[TOMT] [Cartoon/anime][late 90s/early 00s][USA]

This show was on when I was a kid in the USA, and it felt like a Pokémon ripoff. The premise as I remember it was a team of people who would go into the past looking for some kind of cute monster with a power that was helping a historical figure be good at what they were supposed to do in life (ie. a monster that helps da Vinci be an artist or babe Ruth be good at baseball). On the other side there was a team of bad guys trying to turn the cute monster into an evil powerful creature. The good guys would end up collecting the monsters and use them in later episodes. I have been searching for the title of this cartoon for days. Someone please help me!