No one said they were, genius That's pretty much the running ideas that the Cubs can pull off if they can't sign Dunn. If they can't afford Dunn then it's tremendously unlikely they'll be able to afford either Fielder or Gonzalez next year given the demand that they'll command. If they sign someone like Pena I'll bet it's a multi-year deal since they'll be able to get him cheap. We all know it's not that they "can't" afford Dunn, they're choosing not to. Consider that Ricketts is probably as baseball-dumb as the average fan, he probably thinks this team can't possibly compete next year, so he won't spend money this year. So why would they be any closer to competing the year after that? I just think what relatively little money there is right now is tied up in priorities elsewhere. I don't know what drives the average sports moron, maybe something stupid will give Ricketts a twinkle in his eye this year and make him think we're close to competing in 2012