Elwood

Haha, what is this from?

http://www.josephbwalker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/candynecklace.jpg

Effin' A.

Wait...It's pronounced Al-contra?

Jackson's deliberate slow pace is tough to watch.

Hit him again.

I'm really digging the new unis.

Fractured right femur. It's very concerning that the bone could break so easily.

82 Starters perform better than expected, and the bullpen proves to be a strength. The anemic offense results in a lot of close losses.

Valbuena batflip on a walk.

I have no idea what to expect from Lake this season.

Clenched.

Kaplan asks those outside Chicago to assess the Cubs' situation. http://www.csnchicago.com/kapman/kaplan-cubs-future-looks-very-bright

Hawk and Stone are tough to listen to. It really makes me appreciate Len and JD.

Chapman posted this pic to Instagram.

Just a reminder. http://m.mlb.com/video/v31593231/chccol-baezs-solo-homer-trims-the-deficit-to-two/?query=baez http://m.mlb.com/video/v31580411/chctex-olt-hammers-tworun-homer-to-rightcenter/?query=olt http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/26271672/v31404685/chclaa-bryant-goes-deep-in-the-seventh-for-two-runs/?query=kris%2Bbryant

Samardzija is killing it. Seven K's through 4 IP.

If it takes 5 years of consistently losing in order to get to a point where you can consistently win, then you aren't consistently winning. http://i.imgur.com/J7BMq.gif

But he went out of his way in his prepared speech to talk about dual fronts and that every season is sacred and that major league seasons can't be taken lightly. Why even broach that at all if this is how he intended to attack this at the time? Warm and fuzzy feelings? Bedtime stories? I don't know.

Well said.

"I didn't use the word 'rebuilding' and I wouldn't. That's a buzzword in baseball that leads people down the wrong path." - Theo Epstein, Oct. 25, 2011 And you believed this? Why shouldn't he have? Along with the dual fronts talk? Is there some reason we shouldn't, at the time Theo was hired, have expected a major market team with one of the highest payrolls in the game to at least attempt to field a decent major league team at the same time as they overhauled the minors? I'm a huge fan of Theo and love our prospects but this extremist "this is the only and right way to build a winner" [expletive] needs to stop. This is happening because the team's financial situation is far worse than any of us imagined (and, to a much lesser extent, the new CBA). Because he obviously wasn't going to say "The fans should probably just checkout for the next couple of years because it's going to be a rough ride." I'm not saying it's the only way, but it's the path that was chosen and it's looking very promising. If they're not consistently making the playoffs beginning in the next two to three seasons, then I'll be upset.

"I didn't use the word 'rebuilding' and I wouldn't. That's a buzzword in baseball that leads people down the wrong path." - Theo Epstein, Oct. 25, 2011 And you believed this?

It is intellectually dishonest to talk about a collective doom boner on here. I would argue it is aggressively ignorant to talk about it actually. This isn't a group of fans following a good team and unable to enjoy it. This isn't a good team just going through a brief period of struggles. There isn't an unjustified level of fear about the team doing poorly despite evidence pointing toward success. This is a [expletive] awful baseball team that has been awful for several years and an ownership/management group that has done nothing to make it better. This isn't a farm system competition. This isn't a league that hands out trophies based on rankings of prospects. The only thing that matters is wins and losses by the major league team and this major league team loses far too often to pretend these are good times. Only a truly idiotic person would accuse a Cubs fan of being unfairly critical of what the organization has done. Once it became apparent that the club was tackling a full rebuild, wins and losses became the things that mattered least to me. Why would I give a flying [expletive] about the difference between finishing third in the division or fifth? One would have to be "aggressively ignorant" to live and die with every game during a rebuild. Instead, I root for the process, and there's a lot to be happy about.

The collective doom boner around here just gets the better of me at times. When Theo came on in 2011, the general consensus seemed to point to 2015 as the first year of competitiveness. To my eye, that timeline is still looking very likely. The club is only two seasons into a rebuild. If a quick turnaround was expected, then I would argue that your expectations were a pipedream. The farm system includes several of the most exciting prospects in the game. The front office is bigger and more analytical than ever before. The Wrigley renovations are going to happen eventually. A new TV deal is just around the corner. It's an exciting time to be a Cubs fan.

Sounds like it was just some sneaky accounting to me.