Los Angeles, California. For the Cubs this year is, by definition, a rebuild. Over the past few seasons they have let players, that were the core members of their last championship team, leave via free agency or traded or released them. All that remain from that 2016 World Series is Willson Contreras, from Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, Kyle Hendricks and Jason Heyward.
The Dodgers also rebuild, though they go about it differently. They are in a constant rebuild as they scout, sign and develop players. Bringing them along and giving them every opportunity to succeed in this business. The Dodgers will make trades and lose players to free agency as well as sign free agents but their rebuild has never been a sell-off where their fans will have to endure losing seasons year after year until they get it right in that rebuild.
The Dodgers play in a big city where they share fans with another major league team and are a wealthy organization with a net worth of 4.08 billion. So yes, they do have an advantage over teams that do not draw 4 million every year. But the Cubs play in a big city with another major league club they have to share fans money with and are worth $3.8 billion. Putting them at number 4 in team wealth.
To me it comes down to whether you want to win every year and put a good product on the field or do you just want to make money. Organizations can do both. The Yankees are worth $6 billion and the Cardinals are at about $2.5 billion. Neither of these teams have ever had fire sales that resulted in multiple seasons of losing.
There are a number of organizations in this business like the Cubs who do this and have no problem charging their loyal fans high prices to watch an inferior product. Heck, it cost a lot just to get to the game and park. I say to the owners and management, figure it out.
They almost won tonight. They almost beat the first place Dodgers. They almost beat a very good pitcher in Tyler Anderson who remains 9-1. They are now 34-50 at the halfway point of this season. Tonight we saw an inning ending routine fly ball dropped that allowed the Dodgers to score their first run in the 6th inning of a 3-1 game. It made Cubs manager David Ross replace Keegan Thompson who was pitching a 1 hit shutout with 1 walk and 8 strikeouts. A waisted effort. This Dodger team is so powerful that if you make a mistake they will make you pay. The Cubs lost again. This time in extra innings after the Dodgers tied it in the ninth and won it in the tenth 4-3.
As far as rebuilds go, they can just tell their fans, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
