On Friday, I texted my brother that Major League Baseball should consider contraction. I wrote up a blog post about how the Cubs should trade virtually everyone on the roster for Joe Kelly. I started thinking about what it would feel like to go full rebuild this summer, and I found myself buying it.
That’s gone again now.
Yesterday didn’t change my mind, fun as it was. Tonight was when I realized what was going to happen. When a team wins a World Series with a young core and keeps that core around deeper into their right-side-of-the-aging-curve years, you’re never going to stop thinking they’re going to figure it out, so any sign of life they show will make you think they’re back. I fully believed when Javy Báez reached base in the first that the Cubs were going to win that game. I knew, intellectually, that it was improbable, but I bought it, the same way I know right now that they’ll probably sit under .500 all year but I still say, “Yeah, but Contreras is smoking the ball and Bryant’s a great talent and the division is so bad, guys,” and have a hard time actually believing they’re worse than the Brewers, let alone the Cardinals or the Reds.
Maybe I need to focus on the pitching more. But even with that, I just find myself thinking, “Well, we’ve seen everyone throw at least one good start,” and tell myself it might work. No matter what I try, I’m back in moments later.
So do I know the Cubs will probably go 2-4 this week against the Mets and Brewers and fall deeper into the hole? Yes. But do I also think, “Well, yeah, they probably won’t beat deGrom but they could beat the other five guys,” and then inexplicably stick with that line of thought over the former? Yes.
These bastards.
