Why You Can't Compare Today's Cubs to the Cubs of 2009.

The exact date would be the Cubs of October 26, 2009 and before. October 27, 2009 is when the Ricketts family took over the Cubs. At that point it had only been 101 years since the Cubs last won a World Series. After this season, barring divine intervention (not the Slayer album), it's going to be 106 years. Fear not though Cubs fans, at very least, we can say that Ricketts (I'll just refer to Tom from here on out, since he's the figurehead) isn't doing things the way the Tribune did, and that's a very good thing.

Ricketts is someone who has been beaten relentlessly in the media over the last year or so. The rebuild that the Cubs are going through has really tested the patience of the fans, and unfortunately many of the fans don't have the mental toughness to go through with a rebuild. However, Ricketts has not wavered and has, along with the rest of the front office, stuck with the plan. However, despite this never happening before in the history of the team, people still seem to pull the old "It's still the Cubs" line. Well, it's not.

Baseball America's Top 100 Prospects

Baseball America just released their list of the top 100 prospects in all of baseball. Chicago was, to say the least, well represented on this list. For most lists I really wouldn't bother, but Baseball America is one of the bigger places to go for anything baseball, and their team usually does a very good job in ranking prospects. Therefore I will go over each of the Chicago players or future players and my thoughts on their inclusion among other things. The full article from Baseball America can be found by clicking here.

Spring Training Is Here And Optimism Is All Around

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Neither the Cubs or White Sox are mathematically eliminated, and for once the sports media is actually mostly positive, of course not totally positive, but mostly positive. Right now what we're hearing are arguments as to why we shouldn't totally count either team out yet. While it's tough to really make a case for either team doing anything spectacular this year, at the same time there are reasons, at this point, to believe that each team might actually be worth watching this season, and yes, even despite their poor record last year and marginal, at best, improvement on the big league squad, that includes the Cubs. Also yes, even though they have Hawk Harrelson calling games, that includes the White Sox.

Why I Love the Noah Fine

So Joakim Noah had a meltdown last night in Sacramento after being ejected from the game between the Bulls and Kings. After the second technical foul was called Noah looked at each of the referees, pointed at them and dropped the f bomb on each of them. Clearly this was an overreaction on Noah's part, but at the same time it works right into the emotion that Noah plays with each and every night. Still, it was something that Noah should not have done. I knew he would be penalized for it. I was thinking anywhere from a $25,000 to $50,000 fine for it. Some people were even talking a suspension for him because of it. However, the great Adam Silver, the new commissioner of the NBA made a great move in fining him $15,000 for it. Now I'll explain why this was the perfect punishment for Noah.