Otto)
Radio	WGN (Pat Hughes, Ron Santo)
Stats	ESPN.com Baseball Reference
Seasons

Offseason

• November 18, 2000: Bill Mueller was traded by the San Francisco Giants to the Chicago Cubs for Tim Worrell.
• December 18, 2000: Jason Bere was signed as a free agent with the Chicago Cubs.
• December 19, 2000: Todd Hundley signed as a free agent with the Chicago Cubs.
• January 10, 2001: Ron Coomer was signed as a free agent with the Chicago Cubs.

Regular season

During a forgettable 2000 season, Jim Hendry sent pitcher Scott Downs to Montreal and acquired Rondell White. This laid the groundwork for the 2001 season, which saw the North Siders make another drive for the playoffs. Mack Newton was brought in by the club to preach "positive mental thought", and it paid off. Matt Stairs started the season at first base, but ultimately the Cubs made a mid-June trade to acquire All-Star 1B Fred McGriff, though McGriff took over a month debating whether or not to approve the deal and leave his hometown Tampa Bay Devil Rays, ultimately waiving his no-trade clause and allow himself to be dealt to Chicago on July 27. "The Crime Dog" hit a respectable .282 with 12 homers in 49 games with the Cubs, hitting cleanup behind Sammy Sosa, who had perhaps his best season, hitting 64 homers with career highs in batting average (.328) and RBI (160) for Don Baylor's club. Jon Lieber had a 20 win season, and along with Kevin Tapani and Kerry Wood made up a solid rotation. The Cubs led the eventual Wild Card winning Cardinals by 2.5 games in early September, but Preston Wilson's walk-off homer off of closer Tom "Flash" Gordon took the wind out of the team's sails, failing to make another serious charge. The Cubs did manage to finish 88–74, only 5 games behind both St. Louis and Houston, who tied for first. One of the season's most memorable moments came on September 27, when Sammy Sosa carried an American flag around the bases after hitting a home run in the Cubs first home game since the September 11 attacks.

Season standings

NL Central

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Houston Astros	93	69	.574	—	44‍–‍37	49‍–‍32
St. Louis Cardinals	93	69	.574	—	54‍–‍28	39‍–‍41
Chicago Cubs	88	74	.543	5	48‍–‍33	40‍–‍41
Milwaukee Brewers	68	94	.420	25	36‍–‍45	32‍–‍49
Cincinnati Reds	66	96	.407	27	27‍–‍54	39‍–‍42
Pittsburgh Pirates	62	100	.383	31	38‍–‍43	24‍–‍57

Record vs. opponents

2001 National League record Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
Team	AZ	ATL	CHC	CIN	COL	FLA	HOU	LA	MIL	MTL	NYM	PHI	PIT	SD	SF	STL	AL
Arizona	—	5–2	6–3	5–1	13–6	4–2	2–4	10–9	3–3	3–3	3–3	3–4	4–2	12–7	10–9	2–4	7–8
Atlanta	2–5	—	4–2	4–2	4–2	9–10	3–3	2–5	3–3	13–6	10–9	10–9	5–1	3–3	4–2	3–3	9–9
Chicago	3–6	2–4	—	13–4	3–3	3–3	8–9	4–2	8–9	3–3	4–2	4–2	10–6	2–4	3–3	9–8	9–6
Cincinnati	1–5	2–4	4–13	—	3–6	4–2	6–11	4–2	6–10	4–2	4–2	2–4	9–8	2–4	4–2	7–10	4–11
Colorado	6–13	2–4	3–3	6–3	—	4–2	2–4	8–11	5–1	3–4	4–3	2–4	2–4	9–10	9–10	6–3	2–10
Florida	2–4	10–9	3–3	2–4	2–4	—	3–3	2–5	4–2	12–7	7–12	5–14	4–2	3–4	2–4	3–3	12–6
Houston	4–2	3–3	9–8	11–6	4–2	3–3	—	2–4	12–5	6–0	3–3	3–3	9–8	3–6	3–3	9–7	9–6
Los Angeles	9–10	5–2	2–4	2–4	11–8	5–2	4–2	—	5–1	2–4	2–4	3–3	7–2	9–10	11–8	3–3	6–9
Milwaukee	3–3	3–3	9–8	10–6	1–5	2–4	5–12	1–5	—	4–2	3–3	3–3	6–11	1–5	5–4	7–10	5–10
Montreal	3–3	6–13	3–3	2–4	4–3	7–12	0–6	4–2	2–4	—	8–11	9–10	5–1	3–3	2–5	2–4	8–10
New York	3–3	9–10	2–4	2–4	3–4	12–7	3–3	4–2	3–3	11–8	—	11–8	4–2	1–5	3–4	1–5	10–8
Philadelphia	4–3	9–10	2–4	4–2	4–2	14–5	3–3	3–3	3–3	10–9	8–11	—	5–1	5–2	3–3	2–4	7–11
Pittsburgh	2–4	1–5	6–10	8–9	4–2	2–4	8–9	2–7	11–6	1–5	2–4	1–5	—	2–4	1–5	3–14	8–7
San Diego	7–12	3–3	4–2	4–2	10–9	4–3	6–3	10–9	5–1	3–3	5–1	2–5	4–2	—	5–14	1–5	6–9
San Francisco	9–10	2–4	3–3	2–4	10–9	4–2	3–3	8–11	4–5	5–2	4–3	3–3	5–1	14–5	—	4–2	10–5
St. Louis	4–2	3–3	8–9	10–7	3–6	3–3	7–9	3–3	10–7	4–2	5–1	4–2	14–3	5–1	2–4	—	8–7

Transactions

• July 4, 2001: Trenidad Hubbard was signed as a free agent with the Chicago Cubs.
• July 30, 2001: Dave Weathers was traded by the Milwaukee Brewers with Roberto Miniel (minors) to the Chicago Cubs for Ruben Quevedo and Pete Zoccolillo.
• September 10, 2001: Trenidad Hubbard was released by the Chicago Cubs.

