Downs was drafted by the Cubs in the third round of the 1997 draft. He was traded to the Minnesota Twins after the 1998 season for pitcher Mike Morgan, then traded back to the Cubs during the 1999 season with B126er Rick Aguilera for Kyle Lohse and Jason Ryan.

Downs made his MLB debut the following season with the Cubs against the pride of Vietnam, Danny Graves, in Cincinnati. Downs actually pitched surprisingly well, giving up three earned runs in 6 1/3 innings, though he did walk six Cincinnati batters and surrender two home runs. Still, he left the game with a 6-3 lead after retiring 19 hitters. It took five Cub relievers (including one Rick Aguilera) to get the last 12 hitters. They gave up five more runs (three earned), surrendered the lead, robbed Downs of a win in his first MLB start, ran over a box of puppies on the way back to the hotel, and franchised a couple of Skyline Chilis.

At the trading deadline of the 2000 season, Downs was sent to the Montreal Expos in exchange for Rondell White, the porcelain version of Andre Dawson. It was during his stint with the Expos that Downs pitched his way onto the T79, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Downs was released by the now-Washington Nationals after a bad 2004 season in which he had a 5.14 ERA and a lofty 1.619 WHIP. He was picked up by the Toronto Blue Jays, where he’s pitched admirably well. In fact, since heading to the American League, Downs is 15-13 with a 3.22 ERA and a 1.273 WHIP. In 2007 and 2008, Downs appeared in 147 games and turned in a 1.96 ERA and 1.181 WHIP.

However, this was all after he earned his way onto the T79. He earned it when he was sucking his way through Montreal. You see, Downs has only faced four Cubs hitters since he got to Toronto, so the majority of the excellent work he did occurred while he was mowing down Cubs in an Expos uniform.

Just in the interest of completion, I’ll give you Downs’ career totals against the Cubs. Downs has punched out six Cubs while walking only one. That strikeout total matches the Cub hit total off Downs, none of which include an extra-base hit. The Cubs’ anemic .182/.206/.182 line against Downs is positively embarrassing. Against the Cubs, Scott Downs is approximately twice as good as Bob Gibson.

You voluntarily watch this team.

Why You Should Hate Him: This choice is so easy, I discussed it with Corey Patterson, and he said, “Oh, yeah. That’s totally obvious.” September 8, 2004. Unless you have wisely drunk away the portion of your brain that remembers the end of the 2004 season, you will remember this game. The Cubs were in a heated NL Wild Card race. The Expos were the Expos. They were in Chicago sending a former Cub to the mound against reliable veteran Greg Maddux. We all remembered this former Cub as terrible. On this night, he was anything but.

Downs pitched a brilliant complete-game shutout. He allowed only five singles and a walk. He struck out four Cubs. He threw only 110 pitches, 74 for strikes (thank you, Dusty Baker). The whole affair was over in two hours and seven minutes. Maddux somehow took a loss, despite giving up only two earned runs in 7 2/3 innings, striking out seven, and walking only one. Errors by Paul Bako and Derrek Lee gave the Expos an additional three runs. Mike Remlinger gave them an insurance run in the eighth. At the end of the day, the Cubs lost 6-0 and found themselves a half game behind the Wild-Card-leading Giants and Astros.

But, no worries! The Cubs rebounded and won the Wild Card (and, eventually, the World Series) thanks to the heroic late-season efforts of LaTroy Hawkins! Right?

Did You Know? Scott Downs is not some crazy Kentucky Jesus freak. It was initially thought that he wrote “JMJ” (Jesus Mary Joseph) with his foot in the mound dirt before each appearance. But, no. He just writes the initials of his son and daughter. LaTroy Hawkins writes a big “FU” in the dirt. What? It’s for “Fordham University.” GO RAMS!