The Rich Get Richer...But That's Not What This Is About

With the addition of Rich Harden to the Cubs roster, the National League's best record just put themselves over the edge as the National League's best team.  A top 4 rotation of Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly and Rich Harden, the Cubbies answered the Milwaukee Brewers move to obtain C.C. Sabathia with a deal that I believe will pay even bigger dividends.  After all, Harden is not due for a raise until after the 2009 season and he's one of baseball's biggest bargains at $4.75 million a year.  C.C., on the other hand, is due $11 million this season and is a free agent at the end of this season.  The Cubs managed to finagle Billy Beane's final pitcher from his quintuplets of future star pitchers.  That list ranges from the now miserable Barry Zito and unimpressive Mark Mulder, as well as the exceptional Tim Hudson and rising star Dan Haren.  What boggles my mind is how Billy Beane is capable of adhering to the Jeffrey Loria School of Dismantling Already Good Teams.  Let's face it, Loria dismantled two Florida Marlins teams that had actually won World Series titles.  But how does a team expect to gain any sense of loyalty with a front office that changes it's roster more often than Barack Obama talks about "Change"?  Loyalty is reflected in attendance and if you take a look at the Marlins, they have yet to gain back any of the trust that they lost in their fans since 1997.  Attendance was even low for them when in 2003, they won another World Series.  Their attendance ranks 30th and the Athletcs rank 26th.  I understand that the object of the game is to assemble the best team possible by spending the least amount of money.  But cities like Chicago have been able to stick around despite their futility by spending money and their attendance reflects that (7th in all of baseball).  Teams like the A's and Marlins may be able to assemble winning franchises on the cheap, but if they can't do it without having an audience, baseball will soon say sayonara to two teams whose front office greed has eclipsed their team's success.