Rozner: Cubs hardly alone in building big future
Remember that whole plan thing?
Yeah, worked out pretty well for the Cubs.
They have their World Series, which ought to be enough for anyone, but they're set up nicely to be a major factor for at least the next five years.
As the Nobel laureate Al Swearengen once confessed, "Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh."
Still, given some luck with health, the Cubs are in a great spot and that's very good for baseball, especially now that the Dodgers and Yankees have also built their teams to be competitive for a long time.
Think about how happy Rob Manfred must be, the commissioner pondering the possibility of a Chicago, New York or Los Angeles in the World Series every year - maybe even two at the same time.
To have the three biggest markets poised for a long run is a nice place to be and it hasn't happened since, well, never.
Think about it. You don't have to look far to find the culprit.
The Yanks and Dodgers have done their part, but in the last 130 years, the Cubs have finished first in their league - or division - in consecutive years … twice.
Yes, twice, including three straight from 1906-08.
But after 1908, it was 100 years before they won consecutive division titles in 2007-08.
Those were hardly pennants, but at least there's a No. 1 next to the franchise name at Baseball Reference.
It's been almost 50 years since the advent of divisional play in baseball and the Cubs, assuming another division title this season, will win two straight for the second time since 1969.
Ridiculous, right?
When the Cubs made it to the NLCS last year for the second straight October, it marked the first time they had ever done that.
Ever.
And the Cubs have not made consecutive World Series appearances since 1908.
But they have the pieces in place to make the rest of this decade a special one.
At the same time, the Yankees have rebuilt largely on the strength of a huge 2016 trade deadline, when they moved Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, Carlos Beltran and Ivan Nova. In a position to win this year, they picked up Sonny Gray without moving a prospect off the top of their list.
They gave Oakland two players rehabbing serious injuries - Dustin Fowler and James Kaprielian - along with the very raw Jorge Mateo, but kept Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier, Justus Sheffield and Chance Adams.
And Gray, Tommy Kahnle and David Robertson are all signed through at least the 2018 season.
The New York story is intriguing because of the speed with which they got back into the race, and the Yanks are well positioned for the next several years with young players already performing in the bigs and many more on the way.
Similarly, the Dodgers would not budge on Walker Buehler or Alex Verdugo, and instead got Yu Darvish for Willie Calhoun, a very talented hitter who could make it big with the Rangers if he's given a chance to find a comfortable position.
Still, the Dodgers have run roughshod over the league the way the Cubs did a year ago, and if healthy they present a frightening October challenge for every team in the game this year - and for several seasons to come.
The point is the Cubs are not alone in having put together something very good and sustainable.
They are built for the long term, with a group of young position players, but so are the Yanks and Dodgers, and all three big-market teams have money to spend wherever and whenever they want.
It's scary for the rest of baseball, unless you happen to be the commissioner.
In that case, you have to like the direction this is headed.
brozner@dailyherald.com
• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.