4 random Chicago Cubs players who had insane, unsustainable hot streaks

Chicago Cubs: Bryan LaHair’s efforts earned him a nod in the 2012 All-Star Game

A 39th-round pick of the Seattle Mariners in 2002, Bryan LaHair spent most of his time in the Minors before coming to the Cubs organization in January 2010. From the time he was drafted through 2011 he had just 65 career MLB games under his belt, 45 with the Mariners in 2008 and 20 with the Cubs at the end of 2011.

At age 29 he would be playing regularly the first few months of the 2012 season as Anthony Rizzo opened the year in the Minors. He played both first base and outfield. LaHair went on a tear in his first 25 games, slashing .390/.487/.779 with a 1.257 OPS, seven home runs, nine doubles, 14 walks, .548 BABIP and 16 RBI. He recorded at least one hit in all but five of those first 25 games.

LaHair ended up going to the 2012 MLB All-Star Game and finished the year with a respectable .259/.334/.450 slash and 16 home runs, but it is fair to say the league adjusted. After those 25 games, he slashed .221/.288/.354 with a .642 OPS, nine home runs, 95 strikeouts, 25 walks, 24 RBI in the remaining 105 games he participated in that season.

Most of his damage was done the first five weeks of the season, though nine home runs and eight doubles showed he still had some pop from time to time. Once Rizzo came into the picture, and LaHair’s dismal performance against lefties (.063/.167/.125), his starting nods were reduced. He did record a walk-off single in the season finale for what would be his final MLB hit.

LaHair wound up playing oversees after 2012 before returning to the states, spending time with the Indians and Red Sox organizations but never getting back up to the Bigs again. After playing in the Atlantic League for a bit, he retired. His most recent gig in baseball included being the Billings Mustangs manager.

Chicago Cubs: Jake Fox surprised many filling in the injury holes on the roster

The quest to avenge the 97-win 2008 Cubs’ loss in the NLDS in 2009 took a big hit when Aramis Ramirez dislocated his left shoulder in early May in Milwaukee. Jake Fox came up a few weeks later and play third, as well as left field and even a few stints at catcher.

Fox was a third-round pick out of U of M in 2003 and going into 2009 had just seven career MLB games under his belt. He was tearing it up in Iowa that season, slashing .409/.495/.841 with 17 home runs in just 45 games before getting the call. His production for the Iowa Cubs had translated over to the Majors for a solid stretch.

In his first 61 games as a Cub in 2009 he slahsed .300/.348/.556 with 10 home runs, .904 OPS, 11 doubles and 39 RBI. This was from the end of May through late August. Over that stretch, he was pretty consistent which helped keep his slash looking good. He also produced a handful of timely home runs.

After hitting a grand slam and driving in five runs on August 29, the cool-off began. In his final 21 games, he slashed just .143/.200/.214 with one home run and .414 OPS. By that point the Cardinals had taken control of the NL Central and the Cubs wound up missing the playoffs for the first time since 2006, though they did finish the year with a winning record.

Fox was later traded to the Oakland Athletics, along with Aaron Miles for some minor leaguers and pitcher Jeff Gray. In terms of MLB stints he played 77 games in 2010 with the A’s and Orioles and another 27 games with Baltimore in 2011. While never playing in the majors again he spent time with the Pirates, Phillies, Diamondbacks and Blue Jays organizations from 2012 through 2017.

Today he owns a baseball apparel business called The Fox Code.

Chicago Cubs: Quietly a fun player to watching during the early rebuild era.

If you do not remember much at all what happened in the second half of 2013…I cannot blame you. En route to another losing season in year two of the Theo Epstein rebuild, 2013 was arguably the most forgettable season of that era. Even though they did not quite lose 100 games as they did in 2012, most of the team’s production came from random utility veteran players. One of those guys was Donnie Murphy.

Murphy was a fifth-round pick of the Kansas City Royals in 2002 and made his MLB debut in 2004. He was never a regular starter and only averaged 30-50 games a year. He had several MLB stints with the A’s and Marlins and was with the Brewers organization before coming to the Cubs in April 2013.

Coming up to the Majors on August 4, his first 15 games went remarkably well. In those games, he slashed .340/.397/.811 with a 1.208 OPS, seven home runs, four doubles and 13 RBI. He had two multi-homer games and was dubbed “Donnie Baseball” by TV color analyst Jim Deshaies. Those seven home runs already had established his career-high with another month and a half left to go in the season. The remaining 31 games he played in he slashed .208/.276/.375 with four home runs and a .651 OPS.  He still hit a few longballs, but fell fairly hard after the great start.

Murphy was claimed off waivers by the Texas Rangers in 2014 and played his final 45 games there. He spent some time in the Braves, Brewers and Reds organizations the next two years. He had spent time as a coach in the Blue Jays organization after retiring from playing.

Chicago Cubs: Emilio Bonifacio’s hot start led to a key trade down the road

Emilio Bonifacio is not quite as “random” as some of the others on this list. He actually had built himself a resume and reputation in the majors before signing with the Cubs for the 2014 MLB season. He had 612 career MLB games under his belt when he came to the Cubs and was a career .262/.322/.340 hitter with the Diamondbacks, Nationals, Marlins, Blue Jays and Royals.

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2014 ended up being the final rebuild season before the Cubs entered contention in 2015. They had brought in Bonifacio as a veteran utility man to help stabilize some positions and hopefully provide trade value later in the season. He came storming out of the gate that year and put up some great numbers.

In his first seven games he collected 17 hits in 33 at-bats with an overall .556 OBP. Nine of those hits came in his first 12 at-bats, that set a new MLB record in hits in the first two games. On May 2, he was hitting .343/.389/.410 with 36 hits in 25 games. From May 3 through his final game as a Cub on July 29, he hit .240/.274/.351, but his overall numbers were still at least decent. He and reliever James Russell were shipped off to the Braves for Victor Caratini.

Bonifacio continued to bounce around between organizations, including a minor league deal in 2015 back with the Cubs (he did not play on the MLB roster that year), a sint with the White Sox, back with Atlanta, Diamondbacks organization, Brewers organization, Rays organization and the Nationals last year where he played in three games.

There are probably a number of other random players that had really brief stints of greatness. It happens in baseball quite often, these are just some recent ones. Hopefully Patrick Wisdom can keep his ways up as long as possible.