The difference between Cubs and Dodgers is laid bare in this tell-all quote

Everybody loves to hate the Los Angeles Dodgers. The reigning World Series champs have cornered the Japanese market, boast the highest payroll in the game - not to mention the best player in Shohei Ohtani - and are coming off an offseason where they seemed to come away with every single player they had interest in.

Chicago Cubs fans, in particular, have dubbed the Dodgers baseball's next 'Evil Empire' - the moniker once reserved for the New York Yankees under George Steinbrenner. But instead of just mindlessly going with the flow and hating on the Dodgers simply for the sake of hating on them, I have to say: I'd do anything for the Cubs to be run like that.

It's not just that Los Angeles carries a top-tier payroll every year. It's an organization that does everything the right way. Player drafting and development, scouting, in-game decision-making, led by Dave Roberts, and a business operations model that is the toast of the league.

Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman summed up the biggest difference between his club and what we've grown accustomed to with Tom Ricketts and Jed Hoyer in a perfect quote featured in The Athletic this weekend that has been making the rounds on social media.

“That’s the pressure we feel,” Friedman said of a passionate Dodgers fanbase. “We feel it from our fans, to be as good as we can be, and to try to reciprocate what they give us. And that’s where that pressure comes. And we’re a really healthy business doing really well, so we pour it back into the team.”

Guess who else is a really healthy business doing really well? Ricketts' Chicago Cubs. The difference here, though, is only a fraction of what could be spent on the roster is re-invested into baseball operations, despite Chicago being one of the most valuable franchises in all of sports and Ricketts continuing to expand his money-making ventures throughout Wrigleyville.

Imagine having an ownership group and front office aligned in rewarding fans' support and faith on a yearly basis. One that, coming off a World Series championship, continues to build its roster and set it up for what could be a dynastic run over the next decade. After the Cubs won it all in 2016, there was commitment from ownership for a couple of years, but since the end of 2019, it's been a very different story.

The Cubs fans who love putting the Dodgers in their crosshairs, especially after watching Ohtani and Roki Sasaki go to Southern California in back-to-back offseasons, are jealous - and bitter. I'm not saying those feelings are misguided, because they're not. But they're rooted more in long-simmering frustrations with Ricketts and his cost-conscious approach at the reins of a major market franchise than anything the Dodgers themselves are doing.

LA is playing the same game by the same rules - they're just doing it in a smarter, more efficient way - and their fanbase is reaping the rewards. Meanwhile, Ricketts continues to look for ways to 'break even' and cries poor in new, more imaginative ways with each passing year, and it's not gone unnoticed.