A wise man once said to me, “I bet you could fill up your entire list with just third basemen.” Or something like that. I think I was drunk when I read it. But he had a point. There have been some not good players over at the hot corner since Ron Santo left, and Luis Salazar is one of them.

Salazar sprints like Rudy as he is summoned off the field.

Salazar charges toward his destiny. His destiny is to suck.

In late 1989, the Cubs acquired Salazar to replace the eighty third basemen they already had on the roster who also all sucked. Salazar actually performed well and helped spark the Cubs as they went on to win the NL East. Sounds like Gary Gaetti, doesn’t it? Now, imagine that Gaetti kept coming back. Because that’s what Salazar did the next year. And the year after that. And the year after that. And he got worse, and worse, and worse.

By the end, Salazar had to be replaced with Steve Buechele. If you’re ever replaced with Steve Buechele at anything you are currently doing, you know it’s time to retire, and that’s what Salazar did.

Low Point: Pay attention. He was replaced by Steve Buechele. Other than that, let’s look toward the end of Salazar’s career. September 26, 1992. The Cubs are mired in a five-game losing streak, they’re 17 games back, and they’re disinterestedly playing out the stretch. Salazar was even less interested than that. While the Cubs collect only 4 hits and get shut out by the Expos, Salazar goes 0-4 with 3 strikeouts and commits a throwing error in the field which leads to a gift Expo run.  Cubs lose 12-0.

Did You Know? Salazar is currently the hitting coach for the Jacksonville Suns, a AA Dodgers team. He taught them everything he knows, and then he took 364 days off.