Draft picks

• June 5, 2001: Mark Prior was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 1st round (2nd pick) of the 2001 amateur draft. Player signed August 23, 2001.
• June 5, 2001: Geovany Soto was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 11th round of the 2001 amateur draft. Player signed June 26, 2001.

Roster

2001 Chicago Cubs
Roster
Pitchers 38 Manny Aybar 46 Jason Bere 48 Joe Borowski 37 Scott Chiasson 51 Juan Cruz 55 Courtney Duncan 44 Kyle Farnsworth 13 Jeff Fassero 31 Mike Fyhrie 45 Tom Gordon 94 Félix Heredia 32 Jon Lieber 54 Ron Mahay 35 Will Ohman 36 Kevin Tapani 50 Julián Tavárez 47 Todd Van Poppel 49 David Weathers 34 Kerry Wood 38 Carlos Zambrano		Catchers 27 Joe Girardi 99,9 Todd Hundley 72 Robert Machado Infielders 40 Miguel Cairo  6 Ron Coomer 16 Delino DeShields 12 Ricky Gutiérrez 29 Fred McGriff 33 Bill Mueller  1 Augie Ojeda 56 Jason Smith 30 Matt Stairs  7 Eric Young 15 Julio Zuleta Outfielders 28 Roosevelt Brown  9 Damon Buford 11 Todd Dunwoody 19 Gary Matthews, Jr. 40 Chad Meyers 20 Corey Patterson 21 Sammy Sosa 24 Michael Tucker 22 Rondell White		Manager 25 Don Baylor Coaching Staff  8 Oscar Acosta (pitching)  2 Sandy Alomar Sr. (first base)  3 Gene Glynn (third base)  5 Rene Lachemann (bench)  4 Jeff Pentland (hitting) 26 Billy Williams (special asst)

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Todd Hundley	79	246	46	.187	12	31
1B	Matt Stairs	128	340	85	.250	17	61
2B	Eric Young	149	603	168	.279	6	42
3B	Ron Coomer	147	528	153	.290	8	53
SS	Ricky Gutiérrez	111	349	91	.261	10	66
LF	Rondell White	95	323	99	.307	17	50
CF	Gary Matthews	106	258	56	.217	9	30
RF	Sammy Sosa	160	577	189	.328	64	160

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Joe Girardi	78	229	58	.253	3	25
Bill Mueller	70	210	62	.295	6	23
Michael Tucker	63	205	54	.263	5	31
Fred McGriff	49	170	48	.282	12	41
Delino DeShields	68	163	45	.276	2	16
Augie Ojeda	78	144	29	.201	1	12
Robert Machado	52	135	30	.222	2	13
Corey Patterson	59	131	29	.221	4	14
Miguel Cairo	66	123	35	.285	2	9
Julio Zuleta	49	106	23	.217	6	24
Damon Buford	35	85	15	.176	3	8
Roosevelt Brown	39	83	22	.265	4	22
Todd Dunwoody	33	61	13	.213	1	3
Chad Meyers	18	17	2	.118	0	0
Jason Smith	2	1	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Jon Lieber	34	232.1	20	6	3.80	148
Jason Bere	32	188.0	11	11	4.31	175
Kerry Wood	28	174.1	12	6	3.36	217
Kevin Tapani	29	168.1	9	14	4.49	149
Julián Tavárez	34	161.1	10	9	4.52	107
Juan Cruz	8	44.2	3	1	3.22	39
Joe Borowski	1	1.2	0	1	32.40	1

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Carlos Zambrano	6	7.2	1	2	15.26	4

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Tom Gordon	47	1	2	27	3.38	67
Jeff Fassero	82	4	4	12	3.42	79
Kyle Farnsworth	76	4	6	2	2.74	107
Todd Van Poppel	59	4	1	0	2.52	90
Félix Heredia	48	2	2	0	6.17	28
Courtney Duncan	36	3	3	0	5.06	49
David Weathers	28	1	1	0	3.18	20
Manny Aybar	17	2	1	0	6.35	16
Ron Mahay	17	0	0	0	2.61	24
Mike Fyhrie	15	0	2	0	4.20	6
Will Ohman	11	0	1	0	7.71	12
Scott Chiasson	6	1	1	0	2.70	6

Awards and records

• Sammy Sosa became the first player to hit at least 60 home runs in three different seasons.

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Iowa Cubs	Pacific Coast League	Bruce Kimm
AA	West Tenn Diamond Jaxx	Southern League	Dave Bialas
A	Daytona Cubs	Florida State League	Dave Trembley
A	Lansing Lugnuts	Midwest League	Julio Garcia
A-Short Season	Boise Hawks	Northwest League	Steve McFarland
Rookie	AZL Cubs	Arizona League	Carmelo Martínez

References

• 2001 Chicago Cubs season at Baseball Reference