If The Cubs Want To Keep Operating Like Losers, That's Fine By Me
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I'll nip this in the bud now: I know the White Sox are irrelevant, that we fans have a (sizeable) Napoleon Complex about the Cubs, and that most Cubs fans typically don't think, let alone care one iota, about the White Sox.
And spare me your, "just enjoy Chicago being in the playoffs man" bullshit, because that does not fly with me at ALL. Sports is 1/2 loving your team, 1/2 hating other teams.
I don't make the rules, but I will absolutely enforce them. Fuck the Cubs.
On that note, onto this week's Stretch episode. Big Cat and I got into a debate. It's weird because I'm almost the one defending the Cubs here? Kinda? Here it is:
Big Cat says last offseason wasn't quite the time to push their chips to the middle. I completely disagreed, and I disagreed because they're the CHICAGO CUBS.
There's the cliche quote from Moneyball where Brad Pitt says, "there's the rich teams, there's the poor teams, there's 20 miles of shit, and then there's us".
Make no mistake about it, the Cubs are one of the "rich" teams. Just use your eyeballs and look at what the Ricketts have built in Wrigleyville over the last 15ish years. It's a baseball Mecca that PRINTS money.
But but but but.... Tom Ricketts says they only "break even" on baseball ops:
"Obviously, the Dodgers have a lot more resources, naturally, from smart business moves they made years ago. I don’t begrudge them any of that. Some teams just have outside resources that are funding their player moves and acquisitions, and that’s really hard to compete with. I understand when fans say, ‘How come you don’t spend like that?’"
"Because they think somehow we have all these dollars that the Dodgers have or the Mets have or the Yankees have and we just keep it. Which isn't true at all. What happens is we just try to break even every year, and that's about it."
Cry me a motherfucking RIVER about breaking even. You literally PRINT money with your Cubs venture, you liar.
So that's why I don't understand how it wasn't time this PAST offseason, especially once they traded for Tucker, to shove their chips to the middle? They traded Bryant, Baez, Rizzo and others after the 2020 season. That was FIVE seasons ago now. FIVE.
If you are the Chicago Cubs, with the complete and total abundance of resources, that, to me, is completely inexcusable. There shouldn't be rebuilds with them, there should be reloads year in and year out. There's no excuse, especially not money, which is what the Ricketts family used as their excuse for not putting the best product possible on the field this year.
SOURCE: people in the Cubs org told me TO MY FACE they didn't get the go ahead to pursue specific players because they were outside some arbitrary budget ownership set.
That's disgusting to me as a baseball fan. The Cubs, like I've said 1000x, should operate like the Midwest Dodgers. Them "breaking even" on baseball ops is bad for baseball, it's bad for Chicago, and it enables fuckos like Jerry Reinsdorf to cry even MORE poor.
Ricketts and Jerry, btw, are a lot closer in ownership style than Chicagoans want to admit.
That's not something any Cubs fan wants to hear.
As someone who fucking loves baseball, and as mad at the MLB product as I am, I don't think Cubs fans should ever stop calling out ownership on their lack of a win or die trying mentality. Demand excellence from them. DEMAND it. The Cubs should end up 9 offseasons out of 10 by saying, "we have a roster that can comfortably compete with the Dodgers in a 7 game series".
They don't though. They just want to get to the playoffs and see what happens:
"The way you're going to win the World Series is to make the playoffs as often as possible,” Ricketts said. "If you keep making it to the playoffs, you've got a shot. Our goal is to be consistent and always have a team that we think can win our division … absolutely, we've got to get back to being a team that competes for titles. That's everything."
Now that's not an incorrect statement at face value. Keep shooting and eventually you'll score, right? In theory, sure. But the Cubs haven't gone to the playoffs a whole lot over the last 5 years, so his quote is bullshit anyways. Take away the Mickey Mouse playoffs in 2020 and the last year prior to this one was 2018.
On the flip side, the Brewers spent the last 8 seasons going to the playoffs 7 times. Ya know, the same Brewers org with a FRACTION of the resources the Cubs have.
Make it make sense!
But WSD, the Brewers built from the ground up! That's the difference you dumb idiot!!!"
Ummm…there's NOTHING stopping the Cubs from building a Brewers-type farm structure AND spending at a Mets/Dodgers/Yankees level. Nothing at all. Aside from the Ricketts and their investors making sure they get their nut.
What the Ricketts are actually selling, and what too many Cubs fans are buying, is this, IMO:
"we have maxed out our budget, won't go into the lux tax YoY and will let flyover, little brother cities like Milwaukee dominate us top to bottom while selling way-too-long rebuilds. Come get drunk and spend $500+ in our stadium as much as possible to watch us break even on the balance sheet"
Look no further than this chart:
If you can make an argument the Cubs are selling something different, I'd welcome the debate.
It grosses me out when owners don't care about winning first and foremost, and it bothers me even more when fans enable that type of behavior by saying, "this was the year before the year".
No dude. Every year should be "the year" for the Cubs. Stop saying otherwise.
The Cubs should stop acting like losers. Full stop.
Or ya know what? They can keep kicking the can down the road, selling the almighty "rebuild" and I'll keep laughing at them when they lose in early October or before it. Soon enough they'll be selling PCA to provide their fans with yet another rebuild to latch onto.