Here's the story so far...

After years of Andy MacPhail serving as a mediocre steersman, Jim Hendry is elevated to the GMship in 2002.  Since then, he has guided the Cubs to three playoff berths -- the same as the total number of playoff appearances over a previous span of about 18 years -- through making some timely trades and smashing the piggy bank on some over-priced, over-aged free agents.  

In the past three years, Hendry has deeply invested in Alfonso Soriano (to the tune of about 18 million a year), Carlos Zambrano (also to the tune of about 18 million a year), Aramis Ramirez (more than 16 million in 2009), Derrek Lee (13 million in 2009), Ted Lilly (13 million in '09), Kosuke Fukudome (12.5 million in 2009), Ryan Dempster (9 million in 2009, probably 12 million in 2010), and Milton Bradley (8 million in 2009).

Every single one of those guys has spent time injured, or under-performing, or both.  Hendry responsibly dumped the troubled headcase Bradley (for troubled headcase Carlos Silva, who's making even more money), but he's still looking at roughly $100 million dedicated toward 7 players, all but one of whom are over the age of 30, and many of whom we cannot expect to give the team a full season of honest effort.

So finally, after years of harping, the Cubs have given their fans an expensive team, but we never thought it would be done in such a costly manner.  As Rob has said, the 2010 Cubs, as they are assembled, does not look like a championship team.  They do not have money to improve with, they do not have much to trade with, and fans are now left waiting for their expensive veterans to come off the payroll one broke-down body at a time.

Oh, and let's not forget that after years of waiting, the Cubs finally completed their sale to Tom Ricketts a few months back.  Ricketts swept in and essentially promised to change nothing, which is a bit troublesome considering that the Cubs haven't won a championship in 101 years now. 

I for one am not expecting Ricketts to become a Steinbrenner and push forth a $200 million Cubs team -- although it would be kinda cool -- but I was hopeful that he'd make a few sweeping changes.  Such as:

• Fire Jim Hendry.  C'mon, the guy has had 8 years to make the organization effectively better.  How long does he have to do this before we realize he doesn't have the answers?
• Reinvest in the farm system.  Has Ricketts done anything -- or even implied he'd do anything -- to change the same-old same-old?
• Anything.  Has Ricketts done anything at all besides lay out his new Wrigley Field office?  C'mon!

Sure, it's only been two months.  But two months will quickly turn into several which will quickly bleed into years ... I don't think Ricketts can so quickly change everything, but the guy had about ten months to plan his moves out before the sale was completed and you would think he could have done something to convey to us that things will get better.  But, apparently not.

What then, is in store for the Cubs? 

I've been writing for a while now that it is unfair to expect a team -- even the Yankees -- to be playoff bound every single year.  But what should be expected of an organization of Chicago's caliber is that they will always be in position to compete.  They should enter every season with the expectation of a first place finish and a playoff berth -- just like the Red Sox, Yankees, Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants, and Angels do (any year when those teams suck it comes as a surprise).  That's not what's happening, though.

Instead, the Cubs are entering the season knowing full-well that too much money is invested in too few players -- many of whom will not be coming off the books any time soon.  Therefore, they can not be expected to compete.  Therefore, they are letting us down.

Welcome to 2010, same as 2009, same as 1997, same as 1986.