Rick Morrissey and Rick Telander were on the sportstalk TV show and basically lamented that the Cubs rebuilding process is nearing a brick wall from their interest. They acknowledge that the Cub front office has a plan. They have heard all about these great prospects. They are aware of the task of rebuilding an entire minor league system. But they have come around to the notion that it is unfair to the fans not to have a competitive team on the field.
It has finally begun to sink into local writers that the Cubs plan is narrow and short sighted. Morrissey finally asked the real question: it is fine to concentrate on rebuilding the minors, but there is no rule against building a major league roster at the same time.
The Cubs have created their own new front office mythology that the Boston guys are working their magic that got the Red Sox two championships. The Red Sox made big trades and signed free agents in order to become a championship team. It was not a fully home grown team.
And the writers now believe that they have heard enough of "hope" and "prospect" and "the plan" to care less. Players are only prospects when they are not on the major league field. And we can only tell if they are any good if and when they reach the major league diamond. Until then, the discussion is irrelevant because fans of the Cubs want to see major league victories, not illusory minor league fantasy stats.
And they also raise the nuclear question. What if four years down the road, the majority of the prospects don't pan out, and the Cubs continue to muddle with 90 loss seasons?
David Kaplan remarked that the front office would be fired. But that does not make up for seven seasons of futility. Telander even made the point that the team does have a covenant with their long time and loyal fans to put a major league product on the field. And the Cubs have not been doing their duty. And that is why many fans are upset with their team.
For whatever reason, whether it is pure stubbornness, stupidity or financial restraints, the front office is not changing the way it is operating the major league team. They continue to tear down the roster by trading away major league talent for minor league prospects. The pantry shelf is now bare; Starlin Castro is now the longest tenured Cub on the roster. And when James Russell and Emilio Bonifacio were traded at the deadline, their teammates seemed happy that they were leaving the team to go to a better club and a chance to win. Some fans react to this in a depressed way, thinking the Cubs have become the Walmart of the Majors - - - a discount store for major league players for other clubs.
Unless catching prospect Victor Caratini turns out to be the next Johnny Bench, the Cubs effectively traded $6.5 million in assets to the Braves for nothing. And that is a bitter pill to swallow.
The team's off off-Broadway production of HOPE is ending. If the writers have come around to find it a joke to continue to promote a dead horse, the general public is not that far behind (or ahead of the curve with the declining attendance numbers).
But the show may turn into a tease soon enough. The current roster is so thin now, there is nothing stopping a promotion of any prospect. In fact, rumor has it that Jorge Soler will be at least a September call up because he would have been through a third of his $30 million/9 year contract. Fans would also like to see Javy Baez in September, but Jed Hoyer continues to knock down his time table (in a small market ritual to keep better prospects from earning service time "too soon" as to accelerate arbitration years).
