There is so much stupid in this column it kind of hurts my head but the bit about luck might be the only thing he gets right in the whole piece, and Theo said it himself. Where he's wrong in that is that he neglects to understand that luck rarely happens without putting in work. So what is luck? I'd define it as solid planning and hard work and the ability and good fortune to get the wind at your back more often than not. I mean we're not talking about blind luck here, we're talking about things clicking in a fortuitous order. If it wasn't for the analytics and the scouting and the recognition of opportunities when they knock at your door where would this team be? How many columnists in this town cried foul when the Cubs pursued Joe Maddon when Rick Renteria had been told he would return for 2015? So was it luck that they got Maddon or shrewd business and the realization that you don't pass up opportunity. Definitely a little of both but, as I said, I'd give him the luck part of this column if the rest wasn't so absurd.
The most egregious part of this piece is the regurgitation of the old trope about how they could have competed every year by spending the Ricketts' money. When Theo took over the club was saddled with bad contracts, poor MLB talent (for the most part), the 28th to 30th ranked farm system depending who you listened to and some financial restraints from the purchase of the team. Could you have built a team that could hover around .500 most years and wait for opportunities? Yeah sure but that sucks. That's mediocrity and who wants that? I understand teams do it out of necessity which is usually financial, and I understand they sometimes succeed, but that's terribly inefficient and isn't how the most successful teams operate. The playoffs are essentially random. You can tweak your team at the deadline looking at likely opponents, you can prepare for contingencies, but you can't build a World Series team like you can build a NBA champion for example. If you have five bites at the apple you're much more likely to win one than if you have just one shot every several year, if that. In the age of $34 million pitchers and $25 million plus position players it's pretty tough to get those shots without some excellent home grown talent. This nonsense railing at tanking gets on my nerves. I would much rather a team rebuild than be mediocre. How exciting are the Cubs and Astros right now? How exciting are the Braves going to be in a couple of years? The Brewers look to be on the right track and the Reds could be too. I hate watching mediocre baseball. So go ahead and field a team that makes sense with your goals. If spending money has more of an impact in two years than in the now than do that. Sorry, that nonsense fires me up.
Lastly there was this silliness:
That's a nice goal, but the Cubs aren't just any franchise. They haven't won a World Series since 1908 or even played in one since 1945.
This is so stupid I was literally speechless when I read it. This idea of a desperation to win a World Series is what has gotten so many Cubs teams in trouble in the past. Dallas Green's plans weren't that different than Theo's and he wasn't given the chance to finish instead given a "win now" directive which eventually chased him out of town. Jim Hendry signed the likes of Milton Bradley to fill a hole rather than waiting for the right guy to come along, maybe even one season later. The fact is, and let's keep Theo out of this for a second, if you looked at that Cubs organization in October 2011 and thought that anything less than a complete rebuild was in order than you weren't paying attention. It's pretty much business 101, no organization succeeds without a solid foundation and the Cubs were built on quicksand. Also the cream of their division was operating under a sustainable model and if they wanted to compete with them they had to emulate them in some fashion. Throwing money at the 2012 Cubs wasn't going to bring them a World Series in 2012, 2013 or even in the foreseeable future. Theo and company don't walk on water and they do make mistakes but the basic plan wasn't one of them. Scout well, draft well, develop well and hire well. Pretty basic and I would have been pissed at anything less.
