Today's player: Damon Buford
In December of 1999, the Cubs and Red Sox pulled off a blockbuster trade exchanging Manny Alexander for Damon Buford. The next season, Buford was handed the everyday center field job and did everything he could to show he didn't deserve it. Nonetheless, he played in 150 games and had over 550 plate appearances. He put up a less then stellar .251/.324/.390 line in the leadoff spot for the last place team. However, he did hit 15 homeruns and drove in 48 runs. Buford also stole 4 bases, but was thrown out 6 times.
In 2001, Buford played in 35 games before being released by the team and replaced with Gary Matthews Jr. Buford started off even slower than usual putting up a line of .176/.213/.306. He also was unable to fill the defensive gap between corner outfielders Rondell White and Sammy Sosa. Matthews was a much better defensively as well as offensively, just like most other outfielders in the league.
Buford's stay with the Cubs was short and very unmemorable. However, he did have an everyday job and was pretty below average. So after much deliberation, Damon Buford goes down as a Neifi, a bad player who actually hurt the team the more he played. So here's to Damon Buford, at least Manny Alexander tried steroids to help his team.
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