Next year

If you're a Cubs fan, you're used to 'Wait 'til next year.' It's a way of life.

But this year, next year came a lot sooner than we expected. It's really pretty discouraging.

Dusty's a good manager; a smart manager. He's been a successful manager. But one wonders if Dusty's the right man to manage that team. He has speed but seems to have no clue how to manage it. He has only sporadic power, but seems to want to rely on it. And he seems to want to burn out pitchers' arms at an alarming pace. That is not a good menu for success.

Don't know if anyone could do better than Dusty, but could anyone do worse than 26-40?

Time to run up the white flag (since the W flag's gone into retirement) and start rebuilding a little earlier this year.

Perhaps start at the top? (It'd save on your toothpick budget.)

And so it goes.