It's Over: Time For The Chicago Cubs to Hit the Reset Button

When did it happen?

The Cubbies were America's darling. They had the cute little matinee games, the ivy walls, the octogenarian fans, the Caray family, and the support of a nation after 100-plus years without a World Series title.

Some time this season, though, the wind went our of their sails. For ages, every non-Chicago fan was crossing his or her fingers for Chicago's MLB odds, saying "Well, if my team can't win, go Cubbies." Now, when we look at them in the crowded National League Central, our eyes glaze over.

They spent the better part of this decade as a dynamic squad known for churning out quality pitchers. Rub your eyes and look at their depth chart again; now they're a bloated, overpaid group of veterans with nowhere to go but down.

Let's examine this once-lovable team's depth chart, shall we?

Derek Lee: Nice comeback season, but he's 34 and injury-prone.

Alfonso Soriano: Doesn't run anymore. Doesn't play defense anymore. Doesn't stay healthy anymore. Apparently doesn't hit anymore, either.

Milton Bradley: Sigh.

Geovany Soto: Had one good minor-league season before breaking out in the bigs. One-year wonder written all over this late bloomer.

Kosuke Fukudome: Gets a lot of fuss for a guy who's hit .258 in 289 Major-League games.

Aside from Aramis Ramirez, can anyone else really be part of Chicago's future? The pitching staff has talent in Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly and Ryan Dempster, but they're all on the wrong side of 30. Actually, Zambrano isn't -- he just has so much mileage on his 28-year-old body that I thought he was. Rich Harden is as brittle as he is dominant.

Here's the part where the die-hard Cub fans jump to their defense and tell us about all the hot prospects on the way to save Chicago. Hmm, can you tell me where those prospects are? I just perused Baseball America's Top 50 prospects for 2009 and can't find ONE CHICAGO CUB there. Oh, wait! There's Josh Vitters at No. 51. He's tearing it up with a .238 average in high-A ball. Then there's Jeff Samardzija at No. 79. He's up in the bigs, sporting a 7.53 ERA and letting opponents hit .329 off him.

That's two Chicago Cubs in the top 100 prospects. It's been fun to love the Cubbies, but the veterans are starting to sag and the youth cupboard is bare. Chicago's disappointing season was the start of a trend, not an anomaly. Don't expect to see online sports betting players backing the Cubs anymore.