Down Year Does Not Change Cubs Philosophy

One of the popular themes among Cubs fans during this disappointing year has been the fans pleading for the Chicago Cubs to go young and enter the developmental stage as a team. Under the Jim Hendry regime, the Chicago Cubs never entered “rebuild” stage despite poor seasons before. Which is why the Chicago Cubs probably will not enter a rebuilding phase, and continue to make additions to try to contend in 2011.

The biggest reason the Chicago Cubs are probably not going to enter a period of which is focused around developing young players is because they are big market team, and can’t really afford to enter the season with a yound and inexperienced team. The biggest way the Chicago Cubs to make revenue is by continuing to sell out home games at Wrigley Field. If the Chicago Cubs put a “developing” team on the field, then I can assure that the ticket sales will decrease because of it. Fans are going to want see that big power hitter in the middle of the Cubs lineup, which is another reason why Adam Dunn might be a priority for the Chicago Cubs.

I am all for the Chicago Cubs spending money, but not by how they have been doing it over the past few seasons. General Manager Jim Hendry willingly handed out bad contracts to the talents of Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, Kosuke Fukudome, Milton Bradley, and Aramis Ramirez. Those bad contracts has handcuffed what the Cubs could do in previous off-seasons and at the July trading deadline.

For the Chicago Cubs to continue to spend money, they are going to have to do it wisely. The two biggest examples of this success are the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Over the past two seasons the Yankees have shelled out money to player such as Mark Texiera, CC Sabathia, and A.J. Burnett and all three of them have proved to be wise investments for the Yankees who are coming off of a World Series victory and looking for second consecutive title. Recently the Red Sox made a smart investment in John Lackey, and he has only added to the list of successful investments made by Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein.

So for the Chicago Cubs to continue going about business with their spend, spend, spend philosophy they are going to have to smart spending that money wisely.