Best Seasons at the Four Corners

As mentioned before, the Cubs look strong at first and third these days, as Lee and Ramirez are amongst the best all time Cubs at their positions (based on OPS+). With the addition of Fukudome, the Cubs have a chance of having one of the best four-corners offenses in their history.

Soriano, Fukudome, Ramirez and Lee all project to OPS over 860 (based on my average of six projection systems). Last year, Murton's 790 calculated to a 100 OPS+. Using the Cubs' 2007 OPS+, I estimated 2008 OPS+ for the big four. I also looked back via Baseball Reference's Play Index and found a few seasons where all four Cubs corner-men (a) qualified for the batting title and (b) had an OPS+ of 100 or better.

	lf		rf		3b		1b
1879	Abner Dalrymple	114	Orator Shaffer	112	Ned Williamson	151	Cap Anson	135
1880	Abner Dalrymple	159	King Kelly	134	Ned Williamson	102	Cap Anson	157
1881	Abner Dalrymple	133	King Kelly	139	Ned Williamson	100	Cap Anson	191
1906	Jimmy Sheckard	114	Frank Schulte	119	Harry Steinfeldt	151	Frank Chance	158
1907	Jimmy Sheckard	113	Frank Schulte	121	Harry Steinfeldt	101	Frank Chance	131
1909	Jimmy Sheckard	109	Frank Schulte	100	Harry Steinfeldt	105	Frank Chance	110
1912	Jimmy Sheckard	102	Frank Schulte	105	Heinie Zimmerman	169	Vic Saier	107
1937	Augie Galan	100	Frank Demaree	130	Stan Hack	105	Ripper Collins	103
1945	Peanuts Lowrey	106	Bill Nicholson	106	Stan Hack	132	Phil Cavarretta	166
1988	Rafael Palmeiro	121	Andre Dawson	137	Vance Law	117	Mark Grace	119
2004	Moises Alou	131	Sammy Sosa	113	Aramis Ramirez	138	Derrek Lee	117
2008	Alfonso Soriano	112	Kosuke Fukudome	109	Aramis Ramirez	122	Derrek Lee	126

Hey now, Vance Law.

Could be great offense this year.