Closing Time

While the Chicago Cubs under Andy MacPhail may be a complete failure on the field, no one can say that they aren't well run from a profitability standpoint. And, they are also very, very lucky.

With the Chicago White Sox about to wrap up their defense of their World Series title with a 3rd place effort, the real winner in this is clearly the Cubs. The Sox needed to win again this year. Badly. They needed to win not just because they had a veteran team with a short window to win, but they needed to take market share from the Cubs.

Kenny Williams told us this last spring.

Well, with the Cubs stinking and having fan apathy start to become an issue, all the White Sox needed was a post-season appearence to really crack the stranglehold the Cubs have on this city.

Had that happened, it might have been a plus for the Cubs. Competition and declining market share have a way of prompting change.

Unfortunately, the White Sox not only failed to close out Detroit and Minnesota, but likely the Cubs, too.

Oh, and a note to Barry Rozner. Do you really think the extra starts the White Sox starters made kept them out of the playoffs this year? The White Sox starters pitched a whopping three extra games last fall. In the offseason they added a new starter and had a ready backup in Brandon McCarthy.

They played poorly. It (note for Brian: "It" being the extra starts the pitchers made in 2005) had nothing to do with 2006.