Anthony Rizzo is here.  Only 172 days ago, no one in Chicago knew his name.  Today, you'd think it he was the next Kerry Wood.  Or Mark Prior.   Or Kevin Orie.  Or Mike Harkey.  Or... you get the point.

This page will be honest and say that we’re really cheering for the kid.  He’s already our favorite player on the team.  If only he can live up to even a small piece of that hope.

With his Cub debut tonight, if you are a Cubs fan and you don't care to watch tonight's game, you really aren't a Cubs fan.  But the reason to watch is not to watch Anthony Rizzo, per se.  It's to watch what Rizzo represents.

Tonight, for the first time in the Theo Esptein Regime, there will be a player on the field that Theo Epstein has hand picked to be here.  Epstein and Hoyer like this kid so much they acquired him three times (ok, Theo twice and Hoyer three times).  Sure, they signed guys like David DeJesus and Ian Stewart, but those guys were not to build around.  Those guys are here because there are 324 games that needed to be played in 2012 and 2013 and someone had to play in them.  None of those guys were brought here to win a World Series.  They are here to be placeholders for the guys that will come here to win a World Series.

Anthony Rizzo is the first of Theo's player to arrive who projects be a starter on a winning team's roster.  He is the first piece in the team Theo is building that just might actually win something for the Cubs.  Rizzo may turn out to be a prime piece of that team.  He may turn out to be less.  But regardless if Rizzo goes on to the Hall of Fame or only ends up being a AAAA player who never pans out, we fans are getting our first real look at where the organization is headed.

The basis for the hope in the new front office was in their ability to identify and develop young talent.  Anthony Rizzo is the first player in a Cub uniform that represents that future.  For as good as Starlin Castro or Jeff Samardzija ever will be, they will never be guys that Epstein and Hoyer selected, groomed, and developed.

While many Cub fans are looking at tonight as THE ARRIVAL of the NEXT SAVIOR, they are missing the point.  The Saviors arrived last fall.  Tonight, we can begin to see for ourselves if Epstein and Hoyer deserve the title.