I Am Fine with This

As Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer assemble a 2012 team that looks to be, well, not very good, I find myself in an odd state of mind. Of their six biggest contributors in terms of WAR in 2011, four (Matt Garza, Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Peña, Sean Marshall) are either gone or apparently on their way out, and in no case does it appear that the Cubs have clearly superior short- or long-term replacements. Ramirez was one of three 10 and 5 players on the 2011 team. Only one, Ryan Dempster, is likely to remain in 2012. And I am fine with this. I have been complaining about the Cubs on the internet for nearly two decades. Think back to the early 1990s, when the Cubs sputtered and crashed after a wonderfully surprising 1989 season, hitting rock bottom five years later. In came Andy MacPhail, an honest to goodness baseball guy, we were told, to save the franchise. He told us not to expect a quick turnaround, that he was going to take a “slow, solid and unspectacular” course. With Ed Lynch and...