On a night in Chicago when vast majority of the city was watching the Bears easily handle the poor Cowboys on Monday Night Football, the Cubs set off on a mission. For a week the team and its coaches have put out the simple goal: don't loss 100 games. No player wants to be a part of a 100 loss team.
The final series of the season is against the lowly Astros, the worst team in major league baseball. The Astros are expansion team bad.
So the Cubs had a simple task: win against the worst team in the league.
The Cubs fell like a thud; shut-out 3-0 on two hits.
So much for player pride and team focus. For the third time in franchise history, the Cubs have lost 100 games. Even for a team with the personality of the "Lovable Losers," a 100 loss season is a rare feat of bad.
This means that the new Epstein-Hoyer management will be at least 10 percent worse this season than the last season under Jim Hendry. The 2011 team lost 91 games. The 2012 team has lost 9 more games, with two to play. Remember, these executives were brought in with big money contracts to turnaround the franchise. Instead, it has crumbled to rock bottom. If the 2011 season was deemed a failure by ownership, then 2012 has to be also considered a failure.
The words are excuses when they will say that the new front office has "started" to rebuild the organization from the low minors up. The rebuilding does not start today. It started almost a year ago, with only one of Epstein's pick ups (Anthony Rizzo) showing any major league promise.
GM Hoyer says the rebuilding process will be slow. Painfully slow it seems if 100 loss seasons are the new normal.
