2009 Chicago Cubs season

The 2009 Chicago Cubs season was the 138th season of the Chicago Cubs franchise, the 134th in the National League and the 94th at Wrigley Field. The Cubs, attempting to win the National League Central for the third consecutive season, fell short by finishing in second place with a record of 83–78.

Minor League affiliates

In 2009 The Chicago Cubs had three minor league affiliates. The team's Single-A affiliate is the Peoria Chiefs, located in Peoria. The Chicago Cubs' Double-A affiliate is the Tennessee Smokies based in the Knoxville, Tennessee metropolitan area. Finally the Chicago Cubs Triple-A Affiliate is the Iowa Cubs, located in Iowa. The Iowa Cubs were coached by former Cub and Hall of Fame player Ryne Sandberg in 2009. Sandberg previously coached the Chiefs and Smokies as well.

Regular season

Game log

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Key injuries

The Cubs were plagued by injuries in 2009, and were only able to field their Opening Day starting lineup three times the entire season. Third baseman Aramis Ramírez injured his throwing shoulder in an early May game against the Milwaukee Brewers, sidelining him until early July and forcing journeyman players like Mike Fontenot and Aaron Miles into more prominent roles. Additionally, key players like Derrek Lee, Alfonso Soriano and Geovany Soto nursed minor, nagging injuries.

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		102	331	72	.218	11	47
1B		141	532	163	.306	35	111
2B		135	377	89	.236	9	43
SS		154	602	171	.284	7	54
3B		82	306	97	.317	15	65
LF		117	477	115	.241	20	55
CF		146	499	129	.259	11	54
RF		124	393	101	.257	12	40

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
Koyie Hill	83	253	60	.237	2	24
	105	234	56	.239	10	35
Jake Fox	82	216	56	.259	11	44
Jeff Baker	69	203	62	.305	4	21
	65	186	42	.255	4	22
	74	157	29	.185	0	5
	51	124	30	.242	3	15
	53	123	31	.252	1	12
Sam Fuld	65	97	29	.299	1	2
	14	28	4	.143	0	1
Tyler Colvin	6	17	3	.176	0	2
	20	14	3	.214	0	0
So Taguchi	6	11	3	.273	0	0

Pitching

Starting and other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts; WHIP = Walks+hits per inning pitched

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO	WHIP
	31	200.0	11	9	3.64	172	1.305
	27	177.0	12	9	3.10	151	1.056
	28	169.1	9	7	3.77	152	1.376
Randy Wells	27	165.1	12	10	3.05	104	1.276
Rich Harden	26	141.0	9	9	4.09	171	1.340
	55	85.1	3	7	4.32	68	1.441
Tom Gorzelanny	13	38.1	4	2	5.63	40	1.357
Kevin Hart	8	27.2	3	1	2.60	13	1.482

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts; WHIP = Walks+hits per inning pitched

Player	G	W	L	SV	IP	ERA	SO	WHIP
	72	5	6	23	68.2	4.72	71	1.311
Carlos Mármol	79	2	4	15	74.0	3.41	93	1.459
	55	3	3	1	61.0	2.95	47	1.049
	70	4	4	1	72.1	4.11	65	1.410
John Grabow	30	0	0	0	25.0	3.24	16	1.240
	19	0	2	0	11.0	7.36	9	2.091
	20	3	1	0	27.2	6.36	23	1.807
	20	1	3	0	34.2	7.20	21	1.760
José Ascanio	14	0	1	0	15.1	3.52	18	1.761
Esmailin Caridad	14	1	0	0	19.1	1.40	17	0.931
Jeff Stevens	11	1	0	0	12.2	7.11	9	1.737
Justin Berg	11	0	0	0	12.0	0.75	7	0.917
Luis Vizcaíno	4	0	0	0	3.2	0.00	3	0.545
	3	0	0	0	1.2	5.40	2	1.800
Mitch Atkins	2	0	0	0	2.0	0.00	0	0.500
	2	0	0	0	0.1	135.00	0	15.000

Sale of the franchise

After many years of speculation that the Chicago Tribune wanted to sell the Chicago Cubs organization, they finally inked a deal on January 22, 2009 with the Ricketts family for a total of $900 million. The sale included the Cubs, Wrigley Field, and the Tribune's 25% stake in the Comcast Sports Network Chicago, a regional TV channel.

Media

Radio: Chicago Cubs Radio Network

The Chicago Cubs radio broadcasting team was anchored by veteran announcers Pat Hughes and Ron Santo making it the duo's 15th year together. Hughes provided the play by play while Santo served as the color commentator.

TV: Comcast SportsNet Chicago, WGN-TV, WGN America, WCIU-TV

The Chicago Cubs 2009 television broadcasting team was anchored by Len Kasper and Bob Brenly. Games could be seen on multiple channels including: WGN-TV, Comcast SportsNet Chicago, WGN America, and WCIU-TV.